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littleoddwriter · 5 months ago

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Special Little Lamb | Cooper Abbott x GenderNeutral!Reader | Dark Fic

Hey there! This fic is inspired by this textpost and @hibiskooks' tags, which led to further thoughts on my part and then the urge to turn them into a whole short story (hence why I linked my own reblog on my horror sideblog because it shows both our tags and the thought process). Understandably, it's a dark fic, albeit romantic this time, unlike my previous Cooper fic, hjdkhsjk! I hope you'll enjoy it! summary; You were once a captive of the Butcher, but as it so happened, you formed a deep connection with him and are now helping him with his victims. One of them tries to get through to you to help them out of the basement, but hadn't realised your status as the Butcher's favourite. You have a tattoo to prove it, though, and so does he. notes/warnings; Gender Neutral!Reader; Dark Fic; Reader used to be a Victim (still is, if you will); Reader most definitely has Stockholm Syndrome and is Morally Grey/Dark; Implied/Mentioned Murders; Active Captivity of a Female Victim; Abuser/Victim Relationship (if we're being realistic); Ableist Language (once); Partner Tattoos; Hints at Sexual Acitivity, but nothing Explicit whatsoever; Kissing.

With practised ease, you opened the several locks, and then the door they were a part of, down to the basement in the usually vacant house in a small neighbourhood on the outskirts of Philadelphia. The door opened with a loud squeak. You made a mental note to remind Cooper to oil the hinges, again.

As if on cue, you could hear chains being dragged across the concrete floor and frantic rattling of metal against metal.

Carefully, you went downstairs to the basement, where a woman in her thirties was held captive. She sat on the ground in the middle of the room, and the chains of her cuffs were attached to the far wall.

“I’m a little late today, I know. Sorry,” you told her gently, shooting her an apologetic smile.

For a long moment, she just looked at you, while you were walking over to her and then crouching across from her. And just like you did the previous times you visited her, you retrieved a protein bar and a small bottle of water from a bag, handing each item to her.

The woman, Anna, ripped them out of your hands, scooting further away from you when she did, like a small, wild and scared animal. It was almost amusing to you. There was no reason for her to be scared of you, after all.

In silence, you watched her devour the protein bar and down the water in one go. You really had been late that day.

Once she was done, you stood back up, picked up the trash and put it back into your bag. Cooper didn’t like to leave it there in the basement, and so you didn’t either.

You were about to start your way upstairs again when the woman called out to you, “Wait!”

Turning around to face her, you made a small noise, indicating that you were listening.

“You don’t have to do any of this… please… just let me go. You could just unlock the cuffs and leave the door open. He doesn’t have to know! Please!” she pleaded with you, tears in her eyes and desperation clear in her voice, “I won’t tell anyone, okay? I promise. I won’t tell anyone that you’re involved.”

This was the fifth time she begged you to let her go. She was more persistent than most of the others ever had been. Or maybe she’d just been there long enough to come up to five separate occasions of pleading for her life to be spared.

Sighing softly, you shook your head, “No. I can’t do that, I’m sorry.” You crouched down across from Anna once more, making eye contact with her. Then, you pointed to the far edge of the ceiling above and behind you, looking back at her. “He has a camera here. He’d know if I helped you. And even if he wouldn’t… I’m not ruining this for him.”

Sometimes, Cooper liked to take his time with them. This having been one of them. Although, you knew that a lot of it had to do with his work. He had to do extra shifts and stay on call these past two weeks because they were short staffed at the firehouse, due to injuries that affected half of the regular team and rendered them unable to work for a while.

It was only a matter of time until Cooper had the chance to commit several hours to this woman in front of you. But for the time being, you had to keep paying her visits to bring her snacks and drinks, and let her use the toilet in the back of the basement, just so she’d stay alive long enough.

To keep them for more than a week was risky, though.

“Why are you doing this?” Anna asked you after a beat, changing tactics apparently, because this question was new. “I recognise you. I saw you on the news a few years ago. You went missing, too.”

Frowning, you let out a deep exhale, “I know what you’re trying to do. It’s not gonna work, so stop it.”

“What did he do to you? Is he forcing you?” she pressed anyway, unsurprisingly ignoring what you said.

Groaning softly in annoyance, you got up, stretching your back. You looked down at her, seeing nothing but a desperate woman, who was grasping at straws to ensure safety. Unfortunately for Anna, her pleas would only be ignored, since you had no interest in helping her.

“He’s not forcing me. I chose to stay and help,” you told her, then.

For you, this was the end of this conversation, but Anna clearly wasn’t ready to let it stay that way, reaching out to you and gripping your wrists tightly, her chains clanking loudly. At the suddenness of all this, you flinched, trying to shake her off of you.

“Let go of me!” you hissed at her.

“No! Listen to me,” she urged you, her grasp unexpectedly strong, “I don’t believe you. He must have convinced you that this is what you wanted, told you things, threatened you. Why would you ever willingly stay with a monster like him?”

“He’s not a monster!” you interrupted her, raising your voice at her.

Anna wasn’t deterred by it, though, “He kills people! Keeps them in this crappy basement until he’s done with them. He’s a monster. People don’t do that. And you know that he’ll get to you at some point, too.

“Do you really think that he’ll spare you forever? You might be useful to him now, but there’ll be a point where you make a mistake or he just gets bored of you. And I mean, why wouldn’t he? You’re nothing to him! He’ll find somebody else, somebody less damaged than you. And when he does, he’ll discard you, like you never meant anything. Because you don’t. Not to him.

“But if you help me out of here, we can go together. And we’ll get help, okay? He won’t hurt you anymore. You’ll be free, we both will,” she finished her little speech, breathing heavily, frantically, once she was done, and looking up at you with wild eyes, just hoping to get through to you.

There was no denying that she’d hit a nerve in you, but not in the way she had hoped.

Your brow twitched as you tried to keep your immediate rage at bay.

Instead, you composed yourself with a couple of deep breaths, feeling Anna let go of your arms when she seemed to think that she was starting to achieve her goal with you.

With a flourish, you pulled the long sleeve of your jacket up, exposing your inner left wrist to Anna’s questioning eyes, which widened almost instantly when she saw the tattoo on your skin. It was a black thin lined tattoo of a meat cleaver in front of a background that appeared almost ethereal, despite how minimalistic it was. But she quickly connected the dots. Cooper had a tattoo just like it, only that instead of a meat cleaver, it was a lamb at the centre.

“I’m his favourite, you know? We got these tattoos about a year ago. He told me that he wanted something to represent me on his skin, as well, when I begged him to let me get a tattoo that would remind me of him. I didn’t ask him to get one, or make any sort of suggestion to wanting that. But he did it anyway. Because he wanted that reminder of me,” you explained the tattoos to Anna, who just looked at you in disbelief.

With a pleased smile on your lips, you slid the sleeve back down to cover your arm again.

“‘The Butcher’s little Lamb’ is what he told me when we got home after the tattoo appointment,” you told her softly with a wistful smile as you reminisced, “He let me go. But I stayed. I begged him to let me be useful to him. And he did, because I’m special to him.”

“You’re crazy,” Anna spat out in disgust at what she was hearing.

“And you’re nothing. To him, or me. Or anyone,” you retorted easily, “You see, in a few weeks, you’ll be nothing but a faint memory. And in a few months, you’ll be nothing but another number. And for me, you’ll be nothing but that beautiful bracelet you wore when he abducted you.”

This time, Anna had nothing more to say, it seemed, as she slumped back in defeat. You took the chance to finally pick your bag up again and go back upstairs, locking the door behind you to the sound of faint cries.

When you arrived at yours and Cooper’s house, you already saw his car in the driveway, making you feel excited to see him again. It was tough for you to be apart from him while he was working.

Inside, you came to a sudden halt, though, seeing Cooper lean against the doorway to the foyer of your house, idly playing with his phone in his hands. You didn’t expect him to wait there for you, but instantly relaxed when you saw that he was smiling at you. It was one of his gentle smiles that always melted your heart, just like it did now.

“Hey, little Lamb,” he greeted you softly.

Feeling your heart flutter, your face brightened as you beamed at Cooper, walking over to him, as he pocketed his phone and loosely wrapped his arms around your waist, looking at you with a pleased expression.

“I heard what you were telling poor Anna there,” he whispered, “I thought I’d check on you two when I got home earlier, seeing as you weren’t here when you should have been.”

Averting your gaze in shame, you apologised, “I know, I’m sorry. I was cleaning the house and lost track of time, so I left later than usual. It won’t happen again.”

Cooper clicked his tongue quietly, using his left hand to gently take hold of your jaw and move your head to make you look back up at him. “Hey, it’s all right. I was just worried that something might’ve happened,” he told you soothingly.

There was nothing in the world that could compare to the feeling you got when Cooper showed that you were important to him.

“You did a good job, you know?” Cooper continued, then, still speaking in a soft, gravelly tone, “She was out of line with all those cruel things she said to you. And trust me, I’ll make her pay for it very soon. I promise. I’m proud of you for handling it the way you did.”

Those words had such an instantaneous effect on you, causing you to feel hot all over, warm and fuzzy inside your chest as your heart seemed to swell with pride.

“Thank you,” you giggled happily, unable to contain your giddiness.

Praise such as this wasn’t something you were used to, and Cooper wouldn’t have said it if he hadn’t meant every word. You felt like you were on top of the world.

Cooper’s fingers were still gently wrapped around your jaw, now moving upward, his fingertips grazed your lips and cheeks before his palm settled and cupped your face. His dark eyes met yours. His gaze was soft, yet piercing nonetheless, and it took your breath away, just like it always did. There was no escape from his all-consuming presence. It was dominating your every sense.

Leaning his head further down, Cooper’s lips hovered above yours. “I think you’ve earned yourself a reward,” he whispered, brushing his lips against yours as he spoke.

You couldn’t do anything but make an excited sound in the back of your throat, while your hands were tightly gripping his shirt, where you held onto him on his chest, right below his shoulders.

Amused, Cooper breathed out a small chuckle before pressing his mouth against yours in a lovingly heated kiss that conveyed just what kind of reward he had in mind for you. You instantly melted into the kiss, reciprocating it as best as you could while your entire body and mind felt like they were on fire. Even after a couple of years of this, it never ceased to amaze and overwhelm you.

And when you later lay in bed, bodies intertwined and in their most natural states, your finger was lazily and gently tracing the lines of the tattoo on Cooper’s right wrist. The tattoo that was a reminder, a representation of you, for him. You couldn’t suppress the smile when the happiness you associated with that rushed over you.

“My special little Lamb,” Cooper whispered, watching your dreamy face as you kept tracing along the tattoo, and pressed another kiss to your temple and then your cheek and your lips again. This time, it was a gentle show of affection, which you happily accepted, soaking up every moment of it.

Soon, Anna would realise just how wrong she had been about you and Cooper.

#i hope you like it hibiskooks! this was basically written for you dhskfhsjkf <3 #proofread and edited this in a half-asleep state with a headache just now so please excuse uh literally anything #but if i didn't upload it now i'd second-guess myself into deleting the whole thing so yee i'll just check it over again tomorrow it's fine #gender neutral reader #cooper abbott #cooper abbott x reader #cooper adams x reader #cooper adams #slasher x reader #dark fic #fanfic #jesse.writes #i surprised myself with the focus on the scene between reader and the OC lol that wasn't meant to happen #but i also couldn't cut it down tbh because it was exactly how the story flowed for me #sorry the part with Cooper is so short in comparison tho!

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caramel-catss · 7 days ago

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trilogy (chapter 1: rabbit)

on ao3

word count: 26.5k

the first chapter of my links meet au

Three strangers, connected only by the triangle on their hands, join forces to save a dying world. Through hardship and healing, they will become family.

chapter art by @clowns0up-felix :)

(below is a snippet, the full is too long for tumblr lol)

Soft hands glide through Link’s hair. They untangle knots, picking out dirt and various pieces of grime. A warm, uncalloused palm brushes against Link’s cheek.

Even with closed eyes, Link knows who it is. She comes every night.

Link reaches out and grabs the retreating wrist. “Don’t go,” she murmurs.

A gentle hum pauses—one Link hadn’t even registered.

“I can’t stay,” Marin replies. She trails her finger around Link’s freckles, drawing constellations.

“I want you to.”

“I can’t.”

Link huffs; she’s always been the stubborn one, and Marin can’t win her out now. She doesn’t let go. Marin laughs, all chimes and Sea Lily bells. The free hand returns to Link’s hair.

Marin begins her song again. Link leans against the other’s lap, resting on her side. Her fingers drum a tempo for Marin’s melody.

In the distance, a voice calls. Link ignores it.

It calls again.

Marin says, “Your uncle wants you, Link.”

“Mm,” she replies.

The hands cease. “Link.”

“Don’t wanna.”

Marin gently flicks her. “You lazy girl… Come on.”

Link blinks her eyes open—only to catch Marin’s face before she goes—and meets a wooden wall. Shuffling footsteps sound behind her. She blinks.

“Link,” her uncle is saying. “It’s time to wake up.”

With her sword on her back and apples in her pouch, Link leaves Uncle’s house. She has a small list of chores: buy a red potion for Uncle, sell yesterday’s harvest, and get the Book of Mudora back from the Sage.

Link fishes through her bag for an old plain blue ocarina. Zelda says that she’s insanely unorganized, but Link doesn’t care enough. She eventually finds it and calls for her bird, directing it to the Magic Shop. She haggles Maple down to 100 rupees—far better than she’s usually able to get—and sets off again for Kakariko.

Most of Uncle’s apples are reserved for cooking, making preserves, or just as snacks. The rest, Link is sent out to sell. They go for 15 rupees each, which isn’t much. The price is really a formality; Link’s more than rich from all her dungeon crawling, plus they’re on a royal pension.

The point is, they sell out quickly. Link’s there for less than twenty minutes before she’s brought down to her last three apples. She doesn’t mind all that much—anything that lets her leave Kakariko sooner. There’s been a lot of apologies over the past few years, but nothing can stop her nerves when she enters this place.

A figure comes into Link’s view. She straightens from where she was leaning against the weathercock (her makeshift stand). When she realizes who it is, though, she relaxes.

“Hey, Zel,” Link says.

Zelda huffs, not unkindly. She’s wearing a plain, tan dress. “Don’t announce me to the whole village.”

Link shrugs. “Want some apples?”

Her half-sister’s eyes flick to the three apples sitting on the weathercock. “Are those your last ones?”

“Yup.” Link nods. “Then I’m heading to the Sanctuary.”

“I’ll buy out your stock.” Zelda takes out three rupees, two red and one blue.

“Hey, thanks.”

Link starts to trade the items. Zelda says, too casually, “Can I walk with you? Over to the Sanctuary?”

“Mm.” Eyebrow raise. Zelda shakes her head, nothing urgent. “Sure.”

They take the eastern exit. Zelda sets a slow pace. Link fiddles with her medallions, curling the chain around her finger.

Zelda’s always been upfront—she speaks up soon as they’re out of earshot. “I had a dream last night.”

“Shocker.” Link is flicked on the ear.

“You know that’s not what I mean, idiot.”

She rolls her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. What happened?”

Zelda’s eyebrows furrow. “That’s the thing… I can’t make it out. The world around me wasn’t Hyrule, but… it felt so familiar.”

“Could be a different time,” Link suggests. “Or a neighboring country. Heard anything from Labrynna or Holodrum?”

“No, and I don’t think it’s either of them.” Zelda pauses for a second. “It’s… There was blood all around, but I couldn’t see it… like it had seeped into the ground itself.”

“An old battlefield.”

“Something like that.” They’re nearing the Sanctuary. “There was new growth on top of it… and the plants were reaching for me. That’s when I woke up.”

Link hums. “Weird, but doesn’t seem like a prophecy.”

“Except all my dreams are prophecies,” Zelda argues. She pinches the bridge of her nose. “Maybe I’m overthinking it, but I just… I don’t know. I worry.”

“It’ll be okay, Zel. I can and will fight, so if anything does happen—”

“That’s exactly it, though.” Zelda’s tone makes Link pause. “You’ve… It hasn’t been that long since you… you know. You’re my little sister. I don’t want you to be thrown back into that so soon.”

Link bites at her cheek. Oh, that’s what this is about. Ever she returned to Hyrule last year, Zelda’s fretted over her more and more.

“I’ll be fine,” Link mumbles. “I’m doing better now, anyway.”

“If you…” Zelda trails off. They stop at the Sanctuary door. “…Keep taking care of yourself, okay?”

Link nods. “Okay.”

Zelda bids her goodbye and peels off back towards the castle. Sneaking in, no doubt. Link showed her the way last year.

Before she enters, Link sighs. She knows Zelda only means well. And, sure, the past months have been… rough. But Link can still hold her own—if nothing else, during combat. She’s only a year younger than Zelda, too! She just… Whatever.

Link grumbles as she elbows the Sanctuary door open. She greets the Sage, who tells her to wait a moment while he gets the book. Fine by her. Link retreats to one of the pews, opting to lean against it instead of sitting in it.

She whistles a short tune while she waits. Or, tries to—Mamu’s song comes to her mind first, but it’s way too fast for her to whistle. Link gives up after a few moments and instead opts to pull some hair out of her face. She pauses.

The Triforce on her left hand is glowing. Glowing more than usual, that is. Streams of magic trail down her skin. It’s warm, dripping holy and golden.

“Shit,” Link mutters. Her mark flashes, and the world goes white.

(read the rest on ao3!)

#trilogy au #trilogy rabbit #trilogy wolf #trilogy dragon #links meet au #surprise! lol #hey i promised i'd post it before the end of the year . new year's eve counts #caramel writes

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