#Smacked him in the face. He’s known it’s wrong - he hasn’t been nailed with the emotional horror of how wrong yet

[qyburn-in-the-black-cells]

Again, I haven’t gone here in a long time -

But let’s talk Arthur.

He was not Uther. He was a better man and ruler than Uther but Uther forged him. It’s very difficult to be a healthy person when the foundation of your personality is cracked - affection starved. His worse impulses enabled or encouraged. Thrown in jail for fighting with his father. Participating in massacres at fifteen. Raised since birth to hate an entire group of people.

Who does he go to when he breaks his own laws to save an elderly woman from burning alive? The father who wrote those laws. The father whose legacy was genocide. It was his destiny to undo that legacy.

Fulfilling it required him to change as a person in a way that would’ve been incredibly painful. It would’ve required self introspection Arthur wasn’t fully capable of yet and something/several things to radically reverse his attitude toward magic. It would’ve required facing the fact that his only parent, who he can acknowledge wasn’t always good, was evil. Truly and deeply evil.

Season 5 made it clear it would’ve happened eventually (esp. if Merlin took the opportunities given to him to push for magic to be legalized) but it was too late. He was out of time the moment Aithusa was put in that pit with Morgana.

[middleearthpixie]

Seven Days ~ Chapter Twenty-One

Seven Days -  Modern Tolkien AU

Firefighter Frerin Durin died in a fire set deliberately. But after he helps his brother, Thorin find happiness, Frerin is offered a second chance. He has to prove himself worthy by righting the one major wrong in his life. Otherwise, history will repeat and he will die for good this time. The catch? He has seven days in which to do this and isn’t even certain what his major wrong is.

At least, he doesn’t know for long. 

Syd Prescott has known Frerin since high school. She spent one night with him and then he vanished from her life. Now, he claims he wants to make it up to her, to right was he realizes was his major wrong. But can she trust him? And can he prove to her that she can before it’s too late? 

A/N - This story is the sequel to Miss Fortune, but is a stand alone story. 

Summary: Frerin brings Syd home to meet his parents, and later drops another bomb on her… 

Pairing: Modern!Frerin x OFC Syd Prescott

Characters: Frerin, Syd, Alanis Durin 

Warnings: None

Rating: T

Word Count: 3,397

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Previous chapters can be found here.

Syd practically had to sit on her hands to keep from chewing her nails as Frerin turned on to West Maple Street, and then angled the Jeep into the short driveway of a tall, dark gray house with deep blue shutters and parked behind a black BMW X5. She didn't know why she was so damn nervous, except that she knew his family was important to him and she wanted them to like her. 

“Syd, you look like you’re going to your own execution,” he remarked, tugging the keys from the ignition. “Don’t worry. They aren’t going to attack you. Well,” he paused, “my mom might, if she thinks you’re the one who’ll make me settle down. But, it’ll be a nice attack. She’ll love you forever. Trust me.”

“Frerin.”

“What? She’s been after me for a while to meet a nice girl and settle down. The only trouble I can see happening is when I tell her I have that nice girl, only she hasn’t given me an answer yet.”

She sighed softly. “Were you really asking me? Because, you died, so I’m not sure you were serious…”

“Oh, that’s harsh, Syd.”

“I’m serious.”

“Me, too.” He winked then and the urge to smack him surged through her as he grinned. “Just be glad she doesn’t know this nice girl was riding me like a thoroughbred just a few hours ago. Or that I can’t wait to get home and put my face between her legs.”

“Frerin!”

This time, she did smack him, which made him laugh as he shoved open his door. “What? I can’t. I’ve got plans for you tonight, honey.”

“You’re terrible.” She climbed out and glared at him across the Jeep’s hood even as a delicious chill rippled through her at the thought of what kind of plans he might have in mind.

“I’m in love,” he said with a shrug. “And that’s never happened before, so I have to admit, I don't even know what I’m doing right now.”

“You’re about to get punched again, that’s what you’re doing.”

He came around to catch her about the waist and lifted her easily. “You gonna marry me or not, Syd?”

“Are you really asking me or not?”

He set her back down and then smiled as he drew her into his arms. “Yeah, Syd. I’m really asking you. Will you marry me?”

As he spoke, his arms tightened about her and his eyes grew more serious than she’d ever seen. His smile faded as he added, “I know it’s real sudden, but you and I both know this is right, honey. I love you. It literally took me dying to figure that out, but I did, and I just want to be with you.”

“Frerin,” she tucked a loose wave behind her left ear, “that’s such a big step, and—”

“It’s because of last summer, isn’t it?”

She sighed softly. “No, it’s not. It’s… I’m afraid of rushing into it, is all. Seven days, Frerin. We’ve been together all of seven days.”

“I know, and I know it’s sudden, like I said. But it feels right to me. Look,” his fingers brushed along her backside lightly, “until now, I didn't want any of it. Wife. Kids. Responsibility. I had Riley and that was enough. But, it’s not enough any more.”

“And in the span of seven days, you want a wife, kids, and responsibility?”

“I want you. And eventually, yeah. I want those things. Not tomorrow, but in the future.”

Her stomach fluttered softly at the seriousness in his voice, in his eyes. “You have me.”

“Syd, I was dead, okay? I spent six months thinking I would give anything to be back here, to be with my family, my dog—”

“Lisa.” She finished, those flutters quelling. “When you died, you weren’t with me, remember?”

“You didn't let me finish,” he admonished her quietly, shaking his head. “I knew she wasn't the one. I told you, she was eyeing up Thorin anyway. She didn't want me, either. I was a placeholder for her and knew it, even if I didn't want to admit it to myself. I was in his shadow again, and it sucks being there.”

“Frerin, you didn't know I was alive.”

“That is not true. I did know. And that night we spent together was one of the best nights of my life, Syd, and I don't mean just the sex, which was great, don't get me wrong. But, do you remember how we just talked? Like until the sun came up. And about everything. Anything and everything.”

She smiled, draping her arms about his neck. “I remember. We talked about music and how Springsteen is a god amongst men and how the Rolling Stones are far better than the Who, although I’m not entirely sure I agree there.”

He smiled back, his eyes softening. “And we talked about how all politicians suck and Shakespeare might have been right about killing all the lawyers.”

She nodded. “He was definitely right about that. It would be a great place to start.”

“I’ve never done that with a woman I was sleeping with, Syd. Who wants to talk when you can just fuck? But man… I like doing both with you. I want to spend the rest of my life doing both with you, honey. Lying there, in the dark, in a tangle of sheets, after having the best orgasm of my life, after hopefully giving you the best orgasm of your life, with you in my arms talking about what Springsteen meant when he wrote My City of Ruins or what Eddie Vedder is saying in Yellow Ledbetter. I want to talk politics or world events or just how crappy our days have been. I almost missed on all of that. But, I’m getting another chance to grow old, Syd. And I want to do that with you. I want to do all of that with you. I want to have kids with you. I want to… I don't know… builda life with you.”

Her eyes stung at the intensity behind his words, the emotion in his voice. “Frerin…”

“I know, it sounds corny as fuck, but I do. I love you. And if you want to wait, I’ll wait, but I’m not going to stop asking you. Just know that. I won’t. I’ll be such a pain in the ass about it, you won’t believe it, but I’ll wait for you. I’m yours, Syd. Since I was fourteen years old and that’s not changing any time soon.”

He bent to her, his lips brushing hers as he whispered, “I love you,” just before he kissed her. 

His kiss came slow and teasing, his lips soft as they moved against hers. She’d never felt such emotion in a kiss before and when he drew back, she whispered, “I love you, too.”

His eyes danced with the devil as he pressed his forehead to hers. “We should go in.”

“Probably. I think your mom is watching out the front window.”

“Probably.”

“Frerin.”

He drew back to catch her by the hand and brought her hand up to his lips. “She’ll love you. She likes your sister. You and Alex have tamed the Durin boys, honey.”

“I don't know I want you tamed, Frerin.”

He grinned. “Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah.” She smiled even as her cheeks grew warm. “I like that air of danger about you.”

“Air of danger?”

“Yeah. You reek of it, Frerin. Danger. Sex. A good time. You promise all of it and you’re, as you like to say, hot as fuck, so there’s that, too.”

He grinned as he squeezed her hand and led her up the curved slate walkway to the front door. “Just wait until we get home, honey.”

Those words, in his velvety purr, were enough to send a shiver through her. And that shiver was enough to calm her nerves as he led her inside. “Ma? You home?”

“Frerin?” A soft voice floated out from around the corner. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Well, because you never come down here. Especially in winter.” The voice grew louder and a moment later, a tall, elegant woman with pale blue eyes and long, thick silver hair emerged. Those blue eyes were friendly, if a bit puzzled as they fell on her. “Oh, hello, there.”

“Ma, you know Thorin’s girlfriend Alex? This is her sister, Syd. My girlfriend.” He turned to Syd. “Syd, my mother, Alanis Durin.”

Alanis’ eyes went perfectly round as they fell on Syd once more. “Oh, it’s wonderful to meet you, Syd.” 

“Hi, Mrs. Durin. It’s nice to meet you, too.”

“Oh, please, Mrs. Durin is my mother-in-law and she is long gone, so please, do call me Alanis.”

“Where’s Pop?”

“He’s at the hardware store. He is determined to get that flagpole holder to stay if it kills him.”

“Ma, it’s like ten degrees outside.”

“Have you ever tried to talk your father out of doing something? Like the cold will stop him.” Alanis rolled her eyes, then smiled and gestured toward the kitchen behind her. “Come in, both of you and sit down and tell me just why you’ve come all this way, Frer.”

The kitchen was open and airy, with granite countertops and white cabinets with glass insets. Track lighting offered up a warm glow, as did the Christmas lights shining from the living room, and the fairy lights strung up about the green garland draped over the tops of the cabinets. Christmas music played softly in the background and as she looked about at the numerous Santa Clauses and other Christmas decorations, Syd reached out to catch Frerin’s hand, and gave it a squeeze. She was glad to see his death wouldn’t cast a pall over the cheer in the house, glad see that he would actually live to see Christmas. She realized how close he’d come to that not being true, and how close she’d come to losing him. 

As her fingers tightened about his, she looked up to meet his gaze. His eyes were softly gray-blue and when he squeezed back, she knew it was because he understood. 

He winked, then turned back to his mother. “I thought you’d want to meet Syd, and maybe I can avoid the third degree when I show up on Christmas with her. I mean, if you don't mind my bringing her.”

Syd sat up straighter. Christmas was only thirteen days away and she had no idea what to get him. What did one buy for a man who’d come back from the dead?

“Christmas, Frerin?” Alanis smiled. “Of course I don't mind. You’ve never brought a girl home for the holidays. I mean, unless she’d rather spend Christmas with her family.”

Syd looked from Alanis to Frerin, and shook her head. “We do Christmas Eve in my family. Come Christmas Day, by noon, we’re done.”

“Then you are absolutely welcome to join us. I think Thorin is bringing Alex, and Dís said she and the boys will be here.” Alanis moved to the refrigerator. “And you really should’ve offered her something to drink, Frerin.”

“Sorry, Syd. Are you thirsty?”

She chuckled at the sheepish expression on his face. “I’m good, thanks.” 

“Has Frerin warned you about his nephews?”

She looked over at him. “Uh… no… what about them?”

“They’re hellions,” Alanis said with a laugh. “Fíli’s is almost eight and Kíli is five and they are hell on wheels, like their uncles were at that age.”

“Really? Hell on wheels, huh?” Syd asked with a grin.

“Oh, did he tell you about the time…”

****

“I like your mom.”

“She’s embarrassing.”

“Her stories about you were cute, though.”

Frerin rolled his eyes. “She didn't need to pull out the baby pictures.”

“She’s probably been waiting forever to show those off. Besides, it’s not like I’ve never seen you naked.”

“Syd, that’s not how any guy wants his girlfriend to see him.” 

“You were too cute for words, Frerin, and your ass is still that sweet.”

He groaned, leaning his head back against the headrest. But at the same time, he reached over to catch her hand in his. It was nearly ten at night and he could only hope Riley hadn’t peed all over his house. “My mom likes you.”

“Good. I’d hate to have her hate me.”

“Nah, she doesn’t. Neither does my dad.”

“I liked him, too, but he’s very quiet.”

“Yeah, he doesn’t say much, but when he does… look out.” 

She sighed softly, settling back in her seat. “Your family is really nice, Frerin. It reminds me a lot of what mine was like before my parents died. We don't talk about it all that much, but it’s always there, you know? We all do our own thing more than we do any family things now.”

He gave her hand a squeeze. “My dying really killed them as well,” he said softly after a brief silence. “They didn't deal well with it.”

“My gram took my mom and dad’s deaths hard, too. All Gram kept saying was, You aren’t supposed to bury your children.”

“My mom said the same thing to Thorin the morning of my funeral.”

“How did you do it?” She looked over at him. “How could you watch that?”

“Morbid curiosity, really.” He glanced in the rearview mirror, then the sideview one, and moved into the right hand land. “And part of it was vanity. I was curious as to how I was remembered.”

“I bet you had women lined up around the block.”

He let out a soft, embarrassed laugh as he shook his head. “There were a lot of women there, but Syd, I had no idea who most of them were.”

“Everyone knew you, though.”

“Yeah, well, it’s a small town.” He brought her hand up to his lips, the back of it soft against them. “I saw you and your family there.”

From the corner of his eye, he saw her look over at him, open her mouth as if it to say something, then closed it just as quickly and looked back out her window. “What is it?” he asked softly.

“Nothing. It’s… stupid.”

“What is?”

“Well… I mean… can I ask you what it was like?”

“Being dead?”

“Yeah.”

“Honey, you can ask me anything you want. I told you, I don't really remember it happening. I got real tired. I closed my eyes and when I opened then, I was on the other side. It was peaceful. Weird, though. Like, I was me, but not me. You don't really feel much of anything. It’s just serene. You can look back over your life, if you want. You can see what’s going on down here, if you want. And I thought Tori was there to help me adjust, to help me acclimate myself to this whole new… thing. No one really tells you much at first, you know? You just run into people and talk like nothing has changed, and then at the end of the day, we all went our separate ways.”

“That’s it?”

“Pretty much. Although, I told Thorin that the one thing I could recall missing,” he exited Route Seven and took the jug handle to cross over the highway and come onto Main Street, “was being able to touch someone. And I don't mean sexually, I mean just like this.”

As he said this, he gave her hand a squeeze, let his thumb graze along the side of hers. “I missed that. The contact. And you know,” he eased to a stop at red light and looked over at her, “sex before I died was pretty amazing, but now that I’m back? It’s incredible.”

She met his gaze. “There’ve been a lot of women, haven’t there?”

“Before I died? Not a lot, but there’s been enough, I guess.” He nodded. “But since? Just you.”

“What?”

“I told you the first night you came home with me, last week, it’d been a while, right? The six months that none of you here know about? I lived through them. So, in my timeline, the last time I slept with anyone would’ve been a year ago. But, since I’ve been back, I’ve only been with you, Syd. I came back a week ago Friday, came into your shop, and threw all caution to the wind to win you. And honestly?” He couldn't help but grin at her. “Last weekend, it was like losing my virginity all over again, because that first time with you? I’d never felt anything even remotely close to what it felt like with you.”

“Frerin.”

“I’m dead fucking serious, Syd.” He brought her hand to his lips once more. “Sex with you is incredible and somehow, I just think it’s going to keep getting better once I know all your hot spots.”

“Oh, you do pretty well with them already.”

He grinned as he turned onto Riverview Terrace and a few minutes later, eased to a stop at his closed garage. “Yeah? Just wait until we get inside, honey. I’ll have you singing my praises before we even get upstairs.” 

“Uh, I have to go home, Frerin. I haven’t been there in days and I have no more clean underwear.”

The look he gave her practically turned her blood to smoke. “Go commando and I’ll take you home in the morning.”

“Frerin.”

“I will.” He winked. “I promise.”

“Frerin.”

“Okay, look, if you won’t marry me yet, why don't you just come and live with me?”

“Frerin!”

“What?”

“Are you serious?”

“I am dead fucking serious, Syd.”

“You say that a lot, you know.”

“Well, you keep asking me if I am, so, what else am I supposed to say?”

“Frerin.”

“You say that a lot, too, you know.”

“Frerin!”

“Are you getting mad, Syd?”

“I’m ready to choke you.”

“Sounds kinky, but I trust you.”

“Frerin!”

He leaned over then and kissed her hard on the lips. “I’m serious, Syd. Move in with me.”

“I can’t just move in with you.”

“Why not?”

“Well… my Gram is very old fashioned.”

“So marry me and then move in with me.”

She tried to glare at him, tried to scowl, but his expression grew so angelic and innocent, that holding either look was just about impossible. Even biting the inside of her cheek didn't help. “Are you always this impossible?”

“If it means I’ll either get out of trouble or get laid? Yes.”

“And this is why I keep asking you if you’re serious. I can’t tell and I don't want to look like an idiot.”

His overly innocent expression eased and his eyes grew serious. “Syd, I’m not playing with you.” He reached over and caught her hand once more. “I know it’s soon, and for anyone else—or for the guy I used to be—it would be a red flag. But, I know what I want and I literally had to die to figure it out, but I did figure it out. And honestly, the last thing I want to do is make you look or feel stupid. I just… I like sleeping with you and I don't mean sex. I like actually sleeping with you. I like waking up with you. I like drifting off with you. It feels right.”

She sighed softly at the intensity in his eyes, in his words. “It is nice.”

“It is, Syd.” 

As he spoke, he reached out to trace along her cheek with his index finger. “I love you, honey.  And this is going to sound so fucking corny, but your face is the last one I want to see before I fall asleep and the first one I want to see when I wake up. You’re the last person I want to talk to every day and if I ever get good news, you’ll be the first one I’ll want to tell. And honestly? My dog likes you, too. You wouldn’t want to break a dog’s heart, would you?”

 “Oh, that’s low, Frerin, using your dog to play on my sympathy.”

“Did it work?”

“Maybe.”

He smiled. “What would it take to convince you, Syd?”

“Let’s go inside,” she murmured, “and see if you can’t figure it out.”

His grin grew downright wolfish. “I like the sound of this.”

[delrcy]

10) one muse has been brainwashed and the other one refuses to hurt them,  trying to bring them back with a gentle touch.  (Possession is p much brainwashing and obv Cash bye)

and scene // @fairytaletold

IT’S IMPORTANT TO establish control over a situation, sometimes. It’s not enough to merely exist and supervise; sometimes your politely offered corrections are ignored and you have to take matters into your own hands. This is what Abraxas does, now. It makes an appearance, a simple one, just to check in on how its little pets are doing, and Cash snaps at it - tells it to get the fuck out, to leave them alone. Leave them alone? It had sensed growing resentment beforehand, but this is hatred it tastes on Cash’s tongue. No, no, this won’t do.

JACK BLINKS AND finds himself in the maze. Okay, fuck - he hasn’t been punted into a sideways influenced hallucination this time, which on one hand is good because they’re difficult to break, but a full possession is also hard, especially when he’s lost in here. He lets out a groaning sort of sigh and starts walking - better to start navigating the high walls sooner rather than later.

CASH CALLS OUT to him before Abraxas lifts him with its understanding of space and throws him away like he’s nothing. There’s a loud thud as he hits a tree, and it’s ready to leave it at that, but he calls out again - oh, so he’s trying to break Jack free from this state, is he? That won’t fucking do at all. Cash is lifted and tossed again for this level of insolence.

HE HEARS CASH’S voice, pained as it is, echoing down the halls. Something’s wrong. He can tell it by the way that he sounds. Jack breaks into a run, trying to find their source - keep talking, please keep talking, please -

IT FINDS IT interesting how a man of such violence won’t use it to protect himself here. Sure, he’s been ping-ponged off a few trees, but it’s never known Cash to back down from a fight like this. It unsheathes Jack’s own dagger, spins it around a finger, starts to carve it into his own arm - and Cash is there, stopping it, smacking the dagger out of the hand that it controls and calling for Jack. How fascinating. Smells like there’s love, there, Ciaran - it grabs Cash by the throat and flings him to the ground, landing on top of him, grabbing fistfuls of curly hair, smashing his head down again and again and again and again and again and again and again and -

JACK CAN HEAR him - where the fuck is he? Hands touch the cold, smooth walls he’s encased in, and his own shout echoes back at him. He’s out of breath, he’s tired - he’s close, he can feel it. Fuck-!

HANDS ARE TIGHT around Cash’s throat. Difficult to guide him when you can’t speak, hm? It squeezes, and squeezes, and still Cash doesn’t hurt it - doesn’t hurt Jack. Touching, if not also extremely infuriating. Nails dig into his throat like it’s trying to tear out his Adam’s apple, and Abraxas squeezes as Cash merely lifts his hand to touch the side of Jack’s face.

HE CAN FEEL it. Cash’s touch alights on his cheek and turns his head, and Jack is suddenly here, with his hands around Cash’s throat, choking the life out of him, and he screams as he immediately wrenches his hands away and flies off him. Holy fuck - fuck!

“FUCK,” HE SAYS, kneeling back down next to the other, wanting so desperately to help but unsure how to. “Fuck - I’m sorry- I’m sorry - are you okay? Cash? Fuck-”

[smol-and-grumpy]

What I Want Most - Six (FIN)

Pairing: Dean Winchester x Reader

Summary: Dean’s life has been all work and no play lately. When Gabe, his friend, coerced him into tagging along to a club, he couldn’t say no as Gabe has been pestering him for a while now. What Dean didn’t expect was that he’d meet his match in that club in the form of a stunning woman with underlying daddy issues.

Warnings: Daddy kink, butt plug, public sex, office sex, FEELINGS

Word Count: 2837

Beta’d by: @deanwanddamons​​​​​ <3

Series Masterlist ~ SPN Masterlist

The week went by so fast and the execs said that there would be another week of competition since they were both doing so well, making it hard for them to make up their minds.

Dean didn’t know right then if he should be happy or sad about it.

There were more pranks being pulled, more inappropriateness shared in their office. 

One time he woke up with her sucking him off, making him come right into her throat and he rewarded her with letting her sit on his face. He absolutely loved to be smothered by her pussy. He also totally forgot about the time or what day it was so he turned up late to his meeting only because he wanted to give her more orgasm than the last time he let her mount his face.

He once fingered her right in a meeting, had her gush and come around his fingers and when everyone was making an exit, she had to stay back and clean her chair. Dean couldn’t stop laughing once she got back into the office, which earned him another round of the silent treatment for the rest of the work day. 

The next day, she did the same to him, rubbed over his clothed dick so good that she made him cum right in his pants while Garth was babbling about fucking stock markets. Dean had to go home to fucking change his pants and since then, he took some more pants and underwear with him, stashed them in his desk drawer in case of emergencies like these.

Y/N had spent the weekend with him, though. So there’s that. And they didn’t just fuck and that’s progress. They went on walks, went out for dinner, did some shopping for naughty things and he really bought her a butt plug. She said that she wants to try it, but he shouldn’t push her. He didn’t. Instead, he let her take it home but he asked her if she could send him a picture when she uses it. She just laughed it off, even though he wasn’t even joking and was dead serious about it.

Spending time with her felt good. It was familiar, it was like he had known her for so long already and not just a little more than a week. And the sex, Jesus, the sex was incredible. But aside of that fucking mindblowing sex, he really enjoyed her company. 

 *

 The working week after their weekend together started just like the previous one ended. With some office rivalry to warm up. 

Monday, she brought him coffee and poured salt in it. Dean spat it out all over his screen and keyboard, and it was ten minutes after that he finished, she finally stopped giggling like a goddamn idiot.

They still tried to keep the other one from showing up for work on time, but it didn’t really end well, and on Wednesday, they were both late. 

Somehow, Dean really hoped that it’ll be over and done with by the end of the week because he doesn’t think that he can keep this up any longer. 

It’s now Thursday and he’s fucking exhausted by the tension, but it’s also now that he realizes something.

He came back from a lunch meeting to see her standing by the shelf, holding a binder in her hand and reading through it. He doesn’t know what it is but he’s mesmerized by the level of her concentration and she’s wearing her glasses and absolutely looks like a naughty librarian with her pencil skirt and high heels. Definitely looks delicious enough to be devoured.

And Dean can’t stop himself from standing behind her, pressing his body to her backside,  feeling her soft and warm in front of him. His dick grows uncomfortably fast, swells up with lust and the rest of the blood goes to his heart as it starts to pump faster.

He dips his face down, nuzzles his nose along her neck. It’s like the first night they met. His hand skims along her body down to her thighs and she fucking lets him, like the good girl she is. 

“Dean,” She says, “We shouldn’t,” 

“Why?” He mumbles against her skin, “You look so good, baby, want you so bad,”

It’s the truth. He’s so hard he could pound nails and she hasn’t done anything yet. He’s whipped. Dean knows that too.

“Because I don’t think you can be quiet,” She pushes the binder back onto the shelf and turns around. Her hands play with his tie, wraps it around in her hand to pull him down for a kiss.

“Why?” He asks again, breathing hot air against her lips and she chuckles. 

It wouldn’t be the first time they fuck in the office and he’s been holding himself up pretty good when they do it.

“Because of this,” Her hands leave his chest to skim down the side of her body. She turns back to face the shelf and lifts up her skirt past her round ass. 

And then he sees it and it’s like someone had punched the air out of his lungs. Dean’s not able to breathe right. Jesus, even his cock starts to twitch violently at the sight. She bends forward and spreads her ass with her hands, granting him a better view and possible access.

“Fucking hell, baby,” He mumbles, still can’t believe what he’s seeing. There’s a black diamond looking out of her asshole. She has used the butt plug he bought her. Dean swallows, “How long have you been wearing it?”

Y/N shrugs, “Since this morning,”

“My fucking god, Y/N, fuck,” 

“You like it?”

“Like it?” He asks and he runs over to the door, locks it just to be fucking safe. When Dean’s back behind her, he gets down on his knees, using his hands to help her keep her ass spread as he dives into her cunt, licking and sucking at it. She hasn’t worn any panties, and has stopped wearing them to work for a couple of days now because she said that there’s no point if she’s going to ruin them every day anyway.

He trails his tongue back over her rim to her ass, the tip of his tongue tickles around the plug and she moans as she presses her body closer against the shelf.

“I fucking love it. That’s fucking beautiful, baby,” Dean coos, and he pulls at the plug just a little, sees her asshole widening before he pushes it in only to repeat it again. God, he could just spend his day doing this because it also elicits the sweetest fucking moans out of her, “You did that for me, huh?”

“Only for you, daddy,” She says sweetly, almost too sweet. His heart aches as much as his cock.

Dean's hands leave her ass to open up his belt and feels relief when he pulls down his zipper and releases his throbbing dick. He spits into his palm, jerks himself off to the sight in front of him. He bites into that ass too, can’t stop himself from doing it and she lets out a squeal, accompanied by a chuckle.

“Baby girl, I wanna fuck you bad, and I know that we should probably move this to the bed but fuck, I need a taste,” He jerks himself faster, is already leaking profoundly, “Can I, please?”

He looks up to see her nodding and Dean stands back up, leans over to her to kiss her properly. His tongue goes in deep, swirls around her own tongue in her mouth. 

“I’ll be gentle,” He promises and there’s another nod of approval, “Spread your cheeks for me, baby,”

Her hand goes back to her ass, grips at her flesh and spreads it out for him. He groans at the sight and tries to hold himself together, tries not to lose himself before he even gets to be inside.

Dean spits into his hand, slathers his cock with his own spit before he guides the tip to her pussy, letting the head catch the rim and pushes in just a little. 

“Fuck,” He groans, “It’s already so fucking tight,”

His hand goes to her head, making her tilt it to the side and he leans forward as he pushes in further, watching the reaction on her face before he presses a kiss on her temple and along her cheek. 

“So good, baby, such a good girl for me,” He whispers low and has to stall when he bottoms out, “You feel fucking amazing. You were tight before, but fuck!” He moves out of her slowly, moves in again, “How does it feel for you? Are you okay?”

“God,” Y/N breathes out, “Full, feels so full… but it feels good,”

Dean chuckles as he noses along her temple, “That’s good, want it to be good for you too,” He whispers as he moves in and out of her unbearably tight cunt in a slow pace.

“Daddy?”

“Huh? What’s wrong, baby?”

“Can you fuck me harder and faster?” She arches her back for emphasis, drives her ass against his dick, making him go in deeper than before.

“Jesus Christ,” Dean growls, “I don’t know if I can last long if I fuck you harder, baby,”

“Please? For me? You can fuck me again later, but I want it hard now, daddy,”

“Goddammit,” Dean grits his teeth and he pushes his body away from her, smacks her ass before he digs his fingers into her hips and begins to fuck her harder, “You know I can’t say no to you, right? You fucking know it and you always use it to your advantage,” He pants and keeps fucking her hard, “Gonna spread you out tonight, baby, spank you for thinking that you’ll always get your way,”

He can feel her pussy clenching at the mention of the spanking. She is definitely something else and Dean would be damned if he’d let her go.

“You love it when I’m bratty,”

“Damn right, I do,” 

Yeah, he does. Very much. 

He spanks down on her ass again, making her yelp up and then he feels it, the tight squeeze, the wetness that surrounds his cock. She just fucking came from his cock and the buttplug alone. It’s the best fucking thing.

With a groan, Dean comes too. It’s impossible to hold out longer, not when her pussy’s so fucking tight. He might try that ass tonight if she’ll let him. His hands are on her ass, kneading it as he comes down from his high. 

Dean chuckles when he pulls out of her and Y/N lets out a soft whine. His dick comes out with a blotch of his cum. They will need to clean the floor. Again. It’s not the first time.

He quickly walks over to his desk and pulls out tissues from the drawer, walks back with them to clean her up and himself before he cleans the cum from the floor. Dean places a kiss on each of her ass cheeks and one square on that black diamond head of the butt plug before he pulls her skirt back over her ass where it belongs. 

When he tucks himself back too, he grabs her by the waist and turns her around, kisses her soft and long, “I have to be somewhere but you’ve gotta wait for me before you go home, okay?”

“‘K,” She says and Dean leaves a kiss on her forehead before he makes his way out.

  Dean’s been gone for a long time, and it’s already past 6.00 PM. She’s finished with her task for today and is sitting at her desk, trying to sort emails and go over the tasks for tomorrow just to occupy her time. He said she should wait, but he’s taking so long.

After he left she had already opened the windows to get the sex stink out. She has also gone to the bathroom and cleaned herself thoroughly down there and pulled out her panties from her drawer, and even wears a pad. She hates to soil her skirt with his cum when she’s not wearing underwear

It’s 6.34 PM when Dean comes back. 

“Uh,” He says, with his hands in his pockets, and he looks somber. Clearly, something’s wrong, “They are expecting you in the boardroom.”

“What?” She frowns, “Why?”

“I don’t know,” Dean shrugs as he walks back behind his desk, “I wouldn’t keep them waiting,”

“Okay?” Her heart starts to race and she wants to ask Dean more, but apparently, she’s wanted now and it seems to be important so she gets up, and before she closes the door, she sends him a glance, Dean nods with only the smallest of a smirk on his face.

The offices are mostly empty at this time of the night. Occasionally people would stay longer, but the majority already went home. Her heels click against the stone floor and her heart almost jumps out of her chest the closer to the boardroom she gets. 

Mrs. Mills and Mr. Turner are already waiting. 

“Please, take a seat,” Mrs. Mills says and points to the chair. 

She takes a seat and notices that the chair’s still warm. Dean must have been in here. She can still smell the traces of his cologne. What just happened? Did he rat her out? Will they tell her now that he got the job and not her?

“Miss Y/L/N, let’s cut to the chase because we all would like to go home now. The reason we asked you to come in here is that we would like to offer you the job.”

Her eyes widen.

“I- uh, really?”

“Yeah, congratulations,” Mr. Turner chimes in, “You’ve done remarkably well for someone who just started two weeks ago. You were determined, you did your research well and you always had good arguments to prove your point. We are sure that you’ll be a great addition to the partner team.”

“Wow,” She huffs out, “But what about Mr. Winchester?”

“He was actually the one who told us to choose you and brought good points to the table,” It was Mrs. Mills who spoke, “He’ll be keeping his job, but you’ll move into your new office on Monday. We’ll get the contract on your desk by tomorrow,”

Dean did what?

Why?

Oh my god. And then it dawns on her. She got the job! She really got the job! 

“Okay, thank you so much,”

“It’s our pleasure,” Mrs. Mills stands up from her seat and she does too. The two of them shake her hand before they disappear and she waits until they are gone but she’s too giddy and barely can contain herself. 

When both of them were out of earshot, she runs towards the office she shares with Dean, hopes so fucking much that he’s still here. 

Y/N’s out of breath when she opens the door. Dean looks up from his screen, but he knows because he’s grinning. He rolls his chair back, beckons her over with a hand gesture. 

And she goes in willingly, takes off her shoes and sits into his lap, curls herself against his body as he holds her. 

She feels safe with his arms wrapped around her. And as independent and strong as she may be, she enjoys that he’s taking care of her. Absolutely loves how he cares beyond the incredible sex they have.

“Why?”

“What?” Dean asks. The bass of his voice rumbles in his chest.

“Why did you tell them to choose me? They would have chosen you.”

He chuckles, “I don’t think they would have. You’re clearly the better candidate. You’ve shown that you can do anything when you set your mind to it and even though you didn’t know the company, you still did better than me,”

“Why did you give up the promotion? You didn’t want it?” She nuzzles her face into the crook of his neck, smelling the scent she’s grown to love. 

“Not really, to be honest. My brother is moving into the city soon. We are going to try and open our own business one day so it isn’t bad if I have some money on the side until our business takes off. So, you know, I wanted the job, at least a part of me wanted it,” He pauses to place a kiss on her forehead, “But then I realized that I shouldn’t risk what I want most for something I want now,” 

Pulling her head back she looks at him, sees him smiling. 

“What do you want most?” She asks with a beating heart because she thinks she knows. She would just love to hear him say it.

“You,” He says, pulls her close by the back of her neck. He kisses her soft and gentle, “I want you so much,”

She can’t say she doesn’t want him either, because she does. So fucking much.

FIN

A/N: Thank you so much for reading! I appreciated every comments, likes and reblogs. You are incredible! <3

Please share your thoughts with me, I’d love to hear your feedback.

[cdyssey]

Regret

Summary: When Fran doesn't come down to breakfast after spraining her ankle, the whole house is concerned for her—especially Niles and Mr. Sheffield. Set after "An Affair to Dismember."

A/N: Okay, so I've binge re-watched nearly four seasons of The Nanny in four days, and had to get at least one fic out of my system, lmao.

Fran Drescher's acting in "An Affair to Dismember" when she suddenly broke while talking to Maxwell made me sensitive. ;-;

AO3 Link

—

Breakfast is a remarkably boring affair without Miss Fine bursting through the door, raising her arms in a floral robe, and proclaiming, with signature adenoidal stylings, “Good moooorning, everyone!” 

The clink of silverware, the scraping of ceramic plates, the ruffling sound of Mr. Sheffield anxiously attacking the New York Times like a new Andrew Lloyd Webber play has just dropped—all of it is so terribly drab that Niles spends the first fifteen minutes of her pronounced absence coughing loudly in the hopes that his employer will pick up the hint to do something about it.

“Oh, do go get a bloody cough drop, old man,” he finally snaps, smacking his newspaper down on the table. “You’re driving me mad.”

“Sorry, sir,” Niles arches a brow as he refills Mr. Sheffield’s coffee mug. “I have asthma.”

He turns away to replace the coffee pot on the side table.

“And half a mind to kick your tetchy derrière,” he mutters under his breath.

“What was that, Niles?”

“Nothing, sir! Just saying thank you for your attentive care.”

“Dad,” Master Brighton thankfully interrupts, “where’s Fran, and what have you done to make her mad this time?”

Niles immediately turns around again in time to see his boss’s shoulders straighten in that way they often do when he’s indignant.

Or guilty.

Or some mixture of them both.

“I beg your pardon, Brighton,” he replies stiffly. “Why do you immediately assume I’m the problem here?”

“Process of elimination,” Brighton shrugs. “Fran’s not mad at me, Maggie, or Grace, and Niles is one of her closest friends.”

“You’re so astute, Master Brighton,” Niles smiles wryly as he moves to the left to get a better view of Mr. Sheffield’s face. The vein in his temple is beginning to throb, which is always a good time.

“She hasn’t dated anyone recently,” Miss Margaret pipes up.

“And she’s always fighting with her ma,” Miss Grace adds, “but that's never kept her from Belgian waffles before.”

“So, Dad,” Brighton grins, patting his father once on the back, “unless our math is wrong, that leaves you.”

“Goodness me,” Mr. Sheffield mutters, angrily stabbing a piece of link sausage with his fork. “I didn’t know I was in the presence of the lost Hardy Boy.”

“So you did do something!” Margaret exclaims. 

“No! I bloody well did not, Nancy Drew. For your information, Miss Fine accidentally hurt her ankle clubbing last night with Val. I don’t think it’s broken, but I’ve called a doctor to come by just to check.”

“Tsk, tsk. And you didn’t offer to pick her up Cinderella-style and swoop her downstairs so she wouldn’t miss breakfast?” Niles asks chidingly, only to be greeted with a nasty glare.

“Yes, I did offer to bring her down to breakfast as a matter of fact... but Miss Fine seemed strangely subdued when I spoke to her through the door... I didn’t know what to make of it to tell you the truth...”

Mr. Sheffield’s brow contracts as he searches Niles’s face for an answer, and Niles stares back just as studiously, observing the profound concern in his employer’s dark eyes.

The gentleness.

The romance.

The stunningly oblivious care.

Niles sighs fondly.

Unlike Miss Babcock, he’s never had the heart to kick poor puppies when they’re down.

“I’ll bring her Advil and a fresh ice pack,” he promises. “Perhaps some pain relief will help her to regain her spirit.”

“I hope so,” Mr. Sheffield replies, self-consciously turning to his plate again, the tips of his ears rather pink. “I hate when Miss Fine isn’t feeling well.”

“Here, here,” the whole table concurs.

—

Twenty minutes later, Niles is at Miss Fine’s door with a silver tray laden with all the essentials: painkillers, an ice pack, a mug of coffee (milk instead of cream and extra sugar), and a copy of the new edition of Gloss. He lightly taps on her door with the side of his loafer.

“Miss Fine, can I come in?”

“No,” comes an immediate and sharp reply. “I’m not dressed!”

“How discouraging,” Niles sighs smilingly. “What ever shall I do?”

“Suff’a, and at least give me a minute to find a brassiere.” 

“Oh, we’ll be here all day then.”

He hears a strange thud, a collection of evaluations (“dirty, dirty, slutty, Maggie’s, dirty”), and an assortment of Yiddish curse words he now vaguely recognizes from being friends with Miss Fine for nearly four years now. And then finally— 

“Come in, Jeeves, but shut the door behind ya ‘cuz I haven’t applied a morning layer of lipstick yet.”

Niles elbows the knob and pushes with his shoulder until the door lights open to a peculiar sight. Far from being neat, Miss Fine’s room looks like Macy’s after its annual Black Friday sale with clothes strewn everywhere—from the dressers to the wardrobes to the floor. An empty suitcase is lying on the bed next to Miss Fine, who is sitting in bed wearing an oversized t-shirt, her injured ankle propped up on a pillow. Niles can tell, even from the doorway, that it’s red and swollen, but to his satisfaction and relief, it doesn’t appear to be broken.

“Welcome to the jungle,” Miss Fine mutters when she notices his incredulous gaze. “We got all the animals out t’day.”

“I can see that,” Niles replies, placing his tray on her bedside table and shutting the door. With his usual efficiency, he then walks back over, retrieves the ice pack, and gently places it on the affected area, frowning when she flinches.

“Mr. Sheffield said that the doctor was coming at ten,” he says as he gently lowers himself onto the bed, clasping his hands primly on top of his lap.

“Mm,” Fran grunts noncommittally, grabbing the two Advil pills and knocking them back with a swig of coffee.

“What? You’re not curious as to whether or not said doctor in question is single, Jewish, and living in a Manhattan penthouse? Miss Fine”—Niles reaches over and places the back of his hand on Fran’s head—“do you have a fever?”

“Oh, Niles,” she swats his hand away, “I’m not in the mood.”

“It’s been awhile since I’ve heard that one.”

“Niles!”

“Sorry, Miss Fine,” he withdraws his hand with a laugh. “You know I have to warm up before Miss Babcock arrives.”

“Glad to assist,” Fran quips, taking another sip of coffee, and it’s only as she closes her eyes to savor the taste, that he notices there are lines beneath her eyes from what seems to have been a sleepless night. 

The smile sinks from his face.

“You know,” he says quietly, “in all of our acquaintance, I’ve never known of you to injure yourself while dancing.”

Fran opens her eyes only to immediately glance away, tapping her long nails against her mug.

“Val tripped me up when she thought she saw Elton John,” she shrugs dully. “Turns out it was just a really lifelike poster of him behind the bar...”

“I see,” Niles returns, raising a brow. “It was nice of Miss Toriello to forgo her weekend trip with her parents to come back and… boogie woogie oogie with you.”

“Dammit,” she pouts, scrunching her nose. “I didn’t think I’d told you that.”

“You didn’t. I overheard you and Miss Toriello gabbing on the phone about it yesterday morning.”

Fran can’t seem to help herself; she smiles crookedly, even as she shakes her head.

“I dunno who’s more absorbent sometimes—you or the dish sponge.”

He smiles back at her, patting her uninjured leg gently.

“Me, naturally."

"I can believe it, Chatty Cathy," she sighs.

"Now tell me, Miss Fine"—he regains his solemnity quickly, unwilling to let her deflect with jokes—"why does your room look like a tornado went through Loehmann’s?”

Her dark eyes immediately glance around the messy room, as though looking for an excuse and failing to find one.

It’s only now that Niles is sitting down, taking everything in, that he notices that most of the articles strewn about are her favorite clothing items, from her holographic Versace dress to the black tube top that Mr. Sheffield can’t pry his eyes away from every time she wears it.

“I almost did a very stupid thing, Niles,” she half-whispers, looking down into her coffee cup, her fingers tensed and shivering around the handle. “And the thing is, maybe it wasn’t really all that stupid? Maybe it was the smartest thing I could of done in a lifetime of doin’ so many stupid things.”

She pauses briefly before sardonically adding, “People included.”

Though Niles doesn’t have enough dots to connect the full picture, he has what he needs in the way of evidence to get the basic gist: Nigel being in town, the two of them going out, Nigel leaving town, the suitcase, the swollen ankle, and Miss Fine's uncharacteristic melancholy, smeared across her face so sharply that it may as well be lipstick.

He swallows thickly, suddenly grasping how close that they had all been to losing Fran forever.

“Well,” he says, making an effort to hitch an oblivious smile on his face, “isn’t it your mother who says that everything happens for a reason? It seems as though you’re right where you belong.”

“Yeah,” she snorts indelicately. “Twenty-nine multiple times over, single, and livin’ in a mansion with a man who won’t even commit to his meal orders at restaurants, much less his very available and desperate nanny.”

“Beautiful, young, and living in a mansion with three children who love you, a butler who’d be lost without you, and a man who won’t commit to his tie choices either but still cares for you deeply all the same,” Niles corrects her softly. “He was very worried for you when you didn’t come down to breakfast this morning. He didn’t even do the crossword on the Times.”

“Gee,” she rolls her eyes playfully, “how romantic.”

“Very,” Niles grins, “a modern day Romeo—emotional hangups and all.” 

With that, he pats Fran again and stands up; he has no doubt that Mr. Sheffield will be calling for him soon to interrogate him as to Miss Fine’s wellbeing. 

Maybe he can even get C.C. on speaker phone to rub it in her face.

“Y’know, Niles,” Fran smiles at him fondly, “if this whole Mr. Sheffield thing doesn’t work out, we should elope in Vegas in ten yea's.”

“Only if you wear this little number,” he says, bending down and picking up a black cocktail dress from the floor, folding it neatly over his arm.

“You wish you could be so lucky.”

“If we’re going to be in Vegas, anything can happen, I suppose.”

After he retrieves the silver tray from the bedside table, he bends down and kisses Miss Fine lightly on the head, his heart hurting when he notices the way that she closes her eyes beneath the gentle touch—young and vulnerable and terribly hurt by something he can’t quite fix with a well-timed witticism.

“Get some rest, Miss Fine," her murmurs against her head. "I'll check on you a bit."

“Thanks, hubby."

—

Scarcely ten minutes later, he’s down in Mr. Sheffield’s office as per usual, offering the producer a fresh cup of tea even though he had already drunk his traditional two cups at breakfast. 

He insisted, though, on a third, for some excuse he couldn’t quite come up with.

And instead of coming up with an excuse, he immediately asked for all the particulars of Miss Fine’s health.

Predictable chump.

“Thanks, old boy,” Mr. Sheffield frowns, returning to his crossword, tapping the end of his pen arrhythmically against the paper. “Let me know when the doctor for Miss Fine arrives. I want to be there when he checks her over.”

“Ooh la-la-la,” Niles hums, dropping a sugar cube into the tea with a zesty plop.

Mr. Sheffield places his pen down on the desk angrily. 

“Not like that… I just want to ensure she’s going to be well… you know, for the children’s sake.”

“Yes,” he sighs theatrically. “How will the children ever be able to bear their nanny having a twisted ankle?”

“Oh, shut up,” Mr. Sheffield snaps. “I don’t pay you to be sarcastic.”

“No, sir, you pay me to help you with the crossword when you’re missing three-across,” Niles smirks knowingly when he glances down at the incomplete puzzle. “What’s the hint?”

Mr. Sheffield adjusts his wire-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose before looking down again.

“A word that means feeling bad for not doing something that you should have done all along. Disappointment. A sense of shame.”

Niles straightens up with a long-suffering shake of his head.

“Oh, sir, do I really have to spell it out for you?”

[zuzu-hotman]

Ready To Love P.6 [[Zuko]]

Pairing: Zuko x Female!Reader

Warnings: The usuallll as well as mentions of death and darkish themes??

A/N: this is late and shitty im sorrryyyy

Pt.1,, Pt.5,, Masterlist

“....”

“What were you expecting him to return and sweep you away? Foolish.”, her words cut deeper than they ever had. Hitting the rusted old nail directly on it’s head.

Azula never much cared to talk to you. Not when he was here and not even when he had been banished, as he was now. However when she did speak to you, it was always when she knew she would inflict the most pain.

When she knew she could gut you so deep, it would haunt you for years to come.

She laughed as she looked down upon you. It was not a happy sound. Nothing like her older sibling, who had always laughed with joy in his heart, when he had it. Hers was cruel- meant to make you seethe. She had the gall to laugh in your face after telling you the ‘news’. You were sadly hoping for good news. You knew Azula was like this- you had always known she was not good. You just didn’t know her well enough to really determine if it was fully true.

Lesson learned.

“Oh, don’t cry now. Not when I haven’t gotten to have my fun yet! I’ve been absolutely dying for a chance to get rid of you! You see, you get in my dear friend Mai’s way!”, she gives you an eerie smile, “It’s only fitting that I, one of her dearest friends, takes care of the issue!”

She talks as if she’s doing some sort of favor. Like she’s doing something absolutely necessary. Your tears sliding down our face don’t stop her at all. She acts as if they aren’t there. She acts as if she hasn’t just told you your father was killed for his ‘crimes’.Killed for being an Earth Bender from the Earth Kingdoms. For being who he was.

For not being Fire Nation.

“You see, my Dad doesn’t care to do multiple executions in a day. Takes up too much time. You and your Mother are granted a sliver of mercy. You two are to leave immediately. Now, if you dare step foot in this land again, there will be no mercy, understand?”, she gives you a wide grin. “No more living here and no more Zuzu for you. See, I could have had you killed but since you’ve done nothing to me personally, I’ll be nice this once.”

That had made you snap, “Nice. Nice? You call that being nice?!”

Her face turns sour, “Excuse me?”

“You heard me! You just told me my father was killed- you made no attempt to try and stop it! You come in my home and you tease me and laugh like you didn’t have a hand in his death! How did you even know who he was!”, you can feel yourself shaking. Can feel your deepest secret threatening to rise up within you. He’d told you to hide it while you were here, to never use it. How would you escape if you did? So close to the heart of the royal grounds?

“Hah. Your dad was a fool. Using his bending on palace grounds. He put up a real fight, but he was clearly outnumbered and outmatched. As all Earth fools are.”

She wasn’t going to tell you. That much was clear.

You tried to hold back, you really did. Azula just had a knack for bringing out the worst in people. You’re not proud of what you did. Yet you don’t regret it. The look on her face was priceless.

Perhaps you hadn’t actually beaten her, but it was as close as you’d ever get. Still, she always had the last word.

“He’ll never like you. You’ll be sad all your miserable life! You’re a fake! A liar! You never belonged here! Useless Earth peasant!”

So then what was this? You were certain she was right, despite how your heart had hoped. You were sure you’d see him with Mai- or with some other pretty Fire Nation girl. Someone other than you. You had especially believed this when he looked at you like that back underground in Ba Sing Se. He had finally seen you then. Who you were and where you came from. His actions at that time had you thinking he’d never see you as anything ever again.

Sure, you were wrong. He had wanted his friend back. You just didn’t know he’d want more. Much more.

Unfortunately, he took your stunned silence the wrong way. The hurt look in his face broke your heart for the split second he allowed you to see it.

“Right.”, he had said, “I’m sorry I- we should get ready to leave.”

He didn’t give you a chance to try to pull him back. Not that your mind gave you one either. You were still reeling, even now, sitting in Appa’s saddle, staring up at the passing clouds. Him? Love you? Since when?

How?

What was it that he loved about you- though couldn’t you ask yourself the same?

You had an answer though. Multiple answers, ranging from the way he smiled to the way he never saw you as just some lowly peasant. New ones being added like how he loved his Uncle and valued what he thought of him. How he’d proved his will and determination to change, to admit everything he was taught back in his own home was wrong. To make the choice himself to leave everything behind and do what was right, despite the massive hatred he had gained from his own flesh and blood.

His strength, no matter how it may have wavered.

Just him in general.

You should be on cloud nine right now- you should be feeling so light, so why weren’t you? What was holding you back?

“You think he’ll ever want you around anymore once he knows? It’s not your being an Earth Bender. It’s your lies. It’s you never telling him, or, oh.. not trusting him. Poor Zuzu..”

Her words still echoed to this day. Unfortunately, she still haunted you. From her smile as she shattered your life as you knew it, to the same one she wore when she saw Zuko react to you that day.

You couldn’t let her hold you back all your life, otherwise her lies would become truths. Zuko wouldn’t lie about something like that. He wasn’t Azula. You couldn’t compare the two.

The only comparison was the often bad timing. The difference was, Azula’s timing was bad because she was not on their side of things. She was an inconvenience. Zuko had no sense of time. A war was ahead of him. The world was on the verge of combusting as he knew it. There was no right time.

You could agree with him. Tomorrow was not guaranteed. A future was not promised, only hoped for.

So, as you moved your gaze to the back of his head in front of you, you made up your mind.

Words were not wasted in asking him to follow you that night. You didn’t care that you had just grabbed him from his conversation with Aang. Didn't think to respond to the look of shock on either of their faces as you took him by the arm and dragged him away. You also didn’t think of how it might be perceived on his end.

Zuko was sure you were going to chew him out. He followed you, matching your urgency with dread in the pit of his stomach. Had he crossed a line that night? Were you mad now? He hadn’t meant to upset you- he wasn’t lying. He had thought about it over and over and over again. He came to that conclusion after asking himself hundreds upon thousands of questions.

Why had he missed you so much? What was it about your laughter that he craved? Why did he enjoy clasping your hand in his? What was the reason for him always thinking of you when he was welcomed back home? Thinking of where he would take you and what he would show you? Now that you were both older and he had more freedom?

How come his heart cried for you when you told him the loss of your beloved father? What made his heart ache at you having to harbor a life threatening secret all on your own- being unable to tell him even when your life was once secure?

What was it about you?

The answer was not being his childhood friend. It was just being you. Being the best escape from his life at home. Being his definition of home. He’d been lost without you. Sad and hurt and unable to grasp why aside from his banishment and the brutal punishment from his own father. You were in his very bones and soul. He could live with you just as his friend if that’s what you wanted. He just couldn’t live with not telling you. Couldn’t go on thinking he might die and never get to tell you how he felt and how horribly sorry he was for everything.

Sorry you had to meet him and be hurt by him. Sorry his own Nation was the way it was. So very sorry he loved you so deeply despite being so young and new to such feelings.

“Do you truly mean what you said?”, you say after some fast marching into a quiet and far off area of the beach. 

A few waves crashed here and there as he stared into your eyes, searching for something, anything to make sense of this.The salty air filled his lungs, mingling in with your own soft scent.

“Answer me.”, you say, impatient.

“Wh- of course I- why are you asking? I apologized- I shouldn’t have-”

“I’m not asking for an apology. I want a serious straight answer. Did you mean that?”

You looked determined and he’s not sure what for. Regardless, he braces himself for a smack to the face, “I did.”

You stare at him, unmoving for a few long beats of silence. “Okay.”

“...Okay?”

You nod, “Okay.”

Zuko is thoroughly confused. Okay what? What was this all about? Were you mad or not- he sees you raise your hands up quickly. He wonders if you’re going to hit him or bend at him- maybe shake the hell out of him. He probably deserved it, but you didn’t do that.

You reached up, held his face so softly in his face. The softest caress he’d ever felt in his life. Your small smile matched it perfectly.

“You just don’t learn do you?”

He couldn’t even question what you meant. He wasn’t given the time or even a chance. In a split second you had him swirling. Quicker than he could see, your lips were on his. Gentle as ever, capturing his in the sweetest way..

“ Yᴏᴜ ᴛʜᴏᴜɢʜᴛ ᴏɴᴇʟʏ ᴡᴀs ᴀ ᴘᴀʀᴛ ᴏғ ᴍᴇ..”

Pt.7

[skribbz]

i know im sending u tons of these but ELLIE

Oh boy here we go

First impression

I actually didn’t know anything about TLoU before I played it except for it being a zombie game. Since zombies have always been a super special interest for me, I had to play it. So actually playing it was like being smacked in the face with emotions. 

But I didn’t even know about the existence of Ellie, so my first time seeing her was when Joel meets her. I thought she seemed cool, but a little abrasive. She did make me laugh though. 

Impression now

Oh god where do I even start. 

I’m not even exaggerating when I say Ellie helped me become who I am today. I related to her in so many ways. Not just in the way she's so nerdy, but also in how she treats others. She was just a kid who was let down by the world around her, yet she still wants to do what she thinks is best for everyone. She's sentimental, holding onto keepsakes from the people she's lost. She can have a bad attitude sometimes, but is just a complete sweetheart. She goes through so much, and even when Joel gives her the option to just go back home, she decides to keep going. 

Ellie came into my life when I needed a role model. The way she had gone through so much, but didn't let it break her soul, the way she always found a way to "endure and survive", meant so much to me at the time, and even now. She also helped me accept the fact that I wasn't straight. Seeing a character who I already admired so much, kissing another girl made me just break down crying. 

When they said that Ellie was going to be the main character of the second game, I cried again. I think the second game just really expands on the reasons I loved her in the first one. She still tries to do what she thinks is best. It's not always the right thing, and sometimes it's very much the wrong thing. But she has so much guilt over Joel, yet still loves him so much she's willing to do whatever it takes to give him the justice she thinks she deserves, even if she knows it's not at all what he would want her to do. (There's so much more to her thoughts and actions in the sequel of course, but I feel like this is one of the most important ones.) It's just like the first game where she's willing to go to any ends to do what she thinks is right, no matter how much it may hurt her in the process. 

I think in the end she has realized that her life means more than just being the cure. Her life matters just because she’s alive, is loved, and loves others, and that message means a lot to me, and I’m sure to many others, too. 

I think Ellie is such a wonderful character, and one of the most well written characters I've ever seen in any media. She really changed my life, and because of that she is my favorite character ever. 

Favorite moment

HOW am I supposed to choose just one. 

Does the entire winter section count? It shows much she loves Joel, and how strong she has become by that point, and how determined she is to survive. She sees just how truly awful some people in the world can be, and despite it she still wants to do whatever she can for the cure.

It’s our first look into what would become a major theme of the second game. While David’s town is an enemy to Joel and Ellie, and we as players hate them, they were doing what they thought was best to survive. Cannibalism isn’t right by our standards, but that’s because we haven’t been pushed to that point. But would we be willing to turn to it if we were pushed that far? Is it more acceptable to kill innocent people to feed a whole community that’s depending on you, or is it more acceptable to just let all of those innocent lives that are depending on you die?

I think we can all agree on one thing though. David is a piece of shit and deserved to be chopped up into teeny pieces. 

Idea for a story

I have many ideas. But I'll go with where I think her story can go from here, AKA my TLoU3 idea. 

The story starts 12 or so years later. Putting JJ around 13. Dina, Ellie and Abby 32-33. Lev around 25. Tommy and Maria probably late 50s-early 60s

Ellie is back in Jackson. She works her ass off doing whatever manual labor she can because all she wants to do is just work herself into exhaustion. She's dealt with her trauma and she’s in a better place mentally now. Now her reasons for shutting everything out is that she’s too scared to try and really reconnect. She wants companionship but is afraid of the pain of losing it all again.

The exception is when she has JJ. He is still the light of her life. She takes him hunting and camping and plays video games with him and they geek out over comics. She has taught him to draw. She wants to teach him guitar like she promised, but hasn’t been able to yet. 

The only time she sets foot outside of Jackson is with JJ.

Dina is of course doing something that uses her skills. Maybe the lead electrician at the dam. They've kept JJ very innocent. Obviously he knows of the infected, and has seen his moms kill them before, but he doesn’t know just how bad it really is, he’s never seen another human die.

Her and Ellie are amicable. They are happy to be co parenting jj but there's nothing between them (for now). 

Maria holds a lot of guilt. Over sending Joel and Tommy out that day, over not giving Ellie and Dina help in Seattle, which got Jesse killed, over letting Tommy get as bad as he did after Seattle. She blames herself for the way Ellie is. She tries to spend time with Ellie, but Ellie is very elusive when she wants to be. She adores JJ though. That's her little great nephew. His auntie is the leader of the whole town and he uses that to his advantage every chance he gets. And she lets him.

Tommy has a little guilt. He doesn’t know Abby is alive, Ellie only ever told him she “finished things” and didn’t talk to him much after that. But he sees how she is a complete mess and lost her fingers. He knows that guitar was special for Ellie, plus any kind of disability is a huge disadvantage in their world. Dina doesn’t let JJ near him. JJ doesn't understand why and no one will tell him

Tommy and Maria never worked out their differences and have stayed separated, partly because of their guilt toward what happened with Ellie. They cared about her like she was their own and they both let her down

Jackson is now huge. They’ve made contact with other settlements, and have trade routes. But Maria is getting older and the town is getting too much for her to run on her own. Tommy is getting up there in age as well, and despite his injuries he still does patrols. But alone. He’s not actively trying to get killed, but he isn’t always as careful as he knows he should be. 

Story starts out and you're playing as Tommy on patrol. He gets ambushed by a small group of people. And lo and behold Abby (and Lev) is there. Tommy is shocked when he finds out who it is, and he asks if she came to finish the job she started. She says no they tracked him since he left the town and were waiting to get him alone because she has news for him. The fireflies have rebuilt stronger than ever and now they’re back out for the cure and are coming for Ellie, because she is the only known source, but also as a form of revenge for what Joel did all those years ago, destroying what the Fireflies once were. They were able to get there first because they only brought a few people and set out before the main squad. Tommy asks why he should believe her, and she says that Ellie saved her life years ago and it's the least she could do to pay her back. (just like. Assume that there was enough info stored with the fireflies that Abby could work out who Ellie is). To keep Tommy from attacking or following him, they knock him out and untie him then leave. 

Control switches back to Ellie who is doing her chores around town. You get to nail fences, chop wood, and carry hay bales. Fun. Later that night, as Ellie is getting home, standing on her porch, Tommy rolls up and confronts Ellie about Abby being alive. They get into a huge fight and Ellie tells Tommy that he fucked up her life. It's his fault she lost Dina. His fault she only gets to see jj when Dina allows it, his fault Jesse was killed. And its his fucking fault Joel died.

He storms off. But then Ellie notices J standing on the street coming to stay the night. She had forgotten this was her night with him. He’d been told his whole life that moms had a peaceful break up, and that dad and grandpa Joel died being heroes, but now he’s upset about what he's heard so he runs back home to Dina. 

That night Ellie is woken up by fighting in Jackson. She runs out to try and find what's going on. All she can get is that fireflies are attacking. She eventually finds out that some travelers shot Maria and a fight broke out. Ellie fights through the town to Maria. She's injured with a gunshot in the arm, but alive still and kicking some ass. She tells Ellie that fireflies came asking for her, and would leave peacefully in return. She told them no and they shot her. Maria says she’ll be okay and tells Ellie to go find JJ and get him to safety. 

She fights through to the other side of town. Because of the commotion, infected have broken in so there’s humans and infected running around killing. She gets to Jesse's house and JJ is hysterical, Dina is holding him down and he's like screaming and crying. His grandpa fought off a firefly who was trying to get in their home and was shot and killed. It hits Ellie that this is all her fault. People are dying because of her again. Anyway she tells dina and robin that they need to leave. Dina says she's not going anywhere without Ellie. Ellie wants to stay and fight, but JJ is more important right now. So the 4 of them sneak out and near the gates they meet up with Tommy. He’s helping get people out and sending them to one of the patrol lookouts that is secure and can fit everyone. 

Ellie sends Dina, Robin and JJ off. Ellie gives JJ Joel's revolver and tells him to keep mom and grandma safe for her. She goes back to Tommy and the two get back to Maria. When they are very close to her, an infected ambushes them and Tommy gets bit. They get to Maria who is losing blood fast and doesn't look well. After a lot of arguing from Ellie, the pair decide to stay. They tell Ellie they’re old now. Maria wont last long with her wounds, and tommy has no chance of surviving his. They apologize to Ellie for the way things turned out and how much she has meant to them all these years. They give her all their ammo except for one bullet in each of their guns, because that's all they need now. Ellie begs them to come along, and she’ll figure something out for them. But they eventually convince her to go. Ellie leaves crying, and Maria and Tommy maybe get a cute moment before cutting back to Ellie. 

Ellie makes it back to where the survivors are and is depressed that there's way less than she was expecting. JJ has cried himself to sleep and Dina notices Ellie is acting strange and pulls her away to ask her. Ellie tells her what happened and Dina holds her while she cries. It's the first time anyone has really been physically affectionate with her in a long time so Ellie clings to her as she lets it all out

The last survivors decide that Jackson isn’t safe. It's too damaged, filled with infected, and no one can figure out what the fireflies were doing. Ellie can't bring herself to say anything about it. 

The next morning, everyone wakes up and is discussing what to do. JJ is still inconsolable. Ellie decides to take him away from the group to get some fresh air. She tells him to hold on to Joel's revolver. They chat and JJ asks what happened to auntie Maria and Tommy. She decides to be honest with him. She expects him to cry, but is shocked to see him become angry instead. He basically swears revenge for them and for his grandfather. This of course stirs up a lot of very negative thoughts in Ellie, but she decides to let him grieve in his own way for now. 

That’s everything I have written out in detail for now. But the main idea would be Ellie becoming a leader to the few remaining survivors as they make contact with the other settlements that Jackson is allied with. She would take responsibility for all of these lives. They would be her reason for fighting now. 

Over the course of the game, Abby would come back and her and Ellie would be forced to team up. There’s no more animosity between the two though, they’re both over it and don’t want to go back down that road. Over the course of the story they would come to understand each other’s actions. They wouldn’t become friends, but they can at least rely on each other. 

JJ would find out that Abby is the person responsible for Joel and Jesse’s death, and she came from the group that killed his grandfather, Tommy and Maria. He’d go into a rage and try to attack her and Ellie would have to hold him back. He wants to know why Ellie is defending the person who hurt everyone they loved. Ellie would have to finally tell him the whole story, and try to keep him from giving into his anger and sadness like she did in the second game. She won’t let her son become like her. She wants him to stay her innocent baby boy, but she knows that’s just not possible in their world. 

Other stuff that I have yet to flesh out:

More about Dina’s backstory. Or at least her last name. 

Lev being a big brother to JJ.

Dina and Ellie falling in love all over again as Dina sees Ellie doing so much for the rest of the community. It’s gonna be emotional.

Ellie teaching JJ how to play guitar, and tearfully singing Future Days to him.

Unpopular opinion

I’m not sure of what people’s opinions on her are. I know most people love her and anyone who doesn’t isn’t entitled to an opinion. 

I guess one is I’m not a fan of her farm hairstyle. Her Seattle look was just so cute. Why did you do that to your head, girl. 

Favorite relationship

Dina of course.

I feel like Dina represented what Ellie could have if she wasn’t stuck in the past. Joel represented her violent past, and her traumas. Dina represented her future, her home, her family. Ellie was so stuck in the past, that she couldn’t see the future standing literally right in front of her. 

It’s a great representation of how she holds onto the people she loves, but also how PTSD works. The past keeps coming back to haunt her. 

Favorite headcanon

I hc her as autistic! I kinda feel bad because everyone else hcs her as having ADHD. But I’m autistic so I say she is too *sunglass emoji*. 

Why I think she’s autistic: 

Obviously her special interests would be space and dinosaurs, and the way she talks about them reminds me of how I get when people let me infodump about my SIs.

The way she plays with her fingers looks hella like stimming to me. In fact, that’s one of my stims!

Her interest in art and music.

Her interest in general nerdy stuff like comics and video games. 

She collects cards, and collecting is a big autistic trait.

The way she’s sort of untidy and cluttered, yet labels all of her boxes of shit. The ordered mess is such an autistic thing.

[adelheidvonschicksal]

Baby Makes Three | Midoriya x F!Reader

Midoriya with a pregnant reader (a/b/o optional) - fluff

Sitting on the bed with Midoriya, you both stare at the home pregnancy test as he tries to understand the decoding system listed on the box. Your excitement had spurred you to take the test before reading the instructions, thinking it would be as simple as it would on television. You look to Midoriya, a hopeful smile plastered on your face. In your mind, everything would work out perfectly, your life always seemed to work out perfectly ever since Midoriya came into it. You two met at work, dated, and a year later took the steps to belong to each other eternally. Now, the only desire you had left was to be blessed with a baby nine months from now. It didn’t matter if they were a boy or a girl, it didn’t matter what they looked like, and it didn’t matter if they were born with a quirk like you or born with none like Midoriya either, as long as they were healthy and happy they’d be perfect. But that hope falls when he purses his lips with a barely audible groan.

“It’s negative.” The look of disappointment on your face is something you can’t hide. You thought that being young and relatively healthy would produce results quickly. “Don’t worry. The doctor said these things don’t usually happen on the first try,” he encourages.

Realizing he’s right, you nod in agreement. The spark of hope starts to flicker in you once again, spurring your actions as you push him back down into the bed with an unexpected burst of energy. Your hands lie on either side of his face, his eyes wide and freckles disappearing behind the red blush on his face. “You’re right. We can always have fun trying again,” you tease and lean down to press a passionate kiss on his lips to stop the weak stammer from them.

Two weeks later, you attempt to take another home test, hoping that this time would be the beginning of your new tale. It’s a surprise when the results are the same: negative.

The disappointment comes on hard and fast. You’re no stranger to its crippling grasps. You had been denied many things growing up as a teenager, always a last priority in your family behind your siblings and always having to put everyone else’s needs first, Midoriya being one of the few people and friends you made who cared to make you few like your own individual – to finally make you a priority. In return, you took care of him, spent every other day healing his wounds, protecting him from anyone who would want to harm him, and made sure he always had home to return to. After all those years taking care of others, you realized you liked the feeling it gave you when your beloved younger siblings would grace you with their laughter, treating you as their own mother, and when you were able to take someone’s burdens away. But now, they were grown and had their own lives, and you had yours. With Midoriya frequently out in the field more, you craved a child of your own to care for again. Always the pleaser, Midoriya tried diligently to give you what you wanted despite no results as the months dragged on.

Once again, you find yourself reliving the same scene – a sort of twisted déjà vu – as you and Midoriya read over your results. The negative doesn’t come as a surprise to your mind, as you had grown used to it over and over, but it does become the final nail in your heart as the vision of having your own family slips further and further from your desperate grasp.

You place the test down with a defeated sigh, carrying with it the last of your strength to continue. “I think we should stop trying,” you tell him. In your mind, you already know what Midoriya wants to say when he sympathetically squeezes your hand. That this just means trying again, but you couldn’t take any more disappointment. “It’s okay…really…It’s probably a sign that we’re meant not to have children. You’re working more, and I don’t think I’d be a good mom anyway,” you say, looking for every excuse in between to find some positive light in a tragic situation.

“That’s not true,” he argues. Cupping your chin, he raises your face to look into your eyes, “You’d be a wonderful mom. No one loves kids as much as you, and you always take the time to look out for others without worry for yourself.”

“Then, why hasn’t it happened yet?” you ask, your anguish overflowing and escaping you threw the glossy tears. Midoriya furrows his brow, holding back his own feelings in exchange to help you with yours as he leans in and gently kisses a stray tear away from your cheeks.

“It’ll happen. Trust me,” he promises, moving down to place butterfly kisses along the lovely swoop of your neck.

“Izuku, I don’t want to try anymore.”

“I’m not trying for a baby. I-I just want to make love to my wife,” he explains, hiding his flushing face against the nape of your neck, making your skin warm with the gentle trail of his tongue. The airy moan escapes from your parted lips as he teasingly nips your skin, following all the way up to nibble your earlobe. “Take your dress off.”

-

Over the course of the next few weeks, you gave up on the idea of having a baby if only for the time being to reset your motivation. Reaching the bathroom, you begin to clean out the shelves of any empty shampoo bottles and soaps, accidentally knocking over a leftover pregnancy test from the top shelf. You should’ve stored it away for later, but curiosity had won out despite your physical life becoming more spaced over the last few weeks.

You open the box, hoping you’d have enough in you to properly take the test. After following the instructions, you waited on the seat for the results to eventually tell you what you already know.

Your hand starts to shake when the results show up: a perfectly formed plus sign centered on the electronic screen. In your excitement, you jump up, haphazardly pull your leggings back up as you race at the bathroom.

“Izuku! I need you to go to the store!” you scream, earning a yelp from the other room.

After Deku comes back from the store, you can finally take a second test just to be sure. You both look over the results, another positive on a completely different brand. “We’re going to have a lot of work to do,” Deku states, smiling at your cheerful face as you hug onto his side and kiss his cheek.

“It’ll be worth it,” you reason.

Midoriya was correct though. As your pregnancy drew on into the months, you both saw more and more work needing to be done between classes and doctors visits, with the fun stuff such as outlining your progress, shopping for baby clothes, and throwing baby showers being fewer in between until the last trimester of your pregnancy.

Being on leave though gave you time to yourself, too much time as Deku continued back on his career. To fill the time, you start work on the baby’s room to at least get the painting out of the way. You had a small step stool to use to reach high places and painted the room a brilliant sky blue, your thought to paint clouds and rainbows for a bright start to your child’s life. Otherwise, Deku would end up decorating the walls with heroes, and you refuse to let him do that to a second room in the house.

You’re halfway complete when he comes home, nearly having a heart attack seeing you even a foot off of flat ground.

“(Name), what are you doing? Get down!” Midoriya demands, reaching out to grab your waist and pull you down, “You’re going to hurt yourself.”

“I’m fine,” you say, turning to go back to your painting and completing another fluffy cloud. “Besides the baby is due any day now, and we aren’t even got close to being done,” you say, noting that the only thing that was about finished was the crib.

Midoriya grabs on you again, hoisting you down against your will while you groan in protest. “You don’t have to do that. I’ll get the room ready on time.”

“But, I’m home all day. I need something to do or I’ll go crazy,” you explain as he shoos you out the room.

“All you should focus on is getting rest, not breathing in fumes. I’ll finish the room this weekend.”

“But—”

“No, buts,” he says, shooing you out the door, and you can already sense that his meticulousness was going to kick in any day now.

True to his word, Midoriya began to work on the baby’s room as soon as the weekend came along, dedicating hours to completing the job before your scheduled due date in two weeks. Although, you felt like a beach ball that was going to pop with the slightest poke, even more, when you’re not able to contribute as much as you hoped even if it’s better to let your husband do what he wants when he gets into his moods… At least to a degree.

“Izuku, dinner’s been ready for an hour. Come eat already,” you complain, standing at the door with your arms crossed, ready to smack him if he decided to skip out on another meal you made after you spent thirty minutes on sore feet.

“I’m almost finished. Just start without me.”

You sigh, planting your hand against your face. “Do you want me to bring it to you?”

“No, not in here. I just replaced the carpet.”

Blinking, you look down, realizing that he did replace your once plain cream floor with new carpet. “…Why? There was nothing wrong with our old carpet.”

“The other carpet had paint on it. So, I thought we might as well replace it so that way the baby can have a clean environment and this material is better for when he starts crawling—” he rambles on, and you purse your lips and hum suspiciously, taking another step in before being stopped by the crinkle of magazine paper under your feet.

Curious, you pick up the magazine and begin to flip through the pages, locating the advice of baby experts…or rather ads.

Our carpets are a hybrid carpet known for low VOCs than most synthetic carpets. Additionally, get your carpet installed before your baby starts using the room; if you can get it installed before your baby comes home, that's even better.

You scrunch your face. What did VOC’s even mean? And was that worth the extra $15 dollars a square foot? You flipped through the other “literature” in the stack: Childrearing for Dummies, Sleep Training, When Crying is Something More, and Caring or Spoiling?

“Izuku, where did you get these?” you demand.

“I stopped by the bookstore on the way home.”

“You don’t need to listen to all this,” you say, ripping up the pages of the weaker sources. His eyes widen in horror as you let the shavings sprinkle to the floor like confetti. He races up to you, trying to save his research material, but you hold them further out of reach.

“Stop! I need those!”

“No, you don’t! It’s a bunch of garbage,” you say, turning away and continuing to pull them apart as he frantically reaches over your shoulder.

“At least let me keep the surveys.”

“Nope!” you state, preparing to rip another page when the trickling of water stopped you both in your tracks. Glancing down at the source, you watch as the liquid ripples down your legs, puddles at the floor, and makes your toes squish in the resulting chaos. “Oops,” you exclaim, thinking that this happened much earlier than you were expecting, while Midoriya jumps away after his initial shock.

“Okay, okay, we prepared for this,” he says, but you already see the panic on his face and hum in response as he frantically bolts around the house searching for keys and grabbing your bag. You waddle yourself to the door, grabbing onto the furniture for support as you watch him frantically open the door.

“Izuku, aren’t you forgetting something?” you call out, forcing him to stop. He gasps as he realizes he’s indeed missing the most important part of the plan.

“(Name), I’m so sorry,” he yells and runs up to you, swooping his arm under yours to help you through the door.

Arriving at the hospital, the brunt of the situation finally settles on you as the contractions come closer and closer together. You’re barely able to remember your breathing exercises given all the chaos around you as you’re wheeled back to your delivery room with Midoriya on your side, holding your hand.

“It’ll be all right,” he keeps repeating, but you think he’s twice as worried as you are – always the overthinker especially about things that could go wrong. You just hoped he wouldn’t pass out on you in the delivery room.

-

“It’s a boy!”

You smile, having finally been delivered a happy baby, or perhaps that was the painkillers still pumping through your veins as they handed you your child. You were so proud of having a healthy baby even though his crying said otherwise. You’d be upset too being thrown into a new world.

You were even prouder of his dad, who only got lightheaded once when your son first started to crown. Now, your son was clean and wrapped in a cozy blanket, his (h/c) hair thick and full for a newborn while speckles of freckles cover his face. “He looks just like his dad.”

Smiling, you place the baby in his arms, gasping when he starts to tear up at the sight of the tiny baby in his arms. “Izuku, what’s wrong?”

“N-Nothing,” he says, sniffling. “I’m just really happy everything turned out okay.”

You giggle at him, thinking you should’ve been the one tearing up at the moment, but it did make for a good first picture as the two of you spend time comforting your new bundle of joy.

Just like you, (s/n) eventually got tired, retiring to rest in your shared hospital room after hours of watching the world around him and feeding on your milk. Knowing the hard part was yet to come, you succumb to sleep while you can as the sun began to go down on your child’s now birthday.

Your peaceful sleep is interrupted by a shrill cry, the first of many that you’d have to deal with in the oncoming months; but to your surprise, it stops almost as quickly as it had started. “You have to be quiet. Your mommy’s trying to sleep.” You open your eyes, spying Midoriya already up and holding onto your son, rubbing his back and cradling the baby to his broad chest. “It’s all right, it’s all right,” he whispers, humming. Quietly, you chuckle to yourself, watching as your two boys fall asleep in the visitor’s chair, one yawning lightly as the other peacefully falls back asleep to the rhythmic rising and falling of his father’s chest; and at that moment, you couldn’t be happier you did this with him.

[aelin-queen-of-terrasen]

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐫 | 𝐃𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈𝐧 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐤

Rowaelin modern AU ▶ Masterlist

note: hi! thank you for all your comments and likes. hope y'all like this chapter. (also sorry for the bad gifs, I have no idea what I'm doing there!)

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Rowan was pissed, sleep-deprived and severely exhausted. Lorcan had taken his sweet time picking Aelin up and even once he'd arrived, she had thrown tantrums bad enough, it had taken both of them to get her into his damned car. He had gotten little sleep after that, thoughts reverting back to her antics.

He was looking forward to some peace when someone sat down beside him. "Leave me alone, Aelin," he groaned.

An amused snort. "She'll be offended you mistook me for her," Lorcan Salvaterre said.

"Sorry," he mumbled. "I've grown used to Aelin hounding me around this time." He should shut up sometime soon. This was Lorcan Salvaterre he was talking to, Lorcan who was as well-built as him, who looked like he had crawled out of some hellscape and was never seen without a scowl on his face. Lorcan could probably punch him for talking like that about Aelin.

"You don't like Aelin?" Lorcan asked.

It was a casual question that shouldn't have bothered him at all. But did he like Aelin? She was bothersome of course but he preferred her company to everyone else here. "I think she is fine," he finally said.

Lorcan nodded, dark eyes scanning his face. He rose from his seat. "Aelin is a nice person. You don't want to hurt her." Rowan didn't mistake the words for anything but a warning to not hurt her. A friend looking out for another. This is what they were. Aelin and her friends - they weren't friends, they were family. The closest thing Rowan had to that was his roommate.

"I don't want anything to do with her," Rowan said. He meant it.

Lorcan shook his head, then turned to leave. Almost as if in afterthought, he added, "Don't tell anyone what I said."

Students were still filing inside the classroom when Lorcan left, presumably to his own classroom. Rowan had his nose buried in the book he was reading but he could identify Aelin from the sight of those light, hurried footsteps, then the loud sigh that escaped her mouth when she plopped down beside him. Rowan turned in his seat.

"Bad day?" she chirped.

He didn't know how she could function after the amount of alcohol she had consumed. "Some idiot got drunk and I had to take care of her. Couldn't sleep," he grunted.

She clicked her tongue. "Inconsiderate. You should teach her some manners."

Rowan rolled his eyes and went back to reading his book. Unable to concentrate because of Aelin watching him, Rowan shut the book, opening his sketchbook instead. He glanced towards the door. Where was Professor Gavriel?

Aelin answered, "He isn't coming, something about recruiting a new quarterback for the football team."

Rowan shifted the sketchbook so it was out of Aelin's point of view. He expected her to peek or ask or interrupt but she watched him again, keen eyes memorizing all the details on his face. Rowan tried not to let the attention bother him as he worked. She was silent long enough that Rowan worried something was wrong.

But she asked, "Rowan, do you like football?" He wished she hadn't spoken.

"I do."

Don't ask don't ask don't ask don't ask don't ask—"Then why aren't you on the football team? You ever tried out?"

He had. Rowan didn't want to tell her that, didn't want to share that secret. Yet, somehow he told her, "I did. They didn't choose me. Not because I wasn't good at it but because the whole team hated me. Gavriel said it would affect the team spirit if he took me in, couldn't take that chance." He didn't want to share this secret about how much it had hurt to be rejected by students he had wanted to befriend. "I was principal's nephew, good at studies, at sports. I had a bad reputation around."

She cocked her head to the side. "Do you still want to join the team?"

"Doesn't matter. We don't always get what we want."

Aelin raised an eyebrow as if to say, you are one drama queen. Answer my question. So he did. "I still like football and this is my last year in school so yes."

"You should have done something about it," she said.

He could have shuddered in relief if only for the fact that there was no pity in her eyes, no sorrow. "I'd rather not spend time with people who ha—"

"You could've tried to make amends. If they believed you bad, did you do something to prove otherwise?" Her question took him off guard.

Had he done anything other than scowl and glare since he had changed schools? Rowan didn't want to go down that road, didn't want to visit that part of his past now. He pushed the thoughts away, buried himself in his silence, prepared to tell Aelin off but she was already on her feet, rushing towards the front of the class, squeals of excitement busting out of her.

She threw her arms around the guy standing near the front.

Dorian Havilliard leaned over to whisper something in her ear and Aelin laughed at him, loud and unrestrained. Everyone was watching but neither of them cared enough about it. Rowan convinced himself that the irritation he felt was only for the fact that they were being so loud, it was distracting him.

Yes, that was the only reasonable explanation that he could think of. With a long drawn-out sigh, Rowan went back to sitting in silence.

──────✧❅✦❅✧──────

Aelin was ecstatic.

Dorian had accompanied his parents to another continent for a business trip and she had missed him like hell. Her friends had tried their best to keep her entertained but no one could replace the dark haired boy.

When she pulled back, Dorian grinned at her. "Aw, missed me, Ace?"

"You are telling me you didn't miss your best friend?" Aelin smirked.

Dorian nodded, looking around the classroom before he looked at her again. "You are right, I did miss Chaol. Where is he?" He chuckled when she smacked the back of his head.

Then it occured to Aelin that he didn't know she had broken up with him. It had been three months ago, right after Dorian left. She hadn't wanted to tell him over the phone and now that he was in front of her, she wanted to enjoy his return instead of dwelling over that. So Aelin grinned, looping an arm with his and they were walking out of the classroom, one eye out in case Meave was making rounds.

"Mind telling me why Rowan was staring at you?" Dorian asked.

Rowan Whitethorn.

Whom she had left in the classroom without even a word. A blush creeped onto her cheeks even as she tried to summon some swagger, flipping her hair back. "I did not fret over outfits for over an hour in the morning to please my own eyes. Let him stare."

Dorian raised an eyebrow. "Is Rowan the reason you broke up?"

Here she thought she was keeping it a secret. "How'd you know we broke up?" Aelin asked, then realised her mistake.

Her best friend grinned at her. "I didn't. You confirmed it. But seriously, Rowan? The I-don't-ever-smile Rowan?"

"He smiles plenty," she offered, even though she hadn't seen him smile once.

There was no point hiding things from Dorian. Most dismissed him as a nerd who was only interested in books, quiet and reserved but he was charming when he needed to be. And perceptive. If there's anyone she won't be able to keep secrets from, it was him.

She didn't realise where they were going until they halted in front of the library. "You couldn't wait until after school?"

Dorian pointed towards the shelves at the back. "Lorcan and Aedion are here too, they are skipping class. They brought snacks." Aelin didn't need to tell them what would happen if the librarian Phillipa found them sneaking food inside.

Aedion was resting his head on the table when she reached him, Lorcan looking through the shelves for one reference book or another. There was no sign of Lysandra and Aelin remembered something about her joining art classes earlier this week.

"Hey idiots!" Dorian chirped.

Lorcan said without looking, "For your sake, I'll pretend you didn't say that."

Then they were all digging through what her cousin had brought - an assortment of chips and biscuits and candies and chocolates.

Aedion said to Dorian through mouthfuls of food, "I'm surprised you managed to bring her. Aelin hasn't left Rowan's side in two days."

Aelin coughed, kicking her cousin's leg underneath the table. Dorian already suspected something was up and if he hadn't already figured it out, he certainly would now.

But Dorian shrugged. "This isn't news to me. I've been shipping Rowaelin since sophomore year."

Aedion choked on the soft drink he was drinking. "You-Rowaelin-I don't... Sophomore year? Impossible." Impossible indeed. He couldn't have known about that, could he? He couldn't possibly have known about sophomore year.

Dorian smiled innocently. "Aelin has had a crush on him since sophomore year."

"Liar," Aedion blurted out.

Lorcan was silent, munching on his chips and Aelin thanked the gods for it. She could only handle two of them at a time. "How did you know?" she asked.

Dorian chuckled. "You weren't subtle about it. It was written all over your face when he passed by."

Lorcan was still silent as everyone tried to digest the information they had been fed. She had crushed on Rowan on his first day in school, had dismissed it for a temporary thing. It went away after she started dating Chaol.

That was until they'd been paired up for a project and the crush came back in full force. At least she won't have to hide her feelings from her friends now.

Even if Aedion looked like he had swallowed nails. "Rowan isn't good—"

"I took care of that. He'll play nice." Lorcan leaned back in his seat with a lazy, proud smirk on his face.

Aelin's stomach sank at whatever he meant by that but she knew Lorcan, trusted him enough that she didn't ask him about it. She did however add: "He doesn't like me back though so I'd appreciate it if you could keep your teasing to a minimum around him."

"I think he does like you back," Dorian replied. "And I am never wrong."

"You are wrong now."

Aelin hoped with all she had he wasn't.

──────✧❅✦❅✧──────

Tags:

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[poeticandors]

Come What May Part 3

Poe Dameron x F!Reader (Moulin Rouge!AU)

Summary: You and Poe are sent undercover in order to gain information about the First Order and hope to recruit. But what begins to bloom as you and Poe continue to work closer throughout this mission? And, what happens when you happen to catch the eye of one of the most dangerous men?

Warnings: none in this chapter

A/N: Wooo finally got this chapter out! Hopefully you guys enjoy it! 

Part 1 Part 2

After a week or so, everything seemed to slowly work into place. No one bothered you after that day anymore, but constant bawdy gazes were still thrown your way. Sometimes it was hard, but you learned just to ignore it. Everyone who went to the Crimson Club knew not to touch you in that way now— they realized they still had the other girls, unfortunately, and they didn’t want to mess with you or the bouncers after how roughed up that guy got.

He hasn’t even come back since. 

A knock is heard at your door, and after checking your appearance, you move to press the button to allow access. Standing there was Poe, his hair slicked back and a navy blue suit— a new look compared to his black suits he had been wearing. Looking down at your dress, you realized you matched unintentionally with him. 

The last few days had been… more work based between you and Poe. He would still do his job— stand in the back of the main room and linger around while you talked to anyone who had information. But after that night, he’d seemed to become more protective of you, but the conversations between you both had been short. 

You wondered if it was because you asked him to undo your dress for you? It couldn’t have been that because he had offered to help you plenty of times and still did. Was it because he realized he called you sweetheart? Not that you minded, but you wondered why he suddenly called you that not once, but twice. Whatever it was, you wished things would go back to normal— or as normal as it could get in this situation. 

Deciding not to bring it up, you give him a small smile.

“Hey, how are you?” 

“I’m fine,” Poe nods, although you notice that it’s more stiff along with his posture and then you realize…

This was Tel talking. 

He steps to the side, and there you see two other girls who worked mainly as dancers giving you friendly waves and smiles. 

“Oh! Hi, Zoras. Hi, Tin.”

“Hi, Kyla,” Zoras said. You noticed right when you first met her the slight lilt in her voice— almost innocent. Had you met her randomly on the street, you wouldn’t have known she worked in a place such as the Crimson Club. 

“We just wanted to see how you were doing?” Tin smiles. 

Looking upon them, you would have been a fool not to notice how gorgeous they both were. The light blue dress of Zoras popped against the deep copper of her skin, and her dark curls bounced with every shake of her head. Tin’s red hair cascades over her fawn, freckled shoulders, to the middle of the waist of her black dress. No one was able to resist the urge to watch them as they danced upon the stage each night.  

Both girls had been the first to check on you as well as welcome you here after that night. They were both very sweet— they at least took the time to try and get to know you while others simply turned their noses up at you. Rix was another one who was friendly, at least you were thankful to have a few other people to talk with. You mentioned recruiting them to Poe, who agreed that they could be more trusted over others here at the club and he would send their information to the Resistance to get more in depth information.

“I’m fine, I was about to head down,” you smile, turning to Poe. “Tel was just getting ready to escort me to the club.” 

The girls look at Poe, who gives them a slight nod. “That’s right. Whenever you’re ready, Kyla.”

“Is it alright if we join you down?” Zoras turns back to you. 

“I don’t mind at all.” 

“Perfect!” Zoras smiles and loops her arm through yours, while Tin does the same. You begin to walk ahead, while Poe trails behind you three at a safe, close distance. 

“By the way,” Tin leans in close, whispering. “I don’t know how you do it.”

“Do what?”

“Manage to hold yourself back from jumping in the sack with Tel. He’s so handsome. I would have done it long ago.” 

The heat rises to your cheeks as you look away from Tin, “O-oh, well… I mean… his job—”

“Also allows him to have any of the services we all give out,” Zoras gives a cheeky grin, her dark curls bouncing as she tilts her head at you. 

“Well, not all of us. Our Untouched One, on the other hand…”

“Unless Tel over there pays the requested amount of credits.”

“No offense, Kyla, but I would have just given him the full session— no credits charged,” Tin snickers, while Zoras smacks her arm. 

As much as you try to force yourself not to, you turn back to see Poe still a few feet behind you. While you knew they were whispering, the hallway was empty— and you knew there was no way Poe didn’t hear what your friends were saying. His eyes connect with yours, and your suspicions are answered by the small smirk he flashes.

Cheeky bastard, you think, shaking your head as you head into the elevator. 

You, Zoras, and Tin press up against the back of the elevator while Poe stands in front of you— his back facing you three. An awkward silence fills the elevator, so you distract yourself by staring at the floor only until you feel Tin nudge her elbow against your ribs. Looking up, you see how the corner of her mouth quirks up and she nods her head forward, wiggling her brows. 

You follow her gaze, only to realize it was fixated on Poe’s… assets. Eyes widening, you quickly look away, hearing the faint giggle Tin was giving Zoras. Poe pretends not to hear, and quickly heads out of the elevator as soon as the doors open, looking both ways. 

“Alright, ladies,” Poe turns towards you. “It’s safe.”

“Thank you, Tel,” Tin bats her lashes as she walks past him. 

“Tin and I have to go get ready for the stage,” Zoras steps out of the elevator. “But we’ll see you later Kyla. Thank you for escorting us, Tel.” 

Poe nods, giving a friendly smile to Zoras as she walks down the hallway. You knew they were just teasing you, of course you did. So why did you get this overwhelming urge to glare at your friends? 

The stinging pain in both palms of your hands has you unclenching them— you didn’t even realize you were digging your nails into your palms in the first place. 

“Kyla? Are you ready?” 

Poe’s voice pulls you and you face him, your expression pinched as you nod. He furrows his brows, stopping you as you try to move past him. He gently grabs your arm, and all you can do is freeze at his touch. This time he says your name, not Kyla’s, in a mere whisper. 

“What’s wrong?” 

“Nothing’s wrong. Why would anything be wrong?”

Poe studies you, and you do well not to give in to the look in his eyes. You know he is searching for something— some kind of hint  to let him know there is a problem. He raises his brow as the corner of his mouth lifts up and he releases you, stepping back while you fix the sleeve of your dress. 

“Like I said, nothing—“

“What, did you get jealous because of what Tin was saying?” 

He’s teasing. You know he is— the playful glint in his eye gives it away. It’s also the first sign of Poe that you’ve seen in the last few days. 

“Jealous?” You scoff. “What— why would I get jealous?” 

“You tell me,” Poe leans against the elevator doorway. 

A tense silence stirs between you both and while you did enjoy that Poe was actually talking to you, and not your alias, all you can do is shake your head and look away. 

“I have to go find Boz, he said he needed to talk to me.” 

“Of course.”

You move to walk past him, and only freeze when you hear him say your name softly. Not turning your head, you stay staring ahead through the hallway. Even when he walks up behind you, you can’t bring yourself to look at him.

Because you didn’t want him to see just how much you love hearing him say your name.

He leans close, his breath fanning against your ear— a shiver crawling up your spine. “Be careful out there, apparently a larger group of First Order officers are supposed to be here tonight. I’ll be close by, don’t worry. Okay, sweetheart?”

You didn’t know what you were expecting him to say, but calling you sweetheart for a third time definitely wasn’t it. And you definitely didn’t expect him to stand so close to you— close enough that his chest was almost pressed up against your back. All you had to do was lean back a little more, to feel him completely pressed up against you. 

Stop it, stop it, stop it!

“I know you will,” you quickly say. “You always are, I can count on that.” 

You didn’t even wait for him to respond, because you were already making your way out of the elevator, down the hall to the club— the faint sound of the music growing louder the closer you got to the door. Poe quickly manages to catch up, opening the door for you, and you see the same sight as you would every other night here. 

Making your way through the club, you push past the large groups until you spot Boz all the way at the bar. Poe moves close to you, shielding you from others as they all gawk at you. You always felt safe when Poe was near you, so you became more relaxed and paid no mind to the straying eyes. 

As you approach the bar, Boz turns to you, his face filled with glee. “There you are my darling!” 

He comes up, cupping your cheeks with his hands so lightly— like you were a delicate flower he didn’t want to bruise. 

Boz was actually a sweet man, and he did seem to show favor to you more than the others, some of which showed their displeasure at that. He did seem as though he was a bit protective of you, but also you believed it was mainly because of the situation— he didn’t want anything to happen to you before the right man came along with the highest payment.

You smile as Boz lowers his hands, “You said you wanted to see me?” 

“Yes!” He claps his hands. “We may have actually found someone who may be perfect.”

“Oh? What do you—“

“A gentleman has arrived,” he turns you to face the private booths. “See him there? The one in the black suit with the red handkerchief in his chest pocket.” 

You follow Boz’s gaze, until your eyes settle on a man taking a sip of his drink. His clean cut, golden blonde hair is perfectly gelled back— if there was a sliver of grey in his hair, you couldn’t tell. A few women, your coworkers, try approaching him but he simply waves them off, not giving them a chance to speak. By his appearance, especially the lavish black suit he was wearing, you knew he had to be of high status. 

“Who is—“

“Let’s go my darling,” Boz quickly pulls you away before Poe gets a chance to speak. 

Giving Poe a solemn look, you turn to follow Boz as he leads you through the crowd. As you get closer, a strange familiarity washes over you. You swore you’ve seen this man before. Maybe you’ve seen him around the club before and just didn’t notice him right away?

“Boz, do you know who he is?”

“Tyris Pic, made out of credits, mind you,” he chuckles. “Now, why don’t you work your charms on him, dear.” 

Your heartbeat quickens— you know what Boz wants you to do. Putting on your best smile and nodding, Boz grins before he walks up to Tyris while you stray behind him. 

“Hello Mr. Pic, how have we been settling?”

“Fine, thank you,” he says, each sound articulated with his smooth accent. You believed he might have been from Chandrila. 

You watch as he takes a drink, the liquid a bright blue like his eyes, which flicker over to you. He sets his glass down, leaning back into his seat. 

“Might I ask who this beautiful creature here is?” 

“Of course,” Boz simpers, stepping out of the way to reveal you. “May I introduce our Untouched One, our Sparkling Kyber… Kyla Tille. Kyla, my dear, this is—

“Tyris Pic,” the man says, straightening his suit as he stands up, holding his hand out. “Charmed.” 

“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Pic—“

“Please,” he gently takes your hand, pressing a soft kiss to the back of it. “Call me Tyris.” 

You put on a gracious smile, pulling your hand back as Boz claps his hands. 

“I’ll let you both get acquainted.”

As Boz walks off gleefully, Tyris motions towards the booth, waving down a server droid.

“May I interest you in buying a drink?” 

“If you insist.” 

++++++

Poe’s jaw tightens as he watches the blonde haired man wrap his arm just above your shoulders. He’d been watching you both for a while, since you walked away with Boz, and so far he doesn’t like what he’s seen. 

He doesn’t like the way the man is touching you. He doesn’t like the way he leans close to whisper in your ear. And he especially doesn’t like the way you laugh at something he says. 

Something about this guy— whether it was how he looked or just the smug grin he kept on his face— made Poe feel uneasy. 

Just as Tin walks by, Poe manages to grab her arm and pull her to the side. Tin smirks, leaning against the wall. 

“Well, I knew you would come to your senses—“

“Easy, Tin,” Poe releases her. “What do you know about that guy over there with Kyla?” 

“What makes you think I know who he is?” She raises a brow, crossing her arms. 

“You always walk up to the same men— you’re good with faces and names— mainly because you know which ones pay well and which ones won’t.” 

She narrows her eyes, an amused look on her face. “Glad to hear you’ve been watching me.”

“Tin,” Poe’s voice becomes stern and she gently pats his chest. 

“I’m teasing. But, I overheard Boz talking about some important guy coming in. His name is Tyris Pic.” 

Poe repeats the name a few times, stepping back. “Thanks, Tin.”

“No problem, but you might want to ease up a bit.”

“Ease what up?”

“Don’t want anyone to see just how jealous Kyla’s bodyguard gets when she is with other men, right?”

Poe’s mouth opens and closes, struggling to come up with coherent sentences. Tin gives a teasing laugh, stepping away from him. 

“Don't worry, your secret is safe with me,” she turns away, latching onto another man’s arm. “How are you today, handsome?”

Poe shakes his head, glancing over to the booth where you still sit with the man— Tyris. Now that Poe has a name, he needs to know exactly who he is. 

Poe asks another escort to watch over you while he heads to the fresher, and quickly leaves the club. Stealing glances both ways, he heads into a utility closet, where he pulls out his comm device. 

“Finn? Come in, Finn.” 

It takes a moment, but Poe let’s out a breath of relief when he hears Finn’s voice on the other end.

“Poe? I didn’t expect to hear from you so soon. We got the information on the names you gave us: Rix, Zoras, and Tin? They—“

“We’ll get back to them, buddy. But I need your help, I got another name for you.” 

“Alright, who are we checking on, now?”

“What do you know about a Tyris Pic?”

++++++

FIC TAGLIST: @tintinwrites​ @sheridans-dynamos​ @agoldpixie​ @shakespeareanwannabe​ @starkiller-queen​ @netflixandsnuggle​ @nowheredreamer​ @blackhawklove​ @jennibradley​ @rewritingstars​ @chewymoustachio​ @iamaunicorn4704​ @spider-starry​ @roserrys​

[queenangst]

... fluffy prompts you say? *stands up* My Time Has Come: 1) Aizawa & Yagi bonding over being surrogate fathers for the class. 2) Mic teases Aizawa about basically being Shinsou's pseudo dad, realizes how serious the feelings are when Aizawa reacts too seriously, and shows his support for his (friend? Boyfriend?) by trying to get to know Shinsou better. 3) It's not safe for the kids to go home over summer vacation so the teachers conspire to bring summer vacation to the kids -Fluffy

PROMPT: It’s not safe for the kids to go home over summer vacation so the teachers conspire to bring summer vacation to the kids.

for my 30 min fic challenge / send a prompt, and i’ll write you a fic in 30 mins / read more: ‘30 min fics’ tag | commission me!

sunburst [read on AO3]

“You don’t understand,” Shouta says, wanting to be anywhere but here. “We cannot do this. I physically cannot do this.”

“Unfortunately—or rather fortunately,” All Might interrupts, smiling, “the principal’s already approved this. He said it would be, a… how did he phrase it, Yamada?”

“A good bonding exercise!” Hizashi’s grinning, sly like a cat. “Shouta, it’s gonna be so fun, I promise.”

“Pool party,” Nemuri calls. “Ooh, do you think any of the kids will let me do their nails? Or their hair?”

“You can do mine,” All Might says, bemused, and Nemuri beams.

They all look at Shouta. Shouta wants to leave the room, but Hizashi’s already blocked the door with a chair for such a reaction.

Shouta sighs. He’s been fighting a losing fight ever since Hizashi burst into the teacher’s lounge shouting and filled to the brim with terrible ideas.

But they’re all just looking at him, and Shouta wants to wipe those grins off their faces before he develops a severe allergy.

“I’m not helping,” Shouta tells them. Nemuri and Hizashi high-five like they’re middle schoolers. All Might leans back in his chair, satisfied, and coughs softly into his hand.

Two days later, sequestered in the bathroom with a pack of water balloons and a bucket, Shouta has been roped into helping. It’s a class water balloon fight—which means there will be water everywhere . Shouta’s only been in one when he was younger, and the only joy he’d gotten out of it was sneaking up and smashing water balloons on his friends’ unsuspecting heads, watching them sputter helplessly.

He finishes filling the last one and ties it off. Before Shouta leaves, he catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror. Unlike his coworkers, he hasn’t bothered to change into more ‘summery’ clothes, and he definitely hasn’t let go of his capture weapon.

This is an opportunity for fun and games for everyone except for him. There’s still bags under his eyes. He’s fine with letting the kids relax—goodness knows they need a break—but Shouta doesn’t. He can’t. Someone has to watch out for everyone.

That’s why they’re all stuck at U.A. anyway. A warning about U.A. students being a possible target, at least for the time being, means they’re staying in the dorms for a few weeks while the situation’s monitored. Even if it is summer vacation. While Class 1-A has been playing darts and hide-and-seek, Shouta has been in and out of meetings, one hand on his weapon at all times. Instant alerts to his phone. Going through security measures with the other teachers.

His kids are waiting for him outside, crowded in a big group and chattering excitedly. Shouta feels his mouth twitch, but he tampers down the warm feeling in his chest and sets the bucket on the ground.

“Alright!” Hizashi cheers. “So, um… free-for-all?”

Shouta scans the perimeter. Nothing out of place. The dorms are close by; they can run back in minutes if anything happens, and Shouta will bring up the rear to make sure everyone gets inside. He counts every student. They’re all here.

Shouta retreats to the nearby shade of a building, where All Might has pulled a few chairs out. All Might’s dressed in a loose button-down shirt that’s covered in little pineapples. As Hizashi referees, Shouta drops into an open chair.

“Enjoying yourself yet?”

Shouta snorts. “That’s not my job.”

All Might props his chin on one hand, looking a little pensive as he glances past Shouta at the laughing kids. The former hero sighs.

“May I ask you something, Aizawa?”

Shouta scuffs his foot on the ground. “Hm.”

“I spent a long time being the Symbol of Peace,” All Might muses, fingers tracing over the chair’s arm, “and I am— proud to pass the torch onto these young heroes. I think they’ll be great.”

“That’s not a question,” Shouta points out, but All Might waves a hand.

“I kept fighting until I couldn’t.” He glances down. “And then I got up, and kept going, because I thought the world needed me. And then I kept fighting, because I thought I was the only person who could, until I really couldn’t anymore. And I am going to spend the rest of my life like this.”

All Might reaches a hand over and wraps it around Shouta’s wrist. He was a hero long before Shouta was; nearly two decades longer. He’d been fighting villains before Shouta was born, even, with a world of difference between them. All Might had created that world.

“I regret it, a little.”

Shouta jolts and turns, surprised. All Might chuckles.

“I don’t regret saving people. I don’t regret bearing the burden so no one would have to. I did what I thought the world needed,” All Might says, and his gaze drifts again. Shouta turns his head, and he knows All Might is searching through the crowd of tangled students for Midoriya. Midoriya’s smiling, harder than Shouta has ever seen him, as he and Uraraka tag team Iida. “But I’ve been learning, recently, that there is a lot that I have missed because I did not let myself have anything.”

Shouta doesn’t want to say anything. Hizashi’s said the same shit; Nemuri’s said the same shit; hell, Nedzu had said something along the same lines. Please take care of yourself. Please just stop running for one minute, one second.Shouta doesn’t know how to explain he can’t.

“I have never known— I thought, there was a time I thought I wasn’t going to be happy again.” All Might rubs his eyes with his free hand, but he’s still holding onto Shouta. “But I am. Very much so.”

Shouta sighs. “Can we not have this conversation now?”

“It is the best time to,” All Might says softly. “I think you’re a wonderful hero. But I think you’re also a person, and you are alive. And living doesn’t only exist in making it another day, though sometimes that’s the only thing we can manage. Sometimes you have to…”

“Enjoy summer?” Shouta quips. “You know I’m allergic to the sun.”

“You were in sunlight a few minutes ago,” All Might teases. He lets go of Shouta’s wrist. “You can’t fool me.”

Shouta grumbles, but the winding pressure that’s always building in him eases. Slightly—only just barely—but Shouta feels like it is monumental.

And then he’s smacked in the side of his face by a water balloon.

Water explodes around him. The impact doesn’t hurt, but Shouta hadn’t even seen it coming; water seeps into his clothes, in his hair. He stands up. All Might guffaws, a loud booming laugh.

“Which one of you threw that?”

“Not me,” twenty voices call at once.

“It was totally me,” Hizashi yells. “Listeners, I’m the pro hero Present Mic, and this is me authorizing you to throw water balloons at Aizawa-sensei over there. And All Might!”

“You don’t want to see me in a water balloon fight,” All Might threatens, taking the opportunity to run forward at a surprising speed and scoop a few from the ground. The students closest to him, Kaminari and Sero, shriek and flee.

Hizashi raises an eyebrow at Shouta.

Shouta frowns.

“Uh oh, Mic-sensei,” Ojiro calls, “he doesn’t look happy.”

“He’s never happy,” Hizashi jokes, but the words make Shouta pause. He’s never happy.

He feels his hair lift slightly off the back of his neck.

“Better start running,” Nemuri calls from somewhere in the distance, cackling.

“I’ll show you,” Shouta says, and unloops his capture weapon to snag a few water balloons. The first one hits Hizashi, the next All Might, and the last Asui, who croaks in surprise.

The class starts moving again, coming back to life, and Shouta feels another water balloon hit him before he can dodge. And he decides it’s an attack he’ll let hit.

Sometime after they’ve run out of water balloons, under the sun, Shouta looks out and wonders when he’d stopped waiting for something to go wrong and started smiling.

[yeojaa]

SUGAR HIGH, chapter xv. (w. JJK)

You're not entirely sure when it happened, though you'd come to terms with it. You'd counted the days, waiting for the inevitable. You'd truly thought you'd be okay, but by the broken, half-beating thing in your chest - you knew you'd never really been prepared.

alt summary.  You thought you’d known real love and maybe you had - it just wasn’t with who you thought.

pairing.  jeon jungkook.  mentions/involvement of ot7.

tags.  angst, break up, post-break up, comfort, OT7, slow burn, friendship, moving on, hurt/comfort, emotional hurt/comfort, emotional baggage, fluff, canon compliant, jeon jungkook is bad at feelings, jeon jungkook is a good friend, jeon jungkook is a sweetheart.

rating.  general (for now?)

word count.  1900

chapter 15.  Bandaids

Instead, he regards you with the most unfathomable expression he’s ever given.  “So what?”

“What’re you sorry for?”  He sounds so confused, every word dredged in the word.  His brow furrows, following the question that tips off his teeth and crashes against you.  His fingers flex in his lap, furl and unfurl in unconscious motions that immediately catch your attention.

You watch the way the ink moves over his skin, stretched taut over his knuckles and disappearing into the sleeve of his shirt.  You think to reach out and bottle the nervous energy, tuck it among your hidden words of affection and cobweb-lined shelves.  Instead, you shrink further into the side of the couch, gaze bouncing around the room.  It finds his face – briefly, with guilt – and then darts to the painting of his hung on the far wall.  Off it goes to his hands again, the silver that glints around his wrist, and then the hangnail adorning your own thumb.

The silence has stretched on, immeasurably long, but he doesn’t push you – as much as he wants to.

Not for your sake, but for his.  He’s walking on eggshells, terrified one false move might send a glass into his vein.  Shards of the home that’s been crumbling right before your eyes, reduced to ghost of its former glory.

“I’m sorry,”  you repeat as if it’s the only thing you can say – the only words you know how to speak.  Perhaps it is, because there doesn’t feel like there are any that can properly convey your emotion.

You owe it to him to try, though.  That much is clear.

“You haven’t done anything wrong.”  Unless being too good, too kind, too perfect, was a crime.  You knew it wasn’t and yet, with each offer of patience – of unconditional love – it felt like a cleave to the heart.  It wasn’t his fault you were bleeding out before him.

The reassurance only serves to confuse him more, the emotion heavy in the pretty dark brown of his irises.  You both love and hate when he’s like this – not your precious best friend but a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders.  It doesn’t fit his boyish charm, the sunlight that spills out of every pore.  It’s too much.

“Then what’s going on?”  You’re both surprised by the hard edge and how it forces itself into the equation before he can even consider it.

Your eyes meet for the first time since you’ve sat down and you regret it immediately.

Because your dear sweet Jungkook has oceans in his eyes, moisture threatening to spill over like a crashing wave.  They’re so glassy you feel lost, trapped in the galaxy and the stars and unknown. 

How could you keep doing this?  Time after time, he’d sought you out and each time, you were nothing but a godforsaken mirage, promising him everything and stripping him bare.  When he needed you most, parched and on his last legs, you’d compelled and beguiled him only to leave him just as quickly.

When had you turned into this person?

The sound that escapes your chest isn’t human.  It’s hardly even a sound.  A breath that hasn’t quite formed and cracks itself in two, lodging one half in your lungs and the other over the threshold of your teeth.  How fitting – like a heart split in half.

You see the way he instinctively leans toward you, caught in your gravitational pull, but holds himself back at the last minute.  The movement almost reads like a flinch, as if he’s afraid he’ll hurt himself by getting too close.

That’s right, you think.  I’ll only hurt you.

Another sob comes, tearless and miserable.  You wish the burning behind your eyes would abate but they won’t come that easily.  The settle like poison and wine, corroding your insides.  They sink into every part of you, climbing each vertebrae and slotting into every crevice.  No part is left untouched by the miasma.

Except for the Jungkook-shaped hole in your chest, centered in the throbbing muscle of your heart.

His silhouette remains lily white and lovely – a silver lining.  A beacon in your darkest times, a lighthouse in the storm.  It calls to you and reminds you of better days, of unconditional love and soulmates.

“I love you.”  It’s meant to be an apology but to his ears, it’s the same three words you’ve repeated your whole life.  He doesn’t understand why you’re saying them now, on the precipice of coming apart at the seams, torn open by something you won’t share.

Regardless, he says it back.  Needs to.  “I love you, too.”   

“No!” 

Your rebuff explodes out of you, followed by another cry that lands like a bull’s eye between his ribs.  He thinks he might finally crack, feels the carefully constructed resolve splintering.  Was it so terrible to be loved by him?  He shrinks back, suddenly far smaller than he’s ever seemed.  He’s almost to his feet, blinded by the wetness gathered there.  He can’t be here right now.  He’d been an idiot to try.    

It’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back.  Yours, and his, in tandem.

“I’m sorry.”  You’re across the couch in a single motion, fingers seeking his wildly.  “Please.  Don’t go.”  It’s the first time you’ve ever had to ask this of him, and it feels foreign coming from you.  That, and it’s barely coherent, spoken around tears that have suddenly made themselves very apparent.

You don’t miss the look he gives you, a mixture of exasperation and heartache.  You’ve never seen that specific combination and it cuts like a knife, severing your seeking hands with one fell swoop.

“Why, Soom?”  He’s begging for a reason to stay.  (A part of him thinks he shouldn’t, but he’s never been able to think straight when it comes to you.)

“Because I love you,”  you repeat, like that’s an answer.  He doesn’t say it back this time – too afraid of whatever explosion will shatter the remains of his ribcage and eviscerate his heart. 

Instead, he regards you with the most unfathomable expression he’s ever given.  “So what?”

Whatever you’d expected, it wasn’t that.  It’s a smack to the face, a backhand so severe you’re winded by the blow, staggering back on your haunches as you look up at him.  So what?  What did he mean, so what?  Even through your tears, you can see the flat line of his mouth, his teeth sucking his bottom lip into submission.  The beauty mark smack dab in the centre winks at you.

He’s tired of the dance you’re doing, exhausted by the choreography he hasn’t been taught and is expected to somehow know.  He’s done his very best, poured every ounce of himself into it.

“I’m always here.  I always come running.”  Gone is the golden maknae, replaced by the same, uncertain boy you’d met all those years ago.  “Even when I don’t know if you want me, I come.  I would do anything for you.”  The words are a searing brand straight into chest.  “But you can’t even talk to me.”  There’s something hidden amongst the sadness – resentment, maybe?  You’ve never heard it from him, so it rings unfamiliar and strange.  “I’m trying so fucking hard!”

The way he snaps, words ricocheting off one another, has you alarmed. 

All this time – you’d thought you would hurt him.  So you’d held yourself back for fear of doing so and yet, you’d already done it, torn him to shreds without even thinking.

The knowledge has you babbling, tripping over yourself.  If you’d already hurt him, what did it matter now?  The damage was done.  One more nail in the coffin wouldn’t make a difference.

“I love you!”  How many times you can say it, you’re honestly not sure.  Each time, it’s more agitated, more broken – only held together by the red string that’s connected you all your lives.  It’s barely hanging on though, frayed at the edges and in terrible disrepair.  “I’m so in love with you I don’t know what to do with myself!”  You don’t mean to shout but it comes nonetheless, clawing its way out of the cavity of bones and careening off your lips in a wet sob.  “I feel like I’m going crazy.  I’m so afraid of losing you and everything we have.” 

You’re like a meteor tearing through the upper atmosphere, hurtling toward your doom.  You can’t stop, speaking a mile a minute.  You’re not even looking at him, blinded so by the saltwater in your eyes.  “Being around you is so hard.  It’s impossible to act normal around you after—”  

The silence is deafening as you slam to a stop, beet red and embarrassed.

“After what?”  You hadn’t noticed he’d fallen back into his seat, his face mere inches from yours.

“What?”  You squeak out a hiccup and scramble back, though go nowhere.  A steady weight holds you in place, strong fingers curled around the dainty turn of your wrist while the other forms itself to the slope of your neck.

“After what,”  Jungkook repeats.  He’s so close you can count each individual lash, the way they shimmer with fallen tears.  Gone is the resentment, the anger, replaced by what closely resembles awe.  You don’t have time to consider the meaning behind that when he asks again, harder this time.

You answer without thought, compelled by the heat of his breath and the way his eyes twinkle.  “After I dreamt about you.”  Hesitation because you hadn’t expected the relief that washes over his every inch, releasing the tension in his jaw.  “About us.”

His mouth is on yours in an instant, swallowing the last word whole. 

It’s better than any dream.  Because he is real and he is home and every pass of his soft, dry lips is like sinking further into bliss.  It holds you up in the form of his hands and slots itself in the broken places you’d never fixed. 

You get lost in the sensation and the way he sparks electricity everywhere he touches.  You’ve finally got an outlet for the current that surges through your veins, standing the hairs on the back of your neck and thundering in your ears.  It’s far from perfect – too much clumsily knocking teeth – but the passion is there, years of love swept into the drag of his tongue and the sweet ache of his bite.   

“I love you so fucking much,”  he pants when he’s forced away, cursing the necessity of air and breathing and anything that isn’t you.  “I’ve wanted this since— forever.”

It’s music to your ears, sweeter than any song you’ve ever heard because it’s his voice.

“I love you, too.”  This time, it sounds different.  More.

But more doesn’t seem like enough to him, because he’s pressing sloppy, open-mouthed kisses across every inch of skin.  The corner of your lips, the line of your jaw, the column of your neck that he’s wanted to devour a million times before.  He dresses you in sweet nothings and affection, sucking his devotion into the sensitive point beneath your ear.  He likes the way red blooms beneath your skin – a reminder of his love – so he does it again and again, creating the prettiest mosaic.

It’s all for him, at first.  He’s waited his whole life for this and he takes his time.

When he hears your voice, the soft breathy calls of his name, he realizes he wants to give you more.  Needs it like he needs you.

notes.  here it is, people!  after fifteen excruciating chapters, the cat's out of the bag.  who knows if that's a good thing, tho.  kidding!

[maxskulline]

Freshly brewed coffee steams in a cup that’s shaped like the bulbous form of a Petilil. The hands wrapped around it are speckled in cuts and freckles alike, because farm work is never easy and because she spends more time in the sun these days than she’s used to. Max found out that she isn’t too prone to sunburn, and that that’s a good thing when you work in one of Alola’s dryest, hottest areas. Instead, her skin turned into a soft tan and her freckles stand out more than ever. It looks pretty - anyone would say so. Those who were once bold enough to trace the constellations on her skin always said how much they love that she’s star kissed. But beauty isn’t anything she pays much attention to these days. Why should she? On a usual day, Max works herself to the limit and then some, pushes past the possible because she dreams less when she’s exhausted. Dreams are unpleasant, unwelcomed, repetetive and she’s so tired of seeing it all happening over and over again. Of seeing him. 

The him she knew last, his wickedness forever imprinted into her memory, is more bearable. She can deal with the hatred she feels for this person. It’s the dreams of their time before - before all of this - the dreams of a family she has loved and lost -  those are the ones driving Max to a fitful, tear-stained awakening. Sometimes, she scrambles to the bathroom just in time to purge herself. As if she could throw up the shards he has left of her, cutting her apart from the inside. It is for this reason Max eventually decided to sleep in her own room, and protect Rosie from the mess she has turned into. She had to promise Rosie that she’ll take a bedroom next door, and that she’d always be there when Rosie needed her. But this is a battle she prefers to fight alone. 

On some days, Max doesn’t respond much when someone attempts conversation. These are the bad days. The days when she can only make it by because she’s had nothing for breakfast but a good handful of Valium. If asked, Max will blame it on bad sleep - it’s not technically a lie. Although, in hindsight, no one cares how dissociated she feels as long as she’s earning her keep on the farm, and intrusive answers are never demanded by anyone. In return she doesn’t care if she can’t remember the rest of the day because all that matters is to make it by somehow and save up enough Pokédollars to leave this godforsaken island. 

Today’s one of those less than okay days. The cup’s been sitting in front of her nose for a good half hour and turned luke-warm, voices and colours are whirring around the pink haired girl who sits two chairs apart from another youth at the table, a television is running distantly in the background. It’s all there and not there at the same time. To the outside eye, Max may look like a girl who isn’t an early riser and who needs her first cup of coffee to be talkative. They wouldn’t guess that she hasn’t slept to begin with lest they take a closer look at her face and notice the dark circles lining her eyes. 

Her fingers begin to trace the texture of the oak wood table over and over again, although she hardly acknowledges the sensation, while she musters enough clarity to wonder where Rosie went. There’s a young man named Rocky she’s getting along with well, very much to her surprise. Rocky’s been - he’s been good to them. Especially to Rosie. Patient, attentive, funny, the kinda guy with such a warmth in his smile that he could melt away glaciers. He’s handsome, too. If Max cared about such shallow nonsesense nowadays. Still, for all the fucks she’s lost to give, she definitely cares about Rosie, and Rosie’s smiling a little more around him. It is the sole reason why Max can let herself relax a little whenever her best friend is spending time with him, indulge in self-pity without pretending she’s anything but heartbroken. 

The coffee’s gone pretty cold now. Doors open and shut close again, until she’s left in the room with three middle-aged farm workers. No one had shut off the TV. Max feels like she’s only now waking up, slowly blinking and shifting on her seat until her whereabouts make sense again. When the large grandfather clock tells her it’s almost time for her shift, Max lifts the cup at last and empties it in two large sips. Ugh - unsugared, cold coffee’s pretty much the worst and almost makes her wanna spit it out again, but it does as good a job of snapping her back as a smack to her cheek would. She cringes into herself and reaches out to pluck a grape from the fruit bowl as a means to wash away the bitterness. 

Her hand stops and falls flat when someone turns up the TV, loud enough to make her feel like she’s being once again pulled under water where she cannot breathe. 

‘.......... as of this morning, we can confirm that the President of the Aether Foundation was found and is now receiving medical care.’

Max moves on auto-pilot. Her legs don’t even feel like her own when she gets up and joins the others by the TV, fingers curled inwards so tightly that her nails leave crescent dents. Everything she hears and sees, Max watches from somewhere else - she’s no longer the owner of her body, but rather an observer. And yet - yet she feels more alert than she has had for the past couple of weeks. “What’s going on?”, she hears herself ask, unable to tear her eyes away from the screen. Next to the reporter plays a scene most likely recorded by phone, a shaky recording trying to focus on a bright tear in the sky. ‘It shouldn’t be there’ is the first thing Max thinks when she sees the wormhole - she’s never seen one in person before, made it out before she ever could. But looking at it feels unnatural and wrong because she knows the sinister fabrications behind it. All those experiments on the poor Pokémon..... no, this thing shouldn’t exist. 

“Dunno, they said it’s been there for hours before someone dropped out of it. Closed up right after. Apparently it spat out the missing Aether Foundation president.” 

And there she is. A fallen angel, exiled from what she had deemed her own paradise - a fitting and deserved ending to the nightmare she had played such a great part to create. She can’t find an ounce of sympathy within her, and why should she? This woman - she may look like a fallen angel now, but she certainly helped to crown Max as the queen of nothing - and she deserves everything she’s got coming for her. But not even the thought of a fitting punishment can satisfy Max now because something else’s catching her attention. 

It’s easy to miss, really. Just a black shadow falling through the sky when the camera zooms in. Max may have been the only one who saw it happening - a man dropping from the wormhole mere seconds after the President - a someone not even the news care to name. If Max thought she had lost her ground before, now it is swallowing her up whole. There’s little room to breathe down here, in the depths of everything she suppressed until now - the uncertainity and the fear and the deeply rooted knowing she wouldn’t let herself dwell upon because it hurts too much. She was right all along. She was right to think he’d do it. Max whimpers but doesn’t feel the solid pull on her arm, dragging her away from the television. A strong, kind hand - Rocky’s hand.

He and Lusamine are the only people who fell from the wormhole. There was no one else. None. He’s left them all behind. Max can feel her mind reeling, the world around her spinning. There’s a ringing in her ears, but every sound is dull, as if spoken through cotton wool. Max is pliant when Rocky maneuvers her out of the house and Rosie grabs her hand, speaking to her, telling her friend to breathe.

There was no one else. 

Traitor.

Guzma had called her a traitor for turning her back on him and his grandior plans. What had happened to her friends? Where are they? Did - did he leave them in his so called paradise? No.. No, that’s not it. She knows that’s not what had happened at all. Her vision blurs when something inside her fractures at the truth she had known all along. Now she’s clinging to Rosie, though she doesn’t remember when her hands found Rosie’s upper arms. She may be squeezing too tightly because Rosie flinches, but she doesn’t push Max away when her body cracks and she starts sobbing. 

He didn’t take them with him to begin with. Because there never was any room for anyone else, not even for Max.

She can’t turn away from the last time she saw him; it plays like a broken record, over and over and over again. How could she have believed that their ending may have swayed something inside of Guzma? She remembers him on his knees before her, rain-soaked, defeated, insane. She remembers the look in his eyes when she left him for good. She remembers that he wasn’t alone - he was surrounded by the people who adored and admired him through every challenge, who were there to catch his fall from grace and who could have made a change for him - but instead, he chose to follow her. Every last bit of hope she had left for him died today. She hates herself for having hoped to begin with - such a stupid and human thing to do. Guzma cannot be saved from his greed for everything that’s bigger and better than him. It is a disease and it’s infested him too deeply. He cannot see the good that he already has - that’s why, in the end, he couldn’t see her. Max doubts he ever will learn to know what he has. It isn’t her problem anymore.

Half an hour passes in the blink of an eye, but eventually, her breathing slows down and the tears dry fast under Alola’s brightest sun. A pair of brown eyes stare with concern, but there’s pain in them, too. Max wishes she could take it away - but she can’t even take her own pain away. What good is she, really? 

She really is the queen of nothing.

“Sorry about that”, she croaks out and clears her throat twice. Fumbles in the pocket of her pants for a half-empty pack of cigarettes and can’t even light it because her fingers shake so much. Kudos to Rocky for nicking the lighter and doing the job for her.

“Rosie.” 

Another problem comes with the fact that Guzma’s back in the picture. Not that she expects him to look for her, but you never know - might wanna take his sweet revenge for ruining his image in front of the Prez. She’ll need to make herself invisible and unknown to him, or to anyone who may recognize her as his..... 

Whatever. 

The first cigarette’s burned down within seconds. She can light the next one herself, ignoring the concern written all over Rosie’s and Rocky’s faces because Max is acting like this break down didn’t even happen. “I need your help with something, okay? If he’s back out there, I need to make sure he’ll never find me.”

Because Arceus knows how long they’ll have to work for an escape from Alola.

“I need you to cut my hair.” 

[alindakb]

Letters to my Parents - 24 June 1995 - by Alinda

24 June 1995

Dear Mr and Mrs Potter,

Don’t be alarmed that I’m the one writing to you today. Harry is sound asleep and he needs his rest, but I know he would love that you were informed on all that happened today. The final task was today and we finally know why Harry’s name was put into the Goblet of Fire, and why he had to participate in the tournament. But for you to understand, I think I need to start where Harry left off.

After we visited Headmaster Dumbledore because of Harry’s dream, we focused on preparing Harry for the final task of this dammed tournament. Hermione and I spend most of our time of teaching Harry spells that could help him. We made sure he was able to cast the Impediment Jinx, the Reductor curse, the Four Point spell and a proper Shield charm. Professor Snape was so kind to let us use an empty classroom in the dungeons for practice. And from time to time he would come to help. He would then practice with Harry so Hermione and I could study for our exams. He would tell us that helping Harry was no excuse to slack off on our studying and to lose our top positions in our year.

Harry received daily letters from Sirius and he wrote to him often to assure him that he was fine and he was preparing well for the task. You can be proud of your friend, he is a good Godfather for Harry now that he’s free and cleared off all the ridiculous charges they pinned on him. He worries as much about Harry as I do. And no matter how many times Harry assured him he was sticking to school rules and was making sure he was keeping save, the man would remind Harry to do so in every letter.

Hermione and Ron joined us for breakfast this morning, as Hermione wanted to go over some more spells with Harry that might be useful for him during the task. Only we never got around to that. When the morning post arrived, Harry received another letter from Sirius, wishing him good luck and informing him that he will be visiting him today before the task. Harry was excited about that until Hermione spit out her pumpkin juice when she read the headline of the Daily Prophet. She tried to hide the paper, but I stole it from her. Pansy and Theo were snickering over their copy and I wanted to know what it was now.

You will never believe it, but Rita Seeker has published another rubbish story. According to her Harry is ‘Disturbed and Dangerous’. And only because he is friends with Were-wolfs and Giants (even though Hagrid is only half-giant and the friendliest man I know) and speaks Parseltongue. It turns out that Theo has been speaking to the press. He also told her all about how Harry had collapsed in class and that his scars hurt from time to time. Apparently, all this concludes to that Harry will do anything to get power and is therefore dangerous. It’s a joke that people believe this. You know just as well as me that Harry doesn’t crave power and is the kindest person in this world. There is nothing dangerous about him. And I was so proud of him that he didn’t get angry about the article but just brushed it off as nonsense and didn’t let it distract him from the task he had to do today.

It was then that Hermione went into her crazy ‘I’m too smart for my own good’ mode, said something about thinking she knows how Rita does it and then rushed off to the library. I think she finally figured out how Rita comes by her information and I’m sure she will explain it to us soon, when Harry is allowed visitors. We’re at the hospital wing now, but Harry is okay. He’s not hurt, just exhausted.

After breakfast, we all had to go to our History of Magic exam, while Harry got to see his family. We (Hermione, Blaise, Luna, Greg, Daphne, Millicent and I) joined them during lunch. Harry wanted to know how I did on the exam. He still hates that he doesn’t have to sit any of them and has all this free time while we have to cram and study and take tests. I get that he finds it unfair that competing in the Tri-Wizard tournament gives him a free pass this year, but it’s not like he hasn’t been studying just as hard as we did.

We only had a short time to talk in private before I had to go rush off to my next exam. Sirius brought professor Lupin and Tonks along and Harry said he was a bit worried about Sirius. Something about Sirius glancing at Lupin and Tonks all the time. Harry says Lupin and Tonks are getting along, as in maybe more than just in a friendly way. That must be hard for Sirius, as it’s clear that he’s still in love with professor Lupin, even after all these years.

There was a big feast for dinner and we all laughed about how much Sirius eats. Professor Lupin told us he’s always been like that. Daphne joked that he was just like Ron, who also eats more than should be humanly possible. All others enjoyed the feast, but it was clear that Harry was getting nervous and he eat practically nothing. I wanted to tell him that he needed to eat, only I was struggling myself to finish the food on my plate. I had a bad feeling about it all (which were grounded as it turns out, but everyone told me not to worry, so I tried not to).

When Harry had to leave for the task I kissed him goodbye. Blaise joked that Harry would be back and that I didn’t have to kiss him like he was walking towards his death. Sirius smacked him on the head for that and everyone laughed about it. Only the remark had already done its damage. I couldn’t get the sight of Harry, pale and lifeless out of my mind, the memory of two years ago, when I found him on that bathroom floor making its way to the surface. And I know Harry was thinking about the same. He whispered that he would be okay, that he won’t ever leave me and then kissed me again.

I watched him walk out of the Great Hall with a tear stuck in my eye. Sirius placed an arm around my shoulders and told me to have a little faith in Harry, that he was more than capable to take care of himself. And then he said that he was also worried.

Watching the task was hell. We couldn’t see a thing. It was dark and the hedges of the maze were so high we couldn’t see what was going on. I started to bite my nails until Daphne pulled them out of my mouth and took a hold on my hand. They were all so optimistic, so sure Harry would win and that it would all be over soon. I love how much faith they have in Harry, and they were right of course. Harry won. We only wish it hadn’t been at the price it came with.

Sometime in we could hear Fleur scream before all went quiet again. I squeezed Daphne’s hand and she told me not to worry, that it wasn’t Harry that screamed, that he was fine. And even though I could feel through our connection that Harry was truly fine, just a little scared, I didn’t take away the feeling I had that it would all end badly. This feeling didn’t become any less when red sparks shot up from the maze and Viktor was lifted out of the maze on a stretcher to be rushed off to the hospital wing.

I was glad to see that Hermione was just as worried as me. Ron complained that he would have no hand left after this task if Hermione won’t loosen up her grip. This task was more dangerous than any of the other tasks and I just wished our other friends would see it too.

It wasn’t until the flash of the Port-key when they started to worry too. Not that I noticed. I was running down the stands and towards the maze before any of them had said a word. I could feel that Harry was no longer close by. He had gone with the Port-key and he was terrified. I know it was silly to run towards the maze, knowing Harry wasn’t in there anymore, but it was the only physical place I could go that would bring me closer to him. Something horrible was happening. I could feel fear and sorrow through our connection.

Professor Lupin stopped me before I reached the maze. He held me in his arms and tried to calm me down. I think I was screaming and reaching on, but I’m not sure. All I could feel was the horror that Harry was going through. The professors did a quick search of the maze, with the help of Sirius and some other adults around. Both Cedric and Harry were missing. Fleur was found unconscious in the maze and she couldn’t tell us what happened. Sirius took me in his arms and hold me close. He asked me if I could still feel Harry, if he was still alive. I think it helped him that I could say yes, that he was still with us.

And then everything became worse. First I saw Professor Snape grab his left forearm and his face contorted into pain. His mark was flaring up, I’m sure of it now. He looked at me and I just cried. The look in Professor Snape’s eyes said it all. The Dark Lord is back. And no doubt Harry was near him. I whispered that he was going to die. Sirius heard me and told me to keep hope, to remember that Harry was strong and wouldn’t give in without a fight. I know that if he had known where Harry was he would have gone there in a flash, putting his own life at risk to make sure Harry would be safe. I know, because I would have done the same.

The pain came without warning. I screamed and crumbled in Sirius’ arms. He asked me what was wrong, but I couldn’t speak because of the pain. It was so intense. Tears streamed over my face as I realised I wasn’t hurt, but that someone was hurting Harry is a way that was so awful that even I was paralysed by it.

When the pain stopped I could breathe again for a couple of seconds before it started again. Over and over again, I was in agony because someone was hurting Harry. Professor Moody was near, and he kept asking me if Harry was still alive. I just nodded, it was all I could do. I was afraid that if I would open my mouth I would start screaming again.

There was another flash and I didn’t have to look up to know that Harry was back. He lay motionless on the ground with his eyes closed and I could feel Sirius tense next to me. I said ‘he’s alive’ and then I was on my feet, running towards Harry. Headmaster Dumbledore turned Harry around and I heard him say that Voldemort is back before I fell down beside him and hugged him close. One of his hands grabbed hold of me but the other wouldn’t let go of Cedric’s wrist. I looked over Harry’s shoulder to the boy, only to see his blank eyes. He was dead. And I know this is horrible, but at that moment I was glad it was Cedric and not Harry that had died. Cedric didn’t deserve this, to have his life end when it was only just beginning.

Harry first didn’t want to let go of Cedric’s body. He kept saying that Cedric wanted Harry to bring him back. Headmaster Dumbledore said it was okay, that he did, and that he could let go now. When he did, Sirius and I helped him up. Minister Fudge was there, he told Headmaster Dumbledore that the Diggory’s parents were here and Dumbledore and he move to talk to them before they would see the body. Professor Moody told us to get Harry to the hospital wing. Sirius lifted Harry in his arms. It was a bit weird, Harry in Sirius's arms, but he wouldn’t let go of my hand, so we walked towards the castle like that. Professor Moody made sure there was a path for us to take, pushing aside everyone in our way.

We reached the hospital wing and Professor Moody asked what happened. Harry wasn’t all that clear, but what he said was terrifying. It still scares me. He was taken to some graveyard where Cedric was killed. They made a potion that gave the Dark Lord a new body and then he duelled with the Dark Lord. His wand did something funny and he saw the both of you.

Professor Moody in the meantime made us some tea and gave it to me and Sirius. I sipped it with one hand, as Harry still wouldn’t let go of the other. I was tired and struggled to keep my eyes open, but I fought sleep. I wanted to be here for Harry who had just been through hell. The Death Eaters had appeared, and I’m sure my father, just like Greg’s father would have been among them. I don’t know if I can go back home now, if it’s even save for me to do so. The Dark Lord is back and my father is one of his followers, always has been and always will be.

Moody kept asking questions, but they seemed off. It was hard to focus and to protest. I could hear Sirius try a couple of times until he fell asleep. I followed not much later.

It turns out that Professor Moody wasn’t Professor Moody. He was Barty Crouch Jr and he had been working for the Dark Lord all year long. He had drugged Sirius and me, so he could talk to Harry alone. He didn’t get away with it and he’s in custody now.

When I woke up about an hour ago, Harry was fast asleep, with his arms around me. He looks so peaceful asleep. Sirius said they had given him some dreamless sleep to make sure he gets some rest. He promised me that Harry is fine and that Madam Pomfrey already mended his leg.

I wish I knew what all happened in that graveyard, but I will let Harry sleep for now. I’m so happy that he’s still alive and with me. I don’t ever want to live without him. He’s the love of my life and I will do whatever I can to protect him from Voldemort. I won’t let him hurt him, I promise. I would rather die than have anything happen to Harry. So don’t worry, I will keep him safe from now on. I will keep my word and make sure nobody ever hurts him again. I won’t be your sacrifice be in fain.

Yours sincerely,

Draco Malfoy

[xxgoblin-dumplingxx]

Off Day: Three

It was only a little after six and Bucky had changed his shirt four times. It felt like he’d touched a live wire and he couldn’t sit still. You weren’t even coming to his house and he’d still changed the sheets, did the dishes and made sure the floors were swept. He hadn’t felt this way in a long time. 

Not even when he and Char first started dancing around each other. Hell. He’d met her still covered in grease and sweat from days in the shop. They’d had sex like that. He didn’t care. He was hardly ever sober when he met with her. He knew he wasn’t the only person Char was sleeping with. The girl had an eye for bikers, bad boys, and people you didn’t want to take home to your mom. Not that he cared. The only reason Char had met his mom was that his mom had walked in on them once. Once. His Ma got a lot better about calling after that. 

As he watched the time tick down he eyed the bottle on the counter for a second before smacking the back of his hand. Alcohol had gotten him into this mess and it probably wouldn’t be what was going to get him out of it. He didn’t think he could make you fall in love with him. He really didn’t. He just. He wanted to- well. To be be honest, he didn’t know what he wanted. You, he guessed. He wanted you. In any way he could have you. Even if it meant as a friend. Even if it meant this is all he got. 

By the time he left the house, several pep talks and several more shirt changes later, he walked down the steps. He loped to his bike and started it, winding his way to the club. It’s 7:15pm and it’s early. Bucky is never early, but it’ll give him time to scope the place out. Threaten Sam and Tony with bodily harm if they ride your ass about anything and maybe, just maybe, keep himself from sweeping a hole in his floor. In front, he saw Char’s car and groaned internally. He considered taking a lap around the block but thought better of it. Maybe, just maybe, if he could have it out with her before you got there, he’d be able to avoid her trying to fight you or something. He knew Char wasn’t about that life. He knew the woman would die if she ever broke a nail. What he didn’t know was you. But his Ma had always told him still waters ran deep. And he knew how you grew up. He didn’t doubt you could hold your own if you needed to. He’d just prefer you not have to.

He ducked in through the side door, going to talk to Natasha before he talked to the others. Everyone assumed he and Steve ran the show and they were dead fucking wrong. Nat had her finger on the pulse and coordinated all their shit. Like it was nothing. She knew everyone. He wanted to know what she knew. If she knew anything about how sick Kaitlyn really was. How long you might be in town. 

“Barnes you fucking asshole,” an all too familiar voice shrilled at him.

“Like a fucking tea kettle,” he muttered, turning. “Sugar,” he said louder, “As much as I’d love to hear about how mad you are at me for last night, just know. I don’t care.”

She reeled back to slap him and Bucky caught her wrist easily, “That’s a little unnecessary, given you being up Barton’s ass for the last week.”

“Fuck you,” she gasped, “Are you really just dragging that trash in here to make me jealous?”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Bucky snorted, “I’ve known Y/N a long fucking time. I’m just catching up with an old friend.”

“An old friend you want to fuck,” she hissed.

“So what if I do?” he challenged, “It’s not like you’re not trying to get it in with like three of the drug dealers in town when you’re not fucking me.”

“Who said?” she pouted.

“Who hasn’t is a shorter list.”

“Aww, Buckaroo,” she said, instantly coquettish and batting her eyes when she realized that shouting wasn’t getting her her way, “You know you’re the only one that matters.”

Bucky cringed internally at the infantilization of his nickname, “Look, Char. She’s coming to get a drink. We’re going to talk. In private. And you’re going to reign in your crazy bitch syndrome until she leaves.”

Char makes a sound reminiscent of a cat being strangled and stomps her foot before flouncing out of the backroom and slamming the front door behind her.

“Hey Buckaroo,” Sam drawled, leaning against the door frame, “Tell me this new one at least a decent human being?”

Bucky sighed, “She’s... She’s Y/N,” he says, “she’s fucking soft. But... well I guess if it tells you anything, Nat likes her.” Bucky feels like a heel not being able to put you into words but he knows Sam’s heard everything he needs to know when the other man nods tacit approval. 

“So,” the other man said, “You gonna get it in tonight?”

“Shit. I’ll be thrilled if she fucking shows up. After all the shit I pulled last time I saw her I really. Really don’t deserve it.”

“That bad huh?” 

Bucky nods, “I just. It’d take hours to explain just, I mean. I’ve known her since Kindergarten. And last time I saw her. Well. I wasn’t at my best.”

“How drunk were you?”

“I asked her to prom. Then forgot and went with Steve to a rally.”

Sam’s mouth fell open and he gaped at Bucky for a second, “Did she hit you? Because I woulda hit you.”

“I wish she would have,” Bucky said rubbing the back of his neck. 

Sam whistled, “Well, if she ain’t hit you, I might. Prom. Really?”

“She’s pretty okay? She’s really pretty and I couldn’t talk to her sober!”

“Fucking marshmallow guts man,” Sam said shaking his head. 

Bucky shrugged. He didn’t mind being soft for you. Not like he had when he was young. “Do me a favor?” Bucky said quietly.

“What’s up?” Sam said stretching.

 “Y/N doesn’t really drink,” he explained, “her dad was the cause of a pretty gnarly wreck a few years ago.”

“Oh shit,” Sam said, “The wreck? The one with Rumlow’s crew where they lost all those drugs?”

Bucky nodded grimly and Sam hissed, “So don’t ride her ass about ordering not alcohol. Got it.”

“Thanks, man.”

“I’m not the asshole here, Barnes.”

The asshole in question flipped his friend off casually and strolled through the hallway into the main room of the bar. Natasha was already back there serving Steve the first of his after-work shots.

“There’s the man of the hour,” Steve said, raising his shot in toast before taking it. “Did you get liquored up first or is that going to happen when she shows up?”

“Fuck you,” he said taking his usual stool, “I promised I wouldn’t drink. Not while she’s here anyway.”

“Smart move,” Nat said, “Might keep Kaity from shooting you next time she sees you.”

“Nat-” Bucky said accusingly.

“I ain’t say shit,” Nat explained, “But Y/N did. Not that I blame her after you walked into her shop and started all this shit yesterday.”

Bucky groaned and Nat just shrugged, “I mean. They live together. Kaity was gonna notice. Kaity also happens to be a damn good shot. With like 6 months to live. So. Behave.”

Bucky froze, “Is that really all she has?”

Nat nodded and sighed, “Kaity told me Y/N’s hopeful. That she and her parents found an experimental trial that might help but... Kaity. Well. She’s not so sure. She doesn’t even think she has 6 months to be honest.”

Bucky felt like he’d been punched in the stomach. He didn’t even care that Kaity had threatened to shoot him. He didn’t want you to go through that. He didn’t want you to leave. 

“Sorry, Buck,” Natasha said, passing him a glass of cherry coke and a straw. 

“How’s Y/N handling it?” Bucky said. 

Nat half shrugged, “As well as anyone can. I mean, Kaity’s her best friend. Kaity’s parents practically raised her. Kaity says she puts on a brave face, you know. Runs the shop. She helps her mom out by making sure the cooking and cleaning are done. But, she’s scared. Depressed I guess. Mostly cause she’s back here. Kaity told me she never planned on coming back. Couldn’t deal with all her parent's old drug buddies, you know?”

Bucky winced, nodding. It was all ancient history, but it wasn’t. This wasn’t a small town really, but it was. The community had a long memory for gossip and your parents had caused a lot of it in their heyday. Had died owing money all over the place. Now that he was older and knew the kind of damage the wrong kind of reputation could really do, he had a newfound appreciation for your talent to go largely unnoticed.

If Steve hadn’t nudged him he wouldn’t have even noticed you coming that way. You move that quietly. Bucky half turns and his heart skips a beat. You’re not wearing makeup but you did change clothes. Jeans and a soft, warm sweater. Some black boots. You look more like you’re about to go apple picking than get a drink at a biker bar, but then. Somehow, it fits. You’re unapologetically yourself. 

“Damn girl,” Nat said smiling, grabbing your hand, “You look good. I like that hair color on you.”

You smile a little, “Hey Nat,” you say, “Thanks. Kaity told me to tell you to keep me out of trouble.” You roll your eyes fondly and Nat snorts, handing you a glass of coke, “Anything for Kaity.”

You greet Steve and Bucky both with a quiet hello and Steve makes himself scarce shortly after a few minutes of small talk. 

“So,” Bucky said clearing his throat, “How’s things? How was the world outside Madison county?”

“Not as big as everyone always said it was,” you say, taking a sip of your soda. 

“How’s that?” Bucky asked. 

“It didn’t really matter where I went, it was the same old shit,” you tell him, “I guess you can take the girl out of Madison but you can’t take the Madison out of the girl.”

Bucky snorts, “I don’t think that’s true. You did good, kid. Not got six kids and a boyfriend in jail. Got a cute cat... Where’d you leave the little shit anyway?”

“She’s keeping Kaity company while I’m out,” you answer. 

Before Bucky can say anything, Clint hurls himself into the chair next to your and throws his arm around your shoulder, “Hey, Y/N!” he said, in that loud overly friendly way drunk people have right before they get annoying. “Glad you’re back home. Coming in to class up the joint? Or are you here to take Bucky for a test drive.”

You blush and awkwardly shrug out from under his arm, feeling the first signs of impending embarrassment in the pit of your stomach. Some people could sense a storm. You could sense humiliation. Who knew?

“Just- I,” Clint is smirking at you. You know he’s probably just trashed. But he has that same look on his face as the stupid meatheads in middle school that would trap you in the lunchroom and say, “Hey, my friend really likes you,” before bursting into laughter. You don’t even know why you can’t say anything. You just can’t

“Barton,” Natasha said warningly, “It’s 8pm and I WILL cut you off.”

“Aww, Tasha-” Clint protested.

“And I don’t mean booze.”

“Yes ma’am,” Clint said sitting up in his chair, smirk falling off his face.

Nat catches your eye and winks, making you smile a little and Bucky reaches around you to smack Clint in the back of the head, “Don’t be a shit heel,” Bucky said.

“Hey!” Clint protested, “After all the time you spent spouting poetry about how much you wanted to get her on your dick, I just wanted to know.”

You feel your cheeks heat and you push your glass away, “I- I should go,” you murmur, “Kaity wasn’t feeling well when I left.” It’s a lame excuse and you know it but people are laughing and you want to fall through the floor. Some shit, you think, doesn’t change. All he wanted was in my pants. I shoulda known better. Stupid. I’m so fucking stupid. 

You drop a couple dollars on the counter and hop off your stool, pulling your phone out to call Kaity. 

“You’re cut off,” Nat hisses at Clint across the bar as she watches Bucky hurry after you.

“Aww, Tasha!”

Bucky catches up to you just before your jeep and catches your arm. “Y/N,” he pleaded, “Please wait. It’s not. It’s not like that.”

You take a deep breath, “Bucky,” you say slowly, angry, hurt tears starting to fall, “Just  leave me alone, okay? High school is over. We’re twenty fucking five. You have a car. You can stop scheming to get girls to fuck you with your friends. I’m sorry you didn’t get to see me naked in high school. I’m sure I wasn’t that high on your list but honestly. Grow up.”

Tears are falling thick and fast down your cheeks and your voice is trembling but, unlike the crying fits Char threw for show, your voice never raised. You wrenched your arm out of his grip and he let go, taking a step back. 

“Doll,” he said gently, “I just- I’m sorry.” He took a deep breath. It felt like a knife in his heart seeing you cry. You wipe tears away on your hand and turn to open the car door. “When I realized who you were,” he murmured, “You were all I could think about-” You pause, listening but Bucky doesn’t get a chance to finish. 

Boots crunching on gravel make him turn and Char, in all her blonde, biker barbie glory is striding towards them, a triumphant smirk on her face. 

“Well,” she said, folding her arms across her chest, “I see this is going well.”

“Char,” Bucky said, “Can you give us a minute?” He can feel his teeth grinding. He wants to tell her to fuck off but something tells him to tread lightly. 

“No I really can’t,” she said, proffering a plastic bag, “Not when we have a baby to plan for.” 

Bucky looks down and his heart drops somewhere to the region of his feet. It’s a positive pregnancy test alright. 

“Have fun with that Bucky,” you say, getting in your jeep and slamming the door. Bucky can’t even turn to look at you, all he can do is look up at Char, “You know, Char,” he said slowly, “Nat was right.”

“About what, Buckaroo?” she said shoving the bag back into her purse and tossing her hair over her shoulder.

“You’re a goddamn tragedy,” he sighed, turning to walk back into the bar and order several drinks, leaving her standing under the streetlight pouting.

[saiilorstars]

It Had To Be You

Ch.22: The Queen Bee // Story Masterlist

Fandom: The Flash

Pairings: Barry Allen x Female OC

Pronunciation of OC’s name: Bell-en. The last syllable has an emphasis so it’s not pronounced like ‘Helen’ would be.

~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~

Chapter Summary: Barry struggles keeping his suspicions about Wells a secret and Belén conducts her own investigation against Noah. Along the way they discover killer bees and one Queen Bee trying to enact a revenge plan.

"So I just heard something interesting," Belén walked into Barry's lab yesterday in the afternoon.

Barry sat at his desk, working on a current case, when he looked up to see her already standing beside him. Her face spelled a mixture of annoyance and confusion. He leaned away from his work to properly give her his attention.

Belén cleared her throat before beginning. "I talked to Iris, and, uh, she told me something...interesting."

"Interesting?" repeated Barry, still not getting the jist of the problem. But he was sure this was going to end with him being in trouble. "What kind of thing?"

"The kind where Eddie has told her not to worry about Mason because he's in Brazil hitchhiking with some girl," Belén now crossed her arms and settled quite the sharp look on Barry.

Yup, he was going to get into trouble. Barry immediately shifted in his chair despite silently telling himself not to blow it. He, Joe and Eddie had all come up with that plan and all promised not to say anything. Somehow, he saw it wasn't going to work for him. "Th-that's...that's weird…"

"Yeah I thought so too," Belén agreed with a small nod. "Because…" she started to walk behind Barry's chair, her nails lightly dragging over the tip of it. Barry felt he was in one of the interrogation rooms and this cop was not going to let him go until she learned the truth. Belén leaned down beside him. "Mason would never go to Brazil. He hates it. He once went there to cover some story and he came back complaining about some stupid bugs. He vowed to never return. And I doubt he would go back for a woman."

Barry met her challenging eyes. She was no cop but the reporter side of her was intense enough to be a cop. "W-well...people change their minds…"

Belén tilted her head in a 'really?' manner. She straightened up and moved to lean against his desk, just beside his chair. "I've known Mason for three years. He doesn't change his mind. He still hasn't changed his opinion on my talent as a reporter. Wanna tell me what's going on before this ends up with me smacking you?"

"Um…"

"I assure you it's your best option."

Barry gave up with a long sigh. "It's a long story…"

"I've got time," she promised him. "I wanna know why Eddie lies to Iris that way and more importantly, why you would belittle not only Iris' intelligence but mine as well thinking you could fool both of us with that lie."

"First of all," Barry pushed himself out of his chair, "I did not mean to belittle anyone's intelligence. I was doing this to keep you safe-"

"Safe?" Belén frowned. "Safe from what?"

Barry took a moment for himself, considering the two pathways before him. If he kept everything from her, they would definitely get into an argument. They hadn't been going out for very long and he was not interested in creating their first big fight.

So, he spoke.

He told her everything he and Joe - featuring Eddie - suspected from Dr. Wells and how Iris' life had been put at risk from their search for the truth. They had no option but to give Iris a false story just so that she would stop digging into Mason's disappearance. Barry never intended on feeding Belén the same lie.

"So you're saying…" Belén now freely walked about in the lab, thinking, "...that Dr. Wells is this...Reverse-Flash?"

"Shh!" Barry rushed up to her and gently covered her mouth. "We can't discuss it here, it's dangerous."

"Sorry," she lowered his hand. "But, okay, just for clarification, why do you believe this again?"

"When Wells was talking me through phasing so I could get the Trickster's bomb off my wrist, the way that he described my being The Flash, running, feeling the wind and the power, it's like he was talking from experience. I know it's him." Barry knew what he said sounded completely ridiculous, but he knew in his gut that it was true.

Belén thought it was ridiculous - the idea that Dr. Wells was actually an evil man who murdered Barry's mother? It was ridiculous; it was a fact. But Belén also knew that Barry wouldn't just throw this accusation at the man he basically idolized for God knew how long. He wouldn't come up with all this if he wasn't 100% sure of it. She could see even now, when he explained, that it pained him to admit that he'd been working with the man who murdered his mother, who destroyed his family...who murdered her father.

"So...how do we get him?" she asked in a determined stance.

Belén spent countless nights thinking about that conversation with Barry. He disclosed everything he, Joe and Eddie had in their case against Wells. It made her sick that she'd felt support and affection for the man who murdered her father - the murder Wells had expressed condolences for. She made fistful grabs of her blanket as she turned to the side and looked at the bed stand where her family portrait stood. Her family was no more, and Dr. Wells took a big responsibility in that with his Particle Accelerator.

She forced her eyes shut and prayed that she could get some sleep. She already had an idea of what she would be doing the next morning.

~ 0 ~

Noah had seen better days. Granted his double life was difficult sometimes to maintain, but at least he could freely go to one place and the next. Now his days were pretty predictable living in a squared prison beneath the frikin ground. So when he felt his entire compartment begin moving forwards, he quickly got up and moved towards the wall where he could see light getting closer. He took quite the surprise when he spotted Belén waiting with crossed arms and a grim face.

"Well…" he had only managed to say when Belén cut him off, her voice unusually cold.

"Let's cut the crap and go straight to the point," she stepped forwards, glancing back to see if anyone was passing by the pipeline. "You and your crew have hated STAR Labs and everyone in it. Why?"

"We told you why. The Particle Accelerator ruined each of our lives. I lost my mother in the chaos, Plasticine lost her partner, Pixel lost her sister...and do I even have to say what your brother lost?"

"Who are they?" Belén's question came in fast and demanding, not sounding like a question really. It was more like a command and it made Noah smirk. "Who's Plasticine? Pixel? Say something!"

Noah brought a finger to his lips, still wearing that annoying smirk. "I'd rather wait till you find out on your own. I just wish I could see your face when you do."

Everything that Barry had told her about Wells was coming back to her and it just made her even angrier. People truly loved to mess with her and her friends. Did they have a sign on their faces saying 'come and mess with us, please' or what?

"There's something else," Noah tilted his head. He was studying Belén while the woman was in her pensive state. He'd worked with her long enough to know that she was harboring something else. "I make you mad but there's something else that's making you even more mad...what is it?"

"You, my brother and your stupid team is enough to make me angry for ages," Belén meant every word. "Every day I have to live with the fact my brother is off committing crimes for fun. You think that's easy?"

Noah gave a carefree shrug. "Eh, if you knew these days he's not really doing much." Belén raised an eyebrow at that, wondering what he meant. "Those powers of his are messing with his head."

"What do you mean?"

Noah sensed the interest and immediately shut down the topic. If he was going to remain in prison, then would at least keep something over her. "Nothing."

Belén scowled. "What's wrong with my brother!?"

Noah's snort irked her even more. She never realized how annoying he was. "Now you want to know about your brother? He's been wanting you to join him and you've dissed him at every opportunity you got. And for what? Speedy in red?" Belén's scowl grew and deepened, but it just made Noah smirk. "You think I didn't notice? I wonder how your CSI boyfriend would react if he knew his girlfriend had a thing for another guy?"

Belén pursed her lips, forcing herself not to laugh at him right there. It was better if Noah hadn't made the connection Barry was the Flash, but it didn't stop being funny. "Listen Noah, with you here I know the others are going to come after my team and I. So, I'm going to make sure they all end up here to keep you company...in different pods, of course."

"That include your brother?"

"I told you I'd lock him if I have to and with what you told me, it sounds like Rayan really needs to be at STAR Labs for his own health." Belén didn't want to hear more from him so she shut the pipeline down.

She watched him disappear into the pipeline and couldn't help feel prickly tears fill her eyes. The feeling of betrayal wasn't a new feeling for her, but it didn't mean it hurt less. This had been her co-worker, and granted they've had their differences...but she never would've guessed he would turn out to be one of her enemies. It just seemed like everyone was betraying them.

~ 0 ~

CCPD was brought upon a curious murder case in a University parking lot. Barry had finished taking what he needed to come up with a reason for death when Joe came by. The corpse of the woman had been placed into a gurney with only her face visible - full of purple, sizable bumps - as the rest of her body had been placed into a proper bag.

"Victim's name is Lindsay Kang, engineering professor at Hudson University. Just got tenure," Joe explained what he had learned from the witnesses.

"Her whole body's covered in these puncture wounds you see on her face," Barry gestured to the woman's face. "Bite marks maybe. Whatever it was, she must have gone into anaphylaxis."

Joe leaned forwards to get a closer look and immediately went wide-eyed. "Daaaamn."

Yeah. The blood sample should tell us everything we need to know. I'll run tests back at my lab."

"They can do it faster at STAR Labs," Joe gave him a pointed look for his odd behavior.

Barry shifted in his spot, thinking it was obvious why he would be reluctant to take everything to that place now. "Well, yeah, but, I mean, it's just…it's kind of weird being there right now."

"Barry, you know we have to play it cool with Wells. If he finds out we suspect him…"

"I know. I get it," Barry assured, but sighed. "I just think that we should tell Cisco and Caitlin. They could help us."

Joe shook his head in disapproval of this idea. "The more people who know, the more chance Wells is gonna find out we're on to him. Don't think I'm too happy you told Belén about this. I mean, what if one of slips up? Or panics? Or what if…"

"What?" Barry arched an eyebrow.

"What if they're not on our side?"

"Wait," Barry stepped back. "You want me to consider the idea that my friends - that my girlfriend - are involved in whatever he's planning?" he honestly couldn't think of a more ridiculous idea than this one.

"I mean, Wells is Caitlin's and Cisco's boss, their mentor. They've been with him for a long time. I've seen plenty of people make the wrong choice for loyalty. Please do not include them until we can be sure."

Barry hated when Joe made sense like this. But still, he refused to believe it all. "Belén met everyone after me. She came in afterwards. It's impossible for Wells to even consider she would have more loyalty to him than me."

"Okay," Joe relinquished that idea after deeming it logical, "And Cisco? Caitlin?"

Once again, Barry despised this logical side. "Fine," he mumbled and walked away.

~ 0 ~

Belén was pouring herself some coffee from the refreshment table at work when Iris approached her.

"Hey Bells," she greeted and received a very quiet 'hello' back. Considering she herself was having problems, it wasn't very difficult to figure out Belén had some of her own. Iris leaned forwards to catch Belén's falling gaze on the table. "Hey? What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Belén snapped out of her thoughts and turned to her friend, plastering on a smile for the sake of no more questions. "But um, what's wrong with you? I, uh...I hear there's some...things happening between you and Eddie?"

Iris made a small noise that basically told Belén the rumors were true. She reached for a styrofoam cup on the table and poured herself some coffee. "Hmph, lately Eddie's been very distant with me. I get the feeling he's hiding something. I mean, I try to get him to talk to me but he keeps giving me these lame excuses. Sometimes-" she paused just as she was about to pour sugar into her cup, "-he doesn't even give me an excuse. He just goes 'uuuh' and leaves." She rolled her eyes and dumped more sugar than was needed into her cup. "Can you believe that?"

"I mean, cops…" Belén bit her lip nervously, "...they're so...complex...and weird. That entire business is skewed."

"It isn't," Iris disagreed with a shake of her head. "Does Barry tell you things? Like...what he's feeling?"

"Um…" Belén tried finding a honest answer that wouldn't release anything that shouldn't be, "...sometimes I have to ask him...over and over...at times, I have to interrogate him. See? They're just like that. There really is nothing to worry about." And at this moment Belén hated herself for lying straight to her friend's face, the friend who had helped her through so much. Feeling overwhelmingly guilty, Belén gave a widened smile and hastily walked away.

On her way to her desk, she happened to pass by Noah's...and her feet seemed to stop automatically. The days were passing and people were beginning to notice Noah's absence at work, but thankfully no one had gotten through to anyone of Noah's family. It made Belén conclude that he truly didn't have anyone. It also made her realize that his place had to be empty too...and with no one there to guard his things…

She plopped down on Noah's desk before she knew it. Knowing where most of his things were, she went directly for the last drawer on the bottom of the desk, hoping to find a clue of where he lived. She couldn't believe that in all this time she hadn't bothered asking him where he lived in the city. It proved she really didn't know him.

How could she have been so ignorant?

~ 0 ~

Going against his primary instincts, Barry had brought the case to STAR Labs for the others to look at it and offer up different opinions. They had pulled up the profile of Professor Kang on one of the computers on the wall.

"Death by apitoxin," Caitlin said, sounding a bit bemused. "Honeybee venom."

Unlike her, Cisco was almost glued to the spot he stood as he stared at the profile. "Bees," he pretended to shiver. "Why did it have to be bees? Y'all, I don't do bees. Ain't nobody got time for bees."

"But when a honeybee stings, the stingers are literally torn from their abdomen, and they die," Caitlin said as she took a look at the tablet she held which contained the apparent evidence of murder of the woman. "But there were no stingers in the body and no dead bees in the car. A honeybee can only deposit .1 milligrams of apitoxin when it releases its stinger."

"And yet, Ms. Kang was found with enough venom in her system to kill a herd of elephants," Wells recalled the information. "It appears not only is a meta-human controlling these bees but also increasing their toxicity."

"Bees communicate by releasing pheromones. Maybe this meta's controlling them through secretion?" elaborated Barry.

"Anyone want to join me in getting a beekeeper suit?" Cisco said, eyes still glued to the screen.

"I'm pretty sure I can outrun a bee," Barry smirked.

"Just don't run into a lake," said a very familiar voice from the entrance. Everyone turned to find Felicity Smoak standing there with one of her quirky smiles. "Bees will wait for you to come up for air and then they'll sting you. Discovery Channel. Turns out there's a lot to discover."

While everyone was pleased to see the blonde techy, Barry couldn't feel this was the worst time possible for her to make a visit. "Felicity, what are you doing here?"

Felicity thought her answer would be better suited outside. "Can you guys come outside for a sec?"

Five minutes later, everyone stood outside the building waiting for whatever it was Felicity was going to show them. But then passed on more minutes and nothing happened except Felicity staring into the sky.

"What exactly are we waiting for, Ms. Smoak?" asked Wells after a decent moment passed by.

Felicity beamed at the sight of a figure in the sky. "Up there!"

Caitlin squinted her eyes trying to get a clearer look. "Is that a bird?"

"It's a plane," Cisco said, making a face as the figure grew closer.

A man in a metal red and gray suit came to a rather wobbling landing on the ground, actually making several cracks from the force.

"It's my boyfriend," Felicity anxiously announced, gesturing as the man removed his helmet.

"Hi," he beamed a flashy smile. "I'm Ray."

~ 0 ~

Meeting Ray Palmer turned out to be quite an interesting sight. As soon as he got his suit off Caitlin took him in for a check up while Cisco and Dr. Wells began examining his suit.

"So...he seems a little tall for you," Barry remarked as he and Felicity watched Caitlin and Ray behind the glass wall of the side room.

Felicity faked a small gasp. "Barry Allen, are you jealous?"

"He better not be," Belén surprised them both with her presence. She'd come in taking quite a surprise at their new visitors.

"I'm not!" Barry exclaimed defensively, raising both his hands.

"That's what I like to hear," she came by his side and pressed a kiss on his cheek. Then she turned to Felicity wearing her first expression after hearing of the blonde's arrival. "Felicity, what are you doing here!?"

Felicity chuckled and gave Belén a hug. "My boyfriend-" Felicity jerked a thumb towards the room Ray was in, "-needed some help with his suit." She then gestured to the ATOM suit on the metal table.

Belén looked into the wall for a better glance at Ray Palmer and was deeply impressed. "He's your boyfriend?" Felicity nodded her head. "Wooooow."

"Ahem?" Barry coughed, making a face at her dazzled face.

"Hi," Belén smiled at him, in the dark of his brief moment of jealousy. "Now shh. He's cute...what is he exactly?" she asked Felicity.

"Businessman - really rich businessman."

"Daaaamn," Belén looked to the side as if she were it considering this for herself.

Barry could not believe her and waved one hand in front of her face. "Hello!?"

Belén looked up in confusion. "Barry, I already greeted you."

Ray and Caitlin emerged from the room after a nice check up that bore no consequences as far as Caitlin saw.

"Ah, well, my ears popped, so that's something," Ray cheerfully said.

"You're lucky you didn't break your neck," Caitlin felt the need to point out. "What is it with billionaires being superheroes?"

"I think they get bored," Belén said in thought then looked at Ray. "Did you get bored? I'm Belén, by the way."

Ray laughed but shook his head to answer her. "Ray," he shook hands with her.

"So have you... picked a name yet?" Cisco inquired afterwards.

Ray nodded excitedly. "I'm kind of partial to The Atom."

Cisco squinted his eyes at the name, not quite feeling it. "Sooo, you married to that, or...?"

Wells turned away from the wall computer after a thorough examination of the suit's compartments. "Your ATOM suit... it's quite the technological achievement, Mr. Palmer. I'm impressed."

"And he is never impressed," Caitlin added afterwards with a tiny smile.

"Well, thank you, but I can't quite seem to keep it up," Ray had innocently said, prompting Felicity to run for him to clarify.

"He means the suit!"

Ray quickly went to clarify as well. "Yeah, I mean the suit."

Barry's eyes widened in horror as the two continued trying to clarify what they'd been referring to. Belén giggled and buried her head in his chest, hoping to god they would just stop talking.

But they didn't. It seemed like they were incapable of it.

"I can attest that everything else works just fine. There's nothing we need to fix in…" Felicity clicked her tongue, "...that area."

"No, no, no. The sex is great," Ray sounded like he was letting his words tumble out before he thought of them completely.

"My God, there's two of them," Caitlin whispered to Cisco but she was heard by everyone else.

Ray shook his head, paused for a moment to recollect his thoughts, and explained himself completely. "I know from Felicity that you have been very helpful with Barry and the Flash suit, and I was hoping to get another set of eyes on my...problem…"

"Please don't continue elaborating," Belén pleaded when she saw Ray opening his mouth again. "We really do understand what you're trying to say."

Wells jumped in as well before anything else was said. "Any friend of the Arrow's is a friend…"

"Hell, yes!" Cisco interrupted excitedly.

"Uh, guys. We kind of have a lot going on already," Barry made the unusual call for everyone to slow down. "There's the meta-human killer that can control a whole swarm of bees?"

"Cool," Felicity blinked.

"There's a what now?" Belén looked up at him like he was crazy.

"You missed news," he explained distractedly to her and consequently missed her frown.

"I'm sure Caitlin and I will provide ample support, Barry," Wells assured, not that it mattered to Barry. His words meant nothing now.

"And I will be happy to sit this one out," Cisco raised a finger.

Seeing Barry was overly disappointed - because he was beginning to see what Joe was talking about in regards to loyalty - Belén stepped up for the job. "I can help," she volunteered cheerily.

"Thanks Bells," he smiled softly at her. He gave a kiss to her hair and looked at the others, meeting Felicity's eyes. The blonde was even more wide-eyed at them now.

"Ray, why don't you stay here and work on your suit while Barry, Bells, and I run to Jitters for some java?"

"Sounds like a plan," Ray shrugged, glancing at Cisco to see if it was alright with him. Cisco gave a thumbs up and turned for the suit to continue the examination period.

"I, uh….can't," Belén said once they began heading out of the cortex. "I've got, um...a work thing…"

"Oh, you can't go later?" Felicity made a small pout with her lips. She really wanted to know how Belén had advanced in her powers dilemma, plus she wanted to know when the hell she and Barry ended up together.

There was a nervous flicker in Belén's eyes that neither Felicity nor Barry noticed. Belén shook her head, gripping the strap of her bag as she picked up her pace. "I really have to do this today - but I'll catch you guys later okay? We can work on that bee problem."

Being who he was, Barry watched her leave making a mental note to discuss this with her later...because he was sure there was something she wasn't telling him. Felicity didn't give him a chance to think more about the subject as she practically dragged him to Jitters for that pending conversation.

When they received their orders from the counter, Felicity got straight to business. "You know I left Starling City to get away from the mood and brood, but it looks like it followed me here." She sipped her cup while narrowing her eyes Barry, prompting him to speak now.

"I know. I'm sorry. It's like I said before, now is not the best time," Barry was running out of ways to structure that sentence. He didn't want to tell Felicity anything that might put her danger.

Felicity sat down at an empty table and watched him take a seat across her. "Barry, I have been through enough with you to know when you're holding something back. Is this because I told Ray your secret? Because he is trustworthy, Barry. He wants to help people, just like you."

"I know, that's not what I'm worried about. It's... I really don't want to put anyone else in danger."

Felicity scowled and put her cup down. "In danger of what?"

Eddie chose this moment to approach their table, but in his defence he had quite the problem himself. "Barry, hey."

"Eddie, hey. You remember Felicity," Barry gestured to the blonde who gave a small wave and took to her coffee.

But the more she looked at Eddie, she realized - and was not remotely surprised - to see the similar expression on his face as Barry's. "What is wrong with you? Is everyone in Central City in a bad mood? I thought Central City was supposed to be the fun one."

Eddie gave a tilt of his head, muttering, "It's, um... It's not…"

"Felicity knows," Barry said once he realized Eddie was trying to be incompsicious.

"Wow," Eddie glanced at the blonde. "So everyone but Iris?"

"It feels that way…"

Eddie sighed and turned to Felicity for some honest answers. "How do you lie to everyone you care about?"

Felicity made a humming sound as she thought. "For starters, don't think of it as lying. Think of it as protecting her from getting hurt... with a fib."

"But Iris can tell I'm hiding something, and it's putting this distance between us!"

"I have an idea. Why don't we all go to dinner tonight?" Felicity suggested, glancing at Barry. "We can get Belén to come too. A little wine and dine is sure to bridge the gap. Come on, we all had fun last time."

"Suuure," Barry mumbled under his breath, thinking this dinner would be full of awkwardness and deceits.

"It'll be fun, I promise," Felicity said to both men when she saw their grim faces for her idea.

~ 0 ~

"He's not going to answer, darling," an elderly woman with short, white hair said after hearing the first knock on her neighbor's door. "Hasn't been back for days now. Probably out doing God knows what. Youngsters," she chuckled and went inside her own apartment.

As soon as the woman had locked her door, Belén stepped impossibly close to Noah's apartment door. She placed her hand on the doorknob and put all her focus on getting one of her vines - an extremely small one - to go through the locks. Having no key was a pickle, she admitted to herself, but not impossible for the Azalea. The moment she got the lock picked she stepped right inside and shut it as quietly as possible, locking it too.

She turned around to face quite an unusually clean apartment. Her bag was left to drop right on the carpet floor as she stepped further inside. Her eyes passed over the dull, gray walls that held several family portraits she assumed had been Noah's family. Getting a closer look at them, she saw an older blonde woman she suspected was Noah's deceased mother.

"If she could see you now, Noah," Belén whispered and turned away from it. She stopped by the coffee table that held several papers, some of them - she realized - were newspaper clippings.

She sat down on the couch for a moment as she stifled through them. Very quickly she discovered they were news about the particle accelerator before it had been activated, then its aftermath including cases of missing people. She paused at some of the obituaries.

"Lucianna," she read aloud the name of Noah's mother. She'd died in an accident caused by the particle accelerator. Belén sighed and lowered the clipping to her lap to think.

Noah's mother had died because of the accelerator and somehow, he too had gathered powers. What she wanted to know was how the hell Noah came in contact with Rayan. If she got lucky, she could even discover who Plasticine and Pixel were. She kept the clipping on her lap but continued to go through some more. Seconds later she began to see trends: most, if not all, were about the Flash and Dr. Wells. There was nothing about her and Belén wasn't sure if this was a good thing or not. She remembered something about being 'off limits' apparently thanks to her brother.

~ 0 ~

Barry had just finished his coffee when he felt his phone vibrate in his jacket's pocket. He took it out and saw Cisco's text. "Another bee attack. Folston Tech."

Eddie nodded his head, making a move to leave. "I'll see where Joe is!"

"I'm gonna call Bells," Barry said as he too got up to leave. He dialed her number when Felicity gave a very poor call.

"Bee careful!"

Barry turned around with a face. "For real?"

Felicity winced. "Bad pun. Sorry. Just don't die. Same for Bells."

Barry shook his head and went off, still trying to reach Belén on the phone.

~ 0 ~

Inside her bag - still on the floor - vibrated Belén's cellphone. The woman in question however, was moving through the clippings that now had a lot of Plasticine's latest crimes of that week.

"What was your obsession with her…?" she couldn't understand as she flipped through them. There was plenty of Plasticine's odd robberies that included milk and other various snacks. She remembered her previous investigation and how stumped she was when she saw the things that Plasticine would steal. She gathered the clippings into one neat pile and left it on the couch where she would come back for them after finishing the rest of her search.

Her phone continued to vibrate as she walked into the hallway. This time the call rang from Cisco.

Belén walked into Noah's bedroom that had been left unmade. She looked around and saw nothing out of the ordinary.

She extended several vines from her palms that did most of the job for her. Drawers were opened and ransacked, closets were opened and clothes were sifted through - everything was going to be searched through.

~ 0 ~

Barry had arrived at the building in trouble where people were already running out in terror. He'd come straight to the office of the man but found he was too late as the man's corpse was languidly lying on his chair.

"I'm too late," he spoke into the suit's comm.

"Where are the bees?" asked Cisco who thought it should be a number one priority.

"I don't know. There's no sign of them," Barry said after a quick look around. But then he began hearing a small buzzing noise he configured to be of a bee's. He leaned forwards after seeing something poking out from the man's mouth. One bee came out...and then a swarm did. Barry stumbled back. "Found them."

Not a minute was wasted in him getting away. However, the swarm of bees chased after him.

"Uh - how do I get out of here?" he called for his friends' help.

"Take the northeast crossway. It's the quickest way out of the building," replied Cisco not a moment after.

Barry followed the instructions but came to a glass wall where more of the swarm was already waiting for him. "Guys, they're everywhere. I'm surrounded!"

He looked around and saw many more bees coming for him. Seeing no other way out he decided to go through them, despite it costing him parts of his skin. He felt many of the pricks on his face and parts of his suit, but he managed to find another exit through the back, downstairs.

As soon as he made it out, he collapsed on the ground. Thankfully, Joe had made it to the site in time to see him get out. He got out of the car and ran for Barry. He could tell he was unconscious and when he checked for a pulse he was terrified to find there was none. He pulled out his phone and dialed for Cisco's number then placed it on the ground beside Barry.

"Barry, stay with me!" he began performing the first aid rituals in which both hands pushed on Barry's chest. As soon as the call was picked on, he shouted. "Cisco! Barry doesn't have a pulse."

"Step away from him!" Cisco exclaimed, running for the desk.

"What!? Why!"

"We need to jumpstart his heart. There's a defibrillator in the suit," he quicky set up the program on the computer and let Wells take over.

Caitlin stepped behind him and gave the command. "Charge it to 360 joules."

"Charging in three, two, one!"

Back in the field, Barry's body did a jolt as a the surge of electricity went through. Still, he remained unconscious.

Knowing it didn't work, Caitlin gave a second command. "Hit him again. 400 joules."

"Charging in three, two, one!"

The second jolt of power did it for Barry. He awoke with a deep gasp and began coughing. He didn't really remember quite what happened but he was sure it would come back to him eventually.

As soon as he made it back to STAR Labs, Caitlin took him straight to one of the exmination side rooms. He had come in with sizeable bumps on his face - one that had made Cisco declared to stay far away from him for the time being - and Caitlin wanted to make sure he was alright.

Afterwards, Cisco had taken a look at the suit and was forced to come to the conclusion that it no longer worked. "That is it for the defibrillator. It is completely fried."

"You're lucky to be alive, Mr. Allen," Wells shook his head.

Felicity was giving Barry a very serious look as she reminded him, "I was very specific that you not die."

"Yeah, that's a pretty big thing for her," Ray mumbled.

"Cisco, what happened out there?" Barry glanced at his friend, completely puzzled. "I followed your directions exactly."

"I'm sorry. I led you the wrong way. The schematics that we had, they... they weren't up to date."

Barry frowned. "What, they weren't up to date? What do you mean? That's never happened before."

"What, you think Cisco was trying to get you killed?" Felicity meant as a joke but chose the absolute worst time to use it.

"No. Why would he do that? That doesn't make any sense," Barry frantically looked around, unable to keep hearing Joe's words run through his mind.

"I know. That's why I was joking," Felicity tilted her head at him.

"Barry, it's our job to protect you, and today, we failed, but that'll just serve as a warning for all of us to be more vigilant in the future," Wells managed to continue being calm despite the awkard silence that had followed.

"Good news... the apitoxin is out of your body," Caitlin declared as she studied the results of his check up on her tablet. "Your levels are back to normal."

"Terrific," Barry sped out of the place and returned a second later wearing a gray suit with a white, buttoned up shirt. "Ray, Felicity, Bells and I will you for dinner-" he paused and looked around, "Where the hell is she actually?"

"I don't know man, we called like crazy for her to come help you but she never answered," Cisco shrugged his shoulders, giving off his light worriment over the woman.

"We tried calling her home too but no one answered either," Caitlin felt the need to add.

"I'll find her," Barry nodded, determined to figure this little issue out as soon as possible.

"You know Barry, we could just cancel-" Felicity began to say when Barry immediately shut her down.

"I'm fine. Alive. Hungry. All right?" he shrugged. "We'll see you there. I've gotta find my missing girlfriend." And with that, he sped out of the place, leaving everyone with no choice but to continue with their pre-made plans.

~ 0 ~

Belén had everything she had taken from Noah's place spread around her bed. She had her bedroom door locked in case Maritza - or even Axel - decided to barge in. Clippings where everywhere along with other papers and...even a laptop. Yes, she had even brought Noah's laptop with her. It would've been grand...if she could figure out the password on it.

"C'mon!" she growled and banged on the side of the computer after another failed attempt of logging in. "How can I figure out what you're up to when I can't even get into the frikin computer!?"

The tapping on her balcony door made her jump in her spot, gasping loudly. On instinct she shut the laptop's lid and looked up to find Barry making a gesture to let him in.

"Uuh…" she slowly got out of her bed and looked down at her mess. If Barry saw any of it she would be in a full-on interrogation session. She grabbed a blanket set against the wall and dumped it over everything.

Afterwards, she rushed to go open the balcony door.

"Hey, I've been looking for you everywhere," Barry said as soon as he got inside. "I went to the park, to your work, made a fool out of myself in front of Linda Park-"

"Not a surprise," Belén couldn't help flash a little smile at him. Linda had taken to making fun of Barry after discovering he got flustered really easily.

Barry rolled his eyes. "And then I went to your old college just in case, followed by your community theater meeting - which I have to say I don't quite like-"

"Wha - now wait a minute," Belén crossed her arms. "I love that place."

"I don't like those guys that stare at the girls-"

Belén laughed. "I can assure you it's all platonic. We're a team - well, I'm kind of a special team member but-"

"Bells," Barry cut her off laying a hand on her arm, "Where the hell have you been? Everyone tried calling you earlier and you didn't answer. There was another attack today and a man died. I almost died."

Belén gasped. "Oh my god, are you okay!?" she quickly looked him over for any signs of physical injuries.

"I'm fine now," Barry took hold of her arms and captured her attention, "But I'd like to know if you are."

"M-me?"

"I know you're doing something behind my back - behind everyone's back. You weren't doing a work thing, I know because I asked Linda."

"I...I was…" Belén pulled away from his hold and walked a couple steps away. "It doesn't matter," she shook her head. "What are you doing wearing a suit?"

"We have a dinner date with Felicity, Ray, Iris and Eddie tonight," Barry responded and went after her, gently grabbing her by the arm and turning her back to him. "But you still haven't answered my question. "What have you been up to, Ms. Palayta?" He tried being fun with her but she couldn't find it in her to follow his game.

"Like you have your secrets, I'd like to have mine," she came out with instead. Barry was taken aback by her so blunt response. "At least for the moment," she added with a quiet sigh.

"You...you're realize what you're asking me right?" he scratched his head. "You're…"

"It's just for the moment, trust me," she gave him a warm hearted smile he simply could not return.

It was that word that plagued him with terrible turmoil. He didn't realize it would be a problem between him and Belén, until now. Joe's words followed him once more, and for a split second, he had to wonder if he could truly trust Belén at a time like this.

"Just for a bit, I promise," Belén reiterated and gave him a short, sweet kiss. "So, we're having dinner then?" It took a long moment for Barry to force himself to just go with her plan for the moment. He gave a small nod and watched her backtrack towards her closet. "Fancy restauraunt I imagine if Ray's inviting…" she hummed to herself as she began searching through her closet.

Meanwhile, Barry continued to stare at her, feeling enormously guilty for beginning to consider if he could trust her like she had asked him to. Could he?

~ 0 ~

It wasn't long before everyone met up at the restaurant Ray had chosen for them. Iris and Eddie had been waiting for the two couples at the entrance bar, and it appeared they were having a small disagreement.

"Wow Iris, check you out," Felicity praised the tight, white dress Iris had chosen for the night.

Iris chuckled and looked at Felictiy's bright red dress. The woman had abandoned her usual glasses and curled her hair. "I think we're all looking pretty good," Iris declared, then glancing at Belén. She'd worn a baby-blue, laced at the top, dress and mildly curled her hair for the occasion.

"Guys, this is Ray Palmer," Felicity introduced the man to Iris and Eddie formally now.

"Hi. Nice to meet you," Ray shook Iris' hand first then Eddie's.

The lead waiter came in from the grand room inside. "Bienvenue chez Massimo Restaurant. maitre d': Mr. Palmer, your table is ready."

"Great. Shall we?" Ray looked at the rest of the group who nodded, for the most part eagerly.

"Hey, how did he get a reservation here?" Iris whispered to Barry as they walked in. "We've been trying for months."

"I don't know," Barry admitted with a light chuckle.

"Could be the rich part," Belén added from his side with a chuckle of her own.

The waiter led them into an entirely empty restaurant save for one decorated table designated for them. "Here's your table, sir."

"I thought it'd be nice if it was quiet, so I bought out the entire restaurant," Ray cheerfully said to the group was looking far too surprised for his taste. "Too much?"

"Just a tad, sweetie," Felicity patted his arm, looking very unsurprised for this event.

And so everyone took their appropriate seats. After ordering their respective meals, they conversed to pass the time.

"You know, I'm a little surprised that I never got a phone call from you Belén..." Felicity swayed her head in Belén's direction. The woman in question blinked in confusion so Felicity just said it. "I didn't know you and Barry just magically started dating!"

"Oh," Belén laughed shortly and glanced at Barry. The speedster was more strained in his expressions but he did smile at her. "Sorry, I guess we never remembered...?"

"Yeah," Barry agreed. It truly had slipped his mind but in his defense there was a lot going on in his life.

"They were so slow, it was agonizing," Iris' remark made the two metahumans blush.

Felicity kept her laugh to a minimum seeing the red-faced metahumans. "Well, I'm happy for you two."

"Thank you," both Belén and Barry simultaneously said.

"So how did you two meet?" Eddie inquired from Ray and Felicity.

"Work," both scientists answered him.

"Well, actually," Ray cut in to explain, "I bought the company where Felicity was employed, and so she was forced to join me at Palmer Tech."

Felicity made a face and quickly clarified. "It's not as creepy as it sounds."

"Leave it to you two to make it awkward," chuckled Belén who took a sip of her drink.

Iris, on the other hand, seemed far less cheery than normal. "So you two work closely together?"

Felicity nodded her head. "Mm-hmm."

"Interesting," Iris said innocently, although her gaze was leaning now towards Eddie. "I guess you guys share all of your thoughts and feelings and…"

"Yeah...I share everything with Felicity," Ray said, beginning to get confused.

"It's nice that you guys have that level of communication."

It was then that Ray noticed the tension between Iris and Eddie and ventured to at least try to help Eddie. "Oh, well, no, not every-everything. I mean, sometimes it's good to just shut up."

"I get that," Eddie laughed with him. "Some things are better left unspoken."

Iris frowned at him, almost taking offence to that. "Really?"

Eddie didn't know what to say anymore. Barry spotted the waiters coming by with their food and mumbled, "Oh, thank God. It's the food." He cleared his throat and spoke to the others. "Food's here."

"Our first course on the tasting menu is a quail egg frittata. Bon appetit," the lead waiter placed a plate in front of Ray while the rest attended to the others.

"Barry, I got to admit, I envy you spending so much time at STAR Labs," Ray chuckled as he admitted. "Harrison Wells is, like, a personal hero of mine. I mean, it's amazing just to actually be in the same room with him." Barry nodded very slightly, but his insides were screaming for him to tell Ray how wrong he was. In fact, the more Ray went on, the more sick Barry felt...that and frantic. It felt like a ticking time bomb had been placed and Barry wasn't sure when he would explode.

He got up fast from his chair, like an instinct. "I'll be right back. Just excuse me." His break away from the room didn't go unnoticed.

Belén cleared her throat and put her fork down, giving a small smile to the rest as she stood from her chair. "I...have to go to the restroom," she weakly made the excuse and rushed off in the direction Barry had gone into.

By the time she caught up with him in a winery room, Barry had been pacing back and forth letting his mind fill him with different thoughts.

"Okay, what the hell was that back there?" she tried not to sound angry seeing he was clearly upset himself. He wasn't one to act this way, and she had a pretty good hunch why it was happening now.

"I can't - I can't take it anymore, Bells," he frantically gestured to himself. "Can I - can I trust you? Can I trust him? Can I trust Caitlin? Cisco? I don't...I don't know!"

Belén's neat eyebrows rose simultaneously. "You think you can't trust me?" it appeared she had been wounded.

Barry felt worse, but he couldn't keep quiet anymore. "What weren't you telling me today? Why didn't you answer your phone when we needed you? What were you doing?"

"I didn't know this was going to be an interrogation," Belén frowned, crossing her arms and pursing her lips together. "At least when I did it, I knew you, Eddie and Joe had lied to Iris but you have no basis on accusing me of anything."

Barry stormed up to her with a ferocity Belén had never seen before. "Just tell me what you were doing so that I can trust you!"

There was flicker of pain that crossed through Belén's eyes, along with the inevitable disbelief. "I'm going to do something," she spoke quietly, swallowing hard, "I'm going to leave, and I'm going to hope that you come to your senses and see how ridiculous you're acting." She shook her head and turned to leave.

The feeling of desperation had never been so high for Barry. He watched her go feeling like the worst boyfriend yet still, on the other side, feeling justified in asking for her explanation. He balled his fists and growled turning away just as she opened the door and left.

On her way out, Belén almost bumped into Felicity. "Woah," Belén shook her head.

"Oh my God thank God you're back - Iris and Eddie are having a bit of a problem," Felicity quietly, and quickly, said to Belén. She nodded back to the table where indeed Iris was once again hassling Eddie for the truth she knew he wasn't telling her.

Belén sighed. "Men are idiots but I'm pretty sure metahuman men are morons. I want nothing to do with them tonight."

"What?" Felicity frowned as Belén went past her. She grabbed onto the ombre-blonde's arm and stopped her. "What happened?"

"Iris, please," they heard Eddie pleading, clearly their argument getting no better. Belén turned around in time to see Iris frustrated dropped her napkin and fork.

"Okay, so it's my fault that we're not having a nice evening? I am your girlfriend. Who you live with. I shouldn't have to beg you to talk to me."

"If I could talk to you about this, I would, believe me. But I can't," Eddie was also growing impatient with her.

Iris' eyes filled with tears. "You know what? I am not hungry anymore," she got up from her chair and grabbed her plate. "You know what? When you are ready to act like we are two people who love each other, call me. I'll be at my dad's."

"Iris," Belén hurried towards her friend, grabbing her bag in a hurry, "Wait up. I wanna go home too." Iris seemed surprised of this request, able to realize she'd also had some sort of argument with Barry. Well, Iris wasn't going to judge. She nodded her head, with that look of 'solidarity and understanding', and the two walked out of the place.

Awkwardly, Eddie excused himself as well, calling it a night. Felicity made a gesture with her arms at the disaster this date had turned into. As she turned to Ray, the winery door opened and out came Barry. While surprised to find the table empty, it didn't confuse him as to what must have happened.

"Iris and Eddie had a fight," Ray explained thinking he hadn't yet connected the dots.

"And apparently so did you and Belén," Felicity crossed her arms. "Care to explain?"

"Felicity," Ray gave her a meaningful look. However, Felicity was done asking questions. She wanted answers and she was gonna get them.

"Barry? Explain. Now."

Barry looked between the two and figured what more could go wrong after tonight. With a deep breath, he began his story. "Okay. Joe and I found out that Wells isn't who he says he is. He...he is the man that killed my mother."

Felicity's eyes widened, her arms dropping to her sides. "Oh, my God. But he's been helping you. Get faster, stronger."

"I know."

"Why would he do that?" frowned Ray.

"I don't know. I don't know anything anymore, especially who I can and can't trust!"

Felicity raised an eyebrow then. "What? So you think Belén, Cisco and Caitlin are helping him? Barry, that's impossible."

"I keep telling myself that too but then...then I start to doubt-"

"-then stop doubting!" Felicity exclaimed.

"I thought that Wells was a great man, and I was so wrong about him. What if I'm wrong about everything else too?"

Felicity shook her head, the idea far too crazy to even entertain. "Look, I may not know Caitlin and Cisco as well as you do, but I do trust them. And what's more, I do know Belén, and I can assure you - swear my life on it even - that she's not in league with Wells. She's always been with you."

Barry sighed, of course he knew that. But it was that little paranoia bug inside his mind that didn't allow him to see it completely. Hearing his phone, he cut short the conversation. "Uh, emergency at STAR Labs."

Felicity looked nowhere near done, but for the sake of the others she let him go. "Go!"

~0~

At STAR Labs, there sure was an emergency - a bee emergency. Caitlin and Cisco stood back to back, Caitlin holding a fire extinguisher and Cisco a small gray device.

Containment breach. Foreign object detected.

Caitlin thought she saw said bee and activated the extinguisher. But, at the same time, Cisco thought he saw it and fired with his device at the desk. A good chunk of the desk vanished into melting metal.

"Did I get it?" Cisco quickly asked and looked around. "I think I got it."

Caitlin wasn't too sure and just held the fire extinguisher for protective measures. "Where is he?"

Wells had come out of the side room, completely calm until he saw the bee heading his way. Well, he wasn't going to allow himself to be killed by an idiotic bee. He'd rather get up. And he was going to do that when Barry sped in and captured the bee in a tiny jar.

"Thank you," he smiled at the metahuman.

Cisco took the jar with the tips of his fingers. "Let's see what makes this bee so poisonous."

"You saved my life," Wells once again thanked Barry, but only god a small nod in response.

Cisco had gotten the 'bee' under a microscope in the side room again. Caitlin leaned beside him and squinted her eyes at the motionless bee.

"That is one odd-looking bee," she mused at the sight.

Cisco soon realized there was more to it. "That's because it isn't a bee at all. It's a robot."

"No way," Caitlin took a turn on the microscope to see for herself. "Unbelievable."

"This bot's got a 360-degree vision system," Cisco began to explain as Barry and Wells entered the room. "I mean, we're talking multiple micro-cameras all coming from various angles at the same time. Which means…"

"It can see all around the room at once," Wells concluded. "That is…"

"Amazing," went both.

"Disturbing," Caitlin sharply corrected them.

"It's also next-gen hardware that's nowhere near the market," Cisco added as they began filing out of the room.

"So we're not dealing with a meta-human?" Barry asked, just to be sure.

"It's just a mad scientist."

"Robot bees?" Belén's voice called their attention to the entrance where she, Felicity and Ray had just come through.

"Can you believe that?" Cisco didn't know whether or not to be impressed or even more terrified of those bees now.

Belén thought about it for a moment then quickly nodded her head. "Actually, I can." She walked further inside, heading for one of the desks where she took up a computer. "Because I know someone who once had a maniacal experiment with robot bees."

"You do?" went the entire room, much to her amusement.

She rolled her eyes and continued to type. Eventually, she pulled up a profile of a young blonde woman with thick-rimmed, black glasses. She looked up just as everyone else noticed the profile. "Her name was Brie Larva," she stood up from her chair, casting narrowed eyes on the stranger's picture.

"And how do you know this woman?" Cisco made a funny face for her.

Chuckling, she crossed her arms and replied. "She used to work at Mercury Labs. I sometimes saw her when I visited. She was like...ridiculous smart status."

"What happened?" Wells inquired.

Belén shrugged. "My dad never told me the full story. He just said that Brie had different ideas than the ones Mercury Labs had and she had to be let go. But I saw her once, with her mechanical bees, and she looked creepy. She yelled at me to leave, though. Apparently, I wasn't going to understand the purpose of her oh-so-grand experiment."

Taking all this into consideration, Wells called for Cisco to perform a task for them.

"Cisco, you said the second victim, Bill Carlisle, was a robotics engineer. Let's cross-reference his previous employers with those of Lindsay Kang."

Felicity practically broke into a desperate run for the nearest computer. "Allow me. Mama's been away from a keyboard for far too long." In no time she had pulled up the two profiles needed and sure enough they had a similar employer: Mercury Labs.

"They both worked at Mercury Labs," Wells mused, unsurprised.

"I don't know who they are," Belén said after a well thought examination of the two victims' pictures. "But if you ask me, Brie is probably coming for some revenge."

"Which means Dr. McGee might be in trouble," Caitlin looked at the rest in alarm.

"I think it's time we paid a visit to an old friend," Wells resolved quick.

Belén gave them an approving nod. "From my part, that's all." And for that, she looked directly at Barry. "I only came because Felicity told me the problem."

"Actually, we could use your help," Dr. Wells said, surprising her. "Dr. McGee might not be so welcoming towards us anymore considering what happened the last time we visited."

"I-I mean...is that really necessary?"

Wells nodded. "Absolutely. Unless…" he began to look between her and Barry, "...there is a problem we don't know about…?"

Barry cleared his throat, eyes on Belén. "Not really," he spoke quietly. "Bells?" immediately after saying that he knew Belén was eager to tell him he wasn't at liberty to use her nickname at the moment.

But, for the sake of time, and lives, Belén swallowed down that urge and agreed. "Course. After you guys," she languidly gestured the way out with one arm.

Yes, everyone could see the tension then.

~0~

After talking to Joe, it was agreed the best they could do was warn McGee of the possible attack and also to verify with her if they were truly talking about Brie Larvan. Using their strongest weapon - who was still in fancy gear - Belén walked into the office of the woman first.

"Evening, Dr. McGee," Belén greeted politely as she walked towards the desk.

"Belén, how nice to see you," McGee reached over her desk to shake Belén's hand. "How are you?"

Belén recognized the meaningful look on the older woman's face. It had been long since she entered the lab building, and to be honest McGee thought it would never happen again. "I'm doing better now," Belén replied with a slight nod.

"What can I do for you?"

"Well...see," Belén nervously smiled, "I don't know if you've heard about some recent killings in the city with potential evidence of it being animal vs human sort of thing."

"I haven't," McGee shook her head, momentarily stumped on where Belén was going with this.

"Um, well, see I have friends in the police force and they told me something interesting about the culprit. She's killing them with robotic bees."

The moment the words left Belén's mouth McGee was on board. "Brie Larvan," she automatically said. She remembered the young scientist quite well.

"You think it's her too, then?"

"Has got to be."

"Good, so then, uh…" Belén cleared her throat and looked back at the open door, "...you guys can come in. It's her."

Before McGee could question who Belén was talking to, she saw the familiar faces of Wells, Barry and Joe coming through her door. "I didn't know these were your friends, Belén."

"Conditional," Belén clarified, shooting a warning look to Barry.

McGee was frowning at the three now. "Twice in one year, Harrison. You really are vying for comeback scientist of the year."

"Always a pleasure, Christina," Wells gave a widened, fake smile.

Mcgee sighed and looked at Belén in question. Belén quickly jumped in To clarify their purpose. "They're just here to clarify and to give you protection."

"Protection?" McGee nearly laughed.

"Brie Larvan, remember?"

McGee sighed. "Brie was a brilliant roboticist who went down the wrong path. But I assure you she can do me no harm. I can tak care of myself."

"But Dr. McGee-"

"Good day, Belén," McGee gave her that look that said it was over.

Belén sighed and looked at the others to see what they could do. Unfortunately, McGee made herself very clear again and the group had no choice but to leave the building. And even though Belén tried once again to leave, it was made impossible with the reminder Brie Larvan was still out and probably scheming her final blow.

"So is this Queen Bee going down soon?" Felicity asked after Belén and Barry returned to the cortex. Dr. Wells had stayed back to speak with Joe in the hallways.

"She'll show up, eventually," Belén shrugged carelessly and walked up to a screen where Caitlin was currently watching. Felicity arched an eyebrow at Barry, gesturing what the hell were they still doing angry with each other. "What are they doing?" Belén questioned Caitlin once she saw Cisco and Ray working over Ray's suit.

"They're working on the suit in hopes of getting it done," Caitlin mused, crossing her arms. "It is so fun to watch grown men play with their toys."

Belén snickered. "Rayan used to play with these little metal things for hours in his room. I used to make fun of him for that." Caitlin looked at her from the corner of her eyes, apparently disagreeing with Belén's actions. "What? He made fun of me for aerial dancing. It was only fair I get him back where it hurt."

In this meantime, Felicity had been expectantly looking from Belén to Barry as if one of them would come up and say they needed to discuss their previous argument. But, seeing this wasn't going to happen on its own, she jumped in. "Belén?"

"Hm?" the ombre-blonde glanced back.

"Can we talk?" Felicity pointed at the threshold and before Belén could give her answer, she pointed another finger at Barry. "You too - let's go!" And she began a hasty walk towards the threshold.

"What?" went both metahumans, exchanging a quick look between each other before turning.

Felicity merely stopped underneath the doorway and nodded her head to the corridor. "Let's go."

Caitlin giggled as she made way for a side room, of course not before teasing, "You guys are in trouble."

"What is she doing?" Belén broke in a stalk after Felicity, Barry doing the same beside her.

"I - I don't know!" he answered truthfully, although looking more mortified than anything.

"This isn't getting you out of anything, mister-"

"I don't intend it to-"

"Good," Belén shot him a look.

Barry sighed. "But it wouldn't be bad if maybe we talked…"

"Oh, what for? To accuse me of leading a metahuman riot against you now? What other false accusations are you gonna give me?"

"Look, I'm sorry! I shouldn't have said what I said-"

"But you meant it," Belén stopped abruptly to face him, her eyes soon to tear up. "And that's what hurts."

Another sigh escaped from Barry. He happened to see Felicity standing across them, now smiling warmly at them. Giving her a small nod, she slipped away into a nearby room to give them some privacy.

Belén was still waiting for him to make a response, while simultaneously doing her best not shout again.

"I shouldn't have said that," Barry began after taking in a small breath. "Not because it was wrong, but because...you could never do that to me."

"Is that what Felicity told you? Or is it because you believe it?" Belén crossed her arms and waited for his answer.

"It's what I believe. I promise."

Belén kept her eyes locked on her boyfriend whom she knew was possibly going through the most horrible time of his life. With a sigh, she placed a hand on his shoulder and stepped closer to him. "You can trust me, okay?" she whispered, "With anything and everything." Barry nodded, although couldn't help let his head hang a little in shame. "Listen," Belén began after a moment's pause, lowering her voice to a faint whisper so that only he was able to hear her, "I do have something that you don't know about. It has nothing to do...with him. I need your help, Barry. Again."

Barry raised his head to see her concerned eyes, and instinctively matched his own with hers. "Wh-what do you need?" Belén bit her lip nervously, eyes roaming the hallway as she considered if this was the best place to reveal. "Belén?"

The woman snapped her attention back in front of her. "Maybe you can...come to my room tonight?"

"O-okay," Barry agreed to her terms without a single word of argument. Although he was a bit curious why he needed to visit her at a late hour just to hear this secret.

"Guys!" they heard Caitlin's call from the cortex. Almost immediately, they ran back to their friend thinking they were in danger again. A couple seconds later, Felicity joined them as well.

Caitlin was frantically watching Brie's lonesome bee buzzing underneath the computer it had been placed at. "It must have re-activated."

Felicity smirked. "And if it's being controlled wirelessly, I can trace its signal and figure out where it's trying to go!"

"I'm going to get Dr. Wells and the others," Caitlin moved towards the desk to get the comm. And missed the looks of the other three.

"Oh, no. Oh, boy," Felicity gaped as she pulled up street security feed for them to see. A swarm of bees was heading its way down to Mercury Labs.

"Dr. McGee is in trouble," Belén gasped. "How do we stop them?"

Wells, Cisco and Ray entered the cortex with anguished expressions as they figured what was going on.

"She's got to be remotely piloting those bees from somewhere," Felicity was in the middle of explaining.

"We need to stop this bug-eyed glasses woman," Cisco shook his head.

"And her mini bandits," added Ray.

Something clicked in their minds and they quickly looked at each other as both said, "Bug-Eyed Bandit. Bug-Eyed Bandit."

"Not one of your best ones," Belén side-commented, earning herself annoyed looks from the both of them.

"Got her. She's in an abandoned greenhouse," Felicity glanced back at the others with a widened smirk.

"You have to take out Brie," Wells said to Barry and Belén. "It's the only way to stop these nanodrones."

"I'd love to get a piece of Brie Larvan," Belén smirked at the idea, surprising Barry with the comment. "What? Did I forget to mention that besides being stupid smart she was ridiculously a bitch?" Now Barry tilted his head at her, eyes slightly widened as he rarely heard her curse. "I don't like her!"

"We can tell," he couldn't help chuckle.

Belén smiled, now giddy, but glanced back at the screen where they could see the bees on their way. "But what about Dr. McGee?"

"The defibrillator in Barry's suit is broken and I am not letting you go anywhere near bees," Cisco warned her with a pointed finger her way, making her chuckle. However, Barry had a different look set on both of them. There was that little feeling again, the very one Iris advised him not too long ago to get rid of.

"Bees can't penetrate my suit. I'll go," Ray volunteered, holding a hand up.

"Whoa. We haven't tested out the new power system yet," Cisco reminded him, now turning to him in concern as well. Did no one understand how dangerous bees were? Even more so that they were talking about robot bees!?

"We'll do it now," Ray assured, waving them to get going.

"I'm following you," Cisco said as a warning.

Caitlin nodded and made to leave as well. "I'm driving."

Felicity got up from her chair and rushed up to Ray. "And I'm kissing you!" she cupped his face and planted a kiss on him.

"You don't get a kiss yet," Belén warned Barry in case he got any ideas. "That's your punishment."

Barry swayed his head, letting it hang back in the end. "I deserve it."

"Yeah, you do," she patted his arm and turned for her suit.

~0~

Ray soared through the city night to find the robotic swarm of bees. With the sight so illuminated it wasn't as difficult. "Found her. Felicity, can you jam their frequency?"

Felicity had remained back on the computers to hopefully help them. "I already tried, but I might be able to redirect them onto a new target. Ray, get ready for incoming."

Ray smirked just a little, and Felicity knew that. "We have the technology."

~ 0 ~

Brie Larvan sat on a raised platform, inside what looked like a makeshift hive where all her computers and equipment were set up. She was busy overseeing her bees through one screen when she heard a...rubbery noise? Least that's what it sounded.

But then Barry came in, and remained a bit behind. "It's over, Brie. I know you're trying to kill Dr. McGee. You think that she betrayed you. I can imagine how that feels."

Brie turned on her chair, her delicate eyebrows furrowing together as she took a look at the speedster. "You think you understand the sting of betrayal? I'll show you what it means to be stung."

On command, a new swarm of bees flew up from behind her desk and went straight for Barry. He had no choice but to speed away for the moment.

Just when Brie thought she'd have some quiet again, something cold latched onto her arm. "Eugh!" It turned out to be a green vine, and it swung her chair over to face in the direction Barry had been seconds before.

"Hello, Brie," Belén stood straightened and did her best to hide that ill feeling she still got when using her powers. While it wasn't the same fear she had weeks ago, she still felt like at any moment her other side would try to come out. "We gotta talk about your stupid bees."

Brie made a quick move back to her desk to activate more bees when Belén used two more vines to turn her back around.

"I wouldn't do that, I can use poison too you know," Belén gave a half smirk as she released a tint of pink poison through her lips. "And I assure you mine is deadly too."

Brie struggled to move with the vines around her arms. "You can't stop my bees from hurting your friends anyways," she said as a last resort.

But then Felicity made the announcement she had managed to get control of the bees.

Belén smirked at Brie then. "Look at that - you're out of a hive."

Although that struck a chord inside, Brie maintained a glowering look on the metahuman, reminding them, "I still have a swarm outside - good luck getting them."

Perhaps it was just all of Belén's pent up frustration or maybe she really did just hate Brie, but she snapped and used a vine to punch Brie across the face. The blonde scientist was out cold before she hit the ground. Barry was able to return after the swarm of bees after him literally dropped dead. He blinked at the unconscious scientist then gazed over to Belén. All she had was a smirk on her face and no regrets.

It felt really good.

~ 0 ~

Ray had managed to stop the remaining bee swarm by leading them into the city ocean. Now as Cisco gave a little lookover on Ray's partially wet suit, Ray and Caitlin had stepped from the van to take a little break.

"Ah. Some kind of team you have here," Ray remarked, feeling quite euphoric after that triumphant battle. His suit was a little ruined but he was confident it wasn't something permanent.

"Helps to have friends in your corner," Caitlin gave a small smile.

Just as Cisco was coming to them, he heard a buzzing noise behind and turned to find one remaining bee making way for them. He didn't think properly but automatically blocked the way to Ray and Caitlin, allowing himself to be stung. Hearing him drop to the ground, both Ray and Caitlin turned around.

"Cisco!" Caitlin ran for her friend who was already going unconscious. She pulled out her phone and dialed for STAR Labs, immediately shouting, "Cisco's been stung!" the moment the line was answered.

"He's going into shock!" added Ray loudly for the phone.

~0 ~

"Go," Belén told Barry in a hurry. "Brie and I will wait for the cops."

Barry nodded and hurried for Cisco and the others. He found Ray trying to do cpr on Cisco to a failed attempt.

"Hold on. Back up. I'm gonna try something." Barry began vibrating his hands until they managed to conjur up electricity. Like a machine would, he pressed his hands on Cisco's chest and watched his friend jolt. He waited another couple seconds and thankfull Cisco came to life again.

Cisco coughed violently but was otherwise alright. "Either my fear of bees is over or it just got a lot worse."

Caitlin laughed happily and hugged him. "Thank God you're okay!"

~ 0 ~

The moment she was back at STAR Labs, Belén went to see how Cisco was. Needless to say she had him hugging for a good, straight five minutes.

"Bells, I'm really okay," Cisco couldn't help release a couple laughs here and there, patting her back.

"Why the hell would you purposely let yourself be stung by a robotic bee!?" she pulled away and smacked his arm.

"Ow!" Cisco clapped a hand to his beaten arm, taking a good step back. "What happened to you being worried?"

"You know how crazy Brie is," Belén sighed, shaking her head. She walked back to the desk where Caitlin and Felicity sat.

"Hey, you know what I just realized," Cisco began pointing at Belén, the widening smile telling her this wouldn't be good, "We finally figured out a person that did hate Bells."

Barry chuckled as he saw Belén gape at the statement. She seemed in disbelief, which only made it funnier.

"I don't get it," Ray spoke up after pausing his suit examination from the other side of the room.

"See-" Cisco turned around fast to explain, "-Barry, Caitlin and I are all self-proclaimed nerds who got bullied at school but Bells over here-" he gestured with both arms towards the ombre-blonde who was now crossed-armed and glaring his way, "-apparently had no bullies whatsoever."

"I didn't," she assured.

"Until today," Cisco pointed at her. "Brie Larvan!"

"She wasn't at my schools!"

"But she still hated you."

The face on Belén spelled utter doom. "I punched her and I sent her to jail, so I win."

It was then that Barry decided to cut in before he saw his friend murdered. "I think we should call it a night," he walked towards Belén who still had a glare glued on Cisco. "Coffee?" he tried to get her attention but she wouldn't budge. With a sheepish smile at the others, he tugged Belén out of the room.

"Everyone likes me," she huffed as they left.

Barry chuckled at her seriousness. "Of course they do." He slipped an arm around her waist and gave her a kiss on the head. "But no one more than me."

"Cheesy," she playfully rolled her eyes.

While he did enjoy their quality happy moments, Barry did have a high curiosity about her apparent secret he'd been sort of right about. He stopped them down the middle of the hallway and turned to face her.

"Wanna talk?" he asked cautiously.

Belén took a quick scan of their area before she answered. "My room?"

Barry nodded and in less than a minute he had taken her to the balcony of her bedroom.

"One of these days someone is going to see you," she couldn't help but joke as used his vibrating powers to get himself through the door and thus open it from the inside. As soon as she walked in she made a beeline for her bed. "Now, I really didn't want to cause any problems between us-"

"I know, I really do," Barry nodded quickly, "It's just with everything that's going on with Wells-"

"I get it too," Belén promised him. She bent down beside her bed and reached for something underneath. "And I should have known better than to ask you to trust me on a secret. It was my problem, not yours."

"So what is it, then?" Barry curiously asked, taking a step forwards once she had pulled out a bag from underneath the bed.

Belén sighed as she stood up again. "I thought that maybe for once I could solve things on my own instead of getting you and the others to help. But, as usual, I am horrible with technology." She sighed deeper and handed him the bag so he could see for himself.

He dug a hand inside and felt the curious feeling of papers inside along with a couple of other objects he couldn't quite make out there. "What is this?" he took out a file and let the bag fall to the floor as he began going through.

To say he was surprised to find a file about his girlfriend's family was far from what he felt. He was utterly lost.

Belén waited until he looked up at her again. "Weird, huh? Imagine what I felt when I found that in Noah's bedroom."

And perhaps she could have worded that sentence a bit better, for now Barry was close to losing it. "You were where now!? In his bedroom!?" for a moment he forgot that Maritza Palayta could be in the next room.

Thankfully, Belén knew her sister was out with some friends. "Barry, calm down, it's not what you think."

"You said you got this from his bedroom so you were-"

"Ransacking his place this afternoon," she finished for him with an amused smile. "I snuck in and took what I found." She then turned to her bed and pulled down the covers to reveal Noah's laptop underneath. "I also took his laptop which I can't seem to get into."

"Bells you're going to have to help me here," Barry shook his head and let the file fall flat on her bed.

"I wanted to know what Noah and my brother were up to, maybe even learn who Plasticine and Pixel were. So, I went into Noah's apartment and I got all this stuff."

Even with his speed it took Barry a couple minutes to understand it all. "Belén, you broke into an apartment?"

"I locked the door on my way out," Belén said as if that made it all better. "I was just so mad that I've had an enemy so close to me - working with me - and all this time he's been laughing at me."

"Yeah, I get that..." Barry gave a small nod of his head. "People you thought you trusted...turn out to be completely the opposite…"

"I just can't believe it. And it makes me even more angry when I remembered how hard he fought just to make you look bad in my eyes as the Flash. It makes sense now. My brother wanted Noah to convince me to come work with him so what's a way to do that? Make me see that my partner is not what he says he is."

"Oh, now I'm mad," Barry turned to the laptop beside him and reached for it. "Trying to make me look bad in front of my girlfriend - I don't think so!" Belén giggled and inched closer as he opened the laptop. "So what do we have here, then?"

"I wish I knew," she sighed, getting a look from him in return. "I haven't been able to get through the password. I was kind of hoping my super-duper intelligent boyfriend could help me with that?"

"Oh, you got it," he smiled. Belén looked up at him with a smile of her own.

"Thank you," she said quietly, curling one hand around his. "And I'm really sorry for keeping all this from you. I just thought I could do it on my own."

"You don't need to do it on your own anymore, Bells. We're a team," Barry leaned down a bit kiss her cheek but at the last moment surprised her with a kiss. "I'm sorry I forgot about that for a moment."

Belén took a leaf out of his book and stole a kiss from him. "I forgot too, but the important thing is we're together again. We won't forget ever again."

"We won't," Barry agreed.

"And you know...maybe it's time we're all together. As in...Caitlin and Cisco? I don't think they could ever be with Dr. Wells in all this. No matter how much loyalty they have for that man, neither of them would ever condone murder. They're first and foremost, you friends, Barry. Our friends."

Barry decided to gamble on that. There were too many things coming at them and it would make things easier if they were together when the storm hit.

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Author's Note:

I loved this episode simply because it guest starred the wonderful Emily Kinney (Brie). Spoiler alert I love her and her music. I was so sad they only had her for one episode and that she wasn't a metahuman .