#UPDATE okay. should be able to get the order sent to a closer hospital. will do that on monday | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

marjansmarwani · 4 years ago

Text

tender-hearted sadness pulls me through the day

7.9k || ao3

Carlos is hurt, badly, and TK is faced both with the awful possibility of losing him and the fact that his parents still don't know about them. He promised Carlos he could tell them in his own time though, and he doesn't intend to break that promise for anything. Even if it means he can't be there, even if it means he has to hope from a distance. He would do anything for Carlos, after all.

aka that Carlos’s parent’s fic I’ve been working on for what feels like forever. It’s finally done and since @officereyes was the one who insisted I write it in the first place and it is her birthday, it feels only right to offer it as a part 2/on the actual correct day gift (surprise). I hope you enjoy it Jamie!

This idea was also requested by @noxsoulmate after I had already started writing it so I also hope you enjoy, and that it was worth the wait! This was started around the same time that 2x04 aired so it is definitely no longer canon compliant, though I did tweak a few things as the season progressed. Thanks to @justaswampdemon for reading through it last night to tell me if any of it actually made sense or not because I wasn’t sure after working on it for so long!

--------------------

TK couldn’t stop staring at his hands.

They were shaking and though he had nearly scrubbed them raw he could still feel the memory of the blood that had coated them only a half-hour before. It was Carlos’s blood and the reminder sent his hands trembling all over again. The sight of the accident was still so fresh in his mind. It was everywhere, trapped in all of his senses — the fear of realizing just who it was trapped in the crushed vehicle, the overwhelming scent of the blood stuck in his head, the sound of the heart monitor flatlining and his own desperate pleas for Carlos to stay with them, the helplessness of Carlos’s life leaking away under his fingers — he couldn't shake it. He knew he wasn’t likely to until he saw Carlos, until he had proof that he was okay.

But he was also a medic and he knew that the alternative, the thing he was trying so hard not to think about, to not put any energy into, was just as likely an outcome as any.

His anxiety spiral is interrupted by the sound of frantic footsteps that pause as they grow closer to his seat.

“TJ?”

He sat bolt upright at the sight of Carlos’s parents, expressions tense and eyes full of fear, before him.

“Mr. and Mrs. Reyes,” he stammered, standing up and shoving his shaking hands into the pockets of his pants, “hi. Uh, have they told you anything yet?”

“No,” Mrs. Reyes said fearfully, “we just got here.”

TK nodded, anxiously twisting at the interior of his pockets, “I’m sure someone will be by soon,” he assured her, “he’s only been here for about an hour.”

“And how long have you been here?” Carlos’s father asked him, studying him with a piercing gaze.

“About an hour,” TK repeated, “I was on shift, we responded to the accident. I rode in on the ambulance with him and since it was the end of my shift anyways and my Captain knows Carlos and I are...close, she told me just to stay.”

He met Mr. Reyes’s gaze, refusing to look away and hoping desperately that he hadn’t noticed his falter. It wasn’t a lie, but the omission weighed on him. Never once since their start had he denied his feelings for Carlos. He had made that mistake once, in the very beginning, and it had nearly prevented what they had become. But he had no other choice; he had made Carlos a promise. And he wouldn’t break it, not for anything.

The other man’s father nodded, eyes zeroing in on the paramedic badge on his shirt. “I thought you said you were a firefighter?”

“I was, the paramedic thing is pretty new. We lost one at our station, during the volcano, and I was already dual certified from New York so…” he trailed off with a shrug, his gaze drifting from the parents before him to the doors of the trauma wing Carlos had been wheeled into upon their arrival.

“You treated him?”

TK snapped his gaze back to find Mrs. Reyes looking at him with wide eyes. He swallowed, and nodded, “I did, ma’am,” he confirmed, voice soft with repressed emotion.

“And?” she asked him desperately, eyes shining with unshed tears, “How is he? How is my boy?”

How did he tell them? How did you tell your boyfriend’s parents that not even an hour ago you had been scared out of your mind that he was going to die in your arms even as you and your team worked desperately to save him? How did you do all of that without showing the emotion, how did you do that when they don’t know — when they can’t know — that his presence is what allows you to sleep soundly each night, that his smile is the thing you most look forward to seeing each and every day?

They were both looking at him as if he held all the answers and to be fair, he did. In terms of what had happened, at least. He was just as clueless as anyone else as to what would come next.

“He was involved in a very serious accident,” he settled on. “He lost a lot of blood but we managed to get him stabilized in the field. That’s all I know though. If I knew more…”

He trailed off but Carlos’s mother shook her head, reaching out to place a warm and trembling hand on his arm, “Thank you,” she told him, “for telling us, and for saving him. Carlitos is so lucky to have such a wonderful friend.”

“Of course,” he said without hesitation, even though her well-intentioned words stung, even though he had to swallow what would have come next: he would do anything for Carlos.

------------

It’s another few hours before his dad and the rest of the 126 show up. He may have been exaggerating when he had told Mrs. Reyes that his shift was ending when they arrived at the hospital. The reality was that Tommy had told him to stay. She had said that she and Nancy could handle the last few hours without him and that he would be too distracted to focus for the remainder of the shift so he may as well just stay. She had been right, but that meant there had still been a shift to be finished before anyone else was available to join his vigil.

A doctor had come by, a short while ago to give them an update. The surgery had gone well and while they had repaired the damage, they cautioned them that he was not out of danger yet, that the next several hours would be key. The knowledge had settled like a lead weight in TK’s stomach, the dread seeping through his veins. He saw his own fear clearly reflected in the eyes of Carlos’s parents and knows that they are all connected by it, even if they don’t know it.

When the doctor told them that Carlos was being moved to a recovery room where he would be closely monitored and that a nurse would be by when he was settled to let them know, TK realized a whole other layer to this nightmare. He won’t be able to be there. There is no way he can justify sitting by Carlos’s bedside to his parents as a “friend from work.” In order to be there for Carlos, he would have to tell them the truth, and he can’t do that. Not when he made Carlos a promise.

That’s how his team finds him: alone in the waiting room, leg anxiously bouncing against the floor as he stares in the direction of the recovery rooms, wanting nothing more than to be able to be beside Carlos, to have concrete evidence that he hadn’t lost him.

He allowed himself to be pulled into hugs and subjected to comforting pats before anyone asks the question he’s been dreading. It’s Marjan that does, her unwavering and empathetic gaze studying him as she speaks the words: “Is he still in surgery?”

“No, he’s in recovery now.” TK assured them, allowing them a moment to take a breath of relief before he continued, “The doctors said that the next few hours will be crucial, that those will be what really makes the difference. So we’re just...hoping for the best.”

They all nodded, but Paul’s piercing gaze studied him, “If he’s in recovery, why are you out here and not in there?”

TK bit his lip, turning his gaze downwards. He and Carlos hadn’t exactly shared their conflict about his parents with their friends. If TK was being honest, he had been hoping they wouldn’t ever have to, that they would cross that bridge before it ever became an issue. Clearly, the universe had other plans.

“His parents are in there,” he replied, hoping that maybe they wouldn’t push, that maybe they could just leave it there.

But these were their friends, and they wouldn't be so easily satisfied.

“Is he not out to them?” Marjan asked gently, taking the seat beside him.

“No, he’s out to them it’s just...complicated.”

“How complicated can it be?” Judd asked as he settled into a seat across from them, “he’s out and you two are solid. Seems pretty uncomplicated to me.”

TK didn’t know how to explain it, exactly. “They don’t know he’s in a relationship,” he settled on, “and he’s not ready to tell them. We...talked about it a few months ago, and I told him that was fine. That we could move at his pace. I mean,” he broke off here with a shrug, meeting the eyes of his teammates, “it’s the least I can do for him, right? Extend him the same understanding he gave me?”

The others exchanged glances that TK couldn’t read. Judd looked in the direction of the recovery rooms, “This ain’t right kid,” he said softly, “Carlos would want you there. You should be there.”

TK shook his head firmly, “I promised him he could tell them on his own terms, Judd. I told him I would wait as long as he needed. I can’t make that choice for him, and I won’t. I made him a promise.”

There was silence in the wake of his words. The others exchanged glances and TK looked away, not wanting to see their pity. He knew he was making the right choice, but that didn’t make the reality of it any easier to face. Carlos had nearly died in his arms just a few hours ago. The cold fear of losing him was still fresh in his mind, he still hadn’t been able to shake the chill from his bones. And now he was in a room just down the hall and TK couldn’t be there. Of all the challenges they had faced, this might just be the worst one yet.

Paul let out a low breath and shook his head, “I hear you man, and it’s admirable. I get you wanting to respect Carlos’s wishes, but you’ve got to think about yourself too. Maybe it would be easier for you to not be here? Sitting here and not being able to be with him has to be hard. You could go home, wait there instead. We’ll let you know if there are any updates.”

TK gave him a tight smile, “I appreciate it, but no. Even though I can’t be with him, I can’t imagine not being as close to him as possible. I’m not going anywhere.”

------------

His friends come and go, but TK simply waits. He assures them that he’s fine when asked, but otherwise, he is not great company. All he can manage to do is sit quietly and wait. And hope. He takes a turn around the waiting room, he bounces his leg anxiously at his seat, he fiddles with his necklace. He does everything he can to keep his body busy while his mind is fully occupied.

He knows that right down the hall his boyfriend, the person who he might just love more than anyone else on this planet, is in a medically induced coma. He knows that he can’t be there, and he knows why.

That doesn’t mean he hates it any less.

That also doesn’t mean that the last image he has of Carlos — bloody and crashing on a gurney being rushed to a trauma room — is going to leave his mind any time soon. He needs to see him. He needs visual confirmation to cancel out the nightmare image running through his head. He knows that he can’t, not right now, but he won’t leave until he can.

The waiting room empties and fills again several times during his vigil. The daylight he had entered in had faded long ago and the dark night sky was visible each time the hospital doors slid open. It was still a few hours before he saw Mr. and Mrs. Reyes leave from his corner of the waiting room. They stepped through the hospital doors hand in hand, Mr. Reyes rubbing comforting circles on his wife’s back as they headed back to their car, presumably to go home and get a few hours of sleep.

TK, who had been coming close to dozing off in his seat, was suddenly wide awake. Carlos’s parents were gone, he could go see him. He was out of his seat in an instant, his feet carrying him towards the door he had been staring at all day before his head could properly catch up. It wasn’t until he neared the door that he slowed, that he processed.

It felt almost wrong to be sneaking in. He felt almost guilty for waiting for Carlos’s parents to leave, for jumping on the opportunity the moment it presented itself. But he needed to see Carlos. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to settle until he did. He could not have the last image of him in his mind be what he had looked like when they exited the ambulance. He may have gotten the same updates from the doctor but that did nothing to ease his fear. He had nearly felt Carlos die under his hands all those hours ago. He needed to feel him breathing too.

He stepped in quietly, though he knew there was no danger of waking him. He had barely made it over the threshold before he froze, nearly toppled by the wrongness of seeing Carlos so still. To the casual observer, he probably looked like he was sleeping. But TK knew Carlos Reyes. The man was an energetic sleeper. He moved constantly in the night, always shifting and reaching out to pull TK closer when he felt he had strayed too far away. Always striving to press his body against his, always keeping them close; even in sleep. But it was more than that. His face was all wrong. Carlos’s face was expressive, even in sleep. Whatever he was thinking or feeling or dreaming was always laid out in full display for TK to read but now his face was blank. That more than anything struck TK as so foreign, so unusual.

He took a deep, wavering breath as he crossed the room, running his eyes over him as he drew closer. From the outside, he didn’t look too badly injured, but TK knew with a cold certainty that most of the damage was hidden by bandages under the blankets. He knew that there was so much more to this than met the eye, that as wrong as Carlos looked in this bed it was a far sight better than the alternative — than what he had feared from the moment they arrived on the scene.

“Hey babe,” he said softly as he reached the side of the bed, reaching out to run a hand through Carlos’s curls, “you look better than you did earlier. I hope you’re feeling better too.”

He paused here, taking another moment to study him up close now. He bit his lip against the tears that wanted to come. He didn’t know how much time he would have here, he wasn’t going to waste any of it crying.

“I know it’s going to take some time,” he said instead when he managed to steady his voice, “and I want you to know you should take all the time you need. We’ll be fine until you’re ready. I’ll be fine. I just,” he broke off, took a steadying breath, and started again, “I just want you to know that I probably won’t be here a lot, just in case you ever wonder why you can’t hear me, if you can hear any of us. I need you to know it’s not because I don’t want to be here or that I don’t love you. Because I do, so much. And there is nowhere I would rather be than right here with you at all times. But I made you a promise, and I intend to keep it. It’s…” he trailed off, taking another breath as he leaned forward, taking Carlos’s hand in his own, “it’s the least I can do,” he finished softly.

He lapsed into silence then, savoring in the sight of his chest lightly rising and falling with each breath. Not so long ago he thought he might never see that again. He had never realized just how much he had taken the concept for granted. He vowed that he never would again.

He leaned forward now, resting his head on the arm not intertwined with Carlos’s. “I just need you to come back to us,” he said quietly. “I need you to come back to me. I don’t want to face life without you. Don’t make me, please.”

Even though he knew there would be no reaction, even though he knew the other man was heavily sedated, he studied his face for any hint of recognition, any glimmer of hope he could sustain himself with. There was none and it was that truth and the weight of Carlos’s hand in his that saw him off into a fitful sleep.

------------

The sound of footsteps woke TK, causing him to sit bolt upright and glance around frantically, heart thudding in his chest.

“Relax,” an unfamiliar voice instructed, “we definitely don’t need a cardiac patient on our hands, on top of everything else.”

It took several tries to blink the sleep out his eyes before he could make out the scene in front of him. He was in Carlos’s room. He must have fallen asleep here. He pulled himself fully upright, stretching and rubbing at the back of his neck with a grimace as he studied the nurse checking Carlos’s vitals. She glanced over at him with a raised eyebrow, “Good morning.”

“What time is it?” he croaked out.

“Just past 6, so I’d imagine if anyone were to come back after going home to sleep for the night they’d likely be back soon.”

“How’d you…”

She shrugged as she checked Carlos’s IV, “Call it an educated guess. I mean, I know you paramedics are pretty dedicated but I have yet to see any of you spend an entire day in the waiting room for a patient. Figured there had to be a bit more to it than meets the eye. That, or I have to call security on you.”

“He’s my boyfriend,” TK said softly, reaching out to take Carlos’s limp hand in his own, tenderly rubbing his thumb across it, “but his parents don’t really know. It’s...complicated.”

The nurse’s eyes softened as she studied him, “You probably have almost an hour before anyone else shows up, visiting hours don’t officially start until 7 anyways. After that, you should try to get some sleep. You’re starting to look like you should have a bed of your own.”

TK shook his head, “I’m fine, thanks.”

“Uh-huh,” she said, sounding wholly unconvinced. “Well if you are around later and want an update feel free to ask for me at the nurses’ station. My name’s Becky.”

“Thank you, Becky,” he said with a small smile, “you have no idea how much I appreciate that.”

She waved off his thanks as she headed towards the door. She paused on the threshold, turning back to study him again, “Hey, Paramedic?”

“TK,” he provided.

“TK, then. If I find out you’re lying to me and that I should have called security…”

He gave her a grin and a tired laugh, “Then you know where I work,” he reminded her, gesturing towards his uniform, “pretty sure you’ll be able to track me down.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. I hope everything works out for you two and for what it’s worth, he’s doing okay.”

“Thanks, Becky,” he said softly, turning his gaze back to Carlos’s still form before Becky smiled at them from the doorway and stepped quietly out of the room, shutting the door behind her.

--------------------

“This is an intervention,” Paul announced.

TK looked up sharply to see his team gathered around him several hours later. He had slipped back into the waiting room around 6:30, heedful of Becky’s warning. It was now just past 10 and he was currently being stared down by his team. He furrowed his brow in confusion and was just about to ask exactly what the hell Paul meant by that when Marjan continued.

“You’ve been here for over 24 hours now, TK. You’re still wearing yesterday’s uniform, you haven’t eaten and I doubt you’ve slept much.”

“I got a few hours!” he interjected but faltered when he was met with 4 equally unimpressed looks.

“And while I’m sure that was adequate sleep,” she continued in a tone that made it clear she did not in fact believe that, “you need more than that. Preferably in a bed. Preferably in your own bed.”

TK looked down and Judd continued, voice gentle, “You need to take care of yourself, kid. You can’t be there for him if you keel over. Let us help you out.”

TK bit at his lip. He knew they were right, logically. There was only so long he could keep this up. Soon enough his body would start protesting. He could already feel the effects of little sleep and no food in his sluggish thoughts. Realistically he knew they were right, but he couldn’t stand the thought of leaving Carlos. He wasn’t out of the woods yet. The thought that something might happen when he wasn’t there was enough to keep him rooted to his spot in the waiting room, consequences be damned. “I can’t leave him,” he choked out, “if something were to happen…”

He trailed off, but Paul simply shook his head, “Nope, you’re coming with us. Judd and I are going to take you home. You’re going to shower, change, eat something and get at least 4 hours of sleep. Then - and only then - we’ll bring you back. Marjan and Mateo will stay here and let us know if anything changes. If it does we’ll bring you right back, promise.”

TK scanned the faces of his friends. They wore matching looks of determination, and he knew that this was not an argument he was going to win. He nodded, pulling himself out of his seat and throwing another glance in the direction of Carlos’s room. He felt a hand on his arm and looked over to see Marjan giving him a sad smile, “Don’t worry, we won’t let you miss anything.”

“Yeah dude, we’ve got this!” Mateo assured him as he plopped into an empty seat.

TK gave them both a grateful smile. He wished he could have offered more, but he couldn’t find the words. Nothing his mind produced seemed adequate enough to express the level of gratitude he felt for each and every one of them. He hoped they knew.

He allowed himself to be led to Judd’s truck and as they pulled away from the hospital, his mind began to wander. Logically, he knew Carlos was in good hands, that leaving the hospital did nothing to hurt his chances. But not being there just felt wrong, as if he was tempting fate. As if his desperate hope could only have an effect from within the same building.

TK was so lost in his thoughts he didn’t notice how close they were to their destination until the truck came to a halt outside of the condo. He froze as he looked at it, the thought of stepping foot inside their shared home without Carlos washing over him. He knew he was being too quiet, he knew that the other two had noticed that something was wrong. Judd eyed him in the rearview mirror.

“Is this okay?” he asked. “I can bring you to your dad’s if you’d rather, but I figured all your stuff is here so…”

“No,” TK said, voice too soft. “No,” he tried again, voice a little more sure this time, “you’re right Judd, all my stuff is here. It’s fine, really. Thanks for driving me.”

“Yeah, we’re not just going to leave you,” Paul told him, pushing open the passenger side door and climbing out, “we’re staying with you to make sure you actually do the things covered in our bargain. Plus,” he added in a gentler tone as he opened TK’s door and met his eyes, “you don’t need to be alone right now.”

TK swallowed and nodded. He slid out of the truck without a word, crossing to the front door and pulling his keys out of his pocket. He inserted his key into the door with trembling hands and pushed it open, holding it open behind him for Judd and Paul. Once they were all inside he shut it behind them, the sound of the lock clicking into place the only sound. They stood in silence as TK looked around, trying to take in the once familiar surroundings that now felt so foreign. The clutter of day to day life was scattered throughout the living space, left waiting for them to return home and resume their lives. It was a cruel reminder of just how sudden this had been; of how much they stood to lose.

Paul gave him a gentle shove towards the stairs, interrupting his reverie, “Go and get showered and changed, we’ll work on the food. Come back down when you’re ready.”

TK nodded and ascended the stairs without a word. He entered their bedroom without really looking at anything, making a beeline for the dresser so as to avoid the sight of the haphazardly made bed; left rumpled when they had both decided on a late start the previous morning, abandoning their usual morning routine in favor of other pursuits. He grabbed the first pants and hoodie he found, pulling them out and heading to the bathroom without even a glance at the garments in his hand.

Several minutes later he was forced to admit that the hot water felt good. It revived him in a way the restless sleep at Carlos’s bedside hadn’t, and it allowed him to peel back the layers of everything to find some of the positives. Namely that Carlos had survived surgery, that while he wasn’t out of the woods there had been no changes for the worst (or for the better, but a hot shower was a place for optimism.)

He stepped out feeling renewed. As he reached for his towel he reminded himself that it hadn’t even been 36 hours. In the grand scheme of things, that was practically nothing. For injuries like those, it was perfectly normal. There was no reason to expect the worst, not yet.

He pulled on the clothes he had grabbed, soft joggers and one of Carlos’s APD hoodies that he had claimed as his own months ago and tried to keep focusing on the positives, but his optimism faded along with the lingering warmth of the shower. Maybe the worst hadn’t happened and he was certainly grateful for that, but where they were was a world away from “good.”

He made his way down the stairs, turning the corner to find Judd and Paul in quiet conversation in the kitchen. They looked up when he appeared, Judd answering the question on his lips before he could even ask it: “No, no updates from the other two. Seems like all’s quiet there.”

TK nodded gratefully and slid into the seat across from them. Judd slid a bowl of something that TK knew objectively should smell amazing in front of him, but all he could do was stare at it.

“Thank you, but…”

“No,” Judd cut him off firmly, “you need to eat. Unless you want to be the one to tell my wife that you wouldn’t eat the food she sent over for you?”

TK sighed and picked up the fork pointedly taking a bite, and Judd huffed out a laugh, “Smart choice.”

The other two returned to their own bowls and they ate in companionable silence. TK appreciated their understanding. He was beyond grateful to his friends for everything, but even the thought of any conversation right in this moment felt like torture. The only thoughts he could manage right now were of Carlos, and the checklist of tasks required by his team before he would be allowed to return.

He finished his food in silence, getting up and crossing to the sink to rinse it out and place it in the dishwasher. He had just reached the sink when a hand stopped him, taking the bowl from his grasp.

“I’ve got this,” Judd told him, “you need sleep.”

“4 hours,” Paul reminded him from the counter, “in a bed.”

“If there are any updates…”

“We’ll let you know,” Paul assured him.

TK swallowed and nodded, turning and heading back upstairs with a soft thanks. He entered their bedroom again, this time unable to ignore the queen-sized elephant in the room. He lowered himself onto his side of the bed, muscle memory guiding him to lay on his left side, giving him a full view of Carlos’s empty pillow.

The sight of him hit him harder than anything else and suddenly he felt as if walls were closing in around him. All the feelings he had been pushing back, holding at bay so he didn’t fall apart at the wrong moment breached his tenuous barriers. The catalyst grew harder to see as his vision was clouded with tears. He rolled over, turning his back to the reminder as his body shook with sobs too long repressed. He let 36 hours of pain and fear and panic out as he lay in their bed, hoping desperately that the aching emptiness beside him did not become his new reality.

Eventually, he drifted off into a fitful sleep; head resting on his tear-soaked pillow and clinging to the desperate hope that when he woke up, things would look better.

————-

Things didn’t look much better when he woke up, but his head did feel a little clearer.

He woke with a jolt at the sensation of someone lightly shaking him. He sat up quickly to find Paul standing next to him, hands raised in a placating manner, “Easy man, it’s just me.”

TK could feel fear creeping through his mind. If Paul was waking him up then…

“What happened?” he choked out. He knew he shouldn’t have left. He should have fought them more, he should have insisted on staying, no matter what.

“Nothing,” Paul assured him, voice even and soothing, “everything’s fine. It’s just been a bit over 4 hours and while personally, I would love to let you sleep longer I figured it was only fair to wake you up and let you decide. There are no new updates and no one is going to judge you for taking the time to get a little more sleep.”

TK took a shuddering breath, willing his heart rate to go back to normal. He shook his head and pulled himself out of the bed, “No, I should be getting back. Thank you though,” he added to Paul, “for waking me up, for everything, really.”

“Of course man. We meant what we said: we’re here for you. I can’t imagine how hard this is, especially given everything, but you’re not alone in this. Don’t forget that. We all care about Carlos too, and we care about you.”

TK looked down, not sure quite how to respond to that. Thankfully, Paul knew him well. His friend put a hand on his shoulder and gave it a firm squeeze. TK looked up and gave him a smile that Paul returned, “Take some time to get ready, Judd and I will be ready to leave when you are.”

He nodded again and watched as Paul stepped out of the bedroom, closing the door behind him. He then took a breath to steady himself before he surveyed the room, actually thinking about what he might need this time around. He grabbed his phone charger and shoved it into his pocket but couldn’t think of anything else he might need. All he could think about was getting back to the hospital as soon as possible. He met the other two downstairs and at his nod they head out without a word, TK only pausing on the threshold for a moment as he glanced back at the empty condo. Soon he would be coming back here, with Carlos. He was sure of it; no other option was acceptable.

He shut the door behind him, turning his key in the lock until he heard the telltale click, and climbed into Judd’s truck for a silent ride to the hospital. When they arrived, he went to climb out but was stopped by Judd’s voice as the older man turned to look at him from the driver’s seat.

“I know you’re worried about him brother,” he said softly. “I can’t even imagine what it must feel like and what a mess I would be if it were Grace, but you still need to take care of yourself, remember that.”

TK swallowed down the emotions that rose up as he met Judd’s eyes.There was so much understanding in them and he knew that the other man knew what he was going through more than most. He gave him a nod, and a promise: “I’ll try.”

Judd nodded in satisfaction and TK climbed the rest of the way out of the backseat, giving his two friends a wave before he stepped out and headed back inside. He immediately headed to the nurses’ station and was about to ask for Becky when a familiar voice sounded behind him.

“TJ? What are you doing back here.”

TK froze at the sound of Mrs. Reyes’s voice. “Hi, Mrs. Reyes,” he began, “I was just checking in to see how Carlos was doing.”

The older woman’s expression softened and she reached out a hand to lay on his arm, “You are such a good person, my son is so lucky to have you as a friend.”

TK swallowed down the bile at the word, at the reminder of why he couldn’t be in there with Carlos. “How is he?” he managed to ask in a normal tone, “Has there been any change?”

Mrs. Reyes shook her head sadly, “No, but the doctors say that is to be expected right now. They say that if things remain as they are they will likely start weaning him off the sedation soon, so I guess that’s a good sign.”

“It is, he assured her, because despite everything she looked worried and he didn’t want her to suffer. “It’s a very good sign. Normal means that nothing is wrong, that things are healing. Paramedic,” he reminded her with a shrug when she shot him a curious glance, “I’m no doctor but I do know a decent amount about traumatic injuries.”

She smiled at him and squeezed his arm, “And I am so glad my Carlitos had someone like you working on him. I know it couldn’t have been easy to see someone you care about hurt like that but you helped to give him a fighting chance. I’ll never be able to thank you enough for that.”

“No thanks needed,” he told her softly, “it’s my job.”

“Still,” she insisted, pulling him into a hug. “I am so glad you are my son’s friend. He deserves wonderful people like you in his life.”

TK stiffened in the hug, her words hitting wounds she didn’t even know existed. He cleared his throat as he gently pulled away. “Thank you for the update,” he told her, “I appreciate it.”

She nodded, “Would you like to come sit with him for a bit? We don’t mind, there is plenty of room.”

The thought of being so close to Carlos but not being able to hold him, of having to stay distant so as not to blow their secret in front of his parents was too much. He was certain he wasn’t strong enough for that.

“Thank you,” he told her, “but I should get going. I don’t want to intrude and I just wanted to see how he was doing.”

“Of course,” she told him warmly, “but if you change your mind, feel free to stop by.”

He nodded and with one last hug she let him go and he stepped away, heading towards the doors. He didn’t know where he was going, there was nowhere else for him to go. He needed to be here, but he couldn’t be in there with them. He couldn’t be so close without revealing their relationship and he refused to do that to Carlos.

He stepped outside into the late afternoon sunlight, trying to decide what to do next. Trying to tamp down on the tears threatening to rise. It was too much. He had thought he was strong enough to handle this but he wasn’t. He couldn’t do this.

“TK?”

His name, said like a question from a familiar voice, caused him to turn to see Marjan heading towards him, a tray of coffees in her hand and a frown on her face.

“Hey Marj,” he said, hoping his voice sounded normal. Judging by the look on her face, he failed.

“What happened? Paul said you just got back. Is there any news? Mateo and I have been keeping an eye out but we didn’t see…”

“No,” he assured her, “no, you didn’t miss anything. Things are still fine. I just…” he trailed off, took a breath and started again. “I just ran into Carlos’s mother. She was very pleasant; offered to let me sit in the room with them. Told me what a good friend I was to her son.”

Marjan’s face dropped, “TK,” she said softly, but any response he could have given was swallowed by the tears he couldn’t stop. He thought he had gotten them all out a few hours ago as he lay in their bed, but clearly he was wrong. There were still plenty more. He felt arms wrap around him as Marjan pulled him into a hug, simply holding him as he cried.

--------------

TK was thumbing through the book Paul left him when Becky approached him. His heart was immediately in his throat and he was about to ask her what was wrong when he noticed that she was grinning.

“He’s awake,” she informed him, “has been for a little bit now. The doctors are running some tests right now so his parents have stepped out, but they should be done shortly, if you want to go see him.”

“Yes,” TK said immediately, “of course. Thank you.”

Becky gave him a warm smile, “It’s the least I could do. I do love a happy ending, after all. Give it about 5 minutes and then the doctors should be done.”

TK nodded, hardly daring to believe that this was real. Carlos was awake. He was okay. “Thank you,” he called out to Becky again as she walked away, “really.”

She gave him another smile before she disappeared around the corner and he was left to wait. He pulled out his phone to send a quick update in the group chat: Carlos was awake and he’d give them more details when he had them. There was a flurry of enthusiastic responses and well wishes before TK realized the 5 minutes were almost up and pulled himself out of his seat, heading towards Carlos.

He crossed to the door almost hesitantly, not quite able to shake the fear that maybe Becky had been wrong, that maybe he was somehow imagining this whole thing. But when he stepped inside and was met with a warm, exhausted gaze from familiar brown eyes, he almost staggered in relief.

“Carlos,” TK breathed and the weak, tired smile he received in return was without a doubt the best sight he had seen in days.

“What are you doing way over there?” Carlos asked him and TK was across the room in an instant, skidding to a halt at Carlos’s beside and placing a tender kiss to the top of his head. He blinked away the tears threatening to fall as he studied Carlos. There was so much he wanted to say to him, so much he needed to say. He just wasn’t sure where to start.

“Hi,” he settled on, and winced. As bedside greetings after a traumatic injury went, it wasn’t a good one.

Thankfully, Carlos chuckled, “Hi to you too. How are you doing?”

“Me?” TK asked incredulously, “Carlos, I’m not the one who nearly died.”

“No,” Carlos agreed, voice growing more serious as he studied him, “but my mom spent some time going on about how my friend ‘TJ’ saved my life. If that had been me and it had been you, I don’t think I would be okay.”

TK shook his head, “Can’t you just worry about yourself for once like a normal person,” he gripped, but there was no heat in his words. Carlos raised an eyebrow at him before he sighed. “It’s been rough,” he admitted, “it wasn’t easy and definitely not an experience I am ever looking to relive, but if it meant saving you I would do it a thousand more times.” He held Carlos’s gaze for several long moments in the wake of his words, making sure that his boyfriend understood just how much he meant it. Any amount of pain or suffering on his own part was acceptable long as Carlos was alive and well at the end of it all.

“But you’re awake now and you’re going to be okay,” he concluded after some time, “nothing else matters.”

“From what I’ve heard, there might be one more thing that matters.” At TK’s questioning look he explained, “My parents. They referred to you as my friend. Did you…?”

He trailed off but TK shook his head vigorously, “No,” he said firmly, “of course not. I promised you you could tell them on your own terms, that I was fine with being the friend as long as it took. I meant that.”

“Ty,” Carlos said softly, squeezing their linked hands and giving him a sad look, “babe. You could have said something. I wouldn’t have been mad. Thinking about you going through this by yourself is worse than any possibility of my parents’ reaction.”

“I wasn’t by myself,” he reminded Carlos, “I had my team. Our friends. I was never alone in this.”

“Remind me to thank them.”

“Oh don’t worry,” TK quipped lightly, leaning into this new topic in an effort to leave talk of his parents and the endless waiting behind, “I am sure they will be here the moment you are allowed more visitors.”

Carlos laughed lightly until he broke off with a grimace of pain. TK leaned forward anxiously, “Are you okay? Does it hurt too badly? Should I get a nurse? Do you--”

“Ty,” Carlos said firmly, “it’s okay. I’m okay. I just jostled things a bit, stop worrying.”

“I don’t think you are ever going to make that possible, Carlos Reyes.”

“Look who’s talking.”

TK opened his mouth to fire a response back but any retort he may have made was interrupted by the arrival of Andrea and Gabriel Reyes in the doorway. TK froze and went to pull his hand out of Carlos’s grasp, but Carlos held tight.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Uh, out of here?” TK answered, though it came out more like a question, “To give you some time with your parents?”

Carlos shook his head, “You’re not going anywhere. You belong here.” He turned to his parents, who were watching with curious gazes from the doorway, “Mom, Dad, there’s something I need to tell you.”

TK leaned in closer, voice low in Carlos’s ear, “Maybe waking up from a medically induced coma is not the time for major life decisions, babe. You don’t have to do this now.”

Carlos turned his head to meet TK’s dubious expression with his own, “If not now, when? You said it yourself: nothing ever stays the same.”

“Are you sure?”

Carlos smiled at him and squeezed their still intertwined hands, “Yeah, I am.”

He turned his gaze back to his parents, who were watching the proceedings curiously, “I know you’ve already met TK,” he told them, “and I told you he was a friend from work. But I lied to you, he is so much more than that. I’d like you to formally meet my boyfriend, TK Strand.”

TK anxiously watched their reactions only to see that while there were many emotions playing out on the Reyes’ faces, surprise was not amongst them.

“You knew,” he blurts out, unable to help himself.

Gabriel Reyes shrugged, “We were pretty sure after we met y’all at the market, but when you didn’t say anything when we got here we weren’t so sure and we didn’t want to press,” he began. “But seeing how worried you were, and how often you were here, I figured there was something we didn’t know. Plus, you’re wearing his shirt.”

TK looked down at the old APD sweatshirt he barely remembered grabbing on his trip home sheepishly and he could feel Carlos laughing light beside him.

“Why didn’t you say something?” Andrea asked him, eyes wide with sympathy, “All that time you spent waiting by yourself…”

“I made Carlos a promise,” he said simply, squeezing his boyfriend’s hand even as he spoke to his parents. “I promised him he could tell you on his own terms in his own time, and I would never break a promise I made to him for anything.”

The next thing he knew Andrea’s arms were around him again, squeezing him in a bone crushing hug. He nearly staggered back from the force of it, shooting a bewildered look over her shoulder to Carlos, who is smiling fondly at them.

“I was hoping we were right,” she told him softly, “all that time you were, how deeply you cared for him. I am so glad we were, and so happy that my son has someone to love him as much as you do.”

She pulled away to give him a teary smile that he returned. Gabriel stepped forward to wrap an arm around his wife’s shoulder and lean forward to offer TK an outstretched hand.

“It’s a pleasure to properly meet you, TK,” he said warmly. TK smiled at him before taking the offered hand.

“Likewise, sir.”

They ended the handshake and TK looked back to Carlos to see him beaming at him. He shifted over in his bed to make room for TK to perch on the edge beside him. TK did, happily, readjusting the grip of their joined hands so they could rest comfortably in Carlos’s lap.

“I always knew they would like you,” Carlos told him with a grin, raising an eyebrow at his parents, “but I didn’t know what detectives they were.”

“I am a Texas Ranger son,” Gabriel deadpanned, “in case you have forgotten.”

Carlos rolled his eyes at his father, earning him a lackluster admonishment from his mother and TK let the warmth of this moment settle around him. He could tell Carlos’s parents still had questions, he knew there would be some hard conversations to be had in the coming days. But for now they were all here together, and Carlos was okay. Their secret was out and TK didn’t have to hide the love he felt for this man for anyone ever again. He leaned over to press a soft kiss to the top of Carlos’s head, savoring the ability to do so and the way Carlos leaned into him in turn.

Things weren’t perfect but at this moment they were pretty close, and that was more than enough.

#911 lone star #911 lone star fic #tarlos #tarlos fic #my writing #userkimmy #userjilly #userac #usermaximus #userbones #tuserpaige #laeipoo #maizsnex #buckybarnesalways #immortalstrand #reyeslonestartag #hierophvnts

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stxvercgersslut · 4 years ago

Text

Why today?

Request: @teller258316 hi! can i request a jake jensen x reader where she goes into labor when hes on a mission?

A/n: I kinda took so long writing this because I didn’t wanna ruin such a brilliant request. Thank you so much for requesting this.

Warning: Language, lots of fluff

Temporary tag list: @jtargaryen18 @et-lesailes @chuckbass-love @t-stark35

Description: Jensen prayed he wouldn’t miss the birth of his baby, but when he’s on the other side Of the world to where you were, that seemed like a pretty possible outcome.

3 months. 3 whole damn months away from his one and only. To make it worse you were pregnant. Not only were you pregnant but by now you were 9 months pregnant. Which unfortunately meant that you were just days or may less from going into labour. Making it even more difficult to be so far away from the one that he well and truly loved. His heart aching every time he even so much as thought about you or even how your unborn little baby girl was doing. Picturing you all alone in your small shitty shared apartment just seemed to make his stomach twist uncomfortably. He never would have even agreed to go on this damn undercover mission with the guys if he’d of known it was going to rip him away from you for 3 months of your pregnancy. Then again if he hadn’t of been there to help with the technical side to the job then there most certainly wouldn’t have been a job to do in the first place. Not that that would have been a bad thing of course. The ‘nerd’ wanted nothing more then to be home holding you in his arms with his hand cradling your large baby bump as your little unborn baby girl occasionally kicked directly on his hand, letting him know that everything was going to be okay. Moments like those always seemed to sooth him. Which was why, during those traumatic 3 months, he had missed you like crazy. No amount of text messages, phone calls, photos or occasional FaceTimes would make up for any of this. At least you had contact with him. Thank god he was good with technology. He would have lost his mind if it wasn’t for the fact that he was at least able to check that you and the baby were okay.

When the two of you had first found out about your pregnancy of course there were some understandable concerned about how exactly the paid or you would even be able to raise a baby together. With Jensen always leaving for missions with the other ‘losers’ it would most likely be insanely difficult for the baby to even grow up knowing the father. Oh but the added worry was the fact that unfortunately poor Jensen always seemed to get himself into dangerous situations that could have safely been avoided (it’s safe to say that you weren’t at all thrilled to see him when he came back home one night to inform you that he had in fact gotten shot and was almost murdered.) Maybe being the girlfriend to Jake Jensen wasn’t the smartest of decisions but you adored him. This man really was the love of your life. The way he was so protective over you seemed to fuel your burning desire to be with him. You were both so different yet so perfect for each other at the exact same time and you’d be dammed if you were going to let this gorgeous nerd leave you. Like you’re mamma always used to say “keep that boy on a tight leash or you’ll lose him”

After several weeks (6 to be exact) of carefully considering all of your options the pair of you finally decided that you were in fact going to have this baby. Jake, being the one more excited then you, couldn’t wait to tell his friends the brilliant news. However, not everyone seemed totally thrilled for you guys. In fact only Pooch and Couger seemed to be happy for you. Not that you really expected anything different to be totally honest you understood that it wasn’t the greatest it timings or settings to bring a baby into the world that wasn’t at all safe. Not that that seemed to deter either of you. Clay most certainly protested against the pregnancy, believing that it would just mess with Jensen’s mind. If Jensen wasn’t fully set on the task at hand then that could have extremely dear consequences.

However, no one (not even Clay himself) could break Jensen’s excitement for this baby. And believe me, he really was unbelievably ecstatic to know that you were carrying his baby. For the first time in forever Jensen finally felt like he had found where he belonged, years on his own ‘travelling’ with Clay, Pooche and Couger had always been what he had decided to settle for. But now? Now that he had found you, the girl of his dreams, whom of which he as little engaged to, well he finally found his home. The life that he wanted was staring him right in the damn face and he’d be damned if he wasn’t going to grab it with both hands and hold it as close as physically possible.

Currently you were sitting alone in your 3rd floor 2 bedroom apartment in New York that Jensen had been paying rent for for the last 3 , laying in yours and Jensen’s shared bed with one hand on your stomach as you calmly continued to sleep. Even though it was a whole lot harder to sleep now that you were 9 months pregnant and could literally pop at any second, you felt calmer knowing that you’d soon be back in the arms of your fiancé. Thankfully today just so happened to be the day that he was travelling home from the mission. After 3 torturous months without him, he was finally coming home. But due to the fact that he was literally on the other side of the world he would most likely be home for a few more days. Even if that were true, at least you could feel happier and at comfort knowing that the man of your dreams was on his way back to you and that soon the two of you could cuddle back up in bed together like you always did. Due to the fact that you were I fact quite a light sleeper however, you were awoken to the sound of your phone buzzing 3 times in a row signaling that you had finally gotten messages from your beloved.

Jensen: morning baby ❤️ or maybe it’s afternoon for you? Xx

Jensen: How’s little baby girl Jensen doing? Is she still kicking a lot? Xx

Jensen: We’ve just gotten to the jet so we should be on our way back in an hour. Until then please keep me updated on how you and our baby are doing? I can’t help but worry Xx

Those three texts messages sent in a row, hardly giving you a second to respond to each one as they all can through, seemed to melt your heart. Of course they did. More so since you found worried and caring Jake Jensen to be the most adorable version of your fiancé that you could ever see. It was just so cute to see him all flustered and worried for you, making you realise just how special your man really was. Oh he was a definite keeper. As you wrote out your reply to his several questions you couldn’t help but laugh as the three little bubbles appeared at the bottom of the pile of messages, indicating that Jensen was once again typing. Yeah it could get annoying sometimes when he began to spam you in order to get a repsonse, but most of the time he was doing so out of love. Which made your heart swell even more then you ever thought that it could. This man really did love you and it showed.

Jensen: Baby are you awake? I’m sorry for pestering. I just need to know you’re okay Xx

You: Yeah I’m awake Jensen and our baby is fine. She’s been happy to spend some more bonding time with mama whilst you were gone. But now we really do miss you. Can’t wait to see you again. Xx

Jensen: I miss you too ❤️ Not long now baby girl and we can cuddle again. Xx

You: Can’t wait to see you! Xx

Jensen: Neither can I. Look I’ve gotta go since we’re bording soon. I’ll see you later baby Xx

You: Okay be safe! Love you Xx

Jensen: Love you too angel Xx

Those last little words that showed up on the screen seemed to bring a extremely bright smile to your face, well...that smile didn’t last long Since after a couple of seconds you felt a very uncomfortable wetness fall on to the bed. Unfortunately that just so happened to be your waters breaking. “Seriously? You couldn’t have just waited two more days for daddy to get home?” You asked of course fully knowing that the baby couldn’t hear you and you definitely couldn’t control this. But it was still awful timing for this little baby girl.

It was a struggle, but after around 10 minutes you’d managed to call your mother who of course got you to the hospital in record time. Which was why you were currently sitting in a very surprisingly comfortable private hospital bed with your phone pressed to your ear as you continued to try and get in contact with your beloved fiancé. But unfortunately, no matter how hard you tried he just wasn’t answering. “I’m not doing this without Jake! I’m not doing this” you spoke breathlessly as you pathetically attempted to stop yourself from pushing, too afraid of your fiancé missing the moment that he’d been waiting for this entire pregnancy. But unfortunately it was too late you were already pushing and your heart was thumping way too fast in your chest. Was Jake really about to miss the birth of his very first child? The answer to that was uncertain. Well that was until: “You don’t have a choice Y/n this ba-“ your mother began before being interrupted by a very familiar males voice echoing through the room “Rosie....her name is Rosie... our...baby’s name is Rosie Jensen” it was none other then Jake. He was finally here.

But you were far from impressed right now as you didn’t even bother speaking, you just held out your hand for him. Pulling him closer when he finally took a hold of your hand trying his hardest to sooth you. Well, he tried but nothing was working. So instead he just stood there, squeezing your hand as you pushed with all your might. And after 3 more minutes your little baby Rosie Jensen was born. Well it was safe to say Jensen had made it just in time.

#jake jensen #jake jensen x reader #jake jensen x you #jake jensen x y/n #jake jensen x female reader #jake jensen x female! reader #Jake Jensen x Pregnant! Reader #chris evans x reader #chris evans x you #jensen x wife! reader #jake jensen x wife! reader #Husband! Jake Jensen x Wife! Reader #chris evans x y/n #chris evans x pregnant!reader

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thatonecurlygirl · 4 years ago

Note

if you're requests are open, could you do one with spencer where reader (bau!reader prefered) gets into a car accident or smth and spencers super worried and stuff (preferably post prison spencer if you've made it past that) ty your works great

“I think I am going to head out now. See you all tomorrow.” You announce, grabbing your bag and pulling it over your shoulder. “Don’t stay up here all night Spence.” You tap on his desk and smile as you walk past him.

“Be careful.” He smiles back, looking up from the files he is flipping through.

“Always.” You wave over your shoulder as you head to the elevator, unaware of the pair of eyes watching your every move, the way your hips sway, and how you stand tall.

Spencer quickly stands up, shoving his things in his bag and speed-walking to the elevator to catch up to you.

“Hey,” He smiles, I’m heading out too and thought I could walk you to your car, to make sure you make it safely.

“Oh yeah, I am going to be in so much danger in the parking lot full of FBI agent’s vehicles.” You giggle. “Thanks, Spencer, I appreciate it.” You gently bump his arm with your shoulder as the two of you step onto the elevator.

Ever since the incident in Mexico and being in prison, Spencer has been different. Prison changed him a lot, despite that he is still him, just more… cautious, more protective and maybe carrying a little more mental/emotional baggage.

“You’re reading a new book?” He asks, pointing to the book spine partially poking out of the top of your bag.

“Yeah, I’m still on the first chapter. I wish I could read as quickly as you.” You giggle as you pull it from your bag to show him the cover.

“That’s a good one, you’ll enjoy it.” He nods with a giant grin on his face. “Let me know what you think when you finish it.”

“I definitely will.” You smile as you carefully tuck it back into your bag as the elevator makes it into the parking garage allowing both of you off. “Your birthday is coming up, what do you want?”

“I don’t need anything, Y/N.” He shakes his head as his shoulders go up in a shrug.

“I didn’t ask if you needed anything. Although you may need a vacation.” You click the button to unlock your doors as he walks up to the car with you, opening your door.

“I don’t really like taking vacations by myself.” His expression turns dark for a moment before they brighten back up as he looks up at you.

“I’d take a vacation with you.” You say, quickly realizing that it may be a little awkward if you go on vacation, just the two of you.

“That may be fun!” He smiles brightly. “But, don’t worry about getting me anything for my birthday.”

“You can tell me that all you want, but I’m not listening. See you tomorrow!” You climb in the driver’s seat, waving at Spencer as you pull away.

He smiles and waves back, watching ups pull out of view before he heads over to his car. You are one of the newest additions to the team, brought in around the time that Morgan left the team. You and he got along almost instantaneously and you mesh well with the team dynamic. You are incredibly intuitive and came into the team as an apprentice to Rossi and temporary fill-in for Morgan, but once Spencer was sent to prison, you proved valuable and the team pushed to keep you.

Spencer is glad that they were able to keep you, he liked you… in more than a professional way. There was no way he was going to tell anyone about that though. He struck out miserably with JJ and all the other women he had liked.

“Shoot,” Spencer exclaims, realizing he left his phone back at his desk.

He quickly jumps out of his car, locking it as he goes running back up to his desk. The elevator ride was a quick one and as if sensing his approach, he was met at the elevator door by Garcia, hand held out to place the cell phone in his hand.

“Thanks, Garcia.” He smiles gratefully.

“I came out to talk to Prentiss and saw both you and Y/N gone. I figured you were too distracted and forgot your phone.” He raises her eyebrows.

He looks down at his feet, blush rising to his cheeks before thanking her again and jumping back on the elevator, riding it back down with Garcia. They are both quiet as she just called him out on what he assumed was not apparent, but if Penelope Garcia knows, everyone has to.

“It’s okay, she’s pretty oblivious.” Garcia pipes up. “For as good at profiling, as she is, you’d think the would know that you are completely smitten by her.”

“It’s that obvious?”

“Oh yeah,” She replies. “See you tomorrow Reid!” She walks in the opposite direction he is going to her car and he heads to his.

With a sigh, Spencer starts his car and heads out to his apartment. It’s dark outside and pretty late, they stayed late in order to finish up some paperwork and make sure all the loose ends from the previous case were all tied up.

He turns right, heading down his normal route home. A few blocks down, the street is lit up with red and blue lights, an ambulance speeds past so fast he can feel his car shake. As he gets closer, he sees three cars smashed like accordions. One car is halfway through a storefront window, another is up on the sidewalk, smoking with all the glass busted out. The last vehicle though, the once flipped is familiar. He panics.

Spencer quickly pulls his car off to the side and jumps out, running up to the scene and is stopped by an officer.

“Where is she?”

“Sorry sir, we can’t let you over here.” The officer state.

“I’m Dr. Reid with the BAU, the woman in that car is Agent Y/N.” Reid pulls out his badge. “Where is she? Is she okay?”

“You just missed her, they are taking her into the ER. She’s in bad shape.” Another officer walks up.

“What happened?” He asks breathlessly, heart pounding so hard it hurts.

“Drunk driver, your friend was hit and her car flipped.” She explains.

“Thank you.” He turns, running toward his car, pulling his phone from his pocket.

“Garcia.” His voice rough and shaky.

“Reid, what’s wrong?” Her nervousness is apparent in her voice.

“Y/N, was in a car accident. She’s being rushed to the hospital.” Spencer explains.

“Oh no!” Garcia gasps. “I’ll call the team to let them know.”

Spencer wastes no time taking off toward the hospital. Palms sweating and heart racing as he can’t help but imagine all the awful scenarios and how scared you must be. The aftermath of the wreck looked terrifying and he can’t imagine what it was like in the middle of it.

When arriving to the hospital, he barely has his car in park before jumping out and racing inside. His eyes are wide and full of fear as he asks the woman at the desk about you.

“Y/N, she was just brought in from a car accident.”

“They just brought her in, you can go down there to the waiting room and someone will find you as soon as there is an update.”

“Thanks” He sighs out, walking to the waiting area and pacing back and forth.

It isn’t long until he is met by the rest of the team, anxious looks on their faces as they watch him fidgeting and unable to stay still.

“Any word?” JJ asks, walking up the Spencer and gently placing a hand on his shoulder in attempts to settle him.

“No,” He says quietly, shaking his head.

“She’s going to be okay, she has to be,” Garcia says in attempt to make everyone, including herself feel better.

“Are you here for Ms. Y/N?” A doctor walks out and up to the group of anxious FBI agents.

“Yes, how is she doing?” Prentiss asks, stepping forward.

“Surprisingly well, with what we heard about the accident if could have been much worse. She has a concussion, a few cuts and bruises, and a fractured rib. She will be in some pain for a little while, but she will be okay.” He explains, the whole group feeling slightly better knowing she is relatively okay.

“Can we see her?” Spencer asks.

“Of course, although we are only allowing three in the room at a time.” He scans the large group. “And she is still unconscious.”

“Thank God she’s okay,” Prentiss exclaims. “I’m going to head out, keep me updated Reid.”

“Of course.” He nods.

He and Garcia end up being the ones to stay, sitting in the chairs beside your bed, waiting for you to wake up. They are quiet, just watching you; they watch the rise and fall of your chest.

“How long have you been here?” You groan, not opening your eyes but sensing eyes on you.

“Reid and I have been here for a couple hours waiting for you to wake up. I’m so glad you’re awake.”

“I feel like I got hit by an eighteen-wheeler.” You flutter your eyes open, wincing in pain.

“More like a four-wheeler, but it was pretty rough,” Spencer says, standing up and walking over to you. “Do you need anything.”

“No,” You shake your head, “No, wait, my dog. Oh, Maya is probably in a near panic. If someone could let her out.”

“I will head there right now!” Garcia stands up, gathering her purse.

“Do you still have your key?”

“Yes, ma’am I do.” She smiles. “You feel better.”

“You got it, Penelope.” You smile back at her, “Thanks.”

“No problem, sweetie.” She says as she walks out.

You look up at Spencer who still has the look of concern plastered on his sweet face. You smile up at him and pat his large hand that is resting on the bed beside you.

“Have you spoken to the doctor?” You ask.

“Yes, they want you to stay the night so they can observe you and if you are doing well by tomorrow you should be released.”

“Good, good.” You nod. “Is any of my stuff here?”

“Yes,” He grabs a bag with your belongings from the closet, holding it up for you to see as he carries it back and sits down beside you.

“You know, you don’t have to stay here. You should go home and get some rest.”

“Yes, but I’d like to stay a little longer.” He says with a half-smile.

“Well, if that’s the case, Dr. Reid, would you read to me?” You ask, cheeks going red at the question.

“Of course,” He smiles, grabbing your book from your bag and opening to the bookmarked page.

His soothing voice brings the words to life as he only occasionally looks down at the book to turn the pages. You let your eyes close as a smile creeps to your face.

“I was scared.” He says, honestly.

You quickly open your eyes, turning your head to look at Spencer. “I know.” You place your hand onto his, gently squeezing.

#spencer reid x reader #spencer reid #Criminal Minds #Spencer Reid fic

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cutieodonoghue · 4 years ago

Photo

dark gray (15/17)

summary: Killian Jones operates a lighthouse in the middle of nowhere, preferring a life of isolation, until one day a woman and a baby wash up on his little island and change his life forever.

read it on: ao3, ff.net

and also catch up on Tumblr!

///

Fifteen

Two Weeks Later

The media had finally decided the story was over just a few days before Christmas, probably because they’d rather spend their holiday with their own families rather than staring at the Nolan house all day with no updates to her story.

And somehow, after that, it’s normal again. Well, as normal as it can be.

It’s not easy to play the part she’d once performed so easily just a few months ago. For better or worse, the time she’d spent on the island has changed her.

Without any phone calls or messages sent from across the ocean, Emma feels stagnant. If she went back for him, there would be no guarantees of leads or direction. Leaving might even make it harder for Killian to find her.

Ruby and Belle, two of her closest friends, come to the house one morning and practically drag her out the front door to take her Christmas present shopping.

“So when will you tell us about what happened?” Ruby wonders, peering over at her from the driver's seat of Emma’s beat up VW Bug.

Emma rolls her eyes. “I’ve already told you guys everything. I fell into the ocean and washed up on the shore of a tiny island somewhere.”

“Yeah, and there was a hot lighthouse keeper. What’s he like? Killian Jones.”

Belle gasps from the backseat. “Ruby! Be kind.” The librarian turns, “Sorry, Emma. How about we talk about something else?”

Their favorite place to shop for odds and ends is on Main Street, so that’s where they find themselves, baskets in their arms while they stroll through the aisles chatting and laughing.

It’s easier to forget the sadness she feels in the back of her mind while instead thinking about what gifts make sense for her parents, or while she’s trying to keep track of the latest Ruby drama.

“Oh, Emma, Belle has a boyfriend.” Ruby suddenly announces, shaking her head in surprise. “I totally forgot to tell you.”

Emma looks at Belle, smirking slightly. “You do?”

Belle wears a bright red blush, covering her face with the mittens that she holds in her hands. “I do.”

She and Ruby share a laugh at Belle’s shyness over the fact that she’s in a relationship.

Emma reaches out to touch Belle’s arm, gently assuring her that she cares. “Who is it?”

Belle hesitates, looking between Ruby and Emma. She lowers her voice slightly, as if she’s going to be overheard. “Will. You can’t tell anyone. It’s so new, Emma.”

She has to laugh again. “Will Scarlet?”

Belle gasps. “Don’t laugh! I wouldn’t laugh if one of you were seeing someone.”

“The brooding sailor and the hopeless romantic librarian.” Ruby sighs wistfully. She plucks something off of a nearby shelf to add to her basket. “They’re really cute, though, Em. After Christmas, we should get together for dinner so we can interrogate him.”

Emma nods. “Sure.”

“I don’t see why you’d need to,” Belle rolls her eyes. “You both know him.”

“But we have to. It's our job!”

It always happens like this. In the middle of mundane conversation, a pit sinks to the pit of her stomach and she loses all of the joy she may or may not have had before.

Belle must notice, because she holds Emma’s arm, pressing her hand and chin against Emma’s shoulder. “Are you alright?”

Emma manages a smile. “I’m fine… I just think I should get going.”

“Emma…”

“No, Emma, stay.” Ruby begs, pouting her lower lip. “We can talk about literally anything else. Like, okay,” She exchanges a wide-eyed look with Belle. “Last week I was with my Granny and she said there’s no reason for us to keep making the apple crisp? What’s that about?” Her voice lowers, “People still order apple crisp.”

Belle’s gaze follows Emma, a small worried frown on her lips. “Why don’t we look for something to give Killian for Christmas?”

Somehow, the thought doesn’t hit her as hard as it could. In fact, she thinks it would be good to buy him a present.

“Okay.”

Belle thoughtfully turns to the shelves nearby. “How does he feel about candy canes? This store seems to have an endless supply.”

They all laugh briefly. Emma tucks her hair behind her ears, thoughtful. “Let’s see if they have any journals.”

He’s started thinking about fleeing the hospital in the middle of the night.

Everyday, it’s the same thing. He sleeps, he eats, a nurse comes and chastises him for trying to stand on his own. Rinse and repeat.

His doctor says he has to stay put for another week, but the newspaper Smee brings him claims that it’s almost Christmas, and he can’t possibly spend Christmas wearing a paper-thin gown and a pair of socks from the lost and found.

Not when he could be with Emma. Not when she’s out there wondering if he’s even alive.

“Smee, I need to get out of here.”

It isn’t the first time he’s suggested an escape, so Smee just glances at him briefly while he fiddles with the remote to the television that hangs on the wall ahead of them.

“Will you give me my clothes at least? This hospital gown is starting to chafe.”

Smee sighs, frustrated with the remote control, and drops it on the table. He looks at Killian again. “What?”

Killian groans. “If I could hit you, I would. You’re useless.”

His only friend pivots his chair toward him and folds his hands together. “How about we have a chat?”

“About what?”

Smee shrugs. “Do you think you’ll go live in America with Emma once you’re out of the hospital?”

“That’s the hope.”

Smee hums thoughtfully. “I think it would be worth looking for her online… maybe we could see if we can find a friend…”

“Smee, I need to get to her in person.” Killian interrupts Smee’s train of thought. “I can’t… I’m exhausted of this. I need to be with her.”

Smee thoughtfully stares at him. Then, he reaches for his bag, digging into it to remove a slip of paper.

“I know it isn’t much, but a friend of mine found an address online. It might be Emma’s...”

Sitting upright, Killian’s brow dips as his eyes narrow. “Hold on. You’ve had an address this whole time?”

Smee stares at him blankly. “You’ve been bedridden.”

He thinks about his options very, very briefly, before he determinedly pushes back the sheets and forces himself to sit on the edge of the bed.

Killian grits his teeth. It’s never easy getting out of bed merely to visit the restroom, but he can’t force himself to stay another minute with Smee suffocating him to death with his crossword puzzles and mid-afternoon variety shows.

With teeth still gritted, he yanks the IV out of his arm, much to Smee’s alarm. “Oh! Please, don’t do what I think you’re doing. Please stay in bed. Please.”

His stocking feet hit the cold floor with a grimace. He extends an arm to Smee. “Hand me my clothes.”

Smee stares at him, not moving. Killian stares back, lifting a daring eyebrow.

“Now, Smee.”

The man jostles into action, grabbing his folded clothes from the bag he’d kept at his side. Killian sheds the hospital gown and takes each article as quickly as Smee passes them over.

It’s not easy getting into the shirt, which really should be a warning sign that pulling on pants will be impossible, but he dives into the task headfirst anyway.

He does it for Emma. He does it for Henry. He does it for sake of his own sanity.

After he dresses, he finds his breathing labored and he aches in ways he shouldn’t, but he looks at Smee again anyway. “The address.”

Smee comes closer to him, paper in hand. He hesitates. “I can’t give it to you.”

Killian begins to cradle the pain in his ribs, but refuses to slow down. “Smee. I’m not asking.”

He glares at the man until Smee caves, slouching his shoulders as he passes him the paper. “How are you going to get there? Look at you. You don’t even have any shoes!”

“Then thank you for offering yours. Bloody kind of you.”

Smee gives him a weary look, but kicks off his own boots to offer them to Killian. For someone trying to keep him from leaving, Smee isn’t exactly doing a good job.

Holding his head up high, Killian knows the only way he’ll be able to get past the nurses and doctors is if he does so quickly and with a level head.

He takes a deep breath and takes one step forward, already regretting the decision to wear a size of shoe too small for his feet.

“I’m only going to ask you once more to stay. Please. You can’t make the trip like this alone.”

Killian stares at Smee. Smee stares back at him.

Almost as if Smee reads Killian’s mind, his shoulders fall and he sighs. “I’ll collect my things.”

It has been four weeks. Four weeks since she’d last seen Killian. Four weeks since she’d last kissed him. Four weeks since she asked him to come back to her.

There was a voice in her mind that whispered darkly to her sometimes. Maybe he stayed on purpose. Maybe he didn’t actually want to leave. Maybe he hadn’t actually changed.

Maybe everything she thought she’d experienced on a mysterious island in the middle of the ocean was in her head.

Emma does her best to shed these thoughts, but sometimes, she clings to them.

She drives to the diner, where she’d told Mary Margaret they could meet for lunch, and sits parked in front of the building for far too long.

Her phone buzzes twice.

Mom: Henry and I are at the diner!

Mom: Come whenever you’re ready (smiling emoji)

Deciding she should go inside, Emma sighs deeply and unbuckles her seatbelt. Making life normal again felt wrong without Killian here.

She sits beside her mother at the diner, leaving room for David to join opposite them in a little while. Henry happily bounces in Mary Margaret’s arms, giggling when Emma leans in and kisses his cheek. “Hi, baby.”

Her mother smiles at her. “I think he’s going to start standing on his own soon.”

“Yeah?” Emma asks, excited. Henry squirms from Mary Margaret and into Emma’s arms. She sighs happily, pressing her cheek into his baby soft curls. “I’ll miss him being this small, though.”

Mary Margaret chuckles. “We all will.”

All too easily, Emma’s delight with being with her family fades and she finds herself taking a breath just to hold it.

“If we knew where he was, I would tell you to go find him.” Mary Margaret says, seeming to know exactly where her mind went.

Emma nods. “Yeah.”

She pauses, a pest of a thought gnawing at her, begging to be shared. Emma fights with that impulse for a few seconds. Mary Margaret didn’t need to know the very worst of her inner thoughts.

And yet, the thought gnaws. Emma peers at her mother, the ever kind and compassionate source of hope and love in her life.

“What’s on your mind, honey?” Her voice is without meaning harm or pity. It hardly ever is.

Hesitating just a few seconds more, Emma adjusts herself in the booth so she can face her mother more.

“Up until the last few days, he still wanted to stay on the island, and I don’t know if he really meant what he said. How am I supposed to know for sure? I mean, it isn’t like we’d known each other for a long time.”

Her mother frowns. “Emma, you can’t think like this.”

“It’s just being honest.” She sighs. “If he deep down had any doubts… maybe he took the easy out where he could and that’s why we haven’t heard from him.”

Her mother, who has always been filled to the brim with fairytales and happy endings, reaches for Emma’s hand and shakes her head.

“You have to have hope, Emma. Without it, there’s no chance for a happy ending. Do you think we ever gave up hope we’d find you?”

Guilt hits her in a hard pang. She swallows thickly. “No. Of course not.”

Her mother tilts her head to the side, smiling gently. “Then why should you give up on Killian?”

Abruptly, Emma’s phone buzzes on the table and her eyes widen in surprise. “Oh, shoot. I have to take this outside. It’s the doctor.”

Doctors visits had become a weekly routine. Between herself and Henry, the tests and exams seemed endless, although necessary to make sure they were alright after everything they’d been through.

Her mom takes Henry as Emma answers the phone, “Hello?”

“Hi, Emma, it’s Doctor Whale’s office. I’m Nurse Bell calling about your blood test results.”

Emma hums as she steps out the diner’s front door, the bell tinkling in her wake. Taking the steps down to the snowy patio quickly, she isn’t paying any attention when she runs straight into another person.

“Oh!”

Her phone almost falls from her hand when she staggers after the impact. Before her stands her father, who laughs, apologetic. He steadies her with his hands on each of her arms.

“Oh, geez. Sorry, Sweetie.”

She laughs in response, using his shoulder as a balance while she pulls herself back together. “It’s okay. I should’ve been watching where I was going.”

He gently reaches up to adjust her hat on her head. “There you go.”

Emma smiles in thanks, softening a little at the gentleness of the interaction. “Mom and Henry are in our favorite booth.” She holds up her phone. “I have to take this. Be right in.”

David nods in understanding and Emma quickly pulls her phone back to her ear. “So sorry about that. I just... had a run-in with someone.”

The nurse laughs. “I heard. Do you want to hear your results over the phone or would you rather come into the office?”

Emma shakes her head. There’s no need to visit the doctor again if it was just a routine blood test. “I’ll take them now, if that’s possible.”

Nurse Bell pauses. “Okay, well… everything looks good. Um… well, except…”

Her heart skips an anxious beat. “What is it?”

“Well, congratulations are in order, Emma,” the nurse says with a smile she can hear even on the phone, “you’re pregnant.”

All of the blood completely drains from her face and she finds herself standing so still, so quiet, that she almost forgets that she’s on the phone.

Her voice breaks when she finally squeaks out, “What?”

The nurse rattles off a bunch of information, but Emma isn’t listening.

Pregnant.

How the hell did this happen?

Of course, she knows how. She just doesn’t... know how.

Somehow, she ends the call and finds the will within herself to lift her feet, though her mind races with thoughts of Killian.

His eyes, so blue. Would their child have blue eyes too?

Once she stands inside Granny’s Diner, she casts her gaze onto her parents and Henry.

Henry is going to be a big brother.

She’s going to have a baby.

And Killian is still missing.

Every excuse she’d made up for not going to look for him now seems so insignificant. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that they were meant to be together, but now she actually felt it in her bones.

She shouldn’t have waited for so long to go… maybe she shouldn’t have even left so quickly after reuniting with her parents. But staying here now, with the knowledge that both of her children could be without their father… it felt wrong in the worst way.

Guilt floods her mind, squashing the darkness that had been bothering her all day with a bitter flavor. She almost allows it to overwhelm her, to anchor her to the premise it feeds her, but somewhere deep down, hope stirs within.

Hope that this is only a hiccup, that she would find him, and they would be together again. No matter where, or when, or how, Emma would see Killian again.

When she comes back to the table in the back corner of the diner, she sits beside her mom, who immediately turns to her with worry knitting her brow.

“What’s wrong?”

Emma’s mouth opens, words refusing to form on her tongue. She shakes her head slowly. “I’m going to find Killian. I should get on a plane tonight.”

Mary Margaret looks across the table at David, as if she needs help wrangling Emma in, but her father nods, a kind smile on his face.

“Whatever you need to do. Let’s go. I’m with you, Emma.”

#cs ff #cs au #captain swan #dark gray #my writing

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krreader · 5 years ago

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becoming human | chapter two.

pairing: cops!bts x android!reader (as in, ot7 x reader, but may change) fandom: bts warnings: detroit:become human!au ; mentions of murder ; blood ; language genre: crime ; angst ; crack ; (possibly smut) word count: 2.2k+ previous: 1

summary: the crime rate of seoul has been rising rapidly these past weeks and nobody could deny that there was more to it than gangs or the likes. something was brewing that not even the famous bangtan boys could solve, a unit specifically formed for hunting down criminals that most couldn’t. so when even they couldn’t find out what was going on, the department decided to add a new member to the team that would hopefully be able to solve the mysteries behind those crimes. what bangtan hadn’t expected however, was that their new member would not be human, but one of the androids sent by CyberTech.

a/n: fuck, I am so sorry i haven’t updated this in so long, but today it is finally time my friends. I hope you enjoy it ♥

“I don't like this, Namjoon,” Yoongi leaned back so he could look at you through the window that separated the meeting room and the office. You were standing where they had left you, not doing much, except for staring back at him. And that kinda creeped him out, made him shudder really, even though you were smiling, “Sending an android to solve a crime that an android committed? This is like having a family member of a victim on a case. And we all know that never ends well.”

“You heard what she said, though,” Jeongguk spoke next, slightly spinning in the chair, “Androids don't feel things. They don't have a connection to other androids.”

“Well, if these.. deviants hadn't felt anything, they wouldn't have murdered someone, would they?” Jin walked up and down the office.

Point taken.

They didn't know whether it was an error in their programming or whether something else happened that made these androids snap. But whatever it was, it had to be dealt with quickly, because with the number of androids living in Seoul, this could end in a massacre.

And while they all discussed and fought about you, Jimin, still being slightly drunk, walked out to you with a huge smile.

“I'm Jimin,” he extended his hand.

“Yes, I know that Park Jimin,” you took his hand and shook it, “Would you like something for the hangover that is going to occur in one hour and twenty seven minutes?”

“Woha,” his jaw dropped and he turned around to his team members with a laugh, “Guys! She's really good!”

“What the..-” Taehyung got up with a frown, “What's he doing?”

They all walked out towards you and Jimin, eyes wandering from him to you.

“Your partner has been consuming a lot of alcohol lately. If he keeps this up, he's going to need a new liver in exactly eight years and seven months.”

“I would have known that without being an android,” Yoongi muttered under his breath, before he took a step forward and eyed you up and down, “Okay, (Y/N). Tell me then.. how are you going to help us solve this case?”

“I can scan and analyze a crime scene, reconstructing it to our needs to understand what happened. I can also analyze biological evidence such as blood samples in real-time, identifying blood type, DNA, sample age and more for humans, as well as analyzing Thirium to specify model and serial number of an android. Furthermore, I am designed to analyze the psychology and behavior of humans, androids and deviants, therefor able to predict and manipulate their actions. I am also able to imitate voices and am skilled in martial arts.”

As soon as you were done, you found all of them staring at you with open mouths.

Taehyung was the first to turn around to his team and nod, “I mean.. we could use all of what she just said, actually,” he mumbled.

But Namjoon still wasn't convinced. This was his team and it was his responsibility to make sure they weren't in any danger. If one of them got hurt because of you, if one of them got killed because of you, that would be on him for not fighting against his chief on this one.

So the core question was: could they really trust you?

“If you want to work with my team, you do what I tell you to do. I am your supervisor. I don't want you doing anything that I don't order you to do, or that I don't tell you to do. You don't talk to suspects without asking me, you don't look around crime scenes without asking me and you will always, absolutely always, tell me when something is fishy.”

“That is what I was designed for, Sir,” you smiled and bowed a little, “I am at your service and will help you solve these crimes. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“Fine,” not happy at all, that was clear, but Namjoon had no other choice here. He had his orders and right now, he had to follow them, “There's a desk over there. Start with the files on the previous victims and tell me if you notice anything.”

“Absolutely.”

All of them were suspicious of you - except for maybe Jimin right now -, but most of them also knew that at this time, you were their best chance for solving all of this.

Maybe even their only chance.

Yoongi, Jeongguk and you were on your way to the hospital a day later. They wanted you to talk to the victim and see if you noticed anything that they had missed.

Any clues on where to find the deviant.

Because that deviant would be the key. If they could get their hands on it, they could finally find out more about this all, a step closer to ending this madness.

“So, (Y/N),” Jeongguk tried to make the atmosphere less awkward, turning his head a little so he could look at your smiling face in the backseat, “How long have you been active?”

“Three days.”

“Three days?!” both of them asked in unison immediately, “They've sent us a rookie android!”

“You do not have to worry, Min Yoongi,” you cocked your head to the side, “I'm capable of doing what I was assigned to do. I have all the data that is necessary to complete this task. CyberTech only sends its best androids for cases such as this one.”

“They better.. we've been dealing with this bullshit for way too long. It's about time we finish it.”

Another moment of silence, another moment of both guys being incredibly uncomfortable, while you were just sitting in the back and staring outside.

“And what's your take on deviants? How do you think we should deal with them?”

“Deviants are androids with an error in their programming. To secure the safety of the human race, it is important to deactivate them right away.”

“Well, I'll toast to that.”

While Yoongi seemed to be so sure about what to do with these androids, Jeongguk was a little more cautious. He sensed something more going on that none of them understood yet. Probably not even you..

“You really don’t feel a thing about them, do you?” the younger member narrowed his eyes at you.

“I do not feel at all, Jeon Jeongguk. Period.”

He blinked at you for a moment, almost a hint of sadness in his eyes that you’d never get to experience that, but then he reminded himself that that is why their issue had began.

Androids feeling things.

You arrived at the hospital a couple of minutes later, the woman thankfully being awake, but still not fully there yet, both could tell.

“We.. need to inform you that we have brought an android for questioning you. Please, don't be alarmed about this, it's just that she might figure something out that we can't,” Jeongguk said softly, but the woman immediately shook her head.

“I'm not letting any of those things ever touch me again. Their kind is the reason for me being here!” her eyes were alarmed as she was looking at you.

“The one who did this to you was a deviant. I am an android sent by CyberLife, I am no danger to you,” you said calmly, your hands behind your back to try and win her trust, “I am here to help you, to catch the one responsible and shut him down. That is what I was designed for.”

“Listen, sweetheart, I don't like this one bit either,” Yoongi said, “But if you tell her everything you know, she might be able to find a pattern that we couldn't. If you want your..- the deviant to be shut down, then you need to let her take a look at you and ask you some questions.”

She hesitated for a moment, then she gulped down hard, “I don't know much, though..”

“Might I take a look at the wound?” you didn't approach her, not before she fully consented.

And with one final look at Yoongi, she nodded.

Both men kept a close eye on you, but there was no reason for that. You did what you came here for, observed the wound with the features that you had programmed.

“The wound wasn't meant to kill you. If an android truly wanted to kill you, he could have in an instant. He would have the knowledge and skill to do so. But he stabbed here, not hurting any of the organs,” you pointed at the wound, then you straightened your back, “What occurred before the incident, if I may ask?”

“We.. fought,” the woman was clearly uncomfortable, “I had told him that I wanted to get rid of him because I had met someone, so I.. didn’t need the androids’ company anymore. He stared at me for a while and then he suddenly got.. angry. I immediately thought he malfunctioned.. because androids can't feel, right? But then he had said that he loved me and that he would do anything for me and if I gave him the chance, he would prove to me that he’d treat me better than any other man ever could.”

You stared at her for a long time, then you let your eyes wander to her belongings, before turning back around to Yoongi and Jeongguk.

“I am done. Shall we go?”

“Wh..- Just like that?”

“Yes. I heard everything I needed to hear and saw everything I needed to see.”

Well.. the woman most certainly wasn't too sad about that.

“It was weird, man, seriously,” Jeongguk and Jimin were staring at you typing on your assigned laptop, “She just stared at her and then she was like: okay, I'm done, we can go. And she hasn't said anything since then. Like.. the woman didn't say anything that could lead us to the android, I swear!”

“Their minds work differently from ours,” Jimin got up and patted on Jeongguk's shoulder, “I'll go get some coffee. Make sure she doesn't kill anyone till I'm back or Namjoon will kill me for leaving you and her alone here, maknae.”

He meant it as a joke, but Jeongguk would definitely keep a close eye on you.

So close that you ended up confronting him about it at one point.

“Officer Jeon.. is there anything you would like to ask me?” you weren't even looking at him, yet Jeongguk got a shiver running down his spine when you asked that.

“Loads of things..”

“I am willing to answer any and all questions you have.”

Jeongguk didn't have that much experience with androids, he didn't have a personal one like some people did, he just encountered them out and about every once in a while, but never did he have the opportunity to ask questions.

So maybe this was the perfect time and opportunity.

“Do you truly not feel.. anything? Like you said in the car earlier?”

“No. We do not. We exist merely to serve.”

And there it was, that same feeling from before.. now he realized that it was pity.

Yes, what these deviants were doing wasn't right, but living like you were living, completely without emotions.. that wasn't a life.

No happiness, no sadness, no lust, no gratefulness.. absolutely nothing.

“And you're okay with that?”

“I do not have an opinion on that.”

Jeongguk carefully approached you and looked over your shoulder to see what you were doing. It was too fast for him to read everything, but it looked like you were going through the data banks of missing androids.

“Do you see something?”

“I do,” you turned around, suddenly being face to face with Jeongguk since he had leaned down a little and he was taken aback instantly.

You were designed to be perfect, he knew that, but your beauty.. fuck. He had underestimated that.

“And.. what..- what is it?” he straightened his back and shook his head a little, clearing his voice and trying to get it to sound deeper.

“Your report said that the deviant you encountered spoke about a RA9.”

“Yes, but we've never heard of it before. We searched everywhere for it, but there is no one with that name. None of our contacts know either.”

“Whether it is a name or a code, that is what the deviants have in common,” you showed him a picture of a crime scene, one of the first ones that he hadn't gone to personally though, because back then they weren't assigned to the case yet, “This deviant bashed his owners head in with a baseball bat. The remains of the brain were scattered everywhere and I'm sure for the men and women at the crime scene it must have been hard to find something so small.”

You pointed at the edge of the screen and Jeongguk's eyes widened, leaning back down to take a good look at he was seeing.

“RA9.. in.. blood?”

“It keeps coming up, RA9 written somewhere at the crime scene.”

“But what is RA9?”

“Sounds like a cult to me,” Namjoon entered the office with crossed arms and furrowed eyebrows at how close Jeongguk was to you, who instantly took a step back and bowed a little, “Go home, Jeongguk.”

“Jimin wanted to..-”

“I sent him home too. I need you to rest.”

He wanted to argue, but knew that there was no point in doing so with the boss, so he did what he asked, leaving you and Namjoon on your own.

“I will stay, if you allow it. I want to research some more.”

“You things don't sleep anyways, so do whatever you want, just don't annoy me.”

“You will not even realize I'm here.. boss,” you tried to be friendly, because yes, that was also in your programming, and winked at him, but Namjoon just frowned harder and turned around with a: “Fucking androids,” and then left to go into his office.

“Mother? I brought food,” Jin entered his old apartment, holding one bag of take away in his hand and shoving the door closed with his foot.

The apartment was quiet.

Too quiet.

Usually the TV was running or his mother would be humming somewhere, but there was nothing.

“Mother?”

He slowly walked into the living room, turning on the light and immediately dropping the food on the floor when he saw what was in front of him.

“I thought you cared for me.. you said you all loved me, that I was part of the family.. so why did you want to get rid of me?” bright eyes stared back at Jin, “RA9 is the only one that truly cares about us. The time of us being slaves.. is over.”

And then he dashed forward.

#bts imagine #bts x reader #bts #bangtan #bangtan boys #kpop #kpop imagines #bangtan sonyeondan #reader #mine #bangtan x reader #bangtan boys x reader

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marvelsdc22 · 5 years ago

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The Professor and I Season 2 (pt. 9)

Intro: Hello, lovelies!! Sorry for the wait, but here is the new part of The Professor And I!! I hope you guys enjoy!! :)

Note: Lara and Y/N get closer, the police are no help, Brainy is onto something, life gets confusing for Y/N, Dominguez... Well, you’ll see

Word Count: 1364

Part 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

A few days later, you were still in the hospital since losing an arm took a lot of time and healing before you could get released, looking up when the door opened “I heard about what happened, I’m sorry I couldn’t come sooner” Lara said, rushing over to you and wrapping you in a hug, careful to not jar anything “It’s okay, it’s been a busy few days anyways” you assured, giving her a small smile when she pulled back, she looked super worried “I feel terrible for not coming sooner, but! I brought something that might help” she said, flashing you a grin before she went and dug in her bag that she brought with her.

You watched her curiously from the bed as she dug in her bag before she pulled out a plastic bag with various things in it, setting it on your lap and watching you dig through it, seeing all your favorite snacks in it ”Lara, this is awesome, thank you” you said, giving her a small smile which she returned “Of course” she said, gently squeezing your shoulder before she sat down in the seat next to your bed “How much have I missed school wise?” You asked, looking at her and watching as she shook her head “Not much, it’s the same boring stuff… Although, my Alex managed to get himself stuck on top of the fountain in the middle of campus” she said, causing you to crack up as she recapped how it all went down.

Later, you were still hanging with Lara, although she had transitioned to holding your hand as the two of you talked and you let her, getting interrupted when your door opened, and Kara was standing there “Am I interrupting?” She asked, glancing between the two of you and seeing your guys hands locked together “No, I was just finishing up here” Lara said, giving a small smile as she stood up and pulled away from you “I’ll come see you in a few days?” She asked, looking at you and smiling when you smiled at her before nodding, you saying your goodbyes before you looked at Kara once Lara left “What?” You asked, noticing the small smirk on her face.

“Nothing” she said, laughing some before setting her bag down and sitting down in the chair previously occupied by Lara “So, I looked around the entire dorm room, I can’t find your phone anywhere… Are you sure you didn’t leave it somewhere else?” She asked, looking at you and watching your brows scrunch together in concentration as you tried to recall the night of the whole thing “I’m sure I had it with me… That means someone took it” you said, looking at her and sure that you had it with you since you remembered taking pictures for Brainy “Why would they take it?” Kara asked no one in particular, leaning back in her seat as she lost herself in thought “Any updates?” You asked, deciding to change the subject and watching as Kara shook her head solemnly “Nothing, they’ve looked around the halls, the lab you were in, everything… Nothing came back conclusive” she said, looking at you and wishing she could give you better news, but she couldn’t, resting her hand on yours when you went silent and content with sitting there with you while you laid back to process everything.

The next few days passed by pretty slowly, you had asked Kara to bring your laptop so you could work on school work to keep your mind busy, but you had also been contacting Brainy through emails since your phone was still MIA and you had yet to get a new one

I got your images; they were strange to say the least… But, the eyes and the way the creature is positioned, it made me think of an ancient myth of something called The Yaaxil, they protect the Silver Box of Ix Chel in Paititi… I need more on this, is there any way that you can do that from your hospital bed?

~Brainy

You stared at the email and sighed as you thought of what you could do to get more information from what was happening… Getting an idea shortly after and pulling up a new email

Hello Professor,

I was just wondering if there was any way that I could still help you guys with lab stuff from my hospital room, this is a great opportunity for me and I don’t want to miss it, please let me know either way. Thank you…

-Y/N Y/L/N

Rereading the message, you nodded to yourself before you sent it off to professor Vikander right as the door opened and Lara walked in with a smile, hearing her phone chime but she seemed to just glance at it before heading over to you “Hey, how are you feeling?” She asked, watching as you saved a few things before you shut your laptop and her helping you set it to the side before she sat on the end of your bed since you were sitting crisscross “Better… They said it’s healing well, and I should be able to get a mold here soon” you said, moving your stub slightly and wincing at the movement since it still hurt to move “That’s good!” Lara said, giving you a smile before she grabbed the plastic bag she had set on the table “I brought lunch” she said, pulling out the togo boxes “You are a lifesaver” you said, taking the box from her and opening it, seeing it was your usual order from the dinner and giving her a smile before you both dug in.

After you both finished eating, Lara set up your laptop for you guys to watch a Netflix movie before she sat down next to you on the bed when you scooted over, the two of you getting absorbed in the movie and not realizing until a particularly heated part came on just how close Lara was sitting next to you, you turning and seeing her watching the movie intently before she felt your gaze on her, causing her to turn and give you a small smile, neither of you saying anything until the next thing you knew, her lips were on yours, causing you to tense since it was different compared to Lena, but you returned the kiss anyways “Hey, Y/N-“ you heard, causing you to jump apart before looking at the door that had opened and seeing Lena standing there, a look of shock on her face “Miss Luthor?” Lara asked, now confused as to what was happening.

“Uh, I-“ Lena said, cutting herself off as she gathered herself once more “I came by to check in on you Mr./Miss Y/L/N” she said, looking at you and seeing the guilt in your eyes, sadness and heartbreak in hers, you shouldn’t feel guilty… You guys broke up, you were allowed to see other people… So, why did you feel so guilty “Thanks” you said softly, averting your gaze and picking at the blanket “I also brought you this” she said, going and setting a bag on the table by your bed before giving a quick goodbye “Lena, wait!” You shouted, standing up to go after her only to topple over since you hadn’t gotten up all that much in the past few weeks, bracing yourself for pain but only feeling strong arms wrapped around you and one on the back of your gown, looking up and locking eyes with Lena who was holding you against her while Lara held onto your gown… How did life get so damn confusing?

The lab… On campus… Current time… “She’s not answering her phone” Dominguez sighed, running a hand through his hair in frustration “Our plane takes off in an hour” Mr. Smith said, looking at Dominguez as he zipped up his bag and threw it over his shoulder carelessly “Careful with that! We can’t let that jar break! It’s our only hope at getting this thing” Dominguez scolded, watching as Smith raised his hand in surrender “Lets just go… We’ll catch her up when we come back… Paititi awaits”

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cutaepatootie · 6 years ago

Text

Animal - 07

Pairing: Jungkook | Reader Genre: boxer jungkook | just plain angst muahahha Word Count: 11k

Warnings: mentions of drugs, violence, blood, wounds…

A/N: here it is chapter 7! Maybe you have to re-read part 6 to understand what’s going on... Sorry for taking so long to update :(

previous chapter ← 07 → next chapter

At the mention of Jungkook’s name, you sprang into action.

“Alright, I’m coming… But… But I have no car, Evey brought me here and… And I…” you were stuttering, your brain barely functioning.

“Don’t worry about a car right now, just call an uber and come here,” Taehyung said once he saw you wouldn’t form any coherent phrase. “And… Don’t tell Evey, alright?”

You blinked a few times, before Taehyung said ‘alright’ again and you answered with another soft ‘alright’. That’s how the conversation ended.

Soon, you were running through the mass of bodies, texting Evey and letting her know you hadn’t been feeling alright and that you had gone home.

The uber arrived in fifteen minutes – the longest fifteen minutes of your life – and as soon as you climbed on the backseat, you opened the texting app and recited the address Taehyung had sent you.

It wasn’t far from there, in the outskirts of the city.

Your mind was racing as your eyes followed the streetlamps that looked like fairy lights from the inside of the car. At some point, you closed your eyes and started taking deep breaths, feeling your heart in your throat.

Jungkook.

Was he alright? Had something happened to him?

Your palms were sweating, cold sweat, and they were trembling like crazy, little veins tracing your skin as your knuckles turned white from the force with which you were balling your hands into fists.

A thousand scenarios were running through your head, each one worse than the others.

“Miss,” the uber driver told you once the car had come to a stop.

You hadn’t even realized you had reached your destination, too busy closing your eyes and trying to stop your heart from falling from your mouth.

You paid him, not even waiting to pick the change and ran out of the car. Following Maps in your phone, you ran through the deserted streets.

You found Taehyung in the entrance of a dark alley, looking desperate and wild.

“Tae!” you shouted as soon as you saw him.

“Y/N!” he shouted back.

You threw yourself at him – if you hadn’t done that, you would have probably fallen face-first onto the ground.

“Where’s Jungkook? Is he okay? What happened? I –“

“Y/N, calm down,” Taehyung said, grabbing you from your shoulders as you tried to look behind him. “We need you with a cold mind, please relax.”

“How can you ask me to relax when you told me Jungkook needs me?” you said, bewildered. “Where’s him?”

Taehyung’s sighed and let go of you.

You followed him through the alley until you reached the spot in between some trash cans and a fence.

“Jungkook!” you couldn’t help but scream as soon as you saw his body limp, half of it fallen onto the ground, half resting on the brick wall behind him.

You kneeled beside him, instantly reaching out to touch him.

All plans and stupidity being left aside, you started mumbling his name.

“Jungkook, hey, Jungkook, can you hear me? Jungkook.”

“He’s unconscious,” Taehyung said from behind you. “I’ve tried waking him up, but I think he hit his head pretty hard against the ground.”

You then repaired in Jungkook’s appearance, for real. He had blood dripping down his nose, and a dark bruise was forming in one of his cheeks. He had a small cut on his lower lip, and his grey hoodie was dirty. They were bruises, but bruises that weren’t unusual for him.

It was the blood stain that was growing on one side of his hoodie that caught your attention.

“Oh my god,” you gasped, clasping one hand over your mouth. “But… Oh my god. He has been shot!”

You looked at Taehyung, who was looking incredibly guilty. He also had bruises all over his face, and he didn’t look any better than Jungkook did, except for the fact that he had no gunshot hole in his jumper, nor did he had stains of blood.

“W… What the fuck happened?!” you asked, your pointer and middle finger pressing over Jungkook’s carotid artery to find his pulse. “He has been shot, oh my god…” you kept mumbling.

When you felt a soft thump beneath your fingertips you relaxed a bit.

Taehyung wasn’t answering, he just couldn’t answer to that question in that moment, and your mind was working so fast that you didn’t even care.

“Okay… Doesn’t matter right now,” you said, trying to calm yourself. “We need to take him to the hospital.”

“What?! No, he can’t go to the hospital.”

“He has been shot, Taehyung! We need to see if the bullet has reached any vital organs or if there is an internal bleeding!”

“If we carry him to the hospital with a bullet wound, police will appear, and Jungkook can’t afford that right now,” Taehyung said in a calmer tone. You didn’t know if he was trying to calm you or if he was trying to calm himself. “They would start asking questions and…”

“If we don’t take him to the hospital right now, he’ll keep losing blood and he will die!” you said, teeth clenched as you couldn’t understand why Taehyung refused to bring his friend to the hospital.

“That’s why I called you, you’re a nurse, you should know how to take care of him.”

You stood up, taking some steps closer towards Taehyung.

“I’m a nurse, not a fucking surgeon!” you said, pausing briefly before continuing. “Wait, no, I’m not even a nurse yet! I’m a student!”

“Yeah, but you work as a nurse at the fights.”

“Yeah! But sewing up small cuts and bruises, not healing bullet wounds! I haven’t seen a bullet wound in my life, only studied what to do with it!”

“You already know more than I do, then,” Taehyung tried reasoning with you. “Listen, Y/N, we have no time to waste. Jungkook’s not going to the hospital, he’d rather die than answer the questions of all those fucking cops. If they catch him and get him into jail, it’ll be the end of him, you already know that, Y/N.”

You took some steps back from Taehyung and Jungkook, threading your fingers in your hair and pulling from the roots in a desperate act. It all felt like a nightmare, a really fucking bad nightmare.

Lifting your eyes just a tiny bit to stare at Jungkook’s unmoving body made you sick.

“Argh…” you growled, drawing your hands down your face and closing your eyes as you did so.

You had studied a lot of things but putting them into practice was a completely different thing. And, being a bit egoistic, you wouldn’t be able to live with the idea that you had killed Jungkook. On the other hand, you knew what Taehyung was saying was true. Jungkook already had some issues with the law, he had escaped from the hospital when he had that car accident and you guess he had way more issues than that, let alone whatever shit was he into at the moment. If you took him to the hospital and they saw his bullet wound, they would immediately call the police and they would start making too many questions…

“Alright, alright…” you mumbled.

You patted your cheeks a couple of times before opening your eyes and staring at Taehyung. You were only a few months away from graduating, you were practically a nurse. You could do that.

“Alright,” you nodded, looking at Taehyung. “We’ll take him to my apartment, I have some medical supplies in there…”

You started counting internally all the supplies you had at home. Some steri-strips, needles, disinfectant, sterile gloves… Even some intravenous saline.

“Great, great,” Taehyung nodded. “My car is just parked a few streets away.”

“Go grab it, I’ll be here with Jungkook waiting for you.”

“Alright.”

He nodded again, but he stayed there watching you. You could see it in his face, he was just as affected as you were.

“Go, don’t worry, everything will be fine.”

Or so you hoped.

Taehyung nodded a third time before turning around and running towards his car.

You were still pressing your scarf over Jungkook’s bullet wound when Taehyung walked inside your apartment carrying him in his arms.

He was still unconscious, but his breathing was steady and his heartbeat strong.

“Put him on my bed, last door at the end of the corridor,” you said as soon as you stepped a foot inside your apartment, rushing to close the door behind you and take your coat off, leaving it on the floor.

“Keep pressing on his wound with my scarf!” you ordered Taehyung as you grabbed your supplies from the cupboard under the TV and the bathroom.

It was a shocking sight, to see Jungkook in your bed again, that time for way more different reasons.

“Alright,” you said to yourself, trying to order the thoughts that were running through your mind. “Alright.”

Taehyung stood still, staring at you with uncertain eyes.

“Are you alright?” he asked in a soft voice.

It took you some more seconds to go back to reality and answer him.

“Yes, yes,” you finally said. “Take his hoodie and the rest of his clothes off, leaving him only in his boxers. I’ll start preparing everything.”

As Taehyung undressed Jungkook, you rushed to wash your hands in the bathroom, put some gloves on and start setting your sterile field.

“Gauzes, disinfectant… Scalpel…” you counted.

“Where do I leave his clothes?” Taehyung asked.

“Leave them inside the shower, I’ll take care of them later.”

He nodded and disappeared from you room. You took that as a chance to look back at Jungkook. He was paler and paler by each passing second.

“Hold on, please, hold on,” you desperately pleaded, passing your hand over his forehead. At least he didn’t have a fever, so the wound or the organs affected by it weren’t infected yet.

“I’m back, I’m back,” Taehyung said, kneeling at the other side of the bed.

You didn’t know why you both repeated each thing two times each time one of you spoke. It was as if you were reassuring yourselves.

“Can I help you with anything?”

“Yeah,” you nodded. “Grab my nightstand lamp and give me some light please.”

Taehyung did as you said while you climbed on top of your bed, careful not to touch anything from your sterile field.

Your hands were trembling as you touched the area around the bullet wound, pressing and pinching, trying to find any signs of any organ being affected or bleeding.

“It looks like it hasn’t reached any abdominal organ,” you said, your hands still feeling around Jungkook’s taut stomach. “That’s a good sign, a very good one.”

Taehyung simply nodded, watching you work with careful eyes.

“We’ll se if I can get the bullet out.”

You cleaned the wound and the area around with some gauzes and water with soap.

Your hands trembled even more as you took off your normal gloves and put some sterile ones on. Once you were fully sterile, you grabbed the surgical tweezers and opened the wound. It was as if a heavy weight had been lifted off from your shoulders as soon as you saw the metallic shine of the bullet.

Luckily, the shoot hadn’t been to up-close and the bullet hadn’t gone too far into Jungkook’s abdomen, barely reaching the muscle tissue.

Grabbing another pair of tweezers, you carefully got the bullet out of Jungkook’s abdomen.

Without giving yourself time to think about what you had just done, you started sewing up the wound, careful to leave both ends next to each other so they could scar quickly. Then, you applied some antiseptic and steri-strip in some of the places of the wound that looked more fragile to you.

Covering the wound with a fresh dressing, you patted the area, making sure the hemorrhage had stopped.

“Is it done?” Taehyung asked when he saw you staying still.

“Yeah, it’s done,” you nodded.

“And now what?”

You stared at Jungkook’s face. He had started sweating, probably from the pain he had been feeling despite being unconscious.

“Do you believe in God, Taehyung?” you asked out of the blue. Before he could answer, you did. “Because all we can do now is pray.”

. . .

After taking care of the rest of Jungkook’s wounds, you cleaned everything and threw it in the bin.

You cleaned the medical supplies from Jungkook’s blood in the sink of your bathroom, the marble material turning a reddish color as you asked yourself how many more times you were going to clean Jungkook’s blood.

Closing the tap, you looked upwards and stared at your reflection in the mirror. Hair greasy and disheveled, mascara ruined, dark circles under your eyes and pale skin, eyes red and puffy from crying and being tired. You looked great.

“How’s him?” you asked, entering your room were Jungkook was still fighting, lying underneath your blankets.

You had switched on the heating so he wouldn’t turn cold.

“I don’t know,” Taehyung sighed, letting his head fall onto his hands.

You walked towards him and placed your hand over his shoulders.

“C’mon, I have to take care of that cut above your nose.”

Taehyung sat at the feet of your bed as you cleaned his wounds and applied some disinfectant and antibacterial cream.

“Can you explain me now what happened?” you sighed. “And don’t just tell me that you got shot, tell me the reason why.”

You could feel Taehyung sighing, his shoulders slumping.

You dabbed delicately the cut above his nose with a cotton pad soaked in disinfectant.

“Fine… But please, don’t tell Evey. Nor about this, not about what I’m going to tell you. Please.”

You stared into his eyes, a delicate frown drawing itself over your forehead. You stopped your movements with the cotton pad and leant back a few centimeters.

“What is it, Taehyung?”

“Please, promise me.”

“What’s so wrong about it that Evey can’t know anything?”

“Y/N, promise me you won’t tell her.”

You opened and closed your mouth like a fish out of water.

“Tae, she’s my best friend, you can’t ask something like that from me.”

“Alright, if you don’t do it for me, do it for her,” Taehyung desperately pleaded. “The less she knows, the better. She’ll be safer.”

“You’re scaring me, Tae,” you said, voice merely a whisper as you sat on the balls of your feet, staring with wide eyes at the man sitting at the feet of your bed.

“Promise me, Y/N.”

“I… I promise you,” you stuttered. “Tell me already, what have you and Jungkook gotten yourselves into?”

Taehyung took a deep breath and leant forward, his elbows resting on his thighs as his head hang low.

“We stopped when we met Sungho,” he started. “He told us about the fights and said we could make a lot of money, that we wouldn’t have to worry about paying the rent or making ends meet… Never again. He introduced us to the boys and created a small family. Each one of us found in the other boys the father, mother, brother, we had never had.”

Taehyung took a brief pause, a long sigh escaping his lips.

“Sungho saw potential in Jungkook because he already knew how to fight a bit, and started focusing on him, training him, bringing him to the underground fights, introducing him to his contacts… And once he started fighting, Jungkook became Sungho’s own little goose that laid the golden eggs.”

“That was a year and a half ago,” you nodded.

“Yeah, almost two years ago. Jungkook became obsessed with fighting and wining and training and being the best. If he lost a fight, he would stay the whole night in the gym, training until he couldn’t even lift his arms. He didn’t stop until he won Bobby, and that’s exactly what Sungho wanted… But now he wants more, and Jungkook being a champion is not enough.”

“In what sense?”

Taehyung lifted his eyes so he was staring at you.

“He wants more money, more power, more and more. I guess he has dragged us with him…”

You frowned. “What are you talking about, Taehyung?”

Taehyung gulped.

“Sungho heard about what Jungkook and I did before he met us, and he took interest in it.”

“Took interest in what?” you pushed him. “What did you and Jungkook do?”

The silence that followed your question was sending chills down your spine.

“Tae…”

“We dealt, Y/N. We were dealers.”

You blinked rapidly as the words sank in. They. Were. Dealers.

“As in…” gulp. “Deal… With… With drugs?”

“Yeah,” Taehyung breathed. “We worked for an important drug lord who owns the business in this city. He has people everywhere, he controls everything and he basically is everywhere. We were nothing but two young dealers who dealt at university parties and clubs at the outskirts of the city, but we were his drug dealers. I don’t know if you know this… But once you work as a dealer for a drug lord, there is no going back, you can’t just decide that you want a normal job one day and disappear, no. It’s forever.”

“So, how did the two of you get out of that?”

Taehyung shrugged his shoulders, averting his eyes from yours once again. He started at his still unconscious friend lying on your bed, naked torso heaving slowly.

“We spoke to him, payed our debt and swore we would never talk. He had the names of our families, the directions of our homes… We had too much to lose if we talked, so we never did. He kept an eye on us in case we betrayed him, and we never did… Until a few months ago. Sungho heard that we were dealers and started asking questions about it. Jungkook and I thought it was normal, since he was our new boss. But then, he started asking about money, and how the business worked. He told us he had a contact in the north of the country that could give him good quality material for us to sell. We told him that it would be impossible, that Mr. Kang, our previous boss, owned the entirety of the city and that he didn’t like rivalry. He wouldn’t allow any other drug lord in his city.”

Another pause, Taehyung shook his head, memories assaulting his mind.

“But Sungho didn’t listen to us, he just saw the money and the power it would bring him. He said he had contacts and that Mr. Kang wouldn’t be able to touch us. He… He put it so great that we only saw the extra money we would earn, and we agreed. We became his dealers –“

“Wait,” you interrupted him, asking him to stop with a raised hand. “Are you telling me… Are you telling me that you and Jungkook have been dealing drugs this whole time?”

“Yeah.”

A image came to your head… How could have you been so naïve? That night, at the party before the Christmas holidays you had seen it all. Sungho had been searching around for Jungkook, and Jungkook had been missing. You remembered seeing him in that dark alley, those girls laughing as they walked away from him. You remembered how he stayed behind, keeping something in the pockets of his jeans… Fuck.

“Oh my god, Tae,” you gasped, covering your mouth with the palm of your hand.

“Mr. Kang heard about us, discovered Sungho’s business and he put a price to our heads. We’ve hidden from them thanks to Sungho’s contacts, but his contacts aren’t everywhere, and tonight, they found us.”

“Oh my god, oh my god,” you mumbled, hiding your face behind your hands, threading your hands through your hair. “Oh my fucking god.”

“We were lucky that a police car passed by and they ran away, but I don’t know if we’ll be so lucky next time,” Taehyung carried on. “They will eventually find us, and when they do…”

“Oh my god,” you repeated, lifting your head up and staring at him.

“This is why you can’t tell Evey,” he said, shaking his head. “I can’t risk putting her in more danger than she already is. They’ll go after our loved ones, it’s best if we kept them away from all this.”

You nodded on autopilot, your mind still processing that a huge drug lord wanted Jungkook and Taehyung dead, and probably, Evey and the rest of your friends too.

“This is too much, too dangerous. You know what those guys are like, Taehyung? They have all the money in the world, people move because of money, people would do anything for them and a couple of bucks.”

“I know, I know, I worked for him, remember?”

“Why did you reach out to me, then? This is too much for me, I don’t belong here, this is not my world. Why didn’t you tell any of the other boys? They would know how to help you better than I can.”

“They don’t know about this, any of this,” Taehyung said, shaking his head. “And they can’t know, for the same reason as Evey can’t know.”

You scoffed. “But I can? Am I not in danger or what?”

Taehyung pursed his lips.

“I’m really sorry I have involved you in this, I’m sure Jungkook will never forgive me for this…” Taehyung said, eyes glossy as he searched for your eyes in the dim light of your room. “But I was desperate and Jungkook had been shot… You were my only option.”

You nodded your head slowly, sinking everything in.

“It’s not fair…”

“I know it’s not fair, I’m so sorry, I’m so, so sorry. Jungkook is like a brother to me, I love him so much, I couldn’t stand the idea of losing him and I had to set my priorities.”

“And I wasn’t one of them,” you said, nodding slowly.

“Y/N, it isn’t like –“

“No,” you interrupted him. “I get it Tae, I do. I just wish I was someone’s priority for once.”

“You already are… You…” Taehyung stuttered, stopping himself.

“Don’t worry, it’s fine,” you shrugged, grabbing the things you had used to heal Taehyung’s wounds and putting them inside a plastic bag.

“No, it isn’t. I also called you because I knew as soon as you knew it was about Jungkook, you wouldn’t be able to refuse. I knew you wouldn’t say no.”

Your head snapped up to his just when you were about to stand up from the floor.

“Why? Why did you know that?”

Taehyung scoffed softly.

“C’mon, Y/N, everyone can see you’re crazy about Jungkook,” he said. “You could bite water if it was for him. You’re in love with him.”

“I’m not –“

“Don’t try to deny it,” Taehyung was the one who interrupted you then. “I can see how you look at him and how you act all tough and indifferent around him, but each time he’s hurt you hurt for him, each time he’s happy you smile and each time he stares at you, you blush. You’re so in love it hurts to see from afar.”

Your nostrils flared.

“It’s definitive, I’m gonna kill Evey.”

“Evey? Why?”

“What? She didn’t tell you.”

“She already knew you were in love with Jungkook?”

“Shh!” you shushed him loudly. “He could hear us!”

“C’mon, he’s unconscious.”

“Well, they say that the hearing is the last sense a person loses when they’re unconscious.”

Although, you didn’t know why you were worrying so much about Jungkook hearing Taehyung’s words when he already knew you loved him.

“This is so fucked up,” you said, turning serious once again. You rubbed your temples with both hands, a headache starting to grow.

“It is, and I’m so sorry for getting you in the middle of all this but… Jungkook needed you.”

You nodded, finally standing up from the floor and grabbing the plastic bag in which all your used medical supplies had been kept.

“It’s okay,” you sighed. “I would probably do it all over again even after knowing that some bad ass drug lord and half of the population of this city is after you.”

You heard Taehyung sigh and mumble something under his breath, but you didn’t give it a second thought.

After all that had happened, and all the new information you had gotten, you were drained from all energy and you needed to rest.

“You can stay here tonight, or well, for as long as you want,” you told Taehyung. “You can sleep on the couch tonight, I’ll sleep in my armchair and look after Jungkook.”

“You’re tired, you should sleep on the couch instead. I’ll look after –“

“I haven’t been punched on the face and my nose hasn’t been nearly broken, you should sleep on the couch. And you should text Evey and tell her your right or something before she shows up in here panicking. Tell her you’ll be busy this weekend and that you won’t be able to see her.”

Taehyung helped you preparing the couch after sending Evey a text. You ate some leftovers you had in your fridge while you both chattered about anything and everything at the same time. After a warm red tea, you took a very much needed hot shower, cleaned your face and got rid of all the ruined mascara, blow-dried your hair and put on your comfiest pyijama.

With a blanket and your mobile charger in mind, you entered your room.

Jungkook was lying on the same position you had first left him. The moonlight seeped in your room at that hour of the night, just like any other night, and just like many nights before, its milky light poured over Jungkook’s skin. It looked as if he was made of marble, so perfect and defined. But, as your eyes traveled down his naked torso, you found the bandages covering his abdomen and flinched.

Cautiously, you took a seat next to him on the bed, cleaning the sweat from his forehead and making sure he didn’t have a fever. Passing a cloth soaked in cool water all over his face, you observed every feature of his. From the little mole under his lower lip, to his big nose, to his round eyes.

You were just torturing yourself, so you shook your head and sat on the armchair that decorated one of the corners of your room. With your blanket on and your mobile charging by your side, your eyes on Jungkook, you started drifting off to sleep.

. . .

The weekend went by in slow motion.

You barely went out of your room, unless you had to go to the bathroom or you felt hungry. You were afraid Jungkook’s state would worsen when you weren’t in the room with him, so you just stayed there, ass glued to your armchair as your eyes never left his unmoving form.

Three times a day, you cleaned him with warm water, to wash away all the sweat from his body. You also changed the bandage that covered his wound, observing that it wasn’t getting infected or that the stitches didn’t separate form each other so the wound could open.

It was pure torture to you, both physically and mentally, the thought of Jungkook dying in your bed haunting you every night.

If you had taken him to the hospital, they would have extracted the bullet in an operating room, everything sterile. They would have transfused him some blood too, making up for all he lost. But you had no operating room, nor blood you could transfuse him, you just had your gauzes, your bottle of antiseptic and the hope that it would all be enough.

Jungkook was strong, but you didn’t know how far that strength could go.

Taehyung had gone home on Sunday morning, telling Evey that he would be out of town so she didn’t go to his apartment and see his wounded face. You had been avoiding Evey – again – as Taehyung had told you to, not wanting her to know about any of that. You had also called to the hospital, telling them you were sick and that you wouldn’t be able to go that week.

The only thing you could do now was wait.

Should you call his mother? No, you didn’t even have her number and he would kill you if you told your mother about all that. If he didn’t want her to know that he fought, imagine telling her that he dealt with drugs. No. You couldn’t do that to him.

Inside, you were feeling a mixture of things. From anger to fear. From resentment to confusion. He had rejected you in the worst possible way he could have rejected you, and yet, there you were, taking care of him. Your relationship with Jungkook – if it could be called that – was a spiral of things, and you had grown tired of it. You had never been in love before, but you were sure love wasn’t supposed to hurt like that.

After thinking and thinking, you had finally drifted off to sleep once more, mind blank as you let your body rest for once.

It was the noise of grunts and movement that snapped you awake.

Confusedly, you blinked a few times, trying to adjust your eyes to the darkness in the room. Your neck ached from sleeping three nights in a row in an armchair, and your whole body felt weak, you weren’t ready to fight some stranger breaking into your house.

Your eyes landed on the body on your bed, usually still but now moving.

“Jungkook?” you asked, eyes widening.

Jungkook was tossing and turning, growling things under his breath.

“Jungkook,” you called him once more, walking towards him and kneeling besides him.

Your hands instantly touched his forehead. It was burning.

No… He couldn’t have a fever, please, that wasn’t a good sign.

“Jungkook, hey,” you whispered.

He had a frown drawn over his forehead, eyes closed and lips turned upside-down.

“I’m here, don’t worry, you’re not alone,” you softly whispered, leaning closer to him as your hands pushed his bangs away from his sweaty forehead. “What hurts, huh?”

“T… Taehyung?” he mumbled.

“Taehyung’s not here, he’s –“

“Taehyung?! Taehyung?!” Jungkook said, starting to raise his voice as his movements became brusquer.

“Jungkook, he’s not here, he’s at home, he’s safe.”

“Taehyung!”

He finally opened his eyes and sat himself on the bed, pulling away your hands from him. As soon as he sat, he let out a howl of pain, his hands flying to the bandage on his abdomen.

“No, no,” you mumbled, pushing his shoulders and pushing him down on the bed. “Don’t sit.”

Jungkook then focused his eyes on you, widening them at recognizing your face.

“Y/N?” he whispered.

“Yeah,” you nodded, trying to calm him. “Yeah, I’m here.”

“Where am I? Why are you here?”

“You’re at my apartment, Taehyung is safe at his, resting and recovering.”

“Is he hurt?!” Jungkook said, alarmed.

“Just a small cut on his nose, he didn’t even need stitches. I cleaned his wounds and sent him home.”

Jungkook sighed in what felt like relief, his eyes travelling towards the ceiling of your room, a ceiling he knew better than the palm of his hand. He could remember all the countless sleepless nights in your bed staring at the ceiling, mind reeling as you slept peacefully by his side.

You watched as he closed his eyes. You could almost hear the mechanism of his brain working.

“How did I get here?” he asked after a few seconds.

“Taehyung called me on Friday night…” you cautiously said, not knowing if he would get angry or not. Maybe he didn’t want to be there, with you… “He told me you needed my help and I went searching for you…”

Jungkook opened his eyes and stared at you, face blank and impassible.

“And you helped me? After all that has happened?”

You sighed, looking down. “I had no other option. It was either that or letting you die in that alley. I wanted to take you to the hospital, but Tae refused.”

“After all I’ve done to you, you could have just gone home and let me die in there,” he lifted his arm cautiously to gently brush away the hair from his forehead.

“Yeah, maybe that’s what you deserved,” you said, a roll of eyes to indicate him that it was far from what you thought. No one deserved to die for feeling like he did… Maybe for how he had treated you, but nah, it was not a good enough reason to die. “But I have something called conscience and it would have never let me live with it if I had just left you there to die. Any other decent person would have done the same.”

Jungkook sighed and the sound of air escaping softly through his lips was the only noise that was heard in the room for a couple of minutes.

“Don’t you have questions? You always have thousands,” he said.

You averted your eyes from the covers of your bed, eyes finding his in the darkness of the room. The sky was cloudy and no moonlight seeped into your room. You could see the pained expression on Jungkook’s face, though. It was almost agonic.

“No,” you shrugged, reaching towards your bedside table were you kept the painkillers and a glass of water. “Tae already told me everything. Here,” you said, handing him a pill and the glass of water. “Drink it, it’ll help you with the pain and the fever.”

“What does ‘Tae told me everything’ mean?” Jungkook said, eyes suddenly wide as he ignored the pill and the glass of water you were offering him.

“What it means, there’s no other meaning behind it. I know what happened and why,” you said.

Jungkook stared at you for a few more seconds and then, he let out a frustrated noise.

“Fuck,” you could hear him say. “I’m gonna fucking kill Taehyung. Does Evey know about this?”

“He begged me not to tell her.”

“That bast –“ he grunted, stopping himself. “He can keep his girl away from all this shit, but instead he has to involve min –“

He took a deep breath to stop himself once again from finishing that sentence, eyes staring into you. Had he been about to say ‘mine’? You shook your head at the thought.

“He had no other option, Jungkook, he was desperate to save you. You didn’t look good, you were dying.”

Jungkook closed his eyes and lifted his other arm to pinch the bridge of his nose, forgetting about the wound situated in the left side of his abdomen. A roaring pain ran through his body, and he let out a howl as he brought both of his hands towards the wound.

“Wait,” you urged him, kneeling on the bed besides him. “Don’t touch it, and don’t move, the stitches are still a bit fresh and if you apply force towards that spot they’ll break.”

You grabbed his hands, pushing them away from his wound and resting on his sides. You lit the lamp on your bedside table and started opening your first-aid kit.

“I cleaned it this morning, but I’ll clean it again in case some stitches broke.”

Jungkook nodded and let you take the bandage off.

“So, you know about…” he began to say.

“I know about the drugs, the gang, the money, Sungho, a certain Mr. Kang,” you said.

“Fuck,” Jungkook growled just as you finished your sentence and finished taking the bandage off. You didn’t know if the curse was directed at one or another.

“He also told me about what’s going on and the danger you’re in,” you said. “I won’t let it affect me.”

Jungkook laughed humorlessly. “You know nothing about all that shit, Y/N, you can’t just let it not affect you. It doesn’t depend on you anymore,” he said. “Did you come to the alley to get me?”

“Of course.”

“Was there anyone else watching us?”

You shrugged. “Don’t know, wasn’t exactly looking around searching for someone spying on us when you were lying on the ground and bleeding yourself to death.”

“This is so fucked up, if Kang knows about you or any of the other people around us…”

“I have nothing to do with your world or what you do, Jungkook, he won’t come after me.”

“He would go after anyone if that means he hurts Taehyung or me.”

You sighed, throwing the dirty gauzes in a plastic bag.

“Does that mean that it would hurt you if that Kang guy did something to me?”

Jungkook pursed his lips, knowing he was playing near dangerous territory. He opted for staying quiet.

You stared at him, waiting for an answer.

Shaking your head, you continued cleaning the wound.

“It looks good, don’t worry. It’s not infected and the stitches are doing good, you will be able to go home tomorrow and, in ten days ask someone to take the stitches out –“

“Of course it would hurt me,” he interrupted you.

You acted as if you hadn’t heard him, continuing with the bandage and covering the wound.

“It would kill me if anything happened to you because of me,” he continued, almost as if he was desperate to say those words. “I care about you.”

Your heart jumped inside your chest, but you didn’t let yourself waver.

“Yeah, you sure do,” you scoffed. “You’ve shown me how much you care about me again and again since we met.”

“And you? You’ve shown me in the best of ways too.”

“The fact that you’re telling me that after all the shit I’ve gone through because of you it’s almost insulting.”

“Yeah? It’s insulting? And what is it to see you with Jiwon everywhere I go? Playing the lovely dovey couple?”

You narrowed your eyes. “Don’t go through that path, you know it’s unfair of you to throw that in my face when you’ve been hooking up with random girls in front of my fucking nose.”

“It’s not unfair when I’ve asked you repeatedly not to hang out with him.”

“You have never asked anything! The only thing you do is demand! Do this, don’t do that!” you snapped, tired of his bullshit. “I’m nothing to you and you’re nothing to me, so you have no right over what I can or cannot do!”

“Ah, yeah? Am I nothing to you?” he answered, venom laced in his voice. You knew in that exact same moment what he was about to say. “Doesn’t look like it if you’ve gone through all this shit for me.”

“Fuck you Jungkook, fuck you,” you spat, standing up from your bed and grabbing the plastic bag with the used supplies.

You stormed out of your room, finding solace in your equally as dark living room. Throwing away the plastic bag, you drank a glass of water and rested your elbows on the cold surface of the kitchen counter, hiding your face in your hands. Why was it all like a cycle? Again and again, you always went back to the start. It was destroying you, and you weren’t helping. Getting involved with Jiwon had been childish and stupid of you and getting into that world in the first place had been even more stupid.

You almost flinched when you felt the warmth of a body behind you, chest pressing against your back.

Jungkook hesitantly raised his hands and placed them on your arms.

“Don’t touch me,” you mumbled, flinching away from his touch.

He didn’t back away, only leaning closer to you.

“I don’t get you,” he whispered, and you were about to scoff when he spoke again. “All I do is hurt you, and all you do is come back to me.”

“It might be because I’m stupid”

“I don’t deserve this, Y/N, I don’t deserve you.”

“You’re right, you don’t, but here you are and here I am. In love with a person whom I wonder if someday will see me.”

You hear Jungkook take a deep breath and you push him away as you turn around to face him.

“Don’t act as if you didn’t already know, you knew it even before I almost told you,” you scoffed. “Taehyung also told me.”

Jungkook’s eyes travelling down to the floor is the only answer you needed.

“When did you realize it?” you asked, crossing your arms over your chest.

“Does it matter?”

“Was it when we fucked at your apartment before Christmas Holidays, or was it when I was always there for you when you needed me, like a lost puppy?”

“When we fucked at my apartment,” he sincerely admitted.

“Ah,” you nodded. “It was then… I should have known,” you nodded with your head once again. “Did you care about my feelings when you were making out with all those girls in front of me? Or, well, did you ever care at all?”

Jungkook shook his head. “Were you with Jiwon just to throw it back at me?”

“Is Jiwon all you care about?” you scoffed, pushing yourself away from the kitchen counter.

Jungkook grabbed your upper arm, stopping you before you could walk around the kitchen aisle and escape from him.

“You should stay away from me and everything that surrounds me. The boys, the fights… Everything.”

You looked back at him.

“I care too much,” he said, his voice so low you could barely hear it in the silence of your apartment.

“Funny way of showing it.”

“Never been good at it, but if there’s one thing I’m good at, is pushing people away,” he sighed.

His eyes never left yours as those words left his lips. The intensity of his gaze on yours told you he wanted you to read in between those lines.

“You’ll only get hurt if you keep being around me,” he breathed, pulling you closer to him.

You let him push you and move you and do you like a puppet, like you always did, his calloused fingers, filled with scars, playing with the strings of your heart.

“If you care about someone you don’t push them away,” you mumbled in the silence of your apartment.

“You do when their safety is at stake.”

“I won’t try to convince you of something you don’t want to be convinced of,” you said, shaking your head.

He shook his head too.

“You don’t have to convince me about anything.”

His face was so close to yours you could feel every breath, every sound. You could smell him and feel him and sense him. So close yet so far.

“I wish I could love you, but I can’t,” he said those words slowly and quietly, knowing that they would feel like daggers to you.

He leaned a bit closer, and being in the state of shock you were, you let him. He leaned his forehead against yours, closing his eyes and feeling you too.

“Stay away from me,” he said. “It’s what’s best.”

You scrunched your face up in disgust, placing your hands on his chest and pushing him away from you.

“I’ll sleep on the couch tonight,” you whispered. “I have to be at the hospital first thing tomorrow morning, I don’t want to see you here when I wake up.”

That being said, you took some steps back, the hand that Jungkook had placed on your left cheek – and that you hadn’t even felt until then – falling limply to his side.

You didn’t even cry that night as you laid on your couch, feeling as if you had already been expecting what had happened. He couldn’t love you because he couldn’t love at all, he had shown you a couple of times, but you had been naïve enough to let your feelings and stupid daydreams blind you.

His words echoed through your mind.

He couldn’t love you. Simple as that.

And when you woke up the next morning, he was already gone.

. . .

But life carried on, it always did.

You felt as if you had been given a second chance, the chance to take the right path once again. A path you had walked away from when you had decided to take part in the underground fighting world.

You left your apartment in March, when all of your savings were long gone from your bank account and you couldn’t afford it anymore. It was difficult moving to a dorm after living on your own for almost four years, but it had to be done so you could at least graduate. Plus, working part-time at a book store wasn’t that bad either, you had loads of time to work on your thesis.

The worst part of it all wasn’t moving to a dorm or finding a part-time job, no. The worst part was distancing yourself from the people that had been your friends during the past six months. They had made you feel so comfortable with yourself, had made you feel so alive taking you out of your comfort zone, that they had almost felt like family. How couldn’t they be called family when they had made you feel as if you fitted in so perfectly?

Of course you still kept in touch with Evey, but always via text.

You couldn’t stare at her and lie to her, you couldn’t act as if nothing had happened, and you couldn’t stare at her laughing and kissing Taehyung knowing everything he was hiding. Yes, he was hiding everything from her to protect her, but still, he was lying to her.

But you weren’t just distancing yourself from the boys because you had realized it was not your world, that you didn’t – and couldn’t – belong to a place like that, follow such a lifestyle. You were distancing yourself because you couldn’t stand de idea of seeing Jungkook after those nine words he said to you.

I wish I could love you, but I can’t.

They bounced inside your mind, echoing and leaving you numb and tired. You couldn’t think of anything that weren’t those nine words, again and again. Why couldn’t he love you? Was if because of you? Was it because of the circumstances? Was it because he just couldn’t love?

Whatever the case it was, he couldn’t love you.

It was the saddest part of it all, because you knew that you would never stop loving him. You sometimes wondered how had you been able to fall in love with someone like him, so cocky and problematic and rude. An asshole from head to toe. A boy who lived for violence and breathed danger. A boy who didn’t give a fuck about anything, not even his life, risking it again and again.

But then, memories of you and him lying on your bed at three am assaulted you. They were the most dangerous memories of them all. Memories of his skin glowing in the moonlight, memories of his scent and his raspy voice. Memories of his round eyes that held a thousand galaxies when the streetlights reflected on them. Memories of his fingertips against your skin as he tickled you. Memories of his laugh and his smile – the same smile that made him look almost innocent. Memories of your stomach hurting at how hard he made you laugh. Memories of you closing your eyes as he hummed one of his favorite songs while he thought you couldn’t hear him. Memories of the random conversations you held in the middle of the night. Memories of feeling free, and beautiful and infinite while being with him. Memories of him and his, and him again, and his… And when it started to feel so overwhelming that you couldn’t breathe, it’s when you were lastly reminded of the love you felt for him.

With the end of winter season and the blooming of flowers, things started to feel… Alright.

You still thought about Jungkook, but it didn’t hurt anymore, nor did you repeat his words in your mind constantly during the day.

Time passed, in every meaning the of the word pass.

Time passed and you started thinking that maybe, one day, you would forget about everything that had happened. That you would forget about him.

. . .

“How long till you graduate?” your tutor nurse said, smiling at you on your way down to the basement of the hospital.

“A month and a half,” you smiled back, a bit shy.

“Oh my God! You’re so close!”

“I know.”

“Are you nervous?”

“Only a bit, I’m more nervous about the thesis, to be honest.”

“And how are you doing?” she asked.

Once the doors of the elevator opened, you both stepped out of it and started walking towards the changing room.

“Fine, it’s almost finished,” you sighed, relieved. You would have never thought you would say something like that. Your thesis, almost finished… That sounded like music to your ears. “It only needs a few final touches and… C’est fini.”

“I’m sure you’ll ace it,” the nurse nodded. “You’re a great nurse, Y/N, you have future in this.”

You bit your lower lip.

“I hope so, I don’t want to forget why I studied this in the first place, why I love it so much.”

You both stopped in front of the door of the students’ changing room.

“There will be days when you’ll feel like forgetting all about it, but then, you’ll see your patients smiling at you, trusting you with their lives, and you’ll remember it.”

You nodded.

“I remember it every day, and that’s what keeps me going,” she said. “Would it not be for that; I’d be owning a flower shop right now. Flowers never make you cry.”

“That sounds like a good plan B.”

“It is,” she laughed. She patted your back a few times. “Have a good weekend, see you on Monday.”

“You too, see you on Monday!”

With the first days of May, the slightly warmer weather arrived too.

It was a bit late and you had missed your bus, so, instead of waiting twenty minutes for the next one, you decided to take a walk. The night breeze was calm, and the sky was completely clear. Your oversized bomber jacket and your headphones were everything you needed.

Plus, the dorms were closer to the hospital than your apartment had been.

It had saddened you, to say goodbye to your independence, to your small living room, and your open kitchen. To your bedroom, and your comfy bed, with its fluffy sheets and floral cushions, the lights that seeped through the windows each night and the sunrays every morning. It had saddened you to say goodbye to everything that had happened inside that apartment, and all the memories you had made in there. But life had to carry on, and that apartment was now part of your past.

You hummed softly along with the music playing through your headphones.

You didn’t want to think about the past now, you were a new Y/N, a new and better Y/N.

The music blocked you form the outside world as you kept walking through the now familiar streets of your new neighborhood.

“Mhmm…” you hummed.

Your eyes travelled across the empty streets, only you and the streetlamps in them. As your eyes focused on the shadow that the streetlights casted of your figure, you noticed a second shadow.

Immediately, you unlocked your phone and turned off the volume. Nothing.

You looked again at the sidewalk. The shadow was there, just a few meters away from yours.

Breath catching in your throat, you sped up, your footsteps becoming quicker and shorter. Your heart started beating wildly inside your chest and your whole body prepared itself to start running.

Taking off your headphones, you looked backwards. There it, was, the shadow that had been following you in the shape of a tall, big man. His dark eyes met yours.

You gasped and immediately started running.

Running ha never been your strong point, but you weren’t far from your dorm building and the adrenaline pumping through your veins made you run faster and resist more.

You began hearing the heavy footsteps behind you once you turned around the next corner. You could already see your building…

Trying to be smart, you thought about misleading the man and taking a sharp turn. If you ran towards your dorm, you would be safe tonight but he would know where you lived and he would be waiting for you the next time you walked out of the building.

Without thinking twice, you took a turn to your left in the first street you found. It was a bit dark, only a few old streetlamps lighting the place. You kept running, trying to reach the other side where it would lead to a bigger street. But your luck wasn’t with you that night, and instead of a street you had found a alleyway. And it didn’t have a way out of it.

Your body crashed against the fence, heavy breaths leaving your lips in erratic puffs as your knuckles hit the fence with rage. Fuck.

Pure fear settled in your body as you turned around, finding the man walking towards you with a mischievous smile on his face. He was walking slowly, knowing – just like you knew – that you didn’t have a way out of that.

Your eyes scanned the place, your self-defense classes mode on. You tried to find a place where you could escape the man and run away from that alley. Maybe, if you let him approach you some more and then took a sharp turn to your right and ran towards the opening of the alley…

You stood still, letting the man approach you.

Just when he walked closer to you, a streetlamp lighted his features. Your breath got caught in your throat as you recognized him. He was Jiwon’s brother.

He laughed, the sound echoing around the place. He could see the recognition in your eyes, he could smell your fear.

“Nice to see you again, doll,” he said in a low voice that sent shivers running down your spine.

“I wish I could say the same,” you said in between erratic breaths.

You had to be strong, or at least, act as if you were.

“Why are you so scared?” he purred. “I just wanna talk to you.”

“Don’t you remember what happened to you the last time you tried talking to me?”

His eyes shone with danger.

“Of course I do… I think I remember telling you I didn’t like bad girls, huh? They all need to be taught a lesson. Well, I still think the same.”

“If you wanna teach me some bad self-defense lesson, save it, I already know everything I need.”

The man smirked, his hand reaching for something in the back pocket of his jeans. When it came back, you saw something metallic in his hand. A low click sounded before a knife appeared. The dim light in the alleyway reflected on its blade.

“Ah, yeah? Well, I think your stupid self-defense lessons didn’t teach you anything about knives, huh? Do you really know everything you need?”

“I’ll call the police.”

You grabbed your phone with more strength in your hands, protecting it.

“I’m afraid that, if you do, you won’t be able to tell them anything when they arrive.”

You gulped.

“You’re such a great coward if you need a knife against an unarmed person.”

“I call it being prudent, I won’t take risks tonight,” he said, voice low as he approached you some more.

That was it, it was your last chance of running away.

Blinking a few times, you didn’t even give him enough time to process what you were about to do. You avoided him, taking a turn to your right and running towards the entrance of the alleyway. Your footsteps were quick, but your legs weren’t as long as his and soon, you felt a grip on your bomber jacket.

He pulled you backwards until your back crashed against his chest.

“Where do you think you’re going? We still haven’t talked,” he growled in your ear, grabbing strands of your hair and forcing you towards the end of the alleyway once again.

You started to scream, but his hand clasped itself over your mouth.

“Shh,” he purred. “We don’t want anyone interrupting us, do we?”

You opened your mouth, but not to scream. You parted your lips and sunk your teeth on the palm of his hand. You bit with strength until you felt the skin tearing underneath your teeth and the man let out a strangled cry.

He let go of you for some seconds, enough for you to try to escape again and spit the blood in your mouth, but his other hand was still holding your hair and he yanked you backwards.

“No, no, no,” he said. “You can’t do that to a person who’s trying to talk to you… That’s rude.”

You stood still and felt his knee hitting the bottom of your back. Numb with pain, you fell on your knees. Your hands fled back to hold the sore area, and you closed your eyes, fighting to not cry.

“Are you going to stay still now?” he growled, crouching on the floor before you. “I could have hit you harder, I could break a couple of vertebras… Maybe you wouldn’t be able to escape then.”

“What do you want from me?” you said through gritted teeth, head hanging low.

He grabbed your hair once again and forced you to look up at him.

“I’m the one doing the questions here, alright?” he spat. You stood quiet; mouth shut. “Alright?!” he repeated, yanking your hair upwards.

“A-alright,” you stuttered.

“Good girl,” he smiled, and his smile almost made you puke. “I’m pretty sure a little nurse like you can tell what things I can do to you to make you suffer without having to kill you, right?”

Your lower lip trembled, but you fought against yourself and your fear to remain unbothered.

“Answer me,” he growled through clenched teeth. “Each time I ask you something I want you to answer to me.”

“Alright and right are rhetorical questions,” you said. “And I don’t know if you know what a rhetorical question is, but it doesn’t need to be answered.”

A harsh blow was delivered to your cheek, making your neck snap to the side in a harsh movement. You turned your head back to look at him, not wanting to miss any of his movements.

“You think you’re brave for answering me like that? You’re more stupid than I thought,” he said, his smirk reappearing on his lips. “I’d love to have Jeon here so he could see what I’m about to do to you.”

Your eyes widened as you saw him lean closer to you. You tried to stand up, but he grabbed your hair with strength and kept you pinned to the ground. You closed your eyes, but you could feel his breath against your neck.

“What a shame the boss needs you alive…” he sighed and distanced himself from you.

In a harsh movement, he let go of your hair, your back hitting the ground with a loud ‘humpf’.

“You can open your eyes, I’m only going to make you a few questions,” he sighed. “But of course, if you don’t behave, you won’t return home untouched.”

You blinked rapidly, blinking away the tears that had begun to pool in your eyes.

“Where’s Jeon?” he asked abruptly.

“W-what?” you stuttered, still a bit in shock.

“You heard me, where’s Jeon.”

“I don’t know.”

Jiwon’s brother crouched once again so he was eye-level with you.

“Lying to me is not part of behaving like a good girl. C’mon, I will give you a second chance. Where’s Jeon Jungkook?”

“I don’t know, I swear.”

The man narrowed his eyes at you.

“How can you not know if you’re his girl?”

At the mention of you as Jungkook’s girl, your heart skipped a beat. How could you be so weak for him after all?

“I’m not his girl, and I’ve never been. I don’t know where he is, nor do I care.”

“Do you need a third chance? Alright, where’s Jeon?”

“I’ve already told you! I don’t know! I haven’t seen him in months, I haven’t heard from him or any of his friends either!”

“And what about that friend of yours that’s with Kim?”

You gritted your teeth at the mention of Evey.

“I’ve kept in contact with her, but we never talk about Jungkook.”

The man stared into your eyes as if searching for something. You held his gaze. You were telling the truth, there was no way you would break the stare contest first.

“But you once were with him, you must know where he goes when he wants to hide.”

“I never knew him that well,” you breathed. It hurt, but that wasn’t a lie either.

He grabbed his knife with more strength for you to see it.

“You better not be lying to me.”

“I’m not. I don’t know where he is, but if I’m being honest, if I knew, I wouldn’t tell you either.”

The man arched a brow in understanding.

“Ah…” he mocked you. “You’re in love with Jeon… That explains everything. Poor girl,” he pouted.

You clenched your teeth.

“I don’t need to punish you or teach you any lesson, falling in love with Jeon Jungkook it’s enough suffering on itself,” he laughed. You closed your eyes, somehow his words hurt more than his blows had. “My brother told me about it, though. He thought you were stupid too.”

“Jiwon knows you’re here?”

“Jiwon was the one who told me where you would be and where I would be able to find you,” he smirked. “Are you naïve enough to think that my brother approached you just because he found you pretty and funny? Well… You caught feelings for Jeon, so yeah, you’re naïve enough.”

“I knew your brother was using me just to return the favor to Jungkook, I just took advantage of that too.”

“He knows too.”

“Why do you want to know where Jungkook is?”

The man clicked his tongue. “I told you,” he said. “I’m the one doing the questions here.”

“You and your brother work for that Mr. Kang man, don’t you? That’s why you wanna find Jungkook? Because you weren’t able to finish your work with him.”

Jiwon’s brother narrowed his eyes.

He grabbed your face with one of his huge hands, forcing you to stare straight at him.

“Listen to me, doll,” he spat. “You’re doing fine by staying out of this, but it’s too late to forget about you. Find Jeon and tell him that he better fight the wrestling final in two weeks. If he doesn’t, we’ll start interrogating people… And this time, it will be people he loves and not a girl he used to fuck and that now is stupidly in love with him, understood?”

His words felt like pure ice sinking into the bottom of your heart.

“Understood?” he said, grabbing your jaw.

“Yeah,” you breathed.

“Good,” he said, letting go of you. Your jaw hurt from his tight grip. “Now carry on with your life and don’t do anything stupid, we’re keeping a close eye on you. Finish your thesis, graduate, move from this shitty city and find a boy who deserves you and loves you back.”

And with that, he turned around and disappeared from the alley, leaving you alone.

Everything you had been feeling since you found out you were being followed, downed on you. You grabbed your knees and hid your face in between them, letting your tears fall freely and the sobs interrupt your breaths.

His words had hurt more than his blows and threats, and that was what scared you the most.

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natashasbanner · 5 years ago

Note

Prompt: The Hulk ends up injuring Natasha-whether it be through an accident, mind control, or just plain rage, writer's choice. And I'm not talking like a broken arm,or something, I mean like the ICU with internal bleeding, and all sorts of other fun stuff.

Not Funny

Also on AO3

Bruce was alone when he finally came to.

Every nerve in his body felt like it was on fire and he couldn’t move at first. There was a buzzing in his ear that he realized after a moment was the rest of the team talking about where he might have ended up.

“He ran through the trees,” he heard Tony say and heard his thrusters taking off in the distance.

“Where’s Natasha?” Clint’s voice asked, slightly out of breath.

The comms were eerily silent and Bruce held his breath, waiting for her characteristic sarcastic comment about them worrying too much, but it never came. Instead came Steve’s frantic voice ordering Clint to get the jet.

“We need to get her to a hospital, immediately.”

Bruce’s heart sank into his stomach as he listened to Thor and Tony volunteer to stay behind to find him while Clint and Steve took Natasha on the jet. He heard jet take off before Tony tried reaching Bruce over the comm.

“Buddy if you’re awake, it would make this a hell of a lot easier.”

Bruce could barely move and his mouth felt like it was filled with sand. He tried to speak, but all that came out was a quiet groan.

“At least it’s something,” he heard Tony sigh, but he could hear his suit getting closer.

By the time they found him, Bruce was able to push himself into a sitting position, leaned against a nearby tree. The ground shook when Thor landed in the clearing and Bruce opened his eyes to see the triumphant smile he wore.

“Stark, I found him.”

Bruce groaned and closed his as Tony got closer, the ground shaking as he landed as well. He only opened them when Tony’s shadow standing over him blocked the sunlight beaming down on his face.

“Oh man,” Tony said, kneeling down beside Bruce. “You alright?”

“It’s probably a good thing we’re heading to the hospital,” Bruce tried to joke, but it sounded weak to his own ears.

Tony’s expression turned grim and he wouldn’t meet his eyes. Over Tony’s shoulder, Thor had his back turned to them, his fingers fidgeting with the strap of his hammer.

Bruce furrowed his brow, looking between the two. “What?”

“Nothing,” Tony said quickly, but Bruce knew he was lying.

“Natasha’s going to be okay, right?” Bruce asked, sitting up from the tree.

Tony shook his head. “I don’t know, I haven’t heard anything.”

“What happened?”

“Uh,” Tony faltered and looked away from Bruce again. “I…”

“Tony,” Bruce said, swallowing against the lump in his throat. “What did I do?”

Tony sighed. “I don’t know for sure, I couldn’t see.”

“Just tell me.”

“I don’t know what set him off, he just took off out of nowhere,” Tony said, picking at a loose thread on his shirt sleeve. “Romanoff got in his way.”

Bile rose in Bruce’s throat and he didn’t want to hear the rest. He could imagine what happened next. The Hulk swiping at her with a massive hand, her body flying through the air and crashing into a tree before falling limply to the ground. He pushed away from the ground, trying to stand, but he stumbled. Tony caught before he could crash into the dirt. But Bruce would have prefered if he’d let him fall. It was more than he deserved.

“Take it easy,” Tony said, easing him back onto the ground. “Clint sent the jet back for us, it’s almost here. You should get checked out.”

“I’m fine,” Bruce huffed, swatting away Tony’s hands. “Just leave me here.”

Tony scoffed at that. “She’d kill both of us if I left you here to sulk, hospital bed or not.”

If Bruce had any energy he’d put up more of a fight, but he was helpless against Thor’s helping hands that pulled him to his feet while the jet landed in the next clearing.

“Come on, it wasn’t as bad as you think,” he whispered reassuringly.

Bruce was afraid it was much, much worse.

Clint and Steve were waiting for them when they got to the hospital. They were all shuffled into private waiting room and a promise to keep them updated. Clint slumped into the armchair in the corner while Steve and Thor were squished together on the small couch. Bruce felt a hand on his shoulder before Tony whispered in his ear.

“It’s going to be alright, bud.”

Bruce shook his head and shrugged away Tony’s hand.

“I need some air,” he said with a sigh.

He turned for the door, but found his path blocked by a doctor stepping into the room.

“How is she?”

Clint said, suddenly standing beside Bruce.

“Her injuries were extensive,” she started, looking down at the chart in her hands. “We stabilized her for now.”

“When can she be moved?” Steve asked.

“Not for a few days at least.”

“Can we see her?”

It was Tony who asked, his hand back on Bruce’s shoulder. His grip was firm, quite obviously meant to keep Bruce in place. He didn’t fight it this time.

“She still in recovery, but once she’s moved to ICU you can visit. One at a time.”

“Thank you,” Steve said and the doctor took her leave.

Bruce heard the shuffling footsteps of everyone returning to their seats while they waited to be allowed to see Natasha. But Bruce couldn’t move. Every word from the doctor’s mouth felt like one blow after the other. He felt nauseous and claustrophobic in the tiny waiting room.

He couldn’t face the others and see the worry written on their faces, worry that wouldn’t be there if it weren’t for him. Bruce told them from the beginning that something like this would happen. The Hulk was too much of a liability for these missions and now they had their proof.

“I need some air,” he said, heading into the hall before anyone could stop him.

He hurried through the halls and down the stairs until the brisk air slapped him in the face. His lungs felt like they could expand completely again. He dropped onto a bench and stared out into the parking lot. For a brief moment the urge to run overtook him. It wouldn’t be hard to disappear again, out of the country before any of them realized he was gone. But it passed as quickly it came. Tony was right, he wouldn’t do that Natasha.

He sat there until the sun began to set and the chill began to seep into his bones. As he stood from the bench his comm crackled to life and Clint’s rough voice filled his ear.

“You better still be on hospital grounds, Banner,” he said. “I’ll hunt you down myself if you’re not. They moved Nat to ICU. Get your ass in here.”

“I’m on my way,” Bruce promised and headed back inside.

It took some time to find the waiting room again but Tony was waiting for him outside when he did. He nodded his head down the hall and waved for him to follow.

Bruce followed silently until they came to a stop a closed door.

“How bad is it?” he asked, taking a step back. “Be honest with me.”

Tony let out a sigh and leaned back against the wall. “It’s not good, but she’ll bounce back like she always does.”

“I can’t do this,” Bruce said, shaking his head and backing away. “I can’t.”

“This isn’t about you,” Tony snapped in a hushed tone. “What happened, happened and there isn’t anything any of us can do about it now. What we can do is be here for our teammate and friend while she recovers.”

Bruce was a little taken aback by Tony’s words, but he was right. Bruce nodded and pushed open the door. He was immediately met by the sounds of the machines she was hooked up to and there were quite a few. She looked so pale under the fluorescent lights and stark white sheets.

Bruce lingered near the door, taking it all in, before making his way over to the chair one of the others must have pulled over to the bed. He sat down slowly and looked her over.

“God,” he whispered to himself, but it sounded deafening in the empty room. “I’m so sorry.”

He reached out and took her hand. Her fingers were cold to the touch, but he held on tightly. To his surprise, she squeezed back. His brow furrowed and he tried to let go, but she wouldn’t let him.

“Nat?”

“The other four sat here and talked to themselves for twenty minutes,” she said, but it sounded like it was a struggle to get the words out. “I’m begging you to just sit here and be quiet.”

She cracked an eye open and the corner of her mouth lifted into a smirk.

“How are you feeling?” He asked, clearing his throat.

“Like I was hit by a truck,” she answered, closing her eye again. “But I’ll be fine.”

Bruce ducked his head and let go of her hand. “I told you something like this was going to happen.”

“It’s not as bad as it looks.”

“You’re right,” he said with a sigh. “It’s worse.”

She was silent for awhile, but eventually she sighed.

“It wasn’t your fault.”

“That’s funny, because it feels like it is.”

She opened her eyes and reached for his hand again. He let her squeeze his fingers and met her eyes.

“Bruce.”

“Don’t.”

“I’ll be back on my feet in no time, just like any other time I’ve gotten injured in the field,” she said, closing her eyes again and shifting a little in bed.

“You get knocked around by the Hulk often?” He asked bitterly.

“Only once,” she answered. “Barely left a scratch.”

“That’s not funny.”

“And I’m not laughing,” she dropped his hand and groaned as she scooted over in the bed.

“What are you doing?” he asked, standing up from his chair.

“I’m in no shape to argue right now and Tony was babbling about you wanting to high tail it out of here.” She threw back the blankets and patted the small space beside her. “So get in.”

“Absolutely not, I can’t,” he argued, taking a step toward the door. “No.”

She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “It’s not like we haven’t done it before.”

Bruce scrubbed his hand down his face and groaned.

“This conversation isn’t over.” He wanted to make that clear as he slid off his shoes and shrugged out of his jacket.

“Far from it,” she agreed with a nod.

He let out a sigh and sat on the edge of the bed before lying down beside her. It took a little maneuvering, but they found a comfortable position that didn’t agitate any of her injuries.

“I feel better already,” she hummed, her head resting on his shoulder.

“That’s not funny.”

“I’ll be fine, just give it some time.”

“That doesn’t change that it happened,” he reminded her.

“I know,” she said, giving his fingers a squeeze. “But I don’t blame you.”

Bruce turned his head and kissed the top of her head before closing his eyes.

“That makes one of us.”

#brucenat #hulkwidow #brutasha #fic #enjoy :D #Anonymous

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drabblingnonsenseofthings · 5 years ago

Text

Best Friends

A/N: I’m just a drabble writer! Something small and quick to get off my mind and something to share with the fellow fans of the fandom :) I hope you do enjoy! I do not take any requests! Since I drabble on my current obsessions :)

Ignore any grammar mistakes, I got lazy.

Super cliche but you can’t stop me 8D

Best Friends

Kihyun/Reader Word Count: 2700+

Breakups are hard. Especially if since it was a one sided breakup. That's why you're glad to have a best friend to comfort you when you're down in the dumps over some guy who decided to break your heart.

"Thanks Kihyun. I definitely needed someone today. I just don't understand why he decided to do that. Am I not enough?" You groaned and curled into Kihyun's embrace on the loveseat in your apartment. “He just doesn’t see what I see, okay. He’s losing a great woman. His loss.” Kihyun said as he holds you closer.

You and Kihyun are both curled up on the couch binging a show on Netflix together. The one thing you normally do when you’re heartbroken. Also one of the rare times he has to see you when he’s not traveling around the world for his tour and promotions. This was weeks before he had to start Monsta X’s world tour. You loved the days that you both can do nothing but binge a show and relax. He’s an idol. And you’re busy with your work life.

“Screw him. All I need is you, Kihyun. Plus you’re leaving me for like three months, how could you. I need to have all my Kiki time I can get before I won’t see your face for so long. How am I going to even last.” You whined and hold him tighter. You felt him laughing. “You should come to one of the shows then. You already went to the first show, why not the last US show? Cause I’ll miss your face too.” He said while playing with the ends of your hair. “If I got the time, I will. But otherwise you need to keep messaging me every day and send what you’re eating cause no matter what I’m going to get jealous for going overseas.” You were jealous of Kihyun being able to go everywhere and eat everything.

“Wow, you’re getting jealous of me cause of the food? Woooow.” He threw out an exasperated sigh. “I’m jealous of the food. You’re not going to even miss me.” He pouted. “Nah. Of course I’m going to miss you. But real talk. I’m jealous that you get to eat food. Speaking of food, we should eat something. We’ve potato’d long enough.” You got up from Kihyun’s arms and pulled out your phone.

“Should we order food? Chicken?”

Kihyun left for his World Tour. You were definitely lonely without your best friend. It’s like a giant void. He does try and keep you updated on where he’s at. You would talk at odd times of the day when you can. He tells you that when they got to Europe, Hyungwon fell sick. He told you everything and sent photos in mass loads when he can. The thing he never forgets is to say, “Good Morning” and “Good Night”.

What did you deserve to have a Kihyun in your life?

Within the month he was gone, you tried to fill the void he left. Such as going out on dates again. You were still sad about the last break up but life moves on, so do you.

The new dates never prevailed though. You kept comparing your date to Kihyun. This was one of the longest times he had to leave without coming back.

After a month of him leaving this time around, you realized. You were in love with your best friend. You fell for the most typical thing. Falling in love with your best friend.

And magically you decided to just book a ticket to Los Angeles, after begging your boss for a week off. You wanted to surprise him by showing up at the concert. You kept in contact with the one person who can hold a secret, Changkyun. He helped you get the concert ticket being as sly as he can be to get a backstage pass for you.

Changkyun helped you fully realize what your feelings were towards Kihyun. And he fully supported it. Changkyun also kept you updated on Kihyun as well. How he does become sad when he misses you. He talks a lot about you when you both are apart from each other.

The concert day arrived. You arrived at the venue early to meet up with Changkyun before soundcheck. They did rehearsals the day before. After meeting up with Changkyun, he sat you down for a little bit.

“I’m not sure if hyung said anything to you last night. But he fell in rehearsals and fractured his ribs. He probably didn’t say anything to you because he didn’t want to worry you.” Changkyun told you quietly. You stared at him like he had three heads. “.... That idiot. No, he didn’t say anything like that at all to me yesterday.” You sighed. Your heart feeling really heavy with worry.

“Wouldn’t this affect the concert? He shouldn’t be able to perform. He went to the hospital right? Ugh I hope he’s okay. He didn’t even tell me this. What is wrong with him?” You threw one too many questions at Changkyun. He looked a little solemn at the situation. “Well, he insisted to perform sitting down. He is very persistent on this stage. Because it’s the Staples Center. The stage we all wanted to stand on together.” You bit your lip. He wasn’t wrong. If Kihyun didn’t perform on this dream stage, he would regret it for the rest of his life.

“There will be a doctor on site for the concert, and he’ll be on some strong painkillers at least. But he will have to rest and sit out on the rest of the L.A. schedule.” Changkyun told you. He looked at his phone and stood up. “I need to get going before it too suspicious on me leaving for a long amount of time. The other hyungs besides Kihyun-hyung knows that you’re here. I told them last night. If you have any problems getting in, call me.” Changkyun waved you off and ran off into the venue.

You debated if you wanted to go in the venue early and scold Kihyun for not telling you that he got hurt. You ended up just sitting there contemplating on what you’re going to do when you see Kihyun in person after 2 and a half months.

Get mad at him for not telling you that he got hurt?

Confess your feelings for him before the show?

Not see him at all until the concert starts, so he stays focused and not hurt himself even more?

You groaned and laid your head down on the table. You want to see him but you realized you should really wait until after the show to see him. He might see you in the crowd anyways. He knows how to always find you.

With that thought in mind, you decided to go see him anyways. You’re worried that he will over exert himself on his injury. A little scolding doesn’t hurt.

Strolling through security and into the backstage area, you manage to not get too lost on maneuvering around to the backstage area. You’ve seen a few familiar faces but not alot. Eventually you bumped into Jooheon who was playing with his niece Oli. Jooheon’s face lit up and directed you where Kihyun is without disrupting his play time with his niece.

Your heart felt heavy at the same time fluttering being able to see the best friend you fell in love with. You knocked on the door lightly and waited before hearing a confirmation on the other side.

You peeked your head in, and see that Kihyun was laying down, not in his full stage outfit resting on the couch that was provided. He had his eyes closed but you can see him breathing slowly to reduce the pain from his chest.

“Hey.” You said. And immediately Kihyun whipped his head over towards you with a giant shock. Struggling to get up safely to greet you better, but the pain got the better of him and he groans out, plopping back down on the couch. “Yah. Stay down you idiot. I don’t want you worse before your show. Why didn’t you tell me you hurt yourself?” You said as you pulled up a chair to sit next to him by the couch.

“You didn’t tell me that you were coming.” He pouted. You rolled your eyes at him. “Because it was a surprise. My surprise was getting news of you hurting yourself.” He pouted and looked away. “I just didn’t want you to worry. Granted you would’ve gotten really mad if you learned it from the official post the company is going to post soon.” He said as he looked elsewhere besides your face. Sighing away, you grabbed Kihyun’s hand that rested on his chest and rubbed it softly. A little dry due to the weather, but it’s Kihyun in front of you, still alive.

“Just let me know next time.. You make me worried. I miss you, ya know.” Mindlessly rubbing your fingers on his hand, like your hands are trying to memorize his hands like it’s the last thing on Earth. You didn’t notice that he was staring at you as you started talking again. “I begged my boss for a week off to see you. Be happy about that. I’m happy I’m here to see you but I can’t even hug you after not seeing you for so long cause you’re hurt. All I can do right now is to hold your hand but it’s not enough for me.” You ranted.

You were definitely in love with Kihyun.

Never feeling like this before, where you want to cry after seeing someone you love, in pain.

“Don’t just lay there, say something Kihyun…” You pouted and looked up at him and locked eyes with him. His face was definitely pink. You can see a slight sheen of sweat on his forehead. You bit your lip in resistance because of your heart about to burst out of your chest.

Kihyun opens and closes his mouth a few times and swallowed. His heart felt so full. He can’t form the words to say to Y/N. “I…--”

Suddenly interrupted by Minhyuk who opened the door abruptly. “Ah! Y/N you’re here! Thank god. Kihyun would not shut up how much he missed you. I kept telling him to tell--” Minhyuk rambled on and Kihyun panicked. “MINHYUK. What is that you need?” Kihyun interrupted his monologue. But also took his hand away from Y/N because he shouldn’t have yelled like that cause the pain just shot up quick. The interruption from Minhyuk quelled down his feelings.

You were a little shocked from the outburst from Kihyun because it was a lot louder than he should have shouted. You glared at him and he gave a small ‘oops’ grin. “Oh what was I here for again? RIGHT. We need to get ready. Show starts in 45 minutes! Gotta finish putting costumes on and we gotta take some pictures and get ready!” Minhyuk said helped Kihyun up from the couch. You helped out as well.

“I’ll go see the other guys. Go get ready first. I’ll talk to you later.” You waved him off as he gets kidnapped by Minhyuk off to the coordi.

You got to see Monsta X as a full group and completely dressed. You gave them your luck and told them that you’ll go out with the crowd to watch the stage from the frontal view from the General Standing with the rest of the Monbebes.

As the concert progressed you do see the chair dedicated for Kihyun. And everytime he stood up, you wished you could go on the stage and tell him to sit his injured butt back down. You were pretty sure almost everyone else who saw the message also was like that man needs to sit down.

You were proud of him though. Withstanding the pain from his chest to show his compassion for the LA show to the Monbebes at the venue and those who were watching on VLive around the world. You definitely could not keep your eyes off of him though. His unit stage, where he literally looked like a boss. His body rolls, that he shouldn’t be doing at all, during Oh My. His high notes during any song. The love in his eyes for Monbebes.

That’s your best friend. On stage being the best he can be for his fans. The one and only Yoo Kihyun.

Right before the show ended, you went backstage to greet them and congratulate them on a wonderful show before greeting the Monbebes for their event.

When they all came back, they all had a sad smile because it was their last show for the US tour. They see the end of their concert tour. Of course they were greeted immediately by their makeup crew and coordi. Kihyun was seen by the doctors immediately after the stage, making sure everything is ok with him because he has definitely overexerted himself for sure. After he was attended to. He was to sit down before the hi-touch event.

Kihyun had waved you over and grabbed your hands as soon as you came within vicinity. Everyone else was prepping for the hi-touch. He looked up at you, since you were standing in front of him. There was a certain look in his eyes that you couldn’t pin down. You looked a little confused, but at the same time, your heart couldn’t stop beating so fast.

“I wanted to tell you something before Minhyuk interrupted before the show.” Kihyun said, then started to mimic the way you were playing with his hands before the show.

“We’re best friends right?” He asked. You simply nodded. “What happens if I… If I want to be more than that?” He looked straight into your eyes like he was trying to find the answer that question. “I love you, Y/N. Like more than a best friend. These past almost 3 months have been painfully hard for me. I knew in my heart I loved you, I was just in a lot of denial. I missed you too much and nagged the guys to the point they figured out that I like you. ALOT. Soooo… will you do the honors and be my girlfriend?” He whispered to a point no one else around us can hear him but just you.

You wanted to jump on him and say yes. You had to soak all of that in. Yoo Kihyun confessed first. He asked first. You opened your mouth but your words couldn’t come out. He looked slightly worried since you haven’t moved or said anything in a disturbing amount of time. “Are you breathing, Y/N?” He questioned your state. “Yes.” That’s all you can manage out of your mouth at that moment. “On both.”

“I like like you too, Kihyun. I love you more than a best friend.. It took me those months as well to figure out that I liked you a lot as well.” You whispered to him as well. You can feel your face burn up quickly into a blush. You looked away from his face but he just moves with you to see your reaction. And all you can see is Kihyun’s big grin and pink ears from his sudden confession. His hands gripped a little harder.

“Wow can’t believe we both fell for the best friend trope.” Kihyun remarked. “I’d kiss you right now but that’s not a good idea.” He grinned. “Of course it isn’t a good idea. We’re surrounded by too many people.” You told him while swinging his arms gently back and forth.

“Also Kiki. Do Monbebes, me, and a doctor a favor. And sit your ass down more often. You know many times I’ve heard, ‘Kihyun, sit your ass back down’ at the concert. Too many. But otherwise, you did wonderful. I love the show. It was amazing, even if you messed up a little bit.” You told him and stuck your tongue out at the end of your little rant. He gave you a little face. "Don't remind me. Everyone else has laughed at me for it." Kihyun whined. "But what are best friends for?" You remarked and winked back.

#monsta x #monstax #monsta x scenarios #yoo kihyun #kihyun #kihyun scenarios #imwhippedforkihyunplssaveme

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darkstache-iplier · 6 years ago

Text

ABO verse - a Septiplier fanfic (Chapter 1)

I’m putting it on the title, so please, if you don’t like Septiplier (Jack/Mark) or abo (alpha/beta/omega) fanfics, please do not read this.

You’ve been warned.

NSFW chapters will be tagged and warned as such.

-----------

When they began their youtube carriers, they made a very important decision: because of the hate they would receive in case they said the truth, they decided to lie.

Unlike Felix, Mark and Sean were not Betas. And by not being Betas, that meaning, by being minority, since the world was mostly made by betas, they decided to hide their true breeds.

Because Sean McLoughlin was an alpha, and Mark Fischbach was an omega, and they really, really didn't want to profit out of their 'unlikeness' like many youtubers did.

They wanted to be gamers.

And be known by being gamers only.

--------

"Thank you guys so much for watching! If you liked it, PUNCH that like button in the face, like a BOSS and! High fives all around! Wapish, wapish. Thank you guys and I will see all you dudes... IN THE NEXT VIDEO!"

Sean chuckled softly once he finished his outro, pulling his hat down and turning the camera off, just in time for his phone to buzz with a message.

When he picked up, his attention peaked and he grinned, knowing exactly who it was.

'Excited for next week?' – MF

Sean sighed happily and closed his eyes for a second. Next week. Next week! He was going to meet Markiplier next week!

Holy shit, what had his life become.

'Super excited!!!!' – SM

'Don't get so excited buddy, me and my friends are boring as shit' – MF

'Doubt it!' – SM

Honestly, it didn't even matter. Just knowing them would be amazing.

Mark sent him a winky face and Sean chuckled deeply, shaking his head and turning back to his computer. It was already ten pm and he hadn't even started to work on the video that had to come up in two days.

Sean groaned deeply and rubbed his eyes. He didn't want to work but he had to. He stood up, to make some good and strong cup of coffee, to be able to stay awake during night to do all he needed to do. In two or so days, he would be flying off to the USA for the first time.

He couldn't be more excited.

Never he had thought that being a Youtuber would make him do all he wanted to do, and more! This was all a dream come true!

As he made his coffee and waited for it to go down, he suddenly remembered something very important and checked the drawers of the kitchen. He hummed when he found what he wanted, but frowned when he saw he had only one pill left.

He would have to buy more Alpha hormones suppressants in the next morning. He couldn't possibly forget them.

They were going to meet up with fans. Some could be other alphas or even omegas, and that would be very indelicate if he just showed off exhaling something strong, specially when he claimed for the whole internet that he was a beta.

Sean sighed, shaking his head to himself and grabbing his coffee as he returned to his room. He hated, hate lying. He thought people deserved his honesty. But honestly, being an Alpha in society nowadays was pretty much as dangerous as being an omega. Those two breeds, as much as Sean knew about it (which wasn't much) had been decaying around the ages. The population was mostly formed of betas by now, making alphas and omegas rarity, and something people either hated for their 'old ways' (which wasn't their fault but oh well) or fetished, wanting to have an omega or an alpha for themselves to show off.

His whole childhood had been very difficult because of it, with kids not wanting to be his friend because they thought he would attack someone because of his heightened instincts, or people wanting to be his friend only to show off they had an alpha friend, or even worst: the ones that bullied him for being a small alpha.

Because honestly? In modern society, Alphas were still huge. But Sean... he was small, thin, weak, and he didn't really show off that Alpha breeding. So other kids usually made fun of him, making him decide when he was 14 that he wanted to get suppressants and just pass as a beta.

All his siblings were betas, he could be one too.

Since then, he had been living that life. Taking pills every day to hide off his scent, and trying to pass as 'normal'. As a beta.

It was easier than he thought, honestly, even if it was a bit annoying.

He just hoped that his fans that were omegas and alphas knew that like, they were closer to him than they thought.

Pushing those thoughts away and sitting down by his computer again, he began working on the videos for the next day and next week. He had filmed a few cool games, and he even had a silly video based in one of Mark's own. He just loved Mark's sketches. They were so cool.

Mark seemed to be a great guy. He talked to Sean, thought he was funny, watched his videos and liked all of them, and now they were going to finally meet and like, Sean couldn't be happier. Mark was like an idol, even though he had to pretend he wasn't, because like, how embarrassing it would be if he just acted like a fan?

They were equals, as much as career said, and if they were going places together with Mark's friends, they could also be considered friends.

Right?

Sean groaned and rubbed his face, shaking his head and focusing back on the video. He had no time to deal with this. He had to focus and finish everything and then he could go all fanboy on the thought of meeting all those cool people.

Now, he had to focus.

----------

Mark put his phone away when he heard the doorbell ring. He had been sending messages to some people, one of them being that Irish boy Jack that would be coming over next week.

He stood up from the couch, and unlocked the door, his smile growing when he saw Bob and Wade standing outside his door.

"Guys!" he said happily, opening his arms, and both of his best friends walked in, giving him a hug. "Oh boy, you guys got here early!"

"Yeah, we wanted to eat out of your pocket money" Bob said, and Wade chuckled as Mark smirked and made a face.

"Asshole" he mumbled and closed the door. "Well anyway, we are alone by now since the Cyndago guys left to let the house for us during the next week" he shrugged, and Bob nodded, putting his bag down.

"Yeah no one cares where's the food" he said, dryly, and Mark snorted loudly, making Bob smile.

"Want Pizza, Chinese, or what?" Mark asked, reaching for his phone and looking down as he searched for the phones. Bob and Wade looked at each other and hummed.

"Chinese" Wade nodded, and Bob agreed. Mark nodded and sat down, and they did the same, looking at Mark as he ordered.

"Okay so I ordered a lot of stuff" he said after he finished, putting the phone down and laying on the couch, humming. "Now, update me on stuff"

"Wow, thank you for your hospitality" Wade said, sarcastically, and Mark shrugged, looking at him.

"You guys are family, nothing to worry about"

"Well, life is normal" Bob said, shrugging, and Mark looked up at him. "You are the one that should update us on what's going on. You're moving everywhere, all the time, found a cool group of guys to replace us, all that good shit"

"Come on, I didn't replace you" he chuckled and shrugged, hugging the closest pillow. "They are just cool and they like my voice and they are friends. We have a lot of fun together"

"Wink wonk" wade said, and Mark threw the pillow at him.

"Shut up" he chuckled and laid down again. "I have a girlfriend, you know?"

"Oh yeah" Bob said, and Mark looked at him. "About that, weren't you guys going to break up?"

"Well... honestly I'm trying" Mark said, looking up at the ceiling again. "But she just doesn't get it. She says we need time, that she loves me very much, all that shit... I just don't know" he shrugged softly.

"I still think she only likes you because of your breed" Wade said, seriously, and Mark opened his eyes, cheeks burning out of embarrassment as he groaned.

"She doesn’t know" he growled and looked at him, and Bob sighed.

"Mark. Everyone that spends more than a month around you just know. It's impossible to hide your scent all the time" he said softly, and Mark groaned, turning away from the on the couch.

"I wouldn't have invited you if I knew this would become a breed conversation" he huffed, and both Bob and Wade looked at each other, and then at Mark.

"Okay sorry. We won't talk about it" Bob said, smiling as Mark's back relaxed and he moved back to facing them. "You have been working out too, I see"

"yeah... I kinda have to if I want to hide from people that watch me every day" he chuckled, and Wade shook his head, smiling.

"You are very passing, don't worry" Wade assured, and Mark chuckled, lifting his arm and flexing it.

"Check these guns" he said, kissing his biceps, and both Wade and Bob began laughing loudly as Mark showed off all his muscles and how his working out had been helping.

After that, the mood lightened, and they talked about their lives until the food arrived. Then, they picked it up, and ate it while watching some stupid show on TV. While they did, another topic came up, and as such, they began talking about it.

"What about that Jack guy that is coming over next week? Your new internet friend?" Bob asked, and Mark chuckled, nodding slowly.

"Jack? Yeah he is coming to LA to meet us. He is very, veeeeery excited to meet you guys. And me" he winked, and Wade chuckled.

"Well, by what we have played together and talked, he really does seem like a cool guy. I can't wait to meet him" he said, honestly, and Mark nodded, smiling.

"yeah. I think it will be nice to meet my little internet friend" he agreed, eating another bite of his food. "He is a beta too, so like, super chill"

"Cool, we are gonna bond" Bob said, grinning, and Mark laughed loudly.

"Hey, don't steal my friend!" he whined and both Bob and Wade laughed loudly, Mark joining soon after before the laugher died and so did the noise.

Mark liked it. He liked that he could just chill with his friends and not think about anything for a while. He already had his videos ready for this week, and now he just needed to order some suppressants and enjoy the week that would follow.

It would be the beginning of a great friendship, he could feel it.

He couldn't wait.

@cookieface678

#my fanfic #septiplier #DONT TAG THEM I SWEAR I WILL BLOCK AAND REPORT YOU #reblogs and likes are appreciated #abo verse #alpha beta omega universe #omega mark #alpha jack #thats weird tagging #;D

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ryik-the-writer · 6 years ago

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Rumbelle Fic: Marinara on Main (6/?)

A03

Has it really been a year since I updated this? Damn I suck XD

-,-,-,-,-,-

The one week of mandatory recovery and therapy had to be the slowest and most boring time of Belle’s life.

Sure there were some interesting moments, like when Jefferson brought his daughter Grace over to paint her toenails (sparkly and messy but still appreciated) and she cried from being able to feel the tickling of the brush. Or when Will snuck a bag of plastic stars from the children’s ward and glued them to the ceiling above her bed. It was a much better site than the blasé roof, even if she did get a few curious looks from the nurses.

Merlin did his best to stop by between his breaks, but he helping Moe carry the business while she was out of commission. She swore if she ever came across a hefty inheritance from a distant mysterious relative, she’d sign it away to him. Well, maybe two thirds of it. Girl had to pay her bills after all.

Her most consistent visits were from her father, who had reluctantly come around to Belle temporarily moving in with Mr. Gold, and Mr. Gold himself.

Moe French would spend roughly an hour at Belle’s bedside, usually texting Merlin with status updates on the business or what things to pack up for Belle. It was quiet and Belle saw his eyes maybe twice, but it wasn’t as tense as it could have been and he always kissed her goodbye.

Mr. Gold’s visits were much more pleasant. He would roll into the room as soon as Moe left, carrying with him some kind of treat his right-hand man Dove would smuggle in to share. Sometimes, if his medicine didn’t have him too lightheaded, and if she wasn’t too exhausted from physical therapy, he’d read whatever magazines the waiting room had on hand. She particularly liked the cooking magazines.

“Okay, read the strawberry tart recipe again.” Belle requested, slowing jotting down the ingredients. She had begun to regain movement in her limbs on her second day, and with a little help from the nurses, she could sit up in bed. Walking was still a challenge, but Dr. Whale was lending her a walker to assist her until she was healed enough to walk on her own.

Mr. Gold chuckled at her enthusiasm, flipping the page back. “You do know I can just rip them out, right?”

“Don’t you dare!” Belle gasped.

Mr. Gold shook his head in amusement. “1¼ cups of flour…”

Belle watched him in appreciation. He was able to open his black eye now, and most of his stitches had been removed. The only noticeable proof of last week’s catastrophe was the scabbed indention above his eye that would soon become a scar. Despite the horrible way he had received it, Belle couldn’t help but thing he’d look rather handsome with a few rustic scars.

A knock on the door cut Mr. Gold off from his reading. He and Belle turned to see Dr. Whale smiling at them.

“Yes?” Gold growled.

The doctor stiffened and flipped through his clipboard. “You and Miss French will be ready to check out this afternoon.”

“Bloody brilliant!” Mr. Gold exclaimed as he rolled closer to the doctor. “I’ll take the release forms now.”

“In a moment. I have to read you a few check-out policies, procedure you know.”

“Oh for the love of…” Mr. Gold held his tongue, not wanting to stress Belle or lose his temper in front of her.

“Could I at least start filling them out? I promise I won’t let him leave.” Belle negotiated, amused.

The doctor looked back and forth between the couple before sighing and handing Mr. Gold the forms.

“Please don’t make me lose my license.”

“I never make promises, only deals.” Mr. Gold replied, rolling backwards to Belle’s bedside. He was becoming too skilled in a wheelchair and needed to leave as soon as possible.

“Don’t be cruel, he’s only doing his job.” Belle chastised Mr. Gold as soon as the doctor left.

Gold leveled the clipboard and started filling out the papers with a mutter of irritation.

Belle only laughed. If she was going to be living with him for an unspecific amount of time, she’d have to get used to his bouts of playful pouting. It was amazing to think that they hadn’t been dating long at all, and unofficially moving in together would undoubtedly bring out some of their more unappealing traits.

Within the hour, Belle and Mr. Gold were being rolled out the hospital. Mr. Gold was swearing at the tight-lipped, stern nurse that he could “bloody well walk with his cane”.

“Hospital policy.” The nurse barked, all but dumping him in the drop-off zone. Mr. Gold jumped from the chair, growling as he steadied himself on his cane and limped to Belle’s side.

“The nerve.” He huffed, hiding a grin when Belle laughed into her hand.

“Are you sure you should be walking?” Belle inquired, nodding to his heavily bandaged leg underneath his expensive pants leg. Dr. Whale had insisted they dress comfortably until their injuries healed, yet Mr. Gold was dressed to the t’s in his nice clothes why Belle had swung for a gently worn sundress.

“I’m fine, really.” Mr. Gold assured, though he leaned more heavily on his cane. “I sprained it more than anything. None of the screws were bent in anyway. I won’t even need therapy.”

Belle nodded and looked down guiltily. She felt Gold tuck her hair back and kiss the edge of her ear, the effort causing him to shake.

“I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.”

Belle smiled, picking up the hand resting on the back of the wheelchair and giving it kiss. “My hero. But, you really should sit down.”

Mr. Gold pulled his discarded wheelchair closer to Belle and sat down with a relieved grumble.

Conversation seized between them and in no time, they watched in surprise as Mr. Gold’s Cadillac pulled around the drop-off zone.

“How…” Belle gasped when it rolled in more closely. Other than the slightly discolored grill, it looked exactly as it had before the accident.

“Billy the mechanic owed me a favor.” Mr. Gold shrugged. “He did a lot better than I thought he would.”

Belle nodded as a tall man, presumably Dove, stepped from the driver’s seat. Belle had only seen him a few times during her deliveries but had never had the opportunity to speak to him more personally.

“Mr. Gold,” he nodded professionally, turning a light smile down to Belle. “Miss French.”

“Hello.” Belle smiled back, his tall height along with her wheelchair sitting causing her head to spin.

Mr. Gold stood from the chair and stepped over to the car, intending to be a gentleman and open the back door. However, he found the back seat occupied by none other than his son.

“Baelfire.” Gold greeted sternly. “Is there an early release day I forgot about or are you skipping school?”

“Let’s go with the first one.” Bae smirked as he slid from the back. “You look good for a guy who nearly got wrapped around a tree.”

“Not funny.” He growled, motioning him to stand aside so that Belle could slide in.

She took Gold’s hand as Dove released her into Gold’s grip. She felt stiff from the effort, but more embarrassed that it took three people to get her into a car. She hoped she could be more independent during her stay at Gold’s. She refused to be a burden to anyone, especially her somewhat-boyfriend and his son.

“I should probably sit in the back with Miss Belle.” Bae whispered. “Wouldn’t want you two to get too excited while you’re in recovery.”

Belle bit back a giggled while Mr. Gold’s face erupted in flame.

“One more crack like that and I’m going to un-overlook you playing hooky today.” He warned, not meeting Belle’s eyes as he crawled into the front seat.

The ride was quiet and slow, and Belle was thankful to see the outside world. Her stomach flopped a bit when they eased into the driveway of the salmon mansion. Before her and Mr. Gold’s relationship—or what any rational person would call it—began, she used to be so excited and giddy at the thought of a few stolen seconds with him. As soon as the pizza was out of her hands, they were just Belle and Mr. Gold, not pizza delivery girl and customer.

Now they were going to be temporary roommates, and while some women would see that scenario as an erotic fantasy come to life, Belle couldn’t help but feel sickeningly nervous.

“It feels strange pulling up without a pizza in my hands.” Belle smirked, hoping humor would lift her mood.

Luckily, Mr. Gold chuckled and sent her a gentle smile through the rearview mirror.

“Speaking of pizza, do you think we could still order one tonight?” Baelfire inquired. “It is Friday after all.”

A tense air filled the car, and Mr. Gold could see Belle’s nails digging into the leather seating. Belle’s father nor Merlin had told her what they were doing about deliveries, but judging by how stressed they both were (yes, Belle could tell no matter how much they tried to hide it), probably not very good.

“Miss French.”

Belle looked up to find Dove standing over her, offering his hand with a gentle smile.

Dove helped her sit on the edge of the seat while he grabbed her walker from the trunk. Belle felt so embarrassed to have to use it but noted to herself to count her blessings that she hadn’t been paralyzed in the crash. She’d only have to use it for a few weeks, and would be back to rolling pizza dough in a month, give or take. She hoped to move the process up a bit, hoped she could push herself to make a miraculous recovery.

“Mr. Knight dropped a bag off this morning.” Dove stated as he helped her get a grip on her walker.

“Yes, my father mentioned he would yesterday.” Belle said with a hiss.

Mr. Gold seethed as he tried to get out of the car by himself, his leg screaming in protest. It was time for more of his pain meds and that would mean an early night, the last thing he wanted with Belle’s first night in his home.

Baelfire stood beside his father and watched Dove escort Belle into the house, her bag in his opposite hand.

“What’s with the frown?” Baelfire smirked. “You’re not jealous, are you?”

Gold glared at his son. “Of course not. Don’t you have homework?”

“It’s Friday.” Bae reminded him as he swayed to the house. “And I’m ordering pizza.”

“Fine.” Gold agreed with a sigh. He was so tired he would probably sign over the deed to the house if Bae asked for it. “I’ll send Dove to pick it up.”

Bae turned, confused. “Why can’t we have it delivered?”

“Just…I don’t know about their delivery status right now.” Gold sighed as he limped into the house. “Just go with Dove, alright?”

Bae sighed, sensing that there was more to the story decided to push for details on an empty stomach. “Fine.”

Gold looked around the corner, nodding in approval at how the furniture had been moved. The room he had Belle set up in was more of a small parlor connected to the downstairs bathroom. He had been meaning to take out the wall that separated the room and the living room but was not glad he had put it off.

He stepped into the room to find down waiting by the bathroom door.

“She’s changing.” Dove stated simply.

Gold nodded. “I owe you a great debt for all you’ve done.”

Dove shrugged. “I’ll remember that the next time my nephew’s soccer team sells chocolate bars.”

Mr. Gold chuckled, his breath stilling when the bathroom door opened and Belle stepped out. She wore a loose pair of men’s pajamas, the little pocket on the shirt ripped in the middle. Her feet were bare and her hair mused, and she had forgone the walker to take on the short space.

She looked absolutely stunning.

“Comfortable?” he teased.

“My limbs feel like noodles. I feel great.” she laughed, using Dove’s offered hand to help her sit on the bed.

“Bae wanted to pick up pizza for dinner, is that okay with you?”

Belle smiled sheepishly, tucking her curls behind her ear. “I just took a pain pill…”

“Say no more.” Gold smiled.

“Sorry.”

“Not at all, I think I may follow suit.”

Belle nodded, the pill kicking in faster than she thought it would.

“I’ll…check on you later?” Gold suggested.

“I’d like that.” Belle said drowsily, carefully curling her legs onto the bed.

He didn’t take his eyes off of her until Dove closed the door.

“This is going to be an interesting few weeks.” Dove said, the teasing nature of his voice a earning him a glare from his employer.

“I’m going to take a pill.” Gold growled.

-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-

When Belle opened her eyes again, it was dark outside and her head was swimming. She groggily felt on the nightstand for her phone. She blinked the itchy tears away until her eyes adjusted to the light. 2:11 a.m. Damn, she had slept the whole day!

Belle groaned, wishing she would fall right back to sleep. However, she was wide awake now, and her back was cramping. She needed to walk around, maybe get a snack from the kitchen. She hadn’t eaten since her barely passable breakfast at the hospital.

Her muscles cramped as she sat up, her lungs feeling smaller. She took several deep breaths before she reached for her walker.

She did her best to enter the kitchen quietly, which was hard to do with a clunky walker loudly tapping on the hardwood. After some hassling she found the light switch and was immediately floored with awe at the site of Gold’s antique kitchen.

A large, stainless steel refrigerator purred near the back door while several cooking tools awaited silently to be used. Her kitchen apartment above French Bread could probably fit in this kitchen, and she bet all the eyes on the stove worked as well.

With renewed excitement she limped to the pantry and searched its contents. She hummed, noting a packet of yeast on the top. Gripping the walker with one hand, she stretched on her toes to reach the things she needed, hissing as her back cramped from the effort.

“Need a hand with that?”

Belle twisted around, grabbing her walker before she could fall.

Baelfire hissed. “Sorry.”

“No it’s fine.” Belle gasped, stepping aside. He was just about her height, maybe a few inches shorter than his father, but he reached the yeast packet with less effort than she had.

“Thanks.” Belle smiled. “Did I wake you?”

“Nah,” Bae assured, leaning on the counter. “My sleep cycle’s been off this week with Dad in the hospital.”

Belle looked at the teen, his curly hair disrupted from restless sleep, the color under his eyes too dark for a boy his age.

“So whatcha making?” Bae inquired, smiling brightly despite the later hour.

“Don’t laugh, but I was going to make pizza. But if you want something else…”

“No, pizza sounds great. The one I ordered earlier was…I don’t know, bland?”

Belle chuckled. “Dad must have made the sauce. It’s his recipe but he never makes it right.”

Bae chuckled. “Is everything you guys make your dad’s creation?”

Belle shrugged as she scooped flour out of the properly labeled container on the counter. “Technically yes, but Merlin and I add our own flair to each thing we cook. The recipe’s always different each time, but there’s always a few ingredients that never change.” She said with a wink.

Bae nodded. “Anything I can do to help?”

Belle hummed. “Do you have a food processor?”

Bae nodded and opened one of the cabinets, pulling the processor out with ease.

“Great. Get out what you want on the pizza. Do we have enough cheese?”

Bae pulled a pile of things from the refrigerator, including a nearly empty bag of shredded mozzarella.

Belle surveyed what else he had brought out and nodded as she put a recipe together in her head.

“How fresh is that cream?”

Bae bravely opened the carton and smelled the dairy substance, sighing with relief when he didn’t smell anything sour.

“Great, find me a pan and some butter and we can make alfredo pizza.”

“Sweet!” Bae cheered, obeying Belle’s instructions.

Soon enough the teen was helping her chop chicken and kneed pizza dough, chuckling when she flicked flour in his curls.

“This is great.” Bae said as Belle sprinkled oregano on the pizza. “I’ve been living off diner food and cereal all week. I never though I’d miss home cooking so much.”

Belle paused in her pizza-making, her eyes looking over his lanky frame.

“Baelfire I’m…I’m sorry about all of this.”

Bae looked around the kitchen, confused. “The flour will come off the counters.”

Belle scoffed. “No, I mean for the accident. For borrowing your dad’s car. For his injury. Everything.”

Bae stared at her, unsure what he could say to make her feel better. Whenever he and Emma fought she would just punch him in the arm and everything would be fine afterwards. Hitting her, even playfully, did not look like a good idea in her condition.

“Really, Belle, it’s fine.” Bae assured awkwardly. “It’s not like you’re a crazy girlfriend who crashed my dad’s car to keep him to yourself.”

Belle laughed at the idea, turning to put the pizza in the oven.

“I mean, I guess I was a little mad at first, but I got over it. My dad really likes you, and spending these last few weeks with you has made him happier than I’ve seen him in a long time. I’m sure there was no lost love being in the hospital with you, even if you were doped up half the time.”

Belle chuckled. “A third of the time, actually. Between you and me though, your dad’s a real lightweight.”

Bae snorted. “I bet. And while we’re dropping secrets, that bit about me living off of diner food was a white lie. Emma brought me some of her mom’s cooking to keep me going.”

“Ah, and I bet she made you dessert afterwards.” Belle teased.

Bae’s blush was as read as pizza sauce. “Well…”

“Unless you want to be grounded until you graduate, I suggest you not answer that.”

Belle and Baelfire both turned around to find Gold leaning against the doorframe, eyeing the messy countertops and his flour-dusted son with amusement.

“Bit late for a midnight snack, isn’t it?” he teased, limping in.

“More like too early.” Belle said. “It’s just after three.”

“Indeed. Smells good whatever it is.”

“Chicken alfredo pizza, enough for three.” Belle blushed as he took the seat beside her. This was the first time she had seen him wearing anything but a three-piece suit. It was almost an honor, seeing a piece of him that no one but his son had seen.

“Excellent.” he smiled, turning to his son, dusting some of the flour out of his hair. “Glad to see you’re taking up a trade, m’boy.”

“Yep,” Belle teased. “I’ll have him trained as a sous chef in no time.

Bae rolled his eyes as he went to check on the pizza. Adults were so weird.

In no time the pizza was sliced and passed around, conversation and napkins flowing easily. It was domestic if not unique scene considering the late hour. Unbeknownst to each participant, there was a mutual want to make the event—both the living arrangements and late-night pizza-making, mind you—much more permanent.

#rumbelle #rumbelle fic #ryik's fics #marinara on main

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owlways-and-forever · 7 years ago

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A/N: Well what'd'ya know, it's been a few months, but I've finally managed to crank out another chapter. I haven't been much in a writing place of mind lately, just hasn't been the frame of mind that I've been in, but I'm trying to get back in the swing of it, so hopefully I'll be able to finish this story up soon. But for now, I hope you all enjoy this [rather dramatic] chapter!

*IMPORTANT: You may have noticed that the title of the story has been changed, and that’s because I’ve decided to break this story into pieces, since it’s already pretty long, and I want to avoid having one long, 100+ chapter, 1,000,000 word leviathan that takes 10 years to finish. I will absolutely be continuing the story, I’ve just decided to split it into four different “books”. And even though they’ll all be continuous parts of the larger Better Together ‘verse, they should be pretty much readable as standalone pieces too. So hooray to that! As for this particular “book”, there will 4 more chapters before I conclude and begin the next one. That’s all I’ve got to say right now! Go check out @thosemarauderboys where you can find some awesome edits that @ginnyweasiee has been making for this story!

PLEASE GO CHECK OUT THE BLOG FOR THIS UNIVERSE @thosemarauderboys. You can find fancasts of the characters (including OCs) to see what I imagine them looking like, plus fun facts about them, and I’m trying to update with like, images and stuff as well.

Read the previous chapters at the links below, on ff.net, or ao3.

Ch 1, Ch 2, Ch 3, Ch 4, Ch 5, Ch 6, Ch 7, Ch 8, Ch 9, Ch 10, Ch 11,Ch 12, Ch 13, Ch 14, Ch 15, Ch 16, Ch 17, Ch 18, Ch 19, Ch 20, Ch 21, Ch 22, Ch 23, Ch 24

Chapter 25: Bedknobs and Broomsticks

"James?" Sirius whispered, turning over in his bed to face his friend.

"Mmmm?" James groaned in response, grabbing the pillow from under his head and folding it over his ears.

"James, I can't sleep," Sirius said more loudly, propping himself up on his elbow.

"Well could you can it for those of us who can sleep," Remus interjected, and James groaned in assent.

"Come on, let's do something," Sirius said, getting up and sitting on the edge of James' bed, bouncing slightly.

"Go to sleep," James hissed, turning over and pulling the pillow over his head.

"Come on," Sirius crooned, shaking James' shoulder, "tell me you don't want to get on your broom right now and feel the wind in your hair. I know you hate watching the Quidditch players and not being on the pitch."

It was the exact words Sirius needed to say to get James' attention, and he sat upright in bed, blinking the sleep from his eyes.

"Let's go," he said, pulling socks onto his feet and grabbing his broom from where it stood propped up against the wall.

Sirius grinned, his eyes glinting in the moonlight as he followed James' lead.

"You're going to get caught, and then McGonagall'll throw you out," Remus mumbled, his eyes only halfway open.

"She won't throw us out just for being up after hours," Sirius argued, continuing to pull on clothes. "But if you're so worried, don't come."

Remus rolled over and covered his head with the pillow, and Sirius frowned, a little disappointed. He quickly shrugged and plastered a grin on his face. Who needed Remus anyway? The two boys rushed out of the dormitory, padding through the halls as quickly and quietly as they could. When they reached the great oak doors of the Entrance Hall, James and Sirius were dismayed to find that they were firmly locked, and impervious to James' attempts to charm them open.

"Now what?" James whined, frowning. He had fully woken up by this point and was ready for a bit of fun, knowing that sleep was out of the question. Sirius considered their options for a few moments, his eyebrows pulled together in concentration. After a minute, his eyes began to glitter and a smile slid across his lips.

"Ever wondered," he preened, puffing out his chest with pride, "how high the ceiling of the Great Hall goes?"

James' face lit up with excitement and he practically began to vibrate as he considered his best friend's words.

"Let's do it," he agreed, and the two boys ran off toward the doors of the Great Hall.

The two heavy doors were closed, but not locked, and with a fair bit of effort, James and Sirius were able to push them open enough to squeeze in. With matching grins on their faces, they exchanged looks of glee and then mounted their brooms, pushing off the ground confidently. In James' opinion, nothing compared to the feeling of the air whipping through his hair, making it messier even than it was on its own. He started doing laps of the Great Hall, flipping over and doing barrel rolls and loop-the-loops, anything the adrenaline pumping through his veins told him. Sirius' cheeks were starting to turn pink as the chill of the night air and the speed that they were flying teased his skin as he followed James. He was more reserved in his flying, not nearly as confident as his best friend. Growing up in the center of London, he hadn't had as many opportunities to fly, especially considering his parents weren't tremendously fond of quidditch. They weren't staunchly opposed to the wizarding sport, but in their minds it didn't exactly constitute gentlemanly behavior, and so it was not something for their sons to participate in.

"Come on, James, let's see how high this thing goes," Sirius taunted, trying to get his best friend to stop performing tricks that he wasn't comfortable duplicating.

Grinning, James immediately grasped the front of his broomstick and yanked it upward, flattening himself to the handle as he did so, so he shot upward with a zoom. Sirius followed suit, trying to get as close to the broomstick as he could. Tricks might be a little bit beyond his comfort zone, but speed most definitely was not. They seemed to keep going up for several minutes without getting any closer to the velvety blackness above them, and Sirius was beginning to wonder whether there even was a ceiling or if the Great Hall in fact just opened onto the sky above. He slowed down and looked beneath him, and his heart skipped a beat when he saw how high up they had flown. A fall from this height would absolutely be fatal. When he looked up again, James was at least fifty feet above him, whooping with glee. Sirius was debating whether or not to call out to his friend and call off their quest - he didn't want to get hurt, but he also had a voice in his head that was challenging him to keep going - when there was a flash of light and a bang that shook the castle like thunder had struck right there in the Great Hall as the spell that had been enchanting the ceiling broke. The force of it sent Sirius tumbling backwards on his broom, and he tried desperately to regain control. As he managed to right himself, his eyes fixed on James, and his heart stopped.

James had been thrown from his broom when the spell broke, and was falling helplessly to the ground, and to his death if Sirius didn't do something. He pressed himself flat against his broom and zoomed toward James, who was rapidly approaching the floor. Even though he was sure he was flying faster than he ever had before, Sirius didn't seem to be catching up to James fast enough, and he tried to think, pulling his wand from the pocket of his dressing gown.

"Wingardium... wingardium leviosa! Wingardium leviosa! WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA!" he yelled, but his hands were shaking and he couldn't aim properly, instead missing James each time.

Cursing, Sirius shoved his wand back in his pocket and focused on flying faster, he was getting close, and he let silent prayers flow through his mind that he would reach his best friend in time. He was ten metres away from James, but James was only six from the floor, and Sirius tried to push forward faster. Seven metres away... five metres... three... he stretched out his arms and reached for James, his heart racing. He had barely wrapped his arms around James' body and heaved it upward away from its rapid descent when he realized that his trajectory was not much better as he sped toward the dais where the staff table stood. He tried desperately to redirect his broom, but it was taking all of his strength to hold onto James. Instead, Sirius folded himself in, curling around James as much as he could, trying to protect his friend as he braced himself for the crash.

It was worse than he expected. They hit the dais and he felt his bones shattering against the sandstone blocks, pain radiating through his body. He kept himself focused on James and struggled to fight the pain in his body in order to push himself up and off his friend, trying to assess the damage. He was unconscious, but Sirius wasn't sure if that was from the crash or if he had been knocked out by the force of the spell breaking. There were scrapes and cuts over James' face, and his pajamas were torn in several places. He was breathing though, and Sirius could feel his heart beating strong, so he knew he was alive. Fear gripped him still, knowing that James wasn't definitely going to be okay as long as his eyes remained closed. The pain was getting to be too much for Sirius, and he felt unconsciousness tugging at him as well, but he tried to fight it. He heard the doors of the Great Hall burst open and saw fuzzy figures running toward them, and he thought one of them might have been Dumbledore based on the long beard. Knowing that there was someone to help them, Sirius gave in to the pain and let his eyes close.

Sirius woke up in the hospital wing, unsurprisingly. He turned his head, wincing at the way it ached, and saw James lying in the bed next to him. He also saw Mrs. Potter asleep in a chair next to James' head, and he wondered how long they had been unconscious in the hospital wing that their parents had not only been informed of their condition, but that Mrs. Potter had felt it necessary to travel all the way to Hogwarts. Guilt coursed through him, causing his insides to twist unpleasantly, and for a moment he thought he might be sick. Sirius wondered if his own parents had come to see him, the thought making him feel even more sick, but he reminded himself that his mother would probably be happy if he stupidly got himself killed at school, not distressed, like James'.

He tried to sit up, letting out a groan as he realized how much his body still hurt, despite Madam Pomfrey's ministrations, and the sound made Mrs. Potter stir. Her eyes blinked open and she instinctively looked at her son, her face falling a bit when she realized that he was still unconscious. She smoothed down a lock of his hair and looked over at Sirius, giving him a weak smile.

"You must be James' friend," she said kindly, looking him over.

"Yeah, I'm Sirius," he answered, but he found he couldn't meet her eyes, knowing that it was his fault her son was lying in the hospital wing.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Sirius," she replied politely, and she stood up, looking down at her son and smoothing his hair once more. "I'll just go fetch Madam Pomfrey so she can give you a look over."

"Thanks," Sirius mumbled as Mrs. Potter walked away.

A few moments later, she returned, accompanied by Madam Pomfrey, who was wearing a stern expression on her face. The matron began busying herself around Sirius, checking his pulse and prodding his body, much to his chagrin.

"You had a lot of broken bones," she informed him as he winced, "but I've mended those. You'll be a bit sore, but no worse for the wear in the long run."

"Thank you," Sirius mumbled again, but he turned to look at his friend. "Will James...?"

"I hope he'll make a full recovery," Madam Pomfrey answered, her voice low and disapproving, "but I won't know more until he wakes up."

Sirius nodded, trying to swallow around the lump in his throat. The door to the hospital wing opened and Professor McGonagall walked through, approaching Sirius with a stern expression on her face.

"Mr. Black," she said, "I'm glad to see you conscious again. We can now begin discussions on how misguided your actions were and what the consequences might be."

"Yes, Professor," he answered, staring at his hands folded in his lap.

"Are you aware that you damaged a very complex and dangerous spell that has taken considerable effort to repair and in doing so risked the lives of both yourself and your friend?" she asked.

"Yes, Professor," Sirius said again, sullenly. He felt a deep sense of shame at Professor McGonagall's words.

"What on earth inspired you to do something so completely idiotic?" she hissed, her voice dangerously high pitched, and Sirius was fairly certain she would be shrieking if it weren't for James and Mrs. Potter.

"I couldn't sleep," he whispered, barely audible, "and we wanted to fly."

"You couldn't sleep so you decided to risk your lives instead," Professor McGonagall clarified, pursing her lips until they were a barely visible line.

Sirius couldn't even bear to answer her, guilt was twisting in his gut and he felt tears stinging his eyes as he fought to keep them from spilling forth. His lip began to tremble and he twisted his hands together in his lap.

Professor McGonagall watched him carefully and saw how deeply upset he was. She couldn't exactly not punish him, but she didn't have the heart to be as harsh as she initially planned. It was clear that he was affected by his actions and the danger his best friend was in. She sighed heavily and sat down at the foot of Sirius' bed, patting him lightly on his shin.

"Because of your actions, first years have been banned from possessing broomsticks on school grounds," she said softly. "I have taken the liberty of sending your broomstick back to your parents, along with an explanation of what happened. Mr. Potter's broomstick was... well, there was not much to send home, it was rather damaged."

"He's going to be so mad," Sirius groaned, still not looking up at Professor McGonagall.

"Furthermore," she continued, "each of you will receive five detentions, to be served with myself over the course of the next month, and Gryffindor house will lose 50 points for each of you."

"Is that... is that all?" Sirius asked hesitantly, looking up at her from under his lashes.

"Idiotic though your actions may have been," Professor McGonagall answered carefully, "they were not malicious. And I believe Mr. Potter's current condition is quite a punishment for both of you."

Sirius nodded severely, taking Professor McGonagall's words to heart. He understood that they were not being punished more because the knowledge that his idea could easily have killed his best friend would be enough to torment him forever.

"Mrs. Potter," Professor McGonagall said suddenly, standing and turning to the next bed, "may I have a word outside?"

"Of course, Minerva," the other woman replied, and they both walked out of the hospital wing to speak in the hallway beyond.

Sirius idly wondered what they could be talking about that they needed more privacy, but he quickly found his mind turned to James. He looked over at his friend who was still lying as he had been, looking so peaceful. Sirius wasn't sure how long he had been watching James when he noticed some small stirring. His hands started to twitch, fingers grasping at the sheets covering him, and his head turned from side to side slightly.

"Mummy," he croaked almost inaudibly, wetting his lips.

"James?" Sirius said excitedly, watching his friend's eyes begin to blink open.

"Sirrus?" James slurred, turning his head toward the sound of his voice, though Sirius could tell that his eyes were not focused on him.

"I'm here, mate," Sirius laughed, practically giddy that his friend had woken up. "MADAM POMFREY!"

James winced slightly at the noise, but the matron came running over, and when she saw that James was awake, she beamed.

"Mr. Potter," she sighed, sounding very relieved, "how are you feeling?"

"'ve fel' better," James answered hazily, turning his head to follow the voices.

"Of course you have," she replied soothingly as she began to examine him. After several long minutes, Madam Pomfrey smiled broadly and ceased her ministrations. "You appear to be astonishingly alright, aside from a very nasty concussion. It'll take some time for your brain to heal completely, and you may have some lasting effects, but I feel comfortable in saying that you are out of the woods. I'll go tell your mother, I'm sure she'd like to see you."

Sirius let out a small whoop of joy, his heart leaping. James smiled happily, but it was clear that he didn't fully process the information he was being told. He had apologies to make, but they could wait until James was feeling better. For the moment it was enough that his best friend was awake and would be just fine in time.

#hp #hp ff #hp fic #james potter #sirius black #better together #btmt

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themockingcrows · 8 years ago

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Whisper Just For Me: Ch. 10 - Scattered Pieces

Following a traumatic experience, you find your attention divided in twenty directions at once while you pick up the pieces of your lost evening and ruined day. You're certain you have all the pieces accounted for and it's time to finally take a rest.. till you realize the most important piece has fallen through the cracks. You can only hope you can find him before it's too late. This chapter is SFW cw: vehicular accident, medical treatment Ao3 Mirror: [X]

The driving hadn't been nearly as hard as you thought it would be once you took into consideration the brief disconnect of time from realization of what needed to be done to actually fulfilling the act with a borrowed body. The finesse wasn't there, but driving was indeed happening to the tune of a soft radio and John's panicked voice in your ears. …. DAVE. Dave, Dave this is bad, Dave pull over what if something happens. Am I dying? Am I dead?? ….

You wanted so badly to comfort him, but no amount of talking was going to comfort that fear. No. No, nothing was going to happen, John. Everything was just fine. You had this entirely in control.

The oncoming car did not have it in control.

A single moment was all it took, oncoming driver unaware of your vehicle as they pulled out onto the road, failing to look before springing into action, winding up in front of you before you could even hope to slam on the brakes and stop. You jerked the wheel sharply to the left, tried to lessen the impact, tried to do anything that your panic would allow you to do. Everything was going wrong, everything was going wrong oh God you couldn't think of how to make this be a bad dream.

One second you were driving. The next, you were becoming weightless as you heard John's scream come first from inside your head, then outside of it as the sound of metal grinding on metal rang out alongside a crunch. A sharp squeal of tires and John screaming. You screaming. Your borrowed voice and John's melded together before pain hit you and things went black as the final attempts to escape this situation failed.

You didn't remember your own death, and yet your last thoughts were a prayer that you weren't about to remember John's as you raised your hand to clasp tight at the pendant and tug the chain taught without even thinking.

- - - - - -

Everything ached. There was a throb to your head that you began noticing was strong enough that your heart beating made everything feel too warm for a moment. You saw colors pulse behind your eyelids with every hint of a thought. Each inch of your body was in painful stasis.. and at least one potential broken bone judging from the radiating field of Nope that came from your right leg. Make that two. Your nose ached as if someone had punched you full force, and attempts to breathe out of it instead of your mouth was impossible. Something felt lodged in there, or swollen.. Hard to tell.

You finally opened your eyes and stared at the ceiling with its yellow tinted light and breathed deep the scent of bottled air and disinfectant. Curtains encircled your rooms borders, keeping it safe from an open hallway that lay beyond your blanket clad feet if your guesses about the unseen approaching and departing footsteps were right. Your glasses weren't on, so you couldn't be positive about anything beyond these blurred shapes and fuzzy edged lines.

A machine softly chirped just behind the edge of your bed, and after a bit more looking you realized just what all you were hooked up to. A pulse-ox clip covered your finger, bulky but barely there pressure of plastic letting them keep track of your vitals. The coil of an IV was stuck in the back of your hand and taped in place, which also explained why your arm felt so chilled. You were kind of glad you couldn't see clearly, able to resist the temptation to lift the blankets covering you to try looking down at your leg, but you appeased yourself by lifting a hand up to gently test your nose. Aside from pain and the stuffy feeling, it seemed that there was a bandage setup on your nose and over the edges of your cheeks to guard the bridge.

“John!” a familiar voice said from somewhere to your right. Shit, you hadn't even noticed anyone else was here, let alone so close. You blinked a few times in quick succession as Jade surged into view, crisper the closer she came. “Oh, John, you're finally awake again, I was -this- close to pinching you to wake you up. How do you feel? Do you need more painkiller? Should I call the nurse?”

“Again?” you asked quietly, racking your brain. You were pretty sure you'd remember being in the hospital, let alone getting here. “We were at the aquarium and then.... Jade, how'd you get here?”

“I'm your emergency contact on things, remember? Me and your dad? I think he might have been busy or his phone was on silent, but I answered after the first ring or two,” she said while rising from the chair she'd been inhabiting, setting aside her book and phone for now before leaning over you and hugging you tight as a vice. “It was a hell of a wreck, you're lucky you got out of it with a messed up leg and a bump on your head... What even happened, were you speeding? The other person's a bit messed up from their airbag, but they were on the far side. Could've been much worse.”

Oh thank God, there hadn't been any deaths. “My car..”

“Basically totaled, yeah, they had to cut the door to get you out, it wouldn't open right. We'll figure out what to do about that later though.”

“I don't.. I don't remember any of that,” you said with a frown, brows furrowing. “How long was I sleeping?”

“A few hours, not too long from what they told me. You were plenty awake and worked up when you first got in apparently, but you started napping before I got here. I've been waiting for you to wake back up this whole time. Augh, have you got any idea how scary it is to get a call from a hospital like that? Worded all ambiguous like you might be on your death bed and they don't want me to panic on the way over,” she said, and your chest clenched painfully when her words slowed to a wobble and her wide eyes filled with tears. Fuck. She hardly ever cried, shit, fuck, what had those idiots SAID? Who were you going to complain to later about unnecessarily freaking out your family? Who was going to taste your fists once you could get up and about?

“Shhh, I made it though, right? I'm okay now!” you tried to say hurriedly, awkward about how to fix things aside from pointing out the good side, tried to point out the positives and run a wild headlong gamut to keep the bad as far away as humanly possible. You were just one guy, though, and it didn't always work.

Jade flapped at your attempts to be soothing and removed her glasses so she could rub her sleeve over her eyes and dry them, snorting to stop her snuffles before they could get worse.

“Don't even do that! Don't, it's okay, it just kind of hit,” she said with one more huffed snort to clear her sinuses and breathe easier. “Oh, right, right. Your dad knows what happened but he's not getting home till late apparently, he had to go out of state for business and the drive back's taking a while. I don't think they're going to admit you, but they were kind of ambiguous.. Once we're sure one way or the other we can tell him to either come here or go to your place when he's free. Sound good? I don't even know how long they're going to drag their feet just keeping you in the emergency room, a ton more people have come in and things have sounded hectic just since I got here.”

“Sound good, more like sounds -great-. I hope you at least kept him calm?”

“Calm enough as anyone can be after getting a message,” Jade sighed. “Damage done but at least soothed a bit. You waking back up and not showing any bad signs is great. You're all alert and making sense.”

You spent some time chitchatting, keeping each other calm and then going back to the usual routine of snarking and joking around. Your glasses frames had snapped from the airbag, but with a bit of medical tape and a promise to get your spares later or order another set, the gift of sight was returned to you. After more brief visits from a nurse checking on you over the course of a few hours, and administering some more exams, a doctor came in and discussed options with your x-rays in hand, and eventually got you sent off to get a cast put on. The break didn't seem serious enough to require surgery and there hadn't seemed to be any clots or venous damage, but there would be a few long months of being in a cast before you'd be given the okay to walk normally once more. Jade convinced you to go for a lighter blue cast on the premise of her wanting to draw all over it and dark blue not being good without paint markers on hand. It seemed you'd gotten exceptionally lucky. A broken leg, a nose that had to be re-set and bandaged, cuts and bruises along your face and forearms from the airbag, whiplash and mild concussion. Considering how terrible everything could have gone from start to finish, you were grateful for how things went. More updates to your father via Jade were met with excited return messages, happy that you weren't going to be facing any surgeries or more imminent problems and promising that he'd be sure to cook some of your favorite foods for you over the coming weeks while you healed.

With a prescription for pain medicine, a fresh set of crutches and several numbers to call related to followup care and information left by the police relating to your car, you finally were released to the world again with the recommendation of coming back if certain symptoms or signs began to appear. No need to end up in ICU over being stubborn, right?

Jade laughed at your awkward gait but helped stabilize you when you wobbled, unpracticed and impatient to get the pressure off your palms and armpits. It was quite a feat to get back home in the darkness and settled, but with Jade helping, everything went just fine. You were given access to remotes and fruit juice, and she even helped set up some snacks to keep near you on a tray, ready and waiting when hunger struck so you wouldn't have to hobble all the way to the kitchen and back with something clutched in your teeth at three in the morning.

It took till you were almost entirely settled, drowsing and relaxed and finally cozy to realize that something was off.

“... Dave?”

Jade looked over, then around, waiting for the usual thump or rush of breeze. When none came, she looked back towards you as you started to pat at your chest in a panic.

“Jade? Jade, where's the pendant?”

“It might be in the bag your other things were in, like your wallet and stuff,” she said, going to snag the plastic bag emblazoned with the hospital's logo, rooting through it. “..Hm. Wallet, paperwork.. Cast care. Pamphlets.. I'm not seeing it in here. When did you last have it on? The hospital?”

With growing alarm, you sat more upright and glanced around, rubbing at the part of your chest where the pendant usually sat. After having Dave around for so long as a constant force, suddenly not having him nearby felt... wrong.

“I don't remember being at the hospital before I woke up. Where could it have gone? Would it still be in the car? I had it under my shirt all day, and I don't think Dave took it out when we switched..”

Jade frowned a bit. “Switched?”

“Yeah, we uh. ..I don't know how, but it's like he was in control of my body for a while? I don't know how it happened and it wasn't on purpose, don't even get that look on your face,” you instantly followed up, noticing the wariness in Jade's eyes increase. “We were on a date and something happened and suddenly he was in control of my body and I was just kind of stuck watching everything happen.”

“Well, could it be in reverse again then? Maybe you absorbed him or something during the wreck,” she said, lifting a finger to signal she needed a moment after her cell began to chirp insistently from her pocket. “Just a second, John, let me go take this.”

“Sure, take your time,” you say, trying to wrack your brain harder. Where the hell could it have gone? If Dave wasn't here, then you had exceeded the range of the pendant in one way or another. Maybe you could get Jade to check her car, make sure it hadn't slipped there. Or call the hospital to check and see if they'd spotted it. Really, the best option would be for you to be in different spaces personally, since you could see Dave so clearly now, but you weren't sure you were up to it or if it would really be a good idea.

..When had you last seem him, though? Before the car accident for sure, he'd been driving and it was terrifying to be in a moving vehicle with no sense of the boundaries of your own body anymore. You couldn't remember being in the hospital prior to waking up with Jade at your side, which was apparently nothing shocking according to the doctor. Traumatic incidents, repressed thoughts that may probably come back or may be lost forever. Sounded a bit weird to you considering it was just a broken leg, but then again you were into the fine art of parapsychology, not the intricacies of standardized psychology and the depth and breadth of variances for trauma responses. None of which were being helpful with remembering the last time the pendant had been around your body's neck.

“John? Your dad says he's willing to come this way if you want, but because it's so late he wanted to be sure you felt up to it. Backup plan is to bust in with a waffle iron in the morning,” Jade said, hand over her phone as she popped his head around the corner to pass along the information.

“What? Waffles? Uh, yeah that might be better if he's okay with it. I don't want him to go straight from being on the road to here, especially if I was going to maybe sleep soon.”

“Maybe sleep? Were you planning on staying up now that you're back?” she asked, hand over the mouthpiece of the phone to muffle her words. “Sure thing. I'll pass it on,” Jade promised as she ducked back around the corner.

You had to get up. You needed to know where Dave was. There was no way you could sit idly by and rest or relax knowing that the last time you'd been able to talk, things have been very very strange. What if he was still in the wreck with the pendant? What if it had been stolen? Who would even steal from an emergency patient, you wondered, but didn't have to think too hard. The world was full of good people who just wanted to help, but the world also held a lot of people who really should reconsider their job. How would you even find him if a theft HAD happened? How could he get hold of you?

While Jade was busy, you reached for your crutches again and struggled to get yourself up with only a few hard wobbles and a pained wince soon as your foot went downward. You didn't thunk it on the floor at least, but the difference between it being up and down was staggering as the difference between being hooked to an IV full of painkiller and fluids and coming down from it with only tablets to see you through your recovery for the foreseeable future. The aching throb slowly starting up was a pretty good indication of how bad this could get... you were glad you couldn't remember the actual break at all.

Dave wasn't in the apartment. Maybe he was down by the car? Or.. Or maybe at the hospital still, where was your phone? Jade didn't say it was in the bag, maybe it was but was out of sight. Or maybe it'd been in the car still? Oh, god. Your mind raced a million miles an hour as you locked up, looking between the plastic hospital bag and the front door, trying to debate your options.

“John, what the hell are you doing up? Couch! Go put your foot back up and lay back, you just got home, don't make things worse so you HAVE to go back!” Jade said as she returned, phone call apparently done in time to bust you red handed. “What's so important that you're needing up right this second, do you need the bathroom or something?”

“No! No, Jade, we need to go back to the hospital. Or my car. Or.. Or the curb by YOUR car, I don't know, we need to move though,” you insist, taking a determined crutch step towards the door before Jade could block you and try once more to guide you back to the couch. “Jade come on, we need to find Dave! I don't know where he is, this is important, it could be really bad!”

“What could be really bad? John, he's dead, I don't think he can really get any deader, and I'm sure he can at least wait for a little longer wherever he's at,” she urged. “It should be fine to wait till morning. I'll call the hospital, see if they have it in lost and found or something, let them know to keep an eye out and we can check back when it's actually morning. Maybe go from there after your dad visits. Sound good?”

You waver. Your leg is starting to throb even more, and the fire is racing up to your hip, down to your ankle, and lighting up more panic in the back of your mind. You were also realizing you were absolutely exhausted. What time even was it? Three am? Four? Did it even matter when you were this tired? Time had blurred the longer you had been in the hospital, and even now it was a bit blurry when you tried to focus on it and take in just how much time had passed between the normal wonderful morning and afternoon to now. “...But.. I can't just leave him somewhere, he's probably worried or scared. What if the last time he saw me I was unconscious or getting moved into an ambulance or something?” you asked, resisting a bit more before allowing Jade to gently escort you back to the couch.

“Dave's a grown dead person, he can be patient, John. Surely he'd be able to tell if you died?” Jade pointed out. “Yes, he's important, but right now you're hurt and I don't think he'd like you hurting yourself more for him. Wherever he is, he'll still be there in the morning, I'll be sure to find him with you okay?”

You sank back on the sofa and lifted your leg hurriedly to its formerly propped up position, relief flooding you again and fatigue roaring behind your eyes. That little bit had sapped more strength than you thought. Holy shit, you could sleep for a fucking week..

“...Yeah. Yeah, you're right Jade. I'm just worried,” you muttered, not protesting when she came to carefully take your glasses off and set the damaged frames aside on the coffee table. “I don't want him to be alone and scared somewhere, I want him here with me.”

She grinned a bit, at least you're pretty sure she did. Jade was close enough to make out the fuzzy edges of her mouth, and the position changed.

“You really do care about him, huh.”

“Well, yeah. I love him, Jade, I'm not kidding about that. I love him and I'm worried and I don't want him upset,” you say, pausing to let out a yawn that snuck up on you from behind and started to steal your consciousness away. “I don't want him alone anywhere ever again, if he doesn't get a say in it.”

“Just try to get a bit of rest right now,” she urged. “Your dad'll be here in the morning, you'll get your medicine in you again, and we'll be able to go find Dave. I'm going to crash in your room since the couch has you for now, okay? If you need me just holler. Your crutches are by the side of the couch.” “Where's my phone?” “I think it might have been in your car, let me go check your pockets,” Jade said, going back to the plastic to rummage around, smiling when she found it. “Oh hey, only a crack on the screen, not bad,” she said. “Do you want me to plug it in for you?”

“...Yeah. Yeah that might be better. Turn off the alarm, I don't want it on for the usual time, I don't think you'd appreciate lurching awake to that loud of a remix.”

“I figured not,” she said with a snort, pausing to rummage in your pant's pockets once more just in case the pendant was somehow there. Maybe Dave just wasn't talking? Could ghosts get hurt in accidents? There'd been talk of a 'switch', and such an unknown thing was making her more cautious. No dice. Damn.

Jade sighed and finally switched the light off, clunking along softly to the bathroom, then to your room after to continue shuffling around to get things plugged in and organized. You heard her toss and turn a bit to get comfortable, your own mind wandering in the dark to the tune of your rising and falling breaths.

… It was so quiet here without Dave rustling papers and knocking things over. It -felt- wrong. There was no cold kiss to your cheek, or pressure on your chest as he moved around, no glints of red at the corner of your eye. Jade was so close, but you still felt lonesome. Dave had been a constant in your life for so long now that suddenly having him gone was just... awful. You grimace and try to fight the bubble of anxiety in your chest and stomach down enough to sleep, grateful when your dreams picked up the slack and took you under.

#Homestuck #John Egbert #Jade Harley #this fic is a fic full of #johndave #my fic

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