#also the fact that they too old to pull crap like this is not unnoticed lol | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

deadbiwrites · 5 years ago

Note

a video of supergirl grabbing lena luthor's ass starts circulating and it's very embarrassing for sc but extremely funny to their friends

(I am SO sorry. Where do these hide? Why do I never see them? How long has this been here?!

Anyways, have some cute nonsense!)

The day starts like any other, honestly.

Like, sure, Kara’s never thrilled when she wakes up 20 minutes late and has to use superspeed to get through her morning routine and into the office on time, but it happens regularly enough that she’s just sort of used to it by now. Like, the sky is blue, the grass is green, she manages time poorly. Whatever.

But she does get to work on time, with just enough to spare that she can make a brief detour to Nia’s desk for the coffee her protege has already bought for her, thank her profusely (with perhaps minor promising of firstborn children), and slip into the morning meeting just as Snapper, James, and Lena start handing out assignments for the day.

“Well, well, good of you to join us, Ponytail. Let me guess, a family emergency kept you out all night again?”

‘I mean, that Abraxian wasn’t my family, technically, but someone’s family, so…’ “Something like that. Sorry.”

Lena catches her eye and quirks a brow in question, but Kara just shrugs easily and sips her coffee, pulling a silly face at her friend when Snapper’s attention moves away from her. When her eyes uncross, she can tell Lena is fighting not to laugh, eyes sparking with mirth as she bites her lip. Kara takes another sip of coffee, feeling a bit smug that she can get Lena to smile without even having to say anything to her. That’s real talent, right there.

Especially since Lena has to stand up at the front with James, who has been by turns cold, dejected, and surly toward her since their breakup (a big, real, final one) a few weeks prior. Lena had said that the whole thing was a mistake, that she should’ve never gone for it in the first place because she’d been right the first time- they’d had some chemistry, after all, but it certainly wasn’t compatible long-term.

Which… Kara can certainly relate. Like, a lot.

Especially about the whole… James being kind of wounded about it part. That part had really sucked- when he’d done it with Kara, who he’d gone on like, a date with, it’d resulted in him deciding to become a vigilante. Rao only knows what he’ll do when it’s someone he dated on and off for over a year...

“Ponytail!”

Kara jumps, realizing too late that her wandering attention hasn’t gone unnoticed. “Yes, sir?”

Snapper rolls his eyes. “Great, now that you’ve stopped orbiting Saturn, you wanna go get that article started?”

Kara’s eyes widen slightly in a panic as she realizes that she has no idea what he’s talking about. “Uh…” Behind his back, Lena catches her eye and nods subtly. Thank Rao. “Yes. I super do.”

Lena snorts, James sighs deeply, and the meeting is adjourned.

“So what exactly am I supposed to be doing today?” Kara asks Lena as they stroll out of the conference room together.

“Well unfortunately for you, you have to interview a big-time CEO. You have a meeting scheduled with her in three hours.”

“You?” Kara asks hopefully.

“You’re very sweet,” Lena chuckles. “No, Elena Watts. She’s a real estate developer, and she runs a nonprofit organization for homeless youth. It’s one of the articles we’re doing for next month’s spread. Contrary to popular belief, Cat and I weren’t the only women with high-profile jobs in this city. ”

“Oh, that’s pretty cool! Have you met her?”

“Not personally, no, but I have donated to her charity- it’s a very good cause, especially the outreach they do with queer youth.”

Kara elbows Lena gently. “You’re such a softie.”

“Mmm, maybe. But if you tell anyone, you’re fired.”

Kara clutches a hand to her chest, feigning horror. “Why Miss Luthor, what a blatant abuse of power!”

Lena shrugs. “I’m a Luthor, darling, I have to keep up appearances somehow.”

“Ouch,” Kara laughs. “See you at lunch?”

“Only if lunch includes a milkshake- I have a teleconference with both boards today. Unless you feel like joining me?”

“Wow, well as fun as that sounds, I’m gonna go do literally anything else.” Her comms crackle to life, alerting her of a hostage situation downtown, and Kara sighs. So much for a work day. “Alright, well, I’m, um, gonna go… see what I can find on Elena Watts. Maybe over another cup of coffee at Noonan’s.” She widens her eyes a bit, trying her best to convey that she’s going to be on Super-duty for a little while.

Thankfully, Lena picks up on it and grins. “You just want sticky buns.”

“Lena, I always want sticky buns. They’re like, my second favorite thing to eat.”

“Oh? What’s the first?” Lena asks, voice just a bit lower than usual.

Kara opens her mouth and closes it, flushing slightly as she averts her gaze and adjusts the laptop bag on her shoulder. Stuff like that has been happening more and more, and she’s not 100% sure what to do about it. Because on the one hand, it makes her stomach do flips and tie up in knots and makes her brain do this… staticky thing where nothing filters in or out, just a pleasant buzz of how funny and smart Lena is and how much Kara likes hanging out with her and being flirted with (because that’s definitely what’s been happening, even if neither of them is really ready to address it) and just generally looking at Lena.... who is currently biting her lip and grinning up at Kara, and that buzz makes her kinda dumb, which is just really unhelpful. But on the other hand, it’s also kinda awesome and Kara really enjoys it, and-

“Kara?”

She spaced out again. Crap.

“Um. What time are you free for lunch?”

Lena sighs, seeming slightly disappointed that Kara isn’t flirting back at the moment (and thank Rao Lena can’t read minds), but she smiles back easily enough as they step off of the elevator. “I should be done by two.”

Feeling emboldened, Kara turns so she’s walking backwards in front of Lena and grins. “It’s a date,” she says with a grin, ducking forward to press a quick “friendly” kiss high on Lena’s cheek. She whirls and jogs out the double doors, leaving Lena smiling exasperatedly after her.

It is genuinely baffling to Kara that people still commit crimes in National City. It’s not even an ego thing, really, since Kara tries to keep herself humble (even when she manages to wrap up a hostage situation within twenty seconds of arriving on-scene without injuring any of the criminals or damaging the building too badly). Like, yeah, she gets that there’s a certain element of crazies who just sorta gravitate to places with a local hero, the big-bads who have their own suits and geek-toys and abilities. Them, Kara gets. Kinda sorta. But the regular ones, who are armed with like, pistols? Or knives? Just regular man made stuff without even the benefit of magic or kryptonite or something?

Why?

She’s sure that if she asked, Lena would have some sort of statistical thing about large cities and poverty and all sorts of other factors that would end up making Kara feel like a jerk for being uncharitable to the criminal element of her city, but at the moment she’s mostly too annoyed by the fact that she has to spend her weekdays chasing them around instead of chasing stories.

Once all the hostages are freed and the cops secure the scene, Kara departs, flying into the alley behind Noonan’s and changing into her regular clothes before she heads inside to do a bit of research before her meeting with Elena Watts in a few hours (just because she’d used it as a cover doesn’t mean it was a bad idea…). She finds her favorite little two-person booth tucked into a quiet corner, plugs in her laptop, and gets to work, asking the waitress to please keep both the coffee and the sticky buns coming.

She gets a surprising amount done by the time she needs to leave for the interview, having a good foundation for what she wants to write and who Elena Watts is.

Ms. Watts turns out to be a pretty nice lady around Eliza’s age, if a bit busy and distracted by the steady flow of people in and out of her office. She answers all Kara’s questions with aplomb, happy to elaborate on most every point and eager to draw attention to the rising issue of homelessness among children and teens in the US.

“When I was young, my dad lost his job at the auto plant. It was supposed to be a temporary layoff, but the factory never reopened. We ended up losing the house, and we lived so far from our extended family that staying with them wasn’t much of an option. We lived in our SUV for six months, sleeping at shelters every now and again, if we could find one that allowed families to stay together. We showered at the local YMCA. Five people and a dog, living and sleeping in an old station wagon- even now, it sounds ridiculous. Eventually, we got back on our feet, but I never forgot that. It was just six months, but it was- and remains- the scariest, most uncertain time in my entire life, and it shaped me in a lot of ways I didn’t expect. And there are kids and families who do that for years. I just want to help them the way I wish that someone had been able to help us.”

At the end of the interview, Kara thanks her profusely for her time and for sharing her story before hurrying off to CatCo to type up a draft for Snapper (“What’s wrong with you, Ponytail, why is everything you bring me sappy and sentimental?”), which she finishes an outline of just in time to send it off before running to Big Belly and L-Corp for lunch with Lena.

She greets the newest in a series of secretaries (Anna? Amy? Ava? Lena’s really missing Jess, these days, but from what she’s told Kara, Jess is kicking butt in her new role as VP of Operations and will probably take over for the COO when he retires in a few years), and the girl waves her in distractedly.

And that’s when Kara’s day goes from normal to not, because inside the office are two masked men holding a stone-faced Lena at gunpoint on her balcony and demanding… something, probably. Kara’s a bit distracted by the loaded gun aimed at Lena’s head.

“Hey!” she yells, attracting both their attention. They whirl on her and Lena’s eyes widen in alarm, and Kara suddenly realizes three things- 1) she’s in her Kara Danvers clothes, not the supersuit, 2) she can’t speed into the suit now that they’re both looking at her, and 3) she has no plan.

Crap.

“Who the hell are you?!” one of them demands.

Kara… doesn’t have a good or snappy answer for that, and instead does the only thing she can think of- she throws the large milkshakes she’s carrying at them as hard as she can.

Which, in retrospect, is too hard, apparently because while yes, it is both funny and gratifying to see two grown men get absolutely leveled by a tasty dairy treat to the face, the one closest to Lena manages to elbow her in such a way that she falls backwards over the rail with an instinctual scream that makes Kara’s heart fly into her throat. She whips off her glasses, and by the time she’s out the window and speeding toward Lena’s flailing form, the suit is materialized. She gets under Lena, catching her carefully and dropping a bit further before slowing down (because she’s been made aware that when she doesn’t, the people she’s saving may as well be hitting the pavement), finally coasting to a stop about 20 feet from the ground.

Lena’s face is screwed up in a forced sort of focus, her hands clutching tightly at Kara’s shoulders and cape as she holds her breath.

“Are you okay?” Kara asks quietly.

Lena swallows thickly and nods, eyes still firmly closed. “I’m alright. Thank you- I’ll admit, I wasn’t quite sure how to get out of that one.”

“What was that? What did they want?”

Lena cracks an eye open. “Oh. you know, just my quarterly assassination attempt. I think my mother was starting to miss me, so she wanted to reach out.”

Kara snorts. “That really shouldn’t be funny.”

“Maybe not, but here we are.” Lena shifts a bit in Kara’s arms, cheeks a bit flushed from the adrenaline rush, and clears her throat. “Not to be rude, Supergirl, but do you think that perhaps we could continue this conversation… on the ground?”

“Oh. Oh! Yeah, sorry. I forgot we were, uh, flying.”

Lena chuckles as they ascend slowly back up to her office. “You forgot you were flying?”

Kara shrugs with an easy smile. “I guess you have that effect on me.”

Lena huffs a laugh against Kara’s neck, eyes squeezed shut again. They alight on the balcony, finding the two men still unconscious, covered in Kara and Lena’s lunch. Lena sighs as Kara sets her down, pinching the bridge of her nose. “What a mess.”

“Yeah, sorry, I sorta… panicked.”

“I was so looking forward to a milkshake too…” Lena laments playfully.

“Well, then I have good news and bad news,” Kara says. She reaches out and gently wipes a bit of her own chocolate shake from Lena’s cheek with the pad of her thumb, tucking it into her mouth on instinct to get a taste of it. “The good news is, you do, in fact, have some shake on you!”

“Whats the bad news?”

“Also that you have some shake on you.” Kara laughs, gathering the two men in her arms and hefting them a bit so they’re easier to carry. “I’ll get you another one. Be right back.”

She drops the men at the police station with a brief explanation before flying back into the office. Lena hands over her discarded glasses with a wry grin.

“I figured you’d need these before the police arrive.” She’s putting on a brave front, but she’s clearly still more than a bit rattled, if her too-bright eyes and thundering heartbeat are anything to go by. Kara steps closer and opens her arms in invitation, and Lena doesn’t hesitate to step into them. “Thank you,” Lena says fervently, tucking her face into Kara’s shoulder and wrapping her arms tight around Kara’s waist.

“Always,” Kara promises, daring to press a reassuring kiss to Lena’s temple (and getting a bit of Lena’s strawberry shake for her troubles) before wrapping her up even tighter in her arms. “Are you actually okay?”

“I mean, my fear of heights has been reaffirmed,” Lena jokes, “but aside from that, I’m not hurt.”

“Good. I don’t like, love people pointing guns at you. Just so you know.”

“I’m not a fan either, for the record,” Lena drawls, burrowing even closer. “Even though I know you’ll save me, it still puts a damper on my day.”

Kara huffs a laugh. “Same.”

They stay like that for a few minutes, until Lena’s calmed down enough to stop shaking and calls her assistant (Audra, apparently) in, telling her what’d happened and that the police would be arriving shortly to take her and Kara’s statements, and please advise the security team to let them up discreetly. After the cops arrive, it’s a blur of questions, and Kara has to concentrate on telling the story of how she’d panicked and thrown the milkshakes at the men, and one of them had knocked Lena over the balcony (all true), and Kara had yelled for Supergirl, who had knocked the men out on her way to Lena (also technically mostly true. Technically. Mostly.). The police are sure to tell Kara that next time, she shouldn’t throw things at people with guns, and also to tell them both how lucky they are that Supergirl had shown up when she did.

“She’s always there when I need her,” Lena agrees, throwing a sly wink over the officer’s shoulder at Kara.

Kara just shakes her head and smiles. Even almost dying isn’t enough to make Lena not flirt with her. The woman is truly a marvel.

Kara’s comms crackle again, accompanied by Alex’s custom ringtone on her cell, and after assuring the police that she has no issue with giving another statement if they need her to later, hurries over to the DEO (making a quick stop in the back alley to change into her suit).

When Kara arrives, she’s told that J’onn and Alex are waiting for her in the Directors’ offices. She makes her way there, waving to the agents and scientists she knows. But it’s very weird, because every time one of them sees her, they start giggling before quickly hurrying off in the opposite direction. Like, literally everyone is whispering and pointing and giggling, and it’s giving Kara such visceral flashbacks to high school that it’s all she can do to not check her cape for a taped on sign that says ‘Kick me’ or ‘Freak’.

(Kids are mean.)

By the time Kara gets to her destination, she’s fully paranoid, sure that someone’s playing a prank on her, somehow, and that everyone but her is in on the joke. She opens the door with more force than intended and catches it just before the handle puts a hole in the wall, throwing Alex and J’onn a sheepish smile. She closes the door extra gently and leans against it heavily. J’onn and Alex just stare at her, looking thoroughly unimpressed.

“Busy day, Supergirl?” Alex asks, and after half a lifetime of spending time with her, Kara recognizes that she, too, is trying not to laugh.

Kara’s had enough. “Okay, do I have something on my face? Or on the suit? Is someone messing with me?”

J’onn’s brow furrows. “No.”

“Then what’s the deal? Why is the entire DEO like… laughing at me? Did someone accidentally vent the lab fumes out into the main hub again?”

“No.”

“Did someone see me crash into that billboard last week?”

J’onn’s frown deepens. “What?”

“No,” Alex answers.

“Then why is everyone laughing at me?!”

“I mean, if I had to guess, I’d say it’s because of that,” Alex muses, nodding toward the big TV on the wall beside Kara.

She steps back to watch the news coverage of her dealing with the hostage situation this morning and frowns. “What, those guys? That was routine, what’s so funny about tha-”

“No, no, not that. That,” Alex clarifies, cranking up the volume.

“...reports are saying that the CEO of L-Corp, Lena Luthor, experienced an attempt on her life early this afternoon. Sources claim that she fell from a considerable height-”

“Hey, she was pushed,” Kara corrects.

“Shh!”

“...caught by Supergirl, who may have gotten a little… familiar with her.”

And there’s a video (clearly recorded on a cell phone but not the worst quality Kara’s ever seen) of Kara catching Lena and slowing to a stop above the sidewalk, of them talking quietly, of Kara’s hand definitely on Lena’s-

“Oh. Oh no.”

“Oh yes,” Alex drawls, clicking the TV off with relish, a large, evil-big-sister grin spreading across her face. “Congratulations, Supergirl- the world just watched you grope Lena Luthor’s ass.”

“But I’m not- I wasn’t groping, I was catching! My hands weren’t… If it was groping, I’d be all up on her, and I wasn’t!”

“Camera begs to differ. It’s already trending on Twitter in National CIty.”

Kara puts her head in her hands and groans. “Why?! I was trying to save her!”

“You were definitely trying to save part of her,” Alex agrees. “Granted, it’s a very nice part...”

Kara’s head pops up, and she shoots Alex a look that’s between a pout and a glare. “You’re not helping.”

Alex feigns confusion. “Am I supposed to be helping?”

“Alright, enough,” J’onn cuts in before Kara can retort. “We just wanted you to be aware. I don’t think that this is going to be taken for anything more than it is- a humorous moment in the middle of a successful rescue. You shouldn’t worry about the press.”

And truth be told, Kara isn't worried about the press- she’s worried about the fact that she’s going to have to face Lena after this. Lena, who she knows for a fact has google alerts set for herself, Kara Danvers, and Supergirl, a gesture which is normally actually sweet and kind but is right now definitely gonna bite her in the-

“Okay! So, is that all?”

Alex blinks, looks over at J’onn, and shrugs. “I mean, yeah. Try not to make a habit of groping your crush when you’re in the suit.”

“I wasn’t groping her-”

Alex grins. “So you admit you have a crush? Interesting…”

“Alex!”

J’onn’s prediction is mostly right- no one seems to be taking the shots of her grabbi- saving Lena as anything other than a funny blip of a moment in their coverage of it.

He was wrong about the sheer scale. The clip had gone totally viral in a matter of hours, and seemingly every major network in the country has run the clip at least once as a bit of filler-fluff, and almost every major network anchor (including the ones at CatCo, the traitors) has made at least a passing joke about Supergirl being ‘Super-Handsy'.

Which means that Kara is very late getting back to Lena’s office with replacement food. But like, she’s been busy, okay? It’s not like she’s avoiding Lena, or something, because she’s embarrassed- which she isn’t, because she didn’t do anything bad or wrong and-

Anyways, it’s well past sunset by the time Kara gets to Lena’s office door again. She hesitates outside it for just a moment before shouldering the door open and knocking tentatively.

Lena’s attention jerks from whatever she’d been absorbed in to Kara, and a relieved smile blooms across her face. “Hey there.”

Kara finds herself equally relieved to not experience a repeat performance of earlier scary situations. “Hi,” Kara says, unable to resist smiling back. She raises the bags and cup carrier. “I bring grease and milkshakes. Again.”

“Oh thank god, I’m starving,” Lena says, rolling her chair away from her desk and rising into a deep and probably much-needed stretch. Kara very determinedly does not stare at the slight sliver of soft tummy that appears between her blouse and skirt at the motion. “I’ve been staring at this screen for several hours. And Sam called to yell at me- she says hello, by the way- she and Ruby are in town next weekend.”

“Good!” Kara crosses the room to the couch as Lena does, easily spreading out the veritable buffet of fast food she’d brought over the coffee table. “I mean, not good that she yelled at you, or that you’re still at work, Miss Luthor,” she says pointedly, receiving only an unapologetic shrug in response. “But good that, um-”

“I get it,” Lena chuckles, resting a hand lightly on Kara’s knee and boy, if that doesn’t make Kara’s brain go fuzzy and dumb again… “Thank you, for checking in.”

“Of course I was gonna check on you, Lena,” Kara huffs. “Plus, I know you probably didn’t get lunch, so…”

Lena hums around a mouthful of burger, chewing until she can politely speak again. “Well it’s delicious. Did you make it yourself?” she teases with a sly grin.

“Oh, yeah, totally. Slaved away over a hot stove for this- I just wrapped it in Big Belly wrappers so you wouldn’t feel bad about it.”

“Very clever.” Lena pops the lid off of her milkshake and drags a fry through it (an advanced culinary delicacy Kara had horrified her with initially but had eventually become a bit of a guilty pleasure). “Although I have to say, traditionally you’d have to buy me dinner before you grabbed my ass.”

Kara chokes on a pickle. “Oh no,” she groans, dropping the burger onto the wrapper on the table and dropping her very red face into her hands as Lena laughs beside her. She peers out from between her fingers. “I am so sorry, I was just worried about you hitting the pavement and like, catching you in the least jarring way and I wasn’t paying attention to where my hands were and I didn’t even notice until I got back to the DEO and-”

“Well I have so say, I feel a bit offended that you didn’t even realize you were copping a feel...” When the only response is another groan and a deep flush spreading from Kara’s neck to the tips of her ears, Lena relents. “Kara, Kara, it’s fine!” she laughs, pulling Kara’s hands away from her face and giving them a grounding squeeze. “Nia’s been sending me memes about it all day, which has improved my mood significantly. On the grand scale of fallout from assassination attempts, this one was at least funny.”

“I know that’s supposed to be comforting, but all it makes me wanna do is wrap you in bubble wrap forever,” Kara informs her.

“Pass on that. But seriously, don’t worry about it- I know it wasn’t on purpose- unfortunately for me, you’re too noble to do something like that,” Lena laments playfully.

And whether it’s the knowledge that Lena is not, in fact, upset, the overall weirdness that has been this day, or this delicious burger fueling it, Kara feels a bit emboldened. “Hey Lena…”

“Yes?”

“What if I wanted to grab your butt? Just, y’know, as a hypothetical. For future reference.”

Lena quirks a brow at her, fighting a smile as she contemplates this. “Hmm. Strictly hypothetically?”

Kara scoots a bit closer on the couch. “Sure.”

“Well, you’ve already bought me dinner…”

“And lunch, technically. Even if I gave it to the bad guys.”

“True. Plus you saved my life, so that gets you some points, probably.”

Kara pauses in her sly scooching. “Oh, hey, wait, no, that’s not-”

“Kidding, Kara. I know you’d never use that to your advantage. I, however, have determined that strong moral fibre and nobility do, in fact, earn you more points, which is my choice on the matter and you get absolutely no say in it.”

“Oh. Um, alright, I think.”

Lena stares off into the middle distance, tapping her forefinger thoughtfully against her chin. Finally she shrugs. “Yes, I think you’re fulfilled the prerequisites for a bit of grab-ass today.”

Kara snorts, Lena laughs, and soon enough Kara takes her up on the offer.

“Hey Kara, remember that time you grabbed Lena’s ass and it made international news?” Nia asks around a mouthful of mushu pork.

“You mean last week? Yes, I remember,” Kara drawls. Beside her/halfway sitting on her lap, Lena snorts.

“That was the best.”

Alex glares. “Um, excuse you, no. No it was not. I had to sift through so much thirsting over my sister on like, every social media platform. It was the worst day of my life.”

Brainy’s brow furrows. “Surely that cannot be correct, Alex. Statistically speaking-”

Alex holds up a hand, cutting him off. “Trauma can’t be measured, Brainy.”

Kelly chuckles and presses a consoling kiss to Alex’s cheek, and it makes the tough agent melt into a doe-eyed puddle of mush that Kara snorts. And she says they’re gross... Kara sneaks a glance at Lena from the corner of her eye, and she catches Lena looking at her. She leans close and jostles her gently as she drops her head onto Lena’ shoulder. “We’re never gonna live that down, are we?”

“Probably not.”

“We have the worst friends.” When this elicits nothing but a chuckle, Kara tips her head back to see Lena still looking at her, a soft smile playing at her mouth and shining in her eyes. And like, this whole thing they’re doing is new, with the kissing and the actual dates and the... everything else. But the thing where Kara catches Lena looking at her and she doesn’t look away? That freakin’ knocks her out, every single time. “Hey,” she manages.

Lena grins down at her. “Hi.”

So yeah. Maybe the initial circumstances weren’t ideal, and she doesn’t love the mockery that’s been heaped upon her by all of her friends and loved ones (including Winn, who’d sent a missive from the future that literally just said ‘LOL’). But the fact is, Kara muses as she surges up just enough to kiss the corner of Lena’s mouth, that she doesn’t regret a thing.

#supercorp #prompts!#asks open #ask response #supergirl fanfic #kara x lena #humor #idiots #international news about idiots #kara danvers #lena luthor #i'm also deeply sorry that this is so long on mobile #i swear there's a read more that's supposed to be there #but alas

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starbuckie · 4 years ago

Text

𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭, 𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐰

challenge: 200 followers challenge by @angrybirdcr

prompt: “there may have been a slight misunderstanding, but nothing we can’t fix.” and locked in the trunk of a car

pairing: bucky barnes x reader

words: 5,504 words

warnings: post-endgame, bucky’s kinda a dick, enemies to friends(?), swearing, angst, mentions of violence, talk about sexual assault, guns, bickering, jealousy

summary: bucky had been adjusting to the new familiarity of having a stable routine, right until she walked in.

a/n: I DON’T NOT OWN ANY CHARACTERS ALL CHARACTERS BELONG TO MARVEL. okay, great, done that, but congratulations on 200 followers!! i had so much fun taking part in your writing challenge, so thank you so much. imma be honest, there’s not a lot of romance in this, it’s some enemies to friends type of shit and i genuinely did not think this fic would get so angsty and dark and actually long, but i had an idea and ran with it mid way through the old fic with this prompt. also i had an idea for an epilogue to this, so tell me if you want that part 2 because i am on the verge of writing it. this is not proofread by a beta, but i edited it myself and hope it is okay. anyways, now that we’re done with that, please enjoy this rollercoaster of a fanfic i’ve written.

main masterlist || sebastian stan characters masterlist

Life in the twenty-first century was strange, Bucky concluded. Though he’d been free of HYDRA for around nine years technically, being a fugitive and in another realm didn’t give him much time to learn about the modern world. As soon as he came back, Steve had left him and he had to move on without his childhood best friend. It was hard for him to adjust to this century, with the new rules and the whole scene in general, but he seemed to make it through just fine. He’d come to peace with the fact that there was no escaping the fighting at all, falling into a steady routine that became his holy grail.

In the new Avengers compound in Upstate New York he felt content and more sure of himself than he’d felt in a very long time. Everyone in the tower was quiet and kept to themselves mostly, still dealing with the aftermath of losing so much in so little time. But in that silence Bucky felt like a free man, able to walk around without fear of being hunted down every second and time to really look about this new world.

There were still times when he woke up in a sweaty panic, disoriented and terrified until he realized he was in the safety of his room in the compound. He’d flinch at loud noises in the quiet and his heart would stop, something that went by unnoticed by everyone else, though he didn’t blame them for it. Bucky felt extreme guilt for the horrible things he had done as the Winter Soldier, memories of bloodied and dead bodies, bodies he had made fall to the ground motionless. It wasn’t him, he knew, but his hand still had pulled the trigger. When he found something new a smile would split across his face, ready to tell Steve what he had discovered, until he remembered that the rambunctious blond boy was gone, a wrinkled grey man with a new family in his place. It still hurt him to think that he had left him so easily, with barely a goodbye. Bucky still had days where he felt so incredibly tired, left still on his bed as horrible thoughts ran through his mind, anxious about the future.

But then he found new things everyday, things that seemed to outweigh the bad by a whole lot. He’d found cool ranch Doritos were the best chips and that he really liked the season of fall with the leaves falling around him as he took a serene walk. He found that he really loved Frozen, the songs and Sven the reindeer making him crack a smile every time he watched it. He found that he could sleep in on his days without missions and Wanda liked her pancakes with an unhealthy amount of syrup on the side to dunk them in. He found that Sam was actually really funny, always making the worst puns or the dirtiest jokes at the most inappropriate of times. He found a new sense of respect and warmth in the family they’d built together, learning how to go on without those that they loved. He found that he was really enjoying his new routine and his new sense of peace with himself.

All until she walked in.

Bucky could still remember the exact moment she flipped their world upside down. Sharon had fawned over her, talking about one of her old SHIELD buddies who was finally coming back to the states. After the organization fell in 2014, Y/N L/N fled to Hawaii, running away to the one place she knew no one would find her. She was done fighting, or that’s what she believed until Thanos showed up.

It was shameful, really, that Y/N was aware of all the problems that went on, yet did nothing to help. They needed her help, she knew they did, but she couldn’t bring yourself to go help her friends. Originally she was trying for a settled down life, planning to retire from the constant fighting, but after a few failed relationships Y/N realized that she wasn't cut out for that white picket fence life. Those had just been the dreams of a fourteen year old Y/N L/N, left empty and hollow by the horrors she had seen during her time at SHIELD. There was nothing left waiting for her, no family, no friends, but she was too stubborn to get back into the fight, so she stayed in her humid Oahu apartment and waited for something interesting to happen.

Well, maybe Y/N shouldn’t have wished so hard, that “interesting thing” showing up in the form of being snapped out of existence by a large, purple grape.

When she came back she felt nearly indifferent, knowing that five years had passed by her, and though Y/N felt nothing but emptiness she knew that it was time to go back. It was her duty when she had joined SHIELD to always be there and protect, and she had failed that job. But Y/N was more than ready to make up for it. Nothing like Thanos could ever happen again, so she called Sharon, one of her closest friends and previous commanding supervisor at the organization. She was ecstatic to have Y/N back, probably a bit too much, and before she could have second thoughts the girl was on a plane overlooking JFK, ready to land in New York.

So when Y/N walked in, with a tight-lipped smile and butterflies anxiously fluttering in her stomach, Bucky couldn’t help but despise her. Maybe he had formed his opinion off of Sharon’s explanation of her past, but Y/N got the life of settling down that he didn’t and he was infuriatingly jealous.

“Hey, Bucky, Sam, come meet Y/N!” Sharon said excitedly. Her hair was put back in a headband neatly, two suitcases in hand as she looked at the two tall, muscular men. Of course Y/N recognized both of them, she hadn’t been living under a rock. Keeping up with the news of the Avengers and remaining SHIELD officers had been one of the only things keeping her from coming back, hearing of the terrible fights and destruction done to whole cities. She recognized Sam Wilson, the infamous Falcon being marked down as a “war criminal” in 2016. She never believed that crap, if he and half of the other Avengers were locked up there had to be a good reason behind it.

Then, there was James Buchanan Barnes. Now, she knew him from her eighth grade American history books, reading about the brave Howling Commando who had given up his life for saving the country, but Y/N knew him better as the Winter Soldier from her time at SHIELD. The fight in 2014 had been brutal, hectic in all forms, but she’d caught a few glances at the metal-armed man. He hadn't been in his normal state, with being controlled and tortured by HYDRA at the time, but the kid inside of her freaked out, remembering memories of gossiping with her friends about how hot he was in the textbooks and how much of a hero he was. That man was still in there somewhere, hidden by decades of reprogramming and mind-wiping, and Y/N was finally seeing him in the flesh. She would be working with him daily, living in the same space as him. The thought made her giddy like a middle schooler with her first crush,though his presence was intimidating as well.

“Hi there, I’m Y/N L/N, it’s a pleasure to be working with you.” Sticking out her hand, she gave a bright smile, already growing out of her nervous state.

Sam quickly shook Y/N’s hand, giving a warm greeting in response to her introduction. Then she turned to Bucky. “It’s nice to meet you, Bucky.”

His cold, dead glare locked onto Y/N, staring straight through her soul. It felt like he could see every insecurity and guilty action she had, and she didn’t like it one bit. “That’s Sergeant Barnes to you.” Without another word, he walked out of the room like a petulant child, leaving Sharon, Sam, and Y/N flabbergasted.

“I’m sorry, Y/N, he’s usually more friendly than that, I’ll go check in on him,” Sharon furiously said with a painfully fake smile. Sam grabbed the new girl by the arm, linking it with his own and led her in another direction as he explained the usual training routine and schedule for the week.

And while she was completely enraptured by Sam’s comforting words and the exciting compound, her heart still felt heavy from Sergeant Barnes’ cold greeting.

She had tried to be nice. She really had. But after two months it was pretty clear Sergeant Barnes wasn’t getting any better, and Y/N was beyond pissed off. Childish, is what he was being, fucking childish.

It started off with leaving every room she came into, blatantly ignoring her presence. When she would say hello every morning he’d grunt or even worse, he wouldn’t answer her at all. Y/N had begged Sharon if she knew why the sergeant was acting up, but she didn’t know either and just asked her to ignore him and his “crappy, old-man behaviour”. Sam wasn’t very helpful to Y/N’s cause either, but he was a great mentor and an even better teacher.

Sharon was really the only person Y/N had in her phone, her parents dead and no boyfriend accounted for. The rest of her family had wanted nothing to do with her when she joined SHIELD, but that was okay with her. She knew what she had gotten herself into, and it was an extreme risk to even be acquaintances with her. But now, living with several others in a compound that seemed so large after the great loss, Y/N became part of their family as well.

It was nice to have friends again, as years of solitude on an island where she knew nobody had made her nearly desperate for more human interaction than with the teenagers who worked the cash registers at the grocery store. Y/N became an integral part of the Avengers (she could actually say that aloud now), going on missions and kicking ass just like she used to. Of course, Sergeant Barnes’ behaviour in and out of missions stayed the same, but she usually tried her best to not take it to heart and move on. After all, she couldn’t have everyone like her.

But one day they both snapped.

Y/N was sitting with Sharon and Wanda, eating lunch and talking over their most recent mission with them and Barnes in Cairo. It hadn’t been a necessarily bad mission, per se, but she had run back into the building to get Wanda out from under a fallen pillar, which apparently was “severely dangerous”. Looking back, she could see how it was, putting her entire team’s secrecy and mission in volatile danger, but Wanda was like her sister and in Y/N’s heart she knew that she had to. Bucky had had to grab them both, nearly dragging her back to the jet before the building had collapsed. He’d been beyond angry with Y/N for the stupid decision, but when they landed he just huffed and stomped away. The redhead was grateful for her and so was Sharon, but lunch was just for a simple stern talking about mission protocols.

“Y/N, I know that you’re a fantastic agent and even better friend, but when we’re on missions we need that agent. You can’t let your feelings and outside life get in the way of our objective.” Sharon said in a firm voice. Y/N dropped her head in her hands and rubbed her face tiredly.

“I know, Sharon, I’m sorry, Wanda could’ve probably gotten herself out but I just let my instincts act too fast and ran back in without another thought.” She groaned. “Plus, I just caused more damage than anything else. It won’t happen again, I promise.” Wanda and Sharon nodded in understanding just as the Asshole Supreme walked into the kitchen.

“You talking ‘bout how Y/N fucked up the mission yesterday?” Sergeant Barnes grunted. While Sharon and Wanda gasped in shock, Y/N’s eyes were trained at the plate on the table in front of her, not daring to make a sound. She muttered out a sorry and got up to put her dish in the sink. As long as he was here, he was going to make her life a living hell, and as much as she wanted to lash out, it would be cause for her dismissal from the team. While her old, solitary life was what she had once dreamed of, Y/N now saw her future among these people, this family, somewhere she finally felt a part of despite Barnes’ horrid behaviour. “Sorry?” He scoffed, “Sorry doesn’t make up for the fact that I had to run back in for you. Sorry doesn’t make up for the extreme risks we all pull to save your ass out in the field.”

“Bucky, stop.” Sharon yelled.

But he ignored her words and sauntered over to Y/N with a knowing smirk, leaning down to meet her level. His warm breath hit her face and she could stare into his deep eyes, swirling like a raging storm of blues and greys. “You shouldn’t even be out there, L/N. I mean, you haven’t had training in years, it’s not like you were anything special either. Just another agent, hoping to get to work in the big leagues.”

“Shut up.” Y/N whispered meekly. Tears were just barely being held in, her chest feeling empty and hollow with anger and guilt. Is this what it felt like to want to kill someone with so much vengeance?

“Where were you when Thanos came? Where were you, L/N? We needed all the help we could get, but there you are, in fucking Hawaii, with you little fucking margaritas on the fucking beach-”

“Shut the fuck up!” She screamed. The room went dead silent with her voice. None of the team had seen Y/N look so angry, so sad, so vulnerable, at one time. It was easy for her to hide her emotions and Wanda refrained from trying to toy with her mind, but shame was overwhelming the girl by the second and Sergeant Barnes was right, as much as she didn’t want to say it. She was a coward, thinking she could run away from the “hero life” so easily. They’d caught her, and Barnes was making her face that truth right now. “Don’t you think I know that? Don’t you think I know, that I was absolutely scared shitless of returning here, facing all of you after what you endured for so long?”

Y/N took a deep breath, laughing mirthlessly as tears ran hot down her cheeks. “I’m sorry that I came back, I really am, but I’m trying my damn best to make up for what I did. Being scared is no excuse for why I ran away, I was fucking terrified of having one more thing to lose. My family is dead, SHIELD fell, and I had no one to lean on so I ran as far as I fucking could. But I’m back now, I’m ready to serve up to what I left behind, and you better fucking deal with it because this,” she jabbed a finger into his broad chest, “is not fucking it. I’m not going to live with your shitty behaviour anymore, Barnes.”

He, Wanda, and Sharon all watched as she slammed the plate into the sink, storming out of the room. They could hear her door slam shut, and the two women glared at Bucky.

“What the hell is your problem, Barnes” Wanda hissed in a scarily low voice. Fuck. He knew he’d messed up then, gone farther than he ever dared to with insulting Y/N, and both of the women were severely overprotective of the new Avenger.

Sharon walked up to Bucky with large strides, delivering a slap to the side of his head. Yeah, he definitely deserved that. It was dead silent in the kitchen, the tension still high strung from the fight seconds before. “You better go apologize, Barnes, I swear to God this has gotten far too out of hand. You two have a mission tomorrow, estimated a month, and wheels are up at 2300 hours. I need you two to go get the intel quietly and undetected and we can’t have both of you arguing the whole damn time, so you better fix things by then.”

The blonde agent walked away, Wanda trailing behind her, but not without the middle finger from both of them. A mission? Tomorrow? With Y/N? This was going to be horrible. Bucky ran a hand over his face and trudged off to his room.

It was going to be a long month.

Y/N stared out of the window as they flew over the clouds above the Mediteranean Sea. Eleven in the morning in Italy gave a clear view of the skies, light blue as far as she could see. They were ready to start their descent into Azzano and the woman glanced to the man beside her, his stormy blue eyes glaring in any direction but hers. The sergeant had avoided her all he could up until they boarded the jet, and even then he only spoke to her when necessary. “Hey, Barnes, we’re starting to descend, go get ready.”

The brunette looked over to Y/N and grunted in response. Oh well, it was better than him yelling at her. His little outburst in the kitchen had her pissed at him more than ever, but the words thrown around still rung true in her head. But now wasn’t the time to think about that.

She paid careful attention to where she was supposed to land, a shaded facility almost five miles south of where they had to get the intel from an old, but rebuilt HYDRA base. The same base where James Buchanan Barnes was once held captive, experimented on and tortured until Steve Rogers came to save him. Y/N didn’t care much for Barnes usually, but she also didn’t know how he’d react to being in a location with such horrible memories attached to it. They had both been at the mission briefing the day before of course, he knew what it entailed and he seemed unfazed, and he was always good at hiding his emotions. As the jet touched down finally, the agent thought back. Well, sometimes he was good at hiding his emotions.

Making sure her comm fit snugly in her ear, Y/N unbuckled herself from the seat, heading back towards the wall of weaponry they kept in the back of the jet. Barnes was already there dressed in hs black kevlar tactical suit, hugging his body nicely and vibranium arm on display. When he was around her he tried to hide it, and she saw him joking around and being comfortable in other’s presence with it out, wondering what made her so different. She personally found it fascinating, the beauty of the gold and black metal with the incredible Wakandan technology, but she respected his privacy and tried to not think too much about it.

Y/N threw a vest on over her own navy blue tac suit, tightening her combat boots before she fully zipped up. Were they finally ready?

Three guns perched in holsters by her waist.

Two taps to her earpiece and Barnes’ breathing in her ear.

One mutual nod with the sergeant himself, and they were off, slowly making their way to grab the intel, not a trace to be left behind.

Getting stuck in the trunk of a car was not in the plan. It definitely wasn’t. Bucky remembered every single inch and cranny of that meticulously planned out schedule, every move, every kill they had to make, but not once was it mentioned that Y/N was to get stuck in Baron Zemo’s car without any weapons on her.

“L/N, what the hell do you mean you’re in the back of Zemo’s car.” He seethed, already searching frantically around the large remains of the building for her. It had gone smoothly, she was just supposed to quickly check inside his car as he searched the base. It’ll be so much quicker if I do it, L/N, is what he had said, but now he regretted it. Like the incompetent fool she was, she was spotted and ended up shooting out half of Zemo’s goonies before dropping all her weapons to the ground and running when she ran out of ammunition.

“There may have been a slight misunderstanding,” Y/N whispered into her comm, “but nothing we can’t fix! Just come find me, Barnes, and all will be well.”

She could hear his angry curses and jostling, which she assumed he was running to come find her. It wasn’t entirely Y/N’s fault she had run out of ammo. Some of it must have fallen from her pockets during the shootout and when she saw the car she thought it’d be the perfect place to hide. Until she realized that no one else was at the partially burned down HYDRA base besides Baron Zemo, the person who Sharon had told her to avoid at all costs, and she was in his damn car. Practically her death note.

“If you had just listened to me you wouldn’t have been caught!” Bucky furiously whispered through the comms.

Y/N rolled her eyes, though he couldn’t even see her, and groaned. “I did listen to you, Barnes, I checked the damn car, but we weren’t expecting his guards to find me so I killed them and hid. Is that actually so bad?”

“Yes it is!’ He explained. “Give me your coordinates.” She checked the small watch on her wrist, pushing a button on the side that gave a small holographic image of the time and her coordinates on a world wide map. Reciting them for him, Bucky followed, continuing to berate her as he did so. “And you’re right, L/N, I asked you to check the car, not fucking jump inside it!”

This time Bucky could envision her rolling her eyes as she groaned even louder in very Y/N L/N fashion. “Would you rather I be dead?” She asked. It had been a few seconds, but she still received no response. “Barnes?” Crackling. “Sergeant?” Absolute nothingness. “Sarge?”

The trunk of the car opened as the woman let out a squeak, the broad frame of James Barnes hovering above her, some dirt smudged around the annoyed expression on his face. “Don’t call me that.” He grumbled.

He reached his hand towards her, grasping her own tightly before pulling her to a sitting position. “Why, you had all the ladies calling you that back in the day?” She mimicked a much higher tone, nearly resembling Snow White if the princess were high on drugs and had a Brooklyn accent. “Hey, Sarge, we goin’ dancing? Sarge, you goin’ to give me some sweet lovin’ tonight? Oh, how I’d just love for you to shove your fat, ugly head up your a-”

A loud beeping from his wristwatch cut her off. With a glare, the man let go of Y/N’s hand, checking to see what the problem was. A small red tracker on the map moved, and both of them knew they were in deep shit. “Crap, Zemo’s coming this way. That’s one of the trackers I set up on the ground and we gotta go quick.”

Faint whistling from Baron Zemo made both of them panic as Bucky tackled her back down and quickly shut the door behind him. Footsteps were approaching, the whistling getting louder and a door opening let the two Avengers know that they couldn’t get out anytime soon. Y/N could feel Bucky’s racing heart against her chest, hers beating just as fast. He turned to face her, a lot closer than both of them expected, lips dangerously close and noses nudging against each other. Ther breaths mixed together, the hot air of the car doing nothing to help her current close quarters with the man.

“Can you bust us out of here?” She whispered hurriedly, rather uncomfortable with the present situation.

“We’ll die if we leave now. He’s much more prepared than we thought and with half his men down he knows something is up. Zemo wasn’t even supposed to know we were here so we’re far too unprepared and you lost your damn weapons. There’s no way we can go out so we’re going to stick in here until he gets out.”

Truth be told, Bucky was terrified and had no clue what to do next. Being stuck in a small confined space with Y/N had to be his worst nightmare, especially after he didn’t apologize for his shitty behavior last night. And the night before.

And the several months before that.

From his view Y/N seemed to be uncomfortable and as the car started moving, she wiggled around, struggling to get as far away from Bucky as she could. He too was extremely uncomfortable, but as her wriggling continued, his already tight fitting pants seemed to get even impossible tighter as she practically grinded on him.

“Would you stop squirming around?” Y/N shot him what would’ve been a questioning glance if not for the pitch blackness of the trunk, and heard his loud sigh, warm breath fanning across her face. “I’m sorry, I’m having a situation, uh, down there and your wiggling isn’t helping it too much.”

Her face heated up, not knowing what to feel after he said that. Was he… flustered? Y/N had never seen Bucky Barnes anything less than grumpy or professional before.

When she said nothing, he assumed the worst and thought she saw him as a disgusting and creepy person. Before that moment he’d never had any particular care about how Y/N felt, but he knew that there were still a lot of perverts, if not more perverts than back in his day. With his four little sisters always getting catcalled and the crude men who thought women were their property, Bucky knew it was definitely terrifying to be assaulted or any situation such as this.

There wasn’t much he could do, but he shifted so they weren’t lying down hip bone to hip bone. “Sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable, I don’t want you to think I’m a pervert or anything, it’s just been a while since I, well, y’know…”

“I understand, Barnes, but thank you for apologizing.” Y/N said carefully. It was weird to hear the now shy and surprisingly considerate sergeant apologize to her, but she had to admit that her respect for him had gone up.

He cleared his throat in return, trying to turn in any other direction besides hers as they listened to the tires of the car bumping along the road, heart wildly thumping.

It was quiet. Far more quiet than it had ever been when either of them were in the same room. As Y/N stared down at Bucky’s head, almost resting on her stomach, she saw the man she’d read about in middle school. For a moment she was able to look past the last few months of fighting and hatred, and see the noble sergeant she’d admired for so long.

“You can rest your head if you want to, I knew keeping it up like that must be hurting your neck. I promise I’m okay with it.” She reassured him. With a small hesitation, Barnes submitted to his screaming neck muscles and laid his head on her stomach, the vest providing cushion. A few more seconds of silence and gathering courage, and she finally asked him the question she had been wondering since her first day at the compound. “Why do you hate me?”

I’m jealous, he wanted to say, but he wasn’t brave enough to say it. With a small sigh, he managed to get out, “I don’t.”

“Then why are you so cold to me all the time?” Emotions that were borrowed so deep inside Y/N’s chest seemed to come barreling out, seeping into every question that she asked. “Am I really that horrible an agent? Do you not think I’m trying my best? I know I made a mistake, I wasn’t there when you all needed me, but I’m trying so, so damn hard to make up for it. I swear on my life, and every one that comes after it, that I’m-”

“It’s not you, it’s me, God damn it!” Bucky exclaimed angrily. Both of their blood ran cold in fear that Zemo might have heard them, but the radio continued to drone on in the background, nothing seeming to have changed. He took a deep sigh and tried how to best explain it to her. Even though he’d probably never have Y/N’s forgiveness for insulting her so plainly and hurting her so much, he felt as though she deserved as much as his reasoning as to why he “disliked” her so much. It was difficult for him to say, having to also put his pride away for once to just admit it. “I’m jealous of you, Y/N. You got the sweet life for a while, and that’s all I’ve ever wanted. When you look at us who remain, not a single one of us was planning to be an Avenger. You were getting the dream home, the kids, the family that I’ve wanted since I was a boy back in Brooklyn, and all you had to do to get it was run away. It was so simple.”

Y/N’s eyes widened, not at all expecting that. “It wasn’t all too much ‘sweet life’, you know? It was my dream when I was younger, I thought being an agent was temporary and then I’d move into a big, old house with a loving spouse and have millions of little carbon copies of myself to occupy my days. But the truth about what we do is that we can only stay away from it for so long, Barnes. With people like us,” she squeezed her eyes shut, letting the final tears roll down her cheeks, “there’s no running away from the hero's life. It's just who we are. We’ve already done too much to change that part of our lives.”

Y/N felt him nod through the fabric on her skin, sniffles letting her know that he was crying too. They were connected. All the shouting, all the yelling, the pain, the battles, the fore, the blood, the years of torture, all led to this moment. This historic moment in Y/N and Bucky’s relationship where they both waved white flags, wet faces and hearts filled with sorrow for the life they never had.

“I’m so sorry for the way I dealt with my anger and jealousy, Y/N.” Bucky croaked.

“I used to idolize you when I was a kid.” Y/N recalled with a faint smile on her face. “In the eighth grade I wrote a history paper on you, Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes, American hero and inspiration to all. And you know, I always kinda had a crush on you. Wondered what it would be like if you were still alive, if you would’ve gone home after the war, if you would’ve had a family. No matter what wild thoughts ran through my head, though, you were always my hero.” Bucky took her confession in shock, pure amazement and surprise coursing through his body. Maybe a little bit of sadness, longing for that old life, maybe a bit of bashfulness of her having a crush on his as a schoolgirl. “And then I met you and you were this grumpy, irritable old man who seemed to despise me as soon as I walked in the door. Definitely not what I had expected.” He opened his mouth, ready to apologize again, when her next words cut him off. “I want to start over, don’t you?”

How was she so calming? Her words were exactly what he needed to hear and didn’t need to at the same time. Her voice brought back all the old memories of running around New York with Steve as a kid, reminding him of his wise ma in a way. “There’s nothing I’d like more than that, Y/N.”

Y/N smiled to herself, looking towards the top of the car. “Perfect.”

And with the twinkle in her eye and his head resting on her stomach with a small grin, it really was.

341 notes · View notes

obxwritings · 5 years ago

Text

☆ drinking alone ☆

requested by @13reasonswhystan : Hey can you please do a Topper from Outer Banks imagine where y/n is a pouge and she is the badass of the group and she doesn’t really like to show her emotions she had a crush on jj but sees the way he looks at kiea so one night she is at the beach alone drinking and topper happens to be there too and they talk about their heartbreak they end up sleeping together and slowly start liking each other. (topper x reader)

word count: 1,986 (damn okay)

warnings: underage drinking, swearing, mentions of heartbreak/insecurities about relationships, very slight alluding to sex at the very end

note: sorry this is so long lmao but I really like how this turned out! I hope you enjoy! let me know how it is :) thank you for requesting by the way! sorry it took so long! also, this is just my take on topper. I watched the show a while ago so if this is very uncharacteristic from his character, lmao it’s called fanfiction for a reason, but I did try to stick to what I remembered from his character from the show.

masterlist of other works :)

This was a terrible idea. You know that, hell, anybody would tell you that you were being immature about the situation, but you could care less. You were having a shitty day and the only thing you wanted to do was get drunk to forget about it. However, your house was not the place for your pity party. The beach, on the other hand, was. It was late enough that no one would be there, and you could have it all to yourself. The walk to the beach wasn’t too far and after finding the perfect spot on the beach and plopping down on the sand, you decided to break out the beer you had stashed in your backpack.

Taking in the sounds of the waves crashing on the shore while sipping your drink, you couldn’t help but recall what led you here in the first place.

. . .

Earlier that day, the pogues were all out on the boat and enjoying the summer sun before they had to return to school soon. Nothing was special about it. John B and Sarah were giving each other heart eyes while everyone else was mocking them. It started with Pope making a quiet remark that didn’t go unnoticed by you, JJ, and Kie. From then till the end of the boat ride the four of you kept laughing at everyone’s jokes, only making John B and Sarah more confused. That’s not what set you off, though.

What made you so frustrated that all you wanted to do was scream or cry or drink was the fact that all day you had been trying to get JJ’s attention, and he was giving you absolutely nothing. You cracked jokes in attempts to make him laugh, wore a swimsuit that made you feel confident, and shared your last joint with him and all of it was still nothing compared to the looks and smiles he gave Kie any time she did, well, anything. You couldn’t blame him though; Kie was an amazing person through and through. You just wished someone would look at you like that one day.

. . .

Trying to forget the memory, you took another swig of the cheap beer you brought. Realizing you were almost done with it, you grabbed your bag and started to pull out another one when you heard some movement. With some panic setting in, you clutched your unopened beer can and got ready to throw it just in case anything came out and attacked you.

“Woah it’s just me.” said the voice. Recognizing the voice, you lowered the beer can and shook your head.

“What do you want, Topper?” you didn’t mean to sound so stuck up, but you couldn’t help it. Old habits die hard.

“Just came out here to clear my head. What about you? Were you waiting to throw that beer can at someone specific or…?” Topper joked while sitting down next to you.

Contemplating whether or not to tell him the truth, you let out a tired sigh. You honestly are still a little wary of kooks, but after hearing what Topper did for John B (and also just needing someone to finally vent to) you decided to throw caution to the wind and just spill all your thoughts (the alcohol definitely was encouraging you too).

“Honestly, I had a crap-tastic day and just wanted to drink the day away, so you can either join me or just leave.” It was harsh, but you couldn’t care less. You were tired of holding everything in; you were bound to break at some point.

Topper looked at you and gave you a soft smirk, “well, better hand me a drink then. Seems like you have a lot to say.”

You were shocked but gave him a beer nonetheless. He was going to need it if he was going to listen to you rant.

“So tell me y/n, what’s got you so worked up? I’ve never seen you like this. I mean, not that I normally hang out with you, you know, because we aren’t really friends. You just always seem so confident and tough. It’s kind of weird to see you like this, showing emotions and all.”

“Gee, thanks, Topper.” You rolled your eyes. He did have a point though; you were always making witty comebacks or trying to one-up everyone in dares. You hated showing your true emotions because you didn’t want anyone to think you were weak. Right now, however, you knew that instead of the confident person everyone saw, Topper was seeing the opposite. It was a look he knew all too well himself.

You were on the brink of breaking down, yet you were forcing yourself not to. Your eyes were glossy, and you were seconds away from letting a tear slip. Your normal, collected self was slowly breaking down, and you didn’t know what to do.

So you decided to just let it all out.

“I just wish I was enough sometimes. It’s hard to see the person you care about clearly not feel the same way. And like, I want him to be happy, so if he’s happy with her then I should be okay with that, right? I guess, I don’t know, I just wish he was happy with me.” you couldn’t stop the tears from streaming down your face at this point, so you just let it happen. Not wanting to look at Topper, you began to pick at the random frays on your shorts while waiting for a snarky response from the kook himself.

You never got one.

Instead, Topper took a sip of his beer and calmly said “It’s the fucking worst feeling ever. I’m sorry.”

Your eyes shot up and gave Topper and look of pure shock. You studied his face, looking for any signs of teasing and waiting for him to break and just laugh at you. But he didn’t. His face had nothing but a slight frown and a distant look in his eye. You didn’t know why he wasn’t taking the opportunity to make fun of you, but you were secretly thankful for it. Someone finally understood what you were going through.

Deciding to just go along with whatever was happening right now, you wiped your tears and scoffed quietly, “tell me about it.”

“I kind of just did, no?”

“Oh my god,” you shoved him lightly while letting out a little laugh, “there’s the snarky Topper I know and hate.”

“Oh shut up. At least I got you to smile. I don’t know how much of ‘sappy y/n’ I could handle.” Topper joked.

“Whatever, Topper.” You rolled your eyes. You looked back at Topper, and while he looked content while starring out to the ocean, you could tell there was more to be said.

“You can talk about it if you want. Yo don’t have to if you don’t want to. Talk about the dilemma you’re also having. I know I ju-”

“Thanks,” Topper cut you off mid ramble, but you didn’t mind. From the look on his face, you knew he just wanted someone to talk to and listen to his issues as much as you did.

“Sarah and I broke up a while ago, as you and just about everyone in this damn town knows, but it really hurt. I loved her, at least I think I did, but after hearing about how happy John B made her, I knew I couldn’t do much about it. I lost her, if I even had her to begin with, and it broke my heart. It broke me. But like you said, I wanted her to be happy and she’s happy with him, so I should be happy right?” Topper looked at you with a sad gaze and, despite your past with everything that had happened this past summer, you couldn’t help but pull him into a hug. You knew what he was feeling all too well.

“It fucking sucks, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah it fucking does.” Topper chuckled slightly as he pulled away from you. He couldn’t help but smile. He finally told someone how he felt, and it felt amazing to not be the only one going through this.

“Look at us,” you said after starting your second can of beer, “who would’ve thought that we of all people would be here and crying about our feelings.”

“I mean, you’re the only one who’s cried so…” Topper joked, earning him the middle finger from you, “but it feels nice to finally let it out.”

Not really knowing what to say, you just nodded in agreement and kept sipping your drink. It didn’t take too long for the alcohol in both you and Topper to kick in. Soon enough, the two of you were filling the awkward silence with jokes, laughs, and stories that you thought would only stay between your respective friend groups.

. . .

However, the drinks might have been a little too strong because soon enough you’re flirting shamelessly with Topper. You don’t think he minded though because he was doing the exact same thing.

It didn’t help that the small amount of light coming from the rising sun was making Topper glow, accentuating his facial features and making his eyes sparkle. You had a few thoughts running through your head such as what time is it? Have we really been out here for that long? What would happen if I kissed him right now?

You didn’t have too much time to think about any of them because soon enough Topper stopped his joke mid-sentence and said, “What’s on your mind, beautiful?”

So he clearly noticed you weren’t paying attention. But at that moment you didn’t really care. With alcohol still coursing through you, along with the compliment from Topper, you couldn’t help yourself. You threw your arms around Topper’s neck and pulled him in for a kiss. Without hesitating, he kissed you back. You couldn’t help but smile into the kiss after that. However, Topper didn’t seem too comfortable with your current position beside him, so he carefully lifted and placed you on his lap.

“Well that was a nice surprise.” Topper smiled.

Blushing and slightly embarrassed by your sudden outburst of affection, you just hid your face in the crook of his shoulder. “Stoppp.” you mumbled into his shoulder, “I don’t know what happened okay? You just looked so hot and then you complimented me, and I don’t know, I guess I just wanted to kiss you.”

“Hey, I wasn’t complaining. In fact,” Topper lifted your head to allow you to look up at him, giving you a soft smile, “I wouldn’t mind you doing that more often.”

Looking out at the rest of the beach, you saw people getting ready for an early morning surf. “Well, if you want to go somewhere else my parents are out of town for the rest of the weekend. We could always go to my house. It’s not too far from here.”

Topper nodded and helped you stand up, but you couldn’t really walk due to how much you had drunk. Seeing this, Topper offered to give you a piggyback ride. You couldn’t help but let out a laugh. The two of you probably looked crazy to anyone just passing by. But you didn’t care; you were happy and that’s all that mattered.

While leaving the beach, Topper could help but smile and ask “so, you really think I’m hot?”

. . .

When you woke up in your bed later that day, you saw an arm securely wrapped around your waist. You looked over to see Topper still sleeping, letting out small snores every now and then, and couldn't help but smile as snippets from last night replayed in your head. You were so glad that you finally let your walls down. You didn't know what would happen between the two of you, but you did know two things: you didn't regret a thing from the previous night and you secretly hoped Topper felt the same way.

note: I hope you enjoyed (if you made it this far lmao)! as always, my requests are open! I hope you are staying safe and healthy! also, you can always message me :) i love talking to people!

#topper imagine #outer banks imagine #outer banks fanfiction #outer banks #outer banks netflix #topper thornton #topper thronton imagine #topper fanfiction

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star-spangled-steve · 5 years ago

Note

Ransom and female reader have been family friends since birth. Families always together. He finds out that the reader is a Virgin and he wants to help her fix that problem. Thanks 😊

Masterlist Of My Works

A/N: Ransom ended up a bit Dom-ish in this, so I hope that you don’t mind. I just couldn’t help myself!

Let’s just say that you guys were at some friends and family gathering at your parents’ house, near the end of it when everybody was sort of relaxing together.

You and Ransom were up in your childhood bedroom, sitting on your bed. You had wanted to get away from all of the boring chatter, so instead you were listening to one of his stories that he likes to go on about.

Apparently one of his younger buddies admitted a secret about himself, and Ransom thought that it was just hysterical enough to tell you.

“And then, get this, he tells us that he’s a virgin. The guy’s twenty-three and still a virgin! Unbelievable, right?”

But you, not really thinking before you spoke, decided to blurt out the first thing that came into your head. “That’s not old to be a virgin.”

The man scoffed. “Oh, please. What, you know someone older?”

You stuttered. “Uhm… well… I was just saying that in general, uh-”

“Wait a minute.” He stopped you, a huge smirk forming on his face. “Is it… is it you?”

“What?” You played it off with a small chuckle. “Uh, no. Of course not.”

“Oh, it is so you!” Ransom pointed one of his thick fingers right in your face, completely laughing his ass off. “Y/N’s a virgin! Y/N’s a virgin!”

“Shh!” You reprimanded, really not wanting any of the guests in the house, or worse, your parents to hear. “Fine, fine, I am! Just shut up about it.”

At your request he stopped cackling, but it sure didn’t take the smile of his face. “Ha, a virgin. How embarrassing.”

You rolled your eyes. “Hey, at least I don’t sleep around with everything that breathes like you do.”

“Oh, please, you know your jealous.” He stated.

“Of you? Ya, never in a millio-”

“Of them.” He interrupted, grinning devilishly. “The girls that I sleep with. You know you’d love to be one of them.”

You were at a loss for words. Of course you weren’t jealous of them. I mean… was Ransom good looking? Yes. Was he skilled at sexual intercourse? Probably. Did just speaking about this topic in his presence get you turned on?... Maybe. Well, crap. Maybe you were jealous of them. Not that you’d ever let him know that.

“No, Ransom. I would not love to be one of them. You’re just too full of yourself to think any differently.”

He shook his head cockily. “Nope. You’re lying.”

“Am not.”

“You know you dream about this cock.”

You flushed at his words. “Ransom, stop.”

“Oh? So if I checked your panties right now, they wouldn’t be wet?” He spoke, placed one of his large hands on your knee.

You froze, unsure with where this was going. You knew that you probably looked like a nervous wreck, cheeks pink and breathing uneven.

He slowly started to trail his hand higher and higher, until eventually it was at the top of your thigh, rubbing gently. “I bet just the thought of me fucking you has you weak in the knees.”

“Ransom.” You gasped, feeling his fingertips now brushing your inner thigh. You’d never been touched like this before, and you couldn’t exactly say that you weren’t enjoying it.

He shifted his entire body closer to yours, now breathing in your ear. “I know you want it, Y/N. Huh? You want me to fuck you? Take you virginity away, baby girl? Right in your childhood bedroom?”

You shuddered, not being able to make eye contact with him, before muttering out a small, meek, “Yes.”

Ransom smirked, beginning to crawl on top of you. “Exactly what I want to hear.” He grabbed one of your shuddering hands and pressed a kiss to it, trying to calm your nerves. “Now we have to be extra quiet, sweetheart, because we don’t want our families to hear. Okay?”

You gulped before nodding your head.

“Good girl.” He cooed, turning you on even more. The man stroked the side of your face, tucking a loose strand of hair behind your ear, and gave you a sweet smile. “Don’t worry, baby. I’m going to take care of you.”

Next thing you knew, Ransom was leaning forward and pressing a soft kiss to your lips. It almost felt as if that was the last barrier between friendship and something more, now broken by him, and boy oh boy, you weren’t sure if you could ever go back.

He reached his hands behind your back and begin to unzip your dress, before pulling it over head with a simple, “Arms up. Need to get this off of you.”

He marveled at the sight of your almost-naked body, now only clad in your bra and panties. He noticed that your legs were instinctively closed together and put his hands on your ankles, separating them with ease. What Ransom saw made him chuckle.

“So I was correct. You’re dripping for me.”

He pulled the panties down your legs and showed them to you, making you blush at the large wet stain.

“Oopsy.”

He smiled at your embarrassed response, tucking the panties in his back pocket.

“Going to want to remember this.”

It wasn’t long before Ransom was going down on you, using his mouth to pleasure your pussy in the most delicious ways.

You’d never felt anything quite this good before, and when he began to insert his fingers inside of you too, you nearly screamed.

“R-Ran-Ransom.” You stuttered out, gasping when he started scissoring his fingers inside of your hole.

“Shh, shh, baby.” He instructed, never pausing his movements. “You have to be more quiet. Just calm down, sweet girl. I’m trying to get you ready for me.”

You nodded in understanding, liking the fact that he called you his ‘sweet girl’.

Ransom then started to lick your clit, bringing it into his mouth to suck on it, and just when you felt like for were about to cum… he stopped.

“Wha-?”

He peered his head up and took his fingers out, licking them clean of your juices while humming in delight. “I want you to cum around my cock, not my hand.” He began to strip himself down, pulling his expensive cashmere sweater over his head. “You taste beautiful, by the way. Probably the best pussy I’ve ever ate.”

You gave him a small smile. “Thanks.”

Ransom winked in return, now pulling the rest of his clothes off, including his underwear, and pulling on a condom that he just happened to have in his pants pocket. Of course he had one. He probably had a whole strip.

You gulped at his large size, realizing that you somehow had to fit all of that inside of you.

“Don’t worry, baby girl.” He spoke, crawling on top of you again. “I’ll help you through his.”

Why was he being so nice to you? Oh, yes, that’s right. He was about to get some.

Ransom began to push the tip in and you inhaled a breath, feeling him stretching you already.

“Fuck, you’re tight, Y/N.”

When he bottomed out, he paused, checking to see if you were okay. You looked pretty freaked out.

“How are you feeling, darling? You good?” He cooed, wiping the stray tears that were falling from your eyes.

“Uh huh.” You nodded, keeping your arms wrapped arounnd his thick shoulders. “You-You can move.”

Ransom grinned before beginning to thrust in and out of you, making you moan as quiet as you could.

“Look at you, my pretty girl. Taking my cock so well.” He grunted in your ear as he began to speed up his pace, getting the feeling that you were comfortable now.

The sex went on longer than you thought that it could; apparently Ransom had incredible stamina. Who knew?

He brought your hands up above your head, a silent display of power that didn’t go unnoticed by you. But that’s okay, you were happy to submit to him.

He also apparently had great dirty talk, constantly whispering the nastiest little things in your ear.

“You look so cute right now, sweetie. So fucked out. I love knowing that I made feel you this way.”

Ransom brought one had down to clit, rubbing slow, torturing circles around it and making you whine.

He began to place kisses on your neck, which eventually turned to nips, then to bites, until he left a whole splotch of purple marks on you.

“Now everyone can now that you’re mine.” He rasped out, and you couldn’t believe your ears. After tonight, you desperately wanted to be his.

It wasn’t long after that when you came, his expert fingers working your clit so well.

The feeling of you squeezing his walls was enough to make him finish as well, spilling into the condom with a growl.

“Fuck, baby girl.”

You guys laid there for a solid minute, not moving, just gasping for breath.

Surprisingly, his close proximity was not uncomfortable to you anymore, but actually felt really nice. You quite liked the feeling of his weight on top of you.

“So?” He questioned, a slight grin on his handsome face.

“That was really, really great.” You giggled. “You are so good at that. Thank you, Ransom.”

He pressed a soft kiss to your lips before beginning to pull out of you, and you sighed at the empty feeling you now had. “It’s no problem, sweetheart. Actually, thank you.” He insisted, pulling off the condom and wrapping it a tissue before throwing it away. “You’re the one who let me do it.”

“Um…” You began, hesitant if you should continue or not. “Uh…”

“What?” Ransom asked. “Don’t be shy, baby. Not after what just happened.”

“Well… um, w-when you said that I was ‘yours’… di-did you mean that?”

The man smiled at your words, taking a seat on the bed. “Well, I was hoping. Though, I guess that’s more of a thing that you ask, right?”

“Y-You want me to be yours? Like for real?” You questioned, having a hard time believing this.

“Yes, I do. Of course I do, you’re the best.” He spoke sweetly. “Do you want to be mine?”

You nodded enthusiastically. “Yes.”

Ransom instantly gave you a big kiss, smiling at your happy, adorable face. “Perfect. I’m going to take you out to lunch tomorrow. Okay, baby? We’re going to make this official.”

“Sounds amazing.” You giggled. “Well, if I can even get out of bed. I have a feeling that I’ll have a bit of trouble walking tomorrow.”

Feedback is always welcome!

Permanent Taglist: @jesseswartzwelder @firecatcher007 @ctrl-alt-jeon @xlanawriter

Tell me if you want to be added!❤️

#ransom drysdale x reader #chris evans x reader #chris evans x you #knives out fanfiction #ransom drysdale headcanons

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gaillol-13 · 3 years ago

Text

"SECRET MISSION plan"

Part of the Jerome Industry arc.

"Alright, time to get ready!"

Melvin had an undercover mission today, a mission to figure out what Theodore murdsly is up to, and to stop him from ending the Captoon cartoon and, most importantly, George and harold's lives.

Of course, this was all a certain toon's idea.

"Why cant I just go in what I'm wearing again?" Krupptoon asked as Melvin went through some piles of clothes to see what could fit him (heh, as if anything could fit him).

"Well, you're already semi-famous from all those "disappearances"." Melvin answered, not taking his eyes away from the clothes. "And I dont think anyone wont suspect a living cartoon who resembles a dead guy."

"Crap..."

Melvin looked up at him, "what?"

"I cant wear normal clothes, their colors will be absorbed.", Krupptoon then used his index finger to scratch his head, "hmm..."

His pie eyes then lit up (along with the light bulb that appeared over his head) and pulled out a black paint bucket and a paint brush out of his pocket (or at least it LOOKED like his pocket).

Melvin stopped what he was doing, "You carry that around with you?"

The rubberhose nodded, "toon rule number 23: the protagonist is resourceful!"

The scientist rolled his eyes, Krupptoon has been talking about these "toon rules" alot. Such as "gravity doesn't work until you look down" or "dumb luck". Last week Melvin walked in on him crossdressing as one of those women who wear fruit hats (definitely an image that's gonna haunt his dreams forever), it still made him gag just thinking about it.

Krupptoon started painting his clothes in a rhythm, he didn't stop until his suit was entirely black. He then took a piece of black fabric and stretched it into a fedora, and stood there looking proud.

"What do you think?" The toon said smugly, spinning the fedora on his finger. Melvin really didn't care since Ted was too absorbed in himself so he probably wont notice.

"Yeah yeah you look great" He waved his hand at Krupptoon dismissively, "let's just get George and harold so we can go."

Krupptoon's eyes then when wide, "how much food will there be at the party?", his knees bobbed up and down showing that he was excited.

Melvin placed his hand on his chin, unsure how to answer, he just wanted to leave. "I dont know...alot? Look can we just-"

"Do you think theres..." his fingers wiggled as his breathing became more heavy, "guacamole?..."

His crooked smiling mouth began to drool and he licked his lips fiercely. His pupils then lost their pie shape and started dilating, they only did that when he is... you know, "hunting". But this was an exception.

Melvin couldn't help but let out an amused chuckle while grinning assuringly "Sure food fetish, sure."

Krupptoon shook his head to snap out of his mouth watering trance and grabbed Melvin's arm, "Welp! We're not gonna get George and Harold just standing here, ONWARDS!!!"

Meanwhile, the cartoon making duo stood in front of their houses (which were conveniently next to eachother), waiting for Krupptoon and Melvin to pick them up.

They've told their friends and family what happened (cept Edith of course, they wanted to keep it a surprise), so they were prepared.

The boys were also trying to process what happened a few days ago (especially George since he doesn't like seeing blood).

"Man...he legit ripped that guys limbs off..."

"Heh...yeah, and I think he ate another's leg too..."

It was wierd to think about. Your boss coming back to life, and then starts killing criminals. Don't get them wrong, they're happy he's back, more than happy. But that fact that he can absolutely murder them if he ever wanted to is...well, scary.

"But I'm sure he wouldn't hurt us, right?"

Both of them relaxed a bit, and George nodded at his friend in agreement. "Right."

A silver dodge durango car then pulled up in front of them, the window rolled down and they saw their black and white friend.

"Hello boys!" Krupptoon greeted cheerfully while waving, and in the driver seat Melvin was checking the map of Jerhome Industry, then look up at George and harold.

"Alright you two, get in."

They hopped into the 2nd row passenger seats and strapped themselves in.

"Can I drive this time Mel-mel?" Krupptoon turned to his sciencey buddy with an eager look on his face. However, Melvin doubted that he would follow the speed limit, or the road.

"No Krupptoon, I'm driving us, both to and away from the building."

He then started driving.

"Awww!" Krupptoon pouted and crossed his arms, "your no fun!". Melvin simply responded by flicking at the cartoon's nose. His expression changed when he heard quiet giggles coming from the back.

"What's so funny?" Melvin's eyes were still glued to the road, Harold forced himself to stopped laughing.

" *snickers* "Mel-mel"?"

"Sh-shut it!!!" Melvin's face burned red in embarrassment as he tried to think of something to change the subject.

"Hey Krupptoon, why dont you tell them the plan?"

"Of course!!" Krupptoon replied as he jumped into the 2nd row with George and Harold.

"Alright, so we get there before Ted does, Melvin and I will go inside to mess with him a bit, you two watch from outside just in case anything happens, we get out of there unnoticed."

"Why" the boys thought this was a strange way to get revenge.

"It will just be one of the many things we'll do to get back at him. Don't question my genius."

George and harold looked at eachother and just shrugged.

"Speaking of me, how do I look?" Krupptoon gestured to his suit. The boys stared at him and cocked their heads, harold's hand making a so-so gesture "eh..."

"Hmm...I know!" Krupptoon then wrapped his finger around his tie and started pulling it, when he let go the tie turned into a bow tie.

"Nice."

"Thank you George, oh by the way, how are the kids?". Krupptoon (or technically Captoon) is very fond of children, and George and harold's kids were no exception.

"Meena is doing well, and Nik is learning to draw."

"Really? How old is that lil lad again?"

"3."

"Wow"

#captain underpants #itthigss au #krupp #harold #george #melvin #krupptoon #writing

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orionsangel86 · 5 years ago

Text

Sam & Eileen - A Supernatural Romance.

I am quite clearly over the moon about 15x06 and Sam reunited with and bringing Eileen back from the dead. I was so over the moon in fact, that I burst into tears when Eileen stepped out of the bathtub and took Sam’s hand. That was… wow.

That was the most romantic moment in this show since 13x05 “it’s never too late” (also a return from the dead!)

So I was inspired to write an homage meta post celebrating Sam and Eileen’s romance looking back at everything canon has given us on this epic pairing.

It turns out, despite all my usual grumbling, there is still one het ship out there that I can totally get behind, and no one deserves love more than our dear Sam Winchester.

11x04 - Baby

This is where I believe the story started for Sam.

“You don’t ever want something more?”

(x)

“You know, with a hunter? Somebody who understands the life?”

This question, from Sam to his brother at the start of Season 11, has shaped so much of the subtext in the seasons following. It’s significance to the Winchesters individual development arcs, their hopes, their dreams. It blatantly spelled out for the audience what both these boys desire and what they deserve for each of their endgames.

Not a white picket fence, not the apple pie life, just something. Something that suits them. Something to share with someone else, romantically, who might fit that particular box. Let me be very clear here and stress that Sam certainly wasn’t talking about him and Dean finding that something with each other.

Dean’s journey towards finding that something has been building for even longer than this particular moment in canon, with the other stand out scene being his confession in 10x16 where he talked about having things, people, feelings, that I want to experience differently than before, or maybe even for the first time. Dean’s journey is something we have discussed at length, and as every meta writer in fandom knows all too well, it only leads in one particular direction - towards a certain dreamy blue eyed angel.

Sam’s journey has not been discussed as intensely as Dean’s, but 11x04 did lay groundwork for the writers to build upon. It hasn’t been as smooth or as obvious in the subtext as Dean’s either, with certain writing decisions appearing to come out of left field and confuse the path. But it seems that Dabb has course corrected and brought us back on track.

This episode was the first time in canon in a long time that we heard Sam textually voice his desire for a romantic relationship of some kind. I therefore immediately got excited and locked this moment away in a pocket in my heart to pull out again if ever the show would introduce a character who could fit those requirements for Sam.

The show did not disappoint.

11x11 Into the Mystic

GOD I forgot how full of delicious layers this episode was! It was written by the same writer who wrote 11x04. Robbie Thompson clearly had something in mind for Sam when he first wrote that script, and he gave it to us (and Sam) in this episode.

Eileen is introduced in 11x11 as another Hunter on a quest for vengeance - to avenge her murdered family.

It isn’t a surprise that we basically immediately shipped Eileen with Sam after this episode first aired, because her entire backstory is written to compliment Sam. Within the first 5 minutes of getting to know her, she already fulfills the requirements from Sam’s wistful speech in 11x04. She is a hunter, she is someone who understands the life. But more than that, she is all of the following:

She is on a revenge quest

She has murdered parents

She was raised by a Hunter or rather “trained” to be a Hunter rather than raised (in a scene which implies a similarly strict hunter upbringing to Sam and Dean)

She continued hunting alone after her guardian died

Her grandfather was a Man of Letters, making her a MOL Legacy, just like Sam.

Her mother was a lawyer, so she makes a joke about studying law which prompts further bonding with Sam due to his Stanford law education.

Eileen catches Sam’s eye almost immediately, and it is surprising I didn’t pick up on that on my first watch at the time, but Eileen is literally disguised as the cleaner in order to go unnoticed. Sam had no reason to be suspicious of her, and I think at the time we all assumed that he just wanted to question a potential witness - but even so, there was no need to interrupt Mildred to go speak to her. Could Sam’s distraction have been a bit more than strictly professional? In hindsight I’m gonna go with YES.

Their next meet is cute simply because by this point the audience is misled to think that she is actually the banshee. The ominous music tones, the shots of Eileen watching the Winchesters from a window. We believe that she is the villain, and then when she uses magic to pin Sam and comes at him with a dagger it’s practically a romantic trope used in enemies to lovers fics. A case of mistaken identity (another trope) and Sam and Eileen are able to reveal each of their truths. They bond immediately with both Sam and the audience learning all of the above. the checklist requirements indicating their compatibility is so blatantly obvious its almost too on the nose. But then het romance always seems that way doesn’t it?

The real kicker in this episode that made my heart sing at the time was this:

“Feel free to drop me a line if you ever need anything. Or even if you just wanna hang out”

“you can’t call me though, I mean you could call but I won’t answer.”

(x)

FIRST OF ALL - HOW DARE YOU KILL ME WITH FEELS SAMMY OVER THAT GORGEOUS SMILE

Sam’s line here though was SUCH A LINE. “Or even if you just wanna hang out”

I see you Sam Winchester. Hoping for Netflix and Chill right? I know you have Netflix. You gave Cas your password. :P

This little interaction at the end of this episode was pure flirtation and it was gorgeous to watch (and to rewatch, with hindsight, knowing what happens in 15x06 to totally deepen their relationship. Urgh. I guess I really am a sucker for a good old fashioned Supernatural Love Story!)

The other big takeaway from this episode is that meeting Eileen rejuvenated Sam. He starts the episode unable to sleep, haunted by his Lucifer trauma and feeling so down and broody that Dean steps in constantly to ask if he’s okay and try to engage in talking about feelings (always a bad sign for a Winchester to get to the point where they feel they need to ask the other to talk about feelings!)

But the end of the episode marks a significant change in Sam. He smiles, he opens up to Dean, he textually states that the case helped him. He opens up a keepsake box (that we never knew he had before this episode) and puts the retirement homes leaflet in there - an indication that he actually has hope that he might live to see a happy retirement (a wonderful sign for someone who just 40 minutes ago was acting like a total nihilist.)

The case alone wasn’t some spectacular revelation, so what else could have possibly caused Sam’s change of heart? The answer is obvious. Eileen did. She acted like a beacon of light this episode for Sam, and in a perfect bookend to how the episode opened, Sam curls up in bed, turns off his light, and is able to sleep. It is only Dean who spends the night restless and haunted.

This was the first time that Eileen acted as a “win” for Sam just by meeting him.

Unfortunately, we don’t meet Eileen again until a whole season later in

12x17 - The British Invasion

This episode is a far cry away from 11x11′s layered genius. Messy, overly plot heavy, too many various character stories causing mental whiplash, too much focus on unnecessary side characters, LUCIFER existing in general, an unnecessary sex scene between Mary and Ketch (eww), a bloody death scene, and moments of utter stupidity from the lead characters.

In other words it’s a CLASSIC BUCKLEMING.

Do yourselves a favour and if you ARE planning on re-watching this episode, just skip to the parts with Dean, Sam and Eileen (the Dagon and Kelly stuff is relatively good as well - the rest is utter garbage).

Anyway, pushing aside my hatred for the terrible duo for a moment, I will say that as per usual, what they lack in subtlety and intelligent subtextual layering, they make up for with a sledge hammer to the face in terms of trying to get a point across. So when it comes to Saileen in this episode, well, it might as well be canon already.

Practically every time Sam and Eileen interact in this episode, they are framed as a flirtatious couple in the early tentative stages. The smiles and playful flirting, the smirks when one does something to make the other proud. It is very clear, even if it is still technically subtextual, that both Jared and Shoshannah are playing this like these characters are attracted to one another, and are building on that relationship.

Hell, even Dean teases Sam twice about Eileen in this episode (though once was in a deleted scene that they should have kept instead of the Lucifer crap):

(x)

What we also find out from this opening scene, is that Sam and Eileen have been communicating off screen since 11x11. It is textually confirmed that the two of them have been developing their relationship previously, and we just haven’t seen it. Did Eileen visit the Bunker previously? Because she certainly seemed comfortable there this episode. Have her and Sam cuddled up to watch movies previously? (We know another pairing that textually do this even though we’ve never seen it on screen - Dean and Cas). Dean feels comfortable enough to tease his little brother in that playful typical sibling way, so clearly Eileen at this point has become a more frequent character in Sam’s life. It’s just a shame we as the audience have never seen anything of it until this episode.

This episode might be the first time we have seen her again since her introduction, but it certainly isn’t the first time Sam has seen her since. This is canon.

The rest of this episode continues this theme of displaying with zero subtlety that Sam and Eileen have something more than friendship. One of the easiest ways to truly see the effect of this is just watching Sam in scenes with her compared to Sam at any other time. Like in 11x11, Eileen manages to light Sam up and have him grinning like a puppydog. It’s kind of adorable and also quite shocking when you realise how rare it is to see Sam smile (or any of the characters in this angstfest of a TV show for that matter.)

Just look at the above cheesy smile in the car scene. Look at Sam’s bashful face here when Dean teases him in front of his girl:

(x)

Look at this smug face when Eileen snaps back at the irritating guy:

(x)

Jared hits every mark playing a loved up Sam Winchester.

By the end of this episode, a tragedy strikes and Eileen is scared off. Their relationship here ends on a comforting hug, because meaningful relationships in this show are almost always first signified with comforting hugs following traumatic events, and tentative hand holding.

The way he strokes her hair gently is just SO touching and intimate.

(x)

When all is said and done Eileen leaves, terrified of the British Men of Letters. When Dean asks Sam where she was, he tells him she went back to Ireland, and Sam looks so dejected at that thought. I don’t see how anyone can possibly read his reactions towards Eileen as anything other than romantic affection.

As a bonus point - I will mention that due to Bucklemings sledgehammer approach, it is quite clear that Eileen plays a Cas mirror in this episode. All of her scenes with Sam are paired off against Dean who spends this entire episode trying and failing to get hold of Castiel. In the Winchester’s final scene, Sam greets Dean in the morning and immediately asks his brother about Cas. Sam does this a lot in season 12, because Dean’s concern for Cas is present throughout every episode in which he is absent. Dean admits he is worried, but changes the subject, instead asking Sam about Eileen (note that it is the next morning so Dean assumed she had stayed the night).

Both brothers revert to the other when it comes to their respective partners. Sam leaves it up to Dean to contact and worry about Cas, and Dean does the same with Sam about Eileen. By this being a common pattern throughout pretty much all of Carver/Dabb eras, both brothers subtextually acknowledge that they each have a strong emotional connection with their respective potential romantic partners and therefore any contact or communication about each partner must come from the brother closest.

12x21 - There’s Something About Mary

Another Buckleming episode and the less said about this one the better. I won’t even mention the extremely insulting and inappropriate way to kill off a disabled character (almost as bad as killing off a lesbian by having nazis butcher her) I also won’t comment on the letter that Eileen sent Sam which whilst it did have romantic undertones, was clearly written by a 12 year old girl and did not marry with Eileen’s character at all (Eugenie showing her misogyny again).

The one good thing that came out of this episode (the only good thing) was Jared’s understated grief over Eileen’s death.

(x)

His performance dealing with her death in this episode was beautiful. It was understated, but clearly portrayed as heartbreaking. Unfortunately Sam had to push it down and bottle it up.

Eileen’s death was a huge shocker to us all as it didn’t make any sense at that point to cut short a story that seemed so clearly to be on a specific trajectory. We often talk about how Eileen’s romance with Sam at the time was tied to Dean and Cas, and that their relationship paralleled Dean and Cas’s in the narrative. This is all true, especially the death of Eileen coming as foreshadowing for the death of Castiel at series end. Just looking at that above gif of Sam where he looks at her corpse bears an extreme resemblance to Dean pulling back the sheet and looking down at a dead Castiel in 13x01.

However much I squee and love that these relationships are clear mirrors of each other though, I need to stress how Saileen, how Sam and Eileen’s canon relationship, is so much more than that. They may have mirrored Destiel, but they are also totally different, on a different course, and with a totally different backstory. Eileen doesn’t exist just to give Sam his own version of Cas to run off with. She is not there just to push up a separate ship. Sam and Eileen’s romance stands alone in this story. It may mirror DeanCas at times, but its purpose is not for DeanCas. It’s purpose is for Sam and Eileen.

Right from the start she ticked all of Sam’s boxes, and the clear attraction between them made it obvious. Yet Eileen was not written to just be a love interest either. She is an ally, a capable hunter, who is written deeply, with her own trauma’s and tragic past. Yet she keeps fighting, all whilst owning her disability and making it work for her rather than hold her back. She is hardly a Lisa, or an Amelia, both of whom had zero depth of character and were more or less written to look pretty and concerned as the Winchester boys basically treated them terribly. Eileen stands out as an individual character far beyond her relationship with Sam. She was full of potential which is why her quick death was an absolute travesty.

Eileen should not have been killed off. I believe even the writers are well aware of that, and this is why they brought her back.

Which brings me to:

15x06 - Golden Time

We knew long before this episode aired that Eileen would be back as Dabb revealed her return at SDCC. He made comments at the time ensuring that any characters he brought back would not be fanservice, that they would be characters chosen because the writers felt their stories ended too quickly, and that they had more stories to tell. Something I believe that DabbBerens are doing in particular in this season is righting the wrongs of the past. Eileen’s death was a clear “wrong” and I think its highly likely that DabbBerens’ were aware of this and saw Eileen as a no-brainer to bring back. As I said at the start of this post, Dabb is course correcting, getting his endgame plans back on track, and ensuring that he hits certain markers in order to do that.

Once again, we are at a place in the story where Sam is grieving, and suffering deeply from all of the loss and trauma that he has faced. Being God’s personal puppet, losing his mother, losing his son, and losing someone he was close to in Rowena by his own hand, has left him in a dark place. Sam’s arc in early season 15 plays out very similarly to Dean’s arc in early season 13. A Winchester in desperate need of a win.

Eileen was Sam’s win in this episode.

Given the time that has passed since Eileen’s last episode, and how the narrative has progressed since then, I was worried that Eileen’s return would seem like fan service, and would therefore fall flat (I felt this way with AU!Charlie and never warmed to the character because of it). I was also worried that whatever potential relationship might have been building between her and Sam in seasons 11 and 12 might not have shone through in this episode. But thankfully the writers played it pretty damn perfectly and Eileen’s return wasn’t just a small side plot to an otherwise jam packed episode (like Kevin’s return in 15x02). No, her story was the A plot as Sam devoted himself to finding a way to save her from a terrible fate.

My concerns about their potential romantic relationship not being played as it was in 12x17 were also completely unfounded. From the moment Sam saw Eileen’s ghost whilst on a jog the romance was immediately back and I have no doubt that Jared and Shoshannah are once again fully playing up the connection and romantic attraction between the two.

I am so convinced of the romance being put across here, and I want you to see why I adore this so much (in case you don’t already see it). So here are my biggest and most important takeaways from Eileen and Sam’s scenes in this episode and WHY I feel these stand out as significant elements towards proving the writers intentions for this to be an endgame canon relationship:

1. Aside from the obvious similarities between Sam and Eileen that were written into 11x11 in order to ensure that Eileen was able to stand as Sam’s equal, the one other thing that we have long discussed that Sam needs in a partner is someone who at least somewhat understands the trauma and pain that he has experienced in his life. Sam has predominantly bonded with people via shared trauma. Before her death, Eileen had had her fair share of traumatic experiences growing up in the tough hunter lifestyle, but spending an eternity being tortured in Hell is a different level of trauma entirely.

This episode cleverly once again elevated Eileen to the same level as Sam. They are equals now, both through good and bad experiences. Eileen was dragged to Hell, and only escaped when Chuck released the souls. Given that 1 year on Earth is 100 years in Hell, this means that Eileen was in Hell for 250 years give or take. Her trauma, her pain over this, is something that she can’t talk about just yet, but this significant connection between her and Sam was textualised clearly:

SAM: “I’ve been there too. Hell… long time ago. You try and forget but it gets inside you. Talking helps.”

EILEEN: “I can’t. not yet.”

SAM: “I understand”

And he really does. It is something that we can argue is a shared suffering that can create a (forgive me for this) profound bond between two people. The only other people who can understand just what he has been through were Dean (via years of Hell torture), Cas (via shared Lucifer possession), and Rowena (via shared Lucifer torture). Eileen now makes that very small list.

2. The other big factor that this episode made clear to point out textually was that this is not a Chuck manipulation. This really is Eileen, and her return from death is not part of Chuck’s story:

SAM: “Rowena got it, she didn’t know the details but she knew the game was rigged so this. Magic. This is how she kept control.”

The reason I do not believe that Eileen is part of Chuck’s manipulations is this very pointed line right here about Rowena. Along with many other things in this episode that indicate that it isn’t guided by Chuck, Sam specifically clarifies that Rowena used magic to maintain control over her own universe.

Whilst I fully believe that Rowena will be coming back as Queen of Hell (because whatever happens to Heaven and Hell at the end, they will need balance, and someone to play caretaker and Rowena has just been set up for this role far too perfectly for me not to at least consider the option), this episode so beautifully respects and honours her character, to the point that Rowena, even in her absence, is able to control and play architect to all that happens. Rowena effectively is given Chuck’s role over this particular narrative, but instead of being framed as something villainous, it is portrayed as a precious gift that she has given to her protege Sam.

Rowena rigged the system for herself, as Sam textually explains. Her use of magic, was her way of escaping Chuck’s control, and it is through Rowena that Sam is also given this power. The power to bring back someone he loves - who was most likely taken from him by Chuck’s own dark and poorly written story (yes I do believe that Meredith was throwing shade at Buckleming in the deep subtext - pretty much all the other writers do this all the time if you pay close enough attention :P)

Rowena’s journey from villain, to reluctant ally, to friend and then finally to family, is one of the most beautiful and epic journey’s on the show (rivalled only by Castiel in my opinion). She remains one of my all time favourite characters, and her tribute in this episode, that even after death she could bestow such a precious gift to Sam, is one that I think will remain one of the more touching stories this show has given us. This is yet another reason why I believe that Sam and Eileen are endgame. Because it is a gift from Rowena, and I believe it is a gift that will be honoured by the writers.

3. It’s a small moment, but it is IMPORTANT. Sam confirms that he was teaching himself ASL after he met Eileen. In a moment of adorable flirtation Eileen beams at him and a bashful Sam smiles and bounces on the spot like a giddy schoolboy. This is yet another reveal of moments in the lives of the Winchesters that we just don’t see in 40 minute episodes. That it is canon that Sam spent hours of his life teaching himself ASL so he could more effectively communicate with Eileen is so precious. There is no way to argue how much she meant to him.

But it isn’t just evidence of Sam’s affections, it proves to be a useful tool to the hunt in this episode as well. When Sam is unable to speak due to the witches curse, he is instead able to sign “My brother” to Eileen so that she knows to go and get Dean. It is Sam’s knowledge of sign language, which he learned due to his affection and interest in Eileen, that saves his life in this episode.

One point that I HAVE to mention here is how the writers gave so much thought to their depiction of Eileen as a deaf person, and how wonderful her return is as representation for deaf and hard of hearing people everywhere. In both this episode, and also in her first episode 11x11, her disability was not treated as a set back, but as a tool that enables her to get ahead. The only time the writing displayed an insulting and frankly ableist light was Bucklemings 12x21 which isn’t really surprising. We expect such things from Buckleming. The other writers have proven how much more compassionate and caring they are.

The idea that Sam Winchester could end up falling in love with a beautiful, deaf woman in Eileen is practically unheard of in TV media. When do the protagonists ever end up with anyone less than “TV perfect”? It is groundbreaking that Supernatural in it’s 15 seasons has grown so much and come so far. That it started with the fridging of two women, that it’s cast remained predominantly white men throughout its entire run, that it was blackened by excessive misogyny in its early days, as well as ableism via the treatment of Bobby Singer’s paralysis in season 5.

Supernatural has faced heavy criticism throughout it’s run, but it seems like the writers have listened and are learning. By allowing Sam and Eileen to have a happy endgame, they are doing a wonderful service in truly putting this show on the map for progression and representation - They just need to make sure that they follow through on that other big important thing too…

4. Rebirth and new beginnings. I am reminded of 13x05 and the brilliant Steppenwolf song “It’s Never Too Late To Start Again” as I rewatch the bathroom scene for the hundredth time. If the rest of the episode hasn’t already had you crying out how desperately these two should be together I fully believe it was Meredith’s plan (along with the entire production crew and Shoshannah and Jared), to have us all bawling our eyes out in happy tears that Sam and Eileen get to be together now!! (well, I certainly cried. A lot. and ruined my mascara. and squeaked at such a high pitch only dogs could hear me. The only other time I have had that reaction was in 13x05… oh, and 12x19. It’s RARE okay!)

I think the most significant point here is the touching of hands, which calls back to an earlier painful moment in the episode when ghost Eileen reached out to try to comfort Sam as he despaired about being a cosmic joke, and found she wasn’t even able to touch him.

It is a romantic trope that was most famously used in the film Ghost, where touch was a big part of the on screen relationship. Supernatural displays this same trope rather perfectly here when the big win of the episode takes place, and Eileen emerges from the bathtub alive and whole, and tentatively reaches out to take Sam’s hand again with vastly different results.

(x)

Sam is so hesitant to touch her back, so fearful that this isn’t real, that he isn’t being allowed this. The overwhelming sense of relief and warmth that radiates from him when he finally does take her hand was exactly what made me burst into tears. The moment is so extremely breathtaking, so intimate and touching that your heart just aches for them to have that happy ending. It’s rare that Supernatural gives us moments like this, but when it does give them, when it allows its characters a win, they are immediately memorable and stand out as bright spots in an otherwise dark show. It’s moments like this that make watching these characters suffer so much worth it in the end.

The hug that comes after the touching of hands is just as intimate. This is portrayed as a lifeline. Something for Sam to grasp onto and breath. Something that inspires him to change his outlook, to gather his determination, and to convince his brother to join him and fight for the happy ending that both of these boys so desperately deserve.

(x)

The entire bathroom scene was a testament to how well Supernatural can work romance into its narrative. How these talented creators can easily provide us with a romantic scene to tug on our heart strings. Anyone screaming that romance doesn’t belong in this show I will now point at this scene and tell them exactly how wrong they are. This scene is EXACTLY what this show needed.

For anyone denying the romance here (yeah funny how the bronly’s are so anti Saileen - I wonder why...) I’ll spell it out for them:

This is how you set up a romantic scene in TV Production:

1. Candlelight. Check.

2. Soft focus (dates back to the 1930s when films would use soft focus to portray the dreamy emotional uplift of happy couples in love - see Meet Me In Saint Louis for a very clear example). It is almost always considered a filming technique to portray romance. Check.

3. Chivalry. As if any of us didn’t expect Sam to be a perfect gentleman! But the fact is that the way he turns his back and waits with bated breath to see if the spell had worked is shown as anything other than platonic. He is almost shy, knowing that if and when she emerges from the water she will be naked, but he turns to preserve her dignity. Check.

4. Leading on from that, this is literally a naked woman emerging from a bathtub whilst Sam awkwardly stands in the room. It could have been highly sexualised. They could have used that god awful 70s porno music they like so much in this show. Sam could have made a joke to dispel the tension. If this was a platonic friendship, any of these things would have given it away. The fact that none of this happened, that the scene remained tense and intimate but not overly sexualised only further validates the romantic reading. I mean LOOK AT THIS:

CHECK

5. The music. Music is such an important part in any story. It always plays a vital role in signifying the correct atmosphere, and the correct tone of a scene. We talk about music a lot in relation to Dean and Cas and the sweeping melodic notes that usually compliment any heightened emotional DeanCas scene. The music during THIS scene though? Well it was beautifully romantic in every way. If in doubt, just go back and listen to it with your eyes closed. Play this music track over another random scene of two people sharing a moment, and it will make the scene read as romantic. I guarantee it.

CHECK AND MATE.

Overall, this episode was the most romantic and most intimate Sam and Eileen have ever got yet in canon. It is a clear indication that their relationship is heading in a positive direction. I couldn’t be happier with how the writers are portraying this and am jumping for joy at the thought that Sam might actually get what he desired all those years ago during 11x04 when he tried to bring up the topic to Dean in the Impala.

We know from promo photos, that Eileen is still staying with Sam in 15x07. That she comforts him. With images like this to go on:

I’d say with some confidence that we will get to further watch their relationship grow, and I couldn’t be more excited for it.

I fully expect there to be darker moments coming up, and potentially Eileen will be sent away for a period of time (my money is on Chuck “dusting” her the way he did with Becky in 15x04 because I don’t believe that kills people and I do believe that they can be brought back from wherever he sends them too - plus “dusting” makes me think of Avengers Endgame which I find amusing because the “dusted” all returned at the end. I wouldn’t be surprised if Supernatural played around with that as it so often likes to play with pop culture references). I think that post Mid Season Finale we will be back to a period of utter loss and despair for the Winchester boys, and that therefore those who they feel strongly for (aka Cas and Eileen) will have to be separated from them.

However, the point is that it is always darkest before the dawn. In this story, 15x06 has laid the groundwork for Eileen to be Sam’s romantic endgame. It’s now up to Sam, and Eileen, to make sure they fight to get what they both so desire.

Bring on the finale show.

(If you liked this meta run through of Sam and Eileen’s building relationship, please leave a comment for me. It took forever to complete! Also, please click the links under the gifs and go give the gifmakers some love! The gifsets I have used are all wonderful and deserve your reblogs. (Gifs that don’t have links are my own)).

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razorblade180 · 5 years ago

Text

Rosebud prep 11

They say time heals all wounds. Ruby wasn’t sure how much truth was in that saying but right now she could be swayed to believe that achievement should go to love. It’s only been several hours and yet being Jaune’s arms as they sat in her old house enjoying the company of her family has done so much for her than anything else she’s done all year. That being said, listening to other’s talk and smile was more to her liking than actually talking. Everyone understood though. The fact that Ruby wasn’t passed out from emotional exhaustion was pretty impressive to say the least.

Periodically the reapers arms would tighten around Jaune’s waist like if she was worried he’d fade away. Her head laid comfortably on his chest to listen to his heartbeat. It was calm and soothing. ‘I had forgotten how nice this was. His arms.....his scent....’ A tiny of red came across her face as she eased into him a little more. The display of affection didn’t go unnoticed.

Yang:Uh oh, someone is falling in love all over again. I haven’t seen that look in Ruby’s eyes since you both started getting serious.

Jaune:*blushing* Yang! You’re dad is the room!

Tai:I’ve walked in on both of my girls in awkward situations unfortunately. Words don’t shock me anymore.

Yang:You should’ve learned to knock.

Tai:It’s my house! Excuse me for not expecting my respectful daughters to sneak people into it while I’m not looking.

Yang:If it makes you feel better you got me back a few months ago.

Ruby:What happened a few months ago?

Yang:I went to visit dad and casually walked through the front door to see him and mom were....catching up.

Tai:Once again, it’s my house. You should’ve been the walk knocking or text first.

Ruby:The two of you are back together.

Tai:*Rubs head* Well....we’re talking again.

Yang:*mumbling* I didn’t see much talking.

Tai:Yang!

Weiss:Still doing better than me. Neptune might have gotten is act together but work tends to take most of my time.

Blake:If I can take time away for my organization to get married and have a honeymoon, then you can have one day off.

Ruby:She’s right. Spend time with him when you can. You could’ve invited him here with you.

Weiss:Ha! Ruby, time hasn’t given him the ability to read the room yet. He’s a sweetheart but wasn’t risking him saying something that’s still a touchy subject like-

Ruby:*raising eyebrow* I was wondering if you were gonna catch yourself or slip up.

Weiss:I’ve spent too much time around him.

Yang:Ooooo, anything worth noting?

Nora:You’re the only person here not married Weiss. How’d that happen!?

Ren:Time is ticking.

Weiss:Ticking!? I’m only twenty five!!!! I don’t feel the need to nose dive into love like everyone else.

Blake:Hey when you know, you know. Haven’t even been married a month yet and I know it’s the best decision I’ve made with Yang.

Yang:Awwwww

Everyone:Eeeeeeeewwwwwww

Yang:WOW!!! I can understand Weiss be really, my married friends and father?

Jaune:Being married has nothing to do with it. You two have been doing the mushy thing for years and we’ve always cringed.

Ruby:*giggling*

Yang:Y’all are haters.

RNJR:We’re married.

Tai:And you I’m definitely not hating.

Yang folds her arms and turns her head away from the teasing to pout. It was her plan to stay like that for a good minute until her attention was drawn to the window. What used to be the orange glow of a sunset turned into a sky with stars.

Yang:Holy crap it’s night already!?

Blake:What!? we still need to unpack and there’s people expecting me tomorrow!

Nora:Pfft, how did you let time get away from you like that. Very irresponsible of you two.

Ren:Nora, we have to be back at the orphanage by daybreak tomorrow....

Nora:...........Weiss can you give all of us a ride please?

Weiss:Don’t know. I’m twenty five and apparently getting up there in years.

Nora:Weiss I am older than you! Take a joke please!? Children’s lives are on the line!

No one had payed attention to those words too hard. Except for Jaune of course. He looked down to see Ruby staring up at him . They both caught a little sting from Nora’s words but knew it unintentional. It was not worth bringing it to everyone’s attention that they stepped on the land mine that they desperately tried to avoid.

Weiss:I suppose since I have to go soon anyways that I can give you freeloaders a ride. The more I think about it, maybe I am getting old. My back is really starting to hurt helping you guys.

Yang:Oh here we go.

Weiss:I’m just saying. *opens door* You all never fall when I’m by your side. I could make a list from our time at Beacon and it would still be impressive. Top of that list, saved you from a train crash. You’re lucky I’m talking about Beacon days because I could put that on list twice.

Jaune:I saved your life before.

Weiss:I know, I’m grateful everyday. Would you and Ruby also like a ride home? I’d be more than happy too.*smiles*

Yang:Someone is playing favorites.

Blake:Jaune and Ruby are all of our favorites.

Yang:.....Yeah, yeah you’re right. Weiss is still petty though.

Weiss:All who asked for a ride had ten seconds to get in the airships before I change my mind.

Nora grabs Ren’s hand while Yang too Blake’s. They weren’t about to test that bluff and were in the ship with eight seconds to spare.

Ruby and Jaune still sat on the couch however. Going home finally sounded nice in concept, but there was a slight problem. From the way Ruby felt Jaune grip her hand firmly with worry, it was obvious they were thinking about the same thing. She reached for his face and gave him a gentle smile.

Ruby:We can stay here a little longer if you need to. Yang told me the reason you left. All the reasons.

Weiss:All...the reasons?

Jaune:Yeah. Dustin’s room.

Weiss:*bites lip* Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t-

Jaune:It’s okay. Sigh... I’ve been here for some time now. I like to believe I’ve made a bit of progress here but I’ve been informed that recently I’ve been spinning my wheels.

Ruby:What!? Dad!

Tai:N..now hear me out. I told him a change of scenery was nice but he still wasn’t really doing anything. You both are more than welcome to stay longer. Just don’t get stuck wallowing. Try and do things.

Jaune:Yeah I could’ve paraphrased better.

Ruby:So what do you wanna do. You’re the one who needed space. I won’t go back if you aren’t ready to.

.......

Jaune:*interlocks fingers* Through a lot of points in my life I found myself coming to a stand stil when life threw its worst at me; Then like clockwork, you walk by me and I can’t help but feel inspired and chase after you. I always was surprised that I managed to keep up. Then I realized, you were never gonna leave me in dust; any of us. You walked just enough ahead to show us it was possible to keep going but looked back in case you had to slow down.

Ruby:*smiles* Nah, I never looked back. More often than not everyone was beside me. You all were only one step away when you weren’t. I knew you guys could keep up.

Jaune:Then why start changing things now. I’ll take the steps towards home with you.

How could he be so talented at moving her. This is the second time today she’s tried to support him and then he pulls a roll reversal and inspires her. Maybe that was the key to their victories? It was obvious when she thought about it. They always called each other a team unlike any other but Ruby was surprised how deep that actually ran. It was hard not to feel a little invisible around him.

Ruby leaned in to kiss his cheek before standing up and guiding him towards the door. Weiss was proud of the two and even gave a slight bow as they exited the house. She waved to Tai and almost closed the before he walked outside as well and gave Ruby a surprise hug that made her laugh. He carefully looked at Jaune and shifted his eyes towards the ship. It took a minute before Jaune got the message that Tai wanted a quick chat. A wink and a nod then the blonde boy continued to walk with Weiss.

Tai:I’m so proud of you.

Ruby:Me too. About you and Raven I mean. That’s nuts.

Tai:Should I be offended by that?

Ruby:You know what I mean. It’s just unexpected but I’ve been gone awhile. Things are bound to happen.

Tai:It was us working to help you that made it all possible.

Ruby:Then I guess....it wasn’t a total loss. I’m glad.

Tai:Believe me, I got a feeling from all this you’ll gain something beyond belief. The world works in mysterious ways. If you look closely then you can see them.

Ruby:Why do I have a feeling this isn’t only a comfort talk?

Tai:I didn’t want to say anything since Yang did not bring it up but she’s also been having trouble and really wants the chance to talk to you about it. Her and Blake have been talking for a long time, way before the incident about-

Ruby:Kids. They’ve thought about kids. And between what happened with Dustin and with how I am now....

Tai:She’s scared. Not only about a potential attack but hurting you too. We both know that’s the last thing Yang ever wants to do.

Ruby:.....Heavy stuff. Didn’t realize how much this affected her.

Tai:Don’t bring it up if you’re not ready to have that conversation but I thought you should know.

Ruby:Thanks dad.

Tai:Safe journey home. *kisses forehead*

xxxx

The flight home had been a bit longer than expected. Geographically they were closer to Vacou and should’ve been the first stop home but that’s where changes were made. Nora had been real anxious of the orphans despite them being watched over, so a trip to Anima was the first drop off. Nora and Ren had felt a little bad but was assured by everyone they understand.

Next stop was Menagerie. It had been well into nighttime by the time the island was in view. The island was mostly lit up with lanterns though which proved very helpful. Technically there was no formal landing spot and finding a clear space was more annoying at night than it has a right to be. So that only left one real option....

Weiss:Okay you two, think you can jump from here? *opens door*

Yang:Yep!

Blake:You know I never thought Ozpin’s training on landing strategies would come up so frequently. Go figure... *jumps*

Yang:Well it’s been f-

Ruby:Hold on one second. *standing up*

Yang:Hmm?

Ruby:Yang I just want you to know that I love you. You’re the best sister I could’ve asked for. Actually, if I’m being honest with myself, you’ve also been like I mom to me more times than I can count. Don’t....don’t let me stand in th way of you becoming a real one.

Yang:*eyes widened* Dad told you, didn’t he?

Ruby:*nods* I know you’ll always consider my feelings in whatever you do in life. We’re both grownups now though and married. Take those leaps in life when Blake when you two are ready. It’ll be a little rough but I’ll back you up. I’m your sister and your leader; that’s sort my job. *smiles*

Yang was at a loss for words. The wind roaring from outside wasn’t doing her any favors either in terms of thinking. So she did what she always does when words fail her. Yang got physical. Her arms opened up and Ruby already knew what that meant. Ruby walked right into hug and enjoyed the warmth of her sister’s embrace before breaking apart and giving her nod. The older sister kissed her forehead and gave a nod back before hopping out the airship.

That conversation had taken more energy out of her than expected. It was short and to the point yet somehow managed to stir something in her. Maybe Tai was right when he said it was okay to wait to have that talk. Yang had been waiting a long time though and Ruby couldn’t bare the thought of hindering her sister’s life any more than she already had. Maybe what she needed was rest. Ruby found herself cuddling up under Jaune once again. His hand lulling her to a blissful sleep as it rubbed her head.

Ruby:Jaune....I....I......

Jaune:Ssssshhhh rest for now. I’ll wake you when we get there.

Ruby:*blushing* Okay.....

xxxx

Jaune:Ruby? *shakes her*

Ruby:Zzzzz

Jaune:*chuckles* Worn out to the bone.

Weiss:I can park a little closer to your house if you have to carry her.

Jaune:Nah it’s alright. I don’t mind a tiny walk.

Weiss:If you say so. You two take care now. You deserve it. Call me for anything.

Jaune:Awwww

Weiss:Yeah yeah, I’m a softie who cares. Honestly why is that still surprising?

Jaune:It’s just really satisfying.

He scooped Ruby up into his arm and walked towards the door. Weiss opened it for him and gave him a warm smile. “Have a nice night.” Jaune smiled and gave the heiress an unexpected peck on the cheek that made her do a double take while he walked off. “Fly home safe.”

She didn’t respond. Instead she let out a small chuckle and closed the door. Weiss was never one to turn down a little affection from her friends. Especially Ruby, Ren, Blake, or Jaune. Something about it was always nice and innocent.

Alone, Jaune walked to his home. Well, technically he wasn’t alone; just the only one conscious. He did not mind though. It was actually pretty nostalgic. Carrying Ruby had become one of the little requirements of knowing the girl for as long as he did; even before they started dating there were many times the girl had found her way into his arms. It’s been some time since last he had to do it however. She seemed lighter than usual. All those missions most likely had something to do with it. If he hadn’t stopped training then no doubt she’d feel like a feather to him. ‘I should get back to my routine soon. I’m lucky Nora didn’t say anything about my health or else she might’ve put me on her work out routine.” He shuttered at that thought.

The trek home had finally ended at his door step. Only a few weeks has passed but the house had already seemed a bit foreign. No lights were left on, no mail at the door, no anything. Just a simple house looking over a town from their rocky and sandy landscape. It was supposed to be their little world with room to do anything. Train, picnics, or whatever. He had hope his future child could feel free to stretch wings. Now this place seemed lonely and a reminder of what could’ve been. He continued to stare blankly at the front door before the click of the door knob snapped him out of the daze. Ruby had woken up and was unlocking the door from his arms.

Jaune:Y..You’re awake.

Ruby:Yep. About five minutes now. I’m surprised me wrestling with the keys didn’t startle you.

Jaune:Five minutes? *frowns* I’ve stood here that long?

Ruby:*pushing open door* Yeah. I’m actually happy you did. It gave me time to think.

Jaune:About?

Ruby did not answer. Instead she hopped out of his arms and grabbed his arms to slowly lead him in. Jaune flicked on the porch light and the living room to get a nice look at everything. A bit dusty to be expected. The kitchen and dining room looked undisturbed except for a chair slightly out of place. Jaune had been told Ozpin had been waiting for Ruby a couple days and. He expected that’s where the man sat. How he got into the house is an entirely different question he’d have to make sure to ask later.

All in all the first floor was fine. No doubt the second floor was as well, but it was that floor that made his blood freeze up. There’s a room up there that should have a his son in a crib but remains empty. Empty because he was too slow to find him. Cinder had taken two very important things from his life now. No amount of healing will change that fact.

Jaune:Ruby I-

Ruby:I’ve kept a secret from you.

Jaune:...What?

Ruby:I’ve kept a secret from you. For a little over a year now. I told you how I was scared how my life might change the day I told you I was pregnant. I never told you that the entire month before I told you I was debating. Debating on getting rid of it.

Jaune:......

Ruby:I still would’ve told you before I went through with it but that day never happened because my dad made me realize what I could possibly be throwing away. All that joy and experiences. It out weighed my previous fears and the thought of never knowing what I was giving up. *tightens grip*

Jaune:Why are you telling me this now.

Ruby:Because for a year I’ve had a nagging question in my head. Would losing my child by my own decision hurt less than someone else taking them away? Did I have the right answer the first time around? I’ve achieved my first dream of being a legendary huntress. That was always what I wanted then parenthood seemed to be tagged on in the last minute. I should feel a certain level of happiness from completing the one I wanted to do for so long but I don’t. Instead it feels like I’m only halfway to getting what I want. Reconnecting with you, standing in this house, I think I finally have my answer.

Ruby turns around to face him. Tears well up a little as she extends her left fist until it rests on his heart. Her eyes remain dim but filled with a since of purpose that Jaune watches slowly build until it forms into words.

Ruby:I may have only held Dustin once in my arms but there is no doubt in my mind that the feeling it gave me will always be a moment I don’t regret gaining; no matter the sorrow that followed after. So as long as you are with me and feel the same way I do, then one day when we are ready, we’ll get another chance to have that feeling. You and I will try again and put a baby in that crib I watched you struggle to build. *crying*

Jaune:*crying*.....hehe

Jaune:I did not struggle just so you know.

Ruby:Yeah sure you dummy. *sniffling*

Jaune:Have I told you I much I missed you.

Ruby:Show me instead.

Jaune:All I needed to hear.

To hell with the pain, the fear, and sorrow. All of it numbing as long as they stood by each other. Jaune pulled Ruby into a kiss she might as well jumped into; their tears being wiped by the other. There was no fever behind the kiss but an intense passion. A promise to keep going. Ruby pulled him down to her level and walked towards the couch where she stumbled backwards and Jaune fell on top of her. All while never breaking the kiss. Yeah they had a bed but it was also upstairs and right now that was still the last place they wanted to go. Finally they separated for air and they got a good look at each other. Puffy eyes and flushed faces. Not to mention a deep desire to not stop.

Jaune:Are you sure?

Ruby:Yang was right earlier about that look in my eye earlier. Except I wasn’t falling in love all over again; I never stopped loving you in the first place. Somewhere along the line, I guess I just forgot how good it felt to be with you. In your arms, kissing you, under you....I miss all those feelings. Please give them all back to me. I won’t squander them again.

Jaune:You never lost them in the first place.

He gave her a chaste kiss before working his way down to her neck. The subtle scent that came off her body. The tiny gasps of air that escaped between her lips when he bit down and the whimpers from his hands outlining her frame through Ruby’s clothing. Jaune had missed many things as well from being separated from his wife. Ruby wasn’t completely docile during this rekindling of affection. She had already placed her legs on each side of him and managed to fumble around with his belt long enough to finally unbuckle it.

Before she could get any farther, Jaune had guided her hands back up to the bottom of his shirt and then over his head. Workout or not, Ruby missed seeing the sight of her man shirtless. Even though it brought a pout to her face that he had stopped her from what she really wanted to see. “I was kinda in the middle of something you know?” He chuckled at his beautiful and flustered rose. “Someone is a bit eager.”

“Believe me when I say I’m more than ready for you know.” Ruby didn’t think her own words could make her any more flushed than she already was but she could feel her face get redder as her breath became more ragged. Jaune brought his left hand to her face and watched her lovingly lean into it. Everything she did managed to make his heart jump but Jaune was on a personal mission and no amount of beauty was going to prevent him from achieving it. He bent down towards her ear until she could feel his breath brush against it.“I’ve barely seen you all year. I’d like to change that and take my time with it. What’s a few more minutes of waiting?”

There was a base in his voice that made the girl gulp.That voice let him get away with a lot of things on a regular day; he might just get everything he asked for tonight. Ruby could tell that Jaune was teetering on the edge of restraint and it excited her. It was nice to know he was still interested in her on a physical and emotional level after everything. That made this all the more intense. The bottom of her dress was already bunched up way past her waist while he slid the top down along with her bra.”Well...?” Ruby said a bit anxiously as he burned the image of her into his mind. She knew he loved her but it was impossible to not got flustered when he looked at her so expose. “You’re beautiful.” Those words made it worth it. “Then stop teasing me already. The night is gonna be long enough already.” She had a point. He had is fill of foreplay and took one last look into Ruby’s eyes before he continued. “Let me know if you need a break.”

“Hehe, same to you my knight.” Indeed, it was gonna be a long night.

Part 10

#rwby #rwby rosebud #ruby rose #rwby lancaster #taiyang xiao long #lie ren #nora valkryie #renora #jaune arc #yang xiao long #weiss schnee #blake belladonna #bumbleby #rwby au #rwby ships

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banashee · 5 years ago

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We can be whatever we want

The dim light of the rising sun floats through the cracks of the shutters early in the morning and Steve blinks against it. Waking up slowly is still a new sensation to him - as is waking up next to another person. It’s not uncomfortable, and he really could get used to this. He listens to the calm, even heartbeat coming from the smaller body next to him. Natasha has her back turned, cuddled up under the blankets and she’s slowly waking up.

Then, Steve nearly jumps out of his skin. There is a very sudden and ice cold touch on his bare skin, and it takes him a second to realize that Natasha is very much responsible for it. She put her freezing feet right on his lower back and hums happily as she wiggles closer, half asleep but clearly aware of what she’s doing.

Steve still curses out loud and then half heartedly complains,

“Urgh, your feet are cold.”

It gets met with a low chuckle from Nat.

“Yup, and you’re warm.” She’s completely unconcerned and even shoves her feet further up the back of his shirt in an attempt to get more warmth. He’s expected it by now, and despite himself, smiles lopsidedly.

“So you want to try and freeze me again?”

“No, then I’d have to find another human hot water bottle to keep me company. Too much effort.”

Natasha isn’t even trying to hide the smile creeping into her voice and then she turns around to wrap her arms around his middle and pushes her icy toes in between his legs instead - but he’s prepared this time. Steve happily pulls her closer, one arm firmly wrapped around her and messing up the back of her bright red hair, something she usually wouldn’t let anyone get away with.

They start the day lazy and comfortable, rolling around in bed. Then they hit the sparring mats together.

Neither of them shows the other any mercy, and about an hour later, they’re drenched in sweat and sporting brand new bruises. They share a shower where they get to more intimate and even more entertaining things than that and Steve can’t help but notice that apparently to them, beating the crap out of each other in the gym seems to count as foreplay these days. He also finds that he doesn’t mind that at all and doesn’t question what that says about either of them.

It’s much easier to just live in the moment and enjoy this - whatever it is - as long as it’ll last.

*+~

Steve has made himself comfortable in his own little corner down in the main lab.

He’s got a whole art studio upstairs in his apartment, because Tony is both over the top in anything and everything he does and very generous to the people around him. The room is large, full of light and equipped with giant windows and just about anything an artist could ever need. Just thinking about how expensive all of it must have been makes Steve's head spin, but he loves the studio and uses it frequently. The only thing it lacks is company though, so he’s often hanging out down in the lab, because both Tony and Bruce spend a lot of time there and the others come by frequently.

Today, Steve is working on a large painting of a nightly scenery, the New York Skyline in blues, purples and small yellow lights. It’s beautiful, and he loves that he can get lost in all the little details.

But it doesn't help that he keeps thinking about Natasha and whatever it is they have. They never put a label on it, and while there is a lot of trust and they’re comfortable around each other, he can’t help but think that it’s probably casual unless they agree to specify it otherwise. Which is a problem - he’s not sure how to bring this up to her. Just in case she doesn’t want something committed, which is entirely possible, with the lives they have. Romantic relationships don’t necessarily work out in a case like this, and it’s just easier to seek out the warmth and intimacy of another person at night just to be able to hold onto something without hoping for or expecting anything else from it.

Then again, romantic relationships are never guaranteed to work out. Steve feels out of his depth in this.

Blindly, he reaches for his coffee mug to drink a few sips. He makes a face at the aftertaste and loads up his brush with more paint while he’s listening with half an ear as Tony pokes Clint with his screwdriver, because he’s sitting with his ass on Tony’s desk while he’s fletching arrows. They bricker and complain like an old married couple. Clint pokes Tony in the armpit with the back of the arrow he's currently holding and the inventor complains endlessly as he throws a balled up, stained paper towel at his head in response. Because they're mature adults like that.

The two of them are a oddly perfect combination, and Steve (amongst other people) spent the longest time wondering if they would end up throwing hands or proposing marriage to each other by the end of the day - it is a pretty even tie most of the time.

There are backup protocols in place just in case they team up and go rogue together. That fact alone should be terrifying because Tony and Clint left to their own devices mean chaos and fiery destruction on a good day and it still baffles everyone how these two managed to actually start a healthy and loving relationship with each other. It’s hard to believe some days, especially when another screwdriver gets chucked through the air as they bricker on.

Steve doesn’t react to it, taking another sip of coffee - it makes him cringe again.

"Coffee tastes odd today." he muses, concentrating on another small and detailed part of his painting. It takes his mind off of things. Things like his growing not-so-casual-anymore feelings for Natasha which is really not something he wants to think about right now, hence why he's hanging out down here.

"Excuse you, my coffee is fucking great." Hawkeye grouches good naturedly from his spot on the desk, putting a feather on the shaft of his arrow in place without looking up.

Steve just shrugs, keeps drinking. It just gets worse and worse as time goes on and he says as much.

Tony turns, one eyebrow raised at him and then he bursts out laughing.

"Steve you giant baffoon, stop drinking the paint water."

"Wait, what?! “ he looks down into his mug. The coffee now looks suspiciously purple while the mug with the water and his paint brushes looks much, much cleaner. He sighs heavily.

"Goddammit."

"You have a purple mustache." Clint supplies helpfully and Steve runs a hand down his face.

"Great, that's just what I wanted to wear today."

"Impeccable taste as always."

Steve furiously wipes at his face with the corner of his shirt. But there is no pretense left at this point, anyway.

“Seriously tho, what’s up with you today? You’re not usually that much of a dork.”

“Thanks very much.” He quips back and then stops for a moment. After a beat of silence, he actually starts talking about the issue on his mind - Clint listens as he starts carving wood for another arrow, and nods along to what Steve is telling him. He’s Natashas best friend after all, so it’s not like he wouldn’t know. Everyone knows, if he’s honest. But he still keeps rambling on.

“Go talk to her. It’ll be fine.” is what Clint finally answers and yeah, if only it was that easy, Steve thinks. Or says out loud, because his mouth keeps lamenting without his permission, which is great.

“Talk to her.” Is all that Clint says, and he repeats himself three or four more times, interrupting Steve’s increasingly flustered rambling every single time. After that, Tony chimes in.

“Hey Steve, I have an idea.”

“Yes?”

Tony looks up with a flat look. “Go talk to her.”

“Why am I even talking to you?”

“We’re charming and sparkling company.”

“Nah, that can’t be it.”

“Seriously, go talk to her. This is between her and you, we can’t solve shit.”

Steve is annoyed because they’re right. But then, Tony looks down on whatever the hell he’s working on and says,

“Oh. Oops.”

That sends Clint scrambling off of the table, because “Oh. Oops.” is the very last thing you want to hear Tony Stark say in the labs. Ever.

Clint is grabbing Tony to pull him with him as he puts as much distance as possible between them and the table and Steve launches forward to put himself in between his friends and the small-ish explosion that occurs seconds later.

The three of them remain mostly unharmed, a bit of scorched hair and damaged pride to be pulled by the scruff like a naughty kitten aside.

“For fuck’s sake.”

Once again, Steve sighs heavily. He does that a lot around here.

“Steve?”

“Yes.”

“Talk to her.”

He glares, because once again, he’s annoyed that they’re right about this.

Goddamnit.

*+~

“Stop thinking so hard.” Natasha complains at night. She’s wrapped around him, comfortable and content, running one hand over his shoulder. If Steve had been under the impression it’s gone unnoticed, well, he’s dead wrong about that.

He’s about to say something stupid like “I’m not” or “I have no idea what you’re talking about” but this is Natasha, and she always notices. So the words that are actually coming out of his mouth are

“What are we?” he stops for a second before he continues. “I’m sorry, it’s just, we never really discussed any specifics and, well…” Steve can feel his face heating up. Way to go, Rogers.

Natasha hums in response, pushing herself away from him a little bit. Not much, just enough so they can look each other in the eye. She also keeps her hand on his arm when she answers, rubbing small circles with her thumb.

“We can be whatever we want. If you’d prefer to keep this casual, that’s okay with me. But if you’d like this to be more… Because I’d like that.”

She’s open with him, not hiding, not a single mask or distraction in place. Her green eyes are no longer sleepy, but they’re sparkling and beautiful and Steve could get lost in them. Her answer takes him by surprise, and so does her small smile at his facial expression that obviously gives him away. But he smiles back, and simply replies,

“Yes, I would like that very much.” Then, he asks, “Is it okay when I kiss you?” because while they’ve done much more than that before, it feels like this would still make it very much different.

Instead of answering, Natasha crosses the distance herself.

They hold onto each other, almost melting into each other. They stop kissing to catch some breath, and Steve gently tucks a lose strand of hair behind Natashas ear, keeping his hand there to slowly stroke her red curls. Both of them are probably smiling a sappy smile that no one else can see and when they finally fall asleep that night, they do so with a silent happiness about them.

In the morning, Steve wakes up to icy feet on his back once again. This time tho, he thinks he might as well get used to that, too, although it doesn’t stop him from complaining. It doesn’t stop Natasha from laughing and snuggling closer, either, so it's all good.

*+~

Prompt No. 58 – "Urgh. Your feet are cold" – "Yup, and you're warm."

#banashee writes #marvel fanfiction #romanogers #ironhawk

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icequeenjules26 · 5 years ago

Text

The Butterfly Effect - Part I: If a butterfly flaps its wings...

Summary: It is said that if a Butterfly Flaps its wings it can cause a tsunami at the other end of the world... When nature photographer Dan and god of the forests Phil get caught up in the flap of a butterfly's wings, everything could change forever.

Word Count: 2,6k

Tags: Strangers to lovers, God!Phil, Photographer!Dan

A/n: The first chapter of my third fic for this @phandomreversebang. The second part will be up as soon as I can, I promise. Art will be included in the second part and is done by the AMAZINGLY talented @anotherweirdblog (really guys. holy crap.) and beta'd by my Angel @succubusphan.

Read on AO3

Dan never really called himself a horse-boy. He was someone that loved beauty, elegance and aesthetics before anything else, so he told whoever was willing to listen that loving horses just came along with it. If you loved those things, you’d come across horses sooner rather than later. They were majestic in the purest kind of way, and they could take everyone’s breath away with their stunning beauty if the person would just let them. A horse in action would put everything else to shame.

As a photographer his first ambition was to capture the beautiful essence of real moments and make people see the world like he did. The downside of working with horses was you never truly knew what they would do, but the upside was no pictures with them ever were truly staged. You couldn’t ask them to smile for the camera, and even if you could, there was no guarantee they would truly do it.

Theoretically, Dan was also a nature photographer, taking pictures for magazines and blogs, but he tended to combine the job with the hobby and made the journey to his photography destination on horseback. Mostly so he could take pictures of his horse as well to post on his personal horse blog and social media pages.

This particular day he had been commissioned to take forest aesthetic pictures with wildflowers - Dan’s specialty. There was a beautiful landscape made for that commission just a few hours over on horseback, so he decided to take his horse and get some beautiful pictures of her as an added bonus. He also brought his lady dog around to keep his mare in check if anything unforeseeable would happen while taking pictures of her running and playing freely.

They had been on the way for almost an hour. Diana was running around at their feet, barking at flowers and trees. Athena, the love of his life and best friend through everything, was used to her antics at this point and just huffed from time to time to keep Diana’s excitement in check.

They were a good trio like that. Dan adored them both with all his heart, his black ladies, and they just worked.

So they made their way towards their destination, unaware of the fact that they’d never get there.

___

Phil was a god.

And no, that wasn’t said with arrogance, or hubris. It was an actual fact.

He wasn’t what christians would call god, the one, all-knowing entity - not that it existed - but he was still a god. The god of forests.

Which had a sense of irony, undoubtedly, since he wasn’t allowed to leave his forest. He was forever cursed to stay in his little part, to take care of its animals and plants. And it was nice, he supposed, to have a connection to his particular stretch of forest, to know all the animals by name, being able to communicate with them; nice and exciting - it was just that it had been like this for millennials. Literal millennials. Phil was about as old as the earth itself, and he had been here all his life.

He was getting tired of it.

Saying that might have made him sound ungrateful or selfish, but that didn’t make it less true. It wasn’t only the fact that he felt like a bird locked in a cage with no way to get out; but also that things in his forest had been the same - or around the same - forever, basically. Nothing new or exciting happened - or at least very rarely. The forest was fairly secluded, hardly anyone ever passed through, and Phil meeting those people happened even less. Even his animals stayed the same - a strong enchantment kept them from growing old, and if they got hurt Phil had the magical ability to nurse them back to health.

The only exciting thing was animal babies getting born from time to time, but even those were rare.

What brought him the most joy in life were his best friends. Sure, they weren’t typical friends, not human or at least human-like as he was - save for his pointy fairy ears - but they were real friends nonetheless.

He loved all of his animals, whoever was living in his forrest, even if he was envious that they could leave whenever they wanted to, but the ones he loved the most were his best friends. Shikamaru, nicknamed Shika, and Temari, sometimes called Tema (but only by Shika if he wanted to piss her off), were deer that had lived with him for millennials. They had been with him through a lot, and somehow, they’d always managed to make him laugh.

They shared stories of the outside world with him - they were bound to his forest as well but where allowed to leave from time to time, even if they weren’t able to stay away for long - and just overall kept him upright. Shika was too smart for his own good and the laziest creature you could find, often getting chastised for it by Temari, who was fierce and strong and brave. Even though they fought a lot, they both had the biggest crush on the other and watching them dance around without making a move tended to make Phil’s grey days a lot brighter.

As every morning, they had started this one with breakfast. Phil was a god, so thankfully, he was able to get whatever food he wanted, even though he could just as easily live from grass, tree barks and bugs.

That morning, he had decided on a ridiculously sweet stack of pancakes basically drowning in syrup, and his fingers were sticky just from touching the plate. He brought it outside to eat while Shika and Temari started grazing in what he’d consider his front yard. They said good morning without many words, just casually nodding at each other, and started eating in comfortable silence, just a few birds chirping in the distance.

When they were done, Phil brought his dishes inside to take care of them later, and when he came back out, Temari and Shika had started the first fight of the day. It was never anything too serious, mainly just Shika using the word bothersome too often. Phil laughed as he stepped outside.

Temari groaned in frustration. “Please, don’t encourage him!”

Phil chuckled again. “Sorry, deer.”

This time, both Temari and Shika groaned about the bad pun and just started walking, not even checking if Phil came after them or not.

Something in the air was different this morning, Phil mused as they strolled through the forest. He couldn’t lay his finger on it, but it was there, hiding steep below the surface. The two deer sensed it as well, stepping closer towards Phil, who laid his hands on their necks and started tickling them to calm them down a bit. He could’ve easily just send them a sense of calm mentally, but he didn’t like dictating what they had to feel. They were their own beings with their own personalities and if they felt anxious or nervous they had the right to do so.

That’s how they walked on, deeper into the darker parts of the forest, neither of them having any clue that their lives were about to change forever.

____

No matter what you call it, be it coincidence, faith, destiny - it is a funny thing, isn’t it? This fickle, irrational thing that sometimes jumps in and changes the direction of everything. That thing that out of nowhere takes ahold of a situation, flips it around, reverses it just to put it back in order, just to mess it right back up again. We call it Butterfly Effect - this bizarre set of motions that just all cause the next thing to happen - this abstract phenomenon where a butterfly flaps its wings and sets off a multitude of occurrences that end in the apocalypse. It’s like a line of dominos, positioned in increasingly complicated twists and turns, getting just a tiny bit taller with every stone that falls, until a domino the size of a fingernail causes one to fall that’s easily the size of a door.

Sometimes, usually, moments, occasions, go by unrecognized, unnoticed, like a tiny pebble lying harmlessly on a concrete floor, multitude of people passing by without ever touching it, until one comes by, driving over it with their bike and ending up literally crashing into the love of their life.

In this case, it’s fairly similar - just a lot more complicated.

How does this relate to our two heroes? You may ask. Well - in retrospect, it is what caused the entirety of what comes next.

Looking at Dan, for example, him and his mare were fairly experienced. They’d made it through several hairy situations, sometimes barely pulling through, and yes, she lost her head sometimes, stormed off and left Dan sitting in the dust, but usually, his lady dog managed to have her calm down within just a few canter strides; and the mare never, ever, ever ran too far from her point of takeoff.

Or Phil, centuries, no, millennials old - about as old as the earth as we know it - and omniscient, at least concerning his forrest. He hadn’t been surprised by much in ages, especially not hugely surprised, surprised enough to cause his animals to loose their heads and go riot - in fact, that might not have happened in more than a thousand years.

Yet, both happenings were set off by two completely different and unrelated occurrences causing everything the boys had planned for their futures, good and bad, to shatter, crumble into dust. Two incidents at roughly the same time, how is that even possible? Might some of you ask now, and, by all means, you have the right to question, it’s just that - this… This thing, this coincidence, faith, destiny, whatever - it works in mysterious ways, so that at this certain point in time, there is no correct way to answer this particular question. It just happened, and it will have consequences reaching deeply, deeply into the future.

Because it caused them to meet each other.

On Dan’s end, it was merely a gust of wind and old, slightly broken electrical wires that, over several different stations, caused Athena to flip and forget all the education she had experienced in her life, all the trust she had in Dan, her best friend.

It was a gust of wind that has a tiny, innocent little spider falling into the open window of the powerhouse closest to Dan’s estimated destination. It managed to take a hold of one of the fuses, where it just sat for a while, stunned. When the electricians came in for the daily check-up - just to see if everything was still in order - it moved, startling the electrician, causing him to stumble backwards, just one, two steps… Where his foot landed exactly on a weak point in the wiring on the ground. That weak point had been there for years, proverbial ages, yet nothing had ever happened - just now, when the electricians weight causes the wiring to bent just a little bit further… The wiring broke. The breakpoint stopped the electricity to flow, causing a significant area to be without power.

Usually, that was not much of a problem. There were just a few houses that far away from everything, barns and cottages that were mostly void of humans at this time of the year, and especially midday hardly anyone even noticed the power was out. Just one cow, a brown steer named Lory, was trying to get to the other side of her electrical fencing - as we all know, the grass on the other side is always greener - and touched the fencing in the progress… Realizing there is no electric shock keeping her back. So she strained the two laces, stepping through between them, easily getting on the other side. The fencing snapped back into place afterwards and none of her friends followed her.

For a momentwhile, nothing happened. Lory kept grazing, the herd kept doing the same on the other side of the fence, all was well. Until she wanted to get back, back to her herd, her friends, touched the fencing and got a small electric shock, just a slight pinch, that had her stepping back and realize - her one way back was blocked. She was isolated from her herd.

Like every cow in her situation, she flipped, trotted back and forth on her side of the fencing, calling loudly, almost violently for her friends. Her herd came by and panics as well -

And that was the point where Athena, Diana and Dan came across the herd. The mare was usually okay with cows, even though she’s always found them creepy, but this - this was simply too much for her.

She freaked, storming off, Dan barely hanging on to her, so fast Diana was barely able to follow, let alone trying to calm her down.

She ran, almost headless, just trying to get away - unintentionally crossing the border into Phil’s territory.

On Phil’s end, it’s not that complicated. It’s just that usually, storms didn’t reach his forrest. The magical barriers he had put up to defend it kept them away. But his wards were wearing off, and this midday, as he strolled along the familiar paths, he discovered a tree almost burned down by a bolt of lightning. Admittedly, not a big deal, but for Phil, who’s life hadn’t held new and unknown happenings for millennials, it was a shock.

He didn’t have himself in check, and both Shika and Tema reacted to his sudden mood swing, jumping around violently.

And this is where their parts crossed. Where Dan and Phil, literal worlds apart and under normal circumstances further away from meeting than the sun and the moon, suddenly clashed, with a tremor so severe nothing would ever be the same again.

___

If Athena wouldn’t have flipped, if Levy wouldn’t have left her herd, if the electricity hadn’t been cut off - all the way back to if the gust of wind hadn’t knocked that spider in through the window - they never even would’ve gotten to Phil’s forest. And if the tree wouldn’t have been hit by that lightning bolt, if Phil’s wards wouldn’t have started to wear off exactly the night before and if Phil wouldn’t have freaked, Shika never would’ve jumped around so mindlessly. But both, no, all of those things did happen exactly that way, and that was the only reason everything was about to change.

Instead of running straight through the forest, not even realizing what they’d set foot in, they passed Phil and his deer, who were going wild. Shka, not paying attention to where he was jumping at all, managed to somehow step exactly on Athena’s path, and that’s how it happened - the still panicked mare only became aware of the equally freaked deer at the last second, had nowhere to go… And by some miracle, instead of crushing straight into him, she managed to somehow step around him, completely losing her footing in the process, crashing onto the ground mercilessly. Being the smart mare that she was, she managed to keep both Diana and Dan relatively unharmed as she went down.

Just for one blink of an eye, it seemed as though time was standing still, nothing moving. Blue eyes met brown ones and with a feeling of severity for both boys, the world started moving again like a long dormant suddenly springing back to life, spitting out lava and burning everything around it in the process.

#phan #phanfiction #phanfic au #my writing #go follow pia guys she makes the most beautiful art in history

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something-fanfiction-ie · 6 years ago

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Daughters To Wed | Three

Pairing: Prince!Tom Holland x Reader

Warnings: Mentions of violence towards the end. Allusions toward an emotionally abusive father, and I want to say that’s all?

Word Count: 3 ,132

Summary: You are the daughter of a man infamous for having many children, only to marry them off in an effort to climb the social ladder and gain more riches. You have grown up hating the idea of marriage, only to be married to the Prince of Braydal, and the future King, Thomas Holland. The both of you are very unwilling partners, and that seems to be the only thing you have in common. It isn’t until things start to crumble around you that you realize there might be more to the cold prince than you thought.

| Prologue | One | Two |

___

For as long as you can remember, you have always feared your father. It had been a fear you learned through your siblings and your mother.

Just try to stay out of Papa’s way, okay? Mama would say, ushering you out of his sight. Your childhood was a long blur of the back of your mother’s skirts . When your mother passed away, it became your older sister’s skirts, and when you were too old to hide behind skirts, you had learned to simply listen to orders the first time they were given.

Your fear for you father was so apart of you that, even as the future Queen, the thought of his presence frightened you to the core.

Tom glanced at you out of the corner of his eyes as you both stood on the front lawn of the palace to welcome the man who haunted your nightmares. It was early morning, the sun already causing sweat to bead on brows.

Still, your teeth chattered uncontrollably. You couldn’t get rid of the feeling that he would see past the charade you and Tom tried to put on. If he ever found out, he would be mad. Seething and frothing from the mouth mad.

If you had just listened to Mama, then maybe you wouldn’t be in this situation. If you had kept your head down, had stayed out of his way, then maybe you wouldn’t be the girl on the prince’s arm.

“Are you okay?” Tom leaned toward you. There wasn’t any real concern in his voice that you could pick up on. It sounded more like when someone is trying to check on your sanity.

You snapped your teeth together, clenching the points of your fingernails into the palms of your hands.

“Yes, Your Highness.” He raised an eyebrow that clearly stated that he didn’t believe you for even a fraction of a second.

“If you want your father to believe that our marriage is a successful one, then perhaps you shouldn’t be standing so far away and perhaps you shouldn’t look as if you are being lead to your execution.” Both eyebrows go up in unison, coupled with a small smile that did nothing for your nerves.

Despite his suggestion, you stay put and are surprised when he is the one that closes the distance between you. The rough fabric of his jacket brushes against your arm, the cloth separating your skin from touching.

The sound of horse hooves beating on the road to the palace pulls you from whatever strange moment you were having with your husband.

Your father’s carriage is black as night and pulled by two mares born of the same darkness. You can’t help but think that the color suits him as a person. Like Death and Misery riding a carriage into the palace.

When it finally stops in front of the small crowd of royals collected for his arrival, you really wish God would set the mood with a little bit of lightning, dark clouds, and sheets of rain.

Instead, the sun shines down like a spotlight as a monster steps out of the carriage door and flashes his deceivious smile.

“Thank you for allowing me to visit, Your Majesties.” He bows low, but not before casting you a look that could kill. Somehow, your father is already disappointed in you. Years and years of fears come rushing at you like a derailed locomotive.

Your hand shoots out, grabbing Tom’s and threading your fingers. You can feel your heart thrumming in your fingertips and you are certain that Tom can feel it too. You expect him to shoot you a weird look, maybe even pull his hand away. Instead, he keeps his eyes on your father and squeezes your hand, almost like he is trying to reassure you.

It’s nice.

“So nice of you to grace us with your presence, My Lord.” Nicola smiles, motioning for your father to rise from his bow. You nearly jump out of your skin when Tom starts to smooth his thumb against the back of your hand.

Your father spouted a bunch of lies about missing his daughter, something that could definitely be equated to horseshit. You zoned out the moment Tom started to act like am actual husband by trying to soothe your nerves with small touches.

The strange gesture did not go unnoticed by the rest of the group, besides your father, who merely glared at you with even more animosity than before.

One prince elbowed another prince who kicked the last prince who tugged on the back of a King’s coat who cast a devilish smile at the Queen who just widened her eyes ever so slightly at her eldest son.

Tom simply smiled a wide grin, pulled your arm through the crook of his elbow, and prepared himself to put on the show of his life.

You expected the knock at your door that night.

When you pushed the overly sized door open, Tom stood on the other side, wearing only his under shirt, trousers, and a dress robe. You’d never seen him so down dressed. It was almost an immediate decision that you liked him like this.

“Are you going to let me in or are you just going to keep staring at me?” He smiled deviously when you huffed, pulling away from the doorway and allowing him to enter your room. You pulled your dress robe tight against your body, suddenly wishing that you had stayed dressed.

Tom gazed around the room curiously. The last time he had been in your room, you’d only been married for two weeks. Now, as the two of you neared a year of marriage, he couldn’t help the odd feeling that came with being married to a stranger for a year and having learned very little about them.

He didn’t even know your middle name.

“You did a very convincing job today, Your Highness.” You shuffled your feet before deciding to sit in one of the chairs next to your balcony doors.

“You did not.” He responded, still walking around the room and noticing everything you’ve changed.

The family portrait was still missing from its place above the fireplace, you had letters upon letters strewn across your desk. A flick of his gaze confirmed that your hands were spotted with ink from writing.

Tom reminded himself that you had a great many more siblings than he did and you had been, and it appeared you still were, very close with them.

On your nightstand was a book, upon closer inspection he realized it was A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. It was bookmarked with an open envelope, probably from one of the many letters you’d received from your siblings. Next to the book we’re two pictures in frames.

One of the two was a group picture of no less than twenty people. You confirmed that it was the last picture taken of all of your siblings.

“Although, that was a few years ago and Katherine has had three children since then. In fact, I believe Jane wrote that she was pregnant again.”

Tom saved his choked shocked for a different time, instead focusing on the smaller picture that occupied an intricate oval frame.

Surrounded by silver filigree were a woman with a kind face, her lips permanently pulled into a small smile, and a toddler with your eyes, sitting in the woman’s lap and smiling at the camera.

There was no question as to who the people in the picture were, Tom could see the resemblance between the woman in the picture and the woman you had become.

You offered nothing to him about your mother or even the picture, only changed the subject.

“Tell me how to do better.” It took Tom a second to loop back to his earlier comment on your poor acting skills. The whole time the both of you had been in the same room with your father, you had remained stiff as a board. It was frustrating given the fact that you had been the one to act like he would mess up the charade of a couple in love.

“You have to relax, pretend,...” Tom waves his hands around, searching for the right words, “Pretend that I make you feel safe. People in love feel safe around each other, because they’ve seen the most vulnerable parts of one another and they trust that the other will protect them and their vulnerabilities.”

You nod your head, following his movements with your eyes. He really doesn’t sit down much when he talks.

“Touching helps.” He adds.

“Nothing major, but small things. It shows that your comfortable with me. Touch my shoulder when you address me in a group conversation, I’ll put my hand on your back when we stand next to each other, just anything you’ve ever seen your mom and dad do with...” Tom trails off when he realizes that you’ve never seen anything like that from your mom and dad.

Heaven only knows if you’ve ever seen it at all. All your siblings have also been in arranged marriages and Tom isn’t aware of any of them being in loving arranged marriages.

“I’ve been here a year now, Your Highness, I’ve seen how the King and Queen are around each other.”

“And drop that.” Tom groans, desperate to change the subject and get rid of the awkward tension building up from the topic.

You raise your eyebrows in question.

“The ‘Your Highness’ crap. Tom is fine, or Thomas. If we’re in a year-long loving marriage, we won’t still be addressing one another formally. Hell, you can even give me a pet name if you would like.”

“A pet name?” Your lips turn up in amusement and Tom can’t help but take a moment to admire how the small movement of your lips lights up your whole face.

“If you would like, you do not have to if you do not wish it.”

“Anything else of note?” At the moment, Tom can’t think of anything else you could do.

“You’ll get plenty of practice tomorrow.”

The smile disappears and you lean forward in your chair curiously.

“What is tomorrow?” Tom doesn’t try to hide the disappointment he has in you for not knowing what tomorrow was.

“It is the Founders Parade. We’ll be in our own, seperate carriage. It will last a good hour or two given that we’ll be traveling at a snails pace through the capital. Nobody will be able to hear us over the cheering of the crowd so I’ll be able to coach you.”

You want nothing more than to crawl under your overly large bed and hide there until the parade is over. Balls, parties, and political events are no problem for you. What you despised the most was events like the parade, the events where you had to face the kingdom with your failed marriage that the entire country knew about.

Adding on the fact that you would be practicing how to pretend to love your husband made it even worse.

You already wanted it to be over.

The Founders Parade has been a tradition carried out by the royal family for over sixty eight years.

They bring candies and horses and they ride through the capital in open carriages, waving and smiling at the people of their country. All workplaces are closed and people host celebrations all across the island.

When you were a girl, you adored Founders Day. You and a few of your older siblings would put on brightly colored clothes and go into town. All the girls would buy crowns made of large red carnations, the national flower, from vendors at the festival. Everyone bounced from gypsy dances to instrument circles and food carts, laughing and smiling and enjoying themselves.

Your favorite party was the gypsy dances. All year, you would count down the days until you could take off your shoes, loop gold bangles around your ankles and push your mother’s armlet up your bicep.

She was a gypsy before she married your father and the bangles and the armlet were the only thing she had from that life.

Gypsies were your favorite kind of people. Unlike most groups of people, there was nothing in their looks or beliefs that discerned them from the rest of the population. There are red headed gypsies, there are dark-skinned gypsies, there are gypsies with slanted eyes, and there are gypsies with all different types of Gods and beliefs.

What put gypsies apart from every one else was their nomadic ways, their brightly colored clothes, their jewelry, and their tattoos.

Most gypsies traveled in large communities headed by whomever they saw fit. Some even had women leaders.

“Women?!” You had cried out when your mother told you.

“Yes!” She had laughed, tucking you into bed, trying desperately to get you to go to sleep.

It was the only way she could get you to go to bed, stories of her gypsy life. And every once in a while, she would show you her tattoo. A simple black copy of her armlet which circled the middle of her left bicep. You got one of your own at a Founders festival when you were thirteen, the age all young gypsies were allowed to begin getting tattoos.

Your mother was dead by then.

That was the last Founders celebration you ever went to. When your mother died, you stopped going because the gypsies made you think of her and it ruined the whole night. You only went that one night to get the tattoo, to have a permanent reminder of her with you forever, and you never went again.

You kept the armlet and the bangles safely wrapped in a box you kept pushed under your bed.

Now, after a very long time, you would be observing the holiday once more. Maybe not in the way that you used to, but it would be very likely that you would catch a glimpse of a gypsy in the crowd, the sun reflecting off of their gold jewelry and the bright coloring of their clothes setting them even more apart from the rest of the crowd.

With that kind of distraction, how would you ever be able to practice with Tom?

“(Y/N)?” You snapped to attention, looking over at your husband in a daze. “You alright?” He whispered, glancing at the rest of the table as everyone else continued to eat their breakfast. His eyes were drawn to your hand, which had found it’s way up to your arm, brushing against the fabric over your tattoo.

Shaking your head, you waved away Tom’s worried tone.

“I’ll be fine.” It was a struggle not to end that sentence with, ‘Your Highness,’ and yet somehow you managed. Tom went back to eating his food, but still cast you a worried look every once in a while. Obviously for show, your father was just three seats away from you both and his eyes were not unlike a hawk’s.

Unfortunately, you were in a bit of a daze for the rest of the morning. You let Elizabeth move you around however she pleased as she got you ready for the parade.

Your dress was simple and the same color red as the carnations that decorated the straw bonnet you were to wear. Just like your wedding dress, the neckline bared your shoulders and cinched tightly around the tops of your arms. Although, the sleeves covered your biceps, hiding the tattoo from sight.

That thought saddened you just a little.

“Up we go.” Said the stable boy as he helped you climb into the carriage, holding one of your hands as you gripped the side of the carriage with your other hand.

You pulled yourself into the carriage with no help from your husband, who was already relaxed into his seat. You made sure your frustration with him for his lack of assistance was clearly evident as you sat as far away from him as the carriage bench allowed. It hadn’t been hard getting in the carriage, but the both of you were supposed to be pretending to be madly in love with one another and it just seemed to you that aiding one’s wife into a carriage would be apart of that act.

“Do you have somethings against Founders? Is that why you are in such an odd mood today?” He mused, his lips just upturned ever so slightly. Tom was clearly amused by your anger, which just fueled your irritation with him even more.

“You could say that.” You replied, smoothing down your skirt and straightening your spine. When you finally turned to look at him, you saw the intense curiosity on his face. He wanted an explanation for why you were acting the way you were. It would be to his great disappointment that he would not receive any way of an explanation.

After several seconds of silence on your part, he finally understood that you would not broach the topic and resigned himself from the subject. In fact, neither of you said a word until the succession was given the go ahead to begin moving.

Your stomach lurched forward with the horses, rocking with the momentum in which they pulled the carriage into motion. To keep yourself from grabbing Tom hand, which was the opposite of what you should have been doing, you clenched the fabric of your skirts so tightly that you could feel your nails through the several layers of cambric and taffeta.

“Remember, darling,” Tom slipped his hand through the bunched up fabric and intertwined your fingers together. “Practice.”

For most of the parade, you waved and plastered a smile to your face. Wave after wave of knives sunk into your chest with every gold-jeweled, brightly-colored gypsy. Every once in a while, Tom would put his hand on the small of your back, waving to the other side of the crowd with his other hand. When any conversation arose, you tried to turned your whole body toward him, reaching out to touch his shoulder, leaning in so that he could hear you better over the yelling.

It was the closest you had been to one another since your wedding day.

You pulled back, looking into his eyes as he thought of a response. You had asked him something that, years down the road or even the next day, you wouldn’t remember. It was a menial question with no importance. Even Tom would forget what it was you wanted to know. You never got a response to that question, whatever it was.

Because as your husband opened his mouth to reply, a gun shot echoed over the noise of the crowd and shattered the moment.

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crossbows-and-moonshine · 6 years ago

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Such a Softer Sin (Chapter fifteen)

(Chapter one) (Chapter two) (Chapter three) (Chapter four)

(Chapter five) (Chapter six) (Chapter seven) (Chapter eight)

(Chapter nine) (Chapter ten) (Chapter eleven) (Chapter twelve)

(Chapter thirteen) (Chapter fourteen)

Bar fights, nurse Lila and some fluff.

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

Three days had passed by since Lila witnessed the twins beating the crap out of each other for barely any reason. Things had returned mostly to normal. Their playful teasing banter had returned and they were at ease with each other once again. She was back to being called ‘love’, ‘sweetheart’ and even ‘m’girl’. After Murphy had slipped up a few times with saying it, he came to realise that there was no way she hadn't heard him at least once and she never mentioned it, she never acted like she didn't like it. It made his chest swell with...something. He wasn't quite sure but it was nice. The only thing that hadn't gone back to normal were the twins affectionate touching. After what they did, the felt like they had no right to do that anymore, more so Murphy. He was half expecting the girl to turn around and say she couldn't forgive him after all and leave at any moment. He didn't talk about it though, at least not to her. She had asked they all move on from it after all. He had spoken to his twin about it though and Connor had told him to just count his blessings and move on, just like Lila wanted. So he was trying.

Lila was lay on her belly in Murphys bed, her legs swinging a little behind her as she read one of Connors books from his pile; Titus Andronicus by Shakespeare. It had always been her favorite play by the man and she was pleasantly surprised to find it in Connors pile. She never would have pegged Connor as a reader, any of the boys really. But living with them had made her learn a lot about the twins. They were similar in a lot of ways, they were twins of course. They walked the same, they were so synchronised it was insane, lighting smokes the same way at the same time, taking shots at the same time. When they told their dramatic stories, they finished each other sentences, and they’d often speak in unison. Sometimes it was like they were one person split in half. But they weren't. They also had very big differences which most people never really got to see as they didn't get close enough to notice. Connor loved to read, Shakespeare was one of his favourites much to her delight, he loved his movies, especially the westerns that Murphy loved to take the ever loving piss out of him for. He loved cars although he had never had the pleasure of owning one. He preferred cold weather to hot and he liked his pizza with mushrooms on. Murphy loved music, mainly rock or grunge, he loved anything art based, especially lowbrow art pieces and photography. He had told her how he always wanted to try his hand at photography but he could never afford a camera. He wasn't much of a reader but he actually loved to write, much to her surprise. He wouldn't tell her what he wrote though and he seemed weird and secretive about it and she got the distinct feeling that even Connor might not know about it. Maybe he feared his brother would rib him for it, but she knew Connor wouldn't. Connor appreciated any literature from plays, novels and even poetry. She hoped maybe one day Murphy would share his work with her and even his brother. He preferred warmer weather to cold and he liked his pizza with pepperoni.

The twins were sat on Connors bed, writing a letter to their Ma which she thought was fucking adorable. She knew the twins rang their mother at least once a week, and if they missed calling her at that exact hour, she would call them instead, usually giving them shit. Yet they still liked to write to her. Lila turned the page of the book, engrossed in her reading, and she could vaguely register the twins bickering as they snatched the paper from one another to write something down. She was sure by this point the letter probably didn't make any sense. Her ears perked up when she registered something being said about the boy's birthday coming up on Friday. They hadn't mentioned it to her yet, she figured they wouldn't. It would be obvious on the night as she imagined they would go out to McGinty's and have a good old knees up. But she wondered if they wouldn't tell her beforehand so she wouldn't buy them something. They always acted so weird about her buying things, even groceries. She didn't mind, she didn't have rent or bills to pay now and she wanted to help out when she could, but they always got so fucking offended when she did. She smirked to herself as she continued to read, already forming an idea in her mind about what she could get them. She had been able to save up her cash since she had nothing to pay with it and surprisingly, McGinty's paid really well, even with it being a part-time job. She got paid overtime for working weekends too and by now she had a nice amount of money saved up, and she couldn't think of a better occasion to spend it than to treat the boys for their birthday. She just needed to keep it a secret and with Connors gift, she would need to enlist Rocco's help. She’d have to threaten him to keep his mouth shut though, but luckily for her, he had seen how scary she could be when she had the fight with Murphy.

Rocco had been coming over every day which was nice, the four of them made quite a group. The boys were off for a week, paid leave, since some of the machines in the factory weren't working and needed emergency repairs. So she had a whole week with them. She was excited but she still felt ever so slightly awkward. She had noticed how the boys had distanced themselves physically. Hell at this point Rocco was more affectionate since he hugged her whenever he saw her, yet the boys never did anymore. She hadn't hugged them either, she figured that they were not affectionate anymore because there was too much water under the bridge. When they used to be affectionate, she didn't think anything of it, she thought it was because they were close friends. But now she knew better, it was because they liked her as more than a friend and now too much had happened for them to want that with her.

She glanced over to them just in time to see Murphy smack the pen out of Connors' hand petulantly and Connor looked ready to throttle him until Lila burst out laughing. They turned to watch her, their annoyance melting and turning to smiles as she sat up and closed the book.

“You two are like children.” She snorted as she stood up and stretched her arms above her head. She was still only in Murphy's shirt, they'd had a lazy day today and the boys were only in their jeans.

“Are not.” They both muttered, making her huff a laugh. She missed how their eyes were drawn to her legs when the shirt rode up her thighs as she stretched. She glanced at the clock, seeing it was time for her to get ready for work and she grabbed her jeans, shimmying into them. The boys were silent as they watched her intently. She grabbed her dark green tee and turned around, pulling Murphy's shirt over her head before slipping hers on instead.

“Elle est foutrement belle (She’s fucking beautiful).” Connor muttered in French, his eyes not leaving Lila despite the words directed at his brother.

“Je sais, je veux mordre à pleines cuisses (I know, I want to sink my teeth into her fucking thighs).” Murphy murmured, looking at her like he was about to pounce on her as he rubbed his lower lip with his thumb. Connor looked at Murphy incredulously at his bold words before he barked out a laugh and shook his head. He wasn't fucking wrong though, Connor felt the same. Lila turned around to face them again as she took her hair down and ran her fingers through it. Murphy was grateful, he hoped she would wear it down today.

“You know I hate it when you two do that shit.” She huffed as she gave them a pointed look.

“Ye don’t like French love? Most lasses love it.,” Murphy gave her a wicked smile that actually made her blush a little, a fact that didn't go unnoticed by the boys as they shot each other sly smirks. She crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her head at him.

“I’m sure they do. I’m glad you two villains use your superpowers for evil and not for anything good.” She snorted, making her way to her boots. The boys laughed as they stood up, each grabbing their owns shirts and getting dressed. Lila sat on a chair and put her boots on, lacing them up.

“Wouldn’t call it evil per se, would you Murph?” Connor smirked, noticing the way Lilas' eyes were drawn to him and his brother as they dressed.

“Nay brother, the lasses seemed te love it. They all seem te find God soon enough after.” He cackled, making the girl blush more and snort loudly as Connor rumbled a laugh.

“You two are impossible, seriously.” She grinned, pinching Murphy's side as she walked passed and causing him to yelp a little. Connor grinned at him, he always loved it when the lass picked on his brother and not him instead. Murphy just shot him an indigent scowl.

The walk to McGinty's was uneventful, apart from the usual bickering from the twins and the occasional smacks across the others head over Lilas' shoulders. Connor clipped her head by accident one time and Murphy took great delight in telling him he was an awful person for it, knowing Connor felt guilty about it. Connor almost retorted with how he had done so by accident, whereas Murphy had manhandled the poor lass so rough that he had left marks on her. Because yes, Connor had seen the marks his brother left on their lass and it had taken his immense amount of self-control and restraint not to put his fist through his stupid twins face. But he didn't, and he didn't because Lila had asked him that day not to hurt Murphy. She hadn't used words, but with the look and shake of her head when Connor was ready to well and truly put Murphy in his place, he knew she didn't want him to hurt his brother.

They sat at the bar and watched Lila work with such ease, the boys questioned if she was born in an Irish pub and forced to work there as soon as she left the womb. Not long after they got there, Rocco had joined them, sitting next to Murphy as they all drank and had a laugh. They had been there for only an hour when the boys suddenly felt a sense of foreboding, making the hairs on the back of their necks prickle up. They glanced to each other, knowing they both felt it, a change in the air. Something was coming, they didn't know what but trouble was definitely on its way. Rocco didn't feel the same sense of foreboding as the brothers, but he knew them well enough to pick up on their energy that shit was about to hit the fan. The twins had this way of somehow knowing when something was going to go wrong. The boys were shocked when they glanced to Lila to see that she too had felt it. She stood tense, her usual smile gone as she glared at the doors like she just knew something was on its way to fuck up everyone's night. When she turned to look at the twins, they knew she definitely felt it too. It never ceased to amaze them how she always seemed to be on the same wavelength as them, just like how she knew about the telepathy even though they never mentioned it. It was like the three of them were linked somehow, not as strong as Connor and Murphy's connection, but it was still there. The other people at the bar seemed oblivious to the trouble that was coming their way but the boys and Rocco sat tense and waiting, Lila back to watching the door.

It opened with a bang and six rowdy guys filtered in, they looked like some kind of college frat boys and they were being loud and obnoxious. Five of them went to sit in a booth, laughing loudly and being generally annoying. They were all so out of place and they were all drunk already. A muscular blonde guy walked over to the bar, he gave Lila a very obvious once over with a cocky smirk and she bristled. She held back the urge to snarl at him. She couldn't muster up her usual smile like she did for all her other customers. There was something off about this guy and his friends, she could just feel it. Murphy went to jump off his stool, ready to pounce on the fucker for looking at Lila that way, it was obvious she was uncomfortable with it. His rage had missed simmering and boiling and shot straight to murderous. Connor gripped Murphy's forearm, making him stay seated. It wasn't that he thought the lass would be upset if they intervened. He knew this wasn't like before, this was unwanted attention. But he had no intention of making a scene just yet with the other five just there. He knew he and Murphy could take them, they also had Rocco to have their back and he didn't doubt for a second that the other patrons of the bar would help, not with how much they had grown to love Lila. He just wanted to hold off on the impending bar fight that he could taste on his tongue.

Murphy growled, the sound rumbling from his chest and Connor squeezed his arm tighter in response as a warning. The pair were glaring at the man as Rocco watched on, waiting for the brothers lead.

“What can I get you?” Lila asked, disdain dripping from every word she said. The boys were close enough to be able to hear her. The man seemed unfazed by her tone and he licked his lower lip, still smirking at her.

“Six beers and six shots of whiskey. Oh… and your number.” He grinned cockily. Lila pursed her lips and quirked a brow at his boldness to almost demand her number but she didn't say a word. She gave him a sickly sweet smile that left the twins and Rocco all looking a little confused at her sudden change of demeanor. She set about making the drinks and the boys watched in horror as she scribbled something on a napkin. Surely she just hadn't actually given the prick her number? She handed it to him and he looked all too pleased with himself, that was until he glanced at it. He tossed the napkin at her and she smirked, watching him scowl at her.

“Really? ‘Go fuck yourself’? What happened to service with a smile bitch?” He scoffed at her. The word bitch seemed to linger in the air and Murphy was ready to tear Connors arm off if he didn't let the fuck go. This time it was Connor who growled.

“How about service with a ‘go to hell’?” Lila sneered at him. She knew she was being rude but she didn't care.

The man's eyes darkened as he glared at her.

“Now listen here you little whore, you-” It was as soon as the second offensive word left his lips that Connors' hand released his brother, almost as if he was releasing a wild dog on command to attack, and Murphy flew out of his seat instantly. He charged at the man, knocking him right onto his back as Murphy's fist collided with his face, over and over again whilst he yelled all kinds of curse words and offensive terms. It was all a blur, a flurry of movements and Lila stepped back looking shocked. The man's friends ran over and Connor was on one in an instant, Rocco on another. Another man grabbed Murphy, throwing him off the guy who was now unconscious and Murphy got a punch to the face.

“Murph!” Connor yelled, he started to run over to him but was intercepted by one of the men, he got a punch to the gut but he recovered quick enough to lay the asshole down. Murphy was fighting viciously with the man who had punched him, he was a big fuck but Murphy was relentless in his anger. Watching his brother being hurt only served to fuel the fire inside of him. A few other regulars at the bar jumped in, helping the boys out, and it felt like as quick at it had started, it was now over, with six knocked out assholes lay on the floor.

Lila looked between the boys, Murphy's nose was bleeding and she hoped it wasn't broken and Connor had a wicked black eye already coming through and he was clutching his side as he tried to breathe. Murphy went right over to his brother, the both of them not needing words as they checked in with one another. They were fine, they won and they'd most certainly live. It wasn't their first bar fight and they doubted it would be their last. Rocco had managed to come out with only a sore jaw and the other patrons were unharmed since they had outnumbered the men in the end. Lila was almost in shock. In all her times working in bars, she’d never witnessed a bar fight before, especially not ones with people she cared about in the middle of it. The boys looked at her, making sure she was okay, and she snapped out of her stupor. She darted off into the back of the pub and the boys’ hearts sank, feeling like she was upset with them. They sat in a booth with Rocco and suddenly Lila was there again with a first aid kit. Relief flooded them as she opened it, looking from one to another as if deciding who to treat first. She looked worried and sad and they hated that look on her angelic face.

“Murphy first lass.” Connor muttered, reaching out and squeezing her hand. None of them thought about how it was the first physical contact they'd had since the awful night, there was too much going on to even register that.

Murphy looked to Connor with a frown. He knew Connor didn't say to treat him first because he was worse, it was just what Connor did. He always looked out for Murphy like a big brother. Always putting Murphy first. Lila stood in front of Murphy, dowsing some cotton swabs with alcohol. She took his jaw gently and tilted his face up to hers. He blinked up at her, admiring her beautiful face. He just wanted to grab her and throw her on the table to claim her. Watching that pricks eyes roam her body like that, coupled with the adrenaline from the fight, it made him a little horny if he was honest. She lifted the swab but hesitated like she didn't want to hurt him, he could read her like a book as she furrowed her brow and looked at his bloody nose.

“It’s alright m’girl, just do it.” He encouraged, giving her a grin. It hurt, of course it did, but he always felt better after a good fucking fight. To unleash the anger that was always bubbling at the surface inside of him. He and his brother often enjoyed the adrenalin of the fights and afterwards they always felt almost giddy. Lila soon realised this too as Connor had got up with Rocco and was talking and laughing to the others in the bar animatedly.

She wiped his nose and he winced a little. It turned out his nose wasn’t broke, but there was a gash on it that was oozing blood. Her frown deepened as she cleaned it.

“I’m sorry Murph.” She whispered regretfully as she cleaned him up. Murphy quirked a brow at her as he looked at her confused.

“What for love?” He asked softly, one of his hands reaching out and winding around the wrist that was holding his jaw lightly.

“If I wasn't rude to him…” She sighed, setting the swab down as she got some butterfly strips and put them over the gash. It wasn't too deep to require proper stitches.

“Hush now girl, ye didn’t do a thing wrong. He was a wrong’un, I know ye felt it too. He woulda found a reason te cause trouble anyway.” He said sincerely, pinning her with his intense gaze. She let go of his face and stepped back just a little and Murphys hand trailed down her wrist to her hand, linking his fingers with hers. It was obvious that seeing him and his brother getting roughed up a little had upset her.

She glanced down to their hands and noticed his bloody knuckles and frowned once more. She moved to sit opposite him, their hands still linked. She let go to grab more swabs and pour alcohol on them, taking his hand carefully as she cleaned his knuckles as gently as she could. It stung like a motherfucker but he didn’t let it show. He just watched her quietly as she worked, seeing the concern she had for him all over her face. It made his heart ache. When she was done, she stood up and he did too. He wrapped his arms around her tightly, winding a hand into her hair. He felt her relax in his arms and squeezed her a little. When she moved away, she looked up, searching his face to make sure he was okay.

“We’re fine m’girl, been through worse aye? Just look at Connor.” He smiled reassuringly, she turned to his brother across the bar who seemed to be having way too much fun reenacting the fight with the others and she snorted a little. She glanced back up at Murphy and he could see some of her worry melting away and he smiled brightly at her. His hand cupped her cheek, his thumb stroking it affectionately and her hand came up to his. He half expected her to push his hand away so he was pleasantly surprised when her hand just lay over his and she leant into his touch.

“We’ll always defend yer honor love.” He smiled mischievously at her, making her huff a laugh. She moved away and shoved him lightly.

“Go, send the next patient over.” She smiled ruefully at him. He was glad he’d made her smile. She had no need to worry about him or his brother. He stepped forwards, placing a soft caring kiss on her cheek. His lips lingered for a moment and she closed her eyes, feeling the warmth spread through her body. She’d fucking missed this with them. He pulled away almost regretfully and gave her a smile before he went off and told Connor to get his sorry ass over to her.

Connor sauntered over, a buzz in his veins from the fight. He flashed her a dazzling grin as he sat down.

“Do be gentle with me nurse Lila.” He smirked cheekily at her, making her huff a laugh at him and shake her head. She took his chin in her hands like she had done to his brother, tilting his head to examine his face. He had a black eye but no cuts to his face.

“Up.” She demanded, gesturing for him to stand so she could check his ribs. He complied and lifted his shirt, he was bruising already. She carefully ran her fingers over his ribs and he shivered at her touch. It didn't hurt too bad and after a few pokes, she concluded nothing was broken. But she wasn't a doctor so what the fuck did she know? She sat in the booth and took his hand, making him sit as she cleaned his knuckles like how she did to Murphy. She was silent and Connor watched her carefully. He could see the whole thing had affected her.

“Talk te me lass.” He pleaded softly, looking at her worried. She glanced to him and scoffed, seeing how concerned he was.

“Are you kidding me? You and your brother get roughed up and you're worried about me?” She asked incredulously, shaking her head.

Connor frowned and stood up, pulling her up by her hand to stand with him. She blinked up at him as his hands came to either side of her face, making her look at him. His gaze pierced her, pinning her in place with those blue eyes.

“Me and Murph will always worry about ye, make no mistake sweetheart.” He said seriously, no mirth in his eyes or tone. She took a shaky breath and nodded, looking down unable to hold the weight of his gaze. He leant forward and placed a sweet kiss to her forehead, and much like Murphy had, his lips lingered for a moment and she felt the familiar warmth once again. When he moved away he gave her a beaming grin.

“Ready te play nurse te Roc now? Only his knuckles need lookin’ at but, between you and me, I think he’ll milk it so the pretty nurse can dote on him.” He chuckled mischievously, making her roll her eyes playfully.

“Send him over.” She snorted, batting Connors arm softly. He gave her one last smile before he walked off.

“Aye Roc! Nurse Lila will see ye now!” He cackled loudly, making her shake her head.

Taglist; @risingphoenix761 @daryldixonandfrogs @arlaina28

#boondock saints #boondock saints fanfic #murphy macmanus #murphy macmanus fanfic #connor macmanus #connor macmanus fanfic

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jack-andthestalk · 6 years ago

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Stuck on you, Mine, Chapter 10.

Thanks go as always to @balfeheughleywed, yesterday was crap and I didn’t feel a bit like writing but she motivated me. Also to @claryclarke for the sales pitch on this fic and reassurance.

“you have has much tact as a toddler on a sugar rush.” I scolded Rupert. “We” I ran my hands between Rupert and me to illustrate the we “ made an agreement that you would tell me if Jamie was coming over and did you? No! And not only did you not tell me but you arranged for him to come for pre drinks here whie Cathal is here!” I hissed.

I was frazzled, sweaty and my smokey eye make up was starting to remind me of Helena Boham Carter after a hard night.

Geillis had bought up a table at a hospital Gala in aid of the Paediatric ward, inviting a gang of friends.

Cathal was on nights so couldn’t, but was heading to work from my apartment as he had stayed the night before. What I didn’t know was that Rupert had invited said group of friends for pre drinks resulting in a cringing clash of Jamie and Cathal standing in the same space for longer than five minutes.

Anxiety was creeping out of my every pore, luckily Cathal was still having a shower in my bathroom and neither of them were aware of the others presence. I however was very much aware.

Rupert pouted “yer making me all stressy before I go out Clairebear and I dinna like it, it upsets my equilibrium and I canna enjoy my dinner or I get reflux”

I rolled my eyes “you’re an adult you get heartburn not reflux, and I have never seen you refuse a meal, now bring these drinks out and stop making me angrier.”

Rupert scampered and I busied myself getting more bottles of beer from the fridge, when I felt a hand low on my back and a soft “Hi” in my ear, I turned to see Jamie smiling at me, eyes twinkling. Christ!

Since the night me and Jamie talked, my defensive attitude around him had slipped somewhat, nothing inappropriate but there was a growing warmth in our behaviour, and I found myself levitating towards him more than was strictly good for me or for him.

“Hi!” I said my voice pitchy, excitable. I was busily grabbing beers from the fridge, in an effort to not look at him. “Are ye ok Sassenach?” Jamie looked at me an amused glint in his eye, “ye look a little peaky?”

“Perfect, couldn’t be better and you?” I mumbled, hurriedly now polishing glasses and examining them in great detail, a task I am fairly sure I hadn’t partook in before.

“Oh aye, I am braw” Jamie answered a little huskily, “all the better for seeing ye in that dress” I raised my eyebrow at him warningly and tilted my head. “Jamie stop that”

“What!” he widened his eyes like Bambi feigning innocence.

“I did buy it for ye, no?”

Oh god he had, I’d completely forgotten. I owned so few dresses for these type of occasions, choosing one that Jamie had bought me wouldn’t be hard.

I gave him a nervous smile “Oh right so you did”. There was silence and I heard his voice behind me saying “I took it off ye too, if I recall correctly” A tingle ran straight down my spine, finishing between my legs, followed by an equally strong wave of shame.

“Jamie!” I said through gritted teeth, while turning to face him. “Stop!”

He quirked his eyebrows in a suggestive way and smiled smugly, while taking a sip on his bottle of beer. The look alone almost undid me. “That is not appropriate”, I managed to choke out.

I held Jamie’s gaze for a minute, transfixed to the spot. Suddenly Cathal’s voice crashed through our reverie, “Babe…” Jamie eyes creased in confusion, “I dinna ken he was here” he said gruffly. Cathal’s voice was getting closer…have you seen my trainers, I threw them under the bed last night…” his voice trailed off as he rounded the kitchen door and spotted Jamie leaning against the kitchen counter.

Jamie stood glued to his spot, not willing to budge as to not show disadvantage, Cathal stood stock tall for a minute taking Jamie in then tilted his head slightly, crinkled his chin in contemplation and said “Jamie, isn’t it?” Jamie nodded but kept his arms folded in front of him, loosely holding his bottle of beer. “Aye, that’s right.” He didn’t offer his hand or use Cathal’s first name, the volume dropped to and almost eerie quiet, asides from the chatter in the living room. Jamie’s eyes narrowed so slightly no one else would notice, but I did, I thought my head may implode from the tension bouncing around the room. “Trainers babe?” I said looking at Cathal to distract him, Cathal all of a sudden remembering I was in the room, snapped his head back to me and his expression instantly softened. “You look amazing Claire” he bent down slowly kissing my cheek, but lingered at my ear, “I fucking love that dress on you.” It was meant to be said intimately into my ear but in my small kitchen galley you would need to have been tone deaf not to hear. I felt rather than saw Jamie stiffen, his shoulders tensed but he didn’t budge, it would have been easy for him to slip away quietly so I knew his staying was deliberate, territorial almost. I was just grateful he didn’t claim the dress.

Cathal slowly straightened up again, eyes still intent and smiling at me, without fully turned to look at Jamie, he exhaled and said “the last time we met mate, I didn’t realise you were an ex of Claire’s, how bloody awkward hmm?” Cathal said it laughing, jeering almost and it wasn’t lost on Jamie. “Aye that is one word for us.” Jamie said his voice low, deliberate and octave above a growl.

Cathal nodded but I could see by his face he recognised Jamie’s rebuke, “What brought you to London then Jaamie?” Cathal pulled a bottle of water from the fridge and took a gulp, eyes focused on Jamie all the while.

“Love.” Jamie said without flinching, a whistling sound a kin to something a squirrel would make rose from the back of my throat without any awareness on my part in the sound.

Cathal’s mouth was slightly agape when Jamie gave him a smile that didn’t reach his eyes and continued “always loved London, don’t you maaate being a Londoner and all?” the mate was pronounced the same as the first day Jamie had met Cathal, mocking.

I cleared my throat and said “god its hot isn’t it? Rupert always leaves the bloody heating on too long…I could kill him” I started searching the kitchen wall for the heating thermostat but really I needed the wall as structural support.

Jamie snorted and said “Christ Sassenach do ye remember the heating in our old flat in Edinburgh, an eskimo would have moved out…” still facing the wall I giggled nervously, not really hearing what he was saying and said “oh ya…”

“Aye just as well we knew how to stay warm.” My head snapped around so quick and I shot him the filthiest of looks. “With blankets and the like” he said sarcastically.

Cathal having heard quite enough leveraged closer to me, leaned over the length of my body and clicked off the thermostat, “it’s off babe, I don’t want the apartment to catch up in flames while you’re out or il have to come round in my uniform again and put it out…” he stuck his tongue out slightly and smiled at me, I slapped him on the chest gently and said “ha ha”. A bead of sweat ran down my back, and Jamie made a grunting sound before standing straight, finishing his beer in one swallow and said “We really should make tracks Claire.” Cathal’s moved slightly and said “Listen mate…”

Before he could finish Rupert’s voice bellowed through the apartment. “Ubers are here people…dinna dally…this is no a drill…move move move”

We were ushered out onto the pavement outside the flat and divided up into ubers.

Cathal came out to see me off, kissing me soundly before squeezing my bum and opening the door of the uber. None of it went unnoticed by Jamie, who watched on with a look of disdain. I half wondered if they would like each other under different circumstances.

By the time we reached the hotel, most of the gang were giggly and tipsy. I had some serious catch up to do as up to this my nerves hadn’t let anything past my lips. Rupert sat down beside me at the round table, Jamie suddenly appeared at his shoulder with a round of drinks in hand, he kicked the back of Rupert’s chair, growled something out of the side of his mouth and Rupert moved quickly down a couple of seats.

Jamie placed the drinks down and took up Rupert’s seat, smiling sweetly at me.

“What are you doing?” I asked raising my eyebrows at him. “Sitting beside ye” Jamie quipped as a matter of fact “What does it look like?” I didn’t respond but gratefully took a gulp of the drink he handed me, and browsed the set dinner menu, suddenly ravenous.

Jamie rested his arm around the back of my chair and opted to speak to me by leaning in close, whispering into my ear until I could feel his mouth on my skin. My stomach was clenching pleasantly and I held onto the underseat of my chair to stop me running my hand down his thigh.

There was a new boldness about him, a deliberate change in the way he acted around me. His eyes were holding nothing back when they looked at me, and I found myself glancing away more often than not as I was unsure how to treat their intensity.

Gellis during a lull at the table, leaned forward and said “fox ye have not stopped whispering in Claire’s ear all night, what is the secret?” she fluttered her eyelashes innocently, Jamie splayed a knowing smirk across his face and said “Claire holds all my secrets Gellis.” Gellis mouth hung open slightly but she gave him a little impressed nod. Mary Hawkins gawked at me for a minute but I turned away pulling at Jamie’s sleeve saying “Stop I will be the talk of the hospital on Monday!”

Jamie took the advantage of my hand near his wrist and entwined my hand in his under the table “Dance with me?”

I shook my head, my mouth opening to say “no” when he leaned in close and whispered “please just one dance so I can hold ye without ruining yer good name.” He pulled back so I could see that his lips had curled into a smile, and his eyebrow cocked in question. His eyes were big dark pools desire obvious in them, he was not hiding them from me. A pain jolted over where my heart rested followed by a sudden familiar clenching in my tummy, leaving heat behind.

I sighed and said “ok, one dance”, he gave me a slight bow and proceeded to pull me up and onto the dancefloor.

I aimed for a rather respectful position, bracing his forearm, but Jamie pulled me flush with him, hooking my hand over and around his shoulder. I had been holding my other hand in his pointing out the way. Jamie however pulled our entwined hands in and snaked them between our chests, His hand rested low on my back. We had danced in this same stance many times before. A haunting version of Iris was playing and it just allowed for the gentlest rhythm between our bodies. Jamie sighed contentedly, breathing in softly next to my hair. As much as I wanted to resist him, to pull back. I was lulled next to his big strong body, yearning to be close to him.

I felt a rumble in my ear but I couldn’t make out what he said, so I raised my head to look up at him. His eyes locked on mine, and he smiled down at me, “I have missed this.” He said softly. I shook my head,”Jamie we shouldn’t even be dancing like this…it’s not….” For lack of the word I was searching for I settled on “right.”

He smiled incredulously, and his hand left mine between our chests, wandering up my neck to cup my cheek, his other firm on my back, holding me close. “You are the most right thing in my life Claire…I will no apologise for it.” His eyes glanced to my mouth and I knew where is lips were heading before he moved. I had to stop it before I was engulfed by his warmth and wouldn’t be able to come back from it.

My hand rose and circled the wrist of his hand that was cupping my face. “Stop” I said softly, suddenly tears flooded my eyes. His face took on a look of alarm, “I’m sorry Claire I dinna mean to upset ye…please….its ok.” I gently pulled away and said “I just need some air, just leave me be. I’m ok.”

His eyes were frantically searching my face; I turned and fled the dance floor. Passing a very drunk Rupert and Co at the bar drinking shots. I kept my head down and rushed past them, afraid they would lure me into their huddle.

I found an fire exit door along the corridor, I hit the bars and pushed my way out into a deserted courtyard. The cold air was like an electric shock and my teeth began to chatter instantly. I rubbed my forearms up and down, trying to steady my breathing. I dabbed at my eyes to still the tears threatening to fall, I sat up against a wall inhaling deeply and exhaling slowly, I continued like that for some time, a calmness creeping into my chest.

Jamie had left me completely rattled, the draw to him was intense, I was petrified of it, what it meant, for me, for him and for Cathal. If I went down that road I could be hurt again, I didn’t think I would survive it a second time, or if I wanted to give him an opportunity to hurt me.

Deep in my own thoughts, I didn’t hear the scraping of the big emergency doors until they were shutting again. A coat fell gently across my shoulders. Jamie sat beside me on the wall, he didn’t say anything for a few minutes and when he spoke, he reached down hesitantly and took my hand “I’m sorry I shouldna have put you in that position, I ken it made you feel uncomfortable…is wasna my intention Claire, truly. I just…I canna seem to help it when I see ye I want ye, when I am not with ye…I want ye…it never stops, there is no rest from it.” He shrugged his shoulders his defeat.

I glanced over at him, waering his white suit shirt since he had given me his suit jacket, his beautiful auburn hair flopped about his forehead as he looked at the ground downcast. My heart hurt for him, I could see how he felt rejected. I found myself attempting to explain, “…it’s just Cathal doesn’t deserve to hear that I was making out with you at a Gala dinner or even dancing like we were, no matter what you think he is a wonderful man and I can’t do that …” I trailed off. He nodded in understanding, biting his bottom lip.

His head rose and he looked at me earnestly, “have I any hope with ye Claire?....is it him ye want?” A rock seemed to have formed in my stomach, “I don’t know” I croaked out.”

Jamie nodded again but pushed himself from the wall and stood in front of me, legs slightly apart, his face intent. He took my hand and drew me up to stand in front of him, placing my hand tentatively over his heart. “Do ye feel that?” He asked. I nodded feeling his heart beating at an alarmingly fast pace,

“when I am near ye or I think of ye my heart almost bursts out of my chest… When I used to wake in the night and remember ye were gone, my heart beat like that too”…his hand slowly lowered to his stomach bringing mine with it, “when I am not near ye or ye turn from me, my waim clenches in pain right there.”

He then used his hand to run mine across the expanse of his stomach “and when ye are near me and happy… all here”, indicating his stomach. “fills with a warmth I canna explain, it almost burns.”

Jamie’s hand pulled mine up to his neck where I could feel his adams apple bobbing as he spoke. “when ye say something to me, that might mean ye willna be apart of my life anymore…this gets stuck right here…and I canna speak.”

He continued to pull my hand up to his eyes “and when I think back to what I did to loose ye, these weep cause I canna bare to be the man that hurt ye.” He swallowed hard and I could feel the emotion threatening to spill out through his eyes.

“Jamie…” I said pleadingly. “Every bit of my body works only and becaue of you Claire”, his hand dropped from holding mine in place but I left my hand just at his temple beside his eye, my other went up to cup his cheek forcing him to look at me.

“I love you” I said in a whisper, “I’m just not sure if I can love you like I did before…”.

“I will do anything Claire…”

His forehead tentatively came to rest against mine both our breathing quickened at the close proximity. Jamie’s hands rose and cupped my cheeks, our eyes locked on the other, his thumb was caressing the prominent bone high on my cheeks, continuing down until he rested his thumb on my lips, sweeping across the bottom lip, my eyes shut of their own inclination. He said my name in a breath “Claire.” I opened my eyes to look into his just in time to see his lips coming for mine, I bridged the distance and our mouths met in a flurry. A low moan falling from Jamie’s mouth. He gently prised my lips apart and touched my tongue with his, his mouth was warm and soft and as he titled his head to take in more of me, he ran his hands from my cheeks to the back of my neck pulling me closer.

I ran my arms up into the nape of his neck standing on tip toe to meet him full on, somewhere at the back of my mind I knew it was wrong, knew I had to stop but I couldn’t I was melting into him…our mouths were hungry and our breaths short. He pushed me up against the wall, his hands running down the expanse of my body resting on my hips. I bit his bottom lip and he clutched me closer, cupping my arse so I could feel the solid hardness between his trousers and my silk dress. I was drunk on him and I had to sober up quickly or I would find myself with my dress rucked up around my waist and begging Jamie to take me. His desperation was clear, but in a low growl he stammered out “god Claire” between kisses. There was an urgency building and before things went to a point of no return I pulled away.

I managed to choke out “stop…Jamie” Jamie inched away from my mouth, gasping for breath, leaving our foreheads pressed together, “we can’t” I whispered.

“Does he ken I am in love with ye?” Jamie asked breath still coming short.

I shook my head.

“Well ye better tell him Claire…because I am here to fight for ye and I dinna intend on hiding it”

#outlander fanfic #the lallybroch library #stuckonyou

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mai-stories · 5 years ago

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The Florist and The Mercenary - Chapter Five: A Break from the Rain

Lily had been washed back towards the trees, downed by the miniature flood. When he came over to help her up, that would be a problem. Due to the amount of water that had soaked through her clothing, her involuntary magic activated, her boots and stockings pushed off as her legs changed into a thick, glimmering tail. Aquamarine scales lined the fish tail, a light blue fluke curling idly as she struggled to gather her footwear back into her grasp. Her eyes came up to meet Irvine's one, an embarrassed blush washing over her pale cheeks. "I.. Can't get up." She admitted, brushing damp locks from her face.

Using her magic to dry off was pointless, as the rain had yet to cease. The only option would be to get that tarp up and dry off slowly. Lily's bodyguard stood over her, one eyebrow quirked up rightfully so when faced with this new development. So it was true, she was definitely a mermaid Considering that they had just met a few hours prior, she was a meek thing and merfolk fetched notoriously high prices at the black market for their scales and tails and tears, and slave trade typically for their natural beauty... He could understand her worries. Irvine reached out and petted her head gently.

"No worries." He told the mermaid girl.

There was an automatic flinch when he reached out to touch her, though she relaxed when he told her not to worry. He lifted her, as dragging her undercover, especially her tail, seemed rude and probably painful. Despite her looks, Lily was surprisingly heavy with that thick tail of hers, so she hoped he wouldn't be taken off guard by that, as well. She hung on when he picked her up, pale fingers curling into the cloth as if she'd slip right out of his hold. He set Lily down, moving to realign the pitons to anchor the tarp over their heads once more, with a little tilt to it to allow water to run off. They now had reprieve from the downpour and could dry out. While he had readjusted the tarp, she took to slowly ringing out her hair and clothing, taking off her apron and ringing that out, too. He went to collect Lily's boots and stockings for her as well. With some extra rope, he made a clothesline to hang up said stockings as well as his soaked jacket. He shrugged off his boots and let a bit of water dribble out. Lily handed him the garment to hang up, looking over at him when they had finished hanging up clothing.

"Despite this, I still love the rain.." He said offhandedly, looking out of the grassland under the rain.

"I do, too. Even when I was confined to staying inside, I liked to watch the rain fall." She said in agreement, pulling her skirt up to about hip level to allow her tail to dry out. It would take a while, however, as she had no towel to dry with, and using her magic to dry would do more damage than good. "There's something soothing about the sound of rain, and the smell afterwards. It's calming." She murmured, curling up and hugging her tail close like anyone would their knees.

"Agreed.." And he took a moment to enjoy it. The constant heavy patter of rain mixed with the water filtering through the treetops didn't bother him in the slightest. He simply reclined against the opposite tree and brought out a cigarette just to hang lazily between his lips. "Never seen a real mermaid, didn't think you actually were one to begin with. Some milquetoast house girl who spent her days inside more than out, yeah, but not a mermaid.." He eyed his charge up and down, lone eye lingering on her tail. "Just thought you were imitating the race for fashion.. I can see why you don't get out to meet people.. The vast majority of us are jerks." He said, taking a long drag before blowing away from the tarp.

Lily looked over at him, noticing his gaze. It made her only slightly uncomfortable, as she wasn't used to exposing her tail to others, so she shifted a bit where she sat.

"Wouldn't make much sense for a gardener to stay inside all day, would it?" She said with a slight smile, the scales drying off in due time.

As it did, the scales started to glow every so gently, beginning to fade and evaporate away from her toes up. The fluke faded into nothing, her toes and ankles slowly reappearing, then her shins and knees. More and more scales disappeared, the girl covering up her legs with her skirt. There would be no need for him to see her blindingly pale skin, as it would only embarrass her further. Still, despite having legs again, she had to wait for the bones and muscles to realign and settle before she could stand, otherwise she'd break or tear something as soon as she tried.

"You're not really that bad.. Better than others, I'd say." She told him, pulling a small comb from her skirt pocket to brush her hair. He had shown some of his colors, but she had yet to see if they were true or not. Unlike herself, Irvine didn't seem to wear his hear on his sleeve. "Could we build a small fire? Something to keep warm?" Lily asked, looking around for some sticks to dry and make a campfire, wanting to warm up while the rain was still coming down.

Without a word, Irvine leaned in and began to dig a hole in slightly sodden earth. Their spot had not been long for the soggy weather to soak in deep, so he dug until he had reached a dry point and made a small pit. He took the relatively dry bark and created something of a nest, then brought out a red crystal. The crystal's lighter center glowed and danced like an encapsulated flame, the edges warm to the touch. The mermaid tilted her head when he brought out the crystal, eyes captured by the dancing flame. Fire was another thing she enjoyed, in moderation, as the small flames were warm and comforting.

"Ever seen a condensed bit of mana? Mainly forms in an elemental way or its pure magic energy. I like to carry a few around. Small ones are pretty cheap since this stuff can be found in the wild if you look hard enough." Irvine explained as he let it fall into the pit, the stone starting to glow. It immediately ignited and created a cozy flame that swallowed up the bark, remaining bright and lively. Hearing this, she wondered if water crystals existed, her hand reaching up idly to touch around her neck. Was that something like her heirloom? "Good for a few hours. Only water magic can put it before then," Irvine told her. "It's gonna burn, burn off all of that magic energy.. I'ts so packed with the stuff that natural water takes longer than most to put it out. You know, throw a fire or lightning crystal hard enough and it explodes," The lightning mage said with a smirk. It was quite the morose fun fact, which may explain why Irvine knew such a thing in the first place.

Lily, however, was so lost in thought, spaced out until she heard him mention exploding crystals.

"That sounds.. really bad if you fall on one hard enough." She told him, looking a little uneasy at the thought of exploding crystals and the shrapnel that would produce. "Do you want something to eat? We can roast some of the meat, if you're hungry." She asked, scooting over to open up her recently bought bag. She dug around to get some bread and a little bit of that cheese, only a small amount to eat so there would be more later. She also got out some of the dried meats, as he seemed like a carnivorous guy.

"I'd uh... like that.." Irvine seemed... uncomfortable now. It might have been a stray drop of water coming down his brow from what had soaked his head, or perhaps a bead of sweat as the usual straight-faced bodyguard brought out a small satchel and stared at it for a moment before gently, very gently, setting it off to the side. Odd how he had never considered that before, not that he was ever knocked on his ass to ever run that risk... but it made him sweat. That movement didn't go unnoticed by the mermaid, a slight smile on her face as he seemed newly wary of the crystals. It was a bit amusing, to say the least. "I'll take some of that meat. Pass me some fruit, too.." A little fireside meal with some chat might be nice. Pleasant, at least... Hopefully. Maybe.

The two of them were quite the contrasting pair. As long as his charge trusted his judgement and his words when it counted. Lily passed him some of the meat and a few pieces of fruit, passing that as well before beginning to make her own meal. A little bit of melted cheese on bread made for a nice snack, she found, and would really warm her up in no time. Irvine had used a stray stick to impale his bit of meat to cook over their open magic fire while peeling the rind from his orange. Meat and fruit, better than most meals that crap hole pub served up to him as half-assed payment for keeping the drunks at bay. He offered a couple wedges to Lily. The mermaid reached out and took the orange wedges, popping those in after eating her own food. The salty taste of the cheese and nearly sour citrus made for a strange yet exciting flavor in her mouth.

"I wish I had bought some tea... Tea goes so nicely with rainy weather." She lamented with a sigh, tying her bandanna back behind her ears to get her hair out of her face. The full force of the storm seemed to have waned, the rain ceasing only slightly in severity.

"You wouldn't guess it by the look of her store, but Zara, the woman who ran the apothecary, sells some great tea. Lots of flavor.. Kind of a gamble whether you get hallucinogens or not, though." It was a note worth sharing, Irvine however murmured under his breath to avoid scaring Lily. She seemed the easily startled type.

He gained her attention by speaking about the kinds of tea that strange old lady sold, and that he guessed right that she would've been startled by that. Being in her right state of mind was definitely preferred.

"It's a little after noon, so when the rain let's up, we could probably keep moving. Do you have that map?" She asked, unsure if he had kept it with him or put it in the bag. Regardless of his answer, she'd look in the bag anyway.

"Map.. map..." With no room to roll it out and Lily still grounded for the moment, he sidled over to sit next to his charge to unfurl the map across their legs.

She did little to no protesting, as it was necessary for them to look over the map. Road markers connected every town, mountain ranges lay to the far west and north, thick forests scattered about, but little in between. Lily looked it over, recognizing where her own home was, though it wouldn't be home after so long. Hollifern was her new home, a place where she could be safe and with her own kind.

"Woodmoore is over here.." The mermaid could not gave been further from any ocean water, though Woodmoore did have its small lake to the east outside of town. "We left from the south and have been following the road. Not terribly far, though.. If we continue then we're going yo see Bardale off to the side.." He rubbed his chin. "Hm.. We'll stop there. See if we can't by coats for the rain or umbrellas. If we have to stop whenever a strong rain pops up, you'll be broke before long." Irvine said. An umbrella sounded useful, or even some sort of waterproof cloak to keep most of Lily's hair under wraps with a hood.

She had spaced out once again, daydreaming now about all kinds of magically waterproofed items they could find in order to keep any accidents from happening. Irvine rubbed his chin again, mulling over a couple things. His lone eye drifted to his partner, his charge, as she seemed to drift away into her own happy thoughts. When the time came that she ran out of funds.. Just what the Hell was he going to do?! No doubt the girl was worried about that herself, what could a gardener selling flowers really make? His hand migrated to the back of his head and rubbed it, the bodyguard heaving a soft sigh and deciding to deal with that when it was necessary. This girl would be eaten alive! A yipping puppy might just scare her out of her skin if she wasn't paying attention! He looked out in to the rain and it had lightened up some. Probably not enough to keep the fish tail issue under wraps, but soon enough.

"Oi," And he gave Lily's temple a poke to get her attention if his voice wasn't enough. "How much gold do you have on you?"

Lily was shaken out of her thoughts by the poke, having tuned the world out, not listening until he made that little bit of contact. She looked up at him, head tilted as he asked her about her funds. She pulled out her wallet out, pouring the contents into her lap and letting her skirt catch the coins. She counted it out: eight gold, two silver, and seven copper.

"This is all I have." She said quietly, eyes drawn back up towards his face, an unsure look crossing her own. Did he not have his own money? Was that why he asked her to pay for all their supplies? She only hoped he wouldn't extort her for more by upping the price now that he knew her secret. "Will this be enough to get to Hollifern? I don't have anymore flowers to sell, so I can't make anymore money. All of my savings went to traveling to Woodmore, even my rent." She said, looking down at the money in her lap, gathering it back up to put into the wallet.

"Depends on how many days it takes us." Irvine shrugged his shoulders, giving his charge the simplest and most factual answer he could.

The rainy season could be rough, thunderstorms and monsoons aplenty sure to assail the land in time and soak their particular part of the country to the core. Given Lily's race and the side effects of her getting too wet, well, her tail suddenly appearing could be a hindrance. Slavers on her fish tail wanting her for their auctions, even worse. He gave her damp head a couple pats and reclined against her tree.

"Don't worry about it. You'll get to Hollifern. Plenty of towns have jobs open if you're ever in need of cash." He said, relaxing now that the danger was gone and he had a snack.

So long as Lily had her magic, rain wouldn't be too much of a problem. Buying some sort of waterproof cloak or raincoat would help keep her dry, and her boots would keep water off her feet for a good while. The idea of doing oddjobs along the way did give her a bit of hope, however. Her skills were meager and common, so she could do just about any job that required cleaning or cooking. She'd even help out with gardens and stocking stores if she had to! She had rested long enough for her legs to stabilize, using a bit of magic to withdraw water from her hair and clothing, refilling her water pouch with it. She reached over and grabbed her stockings and boots, looking over at him for a moment. They were the type that went all the way up to her waist, so putting them on in front of him would be a little embarrassing.

"Could you.. turn that way, please?" She asked meekly, still holding the barely damp hosiery and her boots.

Irvine heaved another soft sigh and sidled off to the side. He turned his back to Lily while sitting just under the edge of the tarp.

"Make it quick." He told his charge as he turned his gaze to the sky.

She took that precious moment of privacy to pull her stockings on, glad there was no resistance and that the rain didn't damage the thin fabric. She laced her boots up before patting her skirt down, making sure it was dry enough before slipping her apron on, tying it into a neat bow behind her back. The clouds were starting to thin out, and rain lightened up to a gentle sprinkle. It likely would not last, but the issue before had been the flood brought on by that... thing. Oh, right. Those monsters.

"Ever seen creatures like that before?" Irvine asked, knowing it was a definite gamble to ask, but he had doubted her before.

"Those monsters? No, not really.. They sounded familiar, though, like something out of a nightmare." She answered, making sure the bag was tightened, secured so none of their food or supplies jostled out. With everything checked, she tapped his shoulder to let him know she was done, though it was gentle and light, as if just touching him would shock her. He turned and nodded.

"Figured I would ask. I've never seen anything like that either.." Irvine couldn't help but shake his head thinking about those monsters. "As far as I know.. There is no natural born creature, with magic abilities or not, capable of doing... all of that." He just gestured a bit, the image of those creatures evolving at such a rapid rate to defend against the damage they take was... Interesting. Her bodyguard ultimately shrugged his shoulders. "I don't even know of a magic that can summon like that. There wasn't anyone nearby... My opinion doesn't matter. I dunno why I'm thinking on it so much... but those creatures, I think they were made of mana. Pure magic energy. ... That's as far as my educated guessing goes," He said as he lit his a new cigarette.

"Whatever they were... I'm sure they weren't the only ones." Lily murmured, lifting up the bag, the straps snagging her hair again. She gave an annoyed sigh, dropping the bag down on a rock before reaching up and braiding her hair into a thick braid down her back, keeping it all in one place to prevent the straps from pinching and pulling at it. The bag was not that much heavier than she had originally thought, so carrying it wasn't a problem. "Pure magic? Hm.." She murmured, thinking back on it. It seemed that the more magic he used, the bigger those things got. They absorbed the magic, but it seemed not all magic was a good combination. The lightning completely tore through their water based bodies, and water could remove the mud quite easily. A cycle of the elements, it seemed. "If it helps, I could use the tarp as a wrap to keep dry." She suggested, looking over at their cover. Sure, she'd look like some kind of ragamuffin homeless girl wrapped up like that, but at least she'd stay dry. Irvine nodded in agreement.

"Better than nothing. Wouldn't want that fishtail popping out out of nowhere," He told his charge. He really did not want to deal with hunters and slavers.Gradually, the rain lightened to a degree that should have been safe for Lily. Luckily, he was down to his last drag and he snuffed out the cigarette butt with a quick, firm stamp of his boot. "I'll throw it over you if need be. Let's get a move on.." He got out under the misty rainfall and tore down the tarp quickly, folding it up and keeping it under his arm for quick access. He took the bag as well. It wasn't heavy, but he didn't want to burden Lily. "We've got another mile... mile and a half, before Bardale. We can definitely make it before night." He said, looking down at her.

Lily looked up in return when he had taken the bag from her, not complaining as it made her walk easier. Puddles from the rain had formed in the pock-marked road, the mermaid couldn't resist stepping in a few, playfully splashing like her kind was meant to do. Her boots were water resistant, all the way up to her knees so there was no threat of water getting to her feet. It was a little fun, and definitely took away the thoughts of danger and hostility that the world had no control over. With the rain nearly gone, the sun would come out to shine, a faded rainbow across the northern sky. Lily hardly glanced up when rays of sunshine came out, a smile on her lips as she happily tapped Irvine's arm and pointed up at the sky. When she was relaxed, it seemed her childish nature came to the surface, the mermaid coming out of her shell now that she felt safe with him. Irvine's gaze followed her eager finger and he eyed the arc of light, and he nodded. Quite the sight, but that was of little interest to him compared to the the little mermaid that had been so meek before. She skipped and hopped into the light puddles, splashed him a bit, but it wasn't like that was of any consequence to him. It was actually pleasant, a breath of fresh air, to see his charge actually having some fun. The child-like wonderment came as no surprise to him. Hell, he gave his cute charge a couple pats on her head she was so cute. Would he admit that? Hell. No. Lily happily accepted the head-patting, as it gave her a sense of security. There was no flinch or even a recoil, the mermaid's trust now in his hands. It was clear to her now he had no intentions of harming her, so her guard was completely down. A couple field mice scuttled out of their muddy homes, as wild as wild rabbits whose fur was dark and matted, sticking up in stray directions. They hopped about in the sunlight, bouncing across their path. One took a sharp turn bounced around Lily even, but it went on its way as well. The quick movement of small woodland creatures caught her attention, making her stand absolutely still. Not in fear, but to keep from scaring the animals. It wouldn't be right for them to scare the little things back into still flooded grass, so she would prefer not to spook them. It still brought a smile to her face to see them bound across the path, and once they were safely out of the way did she continue walking. With abundant sunlight and cleared up weather, the walk to Bardale would be much more relaxed. The rainy season brought its fair share of strife, but there was no denying the change brought on after rain. Something was washed away for a new moment, the air cool and fresh. It was definitely his second favorite time, after a nice rainstorm itself.

#original #fantasy #adventure #story

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razieltwelve · 6 years ago

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Clean Up (Final Rose x Worm)

When Diana had landed in another dimension, she’d actually been moderately pleased. After all, she had just died in a blaze of glory after outliving everyone else in her generation, so being alive again was kind of a bonus. There would be plenty of time to meet her relatives in the afterlife. She still had things to do.

Alas, the dimension she’d landed in was pretty crappy. Not only was she on an unfamiliar planet but the unfamiliar planet was also on the verge of societal collapse. For obvious reasons, she could not allow that to occur, so she’d decided to lay low and do some research before making any real moves.

There were people with powers on the planet - apparently, it was called Earth - but she doubted any of them were more powerful than her. That wasn’t arrogance. It was simple fact. Bag of Tricks had the potential to be absolutely terrifying if it was allowed time to develop, and Diana had landed on Earth in her physical prime… but with Bag of Tricks as large as it had been at the end of her life and with everything she’d ever put in it still in it.

That was right. She had a subspace larger than a solar system at her command with every single object she’d ever put into it still there. Some of the heroes in this world were quite durable, but she doubted any of them could stand up to several million pieces of artillery firing simultaneously, to say nothing of everything else she had hidden away. It might even be nice to pull out some of the truly exotic stuff. It had been way too long since she’d had a chance to fire her false vacuum collapse ray at something.

With Bag of Tricks primed and ready, it was simply a matter of choosing a place to put down roots and begin recruitment. If she wanted to save the world - or possibly take over it - then she needed minions, territory, and resources with which to project her influence. An affluent city that was at peace would never have allowed her to go unnoticed. However, a downtrodden city beset by crime and on the verge of collapse? That would be perfect for her purposes.

Cue Brockton Bay.

In simple terms, Brockton Bay sucked. It really did. And Diana moved right in. Her first real step was to assassinate the villain Coil. He was a massive jerk who thought his power made him invincible, but she was nothing if not ingenious. There were ways to blind his power, and without it he was a baseline human. Some good, old fashioned poison gas in the middle of the night did the rest.

From there, seizing control of his operation was a mere formality. She could offer better pay and benefits, and his hired goons were hardly loyal. Still, they would be useful, and perhaps she could convert them into genuine minions. With Coil out of the way, she took control of his best assets: the Undersiders.

Money and influence were the things they required, and Diana could offer both. Compared to the technology she could build or already had in Bag of Tricks, the people of Earth might as well have been cave people. More importantly, her technology was not like tinker tech. Normal people could operate and maintain it, even manufacture it, with the correct training and education. Using some of Coil’s funds and her own resources from Bag of Tricks made gradually introducing some of it a breeze.

As for influence, her quickly growing stockpile of money made that easy. It was a sad indictment on Earth that the right bribe to the right person seemed to make everything easier. Oh well. She wasn’t about to complain about victory being easy.

With the Undersiders firmly in hand - Lisa had the makings of a wonderful, if incredibly snarky, minion - Diana turned her attention to her competition in Brockton Bay’s underworld.

The Merchants were a joke. It took her one night and some of her drones to wipe them out. The real challenge was concealing exactly how she’d done it from the local authorities. It wouldn’t pay to have them ask too many questions. She’d been particularly interested in Squealer. The woman could be a useful minion if she kicked her drug addiction and switched sides. Knocking her unconscious and throwing her into a detox tank was Diana’s solution to the problem.

The ABB and the Empire 88 would also have to be dealt with. Her first target was the Empire. Brian had suggested them, and as a Faunus, Diana had seen firsthand the danger such groups posed. The White Fang, after all, had been a Faunus supremacy organisation. Given the Empire’s links to other organisations of similar inclination, Diana needed to make an impression.

X X X

“Don’t worry,” Diana assured the Undersiders. “All you need to do is stand next to me and look menacing. I’ll do the rest.” She paused. “And speaking of menacing, Grue, you should stand at the front, maybe add some darkness to give you a more brooding and determined look.”

“Uh… right.”

Diana - also known as the Magic Magician - waited calmly as Kaiser and the rest of his cronies surrounded them. At some point, he started talking. She wasn’t really paying attention. Instead, she was watching some old episodes of Gary on the inside of her visor. When he finally stopped talking, she made a show of yawning.

“Are you done yet?” she asked.

Kaiser responded as she knew he would: with an even longer and more boring talk that basically amounted to ‘prepare to die’. Honestly, it would have been funny putting a hole through his skull with an orbital laser halfway through his speech, but, apparently, killing villains here was frowned upon. Oh well. If someone on Remnant had pulled even half the crap he had, Diana would have dropped an old satellite on them and called it a day.

“Okay,” Diana said. “That’s great. Now, let me just ask you one thing.” She pulled the hat off her head and struck a pose. “Have you ever seen someone pull a rabbit out of a hat?”

Kaiser stared.

Diana smiled sunnily. “Because you’re not going to see one today.”

One of the things people didn’t understand about Bag of Tricks was that it allowed her to open ‘portals’ that allowed weapons in her subspace to fire without ever entering really normal space. Moreover, those portals didn’t have to open right next to her. In fact, toward the end of her first life, the range over which she could open portals had become truly terrifying.

It was therefore incredibly easy to open portals behind all of the assembled Empire members and shoot them with her version of a taser. Now, the funnest part about her personally designed tasers was that they could ramp up to compensate for the strength of the target. Even someone like Alexandria would feel the buzz if she landed a solid hit and the connection lasted long enough.

The Empire? Hah. They all dropped like sacks of potatoes.

Just to be sure, of course, Diana doused the lot of them in fast dissolving contact-based sedative. It never hurt to be careful when dealing with people who wanted her dead. She had Bitch send her dogs over to poke and prod people to make sure everyone was unconscious before calling in the local authorities. They could take them off her hands.

As for the rest of the Empire’s forces - Kaiser hadn’t been stupid enough to bring everyone under his command - Diana had a simple solution. Crap loads of drones. It was her honest opinion that a sufficient number of sufficiently well armed drones could beat almost anything. Indeed, she’d already established several factories in her secret lairs (it was also good to have more than one) dedicated to producing a variety of drones that specialised in everything from combat to takeaway delivery.

The Empire might have been able to fend off a few hundred drones if they’d been forewarned and properly armed and trained. However, they were caught off guard, and Diana didn’t send several hundred drones. She sent several thousand.

All over the Empire’s territory, her invisible, shielded drones began to knock people out, steal things, and just generally make life absolutely miserable for her enemies. She’d already contracted Faultline and several other mercenary groups to attack in the aftermath, ensuring that any and all stragglers were dealt with. Provided her mercenaries did well, she was even willing to offer them a permanent deal since good help could be so hard to find.

“Well, that was easy,” Regent murmured. “Glad we’re working for you, boss.”

Diana smiled again. “The nice thing about being underestimated, Regent, is that if you plan properly, you only need to win once. And winning is easy when people aren’t taking you seriously.” She chuckled. “But this is just the start. We’ve still got bigger fish to fry.”

“Right,” Grue said. “Like Lung.”

“Think bigger. Leviathan is due soon, and I have a feeling we’ll be seeing him.”

“You think he’s coming here,” Tattletale said. “To Brockton Bay.”

“I’m almost certain.” Diana smirked. “But trust me, I’ve got a plan.”

“I don’t think tasers are going to do it,” Regent pointed out. “Unless you’ve got one big enough for him.”

“I do,” Diana said. “But I also have something a little better.”

#final rose #worm #diana yun-farron #undersiders

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lilulo-12fanfiction · 7 years ago

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Paladins Chapter 4

Author’s Note: Thank you for the follows and faves and reviews! I’m glad you’re enjoying it. Please forgive any spelling or grammar errors. I’m not having it beta’d and sometimes I miss some. Also- obviously not following the show to the tee. This chapter I kind of rearranged events because well it worked better for me this way. Enjoy! I promise to try to not have such a long period between chapters. I had the flu and was sick for a while on top of life getting in the way.

Cami deadpanned when she opened her door the next morning and Oliver was standing there holding coffee and what appeared to be breakfast. She walked away from the door without saying anything and he followed her in and kicked the door shut behind him.

“Cami-“ he started to speak but she held her hand up to stop him.

“Ollie we don’t have to do this okay?”

“Do what?”

“The song and dance where you beg me for forgiveness? Where I’m mad until you wear me down. I get it okay? We aren’t what we used to be. As much as we want to pretend that nothing changed in the 5 years you were gone. You’re hiding something. And for some reason you don’t want to tell me. Or feel like you can’t tell me. You don’t trust me anymore and that’s fine. But I cant do this. It hurts to know that you have this life that you’re shutting me out of and I have so much I’m dealing with. You just left me there yesterday, alone. You actually left and this is the first I’ve heard from you since.”

“I have no excuse for yesterday. We had a moment and it freaked me out a little bit. It opened up something that I haven’t been willing to accept because I’m a coward. There is so much that I want to tell you...I just...I can’t. You will never look at me the same. I’ll lose you for good and I cannot have you walk away from me.” She hadn’t seen him so upset before. She placed her hand on the side of his face. He was being sincere. She couldn’t stop herself. She leaned in and their lips touched for the briefest of moments and a pounding knock on her door jolted them apart. She walked back over to the door and barely had it open before Tommy barged in.

“He cut me off.” Was all he said as he pushed into the apartment.

“What?!”

“Our father- he cut off my inheritance. No warning.” Cami’s eyes went wide. She threw her bead back and groaned.

“I’m gonna go” Oliver stood. “Cam- can we get dinner tomorrow? Continue our conversation.” She nodded her head. He kissed her on the cheek and quickly exited the apartment.

A little while later she made the decision to follow Moira’s advice. She couldn’t take it anymore. She pulled her phone out and texted her assistant Romano while Tommy ranted. She had spoken to him last night about her plan. The two of them were close. He was like her life assistant. She decided to have Oliver followed. She had an idea of where he was spending his time after looking through the Queen Consolidated properties but she needed to be sure. She couldn’t stress the importance of not getting caught. She was positive John Diggle would not be gentle. Romano knew he couldn’t tell them anything if caught. She promised an amazing bonus if he caught a beating. She was confident that he would go unnoticed.

She let Tommy vent for a while longer and when he seemingly got it out of his system she was ready to interject. “Listen, Dad cutting you off like that was a real dick move. No arguments there. But at the same time you have to see why he did it. Tee, you have so much potential and because you’re more focused on making him pay for being a crap Dad to you, you’re wasting it. He should have talked to you first or at the very least warned you, something. But we will figure this out. You can stay with me until you figure out your next move.”

“I’m going to stay with Laurel” he admitted. She nodded not even slightly surprised. “But thank you for listening and thank you for the offer. I will figure this out. I was just pissed.” She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly. “No matter how pissed off I am at you I’m always here. No matter what. We stick together.”

He pulled back and gave her a skeptical look. “So uhh what’s going on with you and Oliver? There was some heavy sexual tension when I got her.” She gagged.

“Never say sexual tension to me again. Nothing is going on” Tommy gave her a pointed look. “Okay fine I have no idea what’s going on to be honest.”

“Well it’s about time something happened. I mean you’ve been in love with him since you were like 3 years old.”

“I take it back. You can’t stay here, ever. Get out” he laughed as she smacked him all the way out the door.

Oliver was working out in the bunker when John walked in. His mind was spinning about that morning.

“How’d it go?” He questioned. He was certain Cami chewed him up and spit him back out. John admired the fire that she had. He also loved that she had no issue with putting Oliver Queen in his place.

“Surprising actually.” Oliver walked towards John. “She didn’t yell. She was upset. Really upset and I feel like a fucking scum bag for making her feel that way. She thinks I don’t trust her or don’t care. Which couldn’t be further from the truth. I mean I wasn’t lying when I told her last night freaked me out a bit and that I’m a coward when it comes to her. I’ve always felt something for her. But she’s Tommy’s sister.”

“She’s also an adult Oliver. She’s a woman who is clearly torn up about you. She has feelings for you. I saw the look on her face when she ran out of that party. She was devastated. And not for nothing but isn’t Tommy dating Laurel now? I mean he really doesn’t have anything to say.”

“I can’t be with her and not be honest with her. She knows me too well. She knows I’m hiding something. I told her that I was afraid she’d walk away. That she wouldn’t be able to deal with it and that she’d never see me the same way again.”

“What was her response?”

“She kissed me. I mean it was the shortest kiss in the history of man. Tommy was banging on her door literally the second her lips touched mine.”

“But she kissed you.” John saw a genuine smile on Oliver’s face for the first time. “Look man- if you don’t tell her, if you don’t bring her into the fold in some capacity you will most definitely lose her. Friendship or otherwise. I’ve seen how she looks at you. The fact that she even let you in her house today. She’s not going to walk away.”

“That then leaves the issue of telling her puts her in danger. What if someone went after her? Do I have any business being with her?”

“Don’t you think that’s for her to decide? You need to let someone else besides me in. You need to have someone to confide in. I can’t begin to even pretend to know what happened in those 5 years. But you need someone you can be completely unfiltered with. She’s it. ”

“I’ll think about it. But for now we need to discuss this Paul guy.”

Cami was pacing in her apartment. Oliver had been with Frank Bertinelli and then left with his daughter Helena. She didn’t know if it was a date or what it was. She hated herself for being so put out by it. She had no right to be. They had barely kissed and he didn’t owe her anything. She wondered if that feeling would ever go away. But what superseded those feelings were ones of worry. She knew Bertinelli was a mobster bad had been trying to book Moira and Walter for as long as she remembered. She couldn’t begin to imagine what Oliver had gotten himself into. She had sent Romano home a few hours ago. She didn’t need to know the details of what was happening at that restaurant.

Instead her SUV was parked within walking distance to the abandoned Queen Consolidated building in the glades. Oliver had spent a good portion of his day there and then John had joined him. She figured she had time to get in and get out with Oliver not here. She was ready to confirm her suspicions.She slowly made her way through the rundown building. It was a perfect cover. Why would anyone come here? She didn’t find anything incriminating. There had to be either and upper or lower level. She was glad in black leggings and black knee high boots, a fitted black vneck and a black baseball cap pulled down to cover her her hair and sheild her face. She was searching the building inch by inch when she spotted a door but stopped in her tracks. She felt goosebumps and the hair on her body standing on end. Someone else was there. Her suspicions were confirmed when she heard the floor creek.

“Don’t take another step” a gruff voice came from whomever was behind her. She heard and arrow being pulled back. She rolled her eyes and raised her hands. “I’m not armed. You can put the bow and arrow down.”

“Don’t move” the command came again. She hadn’t expected to be caught. She let her intuition guide her next move like she had been taught by so many. Before the archer knew what hit him he was flat on his back with the wind knocked out of him after she had quickly dropped to a squat and spun her leg out. The heel of her boot was pressing into the hooded figures jugular.

“It’s not very nice to point a weapon at someone who tells you they’re not armed. Where are your manners?” She released her foot after making her point. As soon as he could breathe properly he stood up still shocked by what had happened but more shocked by who had done it.

“Cam.” Was all be said. She took the baseball cap off of her head. “Might as well drop your hood Oliver.”

“How did you know? How the hell did you figure out I was using the building.”

“You often forget who I am Oliver. One- I know you. I know when you’re lying. Two- we both know I’m way smater than you. No offense.” And three I’m a Merlyn. The resources I have are substantial and my name carries quite a bit of clout. You might be shocked to know I actually can be quite intimidating.” He sighed grabbed her by the arm and dragged her with him. He led her down to the bunker.

“Look what I found.” Cami wasn’t surprised to see John down in what seemed to be a bunker for Oliver’s extra curricular activities. “So who else did you tell?” He was angry. Cami scoffed.

“I told no one Oliver! And it’s really rich that YOU’RE mad right now! I should be furious with you!”

“I told you I needed time to open up.”

“About the Island Oliver. Not this. You never would have told me about this. Jesus. This is...I don’t know what this is. But this is what you thought would make me walk away from you? Because The Hood has killed people? Well those people were human garbage that the justice system couldn’t touch. Your methods may be extreme but you’ve made quite a difference.” Oliver was surprised.

“How did you know how to do that?” He finally spoke again. “What? Drop you on your ass? I told you my father had had me take all these fighting classes.”

“That was a little more than self-defense Cam.” She shrugged. “You know what my mother’s death did to him. You realize now I’m in right?”

“No. You’re not. I’m not letting you get hurt.” She rolled her eyes.

“I can take care of myself. And you don’t get to tell me what I can and cannot do. You need help.”

“I have John.” She rolled her eyes at him. “He’s not me. Again- I have resources that he doesn’t, that you don’t. Oliver- you need me.” She was pleasding. She couldn’t let him do this without her. He was going to get himself killed. “She’s right.” John finally spoke.

“NOT helping Diggle. I’m taking you home.” Cami snatched her arm away. “You’re a mysoginistic asshole. I can drive myself.” And with that she stormed out of the bunker. Oliver signed and sat down as he rubbed his forehead.

“Oliver” John made his way over to Oliver.

“Don’t Digg. It’s not up for discussion. I needdd you to have my back with her. Talk her out of this. I don’t need her getting killed in the crossfire.” John held his hands up and backed away leading Oliver to his thoughts.

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