#am i gonna cringe at this in five years. possibly. i am training myself Not To.

[demon-of-the-ancient-world]

Fine, whatever. Paul Atreides playlist.

Arsonist's Lullabye - Hozier Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd Some Nights - Fun Broken Crown - Mumford & Sons Sail - Awolnation Castles Crumbling - Taylor Swift Time to Pretend - MGMT Help I'm Alive - Metric Hurt - Johnny Cash The Pure and the Damned - Oneohtrix Point Never ft. Iggy Pop Eclipse - Pink Floyd

@fuckyeahisawthat can i tag you in this

[myaekingheart]

20 [Fanfic Writer] Questions Game

Thank you so much for tagging me, @lemony-snickers! This is tons of fun, I love answering these kinds of big questionnaires ���💕 Also putting mine under a cut because there’s a lot of questions and I like to ramble. 

Also gonna go ahead and just tag whoever wants to do this! 😅💕

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

As of August 27, 2021, I have a total of 77 works on my AO3! 

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

Funny enough, I was just looking at this, specifically, earlier today and kind of laughing about it. Right now, my total word count across all my works is 1,148,941 😬 

3. How many fandoms have you written for, and what are they?

Apparently 12, but some of them I don’t really consider “big” in my fandom repertoire. Naruto is my greatest fandom with a total of 60 fics so far, followed by The Chronicles of Narnia and Rise of the Guardians. The rest are ones I either did crossover fics with or just did one-off little pieces with--The Incredibles, Tangled, Brave, How to Train Your Dragon, Arthurian Mythology, Disney Princesses, Fairy Tales and Related Fandoms, Back to the Future, and Frozen. 

4. What are your Top Five fics by kudos?

The Scarecrow and The Bell (Naruto) - 470 kudos The Day Kakashi’s Mask Slipped (Naruto) - 139 kudos Sunflowers (Naruto) - 92 kudos Sakumo the House Husband (Naruto) - 81 kudos Someone to Lean On (Naruto) - 67 kudos

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I always try to respond to comments, because I like to acknowledge when people respond to my work. I cherish comments like nobody’s business, especially when they’re kind and reactionary. I just really love seeing/hearing what people think of the way a story is progressing, or what they thought of a one-shot. Comments keep me going especially when it comes to longfic so I want to be able to let readers know that I do in fact see their comments, that I’m acknowledging what they’re saying, and that I appreciate them. Plus, it can be kind of fun to tease upcoming events in a fic through responses to people’s comments, too. Because I’m mean. 

6. What fic have you written with the angstiest ending?

Definitely Hothouse (Rise of the Guardians/The Incredibles; Jack Frost x Violet Parr; American Horror Story AU). This was the first multi-chaptered fic I ever wrote to completion and I honestly cringe when I remember it exists both because it’s so poorly organized (and full of nasty plot holes) and because I just went ham on the gore factor. It definitely has a really bittersweet and heartbreaking ending to it, too. 

7. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

I think I’ll definitely have to say Temptation. The story itself was kind of a ride, and it’s only the first installment in a series, but it follows the plot of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe but remixed due to the presence of an original character, but the ending is still roughly the same as the original: they defeat the evil, the Pevensies are all crowned kings and queens, happy days. Reading the last few paragraphs of the last chapter honestly still gets me all up in my feelings. 

8. Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I used to be more of a crossover writer due to one of my main ships being a crossover ship. They weren’t super crazy, though, because they were both CGI-animated films. The craziest crossover I’ve ever written is an in-progress/unfinished multichapter piece, Kakashi, Enchanted, that sees our favorite Copy Ninja get kamui’d into the Disney princess dimension and has to help the likes of Snow White, Cinderella, and Rapunzel on his journey to find a way back to his own world. It’s a super weird premise but definitely one of my more lighthearted works and fun to revisit when I need to decompress. 

9. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I don’t think I’ve ever received hate so much as I’ve received criticism. The closest I ever got to hate on a fic, I think, was someone left an overly personal and mentally disturbed comment on a chapter of my main fic that made me convinced they needed to seek therapy and deal with their own personal issues rather than take it out on a fanfic about animated ninjas. 

10. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Maybe 👀 I’m super vanilla when it comes to smut, though. I think the wildest thing I’ve ever written in smut is breeding kink. 

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of, and I hope I never will. 

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not yet! I had someone ask to translate a one-shot of mine in Russian but I never got a response back when I laid out my terms and conditions. 

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I have not! I used to do paragraph-style roleplay which was kind of like cowriting fanfiction but writing is so personal and sacred to me that I don’t know if I could ever actually cowrite a fic with someone. I like brainstorming with other people, but writing for me is more of a deeply personal and independent endeavour. 

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Oh god, this is a tricky question because it depends on fandom. I absolutely love New Dream (Rapunzel x Eugene, Tangled) and have for the past ten years, and my love for them as only grown since watching Tangled: The Series/Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure. I don’t write or even really read a ton of fanfiction for them, though. I’m also still highly dedicated to my favorite crossover crackship, Frostfield (Jack Frost x Violet Parr, Rise of the Guardians/The Incredibles) and to this day, if you search for that ship on AO3, I am the sole provider of every single fic about them so far. I’m not as active with them as I used to be, but they got me through some really rough times back in the day and still mean so much to me. A lot of my favorite ships across fandoms, though, are honestly canon x OC ships of mine because I am a self-indulgent bitch who needs to project. So Peter Pevensie x Eilonwy (The Chronicles of Narnia) and Kakashi Hatake x Rei Natsuki (Naruto) are really important to me and I’ve poured so much of myself specifically into their stories. I think it’s safe to say Kakashi and Rei is my all-time favorite ship across all fandoms, though, just because of how much their story means to me. The Scarecrow and The Bell is my magnum opus, my pride and joy, and I’m sure it will be my biggest fandom footprint of my entire life. I’ve dedicated the past three years to this story and these characters and I intend to continue doing it until it no longer brings me joy (which I hope it always will). There’s just so much I could say about this story and Kakashi and Rei’s relationship but I don’t think we have enough time or space in this post for that 😅 Just know that they mean the world to me and I will always hold them in the highest regard as a beautifully messy, flawed, passionate, soulmate-y ship that I love with all of my heart 🥺

EDIT: I also feel obligated to tack on some of my absolute favorite Naruto ships because I may not have written for all of them (yet) but they still make me unbelievably happy or I find them really compelling and enjoy the idea of exploring them: 

Naruhina is precious happy sunshine and The Last honestly felt like a wonderful Disney princess movie to me, it was so cute and the romance was so on-point, Naruhina just makes me so incredibly happy and I love them with all my heart. 

MinaKushi also gets me all up in my feels and I adore them with every fiber of my being. Their romance also gave me Disney princess movie vibes which I love, their story is just so damn sweet as is their character dynamic and I am still so heartbroken that they never got to be a happy family with Naruto because you know what? It’s what they deserved!

SasuSaku is so compelling to me and I really feel like we were cheated out of seeing their relationship develop and evolve postwar in the same way The Last did for Naruhina. They’re my favorite angst ship and while I don’t think they were written that well in canon, I love the possibility and potential of them together and am excited to explore them more in-depth in my own writing. 

NejiTen is just too cute, I really love the way Neji and Tenten’s personalities compliment each other? I don’t have much else to say about them except that I really love them together and think they have so much untapped potential that I also can’t wait to explore in more depth in my own writing. 

15. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Paper Hearts and Impromptu Bookmarks, probably. I love the premise of this story a lot and I have so many interesting ideas for it but at the same time, it also feels kind of cheap and cringey to me, in a way? It takes all of these ideas I probably would have had if I had been into Naruto when I was a kid and kind of compiles them all into one big story. Kakashi and Aiko’s relationship and story is still really important to me and I want to continue it someday but for right now, I just haven’t had the motivation or desire to write any more of it. I think I’m just so overwhelmingly preoccupied with writing Kakashi and Rei’s story that I can’t imagine writing any other Kakashi x OC fics right now. 

16. What are your writing strengths?

I want to say that I’m really good at capturing complex emotion? I don’t know, I write a lot of angst and mental upheaval in my fics which can be really difficult to try and capture, but I think I do a decent enough job of it? And just writing difficult subjects in general. I think it’s really important to address difficult topics such as mental illness and relationship difficulties and everything but I also want to try and write those topics in a way that is both authentic to the experience while also still tasteful. I don’t want to drive readers away with heavy subject matter but rather present a situation that feels real and authentic while also still being digestible. I may not be doing a very good job of that during the current arc of my fic that I’m working on, but I’m trying haha

EDIT 2: I also want to add onto this to say that I’m really proud of my organizational techniques for writing longfic. It’s not necessarily a strength in terms of the prose itself but it’s something that’s taken me years to really get a grasp on and find a method that works perfectly for me and so far, it’s been extremely helpful and beneficial to me. I don’t know where I would be now as a writer without these essential tools in my pocket. 

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I feel like I do a really bad job of the “show, don’t tell” thing. It can be really hard to balance descriptive prose with straightforward writing that moves things along. I don’t want to dwell on mental dialogue to the point where you lose track of what’s going on, but I also don’t want my stuff to read like “Character A did xyz. Character B said abc. They went to 123″, whatever. Another thing I struggle with is sentence variation. I always fall into the same patterns when I’m writing prose and I get really self-conscious about it because I don’t want to sound repetitive or disrupt the flow of the writing. One of my favorite things about prose is focusing on the cadence of the words, I think it’s one of the most beautiful things about writing in general, but it can just be really difficult to get a good grip on that. I’ve been told in the past that I apparently have a really good grasp/control of the language or whatever but sometimes I just find that really hard to believe when I look at my work with such scrutiny. I think one of my biggest pet peeves with my own writing, too, is feeling like I start all of my sentences the same five different ways. I’ll read other people’s works and they’ll write sentences like “Glass-blue water lapped against the shores of a deserted beach as a lonely woman gazed off into the distance” and I can just never figure out how to realistically write sentences that start like that in the context of my prose and it drives me fucking crazy, like I’m definitely jealous  😅

18. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I’ve never really thought much about it before, but I think there are pros and cons! For bilingual/multilingual readers, I think it can be a really enriching reading experience because they know what’s being said in both languages. For people who only know one language, however, unless a translation is provided, I feel like it can be really alienating. I think the best use of that for both worlds is using it as a means for miscommunication humor. Other than that, I think it can be a slippery slope that depends on what kind of reader you are and how it’s written. 

19. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

The Chronicles of Narnia! My very first fanfiction was a Narnia fanfic that I barely remember except that it laid the basis for Temptation and my Narnia fanfic series as a whole. I never posted this first iteration anyway, but I remember it was 2008/2009 and I wrote a solid 80 pages (which was wild for me at the time) and had gotten halfway through remixing the events of Prince Caspian when my computer crashed and I lost absolutely everything. I’m still heartbroken that it’s gone forever, not because I’d want to go back and read it necessarily (since I’m sure it was actually hot garbage) but at least for nostalgia’s sake. Either way, like I said, this long-lost fic laid the basis for the very first fanfiction I ever posted, the first published (and never finished) iteration of Temptation back in 2011 on deviantART and the since-defunct Figment. I fell out of the fandom around 2012/2013 and left the story alone for a while before ultimately deciding to completely redux and rewrite the story when the fixation swung back around again between 2016 and 2018. 

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Despite the fact that it’s still in-progress, definitely The Scarecrow and The Bell. This fic just genuinely means so damn much to me and I will cherish it for the rest of my life because of how much it’s given me, how much love and passion and time and even parts of myself that I have poured into this, and also just how expansive of a story this is. Not only does it touch on some very dark and heavy topics, but I’ve also created so much of my own characters and meta for this story that it’s almost an entire universe in and of itself. I’ve just contributed so much additional world-building and created so many new OCs to fill important roles in this story and in Rei’s life, and they’ve all become so deeply important to me as they’ve developed further over the years. I’ve come up with so many interesting ideas for everyone and their lives, which are all slowly becoming so rich and varied. Not to mention that it’s my most popular fic to date as well as my longest fic at 632k and counting. I’ve really just genuinely poured so much of my heart and soul into this story, it’s my absolute favorite thing I’ve ever done and I really mean it when I say that I will cherish it for the rest of my life. 

[thebigsimp]

Marco x f!reader - how can I live without you ?

SEASON 1 SPOILER ! 

summary:  It's sad, then it's cute but you quickly become sad again because you remember what was sad at the beginning and the end is sad but it's also beautiful I hope

content:  Marco spoiler season 1 f!reader/s.o

word counts: 1.3K

tw: death 

notes: I swear to god I want to cry every time I think about this shit, he definitely deserved better... btw I didn't read it through since I've wrote it soooo you can totally say it's trash I won't mind, I guess. It's just that it's been a long time since I've posted and it just feels weird to not post still in finals exams tho but I got time to post this just for you if actually someone read it anyway ! hope you enjoy this sad writing.

I Knew  Marco and I were made for each other, and now it’s like all of my life is collapsing before my eyes. 

When Jean came up to me I knew, I don’t know how but I instantly knew that something was wrong. that Marco was dead. 

I tried to convince myself that he would come back at some point and that it was only one sick joke, but he never did, at least alive. 

“Hurry y/n we are not getting late again !” Marco was standing against the frame of my door watching me struggling with his teasing smile, knowing that I wasn't paying attention to his words. I’m screwed, I lost the bracelet that Marco gave me for our one year anniversary and we were about to go to a day of training...  “wait wait please , I don’t know where I put it Marco and I-” and his laughing now, god If I could listen to his laugh all day long, life would be perfect.

“You know y/n no one is going to see that you don’t have your bracelet...” said Marco walking towards me with is reassuring smile. “This is the one we gave each other Marco I don’t go out without it !”, I was about to curse when we heard our commandant shout the names of the cadets, shit we are really late aren’t we...

“We are in training for the entire day honey, you will find it when we get back home tonight” “but Marco I-” “I’ll help you to find it but we need to go before commandant Sadies find out that we are late, let’s go” he’s right I don’t want to end up like Sasha. 

For whatever reason commandant Sadie didn’t say anything when he saw us running in line but instead continued the call up our name, he might be up to something. 

“Listen up cadets, today is a very physical day, the training is going to be difficult and you won’t get back here until 11pm, so I hope you got a great sleep because I will need you at 100. I've prepared some groups exercices for todays training, it’s to build your  team work assets because for what I saw previously you guys don’t understand the basics of it. I need teams of five ! hurry up so we can start” I take a look at the cadets, I mean he isn’t wrong but everyone seems to focus on getting into the military police, so of course they aren't going to team up. Now I know why they are training us to have great team work, they want us to join the survey corps. But sometimes I can see Mikasa, Armin and Eren helping each other, I mean it's more Mikasa and Armin helping Eren but sure. Reiner and Bertholdt are always together same goes for Christa and Ymir and Connie and Sasha. Jean, Marco and I are quite close as well. We all are close to each other but not as a team like they want...

“ So babe do you want to be with us ?” says Marco “Huh?” Marco, Jean, Connie and Sasha were looking at me waiting for an answer I presume, “Marco isn’t she your girlfriend or something ?” Connie say  “Hey but it doesn’t mean that we have to be with each other all the time you know” says Marco looking at me with a teasing smile, Jean snort a little at Marco’s intervention “you guys are literally together every time !” “I know Jean, so babe ?” “I guess we can team up this time” “good”. 

The tree others were physically cringing to the conversations Marco and I were having. “ babe you know what we could do right know ?” “what ? honey?” “well we can go somewhere calm and you know cuddles until it’s our turn to go training...” “you guys are so disgusting I swear” “Jean they are literally talking about cuddling” “Sasha, Jean is right, they are disgusting” “oh my fucking god guys cuddling is just cuddling I’m not gonna fuck my girlfriend here” “Wooaaaw Marco your innocence ?!���. If only Jean knew... 

At the end of the day, everyone were tired, people were crawling back to their room, some others were going straight to eat, we clearly needed to rest. Marco took me in his arm and carrying me to my room. 

“Marco cuddle, cuddle, cuddle” As he was about to exit the room “I need to get you food honey, I’m coming back as soon as I get you some, alright ?” "alright"

that night we just cuddled while talking about our future, our future together.

" y/n I'm about to say something crazy so don't freak out" I looked at him with an amused face "alright Marco say what's on your mind already" Marco pushed a string of hair away from my face with a fond smile before talking again " Well I know we just join the military and that training isn't over, let alone that we havent started fighting against titans and that all of that will probably take a will before we find a way to stop this madness but I'm already thinking of our future" I got up to face him "our future ?" "yes, you and me, living somewhere calm, not far away from our friends but still pretty far so it looks like we are alone together. We can get married, have children, I want a daughter and a son, and we can maybe start a little school together like our parents..." oh yes before the fall of the walls my parents along side Marco parents were proud teachers they dedicated their lives to make sure that we could have the proper education even with those difficult times "I would love that Marco" Marco face light up at my words "we could discover so many things behind those walls and and-" "we will be able to teach something new everyday" Marco smiled at me " you read my mind, I told you we were made for each other" I rolled my eyes before giving a slight punch to his right shoulder "ouch".

"I love you y/n, we will be together trying to navigate life together" "until the end" "until the end are you kidding me even in the other side we will be together" "Marco I was trying to be dramatic" "I know but I just don't like to know that you are thinking of your death like that, you know especially when I'm right here, to protect you" I giggled at is sudden confidence " I know right how can live without you ?" " I don't know it is a miracle that you manage to live to the day we've met" " Marco oh my god haha"

Who would've known that the end of us would happened so quickly.

I miss having you arm around me, I miss seeing your smile every time I say something, I miss the warmth of your body against mine. I miss your wise words. I miss everything.

Jean isn't the same anymore, he saw you laying there lifeless. If they hadn't choose to put me somewhere else I would've been with you, I would've try to save you. I wasn't there when you needed me, I wasn't there when this titan crushed our hopes and destroyed our future.

I know that you would probably want the best for me, you want me to be happy, you want to enjoy my life while I'm still alive. And to be completely honest with you I don't know how it could be possible, but both of know what happened that night when we talk about our future we also made a promise to each other, and I am going to make sure to make you proud from who you are, and when my time is here you'll be happy to see me again, and we will live our future.

[nightwingshero]

Hold Me Down Chapter 4

Yassss!!!! Hahaha!!!! Surprise!!! I was finally able to get this busted out!! Man, this chapter was...*whew*, it was a tough one! But she’s done and ready to read! It’s not fully edited because I’m too excited and want to post it now but I hope you guys like it!

@dieguzguz a special thank you to you, my dear. Sam, this would’ve been a train wreck if it weren’t for you. Thank you so much for being honest and putting me on the right track when I was going through my rough patch. With your help and advice, I was able to make this chapter everything it should be. Thank you!

The car ride was awkward. I felt like a five-year-old being forced to go to church on a Sunday morning, except I was a 27-year-old adult, being forced to move in with someone I hadn’t known for a full week. Someone, mind you, that had threatened to kill me and who I ended up holding a knife to. Part of me worried that I would wake up to one to my throat.

Atlanta was a decently sized,and with the traffic, it took us forever to get to our destination. The penthouse was on the outskirts of the city, giving what seemed to be a nice view of the city. But it had to have been built recently, the structure shiny and the windows huge. It’s almost intimidating as Randy turns, swiping a card at the gated entrance to the parking underneath.

The parking lot is dark, and I can’t help but remember all those scary movies I had seen in my lifetime so far. I eye Randy, because I know Viking Princess—Jane—is someone I can handle. I didn’t think Randy, or Jane, was a threat to me, especially in the light of current events. But in my life, you couldn’t be too sure. Someone was always ready to plunge a knife in your back, whether you were looking or not.

And I almost groan at the reminder of what I had agreed to. I didn’t know how the hell this was going to even work. I could pretend to be anything, anyone, to get what I needed. A businesswoman, a shallow woman who didn’t understand majority of things, even an escort at one low point in my life. But I had never tried to enter a fake engagement. I didn’t have the type of patience or time for that. A long con wasn’t something Dutch talked much about, despite teaching us the skill to do it. But cons were never the goal. No, our goal was much more sinister than that.

I rub my hands together as we park the SUV, glancing around to try and see through the tinted glass, but failing. As they step out of the vehicle, I follow suit, unsure of where exactly we were going, but I can tell that the garage is a few degrees cooler than being outside. It’s a nice relief, even if the eerie lighting threw me off. It didn’t, however, stop me from eyeing the line of cars.

An empty parking spot laid between a black Lexus and dark blue Jaguar F Type, making me curious to what was missing. I raised a brow, however, as I spotted an old black Mustang at the end of the line. Jane and Randy kept walking, as if it was absolutely normal, and it’s then that it occurs to me that maybe there were more people living in the building. I couldn’t wait to slip away to sweet talk the owner of the Mustang.

Stopping, Jane waves something in front of the elevator, a key card of some sort, and the elevator doors open. I’m grateful, as we ascend, that there isn’t any awkward elevator music playing to add to the odd atmosphere. I want to believe that this could fall under some sort of kidnapping, but I knew that wasn’t the case. I had come willingly, even if it felt like I didn’t really have the choice. Which seemed to be a reoccurring theme as of late.

So lost in my own thoughts, the ding of the elevator made me jump, forcing myself to face the reality of my new environment. The lights were off, indicating that no one was home. Despite the dark home, the massive windows at the other end showed the sun setting and the lights of the city shining around us. Mesmerized I walk forward, leaving Randy and Jane behind in the foyer. The lights switch on, and I realize that there’s a balcony there, the glass doors blending in perfectly with the windows, almost as if they weren’t there at all. The pool water sparkled, the blue of it creating a glow that clashed with the darkness of its surroundings. My skin itched to feel the gentle caress of the water, and I could bet anything that it was temperature controlled.

“I can show you to your room.” Randy called. I glanced over to see him waiting patiently at the bottom of a floating staircase, the dark black slabs embedded into the wall.

“Okay.” I replied, turning away from the view to follow him.

There were a couple of doors that we passed until we came to a small indent, not exactly a hallway, but something with a door on either side. “That’s John’s room.” Randy nodded to the right side. “If you need anything, he’s right across the way.”

I almost flinch a bit as Randy opened the door on the left. I’m sure he meant it to be reassuring, but I couldn’t bring myself to feel it. I was a misplaced object in this odd museum. The feeling just grows worse as we step into the room. The greys, blacks, and whites contradicting each other. It was probably the biggest bedroom I had ever seen, and my gut twists. Why the hell did someone ever find this necessary?

Randy gently placed the bag down on the bed and turned to me. “Take a few minutes to adjust and then come back downstairs. Jane is gonna whip something up for you.”

“And the prince himself?” I asked, continuing to look around.

“John is going to be out late tonight. He said that you were to eat something and to feel as comfortable as possible. You’re allowed to look around, most of the penthouse is open to you. His office and bedroom are off limits, though.”

I scoffed as I met Randy’s dark brown eyes. “Oh please, as if I would ever want to go anywhere near his bedroom.”

Randy’s lips grow into a tight line, but I can’t tell if he’s holding back laughter or a retort. Either way, it didn’t matter. He walked out, leaving me alone in my new gilded cage. I slowly walk around, noting how the windows were floor to ceiling, no way of getting out, especially from this high up. My skin crawled at the thought of there not being a way out, and I focused on my breathing. In and out slowly, because I wouldn’t let this get the better of me.

My fingers skim the silk fabric of the bedding, pressing down a bit, almost shocked at how soft it was. Feeling more like a child, I hop up on the bed and fall back. I sighed, my eyes closing briefly. I didn’t know what kind of mattress this was, but holy shit, was it heavenly. I open my eyes and stare at the ceiling. I feel this overwhelming urge to cry, the heavy feeling settling into my chest. I was finally given just a moment to myself, to be able to actually take a damn breath, and all I wanted to do was cry. I’ve been arrested, kidnapped, backed into a corner and forced into a fake engagement all while losing my apartment. There was no safe space for me anymore, nowhere for me retreat to. I was locked away with someone that was a clear threat if not handled correctly, and god, it was terrifying. I hadn’t felt less level of apprehension since Dutch. Always laying awake at night, scared of what next test he had in store. Part of me worried to waking with John’s hands around my throat.

A knock on the door sounded, making me jump. “Yeah?”

“Food’s done.” Randy called and I could hear his retreat.

“That was fast.” I muttered as I rolled of the bed, my feet landing on the soft rug as I kicked off my boots.

On the way down the stairs, I cling to the railing as my socks slid on my first step, and I refused to have ‘falling down the stairs’ added to the day’s events. I didn’t want to make any more of a fool of myself than I already have. I eyed Jane as I went though, noticing that she leaned against the counter and texted on her phone. Cringing, I eyed the bruising that began to develop from me breaking her nose. I felt a bit bad for it.

“So…what exactly am I eating?” I asked as I slowly made my way to the island in the center of the kitchen. It was modern—like everything else—with the island bar made wholly of white marble. The cabinets and counters of the rest of it was pitch black with a black and white marble black splash. I would be lying if I had said I wasn’t at least a bit envious. It was gorgeous, everything sleek and clean, all the appliances matching perfectly.

Jane cleared her throat and shoved her phone away as I sat at the bar, my hands resting against the cool surface. “I uh, made you grilled cheese. Hope that’s okay.” She muttered before placing a plate in front of me.

“Yeah, that’s totally fine.” I gave her a small smile, but she didn’t see it. I could smell the cheesy goodness, the sandwich cut in half diagonally, showing off the golden melted cheese. I took a bite, the cheese oozing in my mouth. Chewing and swallowing, I watch as she leans back against the counter. She looks exhausted. Another twinge of guilt. “Hey, look, I’m sorry about the nose thing. It wasn’t personal.”

Jane’s sharp green eyes find mine with a raised brow. “Not gonna lie, part of me wants punch you to call it even, but I’m gonna ask in all fairness: how likely am I to win that fight?”

“Hmm.” I smirk before tearing off a piece of the sandwich. “Not very.”

She shakes her head with a laugh as I take another bite. “You know it’s Jacob that trains us, and to have your small ass put me on my face in front of my fiancé and trainer is extremely humiliating. Although, I gotta say as a fan of dramatics in that department,” she threw a mischievous look, raising her brow playfully. “That was pretty badass.”

“Thanks.” I laugh a little as I continue to pick at my food. “So, what happens now?”

“Now,” she sighed. “We play the game. You’ll need to keep a low profile while we set the stage. Obviously, it would be strange if it got out that you were living with John before you’re at least spotted together in public. If we play it right, I think we could make it seem like you’ve been secretly dating the past few months.”

“To the public?”

“Right. But as for the feds and Drubmans? They’ll see that you’ve wrapped John Seed around your finger, doing your job as the engagement gets announced.”

Finishing off half of the sandwich, I gave her a look. “When is that?”

“I don’t know. Honestly, I think it’s all a bit cliché. Just stage a damn break in. Rough John up a bit, break in for fake documents or something.”

I laughed at her as Jane shrugged. “There’s an idea.”

There was a relief in finding some common ground with Jane, something I didn’t realize I truly needed up until now. I didn’t have any allies here, but maybe I wouldn’t have to be so alone. The idle chatter between us was slow, nothing deep, both of us guarded. The trust wasn’t there, and I had to respect her for being smart enough to not give away any details I could use.

After I was finished, she offered a tour, but I stubbornly refused. I was going to walk around his palace and admire what he was, but that didn’t help me from my eyes wondering, eyeing the pictures of family here and there. Most of it was just abstract paintings he decorated on his walls, but I could see a family painting and a few pictures. There were black and white shots of planes on the wall behind me, for whatever reason. I crushed my curiosity down out of pride.  

I finally called it a night, throwing Jane a good night over my shoulder as I made my way back to the room I was assigned. Locking the door behind me, I sighed heavily. I could watch tv for the rest of the night, allow myself to slip into a mindless state to help with the tension that I was feeling. But my curiosity finally won out as I started to explore my room in more depth. I walked over to the double doors on the other side of the room, wishfully hoping it was a way to escape.

As I ripped the doors opened, I am both star-shocked and disappointed. Part of me wanted it to lead to a secret balcony of some sort, but what I found instead was an unnecessarily huge walk-in closet. I flipped the light on to see the racks completely filled with clothes: dresses, suits, designer jeans and shirts. There were sunglasses, jewelry, and shoes.

I almost died as I knelt down to check the bottom of the shelves, eyeing the boots that sat there innocently. It was like a damn bookshelf, all the boots at the bottom with a few gym shoes and then…then the heels made up for the rest of it. My eyes widened at the sight of a few Doc Martens, a regular pair, one knee high, and the last was heeled. I couldn’t help but smile in excitement, my love for boots knew no bounds in all honestly. I moved on, checking out the assortment of heels. Most were black, some blue, silver, and grey. There were a few red and burgundy ones, too, and I couldn’t help but…feel a bit of unease.

Frowning, I glance back around, noting the colors—or lack thereof—and I felt a chill. It was strange to me that somehow, whoever did this, knew my taste. Knew my style well enough to pull it off. I turned, grabbed a heel, eyeing that famous red sole before checking the size. I dropped it as if I had been burned, then ripped a black business professional dress off the hanger and checked the tag. A shaky breath escaped my lips as the dress slipped to the floor. Everything was in my size…how the fuck did this happen?

Catching sight of a gown bag, I swallowed before rushing over. I pulled it, carefully unzipping it as I went. Pulling a side back, I drop it and scramble away. Newly dry cleaned and packed perfectly away, was the same dress I wore that night at the gala. I tried to take a calming breath, convincing myself it was a coincidence and that I was just paranoid. But I’ve done this for so long, my instincts couldn’t help but scream, warning me that this was all just too much to not mean something, but I wasn’t sure what. He had seen the dress, maybe he had bought it knowing that. But that didn’t explain everything else.

I’m hesitant, because lately every time I tried to dig, something bad ended up happening to me. My curiosity had done nothing positive for me in weeks, and this was no better. I didn’t want to see this, I didn’t want to acknowledge the possibilities…but I wouldn’t be alive today if hadn’t done those things. Biting my lip, I slowly think up for a plan to see what I could find. A visit to a certain friend could help put things in motion in finding out anything I needed to know. So, I walk out of the closet with a bitter thought of how anyone could afford—or deserve to afford—even half the shit in that damn closet.

Those were my thoughts as I woke up the next morning in the slate grey sheets and expensive down comforter. Worse case scenario I suffered through this for a few months, getting a taste of what I could have when this was all over. It wasn’t that bad. I had protection, slept at a penthouse, all needs were taken care of. I could put up with the insufferable asshole. I had the patience for that.

Right?

I eyed the closet doors and felt a twist of doubt, unsure if I did. Half of me screamed to ignore it and keep my hand down for the sake of getting by without causing anymore trouble. The other demanded answers, curiosity and anger working together to piece every little thing together.

Groaning, I sat up and made my way to the bathroom, doing my usual morning routine. Throwing on a pair of black shorts and adjusting my tank top, I cautiously open the bedroom door. The smell of bacon hit me immediately, and I could hear the sizzling of something. I sighed in relief, shutting the door behind me and running my hand through my hair. If Jane was here, that would make me feel at least a tad better, even though I was the reason she was sporting black eyes now.

My feet hit the cold surface of the stairs as I made my descent, glancing over once the kitchen came into view, and freezing on the spot. I debate running back up the stairs, but he glances over his shoulder at me. There’s no going back now.

I would have never guessed that John could cook, and even if he did, I didn’t think him the kind of person to cook for himself. So, it’s a shock to me, and it’s the excuse I use as I stare at him. His back is bare, with him being in only grey sweatpants that hung low on his hips. It gave me the perfect view of his tattoos. A huge black and blue raven spreading across his shoulder blades, a symbol on his left shoulder, a knife and snake under it, and a plethora of smaller, individual ones along his forearm. I couldn’t get a better look on his other side, but I was so sure that he had others. And as much as I admired the ink across his skin, it was the lines of scars that threw me.

Taking my time, I continued down while keeping a watchful eye on him. I had underestimated him; I knew that much. I just wasn’t sure how much. Joseph showed some cards yesterday, enough for me to know and understand that crossing him would be a terrible mistake on my part. But John…he was still a mystery, and I couldn’t afford any more surprises.

“Wren.” He looked over his shoulder briefly once more, before turning back. It’s alien, how my name falls from his lips. It makes me feel something else that I don’t know how to place. “It’s about time. I thought I would have to come up and make sure you hadn’t died in your sleep.” He called as I stood by the island. His voice had a deepness, almost husky, and I wondered if he sounded like that every morning. Up close I could see the red scars better. Some were random lines, others were words. Sins carved into his skin harshly, as I spy Sloth under his right forearm along with the other tattoos there. I force my attention away from it, swallowing my curious questions.

“I thought Jane would be making breakfast.” I shot back with a shrug that he couldn’t see, so focused on the skillet in front of him. “I was disappointed.”

John moved, transferring whatever he made onto a plate. “Jane is with Faith at their house. She doesn’t stay here. Faith prefers her fiancée at home.” He turned with the plate in his hand, placing it on the island and pointing at the barstool. “Sit. You need to eat.”

Any retort died in my throat as he fished his phone out of his pocket. His chest was well toned and lean. He wasn’t big like Jacob seemed to be, but he had muscle to him. Part of me wondered how much of a challenge he would be if it were an actual fair fight, just him and I. His body was lithe, for sure, so not only would he have strength on his side, but he would be fast, too. I’ve already had a taste of that.

My eyes trace the lines of the scales he has tattooed just under his chest and ending just above his belly button, with another starting right under. A smaller version of the symbol in the center as dark lines and shading to give it a dark glow, with a design underneath that was cut off by his pants. I sat down, feeling uncomfortably warm, and looked down at the plate. “I’d appreciate you not acting like you’re my dad, telling me what to do.” I snarked.

John stopped texting to throw me a dark look, the corners of his mouth twisting the slightest in a smirk, opening his mouth to say something. He stopped himself, hesitating, before his mouth forms a tight line. “Just eat.” He began typing away again, his hair falling in his face a bit. “We’re going to have to announce our…relationship to the public soon. I’ve made a reservation for us this weekend. It’ll give your face time to heal and the sooner we get this going, the better.” He sighed, running a hand through his hair as he tossed his phone on the counter. “I hope you like Italian.”

He leaned against the counter, his hands gripping the edge as he stared at me. I almost rolled my eyes. How this man could be nothing but business while walking around in sweats was just ridiculous. “Oh good, I love spaghetti.” He said nothing, but I could see the frustration and ire working its way into his eyes. “I’m kidding. Italian is fine.” This time I did roll my eyes.

“Good. There’s plenty of clothes in your closet, and I hope you found something that suits your taste in the bathroom. I don’t know what brands you use, or whatever.” His phone buzzed, gaining his attention.

“You were the one that did that?” I asked, raising a brow at him, my thoughts going to mystery of the wardrobe I had been given. John snapped his gaze to mine.

“No.” he answered, quickly and almost snapping at me. Clearing his throat, he continued. “No, Whitney and Faith did that. I couldn’t be bothered with it. She thought you and Jane were about the same size.”

I narrowed my eyes at him when he looked away. That was…awfully fast, especially for the amount that littered that damn closet. It didn’t really make sense, but I shove it aside, not wanting to start a fight first thing in the morning. “And here I thought it was for the women I’m sure you have milling in and out.”

Ah. So much for no fighting. Pull a punch only to throw another. Good job, Wren.

But John scoffed, a small smirk on his lips. “My one-night stands don’t stay, my dear. And no one would ever be allowed to keep anything here, let alone a full closet of that size.” He threw me a taunting look. “Which I’m sure you’ll understand.”

I frowned, my nose wrinkling. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“I mean you seducing all those men you con—”

I threw my head back, a laugh escaping before I look back at him. “Oh, no. I don’t sleep with my marks. Ever. That’s a rule of mine. I don’t ever mix business with pleasure. Besides, most of those men are old and cringy. No thank you.”

“Why?” he asked, folding his arms as he leaned against them on the island. “Bad experience?” He smirked at his own innuendo and I hesitated. I didn’t trust him, not by a long shot, and I didn’t want to ever give him something to use against me. But on the other hand, he was supposed to be an ally, my employer’s brother, and for this particular job, my partner. So, against my better judgement, I decide to be honest.

“When we’re recruited, we learn that creating ties is dangerous.” I stared, playing with the food with a fork. “So, we’re taught how to kind of…shut our emotions away.” Sighing I give him a look. “And for some people, it’s harder said than done.”

He quirked his brow at me. “You don’t have sex because you will get emotionally attached?” John laughed. “Oh, you’re one of those. A bit needy and can get a bit clingy because they end up wanting something more.”

I immediately frowned, irritation making my face hot. Fucking playboys. “No, I don’t sleep with them because they’re disgusting, greedy leeches, and it’s unprofessional. Sex complicates everything, because you’re always messing with someone’s emotions, and that’s where I draw my line. I’m in the game of stealing, not manipulating someone’s emotions just because I can. That being said,” I hopped off the stool, pushing the plate away, before I lean close to him. “Just because some women want something more, and have feelings, doesn’t make them needy or clingy. In fact, they aren’t the ones to blame at all. It’s not their fault you’re a heartless asshole.”

I turned, making my way back up the stairs without another word.

Coming back down a bit later, I found him no where in sight. Jane and Randy sat at the island instead, playing poker. They looked up at the sound of my approach. “I need a car. Unless you two wanna drive me around all day, although I would prefer to be alone.”

Randy hesitated looking uneasy. “Uh, I don’t think—”

“Just give her the keys to the Lexus. John has been using the Audi, he’s not gonna miss it.” Jane cut him off, throwing me a smirk. I couldn’t help but return it, the guilt slowly faded away more as the mutual respect began to grow between us. I had a feeling we were going to get along just fine.

He gave Jane one more look before turning back to me. “The table in the foyer, there’s a black tray where he keeps his keys. Do not grab anything other than the keys for his Lexus.” Randy warned, pointing at me. I rolled my eyes, making my way over.

I raised a brow, seeing the keys neatly laid out. How many cars did this guy have? I rolled my eyes, grabbing the Lexus key fob. I was ready to get the fuck out of here and see what I could find, both with the wardrobe confusion and the apartment issue.

Duncan, you asshole.

 I huffed as I parked on the side of the street, eyeing the building. This was the right place, right? Checking my mirror, I open the door and exit the car. I immediately miss the air conditioning, but I push that aside. I was on a mission and this was long overdue. I should have done this before anything else, but it had gotten away from me. I guess being kidnapped had a way of taking up your time.

The building was beautiful to say the least. And I wasn’t sure how the owner did it, mixing between old and modern. It was one of the classier tattoo shops I’ve come across. Made that familiar urge rise up within me again, that familiar and comforting sting that always left something beautiful behind.

Pain was temporary, but vanity…vanity was forever.

Making a mental note to come up with some ideas, I pushed the glass door open. This had to be the one. It was the only tattoo shop close to Mary May’s sports bar, and she did mention it was down the road. I would hunt them down, one by one, though. How many tattoo parlors could Atlanta have anyway? I was determined.

The air conditioning was welcoming when I entered, and a bell dinged to announce my arrival. The inside was gorgeous, to say the least. Dark walls with light flooring, a red accent wall that made the room pop in a way that drew you in. While most of it was sleek, there were Victorian touches here and there, from the plush couch to the light fixtures. A beautiful balance.

“Hold on, I’m comin’!” A male voice drawled, and I couldn’t help but allow my lips to curl into a smirk. I broadened when Sharky came around the corner. He stopped short, seeing me standing in the lobby, and I watched as he took a second to recover. “Oh. Hey there, Shorty. What’cha up to?”

I watched the way he shifted his weight from foot to foot while shoving his hands in his green hoodie. “Nothing much. I was in the neighborhood and thought I would drop by. Mary May said you got a new gig here recently. Didn’t know you were an artist, Sharky.”

“Oh, well.” He cleared his throat while throwing me a sheepish smile. “I actually do the piercings, you see. I ain’t good at drawing or any of that fancy stuff.”

I laughed, shaking my head. “To each their own. But uh…I came here for a reason.”

Catching onto my meaningful stare, he jumped with eyes wide. “Oh! Yeah, follow me this way. We can talk back here.” Sharky turned with a wave of his hand, and I followed him back down the hallway. I eyed the work hung up on the walls, but nothing stood out specifically to me. Just drawings or pictures of work that was done, very good work.

“Who did all these?” I asked.

“Our boss.” Sharky called over his shoulder as he opened a door at the end of the hallway. “He doesn’t come around much with his big-shot career taking up most of his time, but when he is here, he ain’t got any extra time. You gotta book him months in advance.”

I raised my brow, impressed. I’ve had my fair share of experience with talented artists, so it wasn’t that shocking that someone was so in demand. What was shocking was the fact that it wasn’t this man’s main gig. A big-shot career? What the hell did this guy do? And that question became even bigger as I stepped into what I assumed to be his office. Huge glass desk with a fancy computer, with blotch tests framed and amazing abstract paintings hung proudly on the walls. What really caught my attention was the one painting that seemed to be misplaced.

It was religious, that was for sure. A dark version of the Garden of Eden, Eve being entangled naked by a snake while Adam gripped her and bled. I had never seen anything like it before, but something about made you just stare. Sharky finally caught onto what had grabbed my attention.

“Oh yeah. He uh, he has an obsession with religion. I mean, some of his family does, too. Especially his parents, so…there are pieces like that in some of our rooms. Each one is inspired by a sin, I think.”

“And this one?”

“I think it’s supposed to be temptation or something. Or a warning to not touch snakes or naked ladies. I’m not sure.”

I shook my head. “Listen, I came here to check on you and discuss some business. I also need a favor.”

Sharky shifted uneasily. “What’s up?”

“I had some cops, and a fed, tell me they shook you down for information on me. They obviously have been following me because they had a photo of us talking. Any chance that they got anything on you?”

“Feds?” he asked throwing me a confused look. “Nah, nobody approached me.”

“Then what made you have a career change?” I asked.

“Thought it would be a good idea to make legit money, too. Besides, my boss wanted me.

“Is this the same guy whose name was on my lease?” Sharky flinched, giving me my answer, and I sighed. “Damn it, Sharky. I told you to put it under me—”

“My boss wouldn’t let me.”

“What do you mean?”

Sharky paled, making a show of glancing at a watch he didn’t own. “Oh, look. I gotta go—”

I immediately stepped into this path, crossing my arms as I blocked the door. “Sharky, explain. Now.”

“Okay!” he threw his hands up in defense. “My boss…well, he knows about you. Like, knows that you’re a total badass and stuff. So…he invested.”

“Invested?” I asked, an uneasy feeling coming over me. I thought I was flying under the radar, only coming out of the shadows because John had caught me. “What do you mean he knows about me?”

“Well,” he rubbed the back of his neck, unwilling to meet my eyes. “he knows of you. Knows what you can do. And well, he’s my boss Shorty. I can’t do business with just anybody.”

“Sharky, you’re a fence. That’s exactly what you’re supposed to do.”

“It’s more complicated than that.” He mumbled, staring at his feet. “If it weren’t for my boss, I’d be dead. He saved my life. So, no, I only do fence work for him and who he allows.”

My brows furrowed. This was supposed to clear up things, not making them more confusing. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t really want to talk about it, but my aunt got me out of some…family issues. And well, my boss took me under his wing, kinda. Protected me, you know?” My heart tugged for him. I knew family issues all too well, and he was lucky to have someone to be there for him. Well, fuck.

“So, this ‘Duncan’ is your boss?” I sighed. “And he…invested?”

Sharky perked up at the change of my tone. “Yeah! He was like, super impressed with what you did in L.A., so yeah. He invested.”

“He…he knows about what happened in Cali?” I breathed out, a chill going over my spine.

Of all the things, that wasn’t something I would want anyone to witness. I was still licking my wounds from my wounded pride, my actually injuries healed long ago. It was the first time I had been caught, a tip was given, and I had found myself fighting for my life. I was lucky enough to avoid law enforcement, which seemed to be a miracle. I definitely left a lasting impression and I wasn’t sure if I would ever walk into that city again. Not that I would ever miss it. Good riddance.

“Yeah, but don’t worry.” He waved it off with a roll of his eyes. “He ain’t worried ‘bout all that.”

“So…when you bought me that dress…” I trailed off, the dress coming to mind as I gave him a look.

“He did. I ain’t that good at woman shopping.” Sharky replied with a laugh. “He has good taste, knows exactly what to get. That knife strap still working good?”

“The strap is fine.” I replied absentmindly. I had returned that dress, never keeping things that I used or wore on jobs to destroy any connection. I didn’t like this, not one bit. There was an extremely small chance it was a coincidence. It might not have even been the same dress I wore, just a replica that Whitney had bought. It could have been a joke on John’s part. Perhaps I was just reaching due to paranoia. I sighed and decided to change the subject. But…about that favor?”

“What do you need?” he asked cautiously.

“I need a new set of throwing knives. Just like, three of them. Custom made with the blue blades.”

Sharky threw his head back and groaned. “Girly, you know how much those cost? You want regular throwing knives, I got you. But those customized ones? My boss—”

“If he’s really invested, then he’ll get them.” I replied sternly. “I’m assuming he’s going to want me to do a job for him then?”

Sharky sighed, shaking his head. “It’s complicated. I don’t know what the dude wants, but he keeps the money comin’ for yah.”

“Well…that might be a blessing with what work I have cut out in front of me.” I walked towards the desk, finding it neat and clear of any documentation. Nothing that I could swipe, but there were interesting paperweights and fancy pens. No pictures of family…nothing. “I got myself tied up in a job for the next few months, at least.”

“Job with who?” he asked, not even noticing me taking note of everything I could. I was desperate for a clue, for anything, that could lead me to who this guy was. I didn’t like that someone was watching from the shadows.

“I don’t think I’m really allowed to say.” I replied turning back to him. “I know that I’m gone once it’s over. Tell your boss I appreciate…whatever it is that he did, but I don’t think I’m interested in whatever he has in mind. I just want the knives.”

Sharky shrugged. “I don’t think he has anything in mind, just interested in yah. You want me to deliver those knives somewhere special?”

I snorted. “You can have him deliver them himself to get rid of all this mystery bullshit. But if that can’t be arranged, I can just stop by here. Either way.”

Sharky gave a nod. I was tired of all this suspense, all these surprises that seemed to come out of nowhere. I didn’t know how many people were involved with this, but I was hoping that I had reached the end. Having another player in the game wasn’t something I could afford at the moment. I couldn’t even handle my new roommate, let alone Drubman and the feds breathing down my neck. Which reminded me that I needed to check in sooner rather than later before they hunted me down.

I only stayed for a few more hours, talking and joking with him. I didn’t get a whole lot of time with Sharky, or anyone for that matter. I never really allowed myself to make friends, and I always viewed him, and Mary May, more along the lines of associates or colleagues than anything. But I had found myself growing more and more fond of these people, no matter how much I tried to avoid it.

Finally, waving goodbye, I exited the shop and back into the heat of Atlanta. Somehow, I had managed to kill most of the day, which was fine by me. Normally I was a home body, but with my new living arrangement, I was desperate to get out of the house. Suddenly I found that I enjoyed being out and about.

I turned, checking to see Sharky gone as I pulled out my phone and clicked on her contact. Bringing it to my ear, I listened to it ring. I knew she was about to get busy, but I was hoping she would answer anyway.

“Hello?” Mary May answered, relief flooding over me.

“Hey, May. It’s me.”

“Well, look who decided to stick around. I assumed you were still here since you never swung by to say bye.” There was a beat of silence, but not enough for me to answer. “Wait, unless you’re already gone. Did you leave without saying bye, you asshole?”

I chuckled at her. She was always so damn mouthy. “No, I’m still here in Atlanta.” Unfortunately. “But I’m calling you because I need a favor. Can you look someone up for me?”

“Oh.” She sounded shocked, but she recovered quickly. “Yeah, sure. What’s the name?”

“Duncan. Male, I think.”

“First or last?”

“Yeah, I’m not entirely sure.” I replied almost sheepishly.

Mary May sighed. “Wren, do you have any idea how common that name is? That’s going to take me forever.”

“Well, apparently he’s a big-time businessman here in Atlanta, so that could help. He also owns a tattoo shop. Oh, and the bastard was renting my apartment the whole fucking time. There’s that.”

Mary May hesitated. “Wait…tattoo parlor? Wren, where are you?”

“In Atlanta—”

“Where exactly?” she pressed. I frowned as she sighed. Where the hell was this coming from. “Like, what’s the name of the parlor?”

“It’s the one Sharky is working with. I dropped by and said hey.” I said, brushing it aside.

“Does Sharky know you’re doing this?”

“What he doesn’t know won’t kill him.” I replied impatiently. “His boss has a keen interest, and I have every intention on finding out who has their eye on me.”

Mary May groaned. “Why do I get the feeling this is going to end badly? I can already tell this is going to turn into a ‘Wren-Gets-Into-More-Trouble-Than-She-Anticipated’ moment.”

“Where’s your faith, May?”

“Extremely low considering the last week.”

“Oh…well yeah, that’s fair.”

“So, the name of the tattoo parlor?”

“Right, hang on.” I turned back, checking to make sure Sharky was still out of sight before my eyes fall to the glass. “It’s called—"

I froze, frowning as I eyed the decal on the window. I can’t help but feel irritated, knowing that I had seen that symbol somewhere but couldn’t think of where for the life of me. I pinched the bridge of my nose as a headache began to form.

“Wren?”

“Oh, yeah. Uhm, it’s called Garden of…of Eden…?” I almost scoffed. There was no fucking way. “Yeah, okay, so this guy is religious. Or likes to play with a religious theme. I half expect him to be old and gross. And if that’s the case, tell him I’m a lesbian.”

She snorted. “Yeah, okay. I’ll see what I can find.”

“Thank you.” Just as I hung up, a little alert came through, announcing a new text. As I read it, my heart sank. Fuck.

Update? You’ve been silent too long. -JH

Welp. There was that. With everything going on, I completely forgot that I was actually supposed to be checking in with them, giving updates as things progressed. I bit my lip, trying hard to think of a good response. If they found out I had moved in with John, they would know something was up. This had to be done delicately or we were all screwed. Me, above the rest, though.

Made some progress with the youngest brother. Having dinner. Will keep you updated.

Shoving the phone in my pocket, I make my way to my new car. I was just ready to crawl in bed, sleep forever, and pretend this wasn’t fucking happening. This had only gotten worse, people shifting their attention towards me like never before. It was annoying and I wanted it over with. I couldn’t wait to leave, to go somewhere secluded where no one would ever be able to find me unless I wanted them to.

I drove back quickly, doing my best to avoid the traffic. Eyeing the black Audi, I groan. That only meant that John was back, and I really didn’t have the patience for this asshole anymore today. Part of me hoped that he would be holed up in his office, and I took comfort in it.

But all of that came crashing down when I stepped into the penthouse, loud music playing, the lights dimmed except for his massive lounge. Laughter and thrilled shrieking joined the music, forcing my headache to get even worse. I began to make my way over cautiously, eyeing Jane as she leaned against the separating wall of the room and hallway. She gave me a look as I stepped into the light of the room.

Nothing in this world really shocks me anymore, but I have to hand it to him, John Seed kept me on my toes. “What the fuck?’ I muttered under my breath, taking in the scene before me. John had the same suit on from this morning, or what was left of it. The vest was gone along with the jacket, his sleeves rolled up and the woman half across his lap must have been responsible for unbuttoning half the buttons, or ripping them, seeing that there were a few scattered on the floor. She was in a bright red dress that clung to her curves almost revealing, and she had no issue with pressing all of it against him. Her blonde hair curled and falling messily out of some sort of updo.

The two men on the adjacent part of the couch were no better. Though the women that accompanied them seemed a bit…paid for. They were older, rich by the looks of it, and I’m sure they lived like kings. I recognized one as Charles, the man I had tried to steal from, and the other was a man I hadn’t seen before. He had a half-assed combover with a gut.

“Who the fuck is this?”

I turned at the sound of the blonde’s shitty tone. Her red lipstick is a bit smeared, leaving some on the collar of John’s shirt and his neck. The eyeliner being smudged gave her a coked-out vibe that I wasn’t sure sat well with me, and eyeing the living room table, I found out why. Lines of white powder, nice and neat, laid contrasting against the black glass, and looking at John, I could see remnants of is in his facial hair. His eyes were glassy and bloodshot, his face flushed out. He looked at her with a lazy smile.

“No one, Holly. Don’t worry about her.” John drawled.

I narrowed my eyes at him as Jane sighed behind me. My jaw ticked as I tried to evaluate the situation. I felt like I had just come home to find my husband cheating, and not in the sense that I was betrayed by someone I loved. No. It was the feeling like I was the butt of a joke, that I was to be humiliated, and I was pathetic even being here to confront him for it.

“Right. I’m no one.” I echoed emptily. He caught my gaze once more, the challenge there in his eyes. “That’s exactly how the conversation went.” I’m not a jealous girlfriend—or fiancé—in this moment. I’m a pissed off business partner, who has found just how irresponsible her associate is; that had realized that this was a side of John Seed that wasn’t expected. I might have hated John Seed, but he had my respect.

Until now.

John smirked before hanging his head back. “Please go away. The last thing I want to deal with now is you. You’re ruining my fun with my friends.”

“Your friends?” I scoffed. A sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach made me cringe. “You call these people your friends?”

He laughs, looking at Holly. “She doesn’t even like to have sex. Such a fucking prude. Doesn’t know how to have fun.”

“That’s okay, sweetheart.” The fat one called. “You can come over here and I’ll teach yah!”

I scoffed glancing down at my shoes, trying to ignore the sting in my chest, and I look back up with a mocking laugh. “No, I have more self-respect than that. Unlike the other’s in this room, it seems.” I walk closer to John, his smirk falling at my words as I lean down. “Yeah, I might not be on your level of a good fucking time, and I lie, manipulate, and steal.” I sneered lowly as Holly returned to the table with a rolled up hundred-dollar bill. “But what I don’t do…is lie to myself. I don’t pretend to be someone I’m not for the sake of so-called friends that want nothing from me, but drugs and money. I don’t fill that dark hole with useless shit.” I lean back, taking a step away. “I may not have liked you, but I at least respected you. Disappointing that you don’t.” I sighed, looking at his little plaything. Clearing my throat, making a show of wiping my nose. “You gotta little something…”

She glared at me, rubbing the back of her hand against her nose, but traces of cocaine lingered. “Fuck off!”

“Classy.” I replied unamused, before quickly turning and walking out. “I hope you enjoy yourselves.” Jane met my gaze as I passed her, her eyes sad and tired. My heart is heavy for her, knowing that it was not just her boss, but her brother-in-law in there, wasting his life away on the things that didn’t matter. For people who would never give a shit about him.

“He wasn’t always like that, you know.”

I stop as I enter the main hall, my eyes catching the sight of Joseph leaning against the wall in the dark. He’s wearing a simple suit, similar to what he had worn yesterday, with the same damn sunglasses. “What? Arrogant, misguided, and heartless?”

He threw me a look, those eyes searching my soul until he pushed himself off the wall. “Walk with me.” Giving a slight nod towards the balcony outside, I walk next to him slowly.

Joseph is completely at ease, despite this not being his scene. He seemed so out of place, but he took it in stride. He pushed the sliding glass door open, the cooler air hitting us as we stepped out. Shutting the door behind us, he turned and walked towards the railing, leaning against it as he admired the view. It was fully dark by now, the lights of the city competing with the stars in the sky.

“My brother is most of those things and more, but heartless isn’t one of them.” Joseph finally spoke, drawing my attention to him, seeing the lights reflect in the yellow lens. “He would like you to believe that, because well…I guess that would make him stronger…untouchable, in a sense, yes?”

I leaned with him, deep in thought and hanging onto his every word. “Yes, I suppose that would make anyone feel invincible.”

“Hmm.” He gave me a glance before turning back and sighing. “John used to be such a loving child, constantly laughing and smiling, believe it or not. His parents…his parents ripped that from him.”

“You mean your parents.” I corrected with a furrowed brow, but Joseph just shook his head and looked at me.

“No, I mean John’s parents.” He cleared his throat a bit before continuing. “I’m going to tell you this because I need this to work between the two of you. I need you to work together and right now, that partnership is in flames. Anymore stress, and one of you is bound to explode, and John is infamous for his anger issues, especially to his enemies. And Ms. Blake, despite only knowing you for only 24 hours, I do not with that upon you. But this goes nowhere, do you understand? This stays between us.”

It’s quiet for a second as his eyes drill into mine, and I realize he’s waiting for an answer. “Oh. Yes, of course. I understand. I won’t say a word.”

Satisfied, he turned back to the city and I followed suit, hyperaware of Joseph’s words as they fall from his lips. “I suppose I should start from the very beginning. Our father was a…god fearing man. Knew the bible like the back of his hand. And while he held bible verses in one, he held a drink in another. He was an alcoholic and well…he took a lot of it out on us.”

“And your mother?” I whispered, my heart starting to ache.

“Oh, well, she was there, but she wasn’t.” he sighed. “I didn’t know it as well as I do now. Maybe I had known, I just didn’t want to admit it or accept it. But she was absent, locked away in the bedroom days at a time. I can’t say for sure if it was pills or a needle, but I knew well enough back then that she wasn’t of much help to any of us. It was Jacob who protected us.”

“He definitely seems like the type.” I muttered, remembering the towering man, and Joseph chuckled. “So, what happened?”

Joseph clicks his tongue matter-of-factly. “It was John, actually. That’s how they found out. He went to school with bruises on him and the teacher saw. The next thing we knew…child protective services had come for us.” It’s quiet again as he pauses, and I absorb the information. Even with the sounds of the city, you can hear the water in the pool, and it’s relaxing. There’s a loud cheering from inside and Joseph decides to break the silence. “We got adopted, of course. But…well, they were worse than what we came from, and Jacob being Jacob…well, he wouldn’t ever stand for it.”

“What did he do?”

“He caught their barn on fire.” I frowned immediately, flinching away as if he had slapped me, but Joseph paid no mind, not noticing my reaction. “Then he beat them to death. And they deserved it, but the authorities didn’t see it that way. So, they took Jacob away from us. Not long after that, John was finally adopted.” Another sigh as he shifted. “And these people, swore to be good Christian people, but didn’t know the meaning of it. Swore that John was born evil, born in sin.” He looked at me with a shake of his head. “Misplaced belief breeds disaster. Always.”

The way he said it made a chill go up my spine, my body going cold with dread. “They sound insane.”

“You haven’t even heard the half of it, my dear.” Joseph clenched and unclenched his hands as he stared at them. “They beat him, manipulated him, tore him down until he was exactly what they wanted. He was a shell of himself. Made him confess to sins he had never committed and made it to where he believed he was wrong. His whole existence was nothing but sin. So, he learned how to be the perfect son. Learned how to become a chameleon of sorts, changing colors and pieces of himself for each interaction and person. Something I’m sure you can relate to?”

I shift uncomfortably under his gaze, because it’s so true. Both of us trained and taught to be what others wanted us to be, to be the perfect shining example that stood above the rest. I hated that he was right, that there were similarities between the two of us that shook me to the core, and I wanted to rip it away. To deny any of it, because I would never do what he was doing now. Never would I fall so low.

Become one of his coked-up buddies he keeps around, for all I fucking care. If you value your life, you’ll do this.

A sick feeling twists inside as Hurk Sr’s words whisper harshly in my mind. I did value my life, and I wasn’t so sure of what I would and wouldn’t do anymore. If someone had asked me a few months ago if I would stage an engagement, I would’ve laughed in their face. But yet, here I was, in a situation I had sworn I would never allow myself to get into; a situation where someone else was in control and pulling the strings. I couldn’t really say anything anymore.

“He quit for a while.” Joseph murmured. “John hasn’t…he hasn’t done something like this in a very long time. But we need the partnership, I need them in there to align with us. He knows that…and this was his way…this is my fault, and I know that. John would do anything for his family.”

“You didn’t ask him to do any of that, Joseph.” I whispered. “We make our own choices. And there’s another way, John just…doesn’t know how to apply it yet.” I don’t know why I was defending him, but I knew I spoke from experience. When you didn’t know how else to handle a situation, you always fell on bad habits. They were the most comfortable.

“I’m hoping he will get better. He has, really. But tonight has me worried.” He scoffed. “The Duncan’s did a hell of a job on him, and I’m doing what I can to break their hold. After dead for so many years, you would think their influence would’ve died with them.”

My heart stops as I look at Joseph. “What? What did you say?” He gave me a confused look, and I clarified. “The name. Who?”

“The Duncan’s. They were John’s adoptive parents. Before he changed it back, John’s last name was Duncan.” I swallow as Joseph looked away, brushing something off his suit jacket.

John Duncan.

[razorblade180]

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

[heyyouwiththeassbutt]

A selfish little Christmas

I’m terrified about posting this, but here it goes. I’m setting myself a challenge over the holidays. This one-shot is not included but I wanted to post something for you guys to read and maybe give me tips on for going forward. 

Christmas eve and Christmas day I will be posting a two-part fic, new years eve and new years day will be another two-part fic and by Valentine’s day, I am hoping to do a mini-series, possibly four parts. This is not a challenge anyone has set for me, but as I haven’t written in years, I thought this was a good a time as any. If anyone would like to join me in this challenge, especially if you have never written before or haven’t written in a long time, please let me know!

Huge thanks to @broadwayandnetflix who read this and didn’t tear me to shreds like I had expected.

—————-

Universe - MCU, No specific point in timeline

Warning - Language, angst, fluff

Word count - 4,992

Pairing - Steve Rogers x un-named female reader

Feedback is wanted desperately, but likes are loved too.

——–

He wasn’t obsessed, that was too strong a word, even if it was what Bucky sing-songed at him every time he caught Steve staring after you as you rushed out of the room. You had this all-consuming way of totally embarrassing yourself every time Steve was within earshot and his heart sped up every time it happened.

Today’s cringe-worthy performance had included you spending a solid five minutes singing obnoxiously loudly as you danced around the kitchen making breakfast for the team. In your defense, they had told you they wouldn’t be finished in the gym for another 20 minutes, but yet, as you spun around, midway through the chorus of Last Christmas, there they were, Bucky trying his hardest to not bark out a laugh and Steve sporting a very fetching shade of red across his cheeks right up to the tips of his ears. 

You’d quickly told them their pancakes were ready and keeping warm in the oven before you dashed from their gazes and straight to your living quarters.

“Gonna go after her, Stevie?” Steve almost jumped out of his skin as he tore his eyes from the hallway you had left, having forgotten Bucky was still standing beside him.

“I don’t want her to think we were laughing at her.” His tone was light, but Steve made no move either towards or away from the exit of the kitchen.

Bucky had been dealing with this for months now. Steve had been his best friend for so long that he thought he had seen every possible version of the man, from tiny and desperate, fighting for a chance to a leader with a team, no, a family, behind him that he would do anything to protect. But this. This was something he’d never seen before.

It wasn’t that Steve didn’t dare to tell you how he felt, it wasn’t even that he didn’t know how you would respond to his feelings. Everyone knew you felt the same as he did, Tony had been kind enough to mock the both of you on several occasions in an attempt to get the two of you to talk about what was going on.

The truth was, Steve was being selfish. He had tried the whole relationship thing with Sharon Carter several years ago and it had just lead to him breaking her heart when he chose the rest of the world over her. He’d only seen her a few times since the breakup, but the look she had given him before she had turned in the other direction or otherwise averted her gaze… Steve couldn’t have his girl look at him like that. It would kill him

He shook his head as that thought popped into his head. Not his girl. She was a team member. She would never be his girl.

Steve joined Bucky at the kitchen island and started to dig into the pile of pancakes Bucky had just removed from the oven and the two men jumped into a conversation about the upcoming holidays.

————————————————————————————————

“What are you going to do?” There was a very close comparison to the cat that got the cream to the look on Natasha’s face as she lounged on your small leather sofa.

You shot her a quick glare before aiming the glare once again to the slip of paper held loosely in your hands and continued your pacing through your living quarters.

Tony had turned up at the door a quarter of an hour before to get you to pick your secret Santa and after a glance at the name, you had quickly told him you needed to choose again because you’d picked yourself. He’d snapped the piece of paper out of your hands and the laughter that erupted from him was enough to have you grab it back off him and slam the door in his face. He had quickly rushed off to tell Nat, which is why the woman was now making herself perfectly at home in your personal space.

“I’d have been happy with literally anyone else on the team.” You were whining at this point, but you didn’t care.

“You used to be close, I’m sure you could come up with something for him.”

“Yeah, we USED to be close, when I first joined the team. We used to talk all the time, spent every spare minute together. Then you all got it in your heads we had the hots for each other and things got awkward!”

“You do have the hots for each other.”

You stared at Nat through narrow eyes. You’d joined the avengers just under a year ago. You weren’t a super soldier, strong, agile and you definitely weren’t otherworldly like some of the rest of the team, you were just good with computers and years of studying at the feet of some of the greatest programmers and hackers had led you to Starks office as he offered you a once in a lifetime shot at being his protege.

You had thought it was some sort of a prank when he told you he wanted you to move into Stark Tower and get “hands-on” experience with the team. It wasn’t until two weeks later when he locked you into a room and told you that you had to get yourself out by hacking into F.R.I.D.A.Y and you were (eventually) able to do it that he even introduced you to the other avengers. They had been almost as excited to meet you as you had been to meet them. Steve told you a few days later that Tony had done the same thing to about forty other hopefuls and that you were the first to get out.

It wasn’t an instant friendship with Steve, just a casual acceptance of each other that comes from occasionally sitting at the same dinner table or curling up next to each other accidentally on the sofa after falling asleep during a movie.

The turning point in your relationship was when you’d fixed a small glitch in Buckys’ arm and the brunette man had taken a quick shine to you. Suddenly instead of just Bucky and Steve having a pizza night and drinking beer that did nothing for them, you were invited to.

From there it was a natural thing for Steve to ask you to hang out with him when Bucky was busy. It was great. You were friends, real friends. Then the other avengers started talking. Wanda was nice about it, telling you that she didn’t need to read your minds to know that feelings were growing that wasn’t the average feelings between two good buds. Nat had been next to comment, and then Sam. Then Tony had loudly asked mid-dinner as you and Steve were giggling to yourselves at an inside joke, “Have you two screwed yet, or what?”

Then the spell was broken and it became a long-running joke for most of the team. The only person who had never said anything to you about it was Bucky. He still invited you to hang out with them, but when you did turn up, Steve would make an excuse and leave. You started to turn down the invites after the third time it happened.

It hurt, but you were trying to get over it, even with the daily comments about the “love birds” not being on good terms anymore.

It had been about three months since then and things had cooled down a lot. You could be in the same room as Steve without wagging eyebrows or kissy noises aimed at the two of you. God, Tony was an asshole sometimes.

Your train of thought led you back to the slip of paper in your hand.

“Do you think Tony did this on purpose?”

“If you’re asking me if that bag of names was filled with Steve’s name so that you had to get him a present… No idea.” You looked up at Nat and genuinely considered throwing her out of our quarters. But, you weren’t very strong, or fast, so instead, you threw yourself onto your bed and growled at the ceiling.

——————————————————–

It was two days before Christmas, the day of the secret Santa swap. You’d decided a few days ago that you would just leave your gift in the dining room, under the big tree and would hide in your room when the gifts were being handed out. It was secret Santa, the point of the name was that who gave what and to who was supposed to be a secret.

Tony had said that the gifts were being handed out at 9 pm sharp and that everyone had to have placed their gifts under the tree before dinner started at 7 pm. You left your gift shortly before 5 am that morning before sneaking back to bed before anyone else woke up and spotted you.

The day went by normally, you worked on one of the computers in Bruce’s lab that hadn’t been running data properly. It was about 5 pm when you finished up, reminding Bruce about dinner. He’d stopped what he was doing long enough to look up at you, almost as if you hadn’t been in the room with him for the last four hours. Your soft laugh seemed to snap him out of it and he went about tidying up his work station before the two of you headed to your respective rooms to get ready, chatting along the way about the project he had been working on.

An hour and a half later you finished putting the last touches on your makeup before heading to the dining room. You weren’t overly dressed up, a cotton red dress and a pair of short heeled boots. You weren’t trying to look nice, you’d just thrown it on. You didn’t have any reason to dress up. It was just a team dinner, you had one every week. This was no different.

You caught sight of yourself in one of the many massive mirrors in the hallway and cursed as you watched your reflection fixing your hair one last time. It didn’t matter how you looked. It was just the team. They’d seen you slumped over the kitchen island with a hangover, last night’s makeup still on your face and wearing your oldest, grubbiest pj’s more times than you could count. It wasn’t as if you were staying for the gifts. He wouldn’t even know it was from you. He probably wouldn’t care if he did know.

You slumped against the wall as your inner voice laughed at you. You were annoyed that you cared, but you did. Steve had meant a lot to you. You’d truly thought he was perfect, then he ignored you, treated you like your friendship meant nothing. Treated you like your feelings meant nothing. You’d have sworn you’d seen your look mirrored on his face dozens of times. Maybe he hadn’t felt that way about you, Maybe you had just been grasping at the hope something was going on with the two of you, Maybe-.

“What are you doing?” You hadn’t even realized you’d closed your eyes, so deep in self distaste, until Nat’s voice, inches from your face had made you pull your eyes open and make your heart almost beat out of your chest.

“Don’t do that! You scared me!”

“I said your name three times.”

“Well, I-… I was taking a second.”

“A second to think about Steve? Nice dress.” She glanced you up and down. You chose to ignore the first part of her sentence and thanked her for the compliment.

You walked together in silence to the dining room. When you entered, you were silent again, this time in shock. When you had been here this morning there had been a few decorations scattered around the room and the tree sat off to the side. The large room had been completely changed in the hours since then, becoming what you could only describe as a scene from a Christmas movie.

The table was covered in a white sheet, red plates at every seat matching the massive trays and bowls filled with food in the middle of the table. The tree had been moved to the center of the room, having gained more lights and tinsel, almost off-kilter now by the presents pilled up below it. Everything looked beautiful and you couldn’t help but smile at Pepper who was just finishing placing more tinsel on the back of one of the chairs.

“This looks amazing Pepper!” You walked over to her and gave her a quick hug that she returned with a grin. She talked about how much she loved Christmas as a kid and how happy she’d been that there was nothing major going on with the team that meant anyone would have to miss it this year.

The three of you had chatted until the rest of the team started coming into the room, each thanking Pepper and telling her how great she had done. While everyone started to take their seats, you found yourself glancing at the gift pile, your shoddy wrapping greeting you in all of its gold, sparkly glory. You shook your head and sat beside Nat and Thor.

You hadn’t had much of an opportunity to talk to the literal god in the last few months, but the two of you slid into an easy conversation about tradition and you found yourself laughing until you were sore after trying several times to explain why Christmas was a big deal.

When Tony arrived, the last, of course, after telling us all we had to be prompt, he launched into his Christmas speech. It was five minutes in when you glanced across the table and found Steve watching you with interest. He quickly looked away, lifting his glass to his mouth as your cheeks became warm.

Dinner went by without a hitch. Tony had been quick to top up your glass of Christmas punch several times and judging from the slow afterburn, it was to make sure Pepper didn’t get close enough to it to know he’d spiked it.

Thor pulled out a few bottles of Asgardian booze from a box under the tree and the more tolerant amongst the group happily sipped on that, although you had quickly declined the offer to pour some into your glass.

When dessert was over, everyone, made more relaxed by the drinks, moved into the living area and spread themselves out through the room. You had almost forgotten about the presents as you and Wanda giggled at Clint attempting to prove he was sober enough for another glass of Thors drink. He was not, he showed as he stumbled gracefully onto the rug after a failed attempt at the police sobriety test.

“Let’s get this party started!” Tony all but shouted as he appeared next to you. You blinked at him in confusion for a moment before he gestured behind you to the counter now covered with presents. They must have been brought in when everyone was focused on Clint.

You glanced towards the door, but Tony instantly realized your plan and shoved a gift into your hands, “You’re Santa’s little helper, hand the gifts out, would ya?”

You narrowed your eyes. Bastard.

After everyone had gathered around, you looked down at the present in your hands and read out the first name. Everything felt like a blur as the group laughed, smiled and enjoyed themselves as they opened their gifts, many of them instantly throwing out guesses as to who had got them their secret Santa gift.

There were only four presents left on the counter and you steeled yourself as you lifted the present you’d gotten Steve. Playing it cool, you pretended to read the tag before handing it off to Steve and instantly turning to retrieve the next one. You didn’t look at him as he opened the present, though you felt it when his gaze fell on you silently.

After all the presents were given out, you rejoined the party and avoided even looking in Steve’s direction. Wanda was cooing happily at her new pair of boots that she was already midway through changing into as Bruce smiled gently beside her, murmuring about how he remembered her favorite ones had been worn so much they were starting to loosen around the sole.

Everyone was in great spirits and it was only half an hour later when Sam, proudly sporting a leather jacket with black wings sewn into the back, asked what you’d received, that you realized you hadn’t gotten anything. You’d shrugged and laughed it off, but Tony, who had overheard as he and Pepper stood nearby, looked no less than devastated.

He patted you gently on the shoulder so you turned to face him, relieved that the rest of the team seemed to have not noticed the conversation.

“I’m sorry you didn’t get a gift. I… think I might be to blame.” You nodded as you put the pieces together. You smiled at Tony, giving him a quick hug as you told him it was okay and that it was better this way. He pulled away from you and smiled sadly before returning to Pepper who had an equally sad look on her face.

You turned back around, making brief eye contact with Nat who looked a lot more pissed than Tony had been. You guessed it made sense that if they had made you pick Steve’s name, they’d also made Steve pick yours. You couldn’t help the sharp stab of hurt in your chest, but you held your head high and went back to the party as if nothing had happened.

——————————————

Three hours and many drinks later, the crowd had begun to thin. You think Wanda and Vision had been the first to leave, but they’d snuck out so well you weren’t even sure when it was they had left.

You had bravely taken the offer of Thor’s booze and you could safely say you were slightly buzzed. There was talk of drinking games and you instantly tapped out, knowing that it wouldn’t end well. You stood from your place on the couch and said your goodnights, vaguely aware Steve had vanished at some point. You had been so focused on not looking at him that you hadn’t noticed him go.

You were two corners away from your room when you heard raised voices. Not wanting to pry, but also wanting to make sure everything was okay, you looked around the corner towards where the voices were coming from.

Nat was pacing back and forth, anger evident on her face, “You said you were good. You told us that you were going to sort everything out, that everything would go back to the way it was. It was your goddamn idea, Steve!”

You held in your shock as it threatened to slip past your lips. You hadn’t seen him at first, but now you notice Steve leaning against the wall, head in his hands. He’s swaying slightly and you can tell he’s had a few too many drinks. You count yourself lucky because otherwise, he would have definitely heard you.

He mumbles something into his hands and you lean slightly closer to hear. When you look at Nat, she’s looking right back at you, but just as you think you’re about to get called out she sighs and turns back to Steve, “Didn’t catch that. What did you say?”

Steve whispers something, and this time Nat steps closer because even she couldn’t hear it. She’s silent as she taps his foot softly with hers. He stands up straight and moves his hands away from his face.

“I was scared. I messed up. I don’t know how to fix this.”

Nat sighs again, all anger gone. You fight the flash of annoyance you feel. Nat’s your friend, she’s supposed to be fighting your corner, not feeling sorry for him. You take a long, quiet breath. No, you aren’t like that, this isn’t you versus him, its the alcohol that has you angry. You take a minute to calm down and you do, just in time to hear him speak again.

“I don’t know how to put someone ahead of my duty as Captain America.”

Your head snaps up as you realize he isn’t as far away as he was a minute ago. You get the feeling Nat isn’t there anymore. He’s standing a few feet away, on the other side of the corner still so you can’t see him, but there’s no mistaking that he’s talking only to you.

“I spent so long trying to be him that I’m afraid that if I let someone in, what I want will change and I won’t be able to do what I have to do. I might not be the best I can be.”

You’re silent for a moment, your head resting against the wall, arms crossed on your chest and your eyes closed.

“Doll?” There’s a quiet plea in his voice, but for what you aren’t too sure. You sigh softly.

“You were my friend Steve. You treated me like crap. I get that you were scared, hell, I was too. I had never felt that way about anyone before.”

You’re going to continue when he interrupts, “Felt? Past tense?” His voice is sad, but you’re acutely aware that he is most definitely drunk, so you keep going.

“You are Captain America. That was a choice that you made. It was what you wanted, maybe not to the extent of this, you didn’t want to be frozen and end up here, but when you allowed yourself to be injected with that serum you knew what you were doing. Steve Rogers wanted to be a hero. You did that. It was the choice you made then, but it doesn’t have to be your only choice. I never told you I wanted to be put ahead of your duty. I’ve never thought that. You chose to see me that way as if I would make you choose, and I understand. I do. But this isn’t something I can help you with. This is never going to be a choice between me, or any other person, and the rest of the world. It’s only a choice between what you want and what you don’t want. Nobody can make that decision but you, Steve.”

You aren’t sure how, but your feet somehow carry you around the corner, past Steve and straight to your quarters. You fall asleep with your head spinning, but it’s not the alcohol causing it.

______________________________

You wake up to a text from Steve, he got called for a mission, might be gone a few days, wants to talk when he gets back. You decide you aren’t going to answer and get ready for the day instead.

You’ve just finished helping with the party clean-up when your phone buzzes in your pocket. Another text from Steve, this one thanking you for the secret Santa gift.

You’d thought about what you were going to get him for a week before you eventually decided to go with your first thought when you’d picked his name. The first time you’d ever been in Steve’s personal quarters you’d eyed up the sketch pad for about five minutes before asking him what he drew. You hadn’t spent much time together, didn’t know if it was something personal that he wanted to keep private. He’d told you straight away how he used to love to draw but didn’t have much time for it anymore. The next hour was spent going through the sketch pad, him explaining where the different places he’d drawn were and what they’d meant to him. You think that’s when you realized you liked him a lot more than you should.

He had paused at a drawing of a woman, a sad smile on his face. There had been several photos of his mother found over the years, mostly by historians for different Captain America exhibitions, but he said that time had taken their toll on them and he felt drawing her would help him see her more clearly. Your heart had almost broken.

It had taken a while to get all of the images of her together. An old friend of yours who programmed facial recognition software had given you a few hints and tips so that eventually you had been able to get an almost perfect image of her, constructed from the few you already had. You’d had it printed and framed and packed a sketch pad and a large set of different types of charcoal pencils below it before wrapping it in very patriotic red wrapping. You had hoped that it wouldn’t be too obvious the gift was from you, but a small part of your brain knew it was too unlikely to be anyone else.

———————————————

It was four days later that Steve and the rest of the team who’d been called away returned. You hadn’t answered either of Steve’s text messages, mostly because you didn’t know what you should or shouldn’t say. You’d realized that the conversation in the hallway had been the first he’d spoken to you in months and that had hurt more than you expected it to.

Two hours after everyone had gotten back you were still hiding out in your room when there was a knock at the door.

You didn’t say anything and neither did Steve as you opened the door and stepped to the side to let him in. He wasn’t quite avoiding your gaze but wasn’t looking at you either.

He sat on the leather couch and you noticed the box in his hand. The door slid closed and you moved to perch yourself on the edge of the bed, thinking sitting next to Steve might not be such a good idea.

The silence dragged on for a few moments before he spoke, “You were right. You never asked me to choose between you or anyone else. I let my past relationship put a shadow over another one before it even started. I don’t think I’d thought about the choices I’ve made being, well, my choice. I thought I was being selfish by being with you when I needed to be there for the rest of the world.”

Staring at his side profile, you resisted the urge to go towards him, instead, you played with the tassels of your bed throw, desperate to distract your hands. The movement caught his eye and he looked at you for the first time, “You said I just had to choose what I wanted and what I didn’t want. That wasn’t something I’d considered. I never thought about what I wanted.”

You nod slowly, “Have you thought about it now?”

He stands from the seat and walked towards you. You almost consider telling him to stop, but before you get the chance he’s holding out the box in his hand to you, “Happy Christmas. I got you this for secret Santa, although I didn’t know Tony was going to give you my name. The photo… it was perfect. I think I’d almost forgotten what she looked like.” His eyes turned sad, even though there was a soft smile on his face.

“I thought it would be a good way to tell you how much you meant to me,” he continued, “But I chickened out. I wanted to get you something that would let us be friends again, but I didn’t realize what I’d done until I went to put it under the tree. I realized it wasn’t a gift someone gave to a friend.”

There was an almost scared look on his face when he gestured towards the box. You looked down and stared at it for a moment before you began to remove the light blue wrapping. Inside was another box and when you opened it you let a small smile settle on your lips. It was a simple necklace, silver chain with a silver star balanced in the middle.

“It’s beautiful.” You didn’t look up, but you heard him chuckle.

“Turn it over.”

You gently lifted the star and flipped it over, reading the engraving, “My girl”.

You looked up at him now, a question on your tongue before he spoke quickly, “It’s what I always called you in my head, even when I didn’t mean to. What I want, is you, Doll. You’re my girl, forever, if you’d have me. I know you wouldn’t make me choose between being with you and being the Captain, but if I ever had to make that choice, you would win. Every time.”

There were tears in your eyes as you stood up, toe to toe with the man who had faced worse things than you’d ever know but looked more scared than you’d ever seen him.

“What made you come to that decision?” You asked slowly, unsure if you even wanted the answer but needing to know at the same time.

He laughed softly, wetness now coming to his eyes, “I treated you so badly. I ignored you, I tried so hard to stay away from you, but when it came down to it, you still did the kindest thing anyone had ever done for me. You brought me back my mom. And someone that kind would be worth being just regular Steve Rogers, so long as she was the one by my side.”

You brushed away his fallen tear with your fingertips, a smile on your lips as you leaned in and softly kissed him, just a small touch of your lips to his, but enough to have a smile spread across his face.

There would be no point in lying and saying everything would be perfect now, but at least what happened going forward would be a choice you could finally make together.

[krohnisfere]

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐮𝐦𝐦-𝐆𝐮𝐦𝐦 𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 || 𝐑𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐝 𝐁𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐀𝐔 || 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐎𝐧𝐞

✼⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊱•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•∙∘☽༓☾∘∙•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅✼

Part Two: Unpublished

Summary: While working undercover, Corrin manages to say something stupid. Although he thinks this will lead to his death, it actually causes Bular to develop a crush.

Characters: Corrin, Bular, Strickler, Nomura, Kanjigar

Type: Humor

Ship(s): Corrin/Bular (Kinda?)

Notes: This ended up being a two parter, oops :/

✼⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊱•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•∙∘☽༓☾∘∙•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅✼

There was an awkward eye contact between Corrin and Nomura as Bular yelled at Strickler. This was a common occurrence. Bular had a habit of taking his anger out on those who he viewed as below him, although it was most commonly a very unlucky Strickler.

Nomura smirked. “Okay, making bets, how long do you think this is going to last?”

Corrin looked up at her and thought for a minute. “I give it ten minutes at most. Bular has the attention span of a goldfish.”

“Wow, that’s generous.” Nomura snorted out a small laugh. “Anything after ten minute means I win, anything before means you win, winner gets fifty bucks, deal?”

“Yeah, sure.” Corrin rolled his eyes.

The two stood in silence for a couple of minutes before Corrin spoke up again, his tone mocking and his voice made deep. “I’m Bular, and I think I can push anyone around because I’m big.”

Nomura snorted another laugh, but covered it with a cough, making sure Bular had not heard them. “Don’t say stuff like that when he’s in the room.” Despite what she said, she was still attempting to keep herself from at least smiling.

“I have daddy issues and an inferiority complex because I can’t go out in the sunlight like all of these gross impure and fleshbags can.” Corrin continued in the voice, making Nomura cover her mouth to keep from laughing.

“Shh.”

“I’m Bular, and I always go around saying that I have to do stuff for myself, but I constantly send out goblins and impures to do all of my work for me.” Corrin looked at Nomura’s face and his heart immediately dropped.

Nomura was looking behind him, frozen. The arguing had also stopped at some point.

Corrin slowly turned around, coming face to face with an annoyed Bular. He was not even going to bother trying to cover for himself. “Umm... how much did you hear?”

“Enough.” If his face had not obviously displayed his anger, his voice most certainly did.

Corrin gulped, shrinking into himself and taking several steps back. Bular, of course, followed, only needing one step for every three Corrin took.

Nomura had moved, getting out of the way in case there would be any confrontation between the two, although the two changelings believed that there would not be much of a fight.

Suddenly, a loud tune rang throughout the museum. This stunned Bular for a moment, who had not expected any sound other than the Corrin’s screaming or pleas for him to spare the young wizard.

Since Corrin had not been to school in years, he had not understood when people said they were ‘saved by the bell’.

“Would you look at that, it’s about time for me to head out!” When Bular made no movements or any attempts to speak, Corrin turned around and ran, grabbing his bags and jacket. “Okay, great, bye!”

Corrin had run out the door before anyone had the cance to stop him, or even utter a word, leaving the two changelings and the gumm-gumm prince in shock.

✼⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊱•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•∙∘☽༓☾∘∙•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅✼

“This is it. My life is over. I’m barely eighteen and I’m already about to die.” Corrin muttered, laying face down on the floor next to Kanjigar.

“You’re a child, your life isn’t over.” Kanjigar had been getting progressively more annoyed with Corrin’s rambling. “Whatever happened will blow over soon.”

“I insulted Bular to his face.” Corrin muttered, not even bothering to turn his head towards Kanjigar, who had fallen silent.

The Trollhunter thought for a moment before speaking. “What happened?”

Corrin sat up and gave him a look, but still began speaking. “Okay, so in my defense, you know I don’t ever really think before I speak and how I basically have no filter...”

“What did you say?” Kanjigar’s voice had become strict, the same one Blinky had given him after he had broken his arm during training and had not told anyone for three days. It was the voice of an angry parent who was concerned for a child.

“I was mocking him and saying some really insulting stuff to one of his allies and he overheard me.” Corrin rushed the words out as fast as he could, almost hoping that Kanjigar would not understand.

Of course, he still did. “What part of you thought that was smart?”

“The dumb monkey brain part.” Corrin fell back to the ground. “My life is over before I even got the chance to get married.”

“No, it’s not.” Kanjigar insisted.

“Did you not hear what I just said?” Corrin stared at him in confusion. “I insulted him when he was standing right there! There’s no way he’s gonna let me get away with that!”

“You’re not going to die because you’re not going back.” Kanjigar stated, leaving no room for argument. “I am no longer allowing you to assist me with my trollhunting.”

Corrin sat up. Part of him wanted to argue. To insist that he liked helping. The other part, the more logical part, told him that it was better for him to stay behind. He simply nodded.

“And, for your safety, I am advising you to not step foot on the surface again.” Kanjigar stared Corrin down.

“Okay, I won’t.”

✼⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊱•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•∙∘☽༓☾∘∙•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅✼

“You have not gone on your daily walks to the surface for a while, are you alright?”

Blinky’s question took him by surprise. Blinky knew he had been going to the surface alone?

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Corrin insisted, continuing to keep his eyes on his book, despite the fact that his mind had been elsewhere for three days, “I just decided that I wanted to stay in trollmarket. The surface got boring.”

Aaarrrgghh and Blinky made eye contact, confusion written on their face. “Really?”

Corrin nodded, adding and extra “yeah” in case they did not see his head movements.

“That just seems very unlike you to want to stay insi-”

“I’m fine, dad.” Corrin put down his book with a small smile.

Blinky nodded, deciding to trust his son’s statements as he turned and left. Aaarrrgghh paused, but then followed his mate out of the room.

He cannot tell them. He promised Kanjigar he would not tell.

✼⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊱•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•∙∘☽༓☾∘∙•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅✼

Almost two weeks after , Corrin left trollmarket for the first time since the Bular incident.

He had really not wanted to leave the house that day, but he would have to do it eventually. He had to get his new classroom ready.

How Strickler had convinced Principal Levit that he was a college graduate was beyond him. He would have to thank Strickler.

Eventually.

Corrin had walked into the store looking for items that Strickler had told him he would need. Ones that weren’t provided by the school. “Let’s see, since the school provides us with paper, pencils, desks, blackboard chalk, laptops, and coffee, I need to get highlighters, pens, whiteboards, whiteboard marker, paperclips, oh, wow, this list goes on for a while.”

Corrin shook it off, grabbing a cart and loading it with the things he would need to provide for his students himself.

After about an hour of grabbing everything he would need for his class, he stopped, grabbing several boxes of cheap fruity teas.

He waited in line for only about fifteen minutes, which felt long, but he could not blame parents for last minute school supply shopping.

The cashier was a bubbly young woman who continued to make conversation with him as she rung up all of his supplies.

“Alrighty, your total is one seventy and twenty five cents!” Corrin pulled out the money he had saved up, cringing at the idea that he had to give it all away. In the end, he was ten dollars short.

“Allow me.”

Corrin did not have to turn to know who it was.

“Okie dokie, you have a nice day now, ma’am.”

Ma’am, well isn’t that just the icing on the cake to his now sour mood.

Corrin attempted to grab all his bags, only for Strickler to grab some from him. “Allow me, we need to talk now, anyways.”

Oh great. “Umm, okay, sure.”

The two left the store, Strickler motioning for Corrin to follow. “We can drop this off at the school, for convenience sake.”

“Or it could be because none of you know exactly where I live.” Corrin rolled his eyes. “Living, by the way, is a thing I would very much like to continue doing, so if you’re going to try to talk me into going back to the museum to confront Bular, then I’m sorry to disappoint.”

“If you think he’s still angry about that, you would be wrong,” he muttered a quiet “surprisingly” just barely loud enough to hear.

“Yeah, sure, I totally believe that he’s not mad.” Corrin refused to look up, instead looking at the ground.

“I never said he was no longer angry, he always is, he’s just seemed to have forgotten about you mocking him.” Corrin looked up at Strickler in confusion. “He’s now mad about you not showing your face in two weeks.”

“Yeah, I’m not surprised he’s mad about that.” Corrin nodded. “He’s pissed because he can’t kill me.”

They came up to the school, Strickler opening the door and allowing Corrin to walk in before him. The two then made their way to the wizard’s classroom, no words between them.

“I don’t quite think that’s what it is.” Strickler answered.

“Fine, then what else do you think it could be?” Corrin dropped his bags on one of the desks with a thud.

Strickler thought for a moment. “I’m not sure. I have a feeling that you will have to come to the museum to find out.”

There was silence, Corrin weighing his options. He was probably going to die. Blinky and Aaarrrgghh would have to be told by Kanjigar that he had gotten him killed. This would probably ruin the already horrible relationship between Draal and Kanjigar. There was also the possibility that Strickler was right. He was no longer mad at him for the whole ‘mocking him to his subordinates’ thing, however unlikely that was.

Finally, Corrin spoke up. “Okay, uh... see ya tomorrow.”

Fuck.

[platypan]

Six Sentence Sunday--Takin’ One For The Team

“We’ve learned so much, but probably nothing they’ll focus on in our NEWTS,” Hermione sighed.  “I didn’t think you two minded, honestly.”

“I didn’t, until I thought of McGonagall’s face,” Harry chewed dismally at a liquorice whip.

“I did mind, until I noticed all the first-years standing on tiptoes to press their noses against our door,” Ron grinned wide and toothily at a tiny boy who yelped and ducked, his fluffy black hair betraying where he’d tried to hide out of sight of the window.  “I could snog Hermione for the next one.”

Her eyebrows arched.  “I’m so glad you’re willing to sacrifice to save Harry from eyes.  Whenever I’m in another class you can leap upon someone.  Professor Trelawney might not notice.”  

After their skipped year, almost everything on the way to Hogwarts was tiny.  The witch selling chocolate frogs was old and bent shorter than a house-elf, the sinks in the loos hit an odd, awkward line just above Harry’s knees, and the doorways he and Ron had stood side-by-side in were barely wide enough for his shoulders, not to mention the red mark on Ron’s forehead from knocking it across the doorframe.  

“I feel like we used the Time-Turner,” Ron kicked his shoes off, putting his feet up against the opposite wall of the compartment.  “Like we think nobody’s going to notice we’re sneaking in with our first year class, but we’re actually forty-five, and to them we all look just like Mad-Eye Moody, and when we get there we won’t remember which way to hold a wand or how to form letters.”  

“Why are we having the same nightmare,” Harry muttered, as Hermione blinked between them.

“We’ve learned so much, but probably nothing they’ll focus on in our NEWTS,” she sighed.  “I didn’t think you two minded, honestly.”

“I didn’t, until I thought of McGonagall’s face,” Harry chewed dismally at a liquorice whip.

“I did mind, until I noticed all the first-years standing on tiptoes to press their noses against our door,” Ron grinned wide and toothily at a tiny boy who yelped and ducked, his fluffy black hair smooshed against the window.  “I could snog Hermione for the next one.”

Her eyebrows arched.  “I’m so glad you’re willing to sacrifice to save Harry from eyes.  Whenever I’m in another class you can leap upon someone.  Professor Trelawney might not even notice.”  

Ron shuddered, but shook his head.  “Do you mean in her class, or kissing her--eugh.  We should make a list.  Who don’t you mind second-hand tasting, ‘Mione?”

Harry snorted, feeling his shoulders relax for what felt like the first time in days.

“That’s disgusting,” Hermione wrinkled her nose.  “Maaaaybe Luna or Neville.”

“Thank you for your service,” Harry snickered.  

“Not Ginny,” Hermione counted off a finger, like this list might take some time.

“Not my siblings, no,” Ron curled into the seat, cringing.  

“Maybe there are some nice Ravenclaws,” she suggested, and Harry slid sideways into Ron’s shoulder, cackling.  

“What is this, your ‘possible threesomes’ list?!”

She clapped, eyes sparkling.  “Finnigan and Thomas like freckles!”  

Ron choked on his handful of Every Flavour Beans, gagging.  “We room with them, ‘Mione, Dean sleeps in a pile of his own dirty socks--”

“Well, I mean, definitely wake him up, unless it’s an emergency--”

“That’s so creepy,” Harry wiped his eyes.  “Are there gonna be Potter-viewing tourists in the bedroom?  Does Dean need to sign a permission form?”

“Point,” Hermione’s eyes narrowed.

“You could kiss Luna yourself, you know,” Ron crossed his arms.

“Gregory Goyle, he’d forget it instantly,” Harry suggested with a snort.  “He punches pretty hard, though.  Might break your ickle nosie.”

“Oh dose!  Not the ickle nosie!” Hermione giggled, as Ron shuddered, trying to swallow the jellybeans so he wouldn’t have to spit them out to breathe.  

“I am drawing a line,” he announced, huffing.  “I’m not throwing myself on those train tracks if the person is more than thrice my size.”

“We’d rescue you, have some faith,” Hermione stared at him, and Harry lost all ability to breathe, kicking his feet.  “We fought Voldemort--”

“My point is,” Ron steepled his fingers, “--that if we’re prepared to start a melee, we could just do that to begin with, and I wouldn’t have to have up-close knowledge of Goyle’s progress in facial hair.”

Harry was tossing names out at random, everyone from Mad-Eye Moody, to Norbert, to Umbridge, which nearly killed Ron entirely--he started hitting Harry with a licorice whip.

Harry yelped, putting his arms over his head.  “Percy!  And Penelope Clearwater!”

“Not!  Family!” Ron punctuated his strikes, and Hermione waved.

“But--Ron.  Percy.  Does he count?”

The first years watched in fascinated horror as Harry Potter’s cabin turned into a scene of candy carnage.

That’s all there is of this, but I post things on 「My Ao3 」 !

[zutaras-where-its-at]

Baby, It’s a Wipeout [2]

Summary: It’s the final run, and Zuko’s sure Katara doesn’t stand a chance.

Notes: I have so many other things to do right now, but I decided to stay up until 2am writing this, so plz enjoy the product of my stress. (Also, I did some shoddy research on pro-snowboarding because I really don’t know jack about it, so please correct me if something is just completely off!)

“I guess I’ll see you there.”

That’s what Katara had told him as she’d stood on her porch just before he and Jet had left the cabin. All he could offer her at the time was a pathetic excuse for a smile and an uncomfortable grunt. Meanwhile, Jet had been all charm and sass and grins and big hugs around tan skin and a tiny waist. All because Jet is an only child and Zuko isn’t.

And now, Zuko is seeing Katara, but there’s no laughing over a silly card game. There’s only the frigid air, his tense shoulders, and Azula’s fifteen-point lead.

“Wonderful job, Azula.”

“Your dedication has paid off.”

Zuko shuddered at the monotone voices of Azula’s ancient twin coaches. He’d known them for over a decade and had never once seen them apart from one another. If he and Azula ever spent that much time together, they’d either kill each other, or themselves.

Beside him, his sister combed a well-manicured hand through her hair, her rusty-orange ski jacket unzipped to reveal a black sports bra.

She rolled her eyes. “Of course it’s paid off. And once I’m at the Olympics, the whole world will see just how dedicated I am.” Her shoulder bumped against his. “Isn’t that right, Zuzu?”

He snorted and crossed his arms, eyes watching as Katara’s silhouette shuffled to the starting line. He squinted against the sunlight that bounced off the fresh snow. “I think your ego’s big enough without me reaffirming it.”

Azula stuck her lower lip out and wrapped her hand around his arm. “Is this how you repay me for coming to every one of your football games in high school?”

Zuko turned his head to glower at her. “You only came to my games to flirt with my friends.”

Her pout lifted into a smirk, but before she could tease him further, the announcer sounded over the speakers.

“Our final halfpipe competitor of the day is eighteen-year-old Katara Siluk from right here in the Southern Isles. This is her first time at the Kuruk Games, but she has a nice home field advantage. Let’s see if she has what it takes to beat out senior competitor, Azula Jin, in this last round.”

“Not likely.” Azula’s snarky remark was just loud enough to reach Zuko’s ears.

He resisted the urge to cover his eyes as Katara’s figure finally stood, knees bending in preparation. His heart sank with the inevitable massacre of her spirit and soul. Azula always ruined everything.

She took off down the slope, her wild hair trailing behind her. Zuko’s fist clenched inside his jacket pocket.

“Here she goes with her first trick—beautiful takeoff—oh wow! A flawless frontside ten-eighty! Second take off—straight into a frontside nine-hundred, wow! Clean landing! Air to fakie, right into a huge crippler! Incredible air on that—right into the method—do you see the air she’s getting—No way, she went for a double Michalch—Katara Siluk has stuck the landing! She has landed a perfect double Michalchuk! What a way to end that run! It just might be enough! The crowd here is absolutely losing its mind!”

Azula’s grip had gotten steadily tighter and tighter around his bicep, but Zuko didn’t even notice. He could not believe what he had seen. It just wasn’t possible.

Apparently, Azula had similar sentiments.

“She’s a rookie. She’s a rookie.” His sister ripped her hands from where they were tucked into his elbow. She turned to Lo and Li, and Zuko was glad he wasn’t the focus of her wrath. “You told me that you scoped out the competition. You said that this would be a blow out.”

“We did. We watched her tapes along with everyone else’s. She never stood out.” They answered in unison, but their voices shook almost imperceptibly.

Their attention snapped back to the announcer as the speakers crackled to life. “And here comes the score for Katara’s third run from the judges.”

The scoreboard above the slope flashed a number. The crowd went into uproar.

“Katara Siluk has scored a 97.25! The newcomer from right here in the Southern Isles has taken the Kuruk title! For the first time, Azula Jin’s reign has been defeated by just 1.5 points!”

Zuko saw Azula’s back straighten in the slightest of movements, and he internally cringed for her mentors.

When she spoke, her voice was soft to the point of danger. “Does she stand out now?”

Lo and Li didn’t get a chance to respond as Azula abruptly turned and stalked towards the lodge.

Before he could decide whether he should follow her or not, a hand landed on his shoulder.

“Dude, it was a nightmare to get down here.” Jet huffed out a cloud of steam. “I had to wait until the security guard wasn’t looking in order to get out of the stands.”

“Why did you—”

“Well, I took one look, saw you standing here like a goddamn garden gnome, and knew you needed my help.”

“Your help with what?”

Jet rolled his eyes. “For one, connecting the dots. And secondly, helping you talk to Katara since you’ve been angsting over her all morning.”

Zuko spluttered and tried to shake Jet’s grip from his shoulders. “I have not been—Okay seriously, dickhead, stop shoving me.”

“Quit squirming. I promise you’ll thank me later.”

“She’s probably in the locker room away from all the reporters, you asshole!”

“Good thing you’re not a reporter.”

“Azula will literally behead me if she knows that I went and talked to her!”

“Well, Azula’s not here, is she? And since when have you been scared of Azula?”

“Since when have you not been scared of Azula? I’m not kidding, Jet, stop fucking pushing me—”

“Shut up and smile.”

“What are you—”

“Oh hey, you guys. I’m surprised you made it through that crowd.” Sokka clapped Zuko on the arm, his cheeks rosy and a bright grin stretching his face. Just behind him, Katara was wrapping up a brief interview with a reporter.

“Zuko here insisted on congratulating Katara after that epic run. Said he wouldn’t let anyone get in his way. Right, Zuko?” Jet elbowed him in the ribs and purposefully raised his voice. His light brown eyes sparkled when Katara’s head jerked to the side mid-sentence and landed on the two boys.

Over the noise of people, Zuko heard her turn back to the reporter and politely dismiss him before she started toward them.

Her whole face seemed to glow with her victory, and a few strands of sweat-dampened hair clung to the sides of her smooth neck. She had abandoned her helmet and goggles, and her blue scarf was on the verge of unravelling to the floor, but she didn’t bother to take notice of it.

“I told you guys that I was better than you had assumed.” Her chapped lips couldn’t stop smiling, and Zuko found that he naturally returned her cheer.

“Congratulations.”

Her smile widened just the slightest bit more and Zuko felt a hot blush spread across the tips of his ears.

“Thanks.” She cleared her throat. “Sorry about your sister though. Really. I hope she wasn’t too upset.”

“She wasn’t,” he lied.

Their eyes connected for just a touch longer than normal, and right when Zuko was about to excuse himself out of sheer flustered embarrassment, Jet cut in.

“Congrats, Katara. You deserved that win without a doubt.” He swung an arm around Sokka’s shoulders. “By the way, Sokka, I was meaning to ask you about sparring sometime. You mentioned fencing last night, right?”

As the lanky brunette casually led the other boy into a friendly conversation a few feet away, he snuck a quick wink to Zuko and Katara.

Zuko coughed lightly into his hand. Then he reached up to scratch the back of his neck. But then he realized that he was fidgeting out of nervousness and quickly shoved his hands back into his pockets, actively avoiding Katara’s eyes the whole time.

“So…” She drew the word out awkwardly.

“Yeah.”

“I was wondering—”

“Could I—”

They both stopped, eyes wide. Katara laughed and gestured for him to speak.

Zuko carded his hand through his hair. “I was gonna ask if I could call you sometime, maybe?”

Her laugh grew a little breathier. “Funny. I was going to ask if you were staying in town for a little while longer. I could, I don’t know, show you around?”

She wrapped her hands around the ends of her scarf and tugged anxiously. A self-deprecating snicker escaped her teeth. “God, that sounded so cliché. Wow. Okay, I’m gonna just go throw myself from the top of the ski lodge if you don’t mind.”

Zuko’s expression softened, and he took a small step closer to her. “I’ll be here for the next two weeks. Technically this is my vacation hours from work, and Azula planned to train on the slopes here after the competition.” Another step closer. He had never realized how short she was before. “You know, I’ll probably need someone to help make sure I don’t get my dumbass stuck in the snow again.”

Her blue eyes sparkled with mischief as she peered up at him. “Oh, well, in that case, it’s probably my moral duty to not let you out of my sight.”

“You’re right. Do you want to help me out tomorrow, maybe? I might get lost on my way to dinner.”

“We wouldn’t want that to happen, now would we?” A fake frown shifted her features, but one corner of her mouth quirked up. She let out a loud sigh. “I guess I could spare some time tomorrow. How does five o’clock sound?”

Zuko’s fingers lightly brushed her wrist and he felt her skin twitch.

“Five o’clock sounds great.”

[stereksecretsanta]

Merry Christmas, @daddy--oreo!

Have some feels and fluff! I hope you like it!

Rating: T

Summary: In which Stiles and Derek face their greatest foes yet: miscommunication and a crippling lack of self esteem! But hey, they work it all out in the end!

*****

Cast Aside These Broken Hearts

“It’s just a sprained ankle, buddy,” Stiles says, trying to pull his foot away but having no luck.

“I’m not your buddy,” Derek says, looking up from where he’s carefully wrapping Stiles’ ankle in a bandage to glare at him.

“Of course not,” Stiles says, sighing in what sounds like defeat.

It’s strange, Derek thinks, how shutting Stiles up just doesn’t fill him with the same glee that it used to.

“I didn’t…” Derek tries, “I mean, that’s not..”

“Whatever,” Stiles says, taking Derek’s stuttering as a chance to break away and stand up, ignoring the pain shooting through his ankle at the pressure. “I’ll get out of your way. See you next time something tries to kill us, I guess.”

He’s halfway to the door before Derek tries to stop him.

“Stiles,” he says, “I… you can’t drive like that. Let me bring you home at least.”

“I don’t drive with my left foot,” Stiles says, and then he’s gone, clicking the door shut softly behind him.

It somehow makes Derek cringe more than if he’d just slammed it.

“What the hell was that?” he asks the empty room. The room, thankfully, doesn’t answer.

.

“Why is it always you?” Derek groans as he dodges another honest-to-god fireball, pulling Stiles down to the ground with him before he can get barbecued.

“Because the universe is fucking cruel,” Stiles replies, still trying to catch his breath from running. “Obviously.”

Derek finds himself unexpectedly smarting at the comment. Stiles is always sarcastic and quick-witted, but the extra bitterness Derek hears in his voice recently is new. And unwelcome.

“Just stay down,” he says roughly, shoving Stiles behind what’s left of a warehouse wall.

“Hell no,” Stiles says, pulling himself up to crouch next to Derek again. “You want me to hide while everyone else gets charbroiled? You’re nuts!”

“We’ll heal,” Derek says, “just stay out of the way and we’ll take care of it.”

“Hey!” Stiles exclaims, “I’ve saved your furry asses more times than I can count! Don’t tell me to just roll over and play dead!”

“Stiles!” Derek shouts, eyes burning red in full force for a moment until he can get it under control.

Stiles, while resolutely refusing to show any fear, has gone silent.

“Just…please,” Derek says. Begs, really. “Just stay safe for once, ok?”

Stiles considers him for a long long moment, before finally nodding tightly.

“Fine,” he says. “I’ll sit this one out. But if you or any of my friends get fired, I’m resurrecting you just so I can kill you again! You got it?”

Before Derek can reply, a fireball flies past him, and he turns to face their opponents, roaring in anger at full volume.

He can’t be sure, but it definitely sounds like Stiles is laughing in delight behind him. But he’ll worry about that when all these freaking firestarters are taken care of.

.

.

“What I don’t get,” Stiles says, tossing the basketball over to Scott without even trying for the net, “is why he still hates me so much. I mean, it’s been like 6 years. And now I can’t even spend summer break back home without the ‘grr, arg’ act!”

“Pretty sure that’s vampires, dude,” Scott says, tossing the ball back to Stiles, who catches it with a huff.

“Why are we even doing this?” Stiles asks. “Neither of us play basketball.”

“It was your idea,” Scott says, shrugging.

“I think I needed to be doing something manly while I had this embarrassing conversation,” Stiles says, clutching the basketball to his chest tightly.

“It’s not embarrassing,” Scott says, “you’re allowed to talk about your feelings. Even if you don’t know what they are yet.”

“Oh my god,” Stiles whines, “you take a year of 101’s and think you’re Dr. Phil!”

Scott scoffs. “Dr. Phil is a hack!”

“True,” Stiles allows.

“And Derek doesn’t hate you,” Scott adds, belatedly. “I think that might be the problem.”

“What does that even mean?” Stiles asks, exasperated. “He’s always brushing me off, or telling me to stay out the way, or questioning all my plans, like I’m not training with Deaton on top of literally going to school for law enforcement!”

Scott decides to switch tactics to try and get through.

“How long have you wanted to be a cop?” Scott asks.

“My whole life,” Stiles says. “Except for that summer I wanted to be a rock star.”

“We were awful,” Scott laughs. “And how long have we known each other?”

“Forever, dude,” Stiles says. “I don’t know, like 15 years or so?”

“Right,” Scott says. “And how long has it been since I got bitten?”

“Six years,” Stiles says. That one, he knows he’ll never forget.

“And how long have you been in love with Derek?” Scott asks.

“Five years,” Stiles says immediately, and then cringes with what Scott can only assume is his brain re-booting.

“So you see the problem now?” Scott asks, gently.

Stiles just nods slowly and hands the ball over to Scott, who has gotten much closer than he was a moment before.

“I think I do,” he says. “I need to go…like right now, I need to go and find Derek.”

“Yeah you do!” Scott says, clapping Stiles on the shoulder. “Go get him!”

Stiles laughs and shakes his head.

“I need to go apologize to him,” he says. “I must have been making him so uncomfortable with my feelings or chemo-signals or whatever other stuff werewolf-y noses pick up on!”

“I don’t think you need to do that,” Scott tries, but Stiles is already jogging off towards the Jeep and waving goodbye.

.

.

“So,” Stiles says as Derek opens the door. “We should talk.”

Derek looks at him warily, but moves aside to allow Stiles in anyway, closing and locking the door behind him. The new apartment is nicer and warmer looking than the loft, but he still doesn’t ever feel completely at ease.

Stiles kicks off his shoes and settles down on one side of the couch, folding his legs under him and leaning his back against the couch arm. After a pointed stare at both Derek and the other side of the couch, Derek rolls his eyes and goes to sit down, mirroring Stiles’ pose just to annoy him.

“I wanted to apologize,” Stiles says once he’s seated. And well. That was definitely not what Derek was expecting.

“For what?” Derek asks, smirking. “If it’s about the time you dropped my favorite mug and tried to convince me a rogue pigeon took it out… don’t bother. Nobody believed that.”

“I’m being serious here,” Stiles says, frowning. “And I am sorry about the mug. But that’s not what this is about.”

“Then what?” Derek asks, giving Stiles his full attention.

“I need to apologize for my like…everything,” Stiles says, waving a hand around as if to encompass his entire being. “I didn’t realize I was even doing it until it was too late, but I’ll try to stop from now on. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable anymore.”

“What are you even talking about?” Derek asks, bewildered and more than a little concerned at the tone of Stiles’ voice.

“The feelings!” Stiles bursts out. “The romantic-y type feelings! That are not reciprocated. Like, at all. I just… I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Oh,” Derek says, suddenly subdued. “Those feelings.”

“Yeah,” Stiles says, wiping angrily at his eyes with the back of his hands and avoiding Derek’s stare.

“Maybe we should just not hang around each other for a while,” Stiles says, quietly.

Derek flinches back at that, but pulls himself together before his face can show just how much he hates that idea.

“If that’s what you think is best,” he says.

“I guess I do,” Stiles says, standing up and heading for the door.

Before he can get past Derek though, he finds himself stopped by Derek’s fingers around his wrist.

“Wait,” Derek says. “Please. Just, don’t run off.”

“I really don’t want to stay and humiliate myself further,” Stiles says, moving to wrench his arm away, but Derek’s grip stays tight.

“Is it really that humiliating?” Derek asks, looking oddly hurt. “I mean, I know you don’t feel the same way I do. But is it so awful that you think you need to run away?”

“I don’t want to put any pressure on you!” Stiles says, “not even subconsciously. You deserve way better than some scrawny asshole shoving his hormones in your face all the time!”

“What?” Derek asks, suddenly feeling like he’s completely lost the plot.

He drops his grip from Stiles’ wrist, and watches as it goes slack and falls to Stile’s side.

Stiles sighs deeply before squaring his shoulders and finally looking Derek in the face again.

“I’m fucking crazy about you, man,” he says, pausing to steel himself and take a deep breath. “I’m sorry.”

Derek, however, is just looking up at him like is entire life has been a lie.

“You’re crazy about me?” he asks, incredulously. “Since when?”

“About twenty minutes ago,” Stiles replies. “Give or take about five years.”

“What.” Derek’s so shocked that he can’t even make it into a real question.

“I’m a little slow on the uptake sometimes, shut up,” Stiles says, crossing his arms against his chest defensively.

Suddenly, Derek is laughing. Full on, body-shaking, gasping-for-air laughing, head buried in his hands on his lap.

Stiles really isn’t sure what to do in this situation. He’s prepared for if Derek gets angry(retreating,) or if he gets mean(wolfsbane and then retreating), but no protocol for Derek melting down with laughter.

“I don’t know what’s happening here,” he says as Derek’s laughter starts to die down, “but I’m gonna go now. Thanks for not mauling me and all that.”

“No!” Derek says, standing up so suddenly that Stiles gets a little dizzy.

And then Derek is right there in front of him, green eyes shining from the tears of laughter, smiling at Stiles like he knows something that he does not.

Which, considering the way the day is going, Stiles imagines is entirely possible.

.

“I thought you were apologizing for not feeling the same way I do,” Derek says, finally, reaching out to rest one big hand against Stiles’ neck, cupping his jaw.

“I..I was,” Stiles says, shivering at the touch against his valiant attempt not to.

“Then you obviously have no idea how I feel about you,” Derek says, smiling in that way that always makes Stiles knees feel like jello.

“How do you feel about me?” Stiles asks, voice hoarse, “because I was under the impression that it was somewhere between hatred and reluctant ally most days.”

“I’m fucking crazy about you, too,” Derek says, and then he’s leaning in and all Stiles can do is meet him halfway for an incredibly sweet kiss.

.

“Hey,” Stiles says later, when the Netflix screen asks them if they’re still watching the show they haven’t seen a minute of.

“Yeah?” Derek asks, running his thumb under Stiles’ kiss-swollen lips and staring up at him with lust-hazed eyes.

Stiles grins, completely forgetting whatever he was about to say.

“Never mind,” he says instead, moving down to kiss Derek again. “This is way more important.”

Suffice to say, Derek agrees.

.

.

[tomhsparker]

new rules - tom holland imagine #5

about : tom hates your ex boyfriend. like really hates your ex boyfriend. 

warning : very cheesy dialogue, angry/sad tom, a lotta swearing!

notes : so dua lipa’s new song, new rules, really got me feeling like i miss an ex i never had. hence, i decided to write this. it’s really cheesy and im not v proud of it, but im gonna post it anyways. enjoy!

----

“Talkin' in my sleep at night, makin' myself crazy.”

You gasped, sitting up in your bed. Sweat rolled down your forehead, your back, everywhere. Images of your dream came running through your mind and your heart dropped.

It had been about five weeks since your breakup with your ex boyfriend. Back then, he seemed like the perfect man to you. He was charming and funny. His chocolate brown eyes and his radiant smile practically drew you in. If someone told you six months ago that he would break your heart, you would’ve refused to believe them. In your mind, he was a perfect angel.

An angel just for you, and not anyone else.

Or so you thought.

On the day of your six months anniversary, you had planned a wonderful home-made dinner at home. A bowl of spaghetti sat on your dinner table, which eventually grew colder as the hours passed. You told Eric to come over at 7, but it was already nearing midnight and he was nowhere to be seen.

Exasperated, you poured the remainder of the red wine bottle in your cup and downed it in ten seconds. You couldn’t believe it. He wasn’t going to come. Tossing your phone aside, you gave up on texting and calling him. It wasn’t like he was going to reply anyways. You stood up from the dinner table and grabbed the spaghetti bowl. Stomping over towards your trashcan, you threw it into the bin furiously. Your head was at a disarray and anger bubbled in your heart.

You were livid. What was he doing that was more important than you?

Grabbing your smartphone and a coat, you walked out of your tiny apartment and into your car. If he wasn’t going to come to you, you were going to him. This wasn’t the first time he had ditched either, so you were even more pissed off by the fact that he did this to you.

You reached his house in a matter of minutes, but what you saw made your heart shatter into a trillion pieces.

There he was, standing outside his apartment building, with a beautiful blonde girl in his arms. His lips were hungrily attacking hers, along with his hands intertwined in her hair. You soon recognized the girl as your best mate, Alice.

You weren’t sure what you were feeling, but you knew you had to get out of there as quick as possible. Reversing, you sped away from the heart-wrenching scene.

Somehow, you weren’t very surprised by the sight. You knew deep down, he was going to find someone new.

“My love, he makes me feel like nobody else, nobody else

But my love, he doesn't love me, so I tell myself, I tell myself.”

After that night, you broke off all ties with Eric. Although you knew better, a small part of you still missed him. And it seemed like Eric did too, since he kept trying to call and text you. You almost caved in several times, but you were grateful that you had someone to always stop you from doing so.

Picking up your phone from the nightstand, you unlocked it and scrolled through your contacts. You put the phone against your ear after clicking the ‘call’ icon.

“Hello?” A groggy voice came after three rings.

“Tom, can I come over? I don’t think I can sleep,” you asked, slipping out of your bed.

“Y/N? Yeah sure, come over. But you do realise it’s literally 3 am in the morning?” Tom groaned, some shuffling from his own duvet filled your ears.

“I know, I’m sorry. But I need a nice Holland hug right now,” you chuckled.

Tom merely hummed and told you to stay safe before you hung up. Throwing on a hoodie, you wore your trainers and in a few minutes, you were out the door. The cold London air made the hair on your arms stand even though you were wearing a hoodie. Jogging over to your car, you unlocked it quickly and drove off.

One, don't pick up the phone

You know he's only calling 'cause he's drunk and alone

When Tom opened the door, the first thing he did was envelop you in a hug. The cold winter weather made you shiver, so the Holland hug was super helpful. You melted into his arms, sighing in relief. Wrapping your arms around his waist, you snuggled your head into his chest. His head rested on top of yours and the both of you stood outside his house, in complete but comfortable silence.

You broke out of the hug first, enjoying the welcoming yet tiring smile on his face. Tom took your arm and led you into the house, letting you walk in first before locking the door. You slipped off your shoes, making sure to be extremely quiet. The Holland household was so eerily silent since everyone was asleep.

“Want a cup of tea?” Tom sleepily asked, rubbing his eyes.

“Nah, I’m good. Let’s just go to bed,” you said, already walking towards Tom’s room.

“G-go to bed?” Tom stuttered, jogging after you.

Turning the knob to his door, you nodded.

“I can’t sleep so I wanted to sleep with you.”

You froze and cringed, realising how awkward that sounded. Turning around slowly, you were greeted by a blushing Tom.

“T-That’s not what I meant. I meant,” now you were stumbling on your words too. Tom hid his face behind his hands and you could feel your own cheeks turn pink. You started to feel dumb as you entered his room, falling face first onto  his bed.

A soft giggle sounded beside you and you groaned, using Tom’s pillow to cover the back of your head. Soon, the both of you were laughing a bit too hardly and too long for a joke like that. The bed sunk in beside you as you simmered down, finally stopping your laughter. You were about to ask him to scoot over when you felt the phone in your pocket vibrate. Flipping over, you took the phone out from your pocket and looked at the screen. The smile on your face instantly vanished and you could feel your heart palpitating.

“What’s wrong, Y/N?”

You showed him your phone and a glare replaced Tom’s worried look. Snatching your phone from your hands, he pressed the decline button. Almost a few seconds after Tom hung up, Eric’s name flashed through the screen again.

“Tom, I’ll just - “ you were trying to take back your phone but Tom held his other arm out, blocking you from taking it back. He stood up and pressed the answer function. You gasped and hobbled over the bed, whispering for Tom to hang up.

‘Hey, asshole. Listen to me, you piece of shit. I’m saying this once and once only. Call Y/N one more time and I promise, you’ll never see daylight ever again. You didn’t deserve her, and you never will. So stop calling,” Tom spat, his voice dripping with venom. He didn’t even give a chance for Eric to answer as he hung up.

For a moment, Tom stood beside his bed with the phone clutched tightly in his hand. His chest heaved with heavy breaths and his jaw was clenched. The muscles on his arms protruded and you could see the veins on his neck popping. He was pissed.

You kept quiet, not knowing what to say. Without thinking, you spoke softly.

“You didn’t have to do that. I was handling him well enough.”

Tom laughed humorously, “what did you even see in him?”

Staring at your hands, you shrugged.

“He was nice,” you answered pathetically, refusing to look at Tom. You could feel his stare piercing through your skin.

“So was I.”

“Two, don't let him in

You'll have to kick him out again.”

“What does that mean?” you questioned, finally looking up.

Tom let out another humourless laugh, putting down your phone on his desk while pacing up and down his room.

“How do you not know? God, I dropped so many hints,” Tom said, his voice quivering slightly, “and you don’t have a clue.”

You watched him walk about in his room, feeling your heart thumping in your chest.

“I don’t understand,” you mumbled.

Tom stopped and let his hands fall onto his sides, a defeated look on his face.

“I’m fucking in love with you, Y/N. Always have been. And it hurt watching you fall in love with someone who clearly didn’t love you back. Do you know how it feels to see you cry over some dick that never loved you? When all along it was me who loved you?”

By this time, he was panting. His soft brown eyes that you had grown to love were filled with unshed tears, threatening to spill. You stayed silent, completely stunned.

“Do you have any idea how much it fucking hurt to hear you talk about Eric and how much you want him back even though you knew you shouldn’t? Every day I have to tell you that you deserve better than him and it stings. I have to control myself whenever I’m around you, because I know you will never love me back.  I can’t,” he stopped and wiped a tear rolling down his cheek, “I can’t believe that even after three years of knowing you, I’m still in love with you. When you clearly don’t feel the same.”

“And it doesn’t matter anymore because you love Eric. I don’t even - I don’t even know why I try. I guess I’m just not good enough for you.”

You rose from the bed, walking over towards Tom. His eyes were trained on the ground as he cried silently, more and more tears falling. Your heart was sinking at the sight of the usually bubbly and happy boy crying. Holding his face, you whispered for him to look up.

When you looked into his eyes, it finally hit you like a tidal wave.

It made sense now.

The hugs that would last too long, the ditzy smiles, the frequent flowers he got you, the lingering stares and the constant compliments.

You always thought he did it because he was your best friend. It was his duty to love you. You didn’t know he loved you like that.

And you were fucking glad for that. You always felt the same way.

You hid your feelings for Tom because you knew you weren’t good enough for him. Tom was an actor, on his way to becoming a well-known celebrity. Thousands of girls were also in pursuit for his love, so you tried to get over your feelings for him by going out with Eric. You were so scared of loving Tom, in fear of rejection.

He needed someone who was as successful as him, so he won’t be dragged down. He needed someone as beautiful as he was, inside and out.

You were none of that.

But after hearing his own confession, a weight finally lifted off your shoulders.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” you asked, your voice above a whisper.

Tom smiled sadly, “because I couldn’t. You loved someone else.”

“Tom,” you breathed out, “it was always you.”

He frowned, looking at you through his eyelashes.

“What?”

“Why do you think I dated Eric? Look at him. He looks like you. I only went out with him because I was trying to get over you,” you admitted, “I thought I was only a friend to you. So I started dating Eric to get you off my mind.”

“And for some reason, you still popped up in my head everyday. It’s you, Tom.”

You wiped a tear with your thumb, slowly caressing his cheek. He leaned into your hand, shutting his eyes. Closing your eyes, you leaned in and collided his lips with yours. Tom made a noise but quickly recovered, holding your neck gently as he kissed back.

This kiss felt different from any other kiss you ever had. It was sweet, gentle yet full of passion and love. All of your repressed feelings were flowing, making the kiss more meaningful.

Tom pulled away, his hand still on your neck. He opened his eyes slowly and peered at you with his doe-like eyes.

“This isn’t some rebound thing, right?”

Shaking your head, you smiled sweetly and pecked him on his lips.

His lips tasted salty, probably from the tears that he cried. Yet they were extremely soft and you knew you were gonna get addicted to kissing him.

“I’ve been waiting years to do that,” Tom grinned, his smile widening by the second.

“Ditto, Holland.”

He let his lips touch your forehead and kissed it, before leading you over to his bed. The both of you laid down as Tom tossed the duvet over the both of you. You cuddled into his larger figure, letting him wrap his arms around you.

“I’m sorry I made you wait three years,” you joked, feeling his chest rumble from his laughter.

“For you, I would’ve waited more.”

You couldn’t help but snort at his reply, “that was cheesy.”

He rolled his eyes, “you love it.”  

“As much as I hate to admit it, I do.”

[verd0ne]

Through the Eras

Description: Seventeen just recently debuted, and you just so happen to run into Vernon and once that happens things escalate from there. (This story will be told from their debut from on so this is Adore U)

Warning: Angst? Fluff? no serious warning smut may be present in future stories.

Word Count: 4,935

“Have fun.”

“I will! I’ll be…” the phone abruptly hangs up and all I can do is roll my eyes. Carter has been super distant lately. He hasn’t wanted to hang out, and he’s been lying about where he is, some boyfriend.

After my train wreck of a phone call with my boyfriend ends, I spot a familiar stranger from afar. He genuinely caught my eye, with his stare and gorgeous features. Why does he look so oddly familiar? He must have caught me staring because he starts walking over to me. Oh shit, I’m about to get mugged! Why do I always stare!?!? I hate myself so much!!! FUCK FUCK FUCK! HE’S RIGHT FUCKING IN FRONT OF ME!!!!!!! I continue to look down at my phone pretending nothing just happened, when I feel a presence next to me on the once empty park bench. I almost shit myself not gonna lie.

“Phone call not go so well?” At this point I have no clue what to do so I try to play it off like I didn’t just almost shit myself. So, I give him the look that says ‘were you talking to me?’ he nods. Of course.I decided to play along so I answer properly,

“My boyfriend’s kind of an idiot, but what are you going to do?” Hopefully my smart ass comment makes him leave. He laughs, god dammit. When he does he look so familiar I can’t take it any more, who is this guy? I forcefully ask the question, “Do I know you?”

“Are you familiar with kpop?” I have no clue what this has to do with anything, but I just played along hoping the conversation won’t last too long.

“Yeah...why?”

“Well I’m part of a group called Seventeen, we just recently debuted.” My jaw drops wide and that’s when I realize, this is Vernon. I’m at a loss of words. I remember when the debuted just two months prior to my trip and I couldn’t take my eyes off him. “So uh…”

“Sorry! I just uh… I like your group.” Goddamn, I sound so stupid. At least he laughs, phew. Thankfully he ain’t some perve trying to get in my pants.

“Thanks,” he scratches the back of his head awkwardly. Thank the lord he’s as awkward as I am. “So uh… what brings you to Korea...or unless you live here, you just seem, I don’t know where I’m going with this.” He blushes and I can tell he’s trying to make small talk so I just smile to ease the tension.

“I come here twice a year to get a break from things back home.” I glance at his face and see a grin appear. Wow, I never realized how attractive he was until I really took a good look at him. I turn away, hoping he can’t sense me blushing. Why am I such a weak bitch?

“Hey, I was going out to get ice cream you wanna come? Just a friendly gesture, I would hate for you to be alone this entire trip.” I hesitate but then my conscience tells me to fuck it and just go.

“That sounds great, I’m Y/N by the way.” I stick out my hand for him to shake.

“Vernon, but you already know that.” He smirks and takes my hand in his. This handshake seems like it’s been going on forever until I realize we never let go. I stare up at him and down at our hands, and we both pull away and laugh. Why is this shit like some dumb ass rom com I just want to die now.

“Can I ask you question?”

“Shoot,” he replies.

“Why did you stop and talk to me?”

“Well, you seemed lonely so I thought I’d keep you company.” Okay now I’m starting to lose hope this man starting to freak me out, so I just awkwardly laugh and nod before he follows with another reply, “Shoot that sounded weird, you just seemed a little distressed and I was just trying to be a good person.” Okay now I’m gaining more hope, he seems like a genuine guy, I smile, thank him and then we were on our way. Once we arrive, he opens the door to an adorable little ice cream shop. There are so many flavors, that I get overwhelmed. He leans over and says,

“You should get strawberry, it’s the best.” I give him a thank you stare and order my treat with delight, I definitely fuck with this ice cream. We find a little table to talk and he decides to tell me his life story, so I just sit down and let him explain because I could tell the sincerity behind his voice.

“I’m originally not from Korea, I moved here from New York. My mom is from the states, but my dad’s from here.”

“I’ve always traveled here as long as I remember. Couldn’t tell you why, but whatever it is, I always end up coming back.”

“That’s what I call true passion.” We both laugh the day away. We lost track of time until we realized the shop was closing. “Have we really been talking for that long?”

“I guess so. Oh crap, I have to get a cab to my hotel.”

“My dorm is just a block away, don’t bother with a cab. The boys won’t mind if you sleep on the couch.” Me, a dorm with thirteen boys, that is a solid yikes.

“Uh… I don’t know? You’ve already been so kind, I don’t want to get in the way. Plus I don’t know you extremely well so...”

“I really don’t mind, we have a bunch of extra things you can borrow. You can trust me, we won’t be a bother I promise, let’s head out before the owners of this place kick us out.” I give in because again he truly seems like a genuine guy.

Once we get to the dorm, my heart sinks to my stomach. I’ve been hanging out with an idol all day, only to be invited to his place, which happens to be the home of twelve other boys. What the hell is my life. Vernon introduces me to every member and they’re all so sweet. They were really trying to make me feel as comfortable as possible and it was honestly so adorable. I’m not the type to get soft but these boys made my heart feel like mush. When I explain I’m staying here they all grab blankets and pillows, offering me to use them. I laugh at the overwhelming amount of items surrounding me and thank them for being so kind. Vernon even offers me his clothes to sleep in. I accept, but he can tell how hesitant I am when I do.

“Are you going to be okay here?”

“With you guys hmm… I’ll think about it.” He smiles and laughs at my comment.

“Goodnight Y/N, you know where to find me.”

“Nighty night Vernonie.” He cringes at the nickname, and shakes his head and smiles. “Seungkwan told me to call you that.”

“I expected.” I laugh as I curl up in my nest of blankets and pillows on the couch. What a wild first day.

***

    “Y/N, the guys and I are going to a meeting we’ll be back in an hour.” I just mumble and roll over on the couch. I hear the door close and check the time, it’s seven A.M.

    “Ugh.” I toss and turn until I give up on falling back asleep. I check my phone for texts and see a couple unimportant ones from my friends and some “talk when you can” texts from my mom. I call her and tell her I landed safely and made friends with the guys from Seventeen. She didn’t believe me. And to no surprise there were none from my ass for a boyfriend Carter. I grunt and see if the guys have anything I can occupy myself with, nothing. I just decide to shower and put on my clothes from the day before. By the time I finish the guys are back.

    “Y/N we’re back,” I hear Hoshi shout. I turn the corner and see all the guys, they look exhausted.

    “It looks like you guys need some rest. I’m going to call a cab to bring me back to my hotel.” Someone grabs my arm and it’s Vernon. He let’s go as soon as I notice and turns bright red. This shy son of a bitch.

    “Y/N the guys and I decided that you can stay here instead of having to pay for a hotel,” S.Coups tells me. I can’t help but smile, these guys are so sweet.

    “Only if you don’t mind.”

    “It’s really no bother,” says DK.

    “Vernon actually suggested it.” Vernon shoots Seungkwan a warning glare and turns bright red. I go a bit pink myself. The fuck why am I fucking weak bitch.

    “I’d love to stay with you guys.” They all bring me to the center of a big group hug. All I can do is laugh, these boys really something else

    Joshua and Vernon offer to help me go back to my hotel and help me get my stuff. I couldn’t turn that down. Once we arrive to my room Joshua takes the key,

    “I’ll go check you out while you two pack everything up. I’ll be waiting in the lobby,” he winks at Vernon, making him shake his head at his friends comment. This boy really tryna butter up my ass.

    “I guess you really didn’t need much help,” he motions at my already packed bags.

    “What are you talking about, I need help picking out a bomb ass outfit,” I say with sarcasm. His smile distracts me before I come to my senses. Snap out of it! You have a boyfriend! I have to stop overthinking my fucking life and get my shit together. I grab shorts and a shirt out of my bag and go to the bathroom to change. When you’re finished you catch Vernon looking at you. Shit, this man gotta stop.

    “Y/N I don’t mean to rush you, but we should probably get going, Joshua is all alone.”

    “Holy shit, I totally forgot.” I grab my suitcase, backpack, and purse, only to have my suitcase and backpack taken from me. “You know I’m not completely helpless.” I snatch my backpack from Vernon and he just shakes his head,

    “I’m only trying to help.”

    “You’re helping me too much I feel bad.”

    “You strike me as a very independent person.” He got me there. We make our way to Joshua who has been patiently waiting for us in the lobby.

    “Took you long enough,” Vernon punches him in the arm. I look at Joshua and we die of laughter. My phone vibrates, I look and it’s finally a text from Carter.

Carter: Call me when you get the chance, we need to talk.

I furrow my brow and Vernon leans over my shoulder.

    “Is that the boyfriend?” I nod. “Carter’s a cool name. A lot better than Hansol.” I can’t help but giggle at that.

    “I think Hansol is a much better name. It’s much more, unique.”

    “She’s right, don’t talk yourself down.” I lean in to give Joshua a high five and he returns it.

    “You guys got me there.” Shit this boy is actually me. Before I notice we arrive at the dorm, remembering I need to call Carter, I set my bags down and go directly back outside. After two dial tones he picks up, unusual.

    “Hey.”

    “What did you want to talk about babe?”

    “I’m sure you’ve noticed, but the last two months haven’t been the best. Especially for our relationship.” I feel a lump begin to form in my throat. I know exactly what’s coming. “Two months ago, I cheated.”

    “What!?”

    “I cheated on you. It was only a one time thing at first.”

    “At first! What do you mean at first?!” I started to talk louder, my face growing hot with tears.

    “After the first time, I started meeting up with that person more and more.” I was gonna break up with him eventually but to find out he cheated really hit me hard and I couldn’t help but lose it. I begin to cry and wail, silencing the other line until he begins again,

    “I’ve been meaning to tell you.”

    “You’ve seriously been wanting to tell me this when you could have stopped. What the hell is wrong with you.”

    “See, I knew you would over react.”

    “Over react?! You, my boyfriend just told me you’ve been cheating on me for two whole months. Not only that but you’re telling me this when I’m supposed to be having the time of my life.” I can’t help but scream these words in the phone I hear footsteps approaching the door, but they stop. “You are the worst person I’ve ever met. I can’t believe I wasted an ‘I love you’ on someone as selfish as you.”

    “You have every right to be mad.”

    “Of course I do! I never want to see you ever again. Goodbye Carter, you can go fuck yourself.” I hang the phone up and scream in aggravation. That’s when the door opens and I see Vernon's concerned face staring at me.

    “Y/N, are you okay?” I collapse and he catches me in his arms and all I can do is scream and cry until I cannot take it any longer. I loosen from his grip and run in the dorm, receiving many concerned stares from the other members. I rush to the bathroom so I can be alone. I can’t believe it, I knew he wasn’t the best boyfriend, but I never expected him to cheat. As much as I didn’t want to admit it I loved him and he went and crushed my heart. I just wanted to get away from everything, but it all came to bite me in the ass. I feel like getting sick and my body becomes limp before being pulled into a much tighter embrace than before. I was unaware of Vernon’s presence until I hear , “Y/N, I’m so sorry.” I can tell by his unsteadiness that he’s a bit uneasy. “Please know you are going to get through this, he was only a dumb ass guy who doesn’t know an amazing girl when he sees one.” I cry into his shoulder as he rests his hand on my head. I giggle a little because of his cheesy comment, but continue to sob.

    We stayed together in that position for so long that I’m pretty sure I ran out of tears. He takes my face in his hands and wipes the mess that is my face and smiles,

    “Are you better now?” I nod and hug him one last time before he takes me to his bunk and covers me with a blanket. “Wait one sec.” A few minutes later he comes back with two cups of tea. I smile at the sight and he smiles back, returning his focus to the cups making sure they don’t spill. He hands both of the cups to me and I return him a confused look. “I need your phone.”

    “Why?”

    “I’m putting my number in it. I want you to text or call me whenever you are not feeling okay. What happened today really sucked, and I couldn’t help but feel like I needed to be there for you.” He quickly types in his number and sends himself a text making sure he put it in correctly. I hand him his cup and kiss him on the cheek. “What was that for?”

    “Thank you for not being a dick.” We smile and sip our tea in silence. I don’t really want to talk and luckily he respects that. Once we finish he takes the cups to the kitchen and while he’s gone I start drifting to sleep. He comes back and doesn’t hesitate to curl up with me. For some reason I can’t help but feel safe with him.

***

    The next morning I can’t help but feel an odd emptiness. I turn and see I’m alone in Vernon’s bed. All of the bunks are empty, they must be at practice. I check my phone and I have two texts from him.

Boys and I are at practice almost all day call or text me when you need anything.

Actually call me when you wake up, hope you slept well ;)

    Why is he such a sweetheart. I press call and wait for him to pick up, no answer. I go to call again but he’s calling back.

    “Good morning.”

    “Morning, how did you sleep.”

    “Pretty well, you didn’t have to stay there the whole night.”

    “Y/N, I didn’t want you to be alone. Plus we were on my bed, where else was I going to sleep?”

    “Um the couch, aka the place I’m supposed to be crashing on.”

    “Ew gross.” I shake my head, this bitch.

    “Vernon! We still need to nail the last part.”

    “Sorry Y/N, but I gotta go I’ll stop by and bring you lunch, there’s cereal in the pantry. Talk to you later.” Before I can reply he hangs up. I have no clue what I’d be doing without him right now.

    He really does keep his promises. At one o’clock he brought over some ramen for the both of us to eat.

    “Here you go again making me feel helpless.” He laughs running his fingers through his hair. I can’t help but notice his resemblance to Leonardo Dicaprio. He sure notices I’m looking at him because my staring end with his words,

    “Yes, I look like young Leo, I get that a lot.” I burst out laughing.

    “How the hell did you know I was thinking that?”

    “It’s the look.” He returns the look to me so I see how it feels. My face turns hot and he smiles at my reaction. “Not very fun is it.” I punch him in the arm. “Ow, you know with all the nice things I’ve done for you I don’t really think I deserved that.” I slam my head down on the table. How has he managed to bring my mood up so much? We continue to eat our ramen and laugh up a storm. I get up to fill a cup with water and he does the same. He walks by with his hands to his side and accidentally brushes his hand across my butt. I tense up and turn around. His cheeks turn crimson red as he apologizes like a child who just broke a vase.

“Holy crap, I’m so sorry I didn’t mean too. It was an accident. I promise it won’t happen again.” I place my hand on his shoulder making us lose space between us.

“I’m not mad, I know it was an accident.” I soon realize our faces were only inches apart and I soon break up that mess before anything else could have happened.

“I’d love to stay here and chat, but I really need to get back to practice.” He proceeds to back out of the room bumping into anything and everything. I just laugh at the mess that is my life and finally get myself that water.

Hours go by until the boys get back around nine, all sweaty and super wiped out. As they pile in everyone finds something to calm themselves down with. Some occupy themselves with the T.V, others go to sleep, and one of them stays in the kitchen writing on a notepad. I take a better look and I see that the one writing is Vernon. I sit in the chair next to his, and can see that he knows I’m here by the way he tenses up. He lets out a big sigh and closes his book.

    “What were you writing?” Curiosity begins to grow inside me.

    “Just some lyrics.” He seems ashamed of it.

    “Don’t be embarrassed by it.” He just gets up and walks away. “Vernon wait.” I grab his wrist and he pulls me close, close enough where I can hear his every breath.

    “I need to write, too much is on my mind. I want to be alone right now.” He let’s go and I am shocked. Did I really make him this horny? Dino and Minghao walk over to me and tell me he hasn’t been in the greatest mood since lunch. They said he’s been irritable and down on himself.

    “Whenever we had breaks all he would do was write lyrics.” Minghao looks to Dino and he looks down.

    “What happened when you two were alone today?” Dino returns his gaze to the floor.

    “Guys I didn’t do anything to make him this way.” I guess I kinda lied. “He just randomly got awkward and stumbled out the door.” I’m trying to stop myself from going in shock. Something else must have happened. They tell me they believe me, but I don’t know if I believe myself. When the guys seem distracted enough by whatever program was on the T.V I make my way to Vernon’s room. I crack the door open and see him that he’s still writing. I decide to knock to be polite. He comes straight to the door.

    “What do you want?” I’m taken aback by his words. What happened to the polite, caring guy from earlier today?

    “Are you okay? I know what happened earlier was super awkward and I didn’t want to bring it up, but it happened and no one has to know.” He just stares at the ground and doesn’t say anything.

    “I write when I’m stressed,” he mumbles.

    I can see he doesn’t want to talk about earlier so I change the topic with him. “I'm assuming it helps a lot. Do you use life experiences for your raps?” He nods. “Guess I’m going to be a big inspiration for your next couple of songs if you’ve been writing that whole time.” I expected a good reaction but I get a,

    “Shut up.” I try to hide my laughter, but I can’t. I get him to smile, but I can tell he’s trying to hold it back. I know what will break him out of this mood. I start to tickle his waist making him giggle like a little girl. I continue to do so until tears are sprinkling out of my eyes and his. He tries tickling me back, but I’m not as ticklish as he is. It’s not until his hands are propped on my waist do I realize I’ve been sitting on his lap. My stomach flutters and I get off his lap as fast as I can. I hate this so much, calm down feelings. You just broke up with your boyfriend, chill out. He notices your urgency and takes you by the hand.

    “Thank you. You really helped me get out of my bad mood.”

    “After all you’ve done for me, this seems like nothing.”

    “Sometimes the smallest gestures can make the biggest difference.” He smirks and does the hair thing again, making my stomach do flips. I feel my face light up and I turn out the door. All the guys are giving me looks when I exit the room.

    “So, what were you guys up too?” Hoshi raises his eyebrows, making kissing faces. I punch his arm in response.

    “I just broke up with my boyfriend, calm down.” As soon as those words escape my mouth I run to the door of the dorm. I need to go for a walk. I haven’t thought about Carter since right this moment, gosh I hate myself sometimes. The tears start streaming again and they won’t stop.

    “Y/N! Y/N!” I turn around and see none other than Vernon. He pulls me into a hug and I can’t be mad at it. I just hug back and sob in his chest. “It’s going to be okay.” His back rub really helps me snap out of it.

    “I really don’t know what I’d do without you.” He pulls me in one more time before we walk back to the dorm. He tucks me into my nest on the couch, planting a gentle kiss on my forehead before leaving. I can tell he’s never done that before by the way his face gets red afterwards. I hope I can sleep as well as I did last night.

***

    Today is my last full day here, even though it wasn’t the ideal trip, I did meet some of the greatest people in the whole world. The guys promised to do something with me today and they decided on going to the mall. They insisted on buying everything I wanted, which made me angry. They already did so much. In return I bought an item for each member. They refused, but I did it anyways. They all deserved something even if it was little. After the whole day of walking around the mall and shopping, all the guys went straight to bed, taking advantage of the extra sleep. I start drifting off until I hear a  hesitant voice,

    “Y/N, are you up?” I nod and sit up on the couch welcoming Vernon to sit down as well. He takes a seat and looks me in the eyes. “Sorry your trip didn’t go as planned. I know you were really looking forward to taking a break from your life at home. I tried to make you feel content, I really did. I hope you had fun.” I smile and for some reason my fingers run through his hair. What am I doing? By his expression I’m sure he’s asking the same question. I pull him close where I can hear his heart start beating fast.

    “I had a wonderful time,” I say almost in a whisper before planting a small peck upon his lips. He tenses up once our lips make contact but as soon as he kisses back, all the stress is gone. I make my way on top of him and once I do his hands immediately go to my hips. We continue to kiss, not even caring that the members could walk by at any time. I start to make my way to his jaw planting playful kissing along his face. I can feel his breathing become heavier as my lips make their way to his neck, making his grip on my hips becomes more firm. I begin to kiss him more making my hands wander to his neck. They start to travel to the hem of his shirt pulling it off. He shifts positions so now I’m laying on my back and he’s hovering above me. He begins to place kisses on my neck and collarbones, making me bite my lip. I lean down and plant a kiss right next to his ear, “It’s all thanks to you.” He bites his lip and smiles. The look on his face becomes more gentle as he slowly caresses my cheek. It’s not until then do I realize what we just did. I just fucking made out with the bitch 2 days after I broke up with my boyfriend. He can tell by the way I tense up that this shouldn’t of happened

    “Y/N?”

    “Hmm.”

    “Do you want to forget this ever happened?” I hesitate at first but only because I can’t tell if I did this because of breaking up with my boyfriend, or because I genuinely am catching feelings for him. I realize I’ve been making him wait for an answer causing me to nod my head, making us agree to never speak of this again.

    ***

    When I wake up I see the boys all eating breakfast. I get out of bed to scope out the scene. I see so many mouth watering items that I can’t help myself. I make a heaping serving and once I start eating I feel sick. I haven’t eaten well in days and now it’s finally starting to catch up with me. Of course it has to be on the same day I get a flight back home. After holding down my meal I go and change into some comfy shorts and a t-shirt for my flight. While walking out of the bathroom I bump into Vernon. I just give him an awkward glance and you can tell the sexual tension was high, we both stared at each other until he broke the silence.

    “I’m going to miss you.”

    “I’ll miss you too.” He pulls me close, which catches me a little off guard. I decide to take it in and let it happen. I breath in his scent of clean laundry and what seems to be a hint of aftershave. I stayed in his arms for awhile until someone shouts that my cab was there. I give everyone a hug and I receive all their numbers in return. I will most definitely keep in contact with all of them. They helped make my trip suck less.

    “Bye thank you so much!” I am going to miss these guys so much. I make my way to the cab and see that I have received a text. I look at who it was and to no surprise it's from Vernon.

Vernon: Call or text me when you get home, stay out of trouble  :)

Y/N: I will don’t worry

  (p.s I’m sorry if this sucked I tried my best and feedback would be really helpful, I hope you enjoy :)

[killingdoll]

Warnings: spoilers, inappropriate comments

This is one hell of an episode – action-packed, thrilling and above all, sparkling with the familial love and solidarity of the Mikaelson clan. They’re truly the strongest when they fight for their family.

It once again reinforces my belief (not that it needs any reinforcing) that The Originals has a superior team of writers than The Vampire Diaries It’s unfair if The Originals only has 4 seasons (Ms. Plec ‘kindly’ mentioned something about there will be no fifth season in an interview) while The Vampire Diaries managed to sprout 8 while it should have ended after the train wreck that was the fifth.

Anw, back to this gem episode.

I kinda feel sorry (but not too sorry) for the guy Kol ate…

… or the entire bus they chowed down. “I’m so hungry I could eat a whole bus” taken very literally. Five years of no eating does takes it toll.

Did Hayley grab a few bites of her own?

Elijah’s shouting for Kol to eat less noisily like a big brother and Kol, actually hearing him or just coincidentally snapping his victim’s neck

I have a feeling that Kol does enjoy the scream a bit more than considered healthy.

Am I the only one to wonder why Elijah sort of cradles the dead body (presumably drained by him)?

Proper family squabbles. How I miss these?

Kol not so subtly reminds the producers not to kill him the friggin’ THIRD time.

Elijah’s shutting down the arguments by his vow: “We’ll free Niklaus today. Even if I have to burn that city to the ground.” Determined big-brother Elijah is the best Elijah.

See the brief proud look on Freya’s face?

“If we can’t free him, we’ll sure avenge him”. Sorry, wrong quote.

Anw, the vampire Avengers are advancing to New Orleans. Marcel’d better be beware.

Somewhere in Nola, Josh’s having a new, very human and undoubtedly clueless about the supernatural world boyfriend. It won’t bode well for him in the long run. I hope he fares better than Aiden. If he doesn’t, well…

Josh’s expression when seeing Elijah and Rebekah is similar to a person waking up to see two tigers lounging about in his home. His reaction is similar too – staying calm, no sudden movement so as not to provoke them while secretly trying to grab his phone and call 911…

… which is what Josh does, and fails, because one of the ‘tiger’ has a “murderous hunger” that can’t be appeased with pizzas. Duh.

And there’s Marbekah/Rebel argument in the graveyard. I’ve never doubted that Marcel genuinely loves Rebekah (even though he loathes her brothers to death) and Rebekah feels the same. I just love it even more that despite her love, Rebekah chooses her brothers over Marcel because that’s basically what the Mikaelsons and The Originals do, unlike The Vampire Diaries which tended to put way too much emphasis on romance. I cringe every time I read that Matt x Rebekah was cute and how big a waste to let that ship sink. To me it’s just a big, fat yuck that Rebekah had some affection and slept with the one that murdered her brother. And before someone kindly reminds me that Elijah was way too friendly with Elena, Kol’s murderer, I have to make myself clear that it grossed me as well.

Well, let what happened in The Vampire Diaries stay in The Vampire Diaries.

Sofya just has to interrupt Bex’s emotional speech, doesn’t she? Someone needs to remind her a certain Original absolutely hates backstabbing; she’ll pay back in one way or another.

The family’s casually discussing murder in Josh’s presence like he’s thin air

While the rest tries to find a way to break Klaus’s prison, Josh and Kol have a heart-to-heart conversation, or the closet thing to a heart-to-heart conversion, about losing someone they loved. It’d be quite a moment if it weren’t for Marcel’s text and Kol’s right back to threats of murders and destruction.

Josh was lucky Davina really liked him though.

Kol’s tearing through the vampire mooks like they are wet papers for Bex. Vampire mooks: 0, Originals: 1

Someone has anger management issues.

Hearing Elijah saying “brother” with both worry and relief lacing his tone is too much for my Klelijah

Hayley’s offering her power for Freya to channel to break the boundary spell while Elijah standing watch. Teamwork in its finest form.

Elijah’s facing Marcel alone to buy Freya some time despite Marcel’s hatred for him running the deepest

Hayley’s stepping in to protect Elijah, claiming once again to be a Mikaelson

… which of course enrages Marcel as the real reason for Marcel’s bitterness and wrath was because he felt he wasn’t treated as a Mikaelson.

Behold, Klaus’s incredible feat of pulling out Papa Tunde’s blade by himself (plus his subconscious Cami’s help). Almost as good as Mikael, who plucked it out not long after getting stabbed and with no imaginary soulmate’s encouragement. Klaus’ll get better next time for sure.

Klaus’s falling right into Elijah’s arms. Be still my Klelijah

Kolbekah moment followed by Klebekah hug followed by…

The whole family standing united against Marcel. #squad_goals

“That’s what family does. We fight for each other.” Kudos for Hayley.

And “If you want to kill one of us, you’ll have to kill us all.” Kudos for Rebekah.

Just to rub some salt onto the wound is Kol’s sassy remark…

… definitely not a very wise move because, well, considering Marcel could kill them all, why feeds his wrath more?

Actually, I believe it’s Marcel who was gonna lose if he and the Mikaelsons engaged in a full-out battle. Just think this strategy: Elijah, Rebekah and Hayley would fight Marcel (more like stalling him) while Kol and Klaus would protect Freya and probably let her channel them to cast some spell. Remember the sigil she’d created to trap Lucien last season? And Marcel, unbacked by the Ancestors, wouldn’t be able to fight it. Maybe not something of that scale since Freya’s pretty drained after freeing Klaus but a lesser spell to hinder Marcel’s movement would suffice, no?

Anw, no fighting happens as Marcel decides to ‘show mercy’ because he isn’t like the Mikaelsons. Who’re you kiddin’ Marcel? Anyone surviving to this point of the show with them is just like them. He just needs a few situations to see that…

… which the mysterious blue light and threat to the city would happily provide. Vincent’s up to some serious shit this season. Just don’t die along the way, ‘kay?

Klaus’s watching Hope in her peaceful sleep instead of waking her

Last but not least (more like saving the best for last), it’s Cami friggin’ O’Connell. I don’t care if she remains dead, I don’t care if she’s a figment of Klaus’s imagination, what matters is she is with Klaus in his darkest, loneliest hours to give him the strength to break his bondage. Klaus has conjured her to be his sole companion during his days of suffering, and more importantly, Klaus, having known Cami so well, has created this version of Cami that is very much similar to the original Cami; she isn’t afraid of his temper, and she challenges Klaus to face and triumph over his demons. She has literally become a part of Klaus per his promise: “I will carry you with me.” She has gained immortality inside his mind, where nothing or no one could lay a finger on her again. I admit, what she and Klaus have isn’t love. It transcends love to become something much greater, much more lasting. Love fades over time but once you let somebody get a spot in your mind, they’ll stay for as long as you live, and in Klaus’s case, possibly eternity. I’ve always felt Klaus and Cami’s relationship to lean more on spiritual side and this just proves it.

Overally, an excellent episode. Looking forward to Klaus and Hope’s first proper reunion next episode.

[Rant] No Quarter – The Originals 4×02 Warnings: spoilers, inappropriate comments This is one hell of an episode – action-packed, thrilling and above all, sparkling with the familial love and solidarity of the Mikaelson clan.