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Violet Evergarden Ever After: Chapter 3

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No one would imagine that a single drop could be the start of something so big. However, it would earn itself great meaning after a while passed. Should it continue pouring, it could also summon boundless blessings and curses.

Love was almost like rain.

The Journey and the Auto-Memories Doll

That one was a rain of betrayal.

It started with a calm morning, the sky unfolding without any hints of being enshrouded in dark clouds. Regardless, it did not take too long for the capricious rain brought by the heavens to turn into a downpour rarely seen in recent years.

There was no longer any sign of the rain that had started to fall like gentle kisses from paradise on the black hats of gentlemen walking around town, over the backs of cats dozing under the sun or onto the cheeks of children who opened their mouths and burst into laughter. The current season was the end of summer, and it was raining for the first in a long while in Leidenschaftlich, where the skies were constantly clear in summer, but had the god that controlled weather gone crazy? With time, as if a bucket had turned over, the city was hit by a flood.

This story is about an uneventful day, which did nothing but pass, in the lives of people who worked at a certain postal company.

The rain and wind struck the entire building as if attacking it. The doorbell rang loudly because of this, a man standing in place and staring at it with unease.

Creak-creak, the door moved. Ring-ring, the bell resounded. Since it was ringing despite there being no customers, he had become concerned and found himself coming down from his residence in the top floor.

In the previous year, the building had been shot with rocket artillery, and not only had it earned an enormous hole but a fire had also occurred – however, thanks to the quick skills of workmen, the hole was now closed and the walls had been neatly rebuilt.

The man was a stylish redhead. He was the president of this company, which he had named after himself.

Claudia Hodgins had been left all alone in the empty postal office. Still, it was normal for him to be there, as it was both his home and workplace. However, since he was by himself at a time that would usually still be within business hours, no matter what, he looked like he had been abandoned.

The postal office had been in great turmoil because of the storm. Surely, so had its peers. With the deliveries stagnated, complaints were coming from the clients. Nevertheless, the transportation was not carried out by machines devoid of feelings. It was something done by humans, who had been given birth to by someone and who had families waiting for them when they returned home. In lieu of the unpreceded disaster, as the president, he had notified all employees that business would be closed for today.

To begin with, the customers had stopped coming in the middle of the day. If he had to say so himself, this might be the expected. Deliberately going outside amidst such strong wind and torrential rain was an act of sheer madness.

Curious about what was going on outside, Hodgins had approached the entrance from the side. He felt like attempting to open the large doors just a little. He wanted to see how inundated the ground was. Just when he slow and carefully reached a hand towards it, the door opened with force despite him not doing anything.

“Ow...!”

“Oh, my bad. More importantly, we’re screwed; it’s just impossible, Old Man!”

Hodgins was teary-eyed as his precious nose took a hit. He was lightheaded for an instant due to the pain, but soon regained consciousness. After all, one of his employees had come back dripping-wet. Hodgins pulled him – whole body wrapped in rain gear – by the arm, bringing him inside and closing the door. Although it was only open for a few seconds, the entrance was already drenched.

The visitor took off the hood over his head, allowing his face to be seen. He was a splendidly handsome and fine man of sky-blue eyes and sandy-blond hair.

“Benedict...!”

Benedict Blue. One of the postal company’s postmen, who had been working in it ever since its founding.

“It’s impossible – actually, it’s absurd! Working under this rain is absurd! I look like I’m in the bath already. I wouldn’t have come here if I weren’t soaked... Making the staff pull out was the right choice,” Benedict said as if angry-yelling, shaking his head in the same way that a dog or cat would and splattering water splashes at Hodgins.

This wetted most of Hodgins’s shirt and face, but he was unable to reprimand his employee, who had been doing strenuous effort. He accepted it in resignation, wiping Benedict’s face with the sleeve of his shirt. “Okay, stay put.”

“Uoh, what’s with you? Stop.”

“Welcome home. I was worried. Good thing you’re all right.”

“O-Oh. What, hum... I’m back... You were worried about me?”

“Of course,” Hodgins said, to which Benedict turned away with an obviously embarrassed attitude after a moment of bewilderment.

Outside, vases and planters that may have been at the eaves of people’s houses, as well as shop signs, had been turning into weapons for a while now, dancing around the city along with the wind. Managing to come back unharmed and safely amidst this weather, where one could not know what would come flying their way, was something to be happy about.

“I’m just fine. This job’s easier than running around shooting guns. Anyway, I was left with the letters and packages of a guy who fell from his motorcycle and came back by myself. Was best to do that, right?”

“Aah, so someone got hurt?”

“That newbie, Clark. But he only scrapped his knees. He fell lots of times when he was learning how to ride, but for real, it’s surprisingly depressing when you fall off other than during practice. He was crying, y’see.”

“Aah~.”

Knowing who the person in question was, Hodgins pitied him. He was the youngest postman to join the company as of late. It was difficult to find human resources for postmen as they were quick to quit.

“He’s young, after all...”

“You call him young but... he’s already a grown man. I wonder if he ain’t lying to us about his age... I thought he was a baby or something.”

“You can’t compare him to a city boy fresh from the battlefield like yourself. I’m gonna get you a towel and a change of clothes now, so don’t move from there.”

“Why?”

“You’d wet the floor. Don’t tell me to go around cleaning up where you walked.”

“Clean it up,” he said while laughing, to which Hodgins’s shoulders slumped. He was a reliable companion, but also a young man who knew not how to show respect for his elders.

——Well, guess I’m a so-called doting parent for thinking that’s cute – no, doting boss.

Anyhow, they needed towels, Hodgins thought as he went back to his room. He grabbed a few large towels and held a pair of trousers and shirt that Benedict would apparently fit into under his arm. Then returned to the ground floor. By the time he did so, the number of people had increased.

“Uwah... Amazing, it’s like squeezing a rag.”

There were three more other than Benedict. If they were to be separated by types, one of them had evacuated after receiving a report of work, one had evacuated after finishing work, and one had been ordered to clock out, but all had come back halfway through, as their bodies were about to be blown off by the overwhelming storm.

“Please stop.” There was Violet Evergarden, whose golden hair was in Benedict’s grasp.

“Why? You said your hair was wet.”

“You just want to touch Violet’s hair, Benedict. Isn’t that right?” Lux Sibyl, who had given up on wiping her glasses and was glaring at the empty space.

“That’s not it. Don’t say weird stuff, Lux.”

“You knooow, my hair’s just as long as Violet’s.” And Cattleya Baudelaire, who scowled at Benedict with her arms crossed.

The members who had been there ever since the founding were Violet, Cattleya and Benedict, but Lux, having joined midway, was now a skillful secretary who covered up the schedule of the employees and president and moved them around like chess pieces. As the four people whose ages were close to each other’s came together, the conversation naturally livened up.

“You—You’re that kinda thing. If I touch you in a place like this, it’d be that kinda thing. This is our workplace, so there’s all that kinda thing. Morally speaking, it’s that kinda thing.”

“What do you mean ‘morally speaking’?!”

“I wish you wouldn’t say those things even if you think about them. Right, Violet?”

“‘Public morals’...? Benedict, what am I from your point of view?”

“V, you’re like a little sister to me... Aah, Old Man, gimme another towel.”

It was a terribly joyful thing that the company’s young aces had returned to it safe and sound.

“Everyone, don’t move from that spot no matter what. Hey, Cattleya! Don’t move!”

However, wiping all the water off the bodies of those four turned out to be a bone-breaking work.

Out of kindness, Hodgins invited the four people who had gathered up at the postal company to his residence in the top floor.

The whole floor was his apartment, thus it was quite large. A family of five could live comfortably in it. The furnishings were arranged in wooden items and serene shades of dark brown and green. It was a relaxed, adult atmosphere, where was nothing particularly funny. It had a faint scent of the perfume that Hodgins always wore.

The invited four let out sighs of relief. The biggest reason for it, although there was also the fact that this was Hodgins’s apartment, was that they were able to escape the horrible situation outdoors. With the exception of Lux, three of them were tough enough to take part in the act of physically crushing other postal companies, but human beings could not win against natural disasters.

“Hey, what do we do? We can’t go home anymore, can we?”

“There’s nothing we can do. We got no choice but stay in Old Man’s place.”

“First time something like this happens, huh. But we’re all together, so... might be imprudent of me to say this, but... it’s a bit fun. Violet, are you worried about your home?”

“Yes, about the flowerbeds.”

“You should say ‘about the people back home’, V.”

“The two went on a trip, so they are away. I promised that I would take care of the flowers in their absence, which is why... I am worried about the flowerbeds. Besides, if that house were to be destroyed by this storm, this place would meet its end much sooner... We have little time left to live.”

“Don’t go from talking about your family to destroying the company, Little Violet. Hey, hey, everyone, you’ll catch a cold so get changed first. Put the towels in the laundry basket. Benedict, don’t throw the towels wherever!”

As told by Hodgins, the employees firstly decided to change their clothes.

Violet and Cattleya had just returned from a work trip of two days and one night, thus they had a change of nightclothes in their bags, but Benedict and Lux did not. Although there was a height difference between them, Hodgins had no issues with lending clothes to Benedict, who was also a man, but there was a need for careful selection when it came to Lux.

“Shirt... shirt, shirt; all I have is shirts.”

“Hum, President, I’m fine with anything.”

“Eeh... that okay?”

As a result, the boy and girl came into the scene wearing baggy clothes. Benedict looked almost the same as when he and Hodgins first met. When he was left to chance completely naked in a desert, he had borrowed a shirt and trousers just as he was doing now. He seemed pleased with it, however...

“Feels kinda naughty...”

...the problem was Lux.

“Benedict’s fine, but maybe it won’t do for Little Lux? Is this okay?” Hodgins asked everyone with a meek face.

They all had at last settled down, each seated in a place of their preference while sipping tea. The employees were relaxing as if they were in their own homes. Contrary to the peaceful state of the situation inside, there was still a sound of rain hitting the windows and a troubled noise of something colliding against the building outside.

“What is ‘okay’ supposed to mean?” Sitting on the sofa, Violet tilted her head. Being comfortably dressed in a dusty-pink nightwear gave her usually disciplined self a slightly soft and gentle air.

“Little Violet.”

“Yes.”

“Your nightgown is cute, huh.”

“The people from the household bought it for me. Well, what is ‘okay’ supposed to mean? Was there any problem?”

“Little Lux’s clothes.”

For whatever reason, they had the person in question standing in the center of the room. With everyone’s eyes on her, she seemed uneasy.

“Hum... why do I have to stand in the middle?”

“Little Lux, stay like that and don’t move.”

“All right.”

“What is wrong with Lux’s look? You mean to say it lacks adornment?”

“Why would that be the case, Little Violet?”

“You are the one who chooses attires for us Dolls and you have particularities regarding the clothing and accessories, so I concluded that you might deem the plain shirt as not enough.”

“No, no.” Hodgins flailed both hands. The things he was saying had a moral value to them, out of fear that her outfit was perhaps vulgar.

Benedict had dealt with it by securing her trousers with a belt, but as Lux had too thin a waist, the outcome was the belt falling off. In short, she was not wearing pants. Inevitably, she was dressed in nothing but a shirt. However, her short stature fortunately made it look like a shirt-dress.

As Hodgins explained his concern, everyone said, “I see.”

Showered with their stares more and more, Lux began to blush.

“It gives off a dangerous feeling when you think she ain’t wearing any, but on second thought, isn’t that the same for skirts? There’s actually an open hole in them, but it’s not visible, so they’re classified as clothes. No big deal, is it?” Benedict had been standing with his back against the wall just a moment ago, yet had suddenly drawn close to her and started examining her fixatedly.

“Don’t say ‘not wearing any’!”

“Well, I mean, you really ain’t wearing any... but that’s okay. No biggie. You’re probably not an option for Old Man, so no worries. Right?”

“That’s rude!”

“I’m saying you don’t need to worry about that kinda thing... Should I take mine off, then? I see; I’m fine with it. I’ll be the same as you. That all right? I’m gonna take it off.”

“Stop, stop, stop!” As Benedict put a hand to his belt while laughing, Lux repeatedly hit his chest with her fists to stop him. Lux was red up to her ears. “I can’t take this anymore! Violet! Take Benedict to over there!”

“Understood.”

“Owowowow, V, ouch, that’s not it; it was the Old Man who said weird stuff first. We’re friends, so I was showing that she doesn’t have to get hung up over something like...”

Caught in Violet’s arms, Benedict obediently sat on the sofa. Perhaps in order not to allow him to escape, she gripped his hands and sat next to him.

Cattleya cut through the silence, “The tea is delicious.” She was scattered over the bed. She must have been tired from returning from the Doll business trip. Her eyes were downcast. She might be sleepy.

“Cattleya, do you not have any comments to make? I want to hear lots of opinions.”

“Eeeh, me?” Cattleya joined the needless debate as if it were a bother. “Hmmm... if someone were making her wear this because it’s their taste, it’d be gross indeed, but there’s no other clothes for her... It’d also be horrible to leave her with just a towel wrap, so I think it’s valid. Speaking of which, President...”

“Hm?”

“You’re saying that even though you pick open-chested clothes for my Doll outfits? And the times you were choosing Doll attires for me, y’knooow, you were never so considerate to say ‘not this, not this either’ when discussing it with the people from the made-to-order store...”

Her manner of speech was somewhat thorny, but Hodgins did not make much out of it. “That’s because they look good on you.” Rather, he said decisively, with an earnest gaze and excessive confidence, “Because they look good on you. Is my judgement wrong?”

“E-Eh?” Being replied to so unapologetically, Cattleya’s reasoning jumbled up, to the point she found herself wondering if she was the one in the wrong.

The Doll outfit that Cattleya usually wore was composed mainly of a crimson dress-coat, so there was no mistaking that one could not wear it unless the person was remarkably stylish. In addition, there was also no doubt that it was lascivious. Whoever looked at her would find their line of sight momentarily going to her chest. Still, whoever looked at her would remember the woman named Cattleya Baudelaire at once.

“No... it’s not like your choices are wrong... but I only forgive you because you’re the boss. I was shocked when you first showed me that outfit! I didn’t use to wear something like that before.”

“Well, but y’see, an hourglass-shaped person looks more slender when the area around their collarbone is exposed, and it’s pretty.”

An evident question mark floated above Violet’s head at the unfamiliar word. Benedict pointed a finger at the tea set arranged on the nearby table. An hourglass used to measure the time it took to steam the tealeaves was lying there. Perhaps finding the similarity between it and a plump chest and dainty hips, Violet nodded as if convinced.

“You’ve got an hourglass-shaped figure with that slim waist, so I gave you a coat-dress that puts this on display. You can adjust it with the ribbon, so it’s not a pain, right? It has a wonderful line in mathematical terms, y’know? Plus, you also have a cheerful character, so it doesn’t look vulgar. That’s important. It means that outfit takes into consideration even the personality of the one wearing it. And the owner of that made-to-order store is famous not just in this country but abroad. The outfits of our Dolls are on a whole different level in comparison to other companies, aren’t they?”

“Y-Yeah.”

“I don’t want to bring this up, but they’re very expensive.”

“Eh, I’m sorry. S-Should I pay you back? Either that or you can dock my salary...”

“No, you’re my Doll, after all. Nobody waters a flower to get money off it, right? It’s fine, Cattleya. Just stay pretty. It’s exactly because I have obsessions over clothes that I don’t want to make a girl look vulgar. And it’s exactly because I like girls that I want to have them shine wonderfully. That’s also why I have a few complaints about Little Lux’s usual plain clothes, though...”

“I don’t know why you decided to run a mail service, President, but I accept that passion of yours. I’ll wear those clothes with care. But, President, I’m doing my best, so I want a new outfit. A cute one.”

Listening to the conversation of the two in silence, perhaps tired of going along with her superior, Lux looked at Violet and Benedict’s direction with a gaze that quietly asked for help. There was a gap on the sofa that seemed enough for one person to sit. Having locked eyes with her, Violet told Benedict to scoot over after a brief moment and patted the open spot. Lux sat next to them, looking happy.

“Violet, what’re you drinking?” Lux peeked at the teacup that Violet was holding.

“I wonder. I took the tealeaves that were in the kitchen. I do not know what type of tea it is.”

“Darjeeling.”

“Benedict, how did you know?”

“‘Cause that guy likes Darjeeling. All the tea cans he has are nothing but that.”

“Guess I’m gonna drink that too; my body got cold from the long time under the rain.”

“Heeey, the three of you who ended the talk before we noticed! Listen to what I have to say.” Hodgins put his hands on his hips, pretending to be angry.

“We were deviating from the main subject. We deemed that it was not a necessary conversation and took action prioritizing Lux’s rest,” Violet expressed with a clear voice tone.

“Besides, this talk’s about bedroom wear, ain’t it?” Benedict added a two-fold retort. The blond, blue-eyed duo that looked like siblings stared at Hodgins with questioning eyes.

“Ugh, I comply with you two no matter what you say when you both look at me at the same time, so cut it out. But I’m not giving up. I think she needs one more article of clothing.”

“Hum... President, I’m okay with this. I’m already thankful that I could borrow your clothes. Besides, when you make such a big fuss about it, things that weren’t lewd in the first place start to seem lewd, so to say,” Lux said, wanting to end this topic as fast as possible.

“The solution has come to me. Wouldn’t it be best if I took the shirt and trousers and had Lux wear this nightgown?”

However, Violet wound up rewinding it.

——Violet!

Lux hit Violet repeatedly in her mind.

“Ah~, that’s right. If that’s the case, I can do it too. But maybe my nightgown is too big? It’s a negligee just like Violet’s. The shoulder length might be the problem for this one...”

“Old Man, you gonna die if you don’t obsess over the stuff we wear? You ain’t. Give up.”

“No way. Days like this one don’t come by. All five of us are trapped in the company and we can’t get out. You’ve got no choice but stay here in my house, right? We’re having the best of parties, a pajama party. I want it to be a good one. But I can’t enjoy it when I’m worrying over Little Lux’s clothes.”

Benedict contemplated a reply to Hodgins’s words for a few seconds, but soon stopped. He was probably tired. He looked Violet’s way and asked, “Hey, you not hungry? I’m gonna take a look at the kitchen.

“Hey, don’t ignore me.” As Benedict stood up, Hodgins chased after him.

“Benedict’s gonna make something? Yay! You guys probably don’t know this, but he’s good at cooking.” Cattleya lined up behind them.

“I didn’t say I was gonna make anything, though... Well, if you’re hungry, I can do it.”

“I shall assist you.” Violet raised her arms, rolling up her sleeves. Her prosthetics made a creaking noise.

“V, you can cook?”

“To some extent. In the military, I used to make preparations for the cooking. Mrs. Evergarden... Lady Tiffany also trained me on it.

“M-Me too... I can peel the potatoes, and stuff.” Lux hastily went after everyone. In a trail, a big move to the kitchen began to take place.

“Lux. You don’t usually cook, do you? I can already tell by just that statement. I’ll teach you.”

“Most things get solved just by peeling the potatoes... Benedict, you’re making fun of me, aren’t you?”

“Am not, Potato Demigod.”

“Violet, Benedict insulted me!”

“Benedict.”

“Owowow! V—! Don’t poke my sides! A hit from those crazy-ass prosthetics of yours ain’t no cutesy way to poke anyone! It just hurts like it normally would!”

In the end, Hodgins was able to find a light feather-print sweater in his closet and gave it to Lux. As she put it on, with her short stature, its length became the same as that of a long cardigan, which Hodgins was awfully pleased with for how adorable it was.

The madder-red sky was not visible at dusk, the outside morphing into evening with no changes in the rainy weather.

Benedict made a soup at random with the vegetables available in Hodgins’s kitchen, which had seasonings in abundance, while Violet and Cattleya supplied it with cookies that they had brought back as souvenirs from their ghostwriting business trip. Lux brought over small candy marbles that she kept stored in her desk at the company, and Benedict, instructed by Hodgins, reluctantly took an expensive bottle hidden on the liquor shelf of the latter’s room.

“Hey, let’s rummage through the desks of everyone in the company. There are probably gonna be other ingredients in them.”

“If it’s Mr. Anthony’s desk, I think there’s definitely something in it. Mr. Anthony always gives me sweets... We’re in a state of emergency so I’m sure he’ll forgive us for it.”

“There were sweets in the reception guys’ desks. Would they get mad if we took them?”

“Definitely seem like they would. But this sweet... is one of the tasty ones... I wanna eat it.”

Lux, who was still growing, and Benedict, who had missed lunch and did not have enough with just the vegetable soup, procured more food. The sweets that the hungry thieves sneaked from the company employees’ desks turned out as what could be considered a big catch, and so, the five people trapped inside during a day of usual rain commenced a night party.

The five of different ages, genders and positions were already at a state where they could be deemed as a single family through the many incidents they had overcome and the time they had spent together. They laughed a lot, talked a lot.

“You remember when Violet brought Lux over? She went to negotiate it directly with Old Man with so much might, like, ‘I have picked up a puppy. Please give me permission to raise it here. Now, hurry’. They were holding hands and she wouldn’t let go of Lux, explaining the situation all at length as if to say she wasn’t gonna move until he gave the permission. The way Old Man acted so suspicious back then was a real blast.”

“I remember~! He was like, ‘Eh, “demigod”? Eh, “abduction and confinement”? Have you told the military police about that?’... President was so troubled, walking in circles around the two. It was the funniest thing of that year.”

“Hum... I’m sorry.”

“No, no, don’t apologize, Little Lux. You’re our main player now, so you did what you could to get where you are. You really exerted yourself in this unfamiliar land. Work for us forever, ‘kay? Rather, for me. Little Violet does some unbelievable stuff sometimes, but she generally doesn’t do anything wrong, so back then, her first-time deed shook up even someone like me, with plenty of life experience. Saying no didn’t even cross my mind.”

“I knew that President Hodgins would give you a generous treatment. If I had not concluded so, I would not have done such a thing. Thank you very much for that time, President.”

“Little Violet... Little Violet’s all grown up too, huh; you’ve become a wonderful lady...”

“Well, she’s got you as her example of guardian figure, after all.”

“I was raised by both Benedict and President Hodgins. You are my examples.”

“Eh, so I’m Old Man’s son...? Gimme the whole company.”

“No way! Actually, you’re taking a part of the company in the future, so that much should be fine, right?”

“You were serious about that? If you split the company...”

“Yeah, I’ll be the vice-president. V, call me Vice-President Benedict.”

“Benedict will be... the vice-president?”

“Violet, you haven’t been to the company too often because of work, right? I’ll stay as President Hodgins’s secretary, but some of the employees will go to Benedict’s side. That’s gonna be pretty lonely... Still, the company will be built inside the country, so it’ll be close in terms of distance. But it won’t be the same building anymore.”

“Other people... will also be gone.”

“Did I tell you that my role’s gonna change too?”

“I have not heard about that.”

“I’ll be transferred to training the newcomers. Violet, you’ll stay as you are. Well, between you and me, if we were to debate on which one should be the instructor, it’d have to be me. I’m good at looking after others.”

“Cattleya will be... an instructor...”

“I’ll be here like always. The Doll department that Little Violet and the others are in will stay in the main office and you’re largely in charge of the numbers in our Doll department, so your role won’t change.”

“Sounds like I don’t make money when you put it like that.”

“No, it’s not like that... I’ve been keeping the right people in the right places since long ago, right? I asked you to do this because I thought you could be everyone’s big sis. Besides, wasn’t it you, Cattleya, who immediately replied that you’d to it when I said your pay would increase if you became an instructor?”

“Well, that’s because I don’t know how long I could keep on being a Doll. It’s a job you can do even when you get older, but walking up mountains has been hard lately. Probably because of my high heels.”

They truly laughed a lot and talked a lot.

In their feel-at-home looks, they played card games, discussed memories of their trips and laughed holding their stomachs at silly stories. The night went on and on and the heavy rain outside gradually subsided, but no one said, “Let’s go home, then”. Days like these were a rarity. They all knew this much.

“I’m having lots of fun today. It’d be great if it were always like this.” The words that Cattleya muttered with a big smile spoke for everyone’s feelings.

Whenever a fun feast reached its climax, the loneliness towards the fact that it was going to end would cross the corners of people’s heads. That applied not only to this day that God had granted them but also to matters in the long run.

Perhaps the company named CH Postal Company itself could also be considered a feast to the people gathered in it. “May this dream, this fun time go on forever,” they wished.

The dream had begun with Claudia Hodgins. He then picked up Cattleya Baudelaire, Benedict Blue and Violet Evergarden.

“Make sure to just lick it. So, how’s that?”

They had built the company office building in Leidenschaftlich and started it together. As the postal business was a privatized one and the competitors were many, nobody could predict at first for how long this company would continue to exist.

“This stings.”

A local customer then came, earning them a large-scale contract in the delivery business.

“Eh~, you okay, Violet? You’re better off as someone who can’t drink...”

Their Auto-Memories Doll activities began to stand out.

“But everyone is changing.”

“Doesn’t that have nothing to do with drinking alcohol? I drink ‘cause I like it. If you don’t, then stop.”

“That’s right, Violet.”

“No... Major has a taste for drinking during meals, so I had been thinking of learning to do it one day as well. You are all changing one after another whenever I blink. I have started eating with other people quite often at work as well. I, too, shall adapt...”

Along the way, a girl who would later become a brilliant secretary joined them.

“I see... Then I want to try drinking too. I’m a secretary, after all. I have to eat out with other people. What kind of taste is it, if you had to compare?”

Despite the major changes in the personal life of each, all of them had contributed to the development of the company, to the point that they spent every single day being busy.

“Close to that of a perfume. In that it is hard to swallow.”

There would surely be many, many more changes.

“Hey, I can’t approve that opinion. Big Sis here will introduce you to delicious drinks. Rather than being taught by a man, you should learn from me. Lux, you can’t yet.”

Surely, their fates would twist further.

“Eh~?!”

“Benedict, bring another one. And something to crack it open with.”

For people to gather up, an encounter had to have happened. That was what it meant.

“Aight, aight...” Benedict stood up from the sofa. He had been dragged into Cattleya’s scheme, in which she had planned the conspiracy of attempting to make Violet Evergarden consume alcohol, because he himself had complied with it.

“O-Owah. Old Man. You were here?”

“‘Were here,’ you ask... this is my house.”

As they came across each other in the kitchen, Benedict had let out a brash voice without thinking. The reason might be that he perhaps was seen grinning as he walked in. Despite his nihilistic attitude, he was happy to spend time with his friends.

“I-I know. I was thinking you were taking too long in the toilet...”

“Cigar.”

With the kitchen’s small window open, Hodgins was smoking a cigar. All of the women despised the smell, so he rarely ever let them see him smoking. Just when Benedict was thinking about how he had suddenly stood up and disappeared, there he was, smoking in secret.

——He only smokes when he can’t calm down, though.

There was no better day to relax with their companions, and yet.

“Hey, take a look outside. It’s so quiet after the storm... like the wind. Even though it was so loud before.” Perhaps due to him being a little drunk, Hodgins’s face was red.

“True... Hey, need more booze. Ain’t there anything easier to drink?”

“Eh, why? You can’t give it to Little Lux.”

“Cattleya wants to make V drink some. Well, ain’t it okay? I think it’s about time she learns the ropes. Dunno when we’ll get to drink with her again... and it’s better to have people you get along with teaching you this kinda thing, right?”

“Eeh... it’s still too soon. If you insist, isn’t it enough to drip a drop of rum into her tea?”

“Can you even call that a drink? Make it a degree higher.”

Hodgins gave a strained smile. “Hey, hey, her big brother figure shouldn’t be saying this...”

“I say it because I’m her big brother figure. I mean, we’re getting more rookies. She’s the highlight of our Doll department. Eating with people is part of having a big job. Before she gets involved with someone who wants to make her drink...”

“Does this have anything to do with me telling you to be the branch manager?”

Hearing a slightly icy voice coming from the president, Benedict blinked. “No... sorta.”

“She’s still a child, and I’ll definitely always be with her in those kinds of places, so it’s okay. It’s still early to teach her how to drink. Nope, nope.”

“A ‘child’, you say... well, she’s got a childish side, but she ain’t one anymore.”

“She is – you, Cattleya and Little Lux, too, are all kids to me. Because you’re quick to do this kind of thing if I don’t keep an eye on you... My, my,” Hodgins said, blowing out the tobacco smoke. Mismatched as it was for someone with such a mature appearance, Benedict could get a glimpse of childishness in him.

“You’ll keep trying to do that from now on too? That’s impossible; face the reality,” Benedict bit out incidentally.

Silence.

Benedict’s words were not wrong. The CH Postal Company was growing rapidly as a business. The fact that the postal company led by Salvatore Rinaudo had withdrawn from the postal industry in the previous year had a major influence in this. They now reigned at a pivotal position in Leidenschaftlich’s postal service. The CH Postal Company would soon account for nearly all of the commissions from the people living in Leidenschaftlich. Other than being busy with work affairs, there were even discussions about relocating the head office because of problems with waiting areas and break rooms due to securing new employees.

“Like, you and I are gonna get damn busy. The Auto-Memories Doll department is gonna be the main organ of the head office and my place will be ordinary mail, right? We’ll be teaching people how things go, and I’ll be doing deliveries too. You’re the one with the busiest role. Anything and everything’s gonna be relayed to you. Getting to be close to your employees like until now while doing all that is just...”

It was natural for a company that had become bigger to do a corporative split-off and for one of their employees to manage the branch office. Benedict was still young but had the power to bring people together. The task would not be an impossible one if they put a veteran of the head office in charge of taking over it. They could do this, Hodgins had decided, thus he came up with the proposal.

“The regular meetings and other stuff that I take part in happen in the head office... It’s not like we won’t get to see each other.”

“Everyone will have a different post and position. We won’t get to see each other. Same for you, Old Man.”

“If it’s work, I can adjust it. I’ll do my best to administrate everyone so that the employees can get a time every now and then to relax like this...”

“Old Man, even if you do your best, V’s dating that nasty-ass military officer, so won’t they get married someday? Dunno ‘bout it, but... that’s why it’s impossible to always watch over us in the first place...”

Silence.

“Hey, don’t clam up.”

What was being thrust at Hodgins now was something that he did not want to look straight at, despite thinking about and readying himself for it. That was what he was being told.

“Hodgins – hey, Old Man.”

It was something that Benedict Blue had the right to say, exactly because they had been doing everything together from the start.

“Hey, don’t take it in a weird way. I ain’t saying this to be malicious. You left the Auto-Memories Doll department in the head office ‘cause your wish to watch over V is a big deal, right? I get it. She’s special to you.”

“That’s not it; I—”

“But she won’t be a kid forever. She’s different from back when she started working, with you teaching her everything. She’s someone who’s gonna let go of your hand one day. She ain’t your real daughter or your girlfriend. Then, if you had to say what she is, at the end of the day, she’s your employee. You’ll part ways one day. If you don’t get ready for that now, will you manage to get over it if she marries into that bastard’s family and he makes her leave the company?”

“Will you manage to get over it?” The question ruminated in Hodgins’s heart.

Benedict had shot him where it hurt without mercy. He was a gun expert. His aim was precise and the bleeding made Hodgins want to hold his own chest down.

——Will I recover if I ever have to be separated from Violet Evergarden? Hodgins pondered earnestly over the question. ——I don’t know.

He truly did not know.

Bonds were things that could not easily break off once they had connected, yet reality, time and busyness unpityingly caused the existence of “friends” to grow far apart.

——To the point that I don’t know, I...

Surely, a day like this would not happen five years from now. Their place to return to amidst the rain would be somewhere else.

——It’s not just her, but also you and everyone else.

To begin with, they might not even be working in the company itself anymore until then. More of them would fall for someone, nurture their love and move their places to be in life to their “homes”.

Twenty, thirty years from now, it might be hard for them to even work. Or they would not be alive – there was also that possibility.

The one who was more aware of this than anybody else was Hodgins, the oldest of them all.

——I’m the one who’s farthest apart in age.

That was exactly why he did not know.

“I have no idea.”

He did not want to see it. Did not want to think about it.

“I have too many things that matter to me, so I can’t make a move anymore. Y’know, you... you might aught at this, but... rather than when you’re young, getting hurt becomes scarier when you grow older. You start losing the energy to do your best and heal. It’s tiring. Still...”

Hodgins had thought that the youth in front of him, who referred to him as “Old Man” on a daily basis, was probably going to laugh, yet Benedict was expressionless.

“Still...”

He did nothing but listen. His posture of properly listening at times like these somewhat...

——...looks like Little Violet.

“Still, I know I’m the one who has to get moving the most. I’m getting everyone involved in the things I wanna do. That’s why I do what I have to. I also counted on you, because I trust you. I left it in your care. But... that and my feelings for her and you guys...”

“I get it.”

“...are different things, right? Y’know, you’re... mean. I’m like a foster parent to you, and yet... Even if you understand my loneliness...”

While Hodgins spoke as if bursting out, Benedict put a hand to his mouth as though to stop him. “I get it.”

Time halted completely.

Was he supporting the flustered figure of the one who was like a parent to him?

“My bad.”

Before he had noticed, he was carrying a load of things he must protect. Was he doing this due to realizing that he had left Hodgins to chance, thinking, “That’s because it’s him”?

“My bad. That just now was on me.”

Silence.

“I didn’t have to pick today to say this. Isn’t that right?”

“You think I’m being lame right now, don’t you?”

“Nah, you ain’t all that cool in the first place.”

“That’s a lie; I’m a generally-acknowledged beautiful young man... no, beautiful middle-aged man.”

“You might not be cool, but well, that’s what’s good about you. Right?”

Silence.

“The cool thing about my Claudia Hodgins is his uncool side.”

Since Benedict was speaking as if to comfort a child, Hodgins told him to “shut up”, slightly annoyed, yet burst into laughter nevertheless.

The rain caused all sorts of things to pour. The way that people were drowned by the drops trickling down from the sky inevitably made them think about something.

As dawn broke, Claudia Hodgins sat up, body heavy from not getting much sleep. When he peeked at his room’s bed, Violet and Cattleya were sleeping wrapped in the same blanket. On the sofa, Benedict was scattered about, snoring in a way that made him want to laugh.

Hodgins looked for where Lux Sibyl might be. He went down from the third to the second floor, and then from the second to the first floor. She was nowhere to be found.

While thinking it could not be possible, Hodgins opened the front door, and sure enough, he could see the figure of a girl walking down the street towards him.

The clothes she had put to dry yesterday were surely half-wet. What was it that she wanted to do outside so badly to the point of going this far? He understood when he saw what she had in her arms.

“Ah, President.”

Lux was holding a paper bag with a lot of bread in it. The amount was enough that the small girl’s face could not be seen.

“Little Lux... could it be you went to buy us breakfast?”

Thinking back, this young woman was the kind of person who was always quick to act when she was trying to do something for someone. That was all it took to be a considerate person, but without kindness in their heart, they would not turn out this way. The reason why Hodgins had nominated her his secretary was not just that she could do any sort of work.

“That’s so nice.”

“Yes, the bakery owner is very nice. I woke up a bit too early, and when I went on a walk to see how things were outside, the bakery was just about to open and they were getting ready... I went to take a look ‘cause it seemed so delicious and they told me to come in.”

“Ah, hm...”

“I was so touched when they said they baked bread for people who were hungry early in the morning, so I told them many thanks for selling them and bought lots of it. It’s the bakery from that street around the corner.”

“As expected of my secretary. Did you properly get the receipt?”

At those words, Lux showed him a smile that resembled a blooming flower. “Huhu, of course.”

For Hodgins, who had spent the night deep in thought about all sorts of things, that smile was a soothing one. It was like the water of a lake for someone who was feeling thirsty.

Hodgins wordlessly took the bag from Lux. “Little Lux, I’m seriously glad you came to us.”

“Only in this kind of situation, right?”

“All the time. Always. Little Lux, you’re still young, will probably keep working with us... and you’re such a good secretary... I’m the happiest CEO in Leidenschaftlich.”

“Are you going to hire me for life?”

“Eh?”

“Is that a no?”

“No, I could. But that’d mean working with me for life, y’know?”

“Is that bad? I have nowhere else to go.”

When asked with such an innocent look, Hodgins faltered.

“I won’t say the stuff Benedict does, like wanting the company for me.”

“Well, I might... end up giving it to you if you say that, so don’t ever. Hahah... Of course, keep working for us forever and always at my place. Huh, this is kinda like a marriage vow... Wanna take this opportunity and marry me in the future? Just kidding...” Upon thinking that the jest that came out incidentally was an unsavory one right after saying it, Hodgins looked at Lux’s reaction, only to find her staring back at him blankly. He had made himself into a caricature of an old man bothering a girl. “No, it was a prank! But hey. Little Lux, you might be the only one who can go along with me, so having this kind of small talk is... I-I’m not looking at you with dirty eyes, really! We’re too far apart in age, after all! We’re c-close enough that we can crack this kind of joke to each other, right?”

Lux pretended to think for just a few seconds. “Huhu, I can tell. That it’s a joke, at least. But not happening. We’re not getting married.”

And then, she flat-out rejected him.

“Ah, yes.” Although Hodgins would have been at loss if she had accepted it, his shoulders dropped somewhat.

“But President, I’m prepared to nurse you if you ever become unable to work.”

“Don’t... suddenly thrust such a cruel reality at me.”

“Eh, is it? From my point of view... this is quite a deep form of love. President, you’re the first decent adult who accepted me. I’ll devote my whole life to you.”

“Little Lux, you sure like me a lot. Gonna marry me after all?”

This time, Lux actually grinned and replied, “I’ll take that one home and consider it.”

“Amazing; that answer’s like the business talk at the company.”

“Because you’re teasing me... even though you’re well-aware that I don’t even know love yet.”

“Don’t know love yet”. The destructive power of those words caused Hodgins to regret his lighthearted proposal a little.

“Then, I’ll ask again in about five years. I should be at a nice middle age by then.”

“You say that, President, but you’re going on a trip with some hottie next week. I know it.”

The duo, who somehow seemed like they would or other be hanging together for a long time, returned to the office with bouncing chatter.

In order to make breakfast for everyone together, Hodgins and Lux stood in the kitchen by themselves.

Besides the already-baked bread, they would need drinks and vegetables. Those were merely simple preliminary preparations, but Hodgins felt that just this was somehow enjoyable, unlike doing the work on his own.

“President, you have yours with one sugar cube and a slice of lemon, right?”

“And for Little Lux, it’s two sugar cubes with milk, yeah? I know it.”

While arranging the bread on a plate, they also poured water over the tealeaves and left them to steam. Perhaps due to the scenery that could be seen from the kitchen’s small window being a blue sky with not a single cloud in it, it was awfully dazzling.

“Good morning.”

The next person who appeared amidst the morning sunlight was Violet. Her soft golden hair was just a bit disheveled. Hodgins’s hand naturally reached out to it.

“Morning... You’ve got a bedhead, Little Violet.”

“Excuse me...” Violet looked back at Hodgins as he caressed her head, seeming a little embarrassed. Her eyes were just slightly red. She might have not been able to sleep very well.

“Morning, Violet. Are Cattleya and Benedict also up?”

“Benedict was awake until a while ago, but when I got up from the bed, he began sleeping again by Cattleya’s side.”

“Morally speaking, it’s that kinda thing. I’ll go give him a warning.”

Hodgins laughed a little, seeing Lux off as she walked away while rotating her tiny shoulders. He then turned his gaze back to Violet. Her bedhead, which he had supposedly fixed with the caressing, had returned. For some reason, both of them being alone like this in a kitchen bathed in morning sunlight struck him as extremely peculiar.

Just the two of them, having such a tender time. How many more opportunities would they have for that?

They were already at it. He should talk about something. That was what Hodgins thought, but the words did not come out of him. Not because he had no topic to discuss. He could come up with as many things to talk about as he wanted, such wanting flowers to decorate the table or that they would surely have many customers today who were unable to come yesterday.

But he did not want to spoil this morning. He felt that it might crumble if he spoke even one sentence.

Violet was there. She had her blue eyes directed his way, looking at him. It was no longer awkward for the two of them to stay silent. That was their relationship.

Perhaps still sleepy, she was in a haze. He wanted to watch her standing amidst this gentle time for a little longer.

As she would usually always seem wide-awake, Hodgins believed that she was laidback to this extent due to being in the presence of people with whom she could be at ease from the bottom of her heart. That he had played a part in this feeling of security of hers.

——Will you forget one day?

One day, the position that Claudia Hodgins occupied in the life of Violet Evergarden would become smaller.

——She only gets bigger on my end, though.

Going to the hospital numerous times. Pushing her wheelchair. Giving her a notebook and teaching her how to write.

——I for sure can’t forget. These moments, days, everything like this with you.

The fact that he had not stopped her from fighting in the war. That he had thought they could use her.

——I can’t forget.

Delivering to Violet an outfit that could hide her prosthetic arms, yet that would also make her look her most beautiful.

——I’m sure I won’t forget about this morning either.

About that quiet morning, which was much like the one from before everyone was caught in the great storm and barged in.

Hodgins touched Violet’s hair again. Although she had told Benedict not to touch it, with Hodgins, she all but slightly left a strand in his hand’s care and let him take it, almost like how a cat would do.

——Aah, I want to hug you.

He was not in love with her. That would never be the case.

However, if she were his real daughter, on days like these, mornings like these, he would have easily said, “Good morning, precious” and embraced her.

“I had a dream, President Hodgins,” Violet whispered out of the blue with a freshly awake, faintly hoarse voice.

“Dream...?”

The stunning young woman, who was no longer a girl, talked about her dream like a child, “Yes; in the dream... you owned a clothing store.”

“Huhu, that so?”

“I cannot make clothes. You told me that you did not need me, President Hodgins, if I could not make clothes...”

“That’s horrible of me, huh.”

“Even when I said I could polish the shoes, clean up or do anything, you did not listen...”

Unlike the real one, the dream version of Hodgins had apparently chosen to part ways with Violet.

“Little Violet, what did you do about that?”

“I asked countless times. However, you rejected it countless times. I thought about standing in front of the shop until you allowed me in, but it started raining like yesterday.”

“Hm. And then?”

“Major Gilbert came to pick me up and told me to come home with him, but...”

“Hm.”

“I waited for President to come out of the store even as the lights went out.”

“Hm.”

“Despite waiting and waiting, President Hodgins did not come out, and at some point, a passerby told me, ‘This shop has moved’.”

“Even though it was open until just a moment ago?”

“It was a dream, after all... And then – and then, I asked where it was and went after it. Benedict and Cattleya also appeared in-between, but they seemed to have other things to do, saying they would come after me later... As for Lux, she was the only one who had been hired by you from the very beginning, so she also asked you to hire me again, but in the end, you said no could do.”

“Hm...” Suddenly, Hodgins felt so pained about everything that it was hard to breathe. “And then, Little Violet, what did you do...?” His hand reached out to Violet.

“I kept looking at the interior of the store beyond the shop window from outside.”

Not towards her head, but towards her eyes, where her golden lashes fluttered like the wings of a fairy.

“Inside it, many people – people that I know and do not know – came and left... showing how lively the shop was.”

A sea had silently formed in them, which dissolved and disappeared once Hodgins’s index finger touched it.

“Major came to pick me up for the nth time and said you had told him that my standing there was causing him problems. But, for whatever reason, I at the very least knew that if I stepped away from there even for a moment, you would never let me in... therefore, I could not comply. But I did not want to trouble you, President, so I was unable to make a decision... I attempted to ask Major for instructions, but he was also gone before I realized.”

The sea – the teardrop – turned into a pearl and slipped down her cheek.

“I... I... ended up crying.” Violet stared at the sky, the look in her eyes seeming almost as if the scene from her dream was there at this very moment. “To think I would cry like that...”

“Hm.”

“That was why President Hodgins would not hire me, I thought... And also why Major had grown tired and left.”

“Hm.”

“Then, without my notice, you came outside. You looked the same as that post-war day when you went to visit me at the hospital. You were very surprised with my appearance, as I was soaked with mud and rain. And so, you said this: ‘Guess we’ll start with how to hold a needle’. You told me that you had not invited me for the new job because it would surely be difficult with these hands of mine, so I was extremely relieved... Then, then...” Violet’s words cut off at once.

Unable to hold himself back, Hodgins pulled her into an embrace as if shoving her little head into his chest.

While being embraced, Violet said with eyes that looked as though she was still dreaming, “...with some effort, I could still be helpful. I was able to confirm this, after all.”

Hearing her let out a relieved sigh in his arms, Hodgins forgot about both his and Violet’s positions, clasping her to his chest very, very firmly. “You sure are helpful... Was there anything about me that made you feel uncertain?” Upon realizing that his voice sounded tearful, Hodgins allowed the tears to overflow at the truth.

——Aah, I’m such an idiot. Got caught up in it and ended up crying too.

As the girl whom he thought of as his own daughter, despite her being an actual adult, had shed tears, he found himself crying along with her. Almost like a child. Even though he was supposed to conduct himself as an elder in this situation.

“I do not know.”

“But, has anything like that ever happened until now...? You had that dream because you were uneasy.”

“‘Uneasy’... That might have been the case. Yesterday night, I came to know that many things were progressing while I was away, so I have the feeling that I was quite agitated.”

“Sorry; we were doing things on our own accord. Even though we’ve been together since the founding.”

“No, I am often absent, and it is only natural for some things to be decided in the meantime. I am an employee. I feel that your judgement is correct. Employees must correspond to the changes of a company. My surroundings are about to change significantly. I am grateful to you, President, for letting me be here like always. However...”

“‘However’...?”

“However, I do not know if I can cope with it. With the matters regarding Major, the ones regarding the company... with the fact that Benedict will be going to a different office building. When I think about these things...”

“It’s okay.”

“When I think about them, I realize that the number of things I should prioritize has increased too much.”

“Little Violet.”

“The order of priorities...”

“It’s all right.”

“I have to deal with situations of every kind as I live, and yet...”

——Surely, Violet Evergarden wouldn’t be alive if she didn’t do that.

Always, at all times.

She had been living through corresponding to her surroundings despite being at loss regarding its circumstances, putting everything she could do to use while looking for a place to belong and an adult who would take care of her. She was not allowed to waver. For beasts, hesitation was death.

Violet did not know unconditional love. She now had at last earned herself this warm place through her efforts, but it was about to suffer a rapid change with the course of time.

After running, running and running, Violet – previously one such beast – was watching the nest she had finally found crumble down. Even when people knew they had to prepare to start running again, there would come a time when they would be short of breath and unable to move.

Violet had gone from wild animal to person.

Her human parts and animal parts co-existed, occasionally revealing themselves. When she was the animal, she simply did not mind how much a place changed as long as she could live in it. However, it was difficult to live while holding something better, more important.

Now that she had become a person through the increasing of her emotions...

“I shall fight. I can always be of use. President Hodgins, please forget this aspect of me that I just showed you.”

...she had turned into just a girl who was a little bit scared of the future.

“Please... forget about it.”

Who had made her this way? Gilbert was likely the first, but the ones who had done the finishing touches were definitely all the people in this place.

“No way, I’m not forgetting.”

At Hodgins’s words, Violet lowered her eyebrows, looking troubled.

“Don’t make a face like that; I’m not teasing. I meant to say that you don’t need to worry about it. You indeed might’ve gotten weak. But is that a bad thing? You had nothing when you met me for the first time. Not even your brooch, right...? But now you have lots of things. You went on a journey for a long time and got more stuff to shoulder while you were at it, so it’s no wonder that you’d end up in a dilemma.” Albeit knowing that Cattleya, Benedict and Lux were looking at them in shock from the shadows at the doorway, Hodgins went on, “You know... life is a journey. Little Violet, you’ll go on this journey, won’t you?”

He had already forgotten about his anxiety. The feeling of frustration at such things and the overwhelming wish to cling to someone were now gone.

“You started your journey with a little less luggage than other people, so you’re staring at your bag now that it’s gotten a bit heavy, wondering what happened to it. You don’t know what to throw away anymore.”

He was able to think, from the depths of his heart, that he had returned to his usual self. While embracing her, who was indeed still young and confused in the middle of her journey, he was finally able to think so.

“You need clothes and money, of course, and good shoes are vital. Right, and an umbrella too. When you look into your bag and realize that you actually have nothing that you can get rid of, it’s indeed a problem. Even though it’s a hassle because it’s so heavy. What do you think you should do?”

He could still be useful.

“Train... my physical strength... No, calibrate my prosthetics...”

He was still needed.

“You’re such a fool... Either leave it in someone’s care and continue the journey or have someone take half of it.”

Even if it were only for a short while.

“Gilbert will probably take half of the luggage. I can take care of the rest that you can’t carry over here. I’ll be in Leidenschaftlich forever, after all. Little Violet, no matter where you go, I’ll stay here and wait for you to come back, and no matter when you come over, I’ll welcome you. I’ll take care of the contents of your bag with pleasure.”

——Even if you only remember me a few times a year someday...

“Listen up: whenever you’re troubled, remember that I’m here. And then you’ll be able to go on a journey again anytime.”

——...I’ll ready myself to welcome you at any time of the year.

“Am I really supposed to leave my luggage here?”

——I’m the kind of man who can do that, and you need it for sure.

“Hm-hm, that’s not it. Y’see, this is about memories. All you have to do is to know. That I’m here. This is the way to make your luggage lighter. Whenever you’re having problems, bam, remember me. If you do that, the worries you have now will definitely decrease a little. Y’know, at the end of the day... people’s place to come home to aren’t places, they’re ‘somebody’. You should know that much. You’d have gone to any battlefield if Gilbert was there, right? Someday, yes, you might quit being an Auto-Memories Doll. You might not come back to Leidenschaftlich.”

——It’ll be great if this “someday” never comes, though.

“But your current memories are with me. I’ll be a representation of them. So that you, my dear... will be able to open your memories anytime. When this moment right now becomes nostalgic to you, come see me. I’ll always be here. Waiting for you. You’re feeling ‘lonely’ right now. But... Little Violet. You have me. You’re not alone.”

——I want you to remember.

“I do not understand very well... However...”

——I’m always protecting you.

“...you have always guided me.”

——Waiting for your return.

“I never doubt your word.”

——I’ll be waiting here.

“But, President Hodgins, I have only one wish.”

——I want you to show up when your journey ends.

Deciding to deal with the sobbing coming from behind the door later, Hodgins opted for staying like this for just a bit longer. Her lover might get angry if he saw it, but he had the right to do it, at least to some extent. After all, she was Claudia Hodgins’s dear employee.

Hodgins asked with a particularly gentle tone, “What would it be, Little Violet?”

Violet blinked and looked up at Hodgins. The last drop spilled from her eyes.

“If, only if... there comes a time when you will quit the postal company and start doing something else...”

“Hm.”

“...please call me. No matter where you are, I will rush to you.”

“Hm.”

“I will definitely be of help... Even if not, should your luggage become too much, please call me when you need someone to carry it for you. I shall hasten to visit you.”

“For real?”

“Yes. I, too, will carry President’s luggage. You should know it. I am strong.”

“Huhu, yep, definitely. One day, you’ll understand what I mean by ‘luggage’. Hey...”

“Hiya, I’m Hodgins. What’s your name?”

Silence.

“This kid’s such a taciturn.”

“She... doesn’t have a name yet. She’s an orphan with no education. Can’t talk either.”

“That’s so terrible of you. She’s such a beauty. Just give a name worthy of her.”

“Little Violet, thanks for meeting me.”

Love was almost like rain.

#violet evergarden #fyeahvioletevergarden #veedit #kyoani #kyoto animation #violet evergarden ever after #claudia hodgins #benedict blue #cattleya baudelaire #lux sibyl #akatsuki kana #takase akiko #my translation #novel

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wiypt-writes · 3 years

Text

Stark Spangled Banner

One Shot: April Fools (You Can’t Kid A Kiddo)

Intro: It’s April Fools’ Day and Tony is out to play. Avengers, beware!

Warnings: Bad language, very mild smut…no one gets naked but just in case- NSFW, 18+

Pairings: Steve Rogers x OFC Katie Stark

A/N: Happy April Fool’s Day! To celebrate I’m taking us WAY back into the SSB timeline, this takes place at some point just before the AOU timeline.

Word Count: 6k

Disclaimer: This is a pure work of fiction and classified as 18+. Please respect this and do not read if you are underage. I do not own any characters in this series bar Katie Stark and the other OCs. By reading beyond this point you understand and accept the terms of this disclaimer.

Stark Spangled Banner Masterlist // Main Masterlist

Steve’s hands were hot on Katie’s hips, gently gripping her bare skin just above her underwear, the top she was wearing riding up slightly. Her bare thighs were straddling his as he gripped her neck, pulling her down for a searing kiss, grinding up against her, the TV programme they had been watching was long forgotten.

“You know,” Steve pulled back slightly to look at her, one of his hands tangling in the hem of the plaid button down she’d stolen from him to sleep in, as usual, “Captain America doesn’t approve of theft.” “Captain America is an ass hole.” Katie grinned back. “Stevie is my favourite.”

He gave a chuckle and leaned back against the sofa cushions, simply taking in her appearance for a second. “How did I get so lucky?” He asked, reaching up to tuck her long hair behind her ears. She smiled at him, her cheeks slightly flushed.

“What’s brought this on?” Her hands slid up his chest, coming to a stop on his shoulders, fingers gently playing with the collar of his polo shirt.

“Nothing.” He shook his head. “Just seeing you now and then before with that reporter…reminds me about how fierce…” he pressed a kiss to her lips, “and loyal…”another kiss, “and downright sexy you are when you’re angry.”

“He was a dick.” She mumbled, against his lips, her eyes narrowing slightly as she pulled back to look at him, his fingers gently tracing the outside of her thighs. “I mean, it’s not like we haven’t already launched the publicity campaign for the book already.”

“Well its big news.”

“Of course it is, its Harlan Thrombey.” Katie shrugged. “His books are huge!”

“Did you ever get to the bottom of why he’s reached out to SIP to run the next one when he has his own publishing company?” Steve asked and she popped a shoulder in response. “Oh something to do with his Son annoying him and needing to be taught not to take things for granted. I can ask him that in October when I meet him to go over the final edit and discuss the covers and stuff…” She wrinkled her nose as her brow creased into a frown. “But that’s by the by. That ass-hat reporter should have been at the press launch like everyone else, not trying to accost us when we went out for lunch. And what the fuck has whether we’ve set a wedding date got to do with it anyway? Nosey bastard.”

Steve chuckled at her rant and looked at her, his eyes shining. “We haven’t set one though.”

“Yeah well, we’ve kinda had a bit going on.” She pondered. “I mean, there was my extended vacation in Canada…”

“Don’t.” Steve shook his head, swallowing. “It’s not funny. I hate it when you do that.”

Katie chuckled. “I’m sorry, baby.” She leaned over and gave him a soft kiss, he hated it when she made light of her HYDRA ordeal. She pulled away, her hands resting on his shoulders. “Maybe once all this business with the sceptre is sorted we can think about it.” Steve sighed. “It’s certainly taking a little longer than we hoped.”

“Well it’s only the end of March. I’ve always wanted a summer wedding so it’s not…” Katie trailed off and Steve saw her eyes widen and her mouth dropped open as she looked at him. “Oh shit.”

“What is it?” he frowned.

“It’s the 31st March.” She looked at him, swallowing and Steve felt the colour draining from his face.

“Crap.” The reason for their horror was simple. Because, forget Christmas or Thanksgiving, April Fools’ Day was Tony Stark’s favourite time of year, as his long suffering sister could testify. When she was a kid, Tony had done the usual stuff. Flour in her talc, washing up liquid in her shampoo, paper shapes of bugs (never spiders though, he wasn’t that cruel) in lampshades so when she turned the lights on she’d think she had a huge cockroach in there, that type of stuff. But, as she matured, so did the pranks. At one time whilst she had been at the tower for a meeting, JARVIS sent her an alert that someone had slashed her tyres in the carpark. She had sprinted outside to find photos of Slash from ‘Guns and Roses’ struck to the side of her wheels. Another year, Tony had hacked her StarkPhone and Laptop and changed the language to Chinese. Of course she couldn’t read fucking Chinese to change it back. When she found an agent in SHIELD who did and he reversed it for her, within thirty seconds it had flicked over to Russian. And when Natasha fixed that it became Swedish and so on and so on… Steve had also been the butt of a few pranks since he had known Tony. In 2013 he had fallen for the old toothpaste Oreo trick when a box had arrived for him allegedly from the cookie company themselves after Steve had been papped eating a packet. That had nearly made him sick. And then last year there had been the non-stop phone calls asking for Franklin. Every time it was someone different and Steve was getting more and more frustrated as to who exactly Franklin was and why people thought he was on his number. Then, as he and Katie had been on the sofa making out, he’d gotten one last call…

“Leave it…” she urged, her hands on his face turning him back to look at her. He kissed her again, hands sliding up the side of her torso, grinding his crotch down onto hers making her purr with delight as her hands strayed to the buckle of his belt, soft fingers gently skimming his abs as she made to undo it, his tongue tangling ferociously with hers as he gave a soft moan of pleasure… But his phone was going again. Katie sighed as he dropped his head to her chest, mumbling a curse. “Unless that’s a Code Red, you can tell whoever it is to fuck off.” She gave a frustrated growl, her head flopping back against the cushion as Steve reached over and answered it, still led over her. “Rogers.” He spoke sharply. It was another unknown number, but this time it wasn’t an unknown voice that spoke. “Hi this is Frankin!” Tony greeted him and Steve let out a growl of frustration as he realised he had been had. “Have there been,” there was a pause as the inventor laughed, “I’m sorry, have there been any calls for me?” “Tony, I swear to god!” He spat through gritted teeth as the inventor cackled and hung up. “Your brother is a dick.” He looked down at Katie, shaking his head. “Well yeah, I know that.” Katie looked up at her boyfriend. “What did he just do?” “You know those calls I’ve been getting all day, the ones asking for Franklin?” He looked at her and she nodded. “It was him.”

Katie paused and then let out a laugh. “To be fair, that’s a pretty good one.” “I hate him.” Steve mumbled, dropping his head back to her chest.

She chuckled again, and ran her fingers through his hair. “Hey, Stevie, wanna get him back?” “How?” Steve queried, propping himself up on his elbows, looking at her. “Call him,” she grinned, leaning up and nipping at his jaw line softly as he closed his eyes, “leave the phone on the table,” she bucked up under him, wriggling her hips, his trousers feeling uncomfortably tight again, “and let him listen to us make out”

Steve hadn’t done that, because, well frankly the thought of anyone listening to them wasn’t a great turn on in his books, let alone her brother, so Tony had gone another year of getting away with it.

Simply put, Tony was king of the pranks, and this year he had the entire team at the tower to torment.

“We should warn the others.” Steve looked at Katie, and with a sigh she nodded. She untangled herself from him and straightened the legs on her denim shorts.

“JARVIS?” She asked.

“Yes Miss Stark.” “Where are the rest of the team?”

“Agent Romanoff and Agent Barton are in the Common Room. Thor is in his quarters as is Mr Stark and Dr Banner is in the Lab.”

“I’ll cover Nat, Clint and Banner.” Steve nodded. “You wanna go see Thor?”

Katie nodded. “Sure, I’ll pop down and see him now. Then we should probably go for a look around, see if we can spot if he’s set anything up.” Katie climbed off his lap and Steve straightened his pants slightly before giving her a quick kiss and heading towards the stairs whereas Katie made her towards the hidden elevator, selecting the right floor. Thor and Clint shared one of the highest floors in the tower, both preferring to be higher up, closer to the roof but it was still below theirs. Exiting the elevator, she turned left and knocked on the door.

“Little Stark?” Thor answered and stepped back. “To what do I owe this pleasure?” “It’s not strictly pleasure I’m afraid Thor…” Katie sighed “I’m here with a warning.” “A warning?” he frowned.

“Yeah, you got five minutes? It’s gonna take some explanation.”

***** Tony was giggling to himself as he put the final touches to the last of his pranks, before closing the door to the Lab and heading back to his floor. It was ridiculously early in the morning, but needs must. There was no way he could have set this all up the previous evening because Kiddo and Spangles would most likely have done some kind of recon mission before they went to bed.

So, as the saying goes, the bird catches the worm and all that. Fuck Killian and his second mouse bullshit.

“What have you been doing?” Pepper mumbled to him as he walked back into their dark bedroom.

“Nothing.” He answered, with a grin, leaning down to give her a peck.

“Bullshit.” Pepper mumbled against his lips. “It’s April Fools’ Day…” “Is it?” he said, innocently and she rolled her eyes. “JARVIS?”

“Yes Sir?”

“Hey buddy, I need you to set up an alert for me for today. If anyone goes into my office, or the garage, or anywhere in the tower messing with my equipment, I wanna know about it.”

“Of course Sir.”

Tony grinned as he headed into the bathroom for a shower. “Avengers, assemble!”

Prank 1.

Steve was the first victim. He and Katie were making their way, cautiously, down to the large meeting room where they were all due to congregate to look over the plans of an abandoned British prison they suspected of being a HYDRA base. They made sure to check round each corner before they walked round it, checking up high, low, everywhere.

But there was no avoiding this prank.

Steve pressed his palm to the Biometric Pad on the meeting room door and the pair of them gave a loud yell and a jump as their ears were assaulted by a sudden chorus.

“Who’s strong and brave here to save the American Way? Who vows to fight like a man for what’s right, night and day?”

“Oh for fucks sake!” Steve groaned as he pulled open the door, the song echoing through the PA system.

“Who will campaign door to door for America? Carry the flag shore to shore for America? From Hoboken to Spokane? The Star Spangled Man with a plan!”

Clint and Natasha were stood, poised at the table, both wearing identical looks of astonishment on their faces. They turned to Katie and Steve as they walked into the room, the song still playing.

“We can’t ignore there’s a threat and a war we must win! Who’ll hang a noose on the goose-stepping goons from Berlin?”

“I’m assuming this means Cap is the first of us to fall victim to Stark?” Clint asked, his lips quirking into a smile.

“Who will indeed lead the call for America? Who’ll rise or fall, give his all, for America?”

“Please tell me it isn’t going to go through a full rendition.” Steve sighed, dropping into a chair.

“Who’s here to prove that we can? The Star Spangled Man with a plan!”

Silence. The four of them waited with bated breath, but thankfully it had stopped.

“Just the first two verses.” Katie flopped down next to him. “Suppose we should be grateful.” “Kiddo, you’re as much of a sneak as Tony.” Clint looked at her, as Thor walked into the room. “How come you’ve never managed to get him back?”

“He’s too smart.” She sighed. “I’ve tried and tried before. It doesn’t help that he has JARVIS either, watch this…JARVIS?”

“Yes Miss Stark?”

“Has my brother got an alert going for you to warn him if we try and prank him?” “I couldn’t possibly comment, Miss Stark, on whether or not your brother has an alert set up to warn him if any of you attempt to tamper with any of his equipment.”

Normally, Katie would chuckle at the AI’s tone but she was too frustrated with her brother and the seeming lack of loopholes in any of his instructions she could exploit. She leaned back in her chair and gave a huff “See?”

“I could just shock him with some lightning?” Thor suggested

“Think that’s a little harsh.” Steve shook his head.

“See if you still think that by the end of the day when every time you open a door that song starts.” Natasha looked at him.

“What, you think…” Steve looked at her and then gave a groan. “Too much to hope that it would just be the one door isn’t it?”

_____

Tony, watching the events unfold on the display in the safety of his office, cackled. “Of course it isn’t just one door, Spangles!” _______

Prank 2.

Bruce was sincerely hoping that whatever inevitable prank Tony was going to pull on him that the Billionaire had been sensible enough not to shock him so far that the Hulk erupted. Bruce had a pretty good hold on him, so he wasn’t too worried but still, you never know.

The mild mannered scientist made it to his lab in one piece, opened the door and then stopped dead.

In front of him on the floor, for about two metres square were cups of water. And they were positioned that close together it left no space for him to step over in any direction without them spilling all over the floor.

Which meant he couldn’t get into the room.

Had it been anyone else, they would probably have simply kicked the cups over, but not Bruce. He was always paranoid about the liquid seeping through the floors and down onto the machinery which looked after the Iron Legion.

So if he was going to get into the lab, he was going to have to move them one cup at a time.

“Damned you, Tony!” He gave a loud, exasperated sigh. “JARVIS? I need a bucket…”

_______

Tony, watching the events unfold on the display in the safety of his office, cackled. “Good luck finding one, Brucey.”

_______

Prank 3.

“I don’t think there’s much else to go on.” Steve sighed as the rest of the team finished looking over the plans “We need to get out there and do a recon really.”

“We prepping for another mission then, Cap?” Clint looked at him. Steve took a deep breath and nodded.

“I don’t think we have an alternative.”

“Okay, well, if we get everything ready we can go at first light tomorrow.” Natasha suggested “I’ll get Hill onto the British Authorities, let them know we’re planning on coming.” With that an alert sounded on Katie’s phone and she looked down at it. “I gotta go take a conference call but I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Steve nodded to her as she stood up and left the room. She made it to her office, safely and swung the door open, pausing just to make sure nothing fell from the door frame. She darted through, took a look round and everything seemed to be in order.

Suspecting Tony of most likely sabotaging her computer or screen, Katie sat down on her chair and a loud horn sounded causing her to scream. Involuntarily, her entire body jumped, and her chair toppled backwards. She went with it, arms and legs flailing and hit the floor with a crash.

After taking a moment to sort herself out she stood up, and looked at the bottom of her chair. There was an air horn strapped to the main leg which mean as soon as she had sat down, it would push the handle causing it to sound.

“I know you’re watching this you fucker!” She yelled, spinning round to the CCTV camera and flicking it off. “I hate you!”

_____ Tony, watching the events unfold on the display in the safety of his office, cackled. “Feeling horny, Kiddo?”

_______

Prank 4.

Given that there was nothing else to do, Natasha decided to head to the gym, as she did every weekday morning, to practice Pilates. It was a routine she tried not to break as it helped her keep supple and relax. Katie sometimes joined her, and surprisingly so did Steve. He said it helped keep his mind clear.

She knew that the routine made her an easy target for one of Stark’s pranks, but she was damned if he was going to catch her out. She was one of the world’s best spies, no way was he going to get her with some stupid, childish trick.

She entered the room and glanced up and around, checking the corners, you name it. Satisfied that no one was going to jump out at her, and even if they did, she’d floor them- more fool you, Stark- she leaned up against the bench and stretched her legs out.

“Who’s strong and brave here to save the American Way? Who vows to fight like a man for what’s right, night and day?”

Natasha spun to see Steve shaking his head as he made his way into the room in his gym gear

“You joining me or hitting the bag?” She asked as they both tried to ignore the song as it continued ringing from the speakers.

“Joining you if that’s okay?” he said. “I went for a run this morning so…” “Sure.” She nodded, and as the song finally stopped they made their way to the store cupboards, picking out their mats. Natasha picked her favoured one, and lay it down on the floor.

As soon as she stepped on it there was a loud popping noise, like a gun going off, and she jumped backwards, dropping to the floor by instinct.

“Nat,” Steve soothed, a smile tugging at his lips. “It’s okay, no one’s shooting.” Angrily, Natasha stood up and stalked over to the mat. With a furious movement, she reached down and pulled it up off the floor and set about examining it.

“Bastard!” She exclaimed, slipping her hand into a small, almost invisible hole on the underside. She pulled out a tiny little firecracker, the type that kids used to throw on the floor in front of someone to make a loud bag. “He’s filled my mat with these!”

______

Tony, watching the events unfold on the display in the safety of his office cackled. “Even Super Spies get fooled, Romanoff.”

_______

Prank 5 and 6.

Later that day the team met in the common room for lunch. Steve already had a headache from that damned song following him every time he opened a door, Katie was sporting quite a sore elbow after falling harshly on the floor, Bruce was pissed as it had taken him a good hour to get rid of the cups of water, and Natasha was seething at the fact she’d been caught out too.

“I don’t know how you’ve put up with it for your entire life.” Clint said to Katie as he opened the fridge, pulling out a can of his favoured Dr Pepper. He grabbed a glass and then went to the dispenser for some ice, the way he always liked his soda, but nothing happened when he pressed the button.

“What the...” Clint frowned as he opened the freezer compartment and reached into the dispenser tray. After rummaging a little he stopped, and pulled something out before he gave a huge bellow of laughter. He turned, holding up the item and Steve glanced over to see it was a Tupperware tub that was full of ice, in the middle of which was frozen a Captain America action figure. There was a pause before the rest of the team fell about laughing and Steve groaned, shaking his head.

“Why has he picked on me two times?” he looked at Katie who gave a shrug.

“You know what he’s like, annoying you is his favourite pass-time.”

“You wanna go back in the freezer, Cap, or in the sink to deforst?” Clint asked and Steve rolled his eyes.

“I took a long enough nap in the cold, thanks.”

Clint tossed the offending item into the sink and then reached for some ice cubes before he walked over to where the rest of the team were sat on the sofas with various lunch items on the coffee table. He poured the soda into the glass and set it on the table, still chuckling.

“You can stop looking so smug.” Katie turned to him. “He’ll get you eventually, you too Thor, there’s no way he hasn’t set one up for you both.” “I am mighty, Little Stark.” Thor grinned, nursing a plate of his favoured chocolate and sugar covered strawberries he had snaffled from a tray in the fridge. “It will take more than…” “SHIT!” Clint exclaimed, and with a loud yell they all jumped back as the soda in his glass was exploding over the top with such veracity it was showering them all in the sticky drink. As Steve and Natasha headed to grab some paper towels, Katie marched over to the freezer and yanked out the ice dispenser tray.

“He’s put fucking Mentos in the ice cubes!” She groaned with a shake of her head. “Jesus Christ!” “You gotta hand it to him.” Bruce sighed, wiping his glasses off on his shirt. “This is maximum effort.”

“Oh, I’d like to hand it to him,” Katie mumbled, “with my fist closed.” Thor gave a chuckle and popped a strawberry in his mouth, before he gave a grimace, gagged and spat it back out onto the plate.

“That’s-” he stood up, nearly pushing the coffee table over in his attempt to get to the sink.

Katie watched him as he grabbed a glass of water and filled it from the tap.

“What…” Natasha looked at Bruce who was examining a piece of the fruit, holding it in front of his nose.

“Salt.” Thor mumbled as he rinsed his mouth out. “It isn’t sugar, its salt. He put salt on my Chocolate Sugar Fruit!”

_____

Tony, watching the events unfold on the display in the safety of his office, cackled. “Ice Ice baby… no need to be so salty.”

_______

*******

“We have to get him back.” Natasha grumbled as they all sat in Katie and Steve’s apartment, having retreated to the relative safety as their living quarters were the one place there was no CCTV, and Katie had the authority to banish JARVIS from earwigging. (Tony had learnt that lesson one day after hearing something he really didn’t want to hear…)

“Believe me I’ve tried.” Katie sighed “And you heard J before, anyone tampers with his equipment and…” She stopped dead. That was it. That was the loophole. With a smirk she looked round the assembled faces. Steve arched an eyebrow at her, he knew that look very well.

“What you thinking?” He asked and she grinned at them all.

“I have an idea…”

They listened attentively, Clint and Natasha sharing a grin as she outlined her plan whilst Thor slapped his thigh with glee. Steve leaned back in his chair and looked at Banner who was also smiling ear to ear.

“That might just work.” Bruce nodded. “It’s a pretty good loophole, and we have the stuff in the lab so…” “I’ll need a distraction.” Katie mused, “something that’s gonna draw Tony out of his office for long enough for me to do it but…” “That’s easy.” Thor nodded. “I’m sure I can cause a good deal of noise in the Training Facility, break a few things with my hammer.”

“Fry something.” Steve looked around. “If you do that then JARVIS won’t be able to fix it remotely, Tony’s gonna have to get his hands dirty.”

“You all know what you’re doing?” Katie grinned as everyone nodded. “Okay, Avengers, let’s do this.“

Operation Payback.

Tony heard the bang seconds before JARVIS spoke

“Mr Stark.”

“What the hell was that?”

“There’s been an incident in the Training Suite.”

“Course there has.” Tony rolled his eyes in exasperation at how stupid they thought he was. He wasn’t falling for a distraction like that. “Where is everyone?” “Miss Stark, Agent Romanoff and Agent Barton are in the shooting range.” JARVIS informed him. Doctor Banner was in his lab, although it appears he is now making his way down to the Training Facility to find out what’s going on. Captain Rogers is already there as is Thor.”

“What’s the incident?”

“It appears Thor has struck the speakers and the access pad with a bolt of lightning.” JARVIS replied. “I’m currently assessing the damage but as a result he is locked in. And he isn’t happy.” Okay, so maybe this was serious….

Tony gave an exasperated groan and pushed his chair from his desk. “Suppose I best go see if I can help. Remember what I said, anyone comes in here and tampers with my equipment…” “Of course, Sir.”

When Tony arrived, Thor was kicking the door to the training facility, waving his hammer irately.

“Thor!” Steve was stood by the glass, attempting to calm him down. “Don’t buddy, we’ll get you out of there.” “I can get myself out.” Thor blazed, raising his hand and Tony blanched at the fact Thor was threatening to send his hammer straight through the wall. It wasn’t an uncommon occurrence for the walls and glass to get damaged but they’d only just had it replaced after Steve and Thor had been practicing using Steve’s shield and Mjolnir to cause an outwards blasting shockwave. It had taken down two walls and completely decimated a bank of computers in the lab on the other side of the floor.

“What’s going on?” Tony asked, and Steve spun to him shooting him a glare.

“I’ll tell you what’s going on!” Thor roared. “That infernal song!”

His hammer crackled ominously again and Tony looked back to Steve.

“He was fed up of hearing Star Spangled Man With A Plan ringing out every goddamned time I opened a door.” Steve folded his arms. “So he lost his temper. And I can’t say I blame him.” “We’ve talked about this.” Tony looked at Thor. “You need to use your words, buddy!” “Words, I’ll give you more than words, Stark!” Thor roared. “Now get me out of here!”

“JARVIS?” Tony asked, looking at the pad on the door. “Damage report?”

“The Circuit is completely fried, Sir.” JARVIS replied. “I cannot access or override, you will need to do it manually.”

“Great.” Tony mumbled. “Let me just go get my tools from the lab.” Mumbling to himself, he set off down the corridor and once he was gone, Thor grinned and tossed his hammer in the air as he gave Steve and Banner the thumbs up before he caught it expertly again in his right hand.

“Good job!” Steve nodded with a smile as he pulled his phone out and dialled Katie quickly. “You’re up.”

****

It took Tony roughly thirty minutes to replace the wires and unlock the door. Thor stormed out, pushed him harshly in the chest before he left down the corridor.

“Guess they don’t have April Fools’ Day on Asgard.” Tony mumbled, rubbing at the front of his shirt.

“To be honest, Tony, it’s pretty annoying.” Bruce sighed. “Can you turn it off now? I mean its almost two in the afternoon.” “Yeah I suppose.” Tony sighed, before he grinned. “Tt was a pretty good one though, right.” “Hilarious.” Steve deadpanned, his hands falling to his belt buckle. Tony flashed him a grin and a shrug before he gathered up his tools and made his way back down the corridor.

“JAR?”

“Yes Sir.”

“Turn off ‘Prank Spangles’ will you, before anyone else breaks more of my tower.”

“Right away, Sir.” “And I’m assuming from the lack of contact no one’s been in my office or anywhere else tampering with my equipment?” “That’s correct, Sir.” “Today has been a good day.” Tony grinned to himself.

Once he was back in his office he sat down at his chair, and went through his emails quickly. He absentmindedly scratched at his beard, which felt a little dry to be honest. But he hadn’t oiled it since that morning. Reaching into his drawer he grabbed the small bottle, tipped a good amount onto his hand and spread it across the expertly groomed whiskers before he continued with his work. It took him a few hours but he cleared his inbox and then decided it was time to face the music. Heading down to the common room he found the rest of the team lounging in front of the TV. They were watching Kitchen Nightmares.

“S’up Kids?” he asked and none of them looked at him. “Okay, alright, I know, sorry if I pranked you but if I buy takeout will that make you forgive me?”

No answer.

“Oh come on!” Tony crossed the room, sinking into a spare arm chair. “I’ll get Thai.”

The team exchanged glances before Bruce gave a sigh. He was always the one to cave first, the mild mannered Scientist found it hard to stay outwardly angry, which was ironic when anyone thought about it.

“To be fair, that trick with the water was pretty clever.”

“Yeah, and I suppose the salt strawberries were a little amusing.” Thor looked at Katie.

She shrugged, her feet resting in Steve’s lap as he was gently running his fingers up and down her calf.

“Lighten up, Kiddo.” Tony sighed, flopping onto an arm chair.

“Payback’s a bitch, and so are you.” She responded simply, still not looking at him.

“You’ve never managed to get me back yet.” Tony snorted.

At that point he noticed Natasha and Clint exchanging smirks.

“What?”

“Nothing.” Clint shook his head.

“I like your beard” Thor suddenly grinned. “I have always admired how you keep it so neat and groomed. Maybe I should trim mine the same way.” Tony frowned. “Oh is this the part where you pin me down and shave it?” He rolled his eyes. “You know I can call my suit to me in like five seconds flat.” “We know.” Steve replied, looking at him and Tony’s frown deepened. The way the Captain’s blue eyes were shining with mirth made him uncomfortable.

He looked round as six pairs of eyes were all completely focussed on him now before Katie cracked up laughing.

“I’m sorry, I can’t…I can’t hold…” her laughter grew more and more as she threw her head back against the arm of the sofa “You look ridiculous!” Tony frowned and without a word stood up from the chair and made his way to the bar to glance in the mirrored surface between the shelves.

Oh. Holy. Jesus.

His goatee. His beautiful goatee…was blonde.

He spun round and the rest of the guys in the room cracked up laughing. Steve had his head thrown back, right hand clutching at his chest as Katie wiped tears from her face whilst Natasha doubled over on her seat. Besides her Clint slapped his thigh, his chuckles loud.

“What…how…” Tony spluttered, looking again at his reflection, before he glared back at the group.

“Slipped a little peroxide in your beard oil.” Katie managed to stutter between laughs, Thor’s loud rumbles continued, punctuated every now and then by a snort from Banner.

“JARVIS!” Tony roared “I told you to tell me if anyone went into my office, or the garage, or anywhere in the tower messing with my stuff…” “I take zero responsibility for this, Sir” The AI responded. “And I believe your instruction was to alert you if anyone entered your office or the garage or anywhere in the tower and messed with your equipment. Technically Miss Stark didn’t touch your equipment, only your Male grooming product. I believe they exploited a loophole.” That made the group laugh even harder as Tony went bright red, spluttering obscenities at JARVIS. Eventually he calmed down and sighed, before he glanced at his sister.

“You know I’m almost proud…” he said, shaking his head. “Almost…”

Katie gave him a wink in response. “You know what they say…you can’t kid a kidder, or in this case Kiddo…”

Tony gave a groan which turned into a resigned chuckle. He could always dye it back. “Good job, I’m impressed.” He mused, before he reached for some ice from the bucket on the bar and sighed. “Empty.”

“Yeah, don’t bother with the stuff in the dispenser.” Clint scoffed and Tony grinned.

“Wasn’t gonna, Legolass.” He grabbed the metal ice bucket and stepped from behind the bar.

“Oh, that reminds me, nice touch with the ice block.” Steve rolled his eyes and Tony looked at him, frowning.

“What?”

“The scale model Capsicle in the ice dispenser-“

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Old Man.” Tony shook his head. “Are you going senile?”

Steve took a deep breath and gave an exasperated sigh. “You don’t need to pretend anymore Tony.”

“Hey, I’m not.” Tony held his spare hand up. “That, as amusing as it was to watch, was not me. Although I’m kinda pissed I didn’t think of it.”

“It wasn’t you?” Steve frowned.

“Nope. I am not Spartacus.”

“Then who…” Steve started to ask but trailed off as he felt Katie’s legs shift a little in his lap. He turned to see her exchange a glance with Thor, biting her lip and then he realised exactly who was responsible. “Oh you are…”

“It was his idea!” Katie pointed at Thor as Steve glared at her.

“Yes, it was Captain.” Thor grinned and Steve turned his attention to the god. “When I found out what this whole Fools Day was about, I decided that I wanted to pull a prank of my own. Little Stark came up with that one. And, I must say, it was highly entertaining.”

Tony chuckled and clapped Steve on his shoulder from behind the couch as he headed off to find ice. “This has definitely been a good day.”

Steve continued to look at Katie, eyes narrowed as she stared back, her eyes twinkling. “Don’t look at me like that, Soldier.”

“Oh, and how am I looking at you?”

“Like you’re utterly and thoroughly disappointed in me.”

“I am utterly and thoroughly disappointed in you.” His eyes followed her as she shifted from where she’d been sprawled across the sofa, so she was sat upright. She sidled up closer to him, and leaned over.

“We’ll call it even for the plastic spider I found in the shower tray.” She whispered into his ear and Steve stiffened a little, before he swallowed and turned to look at her.

“Sorry?” He offered and she snorted, shaking her head. “To be honest, Doll, I didn’t think you’d noticed given your lack of reaction to it this morning.”

“Yeah, well, I grew up with Tony. You gotta try much harder than that to catch me out.”

“Message received, understood and duly noted for next year.” Steve muttered, his eyes flashing cheekily before he leaned down and brushed his lips against hers. “I’ll absolutely learn how to Kid a Kiddo.”

“Don’t count on it, Soldier.” She smirked as he pulled back, and he chuckled, wrapping his arm round her and pulling her close, pressing a kiss to her head.

All in all, Tony was right. It hadn’t been a bad day.

#stark spangled banner #steve rogers #steve rogers fanfiction #steve rogers fic #steve rogers x ofc #steve rogers x original female character #Katie Stark #mcu fanfic #mcu #avengers #chris evans #chris evans characters

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dreaming-of-brawlstars · 3 years

Text

Finally finished Princess Shelly’s Grand Escape. I’m actually thinking of continuing this?

Desc: Once Upon A Brawl, a Princess wakes up in a tower. She’s not happy about it, not knowing how she got there, but despite the fact that she was kidnapped in the first place, she can handle this on her own.

Shelly woke up in… a bed. A bed she didn’t recognize. It was too soft, too warm, and everything seemed a little fuzzy. She rose a hand to rub the sleep out of her eyes, yawning, and felt something off. When she paused to see if something was on her hands, she notices that she was wearing gloves.

“What the…?” She blinked, clearing her vision to examine it closer. A white glove with makeup and glitter smudged onto it from her wiping her face. “Huh?”

She didn’t wear makeup. Or gloves. Part of her brain tried to tell that this was normal, to go back to sleep, but she shoved it aside. She looked down at herself, noticing that she was wearing a frilly blue dress. It felt more like a costume than clothing.

“I am definitely not dreaming anymore.” She mumbled as she sat up, swinging her legs over the side of the bed to stand up. She heard clinking as her feet hit the ground. “Okay what is this-“

She pulled the shirt of her dress up to look at her feet, seeing that she was wearing glass slippers. Her mind raced, trying to figure out how in the world she ended up in this unfamiliar bedroom in a frilly blue dress.

“This is getting ridiculous-“ She attempted to stand up, only to wobble a bit. She took a breath and steadied herself before standing up straight in the heels. “How can anyone stand these?”

She attempted to walk across the room, cursing whenever she stumbled in the slippers. Finally she gave up, pulling them off and storming to the window to see where she was. The sky above her was dark, the sun long gone, and there were stars scattered throughout it.

“Wherever I am I clearly am going crazy.” She shook her head. “No, no. Not crazy, this is crazy but I’m not. Where’s my-“

She looked around, noticing a strange looking green object on the floor by her bed. She picked it up by the handle, trying to make out any details. It was designed to look like a frog. By why a-

The ‘frog’ started snapping at her, and on reflex she punched it, still holding onto the handle. She hollered out curses as she held it away from her face, not interested in getting bitten, and warily watched it snap at her again.

“The heck are you!?” She had half a mind to throw the thing, but something in its mouth caught her eye. Squinting, she could see the gleam of a shotgun barrel in its jaws. “…huh.”

‘There it is.’ She thought, and as she aimed the gun’s barrel - and face - away from her, holding it at the same level as her chest. ‘That’s my gun.’

This felt way, way too weird to be real. She didn’t need to be a doctor to know she couldn’t possibly be asleep and in some kind of strange dream, and the fact that she was holding a gun that was apparently a frog made everything feel even weirder.

“Whoa, okay, firstly. Don’t shoot me. Okay? Second: What the heck? Who the heck are you? And why do you have my gun - why are you my gun? Third: If you want to bite, do so now because I really don’t want to hurt you or anything. Like ever again. Just-“ The frog-gun-thing bit her arm. “OW!! What was that for!?”

It hissed, and she rolled her eyes.

“Ay, ay, ay! Are you done? Stop biting me!” The frog let out another hiss, and she swore it laughed at her. She groaned in annoyance. “If you behave, I won’t throw you out the window. Deal?” The frog clicked, letting out an affirmative noise, which Shelly assumed meant yes, so she sighed and relaxed for a moment.

“This is insane. My frog is a gun, I’m in some weird tower, and-“ She started pacing, waving her hands around as she noticed a lock of her hair fall her face. “And my hair is pink!?” She stopped, staring at the lock before throwing the pink hair off her face. “This has got to be a trick! This isn’t real!”

She kept screaming and ranting about how much she was hallucinating while she stared at herself. At last she stopped and slumped against the wall, her breathing heavy. She was still panicking and she didn't seem capable of calming down. She glanced over at the door, and she couldn’t if it was even locked. With a deep sigh she walked over to it, slowly sliding her hand over the doorknob, and attempted to yank it open.

Nothing. Locked. She cursed to herself.

Sighing once more Shelly slid back to the wall and sank into it, leaning forward so that her forehead rested on the cool surface. She closed her eyes, taking several deep breaths.

"Calm down." She told herself. "You're fine. There's no reason to freak out right now, okay?"

She looked at the frog-gun she held, trying to smile at it reassuringly. Then an idea dawned upon her, and her smile widened. She stood up, holding the frog-gun ready as she faced the door, aiming it.

"One shot..." She muttered. "One shot..."

She heard something ont the other side, and she froze. She saw light from something very bright, and she squinted, shielding her eyes.

She had no idea if this guy was a friend or foe, but for her own sake, she was going to guess the latter. But she was also eager to get out. So maybe… Okay, she wasn’t going to kill the guy, but she would have the frog ready.

She looked around the room for anything else. She noticed the slippers, and as much as she didn’t want to wear them, the felt important. She she grabbed them, deciding to carry them instead. She held the frog-gun at her side and turned to the door again, ready to knock it down.

She took a deep breath, bracing herself, and kicked the door down with surprisingly no effort. As soon as she did, she raised her gun quickly, pointing it at whoever was behind the door.

She must’ve knocked him down when she knocked down the door. He was sitting on the ground, rubbing his head as a mask covered his face. A cutout mask with a cartoony face she vaguely recognized, but she didn’t care. She aimed the frog at him, just in time for him to move the mask to stare down the barrel as it opened its jaws

He didn’t try to make any sudden movements, but he was clearly nervous.

“What?” She asked. “Not gonna make a move? Too scared?”

She waited, expecting him to say something, to attack. To fight or run. Anything. But he stayed quiet. She took a step towards him, raising the gun as she walked closer.

“Are you my rescuer?” She asked, her voice lowering. “Or are you my kidnapper?” She stopped near him, watching closely as he looked at her, fear and confusion apparent on his face. It made sense; they never met before, of course he wouldn’t know her and she didn’t recognize him.

But he did.

“Sh-Shelly, it’s me, Colt?” He spoke up, reaching his hand out toward her. “Please put the gun down, please-.”

She paused in disbelief, staring wide eyed at him, and lowering the gun slowly in response. She blinked a few times but refused to lower the weapon, instead holding it tighter.

“The wizard sent me - Byron - it’s a long story…” Colt tried to explain, still looking at the shotgun in his face. “Please lower the frog…”

“The Wizard sent you? Why the hell are you here and what do you mean, long story?” She snapped. “Why should I trust you?”

“Because it’s the truth.” Colt replied, “And I’ll explain everything, we just need to-“

“Kiss me.” Her voice went low, almost threatening.

“Wha-, uh,” he stuttered, paling as he swallowed a lump in his throat. She narrowed her eyes. “What?”

“Since I’m stuck in some fantasy freakshow, I’m assuming you’re probably my ‘prince charming’ and our ‘true love’s kiss’ is probably going to break wherever curse I’m under, and I have every reason to believe I’m cursed!” With her waking up in a weird room, seeing a gun as a frog, and her magically being a Princess, she was getting somewhat desperate. “So, kiss me already, you dolt!”

“Haha,” he choked out, still pale. “N… not funny, Shelly. Look. It’s not funny, alright?!” She glared at him, raising the gun.

“I’m serious! Break this stupid curse or so help me-“

“Okay!” He threw his arms up, and he seemed to have enough courage then to yell in exasperation, as if he was just as stressed. “I got your message! I didn’t expect you to remember me, I didn’t expect you to even recognize me! But if you do remember, if you actually remember that we were friends, well, you should probably listen to whatever I have to say. You might want to take your finger off the trigger, too…” She hesitated, her grip on her gun loosening a little. “That’s the thing, Shelly. We’re friends? Yes. Sure, we were good friends, once,” he said softly, “You probably don’t remember that…”

She frowned. “You’d be correct.” He nodded, his brows furrowed together as he sighed.

“Okay, yeah, maybe not. Not exactly, anyways. But… I am here to rescue you from wherever it is you are. So…” Colt glanced at the door and the remains of it on the ground. “You - you probably have that handled. Right?” She scoffed.

“Of course I can handle myself. I’m a princess.” She reminded him, raising her eyebrows sarcastically. “Now, why don’t you tell me why this is happening?” She demanded.

“Oh, right, sorry. Yeah, uh, Byron - who’s a wizard now - sent me to save you.”

Something clicked, and Shelly turned to the frog in her hands. Things seemed to shift into place.

“Oh, he’s the one that gave me you.” She pat it’s head, a little roughly. But it seemed to like that. “I remember you~!” She continued, a bit quieter than before. “So… he must’ve been worried about you. And he sent you, but then he decided not to come himself. He’s really irresponsible.”

“Uh… Yeah, kinda. Listen…” Colt scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. “He is sending help, but we need to get out of here first. They should be coming soon.”

“Well let’s go!” Shelly grabbed Colt’s wrist and started running, dragging him along. “So, who are they?”

“There’s Barley, he’s a unicorn knight now. Then Prince Emerald Sprout.” Shelly looked back incredulously, “You’ll recognize them when you see them. They live up to their descriptions.”

“What the heck are you?” Shelly questioned, raising the gun up once against a door. She noticed Colt rummaging through his bag, pulling out two golden pistols.

“I’m - uh - not quite sure. I think I’m just an ordinary man - er, hero – trying to find you. Get you out,” he answered sheepishly.

She scoffed. She knew it was bullshit.

“No. There’s more to it than that. I’m not an idiot, Colt, if that is your real name.” She rolled her eyes, shooting down the door and barreling through to the outside.

“Y’know, usually you’re not the one asking what’s going on.” Colt responded, firing at a small figure approaching them. He seemed to know how to use guns. Good for him.

“Yeah, but you’re supposed to be saving me, obviously.” She shot back, running and looking back briefly to make sure he was following. She slowed down slightly, hearing sirens and looking around.

Those sounded out of place, but she wasn’t sure. Her attention was snapped back to seeing robots around, one raising a gun. She stepped back slightly, backing into Colt.

“What’s going on here?” When she asked that, Shelly swore she heard him snort. “I’m being serious!”

“No time to explain!” Colt seemed to be holding back a laugh. That sounded like a punchline, like it was ironic. “If you stop to explain, you’re a goner! I’ve seen proof!” Colt insisted, aiming his gun at one of the robots while continuing to walk beside her.

“Proof of what?” She yelled back, shooting down another robot that tried to shoot him.

“Poco! Wherever he is, anyway…” Colt spoke quickly, picking off a sniper robot that was aiming for Shelly, then perking up at the sound of shattering glass. “There’s Barley!”

Shelly turned, then looked up to see a knight - a robot - clad in bright colors and sparkles leaping down to help. She closed her eyes as something it threw hit the robot in front of her, shattering and exploding into dust and rainbows. As she squinted open her eyes, she noticed an opening.

She lowered her head and charged through, holding her gun close. As soon as she was out of the dust, she scanned the area, seeing that a fire had started in the village she was in. She didn’t focus on that for long, seeing robots ahead. She leaped, aiming to land on it, and crushed it’s head with her foot before jumping off it’s inverted head to escape the group.

More shattering glass - that sounded like bottles. Looking back, she noticed to vaguely familiar silhouettes dashing through the dust, chasing her. Her eyes widened as two dragons emerged - one pink, one green - recognizing them. Shelly readied her shotgun, shooting at them to knock them back before running.

She dodged robots attempting to grab her, but her focus was on avoiding the dragons. Fortunately, someone had her back. She saw as a sword was flung into the chest of one robot, and then another thrown and slicing into the back of another. Glancing at the direction the swords came from, she noticed a little robot dressed in green wearing a cape with a sword sticking through it’s head.

“Thanks!” She hollered briefly before dodging a punch from one of the dragons, and it gave her small nod before reaching for the sword in it’s head to fling at another robot in her way.

Shelly took one final scan of the situation, thinking quickly. Since everyone else seemed to be focused on the robots, that seemed to leave just her with the dragons that were insistent on chasing her. It was a good thing the robots seemed to be focused on her allies instead of her as well, leaving her with just the dragons.

Either way, she was going to have to deal with them alone. But that wasn’t a bad thing, not at all. As she wove around robots being shredded into shrapnel by bullets, being cut in half by thrown swords, and disappearing into dust and glitter, she turned around with her gun aimed to her pursuers.

They were right in her face, she didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger, feeling the force before hearing the gun going off in her hands.

“BANG!” She shouted, hearing the blast echoing throughout the entire battlefield. She pulled the trigger again, hearing it’s shots ring in her ears. “Bang, bang, bang!!” She yelled, watching the bullets flying everywhere.

The shells hit their targets; each one hitting the same one in turn. Each time, she felt a sting of satisfaction as the shells went through a target and the force knocking them backward and away. Thrown back, they flew for a few feet before hitting the ground, hard.

She watched as the two dragons turned to smoke and disappeared. With the last one gone, the robots turned to nothing, turning to dust and scrap.

Finally, she stopped firing for a moment, watching the area. She could hear people talking somewhere nearby. She sighed.

“Great job, Shelly…” She muttered quietly under her breath.

“Hey, hey, are you alright?!” Colt called from behind her. She frowned, glancing around.

“Yeah, did you see what I just did?” She pointed to where the two dragons were with her gun, then gestured over to the robots she destroyed. “That was so awesome!” She cheered, throwing her arms in the air victoriously.

She heard slow clapping, and blinked, noticing it was from behind her. She noticed Colt nervously wave at someone she didn’t see, she couldn’t see clearly, because of the dust. She rubbed her eyes before turning around to face them.

As she turned to look, a tall figure appeared.

“Wow. That was amazing. You did incredible.” The figure said as they walked closer to her. “But I think that’s enough excitement for today, don’t you?” They continued, still smiling.

“Who… Are you? What are you?” Shelly narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “And why did you say those things? Are you making fun of me?”

“No, no! Not at all!” The person laughed as he reached her. “Why would I ever do such thing?” He held out his hand towards her. “I mean… I knew you were capable of destruction and handling yourself, even if you did get caught-“

“I broke out on my own.” Shelly retorted, crossing her arms. “I kicked down the door, nearly shot the guy that was sent to save me.” She threw a thumb back at Colt. “I got rid of most of those. I didn’t need rescuing, I was doing fine on my own.” She explained, glaring at him.

He chuckled, shaking his head. “How many of the robots did you destroy?” Shelly opened her mouth, but he rose his hand. “Aht, look around first.”

Shelly raised a brow before doing so, noticing that while several of the robots had clear indications of being destroyed by a shotgun like hers, several also were melted, had been stabbed or sliced by swords, or had holes through their chest from more precise bullets.

“While handling the dragons on your own was very impressive and no small feat,” He started, first looking at Shelly, “I’m sure not having robots distract you helped a lot. After all, it’s dangerous to go alone-“

“Well I wouldn’t have been alone, I have this thing.” She held up her shotgun, which snapped at the stranger. “It’s a weapon,” She shrugged.

“Yes, I figured.” He nodded, putting up his hands in defence when she swung it towards him. “Okay, okay… You don’t seem to need it now. Lower the frog, please.” When she hesitated, he sighed, lowering his hands. “Lower the frog, please. Or do you want me to take it back?”

“Um…” She stared at the thing. “What’s this about the frog? Do you know how I got it?” She asked cautiously.

“Well of course! I gave it to you! And I am quite sure I would remember giving it to you.” He smiled.

“You… You gave me the… Frog?” She repeated, her voice sounding almost confused, even to her. She looked at it, lowering it, then it dawned on her. “OH. You’re the wizard!”

“Did you just now recognize that I was a wizard?”

“YEAH!” She nodded, laughing a bit. “I mean, I noticed you dressed weird and essentic but I didn’t - it fits you?”

The wizard groaned, his face turning red as he dragged a hand down his face.

“Oh geez, how embarrassing,” He muttered. “Anyway, I should probably start heading towards the town, make sure everything is okay there. So, bye!” He waved his hand, starting to walk away.

Before he got far, Shelly reached out a hand, grabbing his sleeve.

“Wait, I have a feeling you were trying to give me some ‘moral of the story’ or something like that. Y’know, fairytales.” She shrugged, frowning. “And I didn’t get your name. And I want revenge.”

The wizard paused in surprise. “Hmm..” His eyes narrowed slightly, a grin forming on his lips. “Maybe I was…?” He hummed lightly to himself, rubbing his chin. “You know what, I’ll be blunt. I am Byron, the Wizard.” He shrugged. “Moral of the story: I don’t doubt you, nobody should, but it’s dangerous to go alone.”

“But I’m not-“

“Princess, I’m not finished.” He gently cut her off, then called for the attention of the group, gesturing for them to come over. “Everyone, everyone, this story isn’t over just yet. I can show you all the way for your quest.”

“We’ll need higher ground to see our next destination.” Byron rose his staff, pointing at an odd metal frame tower that was bent out of shape by the fight. “Little Prince, come over.”

Shelly watched as the little robot with the sword wheeled over to him, grabbing Byron’s robe. Byron gave Sprout a brief pat on it’s done. With that, Byron slammed his staff on the ground and vanished in a puff of smoke.

Shelly blinked away the dust, noticing her footing was different. She looked down, seeing that she was on the bent metal tower, overlooking the town and horizon. She noticed Barley, who stood securely on it, and Colt, who hung onto a stay metal bar for deal life.

“Ahead,” Byron spoke, and when Shelly saw him he was levitating in the air with Sprout hanging from his robe. He pointed to the castle in the distance. “Is the residence of Evil Dragon Queen Pam, she is the one who captured you.”

“LET’S KICK HER-“ Shelly attempted to jump down, only for Byron to put his staff in front of her to prevent her. “What!?”

“It’s dangerous to go alone.” He repeated firmly. She looked down at the ground, scowling. “You may be able to handle Queen Pam by yourself, but will you be able to handle her forces, her armies, and whatever army of robots they could possibly have?” Shelly pursed her lips and sighed.

“Fine.” She huffed.

“Thank you, Princess.” Byron grinned before disappearing into a puff of smoke. Everyone else followed suit, everyone being back on the ground. “You’ll need people, allies, friends… All I ask of you is help us with the mission.” He added.

“Right.” She mumbled, sighing again. “But I get Pam all to myself, got it?”

“I have no doubts.” Byron chuckled, “Barley, do you have the map?”

“Yep! Here it is!” He said cheerfully, holding it up triumphantly.

“Good job, knight.” He said, patting the robot on the shoulder. “With that map, a good sense of direction, and each other, I have no doubts that you all have everything you need for your quest.”

The group began to talk among themselves excitedly, talking about their tasks and the possible future that awaited the group.

Shelly stared at the map for awhile before she shook herself, smiling. Then she noticed Byron walking off, waiting an arm for an owl to land on as he left.

“Hey, Byron!” She yelled out before she followed after him, waving her free hand over her head. “Aren’t you going to be one of us? You seem so insistent on not going alone.”

He turned his head, raising his hand to wave back. “Well, you can consider me a member of your group, that’s for sure. I’ll help any way I can-”

“Are you coming with us?” Shelly interrupted him.

Barley stopped, turning his head. Byron stared at her for a moment before sighing, closing his eyes. “No. I will not be part of this group.”

“Why?”

“Look, princess, I have my own things to tend to.” Byron crossed his arms. “And I have already given you allies, possible friends, with Barley - a wonderful magical knight, Sprout - a blooming prince, and…” Byron raised an eyebrow at Colt, “…a new companion, yes, the new guy. So, my answer is still no.”

She frowned at his words.

“So, we’ve wasted enough time as it is,” Byron walked away.

Shelly watched him go for a few seconds, before looking down at her map. The map showed where the castle of Evil Queen Pam was located in relation to where they were. That meant…

Shelly took a deep breath, shaking her head as she walked over to her group.

“Alright,” She sighed. “Let’s go. We need to get to the castle. It’s not far at all.”

#[free qwen’s dreams]#brawl stars #Shelly #princess shelly #colt #handsome colt #Byron #wizard Byron #barley #unicorn barley #sprout #prince sprout #writing

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wxldchxld · 3 years

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my mi5/SHIELD cross over verse with @stcriestcld offers and endless number of stupid and funny situations never cease to delight me. I mean, SHIELD wants her there, yes, but they also kinda don’t have the ability to get rid of her. They’ve screwed themselves and now they’re stuck with this fluffy orange hell beast and the gaggle of animal companions following her at all times. So here are some of my favorite dumb scenarios that I entertain myself with when I think about the verse:

Beck going through security every morning. At this point, they know what time Ros is coming in (and by proxy what time Beck is going in) and at this point they’ve just got their own room that they pull Beck into. Partially because it takes so goddamn long, and partially because there have been multiple occasions where they have reached into her “bag of horrors” (as it has been dubbed by security personnel) and pulled out something that caused wide spread panic. These items include: a box of undead cursed weasels, a literal flying carpet that proceeded to break four windows before being contained again, a jar labeled “bottomless spiders” that spilled and made them have to evacuate the building, a very angry sprite that claims to be the keeper of the bag’s library (which Beck claims does not exist), and a seemingly harmless lump of charcoal the size of a man’s head which, upon coming into contact with human skin, burst into flames and began screaming obscenities at the top of its non-existent lungs. Each time Beck’s response has been “Huh... I did not know that was in there” and “Ohhhh so THAT is where I put the spiders!”

Beck just existing in animal forms on the Grid. The first several months people think they’re going absolutely mad, as they swear up and down they saw a horse at then end of the hall or heard a bear yelling through the vents. Even once the jig is up and people know, they’re still never sure, because Beck has, on more than one occasion, magically managed to sneak live animals onto the Grid, fitting them with a little vest or necklace that contains her badge.

Beck solving dire situations with the stupidest solutions imaginable. Like yeah she could turn into a bear and maul the bad guys, but why would she do that when she can just use her thought projection to make gangnam style blast on loop in their minds at such a persistent volume they can’t hear anything else and can barely think clearly so they’re so disorientated Vivian can punch them into unconsciousness. Why use super fancy satellites and equipment to find a bomb when she can just politely ask every rat in the city to sniff it out for her. Why send in a strike team to contain a threat like a rampaging troll when Beck says she’s about sixty percent certain she can talk him into a deal everyone can agree with. It’s a constant mess of chaos and new forms of paperwork that have to be written up because she’s an absolute menace but goddamn is she useful.

SHIELD agents being absolutely terrified of Beck’s familiar, Angrboda. Boda is a massive feline with a horrible attitude that delights in bullying anyone she can, and Beck refuses to go anywhere without her. There are several trained agents that go the other way when they see Angrboda strolling down the halls.

Also if I remember correctly Zen put her at a stupidly high security clearance that should literally never be allowed because Beck cannot be trusted with that kind of personal responsibility and has zero respect for like, procedures and doing things by the book. I’m ps she never even passed any kind of like, test or check, because she certainly would have never consented to combat training and should never, ever be given a gun. Instead of using it she’s just gonna stick it in her bag and god knows what will get ahold of it in that endless pit of chaos and magical artifacts.

There are only a couple of things that keep Beck even relatively in line.

A: someone might tell her girlfriend.

B: She actually likes Ruth and Vivian

C: She doesn’t actually want SHIELD to know the full scope of her abilities and resources in the case they ever turn on her.

But it’s mostly the gf thing... bc she’ll get in trouble.

#post type: unformatted #idk what this is bc it's not really a hc #stcriestcld #i guess this is just crack?#but like i'm sure a big chunk of this is canon #so idk

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praphit · 3 years

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F9: What does Absurdity even mean anymore?

Due to COVID, I thought that my last movie theater experience was going to be "Bad Boys For Life". I'm happy to say that if I died today, I would be telling souls in Heaven that "F9" was the last movie I saw on the big screen (I'm sure that films are big talking points in the after life).

There weren't too many people there:

There was a woman coughing in the corner; I barely looked at her. I imagined that COVID was mugging her, and I didn't want to be a witness, and so have COVID come after me next. I'm vaxxed, but still I was thinking of ways to distract COVID, so I could enjoy the film. There was an old couple sitting up front (like REALLY OLD... sitting UP FRONT... Ha! that's awesome). Awesome or not, I was going to point them out if COVID came after me. There were two obese kids sitting a few rows behind me that I could also point out, as well as my friend that I was sitting next to... what?? Look, they would ALL want me to escape, so I could bring my "F9" review to the people!

WHAT??!

Let's not talk about my survival skills, let's talk some Vin & the Fam - that's why we're here!

It took a while for me to remember what was going on:

Dom (Vin), Letty (M. Rod), and their... kid? Oh, right, they have a kid, and they moved on to start a new life together.

Didn't the real mom die or something?? Idk. You've got the British lady from "GOT" still hanging out with Luda and Tyrese.

(they so crazy)

"Hobbs and Shaw" are still gone

(making their own money, cuz bleep family!).

Brian (Paul Walker's character - rip) is apparently, now everyone's babysitter. So, if anyone in this gang, who could die on any of these missions, ever have kids, they can just send them off to Nanny Brian's.

There's a dude named Mr. Nobody who sometimes sends the gang on secret spy missions.

Oh, and people in the gang keep coming back from the dead. Boom! We're caught up with this absurdity. That's actually what I asked for when I got to the movies

"Give me one ticket for Absurdity please."

In this batch of the absurd, we find out that Dom has a brother, and he's John Cena (Jakob).

Charlize Theron is back! That must have been the worst bet that she has ever lost. I consider her to be one of the most underrated and underappreciated actors we've got, but movies like these ain't helping that case.

And who's idea was it to give her that haircut? - part of the bet she lost, I suppose.

It was reported that the gang goes into space (at least two of them do).

Annnnd the X-Men Jet is back!

(it really does look like that - Wolverine included)

Seriously, after the X-Men's last two movies (which were turrrible), I was expecting them to crossover for a fresh start. Why not?? They're a spy team now, that goes to space! - nothing should be off the table.

They're looking for two halves of some... war sphere?? If put back together with some key... idk... John Cena rules the world.

Remember when Vin and the gang were all about street racing, money, survival, and brown booty? - those were simpler times!

But, why discuss the plot? Seriously, why? None of it makes any sense. From Dom and Letty living like Amish people (which is an ending worse than death for action heroes)

to their convoluted explanation for bringing the latest person back from the dead (which reminds me of a married couple, when the husband or wife get caught watching porn, and try to explain that it was just a pop-up that came out of nowhere. The other spouse gulps their glass of wine and plows forward - that was me with this - gulping my soda (with a lil Henny) saying "whatever guys, let's please just move on".

and what's going on with the two brother's is a thin thread at best. AND the villain's motivation...

But, it's foolish to get into that., and take points off. I LOVE THESE MOVIES, but it ain't for the story. Let's grade "F9" by its own standards:

Racing, Action, and Family (they graduated from booty to family):

Racing

They've done the racing in a small city thing before, but this time it's with magnets! - SUPER MAGNETS!

YES!

I loved this! Cars are getting sucked into magnets. They're using them to make people fly away and explode. Which btw, they did my man Francis Ngannou wrong (an mma fighter). There's a fight scene with a giant white dude on top of a speeding vehicle. That giant white dude could have and should have been the role for Francis, instead he's just here to say high, and then blow up. As much as I loved these scenes, they were too quick in some areas. I think if they had slowed some of the magnet stuff down a bit, we could appreciate more what's happening.

Action

M.Rod is legit.

She needs her own franchise. The only action star I enjoyed more than her was Vin, and that's really due to the absurdity of one scene. Do y'all remember the "Civil War" scene when Captain America has one hand on a building and another pulling back a helicopter??

It's the same level of strength needed for what Vin does in some underground chambers. You can see a bit of it in the trailer. He pulls the whole place down, and then, just like in "Civil War", he ends up in the water (but unconscious). Oh, and he does this after beating up like 50 people at once. Ha! I love it! Then, how he is rescued (cuz c'mon, he can't die) is splendidly preposterous, and I mean that is a complimentary way. That scene is perfection.

The only action that bothers me comes from Dom's sister (mia).

She just doesn't sell being a fighter, but whatever. No disrespect... she’s beautiful, but... her hair might weigh more than the rest of her body.

Apparently, the highest trained fighters (agents) in the world (who have GUNS) never trained for a unskilled, unprepared, 110 lb woman in her 40's with a frying pan.

Family & Corona

Tyrese and Luda are always funny, but their act is growing a bit thin. It actually felt like an act this time around. I think it's time to add another black man in the mix; perhaps one who's older than they are... TRACY MORGAN?

Throw an OG in there and it'll freshen things up again. I do like though how Tyrese is starting to suspect that they might be immortals. I think they should test that theory out in the next movie; maybe have Tyrese break the fourth wall, kinda like Deadpool, as he realizes this is just a dumbass movie.

Dom and Letty's kid... terrible. I'm sorry! This is a bias of mine, but kids normally suck at acting. This one is no exception. Just get an older actor to play the young kid. I'm thinking Ryan Reynolds would have been a good choice.

You may be saying "that's absurd!" - I'm glad that y'all can still tell what that word means, cuz I can't.

The rest of the chemistry family magic is great!

Oh, and Cardi is here, but... barely (for like 30 seconds, if that).

No rapping, no wapping, no cursing... kind of a waste of Cardi B, if you ask me.

John Cena aka Jakob with a K!

Meh. JC def has charisma, just not in this movie. He doesn't stand out at all. You know?? - The Rock, Jason Statham, Charlize Theron, etc all have a presence about them in this franchise. Cena?! what happened, buddy?

There are certain music artists whom you'd think would have a great personality based off their music and how they dress. But, then you meet them, and you realize that they're just normal bozos like you and I (only rich and famous). And normal bozos like you and I, AT TIMES can be boring. You gotta have some flair if you're not going to have personality. Give my man some pink glittery highlights, a face tat, some vampire teeth, and maybe a chainsaw for his left arm or something.

Grade: Good action. The absurdities were funny. I was entertained! Production was great! BUT it's getting tired, my friends. It's the same formula that I've mentioned and then, like always, they're grilling and drinking Corona's in the sun. After nine movies (with at least two more on the way)... I never thought I'd say this, but it's actually not absurd enough. Wait... I seriously can't believe I just said that.

I need to say that again to know it's real.

This movie wasn't absurd.. enough? ENOUGH. IT WASN'T! They're going to need to step it up for the next two.

They were in space, but not for long. They raced for the most part in regular cars (regular for them). . You only brought ONE person back from the dead??! C'mon! We can do better.

I'm giving it an entertaining C+

I like that we saw different younger Dom's (during flashbacks) through time. I think that the next type of vehicle they bust out should be a DeLorean.

Y'all feel me?? TIME TRAVEL, baby!

Vin and the gang race through time! They can have Tracy Morgan. They'll each have a younger version (or older) of themselves join the group. Cardi B will actually do something this time - maybe turn into a car!

And maybe Cable shows up as they tie it to Marvel.

Think bigger, Vin!

#f9 #john praphit #praphitproductions.com #action movies #movie reviews #marvel #praphit #vin diesel #michelle rodriguez #racing #fast and furious #cardi b

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jojoboisimagines · 4 years

Text

Johnny Joestar x Reader :: Wait for It :: Chapter 5

Previous chapter Next chapter

Summary: Gyro is hospitalized, and now Johnny has no one to turn to. That is, until a former female rider shows him a little compassion.

A/N: I’m sorry but Johnny being a teasing lil shiz gives me life-

.::.

The orders had been set on the table, now you and Johnny had something else to focus on rather than the previous embarrassing subject. You see him bowing his head and muttering something before digging in. You raise an eyebrow at him, which he catches at the corner of his eye.

“What?” He asks, not sounding as offended as you thought he’d be.

Words failed you at the moment, you didn't even think he would have noticed to begin with.

“I didn’t think...you were religious?”

He scoffs, even with a little smile spread across his face. The irony of that statement isn’t lost on him. He is looking for the Holy Corpse parts after all. For obvious reasons, he wouldn’t let you know this, but it was a funny inside joke for him.

“Guess I don’t seem like that, huh?”

“It wasn’t meant to be offensive, I just--” “Nah its okay, I didn’t take it with a grain of salt or anything.” He cut you off, resuming eating his food. What kind of guy even is this, you thought. The two of you ate in silence for about 30 minutes. You had finished your meal, while the jockey was taking his time.

“You’re a pretty slow eater.”

“It’s called savoring. When you’ve tasted dirt from lying on the ground for weeks, you don’t take meals like this for granted. Besides, this tastes...like home.”

The home Johnny was referring to wasn’t his family household, of course not. There was only suffering back there. The ‘home’ he was talking about, was the familiarity of being famous, constantly traveling to fancy places, being able to freely ride his horse and walk around doing whatever he wanted, when he wanted. At least then he was sneered at for being a jerk and not over something he couldn’t control. It was only 2 years ago that was his life, but it might as well have been 20 for as much as he’s longed for it back.

“Johnny.”

Your voice sparked a flicker of life in his eyes again, realizing his head had been tilted downwards towards the plate of food that hadn’t been touched in about 3 minutes. Looking up at you, he muttered a ‘hm?’

“So...your Italian friend. What's the deal with him, if you don’t mind me asking.” You hoped it wasn’t a hard-hitting question that would make him upset, you were just curious.

The ex-jockey wasn’t sure how to answer that question. You hadn’t noticed his bullets earlier, so he was inclined to believe you weren’t a stand user. Finally someone he wouldn’t have to worry about, but that would make Gyro’s situation all the harder to explain. The only way he wouldn’t sound insane is to keep it as vague as possible.

“A couple of robbers ganged up on him, kinda similar to how they were about to get you earlier.” His fork toyed with his food.

“Ah. I guess this city isn’t so friendly.” You remarked, to which Johnny agreed with a nod. “I hope he makes it out alright. Are you really...gonna let this jeopardize your standing in the race though?”

“I’m not leaving without Gyro.” He replied, all too quickly. In almost a snapping manner, even. That was all you would say on the subject.

“I see..What made you pick up horse riding again though?”

“What’s with all the questions? I just agreed to make you a better horse rider, not some two-for-one deal where you’d force yourself to be friends with me.” Johnny retorted.

You felt slightly offended. ‘Force’? Was he implying you were being fake with him?

“I’m not forcing myself to. Didn’t you get that I pretty much hated you before? I see that it was pretty childish now that you’ve shown me my weaknesses in riding.” You let out a sigh before continuing. “Listen, you’re a lot easier to talk to than i thought you’d be, and well, maybe it wouldn’t be that bad if we could be acquaintances.”

You had to swallow your pride to admit that to his face, but it was the truth, and he deserved to hear it since he had taken a chance on you.

His expression was..different from any you had seen before. His eyes were slightly widened, he finally took his hand off of his cheek. The man seemed a bit desperate and hopeful even, just from hearing that.

“...(Y/n), I--”

“Is that Johnny Joestar?” A girl clearly yelled from across the restaurant. As you turned your head, she was already bolting for your table. She looked young, maybe 14 or 16, with messy blonde pigtails and a red frilly dress. Her eyes were filled with stars just by getting a closer look at the ex-jockey.

“Oh my god its so exciting to meet you! You’re in third place in the Steel Ball Run right? Your face is all in the newspaper with those other guys! Keep this between us but, I’ve always thought you were the hottest one!” She burst into muffled giggles, her hand bashfully covering her mouth.

Johnny kept nodding as she went on and on, at some point he lost track of what she was even saying. It had been a while since he ran into an eccentric fangirl like this, he almost forgot how annoying they could be.

The girl pulled out a pen from her bra, causing both you and Johnny to raise an eyebrow. She put it in his hand and bent down to hold her face uncomfortably close to his. A painted fingernail tapped on her right cheek.

“Could you sign my cheek? Pretty pleeaasee!” She fluttered her eyebrows. It was enough to make you sick.

The man sighed, agreeing to do it. He put a thumb under her chin to hold her face still in order to sign it. You didn’t know why, but you felt this strange twinge in your chest as he held her cheek while the girl was smiling, clearly well pleased with the situation. He eventually lets her go when he finishes signing, putting on a fake smile before telling her to shoo in a ‘gentle’ way. She happily skips away, showing her friends who were also possible fanatics.

There was the usual bout of silence at the table before he spoke up again.

“No, this doesn’t happen often. That’s the first time anyone’s ever asked for an autograph throughout this whole race.”

You replied with nothing other than a quiet ‘oh..’. After that, he goes back to eating his food (which he didn't really want anymore, but the check was too big for him to let it go to waste). He sneaks a couple of looks at you while you waited for him to finish. Your attention is finally caught when he points his fork at you.

“Stop doin’ that.”

You blink. “Doing what?”

“Mean-muggin’ me.”

The phrasing made you scoff, but brought a smile to your face for a second. “How’d I do that?”

“You’ve been given’ me snake eyes ever since that chick walked away.”

“Are you implying that I’m jealous or something? I could care less.” You crossed your arms.

“Whatever you say sweetheart.”

You grip your sleeves at the nicknames again. When’d he even pick that up?

“...”

“Jeez, you’re gonna need more of a backbone. Not like I’m gonna tear you down or anything, but getting offended at somethin’ like that is kinda just….really?”

A growl is let out under your breath.

“With that attitude I’d assume you’re a fan too. Thought you hated me?”

Oh boy he was testing you right now. You stood up from your chair in anger, before catching something else at the corner of your eye. The girl from before was talking to a tall man in black clothes. The man had turned in you and Johnny’s direction, with a murderous expression. He pushed the girl aside, eyes red hot with fury while trudging over to the table.

“Hey!” He barked. Sweat was starting to build at the corner of your face.

“Johnny, we should get out of here.” The ex-jockey didn’t even notice the man coming over before you alerted him. As he looked to his side, it was already too late. His neck was caught in the man’s grasp, being harshly pulled from his seat into the air.

“Who said you could talk to my girlfriend you bastard?!” The spit was visible as it got onto Johnny’s face, his eyes tightly squinted.

This was bad. You had left your gun on the satchel of your horse. You cursed, needing to think fast about what your course of action should be. Could you please go a few hours without being attacked in the past two days?

Your mentor was clawing at the man’s rough hands, the color swiftly leaving his face. Your fists clenched, no one else was trying to stop the fight, only useless screams and people running out of the building. There was no other option but to trust your instincts.

Taking a few steps back to prepare yourself and earn momentum, you rushed forward and thrashed your body against the attacker’s to save Johnny.

#jojo #jojo imagines #jjba x reader #jjba imagine #steel ball run #johnny joestar x reader #johnny joestar imagine #johnny joestar

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jujutsu-headcanons · 4 years

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Oh and because you asked for Yuji headcannons! I don't know why I have this one bc we know he has to die but let's ignore that In "everyone lived happily ever after AU" I could see Yuji having a girl if he and his s/o ever chose to become parents (bio, adoption anything) but it would always be a girl and Yuji is 300% confused as an only child and a dude but that doesn't stop him from doing his damndest to know every princess and have been dressed up as each princess once. Bc in my mind we all live happily ever after :,)

Also idk but I headcannon Yuji as ambidextrous. Might fight with his right hand if hes using a weapon but the rest of the time he can be seen switching things to his left or right naturally just depending on what's the easiest. It pisses Nobara off bc she is cripplingly right handed. And Megumi is left to wonder how Yuji even picked that up when boi forgets to write his name on half the mission papers

💛anon

Okay for starters Yuji would be a great father if he manages to keep his personality and not grow up to be cold and bitter like some people do when presented with trauma

He would 100% end up with a feminine child and he would adore every minute of it

He has this overwhelming need to protect, for starters. He probably wants someone small and dainty to protect, even if it's from the pretend monster that lives under the bed or just grabbing their arm when they're about to slip. Now that doesn't necessarily mean he thinks his daughter/femchild is weak it's just to early in the morning for me to word this properly

He would be really good with doing girly things bc Aunty Nobara has put him through it all. He knows how to do hair/makeup/nails etc. He even knows about periods should they be older

He thrives to make people happy so of course he has various Disney princess costumes. They're kept right in between his inflatable dinosaur costume and his Natsu Dragneel cosplay

He's just s goofball over all so expect them to have a great childhood. He gets on the floor and plays with them, takes them to parks, gets into nerf gun/water balloon fights, it's a mess. He's the kinda dad that will make the biggest mess bc "it can be cleaned up its fine"

The others would get involved too. Wait until this precious child finds out one of their uncles is a panda and another can summon bunnies. Nobara would "steal" the child to take them shopping just so they can have matching outfits. I can low key see Megumi being a tutor-ish type, but he's really fun about it. He probably gives them candy and tries to make sure they don't turn out like their dad/grandpa. Speaking of Grandpa Gojo he's just about as chaotic as Yuji, if not more so, he he probably takes them to carnivals and indoor trampoline parks and gives them way too many sweets. Probably tried to take the child on a mission once snd Yuji said over my dead body. Panda's only function is playmate, and they're a little sceptical of Uncle Toge bc he speaks in funny words, but he makes them little origami trinkets so it's okay. Maki is trying her hardest to keep the child shelter because they're being raised by idiots

Also I can agree about Yuji being ambidextrous for many reasons. For starters he's basically a little freak of nature and he's really good at a lot of things, so why can't switching off hands be one? He's always going "hey, watch this!!" To the others and proceeding to do something cool, while odd, and the ability to function with both hands is one of them. He does it to piss Nobara off, as with most things he does. Also it kinda fits canon because wasn't his left hand cut off in the third episode? The hand weilding the cursed knife? I can't remember it's too early but also know Mai and Getou are seen fighting with their left hand too (and it's really hard to hold a gun with your nondom hand so at least one of them has to be left handed) so it's possible it's canon. Also I'm ambidextrous when it comes to everything except writing and I like having things in common with my comfort characters so I dub this canon

#.ask #💛 anon #jjk #jjk headcanons #jjk spoilers #jujutsu kaisen #long post

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smol-and-grumpy · 5 years

Text

Something Just Like This - CH11

Pairing: Dean Winchester x Reader

Summary: Dean Winchester, mobster boss. He’s a little cocky, a lot ruthless and more often than not, short tempered. But he’s also, Dean Winchester, a war veteran and hero who suffers under a shit ton of PTS. He met her in a bar and thinks it’s fate that brought her to him. Little does he know why she’s really here.

A/N: I don’t know. This is so unlike me but I’m throwing all the fluff and feelings at you in this chapter.

WC: 3208

SERIES MASTERLIST

Turns out that she got ready before he could even give the cat its whole treat. All her belongings are stuffed into a clutch bag and that’s when Dean remembered that he kind of dragged her out of the Roadhouse the evening before, with the intention of sobering her up but she ended up getting more drunk.

He just knows that he won’t make the same mistake again.

The getting her more drunk part, not the whisking her away part — that part he would do again, over and over.

But he’s also glad that he made the mistake, because after all, it kind of turned out well for him; apart from her almost getting kidnapped — which he is still very salty about — but he pushes the thought out of his mind, doesn’t want to get riled up now because he still needs to drive her home and how weird would it be for her if he is his grumpy old self during the whole drive.

What a fucking messed up life, Dean thinks. And there’s the terrifying feeling in his guts again. One that says that he shouldn’t drag her into it. He tries to bottle up this feeling too, because the other feelings — the good ones, the fucking great ones — outweighs the bad at the moment.

He stops her before they get out of his apartment, finds a hoodie by the door and wraps it around her before pulling up the zipper. Dean presses his lips into a grin when he sees her disappearing inside of it. His heart jumps at how cute she looks in the oversized clothing, wishes a little that she would wear more of his clothes.

There’s something about seeing a girl in his clothes that turns him on very much, Dean can’t lie about that, and he thinks that maybe something isn’t wired right in his brain. But that’s really just wishful thinking on his part, doesn’t really want to keep his hopes up too high because after all, they haven’t spoken about all the shit that went down yet. He’s kind of terrified that she’d run once she knows. But he’s also terrified that she’d stay despite all of it. He just can’t make up his fucking mind, because both scenarios are quite scary to him.

As soon as they get into the elevator, Dean feels the urge to touch her, to be close to her, so he holds her up against the mirrored wall inside the closed space, kisses himself stupid on her as they made their way down to the parking garage. It’s like he really can’t get enough of her, can not get enough of the butterflies fluttering around in his chest when he holds her near. Can’t get enough of the sweet taste of her lips, wondering if her pussy tastes just as sweet.

Must be so much sweeter, he guesses.

And he wants a taste of that too. Wants to spread her out on a bed, eat her out so she would scream his name. Wants her pliant and blissed out, wants her begging him for more. He’s painfully hard just thinking about it.

Y/N digs her blunt nails into the back of his scalp, pulls him so much closer and he’s so fucking hard he could burst, is thankful of his sweat pants because they leave him more legroom.

And Dean actually wants to. Wants to take her right here, right now, doesn’t even care if they’re in public but he knows he can’t, because there’s just no time. Time is what he would need, though. Because he’d love to take his time with her, wants to take his time to draw out the moans and whimpers from her lips, wants to make actual love to her, not some quick fuck in a goddamn elevator.

But it has to wait and he knows that too, because the elevator dings and they’ve reached the garage.

He lets her back down, watches her adjust her dress and his hoodie with pink cheeks and spit slick lips, kisses her forehead, feeling her melt against him. He takes her hand and pulls her along with him.

Dean pushes the button of the car key he grabbed from the box and there’s a big black SUV beeping and blinking up in the distance. They make their way across the lot and he opens the door for her, waits for her to hop in.

“I...uh..” Y/N tugs at the hoodie and looks kind of uncomfortable.

Dean raises an eyebrow, “What?”

“The leather looks expensive, do you maybe have a towel laying around in your trunk?”

“What?” He frowns, not really understanding where she’s going with this, knows for sure that there’s no towel in there, except for maybe some heavy guns and a baseball bat.

“I’m..um.. I’m kinda wet down there,” She mumbles and it’s hard for him to hear because she lowers her head and for some reasons, she can’t look him in the eye.

“Sweetheart, speak up. You’re what?”

She lifts her face to look him in the eye then, her cheeks flushed and redder than before, if that’s even possible, “I’m not wearing any panties and I tend to get a little wet, alright? Well, a lot wet, actually, and…” She gestures with her hand, pointing her fingers at the interior of the car, “I don’t wanna ruin your seat!”

Dean surges forward, and kisses her. It’s his way of trying to tell her that it’s okay. That she doesn’t have to be embarrassed. And he curses and groans into the kiss because of how painful his cock aches at the revelation.

“Use the hoodie, it’s alright,” He whispers, resting his hand at the back of her neck, their nose still touching.

There’s a crease in between her eyebrows as Dean stands back up straight to give her room in order to be able to take off the hoodie. She folds it and places it on the seat, looking back at him with the crease still there between her eyebrows, and for the first time, Dean can actually and finally kiss it away.

Making his way to his side, he climbs in, settling into the seat and starts the engine. He looks over to her, sees her fastening her seatbelt before she tugs at her dress underneath her ass and adjusts his hoodie so that it’s right beneath her apparent wetness. A shudder runs down Dean’s spine when he thinks of it and his cock is complaining harshly in his pants.

“You’re fucking killing me,” He mumbles, and she grins back a cocky grin, the sort of grin he usually only sees on himself. He licks his lips, swallows hard before he speaks, “What happened to your nice panties?”

“Oh my god, you did see them,” She throws her head back, closes her eyes and covers her face with the palm of her hands.

“Duh, I changed you, remember?” They make their way out of the building and Dean swerves into the traffic.

“Jo ripped them apart, they were literally hanging around my ankles, not much use there, are they?”

Dean lets out a broken sound at the vivid image she painted for him. He thinks that she most likely wasn’t wearing panties when he reached the apartment, probably wetted his bed and the covers he placed her on, and now she’s dripping onto his hoodie.

This fucking girl, seriously.

“I’ll get you new panties,” He says, and wonders if she’d let him go with her to buy new ones.

“You really don’t have to. They’re quite expensive, I admit, but it’s not like I need a lot of fancy panties.”

“No, let me. They’re panties. How expensive can a scrap of fabric be anyway?” He raises an eyebrow, looks briefly to her and back to the traffic as they head onto the highway.

“Oh, you poor sheltered boy, you have no idea do you?”

Dean really has no clue, never had to buy them for anyone, only wore them once, but that’s a story for another time and he doesn’t want to scare her away before he can even come clean with more important things. But seriously, how expensive can a piece of fabric be? Especially the one she was wearing last night. They weren’t exactly covering a lot, but they still left enough for the imagination.

“Well, the only way to find out is when I come and get those new panties with you,” He winks at her, feeling cocky all of a sudden. And Jesus, she really blushes so sweetly.

***

Y/N insisted on him to stop at the Roadhouse so she could get her car, and now Dean’s driving behind her because he wants to make sure that she gets home alright. It’s the least he can do really, and it’s also some kind of a self service because it’ll ease his mind.

He wonders if he can spare a man or two to watch her, thinks that maybe he should tell her the truth first, kind of knows that when she’ll find out that she’s been watched, all hell will break loose. He decides not to push his luck with her, not now when they’re right at the start of something that could be really good.

Dean still doesn’t know what he’s going to tell Ellen, though. Wonders how long he can hide the fact from her that her daughter is a fucking double agent and wanted to bring his whole damn family down, which also includes Ellen and the Roadhouse if he’s being honest, but Dean’s not sure if Ellen will see it that way. Jo’s her daughter after all, and apparently, blood is thicker than water.

While he drives behind Y/N, he can’t help but glance over at the hoodie she’d left behind. He sees a slightly bigger, darker patch on the already black hoodie. Dean groans out in frustration, she wasn’t lying about being wet, was she?

Fucking hell.

He grips his steering wheel just a little tighter and tries to calm his nerves, willing his erection to go away — and fails miserably.

What are you? Fucking Sixteen?! He curses at himself, doesn’t understand his own body anymore. She’s fucked him up real bad and the funny thing is, that he doesn’t even mind it, what does that say about him, really?

When they arrived, she thanked him for driving her home, but Dean can’t be shaken off that easily.

“Come on, I’ll bring you to the door,” He ushers her into the building, shouldering at her until he feels her budging.

They walked up three flights of stairs and he waits as she fumbles with the keyhole. She seems nervous and he doesn’t really know why. Is she hiding a boyfriend in there he doesn’t know about?

Shit.

A boyfriend.

He never thought about that.

The thought had literally never crossed his fucking mind.

Wouldn’t have thought of her to be someone who would do something like that, and Dean’s actually never been wrong with reading people. Maybe though, his brain made an exception because it’s not capable of reading people and feeling things at the same fucking time.

And now he feels stupid.

“Here we go,” She pushes the door open and he lets her go in first, in case there really is a boyfriend, which of course, he didn’t dare to ask her about.

Dean steps in behind her, is kind of relieved that the apartment seems to be empty, “Sweetheart, can you tell me if everything is like it was when you left here yesterday?”

She frowns but looks around, shrugs when she turns back to face him, “Yeah, why?”

He doesn’t answer her, instead he takes a look around himself, but of course he wouldn’t know if something would be out of place because he’s never fucking been here before.

Her apartment is modest and small, smaller than his living room, if Dean has to guess and compare. A stark contrast to his apartment which is the complete opposite in every way. It doesn’t mean that it doesn’t look cozy. He thinks that he’d take the apartment, because it’s really kind of cute, and he’d take the girl living here too.

There are two more doors. One right at the entrance, which he has a strong feeling is a bathroom. The other one is off behind the living room, which leads to her bedroom, he supposes.

“You mind checking out your bedroom for me, Y/N?” He asks as he walks to the bathroom. He goes in and pulls the shower curtain to the side, just to be thorough.

“Everything’s fine.” She calls out from her bedroom and he’s at the door as she hastily pushes some papers under her bed with her feet.

Something he’s not allowed to see, probably. He’s brushing it off, even though he feels like she’s hiding something from him. He’s not the right guy to talk anyway, because he’s hiding so much more from her. He hopes not for long though, because if he wants to keep her, he knows that he needs to come clean. And who knows if she still would want to stay after she knows? He wouldn’t blame her if she would want to run. Would maybe ask her to take him with her because God knows, he doesn’t really want to stay either.

He feels relieved though. Relieved that no one was here yet. Which means that they don’t know where she lives, and it makes him wonder if anyone else apart from Jo knows that one of his weak spot is her. He has a strong feeling that they don’t know yet, Jo probably wanted to serve her on a fucking silver platter. He gets angry again just thinking about it.

Dean takes in her bedroom from the safe distance of the door, doesn’t want to intrude which is weird because she’s been in his, but also he feels comfortable with her and the jury’s really still out if she feels the same about him being here. He notices one occupied nightstand. Sees that there’s no trace of men’s clothing in the room, or in the apartment for that matter, breathes fucking relief but subtly, doesn’t want her to know what’s going through his head, obviously.

“Good,” He nods as she walks out to join him, “When’s your next shift?”

She’s taken off her shoes in between entering and now, because she’s standing short again. Doesn’t make her any less cute, not like he expected anything else of his feelings, to be honest.

“Tomorrow. Ellen texted me that she’s closing for one more night. Her date apparently took her upstate.”

“Okay, that’s good. You just rest, alright?” He walks to the door, knowing that he’s invading her space and the truth is, that he really should get going. Cas is probably going to run out of patience soon.

“I will,” She forces a tired smile, and walks behind him, “Do I tell her about Jo?”

Dean turns around, “No,” He shakes his head, “No, I’ll do it. Don’t mention anything to her. Go to work like you’d normally do. You don’t know anything if it should come up.”

“Okay,” Y/N’s gaze falls to her toes.

“Any chance I can persuade you to quit your job?” He chuckles, plays it off as if he’s joking, but really he’s not, “I’d pay you more and all you have to do is take care of my cat when I’m not around.”

“Your cat has a name,” She grins, raising an eyebrow and Dean knows that she wants him to say it.

“Jesus… okay, Cuddles, his name is Cuddles, are you happy now?” He laughs playfully.

“Yeah, but stop it!” She punches his chest and laughs heartily, “I really like my job.”

“I know,” The corner of his lips curve up, “Cuddles really likes you though,”

She doesn't say anything, frowns a little because she doesn’t get where Dean wants to go with that. And honestly, he doesn’t know it either. All he knows is that he’d like to have her around him, at all times if possible. He’s really trying hard not to go all possessive on her but given the circumstances, it would calm his heart if he’d know where she is at all times. He knows that’s an utopian thought and yeah, he’s not gonna do it, no matter how much he wants to put a 24/7 security on her sweet ass.

“Thought so,” Dean twists at the doorknob and turns around, “If you change your mind, let me know, yeah?”

She nods with a smirk and when Dean wants to leave, she grabs at his shirt, pulling him down and kisses him. Her arms fly around his neck and he holds her around her waist. It’s good. So good. But it doesn’t make it any easier for him to leave now.

“I need to go,” He mumbles into the kiss, sucks at her lip and lets it out with a pop just for him to dive right into the kiss again.

“Don’t,” She whispers as she nibbles at his bottom lip. “You could stay.”

“Fuck,” He curses, kisses her deeper, harder, wants for her to remember him just by a kiss, “You’re fucking killing me for real.”

She giggles into his mouth. Such a fucking sweet sound. It goes straight to his cock, that’s still fucking hard. He can’t even remember the last time he’s been hard for so long without getting any release.

“Baby, I need to leave, I’ll see you later, okay?” He parts from her, is a little out of breath. His chest heaves and he ducks down once more, kisses her nose, her eyebrow, her forehead.

“Okay,” Y/N pouts, and that’s not fucking fair. He’s not prepared to see the pout.

He lifts his hand to her face, thumbs at her lips, “Stop that,”

“Stop what?” She asks, but goes right back to pouting and Dean can’t help but think that she fucking knows how to bring him down.

“That damn pout of yours, I swear,” He thumbs at her bottom lip, paints it along her pout.

She parts her lips, teethes at the pad of his thumb before she sucks at it, taking it deeper, and Dean knows he should be ashamed of the sound that’s coming out of his throat but he just can’t bring himself to care.

He steals another kiss, it’s hard and fast, before he can finally tear himself away. Dean knows that if he doesn’t go now, he will never be able to.

“Be good,” He says and feels a little guilty for dashing down the stairs as quickly as he did. Feels guilty to leave her pliant and spit slick, but he really needs to go and take care of business.

Fucking business.

Dean gets into his car and runs the pad of his thumb that she’d been sucking at along his own spit slick lips.

Fuck.

Turning up the music, he makes his way back, and tries to get himself into the right mindset to face Jo.

CH12

#something just like this #dean winchester #dean winchester x you #dean winchester x reader #dean winchester fic #dean winchester fan fic #dean winchester fan fiction #mobster!dean #nathalie writes

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scarlettwitcher · 4 years

Text

Baby Girl Chapter One

Summary: Y/n tried to avoid her past with a certain Statesmen but when they’re partnered back up for a mission that could cost millions their lives, Y/n must make the right choice. (This is the Kingsman: The Golden Circle movie basically in writing with reader insert. I recommend watching the movie, it’s amazing! It’s on Amazon Prime Video.)

Characters: Agent Whiskey, Agent Gin(Y/n), Tequila, Ginger Ale, Eggsy, Merlin, Champ, Harry, mentions of Poppy, Charlie, and Clara in coming chapters..

Word Count: 2.327

Warnings: Canon typical violence, angst, cursing, fluff here and there, uh guns?

Author’s Note: We’re finally here! I have been working so hard on this series and I have finally finished it! I’m so excited to be sharing this. Shoutout to my lovely @giftofdreams for being an amazing beta and friend. Also send my girl @queenxxxsupreme some love. After this series, I’ll be working hard on my requests and on my existing August Walker Series. Don’t worry, I didn’t forget it babes. Thanks for all the love I receive daily! If you’d like to be a tag, please send in an ask! As always, thanks for reading, feedback is always welcome/needed. Also, please reblog! I know this fandom is kinda small but I’d love for people to find this fic. I just worked so hard on it and I want it to get the love it deserves. Love to you all!

The loud sound of rain burned into Eggsy’s ears as he stared at the broken-down building in front of him. He didn’t know whether he should scream, cry, or curse anyone who was listening. He looked up to see a black figure walking towards him, holding a black bag. He immediately reacted, pulling out his gun, aiming it straight at his head. As the figure stepped closer, Merlin's face became visible to him but he never lowered his gun. Slowly the both of them started to walk towards each other as Eggsy gripped his gun harder, feeling it's weight get heavier with every step. “Someone decides to wipe out every Kingsman property, every agent, and somehow, conveniently, you weren't at home.”

Neither of them stopped walking towards each other, walking between all of the rubble of Eggsy’s blown up home. “I could say the same thing about you.

Finally, Eggsy stopped when he was a few feet away from Merlin, his voice cracking from emotion. “What, you think I'd kill Roxy? And my mate, Brandon, and my fucking dog?”

“No. You think I would?” Eggsy kept his gun trained on Merlin as he swallowed thickly. Merlin held up the black bag towards him, opening it up and pulling a robotic arm, holding it up. “This thing hacked us. Clearly, this arm can be remotely controlled. I'm only alive because my address wasn't on the database with the agents. Whoever Charlie's working with doesn't think that mere staff are missile-worthy.”

Eggsy scoffed angrily as he lowered his gun, his voice raising an octave. “This ain't funny. Roxy is dead! Everyone's dead! Gone! Do you even care?”

“Pull yourself together. Remember your training. There's no time for emotion in this scenario.” Eggsy nodded quietly in understanding. “Now, as all surviving agents are present, we follow the doomsday protocol. When that's done, and only then… you may shed a tear in private.”

Eggsy sighed deeply as he nodded. The loud sound of thunder echoed between the two men filling in the absence of conversation. The deaths of all the Kingsman weighed heavy on their hearts. “Okay. What's the doomsday protocol?”

“We go shopping.” Both of the men decided to take the night off and try to sleep. It was a restless sleep for both. First thing in the morning, they both headed for Berry Bros & Rudd; Wine merchants. They walked in dressed to the nines. Merlin approached one of the workers. “We're from Kingsman. We'd like to buy some wine and use tasting room number three, please.” The man in the shop nodded quickly, before taking both of them towards the room. The man left, leaving Eggsy and Merlin alone. “Not one of my predecessors has ever been in this situation before. Thank God.” Merlin walked towards a distinctive place in the wall, recognizing a familiar shape. He pulled out a pendant, exactly like one Harry had given Eggsy when he was younger. “A-ha. Remember this?” He showed it to Eggsy who smiled softly, remembering its significance.

“Yeah, how could I forget?” Eggsy watched as Merlin turned towards the wall, slipping the pendant into the shape, fitting perfectly into the molding. Loud sounds of locks being opened and gears turning filled the room. The wall slid open, revealing a black safe.

Merlin pointed towards the safe as he spoke to Eggsy. “Whatever's in that safe is the answer to all our problems.” Merlin got to quickly opening the safe. Pulling the door open, his brows furrowed in confusion as he leaned closer to see what he was looking at. “Huh.” He pulled out a bottle of whiskey with clear big letters that read “Statesman” on the front. He showed it to Eggsy who looked confused.

“Is that it?”

“I suppose that must be upper-class humor.” Merlin looked down at the bottle, analyzing it for a few seconds before looking back up to Eggsy. “I don't get it.”

“Me neither. What the fuck are we supposed to do now?”

“I think we should drink a toast to our fallen comrades.” Merlin served both of them cups of the Whiskey. Eggsy grabbed one and held it up towards Merlin as he grabbed his own cup, doing the same. They clinked their cups together.

“To Roxy.”

“Roxy.” Merlin oohed in admiration of the taste. Eggsy nodded his approval as well as they served another round, doing what they had previously done again. “To Arthur.”

“Arthur.” They both drank their whiskey before Eggsy stopped in thought. “Mmm. Should we do one for JB?”

“I think we should.” Eggsy pulled out a chair, sitting across from Merlin as they poured more whiskey. They took a drink for every fallen Kingsman. Leaving the bottle almost empty, Merlin started to cry, wiping at his eyes in pain with his handkerchief. “I should have seen it coming. Charlie, the taxi. It's all my fault.” Both men had forgone their jackets and glasses as they spoke.

“No, that's bullshit, Merlin. It ain't all your fault. You're the best, bruv. Honestly, without you, I'd have lost it a long time ago.”

There was a moment of silence between the two as Eggsy placed his hand on Merlin's shoulder. Merlin stayed quiet before reaching for the almost empty bottle. "I think we should drink to Scotland."

Eggsy quickly took the bottle away from Merlin. "I think we've probably had enough, to be honest." He analyzed the bottle as Merlin cleaned his glasses.

"You're probably right." Eggsy stared at the bottle. Looking closer he saw a small print at the bottom of the back of the sticker, 'Distilled in Kentucky'. The K looked very familiar to him before it clicked.

"Merlin."

"Aye?"

"I think we're going to Kentucky."

"Fried Chicken? I love fried chicken."

"No, proper Kentucky. Look." Eggsy placed the bottle on the table as Merlin slipped his glasses on.

"You know what else I love? Country and western music." Before Eggsy could say anything, Merlin started to sing. Eggsy was annoyed but listened quietly anyways. "Country roads, Take me home, To the place I belong.." The boys moved quickly, getting what few things they had left before flying over to the distillery. They noticed a tour happening as they arrived and they followed behind as the woman spoke. She didn't let them into a large warehouse, explaining something about how the temperature is perfect for the barrels and both men stopped. Eggsy scanned the door with his watch, nodding towards it.

"Biometric security scanner just to protect a few old barrels of whiskey? Pull the other one, love."

Merlin fiddled with his tablet as Eggsy watched him. "Got it." The door slid open behind Eggsy. They looked around before skidding in. Eggsy kept his hand up with his watch, surveying the area. They looked around amazed at all of the giant barrels.

"Are you getting anything?"

"Not yet."

"Fucking hell."

"It's a shame it's not scotch." Merlin's tablet started to beep loudly. "Hang on." He looked at the image, showing underneath them was the base. "According to this, there's a huge underground structure right beneath us." Merlin walked quickly to the end to place his tablet down, grabbing an axe placed lazily on the side. "And if my calculations are correct…" He moved towards the main barrel in the middle, holding the axe tightly. "This is the way in." Without a second thought, Merlin hit the wall with all his strength, denting and making a hole on the barrel. Whiskey gushed out of it and both men panicked.

"Fucking hell, Merlin. Shit." Merlin moved quickly, covering the hole with his hand.

“You know, my mama, she always told me us southerners get our good manners from the British.” A man slowly walked towards them, holding a shotgun loosely in his hand as it rested on his shoulder. Eggsy tried to act casual, crossing his arms and leaning on the barrel as Merlin kept his hand on the hole he created. “I was thinkin', ain't that a pity. Y'all kept nothing for yourselves. Y'all ain't never heard of knocking before you enter?” The man turned his head slightly, smirking before spitting to his left.

“Well, actually we had an invitation. Didn't we?” Eggsy looked over at Merlin as he nodded quickly.

“Yeah.”

“Oh, did you now?” The man watched them unamused.

“Yeah. It came in the shape of a bottle. We're from the Kingsman tailor shop in London. Maybe you've heard of us?”

“Oh, the Kingsman.”

“Yeah.”

“Huh. That's where y'all got them fine suits and them fancy spectacles y'all got on?” The man pointed towards them with the end of the shotgun, acting like he knew what they were saying was enough.

“Exactly.” Merlin nodded his head enthusiastically, almost as if he hoped they made the right decision.

“That's right.”

“Y'all look damn sharp. Let me see if I got it right, here. You want me to believe that it's normal for a tailor to hack through an advanced biometric security system with nothing but a little bitty old watch on?” Eggsy clenched his jaw nervously as Merlin frowned. They were starting to realize their name meant nothing. Merlin looked over at Eggsy with concern as Eggsy rolled his eyes, staring the man down. “I can promise you,” The man grabbed his shotgun, loading it as he twirled it effortlessly in his hand, aiming it at both of them. “That dog don't hunt.” With the shotgun, he motioned for both of them to get down. “So why don't you go on and get down on your knees and tell me who you really work for.”

Eggsy raised his eyebrows, mocking the man before looking over at Merlin tight-lipped, as Merlin nodded, silently saying, ‘okay, you asked me to’. He removed his hand as the barrel started to leak again, dropping whiskey all over the floor. The man quickly sucked up some saliva, spitting it across the way on the hole, covering it perfectly. Eggsy looked at Merlin with disgust before turning back towards the man with the same expression. “That's 1963 Statesman Reserve. You just made it personal.”

The man walked towards both of them, as they ran towards him at the same time as well. Eggsy raised his fist, ready to punch but the man ducked and hit him in the back with the shotgun. Merlin lunged for him next. The man hit him in the abdomen, looping his arm around Merlin’s and used his body weight to throw him against the barrel, knocking him out cold. Eggsy took out his gun but the man used the shotgun to trap his arm between his body and the shotgun before swinging it around and smacking it out of his hand with his shotgun. The momentum of the hit threw Eggsy on his knees as he swung the shotgun into his ribs, swinging it the other way around. Eggsy blocked the hit but still groaned in pain as the hit threw him against the barrel. The man pinned Eggsy’s arm with his shotgun before moving quickly to flip through Eggsy’s watch until he found the stun option. He pulled Eggsy off of the barrel and angled it so he shot himself with the dart. Eggsy stared at him in surprise as the man smirked. Eggsy moved to touch his neck where the dart was as he went limp on his legs. “Who the fuck are you?” Eggsy stepped back once before falling onto his back, blacking out quickly like Merlin.

“You’re right. You are getting better Tequila, almost as good as me.” The man, Tequila, looked up to the left where you slowly stepped out of the shadows. You licked your lips as you walked over to the limp bodies on the floor. You bent down beside Eggsy and reached out, touching his watch admiring the technology. “I guess you didn’t need me after all.”

Tequila smiled and shook his head as he nudged Merlin with his foot. “Now darlin’, don’t say that. You know I love having you around.”

“Well, duh. I’m a fucking catch.” Tequila laughed out at your comment before moving to grab Merlin, throwing him over his shoulder as he motioned towards Eggsy with a nod of his head.

“Can you handle him?” You frowned and shook your head. You were smaller than Eggsy and even though you were strong, you weren’t that strong.

“I can drag him.” You grabbed his arms and slowly pulled him towards the real elevator, dragging him inside as you huffed. He was heavy. Tequila laughed as he watched you and you glared at him.

“Did you hear?”

“What?”

“Whiskey might be coming down this weekend. Something about a meeting.” You visibly tensed as you clenched your jaw. You took a deep breath as Tequila watched you concerned.

“I didn’t know. How long?” You didn’t even realize you whispered this until Tequila reached over pulling you into his arms. The big lug basically swallowed you in his big arms but you didn’t care. You wrapped an arm around his waist before letting out a shaky breath.

“Just for the weekend. Has he tried to talk to you?” You shook your head as the elevator stopped, indicating you were on the floor you needed. “Good. How about we go to that restaurant I told you about?”

“Sounds nice Tequila. We’ll take Ginger. She’s really been wanting to go there.”

“It’s a date.” You giggled at his remark. You grabbed Eggsy once more, slowly dragging him towards the interrogation room you had. Once Tequila secured Merlin into his chair, Tequila moved quickly, securing Eggsy beside him. You sat in the far side of the room as Tequila took his place in front of the both of them, leaning on the table. He licked his lips, trying not to show how much he would enjoy this as he leaned over, slapping the both of them out of their unconsciousness. This was going to be fun.

Forever Tags: @iwantthedean @authoressskr @sorenmarie87 @reigningqueenofwords @goldenolaf25 @giftofdreams @winchesterprincessbride @chelsea072498 @kitchenwitchsuperwhovian @itakeawfultoawholenewlevel @fictionalabyss @gabby913 @angelkurenai @sea040561 @sleepylunarwolf @smoothdogsgirl @carryonmyswansong @feelmyroarrrr @evyiione @sofreddie @sis-tafics @nitelotus @trexrambling @dancingalone21 @manawhaat @mermaidxatxheart @winchest09 @ellen-reincarnated1967 @mrswhozeewhatsis @just-another-busy-fangirl @lovebodymindstuff @backseat-of-deans-67chevy @chook007 @akshi8278 @evansrogerskitten @bringmesomepie56 @persephonehemingway @blacktithe7 @donnaintx @queenxxxsupreme @whitewolfandthefox @riviawitch3r

Kingsman/Agent Whiskey Tags: @thesadvampire @le-roman-rose @mcudisiac @someone-take-my-bagelseverywhere @chibi-liz05 @marvel-avengers01 @themandjalorian @floccodineveautunnale @jassiepoohbear @gollyderek @retrobhaddie @wolf-lover74

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