#and I’m doing that classic spring break thing

[slav-every-day]

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

Stolen Goods 3

Warnings: noncon and other dark elements. As usual, be mindful of your content consumption.

Ft. Lloyd Hansen, petite!pregnant reader

I also beg of you to leave me some tuppence in the form of a comment and/or reblog. You are cherished!

Enjoy, my loverlies.

You hit the back of the trunk with your fist, the tires put to the limit as the man drives without caution. He's honked several times and screeched to many jarring halts. You're trapped in more than just that compartment, bouncing around with the groceries, you're enshrined in a fervour of fear and despair. 

Why is this happening to you? Who is this man? What is he going to do to you? 

Well, what has he already done? 

“Please, sir, I won't tell anyone,” you beg through the back seat, "please. Just take me back--" 

"Do you like classic rock? Jazz?" He asks as the car swerves and he switches lanes. Holy shoot, is he on the highway?  

"What? Please, I promise--" 

"You're distracting me, sweet stuff, you're gonna get us both pancaked by a sixteen-wheeler," he clucks, "just calm down and enjoy the music." 

He flips on the stereo and the local pop station plays. He hums along for a moment, "Ariana, nice." He turns up the familiar top ten and you whimper. 

This is surreal. You really can't believe it. It all happened so quickly. The way he touched you, the way you just stood there and let it happen, then how he just locked you in here! Who does that? Who lets someone do that? Who doesn't raise her voice and tell him to stop? Or ignore him and get in the car and drive away? 

You. You're stupid. You should have been patient and waited for Jake. You should have done so much differently.  

Your tears spring as easily as ever. Your hormones have you always ready to overflow and now seems as suiting as that cat food commercial. You crumble completely, giving up on begging, and bawl. You're going to die, your baby too. 

Maybe that's your fault too. You were so scared when you saw the positive. When you realised the condom broke. There was that split second you wished it wasn't true. When you hoped that it might undo itself. Then you wanted it. You still do. Your baby. Things aren't perfect but you can make them better. 

You jostle with the paper bags, wallowing in your resignation and dread. Time throttles you until it feels like the whole world is on your chest. You hug your belly and apologise to your child. You're supposed to take care of them. 

When the car stops, the sudden dearth of sound slaps you in the face. You sniffle and listen with breath bated. The driver's side opens and dips. He stands and his footfalls stride undaunted towards the trunk. 

You brace yourself. You can't give up yet. The lock clicks and the lid lifts. You push it up before he can open it all the way but he has his hand on your neck before you can leap out. 

"Oh, baby cakes," he squeezes and you cough, "you don't think I'm that stupid, do you?" 

The dimming sky shrouds his figure and he puts cold metal to your cheek, "you don't wanna get yourself hurt. Or the kid, huh?" He presses the metal barrel firmly to your temple, "I don't wanna hurt you either but you gotta give a little." 

"S-sorry," you choke out and latch onto his thick wrist, teetering on your knees as the rest against the edge of the trunk, "I---I--" 

"I know, baby. You're scared. Change is terrifying but I heard you talking to the deadbeat," he pulls the gun away and holsters it. He eases you forward and helps you put your feet to the ground. He keeps a strong hold on you, "you can do better." He smirks, "hi, I'm better, but you can call me Lloyd." 

You gape at him. Is that a joke? 

“And you are...” he enunciates your name. “Sorry about your purse, I tossed it some ditch, but I got the important shit out of it.” 

“Huh?” You blink at him dumbly. 

“Phone’s wiped too. So, I’ll probably just break that down for parts--” 

“Wait, what? Why—please, why are you doing this?” 

“I’m not too sure myself, shortcake, but we’ll figure it out.”  

He slips his hand down to your wrist and pulls you away from the car. He shuts the trunk and the noise echoes off the high ceiling. You look up at the interior of the garage. Several cars are parked in the space. What kind of place is this? 

“Come on, you don’t wanna hang out in here,” he snorts and tugs you to follow him. 

All you can do is let him guide you. You keep your free hand on your stomach as your eyes burn. You can’t give up. You have to keep going for your baby. 

He takes you up a short set of steps and into a house just as colossal as the garage. He looks down at your feet as you stand on the mat. He tuts. Your slides were lost somewhere in your struggle. Your feet are cold and dirty. 

“Hm, well... what now?” He asks. 

“What now?” You squeak. “What do you--” 

“Look, honey buns, I’m not asking you,” he turns and keeps his hand around your wrist, walking you forward as if you’re on a leash. 

You’re confused. What does he mean? He doesn’t even know what he’s doing. What kind of man just does this spontaneously? 

“Erm, Lloyd,” you say softly, “it’s... not too late to take me back.” 

“Ah, but you’re wrong, sweet stuff. It’s way too late,” he snickers. “I scrubbed the traffic cams and the surveillance at the grocery store. It’s all gone. You’re gone.” He stops you in a bright foyer and faces you, “I don’t give my toys back.” 

[thecapricunt1616]

Thinking about College Lip again, genuinely ever since @mouseymilkovich came on the scene I’ve been once again shameless obsessed (Thank you mouse🐁 we say in unison)

TLDR: Once again I haven’t been able to watch shameless in a moment - this is all from my memory & tik tok clips & edits I’ve been obsessively watching that I think lip acts. If it’s not perfectly canon, I’m sorry! Feedback is always greatly appreciated but try to keep it kindly constructive as I’m just a girl in the world already having a hard time and writing is my outlet so - I love feedback and constructive criticism but don’t just say something like “wow that part made me cringe” without adding how I should make it better or something. Sorry for rambling & thank you for listening if you did.

But I’m thinking how pissed he would be if you were good friends/fuck buddies, and he found out that a professor was being creepy with you

(Warnings for BTC: Creepy teachers (power imbalance), Mentions of sexual harassment, Angry!Lip, Drunk Lip )

Okay so I imagine you’re sitting in his dorm one day, talking about the weirdest things that have happened in college. Lip had told you he had fucked one of his professors but called it off, and you laughed -

“No fucking way!!! Professor Simmons literally held me back after class one day and told me if I wanted a better grade on my last essay I could suck his dick!” Shaking your head at the stupid memory and taking a swig of lukewarm beer he had given you hours ago.

“Wait- huh?” He asked, tone now much more serious. You just shrugged, smile fading a bit. Suddenly you felt almost…judged? By the way his lips curled into a bit of a frown when you said that, his brows knitting together in that classic Lip way, ever angry. You’d teased him that he reminded you of the ‘Anger Emotion’ from inside out that you’d taken him to see with Liam over spring break.

“I- I didn’t do it - like- ew!” You laughed nervously, eyes flicking to your lap, cheeks feeling suddenly hot, and your mouth feeling dry. “Hes…so gross- you thought I would like- do that?!” You asked defensively.

“No- what the fuck? Why the fuck would I be questioning you?! That motherfucker is- is married, Tink! And old as fuckin’ dirt!” His voice raises slightly to drive his point home. The use of that nickname, Tink, short for Tinkerbell. He had started calling you it after you wore a dark green mini skirt and brown turtleneck to class one day, the name was quite perfect for you considering your small stature and affinity for short skirts like the cartoon fairy.

You shrugged, picking at your nails and nibbling on the inside of your lip. “I didn’t let ‘em touch me- only you do that. “ you muttered, feeling embarrassed and small now that you felt as if you’d made him worry after you, like he didn’t think you could take care of yourself. He grabbed your chin, making you look at him - his glazed over eyes told you he’d already finished his 7th beer without even having to look at the nightstand.

“Good- cause if he did?” He said softly “I’d fuckin kill em” he assured you, brushing his thumb over your cheek, before pulling you to his chest and wrapping his arms around you, kissing the top of your head.

You sighed softly, nuzzling your face in his neck and inhaling the scent of his spicy cologne, and the stale smell of Marlboro cigarettes that stuck to his skin and clothes permanently. “M’sorry- didn’t mean to make you upset” you said gently, wrapping your leg around his frame and gently kissing his tanned skin, even though he was staunchly Irish - summer did the gallaghers well, maybe not Ian, or Debbie- or, Frannie… but the rest of them, sure.

“What did I say about the sorrys, kid?” He squeezes your ass firmly, before giving you a light spank that caused you to giggle a bit.

“Ok! Ok I’m not sorry, s-“ you stop yourself and he looks down at you with a smirk to which you scrunch your nose and smile big “soooooo not sorry “ you correct yourself and he chuckled, shaking his head and grabbing his beer, finishing it off.

The next time you heard from Lip was the following night, at 4 am. On an unknown number. You woke up in your dorm to your phone ringing and didn’t even bother looking at the name before sliding it to answer, knowing no one in their right mind that didn’t know you would call you so late. “Yeah?” You said groggily into the phone.

“Heyyyyy, Tinker” Lip said into the phone and that woke you up fully.

“Lip- what’s wrong?” You said concerned, knowing he would never be calling you so late unless he was in some kind of trouble.

“I uhhh” he slurred, obviously drunk. “I think I got myself expelled? Dunno…can you pick me up? Just go to my house- tell Fiona I’m locked up. I need 800- she’s gonna give it to you. Make sure you take Ian with you I don’t want you gettin robbed- tell er’ T’take it from the squirrel fund- been stockin’ it f’this shit just in case. ” he explained, of course breaking to hiccup drunkenly.

You quickly stood, pulling sweatpants over your spandex shorts and pulling a hoodie on. “What did you do?! Lip! What the hell how will I survive Trig without you!” You said worriedly, putting on your messenger bag quickly and holding tour pepper spray in one hand ready to pull as you rushed out the door.

“I dunno!! I’ll tutor you, Tink! Just come get me. M’stuck with this guy that smells like a fuckin sewer.” He groaned.

“Of course I’m coming! I’ll see you soon - don’t get yourself shanked!” You hung up, frustratedly beginning your walk to the L

You were shivering by the time you were pounding on the Gallaghers door, finally Fiona opens the door “WHAT?! WHAT WHAT WHAT!!!” She screamed on her way down the stairs, and when she opened the door to see you shivering there in a hoodie and sweatpants in the 30 degree fall weather her expression softened.

“What’s wrong with Lip?” She asked, pulling you inside and grabbing a blanket “Jesus- Tink! Your lips are nearly fuckin blue!” She wrapped you up, taking your trembling hands and pulling them to her lips, warming your icy fingers with her warm breath.

“He- he’s in jail? I think? He said s-something about a fund, squirrel fund? Bail is 800 and he said to- to take Ian so I don’t get robbed for it.” You stuttered due to your teeth chattering, and being catcalled and followed for 2 blocks on your walk to their house.

“Okay- yeah. Fuck. What did he say he did?” She tugs you to the kitchen, pulling an old Twinkie box from under the sink and pulling out a huge wad of cash, beginning to count out $800. Your eyes widened, shrugging and mouth dropping as she shoves it into an old IRS ‘OPEN IMMEDIATELY’ envelope before folding it in half and shoving it in her bra and screaming

“IANNNNNNNNN! IAN! GET UP!! YOUR BROTHER IS IN JAIL!”

You flinched a bit at her sudden outburst, and there is pounding footsteps down the stairs “what did he do?” The redhead asks and Fiona shrugs

“What the fuck did he do, Tink?!” Fiona asks again and you shrugged quickly, shaking your head confused

“He- he said he was gonna be expelled?! I don’t know- I- he just- he called and said to come here and that Ian could protect me- and- and he gets really angry I don’t want him to be angry if you come with us-“

She cuts you off and holds her hand up

“He’s not gonna take it out on you he fuckin knows me. Ian go tell Debbie to watch Liam. I need to find fucking pants” she muttered heading over to the large laundry pile on the kitchen floor and digging through it as Ian raced back upstairs to do what he had been instructed.

Fiona thankfully drove you 3 to the police station, thankful for a warm car instead of taking the late night train. When you got inside the station, she thankfully took over.

“Gallagher? Phillip- Lip- Lip Gallagher- here-“ she drops the envelope in the little box that went behind the window. The woman looks at the three of us, then the envelope, then the computer.

“Phillip?” She repeated, unenthused and Fiona nodded quickly. “That’ll be 800, I’m assuming -“ she picked up the crinkled, (slightly sweat damp envelope) that Fiona had tossed into the box “this-“ she holds it up by her bright red acrylic nails like it was diseased

“S’all there!” Fiona nods and smiles kindly, likely hoping her kind demeanor would cause the woman to take pity on us.

“Let me just- count this” the woman opened her drawer, pulling out a pair of black latex gloves and snapping them over her hands before pulling the envelope open and counting out the cash, popping it in the drawer and printing a ticket. “RON!!!” She screeched.

An overweight, brunette man is startled awake behind her sitting in a rolling chair and jumping slightly when he was called. “Huh?! I’m awake!” He barked defensively. Ian and I look at eachother, with a ‘are they fucking kidding?!’ Look

“Gallagher! Paid bail. Cut ‘em” she said and went back to scrolling on Facebook.

You followed the large man when he beckoned you all, back to a cell where Lip was curled up to himself on the bench, arms crossed over his tummy and head to his knees protectively while he dozed.

“GALLAGHER!” The man barks, causing Lip to jump with a startled snore. When he saw you his expression softened, jumping up and rushing to the bars, reaching for you. You gave him a hug as the oaf got the cell unlocked.

“Quit scarin’ me like this, Lip” you mumbled into his greasy cigarette stale curls.

You got Lip back to the Gallagher house, helping him up the stairs to his room and setting him on the bed. He was utterly exhausted, nearly so drunk he was passed out. So you went down to the kitchen, and made him a double pack of beef ramen and came back upstairs, giving it to him to eat and distract him while you tended to his wounds.

He nearly burnt a hole in his throat wolfing it down, hissing and trying to swat your hands away when you cleaned the beer bottle glass from the gash In his forehead. Through mumbles and coaxing kisses you’d found that he hunted down the same Professor Simmons that beckoned you for a blowie in turn for a better grade - and nearly beat him to death.

After he’d told his wife what he did- she begged him that if they didn’t press charges- she wouldn’t go to the police for the assault and Lip agreed. As awful as it was to have your somewhat situationship bleeding in front of you - it made your clit throb slightly that he went out of his way and nearly ruined his life in your honor. Like some kind of fucking knight in shining Armour.

The next morning, lip woke up to yet another throbbing headache, atop of a dislocated nose, and a nearly bitten through tongue that made him wince when he barely even swallowed. “Open” you beckon gently, already having been awake for hours, changing his bandages and ever-so carefully tending to his wounds.

He doesn’t even try to open his bruised black eye, not even caring to know what happened to him and weakly opens his mouth.

“You gotta learn when to call it quits, Gallagher” you said gently as you placed 3 extra strength Tylenol on his tongue and gave him a mouthful of water to swallow it down.

A/N P2: I know this isn’t my usual MO? I am sorry haha. I wanted to try writing something sweet and angsty. Sorry I just wanted to try something new! LMK if you liked it, xoxo- Capri ❤️

[absolutebl]

TOP 10 BL Trends of 2023

This is just me with my analysis hat on. 

1. 2023 = the year EVERYONE went outside their lanes

Everything went topsy-turvy this year in BL. 

For example, Korea gave us agonized yearning and outright queerness (The 8th Sense, The New Employee) while Japan served up soft office workers and tender family (Our Dining Table). 

The BL world went askew for a while, especially in the spring of 2023. 

Not that we still didn’t still get Korea’s soft angsty bubbles or Japan’s “what are you doing and why does it hurt?” kink-fests. But there were quite a few BLs that made us chronic watchers sit up in confusion and wonder if Korea was dabbling in Taiwan’s territory or Japan in Thailand’s. Then they fudged the kisses and we were like... okay, back in familiar territory. 

In contrast, Thailand stayed course-correcting for the damage they’ve done in the past with tropes (2022) and self referential meta criticism (2021), but also almost aggressively returned to their BL roots after last year’s series of shockers. Certainly, they are reexamining those roots, transplanting some, aerating others. But they really went back to classic Thai university and high school BL and pulps in a big way in 2023. 

Taiwan is always difficult to gage because they produce so few but they seem to have stuck with what they do best with no deviation while producing more this year than they have in ages. I’m happy for that, why change a good thing? But there is a tiny part of me that really wants them to hit it out of the part with a quality piece soon. For me, We Best Love still reigns supreme, but I would really like the HIStory franchise to give us that level but longer - like a happy version of Your Name Engraved Herein. I think Taiwan has the chops to give us something as good as The 8th Sense or Old Fashion Cupcake but in their style, and I would like to see them exercise their talent for good rather than just profit. 

I know, what a very odd thing for me to say. But if any BL is going to break into the mainstream American market, I genuinely think it’s most likely come from Taiwan. 

Vietnam and the Philippines are falling behind, in general. They just didn’t bring out very many shows in 2023, and what the brought out tended to fub the endings. This is forgivable in Japan (because of their style and quality) but not what watchers want in the lower production value propositions. In other words, if you do a pulp, you can’t mess up the ending (by romance standards). that doesn’t look to be changing anytime soon. 

2. The Office Romance Dominated

After years of Thailand serving us an endless (and slightly bland) buffet of university (and a few high school) BLs, this year Korea was basically like...

Ofiice. We like the Office. It’s cheap to film we can use grown up actors, acting (mostly) their actual age. 

And yeah... it totally worked. 

To be fair, Japan has always given us office live action yaoi from the beginning (they had the source material) but this year everyone else, including Thailand, seriously started playing in this setting. 

3. Boys Danced with Boys

The darling @heretherebedork​ was a big fan of this one, and I rather like it myself. Prior to this boys dancing together was very very rare in BL, but this year we got way more than our fair share. It was lovely. 

Never Let me Go

My School President 

Bed Friend 

The Day I Loved You 

Step by Step

Be Mine Superstar

Tie the Not 

Dangerous Romance

I think there were a few more. These are the ones I remembered to write down. 

4. Getting (even more) Meta With Tropes 

BL has been getting more and more meta over the past few years but this year they really focused in on tropes specifically. Calling out their own biggest and most favorite tropes in a massive way, especially Thailand and especially GMMTV. 

Like they tunneled in on damaging tropes with Bad Buddy and the like over the past 2 years, and now they are just having fun with us. 

I mean they just started the dancing trope and already they are calling it out? That’s like rapid-fire regurgitated meta there, GMMTV. 

5. Cameos are the norm now 

Taiwan has always loved cameos but in the past the other countries have been show and steady with only one or two a year. (Unless Japan does a parody.) 

This year Korea got in on the game.

Korea rarely starts trends but they do adopt smaller and lesser known existing ones and make them super popular. 

This year they did that with cameo couple appearances, even borrowing a few of Thailand’s pairs (TutorYim and MaxNat traveled north). They did it so much I stopped tracking. Love Class 2, Why R U?, and Jun & Jun were the heaviest hitters. 

Taiwan, of course, came back swinging. Kiseki was the gum-ball machine of pair cameos. (In Taiwan mafia = gay.) 

6. We are entering the cross pollination age

The number of remakes picked up or started this year was startling, not just countries revisiting their own content (Thailand, Japan) but countries revisiting OTHER countries stuff.

Lemme explain...

Korea has started remaking Thai content (Why R U?) alongside cameo'ing Thai pairs.

Thailand is doing Korean IP (My Dear Gagster Oppa) and has 2 Chinese ones slated for next year. 

GMMTV acquired a lot of Japanese IP (Cherry Magic, Ossen, and My Love Mix Up) - and then had problems distributing it. 

This is probably the most surprising trend for me. Especially the Japanese stuff. I would have thought these properties well outside of Thailand's price range (even GMMTV's) not to mention Japan’s legendary IP issues (I swear I typed this pout before the pulled TayNew’s excellent Cherry Magic). 

Also why not option some of the older popular manga instead? Bet that's much cheeper. (I did see a NEW Thai translation of Finder into Thai, which is 90s yaoi, so I have my fingers crossed on that front.)

I shouldn't be too surprised. 

Thailand is running out of y-novel content. Their publication industry is just not robust enough (I was just talking to a friend about this at length recently). But I didn't think they had the funds to option, especially from Japan. 

Perhaps the option deals are for peanuts?

7. Korea got cheeky

I’m not sure quite how else to put this. 

After finally figuring out boys can kiss, Korea started to do not just higher heat but playful higher heat, with more aggressive word play and linguistic innuendo, like they are entering their racy rom-com teenage years (Why R U? Love Class 2 and Jun & Jun in particular.) 

I guess: Welcome to your BL teens, Korea? 

It’s cute of them. I am very much enjoying it. 

And now that comedy is warming them up, we get to see them play with actual queer burgeoning physicality in shows like The 8th Sense. 

It’s nice. I like seeing Korea stretch its wings. They still stick to their bubble, but that bubble seems to be expanding. 

8. The Amnesia Trope is back

And I, for one, would prefer to forget about it. 

9. BL got trendy 

I’m not quite sure how to articulate this category but basically we started seeing a lot of “modern” romance trends out of the west (like a/b/o) show up in our BL. Not a ton and sometimes quite small, but there has a been a steady rise of things like: no seme/uke, femme gay, out gay, condom use, messy gay. 

We also got an increasing range of sub genre frameworks (like mafia, office setting) that’s moved BL pretty firmly (even in Thailand) out of school and into the workplace, whether actual working is involved or not. 

It’s not to the point where it feels like we get more non-school BL than school BL (if I include all countries in this assessment).

Japan, in classic Japanese fashion, quietly started moving in the opposite direction. It’s what they do. 

10. The Vampires are coming 

This is an announcement trend, which I don’t usually report on but it’s so CLEAR. 

So last year we had a spate of announcements of possible Omegaverse (2 from China, 1 from Japan, 1 from Thailand - the only one that’s happened). 

This year we got 5 Vampire (or vampire-esk) Thai BLs announced including one from GMMTV. 

Whether all 5 will actually get made is unlikely, but having had (basically) none prior to this (Kissable Lips), I’m pretty confident that we will get at least 2 of them. And I wouldn’t be surprised if at least one other country made one as well. (Side eyes Taiwan with interest.) 

Final thoughts

It feels like we are also seeing a decline in BL (both by quantity and quality) from Vietnam and the Philippines. As you all know, I don’t track or really watch either of these two very closely. But it feels like, now, no one else is either. 

I think we have likely seen the BL heyday already in both places and their industries are now on the decline. 

We might be witnessing a thinning in the players in the BL field. 

FYI we had approximately 

136 BLs in 2023

Previous Years

2022: 117

2021: 95

2020: 62

2019: 40

2018: 30 

2017: 44 (China’s last gasp)

2016: 27

2015: 17 (50% micro)

2014: 17 (50% micro)

And that’s it! Let me know in the comments if you’ve spotted any additional trends you want to call out.

Last year, 2022′s trend report

2021′s Trend report

Last Year’s Stats & Predictions

(source) 

[cityofmeliora]

Terzo + being old 👴

PAPA EMERITUS III: Well… I’m not perfect when it comes to remembering lyrics, as you’ve noticed. I’m sorry about that. It’s an age thing, y'know? But I’m sure some of you know the lyrics for this song. The last song. But you know, for an old guy, I’m not very different. My hearing is really, really bad. So I need you to sing really loud if you know the lyrics. Silver Spring, Maryland, USA (September 22, 2015)

PAPA EMERITUS III: So where are you going afterwards? The night is young. Hm? Alright. My hearing is not what it used to be, sorry. I see you moving, and I hear shit, but… Anyways! Orlando, Florida, USA (October 10, 2015)

PAPA EMERITUS III: I am not as young as I look. But I can still tango. But y'know, after a quick, tasty start like this– I mean, we did quite good to start with, right? But you need to know, if I'm gonna stand up for one and a half hours and then... lay down... for even longer, I need to– I need a little break. So now we're gonna do a slow song for you. Malmö, Sweden (February 25, 2016)

PAPA EMERITUS III: Right now, I'm just babbling so the other ones can have a little break. That's the thing– we're not as young as we look. Detroit, Michigan, USA (October 3, 2016)

last quote is hidden because Terzo says a slur. (yes, i also was shocked he said this)

TW: ableism, R slur

PAPA EMERITUS III: Good evening, Los Angeles. The classic Wiltern, eh? So nice to see so many of you here tonight. This is getting a little bit of a nice habit, seeing each other like this, huh? I, for one, like it. How do you like this? Fabulous. Alright. I'm uh. I'm not talking this slow because I'm retarded, but because I'm not really as young as you think I am. Los Angeles, California, USA (October 20, 2016)

[zepskies]

If You Want It To Be - Part 1

Pairing: Dean Winchester x F. Reader 

Summary: When your car breaks down after a hunt, Sam and Dean tow you back to the bunker for Christmas. This time of year gives you and Dean a little courage to be honest about what you both want. And what you want, is for him to see you. (18+)

AN: Here’s one of my entries for @deanwinchesterswitch's TGWRC: Christmas in July event! ❄️ Hope you enjoy Part 1 of 3. (I will release one chapter per week! Possibly sooner. 😉)

Themes: Mistletoe (a classic), eggnog, Christmas dinner

Word Count: 3,900 Tags/Warnings: 18+ only! Bickering, fluff, jealousy, angst, friends to lovers, (eventual) smut.

Part 1: December 23

“I never thought I’d miss my own bed as much as I do right now,” you mutter. 

Though your body’s weary, you manage to heft your duffel bag onto your shoulder. Soon enough, you’ll be out of this craptastic motel.

More specifically, away from the cot that nearly broke your back while you weren’t sleeping on it. Who could sleep on a bed of rusty-ass springs?

But while Sam is already loading weapons and his things into the Impala, Dean seems to be taking his sweet time, fiddling with something by the solitary nightstand in between the two queen beds. Your extra cot is laid out in the corner (may it rot in hell). 

Dean glances up at you at your remark. 

“That’s the first thing we’ve agreed on all week,” he quips. And he smirks when you send him a mock warning look. 

“Don’t mess with me right now. Haven’t gotten my beauty sleep in three days.” You have to adjust your duffel on your shoulder. “What’re you doing?”

Dean’s smirk fades the longer he concentrates on trying to put on his watch. 

“Trying to…damn it, think this strap is done.” 

Sighing, you set down your bag on the bed and sit down next to him on the edge of it. You peer over his shoulder and see that the leather band is indeed broken. 

“Aw, that sucks. I can replace it for you if you want, since I’m the one who wrangled you guys out here,” you say with a frown. 

You called them for backup when you discovered the coven of witches. If you’ve learned anything about hunting over the years, it just isn’t safe to go after a group of those demon-worshipping assholes without help. And it gave you a reason to get back in touch with Sam and Dean…

If you’re honest, it gave you an excuse to see Dean. 

You haven’t seen him in months, but he and Sam came when you called. The three of you managed to take out all four of those bitches, after having to track them down across the plains of Indiana. 

At least it only came at the cost of Dean’s watch. 

“It’s okay. Don’t worry about it,” Dean says. He tries to wave you off, but you shake your head stubbornly.

“Really, I mean it,” you say. “I’ll buy you a new one. Consider it an early Christmas gift.” 

Christmas Eve is tomorrow, and while you love this time of year (and your own bed), part of you isn’t looking forward to going home to an empty apartment. 

Dean looks up at you with a rueful smile. “Really, it’s okay. This one was my dad’s.”

At that, your guilt intensifies. “Oh…guess there’s no replacing that. I’m sorry.”

“This’s just what I get for hauling my ass out here, pulling yours out of the fire,” he remarks. Some humor creeps back into his smile. “As usual.”

“Hey, if anything, I saved your ass,” you tease back, even though you still feel guilty. “That he-witch was about to grate you into Swiss cheese.” 

And then you shot him between the eyes. 

“Oh, yeah?” Dean raises his brows at you. “And when Barbie girl locked you in her cellar, that was what, you taking a nap?” 

Your lips purse in response. You enjoyed seeing that platinum blonde bitch go down hard—with an iron chain wrapped around her neck. Dean held her down while Sam finished her off with two shots to the chest.

Trust Dean to try and take credit for the whole thing. You get up to your feet with a roll of your eyes, collecting your bag. You feel his presence burning behind you as you both head out of the motel.

“I would’ve figured it out eventually,” you say. 

“Right. Where have I heard that before?” Dean says dryly. He follows you to your car and watches you throw your duffel into the backseat. Maybe he admires the curve of your ass in those jeans for a bit too long while you’re bent over.

But his eyes snap back up to yours when you straighten, turning back to him with a wry look. For years, this is how things have always been between you. Playful, sniping, not entirely flirting, but not quite not either.  

Sam then comes around the Impala to give you a friendly hug goodbye. 

“Don’t be a stranger,” he says with a smile. You return it, giving his plaid-covered chest a light punch. 

“You two are the ones with the packed dance cards. I’m lucky I got you guys to even answer my call,” you quip. “I’m down to goddamn smoke signals here.”

Dean shakes his head and pulls you into his arms next. “If we’re screening anyone’s calls, it ain’t you, sweetheart.”

You huff at that, but your smile is more genuine when you hug him back. For a brief moment, you let yourself revel in his warmth, his spicy aftershave, the solid feel of him wrapped around your whole body like a perfect man glove. 

It’s so familiar to you, but bittersweet. Because all too soon, you have to let go. 

“It was good to see you,” you say, a little softer than you meant to. Dean’s lips quirk at a warmer smile. There’s something in his eyes you can’t name when he releases you. 

But with a sigh, you turn and get into your car—an old Ford Focus. 

“You’re really still rockin’ that rusted out piece of shit, huh?” Dean asks, watching you with crossed arms as you climb in. The door creaks loudly when you shut yourself in. You flash him a wan smile and lower the window (with the embarrassing hand crank).

“Since 2003. Good old Hubert hasn’t failed me yet,” you reply. And then you turn the ignition.

It splutters, but doesn’t start the car. 

What the fuck?

Frowning, you try it again. And again. And again.

Nothing. 

The brothers Winchester still stand between your car and the Impala in the parking lot. Sam shares a glance with Dean, who brushes a hand over his mouth as he watches.

Finally, you look up at them with a grimace when your car just dies. Kaput. There’s the sound of pressure releasing, along with your high hopes of making it home tonight.  

“Goddamn it, Hubert.”

That’s how you find yourself a guest of Le Bunker a few hours later, after Dean tows your car all the way to Lawrence, Kansas. 

“You’re welcome to stay for the holidays,” Sam tells you once the three of you make it inside. He leads the way down the winding staircase. Dean follows behind you. 

“That’s right! Tomorrow’s Christmas Eve,” you reply with a smile. 

Your family loves Christmas, but it’s just you this year. Your father is on an extended cruise with his new wife, technically your stepmother. When your dad asked you how you felt about them going on this trip, they seemed so excited about it that you didn’t feel like you could say no. 

So between watching Halmark movies by yourself all day and hanging out here with your friends, there’s really no decision to make. You agree to stay. 

Sam nods back at you and continues into the bunker. He goes on to greet Castiel and Jack in the living room. 

When you reach the ground floor, Dean lays a hand on your shoulder, prompting you to turn around.

“I’ll take a look at your car, see if we can’t get it running in a couple days,” he says.

“By Christmas? That’s a tall order,” you reply with a grin. “Even for Dean Winchester, Un-Certified Mechanic.” 

Dean smirks back at you, crossing his arms. “That a challenge, sweetheart?”

You pull out your best Charlie’s Angels narrator voice. “I guess it is. Your mission, should you choose to accept it.”

His gaze is warm with playful scrutiny, from your dirty sneakers to your jeans and black V-neck top, to the messy ponytail keeping your hair together. But you can’t help but blush at the lazy, damn near flirtatious way he does it. 

“All right. Challenge accepted,” he says, crossing his arms. “What do I get if I win?”

A smirk tugs at your lips. “My undying respect.”

He just hums and leans against the iron guardrail of the stairs, hands sliding into his pockets. 

“Not enough for you?” you ask.

He shrugs, unimpressed, like he can take it or leave it. You step up on one of the stairs and fold your arms on the guardrail, so you can be level with Dean’s eyes. 

“Okay. If you manage to miraculously get my car running by Christmas, you get one consequence-free request,” you offer. He raises a brow at that.

“Anything I want?” he asks. 

“Within reason,” you amend, though you’re starting to blush. It curves his lips.

“No questions asked?” he hedges. 

You think about it for a moment…

“None,” you shake your head. “We got a deal?”

Dean smirks back at you and crosses his arms. 

“Deal.”

Maybe the little bet is silly. You know very well Dean can fix your car in two days. Just as you know you need to keep a tighter lid on your feelings…

Now that you’re here in the Bunker, unable to escape him, there’s too much potential for spillage—of things you’ve long kept hidden.

It just never seemed like he was seriously interested. Even if he ever is, you also know very well that Dean’s not the dating type. And you…you just don’t think you can handle being another “hit and run” for him. 

Or a “sometimes” girl. 

Or even worse, a “when it’s convenient” girl.

If you think too long about it, that would just about rip your heart out.

So you ignore the thought of Dean again for a while. After you shower and change into some pajama pants and a loose top, you pad barefoot into the kitchen. Castiel is there to greet you, staring into a glass of orange juice. You raise a brow at him.

“You okay, Cas?” you ask.

“Pulp or no pulp, that is the question,” he muses. 

“Um…pulp?” you reply. 

He nods and takes a sip. “Pulp is good. Increased levels of Vitamin C. But I’m thinking no pulp is best. It eliminates the possible choking hazard.”

You don’t know quite what to say to that, so you nod. “Yeah, fair enough.”

You pause in your quest for a snack to look around the bare furnishings of the bunker. 

“What the hell’s going on here?” you ask. “It’s literally Christmas Eve. Where’re all the decorations?”

Jack comes in the kitchen, pausing from watching reruns of Judge Judy to join you and Castiel. He doesn’t know you very well, but he’s just as curious about you as you’re curious (and maybe a little wary) about him. 

You know Dean hasn’t totally warmed up to the Nephilim, but he seems kind, and you find his honest, natural inquisitiveness endearing.  

“I know about Christmas,” he says, smiling like he’s proud of that fact. “It celebrates the day of Jesus’s birth. Even though December 25 itself is not historically accurate, society has made up for that fact by intertwining pagan traditions and overbearing commercialism.”

“A very good way of putting it,” you say after a moment, chuckling. “Well done.” 

Jack grins at the praise. Castiel shares an amused smile with you, but his is more fond. 

“I don’t believe Sam and Dean are big on celebrating Christmas,” Castiel says, finally answering your question. 

You cluck your tongue and level both angelic beings with a determined look. 

“Well, that’s just not gonna cut it, guys. If I’m spending Christmas here, we’re doing it right,” you say. 

And with a growing smile, “Buckle up. We’re going to Walmart.”

As it turns out, “doing it right” takes pretty much all night. But you’re impressed with how everything came out. 

There’s now a large tree in the living room (a real one, bought in the Walmart lot of Christmas trees), decorated with three packs of lights, ornaments, and a nice star on the top, with a lacy red ribbon that overlays down the front. 

You worked your hardest on the tree, but you also directed Castiel and Jack with a new tablecloth for the war room table. Red candles in “fancy plastic” gold holders, tinsel and ornaments and several other Christmasy things that now brighten up the entire place with festive wonder. 

And all on the cheap. Though your wallet is going to smart a bit, considering you might’ve gone a bit overboard. Not just on decorations, but on some groceries, a few gifts, and maybe a couple of things for yourself…

You just don’t anticipate later falling asleep on the long table in the war room, with a roll of ribbon curled around your hand and tinsel in your hair. 

You wake up to a hand on your shoulder, gently shaking you awake. You groan, squinting against the twinkling lights, no matter how pretty they are in all their multi-colored glory.

“You okay there, sweetheart?”

“Huh…?”

“You’re drooling on the table. I’m guessing that’s a new tablecloth.”

“Whathefu…” You manage to open your eyes and raise your head, finding Dean smirking down at you. You blink up at him sleepily. 

“Aw shit,” you utter.

“That’s one way to greet somebody,” he intones. 

You just grin with exasperation, but you accept his help in sitting up with a groan. Every muscle in your body aches in protest from having slept on a slab of hard wood. 

His hand doesn’t leave your back until your bare feet are firm on the ground, though you lean on his arm for a minute while you rub sleep out of your eyes.

“Damn, I wanted to see your faces when everything was put up,” you say ruefully. Sam comes in with a smile and two mugs of coffee, one of which he hands to you. 

“It’s incredible! How’d you do all this?” he asks. “And thank you. You know you didn’t have to.”

You waved him off. “I wanted to. Plus, I had a little help.” 

You raise your mug to Castiel as he walks by with an iPad and a multigrain bar. It’s such a far cry from the angel you had met years ago—socially ignorant of human ways—that you have to smile. He returns it. 

“Jack’s still putting the finishing touches on the Christmas village,” Cas says. 

“Village?” Dean frowns. 

“We had him set it up in his room,” you tell him. “He was fascinated by the train part. And the fake snow. And all the little people…”

“Great, another nerd,” Dean remarks. 

“Be nice,” you chide. He shoots you a certain smirk.

“What do you mean? I’m Mr. fucking Nice Guy.”

“More like Scrooge,” you counter. 

“All right, Sweeney Todd. Might wanna fix the nest you’ve got going on there,” he retorts, gesturing at the wild state of your hair. You’re still picking out tinsel. 

You narrow your gaze at him. “Big talk from the guy wearing fuzzy slippers.”

Dean frowns, glancing down and shuffling his slippered feet. In his defense, the floor is cold.

“All right, I’ll just get started on breakfast then,” Sam says, cutting through the familiar bickering with a resigned grin. After a parting amused look at you, Dean follows him into the kitchen. 

“Wait, wait. You don’t know how the hell to make eggs. Let me get in there.”

Rolling your eyes, you share a conspiratorial look with Castiel, who smiles before taking his iPad into the living room. You take the opportunity to shower, brush your damn hair, and fix yourself into an actual human again. 

Suddenly inspired to put some effort in, you pick out a dress for once. It’s not the new one you might’ve splurged on for Christmas dinner tomorrow, but it’s a “just in case” dress you always take in your bag…just in case. 

It’s a black, comfortable fabric with simple long sleeves and a skirt that drapes above the knee. It’s just casual enough to wear around the bunker. But it can also be dressed up with some heels if you need to. This is not one of those times, thank God. 

You even take pains to do your makeup, light on the eyes but popping with a bit of red lipstick that you typically save for going out. Tis the fucking season. 

And maybe you want to wipe away that asinine smirk from Dean’s face. 

When you return to the kitchen, all four men are sitting at the kitchen table, eating breakfast, talking, and drinking coffee. That all pauses when they see you. 

“Morning, again,” you greet them. And you hum to yourself as you grab another cup of coffee. But you stop in your tracks when you realize they’re all looking at you. 

The ones who have tact (Sam and Dean) manage to return to their phone and iPad, respectively. But the angels are a little slow to look away.

“You look different today,” Jack says. 

Your lips twitch at a smile. “A good different?”

“Yeah,” he says, though the way he looks at you makes you wonder if he’s sure. You share a glance with Dean, whose face strains with an awkward I don’t know what to tell you smile. 

You don’t know it, but Dean’s gaze follows you as you putter about the kitchen. The sight of your smooth and shapely legs are enticing, especially the way the skirt of your dress keeps swishing along your thighs. 

Sam clears his throat, catching his brother’s gaze with amusement. Dean’s lips purse at being caught in the act of checking you out, but he swiftly ignores his brother to glance back down at his iPad.  

Shaking his head, Sam gets up after he finishes his breakfast and brings his plate to the kitchen sink.

“You going out or something?” he asks you. “There’s some eggs for you in the pan, by the way.”

You nod at that, grabbing yourself a plate from the cupboard. You’re starting to reacquaint yourself with where everything is in the bunker. 

“No, but it’s funny how you guys seem to think I live in my hunter gear all the time.” You arch a brow at Sam. “In case you haven’t noticed, I am a woman. Capable of wielding lipstick.”

Sam grins, raising up his hands in surrender. “By all means, wield away. You look nice.”

“Thank you,” you say dramatically. He snorts in response and moves to get around you. But that’s when Jack pipes up.

“Oh, look,” he says, pointing to a spot above you and Sam. “You guys are under the mistletoe.”

Your eyes widen. You glance up at said sprig, which hangs from a long string stapled into the ceiling, then at Sam as a blush starts to warm your face. He looks similarly caught off guard. 

“Who put that there?” you ask, cutting your gaze over to Jack in suspicion. His boyish grin is pleased, while Castiel fights a smile of amused embarrassment for you. 

Dean is oddly quiet though. His expression hides behind the hand he’s leaning his chin on, while his elbow rests on the table. You meet his eyes for just a moment, before you crane your head up to look back at Sam.  

You shrug with a grin and beckon to him with your hands. “All right, come ‘ere.” 

Sam’s face is a bit crunched with an awkward smile, but he obliges you by wrapping you up in a friendly embrace. 

You take his face with both hands and plant a sweet kiss on his cheek. You feel his prickly stubble against your lips, but you don’t mind.

“Merry Christmas,” you say with a giggle. He chuckles in response and rubs your back warmly. 

“Merry Christmas,” he echoes, pressing a hand to your cheek. You’re one of those friends he counts as his family, and he’s truly grateful that you’re here with them for the holidays. 

You have similar warm feelings for the gentle giant as you pull out of his embrace. When you glance over at Dean, you don’t know what to expect to find. By the mild grin he’s sporting, he just seems amused by the whole thing. 

You inwardly shake your head at yourself, wondering if you should’ve just kissed Sam. Maybe then you’d figure out where you stand with Dean. 

And once you know for sure he doesn’t see you in any kind of way, then you can try to actually move on from Dean Winchester. 

You’re forced to sit across from him after you heat up your eggs and make some toast. He’s just scrolling through his iPad without a care in the world. 

But in reality, you couldn’t know that Dean is fighting not to look at you. Because the truth is, he didn’t like what he just saw…the obvious warmth between you and his brother. 

“We need stockings,” Jack notes, before he turns to you. “Wasn’t that on your list?”

“Ooh, you’re right. I think I forgot,” you reply. “To be fair, trolling around Walmart on three days of no sleep is ill-advised at the best of times, let alone at 12:00 a.m. on Christmas Eve.”

Sam chuckles at that. While Dean gives a slight smile, he’s still quieter than usual.

“Want to go grab some at the store?” Jack asks. You rub your chin in thought. 

“Well, I wanted to get started on baking some cookies for later.”

“I can take him,” Sam offers. Jack nods along with the idea.

“Okay, great,” you reply.

“Need anything else while we’re out?” Sam asks. 

“Hmm, nope! Nothing that I can think of,” you reply. Sam nods, and soon after, he and Jack leave for the store. 

You turn to Dean, intending to ask if he’d like to help you in the kitchen. Realistically, you know he’s not going to do much but stand there while you do most of the work, but it’s a chance to hang out, just you and him.

You’ve almost worked up your nerve to ask when Dean gets up from the table with his iPad. He says nothing to you before he starts toward the garage, making you frown. 

“Hey, Dean,” you call to him. 

He hesitates, turning back to you with an expectant brow. You want to ask him to stay but…ultimately, you lose your nerve. 

“Gonna work on my car?” you ask instead. He flashes you a smile that doesn’t completely reach his eyes. 

“Un-certified mechanic, at your service,” he dryly quips with a lazy salute. 

You quirk a smile as he continues on his way, but somehow, you feel unsettled. You turn to Castiel, and you remember the rest of your plan for today. 

“Hey, Cas.”

“Yes?” His head raises from his book.  

You give him a conspiring smile. 

“I have a special mission for you.”

AN: The stage is set, folks! Let me know what you thought of Part 1. 😘

Next Time:

Jack’s sprig of mistletoe once again lies above your head. Your heart trips up a bit faster as Dean looks down at you again, with a smirk. 

“My turn,” he remarks. His eyes are flirtatious, but they hold a hint of something deeper. Something you can’t name. 

“Are you gonna go for my cheek like I’m your cousin?” he says.

His raised brow is a challenge, and it makes you bite the inside of your lip. He can be so annoying, but you suppose he wouldn’t be Dean if he didn’t make things more difficult for you.

Keep Reading: PART 2

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[arachpool]

University AU where the mauraders are dorm mates in Uni with maybe one class between the four of them so they don’t see each other for most of the day during or between classes, but always hang out with each other on their free days or spend hours after they’re home together just talking.

One day James stops talking about this pretty red head from his Organic Chemistry class (which is his second time taking the class, Remus is on his first and James asks Remus for help all the time, the both of them are nearly failing it), and starts talking about this moody, black haired freshman in his Classical Lit class, and the other guys are severely lost, but they don’t question it much.

Up until Sirius puts it all together. It’s spring break and he, begrudgingly, goes home for a few days upon request from his nagging mother. Due to Regulus being a freshman and sans vehicle, Sirius takes him home with him. The first hour and a half of the ride is silent.

“So. Anything new going on?” Sirius asked awkwardly, obviously bothered by the elongated silence. Regulus merely spared Sirius a walled off glance, showing zero indication of openness to conversation. Sirius sucked a knowing breath, leaning back in his seat in boredom as he watched trees pass them by on the nearly empty highway.

“Not much,” Regulus finally answered, and Sirius perked up like a dog.

“Any new friends?” Sirius grinned, turning to look at Regulus for a moment. Regulus suppressed a snort at his brother’s dorkiness before shrugging.

“Not really. I’m talking to this guy in my lit class.”

“Oooh what’s he like?”

“Loud.” Sirius glanced at Regulus. “Kind of like you honestly, he talks a lot. He’s always dropping his glasses and he makes a big deal out of it every time and acts like he’s Velma from-”

“OH.” Regulus jumped at the sudden shout, squinting at Sirius.

“Sirius. What the hell.”

“Oh my god!”

“What!!”

“You’re talking to James!” Regulus blinked a few times in secession before sighing and leaning back in his seat, digging the butts of his palms into his eyes.

“Oh, of course you two know each other, you’re practically replicas of each other,” Regulus groaned, and the awkward silence started up again. Sirius massaged at his steering wheel as he thought over the information in his mind, still processing that his best mate and his little brother were talking to each other, and were obviously interested in each other.

Once entirely processing that this boy the group have been calling Moody Boy has been his little brother for the whole two months James has been going on about him, Sirius cleared his throat.

“So you like James?”

“I thought that was obvious based on the fact I said we were talking,” Regulus returned, a guarded tone to his voice. Sirius spared him a quick glance before focusing back on the off ramp.

“He talks about you all the time, it’s honestly starting to get tiring,” Sirius said with nonchalant amusement, noting how Regulus perked up a little in his peripheral.

“He does? I mean-”

“All the time. He thinks your hand writing his pretty too, which is such an odd thing to pick up.” Regulus snorted a little, rubbing at his knuckles. Sirius smiled a bit, glancing to see Regulus smiling like a dork.

“So you don’t care? That I’m talking to one of your friends?”

“Eh, not really. I trust him, I don’t have a doubt in my mind that he’ll treat you right.” Regulus stared at Sirius for a moment before smiling, sinking into his seat and gazing on the window at the slowly dissipating trees.

“How are You and that Welsh boy?” Regulus asked teasingly after a long stretch of silence.

“Remus, and we are amazing, thank you,” Sirius returned with a snort.

They arrive home within the next hour, which was occupied by sporadic conversation about a range of topics, neither boy really wanting it to be quiet but not truly understanding how to talk to the other.

Sirius allowed Regulus to do the talking to their mother as he stepped out of the house merely seconds after entering, ringing James.

“What’s up. Need a knight in shining armor to come save you?” James teased, and Sirius leaned against the hood of his car.

“You’re talking to my little brother,” Sirius instantly accused, and James sputtered, causing Sirius to burst into laughter.

“Reggie is- oh my god!”

“Reggie? Mm, cute little nickname,” Sirius teased, grinning as he stared at the dark paint of his hood.

“Okay, ‘my moon’,” James shot back, resulting in Sirius to flush a bright red. “Or or or, ‘my star’,” James added, and Sirius hid his face into his palm.

“I actually hate you.”

“Uh huh.”

[machveil]

Will we be seeing Konig in fluffy sweaters or scarves or hats as the seasons get colder? Also may we have a peak at the WIP list? -🐸

so… I may or may not have ~24 drafts right now - that said, I want to say, like, five are done and waiting to be posted/reread. my inbox is also stuffed thank you thank you thank you. I actually have eight of yours all in various stages of being written - Johnny snooping on Simon’s ‘housekeeper’ is the one closest to being posted!

otherwise, I have a wide variety: I have a Neighbor!König ask (🍄), a couple König x M!Reader asks, König having a bus stop crush (🐰), more Loser!König asks thank you sobbing over him, and a couple CoD Headcanons amongst a lot of other things

uuh even though it sounds like I’m drowning in asks please keep sending them in haha, I don’t mind and it’s never a bother. I usually answer random, miscellaneous asks a little quicker (unless it explodes my brain, then it becomes a big fic). Tumblr’s been good about not eating asks so just assume it’s in the works and it will be see the light of day at some point

König, first of all, despises being sick. everything sucks - he gets watery eyes, a stuffy nose - usually results in him breathing through his mouth, and he feels like death. so, when König notices the air getting a little colder he breaks out all his winter clothes. he keeps them in a box in his closest, they only appear for the autumn and winter

König’s mama definitely bundled him up as a child. a big, warm scarf and gloves she made herself, a massive, thick jacket that swallowed him - if König wanted to go outside and it was cold out he had to wear layers. it’s sort of been ingrained in his head, as an adult he has the same mentality. he’s already a big, broad man, but come autumn? his massive, puffy jacket looks ridiculous makes him look even bulkier

König does appreciate the colder seasons though - he genuinely likes wearing sweaters, but he can only do it when it’s in season. he tries to wear thick, comfortable sweaters at home in late spring and summer but he gets too hot, even with the AC blasting. he can maybe get away with wearing a sweater if he’s somewhere naturally cooler, but even then he might start sweating a lot

König doesn’t skimp on warm comfort food during the colder seasons. a classic chicken soup, snacking on *erdäpfelknödel and having them as a side with some hot stew. König associates soups with the colder seasons, he’ll bundle up in a warm sweater and call his mama while he cooks her recipes. his mama never writes down her recipes because she knows them (duh, König) so he always has to consult her. he tried writing a recipe down once… she found out and refused to cook his favorite food when he visited home. he had to record himself tearing up the paper he wrote on before she would cook his favorite food again - his siblings constantly bring it up whenever she cooks for him

*I Googled Austrian comfort foods and, god, those look good?? love a good potato dumpling

[hannahssimblr]

As the evening draws in, others arrive at the house. It’s been nice, just Evie and I, for the hour alone that we had, once my family left and I finally showered the smell of grass from my body.

We laughed together while preparing the oven snacks that are now laid out on plates on the table, being picked at by people whose surnames I’ve already begun forgetting. It was sad too, in a way, being happy with Evie, and living out some kind of domestic fantasy where she burns the spring rolls and I tell her it’s okay, because I’m a dustbin of a man and I’ll truly eat anything, and maybe later, before going to bed we would brush our teeth together and flash each other frothy smiles in the mirror. 

I considered kissing a flake of pastry off her lip, too, in a temporary burst of madness, before remembering it would be among the worst ideas I ever had. It was just as well I didn’t, because the doorbell was ringing, and four people from school were waiting outside. 

Now, in the light of the golden sunset, we’re apart, as I, on the lawn, listen to a group of guys talk about the college offers pushed through their letter boxes this morning, and Evie sits with Tara Neary and her gang at the patio table and does her best to include herself. I hope they don’t tell her about the weird stuff I did at school, but chances are, they’ve already been through the highlight reel. 

They all turn to look as the patio door swings open and Michelle comes out and down the steps towards me. To my great surprise, she greets me with a hug. 

“Sorry, we’re a bit late,” she says. “Jen had a thing about her hair.”

“Ah, classic Jen,” I glance over her shoulder, and spot that signature flash of red in the kitchen. I’m uneasy, knowing I’ll have to have a grim conversation with her later, but later is later, and now, Michelle is smiling in a way I’m almost sure she never has, surveying the little crowd that has gathered in the garden.

“A good few showed up after all, didn’t they?”

“I think they wanted to see what the inside of my house looked like, to be honest.”

“Don’t be like that! They wanted to give you a proper sendoff, to wish you well on your big adventure.”

“Oh, yeah. That whole thing.”

“Are you nervous?”

I smirk. “Yeah, it’s my first time on a plane. I’m shitting it.”

She rolls her eyes. “You know I’m not talking about the flight.”

“I’m trying not to think about it, to be honest,” and my eyes, once again, find Evie through the crowd. “I’ll just get on the plane, and I’ll let it all sink in when I’m there.”

“Makes sense, in some sort of way, I suppose.”

“The whole thing is surreal,” I admit. “Like, tomorrow, before midday, I’ll be there. Like, I’ll live there. It seems like too much change all at the same time.”

“It’s what you wanted,” she reminds me. “And if you don’t like it, just come home.”

“I doubt I’ll come home. I think that’d be, like, the biggest failure of my life.”

“Worse than losing me?” She says, and I baulk, before she cracks a grin, “God, I was joking.”

I break into a laugh. “Nah, actually you know what was worse than that? Losing Goose.”

“Oh God,” she covers her mouth with her hands, “the Goose of it all. How could I forget about him? Do you have a theory about what happened?”

I grimace. “I want to be realistic, but that also means I don’t really want to speculate, because, I mean… Most likely…”

“Fucking hell, you know, I’ll never forget that…” 

As we talk, and catch up and laugh with one another in ways that we haven’t for a decade, I lose track of time, and don’t pay attention to the sun that dips below the horizon. The evening moths vanish from the garden, and the stars rise and the summer dies, and my last day in Ireland ends without me even noticing.

Beginning // Prev // Next

Corresponding LG Chapter

[majestyeverlasting]

I'd Follow You Anywhere

Pairing: Joel Miller x Fem!Reader

Summary: Even when the world is falling a apart, it's not all bad all the time. Sometimes you stumble upon those lightening-in-a-bottle nights that make everything seem like it's going to be okay. Even with monumental changes looming on the horizon.

Word Count: 2.1k

A/N: TLOU has my heart right now, and I just really wanted to write something. I hope you guys enjoy! There's soft smut towards the end.

This piece contains 18+ content.

He should be asleep. All three of you should be. But he can’t remember the last time he’s felt this awake. The moon had long come out to brave the sky, a glowing beacon miles above a fallen world. Tonight, you’d managed to slip into one of those rare pockets in time where everything seemed less fractured and more whole.  

The classic rock song emitting from the record player has him tapping the beat onto his thigh like a man well practiced. Ellie watches his hand as her head rests on his shoulder, bruised knuckles and all. Another yawn creeps up on her and she stiffles it into his shirt. 

They’re sitting on the couch waiting for you. 

In the middle of trying to coax him up to dance, you remembered he hadn’t seen you in your new dress. Since he arrived home earlier that evening, the three of you had been caught up eating, laughing, and talking about other things that the dress had slipped your mind. Ms. Wright from across the hall had sewn it for you at a thank you.

She’d been living alone since her husband passed, and you always made a point to check in on her. Sometimes Ellie tagged along too, and enjoyed every second of eating soft mints and listening to the two of you share stories about better days. 

“Alright, I’m about to come out,” you announce. 

Joel startles when Ellie springs up off the couch and goes to stand behind it so she can cover his eyes. When you walk into the living room to the sight, he’s fighting a smile and losing. Ellie looks beyond proud of herself, and you can’t help but let out a laugh infused with nothing but fondness.  

“We’ve gotta do a reveal countdown,” she insists. 

Joel has no qualms with that. Your laughter is close and hers is even closer. It’s all he ever wanted these days. 

“Take it away.” You motion to her. 

“Okay. Three…two…one!” 

She keeps her hands over his eyes, however. Joel huffs in feigned annoyance.  

Having the one up on him was a luxury only the two of you got to experience. 

“You’re really missing out,” you tease. 

A squeak escapes Ellie when he gently grabs onto her wrists. “Okay, okay! Don’t break me.” 

Next thing he knows, he can see. It takes a couple blinks for his eyes to readjust. 

Heat blooms beneath his skin as he tries to determine where to settle his gaze. First it’s your chest and the way the fabric hugs it, then it’s the skin of your legs that remains uncovered beyond the flowy lower half that falls at your knees. 

But it’s your smile that does him in. He clears his throat and sits up a little straighter.  

“You’ve gotta give us a spin now,” Ellie insists.

Joel catches the shy way you wrinkle your nose, as if suddenly registering all the attention on you. 

“Just one, baby.” His drawl makes you give in. 

Upon making it back around, there’s an intensity to his gaze that wasn’t there before. 

“So?” You smooth your hands down the front. 

Pushing himself up, he saunters towards you with his broad shoulders moving in an all too familiar sway. His warm hands find your waist and run down the curve of your hips to admire your shape. He no later dips his head to give you a chaste kiss that leaves you looking up at him through your lashes. So little things made sense anymore, but your love for one another was among them. 

Ellie could see it. Feel it. The excess overflowed and was the very thing sustaining her. You two were her home, her light in formidable darkness. 

As she watches the two of you, an unfamiliar degree of gratefulness weighs down on her and tears gather at her waterline.

She quickly wipes her eyes, and slips out of the living room in case more threaten to spill over. In the hallway, she presses her back to the wall and sniffles quietly enough to assume no one heard. But you do. There’s a Polaroid photo of the three of you taped to the parallel wall. You’re all sitting on the back of the truck bed, and Joel’s in the middle looking famously unimpressed. The beginnings of a smile start on her face. 

An unspoken sense of understanding haloes the room when she walks back in. Joel extends an arm towards her as an invitation to come join your embrace. She accepts it as easy as breathing, nuzzling her face into his chest. 

With both of you in his arms and music still droning low, Joel closes his eyes through a brief exhale. This is everything he was ever afraid of. Not only having one person he’d lay down his life for, but two. It was the type of fear that ached and consumed, but pushed him through every waking second to fight against the odds and endure, survive. 

The type of fear that only existed in the presence of love. 

“I’ve got you two,” he promises. “Always will.”  

Two abrupt gunshots sound from outside. 

Faint apologies arise a heartbeat later, only to be met by someone barking to get back indoors. 

Those had been warning shots.

“Curfew breakers,” you murmur. 

It wasn’t an unusual occurrence, but Joel had grown uncharacteristically stiff. In fact, he’d been on edge all week when it came to patrol officers. 

Yesterday, a young officer approached you to compliment your contribution to the newest mural in the children’s center, and Joel had pulled you closer to his side without so much as thinking. It was as if he was anticipating punishment to befall the two of you for a reason unbeknownst to you. 

You hadn’t asked any questions then, but now your curiosity has been renewed. 

Rather than commenting on anything in front of Ellie, you settle on scratching his lower back in that comforting way he likes. If she notices, she doesn’t say anything. 

Instead, she glances towards the clock. “I didn’t realize it was almost midnight.” 

“Tired?” you ask. 

“A little. But I’m not gonna be the weak link by turning in first.”

“You’re already the weak link,” Joel says with no bite. 

Ellie’s mouth falls open as she pulls away in feigned offense. “I could be the strongest one here but we just don’t know it yet.” 

He can’t help but admire that spark within her. “You might be, kid.” He means it. 

She disappears to her room after a chorus of goodnights, leaving the two alone. 

Joel’s hands return to your waist, this time with a more charged sense of need. He leans in to kiss you, but you cup his cheeks to stop him, beard rough against your palms. 

“Hey,” you say. “Is everything okay? 

Something flickers across his expression, but disappears like a vapor. 

“Mhm.” A distracting buzz of electricity courses through you when he reaches around and gives your backside a firm knead. 

His voice is gruff when he speaks next. “So goddamn gorgeous.”

You try to muster the strength to ask if his previous answer was truthful, but his lips finally find yours and all you can think about is his scent, his warmth, the feel of him. He’s a walking incantation that has settled beneath your skin and taken your judgment captive. 

In a calculated motion, he breaks from the kiss and sweeps you up bridal style. The butterflies in your stomach grow in number as he carries you to your bedroom, shutting the door with his foot behind you. 

With your back flush against the mattress and legs hanging over the edge, you look up at him in a way that’s past innocent, face glowing in the dim light. Your smile is sweet as anything, and your dress has ridden high on your thighs. Joel studies you with a degree of restraint that makes him burn. 

His muscles stretch and ripple as he pulls his shirt over his head and tosses it aside. He’s battered, bruised, hairy, and everything you want.

As if at an altar, he drops to his knees between your legs. It’s clear he’s not in the mood for chit-chat considering the immediate way he turns his face to kiss along the skin of your inner thighs. With a calloused hand, he pushes the dress up for more access and his index finger finds the cotton of your panties. 

He traces over the fabric, making note of every squirm and breath hitch. There’s nothing rushed about his movements and that makes you all the more sensitive. When you lift your hips, he understands you’re asking him to take off the one article keeping him from where you need him. 

The air of the room initially feels cool against your heat, but the warmth returns when he circles your clit and runs his fingers through your folds in a way that makes your thighs jump. 

He’s caught off guard when you reach down to push his hand away. 

“Can we fast forward?” you breathe. The sincerity of your tone makes him flush as stands back up to his full height. 

It felt good to be wanted. 

Before he has the chance to do it himself, you sit up and begin working on his belt, freeing it from the loops and letting it fall to the floor with a dull clink. Joel pulls his jeans and boxers down in one go, and you hurry to pull your dress over your head, repositioning yourself on the bed. The mattress dips as he crawls overtop of you, and he takes a moment to palm your breasts before aligning himself at your slick entrance. 

You reach up to smooth the furrow between his brows. “And you’re sure everything’s okay?” you ask. 

Rather than offering a proper answer, he eases himself into your warmth and you’re forced to welcome him with fluttering lashes and a heavy sigh of pleasure. He feels halfway guilty for deflecting yet again, but you feel so good around him that he’s able to get lost in you instead. His thrusts remain steady and deep so he feels every little detail there is to be felt. You hook your legs around the back of his thighs and grip his biceps so he has no choice but to stay close—as if there was anywhere else he was planning to go. When he feels you clench around him, he picks up the pace. 

“Oh, God, yes,” you breathe, closing your eyes. “Just like that.”

Pleasure swells within him like a wave awaiting the moment it can crash onto the shore. He bites back the groans that want to crawl up his throat because he can’t afford being too loud with paper thin walls. The way you look beneath him, all dazed and dreamy, makes it nearly impossible. He’s never met another person who makes him feel this turned on, this desired, this needed. 

You were as good as they came. Kind, and principled, and unbelievably selfless. Things were only getting worse in the QZ, and the thought of you—and Ellie, for that matter—falling victim to the immorality of a broken system was something he refused to see manifest. That’s why he had to get the two of you out of here. He already had it all planned out, but had yet to tell the two of you.  

That’s why he’d been so on edge.

“Joel,” you quietly praise, breath fanning over his lips. 

He hadn’t even realized he’d touched his forehead to yours. 

With immeasurable tenderness, he kisses you and reaches between your bodies to thumb at your clit just the way you like. 

You shudder beneath him and dig your nails into his skin, leaving behind crescent indents. A few breaths later, the world is fading in and out as you let go, pulsing around his length in strong waves. It takes so much out of you that your muscles have gone limp by the end. Joel finds his own release in the midst of it all and can’t stifle his low grunts in time. But he feels so high and out of his body that he doesn’t care. 

When his breathing begins to grow even, he pulls himself out of you and you whimper at the loss. The mattress squeaks as he falls onto the bed alongside you, your gazes remaining on each other. You blink dreamily while he barely blinks at all, afraid he’ll miss something. But you’re being more studious of him than he assumes. 

“Now will you talk?” You run a gentle hand through his hair, scratching at his scalp until he shivers. “There’s nowhere else to hide.” 

So he tells you about his plans, praying to God that you meant the words you’d spoken to him all those months ago. 

I’d follow you anywhere.

-

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[accio-victuuri]

there are a lot bits and pieces still going around and being discussed about the hengdian clownery. personally, the most interesting is the fact that where wyb is supposed to be is 15 minutes away to where xz is staying in hengdian — and the timeline we are now piecing together. 🧩

where wyb was supposed to be is not actually inside “hengdian world studios” but as good as. to those who are confused because what people are posting is that douyin has him located in “dongyang” last 2/18 and allegedly last 2/2. well, this information below may explain why:

XZ is staying at Radisson Hotel which is where WYB also stayed when he did LOF and Luoyang. XZ used it too when he was filming YGY and this filming time was when an AUX appliance ( endorsed by WYB ) was found sent to the hotel. So you can say that they are familiar with this place so if there is somewhere to meet then this is their best bet. I’m pretty sure this place is discreet and employees may be given NDAs by companies that have their talents staying there. In this case, a VIP client like Xiao Zhan will not be there and continue to do so without specific arrangements done for him.

there is also a comment from someone who is familiar with Hengdian, that this hotel is close to the expressway, like 3-5 mins away. so it is convenient if you need to move around. we don’t really know anything about WYB’s movie or whatever project he is doing, but seeing this, it’s most likely in Zhejiang. this makes sense cause when the news about the location was out, others tested it and wyb was no longer 7km away but 30km. meaning he has left the hotel and posted on douyin on his way back to work. this is a classic meeting up on their part when their locations are close.

2/2 - WYB’s douyin IP is turned off. This only means his IP will not be visible in his profile, but his location can still be tracked when he posts something ( allegedly ). So it could be because he went to HD or they have plans of meeting up so it’s best to be safe.

2/5 - XZ went to Hangzhou to film his performance for BRTV spring festival gala. XZS shared a behind the scenes of that and one thing cpfs noticed was a particular suitcase. the comment was hilarious actually cause the fan was asking why the suitcase was so old and beat up 😂😂😂

turns out, this looks really similar to a suitcase wyb used back in 2016. it makes sense that it’s beat up and covered in different things now. i know that wyb is not the only person who can have this suitcase but this is just how cpns go. 🤷🏻‍♀️

my clown mind also likes the idea of wyb being there. it’s not as notorious as hengdian world studios with all the paparazzi. the place xz shot this at is pretty lowkey, so wyb can blend in if he visits.

2/9 - GG posted a selfie which has it’s variety of cpn speculations on it’s own. however, looking at it with what we have now — this makes more sense now:

the second photo shared by xz is really a clue. the ybo art was also so focused on how the ornament was placed. maybe yibo was the one who placed that? and it’s why xz was so fixated. ☺️

and so they were both quiet for the duration of the holidays. xz breaking that with the 5th day for the god of wealth — which is a stock video. i don’t fault him for that tho, he is free to relax.

2/13 - WYB has added some love songs to his qq playlist and the subjects of it : “accompanying is the longest love confession” and being happy despite of a cloudy day? It could be he is missing XZ, especially that Valentines Day is the next day. Maybe he traveled to closer to XZ on 2/14. Take note that XZ is continuously working on the drama, he only had a few days completely off.

2/17 - XZS posted a series of photos that some of his solo fans said is different from what was shared last year. It can be they couldn’t do any new materials because XZ was busy with work + WYB is there. Who knows when they will be able to spend this time together again. I like the idea of their staff respecting their time alone together. They both deserve it 🤎

WHICH LEADS US TO 2/18 when the whole wyb in hengdian issue came up. ⭕️

This may be expanded once we get more clues but this is what we have so far.

-END.

[jq37]

The Report Card – Fantasy High Junior Year Ep 1

We're SO Back

School is back in session y’all!!!!

Fantasy High has returned to us after a long break and I am thrilled to come out of my recapping hiatus to bring back the Report Card for Junior Year! You know I could let my favorite chaotic high schoolers go un-analyzed! 

This episode wastes no time in getting started so neither will I. Brennan makes what I think is a very strong narrative choice by starting us in media res at the end of a classic Bad Kids adventure. It is the summer between Sophomore and Junior Year and the party has spent the last four months hot on the trail of the dreaded Night Yorb.

We catch up to our Intrepid Heroes in the Red Waste and they’re trying to catch up to the Night Yorb which is a big, eldritch, manta ray like monster who threatens to plunge the entire world into darkness, creating a very slow (but still effective!) apocalypse! The Night Yorb is flanked by its groupies, made up of members of the many cults dedicated to it (collectively known as “Yorbies”).

As I said, the Bad Kids are hot on its trail, in (and on) the Hangvan. Gorgug (who has been leaning more into his Artificer vibes lately) has outfitted the top of the Hangvan with a solar lasso that can be used to capture and reel in the Night Yorb so that Fig and Adaine can defeat it with a magical sigil. I’m gonna quickly run down where everyone is and what they’re doing:

Adaine and Fig are both standing on top of the Hangvan in order to spring the sigil when the time comes. Adaine is also joined by Boggy and a new addition, Moggy the Doggy (aka, Mordekainen’s Faithful Hound), which is a very round, very cute, very invisible Pomeranian looking dog. 

Gorgug is also up top with them because he’s manning the solar lasso. 

Fabian is inside the Hangvan along with Baby (aka Wretchrot, aka Fig’s screeching blood imp who has no mechanical benefit unless she takes another level of Warlock as Brenan keeping reminding us) and Ecaf, a mirror with a sultry voice that Fabian is *heavily* flirting with, much to everyone’s discomfort. It’s tres Narcissus. (Also, ha, Face backwards. I see you Brennan).

Kristen is in the back with Fabian and Riz is driving, even though he is WAY too small to effectively be driving a Gorgug sized van. 

The Hangman–Fabian’s trusty motorcycle/hellhound–is out in front of the Hangvan.

Also Squeem is on the roof with the others! Beloved, fan favorite Squeem!

Yeah, so this episode does a thing of pretending like we’re jumping into the last episode of an arc that we’ve seen every episode of and introducing characters in a very Sam Reich, “He’s been there this whole time” way even though it’s their first appearance. I think it’s very funny and it reminds me of that Community episode where they’re all flashing back to episodes that never aired. But anyway, I mention this so that if I mention a name and you’re like “Whomst?” it’s probably just a bit, you’re not forgetting a major character.

Anyway, we’re joining this chase already in progress which means our kids are hurt and down spell slots but their opponents are as well. The distribution is pretty uneven–Adaine is way less hurt than Fabian and Kristen for instance, which honestly checks out (curious how they decided on that though). 

Because this episode is just one big battle sequence for the most part, I’m going to follow the precedent I set in the recaps for The Seven and just give the highlights in bullets and then do an analysis on where all the Bad Kids are right now at the end:

Murph comes in hot, using his first action of the new season to shoot his gun and doing 30 points of damage with a 27 to hit. New year, new Murph! 

Siobhan invokes the corn cuties debacle from fight one and all the falling off the tables that happened. Clearly, a bit of Adaine’s oracle energy is rubbing off on her because the next thing that happens in that Fabian decides to jump on top of the Hangvan to cast Faerie Fire on the Night Yorb (which has shrouded itself in magical darkness), rolls the first Nat 1 of the season, absolutely eats it, and gets run over by Riz–narrowly avoiding going down. He’s ultimately fine–The Hangman comes and picks him up–but it’s not a very auspicious star from Master Fabian. 

Emily and Murph have a cute moment of womping Brennan back to back by using Silvery Barbs to make him reroll two attacks on the Hangvan–one of which is a crit–and then giving each other the advantage on the next roll.

Kristen is a real pillar in this encounter–holding up the Circle of Power spell that allows her friends to ignore big chunks of damage that absolutely would have dropped them. But throughout the entire fight, her patron goddess, Cassandra, keeps trying to talk to her and Kristen keeps leaving her on read–we’ll get more into that in a bit. 

Adaine comes in clutch with a Nat 1 portent roll to stop the NIght Yorb from resisting Gorgug’s attempt to reel it in further. Truly, the best time to roll a Nat 1 in this game. Divination Wizards are awesome!

We learn that “Don’t Speak of the Night Yorb” is more than just a silly bit when Fig realizes that saying its name makes it heal up which isn’t great because they’ve been *very* cavalier about invoking its name. 

Squeem gets a big emotional goodbye with Gorgug on top of the Hangvan, heroically leaps off to fend off some Yorbies…and then rolls a 2 and totally faceplants. No! Squeem! Beloved fan favorite Squeem! They already had to revivify you once! 

On the Night Yorb’s turn, Brennan does an attack and shakes so many dice that it sounds like maracas. It’s 61 points of damage and squishy wizard Adaine goes down, but everyone else stays up–large in part due to Kristen’s aforementioned Circle of Power. (Siobhan, describing how bad her saving rolls were zings two separate friends saying, “It was Fabian level nasty. I fucking Murph’d it.”)

Luckily, Fig and Gorgug are up on the roof with Adaine so she does not go sliding off the van when she goes down. They catch her before she can fall. 

At this point the Van has sustained a lot of damage so Murph reminds the teacher that they have homework/Brennan that they have to roll for a mishap. That turns out to be the breaks blowing out. Now, all the Van can do is accelerate! It’s just like the movie Speed!

Two more characters who we totally know and have been here this whole time show up to help–Balthazar and Duggan McCann! A cool grizzled veteran and a centaur cowboy. Riz immediately starts doing cool guy banter with them because he’s somehow convinced them that he’s cool (which he is for the record, just in a completely different way lol). Unfortch, Baz almost right away gets eaten by the NIght Yorb. Who’s gonna take care of his litter (?) of parrots?????

 At this point in the fight, everyone gets a ping on their crystals, reminding them that school starts in three days. This stresses everyone out more than the fight that they’re currently in. 

Fig brings up Adaine with a Healing Word but she immediately has to do Wis save with the rest of the party. She and Fabian fail, but once again Fabian is saved by fear negating effects of his dad’s eyepatch. So Adaine starts to have a panic attack about the fact that she’s fighting the Night Yorb while standing on the roof of a moving vehicle which, real talk, very normal and valid reaction. In fact, probably concerning that she’s reached a point in her life where that *isn’t* the default reaction. 

The Hangvan is coming up on a jump it’ll have to make to continue following the Night Yorb (and it can’t even try to stop because the brakes are cut). Riz fails the roll which means that the van is probably going to fall on its side. Adding insult to injury, a pillar of rock falls and is going to crash into the van, doing even more major damage. 

Fig watches this, and almost dissociates, feeling the weight of the entire summer taken from them to do this quest. Feeling so so tired. Feeling the fact that even if they win, they’re just gonna have to go back to school and adventure some more. A piece of magic she’s been holding inside of for a long time flickers and she hears an enticing voice whisper in her ears. “If you would take me, you know what you would save.” She smells a sour, curdled scent and she knows that if she says yes, she can save her friends. Maybe there’s another way, but she just wants this to be over. “I’m yours,” Fig says. 

There’s a flash of “lemony, yellow, creamy” light (hmmmm) and the rock stops falling. The Hangvan starts righting itself.

And then there’s a sick gurgle from Fig’s stomach. 

Uh-oh, gang. 

For those of you who are new to these recaps, every week, I give one PC Detention and put one on the Honor Roll for their in-game actions. We’re starting off hot this semester with:

Detention 

Kristen Applebees for Being a BAD Friend to Cassandra 

Like, OK. Faith is complicated. Kristen’s relationship with religion is complicated. Being a cleric is complicated. But notice that I didn’t say being a bad *cleric*. I said being a bad *friend*. To be clear, she’s also being a bad cleric, and I’ll talk about that later. But having understandably conflicted views on religion doesn’t make sliding in your Fantasy Airpods while the being who is essentially a lonely teen girl and who is keeping you and all your friends alive tries to talk to you NOT seem like a giant dick move. Come on girl, get it together. 

Honor Roll

Brennan Lee Mulligan for Being a Great DM!

I realized as I was writing this that I’ve given Brennan Detention but never Honor Roll so he’s getting it today. It feels so good to have him back in the dome with the kids and he drew me back into the world, right away. I’m so psyched that we have a full season of this ahead of us! 

CHARACTER CHECK-INS

Like I said earlier, because this is the first episode back, I want to really quickly check in with all of the Bad Kids and where they are, character-wise. I’m going to do this roughly from least concerning to me to most concerning to me. 

-Adaine: Adaine seems like she’s living her best life. She has her frog! She has her dog! Her character art is so much more chill and she’s coming into her own. This season, I’m hoping we get to see more of her relationship with her sister (yes, I’m a predictable bitch. Sue me) and with Zayn (who is also living at Mordred in her tower) who I think has a lot of potential to be an interesting supporting character with more spotlight. But yeah, go Adaine! 

-Gorgug: Gorgug is making his parents proud (not that they ever weren’t) by taking another artificer level. He’s not a 7/3 Barb/Art split. I love that he’s gone from calling himself dumb to taking on this very technical skill. He also apparently has a homunculus? Fascinated to see what that looks like. 

-Riz: Now that his big investigation is over and he knows his dad is a cool secret agent, Riz has switched his subclass from Inquisitor to Arcane Trickster which means he’s got tons of gadgets and that he’s a ring guy now. Love that for him. He’s very much not a chill person though so I’m very curious to know what the next thing he’ll latch onto is. He the kind of guy who always need something going on, you know? 

-Fabian: Fabian is a fancy, dance boy now (6/4 Fighter/Bard)! But that doesn’t mean he’s any less athletic. I mean, have you ever seen a male ballerina? He still is, however, a total disaster. And I mean that affectionately. I mean, his current love interest (?) is a mirror that is showing a fuzzy reflection of his own face. My guy, what are you doing? Although I will say, idk if that’s more or less toxic than him dating Aelwyn. 

-Kristen: Kristen. GIRL. 

OK, so first of all. There is nothing inherently wrong with getting super jacked and like, respect. But in this context it feels like a red flag. Like the kind of thing you do because you’re on the rocks with your girlfriend or if you’ve recently broken up. I will be *very* interested to know what Tracker is up to as she’d not mentioned in this episode. Last we heard, she was out doing cleric stuff for the Moon Goddess, right? Long distance can be hell on a relationship. (Also, idk how seriously we’re supposed to take this but Ally mentioned the one shot it happened in in this episode so Kristen was also totally trying to flirt with a college girl in that college visit oneshot. Brennan shut it down pretty quick, but it very much did happen). 

Also, speaking of cleric stuff, Cass. I feel SO bad for Cass. Like, a god isn’t owed followers, but Kristen chose that role. She CHOSE it. This isn’t like a Helio situation. Cass wasn’t pushy. She specifically says in this episode that she doesn’t want to be pushy. Hell, she says in the episode where she’s introduced that if people don’t want her around she’ll go away. But Kristen chose to be her follower, knowing what the implications of being the sole follower of a goddess is. Cass is made in her image. That’s how deeply entwined they are. Her goddess is made in her image. In The Seven, we learn that Ost’s god hasn’t talked to anyone in years. Kristen has Cass coming in like a mom offering snacks mid battle and Kristen is leaving her on read! It’s honestly kinda hard to watch her be so blithely dismissive of someone so dependent on her even though it’s played off as kind of a joke. I felt like I was watching a loyal puppy get kicked every time they interacted. 

And like, I said this before, Cassandra is made in Kristen’s image. But specifically, she looks like Sophomore year Kristen. Still all skinny and still in her tie-die shirt and shorts. There is a definite vibe of almost wanting to kill the part of yourself that embarasses you, you know? It feels like she's being mean to Cass but also to herself. 

Also, mechanically speaking, it’s wild to be just ignoring the person you’re getting your powers from like this. Like, this is real Wizard behavior. You don’t have to answer to anyone if you studied for your magic but you absolutely do as a cleric. Does Kristen even want to be a cleric? It honestly doesn’t seem like it. She’s shown a pattern of behavior of chafing at every god put in her path, even the ones she literally made up. I thought Cass might be the end of her searching, but we’re right back on the Merry Go Round. The party absolutely needs a healer though so idk how she deals with that. 

I saw the snipped clip of Ally’s interview about Kristen’s arc this season involving what happens when chaos stops being cute, and I can def see seeds being planted. Fascinated to see how they explore that because this feels like a real ticking time bomb of a situation. 

Oh also, her Dex went DOWN????? GIRL!

Fig: I had a lot more to say about Kristen but Fig has to be last on the list for making a deal with a literal devil lol. Like, classic Fig though, right? This WOULD happen. Emily talked about potentially retiring Fig and getting reeled in by some enticing plot hook from Brennan and it feels like we might be about to find out what that is. I won’t speculate on it too much right now because we’re presumably about to find out but there were a LOT of yogurt themed adjectives when that magic activated which has me very split on whether this is about to be deeply concerning or deeply silly. Or both! It could be both! 

Random Thoughts

I LOVE that we have a proper theme song now. It feels so fitting and I love the opening art and it’s all so cool. The show’s so profesh now!

Also, shout out to @caitmayart for making the new art! It has the quality of a professional and the extra love of a fan. It’s my fave D20 official art so far. 

I don’t know when this feature was added but I love that there is a full transcript you can pull up and search and jump to that time in the video now. That’s gonna be SO useful for me. 

One of my favorite things about Adaine is that she’s generally polite but occasionally she’ll just absolutely verbally decimate someone so casually and this episode she said to the Solesian Yorbie they encountered, “What movie theater were you assistant managing before you decided to become a Yorbie?” Brutal. 

Also love how vehement she was about the fact that Brennan couldn’t touch Moggy, even when she went down. You are absolutely NOT gonna kill that dog Brennan.  

“Object interaction, touch Gorgug’s foot.”

Fig asks Gorgug how they can heal a van and he says, “Take it to a shop for 3-4 days.” Zac, underrated comic genius. 

I really can’t overstate how funny it is that Fabian spends most of this episode flirting with his own reflection. I’ve said this many times but something I love about Lou is that he’s not afraid to make Fabian deeply uncool, even though Fabian’s whole thing is being as cool as possible. 

Kristen says she needs to have an intense conversation with Cassandra when the fight is over and what does that mean? Like a breakup conversation? Which I guess would kill her because then she’d have no followers again? I am, como se dice, concerned. 

Also, just looking ahead, Tracker is also a cleric. A pretty faithful one from what I can tell. I have to wonder what her take on Kristen completely neglecting her goddess and church is. 

I think it’s so funny that Emily was thinking about retiring Fig so she could just ride off into the sunset with her cool rockstar life and awesome girlfriend because Riz’s big thing last year was being worried all his friend would pair up and leave him so for him to accept it and then have his fears validated right away would be like, welp. 

At a certain point, Murph has to roll damage and he rolls 45 out of a possible 50 damage. That’s crazy. Let’s see how long that luck holds.

[annalu86]

First date

“Yeah. I do.”

They stood in Grey’s office smiling at each other for a few more moments before Lucy took a big deep breath.

“Right, I should let you finish” she reaches her hand out and grazes her fingers over his elbow. The motion is quick as a flash but she watches his breath hitch and his eyes widen.

“Yeah, I’ve got hours of work left and you…” he smiled broadly “are a distraction”

Lucy couldn’t believe how quickly and easily they were falling into open flirting with each other. She took three slow steps back, neither of them breaking eye contact. She paused at the door and took another deep breath before walking out of the room and making her way out of the building.

Before she had even got to her car she had her phone in her hand.

Lucy: so, this date. What are you thinking we should do?

The three little dots spring up instantly and Lucy grins knowing he must have had his phone in his hands to respond that fast.

Tim: how about we decide when first?

Before she can reply the dots are back

Tim: if I suggest tomorrow does that make me look eager?

Lucy laughs as she climbs into her car

Lucy: a little eager but I’m not mad about it!

Tim: good because I am eager.

Lucy: you are adorable

She knows he won’t be able to leave the bait and she’s not disappointed

Tim: I can change my mind you know Chen

Lucy: you don’t intimidate me, sir.

She takes great pleasure in picturing his glitched out face as she watches the dots appear and disappear over and over.

Lucy: how about we talk it through tomorrow. I think I’m distracting you again!

Tim: if I don’t finish this paperwork Grey may never let me leave and we’ll be having our first date in the break room with terrible coffee and Smitty in the corner slurping soup. Talk tomorrow Lucy

Lucy waited for a minute in case Tim had more to say before starting her engine and beginning the journey. The whole way home her mind races. This is actually happening. Finally.

She arrives home and instead of trying to sleep she grabs her laptop, climbs on her bed and starts researching. When she finally drifts off to sleep there are many tabs open, restaurants, hikes and more.

Tim wakes before his alarm the next morning, he dresses quickly. He and Lucy are due in to work at the same time but he can’t help but arrive early, just in case.

He beams when she pulls her car in next to his less than 5 minutes after he arrives at the station. They look at each other through their windows before they both climb out.

His breath catches, his heart hammers. He doesn’t know why he feels more nervous than the night before but in the light of day everything suddenly feels so real.

Lucy is standing in front of him, smiling up at him. He knows he should say something, anything but The stupid grin remains.

“Hi” she sounds as nervous and excited as he feels

“Hi” he manages and they stand there. Neither knowing how to move forward and neither really wanting to break the moment.

Fortuitously a colleague walks past and calls a greeting or Tim feels like they would have stayed like that for the whole shift, dopey smiles and soft eyes. It’s exactly the wake up he needed. He gives himself a little shakes and turns to lead them both into the station.

Just as Tim is about to bring up the topic of their first date Lucy starts “So, I did some research”

“Yeah?”

“Mmhmm”

“So what do you suggest?” Tim raised an eyebrow

“I’ve got a list of restaurants, classics, fusion” she pauses and looks up at him “romantic”

“I like the sound of that” Tim feels like keeping his relationship with Lucy a secret might be harder than he expected as he reminds himself to take half a step back. They’ve never been good at ‘personal space’ but the building certainly wasn’t crowded, there really was no need to stand quite so close.

“I made a ‘wild card’ list, too” she added, seemingly unaware of his inner thoughts as she instantly fills the gap back up with a small step forward. “Paintball, shooting range. Those kinds of things, your kind of activities”

He’d kiss her if he could. He will kiss her, not right now but this date is going to have to happen sooner rather than later.

“Send me your lists and the nights you’re free this week” he captures her gaze “I’ll do the rest”

“Ok” she holds his gaze

“I have to go, be safe.” He turns and walks off quickly.

Lucy sends him the lists as promised. He’s managed to find 10 minutes in his day to sit down at his desk and open his email. The message begins:

Lucy: It feels like we’ve waited so long for this, I don’t want to wait anymore. I’m free tomorrow night, I don’t care where we go or what we do. Let’s just not wait anymore.

For a moment Tim couldn’t breathe, the moment Lucy had told him he was the most important relationship in her life had felt, surreal, magical. It seemed like a dream. These reminders that what they were doing meant as much to her as it did to him proved that this was all real.

Tim decided then that he would make this first date special and to do that he needed help.

Aaron was minding his own business, he had paperwork to fill in. So much paperwork.

It meant that when Sergeant Bradford arrived at his desk he was completely unprepared.

“I have a job for you” the gruff voice came from behind his shoulder and he jumped sending papers skidding across the desk.

Aaron scrambled to pull the pieces of paper back into a neat pile “Sir, I’m… yes ok, of course sir.” He turned and looked up into the face of the much taller man “what do you need” finally feeling composed.

“You have connections” Aaron blinked, was that supposed to be a question

“You need my sword guys number?” He tried “I’m not sure if my mom would be happy for me to expense another private jet just yet.”

Tim just glared at him, Aaron was getting used to this look on Tim’s. It was his companion for most of his day.

“Restaurants” was all Tim said, his expression not changing. Aaron smiled broadly, this was his world. His area of expertise.

“Sure! I’ve got contacts at some of the best places in town” his glow of pride didn’t last long as Tim continued to stare

“Tomorrow night, 8pm.” Tim handed him a piece of paper. Aaron opened it, it simply had the names of two restaurants. “One of those”

Aaron’s eyes widened, two of the hardest to get into and most romantic restaurants in the city “for how many?”

Tim’s only response was to glare harder.

“Two, of course” Aaron spluttered “I’ll make some calls” he sat back down at his desk and took out his phone. He looked back up into his sergeant’s face to see it soften a little.

“Thanks Thorsen”

“Any time” Aaron called to his receding back

Well, thought Aaron, they’ve finally done it!

[whereianonymouslypostfics]

Silver Springs Part 10 

Pairing: Wanda Maximoff x reader

Word count: ~10.5k

Summary: Wanda tries to leave her mob life behind to start a family with you

A/N: I’m very impatient and need to post this before I fall asleep. If y’all noticed me post the wrong thing, no you didn’t. Enjoy the angst!

Chapter Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence, death, and heavy angst.

When you hang up a while later, you look to the appointment that’s been added to get a little more information. There’s not much there, but you assume people are working on getting it for you, so you don’t worry about it for now. You have another half hour until your appointment starts so you decide to try to eat something. You grab your water bottle and open it right as your phone rings again. You sigh but answer it to find out you have a walk in. A large dog who was attacked by another dog. When you hang up after saying you’ll be right there you go to stand up forgetting about your water and you spill it all over your desk. You curse as you pick up your keyboard to stop it from reaching the computer as you grab a nearby towel. You start to clean it up before you realize that you’ve soaked your com and you curse again.

“Bucky? Can you hear me?”

You don’t hear anything and you quickly text the brunette that you might have fried your coms before heading downstairs to see this dog. You arrive to near chaos and you curse the fact that you hadn’t taken a little longer to figure things out.

Sometimes you forget how scared some dogs can be. You are reminded of this as soon as you realize that the large dog that an assistant is holding is snapping and trying to lunge at anyone who comes near him. This isn’t something that’s acceptable and you honestly need to talk to your boss a little more about dealing with aggressive pets, but for now you just hurry to grab a big enough e collar that you can throw over this dog to hopefully stop him from biting someone.

You’re also reminded of how scary terrified dogs are when they’re lunging and growling at you. You hold the e collar up towards him and he clearly recognizes them and tries to avoid it, but eventually you slip it over his head and you do it without getting bit.

“Okay, can someone tell me what’s going on?”

Apparently, this dog was in a fight, and despite being the instigator, his victim got in a couple of good bites. The other, smaller dog was dead and that not only depressed you, but concerned you. You're not sure you can send this dog off on his merry way without knowing his situation. So after sedating the dog to get a good exam in you go and talk to his owner to find out as much as you can.

It sounds like a classic dog fighting scenario from what you can gleam from the man’s vague answers and reassurances that it’s ‘no big deal, doc’. Not to mention, his dog is covered in scars on his face, front legs, and hips that are both bite wounds and scratches. Again, you’re at a loss for what to do and you consult another doctor to figure out what the best course of action would be. You both agree to call animal control and have them handle the situation as soon as the dog is treated for his injuries.

You end up running late for most of your appointments in the afternoon due to how involved this case ends up being. You had almost forgotten about the euthanasia at the end of the day when it comes in right before closing. You curse under your breath before running upstairs and grabbing your phone to let Bucky know that you were going to be a little late leaving today.

“Hey.”

“Hey sorry it’s so late, but I forgot to tell you I have a euthanasia coming in now and I won’t be able to leave for a while.”

Bucky insists that it’s fine and that he’ll wait outside for you. You apologize again for breaking the coms, but you promise to have your phone on you at all times.

Mark is the assistant who is with you on this appointment, and you’ve already promised him that this shouldn’t take too long. You feel bad for keeping him here, especially since this is only his third week or so, but he insists it’s fine as you go to get the drugs for the dog. You walk into the room alone first to talk to the owner and examine the moribund dog. You honestly aren’t sure that he won’t just die on his own here, but you’re not going to find out and you bring a technician in to help place a catheter as you go over the process with the owner who just nods silently throughout.

“What questions can I answer?”

When he says he doesn’t have any, but that he’ll want to take his dog home with him, you insist that you can help him take him back to the car. The technician leaves and you and Mark are left alone with the owner. You’d placed the drugs down next to you as you knelt by the dog who had stopped breathing at this point. You’d gotten permission to start and you are about the grab the sedative when the owner speaks up for only the second time since getting here.

“Thank you for making this so easy, Dr. Maximoff.”

You don’t realize he’s said your married name immediately, and you frown in confusion before turning to see him smiling at you. You open your mouth to say something but you don’t get the chance as something pokes you in the neck and you're grabbed from behind.

Bucky sighs as he looks at his watch once again. It’s almost 7 o’clock and he’s starting to get antsy. A few minutes ago, he’d seen the last car leave other than yours from the parking lot. He was certain that you were done at this point and he was getting worried. About 20 minutes ago, two men had come out hauling the euthanized dog to the client’s car. He’d watched them stick it in the trunk and he frowned at both the idea and the visual of that, but he’d just looked away before watching the assistant head back inside.

The client left, and then the assistant left a little later, but you had yet to come out. He knew you were on that appointment, so he decided to give you until 7 before calling you. He knew you were eager to get home and you would let him know if the plans had changed.

He sighs again before reaching into his pocket to grab his phone. He calls you and settles back in his seat as he listens to the phone ring. By the fifth ring it goes to voicemail and Bucky’s frown deepens. He hangs up and calls again, only to get your voicemail a second time. He decides to go find you himself because if everyone else is gone, no one will care.

He gets out of his car and locks it before heading to the yard. The fence around it is always open, and the door into the clinic behind it isn’t locked up until later at night. He walks into the clinic and waits and listens to confirm no one else is here. He looks to the dog runs and pokes his head in to look for you. You’re not there, but Boone is and he barks and jumps up when he sees Bucky. The brunette lets him out and gestures for him to follow.

“Let’s go find your mom, Boone.”

Boone whines as he hurries through the empty building to the stairs. He’s been in here exactly once before and there hadn’t been anyone here at that time either. It was eerily quiet as they walk up the stairs. All of the doctors’ offices are empty, and when he gets to yours and sees your things are still there, he becomes more confused. He takes them with him as he walks back down the stairs and looks in the empty exam rooms before coming to a room that’s still shut. He knocks, but when no one answers he opens it carefully. When Bucky sees what he assumes is a dead dog lying on the floor he runs back out to his car. Boone follows him and he jumps into the passenger seat as Bucky dials Wanda’s number.

“Hey Bucky.”

“Wanda, I think someone took Y/n, I need you to track her. “

Wanda drops the drink she was holding and the glass shatters in the sink. She doesn’t pay it any mind as she scrambles to open the app in her phone.

“You think?? What happened, Buck?”

While Wanda’s checking for your location Bucky quickly explains what happened today. First you spilling water on your coms and then you having to stay late for a euthanasia.

“She told me about that. How do you know it was him?”

Bucky tells her about how he saw the dog in the clinic just now, but that the client had definitely been carrying something to his car in a body bag. Wanda’s panicking by the time Bucky says this, and it only becomes worse as she realizes where your trackers are. Your phone is at work as is your car. The one in your shoulder, however is somewhere downtown. Only about 30 minutes away from the clinic. She gets the address and gives it to Bucky before she claims that she’ll be there too.

“I need to talk to Steve and Nat but I’ll meet you there.”

Bucky’s nodding as he starts his car before peeling out of the parking lot.

“Okay, I have Boone with me. I’ll let you know when I get there.”

Wanda thanks him before she’s running out her door. She just manages to grab a jacket, an extra gun and her keys before she’s calling Steve and letting him know what’s going on. He says that he’ll call Nat and they’ll all meet Bucky at your location.

Wanda is freaking out and hates that she considers going to see Vision before leaving to find you. She has no idea what happened today, but it’s all part of his plan. She makes a detour to the basement and storms down the hall to the room where Vision’s being kept. She throws the door open and starts speaking before she even knows if he’s awake.

“Where did you tell him to take her!?”

Vision looks up lazily and frowns as he’s just returning to consciousness. He’s exhausted and he’s lost a lot of blood in the hours that he’s been down here. He jolts awake when Wanda slaps him across the face to get his attention, but she only glares at him expectantly.

“What?”

She’s losing patience with him and she pulls her gun out before holding it to his forehead with a growl.

“You either tell me where Rumlow took Y/n in two seconds, or I’m putting a hole in your head.”

Vision just stares at her for a moment then he shakes his head before he speaks. He realizes that his time is up and he’s not going to get another chance to have Wanda as his own. He’s lost her already and he’s not sure what else he could do at this point. He sighs in defeat before he shoots Wanda one last smile.

“He’s going to do worse than kill her.”

Wanda shoots him and is out the door in nearly the same second, and she doesn’t look back as she races to her car. She’s already going through all of the scenarios in her head. You’re not going to get out of this scot-free and she may not get there in time to stop Rumlow from killing you. As she gets in her car and it roars to life, she just prays that Bucky gets there before her.

You’re still very sedate when you are handcuffed to a chair. You don’t know where you are, and your eyes refuse to focus as your head rolls back and forth between your shoulders. You realize eventually that you’re in a chair and being held in place by something cold, but beyond that you can’t identify it. You open your eyes and groan in pain before you realize you’re not alone.

“Nice to officially meet you Dr. Maximoff. I don’t think we’ve been formally introduced.”

You focus on a figure in front of you. It takes you a minute as you see three of him at once before your brain finally settles enough to recognize that the person in front of you is not the last person you saw. You can’t remember how you got here from work. You’d been doing something, but somehow, now you’re here.

You take a moment to stare at the brunette who’s practically leering at you. He’s older than you, maybe 5 years or so, and he’s got a mustache, short hair and a few scars. You don’t recognize him and even if you weren’t drugged, you’re convinced you wouldn’t know who this man is. You try to sit up more or even stand up but you realize that’s not going to happen as soon as you try. You look down at your arms and you scowl before looking back to the still grinning brunette.

He takes a couple of steps towards you and it’s then that you notice the large knife in his hand. You try not to flinch as he raises it to your eye level but you’re still a little groggy so you can’t help but jump slightly.

“I’m Brock Rumlow. I’m sure your wife’s mentioned me. We’re really good friends.”

Even without looking at him you pick up on the sarcasm, it’s practically dripping from his voice at the last statement. You recognize the name immediately and try to see this guy as the one who trespassed on your property and shot up your house in the middle of the night.

“Y-you shot my dog.”

He just laughs at this before nodding and scowling at the thought. He wasn’t sure why Vision had gone about things the way he did. He honestly had just wasted a lot of time and pissed Wanda off instead of won her attention. Hell, she had probably killed him at this point and Rumlow was just glad that Vision paid him up front.

“Yeah, that was pretty stupid. He told me not to kill him, but to hurt him just enough to make you suspicious. A waste of time if you ask me.”

He’s close to you now and you don’t realize why until he circles the chair you’re stuck to and stands behind you. You flinch again when he touches your back and you’re about to ask what he’s doing when he speaks up. You try to get away from him but realize it’s just silly to try. You’re handcuffed and there’s no way you’re getting out of here without some help.

“Speaking of wasting time. I need to get this out of you.”

You have no idea what he’s talking about, and you continue to struggle as he starts to rub your shoulders.

“What the fuck are you doing??”

You don’t get an answer from him but he stops for a moment and you briefly think that he’s not going to do anything bad. You see him reach into his pocket for something but you don’t realize what until he’s holding it in front of your face. You’re still waking up from the sedative and you’re slow to respond to the familiar voice.

“Say hello, doc.”

You don’t realize he’s talking to you and you just frown in confusion before you hear your wife’s voice. You stiffen and try to open your mouth to respond but you’re too shocked to.

“Y/n? Are you there? Talk to me please.”

You squeeze your eyes shut before shaking your head with a groan. Your vision is only slightly clearer as a result.

“Wanda?”

Wanda feels her heart start to race when she hears your voice confirming that you’re with Rumlow. She starts to drive faster, but she’s still too far away to stop whatever is about to happen. She’s about ten minutes away and she just hopes that Bucky’s closing in on your location.

“I’m on the way, Y/n. I’m only ten minutes away.”

When Rumlow laughs Wanda’s knuckles turn white from her tight grip on the steering wheel. Wanda’s considering getting out of the car and just running, but she knows that won’t be any faster. She’s in the city now and can only go so quickly. She takes a second to text Bucky ‘ETA’ as Rumlow speaks up. Wanda almost drops the phone and considers running the red light she’s at when his words register.

“Oh, don’t bother, Wanda. We’ll be done by then.”

You stiffen further as Rumlow’s words hit you like a cold shower. You get a better look at the knife that he’s holding and you gasp as he grabs your shirt and pulls on it before he starts to cut it. You go stock still afraid that he’s going to take it off completely, but he stops once he exposed your shoulder and you’re confused once again. You hiss at the feeling of the cold metal against your skin and then you quickly curse when you feel it cut into you.

“Fuck.”

You clench your teeth at the same time that Wanda does as she looks to the text that Bucky just sent. He’s three minutes out. You can’t stop yourself from groaning as Rumlow cuts deeper into your shoulder against your shoulder blade and you can’t hold back your pained screams when he doesn’t stop. You have no idea what he’s doing and neither does Wanda as she just listens to you scream in agony. She’s running another red light and is only a few minutes away when she hears from Bucky again.

“Rumlow! Stop now and I may not torture you before killing you!”

You can’t hear Wanda over your screaming and tears start running down your face as Rumlow carves up your back. He doesn’t stop until he hits what he was looking for. He peels your skin back, ignoring the curses you let out as he digs out the small metal chip that Wanda’s used to track you for years. He smiles as he walks away from you and tosses it on the floor with a smile.

“Got it. Now how will you keep track of your wife?”

You’re breathing heavily and still crying when Rumlow says this so you’re not really able to register his words immediately. You take a deep breath before you hear your wife threaten Rumlow again. You hear something slam on the other end of the phone and Rumlow must realize he’s running out of time because he grabs his gun from his hip quickly.

“Any last words, doctor?”

You can think of a dozen things you’d like to say, but you’re in too much pain to form words. You just glare at him before you brace yourself. You try to block out the sound of Wanda shouting and pleading with the brunette, but it’s difficult. When Rumlow raises his gun and aims, you close your eyes and take a deep breath.

It hurts a lot more than you thought it would. You’ve never gotten shot before, and you’re eternally grateful for this as the bullet tears through you and hits the wall behind you. You start to feel dizzy and everything sounds muffled as you grow limp in the chair.

“Y/n, no!”

Wanda’s running as fast as she can at this point, and she doesn’t stop despite feeling her breath leave her lungs at the sound of you getting shot. She needs to get to you and get to Rumlow before he escapes. He needs to die for this and she wants to be the one to do it.

Rumlow just smiles as he looks at you slumped over and bleeding out. He heads for the door behind him to leave. He’s done his job and now he can disappear again until Wanda gives up or he has time to slip away from her reach. He goes to open the door but he’s stopped short when it slams open in front of him. He stumbles back slightly and in the same instant he’s shot dead by Bucky who’d run all the way here after hearing him shoot you.

“Y/n!”

The first thing he notices is all of the blood. It’s covering the floor around you and leading toward the door in bloody boot prints.  It’s still dripping down the chair you’re sitting in motionless and Bucky feels his breath catch at the sight of you. It’s not until he hears footsteps behind him that he snaps out of his trance. He runs towards you and tries to take stock of the damage. Your head is against your chest and he doesn’t see an exit wound which he’s grateful for, but the amount of blood tells him that he still has to worry.

“Holy shit.”

Bucky turns when he hears Nat’s voice but he quickly turns back to their friend in front of him. Bucky’s phone is ringing, but he doesn’t notice as he looks at the wound on your shoulder before managing to lift your head and feel for your pulse. Nat grabs his phone since he’s too distracted and answers it before practically throwing it on the ground. She grabs her bag that’s got basic first aid, but looking at how much you’ve bled, she’s not sure it will be enough.

“Bucky, please tell me you’re there.”

Nat nods as she looks to you and has to hold back a gasp at what she sees. Bucky’s confirmed that you’ve been shot in the abdomen and at that same moment it hits the both of them that you’re still breathing. Blood falls from your lips and Bucky’s quick to shoot through your handcuffs to lift you out of the chair.

“We’re here, Wands. She’s alive, but it’s bad. We’re bringing her out now.”

Wanda stops in her tracks on the stairs before trying to figure out what to do. She wants to see you, but she’ll be more helpful once they get you outside. She asks what floor they’re on and Nat says they’re on the third floor but they’re headed down the stairs now. Wanda’s about to turn around and head to her car, but something occurs to her and she stops short.

“Where’s Rumlow?”

She waits for what feels like an eternity before she hears hurried footsteps on the stairs and Nat’s voice comes in through the phone as well as above her.

“He’s dead, we’ll get Steve to take care of him.”

When Wanda sees Bucky and Nat come running down the stairs with you, she feels her breath leave her lungs once again. You’re bloody and unconscious in Bucky’s arms and Wanda’s already hanging up on Bucky to dial another number.

“I’ll call Dr. Palmer.”

Bucky looks a little uncertain and Nat’s already shaking her head as she follows Wanda down the stairs. They’re trying to figure out where to take you and since they’re over half an hour from the compound they might have to go to the hospital. Wanda doesn’t realize this until Nat says it but she curses before pushing the door to the parking lot open.

“I think we need to go to the hospital, Wanda.”

Wanda opens the back door to Bucky’s car knowing he’ll drive faster before getting in to help him lay you down. Boone jumps out of the car with a series of high-pitched whines, but Wanda ignores him. Nat’s wrapped your wound to stop the bleeding, but the bandages are already starting to turn red. Wanda takes off her jacket to cover you when she realizes how cold your skin feels. She reaches in her pocket to grab her keys to give to Nat as she asks for them before she shuts the door. The other redhead’s grabbed Boone at this point and started to drag him back to Wanda’s car. He’s near hysterical as he tries to break free to get to you, but Nat mutters a command to him that only gets him partially calm but it’s enough to get him loaded into the car for the ride to the hospital. Bucky’s already in the front seat and starting the car as he shouts over his shoulder to Nat.

“We’ll meet you there!”

She just waves at him as she gets into Wanda’s car, but Wanda doesn’t notice as she looks down at you worriedly. She takes a moment to breathe and look at your injuries carefully. She can tell you’re bleeding all over her jacket and the seat from a wound on your back that she realizes is from Rumlow removing your tracking device. She knows she’ll have to find a way to explain that to you, but for now she’s more concerned about the larger injury.

Even without being in the room, Wanda knows that Rumlow was close to you when he shot you. She’d expect nothing less from a man who in the past had always tried to do the most damage possible. The wound has bled profusely and you’ve turned sickly pale and it’s making Wanda nervous. She feels your pulse and is only worried further by how weak it is. Wanda doesn’t realize she’s crying until one of her hands finds yours and she squeezes it tightly.

“Please be okay. Please, please, Y/n I need you to be okay.”

The ride to the hospital seems too long, and she just watches you breathe for the entire time that is in reality only about ten minutes. When the car comes to a stop, Wanda jolts slightly before she gets ready to help move you. Bucky stops her short though telling her that someone will be out to grab you in a minute. She doesn’t get a chance to tell him that she’s not waiting when a door opens nearby and four people come running out of it. One’s pushing a gurney while the other two have various medical supplies in hand and the one in the front has something on a clipboard.

Wanda helps Bucky lift you out and you’re quickly deposited on the gurney and taken inside. Bucky and Wanda follow as the one nurse starts taking notes.

Wanda barely hears what she says, but later as she’s watching you get stabilized and then wheeled off to surgery, she’ll remember the words. Female, early 30s, gunshot wound to the abdomen with stab wounds to the back.

What really sticks with Wanda though when she’s standing next to Bucky in your room with the nurse, is the question she asks last.

“Any other health concerns we should know about?”

Wanda can’t think of any to save her life, and it’s after a prolonged pause that Bucky says two words that shoot through Wanda like lightning.

“She’s pregnant.”

Steve was just returning from making sure Vision’s body was taken care of when he gets a call from Nat. Apparently Rumlow had been working with someone who posed as a client from at your work to kidnap you. You disappeared and Bucky, Nat and Wanda were all going to look for you. He’d been put in charge of calling the police and filing a report against the vet assistant at your work who had helped him. You weren’t conscious to tell them the name, so he’d given the name of the clinic and then the lead doctor’s phone number for them to investigate further.

It wasn’t until he heard that you had been shot and Rumlow was dead, that Steve left the compound. It was getting late and he knew that he had to get someone to take care of Rumlow, but he left that be for a few minutes as he called Bucky.

“Steve hey.”

Steve can tell that his friend is tired and stressed just from those two words and he fears the worst as he listens to what Bucky has to say.

“How is she doing?”

Apparently, you were in surgery and it wasn’t going well at all. You had lost a lot of blood and you were at risk of kidney and brain damage if your blood transfusion didn’t work fast enough. They hadn’t heard word on anything else yet and Wanda was appropriately beside herself at the uncertainty of the entire situation. The doctors hadn’t committed to an answer on your prognosis at this point and the only thing they had told Wanda was that you’re likely to lose the baby, if you haven’t already.

Steve falls back against the driver’s seat with a curse at this news. He feels horrible about the possibility that you and Wanda, all of them really, were so excited about this only to have it ripped away so soon after. He can’t imagine how Wanda’s feeling and he tries to think of what their options are.

“Has anyone contacted Pietro?”

He and Bucky were usually on the same page and he claims to have already called him and he’s on his way.

“I’m worried about her, Steve. She’s just been sitting in silence and staring off into space. She’s not even crying.”

Steve frowns at this because he’s seen Wanda get emotional before. He’s seen the entire spectrum of positive and negative emotion from the redhead. When she was distraught, she could behave similarly to how she did when they confronted Vision. She would scream in anger and resort to violence if necessary. Steve had only seen Wanda like she is now a couple of times. The first was when the Maximoff parents had died and Wanda and Pietro became orphans. The second time was when Pietro had gotten into a horrible car accident and almost died.

This had been while you and Wanda were married and luckily, you’d been there to help her through it. Steve hopes that Pietro will be enough to get her through this. Luckily Bucky says he’s not too far away that he should get there before him. Steve decides that since you’re still in surgery, and most of the family is flocking to the hospital, he’s going to grab dinner to bring to them. Despite appreciating his presence, Wanda really needs her brother, or you. Honestly, she needs both of you right now and Steve just prays that by tomorrow she’ll still have the two of you.

Wanda’s sitting in a private waiting room staring at the wall across from her. She’s been doing this for close to two hours since you went to surgery, and the only interruptions have been from nurses that have stopped by periodically when there are updates. There has only been one real update and it was not a good one, and Wanda’s been silent ever since. She was told that you may not make it. That your body is struggling to deal with the amount of blood you’d lost. The term the doctor used was vaguely familiar to her, you’d know it for sure, but the important part of it is that you’re in trouble. They were doing everything they could, but it was up to you at this point.

The kicker was that not only was she at risk of losing you, but she’s almost certain you’re going to lose their baby. It wasn’t your fault and she wasn’t mad, at least not at you. She was angry at Rumlow and Vision, and if she could kill them again, she would, slowly. However, right now she’s just deeply depressed by the idea of losing you and your unborn child. As horrible as it feels, and Wanda’s been struggling with this for a while, she’d gladly pick you over your baby. She wants kids so badly, but not at such a high price. She wants you more than anything, including kids, and she’ll go the rest of her life just being a cat mom if you make it through this.

Pietro arrives to find an odd sight that starts with his sister. She’s staring at the ceiling now contemplating her life without you and kids, and she’s oblivious to her concerned friends that surround her. They’re equally worried about you and Wanda at this point, as they sit in uncomfortable chairs waiting impatiently for good news that may not come. Bucky’s going between staring at the floor or checking on Wanda. Nat’s looking less worried, but she’s clearly concerned as she watches both Bucky and Wanda and the door restlessly.  She’s petting Boone who is just lying down on the floor whining occasionally. He doesn’t know what’s happened, but he knows that everyone seems tense, and you’re not here, so he’s upset.

Nat spots Pietro first and she sighs in relief before glancing to his sister who’s still spacing out. Bucky jumps to his feet and hugs the blonde before filling him in.

“How’s she doing?”

“They’re both hanging in there, but we could use your help.”

Pietro nods as he moves over to his sister after shooting Nat a smile. He sits down beside her, but its not until he reaches out for her that she realizes he’s there. She jumps slightly before looking to her brother with a frown.

“Sestra.”

He says a few things in their native language, and Wanda responds in a way that tells her friends what she’s saying even if they don’t understand it. She’s still frowning until Pietro says something with a smirk and a suggestive tone. She smacks his arm before rolling her eyes and leaning into the older Maximoff’s shoulder with a sigh.

“I’m tired, Piet. Tired and worried. I feel like I failed.”

Pietro knows this without her even saying it because he knows his sister well. She’s blaming herself because she let you go back to work, and someone somehow slipped by Bucky and took you. There’s a lot to be upset about, but it’s no one’s fault but Rumlow’s and Vision’s. He’s glad that they’re both dead, but he would have liked to participate in that. Still, he focuses his attention on his exhausted sister who’s only minutes away from falling asleep on him.

“You know what Y/n would say about this, don’t you?”

There’s no response despite having heard what Pietro says. Wanda just doesn’t have the energy to argue with him right now. She’s convinced that she should have done more and by not doing so, by letting you go back to work, she let this happen. As if Pietro can hear her thoughts, he shakes his shoulder to get her attention. Wanda scowls in annoyance and sits up to glare at her brother, but he beats her to it with a pointed look.

“Wh-?”

“She’d look at you like this, and tell you to shut up and you know it.”

Wanda sighs as she starts to cry at the thought of you saying this exact thing to her. You do it occasionally, when Wanda’s really stressed for no reason and you’re trying to convince her to calm down. It’s reserved for special cases, and this would certainly be one of them. Despite how it initially annoyed her that you did this, she would love to hear this from you right now. Even if she doesn’t believe it.

Wanda nods as she wipes her eyes and rests her head back on her brother’s shoulder. She sighs heavily as she looks to her brother and then her friends who are watching the exchange between siblings.

“I know. You’re not wrong.”

Pietro laughs at this before he just shakes his head and leans against Wanda with a smile.

“That’s the closest you’ll get to saying I’m right, isn’t it?”

Wanda rolls her eyes but doesn’t deny it as she closes her eyes and takes another deep breath. She smiles slightly before looking around the room at her friends. She sighs again before offering them a grateful look. She feels bad that she’s ignored them for so long while she’s been stuck in her head. She’s sure they are worried about you as well.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t thank you guys for finding her. I really appreciate it.”

They both just nodded and were about to speak up when there’s a knock on the door. Wanda immediately sits up and Bucky straightens up as well when the door opens to reveal someone in a white coat.

“Mrs. Maximoff, your wife’s out of surgery.”

Wanda stands up to meet the doctor in the middle of the room with a concerned look. She needs to know how you are doing. She assumes that he would have led with the bad news if you hadn’t made it. That said, she’s been hard-pressed in the past to find medical doctors that she’s liked. Maybe she was just picky, and she held everyone to higher standards than was typical. For this reason, she wishes she could have gotten you to the compound and Dr. Palmer.

“How is she?”

The brunette in front of her frowns slightly and Wanda feels her heart rate pick up. Pietro gets up and comes to stand next to her, but she barely notices as she’s waiting anxiously for the doctor to speak up.

“She’s still not in the clear yet, but let’s give her time before we talk any further about prognosis.”

Pietro cringes and Nat shoots the doctor a glare as Wanda stares at him in shock. Bucky crosses his arms and shoots the brunette a disapproving look, but he says nothing as Pietro speaks up. Wanda’s still trying to figure out how someone told her that you’re still not guaranteed to make it, but that he doesn’t care to discuss it at the moment.

“She’s not in the clear. Can you elaborate on that?”                                              

Wanda’s already trying to figure out how to get you out of here and to the compound by the time the doctor dares to sigh. He might be tired, he might be annoyed, but it’s not appreciated by anyone in the room. Wanda tilts her head to listen to the doctor’s explanation and her faith in him continues to drop with each passing second.

“At the end of surgery, she wasn’t doing well, so she was put into a medical coma to give her time to recover.”

Pietro stares at him incredulously while Wanda contemplates how to kill this brunette in the most painful way possible. She wonders where this guy came from and why they weren’t seeing their regular doctor. She’ll have to ask about this soon. Nat stands up and Wanda realizes that she needs to speak up or else someone’s going to get punched.

“Is she stable right now?”

This question seemed to be more complicated than Wanda intended and the brunette just frowns as he thinks about it for a moment. Wanda’s lost patience at this point however and she’s speaking again before he can respond.

“Assuming that she’s able to stay on the same medications/treatments, would she be at risk if she went for a 30-minute drive?”

The uncertainty on his face was enough to cement Wanda’s decision and Bucky seems to know where she’s going with this as well, and he grabs his phone in preparation. Pietro is also understanding what Wanda’s getting at and he prepares to follow his sister as she storms out of the room.

“I suppose. I wouldn’t advise it, but I doubt she’d decompensate.”

That’s all Wanda needs to hear and she nods before shooting the doctor a displeased smile.

“Thank you doctor, we’ll take it from here.”

Pietro and Wanda head for the door, the former on the phone to call Dr. Palmer, while Nat and Bucky stay back to organize a pick-up team. Wanda’s going to get you out of here and under the care of someone that she trusts as soon as possible. She ignores the doctor’s protests and follows the hall to the first person she finds.

She asks where you are and she’s shown to your room immediately. She stops in the doorway when she spots you and it takes her a moment to move again. You’re hooked up to a lot of different machines and you’re still too pale for comfort as she walks further into the room to see you. Your breathing is slow and deep like you’re asleep, and she takes a deep breath before reaching out for you with a small smile.  

“Hi detka, we’re going to get you out of here, okay? I’ll get you taken care of.”

Wanda squeezes your hand and just kneels at your bedside not bothering to get a chair. She sighs as she listens to your monitors and closes her eyes to try and take a breather. She vaguely hears her brother get off the phone and walk towards her, but she doesn’t pay him any mind until he starts talking. She looks up when she feels a hand on her shoulder, and she sees Pietro smiling at her.

“Christine will be waiting for us when we get there. She’ll be safe and away from that ass.”

Wanda can’t help but smile at this and she nods before standing up to hug her brother. She always gives him shit for being obnoxious and egotistical, but she knew it was really a front and that the blonde wasn’t like that. He was protective, caring and dedicated to his family above all. She loved him an embarrassing amount and she was glad that he was here with her.

“Thank you, Piet.”

By the time they all get to the compound, Dr. Palmer is already there waiting with Dr. Hale, and a few others who have been briefed on what happened to you. The team had already been in touch with the doctor you’d been treated by and they had everything they needed to know. Wanda walks in and watches you get hooked up to everything, but she’s distracted by a hand on her shoulder.

“Wanda, I’m so sorry. “

Wanda turns into the touch and sees Christine shooting her a sympathetic look. She’s pulled into a hug by the other redhead and she sighs as she allows herself to relax. You’re going to be well taken care of now, and she trusts her expertise more than anyone else’s in the field.

“Thank you, Christine, and thank you for helping.”

She nearly rolls her eyes at the younger redhead but she ends up just scoffing before waving her off. She can tell how rattled Wanda is and instead of addressing this and making her more nervous, she focuses on you and your care. She’d called your doctor and asked for all of the information he had, and after going through his surgery step by step, she determined that you were treated appropriately.

“Of course. I want you to know, that despite being an ass, Dr. Frick did all the right things.”

Wanda begrudgingly accepted this with a frown and she turned back to see that you were all set up. You were still undisturbed by the hustle and bustle around you, and Wanda was at least grateful that you didn’t seem to be in pain.

“That’s good to hear at least.”

Christine nods before looking over to you and then turning back to Wanda with an apologetic look.

“He’s smart, but unfortunately his bedside manner leaves a lot of be desired.”

Wanda actually laughs at this because it’s certainly true, and she thinks about how you’d feel about all of this. You didn’t like a good number of medical doctors that have treated you and you certainly wouldn’t have liked this one. This thought makes Wanda think of the last time you both were at the doctor and how disappointed you’d been to find out you weren’t pregnant. Felling this familiar disappointment again causes Wanda’s frown to deepen.

Realizing she’s distracted, Christine turns to Pietro before doing her best to make the redhead relax.

“We’re going to take good care of, Y/n, okay? I’ll let you know as soon as we know more.”

Despite insisting that she wasn’t going to leave your side, and that she was going to spend the night next to you in the hospital, Wanda finds herself back in her rooms. She’s since reunited with Boone who was confused and upset about his mother’s absence. He didn’t understand what was going on, and Wanda wasn’t in the mood to coddle him. She lies down on the bed before thinking about how fucked up things had gotten in the past week.

Vision was dead.

Rumlow was dead.

You were fighting for your life in a hospital bed.

All of this because Vision was a jealous, vindictive person who couldn’t let go of the idea of winning her over.

She becomes furious at the thought of everything he’d put you through this week and over the years. She thinks back to what you said about Vision harassing you without her knowing, and she wants to kick herself for not mentioning it to him. She’d been so distracted by everything else going on that she’d forgotten to address it, and now it was too late. Sure she supposed he was dead, and he wouldn’t be able to lie to you anymore. However, as far as Wanda was concerned, he hadn’t been punished nearly enough for what he did to you, but she was just going to have to live with that. She sighs heavily before she looks around the room and sees Boone staring at her from where he’s lying down on the ground. She shoots him an equally sad look before she pats the bed next to her.

“Come here, boy.”

She waits as he rounds the bed before jumping into your spot quickly. Wanda usually doesn’t let him in bed, but tonight she’ll make an exception. She doesn’t want to sleep alone right now, and Boone is the closest she’ll get to being with you at the moment. She waves him closer and he ventures across the bed to lie down next to her. He places his head on her shoulder and licks her face which makes her smile despite how gross it is.

“Thanks, Boone.”

She’s thinking about when Boone will be able to see you again when she falls asleep a few minutes later. Wanda wakes up the next morning despite being exhausted because her phone is ringing. She didn’t hear it at first. It was Boone who sat up and started to nudge her before she realized someone wanted her attention. She reached out blindly for her phone and checked the caller ID. It’s her brother and she almost considers not answering it, but then the sound of knocking motivates her enough to press the call button.

“Piet?”

“Hey, let me in. I brought you something!”

Wanda sighs in defeat and watches as Boone runs to the front door to greet the other Maximoff. She doesn’t bother with a change of clothes and heads to the door in whatever she put on yesterday with a sigh. Boone’s pawing at the door and she just nudges him out of the way so she can let her brother in.

She’s not expecting to see him there with a cake and a bottle of booze, and she just stares at him as he walks through the doorway.

“Piet, what are you doing here?”

He just smiles at her as he turns around and gestures to the items in his hand. Wanda can’t read what the cake says, but it has blue icing that spells something. She decides to worry about that later and watches as Boone greets her brother while sniffing the cake in his hand.

“I brought you breakfast.”

Wanda follows her brother to the kitchen where he sets down the cake before handing her the alcohol. It’s her favorite drink that she doesn’t have much because not only is it crazy expensive, close to $10k for a bottle, but it makes her very drunk, very quickly. The few times she had it with you had been predictably wild. She eyes the bottle with longing because she’d love to have some now, but it is only 8 in the morning, and you’re still sleeping in a hospital bed.

“Thanks, Piet, but isn’t it a little early? I should probably check on Y/n first.”

He knew that Wanda was going to say that, but he’d already checked on you and you were the same. He mentions this before deciding that he needs to tell her the truth. He suspects that Wanda already knows, but telling her now that it’s certain is something that she needs to hear so she can start to process it.

“I just came by from checking up on her. Christine told me a couple of things to pass to you.”

Wanda frowns as she looks away from the bottle that she’d taken from her brother. She sets it down on the counter and waits for Pietro to get to the point.

“What did she say?”

Pietro pulls out two of the stools at the counter and sits down before gesturing for his sister to sit. She does and she tries not to get too nervous when Pietro sighs again.

“She told me that Y/n probably needs to be asleep for a week before waking her up. She wants to make sure that she’s healthy enough.”

Wanda sighs in defeat at the thought of this. She hates that you’re so hurt and that you are in a coma. Mostly she hates that she couldn’t stop it from happening. She just wants to have you with her again, to hold you close, but she knows you need to get better. She needs to give you this time to get better despite how much she wants you awake right now. She nods in agreement because she’s not going to do anything to compromise your recovery. She’ll make do.

“Okay, what else?”

Pietro hesitates and that’s all Wanda needs to realize this isn’t good news. Not that the last bit was exactly good, but she could at least live with that. She waits as her brother finds the words to confirm her second worst fear.

“She also confirmed that Y/n is no longer pregnant.”

Wanda doesn’t respond immediately and Pietro watches as her face falls and he sees a blip of sadness before the mask is up. Wanda just shakes her head before she looks away and tries to find a distraction. It works about as well as she thought it would, and by the time she spots Boone nearby she already has tears in her eyes. She hates this. She hates it so much, and she wants to scream and hit someone, but there’s no one here but her brother.

She also knows that it won’t make anything better in the end. She might feel good for a few seconds, but the end result will be the same. She’ll feel defeated, cheated and angry for the two of you. She wipes her eyes, watching as Boone comes up to put his head on her leg with a whine. She pets him, not noticing as Pietro stands up and grabs a glass for his sister.

“I’m sorry, sestra.  I know you and Y/n were excited.”

Wanda can only nod with a sad look as she takes the offered glass with a very large shot poured into it. She doesn’t drink it immediately. She looks to Boone who’s practically in her lap now before she takes a sip, not the whole thing because she doesn’t want to get drunk quite yet.

“I had a feeling. I hate to say this and make it all about me, but I--.”

Wanda trails off as she shakes her head with a heavy sigh. She doesn’t want to say this out loud. Even though she’d decided in the hospital yesterday, she still felt bad about admitting that she was more worried about you than your baby. She could live without a kid, but she wasn’t sure if she could live without you.

Pietro frowns as he reaches out for his sister’s glass to take it from her. She doesn’t seem to notice, but her hand’s shaking so badly, Pietro’s worried she’ll drop it. He sets it down before looking back to her sister who’s lost in thought.

“What is it?”

Wanda considers shaking her head and taking it back. She doesn’t want everyone to know this, and her brother is a bit of a loud mouth. That said, with something this important, he might actually be able to keep a secret.

“It’s horrible, and I hate that she lost the baby, but I care about her first and foremost. I need her to be okay. I don’t need a baby.”

Pietro nods at this and is about to tell his sister that he understands when she speaks up again. She’s starting to really worry about how you’ll react when you wake up. Will you remember everything? Will you get angry at her? She has no way of knowing and that’s stressing her out, and she hates that it’s overshadowing her fear of you not waking up at all.

Wanda doesn’t realize she’s crying again until Boone jumps up on her as she’s wiping her eyes. She pushes him back down before she turns to face Pietro. He’s already standing up and Wanda meets him for a hug as she starts to cry harder.

“I just –I don’t want her to be mad at me.”

Pietro sighs as he holds his sister tightly. He’d considered this briefly as well when he’d thought about what had happened to you. He’d known about the tracker because he’d actually suggested it when you’d first gotten hurt by Wanda’s enemies. You’d been unconscious and he’d joked about putting one in you to be able to find you if this happened again. He hadn’t realized his sister took him seriously until he asked about it a little later.

“I know you don’t, but honestly Wanda she’s not going to be happy. She might be annoyed for a while, but you know how much she loves you. She’ll get over it. You honestly just wanted to help her, and you did. You found her a lot faster than last time.”

Wanda thinks about this and despite her brother’s sound logic, she knows that she won’t be able to stop worrying about it until she talks to you. She just hopes that you feel the way that Pietro says you will.

It’s a very weird feeling being conscious of your unconsciousness. Your entire body aches and you’re glad you’re lying down because you doubt you could even hold yourself up. You’re sore and you can’t remember what happened to you immediately. You’re going in and out of consciousness when you hear people around you start talking. Their voices are muffled and you definitely don’t recognize them as you try to fight your fatigue. Sometimes you want to wake up, and other times you wish you were in a deeper sleep. You feel pangs of pain every now and then in your abdomen, and that’s how you remember what happened to you.

You remember getting shot and then it’s all a blur after that. You don’t remember anyone coming to rescue you, and you don’t remember how you ended up here. Still, you hope that Vision and Rumlow are dead, and that Wanda’s okay. You hope that she’s not too worried or too mad at you.

You miss her. A lot. You wish you could be with her and Boone and the rest of your family instead of stuck in this bed. You wonder why she hasn’t visited you yet. How long have you been here?

You don’t realize that when you dream of Wanda visiting you a little later, it’s not a dream at all.

Wanda and Boone head down to medical to visit you later that afternoon. She’d gotten drunk with her brother before sleeping it off and deciding that she’d avoided you for long enough. It wasn’t right to ignore you when you were bedridden because of her own fears. She just had to believe that if you did get mad at her, you would forgive her.

Boone’s sniffing frantically as he follows Wanda down the hall to your room. She can tell he’s looking for you, and it makes her heart break a little at the idea of him not understanding what’s going on, or why you’re down here yet again. She ignores the looks she and Boone get as she comes up on your room. She grabs Boone’s harness before telling him to sit, and despite realizing he’s found you he does as he’s told before looking to the rest of the people in the room.

She steps into the room to greet the nurses and the one doctor she recognizes. She’s still a little drunk she thinks because it takes her a solid three seconds to come up with her name, but she uses her time to think watching you sleep.

“Dr. Hale, how are you?”

Wanda looks away from you because she knows you’re about the same as last time. If not, she’s sure your doctor will tell her otherwise. She watches as the blonde smiles slightly before claiming that she’s been busy but she doesn’t mind it. She then looks to you before telling Wanda how you’ve done overnight.

“She’s been stable overnight. Nothing really new to report luckily.”

Wanda supposes this is good news and she’s about to nod in agreement when she hears Boone whine from the doorway. Dr. Hale turns first and Wanda sighs before she shoots the doctor an apologetic look.

“Sorry, he’s just been restless without Y/n. I just wanted him to see where she was.”

She nods in understanding because she knows how upset her cat gets when she leaves for too long, and she imagines it must be worse for a dog. She turns to Boone before waving to him and patting her leg in a ‘come here’ motion.

“I understand. Hi Boone. Do you want to come in?”

Boone practically runs into the room and Wanda smiles as he nudges Taylor’s offered hand with his nose before running over to you. He’s tall enough to see you but he tries to jump up on your bed. However, Wanda sees it coming, and she stops him with a frown.

“No buddy. No jumping.”

Boone whines but he doesn’t try to jump again as he licks your hand before nudging it with another whine. He moves your hand so it’s on his nose before he just sits next to you and leans into the bed. He looks very uncomfortable, but Wanda just lets him be for a moment before she takes a closer look at you. As she moves towards your bed, Dr. Hale shoots a pointed look to the nurses and they just nod before heading for the door. The blonde follows behind them with one last look as she leaves the trio alone.

“I’ll give you privacy. Let me know if you need anything.”

Wanda thanks her before she looks around the room for a chair. She sighs as she spots one on the other side of the room. She grabs it and sits next to Boone by your side with a groan. She really shouldn’t have drunk all of that this morning, but she’s honestly just wanting to sleep. She holds your hand before kissing it with a smile.

“Hi Y/n. I should apologize to you. For a lot of things.”

She stops as she looks to Boone who’s putting his paw up on the bed next to you, but not attempting to jump up. He’s watching Wanda though because he knows he’ll get in trouble if he does it, but he can’t help but want to.

“I shouldn’t have put all the pressure on you when we decided we wanted to have kids. I know you volunteered, but it put a lot of unnecessary stress on you and I’m sorry I didn’t realize it. I want you to know that I’d rather have you over kids any day. So, I need you to wake up soon, detka.”

Wanda wipes away her tears before she takes a deep breath and squeezes your hand. She touches your cheek glad to at least feel that you’re warmer than the last time she saw you.

“I know I should have told you about the tracker. It wasn’t right to do it without your consent. I apologize, and I’ll do whatever I have to, to make it up to you.”

She sits next to you in silence for a while before she decides that she needs to leave you soon. If she’s doesn’t, she’ll stay here for the rest of the day just watching you sleep and quickly getting more anxious. She knows this is just day one for you, and that you have a lot of time to go before you’ll feel better, let alone wake up. She needs to give you time to recover, and she knows hanging out here all day will be bad for everyone. She’ll be in the way, and she’ll become more depressed with each passing hour. So after about an hour of sitting with you and talking to you about what’s transpired since you were awake, she decided to leave. She thought about it a lot last night, and after drinking with her brother this morning she’s decided to pay Strucker a visit. She wants to see if he knows about or played a part in Rumlow’s involvement in Vision’s plot. She kisses your forehead before standing and returning her chair to its original place. She turns to Boone who’s still resting next to you before waving him along.

“Come on Boone. We can visit again later. We’re going for a drive.”

It takes a little more than that and a tug or two to get Boone to follow her. He whines a lot, but he eventually leaves you and follows Wanda to the elevator. She can already tell he’s moping but she’s hoping a ride in the car will make him feel better. She checks in with Bucky and then Steve to tell them of her plan, and she’s not surprised that they’re both a little caught off guard by her sudden interest in Strucker.

Nevertheless, Bucky agrees to hang out here and keep an eye on you while Steve gets ready to accompany Wanda. She’s not going to bother calling. She’s hoping that he’ll be exactly where he usually is, and after getting changed and loading Boone into the car, she sets off to find Strucker.

Taglist: @whitewidowsbite, @exclusivitymajor, @natswifeysblog15, @the-mute1

Part 11

[likecastle]

Prompt “oh shit” “ I told you not to touch it!”

Thank you, anon! I forgot my own advice from the first one of these and wrote something (kinda) angsty. No serious warnings for this one--just misunderstandings, and some classic Nancy Wheeler passive aggression.

“Oh, shit!” Robin looks on in horror as the precarious stack of books Nancy had so carefully piled on her study carrel comes toppling down. The noise it makes, Robin is fairly certain, can be heard all across the Boston metropolitan area. Possibly she’s just triggered a sonic boom. Heads whip in their direction, and a great round of sanctimonious shushing rises up like a tidal wave.

“Robin!” Nancy hisses. “I told you not to touch that!”

“Well, they do say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” she jokes, trying to cover her chagrin. The look of exasperation on Nancy’s face makes Robin snap her mouth shut and start picking up the fallen books in silence.

Nancy is gathering up heaps of notecards that took the chance to spring free of the plastic box Nancy was storing them in, scattering all the way into the stacks. “Everything’s always a joke with you,” she mutters under her breath.

Robin feels herself flush—kind of impressive, given that she’s already humiliated herself so thoroughly—and dips her head to focus on the books she’s stacking. She’s starting to think coming here was a mistake—not just accompanying Nancy to the library, but coming to visit at all. It’s midterms, after all, and she could have just waited to see Nancy at home over spring break, but her semester ended a few days earlier than Nancy’s, and she’d thought it would be fun to drive back to Hawkins together. Nancy had sounded enthusiastic when Robin pitched the idea of a road trip—at least, Robin had thought she did. But now that Robin’s actually here, it feels like her presence is more of a nuisance than a welcome distraction.

Robin’s been trying to tell herself it’s just exam stress, but it’s getting harder and harder to convince herself that's true. After last night, Robin’s seriously considering just shelling out for a bus ticket back to Hawkins. And now, of course, she’s gone and made things worse.

Once she’s stacked the fallen books back on the desk again—probably not in the right order, but at least they’re not sprawled on the floor—she takes a careful step back and says, “I’m gonna go get a cup of tea from that place we went yesterday. D’you want anything?”

“I’m fine,” Nancy huffs. Then, thinking better of it, “Coffee—”

“—black,” Robin finishes, “I know. Promise you won’t leave before I get back?”

Nancy rolls her eyes, which Robin figures is as much reassurance as she’s going to get.

It doesn’t take her long to make her way out of the library and get in line at the little café around the corner. It’s sort of a relief, actually, to be out in the fresh air, away from the anxious silence of the library and Nancy’s own inexplicable bad mood. If only Robin knew what she’d done wrong—before she caused a massive book avalanche, that is. Nancy’s mood has been sour ever since they left the party last night, and Robin can’t for the life of her figure out why.

She’s trying to decide whether she wants Mystic Mint or Calming Chamomile when someone taps her on the shoulder. She turns to find a fresh-faced girl standing behind her. Robin knows they were introduced at the party last night, but she can’t quite recall the girl's name. Rebecca or Regina or Ramona, something like that.

“Robin, right?” the girl says.

“At your service,” Robin says, and then, for some totally unknown reason, she gives a little dramatic twirl of her hand like a Victorian gentleman doffing his cap. No wonder Nancy's so sick of her.

The girl quirks a bemused, almost pitying smile. “How’s Nancy doing this morning?”

“Annoyed at me, mostly,” Robin says, trying to be sanguine about it. “What can I tell you? I’m just really good at getting on Nancy Wheeler’s nerves. It’s a talent, honestly. I should put it on my resume.”

The girl—Renata? Romilda?—laughs incredulously. “I mean, I’d be pissed, too, if my date spent the whole night talking to someone else.”

Everything around Robin goes silent. All she can hear is the ringing in her ears. “Uh—what?” she croaks.

Roberta-or-Roxanna says is saying something, but Robin isn’t listening. It feels like that single word has replaced the sound of her pulse in her ears—date date date. Is that what last night was? Is that why Nancy was so weird about asking if she wanted to go to the party, assuring Robin over and over that they didn’t have to go if she didn’t want to? Is that why she’d worn her dressy shoes, the black ones that pinch her toes?

Now that she thinks of it, the place they had dinner before-hand was a little nicer than she’d expected it to be. And their table had been kind of secluded in the back, with those fancy candles. Maybe that would explain why Nancy had been so irritated when Robin started toasting her breadstick over the open flame.

She thinks back to how Nancy had introduced her to her friends at the party. She hadn’t said, “This is Robin, my friend from home,” or, “Robin and I went to high school together.” She’d just said, “This is Robin,” and Robin remembers thinking how strange it was that all of Nancy’s friends had glanced at each other like they knew exactly what that meant. She’d thought at the time they must have heard some embarrassing stories about her from their time in Hawkins. Only maybe that hadn’t been it at all.

She realizes, absently, that she’s holding up the line. The barista is staring at her, waiting for her to order, and the other people behind her in line are starting to get impatient, and Roseanna-or-Rowena is looking at her like maybe she’s left the planet.

“I’ve gotta go,” Robin says, to nobody in particular, before peeling out of the line and running out of the café without a second look back.

[musicalmoritz]

Hello💕

My name is Roxy. This blog is mainly for my rambles and shippy posts (not mutually exclusive). I am a writer on ao3 under the same name as this account. I’m just here to put my thoughts out into the world like an open diary, and to reblog cute shit💞💞💞

Fandom Interests:

• Current Hyperfixation- TBHK

• Other Animes (in no particular order)- Hunter X Hunter, Chainsaw Man, Fruits Basket, Madoka Magica, Kakegurui, Jujutsu Kaisen, Bungou Stray Dogs, My Hero Academia, Cowboy Bebop, Ouran High School Host Club, I’m In Love With The Villainess, Sk8 the Infinity, Adachi and Shimamura, Banana Fish, Demon Slayer, Mob Psycho 100, Spy X Family, Vampires In The Garden, High Rise Invasion, Kyo Kara Maoh, Kase-San and Morning Glories, Haikyuu!!, Death Note, Attack On Titan, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Full Metal Alchemist

• DC Comics, mainly the female characters and anything related to the Teen Titans/Batman. I’ve been in this fandom for years due to adaptations but I’m relatively new to the comics themselves. Currently reading Batwoman's New 52 run and anything Cass Cain related I can get my hands on

• I do like Marvel but like mainly Spider-Man, the X-Men, and Black Widow. I'm refraining from posting about it for the time being due to the boycott

• I'm a big filmbro, my top 3 movies of all time are Dead Poets Society, Pride & Prejudice (2005), and American Psycho

• Classic lit is my favorite thing to read (aside from fan fiction). Currently reading The Idiot by Dostoevsky

• I love listening to musicals, my top 3 being Les Miserables, Falsettos, and Spring Awakening

• Some shows I like are Breaking Bad, Glee, Stranger Things (not posting due to the boycott), Gravity Falls, First Kill, Bly Manor, I Am Not Okay With This, The Middle, Adventure Time, Modern Family, Merlin, Doctor Who, and probably others I can't think of rn

• I'm really into classic fairytales🦋

• As far as music goes I am a critical Swiftie. I also enjoy Fall Out Boy, Marina, early Panic! At The Disco, Megan Thee Stallion, Nirvana, David Bowie, Stevie Nicks, and various other artists

• Some other fandoms I've been involved in include It by Stephen King (all media types), Twilight, Percy Jackson (boycott), The Hunger Games, Marauders, Camp Camp, Archie Comics & Sabrina, Dan & Phil, Hellaverse, Homestuck (save me), aaaaaand I think that's everything??

• My favorite piece of media of all time is Les Miserables, especially the book and the musical. I love it with all of my heart and it truly changed the way I live my life as well as my outlook on the world and religion💕

• My favorite character of all time is Dazai from BSD, I adore his character development and all the subtle details that add to his characterization💕

• I enjoy analyzing and yapping about my interests so expect a lot of that

Other Interests:

• I am a psychology major with an AS degree in psychology

• I practice wing-chun, though I am still somewhat of a beginner (white belt, my si-fu makes his students earn them)

• Writing is my passion and I have been working on my own novel for many years now. It is meant to be a three part series but I don’t want to publish the first book until it’s perfect

• Proud Cat Mom

• Being an older sister is like 50% of my personality

• I am a lesbian and a Christian and both of those identities are very important to me

• Believe it or not I am employed, though I won’t say where for obvious reasons💪🏻

• Raging Feminist

• Antique collector

• Complainer, not a hater

• Optimist

• Lover of all things pink

Again, this blog is really just a side quest, I’m much more active on TikTok so you might want to follow me there (femslash.enthusiast / #1 aoinene lover). I’m just here to yap about my interests and spread good vibes💕