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celestialarchon · 4 years ago

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400+ Followers Celebration!

various genshin impact x f!reader

warnings: fluff/crack/NSFW implications, jokes and innuendos. reverse Isekai storyline and a LOT of attention on reader. SPOILERS FOR IN GAME. Archon spoilers!

As much as you tried, connecting and staying in reality was too hard. It was always the same outcome, finding yourself whisked away to another fantasy land through media. Normally your obsessions didn’t last long, but one game had completely sucked you in. Maybe it was the stress of the nightmare year 2020 or maybe it was the fact that Genshin Impact was everything you loved and more, but you couldn’t get enough. It was getting out of hand as even your roommates had began to play because of the way you romanticized the game. Acquiring most of the five star characters, building several strong teams, and finishing almost all the quests in roughly 5 months.

As an insomniac, it was easy to grind through the game until the sun came up. Sometimes you wondered if it was strange that an adult would be so enamored with a game but shrugged it off. It’d been a hellish year, you deserved to treat yourself.

Yet another night spent entirely on the dreamy land of Teyvat. You yawned and stretched as the sun peaked through the blinds and cursed yourself for not noticing the passing time. Removing your head set, you yawned again, feeling a wave of drowsiness wash over you. It was strange, you’d only been up one night and you were already so tired. Your home was quiet, all the roommates sound asleep as you crept into your bed under the covers. The stuffie you adored so much was soon in your arms as you drifted off, wishing to dream of traveling the world of Teyvat.

An extremely loud crashing sound woke you from your deep sleep. Instinctively you shot up, your arm moved on its own aiming for the space around you and swinging quickly and forcefully. Your fist made contact with something and you shrieked as the strange shadow crumpled. You flew out of your bed and away from the safety of your covers, grasping for the light switch.

Your panicked screeches only grew louder as the figure on the floor groaned and stood upright, still fumbling for the lights. Fingertips finally brushed the switch on the wall and you flipped the lights on. The sudden brightness blinded you for a minute and the mystery person as well. It hit you how stupid it was to turn on the lights in your room as soon as your eyes adjusted. Adrenaline was pumping through your veins as you rushed to the door. You could hear heavy footsteps from the other room. Other people were home you needed to get to them.

“Shiiiiit,” The strange person groaned again, “I drank too much.”

The voice was familiar and made you freeze for a moment. Mentally slapping yourself you darted out of your room but ran straight into a wall. Well, that’s what it felt like, but there wasn’t a wall outside your door. The force of the collision knocked you on your ass and you yelped as you hit the floor.

“Oh? What’s this?” The supposed wall turned to look at you, eyebrows arched as he stared down at you.

Your jaw nearly hit the floor as you looked up at the familiar man. That smooth voice, the long hair, the eyepatch. This had to be some sort of weird dream. No matter how hard you tried to move, your body wouldn’t obey. You heard steps from behind you and glanced back to see another Mondstadt troublemaker. A disgruntled anemo archon was slowly approaching you.

“Ehe, fuck, she hit me hard.” Venti giggled nervously.

“Poor thing,” Kaeya held his hand out to you, “Did the mean little twink scare you?”

The room was spinning, so you took the cryo pirate’s hand. Your jaw was probably still on the floor. His grip was strong and cool, it was bringing you back down to the reality of the situation you were in. Oh, the irony. You were not dreaming. Awestruck, you peered behind Kaeya into your living room to see even more Genshin characters just vibing. The esteemed geo archon was drinking from your favorite mug, two troublesome harbingers bickered in the corner of the room, a certain librarian was flipping through your books, both travelers were attempting to learn how to play uno. It was unreal. A pirate was flirting with a silver haired beauty.There was an astrologist examining your fish tank, an alchemist and a child terrorist asleep on your floor, and a fucking adeptus perched on your couch like a gargoyle.

Your roommates were nowhere in sight and your home was crowded by your fictional lovers. The absolute chaos of it all sent you over the edge. High pitched, clearly unstable laughter erupted from you. What else could you do? Cry? That wouldn’t change anything. All eyes shifted to you as you leaned on the wall, clutching your abdomen and giggling like a madwoman. Kaeya shifted away from you, allowing the others to get a good look at you.

Finally composing yourself, you stood up straight and introduced yourself, “Hello, why are you invading my home?”

“Hey girlie! I’m Childe,” The cheery harbinger nearly skipped up to you shaking your hand, “but you can call me daddy.”

Your face reddened at his bold introduction but you clicked your tongue avoiding his eyes.

“Hello, cutie. I’m Lisa.”

“Albedo, and this is Klee.”

“I tend to go by Zhongli.”

“Beidou! The lovely lady by my side is Ningguang.”

“Adeptus Xiao.”

They all introduced themselves so politely, you almost felt bad for acting a bit crazy. However, that feeling was quickly swept away by Kaeya and his sharp tongue.

“Kaeya, but I believe you already know that,” he smirked at you, “May I ask why you aren’t wearing any pants?”

“Oi, what?” You looked down and gasped.

Venti’s drunk ass had sent you into fight and flight mode so you had forgotten all about your night time attire. You were in an oversized Genshin Impact shirt without any pants on. Shoving Venti out of your way, you rushed to your room to dig for pants. Oh, how you wished you hadn’t forgotten about laundry. You hastily grabbed a pair of shorts that really didn’t do much except cover your underwear.

“I have shorts on now. You just can’t tell because of my shirt.” You declared entering the living room.

Some of the more promiscuous characters giggled at your embarrassment while Zhongli facepalmed and the most serious of them all, Scaramouche and Xiao, simply scowled. You sat on the end of your couch furthest from everybody else, nervous. Nobody had answered your earlier question. Apparently your discomfort was lost on the Adeptus Xiao, or he just didn’t care. He was in front of you in a flash, pinching your face and glaring at you.

“Why did you call us here you foolish mortal?” His tone was more annoyed than murderous.

Zhongli slapped Xiao’s hands away from your face and sat down next to you, “Be nice. She doesn’t know either.”

You nodded at this, and the room erupted in murmurs. Zhongli slipped his arm around you, patting your shoulder sympathetically. Lumine tossed the Uno cards down and glided to you, taking strands of your hair into her hands and beginning to play with it. Perhaps it’s because you played as both the travelers but the three of you seemed to silently click. Scaramouche and Childe began to argue again about something silly. Out of the corner of your eye you saw a certain bard and the charming Sir Kaeya raiding your liquor cabinet.

It was too overwhelming to argue. Lumine took her time playing with your hair while the others attempted to figure out how to go back to their own world. Xiao crept closer to you, truly like a cat. Beidou and Ningguang fawned over you and invited you into their relationship several times. You politely declined, knowing they’d have to go back to their world. It was disappointing and a bit frustrating.

Your wish came true but it was too good to be true. Albedo seemed to notice your silence. He gently maneuvered his adorable little sister off of him and approached you. His eyes were filled with curiosity, your silence only made his thoughts wander further.

“Can I experiment on you?” Albedo was blunt.

“Huh?” You blinked, unsure if you heard him correctly.

“I’m not sure if that was brave or stupid,” Childe snickered, “Has he always been this bold?”

“Tch,” Scaramouche rolled his eyes, “Thats a terrible pick up line, mad scientist.”

“Leave my cutie alone!” Lisa yanked Albedo away from you defensively.

The room was filled with protest at Lisa’s words. Zhongli merely sighed and pulled you closer. Venti’s dumb ass was floating around your living room hiccuping. Xiao was wedging himself between you and the arm of the couch. It was insane. Beidou and Ningguang noticed the two Liyue men snuggling up to you and marched over to the three of you.

Ningguang tried to pull you away from them while Beidou aggressively smacked at Xiao. Xiao was hissing at the beautiful captain and Zhongli was attempting to intervene. You shoved them out of your way and stood up, panicked by the attention. Lisa caught you as you tripped over your own feet but landed face first into her chest. She stroked your hair but was interrupted by Albedo grabbing your wrist and mumbling about experiments. The single moment Childe and Scaramouche got along was to pull you from Albedo but it became a quick tug of war over you.

Somehow, Klee was still asleep and Kaeya was just watching all of it go down.

“Cheeeeeeeeers, bitch bitches,” The Knight slurred.

“Enough.” Lumine and Aether both intervened.

Aether held his hand out to you, “You don’t have to pick now, but please say you’ll come with us?”

“You belong in Teyvat,” Lumine smiled at you warmly.

“So,” Aether continued “What do you say, outlander?”

All eyes were on you as the words left Aether’s lips. What would you do?

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spencersawkward · 4 years ago

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I love your ff first of all, I'm obsessed and second of all I would ask you a suggestion, idk if maybe is that too much and you're totally free to not do that but you ever thought to do something in the line of the knive kink? I think it will be awesome

i'm so sorry this took so long! big thanks to my guardian angel @voidsfilm for giving me inspiration bc i literally struggled with this one more than i should have. never written a knife kink but i’m glad i tried lol.

summary: reader finds an antique knife that Matthew's kept in a drawer.

content warnings: unprotected penetrative sex, fingering, oral (male receiving), knife play (no blood drawn), Soft!Dom MGG, degradation and praise.

word count: 3.6k

masterlist

if there is one thing I absolutely despise, it's working out. getting sweaty, running until my legs hurt and my lungs are burning for air... not really my thing.

but when Matthew brought up the idea a couple months into our relationship, I couldn't say no to him: he had a goofy smile on his face and the kind of look in his eyes that made me relent and ask what kind of stuff he wanted to do.

I think that I've found the one thing that Matthew can't make fun.

"I'm gonna pass out." I bend over and set my hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath. Matthew slows to a stop a few feet ahead, turning around and making a strained expression.

"oh, come on." but his voice is pretty breathless, too. he gently guides me off the path so that we don't get in the way of the other people out enjoying the day. a couple walks by us with their dog, strolling calmly, and I feel a rush of envy. if our workout routine had consisted of a few pleasant ambles around the city, I would have been totally willing.

"Matthew, I wanna go home." I whine impatiently. the only nice thing about this is that he's got one of those stupid sweatbands on his head to keep his hair out of his face, and it makes him look like a 1980's housewife.

"we can go home in fifteen minutes." he smiles, puts his hands on his hips, stretching in an exaggerated way.

"do you promise?" I brush a piece of hair out of my face.

"promise," he's lucky he looks so cute in his workout outfit. "we can even get one of those fancy juices for you on the way back."

"seriously?" I light up. this might actually be worth it; they have this amazing mango and lime combination that I can't ever manage to recreate with our own blender.

"if you beat me to the rock, then sure." he references the enormous boulder in Central Park that we both gawked at on our first date-- ever since then, it's been the end point for our runs. my lips curl into a grin.

"you're on." I take off, making sure to push him out of the way in order to gain a head start. he lets out something of a protestation but is quick to follow. I can feel his feet pounding behind me, trying to catch up.

I may not be good at running long distances, but I'm sure as hell faster than he is.

...

it's quiet when I step out of the bedroom, drying my hair with the towel and wandering into the living room. Matthew is sitting at the table with his sketchbook, drawing god knows what while he waits for me to finish up.

"what are you up to?" I ask softly as I plop down across from him. my head is slightly tilted while the towel rubs my scalp.

"I'm not really sure." he shrugs, frowning and holding up the notebook from a distance as if that'll help him figure out what to do.

"can I see when you're done?"

"of course," he sets it on the table again, then runs a fingertip across his chin. "actually, can you do me a favor?"

"sure."

"I have a set of colored pencils in the desk over there," he points to an old piece of furniture under the window. "would you mind getting them for me?"

"yep," I reply, getting up and leaving the towel on the table. "least I can do after kicking your ass."

on the walk past him, Matthew grabs my waist and pulls me into him, attacks me with tickles. I squeal and hit his shoulder.

"stop!" I laugh.

"you barely beat me!" he gives a dazzling smile and finally lets me go. I lightly smack him upside the head and head over to the desk, rifling through the drawers for the colored pencils he wanted.

as I push around various art supplies, glue sticks and random paintbrushes that look to be on the brink of falling apart, my fingers pass something cool and metallic. I grab the thing and pull it out.

it's a knife; like, a fancy one with an intricately decorated handle and what seems to be a pretty dulled edge. before he can notice what I've found, I start to move the thing between my hands curiously. there's a nice weight to it, but it's definitely old.

"hey, Matthew?" I ask warily.

"yeah?" so unassuming and sweet.

"why do you have a knife?"

there's a scratching as he gets up from the table to walk over to me. I lean against the desk. Matthew doesn't seem too bothered by what I'm saying at all, only gently taking the weapon out of my hands and examining it himself.

"oh, yeah!" he lets out something like a laugh. I raise an eyebrow and wait for him to continue. "do you remember when we went antiquing in Cape Cod, like, a month ago?"

"yeah." I nod at the memory. he'd been lucky enough to get some vacation days and we'd spent them sitting by the water with glasses of wine and nothing but time to talk. it really was a great trip, now that I think about it.

"I found it there." he still hasn't looked up and I realize that there's something he's not telling me. I don't know what I'm missing, but I start to get nervous.

"...why?"

"I was gonna ask then, but I guess I just forgot." his tongue darts out across his bottom lip as he lifts his face to meet my gaze. my heart thuds when he opens his mouth again. "I kinda wanted to try something."

"like?"

"I've been thinking about maybe using knives... in a sexual way."

"what?" I frown, confused by his wording. Matthew seems to realize that he's phrased it awkwardly and shifts his stance. he keeps glancing between the object and my face like he's worried about scaring me away.

"I don't mean I'm gonna stab you or anything," he laughs. "I just mean I think it sounds fun."

my hand finds his, brushing my palm over the steel to touch it myself again. there's a curiosity that burns through me now, something I'm a little unsure about but not enough so to deny the possibility of trying it.

"what do you wanna do with it?" I peek up at him. he bites his lip. we're speaking in gentle tones and I notice that our bodies have gotten closer within the last few moments. a warmth, a tension.

"like, pressing the blade flat against your skin while I fuck you." he takes the thing and demonstrates. the cool silver rests on my neck, too dull to really threaten a serious cut if he were to move too quickly. a shiver runs down my spine at the sensation of the metal.

I gulp, feel the curve of my throat push against it when I swallow. it's nice.

"oh." is all I say. Matthew is watching me intently, but he doesn't make any motion away from it. like he's entranced by the sight of me with a knife to my throat.

"are you interested?" he asks.

I mull it over. on the one hand, weapon play is something I've never considered in my sex life before. Matthew and I aren't vanilla, but this hasn't crossed my mind. that said, now that I can really feel it, there is a desire forming in my stomach. it would be a strange, new sensation.

"yes." the confirmation makes him smile a little. he lowers the thing and instead wraps me in his arms, kisses me passionately until our tongues are dancing over each other. I love how he holds me, our torsos against each other while my body leans slightly back to accept the weight of his touch.

he goes to my head like alcohol. and it's even more surreal when I feel the blade move under the hem of my shirt to rest against my back. I smile into his mouth. he doesn't do anything with it, just leaves it to remind me.

he starts to rut his hips against my lower stomach, getting aroused at the proximity of our bodies and the heated nature of our kiss. there's an urgency to all of it, like he's holding back. I don't want him to hold back; I want him to give me everything he has, everything beneath the surface.

my fingers twine in his hair and tug on the ends, causing him to groan into our embrace. there's no way we're going to make it all the way to the bedroom with the way he's grabbing at my body, so I stumble backwards towards the couch until the backs of my thighs hit the arm of it.

"you're horny." I giggle slightly when he pushes the hem of my shirt up my body, his nails dragging over my ribcage and trailing the object along with it. I feel the excitement growing.

"I'm just glad you're willing to try this." he murmurs the words, holds our foreheads together before his lips eagerly seek mine out, again. somehow, even with a weapon leveled against me, I can sense the love in every single action. I wouldn't have said yes if I didn't trust him to treat me with the utmost care.

I work at the buttons of his shirt, pushing it over his lovely shoulders and arms as he unclasps my bra. we're fervent, greedy in our movements, trying to kiss despite the attention needed to remove our clothes. mostly we just tangle up in each other until there's nothing left but my shorts for him to shove down my legs. he keeps his pants on.

"c'mon, beautiful." he mutters, pushing my legs open so that I'm sitting on the arm of the couch. he tilts my head and leans closer to suck on my bottom lip, and then starts to massage my tits. I can feel the handle of the weapon against my nipple.

when he reaches to slide his finger between my folds, I hiss out a breath at the cold sensation of his skin.

"is this because of me or the knife, baby?" he asks, corners of his mouth twitching up while I moan into his mouth. he starts to rub my clit with the collected wetness, teasing me too much. I want to fall back, but I can't. I won't let myself.

"both." I find myself turned on by the way the blade sits against my ribs again. the edge is just sharp enough to elicit a reaction from my body.

"feel that?" he angles the thing the slightest bit. I exhale and nod.

that isn't the response he's looking for, however, because he moves it so that it's under my chin. goosebumps on my skin while I pant uselessly against the weapon. I can feel it press harder with every breath out of my lungs, and I love it. I love the risk it brings out of me.

while Matthew dips his index inside my pussy, I writhe against it and tilt my head even more so he has better access.

"look at you," he lets out a dark chuckle, thrusts into me to the last digit. "you want more of this, don't you?"

"yes, sir." I breathe. my neck is actively moving against the metal. I glance down at his body and see his erection straining against his pants, craving release but finding none as he plunges his fingers in and out of me. I can hardly breathe from sheer focus on the sensations he's giving me right now.

"what are you looking at, sweetheart?" he quickens the pace of his movements and uses the object to make me focus on his face.

"you're hard." the words nearly die on my lips. he stares darkly at me, lifting his brows just enough to make me question whether I should have spoken at all. I bite my lip in anticipation.

"and what are you gonna do about it?" his voice is raspy as he stands back, removes his fingers from my pussy, and lets me drop to my knees. I'm weak both from the stimulation and from the loss of it, but I make quick work of undoing his belt, pulling the pants down his legs until I'm face-to-face with his cock. it sits against his stomach, throbbing impatiently while he watches. he uses the metallic point under my jaw to angle my face up to his.

"are you gonna suck me off, baby?" he smirks. I nod rigorously with wide eyes and an open mouth, dragging my tongue along the underside. Matthew's nose scrunches up for a moment at the shock of contact when I tease the head. all his concentration is on watching me wrap my hand around the shaft and pumping him gently. "spit on it."

I obey and spit right onto the tip before rubbing my thumb over the top to gather the precum. as I start to swirl my tongue and move my lips onto him, he throws his head back, lets out a wanton noise. it urges me on. I take every moment with a deliberate attention to the veins and sensitive spot he has.

"that's it, that's it." he rasps while knotting his hand in my hair. the other keeps the knife pressed to my throat. he lets me move on my own for a bit, gauging my desires from the way my eyes attempt to memorize the sight of his face above me, that jaw dropped in licentious craving. I can tell that he wants to fuck my face, but I go slow just to draw it out a little. it makes the soreness of my jaw worth it when he gets all impatient and flustered.

I hollow my cheeks and bob on his dick, bat my lashes, pull myself off him for a second just to kiss the tip.

"can I use your mouth?" he asks through a restrained groan. I open it and nod, sighing at the feeling of his fingers twining through my hair again before he pushes back into the opening. now that he's got full control, he starts to develop his own movements, sometimes meeting his thrusts by pressing my face against him.

he gets deep in it, never losing his grip on the knife, until my nose is pressed to his stomach. my throat closes instinctively around him even more tightly, and he lets out a guttural moan.

"such a cute mouth when I'm using it." he thrusts until I gag and then he's smiling. "get up."

he removes himself so fast, my eyes water at the sudden lack of blockage in my throat. I gulp air while he hooks his hands under my arms and hoists me up. I'm about to turn around so I can lift my leg and give him better access, but he sits me on the arm of the couch and parts my thighs.

"I wanna see your pretty face." he leans down and pecks my cheek. I smile at the surprising tenderness-- although it doesn't last long. steel sits against the space between my neck and collarbone. it's only a moment before he positions himself between my legs and slides his cock into me.

my back arches and I look him in the eyes, gasping.

"fuck, baby." he drags out the first word as he inches inside. I mewl helplessly at the way he stretches me out, my pussy clenching every few seconds. he keeps one hand on my lower back to support me and bring me closer to his pelvis, and then we're staring into each other's eyes as he finally settles in it.

his hips start to thrust into me, hopeful for any kind of contact while I accustom myself to the shape of him. it happens every time, despite the amount of times we've done this. and I'm bad at patience, but he's worse. his body stutters against mine.

"is it good enough, sir?" I ask quietly. he tightens his grip on my back and on the blade, the edge threatening my skin the perfect amount. I suck in a breath at the way it stings a little.

"you're doing perfectly." he recognizes what I want to hear as he finds my sweet spot and begins to hit it repeatedly, smoothly works my body. I swear there are planets in my eyes when I stare at the expressions on his face, both of us so wrapped up in each other that every other thought becomes obsolete.

he moves the knife to under my chin to rest on my throat.

"feel that?"

I nod so the edge bites more. he smirks.

"just to show you who you belong to."

my hips push up to meet his thrusts, needing more stimulation, more friction. what I want is for him to be relentless, to slam into my body with the kind of hunger I know he has. there are sounds, movements, that he's made before that make me want him to use them. but he's withholding, probably hesitant about the dangerous object on my pulse point.

"I belong to you, sir." I egg him on. he likes the sound of that, grunting and starting to pound into me.

"yeah? you're my dirty little whore." he speaks through gritted teeth. I shiver.

"mhmm."

"I use you how I want, when I want." his fingertips dig into my skin and he yanks me closer so that he can hit a new angle. I let out a surprised noise when he brushes my g-spot. it's otherworldly and I expose more of my neck to him.

"my little slut likes pain, huh?" he nudges the weapon harder into my skin. it doesn't draw blood, but I can sense the mark it'll leave. I love it.

"yes, sir." we're both getting needy, but we can't hold each other the way that we want to in our given positions. my palms are occupied on the arm of the couch to hold myself up and one of his hands is too busy holding the object for us to fuck as deeply as we need.

"are you gonna take it like a good girl when I cum in it?" he mutters. he runs his tongue over my jawline and the weapon nicks my skin. I moan at the mingling of sensations that's building all across my body.

"yes, sir." I plead. it's nearly unbearable, how much I want him. we're chasing our orgasms and I know what will finish me off. he knows, too.

Matthew drops the knife. it clatters to the ground, but there's no time for me to register it with the way he grabs my hips and lifts me into the air, my legs wrapping around his waist while he keeps fucking into me. he maneuvers us with shocking ease, laying me on the couch and positioning himself at the right moment so that I can drag my nails over his back and keep my thighs locked around him.

"mmm... baby, I'm gonna cum." he drives into me recklessly, both of us finally able to cling to each other. the angle is just enough to stimulate my clit and I nod, using the leverage of my legs to pull myself to him and roll my hips for friction.

Matthew slams my body into the couch, grunting in my ear as he finds his climax inside me. it's so deep, I have to work to keep the yell inside, but he's not done. he rides it out and plows into me while I reach the edge.

"tell me how it feels." he orders in my ear. I sigh.

"so-- so good, sir." my voice is thin. "I'm close."

"show me." he leaves bruises on my hips with his hands. I feel the knot finally snap, every muscle in my stomach spasming chaotically. I finish with a loud moan, begging him to drag it out further. my vision nearly goes black at the tide that threatens to overtake my body.

"Matthew--" I gasp. he moans quietly at the way I say his name, still rocking his body into mine while I come down from the shocks of orgasm. it's nearly overwhelming, the pleasure running through my body.

slowly, we come to a stillness and he drops his head into my shoulder, panting. he doesn't let go at first, but then he withdraws from my pussy and lets me take a rest. I lay there on the couch while he kneels between my legs, pressing gentle kisses to my neck.

"I love you." he repeats it over and over.

"I love you, too," I hope he can feel the meaning, despite the sheer exhaustion in my tone. he runs his fingertips across the red marks where the thing went a little too deeply, but I'm not worried about it. "we should try that again, sometime."

"you liked it?" he smiles brightly. I love the lines by his eyes.

"definitely."

he lets out a cheerful noise and buries his face back into my throat because he knows how much it tickles. I screech and giggle, my legs kicking wildly around me. more contented than ever before.

#mgg #matthew gray gubler #mgg oneshot #mgg smut #mgg x reader #knife kink #knifeplay

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local-ground-apple · 4 years ago

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quixotic

Inspired by @tri3tri and her amazing yandere Malleus series

warnings: malleus is yandere, but nothing explicit is here,

quixotic - extravagantly chivalrous or romantic, visionary

perhaps the only way to escape Malleus’ suffocating grip was to fall into eternal slumber

,,Why don’t you stop being so childish as well as rebellious and simply accept your dearest lover? It’s not like you will ever escape, Little One”

Lilia’s sultry tone, as well as his hands resting on your shoulders in almost bruising matter

You gulped, feeling his fangs graze skin, which usually served as a warning. A shiver involuntarily run down your spine, as your fists only clenched.

,,We will see, Mr. Vanrouge”

Your seemingly confident voice faltered slightly and your lips gritted in thin line were only a façade. Your eyes full of uncertainty and fear told him otherwise. Even you were beginning not to believe your own words. Lilia only chuckled, clearly amused by your reactions. His gaze lingered on you for a longer moment, before he leaned in. His warm breath slightly tickling your skin, as his sharp teeth playfully bit your earlobe.

,,I would suggest you not to pull any stunt, while we will be away on diplomatic travel. I’d hate to hurt you”

A sadistic smile spread on his lips, as his crimson eyes glowed slightly. Your breath quickened, as you knew Lilia hadn’t finished yet. His voice stopped, as if he was recollecting his thought, yet you were aware what he was doing. Building a tension, so you would be more scared.

,,I’d hate to hurt you both”

Lilia put the emphasis on the last word, as he whispered it, knocking the breath out of your throat. Dread adorned your face, when a sudden wave of realization washed over you.

He knew.

He knew, he knew, he knew, that could only mean that Malleus knew too, panicked thoughts flooded your mind, yet you only bit your lip, looking defiantly at Lilia. He only chuckled and you could tell that he was enjoying despair written all over your face.

,,I must admit, you two did a rather excellent job hiding, yet I don’t appreciate how, hmm, you tainted his loyalty. Now, Miss Y/N, I expect you know what to do, unless you wish for Malleus to become aware of this.”

Catching a brief glance over your terrified form, Lilia bowed slightly and turned swiftly on his heel.

,,He knows”

,,He knows what?”

,,I’m not sure, he didn’t specify. He just suggested that we don’t try anything during his absence”

You whispered and Silver frowned. You glanced nervously around the room you had been locked in for past few months, since Malleus had forcefully put you there, depriving you from any contact with outside world apart from his fellow companions.

Who knew, maybe walls had ears.

If a wave of nervousness or anxiety washed over Silver, you couldn’t tell.

His collected façade never faltered. He gently set the trail of teapot and teacups on the table next to you and took a nearest seat. You could hear door locking behind him and you could only pray Lilia wasn’t eavesdropping.

Malleus was gracious enough to sometimes send one of his guards to keep you company. Perhaps that was his biggest mistake.

Three of them rotated and you never knew who would come visit you every two days. Sebek was always lecturing you and scolding for your “outrageous behavior”, always telling you to finally respect and love his Young Lord. You dreaded moments when the door opened to reveal Lilia, you could never grow accustomed to that fae.

Silver on the other hand…

,,It doesn’t matter whether he knows or not, Y/N. I’m pretty sure I can take Sebek down, if anything happens”

His calm whisper didn’t soothe your worries. You slightly jumped when cold hand gently intertwined with yours and gripped it lightly. Silver never showed you any form of affection.

Never, too worried that you might be caught. Yet, his soft touch seemed to slowly alleviate the tension from your muscles.

,,Do you think he misplaced it?”

You nervously glanced at the door, expecting it to burst open any time soon. The closer it was to Malleus’ and Lilia’s diplomatic trip, the more paranoid you were becoming and you couldn’t deny that fact. It was easy hiding it before Malleus, who seemed too fixated on you, to even notice your behavior was slightly off. He was simply elated to see you not screaming or running at the mere sight of him.

Yet, you knew that you failed to keep your façade in front of Lilia. You could always feel his lingering gaze on you, carefully watching your figure looking for any tiniest traces. He noticed how you were more eager than usual to head to your bed, how you began falling asleep earlier than usual.

Were you perhaps walking with someone in your dreams?

Lilia seemed to know, yet he allowed this. He sent Silver to guard you more often than Sebek, let him introduce you to all fae traditions you should be aware of, bah, he even didn’t mention to Malleus how he had spotted you getting way too comfortable to his Lord’s liking.

Yet, you knew Lilia didn’t do it out of pity or affection towards his son.

No, he was callous.

He would let this young love bloom, crush it and then watch it wither.

,,I highly doubt it, we’ve never talked about it outside our dreams”

You nodded, not even touching your tea which was slowly growing cold with each passing second.

Silver seemed to be hesitant. He knew exactly what Lilia was doing. He was giving him a bit of time to make the wise decision. To ignore feelings he had developed for you and be loyal to his future king. He furrowed his eyebrows.

Silver knew that Lilia wasn’t giving him time, because he cared for him.

No.

He knew that ancient fae would love to experience moving, heartbreaking scene of separating lovers. Maybe that would finally make you realize, that even your heart couldn’t escape from Malleus’ suffocating grasp.

Silver unconsciously gripped the handle of his sword as he watched Lilia calmly discussing the details and arrangements of their diplomatic trip. He could feel old man’s gaze lingering to him every once in a while, as his crimson eyes gave him the knowing look. Silver was surprised that Lilia hadn’t told anything to Malleus, but then each time he saw young king mentioning you as his eyes were filled with nothing but undying obsession, he knew dragon fae was delusional.

He would notice your silent affection for Silver, only if you displayed it right in front of him. Even then, he would deny it.

,,Are you sure we can leave Y/N here?”

Malleus’ calm yet slightly worried voice brought Silver’s attention on him once again. In the corner of his eye, he could faintly see Lilia’s wide grin, as his hands rested underneath his chin in almost mocking matter.

,,Of course, I’m sure Sebek and especially Silver will make sure Miss Y/N doesn’t do anything stupid”

Lilia’s playful tone hid the pure amusement and threat that was audible only to Silver, who with each passing second had troubles keeping up with his façade.

Could he really betray two faes who raised him and gave him everything?

Who he swore to serve and protect?

Lilia’s mocking smile told him that he absolutely wasn’t capable of doing that.

,,It’s…It’s impossible”

Malleus’ voice was filled with shock and disbelief as he stared at you. His eyes widen, while the wave of anger slowly washed over his body.

He failed to notice Lilia’s titled head, looking as if he was somewhat proud.

Mayhap, that wasn’t a truly fitting word.

Lilia was stunned and impressed with your unconvencial methode to escape Malleus’ grasp. Silver truly made him think they were preparing for a regular escape, with the amount of stuff he had been stocking in his room. He let a suppressed laugh. Perhaps, the situation wasn’t under his control, as Lilia had previously thought.

You managed to surprise the ancient fae, who was convinced he had seen everything.

You laid on the floor sound asleep in eternal slumber. Your hair adorned your face, your rosy lips were lifted in a soft, elated smile, yet Malleus could see a victorious tone in it, almost mocking him. You reminded him of the small smiles Lilia was sending you way, whenever you had failed to escape him.

Your index finger was pricked and a small trail of crimson blood was smeared all over it. Your pinky finger was gently intertwined with Silver’s who laid beside you. A gentle smile adorned his face, as few loose strands of his hair fall on his closed eyelids.

Malleus could almost hear your mocking tone and victorious smile. “I told you, I would escape you, echoed in his mind, as he stared at your form in disbelief.

You did it. You escaped him, as you promised.

Yet, Malleus couldn’t comprehend why Silver had pricked his finger too. Or maybe he simply didn’t allow this thought to enter his mind, yet deep down inside he knew why. He just pushed that thought aside, trying to ignore it.

It can’t be true.

Yet, your even breath and closed eyelids told him otherwise.

,,Why did Silver prick his finger as well?”

Malleus turned around to finally face amused Lilia and enraged Sebek.

,,Simply Malleus”

Lilia started, crunching down to his asleep son. He gently brushed the loose strands of his hair, tucking them behind his ears in almost caring matter. With a deep sigh, he looked at you.

,,Silver is her true love and without his kiss we won’t be able to wake Miss Y/N”

851 notes · View notes

440mxs-wife · 4 years ago

Text

Lessons in Love

Pairing: Castiel x Reader. Other Characters: Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Jack Kline, Emma Turner and Mavis (OFCs)

Word Count: 5924

Warnings: None really, except some mutual pining, but generally fluffy goodness.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Your agenda for the day included a trip into town to run some errands, along with a supply run to fill the fridge and pantry. Dean had ordered a part for one of the cars in the bunker, and he asked if you would pick it up for him. As if there weren't already enough books in the bunker library, Sam had reserved a book from the library in town. It was one about serial killers, his not-so-secret obsession, so you agreed to pick it up for him.

"Anyone want to tag along? It's a beautiful day outside, you know," you offered.

Sam and Dean both declined your invitation, and Castiel was not in the bunker. "I'll go with you," Jack responded.

You smiled. "Well, all righty, then. Jack, please meet me in the car in ten minutes," you replied. Jack jumped up from his chair like he was sitting on a spring and bolted up the stairs to the garage.

First stop was at the auto parts store for Dean. The order was already paid for, so it was no problem to go in and pick up the package. You placed it in the back on the floor behind the driver's seat, then you and Jack headed to the town library.

The head librarian, Mavis, greeted you and Jack warmly as you approached the counter to retrieve Sam's book. You noticed that Mavis had some help today, a young lady who looked to be in her early 20's. She had medium-length, wavy, strawberry blond hair and a pair of inquisitive blue eyes.

You watched as she loaded the returned books onto a cart, then sorted them so they could be put back on their respective shelves. Turning to say something to Jack, you noticed how his gaze was carefully following the young lady's every move. He had started to wander away from you, still watching the apprentice librarian, but keeping out of her line of sight. Hmm. Somebody's a little smitten, you thought with a smile.

"Here you go, that book that was put on reserve about serial killers. A little light bedtime reading, perhaps?" Mavis teased.

You laughed. "No, no, it's for a friend of mine. He's the one with the weird fascination with serial killers, not me," you grinned back. "Hey, Jack? Would you mind taking Sam's book out to the car please?" you asked.

With Jack's bright smile, he agreed, which allowed you to ask Mavis for some information about her young assistant. "Oh, that's my niece, Emma Turner. She'll be helping me out for the summer, here at the library. I believe she's due to start college in the fall, but I can't remember where at the moment," Mavis concluded.

"Good to know, thanks," you replied. "See you later!" you called out over your shoulder as you left the library.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The sound of the bunker door opening caught Sam and Dean's attention. They expected to see you and Jack, returned from running errands, but instead it was Castiel. He stopped at the table in the library where the boys were looking through the internet for cases. He scanned the library, then asked where you were. Sam explained that you were out in town, running errands with Jack.

"The two of them should be back soon, Cas. Why, is something going on?" he asked.

"N-nothing's going on. I'll just wait here for her--them to get back," Cas replied.

Dean leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. "You sure nothing's going on, Cas? You seem kinda anxious to talk to her," he smirked, then turned to Sam. "Must be important," he whispered.

Cas turned to Dean, eyes narrowed. "I'm sure, Dean," he muttered "It's just been a few days since I've talked with her, I-I mean, with Jack, so I'm checking in. Is that all right with you?" he retorted.

Dean held up his hands in surrender. Using his laptop, he resumed his internet search for a case. A few minutes after he got settled again, the bunker door opened, with you and Jack on the other side. "Yoo hoo! A little help up here, maybe? There's more stuff in the trunk that needs to be brought in, please," you called.

Castiel raced up the stairs to meet you, his trench coat billowing behind him like a cape. "Here, let me help you with these," he offered with his signature smile.

"Thank you, Cas," you replied warmly. "It's wonderful to see you. I'm so glad you could stop by today," you remarked.

"I am sorry to have been away for so long. I-I came to see how Jack was doing," he responded.

"Oh. O-only to see how Jack is doing?" you inquired hopefully.

"Well, also to spend time with you-you all, my friends, of course," he stammered.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

You felt your heart sink just a little. Friends. Not like what you felt for him, which was something beyond friendship and more towards the romance end of the spectrum. You don't know when it started, but the bottom line was that it had, and there was no turning back. After what you'd just heard, though, you realized you'd have to be even more careful to keep your feelings hidden. Especially since you now had proof that he didn't feel that way about you.

You first met Castiel after finishing a particularly nasty werewolf hunt. The injuries were of varying degrees between you, Sam and Dean, with you taking the worst of it. Despite that, you made sure the boys were patched up before you let yourself be checked. However, by then, you were drifting in and out of consciousness from losing too much blood. So they called Cas in, just as a precaution.

When you awoke after some rest, Sam and Dean had gone on a food run, leaving Castiel behind to watch over you. He sat with his legs on the bed, crossed at the ankles and his back against the headboard. Your head was resting in his lap and his fingers were brushing gently through your hair. You could hear him whisper or almost sing words of comfort in what you can only assume was Enochian. A sense of peace washed over you, allowing you to relax in the safety and care of your protector.

There was so much you loved about him, like his fierce sense of loyalty and dedication to his family and friends. His sapphire eyes that went perfectly with his jet-black hair that you longed to run your fingers through. That adorable tilt of his head whenever he was a wee bit confused about something. And whenever you heard your name fall from his lips in his deep, gravelly voice, it made you a bit weak in the knees.

If only I had enough courage to tell Cas how I feel about him. But, there's no sense in confusing things or ruining my friendship with him, just because of a one-sided attraction, you thought. Guess my feelings will just have to stay under wraps until further notice. With that, you pushed your affection for Castiel down even further until it no longer threatened to bubble to the surface.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Hey, where's that car part you picked up?" Dean bellowed.

"Relax, Dean, I left it in the garage. I thought it was better to leave it where you'll need it, than to bring it in here and risk it being misplaced," you replied wearily. "And before you ask, Sam, your serial killer book from the library is on your bed."

Both men mumbled their thanks as you continued to put away the groceries. When you were done, you retrieved a bottle of water from the fridge and took a seat at the table. Your mind was so consumed with your swirling thoughts, that you didn't hear Cas calling your name.

"Sorry, Cas, what were you saying?" you asked, shaking your head.

He reached over and placed his hands over yours, forcing you to look into his ocean-blue eyes. "I was asking if you were all right, because you seem a little....distracted," he remarked.

You slid your hands out from under his and gave them a pat on the knuckles. "Oh, I'm fine, Cas, don't worry about me. I have a lot on my mind at the moment. I'm sure it'll pass though. Can I get you anything?" you inquired.

"Not at the moment, but if you need someone to talk to, I would be glad to listen," Cas offered.

"I know, and thank you, Castiel. It means a lot to me," you replied. Your brows furrowed as you saw Jack enter the kitchen with a confused look on his face. "Jack? Is everything okay?" you said as you put a hand on his arm to catch his attention.

"Can I please talk to you?" Jack blurted out.

"Absolutely, Jack, what's on your mind?" you asked. He continued to look uncomfortable, so you asked Castiel if you could talk to him later, when he joined you for Dean's Movie Monday. Cas reluctantly agreed, and left the kitchen area. "Now, Jack. What can I help you with?"

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Remember that girl from the library today? The one with the beautiful blue eyes who was putting the books back on the shelf? I-I want to ask her out on a date, so we can get to know each other better," he finally admitted.

"Jack, I think you're better off getting your love advice from Sam and/or Dean. Anyone but me," you muttered the last part softly under your breath.

"But I already asked them," he hastily replied. "Dean was telling me I should say things like, 'Even if the Earth had no gravity, I'd still fall for you.' He called it an 'opening line' and said that it would make it easier for girls to start talking to me," he explained.

You smacked the palm of your hand to your forehead and groaned. "No, no, no, Jack. Please forget whatever Dean told you about 'opening lines'. There are other, less cheesy and more charming ways to get a girl to start talking to you," you remarked. "Out of curiosity, what advice did Sam have for you?"

"Sam mostly just argued with Dean about the advice he was giving me, that there are better ways to talk to girls. Like what you said," Jack replied.

"Well, Jack, here's something you can try the next time we go to the library. Have a subject in mind that you want to read about. Maybe like....I don't know, dinosaurs or something. Start walking up and down the aisles, pretending to look for your book. When you see the young lady, ask her if she'll help you find what you're looking for," you explained.

"How will that help me?" Jack asked, tilting his head to one side in confusion.

You smiled. "Because you will have opened the door for more conversation by asking her for help. Personally, I think it feels good to help people. I mean, it's what we do," you remarked.

Jack looked pensive. "I hadn't thought of it that way, but you're right," he responded.

"And who knows? The subject you choose may be one she's particularly knowledgeable about. Which means she'll want to tell you everything she knows about it. Even if not, she'll tell what she is interested in, and you can build on that. You'll get to talking with her, and before you know it, an hour or two has flown by. But, in that amount of time, you will have gotten to know her just a little bit better," you finished.

After a few moments of thought, Jack's smile gave way to a large grin. "Okay. I can do that. Ask her to help me find a book, then go from there. Thank you," he said. As he got up from the table, he pecked your cheek, causing you to giggle to yourself.

"You're welcome, Jack," you whispered. "Now if only someone would go to that kind of effort just for me," you added wistfully.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Little did you know, but Castiel was standing just outside the entrance to the kitchen. He happened to overhear your entire conversation with Jack, including your last remark. Cas was grateful that you tried to steer Jack in the right direction with the advice you gave him.

What he couldn't understand is how you weren't romantically involved with anyone. He knew how the hunter lifestyle could be a barrier to long-term relationships. He had once heard you talk about an ex-boyfriend named Kyle, but from what he remembered, it didn't end well.

Castiel thought back to the first time he'd met you, after that werewolf hunt. The moment he set his eyes on you, he was overwhelmed by a need to protect you. He insisted on staying behind at the motel to care for you while Sam and Dean went on a food run. As he sat on the bed with your head in his lap, he gently combed his fingers through your hair. He softly sang you a lullaby in Enochian to ensure that you would stay asleep and get the rest you so desperately needed.

As time went on, his feelings of protectiveness gave way to something else he couldn't quite name. His heart seemed to beat a little faster whenever he was near you, and he sometimes had an uneasy feeling in his stomach. He felt his happiest when he was in your presence, and experienced an emptiness whenever he was called away from you.

Cas also began to discover little things to love about you. To him, you'd always been beautiful, and not only on the outside. You were patient, whether it be explaining pop culture references for him or answering Jack's seemingly endless questions. When you smiled, it was like the sun had just come out, and your laughter was his favorite sound in the world.

So, what do I do now? he asked himself. How do I create an opening to talk to her so I can eventually ask her out? Wait, she said something to Jack about finding a subject, and then I should ask her about it, he told himself. A grin slowly grew across his face and his eyes lit up as he devised the perfect plan.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

You rolled over in bed and glanced at your alarm clock, its red numbers glaringly displaying the time '7:07 a.m.' at you. After another ten minutes of staring at the ceiling, you threw the blankets off and made your way to the showers. Thirty minutes later and you were fully dressed, ready to take on whatever the day could dish out.

Humming to yourself, you bustled about the kitchen, first making a full pot of coffee. Rule #1 with Dean was, don't even think of interacting with him before he's had his first cup. Those who ignored Rule #1 did so at their own peril. Once coffee was brewing, you started making the blueberry pancakes on the griddle, while bacon was getting crispy in a separate pan.

As you were putting the last of the bacon on the platter, Dean wandered into the kitchen. He was wearing his gray robe, a T-shirt and sweatpants. His eyes were only open enough to see where he was going and his hair was spiked up in every direction. Dean took a moment to determine what you were doing and grunted at you in greeting. You, in turn, merely pointed towards the coffeepot and his mug sitting in front of the machine, waiting for him to fill it.

One by one, the other inhabitants of the bunker filtered in. Sam, fresh from the shower, grabbed some plates out of the cupboard, while Jack set out more coffee mugs and silverware. "I'm almost finished frying up the last of the eggs, but you can get started on the rest," you directed.

Sam, Dean and Jack commenced to fixing their plates from the steaming pile of pancakes and mounds of crispy bacon. "Hey, are you cooking those eggs in the bacon grease?" Dean asked, a little more awake by now.

"Of course, Dean. Can't let it go to waste, now can I?" you replied. Soon the last of the eggs was finished cooking, so you put it on the platter and carried it to the table.

"THE best eggs ever are the ones cooked in bacon grease. All that bacony good flavor seeps into those eggs and BAM! A masterpiece is born. Thank you, sweetheart," Dean grinned and pecked a kiss to the side of your head.

A sour look briefly crossed Castiel's face and set his mouth in a grim line as he glared at Dean. A surge of emotion he couldn't quite put a name on was currently running through him. Am I jealous? he silently wondered.

"Cas, are you okay?" you asked with concern. You reached out and covered both of his hands, which were clenched together in front of him.

At the sound of your voice and touch of your hand on his, the trance was broken, and his calm demeanor had returned. The frown lines were smoothed out and his lips were returning to the smile you loved to see. "I am fine, just have some things on my mind," he explained, covering your hand with his free one. "Not to worry. By the way, have you any plans today?" he asked.

"Well, I have to clean up the kitchen from breakfast, then I was going to put a load of laundry in the washing machine. Why?" you inquired.

Cas rubbed the back of his neck with his hand, a sign to you that he was nervous about something. What would he have to be nervous about? you wondered. "I was hoping maybe you and I could do some baking today," he replied.

You chuckled a little at his suggestion. "But Cas, you don't eat anything, because you say everything tastes like molecules," you reminded him. As you saw his face fall, you hurriedly grabbed his arm. "However, our supply of baked goods around here is dwindling," you blurted out. "So, if you wanted to help me, I could sure use the extra hands. But, no angel mojo," you quickly added.

His winning smile had returned, his gaze locked on yours. "I would be delighted to spend time baking with you," he remarked. "I promise, no angel mojo. And this way, I'll get to learn all of your secrets," he winked.

Your cheeks suddenly felt like they were on fire, but you quickly recovered. "Well, I won't show you all of them, but I would love the company," you added. You started to clear the table, but were stopped by Sam and Dean.

"Uh-uh, no way," Sam interjected. "You made breakfast, it's only fair that we return the favor and clean up from it," he explained. "Go. Relax. Won't take too long, then you and Cas can have the kitchen back," he promised.

"Fine," you rolled your eyes in mock exasperation and took a seat at the map table. You decided to play one of the card games on your phone until Sam gave you the 'all clear' from the kitchen.

Around a half an hour later, Sam came out of the kitchen, drying his hands on a towel. "All yours, and Cas' too," he grinned and waggled his eyebrows.

"Thank you Sam for the clean-up from breakfast. Oh, and by the way? Here's where you do that little thing called 'shut the hell up'," you retorted playfully as you passed him on your mission to bake. "Ready to do this, Cas?" you called out.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Castiel was waiting for you at the kitchen table to tell him what he could do to help.

"First thing we're going to do is have you take off your trench coat and your tie. Wouldn't want anything to get spilled on either of those two items," you explained.

"Good idea," he agreed and removed the two articles of clothing. As he was rolling up his sleeves, he asked what was next.

"We wash our hands. Then, the fun begins," you grinned mischievously. You handed Cas an apron and assisted in tying it behind him, only to have him do the same for you.

"What shall we bake first?" he asked you, rubbing his hands together, as he was eager to get down to work.

Hours later, you surveyed the finished products. The baked items were perched on cooling racks, occupying nearly every flat surface of the kitchen. There were cookies, pies and loaves of sweet banana and pumpkin breads.

As you baked, you shared some memories with Cas about baking, particularly ones involving your mom, who had been gone now for several years. You told him that it was her recipes you were using, and that she was the one who taught you how to bake. He could see the love for your mom shining in your eyes, which endeared you to him that much more.

The aroma of cinnamon, sugar and various fruits hung in the air, and was almost enough to knock anyone back out of the kitchen. When Dean stopped in to get something to drink from the fridge, he was hit with the tantalizing smells from the baked goods. He was on a break from his project in the garage, and had stopped by to check your progress.

"Whoa, you two have been busy! This looks phenomenal," he remarked as he reached for a cookie.

"Ah ah ah, mister, not till you're done with whatever you're doing in the garage and are all cleaned up," you admonished.

"Okay," he replied reluctantly. You had just turned back around to chat with Cas when Dean went running out of the kitchen, laughing maniacally. He triumphantly shouted, "Ha ha ha, I got one! Victory is mine!"

You stood up to check the cookies, and sure enough, there was a hole in the row previously occupied by a cookie. "He is SUCH a child," you muttered, shaking your head. A small grin twitched at your lips, which told Castiel that you weren't as angry as you may have sounded.

Cas shook his head in amusement as well. "Yes, he may be the older brother, but I have noticed how immaturely he acts sometimes," Cas agreed.

"I guess that's part of his charm he thinks he has," you added. "By the way, Cas, thank you so much for your help with all of this. It probably would've taken me two days to get all of this done, with or without angel mojo," you joked.

"You are entirely welcome, I enjoyed spending time with you today. And thank you for sharing your memories with me," he took your hand in his and pressed his lips to your knuckles.

Warmth bloomed in your cheeks as you fought the urge to look away from his mesmerizing eyes. "Would you like to stay for a bit? Maybe watch a movie?" you asked.

"I wish I could, but I am afraid my services are needed elsewhere," Cas replied.

"Oh. Okay, may-maybe some other time," you murmured.

"Another time," he whispered. With a flurry of his wings, Cas disappeared.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

About a week later, Sam's serial killer book was due to be returned to the library, only to have him put another one on reserve. As before, Jack accompanied you so he could see Mavis' niece, Emma, again. You slipped Sam's book into the return slot and then you wandered into the main part of the library.

Emma was re-shelving the returned books, just like she was the last time you visited. You gently nudged Jack and gestured with your eyes in her direction as a signal to put his plan into action. He discreetly nodded back at you and set about his mission.

While Jack wandered the shelves, you did the same, but you went in the opposite direction. You heard a young lady's laughter as you rounded a corner of the bookshelves. Way to go, Jack, you silently congratulated him with a smile.

After your unsuccessful search, you started walking back towards the front desk. You caught up with Jack and Emma, who both had bright smiles on their faces. Definitely smitten, you thought.

"Aunt Mavis? I was wondering if I could take my lunch break, please? I'd like to take Jack over to the diner for something to eat," Emma asked.

Mavis looked at her watch, which said 12:30 p.m. "I suppose that would be all right," she agreed.

Jack turned to you and asked for your permission, and you consented as well. The pair were almost to the door when you called for Jack. They walked back to where you were standing and you fished out some cash and handed it to Jack. "Here, get some lunch for the two of you, my treat," you added with a smile. Jack flashed you a wide smile in return and said thank you.

As the young couple turned back towards the door, you heard, "Wow, your mom is so nice for treating us to lunch," Emma said.

You called out to correct her, "Oh, I'm not--" but Jack interrupted. "Yeah, she's really great," he replied. Right before he walked through the door, he caught your eye and gave you a wink, then continued towards the diner with Emma.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Tears threatened behind your eyes at Jack's declaration. His choice not to correct Emma's assumption about you being his mom made your heart swell with pride. He spoke of Kelly often, and of the things he remembered from her before he was born. That he thought of you in that same capacity was easily one of the most amazing things anyone had ever said about you.

You left the library and headed for the bakery, where you purchased a chocolate chip scone and a mocha latte. After a short walk, you ended up in the park across the street and down a little ways from the diner. While Jack and Emma had their lunch, you settled on a park bench to enjoy your snack.

There was a light breeze, not enough to cause a chill, but gentle enough to be refreshing. In the distance, several children of various ages were playing on the playground equipment. You closed your eyes and smiled at the sounds of their playful shrieks and peals of laughter.

You glanced at your watch and realized it was time to return to the bunker. You had a feeling that Emma's lunch break would likely be over soon as well. Disposing of your coffee cup and scone wrapper, you started walking back to the library. Jack and Emma arrived about a minute before you did, walking hand in hand.

"I'll just be a minute, I'm going back in to pick up Sam's book. Then, we should be heading home, Jack," you remarked. He nodded in agreement, then returned to his conversation with Emma.

Having picked up Sam's book, you exited the library, where Jack and Emma were still talking. Jack was getting his phone back from Emma, so you realized that they had just exchanged phone numbers. A knowing smile on your face, you opened the car door and slid behind the wheel.

On the way back to the bunker, you asked Jack what he had talked about with Emma to start the conversation ball rolling. He said that he had asked her about Australia, and she mentioned that she spent some time there with her parents. She told him about all the great places she'd visited, the animals she had seen and how she wanted to go back there someday.

"I asked her if she would want to go out with me to a movie on Saturday night. She said that she needed to ask her Aunt Mavis first. If she says yes, do you think you or Sam or Dean could bring me back to town?" he asked.

"I'm sure that can be arranged," you answered with a grin. "I'm happy for you Jack. She seems like a very nice young lady," you added. A comfortable silence fell over the two of you as you rumbled down the highway towards home.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

A few weeks later, Sam and Dean were standing by the map table, discussing something. You strode up to the pair and handed Sam his latest book from the library. Without another word to either of them, you went straight to the kitchen for a soothing cup of tea.

The boys looked at each other, then in the direction you'd just gone, not knowing what to make of your behavior. They silently debated with each other about whether or not to follow you and see if they could figure out what was wrong.

Sam wanted to leave you alone, figuring that you'd talk about it in your own time. On the other hand, Dean couldn't stand to see you looking so troubled, so he wanted to go after you. In the end, Sam relented, and they went in under the pretense of getting a snack. They each grabbed a beverage from the refrigerator, and sat down at the table with you.

"Hey, guys. Is everything okay? You need something?" you asked.

"We were just about to ask you the same thing. You look a little upset, and we're worried about you. If you want to talk, we're here for you," Dean offered.

"Is it something with Jack? His relationship with Emma?" Sam queried.

"Oh, no, that's going well, they're really a cute couple. Seeing them together makes me think about....never mind what it makes me think about," you muttered.

Dean hooked his index finger under your chin and tilted it up so he could look into your eyes. "Makes you think about your feelings for Cas?" he suggested.

"Pffft. What? No, no, maybe....yes. Am I that obvious? I keep trying to ignore my feelings because I don't want to lose the friendship we have. Especially when he doesn't feel the same way," you added softly.

"Who says he doesn't feel the same way about you as you do for him?" Sam interjected.

"Yeah! Haven't you noticed it these past few weeks? You've been giving Jack advice about his girlfriend. Then, Castiel shows up and does something that coincides with what you've said," Dean pointed out.

You thought back on the day you spent baking with Cas. About the flowers that had magically appeared in your room one morning while you were in the shower. How Cas took you on a picnic, and you spent the entire time talking and how great that was. "Maybe....I don't know. Can we please talk about something else?" you implored.

"How do you feel about him?" Sam asked, ignoring your attempt to change the subject.

You looked up at the ceiling, then down at the table, suddenly very interested in the pattern in the wood grain. "How should I describe it? He's so wonderful....kind, generous and attentive. When I'm around Castiel, it's like my world has gone from black and white to color. With him, I feel cared for, protected....cherished, even. I know that my heart would be safe in his hands if I were to entrust him with it," you explained.

"Sam? Dean? Would you please excuse us," a deep voice commanded.

Your head shot up, looking around for the source of the voice. Finally, your eyes landed on the trench-coated figure standing in the doorway to the room. "Cas," you whispered, then averted your gaze to your lap.

Sam and Dean got up from the table. "We're just gonna....um, yeah," Sam stammered as both he and Dean squeezed your shoulder on their way out. You also left the table and walked over to pour your cup of now-cold tea down the drain. Afterwards, you stood in front of the sink, bracing yourself. Your back was to Castiel, but you knew he hadn't left the kitchen.

Cas stood behind you and gently rubbed his hand on your upper back between your shoulder blades. He stepped impossibly closer to you and moved to embrace you from behind. Cas rested his hands so they were covering yours, fingers intertwined. "Is everything all right?" he asked.

You shook your head, not quite trusting your voice yet. You swallowed hard and tried again to speak. "That depends on how much you heard," you finally replied hoarsely.

"I didn't hear anything," he replied, causing you to sigh in relief. "Except how you feel protected and cared for when we're together. And how safe your heart would be if you entrusted me with it," he remarked. "I'm paraphrasing, of course," he added.

You felt your heart drop in your chest and tears prickling behind your tightly closed eyelids. "That's a fairly accurate translation, Cas. But, I know you only see me as a friend, like Sam and Dean are your friends. No matter how much I wish it were otherwise, I would never want to jeopardize that," you explained.

Cas carefully turned you around in his arms, his hands then reaching out to cradle your face, then your neck. "Oh, my darling Honeybee. Remember when you were talking to Jack about how to gain the attention of his young lady friend?" he asked and you nodded. "I heard everything you told Jack, and I took your advice. Only difference is, I used it to get closer to you, to show you how I feel about you," he confessed.

"Hmm. I see," you replied with a wry grin. "So, the flowers, the day spent baking cookies, the picnic, all of that was to get my attention?" you inquired and Cas nodded. "Well, it must have been pretty good advice if both you and Jack each got your girls," you remarked softly.

"Very good advice," Cas agreed. He reached out and tucked a wayward strand of hair behind your ear, slowly leaning forward. Your right hand reached up to curl around his neck to tug him ever closer until your lips met in a slow, tender kiss.

When your lips touched together, it was like fireworks exploding. You closed your eyes and melted into the kiss, which seemed to deepen with each passing second. Your left hand slid up his chest and into the short, jet-black hairs at the base of his neck. Not certain what it was, but you’d swear you heard a noise that sounded almost like a growl rumble through Cas' chest.

His hands roamed up and down your back, while keeping you pressed close to his body. His tongue ran along the seam of your lips, begging for entry, which you readily granted. The more you ran your hands through Cas' hair, the more heated and insistent the kisses grew.

Finally, the need for oxygen interrupted your kisses and left you both trying to catch your breath. "Cas, that was amazing. I've wanted to do that for so long, and I sort of never thought it would happen," you admitted, dropping your gaze.

Cas hooked his finger under your chin and gently tilted it upwards so he could look into your eyes. "I, too, have wanted to kiss you for quite some time. I suppose good things do come to those who wait," he grinned.

"Very good things. I love you, Castiel," you declared.

"And I love you, my Honeybee," he responded, just before pulling you in for another heated kiss.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Tags:

@followfantastickpopshiptrash @goksturges @pan-with-a-plan2020 @angelofthetrenchcoats @minnie-bby @cordelia-of-asgard @rose-ellis @lyarr24 @babygurltt @akshi8278 @miss-nerd95

#castiel x reader #castiel #spn #supernatural #spn imagines

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icequeenoriginal · 4 years ago

Note

What if you made a fanfic where bowceit puts a spell on roman where roman sees bowceit as virgil and virgil as bowceit

Author’s Note: I am so so so so so so so sorry. You asked this over a year ago, maybe longer but I got so distracted that I did not get to it until now. I was never going to abandon this, even if the AU is basically over. I hope it was worth the wait. I love the prompt by the way.

Mario AU belongs to @sugarglider-s

A03 link

Warning: Brainwashing, mistaken identity, misunderstanding, fighting, villain but sympathetic Deceit, crying, yelling (Let me know if I missed anything)

Pairings: Prinxiety and Logicality

Title: The Original is Always Better

It was supposed to be a fun day.

It was rare for Patton’s and Roman’s free days to line up with one another, even rarer for Patton’s, Logan’s, Virgil’s, and Roman’s free days to line up but on a Saturday at the end of the month, the stars finally aligned for such a thing to occur. They would have to thanks Remy next time they see him.

Patton had come up with an idea for them to have a picnic on Emile’s island. They could make a whole trip out of it. They could visit Emile, swim in the ocean, lay on the beach.

“That sounds like a perfect idea dear,” Logan replied, which made Patton smile and blush.

Roman nodded, “I can bring my beach ball, I haven’t used it in ages!”

“Could be nice to get some sun for once,” Virgil added.

And so the day was set, they would leave before sunrise in Patton’s pink plane. That way they could get as much of the day in as possible and a certain snake wouldn’t see them leaving the Mushroom Kingdom.

Patton and Logan spent the day before preparing the food as well as packing. Roman and Virgil meanwhile, came up with games as they packed.

It was going to be a great day.

Keyword: Was.

As the main four were happily planning their getaway, Bowciet was sulking in his throne room, nothing his servants weren’t used to.

He had suffered another bitter defeat by the Sarcastic Brothers. Plan after plan, he could never win. He would get so close and those annoying jumping brothers would always stupidly find a way to beat him.

And the worst part? After they were rescued, the princes would go on and on about how they were so happy that they were saved by their wonderful boyfriends.

“What do those princes even see in those two lowlife peasants plumbers anyway?!” Bowciet exclaimed.

“Because they’re cool?” A Gomba suggested.

“Because they are kind?” A Koopa offered.

“Because they don’t kidnap them?” A hammer bro adds.

Bowciet growled and blew fire at them, making them run out of the room in pain and fear. Bowciet slumps back into his chair.

What his minions said was absolutely ridiculous. They were completely not cool, cool people do not ruin the plans of a king! They were both a four at best and they weren’t THAT strong. Logan could jump pretty high sure, but he was as boring as a textbook. How could Prince Patton ever be attracted to that? And Virgil, an anxious freak who jumps at his own shadow, Roman likes that?

Bowceit knew he would be a much better match for the princes but they never give him a chance to prove it. They usually turn their back to him when he puts them in their cells and ignores him. How rude of them.

No matter how many presents and compliments he gives, they never give him a chance. Roman even had to gall say they both could not stand the sight of him.

Wait.

They could not stand the sight of him.

But they could stand the sight of those plumbers.

Bowciet smirked, his newest plan was forming in his mind.

He summoned a Magikoopa to his throne room.

“Yes, your majesty?” The Magikoopa said as it entered the room.

“I need you to make me a spell, as quickly as possible.”“What kind, your majesty?”Bowceit smirked, “Illusion”

As much as Virgil hates getting out of bed early, and boy does he hate it, he was very happy to find out that the seats on Patton’s plane leaned as flatly as possible. He sleeps through the entire plane ride with Roman run his fingers through his hair. Virgil breathes in Roman’s scent. He smells like the flowers in his garden and the tea he makes. Mainly honeysuckle and strawberry, it causes Virgil to dream of running through the fields with Roman. It is them alone, with only the flower-covered valleys and the warm sun.

In his dream, Roman’s smile rivals the sun, as if it doesn’t do that in the real world. Dream Roman runs a bit of head, a gap is starting to form between them. It made Virgil a bit nervous but Roman only looks over his shoulder and smiles. “Follow me!” Dream Roman shouts happily, “Don’t stop following me.”“Never” Virgil whispers.After a few more minutes of Virgil chasing Dream Roman, Dream Roman stops and stands in the middle of the endless field.

Virgil stops a few feet behind him and pants, trying to catch his breath. Dream Roman turns to face him and lifts up Virgil’s chin gently. Virgil blushes and Dream Roman smiles at him.

Dream Roman smiles back and says, “It’s time to wake up Virgil.”

The dream ends as Virgil begins to blink, he feels someone is shaking him awake. He turns to the source of the shaking before immediately freezing when seeing how close Roman’s face is to his.

It did not matter that this was how Virgil normally wakes up, Roman always makes him freeze with how beautiful he is. Virgil can’t help himself as he scans every feature of Roman’s face as if he was seeing Roman for the first time.

Roman smiles softly at him, flashing his pearly white teeth, “Hey sleepyhead, we are here.”

Virgil nods quickly, face completely red with blush. “T-Thanks Ro.”

Roman kisses his forehead before pulling him up and out of his seat. Virgil can barely keep up as Roman runs out of the plane, having to hold down his hat as they go.

Virgil has to squint when the light suddenly hits his eyes. Once his eyes adjust, he gasps at the sight in front of him. The beach sand is crystal white and very warm when Virgil touches it. The water is cyan blue, so clear that you can see the fish swim through it. The palm trees are ten times Virgil high with huge lush leaves. It wasn’t like Virgil hadn’t been to Emile’s island before but you don’t really have time to stop and smell the roses when an evil snake monster kidnaps your boyfriend.

Patton quickly rips off his shirt and jumps into the ocean to swim around, having changed into his swimsuit on the plane. Logan soon joins him, making sure to put out the picnic blanket and the picnic basket.

Virgil yawns, “I think I’m going to take another nap. The warm sand is just too tempting.”Roman giggles, “Okay then babe. I’m going to make a sandcastle next to you then.”Virgil had to physically stop himself from swooning. He knew that Roman had a bunch of stuff planned for them to do together and Virgil knew that Roman generally did not want to give up what he comes up with but he always does it for Virgil. Virgil is always his priority.

Virgil pulls Roman into a kiss before laying down.

Roman blushes, “What was that for?” Virgil wasn’t always one to initiate kisses.

Virgil covers his face with his hat to block out the sun and to hide his blush, “Just felt like it.”

Roman smiles at Virgil, his heart soaring with love for his boyfriend. Virgil always found a way to be sweet without trying. It was one of the things Roman loved about him.

Virgil woke up again to someone shaking him. This time it was his brother so Virgil was far less jumpy this time.

“What’s up, bro?” Virgil asked sleepily

“We are about to eat lunch and I figured you would want some,” Logan replies

“Lunchtime? How long have I been asleep?”

“You slept through the entire morning.”

“Did I miss anything?”“You missed Roman joining us in the ocean then he and Patton make this giant sandcastle,” Logan says as he points to a sandcastle that is about two stories tall. It looks like a miniature version of Patton’s castle except on the front, instead of a glass window with Patton holding a rose, it is a drawing of Patton and Roman made into the sand. Roman peeks his head out of the sand castle’s window and waves, “Virgil! My love! You are awake! Look what we made!”

Virgil’s eyes widen in shock at how big the castle is and how it can hold both Roman and Patton. Roman does not seem to notice this as he exits the sandcastle with Patton.

They all sit on the picnic blanket and Patton serves the food. They eat are given their favorite sandwiches and favorite kind of chips. Patton also packed potato and macaroni salad for them all to share.

“What do you guys want to do next?” Roman asks between bites.

“Hmm…Oh! What if we went for a walk around the island?” Patton suggests.

“That sounds absolutely wonderful Patton! I have been meaning to take note of the flowers around here to expand my garden!” Roman replies

Virgil snickers, “Do you even have any garden space left Princey?”

Roman waves him off, “I can just start a fourth garden.”“FOURTH?!”

“Instead of debating Roman’s plant obsession, we should finish our lunch so we can begin our walk,” Logan says while waving his hand to silence his brother and his brother’s boyfriend.

The other three nod in agreement and eat their food in relative silence.

Once they pack up their things and changed on Patton’s plane, the four head deeper into the island. They pass by plants and bushes that are twice their size but they oddly seem to be walking on a mostly clear path. Roman runs a bit ahead, hardly able to contain his squeals as he sees all the plants in front of him. He scribes a quick drawing of them into his little orange notebook. Virgil is standing next to him, holding his umbrella and smiling at his boyfriend’s antics. He adored Roman’s passion and will do anything to not let that fire die.

Eventually, the four come across an empty field. It has patches of leaves all around it. They all look at one another, something feels off. It seemed too quiet, none of them were used to pure quiet.

Patton squats in front of one of the patches of leaves. “It looks like the bed Emile has.”

Logan nods “The Emiles must collect leaves and make beds that they sleep on.”

“Why aren’t any of them here?” Virgil asks, nervousness creeping into his voice.

“They might all be doing something right now.” Roman offers, hoping to calm his boyfriend.

No one else replied, there was no way it was something as simple as that, it never was. Patton moves to investigate another pile of leaves when it suddenly begins to shake. Before Patton can react, a Goomba jumps out, causing Patton to yelp. Patton falls on his back as the Goomba lands just by his head. Logan quickly stomps on it and helps Patton up.

Two dozen more Goomba jumps out from under the other piles of leaves surround the four of them. The four each take out six Goombas but don’t have time to celebrate when more of Bowceit’s minions surround them.

Roman bursts into laughter “No originality Bowceit? Oh well! I’m going to make this fun for me! Whoever defeats the most minions gets the first swing on Bowceit!”Logan, Virgil, and Patton all exchange a look before all smiling and nodding. Unbeknownst to them, Bowceit was smiling too, his plan was working exactly as he expected.

The four fought the Koopas, not noticing that they were being moved further and further away from each other. They push Logan and Virgil to one side of the field and Patton and Roman to the other side. Once they were where Bowceit wanted them, he sent Hammer Bros. towards them. They throw their hammers between the two groups, forcing all four of them to be on their own and surrounded by Koopas.

Bowceit smirks and walks out from behind the tree, receiving glares from all of them. “Well, well, well…look what the Koopas dragged in.”

All four of them groan, making Bowceit hiss at all of them. “Rude.”

“What do you want Bowceit, this time?” Logan says, annoyance and bitterness dripping from his mouth.

“Oh please Logan, as if you do not know,” Bowceit replies as he looks at his gloved fingers.

Logan rolls eyes, “Of course…well since you are up to your old tricks, I might as well use mine!” Logan then jumps up in the air, well over the enemies. He lands a punch square into Bowceit’s jaw. As the two begin to scuffle, Virgil takes out the Koopas on their side to go help Logan fight Bowceit.

On the other side, Roman starts to take out the Koopas near him. That is when he notices that the Koopas near him and Patton are running towards Virgil. Roman immediately feels suspicious. Bowceit normally sends the most amount of Koopas at Roman. He looks around and that’s when he spots it.

A magikoopa, directly diagonal from Patton waving its wand, ready to cast a spell. Roman runs to Patton as fast as he can.

“PATTON!” Roman yellsPatton turns to him confused, “Huh?!”The magikoopa fires the spell.

Roman shoves Patton out of the way and yells in pain as the spell hits him and knocks him to the ground.

“ROMAN!” Virgil shouts and jumps over the group of Koopas. Logan kicks Bowceit away from and turns to the group of Koopas, ready to take them out so they can’t stop Virgil. He pauses, confused when he sees that they are not following Virgil, just standing. Logan turns his head to Bowceit and sees him smirking.

Virgil quickly helps Roman up, “Ro! Are you alright?”

Roman blinks at him before grabbing his arm and throwing him across the field. Everyone but Bowceit freezes in shock. Virgil hits a tree and rubs the back of his head in confusion.”

Bowceit smiles, “Not the one I was intending,” Bowceit shrugs, “But I can’t complain!” Bowceit walks to Roman and smiles, opening his arms. “Excellent throw my dear”

Roman giggles and blushes. Bowceit takes cups his face and Roman leans into his touch, shattering Virgil’s heart.

Bowceit turns his head to Virgil with the evilest grin on his face as he carcasses Roman’s cheek.

Virgil went numb.

Virgil will be the first to admit he has a lot of fears. Some odd like jumping too high he gets lost in space and some serious like burning to death in lava. This, however, was worse than any fear of his.

Bowceit winning.

He had gotten one of the princes. His prince. His Princey. And Roman looked happy in his arms. Roman’s normally kind and playful grin was replaced by a devilish and evil grin. And his eyes…

Oh god, his eyes.

One thing Virgil loved to do was just stare into Roman’s eyes. Roman’s eyes are normally warm, brown, and playful. His eyes now…they were ice blue. Piercing ice blue that sent daggers into Virgil’s heart.

Bowceit picks up Roman bride style pulling the giggling prince close. Bowceit sends him a wink and runs off with Roman.

Logan, who has been frozen in shock the entire time, takes a step forward only to have to dodge a hammer throw at his head. Logan narrows his eyes at them but something purple catches his eyes.

Logan sees his brother shaking, on the verge of tears. Logan is livid. He jumps up and stomps down hard on two Goombas. He angrily but silently takes out the rest of Bowceit’s minion in the area. Logan is panting by the time he is finished but ignores it to run over and check on Virgil.

Virgil clings onto his brother as he tries to get himself to breathe. This was not the time to panic, but it was also the perfect time to panic. Did this have to be Virgil’s life right now?

It took a while but Virgil was finally able to get his breathing normal enough to think straight. Patton made sure to give him a big hug just to make sure.

“Okay, okay,” Virgil pulls away from him “So what the heck just happened?!”“Language!” Patton shouted. Just because it is a stressful situation does not mean he will be allowed to curse.

Virgil blinked at him before shaking his head, “What happened to Roman?”

Logan pauses for a moment before replying, “Clearly, he has been brainwashed in some way. Most likely by whatever that spell was.”

“Right, right, great, great! Now how do we fix it?!” Virgil asks, already feeling his panic returning.

“Well, it’s a spell, right? We need to find a magikoopa,” Logan offered.

Virgil nods, “Right, right. That makes sense. Of course, it makes sense. Is it always this hard to breathe?” Virgil says as he pants.

Patton pats his back as Virgil tries again to catch his breath.

Logan puts his hands on Virgil’s shoulders, “Virgil. You are my brother. I will do anything for you. I will get Roman back.”

Virgil smiles and puts his hand on one of Logan’s hands, “Thanks bro, now let’s go kick some magikoopa butt!”

~Roman laughs as “Virgil” carries him through the island. “Virgil” jumped through the air, making Roman hold onto him tightly.

This was surprising to Roman. Virgil was never this energetic after a fight Bowceit. Though, to be fair to him, this time did not require traveling through nine different worlds to get to said fight.

Roman was happy about this small change. Normally his poor stormcloud would be too drained to want to do anything but cuddle in their shared bed. Roman wouldn’t mind if it was because Virgil enjoyed it, he minded that it was the only thing his love could physically do that did not strain his body.

Well, now was not the time to think about that. Now was the time to admire “Virgil’s” jumping skills. He knew both Logan and Virgil hated their jumping ability but that did not make it any less impressive. Though, Roman did think it was odd that “Virgil” seemed to land so loudly. He figured Virgil would be the lightest on his feet, after Patton and him of course. You can’t spend your youth dancing and not be.

Roman had no time to think about it as he gasps, nearly jumping out of “Virgil’s” arm. “Virgil” stops moving to prevent Roman from falling out of his arms.

“Stop! Stop here!” Roman demands.

Bowceit raises an eyebrow, “Why?”

“Look at those flowers!” Roman untangles himself from “Virgil’s” arms and motions to the flower field in front of him, “I have never seen such amazing and huge flowers!”

Bowceit would admit that the flowers in question were…okay looking. They were very tall with bright pink flower petals. The petals were very vibrant pink with white accents. Bowceit feels his piranha plants were much nicer.

“We have to see more of it!” Roman shouts as he points to the field.

“Maybe later, I have something much more fun in mind.”

Bowceit had a plan. He would convince Roman to come back to his castle and marry “Virgil”.

“What could be more fun than this?” Roman asked perplexed. What could be more them than running through a flower field and fall into each other’s arms only to stay there and watch the sunset?

“Well I was thinking we could go to Bowceit’s castle–” Bowceit begins only for Roman to cut him off.

“Pffft, we spend enough time there, too much time in my opinion,” Roman says with a laugh.

Bowceit did his best to hide his annoyance with that statement. The spell may make him look and sounds like Virgil but unless he acted Virgil, there was a chance Roman could peek through.

“Yeah but you knocked him out, maybe we could trash the place?”

Roman made a very perplexed face and Bowceit sucked in his breath. After a few moments, Roman bursts into laughter. “We do that too much too. Come onnnn, please?”

“I just…had a funny prank idea we could pull on him!” “Virgil pushed.

“I promise we can do that next time but when are we going to have a quiet moment and who knows how long these flowers again?”Bowceit did not have time for this. Another problem with the spell was that it only lasted until the sun went down. That is what he gets for rushing the creation of the spell but he wanted this done today. So much for being eager.

How would Virgil react to Roman’s begging? He knew virtually nothing about the younger plumber due to not caring to. The only thing he knew was he got upset easily which either led to tears or him getting punched in the face by the purple plumber.

He did once overhear Roman describing a painting Virgil apparently did for him to Patton when they were both in his dungeon but he doubted it could help him in this situation. Unless…

“Alright, but just long enough for me to get a…drawing in,” “Virgil” replies, almost hesitantly.

Luckily for him, Roman’s pleading face morphs into a soft accepting smile, “Of course dear. Then we can do whatever you want afterward.”

Bowceit smirks, “Excellent.”~

A magikoopa was flying peacefully when a green shell suddenly came flying at it. The magikoopa had no time to react before it was knocked right off of its broom and falls to the ground.

The magikoopa screams as it went tumbling to the ground. It hit the ground with a thud and it grips its head in pain.

Once its vision cleared, it gasps as it sees it is surrounded by a very angry Virgil, Logan, and Patton. All three of their arms are crossed and they are glaring daggers into the magikoopa.

The magikoopa scrambles onto its butt as it looks at the trio, absolutely terrified. Before it can try to escape, Virgil grabs it by the robe and drags it to make it face to face with him.

It squeaks, “Don’t hurt me! I didn’t do anything wrong!”

Virgil growls out, “You were there! You cast a spell on Roman! Now tell me what you did to him!”

As Virgil is talking, Logan walks around him to be behind the magikoopa. “Just so you know, Patton and I won’t hold him back.”

“In fact, we will help,” Patton says, his voice sounding like a horror movie villain.

The magikoopa began to sweat profusely. “It-it was an illusion spell!” it squeaks out.

“What kind of illusion spell?” Virgil asks, tightening his grip on the Magikoopa’s robe.

“It made Bowceit look like you and you look like Bowceit to Prince Roman! If it hit Prince Patton, it would have done the thing to Logan!”

“That must be why Roman attacked you when you touched him,” Logan says as he rubs his chin in thought.

“Alright so now tell us how to break the spell!” Virgil shouts.

“I am not telling you anything!” the magikoopa says, acting as if its voice was not completely shaky.

However, before Virgil could do anything, Patton rips the magikoopa away from him.

Patton glares at the magikoopa with nothing but malice with his eyes. “You are going to tell him so we can save my best friend or you are going to deal with me,”

“Like you can hurt a fly!” The magikoopa barks at Patton.

“I only hurt those who deserve it, and you for one, deserve a lot.” Patton throws the magikoopa to the ground in anger. He pulls out his umbrella and swings it down on the magikoopa.

“WAIT!” the magikoopa screams.

Patton stops just as the umbrella is about to hit him. “Yes?”“I’ll tell you everything! I swear!” the magikoopa pleads, getting on its hands and knees.

“Then start talking,” Patton says with a glare.

“There is no way to break the spell!” Patton winds up to swing again.

“BUT! THERE’S A BUT!” the magikoopa “The spell will end when the sun goes down! His plan is to marry the prince before then as you!”

“Anything else?” Patton asks

“Bowceit Jr. made me come up with a spell to make himself taller.” the magikoopa replies, looking down at the ground in shame before bursting into tears.

The three of them look at each other, very uncomfortable. They slowly back away from the crying magikoopa and head off to find Roman.

Roman had a great time in the flower field. He was able to collect some seeds of the flower and have a nice walk through the field with “Virgil”.

Though “Virgil” seemed to be awfully quiet, not having anything to say to him.

It strikes Roman as odd. Sure, Virgil was always one to keep to himself. When Roman would boast and brag to his Thomases and Talyns, Virgil would walk silently next to him with a smile on his face as he intently listens to whatever Roman has to say.

However, when they are alone, Virgil becomes the more talkative one. He would go on about his adventure with Logan, his ideas for songs, and anything that was on his mind.

Roman figures that something must be wrong. With him being uncharacteristically pushy earlier and with him not saying anything, there must be something going on in his mind.

“Mind if we rest in the tree for a bit? My legs are a bit sore.” Roman asks while pointing at a tall tree.

“Virgil” shrugs and follows him. Bowceit knew it was a bit late in the afternoon but he was sure they still had enough time to complete his plan. He goes to sit next to the tree but stops to watch Roman climb the tree.

“What are you doing?” “Virgil” asks.

Roman stops his climbing. “What does it look like? I’m sitting in the tree.” Roman replies, almost laughing.

“But why?”

“Because we always sit in trees together?” Roman replies, looking very confused.

“Oh? Oh! Of course! Sorry, I completely forgot.” “Virgil” scrambles up the tree after him. Roman continues to climb up confused.

Roman sits on a high branch that overlooks the island. Bowceit could see that the sun was beginning to go down. He frowns, he is running out of time. He was nowhere near his castle with the wedding chapel. He doubts that there were any wedding chapels on Emile’s Island, there were hardly any buildings at all.

“Alright, what is wrong? Don’t tell me it’s nothing, you wouldn’t be frowning if something wasn’t wrong.” Roman asks, his arms crossed so there was no room for discussion.

Bowceit was stuck. He began patting his sides nervously, it was a habit he has always had ever since he was younger.

As he was doing that, he felt a small box in his pocket. The ring! He had completely forgotten that he had it on him with everything going on.

Bowceit tried to hide his shock at discovering the ring but he clearly did not do it well as Roman cups his face.

“Stormcloud, tell me, please. You know you can tell me, anything babe.” Roman asks gently.

Bowceit’s finger’s rest of the ring box. This was his last shot.

“I have something to ask you,” “Virgil” asks as he slips his hand into his pocket.

Roman is confused, he knew Virgil put his hands in his pockets when he was nervous but he had no idea what was making Virgil nervous.

“Will you…?”

“Will I?”“Will you…tell me why you like me?”

Bowceit didn’t know what possessed him to ask that question. It was always lingering in his mind. Why them and not him? He was a king after all! With minions and a huge castle, not to mention very adorable children. So why did the princes date the plumbers? They are plumbers, what exactly do they have to offer?

Roman’s frown was deep that Bowceit was so sure that it would cause permanent frown lines. He takes a deep breath and says, “Okay, I am only going to say this once more. So make sure it stays in your brain this time because you know I hate repeating myself.” Roman emphasis his point by poking “Virgil” forehead.

“Alright, alright, I get it.” “Virgil” replies, waving Roman off, “Just tell me.”

Roman makes a show of clearing his throat, tapping his chest, and do some vocal exercises. “Alright. First off, I demand as your prince and loving boyfriend that you never doubt our relationship again. I know you get anxious about a lot of things but we should not be one of them, my stormcloud. I adore you. I love how cautious you are but are still willing to jump over literal lava when I am kidnapped. You are strong and a hero. But that is not all I like. I like it when you sing when we sit together under a tree and read a book. I like doing nothing and everything with you because it is you. You are an amazing artist and musician. You are an amazing brother and boyfriend.”

Bowceit is shocked, to say the least. He has never heard Roman talk this soft or sweetly. The ring felt heavy in his hand.

“And secondly, I don’t just like you, I love you.” Roman says as he puts his hand on “Virgil”’s hand that is resting on the tree branch.

Bowceit looks down at their hands before looking up at Roman’s face. He is smiling, the most loving smile Roman had ever given him. Roman’s now blue eyes seemed to shimmer with joy and love.

This is all he ever wanted from the prince. And yet…

It felt wrong. This was wrong.

He squeezed the ring box. He had to make a choice.

As this was happening; Logan, Patton, and Virgil seemed to be running around like chickens that have lost their heads. They first headed straight for Bowceit’s castle after talking with the magikoopa. They were shocked when they did not find Roman but rather the danger noodles making a gigantic pillow fort in their father’s throne room.

They headed from world to world afterward but they could not seem to find Roman anywhere. They made it back to the Mushroom Kingdom before deciding to take a breather.

Once they arrive, Virgil walks up to the closet tree and punches it. He immediately regrets this action as his anger quickly turns into pain. He sticks his wounded fist into his mouth to silence any curse words that threaten to escape.

Patton pulls him into a hug, gently rubbing his back. He rocks Virgil back and forth in an attempt to soothe him. Virgil tears up, though he is not sure if it is because of the pain or the sadness he has been trying to suppress all day.

Once the pain dulls, Virgil pulls away from Patton, and Patton lets him go. Virgil tends to pace when he needs to calm his mind down.

Virgil paces in front of Patton’s castle, almost biting his nails but stopping when he remembers he has gloves on. “AGH! Where could they possibly be?!” Virgil shouts in anger.

“We will find them, Virgil,” Logan replies.

“No, no. No, we won’t!”“Virgil–”

“No, no Logan, don’t you dare! Don’t tell me we will! Because we have looked everywhere! We went to every Zone, fuck, we’ve been to his castle! And even if we do find them, they probably are already married. That’s probably why we can’t find them because they’re on their goddamn honeymoon! It’s over! He’s gone!”

Virgil pauses, the weight of his words hit him, “He’s gone…I lost him.” He nearly fell backward from it. He begins to hug himself, trying to catch his breath.

Logan is completely lost. He wants to reassure his brother but he doesn’t know what he could possibly say to help him. He had no logical positive explanation. The logical explanation is that Virgil is right. He did not know what to do.

Luckily, Patton does.

“So you’re just going to give up?” Patton says, making the two brothers turn to him. His pink sleeved arms arm crossed and he is glaring at the pair.

“You guys are only heroes when it’s easy for you? Now that you’re in a hard spot you’re just going to stop?” Patton says angrily

“Well, dear, there is not–” Logan starts but Patton silences him with a hand raise.

“Don’t ‘dear’ me! And don’t you dare say there is nothing you can do! What would Roman say? What would Roman DO? Do you think he just sits around and waits for you guys to save him?’“No…” Virgil replies “He never gives up. H-He would keep trying…”

“That’s right! So you need to do that too!”

Virgil is silent for a few seconds before standing up straight, “You’re right…”

“What was that?” Patton says, his face morphing into a smile.

“You’re right!” Virgil shouts, determination coming back to him, “I am not going to give up! Because I am not a quitter!”

“That’s right! So what are you going to do?!”

“I’M GOING TO BREAK BOWCEIT’S FACE!”Patton blinks at him, “…What else are you going to do?”

“Oh uh save Roman. THEN BREAK HIS FACE!”

“Okay, kiddo.”

“I WILL SEARCH EACH ENDS OF THE EARTH AS MANY TIMES AS POSSIBLE TO BREAK THAT UGLY SNAKE’S FACE!”

“Maybe you won’t have to,” Logan chimes in.

Both Virgil and Patton turn to him and say, “Huh?”

“Think about it, where was the first place we checked when we knew Bowceit had Roman?”

“Bowceit’s castle, but he wasn’t there,” Virgil replies, still confused.

“And when we saw that they were not there, where did we go?”

“To every other place, we know Bowceit has a tower.”

“So that means we didn’t check…?”

“…THE ISLAND! THAT SON OF A BITCH NEVER LEFT THE ISLAND! WE GOT TO GO!” Virgil screams before taking off in a run.

“Virgil! Kiddo! We have to take the plane!” Patton shouts after him.

“Oh right.”

“Cover your eyes and follow me.” “Virgil” instructs Roman as they climbed out of the tree. Roman raises his eyebrow skeptically but covers his eyes with one hand, using his other hand to take “Virgil’s” hand.

They walk for a while before Roman hears what sounds like running water. “May I open my eyes now?”

“Not yet, not yet, Count down from..from 300.”

“300?!”

“Virgil” sighs, “Please? For me.”

Roman rolls his eyes behind his hand, “Okay, okay. But this surprise better be worth it. One, two, three…”

Bowceit steps back from Roman with a frown. He shakes his head and runs away as quietly as possible.

He could not believe that he was actually doing this. He should be jumping at this opportunity and fast, the sun was starting to go down. He looks over his shoulder at Roman still counting. He sighs and continues to walk away.

Damn his stupid conscience.

Once the plane touches the ground on the island, Virgil runs out of it. He is prepared to rip this island to sherds to find his beloved. Luckily he only has to run for a bit before he finds Bowceit.

He jumps up and goes to punch Bowceit but Bowceit dodges. Virgil lands and gets into a fighting set “You…”

“I’m not here to fight,” Bowceit says putting his hands up in defense.

Virgil rolls his eyes, “Wow, that’s a first, but I do not care. Where’s Roman?”

“He’s down that path,” points, “He’s fine, just counting.”

“What? Why is he counting?” Virgil asks, prepared to hear something about a bomb.

“He’s counting down until the spell breaks. Go and get him.” Bowceit says.

“How do I know you’re not lying?”

“Because I’m heading to my airship by myself. But don’t believe me, it doesn’t make a difference to me.”

Virgil stares at him, and he can’t find any indication that Bowceit is lying. “…Why are you doing this?”

“I don’t want to win this way.”

Virgil looks at him in utter shock.

“Oh pick up your jaw from the ground plumber. Don’t read into this. I will marry one of those princes, just not like this.”

Virgil couldn’t hold back his smirk, “Not if my brother and I have anything to say about it.”

Bowceit smirks as well, “We will see.” He salutes Virgil before stuffing his hands into his pockets and walking off.

Virgil’s smirk morphs into a relieved smile. He takes off to Roman, he’ll break Bowceit’s fave another day.

~“Three…two…one…” Roman removes his hand “Oh my gosh…”

The lake he had been brought to was surrounded by Evening Primroses and Moonflowers. The sky was filled with bright beautiful stars. Roman smiles at the scene before turning around. Standing behind him is Virgil, staring at him with his bright brown eyes.

Roman runs over to him and takes his hands. “This place is beautiful. Did you find it on one of your adventures? Wait, don’t tell me. I want to listen to the wonderful sounds of this place.” Roman looks around with a smile before his eyes land back on Roman.

His brown eyes. His soft, warm, and oh so loving brown eyes.

“Stormcloud, why are you crying?” Roman asks as he cups Virgil’s hand and wipes the tears away with his thumb.

Virgil lets out a watery laugh, “Nothing baby, I just love you so much.”

Roman kisses his nose “And I love you too. And I will always love you.”

Virgil grins, “I know.”

Taglist:

@corkeecoderyt @Per-seph-o-nee @Ohshrekmyheck @3milystuff @Asymmetricalgarbage8888 @fairytailtwists @sanders-sides-rebloger @sanderssidesfluffyangst @unikornavenger @0callmevirge0 @gloomingwitch @roxiefox24 @ijustreallylovesanderssides @unisaurioamorfo @mycatshuman

#mario au #thomas sanders #sanders sides #prinxiety #logicality #roman sanders #virgil sanders #logan sanders #patton sanders #Janus Sanders #villain deceit #send me asks

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littlegiantposts · 4 years ago

Text

pilot (~revised~)

Kageyama x f!reader

may contain spoilers!

description: In which Y/n is a new addition to Karasuno’s Girl’s Volleyball Club

warning: I’m sure there are some curse words in there.

A/N: yeah so there is another version of this on my blog, but that was really like a test run/rough draft, so here is the revised one that I like better and I added more scenes. ALSO, just ask if you wanna be added to like a taglist. I already stated this in the previous pilot post i will state it again to make sure.

This started off as just as a nice story to play in my head, but I really wanted to see if I could write it down. First things first, I am raised in California. Thus, I am quite incompetent in knowledge about Japan schooling. All my knowledge is really from me googling stuff and ofc, watching haikyuu. With that said, if I made a mistake on the take of Japan schooling, I do not mean to cause any offense. This is solely for entertainment purposes. With that said, I do not own the characters of haikyuu. However, there are some characters I made up with my own imagination. In addition, this is an “x reader” sort of story but I will be defining some of her characteristics so I am sorry if it hinders you from imagining its you. Finally, I am not that good at writing stories lol but im trying. I hope you enjoy.

I hate introductions. Y/n thought to herself as she sat back down in her seat after standing in front of the class, stating her name and her previous school. Her gaze shifted towards the window. The sun was out and shining and she had the perfect view of the gymnasium. Oh how she just wanted to get up from her uncomfy chair and leave the boring lecture and head towards the gym.

It was the first day of school for Y/n at Karasuno High. It’s not like she started in the middle of the semester, no, she was just about a month late into the school year. With her work ethic, she didn’t feel any pressure in order to catch up with everyone else. She knew she would get it done.

It’s not really her fault she came a bit late into the school year either. Her dad’s job required a small move, not that she was complaining. She didn’t really feel tied down at her old high school because: she wasn’t there for that long and she didn’t really make any friends, despite joining a sport.

It’s not that she didn’t want to make friends. It seems that her track record, or the lack thereof, from junior high with meeting new people has left an imprint on her.

Y/n looks down at the worksheet that was passed out in the beginning of class. The assignment was already completed due to Y/n’s eagerness to finish any homework that would take away time from her main passion.

Some people would say she was obsessed. Some would say dedicated. She simply sees volleyball as an opportunity. The class bell rings, signaling for lunch. Before she realizes it, she is walking towards the gym, in which she would meet the girl’s volleyball captain. As she is switching shoes, she can hear screaming from inside.

“-What did I tell you about touching my onigiri! You are going to pay for that!” “I really didn’t mean it this time, I promise! I didn’t know it was yours!” The voices were muffled, yet she was still able to hear the sincerity in both of the voices. Y/n was about to open the gymnasium’s door when the door swung open by a tall pink-haired girl. She was being chased by another tall girl with long blonde hair, but she was a bit shorter than the pink one. Before Y/n could process stepping aside because it seemed the pink-haired girl had no inclination in stopping, she was tumbled to the ground by the girl who she can only guess took an onigiri without permission. As well, the blonde clumsily tripped and fell on top of the two.

“You idiots! Will you stop it! We already told you, we got a guest coming today and we want to make a good first impression!” A stern voice called out inside the gym.

“Um, Moa-san, I think our wishes are already soiled.” Another voice chimed in from the gym.

“Wha- You dumbasses! Hey, are you okay?” A girl with dirty blonde hair came out from the entrance and offered a hand towards Y/n as the two perpetrators started to get up with apologies towards Y/n.

“Yeah, I am good.” Despite just being tackled to the ground, Y/n remains as neutral as ever.

“Aren’t you going to ask if we are okay?” The energetic, pink haired spoke.

“As if I care when you collide into our guest! You really need to be more cautious, Etsuko!” She barked. “I am Aihara Moa. Pleasure to meet you. You’re the first year that turned that application past the deadline, right?” she states more calmly than her previous statement.

“Pleasure is all mine. And, yes. Sorry for the inconvenience.” Y/n states with quite the unfazed face.

Does this kid crack a smile once in a while? Moa asked in her mind. She seems quite different than the other first years we have. Her thoughts continue.

“I am Oba Yuma and this is Morita Etsuko.” Yuma, who had the pretty, long blonde hair, spoke with a warm smile.

“Why did you introduce me?! I wanted to have a cool introduction!” Etsuko huffed with a small pout.

“Well, it’s not like you can recover your so-called ‘cool introduction’ from that full-body collision.” Yuma smoothly replied. Etsuko’s eyes widened and cheeks heated up as she couldn’t come up with a sly comeback to her logic.

“You guys are just lucky that Rinko isn’t here to scold you.” Moa warned the 2 first years. With the mention of the scary third year that wasn’t even the captain, yet she reigned supreme in the disciplinary department, they shivered at the thought of the punishment.

As Y/n stepped further into the big, bright court, she spotted that she could only assume was the captain as she looked so appalled at what happened.

“Hello, you must be Michimiya Yui.” Y/n knew she had to say something to pull the worried captain from her thoughts.

“Hi! Yes, that’s me! I am so sorry for those two. I would say they aren’t always like that, but I don’t want to lie to a potential teammate.” Yui spoke with an uneasy smile.

Yuma and Etsuko’s interests peaked when they heard “a potential teammate” come out of their captains' mouths. They were the only first years on the team, so the thought of another person in the same boat as them made them excited and wanted to join the conversation. The two first years gave each other a look and started to walk towards Yui, and hopefully their new friend. However, before they could even be in ear-shot, the pair got pulled away by Sasaki Chizuru, another third year.

“Oh, no. Don’t think you will be bombarding her with questions right off the bat.” She bluntly states.

“Oh, c’mon Sasaki, aren’t you curious about her? Like how did she get into volleyball? Or even, is she a beginner? Or maybe she is an absolute monster who dominates the court!” Etsuko proclaimed as her mind went too fast for her mouth to follow.

“As of right now, it’s not our business. All we can do, and are allowed to do”, emphasizing the word ‘allowed’, “is to watch from the sidelines and quietly eat our lunches.” Chizuru instructed the first years and pointed at the far corner of the gym.

Despite her own words, Chizuru couldn’t help but glance at Y/n and wonder the same things that the first year questioned. At face value, Y/n was quite the enigma. The 2 first years gave a pout, but headed towards their desired location.

“So, you came from Niiyama Girls' High? That’s a really good school for volleyball. What made you come to Karasuno?” Yui asked.

“It was the most ideal school in terms of my dad’s work location.” Y/n states plainly. She didn’t technically lie. It was an ideal school in terms to the proximity to her new apartment, but that was not the only reason. She saw videos of their interhigh-prelims last year and to be quite frank, Y/n was not entirely impressed with the state of their team. However, she knew that this meant there was room to grow for them. She knew very well that she could have gone to Shiratorizawa and joined their girls’ volleyball. Objectively, with her skill set, Shiratorizawa made sense. Nonetheless, Y/n didn’t know what compelled her to pick this one. She convinced herself it was because she is a sucker for rooting the underdog.

Does this kid show any emotion? Yui thought in her mind. It’s like nothing affects her.

“How long have you been playing volleyball?” Yui curiously asked.

“Since the 2nd grade.” Y/n quickly states. As much as she wasn’t showing it, she was just itching to show what she can do. The court was right there in front of her, after all.

“That’s impressive, alright, well if you’re comfortable with it, I’d love to see some serves and sets from you. After school, we can hold a three on three since we all aren’t really in the right clothes to play.”

“Sounds good.” To say Y/n was excited would be an understatement. As she removed her cream sweater, she could feel a set of eyes burning a hole on her back. She turned around to put her sweater down and realized that she was wrong. It wasn’t one pair of eyes, it was all of them, curious to see how good she really is. She could feel her heart pounding at the thought of holding everyone’s attention. She knew if she let her mind continue, the nerves would get to her and hinder her performance. She took deep breaths and started to quietly humm a song that was previously playing on her phone from her morning ride to school.

Yui passed a volleyball to her and ran to the other side of the net, and yelled, “Let’s see what ya got!”

Y/n carried herself behind the serve line, taking one deep breath to keep her hands from shaking. With that exhale, she opened her eyes and focused her sights on Yui. The captain wouldn’t admit it, but she could already feel herself sweating under the first year’s gaze.

She looks so intimidating. I’m not even on the court, yet I’m scared. Yuma viewed Y/n’s determined look. For Y/n, it was as if everything crumbled away and the only thing remained was the court. She starts her run up.

A jump serve?! Yuma, Etsuko, and Chizuru incredulously thought simultaneously with eyes basically bugging out of their head. They watch in amazement as she jumps with severe height and reeled her arm back. After that, all that could be sensed was a loud snap and then the ball smacked the ground next to the wide-eyed captain. The impact from the ball gave a small breeze through Yui’s short hair. The deafening silence that followed her serve filled the room in an instant. Those watching from the sidelines had to pick up their jaws from the floor.

“She’s a first year?! Are you sure?!” Etsuko broke the silence with her curiosity getting the best of her.

“Boke Etsuko! That was already clarified, don’t make her repeat herself!” Yuma scolded. While Yui read your capabilities on your application form, it was nothing like actually being on the receiving end in real time.

“That’s quite a serve she got in her arsenal.” A voice startled the three high school students, sitting on the sidelines. Etsuko and Yuma were the most startled, but Chizuru was quite used to her fellow classmate popping in every now and then.

“Seriously, Sudou. We have to put a bell on you or something because I don’t think my heart can take any of your surprise entrances.” Sudou Rinko only slyly chuckles at Etsuko remark. She looks over at Y/n and Yui on the court.

“Did you guys see the precision on that serve?” Rinko posed to the other three sitting on the ground, munching on their lunch.

“Well, not really, but it landed, like, near Michimiya, right?” Etsuko tries to come up with the answer that Rinko was looking for.

“It landed right next to her left foot. I think that pipsqueak is able to aim her serve.”

“What?! That’s insane.”

“Yeah, insane, but not impossible.”

“With her, maybe we can win more games!”

“Don’t get your hopes up, Etsuko, a team is only good if everyone is giving their all.” Yuma reminds. “After all, there’s not only one person on the court, there’s six.”

“I heard she came from Niiyama Girls' High.” Sudou stated as she reverted her gaze back to her fellow teammates. They stared at her after she gave more information on the stranger in their gym.

“Why would she come to Karasuno then?” Yuma asked honestly. She knew that her team had strengths, but she also knew that other teams had strengths that overpowered them.

“How could you diss your own school like that?” Etsuko was almost angry at how her teammate was treating their school. She always was the one to take pride in everything she does.

“No, that’s a valid question. It makes sense that a player with her caliber would be well-suited in a powerhouse school.” Rinko supported Yuma in her question. All four look ahead and see that Y/n is beginning to set for Yui.

“Her precision and accuracy are so on point, it almost makes me sick.” Yuma commented on how your form for setting only held the necessities. Y/n stepped with purpose, and it showed as she passed a nice set for Yui, allowing her to have optimal choices in where she can place her spike.

The bell rang, ending lunch. Etsuko couldn’t wait for practice. She wanted to play against Y/n on the three on three. As for Yuma, she always wanted to learn how to set, but with her grand height, most people would assume she would be great as a spiker. Everyone started to pack their belongings up, heading to their respected classes. Y/n started to head towards class 1-5. Etsuko and Yuma caught up with Y/n, standing on the sides of her.

“Do you guys need something?” Y/n poses the question bluntly, yet she was quite startled. Y/n never expected to have people purposefully come up to her.

“Yeah, where did you learn to serve like that? It’s crazy!” Etsuko praises.

“Don’t you remember what Sasaki said? Don’t crowd her with questions, dumbass!” Yuma scolded, which Etsuko already had an irritated look on her face.

“It’s only one question! It’s not like she’s going to fall apart by it, and I just wanna know because I want be strong as well!” Etsuko’s vain on her forehead looked like it was having a field day.

“Yeah, like that would ever happen.” Yuma remarks.

“What did you just say?! I’m going to make you eat your words!”

“Ooo Frenchie has me shaking in my boots” Yuma taunts with the famous pink haired character from Grease. Etsuko started to jump at Yuma. Because Y/n was between them, she raised an arm.

“Please do not fight, you may cause a ruckus.” Y/n chimed in. The first years returned to their previous spots. Etsuko huffed a little and crossed her arms and slightly turned her head away.

“So, what class are you in? I am in class 1-4. I don’t think I have seen you in the hallways.” Yuma tries to maneuver the conversation to something other than volleyball. Y/n was honestly confused. It’s been awhile when someone her age, someone in her grade asked her a genuine question about herself. She almost felt it was some sort of joke.

“Um, I have class 1-5. And that’s because today’s my first day. Transferred a bit late.” Y/n had pauses in between her words, still not used to people going out of their way to talk to her.

“Woah! You must be pretty smart! That’s a college-prep class, right?” Yuma genuinely comments with a warm smile. Y/n nods, complements on stuff other than volleyball made Y/n short-circuit. The trio walks inside the main school building, the air condition changing the atmosphere. Y/n didn’t notice, but she received some stares from other students as the three walk through hallways. While Y/n remained oblivious, Yuma and Etsuko realized immediately and looked at each other with perplexed looks, not because of the stares that were directed towards you, but the fact that you seemed unfazed by it.

“Woah, who is that? She’s really pretty.” a student spoke to their friend.

“She’s new I’m pretty sure.” another commented.

“I heard she has a famous dad. She’s like loaded.”

“I wonder if she’s taken”

“I heard she came from California.”

“Someone told me she’s snooty.”

“Her looks certainly make up for it”

“Why is she hanging out with those weird volleyball girls?”

Etsuko physically jolted at that last comment, anyone can physically see the irritation on her face. She turned her head towards the voice of the last comment, wanting to immediately put them in their place. On the other hand, Y/n was too much in her head at the moment.

Shoot, I haven’t asked them a question. Well, that’s what I should do, right? That’s what friends do? Wait, we aren’t even friends, I just met them. They probably think I’m weird. Oh great, now I haven’t said anything for the past 3 minutes. They probably think I don’t like them. Y/n felt that this was weird foreign territory.

“So, what’s your favorite subject?” Y/n broke the silence, just wanting to say anything to make sure that her two future teammates knew that she was still invested in this conversation.

Are you serious, Y/n?! No one wants to talk about school, that’s so lame! They probably think you’re a smart ass. Uhg. You’re terrible at this. Y/n wanted to groan and bow her head in shame, but all she could do is hold her head high and follow through with her question.

“I like math, and you won’t get an actual subject out of Etsuko, she will probably say something stupid like lunch.” Yuma answered.

“Hey! Why do you keep answering for me?! I am fully capable of answering!” Etsuko barked at her snarky teammate.

“Yeah, your English grade can clearly vouch for you.” Yuma sarcastically stated. Etsuko looked like all the blood from her face left, looking quite pale due to her not so great English grade. Y/n didn’t realize it, but a small smile was on her face as she saw the two interact.

“Well, this is my stop, And, Etsuko, your stop was awhile ago.” Yuma stated as she didn’t really know if she should just send a wave your way or a handshake because Y/n seemed so formal. She settled with a pat on the back. Etsuko copied Yuma, but her pat was a bit more forceful and it really just turned into a smack. Y/n didn’t say anything, but noted that Etsuko has one hell of an arm on her.

“I already knew that! I wanted to talk to our new friend!” Etsuko looked like she was going to cross her arms and stomp her foot like a small child throwing a tantrum. Y/n stopped her walking when she heard the word “friend” come out of Etsuko’s mouth. Y/n turned to look at Etsuko and Yuma with a surprised look. Etsuko and Yuma instinctively thought they misspoke and perhaps angered you.

“We’re friends?” Y/n held a pause between the two words. Her incredulous face kept switching eye contact between the 2 first years in front of her. “You don’t even know if I will be your teammate yet.” Y/n stated. Etsuko bursted out in laughter and it caused Y/n’s face to turn beet red, embarrassed. Yuma’s face looked like she wanted to backhand Etsuko, but before she could, Etsuko spoke “You don’t have to be our teammate for us to be friends! There isn’t criteria the last time I checked to be friends. Besides, you’re really cool!”

Yuma retracted her arm, despite Etsuko being a dumbass, she somehow always knew what to say in awkward situations. Y/n felt something that spread through her chest. It was a warm, fuzzy feeling. Etsuko and Yuma bid there goodbye’s to Y/n, leaving her to get to her class. The feeling in her chest was not new, it’s just a feeling that she has not felt in a long time.

Y/n sat down in her seat and pulled out her notebook. Everyone started to take their seats. Right before the teacher reached to close the door, a short girl with a small blue hair tie in her short blonde hair just managed to slip through the door. She was out of breath and sweaty, muttering an apology and quickly sat at her desk, which was coincidentally on Y/n’s left side. The teacher began lecturing, instructing to open a page in their textbook.

The end of the school day approached rather quickly. Because of her most recent interaction with Etsuko and Yuma, she couldn’t wait for the three on three. Specifically, who would she be playing against. While thinking of possible offense moves to coordinate, Y/n grabs her volleyball bag from her locker and makes her way to the girl’s gym. The door was already open and she peaked through to make sure there was no way she will be tackled again. She makes eye contact with a girl with short black hair, which she vaguely remembers as Sudou Rinko.

“Hello! I’m sorry I am a bit early, I just wanted to get a head start in warming up because I do take awhile for those.” Y/n quickly explains with a hint of timidness.

“That’s alright! I already setted up the net so you’re welcome to warm up in here or outside, whichever you prefer.” Sudou stated, making sure she didn’t seem to overbearing as others perceive her to be.

“Okay, thank you. I do prefer outside.” As much as Y/n’s face held a deadpan look, she was nervous in front of the third year. She didn’t know if she could just head out or bow. Unfortunately, she went with the latter. Sudou cheeks turned red. She didn’t really expect that, I mean in her eyes, she’s just a third year. But, your formality was appreciated.

“Heh, no need to be so formal. I’ve seen what you can do even without warming up, and we would be lucky to have you on our team.” Sudou reassured.

Now it was Y/n’s turn to turn slightly red. She’s new to accepting genuine compliments. So, all she did was a weird salute with a firm nod of her head, and headed out.

That kid has an interesting way of interacting with people. Sudou thought to herself. Hopefully, she’ll be able to open up more. Sudou busied herself by warming up as well.

In the meantime, Y/n found a spot near the side of the gym where there were no trees and the sun just perfectly drenched the scenery with natural light. It was as if the sun placed a golden film over everything and settled on a calm atmosphere. Here, Y/n began stretching.

After awhile, Y/n was tossing a volleyball up in the air, getting comfortable with how the ball fit perfectly in her hands as she set it in the air. After a couple of sets, she got into the rhythm of bumping, setting, and spiking against a wall. While she was focused on the ball, out of her peripheral vision, she notices someone. After a spike, rather than bumping it, she catches it.

“If you are going to stare any longer, I expect a name out of you.” Y/n stated with a calm yet stern tone while still staring at the wall in front of her.

“I-I’m sorry. You just seem so focused.” The stranger spoke.

Y/n closes her eyes, when she opens them, she turns to look at the stranger. He’s tall, way taller than her. He’s got a beard and his hair is pulled into a tight bun. If Y/n didn’t know any better, she would have assumed he was a teacher, but he was wearing a school uniform after all. With her eyes set on him, it was as if the guy visibly shook in fear and eyes widened.

“Well, you have to be, in an actual game of course.” Y/n responded.

“You play?” The mysterious guy asks. He does have a calming voice for someone who looks like the opposite.

“In order for me to answer, you should give me your name. I’ve been taught to not talk to strangers.”

“Oh r-right. I’m Azumane Asahi.”

There was a beat of silence as Y/n kept staring at him, deciding how she should approach this conversation. In Asahi’s eyes, he thought she was judging him and he started to wonder why didn’t he just mind his own business.

“Yes, I play.” Y/n answered his previous question. Asahi perked up at her answer like a little puppy.

“You seem like you’re really dedicated.” Asahi offered his observation to her. Y/n chuckles. Asahi’s eyes widened once more at the sudden reaction out of the girl.

“I’m guessing you play as well.” Asahi was dumbfounded at your observation. He was scared at how you were able to pick that up quickly.

“H-how did you-”

“Someone who is able to easily recognize the dedication in one person, also finds that same dedication within themselves”

Damn, this girl is wise. Asahi thought.

“However, volleyball was just a guess.” Y/n continued. “And I was lucky enough to be right.”

“Well, I don’t know about that.”

Y/n looked at him again. Y/n wasn’t one to let someone divulge into their personal life. Mainly because no one really came up to her for advice since she was quite the nonchalant person. However, if today is any indication, it seems her social interaction skills has been given a second shot. Y/n analyzed Asahi’s troubled face.

“Are you having an internal battle?”

How unfortunate that you phrased it that way, Y/n. Jeez. You can be so formal sometimes. Y/n scolded herself.

“Yeah, of some sorts.” Asahi responded with a puzzling look at the ground.

“About volleyball?” Y/n specified.

“Uh, yeah.” he reluctantly responded.

“What’s up?” Y/n knew that was more informal and she mentally high-fived herself for talking like a normal teenager.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Yeah”

“Have you ever not wanted to do something because you failed at it?”

A beat of silence.

“No.” Y/n said confidently. However, she knew what he was trying to ask, so she added, “But, I’ve felt frustrated at it before.”

“Isn’t that the same thing?”

“Well, tell me, can you be frustrated at something yet you want keep trying it?”

Asahi didn’t respond, just thinking of what she said.

“The answer is yes, by the way. Volleyball is a sport where you are constantly improving yourself, just like any other sport really.” Y/n started to blabber on. “Volleyball provides that uncomfortable tension of not being enough. For some people, it discourages them completely, leaving them to quit or be stagnant. But, there are rare cases where the person is strongly encouraged by it. Those are the people who really do succeed.”

Asahi was deep in thought as he processed your words. As Y/n looks at Asahi, he looks like he’s going to hurt himself if he thinks any harder.

“Here, stand over there. Let me set for you.” Y/n commanded. Asahi Looks up, “h-how did you know I spike?” At this point, he thought you were some sort of psychic.

Y/n shrugs, “Only an ace would have that mindset and label a simple mistake as a “failure”. You feel like you’re whole team depends on you, right?” Asahi nods with shame. “Well, I think you need to understand that the other 5 people on your side have their own jobs as well. Sure, they know that you are capable of grabbing a point, but that’s because they are supporting you in the process.”

Asahi is quite overwhelmed at all the truth you are speaking, but it makes sense to him. Asahi obeys and walks where you pointed to.

“Now, run up like you are going to spike. You’re job is to knock,” Y/n grabs an apple from her lunch box, “this off of this trashcan.” Y/n places the apple on the the tin can and positions it in the way where a blocker would be in terms of where Asahi is standing. “Imagine this,” she draws a line in the dirt with her foot, “is the net. And, I don’t doubt that you are able to hit over the net.”

“O-oh I don’t know, you see, I haven’t really-”

“Just do it.” Y/n cuts him off with a sigh. Asahi gulps and catches the ball from Y/n.

He takes a deep breathe in. And a deep breathe out. He tosses the ball to you. Of course, Y/n perfectly sets the ball for him.

She notices after those deep breathes, it seems Asahi is a completely different person. He looks more focused and confident. His eyes are concentrated on the ball.

After the set, Y/n quickly looks over at the tin trashcan. And lo and behold, her apple is now on the dirt floor. Y/n smiles fondly. Asahi carries the most precious smile on his face.

“Now, how did that feel?” Y/n questions him.

“Makes me want to do another.” Asahi was staring at his hand as if the key to life was written on his hand. He then looked over at Y/n with a glint of inspiration in his eyes.

“The boys volleyball team should still be practicing, right? I still have to start my own practice.” Y/n shares a soft smile, which she hasn’t done in awhile. Asahi reverts back to a nervous state. Y/n’s guessing there is some awkward tension between that relationship.

“Just go to them. It never hurts to just try, right?” Y/n tries her best to be encouraging, but not too pushy.

“I-I don’t know I left them so suddenly-”

“Just go! Or else.” Y/n knew she shouldn’t use fear as a tactic to push him, but to be quite frank, it’s useful in these rare occasions. Asahi fervently nods, he didn’t want to hear what came after ‘what else’ so he quickly grabs his bag and starts his jog to the boy’s gym.

“Oh wait! What’s your name?” Asahi was already a bit far, so she had to yell, “Y/n! Good luck!” She cups her mouth as if that will totally help her voice travel to him. “Well, thank you, Y/n!”

Y/n picks up her things and heads towards the gym, where she has her own journey to embark on.

Taglist: @riceballsandanime

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365days365movies · 4 years ago

Text

March 8, 2021: The Thief of Bagdad (1940) (Part One)

ARABIAN NIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHTS

Aladdin is actually the first film I ever saw in theaters, according to my Mom, and I do adore this movie. In case you’re wondering, I thought the remake was...OK. Not great, not terrible, but...not bad, y’know? But yeah, I love this movie, even if it’s not exactly the most accurate to the original story of Aladdin presented in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights.

Interestingly enough, though, this movie instead takes from a much more recent, much newer source for a lot of its inspiration. And this is going to begin a chronologically-ordered foray into cinematic fantasy. So, back to 1940, in a time period where fantasy films began to explode in popularity, thanks to one film that came one year before.

Yup. The Wizard of Oz, considered one of the greatest films of all time, is still a classic that holds up today, as well as being arguably the most high-profile fantasy film in all of film history. But a year later, Hungarian-British film director Alexander Korda came out with an often-forgotten film: The Thief of Bagdad. Which was ACTUALLY a remake of a silent film from 1924!

But I’m going with the 1940 British film instead! And honestly, I’m excited enough to just get started here! SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap (1/2)

Before I get into all of this, I think I need to say this at the jump: this is a film from 1940. Most of the main actors are White. Yeah. Duh. Not ALL of the are, but the two love interests definitely are, alongside the villain. And NONE of the actors are from the region that the film takes place in, except for possibly the extras. So, yeah, thought I should bring that up before anything else. ANYWAY

A ship pulls into port somewhere in ancient Arabia, and before we start here...I can’t even SLIGHTLY comment on the authenticity of this film, costume wise. But in the meantime, I can at least enjoy the color of this film, which are beautifully bright and technicolor.

A mysterious man has come into port, seeking a sleeping princess and a blind beggar. I won’t say the name of the traveler yet, as I don’t know it from the film itself as of yet. He and a young woman named Halima (Mary Morris) go into town to find the blind man, named Ahmad (John Justin).

Speaking for the mysterious traveler, Halima invites Ahmad to a palace, alongside his trusty dog, Abu (a good boy). At said palace, a princess is afflicted with a ceaseless sleep. The man would appear to be an advisor of some kind, and also does not know how to end her sleep. She is apparently in love with the blind beggar.

Said blind beggar is being attended to by many maidens, and to them (and the advisor), he tells a story of his dog’s past life, a street thief also named Abu (Sabu), who’s stealing food, pursued by a group of angry salesman and citizens. He parkours away from them all, keeping one jump ahead of the bread line.

There will be MANY Disney puns, I’m warning you now.

From a rooftop, he sees the young Sultan of the kingdom, Ahmad’s past life, named...Ahmad. He is accompanied by his Grand Vizier: Jaffar (Conrad Veidt). Yup. Really. Also, he’s the same guy playing the advisor from earlier, meaning that this is also HIS past life. Neat!

Like a Vizier do, Jaffar whispers in Ahmad’s ear, trying to get him to do less-than-great things in order to show his power. Ahmad, however, is a kind man, who wishes to show such kindness to his citizens. He goes into the city that night, with Jaffar’s encouragement, in order to discover more about his people. He begins this by listening to a sermon, prophesying that the tyrant Ahmad will fall to Allah’s will. Awkward.

Not that it’s about to matter, since Jaffar tells his men to arrest Ahmad, as he’s now dressed as a citizen, and to claim that he’s a madman if he claims to be the Sultan. It works, and Jaffar is crowned Sultan as Ahmad is thrown in prison. It’s there that Ahmad meets Abu, who’s also been arrested. A madman and a thief.

The two plot to escape from the jail, and Ahmad learns that he’s presumed dead by the populus. After Ahmad realizes that Ahmad’s not mad, but the actual Sultan, they decide to flee to the kingdom of Basra by travelling down the river for three days. Time for a cruise!

We skip ahead quickly to the glorious city of Basra, which is...impressive. It’s genuinely gorgeous, and it was filmed in...THIS ENTIRE THING IS A SET? HOLY SHIT!!! That is legit impressive, goddamn. In Basra, Abu trains Ahmad in the way of subtle thievery and trickery, and they learn of the Sultan of Basra, who has the world’s largest collection of toys, like a proper nerd. He guards his toys more carefully...than he guards his daughter. Well, OK!

Speaking of the Sultan’s Daughter, a commotion clears the marketplace in order to clear a way for a procession, at the center of which is the beautiful Sultan’s daughter, Jasmine. No, not really. But considering that she’s only credited as The Princess (June Duprez)...I’ll be referring to her as Jade.

Attended to by Harlem Renaissance legend...the Singer (Adelaide Hall, who is one of the big figures from the early days of jazz), Jade would appear to be a somewhat bored young women, disaffected by her upper-class life. So, yeah, Jasmine. And Ahmad is, of course, wildly in love with her at first sight.

Ahmad has to see her again, and when Abu notes that they have tickets on a ship helmed by Sinbad the Sailor (trying to set up a 1001 Nights Cinematic Universe, nice), Ahmad insists that he has to see Jade again. Abu agrees, and helps him get into the palace garden.

There, he pretends to be a genie in a pond, using reflections while he hides in a tree. She falls for it (somehow), and he just simps all over her. She notes that she’s come to the pond to bathe, and he notes that he’s paid good money for his OnlyFans subscription, and wants some of that sweet, sweet bathwater. Which sounds like a semi-topical humorous exaggeration, but is BASICALLY THE TRUTH I SWEAR

He reveals himself to be a real live simp, and she responds by IMMEDIATELY kissing him. Goddamn, they’re fuckin’ perfect for each other. They agree, but her father will not be pleased. Still, they pledge to see each other again. Which pisses off Abu, because now he can’t go on that trip and set up this film franchise. He agrees to stay with Ahmad to help him get Jade.

Which is gonna be WAY goddamn harder, since Basra has a new visitor in the form of the usurper, Jaffar. He’s come to meet with the Sultan of Basra (Miles Malleson), a man who is absolutely obsessed with toys, big ol’ nerd that he is. Which, again, is SUPER used in Aladdin. To win over the Sultan’s favor, Jaffar brings in a mechanical horse. And that horse can FUCKING FLY WHAT THE SHIT

And this is when the GF (she says hello) informs me that this is ANOTHER REFERENCE to One Thousand and One Nights! Apparently, there’s a flying mechanical horse called the Ebony Horse, given to a King! It really IS a 1001CU! But back to the original story, and the Sultan WANTS the goddamn horse. In exchange, Jaffar wants only one thing: his daughter. And he immediately agrees.

She ain’t havin’ that shit, and she tells one of her handmaidens to find Ahmad in the garden, and tell him to meet her in Samarkand (another reference!), where she flees to avoid the forced wedding to Jaffar. However, that message doesn’t get to Ahmad soon enough, and he’s arrested in the garden by the palace guards, along with Ahmad.

Overjoyed to finally be able to stab the EVER-LOVING FUCK out of Jaffar, he tries to tell the truth to the Sultan. However, Jaffar uses his magic to...make Ahmad blind. Abu tries to tell the truth instead, only to be...turned into a dog. Wait...it’s not past lives? THEY’RE LITERALLY THE PRINCE AND ABU? Abu is a FUCKING DOG? Damn.

Back in the present day, Ahmad finishes his story, where the maidens tell him of Jade’s fate: she was caught by slave traders and brought back to Basra, where she quickly fell into a trance that she hasn’t awakened from. Although, she apparently still talks in her sleep about the Genie of the Pool.

They take him to see her, and she IMMEDIATELY wakes the fuck up! The two embrace, reunited at last, only for that reunion to be interrupted by Halima, sent by Jaffar to “end the masquerade”. That can’t be good. She takes Ahmad away under false pretenses, and she’s told that she can cure his lost sight by seeing a doctor. Ahmad leaves Abu with her, for protection.

However, this whole thing was just to get Ahmad to wake Jade up, so they could kidnap her and put her on a ship back to Basra. He throws Abu overboard (MOTHERFU-), and goes to speak with the Princess. As she notes that she was roised a cure to Ahmad’s blindness, he claims that the second the two of them embrace, Ahmad will see again. Damn...dude really wants a hug, huh?

AND IT WORKS! Not only is Ahmad able to see again, but Abu is a human again, as both of their curses are broken by a fucking hug. Um...somebody hug this man. Goddamn. The Hays Code is STRONG with this one, holy shit. And it’s ESPECIALLY weird, because Jaffar literally admits that he could MAKE her love him, but wants her true love instead. Um...fuckin’ YIKES, buddy.

As she runs away, he pursues her outside, and they look out to see that they’re being followed in a boat by Ahmad and Abu. And then Jaffar pulls an Elmer Fudd, and goes “NOWTH WINS BWOW”, and summons a storm after the two on the sea.

GREAT place to pause, I think! See you soon, in Part Two!

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teawizard-n-coffeewitch · 4 years ago

Text

The Stafforshire Spell

2. Uh... Reporter For The Quibbler Magazine

Newt is heating up water for tea when suddenly his eyes widen, blown away at the sight of him. Credence is coming down the stairs, wearing his full body scuba diving gear.

"Hey." Credence greets as he grabs a mug and prepares to brew some peppermint leaves.

"Hi..." Newt says before the two of them are concentrated on fixing a cup of tea in the kitchen.

Newt decides to ask, "Just incidentally -- why are you wearing that?"

Credence smiles. "Ahem -- combination of factors really. No clean clothes..." he replies with a cheeky grin.

Newt coughs. "There never will be, you know, unless you actually clean your clothes." he says.

"Right. Vicious circle. And then I was like rooting around in your things, and found this, and I thought -- cool. Kind of spacey." Credence replies shooting a grin at Newt. Newt nods before laughing softly.

The two of them make their way to the table and take a seat, enjoying their cup of tea, passing the day.

Newt is writing on his notebook while Credence is squinting his eyes at the scuba gear goggles. After while Credence says, "There's something wrong with your goggles Newt..."

Newt stops writing and looks up. Laughing lightly he replies, "No, they were prescription, so I could see all the fishes properly."

Credence laughs, amused at this fact. "Groovy. You should do more of this stuff. Though I did not know you were blind." Newt laughs. Shaking his head he replies, "Not really. I can see with or without glasses."

They sit in comfortable silence, the only sound is Newt's pencil at work before he asks, "So -- any messages?"

Credence's face lights up as he sets his cup down. "Yeah I wrote a couple down." Sticking his hand in a jacket nearby one of the table's wooden chairs, he retrieves a crumbled paper and gives it to Newt who as long gone forgotten his writing.

Newt grabs it and one of the messages was that Niffler's habitat was ready and he could bring him in tomorrow morning. Newt reads the next message and after finishing he asks, trying not to frown, "Two? That's it?"

"You want me to write down all your messages?" Credence says, an eyebrow raised. Newt closes his eyes in exasperation, deciding on not replying to that.

"Who were the ones you didn't write down from?" Newt asks cautiously.

Credence hums, "Ahem let's see -- ahem. No. Gone completely. Oh no, wait. There was -- one from your mum: she said don't forget Theseus's birthday and that she and your father won't be able to make it."

Newt nods. "Right. No one else?"

Credence blinks, lost in thought before shaking his head. "Absolutely not." He leans back and relaxes.

"Though if we're going for this obsessive writing-down-all-messages thing -- some American girl called Tina called a few days ago." he reveals causing Newt to freeze then look at him with big eyes.

"Wha - What did she say?" Newt manages to choke out. Credence smirks, finding Newt's blushing face amusing.

"Well, it was genuinely bizarre... she said, hi -- it's Tina -- and then she said, call me at the Hoar Cass Hall -- and then gave herself a completely different name." Credence says before sipping calmly his tea.

"Which was?" Newt says panicking at how Credence was so calm about the whole situation.

He finishes his sip before replying, "Absolutely no idea. Remembering one name's bad enough..." Newt groans before closing his eyes and placing his head on the table.

_______________

Much later Newt is on the phone. He looked at the phone book for the hotel's number before he dials a few numbers and hears a ring and a formal man at the other end of the phone picks up.

"Hello." Newt says trying to keep calm but internally panicking at his bold move.

"May I help you, sir?" the man replies calmly at the other end.

"Ahem, see this is a very odd situation. I'm a friend of Tina Goldstein's -- and she rang me at home the day before yesterday -- and left a message saying she's staying with at this hotel..." Newt timidly says. "I'm sorry, we don't have anyone of that name here, sir." the man states authoritatively.

"No, that's right -- I know that. She said she's using another name -- but the problem is she left the message with my flatmate, which was a serious mistake. Imagine if you will the -- um a baby. A poor baby who hasn't any idea what to even call his mum -- are you doing that...?"

As Newt talks to the man Credence happens to be in the foreground, siting on the couch in the distance as he's reading the newspaper.

Listening to everything.

"Yes, sir. I have him in my mind." the man at the other end replies with a light chuckle.

"And that is the -- what can I say -- git I'm living with and he cannot remember..." Newt begins before Credence cuts him off by saying, "Try 'Coco.' "

Newt stops talking and turns around to look at Credence. "What?" he says noticing how Credence hasn't turned to look at him, his focus still on his newspaper.

"I think she said her name was 'Coco Channel.' " Credence says turning the newspaper page calmly.

Newt takes deep breath before asking nervously, "Does 'Coco Channel' mean anything to you?"

There is a second of silence before the man says happily, "I'll put you right through, sir."

Newt stands there, absolutely speechless. Coco Channel is indeed the magic word.

"Bloody hell." Newt mutters messing up his hair as his hold on the phone tightens. Realizing he's a few seconds from speaking to her Newt begins to practices how to sound.

"Hello. Hi. Hi." Newt says clearing his throat and standing up straight.

Newt sharply breaths when he hears her voice.

"Hi." is heard from the other line.

Panicking holding the phone he is quick to awkwardly reply, "Oh hi. It's Newt Scamander. We, uh... well met at my bookshop."

Tina chuckles slightly. "You played it pretty cool here Mr. Scamander. Waiting three days to call."

Newt blushes. "N-No, I've never played any-anything cool in my entire life. Credence, who I'll jinx later, never delivered me the message."

"Oh, okay." she says, slightly amused at his awkward speech.

"Um... so I was wondering... if you'd be okay with it... obviously. Perhaps... uh... I could drop round for tea or something?"

"Yeah." Tina says, scrunching her nose in disgust at the thought of tea. Newt listens to her as she speaks, "Unfortunately, things are going to be pretty busy, but... okay, let's give it a try. Though I'm staying at a hotel here in Burton I'll be in London tomorrow. Does... I don't know... four o'clock at the Ritz work? Or do wish to meet when I return back to Burton?"

Newt smiles like a dork, "No, it absolutely works. Great."

They bid farewell and they hang up.

Running towards Credence, Newt kisses his cheek before dashing up the stairs gleefully. Credence just stares at his flatmate in confusion.

_______________

The next day Newt wakes up early to drive a forty-five minute trip to Peak Wildlife Park in Leek. Niffler sleeping through most of the ride. After a heart breaking farewell and a promise to return Newt drives back to Burton and grabs a train to London. The ride is about three hours and makes use of his time by writing a birthday card for his brother and taping a few pounds inside the card. He places the card inside his briefcase and shuts it close. He leans on his seat and enjoys the scenery of the ride.

Arriving at London at three Newt makes his way to a floral shop and buys an orchid. He likes how delicate, beautiful, and admirable they look. Just... like Tina. He catches a bus and as he cruises around London he can't help but feel a sense of desponding and melancholy as he sees the city of London after all these years. He jumps off a bus and walks toward the Ritz. The vase of orchid in one hand all wrapped up nicely while his hand carries his brown briefcase.

Entering the Ritz Hotel, Newt passes by the iconic tea room before approaching the lifts. At the lift, he pushes the button and the doors open. As he is getting in, Newt is joined by a young woman. Newt looks at her name tag. Her name is Rita.

"Which floor?" Newt asks him. "Three please." Rita answers as Newt nods and pushes the button. They wait for the doors to close. The lift lands and they both gets out. Hotel rooms 30-35 are to the left while 35-39 to the right. Newt heads right and... so does Rita.

Newt is puzzled at how Rita is still following him. He slows down as he approaches room 38 and startled when so does Rita. Newt stops, so does Rita. Newt turns his head, confused, before he points at the number on the door.

"Are you sure you...?" Newt assures. "Yes." Rita affirms with a nod. "Oh. Right... er." Newt mourns before he knocks on the door. A bright, well-tailored American girl opens the door.

"Hello, I'm Quennie, Tina's sister and manager. Sorry -- things are running a bit late. Here's the thing..." She hands them a very slick, expensively produced press kits, with the poster picture of Tina, for the film 'Alien: Covenant'.

She leads them inside the suite, after closing the door and in a few seconds later -- they enter the main waiting room. Newt is startled to see there are a number of journalists waiting for their audience.

"What did you think of the film?" Quennie suddenly asks as she grabs a notebook and a pen, ready to write their critics.

"Marvelous. 'Close Encounters' meets 'Jean De Florette.' Golden Globe- winning stuff." Rita says happily before both Quennie and her turn to Newt for his opinion.

He curses mentally before looking at Rita. "I agree." Newt adds with a weak smile.

Quennie nods, scribbling down on the notebook before asking, "I'm sorry. I didn't get down what magazines you're from."

" 'The Daily Prophet.' " Rita answers with a smile. Quennie smiles back then turns to Newt, "Great. And you?"

Newt panics.

He scans the entire room, frantically looking for a magazine, a catalog, a newspaper, something! Then he sees it. On the coffee table.

" 'Quibbler Magazine.' The name's Newt Scamander." Quennie nods whereas Rita seems intrigued that he's a reporter from Quibbler Magazine. "I think she might be expecting me." Newt nervously adds before she shoots him a smile. "Okay -- take a seat. I'll check."

Both Rita and Newt move towards a sofa and they sit down as Quennie goes off, down the hallway.

Rita looks at the orchid Newt carries. "You've brought her flowers?" Newt gulps and thinks for a cover-up story.

"No -- they're -- for my grandmother. She's in a hospital nearby. Thought I'd kill two birds with one stone." he replies, a bit too fast and nervously. Rita frowns and gives him pity eyes. "Oh I am so sorry. Which hospital?"

Newt breaths in and pauses. Bullocks, he did not think of that. He's in trouble.

Quickly, he says, faking a bit of distress in his voice, "Do you mind me not saying -- it's a rather distressing disease and the name of the hospital rather gives it away."

Rita nods, with a sad face, "Oh sure. Of course." Newt thanks her silently and they both sit in silence before Quennie comes walking in.

"Mr. Scamander." she says, with a smile in spark in her eyes.

Saved by the bell. Newt bids a farewell wave to Rita and follows Queenie towards the corridor. She turns to face him, telling him, "You've got five minutes." He is then lead in through big golden doors and the room is the Trafalgar Suite Room. Quennie stays outside. Then there she is.

Tina stands straight, facing the framed in the window, overlooking Green Park. Newt can't help but think she looks pretty in her apricot color satin silk bow tie neck shirt with long sleeves button down blouse top and a long black pencil skirt. Quennie then closes the room and Tina turns around to face Newt. She gives him a nervous smile.

"Hi." Newt manages to say.

"Hello." Tina replies softly. Newt looks at the countless of dozen flowers surrounding Tina and gives her a sad smile. "I uh... I brought these," Newt shyly begin, lifting up his orchid vase, "but clearly..." he gestures at the other glamorous flowers in the room.

Tina shakes her head, "Oh no, it's okay." She walks towards him and accepts his orchid vase with a shy smile. "These are great. Thanks."

Then there it is. Instead of feeling a fair amount of tension, as they hardly know each other -- and the first and last time they met, they kissed; instead... they feel a silence of comfort surrounding them. Putting them at ease.

"Sorry about not ringing back." Newt apologizes, blushing. "The whole two-names concept was totally too much for my flatmate's intellect."

Tina smiles, reassuring him, "No, it's a stupid privacy thing. I always choose a famous fashion designer. Last time out, I was Mrs. Marc Jacobs.

Before Newt can shoot her a smile, Mr. Graves, walks in. Tina's public manager and Quennie's boss. He's a fairly grave, authoritative forty-year-old PR man consulting a list.

"Everything okay?" he asks shooting Tina a concern look. She nods. "Yes, thanks."

He turns to face Newt. "And you are from 'The Quibbler' magazine?" he asks making Newt nod.

"Is that so?" Tina asks, sounding intrigued but shooting Newt a sneaky smirk.

Newt's face turns red as he shrugs his shoulders and gives a light chuckle. Mr. Graves goes and settles at a little desk in the corner and makes notes. He just stands there, stacking some paper. There is a pause before Newt realizes and feels he has to act the part of being a reporter.

Tina motions for him to sit on the couch and she sits on the opposite on. They now face each other.

"Right... so I'll just fire away, shall I?" Newt begins, siting a bit straight. Tina nods.

"Right. Er... the film's great... and I just wondered -- whether you ever thought of having more... spectrespecs in it?" he asks, biting his lip knowing he was minutes away from death.

Tina lets out a small chuckle. "Hmm -- well -- we would have liked to -- but it was difficult, obviously, being set in space and a remote planet."

Newt can feel his ears turning red from embarrassment. "Oh right... er... very difficult indeed."

Both Tina and Newt listen Mr. Graves leave, closing the door.

Newt sighs heavily and embarrassed, putting his head in his hands. He was panicking and he completely blew it.

"I'm sorry -- I arrived outside -- and they thrust this thing into my hand -- I didn't know what to do." Newt begins as Tina cuts him, apologizing, "No, it's my fault, I thought this would all be over by now. I just wanted to sort of apologize for the kissing thing. I seriously don't know what got in to me. I just wanted to make sure you were fine about it. Honest. I don't know what I was thinking."

Newt is speechless for second before saying, "Absolutely. No worries. I was fine about it." Though he reassures Tina with a smile his heart cracks. Of course she would feel this way about kissing him on the cheek. He was nobody while she was... she was beauty.

Mr. Graves re-enters and continues stacking papers. Newt coughs, before continuing with their fake interview. Before he can ask another question Mr. Graves says, his back facing them, "Do remember that Miss Tina is also keen to talk about her next project, which is shooting later in the summer."

Newt nods, a smile. "Oh yes -- excellent. Ahem -- any spectrespecs in that one? Or shades, of course. Our readers are equally intrigued by both models."

Tina winces before answering, "It takes place during the 1970's... in a West Coast beach. My character is the ex - girlfriend of a private detective." Eh, not a setting for pink spectrespecs to be worn in.

Newt blinks before choking out, "Oh Yes. Right... But if there were spectrespecs, would you be wearing them yourself or would you be getting a stunt spectrespecs person double sort of thing?"

They hear Mr. Gracves exit. Newt has a meltdown at that point. "Merlin... I'm just a complete moron. Sorry. This is the sort of thing that happens in dreams -- not in real life. Good dreams, obviously," he stops before giving Tina a small smile, "It's... a dream to see you." Newt confesses.

Tina is silent for a moment before asking nervously, "And what happens next in the dream?"

Newt sighs. "It's a challenge."

She doesn't seem confirm with his answer so Newt adds, "Well, I suppose in the dream dream scenario. I just... um, change my personality, because you can do that in dreams, and walk across and kiss the girl but you know it'll never happen."

They are silent for a moment. Suddenly they stand up but before they can move towards each other when... Mr. Graves enters.

"Time's up, I'm afraid. Sorry it was so short. Did you get what you wanted?" he asks. "Very nearly." Newt replies.

"Maybe time for one last question?" Mr. Garves offers.

"Right."

He goes out -- and it's their last seconds together. Probably forever if Newt does not man up.

"Are you busy tonight?" Newt bravely asks, though he knows he looks nervous.

"Yes." Tina answers, her eyes flashing a bit of sadness.

They look at each other. Then Mr. Graves enters, with another journalists in tow. Tina and Newt walk towards each other and shake hands formally.

"Well, it was nice to meet you." Tina says before adding with a grin, "Surreal but nice."

Newt's heart skipped. He gave her a shaky laugh. "Thank you. You are 'The Quibbler's' new favorite actress."

Newt is escorted out and once again they part away from each other.

Newt exits the room, fairly despondent and heads for the door, passing through the suite corridor. He does not notice Rita, who is in the corridor calling on her mobile phone. She sees Newt and immediately goes to him.

"How was she?" she asks.

"Fabulous." he replies immediately. Rita looks shock as she says, "Wait a minute -- she took your grandmother's flowers?"

Newt's eyes widen. He can't think his way out of this. So he blurts out, "Yes. That's right. Unbelievable!"

Newt turns to go before Rita can ask more questions but is accosted by Quennie.

"If you'd like to come with me we can rush you through the others." she says.

"The others?!" Newt says, his eyes almost popping out.

#comedy #au #newt scamander #tina goldstein #romance #newtina #fantastic beats and where to find them #fbawtft #salamander eyes

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ughgclden · 3 years ago

Text

some very late pairings for the lovely @izzyneedsabreak ,, thanks sm for the request i hope it makes you smile <33 this is going to get long, so let's go!!

for dead poets society, i'd pair you with...

(romantically)

you and charlie would just make so much sense to me as a couple in that you both seem to have chaotic vibes; charlie more so, obviously, but you work together well in that he manages to pull that chaos out of you. it's not uncommon for the two of you to be found talking animatedly to one another about something, perhaps plotting some sort of late night adventure, or one of his 'smart' ideas to rebel against the iron grip of hellton.

charlie can be quite soft with you though, often when it's just the two of you alone. he'll sneak you into his dorm at least once a week - he kicks cameron out and tells him to sleep on the floor of meeks and pitts' dorm, cameron isn't happy - and will let you lay against his chest as he plays with your hair and listens to you talk about your day. it's nice to see the quieter, more subdued side of charlie dalton, although the loud and obnoxious side is just as lovely.

supports you and your acting so much. you thought he was supportive of neil? it's ten times that. he sits front row for every show he can, bringing a bouquet of your favourite flowers to hand to you the moment you get off stage. before you can even get a word out, he's rattling off so many compliments and praises, genuinely so proud of you and your talent.

he would beg you to come to dead poets meetings and then show you off to the rest of the boys, even if they'd already met you ten times before. he'll endlessly praise you, shooting down any teasing that may come his way. he also definitely recites love poems to you dramatically, kneeling down and grabbing your hands as he tries not to break his serious act.

it's no secret that charlie loves hugs. loves them. he'll pull you into them whenever he can; either grabbing your hands and pulling you into his arms, or wrapping himself around you from behind, even just enveloping you in a hug and refusing to let go. he sways from side to side and hums under his breath.

makes playlists for you with his favourite songs that make him think of you. he pretends not to be flustered when he presents you with it.

you also become the muse of the occasional poems he attempts to write, claiming you can't tell the others or it'll ruin his reputation (it's obvious they're all about you anyways)

and

(platonically)

you and neil would obsess over musical theatre together, and would definitely go to each others' shows whenever possible. you're both constantly singing the soundtracks to your current favourite musicals, something both charlie and todd pretend to hate but actually think is quite entertaining to watch.

you both just get each other; when charlie introduces you to the poets you instantly click, getting along with each other really well (which leaves charlie feeling quite jealous, but shh). you're quite similar in terms of personality and balance each other out well - neil thinks he's found a great friend in you.

doing nothing with neil is a must. you'll spend time just talking about nothing to each other - you tell him stories about charlie, your other friends, your life, and he'll tell you stories in return. you both like sharing funny stories about charlie so that you can embarrass him later on.

neil confides in you quite a lot. not that he doesn't trust the other poets, but he likes that he can get an 'outside' perspective of someone who isn't one of the welton boys. he hopes you feel the same way about him.

writing to him over the summer to ensure he's doing okay, especially considering his situation with his parents.

constant teasing from him about yours and charlie's relationship - any chance this boy has to make a sly comment or quick remark, he's jumping at the chance. it's his favourite hobby at this point.

for the marauders, i'd pair you with...

(romantically)

you and moony are a match made in heaven. remus is absolutely smitten with you, and it's not hard to tell. the marauders are often quite a chaotic bunch and as much as he love them, he also adores the peace and tranquility your presence brings him. suddenly he feels like he doesn't have to go a hundred miles a minute and can take things one step at a time, enjoying the little things with you.

he'll usually read to you, picking your favourite books and letting the words fall from his lips softly as you both curl up together under a blanket late at night in the unusually empty common room, appreciating how cosy and full of love the situation feels. he takes breaks between lines to kiss the top of your head or temple before reading on.

remus appreciates you most after a full moon; you're always the one person he wants to see. you know exactly how to care for him, not making him feel incapable, but also being mindful of how tiring it can be and just allowing him to take time to feel like himself again. he likes that you're more than happy to patch him up, but you don't show him intense pity or guilt, just a desire to make him feel okay again.

this isn't to say your relationship is always soft and sappy, no. the amount of times you've been involved in their pranks and schemes is impressive at this point. they always end with remus grabbing your hand and dragging you along as you run down the corridors, avoiding whichever poor soul had the misfortune of being on the receiving end. muffled giggles are all that can be heard for long after you've found safety.

always wants to be your partner in lessons when possible. before the professor has even finished their sentence, he's locking eyes with you in a silent question. of course, you always want to work with him too. it's the perfect balance of getting shit done and having fun.

a lot of trips to hogsmeade. in the colder months, he'll wrap one of his scarfs around your neck and shove one of his hats onto your head, holding you close as you walk through the streets.

small forms of intimacy; thumbs stroking cheekbones, fingers threading through hair, soft smiles and whispered words. remus loves it all.

and

(platonically)

remus isn't at all surprised at how close you are with james, in fact he expected it from the moment you two met. you and james are good at keeping up with one another, always seemingly on each other's wavelength.

no matter your house, james insists you support gryffindor when a quidditch match is on. he doesn't want to hear any excuses. and if you aren't kitted out in face paint, holding a banner and cheering him on? he'll put on the most over-dramatic, disappointed display you've ever seen. he only stops once you beg for his forgiveness through rolled eyes, and he'll announce with a sigh that his heart will one day mend.

helping james out with his crush on lily is very common; this boy will come to you for advice on anything regarding her, because "you know how this works, you're in a relationship aren't you?" he's totally useless, as endearing as it is, and you and remus have to work together to come up with plans that won't end in embarrassment for your hopeless friend. and when they do get together? double dates of course!

gives amazing birthday and christmas presents. there's something you mentioned you wanted in passing? it's guaranteed james will be presenting it to you with a knowing grin. this boy is great at gift giving.

studying with him is actually quite productive; with you he manages to not get distracted, and you can both get your homework done amidst some friendly chatter and quiet music. he makes sure you take breaks often enough.

very protective. if anyone ever upsets you, whilst remus is comforting you it's guaranteed james will be 'taking care of it' for you. you're his best friend, and he'll be damned if he lets anyone hurt his best friend.

and for six of crows, i'd pair you with...

(romantically)

god nina would adore you. she thinks you're the most perfect person to walk the planet - it was love at first sight 100%. nina's quite a bubbly person, as are you, so there's never a dull moment or a lull in conversation; you always find something to be talking about, something to be doing.

this girl loves being near you, knowing you're close to her and with her. she'll often just take your hand in hers, or rest a head on your shoulder, just to remind herself that you're with her and she's the luckiest person.

she'd love to tell you stories about her heists with the crows just to see the look of wonder and excitement on your face as she recalled some of their greatest ideas, although he made an effort to ensure you never got caught up in their plans and ideas - she wanted to keep you safe, and she promised herself she would.

it doesn't matter how long you two have been together, nina flirts with you like she's still trying to win you over. every morning she'll wake you up with a flirtatious comment and often sends you winks and pick up lines throughout the day, even when it isn't the most appropriate of times.

a lot of bakery dates. nina has an extreme sweet tooth, so going out for hot drinks and waffles is a must in your relationship. she enjoys the calm it brings her.

sings to you quite often, despite the fact that her voice isn't quite the best you've ever heard. if it made you smile, she'd sing a thousand notes terribly off-key.

the worst morning person ever. if you want to wake up on time, it's best to set an alarm half an hour early to account for nina's constant pleas for 'five more minutes' as she pulls you back into her arms. and how could you say no?

and

(platonically)

i feel like i've been pairing you with a lot of big personalities throughout this, but i think you and jesper would be best friends instantly. from the moment jesper meets you, he takes you under his wing and refuses to leave your side. he latches onto you and even if you wanted, you couldn't get rid of him.

obviously, this is jesper, so outlandish adventures around ketterdam are a must despite the rare scoldings from kaz. it's nice to see how harmless much mischief you two can get up to, as jesper's witty personality means the night is full of hushed laughter and jokes. you're often the one who has to pull him away from his attempts at gambling away all of his money - you're the only one he'll listen to, and although he acts annoyed, deep down he's extremely grateful.

if you want to, he'd try to teach you how to use a gun and do the little tricks that he can. this isn't to say he wants you to join them on heists, of course not. but he feels a little safer knowing that, if necessary, you could protect yourself. nina is also thankful for this fact.

he loves to tease you and nina, which usually leads to a back and forth between them whilst you and wylan watch in amusement on the sidelines. it's always from a place of love, though.

calls you the most ridiculous nicknames, usually taken from an inside joke that happened two or more years ago. this boy doesn't let things go.

loves messing with you and teasing you, it's how he shows he cares and appreciates your friendship. he loves when you return this energy.

you're slightly quieter than he is, which he appreciates. he often feels like he can take a moment and calm down around you, making him not as impulsive. he thinks he's become a better person since the two of you became friends, often mentioning how you've rubbed off on him.

im hoping you enjoyed these bestie!! i rly hope i haven't somehow completely misinterpreted your personality through our chats,, but based on the vibes u give me this is what i'd have to say!!! :D

#again im so sorry these took so long ahh!!!#i luv my mutuals <3 yeah

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5-falsehoods-phonated · 5 years ago

Text

Requested as a continuation of a headcannon by @hhh-angels if Logan had OCD and used plants to cope, with sprinkled in Logicality. Here is a one shot that was supposed to a lot shorter but I have no self control.

Wilting

Warnings: OCD, emotional break down, dead plant. If there's other let me know.

Trigger warnings: compulsive checking, emotional break down.

Ships: logicality

Word count: 2,496

"I gotta say Specs, I'm almost jealous that this is your room and not mine. Never pegged you for a Nature Nerd."

"Lay off Princey, we all have our habits."

Logan hummed in amused agreement from his place at his desk, smiling as a light breeze ruffled through the papers on its surface though not hard enough to send his organization to the literal wind. His room had been a collaborative effort after Patton had encouraged him to open up to the others more, making voicing his needs and breaching communication gaps much easier with the supportive side at his back. Roman had been the first to know, as Logan did not have the creative powers to make the changes he wanted. With minimal teasing, the princely side had "fulfilled his royal duty as a dear friend" to help make the layout changes he had been struggling to realize. Now his room was completely transformed and he absolutely loved it.

The shelves full of books and binders were still there, but now their sides were crawling with carefully maintained vines of every variety. Wisteria climbed up the sides of a shelf closest to him, while a grape vine had steadily curled up towards the ceiling in a corner, supported by carefully placed pegs embedded in the walls. The door was framed by a hyacinth bean vine that had already started to flower thanks to the power of the mind scape. His ceiling was taller, reaching 10 feet around the right edges of the room to accommodate for the climbing plants, glow in the dark star stickers still stuck to the plaster. Beyond that however, it faded into infinity.

The way Roman had reconstructed made it so a controlled portion of the imagination was contained within his room, a feat he was quite proud of and had offered to work into the others' room as well if they wish. This meant that the ceiling faded into an expanse of sky that loosely mirrored outside reality, going so far as to mimic an impossibly clear sky at night in which the colors of the galaxy could be on full display. This also meant there was room for a wide expanse of flowers that thrived better in an outside environment, and trees as far as the eye could see in every variety from cedars to cherry blossoms, though he hadn't ventured too far yet. Closer to his actual room he still kept and maintained his succulents on another shelf, the one Patton had gifted him so long ago still growing strong and placed proudly in the middle.

Logan was brought back from his thoughts as he felt a warm hand lay itself gently on his shoulder, prompting him to look up into the face of his loving boyfriend. They had established a tentative relationship after Patton had been led into his room for the first time for an impromptu thank-you-for-starting-my-plant-obsession cuddle session. His obsessive checking was still there, Logan realistically didn't expect it to go away so suddenly, if at all. But the stress that came with it was practically non-existent, especially once he entered his room to care for his lovely greenery. He felt more at ease, more heard, more cared for, than he had in years, and he had Patton to thank for easing him into a less stressful routine the way that he had.

Patton leaned forward and plucked the pen out of Logan's hands, spinning the chair around as he did and plopping down in his lap. "No more work, Lo. Enjoy the scenery."

And Logan really couldn't object to that could he? Late afternoon sunlight lit up the room, Roman was busy sketching something or other into a thickly bound and worn book, and Virgil was resting quietly under one of the trees nearby, face relaxed as he let the rooms ambience wash over him. Roman really had outdone himself.

Logan leaned back in the chair, wrapping his arms around Patton's middle and dragging him back with him to rest his chin on his shoulder. Patton giggled quietly as he adjusted slightly to make them both more comfortable, finally relaxing all the way to enjoy the fragrant breeze blowing around them.

------

"Hey, Lo? I think this one might be wilting."

Logan jerked his head back from where he had been carefully testing the soil saturation of his cactuses, quickly making his way over to Patton who had been helping water the controlled garden at the edge of his room. Yellow lilies were growing in this particular section, the one in question had turned a pale brown in color, its sickly stem barely able to hold itself up. It was clear it was past the point of saving, though with his careful care he couldn't fathom how its suffering had escaped his notice for so long. His hand tapped a nervous rhythm on his thigh, a steady 1 2 1 2 count that calmed his anxiety somewhat.

"That's...only natural, I suppose. Things die, I hadn't expected them to in the mind scape but I suppose Roman paid close attention to detail when making this, which I cannot fault him for."

Patton eyed him closely. "Are you sure?"

"Of course." The small lie slipped out easily, making him wince slightly. It really wasn't that big of a deal...at least it shouldn't be. It was just...he was so careful, and he knew Patton was as well, and the flowers were so pretty and were growing so healthily but...it didn't matter. Plucking it gently out of the bed , he waved it away and patted over the place it had once stood, smoothing out the dirt neatly. "There. No harm done."

Patton still looked worried, but wisely decided not to say anything.

-----

Over the course of two weeks flowers continued to wilt in and out of the contained garden space. It really shouldn't have mattered but Logan didn't understand what he could be doing wrong. The routine hadn't changed, he'd done countless hours of research trying to figure out what could possibly be the problem but could deduce nothing. Stress was creeping into the one place it had never been and it was setting him on edge, his compulsive checking resurfacing after months of staying under control. Locks. Yes. Microwave. Yes. Thermostat. Were the knives put away properly in the block? Was the coffee table moved just this way so that no one tripped getting up from the couch? Odd, new compulsions swarmed his mind in the dead of night. Were the carpets loose on the stairs? That would be a major safety hazard, that needs checked. What about the banister? Check. Recheck. The microwave really was unplugged right? Check. Check. What about the windows, they were shut weren't they?

Check.

Recheck.

Check.

"Sweetheart, what are you doing up?" Logan looked up from his current activity: pulling at the carpet at the bottom of the stairs to see if it was loose. It wasn't. He'd checked and made sure. But he had to check again. To be sure.

"Lo-"

"No. I have to finish checking."

"How many times have you pulled that section?"

Logan's face heated but he continued anyway, Patton standing at the top of the stairs patiently waiting. He knew this was important to Logan and he respected it. But it was currently 3AM and he had no idea how long Logan had been up before this.

He watched as the taller man stood up slowly and made his way to the kitchen, where Patton quickly followed.

"I have to check the microwave."

"Logan you checked that before bed didn't you?"

"I have to make sure."

"Logan-"

The side in question whirled around. "No! I have to check! I have control over this, I can check and recheck and if everything's fine then everything is fine! I can monitor this! This-" he waved in agitation at the still unplugged microwave. "-makes sense!"

Logan had circles under his eyes that could put Virgil's eyeshadow to shame and his exhaustion was made apparent with his swaying body throughout his speech. Slowly, carefully, Patton reached out and took Logan's hands in his, squeezing them gently and nodding in understanding.

"I'm not mad at you. And I'm not asking you to stop okay? I just want you to sleep, you look exhausted."

Looking back at the microwave, Logan slowly nodded, slumping forward slightly and taking calming breaths. "Okay."

Patton nodded again. "Okay."

-----------

The next day was greeted with a slightly better mood. There were no obligations to fulfill, so the morning had been spent catching a couple more hours of much needed sleep at the request of Patton and enough cuddles and kisses to last him a month, not that he would ever have enough. Today the cactuses and succulents needed watered and though he was still on edge he was looking forward to the calming activity.

He hummed slightly as he took up the small watering can used for the small plants and smiled over at Patton who was busy guiding one of the vines to grip another pike in the wall. Making his way to the shelf his simple tune caught dead in his throat, watering can forgotten as his grip slackened and it spilled across the hardwood floor.

"Are you okay? What's the matter?" Patton rushed to his side, and getting no response, followed his lovers line of sight to the middle of the shelf.

Wilted, dried and brown, the very first succulent plant Patton had given him was spread out dead in its pot, a far cry from the healthy green it had been just the day before.

He quickly looked back to Logan, any words of consolation dying in his throat as he saw the tears running down the others cheeks. He watched helplessly as the other strode forward and took the pot in his hands, folding himself down around it with shaking shoulders. Only when Patton heard the faint sobs becoming louder did he step forward carefully to crouch down next to him.

"Logan?"

"This was...you gave this to me....this was the first one and now it's gone and I DON'T KNOW WHAT I DID!" Gasping sobs escaped him as his shoulders shook even more, desperately gripping to the plant pot as if squeezing it hard enough would bring the plant itself back to life. Patton gently tugged Logan into him, resting his head against his chest as the other sobbed his heart out. His mind raced even as he began rocking them, gently whispering words he hoped were comforting down to the other.

Roman wouldn't speed up the rate of decay like this and Virgil would never play a prank this cruel. They and Patton were the only ones with the permission to come into Logan's spot in the Imagination, which had to be given to enter at all. The only side that might not need it....

------

Patton gently placed Logan's limp form on the bed, the other having cried himself to the point of exhaustion after a nearly hour long breakdown. His face hardened as he sunk out, popping up in Thomas's living room.

"Oh hey Patton, wha-"

"Hey kiddo, where's Remus?"

Thomas squinted in confusion, pausing whatever show he was watching to really look at his moral side. Patton's cardigan was gone and there was a large wet spot on the top of his polo. His clothes were otherwise rumpled but his face was the most worrying. Hard and set in a way he had never seen on the normally cheery side his concern only grew.

"I don't know. Did something happen?"

"Summon him please."

Not daring to question it, Thomas quickly stood up. "Remus!"

The Duke appeared behind the T.V., cursing as he took in his surroundings.

"I appreciate the invitation Thomas, but no thank you-"

"Too bad." Before Remus could sink out, Patton had a fistful of his sash and they disappeared together, leaving Thomas staring confusedly at the spot they had left.

--------

"Do you have any idea what you've done, Remus?" Patton maintained his hold on the Duke, staring at him with an intensity that made Remus of all sides swallow the words that immediately rose up and actually think over his response.

"Well...normally it's a question of who, not what, so I'd say I haven't the faintest idea what you're referring to." Trying for vulgar humor to make the apparently very pissed off moral side let him go, his stomach sunk only deeper as Patton's face only darkened further.

"Logan's. Plants. What did you do. To Logan's. Plants."

Remus' eyebrow quirked in confusion. He knew now of course what Patton was talking about. But his prank was harmless! ...right? Why would he care so much about the nerds newest passion project? He decided to voice as much.

"All it was was a little realism! Roman had made the whole setup so perfect and boring. All I did was liven it up a bit. By...you know...killing....them?" The longer he spoke the more confidence left him. He wasn't scared of Patton, definitely not. Puppy and kitten loving Patton who definitely didn't have a look on his face that would set fire to the world if it were allowed to smoulder.

"Here's what you're going to do. You're going to fix the plants. You're going to wait here until Logan wakes up and apologize. You'll do it without complaint. Without sex jokes or vulgar language. And it will be genuine. After which, you will never touch anything in Logan's room without explicit permission from Logan himself. Are. We. Clear."

Swallowing thickly, Remus could only nod as he was finally let go, the fun loving father figure leaving him to stare off in chastised fear of ever daring to cross Morality again.

------

Logan sat back in his desk chair, sighing contentedly as a soft breeze fluffed out his hair. Patton sat behind him on the bed, gently scratching at Logan's scalp as he used his other hand to mindlessly color another cat in his book. Roman sat against a tree with Virgil, scowling playfully at the emo's choice in music while they shared a pair of headphones, Virgil hissing quietly about it being his turn and to "Suck it up, Princey."

"Remus, leave them alone." The Duke pouted before sitting back and busying himself with a worn sketchbook instead, knowing where the line was when he was allowed in Logan's room. His plants thrived properly now, his stress free zone rejuvenated with the knowledge it would stay that way. He still didn't know what had prompted Remus to play the cruel joke in the first place, nor what had made him fix everything and, according to Roman, give his first genuine apology.

As fingers continued to brush through his hair, he mentally shrugged and relaxed into the touch. In this instance at least, he felt it was okay not to know.

This work is also available on my AO3!

Please do not tag as unsympathetic sides or tw Remus. Thank you.

#sanders sides #sanders sides headcanon #logan sanders #patton sanders #thomas sanders #roman and remus #roman sanders #remus sanders #ao3 #fic

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airis-paris14 · 4 years ago

Text

Human Nature 3

Summary: He has a secret and he’s tired of loving her in secret.

Warnings: None

A/N: Here’s part three of the short story. I hope you enjoy! I also tried out a new banner graphic.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

See that girl, she knows I'm watching

She likes the way I stare...

I like livin' this way

I like lovin' this way

- Michael Jackson “Human Nature”

T’Challa grinned as his car pulled into the driveway. He grabbed his suitcase and prepared to surprise Naomi. He’d purposely not called her back this morning and instead flew the first jet he could get his hands on over here. Though he had taken Okoye’s advice and asked one of the pilots to fly him due to his lack of sleep. He took out his keys, and smiled as he heard the bass line of a song bouncing through the house. He turned the key and pushed open his door, grateful that the music would hide his presence for a few seconds more. He shut the white door quietly and left his suitcases by the doors. He slipped off his shoes and tiptoed into the kitchen.

The previous song had ended and he heard her sing along to the intro of the new one. “I am a single QUEEN!,” the king laughed, recognizing the track from one of her recent obsessions. “Oh so you’re single now,” T’Challa teased, giving away his presence. “T’Challa!” Her whole face lit up once it registered that he was standing in front of her. She ran over to him and he scooped her up in his arms. She grinned as he covered her face with kisses. “Hey baby,” he finally replied, placing her back on her own feet.

“Hi, you weren’t supposed to be back until tomorrow.”

“I know, I finished my work early and I wanted to surprise you,” the king smiled then cleared his throat, “there’s also something I need to talk to you about, but it can’t wait for a little while longer.”

Naomi’s smile fell, “Okay. I was cooking some leftovers from dinner last night, you want some?” Naomi walked back into the kitchen. T’Challa nodded and simply drank the sight of her in. Her hair was pulled into a large puff and she wore sweats and a t-shirt. She looked absolutely stunning. The new king took a seat and watched as she filled a bowl with pasta for him. Once she was done filling her own bowl. She turned off the oven and walked both dishes over to the island. She took a seat next to him and smiled.

“How was work?” She asked.

“It was great actually,” T’Challa twirled some of the pasta around his fork. “I actually got a promotion that I can’t wait to tell you about, later.” Naomi smiled. That's amazing baby! I can’t wait to hear all about it.”

Somehow I doubt that the king thought to himself. “What about you?” he asked his wife. “It was good, I finished up that really big wedding I was telling you about. It was really sweet and surprisingly went off with very few problems.”

T’Challa grabbed his wife’s hand and kissed it. “You do it every time baby.” Naomi blushed and it caused the man to chuckle. “I also worked with the girls on our wedding,” Naomi revealed.

“How’d that go? Did you have a venue that you liked?”

“Yeah we narrowed it down to two, I wanted to make the final decision with you though. I’ll pull the profile on them and we can decide now if you want.”

“Let’s save that for later,” T’Challa smiled.

“Okay,” Naomi sat back down. “I wanted to ask you though, do you think that I could go on your next work trip with you? I know I probably can’t go work with you. But I could buy my own ticket and I could explore the city and just hang out with you whenever you have free time.”

“I am so glad that you said that. I’m going back home and I want you to come with me,” the king revealed. He knew that this was not the way to address the problem but it felt so much easier than telling the truth. His heart broke a little more as he watched a grin spread across his lover’s face. He needed to start telling the truth soon, or he’d be in too deep.

“Speaking of home-” Naomi started, “I wanted to know if you wanted to have your family at the wedding. We could start putting away some money for their plane tickets, and I wanted to include your little sister in the wedding party if they were gonna be there. She’s my family too now you know.” Naomi looked up expectantly but T’Challa’s heart was exploding. That right there was why he married this woman. She was intelligent, funny, goofy, and unbelievably caring and generous. He knew that now was the time for him to start telling the truth. He pushed his now empty plate back off the counter.

“That’s actually one of the things that we need to talk about,” the king started. He grabbed him and Naomi’s now empty bowls. T’challa rinsed and placed them in the sink. All the while he felt the heaviness of his statement and Naomi’s eyes following him. “Let’s go in the living room eh?” He grabbed his wife’s hands and pulled her into the living room.

Once they were settled he took a deep breath. “Baby what’s wrong?” the king felt her hand lightly lift his chin. “This is not easy for me to tell you Nay, but I already regret that we got married and I haven’t told you the truth. I didn’t tell you everything from the jump for selfish reasons, but I am getting ahead of myself.”

Naomi frowned.

“I do work with the United Nations, that much is true. Every time I told you I was on a work trip I was telling the truth. I was at a United Nations meeting every time. Except this last one. I am not a united nation’s ambassador, I am a leader baby. A nation leader. I am the Leader of the nation of Wakanda.” Naomi’s face took on shock then amusement, “Stop it,” Naomi laughed before realizing he wasn’t laughing with her.

“What do you mean you are the leader of the Nation of Wakanda T’Challa. Wakanda is a monarchy, you told me so. Or were you lying about that too?”

T’Challa frowned, “When you met me at Essence Fest baby, I was Prince T’Challa Udaku of Wakanda, heir to the throne. I was there with my sister Shuri. Princess Shuri.”

“So when you say you got a promotion-”

“My father passed away, which is why I had to go off for business. I am king now.”

Naomi let her head fall into her hands. She dragged them down her face as she stood up. “You expect me to believe that I married the prince, no king, of fucking Wakanda! Not to mention that your father, whom you said you hadn’t seen in years passed away and you didn’t tell me, your wife!” The woman fumed. Her hand now covering her mouth in anger and disbelief. “I was supposed to be there for you T’Challa. Comfort you!”

T’Challa watched, guilt taking over as she tried to come to terms with everything. “So you waltzed home early to tell me that surprise you’re a fucking KING and your father DIED and that what I’m a queen?!”

T’Challa was at a crossroads. Accepting that any response, including no response, would elicit more anger, he cut his losses. “In a more complicated way, but yes. Naomi, I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t you dare ‘I’m sorry me’ T’Challa Udaku, I am pissed. Pissed because I don’t know my husband. The man I fucking promised the rest of my life to. I gave my life to you, and the life I thought we were going to have was half-lie, and the other half just went up in smoke. I mean, we are getting ‘married’ next year. If your father hadn’t died would you even be telling me this? You’d just let us build a life together, me thinking you haven’t seen your family in years. Do you know how hurt I am and for what? Why would you not tell me who you are T’Challa? I told you everything. I married you. I became your wife. I’m going to give you children one day and you wouldn’t have told me that they were in line for a throne halfway across the world.”

“I don’t know what to say, Naomi. I didn’t tell you because I enjoyed not being the prince of Wakanda for once. We had fun that weekend, you didn’t know who I was and I enjoyed just getting to be T’Challa. Wakanda was still pretty closed off so I knew that most people wouldn’t know who I was and tell you. It was selfish and I am so sorry for building this life on a lie, but I am not a lie. The man you fell in love with is still here. Should it matter that I have this title?”

“The title isn’t the problem T’Challa,” Naomi dropped back on to the couch next to her husband, tears running down her face, “the problem is that you lied to me, and now there’s this position that I am going to have to fill that I had no idea about. And, I’m guessing the king can’t live in a different country?”

T’Challa’s face said it all. “That’s where the trip comes in. This week is coronation week in Wakanda. The festival starts tomorrow and I want you to come with me. The decision is yours though, if you want a divorce, we are not ‘legally married’ in Wakanda, so if you do not want to stay with me I understand.

“T’Challa, are you stupid, or are you dumb?” The king and his wife chuckled lightly, “I signed up for better or for worse. Richer and poorer. I’m coming with you, I just don’t like all of the lies that are unraveling right now.”

“I promise that, that is all of them. Now I just have to explain this to my family and friends back home. I am sure they will adore you, but everyone is going to be very upset with me. I needed you to know first though. We needed to be in this together. You deserved to know first.”

Naomi nodded and sighed. She leaned her head on his shoulder and breathed in his scent. “I’m pissed, but I love you T’Challa Udaku.”

“I am glad. That you love me Naomi Udaku. I am head over heels in love with you too.” The king kissed the crown of her head. She patted his thigh, “Help me pack,” she groaned standing up off the couch. “Of course my love,” he stood and followed her into their room.

taglist: @almostpurelysmut @blackbypurpose @nyneebee @hutchj @tchoking @sisterwifeudaku @wikiwakanda @royallyprincesslilly @90sinspiredgirl @strictlyashley @afraiddreamingandloving @thedelightfulone @autumn242 @purple-apricots @kumkaniudaku @queertrex @kaciidubs @halfrican-heat @skysynclair19 @dramaqueenamby @gorjiss @leahnicole1219 @kreolemami @mzbritt @yoyolovesbucky @derangedcupcake @builtalongthewayside @ilcb7 @chaneajoyyy @lalapalooza718 @ororowrites @leahnicole1219 @dopegalkk @sarcastic-sunshines @sarahboseman @shesakillerkween @waitingonafriend @faatassbitch

#t'challa x reader #T'Challa x black reader #t'challa x oc #t'challa imagine #T'Challa #t'challa x you #t'challa x black! reader #apbpfics #humannaturefic

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lady-hammerlock · 5 years ago

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Of Masks and Concealer (Watch Dogs - Marcus x Wrench)

Summary: Marcus has a perfectly normal male name on his face, hidden beneath a liberal coat of concealer. Is it Wrench's name? He hopes it's Wrench's name. A Wrencus soulmate AU with a liberal dose of angst and fluff.

AN: What is this? Another Watch Dogs fic from me? In truth I discovered this in my writing folder a little while back. I had completely forgotten that I had written it, but it was mostly finished, so I figured it should go out into the world. I hope you all enjoy. :)

As usual, the full story is under the cut. The only real warnings for this one are for mild violence/injuries and Wrench having really big self-esteem issues.

A MASK AND CONCEALER

Marcus Holloway had a rather unique soulbrand. The name itself wasn’t all that strange; just a perfectly ordinary male name. Any confusion that might have caused in him disappeared when he started to hit puberty, and realised that he found plenty of men just as attractive as women.

No, it was the position of the soulbrand that was weird. Plenty of people had them on their arms or legs, and he had heard of soulbrands being on people’s backs a few times. He even had a cousin whose soulbrand was on the sole of her foot. Marcus’s soulbrand however was right below his eye on his right cheek.

As a kid it hadn’t really mattered. For the first couple of years of school he had gone around with it uncovered. The writing was small enough that half the kids couldn’t even read the name of Marcus’s soulmate without getting real close to him.

Marcus soon realised that most other people kept their soulbrands covered up however; both the kids at school and the adults he knew, or at least the adults that hadn’t already met their soulmates and settled down with them. The kids at school hadn’t started to pick on Marcus for his weird soulbrand, but he definitely didn’t want them to start.

Covering up most soulbrands was easy enough. If clothing didn’t naturally cover it up then surely a pair of gloves or a scarf or whatever would do the job.

Marcus’s required a little more creativity. For a while there he went to school with a brightly coloured Band-Aid under his eye, which drew more attention that the soulbrand itself had done. When he grew a little older his Mom started to cover it with concealer. As Marcus grew older he learned how to apply the concealer himself. He’d still wear some sort of Band-Aid when going swimming or whenever the concealer was likely to rub off, but on most days he carried a little container of concealer around in his bag.

By the time he joined Dedsec he was a fucking pro at applying the stuff, which was good, because if there was ever a reason to conceal your soulmate’s identity from everyone and everything then going up against groups like the ones Dedsec regularly picked fights with was it. There was little doubt in Marcus’s mind that groups like !nvite or Blume could find some devious way to use the name of a person’s soulmate against them.

As for the soulmate himself, Marcus didn’t really give the guy much thought. Growing up there had been plenty of guys and girls in his class that had obsessed over finding their other halves. Marcus had met a couple of people who he had even thought for a moment might be the one, either based on name or the sight of a similar patch of concealer or adhesive medical strip on their face, and sure, he had been disappointed when it turned out that they weren’t the one (or in one case, really fucking relieved that they weren’t) but mostly Marcus figured that whoever his soulmate was, he would meet him when the time was right.

Wrench was, without a doubt, one of the coolest, most interesting people Marcus had ever met. They flirted and bonded and got excited over the same dumb shit, and bit by tiny bit, Marcus realised that he was falling in love.

He knew that it was stupid, but he couldn’t stop himself from hoping. After all, Wrench’s face was covered, so there was a tiny chance that somewhere beneath all of those spikes and leather the name ‘Marcus’ was branded on Wrench’s cheek, the twin to Marcus’s own soulbrand.

Marcus always ended up scoffing at himself whenever he caught himself daydreaming about such things though. Sure, Wrench might be awesome and perfect and the exact sort of person that Marcus would want to have as his soulmate, but that didn’t mean shit.

For the first time in his life he actually gave a shit about the identity of his soulmate, and it was mostly because he desperately, hopelessly wished that it was Wrench.

Everything seemed to be going pretty well at the moment, both for Dedsec and for Marcus. Swelter Skelter had brought them all back together and they were beating Prime_Eight into the ground. Marcus was on his way back to headquarters after taking down their most recent Prime_Eight target, on a motorbike that he had ‘liberated’ from its former Prime_Eight owner.

Everything seemed to be looking up. The sun was fucking shining, the radio was playing a rock song he really liked and Wrench, as Wrench was inclined to do while Marcus was on longer trips, had rung him up to talk.

“So Marcus,” Wrench said, and Marcus could just hear the cheeky grin in his voice. “FMK with Jabba the Hut, Emperor Palpatine when he’s old and pale and wrinkly, or Chewbacca.”

Marcus tried to stifle the laughter that bubbled up in his throat, which resulted in it coming out as a gross sort of giggle snort. The two of them had been playing ‘Fuck, Marry, Kill’ for a few minutes, and while the people and characters they were playing with had started out attractive enough, they had slowly devolved until they were at this stage.

“You just wanna hear me say I’d fuck or marry Chewbacca,” Marcus replied, taking over a slow moving family van in front of him as he did.

“Aw, come on M,” Wrench whined. “He’d be a really considerate lover. Just think about it; those big strong arms holding you tight, and all that soft fur…”

Marcus chuckled. Stupid conversation like this did absolutely nothing to lessen his crush on Wrench. If anything, it was stupid geeky shit like this that had made him fall in love with Wrench so quickly.

“I thought you didn’t like animals,” Marcus shot back.

Wrench let out an exaggerated gasp of shock.

“Are you calling Chewbacca an animal?” Wrench asked. “Marcus, that’s dangerous talk man. Calling a perfectly civilised and, you absolutely have to concede, attractive gentleman like Chewbacca an animal… What are we going to do with you?”

Marcus chuckled again.

“Just please don’t rip my arms off,” he laughed, before actually giving the question some thought. “Well, straight up let’s kill Jabba.”

“Diego Luna would be heartbroken Marcus,” Wrench interrupted.

Marcus chuckled, and was just about to continue when suddenly a valve in the road in front of him exploded in a burst of scalding hot steam and a shower of asphalt. The car in front of Marcus was thrown to the side of the road. Marcus turned the motorbike as quickly as he could, and just managed to steer around the explosion in time.

He steadied himself, and then looked behind him. It was only then that he spotted the pair of Prime_Eight jerks that were following just behind him in a beat up old sports car.

“Oh shit,” Marcus cursed, kicking the stolen motorbike back into gear and hoping that he could outrun the Prime_Eight members.

“Marcus!” came Wrench’s voice from the other end of the line, immediately worried. “Hey Marcus. Buddy! You okay?”

“Shit!” Marcus said, turning a corner and just making it. “I’ve got a couple of Prime_Eight bastards on my tail. Probably ain’t too happy that I blew up their place.”

“You need help?” Wrench asked.

“Nah, I got this,” Marcus said. He had dealt with plenty of worse situations before. All that he needed was to mess up the idiots behind him and then…

He motored through the next set of traffic lights, hacking into them as he did, hoping to cause a little bit of trouble for the Prime_Eight members. He heard the tell-tale screech of tires and honking of horns behind him, and glanced back to find that his trick had worked just as well as he had hoped. The Prime_Eight van had slammed into another car. There was no way that they were going to be able to chase after him now.

He hadn’t been watching where he was going though, and when he turned his attention back to the road in front of him it was too late to avoid slamming into the side of the car that had pulled out in front of him.

He hit the side of the car and went flying, skidding several metres along the road.

“Marcus?” Wrench screamed over their phone call. “Marcus!”

The breath had been completely knocked out of him. He just lay there for a while, gasping and trying to get air back into his lungs. His arms and legs hurt. He didn’t think that he had broken anything, but his knees and arms stung where the road had torn through his clothing and some of the skin beneath.

“Shit,” he cursed when he had recovered enough to push himself up on his hands and knees.

The owner of the car he had run into had taken off, and everyone else seemed too concerned about the three car pile-up at the intersection to worry about one lone and mostly uninjured motorbike rider. Marcus could faintly hear the muffled and garbled sound of Wrench on the other side of their phone call and reached out to find his phone lying on the floor nearby.

As he picked it up he could hear the other man’s voice, frantically muttering, more to himself now than to Marcus.

“Don’t worry M,” Wrench said. “You’re not too far from headquarters. I’m going to get you. Everything’s going to okay. I’m coming to get you and you’re going to be okay and I’m going to make those stupid fucking Prime_Eight assholes pay for daring to lay a finger on you. You’re going to be all right Marcus. You have to be.”

“Wrench,” Marcus called out, his voice a little quieter and scratchier than he had anticipated.

“Marcus!” Wrench cried out.

“I’m okay man,” Marcus said. “Well, I am a little torn up, but I’ll be fine.”

“No way man,” Wrench replied. “I’ve got your location and I’m almost there now. I’ll see you in a bit, okay M?”

“All right,” Marcus replied.

He glanced back at the chaos he had caused at the intersection and began, despite the protesting of his legs, to walk away from the scene. The last thing he wanted was to still be around when people started asking questions about the crash.

Within minutes Wrench had arrived at the scene and the two of them had found a back alley in which they could tend to Marcus’s injuries in peace.

The scrapes on Marcus’s arms and legs weren’t nearly as bad as they felt; nothing worse than a few scratches really, but Wrench worried as though there might still be a chance of Marcus bleeding out, immediately fetching water and insisting on cleaning off the dirt and gravel himself.

“It’s really nothing,” Marcus insisted, tearing off part of his own long-sleeved shirt so that Wrench could use the fabric to help clean off the wounds and soak up the excess blood. “I mean, it stings a bit, but I’ll be fine Wrench.”

Rather than rolling his eyes Wrench pretty much rolled his whole head.

“Just let me fucking take care of you all right?” he snapped.

“Yes Mom,” Marcus replied. He joked, but inside his heart felt as though it was glowing. Seeing how much Wrench cared about him made him think just for a moment that perhaps his crush on Wrench wasn’t completely hopeless after all.

Perhaps it wouldn’t matter if they weren’t soulmates. Perhaps, if they loved one another then that would be enough. God, he wished that they were soulmates. He wished it with all of his heart. He had never loved anyone like he loved Wrench. The other man’s touch was so gentle as he dabbed the wet cloth on Marcus’s arm; far gentler than a man who covered himself in spikes and took great delight in burning things to the ground had any right to be.

“Hey Marcus,” Wrench said, breaking Marcus’s reverie by reaching out to touch the hacker’s face with his thumb. “You got a little er…”

The other man’s mask changed from question marks to wide, round flashing eyes as his thumb brushed against the spot right beneath Marcus’s right eye; the spot where the name of Marcus’s soulmate sat, usually hidden away from the world.

“Oh shit,” Marcus cursed as Wrench withdrew his thumb. “I guess the make-up rubbed off during the crash.”

Marcus rubbed at his own cheek to discover that the makeup had smeared all down his face.

“Damn it,” Marcus cursed, already reaching into his bag to fetch the container of concealer that was tucked away in there along with everything else.

Marcus was a little annoyed, not entirely because Wrench had seen the name of Marcus’s soulmate. He trusted Wrench, knew that the other guy wouldn’t blab to anyone else and definitely wouldn’t have a problem with the fact that Marcus’s soulmate was a guy.

No, he was annoyed because this would, one way or another, put an end to his dream of Wrench actually being his soulmate. While neither of them said anything Marcus could always pretend that there was some chance of his dream coming true, but now that the name of Marcus’s soulmate was right there, out in the open, Wrench would undoubtedly, in one way or another, confirm that the name on Marcus’s cheek wasn’t his, and then Marcus would be forced to face the horrible, empty realisation that no matter who his soulmate was, there was no way that they could possibly measure up to Wrench.

Damn it. Everything about this sucked. Suddenly the scratches on his arms and legs felt worse, and all he wanted to do was get back to headquarters and have a stiff drink or two.

Marcus was therefore understandably surprised when Wrench let out a garbled sound that could only be described as a squeal and stepped back from Marcus and the newly revealed name on his cheek as though stung.

“That’s… er…” the masked man muttered before finally seeming to recover from his initial shock. “Am I looking at your soulbrand Marcus?”

“What else would it be?” Marcus asked.

“Yeah,” Wrench said. “Of course M. Cool.”

His mask and words were trying to convince Marcus that everything was cool, but his voice and body language was giving him away. Something was up. Perhaps Wrench just wasn’t comfortable with knowing the name of Marcus’s soulmate. It was a pretty private thing.

Or maybe Wrench is jealous, that part of Marcus that was growing increasingly difficult to ignore began to suggest. Or maybe, just maybe, he recognised his own name?

Marcus ignored those thoughts, knowing that it was infinitely more likely that the sight of Marcus’s soulbrand had just made Wrench uncomfortable, and turned his back to Wrench as he started to apply a liberal coat of concealer onto his cheek.

He waited for Wrench to say something; anything. Maybe, if he was extremely lucky then Wrench would make his dreams come true and claim Marcus as his soulmate. If not, and this seemed infinitely more likely, he could at least allow Marcus to stop hoping. Either way, he wished that Wrench would say something.

Instead the other man was still and silent, giving away absolutely nothing except a vague impression of discomfort.

Marcus sighed, twisted the lid back on the concealer and shoved it into his bag, before turning back to Wrench.

“Hey man,” he said, causing Wrench’s eyes to light up in a pair of exclamation marks, probably more of a reaction than those two simple words warranted. “Did I cover the whole thing? I mean, I’m pretty good at covering it up by now, but I don’t exactly have a mirror on me.”

“Huh?” Wrench said, as though Marcus had pulled him out of a daydream. “Yeah, er… Yeah, that’s it. You’ve covered the whole thing. Looks fine to me.”

Wrench’s eyes smiled, but it didn’t reach his voice.

Wrench was strangely quiet for a few days following that. He seemed awkward when he interacted with Marcus as well. Marcus wondered whether he should just confront the other man and ask Wrench what was bothering him.

Meanwhile, Marcus’s own mind seemed intent on annoying him. When his thoughts weren’t depressing ones about how this probably meant it was impossible for Wrench to be his soulmate they were annoying in their hopefulness. He had thought that he had put such stupidity aside after the crash, but apparently not.

What if Wrench was upset because he had seen another man’s name on Marcus’s face and was jealous? What if he had seen his own name on Marcus’s face and just didn’t know how to tell Marcus that they were soulmates?

Yeah right. If he had recognised his own name then it was more likely that he didn’t want Marcus as a soulmate at all and was still trying to work out how to tell Marcus that.

Whatever was going on it was annoying. Marcus just wanted his friend back.

So he was grateful when, after a week or so of weirdness, they got back to normal. They continued to laugh and touch and flirt as though nothing had happened.

Marcus continued to pine and to wonder, but at least he had Wrench at his side once more.

The FBI had Wrench. The fucking FBI had Wrench and Marcus had no idea what they were planning to do to him. No matter how much he cursed and screamed the panic wouldn’t subside.

Even when he was sitting there, watching the FBI interview Wrench through his phone camera he couldn’t think of anything except how to get Wrench out of there, and what he was going to do to the assholes that had taken him.

It was the first time that Marcus had seen the other man’s face, and he couldn’t help but notice how sad his eyes looked. It didn’t matter what he looked like though. He was Wrench, the man Marcus was in love with, and right at that moment the FBI were interrogating him and trying to turn him against Marcus and Dedsec and Marcus wanted to reach through the camera and fucking strangle them.

“Hey, what’s that beneath his eye?”

Sitara was the one to ask it. Marcus had noticed the dark smudge of course, just like he had noticed the red patch above his left eye.

“Have they been hurting him?” Josh asked.

But that wasn’t a bruise. Now that Marcus was looking at it he had a feeling he knew exactly what it was.

His stomach had been turning itself in knots already. There was almost no room in him for the shock of Wrench potentially being his soulmate after all.

“I think it’s a soulbrand,” he told the other two. “Don’t try to make it out, all right? We’ve invaded his privacy enough as it is by getting a look at his face.”

And then fucking Dusan had walked into the room, all sunshine and smiles and promises.

“What’s this?” he asked Wrench, kneeling in front of him and actually putting his hand on Wrench’s shoulder.

Wrench shrugged the other man’s touch off immediately.

“I should have known,” Dusan said as he straightened himself to his full height once more. “That explains a lot, right?”

Wrench was silent, his face turned away from Dusan. He refused to look at the other man no matter how much Dusan got in his face, or at the cameras stationed around the room.

“Does Marcus know?” Dusan asked Wrench.

“Do you know what?” Sitara asked. Marcus didn’t answer. He was too absorbed in what was happening in the interrogation room.

“He doesn’t, does he?” Dusan asked, leaning in so that Wrench was forced to look at him again. “You haven’t told him because you know it won’t matter to him. He doesn’t give a shit about you.”

Marcus wanted to reach through the cameras, tear Dusan away from Wrench and promise his fellow hacker that the other man wouldn’t go anywhere near him ever again. He was powerless to do anything though except sit there and watch.

“You know I’m right,” Dusan said to Wrench.

And then the man told Wrench that he was free to go; that he should run off and tell the rest of Dedsec, minus Marcus of course, that any of them could accept Dusan’s deal and turn on the rest of them at any time that they wished.

Surprisingly he seemed to actually let Wrench go as well, but not without first taking his mask.

Marcus wasn’t worried about any of his friends turning on them, not even for a moment. All he was worried about was Wrench, and getting the other man’s mask back and making sure that he was okay. There was barely any room left for him to worry about the soulbrand they had all seen on Wrench’s cheek.

It had taken a little bit of tech, a few explosions and a lot of luck, but Marcus had gotten Wrench’s mask back. It was only when he was on his way to return the mask that he started to think of the soulbrand they had all spotted on Wrench’s cheek.

It was probably Marcus’s name. Marcus realised that now. As he walked up the stairs to the meeting place he had organised with Wrench, mask clasped between his hands, he felt his heart pounding harder and faster in his chest.

Marcus knew that he was, once and for all, about to find out whether Wrench was his soulmate. There would be no maybe this time, no stupid hopes or stupider excuses.

By the time he spotted Wrench and moved to sit beside him Marcus was a nervous wreck. He thought he was doing a pretty good job of keeping it together though, all things considered.

“Hey,” Marcus gently greeted his friend, holding the mask out for Wrench to take back.

Wrench turned his head just a little, so that Marcus could see at least some of his face. Marcus took in the scruffy blonde hair, long nose and blue eyes as pale as ice, but what caught his eye more than anything else was the black letters that sat on Wrench’s right cheek, now right there where he could read them.

‘Marcus’

Wrench was staring at him, looking as though he was only two seconds away from bursting into tears. Marcus was so used to the mask, to Wrench’s usual energy and ridiculous humour. Seeing him so withdrawn and broken was breaking Marcus’s heart. He needed to say something to the other man, but Marcus had absolutely no idea what it was that he should say.

“We’re soulmates,” he ended up saying without ever planning for the words to leave his lips. “Huh.”

Wrench’s eyes were darting around the roof nervously, first looking at Marcus and then the plants around them or the pool a few metres away. He was clearly restless.

“I mean we are, right?” Marcus asked. “That name on my cheek; that’s your real… well, the name you were born with, right?”

Wrench nodded slowly a couple of times, not meeting Marcus’s eyes as he did, his eyes instead fixed on the mask that he clutched tightly in his own hands.

“Holy shit,” Marcus said, and then, as his own thoughts caught up with him. “Holy shit. I know your real name. Not that I’m gonna tell anybody. Holy shit no. I would never tell anybody if you don’t want me to. Holy shit Wrench. You’re… We’re…”

Wrench just sighed loudly, put his mask back on and then got to his feet.

“Maybe we should go somewhere a little more private?” Wrench suggested. “This conversation… I dunno. It could get messy.”

Marcus didn’t like the sound of that. Messy was not good. Messy made it sound as though at least one of them wasn’t going to be happy with how things turned out.

“Okay,” he said though, getting to his feet and then offering Wrench his hand. “That’s probably a good idea, yeah.”

–

They ended up back at Wrench’s garage. The drive back had been far tenser than Marcus had imagined it was going to be. Wrench was not just uncharacteristically quiet; he had failed to say anything at all since they had both gotten into Marcus’s car, and had remained silent until they were both safely back in the garage.

“So…” Marcus began, feeling more than a little awkward. Should he start with the FBI thing or the soulmates thing? In the end he settled on the most important thing; Wrench himself. “How you doing in there Wrench?”

“Better, now that I’ve got my mask back,” Wrench replied. “Thanks for that M.”

“No problem man,” Marcus replied, glancing over and sending a smile towards the other man. “What are friends for, right?”

Except they weren’t just friends now. They were soulmates, and that came with a whole new host of complications, right? Wrench’s eyes were sending a smiley emoji at him now though, so that was a good start.

“So er…” Marcus began, feeling rather awkward again. “We’re soulmates huh?”

Wrench had wondered if Marcus Holloway was his Marcus for about two whole seconds. The name was right, but as soon as he met the man he discovered there was no soulbrand under Marcus’s right eye to match his own. There was no point in wondering. He knew that. Marcus wasn’t his.

He couldn’t completely stop himself from hoping though. He liked Marcus. He really did. And even if Marcus didn’t have Wrench’s real name on his cheek that didn’t completely rule out the possibility, right? After all, Marcus could have had the soulbrand removed because of the whole hacking thing, or perhaps he was hiding it somehow. It was possible, right?

But no. Of course it wasn’t possible. The more Wrench came to know about Marcus Holloway, the more he understood that there was no way in hell that Marcus could be Wrench’s Marcus.

It all came down to one simple, undeniable truth; Marcus Holloway was far too fucking good for Wrench. He was not only completely fucking gorgeous, he was a really cool guy; intelligent and a brilliant hacker with a sense of humour and taste in everything that worked so well with Wrench’s own. He was just so fucking amazing that he made Wrench wish that he was better person. Perhaps then, if it wasn’t for the fucking mask and his real fucking face and his everything, he might actually be worthy of Marcus’s friendship, but he would never be worthy of Marcus’s heart. He knew that, and after a few too many vodka and Red Bulls and an hour or so of sending a few smaller electrical appliances to an early grave with the help of a sledgehammer, he even came to peace with the knowledge.

He still wanted to make Marcus proud, and he vowed to do everything he could to earn the other man’s trust and friendship, but he gave up all hope of it ever leading to anything romantic.

And then there had been that stupid fucking mission with the stupid fucking motorbike crash and Wrench had been worried that Marcus was seriously hurt and he wasn’t but then he had seen the name he had been born with on Marcus’s cheek and it felt as though the entire fucking world stopped.

Marcus was amazing. Marcus was the best person that Wrench knew. He did not deserve to be saddled with a train wreck like Wrench; Wrench, who wouldn’t even tell Marcus his real name or remove his mask so that Marcus could see his own name resting on Wrench’s cheek. He hadn’t been inclined to reveal his face to Marcus before learning the truth. He had even more of a reason to cover it up now.

He knew that Marcus was both kind and polite enough that he wouldn’t deliberately be a jerk about the whole soulmate thing. No, when he discovered that fate had been shitty enough to give him a fuck-up like Wrench for a soulmate he would smile and act like he wasn’t horribly fucking disappointed, but how could he be anything but horribly fucking disappointed. Wrench didn’t want to see that; didn’t want to see Marcus’s disappointment disguised as joy; didn’t want to be the one to let Marcus know that the universe had fucked up so badly.

And then there was the stupid fucking mission with the stupid fucking FBI. Wrench had practically been forced to reveal the truth to Marcus. Wrench didn’t know what he had been expecting from Marcus; disappointment probably. He wasn’t so far in denial that he wouldn’t admit that he had been hoping for more. In those beautiful moments during which he and Marcus just clicked and Marcus made Wrench so happy that he managed to forget how much he hated himself, he began to imagine what it might be like if Marcus did accept him. He fantasized about Marcus immediately grabbing Wrench and kissing him senseless, even though Wrench knew that the odds of that actually happening were small enough as to be non-existent. Marcus just standing there and staring at Wrench and the name on his cheek in shock? That seemed par for the course; much more understandable than any fantasies of kissing or confessions of love that Wrench had allowed himself to get lost in.

Which lead them to now; Marcus standing in front of him and saying that they were soulmates, as though it was just that simple.

“You knew that we were soulmates, right?” Marcus asked. “I mean, after that accident you had to know.”

Wrench nodded slowly. He couldn’t bring himself to look at Marcus’s face. The other man was upset, and had every right to be.

“I suspected that we were,” Wrench replied. “Yeah.”

“Why didn’t you tell me man?” Marcus asked.

Wrench took a deep breath, grabbed a couple of beers and tossed one to Marcus.

Then, very slowly and with nowhere near the amount of coherency he would have preferred, he began to tell Marcus about everything, about how he hadn’t known for sure, about how, despite knowing how stupid it was, he couldn’t stop himself from hoping, about how he hid the truth away because he didn’t want to disappoint Marcus, and Marcus stood there and listened to it all without saying a single word.

–

Marcus stared at Wrench as the other man came to the end of his tale. It had felt as though his heart had broken just that little bit more with every word that Wrench said.

Honestly, he had been expecting Wrench to tell him that he didn’t like dudes, or that he loved Marcus, but not like that, or any one of another dozen or so reasons that ultimately lead back to the fact that Wrench had stayed quiet about being Marcus’s soulmate because he didn’t want to be with Marcus romantically.

He had not expected Wrench to be so shy, so utterly convinced about his own lack of worth. Marcus didn’t know what had happened to Wrench to make him so sure that he was unworthy of love, but Marcus swore then that he would find some way to change Wrench’s mind; to convince him that he was not only worthy, but that Marcus loved him with his whole heart, and would have even if they weren’t soulmates.

“I’m not disappointed man,” he said when it was clear that Wrench was finished.

“What?” Wrench asked, his mask quickly changing to question marks.

“I’m not disappointed with having you as a soulmate,” Marcus explained, slowly and as clearly as he could, so there was absolutely no chance that Wrench might misunderstand him. “Hell, I’m really happy Wrench.”

The two of them were leaning against one of Wrench’s work benches, their now empty cans of beer resting just behind them. Wrench had been looking right at Marcus, but at that he turned his head and scoffed loudly.

“Not you’re not,” he said. “You wouldn’t have just stood there and stared at me as though the universe had just told you the worst possible joke in existence if you were actually happy Marcus.”

“Fuck you,” Marcus replied playfully. “Yes I am. Damn it Wrench, I was caught off guard the other night. You never said anything about maybe being my soulmate, not even after the crash, so, you know, I was surprised. It was a good surprise though; a damn good one.”

“Come on man,” Wrench muttered, a hint of what might have been self-deprecating laughter or might have been actual tears choking up his voice. “You don’t have to pretend that you’re happy for my sake. God fucking knows I wouldn’t be happy with me as a soulmate.”

“Yeah, well good thing I’m not you then,” Marcus immediately replied.

Wrench froze, even the eye-displays in his mask displaying nothing but their default crosses.

Marcus sighed, rubbed at the back of his head and wondered what it would take to actually convince Wrench that he was one of the most awesome people Marcus had ever met.

“Look Wrench,” Marcus began, hoping that he wouldn’t fuck this whole thing up before it had even really begun. “I like you man. I mean, really, really fucking like you. Hell, I think I might be in love with you.”

Wrench scoffed again in response to that.

“Hey, it’s true,” Marcus continued. “Before I found out that you were my soulmate I kind of well… I hoped that you were. After all, I couldn’t see your face, so I didn’t know for sure that you weren’t so… yeah…”

“Don’t fuck with me Marcus,” Wrench said, sighing and sounding just so fucking tired. “That’s just low, you know?”

“I ain’t fucking with you Wrench,” Marcus insisted. “I think I… No, I know that I am in love with you. I love you Wrench.”

Wrench scoffed again. This time the sound came out so broken and distorted that Marcus got the distinct impression that Wrench actually was crying behind the mask.

“Wrench?” Marcus asked, immediately moving to stand right in front of the other man. He reached out, placing one hand on either side of Wrench’s face and tilting the other man’s head up, forcing Wrench to look at his face.

“I’m not lying,” Marcus insisted. “I swear Wrench, I’ve never wanted anyone to be my soulmate more than I wanted you to be that guy, so finding out that you are? That’s like a fucking dream come true man. You hear me? I’m so damned glad you’re my soulmate.”

Another choked sound emerged from behind the mask and Marcus knew for sure that the other man was crying.

“Hey,” Marcus murmured, his fingers stroking what skin they could reach around the leather and metal of Wrench’s mask. “You okay in there?”

Wrench threw himself at Marcus then, his hands clinging to the front of Marcus’s shirt, his masked face burying into the crook of Marcus’s neck. The spikes on Wrench’s mask made it more than a little uncomfortable, but if it was what Wrench needed then Marcus would be damned before he shoved his soulmate off.

“How?” Wrench sobbed into Marcus’s neck. “How could you possibly be happy with a fuck-up like me?”

Marcus couldn’t help but chuckle at that. He wrapped his arms around Wrench’s back and held him tightly.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” he said, meaning it. “You’ve got the same shitty taste in movies as me, you’re one of the coolest, most unique people I’ve ever met, you’re smart, funny, just the right level of crazy and drop-dead gorgeous.”

That last comment earned him a burst of laughter from Wrench.

“How can you think that?” he asked Marcus. “You only saw me for a couple of seconds in shitty lighting Marcus.”

“Well, a couple of seconds was all I needed,” Marcus immediately fired back. “I know a good-looking guy when I see one Wrench.”

That earned him another burst of laughter.

“I think you need new glasses M,” Wrench said.

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Marcus said with a shrug, to which Wrench immediately went still. “Ain’t no way that a man as hot as the one I saw would feel the need to cover his face, right?”

That was enough to have Wrench pulling back from the hug and playfully punching Marcus right in the shoulder.

“Hey, will you fucking stop already?” he pleaded. He was still for a moment, but when he turned to face Marcus again his LED eyes were smiling, which was definite progress.

“Look Marcus,” Wrench said, his voice still quiet and broken even if the crying had stopped. “I know I’m never going to be good enough for you. It’s… it’s okay really. I’ve come to terms with that already. I just… I want you to be honest with me, and… shit, this is so fucking cliché, isn’t it? We’re a regular fucking after-school special here, huh? I hope that… that you’ll still let me hang out with you and stuff.”

Marcus rolled his eyes at the other man.

“Did you not just hear me say I love you two minutes ago?” Marcus asked.

Wrench stared at him, frozen and silent once more.

“I love you,” Marcus repeated. “I’m not just saying it to make you happy or whatever you think is going on here. I love you Wrench. If you don’t want to be a couple then that’s cool. I’ll stop saying I love you and the two of us can just go back to being the best damn friends ever, no problem at all, but I ain’t backing down just because you think you don’t deserve me or whatever this bullshit is.”

Wrench still didn’t move. Marcus wished that he knew what was going on behind the other man’s mask. Was he freaking out? Was he happy or feeling shy or what? Without the LED emojis on the other man’s face and with Wrench as still as he was it was impossible to tell.

“Hey,” Marcus said, his voice soft. The last thing he wanted to do was scare Wrench away again, but with what he was about to ask it was possible that he might. “Can I see your face again?”

The eyes of Wrench’s mask displayed two bright exclamation marks that flashed on and off. The other man’s hands formed into tightly clenched fists at his sides.

Marcus wondered whether he had pushed too far.

Then Wrench reached up to push back his own hood and start to pull off his mask. Marcus could tell that his soulmate’s hands were shaking.

“Hey Wrench, if you don’t want to…” Marcus began, reaching out to Wrench, although he had no idea what it was he actually intended to do.

“No,” Wrench said as he started to pull his mask off. “I should… I need to do this… You… you deserve to see…”

His voice had changed part way through removing the mask, immediately becoming quieter and less sure of itself as soon as it had lost the mask’s distortion.

Wrench clenched his mask in both of his hands and looked at Marcus, his pale blue eyes meeting with Marcus’s own. Marcus felt himself choking up at the sight of the other man’s face. He looked so scared, as though he was just waiting for Marcus to come to his senses and reject him.

He didn’t know why Wrench was so convinced that he was ugly. The angry red birthmark over one of his eyes might have had something to do with it. Clearly there was some sort of complex there, one that Marcus silently promised he would do everything he could to help Wrench overcome.

“Hey there gorgeous,” Marcus said, smiling over at the other man.

He reached out and cupped the side of Wrench’s face with one hand. That actually earned him a smile from Wrench, and before long the blonde man was pressing his face into Marcus’s touch and letting out a pleased sigh.

Marcus reached out with his other hand as well, his fingertips delicately tracing over Wrench’s nose and eyelids and mouth, and then finally his name, where it rested on Wrench’s right cheek, right below his eye.

“Marcus,” Wrench whispered. His voice sounded so different without the mask; so deep and smooth and shy. It was probably going to take some getting used to, but Marcus already knew that he loved it.

“Hey,” Marcus murmured, already hovering so close to Wrench that he could feel the other man’s breath on his lips. “Can I kiss you?”

Wrench’s eyes went wide, and then he was blushing and looking away from Marcus as though just that suggestion had been enough to embarrass him.

“Yeah,” Wrench said, so quietly that Marcus almost missed it. “Okay.”

Marcus continued to cup Wrench’s face in his hands, leaned forward, and pressed his lips against Wrench’s own in a soft, gentle kiss that nevertheless had Wrench moaning and pressing against Marcus, his hands tangling in the fabric of Marcus’s shirt and pulling him closer.

They parted before the kiss could grow any deeper, both of them panting and Marcus more turned on by a simple kiss than he could ever remember being before. Wrench’s lips had been so soft and warm and perfect.

He leaned in again for another kiss which Wrench returned even more eagerly than the first, his arms moving to wrap around Marcus’s shoulder and waist and hold him close.

Before long Marcus had Wrench pinned against the workbench, the other man’s arms and eventually legs pulling him closer and refusing to let go. Their kisses grew a little deeper, a little longer, until they were full on making out like a pair of desperate and horny teens.

When they next pulled back it was only by a couple of inches. Marcus stared at the blue, heavily-lidded eyes of his soulmate and was almost blown away by the bliss and love and trust he saw in them.

“I love you,” he whispered to Wrench, because he needed to say it again otherwise he felt as though all the love bubbling up inside him would cause him to explode.

“I love you too,” Wrench whispered back. “God Marcus, I love you so much.”

Marcus couldn’t think of any way to respond to that except to kiss Wrench senseless.

A few days later saw Wrench feeling the happiest that he could ever remember being. Being Marcus’s soulmate turned out to be a dream come true.

They had planned to take things slow, but they had both grown so horny during their second make-out session that grinding against one another had turned into Marcus pressing their cocks together and getting them both off. They stole kisses whenever they could, and beneath Wrench’s hoodie there was a rather large red mark that Marcus had left on his neck. They had yet to spend a whole night together, but Wrench knew that it would only be a matter of time.

Their relationship as lovers had proven to be just as easy as the formation of their friendship had been. They fit together so seamlessly, like two pieces coming together to form some sort of glorious whole.

It was so beautiful and perfect and far more than Wrench had ever expected he would have. He was head over heels in love with his soulmate, and found himself wanting to be around Marcus even more than he had when they had just been friends.

So when Marcus told Wrench that something had been bothering him, Wrench was more than a little confused, especially when Marcus refused to fully explain what he was talking about and instead dragged a still very confused Wrench to a nearby tattoo parlour.

“Marcus,” Wrench began, looking at the front of the tattoo parlour with more than a little suspicion. “What the fuck are we doing here?”

“I’m getting my soulbrand tattooed over,” Marcus said, as though it was the simplest thing in the world.

For a moment Wrench felt like his heart had stopped; like his entire world had been turned upside-down by Marcus uttering just those few words.

Why? It didn’t make any sense. Marcus kept saying that he loved Wrench, and Wrench had thought that everything was going so well. Why the hell would Marcus want to do something like that?

Luckily the absolute terror that arose at the thought that he might lose Marcus’s love was banished when Marcus continued to speak.

“I’m gonna get ‘Wrench’ tattooed in its place,” Marcus said. “I mean, that’s your name now, right? And the original brand was way small anyway. The new one is gonna be much bigger.”

Suddenly Wrench was incredibly fucking glad that he was wearing his mask. Mostly because it only took a moment for Marcus’s words to really sink in before Wrench started crying.

“Damn it Marcus,” Wrench said, his voice breaking despite everything he was doing to try and hide it. “That’s so fucking stupid.”

“I don’t think so,” Marcus said. “Thought I was being pretty smart actually. This way I don’t have to keep putting fucking concealer over the thing. I can be open about being head over heels in love with you without worrying about giving away your identity. I’m yours Wrench.”

Wrench couldn’t take it. The other man was being too damned perfect. The idea was so stupid and so wonderful and so Marcus that Wrench didn’t know what to say or do. He just knew that he loved Marcus and that even if he spent the rest of his life trying he would never deserve someone as wonderful as Marcus Holloway.

Wrench threw himself at his soulmate and clung to the other man, nuzzling into his shoulder and trying to bury himself in the feeling and smell of the other man. It was a stupid thing to do considering he still had his mask on, and it was only when he pulled back that he realised he had torn a couple of holes in the woolen vest that his soulmate was wearing.

Marcus didn’t seem to mind though. He just smiled at Wrench. Wrench smiled back, both with his mouth and the mask.

“Unless…” Marcus began, his smile faltering, and Wrench almost panicked when he realised that his soulmate was perhaps not quite as happy as Wrench had originally thought. “If you don’t want to let everyone know we’re together then that’s cool too. Ah hell. I probably should have cleared this with you before dragging you over. I just got so excited thinking about it man…”

“No, no, no,” Wrench said, squeezing Marcus in a tight hug. “This is brilliant Marcus. This is amazing. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!”

Already he was thinking whether or not he should get Marcus’s name tattooed somewhere on his body that was more visible than his face. Now that he was starting to get used to the idea that Marcus did actually love him back he wanted to shout their love from the rooftops, he wanted to tell all of Dedsec… No, fuck that; he wanted to tell all of San Francisco that he had the best fucking soulmate in the entire world.

“Stay here and hold my hand while I get it done?” Marcus asked.

“Yeah,” Wrench said, immediately grabbing Marcus’s hand and holding it tightly.

He fluttered his eyelashes, knowing that would make his mask display two less than three style love hearts at Marcus. He had a feeling he would be doing that a lot over the next few weeks… or months… hell, hopefully years. They were soulmates after all. Assuming Marcus didn’t realise what a horrible mistake he had made in accepting Wrench and ran for the hills then they would be together for the rest of their lives. That was how it worked, right?

It should have scared Wrench. It didn’t.

In fact, spending the rest of his life with Marcus sounded like absolute bliss to him.

“Totally gonna hold your hand,” Wrench continued. “This is your first tattoo, right? Don’t know if you know this M, but getting one on your face? Ooh, buddy. That’s gonna sting like a bitch. I’m here for you though babe.”

And I always will be, he added silently.

#wrencus #Watch Dogs #watch dogs 2 #marcus holloway #wd wrench #wrench

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