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#Promotional Office Supplies
k12academics · 2 months
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spartexscribbles · 4 months
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trueunifrom · 1 year
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Stand Out from the Crowd with True Uniform's Promotional Products
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stoltindia · 1 year
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bobluvbot · 3 months
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late night cravings
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pairing: sirius black x afab!reader summary: you sneak off the night for a cheeky midnight snack, hoping sirius won’t notice (spoiler alert: he does, and he’s sulky about it)  wc: 4k cw: pregnancy & baby talk, descriptions of food and eating, brief allusions to sex (not directly stated), no physical traits of reader specified but sirius can hold things out of reader’s reach  a/n: so i had a lengthy angst fic for sirius’s debut on my blog and im halfway done on it but i cant seem to finish it bc it sends me to a depressing spiral each time <33333 so pls enjoy a very self-indulgent domestic excessively fluffy blurb with my beloved <33333 p.s this is not proofread so plz ignore mistakes ty <3
opening the tomato salsa jar turned out to be the hardest part. 
back in bed, you thought the trickiest part of your late night escapade from sirius black was his long limbs wound up tight with yours, even in low light of the small nightlight in the corner, you could still make out the intricate script and designs following the curves and dips of his strong arms, holding you close to his chest. 
you had it committed to memory by now, having explored sirius’s body well enough to memorize the way his skin feels against yours, with heartbeats and breaths falling in sync without much effort. 
judging by the way his breathing gets heavy after every exhale and the little snores that escape in between, you knew he was beyond knackered. it was day five of sirius’s new job as an deputy director at the auror office. the day he learned about the promotion was pure unadulterated happiness. after letting you know through an express owl, you mustered up enough vigor available to your seven months pregnant self to get out of the house and go to the local shops to get party supplies and food to celebrate sirius’s achievement. 
Coming in third out of the list of things he genuinely loved in this life, after you and his luscious locks of course, was his job as an auror. young sirius had never thought in his wildest dreams that he’d work at the ministry, much less actually enjoy it. can’t really blame sixteen year old sirius, starting an underground rock band with the marauders seemed like the perfect thing to do after gruelling hours of studying at hogwarts. 
defense against the dark arts came to him naturally, with some counterspells like second nature to him as being exposed with use of dark magic young gave him no choice but to grow up quickly and defend himself from the excruciating pain or the mind control that was from his own family’s doing. Winning the first wizarding war alongside his friends and found family has solidified sirius’s calling in eradicating the use of dark magic and making sure the next generation can have a safe and normal life without the looming threat of a megalomaniac sorting people with their blood status and taking over the wizarding world. 
that night, sirius walked into a dark and eerily quiet home that had his senses on overdrive. but when the lights turned on and he saw familiar faces of his loved ones all beaming with pride, and there you were in the center, looking ethereal and round and all his, with his favorite red velvet cake on hand and a ridiculously big balloon that says “congratulations” tied to the candle, he could have melted in a syrupy mess of gooey happiness right then and there if he hadn’t caught himself together last minute.
Sirius had thought– that after you agreeing to go on one date with him to hogsmeade, winning the quidditch cup and seeing the proud look on minerva’s face, going home for christmas break and euphemia welcoming him with a kiss on the cheek and a warm hug, remus teaching at the very same classroom you all were in years back, james and lily’s first kiss at the altar, holding little baby harry in his arms, you walking down the aisle with a bouquet of peonies in the most beautiful dress, and when you held his hand that one night and told him that you were expecting—- that he knew of love. but you do something extraordinary that has him scrambling to add to the endless list of why you’re the love of his life. he was so focused on you that he wasn’t prepared to catch pure muscle of james’s body as he flung himself to tackle his best friend in a hug. luckily, remus with a party hat was aptly standing between a toppling sirius and the living room wall, and he singlehandedly saved the two from creating a huge hole in the drywall. 
this was the life, sirius had thought after many hours of partying celebrating and eating, when he laid beside you in bed, limbs tangled, sated and dizzy and warm as you both came down from your highs. and he gets to spend it with you.
but as fun and exciting sirius’s new job is, it entailed an increased amount of responsibility as he was assisting the head auror. his least favorite part of the job was the boatloads of paperwork he has to deal with. An express owl almost dropped a howler letter into the soup you were making for dinner earlier that day and you opened it up panicking thinking it was an emergency. But no, it was just sirius whining that his hand hurt and is about to fall off and that he needs you to kiss it better. 
You did eventually, and one thing led to another and here you were, tucked in your husband’s warm embrace. you could stay here forever, only separating to drink water and bathroom trips, but the gnawing urge to eat something savory, sweet, tangy, and crunchy has possessed your entire being, the only way to quell it was to get up and go to the kitchen. the baby doesn’t seem to have a semblance of time yet, a fact you both envied and despised, because the clock on your nightstand said it was 3:48am in bold red numbers. A few months ago, you’d never be caught dead awake at this time, taking your precious sleep time seriously. The man himself would poke fun at you and say you’d gladly sleep through an earthquake or a housefire just as long as you get your seven to eight hours of sleep per day, and despite of your assumed role of contradicting and arguing with spontaneous and stubborn sirius, you had to agree.
But this was not about you anymore, or at least not quite yet for a good seventeen years, so you untangle yourself from sirius and your perfectly warm and cool side of the bed and waddle down the carpeted stairs, careful not to set foot on the creaky step that might risk waking sirius up. You need your secrets too, and you’re not in the mood to share food.
Grateful for the heavens that you and sirius stocked up on groceries two days ago, you had a wide selection of random items to munch on. A few days ago, you were introduced to the idea of a fluffernutter sandwich while scrolling through the short videos on your feed. Peanut butter and marshmallow fluff as spreads on their own was something you didn’t mind eating, but both together in a sandwich? You were enthralled, and the only way to quell the curiosity was to make it. So you did. 
You shovel and slather more than enough spread on each slice of bread, though you might have used the same spoon on both jars.. but who’s to tell you off otherwise, your snoozing husband upstairs? pfft. 
Smiling happily as if committing a particularly naughty crime, you place the spoon in your mouth, licking off the gooey mixture as you place the sandwich on a piece of paper towel (yes, you take the no dishwashing tonight seriously) on the table. humming, you mull over what to prepare next.
The baby needs something savory and tangy, but you’re not particularly keen on going through all the effort of heating up the soup from dinner, not to mention the amount of cutlery and dishes you’ll use for that, so you zero in on the tostada shells you chose rather than tortilla chips because its much more crispier. 
Opening the fridge, you see the laughing cow on a round packaging and decide its the one, so you grab two cheese wedges from it. 
Sirius had argued that the next aisle had actual, real blocks of cheese with a variety on display and that there was no point in getting artificially flavored ones. But you’ve gotten really good at giving him the stank face, which inadvertently ends 75 percent of nonsense bickering before it even starts; and since you’ve started showing more and more, sirius has admittedly gone softer on you, not that he was ever more but a pushover your entire relationship. Merely widening of eyes and a jut of your lower lip, even adding a slight tremble or two during times where you did actually fuck up, sirius can’t hold his stance longer than a minute before sighing and taking you in his arms. he might call you out for being a brat at times, but there’s no denying he loves it. And so the artificial wheel of cheese wedges got purchased and bagged home, and you’re meticulously spreading it over the golden shells, leaving little to no gaps of it bare. 
Laying it on another paper towel, your heart gets giddy on your chest knowing you’re in for a treat tonight. But not quite time to start munching, the baby reminds you that you still need something tangy to complete the meal. So comes your big predicament, should you get dill pickles or tomato salsa? 
It took you ten seconds too long of weighing down the pros-and-cons of choosing one and feeling like you made the wrong choice if you end up not liking it. It doesn’t help that the pregnancy hormones make you more anxious and tend to put you always on the verge of tears. So when the not-so-groundbreaking idea of just eating them both hits you, you feel the weight slide off your shoulders as you sigh. Because again, who’s gonna tell you that eating pickles this late at night can give you bad acid reflux, your snoozing husband? Pfft.
Snacking on some, you do manage to pick out the juiciest looking pickle chips and lay them atop of your tostadas. You and the little one are beyond excited to dive in. It’s looking like a mini upside-down pizza with the cheese spread first then the pickle as toppings. Only thing left now was the the tomato salsa slathered on top to seal the deal. 
Opening tight lids wasn’t an issue for you before, in fact, you took pride when friends hand you a jar or bottle to open because you could do it in a breeze. Chances were, the lid wasn’t even screwed on that tight, you were just built different, you’d say with a shrug once you give the items back. So when the tomato jar doesn’t budge after two attempts, you get puzzled.
Maybe your hands were slippery? You wipe them down with a tea towel and try again. No.
You weren’t holding it tight enough? Fingers held taut against the lid, you try three times. Still no.
Determined, you try different positions before letting the jar go, shooting it glares as if it’d get intimidated and just open up for you. You were also getting lightheaded, and passing out on the kitchen floor due to excessive stimulation of your vagal reflex because you were too stubborn to use magic or wake your husband up to open it for you doesn’t seem like the best way to spend the early Tuesday morning hours.
Magic was even out of the option (well, in your brain it was), because your wand’s tucked beside sirius’s on your nightstand, and frankly, you don’t have the patience to drag yourself upstairs just to flick a utility spell to open the wretched thing. So you do the next best option: lose hope. 
The disappointment was mutual between you and your baby. And the acid reflux did start to kick in, making your stomach grumble in both hunger and pain. This was all going so well until it isn’t, tears began to make its way up to your eyes.
“See, this is what you get for being greedy and eating all snacks by yourself,” sirius huffs behind you, deep voice still raspy with sleep. You didn’t even hear him getting out of bed and coming down the stairs, that’s how preoccupied you were with opening the jar.
He grabs the container away from you to open it, but not without throwing a scowl at your direction, handsome face contorted with furrowed eyebrows and downturned mouth, enough to express that he felt betrayed by this whole ordeal. If you were in a better mood, you’d poke his sides and tackle him playfully, teasing him for being sulky. But for now, you need the jar opened so you could eat in peace. You’ll deal with the sharing food issue later.
“t wasn’t supposed to take long,” you mumble, caught off guard and refusing to make eye contact, pretending the fridge magnets beside sirius’s head is ten times more interesting than his face. You don’t miss his raised eyebrow and snort at your response. 
The second attempt comes and he opens it with a satisfying pop. your mouth falls agape, eyeing the *now accessible* tomato salsa dip in disbelief. What the hell? 
And you couldn’t even take the smug grin spreading across sirius’s face by the millisecond. Refuse to. You try to snatch the open container away from him but he holds it higher and out of reach, making a show of puffing his chest, flexing his biceps, even giving it a kiss. This is all James’s doing, you need to have a talk with Lily soon about keeping these two separated.
“Sirius!” you try to plead your way out. the trademark innocent, pouty expression settles on your face like a second mask, hoping he’d go down this easy. 
It doesn’t work. He just chuckles, mocking your pleas and face while his free hand sneaks up and pinches your unsuspecting cheek to tease you further.
You yelp in mock outrage and swat his hand away, trying your best to keep your displeasure firm on your face, but you feel the giggles coming up. “This is why I sneak out alone to eat, you’re such a bully,” you huff, but take a seat in front of your makeshift spread. 
Sirius places the jar near you, but not without poking your exposed sides, armed with the knowledge that the easiest way to get you laughing (and eventually conceding in an argument) is knowing where your tickle zones are. “Oh yeah,” he drawls, plopping himself beside you. “That’s also why you’re the only one waking up with an upset stomach, stinking up our bathroom so early in the morning.”
Now this one got you appalled, embarrassed, disturbed, basically hit with all the feelings. You’ve been living together long before you got married, and he never brought up this issue until today. “That’s it. I’m leaving.” He makes a move to snatch the sandwich away but the embarrassment on your cheeks made you more agile, swatting his hand away and shielding the sandwich with your hands. “After I finish my meal,” you continue, shooting him a glare.
But see, one of the things that drove you nuts even way back at Hogwarts, was how Sirius Black mostly managed to outsmart you or be one step ahead of you in everything. After you turned him down without much thought whatsoever despite his grand declaration of interest, Sirius took it upon himself to show you (1) that you made a mistake for rejecting him, (2) that his ego won’t let you embarrass him like that again, (3) and that you won’t get rid of him that easily. Once he set his eyes on you, you were face to face with him in everything: grades, OWLs/NEWTs scores, Quidditch plays and bets, wins at the duelling club, even with the fucking gobstones tournament. He never let you catch a break.
Things were surely different now, since you vowed to be with him in sickness and health and untill death parts you both– hell, you’re carrying his child. So you figured maybe, maybe, he’ll let you catch a break this time. Let you eat in peace as you mull over his bathroom comment and how you’re going to get him back. 
But again, no. Unlike you, Sirius remembered to grab his wand from the nightstand. Not even batting an eye, he says nonchalantly, “Accio sandwich.” And the fluffernutter you protected with all your physical might managed to escape your watch, and land gracefully on his waiting palm. 
What irritated you more from this whole ordeal? The prodigal auror that climbed his way up the ranks and became the youngest deputy director, fully capable of complex spells and wielding different kinds of magic, felt the need to do a verbal Accio spell just to make a point to you.
Out of words, you just stare at him blankly. Too stunned to even cry in frustration because you knew you made a conscious, willing choice to be with this man. 
Maybe your best guilt-tripping expression comes best when you’re not trying. Color drains from his face when you remained silent and he scrambles to take a bite off the sandwich before handing it back to you, or rather placing it on your limp hand as you refuse to acknowledge it, still too hurt to budge. “‘m sorry, baby. Just wanted to eat with you since we didn’t get to earlier.”
He did arrive later than usual, deciding to finish the stack of case files and paperwork so he won’t have to sift through them again the next day. There were plans to wait for him before eating, but when the jitteriness and slightly nausea started to kick in, you had no choice in the matter. Sirius had been sulky and clingy the moment he got home, and as compromise, you stayed to watch him eat; listening and reacting animatedly as he ranted about his stressful day.
So you cut him off some slack, also exhausted from all the emotional stimulation sirius brought since he woke up. As a silent peace offering (also because you’re not ready to say sorry to his face), you slide the tostadas within his reach and finally take your bite of the goddamn sandwich. It was good, tasted as expected, sweet peanut butter. You’d probably have it again as a drunk at 3am meal.
Sirius also went and got snacks of his own: microwaved popcorn, pickles, toasted bread slathered with butter, and grapes. Together, you munched on the little spread of random food you could find in your kitchen at 4am in comfortable silence, which is surprising after the earlier bickering. No matter how cheesy it sounded in your head, sirius was the only person that can drive you to the brink of insanity and right back. You were in for a hell of a ride for the foreseeable future; and while there’s a lot of uncertainty right now and changes to be made when the little one gets here, you’re beyond happy that you get to do all this with him. 
Sleep was beginning to creep up on you. Of course he notices this right when you do, so a warm arm wrapped across your back urges you to settle on his lap, bodies melding into the familiar crevices like puzzle pieces, though you both had to adjust certain angles to accommodate your growing belly. You sit like this for a while; your head tucked securely in the crook of his neck, steady breaths lulling you to sleep, while sirius’s hands instinctively finds its way under your sleep shirt and on the natural curve of your belly, lithe fingers stroking and drawing soothing circles anywhere he could reach. 
you wish you could stay like this forever– cozy and soft and safe– but alas, you were carrying sirius black’s offspring. the baby decides to reward you with a round of kicks, probably giddy after feeling their father’s touch. Sirius chuckles and coos at your bump, while a muffled groan leaves your lips from the sudden onslaught of movement, but still refusing to move from this comfortable position.
Smooth cold lips touch the side of your forehead and you relish in the feeling. “Does it ever hurt, love? All that kicking and wiggling?” 
“Not really,” a content sigh leaves your lips. “Feels strange at times, seeing your belly move on its own.” 
To prove your point, two tiny bulges make a split second appearance just above where Sirius’s hand lay. His thumb soothes the area lovingly.
“Definitely getting stronger though; Lily told me during the later months, harry for some reason loved to kick downwards, making bathroom trips more frequent than it already is. Not excited for that.”
He presses kisses on your forehead, temple, hairline, anywhere he could reach without moving too much. “Things that you do and endure for this ‘lil troublemaker,” sirius murmurs. He doesn’t need to say it out loud, you could feel his body reverberating with awe and fondness. You try to bask in it for as long as you could, but a passing thought makes its presence known to you again.
“Do i really make the bathroom stink?” it comes out whinier than you intended it to be but you just had to know for peace of mind. 
Sirius’s whole frame vibrates as he tries to stifle his laughter, taking you with him. He’s laughing at your expense but you feel your own giggles brewing in your belly. You try to hold it in for longer, preserving some self respect. “A little bit,” he says solemnly. You groan, earlier mortified feeling returning in full swing. It triggers another round of chuckles.
“But dove, it’s nothing that my deep love and adoration for my lovely strong hot and sexy wife can’t handle.” He says assuredly, and you curse yourself for being so down bad for this man as blood rushes to your cheeks from his words. Good thing it’s dim and your face is still tucked in the crook of his neck. 
You do pinch his arm in response, and both your laughters compliment the comfortable silence. 
“Although,” he says after a while. “The betrayal of you eating without me still hurts.” 
“Siri.. i’m sorry,” you mumble. “‘y looked so tired, Didn’t wanna wake you up.”
He tuts and doesn’t say much after that. In sirius dictionary, this means he just wants some affection from you— for you to dote on him and coax out his forgiveness, even if you both know he’s not really mad; judging by his arms still wrapped securely around your frame and steady breaths that tickle and fan on your bare skin. 
So you mimic his actions from earlier, planting tiny kisses on his neck, collarbones, jawline, anywhere your lips could reach. Kissing his cheek seem to do the trick, his fake scowl quickly coming undone as a bashful smile breaks through the frown, and his tiny dimple you love so much making an appearance. The muggle maternity books did say dimples are genetic, so an image of a little Sirius running around and smiling up at you with those dimpled cheeks is a warming thought. 
“I am charming all the lids to be stuck at night as soon as i wake up tomorrow for work.” You poke a sensitive spot on his side, making him jolt, but you couldn’t resist laughter as it bubbles out of the surface. “You’re insufferable, I can’t believe I married a psychopath.”
“And you let him knock you up too. I’d say it takes one to know one, hm?” 
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Lunch Break - Hangman
Pairing: Hangman / Fem!Reader (Wife!Reader)
Word Count: 1.5k
Warnings: Suggestive Content and Dialogue, Blue Balls; Third Person POV, No Y/N, No Physical Description of Reader
If you're a MINOR, please do me a favor and read SOMETHING ELSE.
This work, all of my other works, and my entire blog are 18+ Only.
Summary: Jake and his wife are going through a dry spell. Luckily, his secretary Linda is the best wingwoman in all of Miramar.
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It wasn’t odd for Jake’s wife and the secretary in his office to communicate. But every time that Linda’s, Jake’s secretary, contact popped up, Jake’s wife always felt her heart drop into her stomach. Her mind always just went to the worst-case scenario, considering Jake's line of work. So, when she saw Linda’s name pop up, she quickly answered the phone call.
“Hi, Linda. What’s going on?” she asked worriedly, failing to hide her concern from her tone.
“Hi, sweetheart. Everything’s fine,” Linda, Jake’s secretary, immediately assured her.
“He’s in one piece?”
“Yes, he’s in one piece. He’s doing just fine.”
“But?” Jake’s wife pressed knowingly.
“But he’s in a little bit of a mood today to be quite honest with you,” Linda explained quietly, using a voice that she reserved for personal conversations.
“He’s annoyed with everyone?”
“Well, he just seems a bit cranky and snappish. I was just wondering if it was a slipping him a third coffee because he didn’t get enough sleep kind of day.”
“No, I don’t think that it,” Jake’s wife replied honestly, resting her head on her hand.
Jake’s wife had a pretty good guess about what was wrong with Jake but she didn’t know how to articulate it properly to Linda. It wasn’t exactly a secret between her and Jake that they were going through a dry spell. He was working. She was working. He was trying to get a promotion. They just moved into a new house and so when she wasn’t working, she was stressing about that.
So, yeah, they were going through a dry spell.
It happened. They went months on end without something as simple as eye contact when Jake was deployed. So, in a way, they were used to it. But, in some other ways, it was worse. They slept right beside each other every night. But they went to bed at different times and one of them was always tired or needed up get up at the ass crack of dawn the next morning and it just fizzled.
They still cuddled and talked and participated in other non-sexual forms of intimacy. But they really needed some physical intimacy in their relationship. And they needed it about three weeks ago.
“I think I know what’s wrong,” Jake’s wife informed Linda. “And don’t worry, I’ll take care of it.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, I’ll be stopping by for lunch, if you can pencil me in.”
“Sure thing. I’ll get you two as much time as I can.”
“Thanks, Linda.”
Jake’s wife hung up the phone and headed up to their shared bedroom. As she worked remotely, she had the flexibility to take an extended lunch break. She changed into Jake’s favorite set and the sundress that he bought her when they temporarily lived in Italy. He nearly ripped it off of her the first time that she wore it and that was the exact effect she was going for.
Shoving some supplies into her purse, Jake’s wife headed out of the house to pick up lunch for the both of them. When she arrived on base, Jake was still in a debriefing, so Jake’s wife went to simply hang out with Linda until he finished up.
Linda had a good relationship with both Seresins. She had been the secretary for the flight instructors on base since forever. And Linda basically adopted Jake since they were both originally from Texas. Linda was like a second mom to them and was at their wedding. So, if Linda told her that he was in a bad, snappy mood, Jake’s wife believed her. And she took the warning seriously.
“Oh, that’s a lovely sundress, dear,” Linda complimented her as Jake’s wife sat down in one of the visitor’s chairs. “You look beautiful in it.”
“Thanks, Linda. Jake bought it for me back in Italy.”
“Ah,” Linda realized, nodding along with a knowing smile. “That explains a lot, actually.”
“Yeah,” Jake’s wife sighed, smoothing out the fabric.
“Oh, it happens to all of us, dear.”
“I know. It’s just that between work and the new house and everything, we haven’t got a lot of alone time,” Jake’s wife explained quietly, shifting in her seat. “But thank you for calling me. I just don’t want him to put his foot in his mouth because we can’t communicate in our own home.”
“Of course, honey. Any time.”
Jake’s wife and Linda chatted for a bit longer until Jake arrived. He carried a large stack of files with him and Jake’s wife could tell by the way that he walked that he was annoyed. But when he spotted his wife sitting there, a new wave of energy and life seemed to wash over him in an instant.
“Baby? What are you doing here?” he called, walking over to her.
“I just thought that I would visit you and bring you some lunch,” his wife replied with a bright smile. Jake leaned down and pressed a peck to her lips before straightening up. “And I checked with Linda and she said that your meeting got pushed back.”
“It did?” Jake asked curiously, turning to Linda.
“Forty-five minutes,” Linda informed him with an encouraging smile.
“Ah,” Jake realized, nodding slowly. He turned to his wife with that particular brand of lovesickness that still made her heart flutter just like it did when they first met. “Well, then I can’t find any reason at all to not invite you back.”
Jake offered his wife a hand and they walked back into his office, shutting the door behind them. Linda chuckled to herself when the lock on the door audibly clicked.
Jake’s wife went to set the takeout bag on the desk, but Jake quickly grabbed it from her hand and set it aside. She giggled as Jake quickly set her up on his desk and stood in between her legs. He gently cupped her cheeks and tilted her head up, rubbing his thumbs along her cheekbones.
“Hey,” she breathed out, smiling softly at him.
“Linda told you about the meeting?” Jake asked, putting two and two together.
“She thought that you were being a little snappy. And well,” Jake’s wife trailed off, tugging at his belt, “I had a pretty good inkling as to why you were like that.”
“I don’t even want to know how long it’s been,” Jake muttered, pulling her lips up.
Their lips met in a desperate embrace as the acknowledgement of their dry spell took hold of them. Touches grew more needy, the kisses got sloppier, and it didn’t escape either of their minds that they were in Jake’s office. Sure, Linda would guard the door, but they were still in the offices. As if Jake needed any more motivation to reacquaint himself with his wife.
“Too fucking long,” Jake growled, grinding against her.
They were on a time crunch, so Jake couldn’t take his time, but he was going to rectify that problem when he got home that night. Jake’s wife’s grip on him tightened when he rolled his hips just right and let out a whine that had Jake grinning in an instant. Pulling away from the kiss, Jake’s wife leaned up and brushed her lips against his ear.
“Then fix that, Commander,” she whispered sultrily.
And well, Jake was never one to disappoint his wife.
Ten minutes before his next meeting, Jake and his wife emerged from his office. Linda respectfully averted her eyes. But it didn’t take an extra-long stare to notice the wrinkles in Jake’s shirt or the fact that Jake’s wife’s dress was twisted on her body and far more rumpled than before.
“I’m just going to walk her back to her car and then I’ll head to the next meeting,” Jake informed Linda quietly as he held his wife’s hand.
“I’ll let him know that you’re meeting him there,” Linda assured Jake. Turning to Jake’s wife, Linda waved kindly. “Bye, dear.”
“Bye, Linda. Thanks for the call,” Jake’s wife replied, looking quite giddy and just a bit stumbly.
“Anytime. Have a good day.”
Jake and his wife walked out to the visitor parking lot. When they reached her car, Jake gently pressed her up against it and stole another heated kiss from her. Jake snuck a squeeze up her dress, earning a playful smack to the chest in return.
“When do you get off of work?” Jake’s wife asked him, smoothing out the wrinkles on his shirt.
“I’ll be home by six,” Jake promised, stealing another kiss from her. “You have a lot of work tonight?”
“I’ll make time,” she returned, unable to help her smile. “Just don’t be late.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Jake pulled his wife in for one last kiss that got just a little friskier than it should have in a base parking lot, but neither of them cared. And with one last playful smack to her ass, Jake sent his wife home and then turned to sprint at break-neck speed to his next meeting.
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fandom-alley · 1 year
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Sun Kissing
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Summary: The BAU team just finished a case on the California coast and were rewarded with a couple days off for vacation, so Spencer's girlfriend convinced him to spend the day at the beach. Pairing: Spencer Reid/Fem Reader Category: Fluff, slight bit of angst with Spencers feelings towards the beach Warnings: 13+, kissing/making out in public, slightly inappropriate thoughts in public Word Count: 1.6k AO3
“Are you sure about wanting to go to the beach? You do know we’re probably going to get sand in the food, potentially a sun burn which heightens your risk of melanoma, and not to mention the drug resistant bacteria that’s spread through seagull feces.” Spencer said with a glance down to his girlfriend, who stood beside him looking out at the ocean with a smile on her face.
“Spence, I’m sure. Remember half an hour ago when you told me we could do anything I wanted with our extra day off, and then when I said ‘are you sure, what if it’s something you don’t like’ and you told me you’ll like anything we end up doing because we’d be doing it together? This is what I choose. And we’re already here. I promise you I can help you enjoy the beach.” Y/n said back.
“I’m not sure,” Spencer said, biting his bottom lip in hesitation. 
“Okay, how about this. Give it at least an hour, and if you’re really hating it we can just go for a stroll on the boardwalk and get some ice cream,” she looked up at him with pleading eyes.
Spencer always had trouble saying no when she gave him this look. Head tilted back so she could look up at him, brown eyes wide and reminiscent of a puppy, with a small pout. Usually she gave him this look when she was trying to convince him to order take out or to watch one of her favourite movies. And it was always a resounding yes, even if that movie was Mean Girls, and for the 5th time in a row. But they had never been to a location one of them had disliked before, so this was new territory for them.
“Okay. I can accept this compromise, but I make no promises,” he agreed with a sigh. Y/n jumped up in excitement, clapping her hands together like a kid who just received the best birthday present ever. 
The excitement that y/n found in even the smallest moments was something about her that made Spencer just fall in love so much faster than he was used to. When she first started working for the BAU, covering JJ’s role as the media liaison, he was instantly infatuated. He liked to think he hid it well, but Derek would poke fun at his crush any chance he got.
When JJ came back from maternity leave and he saw her sitting in  y/n’s chair, his heart skipped a beat. Thinking that he had missed his chance, that JJ was back to re-fill her roll and he would never see y/n again. Until she walked out of Hotch’s office five seconds later with the biggest grin on her face that he had ever seen. 
Everyone in the bullpen had stopped to watch as she stood outside his door, jumping and squealing as if she had just found out she won the lottery. But really it was Spencer who had won, since she had been in a meeting with Hotch where he was offering her a full time position, thanks to JJ being promoted to a supervisory special agent.
Spencer asked her out that night, and they had been together ever since. 
Now, Spencer held onto her waist as she rose up on her toes to give him an excited kiss after saying yes to the beach.
“Come on, it’s not that busy we can get a good spot down by the water!” She grabbed their two bags of beach supplied while he grabbed the small cooler full of drinks and snacks, then she led the way down the sand towards the calming blue waters.
He only tripped on the uneven sand a few times before y/n found a spot on the beach that was to her satisfaction. He watched as she dug out a big blanket and shook it out, placing it onto the ground and securing two corners with their bags. He placed the cooler on the third corner, and his shoes on the last. 
Spencer had to admit, when he wasn’t thinking about potential bacterias in the sand, the warmth of it really did feel nice between his toes. 
He took a seat on the blanket, watching as his girlfriend unpacked all of her beach essentials. Her Kindle, sunglasses, a small pillow to rest her head on while she tanned. And an umbrella that she aggressively stuck into the sand, casting their spot in a shadow that Spencer was grateful for. It wasn’t the hottest day out, but the sun could burn you even behind the clouds.
Spencer didn’t bring any of his books to the beach, not wanting them to get covered in sand that would inevitably make its way back to their hotel room. Instead he opted to people watch. Or more specifically, girlfriend watch. His eyes were drawn away from the water and towards her when she started to take off her clothes to reveal her bikini. A deep red with white stripes, it reminded Spencer of a candy cane and it made his mouth water.
She caught him looking at her chest, and when he didn’t look away, she smirked. 
“Spencer, get those thoughts out of your head, we’re in public,” she laughed. 
“What thoughts?” He asked innocently, finally looking to her eyes, and at the quirk of her eyebrow he gave in. “Sorry. But it’s hard when my girlfriend is most beautiful girl here.”
Y/n blushed and glanced around at the other people dotting the beach. Given that it was the middle of a work day in May, it was mostly young families and retired old couples walking up and down the sand for their daily exercise. But she took the complement in stride. 
“Keep buttering me up like that and we’re going to be leaving earlier than an hour and skipping the ice cream as well.” Y/n leaned over Spencer, bringing herself closer to kiss him. 
They might have been in public, but Spencer couldn’t help himself and wrapped his arm around her waist, drawing her in closer as he got lost in their kiss. Y/n nipped at his bottom lip, sending a shiver down his spine. He ran his hands along her body, enjoying the feel of all her skin thanks to the small bikini. They came to a stop on her butt, which felt as if there was no fabric there at all thanks to the style that she chose, so he squeezed. She let out a quiet moan, which fuelled him even further. Shoving his tongue in her mouth with a new fever, he tightened his grip on her butt in preparation to pull her fully on top of him, but before he could they were interrupted by a kid screaming not too far away.
Y/n broke away, panting, as she looked down the beach at the kids playing. Nobody was giving them any dirty looks for so much PDA in public, but Spencer still let go of his hold on her, guiding her to lay down beside him as he put her arm around her instead.
It took a few minutes for their breathing to return to normal, both of them with their eyes closed enjoying the warmth of the sun on their bodies. 
“I think I could enjoy the beach,” Spencer broke the silence. Y/n propped herself up on her elbow to look at him.
“Yeah? So does that mean we can stay longer than an hour?”
“Actually, after the hour I was thinking we could go back to our hotel room and have a different kind of fun,” he smirked at her, lazily running his fingers up and down her arm. 
“Oh! I like that idea,” Y/n blushed, thinking about reenacting what they just did on the beach but in the privacy of their room, and continuing on without any interruptions. “But first we’ve got to make the most of the beach. Let’s go for a swim!”
She jumped up off the blanket and Spencer watched as her hips swung while she ran towards the water. 
“Come on!” She stopped a few feet before the water, turning back to yell at him. “Take that shirt off and come for a swim with me.” Then she spun back around and ran into the ocean until she couldn’t run anymore, and dove in. 
It had been a while since Spencer had been in the ocean, or even a swimming pool, and he kind of craved the feeling of being weightless in the water. He pulled off his shirt and ran to meet her. It was cold and a shock to the system as he dove into the water, but it helped cool off his thoughts of what he would be doing to her an hour from now. 
They didn’t go in too deep, which made it easier for Spencer to sneak up behind her and lift her over his shoulder. Y/n let out a yell as he spun around and tossed her into the water. 
“That’s not fair, I can’t lift you like that,” she said when she resurfaced. Then as he was distracted about to apologize she splashed him with as much water as she could manage. Which wasn’t as much as he probably could have done, but it was enough to get some of the salty water into his mouth. 
Y/n laughed as he spit it out and wiped the water off his face. But then he was on her in a second, tickling her sides and making her squeal in laughter.
“I surrender, I surrender!” She managed to say between breaths of laughter. Spencer stopped his attack and pulled her into his chest for a hug.
“I love you.” He said with a kiss to the top of her head.
“I love you too. Thank you for enduring the beach for me,” Y/n said, squeezing him a little bit tighter. 
“Anything for you, my love.”
Thank you so much for reading!
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visenyaism · 10 months
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Sorry! But the targ hypos are fun to read. What modern world job do you think dance and great bastard era targs would do?
nah this is fun get ready:
-Corlys velaryon ceo (of something no one really understands, he just says import/export supply chain words when asked. may or may not be a little bit illegal.) Rhaenys is corlys’ company’s #1 litigator she keeps the feds OFF and the books looking right.
-Otto also has a JD, but he doesn’t practice much in his work as an extremely evil conservative think tank head.
-Viserys is a tenured history professor but one of those ones who got there because of his nepo connections and huge amounts of privilege in the olden days and fucking sucks at the actual job and DID marry one of his female undergrads. twice.
-Daemon has a constant rotation of these, none for longer than 3 months. what else.
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-Alicent wanted to be a religious studies professor once but she dropped out to marry her intro to valyrian poetry prof and raise the kids so now she edits Viserys’ manuscripts. for free.
-Rhaenyra, shiv roy of the family that she is, is a political consultant ostensibly for libs but keeps getting pulled into evil private sector shit.
-Laenor works at his dad’s company and Laena was in law school to be a public defender before she dropped out to run off with Daemon.
-Aegon is a terrible DJ, middling club promoter, and extraordinarily successful influencer despite literally being perpetually cancelled. Helaena entomologist is too easy but i want her to be happy so we’re keeping it. constantly on research trips. Aemond middling nepo baby formula one driver. no one in his family watches it because it’s too European. Viserys is pretty sure this makes him gay and keeps trying to hint he’d be okay with it instead of congratulating him for any of his accomplishments.
-Jake has a lacrosse scholarship to an ivy where he’s studying business for his family and secretly double majoring in gender studies but he can’t say it out loud because Daemon would make fun of him for being a liberal at dinner.
-Rhaena is an elementary education major in Oldtown. Baela put off going to college with Jake to take a travel gap year to find herself, but she’s been travelling for 3 years now and doesn’t seem to want to stop anytime soon.
-Joffrey gets called to the principal’s office for biting people like once a month but Rhaenyra refuses to believe that her sweet little boy would do that. that’s all send post
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vintagepromotions · 1 month
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'Central Kitchens - a nutritious meal for little money'
Dutch National Office for Wartime Food Supply poster promoting central kitchens featuring a chef cooking food in large pot (c. 1940). Artwork by Joop Geesink.
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wing-ed-thing · 1 month
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Marriage Pact (Erwin x Reader) Part IV
Synopsis: To the surprise of the cadets, Commander Erwin is married to more than just his work. Their curiosity brings up fond memories of your and Erwin’s early days in the scouts.
Word Count: 6.4k
Tags/Warnings: Language, No Reader Pronouns, Fluff, Marriage Pacts, 104th Cadet Corps Shenanigans, Proposal, Canon-Typical Violence, Self-Inflicted Injury (Non-Mental Health Related), Animal Death, Divergence from Canon Mechanics
Part I Part II Part III Part IV Finale
Notes: Erwin Smith has a playful side. Erwin Smith loves teasing. Erwin Smith loves banter. I will DIE by this in this essay I will—
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You were ready to be done. Your days passed by with the sun rising over your early morning drills and setting past your office window where you slaved over your never-ending mountain of bureaucratic work. 
As expected, the second expedition served little more than to record Erwin’s exemplary performance as part of expedition command. He all but took the lead, riding front and center as he orchestrated his new Long-Distance Enemy Scouting Formation (LDESF). The formation had been used before, but not with Erwin at the helm. You knew he’d be Commander Erwin before long.
All the backers had high expectations of him, and suffice it to say, he blew all predictions out of the water. No matter how much Erwin liked to deny and parry your predictions of his promotion, the evidence rapidly mounted against him. And with backers and donors all in agreement at his display of talent and reassurance, the Scout Regiment faced restructuring. 
The following month was one of the busiest you had seen in your career. Save for a few elite soldiers handpicked by Erwin, the rest of his squads were relocated to be under different section commanders. You gained an additional two squads and a handsome raise while the other three were dispersed unevenly between Hange and Fletcher. To a lack of surprise, Fletcher received less than half of the members that Hange had gained, leaving Erwin with one special ops squad and a small team of medics and veterinarians. 
It was the mundanity that centered you in the coming weeks, and the time you would have dedicated to reading into interactions with Erwin was properly directed toward your career. Your squads kept you busy, and the most face time you had with your fellow section commanders existed strictly between trainings and within supervisory meetings. And although you found it slightly more difficult than usual to focus on the new policies with Erwin sitting right across from you, your unconscious searching for his neat blond hair gradually dwindled. 
The marriage pact was a thing of the past: a joke made after you and a coworker had one too many. You were ready to leave it behind, hoping you could laugh about it sometime down the road when you might actually be married. 
Married, but certainly not to Erwin Smith. And his new promotion to special ops section commander only served to further solidify the fate you assumed was laid out for you. 
In addition to the overhaul, the funds all four section commanders secured during the Military Ball allowed for an influx of resources, all of which had to be organized into expanded storage facilities. Trost Headquarters was busier than ever, and in the midst of it all, you hardly had time to talk to Erwin, let alone see him.
“Erwin’s in Stohess?” You frowned with a crinkled brow. Miche stood attentively as you both wordlessly side-stepped to an uncrowded portion of the hall. He held a sizeable box of supplies against his hip. Despite the heavy metal contents, Miche didn’t appear to struggle with its weight in the slightest. “What? Is he meeting Edmonds again?”
“Said he wanted to get some shopping done.” Miche shrugged, ever a man of few words.
“Shopping,” you repeated lightly with a downward nod, “In Stohess?”
Miche shrugged again, “Maybe to blow some of that special ops salary money.” His eyes were beginning to wander, thoughts of finishing his task more prevalent in his mind than whatever Erwin was up to. 
“I don’t think Erwin is the kind of person to blow money, let alone in a place like Stohess.” You tapped your foot in thought as you played with a stay strand of hair at the back of your neck. Like most zones in and around Wall Sina, Stohess was known for its affluent districts abundant with skilled craftsmen and desirable goods.
“Who knows, maybe he wanted a chandelier.” Miche shrugged a third time, shifting the oversized box in his arm. He seemed awfully jumpy today. “I hear you can find quite the artisans there.” His eyes darted to the end of the hall leading to the staircase. “Gaffers, blacksmiths… jewelers,” he murmured. You wondered if he was waiting for someone.
You sighed.
“Well, if and when you see him, could you tell him to come by my office? You have better luck tracking him down than I do.” You gestured in the vague direction of your office space. Miche offered you a simple nod before you wordlessly left in opposite directions. 
But even with a messenger on the lookout, Erwin ultimately didn’t appear during work hours to talk about the upcoming expedition. You heard him at one point. (His workspace was at the other end of your lengthy hallway, and the stone tiling bounced voices around until everyone on the floor could hear.) But when you had the chance to pop your head out into the hall, Erwin’s door was closed. Clearly, he had just about as many meetings as you did. 
It wasn’t until the end of the work day that you received a knock at your door. You were already staying later than you should have. Erwin let himself into your office as you were wrapping up the last of your files. Your jacket rested on the edge of your desk along with your work bag. 
“I’m a bit surprised you’re here,” he said, stopping in your doorway. Erwin leaned into the room, resting a fraction of his weight on the grip he still had on the door handle with one foot poised on the hallway's tile. 
“I’m not surprised that you are.” You quirked a smile, dipping your head to the side in a roundabout nod. You placed a few things on one of your bookshelves. Erwin stepped fully into the room, closing the door gently behind him. “I take it you saw Miche?”
“We, unfortunately, didn’t see each other until he was leaving for the day.” He stuffed his hands under the straps stretching over his sides as he strode to your desk. He sat halfway on the surface as you continued filing your bureaucratic work. His eyes flickered down to your jacket. “I thought maybe I could catch you, but you seem like you’re on your way out.”
“I mean, how long were you planning on sticking around?” you asked, turning your attention toward the clock. You surveyed the small pile of items that needed to be filed away, weighing if you would be in the mood to deal with them the next morning.
“Probably not for very long,” Erwin admitted. He coiled his arms over his chest, still half sitting on your desk. His feet could still touch the floor. You heaved a light sigh, but ultimately, not getting the chance to chat with Erwin about storage organization and horses didn’t quite end the world for you.
“I thought you always stayed late,” you responded, more asking than stating anything specific. You shuffled a few things around your desk to look busy. You placed the bottom file you were holding on top of the top one before switching them back again. 
“Is it such a surprise that I don’t live in my office?” Erwin cocked his head to the side, his thick brows high on his forehead. “I make plans, too, you know.”
“Like blowing your bonus in Stohess?” The words tumbled from your lips without you even processing them, a playful retort than anything of resentment. Erwin blinked a few times. The surprised crease on his forehead remained. You offered him a taut smile, trying to play off the forwardness of your assertion.
“Did Miche tell you that?” he questioned, shifting on the surface of your desk to face you more directly. 
“Oh, you know, word gets around.” Your tongue darted out at him in jest. You snickered to yourself as you reorganized a few papers on your desk with your free hand.
“What else did he tell you?” His tone was straight, letting on little besides the hint of tentativeness in the undertone of his voice. You could feel Erwin’s eyes on you without even looking up. “Not much else. You know, tight-lipped as usual.” You shrugged, finally filing away the last two bundles in your arms. Your thin smile gradually morphed back into the natural orientation of your lips. 
“Clearly not…” When you turned around, Erwin had his gaze on the carpet below. He rubbed at the bottom of his lip with the back of his index finger, holding an otherwise neutral expression about him. You couldn’t help but think he looked troubled: not overly angry or worried, but so deep in ponderance you wondered if you could pull him out of his own head. 
“Erwin?”
“Hm?” He perked up out of his daze as though he hadn’t been lost in his thoughts to begin with. A beat passed the two of you by as Erwin discretely gathered his bearings. You picked up your jacket, draping it over your arm. 
“I had some squad stuff to talk over. If you had time tomorrow, we can just do it then.” You looked out your window at the state of the sun. A few clouds passed overhead. You turned to peer at him out of the corner of your eye. The number of items you needed to speak with Erwin about far exceeded the ten or so minutes he probably had, and you were willing to bet that he knew that. “There’s also still the talks with the farms about renegotiating our agreement with the increased demand for horses. We need everyone on board.”
“That’s all?” 
You turned to him with a curious hum.
“What do you mean?” 
Erwin stared at you for a beat before shaking his head. He slid off the front of your desk, part of him still appearing lost in thought as he stared blankly at the shelf you had just reorganized. The side of his mouth dipped in tandem with his chin as if he had come to a mediocre conclusion in his silent debate with himself. 
“What?” you asked again, finally able to wrangle Erwin’s attention again.
He blinked a couple of times. His lips parted with hesitancy.
“I just thought you wanted to talk to me about personal matters.” His chin dipped again. Erwin glanced at you out of his peripheral but didn’t linger. “But if you want to talk about work, I have time tomorrow morning at, say—” He studied your clock before turning back to you. —“Nine o’clock?”
Personal matters? Given the amount of time that passed since your supposed agreement— you still considered two and a half months to be an excessive amount of time to have never spoken about it to the point where it must’ve been purposeful— you just assumed the engagement was off. 
“If that’s all…” He chirped before heading toward the door. You called after him and scrambled to the other side of your desk. “Horses…” he mused to himself. 
“Wait, hold on a second.” 
Erwin was already halfway across the room. He turned again, not fully facing you. His irises held a confused surprise in them as he stopped, looking at you innocently as he waited for you to speak.
And that’s when you realized he knew exactly what he was doing. 
Jackass.
“What was that?” Erwin’s astonished voice snapped you out of your freeze. The feigned shock in his eyes solidified into interested amusement as his mouth slowly contorted into a barely suppressed smirk. Erwin stepped closer.
You said that out loud, didn’t you?
You grasped at something to say, a million thoughts racing across your mind all at once. Maybe you should apologize. Erwin was your peer, after all— calling him names was hardly professional— but was it such a crime if it was true? Or maybe you should clear the air and play it all off as if you had no idea what he was talking about. You could both never speak about the marriage pact ever again as if it never happened and move on— oh fuck it.
“What about our— the agreement?” you exclaimed, your voice so loud you practically screamed it at him. 
He let you stand there as the words hung awkwardly in the air. It was truly a question drenched with desperation and hesitancy. 
Erwin pivoted a half-step to stand fully in front of you. His feet sat almost shoulder length apart as his tongue poked at the inside of his bottom lip. He glanced off to the side before meeting your eye again. You wondered if you were missing something. The bridge of his nose creased, and the smugness you thought you saw before melted into genuine confusion.
“The agreement?” He asked, and with two words, your heart sank to your stomach. Erwin repeated it like a question, and you knew he was too smart to have simply not remembered. “I thought we were still figuring that out.”
You waited for him to say more, but Erwin made no motion to continue as you stood in the spotlight of his gaze, burning with embarrassment. 
“Oh.” You breathed in sharply, shaking yourself as you slipped on your jacket. “Still figuring it out… Well, it's not urgent anyway. Let's just… move on from it.” You tried to make for the door, but Erwin sidestepped to intercept you. A single, firm touch found your uniform-clad elbow. 
He spoke your name with a similar sternness, almost as if he were chastizing a child. He held a frown on his lips and a tension-filled crease above his brow.
“If there’s something on your mind that you want to talk about right now—” Any remaining amusement in his eyes was eclipsed by severity. You didn’t stick around to see much of it. With your gaze cast somewhere else, you shooed him out of your office, and Erwin said little as you swiftly locked the door to your office. 
You tuned out whatever else he was saying, muttering some retractions to play off your disdain before bidding him farewell for the day. You exited through the stairwell at the end of the hall.
***
The third— or now just a routine— expedition arrived swiftly. You found that time passed faster in the service and seemed to with each passing year. But with most of your waking hours spent with a mandatory, purposeful rigor, you hardly felt the weight of what was to come until you were already seated on your horse. 
No night full of drinking and games occurred that eve. Everyone had their fill of booze and celebrations at the beginning of the month. The increased wages for leadership, heightened equipment quality, and rations hadn’t hurt their spirits either. But above all, every troop appeared invigorated with the introduction of the LDESF, and their high spirits were palpable for the entire ride to Wall Maria.
The people appeared equally cheerful, if not more. For once in a long time, they crowded the streets and filled the air with their enthusiastic praises. Hange took their hands entirely off their horse, waving to everyone with an excited rigor. 
You heard your name several times as you rode past the throng. The people of Wall Maria shouted words of encouragement, confident that you and your fellow section commanders would surely reclaim more lost territory. Even the horses under your saddles moved with anticipation. 
You glanced at the back of Erwin’s head as he rode in front of you. He held his upright posture, not even acknowledging the shouted praise beyond a few polite nods. 
You kept a firm hand on your reins with your eyes cast upward to where Wall Maria towered directly overhead. The sky was a rich, light blue and cast a pristine background to a flock of birds soaring above. Not a single cloud accompanied them as the atmosphere swelled with cool, spring air. 
The gates opened a short distance in front of you, and the shuffling of your horse beneath your saddle grew more restless. As the heavy metal door pulled upward, light trickled into the exit tunnel, and you were on your way.
The squads fanned out quickly, with all four section commanders taking charge of their respective units. You paced yourselves, Commander Shadis setting a fast but manageable tempo. Even at the break-neck pace you were traveling, the whole battalion fell into place neatly, forming the arrowhead shape of Erwin’s formation. 
You held your smoke gun at the ready, eyes trained on the peers around you for your first signal. You had significant ground to cover.
The pop of smoke guns sounded in the distance, draping the atmosphere in vibrant pigment. The formation drifted, forging on together as a titan appeared in the west. More popping echoed somewhere behind you. Horse hooves thudded arrhythmicly across the grassy plain. You swivveled your head briefly.
Two teams behind you had engaged with two five meter class titans and were making short work of them. You loaded your gun, shooting the colored smoke into the air to notify the rest of the battalion not to move too far ahead. A pellet of the same pigment shot up into the air from the west. 
The formation leaned to the east, advancing forward directly toward the patch of forest straight ahead. Three wagons carted ahead of you, gradually closing in the clear path between the formation and the trees. 
Everything had gone so smoothly. With a clear goal in mind, you had no doubt that this expedition would go by quickly. And once everything was finished and you were, hopefully, back home, all would return back to normal.
***
One of the Scout’s major priorities was to set up several bases outside the Walls, which was the main objective of your current mission. Utilizing the dense, wooded area rather far into titan territory, it had been a previous section commander who had proposed the idea of a lofted base of operations high in the trees. 
After some trials and rigorous testing, leadership intended to have the scouts run expeditions from the base. Being in titan territory, many hoped that it would allow soldiers access to resources and medical care much faster than a trek back to the Walls. The woods also provided ample cover, ideal for ODM gear, which would hopefully make patrolling the immediate area more manageable. Not to mention that the height of the trees made this newly established base the most titan-proof, at least according to higher leadership. 
The groundwork had already been laid. A colony of several wooden structures was built onto the branches. They were simple in architecture but boasted a sturdy structure. They housed enough to support basic camping and material storage, in addition to a landing platform just outside the roofed portion. 
It had been a mission with a purpose and a clear, achievable goal to the end. The scouts utilized lifts to haul all the cargo up into the canopy, and a small team patrolled the edge of the forest to clear out any titans that wandered too close. 
The few days that you spent in the forest went suspiciously smoothly. Your squads ran new drills to get used to the new base, and you worked with your fellow leadership to analyze their progress to report back when you returned to headquarters. And by the time your expedition in the forest was over, the scouts had achieved their best stats perhaps of all time. While your troops had experienced some injuries, they had been few and far between with the most severe being a broken bone. 
The luck you were having made you uneasy as you prepared to depart. Your squad was at the back, following the rest of the battalion as the scouts gradually left the forest. In experimenting with the new formation, Shadis wanted to stagger each wave of troops to create a less concentrated grouping. Erwin came up behind you, riding around you to your left. 
“You alright being at the back of the pack?” He stopped next to you, knocking your shoulder with the back of his hand. Erwin smiled at you, and you let the corners of your lips twitch upwards back. 
“We’ll be alright,” you said with a nod. You glanced down at the ground, your horse shifting under you. 
“I know you will,” Erwin hummed. His hand brushed over your shoulder as he rode away. You watched the back of his head as he took his place ahead at the center of the formation and continued to keep him in your peripheral until he rode away with his wave of troops. 
You waited, watching as the last few squads trickled off. It was only when they had begun to disappear into the distance that your last patrols swung around the corner.
“Section Commander! We have a problem!”
It was too late.
And it had to come at the worst possible moment. 
The ground shook.
You sat on the saddle of your horse, feeling smaller than you’d ever felt before. Eight titans bounded around the trees and surrounded you, all of varying sizes, but most in the 15 meter class. You were seasoned enough to not underestimate a single titan, but an entire hoard was an entirely different level. They completely surrounded your team, some hunched over and staring with drooling mouths. 
Before a single word left your lips, one of your patrols bounded around the corner with a loud battle cry and swords at the ready as he swooped toward the nape of one of the titans. Your hand shot out.
“No! Don’t—”
The titan was too fast in plucking him out of the air and crushing your soldier in its fist. The other titans ran through your group at the sight of limbs and blood, causing your horses to move erratically.
“Retreat!” you shouted just as everything plunged to hell. You narrowly missed getting stepped on as the titans gathered around what was left of your patrol. A titan shot its hand forward to grab at one of your squad captains, and with a swift draw of your swords, the hand fell to the ground with a soft thud. “Get back to the group!” 
You veered your reins, eyes on the group of titans as your troops sped past you in the direction of the greater battalion. Your forehead crinkled as a thousand thoughts raced through your mind at once, and in between the static and the rapidfire calculations, you quickly came to a conclusion.
You took a knife from your equiptment pocket and drew it quickly across the back of your forearm, leaving a long, red slit that immediately began to drip blood. You veered your horse around violently, causing it to rear up on its hind legs with a startled neigh.
Didn’t hesitate in following your orders, galloping through the plains at a breakneck pace as you started in the opposite direction. You hit your swords together, creating a discordant clanging as you swooped circles around the group of titans. You heard your name being called by a few of your troops, but they were whisked away by your formidable leadership team.
“We have to help!” one girl cried, loading up her smoke gun. It was smacked out of her hand. 
“The section commander is buying time to let us escape! If we don’t leave now, the titans will chase us to the rest of the squads,” one of your squad captains shouted, his voice cracking. He hurried her along, all of your subordinates ensuring that every soldier was riding in the direction of the rest of the scouts. He gulped, horrified and grave tears beginning to pool at the corners of his eyes. “They’re acting strange and the section commander knows that’s gonna save out hide. Someone has to stay behind.”
You maneuvered around the trees, whipping around speedily, but not making very many strikes. Even for your skill set, taking on so many large titans at once— and by yourself— wasn’t an easy feat. Your skills lied more in speed, aerial agility and team communication, and only two of which was of any use to you in the moment. 
A titan’s hand flew through the air, and you maneuvered just in time before the large palm smacked into the tree branch you were just standing on. The wood splintered and the limb went crashing to the ground. 
You kept moving, falling deeper into the forest toward the canopy base. While conservation of gas always mattered on the field, you could afford to exert some more gas than usual in an effort to draw the titans away. Keeping their attention would serve to be the hardest, as titans by nature were more keen on pursuing larger groups, but by keeping the scent of blood in the air and right in front of their eyes, you could hope to lure a good chunk of the titans to the other end of the forest. You trusted your team and the greater battalion to be able to handle any stragglers. 
You leaped across the branches, swinging both your swords down onto the nape of the largest titan. At the very least, you could get that one off your plate, but the motion left you vulnerable. 
Giant hands swiped at you and fingers clenched inwards with force as you blasted through the group, contorting your body as you managed to slip away. 
You shot your ancor at another tree, managing to use your momentum to your advantage to take out the ankles of a titan to the rear of the group. As it fell, you sliced the neck before shooting back off toward the canopy base. 
Your canisters were less than a third empty and you would need to refresh them soon to take on the remaining titans. You blasted ahead at lightning speed and the giants followed at a breakneck pace. 
The base sat just ahead, more in the middle of the eastern sector of the woods rather than directly in the middle. Considering you just restocked it yourself, you knew there were more than enough materials to expand your options. 
Another large hand reached for you, and twisting at the right moment, you managed to spiral over the forearm and up the bicep to make a deep cut. You shot forward, ancors firing left and right as you swooped up into the canopy. 
Even as your boots hit the hard wood landing, you were wracked with a feeling of dread that fell into the deepest pit of your stomach. You retreated into the rooved portion, releasing the blades you already had in your grips in exchange for fresh ones. Your canisters also hit the wood floor as you rifled around for fresh ones. 
The titans, now joined by one more, crowded around the base of the trees. The temporary checkpoint wasn’t intended for longterm use in it’s current state, but as a stopping area to restock on necessary supplies, treat the wounded, and other services that couldn’t be done on the run with the hopes that it would elongate expeditions. It was meant to be used in the way you were using it now, but being a single soldier, you weren’t sure if a simple restock was enough to bail you out. 
Titans would only continue to gather around you, and even if you decided to stay, you weren’t sure if or when you could possibly be retrieved. In all likelihood, your best guess would be a month away when the Scouts had their next expedition. That is, if they made it that far or even had the clearance to enter the forest. Even then, given the accumulation of titans without a patrol team to thin them out, you would be the reason many soldiers would be risking their lives. The base was meant to be used for a portion of a day or overnight, not for a month.
You stood on the edge of the platform, refreshed swords drawn and your whistle between your lips. The titans squirmed around eagerly below, gnashing their teeth and letting drool dribble from the open mouths. With a deep breath in, you called your horse before pocketing the whistle and letting yourself fall off the side of the platform. 
Even as an experienced soldier, you didn’t think you’d ever get truly desensitized to facing titans. You supposed that the blunt nerves you felt was only a testament to your humanity. You tried to find satisfaction in that. 
Your body worked on it’s own, diving straight into the den of the beasts and felling one on your departure down. It was a jumble of metal, blood, saliva, and teeth. The leather straps of your uniform were beginning to dig uncomfortably into you, straining your limbs as you fought gravity and for your life. They strained more than usual.
Titan blood mixed with your own, staining your steaming white clothes. Two more went down, then one more, leaving a hot mass of meat behind as you finally saw your horse galloping in the distance. You whipped through the trees, adrenaline coursing through your veins and determination manipulating your movements as you swiped past the very last titan of the group with your sword.
That was it.
You positioned yourself to be able to fall right into the saddle of your horse, your anchors recoiling as you sheathed your swords and took the reigns. It was a long way out of the woods, and even longer back to Wall Maria, but if you were dying anyway, you might as well try.
And it was a cruel sense of irony that allowed you to see the edge of the forest. 
You rode along, trying to center your breathing and your head and you glanced around widely for any signs of titans. And when you saw the golden light of the day ahead, you were almost relieved. 
It was right there, but so was that very last titan.
The just-too-shallow cut on the back of its neck was gone, and the repercussions of your carelessness swiped your horse out from under you in an instant. You flew forward, your ankle twisting as you landed in the leaflitter. Your thigh slammed into your sheath on your way down, and as you tumbled, your bulky equipment tore at your limbs as you tumbled. 
You skidded back, somehow able to get to your feet. Sticks, leaves, and dirt scratched at the backs of your ankles as you came face to face with the ten meter titan behind you. Your horse was splattered against an adjacent tree, and your hands flew to your swords. You pulled on the grips—
You pulled on the grips—
Your eyes glanced down in horror at the grips jammed in your sheaths. You kept tugging on them, only to hear the sobering sound of metal shaking but not giving. And then the gear at your lower back began to fall. 
It was only then that you realized that your straps had completely given way, having been torn and hanging limply off your body. Your straps, the ones that you had been meaning to replace. Your weight shifted to one side as one of your sheaths began to fall to the ground.
Your head snapped back toward the titan as it raised a giant hand in the air, lunging forward with its mouth wide. 
Suddenly, a giant mass swept in from the side, swiping you out of the way and knocking just about all the wind you had in your chest out of you. You nearly heaved at the impact, but the bile in your core was sated by sheer shock. Another impact made you slam your chin against hard leather. You felt blood begin to dribble across your cheek.
Your head spun, able to focus on little else but a tuff of blond hair. The front legs of Erwin’s white stallion galloped under you, and your hand immediately shot out to grab anything you could to balance yourself as you laid sprawled out on your stomach. 
“E—Erwin?” you could barely get the word out. “Why— why did you come back? I thought— thought you—”
“We had a deal. Don’t you remember?” He called over the whooshing of the wind and the harsh pounding of the titan’s stride from behind you. Your head spun from the motion and the thumping of Erwin’s horse directly under you. You strained your neck, barely able to catch sight of how Erwin’s bangs blew in the breeze. The sun illuminated the back of his head in a golden glow, and in the haze of it all, the only thing you could focus on was him. He glanced down at you, a slight smile on his lips. “I can’t marry you from the stomach of a titan.”
Electricity shot through your chest, but you hardly had time to think, let alone speak. Erwin’s anchors shot up somewhere out of your sight. 
“Brace yourself.” 
Erwin shot up into the air, leaving you to cling onto his horse for dear life. 
There was a hiss from his canisters. The noise of harsh metal on metal rang out as Erwin manuvered somewhere behind you. 
Light ahead grew clearer as you fought for your place on the back of Erwin’s horse, the stretch of forest you were galloping through growing shorter. 
A great whoosh of wind came just before an even louder slam that shook the ground below, giving you little warning as you were thrown through the air. Erwin’s horse went on without you, leaving you to tumble out into the grass just beyond the edge of the woods. Your arms came up to shield your head, but your shoulder hit the dirt hard.
You rolled violently before skidding off a good distance away. You landed on your back, bleeding and unable to breathe with your eyes were still scrunched closed. 
The uproar in the background ceased and you heard the recoiling sound of Erwin’s coils as he swooped out of the forest. He moved somewhere ahead, reuniting with his stallion. You couldn’t even muster the energy to look, but you knew your nightmare was over.
“You alright?” he called, and the sudden professionalism in his voice made your eyes snap open. You sat up in the field, wondering if you heard him right. And when your head swivveled toward him, Erwin wasn’t looking at you at all. In fact, he was already back on his horse as red titan blood evaporated off of him.
“No!” You answered, your relief being swiftly replaced with anger. His words had sunk in and the sheer audacity he had to speak to you normally after that slammed the energy back into your body. “What the hell, Erwin?” You screeched across the field as the world continued to spin. You picked yourself off the ground, debris smeared across your face as your stumbled to your feet. “That was the stupidest stunt I’ve ever seen! I had it! And you— and you—!”
“You certainly did not have it.” Erwin’s brows bounced on his forehead, his eyes widening for a moment as he blinked in adamant disbelief. His white stallion trotted slowly away from the steaming titan in the background, meeting you just a short distance away as you stormed forward, still subtly off balance. “There’s a reason those straps are meant to be for your dress uniform only. You can’t say I didn’t tell you so.”
You chose not to hear that last part.
“And you chose now? Now of all times?”  You continued to rant, curse words falling from your lips harsher than you had fallen out of the air. Erwin paid you no mind as he dismounted from his saddle. You nearly had a conniption as he ran a hand through his hair before adjusting his jacket. “You haven’t said anything about marrying me once in three months and you have the goddamn nerve— We’re on a job for— Erwin Friedrich Fucking Smith, you waited until now—?” 
“Oh, you’re getting serious,” he mused. You jabbed a finger directly into the middle of his chest. 
—“And you know what, no! I’m over it. You do know that Pixis offered me a position not too long ago. When we get back I’m putting in for a branch transfer so I never have to see you again, I swear! I’m sick of guessing and not knowing and what the hell is that?” 
You did a double take at the box that sat right in the middle of Erwin’s palm. 
No, it didn’t quite sink in for you.
It would take you a moment, just like when you were still processing his words from before.
“Well, I wanted to wait, but if you’re going to throw yourself at a titan if I don’t propose, then I suppose there’s little else that can be done.” Erwin slowly dropped to one knee, opening the leather box to reveal the simplest, yet most beautiful ring you had ever seen. 
It sat perched between two velvet cushions, shining in the light of the day. It didn’t even look real, and you were convinced that the sight in front of you wasn’t happening. The anger and annoyance that had built up in your chest and exploded melted away, leaving a confusing mix of energy and high emotions in its place.
And you were at a loss. 
You couldn’t even think. 
You stood in front of him with your mouth agape, staring dumbly from the ring to his face as your thoughts short-circuited. Every piece of inner commentary went blank. 
Erwin’s brows knitted together.
“You remembered, didn’t you—?” 
“Shut up,” you spoke quickly, but your answer only made Erwin tilt his head in shock. He opened his mouth to say more. Your palm flew out in front of you. “Nope! Shut it. Shut up.” You took a deep breath, glancing to the side and then back to where Erwin kneeled patiently in front of you. And it was only when you noticed the slight smirk on his lips did you spin around, your hands flying to your face. “Erwin, you ass—”
 “I’ll take that as a yes.” He caught your hand, having stood up somewhere behind you, and unceremoniously slid the ring onto your finger. He held your hand draped over his. 
Erwin circled you until he stood in front of you again, one hand still holding your own. A knuckle pressed under your chin, tilting your head up and you didn’t even notice the small amount of wetness pooling in your eyes until he swiped the back of his finger under your lower lids. 
“Are you alright?” His tone was ever-serious, but his voice was soft. 
“Yeah,” you nodded. You squeezed his fingers gently. “Yeah, it’s a good thing.”
Thank you to all who liked, reblogged, followed, and supported. Your support means so much and is greatly appreciated.
Author Commentary: I was hesitant to add the humor I did because I was overly concerned about Erwin's characterization, and I suppose the tone matching him? But then I remembered the first chapter started with a comment about how nice his ass was so I just—
Also, this chapter took so long because I had no idea how I was going to write the proposal scene and the set up. This chapter has been half done for months and it was half the proposal and half the titan scene. I actually hate writing AOT action which I suppose so many of my AOT works are about the characters doing paperwork at HQ... We ignored a lot of titan rules in this chapter, but what can you do?
Also also, this fic kinda turned into a different story in the middle of this huh? Kinda cool. There's one more chapter. I wanted to cut back to the cadets at the end of this chapter but I wasn't expecting the titan fighting scene to be so long. The wedding, the aftermath, and everything in the present will all be stuffed into the next chapter.
Part I Part II Part III Part IV Finale
Deleted Scene - can you see why i deleted this now haha
Stupid, Stupid, Emotionally Unavailable Erwin Smith (Levi x Reader x Erwin)
Notes: I’m happy to add people to the tag list, but requesting to be added without interacting with any part of this series outside of your tag request will result in a swift block.
@goddessinsweats @lionhearted-soldier @answer-the-sirens @piercedddriver @scarletrosesposts @thewrittenromance @erwinawesomeness
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romancefranaticstay · 3 months
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◦•●❤♡ Mïñê ßåÐ Gïrl ♡❤●•◦
彡(✿╹◡╹) 𝘊𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘨𝘰𝘳𝘺: 𝘴𝘮𝘶𝘵, 𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘴𝘵, 𝘳𝘦𝘣𝘦𝘭 (`∀´)Ψ
◦•●❤♡ Ä/ñ ♡❤●•◦
: You are a an ice-woman. Nobody can come inside your heart. Your smart and you observe everyone. Nobody can fool you... nobody can let you fall for them... okay maybe not nobody...
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(Best Music Vibe: bloodline x pony mix)
You were a businesswoman, you never had time for any romantic-actions. You never had any interest in them, it was always: work, work , work, money and fame.
You were pretty know for your image. Many big brands wanted you because you were the 'perfect' business woman.
You actually were the perfect one and thats why it was harder for you to fall in love. You never fell in love, actually you don't even know what real love is. What is it? How does it feel? Mostly on camera people see you as an actractive frighten woman.
'Do not mess with her' as caption. But behind the curtains, you were very soft and talkactive.
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'Goodmorning ma'am, here is your coffee.'
'Coffee with extra milk and 2 thee spoons with sugar?'
'Yes ma'am.'
You took it from your assistent. She was the only person who know the 'real you'.
'Thank you Aurora.' you wink.
'Mine pleasure, miss.'
You went in ur office, which had the perfect view over New York. Your office was the typical 'office' you see in shows. You were wearing a black dress with much elegance.
You were sitting and writing some percentage's of the new 'hype' that got annonced past saturday. It looked very good and you were happy because of the great succes.
One day it was kind of a mess at work, so your one assistent wasn't enough. You brought one of your best workers to find a second assistent. You gave them a list with questions to ask.
After some days they found the 'perfect assistent'. You were stunned that someone actually passed the list. Tommorow you will meet the person.
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You walked into the building with your suitcase, as always. Your black dress giving shape into your body. Your coat giving more elegance. You were maybe scary but you were (hella) attractive.
'Goodmorning boss.'
'Goodmorning ma'am.'
'Looking stunning as always ma'am.'
'Greeting miss.'
'Beautifull morning boss.'
You hated it when people were overfriendly. You always knew they did it to get promoted. Some people did it genuinly because they were nice and good persons, but some... you don't even want to get started.
'Goodmorning ma'am.' Aurora your assistent says.
'Goodmorning Aurora. Where is the newby?'
'He is bringing some of his supplies from downstairs.'
'Its a he? Interesting...'
'I heard his name is Lee Felix y/n.'
Only Aurora could call you by your actual name. She was your bestfriend and you both liked to gossip a bit.
'Interesting, interesting... If he is present, send him to mine office.'
'I will surely do, ma'am y/n.'
you laugh.
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ミミ◦❧◦°˚°◦.¸¸◦°´❤•.¸♥ 𝓗𝓲𝓼 𝓹𝓸𝓿 ♥¸.•❤´°◦¸¸.◦°˚°◦☙◦彡彡
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I am standing in a very large building. There are everywhere glass windows. I have a box between mine arms. This company is very precise i heard. I alreaddy got a hole tour of the building and where to go.
I went to the elevator and clicked on the number 70.
The trip went very slow, because it stopped at almost 70 deparments.
Finally it reached mine destinition.
'Welcome, sir. I am Aurora. I am one of the assistents of miss y/n. She requested you to enter her office.'
'Thank you.'
I putted mine box down at mine new desk. Aurora pointed at the big door. The door is all black.
I knocked on the door three times untill i heard a woman voice say: Enter.
I opened the door and saw a beautifull woman sitting behind her desk.
'Goodmorning...' she looked at her paper 'Lee Felix. You may enter.'
I was to stunned to speak, i never saw such beauty. Her eyes were shining, i can't describe what i was feeling at the moment. It was just magical.
'Mine pleasure, ma'am.'
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ミミ◦❧◦°˚°◦.¸¸◦°´❤•.¸♥ 𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝓹𝓸𝓿 ♥¸.•❤´°◦¸¸.◦°˚°◦☙◦彡彡
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You were strong to keep your head cool, but when you made eye-contact with him. Something inside you started beating faster.
'You can sit down.'
He sat down.
'You have gotten some information about our system, did you understand everything.'
'Yes ma'am.'
'Everyday your duty is to fill the report cards and give it to me at the end of the day.'
He nods.
'At the end of the day, i will call mine assistents in mine office. Always have the report cards with you.'
'Yes ma'am.'
'Good, welcome to the company.'
i reach out to his hand. His felt soft.
'Thank you ma'am.' he stood up from his seat. He left and closed the door.
The first interaction between you two... but not the last...
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Some months passed, and Lee Felix got used to the system and the way of working.
Felix got attached to your prescence. You never noticed that. He always waited for you to come and tried to get as close to you as possible.
You loved the way his pinky always touched yours.
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ミ★ 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘺 ★彡
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There was a part going on at the company. They say adults can't go wild, but when you came in there, your mouth fell open. Litterly beasts, every drinks and cans. It was wild. The music was to loud, the lights were dark but bright at the same time.
There were people standing on the desk, shouting and screaming drunkly, and also singing songs false.
You came with your assistent (bestfriend) Aurora to the Office Party. It was quit easy to find a way into the crowd, because even tho they were drunk. They knew you were their boss.
'Never knew they could go wild like that.' Aurora shouted.
'I know right, they are like animals.'
You were looking around, trying to find some regular people or people you actually liked. You saw felix sitting at the bar with a drink in his hand, he was looking at the people who were dancing. He looked very handsome, his suit was so tight.
Suddenly he turned his head and you two made eye-contact. Everyone in the room stopped moving, it was just you and him in the moment. The moment that would forever last in your memory, but not in the actual world.
He came over to you while Aurora was flirting with some random worker of yours.
'Goodevening miss, its quit loud here don't you think?'
'Yes indeed, its very loud. I have the feeling that mine eardrums could explode at any moment now.'
'Are your ears hurting that much?' he asked.
'Yes, a bit.'
You never saw that coming but he covered with his hands your ears. Keeping your back close to his chest. You could feel and hear his heartbeat rising when your leaning in.
'You maybe want to go somewhere a bit quieter, miss?' he asked.
'That would wiser than staying here.'
He took your hand and leaded you towards your office.
'Thank you, Felix.'
'Its mine pleasure, miss.'
For a few moments it was quit uncomfortable the silents, but it was peacefull. You two made eye-contact from across the room. The heat was rising every moment. You could see the bulge in his pants grow bigger and bigger every second.
He walked over to you and just stood infront of you. Just staring in your eyes. Your hands placed on his chest.
'What are you planning to do?' you asked.
'Something i planned for a long time.' he said smirking.
He placed his hand on the wall which you were leaning against to. He started to kiss your jaw-line, leaving sloppy kisses behind. He started to leave hickey's on your neck.
He started to slowly undress you, throwing your clothe's on the floor. You had black lingerie on, it was beautifull. His clothe's were off before you could count to three.
You two were kissing eachother softly, just enjoying eachother scent and touch. You were walking backwards towards your desk. You jumped on your desk, pushing all your papers and document out of the way. Making sure everything is off the desk.
He gently layed you on the desk, with your arms wrapped around his neck. His fingers wandering towards your panties, gently rubbing against your clit. He could feel how wet you alreaddy were. You attached your lips with his, kissing eachother open-mouthed. Your tongue's dancing and twirling with eachother.
Your hands wandered into his underwear. Pulling his lenght out and gently stroking it. He was whimpering into your mouth. He slowly pulled your panties down. Positioning himself between your legs. You could feel the tip of his cock against your pussy.
He pushed himself into you. Looking at you with a concerned face, just to make sure your enjoying it. You pulled him into a sloppy kiss again. He slowly pumped into you, softly stroking your hair. Your hands also wandered into his hair, it was very soft. You both were moaning into eachothers mouth.
His pumping got a little bit faster. Supporting your back with his hands, making sure you are comfortable. You were about to cum, your hands gripping on his back. Your back was arched, sweat dripping from your forehead.
'I am g-going to c-cum, b-baby.' you said, trying to catch your breath.
His pace started to harsher and faster. You putted your hands behind his head, wanting to look him in the eyes. His lips were swollen, his face sweatty, his hair was wet.
You both came at the same moment. His forehead resting on yours. Gently stroking your cheek with his hand. He brought you in for a kiss again, the kiss was full of passion. Resting in eachothers arm. His chin was laying on your head. Swinging to the left and right. You felt safe, you felt loved, you felt real.
'I love you Y/N.'
You turned your head to look at him.
'I love you to Felix.'
Bringing him again for a kiss.
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You both tried to keep your relationship a secret, but everyone could see the tension between you two. You two couldn't stop touching eachother.
Felix was also constantly in your office, suspicious isn't it? The desk always reminded you of that evening with him. A wonderfull memory, to caress for your entire life with him.
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THE END
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k12academics · 9 months
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Rudolph's is a local office products business with over 70 local employees and services over 3,000 customers in the Baltimore/DC metro area. Our corporate office and warehouse facilities are located in Baltimore. We are a woman-owned Maryland State Certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE-94-126). We also maintain minority status with Prince George's County, WMATA, MWAA, Virginia and Delaware.
Since 1980, Rudolph Supply has continued to grow in size, expand its services, and build a loyal clientele. Our success can be attributed to our dedicated staff who are determined to make sure your business runs smoothly. All aspects of our company have been designed to fulfill the diverse requirements of our clients. We offer variety of ordering processes, delivery schedules, billing methods, and reporting styles that can be modified to individual specifications. We remain dedicated to providing the latest in products, services, and technologies in order to best serve our customers. The breadth of services we provide is constantly redefined by the wants and needs of our clientele.
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spartexscribbles · 4 months
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Things to Consider Before Choosing Pens For Promotional & Corporate Gifting Custom promotional pens are ideal for corporate gifting. Read ahead to learn how to choose the perfect pen for your business.
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netherworldpost · 3 months
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Evil Supply Co.'s (hi, it's me, I've rebranded) Peyroux Dispatch is available in the Netherworld Post Office shop as a printable download.
Free! This is NOT a limited time offer!
There is no obligation! There is no cost! It's just put into the shop to make it easier for file storage promotion rambling things yeah!
"What is the Peyroux Dispatch?" It was a 4-page newspaper written about monsters, for monsters, from 2016 through 2018. There were 21 issues in total.
Tens of thousands of words.
Dozens of comics and illustrations.
Essays. Stories. Smooching. Love. Paradise. Monsters, witches, ghosts, mermaids, Halloween, spooky things. I wrote and illustrated it all and it was a giant labor of love and was an INTENSE amount of fun.
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It ain't over 'til the Old Crow sings.
This is the concluding story to go along with the Two Ravens at the Writing Desk blog event! Please note, I was not able to respond to all interaction requests, as many were submitted after the period of acceptance and/or disregarded other event rules.)
Does Two of us make a Murder of Crows? … Or an Unkindness of Ravens?
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The Newspaper Club's office was a hub of activity. When its door was cracked open, the smell of fresh paper and ink would greet visitors. The murmurs of concentration and furious keyboard clacking of its members, the organization's calling card.
Raven was fond of it.
She tended to skitter on the outskirts of the club, observing as students drifted in and out, sometimes lugging supplies or equipment with them. Too shy to ask if she could pitch in, too scandalized at the thought of the boys staring at her if she entered.
And so she remained, watching.
Raven peered around her secretive corner. Today, there was a cluster of club members outside the office, caught up in a heated debate. One of them--the leader?--had a thick packet in hand and a frown on his face.
"We can't print this," he was saying, waving the papers around.
"If we don't, he'll be on our asses," protested another member. "Let's just suck it up and send it into the printing press."
"Where's your journalistic integrity, man?!" a third demanded.
"We've put out crappier stuff before," a fourth shrugged. "Remember that article about the seven greatest unsolved mysteries on NRC campus? As if most of us don't already know."
"It's not the same thing," the leader shot back. "That was one piece. This is an entire issue. You really want to flush down our rep?!"
Oh dear, it looks like they've run into some sort of trouble. I wonder what's wrong...? Raven leaned a little closer, cupping an ear.
"What are we going to do" The club leader worriedly paced around. "We don't have much time before the deadline comes up on us... Oh, hmm?"
He cocked his head, noticing a flicker of movement around the corner. "Is that...?"
Raven startled. I've been spotted!
"Excuse me!" To her horror, the club leader approached and called out to her. "You are... the headmaster's something-or-other, right? Someone who can speak to him on our behalf."
"Er, yes. I-I suppose that's true." She tried to control her nerves by smoothing out her skirt, but found herself anxiously wringing the hem of it.
"Great! See, the headmaster proposed running a special edition in the campuswide newspaper. In honor of NRC's founding month, he said," the club leader explained. "Front to back, the whole works. The only problem is... well, see for yourself."
He offered his packet. It was about the width of a modest novel and bulged with additional sticky notes and photographs shoved inside of the stack.
One glimpse at the cover page, and Raven instantly understood what was happening.
Oh, Uncle. You just can't stay out of trouble, can you?
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"You wanted the school newspaper to have a Crowley-themed edition for March... Have you gone mad?!"
"I thought it would be an earnest and approachable way for the student body to get to know their headmaster," Crowley faintly defended himself. "And you did tell me to pen some writing by my own hand. Does it not make sense to publish those works in a publicly accessible source?"
Raven held her head in her hands. A migraine was coming on, steady but piercing.
"Please do not impose your agenda on a student-run organization. It is meant to be a forum that promotes freedom of expression, not for personal vanity projects!!
"There are other avenues you could use for publications if you want an 'earnest and approachable' image. For example..." She produced her phone, pulling up Magicam via an app. Personal blogs, social media accounts... There are many other places.
"Oh." Crowley cupped his chin. "I was not aware."
"Many students are on Magicam, so if you want to be relatable this may be a good starting point. Perhaps it's not the best for posting written works, but surely you could take pictures of your daily activities and briefly caption them."
"Well, why didn't you say so sooner? Nothing could be simpler, my dear niece!" The headmaster beamed, displaying his pointed, pearly canines.
“I wish you’d explored these options first,” she sighed. “Then we could have avoided this almost-disaster altogether.”
Her guardian was already preoccupied with his own phone now. Typing in information, fishing up the most photogenic pictures from his album to slap on. A few minutes into setting up his account, Crowley paused. He eyed his child the same way a hawk might eye a scurrying field mouse.
“… What is it now?” Raven asked, dreading the worst.
“Oh, I was just thinking about what my first post should be. Something that says a lot about me and where my values lie. I know exactly what to use: a family photo!"
She raised a brow.
Crowley shoved the rejected proposal packet back into his niece's hands. He then shuffled next to her, holding his phone out--the camera, flipped--and made a peace sign with the other.
A bolt of panicked realization raced through her. "Uncle... you don't mean--"
"Fufufu. Say 'cheese', Raven-kun!"
CLICK!
The headmaster's first post would go up around midnight. Under the picture of a jovial crow and a befuddled raven was a very telling statement.
So glad to have such bright young minds steering the way to the future~ Proud to be the headmaster of NRC 🐦‍⬛
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mixelation · 10 months
Text
i wrote more reborn au. it is the situation described previously when tori has a non-team 4 mission go awry
i might change the timeline a little, but for now: tori is 16, and she has an official position in R&D so she takes fewer out of village missions. i might change it later but she gives her rank as tokubetsu jounin, because my interpretation of this rank is that you have some sort of high-value jounin-level skill (like fuinjutsu) but your OVERALL skills aren't really jounin level. so she got promoted hella fast after making chunin, but she gets stuck at this rank a while whereas itachi and deidara get to full jounin like immediately lmao. also she and itachi have been fake-dating a few months, but that's not relevant to the following
uuh also this has some stuff that i feel like doesn't punch as hard as it should without context to foreshadow it, so apologizes if some details seem to come out of nowhere???
--
The mission started off uncomfortable and it didn’t get much better. 
The premise was this: a research team had tracked some rare scrolls all the way into the boonies of a tiny jungle territory between Fire Country and Water Country, which had historically been traded back and forth between both countries but was currently maintaining its status as an independent state after the fallout of the Third Shinobi War. It had no native ninja clans, but enough powers had occupied it that both Kiri and Konoha occasionally sent in probes to figure out if there were any leftover ninja-related valuables. 
The idea was that a ninja village had the rights to ninja materials, even if they’d both technically agreed not to interfere with the tiny nation. Tori understood everyone in her life just accepted this as a morally neutral fact of the world and elected not to analyze it further for her own sanity. It wasn’t like she wasn’t ready and willing to forego her own ethical framework when it was convenient. 
So the research team had followed some local leads to unearth an ancient and abandoned shinobi stronghold of unknown origin, but had been blocked from accessing it because the fuuinjutsu protecting it was so old no one on the team could figure out how to break it. This was how Tori was chosen for the back-up team Minato was sending in: if you wanted someone to disentangle an unknown and strange set of seals quickly and without damaging the surrounding structure, Tori was your girl. There simply wasn’t anyone else as good except Kushina herself, and Kushina had way more in-village responsibilities.  
The risk of spending a long time at this location was that Kiri would inevitably notice and send their own team in, and then even if they avoided an outright conflict, Konoha risked Kiri running off with the scrolls or whatever other treasures happened to be in the stronghold, if any. This was how the rest of the Tori’s team was picked: combat ninja for back-up. 
“Oh, this is the most fun part about being a fuinjutsu specialist, you know,” Kushina had told her, when she’d gone over to pick up fuinjutsu supplies from her office. “You get sent on all sorts of weird missions to all sorts of places, and work with all sorts of people!”
Kushina was… maybe more social and likable than Tori. Kushina could make friends with a rock. Tori, in contrast, somehow started a feud with half the people she met. 
It started with some weird comments. Tori pulled a bottle of insect repellant out of a storage seal during one of their breaks on the first day, and her teammate made a snide remark about Tori living a life of luxury. 
“...do you want some?” Tori offered. 
She was literally just using a store-bought spray in a standard-design storage scroll. Kushina had told her off more than once for over-relying on storage scrolls which could be easily stolen or destroyed or lost, but she’d seen other shinobi do this. She’d seen their captain do this, earlier. This was normal behavior. 
The weird comments continued from the same teammate, who was a rank-and-file jounin with no additional titles. Mostly they were jabs at her main designation being R&D: surprise she could clean fish, condescendingly assuring her she wouldn’t have to fight and risk chipping a nail. The comments got an occasional snicker from other ninja, but they weren’t overtly hostile and definitely not as mean as whatever the fuck Itachi might say just in friendly conversation. She gritted her teeth and beared it. 
The guy was only like nineteen or twenty. Tori wasn’t sure what his problem with her was, since he was pretty young for a jounin and couldn’t be so untalented that it would make sense for him to have a chip on his shoulder, but also he was young enough that maybe he just hadn’t matured very much yet. Or maybe it was just that she was even younger and already a tokubetsu jounin and– gasp!– a woman. People generally highly praised Deidara and Itachi for making jounin so young, but their talents were generally more obvious, and also they were men. Shinobi were less sexist than the surrounding civilian attitudes toward women, but the misogyny still crept into their culture. Sometimes some men just got upset when women were smarter or stronger or higher ranked than them. Even Kushina occasionally got pushback. 
(Not that no one ever acted jealous or insane to Itachi or Deidara– it was just that they got it less often, and people rarely acted like that twice, because both boys were nightmare people.)
So she ignored her teammate and didn’t think much of it. Sometimes people were just assholes. In Oto or in Akatsuki, this might have led to him doing something unspeakably horrible to her, but this was Konoha. Konoha ninja could be petty and mean and jaded, but they didn’t do that. 
Tori hadn’t gotten to go into the jungles of this world often, and her mood did brighten even as the weather got hotter and more humid and they had to slow down as the foliage got denser. She liked seeing the shift in trees from Hashirama trees to broad-leafed jungle trees, seeing strangler figs and hearing tree frogs and finding the prints of a large cat. She even found delight in the presence of native giant leeches they also imported to their Forest of Death.
“The anticoagulants they excrete actually have a lot of medical applications,” she said cheerfully, poking one gently with a stick. They could also kill you if you let one attach for too long. 
“Uh, okay,” said their captain. “Keep on task.”
“When you let a researcher out of the lab,” another teammate joked to the one who kept ragging on her. Tori rolled her eyes. 
It took almost an entire week to get to the stronghold. During this time, the teammate that was ragging on her got both the other ninja with them to also start on the same sort of stupid jokes. Tori pulled a branch off a squat little tree and offered it to the teammate who’d started it all. 
“Here, it’s an insect repellent,” she said, smiling as sweetly as she could. “Since you forgot to bring yours.”
For some reason, this just made the teammate meaner. By the time they researched the stronghold, she was getting accusations that she was only here due to favoritism from the fucking Hokage. 
“On task,” the captain sighed, having also laughed at a couple of the jokes. 
Whatever, Tori thought. 
The lead of the research team, at least, didn’t even blink when he saw her. He was technically part of R&D. She had a reputation there. 
The stronghold was a small, stone building overgrown with strangler figs. The research team had already removed the foliage from the entrance and revealed the seal protecting it, which probably saved at least half a day’s work. Still, the fuinjutsu on it was a mess, and it took Tori a couple hours to disentangle what was even going on. 
The research leader bounced his knee in anticipation the entire time. Apparently they’d found evidence the night before of other shinobi in the area, and they were afraid Kiri could show up at any moment. 
“Can’t you do that faster?” Tori’s captain asked as she made notes on her own scroll. 
“Not unless you want me to risk blowing it up,” Tori replied. 
“Well, try harder,” he said.
She wondered, vaguely, if he would have this attitude towards her if he hadn’t spent a whole week listening to someone make demeaning comments about her. Maybe she should have tried to nip that in the bud sooner? Usually she’d prefer an opponent underestimating her, but these were people she needed to trust her skills… she’d promised herself to stop thinking of everyone she met as an enemy until proven otherwise. 
Well, whatever. The nice thing about her boss being a fuinjutsu master was that if this captain tried to report on her being too slow, Minato would put him straight immediately. 
She got the seal off in record time. Instead of opening into the little building, the door led to a staircase that went straight down into the earth. Tori held back a comment about Oto also being arranged like this. She didn’t need to remind her asshole teammate that she was a foreigner on top of whatever he didn’t like about her. 
“Great,” the research lead sighed. 
The next several days were spent exploring the tunnels that turned out to be underneath the building. They were carved out by an underground river, which still flowed through the main passages. The remains of wooden walkways over it were still apparent, but the structure had largely rotted away and they were forced to walk on the walls or the river itself. There were more fuinjutsu-covered doors leading to narrow rooms and more fucking stairways down, in a confusing labyrinth of passages that mostly held nothing of value. 
The combat team was roped into searching the tunnels in order to cover more area quickly, since there was the ongoing anxiety that Kiri could show up any minute. They all seemed bored by the slow progress of Tori opening up new passageways only for no one to find anything but rotting wood furniture and, once, some old and useless cookware. Tori was having fun, at least. Whoever had set up the security seals must have been high when they did it. 
Then everything went to shit all at once. 
Tori was taking her lunch break, squatting in the corner of an empty room and eating a protein bar, when her asshole teammate showed up to report he’d found another fuinjutsu-covered door. Many of the rooms had puddles from the river leaking through cracks, and the jounin rushed in so quickly he didn’t even bother water-walking over them. 
The door he’d found was different from the rest, with an ornately carved stone door frame. It also wasn’t wood like the rest had been, held together against time by fuinjutsu. This door was a solid block of rock, a giant disc on the side of the door frame. 
“I bet Hokage-sama will give us a bonus if we’re the ones who find the scrolls,” he said, his excitement obvious as Tori poked at the door. “They do that for object recovery, right?”
“I think that’s only if you find something that wasn’t a part of the mission parameters,” Tori replied, taking a step back to squint at the full seal. There wasn’t a universal pattern to them, but she was getting pretty quick about identifying and then dismantling the relevant parts. 
“Pft, what do you know,” her teammate replied, kicking at a puddle. 
“No offense,” Tori started, pulling out her brush and a jar of ink, “but what is your problem with me?”
Her teammate didn’t answer, watching her paint very carefully over the seal. The stone wheel that made up the door groaned and slowly rolled aside. 
The room inside was definitely different from the rest. The back wall was nothing but running water, held in place by more fuinjutsu that formed a gently glowing web of chakra over it. There was also actual decoration on the exposed stone walls, carved and then painted in. In the center of the room was a stone pedestal with an obvious scroll box. 
Tori’s teammate was obnoxious, but he was still a jounin and not an idiot. He waited for Tori to flick chakra-infused ink into the room and then perform a jutsu to check for traps. 
The room itself was safe. The problem was that the pedestal was obviously boobytrapped. 
“Can you undo it?” her teammate asked, peering at the box. It matched the description the research team had. 
It was hard to reveal the seals on the pedestal and take a look. They were, in fact, more insane than what was on all the doors. Unlike the doors, these were meant to be somewhat permanent, not meant for anyone but the sealmaster who made them to take off. 
“It’s… going to take some time,” Tori said cautiously. “But, shit, this array itself is probably valuable.”
She pointed to how it scattered down the pedestal to the river wall and then up and across the ceiling in a nonstandard shape. If it were disrupted, the seal holding the water back would break, immediately flooding the room. At the same time, the bit on the ceiling would collapse… something. Either the ceiling itself or wall with the exit. 
There was a mechanism also holding the box in place and locked shut, so no random person would be able to move it or open it and then accidentally set off the trap. Breaking that part of the seal wouldn’t be any more difficult than the doors, but Tori would need some time to figure out how to disentangle this mechanism from the deathtrap so they didn’t set it off and could remove the scrolls safely. 
“Alright,” the jounin said at length. “But you have to make it clear I’m the one who found it.”
Tori really, really didn’t think this mattered, but before they could decide what exactly to do, two strangers walked into the room. They were both wearing Kiri headbands. 
“Are you kidding me?” the jounin said, stepping between Tori and the Kiri-nin and drawing a kunai. 
She hadn’t noticed it over the rush of the river in front of them, but now that Tori was concentrating, she could hear the shouts of a fight outside. 
“Oh nice, you found it for us,” one of the Kiri said. Both had swords drawn. Tori drew her own kunai and shifted into a fight-ready stance. 
“Surely there’s a diplomatic solution to this,” she tried. 
“Oops, too late,” the other Kiri-nin answered, flashing teeth at her. 
Tori’s jounin teammate took a step back and whispered out of the corner of his mouth: “I’ll engage them. Get the box off.”
“But–” Tori started.
Behind his back, he signed that they’d flash step out. Tori nodded slowly. It was risky, and she wasn’t sure she could flash step quickly enough to not get caught in the trap, but a really good jounin could. 
This was the best part of Konoha, she thought. Even assholes had your back. 
One of the Kiri-nin chucked a handful of kunai at them, and Tori fully turned to back to face the seal on the pedestal. She heard the clink of her teammate batting the blades out of the air with his sword. Yes, even this guy had her back, no questions asked. 
She barely watched the fight as she concentrated on her own work. Her teammate was a good fighter, and he managed to counter both ninja while also keeping any attacks from hitting her. It only took a few minutes for him to kill one of the Kiri-nin, after which the second backed off and tried more mid-range attacks. 
“Got it,” Tori finally announced. Her teammate pounced on the Kiri-nin, plunging the sword into her. 
“Do it,” he told Tori, turning to her with the wild eyes of man high on his own bloodlust. 
“As soon as I release it, the seal–” Tori started to warn.
The Kiri-nin he’d left crumpled in the corner groaned and rolled onto her feet unsteadily, still alive. 
“It’s okay, I got you,” her teammate said, wrapping an arm around her waist. “The faster we move, the faster we can back-up our teammates.”
“Right,” Tori agreed, poising her paintbrush. “On the count of three.”
What happened next was such a slimy move that it completely blindsided Tori, even if it shouldn’t have. Training herself to no longer assume that people were just going to screw her over for no reason had been a bad idea, it turned out. 
She called one as she made the last of her brush strokes. Her mouth started on the syllable, and the jounin adjusted his grip on her so his hand was around the supply pack at the small of her back. He leaned over and put his hand over the box, his grip adjusted wide enough to wrap the last joints of his fingers over the top. This would be a weird as fuck hold for a joint flash step, but Tori didn’t give it a second thought. He just moved to put his hand on the box. That was their mission. 
And then he flash stepped through the rubble suddenly raining down on them, taking the box and Tori’s pack with him, leaving Tori behind to be knocked over by the sudden wave of water. 
The first few moments of the room flooding were chaos. Part of the ceiling and the entire wall collapsed, and debris hit her shoulder and legs as the water battered her around. 
It calmed eventually, with the water only waist deep. Tori spat out water and fumbled for one of the glow sticks in her weapons pack. 
“Are you fucking kidding me?” the wounded Kiri-nin asked when Tori lit up the room. “Holy shit, did he leave you on purpose?”
Tori bit her lip. Yes, he totally had. What the fuck. Konoha ninja weren’t supposed to be like this. 
When Tori didn’t respond, the Kiri-nin wrote her off and started yelling at the collapsed wall for help. There was no evidence anyone heard her at all. 
The good news was that the river wasn’t rushing in. Its source must have also partially collapsed, leaving the river at a small trickle. 
“The water had a way out,” Tori announced, wading toward the back wall. “Maybe we can…”
She tried diving. When she found nothing, the Kiri-nin also tried. The exit the water had been taking before was completely sealed off. 
“Oooh, we’re fucked,” the Kiri-nin sighed. “What the fuck was your friend’s plan?”
“I don’t…” Tori started. He should have taken her with him. It was well within his abilities. He’d told her. 
He’d also taken her travel pack with all her fuinjutsu supplies. She still had some kunai and shuriken and a flare and a couple glow sticks in her weapons pack, but those would hardly help. She had a few scrolls still on her, but none of those were going to get her out. 
The water was getting higher. Tori found she was shaking. Konoha ninja weren’t supposed to do this. 
Old Tori had been physically weaker, but she hadn’t been this gullible, this stupid. She hadn’t been able to afford it. 
“I-I can stop the water,” Tori told the Kiri-nin, embarrassed that her voice sounded like she was on the brink of tears. 
The Kiri-nin eyed her with something that was either pity or disgust or both. 
“Is this your first life or death mission, little girl?” she asked. 
Tori let out a hysterical laugh. No, actually, she should have anticipated this happening from the first weird comment. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
“I’m sixteen,” Tori said. “They’ve sent me into worse.”
She said this more to remind herself. She’d survived worse. She’d just been an idiot, thinking she’d finally been in a position to trust people. 
The Kiri-nin snorted. 
“Whatever, Konoha. Don’t stop the water yet. That might be the only way out.”
The Kiri-nin performed a series of water jutsu, meant to scope out the walls and floor and ceiling and find any gaps they could take advantage of, either to drain the water or send a message for help or get out. It would make sense if the person who set up the trap also left a way to get out, rather, let themselves back in to retrieve their scrolls. 
Tori wondered if the Kiri-nin would actually help her if she identified a way out, or if she’d also spitefully leave her for dead. How sad would it be, if she was betrayed by her own comrade and saved by a random Kiri-nin?
Tori didn’t get to find out the answer to the question, because the Kiri-nin didn’t find anything. If there was a way back in, it wasn’t accessible from the inside. The Kiri-nin leaned back against a wall, panting with exertion and holding her side where Tori’s teammate had stabbed her. 
“I’m a medic,” Tori offered. Her medical supplies were off with her treasonous teammate, but she could still do some chakra-based stuff.
“Shut up,” the Kiri-nin groaned. “Okay, I’m going to dive again and try to get out through the river’s entrance.”
“You sure you don’t want me to at least stop the bleeding–”
“Shut up.”
The Kiri-nin dived. When she didn’t come back for a very long time, Tori waded over to the river’s entrance and attempted diving herself. 
There wasn’t an opening big enough to fit her body through. Instead, she found the Kiri-nin’s body with her arm wedged into a crevice that must have collapsed further when she stuck her arm in. Tori couldn’t dislodge it to try and drag the woman back to the surface. She was dead, anyway.
Tori pulled one of her remaining scrolls from her vest and set up a barrier to block the influx of water. It was now up to her chest. 
Then she pulled herself up to sit on top of the water and very quietly freaked out. 
It wasn’t being trapped in a sealed room with two dead Kiri-nin that freaked her out, exactly. It wasn’t even that she had no idea if any of her teammates outside were alive or aware she needed help. It wasn’t even necessarily that her teammate had seemingly turned on her for stupid reasons. 
It was that she had gone out of her way to assume an asshole was just an asshole, that Konoha ninja were the exception to the rule she’d learned through both her shitty lives, like an idiot. It stung, worse than she would have thought it would. 
Her barrier eventually ran out of chakra, and as she watched it flicker and die, a horrible thought struck Tori. 
No one was going to come help her, because her teammate was not going to report her as alive but trapped. He was going to report her as definitively dead, because there was no way he’d let her be seen alive to tell her side of the story. 
Maybe, once they got back to Konoha and formally reported her KIA, Minato would send someone for her body. They usually only did that for people with stealable bloodline limits, but Kushina would probably push for it. Or maybe, if the rest of the team was all killed by Kiri or otherwise too injured to go back themselves, Minato would eventually send someone to check up on them. Neither scenario was a timeline where Tori would still be alive if she stayed in here. 
In the best case scenario, her team beat off the Kiri-nin, and then someone came looking for her. The asshole teammate would protest, would insist she was dead in a collapsed and inaccessible room, but maybe someone would insist on retrieving her body. 
It seemed unlikely. She’d already been too charitable with her assessment of this team. None of them were coming for her. 
She had two more scrolls with barriers to hold back the water slowly seeping in. Neither of them had enough chakra to last more than a couple hours, but she could recharge them a few times with her own chakra, although without food, chakra would become a finite resource. She had maybe a day before she drowned using just these tools. 
She could make a seal, of course. Her teammate had taken her supplies, and the ink and brush she’d had out before we lost in the flood, but she still had a body full of blood and plenty of surfaces to draw on. It wouldn’t be easy or neat, since blood required different calculations and wet, uneven rocks would be hard to draw on, but she could do it. 
 Her first idea was to tap into one of her storage dimensions. She had some food squirreled away in one, and some fuinjutsu supplies in another. The one she’d stuck a bunch of spare camping supplies in probably even had a better light source. 
Okay, Tori decided, standing on the water, here I go. 
xXx
Two days passed, and no one came for her. With food and fuinjutsu supplies, she’d been able to wrap a double barrier around the main source of water, but it must have been slowly seeping in from somewhere else too because the water level was still slowly rising. She could no longer stand fully on the water surface, and she’d had no good way to sleep. 
She tried a controlled explosion on the wall she knew led to an open passage, but instead she’d just collapsed more of the room. There must not have been anything above her but more earth. 
The explosion had also shaken the Kiri-nin’s body loose, and Tori didn’t really have anywhere to put it, so she was just… floating. 
Tori’s new plan was to get a message to Konoha. Maybe a regular team wouldn’t get to her in time, but Minato could. She wasn’t sure he would, but… 
She struggled to cling to this hope, even though it turned out trust was a lie and Konoha-nin were the types to just fuck you over for no reason. 
Tori didn’t really have a good way to send a message herself. Between Itachi’s crows and Deidara’s animated clay, they’d always taken care of it when she’d been on a regular team. She’d never had a need to invent her own way. She stuck some messages into storage dimensions she knew Kushina also had the key to, but she wasn’t sure why Kushina would check them unless she knew Tori was in danger. 
Which she wouldn’t know, because Tori’s teammate was an asshole. 
She did know a couple time-space jutsu, but those were notoriously difficult, and she didn’t know any that wouldn’t require another person. She wasn’t even sure any solo ones existed, besides the Hiraishin, because usually you at least needed a receiver. 
Tori ran option after option through her brain. She didn’t know shit about summoning jutsu, which would be super useful in this situation if not just for the ability to reverse summon. Could she logic her way through how they must work and then reverse engineer it…?
No, she’d have better luck reverse engineering the Hiraishin. At least she knew some of the theory behind that one. 
Sitting on the water, the top of her head brushed the ceiling. Or maybe she should focus on making a full-wall seal to keep the water out. That she was at least positive she could do. But that would take so much time… 
Tori stuck her head between her knees and willed herself not to cry. She still felt so fucking stupid, and the lack of sleep and floating corpse weren’t helping. Of course she shouldn't have trusted the guy who was making fun of her the whole time. Of course, of course, stupid, stupid, stupid.
She mentally flipped through everything she knew about time-space jutsu, feeling hysterical. She’d tried the Hiraishin before, and nothing had even happened because only two people in the world had ever managed it. Even with entire villages trying to beat it during the war, no one had even come close. It would be deeply stupid and arrogant of her to push forward assuming she could accomplish what entire teams of more experienced shinobi had failed to do. 
She was developing a crick in her neck from being bent forward as she approached the ceiling, so she laid down on her back. All her clothes were already wet regardless. 
Except, she had spent a lot of time thinking deep thoughts about the Hiraishin, because, well, it didn’t make sense no one had been able to copy it. Minato had left seals all over the place. No one had even been able to figure out how to undo them without removing the entire object the seal was on; it was why Iwa had been so terrified of them sneaking even one in. 
The markers are only a guide for the actual jutsu, Minato had said when she’d asked, and then when she’d asked again and again, Only I can use them, because only I have my chakra. 
But why couldn’t someone else use his chakra? She just couldn’t shove this explanation into her understanding of how space-time jutsu worked. Most of them worked using another user as a receiver on the other end, or else by using multiple people to throw something to a receiving array, and none of them worried about chakra incompatibilities. Tori had been considering using a fucking tree as a receiver, if she’d had the foresight to set up a tree-powered seal to be her receiver. And why the fuck hadn’t she done that, if she’d thought about it so much? How had she never anticipated being trapped with no hope of back-up? Old Tori would have never. Stupid, stupid, stupid–
Actually, Tori thought, sitting up on her elbows. Hiraishin wasn’t receiver-less, was it? Minato just did both jutsu on one end but somehow the marker anchored the receiving jutsu, somehow slingshotting him through space. Or at least that was the only way Tori could conceptualize it possibly working. You could, in theory, use an already active seal as an unmanned receiver; it was just that you needed to be really, insanely good to make a seal that complex that could stay active for long periods of time. That was why Tori’s idea had used a tree’s chakra to power the receiving end. But if you just had, like, some sort of tiny, self-sustaining guide for your receiver jutsu….? That was probably why it had to be Minato’s own chakra. 
Tori had no idea how to simultaneously do two jutsu and also do them so lightning fast it was basically instantaneous from having the thought to teleporting, the way Minato did. But why couldn’t she include both in a seal, with one of his markers as the anchor? At the end of the day, Tori had taught herself to use fuinjutsu almost entirely with other people’s chakra. Her original concept she’d been working on (but never tested, like an idiot) had been based around a goddamn tree. She’d done extensive testing on how chakra from different sources varied and how to optimize jutsu to it. She could totally hijack one of Minato’s seals. 
She was worryingly close to the ceiling now, even flat on her back. She drew a copy of a Hiraishin marker and then got to work painting a combination send-and-receive transport seal around it. 
xXx
Tori found herself on a dark forest floor, gasping for breath. She had no idea where she was, but at least she was no longer under fucking water. Pine needles poked into her back as she collapsed, staring up into the canopy. The trees had spindly arms and the full moon peeked through. 
The forest was still and quiet. Tori was working very hard on not hyperventilating. 
I’m alive, she promised herself. I’m breathing. 
Her body was shaking from adrenaline. She’d gotten a working seal painted in time, even if she’d had a hell of a time activating it. She was fine. She was alive. 
She got about three seconds of time to lay there and breathe before Minato was suddenly on top of her, a rasengan waving in her face. Tori shrieked. 
“It’s me, it’s me!” she screeched. The rasengan, being made mostly of chakra, gave off its own weak light, and Minato’s face was dead-serious as he commanded that she give various identifying codes to confirm her identity. Tori’s brain was already scattered and panicked from barely escaping drowning, and her answers came out garbled. Finally she yammered, “Who else would be hijacking your seals?”
Minato was quiet for a few moments, and then he released the rasengan. Rather than reabsorb the chakra, he let it spiral out in a gust of wind that made Tori shiver. 
Minato stood. He was in his pajamas, and one knee was damp from where he’d been kneeling on her stomach. He offered her a hand. In the moonlight, his face looked weary. 
“What the fuck are you doing?” he asked, sounding exhausted. “Report.”
The phrasing of the command meant that even if he was in his pajamas, he was talking to her as Hokage right now. Tori did her best to straighten up and explain herself like she would for a mission or a lab experiment gone wrong, but her story quickly turned into an upset ramble. 
She didn’t know if her team was alive. She wasn’t even sure how much time had passed. Her teammate had been an asshole to her and she’d ignored it but she shouldn’t have because that was her clue she shouldn’t have trusted him with shit– 
“How did you get here?” MInato cut her off. His voice was barely restrained emotion, stress and anger. Tori felt almost taken aback. She’d thought he’d care more than she nearly died. 
She felt stupid that she was this upset over a bunch of nobodies leaving her for dead, about being this incoherent over almost dying. Wasn’t she tougher than this? Why did Minato being mad at her make her want to cry?
She walked him through the logic of her escape efforts. If Minato had any personal thoughts on her initial attempts or her aside that the Kiri-nin’s body had just been hanging out, he didn’t show them. His eyebrows did raise higher and higher as she described her eventual solution to her predicament. 
“You just came up with that?” he asked. She couldn’t tell if he was dumbfounded or furious. 
Maybe this will be when they decide I’m too dangerous and kill me, Tori thought. She’d thought she’d been safe from this inevitability, but maybe not. 
“Well,” Tori replied slowly. The fact that no one could hijack his seals had been bugging her for years. He knew this, because his and Kushina’s own dismissive attitudes were why she’d been stuck on it. He knew this about her. She shouldn’t have to lie and back off. “I’ve been mulling it over, and I thrive under stress.”
Minato sighed loudly. He still seemed tense, but he wasn’t exactly angry, she didn’t think. 
“We need to destroy it, even if you think the passage is inaccessible,” Minato told her. “Tori, I cannot stress how dangerous it is to leave evidence–” He cut himself off, frowning. “Shit, I can access it.”
And then he was gone. Tori shifted awkwardly, peering around her. She definitely wasn’t anywhere near Konoha. The amount of pine meant she’d probably ended up way further north, although she didn’t have enough light to be identifying exact species to narrow it down much further than that. How the hell did Minato aim this thing?
Tori was soaked, and the forest was colder than a Fire Country night. She shivered and peeled off her outer layer, wringing it out. A few minutes later, Minato returned, now also wet. 
“Good news is, I destroyed it for you,” he told her. He still sounded stressed, but there was a hint of relief in there. “So that problem, at the very least, has been resolved.”
Minato was not mad at her for breaking his jutsu, per se, but everything about his body language was deeply tense. He banned her from ever drawing it up again without his direct supervision, or even mentioning the idea of it to anyone. Now that Tori wasn’t afraid of dying alone in a cave, it occurred to her that Minato had hundreds of his seals in Konoha. Tens of them were in his house alone. One was in the Kyuubi’s seal. If an enemy could do what Tori just did, they were all fucked. 
Tori was very certain no one else on the planet could do what she did in this very specific regard, including Minato himself. But perhaps a motivated person could copy her, or an informed person could follow her line of research to figure it out themselves. 
“Okay,” Minato finished his very long list of commands on things she was never even to think about doing again. He took a deep breath. “Now we can move on to the other problem. Your teammate did what?”
She walked him through the story again, and was relieved that she seemed too tired to cry. That asshole wasn’t worth her tears, although she still felt deeply stupid and almost embarrassed as she described what happened to Minato. She felt like a whiny kid recalling the passive aggressive comments, and then like a moron when she described trusting his plan. 
When she was done, Minato said very slowly, “I want you to understand that I believe you, Tori. However, as Hokage, I will have to do an investigation before making any decisions.”
Tori frowned. “So no one sent a message?”
Minato raised an eyebrow. “Tori, you beat any message they could get to me.”
That seemed wrong, as Tori had also had this whole upsetting detour where she’d nearly drowned in an underground room. 
“Okay,” Tori replied dully. “What do you want me to do?”
If he made her go back to her mission, she was going to throw a fit. Instead, he put a comforting hand on her shoulder. 
“You successfully completed your assigned part of the mission,” he said. “And, as much as you scared me, I’m really glad you didn’t die. I think you should get some rest.”
He brought her to his home. Tori had not seen full light in days, and even the kitchen overhead light made her squint and blink rapidly when he switched it on. 
“I want to hear what they report before they know you made it back alive,” he told her in a hushed tone. “So lay low and hang out here a few days.”
Tori squinted at him. “That’s pretty mean,” she assessed. “I like it.”
She wasn’t sure how he would treat this situation if it happened to another shinobi. Certainly he wouldn’t let most people stay in his home; they didn’t exactly have a revolving door of house guests. It made her feel better, she thought as she showered off in the guest bathroom, to be reminded someone did value her as more than a tool or an obstacle. 
Even if he commented about the mission first, her brain reminded her traitorously. 
When she stepped out of the bathroom, a set of women’s pajamas had appeared neatly-folded on the guest bed. They were almost definitely Kushina’s, and given Kushina was significantly taller than her, fit comfortably loose. Tori stepped out of the guest bedroom to find Kushina angrily chopping vegetables in the kitchen. 
“It’s 2 AM,” Tori told her. “What are you doing?”
Kushina paused, sticking her bottom lip out at Tori. She was wearing a baggy shirt that came down to mid-thigh and her hair was braided back and wrapped for sleep. Tori barely had time to react before she was in a hug. 
“I’m working out my feelings in a productive way,” Kushina said, releasing her. “Besides, you need to eat.”
Tori did not want to admit she wanted a longer hug. Instead, she persuaded Kushina to let her eat cup ramen instead of the full course meal Kushina appeared to be preparing to make. Kushina did insist she felt better chopping things up and she was only saving herself time doing it later for dinner, so Tori sat at the table and listened to the rhythmic sound of Kushina taking out her anger on some carrots. 
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Kushina insisted more than once. Minato might have told her the basics to explain Tori’s presence, but surely Kushina didn’t know all the details of Tori’s mission. She was in no place to know if Tori had actually done anything wrong or not. Still, sometimes Kushina’s blind faith was reassuring. 
“Thanks for the PJs,” Tori told her before escaping to bed. 
She’d never stayed overnight in the Uzumaki-Namikaze house. She’d only ever seen the guest bedroom to dump her coat off before a party. But the bed was comfortable and had a thick comforter, and she found herself bone-tired. She fell asleep immediately.
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