#Well - most of it. The beginning gave me a bit of writer's block strangely but I got past it!

[guppygiggles]

Let's Get Physical!

What: Tickle fluff with a dash of mild hurt/comfort.

Word count: ~2.3k

Universe: Sea & Sky AU

Who: Avery, Casper, Finnegan.

Description: Avery gives Finnegan a physical. Emotional bonding and cuddling between the three of them. Just a little oneshot with a bit of tickling for everyone!

Friday afternoon couldn't have come soon enough.

As I made the short trek home from the bank, my eyes trained on the lighthouse as it stood tall against the afternoon sky. After glaring at my computer screen and paperwork for eight hours, it was a relief to stare at something beautiful and distant. I rolled my tired shoulders, wincing in pain as I did. Maybe I could talk Avery into giving me one of his expert massages… Not that I deserved it, I thought, after how neglectful I’d been him and Finn all week. I frowned, remembering how many times I'd fallen asleep watching TV with them -- I definitely needed to make up for lost time this weekend. I shuffled up the stone steps and turned the lighthouse’s antique doorknob, wiping my feet on the strawberry-print mat as I entered.

“Caspeheher! Hehehehelp!”

No sooner had I walked through the door – key still in-hand – than my arms were full of triton as Finn crashed into me, nearly knocking us both over. He squeezed me as if he hadn't seen me in weeks, giggling as he nuzzled his face into my neck. With some effort, I deposited my keys and wallet into the plastic tray and shuffled out of my shoes, just in time to watch Avery appear in the foyer. He was grinning in that characteristic, long-suffering way of his as he shook his head.

“What are you doing to this fish?” I asked, chuckling as Finn scrambled out of my arms and hid behind me.

“Well, I was just trying to give him a routine physical,” Avery replied, “but as you can see, it isn't going well.”

“He’s lying!” Finn protested, laughter riding beneath his words. “He was tickling me!”

I quirked an eyebrow at Avery, who rolled his eyes upward, offering a sheepish grin-and-shrug combo that told me everything I needed to know. For the first time that day, I giggled.

“Do you need an assistant to help with this patient, Dr. Nimbus?” I asked playfully, reaching back to pinch Finn's side without taking my eyes off the cloudman, eliciting a ticklish squeal.

“Why, yes! Thank you for offering, I believe that would be quite helpful!”

“What?! You traitor!” Before I could snatch him, Finnegan darted past me and was scampering back up the stairs with a gleeful laugh. I wondered why Avery didn't stop him… until the elemental floated gracefully over to me, pulling me into a deep and comprehensive embrace. I sighed with relief, my eyes automatically closing as I laid my head on his chest, listening to the quiet storm inside his body. Bergamot and old paper wrapped around my olfactory nerve like a warm blanket – I was finally home.

“Hi, dewdrop.”

“Hey, peach.”

“How was your day?”

“Tiring… This audit is wearing me out. I'm really sorry I haven't been much fun to be around this week… I promise I'll make it up to you and Finny.”

“You know you don't have to apologize for that, sweetheart. We're both so proud of how hard you work, and we understand when you're tired.” Avery's large, soft hand stroked my upper back. As it did, I felt his fingers get curious around my shoulders, pressing and palpating my achy muscles. I flinched through a cocktail of ticklishness and pain. “Oh, oh… Sorry, did that hurt? My goodness, you are tense. You've been hunching over your desk again, haven't you?”

I blushed a little. No matter how many times Avery tried to correct my posture, I always fell back into old habits as soon as work got too stressful.

“Aheh… Maybe a little… Sorry.”

“Oh, Casper… Tsk, tsk, tsk,” he chided, his touch turning softer and playing around my shoulders and neck, making me laugh and squirm.

“Ehehe~! Okay, I'll- ahaha! I'll w-work on ihihhihit!”

“You'd better, or you'll be in for a much more serious tickling than this!” Avery teased, continuing to tickle a bit more before stopping, his eyes tender as he looked at me. “Really, though… I'll give you a nice massage later, okay? I don't want you to be in pain.”

I felt my ears flush as I turned my attention to the foyer wall, my mind wandering to Avery's cool, pillowy doctor's hands coated in massage oil, squeezing and kneading my bare shoulders���

I cleared my throat, meeting his eyes only briefly, as if staring too long would allow him to read my mind.

“Don't we have a fish to torment?”

“Ah, yes! I'm sure he's up there getting impatient… which makes me worry for the state of our home. Shall we?”

He gestured to the stairwell. I took a step forward, then halted, eyeing him warily.

“... After you.”

Avery grinned. “No, really. I insist.”

“You’re a doctor; such a title affords you the right to go first, don't you think? Please permit me to offer this token of my respect.”

I watched him try not to laugh. So was I, but I was better at it.

“...You flatter me. Very well, I'll lead on.”

I let Avery believe I wasn't going to do anything. I was certain that by the time we’d passed the halfway point, I'd convinced him of my innocence. Surely if I'd planned on doing something, I would've by then. Right?

Right…?

Wrong. With about ten steps in the winding staircase to go, I reached up and gave the elemental a quick scribbling along both of his sides. Avery gasped in surprise, followed by a flurry of defeated, yet joyful laughter.

“Oh, you cheeky little-”

Just like Finnegan had done to me earlier, I ducked under Avery's hands as he reached back to snatch me, clambering to pass him on the staircase. Unlike Finn, though… dodging Avery's hands didn't guarantee my safety, as a forceful gust of wind knocked me backwards and right into his arms. I screeched with laughter as he lifted and tossed me like a sack of potatoes over his soft shoulder, my legs kicking as he easily carried me the rest of the way.

“Oh, no you don't,” he admonished, reaching up to tweak the crease at the top of my thigh with his thumb and forefinger. Panicked laughter filled the living room we now stood in as I thrashed, but none of my wriggling did any good; he was simply too strong. Avery chuckled as he gently pinched, forcing a torrent of squealing, frantic laughter from me, until he deposited me carefully on the couch.

“Did you know I was going to do that?” I asked, still giggling.

“I had a suspicion… but I will concede that you lulled me into a false sense of security.”

“Yessss!” I cheered, earning another lighthearted glare as he reached down with both hands, quickly wiggling his fingers along my sides and belly. I curled into a ball on the couch, filling the room with my hysterical squawking as he tickled any spot he could reach.

“You might be a systems admin, but you moonlight as a troublemaker, don't you?”

“NOHOHOHOOO!”

“I think you doooo~” He lilted, worming his fingers under my arms, between my neck and shoulder, and any other ticklish creases I created with my defensive posture. I was still screeching as Finn appeared in the doorway.

“Don't worry, Casper, I'll save you!” His bare, webbed feet made a sound like a duck running as he charged Avery, who whirled on him before Finnegan had a chance to try anything, easily scooping the triton into his arms and nuzzling into him.

“EEEEEHEhehehee!” Finn laughed, his fingers squishing Avery’s soft head as the cloudman kissed his neck.

“And they say chivalry is dead,” Avery tittered, taking a seat on the sofa beside me, Finn still in his arms. “Will you please let me finish your physical, brave warrior? I'm almost done, I promise... I just need to check your belly, now.”

Finn sighed dramatically, then sprawled across Avery's lap, adjusting his body such that his head rested on my thigh. I grinned down at him.

“Hi, Finny-Finn-Finn.” I swept his hair back and leaned down to kiss his forehead. The warmth of his scales was always a bit of a surprise, especially compared to Avery's chilly skin.

I was expecting Avery to go in for the kill, but as I watched him methodically inspect Finn's abdomen, I realized he was conducting a legitimate physical. He gently pressed and palpated the softer scales of his belly as he used his free arm to keep the merman’s squirmy legs still. Finn giggled, and I couldn't blame him; I'd been on the receiving end of plenty of physicals from Avery, too, and I knew those fingers tickled no matter how professional he tried to be. In the back of my mind, I knew it was likely a conflict of interest for Avery to treat us… but since he was the only doctor in Port Oleander – and more importantly, one of the few on land who could treat merfolk – I supposed an exception had been permitted.

“Does any of this hurt, Finn? Has your belly been hurting at all, lately?”

“N-no, it's not hurting. Uhm… my belly hurt last night, after dinner, though…” He admitted.

I frowned, unable to recall him saying anything about a stomach ache. Last night had been my turn to cook. I wasn't a great cook to begin with, and admittedly… it was difficult to prepare meals that both Finnegan and Avery could eat; the elemental couldn't digest any food that was too dry, and Finn’s rainbow trout biology was primarily carnivorous. Soups, stews, and curries were common in our house – dinner last night had been red curry with chicken.

“What kind of hurt? Was it stabbing, dull, hot, achy…?” Avery asked, concerned.

“Hot, especially when I was laying down in bed.” Finn looked away from me. Avery and I exchanged a glance.

“I'm sorry, Finn… I probably made it too spicy. I won't make that again. Why didn't you say anything? I would've gotten you some medicine to help you feel better.” I stroked Finn's hair back again, my face etched with guilt. Now that I was thinking back to the previous night, he had seemed more quiet than usual… but I had been too tired to comment on it, chalking it up to him being tired, too. I kicked myself; Finn was never tired. The only time the triton lacked energy was in the five – maybe ten – minutes wherein he would go from bouncing off the walls to being dead asleep. Had I been more observant, I would've realized that.

Finnegan's eyes were serious as he looked back at me, an expression that seemed foreign on his gamine face. He looked away again, though, as he started to speak.

“It's just… you've been working so hard this week, Caspy, and I didn't want to hurt your feelings or make you worry about me.”

I couldn't bring myself to meet Avery's eyes again as an arrow of regret pierced my heart. I really had been disconnected from them all week.

“Finn… nothing is more important to me than you and Avery, okay? I’m sorry I've been so busy this week, I should've paid more attention to how you were feeling. Please don't suffer in silence again, okay? If your tummy hurts – or anything hurts – please promise you'll tell us from now on.”

Finn's tail swished uncomfortably… but he managed a smile, looking up at me again.

“Okay, I'll tell you from now on… I promise.” He shifted his gaze to Avery, whose hands were still resting on his scaly belly. “Am I done, now?”

It occured to me then that the part of the physical Finnegan disliked wasn't the tickling, it was staying still. Avery's concerned expression relaxed; a rainbow after a storm.

“Yes! You're a very healthy fish, Finn. Just keep remembering to soak in the tub at least once a day when you can't go swimming, so your gills stay healthy and your scales don't dry out.”

“Okay!” He was already off the couch, stretching his arms over his head and swishing his tail, as if laying across our laps for ten minutes had made him stiff. I shook my head, grinning. “I'll go for a swim right now, actually! Love you, Caspy! Love you, Avery! Bye, bye, bye, bye!” Each ‘bye’ grew progressively quieter as he descended the stairs, tail thumping clumsily the whole way down.

Once he was out of earshot, I looked down at my hands.

“I feel so bad… he got sick because of me, and he didn't even say anything.”

Avery shifted, pulling me into his arms again. I rested against his soft, cool body.

“He got a bit of a tummy ache from eating something too spicy, not an incurable disease, hehe. You won't make that dish again, and he'll tell you next time something doesn't agree with him. No need to worry yourself sick, okay? Life is unpredictable and stressful, sometimes… but we're your family, Casper. We understand.”

I snuggled against Avery's side as he held me, my throat constricting as he said the last few words. He looked down at me, and then I felt my favorite little tickle under my chin, coaxing me to look at him.

“Now… I believe I need to tend to my other patient, hm? Why don't we start your weekend with a little physical therapy on those shoulders? I swear, you're wound up tighter than an eight day clock.” He brought me up with him as he stood, strong arms carrying me bridal-style in the direction of the bedroom, giving me no room to protest.

Not that I would have. My fingertips fiddled with the collar of his shirt, the ghost of a coy smile dancing across my lips.

“Alright, doctor… but you'll have to let me return the favor, afterwards. After all, I've got a whole week's worth of lost time to make up for. Think you can handle that much…?”

The shade of cerulean that rose in his cheeks told me he caught my meaning, and I watched his wisp of surprise turn into a bashful giggle.

“Can't wait, dewdrop.”

[charliemwrites]

Part 1

Finally finished this! I think I put way too much pressure on myself to get this just right and it gave me some major writer's block. Anyway, please enjoy!

Content: Wet dreams, Somnophilia (sort of), Identity Porn, Safe/Sane/Consensual Intimacy (through dreams), Uncomfortable Situation, Pushy/Predatory behavior (brief)

“Bad dreams again?”

Drowsy and sluggish, you blink at your aunt. She’s as sleek and coiffed as always, pressed business attire and shiny hair. Shoulders back, spine straight. A woman people respect and heed without question.

Your mother’s voice whispers in your ear, that lovingly patronizing tone. See how professional she looks, dear? Isn’t that nice?

It’s not Aunt Katie’s fault though. She does look professional, and it is nice. It suits her.

You unstick your tongue from the roof of your mouth. “They’re not bad, really. Just… intense.”

She hums, elegant fingers tracing the edge of your borrowed desk. “They can’t be very good if they’re keeping you up.”

You’re tired enough that you almost correct her a second time. The problem is that the dreams are too good. You wake up panting, sweating, halfway to – well. You’re not about to discuss the finer points of a kinky wet dream with your CIA aunt. Besides, it’s silly to get so defensive of something that affects you seemingly negatively.

“Maybe,” you reply, rubbing at your heavy eyes. It feels like you’re trying to look through clear jelly.

“Why don’t you take a break?” Aunt Kate suggests.

You frown, a pang of guilt striking your empty tummy. “No… no, I’m okay. It’s not even lunch yet.”

She smiles at you. The same fond smile she’s always graced you with, on holidays and birthdays, whenever she could escape the secretive walls and red tape to be with family.

“You’re already ahead on paperwork. You’re not a bad employee for getting a little sun.”

Your eyes flick longingly to the door.

Apparently, the government doesn’t believe in things like windows or sunlight. Your little desk is at the very end of a long, half-empty hallway in the middle of a concrete cube and drowning in awful blue fluorescence. You can’t even bring yourself to drag a plant to this crappy little island because you’d feel too guilty putting it through this.

“Okay… maybe just for a few minutes,” you allow.

Her smile widens as she nods for you to follow. “C’mon, I’ll walk you out. I think the dogs will be free for some enrichment.”

Well, that certainly gets you out of your squeaky office chair.

Honey sunlight drizzles over your neck and shoulders, dripping syrupy-slow down your spine. It diffuses through your chest, chasing away the artificial chill of the office. The sleepy haze retreats like frost melting from glass.

You sigh into the fresh air, ignoring the tang of gunpowder lingering on the breeze, and turn your face to the sun. Summer is coming to an end, the heat broken into mellower warmth. There won’t be many days like this left before autumn bites down and shakes the leaves from the trees. A shame you’ll likely waste most of them in your administrative prison. 

The dogs stretch out in the grass around you, tongues lolling and eyes bright, keeping you company. A furry bouquet of black and tan in the manicured grass, their ears and tails like stalks to strange plants.

You bury your fingers in Zeus’s coat and get a fuzzy white tummy for your efforts. He’s a young and handsome thing, the newest addition to the K-9 unit, still a bit fluffy around the ears. You try not to think of how that will fade and harden, just like the older dogs in the unit, just like his human counterparts. Just scratch at that itchy spot by his ribs and smile when his hindleg kicks.

Friga stands and stretches on your right side, leaning her shoulder into yours. Then picks her way around the others to sniff at Zeus. Offended by her interruption, he flails onto his stomach and nips at her, one big forepaw thumping the ground.

She goads him into playtime, and you watch with the older pack members as they begin to romp. They tumble and grumble around you, heedless of bumping into any of the others. You laugh, bright and loud—

The back of your neck tingles.

You glance around, not even sure why. Until you see a figure across the field. He’s standing by the track where about two dozen men are jogging. Recruits, you guess. But he’s not observing them or barking orders. No, he’s clearly turned to face you. It’s too far to make out any features, apart from what seems to be an unusual haircut.

You quickly glance away, surreptitiously trying to determine if the man’s attention was on something else that happened to be in your direction. But there’s little else but you and the dogs in this field, the kennels noticeably off to the left.

Then again, someone sitting in the grass with half the K-9 unit is a bit unusual. He’s probably trying to decide if it’s something that needs investigation. You hope it’s not.

Still, you can’t shake the discomfiting sense that he’s looking at you.

You ignore him until it’s time for the dogs to go back - but that prickly feeling of being watched never subsides.

That night, in the guest room of your aunts’ house, the dreams take on new life.

It starts as it always does. A dark room. A lush bed. Silky sheets. Moonlight seeping through blinds like smoke. And him.

He’s behind you. A broad body so solid you’d think he was a wall if not for the heat. It’s so intense this time, like a wildfire raging out of control, crawling from his skin beneath yours. You sense more than feel the big hand around your jaw. Rough fingers clutch at the plush of your thigh. Hot breath fans across the back of your neck, rippling shivers down your spine.

There’s a voice in your ear. No words you can discern, just a thunder-deep rumble with smoky edges. Stubble scrapes the delicate skin of your neck and catches in your hair.

A thick, heavy cock is buried deep inside you, kissing the entrance to your womb. Your pussy twinges a sweet-sharp ache with each deliberate grind of his hips. He’s spreading you open to get as deep as he can, throbbing balls pressed up tight to your sopping entrance.

Your own hands are all but useless. One twists desperately in the sheets, the other clutches at the meaty swell of his ass. Pleasure upends anything like sense or thought, even hazy dream logic. There is just this man fucking you like he owns you, two of his fingers in your drooling mouth, petting your tongue. A ring clicks against your teeth.

“Found you,” he whispers.

You jolt, eyes flying open. The powder blue ceiling of your borrowed room greets you. You’ve kicked the cotton sheets into a tangled mess around your ankles, tiny shirt ridden up your chest. Your panties are soaked.

The taste of metal lingers behind your incisors.

It’s a busy day. For once, you’re free from the confines of your sad little nook. Aunt Kate must have taken pity on your sorry state the day before and has procured busy work. Files that need hand delivery, or physical reports for you to gather. You don’t care if it’s just something to get you out of the office, you relish the stolen moments outside between buildings.

If there’s a downside, it’s the glances you attract. Everything about you projects civilian, despite the access card prominently pinned to the lapel of your blazer. It draws curious once-overs at best and suspicious scans at worst – or speculative appreciation at the very worst. Every time a fresh-faced recruit or overly decorated middle-aged man lingers as you pass, you hear your mother’s voice again.

Don’t you know what those military men are like? Practically animals. I couldn’t possibly let you be exposed to them.

It’s long ingrained to keep your eyes forward, head level, and try to keep your hips from swaying as much as possible. You’re grateful for whatever bit of paperwork you can clutch to your chest, just to hide your figure and have something to do with your hands.

You’re picking up some personnel files from the infirmary, smile brightly at the receptionist as she passes them over. Mallory is only a couple years older than you, and she’s been working here a year already.

“Lunch in the mess today?” she asks, spinning a pen between her fingers.

“As if you even need to ask,” you tease. “Noon?”

“I’ll meet you there.”

She blows you a kiss as you leave, counting the number of files to be sure you have them all. Your eyes skim over one of the names, a white label on the folder fin. “MacTavish, J.” in blocky typewriter font. You shuffle them back into a neat stack and pivot for Aunt Kate’s office.

You’re not in the moonlit bedroom this time. A half-moon grins down from a starry sky, wearing smoky nebulas for lipstick. Beneath you lays cool grass and soft earth, rich and loamy in your heaving lungs. Petals blooming in the dark kiss your overheated skin, little relief for the burn in your veins.

The change in scenery is almost as dizzying as the man between your thighs. Almost.

But it’s not the dew-saturated breeze that muddles your bewildered thoughts. It’s the hot, wet, clever tongue lavishing your drenched pussy. He licks in broad stripes from your aching hole to your throbbing clit, only ever pausing to indulge a slow suck to the bundle of nerves, before resuming that hypnotic circuit.

One thigh is hooked over a wide shoulder, your heel dug into the flexing muscles of a broad back. The other is spread by a big, calloused hand, giving him unfettered access to the softest, neediest parts of you.

You mewl desperately, hand darting down to his bobbing head. Your nails scrape shorn stubble, eliciting a gravelly groan that sends electricity up your tingling spine. It’s nothing compared to the growl you earn when your fingers twist into the longer, soft strands at the top.

For the first time, you’re able to voice more than helpless moans and wanton whimpers.

“Please,” you sob softly, “please.”

You feel him smirking, a wicked curl against your fluttering cunt. Then he focuses the tip of that awful, dexterous tongue on your clit, flicking in purposeful little strokes.

M-A-

“S-so close,” you whine, hips twitching. He pins you flat, pace never faltering.

V-I-

You shudder as your pussy clenches and spasms, finally, finally—

You wake with a sharp sound, head spinning. Your orgasm washes away like the tide, leaving disappointment and exhaustion behind. You nearly scream into your pillow as you press your thighs together. Still half asleep, it even feels like you have beard-burn.

You’re in line at the mess with Mallory, listening to her complain about some rude colonel that just had to share his opinion about her acrylics. She does the best impressions, and you’re grinning and laughing as the two of you shuffle through the options. You’re reaching for a scoop of rice when the conversation behind you catches your attention.

“—came in a couple days ago.”

“The whole squad?”

“With Braveheart himself.”

A snort. “You better not let MacTavish hear you say that. He’ll—”

“Helloooo?” You blink at Mallory, who arches her brows and waves a bagel at you. “Want one?”

“Oh, uh… sure, why not,” you answer.

“Atta girl!” she cheers, tossing it in the toaster. “Carbs for days.”

You giggle but can’t help glancing behind you. The two men have already moved on though. Not that it was any of your business – or anything interesting. You’re not sure why that caught your attention. Men are just loud, you suppose, snatching a couple to-go packets of cream cheese.

As you’re leaving the mess, you happen to glance over your shoulder. A pair of sharp blue eyes catch yours from one of the tables. A group of men, just about to sit. Mallory tugs your shirt to keep you from clipping the doorjamb and you hurry after her.

There’s heat at your back. Not from a body this time, but a fire burning low and hot in a hearth. No, the body is in front of you this time, filling up your watery field of vision. Peachy skin and coarse dark hair, an old scar slashing across a sharp hip, miles of lean muscle.

Not that you have much opportunity to ogle with tears blurring your sight. The fat cock bullying the back of your throat makes it hard to do anything but choke. You dig your nails into a thick thigh and pull back, writhing your tongue along a puffy vein as you go. The leaking head rests on your drenched tongue as you catch your breath. Smoke and leather and musk saturate your lungs, cloud your empty head.

He smells so good; you don’t even like cigars.

A rough thumb caresses your cheek, a silent request for you to continue. You can practically feel the lust-drunk moans vibrating in his chest – so deep, they’re barely audible over the crackling fire.

You hiccup as deep a breath as you can manage and swallow him down again. He’s silky on your tongue, you sigh softly through your nose as the blunt head flirts with your gag reflex. You slacken your jaw despite the ache already crawling into the joint. Even then, your teeth scrape the base a bit, but that only makes him twitch against your soft palate.

“Look here, love.”

Your lashes flutter as you try to focus your gaze, scrolling your eyes up his body. Most of the details are lost either in the haze of desire or the vagary of dreams, but the blue eyes that greet you are sharper than real life.

You jolt back to consciousness with a dry cough, the scent of him still haunting your senses. You stumble to the restroom for water. Don’t even realize that you’re glancing in the mirror over your shoulder, expecting someone to be there, until you realize you’re alone.

Oddly bereft, you trudge back to bed and try to focus on the clean soap smell of your aunts’ detergent.

In moments like this, it’s hard not to blame yourself.

Not because you’ve done anything wrong, or even feel like you have. It’s because the situation is so frustratingly out of your control that it’s almost easier to tell yourself that one decision or another would have avoided this outcome. A sharper response, a frown instead of a smile, a different walking route.

(There’s also your mother’s voice, always. Saying to be smart, to pay attention, to not “put yourself” in a vulnerable position. You silence that voice viciously this time.)

Still, the fact of the matter is, there’s no personal choice you could have made to keep Corporal Callahan from cornering you in this supply closet. You just wanted a box of tissues.

“Look, I know you’re Agent Laswell’s niece, but I don’t see why we can’t go out because of it,” he reasons. As if that’s the reason you’ve been trying to gently dissuade his attempts.

“It’s not that—” you begin, shifting. He’s standing too close, but you refuse to back yourself any deeper into this tiny space. The doorway is right there, he’s just taking up all of it.

“Then just say yes,” he chuckles. His tone is all smooth and easy, meant to be charming maybe? “Just one date, that’s all I’m asking.”

Except you’re not asking, you think with helpless frustration. The sharp words get trapped behind your teeth, cutting up the roof of your mouth. Your heart is beating so hard and loud you can barely hear his “romantic” overtures.

“I’m not really…” You’re not even sure what to say this time; you’ve already told him you’re not looking to date. He’d said some vaguely predatory line about changing your mind.

In the absence of a finished statement, Callahan takes the opportunity to continue cajoling.

“C’mon,” he sing-songs, “I’m not letting you out of there until you say yes.”

You pry your jaw open, about to agree to it just for the sake of getting free. Deal with the fallout later.

There’s a rush of air and suddenly the doorway is empty. You briefly see Callahan against the opposite wall, face blank in unpleasant surprise. Then a big body blocks your view of him. Broad, bunched shoulders and thick thighs. A shock of brunet hair shaved close at the sides and long at the top. Your entire body locks up.

“You come near her again, they won’ stop findin’ pieces of ya, aye?” A growl, low and rough, Scottish accent thick. You shiver.

Callahan stutters something, a few garbled syllables through a strained and winded voice. You think you might hear “captain” in there somewhere. The bigger man shifts, you hear a muffled thump – Callahan hitting the wall again, you think. Then, with seemingly no effort, your savior tosses Callahan to the side like trash. He stumbles, catches himself.

“Away ‘n bile yer heid.”

Callahan flicks one last frightened glance your way then hurries off, proverbial tail tucked between his scrawny legs. You don’t even watch him go, eyes glued to the stranger’s muscular back. He rolls his wide shoulders, cracks his neck, and finally turns.

Familiar blue eyes pin you in place as he steps closer. The scent of cigar smoke and leather teases your nose.

A voice you’ve known for months rumbles in his chest. “Found you.”

Previous | TBC...

Masterlist

[youamongthemelissas]

hi mwah <3

may i have a scenario with zoro being a brat who doesn't want to go down on his girl, but she just puts in his place by sitting on his face? 👀

ara ara, it seems that the fifteen hours I've been sleeping have made me reap the rewards uwu

well, I really hope you like the result and that those 3,3k words make up for the delay in my writer's block. i've only reviewed it a few times because i'm really really sleepy right now, so I apologize in advance for any mistakes! :(

warning: oral sex (giving and receiving), fingering, face sitting, etc. only for +18. smut everywhere

Zoro and I had known each other for almost two years, but he changed his position from hookup to boyfriend two months ago. Our chaotic relationship started at a horrible party. Everything that night was horrible, except when the handsome guy approached me offering his help when some ramshackle human being spilled water on my shirt. To complete my disaster, the outfit I wore was white and cotton, so it marked the contours of my breasts just right. Damn day I decided to leave my house without wearing a bra. Too embarrassed, I just crawled into the bathroom – which didn't even have a lock – and waited for the crowd to dwindle or for my shirt to dry so I could get out of that unhealthy place. But fate didn't have the best plans for me, as I saw the bathroom door open and a man enter that cubicle.

"This is the ladies' wc, you know?" I informed the guy angrily.

“I know,” he replied simply. "I saw the whole scene, so I decided to come make sure you're okay."

I arched my brow and stared at him with half-closed eyes. Was he feeling okay? I looked for signs of drunkenness in him, but his voice was steady and he looked too sober.

“Very nice of you, but you can't just lock yourself together with a strange woman in a cubicle. You know, I can interpret this as sexual harassment!” I snapped.

“Oh, fine. I was going to lend you my shirt so you could wear it and wouldn’t have to wait for yours to dry, but I see you don't need my help. Bye and sorry for the inconvenience,” and so he left, not giving me a chance to respond.

I cursed the Universe, but then I stopped myself because a tarot reader had informed me that a situation like this could happen throughout the week and I didn't listen. In the end, it was my fault for being a stubborn and skeptical one.

I really couldn't tell how long I was locked in that fetid cubicle, but when my t-shirt dried enough not to leave me practically naked from the waist up, I walked out and saw the same guy as before, he was talking to a red haired girl, actually it looked more like an argument was going on between them by his annoyed expression and her restless gestures. Would she be his girlfriend? Was the discussion focused on me and the bathroom incident? Well, I wouldn't stay there to find out and risk getting hit by the girl for something that wasn't my fault. He was the one who entered the ladies' room with an unknown woman!

And my disastrous night ended when I lay in my bed and turned off the light to finally sleep and erase all memories of the party from my head. But that boy's face has not left my mind.

The days followed normally, and when I was already forgetting the cool guy, I saw him for the second time in a bakery. He wore the same shirt that day of the party and sweatpants. His sleepy face gave away that he had just woken up and had just left the house to go buy bread for breakfast. He saw me but pretended not to. I got the feeling I should have apologized for the misunderstanding, but he was already making the request. Luckily, we were assisted together as soon a second attendant appeared who assisted me as well.

As soon as we paid the bill, we silently left the place and I got a chance to talk to him as we were heading in the same direction.

“Hey,” I called him, being ignored. "Boy, wait a minute"

“What is it, girl?”, he snapped at me sharply.

“I wanted to apologize for the misunderstanding… Seriously, I was just freaked out by a guy walking me into the bathroom…”, I was sincere.

"It's all right. Go on with your life in peace.”

“And you had a girlfriend, right? Like, you were still wrong in the end…” I couldn't hold my mouth before needling him.

This time he stopped abruptly and turned to me, making me smack my face into his chest.

"Girlfriend? First you accuse me of sexual harassment and now besides being a harasser you think I'm a traitor?”

“I didn't accuse you of anything! Except the girlfriend part. You and that red haired girl seemed to be fighting really bad, like boyfriends do,” I clarified.

“Redhead girl?” he seemed to search his memory for what I was referring to. “Nami? God forbid me dating that devil woman! She's not my girlfriend, and we were fighting because…”, he stopped mid-explanation. “This is none of your business, girl. But she's not my girlfriend,” he ended the pseudo-argument.

I nodded and went on my way.

“How long will you follow me? Now I can interpret that you're a deranged stalker”, he told me right after we turned down the same street, after walking close for a few meters.

“I'm not following you, my house is on this way”, I replied.

And that's how I found out that we lived in the same condominium.

Although I clearly remember the first two times we met, I can't say when exactly we started to change our cat-and-mouse relationship and elevate it to a more intimate one. Maybe it was when he fucked me for the first time in the laundry room in the building. I was taking my clothes out of the machine while he put his clothes in another one, and then we looked at each other and as if we had the same idea, he grabbed me around the waist and lifted me up to put me sitting on top of the machine he had just finished stuffing with his own clothes, putting it to work and taking me in a kiss while taking off my panties. When he entered me, I moaned loudly, but the sound was drowned out by the shrill noise of that old machine. Zoro confessed to me later that he chose precisely that one so my moans could not be heard. I think it was the most insane thing I did, because at any moment someone could come and catch us, but luckily for us that only happened after Zoro had cum on my thighs and taken me off that old thing. It was weird walking with my legs sticking together because of his cum, but I didn't have time to clean up, just lift my panties and straighten my skirt before passing the newcomer, who didn't seem to have noticed our presence.

After our first sex, we didn't get apart anymore. We couldn't be alone as we caught fire and had sex wherever we were.

As time went by, we calmed down and our meetings became more spaced, but our chemistry didn't extinguish even a little bit during these almost two years, on the contrary, it only earned us the beginning of dating. And we became more than just hookups, we became friends too, those who know about each other's lives and I got to know Nami, the red-haired friend he was fighting that night at the party. I came to discover that they could never be boyfriends, because she loved money and women.

Everything with Zoro was almost perfect. He was a good boyfriend, and even though we're two hotheads, we never fought. There are always dialogues in our relationship and this helps a lot to avoid unnecessary fights. Besides, sex is wonderful, everything just right, except for one small thing that bothers me. We combine a lot in bed, I always try to please him and give him pleasure at all times. I've lost count of how many blowjobs I gave him and how many times I let him cum in my mouth, but the problem is that he never even gave me oral sex. And that makes me a little frustrated and scared. Was the problem with me? I took good care of myself, but he always shifted position when I tried to get him down on me.

One day, while I watched him playing his favorite game, I stroked his hair.

“Babe?”, I called him.

“Hm?” he mutters, not moving an inch.

“Do I disgust you?” I asked bluntly.

"What? Where did you get this ideia?”, he turns abruptly to face me, doing something wrong in the game because soon there are some curses directed at him in the chat.

“It's just a question.” I shrugged.

“It can't be just a question. For you to ask me that, there's definitely a reason behind it,” he replied, no longer looking at the TV screen, and not realizing that he was being offended by the other players. Damn virgins.

“Nevermind…”, I hesitated, unable to let myself be affected by the comments, which weren't even for me. "Your game friends are very angry with you."

"Fuck them, the issue here is you.", he held my face with both hands, making me look at him. “Tell me what made you think about it,” he looks deep into my eyes, almost reading my soul and I immediately regret opening my mouth. But it was too late, lying was out of the question, because he knows very well when I lie, so I had no choice but to tell the truth.

“You never gave me an oral. So I deduced that the problem is with me”, I said at last and he let me go.

It was his turn to shift the focus to another corner.

“It's nothing to you, it's me who is the problem. I've never done that to any women, and in the movies I see them “squirt”, what if that happens?” He looked a little frustrated and embarrassed.

I got up from my seat and stopped standing in front of him, making him glare at me.

“You have to stop thinking real life is a big porn movie, Roronoa,” I said, putting my index finger on his forehead. “I really admire you knowing how to fuck without looking like a caveman”, I said that last sentence more to myself.

“Hey!” he heard and seemed offended. "It hurts, okay?"

“Sorry, but that is nothing but the truth”, I rolled my eyes.

Even though he didn't suck me when we had sex later, the seed of doubt was already planted in his head.

I know this, because days later he was more committed to making me cum. Before he seemed to care only about his pleasure, but after our conversation, he even put his fingers to work on my clit – which were presented by me –, as he moved in and out of me, until I came on his fingers. It felt good, but I wanted to feel his tongue down there, and wanted to see his head between my legs. I wanted so badly to squirm in pleasure beneath him as he sucked everything I had to offer him.

When the dream day finally arrived, all my thoughts turned opaque as I felt him hug me from behind and lean his body against mine as his lips found the skin of my neck.

“Do you know how hot you look wearing my shirt?” he asked huskily, pressing me closer to his body, making my ass fit into his crotch. And I already felt it was hard. "Even more so I know you're not wearing anything under it."

I couldn't hold back the moan as I felt his fingers travel up my waist until they reached my breasts under the fabric. He squeezed it first and then circled the nipple with his finger, making it hard. He knew how sensitive I was in that area. And to my delight, he lowered his other hand to between my legs, and slid it to find my sex, which was already starting to get wet.

When I was in his apartment, I liked to have just one piece of clothing. Walking around his house half-naked was one of the most satisfying things for me, because I knew that anytime we were going to get laid and being too undressed would get in the way of the process. So I opted to wear just a pair of panties or a T-shirt with nothing underneath, as was the case now.

He removed his hand from my body and pulled me away, but only to pick me up and take me to his bed, where he laid me down and leaned over me and started kissing me.

His kiss tasted like the whiskey he drank a few minutes ago. I ran my hands over his body and scratched him lightly on his back, inside his shirt. He ended the kiss and rolled off of me, but only to undress. I watched the scene intently, looking at each piece of skin that was revealed to me little by little. When he took off his underwear and his cock popped out, I felt my mouth water. He was there in front of me, completely naked.

I got rid of his t-shirt I was wearing and crawled until I was close to his body, took his hard member in my hands and started masturbating before putting it in my mouth. Unconsciously, I reared my hips up, and ran my tongue over the glans, tasting the pre-cum. Without waiting, I felt him lean over to smack my ass, and it made his cock almost hit my throat, making me gasp. I pulled it out of my mouth, gasping for air, but went back to sucking on it. When I relaxed, I put him in one piece and this time I got used to that intruder so deep, and I heard him grunt. He loved when I swallowed him like that, but before I could make him cum, he gently withdrew from my mouth and lay down on the bed, turning me to stand beside him.

He kissed me again and wrapped his hands around my waist and slid them to my ass, where he slapped my ass, making me moan into his mouth.

We made out until he was on top of me, making me feel his hard cock on my thigh as he kissed my neck and played with my nipples.

I was already throbbing with lust, and it got worse when he slid his fingers to my clit and touched his fingertip to that sensitive spot, making me arch into him. But he did nothing but tease me, and I wanted him to use his tongue this time to bring me to orgasm. For that reason, I forced his head down and he got the message, surprisingly trailing kisses down my body, but before he got there he stopped and returned the kisses to where they were before, leaving me frustrated.

I sighed in annoyance, and shifted our positions, getting on top of him. I positioned myself right on top of his cock, and I fit my pussy there, not to slide him inside, but to rub myself there. He liked my boldness a lot, but I abruptly left the place until I was positioned right in his mouth. I felt him startle under me, but it was too late because I was already sitting pretty well in his face, with my cunt snug in the place where I always wished it was. He showed no resistance, just ran the tip of his tongue over my clit and I closed my eyes, sighing.

At first, he was stuck and a little lost, but little by little he got used to it and now his whole tongue passed through my intimacy, sometimes sucking painfully. It was good for me and it was good for him too, because I felt him grip my thighs tightly, holding me in place as he penetrated me with his tongue. I saw stars. When he smeared the entire place and when my body showed signs of the first orgasm, nimbly and using a little force he took me off him and put me back on the bed, with my back to the mattress. I thought he had given up, but he again slid down my body and positioned himself between my legs, giving me that wonderful sight. Again he pressed his tongue against my clit.

Seeing him there, with his head buried in the place I'd always dreamed of, made a fire burn in my stomach, and my brain worked tirelessly on the new sensations his mouth was gaving me me.

And he looked very committed and thirsty. He was like someone who had gone days without even a drop of liquid and who had just found an inexhaustible source of pure water. And I was that source. And just the thought of having him thirsty for me was enough to give my boner more ammo and make my hips start working nimbly, looking for more contact. Zoro shaved every day, but there were already two that he didn't shave, so the growing hairs scraped the inside of my thighs when I moved my hips, leaving goose bumps.

His tongue explored every corner of my intimacy and his arms closed tightly around my legs as he brought one hand to one of my breasts and rested it there, squeezing every now and then as my body showed signs of orgasm.

He didn't let go of me when I came for the first time or when I screamed for the second. Instead, he circled my waist with his arms and held me immobile in place as he sipped every drop that dared escape from me. He showed no signs of satiating even when I scratched his shoulders or slapped him in the arms to get him to let go. In fact, it felt like it was just an extra boost for him when I was on the verge of madness, writhing in his mouth and thrashing around aimlessly for support and control of the spasms in my body.

He was both a sadist and a masochist at the same time, which is why I was so attracted to him.

When he released me, I was almost voiceless and completely shaky. I wouldn't be able to form an intelligible word, and his playful smile, which I saw blurred due to the tears pooling in the corners of my eyes, gave away his satisfaction at seeing me in that state.

When I finally composed myself and my heart stopped beating in my chest, pulse, and throat, I took a deep breath and stared at him. He was lying beside me, looking at me and running his hand down my face, lovingly.

“You look beautiful when you're coming”, was the first thing he said.

“You look handsome between my legs”, I returned the answer in the same tone.

He smiled and massaged his jaw, as if in pain.

“Too bad it takes so long to cum, my chin hurts”, he complained and I rolled my eyes.

“You didn't leave me after my first orgasm,” I accused. “For those who were afraid of giving me oral sex, you seemed to enjoy it a lot”, I continued, with a pout.

“I had no idea you were that tasty,” he said, smiling slightly. “Now you better get ready, because your taste has gone straight to the top of my favorite flavors”, he assured me, as he pulled me by the waist to glue my body to his.

I kissed his lips softly, and touched our foreheads, and he kissed me again, obscenely. It didn't take me long to be on my knees for him, determined to reward him for the multiple organs he gave me.

Seeing him from above, with his eyes closed and his expression filled with pure delight, made me want to feel his cock in the back of my throat to the point of gasping for air. But he refused to cum inside my mouth. He lifted me up and positioned me on all fours on the bed and placed the condom on his cock.

When he sank into me, I moaned loudly, too happy that my sex life with my boyfriend was perfect.

[boosbabycakes28]

Annual Writing Self Evaluation 2021

Thank you so much @parmahamlarrie for the tag :) 

1. Number of stories posted to AO3: 6 

2. Word count posted for the year: 209,063 

3. Fandoms I wrote for: One Direction 

4. Pairings (some are secondary pairings): Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson

5. Story with the most Kudos/Bookmarks/Comments: 

Kudos: “With My Body And Soul, I Want You More Than You’ll Ever Know” Bookmarks: “You’ve Got A Higher Power, You’re Once In Any Lifetime” Comments: "With My Body And Soul, I Want You More Than You’ll Ever Know” but it’s close with “You’ve Got A Higher Power, You’re Once In Any Lifetime”  :)

6. Work I’m most proud of (and why): "You’ve Got A Higher Power, You’re Once In Any Lifetime” because I’ve worked so much on this one, it was such a long process and I just love the story and the characters so much. I miss them a lot. I miss writing about them. This story has a special place in my heart. 

7. Work I’m least proud of (and why): Oh that’s hard. I don’t think there is any work I’m not proud of, but if I had to choose I would say “You Are My Dancing Queen” It’s one of the first fics that I’ve written and I think I’ve grown as a writer since then.

8. Share or describe a favourite review you received: Oh I can’t choose really. Every time someone takes the time to leave a comment on any of my fics just means so much to me. It touches me that people read my works and appreciate them. 

9. A time when writing was really, really hard: Well, writing "You’ve Got A Higher Power, You’re Once In Any Lifetime” has been hard at time I’m not going to lie. I had doubts, and sometimes was a bit blocked, but my lovely betas were always there to help and lift me up. 

10. A scene or character you wrote that surprised you: "You’ve Got A Higher Power, You’re Once In Any Lifetime” was the first ABO I’ve written, so a lot of scene were a discovery and a little challenge. But strangely enough, I loved writing the chapter of Louis’ birthday. I hadn’t planned that chapter at the very beginning and it just came to me, now I just love it. Don’t really know why hehehe. 

11. A favourite excerpt of your writing: I don’t think I can choose from all my fics really, but the ice cream puns in “Summer Sun, Somethings Begun” are something that made me laugh a lot when I looked them up. They weren’t originally planned in the story and I’m so glad I got the idea and added them. I think it just gives the story that little something. 

12. How did you grow as a writer this year: Oh my, I grew so much. With my writing skills, my confidence, my ideas. That’s basically thanks to my betas and my friends who helped and pushed me so much, and of course the readers who gave me such nice reviews and made me want to go on. If you read my first fic and the ABO, you can definitely see the difference. I didn’t think I would ever write something like “You’ve Got A higher Power, You’re Once In Any Lifetime” but I did, and I’m so happy.

13. How do you hope to grow next year: Oh I don’t know. I just hope I’ll keep making reader smile (or maybe cry hehehe sorry) and escape for just a little time.

14. Who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer or beta or cheerleader or muse etc etc): Oh there are a lot, but my betas  and friends Vero, Ash, Caroline, Rachel and Blue helped me so much, they are amazing and I couldn’t do this without them, that’s for sure. I love them so much. @larryyouknow is a constant support, I love her a lot. Of course there are so many amazing writers that I look up to and wish to reach the level maybe some day, but Lena, who wrote “Take Me To Church” and who is my friend too, is such an inspiration. 

15. Anything from your real life show up in your writing this year: Yes, a lot of details in each fic are from my real life, or just me. Like places, names, character traits,... It would be too much to list hehe.

16. Any new wisdom you can share with other writers: I don’t know if I am in any place to give advice, but just try and remember to write for yourself first, because it makes you happy and not to please anyone. I try to remember myself of this a lot.

17. Any projects you’re looking forward to starting (or finishing) in the new year: I am currently writing my next fic, which is going to be even more personal than any other. I have written 2 chapters so far and I can’t wait to start writing again after the holidays. So more on that later next year :) 

18. Tag some writers whose answers you’d like to read I think just about everyone has been tagged - but if not: @jacaranda-bloom @larryyouknow @lululawrence @loubellies @smittenwithlouis @allwaswell16 @softfonds @greenblueish @seduced-by-curls @alltheselights @falsegoodnight @afterglowslouis @sevenfeetpirates @zanniscaramouche

[pomegranates-and-blood]

Play Pretend (500 Celebration)

500 Celebration Masterlist

Pairing: Ivar/Reader

Prompt: From the Love Tropes category: “Blackmail”

Word Count: 1596

Warnings: Modern!AU, angst, Ivar being a dick, nothing else I can think of.

A/N: This ain’t the fluffiest piece, it’s not fluffy at all, but hey, it’s marginally less angsty than the last one, that I can promise you.

To be honest, idk what this is, and I am not certain it is any good. But I’ve been dealing with one hell of a writer’s block lately, and I really needed to just write what came to mind. Hope you enjoy!

You eye the name flashing on your phone screen, and though a part of you really doesn’t want to answer, you still do.

“I would have thought you caught on that I really didn’t want to talk after the fourth day. This is bordering on stalking, you know.”

“Is it stalking if you gave me your number?” Ivar retorts without missing a beat, and you sigh.

“I assume you have a reason to call me. Unless missing the sound of my voice became too much to bear.”

“Don’t flatter yourself.”

“Is it flattery if it is true?” You taunt back, only to then chastise yourself for falling into familiar patterns.

“I heard your mother’s firm is taking over Ragnar’s newest countersuit.” Ivar starts, choosing to ignore your words.

“Ah, you just happened to hear that?”

“I might have asked,” He concedes, before taking a breath and continuing, “You know I’m going to England with him, right? His last meeting with Ecbert before he retires,” You offer only a hum in response, but something like dread and worry churns at your stomach. It is never a good sign when Ivar sounds so damn pleased with himself. “My father listens to me, trusts my advice.”

“If you’re going where I think you are…”

He interrupts you, words cutting and cold, “I could have your mother’s firm dropped before she even gets to sign anything.”

“I would say something about how blackmail isn’t the way to mend things with your ex, but…”

“You know better.” He tells you, the dry tone making the beginning of a smile pull at your lips, lips that you furrow when you notice the evidence of your foolishness.

____

A very lengthy argument and a plane ride after, you’re back in Kattegat, enough clothes for a week and a scowl on your brow that you think might be stuck there from now on.

Six months ago your mother started insisting that, now that you had gotten engaged to ‘one of the Lothbroks’, you should consider starting to work more closely with her; five months ago you freaked out at the mere idea of it and decided to do the exact opposite and take an internship opportunity in a non-profit in Nepal; four months ago Ivar said that if you were running away and leaving that you might as well break it off.

In none of those four months he considered letting his family know that long distance didn’t work -not that he even tried- and that you had broken up.

So now you are set for a week in the Lothbrok’s home for Björn’s wedding, pretending you never broke up with Ivar with the threat of your mother losing her contract looming over your head.

Which makes all of this fucking fantastic.

“You should have told them,” You say for what feels like the thousandth time, eyeing his profile carefully. “You should have told her.”

“You’re not here to tell me how to handle my family.” Ivar points out gruffly through gritted teeth.

“No, I’m here to pretend we haven’t broken up four months ago,” You scoff at the ridiculousness of the situation, turning to look back out the window. “Because that is a very healthy thing to do.”

“Healthier than moving to the ass-end of nowhere because someone suggested the possibility of you committing to something for once in your life.”

“I commit!” You protest immediately, frowning at his doubtful glare, “I committed to you!”

“You left me.” Ivar accuses without missing a beat, rage flaring and eyes set intently on you. Your mouth falls open at the fucking audacity of this man.

“No, don’t turn this on me. You-…” You bite back the words with a groan of frustration, running your hands through your hair before sighing, “You know what? It doesn’t matter.”

Resting back against the seat and wondering not for the first time how much these people pay their drivers to not blurt out every little secret that they overhear, you close your eyes and focus on the dull thrum of the car speeding through the highway.

Most of all you dread seeing Aslaug, if you are honest. The woman always did have a keen eye to notice everything about everyone, or at least the confidence to pretend she did. If you’re honest, she…intimidates you.

You tell yourself she has no idea you and Ivar broke up, which would give her no reason to hate you. She was always warm towards you since Ivar first introduced you as his girlfriend. Her eyes were even glistening with pride and happiness when you walked in with a ring on your finger.

You jump in your seat, turning frantic eyes to the man that sits next to you.

“Oh, Gods, the ring! Y-Your mother’s ring, I d-…”

Your words are cut short and left choked in a dying gasp with only a movement of Ivar’s hand, that now extends between you with the engagement ring in the palm of his hand.

He doesn’t even look your way when he offers it, but when you reach cautious fingers to grab it, you could swear his hand trembles slightly.

Sliding it back over your finger feels strange, and for a moment it feels so warm it burns.  You toy with the ring idly, and cannot keep the words from tumbling out of your mouth.

“You kept it.”

“Of course I did, it’s my Ma’s.”

Of course, how stupid of you. You curse the useless hope that unbidden sneaked up on you.

You decided to leave, you remind yourself. Hell, you are considering agreeing on making the original six months of your internship last a year instead.

Granted, agreeing to making it a year may be more out of fear of coming back home than of truly wanting to stay there. But still, you shouldn’t be holding out hope that there’s something left, or that there might be something to come back to Kattegat for.

“R-Right.” You nod for emphasis, but it is to conceal the way you have to swallow hard to keep your composure.

After a while of silence, either because your curiosity always got the better of you or because you need to make sense of this insane ruse you are about to partake in, you ask,

“Why are you doing this, Ivar?”

“Hm? Doing what?” He asks, at your stern glare looking back out the window and shrugging one shoulder, “I didn’t want to tell them.”

“You’ll have to, eventually.”

“Not now,” He states, a little harsher, making you realize you’ve struck a nerve. His eyes find yours for a moment before he returns his gaze to the road that passes you by, and the manor that approaches quite quickly. “But now…now Björn is getting married and…that should have been us, you know.”

“W-What?”

“The wedding, the…the everything,” He grits his teeth, and his hand tightens into a fist before it loosens, the gesture familiar only now he lacks the crutch at his side to grip tightly in anger. Your eyes trace his profile intently, and you hold your breath waiting for him to talk. Ivar takes a breath, shoulders rising and falling slowly, “I should have married you.”

“So what? So you could make me stay in Kattegat?” You ask, maybe a bit more bitingly than you should.

“You loved me,” He states, proud even he makes it sound like an accusation, “You told me no one made you feel like I did, that you would never love someone like you loved me. Was that a lie, hm?”

All the answer you can offer is a glare and words kept stubbornly at the tip of your tongue. It is cruel to throw your words back at you, but you wouldn’t put it past him, since all of this is a cruel and sick game.

He is the one that broke up with you, he is the one that told you to mail him the ring back, he is the one that made things what they are; and yet he uses power and blackmail to get you to play a part. All the while refusing to admit he is the reason why you have to pretend in the first place.

But you are not deluded enough to tell yourself this is unlike Ivar. He is as ruthless as his father, maybe even more so, and he has the single-minded focus that Ragnar lacks. You aren’t sure if that last thing is a positive or a negative.

The car parks at the entrance of the lavish home you know by heart now, and Ivar takes a deep breath, looking at you one last time.

His words before he leaves the car leave you cold and stunned for a few moments,

“You’ll remember how good it was, you’ll see. I’ll make you forget all about leaving me.”

Scrambling to get out, you walk around the car to stand at his side, looking up at him with wide eyes, “So they know? They know a-and you made me come here to make me be with you again?”

Ivar frowns, as if you are the one that’s not making any sense.

“They don’t know,” He insists, the hand not on the crutch grasping at your left one, fingers running over the ring with appalling familiarity. You are left to wonder how much of this game of play pretend he is willing to make himself believe as true when he offers a smile that feels like home and says, “I don’t lie to you, you know that.”

____ ____ ____

Thank you so much for reading, I hope this was okay! I’ll be trying to post two or three celebration thingies three days a week from now on, so that’s it for today but I’ll hopefully see you tomorrow!

Also, some things in the masterlist may be changed (Echoes, for example, was supposed to be a Hvitserk one), so I might change the “Fake Relationship” for Ivar and write a sequel to this.

Taglist: @youbloodymadgenius @xbellaxcarolinax @1950schick @ietss @peachyboneless​  @encounterthepast​ @maggiescarborough @chibisgotovalhalla​ @fae-sedai​ @zuxiezendler​ @crazybunnyladysworld​ @stupiddarkkside​ @northumbria​ @sagyunaro​    

[scarlets-maximoff]

We had proposal au...Now...hear me out...wedding prompt

AAAAAAA i LOVED writing this one!! i took a bit of liberty to insert some other marvel's characters, so I hope that's okay with you!! thank you so much for the prompt, hon <3

p.s: I'm sorry if my writing is not at its best right now, I've been struggling with writer's block lately :(

—

witch... wives?

Today might just be the happiest day of Wanda's life.

Okay, she can count on one hand how many joyful, truly happy days she has had during her life. Kinda tough trying to be happy in a world that does everything in its power to make you feel completely the opposite. But here she is, alive and well and happy. And do you know why is that? Well, dear reader…

Wanda Maximoff, former Avenger and current Scarlet Witch, is soon to be future Mrs. Harkness. She is getting married! And to the most beautiful, intelligent, perfect woman on the whole planet — and probably the multiverse too… — her Agatha.

So, imagine her elation at waking up before sunrise, magicking their whole cabin into a lustrous, enormous wood mansion and, last but not least, conjuring the loveliest wedding dress she could come up with. For herself, mind you. Wanda is perfectly aware of her fiancee's – she tries not to squeal at the fact that in a few hours they'd be wives – magical prowess and abilities. And speaking of her, it is of utmost importance, reader, that a bride and her fiance must not see each other before the ceremony. Wanda is perfectly aware of that too. It is why, despite both women's protests, Agatha isn't there with her at the moment.

She'd have to thank Monica and the rest of the gang for that. Wanda took the matters in her own hands and, as such, all preparations and arrangements were on her account. It's not particularly difficult to decorate an honest-to-god mansion when you're the Scarlet Witch. It really isn't.

But gods, how much Wanda missed her. How she missed her smile, so soft and beautiful, after they woke up and got ready for the day; how she missed Agatha's presence and company in their secluded little cabin, the walks they'd take in the afternoons. It was all for the best, but still. Wanda missed her Agatha. She couldn't wait to see her again. To feel her again.

Good thing they'd get married today then, huh?

"Wanda? Where are you?" A slightly muffled voice resonated from outside the house. Wanda shook her head, her mind still reeling with all the things she needed to sort out until the actual ceremony. Not that there was too much left to do: the walls had been already decorated, as for the hall and kitchen. Their garden had previously been tended to, many of Agatha's favourite wildflowers already blossoming and thriving. Everything was going as it should be.

Why is she so nervous then?

"In here, Monica!" The redhead didn't look up from her work, which was now directed towards the creation of her dress. A burgundy, satin dress, littered with intricate designs to resemble her own Scarlet Witch attire. Wanda felt her insides flutter at the thought of Agatha in her own wedding dress, a dreamy smile curling onto her face.

Darcy and Jimmy trailed behind S.W.O.R.D's newest director, excited looks coloring their faces. "Today is the big day, girl!" Monica exclaimed, already making her way towards the red witch to give her a hug, an embrace Wanda gladly accepted. Despite her nervousness, she couldn't help but squeal in delight. She was getting married!

"Thank you so much for being here. All of you." She gave the group a grateful smile.

Things between them have gotten much better after the Hex Anomaly, which is not to say that their beginning wasn't rocky. Wanda had much to apologize for, not only for the damage she'd done to the Westview citizens but also… to herself. With their friendship, she's learned to forgive herself. With Agatha… She's learned to truly live. To love without fear.

Stepping away from Monica's hold, Wanda cally walked towards the duo, embracing each one just as eagerly.

"Can we help you with anything? We brought some extra staff…" Darcy gestured to the hall's door just in time for said staff to come in. Wanda felt tears of happiness well up in her eyes at the sight of her old teammates. Her friends.

Clint had a huge smile on his face, his wife Laura and their children tucked comfortably under his arms. Thor, Sam and Bucky soon followed, each one of them with the goofiest smiles Wanda's ever seen.

Remember the squeal she let out earlier, reader? Well, let's just say it doesn't even come close to this one. "You guys are here!"

—

"Wanda, stop pacing already! Your speech is fine, you don't have to worry about-"

"I can't, okay? What if I mess it up, what if I forget it?" Wanda almost succumbed with tears. Darcy, Monica and Laura were her bridesmaids, and the room they were in — a quaint little bedroom with a classic-looking mirror and a big closet — was directly in front of Agatha's. Oh, Agatha…

The older witch had arrived soon after her friends, but she didn't even catch a glimpse of her fiancee. How much ached to see her again. The waiting made her even more anxious and jittery.

The three bridesmaids sighed in unison. All of them were clad in soft red dresses that hung beautifully by their knees. Getting up from where they were seated, the trio calmly made their way towards the upset witch, whose hands were trembling with apprehension.

"Honey, it's okay. Everything will be fine, Wanda. Don't worry about 'what if's' or if you'll forget your speech or not," Laura Barton chuckled, a gentle look in her brown eyes, "Just let your heart say what it wants to say." She hummed, and Wanda felt a bit of the weight she's been carrying since morning falling away. She turned around to glance at them, gratitude shining in her gaze. Nothing had to be said as she closed her eyes, warmth sweeping through her as they hugged her close.

Everything would be fine…

—

The ceremony takes place at the front yard of their cabin.

The morning sun shines lazily on everyone's faces, the group of Wanda's and Agatha's friends all gathered in their seats. A long white rug decorates the garden's grass, heading towards the small altar at its end. The chirping of birds around the meadow calms Wanda's nerves, but she can't stop nervousness from taking over her heart. Dr. Strange is the one who will officialize their union. The wizard in question tries – and fails – to calm the woman down. It is to no avail.

Wanda knows she will only calm down when she sees her fianceé walking down the aisle. And, in no time, that's exactly what Agatha does.

The older witch can't keep her tears from falling.

Her ocean blue eyes catch Wanda's emerald ones, and a shiver runs all the way down her spine. Her fianceé looks absolutely otherworldly, with her fiery locks of auburn hair neatly braided behind her back, the crimson Scarlet Witch crown complementing her wedding dress perfectly. That smile Agatha loves so much, ear to ear.

Her own lilac dress, designed and decorated by herself, reflects the sunlight in a myriad of shades of purple, her brooch glinting in its pendant. As the guests get up from their seats to watch Agatha's entrance, Wanda tearfully smiles at her. A hand to her mouth to keep her from sobbing.

Agatha has to restrain herself from jumping on Wanda right there and kiss her into oblivion. When the actual ceremony begins, both women can't control the thundering of their hearts. And when Stephen conjures their wedding rings — ruby for Wanda and violet for her — even time itself seems to stop. There's no one else around but them, their trembling hands taking hold of each other.

And when both of them say yes?

Finally, they think in unison. Finally, the bride may kiss the bride. The applause and cheers are just a buzz to the women's ears but, after the ceremony has come to an end and the party gets started, they make their way to one Darcy Lewis with a mischievous look in their eyes, the scientist in question already trying her best not to laugh.

"Witch wives, Darls? Really?"

Her belly laugh could be heard throughout the entirety of their mansion.

[the-girl-in-the-box]

Not Today X

A/N:  A liiiittle late with this update- whoops! But hopefully Sunday morning wasn't too long to wait as opposed to Saturday night :) Finals prep last week, so I should be set to update as usual again this upcoming Wednesday! By then, finals should be over, and I'll be a free woman for the summer! But, until then, I hope you all enjoy this chapter, even if I had to push through some writer's block with it and it's a little shorter than usual XD Skål!

Summary:  When Ivar takes the throne of Kattegat, Lagertha flees to Wessex along with Björn, Ubbe, Torvi, and the Bishop Heahmund. There, they seek the aid of King Alfred. This aid comes in the form of his sister, Aethelind, who agrees to travel to Kattegat and try to reason Ivar, who she spent some time with during their youth, when her grandfather King Ecbert hosted Ragnar Lothbrok in their castle. Now, she is the only hope for Lagertha and her supporters to retake Kattegat from Ivar the Boneless.

Masterlist

--

The feast came quickly, it felt like, and Aethelind found that Freydis was easy to get along with. She was polite, kind, gentle, easy to talk to… If nothing else, Aethelind was happy to know she’d found another friend in Kattegat already. They’d gotten prepared for the feast together, with Freydis braiding Aethelind’s hair, and helping her choose one of the dresses from the trunk Hvitserk had brought up from the docks.

In the end, the women had settled on a deep green dress, one that was very flattering to the Princess, and highlighted the green of her eyes. Freydis had commented that the dress made her eyes stand out quite a bit, and with the style of her hair, the features of her face were already highlighted. Just a touch of cosmetics, and Aethelind felt fully ready to go into the feast.

The Queen herself had chosen a silky blue dress, one which Aethelind insisted would compliment the blue of the blonde woman’s eyes. It also fit Freydis in such a way as to not be uncomfortable, as Freydis was with child, and far enough along that her stomach was beginning to swell. This had brought quick congratulations from Aethelind, who realized this meant Ivar and his wife would be parents. Though she was there on behalf of Björn and Lagertha, as well as Ubbe and Torvi, that didn’t mean she didn’t still like Ivar, didn’t mean she had come quickly to like his wife, and didn’t mean that she wasn’t happy for them to be having a child.

It could have been a complication, considering this would mean an heir for Ivar, but she was more focused on the happiness she thought a child would bring the young couple.

Now, the two were walking out to the Great Hall of the longhouse, where they could already hear the feast in full swing. It was far louder than what Aethelind was used to feasts being in Wessex, but it also sounded like it was filled with far more joy and laughter. Excitement bubbled in her chest as she and Freydis walked arm and arm to the hall.

As soon as they entered, Ivar stood from his seat at the main table, using his crutch to support himself, and he gestured to his wife and their guest. “My friends!” he called, getting the attention of all those in the hall. “We are joined now by my wife, and also by an old friend. It is my pleasure to introduce to you all, the Princess Aethelind, of Wessex. I met the Princess when my father and I journeyed to her Kingdom, and he was often in council with her grandfather, King Ecbert. We spent much time together, and it gladdens me to see her come to our shores. Tomorrow, she and I will do business, but tonight! We celebrate old friendships, and her arrival here. Skål!”

Aethelind wouldn’t have understood hardly a word of what he said, as he said it all in his own tongue, but Freydis was whispering a translation of what he said to her. She smiled, even if her cheeks dusted pink at how she was suddenly the center of attention.

Freydis guided her up toward that table where she was to sit with herself and her husband, and Aethelind smiled. “Thank you for your generous welcome,” she said to Ivar. “Ever since our friendship in Wessex began, I have been curious to see Kattegat, and to walk amongst your people. And now I am here, I find it is far more exciting than I could have expected it to be! It is my belief that my journey here, on my brother’s behalf, will be one of the highlights of my life.” A cup of mead was handed to her by Freydis, who whispered the word they used to toast in her ear, and Aethelind nodded, lifting the glass and announcing, “Skål!”

Despite not understanding a word she’d said, most of the room, they erupted into cheers at her toast, and all began to drink and talk amongst themselves. She chuckled softly at how easily they’d seemed to agree with her words, and then as Ivar sat again, Freydis to his right, Aethelind sat down at his left, thanking the thrall that served her meal with a polite smile and a nod. She would have thanked her verbally, but she didn’t know enough of the Viking tongue to do so.

Right after the meal was served, Aethelind’s attention was taken by Hvitserk settling in to her right, and taking a drink from his cup. “Hello, Princess,” he greeted.

Ivar rolled his eyes and immediately quipped, “Oh, she does not need you pestering her Hvitserk. At least let her settle in before you start your nonsense, hm?”

“It’s not nonsense, Ivar,” Hvitserk defended. “I just want to be sure she feels welcomed!”

“Did the feast not do that?” Ivar questioned him. “Give the girl some space.”

Hvitserk scooted away from Aethelind the tiniest bit, and said, “She has space. Now, Princess-”

Ivar groaned, interrupting Hvitserk and earning a giggle from Aethelind. “Boys, please, stop fighting,” she said. “This is a happy night. I’m happy to be here, happy to get to know you all better. So let’s just celebrate, and not fight.”

Hvitserk chuckled a little bit, and waved his hand dismissively. “Talk to Ivar,” he said. “He’s the one who can’t help himself from starting things.”

Ivar feigned hurt as he looked at Hvitserk, and Aethelind noticed Freydis giving a good-natured roll of her eyes. “You will have to get used to this,” Freydis told her, earning another falsely offended look from Ivar.

Aethelind giggled softly, and shook her head. “No, in truth I don’t mind it,” she confessed. “My own brothers in Wessex were far too reserved for anything like this. The freedom for this sort of bickering is a relief.”

The Vikings seemed a bit surprised by this confession, and Hvitserk even questioned, “You don’t like the ways of your Kingdom, Princess?”

“Oh, it’s not… that, exactly,” she said, chuckling. “No, it’s just… They were both raised to be more mature than their ages. So seeing brothers actually bicker with each other, the way I’ve heard they do… It’s nice. Relaxed. It seems to me your people as a whole are less...” She paused as she searched for the right word. "Stuffy, than those of Wessex."

The three Vikings nodded a little as they took in what she said, and Ivar answered, “Then it is good if I argue with my brother,” to Freydis, who huffed and shook her head. “It will entertain our guest.”

“Look what you have done,” Freydis quipped to Aethelind, who giggled once more.

“My apologies,” she said. “Perhaps if we spend more time together than with them, we can make it more bearable.” She winked playfully at Freydis, who then began to laugh softly.

Hvitserk cracked a smirk, and said to Ivar, “It seems your wife and friend are joining forces against you, brother.”

Aethelind shrugged slightly, grinning, and said, “Can I help it? As an old friend, I’m essentially required to torment poor Ivar.” She put her hand on his back and gave it a pat. “And, as his wife… Freydis is the perfect ally for me in this.”

Hvitserk couldn’t help but laugh at this, and Ivar looked at her as if she had betrayed him.

The feast continued in this way, with the four of them conversing easily and laughing amongst themselves. To the surprise of the people watching on, it seemed the Saxon Princess was getting along perfectly with their King, their Queen, and their Prince. (The latter was hardly a surprise, as Hvitserk could get along with nearly anyone- especially if said anyone was a beautiful Princess.)

And so, by the end of the night, Aethelind found that she had something of a slight buzz from the mead she had consumed, even if she hadn’t consumed a large amount, and she walked back to her chambers with Freydis. Ivar and Hvitserk were still in the hall, discussing something, and so the two women had chosen to return to their chambers together.

The Queen made sure the Princess found her chambers alright, but stopped just at her door. “I must say,” she began. “Your presence seems to be a good thing for my husband. Hvitserk explained to me the bond you once shared with him.”

Aethelind turned a curious gaze to Freydis, tilting her head slightly. “Did he?” she asked. “And what did he say of it?”

“That you spent your hours with him in your youth, on the journey to Wessex which claimed his father. Without even understanding his language…” Freydis gave her a knowing look. “Did you care for him, Princess?”

This earned a slightly nervous smile from Aethelind. “Of course,” she answered vaguely. “I care for all my friends.”

Freydis chuckled softly. “I am sure,” she said. “And that included Norse boys, when your Kingdom had long been at war with the Norse people?”

A slight pink dusted Aethelind’s cheeks. “He was my friend,” she managed. “We were young. The wars of our fathers and grandfathers had not yet become ours. He wasn’t just some… Norse boy. He was Ivar. And just the same, I wasn’t just the Saxon Princess. I was Aethelind. What more did we need to be than that at such an age? We were friends, even without understanding the other’s language.”

Freydis smiled at the sentiments shared with her by Aethelind, though she wasn’t quite settled just yet. Yes, she liked the other woman, but the circumstances of her arrival were strange, she couldn’t deny that. She couldn’t yet be certain she trusted her.

“And now?” she questioned. “His father’s war has become his. Has your grandfather’s become yours, with his passing?”

“With his passing, it became my father’s,” Aethelind said. “And with his, my brother’s. It is true I have come on his behalf to speak with Ivar, and it may be true he is hoping Ivar will listen to me, concurrent with the bond we once shared. But I have come in pursuit of peace, Freydis. On my word, I have not come to betray your hospitality, nor your good faith. It is my hope that there will be good relations between our people.”

Freydis nodded a little. “And this is the business you will have with him in the morning, yes?” she clarified, and Aethelind nodded in return. “Then, if your word is honorable, I pray you will have a productive meeting with my husband. If you are lying to me now, and betray him, then I will pray that your plans fail, and that you will not succeed in your betrayal.”

Aethelind reached out to Freydis, putting a hand on her arm. “Freydis, I would never hurt Ivar, not if it is at all within my power to avoid doing so. I still consider him a friend, even if many years have passed. Unless I am betrayed, I do not turn on my friends. I will not turn on him, unless he does so first.”

The sincerity with which Aethelind spoke, and the certainty, soothed Freydis’s anxieties. And if she were plotting anything, Ivar would discover it come morning. That much was just as certain as Aethelind’s words. So she smiled, and took the Princess’s hand in her own.

“I believe you,” she said. “And I pray you will find the peace your brother has sent you to seek. Our people have been at war since Ivar’s father first journeyed to England. Your grandfathers, and my husband’s father, were casualties to this war. Countless others have been lost as well, and though I believe many have gone into Valhalla… The winter will be on us soon, and we will need those numbers at home, hm? Peace would be good for both our lands, and enough have been lost to this war.”

“I’m glad to hear you agree,” Aethelind said, smiling warmly. “Then pray for peace to be reached between Ivar and I tomorrow, or whenever it will. I trust it will come when it is meant to do so.”

Freydis nodded a little at this. “Very well,” she said. “I will pray for this, but you must rest. Perhaps my husband and his brother will stay in the hall until well into the morning, but Ivar is not a late sleeper, even after a feast. I am sure he will wish to see you early.”

Aethelind nodded, and said, “Then I will rest now. Thank you again for your hospitality, Freydis.”

The two women embraced, and it struck Freydis that she really did quite like this woman. Aethelind was kind, and gentle, though she could tell from having watched her with her husband and his brother earlier that night that the Princess had a fire within her as well. She doubted that Aethelind wouldn’t be able to fit in well in Kattegat, if she ever, for any reason, desired to remain there.

So, they said goodnight, and Aethelind shut the door to her chambers. There were a few candles lit within her room, and she found that it, with the furs on the floor and on her bed, was a rather comfortable room. There was also a little desk, with parchment, a quill, and ink on it. It was there she sat and began to write her brother. This letter she would send back with his men which had followed her at dawn, knowing this would be how they had to communicate in the coming weeks, and perhaps months, that she resided in Kattegat.

Alfred,

So far, I have found a very warm welcome in Kattegat. I have already met King Ivar once again, and I am pleased to report he has not changed toward me in the years since he was our grandfather’s guest. He has since married a very sweet woman who is called Freydis, and she is with child. They threw a feast in my honor this evening, which I have just returned from attending. In the morning, I will meet with Ivar concerning our negotiations, and I pray it will go well. If it does, then I will have excellent news to report in my next letter to you. I also pray this letter will find you in good health, and I pray it will find you victorious over our Northern invaders who pushed me from our borders so suddenly. Give my love to our mother, our brother, and our guests, and tell them I look forward to our reunion.

With all my love,

Aethelind

The next morning, Aethelind took that letter down to the docks, where she met the men who had made the journey to Kattegat with her. Sealed officially by the Princess, they were instructed by her to deliver this letter only into Alfred’s hands. They agreed to this, and set off immediately. With that done, Aethelind turned, and started back toward the Great Hall.

She had a meeting to attend with the King.

Taglist: @youbloodymadgenius, @wilhelmyna, @katfett, @fangirl-nonsense, @zuzus-sun, @heavenly1927

If you want to be added to the taglist, feel free to reach out either by commenting, reblogging, DMing me, or sending an ask, and I’ll be more than happy to add you!

[supimjustwriting]

Bouquet of Roses Satan

Summary: Getting close to the avatar of wrath was no easy feat. Especially for a regular human as yourself, simply plopped into the world know as devildom. Wanting to celebrate your comradery, the 4th born decides to give you a gift,

Author’s Note:

I’ve posted this story on Animo already but I thought I’d share it here as well. I hope you enjoy and friendly reminder that requests are open. I might do the rest of the brothers but sadly I have writer’s block for them ;w;

Burgundy Roses Meaning: Unconscious Beauty  

Read the other brothers versions: Lucifer, Mammon (WIP) , Leviathan , Satan  <- You are Here , Asmodeus (WIP) , Beelzebub (WIP) , Belphegor (WIP)

“Wake up and smell the roses, huh? What a particular saying,” the blond muttered to himself before closing the human novel, placing it onto one of the many piles of books in his room. Curious to learn more straight from the source. The demon went on the search for the human exchange student.

Looking out of one of the many windows of the manor. Satan spotted his target in the garden. The sight was quite refreshing with the human sitting on the stone bench with their eyes closed. Maybe he should, shaking away the thought. The blond made his way quickly to their guest, greeting them with his well practiced smile.

“May I?” he chimed, not being able to hold back a bit of laughter as he watched them jump. He smirked seeing their pout, resisting the urge to pinch their cheeks as he took the seat beside them.

“Waking up to smell the roses, huh?” Satan teased softly as the other rubbed the sleep from their eyes.

“I suppose you can say that. Still working on the waking up part though,” they flashed a smile at their companion before getting interrupted by a yawn. “So, what brings you here? Looking for me?” their eyes gazed at him curiously, almost like a kitten observing a new toy.

He simply nodded, inquiring about the strange saying. Satan didn’t seem to note his partner’s dismay or he simply waved it off. You can only get so much from written word after all.

Tapping their chin. Satan watched the other as they stared up at the sky, almost as if they’d find the answers there. “Well, the classic is red roses for romance. Blue is unrequited love and something unattainable due to them being a thing of fiction. Not all roses are about love though!” they chimed, catching the sun in their eyes. “You can complement others. Celebrate your friendship. Roses and flowers in general are just nice gifts, you know?”

Satan hummed thoughtfully, noting all the bouquets Asmo receives. Do some of his fans know the weight of the flowers they choose? If so, those unheard feelings being hidden by beauty are quite tragic. Shaking himself away from his thoughts for the second time today. He’d offer the other his best smile, thanking them before taking his leave.

~

Finding himself in the library. The avatar of Wrath would find his fingers, brushing against the spines of flower symbolism and history. Pulling out a book about roses. His eyes would glaze over the care instructions, only lighting up as he found more meanings.

Red too cliché, though it is a classic and most likely the safest bet.

Black is for funerals. The meaning is nice though, new beginnings and rebirth. It doesn’t suit what he’s going for though.

Coral, maybe? There certainly was desire involved but that might be misunderstood.

Purple for royalty and pride. He curled his nose at the thought. Sure they also stand for enchantment and sometimes love at first sight but that certainly doesn’t fit them.

The meaning for yellow changed over the years. At first it’s jealousy but then grew to be associated with friendship. He couldn’t help but think of a certain otaku, reading about the plant.

These should do the trick. Not too common but not in your face either. Subtle and beautiful. Just like them.

~

Ordering the flowers from Akuzon. Satan sat upon his desk as he tried to find the right words. After a pile of failures that could be composed into their own book. He couldn’t help but smile while attaching the single burgundy rose to his masterpiece. 

Taking out his D.D.D, Satan sent a quick message to the exchange student.

‘Hey. I have something for you. Can I come to your room to give it to you?’

‘Sure!’

Anticipating their response. Satan was at their door before he knew it. Taking a deep breath, he gave their door a firm knock.

“MC? Are you there?”

With a creak, the door revealed his cherished friend.

“For you,” he said with a slight bow. His free hand on his chest as the other gingerly held the note and burgundy rose.

Soft hands took the offering, curiosity and confusion clear in their eyes. “Just a gift for teaching me more about these beautiful flowers. Think of it as a thank you if anything,” a groan escaped his lips as the other’s soft laughter tickled his ears causing his cheeks to flush.

“I’ll leave you to it. Please take care.”

~

Note:

Every flower holds a meaning Each being very dear and true Red for passion Blue for things never to be Burgundy to show that I care for you You must know these things For I was taught of them by you This knowledge I’ll hold dear Just as I will hold you 

[prettyboongi]

BTS Reaction | They React to You Having a Weird Personality

[A/N: Hey gang! I’ve been meaning to post this earlier but somehow I got hit with major writer’s block （￣ε￣）so to the user who requested this, I’m really sorry I took so long to finish this. Hope you all enjoy!

Seokjin 

When Jimin decided to tag along with you and Seokjin to go grocery shopping, he didn’t think much of it at first. He was running low on basics such as milk and soy sauce and, being his first time spending some time with you, he thought it would be a great time to get to know you better. And boy, did he. 

The three of you were browsing the produce section of the grocery store when you suddenly wandered off somewhere. Jimin didn’t think much of it and continued to stay by Jin’s side, checking the ripeness of the cantaloupes. It was only when he heard you speaking nearby. You were talking in a cutesy voice, the kind one would use when speaking to a baby or small child. It was only when Jimin turned your way to find you speaking to either. 

“Aww, aren’t you just the cutest thing ever!,” you cooed while holding a kiwi close to your face. “You’re so soft and fuzzy. Too bad you’re just too delicious otherwise I’d keep as a pet!” 

“What the absolute fuck?,” Jimin murmured, totally dumbstrucked of what he was witnessing. 

“What?,” asked Jin, too busy testing the cantaloupes. 

“Y/N is talking to fruit… like it’s an animal or something.” 

“Oh yeah, she does that sometimes. Pretty adorable, right? 

Adorable wasn’t the right word Jimin was thinking of. Plain bizarre was more fitting. Or embarrassing as a handful of passersby gave quizzical looks at you. But you were too busy to notice, focusing on your conversation with the small, fuzzy fruit. 

Mortified, Jimin calls out to you. “Ah, Y/N! Can you please quit it.? You’re being weird!”

Surprised but unfazed by Jimin’s outburst and overall embarrassment, you simply respond, “But come on, they just look so deliciously cute!” You even gave the kiwi a nice pet before lovingly rubbing it on your face. 

Utterly speechless, Jimin continues to gawk at you like a freakshow. His attention does break from you when he feels a sudden pat on the shoulder. He turns around slightly to find Jin next to him with a sympathetic look on his face. 

“There, there Jiminie.” says Jin, “you’ll come to love her weirdness. 

And Jimin eventually did. Begrudgingly so. 

Yoongi 

You were sitting alone in a cafe, waiting for your boyfriend Yoongi to arrive. When he mentioned that he had some time out of his busy schedule to hang out, of course you took the opportunity. Although you admired his work ethic and dedication to BTS, you still wished there was more time to spend time together. And it was days like this that you truly look forward to. 

He texted you he was running a bit late so all you could really do was wait patiently for him. A task that wasn’t so hard since you found yourself drifting into a daydream while staring out the window. It was only you heard the screech of the chair scooting that broke you from your daydream. You turn to the noise and see Yoongi sitting down in front of you. And with an unexpectant guess. 

“Hey Y/N, sorry I’m late,” Yoongi greets you, “Hope you don’t mind that I brought Taehyung along.” Taehyung sits down next to Yoongi and shoots you a cheeky smile. 

“No, I don’t mind,” you replied, “Now I have two of my favorite people in the world.” While there was a part of you that wanted to be alone with Yoongi, you were happy to see Taehyung as well. As an apology for being a third wheel, Taehyung even offered to order and pay for all your drinks: an Americano for Yoongi, a vanilla latte for you and a hot chocolate for himself. 

Once the three of you were all settled with your drinks, you asked the two men how their day was. 

“Surprisingly, it wasn’t too busy. Just going over…” you listen to Yoongi say before drifting into one of your vivid daydreams. You knew it was rude but sometimes you couldn’t help it, you get distracted way too easily. Yoongi knew this about you. This definitely wasn’t the first time you spaced out while he was speaking. Despite this, you always urge him to keep talking since you snapped out of it at some point. 

However, Taehyung didn’t know this trait about you and proceeds to wake you up from daydream mode. With a loud snap of fingers he called out your name and your attention was now back to them. 

“Oh sorry about that,” you said bashfully. 

Unbothered, Yoongi took a sip of his coffee. “No, it’s fine babe. Seemed like you had a good daydream going on.” Both of you chuckled lightly but Taehyung stayed quiet. He wasn’t particularly annoyed by your daydreaming but he did think it was rude to not pay attention. 

Half-jokingly, he retorted, “Wow hyung, who knew you were dating such a space cadet.” 

“Huh?,” you responded. Taehyung’s seemingly lighthearted remark caught you off guard. 

Taehyung chuckles. “I knew all knew you were ditzy but jeez.” 

You didn’t know how to respond so you giggled nervously. Even though you knew he was joking around, the way he said it made you feel a bit embarrassed. 

Seeing your reaction, Yoongi glares at Taehyung. “Hey, I’d appreciate you not making fun of my girlfriend.” 

“But hyung, I was just-” 

“I really don’t give a shit whether you were kidding or not, I want you to apologize to her.” 

Knowing better to not disobey this particular hyung of his, Taehyung turns to you with apologetic eyes. “I’m sorry, Y/N,” he says genuinely. 

You reached over to give his hand a comforting pat and smiled at him. “Thanks, Tae.” 

You knew he was joking around but it was still nice to hear him apologize. 

Hoseok

Everyone in the group knew how close you were to Hoseok. Dating for almost a year already, he was your entire world. Your rock. Your knight in shining armor. And because of his supportive and caring nature, you always went to him whenever you needed something. Hoseok made it clear to you that you could always rely on him. 

“Hobi, can you please pick me up?” you’d ask him on the phone and Hoseok would immediately be on his way. 

“Hobi can you open my bottle? It hurts my hand”, and he’d gladly open it for you. 

“Hobi, I feel really scared and anxious right now, I need you,” and he would drop whatever he was doing to find and comfort you. 

To some people, you would see this as Hoseok being a great boyfriend. However, others might just view it as a little too dependent. Others like Jungkook, apparently. 

Jungkook didn’t have anything against you; he really liked for the most part. He just thought it was strange for a girl your age to be so reliant on someone, be it her boyfriend or not. He didn’t understand how someone as fiercely independent as his hyung would be interested in someone who is the complete opposite. It was an opinion that he kept to himself until one day. 

You knew that today Hoseok and the guys had a dance practice and you thought it would be a great idea to make a surprise visit. On your way to the studio, you were about to turn a corner when you see your boyfriend and Jungkook in the hallway. It looked like they were having a serious conversation so you contemplated whether to wait until they were finished or greet them anyway. That’s when you hear your name being suddenly dropped. 

“Y/N?,” Hoseok asks quizzically, “What about her?” 

“I noticed that she’s been asking a lot of you lately, things that she could definitely do on her own,” Jungkook hesitantly begins, “I just find it odd that she’s that so dependent on you.”

You felt a rush of heat rising in you from shear embarrassment as you hid away the two men. You didn’t know that Jungkook thought this way about you and you worried if the other’s felt the same way. “Ugh, this is why you don’t eavesdropped, stupid,” you thought to yourself. You were about to leave when you heard Hoseok beginning to speak. 

“To be perfectly honest, Jungkook, I like that fact that I’m the one Y/N comes to when she needs help. I like being needed, especially from someone I love. She’ll get to a point where she can be more self-reliant but I’m not going to rush her. So don’t worry too much about her or our relationship, okay?” He finishes his speech with a friendly pat on Jungkook’s shoulder.” 

“Sorry, hyung. I didn’t mean to be rude,” he says with a guilty look on his face. Hoseok just responds with a hearty laugh as he puts his arm around the maknae and leads back to the dance studio. 

Still standing behind that corner, you couldn’t help but contain the sweet smile on your face. You were still a bit dejected over what Jungkook said about you but the fact you had a boyfriend that will defend no matter what made you feel so blessed. He was truly your everything and you’d be lost without him. 

You took a moment to compose yourself before heading towards the dance studio. 

Namjoon

It was no secret to anyone that knew you that your favorite thing to eat was anything pickled. Growing up in a family that pickled everything from cucumbers to watermelon rinds, you always found comfort munching on the tangy, savory food. Your love for pickled foods reached an all new high when you moved to South Korea and fell totally in love with kimchi and all its regional variants. 

To an outsider, they might see your love for pickled food a bit obsessive, but not Namjoon. Knowing how much you love eating them, he made sure stock up on your favorites at the dorm. So whenever you come over to hang out, you’ll have a tasty snack to eat. This sweet gesture made you love the man even more, if that was even possible in the first place. 

The rest of Bangtan thought your obsession with pickles somewhat peculiar but also adorably quirky. Well everyone except for one person: Yoongi. As much as he enjoyed pickled foods himself, he personally thought you took it too far since he’d always catch you eating them. He even avoids sitting and speaking to you due to you sometimes smelling like strong brine. But he tried his best to hold his tongue since it didn’t hurt anyone. 

One day, Yoongi walks into the living room of the dorm and finds you and Namjoon sitting at the table. You, of course, was enjoying some pickled okra your mother sent you in a care package. 

“Hi, Yoongi!,” you squeaked as you got up to give him a hug. 

Yoongi became rigid in your embrace but soon reciprocated the hug rather awkwardly. Pulling back from the hug, he says hurriedly, “Uh, I have to run some errands. See ya guys around,” then hightails it out the door. 

His behavior leaves you puzzled. “What’s with him?,” you asked Namjoon but he just shrugs in response. 

That very visit, you decided to spend the night at the dorm. You were walking out of the bathroom after brushing your teeth when you heard Namjoon and Yoongi talking in the next room. As you tippy-toed closer to that room, you quickly realized they were talking about you. 

“I’m sorry Joon but I just think it’s her obsession with pickles is kinda gross,” Yoongi belts out, “I mean she eats them all the time.” 

Before even hearing Namjoon's response, you quickly walked to his bedroom and buried yourself in his sheets. A few moments later, you hear Namjoon walk into the room and feel the bed slightly shake as he climbs into bed. 

“You still awake, honey?,” he sweetly asks. 

“Yeah,” you said in a somber tone, still buried under the sheets. 

“Hey, is there something wrong?” 

It takes you a moment before responding. “Do you think I’m gross, Joon?” 

Namjoon sighs heavily. “I’m guessing you overheard our conversation. How much did you hear?”

“I only heard what Yoongi said then immediately went towards the room. Joonie, I’m sorry I’m like this.” 

That’s when Namjoon pulled the covers from you and cupped your flustered face. “Hey, you have nothing to be sorry about. Who cares what you love to eat? I love you for who you are, Y/N. That’s what I told Yoongi hyung and now I’m telling you.” He then gives you a warm, gentle kiss on the lips. 

Overwhelmed by Namjoon’s intense sincerity and affection, you felt your eyes start to water. “You don’t mind that my kisses sometimes taste like vinegar?” 

Namjoon chuckles at your question. “Not one bit.” 

Jimin 

The guys decided it would be nice to have a relaxing movie night and you were invited to tag along. 

“How long’s the movie?,” you asked?

“It’s pretty long,” Jimin says before he clicks the play button on the Netflix screen. 

“Bet Y/N’s gonna pass out halfway towards the middle,” Taehyung jokes. 

You scoff. “I’m not gonna fall asleep this time.” You said this with such confidence but the boys didn’t buy it. You were known to fall asleep at any time, at any occasion. Whether you were on a day trip or at an awards show, you’d often find yourself passing out somewhere, causing some slight embarrassment on your part. And unfortunately, tonight was no different. 

“Baby, wake up,” Jimin softly says to you as he gently shakes you awake. 

You quietly moaned as you sat up on the couch in the dorm’s living room. “Is the movie already over?” you said groggily, rubbing the sleepiness from your eyes. 

Jimin faintly smiles at you. “Afraid so. 25 minutes in - a new record for you,” he teased. You gave him a quick glare. 

“I had a strange dream. I wasn’t in it myself but you and Namjoon were there. Namjoon was kinda irritated and said something like ‘what’s the point in even inviting her to these things if she’s just going to fall asleep?’ Good thing it was just a dream, right?” You looked up at Jimin and saw a weird expression on his face. “What?”

He sighs and says, “That wasn’t a dream, Y/N. I was hoping you didn’t hear that.” 

“So, Namjoon did say that,” you asked. Jimin nodded. Even though you were the one that fell asleep during the movie, you couldn’t help but feel a bit hurt and ashamed. You bit your lip before speaking again. “Is he mad at me?”

Jimin grabs your hands, gently caressing your finger. “Oh, not at all, sweetie. But even if he was mad, it doesn’t matter,” he says assuringly. “Wanna know what I told him?,” he asked you. You silently nod. “I told him that you’re my sleeping beauty and I wouldn’t change that about you.” 

His lovely compliment catches you off guard, causing a light blush to appear on your face. Softly smiling at him, you respond, “You’re such a cheeseball, Park.” 

Taehyung

You were out on a dinner date with your boyfriend Taehyung, and you were trying your best to hide your nervousness. It wasn’t the fact that you were out with Tae that made you nervous since you've been together for a few months already. What made you nervous was that this date was actually a double date with Hoseok and his own girlfriend. Even though this wasn’t your first time hanging out with anyone from the group, let alone Hoseok, you still get anxious in settings like this. Especially settings that involved eating. You didn’t consider yourself a gross eater, you just become hyper-aware when you eat around others. Heck, it took you awhile to feel comfortable eating around Taehyung. 

The four of you were sitting together at a fancy restaurant, and you tried your best to ease your nervousness by engaging in the conversation. When the food arrived, all hope was lost as you felt the sensation of butterflies in your stomach. Everyone eagerly dug into their plates as you just sipped your water, hoping it will calm your nerves. 

Taehyung poked your hand, getting your attention. “You alright, babe?”

You quickly nodded. “Yeah, I’m just not that hungry for some reason.” 

Overhearing this, Hoseok turns your way with a cheeky smirk on his face. “What’s wrong, Y/N? Are you afraid we’ll all find out your disgusting eating habits?” he boffs. 

Hoseok was merely kidding but his joke still managed to make you choke on your water. Taehyung rubs on your back for comfort as he gives a stern look to Hoseok. 

“Hey, hyung,” he says in a rather serious tone, “Please don’t bully my honey pie.” 

Hoseok scoffs in return. “Come on, I’m just kidding!,” he belts. Hoseok’s girlfriend proceeds to slightly hit him hard on the shoulder. “What did I do?”

She looks at him. “Like you’re one to Hoseok. Most of the time, you eat like a feral pig.” 

You and Taehyung tried your best to stifle your laughter after hearing such a brutal dig. Although shocked at first, Hoseok just laughs it off and goes back to eating. 

You then look at Taehyung and smile. “I think I’m actually hungry now.” 

Jungkook 

You were meeting the boys for the very first time today. Despite you and Jungkook’s relationship being relatively new, he just couldn't wait any longer to introduce you to his hyungs. While this made you feel extremely special, you were also scared out of your mind that you’ll embarrass yourself in front of them. Possibly making Jungkook regret being interested in you in the first place. 

When you told Jungkook about your worries, he reassured you that everything will be fine. As you were standing outside of the door of their dorm, you really hope what Jungkook said was true. With a shaky hand, you rung the doorbell. As you expected your boyfriend opened the door. 

“Hey,” he says flirtily. 

“Hey, yourself. Are they here?”

“Yep, they can’t wait to meet you. Come on in.” He takes your hand, leading you towards the living room. 

“Hyungs,” Jungkook begins excitedly, “this is my girlfriend, Y/N.” 

The six men got up from the couch and hurriedly walked over to meet you. They politely bowed and flashed friendly smiles, however it doesn’t ease your anxiety. 

“H-hello, it’s not to meet you,” you stammered. You let go of Jungkook’s hand and started to fidget your fingers self-consciously. 

It was clear as day that you were extremely nervous. Knowing how important you were to Jungkook, the guys went out their way to make you feel welcome. You spent the entire day having fun with everyone; eating snacks, playing party games and just overall playing around. It seemed like the guys really liked you, which caused you to fidget less as the time went by. 

By evening, it was about your time to leave and you went to find Jungkook so he could drive you home. You asked Yoongi where Jungkook was and he mentioned seeing him toward his room. After getting directions, you head towards his room. Seeing that his door was opened you cautiously went inside, not realizing that Jungkook was having a conversation with Seokjin. 

“Don’t take it too personally, Jungkook. I’m just not sure if I like her yet,” Jin says to Jungkook, neither noticing you in the room yet. 

“But why hyung?,” Jungkook says, hearing the slight hurt in his voice. 

Seokjin sighs before speaking again. “She’s just super awkward, you know? Painfully so.” 

His blunt words hit you hard inside. It turns out you were wrong about everyone liking you. The room fell into a brief yet excruciating silence. It took you clearing your throat for them to finally notice you in the room. 

Surprised, Jungkook turns to you. “Y/N?” 

“It’s time for me to go. Can you take me home?” 

“Uh, yeah, just let me get my keys?”  

Before following Jungkook out the room, you gave Seokjin a meek wave goodbye then left. 

On your way to the car, you tried to distract yourself by talking about how much fun you had but Jungkook could tell you were still hurt by Seokjin’s words. Before having the chance to open the passenger door, Jungkook spins you around and pulls you into his embrace. 

“I don’t know how much you heard from Jin hyung,” he says into your ear, “But it’ll be fine, Y/N. Soon enough, he’ll see you how I see you: an amazing and beautiful girl.”

You didn’t know what to say at that moment, so you just quietly sobbed into his shoulder. 

[nikibogwater]

Long-Distance: a Tales of Arcadia fic

Nari comes to an upsetting realization when Douxie makes a very important phone call.

Somehow this ask got me to write an entire oneshot after months of really struggling with writer’s block, so I can only conclude that the Non was a literal enchantress whose ask was packed with the magic of the muses. At any rate, thank you for the unexpected inspiration! 

Unfortunately I was not able to include a scene of Douxie stopping by Zoe’s place before he left Arcadia. The show heavily implied that he just grabbed Nari and booked it to New York City as fast as possible, which is a bit upsetting to the Zouxie shipper in all of us, but I did try to provide a bit of an explanation for it in this fic. This fic ended up being a two-for-one special, prominently featuring both Zouxie and the Magical Siblings (because I’m pretty sure I have a stipulation in my fandom contract somewhere that every ToA fic I produce must have Magical Siblings content in it). Also Archie being a marvelous little menace. 

Read on Ao3

Or under the cut:

Douxie had been on the phone for almost two hours.

From what Nari had observed of him, this was highly unusual behavior. He was typically very averse to making phone calls, and even when it came to checking in on his friends in Arcadia, the conversations never lasted more than thirty minutes or so. But he had seemed downright excited when he told her and Archie that he needed to make a call that evening. Archie must have known something Nari didn’t, because he swished his tail smugly and said “I see the lovesickness has settled in again.” Douxie threw a pillow at him, which he dodged gracefully, and began dialing before Nari could ask what any of this meant. 

“CASPERAN!” Douxie did not have the speaker on, but the others could hear Zoe’s voice screeching on the other end just fine without it. The wizard hissed and jerked the phone away from his ear, though his aura seemed strangely unperturbed by the less-than-friendly greeting. “YOU TRASH MY WORK AND THEN TRY TO DIP OUT OF TOWN WITHOUT TELLING ME--AND WHAT THE HELL IS ALL THIS I’M HEARING ABOUT YOUR DEATH?!” 

“S-sorry, darling,” Douxie sputtered. “I--yes, I know that wasn’t...I texted you as soon as I could! There wasn’t time to stop, the Order was practically breathing down our necks, and I couldn’t risk bringing them to you...Of course I’ve been meaning to call, but getting my phone replaced was a nightmare and there’s just been so much...No, I’m fine it was just...” The conversation continued at an ordinary volume from there--clearly Zoe had just needed to get the yelling out of the way first. But there was something odd about Douxie’s aura that puzzled Nari. Granted, she had not known him for very long, but she’d never sensed his spirit giving off this particular energy before. It was a sort of warm fondness, but somehow different from what his aura projected when he was near Archie or any of his other friends (she was only just beginning to dare to hope that perhaps some of that fondness might be directed at her). It was almost a happy ache of some kind, something that felt as gentle as a budding flower, but also as ancient and deep as a canyon. It took her a moment to recognize it, but when she did, it gave her an unpleasant start. 

“Archie,” she inquired softly, giving the Familiar a gentle nudge. The two of them had settled on the broken-down sofa near the front of the studio, while Douxie was flopped on his mattress near the back. Archie’s ear twitched and he looked up at her expectantly. “Is...Are Douxie and Zoe...” She dug through her mind in search of the correct human term. “...mated?” 

“The human word for it is married,” Archie informed her gently. “And no, they are not. Though they certainly give off that air.” He looked back at the wizard sprawled on his mattress, face aglow as he listened with rapt attention to whatever Zoe was saying on the other end of the line. 

“But they love each other as mates?” Nari persisted. 

“I would say that is an accurate assessment of their relationship, yes,” Archie chuckled. “They met back in Camelot, when Douxie was still an apprentice. Boy took one look at her and was instantly smitten. It was hell on earth trying to deal with him moping and sighing around the castle, sounding out ridiculous love songs on his lute at all hours of the night. Zoe took a bit longer to come around, but she did after a while, and they have been devoted to each other ever since.” 

Nari’s heart twisted. That was what she had feared. The guilt that had been nibbling away at her now began to gnaw like a ravenous beast. Douxie had not only left his home because of her. He had left loved ones. It had barely been a week since they fled Arcadia together, and yet his heart was aching for Zoe like they had been apart for years. And it was all because of her. Nari pulled her knees up to her chest and curled into herself, feeling sick. Douxie’s voice continued to fill the tiny space.

“...Mm-hmm...Yes...Yeah, I’ll be fine, Zo. Really. And I promise I’ll call again soon, alright?” There was a long pause. “...I love you,” he said softly. His aura gave a warm, fluttering pulse, a sure sign that Zoe must have returned the sentiment. Nari’s stomach turned uncomfortably. “...Yeah. ...Yeah, okay. ...I will. ...Goodnight.” The phone beeped softly as he ended the call with a deep sigh. He lay on his back for a while longer, staring up at the ceiling, a sad, dreamy look on his face. 

“Are you ever going to eat dinner, or do you intend to sustain yourself on yearning alone?” Archie called across the room. Douxie huffed and pushed himself upright to glare at his Familiar. 

“One day, Arch, I swear, you’re going to--” He stopped suddenly as his gaze landed on Nari, still huddled against the back of the sofa. “Nari? Are you alright?”  

“I....yes,” she fumbled, surprised he had even noticed anything. “S-sorry.” Archie was looking at her now as well, and she felt herself shrinking under both his and Douxie’s scrutiny. 

“Hey,” Douxie murmured, getting up and crossing the room to kneel in front of her. “What is it?” 

“...Why did you leave Arcadia?” Nari asked in a tentative whisper. Douxie tilted his head in confusion. 

“What do you mean, why did I leave? We had to. You wouldn’t have been safe there, the Arcane Order was too close.” 

“I had to leave, Douxie,” she insisted. “But you could have stayed. I have been hiding alone for hundreds of years, there was no reason you had to be part of that.” 

Whatever she had been expecting, it was certainly not the look of hurt that flashed across Douxie’s face, accompanied by the feeling of his aura flinching away from her as though she had struck him. 

“Do you not want me here?” he asked, voice tight with whatever pain Nari could feel turning in his spirit--it was an old pain, that much she could tell. 

“I...I want you to be happy, Douxie,” she replied, willing her voice to keep steady. “But the only thing my presence has brought you is suffering.” 

“Who told you that?” Douxie barked, voice suddenly sharp. He didn’t seem to want an answer, because he continued before she could say anything. “They’re wrong. I don’t care what they told you, they’re wrong.” Images of Bellroc and Skreal flashed through her mind briefly, but Douxie wasn’t giving her any time to dwell on it. One of his hands landed on her shoulder. “Nari, leaving Arcadia to protect you was my choice. Merlin entrusted me with your safety because he knew you are worth protecting, and I--” He stopped for a moment, searching for words. “...I agree with him. I’m not going to let anything happen to you, even if that means I lose something along the way. You are a part of what makes this world good, and I decided a long time ago that I wanted to protect all the good I can. But that’s on me, and me alone. You’re not responsible for anything the Order has done since you left them. Understand?” 

There were several things Nari could have said to refute his argument. She still had doubts as to whether Merlin would have ever found her individual safety at all important if it hadn’t been for the fact that the Order needed her to open the Genesis Seals. Douxie’s desire to protect what was good in the world was admirable, but also entirely foolish. It could only end in his demise (it already had once before), and someone with a heart as pure as his deserved better than to make such a thankless sacrifice. 

“...What about Zoe?” was all she said. 

“...I do miss her,” Douxie confessed, voice soft once again. “But this isn’t the first time my wizarding responsibilities have forced us to part for a while. I know she’ll be there when all of this is over, and that’s all I need. And besides--” He gave her a lopsided grin. “This is nothing compared to what it was like before the invention of the telephone. At least I can talk to her whenever I want now. It’s really not so bad.” 

“I can attest to that,” Archie put in. “This Lovesick Period isn’t nearly as horrendous as some of the others I’ve seen.” 

“Yes, thank you for that, Arch,” Douxie replied dryly. “Point is....I wanted to look after you, Nari. I made some sacrifices to do it, but I know it’s worth it. And Zoe feels the same. Honestly if I hadn’t been the one to take you, I’m half convinced she would have. She acts tough but she’s soft on the inside.” 

“...I do remember sensing that much when we met,” Nari admitted. She uncurled and folded her legs beneath her, reaching out and cupping Douxie’s face in her palms. His aura twitched in surprise, but he did not pull away from her, even when she tentatively pressed her forehead to his for a moment. It was a very ancient gesture of trust and affection--so ancient that Nari wasn’t even sure if most humans still practiced it. But it was the only way she knew how to convey her feelings just then. “You are what makes this world good as well, Douxie,” she murmured. “I will do my best to protect you in return.” Archie cleared his throat loudly as she pulled away from the wizard. “You and Archie both,” she amended, giving the Familiar a fond pat. 

“...Right,” Douxie breathed, his aura glowing with fondness once more--the familiar kind she had felt before. And this time, Nari let herself believe that perhaps it was for her.

[itmighthavebeenintentional]

Detours on the Road so Far - Ch 1

Detours on the Road so Far

- Or - 

Why Sam and Dean Need Actual Adult Supervision

Summary: Shenanigans. Lots of them. Crack. Probably some pie. (SERIES SUMMARY)

Warning: Shenanigans. Unintentional drug use. Crackfic. 

Rating: Let’s call this one at least Teen, if not Mature. See Warning above.

Word Count: 1700-ish

Author’s Note: THIS IS CRACK: unapologetically, unequivocally, utterly crack. Some of it makes little sense. Some of it makes fun of our favorite characters. I love these guys; this is just for fun. The stories are not in any particular order. Time frames will be referenced at the beginning of each chapter. Also, I was having some formatting issues, so if this ends up looking really wonky, please let me know, and I’ll do what I can.

This story is dedicated to a wonderful friend who let me behind the scenes into their writing process and watch the development of a wonderful story, a friend who fiercely has their folks’ backs and is the first on the scene if support and flails are needed. To a writer who can write action, romance, intrigue, and brothers being brothers. @stunudo​ , I am so glad I met you, and even gladder you didn’t absolutely fire me for all the awful puns.

ItMightHaveBeenIntentional’s Masterlist

Chapter 1: Everything is Awesome (set sometime in season 8...ish)

Sam yawns as he shuffles down the hall, scratching the back of his head and grinning to himself. It still amazes him, even after the months they’ve been here, to have an actual home and comfortable bed to come back to after their days and weeks on the road. Even the hours crammed in the car with his brother and his painfully slow evolution of music is more bearable, knowing there are clean sheets, peace (relative peace, anyway) and quiet, and their very own refrigerator waiting for them at the other end.

He pauses as a new sound drifts towards him from the kitchen, and he frowns. It’s not a bad sound, exactly; he knows exactly what it is. But Dean doesn’t tend to sing this early in the morning, and not ever in the kitchen. It’s not the most wrong thing Sam has ever heard, but it’s strange enough for him to take notice.

Well, he can’t be possessed, so...hex bag, maybe? Their last case in Colorado didn’t involve witches, but there was always the chance they’d run across one without realizing and pissed him or her off somehow.

Dammit.

 He cautiously enters the kitchen, hoping that he’s just assuming worst case scenario. He is greeted by the sight of Dean seated at the table, staring intently at a large, clear glass coffee mug as he adds creamer to the steaming brew. 

“Morning,” Sam says, stretching. Dean waves distractedly, his concentration focused entirely on his coffee. At least that part is normal. He doesn’t usually add creamer, but it’s not unheard of, so Sam simply shrugs as he turns to the fridge. 

At least the singing stopped, or (better yet) maybe he just imagined it in the first place. Maybe he just hadn’t been fully awake yet. Sam opens the refrigerator, his eyes already moving over the contents to find something for breakfast that won’t add to Dean’s cholesterol issues his older brother tacitly refuses to acknowledge.

Except there aren’t any contents to peruse. The entire refrigerator is completely empty. Not even a wrapper.

 He turns back to Dean, the questions dying on his tongue as he watches his brother continue to add creamer to his coffee, dark brown and beige swirling in the clear mug. Dean finally sets the creamer down, watching the coffee cup as if he’s been interrogating it and it’s finally about to break.

 “Sammy,” he says, his eyes glued to the mug, “we are never using anything but clear coffee cups again. This shit is magic.”

 What?

“Seriously, Sam,” he continues, his eyes lit with pure, childlike innocence and curiosity. “It just...it mixes itself. Food doesn’t do things to itself, Sam. I mean, yeah, Jell-O moves by itself, but no other food does that. But Jell-O is evil, anyway, so yeah. Wait, except for Jell-O shots. Jell-O shots are awesome. But otherwise, Jell-O is a slime creature sent by Eve to torment small children into thinking they’re getting a real dessert when it’s really just ectoplasm’s third cousin. Twice removed.”

 And then Dean giggles.

 Sam stares at his brother, his jaw hanging down, absolutely clueless as to how to proceed. First, Dean has never said that many words together in his entire life. Second, what the fuck? Third, what. The. Ever. Living. Fuck.

 Dean adds more creamer.

 “I think...I think that’s enough, Dean. You’re going to spill your coffee.”

 Horror washes over Dean’s face, and he slams the creamer container on the table, dropping down to eye his coffee along the top edge. “Sacrilege! I wouldn’t do that, Sam, you know I’d never waste coffee like that!”

 Sam knows he needs to close his mouth at some point, but it’s just too damned early to go with the flow on this shit.

 “Dean, are you feeling okay? I know we got back pretty late last night, but you’re acting a little off.” But his brother isn’t acting tired, not exactly. Sam realizes that his brother is also still wearing yesterday’s traveling clothes.

 “Dean, did you sleep in your clothes?”

 Dean reaches out a finger and slowly pokes his coffee mug. The cream swirls lightly through the dark liquid, further mixing the two, and Dean...giggles.

 Again.

 “It’s kinda sad when they finally get all mixed together,” he says, frowning a little. Then his face brightens as he grabs the mug. “But now I can drink it, so that's less sad, right? I mean, you can’t really be sad drinking coffee, Sam. You should drink more coffee; you’ll be less sad all the time.”

 Sam’s jaw clenches involuntarily as he watches Dean alternate between sips and sloshing the cup around to watch the contents. His brother is obviously not in any distress, but spells have started out like this before, seemingly harmless and then, before you know it, hearts are exploding or organs disintegrate or something else equally nasty.

 “I can hear the colors, Sammy,” Dean murmurs, tapping the mug gently. “I think...what, would you say? Beige? Ecru? Does it sound like ecru to you?”

 Sam was unaware Dean even knew those colors existed, much less how to pronounce them. Luckily, since Dean is wearing yesterday’s clothes, it makes looking for the hex bag easier. After two unsuccessful attempts to get Dean to go through his own pockets (“But the coffee isn’t in my pockets, Sam, it’s in my hands. Why the hell would I put down the coffee to look through my pockets?”) Sam gives up with a sigh that holds the burdens of the world in it and searches his brother’s clothes himself.

 “Knock if off! That tickles; you’re gonna make me spill the coffee!”

 For fuck’s sake.

 His search proves frustratingly fruitless. But if the hex bag isn’t on Dean, then what? A spell? A curse? What the hell is going on?

 Sam’s stomach growls, adding another question to the long list. Where the hell is all the food? Well, that, at least, he can ask Dean and maybe get a straight answer.

 “Dean, do you know why the fridge is empty? It was pretty stocked when we left. Where’d all the food go?”

 Dean grins and points down at the stomach of his shirt, which is a bit rounder than normal. “In mah belleh.”

 When Sam’s face finally emerges from his palms, he finds Dean staring at him with alarming concern.

 “Are you hungry, Sam? We can go to town and get breakfast! That would be awesome, breakfast is awesome! Do you want pancakes or waffles? Nevermind, you’re huge, you should eat both. You need to eat more, Sam, you’re too skinny.”

 “Seriously, dude, are you feeling okay? You’re acting...weird.”

 “You know what’s weird, Sammy? I ate two pies, a block of cheese, and all those protein bar things you hide in the back of the pantry. And by the way, you don’t need to hide those things from me anymore, they are absolutely vile. But then I had those bags of chips, and...what else. Oh, yeah, there was some bologna, I think, and I ate the bacon, and whatever was in the vegetable drawer, which actually ended up not being horrible. But I’m still kinda hungry.”

 Sam is speechless. It doesn’t happen often, but apparently it can still happen, even after all these decades of living with his brother. He just can’t wrap his head around-

 Wait, what pie?

 “Dean, we didn’t have any pie before we left, and we didn’t stop on the way home yesterday. What pie did you eat?”

 “Sarah gave me two pies as a thank you. It would have been rude not to eat them. I had a piece last night after you crashed, and it was -awesome- so I had another piece, and then I had to try the other pie, and it was friggin delicious, and then I looked up and some asshole had eaten the rest of both the pies.” He eyes Sam suspiciously for a minute, clutching his coffee mug a little closer to himself.

 “And then I got hungry, so I had a snack.”

 “What was in the pies, Dean?”

 “Dunno,” he says, slurping coffee obnoxiously loudly. “Deliciousness. Sarah didn't say what kind they were, just said they were her way of saying thanks for getting rid of the ghost. Called it her ‘University of Colorado Specials’ or something like that. But those pies were made of magic, Sam, delicious, delicious magic.”

“What else did Sarah say, Dean?”

The elder Winchester thinks long and hard for a moment, frowning. “She didn’t. She winked a lot, though. Do you think she had something stuck in her eye?”

 Sam leans on his hands to keep from using them on his brother. He takes a deep, steadying breath and tries again.

 “Can you tell me anything else about the pies, Dean? Anything at all?”

 He thinks for a long moment, then his face melts into a dreamy expression Sam is pretty sure he’s never seen on his brother’s face before. “One of ‘em was this lemon thing that was like a citrus tree starred in a porn. The flavor just explodes in your mouth like-”

 “I don’t need to know!”

 But Dean is still going.

 “A firecracker, Sam, a Roman Candle of delicious. And the other was this...chocolatey, coffee, creamy thing. Coffee, Sam! Coffee and chocolate in a pie! They can do that now! What’ll these crazy college kids think of next?”

 He grins at Sam, taking another long slurp of coffee. Sam bites his lip, considering Dean for a long silent moment. He’s pretty sure now that Dean will be just fine and more than likely back to normal by the end of the day...maybe.

 “I’m gonna go check in with Sarah. Just make sure she hasn’t...erm...seen anything else weird.”

 “But, Sam, we ghosted that ghost!” Dean stops, thinks about what he just said, and giggles.

 Again.

 “I just want to see...how much...we ghosted that ghost. And maybe get the recipes for those pies. I’m sure everything’s fine. You know me, I just like to be sure.”

 “That’s awesome, Sam, you’re so awesome! We could make the pies together! And you could even eat some! You still need to eat more. Can we go get breakfast now?”

 Sigh.

 “Yeah, Dean. We’ll go get breakfast. I’ll call Sarah on the way.”

 Dean grins, his whole face lighting up, and Sam allows himself to see at least a little humor in the situation.

 And then Dean starts singing that song from the damned Lego movie, and Sam. 

Just. 

Can’t.

[mayraki]

The Trained Assassin

Spencer Reid series. Part 11 (The End)

Not my gif! Credits to the owner.

Summary: Life’s not easy when you found out that instead of being trained to be a spy for the CIA, you are being trained to be an assassin, a killer. The people you wanted to stop, they were making you one. That’s when you joined the BAU to become someone new, you didn’t want to be someone’s toy. You wanted your past to be arrased, that’s all. But it’s not easy to hide a past like that.

Note: Well, the end is here! I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who followed the story since the beginning. This is my first series and I couldn’t be more grateful for every comment, like and reblog. This has been a really beautiful journey as a writer and thank you for being a part of that. I love you all and see you at another one of my stories!

warning: graphic descriptions!

MASTERLIST

“The Family Grows”

Time flies when you are having a good time. Six months passed since you and Spencer decided to be together. At first, as you two suspected, it was weird. Morgan and Garcia teasing you about it, and you were pretty sure you heard Emily said at least four times the phrase “I was right.”

When you told your little brother, Max, he was so excited and started to talk about a future with Spencer and all the magic tricks he was going to learn from him.

“You are a great cook, Spencer.” Max said when dinner was over.

“Yeah, you never stop learning things about each other.” You said surprised at him.

After spending almost an hour watching Spencer make magic tricks to Max, you told him that it was time to go bed.

“But I’m on vacation!” He protested and you lifted your eyebrow.

“Max, bed.”

He sighed and hugged Spencer goodbye. He let out a little smile and looked at you once Max was our of your sight.

“You know, we don’t have to wake up early tomorrow either. We can do something.” He said getting closer to you.

“Right... what do you have in mind?” You let your arms rest on top of his shoulders and he grabbed your waist to pull you closer.

“Uh, I don’t know.” You smiled and kissed him slowly.

“I have an idea, but we have to go to the bedroom.”

You lifted your eyebrow and smiled “Oh, we do?”

He nodded and you kissed him again, but when his phone rang he sighed.

“It’s JJ.” He said confused looking at the screen.

“That’s not good.” You said and walked to your room to get changed, because you knew you had to leave soon.

After taking Max to one of his friend’s house to stay for as long as you were working on the case, you drove to the BAU. Spencer and you ran to the meeting room because you knew you were late.

“Sorry we’re late!” You said once you entered the room but noticed that JJ and Hotch weren’t there.

“Now, what were you two doing that made you late?” Morgan asked with a smirk on his face and you punched him in the arm.

“Nothing, we had to do something before coming in here.”

“Yeah, and is that thing you had to do, be connected to the fact that Spencer has shiny lips gloss all over his lips?” Garcia said and you quickly looked up to Spencer.

“Wow, that really is a a long lasting lip gloss.” You said but you turned to the team. “But that’s not what we were doing, now, drop it.”

No one could say anything else because JJ entered the room and without hesitation said quickly “Grab your go bag and let’s go. I’ll explain everything in the plane.”

“A kid has been abducted ten minutes ago. They want us because they had similar cases, once a week a kid’s reported missing. Now, her name is Julia Porter. She’s eight years old.” JJ said once the plane started to move.

“Like we all know, the first hours of an abduction are the most important. So let’s act quick.” Hotch said and everyone nodded.

The team arrived at the destination and once you were able to get to the police station, you started to do your job.

“Julia’s father is here.” JJ said.

“I’ll talk to him.” Emily offered.

“There’s going to be a bonfire this afternoon for the lost children, if this person is capable of remorse he’s going to be there. Y/n and Morgan, I need you to go there.” You nodded and turned to the board Spencer was building.

“Do you have something?” You asked him.

“Well, all of his victims are the same age. But they go for boys and girls. And the fact that they still haven’t found them, that indicated that, maybe, they’re still alive.”

“Yeah, let’s pray that and not that they’re keeping the bodies..” you said and felt your stomach turned at the thought of that.

The smell of fire came into your nose once you arrived at the bonfire. A ton of pictures and toys were on the floor, people were leaving flowers and you started to look at their behaviour.

You walked to the side of the fire and Morgan to the other. Then, you noticed a guy with a black jacket on. He wasn’t talking to anyone and he seemed nervous. He was looking down and he had a single flower on his hands.

He approached the fire and let the flower close to the photo of the most recent girl who went missing. That made you even more curious about him, that’s when you locked eyes with him and you noticed that his nerves went up. He tried to not look at you but he kept glancing. He was trying to keep calm but when you started to walk to him he quickly turned to the other side and ran towards the houses.

You ran after him and tried to get Morgan’s attention, but then you decided it was best for him to keep looking at the people there. He was fast and while he was running, he turned to you to see if you were still following him.

“Stop! FBI! Stop!” You sreamed at him but he didn’t listened to you.

It was extremely difficult trying to not lose him, the houses were big and he kept turning in weird ways around the houses. The trees didn’t let a lot of day light trough so that didn’t help either. He turned to the left and lost him on the trees.

“Fuck.” You whispered and headed back to where Morgan was.

“Where did you go?” He asked once you got next him.

“There was this guy, he seemed suspicious. He left a flower for the last girl who disappeared, and then he started to run. That’s when I followed him but I lost him on the trees.” Morgan nodded. “I’m not sure is he’s the unsub, but I’m going to find out more about him.”

***

“Yes, I’ve seen him around. He’s a pretty weird kid, he always uses the same jacket.” A neighbor told you “But I don’t think he’s capable of doing such a bad thing, I think he’s a little bit slow.”

“Slow?” You asked.

“Yeah, one time I tried to talk to him because he was in the middle of the road, but he couldn’t take a word out. He was shaking and couldn’t keep his posture straight.”

“Was he drunk?” Morgan asked.

“No, I don’t think so. I’ve never seen him with a bottle in his hands.” The neighbor said and you thanked her.

“So he lives here.” Morgan said and you nodded while walking towards the car.

“Yeah, but his house has to be behind the trees. Otherwise, out of all the neighbors we interviewed, at least one would’ve been able to tell us where he lives.”

You arrived at the police station and noticed Spencer looking at the board where all the clues were hanged.

“Is there anything new?” You asked him once you stood next to him.

“The father told us that he saw a white van across the street a couple of times.” He said without taking his eyes from the board.

“Does he remembers the type of van?”

He shook his head “he said a normal looking van.”

You slowly nodded and felt a headache appeared in your head. You sighed and closed your eyes, trying to ignore the pain.

“You ok?” He asked and you opened your eyes. His sweet eyes were looking at you concerned.

“When I don’t sleep I get this headaches. It’s alright.”

“Maybe you should take a break.”

You shook your head. “No, I won’t stop until we find this little girl.” He nodded and went back to the board.

After going back to the neighbourhood, this time with Spencer, you decided to go and look around at the houses that were hidden by the trees. They looked old and rusty, like no one took care of them. They were far away from each other.

“It looks like they are abandoned.” Spencer said and you slowly nodded.

“This is the last house?” You asked once you arrived at the end of the little road.

“Looks like it.”

You didn’t see anything strange and that made you frustrated. Because, maybe that meant you were looking on the wrong place.

“Wait, there’s a house down there.” Spencer said and you looked to where he was pointing.

There was a house behind another one. To go to it, you had to drive in a little road next to the house. But that seems to be blocked by some branches.

“That looks intentional.” You said and Spencer nodded.

You got out of the car and headed to the house that was in front of it. You knocked on the door and seconds later a old lady appeared on the door.

“How can I help you?” She asked with a sweet voice.

“Hi, we’re the FBI and we would like to ask you some questions.” The lady nodded “What can you tell us about the house you have behind yours?”

“That old thing? No one has come out of it in years. But I’m sure someone lives there.”

“How are you so sure?” Spencer asked.

“They get a lot of mail. There’s always a van that comes every morning, stays for a couple of minutes and then leaves.”

“A white van?” You asked and the lady nodded. You looked at Spencer and he had the same expression. You thanked the lady and grabbed your phone while you were walking back to the car.

“Y/n.” Hotch said on the phone.

“We talked to a lady and found out that a white van comes to a house down the road every morning.” You said while getting inside the car.

“Can you see the house and notice if anyone is inside?”

“No, the house in front of it hides it perfectly.”

“Ok. Approach it and wait for a response. Be careful. Keep me posted.”

You hanged the phone call and told Spencer the orders Hotch gave you. He nodded and just when you were about to open the door, you heard a car driving to you. That’s when you saw a van passing you by and going trough the branches.

“Didn’t the woman told us they came every morning?” Spencer asked.

“What’s so special about today?”

“I’ll call Hotch.” He said and you didn’t take your eyes off the van.

It was moving slowly and then you lost it because of the house in front of it. You sighed and then heard Spencer talking to Hotch.

“He says that we stick with the original order, if there’s nothing to hide. They won’t panick.” You nodded and got out of the car.

Once you were close enough to the house you saw the van parked next to the porche. There was completely silence taking over your surroundings and you got closer to Spencer. You stood in front of the door and knocked on it. But no response. Knocked on it again and no response.

“FBI, open up.” You said and still, no response. That’s when you heard a noise coming from the van and you walked towards it. A louder noise came to your ears and you pulled out your gun, Spencer did the same and walked towards the door of the van, you nodded when he looked at you. But when he was about to open the door, the van started and it drove backwards.

“Stop!” You didn’t want to shot the van because maybe whoever was inside could be of help.

But the van, instead of driving away, it drove into the trees and smoke started to come out of if.

You walked towards it next to Spencer, with your gun out. Once you got next to the van you headed to the door and Spencer walked to the other side.

“FBI! Get out of the van with your hands where I can see them!” You yelled but no noise came out of the van. “Spencer, I’m going in.” You said and he nodded.

You opened the door and quickly pointed your gun. Nobody was in the front seat. There was a curtain that covered the back of the van, so you slowly grabbed it and then quickly pulled. A man was laying there in pain and you pointed your gun towards him. It was the man from the bonfire.

“Don’t move!” You yelled and you heard Spencer ran to you. You walked towards the man and handcuffed him. “You have some explanation to do, buddy.” You said and got out of the van.

***

“There’s no way this kid could pulled out an abduction by himself.” Hotch said while the team watched Morgan interview him.

He couldn’t say a word and you noticed his hands were shaking. He looked like he was under a drug and he consumed way more than his body could handle. Hotch was right, but something didn’t add up.

“Then I don’t know what to think anymore. There’s no more clues.” You said and sighed.

You felt frustrated. This never happened to you, you always knew your next move. You were always ahead of time and never felt like the case was winning you, but this time, it was.

You walked out of the room and felt Spencer follow you. “Hey..” he said and you felt his hands touch your arms. “Don’t let it get to you, we are going to find her.”

“Did I just waist time by going after this guy?” Spencer shook his head and got in front of you.

“You’re doing the best you can, Y/n. We all are.”

“And sometimes that’s not enough, and that sucks.” Spencer nodded and hugged you.

“Yeah, our job sucks sometimes.” He said and you let your head rest in his shoulder.

“I don’t know why I’m letting it get to me so much, I’m not usually like this.” You said.

“It’s ok, kids cases can be difficult sometimes.”

You slowly nodded and tried to keep yourself together and continue with the case.

After a couple of hours trying to get the kid to talk, Hotch decided to let him go because he didn’t fit the profile and there was no way a kid like him could commit something so difficult like an abduction. And he was right.

You offered yourself to take the kid back to the house, and Spencer told you he was not going to let you go alone. So, when everything was ready, you got to the car and started to drive it back to the house.

The ride was silent and you could feel the kid looking at you most of the time. But it wasn’t a serious look, he had sweet in his eyes, but you don’t want to let him know that you noticed that, because that could be pretended.

Once you arrived at the house, you let the kid out and went to the door to knock on it again to see if anyone was there. And this time, a woman open the door. He had a messy bun and had cleaning clothes on.

After the woman let Spencer and you in, you explained the situation and the woman nodded. “You know, I’m sorry he did that. I told him a million times to not drive that van.”

The woman put his arm around the kid’s shoulder and you noticed he flinched for a second. You looked at Spencer, and for the look on his face you knew he saw the same thing.

Something about this house and the woman made your suspicious about the situation go up.

“Ben, why don’t you go to your room and let me talk to the agents?” The woman said and he slowly got up from the couch and Spencer did the same thing.

“It’s alright if I go with him? You know, for kids like him this situations can be a little bit traumatic, I just want to let him know it’s alright.” He said and the woman hesitated, but then she nodded.

Once he was behind the woman he gave you a look letting you know that he also thinked that something was wrong.

“Does he get in trouble a lot?” You asked once Spencer and Ben were out of the living room.

“Yeah, sometimes. But he doesn’t mean it, he doesn’t understand why he does stuff, you know?” She said and you felt like she wasn’t telling the complete truth. “He’s been like this since he was a kid, it’s hard for me. I’ve been his tutor since his mother passed away.”

“And what about his father?” You asked and looked around. The were no photos. No mother, no father, not even her and Ben.

“He left his mother when he found out she was pregnant. He was a bastard. A told Lily to stay away from that man. But she never listened.”

“How did you knew his mother?”

“We were best friends.” She said quickly. “I knew here since I can remember. I’m Ben’s godmother.” You noticed that it was barely any reaction in her face.

If she was so close to his mother, how come there’s no pictures of her?

“I’m going to check on Ben, if he’s alone with strangers he gets a little bit nervous.” She said and you slowly nodded.

Once she was gone, you got up and started to look for details in her living room. Everything was so clean, for a house that was surrounded by trees and dirt it was very difficult to keep the house clean. But there was definitely not sight of dust. When you were about to walk to the kitchen you heard a noise coming from the back of the house and Spencer came into your mind.

You walked towards the noise and saw the kid laying on the floor, but he was not hurt, he was shaking more than before.

“Hey, Ben, you’re ok?” You entered the room and your eyes went immediately to the body that was laying on the floor.

“Spencer!” Before you could do anything else, something hit you hard on the head and you fell on your knees.

The pain in your head came like a fast truck and you closed your eyes trying to get over the pain. You tried to pulled out your gun but the same thing that hit you before, made it’s way to your arm and you screamed in pain. That’s when you noticed the woman trying to get your gun. When she did it, she throw it across the room where you noticed Spencer’s gun was also there. She hit you again on your back and this time, you fell entirely on the floor.

“You’re being more difficult than this one over here.” She pointed to Spencer. “One hit and he was all over the floor. Men. They are weak. But you... you are strong.” The pain in your head was getting harder to ignore and everything was becoming blurry. She tried to hit you again but you avoided it by moving to you side, and then punched her in her knee with your foot.

You tried to go towards your gun but she hit you again in the back. This woman was extremely strong. The pain in your back was hard to ignore and you coughed. You noticed blood on the floor and touched your head, your hands were covered in blood.

The woman walked to the guns and grabbed them. Walked away for a second and then she came back, with nothing but a baseball bat on her hands.

“Oh, you’re a really trying hard to stay awake. I like that.” She said and you remembered that Ben was still in the room. You were trying to get his attention but the woman got in front of him, kicking you in the face with her foot. You hit the floor by the impact and everything was starting to get black. You moved again and you noticed the woman was getting frustrated.

“I’m starting to get bored with you! Go to fucking sleep!” She hit you again in the back and your insides moved. You pretended to black out, so you could see what the woman was going to do. “Finally!” She said. You heard her walked to the other room and you slightly opened your eyes. Ben was still shaking but this time he was looking at you. You tried to move but the pain made it impossible.

You locked eyes with Ben and you noticed he was trying to say something to you. He slowly moved his hands and pointed to the floor with his index finger. When you were trying to understand what he was saying, you heard that the woman was coming back so you closed your eyes.

“C’mon, Ben, we’re going to continue with our daily routine. Just because this two stupid agents are here, I’m not going to stop. I’m pretty sure they are not going to wake up before we get back.” She said and you heard two people heading out the room. You waited for the van to start and drove away, before you open your eyes and try to move. The pain was still there but this time you were able to get up.

“Spencer..” you tried to say but the pain inside of you made it so difficult. You slowly walked outside and noticed that your car was still there.

You lifted Spencer and you screamed in pain. Once he was up, you noticed blood where his head was. You felt a tear coming down your face and you didn’t know if it was for the pain you were feeling or for Spencer. Probably both.

You walked towards your car and carefully left Spencer in the back seat. But when you were about to opened your door, you noticed a door that leaded to an outside basement. You remembered Ben pointing to the floor and it hit you. He was telling you to go to the basement.

You hesitated, should you trust him?

But the woman was gone, so you decided to go and check it out. You pulled out the gun you had hidden in your leg, and walked slowly to the door, trying to not scream in pain.

You walked down the stairs once you opened the door and grabbed the flashlight you had on your back pocket.

Clothes were all over the place and the smell of blood came into your nose.

“Hello?” A kid’s voice said and you looked to where it came from.

“Julia?” You asked and the kid coughed.

“Yeah.” You walked to her and pointed your flashlight at her. She had bruises all over her arms and legs.

“Julia.” You kneeled down at her. “Hi, I’m Y/n, I work for the FBI. You’re safe now. Can you walk sweetie?” She nodded and when you gently grabbed her arm you noticed needle marks on her arm. She was drugged.

Once you walked to your car, you noticed Spencer was still not awake and that made your heart sink. That was not good.

You helped Julia get in the car and you got in after everything was ready.

You started the car and drove quickly out of there. You looked at Julia and she was falling asleep.

“No! No! Julia, don’t go to sleep. Don’t let the drugs take over your body, sweetie.” You said quickly and tried to drove as fast as you could.

You felt blood coming down your face and tears started to drop down your cheeks. “Spencer! Wake up! Please!” You tried to control your emotions but the pain you felt inside made you break down. “Spencer!”

You remembered the car phone and you marked Hotch’s number.

“Y/n? Where are you?” He said and you noticed the concern in his tone.

“Hotch! Hotch! I need you to listen to me! I have Julia with me, it was the kid’s godmother. There’s no time to explain, but Spencer and I are really hurt and I’m heading to the hospital. Julia was drugged.” You said as quickly as possible and tried to keep your breathing normal.

“Y/n, which hospital?” He asked.

“No! Hotch, listen to me! I’ve got this, you go with the team after the woman. It’s the same van, I think they are going after another kid. You go after her, Hotch.”

“Y/n! I’m not going to let you do this alone! Where are you? Tell me, that’s an order!”

“I’m sorry, Hotch.” You hanged the call and the tears were coming fast down your face.

When you arrived at the hospital, you left the car and ran inside.

“Please! Help!” You said and tried to get anyone’s attention.

“Doctor!” A woman yelled and got close to you.

“The car! Outside!” You said but felt your stomach shut down at the pain. The last thing you heard was people runing outside.

***

You opened your eyes and immediately felt the pain in your body appeared again. You tried to sat down but a lot of cables were connected to you so that made it impossible.

“Hey, hey” Emily said next to you. “You need to rest.”

“Where’s Spencer?” You asked.

“He’s ok. He’s in the next room.” She said with a half smile.

“I need to see him.” You tried to disconnect the cables but Emily was quick and stopped you.

“He’s fine. I promise you.”

“What about the little girl?”

“She’s fine. You saved her life. Hers and Spencer’s.” You were about to ask another question but Emily stopped you “Yes, we got her.” You slowly nodded.

You closed your eyes and your body immediately fell asleep.

You opened your eyes once again and this time the person who was there with you was Garcia.

“Hi, sweet girl, how you feeling?” She asked you once she got up and was close to you.

“I’m better now.” You said and gave her a little smile. You drank from your glass of water you had on your side table and heard someone walk inside the room. It was Hotch.

“I’m going to let you two talk.” She said giving you a smile and walked out of the room.

“Hotch, I’m sorry.”

“You ignored my order.” He said with a serious face and you looked down. You were preparing yourself to hear him fire you but what he said next, surprised you. “You risked your life to save others. And at the same time, helped us catch the unsub. Now, I don’t know how you’re still alive, I have to be honest. But I do know that thanks to you, one of my agents and a little girl are alive. You saved them, Y/n.” He gave you a little smile and you gave him one back.

“You’re not going to fire me?”

He shook his head “No, but I do know that you’re going to make the right decision.”

You looked at him confused but he walked out of the room.

You let your hand rest on your stomach and closed your eyes. That’s when you heard your phone buzz and looked at it.

“Your period it late: four weeks!” You read on the little screen. You never gave much thought into it. You were used to getting your period late, for the stress you felt at work, it was common. But this time you felt different.

So, you decided to call Garcia and ask her for a little favor.

***

“Spencer..” you said once the doctors let you two walked out of the room to see each other. You walked towards him and gave him a soft hug. You were still in pain and didn’t want to mess things up for the two of you. “How are you feeling?”

“Better. But the headache doesn’t go away.” He said and gave you a little smile. “Does Maxim know?”

You shook your head. “I never tell him when I’m at the hospital, it’s pretty often with this job.” You let out a little laugh “I don’t want to concern him.”

Spencer nodded and hugged you once again. “You saved my life.” He said almost in a whisper.

“Of course, I would never hesitate.” You said in the same tone as him.

“Next time, it’s my turn.” He said jokingly but you didn’t laugh. You had another thing in mind.

“You already did.” He looked you in the eyes “You make me happy, Spencer.” He gave you a little smile and united his lips with yours. “I think the universe is telling me to stop.” You said once the kiss was over.

“Maybe.” He said and gently grabbed your cheeks. “This is our job.”

“Spencer, I’m not talking about our job.” You said and Spencer lifted his left eyebrow confused.

You reached your back pocket and grabbed the positive pregnancy test. He looked at it and it took him a second to get it together.

“You’re pregnant?” He asked in a whisper and you nodded. You were afraid of his answer but he smiled went as bigger as his face allowed it. He had tears coming down his face and that made you teared up. He grabbed your cheeks and gave you a big kiss. “I’m going to be a father.” He said with excitement.

“And I’m going to be a mother.” You said and you let out a little smile but then reality just hit you. You were going to be a mother. “I don’t even know how to be one.” Your face changed with fear and Spencer made you look up to him.

“Hey, hey. I don’t know either, how to be a father. But we’ll figure it out together. I’ll read as many books as I can in 9 months and...”

“That’s probably a lot.” You said and let out a little laugh.

He nodded giving a little smile “The important thing is that we’re a team. We have Max too. He’s a little genius, he’s going to be a great uncle.”

“Oh my god, the baby’s father and uncle are both nerds, it’s destiny is already written.” You said jokingly and Spencer smiled at you.

He united his lips with yours and hugged you. “You make me so happy, Y/n. And I can’t imagine my life without you.” He kissed you again. “You’re my entire world. And I can’t believe your mine. You’re so damn beautiful... I can wait to meet this little baby and give it this awesome life. And I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you, my little trained assasin.”

***

Well, here’s the ending! Did I cry when I finished it!? Yes, absolutely. I hope y’all liked it and you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. This has been amazing. Again, thank you so much for every like, comment and reblog. It means the world to me. So, thank you. See your later :)

taglist; @itsarayofsunshine @whothefuckstolemykeds @haykayhesson @introvertedsin @mylovehes @infires420 @uwu-sebastianstan @my-life-is-here-soo @spencersdolore @oldspirit @l0ve-0f-my-life @nanocoool @throughparisallthroughrome @aerialdinosaur @enigma-xlii

[tiredcowpoke]

TITLE: Should Have Seen It From the Start PAIRING: Arthur Morgan/Fem!Reader REQUEST: Anon requested an Arthur/fem!Reader where he tries to set her up with a “good man” in town and things don’t go as expected. BLURB: “Really, it was hard to hold his gaze as you spoke, dropping it away as you looked back off into the distance as you awaited his reaction. Though, you had to admit that the words had some weight to them, considering the light feeling that settled in your chest upon saying them.” WARNINGS: Some minor angst, mutual pining. Nothing too heavy. NOTE: I may not have set this up exactly to how the request was, as I don’t feel like Arthur’s the type to play matchmaker or force someone into a relationship, but I tried to keep a similar feeling behind the request. If that makes sense. Lmao Anyway, thank you for requesting and putting up with how slow I have been with these. This was also an uphill battle with writer’s block so I hope it doesn’t read too strongly of that.

This whole thing was just making you feel worse as the days went along, but this had come to a head.

Really, you felt like you should be enjoying the relatively peaceful stay in the area (at least, as peaceful as the gang could be) but this whole situation you found yourself in was souring the situation. It was hard to explain exactly how or why you decided to let it go to where it was. There had been a good amount of frustration, you had to admit, and...well, perhaps there was a touch of loneliness in there. How many times had you tried to clue him into how you were feeling? The number of times where it seemed like he had known but would then do something to toss that feeling out of the window? Seeing him with different people and wondering why it was never you?

You had argued with yourself several times about having to move on from it.

It was stupidly painful to deal with, and Daniel Lovette was probably one of the nicer men you had run into. If not the nicest, at least to you.

He was the son of the local fence, which gave you more than enough time to run into him when turning up with your (stolen) goods that wouldn’t do well in the general store. Considering the gang’s current plan of laying low, most of the money you did bring in was stolen jewelry and goods robbed from sleepy homesteads. The first few times, he had just given you a couple of nods and greetings when you would show up at his father’s still side business, which eventually led to a couple of conversations and...well, it seemed like he actually cared for your company these days. Returning to camp at that point was a different world. They were outlaws, you knew you would never quite fit in with the society that surrounded the gang. Still, it had been enough of a home for some time, but Arthur was always a bit of a source of frustration for you.

It had started slow, and you were somewhat used to him running a bit hot and cold. Sometimes it felt like you were as close as you knew the two of you were, then he would distance himself for some reason or another, before coming back around again. You got rather sick of the dance at points, but you hadn’t done much to put a stop to it. Hell, you had found yourself doing the same at points, almost as if you were following his lead.

During those points, you thought about maybe just saying something and getting it out in the open. That it could be dealt with instead of being this unspoken thing that you hoped would be mutual. You knew some of the women in camp had seen right through it and your dismissals. There had been some support in the beginning, but it wasn’t hard to see how they were growing frustrated with your refusal to address anything.

However, you knew you were scared. You knew Arthur enough to know he wouldn’t toss the admission back into your face, but...well, it could ruin things. The thoughts made you feel childish at points--you were both grown adults, you could handle talking truthfully. Yet, everything remained shut behind your teeth.

Yet, with all of that sitting on your conscious and Arthur switching back into his brand of cold shoulder (that it wasn’t one fully, you had noticed over time, but enough of one to get the message across) you had found yourself spending more time with Daniel.

However, it wasn’t hard to notice what he was looking for after a while. He wasn’t malicious or forceful about it, but there was a bit of hope in his eyes when you would give him more attention. At that point, you had started to wonder if it would be worth seeing where that went.

Which had felt like the beginning of the downward spiral of the situation.

Daniel knew who you were, what you did. He may not have been running his father’s business, but it wasn’t hard to figure out what with the fence seeing a number of people from different walks of life and he had been pretty intuitive in regards to what path you currently walked. The more you spent time with him, the more you thought about staying with him. He was understanding, too, having just gone through a rough courtship himself and it allowed you two to grow closer. Some of the gang members had seen the way you two interacted during the odd points where you were in town with someone (Daniel giving some subtly, thankfully.)

You should have expected word to get back to camp in some way, but people developing relationships out of it had happened in the past. Arthur was a prime example.

So it was damn confusing when Daniel had approached you one day at the fence, his tone curious yet his expression seemed somewhat troubled.

“This is gonna seem like an odd question, but do you got a brother or something?”

“Brother? No…”

“Well, I had been thinking along those lines because I just got cornered by someone who said he was lookin’ out for you.”

You had straightened up at that point. “What did he look like?”

“Ah, I dunno...taller than me somewhat, tan leather jacket, black hat.”

That had caused your stomach to clench, hands balling into fists. Oh, you had a good idea of who Daniel was talking about, you just didn’t want to believe it. Was that supposed to be some sweet gesture on Arthur’s part? All it did was make your blood boil somewhat.

“Don’t worry about him,” you had said after a moment, “I’ll deal with him.”

It was easier said than done, considering how Arthur had seemed to go right on the defensive about it. There had been some arguing back and forth about what you thought you were doing. (You really wished you had a solid answer to that at the time, but you had brushed it off easily enough.) How Arthur didn’t fully trust the guy, that you were putting the gang at risk by getting involved with someone outside of it. That it would cost them the peace they had found at the moment.

The last comment had made you scoff, your mouth somewhat parted in disbelieve.

“Oh, you’ve had no issue doing so yourself!” you had snapped, “I didn’t get involved once in your relationships but suddenly it’s fine when it’s mine? I am just supposed to watch you do the same and just stay miserable?”

The last question had been a bit of a slip up on your part, but it had been enough to keep Arthur from retorting as a somewhat confused look crossed his face. However, you had just pressed your lips into a thin line before turning and walking back off into camp. You had been expecting him to call after you with how quick he had been to jump into an argument when Daniel had been mentioned, but he had stayed away from you that evening and, for once, you hadn’t minded.

Things had seemed to subside after that, Arthur almost stepping right out of your business and getting caught up in the gang’s. It was a bit of a relief, honestly, giving you some time to figure this thing out. Yet, things didn’t quite seem to feel like they fit. Daniel was a sweet man, but something was keeping you back. It felt like it was gnawing at the back of your mind, leaving you taking steps back for each Daniel tried to take forward. It wasn’t hard to see where he wanted things to go, and...well, you had stuck up for the idea of that, hadn’t you?

Really, the more you thought about it, the more you realized it was the hypocrisy of it all that had you more angry than some attempt to block an opportunity.

The whole situation twisted and sat heavily in your gut as guilt made its way to the forefront of your mind.

You had to admit to yourself, and more importantly Daniel, that there wasn’t there. If it were the feelings you had for Arthur that lingered just out of reach with how far you had shoved them down, or if Daniel just wasn’t the right person, you weren’t sure.

However, it wasn’t right.

The memory of you telling him so still sat heavily on your mind as you sat on the top of your horse, riding rather slowly back toward camp as you could feel a tightness in your throat and in your chest. Daniel had taken it well for the most part, and you knew it could have gone worse if you had forced anything on your part, yet something he had said was lingering on your mind.

“If it’s because of that gang of yours, and I don’t know if it’ll make any difference, but that guy that threatened me before had come back to apologize about it and...guess he wished us luck? I mean, he looked conflicted about it, but I kind of expected that given the aggression before, but…”

You had been quick to assure him that it wasn’t because you were worried about what others thought, but rather something you weren’t feeling. Yet, his words kept circling in a way Daniel likely didn’t intend. Really, it felt like you were suffocating with the heat of the area and the way your mind seemed to be turning things over. A part of you felt like you were shooting yourself in the foot with a chance to get over this thing with Arthur, yet a more certain and louder part silenced that with the fact that you didn’t feel anything really there. You knew he would make someone very happy one day, but that person wasn’t going to be you.

Now it was just the strange feeling that had cropped up at what Arthur had supposedly told him.

Really, you just...needed to tell him.

Even if it went nowhere or you had been reading this whole thing wrong, it would at least allow you to close the book instead of leaving it open to glance back at whenever you thought about courting someone.

The day was starting to bleed into late afternoon by the time you had arrived back at camp, your mind a jumbled mess but you were certain of the goal you had in mind. You hitched your horse and glanced around the area, the camp lively with the usual amount of activity for that time of day. However, you noticed Arthur was, thankfully, writing in his journal under the canvas of his wagon. The sight of it put a nervous twist to your gut, causing you to pause somewhat in your approach.

Damn it, c’mon, a voice in the back of your mind hissed. It had you continuing to move as you decided to shove the feeling down for now.

Arthur glanced up at your approach, resting his pencil against the page as you came to a stop just under the canvas.

“We need to talk,” you stated, the words pulling a somewhat tense expression from him as he shut his journal.

“‘Bout what?” he asked as you crossed your arms, glancing down toward the ground.

“Some things I have been thinking about, I guess,” you replied, glancing back up at him, “About Daniel and...you.”

“Me? What’s that got to do with me?”

“It’s...it’s not something I want to talk about here. Come for a walk with me, will you?”

“Guess I got no choice…” Arthur muttered as he tucked his journal into his satchel, rising from his cot as you turned to walk toward the edge of camp.

The area was dry and hot, camp settling in a place that at least offered some form of shade from the trees but it wasn’t too much. So, you had wandered far enough out until you found a rock near a tree, far enough away from prying eyes and the heat wouldn’t stifle you any further. Really, you just wanted to spit it out but...well, you wanted to handle it better. Get some read on the situation from him before you took any sort of leap.

“You gonna tell me what’s gotten into you?” Arthur asked once you had stopped walking, causing you to raise an eyebrow toward him.

“Me? I’m not the one watching after your relationships.”

“...That man can’t keep a damn conversation to himself, can he?”

“Not when it’s about me, apparently.”

He shifted a little closer to you, stepping under the shade of the tree as you looked out at the area around you both.

“How’s that goin’, anyway?”

You let out a small scoff at the question, but the touch of amusement didn’t stay as you glanced over at him before shrugging.

“It’s not going anywhere,” you replied, leaning back against the tree truck as you crossed your arms, “He fancies me, but...guess I’m not all that interested in him. Where romance is concerned, at least.”

“So all them dramatics, they were for nothin’?”

“No, it got you to wise up,” you returned, glancing at him out of the corner of your eye, “I had also been hoping that something would come out of it so I could...well.”

“I still ain’t so sure how this involves me,” Arthur said as you let out a steadying sigh.

“Why’d you bother?” you asked, “Getting involved like you did. I know you said you didn’t trust the guy, but have you been doing what you did for the other people in camp?”

“I saw you two in town once,” he replied, letting out a sigh, “Guess I just...didn’t like the look of him, wanted to see what he was ‘bout.”

“He’s a good guy,” you assured, “Just...too good for me, I suppose.”

“That ain’t true, you’re one of the better ones out of us here,” Arthur stated, causing your heart to thump hard in your chest as you pressed your lips together before letting out a small chuckle.

“No offense, but that’s in comparison to the company I keep.”

“Sure, but...I dunno.”

“I told him I couldn’t do what he was hoping from me,” you replied, shifting as you glanced toward him, “Would’ve been nice, but...I think I’m still caught up in something.”

“Caught up?”

“Arthur…” you started, letting out another breath. It was now or never. “When it comes to things like that, I feel like I’m running into a wall because...I have feelings for you. I have for a...long time.”

Really, it was hard to hold his gaze as you spoke, dropping it away as you looked back off into the distance as you awaited his reaction. Though, you had to admit that the words had some weight to them, considering the light feeling that settled in your chest upon saying them.

You had been frustrated about carrying it around for so long, the feelings, the thoughts, even the odd dream. A part of you weren’t sure how long ago they had started, perhaps when you were younger even, but...well, things were complicated. You had legitimately thought it wouldn’t happen at points for reasons outside of the courage to admit to it.

“Me?” he asked after a moment, causing you to finally look back at him, “You’re tellin’ me this Daniel’s too good for you, but I’m sayin’ you’re too good for the likes of me.”

“Well, I can return your argument against my own thoughts about that,” you said, “If you’re going to try to talk me out of these feelings I’ve been carrying for years over just telling me you don’t return them, I wish you would do that instead.”

There was another pause as you let your response linger between the two of you, your heart hammering away in your chest now as you just hoped he would give you some sort of answer. At that point, you didn’t care what it was outside of it being some sort of answer to an unsaid question that had been sitting for quite some time.

Do you feel anything for me?

“I ain’t a jealous man, but...part of me was scared at the idea of you leavin’. I knew that much, but the idea that it was for someone who...well, I can’t lie and say I ain’t had somethin’ for you for a while too, but...I always thought you could do better than me. You can do better than me.”

“You could let me decide that for myself…” you returned, shifting so that you weren’t leaning against the tree, standing before him with that damn fluttering in your chest and stomach.

Arthur didn’t say anything in return, meeting your gaze with more intensity than he had been giving you throughout the conversation. There was a part of you that feared you might be reading the situation wrong, that taking a step toward him was the wrong move, but with the pause and the flicker of his gaze about your face, you found yourself chancing it. You reached a hand up and cupped his cheek, feeling the light prickle of his stubble that was growing out somewhat these days, Arthur accepting the touch after a moment.

You leaned up and pressed your mouth against his in a light kiss, ready to pull back if things didn’t seem right, but you felt his arms wrapping around your back. He pressed you against him as you pressed a more firm kiss against his lips, slipping your hands up into his hair and around his neck, Arthur pressing back into the kiss as you did so. Your mind seemed to relax for a few moments, taking in the feeling of his lips against yours and his hold.

Though, eventually, you found yourself pulling back somewhat as the need for air seemed to press into the forefront of your mind. However, Arthur didn’t release his hold, and you didn’t back all that far away from him as you pressed your forehead against his own.

“I’ve been wanting to do that for...longer than I care to admit,” you muttered, letting out a soft chuckle as you saw a small grin pull at Arthur’s lips.

“...Me, too,” he returned, your gaze meeting his own in the closed-in space between you, “I’m sorry I’ve been actin’ a fool, I just…”

“You’re not the only one,” you replied, shifting your hands down to rest on his shoulders, “I should have been more honest with you and myself.”

Arthur let out a small sound in the back of his throat, not much in agreement but you didn’t pick up much disagreement from it. However, you didn’t read too much into it, not knowing where his head was at most of the time, but you were glad you got to know this.

Looking into his eyes, and knowing very well it would be a fun time to address this with camp after everything, you couldn’t find yourself regretting the choice to finally say the words.

[obsidianfr3sk]

Rise of the Renegades (Chapter 2)

Summary: Heroes come from the most unexpected places. Heroes sometimes feel a little too different, a little too scared, a little too alone. But heroes also know when enough is enough, and that before saving the world, they need to save themselves. And they cannot do it alone.

They were going to be the hope of the world. They were going to call themselves the Renegades. Even if they didn’t know it yet.

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26246812/chapters/64292134#workskin

A few weeks ago I was having kind of a writer’s block and my mom a friend of mine (cof cof @dawniebb cof cof) recommended me to create a playlist for my fic... and I did. @nodrianbcyes already listened to it and said it ruled so I’m gonna share it with you guys, pls don’t make fun of my music taste (? You can listen to it clicking here. 

Mmmm, what else, what else??? Hope you like it! Reblogs, funny tags, likes and dead threats are always welcome!

Tag list: @healing-winston-pratt @alecjamesartino @ohmyskies @blueraspberry-official (tell me if you want in or out, don’t worry)

The stupidest plan 

You fell asleep in my car, I drove the whole time,

but that's ok, I'll just avoid the holes so you sleep fine.

I'm driving here I sit, cursing my government,

for not using my taxes to fill holes with more cement.

Hugh

He had spent the whole night sketching the battle between Wonder Man and Ace Anarchy. It had been very tedious to be working without proper lighting. For a moment he believed that when morning came, his drawing would not look as good as he thought. However, the morning had come.

And it was perfect.

Although now that he was polishing the last details while waiting for classes to begin, he came across a question that kept him from concentrating.

Simon quietly walked into the classroom, as if he was afraid of bothering someone with his mere presence (although they literally were only ones there). He sat in the first seat in the row to his right. Simon hated sitting upfront because he said it only brought more attention to himself than he wanted to. However, Hugh couldn't sit anywhere else. His glasses weren't the best.

Also, it was strangely depressing to sit on the last row and see that of the forty tables in the room, only fifteen were filled. Twenty if it was a busy day. From the front, it was easier to ignore that more than half of the kids in his class had dropped out of school. 

But Hugh had enough of ignoring things.

“What color are Ace Anarchy’s eyes?” he asked Simon.

“Good morning to you too,” he replied sarcastically.

“Good morning.” He took gray in one hand and blue in the other. “What color are Ace Anarchy's eyes?”

Simon looked carefully at the colors. “I don't know, gray? I feel like they are gray. I can't imagine him having blue eyes.”

Hugh agreed.

“What are you drawing?” Simon asked.

“Propaganda,” he replied with a mischievous smile.

“It looks good.”

“I’m a propaganda expert, indeed.” He grabbed his classroom chair and pushed it to the right next to Simon's. He would return it to its place when the professor entered. “Have you thought about what I told you about yesterday?”

He looked away. “No.”

He shook his head. Simon was lying. “I was being very serious, you know.”

“And I was too. Stop thinking bullshit,” and he smacked him on the back of the neck. “Or do I have to beat those ideas out of you, Wonder Man?”

Hugh hit him back, but in the arm. “Come on. I don’t believe it is bullshit.”

And I don't think you believe that either.

“All right, but you believe many things. You believed in Santa Claus until very recently.” Simon started playing with a ball of crumpled paper that had been lying on the floor for a week. “When you told me ‘Simon, but it has all the logic in the world that Santa exists, he is a prodigy, like us ’ and I was like—"

“A part of me died that tragic day,” he said in a dramatic voice, one hand on his chest. “My childhood…”

“You were eleven years old. It was to save you from bullying. I was protecting you.” The door opened again and they both turned at the same time to see who it was. It was just a group of girls. Good. “It's not like it helped that much though.”

He shrugged.

Neither Simon nor he had been spared from bullying during those years. All the schools in the district were mostly filled with non-prodigies because most of the prodigies were in gangs or hiding in their homes. The few who were still in school did their best not to cause problems and to go unnoticed. They were part of that last group since middle school.

However, the entire school found out about their powers when Simon got so nervous at a presentation that he disappeared in front of his entire class. Hugh tried to intervene but stood up so fast that he tripped over his backpack and hit his nose on the floor. He did not bleed or receive a single scratch. People were quick to connect the dots.

Obviously if one was a prodigy, the other one was too. 

Alter all, freaks stuck together. 

They thought high school was going to be different, but no. On the first day, an older boy caught Simon turning invisible intermittently in the bathroom while having a panic attack. A few hours later, a girl tried to stab Hugh with a pencil and all it did was break it as soon as it made contact with his skin.

“The next time you have a panic attack,” he told Simon on their way home, “tell me.”

“And the next time someone tries to stab you with a pencil, you stab them back.”

When you were a prodigy, it didn't matter if one believed in Santa or not. The mere fact of existing was enough to cause problems.

“At eleven you're still a kid,” Simon kicked him under the bench as he laughed. “Did you ever believe in Santa?”

“No. At my house the one who gave the presents was Baby Jesus,” he replied. “But I didn't believe in him either. How could a baby deliver all those gifts? His hands are too tiny”

Simon gave a light laugh, but Hugh couldn't even smile.

He toyed with the color blue. “Simon, did you ever believe in something?”

Simon bit the inside of his cheek and looked up at the ceiling. He took his sweet time thinking before replying, “I have believed in things.”

He breathed a sigh of relief. “Like what things?”

“Well... I believed the stories my mom told me before bed,” he replied. “I also believed they were never going to stop producing The Scarlet Enchantress and the Phantom Feline comics—” He gestured for him to come closer— “or that I was going to be a prodigy,” he whispered.

Hugh smiled at him. “The best curse ever.”

“What did you believe in?”

He laid his head on his desk. “I have a whole list.”

Simon covered his head with his hood and pretended to be ready to fall asleep. “The short version of that list, then.”

Hugh imitated him. “I used to believe that adults never grew up. Like, they were born as adults,” Simon laughed and rolled his eyes. “I thought little people were running the television inside of it. I thought my aunt was the most beautiful woman in the world—”

“She is,” Simon replied.

“Simon, stop it. She is my aunt. You have many other girls to choose from.”

“They are not as pretty as your aunt.”

“Simon!”

Simon laughed and the girls shushed him. His friend turned red in the ears as they returned to their conversation like nothing. Hugh wanted to point out how rude they had been.

However, when Simon discreetly smiled at him again, he decided to continue with his list. Those girls were not worthy of his attention. “I also believed in Santa Claus, until someone ruined my hopes and dreams.” Another kick. Simon kicked people too much. “But I also believe in that someone, you know.”

Simon's smile almost disappeared. “Well... that someone doesn't believe in himself.”

I knew it.

He understood his friend. He really did. He knew there were times when Simon would get more nervous than normal in banal situations. Or that he had some days when he didn't want to get out of bed at all. 

Those were the worst.

But despite that, not a single day passed that Simon didn't get up and go to school with him. Even when Hugh had to stop at his house and practically beg him to do it. 

Simon had never left him alone. And Hugh wasn't going to do it now.

He gifted him the widest of his smiles. “Well that someone doesn't have to worry about it. I can believe in him for both of us.”

Simon stared into his eyes for several seconds. He felt like he knew that face as well as he knew his. “Are you sure?” he asked.

“I am sure,” he replied.

Simon kicked him again.

Hugh felt sparks exploding inside his stomach.

Suddenly, a body slammed into the lockers, and screams filled the school hallway. The trio of girls ran out to see who was involved. Hugh leaned out of the small window in the door. He had always believed he was above that kind of thing, and he was. But it was also the most interesting thing that was going to happen all day.

Simon followed him.

They were a couple of boys from their grade, the same ones who constantly teased them. One with curly blond hair was holding his friend by the collar of his shirt and was yelling an infinity of curse words. The other three in his group, instead of separating them as good friends would do, they had joined the chorus of “Fight! Fight!"

Who knows why they were fighting. They were always fighting someone, but never with each other. They usually grabbed someone smaller than themselves for that, like the prodigy boy that was a grade below them. (They would never physically fight Hugh or Simon, making jokes at their expense was enough for them.) 

Cowards.

Maybe they were just brutally bored.

But there had to be other ways to shake off the boredom.

“I'm going to tell a teacher,” Hugh said.

At that moment, one of the girls ran out of the scene in the direction of the teachers' office. Well, at least now he wouldn't be the one to look like a snitch in front of his entire grade.

“That someone is slightly concerned,” Simon whispered.

“Why?” The blond slammed his friend again, but this time, against the door. “For them?”

“No,” he replied, a little disturbed by the tremendous blow that boy had received. “I am— that someone is... Well, what if the plan you have in your head is stupid?”

At that moment, Hugh realized that he had no plans. That was weird. He always had a plan for everything.

Beating Ace Anarchy should be no exception.

“I suppose we can come up with something. The two of us,” he added.

The fight was broken up by a short-haired teacher. They hurriedly returned their school chairs to their places and the rest of their class entered. Five, six, nine...

Eleven. Only eleven kids had attended that day. And that counting the ones who were fighting a few moments ago. 

“Don't think that someone is just going to blindly follow you,” Simon whispered. “He will tell you when you have a stupid plan.”

“I would be very grateful for that,” he also replied in a whisper. “Although I always have amazing plans, to begin with.”

Simon tried to kick him, but at that moment, the teacher from the first class entered. Hugh chuckled, and in response, Simon discreetly raised his middle finger in his direction.

He knew at that moment that it would not be a stupid plan.

[ainarosewood]

FFXIVWrite 2020 Writing Challenge Day 2

Prompt-Sway

@sea-wolf-coast-to-coast​ @ffxiv-writers​

Decisions

Ryna bolted up from sleep narrowly missing the beam above her bed in her quarters.  Her entire body was soaked in a cold sweat and she was quaking with residual fear. Amber who had been sleeping on her chest leapt to the floor the carbuncle bristling with restrained energy casting to and fro looking for the enemy.

"Stand down Amber," the Viera, "The foes not here, seems t’was a dream,"

The Carbuncle relaxed but gave her summoner a confused look, A dream Captain, that seemed by far more..... she chimed

The Veena looked down at the construct stating softly, "Aye it does seem such.....I wonder just what it means."

Ryna then shook herself trying to cast off the lingering fear and stress from what by all rights should have been a nightmare.  Standing she made her way out of her cabin and onto the deck.

They were anchored in a harbor some where within the Rhotano Sea.  Judging by the sway and bob of the ship and the lash of the cold rain on the deck the storm they had come here to ride out was still raging.

She made her way from her cabin nodding to the few crew members that were still at there posts not saying a word.  Her crew said nothing as well they knew when she needed to be left alone.

She stopped at the bow staring out at the storm beyond the harbor.  Lightning struck the tempestuous sea, mirroring the storm in her heart caused by this strange dream.

"Your troubled tonight," a quiet voice stated to her right.

Ryna jumped and whirled to face her sister Myra.  It spoke volumes how much the dream had shaken her since she hadn't even noticed the Conjurer’s approach.

The Veena should have known that the other would have sensed her turmoil.  They had shared a bond from the day they were born.  One of the rare twin births in the Wood.  

She gave Myra a curt nod stating softly, "A very strange....dream....vision, ‘ells I’m not sure what it is.  But, damn if it aient 'aunting me."

"This isn’t the first time of it is it." the other Viera asked quietly.

Ryna shook her head, "Nay its the third time in the past month. I 'aven't the foggiest what it means but....its unsettling."

Her twin locked eyes with her amber staring into amber and she prompted gently, "Tell me."

Ryna looked out again over the water her brow furrowing as she recalled the dream with a vivid clarity.

"I find myself walking in what appears te be a starry expanse.  All seems quiet till there’s a roar filling me ears then from above the 'sky' turns a lurid orange n stars begin te fall."  

At her legs Amber crowded close trying to comfort her summoner as she continued, "Then I begin te hear a voice stating three words, hear, feel, think.  Ahead a light appears n I make me way toward it only to 'ave it blocked suddenly by a man cloaked and cowled in black a vivid red mask covering 'alf 'is face."

She shuddered folding her arms defensively as her memory allowed her to feel his presence once again. " 'E feels.....dangerous, deadly a dark presence that’s almost suffocating in its intensity....then the words repeat seeming te come from the light that’s behind him.  It floats toward me and then I’m enveloped in it with a strange comfortin warmth.  When the light clears I’m standing clad in garb that I don’t recognize a tome brimming with power in me hand."

The Veena once again turns toward her sister looking her in the eye as she continued, "A strange red sigil appears on 'is mask and shadows gather round as 'e starts chargin forward.  I rush te meet 'im n were both enveloped in a blindin light."

Ryna closed her eyes for a moment before finishing, "Once the light clears I find meself standin in a city o white stone with what appears te be parts o a ship makin up most o the buildins.  All around is the bright blue o the Rhotano Sea.  The disturbin thing is that dark presence is still there somewhere near as I turn te look fer it is when I find meself wakin."

Myra's own brow furrowed as she thought about all she had just been told, "Are you certain this isn’t just some strange nightmare?"

Ryna nodded, "Ye'd think but there’s somethin bout it that seems....."

Its too real.  Its as if he’s actually standing in front of us threatening us. The presence is all but palpable. Every time ye feel it so do I. Amber chimed at her

Looking down at the carbuncle she nodded, "Aye ye have the right o it.  Its too real Myra to vivid like 'es actually there not just a figment o my mind. N Amber ‘ere senses ‘im too like ‘es in the room"

Myra touched her chin in thought for a moment looking down at the deck before stating, "It almost sounds like the portends the Priestesses o the Wood used te have."

Ryna bobbed her head in agreeance stating, "Aye trouble is we both know neither o us 'ave ever been inclined fer that sorta thing."

Myra simply grunted in response still lost in thought as she digested all her sister had stated.  

Ryna looked back toward her stating, "Most o it I can't make 'eads er tails o.  But I know one thing bout it the city I’m in at the end has te be Limsa Lominsa."

Myra looked at her blinking in surprise at the surety of the statement asking, "So what do you want te do?"

Ryna lowered her eyes and balled her fists in frustration, "I don't know te be honest...somethin tells me whatever this is its important n shouldn't be ignored. That bein said if the city is Limsa sailing in there on the Briar is outta the question."

"Given the general view o pirates, even upstandin ones such as ourselves," the other Viera responded dryly.

"Aye, seems I have a bit te think bout....after all I don't wanna abandon all o ye but this seems like its....fer me te do, whatever it is."

Myra placed a comforting hand on her arm once again catching her eyes, "Know whatever yer choice I'll stand with ye as will the crew."

"Aye sister it was never in any doubt,"Ryna responded placing a hand over her sisters, "I'll give it some thought, then see where me course steers me."

Myra gave the arm a comforting squeeze then turned and left knowing full well that Ryna wished to be alone to think.

Ryna returned to her vigil of watching the storm.  Her heart in as much turmoil as the stormy sea before her.

[findthefuninlife]

Short Story (Been A While)

Remember This Feeling

Trees flew by the window of the car, blurs of branches and railings were all that were seen for the first six hours of the road trip. The sky went from sunny clear bright blue to gloomy dull shades of red, blue, yellow mixes. I sat in the back seat, one leg perched on top of my other, book in my lap and pen rattling against my top and bottom teeth, a nervous habit. Luckily, in my writing process it was a more well known habit for me to do this when I couldn’t think of the next turn of events. This wasn’t an inaccurate observation, truthfully it was both of these but mostly the nervousness.

She sat next to me staring out the window short blonde hair falling just before her shoulders. She could stare at the wilderness, natural environment for hours and lose herself in it. You could almost see the intoxication in her eyes, you couldn’t tell what she saw, but there was a different kind of fire in them when she was out there. Her elbow on the armrest, head propped up on her hand, pinky slightly tugging at her lower lip. She wore black sweat pants, a red hoodie with white lettering on the sleeves. Her legs were curled under her, feet sitting on the seat. She kicked off her shoes after the first hour of the ride. The string from her hoodie rested in her mouth, she wasn’t chewing on it, just had it there, a trademark I’m sure.

Aaaaaand I’m staring— again. I tore my eyes away and looked back at my half filled pages titled, “It’s Been A While”. It’s been a while since a lot of things. I haven’t been out in god knows how long, I haven’t written in even longer. Words on paper gave me a purpose, a moment of clarity, drive to be more than I ever thought I could be. In the times that words appeared on canvas I felt like I was the most important person in the world, to every character I wrote about I was their savior, their justice, their desires, everything. Writing allowed for a door to a place that I could never really be.

The eyes that were staring at me in the rear view mirror, concerned but familiar told me that in doing this was out of character or such an older sight that it’s a need for concern. Amy, my ever long best friend, friend of all friends could quote me before I even spoke sometimes. It was incredibly annoying with arguments but it’s a sign of true growth and friendship. Her husband in the passenger seat next to her was asleep, as always in these long rides to who knows where. Jules, short of Julian never had the patience or interest in car games, passing time by distracting yourself with trivial outside observations. He was calculated, quiet but get a few drinks in him and he’d be bouncing off the walls and unexpectedly the loudest person in the bar. Though the sober, quiet demeanor was often mistaken for rudeness or dislike, he proved to be a sweet guy overall. I gave him my blessing to marry my best friend only after meeting with him a few times. 

A small cough came from the driver, “So,” no good conversation ever starts with ‘so’ I thought to myself. 

“So, what are you writing about Niko?” Amy, still looking back at me through the rear view mirror said breaking the silence within the car. 

“It’s... uhm, y-ya’ know just a short story.” Great, now I’m stammering for some reason. Sam, the friend of Amy that was invited to go on the trip with us looked up and away from the window for the first time and took a quick glance at me with my notebook and pen in hand. Her eyes were green, blue, gold, strikingly beautiful. Her lips looked soft, a shade of pink coated on top, a slight line dividing the bottom lip. The hoodie she wore held the back hairs up giving it more volume. I thought to myself that they reminded me of a golden waterfall. 

“But, uh how’s driving? Do you need to switch off anytime soon?” Horribly basic question in a car ride, there was something wittier on tongue but I decided to keep things mellow for now. 

“Maybe next stop, Jules’s quiet snoring tires me out sometimes, but I’m good for now. Samantha! You’re so quiet, why don’t you guys play a game or something?!” Amy, was notorious for setting people up for awkward conversations, cutting the tensions of others like it was sport. 

“Well, I mean I don’t re-” Sam had started to say going wide eyed for a bit, clearly being off guard. Amy strikes again.

“So, have you ever.. have you ever..” Geez why am I stuttering so damn bad, “have you ever been outside of Delaware?” See, nothing ever good comes from a conversation that starts with “So.” Who the hell asks a question like that. 

“I haven’t actually.” She looked outside again breaking eye contact with me and staring again back at the passing trees. 

We were on our way out of the state to visit Amy’s brother who was in the military in Virginia. He invited her to see the ships in the ship yard and see his work station. 

I started to sink back into my seat when I realized that was probably the end of the conversation and everything was starting to feel awkward. I started a side conversation with this beautiful girl and that was the best opening I had? 

“Have you ever been outside the state?” Sam had asked still looking out. 

“I have, a few times, but I always end up back home.” I was surprised, I rarely get asked questions in conversations I think are going down hill. Hell, most of the time it’s just me asking and the other just answers. I really need to get a life. 

We both tried talking then stopping each other’s sentence. 

“No, you go first.”

“No really it’s fine. It was a stupid question”

“No, no please go.”

This went on until Amy couldn’t take it anymore, a small smile starting to creep on her face in watching. “Alright! Sam then Niko!” 

We both stopped when we both realized that it wasn’t just us in this conversation. Feeling like a deer in head lights I simply sat back in my seat.

Well, there goes the conversation. Thanks Ame's— now what? Peaking over I saw that she didn't turn back to the window, instead she twirled her hoodie strings in her fingers. I wanted to give it a shot; I scribbled quickly in my notebook, meticulous to not write too much to make it seem like I was going to be diving back into my literature. I tore the page out and held it in my hand. I leaned forward putting my face close to Amy, "Whatcha doing?!" The sudden jerk forward spooked her and she let out a tiny yelp. As I leaned forward I was hoping to obscure her view as I passed the note to Sam. Luckily for me, she took it out of my hand. I continued to chat up Ame's until I felt like my paper ripping was long forgotten.

The car ride went smoothly all the way up to the hotel.

We got out, stretched our legs and were in for the night.

I sat up in bed as I always did, notebook open in front of me, my thoughts written across the pages. I raked my hands through my hair hoping for more thoughts to jingle their way out of me as I did. The words "Its Been A While" titled the page. "Ya' know I used to write before all of this. Now I just scribble and tear pages out." I spoke to no one in particular in my empty room. Sometimes it was easier saying my thoughts as I wrote them out, sometimes my what I said I didn't want recorded. I'd prefer the words to fade since the nightmares won't. Maybe it'll too make them less real.

A knock at the door brought me out of screen of writers block. Before I got up to answer a slip of paper flew under the door. I'm not going to lie, a spark started in my chest and a small smile crept up on my face. I hopped out of bed flipping my notebook over on the floor. I picked up the note and unfolded it. In the car I passed a message saying, "Tell me a story" in response I saw three separate lines where she started to write and scribbled it out. Finally at the bottom it said, "Meet me in lobby then." I threw on some workout clothes and a ball cap and went out. As soon as the door shut behind me I remembered my key card to the room sitting on the nightstand. "Guess there's no going back now. "

Rounding the corner I took the fire escape down two sets of stairs and came into the lobby. It was about 10 o' clock at night, the place was empty. One receptionist sat at the kiosk legs propped on the counter reading a People's magazine. The only other person in the room was Sam, standing in the middle of the lobby by the fire place. She hadnt changed from the outfit we traveled in. I walked up unfolding the piece of paper she left me. “This must be quite the story.” She turned and smiled, “I can’t promise it’ll be amazing, but I’m not much of a writer so I thought I’d tell it to you instead.” 

We ended up walking around the hotel building, then down to the pier. It was awkward at first if I’m being honest but this was a strange circumstance to begin with. I asked her what story I was in for and she responded by just talking. It started with her college days, her aspiration to leave the east coast, her troubles with choosing a major, her dream of becoming a music teacher. She didn’t have siblings, her dad worked all the time and she was kind of an introvert oddly enough since she was talking so much. 

“Am I talking a lot?” She turned back at me a few steps behind and asked.

“No, not at all. College, dreams, siblings, the whole lot, I know you’re life now.” I just speculated and said what was on my mind. It’s moments like these that I hate myself and my impulses. As I said it I thought of how rude it could seem or even sarcastic in nature, which it truly wasn’t but, there it goes.

“Oh, we’ve got a comedian. Here you have a pretty girl telling you her whole life story and that’s how you respond to it?” She said with a smile.

“I am quite funny when I’m not brooding I must admit. You life sounds like something I’ve never heard before. Ame’s told me about, but small stuff, like that you were pretty and a good person, you know only things that aren’t important.” 

“You do brood, for all the hours I’ve known you... aaall,” she looked at her watch then, “6 hours of knowing you.” 

“6 hours and I know your whole life story. I must be quite the detective or you must quite lonely.” 

It must’ve been how I said it because she perked up at that, whether it was mildly insulting, maybe true, but she responded with, “Are you quite lonely?” 

I don’t know what possessed her to ask but, she saw through it, my statement to myself. The sun would come up soon, somehow the night passed us by as we walked and talked. “I am, only when I’m by myself.”

“Well that’s obvious.” 

“Well you asked.” 

“You know what I mean. What’s the doom and gloom of late?”

“Of late? You mean by my 8 hours of knowing you?”

This was the first time she stammered in all of the talking she did. “W-well yes, I mean, that and...”

I already knew what she was going to say.

She continued, “... and Amy told me about your brother. He—”

I cut her off with, “Enough." It came out harsher than intended but not by much. "I appreciate the chance to get to know you, Let's get going to the hotel.”

She began to speak but I already spun around and started walking. I was done with the conversation, a small heat building in my chest burning away the spark of lightning that was there. I was taller than she was and I knew my natural stride would create a good distance between us so I kept her behind me. I let the sound of footsteps behind me and the morning birds chirping fade into the background.

"Hey!"  A piercing sound broke my tsunami of thoughts that were about to crash onto me. I got about 4 steps away from her before she yelled my way.

"Hey," she walked up to me, "look, I'm sorry Ame's tells people too much, but shes your best friend and she's worried about you."

"Look, I get that but I—"

"Let me finish," she put a finger up. "Ame's told me what was going on and to avoid the subject but little do you know or notice, I was one of your brother's friends. Well... mentors. We've actually met before but you were too wrapped up in your own shit to see me."

"That's not tru—"

"Yeah? Where do you know me from before a few hours ago?" She looked expectedly at me.

"You, uh... you were ..." staring at her face I did recall her. It was a faint memory but at my brothers session, the receptionist, in a suit and thick framed glasses, hair brought back in a tight bun. "You were the receptionist, at Mitch's therapy sessions." My voice choked up in the middle of his name. How long had it been since I spoke it to other people. The word tasted of ash in my mouth.

"Yes. That's true." She recoiled some, probably not expecting me to have recognized her.

"Mitchel talked about you. Said you were the light of the office, too pretty not to smile at, no matter how bad his spells were." My hands ended up in my pockets and I was clinching my sides. "Ms'antha? I believe he called you. He told me about your internship and the sessions you'd have before his therapist got in. He said you'd make a great therapist someday and that he was going to miss...you." Something stirred in my chest, something dark and impulsive. The question came out of nowhere, harsh and vile. "Did you know?"

"Did I know what?"

My voice came out darker and more pronounced. "Did—you—know?!" I was looking at her my eyes burning, fists clinched so tightly I could feel the nails digging into my palms, my arms were shaking.

"No, of course I didn't. He didn't say anything and he stopped coming in, we didn't hear the news til the second night of."

The news. Like it was something to broadcast and display. I remember hearing the headline on the TV "Troubled teen jumps off of interstate Bridge."

The burning cooled as a tear fell from my eye. I quickly wiped it away and shoved my hand back in my pocket. I realized I was too invested in this and needed to leave. As I turned back around I heard a quick lunge forward and she grabbed my arm and kept me from fully turning around. I suddenly was very conscious of her touch, it felt warm but still everything about me felt cold. I was shivering. Her fingers barely touched my skin. Most of her hand engulfed in the jacket. She turned me around and hugged me, full strength and buried her head in my neck.

"I'm so sorry." She said holding me tightly, my arms will in my pockets.

It took me a while, I had been blankly staring at nothing in particular, but i finally spoke broken hearted, "I-I don't want sorry's. I want to call him and not listen to his voice mail." That hurt, the knot in my throat was swelling, like i couldn't swallow the cannon ball down, it was suffocating. "I-Its full y'know. His voice-mail." The cannonball turned into a watermelon. I had to lift my head up to try and make it go down but it wouldn't. My shivering got worse and my vision was starting to blur from the tears. My face grew hot and my nose felt like needles were bein put through it. This was unbearable. I started to cry. Every "are you okay" every "we can talk about it" every "im here for you" every single fucking one was nothing to me. Im not okay, I dont wanf to talk about it and the only person I want here is him.

It had been 2 months since his passing and it was my first funeral I'd ever went to. Little Mitch was only 16 when he passed. I dont think I've ever experienced any pain worse than this. Life goes on but you're stuck in a perpetual state of 'what the fuck'. Everyday you look at the things that used to be and wonder how they were ever that way. Every day you look at the door and wonder when its going to open and you'll see that goofy ass smile. Everyday no matter where you go you think you see them at the corner of your eye and your waiting to kick their ass for playing the most torturous game of hide-n-go-seek ever. You wait to have a hug from behind and its them, a call to your phone with their name.

I dont know how long we'd been standing but I felt weak. I didnt want to stand anymore. Along the docks there was a tree and a patch of grass. Id found my way there and laid down closing my eyes. I dont even remember where Sam was, but I knew she was near me.

((I'm gonna come back to this one later))