#The one on the right is the same friend that said Cid looks too much like David Beckham and it's throwing her off so she's on thin ice⸥

[adureus]

Does anyone want my friends I don't want these two anymore.

[sephirthoughts]

Vincent Got a Phone Ch. 4

YES I'M STILL WRITING THIS IT BRINGS ME JOY

Vincent got a phone and then Aerith adopted him as her friend, and all kinds of other shit started happening and he's very tired.

ships: valenwind, background sefikura, background aerti

rating: not explicit yet but it will be

Chapter 4: Vincent is Quite Literally a Boomer

“Vincent! Come on!” Aerith said, banging on his hotel room door. “You’ve been in there for three days, you can’t keep hiding forever!”

Her phone vibrated just then, and she paused her onslaught to dig it out of her skirt pocket.

VValentine: i am not hiding.

VValentine: now please stop shouting and go away, before anyone realizes i’m in here.

✿FlowerGal✿: no way! i’m not going anywhere! in fact i’m gonna yell even louder!

“Vin! Cent! Let! Me! In!” she bellowed, punctuating each word with a heavy thump on the door. “Vincent! Valentine! Let! Me—”

Her phone vibrated again.

VValentine: you said you wanted me to come out. if you wanted to come in, you should have clarified. the door is not locked

✿FlowerGal✿: …

After putting her phone away and taking some deep, meditative breaths, to prevent herself committing an act of violence, Aerith opened the door and entered Vincent’s room.

The rooms at this hotel were all different, so it wasn’t much like her own, which had more of a country-cottage aesthetic. This one was like an old library, with dark wood paneling and a well-worn leather easy chair, as well as a shelf of old books, and a small, ornate table with a reading lamp.

The large bed was of the antique, four-poster variety, with a burgundy damask comforter. It was a very lovely piece of furniture. The problem was that it was immaculately made, like it had never been touched, and Vincent was nowhere in sight.

“Um…Vincent? Where are you?” Aerith said, as the door swung closed behind her, with an ominous creaking sound.

The curtains were drawn, so the room fell into pitch darkness, till she flipped the light switch, and the incongruently modern overhead lights lit the place up like midday. She heard a muffled groan, from somewhere near her feet.

“Too bright!” Vincent’s voice complained. “Turn it back off!”

“Oh, there you are!” she laughed. Getting down on her stomach, she lay on the floor, facing the bed. Vincent was lying underneath, with his arms crossed sullenly on his chest. “Your room is really great. Love the vampire ambience.”

“Cid chose it for me, when he assigned the rooms.”

“He did well. It’s perfect for you. So…you want to tell me what you’re doing playing monster under the bed?”

“I am not playing. This is where I sleep,” Vincent glowered. “I’m also avoiding human contact, and you know that. Why do you persist in coming here?”

Aerith reached under the bed and poked his arm. “We’re friends, Vincent. This is what friends do for each other. When they see a friend who’s depressed and isolating, they pester them until they feel better.”

“Cid hasn’t come to pester me,” Vincent muttered, scowling up into the box-spring.

“He might be avoiding you, because he thinks seeing him would make you uncomfortable, right now. Didn’t he act super weird about it, that night?”

“No,” Vincent sighed, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands. “He’s not the one who was weird. I’m the one who was weird and ruined everything. He had every right to be upset.”

“Ok, Vincent, you’re an old man, so you probably don’t know these things, but you shouldn’t equate your queerness with weirdness. ‘Queer’ and ‘weird’ are not the same thing.”

“‘Queer’ and ‘weird’ are synonyms, Aerith,” Vincent replied patiently. “They are quite literally the same thing.”

“Not anymore, they’re not. I mean, the dictionary definition didn’t change, but queer is way more commonly used to mean gay, now.”

Vincent looked at her like she was deranged. “Gay means cheerful. Are you flashlighting me?”

“Am I what? Oh—gaslighting! No, I’m not gaslighting you. Terms evolve to mean different things, all the time. I’m just trying to tell you not to equate your homosexuality with weirdness.”

“Homosexuality?” Vincent said, taken aback. “But I’m not homosexual. Or, what did you say young people call it, now? Cheerful?”

“Gay. And queer. Queer is more of an umbrella, though.”

Vincent was utterly bewildered. “Umbrellas are gay?”

“Yep. But, why do you say you’re not gay? Are you uncomfortable with the label?”

“I say it because I’m not. I have been seriously attached to one person, before Cid. She was a woman.”

“Oh, got it. You’re bisexual.”

“I don’t know what bisexual means.”

“It means you’re equally attracted to people who present as male and people who present as female. You’ve been into one woman and one man. Fifty-fifty is about as clearly bisexual as it gets.”

“I suppose I am bisexual, then,” Vincent replied dourly. “I wish it sounded less vulgar. I think I prefer queer.”

“Whatever makes you most comfortable. Anyway, what I’ve been trying to say is, you’re not weird for being queer. If Mr. Highwind can’t accept you the way you are, then he doesn’t deserve your friendship, in the first place.”

Vincent sighed heavily. “He didn’t say he couldn’t, he just said he needed time. For which I don’t fault him. It must be startling to have a trusted friend, who he thought he knew well, suddenly announce that they feel entirely differently about the friendship than he does.”

“Mm, maybe,” Aerith said, tapping her lip thoughtfully. “I just can’t figure it out, though. My detection system has never been wrong, before. I would swear on a stack of yaoi that Mr. Highwind was under the umbrella.”

“You think Cid seems gay?” Vincent frowned. “He’s so rugged and masculine, though.”

Aerith groaned, covering her face with her hands. “Ugh, Vincent, can you try not to be from the 1950s for like, one second?”

“No, I cant. That is when I was born.”

“I didn’t mean literally, I meant don’t perpetuate outdated stereotypes, like equating queerness with levels of perceived masculinity. Lesbians aren’t manly, and gays aren’t feminine. Unless they are. In which case, it’s because that’s how they are as individuals, and not because they’re queer.”

“I don’t think of lesbians as manly,” Vincent said, indignantly. “You’re not manly, at all. You’re the most feminine young lady I know.”

Aerith stared at him, wide-eyed, with her mouth hanging open. “You…how did you know I’m—”

“Twelve days ago, when I confronted you in the area between the hotel buildings, you said, and I quote, ‘Even if I swung that way, you’re like a million years too old for me, yuck.’ And then you stuck out your tongue, as if the idea disgusted you.”

“Whoa. I can’t believe you both noticed and remembered that.”

“I have a near-perfect memory. But even if I hadn’t noticed that statement, your very obvious feelings for Ms. Lockhart would have alerted me.”

Aerith stared at him, wide-eyed, with her mouth hanging open, part II. “It’s not…that obvious. Is it?”

“It is to me, but I can hear your heartbeat and sense fluctuations in your hormones. I don’t think most humans can do that.”

“Well, congratulations, you’re the first person I’m out to,” she laughed. “But don’t tell anyone else, ok? I’m not out to the group.”

“Out?”

“Good lord, grampa. I’m gonna get the sisters to whip you up a queer dictionary. It’ll make everything easier. ‘Out’ means having your sexuality known by other people. Though, it’s a bullshit concept, since it implies an assumed heterosexual baseline, that you have to ‘come out’ as not fitting into.”

“That’s ridiculous. Why should anyone assume anything about another person’s sexuality, one way or another? Are people these days so sorely in need of something to occupy their time?”

“Tch. You’re preachin’ to the choir, old man. But I didn’t come here to get you square on the queer lingo. I came to drag you out of your lair into the living world. Cloud wants everyone to meet at the hotel restaurant for dinner, and I think you should come. Cid will be there. It’ll be a good opportunity to test the waters between you, in a casual setting, with other friends as a buffer.”

“I don’t think—”

“Come onnnnnnn. Solidarity, Vincent. If worse comes to worst, at least we can be two sad queers with unrequited crushes, together.”

“That doesn’t sound—”

“Before you decide, be aware that if you don’t come to dinner with me, I will be staying here with you. And singing the entire score of Loveless.”

Vincent narrowed his eyes. “There is no way you know every song from Loveless.”

Aerith narrowed hers back. “Try me.”

Thirty seconds later, the two were stepping out of Vincent’s room, into the balmy, early-evening breeze. At that same moment, Cid also happened to be exiting his room, which was directly across the walk from Vincent’s.

“Evening, Mr. Highwind!” Aerith said cheerfully, not giving him a chance to pretend he hadn’t seen them, which it very much appeared he’d intended to do. “Looks like we’re all headed to dinner. Let’s walk together.”

“Uh. Ha. Evenin’ Ms. Aerith. Evenin’ Vinnie,” Cid said awkwardly, not making eye-contact with either of them. “Sure, I’ll walk with y’all. If ya don’t mind a third wheel.”

“Not at all!” she chirped. “More the merrier.”

The three walked on, Aerith making breezy chit-chat to her stiffly silent companions, for about thirty steps, before she saw Tifa and Yuffie, who’d just come from their own rooms.

“Ti-chan! Yuff! Wait up!” she called out, waving to her friends. “You fellas can keep each other company, right? I’m gonna walk with the ladies.”

With that, Cid and Vincent were left to themselves.

“She’s, uh…energetic,” Cid attempted, casting about for a topic of conversation.

“Yes, very much so,” Vincent answered obliviously.

“Kind of a handful, huh?”

Vincent scowled behind his collar. “You don’t know the half of it. She barged into my room, a little while ago, lectured me for being an old man, and threatened to sing the entire score of Loveless to me, unless I accompanied her to dinner.”

“Hoo boy,” Cid whistled. “There ain’t gonna be any winnin’ with a woman like that. I’ll tell ya from experience, Shera and me got along lots better once I learned to just say yes ma’am and do as I’m told. We’re just roommates, but I figure it’s the same kinda thing with…uh. What d’ya call her, anyway?”

“I call her Aerith. She gave me permission to be less formal, since we’re friends.”

Cid’s eyebrows went up. “Friends? She ok with you sayin’ she’s a friend, still?”

“Why should she not be?” Vincent asked, a bit more defensively than he intended. “Do you think she should be ashamed of me?”

“Ashamed? What the hell you talkin’ about?”

“You know what I mean. Because I—I’m under the…umbrella,” Vincent explained fumblingly, in his agitation. “There’s a…weird umbrella. No. Queer. A queer umbrella.”

“Oh shit, Vinnie, are you havin’ a stroke?” Cid said, stopping him and grabbing his shoulders, to peer concernedly up into his eyes. “What year is it? What’s your full name and birth date?”

“I am not having a stroke,” Vincent said, shying away from the sudden touch. “I was only trying to explain that no one should be ashamed to be my friend, because of the way I am. It is not weird to be queer.”

Cid squinted. “Ain’t those synonyms?”

“Apparently not. At least, not the way young people use them, now.”

“Hm. Only other way I heard people use queer is for LGBTQ stuff.”

“I have no idea what that acronym means,” Vincent said dejectedly.

“Least, I thought that was how people use it,” Cid said to himself, scratching his chin. “Maybe I ain’t in the know, anymore.”

Before he could consider the matter any further, Vincent clenched his fists and blurted out what was on his mind. “Cid, are we really still friends? Or have I ruined things between us?”

“What? Well…of course we’re friends, Vinnie,” Cid said, clearing his throat against a slight waver in his voice. “Uh. So. About that. Sorry I acted like a jackass, the other night. I just never expected to hear ya say somethin’ like that. I guess I never thought of ya as a romantic type. And, to be frank, ya don’t seem like the kinda guy who’d go for…y’know. Someone so much younger.”

Vincent’s face fell. “Oh. You object to the age difference. I hadn’t considered that. I…I understand.”

“Not the age difference, per se. It’s just, when one of ya’s been around and seen some shit, and the other one’s barely outta the nest, there’s uh…an imbalance. Y’know?”

“Barely out of the nest? At what age did you leave home?”

“What, me? What’s that gotta do with anything?”

They had arrived at the hotel restaurant at that point, however, and couldn’t discuss it any further. During the seating shuffle, Aerith was trying to maneuver Vincent and Cid into seats beside one another, and unbeknownst to her, the others were trying to put her and Vincent together.

Vincent became the unwitting tuber in this game of social hot-potato, and wound up in the uncomfortable position of sitting between his two friends, rather than on the end, as he preferred. Tifa sat across from Aerith, with Yuffie in the middle, and Cloud across from Cid. The table was meant to accommodate eight, so there were two empty chairs on the end.

After drinks were ordered, the conversation became general. Cid anxiously downed an old fashioned and was already halfway into a second, before the appetizers even arrived. Vincent’s red wine stood untouched, however, as he had crossed his arms and promptly fallen asleep, as soon as the party were seated.

Cid thought it was strange that he wouldn’t be paying more attention to his girl, but she didn’t seem the least bit concerned with Vincent, either, and was intently focused on her friend across the table. It was like her and Vinnie weren’t even together, Cid thought, as he sucked down the remnants of his third drink and signalled the waitress to bring another.

He usually enjoyed all the lively banter between the young people in their group, but the mood was off today. Everyone seemed kind of tense and on edge, like they were expecting something to happen. Especially Cloud, who was usually so flat in affect, he could be taken for a cardboard standee. 

Or maybe it was just Cid’s imagination. It was taking every bit of his energy to put on a cheerful and supportive face for Vincent and his young lady, and he wasn’t even doing a great job. But how could he be expected to, after he’d been bulldozed by his revelation, the other night? 

He’d called Shera in a near panic, about it, at which she’d laughed for far longer than he thought was strictly necessary, and then said she was glad he finally figured it out. She didn’t have any advice regarding what to do, however, except to commiserate about it being really unfortunate that his first gay crush was on a bisexual guy who already had a girlfriend.

Then there was a whole back and forth where Cid asked why she thought Vinnie was bisexual, not straight, at which she’d laughed even harder, and called her girlfriend over so she could laugh, too. Damned women and their already knowing everything, Cid groused internally, as the waitress delivered his fourth drink. He was getting tipsy at this point, though, so he slowed down and nursed the beverage, while he tuned in to the conversation.

“People can’t control who they love, but if it’s someone they know is bad for them, or might even wind up hurting them, they should come clean to their friends and ask for support,” Tifa was expounding, in response to something someone had said. “I, for one, would be really hurt if a close friend didn’t trust me enough to talk to me about those things.”

“But maybe it’s not about trust,” Aerith put forth. “Maybe it’s just a really complicated situation, and that person isn’t ready to be outed to their friends yet.”

“I guess anything’s possible,” Tifa replied, looking unconvinced. “I’m just saying I think people should rely on their support systems, more. And by that same token, if their support system sees them doing something incredibly stupid, they have a responsibility to say something.”

“And I think everyone should respect each other’s privacy, especially about relationships, until they’re ready to talk about it, in their own way and their own time,” Aerith contended.

Cloud nodded vigorously, at his end of the table.

“Yeah but, if they’re going to be super obvious about it,” Yuffie interposed, “like basically eye-fucking every time they’re in the same room, not to mention running off to be alone together, all the time, they’re kind of making it everyone else’s business.”

“What do you mean, eye-fucking?” Cloud wanted to know. “Intense eye contact can mean all sorts of things. Especially in combat situations.”

Aerith ignored him and leaned around the unconscious Vincent, to look at Cid, who was sucking disconsolately at his drink, through the teeny cocktail straw. “What do you think, Mr. Highwind?”

“Hm? Ya wanna know what I think?” he said, slurring his words a bit. “Well, gather round, cause the old man is gonna tell you kids the way it is. It’s like this. People’s gonna follow their hearts, whether you like it or not. Best ya can do is respect your friends’ choices and not interfere in their shit, where you’re clearly not wanted. Even if they were your best friend, and it hurt that they didn’t come to you with it sooner, cause ya just want ‘em to be happy, no matter what, even if it means ya can’t be their most important person anymore, and you’ll probably die alone in a ditch somewhere.”

There was a beat of baffled silence. 

“Well, you won’t die alone, though. Right, Cid?” Tifa asked. “Isn’t Shera your girlfriend?”

Cid choked on his beverage and actually spit some out. “M—my what? Hell no, she ain’t! Can’t a man and woman be friends and work together and live in the same house without people makin’ wild assumptions? Damn!”

“Once again, I awaken to Cid spitting all over me,” Vincent sighed, dabbing his cloak with a napkin.

“Sorry, Cid, yeesh,” Tifa laughed. “I didn’t mean to offend your delicate sensibilities.”

“I ain’t offended, but I’ll tell ya what. Don’t ever let her hear ya say it, or there’ll be hell to pay.”

Yuffie blinked around at the group, none of whom had reacted to Vincent’s statement. “We’re all just going to move past that?”

Cloud looked at his phone and immediately hopped up from his seat. “Sorry, guys. Excuse me, for a minute.”

“Cloud, damn it! Not this again!” Tifa called after him. “You invited us to dinner, you have to actually eat dinner with us!”

“I’ll be right back. I just have to…go to the bathroom,” he said, as he walked briskly away.

“The bathroom is the opposite direction,” Yuffie said, squinting suspiciously. “What is he up to?”

“Morning, Vincent,” Aerith said sunnily, to the yawning vampire. “Cid ordered you a basket of breadsticks, but I ate most of them, while you were asleep. Also, I drank your wine.”

“You’re welcome to it,” Vincent replied, unconcerned. “I don’t think the wine here is all that good.”

“S—Sephiroth!” Yuffie shouted suddenly, giving everyone a jolt. “Cloud, look out! Sephiroth is right behind you!”

“Wait, wait! Everyone calm down!” Cloud pleaded, holding up his hands, as his friends leapt to their feet and summoned their weapons. “He’s not here to fight! I asked him to come!”

This elicited stunned silence from the group, in which the sound of Cerberus’ hammer clicking back rang out very clearly, followed by Vincent’s deep voice. 

“Care to elaborate?”

the author has something to SEPHIROTH JUMPSCARE

[salith-skies]

Different Times

#thebadbatch Wrecker x f!OC, a wish by @rinksu-no-joo .

| confessions, season 1, that space chicken nugget run episode where they tell Omega to stay behind, pre Tantiss, insecurity, self-doubt, SFW | 1,447 words

To stay with Omega on Ord Mantell was Elara’s decision. She felt for the girl, hoping that her willing to stay too might brighten Omega’s attitude.

It did not.

What did, however, was earning some money by playing the little strategy game in the center of Cid’s parlor. Elara watched from afar, carefully watching the patrons that slowly crowded the game. Cid came to her side and patted Elara’s shoulder. “Lighten up, Gray. The kid’s doing fine.”

Elara glanced at Cid, slightly annoyed by the nickname but sighed softly through her nose and relaxed her shoulders. “I know.”

“Here,” Cid reached over the bar and pulled out a glass along with a thin bottle. “One on the house,” she chuckled as she poured.

Elara took the drink with a half smile, taking a deep breath as her eyes looked back to Omega. Cid was right, Omega will be fine. She seemed happy, too.

The next few rotations were the same, but the crowd got bigger. By the third rotation, Cid’s parlor was just barely containing its patrons. Omega certainly had a knack for this strategy game and despite some of the shadier folk in the crowd, Elara had made a few acquaintances. One particular woman, a Twi’lek, worked a small food stand in the plaza. Despite the friendly faces, she found herself thinking back to the rouge clones.

Especially Wrecker. When she met him while on a mission to rescue a manticore pup she did not expect her heart to take the lead. While her Jedi ways were considered a threat, she fought her affection for some time before coming to terms that she was living in a different time now.

As her mind kept thinking about Wrecker, Elara’s eyes never strayed far from Omega. She stayed seated on one of the stools at the bar, making light conversation with the patrons that waited on their drinks or food. They never stayed long, which she was fine with. As she continued to watch Omega win again, Elara brought her drink to her lips and glanced down to find it empty.

“Can I buy you another drink?”

Elara turned her head and looked at the man who spoke. He was tall, had horns, and was well dressed. A stark comparison to the folks in the crowd. Cid’s words from the other day rang in her ears and she offered up a small smile. “Sure.”

She put her glass down and Cid filled it up then took the man’s payment. “Do you know the kid?”

Elara lifted her drink to her lips, “She’s like my niece.” Her eyes flitted over to look at the man. “I’m just making sure she’s okay while her brothers are away.”

“That’s kind of you.” The man offered his hand to Elara. “My name is Roland, and you?”

Elara’s eyes squinted in suspicion but took his hand to shake. “Gray.” She wanted about to give up her real name.

Their conversation continued - they spoke of friends and ultimately how they each came to Ord Mantell. In the midst of their polite conversation, the Batch walked through the parlor entrance with confused faces. Cid came to them and boasted how well Omega was doing for her business.

“She really has a knack for this. She’s already paid off some of your debt!”

Hunter gave Cid a sideways glance but couldn’t deny that he was a bit relieved. Wrecker looked over the crowd trying to spot Elara but could not find her amongst them. “Is Elara here?”

Cid looked at Wrecker then pointed over her shoulder. “She’s with some guy at the bar, Muscles. Hasn’t left.”

Wrecker smiled and made his way over. His eyes spotted Elara and saw her chuckling and boy was he happy to see her. He hadn’t said much about his feelings for her, but he knows that something about her is right. He liked her and he was almost certain she liked him, too.

As he walked closer he could hear her laughter and it made him smile brighter. His eyes locked with hers and she waved, “Wrecker!”

He set his helmet down on the stool next to her and embraced her, lifting her off her seat a little. “Good to be back.”

Elara inhaled softly and comfort sprouted within her from being in his embrace. Roland cleared his throat and Elara parted from the hug. “Wrecker, this is Roland. He said he’s some what of an entrepreneur.”

Wrecker looked at the man and noticed his dark presence. It made him feel a bit odd, but he put on a polite smile. “Nice to meet’cha. We’ve got stuff to unload for Cid, so I’ll be back.”

Wrecker walked away and felt strange about himself. Roland wasn’t intimidating yet he wondered why he felt lesser in his presence. He took a glance over his shoulder and saw Elara chuckling with Roland again. It hurt Wrecker and he began to question if she would return his feelings. He put his helmet back on and walked out of the parlor.

Once the night had begun to ween into the early hours of the day, Cid shut the place down. Roland looked at Elara and confidently spoke, “I had a nice conversation with you. I’d like to experience it a second time.”

Elara blinked a few times as she thought about the indication his words had. She let out a half chuckle before declining. “No, it was a nice conversation but I’m not interested in a second time.”

“Ah. I didn’t take you to be interested in clones. To each their own,” he said as he got up to leave.

Elara didn’t let his silent jab go past her. “Watch your mouth. They’ve done a lot for this galaxy.”

Roland looked at Elara and his lips curved into an arrogant smirk but he did not respond. He walked out and once the doors to the parlor were closed, Elara sighed. She looked around and noticed that Wrecker never returned.

She walked back to Cid’s office, only finding Hunter and Tech inside with Cid. “Where’s Wrecker?”

Tech and Hunter exchanged a glance. “He’s been on the ship all night. He seemed rather…down?” Tech explained, fixing his goggles.

Elara connected the dots quickly. She chewed the inside of her cheek as she excused herself to find Wrecker. She walked to the usual landing bay and walked up the open ramp.

She found him in the gunner’s chair at the back of the Marauder. He held his Lula loosely. Elara felt strange not seeing a smile on his face while back on Ord Mantell or to see him by himself for that matter. She came up and leaned on the chair with her arms crossed under her chest.

“Hey, you. You never came back.” Elara tried to ignite a conversation.

Wrecker lifted his head up to look at her for a moment. “Oh, I guess I got off track.” His tone was eerily mellow and Elara wished it was just her imagination. It didn’t suit him at all. “Didnt want to interrupt you and that guy, either.”

Elara scoffed, “You’d never interrupt me. Besides, I like your company way more than anyone else’s.” Her words gained a bit of emotion from him and he turned more in his seat to look at her. Her eyes looked down and a smile broke onto her lips. “I’m serious!”

Wrecker chuckled at her little defense. “I like your company, too.”

“Good.” She poked his shoulder in a playful manner. “Now, stop being sad. I miss your smiles and laughter.”

Wrecker grinned and stood up, embracing Elara tightly again and it made her laugh. He let her go and kept his hands on her arms. He looked down and she looked up, a shift in atmosphere happened so suddenly.

“Elara.” Wrecker felt every heartbeat from his chest down into the palms of his large hands as he continued. “I like you. I know that Jedi’s can’t have relationships, and I don’t imagine you’d want one with a clone if you did want one.”

“Wrecker—?”

“After seeing you with that guy last night, I needed to tell you.”

Elara took a breath and smiled. His words settling into her mind perfectly. “I like you, too, Wrecker. Despite my Jedi upbringing… we’re living in a different time. I want to be with you.”

“Even though I’m a clone.”

She brought her hands up to hold his face gently. “I don’t care what they say. You matter more to me than anything else.” Her eyes held a warmth Wrecker couldn’t help smiling at.

His hands found hers and his grin returned. “Thank you, Cyare.”

[silverwings22]

Take Me To Church Chapter 4: Earth

Series warning: 18+, flashbacks, smut, major injury, torture, death, experimentation, canon typical violence, Hozier lyrics

Previous Chapter: Fire Next Chapter: Spirit

***Drain the whole sea, get something shiny***

Kya slept on the floor of Omega’s room, blue arms bare and wrapped around a pillow. Her curls spilled across the little pallet she’d made for herself, knees drawn up and ankles crossed. Fives sat on the steps to the gunner’s mount, watching her dream. 

They’d been with the Batch for a couple of weeks now, settling into a kind of routine. He ran missions with the guys to keep their employer Cid happy. Kya mostly stayed on the ship, quiet and out of the way. He’d told her not to tell Cid who she was, in case his assessment that the trandoshan was a vicious opportunist that would sell them out to the Empire for a handful of credits was correct. He would have liked Echo to get the hell out of this situation, but he also understood why Hunter hadn’t pulled them out. The only option was a rebellion with Rex, which didn’t seem like a great place for Omega. 

It didn’t seem like a great place for Kya either, but he hadn’t talked to her about it. They hadn’t talked much, really. She busied herself with the few domestic skills she’d learned on Coruscant: cooking and cleaning the ship. Sometimes Omega would sit with her and chatter, which made her smile. He hadn’t heard her laugh yet, though. Or hum, like she used to do when he was at her apartment and she was puttering around making things for him. 

“Kya.” He reached out, lightly touching her shoulder. “Hey. It’s time to get up.” 

She stirred, scrunching further into her pillow with a mumble. He wanted to twirl one of those rosy curls around his fingertip and tug it like he used to. It had always made her giggle- a flash of gold caught his eye. Something on her right temple, usually hidden in the way she styled her hair on the day to day. Curious, Fives leaned in, brushing her hair from her face lightly.

A gold Arubesh five, marking her forehead in the same place his tattoo was. 

His breath caught in his throat as Kya’s eyes snapped open, blinking sleepily at him. “Fives? Good morning.” 

“M-morning.” The tattoo had startled him, and now he was searching for anything else he hadn’t noticed since he woke up. As she pushed herself upright with a yawn, he ended up looking straight down the front of her sleeveless nightgown. His face splashed pink, quickly averting his eyes before he forgot what he wanted to say. “H-how long have you had that tattoo?”

Kya blinked, midway through reaching for her hairbrush in her backpack. She froze, licking suddenly dry lips. “Do you hate it?”

“N-no! I just… I hadn’t seen it before.” He shook his head. 

“I got it on Serenno… right after you came out of bacta. Before Father died and we had to leave the castle. I was going to surprise you…” She dropped her head. “I’ll keep it under my hair if you want.”

“No, it’s okay. I was just surprised, that’s all.” He gently eased her brush from her hands. “Here, let me. I’ll do your hair.” 

She raised an eyebrow, but wasn’t about to argue with a moment spent with him. She sat on the step beneath him and he carefully started working the snarls out of her curls. “Where did you learn to do hair? You’ve had that standard cut since I’ve known you.”

He chuckled. “Tup. Little shit was a the Rapunzel of the 501st…” His hand paused on a pass over her hair. “... He was how I found out about the chips. His went off, and he killed a Jedi. It wasn’t like him, so when they sent him to Kamino I offered to go too. The AZI droid, the same one Omega said was her friend, in the bar… it helped me find the chips in our heads. But he didn’t survive the removal… I did, and tried to head for Coruscant to tell Rex what I found. That’s when it went to shit. Drugged by the longnecks, and the thing with the Chancellor…” 

“I didn’t know about the chips.” She murmured as he pulled her hair back from her face and started braiding it from the temples. “Father never mentioned them to me. He didn’t even tell me the clones were part of Sidious’ plan until after we were back on Serenno. I thought Jango was just playing both sides…” 

Fives sighed. “Hold this.” He guided her hand to hold the edge of one braid while he worked on the other side. “I was drugged when I called you to meet me… I kept thinking if I could just find you, you’d understand what I meant and you could explain it to Rex and the General. You always understood what I meant…” 

She nodded hesitantly. “You weren’t too hard to understand. You were always honest.” 

He took the braided ends and went back to working at the back of her neck. “You tried to hit the Corrie that shot me.” 

“I did.” She glanced back. “Did you remember that? You’d already passed out…” 

“Rex commed in after Echo told him I was alive. We talked for a while about what happened.” 

“Oh.” She smiled weakly. “He was always kind… stopped me from getting shot too.”

“Would you really have attacked the Corrie?”

“I wanted to rip his face off. He shot you.” She admitted. 

“It wasn’t his fault.” Fives said mildly. 

“I know. I know Palpatine was manipulating him, and that he didn’t understand. But that didn’t matter. It still doesn’t… he hurt you. I’m not like you, Fives. I’m not a hero.”

“What do you mean?” He finished up with her hair, but didn’t move yet. 

“You’d burn for the good of the galaxy. You’d sacrifice yourself, the people you love, whatever it took to do the right thing even if it broke your own heart. I’d burn the galaxy to ash to protect you without a second thought.” She didn’t blink when she said it, head tilting over her shoulder to look at him. “You are the only person still alive who’s ever loved me and asked for nothing in return.” 

“And if I asked you not to burn the galaxy and let me go?” He pursed his lips. 

“Then if you burn, I will too.” 

Fives couldn’t resist a chuckle. “And if I wanted to go off with Echo and join that harebrained rebellion of Rex’s? What would you say then?”

“I’d ask you when do we leave?” Her resolutely squared shoulders and left no question. 

“I knew it. You were too perfect. Beautiful, intelligent, and talented? Something had to be wrong with you. It’s that you’re a little insane.” He laughed. 

Kya sighed. “Only where you’re concerned.”

“Good news is, I like crazy.” He leaned over and kissed her cheek before getting up. “You should get dressed. Who knows what weird shit happens around these 99s?” 

Kya sighed again and gathered her clothes from where she’d hung them on the arm of the gunner’s seat, walking to the fresher. When she saw her reflection, she couldn’t help but smile. Fives had given her two french braids that met at the back of her neck in a twisted braid bun, plucked out to look like a flower like her mother’s hair in the locket holo. She hadn’t even shown that picture to Fives yet… but he’d done a good job, and she felt like he was telling her something in the way he’d put the tattoo on her temple on full display. A quiet way of showing his brothers that there was still something between them even if she was, as he’d said, a little bit crazy.

He’d said he liked crazy…. She could work with that.

***Something meaty for the main course***

“I’m sorry I couldn’t do more, Captain.” Kya said quietly. They’d come to Coruscant to meet Rex, looking to discredit Admiral Rampart and his move to replace clones. It had been harrowing, Fives going with Echo and his brothers to infiltrate a retrofitted Venator and steal the data drive. Meanwhile, Kya had been with Omega and Riyo Chuchi trying to stall for time on the Senate vote and find as much proof as they could against Rampart. Kya’s old secretarial access hadn’t be revoked, and they’d gone combing through files and tracking money that led to a Kaminoan senator, a plot, and thousands of missing credits. 

She’d even offered to testify, but Fives had shut her down. The minute Palpatine knew she was on Coruscant, he’d have had her executed on sight. So she’d worn a borrowed dress with a heavy cowl and posed as one of the Papanoida sisters. It had been a close call, as Palpatine had appeared the middle of the vote. She’d almost thrown up or passed out when his platform had ascended past theirs, but managed to catch the railing and tell herself there were more important things than her fear. 

Rex just sighed and patted her arm. “You did all you could, Countess. You all did.” 

Kya nodded, looking over at Echo and Fives talking to Hunter. “They’ve decided to come with you, haven’t they?”

“Echo has. Fives… he wants to, but he’s waiting to ask you about it.” Rex looked over at the brothers. “I could really use those two. They’re some of the finest ARC troopers I’ve ever met. I wish the Batch would come along, but they’ve got Omega to think of.”

“If Fives wants to go, then I’ll go too.” Kya nodded. “I can fly and shoot, and I’ve got all the abilities of a Jedi without that moral hangup about killing unarmed people…. Just saying.” She gave him a sheepish look. “Fives has my lightsaber though…. For safekeeping. Until you guys trust me.”

“You might get some pushback from the other guys I’m working with, but who you used to be is a lot less of a concern to me than who you want to be now.” Rex nodded. “Grab your stuff, if you’re in. I’ll tell Fives.” 

Kya nodded and headed for the Marauder. She was halfway up the ramp when she heard the little patter of tiny feet. “Miss Kya?”

She turned around to face a wide eyed and tearful Omega. “Oh, sweetheart…” 

“Are you going to leave too? Echo said he’s going to stay with Rex…” 

Kya knelt down and opened her arms, letting the little blonde run into a hug. “Don’t cry, Omega.” She murmured, smoothing the soft blonde hair as the girl clung to her tightly. “Yes, I’m going to go with Echo and Fives. But it’s not goodbye forever.” 

“I’m gonna miss you… you’re my family too, now. If you go away, it’s like it didn’t even matter that I met you!”

“I won’t ever stop being your family, Omega.” Kya promised, leaning back to wipe the little one’s cheeks. “You still have that kaleidoscope I gave you?”

“Yeah…” 

“Remember what I said about it? If it makes you happy, then it matters. Meeting you made me happy. You, Echo, and Tech brought Fives back to me.” Kya gave her an encouraging smile until Omega nodded, still a little weepy. “When I see you again, you’ll have all kinds of stories to tell me. And I’ll look for an instrument while I’m gone, so I can play for you. Deal?”

“Deal.” Omega sniffled. “I’ll miss you…”

“I’ll miss you too. Be brave, okay? I know you can.” Kya gathered her and Fives’ things and walked back down the ramp with Omega clinging to her skirt. Fives ruffled the girl's hair, then stepped to the side to let Echo give her a proper goodbye. He’d known Omega longest.

He walked over to Kya. “You sure about this?”

“I’m sure.” She smiled quietly, shouldering the bags quietly. “Where you go, I go.”

Fives reached down and slipped his fingers in between hers as Echo stepped back to join them and Rex. “You’re crazy, you know that?”

“You like crazy.” She nodded. 

“I’m not giving you your laser sword back yet. I will, however, concede you can use a blaster.” He squeezed her hand. This was a first step in rebuilding what they’d had… in a way, she didn’t even mind how long it took. It was almost like falling in love with him all over again. 

“I’m fine with that.” She squeezed back. “Take all the time you need.” 

***That’s a fine looking high horse***

She’d made herself a familiar face in their little base on Teth, despite her natural inclination to hide when she was nervous. She wanted to be more helpful, but most of the clones heard her full name and their faces hardened into instant wariness. She didn’t begrudge them their opinions, as all of them had lost brothers to her father’s droids. Still, it meant the only people who spoke to her were Rex, Echo, and Fives. Who were all regularly out on missions, and she was grounded on base. 

She was working on one of the wiring compartments when she heard Fireball and Namec in the kitchen. Those two had assigned themselves cooks, and they were about as clueless as she’d been when she first began. “Gregor brought back this spice cabinet, but I don’t know what half this stuff is.” Namec was grumbling. 

“Not like you’d use them correctly. I’m pretty sure blaster residue ruined your tastebuds.” Fireball huffed. 

“Says the man who’s only contribution to cooking is to dump peppers in everything.” 

“With all due respect, vod, at least I season my food with stuff I can pronounce.” 

Kya peeked around the doorway shyly. “Maybe I could help?”

Namec scrunched his nose. “I didn’t think princesses could cook.”

Kya squirmed under his obvious dislike but managed not to melt into the floor. “I’m not a princess, sir. I’m a Countess… and I can cook a little. I learned so I could cook for Fives…” 

“I don’t think I like you touching our-” Namec started, but Fireball elbowed him. 

“I’ve had enough of whatever nonsense you keep trying to serve everyone. Let Fives’ Seppie give it a try. C’mere, Miss… uh, what was your name again?”

“Kya.” She stepped up and leaned over the pot they were fussing over, picking up a spoon and tasting it. Her nose scrunched involuntarily. 

Fireball snickered. “See?”

While the two clones bickered, she started examining what she had to work with. No meat, but a vegetable protein paste that didn’t have much taste to it. She started slicing, heating oil in a pan and frying it up for texture while she added spices and spooned in powdered milk into the broth in the pot. Namec and Fireball had quit paying her any attention as they argued with each other about food and everything else they had going on. 

She just ducked between them with a stick blender and started pureeing veggies in the broth. 

She was just finishing up when she heard a ship land outside. “That must be Rex, Echo, and Fives.” She mused, setting a bowl of rice with the fried protein paste and sauce ladled over it in Fireball’s hands. “How’s this?” 

He took a bite and blinked, holding it out to Namec. “Try. Just trust me.” 

Namec sighed, but took the offered spoon and a bite. His eyes widened as well. “.... that’s actually good. Really good.” 

Kya smiled and stepped aside. “Then help yourselves. I’ll go meet the others at the landing pad.” She trotted off without another word. 

Fireball looked at Namec. “You owe her an apology.” 

“Shut up.” He grumbled, but took another bite. 

***What you got in the stable?***

She was standing on the edge of the landing pad when the door to the Remora opened, Fives following his twin and Captain down the ramp. “Hey, Miss Kya.” Rex said politely. He never bothered with a title, and she liked it better that way. 

“Hello Captain. How’d the mission go?” She looked up as another clone came limping off the ship. He had a scar across his cheek and looked worn out. 

“This is Captain Howser. He was arrested on Ryloth.” Rex explained. “Echo pulled some encrypted data off the ship when we boarded, he’s going to take it back to Pabu for Tech to take a look at.” 

Fives smiled faintly when Kya looked nervously at him. “Easy, cyar’ika. We decided I’m gonna stay here with you for this. He knows the Bad Batch better, and I’m gonna keep an eye on the captains here.” He dropped an arm around her shoulder. “Namec didn’t give you too hard of a time, did he?” 

“Fireball was too hungry to let him fuss at me for long.” She smiled, subtly nuzzling into his shoulder. “They both keep calling me your Seppie though.”

Howser raised an eyebrow. “Seppie?”

“She’s on our side now.” Fives said firmly, and Kya gave him a delighted little look. He had made it known around camp that he had her back, and they shared a tiny room here in the converted monastery of Teth, two beds squished into a room designed for only one. She wasn’t exactly sure where they stood, since they were sleeping separately and he hadn’t kissed her yet, but it was okay. She felt safe when he was there, and none of his brothers wanted to get into a fight with an ARC trooper just because they didn’t trust her. 

“I’m Kya Dooku.” She hesitantly held a hand out to shake. 

Howser eyed it. “Dooku?”

“People change. Situations change.” Echo shrugged. “She’s Fives’ girl. He trusts her, Rex trusts her, and I trust that.” 

Howser sighed and hesitantly shook her hand. She hadn’t personally done him wrong, and the Empire was a bigger problem than what remained of the Separatists. “What brings you to the Rebellion, Miss Dooku?”

“Palpatine wants me several types of dead, and Fives wants to save his brothers. I just help where I can.”

Fives grinned. “So you cooked? What did you make? I missed your cooking.”

“It’s like curry, over fried protein paste, with rice. I got to use the spice cabinet.” She beamed. 

“You think we got the stuff for you to make the blumfroot bread you gave me before that Geonosis brain worm thing?”

“I can look.” She smiled, and they turned into the makeshift mess hall. Clones were sitting down to eat, just a small network of tired veterans doing their best. They had no real supplies or experience trying to find their own without Republic lines, working out of barely holding together ships, in patched armor. She chewed her bottom lip and looked at Rex. “Captain? Can I talk to you for a minute?” 

He nodded, waving the Domino twins and Howser to go on ahead. Rex and Kya stepped back out of earshot. “What’s on your mind?”

“We need more supplies, and more help.” She murmured. “I still have some of my father’s old contacts, people who hate the Empire as much as you do and would be willing to fight alongside you. Servants from home who care about me, old Separatist contacts from Raxus… Senator Singh, Tawni Ames…”

“Last I heard, Ames is dead. But Singh was laying low after the Bad Batch pulled him off Ryloth. If you can pull supply networks, you’ve got access to our comm network. Just keep Fives with you when you’re there, until the guys here adjust more. I don’t want any trouble for you.”

She nodded quietly. “Yes sir.” 

***We’ve a lot of starving faithful***

Time kept marching on as Kya built up a supply network for the clone rebels. Singh was onboard, Zara had gone back to her native Mirial and had “care packages” dropped for them. Other people were more direct, snatching clones from Imperial outposts and getting the chips from their heads before sending them to approved locations for pickup. The base was getting more busy. 

It didn’t feel like enough. 

Echo had come back after the data decode mission looking like a broken man. They’d discovered the existence of an experimental base called Tantiss, and tried to track the mad scientist responsible for it off of Eriadu. Instead of finding a trail to save their brothers, they’d lost Tech in a railcar accident. Omega had been kidnapped by the Empire in short order afterwards, betrayed by Cid. 

Kya had cried for Tech, who’d been part of bringing Fives back to her. She’d cried for Omega too, but those tears were full of rage. She’d cried them while in one of the smaller ships they’d managed to commandeer, walking tearfully into the Parlor on Ord Mantell and shoving her way into the trandoshan’s office. When she’d come out of the office several hours later, Cid’s usual barflies Bolo and Ketch had been staring at her with wide eyed panic. It might have been the fact that she was wearing the mask of Darth Caedes or the gore dripping from her hands onto the sticky bar room floor. 

“You two will operate this bar, and report to Phee Genoa.” She said quietly. “You will send regular supply shipments to the coordinates she provides. In exchange, you may take over Cid’s mercenary business and keep the profits. But if I call you, and you do not answer, I will do to you what I just did to Scaleback. Do you understand?” Her voice was a rasp through the mask’s vocoder, designed to instill terror. They’d nodded, petrified and clinging to each other, until she’d jerked her head back to the office. “That won’t come out of the carpet, but you might as well start cleaning it up.” 

They’d darted out of her way as she walked out, back into the ship she’d arrived on. Carefully, her bloody gloves and mask were wrapped in her black cloak and tucked into her backpack. Then it was a quick takeoff and she was back in hyperspace and on her way to rendezvous with the surviving government of Dexis. 

She’d returned with promises of supplies, aid, and repurposed droids. Fives had met her on the landing pad. “How’d it go, mesh’la?”

“We’ll start getting pickup orders in a week.” She smiled disarmingly. Her ARC trooper scanned her up and down, his smile fading after a second. 

“Kya.”

“Yes?” She straightened up at the tone he used. 

“Where else did you go?” His eyes bored into her, one hand settling on his hip. “I know you didn’t go straight to Dexis.” 

“How did you know?” She didn’t deny it, not bothering to lie. She didn’t even want to lie, not to Fives. Not anymore.

“There’s blood soaked into your boot laces. It looks like you tried to clean it up, but missed some.”

She looked down at her feet. “.... Kriff.” 

“Where did you go, and who’s blood is that?” Fives demanded. “Kya, Rex finally trusted you with a mission. You could have thrown a wrench in everything. And what if you were seen-”

“No one saw me. I went to Ord Mantell.” She said quietly. “I had a mask on. No one knows it was me, and no one followed me to the ship. I set up supplies from there to be routed through that pirate girl we met when we were with the Bad Batch… the only person who saw my face is dead.” 

He frowned, reached and turning her chin towards him. “You went after Cid, didn’t you?”

She nodded, eyes resolute even as they watered up. “She double crossed them, and now Omega’s missing… and Tech’s dead. I couldn’t make anything better, but I could make sure it didn’t happen again… they were good to us. They didn’t deserve what happened.”

Fives wiped a tear off her cheek with a thumb. “You’re lucky you’re cute… but warn me next time you decide to go off script. You shouldn’t have gone alone.” 

She sighed and nodded, wiping her cheeks with the back of her hand. “I’m sorry.” 

“Don’t do that. C’mere.” He pulled her into his arms. “Don’t cry, I hate it.” 

She snuggled into his chest and closed her eyes. “Okay.” 

***That looks tasty***

When Echo had told them Omega had been found, Fives and Kya had both started cheering and run for the Remora demanding Echo take them to see her. He’d rolled his eyes but acquiesced without more than a nod from Rex. They’d ended up on the warm planet of Pabu, where Kya met the last of the Bad Batch. Crosshair, a traumatized sniper looking as likely to bite as bolt. He’d hung back while Echo hugged Omega tightly, lifting her off the ground with delight. Kya and Fives had hugged her next, and she’d dragged them to meet Crosshair. 

He’d looked a little ashamed to admit he was a former Imperial himself. Kya had simply patted his arm lightly. “I’m Count Dooku’s daughter. You’ll have a much easier time making amends.”

They’d explored an Imperial base on frozen Barton 4 with the Batch, looking for information on Tantiss where Omega and Crosshair had been held. After a near miss with an ice wyrm, the ride home had been subdued. 

“You know anything about this M-count, Kya?” Hunter sat down next to her and Fives. 

Kya nodded. “Midicholorians. It’s a marker in the blood that coincides with Force sensitivity.” 

“Why would they be testing clones for it?” The poor sergeant looked so tired, like all I wanted was to curl up in a ball. She knew he wanted to keep Omega safe. So did the rest of them; Omega had an almost supernatural way of endearing herself to adults and softening their rough edges. 

She frowned. “I’m not certain. Nothing good, that’s all I know. But the dark Sith magic… that was more Sidious’ purview than mine or Father’s. From what I heard second hand, he’s obsessed with immortality. I’m not sure how that coincides with experiments on clones, though.” 

Hunter sighed, rubbing his temples. “You guys had any better luck with finding Tantiss?”

Fives shook his head. “She’s got quite a supply and information network going, but nothing new on Tantiss.” 

Kya leaned against his side. He’d been more cuddly since she’d killed Cid, like he was trying to remind her of his presence. He’d even pushed their bunks closer together, into a double bed on Teth. “We’ve got the rendezvous with Singh and Chuchi soon. Rex wants me to go with him on that. Maybe we can dig for information about the experiments there.” 

“Fair.” Fives nodded, looking at Hunter. “We’ll keep you posted. You have my word.”

***That looks plenty***

Coruscant was a danger to be on, but Kya had set up this meeting and she was determined to see it through. She sat, out of sight in the rafters of the warehouse they were using for cover, while Rex kept an eye on Senator Singh and Senator Chuchi. 

Echo and Fives were keeping perimeter, so things should have been safe. She didn’t sense anything in the Force moving around them except the clone, but she still felt on edge. Something was weird and she couldn’t identify-

GAR standard issue soap. She could smell it, ever so faintly, nearby somewhere. It didn’t make sense; the clones she was with didn’t have access to it anymore. They had to make due with what her suppliers could get them, but she knew that scent. Fives always smelled like that, barring the handful of times he’d come to her directly from the battlefield and transport. Where the hell was it coming from?

She was puzzling over it when a shadow moved, and the outline of a rifle appeared in the darkness not far from her. The assassin, in black armor, hadn’t seen her yet. “Rex!”

The blonde captain dove to cover Chuchi and Singh as blaster shots went off, and Kya launched herself after the assassin. They fell out of the rafters, the former Sith getting the rifle off him before he took off through the warehouse. She gave chase, comm going wild in her ear as Echo, Rex, and Fives tried to coordinate protecting the senators and cutting off her quarry’s escape. “I’ve got him.” She muttered. “Hold on.”

“Watch him. If he’s one of the shadows we’ve dealt with before, he’s got an electroshocker embedded in a back tooth.” Rex cautioned. 

“Then let’s stop playing games, shall we?” She took off up the side of the wall, putting on a little extra speed to go over her prey and land in front of him. Caught, he went to clench his jaw but was halted by a sudden paralyzing grip that forced his mouth open and lifted him by the throat. “It’s impolite to run off without making introductions.” Kya huffed, dragging him back across the warehouse with the Force. 

Rex blinked at her, eyes wide, but quickly stunned her captured companion. Once he was no longer a flight risk, she set him down. “Good work, Kya.” Rex crouched to pull off the assassin’s helmet.

Fives darted over, catching her by the shoulders. “You okay?”

Kya nodded immediately. “I’m fine. Are the Senators alright?”

Echo chuckled. “They’ve been evacuated and they’re fine. Good catch though. We never heard them.” 

Kya crouched by the clone as Rex revealed his face, frowning. “I didn’t sense him. It’s like he’s not even alive…” 

Rex nodded. “The Empire’s doing something to do them. Why else would a clone turn on another clone?” 

She shook her head, looking back at the twins. “I don’t like it, Captain.” 

“Me either. Let’s get this shocker out and take him back to base. Echo, make contact with the Batch… they’re going to want to see this.” He held up a puck the assassin had been holding, Omega’s holo rotating slowly. 

Kya didn’t like that either.

***This is hungry work***

“I brought you something.” Omega smiled happily, sitting beside Kya. She and the Batch had come to Teth to meet with Rex, to discuss the Empire hunting the little girl. Crosshair was anxious beyond words about the shadow assassin, so Kya had come to sit beside him in her best attempt to be comforting. Omega had come to join them, pretending she wasn’t worried about the Empire hunting her. Again. 

She held out an ocarina, made from weeping mya wood from Pabu. Kya took it gingerly and smiled. “Thank you, Omega. Did you still want me to play something for you?”

The little blonde nodded, and Crosshair twitched his toothpick and turned to listen. He was anxious, but there was no way off the planet until Echo came back for them. So all he could do was fret and try to warn his brothers, who seemed to accept the danger but couldn’t quite bring themselves to run like they should have.

Kya played a few experimental notes before launching into a song, foot tapping beside Omega to keep beat. The girl grinned, clapping her hands along with her. It was fun, an uplifting sound that brought a little joy to the somber air around the base. As the last notes petered out, she looked up and her brow furrowed. “Crosshair. Take Omega inside.”

“What’s wrong?” The sniper frowned. 

“There’s someone out there. I couldn’t sense the assassin inside, there’s nothing left of him. But this… there’s a sliver of a beating heart, buried deep down inside.”

“I knew it. The Empire’s found us. We should have already left.” He swore under his breath. 

“Walk calmly, act like I didn’t say anything, and get Omega to safety.” She stood up, tucking the ocarina into her hip bag. “Tell Rex what I said, and he can get a message to Echo and Fives.” The twins had gone for a rendezvous with Gregor, so she had to handle this on her own. Without her lightsaber, which was still in Fives’ pocket. 

Crosshair nodded, taking Omega by the hand. “You can’t fight him.”

“I can.” She smiled, and walked down the steps to the front entrance of the monastery, heading down into the jungle. Once she was on the ground level, she dropped low and started moving towards the flickery Force signature. She’d gathered from Crosshair’s absolute terror at seeing the first assassin that they were made by torture. This one felt different, like he was still holding onto his soul by the skin of his teeth. 

There was a chance she could save him, but it meant she had to catch him without hurting him. 

Above her, a shot rang out as the assassin killed the prisoner. Her short advanced notice had let Rex get a comm out to Fives and Echo, but they were on their own until he got back. She moved carefully, tracking the shot as he moved into the base, and followed him back inside from behind. 

He’d blown their comm array when she caught up to him, grabbing him with the Force as the clones hurried down the spire of the base to escape in the leech ship and hide to wait for extraction. She ripped the rifle from his hands as he kicked,choking from the vice around his neck.. She held him still, eyes hard, until she heard the ship take off and get out of range. “There’s still something in you to save.” She said quietly, lowering the half conscious clone to the ground. He was still fighting her, kicking and struggling, but she wasn’t going to kill him. 

Not when he was a clone. A brother. 

She looked up when she heard another ship come into the atmosphere and frowned, eyes narrowed. Shit. There was no time to try to get through to this one, because she couldn’t risk being captured. She looked at the struggling clone and sighed. “Sleep, trooper. Live to fight another day.” 

He struggled, but slowly went limp as she pushed him into sleep with the Force, then lay him down and went running down the stairs towards the rendezvous zone with all the speed she could muster. She crested a hill just in time to see the Remora opening its hatch, Fives running out. Even from a distance, he looked anxious as he looked from Rex to the other troopers and Omega. 

As she got closer, she heard his voice. “Where’s Kya? Rex, where is she?!” The frantic edge to his voice broke her heart. “You said she took on the assassin? You let her go alone?!”

“There wasn’t time.” Rex shook his head. 

Crosshair’s shoulders hunched. “She… probably didn’t make it. I’m sorry.” He sounded like he meant it. “But we have to go. The assassin won’t give up-”

“No. Not my girl. She’s not dead.” Fives snarled. “Go if you have to. I’m staying until I find her, we’ll find our way back like we did on Serenno. I’m not leaving without Kya.”

“I’m here.” Kya crawled up the rocky steppe into view, a little out of breath but in one piece as she came into view. “I’m alr-” Her words were cut off when Fives ran over and scooped her up, squishing her to his chest tightly.

“Are you okay?” He breathed, his helmet long forgotten on the Remora. He set her on the ground only to check her over.

“I’m alright.” She blinked up at him, eyes wide. “I couldn’t save him though. There wasn’t time.” 

He nodded, looking up as the Imperial ship pulled up and opened. Rex pushed in front of them as everyone backed up around Omega. 

“Wolffe?” 

“Rex?” The Imperial Commander pulled off his helmet to frown at the blonde captain. While they were talking, Fives nudged Kya towards the ship. 

“Get inside.”

“Not without you.” She twisted her fingers into his. “If you burn, so do I. Remember?”

He stared at her as she looked dead ahead, eyes fixed on Commander Wolffe and his men. Rex was slowly talking him down, and he gave a quiet nod after a moment and ordered his clones to stand down. There was a conflict deep in his mismatched eyes, but he was letting them go.

“No one’s burning today.” Fives pulled Kya aboard, and they all got secure as Echo took off. He didn’t let go of her hand, sitting down in the corner as he pulled her down between his upraised knees and held her tightly. Eventually the chatter died down, clones resting where they could. Omega slept cuddled up to her hound. Crosshair’s foot tapping quieted and he leaned against Wrecker, dozing. Hunter and Rex spoke in quiet voices in the cockpit, barely audible, while Fives’ head rested against Kya’s shoulder. She thought he was asleep when she felt his lips brush the side of her neck. 

“Fives?” She tilted her head enough she could see his profile in her peripheral vision. “Are you alright?”

He squeezed her a little tighter. “I thought I lost you back there. When Rex said you’d engaged the assassin… and then Crosshair told me how much more dangerous they were than we thought. I was afraid I’d never see you again.” His voice cracked. “I’d been holding out on forgiving you for what happened before… and when I thought you weren’t coming back, none of that seemed important anymore.” 

“Fives, you don’t have to-” She started, but he just quietly turned her around in his lap so she was sideways, cradled in his arms. 

“Yes I do. It’s stupid and none of it matters anymore. This matters. You matter, we matter. And I could have lost it all today.” Warm fingers splayed across her cheek, tilting her head up so he could crash his lips to hers.

The kiss was everything she remembered and more. Warm, desperate, tasting of devotion and apology alongside desperation. She’d missed it so much, and melted immediately against his chest as her arms looped around his neck. Blue fingers carded through black hair as Kya kissed Fives back, wordless promises between them. They were back, better than before because it was honest now. But it had always, from the very beginning, been real. 

When they had to break apart, breathing hard against each other with their foreheads touching, Kya smiled sheepishly. “I love you.” She murmured.

“I love you too.” Fives whispered. “Fuck, I love you so much.” 

Kya tucked her head under his chin, his goatee scratching against her temple. It was soothing, and despite how difficult things were now that they had no base and would have to reconfigure everything once again… all that mattered was this. 

“Here.” Fives said softly, reaching into his pocket and pulling out her lightsaber. “This is yours.” 

“You trust me?” She kissed his jawline as she slowly took the now almost unfamiliar weapon.” 

“Yes.” He said firmly. He couldn’t have expressed his love any more than that one word. Fives trusted her again. Everything was right with the galaxy, despite how much was wrong.

[cyanoscarlet]

Actors/Behind the Scenes AU, in which FF16 is a duo/trilogy of movies, and the characters are actors in said movie -

Headcanons that inspired Peppermint and Chocolate Chip (aka, that one Actress!Benedikta fic).

Outside of FF16, Clive is a dork. A quiet but nice guy who likes games. He’s a fan of the FF franchise, and his fave is FF8. (Inspired by Ben Starr talking about his FF experiences. Also I'm projecting.)

Joshua’s two actors are totally attached at the hip. They’re not related but everyone is astounded at the resemblance, no wigs were needed even! And Adult!Joshua adores Kid!Joshua and protects his mini-me with his life. (I'm actually thinking of them both having Joshua as a middle name! Something like Andre Joshua and Allen Joshua. Btw, Adult!Joshua is Clive's actual brother.)

Jill is an indie pop singer. Sometimes busks. She loves everybody! She baked sugar cookies for the cast and crew once. She still burns the oven sometimes, though. Also she takes up kendo to improve her stage action scenes but tells no one of her rank because it’ll scare them (and they’ll make her teach everyone else on set, and that’s a pain). Her favorite FF is 10...... 2.

Benedikta is actually an awkward bean. She IS the hottest thing right now, an it-girl if you will. But she IS an awkward bean off-set, and reality shows exploit this for all they can. Oh, and she’s a big eater. -> This is what became the actual Benna fic

Hugo’s a comedian, actually. He’s also an amazing cook. He and Benedikta get along well. They’re cool besties. He often invites her to his YouTube channel to cook for her.

Barnabas Tharmr: A-list actor. Everyone’s beloved leading man. Very versatile, hot, in-demand. He’s perfect, oh, and he sings too. Confusing af love life. -> Referenced in the Benna fic

Dion’s probably following in Barnabas’ footsteps career-wise. That recent boy-next-door role he played had all the teenage girls want him as a boyfriend. They don’t know that he takes cues from real-life experience, and a real-life boy-next-door that captured his heart. 👀

Oh, Cidolfus Telamon: where to begin? Also another A-list actor, like Barnabas. Action films are his specialty, although you also see him in heavy dramas. All his works are guaranteed hits, no questions asked. His relationship with Barnabas, although professional, currently leaves much to be desired. Rumors abound that he used to have a thing with Benedikta, although both sides deny it. Also The Original Troll on set. He's fun to have on talk shows, but that's only when he feels like showing up.

Terence is Dion's best friend from theater. The original boy-next-door, and Dion's real-life partner. Knows just enough pop culture to get by, so he doesn't understand how he got this role, but if anything good comes out of this it's getting to work alongside Dion again. Greagor knows how long ago their last production together was ever since his love shot to fame on TV/Film. (Oh, if only he knew who suggested him to the director, because "he's good at his craft." 👀)

Sleipnir's that one cocky archetype co-actor you usually see in these kinds of cast ensembles. He's actually nice, though! Just innocently insensitive at times. Terence hates him with a passion, but Sleipnir likes to believe they're Vitriolic Best Buds. (And they actually are. Dion agrees but doesn't dare say it to his bf's face.) He's a horrible troll, just like Cid.

Jote's an adorable Tonberry rookie actress! She briefly had ensemble/swing stints in another theater troupe (Adult!Joshua's, actually), before landing this role. She loves posting pictures of sunflowers. Laments her dark clothes. Looks up to Benedikta despite their only scene together being a violent one. -> Referenced in the Benna fic.

There MAY be a part 2 of these headcanons. If I feel inspired, maybe even an actual fic featuring another character in the same vein as the Benedikta one. Will probably make it an AO3 series when that happens!

[shellswritesstuff]

Prompt: what happened that night Ardyn stayed with the boys in the caravan.

THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE ASK! I'm gonna turn this one into a multi-part feel good comedy fic. Ignis just wants to cook. Ardyn has murder on his mind.. the dinner is the victim.

Roasted by the Roast [PART 1]

“We’re staying in a caravan, with Ardyn..” 

The implications of an overnight stay with that guy? Prompto couldn’t bear to imagine what it’ll be like.. What if he wears one of those old timey nightgowns? He shuddered, almost failing to notice the man of the hour come closer. And I mean, closer. 

“It’s a pleasure to share such..” A pause as Ardyn eyed the caravan. “..accommodations with His Highness.”

The awkward silence that followed was deafening. It was clear to the four, this was going to be quite the night. Thankfully, it was the caravan by Hammerhead. If anything was to go awry, Cid said he’d give the stranger a good lashing. Gladio caught Cindy up to speed with the whole, scarf-hobo situation, and she reached the same conclusion word for word. 

“That’s him? In the scarf…” She leaned forward, trying to get a better look from the garage. “..scarves?” 

Gladio let out a heavy sigh, he nodded. Even his questionable No-Shirt fashion was a tier above this. “Yep. It’s weird.” He further pushed back his own scarf phase. “Every time we hit a wall, he just happens to show up with a solution.” The word happens had extra emphasis, how did this guy know where to find them? 

Back across the street, the night was getting on as well as you’d expect it to. Dinner was to be served, and five plates were set. Ignis made a mental note to sit between Ardyn and whomever was unlucky enough to get the spot by him. 

“What’s on the menu, Specs?” Noctis came out of hiding. He’d found a cozy place far away from all the social awkwardness. He was going to seek an audience with Titan tomorrow, safe to say he was nervous. His voice shook, if you’ve known him as long as Ignis did, you’d be able to see Noct was a bit paler than usual. The weight of the world was on his shoulders, after all. With no way to see what tomorrow’s challenge will bring, the least Iggy could do was choose a dish without veggies. 

“Come here, Noct. I’ll let you pick the dish.” Neglecting his place as royal advisor for the night, he chose to prioritize being the King’s friend. Noctis practically flew down the caravan’s rickety steps, excited to choose the food this evening. 

This stranger couldn’t be all that bad, right? Sure, he came out of nowhere, led with creepy riddles.. Yeah. Just a night couldn’t be all that bad, right? One way or another, the King and his friends would find out. 

…

“What’s cooking, boys?” Cindy walked up to the caravan, taking a seat at one of its plastic chairs. She hummed, the smell of Iggy’s cooking was quite the pleasant one. 

Gladio came a few moments later after chatting up Cid. “Yessss..” He immediately recognized the ingredients set out.

Noct had picked a traditional Crown City roast. It’s a dish he’s had many times before, but not since he had departed home. Ignis had avoided making it, as not to stir up any past memories too early. He nodded as the King made his choice, knowing the comfort he may be seeking.

“Now how in the..” Ignis was on a mission to make the best roast there was, but an unstoppable force met an immovable object.  

The caravan’s kitchen was a world away from the industry standard set up he’s been spoiled with in Insomnia. Though, he’s made more with worse. If he can make dinner with nothing but a pan, a campfire, and three idiots.. Then this was going to be a cakewalk.

Ignis tied on his apron, ready to cook. He reached for the stove's dial and..

KLANG.

It hit the floor.

"Oh my.. looks like you'll be needing a sous chef." Just the man he wanted to see. "Lucky for you, I happen to be the best repair man this side of Eos. Now, how do you turn this thing on?" Ardyn inflated his experience, you know.. like a liar.

Ignis didn't get paid enough for this. [To be continued!]

[datauthorress]

neverending nightmares [chapter 4]

pairing: sephiroth / original female character

summary: all she wanted was to see the love of her life. she loved him, despite everything he had done. one fateful day, she hears a voice that calls out to her and lures her in.

rating: e

warnings: non-con elements.

a/n: i may have lied when i said there would be no sane sephiroth in this.

when she opens her eyes in what feels like eternity, she realizes that she’s not in the lifestream.

         but a hospital, or a makeshift hospital.

         it has to be somewhere in one of the sectors of former midgar, before she hears people bustling around.

         “shelby?!”

         shelby turns her head over to the side and is met with the watery eyes of tifa. tifa immediately hugs her, speaking between tears that she was so happy to be alive, that she was alright.

         when tifa helps her up, shelby notices that all of her friends are around her, having been waiting for her to wake up.

         “what happened?” shelby signs, noticing that she’s bandaged in many areas.

         “we got a call from a search and rescue team that you had been found just outside of midgar, hurt but alive,” cloud explained. “we came as soon as we could,”

         “and meteor?”

         “the lifestream destroyed meteor,” he answered. “but there were still casualties. they don’t know the exact number yet,”

         shelby nodded, sighing quietly.

         “do ya feel sephiroth at all?” barret asked cautiously.

         shelby shook her head.

         so he was dead, then.

         and she was alive.

         “shelby,” cloud said, causing her to look up at him. he reached into a bag he had been holding and brought out a folded up black cloth, with a necklace on top of it. a beautiful gem hanging off a strong chain necklace.

         the same necklace that sephiroth gifted her so long ago.

         shelby reached for her neck, and indeed, it was missing.

         “when search and rescue found you, they said that you were holding onto this coat,” cloud said, setting the small pile down on her lap.

         “we found the necklace when we went searching for you,” tifa said. “we knew you never took it off, so we thought that you had survived. we were so glad for it to be true once we got the call,”

         shelby gently lifted the necklace in her hands and slipped it over her neck, touching the gem gently. she was confused by the black fabric, but upon looking at the belt buckle, she realized that it was sephiroth’s coat. she knew he hadn’t worn it when he fought against cloud, so maybe he had sent it to her.

         the thought made tears stream down her cheeks, and she clutched it against her chest, noting that it still smelled like him.

         tifa was first to hug her, then yuffie, then cid and then the rest of her friends all joined in for the hug. shelby couldn’t voice her cries, she would forever be mute, but she knew that her friends would be there, no matter what.

         she would love sephiroth to the end of her days.

         but right now, she had to live life for herself.

         ~

         one year later, seventh heaven was rebuilt and had rooms added on. shelby lived there for a while, having fun with her friends and spending time with them.

         and then the virus came.

         they called it geostigma and shelby knew what it was. an uncurable virus that destroyed people from the inside.

         shelby knew cloud had it.

         and then shelby caught it a week later.

         it had spread along her arm, and even up the side of her neck. it hurt if she pushed herself too much.

         instead of taking up tifa and cloud’s space, she bought a small house in edge, wanting to have a little place to call her own. she got a job nearby, helping others in a kitchen and while it didn’t pay much, it was enough for her since she and her friends split all the gil they earned from their journey.

         shelby was happy there and she made some new friends along the way. she kept in constant contact with tifa, and when cloud became distant, shelby knew what he was going through.

         because she knew the enemy was drawing near.

         ~

         “have a good night, shelby!”

         shelby waved goodbye to one of her co-workers and headed home, glad her home wasn’t too far from her job. the walk home was quiet, but as soon as she went to unlock the front door of her house, she knew something was wrong.

         because her door was opened just an inch.

         but instead of leaving and going to seventh heaven, she opened the door and spotted a figure standing in front of the window, blocking out the light from the street.

         she noticed all black clothing, and the short, silver hair.

         remnants.

         “hello, sister,” the sinister voice of kadaj met her ears and he turned to face her.

         the door slammed shut behind her and she quickly turned around, seeing a more muscular man with even shorter silver hair standing there. he grinned at her.

         “so this is sister…” another voice spoke, and she turned to see another man, who looked more like a younger version of sephiroth.

         her heart clenched.

         “sister, it’s so wonderful to finally meet you,” kadaj grinned, his eyes widening in a way that made her heart skip a beat in fear.

         without warning, something struck the back of her head and she collapsed onto the floor. she could already feel her head bleeding and the last thing she saw before blacking out was boots walking towards her.

         ~

         when shelby came to, her head was throbbing. whatever light was cascading down on her made her squint her eyes, as it hurt her to even look at it. as she tried to move, she realized her hands were bound behind her back.

         w-what..? she thought.

         “oh, she’s awake.”

         shelby turned her attention to the three men standing not too far from her. kadaj approached her menacingly, kneeling down before grabbing her by the chin and lifting her head up.

         “geostigma found you,” kadaj purred. “he gave it to you,”

         he…?

         “everything about us is wrong, our bodies, our feelings…” kadaj said, his other hand coming up the other side of her, smoothing her dark locks out of her face to show off the stigma on her neck.

         “you were the first, because he gave it to you personally,” he said, releasing her chin.

         sephiroth?

         as if reading her mind, kadaj slowly smiled. “that’s right, sephiroth. you’re…..his favorite, aren’t you? you loved him, you still love him, even now.”

         kadaj slowly turned his attention to the other two men. “i wonder if he would get mad if we played with you a bit,”

         her eyes widened in horror.

         “this should be fun,” the youngest of the remnants snickered.

         ~

         she’s felt this pain before.

         back when she had been taken as a hostage by those men. they had originally wanted to use her for ransom, but after finding out she was sephiroth’s lover, they decided to try a different route.

         they’d beat her, tortured her in ways that the mind couldn’t comprehend. and when she screamed and screamed until her vocal cords snapped, destroying them forever.

         this pain was familiar, but it wasn’t as horrible. she managed to block most of it out, refusing to voice anything until loz slapped her across the face, leaving a bright red mark that she knew would bruise. she had always bruised so easily.

         she was unable to defend her, only able to take everything that had been given onto her.

         “shelby,”

         she turned her watery eyes to the shadows on the other side of the room and for a moment, for a fleeting moment, she thought she saw the familiar frame of sephiroth standing there.

         “stay strong, for me.”

         tears streamed down her cheeks and she squeezed them shut, crying silently.

         ~

         when it was over, kadaj took her by the chin and lifted her head up. “i hate him,” kadaj said quietly. “i hate everything about him, and yet, i can’t find myself to hurt you any longer. you’ll be spared of us in the future, but brother will not.”

         cloud….

         “until next time, sister.”

         and she was alone.

         shelby’s hand trembled as she reached for her coat, pulling her phs out of the pocket. she flipped it open and messaged tifa.

         [text to tifa]: can you find my location?

         [text to shelby]: got it. what’s wrong?

         [text to tifa]: i’m…..please, just find me.

         it was an hour before shelby heard the sound of a motorcycle screeching to a halt. footsteps pounded on concrete and the large door slid open, to which cloud and tifa stood there.

         “oh my god,” tifa whispered.

         ~

         shelby is quiet for a long time, even after tifa has helped her bathe and gotten her into a bed to sleep in. she hurt.

         “can you tell us who did this?”

         “three men with silver hair. they looked like sephiroth,” shelby signed. “only two of them….did this to me.”

         “they’ll pay for this,” cloud seethed.

         shelby knows they will.

         ~

         cloud has gone distant.

         it’s now been two years since meteorfall and shelby has gone back to her house after convincing tifa that she would be okay.

         the next day, she is called to healen lodge by reno.

         where she finds out that rufus shinra is alive. she already knew he had survived the blast, but she hadn’t had a chance to actually go see him in the sorry state he was in. he tells her that he’s met with cloud and asked him to help him defeat the remnants of sephiroth.

         and then reno spits out that together, they could rebuild shinra.

         shelby whips out her pistol so fast that reno can’t even reach for his weapon. reno holds up his hands in defense and irritated, she leaves healen lodge, wanting nothing to do with shinra.

         ~

         denzel goes missing.

         cloud goes to the forgotten city upon reno and rude’s statements, the same place he buried aerith.

         shelby knows he fights against them.

         ~

         the next day, children corrupted with jenova cells surround the monument that had been built. loz and yazoo are aiming to destroy it to find jenova’s remains, but are interrupted by rude and reno.

         they lose horribly.

         ~

         shelby is picked up by vincent, who takes her to the middle of edge where kadaj has summoned bahamut sin, a monster created out of corrupted magic.

         the group fight against bahamut sin and when cloud comes in, the group help him to the top to defeat the monster. when sliced through, the monster is surrounded by blue light and is quickly dissolved by it as cloud lands on a construction beam.

         shelby glances over as kadaj fires a spell at rufus and they both fall off the edge of the building.

         cloud is on fenrir in moments, and shelby runs along the beam, hearing the others calling out for her. she jumps once she reaches the end and lands on the back of cloud’s bike, to which he looks at her from over his shoulder. she nods at him and he nods back, to which they head after kadaj.

         ~

         when they reach the highway, kadaj is ahead of them with jenova’s remains. loz and yazoo are fighting with cloud and shelby, who is proving to them that she’s a strong fighter just like cloud.

         “ready to play some more, sister?!”

         shelby’s blood boils and she launches her fist out, punching loz square in the face and hearing the satisfying crunch of cartilage through the screeching of tires. she fires at him and he dodges it, heading in front of them before tossing his bike at them.

         cloud jumps up, giving shelby the reins to slice through the metal. when cloud is ambushed by loz and yazoo, shelby fires at them and catches loz’s electricity weapon on his arm. cloud slices through yazoo’s gun and lands back on the bike, speeding off.

         when she and cloud speed between reno and rude, it’s not long before an explosion occurs behind them and cloud maneuvers the bike to go off a ramp and onto the road that kadaj is on.

         they drive down the hill and into the ruins of midgar, where cloud has to stop. he groans softly and shelby places her hand on his shoulder, nodding at him. cloud rips the cloth off his arm, revealing the geostigma and they head off to the church, where kadaj has driven into.

         ~

         aerith’s healing rain cures both cloud and shelby of the geostigma. kadaj is hurt by the rain and he drives off to another location, and they follow him.

         kadaj says he’s with mother now and shelby wrinkles her nose in disgust.

         “you would have been part of the reunion, sister,” he said to her. “but sephiroth favors you too much. you don’t deserve to join it,”

         “fuck you,” she signed.

         kadaj throws a magic spell at them and thus begins the fight.

         ~

         the fight is evenly matched and kadaj is able to hold both of them off.

         that is, until cloud gets the upper hand and tosses kadaj, where he manages to grasp onto part of the ledge. cloud jumps to the ledge, where shelby stays on the platform next to it.

         angry, kadaj throws the box at cloud, who slices it in half. kadaj then jumps up, grabbing onto one of them as and cradling it against his chest. “my reunion…” kadaj speaks, but his voice has dropped to a more feminine one. “bet you’re dying to watch,”

         oh no.

         cloud, realizing what kadaj is about to do, jumps after him. it’s too late, however, as kadaj pushes jenova’s remains into his chest and lands on the platform below. he looks up, holding out his arms and as cloud reaches him, he morphs into the very person he despised.

         sephiroth.

         cloud is repelled by masamune and he lands on the platform next to shelby, who can only watch with wide eyes as sephiroth lands on the ledge just above them, masamune glinting in the sun.

         “your geostigma is gone?” he asked. “that’s too bad,”

         sephiroth turns his jaded gaze to shelby, who is standing there and watching him with wide eyes. “it’s been so long, shelby. i’ve longed for you,”

         cloud immediately held out his arm in front of her, trying to shield her from sephiroth’s gaze. “sephiroth, what do you want?”

         “the last thoughts of geostigma’s dead. those remnants will join the lifestream and girdle the planet, choking it, corroding it. what i want, cloud, is to sail the darkness of the cosmos with this planet as my vessel, and shelby at my side, just as my mother did long ago,” he said, raising his right hand into the air.

         the sky went dark, and tendrils of dark lifestream poured into the air, surrounding it.

         “then one day we’ll find a new planet and on its soil, we’ll create a shining future,”

         “what about this planet?!” cloud shouted.

         “well, that’s up to you, cloud.”

         “stop this!” shelby signed, turning sephiroth’s attention to her. “this isn’t you! the sephiroth i knew and loved wouldn’t do this! jenova….jenova isn’t your mother! she never was!”

         sephiroth seemed to hesitate, almost. his arm lowered back to his side. “you are lying,”

         “i would never lie to you! i swore that to you! please, just listen to me for one moment-!”

         “quiet!”

         his voice made her flinch.

         “when this battle is over, you will learn the true meaning of horror.”

         and he lunged.

         ~

         fighting against sephiroth in a monster form was one thing, but fighting against him in general was much more terrifying than she remembered, especially when she was the one fighting him.

         even though he was not trying to lay a finger on her, masamune did slice through her shoulder, blood pooling at the wound. when cloud became overwhelmed, he jumped to a higher area out of the bottom of the ruins and shelby quickly followed, her hand on her shoulder.

         “you have to get out of here, shelby.” cloud told her.

         before she could say anything, sephiroth leapt out of the smoke and used his advantage literally throw cloud around, before kicking him through a rock wall.

         he prepared his fighting stance, before lunging forwards.

         shelby, knowing what was coming next, quickly rushed and jumped in front of cloud protectively. what she felt next, made her heart skip a beat. masamune’s blade penetrated her chest and all the way through. her breath hitched and she saw jade-colored eyes widen as she glanced down at the blade that had ran her through. she glanced back up at sephiroth, blood splurting from her mouth.

         “s-se….phi….roth…..” she whispered, her voice raspy and almost intelligible. the first word she had spoken in so many years.

         and when he pulled back masamune, she collapsed to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

         “no!” cloud cried and he was at her side, his hand on her shoulder. “c’mon, stay with me, stay with me, shelby. you’ll be okay, hold on,”

         cloud immediately cast cure on her, but he had already used up so much of his strength in the fight. shelby shook her head slowly and she felt a droplet of water hit her cheek. she glanced up, watching in surprise as the dark clouds that sephiroth had summoned began to clear up and rain, aerith’s healing rain, began to fall.

         cloud looked back to her for a moment, smoothing her hair out of her face and then he remembered sephiroth, quickly turning his attention to his enemy.

         “this is YOUR fault!” cloud roared.

         sephiroth took a few steps back and shelby saw his eyes widen in what looked like realization. what was going on? this didn’t happen in advent children. sephiroth put a hand to his face and she could see behind his fingers that his eyes were squeezed shut tightly.

         what was going on?

         without warning, a large, single black wing came erupting from his back and he leapt into the air, before vanishing into the distance.

         “damnit!” cloud swore.

         cloud sheathed his sword and returned back to shelby, waving to the shera, and picked her up.

         “you’re gonna be alright, just hang on for me.”

         it was the last thing she heard before her eyes closed and she fell into the arms of the welcoming darkness.

         ~

         “you would think she would realize it’s not her time, but yet, she keeps coming back here,”

         “and what about sephiroth? do you think he had a realization of what he did?”

         “i believe so. i believe he will come back to his senses, after all, it’s not his fault what happened to him. even though he did so many things because of it….”

         aerith? shelby thought.

         “oop. time for you to go back,”

         “say hi to cloud for us.”

         ~

         shelby felt like she was floating.

         she felt safe and warm, maybe a little cool, but warm otherwise. she scrunched her eyes, before she slowly opened them and realized she was staring up at the ceiling of the old church. aerith’s church. she slowly sat up, the sloshing of water heard. when she stood up, she realized she was waist deep in the clear pond in aerith’s church. she glanced around at the children all around her, noticing that cloud was in the water with her.

         “welcome back!” marlene smiled.

         “it’s like she said!” a young girl said, getting shelby’s attention. “wait here and shelby will come back,”

         “there are still children with the stigma,” nanaki spoke.

         “right,” cloud nodded and approached denzel, holding out his hands. “come on, we’re here,”

         denzel nodded and cloud lifted him, before setting him down in the pool. shelby joined beside them and along with cloud, she cupped her hands of the water and they poured it onto denzel’s head. denzel blinked, as the geostigma slowly faded away, curing him. denzel glanced down at his reflection in the water, before he giggled.

         the other children around them cheered in joy and jumped into the pool.

         cloud lifted himself out of the pool and helped shelby out, to which she glanced over to the entrance and saw two figures standing there. she tapped on cloud’s arm, encouraging him to look.

         cloud glanced over and gasped softly as he saw aerith and zack standing there, smiling at him.

         “you see, everything’s all right.” aerith smiled, before she and zack vanished into the white light.

         cloud glanced down at shelby with a soft smile. “how are you feeling?”

         “i feel great!” she signed. “but….what now?”

         ~

         “sephiroth is alive,”

         “then we should hunt him down and take care of him before he does something to the planet!” barret exclaimed, banging his fist down on the table.

         “no,” cloud shook his head. “i…..i don’t think he will,”

         “huh? whatdya mean he won’t?!”

         “he….he had a shocking moment of realization.” shelby signed. “when he stabbed me, i think….i think he thought that he had killed me. and that was never his intention. no matter what, he never hurt me intentionally.”

         “i’ve noticed that too, but…” tifa said, her voice trailing off. “we can’t be too careful, right?”

         “i agree,” nanaki said. “if sephiroth has had a realization because he nearly killed shelby….”

         “then perhaps he would be inclined to find out his true past, and not the one he was subjected to,” vincent finished.

         “that doesn’t excuse everything’s he done!” barret said, shaking his head.

         “it doesn’t, and we’ll be sure he gets the punishment he deserves.” cloud nodded. “but we have to be cautious,”

         the group let out mumbles of agreement.

         shelby glanced out the window, glancing at the beautiful sky. there were barely any clouds out. she let out a soft ‘hmm’ noise as she saw something in the sky and when she blinked, it was gone. she got up and went outside, to which she saw a black feather slowly floating down towards her.

         she held out her hand and let it fall into her palm, observing the feather and feeling the softness of it.

         sephiroth…she thought, clutching the feather close against her chest.

         we’ll meet again.

[vinjaryou]

XYZ

The Sexy ABCs Meme

also holy shit I am so sorry it took me THIS LONG to answer! ;; I'm sticking the answers under a cut to save your dash, and I hope you enjoy them~ ♥

X is for X-rated: Do they watch any X-rated movies (porn)? Together or alone? Do they have a favorite type? Do they try to reenact them afterwards?

Watching X-rated movies is something they indulge in on occasion, though they're also up to reading some kinky novellas, too. The first time they watched porn together, it was an (aptly enough) vampiric-themed movie that Reilena had gotten as a gag gift from Tifa. They'd thought it was just going to be silly, but it turned out to be pretty damned hot, hit upon more than a few of their kinks... and they did end up reenacting their favorite parts later that night ♥ (and still do every so often, as oops, the vampire roleplay is kinda fun).

As such, they're more for the fantasy-themed movies, and though they do have some BDSM kinks, they’re not too keen on non-con, and will usually skip over those scenes or movies altogether, or at least make sure they’re comfortable with it before watching; consent is sexy, and when the word’s said, it stops. But costumes, exhibitionism, growls, and biting and scratching in there? Yes please, especially when it gives them some new ideas for the bedroom~

Watching alone can be fun, too – there’s been a couple occasions where Tifa’s popped into Reilena’s apartment by surprise, only to catch her best friend abruptly switching the channel with a red face and a blanket yanked over her. Not that those two haven’t watched a movie or two together, as they did when they dated, and even now during girls’ nights in will pick out a ridiculously-titled film, crack open a bottle or two, and turn it into a drinking game while teasing the other about whether or not they’d try what’s onscreen with their respective partners.

On the flip side, Vincent’s only been walked in on once so far (in this lifetime) while indulging. His “oops” moment was when he was staying at Cid and Shera’s for a weekend, with Cid walking in to ask if Vincent would join him outside for a smoke break. A strangled, startled “!”, a glance at the screen, and Cid held his hands up and said “I’ll give ya a sec, Vince uh… catch ya out back?” though not without a little smirk, ‘cause the cape was definitely not over his shoulders at that time.

And sometimes alone doesn’t necessarily mean alone, as the private chat they have on their phones can attest to~

Y is for Yucky: Is there something they find particular disgusting or unpleasant in regards to sex? Something they’d absolutely refuse to do, even if the other really wanted it?  Have they already denied the other some kinks because of this?

They're good at discussing boundaries and kinks, and have introduced one another to their own (Vincent turned Reilena onto shibari and bondage for example – and then proceeded to accidentally break a couple pairs of handcuffs because he really really really needed her, oops~), so when they come across something that might squick or freak the other/both of them out, it's talked over. Even if one seems entirely into it, the absolute second it looks like something’s not right, it stops. This came into play quite a bit when Vincent introduced Reilena to constraint kinks, as the last thing he wanted was to accidentally trigger her claustrophobia; constant reassurances were given, and it was taken as slowly as needed, with him giving her full rein on everything while talking her through it.

Which means yes, there have been times when they're making out and deep into foreplay, a question is asked, and they'll slow down (as much as possible) to make sure they're on the same level before continuing. Mussed hair, heavy breathing, clothes undone and rumpled (if not off entirely), and then a soft "are you okay with this?" This also comes up if he's gone semi-monstery, because he knows he can get very rough when that happens (and again with the possible claustrophobia due to wings enfolding them post-climax if he’s more Chaotic), and though she always reassures him that she's okay, he will always make absolutely sure.

Debasing/degrading talk is one that they won't do; dirty talk is all well and good, but there's that line that neither of them will cross. Bodily fluids need to be specified - bloodplay is very good (hello vampiric tendencies and biting/scratching), they both enjoy going down on one another and indulging in their tastes, but cum play is eeehhhh (heat of the moment has happened at times, but it's not a regular thing; this doesn't count licking them off of fingers though, as that is a yes good very good and a surefire way to get them even more riled up), and a hard no on anything that's supposed to go in the toilet, to put it nicely.

Z is for Zones: What are their most erogenous zones?  Does their partner know all of them?  Do they make sure to stimulate each other in said zones?

For her: the inside of her thighs is a very big one, especially the left, and he likes to take advantage of this by running his claws along her leg to get her flustered when they're sitting together in public; in the bedroom, he'll bite it just deep enough to draw blood, and let the blood run down her leg before licking it up and kissing the bitemark.

Caressing and running nails/claws across her hips and along the small of her back will get her warm and flustered in a hurry, moreso if he decides to take his time and lazily run his claws up her spine. Doing that while nuzzling the hollow of her throat? She will cling to him and beg him for more. Breasts feel almost like a given, but she can't help it, especially when he toys with her nipples until they're erect and almost aching; she has a tendency to really pull at his hair when he plays with her like this.

And for a more subtle one, the inside of her arms - running his nails/claws along her arm, up until their fingers link together and he squeezes their hands/presses them against whatever surface they're against. Soft, tender, and sensual, it's one he likes to do when they're in public, and will usually nuzzle/kiss a warmed cheek afterward with a murmured little tease.

For him: his neck - for a specific spot, the back of his neck - is one, and she will play this up as much as possible, as she'll run her nails down his neck while they're making out to get him to shiver. As such, she'll surprise him at times in public by brushing his hair over his shoulder to press a kiss against the back of his neck before whispering in his ear and slipping her arms around him, if not sneaking in a little nuzzle and kiss against the side of it as well. Nibbling, biting, and suckling at it is also a surefire way to get a nice, throaty groan from him.

His chest is a big one (haha), more now that he’s more comfortable with baring his torso. Feeling her hair against his skin while she’s kissing and licking her way down, giving special attentions to his scars (the once-fatal mark is a major one, which was a surprise to him as well, as he never thought it would turn him on so much until that night when he first revealed his torso scarring to her) will get him hot and ready to go in seconds, and when she moves down to nuzzle the happy trail of soft black hair from his navel down~? That’ll get some quality whimpering growls in an instant, as well as some claws or fingers tangled in her hair as he trembles.

He also just really likes his scars being kissed, caressed, and tended to. Considering the insecurities he’s harbored with them, and how many traumatic memories they still keep, feeling her touching and kissing them is at once a major turn-on and a tender reassurance. The torso ones were already mentioned, but the scars around his shoulder blades – marks where the wings of Chaos still burst out every so often – and the faded ones on his forehead – courtesy of Galian’s horns – are also ones that will get him warmed up while also feeling reassured and loved whenever she nuzzles or kisses them.

(and then I finished writing all this and thought "whoops, these are probably better for turn-ons," eep)

[lily-of-rabanastre]

Ascilia, Chapter 17—Excerpt 01

Just a small(?) teaser while I work through Shadowbringers on my Minfilia alt. And while I write the rest of the final chapter of Ascilia, too.

Some context to help understand what's happening: This is the memory Venat wanted to show Lily near the end of Chapter 16. I was hoping to keep it short, because Lily is actually relaying the events to her sister in the next scene. But somehow it turned into four pages of text anyways.

Hope you all enjoy it!

“Hear… Feel… Think…”

A wicked wind blasted overhead as Lily came to. What felt like frigid sweat beaded down her brow, but as she raised a hand to wipe it away she found it to be not just sweat, but blood as well. She could scarcely recall what had happened to her. One moment she had been on her feet, calling upon the elements to aid her allies. And now she was—

“Thank the soddin’ Twelve she’s awake,” came a familiar woman’s voice. Tugging on the collar of her robe, the woman drew Lily up onto her knees. Wiping her brow and blinking, Lily strained to get a good look at her. Una Tayuun, a Miqo’te Seeker. “Off your plaster, Lily! Percy an’ Satz need you!”

Gripping her cane with both hands, Lily staggered shakily up to her feet, taking a deep breath as she tried to ascertain her surroundings. She appeared to be on one of a series of floating islands, suspended high above the ground. Far above them in the smoldering red sky was the red moon, Dalamud, its descent seeming inevitable. Before her lay the bodies of two men, one Roegadyn and one Elezen.

Satzfloh and Percevains, Una’s companions. Though they’d been with the Path of the Twelve longer than she had, they were still junior Walkers—delinquents who spent as much time making trouble for other initiates and Minfilia as they did shirking their own responsibilities.

Despite this, they were… friends… to her. By the look of it they were in the same state: Unconscious and bleeding. But not dead, not yet.

Beyond them were two more figures, one an armored figure wreathed in a burning aura not unlike Dalamud, wielding a blood-soaked gunlance. Nael van Darnus, Legatus of the VIIth Legion. Thrall to the very celestial body with which he sought to cleanse Eorzea of life. The other was a towering woman, black as night beneath the fallen moon’s light, straining to keep the giantsgall axe in her hands from falling. Her flowing white mane billowed in the bitter wind, her shoulders heaved and her breath ragged. She’d been watching over them, defending them.

“Una, Lily, get these boys on their feet,” their guardian declared, her eyes fixed on their foe. “Then we’ll make a break for it.”

She shook her head, nearly falling over from the exertion. “Chel, you can’t be serious. If we don’t… stop him, he’ll… Dalamud…”

“Shut yer tart hole and heal, damn it!” Una cried, kneeling down beside Satzfloh, channeling her aether into the man’s body. “Come on, Satz. On your feet. Please…”

With a beleaguered sigh, Lily did the same, whispering words of prayer as she channeled the power of the elements. Percevains rose to his feet first, his hands shaking as he removed his mask and clutched his forehead. Satzfloh was next, groaning loudly as he sat up straight.

“What in the Hells hit me?” he asked, massaging his brow. “I remember meteors and a golem, and then…”

“One of the comets exploded, and the shrapnel tore into us,” Lily found herself saying, the memory of the incident coming back to her. “But it was the might of our foe’s lancework and the magicks Dalamud has blessed him with that put us down for the count. I… Minfilia was right. We weren’t ready for this.”

“Do you think Cid will get us out of here?” asked Percevains, eyeing the airship fluttering about around the floating isles of the Rivenroad.

“He will,” said Chel, her gaze still fixed upon Nael. “I’ll cover our retreat. Don’t stop and don’t look back.”

With a nod each, Una and her companions darted to the furthest edge of the island, hailing the Enterprise and its pilot, Cid Garlond. Lily turned to flee as well, but before she could take more than a single step she heard a familiar voice, warm yet haunting, calling to her.

“Hear… Feel… Think…”

“... I… understand,” she said aloud. “You’re going to die here. But if you think for a moment that I’ll leave your side—”

“Better one of us dies than both,” Chel declared, her ears twitching. “You hear Her, don’t you?”

“I do,” she replied. “How did you…?”

“Because I can hear Her too. Strange that it took this long—with every soul to cross Ascilia’s halls, that I possessed Her blessing without ever hearing Her voice seemed more and more a mistake.” Clearing her throat, Chel looked skyward, perhaps in the hopes of catching a glimpse of their mystery singer. “What do you want from us?! Answer me!”

“Why even waste the effort to ask?” came the bass-heavy voice of Nael van Darnus as he began to close the gap between them. “Have I not made it clear what your purpose in this confrontation is? I will rend your bodies asunder, beasts, and adorn His sanctuary with your flesh and bones!”

As the sound of the Enterprise drawing closer filled the air, Chel spat on the ground. “Damn it. Alright, new plan. You and I—”

But Nael cut Chel off with a sudden dash, his gunlance ripping through the air. With a hefty swing of her axe she parried his attack, the lance discharging a wide beam of red-hot light into the air. Responding to his attack in kind, the pair began to dance across the battlefield, landing only glancing blows here and there.

Even with Lily’s support, peppering Nael’s armor with conjured stone and blades of wind, it seemed impossible to land even one solid blow. But all the cuts and scrapes he inflicted upon Chel were beginning to add up. Not even the healing Lily provided her seemed enough to keep her going. Her reactions grew slower and weaker with every moment that passed, until there was nothing more she could give to fight back.

With one last swing of his gunlance, Nael severed the fingers on her right hand, causing Chel to drop her axe. And with one final thrust, he pierced Chel’s chest.

With a loud, rasping cough, Chel spat up blood.

“Pathetic,” the Legatus declared, flinging aside her body with a flick of his wrist. “And now for the hare.”

Lily froze, her gaze drifted down to the crumpled body of her fallen friend. Fear and fury welled within her in equal measure, her hands clenching tightly around her cane. In and out she gasped for air, again and again and again. And as her foe drifted into view, lance at the ready to skewer her, her thoughts scattered upon the wind, leaving only the tumultuous feelings burning within her, rapidly swelling until they were as a raging inferno.

“How gracious of you to stand still for me,” Nael intoned, Dalamud’s fell light coursing through his lance as he lunged in for the kill.

Snapping her cane in half with a blood curdling shriek, Lily slipped past Nael’s lance and through her guard. Her right hand came up, lightning arcing out like knives from the gaps between her knuckles. Effortlessly she cleaved through the Legatus’s helmet, cutting it in half and searing the face beneath.

Stumbling backwards, the bubbling skin of his feminine face exposed to the elements, Nael opened his mouth as if to speak. But not one sound passed from between his lips—it seemed that the lightning blades she’d struck him with had suppressed his speech entirely. Raising his lance instead, he made to strike her once again.

And once again Lily evaded the attack, her hand clamping around the man’s throat and dragging him into the stone floor with a heavy thud. Dancing blue flames emerged from her palm as she released her grip, twisting and twirling about Nael’s body before wrapping tightly around him, pinning his arms to his waist.

“Ghkhk…” Nael gurgled, his eyes gleaming red. “Ghh…. release me, you filthy mongrel!”

Summoning all the might she could muster, Lily shuddered and stomped her foot, the ground beneath Nael buckled and snapping as it rose all around him. Clenching her hands together, as if in prayer, she forced her will upon the stone, tightening its grip on her foe’s body even as it fully engulfed him.

“Die, Garlean scum!” she hissed as she pressed both hands together. “May the land drink deep of your blood!”

With crunch after sickening, squelching crunch, the stone prison slowly collapsed upon itself, mangling and crushing the body of her foe within. And with the turning of her hands, she forced the makeshift tomb back into the earth, burying the corpse. Satisfied that there was no coming back from such a death, she took a deep breath and began to process what she’d just done.

Cutting lightning and silencing thunder. Binding flame and imprisoning stone. These were among the many abilities Lily knew only from the stories her mother once shared. The power of an Elementalist—power that had somehow come to her as instinctively as breathing.

But there was no time to try and understand why she had awakened to them now of all times. For as her fury subsided and the high it brought with dissipated, her gaze returned to the source of her despair.

Her dear Chel was mortally wounded. If she didn’t receive aid immediately, she would die.

Rushing over to her side, Lily noted the steady rise and fall of her chest and the focused look in her eyes. Kneeling down, she clasped her hands together over the hole in her chest, beginning a healing incantation. Though it would cost her everything she had left, she could at least hope to mend her pierced flesh and stabilize her draining vitality. But as she channeled her aether for the ensuing benediction, she felt something odd. It was as if some otherworldly force had begun to flow into her. And with it came a familiar voice, warm and gentle and kind.

“Hearken to my words, my child. If thou wouldst save thy companion, look to the Light within and pray.”

[forensicated]

Gina: Ah, just the man I want to see. Has the new superintendent arrived yet? Smithy: Well if she has, I haven't seen her. Erm, just wanted to remind you that I'm booked off early today, it's the er, the erm dentist. He said that er that it's really important that I get my tooth done, cos er, it's a ro-root canal. Gina: Right, well I'll just have to do without you then, won't I...

Reg: To be fair, the man did die... Dan: So? You're supposed to sit there whilst some nutter attacks you? Gina: Sergeant! Smithy: Ma'am? Gina: A word. Why didn't you tell me Superintendent Prosser had arrived? I ended up looking a right prat. Now she thinks we're all incompetent and we can't communicate! Smithy: *looks lost for words* Gina: Thank you very much Smithy... *gestures for him to leave*

Zain: Hotel security have managed to corner him, but he's loose somewhere in the hotel. Dan: Cool. Zain: I'm glad you think so, because your job is to knock on every door and make sure he isn't hiding under a bed, or shower curtain. What? Did you think CID was all glamour and girls? Chop Chop! Smithy: Y'know what? If I could spend the rest of my life in this hotel room with you, I would. Living off the mini bar, and the complementary continental breakfasts. Louise: *laughs* You're such a romantic. Smithy: I do my best. Smithy: I should take the afternoon off work more often. Louise: I bet you do this kind of thing all the time. Smithy: Oh, every day of the week, different hotel with a different bird. But none of them mean as much to me as you do. Louise: Dale? Any idea why there are police cars outside? Smithy: *runs over and looks* Dan: *knocks* Mr and Mrs Smith? It's PC Casper from Sun Hill. Smithy: Erm, it's Dan... Louise: You know him! Smithy: Of course I know him! Louise: I can't be seen here! Smithy: What! And I can? Louise: You haven't got a husband...Just a minute, we're not decent. Smithy: What did you do that for! Now he knows there's someone here! *sighs and hurries to the door, looking through the peep hole, pulling the dressing gown on* Dan: *opens his mouth to speak and laughs* ...Smithy! Thought you were at the dentist? Smithy: Yeah, well I'm here with a friend. Dan: A woman? Smithy: Well yeah, course it's a woman! Dan: *looks over Smithy's shoulder* Very nice! So who is she? Smithy: None of your business, what you doing here? Dan: There's been a series of breakins, in the rooms here...Security guards had the guy cornered, but he got away. ...He's still on the premises. IC 1 Male, about 5'8 Smithy: Yeah, but he ain't hiding in here, is he! Dan: Oh, course not...sorry. Smithy: So who else is here? Dan: Roger, Steve, Zain... Smithy: Right, ok...do me a favour, keep this to yourself. Dan: Mate, my lips...*mimes a zip* Anyway, look, I owe you one for keeping quiet about the *whispers* Rochelle thing... Smithy: Well I hardly think this is the same as you and your affair with the Borough commander's wife. Dan: Married's maried, Mr and Mrs Smith! Seriously, your secrets safe with me. By the way, nice legs... Her that is, not you. Louise: Great. How am I supposed to get out of here with your Sun Hill mates swarming around the place. Smithy: They're not swarming!

Zain: Still, it's good you're doing your homework. If you're going to steal the mans wife, the least you can do is find out who he is. Smithy: *shakes his head and glares at Zain* Don't push it...

Louise: You're scared of how you feel. You're scared it's too good to be true. Smithy: Well....yeah. *nods* ...It is.

Smithy: So how'd you feel now your treatments over? Gina: You know me...strong as an ox. Smithy: But how long you gotta wait to get some results? Gina: One month. Then a quick checkup. Smithy: Alright... Gina: 3 months till D-Day, but who's counting...We're here for a celebration, not to talk about my cancer.

Tony: Hello Merv! How's it going! Merv: Never have met a Sun Hill copper who could hold his drink... Smithy: And you ain't gonna find one in here! Merv: Manager called, said there was a bunch of troublemakers bothering his customers. Smithy: Er, you just missed 'em... Smithy: Oh come on Merv, what you after?! Plonker of the year or something?

Merv: So pay the bill and then we can avoid any embarrassment *takes Gina's arm* Smithy: OI! Easy Merv *goes to get Gina who throws a drink over Merv* Gina: It was a joke! No! It wasn't a joke... it was an accident!

Smithy: *slumps against the bar* Sheelagh: *chuckles and slaps his back* Smithy: You were bloody lucky you got a result today, you know that! Sheelagh: Could have been a lot worse if I hadn't had Gabriel talking sense to me... Smithy: *scoffs and downs his drink* Gabriel... Sheelagh: No, seriously, he was right there when I needed him...I keep telling him he should push for Sgt... Smithy: Sheelagh? Do me a favour, stop banging on about Gabriel. Sheelagh: Smithy, what is your problem with Gabriel? You've never liked him, have you! Smithy: I mean it. Shut up. Sheelagh: Even after he risked his life pulling you out of that fire, you still won't give him the time of day... Smithy: What? And you think he's the Archangel, is that it? Sheelagh: No. But I do think he'd make a damn good Sergeant, what's the matter with that? Smithy: The day they give three stripes to a rapist is the day I hand mine in. Sheelagh: What? Smithy: You heard. Kerry accused your boyfriend of raping her. How else do you think she was pregnant with his kid?

Yvonne: Losers can by the beer all night, and you can chuck in a curry... And I'm talking quality, not quantity, Dan. Dan: Whatever you say *grins*

Dan: Easy tiger, you wanna think of your blood pressure. Roger: Actually I'm thinking about all the beers we're going to have to buy. Dan: Why'd they leave the car? Roger: Didn't have much choice. They had a puncture. Dan: Oh, what a shame...

Bloke: Come on...you're not gonna do me for them? It wouldn't be worth the paperwork... Roger: Well normally no, not for me...but my friend here, he lives for form filling. Dan: Oh he's right...love it!

Dan: We're at that location now...and if you see Yvonne, you can tell her she just lost the bet... Dean: Will do... Prosser: What did he mean she just lost the bet? Dean: No idea, ma'am

Dan: Makes him a nut job if you ask me Gina: The income tax that nut job has paid has been spent on your education, PC Casper. Not money well spent if you ask me!

Dan: Is there nothing else we can do for them ma'am? Gina: Careful PC Casper you're in danger of developing a conscience... Smithy: *to Gina* Drinking on duty, and now smoking on duty? Smithy: ...Shall I buy you a cup of coffee? Gina: Maybe later, I'm going to take early refs... Smithy: *sees Gina arriving after the SO19 cock up* *smirks* You're a good half hour too late...

Gina: Oh! And where have you been for the past hour? Smithy: You're not the only one who use the old 'I'm on ref's' excuse... So er, how did it go with the er ...Super? Gina: Surprisingly well. Not only did I get an apology, but also 'well done'! Smithy: Blimey...I was expecting blood and guts. Gina: Well I should stand by with the mop and bucket, because she has an interview with the Borough Commander. Smithy and Gina: Oooooh!

[starrysnowdrop]

❝ if people can hate for no reason, than i can love for no reason too. ❞

((I’m going to change the wording just slightly so that it fits what I got inspired to write with this one. Hope y’all don’t mind! 🥰))

“Oh Raha, before you go back to Mor Dhona, I wanted to discuss something with you, if I may,” the brown haired lalafellin woman said to the red haired miqo’te man across the main hall of the Baldesion Annex.

“Of course! What is it?” G’raha Tia answered, his mismatched eyes looking to his companion expectantly.

Instead of answering him right away, Krile sat down at one of the desks that lined the walls, and she made sure that G’raha was sitting down as well before asking quite bluntly, “What are you going to do about Yume?”

G’raha’s mouth fell open and his ears and tail shot straight up. He should’ve known that Krile was going to ask about her, as he had written to Krile several letters that heavily contained his gushing about the Raen ronin. “W-what about Yume?”

“Raha… after all these years, do you really think you can hide from me?” Krile shook her head and shrugged.

After the initial shock had faded, G’raha’s ears then fell back to his head and he rubbed his arms, to which Krile immediately took notice of his characteristic self-soothing gesture. “I-I wasn’t trying to hide anything, but really, there’s nothing for me to do.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Krile, let’s be serious now. I have to stop letting my feelings for her get in the way of my work with the investigation of the Crystal Tower.”

G’raha looked down at the stack of papers on the desk while taking a deep breath, hesitating a few moments before he continued.

“Yume is a taken woman, and she seems happy with Cid. What is the point in me saying anything to her? I would rather be content with remaining by her side as her friend than to burden her with my feelings… she deserves happiness, not more weight upon her shoulders.”

Krile giggled. “But do you see Raha? That is why you must try!”

“Uhh… sorry, I don’t follow.”

The lalafell sighed. “You only wish for her happiness regardless of how the outcome will affect yourself. That’s what true love is! But you have overlooked one detail.”

G’raha just tilted his head sideways inquisitively, waiting for the answer.

“What if she feels the same about you? What if you are the one she has been waiting for all these years? Wouldn’t you be denying her the greatest chance at happiness?”

“Then I am too late, aren’t I? She is already committed to another man!” G’raha ran his hand through his long bangs that fell into his face and tried brushing them off to the side, which hid his eyes from Krile at that angle, but Krile just leaned forward and placed her hand on his shoulder.

“Raha, listen to me,” Krile spoke softly, which prompted G’raha to look back at her again.

“All you can do is try. If she’s as kind and understanding and compassionate as you have told me she is, then even if she doesn’t love you in turn, she would never abandon you. You would remain as you are now. Besides, if people can hate for no reason, then you can love for no reason too.”

G’raha’s eyes narrowed as he held his head with his hand, and Krile knowing where, or more precisely to whom, his mind had wandered off to.

“Just think about it, alright? I don’t want you to live the rest of your life filled with regret, wondering what might’ve been.”

G’raha nodded. “Alright, I’ll take it into consideration. But I won’t do anything until after the expedition is over. I still have a job to do, and so does she.”

“Fair enough. Oh, and one last thing.”

“Hmm?”

“Do be careful, alright? I want to see you again in one piece when all is said and done.”

“I will. Thank you, Krile.”

((Thank you so much for the prompt @porta-decumana!!! Sorry it took me so long to answer this! 💖💖💖))

[locitapurplepink]

If you’re still taking prompts, I’ve got a Hunter and Omega one.

38. ‘Do I really mean that much to you?’ - where Hunter can’t believe how much he means to Omega and she replies ‘of course you do. You’re my dad.’

Of course, I always open for writing @fluxy001 . Thanks for requesting me.

A Father's Act

Hunter and Omega

The bad batch just finished their newest mission from Cid when they accidentally across the children friendly area.

A lot of the kids playing and running around them. "Uh, this is unexpected." Tech spoke first. "Yeah, usually Cid's not always give us any warning us but this one is otherwise." Echo responded.

Then one of the children ran into Omega "Hello, are you a new neighbour here ?"

Omega shook her head "No, we just have a walk, that's all."

The girl who has a long braid ginger hair "Do you wanna play with me ?"

Omega doubted at first but Hunter put his hand on her shoulder "Boys, why don't you guys back to the marauder first ? We'll catch you guys up later."

Tech and Echo stared each other with surprised look as Wrecker spoke to Omega "Have fun with your new friend, kid !" Omega nodded.

The ginger hair girl pulled Omega's hand "Come on, let's play there." Hunter followed them to the playground.

The ginger hair girl showed Omega to play swing. Omega tried to play swinging. It was fun until....

"Why don't you swing faster ? It would be more fun." The ginger hair girl pushed Omega's swing which she was shocked.

Hunter noticed her face that she couldn't control this speed. He tried to warn her new friend "Uh, kid. You have to slow it down... "

But it was too late, Omega couldn't hold the swing any longer and was thrown to the ground.

"Omega !" He rushed to check on her "Are you okay ?"

She sighed as checking on her right arm "I guess so."

Then the ginger hair girl apologized "I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you." "It's okay." Omega responded.

Hunter rubbed Omega's back as explained to that girl "I know you didn't mean on purpose but you have to know that not all the kids have a same life as yours. Some of kids are struggle to adapt with their life like her. Next time, if you meet another new friend, try to take it easy, okay ?"

The girl nodded "Okay. Your name is Omega, right ?"

Omega nodded "Yeah, what's yours ?"

"I'm Lilah." The girl answerd.

"Nice to see you, Lilah but we should go, okay ?" Hunter said.

Lilah sighed "Okay and I'm really sorry, Omega. Will I see you again ?" "We're not sure but hoping we could see each other again." Omega replied.

After they back to the marauder, Hunter took care of Omega's wound "Good thing your arm isn't broken, you'll be okay in no time." Omega noticed Hunter trying to hide his sadness.

"What's wrong ?" She asked.

He sighed "I'm sorry, Omega. This was supposed to be a good one like you met Shaeeah and Jek." "That I almost attacked by a nexu ?"

He sighed again "I just wish you could have a good childhood like the other kids who has nothing worry about the risk and living with a family that you deserve."

Omega reassured "Hunter, I'm grateful to stay with you, Tech, Echo, and Wrecker and having a lot of adventures with you guys. You all are means to me, especially you."

"Do I really mean that much to you?" Hunter asked.

She replied "Of course you do. You’re my dad."

Hunter was surprised as Omega accidentally expressed her truth to him. Hunter can’t believe how much he means to Omega. He was touched by her word.

"What makes you think of that ?"

"I've been thinking the way you act to me. You always be there to protect me, comfort me, and make sure I have a good memory like this."

Hunter put his arm around her shoulder "And I'll make sure you have another good one."

"Aww, we have a daddy on this ship." They heard Wrecker teasing Hunter. Omega giggled while Hunter shook his head as responded "Wrecker !"

...

Hope you like this one

[that-one-weeb-but-starwars]

Crosshair becomes a dad but I make it as sad as Possible

I highly recommend listening to "Two Men in Love", "In this Shirt" by The Irrepressible or "Facelessnights like these" by slen, because it makes it that much more sadder there's alot more like "Broken" and "whyd you only call me when your high but the violion cover" but we arent getting into that

Y/n stood there, the air still, the clones infront of her still.

Her friend, best friend, her everything. Her only one.

"Don't do this Cross." Y/n begged, it wasnt a distraction it was on pure impulse, on pure want- no need.

"Don't do this!" Y/n shouted at him.

It was a silent stand off.

"Good soilders, follow orders." Crosshair announced.

"Y/n get down!"

The blaster fire started as Wrecker had grabbed her, trying to keep her safe as he fired back at them.

"Wrecker I-"

"I know. It'll be okay!" He tried to soothe still shooting at the men.

"Get to the ship!" Hunter demanded the group attempting to rush off, Wrecker getting shot in the process, but everyone making it quickly.

This wasnt right, not at all.

Y/n sat in the Cargo hold alone most of the time after the incident, wanting to sit in pure solitude, she didnt feel like sitting with anyone, Hunter had forced her too though.

He was worried for her and even stopped her only a few days into there voyage.

"Y/n."

"Yes?"

"Are. Are both of you okay?" He asked worriedly.

Y/n put an arm around her stomach, "how..."

"I. You're uh...pregnant aren't you?" He asked, "It's Crosshair's, isnt it?"

He watched her expression as the words set in, her face droping, only to collapse into a fit of cries and sob as he hugged her. Unable to even speak she cried into his arms, tears rolling down her face as she held onto him.

Hunter held her close, attempting to give her any type of security as he rubbed her back.

"I-I miss him so much!" She cried.

The others on the ship hearing her cry at Hunter even behind closed doors.

"Why is Y/n crying?" Omega asked Echo.

"Y/n and Crosshair, they were closer than all of us." Echo told her, "Y/n loved Crosshair very much. She loves us all very much. Thats why when we get hurt she cries."

"Well you're all brothers and shes your sister right?" Omega asked.

"Y/n isnt a sister, even if she may be like a sister to us, such as Wrecker, Echo, Hunter and I. Y/n was a non clone that snuck her way into the ranks as a medic." Tech spoke, "what her and Crosshair had was a diffrent type of carring."

"Like what?" Omega asked.

"Like Cut and Su." Echo told her, "Crosshair and Y/n were like Cut and Su, and like them, Y/n always wanted to have children after the war, and she hoped to have them with Crosshair."

"Oh..." Omega spoke, Hunter walking back to the group who looked at him, and kept quiet.

"Listen men, We have to keep an eye on Y/n." Hunter spoke, "an extra eye out, shes vulnerable and the last thing we need is another one of us gone."

"Is Y/n going to have a baby?" Omega asked.

Hunter looked down at her, "I..uh...well yes."

Hunter kneeled down to her height as Omega frowned, "Well how is she going to be like Cut and Su if Crosshair isnt here?"

"She'll have to do it without Crosshair's for now. But not for long." Hunter told her.

"She'll have us!" Wrecker tried to lighten up the mood.

"But Tech and Echo said it isnt the same." Omega spoke.

"Well. They're right, it isnt," Hunter spoke, "But we're all she has right now and she needs it."

Omega nodded, they'd leave her alone for the next cycle or two letting her recover from her heart break from Crosshair, and she did with time, but never returned to how she would be fully.

Throughout the months her stomach stayed generally the same size, concerning the boys- wasn't she suppose to get big? Like- a ball under a shirt big, and they did try to help her- until it got to much- helping you down a ramp- or even to open a door. Y/n convinced them that she was fine. Omega tried to be helpful too, and the thought made Y/n smile within a few years she'd had a little girl or boy running around like Omega did.

It wasnt till Cid gave them another mission everything would go bad.

"You should be sitting this one out." Cid told Y/n.

"Im fine." Y/n responded with a smile, "but thank you."

Y/n left with the group, the mission going as planned until they ran into Crosshair.

Y/n rushing with Omega at her side, hiding her behind her own body.

"Omega! Get to the ship!" Y/n shouted rushing across the open hanger with Omega.

Hunter and the others rushing to catch up with the two as Crosshair stood in the middle hall the doors opening as he already was aiming his rifle at Y/n.

"Y/n! Get down!"

Hunter ran into Crosshair the bullet firing as Y/n was shot, as she fell to the ground on her side.

Omega pulling Y/n by the back of her armor behind a crate, as Y/n held her stomach in pain trying to keep quiet and not scare the child infront of her, but it wasnt long until Y/n was crying out in pain.

"No- no! Y/n! You'll be okay!" Omega spoke pulling off Y/n's helmet.

"Omega! Go!" Y/n responded, tears rolling down her face, "Fucking go now! Omega go now!"

"I-I can't leave you!" Omega shouted- Y/n screaming in agony, she had never been like this when shes been shot.

"Omega! Get to the ship!" Tech demanded joining there group, as Omega looked at the two

"Y/n! Y/n! Where have you been shot!" Tech demanded an answer.

"Its her stomach!" Omega spoke Y/n shaking her head quickly.

"What a great time to dialating Y/n!" Tech argued.

"Oh fuck you!" Y/n argued back.

"Dialating?!" Omega asked.

"Shes going into labor!" Tech told them both, "help me get her up! Now!"

Omega helped Tech get Y/n up as she tried to fight off the pain.

Getting her up the ramp Tech ordered Omega to comn the others who were still in blaster fire, while Tech took Y/n into the back room.

"Hunter, Echo, Wrecker!?" Omega shouted into her comn, "Y/n's having her baby!"

"What!?" Hunter shouted back shocked.

The others rushed to the ship, exchanging in cover fire as Echo jumped onto the ship and they took off, leaving Crosshair and his clones behind on the hanger.

It didnt help hearing Y/n's screams.

"I'm going in here!" Wrecker demanded.

"Y/n needs her space! Let her have it!" Hunter demanded stopping his men from pushing any forward, including Omega.

It went on for over thirty mintues, finally when the screams came to a hault Tech came out the back room.

"They're both okay."

There was a heavy sigh if relief as the others came in the room. Y/n sitting agaisnt the wall with a blanket or two covering her.

"Hey.." she spoke horsely as she held the baby in her arms.

"What his name?" Omega asked.

"Well. He is actually a she." Y/n responded, "and well, her name is Eisley."

Omega sat next to Y/n with a smile, "Would you like to hold her?"

Omega looked up at Hunter, "Just. Be careful."

Omega was handed the baby carefully as she looked down at the baby girl who was sleeping, the others joining around her as Y/n thanked them all.

"Now all we have to do is get Crosshair back and you'll be like Cut and Su." Omega mentioned as Y/n smiled, handing the baby to Wrecker who was extremely nervous, but mellowed out as the baby slept in his arms.

With there misison complete they headed back to Cid's, with an I dont you so and a lecture at the end Cid still ended up holding the baby, but within the next day Y/n show severe signs of being sick.

Tech had detected it as an after sickness of being pregnant, but they weren't ready to find it fatal.

Y/n laid in a bed, in the back of Cid's place, paler than Echo, but with a tempture of over one-hundred "I'll be fine..." Y/n told Hunter who sat on the edge of the bed, "I've been through worse."

Before he could speak she turned away coughing up blood into a trashcan besides her, her nose bleeding.

"This isnt something a bandaid can fix Y/n." Hunter explained.

She sighed laying back down, "I...I know."

Hunter grabbed her hand as she smiled weakly, "I'm sorry Y/n."

His eyes had started to water as Y/n squeezed his hand with what she had left, "Don't be. And don't cry."

"Your in pain," Hunter tried to explian.

"I know." Y/n told, "Trust me I know, but its okay."

She tugged at his hand lightly as he helped her sit up, hugging him weakly he rubbed her back, but was in to much pain as she had to lay back down again.

"I'll send the others in..." Hunter spoke as Y/n nodded, "I'll come see you tommrow."

She smiled softly, "goodbye Hunter, thank you for everything."

He nodded with a small smile in return as he walked out the room shutting the door behind him.

Walking down the hall, he stopped at the small room they put together for the kid.

Omega playing with the small girl as Echo held her in her lap, the young one already trying to eat everything and that included Echo's socket arm.

"How's Y/n?"

Hunter turned his head seeing Wrecker besides him, all Hunter did was shake his head.

"She won't make it much longer." Hunter spoke, his chest tightening as he sighed, "in fact, I think she just left us..."

It was a solemn day, the group had been told, and Cid was told as well. The group standing around her bed as Omega held onto Hunter's leg. Echo held the baby as it was silent.

They couldnt speak, say anything, Y/n had been the light of the team for so long, and everyone was happy to see one of them finally be happy, not in war, with a life, with a family.

But there was that one.

Laying dead and covered by a sheet.

It was a day later they would get Crosshair's back.

He would apologize for everything and knew Y/n his one and only deserved that apology more than anyone.

But it would go quiet, and no one would talk. He found it odd, maybe she moved on, maybe he had killed her and he didnt even know it.

"Where's Y/n? And Echo?" Crosshair asked.

"Y/n. She's no longer with us." Hunter told his brother.

"I. I shot her-"

"No. Crosshair you didn't kill Y/n." Hunter told her, "and Echo, he's back at base."

Base?

"So where is she? If shes not dead? She left?" Crosshair asked.

The group quiet, "Crosshair, no. Y/n she got sick, after...she had a baby." Tech explained.

"What baby?" Crosshair asked.

"Crosshair. It's your baby. She had your child."

Crosshair demanded they take him to there base, and when they did Cid was infront of the house, making warm drinks for the two who sat at her bar.

"Crosshair?!" Echo questioned, standing up a baby in his arms as Crosshair looked at the bundle in his arms.

Pushing back Wrecker and Tech he stepped forward, Echo backing up a step as he held the child close, his last promise to Y/n was to keep her child safe, for no harm nor sickness come to her.

"Echo. He's okay." Hunter tried to ease the man as Echo nodded.

"I. It was the last promise I made to Y/n. I refuse to break it." Echo mentioned, "I just dont want to let her down."

"Can. Can I hold her." Crosshair asked, it was more of a demand, a soft one, a need over a want.

Echo handed the baby off to him carefully, a bit warry but tried to keep what Y/n would of wanted in mind.

Crosshair held the small sleeping bundle, a hand on the back of her head as she yawned,

"Whats her name?" Crosshair asked.

"Y/n named her Eisley." Omega chimed in.

Crosshair looked down at the child, Mos Eisley that was where the group went after there first successful misison located on Tatooine.

Refocusing her thoughts on the small girl, her eyes were opened, barring her mothers eyes as she stared up at Crosshair's in star strucken wonder.

"Hi-"

The baby cut him off, laughing as her small arms reached out for him.

"Hi there...my little Eisley-"

He couldnt even get a full sentence out before he started crying, his eyes full of tears as he hugged the bay girl carefully.

*************

So yes if I gotta cry you gotta cry too @thatmaroonjedi

Only homies cry together-

[deaconusdelirium]

Requested: how would Crosshair babysit Omega when Hunter is gone? Do people mistake him for her dad? What does he do when she gets in trouble? How do they grow closer together?

Let’s find out!

———

“Are you sure this is ok Crosshair? I feel like-” “no one cares how you feel Omega. Maybe Hunter and the guys do, but others don’t. You just need yourself to depend on” Crosshair interrupted Omegas sentence, putting his own opinion in, “but, you care how I feel.. don’t you?” Omega asked while looking up at Crosshair, he was obviously a lot taller, so he would have to look down while she looked up. Her hazel eyes looked around his, hoping for an answer. He hesitated, of course he cared about her feelings. But he just didn’t know how to say he did without going over his comfort zone. “Something like that.” he mumbled out, putting a toothpick in and continued to walk towards the shooting range on Ord Mantell.

Of course Omega felt something off, she hasn’t seen one kid carry around a weapon like her, much less walk into a shooting range. Once they found a perfect spot, Crosshair set her up. “keep your elbow up, and always aim. I’ve seen you pull and release before. So always aim down your sights, and release on empty lungs” he informed her, just about now, he didn’t sound like how he usually did. All sarcastic and snappy, he sounded like he was happy to show someone his skills. He’s never told his brothers his techniques, so Omega was the first. She stood there, looking both ways, seeing older people and mostly men with a few women among them. “Tune out the distractions. Without it, you’re vulnerable.” He watched her, then pushed her cheek with his knuckles gently to face forward.

She let a breath of relief out as Crosshair stood beside her, blocking the view of other people. She lifted her bow and pulled back. Her arm wobbled as she let go. She didn’t hit the target. “We need to work on your strength.” He grunted out, taking the toothpick out and helping her. His foot pushed her feet apart, “a good stance will help a lot”, he pushed her elbow up, “always keep your elbow up”, and straightened her back, “stand tall. Don’t slouch” her eyes wandered again, “Omega.” He snapped his fingers a few times in front of her, “eyes forward. Who cares about them” she nodded her head meekly. Doing as Crosshair had told her, she then pulled the string, taking a deep breath in. And let go. She hit the target, but was still way off.

“Take a breath before you pull. And when your ready, let it out when you shoot.” Crosshair watched as she did exactly as told, interesting how you could tell her something the first time, and she could get it down the next two or three times. His eyes watched as she shot again, just about the same place. It was just her arms, “okay” he sighed out, kneeling behind her on his knees. “Maybe try this” he said, putting his fingers over hers, his arms wrapped around her as his other hand held the bow over her hand. “You’re going to be doing most of the work, but I’m just here to help you hold the bow right” she looked down, then back up. She pulled the bow, holding the string back, he helped her hold it there. She took a deep breath in. “No no Omega. Remember, empty lungs” he reminded her. It seemed she only lacked strength the hold the string long enough.

“Right, sorry” she apologized, “don’t worry about it. Now focus” she aimed, taking a bit longer, since she was fixing herself. But he was there to help her, he let go just before she shot. Bullseye. “Not bad. We just need to work on your strength” he stood up, “these noodle arms need some work” he yanked her arms around as they were limp. Omega laughed while Crosshair looked at her confused. “You remind me of Cid” she pointed out, “Who’s Cid?” He questioned, gathering Omegas things and carrying them for her. “One of Hunters friends. She had to ‘babysit’ me while Hunter and the guys had to go on a mission” she admitted embarrassed, folding her arms on the ‘babysitter’ part.

Crosshair found himself snickering, until he realized it, he stopped himself. “Like I said. Depend on no one but yourself” she frowned at that part, they saved him. They all depended on each other and that’s how they got their brothers back. “But, that’s how we got you and Hunter back. We depended on each other” he found himself looking down at her as they walked out the range, his silver hair falling down over his tattoo. She was always so positive, gullible even. How he wished she would stay that way, so innocent and happy. But from what she’s been through, she’s probably not so innocent. Once they reached the door, he looked both ways, then walked out into the busy streets. He barely looked down to see her not there, panic pulled his strings as he looked around. His eyes landed on her, she was stuck in the doorway of the range still.

He walked back, not caring about bumping into other people. Once he reached her, he thought for a second. “Sorry. It just, there’s a lot of people, and” “it’s ok Omega. Come on” he hesitantly held a hand out to her, unsure if she would even take it. But surprisingly she did, too fast for him to comprehend actually. Her small ones barely fit into his as she held on for dear life as people walked passed them, he gently pulled her into the crowd, making sure to hold her hand in a firm grasp so he wouldn’t lose her and so Hunter wouldn’t have his head. They walked back to Cids parlor, every now and then he would look down to make sure Omega was still there. Once they got into the ally way, he tried to pull his hand away, but she wouldn’t let go. Only dragging him along, “This way Cross!” She exclaimed, almost dragging him.

He followed, having to bend down a bit since her arms were short for his. He nevertheless followed her, and down into the parlor they went. “Cid!” “Tiny? Where’s Bandana? Who are you?” “This is my brother. Crosshair. Hunters out on a mission with the others. He should be back soon” “I see. Just don’t make to much trouble. I had enough with Roland and the Pykes” Omega dragged Crosshair over to a two seat table. He leaned back, putting his toothpick back in and watching Omega color on some paper he didn’t see that she had picked up. It was hard to understand what she was drawing since it was random colors everywhere, he leaned forward as he seen someone approached where they sat. His instincts kicking in, “relax Tootpick. I’m only gettin the kid a drink since it looks like you won’t do yourself”

His eyes widen at her, “she hasn’t told me that she was hungry yet” “yeah? Well that ain’t for you to judge, always keep the kid full. I don’t want her ending up skinny like you” she spat at him, he glared at her, at least she was giving Omega a drink. He sat back, relaxing as Omega continued what she was doing. It looked familiar, but still hard to make out. He took the time to understand his surroundings, two idiot gamblers, a few Twi’leks and people maybe even some clones here and there. His eyes fell on Omega as he heard her stomach growl, she looked up at him shyly and smiled. He wanted to get out of here anyways. “Come on” Omega grabbed the paper and the crayons, throwing them in her small bag as Crosshair once again took it for her.

Omega said her goodbyes to Cid as ‘Toothpick’ only gave her a nod and walked out. It was getting late, which meant everyone was getting off work. Hunter hasn’t reported anything yet either, he offered Omega his hand again, she took it and walked beside him as he asked what she wanted to eat. “Me and Wrecker have this tradition! It’s called Mantell Mix” he walked around with her, the streets busier than earlier, “there!” She pointed out, but along the way, Crosshair remembered that he needed some stuff that Tech asked him to get. “Hold on Omega. I need to grab some stuff” he pulled her back and looked around a small vendor. He didn’t mind that she let go, seeing as he needed both hands to look for the things Tech asked for and there wasn’t that many people at that particular shop.

He looked around, grabbing whatever he needed, then his head turned towards the sound of glass shattering. Omega stood there, a lady near her. “Oh let me help you sweetheart. Come here” the lady bent down, Crosshair dropped the things and walked up to the two, the cashier as well. “You’re going to need to pay for that young lady. You break it, you buy it” he demanded as he vigorously pointed at Omega, with a single push of his finger to her shoulder, Crosshair pushed the Vendor back. Omega running to his side and holding his hand, but he pushed her behind him, she still wouldn’t let go of him. “Maybe if you had placed that vase of yours in a better place, that wouldn’t have happened. Further more, I think you need to clean up around here” “don’t lecture me young man I-” “Don’t worry, I’ll pay for it, love” the lady handed the vendor the money and turned over to the two Batchers.

“Father and daughter huh? Must be a tough bond” the Twi’lek woman asked, fiddling with her fingers as she gazed up at the two every so often, mostly at Crosshair. “No.” “Oh? Perhaps I was mistaken. You have to be related somehow. You both look almost the same, cute” Cross rolled his eyes at her attempt to flirt, “where’s the Mrs?” Omegas eyes widen and was about to say something but Crosshair put a hand over her mouth, “there is none.” “Awe, poor little girl. No mom? Are you hungry? Come on” Omega felt an uneasiness wash over her, her grasp on Crosshair tighten. “She’s not related to me, so I suggest you stop whatever you’re doing, and go about your night.” He lightly threatened the woman, turning around then picked Omega up and settle her on his hip as they both walked off. “It’s called being nice!” The lady yelled from where she still stood.

He hadn’t even realized he picked Omega up until she laid her head against his shoulder and letting out a small yawn. He was going to set her down, but he thought it was probably best to keep her close. He kept a steady pace as to not wake her from her nap, even if she was small, she could take a lot, even the kids her age would have tired out long before she did. Yet somehow she dug a whole into his heart, and he let her in without even knowing. He didn’t want anything to do with her since kids weren’t in his area of expertise, and he’s never really been around them. But Omega was the perfect child to have around, not ones that were always whining, complaining, and always demanding. She was more mature for her age than it looked, and quite frankly, he enjoyed her presence more than he had let on.

She weighed almost nothing, so he didn’t have any trouble on the way back to the Marauder. He opened the ramp and boarded, closing and then locking it. He walked up to Hunters bed, placing her there, then walking over to Wreckers to grab Lula. He placed her in Omegas arms. He then took whatever he was carrying, off, along with his armor, leaving him in his blacks. He wasn’t tired, so he sat in the cockpit, looking out at the stars and planets. Tech would just about commit murder if you ever called Coruscant a star. He smiled about it, he did care about his brothers. Even after all the trouble they went through to get him back, he was forever thankful for them. He always called Echo a Reg, but he didn’t really mean it, it was just for ‘show’ and he wasn’t use to having another member on board. Wrecker was just a huge child, always down for chaotic things, and he is literally the only one who can get Crosshair to do something. And there was Hunter. The one he looked up too, even if it didn’t look like it, he did. He had a lot of respect for him, all of them, but more to Hunter.

“Cross?” Crosshair jumped a bit as Omega stood there, rubbing her eye while holding Lula in the other. A small blanket trailed behind her, “Omega? What is it?” He asked, his attitude changing completely within seconds, “I can’t sleep” she blinked her eyes, trying to wrap the blanket around her, “and it’s cold” she shuddered a bit, he found it amusing as she tried to, “have you tried sleeping in your bed?” “It’s cold back there” yeah, space was cold, and the heater wasn’t going to work since he didn’t get the parts for the ship, oh well, he’ll explain when the rest of the Batch shows up. “You used a blanket?” “No difference” he let out a fake groan, opening his arms and having Omega crawl onto his lap as he fixed the blanket around her. One hand held her legs while the other held her back. He spun back around towards the open window, “can you do that again?” He looked down at her, listening for any sound that signaled she was about to fall asleep. He rocked back and forth as Omega asked, somehow, he found comfort in this.

He slouched a bit, continuing the small action until he felt her relax against him completely. And when he nudged her, she didn’t move. That’s when he stopped she stirred again, and in a snap, he went back to rock side to side. Soon enough, he was sleeping as well, the day didn’t go as he planned, he spent quality time with the one he wasn’t use to. He had gotten to know Cid, Hunters friend and Omega’s ‘babysitter’ and they grew closer together without even knowing it. He didn’t mind watching over her as long as he got comfortable at his pace, which Omega didn’t seem to mind at all. He wouldn’t openly admit it, but he would definitely babysit her in the future again, 10/10

———

Crosshair, Mesh’la. Don’t worry, we’ll save you. But I swear to Maker if you hurt Hunter I’ll-

I hope you enjoyed, Cross and Omega definitely need more time together. The best Big brother, Little sister energy in motion here. He even SMILED AT HER IN THE SECOND EPISODE!!!

[hargrove-mayfields]

Day one of the Horror on Cherry Lane Challenge! I’ll be participating this month as a writer! The prompt for today is Knife!

warnings for mentions of suicidal ideation and attempts, death, child abuse, and blood.

Billy met Steve in the psych ward.

Well, they met officially at Tina’s party, but that wasn’t the real Steve. That was the King Steve. Deeper than that though, even the Steve Harrington everyone else saw even after the breakup and the fall from grace still wasn’t the real thing.

That was fake smiles, overdone nonchalance to cover up the wound from his fallen status. Now he was stripped down to himself, all bloody bandages and tired eyes, the boy he was pretending to be finally broken down to reveal this.

Apparently, Ruthie Harrington found her son with his grandfather's switchblade- all the other objects in the house sharper than a spoon and with less sentimental value had already been tossed -bleeding all over her freshly polished linoleum floors. She dropped him off at the hospital a night ago and nobody’s been by to see him since.

Now, it’s by pure coincidence that Billy’s already in on the same day Steve’s admitted.

He’s been locked up the past three days compared to Steve’s one. These small town hicks are jumpier (ha) than he thought, and don’t think doing the walk and turn test on the edge of the quarry after downing a bottle and a half of fireball is as funny as he does. Whatever. Cid would’ve thought that was badass as hell.

So he was admitted, on suicide watch for a stupid joke that wasn’t really worth it, or even really a joke. Max came to visit once. She punched him in the chest as hard as she could and cursed him out for an hour. She’d never done that before. By the time she left they were both in tears, and maybe Billy realized a thing or too about his carelessness. Realized for the first time that someone cared.

But he’s still in here for another week and a half by law, so. He’s not going to mope about it. And while Steve Harrington showing up is about the last thing he’s expecting, he decides that’s at least something he can work with. Definitely brings a little life to the place.

He waits until Steve’s intense watch period is over to bug him, once they’re out of their cramped little rooms for a couple of hours to “socialize” (see, the more sound of mind keep an eye on the other patients while the nurses take their smoke breaks) Billy goes straight to Steve. Him and Harrington are far from friends, but that’s pretty much irrelevant when the only other choices for company are kids younger than them too scared to approach them and people too deep in their midlife crises to bother with teenage drama.

Throwing himself down in the blue plastic chair across from where Steve settled in, Billy kicks his feet up on the table,, “What’s up Harrington? Didn’t expect to see a familiar face in here.”

But Steve, poor Steve, takes one look at Billy with those haunted brown eyes, and his face just falls completely apart. There are tears on his way too pale cheeks before Billy even has a chance to breathe.

The smile drops off of Billy’s face, “Jesus Harrington, I know m’not looking my best surviving on hospital food and cigarettes without a hairbrush, but that’s a little unwarranted.”

“Shut up. Not everything’s about you, Hargrove.”

“Oh I disagree with that. But I get the point. I’ll let ya be.” Billy hums, scooting his chair back and getting up. He stops when Steve starts to speak, “Y-You outta be careful saying that kinda stuff in here.”

“What?”

“That the world revolves around you. They’ll come up with a diagnosis for that and keep you here forever. Drug you ‘til you forget your own name, let alone your status.” Steve tells him with humor, wiping the tears off his face.

Billy nods in understanding, sits back down with an interested smirk, “This ain’t your first time here, is it?”

“Is it yours?”

“Nah. I’ve done some shit on purpose, some on accident. Once it wasn’t even me. But s’never done anything to help so far.”

Steve puffs out a sigh, “Don’t I know it.. I’ve been in and outta this place since I was like, ten. Clearly nothing’s changed.”

“Why? What’s your dirty little secret, Harrington?”

“I cut myself, dumbass.” He deadpans, looking at Billy with a bluntness in his expression that reads more concerning, more like indifference to what he just said than matter-of-fact.

“No shit. But that ain’t the secret.” Billy probes further, can tell he’s getting under that mask Steve wears, “Why do you do it?”

“Legally, I can't tell you. And I don’t think I would anyways.”

“What about if I tell you all about me first? I got no reservations ‘cept the one that got me a bed here.”

“It’s not a hotel, Hargrove.”

“Eh, might as well be. Feels like the damn hotel California.”

“Is that why?”

“Huh? Oh no, I been pullin’ stunts like this long before we left Cali.”

“Like what?”

“Like downing two full bottles of my mother’s meds after she left. Not at the same time obviously, or I wouldn’t be here. Mostly ‘cause my dad didn’t even wanna take me to the hospital either time.” Billy doesn’t look at Steve while he elaborates. Not because he cares, he’s an open book, if a random old woman at the grocery store asked about his last attempt, he’d tell her.

But. He doesn’t like watching people’s faces. Seeing sympathy and concern there. It makes him feel all stupid and guilty. It’s usually not like that with other kids like him, but Steve’s different. He’s got a big heart. Even if there’s no room for himself.

And Billy hurt Steve before. He doesn’t want to see someone he caused pain caring so much about him. He already cracked when Max came to see him. This could be what splits him open, spills out all the things he’s covered up.

So he keeps going, “And like runnin’ out in front of traffic with my friends. They thought we were just playin’ chicken ‘til I stopped dead in front of a station wagon. Metal rims’d done me in for sure if one ‘a the older boys hadn’t pulled me outta the way. Damn near ripped my shirt in half how fast he grabbed me.”

“I’m guessing your parents are the reason why then?”

“Yessir.” Billy deflects, not good at getting deeper into it, “You wanna tell me yours then?”

“I started cutting because Tommy Hagan told me about it. He thought it was freaky, but when he ran his mouth about how they found the neighbor kid in his room, drained of all his blood from his wrists, I wanted to try it. I’ve tried liquor and drugs and all kinds ‘a shit I shouldn’t, but nothin’ stuck like cutting.” Steve pauses for a long time, his eyes going blank, staring right past Billy, “When my mom found out she.. she.. Forget it.”

“Hey, you seen my skeletons. Can’t I see yours?”

“No. I don’t wanna fucking talk about it anymore.” Steve answers, despite his assuredness, his tone wobbling with some unidentifiable emotion.

Talk about mood swings. Billy doesn’t get how nobody would’ve noticed something was up before Steve started carving into himself. Really, he knows someone would have seen it and just ignored it.

It only gets worse though, the reservedness turning to sadness and frustration. None of the words are coming out, but he can tell Steve’s thinking of the stories, reliving all that got him to the here and now. Billy can also tell there’s nothing he can do no to stop him from doomsdaying.

So when Steve is inevitably in the thralls of a panic attack, he tries to hug him tight, to try to get it to stop maybe, that always worked for him at least, but Steve swats him away. Judging from the way he winces, it’s not easy for him to do either, with those thick ass bandages constricting his wrists, but the tears and the pain on his face are buried behind his resolution.

He’s hiding something from Billy.

In hindsight, talking to a new patient about past attempts probably wasn’t his brightest idea anyways, so he switches the subject while Steve works on coming down from his panic attack. He brings up Max and her little nerds, trying to bridge the healthier connections between him and Steve that they’d both been ignoring since the fight. He mentions basketball too, another something they have in common other than trying to kill themselves.

It doesn’t really work, though Steve does stop shaking as bad, just curling up in his little chair and sniffling, pretending not to listen while Billy rambles on and on. But he doesn’t talk. It’s probably better for him not to anyway. Billy himself has been known to say some dumb shit when he’s in distress.

Ultimately, even once the conversation runs out, he stays with Steve until dark. He can tell from the way his gaze sticks to the floor that Steve recovered from his fit a while ago, but he’s embarrassed by having a breakdown in front of him, as if he isn’t in here for the same reason. It helps that he gets it though, and they sit in a comfortable, albeit very prolonged, silence.

Long after Steve gets xanned up and knocked out though, while Billy is still free to wander until the midnight curfew as a low risk patient, he decides to stick with him in his room. Billy’ll never admit it, but he gets nightmares, and he doesn’t want to face that just yet, so with a new friend as an excuse, he’s up half the night watching Steve sleep.

He remembers what happened earlier, how focused Steve was on keeping him away from him, despite his panic, and decides, with a glance at how deeply Steve is sleeping, his greasy hair all strewn about on stiff pillows, that he’s going to figure out what it was.

He snoops around in his bedside drawers, in the bathroom, in the locker in the corner. It’s there he notices the knitted jacket Steve was wearing before, hanging heavy to one side, like there’s something in its pocket. He touches it and feels the outline of something small, so he pulls it out.

He regrets checking though, because it’s a knife. Judging from the old looking engravings on its handle, and the coppery stains within the grooves, it’s specifically the very same one that got Steve hospitalized.

He shoves it in his own back pocket and keeps looking, with a quick glance at Steve, finding a note tucked where the knife had been. Written in perfect scrawl on bond paper that’s been folded a dozen times and stained with tears,

“Do it right next time, why don’t you? Your mother is too soft on you. I’m not paying for this again.

- J.Harrington.”

Billy doesn’t know what to do but throw the note in the trash. Not really in shock, but definitely more than a little fucked up from reading that, he sits on the end of Steve’s bed. His own dad, who'd more than once been the one putting him in the hospital, had never even said anything like that to him.

He didn’t get to talk to Steve much today, but they’ve got as long as Billy’s stuck in here together to fix that. Longer if he just pulls something in front of a nurse. And he wants to, really really wants to.

Because he knows he just met the real Steve, can recognize another broken boy when he sees one, and he knows too, that he never wants to meet a pretty boy like this again.

And if that’s his declaration to get clean, then so fucking be it.

But. He never promised not to hurt anyone. Ultimately he’d still need that outlet.

He keeps the knife. To make sure his pretty boy doesn’t get hurt again.

[word-scribbless]

Different

I know I have requests to write but this one has been sitting in my drafts and I wanted to finally post it!

Masterlist

Summary: When Hollis man tries to throw a wrench in things Gibbs reminisces about what makes Y/N so different.

TW: mentions of miscarriage, family death and domestic violence

Italics are flashbacks

————————-

Hollis Mann had come to help NCIS on a case of a missing Army luitenent and a missing marine gunnery Sargent. Y/N was also at NCIS from the FBI, helping profile suspects. This made for an interesting situation for Gibbs. Hollis his ex and Y/N his current girlfriend. It wasn’t uncommon for Y/N to work cases with Gibbs’ team, but she had yet to work one that envolved an ex. A streak he wasn’t too thrilled to have end.

Things were pretty civil, y/n knew he dated someone from Army CID, but didn’t remember her name right away. when Y/N arrived the team was in the squad room, working at their desks, she came and sat in Gibbs chair, asking what they had. When noone warned her of the impending doom of that decision , Hollis knew this woman and Gibbs were dating. She couldn’t help but be jealous. This jealousy only multiplied when she saw y/n kiss Gibbs cheek later that day when she thought no one was looking.

With the way Mann was acting, and a few comments from Tony, Y/N quickly put two and two together and realized that Hollis was THAT lieutenant colonel. Y/N was nothing but nice, not petty and jealous the way Hollis felt. Gibbs wasn’t nervous for their relationship, things were good with him and Y/N. He just wasn’t sure how Hollis would act. He knew y/N could handle herself though, so there wasn’t much to worry about.

Overall, things went pretty smoothly, that is until Hollis ‘let something slip’ about Shannon and Kelly, and clearly made a big deal out of ‘apologizing’ and assuming y/n didn’t know.

Gibbs was pissed because he could tell her intentions were to hurt Y/N. She was hurt when she found out during a cause, so she must have thought she could do the same to his current girlfriend. Gibbs wanted to tell her off, not because she messed up his relationship, or hurt Y/N, but because it was her intention to.

Y/N caught up with Jethto when he stormed out of the room after DiNozzo quickly changed the subject back to the case.

“Relax baby.” She said as she caught him by the steps, using the nickname she knew he secretly loved.

“She did that to hurt you.” He seethed, and Y/N slyly took his hand on the side where the team couldn’t see.

“But I’m not hurt.” She assured him. “You’re a catch J, I’m sure it’s not easy to get over you.”

“You think so?” He smirked at her, and she felt the tension leave his body.

“Mhm, but I really don’t plan on finding out anytime soon.” She smiled and settled for running her thumb over his fingers since she couldn’t kiss him and he squeezed her hand in understanding.

“Good to know.” He smirked. ”now get back to profiling and I’ll check in with Abby.

“Yes sir” she smiled and looked around before kissed his cheek quickly and heading back to the bull pen.

On the way down to abby’s lab he begins to think about the beginning of their relationship and how he and Y/N came to be.

Y/N and Gibbs had Worked together a few times, they had made a habit of going to get dinner after cases wrapped.

It felt like they were on the same page feelings wise but she was never sure. One night she got up her courage to bring it up.

“Gibbs,”

“Hmm”

“Are we on a date?”

He Smirked at her and took her hand

“Was kinda hoping you’d catch on.”

“Could of just asked” she smiled back. He rolled his eyes playfully and asked

“Y/N will you go on a date with me?”

“Sure how’s right now?” She giggled.

Before he could get to the lab Hollis caught him and pulled him into a near by conference room.

“I didn’t mean to mess things up by telling Y/N about Shannon and Kelly.” He could tell she was trying really hard to mean it, but wouldn’t truly be wracked with guilt if she had messed things up.

“She already knew Holl.” He admitted, trying to remember what y/n said about not being angry with her.

“You told her?” She questions surprised.

He sighed and nodded. This was not a conversation he wanted to have today.

“What’s so different about her?” She asked,

“Hollis.” He responded.

He could never answer that question simply. Truthfully, everything was different about her. She was just Y/N, his Y/N.

“I’m sorry, I guess I just never thought someone would crack you.” She smiled.

“Yeah well.” He smiled back, thinking of Y/N.

She would say she didn’t crack him, she just speaks Gibbs, or something silly like that. She never wanted him to feel like she was changing him.

“You love her” she said shocked.

“Hollis” he warned again.

“Have you told her?”

“She knows” he grunted.

“Yeah but have you told her.”

“Hollis”

“Tell her Gibbs” she said and he was thinking of a comeback when there was a knock on the door. Y/N poked her head in the room.

“Hey, I’m sorry to interrupt, but the director needs you in MTAC Gibbs” He didn’t know how she knew where they were, but god was he glad she did.

In the elevator Gibbs thought about why it’s so easy to trust and love Y/N. He thought back to the first time he told her about Shannon and kelly.

A few dates in she sensed he was struggling with something. It had been the anniversary of Shannon and Kelly’s deaths.

“J, I know you hate talking about things but,” she said carefully after dinner at his house.

“If you want to be my girlfriend then you are.” He grunted back taking her hand, assuming that’s where she was going.

“Oh!” She was shocked and had no idea what to say.

“You don’t want to be?”

“No, I do! I absolutely do” she corrected. “but that isn’t what I was going to bring up.”

“Oh then go on.” He chuckled.

“No we can talk about it another time, so I’m your girlfriend?” She smiled.

“Yup”

“Cool!”

“Cool?” He teased.

“Yeah cool!”

Gibbs chuckled and put an arm around her. “so what did you want to know?.”

“Another time-“ she started but was cut off by Gibbs.

“If it’s on your mind I wanna know”

“I-“

“Y/N” He insisted

“I’m a profiler”

“I know this” he said sarcastically.

“Right so I pick up on things and I pick up on things easiest when I have experienced the same type of thing.” She said and sighed at his raised eyebrow.

“English?”

She huffed a nervous laugh and continued.

“Okay I’ll just say it. I can tell you’ve suffered a big loss, probably family, a wife or a child. I know you probably don’t want to talk about it because you’ve been forthcoming about your ex wives and not ever about a loss so it’s clearly something personal.” She stopped and squeezed his hand. “And I hate talking about my loss, I also hate talking about my ex husband so you’re better at this communication thing than me.”

Gibbs scoffed “no one has ever told me that before.”

She smiled. “I just want you to know that however you process, however you grieve, I don’t want to change that. I just want you to know that I’m happy to be a part of it, lean on me like I want to lean on you. I won’t pry, or expect you to be over it, but if you loved them then they’re important to me.” She sighed again. “It just, felt wrong kind of knowing with out telling you. I know I don’t really know, just profiled but still.”

“My wife and daughter, they were killed. My wife saw a member of a drug cartel murder a man and was going to testify. Her protective detail was shot in the head while driving them and the crash killed them.” She breathed out and Gibbs winced waiting for the inevitable‘I’m sorry’ that he never knew what to do with but it never came. She just held his hand and nodded.

“I never tell anyone. They died, I shouldn’t dwell on it. But all my marriages failed because I wanted it back and I couldn’t let them go.”

She shook her head and nuzzled closer to him

“As much as we want to ignore it and hope the pain goes away, we still love them. That doesn’t mean we can’t love someone new, but that old love doesn’t just go away. I’d like to know more about them if you ever feel like sharing them with someone, but you don’t have to.”

He nodded and squeezed her hand then looked at her expectatntly. She noticed the tears in the corner of his eyes and was sure hers looked similar.

“My turn?”

Gibbs nodded.

“Ryan, my first husband. Killed on deployment a year into our marriage. I miscarried from the stress a few months later.” Gibbs pulled her closer into him wrapping his arms around her.

“He’d like you, you’re strong and protective, and you challenge me. He always said I needed someone challenging around to keep me honest.” She chuckled. “I- I didn’t want to date for the longest time after he died.. All my friends said I needed to move on, get out there again after a few years but I wasn’t ready so I picked people that would never work, people that were the exact opposite of him, of what I deserved. Then I married one of them. He ended up in jail, I ended up in the hospital.” Gibbs soft face turned to anger.

“Relax, he was killed in a prison fight 5 years ago.”

“Good” he said and she felt his body relax a bit.

“I stopped dating after that, until I met you.”

Gibbs smiled.

“The truth is, if you want to be in my life, Ryan’s part of it. Just like Shannon and Kelly are part of yours, and mine if you let me stick around. Which I’d like to”

He nodded And she readied herself for goodbye.

“Have any pictures?”

“Of Ryan?”

He nodded and she smiled.

“Yeah in my wallet, that mean you want me to stick around?

He nodded and she went to get her bag. She pulled out a picture and began to tell him about their first date, their lives, and why she thought Ryan would be happy that she was spending time with jethro.

Gibbs smiled and told her he’d be right back.

He returned with a box and pulled out an old scrap book that’s only ever seen the light of day when he’s particularly missing his family. He never thought he’d show someone else. But he also never thought he’d meet someone like Y/N.

“What’s this? She asked as he handed it to her.

“This is my turn.”

“Jethro.” She said as she opened it and realized it was pictures of Shannon and Kelly. She closed it again”we don’t have to.”

“I want to. They’d love you.”

She smiled and patted the spot next to her.

Back in the conference room, Y/N lingered with Hollis, knowing she needed to face her head on.

“He didn’t tell you about rule 6?” Hollis asked, still a bit of chill to her voice. Looking like she wasn’t quite ready to give up the hurt feeling just yet.

“He did, but I have rules of my own.” Y/N smiled trying to ease the tension.

“Is one of them not listening to his rules?”

She chuckled.

“Exactly.” She laughed “No I agree with some of them, but not the ones that go against the rules of being a civil human. It’s charming on him somehow... but it’s not a good look for me.”

She joked and eased a bit when Hollis smiled.

“Does that mean you’ll accept my apology?”

“I would, but there is no need for it.”

“There is, the way I acted was petty and uncalled for.” Hollis sighed, causing Y/N to nod.

“Maybe, but I understand.”

“Ugh why do you have to be likable?”

Y/N laughed with Hollis and relaxed a little. “Sorry, do you want me to say something mean? Or at least like scowl a little?”

“It would make me feel a little less guilty.” She smiled, but y/n could see the honesty in her eyes.

“Don’t feel guilty. I’m not running, I’m not upset. He’s a tough nut to crack. I get it. I didn’t know that he and you had history until your reaction, if I’d known I would have been more discreet, I never meant to rub your face in anything.” Y/N assured her

“You didn’t know?”

“Well I’d heard your name, you know tony.” The both huffed laughs “but jethro is, well you know.”

“That doesn’t upset you?” Hollis wondered

“Not really, I mean I’m a profiler so I have a leg up but he’ll tell me things when he’s ready.”

“You’re much more patient than me.”

“Not always, I just, I know what it’s like to lose someone and not know how to let them go.”

“Ah that’s how you’re different.”

“I’d like to think there’s other things he sees in me, but yes that’s a big difference.” She nodded.

“Hey, Y/N/N need your help. Hollis, DiNozzo has a statement to go over with you.”

They both nodded and followed Gibbs into the hall.

Gibbs pointed Hollis to the conference room where tony was.

“Hey come here” he led y/n to the elevator and paused it.

“Jethro what’s wrong?”

He grabbed her face and kissed her.

“There is way more I see in you.” He whispered against her lips.

“You heard me?”

“I did”

“Spy” she joked with a smile as she pulled him back in.

“You were too nice to her.” He grunted.

“I couldn’t be mean. I’d be bitter if I lost a man like you.”

“Mmm cause I’m such a good kisser?”

“Mhm among other things.”

“Yeah, I’m good at that too.”

“You’re a lot more than just good in bed Jethro.” Y/N said softly. “Not that you’re not excellent at that too.”

Gibbs laughed and kissed her head then looked seriously at Y/N.

“You know I care about you right?” Gibbs asked almost shyly. Y/N froze at his tone, she’d never heard him sound so insecure.

“Of course I do.” She cupped his face.

“Y/N love is a hard word for me-“

“Jethro, you don’t need to say it, I know how you feel. You show me every single day.” Y/N moved his face to look in her eyes.

“You deserve to hear it Y/N.” He huffed.

“What I deserve is to be loved and love. I think I have that Jethro.”

“You do.” He whispered and pulled her lips to his. “You do.”

“Good, now that that’s settled. Let’s go close this case huh?” He smiled at her words.

“Y/N” he said pulling her back from the switch. “I love you.” He said with confidence but she could tell it took everything he had to say it out loud.

She smiled as turned around, wrapping him in a hug. She hid her face against him. “I know you do baby. I love you too, So much!.”

He pulled her face up and looked into her eyes. all she could see was love as he leaned in to kiss her. She forgot where they were as he wrapped his arms around her and dipped his tongue in her mouth. He slowly pulled away and kissed her head.

“Okay, you ready now?”

“To go home? Yes.” She whispered, voice shakey from the kiss.

He smirked his classic Gibbs smirk and shook his head “to solve the case.”

“Oh that, yeah okay.” She said with a smile that he couldn’t help but love.

He knew she was it for him right then and there. He’d known for a while but never truly admitted it to himself. Yes he sucked at marriage and she didn’t have a great experience either. No matter what though, he knew she was it for him. He had only truly loved Shannon and Kelly before he met her, but he knew that both of them would have loved Y/N as much as he did and been proud of him for falling in love again.

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