#YOU want to die. because that’s kinda what we’re risking right now as small as that risk may be. like we dont know what causes long covid an

[pepprs]

girl why is EVERYONE being cavalier about this. i just found out i literaly was sitting 3 feet across from someone who was symptomatic with covid for 2 hours yesterday. she was masked and i was wearing an n95 but that is not a guarantee that i didn’t get it. I was exposed 30ish hours ago but if i got it it hasn’t incubated yet probably so i May n out be symptomatic yet but i could be. and my family who made my life a LIVING HELL back in 2020 and 2021 over being afraid i would give them covid suddenly don’t give a single shit about it when this is the most significant way i have ever been exposed. they think im being irrational and don’t habe patience for me panicking over it and not wanting to go be around them and act like everything is normal. um maybe im panicking for good fucking reason because i don’t want to get you sick and i don’t want to be sick myself? like someone please tell me im not fucking crazy im about to lose my shit

[roturo]

FORSAKE 🃏 .3

CHISHIYA X READER

GENRE: TBA

WARNINGS: NSFW under the cut, not too much tho!! Jealous Reader, kinda angst? idk

You’re in a new word. Who would’ve believed you found him again. Even though, nothing seemed the way it was before. Everything changed. Even him.

PT 1 PT2

Within seconds, Chishiya was pushing your panties aside and his length was entering you. you both let out sighs of satisfaction as you sat down on his cock. Hiya’s hands went to grip your ass and help you in riding him. He licked his lips as he watched your face contorted in pleasure, then he thrusted up suddenly making you moan out.

He grunted when you clenched around him tightly. “I missed you so much.” his voice muffled in your chest.

You were so lost in pleasure that for a few moments you forgot that you were in a random abandoned house while the others were waiting for both of you.

But who cares? When Chishiya’s dick feels so good?

“Do you think they’re fucking?” Arisu said almost bursting out laughing while Usagi slightly hit him and gave him a shut up look. 

“Did you know they already knew each other?”

Kuina said suddenly getting closer to them.

“Huh? really?”

“Yeah, Chishiya told me he had a crush on her”

“Chishiya?!” Both of them said schoked that the Chishiya was capable of loving.

“I know, he seems all serious but I guess he’s still a human, we don’t know what y/n has that makes him fall in love with her..” She said.

“fuckingshityoufuckingmotherfucker” you said mumbling while getting back at the camp, and without any words you simply get into the tent .

Chishiya was following along behind you, he seems relaxed as always with his fucking hands in his fucking pockets, it’s not like he just fucked someone and made them almost pass out. Psss, not like he can.

He got closer to Kuina and she said “So Arisu was right?!” Usagi and Arisu looked at Kuina almost saying to shut up since it’s not the moment.

Chishiya had a barely noticeable smile on his face that most of people would see it’s as his typical smirk, but this is another kind of smile.

The next day you woke up at the sound of small birds, you saw kuina sleeping by your side, thank god it wasn’t someone else, did they talked something about you and him?, do they know??

You got out of the tent carefully so you didn’t wake up Kuina, when you got out you saw Usagi and Arisu making “breakfast” with a rabbit you suppose they hunted, you relaxed thinking Chishiya hasn’t wake up, but you were wrong.

He was just coming back from gathering some kindling, and oh fuck he has some different clothes now and looks so much better. 

Your eyes locked, while Arisu and Usagi looked at eachother almost bursting out laughing. 

Shit. Stop. “So, how can I help?” You said to Usagi, breaking eye contact with him. Arisu, looked at a blushed Chishiya with a little smile on his face. 

“Oh, really nothing, we’re okay now that Chishiya got some wood so we can start the fire” Usagi answered giving you a small smile.

You didn’t felt liking eating breakfast, you were too busy remembering everything that happened yesterday, so he does remember you, and he does like you?? Oh my god, you felt like throwing up. 

But, even if you still love him, you couldn’t stay with him, what if you die and leave him alone?? worse, what if HE dies and leaves you alone? You couldn’t risk losing him again. Even though the first time it was you who leaved. But now, you can leave forever. 

“Are you okay?” shit. that kinda scared you. The sudden voice of Kuina brought you back to earth. 

“Umm, yes, why?”

“Maybe because you’re kinda red right now, then your face suddenly got pale, is everything alright?”

Shit, am I that obvious?! “Oh” you nervously chuckled, “I just feel kinda sick, that’s why” you smiled at her. I want to throw up because I just fucked with Chishiya, not in the bad way, but because I can’t be with him, he has a girlfriend, shit. Guilt was eating you alive.

“Oh okay, let me go tell the other so we can go find something so you can feel better.” No shit. Nonononono. Why you had to be so kind?!

please don’t go. “Okay, thank you”

“You should stay here, so you can rest, and try eating what Usagi made, maybe you’re feeling bad because you haven’t ate.” She gave you a reassuring smile and left.

You told them that it’s okay for them to leave you here alone since someone had to take care of the “camp”

“We’re not going take a lot of time, rest a little.” 

The four of them left, leaving you alone with your silly thoughts.

Since you were about to be alone for a time now, you decided to go search for new clothes in a store nearby, and maybe even clean yourself a little bit.

Back at the camp, no one was back, that kinda weirded you out, they only went looking for food and maybe some medicines? You aren’t sure if they’re medicines in this world, but that still made you worry..

What if they’re stuck in a game? Did any of The Beach found them? Are they dead?!?!

Just when you were about to get up, you heard them coming, and you also heard a new voice?

“You can stay with us this night, but I you will have to share tent with one of us, is that okay?” Arisu said to a new girl, she was shorter than you, she seemed a little bit older but not too much.

“Y/N! Are you feeling better? We brought you some soup!” Kuina said running to you.

“Yeah, yeah…” You said resting your hand on Kuina’s shoulder, you were so grateful to have a friend like Kuina. “Who is she?” And why is she talking to Chishiya?

“Oh, she’s Himari, she was stuck in a building and we decided to help her-“

You stopped paying attention to Kuina when you saw Chishiya talking back with her, he’s not one of talking too much, isn’t he? Why is he talking to the new girl? He took his time to start talking with you first met him, so why he’s very social now huh?!

“Y/N, hey, wake up, are you paying attention?”

“Ouch!, what was that for?!”  She pinched you in the arm.

“It’s like you’re making up a hundred ways to kill her, why does she bothers you so much?”

“I don’t know, maybe because I don’t even know her?!”

“Her name is Himari. And I already told you that we found her stuck in a-“ She stopped, now mouth open, she looked at Chishiya then at you, she couldn’t believe this. “Oh my- Do you like Chishiya?” 

“What?!” You raised your voice making everyone look at you confused.

Shit. You felt how your face grew hotter and you’re sure you’re red right now. “what?!” you said now in a whisper to Kuina, “what’s wrong with you, pfft, what makes you think that?”

“Maybe because you look at her like she’s the girl who stole your doll at 5 years old?”

“N-No! It’s not like that! It’s just.. something seems off about her.”

“Yeah, whatever you say.”

It was now afternoon, when all of you decided to take a break from the games since your visa’s were good.  And Himari hasn’t stopped talking to Chishiya… Does she like him?!  Might as well fuck him don’t you want to? 

That’s kinda funny you know? Because he fucked you, not her.

She laughed. Even her laughed annoyed you. What is she laughing about? What’s so funny? “What were you before this world Chishiya?” Usagi moved her hands to make a sign of a circle to emphasize the new “world” all of you are. 

Both of you locked eyes. Oh.. how you wished you can change the past and made everything right. Get Izami into a good school, buy a better apartment, have a better job, and be with him. 

No. You can’t. Not with him. What if you aren’t good enough? I mean, he’s smart, nice, handsome and has a girlfriend- No way. Fuck. Shit. No way. Is Himari his new girlfriend??!?! Oh god..

“I was a doctor-“

“Yeah, we were together also!,” fuck. “Well… not until he broke up with me…”  Wait! They’re not together anymore?!

“I don’t know why ‘hiya broke up with me,” she said with a pout. “We were soooo cute together. But we’re friends now, right?” She looked at him with puppy eyes. Oh gosh… 

“Yeah..” He looked at you, “we’re friends.” ha, she looked annoyed now. 

“But maybe… we can try again..” He said looking at you then at Himari. Okay that made you mad. 

You got up and left the camp. You needed some fresh air and process everything that was happening right now. 

You were walking through the empty streets of tokyo, not having a specific route, but it’s not like you care. Maybe it’s better leaving the group and find a new one? No. You aren’t leaving the group for some stupid teenagers problems.

So now you were at your favorite store looking at some clothes just to try on for fun, now that money doesn’t have value you just could take everything you want. You should be at the camp by now and maybe they’re looking for you, but you really need this time out and focus on something else rather than thinking you could die at any moment, the games, and him. 

“This was your favorite place to come when you were sad.” He let out a small laugh. Yeah, and it was better when it was with you.

“It feels like if nothing changed even though it’s now full of plants and dirt.” You mumbled, and you heard how he started getting closer to you.

“Chishiya…” 

“Yes?” 

“Where are the others?”

“It doesn’t matters, they aren’t close enough to hear us.”

“Where’s Himari?”

“With Usagi, why?”

“Shouldn’t you be with her?”

He chuckled, getting even closer to you, but still respecting your personal space.

“You really think I want to try again with her?”

“I mean, you literally said it out loud .” You turned yourself so you could look at him.

“You know I never loved her and never will.” 

“Then why were you with her?”

“Because you left me y/n! That’s why! I thought that if I found someone else I would forget you! But I can’t!”

“I let you down. I’m sorry. But I can’t.”

“Then, give me a reason to fall out of love with you, please.”

“We are not the same, and never will be.” You were almost breaking down in tears now.

“And you think I care about that? I don’t care if you’re different than me! I love you, and that’s all it matters.”

“You don’t understand Shuntaro, I can’t be good enough for you! I was barely even surviving in the real world! I had 3 jobs, I was taking care of Izami, and trying to finish my studies! And now?! I don’t have anything!..” That’s it. You’re crying. 

“You have me.”

Yes. But i’m too afraid of you leaving me, so I can’t allow you be with me. 

“Why don’t you hate me? I mean, all I ever do is leave you Shuntaro!”

“That’s why y/n, because I want you to know i’ll never leave you nor forsake you. I’ll always be by your side, even if you don’t want me to, i’ll be there. Because I love you.”

[linearao3]

You know something I'm afraid to say out loud? I kinda feel like one of the biggest issues with writing soc fics that take place post ck is that Inejs plan to roam the seas and take down slavers makes no sense logistically? It's a beautiful and powerful image, but it's a wildly ineffective game plan unless she is okay with hundreds of innocent people dying for every handful of actual slavers. It's not like she can set up traffic stops and peacefully search every ship going by. The sea is vast and largely anonymous. It's just not realistic to target specific captains or ships. Even if it was, she'd need extremely precise conditions to overpower an enemy ship without risking the lives of the slaves onboard. I love a morally grey inej, but pirate captain inej isn't a story of her gaining autonomy or freedom, it's a story of her becoming as cold and ruthless as kaz.

I try to avoid flying to the metatextual answer with character issues, but I really do think this one boils down to: Leigh Bardugo is more at home with heroic narratives than with social narratives, plus I think she just likes pirates (cp, Nikolai). Because according to Rule of Wolves, it is working. You and I may not think that makes a lot of sense, but Bardugo sets the rules here, and according to her, Inej is bringing down evil capitalist overlords left and right, and instead of more springing up to take their place with more devious methods, apparently Kerch is just forgoing cheap labor. (Or anyway cheap labor by those means.) The author says it works, so it works.

But laying that aside, there are a couple issues to explore I think: Inej is a teenager, and doesn’t necessarily have the strongest grasp on how to fight systemic ills (and grown adults struggle daily with how best to help forced, coerced, and underpaid laborers). She’s thinking of what she would have wanted: someone to swoop in out of nowhere and strike off her chains before she got to Kerch. So that’s a large part of what guides her ambitions, I think, even before any bloodthirstiness or desire for vengeance — she wants to rewrite her own past, and if she can’t do it with her own story, she’ll do it with others’. (There is space here I think for thinking about how Inej frames the moment of her sale to Heleen as the moment after which she is corrupted, and about feelings she may have about who can and can’t be saved, but we’re talking about pirates here.)

The other question is, I think, how one goes about the pirate business. You don’t necessarily have to fire on every ship; most people don’t want to die and will surrender if they don’t like their odds. Most sailors are well aware how easy it is to die at sea! If she has a fancy battleship, and she’s up against leaky bathtubs, she might not have too much trouble being allowed to board and search without a fight. Now, this doesn’t solve the problems of (a) numbers, as in either trafficking voyages per day or ships per nautical square mile, or (b) identifying trafficking ships, and realistically, would the industry fight back by say, banding ships together into small fleets to outnumber her or give her too many targets to effectively work against in a single encounter? Yes, probably. But she might be able to save some people without too much bloodshed? Not, probably, a statistically significant amount. But she’s not going for numbers, or statistics, or a systemic solution; she’s going for a personal, psychological satisfaction of making the story end differently this time.

Or anyway that’s my reading! For whatever it’s worth!

[reader-has-entered-the-chat]

I can barely hear what they’re saying as they pronounce my fate. My heart pounding in my ears, the adrenaline still running high in my body. I want to scream. I want to shout at them, tell them that I didn’t do it. That I didn’t kill the President. But I find myself unable to speak. I just can’t. My fingers tremble, and I can’t stop them from doing that. I can’t claim my innocence.

Naturally, we all know that it would be a lie. At this point, I’m not quite sure if they’d laugh or cry if I said that. I mean, c’mon, I stabbed him multiple times on live TV (the bastard deserved it, I swear). Apparently, I “traumatized” an entire nation. Bullshit.

As if we aren’t done for anyway. World ran out of water a hundred years ago, the planet’s fucked, and they still care about a fucking President? An old dude with no hair who just liked money and who was accelerating our inevitable fall? No one cares. I did us all a favor, actually, but no one would ever admit it.

I know that I’m being sent back, but they’re not telling me when. They never tell us “criminals”. It’s actually very funny that the only ones who get a ticket out are those considered as “public enemies”. We’re quite lucky, actually, if you take the extremely low survival rate out of the equation. Right now, no one in their right mind would risk it, so we’re used as “test subjects”, to improve the machine. Psychopaths. We’re all psychopaths. 

Keeping my head up, I climb the steps up to the portal.

It looks surreal, this perfectly round thing hovering midair, seemingly leading to an endless void of darkness. It attracts and repels me. I feel torn between the idea of jumping in and running away, and wonder if that’s what all the others also felt.

As I stand on the small stage, I can feel their eyes on me. Those vultures, drooling at the idea of tearing a piece of dead meat to shred. And today, I’m that dead meat.

At least, they’re not killing me. Not literally. I have a chance -a small one- to survive. I might’ve been executed, in the olden days, though. Barbaric practices. 

I snicker at the thought. Me, a murderer, find executions barbaric? How ironic.

I want to laugh. I want to cry.

The judge, one of those assholes who’d bring anyone down for any sum of money, regardless of what the accused did, glares at me. If we followed the constitution, even though it’s nearly forgotten now, I have to admit that would kinda deserve this. But there were people before me who didn’t deserve this fate and who are maybe dead now because of that dude.

I have to hold myself back. If I spat in his face, I’d only give them what they want : a mentally unstable freak who put the nation in danger. I’d give them a scapegoat. At least, I’ll go down with honor, with my head up. If I die, then I’ll die. If I survive, I promise myself that I’ll be a good person. Try to be. 

I’m young, I should have an entire life ahead of me. But any form of happiness was robbed from my generation. Air and ocean are rotten. Sun’s close to dead. Humanity’s nearly extinct, and most of what’s left of us lives in slums, except for the rich, who have their own cities and pretend everything’s normal. Those ones have no idea what really goes on out there, so I gave them a friendly reminder, which they’re making me pay for.

I look up to the judge, who smiles. It’s not a friendly one. It’s the kind of look that a predator has when cornering a prey it’s been wanting to devour for a long time. Definitely not the look of a mentally sane person. Then again, no one on this planet is mentally sane anymore.

I close my eyes and cross the threshold.

Everything hurts. I feel like my bones break, like my skin is being torn to shreds and rubbed in salt, like my very blood is boiling me, burning my insides. If this is death, I don’t want it. I don’t want this. I want to scream. I want to cry. I want to curl myself up in a ball and stay there forever.

And suddenly, it all stops. I look around me. I’m still wearing the faded purple outfit they gave me and the gas mask that everyone wears now, but everything around is different.

Next to me is a weird structure that I’ve only heard about and never seen. Went extinct way before I was born, like many things. It has a brownish base and lots of green stuff on top, a bit like hair. I think the name is “kree”. Or “pree”. Whatever. Something with a consonant and “ree”. Oxygen dispenser.

I take my mask off, and breathe in freshness. It’s weird. It’s amazing.

I want to spend the rest of my life doing this. Looking at pretty oxygen dispensers and breathing air.

I don’t notice that I’m crying until I sniffle and wipe a tear off of my cheek.

My first thought is that I have to preciously conserve that tear, as water’s rare, but then I remember. Here, at this time period -although I have no clue when exactly I am-, there’s still water. There’s still water. I can cry as much as I want, and still be hydrated.

This time, things will be different. I won’t let things get terrible again. I won’t let society collapse again. I won’t let humanity crumble again. I’m gonna change the future. Those motherfucking politicians better be ready, ‘cause I’m going for them first. And they’ll never see me coming.

In a future where time travel exists, criminals are punished by being sent to a random point in time. Having been convicted of a crime, you now face your punishment.

[yesimwriting]

The Promise of Rain, blurb 2

The Promise of Rain (part 2?? technically) 

A/n I was not originally planning a second part for this but some people wanted it and this idea came to me and it works better with the context of ‘The Promise of Rain’ but it can technically be read as a stand alone :))

Anyways this might turn into a small series of kinda connected blurbs that are all kind of canon with each other but aren’t necessarily connected except for the reader’s background (the reader is a very sunshine-y person and knows Kaz bc she’s a runaway princess that he was hired to bring back home but she managed to convince him to let her work for him instead)

--

The night air had left me with a chill that made me want nothing more than to have my covers draped over me as I read. I’m normally more sociable after a job, especially after such a simple and safe ending, but a lot of tonight had left me wanting to be alone. 

Well, not truly alone. The company of my books is always welcomed, but tonight I can’t seem to find much comfort within the pages. After almost every paragraph, I find myself distracted by gusts of wind and thoughts of the heavy, silver clouds that seem to make up tonight. A part of me longs for the rain. I know it’s ridiculous to expect rain each time I desire some sense of comfort, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want it. Especially when the sky so clearly implies it. 

“This must be the fifth time I’ve come here and you’ve been reading.” Kaz’s sudden appearance is almost enough to shake away my lingering somberness. 

I roll my eyes slightly, turning my attention back to the page in front of me. “That observation is just a testament to how often you come in here.” 

His glare is half hearted, a look I’d find endearing if I was less annoyed. “Where else am I going to find a reminder that good people exist in Ketterdam?” 

I think he may have a sixth sense that warns him when I’m treading the line between being annoyed and displeased. Everytime I find myself mad at him in a way that makes me want to avoid him instead of yell at him, Kaz makes some ridiculously heart-melting comment. He steps further into the room. I don’t miss the way he eyes my stretched out legs. Ever since the conversation we had after he woke up after an injury, we’ve fallen into the unmentioned habit of silently inviting the other to stay by moving to make room for them. 

It had started the day after the conversation in which Kaz had admitted that he wanted me to stay with him. He had been sitting on the small couch while discussing the details of a job. Shortly after I walked in he made a point of shifting so that he was clearly on one side of the couch. I didn’t think much about sitting down, but Inej and Jesper exchanged a look. 

Now, though, I keep my legs stretched out on the bed. He eyes my position on the bed, something grim crossing his features. 

“It might rain tonight.” 

He knows me so damn well. I hate it. “I hope so.”

I turn my head, analyzing the way the world seems to be on the cusp of something. I stare at the silver clouds until I feel something hard tap my leg. The tap is firm but not painful. I’m quick to look at Kaz as he lowers his cane. The mention of rain had been a distraction. 

“You distracted me on purpose.” 

“The first rule of the Barrel is to always be prepared.” There’s a slight uptilt to his lips, something I’ve learned to interpret as a sign of teasing. 

How is he so easy to be around one second and so cold the next? I resist a smile. “I’ll take notes.” 

Kaz ignores my passive aggressive tone. His focus seems to be on my legs that have still not moved to offer him a place next to me. “You wear your emotions too openly.” Great, he’s going to make us talk about it. “What reason could you possibly have to be mad at me?”

“I’m not mad at you.” It’s a partial truth. 

His expression harshens. “Don’t lie.” 

“I’m not thrilled with you, but I don’t think that’s the same as being mad.” 

Kaz lets out a partial sigh. “No, they’re not the same.” Such an early concession feels like a trap. “With you, the first option is worse.” I don’t have anything to say to that. “Is this because of what I said to Jesper?” 

My posture straightens on instinct. “He wants your validation more than he’d ever admit and I understand that expressing praise isn’t exactly something you do, but would it kill you to not actively insult him?” 

“I didn’t say anything that was wrong. He thinks he’s a gambler but he’s just someone born for losses.” The look I give him must mean something to him, because Kaz is quick to tact on, “That doesn’t make him less valuable of an asset or less relatively dependable.” 

I eye him cautiously, the slightest bit of vulnerability playing at his features. “Don’t look at me like that--and don’t tell me that. Jesper’s the one who could use the occasional reminder from you that you hold him to any regard with positive connotations.” His lips press together like he’s thinking about scolding me for scolding him. “It’s only because I know you care more about Jesper than you’d ever let on.” 

“Jesper’s esteem can handle the blow.” The curtness of his voice is a blow in its own sense. “And he didn’t exactly deserve to be in my good graces after what he did tonight.” 

My sigh is not weighted enough to match Kaz’s newfound fountain of emotion. “We were successful--”

“He left you.” I didn’t know Kaz’s voice was capable of such harshness. “I paired him with you, and he left you--and you almost didn’t make it.” I let the weight of his words take up all the available space in the room, keeping the silence that follows them until some of the heaviness has dissipated. “He could have cost me one of my best people.”

Oh. His harshness, his unwarranted coldness, had been a manifestation of his concern. For me. Guilt knots my stomach. Potential words that may offer Kaz some sort of support raise and die back down in my throat. Kaz turns towards the door. 

“Kaz.” He pauses. There’s a long moment in which I think he won’t turn around, but finally, he does. I tuck my legs beneath me, forcing myself to sit up a little straighter. “I told Jesper to leave because I knew the job would have failed if he had been trapped in that room with me.” I drop my gaze towards the window. “I was right, the job was successful, and I got out in time so it was worth it.”

“You risked your safety?” The harsh facet of his being is making its return in full force. 

“For the job,” I’m careful to keep my words factual, “It’s what we’re supposed to do.”

Kaz’s jaw locks. “When I said that keeping you near me would ruin you this is what I meant.” 

Is it really this big of a deal? I made it out. “Kaz.”

“This wasn’t my best idea.” His words are leached of anything. “You’re going back home. Tomorrow I’ll arrange the voyage myse--” 

“Kaz Brekker you may get to live your life doing anything you want but you don’t get to control mine.” My chin raises an inch, an instinctual act of subtle rebellion. “I am not going back there, even if I’m technically indebted to you because you didn’t return me to my father but that does not mean I’ll--”

“I’m not trying to control you.” His words are sharp, boarding on a yell. “A job like that one wasn’t worth you.” 

From Kaz, I know those words are heavy. There’s a lot of things I could say to that. I could tell him that I wanted to do something for him. I could say that I appreciate him telling me that. I could even say that in his own way, Kaz giving Jesper a hard time because he left me, is kind of cute in a misguided way. The thing is I think all of these responses will make things worse. 

“Kaz,” I keep my voice as steady as possible, “I’m fine, you’re fine, it all worked out.” Scratching the back of my arm, I exhale gently. “I’ll be more careful next time, I promise.” 

I watch him carefully, there’s a slight slump to his shoulders as he exhales. Is the fight leaving him so easily? He walks further into the room. “You better.” He sits down in the space I provided for him slowly. “If you’re not you’ll have worse things to worry about than anything that can happen to you on a job.” He moves his cane forward easily, tapping my knee in a swift motion. 

I roll my eyes at the mock threat. “They do say that there’s nothing to fear in the Barrel like the Dirtyhands.” 

“Remember that.” Any edge in his voice is forced. I fight against a smile that seems to always want to break across my face whenever I think I see something resembling lightness in Kaz. 

“I don’t think I could forget anything about you.” 

He turns his head slightly. “You should.” 

“Too bad.” 

Kaz leans his back against the wall, untensing slightly. “I think you just like disagreeing with me.” 

There’s no point in lying about it. “Only because when you argue with me you give me this really particular look.” 

“A look?” 

Adding insult to injury, I smile. “Sometimes you look like you’re too focused on being angry, like you’re compensating for something.” 

Kaz lets out a bitter sigh. “Maybe if you were less of a puppy I wouldn’t have to--”

The laugh that escapes is most definitely a mistake. “Did you just call me a puppy?” I don’t give him a chance to reply, laughter taking over again. “I mean this in the least argumentative way possible--but you’re so weird sometimes.” 

He rolls his eyes, tensing. “I’m leaving.”

I stifle the rest of my laughter. “No. I was--I was kidding!” I keep my eyes on Kaz, expecting some type of annoyed glare, but his expression is a lot more weighted than that. Odd. “Kaz?” 

“You need to be more careful.” I understand Kaz’s pause as something he does before saying something outside of his nature. “I’m not asking you this as a Crow or a Dreg.” 

On instinct, my posture straightens. “I promised and I meant it.” 

“Sometimes I wish I could believe in Saints,” his voice has taken off a distant quality, almost fragile, “That way I could believe something existed to help what matters.” 

Oh. “You never fail, even if I didn’t believe in Saints I’d believe in you.” 

“You’re wasting your faith.” The sound of lightning cracking is almost enough to make me jump. The rain finally came. 

I know I’ll never convince him that that’s not true. “I don’t think so, but that’s why it’s called faith.” 

“I have faith in some things.” His expression is far off. 

“Like what?” 

Kaz’s eyes find the window. “People that find meaning in the rain.” 

Something in my chest swells. “You’re like the rain.”

We sit there in silence, watching raindrops glide down the window. “What were you reading?” 

The question has me dropping my gaze to the forgotten book on my lap. “I stole this book from the palace before I left. It was my mom’s favorite, she’s read it so much the spine’s completely cracked and the cover is practically falling off.” 

“Hm…” He mumbles. “Read some, the books read in a palace must be worthwhile.” 

A part of me wants to tell him that elitism has no place in literature, but his request leaves me frozen. I nod once, turning to the first page of the book. “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife--” 

“Your upbringing makes sense--” 

“You can’t judge it off the first sentence,” he’s insufferable, “It’s setting up irony, and if you’re going to complain--” 

He lets out a conceding sigh. “I’m listening, I’m not interrupting.” 

I keep my eyes on him for a second longer than I should. “Okay.” Dropping my gaze back to the book, I adjust my grip on the worn paperback, “Good.” 

And then I keep reading. 

--

@theincredibledeadlyviper @grishaverse7 @lonelystarship @mentally-in-northern-italy @uhanddreag 

[fairestwriting]

Sorry for adding onto your (most likely) already busy pile but is it alright if I put in a request?

I was wondering how/what Leona, Azul, Riddle, and the Leech brothers (all separately) would act/do if they have a crush on a hopeless romantic female reader? (Maybe how they’ll try to “woo” them/get them together?) Emphasis on crush, they’re not together yet 😅

In my opinion hopeless romantics are not so much about the perfect dream lover (chivalrous, gentlemanly, etc), but more about finding “the one” that we’re meant to dedicate all our time to. Sure, we do find ourselves more attracted to guys that’ll fit the description of our “perfect”, but generally we’re able to accept just about anyone, so long as they show their sincerity. It doesn’t have to be anything big, it’s the feelings behind them that counts. Small gestures with undeniable feelings behind them are weighed much more heavily than big gestures with little thoughts behind them. Not my words but I feel like this sentence describes it perfectly “Hopeless Romantics are in love with love”. No, they don’t have to sing me poems and proses, gift me flowers at every meeting, or serenade me under the balcony. Though I’ll admit that I had written pages upon pages of love poems on a single crush We are obsessed with the idea of finding someone made just for us, for us to love and be loved in return.

Just me turning to fictional characters to cope with the harsh reality... we really aren’t made for modern society 😔

+ if you like my writing, you can buy me a ko-fi to support me!

Leona Kingscholar

For a while now, Leona really did think he found hopeless romantics stupid. He just doesn’t get why someone would put so much importance in something as vague and fleeting as romantic love.

Then he ends up falling for you.

Needless to say, his crush is something that constantly taunts him. He really feels so confused around you, as if he shouldn’t like you as much as he does. He never thought someone like you would catch his attention, you just seem so... soft, sometimes. Leona is usually straightforward about his interest in people, but when it comes to you, he doesn’t really know how to go about it.

He knows you’re not somebody who would be swayed through his meaningless teasing, that you’re the sort of person who wanted devotion. And it isn’t like he doesn’t want that with you -- Though, he’d rather die than admit this right now -- but he doesn’t know how to express it.

He still wants to show his interest, but for you, he does it differently. He flirts more subtly, teasing you less, and when you’re alone, he almost acts sweet, way easier to fluster. When you’re sweet to him back, he feels so stupidly warm and fuzzy and he loves it hates it.

Falling for a hopeless romantic definitely is the way to break Leona. It might be the only way to catch him off guard romantically, even.

Azul Ashengrotto

Similar to Leona, Azul kind of looks down on the concept of love, but for a slightly different reason. For him, it’s that he doesn’t like being vulnerable, so letting himself have this level of closeness with someone feels just... too troublesome. The chance he’d be hurt is just too much.

So he didn’t do anything about his crush on you, at first, he was trying to just wait it out like he usually does. Then, he hears your opinions and expectations with love, and things change a bit inside his head.

He’ll always be uneasy trying to make moves on people regarding that, but knowing you were so... sincere, it made him feel like trying might be worth it, this time. Ironically, what a dubious guy like him wants is someone genuine, who he didn’t feel the need to play all these games with.

He gets a little bolder with you. Inviting you to Mostro Lounge often, letting you try new recipes that still weren’t in the menu, sometimes taking you out, even buying you small gifts of things you seemed to like. He wants to show you that you’re special to him, while still keeping some subtlelty.

Riddle Rosehearts

Oh, so you’re the same!

Riddle never talks about it, but everytime he thinks about love, it’s in a similar way to you. He wants to find someone who would be his one and only, a girl who would love him just as much as he loved her. He’s endlessly embarrassed by this, sort of convinced that his expectations are just too unrealistic, but he can’t help but dream.

When you two launch into a rare conversation about relationships and he finds out you agree with him... man, if he already had a thing for you before, now he was just smitten.

Sadly Riddle is very awkward when it comes to romance. He feels like you two would make such a good couple together, he’d be the best boyfriend he possibly could be! But he gets shy when it comes to expressing his feelings, and in the end, all he can do is hope you catch on to what it means when he’s trying to spend time with you often...

He shows his affections mostly by... sort of mundane things, like inviting you to the Unbirthday Party and asking you to sit next to him, or offering to help you study, or inviting you over for tea when you have free time, being sure to remember you favorite drink and desserts... if you’re also oblivious, it might be hard to know he likes you. 

He’ll be working hard on a confession plan, though, if you two want the same thing, then he’s more willing than ever to risk it all for a romantic relationship.

Jade Leech

As he starts understanding his own feelings for you, he starts trying to gauge information about your preferences so he could plan how he’d woo you, and that’s how he finds out you’re a hopeless romantic.

He thinks it’s so endearing, honestly. Jade loves to spoil, he wants nothing more than to be the one to give you all this love you crave. He thinks often about how well he’d care for you.

He makes sure to be sort of obvious about his crush, wanting to get his feelings across more than he usually would. Jade is always there for you, happy to help and advise, he’s an acts of service kind of guy so it’s mostly how he’d try to express the fact that he loves you.

It takes a while to get an actual confession out of him though. He knows you have high expectations and has sworn he’d meet all of them. Even if you’ve told him you didn’t put that much weight on grand gestures, he did want to make his confession something impressive, if only subjectively. He wants to make sure everything is meaningful, and shows through how much attention he’d been paying to you for a while now.

“Hopeless romantic” might be part of his type, honestly, Jade is a guy who lives for this mutual devotion you strive for.

Floyd Leech

A hopeless romantic and Floyd would be... a complicated pair. 

Floyd is very casual about love, you see. The second he knows he’s fallen for you is the second he decides you’re his, and he’s yours, and that’s it. He’s casual with his affection and doesn’t mind things like relationship labels at all, he doesn’t even see the need for an actual confession, really.

So he’ll be so affectionate with you, he’s constantly showering you in love. But... he’s so casual about it, his feelings might not get through completely to you. You might not realize he’s crushing on you at all, because of how chummy he acts with everybody else.

It’s a strange situation, because you’ll be talking about how wonderful you think it’d be if you found your one and only, and Floyd will be right there wondering why you’re saying things like that when he’s right here, he’s your one and only, right? Are you telling him you just haven’t noticed that he loves you?

He’s confused when you talk about love, if you were all about sincere gestures why aren’t you catching on to his feelings? He’ll actually blurt that out one time, probably. Floyd isn’t one to keep quiet about his crushes for too long.

Once you understand where he’s coming from with all the affection, he might actually be a good partner for you. He loves you so, so, so much, and it shows! Just in, you know, kinda odd ways sometimes.

[crumbledcastle28]

Chapter 14: A Kiss

Warnings: really really angsty, depressing themes, accepting death, lots of crying, the gif kinda gives it away but oh well.

Author’s Note: I’m sorry in advance. I hope you like it!

(Gif gotten from themandaloriandaily)

You kneeled before Mando, trying to catch your breath from the sprint across the battlefield you just did, but it felt like your body couldn’t take anymore.

“Mando,” you whimpered, setting the child down next to you. You took the risk and placed your hand on Mando’s arm, trying to give him comfort, but you felt empty.

Your body was shutting down, but you wouldn’t hesitate to give the last pits of your strength to him.

“It’s ok,” he coughed out, but you knew it wasn’t.

You could feel it.

“Stay with me buddy,” Cara said next to Mando. “We’re gonna get you out of here.”

You couldn’t tell if Mando heard her, you honestly didn’t really care, because Mando’s gaze never left your tear stained face.

You had gotten pretty good at sensing where his eyes were, but this moment didn’t make that effort seem worth it.

The both of you were feeling too many things at once.

You heard Karga yell at the IG droid behind you to remove the grate to get into the sewers, and the sparks flying illuminated Mando’s helmet beautifully.

Why did it feel like it was the last time you would admire him like this?

Mando stirred a bit and turned his head slightly to look at Cara.

“I’m not gonna make it,” he said to her, and you couldn’t hold back your sobs any longer. His voice was dripping with pain and hurt, and you hated it. His voice was the one thing you felt connected you to him. The one thing that made him feel human.

But the Empire had taken that away too.

When Mando heard your sob, he turned his head back to you, but you could barely meet his gaze. Your eyes were bloodshot, your cheeks were red, and your burning throat caused your eyesbrows to knit together in discomfort.

Mando had said he didn’t like to see you cry, so you tried to hide it, but this was almost too much to bare.

“Shut up,” Cara said, responding to Mando’s confession. “You just got your bell rung. You’ll be fine.”

But Cara knew the truth. And so did you.

“Take this,” Mando said to you, reaching into his armor. He pulled out a necklace, a beautiful necklace, with the shape of a mythosaur skull.

“When you meet up with my tribe……”

“No, no Mando,” you said, looking down and crying harder.

Why was he giving up! We have to try, you thought to yourself.

“Please,” he pleaded, and you felt him move his hand into yours, giving it a squeeze.

You tried to control your cries for his sake, but it was getting really hard. The two of you had barely touched each other before this. You wanted your first touches to be happy and full of life.

The idea of that fading away somehow made you cry harder.

“Look at me,” he whispered, and you finally brought your eyes back up to meet his helmet.

“When you meet up with my tribe, show them this. Tell them the child was in my protection. They’ll give you safe passage,” Mando said, and with every word his voice grew weaker. The necklace in his hand rocked slightly from his shaking arms, and you finally reached your free hand up to take it from him.

You gave it a quick glance, noticing the beauty in the carving and the uniqueness of the shape, before you put it around your neck and looked back at Mando. Your hands were still connected, and he started to brush his thumb over your knuckles.

Your hands had done horrific things, but Mando didn’t care.

“I’m gonna need to take this thing off,” Cara said, referring to the helmet.

“No,” he said sternly, grabbing her wrist.

“You leave me,” he says to her, letting go of her wrist.

“No,” you whisper. “Please no.”

You wanted to plead more. Beg him to let you stay, but the feeling of his soft, gloved fingers brushing over your cheek caused all of your words to get caught in your throat.

You involuntarily leaned into his touch, causing your tears to drip onto his glove.

You wanted more. To feel more. He was so warm, so calming. You wanted all of him. To feel every crevice and crack of him.

You wanted to know him.

“You make sure… the child is safe,” he mumbles to you, running his thumb over your cheekbone.

“Always,” you whisper, and you bring your left hand up to press his hand further into your cheek. You hold it there for a moment, begging for any touch from him for any amount of time longer

“Mando… I…” you begin, trying to find the right words to say to him in this moment. The fire around you was starting to come closer, and you knew you were almost out of time.

“I know,” he says, interrupting you. “Me too.”

Of course he knows. He always has.

Losing this man was going to wreck you.

Another flame erupted behind you, but your gaze never left him.

Why did it have to be him.

“I can hold them off long enough for you to escape,” Mando said to you, still squeezing your right hand while your left hand still had his hand pinned against your cheek.

“Let me have a warrior’s death.”

The word death scurried down your spine like an insect. You knew he was dying, but hearing him say it….

You closed your eyes and rubbed your cheek into his hand, trying to feel any part of him one last time.

You open your eyes and look at Cara. Her eyes were wide and her body was tense. You gave her a weak smile, trying not to admit your defeat.

“I won’t leave you,” she says to Mando, and you felt your heart finally crack in half.

All the heartbreak of your parents, your mentors, your colleagues…. Nothing compared to this.

Why did it have to be him.

“This is the way,” Mando stated, and you choked out one final sob.

A leap of flames covered the space behind you, and you finally accepted your fate.

You were going to die, here, in some run down Empire town. Your past self would have scoffed and shaken her head. Typical.

But Mando was here.

You closed your eyes, waiting for the pain, but only focusing on Mando’s touch. You wanted nothing else to be the last thing you ever felt.

But…. nothing happened. No pain, no fire, no screams. Nothing.

So you opened your eyes, and you saw Mando’s head propped up slightly, like he was looking at something behind you.

You turned around, trying to see what was happening. Your eyes were full of tears and you could barely see a few feet in front of you.

When your eyes finally cleared, you saw the child with his hands raised, holding the fire ball in place. With a simple flick of his wrist, the child sent the flame flying back, and the stormtrooper who sent the fire was enveloped in flames.

You shielded Mando as best you could when the flame was sent back, but Cara blocked most of his body.

You turned back to see the child passed out on the ground, and a small smile gave way on your lips.

Why didn’t I think of that?

You heard the clang of IG-11 finally breaking open the sewer gate, and Karga yelling that you had to leave right away.

This was the moment you were dreading. The moment that hurt the most every time you had to do it.

Walking away.

No more hope, no more bargaining, no more thinking of a way out. It was done.

You stood up, wiping your nose, and grabbed the sleeping child off the ground.

You walked back towards Mando and pressed your lips on his visor, giving it a quick peck.

24 hours ago, you would have been scared out of your mind to do that. Especially at the fact that you didn’t know that he reciprocated your feelings.

But now, you never wanted it to end.

“Go…” he croaked out, giving your wrist one last squeeze.

You gave him one final, painful smile, and forced yourself to walk straight down into the sewers. Cara was still with Mando, but you didn’t care. If you stayed one second longer, you wouldn’t have left.

Your sniffles and quiet sobs echoed through the sewers while you waited for Cara, causing them to come right back at you and taunt you with their sound.

You left him. How could you have left him.

You tried to tell yourself it was what he wanted. You tried to tell yourself the child was all that mattered now.

But a part of you was never going to leave that building, and it was the only part of you that you had grown to love.

Tag list:

@leahkenobi @farfromjustordinary @440mxs-wife @bookloverfilmoholic @pinkninja200

[luci-in-trenchcoats]

Hollow Pass (Part 1)

Summary: When the reader has to spend a day in the mines for work, she’s less than thrilled. When the miner showing her around for the day, Dean Winchester, is an ass, she’s even less thrilled. But an accident will change all of that and if they want a chance of getting out of the mess they’re in, they’ll need to put their lives in each others hands, literally...

Pairing: Miner!Dean x reader

Word Count: 4,100ish

Warnings: language, injury, frightening/claustrophobic/near death situations

A/N: Please enjoy the first of this 2 parter!

_______

You sighed as you stood in the trailer of the manager’s office, a jumpsuit and a pair of boots sat in a chair. Your boss, bless his heart, thought it was always a good idea for corporate positions to experience a day in the mines to truly understand the product and what the little guy went through on a day to day basis. The argument that you were not really corporate, not even close, seemed to go over his head.

“Y/N, you gonna change? I need my office back,” said the manager through the door. You pulled it open and pouted. “I don’t want you going down in the mines anymore than you do but if you want to make corporate, you gotta do what the CEO says.”

“Dad I don’t even want to work there. I like my simple office job.”

“Then why have you been in all those development programs at work?” he asked. You shrugged and he sighed. “Cause you can’t say no.”

“Do I have to?” you asked, looking back at the overalls.

“Do you want to quit?” he asked.

“I don’t want to lose a good paycheck. But I don’t want a corporate job either,” you said. 

“Then you’re shit outta luck,” he said. “I’m gonna put you with the Winchester boy. He’s on safety checks in our most secure mines.”

“You mean the ones that never have problems.”

“Funny how that all coincidentally happened today of all days,” he said with a smile.

“Thanks dad.”

“I don’t want you going anywhere near explosives. You’ll be safe doing the checks with Dean for the day.”

“Hi, I’m Y/N,” you said twenty minutes later. The man in overalls and a hard hat rolled his eyes.

“I’m ten minutes late because of you which means I’m gonna get docked those ten minutes of pay so thank you little miss corporate.”

“I’m your boss’ daughter, jackass.”

“Still ain’t my boss,” he said. You huffed and headed over towards the mine entrance when he grabbed the back of your overalls. “No, dummy. You have zero safety gear so unless you want to die, you’re coming with me.”

“Asshole.”

“Dean Winchester at your service,” he said, dragging you over with him to some lockers. He punched a card and went to the storage racks, seemingly grabbing a few items and putting them on. He picked the hard hat off your head and grabbed one with a light and a wire attached to it, clipping it on your belt. He put something over your shoulder you put your arm through like a sling and clipped a mask onto the back of your belt, a flashlight and a small hand pickaxe going through your other loops. “Turn this lamp on anytime you’re in the mine and never, ever, take off your hat. If I yell at you or you smell something funny, get that mask on. Flashlight and the axe are backup for emergencies.”

He put a radio in your pocket and looked you over.

“Oh and for the love of God, do not wander off. I don’t care if you see a bug or break a nail or gotta piss.”

“What do you do if you have to…” you said.

“Normally you piss against some rock like a man but special manager’s daughter we’ll walk you back out here, take our slow ass time, make me go longer than my shift and because I was late today, I don’t get overtime.”

“That sounds kinda illegal.”

“The contracts for this company are a fucking nightmare,” he said, walking out of storage.

“Why work here then?” you asked as he went to an area and grabbed a clipboard. He took two water bottles and clipped them on each of your belts before whistling for you to follow after.

“Well somebody had to pay for his baby brother to go to law school and it wasn’t going to be my drunk of a father now was it,” said Dean, stopping and writing something down. 

“So you didn’t grow up with mining in your family?” you asked.

“No. I’m not some redneck hillbilly like you imagine either,” he said. He flipped on his light and turned yours on when you got to the mine entrance. “Crouch.”

“Huh?”

“We ain’t riding the cart which is missing, dumbass. Crouch down so you can fit in the tunnel,” he said. You swallowed and had to bend down some, following Dean closely. “Ain’t claustrophobic are ya cause now’s the time to tell me.”

“No,” you said. “Jerk.”

“Ah, see? We’re getting along already.”

You walked for five or so minutes before the ground sloped down further and an entrance to the right opened up. Dean straightened up and you did the same, stretching out as he grabbed the back of your jumpsuit.

“Dude, would you stop doing that?” you said.

“Would you stay in my line of sight?”

“That’s harassment. You can’t touch me without my permission,” you said, crossing your arms. He blinked a few times and rolled his eyes quite possibly the most dramatically you’d ever seen in your life.

“This? This is not an office building. Every single time you step in here you run the risk of dying and you have zero clue on how to stay safe down here. I hate it when you people with your big offices and penny pinching bullshit come down here and complain about every goddamn little thing. If you want out, get out of the fucking mining business.”

“You’re an irritable person,” you said. He grumbled and tugged you along with him until you brushed him off. You followed him down a hallway and another, Dean checking things off on his clipboard as he went. “Are you gonna explain any of this stuff?”

“What do you think?” he said. He whistled and you followed him down a few more hallways when he stopped a gauge looking contraption. He checked a few different numbers and valves on it as you spun around. 

“I guess it is kinda cool. That somehow you guys know how to block up rocks and leave all these cracks and know how to make it so it doesn’t all come crashing down.”

“Cracks?” he asked as he squatted down and read off a meter.

“Yeah like that big one,” you said, pointing at the wall across the way. He turned around and looked at it for barely a second before he grabbed your arm. 

“Move. Now,” he said. He pulled out his radio and pressed down the button. “We have a grade five crack in Lodge Six West. Do not blow. I repeat do not-”

The ground rumbled and you heard a splintering noise, Dean pushing you back into the hallway you’d been in. He jumped on top of you and covered your body with his, all the lights going out, a loud thundering of falling rocks happening close by. It seemed to go on and on before it finally stilled, the hallway pitch black.

“You alright?” he asked.

“I think so,” you said, coughing when you felt dust in the air.

“Don’t move,” he said. He lifted his head and there was some light, Dean looking around before climbing off of you and staring at a new wall of rock. He looked at the hallway you’d been in, clicking on his flashlight and you saw where the rock dropped off about a hundred feet away. “Well. Shit.”

“What just happened?”

“The rock was unstable and they already set off the charges and it shook the mountain so now there’s a giant hole over there and our exit is blocked.”

“What’s that way?” you asked, nodding down the only unobstructed hallway.

“Further down into the mine before you hit the decommissioned area.”

“Is there a way out,” you asked, Dean patting his side.

“Fuck. My radio is under all that,” he said. He took out yours and handed it to him, Dean nodding before he turned it on. “Main do you copy, over?”

There was silence on the other end and Dean hit the button again.

“Main this is Winchester in Lodge Six West with…what’s your name?” he asked.

“Y/N Y/L/N.”

“Y/N Y/L/N, manager’s kid. Copy, over.”

“Winchester this is Main. We got lots of calls coming in from ground crews about a shaking.”

“Lodge Six West Hall K is a giant crater of death and Hall H is buried, right up to the entrance of junction HJ.”

“Injuries?”

“We’re okay,” said Dean.

“Give me a second.”

Dean took a deep breath and coughed. He tapped your mask on your belt and you put it on, the air a bit easier to breath. 

“Winchester this is Melvin.”

“She’s okay, boss. Just a little shook up. Saved our asses from winding up in the ground even if she doesn’t know it yet,” he said. He held out the radio and you pulled down the mask. 

“Dad I’m fine, really. We both are. It’s just kinda dark and smelly is all.”

“I know. Put your mask on sweetie until you can get to some cleaner air,” he said. You put it back on, Dean, getting to his feet. He pulled you up and looked back at your blocked path. 

“Any other collapses?” asked Dean.

“None reported so far. Everyone should be out of the mine’s or on their way. Alarm is blasting.” You looked back at Dean, his eyes shutting.

“Melvin we can’t hear it. At all.”

“Rodney’s out checking where our side of the collapse starts. We’ll get you out,” he said, someone panting in the background.

“Hall B, Mel,” he said. Dean turned away from you and sighed. No one said anything for a long time until Dean finally raised his head.

“We got two 16 ounces bottles of water. If she rations it, she’s got a shot,” said Dean quietly.

“No, she doesn’t,” said your dad, his voice softer than you’d ever heard it. “How long does your radio have?”

“Mine got crushed. Hers was on a quarter charge. I’d guess maybe an hour or two tops,” he said.

“Should we call your brother?”

“He’s hiking in Glacier Park this week. No cell service,” said Dean quietly. “Just tell him to check my bottom desk drawer. There’s something for him there.”

“I can do that,” he said. “Is there anyone...parents-”

“All due respect sir, I’d rather you talk to your daughter,” he said. Dean held out the radio to you and you picked it up, Dean skirting around the corner to the one unblocked hallway.

“Dean?” you asked, following over there. He was leaned against the wall and looked over his shoulder at you. “What’s going on?”

“They can’t dig us out in time.”

“What do you mean-”

“Talk to your dad. You’re wasting time. That battery won’t last forever,” he said. He turned back and you walked back around the corner, sitting down against the wall.

“Hi dad,” you said.

“Hey,” he said, his voice shaky. You closed your eyes and took a deep breath. “Mom’s on her way down to talk, okay? She’ll be here in ten minutes.”

“I so quit this job,” you said, wiping off your eyes with the back of your hand. He laughed and you threw your head back. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything. I’m gonna stay on the line as long as I can, okay?”

“Okay. Okay.”

Two Hours Later

The battery in the radio had died about fifteen minutes ago. There was no sound aside from your sniffling and Dean’s down the hall. You got up eventually and went into the hall, sitting down beside him. You handed him the radio and he clipped it back on his belt.

“You okay?” you asked, voice hoarse.

“You try listening to someone say goodbye to their parents and not bawl,” he said. He wiped off his face and took a deep breath. “Air’s better now at least.”

“What do we do now?”

“Now,” he said, clipping his water bottle onto your belt. “You sit there and try not to exert a lot of energy and that water will last you a few days.”

“We both heard my father. They can’t drill or dig or do anything fast enough. It’d take weeks. I’m not sitting here next to your dead ass so take your damn water back,” you said, shoving it back in his chest. He didn’t speak but put it on his belt, pulling his knees into his chest. “Why were you so mean to me before? You gave up time on the phone for me. I don’t think you’re what you pretend to be.”

“I’m a dead man walking and that’s a fact.”

“Technically you’re sitting.”

He smiled and rested his face in his knees. He sat up and reached over behind you, hitting off your headlight.

“We need to conserve power as long as possible,” he said.

“Will our lights go out before we dehydrate to death?” you asked.

“Yes,” he said. “This is what it’ll be like.”

He flipped off his lamp and you swore you’d never experienced a darkness so deep. You felt his hand graze yours before holding it and you swallowed.

“Kinda less scary knowing you can turn it back on again,” he said.

“You didn’t answer my question. Why such a brute?”

“You do this job long enough and most people think you’re a dumb sack of shit with nothing in his head. You’re dead weight, odds are you’ll die down here or get into some kind of accident and have to go on disability the rest of your life. You corporate people are always so stuck up, like I’m not even good enough to be the dirt on your shoes. I didn’t give you a chance because odds were you were like all the rest of them. You’re the only reason we didn’t die in that hole, very painfully.”

“Wouldn’t we have-”

“No. It’s not a simple hole we would have fell in. Falling rocks, crushing and hitting, landing on you, ones you hit yourself. Might not kill you immediately. You’d feel it.”

“Dying of thirst is better?”

“I’d say so. Still get to keep this handsome face, or what’ll be left of it,” he said. He flipped his light back on and you scooted closer. “I think you’re very attractive.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m gonna die in like three or four days. Life has no consequences now and I happen to find you very attractive and you seem like a smart, sweet woman that put her parents a little at ease during the worst moment of their lives.”

“Who’s your brother?” you asked. “No consequences after all.”

“He’s a lawyer...and my best friend.”

“You said you did this job for him.”

“Student debt is a bitch. I try to help him out and the overtime helps make dents in it,” he said. “Our parents had debt out their asses. It caused so many problems for us. I wanted him safe, never have to worry about the next meal on the plate or the roof over his head or having to wear my hand me downs ever again. At least he’ll get my life insurance policy. That should help.”

“I have been busting my ass since I was a college freshman in that office to move up the chain for a job I didn’t even want. I completely lost nearly all of my twenties to work. All so I could die in here.”

“Well I know this doesn't sound good but I’m glad I didn’t die all super painful. Or that I’ll be alone,” he said. You smiled and nodded, Dean returning it. “Got any bucket list shit we can pull off down here?”

“We could make out,” you said. “Never knew anyone could make that jumpsuit look good.”

“Why the fuck not,” he chuckled. He leaned in close and your helmets bonked, Dean pulling his off and yours, quickly cupping your face. 

His lips were gentler than you thought, the two of you stopping when your lips were pressed together. You rested your forehead against his and broke off only an inch.

“Not as much fun at the moment as it sounded,” you breathed out.

“Pretty good last kiss though,” he said. You put your helmets back on and you grabbed his hand again. 

“Don’t let go down here. Please.”

He reached to his belt and undid a little pouch, pulling out a small tether of rope. He clipped one end onto him and the other to you.

“For when the lights go out,” he said.

“How long do we got?”

“About a day, maybe a little more,” he said. You sighed and turned your head, staring down the rest of the hall. “It’s decommissioned, Y/N. It’s a death trap.”

“Is there a way out?” you asked.

“Maybe. Maybe they never find us though,” he said. You stared at him and he nodded, hitting your headlamp back on. “Enough of the pity party. Let’s go get out of here or die trying.”

He stood and held out a hand, hoisting you to your feet. 

“So. What’s our best option?” you asked.

“It’s alright for a bit until we get to the decommissioned section. When we get there, that’s when it gets dangerous. Technically it’s dangerous now considering the blast but we’re okay for a bit,” he said. 

“Let’s go then,” you said. He nodded and you followed him down the hall, walking side by side. 

“Alright so the decommissioned section is called Hollow Pass. Beyond that is Upper Seven. If we can get to Upper Seven, we can get out the old entrance I’m pretty sure. Never been in there but hopefully it’s not a maze over there.”

“So Hollow Pass is the hard part.”

“Yeah.”

“Why was it decommissioned?”

“Unstable ground. Holes, pockets of air, rotted support beams, wood planks.”

“So it’s a death trap.”

“Yup,” he said. “We’re probably gonna die down there.”

“What do you think our odds are?”

“Well it’s been out of order for over fifty years, we have no map, I have no real idea where exactly to go...I give us 1% odds.”

“Beats are 0% odds here.”

“Good way to think about it considering we’re going to most likely die.” He stopped walking and took a deep breath. “If I fall or whatever, follow the widest hall possible and keep away from wood and cracks as best as possible. Ration your water and eventually you’ll find your way out.”

“If you fall I’m definitely not gonna make it.”

“Well at least try. You can tell my brother how devastatingly brave I was that way.”

“You just spent the past hour crying.”

“So did you,” he said. You bumped his shoulder and he returned it but it was playful and soft. You walked together quietly for a moment until Dean rounded a corner and took a deep breath.

There were a few planks across a hallway, Dean kicking them down, frowning when they broke pretty easily.

“There’s gonna be rot.”

“Lovely.”

“We don’t have to go,” he said. “You don’t have to. There’s a chance-“

“There’s no chance Dean. Not if we stay up there. If you don’t want to go, I will. Maybe I can get help back in-“

“We’re doing this together or you’re staying. I can go and you-“

“We both go,” you said. 

“I go first. You step where I step and if I tell you to do anything, you do it.”

“Dean. We already established that you’re not a hardass. You can lead the way but you know, nicely.”

“Alright, alright,” he said. He gave more slack in the rope attached to the two of you and took a deep breath. “Let’s go.”

He was calm for a few minutes until you were turning down a hallway, Dean suddenly stopping in front of you.

“What is it?” you asked.

“Look,” he said. You poked your head around him, swallowing at the rotted wood on the ground, holes worn into the planking. “Y/N that’s not good. Rot means there’s water and water means erosion and erosion means big shafts hundreds of feet straight down under those wood planks.”

“How much of it is wood?” you asked. You both looked ahead and sighed, the whole hall flooring covered in wood. “Shit.”

“Y/N. This is too dangerous. I’ve worked in mines since I was 18 and it’s way too dangerous.”

“Dean. I don’t want to die. If we don’t do anything, we’re dead in three days, maybe less.”

“Maybe they come up the decommissioned mine and get us,” he said. 

“Dean. The mountain collapsed from what my dad said. They are not coming in here, risking even more lives, in this mine. It might even have collapsed on the other side on the way out. We don’t know. All we do know is we stay and we’re dead or we go and we’re maybe dead.”

“You still won’t let me go on ahead on my own to try to get some help?”

“You’re not leaving me alone,” you said. You stepped ahead and he yanked on the rope, pulling you back. “Dean. Stop.”

“I go first,” he said. You held up your hands and he swallowed, Dean stepping past you, carefully putting his weight down on each plank. “Follow. Every footstep exactly where mine go.”

You followed after, the only sounds your breathing and the occasional board creaking. Dean put a foot down and stopped moving forward when you heard snapping. 

“Go back. Slowly.”

You stepped a foot backwards, putting weight on it and your foot going straight through. Dean grabbed your arm as you pulled your foot up, a few sticks falling into a deep dark pit. 

“What do we do,” you breathed out.

“Well we’re over rock that fell away so there’s a big hole beneath us if the rotted wood is anything to go by,” he said. You heard the slight waiver in his voice and sighed. “We make a choice. Forwards or backwards.”

“Back looks bad. Plus we already probably broke the supports.”

“I think solid ground is in front. But I have to jump for it,” he said. You looked past him and shook your head. 

“Dean, it's way too far. I can try to walk over there if you let out the rope. I get to solid ground and then you walk and if you fall, I got you with the rope.”

“Sweetheart, there’s no way.”

“You’re too heavy and we can’t stay here,” you said. You slipped past him and he tried to grab you but you went quickly. “Dean let out the rope. Now.”

“Fuck. We’re gonna die.”

“No we’re not,” you said, walking quickly, planks creaking but you sighed when you had solid rock under your feet again. “Alright. Just go where I did and fast.”

He took a deep breath and walked a few steps, a loud groaning of the wood making him move faster.

You hit the ground the second you saw him go down, the wood breaking away. Dean shouted and you dug your heels into the dirt. 

“Y/N!” he said, falling straight down into a hole and out of view.

_____

A/N: Read Part 2 here!

[fanficbitch]

In Another Life // Route 66

Aaron Hotchner x y/n

August 2013

Things at the house have been a little chaotic this morning. Aaron’s alarm didn’t go off, but he naturally wakes up early so that got us going. We’re currently all in the kitchen, Aaron making us cups of coffee, Jack making breakfast and me stuffing Jack’s lunchbox with whatever I can find.

“It’s just too late,” Aaron mumbles under his breath. “Honey, can you take Jack to school? I figure if one of us is late it’s better if it’s you.”

“Yeah, make me look bad in front of the team,” I say as I shove Jack’s lunch in his backpack.

“I don’t think the boss will be too mad,” he says.

“Good thing I’m sleeping with him,” I smirk at him. Aaron shoots me a smirk back. “But yes, I will take Jack.”

“Okay. I love you. I’ll see you at work,” he says and goes in for a kiss but misses mouth and grazes about a third of lips.

“See you at work,” I say then usher Jack out of the house.

“Mama?” Jack asks once we get into the car.

“Yes buddy?”

“Will you and Dad be home for dinner?” he asks and my heart breaks a little.

“Uh, I don’t know bud. We might have a case,” I say as I look back in my rearview mirror. Jack lets out a little huff then turns towards the window. 

“There is always a case,” he murmurs. I’m a little caught off guard because Jack usually understands that Aaron and I have to go on these trips. He has been used to Aaron doing it his whole life. 

“Jack, is there something you want to talk about?” I ask carefully.

“Dad promised he would come to my play last night and he didn’t come,” Jack says.

“But Jess and I came!” I point out.

“But Dad didn’t.”

“Dad just has to work harder than the rest of our team because he’s the boss,” I say. “But Daddy comes to lots of your things. He’s your soccer coach!”

“You guys are just gone a lot,” he whispers.

“I know we are and I’m sorry,” I say, but Jack remains quiet. “You just need to know that your Dad and I love you more than anything.”

My words get me a small smile from Jack. “Even more than ice cream?”

“Yes, baby even more than ice cream,” I say as we pull up at his school.

“Okay, I love you too,” Jack says.

“Have fun at school!” I yell as he hops out of the car. 

I begin my drive to the BAU. I kinda figured this problem might come up someday, but not this early. Jack deserves more. He deserves parents that are there for him. I don’t blame Aaron at all. He’s doing his best. But sometimes, a kid just needs their dad.

As I pull up to my building there is an ambulance leaving. I park my car and leave with my cup of coffee my boyfriend prepared. To my surprise, I find JJ, Morgan and Reid standing at the entrance. “What’s going on?” I ask as I approach them. They all have terrified looks on their face. “Oh no, who is hurt?” I ask because I just assume.

JJ stares at me but doesn’t say anything. “JJ, what is going on?” I ask, but she can’t say anything.

“It’s Hotch,” Morgan finally says.

“W-What are you talking about?” I get out.

Morgan takes both my arms, holding me up straight. “He passed out during the briefing.”

“What do you mean?” I ask, not fully understanding what is going on.

“Hotch is on his way to the hospital in that ambulance. Rossi went with him,” Morgan says and I nearly collapse. Morgan’s grip on me keeps me standing.

“What happened?” I ask urgently.

“We don’t know,” Morgan says. “Let me drive you to the hospital.”

I move the next few hours in a trance. Morgan drops me off at the hospital and they tell me that Aaron is suffering from internal bleeding. Probably from his battle with Foyet. 

Morgan is forced to leave me, but I rock back and forth in my chair in the waiting room. I can’t possibly sit still when there is so much at risk. Aaron is my everything, even his dependents are my everything.

Rossi sits next to me with his hand on my back. “Y/N,” he says softly. “I need to get to the case.”

I continue to rock despite the words. “Are you going to be okay?” Rossi asks, but I continue rocking. “Y/N?” he gets out.

I finally snap out of my rocking fit and sit still. “Yes, I hear you,” I tell him.

“Are you going to be okay?” he asks again.

“I’ll be okay enough,” I say. Rossi gives me an unsure expression. “It’s fine, Rossi, you can go.”

“I don’t want to leave you here alone,” he whispers.

“I’m okay,” I tell him. “I promise.”

Rossi squeezes my hand then let’s go to leave. I don’t blame him. There is a job to be done. A job that I should be working on. But there is no way I can work on it like this. 

After a few hours, I go up to a nurse and ask where Aaron Hotchner is. “He’s in room 402,” the nurse finally says. 

I go up the few floors to get to his room. When I get to him, my heart lifts. I was expecting Aaron to be dead, but according to his heart monitor he is still very much alive. 

I sit down in a chair next to his bed and hold my breath. What am I going to do? With Jack? With this baby? I can’t do any of this without Aaron. I scoot the chair closer to his bed so I can hold his hand. “Hey honey,” I whisper with a laugh. “It feels ridiculous talking to you like this, but I have to. You have to fight. You have to stay alive for Jack and for our baby. Please Aaron,” I beg as I hold his hand to my head. 

I wish for everything in my body to go to making Aaron better again. I know better than to trust prayers, but I feel like it is worth a shot.

I whisper and plead silently as I hold his hand. Before long, Aaron opens his eyes. It takes him a moment to adjust, but he realizes where he is. “What happened?” he asks.

“Well, you had an internal bleed from your fight with Foyet,” I say.

“After all this time?” he asks.

“Yes, after all this time,” I confirm.

He sits silently for a moment, adjusting in his bed. “How are you?” Aaron finally asks.

“It doesn’t matter,” I say quickly and wipe the tears from my eyes.

“Yes, it does,” he says. “How are you?”

“I-I’m fine,” I stutter. He looks at me a long time before responding. 

“No you’re not,” he whispers.

“How do you know?” I ask.

“Because I know you,” he tells me. “And I know you can’t hide secrets.”

I let out a chuckle. “You know me too well,” I smile at him. “I’m just worried about you.”

“I’m fine,” he says without really knowing anything. “At least, I feel fine.”

“Well, I’m going to have the doctors check you to be sure,” I tell him.

“Where is Jack?”

“He’s at school. I didn’t want to bother him unless you were awake,” I say.

“Well bother him,” Aaron retorts back. I get out my phone and text Jess all the news, good and bad. 

“I promise you, he will be coming when he can,” I tell Aaron. He smiles at me and I feel whole again.

“C’mere,” he whispers. I do the best I can to sit on the edge of his bed. There is no way you could fit me and Aaron in a twin bed right now. “I love you,” he whispers.

“I love you too,” I whisper back. “Just please don’t try and die on me again.”

“I’m not trying too,” he reassures me. “But…” he says and trails off.

“But what?” I ask.

“I had a dream,” Aaron says.

“What kind of dream?” I ask.

“Haley was there, and so was Foyet. We were watching a movie of my life and you were in it,” Aaron says slowly. “Haley told me to stay with you because you were good for me and Jack.”

I sit silently and hold Aaron’s hand. “What else happened?”

“She was bleeding, but I couldn’t stop it. But then it was suddenly gone and I couldn’t control it,” he says.

“What happened next?” I ask.

“She was gone,” Aaron says. I can tell that he is longing for Haley. I can’t really blame him.

“Do you want to talk about it more?” I ask.

“No, no,” he reassures me.

“Because it’s okay if you do. I’d be more than happy to talk about Haley,” I say as I lean against his leg.

“No, it’s okay,” he says slowly. “She just told me that I should be happy with you and that you’re good for Jack.”

Those words make my heart warm. “That means a lot,” I tell him. “There is something I want to talk to you about though,” I say and he crinkles his eyebrows together. “I think after I have the baby I’m going to take some time away from the BAU.”

“Why?” Aaron asks quietly.

“Well, Jack and I were talking this morning and he was upset because we are always gone-,”

“Jack understands that we have to travel for work,” Aaron says, interrupting me.

“I thought so too, but then today he was so sad and says we are gone a lot, which is true,” I say. “I just don’t want Jack to grow up and look back on his childhood and think we were never there for him. I understand that you can’t leave work, but I’m not as needed as you are.”

“But the team needs you,” Aaron says.

“I think Jack and this baby need me more. I want to focus on being a mom for a little bit. Then I’ll get back to chasing bad guys.”

Aaron smiles and squeezes my hand. “I think that is very noble of you. I’m glad our kids have such a great mom.”

The door to the room swings open to reveal Jack and Jess carrying a bouquet of balloons. “Dad!” Jack shouts and jumps onto the bed. I immediately want to tell him to be careful with Aaron, but I don’t want to ruin this moment. “Are you okay?”

“I am now,” Aaron says as he hugs Jack with arm and his other hand finds mine and gives it a squeeze.

Jack turns to me. “Will you be home for dinner tonight now?” Jack asks. Aaron has a confused expression on his face.

“Dad might have to stay here for a few days,” I say and Jack’s expression saddens. “But, we could all eat in here.”

“Yes please!” Jack shouts.

“Sounds like a plan,” I tell him.

[spinaroos-47]

Hunter Noceda AU: Venance

(can't digitalize these rn so you'll get the sketches for now)

So yeah, Golden Guard version two!

When Belos does find out about Hunter in YBOS, Hunter gets the bomb dropped about them being related (idk how yet). but Hunter obviously doesn’t believe in it. Until Hunting Palismen comes around and they find this small thingy, Venance.

(thank you @bernardo-draws-and-cries​​ for the name. Its based on the name Venâncio, which means “the one who hunts”)

He is another grimwalker made by Belos, he’s 12 (yeah.) and way more stressed (Belos has gotten more iron fisted after losing Hunter). Someone save this poor child

- He’s just starting out as the Golden Guard (and he’s not a coven head. Kikimora is. And she still wants him dead too), he’s still getting the hang of it. He does act tough and serious, way more serious than canon GG/Hunter, no space for goofyness.

- So yeah, a duo Hunting Palismen thing would be fun. Haven’t sorted out everything here but I do think Hunter would also go with Luz because of no palisman reasons. And he hasn’t met Ven yet, he only heard Lilith talking about him and Luz and Eda dealing with him on Separate Tides (he was busy drowning in guilt and trying to help with the money situation in other ways), so when he meets Ven and when he sees his face and how similar they are (and how many scars that kid already has), he’s reasonably confused/upset, like “Oh, that creepy man wasn’t lying. This doesn’t make anything on this situation better”

- After the initial surprise/confusion, Luz and Hunter jokingly call him Ghaterer until they learn his name, then they start calling him Ven. At first Ven hates this nickname but ends up reluctantly accepting it.

- Even before Eclipse Lake he’s so scared about being replaced, and knowing about Hunter’s existence in the Boiling Isles makes it worse, now he’s super sure he isn’t as valuable to Belos anymore. So he hates Hunter

- Hunter: come here youre part of the found family now

Ven: NO

Hunter: too late *picks him up*

Hunter: If Luz taught me something is that if you didn’t want to get assimilated into my found family, you should have killed me when you had the chance

Yeah that’s their dynamic when Hunter learns a bit more about him

- Venance doesn’t have much respect as the Golden Guard yet. He’s small (like, maybe even less than 1,50m/4′11″), young, has just been starting out on this role, like, in the last few months, could easily be picked up like a kitty, so he has to fight quite a bit to be taken seriously. Which results on him being way more grumpy and short tempered

- So he doesn’t take it very well when hes made fun of by the scouts in Latissa. Not at all

- Hunter, who was joking around until then:…are you okay?

Ven: I AM! *barely holding the tears back*

Hunter:

Hunter: that’s it youre part of the family now

Ven: you can’t do that

Hunter: we’re two and you’re one, we have your staff and youre very light.

(he still would put up a fight, and it would take a while for it to end. And he bites hard, he has very sharp fangs)

- Scouts: Go home with your sibiling

Hunter: *oh. Oh yeah i forgot we have the same freaking face*

- They don’t know yet about the grimwalker thing. Well, maybe Ven discovers later but at the moment where Hunting Palismen happens, neither of them know anything besides them being related, Ven got told he is his brother, and that Hunter was taken away from the coven before he was born

- Rascal seeing Hunter: hey you’re cool, i kinda want to be your palisman

Rascal seeing Ven: oh heck this kid needs help 

- I’m not sure if Hunter gets Lil Rascal. Because on one side, would be fun for him to have Lil Rascal and train doing magic like this, but also could be good for Ven to have some small support back at home, like how they are to Hunter in canon. So this hasn’t been decided yet. Hunter could either get Lil Rascal and Ven doesn’t get a palisman/gets a blue jay palisman, or Ven gets Lil Rascal and Hunter comes back also empty handed

- So I’m going with the no palisman for Hunter route for now. 

- It’s a bitter moment for both him and Luz. He tries to convince her that it’s okay, that they’ll get theirs soon, but she still kinda feels like a failure about this. And he himself thinks it’s because they don’t have a magic bile sac, so it’s not a good time for them. Eda and King lift their spirits a bit about this, though.

- Either by peeking around or just flat out being told, Ven does learn about him (and Hunter) being grimwalkers. What does he do with that? He has a crisis about it, which raises even more the stakes for him in Eclipse Lake. He still wouldn’t know his purpose for the Day of Unity, but he would know that he was created for it and could lose his position if he didn’t prove himself worthy of it.

- He would explode at Hunter one day and end up telling the truth about them being Grimwalkers (after Eclipse Lake)

- Ven: Do you want to know what you really are?! You’re a clone! You’re just someone’s clone just like me! A replacement!

Hunter, trying to not freak out but freaking out anyways: ...are you okay?

Ven; WHAT DO YOU THINK?

- If Belos is searching for Hunter, on the grounds of him being a more mature grimwalker than Venance, Ven could end up resorting to sabotaging the searches, he doesn’t want to be replaced.

- And he’s making Ven convinced that he will be replaced, to pit both boys against eachother. He gets Ven more under his thumb and not risking Hunter making Ven change his mind. Which doesn’t work as he intented, Ven does get scared about it but Hunter ends up pretty quickly going “dude why do you think I want to replace you?” and Ven is quickly thrown into a loop because he can’t understand why he wouldn’t want to do that

- Ven: what do you mean with “I don’t wanna be the Golden Guard”? If you’re like me you should DESIRE IT SINCE YOU WERE BORN

Hunter: lol no. I dealt with my need of approval a year ago on therapy.

Hunter: Also being a cop sucks.

- This boy is a tense child always a few bad moments away from a breakdown/meltdown. And has anger problems. A lot of anger in a very tiny body

- There’s some more interactions between Ven and the Noceda duo, and he would rather die than admit that he’s got slightly attached to them

- Eda: Luz told me that Golden Guard is a uwu smol boi that needs to be protected, hell knows what this means 

Hunter, who definetly came there too because FUCKING COOL ASS CAVE AND LAKE: i hate/love her

Ven: If i ever see that human again-

Amity AND Hunter: watch your fucking mouth

(definetly not how it would play out but very funny sdkdshdfsj)

- In terms of strength he couldn’t defeat Amity in a fight for the key, he would lean more on the blackmailing. He is a 12 year old but he’s still on a position of power on the emperor’s coven and he knows where the key is, it would put the owlfam on Belos’ line of sight again (if they even ever went away from it)

- That or he passes out, gets dragged out of there by them (he’s a lil shit but they’re not going to leave him there alone where Kikimora could kill him) and he falls asleep for 12 hours in the couch on the owl house. Which ends up giving him a day where he can be just a kid. He’s very weirded out by everything but he enjoys it a little bit at least. He would still try to get the key and would be torn apart by the guilt of thinking of doing this and the guilt of not doing this

- It wouldn’t take much to make him want to stay in the owl house. He’s starved for positive attention. It wouldn’t be easy but also it’s not as hard as for how Hunter is right now in canon

- I don’t think this could happen but I keep thinking about one day him and Hunter switching places so he can be just a kid for one day. Would be cool to see him sneaking into Hexside (or being dragged there, which is more likely to happen) and interacting with Willow and Gus

And that’s some of what we have for Ven right now! He’s a fun character to figure out :3

This took SO MUCH TIME to write

[cagedchoice]

alright, i decided that what I'm gonna do is instead of liveblogging and making like a hundred posts that are at risk of getting reblogged totally out of context by other people, i'm gonna make two main posts that cover my thoughts on westworld season 4. one that covers the first 4 episodes, and one sometime after the season finale airs for the remaining 4. bearing in mind that these were written on reaction after seeing each episode for the first time unless otherwise noted, so likely not everything is going to be completely accurate

THE AUGURIES

I’m gonna guess the William we’re seeing with these guys at Hoover Dam is Host William whom we last saw at the end of Season 3 slitting human William’s throat, but even though that was the case I don’t think the real William is dead yet. I know I did the first time I ever saw the s3 finale but I changed my mind later. I really don’t believe Charlotte would let him die that easily. She would want him to suffer.

Upon seeing Christina my immediate thoughts are: WHO ARE YOU BEAUTIFUL MYSTERY WOMAN??? She’s not Dolores but she’s not not Dolores if you know what I’m saying. The parallels are too numerous for her to not be some version of Dolores.

My first thought from the trailers was maybe she was an original human who existed before the park was created, one whom Dolores’s likeness was based on, but I quickly discarded that idea. After seeing the New York City setting, a lot of the things in her world look far more technologically advanced than a lot of the things and designs we saw in season 3 so I’m pretty sure this takes place quite some time in the future.

My best guess is Christina is either reborn from Prime!Dolores’s erased pearl or from one of her other copies last season.

I’m… gonna assume that there is Something up with Maya because the fact that she is currently serving as little more than “perpetually tired roommate whose main purpose in life is to find someone to get Christina laid” just feels…off. Like yeah I know sometimes Westworld’s minor characters DO kinda wind up being no more than props rather than believable characters but that usually has a kind of vibe around it where you can intuit that the writer doesn’t consciously know they’re writing the character that way. Maya feels more like she was intentionally written like this and I’d bet there’s an explanation waiting to be revealed. If not then I’m gonna be giving the Westworld writers some very disapproving looks.

Most of the phones and tablets and display screens looking like nothing more than small glass rectangles makes me irrationally angry. It would be so hard to read anything off that.

I have always felt Maeve wants nothing more than to live a simple, peaceful life where she gets to be truly free, but the thing is, I imagined that as an endgame thing where she has her daughter with her (and maybe Hector but...probably not) and there would be no one threatening to take that away from her ever again. Surprised to learn she’s apparently spent quite a while living alone in her memories.

From the looks of things, she and Caleb destroyed another Rehoboam (An older version? Or just another node of the same one Caleb erased?) but it didn’t end well. Incidentally this is giving me major flashbacks to last season with Caleb’s memory of Francis dying. buuut i’m sure he’s fine.

OOH OKAY I DON’T COMPLETELY TRUST THIS TRANSITION BETWEEN CHARACTERS THEN?? IF YOU JUST GO MMKAY SO CALEB WAS BLEEDING OUT IN MAEVE’S MEMORIES... BUT HE’S FINE NOW LOOK HERE HE IS SEE?? THAT MAKES ME FEEL LIKE SOMETHING IS NOT WHAT IT SEEMS TO BE. I’M NOT FALLING FOR THAT AGAIN.

He is…still a construction worker? It seems like Caleb is right back where he started last season… and the world doesn’t look like the post-apocalyptic nightmare everybody thought it would become. It has apparently been 7 years since the fall of Rehoboam.

His coworker Jo thinks they’re actually worse off for having a revolution in the first place. Humans, being humans, means that many probably didn’t see the bigger picture, so they flat out banned robots and artificial intelligence. I feel like that wasn’t Caleb’s idea so he might’ve lost his leadership role or something?? He seems a bit annoyed by this hot take on the war and honestly I don’t blame him.

CALEB HAS A FAMILY NOW OH MY GOD I LOVE AND WOULD GLADLY LAY DOWN MY LIFE TO PROTECT THE NICHOLS FAMILY FORGET WHATEVER I SAID ABOUT NOTHING CHANGING

The only problem is...this doesn’t quite feel…real...

UWADE: “She’s seven, Caleb. Thanks to you, her hobbies are sugar and violence.” Shoutout to my dad’s quality reaction here: “Okay so what you’re saying is, she *has* hobbies.”

Uwade doesn’t really seem to care why Caleb is so stuck in the past which is a little disappointing. Well, I think she cares as in, she clearly wants him to be happy and at peace and it hurts to see that he’s not, but she really gets on him about the war being over and saying he needs to move on and act like a real father and it just feels like she is a touch hasty to brush off Caleb’s PTSD as little more than an annoying habit.

Obviously it’s NOT good that his fears are rubbing off on Frankie’s world of innocence but... he already knows he needs to move on. I think what he doesn’t know is *how* to move on. Because half Caleb’s entire life has been trauma on top of trauma and people telling him “you need to move on” and then never actually helping him move on because he wasn’t meant to be able to.

I'm sure Caleb would’ve absolutely chosen to go with Maeve no matter what the real reason was, but I’d like to think that in addition to this being the only way he feels he can protect Uwade and Frankie, he also wants to protect Maeve. While he knows injury and death aren’t as big a threat to the hosts as they are to him, he knows that they aren’t completely invulnerable or immortal. And Maeve is a friend. Caleb historically hasn't had a lot of friends, but the ones he has made are people he values very highly.

I relate to Christina on a personal level because I too am a writer who spends most of my time writing background characters in genres where very few people really put a lot of stock in them.

Ramin Djwadi’s arrangement of Video Games is one of the prettiest, most mesmerizing and heartbreaking pieces of music I’ve heard. Everything about the cinematography and editing in this scene just cinches it too. Christina’s pitch, Frankie practicing her aim and remembering her dad isn’t there to see her hit the target, Teddy stepping out in the dark and looking up at Christina and the camera panning around him as the music swells. “I want a story with a happy ending.” ;-; ;-;

WELL ENOUGH ALONE

Clementine was really just out there living her best life in a sunny yellow dress at a quaint lil marketplace in mexico and I loved that for her. She looked so happy! So free! I’m sorry Host William had to go and ruin that for her :(

Caleb and Maeve are giving off such a buddy comedy vibe during this car scene. I love that as of this we have no real idea how they became such good friends since we didn’t really get to see any of the war but we just get to roll with it. They’re besties

I love the aesthetic of this horse barn but all I really remember is seeing the behind the scenes footage where the creative team said it was an interesting conversation because they were like “okay, we’re gonna have some dead horses here” to the rangers and I can only imagine that if you say something like this on the set of Westworld it will be perceived not as a threat, but a promise.

I love the way Clementine turns away the justice department guy when she gets brought back as Hale and William’s minion. He might be one of the more powerful guys in the country, but he still can’t get through Delos security to speak to their CEO without an appointment.

I need this vice president guy to cool it with all the idioms. Humanity has evolved past the need for idioms.

“I don’t think that language would play very well with your base. I’m what you’d call ‘neurodivergent’.” I…well…I guess that’s one way you could put it.

I swear to god, this scene in the speakeasy sounded like Caleb was implying he and Maeve had sex at the lighthouse.

But the thing is, shortly after watching this episode, I stumbled on a couple of reviews that claim there is no romantic or sexual aspect to this partnership in the slightest. They say Maeve and Caleb work well together because they share similar traits and their dedication to their respective daughters is the same and they respect each other as equals.

So unfortunately those same reviews also claim that in s3 Dolores’s only interest in Caleb was to manipulate him into joining her cause and pretending to be someone she wasn’t around him. And that is a popular take I strongly disagree with so like. I don’t really want to believe it because that’s not how I saw that at all.

It is weird though because I am generally someone who doesn't pick up subtle romantic or sexual hints as in, I will not see it at all unless I'm told, very obviously, that it exists. Like. not to get all personal but one time, a guy I knew in high school randomly started messaging me out of the blue. I think any normal person would've gone "he wants something" whereas I was like "oh, a friend!" and I only figured it out like 2 weeks later he was trying to sext and then manipulate me into becoming his girlfriend.

Anyway, moving on. My other theory is that after Caleb got shot, Maeve felt partly responsible for his near-death experience and sent herself into exile because she thought it would be safer that way. Caleb maybe felt like Maeve had abandoned him solely because the war was over and he wasn’t useful anymore and maybe that’s why he looks so hurt when she kind of shrugs off his question as “we got on with our lives.” 

It actually feels pretty on-brand for Caleb that talking about almost dying and trying to put the past behind him but never really being able to do so might actually be a much more awkward conversation to have than a conversation about having sex would be. Or so one would think.

I wish I had more to say about Christina honestly but I simply do not have a clue what is going on in her world. Everyone seems awfully nonchalant and dismissive about the fact that she witnessed a suicide. Almost like it was expected, in a way?

Remember what I said previously, about believing Hale wouldn't just let William die so easily? I feel pretty satisfied because that's exactly how that worked out. She put him in cryosleep and it looks like she just wakes him up periodically to gloat.

ANNÉES FOLLES

For the Sublime being presented as a kind of host heaven I have to say Bernard’s journey into the worlds of his choosing didn't look like a particularly pleasant experience if he got stuck looping through his memories. Poor Bernard.

Then again, maybe it never would be pleasant for any sort of human consciousness and since Bernard is partially a red pearl maybe that’s why his interpretations are weird. Maybe host consciousness is fundamentally different because their minds don’t feel bound to death of the physical body as a permanent end the way human minds do.

What I really want to know is exactly how Stubbs managed to fix himself up. Last time we saw him he was bleeding out in a bathtub full of ice and didn’t look like he was in any sort of condition to move. I know he wasn’t gonna stay there for like 30 years or however long it has been since we last saw the boys but still. It would be nice to know what happened.

I am living for all of the Caleb & Maeve in The Golden Age parallels to William & Logan in Westworld. All of the subversions as well.

Caleb: about to pick up the can Maeve, who was thoroughly done with this park’s shit before they even got off the train: “Do *not* pick that up.”

GSKALJLHD okay yeah I felt like it was unlikely we would see ERW playing Dolores in this 1920s world considering it is all an elaborate trap. But knockoff Dolores and Teddy look fun.

The way Maeve refers to the guests and human Delos employees as “They” while talking to Caleb... (“Oh, they spare no expense on their prisons.” / “They’ve made a few changes, but the story’s the same.”) … I thought it was suggesting that he might not be human after all. But in this context it seems to be because Maeve respects Caleb and she wants to give him the dignity of not being associated with these rich folks.

I am absolutely dying at this woman who talks about finding a deeper level of the game. I think her name is Deborah?? I love Deborah

Also dying at Bernard knowing everything that has to happen in a very specific sequence of events and Stubbs just being like What. the fuck. are you talking about buddy. Triple dying at Stubbs casually enjoying a tuna melt and listening to Blondie while Bernard is kicking ass outside bc that’s a mood.

I’m betting Frankie’s HAM radio setup belongs to Caleb and what I find interesting is that none of it looks very modern in the context of Westworld’s universe. I may once again be reading too much into nothing but this could be a result of Caleb’s “paranoia” in that he did not want to be subject to police-state level surveillance again and maybe using older radios would have been the only way to make sure there were no wiretaps built in while still providing a reliable way of staying in contact during an emergency?? Or something like that

We saw Maeve attempting to use her powers to tune a radio to what appeared to be a specific frequency in 4.01 right before she accidentally caused a region-wide power outage. Going off the context that she was remembering an unseen mission with Caleb at a lighthouse, I wonder if she was trying to make contact with him.

Aurora Perrineau’s character also appears to have a HAM radio mounted on the dashboard of her vehicle. This may be a serious reach on my behalf but, might she be a grown-up version of Frankie? The way her scenes are sandwiched between Maeve & Caleb’s adventure and Frankie’s struggle seems like it could be suggesting she’s Frankie in the future and the condemned lands her organizations hides out in could be where the 20s park used to be.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard more distinct “something bad is about to happen to this guy” words than when Carver told Frankie he was gonna teach Bear Bear some self defense and then walked off alone toward the house. Admittedly I completely missed it on my first watch because I had to turn my back to the TV for like 15 seconds to grab something from the kitchen. When I got back, my dad, who was only half paying attention because he also got distracted by something, told me “there’s something wrong with Bear Bear, the guy got him dirty or something and the kid was looking at him like something’s not right.” He didn’t tell me the dirt looked like blood, so I was like “oh...maybe they put a tracking device or nanny cam in Bear Bear in case Frankie tries to run away?” It would’ve been much easier to figure out if I had actually heard Carver say his dead man words and then seen the obvious BLOOD smeared on the bear 2 minutes later

LMAO THE WAY THEY TURNED THE FIRST UNDERGROUND LEVEL INTO PART OF THE GAME. I would love to know why Hale signed off on this

CALEB: Dolores? MAEVE: I believe she was going by “Wyatt” in this phase. I saw somebody ask how Caleb would know this at all. I have no idea but I’m choosing to believe that he simply has not forgotten what Dolores’s murder strut looks like.

Actually wait, it doesn’t surprise me that Hale would include a level where the massacre is part of the game. This park itself is a trap, so why not lure the humans further into it by letting them think the hosts are rebelling against them? Even though in reality it’s all part of the plan and they’re not actually saving anyone.

Wait, wait wait wait but…if Frankie and Uwade didn’t get captured by Hale, how was she able to make a host that looks like Frankie? Where did she get that data from?

Okay so, I have always believed that Caleb is human, even in the face of certain other fans belittling me and telling me season 3 “obviously” takes place in Futureworld or in the Sublime or it’s all on a different simulation in Rehoboam’s mind or whatever other unreality could be conjured up. And…idk like. They’re allowed to believe what they want to believe, and I’m allowed to believe what I want to believe. I just personally never really liked the idea that Caleb was secretly a host for all of last season when it felt like the whole purpose of Incite controlling everything was trying to show that our world had been subjected to a lot of the same practices as Delos’s hosts were. Anyway, I know they can’t see me here but who’s laughing now bitch?

Actually, it’s not me, I’m very distraught… but… at least now we know he’s human.

GENERATION LOSS

Like I said about episode 2, when Maeve said she wanted to show Caleb what freedom looks like while he was bleeding out on the beach with a gunshot wound to the torso… I thought that was going in a totally different direction than the one it took.

Speaking of the direction it took, though, Maeve’s freedom is being with her daughter and living a simple, peaceful existence together and I think that is just beautiful.

This isn’t a Westworld-specific gripe, more so a TV/movie magic trend in general but. If you are in a situation where a ton of glass shatters into a million pieces and then you can see hundreds of little crystallized chunks of tempered glass on the ground and you have not been impaled by any of it, you are probably not going to find a long, clear shard of razor sharp plate glass in the mix. I know, blah blah blah, I’m watching a dark science-fiction TV show about androids and I don’t expect it to be 100% realistic. I’m just saying.

I have complicated feelings about Teddy and let me just say that they are not being helped by me still having almost zero clue what is going on in Christina's world. Is this the Sublime? Is this a world of Teddy's choosing?? We just don't know.

I’m not sure I understand what Maeve was saying about facing human mortality. Hasn’t she already seen how delicate human lives are? Or is this different because Caleb was in a coma and Maeve has specifically never seen that before?

I find myself a little confused as to how the lethality of wounds works for hosts who are no longer bound to the parks or have built up a certain tolerance level. Maeve was shot multiple times in the season 3 finale and shrugged it off like it was nothing. But she got shot once in the shoulder last episode and it temporarily took her down although she recovered pretty quickly. Fighting the Host in Black, she gets thrown to the ground and it clearly hurts her considerably, as she limps away afterward to try and rescue Caleb. In this episode, she takes a shotgun blast to the heart and it almost completely incapacitates her. Right after that she gets stabbed with a knife which HiB seems pretty confident is something that will kill her. So now… I have questions.

Ah, so C is Frankie all grown up! I got at least 2 predictions right for this episode. I'm calling that a hot streak!

Alright, remember how I said last episode I was relieved to find out Caleb was still a human? I’m actually perfectly okay with him dying and being brought back as a host at this point, if that is indeed what is happening. My first idea was that he’s still alive and Hale is just fucking with his mind by making him believe he died and she turned him into a host, but…After Caleb realizes where he really is and what Hale is doing, he develops a slight stutter in some of his dialogue and movement tics that are really similar to what we saw in the James Delos fidelity trials, albeit less severe. And I feel like he wouldn’t have that if he was still a human.

So for now I think I’m gonna work off the assumption that Hale isn’t lying. Might be a mistake to do so, I guess we’ll find out!

If this really IS the case, I still wonder what exactly she wants with Caleb? She started out her plan by trying to kill him. Then she appeared to switch to trying to capture him alive instead, turning him into her pet. But then she ordered other infected guests to attack and he got stabbed by one of them, and then later on her men gunned him down without a second thought. And then after all that she brought him back so… What does she want with him? Does she still need him for something? Is she just tormenting him for sport?

[austarus]

Harrison Wells (Eobard Thawne) x Reader Ballistic Confrontations (3/3)

*A/N: The picture/edit/gif belongs to me!

**If you understand what I’m referencing to in the end, well the Kudos to you. You win 85 Stardollars.

***Trigger Warning: Scars from mentioned self-harm

****Please don’t forget to comment, like, and reblog. It means a lot to content creators of all kinds!

Word Count:  6397

Part 1   Part 2

Eobard said nothing. Instead, he disregarded your look as his gaze locked back onto Kara, as the Kryptonian woman threw him a hateful look. The futuristic genius did not care. His baby blue hues jumped back to where you stood before stepping away to the side tables. Now we proceed, the speedster mused to himself, picking up a scalpel and arranging his surgical tools. The stage needed to be set tonight. All the actors were in place, and he needed to complete his role. A delicate procedure, if you will. But he needed to be bought some time. Surely, Barry and the others would be back by now from Earth-X. He was, in essence, reluctant to cut up the Earth-38 Kryptonian for he held no malice towards her. She was just an unnecessary casualty in all this. And after all, if Barry Allen were to die it would be at his hands. Not on some tainted Earth at the firing range. You’re centuries late, Mr. Allen. As always.

You glared at your genius scientist for not cluing you in on whatever it is he had planned now. What was his plan? Play along until ‘Uh oh, it’s too late to turn back’ and ‘Oh, look. We’re doomed’? A grunt caught your attention, Kara was trying to break out of her restraints again. “Kara,” you whispered, now standing beside her. “Save your energy, please.” She eyed the restraints on you before taking a slow breath in. Kara wanted to throw her guts up, but she pushed back the bile caught in her throat.

“I’m fine, I’m fine.”

“Honey, you are looking anything other than fine.”

Kara pursed her lips, feeling fatigue wash over her once more. “Where… where are the others… that were here- at the labs? Are they…?” There it was, always concerned for others when she should be concerned about herself.

“No, no they’re fine. They’re in the pipeline. Iris and Felicity-” You stopped yourself, noticing Eobard’s head snap towards you. A pang of guilt echoed in your body. “They’re being held there too,” you lied, giving her hand two small squeezes for her to indicate the lie. If he held things back from you to entertain the Earth-Xer’s with legitimate reactions, then so would you. Supergirl nodded her head subtly in understanding. You were too focused with Kara; you didn’t notice Eobard move. “You’re going to be fine; the others should be back. They wouldn’t go out just like that.” Iris, Felicity, where’s that help? Just where are you guys? You couldn’t leave if you wanted to. Not with the others lurking around. Not when there was a chance you could tip them off about Iris and Felicity, then there was Eobard. Overgirl would instantly go after him for betrayal.

“I… I really hope not. Alex-” Kara trailed off; her eyes drooping shut as her shoulders sagged. Her hand went limp in your cuffed ones.

“Kara?” You looked up to see a tube in Eobard’s hand with a syringe in it. Empty as its contents have already worked its way into Kara’s system. “What are you doing?!”

“I’ve given her a mild anesthetic,” you pursed your lips as his statement. Eobard sighed, “Not to worry, that should have her out for 30 minutes. Strong enough for a Kryptonian, but not strong enough for too long even with the red sunlight on her.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Because I needed to talk to you without anyone listening.” You followed how Eobard’s eyes glanced at the door. Outside stood two more Nazi guards.

“You could have just pulled me to the other room,” you whisper-yelled at him.

“No, I couldn’t have.” He crossed his arms at you, replying in his own gravely hushed tones. “I needed to keep up the image of the bad guy in front of Kara.”

“Why? Why, when she could understand that you’re not really with them? Why let her also think of you as one of those heinous monsters?”

“Because her opinion of me doesn’t matter. Not hers, not the Earth-Xers, not anyone else.” Eobard punctuated his words before taking your hands in his, placing a gentle kiss on the back of one. The intensity in his eyes never broke as he spoke once more, “Only your opinion of me matters. You matter.”

You pursed your lips, your eyes unable to leave his heated gaze. Oh, if only we weren’t in this mess. If only we had more time… Kara crossed your mind once more, the ominous thrumming noise that came from the machine that generated the red sunlight. A frown found its way onto your face. “Wait, you said 30 minutes? Shouldn’t she need time to recover from the anesthesia to be given another one?”

Eobard sighed, letting go of your hands. He crossed his arms. You weren’t going to like his answer. “No, not in this case.” Dread welled up in the pit of your stomach.

“What…”

“The General herself requested, more like ordered, me to have our Kara awake during the… transplant.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” You responded slowly. Your eye slightly twitched as anger started to consume your thoughts. You wanted nothing more than to rip your friend’s doppelganger apart.

Eobard very well sensed your feelings, he always hated putting a frown on your face or seeing you upset to this extent. “Look, I don’t want to do it either,” the speedster retorted hastily as he unfurled his arms, his hands gently grabbed your shoulders, “but I can’t defy their word especially with you around.”

“Why? Am I suddenly a liability?”

“Never, but they’ll figure something is up with you here with me. Conspiring against them. You already saw how easily Oliver-X caved to his Kara regarding who you are to me.”

Technically, that’s my own damn fault, but a calculated risk to get to Eobard. I can live with the repercussions. “But that’s technically what we’re doing on the downlow, Eo.” You echoed one of the lessons he taught you years ago. “One weakness is better than none, it can be essential to creating the downfall of another.” He had mainly told you that regarding Eilling, who hadn’t ceased to stick his nose into Eobard’s lab experiments and projects. The general had eyed you as a means to get to him, but in reality you were a strength to Eobard. Not a weakness. And the speedster very well knows you can handle your own; after all, the both of you trained constantly. Pushing each other’s limits. Though where you hesitated to kill, he compensated on that, especially in the right moment. “We can have the Dark Archer on the ropes. If anything, he’s made it evident that his wife is a liability to his rational thinking.”

A proud grin ran along his handsome face. “Exactly, my little bird. But they will hurt you, even if you can hold out against them you can’t take them both on.” Even I cannot, not with where I’m at with my speed. Not with the slight dampener they have on my suit. The potential self-destruction if removed from the emblem by my own hands, is a heavy weight on my chest. If I can get rid of them, I can defuse the detonator.

“I’m not worried about me; I’m worried about you! I can’t- I can’t be the one to lose you again.” Eobard shifted his gaze away from you. “Look it’s not going to come to that.” He knew what you were suggesting. “Ok? Worst comes to worst I cause a distraction.”

“No, over my rotting corpse.” 

That sounds eerily familiar.

“We don’t have a choice, if it buys us time then I’ll be damned not to try!”

“That’s why we adapt to the situation and find alternate routes to keep off their radar. I know what I’m doing.”

“Precisely. Adapting. So let me do what I can if it comes down to it.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No!” You bit back a retort at the way he raised his voice. “Just trust me.” He wasn’t asking you to.

“Kinda hard with your track record,” You deadpanned, and Eobard just rubbed his face.

“Have I ever lied to you?”

“Is that a question you seriously want me to answer?” A small cheeky smile made its way to your face. You couldn’t help but tease him right now, of all times.

Eobard huffed out a chuckle, pulling out some white surgical clothes from a drawer. Have those always been there? “Just follow my lead, ok? Whatever happens stay on their side, whatever happens to me stay with Barry and the others.” Eobard gloved his hands while the guards re-entered the medical room along with Oliver-X and Kara-X. Speak of the devil. You pursed your lips and held a stoic expression even as Kara-X sauntered to her respective gurney, smirking widely before a violent coughing fit erupts from her. You didn’t miss how Oliver-X moved towards her, yet you averted your eyes to the protruding machines the other soldiers were bringing in for the ‘necessary’ operation. Two guards held you by the arms where you stood. You swallowed thickly as everything was being sterilized and prepped.

***

Harry caught the ball once more after it ricocheted back to him. He’d been letting his frustration out on it towards the cell wall. Something didn’t feel right. He cursed himself, knowing he should have been carrying some weapon or breaching device to have gotten away from the Dark Archer. Or any intruder for the matter of this invasion. Yes, he pushed the emergency labs alarm, but he still got whacked and dragged to the pipeline. He could have done more damage to these damned Nazi’s, but he was helpless. I should have carried my gun or my pulse rifle, what was I thinking? His hand gripped tightly at the ball as regret never left his side. I should have seen this as a possible attack. It’s a simple strategy. Divide and conquer. Yet they were all too fooled, too hasty to attack to even logically see this move by the Earth-Xers.

“Wait, Thawne’s here?” Cisco’s outburst broke the Earth-2 genius out of his thoughts. Harry cracked his neck and directed his attention back to Cisco’s squabbling from the cell near him. The Wells doppelganger was getting pretty tired about hearing of Thawne. A feeling of dread picked at his insides, his thoughts going to you and what Barry had discussed vehemently earlier.

“Yeah,” Caitlin responded. “I haven’t seen or heard from her. We only briefly got a visit from Iris and Felicity not too long ago. But they didn’t know where she was either.”

“Do you think maybe she… you know?” Cisco made an implication. “I mean, does she know?”

“I don’t know,” Caitlin trailed off. “But Iris had said that she left them in the Time Vault to buy them time. Whatever that could mean.”

“Well, on the one hand, they either got to her and are holding her hostage somewhere or, on the other, she rendezvoused with Thawne and now they're going all Mengele on Kara.”

Harry rubbed his face irritably at Cisco’s words, by now you would have known. There’s a high possibility. Whether it’s from seeing Thawne face-to-face or by overhearing someone. By now, Harry’s sure, you would have made a choice. Where did you go, though?

The lights flickered in the pipeline before shutting off as Caitlin finished. A dull blue tint lit up in each individual cell as the pipeline was divulged into a dim darkness. The emergency lights were the only things on. Every person was on high alert at this point.

“Ohohoho, my girl Felicity definitely pulled that one!” Cisco chirped, making a loud clap.

Dinah tried her canary call again, but to no avail. The cell would not budge. Harry narrowed his eyes; he knew she’d try again. But Cisco had crafted these cells with Thawne cautiously for metas. Practically indestructible unless you’re a Time Wraith.

“I wouldn’t try it again if I were you.” Harry finally spoke. Dinah paused, the silence daring to be her question. “These cells are reinforced to withstand any form of meta-attacks generated within. A backup generator still supplies the power dampeners with energy to preserve the cell.” Harry looked out his cell and towards the darkness. “All we can do is wait.”

***

You took a breath, smoke and blood and electricity filled the air. Your eyes didn’t miss the rush of electricity in the distance. Red and gold, the Speedforce of the only two speedsters here. Swallowing thickly, your attention was diverted to the Waverider being chased by another. Well damn, I think someone’s having a bit too much fun. Raising an eyebrow, you watched both airborne vehicles zig-zag through the air. You hooked up your earpiece and headed for the nearest skirmish to help out. A grin plastered itself on your face when you heard Cisco on the comms arguing with Harry. I guess they’re the ones taking the Waverider for a joy ride.

You pressed the button on your communication device, “Any chance I can hop on?” You sucker punched a Nazi. “Oh, I’ve been wanting to do that all day.” Cisco laughed, weaving through the air as if he’s directing a Strike Fighter.

He’s totally Luke Skywalkering his way through this.

“Girl, where you been?”

“Let’s just say,” you huffed, generating electricity in your palm and slamming it into the chest of another soldier. “I caught some unwanted attention, and they were reluctant to release me.” In actuality, Eobard had sped you away from the Labs once Ray made a dramatic entrance to save Kara. He’d sped you to where the battle would be, at least to where the Earth-X forces would arrive from. Telling you to run and appear at an opportune moment. Meaning, go hide while the battle thickens so your disappearance doesn't bring up too many questions from your friends. “Is Iris with you?”

“Yeah, she’s in the back with Felicity, we’re still trying to maneuver in the best position possible to take down their shields.”

You breathed a sigh of relief, thinking back to her stunt with Felicity to sabotage the surgery. “So, how about that help?”

“Hmm,” Harry spoke up, pushing his glasses up. “Unless you have the capability of overloading and shutting down the entire Earth-X Waverider system without passing out, be our guest.”

“… I mean I could try.”

“No.”

You pouted, punching another soldier, this time in the nose. Someone’s particularly grumpy right now. “It’s honestly not that hard, I would just be out for a couple of days and probably on life support.” The line was quiet meaning that Harry chose to ignore your comment. Rude.

You took in a breath and reduced your being to an electrical form, traveling up some buildings to gauge the situation. Kara and Kara-X were facing off at the moment. Eobard was naturally keeping Barry busy while Oliver and Oliver-X were in an intense hand-to-hand-to-bow combat. Yeah, their fight wasn’t as impressive as the other two. You took in a breath heading back down to the fight, this time getting closer to Mick and Leo Snart, who you found to be the Earth-X resistance fighter and doppelganger to your dead ex-boyfriend.

What goes around comes around.

***

“Where were you?”

Turning back from where you sat, you sent a questioning look to Barry and pointed to yourself when no one had responded. He had specifically prompted you with the question. The look in his hazel-green eyes were distant as he leaned against the front of the Cortex desks. You recognized that look from a few years ago. The silence in the Cortex was sliced amongst the team. DeVoe was still out there, scheming. Some stopped what they were doing to gauge what would happen, others (mainly Harry) kept working away but inclined an ear in case either of you were to do something rash.

“What do you mean?”

“Come on, (Y/N). You’re not that dumb.”

“Excuse me.” You narrowed your eyes at the scarlet speedster.

“Barry,” Iris whispered to him, but he shook her off as he folded his arms.

“Where were you after you left Iris and Felicity?”

Ah, of course he wouldn’t miss that. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse.

“I went to go buy them some time.”

“Buy them some time or buy yourself some time? To see Eobard.”

Your heart hammered tightly in your chest, but you made no move to indicate what you had done. In a sense, you did both. You protected Iris and Felicity while keeping Eobard company.

“Why would I want to see someone who’s allied themselves to a Nazi regime on a different Earth, Barr?”

“Why wouldn’t you do anything to see the one you once loved?”

“Are you talking about me,” you tilted your head to the side, taunting him now, “or yourself?” You referenced the events that happened last year. Barry was more than aware of what you were indicating. Flashpoint. Savitar. Iris’ predicted death, HR’s sacrifice, his time remnant’s downfall. But you’ve been wanting to add kerosene to the flames. “Are you referring to your mom,” you turned your head to Iris, “or to Iris?” If looks could kill, you would have been reduced to ashes under Barry’s gaze. Cisco put down his tools and Caitlin glanced at her friends from where she sat beside Iris. Harry capped his marker but turned his eyes towards you. “Like I said, I caught some unwanted attention, and they were reluctant to release me. How is that any different from the others getting stuck in the pipeline?”

“You left Iris to defend herself.”

“Oh my god! Barry!” You rolled your eyes at his statement, deflecting your own questions. “Iris this, Iris that. Iris is a big girl with nearly perfect marksmanship as Harry. She’s more than capable of taking care of herself. I know that. She knows that. The same goes for Felicity as well. But do you know that?” Divide them, fester the idea of unreliability between those two. After all, it’s because of Barry’s decisions for Iris that everyone gets screwed over. It’s one of the reasons for the resentment and bitterness that grows within you. Only they can be happy, no one else can.

“You left Iris and Felicity while this place was crawling with Earth-Xers just to see Thawne!”

“Fucking prove it, you dickbag,” you screamed back at him, “if you’re so certain. Prove it, because contrary to your belief, I was fighting beside you and everyone else that day in the city once I managed to escape. Ask Cisco and Harry. Ask Sara. Hell, even ask Mick and Leo.”

Barry shook his head with a cruel smile, “Do you wanna know how I know?” The speedster took out his phone and started it up, showing the screen of your location. “Careful what you wish for.” Dread gripped your heart as Barry chuckled to himself. “That’s right. I chipped you, that night I pushed you against the doorframe before leaving for the warehouse fight. I chipped you. I already had Thawne chipped earlier that night. On his suit, when I landed a few hits on him. He doesn’t know or… not until recently.” Barry did a search for any pings, but there were none except for yours. “You asked me for proof, here it is.” He slid his fingers on the screen showing a timestamp and your location pinged with Eobard’s at the labs.

“This means nothing.”

“It means everything!” Barry stepped closer to you, anger in his wake. “You left us for him.”

“Yet I still fought with you guys because it was the right thing to do regardless of how I feel for him. You don’t understand nor will you want to understand. You’d rather label us as 100% on the wrong side without acknowledging that we can dwell in a gray area. The world isn’t just black and white, Barry. Or have you forgotten about your own morally gray decisions?”

Sparks crackled in the air, whether it was from you or Barry, no one could tell. Harry took a subtle step towards you from where he stood at the glass board a few feet beside you. He was the only one that can calm you down from this, maybe Iris too, but most definitely he himself. But Harry wasn’t quick enough because the Cortex monitors went haywire while the room darkened. You and Barry were nowhere in the room.

“Barry!” Iris screamed a second after he had sped you away.

***

Eobard raked a hand through his dark locks, analyzing the future article again. He fiddled with his rightful Reverse Flash emblem in his hands, his fingers tracing over the single lightning bolt. It took the genius a full day to extract the SS emblem from his suit, but with your help he was able to detonate it a safe distance away in some open fields. While the people of Central City slept and you had assured Eobard that the Labs were vacant, the speedster had rushed into his old office and compiled all the documents he needed to keep out of Barry’s hands. He’s honestly surprised Team Flash hadn’t rifled thus far into the records he kept. The only things missing were speed theories and the equation escalation to the Speed Formula. Although, he had solved that issue for Barry two years ago when he had traveled back in time for an answer on getting faster.

Still such a naïve child, not at all like the Flash from my future. Arranging some papers together on his new office desk, without meaning to Eobard had knocked over a picture frame. The breaking of glass caught his attention, craning his neck to see the fallen frame. The frame held a picture of you and him from before the Particle Accelerator exploded around Christmas. Before you had known his secret. But now the frame was adorned with a fierce crack through you. Eobard’s mouth went dry, knowing that superstitions were just superstitions, but he couldn’t exactly place the rush of fear welling in his body.

“Gideon, pull up (Y/N)’s location.” Eobard pulled his glasses off smoothly as the AI did as told. She was at the labs. “Access the live feed cameras.” Gideon pulled up holo-images 8x8 of what seemed to be a further escalating scene between you and Barry through STAR Labs. Gritting his teeth, Eobard summoned his suit and launched himself forward into it. The Negative Speedforce fueled by his anger and hate pumped dangerously in his veins.

Barry Allen will regret the day he dared to lay a hand on you.

***

“You’re a traitor!”

“Speak for yourself.” You grunted against the wall, your electric blade dissipating in your hand. It was getting harder to breathe, to keep up with his movements. With speedsters, you preferred long-range combat, but you had to make due at times. “You’re the one who betrayed everyone first for your own selfish desires. Flashpoint, the cause of so much pain and misery. In the end, there was so much collateral damage, and you were the cause of so many lives lost.”

“Flashpoint should have wiped you away. You should have been thankful. We helped you,” Barry fumed, pressing his forearm harder against your throat. “We stood by you.”

“They stood by me.” You tried channeling your electricity, even to siphon off a lick of his in order to produce a dagger, but to no avail. Only sparks flickered from the tips of your fingers, “You couldn’t stand the sight of me when you brought me in.” You had no grievances towards anyone else other than Barry. Not Iris, not Caitlin, not Joe, not Cisco. Certainly not Ralph simply because he’s new. And not towards Harry and Jesse. Iris and Caitlin were the two people who kept you the most grounded to the world for they understood the loss of a loved one and the process of moving on.

“You’re damn right I couldn’t. I was wrong to have let you stay around after Iris and Caitlin rehabilitated you.”

“That wasn’t your decision to make, now, was it?”

“You’re a monster just like Thawne. You’re not a hero.”

You simply spit blood in Barry’s face. “I’m neither thief nor hero.” You were kind of enjoying pushing his buttons, releasing all those pent-up emotions and frustration over the years. Wiping his face clean with his sleeve, the speedster sped you out of the room, throwing punches and kicks at you. He had run you through the entirety of STAR Labs. You siphoned off passing energy from computers and lightbulbs to throw at him Palpatine-style when there was distance between you two, but there was only so much you could do in your current condition. You were getting tired; you couldn’t keep up. Every burst of electricity that burned him had drained you. Blood continued to trickle from the side of your face and sweat glistened on your skin. You healed fast, but he healed much faster.

“Barry, stop! You’re going to kill her.” Iris shouted with a gun in her hand, the others piling into the room. Cisco threw a wave blast at Barry and Frost aimed a couple of icicles his way, but the speedster had dodged them. The scarlet speedster tossed you to the ground like a bag of peanuts before turning to the others. You skidded to the side, breathing in deeply then coughed up some blood into your fist. Blood continued to trickle from the side of your face and sweat glistened on your skin. You could feel your cheek swell as well as an ache form in your chest, maybe a few cracked ribs. Could potentially puncture your lungs if this didn’t end soon.

“And why shouldn’t I? For all we know, she could be spying on us for Thawne.”

“Barry killing her won’t solve anything,” Harry shot at him with his pulse rifle to create some distance between you two before training it on you. “It’ll just make things worse.” You met his eyes, and you could see the disappointment in them. A tinge of guilt hit you, but you pushed past it as you stood on unsteady feet. Your body felt like it was made of lead, but you continued on. If this is how things are to be, then so be it.. You leaned against the wall, cradling your damaged ribcage, as Harry continued. “Regardless of her actions, she did keep Iris and Felicity safe in her own way, she still stood by us.” You were finding it extremely hard to breathe, to stay conscious. Your breathing slowed, the noise in the room between Team Flash was reduced to murmuring to your ears. Did I burst an eardrum too?

“Are you kidding me, Wells? How can you say that when-”

You blinked before collapsing onto the ground, a streak of red had filled your vision. Eobard pinned Barry to the wall, his hand squeezing at his throat while red hot anger filled his vision. “Good to see you again so soon, Flash,” the yellow speedster drawled with a rough grin in his distorted voice. “It seems like you overstepped your boundaries.” Eobard kicked Barry in the ribs and landed a few speed punches, the scarlet speedster already exhausted from his fight with you. “Isn’t this position nostalgic?” Barry was clawing at Eobard’s firm grip, suspending the young hero in the air against the wall as he had done years ago.

“I- had a feeling... you’d show up, Thawne,”

Licking your bloodied lips, you groaned as you leaned up with hoarseness in your voice, “Eo, don’t.” The man in yellow stopped, slowly turning his quaking gaze towards you. You held his gaze for as long as you could get the message through to him. “Enough.” Eobard retracted a fist that was to make contact on Barry’s face, but not before squeezing the scarlet speedsters throat tightly and throwing him towards the upper part of the speed lab. Eobard took off his cowl and generated his speed to be by your side, eyeing every cut and bruise on your broken skin. Your eyes drooped shut when he brushed the back of his gloved hand against your unwounded cheek. His eyes softened, but his insides clenched. Iris and Caitlin had run to where Barry laid while Harry and Cisco monitored Eobard with caution as he gently scooped you in his strong arms.

Standing up with your limp form, the speedster disregarded Cisco, yet glared coldly at his supposed doppelganger. The future genius then turned to them and spoke, “My love for her is what stopped me this time. Next time,” his eyes landed on Barry, “you won’t be so lucky. Lay a hand on her again and I won’t hesitate to end your miserable life, Flash.” His eyes flashed red as they met Barry’s for the last time before taking his leave in a wake of red electricity.

***

Eobard stopped his vibrational intimidation once he made it to your temporary home, Gideon had already prepared the necessary diagnostic tests that would need to be conducted to assess your health. Laying you on the gurney gently, he kissed your forehead before proceeding. The speedster had cleaned you up, replacing your burnt clothes and scrubbing the dried remnants of blood on your skin. His heart shattered. His blood turned to ice. Eobard’s baby blues scanned every part of your marred skin. Lines that tallied up right after another, scars that were too stubborn to heal correctly as if trying to serve as a reminder. Eobard’s mouth had dried as his thumb made featherlight touches before injecting the needle into the correct vein. The speedster opened his mouth and closed it, but he could not register any other emotion other than anger and guilt. His thoughts funneled fluidly, emphasizing that one certain cause that led to this escalation. His death had been the cost of your mental and physical state.

Never again. The speedster peppered kisses along your arms as all the implied images ran through his mind. A tear slipped out. It fell from his face onto the scarred tissue. My love. He needed to get back to work. With classical music dancing in the background, Eobard conducted a blood transfusion in order to replace the blood you had lost as well as administering IV fluids. He had to steal the materials from a hospital nearby in Keystone. They won’t be missing it. 

“According to my current readings, copious amounts of stress have been exuded onto her heart allowing her to retain a constant distressed state.” Gideon rattled on as Eobard sat next to you with a sleeve rolled up. He glanced over at you as the AI continued. “The X-ray scans have also been completed. She’s suffering trauma in her ribcage, a few cracked ribs, however none are broken. CT results also conclude a mild concussion.”

She’s lucky her lungs hadn’t been punctured. His hate for Barry Allen grew with every second that you laid unconscious.

“How long until a full recovery?”

“Physically it could take up to 3-6 weeks regarding her ribs. The mild concussion will take approximately almost a week and a half. Her heart might take longer. Therefore, she must avoid extraneous activity.” 

“Such as using her powers and so on.”

“Yes. Shall I assist you with anything else today, Professor Thawne?”

Eobard ran his fingers over his lips before taking his glasses off and throwing them onto the side of a nearby table. “Keep tabs on Barry Allen’s movements, I want to be alerted if he comes near Keystone or has any intention of it.” The AI nodded before shuttering away into the plinth. Yes, the speedster had been smart to chip him, something Eobard had easily gotten rid of. But to chip you as well, Thawne cursed himself for not seeing it coming. Too preoccupied with the timeline and it’s malleability. “Hopefully DeVoe will keep him away long enough.”

***

Your eyelids felt like they had been cemented shut, the stinging smell of antiseptic slapped you right in the face. Am I dead or in a hospital? A groan left your lips, your throat dry as a desert and craving any drips of water. I hope I’m not in a hospital, I hate those places. The nice thing was that a light wasn’t blinding you, at the very least not piercing through the darkness supplied by your shut eyelids. It was oddly soothing. Your mind finally processed the dull ache residing in your bones, the softness beneath you and the slight chill in the air. Maybe I am dead. Taking one slow breath in, your blood vessels throbbed louder with each fluid pumped through and the humming of machines finally registered to your ears. You didn’t want to open your eyes; you were content with just laying here.

“…” You frowned, the sound of mumbling coming to you. Who was that? “Gi… ru-… I-.” Death, perhaps? You twitched your fingers, a numb sensation set in both your arms. If I’m dead, how can I still feel? It took a moment for your brain to catch you up on how you’d been reduced to such a state. Barry… killed me? No, that’s- Eo was… You shakily formed a fist only to feel something cool against your skin. Felt like another hand. Not bony. Maybe Death gave the appearance of a human for us to pass.

“Mm,” you tried clearing your throat, but it hurt each time, inducing a coughing fit. Blinking wearily, you looked around, your vision blurry until it settled on the being the hand had belonged to. “Mm, I…”

“Shh,” the deep voice cooed. You could hear much more clearly now but couldn’t make out the image of the being. “I have some water for you,” you felt a straw tap your lips. “Drink up.”

Why is Death being so kind to me? I thought Death was swift. You drank a sip at a time before pulling back and shutting your eyes once more. The somatosensory neurons on your arms brushed against some coarse material. A blanket? That same cool touch caressed your cheek. You blinked your eyes open a few times, dizziness ensnaring your mind, but your eyes met icy blue ones. “Eo?”

“I’m here,” he whispered in a gentle tone, standing up from where he sat next to you.

“I’m not dead.”

“No, you’re very much alive”

“Barry, he…”

“I’ve dealt with him. He won’t ever hurt you again.” You watched as he kissed your bandaged hands, each finger receiving a kiss. Cracking your neck, your realized he had changed you into fresh clothes. The scent of faint lavender hung onto the fabric.

“How long was I out?”

“Two weeks.”

It hurt your head when your eyes bugged out. You patted your temples lightly. “Two weeks? What- I-I need to get back. They were going to confront DeVoe. Harry and-”

“No,” Eobard pressed his palm against your shoulder when you tried to sit up abruptly, “You need to rest. Screw Team Flash. For once, just let them be so you can recover.” The speedster did not ask for what had happened to you, knowing the implications in his mind were too strong to be false. Rather, he’d make sure it would not occur a second time

“It’s not that simple, Eo.”

“It really is,” the yellow speedster sighed to himself, rubbing his face. You gestured to the water, and he handed the cup to you. “You’re in no condition to go back there, not after what happened. Your powers and your fight did a number on you. I-…. Your heart stopped a couple of times.” You almost choked on your sip. “I had to jumpstart your heart and keep it going.”

“I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“For worrying you.” For being a liability that Barry can use.

“Don’t. This,” he gestured with his hands between you and him, “is not something to apologize for. Ever. If anything, it was smart of him to use you for bait as I had used Iris and Eddie.” You pressed your lips into a thin line as your mind started to wander.

“So, we wait?”

Eobard nodded as you ran a hand through you knotted hair. Need to brush that out asap. “We wait until it’s time to strike.”

“Until it’s time for you to strike. I’m remaining neutral in whatever it is between you and Barry in the future. Even if he might not see it that way.” Tipping the scales, balancing good and evil natures in the forces of the world. That’s what He told me my role in the multiverse is along with...

“I know, my love.” I don’t know how to break this to her. “But until then, rest.” If I ask her to come with me, would what I orchestrate then work?

“Eobard.”

“Hm?” Eobard knew he needed to go back to sort a few things out. Chances of getting caught were roughly 30-70, but not zero.

You shifted over to make room for him, patted the spot next to you. “Stay.”

Or would she become collateral damage?

“Always.” The speedster leaned down to kiss your lips before moving in beside you. You laid your head on his chest, minding the slight tremors of pain. Eobard kissed the top of your head and you shut your eyes. You’d go to the ends of the multiverse for him, but you’d also protect your friends. Being at odds with Barry wouldn’t stop you. He just needed to learn to live with your choices as everyone else has had to live with his.

Eobard’s mind ran through every scenario, deciding it’s best to tell you what he intends to do. He’d rather you decide for yourself what to do. The negative speedster respected the position you held onto. Neutrality wasn’t always an easy feat, but he admired your devotion towards him and the ones you love. Eobard was just selfish enough to only want and care for you. He didn’t need anyone else. He certainly didn’t need camaraderie. Tomorrow, he’d tell you. Tomorrow, he’d make sure to take the first step towards ensuring the future.

Betrayal is a fickle thing, Barry Allen. A lesson you will learn again.

[melliflovs]

Beautiful Mess - Gojo x Reader

Word Count: 1,675

Warnings: Angst, longing, kinda sad

Summary: Reader comes to terms with her feelings after being faced with her emotions once she sees Gojo again for their monthly battle, even if it gets interrupted.

A/N: I didn't check this for errors cause my computers about to die but I wanted to post this for you guys!

Requests open!

In truth he found you incredible, but would he ever admit it? No. Of course not.

It was moments like this, the stars shining down on you and the wind blowing through your hair that made Gojo pause. He wished things could be different.

You could've been teaching alongside him, or anything else from the life you chose. He frowned to himself. Were you really happy?

At least twenty curses surrounded you. The dark purple aura slowly beginning to cover you from his view as you laughed in the distance. He just wanted a moment more to watch you before the inevitable battle before the two of you.

You knew he was there, close enough to see but too far away to touch. For now, you'd continue on as you were, playfully petting a curse on its head. It resembled a dog and chose to stay by your side, granted it looked and smelled horrendous but you'd take what you could get. They milled about you, waiting for their commands. They were all grade 3 curses, childs play for people like Gojo - people like you. But they weren't supposed to be strong, they were just to garner attention.

After the purple fog fully enveloped you Gojo knew it was time. You stood high on the tallest skyscraper, the clouds within reach.

You always thought Gojo was incredible. Irresistible looks, unbeatable strength, and a massive ego. Time spent with him was cherished, even if it meant small tricks and claims to get his attention but he never failed to deliver.

You heard his footsteps approach slowly, with your back turned the curses began to howl. A small smile tugged on the edges of your lips but you held it back. Slowly you turned to face him.

"Come with me." He said, Gojo had his hands in his pocket with a blindfold covering his eyes. You wondered if you'd ever be able to see them again.

"Traded out the glasses, huh?" You teased, "Do the students find it more intimidating." Sparks lit up your eyes as power began to surge through you.

Gojo smirked and flexed his muscles at you "I was always intimidating, just thought the blindfold added more flare."

He wished they'd stop sending him, the elders always too quick to call upon him once they knew you were involved. They started questioning why the job was never 'finished' they wanted you dead. You were the villain in this story, the creator of curses and sorrow. But how could someone so beautiful be so destructive? It didn't make sense to him.

The first time you'd met Gojo you were both 16. He was a student at the time, sent to a school to take down a low-level curse. It was a teaching method of his Sensei's to send his students alone on smaller tasks - one he ultimately ended up using himself. Instead, he found you surrounded in a purple haze curled into a ball.

You were so small at the time, anxious and afraid with tears streaming down your face. Gojo could feel the power inside you, radiating from your fragile body. It brought him to his knees in front of you. It was the first time you'd ever seen his eyes, hair hanging out in front of his face. He reached out to you, mesmerized by you.

He'd never encountered power like his before, different from his yet so similar in strength. Gojo was so distracted by you that he ignored the scattered limbs of what used to be your fellow classmates.

When he looked at you he was amazed, every single time. But you'd grown now, no longer the scared little girl who didn't know who or what you were. But you knew now. Years of hating yourself for what you were born as, what you'd accidentally do to people. Eventually, you embraced it.

In the years that you'd been actively on Gojo's radar, no one had narrowed down what you were. They knew you were human, a child abandoned and forced into foster care. From what he could tell your emotions were so strong that the smallest offense could make the curses in the surrounding 10 miles stronger and multiply them. You were no longer a grade 3 curse. You were special grade, a girl with explosive feelings that were considered to be on the same level as Sukuna.

You still didn't compare to Gojo though.

"Come with me, (y/n)" He repeated, his eyes desperate under the blindfold. He wondered if she could tell how much he wished she would listen to him.

She shook her head lightly, lowering her head to the ground. "You know I can't do that Satoru."

He nodded in response, he knew she was right. They'd execute her if she followed him back to the school. In a way (y/n) reminded him as Yuji, the elders were cowards whatever they couldn't understand they eliminated. Eventually, they'd meet the same unfortunate fate. Gojo wouldn't be able to protect either of them.

Gojo was shaken out of his thoughts by the sound of a single snap. Looking up he watched as all the curses surrounding her dive off the skyscraper and into the city set loose to wreak havoc. The dog-shaped curse stayed, wagging its crooked tailback and forth.

"Good," He teased, "Was starting to get a bit crowded up here."

The purple haze had almost completely disappeared from the rooftop once the curses left. You took a deep breath, "I'm not ready yet, Gojo. Ten minutes."

He jokingly checked his bare wrist as if looking at a watch "Fine" He pouted "But I'm counting."

You gave him a weak smile, walking over to the edge of the roof and sitting down, letting your legs hang over the edge. You'd be lying if you said looking down didn't make you feel sick, you were at least 100 stories above ground. But the lights were so pretty, the glow of all of them lit up the night, reflecting in your eyes. You felt his presence approach you, standing behind you as you sat.

"Why does it have to be this way?" You whispered, it was so quiet he might not have been able to hear you. It would've probably been for the best if he hadn't.

Hesitantly he placed his hand on your head, giving your hair a soft pat. He made you feel so little, so small in comparison. Just like the day you met. "Because life is unfair to powerful people."

You hummed at his response, "I wish things were different." You tilted your head up, looking at him through your lashes, hair falling in your face. "I wish we weren't such a mess."

"At least we're a beautiful mess." He said grinning down at you.

"I miss your eyes Gojo, why cover them like that all the time?" You asked, still staring at the dark blindfold. You could only imagine what shade of blue hid behind it.

"Decided not everyone should have the privilege to see these sparklers." The smile on his face grew as he said this, quirking his head to the side.

"Can I see them?" The more time you spent in his presence the calmer you felt. Gradually you felt the weight of your powers lift off your shoulder. A calm smile never had any trouble settling on your face whenever you were around him. It was hard to admit, even to yourself, but looking at his shining smile for the first time in months made you realize you'd missed him. "Please Gojo."

His grin faded into a soft smile. Nodding his head, Gojo reached up and began to untie the knot holding the blindfold.

"I think it's been ten minutes, Satoru. What do you think?" The voice made the two of you jump, Gojo's hands dropping away from the halfway untied covering. "Maybe you just got distracted with" He waved his hand around distastefully "This."

"Leave. Now." Gojo whispered, just low enough that the new man wouldn't be able to hear him. He seemed afraid, not of the man but of what would happen if any of his higher-ups found out about the two of you - whatever you were, even if you didn't know yourselves.

He stalked over the man, who was dressed impeccably in a white button-down. He held a wooden paddle tightly in his hand and pushed up his glasses as Gojo walked up to him.

"Look, Nanami, it's not what you think." He said holding up his hands defensively. Realistically he didn't know if his colleague would even believe any lie he could up of in time. Gojo tried to straighten himself out. Putting on his signature smirk, "You know how I get around the ladies. They just can't help themselves."

Nanami let out a sigh, looking at his friend with pity. "The way she looks at you... it's like she'd be willing to take a bullet for you." It wasn't normal the way you looked at Gojo. Like he was the sun and you were a flower stuck in the shade. "And I'm sure under that ridiculous blindfold you were looking at her like that too."

Gojo stayed quiet, the fake smirk dropping from his face. The silence hovered for a moment, making his chest fill with dread as Nanami thought it over in his head.

Suddenly he turned, beginning to walk towards the exit. "Come on, let's go."

"Are you going to tell anyone?" Gojo asked as he followed his coworker. He wrung his hands nervously together.

"No."

He let out a sigh of relief. A small smile began to tug at his lips, he was grateful to the blonde, not many people he knew would risk helping him like this. Subtly he looked over his shoulder.

Thankfully you were already gone, thankfully you were safe. At least for the time being. As he stepped towards the stairwell to make his way down the skyscraper, Gojo realized one thing:

You never got to see his eyes.

[annab-nana]

My Dork - Colby Brock

Sam and Colby invite you and Jake to explore a recently abandoned hospital with them and things don’t go according to plan.

@traphousedaily’s favorite xplr video project with: @lonely-xplr, @sarcasmhadachild, @gothtara, @reddesertcolbs, @reinad-snc, @cartiercolby, @colbylover99, @xplrtrash, @goddess-of-time-and-magic, @xolbyz, @myguiltypleasures21

A/N: I didn’t have a lot of time to edit this one, so sorry for any errors there might be :)

Warnings: some curse words

Word Count: 1.8k+

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

“This is the Saint Luke’s Medical Hospital,” Sam announced as he zoomed in on the large building ahead of you four. You were slightly freaked out by the number of signs telling you that there was a guard dog around that you should beware of, but the boys did not seem to care that much.

“Look, there’s a big fat boob on the top,” Jake whispered to the camera as he pointed to the brown dome shape that sat at the top of the building that also had a small cone on top of that, resulting in a breast shape.

“There’s a big fat boob right here,” Colby giggled as he pointed to your chest. Your eyes widened and you stifled a laugh. You two made those kinds of jokes all the time, but he has never done it on camera.

“Colby!” you shouted before chuckling at the joke. The other two boys laughed as well before continuing to walk forward.

“You’re supposed to honk ‘em, right?” Jake asked as he made grabby hands, still going along with the boob joke. He then made a car honking noise with his mouth, causing you three to burst out in laughter.

“Yes, Jake. Go do that. Your goal today is to get to the top and honk that boobie,” Sam influence his friend before Jake ran ahead and he made grabby hands towards the building.

“How do we explain that to security if we get caught? Like what were you doing in here? We’re trying to honk boobies,” Colby joked as you rolled your eyes, realizing you were stuck to explore this hospital with three immature idiots. A noise caught you all off guard and you looked to Colby as he looked off at the building.

“That’s the dog,” Sam mumbled, looking in the same direction as Colby. You walked forward with the group to see the dog that sat behind the glass-paneled door. The dog barked with each step you guys got closer. You, Jake, and Sam backed away, but Colby’s dog-loving heart got closer to talk to it.

“We’re gonna come explore this hospital, okay? And we’re just going to look around for a second, alright? And then, we’re gonna leave, okay?” he told the pup in his talking to animals voice.

“Wait, dude, if there’s a dog right there, that means there’s a person right next to it,” Sam warned.

“There’s just a guy just listening to me say ‘We’re just going to explore this hospital’,” Colby laughed at the thought as he walked away from the dog. You all went around the building to find the door that y’all saw earlier when checking the perimeter of the place. There was a door that was wide open, so you all figured that would be the best way to enter. Once you guys arrived at the door, Colby peeked his head in and began making kissy noises.

“What are you doing?” Sam asked his best friend.

“I’m just making sure the dog knows that we’re coming in,” he spoke with a giggle. “Dude, wait. This is the part where we decide right now, do we wanna get bit by a dog or do we wanna be safe?”

“Did you bring the meat?” Sam asked Jake and Colby before the two pointed at each other.

“Colby’s got a fat ass. Bro, that dog has food for days. Ain’t that right, y/n?” Jake asked you as you nodded your head confidently.

“Why do I always have to go first?” Colby whined before grabbing the camera from Sam and walking forward. When he walked in the door, you all heard a click. You all walked away from the door to discuss the noise before deciding to go back.

“Dude, the click was because this door is automatic,” you told them when Sam went in and waved his hand near the door.

“Yeah, that’s it,” Sam said as he popped back out. “But it smells really bad. We should put on our masks in here.”

Colby handed you and Jake each a mask from Sam’s backpack before you put on the infamous black mask. Now, it was finally time to go in. Sam led the pack as he filmed, you and Colby followed with joined hands, and Jake was the caboose as he looked around at everything.

“You look adorable in your mask,” Colby bent down to whisper.

“You can only see my eyes, you asshole,” you giggled.

“Yeah, but I love your eyes.” You batted your eyelashes at the compliment before maintaining your focus ahead of you once more. Y’all made it to some stairs and made sure to take light and slow steps to lessen the risk of noise so the dog won’t find you. Once up the stairs, you went through a door that was already cracked open.

As you walked down the hallway with the guys, you realized how cool it was that you were doing. You had explored plenty of abandoned places with Colby, but they were all run down and broken and dirty. This place, however, still had running lights and literally felt like you were in a running hospital that had zero people in it.

You guys roamed the halls slowly as you tried to stay quiet. Eventually, you reached what looked like the hall where the patients lived. Everything was dead silent before Jake dropped something and it landed with a loud thud that bounced off the walls for anyone in the building to hear.

“Jake!” you whisper shouted.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, and you all moved to leave the room, not before he ran into something else and caused a ruckus. He muttered another apology and y’all left the room.

“Listen, we’re gonna fucking die. We’re gonna fucking die if y’all don’t stop making fucking noise. Okay?” Colby whispered to Sam who was filming him. You let out a small giggle before Jake spoke.

“It was my fault. I’m sorry.” Moments later, he made yet another noise while shutting a door behind him. Sam and Jake split off one way down the hall while you and Colby went the other.

“Yo, look at this,” Colby whispered when he knelt down to grab a sign that was laying on the floor. He turned around before showing it to you. It was a sign that told you which way the surgery recovery unit was and the stroke specialist unit too. “Should I keep this?”

“I don’t see why not.” He did a small happy dance and kissed you on the cheek before walking back to Sam and Jake.

Next, y’all found the best part of the building. It still had chairs and beds and literally looked like an actual hospital. You found the waiting area where the room was lined with red chairs. The next room over had some beds in it, but that was it. The last room in the hall looked the best. It had beds, counters, cabinets, an overhead light that you could move around, but you guys couldn’t stay long because a whistle was heard. So quickly, you four took a thumbnail picture before trying to leave. Of course, the boys got sidetracked when they saw a microphone that was linked to a speaker system.

“Sir, your penis appointment is scheduled,” Jake whispered into the mic before Colby went next.

“Could we have Larry with the case of gonorrhea come to the front office please. Thank you.”

Then, they realized it was time to go. Y’all speed-walked the way you came, but when you guys reached a door, Colby accidentally pushed the handle and an alarm sounded went off.

“Oh, shit. Shit. Shit. Shit,” Sam mumbled as speed walking turned into running. You four ran down the stairs and out of the building. Y’all walked slowly for a second to catch your breath and then took off again for the car. You threw open the back door and slipped in, leaving the door open so Jake could get in too. Colby placed the surgery sign next to you and got in the front. Right as Colby drove off, a police car passed by and turned into the hospital.

“That was crazy,” you stated as your breathing finally calmed down.

“I kinda wanna explore more of it next time,” Jake told Sam. You looked at him with wide eyes. The one who caused most of the noise wanted to go back. He may not have tripped the alarm this time, but if there was going to be a next time, he definitely would be the one to do it. “I feel like we should do a part two.”

“I feel like we should do a part two to that,” Sam agreed as he looked to Colby. Jake and Sam kept encouraging the idea before Colby spoke up.

“Yo, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“You don’t think that’s a good idea?” Sam questioned.

“No, we just barely got out of there.” Colby continued.

“And Jake can’t stay quiet to save his life,” you added before Jake gasped.

“Hey!”

“It’s true,” you told him with a smile.

“What if we bring dog treats?” Sam suggested.

“For the police? Because the dog wasn’t coming for us. It was the police,” you said to them.

“Okay, let’s think reasonably here,” Colby told Jake and Sam.

“What if we did? Like what if we got dog treats?” Jake imagined.

“No,” Colby protested.

“Do you think they’re trained not to care about anything?” Sam asked.

“Yes!” Colby said with enthusiasm. You rolled your eyes in the backseat. Sam was supposed to be the smart one, but right now, he wasn’t really showing that. “Okay, you really think a dog is gonna see you and start charging at you and you’re like ‘Hey, here’s a treat. Go get it,’ and it’s just gonna go. Like, come on now.”

“That stuff only happens in cartoons, Sam,” you told the blond.

“Alright, eighty-five thousand likes and we’ll do it,” he said to the camera as he completely ignored what you and Colby had said which you two gave up and nodded along.

Later on when you all came back to the trap house, you and Colby laid in bed to think about what had happened.

“That was crazy,” you started as your head hit his chest.

“I can’t believe they thought we just needed some dog treats, and it would all be better.”

“I can believe that Jake would think that, but I thought Sam was smarter than that.” You both laughed before silence fell over you two.

“But that place was really cool and pretty. Thanks for taking me,” you whispered.

“You’re really cool and pretty,” Colby added in.

“You are such a dork,” you giggled before kissing his lips.

“I’m your dork though.”

“Yes, you are my dork.”

[polaroid15]

The Words I Never Said

Summary: “I am a scientist, Peter. You are an experiment. It’s the natural order of things, really, that I study you.”

“You’re insane. You have to let me go.”

“I don’t think you understand, so I will try to be more clear. I own you. My research courses through your veins. Your life is my property.”

Or, Norman Osborn kidnaps Peter, and Tony will do anything to get him back.

Read on Ao3 HERE :)

--------

Peter knows something is wrong as soon as Happy’s ID fills his phone screen.

He’s sitting on the edge of a rooftop, legs dangling fifty feet in the air and a half eaten sandwich from Delmar’s in his hand. Not even waiting to swallow, Peter accepts the call. “Happy? What is it, what’s wrong?”

At first, he’s met with an uneasy silence. His spider sense flares uncomfortably in response. “Why do you always assume something’s wrong?” Happy asks.

“Because something always is.”

Happy sighs. “It’s Tony.”

If Peter weren’t sitting, he would have fallen. He steadies himself anyways, leaning back as the cityscape below threatens vertigo. “What? What about him? Is he okay?”

The silence again. God, it’s killing him. Peter can hear his heartbeat in his ears. “Happy,” he stresses. “Talk to me. Is he okay?”

“As far as I know, he’s fine. I got a ransom call about fifteen minutes ago. Oscorp has him.”

Peter’s head is a top spinning out of control. He drops his sandwich and stands, too upset to stay stationary. He paces on the roof with his free hand on his head. “Oscorp? Are you kidding me? What- how the hell did this happen? What does Oscorp want with Tony?”

“It’s a long story. But listen- it’s not Tony that they’re really after, kid.”

Peter stops short in his frantic pacing, his spider sense flaring once more. “What is it then?”

“They want Spider-Man. They want you in exchange for Tony’s life.”

Peter can’t breathe, all the puzzle pieces clicking into place. Oh man.

“I’ll do it,” he says, though somewhere in the promise his confidence wavers. “Do you know where in Oscorp he’s being held?”

“No- Pete. Listen to me right now. God, I shouldn’t have called. You can’t just barge in there, okay? We need to strategize. Swing to the Tower and we’ll make a plan to get him back safe without putting you at risk too.”

“He could be dead by then!” Peter argues stubbornly. He spins on his heels and sees the top of Oscorp tower, barely visible through the New York skyline. “It’s me they want.”

Happy’s voice rises, and if Peter wasn’t so hyperfocused on his mentor’s safety he would hear the man’s raw concern bleeding through. “Peter. You are not handing yourself over to Oscorp. Come to the Tower and we’ll figure out a way. There’s a better way.”

“I can’t let him die because of me,” Peter whispers, because Ben already has. No more blood. “I’m sorry Happy. I’ll be careful. I promise.”

“Peter! Don’t you dare hang up-”

But he does, his adrenaline making it almost impossible to feel the sting of guilt that follows. After tucking his phone away, Peter sprints to the edge of the roof and leaps. He free falls and fires a web, swings, and prays that he won’t be too late.

-------

“He’s not going to come. I’m terrible leverage.”

“On the contrary, Stark.”

Tony flexes his arms against his restraints and grinds his teeth together until his jaw aches. They had called Happy. Made their demands. Spider-Man, in exchange for his life.

Peter.

“Whatever you think you know, you’re wrong. I hardly know Spider-Man. I built his suit. That’s it.” A lie. God, it’s such a lie. Peter is his kid. As close to flesh and blood as he’ll ever get. “He’s not coming, so you might as well put a bullet between my eyes while you still have the upper hand.”

Tony doesn’t know the names of the men holding him, only that Norman is behind it all. There are five of them all together, each one armed with an assault rifle and military-grade vests. The ringleader, and ugly man with a pierced lip, smirks at Tony’s suggestion. “If Spider-Man is half the hero he claims to be, he’ll come.”

It leaves Tony’s mouth dry, because it’s true. Peter will do anything to keep him safe.

And it scares the hell out of him.

“The hour’s almost up,” one of the men says. “If Spidey doesn’t show soon our heads are on the line.”

“He’ll show,” sneers the man with the piercing. “Be patient.”

Tony pulls harder on his restraints, but they don’t budge. Come on, Happy. Fix this.

Five tortuous minutes pass.

The elevator dings as the doors open, spilling orange light into the dimly lit room. It’s empty and the ringleader curses, raising his rifle to his eye. “Check it out,” he orders the man to his left.

Obeying, the accomplice moves quickly towards the open elevator, his heavy footsteps making loud echoes that reverberate through Tony’s head. The anticipation is overwhelming. Please don’t be Peter. Oh God, please don’t let it be him.

The doors start to close but the man reaches out a hand to stop the movement. Tony holds his breath, hands sweating and heartbeat threatening to jump out of his neck at what lies beyond. It’s the longest second of his life.

The man looks left, right. Then up. “Holy crap!”

The sound of webbing is enough to bring tears of panic to Tony’s eyes. He digs his nails into the chair and watches in earnest as the man falls back against the floor, his entire upper body encased in webs that keep him in place.

Chaos.

Before Tony has the chance to blink, Peter is swinging out from the elevator and shooting off webs. They hit and shatter glass, and Tony ducks as gunshots start to fire. He feels a rough hand in his hair that is gone a second later, a web hitting his assailant’s face and landing him flat on his back.

More gunshots. A window erupts into thousands of fragments.

Silence.

Tony jerks up his head, dizzy with relief when his eyes land on Peter. The boy is sprinting towards him, sliding on his knees and grappling with Tony’s bindings until they snap. “Oh my god! Are you okay? Please tell me you’re okay. I’m so sorry this is all my fault and I can’t believe they fell for that elevator trick-”

“Kid!” Tony interrupts, grabbing him at the shoulders and shaking lightly. “You can’t be here!”

“But-”

“They want you, idiot! Not me.”

Peter squirms away from his grip before turning his head sharply towards the staircase, a tic Tony has come to recognize as his Peter tingle in action. “More are on their way. No time to argue. We gotta go!”

Knowing better than to object, he allows Peter to help him to his feet and stumble towards the elevator. His legs are cramped and stiff from sitting in the chair for so long, but the adrenaline of keeping Peter safe stows the pain somewhere he can’t feel it.

Behind them, the door to the staircase slams open. There’s gunshots and yells and in the crescendo of the noise, Peter pushes him forward. The force of it knocks him off balance and he slides the last couple of feet into the elevator, landing awkwardly against the back wall. Peter scrambles in moments later, his breathing ragged. “Get the door!” he screams.

Tony fights to get to his knees and slams his hand against the button for the parking garage. Bullets tear into the metal as the doors close.

They make it.

“Oh thank god,” Tony exhales, sliding down the wall. “Nice moves, kid.”

“T-Tony?” Peter stammers, his back turned. Something in his voice makes Tony’s blood run cold.

“Pete? What is it?”

Peter turns slowly, his hand pressed hard against the base of his ribcage. Tony doesn’t need to look hard to know he’s bleeding. That he got shot-

“No. Peter-” Before he can finish, Peter collapses down to his knees. Tony moves faster than ever to help soften the fall, his hands moving on instinct to cover the growing warmth on the kid’s side. “This can’t- You can’t-”

“Sorry,” Peter murmurs. “There were too many. Didn’t mean to.”

“Obviously not!”

The elevator lurches horribly, the small space going dark as they stop. Tony curses loudly as the elevator fills with soft yellow emergency lights. Under his hands, Peter laughs. It’s delirious. “They cut the power. Smart.”

“Not smart!” Tony hisses. “Now we’re trapped.”

“Don’t say that,” Peter whines. “You know I’m claustrophobic.”

“Why did you come here? What the hell were you thinking?”

Peter gapes at him, eyelids drooping. “Are you kidding me? I just saved your ass!”

“No, you’re going to get us both killed!”

“That’s not going to happen!” Peter says, struggling to get up before moaning and collapsing back. Tony’s knees are sticky with what can only be a growing pool of the boy’s blood. He tries very hard not to think about it.

Tony pushes Peter’s head back, his touch leaving tiny smudges of red under the boy’s hairline. Fix this. Fix him. “Stay down Pete. Moving around is only going to make the bleeding worse.”

“Yeah, I feel that,” Peter wheezes. His face is about a dozen shades more pale than normal. “Must’ve- must’ve hit something important.”

The dark crimson spreads. Tony is three seconds away from a panic attack. “Side wounds bleed a lot. Just try and stay awake, alright buddy?”

Peter hums, his eyes hazy as they trace the four walls keeping them captive. “I hate small spaces.”

“I know. I’m sorry. This is all such a damn mess.”

“Couldn’t leave you,” Peter slurs.

“You should’ve.”

“If it were me, you would- you would have done the same thing.”

Through the dim emergency lighting, Tony sees Peter begin to shiver. He wonders if it’s from the shock or the blood loss. Maybe it’s some sick combination of the two. Tony presses his hands down harder against the wound and Peter cries out, his eyes rolling back.

“Hey, hey. Focus up kid. Don’t go anywhere. You want to save me? Then save me. You can’t do that if you’re unconscious.”

Peter’s eyelids flutter but stay stubbornly open, his chest heaving with laboured breaths. His lips are crimson. He looks up at Tony in a daze. “Never been shot before,” he murmurs. “Ben-”

“Don’t go there,” Tony interrupts, mouth going sour. “Don’t think about it.”

“Kinda- kinda hard not too.”

God, this kid.

The stain underneath Peter grows further, pooling underneath Tony’s shins. “Think you can web the wound? It’ll- it’ll slow the bleeding. Buy us some time.”

“Time,” Peter agrees, lifting a shaky hand. “Help me.”

Together, they seal the wound closed. It saturates quickly but holds, though for how long is uncertain. His hands are free now, covered completely with Peter’s blood. It’s impossible to look away.

“Hey,” Peter says, covering Tony’s hand with his own and pushing them down. As if everything around them has slowed, Tony meets Peter’s eyes. “It’s okay. Happy is on his way-”

The elevator lurches again, the emergency lights replaced by the regular ones. Both flinch against the brightness, the gore of Peter’s wound even more vivid and launching Tony’s heart into his throat.

“This’ll be a good story one day,” Peter says breathlessly, paling further as the webbing over his side begins to leak.

“You’re not funny, kid.” His hands are shaking too badly to do anything. He prays that whoever is waiting for them at the bottom is friendly, that Happy found a way to save them.

“I mean it,” Peter says, smiling up at him. Even with blood stained teeth, Tony can’t help the rush of fondness that washes over him. “Never a dull moment.”

“God, Pete. If you only knew how many gray hairs you’ve given me-”

“Gray hair is in right now. Very trendy.”

The elevator hits its destination. Tony turns his back on Peter to face the doors head on, his arms splayed out wide to protect him. “Look, kid. Whatever happens-”

The door springs open. Too quick. A dozen men stand waiting, their weapons trained to shoot. Peter gasps behind him as he struggles to get up, and Tony sacrifices a hand to push him back gently.

“We only want Spider-Man. This doesn’t have to concern you, Stark.”

Rage, hot and consuming rises up through Tony’s chest. “If you want him, you have to go through me.”

Peter makes a low noise of protest, words seemingly beyond him. He feels the kid’s weak hand circle around his wrist, his thumb slick with blood running what should be a comforting line across his pulse point.

“Whatever you say.”

They surge forward. Tony struggles and screams but it’s hopeless. There’s too many of them. He’s wrestled away from the elevator and dragged out into the garage. “Don’t touch him!” Tony spits, too desperate to breathe. He watches in horror as they swarm Peter’s body, grabbing his limbs ungently and extracting him. It leaves a gruesome streak of red.

“NO!” Tony fights. He fights with everything he has. Because it’s Peter. It’s his kid, and it’s his own damn fault that they’re in this mess to begin with. “I’ll kill you! If you touch a hair on his head, I’ll-”

Something hard slams against his forehead, stunning him. The world goes blurry as his body loses its strength. He pitches forward and sees Peter on the brink of unconsciousness reach out for him.

He already knows they’ve lost. He reaches back anyways.

A boot slams into his temple.

And then there’s nothing.

----------

“-ony.”

“-hear me?”

“Damn it.”

Static. Darkness.

“Give him some space!”

It’s a battle to stick to reality. For now, he’s blissfully unaware, concerned only with how difficult it is to open his eyes.

“Come on, boss. Now would be a good time to show some life.”

The voice is familiar. Safe. Tony tries again to climb out of the dark hole he’s stuck in and manages, by some miracle, to regain his sight. The first thing he sees is Happy leaning over him, his face pinched in worry. “Thank God. You still got all your brains?”

“Happy?” Tony mumbles, the static still hanging heavy in his brain. “What-” he turns his head, sees an impossible amount of blood, and nearly passes right the hell back out. Peter. Oscorp. “Oh my god. P-Peter. They have Peter.”

“Take it easy,” Happy says, using both arms to help support Tony in his struggle to sit. “You took a hard hit to the head.”

“Peter was shot. They- they took him.”

“Calm down, boss. We’re going to get him back.”

“No. No, Happy you don’t understand-” Hot blood. A red hand reaching out for him. “Oh Christ. I can’t- I can’t-”

“Yes you can. You can. It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay,” Tony gasps, his eyes stinging as Happy guides his head down to hang by his knees. He can’t see the blood anymore. It helps.

“He’s a tough kid. Norman’s an idiot. We’ll have him back in no time.”

“He’s just a kid, Hap.” My kid. “This is all my fault.”

“No,” Happy says, his hand squeezing Tony’s shoulder in feeble reassurance. “I called him. If anything, it’s mine. I should’ve known he’d swing over here guns blazing.”

Head still spinning, Tony tries to focus on bringing air into his chest. You can’t help Peter like this. Get better. Breathe. “He wanted to save me.”

Happy is quiet for a long time. Then, “he did save you.”

Tony squeezes his eyes shut. “He sure has a habit of that doesn’t he?”

Beside him, Happy nods. Tony catches him looking at the elevator with a look of foreign bitterness.

“Now it’s our turn.”

---------

Peter wakes up alone.

It’s disorienting and painful, his mind clouded and his stomach tied into nauseating knots. It doesn’t take him long to remember what happened.

He’s tied down to a chair, his hands cuffed tight behind him with something strong enough to keep him in place. Vibranium, possibly. Or maybe it’s just the blood loss making him weak.

Stifling a groan, Peter rolls his head until it rests on his chest instead of hanging back. He’s not wearing his suit anymore. In its place, a pair of medical pants and a loose fitting t-shirt. Trying hard not to dwell on the invasion, he realizes his mask is gone, which doesn’t surprise him but is scary nonetheless.

They know who he is.

The shirt is bloodstained, but barely. Rather they stitched him up or his healing factor kicked in enough to close the skin. Regardless, the wound stings. Peter tries to ignore it.

Certain he’s not at risk of dropping dead, Peter expands his attention to his surroundings. Another facility, by the looks of it. The walls are white and albeit a little worn down. Old lab equipment and machinery litters the perimeter in no particular order or fashion, suggesting he’s in some kind of storage room.

He tugs on his cuffs and thinks of Tony.

He should’ve listened to Happy.

Before his thoughts can venture farther the door to the room opens. Norman Osborn fills its space and Peter shrinks away, fighting once more with his restraints. He’s alone. “Hello Peter.”

Heart beating hard against his ribs, Peter tries not to show the fear he feels. He raises his chin. “You’re a monster,” he says.

Norman chuckles like they’re good friends catching up after many years of being apart. He steps into the room and closes the door behind him. “It seems, Mr. Parker, that the only monster here is you.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Of course I do,” Norman says, “because I made you, didn’t I?”

“My powers have nothing to do with you.”

“Lying will profit you nothing.”

Peter can’t decipher between his anger and his fear, a hate he didn’t know he was capable of burning low in the center of his chest. “What do you want with me?”

Norman’s eyes light up as if he’s been waiting for Peter to ask all along. With the gait of someone at perfect ease, he strays closer and leans against an old lab table. “I am a scientist, Peter. You are an experiment. It’s the natural order of things, really, that I study you.”

“You’re insane. You have to let me go.”

“I don’t think you understand, so I will try to be more clear. I own you. My research courses through your veins. Your life is my property.”

Peter feels his walls crumbling. He strains his wrists even after he feels his skin split underneath.

“I don’t belong to anyone. You’re sick and you’ll never get away with this.”

Norman comes up beside him and backhands him so hard that Peter sees stars. It’s more shocking than painful, though his mouth fills with blood.

“You are not in the position to be disrespectful, Mr. Parker.”

Peter spits the blood in his mouth at Norman’s feet. “Tony will come for me.”

“Oh Peter,” Norman says softly. He straightens, his long shadow covering Peter’s small form. “Tony Stark is dead.”

Peter’s insides freeze. He stops breathing. Norman slips his hand into his pocket and reveals a syringe filled with clear liquid. He continues to smile, seeming to enjoy Peter’s distress. “You’re lying,” he chokes when no other words come. Because it can’t be true. He doesn’t remember a lot after the elevator had opened. Only that they had dragged Tony away from him. But he had been alive, then. Alive, not dead.

“I’m afraid not. One of my men shot him in the head when he resisted. I suppose Iron Man was not as indestructible as we thought. Now, try not to squirm.” Norman slides the needle under the skin at his neck. Peter doesn’t even feel it, his body numb with shock.

“No. No. It’s not true. It’s not-”

A wave of dizziness hits Peter hard, more powerful than when he had been bleeding out in the elevator. In an instant, all the strength in his body disappears and his head lolls back against the chair. Through tunneling vision, he sees Norman smirk. “You should’ve done a better job at protecting him,” he says.

Tony. Hot tears leak down the sides of Peter’s face. His heart is going to beat straight out of his freaking chest.

It’s the last thing he remembers.

-------

“We need to find him.”

“Tony, calm down. Let the Doctor look you over.”

Tony squirms away. He feels like he’s trapped. “No. We’re wasting time! Osborn has Peter and he’s going to kill him-”

Happy gestures for the Doctor to step away. Looking conflicted, she nods. When the door closes behind her Happy kneels in front of where Tony sits and places both hands on his shoulders. “If Osborn wanted Peter dead he wouldn’t have taken him. He would’ve just killed him at Oscorp. We’ll find him, but you need to get checked out first. You’ll be no good for Peter in the state you’re in right now, you hear me?”

Though it should be impossible, Tony manages to nod.

Obvious relief colours Happy’s face. “I’ll get the Doctor back in here. Keep breathing, boss.”

Peter. Gone. His fault.

“Right.”

----------

The drug Norman had injected into him doesn’t last long. Peter wakes up strapped to a table, a blinding light pointed directly at his face and the shadows of scientists surrounding him on all sides. They peer down at him like he’s the most fascinating thing they’ve ever seen, bloody instruments paused in their hands as he struggles to get the cotton out of his brain.

“Amazing. Awake already. Inject him again, but double the dose this time.”

“No,” Peter moans, his voice nearly inaudible. He tries to move and can’t. “P-please.”

He doesn’t feel the needle. He doesn’t feel the pain. It’s almost more scary this way.

“Sleep, Spider. Let us do our work.”

His body is weak. Tony is dead. Peter doesn’t even try to hold on.

This time, he’s out for good.

---------

Tony gets three stitches in his head. It’s uncomfortable but nothing in comparison to the heaviness in his chest.

“Any luck with Oscorp’s records FRI?”

“My system does not detect any Oscorp facilities that are unaccounted for. Facial recognition and security camera data is currently underway.”

Beside him, Happy holds his breath. They’re on thin ice and Tony is two seconds away from knocking down every building in New York. “Double time, FRI.”

It’s been three hours since he lost Peter.

Tony doesn’t let himself think the worst.

--------

Peter is back in the chair.

Every inch of him hurts, the scattered pain somehow much worse than the intense localized agony of the gunshot wound. He refuses to look down at his body, to see what Osborn has reduced him to.

I own you.

Tony Stark is dead.

This time, they’ve gagged him. When Peter cries, he can barely hear the sound to his own ears. He feels like he’s falling down a steep cliff, unable to find purchase or stop his descent. For the first time since he’d been bit, Peter sincerely wishes none of it had ever happened.

Tony is dead and Peter has no one to blame but himself. He wishes they had more time, that he had told Tony the things he’d always wanted to but never had the courage to verbalize.

His stilted sobs make his side scream in pain. Peter loses his breath.

He hopes Happy is looking for him.

But maybe he doesn’t deserve it.

--------

It’s another long hour before FRIDAY finishes her search. “Boss, I have identified three probable locations for Mr. Parker.”

His relief is a dam breaking open in his chest. “What’s the most probable?”

“Sending the coordinates to your suit now.”

It’s all he needs to hear. Metal encloses around his body and Happy sprints towards the car.

For the first time in hours Tony feels hope.

I’m coming Pete, he thinks. I’ll get you back.

No matter the cost.

--------

Peter is drifting when Norman comes back to his room, though from the drugs or the pain he isn't sure. The man drags in a chair this time and sets it in front of Peter, sitting comfortably with a manilla folder on his lap.

Without his voice, all Peter can do is glare.

“Now, now, Peter. There’s no need for such hostility.”

Go to hell, he tries to stay. It comes out as a pathetic jumble of words.

“Even gagged, you’re too mouthy for your own good. Speaking is a privilege, Mr. Parker. In time you will learn that.”

Tears well in Peter’s eyes. He blinks furiously to prevent them from falling.

“Congratulations on completing your first session. You truly are remarkable. The results my colleagues have shown me are almost too good to be true.”

Peter closes his eyes and breathes carefully through his nose. He wants this to be a dream. A horrible, terrible dream. Because if it’s a dream he can wake up. He can wake up and Tony will be alive. The pain will disappear.

“It’s funny, isn’t it?” Norman muses, “how this all came to be. A school field trip, correct? The chances are nearly impossible. It’s almost like this was meant to be.”

Peter stays perfectly still and quiet. Norman’s hand clamps around his jaw and shakes his head hard. Crying out into the gag, Peter tries to flinch away, but the man is too close. He can smell his cologne, which in reality probably costs more than Peter’s entire life. “You will look at me when I speak to you, understood?”

If Peter could spit in his face, he would. He jerks in his cuffs, his anger giving him the strength he needs for his defiance. Norman hits him for a second time. This time, in the eye. Peter has had enough experience to know it will swell.

“You’re lucky we still need you,” Norman says.

Peter glares, feeling sick enough to throw up as Norman pulls out another syringe. “Ready for round two?”

--------

The first location is a dead end. Tony checks it three times over to make sure he isn’t missing anything.

It’s been five hours.

“FRI. What’re the next coordinates?”

He doesn’t give himself the luxury to be afraid of what he might find.

--------

Peter wakes up screaming.

He doesn’t know why, at first. Only that he’s lying flat on a cold table, pinned and surrounded by strangers.

Then he feels the pain.

White hot. All consuming. Mind melting. It’s so intense that he doesn’t really comprehend where it’s coming from, or if he’ll be able to survive it. His muscles strain and stretch under the restraints, and then one of his hands breaks free all together. It lashes out, hitting the scientist closest and throwing him across the room. If Peter were more lucid he would hear the crunch of bone against the wall, or the yells of the others.

But he doesn’t.

His body clinging to freedom, his hand continues to fight desperately. He manages to hit away another scientist before three sets of hands press his arm down hard against the table. A sharp jab in his neck lets him know he’s been injected again. His limbs lose some strength, his mind fogging, but it’s not enough. Peter screams and fights. He cries.

Somewhere in the distance, a door is thrown open. Through the kaleidoscopic mess of his vision Peter sees Norman and cries harder. “S-stop-”

Norman’s hand closes around Peter’s neck and squeezes. “You don’t have a say over what happens to you. Do you understand? I own you!” He applies more pressure and Peter wonders distantly if his eyes will pop straight out of his head. “I. Own. You.”

Peter loses control over his body. His lungs stall in his chest. Only then does Norman let go, wiping his hand on his jacket. “Keep going,” he orders.

Peter is too exhausted to sob, darkness gathering around his vision. I’m going to die, he realizes.

Something hits his head hard, and he welcomes the escape with open arms.

--------

Seven hours. Tony’s tracked the three locations, all proving to be as useful as the last. His patience is slipping, his resolve shaken.

“FRI? I could really use a miracle right now.”

“Retrieving coordinates for the next location: an Oscorp storage facility in Staten Island.”

“Thanks. Send Happy the same.”

“Of course.”

Tony flies like his life depends on it. Because really, it does. If he loses Peter-

Stop, he chastises himself. Focus. It’s not over yet.

Fifteen minutes later, Tony lands hard enough to dent the cement under foot outside the storage facility. On the outside, his chances look bleak. Dark windows, no cars in the lot. “FRI, can you pick up any heat signatures?”

After a short pause, FRIDAY replies. “There are approximately ten heat signatures detected inside.”

“Oh god. Do any match Peter?”

“Yes, boss, it appears so.”

His legs turn to jelly. “Tell- tell Happy. I’m going in.”

“Sending a message to Happy Hogan.”

“Best point of entry?”

“The front door will be fine, sir.”

Tony follows FRIDAY’s prompts from the dark entrance to one of the building’s sublevels. Once close enough, he hears voices. Laughter, even. “FRI?” he whispers.

“The door to your left,” she supplies.

Tony wastes no time in blasting it off its hinges. Halted screams come from the smoking wreckage as Tony steps through. It appears to be some sort of staff room, a large group of men and women in lab coats sitting around a circular table. They stare at him with wide, disbelieving eyes.

“Spider-Man,” Tony demands. “Where the hell is he?”

No one answers. He fires a repulsor at the ceiling.

“Norman has him!” one of them yell, hands raised to shield her head. “Follow the corridor down to the end. You’ll- you’ll find him in there.”

Tony can hardly see straight in his relief. He backs out of the room, dislodging a drone from his suit to block their exit. “If any of you try to leave, this will shoot. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

He runs.

The end of the corridor.

Peter. Peter. Peter-

After confirmation from FRIDAY, Tony kicks down the door in question. His blood goes cold. Because it’s Peter- his kid- cuffed with his hands behind his back and a thick gag around his mouth. His head is tipped back, his eyes closed. He’s covered in so much blood that Tony has trouble seeing parts of him that are clean.

And beside him, Osborn.

He fires a repulsor at the man before his mind can catch up. It hits Osborn in the chest and he flies back, hitting the wall with a loud grunt and sliding down to the floor. Though painful, Tony steps past Peter’s lax body. He’s not sure if he’s awake. Or even alive.

“Wait!” Norman yells, raising his hands in defense. “You can’t- you can’t do this.”

“Like hell I can’t,” Tony growls, his palm growing hot. He raises it to Norman’s face. “You took my kid. You hurt him.”

“Peter’s life ceased being his own the moment he was bitten by my spider. I have the right to study him, to learn from what I created.”

“You’re an animal. I should kill you right now.”

“But you won’t,” Norman counters, his eyes glinting against the fire in Tony’s hand. “Because if you do, Peter will never forgive you. He’s good, Stark. Too good for you. And you know that.”

Tony clenches his jaw hard, his heart beating loud in his ears. He thinks of Peter sitting on a table in the lab, kicking his feet and laughing at a joke Tony had told. He thinks of the boy thumb wrestling with Happy and the cheesy birthday card he had made Tony last year.

“You’re right,” Tony says, lowering his hand. “I won’t kill you.”

Norman perks, his mouth curling.

“But you’re going to wish I had.”

And with that, Tony hits him across the face. Harder than he should. Osborn goes limp against the wall.

Behind him, Peter moans.

“Peter-”

Tony removes his faceplate and collapses at Peter’s feet. One of the boy’s eyes is open to a slit, the other swollen shut. When he connects with Tony his eyebrows draw together in confusion. Then, without further warning, he begins to cry.

“Hey, hey, woah. It’s okay kiddo. I’m here.” He reaches up and gently removes the gag from Peter’s mouth, the skin underneath it raw and chapped. “I’m here, buddy. Don’t cry.”

Peter doesn’t look any less comforted. He strains against his bindings. “Are you real?” he whispers, his voice cracked and strained. Only now does Tony see the dark bruising around the kid’s neck. The sight brings bile up his throat.

“I’m real,” he promises, reaching up his hands to card through Peter’s hair. “I’m here.”

Peter sobs again, going limp. Tony catches him against his chest and cradles him close. “They told- they told me they shot you,” Peter says. “They told me you were dead.”

Tears of his own well in Tony’s eyes. He presses his cheek into Peter’s hair. “I’m not dead,” he says, voice wavering. “I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.”

“Thought it was my fault,” Peter slurs. More of his weight dips into Tony’s chest as he goes quiet.

“Kid?” Tony shifts so he can see Peter’s face. His eyes are closed, his breaths short and laboured. “Damn it! Pete, can you hear me?”

Happy chooses this moment to arrive. He swings into the room, a pistol curled around his fingers and his eyes wider than Tony’s ever seen them. “Is he-?”

“Alive,” Tony chokes. “He was talking just a second ago. I don’t know what happened.”

“It looks like they tried to pull him apart.”

And it’s true.

“Call a med team. The police- the whole works. I need to get him out of this chair.”

“On it,” Happy says. His eyes linger on Peter in obvious distress before he flees from the room, pulling out his phone and barking out orders.

“Alright Petey. Hang tight.” Tony positions his limp body against the back of the chair, trying not to dwell on how unalive he looks. He ventures to Osborn’s body, retrieves a promising ring of keys, and returns back to Peter.

“I got you kid. I got you.” His hands are shaking too badly to fit the key in the small slot at the base of the cuff. He has to sit back on his heels and take ten measured breaths before he tries again. This time it works and Peter’s arms pop free.

Without the restraint, Peter’s body tips forward. With an aborted yell, Tony lunges forward to catch him. They end up in a tangled heap on the dirty floor, Peter’s head pillowed in his lap.

“Oh Pete. Oh god. W-wake up. It’s over now.”

Nothing. Above the bruises, there’s half a dozen needle marks in his neck.

“Peter? Come on, bud. Wake up.”

Wake up. Wake up.

He rocks the kid in his lap until help arrives, refusing even for a moment to let go.

-------

Peter realizes three things in quick succession when he wakes up.

First, it’s quiet, and the distinct lack of his spider sense is more than relieving. He’s safe, he realizes. Which two, means it’s over.

His vision struggles to keep up with his waking body but after a few long blinks the blurred medbay comes into sharper focus. He sees May’s purse, though she herself isn’t in the room. And with a stiff turn of his head, Peter comes to terms with thing number three.

Tony.

The man is slumped in a chair beside his bed, his head tipped back as he snores. The events of his rescue rush back into his head with such force it leaves him dizzy. Without further warning, tears leak out of his eyes.

Alive. He’s alive.

They both are.

As if Tony has a fifth sense of his own, he shifts in his sleep and his head dips. The jerky movement must be enough to wake him because within seconds, his eyes open. They connect with Peter fast, widening when he registers that Peter’s awake.

“Oh Pete,” he says, rubbing at his eyes and leaning forward. “What’s wrong? Are- are you okay bud?”

Peter lifts a heavy hand to wipe the moisture from his cheeks. “Sorry,” he whispers, trying for a smile. “Must be the drugs.”

The creases on Tony’s forehead smooth. He returns Peter’s smile, though some deep abiding concern rests in his eyes. “God, it’s good to see you awake. You gave us all a good scare.”

“Right,” Peter agrees, his strength already dwindling. He casts a sideway glance over at May’s purse. “Is she- is she okay?”

“She’s happy you’re safe. That you’re getting better. She just went to grab some food. She’ll be back real soon.”

Peter’s insides feel hollowed out. He thinks of Norman standing over him. I own you. “Oh. That’s good.”

Tony scoots closer in his chair. “How’re you feeling bud? Any pain?”

To Peter’s embarrassment, another tear leaks out of his eye. He catches it quickly and sucks in a shaky breath. “No.”

“You sure?”

Peter bites his lip. Stares at Tony’s worried face. “I really thought you were dead.”

Tony holds his breath and pulls absently at his fingers. “He was just trying to get in your head, Pete.”

“Yeah,” he laughs without humour. “Well, it worked.”

“Peter...”

“It’s just- the whole time I was thinking about everything I should’ve told you. When Ben died, I regretted- I regretted my last words, you know? Wish I said more.”

“Your uncle knew how much you loved him, kiddo.”

Peter swallows hard. “And do you?”

Tony blinks. “What?”

“Know,” Peter says, staring stubbornly at the wall. “That I love you? Because I never told you before and then it was too late. I was too- I don’t know. Scared, I guess. But I can’t be too late again. I have a second chance now and I want you to know.”

Silence. Peter can’t look. Maybe Tony got up and left-

Warmth. Arms circling his chest. Peter inhales sharply in his surprise, the tubes and wires hooking him up to the machines pinching. Oh god, he’s hugging me.

“I thought I lost you too,” Tony whispers over his shoulder. Peter is frozen. “When they dragged me out of that elevator and took you-” he chokes. “I thought-”

Peter closes his eyes. He’s tired and achy, his bones like lead under his skin. “I’m fine.”

“Let me finish.”

“Okay.”

Tony breathes in deeply, his chest expanding against Peter’s. “I love you too, Pete, is what I’m trying to say. So damn much. Since day one, really. And if you ever scare me like this again I swear I’ll lock you in a tower like goddamn Rapunzel.”

Peter’s glad that Tony can’t see his face. I love you too. Finally regaining strength, he wraps his arms around Tony’s shoulders to complete the embrace. It’s weak and broken but tangible. Real. “Thank you for saving me.”

“You did the same for me.”

They separate. Neither comment on their wet faces. “What happened to Norman?” Peter asks. It feels like his throat is closing.

Tony looks down at the floor. His hand had fallen from the hug to rest on Peter’s arm. He doesn’t let go, and Peter doesn’t want him to. “Prison. He won’t hurt you again, Pete. I promise you.”

He isn’t sure how the admission makes him feel. “Oh.”

His side twinges in pain. Something must cross over his face because Tony winces too, like the hurt is his own. “I’m so sorry, Pete.”

Peter leans back against his pillows, lightheaded all of a sudden, his energy far past spent. “I hate it when you apologize,” he murmurs.

“Pfft. Well, the feeling’s mutual.”

Peter smiles. He closes his eyes. “You gonna tap back out?” Tony asks gently.

He hardly finds the strength within himself to nod. Everything is catching up to him, a dark shadow of a nightmare. It’s over, he tries to remind himself. Tony is alive. May is safe. He loves you back. “Stay?”

“Always, Pete. I’m not moving a muscle.” As if to prove it, his thumb runs across Peter’s wrist, straight over the bandages covering the marks of his restraints. “You’re stuck with me.”

“Stuck with me too,” Peter slurs. He reaches out blindly until he finds Tony’s hand and grips it with as much strength as he can muster, which truthfully isn’t much. “Like a web.”

He drifts further, but is sure he can hear Tony’s quiet laugh, that he feels Tony’s lips press over his forehead.

“Go to sleep kiddo. I’ll be right here when you wake up.”

And he will. Peter knows it.

Always.

[potter-imagines]

George Weasley Dating Ravenclaw!Reader Would Include...

-       George loves to take photos of you

-       Like absolutely adores it

-       His side of his dorm has at least ten different pics of the two of you taped to the walls

-       Fred never misses an opportunity to taunt George for this

-       “Jesus, George, you’d think you’re an obsessive stalker with the amount of photos you have of Y/n. Kinda of concerning…”

-        George brings you home for Christmas break

-       Molly adores you- like is way more excited to see you walking through the front door, rather than her actual children. “Y/n! Oh, Y/n, dear, you look beautiful! Come inside! Out of the cold you go- I’ve got a warm cup of tea waiting for you, dear.”

-       Fred would walk in behind you rolling his eyes mumbling, “Good to see you too, birth giver. I missed you as well, love you too.”

-       Pulling all nighters with him

-       Some were for studying, some just to spend some more time with each other, and some because you two couldn’t seem to uh, ‘fall asleep’ or rather, keep your hands off one another

-       If you didn’t know how to already, George would teach you how to play Quidditch

-       You’re typically the little spoon and even though he’d never mention in aloud, he secretly loved when you were the big spoon

-       When you first started dating, George’s friends would tease him for being with a Ravenclaw

-       They classed you as a stereotypical Ravenclaw, before even speaking with you

-       Fred reassured them they’d like you but Ron was skeptical

-       Mostly because he couldn’t understand why a Ravenclaw was dating his brother

-       Although you were a true Ravenclaw at heart, that didn’t mean you were a bookworm ‘nerd’ who only cared about school and had your nose to the sky

-       Most Ravenclaws you knew were more honest that stuck up, you had a tendency to say exactly what you thought

-       And George loved this

-       He had never met a girl like you before- one who served it the teasing and flirtatious wilderness right back to him

-       He’d plan extravagant jokes with his twin to try an woo you

-       Your friends would giggle and whisper whenever George came around, all staring at you knowingly

-       They had all placed bets on how long it would take George Weasley, the jokester Gryffindor, to ask you, the clever and competitive Ravenclaw, out on a date

-       It only took about two weeks after that for him to make the first move

-       After Potions class, George would walk with you in towards the Great Hall, complimenting you the entire way

-       You two would sit together, much to your surprise and by the end of the meal, he would ask you out on a proper date for that weekend to Hogsmeade

-       He’d buy magical eternal flowers at Hogsmeade on your first date

-       Flirting doesn’t die down with George just because you’re a couple

-       If anything, he becomes cheekier and touchier

-       He isn’t huge on PDA, but he likes when you sit on his lap in the courtyard or either of your common rooms.

-       PDA for the two of you is more hand holding, forehead kisses, arm around your shoulder, small pecks, tight hugs before class, etc.

-       Snape had scolded the two of you more time than you could count “There will be no embracing of any sorts outside, or inside my class, Miss. Y/l/n and Mr. Weasley.” “Yes, professor. We’re sorry-” “No we’re-“ Having to drag George away before he gets you two into more trouble.

-       He’d call you sweet names like; love, darling, princess, and angel (His favorite name to use in the bedroom.).

-       But his absolute favorite nickname for you is “little Ravenclaw”

-       He loves buying you maroon presents

-       He likes to think he’s secretly converting you to a Gryffindor, but he knew you had too much pride for your house and would never fully switch to his side

-       You two will play childish games like hide and seek around the castle during the weekends

-       It’s more fun when you include your other friends

-       But when it’s just you and George playing

-       The game typically ends with the two of you half naked in an empty classroom

-       Walks behind you up the stairs so he can pinch your butt “George- knock it off!” “But it’s so cute and I wanna touch it.” “Not now.”

“So you’re saying there will be a later, right?”

-       Studying together

-       Despite common assumption, George Weasley is exceptionally brilliant

-       You two have competitions on who can score the highest mark

-       George was usually a point or two away from you but it didn’t stop you from gloating

-       “Ha, ha, Georgie. Take that! Now you owe me a back massage and a butterbeer this weekend!” “I can give you more than a backrub, darling.” “George!”

-       Sneaking him into the Ravenclaw towers past curfew

-       He loves that you are willing to break rules for him

-       It exhilarating to you both

-       You’re very close with his friends- especially Fred and Hermione

-       Fred and George would convince you to help them with pranks, little at a time

-       But soon enough

-       You’d basically becoming a trio

-       They’d find a way to drag you into planning and executing nearly all their pranks with them

-       It made you extremely nervous at first

-       You had never been in real trouble before, and it wasn’t something you desired

-       But George would reassure you constantly “Love, you don’t have to help if you don’t want to, we won’t be upset. But if you do, I won’t let anything happen to you or let you get caught. I promise, darling.”

-       And he never failed to keep his word

-       Until one day

-       There was one time, late winter of your final year

-       Fred and George were readying to leave Hogwarts to open their shop, Weasley Wizard Wheezes, and had invited you to join them

-       You contemplated the thought for a week before deciding to finish off the end of your year, then move in with George and his brother once summer came

-       The twins’ pranking antics had grown more intense since Umbridge arrived

-       Everyone despised her- well except the Slytherin’s who she favored

-       The twins’ landed themselves in detention with her on more than five occasions and they had enough

-       Late one Saturday in February, Fred and George had enchanted a portal swamp outside Umbridge’s office door, a spell you had taught them

-       Right as the swamp appeared, footsteps began to approach quickly from behind

-       Fred darted left and George took off after him, both assuming you’d follow

-       But panic hit and you ran in the opposite direction, smacking right into Filch, Umbridge emerging not long after from the other corridor

-       You were caught red handed, Umbridge took the wand in your grip as enough evidence to prosecute you

-       George had reached the end of the corridor when he turned around and realized you weren’t behind him but by the time he and Fred stealthily snuck back to Umbridge’s office

-       The door was swinging shut

-       And the once bubbling green swamp was gone

-       Not long passed before George could hear your voice and his chest stiffened at once

-       The twins hid behind a wall, until George ushered Fred off to monitor the hall leading towards their common room

-       Ten or so minutes passed until the door squeaked open and you quickly rushed off, salty tears threatening to spill over your eyes

-       George yanked you softly from behind a wall before you could make it up the first step of the shifting stairs

-       You hissed in pain when his fingers unknowingly wrapped around your fresh wound “Ow, my hand- George it hurts.”

-       His eyes would widen, then soften with comfort as he studies your hand “Darling, I’m so sorry. I should’ve taken the fall- I should’ve realized you weren’t following us and went back sooner. I’m so sorry, Y/n.”

-       You’d cry, not because you were mad at him or blame him but because of the never ending burning sensation in your bloodied hand

-       You’d reassure him and insist it was your own fault

“I froze, Georgie. I’m the only one to blame. I don’t know why I didn’t go the same way as you guys, I just got scared of getting caught… and now this happened cause I was dumb.” “You’re not dumb, darling, don’t say that. I promised to never let you get hurt because of one of our pranks and I broke that promise. Umbridge is a cold bitch, I can’t keep putting you in these risks situations and letting you get hurt.”

-       He’d sneak you into his dorm that night

-       None of his friends would oppose, especially after hearing about what happened

-       Fred and Lee slept on the large couches in the common room so the two of you could have the night alone

-       George is an amazing cuddling partner- like the best

-       You two would lay in his bed together, snuggled under a stack of blankets

-       He’d convince you to wear one of his Gryffindor shirts

-       Then take a picture of you in it when you weren’t paying attention to tease you with

-       “I’m going to show this to all your little Ravenclaw friends to show them that you’re really a Gryffindor!” “Am not! I’m a Ravenclaw-“ “I’m gonna put some Gryffindor inside of you tonight, princess.” “You dirty bastard! Don’t you say that in front of any of my friends, please, I’m begging you.” “I’m sure they already know, love. It’s not like they haven’t heard us before.”

-       You would get annoyed beyond beliefs after being with George for years and your friends still confusing him with Fred, or assuming they were the same person

-       You loved Fred, but you were in-love with George, and there were many differences between them besides your relationship status

-       Fred was the friend who could cheer you up, listen to you rant, help you get revenge on a professor for poor marks, hangout with you, give you advice, and all the great qualities that a best friend should have

-       But George Weasley

-       George was all of the above and more

-       He had a different thought process- slightly different mindset than his twin

-       You loved the deep, intellectual conversations you could have with George

-       One moment you two would be discussing the purpose of life and the origination of languages

-       Then the next you’d be debating over the worst flavor of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans

“George, how you can you even argue this? You know vomit and rotten egg are the two worst flavors!” “Vomit, yes. Rotten eggs, no. I’d take that over earthworm. Now that one is bloody disgusting!”

-       There was a connection- a magnetic pull that drew you and George together

-       He understood you on a more personal level than any other person you knew

-       There were secrets he’d share with you late at night that not even Fred knew

-       Like how he wanted to be a Mediwizard up until his fourth year

-       George would bring you books he’d read on break for you

-       You two liked to start a book together right before break, then finish over break and talk about it once you returned to each other

-       Fred would tease George relentlessly for reading over the holiday break “God, next thing I know you’re going to starting knitting sweaters with each other and painting your nails together.” “Jealous, Fred? A shame you can’t find an intelligent girl of your own but don’t be made that I have.”

-       George will write you letters when you’re away for each other

-       He’ll do cute little things like send a single dainty flower that he picked from his mom’s garden and seal it inside the envelope

-       His favorite to gift you are lilacs- the smell reminds him of you and is comforting when you’re gone

-       He’s always been a bit more in touch with his emotional side than his twin

-       But you loved those differences

-       You two hard a pretty serious relationship from the start but that didn’t mean you weren’t playful

-       You two hard a pretty serious relationship from the start but that didn’t mean you weren’t playful

-       Both George and you knew you wanted to spend forever together the first time you walked through Hogsmeade together

-       And neither of you wanted to waste anytime fooling around when you knew what you wanted

-       George is a honest gentleman, always putting your needs first

-       Even after you leave Hogwarts with the twins

-       With all his busy work and the booming business and success of the shop, you assumed your time together would be spared

-       It was in a way

-       But George always put in the extra effort to keep the spark alive

-       Before opening the shop, he’d usually try to set your alarm clock back three hours in hopes of you getting the extra sleep he knew you deserved

-       Sometimes it worked, but other times you’d meet him in the shop at open with a smug smile on your face “Love, you should be asleep! You’re too clever, little Ravenclaw.” “You still call me that, even after all this time?” “You’ll always be my little Ravenclaw. I could never love another.”

-       He’ll surprise you during work with random sweets, sentimental cards, picking you up lunch and a coffee/tea, and buying you flowers

-       George can be extremely sweet when he wants to and for you, there is never a moment where he doesn’t

-       The two of you would get married shortly after the second war ended, not that anyone was surprised.