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soapybutt17 · 10 months ago

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Too Sweet For Me

Summary: It was the annual Military Ball, the fifth one since you and John have been married in secret. With his new promotion as Captain, meant a whole ball park of responsibilities he was still getting used to—but nothing gets to him more than the mere sight of you, his beautiful darling in the dress he always loves. It was also something to prepare for with the new changes that came to this year’s ball. Character: John Price x F!Wife!Reader. Kate Laswell. Word Count: 2,190 Chapter Warnings: None. Author's Note: this was also supposed to be for @glitterypirateduck's O'Captain challenge but my appendix had other plans for me this past few days. Lol.

Inspired by this song (obviously)

Masterlist | Series Masterlist || Request are Open || Join My Taglist

“Darling.” You couldn’t help but smile at your husband’s pained groan.

With a red backless dress, you know you would turn heads with your outfit and even more certain that your husband would be killing a few men if you weren’t too careful about him.

“Behave.” You pulled away from him as soon as you felt his hands hold onto the small of your exposed back. You turned to face him, seeing him so handsome in his ceremonial uniform, an upgrade since his new promotion.

“I don’t think I can see myself behaving with you looking so ravishing.” He muttered approaching you again and pulling you into another kiss, allowing him this one time since you have yet to put your make up on. “Will this be a problem for tonight?” He playfully warned.

“If you keep your hands to yourself it won’t.” You playfully pointed out pecking him on the lips one last time before turning your attention back to your vanity mirror to put on your makeup. “I’m surprised that you actually plan on coming to this year’s event. I’d expect you to just stay home after the last mission.” You pointed out.

Behind the bravado and the handsome uniform your husband had on, was a broken but healing man that just got back from a mission. A few scrapes and bruises you all know too well were hidden perfectly well, but the black eyes was something that would take more than an ice pack and makeup to actually cover.

“Better to be there to see what those muppets have planned.” He grumbled.

You had accidentally let it slip that there was going to be an auction for this year’s event and you had volunteered to be part of the auction. A simple date that you were certain meant absolutely nothing but it was for a great cause and you couldn’t really fault them with.

Your husband was still apprehensive about the fact, especially knowing that no one was made aware of your relationship to each other. Everyone was given the fact that you were both good friends that had been on countless missions together. It was nothing but friendship between the two of you if you were ever spotted in town together even when the both of you knew it was something more.

“It’s just one date, even Kate is joining along.” You tried your best to reassure him but it wasn’t happening whatsoever with the deep frown resting on his lips.

“Just because I agreed to this doesn’t mean I’m happy about it.” He muttered under his breath, finally resigning by your decision, which you were thankful for. No need for you to try to convince him with anything.

“You owe me for this. I need some kind of motivation for tonight not to blow someone’s head.” He muttered.

And you spoke too soon.

“How about a day or two in that ritzy cabin you’ve been pestering me about for weeks now.” You offered.

One thing you truly hated was being too out of touch with society if you could avoid it. You have to do it for work, you weren’t so keen on doing it in your personal time if you didn’t have to. But your husband just was a recluse when he wants to be and this was one of those many instance that he will have his way.

“Deal and the ring stays on so they know you’re mine.” He muttered.

You smiled, lifting your hand up for him to see the sparkle of your engagement and wedding ring still nestled on your finger. Even without him saying it, you wouldn’t even dream of removing it.

The newly promoted Captain John Price should have been at the top of the world because of his new title, but it was far from the reality of it as he watched his beloved wife continue to mingle amongst both officials and fellow soldiers. It still shook him to the core how someone like you could command yet bring comfort to anyone that was privileged to be in your presence.

But that was just what made him love you so much. How someone like you, a Lieutenant to his own position as a Sergeant would never once use your position to demean him or treat him as anything less than you were. Some may say your call sign as Rookie to be an insult, a way to make you less than what you truly were, but you proved time and time again that it was a reassurance to anyone lower than you that you will stand on equal footing as them if the need arises especially on missions.

“Rookie’s already stealing the spotlight.”

John turned his attention to one unfortunate woman he had the misfortune of meeting in his life that turned his whole world upside down. Kate Laswell was an intelligent woman—far too much for her own good at times but she was the best of the best in her line of work. She was one of the main reasons why he was placed in a mission that ended with him finally climbing the ranks.

“As she should.” John agreed, subtle in his comments as to avoid anyone, especially Laswell from thinking anything was going on between the two of you.

“I still can’t believe she refused the promotion.” She continued taking a swig at the whiskey she was cradling, only bringing a craving for one in John himself.

“I’ve heard. I don’t think she’d be a good fit with the paperworks from the looks of it.” He added.

Of course he knew the very reason why you had refused the promotion on your own end. You were in all accounts a better fit than him to become a Captain, a rank that had been a well-deserved position for everything you’ve done but every single time the topic would be brought up you had threatened retirement or AWOL if anyone pushes. You never truly saw yourself as someone that would be working behind the desk, you couldn’t help and navigate dealing with officials, you admit you were never built for such capabilities.

“I believe she is. You should have seen her chew on Shepherd during the last mission. She’s got guts and a heart that not something you see in the field often.”

He nodded, that was what made you special. He watched you now begin a lengthy conversation with the well-known and very much feared soldier Ghost. How you had been the only one to hold a conversation and not trembled at the sight of the monster of a killing machine.

“Why am I not even surprise with her.” He chuckled turning his attention away from you and turning towards Laswell. “So, are we just gonna spend the entire night talking about Rookie?”

“That’s not much of an issue for you Captain.” Laswell smirked knowingly.

“Will I ever live that down?” He questioned, jokingly.

He was once again reminded of the time in his drugged state where he was delirious enough to propose to you after a mission gone wrong. To many it was just him too drugged from painkillers but for you it was an intentional proposal that you accepted once you were alone.

“You’re never gonna escape the allegations, John. I will never allow it.” Laswell smirked finally excusing herself when the MC has begun.

He made his way to this designated table, his eyes always following you. He watched as you made your way backstage to prepare for the auction later on tonight. It brought the never ending dread in the pit of his stomach as the staff began distributing the auction paddle around, accepting his own without an ounce of hesitation.

It will be a long night that much he has come to realize.

“One Thousand!”

You had faced so much trials and tribulation during your career in the military. The vile and often times immoral acts that was placed against you during interrogations and kidnapping, but nothing in your life could have given you more shame than to be standing in front of the stage as numerous bids have been placed upon your name.

Your eyes had been following along to the numerous of individuals that were bidding, some were colleagues your husband had been all too certain had hots for you, others were top officials that you were more than certain were pigs for involving themselves in the date auction knowing they were married, then there were the guests that had been leering at you all night long.

Maybe your husband was right, the auction was a big mistake.

Your eyes scanned the entire room until they met the familiar eyes of your husband. The reassurance had settled on his eyes as much as the annoyance but he was waiting for you to give him the signal.

Somehow with a simple nod it was all he needed to do to raise the paddle and his booming voice had silence everyone.

“Ten thousand.” His voice had everyone turning.

It was one of the highest bids for the night and it just had to be from the man himself. The rest of the night had been a blur, after the auction and countless of formalities and empty conversations, you had found yourself in the arms of your husband as he helped you back onto the car.

“You alright?” He inquired cupping your cheeks the moment he had helped you with your seatbelt.

“Will get better.” You assured him grounding yourself back to reality as he patted your cheeks and driving the two of you back to your shared apartment.

The car ride was silent, the event with the auction still playing in your head. It could go so wrong in many ways if your husband did not intervene. It was supposed to be for a good cause, but it did not feel like it when you stood in front of the stage. You felt more like meat being prepared to be slaughtered.

Eventually you two had arrived back. Your husband opened the car for you and led you back to you to your apartment. The silence was consuming you more than you expected it to.

“Want to sober up or not?” Your husband inquired.

You turned to look at him as he made his way to the kitchen.

“Sober up would be great right now.” You sighed following him to the kitchen, hopping onto the barstool by the kitchen island. Toeing off your heels in the process, an unintentional moan escaped your lips from the relief on your feet.

“I haven’t done anything yet and you’re already moaning, My Love?” He teased placing a mug of coffee in front of you, from the smell alone you were all too certain was too bitter for your taste.

“Play your cards right and maybe I’ll be the one to make you moan all night.” You quipped right back, cupping the mug and relief of the warmth washing away the events of the night.

“Don’t threaten me with a good time.” He smirked turning towards your mini bar and pour himself a hefty pour of whiskey.

“Surprised you didn’t threatened anyone at the party.” You pointed out.

“I could do lots of things, but I decided it wasn’t worth the hassle for either of us.”

You nodded, watching him unbutton his uniform and sit beside you. Your head immediately finding their way onto his shoulder.

“I’ll pay you back what you paid for the auction.” You promised him.

“You would do no such thing.” He ordered. “You’re worth every pretty penny I’ve paid for tonight.”

You blushed at his words. Even in the years of being with the man, he still has his way of turning you into the girl that had always had a crush on the handsome gruff all only had eyes for you.

Your eyes turned towards your hand, the sparkle of your rings was always present and never once did you remove them even at the party. You wanted to keep your relationship private but never a secret and there are days that you wished to let the world know. But now with his new promotion and you having to lead yet another mission with the help of him now, you doubt it would be a good thing to do.

“You’re too sweet to me sometimes, even after how shitty the night turned out.”

“Nothing shitty about tonight. I get to see you all dressed up and all eyes on you knowing you’re gonna come home to me tonight and do whatever their empty little heads could formulate.”

You rolled your eyes cupping his cheeks and move him slightly too pull him into a kiss that you had desperately wanted to give him all night long. The taste of whiskey brought a sudden thrill through your core.

“Plan on showing it to me, Captain?” You purred and the way his eyes blew out, it was all notification you needed to know as you were unceremoniously lifted into his arms.

Whoever thought your husband had a Captain Kink?

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arcadia-of-pluto · 3 months ago

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Divisa; One

Parings; LADS OT4 x reader

Word Count; 3,052

Themes; reality hopping, alternative universe (same universe, just things are a little different), doppelganger, multiple endings, slowburn

Warnings; swearing, maybe an existential crisis or two

Notes; Hey guys! Divisa is finally out!! This won't be following the original story at all. Just bits and pieces here and there. This is going to be different compared to “Twist of Fate”– it's also going to be shorter. I'd say possibly fifteen chapters? There will be five different endings; Four endings will be with each love interest and the fifth will be with all of them. The original MC will not be a white lotus (aka someone who seems sweet, but is actually a bitch) and certain things will be changed. This is based on the universe of LADS, but the whole in-game story doesn't mean anything– unless I mention it specifically! You'll see what I mean.

It’s gonna have a bit of a slow start, but I hope you stick around for it regardless! If there's any smut, it'll be in the endings. So, this is only rated as mature purely for all of the swearing! (ps I'm sorry for naming the reader's father, but I felt it was necessary to do so)

Also! This will have a sporadic upload schedule, so if I finish a chapter, I'll post it soon after. There's no specific day I'll upload this <3 Hope that's okay.

prev || next

☆ Masterlist ☆

Divisa

//Latin and Italian for: Divided//

||adj.||

Split into parts; separated

Not united; in disagreement

○o。. .。o○

“Seriously, how much shit does Grandma have up here?” Another box joins the stack of five and you wipe sweat from your forehead with your sleeve.

It was your day off today and while you'd love to spend it relaxing, instead you offered to help your elderly grandma clean out her attic— because “you're her favourite grandchild”, her words…You were her only grandkid.

You had already been there for well over an hour, cleared out five boxes so far, and grandma still wasn't home yet. She was at the farmer's market before you even arrived, so she should've been back by now, but you know your grandma is a chatterbox. She'd yap her whole life away if she could.

You take your jacket off and tie it around your waist, slinging your mini-backpack on once more– it's a habit to always have it on you. You never know when you might need something. Like your chapstick, hand sanitizer, a pen…It's almost a mystery how the bag isn't heavy as hell with how much junk is in it–

You head back up the stairs and glance around at the almost empty attic. You wondered what exactly grandma was going to do with the place after it was clean– maybe she'd turn it into a room for you? You shake your head at the thought and go back to moving boxes.

With a heavy box in hand, you head back toward the stairs. The box slips just slightly within your clammy hands and you bring your knee up to help keep a hold of it. This, however, causes you to fall. Your shoulder slams into the sharp corner of an even heavier box and something on top of the box makes a loud noise as it hits the hardwood floor.

You suck in a deep breath to disguise the pain in your shoulder and quickly roll over to check on the fallen object, internally hoping it wasn't something really valuable. But once you spot it, you're confused.

It was…a jewelry box?

Your grandma wasn't one to wear jewelry, so this was out of the ordinary. The wooden box also seems pretty…old.

You pick up the weathered box and lift the lid to make sure the hinge still works. That's whenever you notice something wrapped in a cloth.

You set the box to the side and pick up the cloth. It was hefty, so there must be some kind of jewelry wrapped up in it. Maybe a necklace?

You unwrap it and before you can look at the necklace, a signature at the corner of the cloth catches your eye.

It was your grandpa's name.

You have never personally met the man, but your grandma loved to tell stories about him. The stories were a little…odd, but you would blame that on her being old and the possible beginnings of dementia. She would tell tales of another time period entirely, how grandpa was a prince and she was wrongly deemed as a saint, how she had to run away with your mother and grandpa couldn't come back here with them…

While it was a beautiful story, you often wondered if it was just a coping mechanism and something bad had happened to your grandpa, but you didn't dare ask your mother.

It seems as if the men in your family were never present, so maybe…there's a curse that only affects the men? Seeing as your father wasn't present either, but your mom had so many pictures of him. You even kept a picture of the two of them in your wallet.

Those thoughts aside, it seems like grandpa was an actual person, at least…even though this cloth– handkerchief, you realize– appeared to be just as old as the box itself, but that can't be possible.

You shake your head and set the handkerchief back into the jewelry box, turning your attention to the necklace.

It was honestly a rather beautiful gemstone necklace. It almost seemed familiar somehow, like you've seen it in a Marvel movie or something. It was a deep red-wine coloured stone with silver wire coiled around it like a vine. It hung from a thin, silver chain.

It was pretty and you did love collecting shiny things, so maybe you could ask your grandma if you could keep it. You pocket the necklace for now and, as you go to stand back up, you spot a piece of folded up paper on the floor. You grab the paper between two fingers and open it up. The tiny scrap of paper only has four words written on it.

The Reality Stone || Aether

Aether?

That word seems…oddly familiar to you. Why– oh, right!

Your phone buzzes with a notification.

‘Rafayel is waiting for you’

A scoff slips from your lips and you shake your head. You did need to check up on your game today and do your dailies…and you did make a huge dent in the attic, so you're sure your grandma would allow you to rest for the remainder of the day. Then, tomorrow, she could help you with the rest!

With your decision made, you put your phone away and descend down the stairs. But then, your pocket feels oddly warm. Intensely so– It's like it was burning a hole through your jeans and you pause mid-step to grab the necklace from your pocket, but you miss a step with your heel and you feel your body fall forward.

Panic spreads throughout your chest, because you know this won't be a pain-free tumble. You'd be lucky to escape with just a sprained ankle or wrist. Your eyes squeeze shut on impulse and instead of your body slamming into hardwood, you felt a face full of…grass?

“What the fuc—”

As you sit up in a panic, your body freezes.

…how the hell did you end up outside?

You scan your surroundings, but you don't recognize where you are.

You're surrounded by jasmines. Beautiful, fragrant flowers as far as the eye can see. A couple of scattered cherry blossom trees, but you were not in a forest. You were just on the outskirts of a city.

With a sigh, you take the reason for your troubles out of your pocket. The necklace. You give the red gem the dirtiest look you can muster before reluctantly clipping it around your neck. If this is what sent you here, you might as well keep it safe, until you figure out how to get back home. Then, you grab your phone.

Maybe…it just sent you to the next city over and your grandma could come pick you up.

You take a deep breath and unlock your phone, but your thumb freezes before you can tap anything.

“The date…What in the..” You can't even finish your sentence. You were so confused and panic was beginning to sink in. “It's 2048?! This…must be a joke, right?”

You rake your fingers through your hair and rise to your feet. “It's fine. Let's try calling grandma,” you murmur to yourself. You try to keep your breathing calm, but you can already feel yourself beginning to panic as you hold the phone up to your ear.

It rings…and rings…and rings…

“This number is no longer in service—”

“Whatever. Seriously, whatever. This is fine. Great, even. Everything is a-ohhhkay. Perfectly normal.” You pocket your phone and rest your head in your hand for a moment, then you take a deep breath and nod your head.

“Alright, I should head to the city first. No use freaking out. It's not like that'll get me home any faster.” You clench your hand into a fist and desperately hope you'll at least be able to reach the city before nightfall…

…The good news is, the city wasn't far at all. Well, it was far, but not three-hours-away type of far! So, you made it well before dark. According to your phone, it was only 5pm so you still had time to find a place for the night. Hopefully whatever place you decide to stay will take your cash…but who knows maybe 2024 money is outdated in 2048.

“I'm sorry, we don't take this form of payment anymore.”

This was the third hotel you've checked tonight…You take a seat on a bench near a large water fountain and hold your head in your hands. Even if it's twenty-four years in the future, they should still take your cash! This is insane–

As you tilt your head back to wallow in your sadness, you notice a billboard in the distance and you can feel the blood drain from your face.

“No, no, no—”

You whip out your phone, making sure you have all your apps before you click on one specific one. You quickly tap the screen, murmuring, “Come on…come on..” And once the game finally loads in, you navigate to the guidance tab.

“The Chronorift Catastrophe of 2034…fourteen years ago. Fourteen plus 2034,” you nervously mutter as you chew on your thumbnail. “That's 2048…that billboard clearly said Linkon City.” You hold your hand over your mouth as dread fills your stomach.

You weren't in the real world…of course that's why your cash wouldn't work. Were you in a coma? Did the fall hurt your head?

No…if that were the case, you wouldn't have taken your bag with you, you wouldn't feel so panicky and cold right now…or could you? You could be self aware and in a coma. But you didn't want to be, so you decided to brush the most realistic thought aside.

“They recognized this money, so maybe…” In the real world, old money could sell for a lot. Especially when it comes to collectors. So maybe you could find someone who would buy all of your old cash. That would definitely work for now, but what about in the future? You'd need money for however long you're going to be here…ugh, does that mean you need to find a job?

Wait…

Wanderers and evols.

There were creatures here.

The thought sends shivers down your spine and you shrug your bag off to put your jacket back on.

As long as you didn't go into a rift you should be fine, right? You're almost positive wanderers never came out to terrorize people—

Your thoughts are cut off by a loud scream and your head jerks in the direction of it with wide eyes.

There was a big ass blue portal in the middle of the street and fucking creatures were coming out of it!?

What the hell was your luck today??

You sling your bag back on, getting ready to run before a bright light blinds you and you shield your eyes. Squinting them to try and see where the light was coming from.

Once the light faded, your heart stuttered in your chest.

A tall man stood in the center of the road as the blue rift dissipates. His wispy, ash-blonde hair blowing in the wind as he turns his head to the side to talk to his companion next to him. From where you are, you can just barely make out his blue eyes.

Xavier?

Then…who was next to him—

Y…You?

You slowly pull up your hood as you stare at the uncanny sight.

While she clearly didn't share the same hair or body type as you, everything else was…identical. Her eyes, her face…It was like looking in a mirror.

You were the main character, but you were not, at the same time.

“Y/n, are you sure you're not overexerting yourself?” You could barely hear his voice over the wind, but your breath catches in your throat at your name coming from Xavier’s lips.

“I'm fine, I promise.” You– She replies with a small, almost pained, smile.

“This is some bullshit,” you murmur under your breath, tapping your finger against your leg as you think about the unfairness of the situation.

Seriously!? You were brought here and you– gosh, you really need to come up with a name for her before this gets confusing. Gemini? Sure, that works.

You were brought here and Gemini was already here?? It's so unfair to have two yous in the same timeline, especially when one already had a head start!

The male leads would definitely sacrifice you for her. They'd probably even tear out your heart, thinking it would fix hers.

You tug at your hair with a small groan of annoyance.

Fuck. Fuck–

Deep breaths...

“Alright. I guess I'm staying up tonight.” You finally compose yourself and set your sight on a neon sign just across the road. “The Nest seems like a good place to start. I could sell this old cash and hopefully get enough for a room tonight.” You pull out a black face mask from your bag and put it on so only your eyes are uncovered.

You'd have to be careful since you and Gemini were identical. You really didn't want to get kidnapped instead of her. Being the main character of an otome game is tough work and, honestly, she can have it. You didn't want to get involved.

It's not like the male leads would ever spare a second glance at you, so you'd surely be fine…Right?

☆ミ

The bell overheard chimes as you step inside the dimly lit bar. The smell of cheap liquor and smoke hitting your nose through the mask and you hold back the urge to cough.

Act cool…

You take a seat at the bar, drumming your fingers against the marbled counter as an employee makes his way over to you.

Without saying a word, you slide a 2017 quarter toward him and he raises a brow before placing an embossed business card down in front of you.

Okay, so if you remember correctly, whatever you write on here will disappear and then, the bartender will take the card and leave. If you have someone who is interested, he'll be back with a drink for you.

You grab a pen from the table and quickly scribble down on the paper.

‘Anyone interested in old money’

Honestly, you should probably be a bit careful, but you had no other way to gain information besides taking a few risks.

The ink disappears and the bartender takes the card, nodding at you before making his way to the back.

You just hope the glass wasn't black, though you doubt it. If the glass was black, it would mean you'd need to pay a high price for information– Perhaps your life. However, since you were only looking for a potential buyer, the chances of the glass being black were slim to none.

The employee comes back with a dark green shot glass and sets it down.

You look up at him with a raised brow and the employee decides to take pity on you, tapping the counter next to the glass. “Green means someone is interested and they're willing to pay a lot.” Then, he jerks his head in the direction of the stairs– the same stairs you recall Rafayel walking up before the main character got caught in one of the more recent chapters.

“After you drink this, head upstairs and it's the first door on your right.”

You nod your head and turn your body as you pull down your mask. You can't afford to let anyone see your face. You quickly down the shot and pull your mask back up, the liquid burning as it goes down your throat.

As an extra payment, you give the bartender a 2008 penny– borrowing change from your grandma was good in times like this. You had so many old coins, though your cash was closer to 2024. Either way, you still be able to make some money since they'd be over twenty-four years old.

Then, you leave the bar and head up the stairs. Your hand lightly hovering above the railing until you reach the top, then you head into the room on the right.

It appeared to be a VIP room.

An angled couch lined one half of the wall with a short table in the center. A few unopened drinks and a suitcase sat atop the table and in the corners of the room, near another door were two men. Bodyguards, maybe?

You take your seat, putting your mini-bookbag on your lap so you could be ready to show off your cash– glad that your mask covered half of your face because you were starting to feel a little nervous.

After a few minutes of waiting, your nervousness turns to annoyance.

You roll your sleeves up and pull your hood down as if to show the bodyguard that you're safe and they can let their guy in now. Then, you lean back on the couch and cross your arms over your chest.

Seriously, how long would this dick keep you waiting—

The door across the room swings open and someone…familiar steps inside.

Well, that's just peachy, isn't it?

You try not to let your surprise show and sit up straight as the white haired man takes a seat in front of you and makes himself comfortable.

“You seem a little too young to be in possession of old money. Did you steal it perhaps?” As Sylus speaks with one hand, you can feel nervousness sinking in once more. You clear your throat and pull out your wallet, tossing it toward him.

“See for yourself.” You jerk your chin, hands resting on your knees. “I've even got old coins.” You take out your coin purse. “My family used to collect them, but since I've got nowhere to go…I might as well sell them now.” You shrug, doing your best to concoct a story on the spot.

“Hmm…” Sylus pulls the bills out of your wallet, holding them under a light, before he nods. Though his eyes do falter on something in your wallet.

You know it’s not your ID or anything, since you made sure to take that out beforehand, but maybe the picture of your mom and dad?

As if to prove you right, Sylus takes the picture out, holding it between two fingers as he flips it over to inspect the back.

“What's a Deepspace Hunter's daughter doing at the Nest?” His eyes flick toward you and he raises an eyebrow.

A…

Huh?

I hope y'all liked this chapter! It's going a bit slow, but it should be fine! I'm honestly not sure where to go from here, I'm just making it up on the spot. I have a loose plot from beginning to end, but I don't really have anything in the middle. So...

It'll be fine!

I'm sure y'all didn't expect your father to be from this universe! (I'll apologize again for giving him a name lmao) I'm also gonna say sorry beforehand if Sylus or anyone else seems a bit out of character— I'm doing my best.

Taglist; @ladyparamount , @the-love-of-my-life96 , @rui-drawsbox , @deputy-videogamer

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jupiterpp · 7 months ago

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CHAPTER ONE: THE NEW FIFTH YEAR | 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞'𝐬 𝐄𝐝𝐠𝐞. -𝐭𝐨𝐦 𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐥𝐞 𝐱 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

important note; This is the first time I'm posting my stories on Tumblr. My mother tongue is not English so expect grammatical errors ahead.

word count: 1.2k words

MASTERLIST | CHAPTERS

"Merlin, [name], can you stop that?" Professor Slughorn let out a sigh. You had a mischievous look on your face when you saw him. The books were floating in the air because of your doing.

"Stop what, Professor?"

"Honestly, do you have to rearrange my entire library every time you get bored? Some of us happen to enjoy a bit of organization," he said, raising an eyebrow.

You tried to stifle a laugh. "I was just trying to help, Professor."

"If this is your idea of help, I'd hate to see what your idea of chaos looks like. Although," he added with a twinkle in his eye, "I must admit, you have a certain flair for it."

You huffed and leaned back in your chair as the books began to return to their places. "Sorry, Professor. I'll try to keep my flair under control." you rolled your eyes, a playful smile plastered on your lips.

"Much appreciated," Slughorn said, settling into his chair with a satisfied sigh. "Now, you better prepare yourself for this coming semester," he continued, steepling his fingers and peering at you over them. "It will be your first time at Hogwarts. And you're starting your fifth year."

"Oh yeah," You said before glancing at him. "What house do you think I'll be in, professor?"

Slughorn chuckled softly, his eyes gleaming with amusement. "Ah, now that's the question, isn't it? Well, my dear, considering your remarkable talents and keen intellect, I wouldn't be surprised if you found yourself sorted into Ravenclaw."

Horace Slughorn had been your mentor and caretaker for four years now, ever since Dumbledore suggested he take you under his wing. His guidance and wisdom have been invaluable, shaping you into the person you are today.

Of course, hearing a child that could do wandless magic and time-travel into the future but can't turn back into the past is clearly music in Slughorn's ears.

"How about Slytherin?" You wiggled your eyebrows causing him to laugh shake his head and point at you.

"Even better," Slughorn said. Slughorn was the head of Slytherin house

You haven't seen your parents for a year now. You come back to London every summer to visit them but you didn't this year because you need to focus more on your study. You sent them letters though.

Gosh, you miss your friends in London.

And then there's Riddle.

Oh, Tom Riddle. The thought of him hits you hard. You left without saying goodbye, and the guilt gnaws at you. You tried visiting the orphanage once, but he was nowhere to be found. Mrs. Cole mentioned he got accepted into some school and had to stay there.

Does he wonder why you disappeared? The memories of the times you spent together flood your mind. ou recalls his intense eyes, his lack of empathy, and his cold shoulders to everyone. And, of course, how he was such a weird kid.

His piercing gaze seemed to look right through you, but there was always something unsettling about it. He never showed much emotion, and his interactions with others were often distant and detached.

But the way he could speak Parseltongue really bothered you. You read about it in a book about the founders of Hogwarts. It was a rare ability, associated with Salazar Slytherin himself. The idea that Tom could talk to snakes made your skin crawl.

'✦ˑ ִֶ 𓂃⊹ೃ⁀➷-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-˚. ೃ⁀➷'✦ˑ ִֶ 𓂃⊹

"It's quite difficult to catch him bullying other children," Mrs. Cole said as she put the laundry basket beside the laundry machine. "I'm sure your mother told you there have been incidents here?"

"Yeah," you replied, hopping onto the table and watching her. "Is he involved?"

"I believe so, indeed," she sighed. "Like with Billy's rabbit. Tom insisted he didn't do it, and I can't fathom how he could have, yet the rabbit certainly didn't hang itself from the rafters, did it?"

You stayed quiet, thinking about what she said. Riddle was a mysterious kid, always keeping to himself and giving everyone the cold shoulder. But he'd never been outright mean to you. You couldn't help but wonder.

"You're fourteen now, [name]," Mrs. Cole said. "You know what's right and wrong."

"Why so sudden?" you asked with a nervous laugh, uncertain of her direction. Your fingers fiddled with the hem of your shirt.

"Well, dear," she said, softening her tone but maintaining her serious expression, "you've known Tom for some time. If he's doing things that harm others, you must consider whether it's safe to remain friends with him." She paused, her eyes searching yours for understanding. "Though I must say, I'm really glad he made a friend." She added, a hint of a smile softening her features."

A wave of discomfort washed over you as her words sank in, and you furrowed your brows. "Is that what the staff here think of him?" you asked, your voice tinged with disbelief. "No wonder Riddle doesn't like any of the staff, except for my mother." You crossed your arms defensively.

'✦ˑ ִֶ 𓂃⊹ೃ⁀➷-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-˚. ೃ⁀➷'✦ˑ ִֶ 𓂃⊹

FIRST PERSON POV

The bustling commotion of King's Cross station was in full swing today, as children exclaimed heartfelt farewells to their parents before boarding the train.

"[name]," Professor Slughorn's voice rang out, catching my attention. I returned his nod, signaling my understanding as he motioned for me to join him on the train. "What has got your wand in a knot? The train leaves in a matter of minutes!"

"I'm sorry, Professor," I replied, a nervous laugh escaping my lips as we settled inside the compartment. He looked at the hallway for a second before closing the sliding door completely.

"now then, I want to say something before we arrive at Hogwarts." He said before taking a seat across from you. "It's crucial to remember, that your abilities are not a toy to be flaunted," Professor Slughorn continued, his voice dropping to a low, hushed tone.

"Don't worry, Professor," I said with a smirk, my eyes gleaming with a mischievous glint. "I'll make sure to keep my powers under wraps. After all, I wouldn't want to outshine Merlin himself." A playful chuckle escaped my lips as I settled back into the seat.

"Jesus Christ." He shook his head with a low chuckle."Well, my dear, you may not have a charm-your-way-out-of-trouble spell, but you certainly seem to possess a rare gift for humor and wit," Professor Slughorn complimented, leaning back in his seat.

As the Hogwarts Express sped along its path, my gaze was drawn to the breathtaking landscape outside the window. The lush green hills seemed to roll on endlessly, each undulation illuminated by the warm rays of the sun.

"Oh right, I forgot to ask," I began before I glanced at Slughorn. "You mentioned that you've been mentoring someone at Hogwarts. When will I meet her?"

"Him," He corrects with a chuckle escaping his lips. Merlin, this guy really is a big chuckler. "You'll meet him soon enough. Don't worry. He's in the same year as you. He's quite a talented student, and I'm sure you'll have the opportunity to cross paths before long."

"Okay," I shrugged nonchalantly. He talks about the guy very often when he's mentoring me and trust me, it's annoying. Like come on, you're mentoring me and your mentor keeps talking about his other student? who wouldn't be annoyed by that?

I sat there, growing increasingly frustrated as Professor Slughorn's words buzzed around me like a swarm of persistent nifflers. "Brilliant young wizard," "exceptional student," blah blah blah.

But one thing that I've noticed is that he never told me his name.

#harry potter #hogwarts #tom marvolo riddle #slytherin #voldemort #tom riddle fanfic #harrypotter fanfiction #tom riddle era #tom riddle x reader #tom riddle x you #tom riddle fanfiction #albusdumbledore #reinhardlestrange #lestrange #avery #professor slughorn #Horace Slughorn

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starillusion13 · 2 years ago

Text

FRIENDS!? Chapter 2

🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳

M.Masterlist Series ML

▫️▫️▫️▫️▫️▫️▫️▫️▫️▫️▫️▫️

Pairing: poly!ateez × f!reader

(A Yandere AteezOffice Au)

Genre: Mature, Angst, Yandere, SMUT

Warning: The upcoming events in the story will contain themes like stalking, violence, obsession, manipulation, possessive behaviour and restraining acts. Do not kill me for not warning you. This is an Yandere story so you are well aware of what to expect more. For SMUT I WILL GIVE THE WARNING IN THE BEGINNING.

W.C: 4K

For my beloved: @oreharuuu

Network: @cultofdionysusnet @k-vanity

Taglist: @mymoodwriting @justhere4kpop @vvshere @anyamaris @yeoobin @wooyoungmybelovedhusband @brrrkdslek @icchyi @jwnghyuns @piratequeen-queenofgames @luhwaine

(open! dm me/ send ask/reply here)

Hello, Can we be friends please?

*under the cue*

🔳

“Are you really going there today?”

“Beomgyu, don’t you think you sound like my parents?” This is his fifth time asking you whether you still going to the office to where last day your so called long lost friend offered you to go for your internship. Then here this boy is suddenly like a mother to her child and bombarding you with questions.

“I care for you and am not letting to happen anything to you on knowing how you are believing some stupid men.”

“Beomgyu….. I know how to take care of me but I agree they are stupid or else how come I don’t remember them if they were really my bestfriends.”

“Don’t let them make you believe that you are their friend. You are only my friend and I don’t want to lose you to them.” You can literally see his pout with puppy eyes over the call.

Rolling your eyes and picking up the handbag, you make your way to the door “Don’t be childish. What about you? You literally ditch me when you see your other friends so I think atleast I should make some other friends as well.”

“You can make friends. Make Yeonjun and Soobin as your friends but not them. They look so…. I don’t know what to say but not them. Never.”

“Oh! Sure, thanks but I don’t want to be in you all’s discussion on stupid stuffs that don’t even make sense sometimes.”

“Y/N…..” you laugh on his whiny tone.

“Anyways I need to end the call as I have to be really quick to the parking area because they would be there waiting for me. I don’t want to make them wait on my first day and also some are really scary when it comes to my fault on anything.”

“Which one?”

“I don’t remember their names except the ones came to our class but the tallest one was really scary because he just scolded me when I insisted on calling them sir.”

Locking the door to your room, you made your way down the stairs to exit the building and head to the place where you have been told to meet Wooyoung.

“I just know their overall idea of their looks from your last night’s explanation but not got names and faces but I think you are in love with their personalities though.” His teasing voice is really making you feel like to smack his head right this moment.

“Shut up.”

His laugh echoes through the phone and a smile crack on your face.

“Anyways take care and just remember am just a call away if you need help.” You both ended the call on a lovely goodbye note as usual.

————————

Arriving to the parking area, you can see many students busy all around the grounds and streets and some are hurriedly going towards the university building for their class.

They have already informed your professor of your today’s whereabouts and he congratulated you for your offer to the office.

Offer? Well, apparently you think this as an excuse for your friends to help you to give you a place in their office. Are they pitying over you? Shaking your head, you glanced over your phone to see the timing has already past ten minutes.

“Hey! Y/N.” Turning around, you are shocked to see his form in casuals and he looks more youthful and maybe ….a boyfriend type. You smiled on the greeting and he returned you his grinning face with a shiny black sunglass.

“Hello Wooyoung. So, let’s go now as we are already running late for almost fifteen minutes.”

Nodding his head, he guides you to his luxury car and honestly somehow you felt so nice having such friends who are not treating you like shit even though them being hella rich.

On your way to the office, he offered you to have a quick breakfast from a café and the foods there tasted so delicious that you hope to get a job soon just to go there and treat yourself every day. Before all this, you need to remind yourself that you are a broke adult with expensive imaginations so you need to better work your ass off to get the job for having treats on these expensive places and such car rides.

He asked you about your favorites and hobbies and also blend his spotify playlist with you so he can play them in car rides and also gets to know about your music taste. Your energy and confidence boost up when he mentioned about your music taste as you have a pride on your belief that you have the best taste. He laughs on your little excitement and referred you as ‘my cupcake’ in every statement.

You felt shy and moved your attention to the outside view which is looking so pretty on the bright sunny day. The weather is really mirroring your mood and you hoped it to be like this for the rest of the day.

————————-

Pulling to the side of a private section of the parking area of the office. You proceed to take off the seatbelt but he beats you again with it for helping you like a gentleman. He repeats his slow action like before like making an eye contact with you and slowly closing the distance between you two when his one hand balancing his body to your seat and other hand slowly handling the seatbelt. You break the eye contact again but this time he speaks up, “You are still beautiful like before.”

He backed off and you give him an awkward smile. Quickly, getting down, he comes to your side to open the door for you and offered you his hand like a prince. If only you both didn’t have this lost friendship thingy in between then you might have thought of dating this gentleman guy.

Taking your hands in his, with a prideful personality, he made his way towards the main entrance of the building. You both have sweet smiles on your face. Your doe eyes taking in the surroundings which is screaming grandeur and luxuriousness. You look down to your subtle shade of pink two-piece knee length outfit. The outfit is cool but not according blending to the richness of the present atmosphere.

Wooyoung scanned his card for the entry check and when the guard stepped forward to check your identity, his focus moves to your holding hands and then you tried to retreat your hand to which Wooyoung hold it tighter and shot a sharp glare to the guard and signalled to let you both pass.

Your heart is beating fast on coming in the presence of so many highly ranked and unknown faces who are looking at you weirdly and some even whispering on your situation. You look towards him to see him looking between the escalator and the elevator as to make a decision to choose one.

“Um Wooyoung, I mean…please leave my hand. People are looking at us weirdly and I don’t want any rumours to be spread.” You give a fake smile to him to get a serious face in return.

He looks at the grip and then to the rest of the people who were staring at you and then when they caught his gaze, all went away on their specific works and he pulled you towards the elevator.

The ding sound followed by the opening of the door to the eighth floor and you are still thinking about every possible situation that can happen here. Your attention was on your feet and a pair of black shoe comes in front which breaks your gaze and you lifted your head upward to see the angel looking man brightly smiling at you. That was how you described him to your friend because of your short memory to remember names.

“You were so lost in thoughts that you didn’t hear Woo calling out your name. He went away for the meeting and so I will guide you now.”

That’s true, the moment you both entered the elevator. He got a call and you were lost in your thoughts that you didn’t even realize what was going on around you. I have to get a grip on myself from getting lost in thoughts or I will be like a fool if anyone tries to kidnaps me because the kidnapper will have to call me out of my thoughts.

“Sorry for that but thank you…..” your lost eyes made him chuckle.

“Yeosang. I assume, you forgot our names. Its okay we will make sure to do every possible thing so that you won’t forget our names ever.”

His hesitant-self paused for a moment before holding your hands but suddenly out of nowhere, a boost of confidence sparks in him and you followed his way. This floor is silent and has less cabins for workers than the floor before and there are some locked doors with keypad lock on your both sides in the passage you are walking through.

“Where are we going?”

“Oh! Wooyoung didn’t tell you?” You shake your head and the rolling of his eyes brings a smile on your confused face.

“That boy is really of no use other than flirting anyways you are aware of the fact of you being here for an interview, right?” You slowly nod and then he continues.

“So we are going to meet the bosses in the office.”

“Bosses?”

“Well we have to two boss, one for maintaining the ring of the office and the other one for sectors.”

You just nod your head to show that you just understand the language and the words but actually you don’t even get whatever he explained to you. He also told on your way about everyone’s role and that he is the partner of Jongho in Health Data dept. and the t-shirt really proving his well built muscles underneath and his perfect match to health dept.

Both of your steps stop in front of a big red metal and glass door. The door is way too fancy for a simple interview room but the plate attached to the door above the keypad lock caught your attention. Two names were written- ‘Kim Hongjoong’ and ‘Park Seonghwa’.

“They are our bosses.” You glance at him and then again on the name. A click sound attracts your focus to your side where Yeosang scanned his eyes on a small screen.

Wow! There are really safety precautions everywhere, I need to have an adventure day here to see if I get caught or I can pass all through these safeties.

The door opens and the moment you got a glimpse of inside, you swear you wanted to scream. The decoration was too authentic and classy. The black and grey combinations spread all around the office room and every detail at its finest. You have always dreamt to have a room like this for yourself but your broke ass never been able to afford such things. Your eyes scanning all around the room and you didn’t know that you are practically adoring the room in awe and Yeosang smiling at you while closing the door behind him.

One thing you didn’t notice in particular is that a man with rolled up sleeves of his white shirt and loose tie matching with black pants standing in front of the corner bookshelf and his piercing eyes visible through the dishevelled hairs falling on his forehead scanning all your movements.

“Wow…” The moment you realized what you are doing, you apologetically look towards Yeosang and he just waved it off.

“It’s okay Y/N. They will be glad to know that you liked their office so much.”

“Why did you bring her here?” The voice made you jump in your place and you place your hand over heart to calm your shocked self. You quickly turn towards the direction of the voice.

“San. They told me to bring her over here.”

“I was having an important check on schedule updates but anyways” his slow heavy footsteps echoed in the room and he approached to your conscious figure “ finally I got to see you Y/N.”

You hesitantly look towards him but somehow gives him an innocent smile, “Its nice to meet you too sir.”

��San. Call me San.”

You remained quiet and just nodded but he raised one eyebrow which has a small slit.

“Y/N, we told you to call us by our name then why are you repeating this again. We don’t like when someone don’t listen to us and its very disappointing when it comes from you.”

You felt guilty on Yeosang’s words.

“Sorry.”

“Its okay. It was your first time meeting me so I will let it slide but don’t take me easy like this.” A smirk plastered with his words on the face.

Yeosang lightly taps on your shoulder to gain your attention. He glances at San to see his wide smirk in return and went away towards the bookshelf.

“Y/N have a seat over there. They will be coming here soon.”

You look over to the main desk placed in front of the city view glass wall. Two chairs on opposite sides and you took a seat and look over those main chairs on other sides. The door opens and you can hear some unfamiliar voices and some familiar. You slowly turn your head and there six males entering the room.

Yeosang comes to your side to give you a recall of their names and you thanked him in small. The new males’ attention shifted to you when they saw you sitting quietly on a chair and staring at them.

“Hello Y/N. Myself Kim Hongjoong, the head of the managing sectors.” This man, Is he real? The jet black hairs falling on his flawless skin, his thick eyebrows and pointy nose complimenting his features perfectly. You stand up giving a professional smile and you quickly shake his already extended hand.

“Nice to meet you too, Sir Hongjoong.” You waited for him to say if you are wrong with the name again but he just nodded and took off his coat.

“Myself Park Seonghwa, the head of the ring management. Its so nice to finally see you in person Y/N.”

Why all the men in this office are with godly visual? Oh my god! They will be the reason of my distraction in this office.

“Same here, sir Seonghwa.” You both exchanged sweet smiles. He directed you back to your chair and they both seated themselves in opposite of you.

Your nervousness didn’t go unnoticed by Yeosang and he tapped on your shoulder to make you feel comfortable and give you a soft smile. You somewhat felt relieved and turn to face the two heads of each management in front of you.

“Don’t have to feel nervous. Stay calm, its not like your usual interview but its just we will be clearing some points on what to be done and not after you will join the company.” The ring management head nodded on his own words with a soft look on his face.

“Don’t I need to go through any interrogation process like we have in usual interviews?”

“Y/N we already have talked about this that we are friends so we want you to be relaxed and join our company.” Mingi spoke up while sitting on the sofa beside Yunho who is busy going through some files. Both have placed their coat on their laps and their casual wears on display making them look like usual public but not some CEO of some departments.

You glanced towards him and the two boss and repeated the action while speaking, “Thank you for helping me but I don’t want anyone to just pity on me when am in need and because I was their once bestfriend.”

Hongjoong clears his throat to gain everyone’s attention, “Have you all informed everyone about our new recruit?”

Wooyoung who is leaning to San and grinning while looking at the file in front of the bookshelf suddenly spoke up with enthusiasm, “Of course. I have let them know that we have got our best intern and they should treat her like they treat us. I don’t want anyone to look down on her when she is close to us even though being just an intern.”

“Thank you Wooyoung.”

Yeosang brings you a glass of water, “Drink this Y/N. You look so stressed.”

“Thank you Yeosang. Its just everything is so confusing to me. I don’t think it would be good to take me as an intern. Your company may have a bad impact on helping a friend like this who is apparently just an average student.”

Seonghwa cut you off, “You don’t have to worry about anything Y/N.”

Gulping the water down your dry throat, you heaved a sigh and look at the two males in front of you, “What are the points you were mentioning about to be followed?”

They both looked at each other before turning their attention to you. Having both of their attention on you at the same time somewhat making you a bit shy, you awkwardly tug your hairs behind your ears and it didn’t go unnoticed by the second oldest male.

“So, we will give you the necessary form to fill up by tomorrow afternoon with all your details to be filled up accordingly asked. Next about your stay. Your dorm is really far away from here and it will be difficult for you to come here regularly. We have place for you to stay here. You can check it out later.”

“Should I address you both with sir or name?”

They chuckled on your sudden ask but answered quickly with agreeing with names.

“Staying here? But Seonghwa, I can’t stay in this building all alone with some unknown people and even I have to attend university.”

Hongjoong interjects, “You are not alone here. We also live here and about university, we will let them know about your full time internship and you can have online tutoring classes and Jongho can take you to the campus for once a week to submit your assignments and projects.”

Jongho who was silently sitting on a rocking chair in the corner look up on hearing his name. he nodded when he sees you looking at him. He stands up and come near to stand beside Hongjoong.

“You all stay here?”

The youngest speaks with a smile on his face, “Yes. This building has twenty floors and the last five floors and the rooftop is only for us similarly like this eighth floor which is our private office area. You can stay in any room from top floors.”

“The other floors?”

“Well the other floors where the staffs and others are allowed are only till seventh floor and to the rest only the personal requested staffs when some important business is to be done. The rest of the floors will be introduced to you when you will have a building tour tomorrow after turning in the form.”

“I can reject the letter offer right?”

“Y/N?” Yeosang abruptly asked you from the place near glass window from where he was enjoying the outside view. Everybody in the room paused on their action hearing your question and the way Yeosang’s call was near to a yell. Your wide eyes fixed on the said male, who made his way near your form to sit beside you. He turns your chair to make you face him and pull it closer.

“Yeosang….I meant that I can-“

“Y/N. Accept the offer and do what they have said accordingly unless we are losing our mind or we have some other ways to make you do it.”

“I have my own rights to do things and on that I can reject it if I don’t think this job is for me.”

“Y/N I swear-“

“Yeosang! Come with me.” San with quick steps come to your view to drag him away from you outside the room so that he can’t further make you more scared.

‘How can that angel speak to you like this?’

Yunho takes the previous male’s seat but his expression is even more dark. He communicated something with eyes with the two heads of the office before proceeding to state his opinion.

“Take the offer letter. Think about it after you go back to your dorm. You can take your time but don’t think to push this away carelessly as you know you don’t get this sort of opportunities every day. “

“I need time to think. My life is already messed up with so much of different stuffs. I know I have to do something with my career but am confused right now. Please give me some time and then I will let you know.”

Hoping to not piss them off anymore, you carefully expressed your view. You scanned all of their faces to at least get hints of some positive reply.

“Okay take this weekend to come up with a decision and we will meet you on Monday with our final round of being just friendly strangers.”

‘Friendly Strangers?’

Your confused look on Hongjoong’s words make the three males near you chuckle.

“I suppose they have mentioned you about our childhood friendship so after you accept our offer, we will treat you like how an actual female bestfriend should be treated.”

“I told you Y/N, we all are really happy to get you back.”

“Mingi, how come you all are so sure that I will end up with accepting this offer?”

Seonghwa added this time, “We are more than sure that your decision will be to accept the offer as the only option.”

You focused yourself on your fidgeting thumbs on the table and bit your lips because the more they are speaking, the more you are becoming confused.

To your opposite Seonghwa holds your hand startling you, “Calm down Y/N. Go home take rest and think about this with a clear mind.” He gives you a comforting smile in the end.

Your head is paining and all of a sudden, you are feeling overwhelmed with all these attentions all at once. You glance to everyone present in the room and close your eyes.

“I want to go back to campus.”

“Wooyoung take her back and make sure to have a visit to the university.” Nodding his head on hongjoong’s order, he guides you to the out of the room to take you back to your place.

“What do we do now Hongjoong? If she rejects the offer then our plan to bring her here will go in vain.”

“Don’t worry Seonghwa. Everything is going to be as planned. Yunho, you know what to do tomorrow right?”

The said male leans on his chair and eyes focused on the chair where you were sitting few minutes ago.

“Of course! I know.”

“Whats a plan that am not aware of?”

“No one is aware of this except us. It’s just we came up with this to avoid any mishap in our plan.”

“And what’s that?”

“You will know it from her on your own when she will be coming here with a positive feedback to our plan.”

Mingi along with the youngest is exiting the room when suddenly he turns back to face the three sitting males, “Now come on, we need to see why he lost his mind that time.”

———————

After a silent ride back to your campus, you somewhat felt relief to be back in a familiar atmosphere.

“Thanks for the ride Wooyoung.”

“No worries. Have fun cupcake, lets meet on Monday and I hope we will spend a bit more time.”

“I don’t know if that’s possible.”

“Oh! Trust me the fun begins here.”

You both waved each other to part ways on your own.

Maybe this is the only day, you are able to escape a hidden danger and to be back to your own little paradise.

—————————-

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heart-of-gold-outlaw · 2 months ago

Text

Welcome Home | Chapter 13: No Surprises

When you open your eyes the next morning, you see a butterfly.

It's a pretty little thing, all delicate wings that float gently in the early summer breeze. A monarch, you think. It sits perched on the small piece of wood that acts as your nightstand, right next to the flower in a bottle that Arthur gave you some time after you all left the Grizzlies.

You blink and rub your eyes, just to clear the sleep from them is all. But when your vision clears, the butterfly is gone.

The rest of the gang is already up and about. Camp chores don't do themselves, you suppose, and head for the chopping block to get some firewood ready. Abigail smiles at you when you pass by, and you're pleased to note that so far, she's kept her end of the bargain and hasn't said a word to Arthur about your conversation yesterday. Good. The last thing you need is a strong cowboy crushing your fragile little heart with his strong cowboy boot.

Not that you think Arthur will be mean when he rejects you (if you ever decide to tell him about your feelings, that is).

You reach the chopping block and grab the ax. The first log splits clean in two without much of a fuss, but the second one is a bit stubborn. The third is even worse, and by the time you finish the fourth, you're sweating.

"Come on, you piece of shit fucking fuck," you hiss as the ax gets stuck in fifth log. Again. "Come on!"

You're dimly aware of Kieran giving you a terrified glance as he scurries by. You can only imagine what you must look like, ax in your hand, eyes wild, cursing everything under the sun as you bang the log against the chopping block again and again and again.

"Ain't strong enough to chop a little wood?" Micah sneers as he stalks over. As usual, he doesn't look happy. As usual, you're disgusted by his very presence.

"Go fuck a brick," you snap at him as you finally, finally, succeed in splitting the log. Splinters fly every which way, but at least it's done.

Micah blinks, confused for just a moment, before your words register and he narrows his eyes.

"You think that just because you're Morgan's favorite, you can get away with talkin' to me like that?" He demands.

You open your mouth to tell him to fuck a stick this time, but abruptly shut it when you realize what he said. Favorite? Arthur's favorite? Not possible. Arthur's got plenty of other people in camp he likes more than you. Sure, you're entertaining to him, a distraction for when things get a little too boring, but you're not important.

"I think I can get away with a lot of things," you hear yourself say, sounding a lot more confident than you feel. "And that'll include your murder if you don't back the hell off."

Silence. Micah glares at you, venomous, like a rattlesnake, and you do your best to glare back. And it must look at least a little convincing, because he eventually shakes his head and stomps off.

"Goddamn waste of space," he mutters.

You're thankful he has his back to you so he doesn't see you flinch. Gritting your teeth, you set the ax aside and kick the firewood into a neater pile. And if you kick some of them a little harder than necessary, then so be it.

The rest of the camp chores are already well underway, so your plans of losing yourself in tasks immediately turn to ash. You take to wandering toward the horses without much thought. Taima whinnies softly once you're close by. It's almost enough to make you smile. Over the last few weeks, you've bonded with her more than you thought you would. She's a sweet horse, odd for a mare, and you just know she'd never try to throw you.

You give her an oatcake that was buried in your pocket. Then, after a moment's hesitation, you start brushing her. Chances are, she's already been groomed for the morning, but you don't think Charles will mind if you do a little extra.

As you brush the dirt and dust from Taima's coat, you can't help but think about what Micah said. Waste of space, he called you. There are certainly worse things to be called, that's for sure, but this hits a little too close to home. How many times have you heard people in your own time say the same thing? How many times did you have people you looked up to, people you loved, shake their heads with heavy sighs and mumble to themselves that you wouldn't do, just wouldn't do at all?

Tears well in your eyes, and you wince against the sting. Great. Now you're crying. Now you're crying because some jerk said something mean, and your skin isn't thick enough to brush it off. How are you supposed to fit in with a gang of outlaws if you cry when someone's just a little bit angry?

Engrossed in your thoughts, you don't hear the sound of footsteps from behind you, don't even realize you're not alone until a familiar drawl says: "You feelin' okay, Y/N?"

He startled you, of course he did, but you miraculously don't jump, throw the brush, or do anything that's particularly embarrassing. Somehow.

"I'm fine," you say automatically, wiping your eyes before turning to face Arthur. "Just thought I'd give Taima a brush."

Arthur frowns and slowly places a steady hand on your shoulder. His eyes are drawn to yours, taking in every detail, noticing the tears without a doubt.

"You wanna tell me what's wrong?" He asks gently, and boy, how a simple question can be so complicated, you have no idea.

You look around camp. You don't want anyone else to notice you. It's bad enough that Arthur already has to see you cry, but you don't think you can bear it if Dutch or Hosea start fussing.

As if reading your mind, Arthur gives your shoulder a warm, reassuring pat.

"Let's go for a ride into town," he says. "Charles ain't gonna mind if you borrow Taima for a bit."

The ride into Valentine is short, but does wonders to clear your head. Taima's gate is smooth, sure, and soothing as you and Arthur approach the saloon. You're proud to admit that you can actually dismount without needing help now. Looks like practice really does make perfect. And, of course, Arthur's approving smile is absolutely the best thing you've seen all day.

You both take a seat at the bar. The piano player is already hammering away on the keys, an upbeat, fun tune that almost makes you want to dance. The Maple Leaf Rag, you think. You know the song from a film class you took some years ago. Guess it never really left your head.

"So," Arthur drawls as he orders you both a couple of drinks. It's still relatively early in the morning, but hey, you're down for day drinking. "What happened this mornin?"

You fidget a little on the bar stool. "I mean, nothing really. Went to chop some firewood, had a little trouble with the ax, told Micah I'd murder him... the usual?"

The second you mention Micah, Arthur's face hardens.

"Micah say anything to you?" He asks, voice low and serious.

For a second, you think about lying. But Arthur's giving you that look, the one that says he's genuinely concerned, and any chance you would've had at fooling him is instantly crushed.

"Yeah," you mumble. "He was just being a jerk at first, but..." You bite your lip uncertainly. "But he called me a waste of space, and... I don't know why that hit me as hard as it did, but..."

You trail off, unsure of how to continue. How can you tell Arthur the truth? How can you tell him that you were just starting to feel at home here in the 1890s, and then some jerk who probably can't even spell waste of space had to go and ruin it?

Arthur sighs and shakes his head. "That goddamn animal," he hisses. "Look, Y/N, I'm gonna settle somethin' for you right here and now: you ain't a waste of space. You done more for us in the last month than Micah's done in the last six. Ain't nobody that matters gonna tell you different."

Embarrassingly, you feel your eyes start to sting again. You stubbornly blink the tears away.

"Thanks," you say in a small voice. "I guess... I guess Micah's just has shit for brains?"

Arthur laughs. "That's givin' him too much credit."

You smile at him and bump his shoulder with your own. "Thanks, Arthur. For everything."

Arthur nods, reaches out, and brushes a stray tear from your face that managed to escape.

"Ain't no trouble, Y/N," he says softly. "Ain't no trouble at all."

#arthur morgan #rdr2 #arthur morgan x reader #modern!reader #welcome home #fic #my fic #my writing #rdr2 fanfiction

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swiftsaltsweet · 17 days ago

Text

Two Knives Interlude 3: Rangi- Damn It All!

Characters: Rangi and Kyoshi (RoK characters tbh)

Pairing: Rangshi

Rating: E (rating changed from M to E, see author notes)

Summary:

Things have been stressful for Kyoshi. First, she sang a poem and now the whole kitchen staff thinks it’s about Rangi, and is sure that there will be gossip. Then, Yun asks her to join him for the Fifth Nation treaty signing. Now Rangi’s acting strange. It’s becoming a bit much for Kyoshi’s small corner of the world.

(Canon Divergent AU- Kelsang wasn’t the one who heard the poem?….aka What if it took longer for them to realize Kyoshi was the Avatar?)

Other Sites: AO3

A/N: First, thank you all who have stayed with this for song long, even after this impromptu hiatus. And Happy New Year! (a week late but still)

I’m so sorry for taking so long to post this chapter. TT0TT This specific chapter has been done for AGES, but the next three…..those next damn three chapters. TT0TT Blame them. Had to finish them so I could move on to Arc 2. *sob* And I wanted to make sure they were satisfactory before I posted them.

Um spoiler (not really) y’all are getting that smut scene…..if you want incentive to keep reading TT0TT just gotta…..get to that point in Rangi’s side now….. And um…..we’re just gonna change it to E rating. u_u (I’ll post in the tags which chapters, assuming I decide to write more smut in this).

If you don't read The Hunt for Kyoshi (one of my other fanfics), I mentioned in a new chapter that I am going to release a chapter a week. Randomly for different fics (wasn't gonna post any new ones and then...well...forgot there was one I wanted to start posting so :'D Hope you want a Kyoshi prequel cause that's what next week!).

Good news for people who like this one the most, Two Knives has the most completed chapters! So you most likely will see an update to this one. I've yet to technically start Arc 2 of Two Knives as of posting this tho (I did write a chapter that's a few chapters into it....I had a mighty need ok? TT0TT)

Fun fact, I talk on my tumblr (swiftsaltsweet) every so often about the fics (cause that’s dedicated pretty much to fics). So you can see me crying about aspects of my fics or how my progress is looking. (I’m usually babbling about this fic for some reason)

____

“Are you going to attend the Beifong party?” Rangi asked Kyoshi. They were lounging in the brush behind the mansion. Kyoshi, now fully recovered, was on break, and they were sharing onigiri that she made for lunch. Rangi chose to eat slower than she normally did, she wanted to enjoy Kyoshi’s cooking.

Rangi had a feeling Kyoshi would say ‘no’ but wanted to try anyway, just in case.

Kyoshi looked at her like she’d grown a second head. “No? Why would I be invited?”

Rangi brow furrowed just a tad. Because you’re a hero…

She was annoyed that Jianzhu and the other’s weren’t giving Kyoshi her due. They were too busy fawning over Yun, which was understandable, he was the Avatar , but… still .

Rangi scoffed. “I mean, you were technically the one who took out Tagaka. You should be there.”

Kyoshi thought her words over while she ate a bit of her lunch. “Do you want me to go?”

More than you could ever realize. Rangi mirrored Kyoshi’s action. “Yes.”

“I don’t have an outfit.”

“We’ll get you one.” It was shameful for Rangi to admit it, but she’d already had a list of dresses she was ready to pay for if Kyoshi ever asked. Other than Kyoshi getting her due, seeing the girl in a dress was another reason Rangi really wanted her to go.

“Am I even allowed to go?”

“I’ll convince them.” She hadn’t broken any chairs or tables since she’d come to Yokoya. She prided herself on having not thrown a childish tantrum in two years, but if she must resort to such tactics to get her way. Then she must .

Sorry, mother. But not really. She thought, smiling wryly to herself.

Kyoshi picked at the grass in front of her, thinking hard. “I need to take care of Kelsang.”

Rangi nodded to herself. Yes, this was the main reason why she thought Kyoshi would say ‘no.’ She’d accepted it. Well, at least she tried.

She played up her sigh, to show her disappointment. “Then that’s what you should do.”

Kyoshi snorted. “So now you don’t want me to go?”

Rangi let her wry smile play a bit broader on her lips. “I never said that. I do want you to be there. Revel in the victory…. But Master Kelsang needs you, I won’t keep you from that.”

Rangi kept looking off in the distance, the distance being a large wall that encased the entire estate, but the distance nonetheless. Maybe next time…. HuH?!

Rangi almost jumped when she felt a weight gently lean on her shoulder, but she held her ground. Kyoshi had decided she should rest her head on Rangi’s shoulder.

Rangi reveled in how Kyoshi’s brown hair touched her cheek. It would've been a transgression if Kyoshi was a Fire National. Thankfully, that wasn't the case. It allowed Rangi to enjoy the sinful touch.

“Thank you,” she sighed. Rangi could only hum in response. She didn’t trust her voice at the moment.

They stayed in that position, that bliss, while they ate. It only came to an end when the gong for lunch had rung out. The two sighed, not wanting to part from each other’s touch.

Rangi dusted off her trousers, and started making her way back to the barracks when Kyoshi called out to her.

“Rangi, wait!” Kyoshi yelled, crossing the distance in only a few strides. Her hand went towards Rangi’s face again, unknowingly almost giving her a heart attack.

She felt Kyoshi’s fingers pluck something gently from the corner of her mouth.

“There you go. You’re all good now!” Kyoshi grinned like mad, proud of herself.

Rangi stared up at Kyoshi, trying to keep herself grounded as much as she could. How was it possible for someone to have such power over her? Make her come undone in a single second?

She wondered if she should give Kyoshi a briefing on Fire Nation customs….but decided against it. She loved the unabashed display too much.

Rangi’s eyes trailed to the single grain of rice that Kyoshi held in her fingers. How could such a small thing be her undoing?

New resolve seeped into Rangi’s being as she gazed at the grain. She was going to make Kyoshi feel what she felt. She wasn’t holding back anymore.

Rangi gently took Kyoshi's hand, and dipped her head down. She gently ate the grain from between Kyoshi’s fingers. Slowly and with intent, making sure her lips grazed as much of Kyoshi’s flesh as she could.

As she pulled away, she felt a sense of satisfaction thrum through her as Kyoshi’s thumb made a move to chase after her lip and caressed it, wanting to keep the contact going like she did.

“Thanks,” she rasped out, making her voice lower than usual. She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and looked up with half lidded eyes. Then she smiled coquettishly at Kyoshi, enjoying how Kyoshi had formed a strong blush and how it deepened the color of her pretty freckles. “I don’t like wasting food.”

Rangi turned on her heel and made her way to the barracks, making sure she had an extra sway in her hips as she left and rounded the corner. As she did, she stole one last glance back at Kyoshi, and felt pleased with her new change in tactic.

-------

Rangi didn’t want to be at this party. She just hated parties in general, found the whole idea frivolous. But after meeting Kyoshi two years ago, it became more unbearable. It’d be one thing if she could spend the party with Kyoshi, but they were always so close but too far at times like these.

And now? The new developments in her relationship with Kyoshi? Well this part had taken on a a new form of torture. She just wanted to be near her girl in an entirely new way now.

Sometimes, it really sucked being the Avatar’s bodyguard.

The entire time she stood by Yun as he talked to various politicians. Jianzhu and Hei-Ran stayed close by and even interjected at times. Hei-Ran moreso when the men would ask either her mother or Rangi herself about marriage. Because of those three, Rangi didn’t need to talk.

They talked about political arrangements in the Earth Kingdom, Avatar affairs, and the battle. Which was more of a disaster than Jianzhu, Yun, or Hei-Ran let on to onlookers, but that wasn’t Rangi’s concern.

The only thing that irked Rangi, that threatened to make her talk, was when someone described Yun as the one who personally took out Tagaka . It took all her effort to not boast about Kyoshi’s prowess, because in doing so she’d undermine the Avatar.

Yun, however, surprised her, and gave Kyoshi credit. Jianzhu, however , decided to undermine said credit by stating that Tagaka’s real power came from the fleet of ships. Which he and Yun had destroyed. Thanks to Yun’s masterful display of raising earth from the sea floor.

Rangi rolled her tongue in her mouth. She wouldn’t speak. She wouldn’t talk back. She wouldn’t go home and break a chair. She would meditate. Or find Kyoshi.

She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. Yes. Kyoshi. Even just the thought of her relaxed Rangi. She would go home, and find a way to entangle their time together. Without being too much of a bother to the maid.

Maybe she would even show off the dress she was wearing. She wondered what Kyoshi's reaction to it would be.

But first, she needed to get away from some very persistent man who kept trying to get her attention. He didn’t even flinch when Hei-Ran’s demeanor changed from politely annoyed, to dragon mother when his intentions to bother her daughter were made clear.

Rangi excused herself to the drink table, allowing the adults to sort the issue out.

She grabbed a glass of wine, and went outside to the garden for a breath of fresh air. It smelled like mossy dew, another earthy Kyoshi type smell. The one she’d get when she’d tend to the gardens sometimes.

Rangi had only taken a single sip of her drink, when a figure saddled up beside her. She was contemplating roundhouse kicking them, risking dropping wine on her dress, when she realized it was actually Yun.

“You shouldn’t sneak up on me,” Rangi said coyly, putting the glass to her lips again. “I could’ve killed you.”

Yun grinned and laughed. “Ooooo scary !” He shook his hands out in front of him in mock terror.

“ Your funeral,” Rangi smirked into her drink.

“Ah, well, then I guess the world will get a Fire Avatar sooner!” he laughed.

Rangi frowned, she didn’t like that for a number of reasons. Mostly because it’d be a very bad look for not only her, but the Fire Nation as well.

Yun bumped her shoulder, visibly happy he didn’t have to worry about voiding her spiked armor at the moment. “Oh, c’mon you! I was just joking .”

“Yeah, yeah,” she waved him off.

Yun sighed after a moment of silence. “I wish Kyoshi was here.”

Rangi hummed in agreement.

“You didn’t ask her to come?”

Rangi finished her glass. “I did.”

“You didn’t try to force her to come?”

“No,” Rangi said. “She needed to take care of Master Kelsang.”

“Ah,” Yun nodded. He understood, Master Kelsang was like a father to Kyoshi. It wouldn’t have been right to rip them away from each other.

Yun reached down and picked up a rock from the garden, and rolled it in his hand. Inspecting it. Rangi wondered if it was an earthbender thing. She’d have to ask Kyoshi. Though she wondered how much the girl could or would tell her. She’d never seen the girl bend even a pebble, despite being listed as an earthbender in the staff's ledger.

“It’s a shame,” he said, rolling the rock expertly between his fingers. “I was going to ask her to be mine at the party tonight.”

Rangi’s glass slipped out of her hands and shattered on the deck below. What did he just say?

Yun sucked air through his teeth. “Rangi! Be careful , you could’ve hurt yoursel–oh, too late. You're already bleeding.”

Rangi barely registered the pain, the nick from the glass hitting her….shin? Foot? She didn’t care. What did he just say ?!

“What….did you say?” Rangi’s voice came out as a strangled rasp.

Yun whirled his hands in the air, and the glass formed into a neat ball above his hands. Then he made a crushing motion, and the glass grounded back down into fine sand. Then he let it fly onto the ground of the garden.

“I said, I was going to ask her to be mine.”

He was looking at her, but Rangi couldn’t move. Her eyes were transfixed over the flowers and pond that was in the Beifong garden.

“What about Master Jianzhu?”

The entire reason on Yun’s side, from what she could sparse together; for why Kyoshi and him hadn’t gotten together officially, was because Master Jianzhu had forbidden it. Partially because Kyoshi was a servant. Partially because he didn’t want Yun to follow the same escapades as Avatar Kuruk.

Yun never went against Jianzhu, not when he laid down the law like he’d done with dating. So why now ?

When Yun spoke again, it was a hushed whisper. “It doesn’t matter what he thinks. I’m the Avatar. He shouldn’t get a say in what I want .”

A wave of disgust ran over Rangi as she heard his words. What he wants? What about what Kyoshi wants? Then a new wave hit her. Am I the same as him? Is this how I sound when I think about her too?

“Why the change?” she forced a gulp down. “It’s just…so sudden.”

“ Perspective ,” he said. “What happened at the iceberg, I realized… It can all end in an instant. I don’t want to live or die with regrets.”

Rangi changed a glance at Yun, he stared head on at her. No humor could be seen on his face. Something in his demeanor, something made it feel like they were two animals about to go at each other.

“Perspective?” she questioned.

“Perspective,” he clarified with a nod.

The poem. It wasn’t just the iceberg, Kyoshi’s poem had also influenced Yun as well. It had lit a metaphorical fire under both their asses.

Yun tapped his foot on the ground once. The motion was familiar.

Rangi’s eyes widened in realization, remembering the day she was willing to beg him to keep Kyoshi from going with them. No, not just that. Could it be… could he have seen that they were getting closer since the iceberg? How Rangi was becoming more bold, and Kyoshi was accepting each action? Was Rangi’s reckless behavior her own undoing?

Yun closed his eyes, and inhaled. Then he cocked his head to the side and gave Rangi a lopsided smile. The same one her mother said Avatar Kuruk had.

It made her sick.

“So what are you going to do about it, Rangi?”

Rangi widened her eyes at him. “What?”

“Are you just going to stand there and let me take her?” Rangi's response was to stand stock still. She was still in shock. “Because when we get back to Yokoya, I’m going to carry out my plan. I’m not going to wait .”

“What if she says no?” Rangi asked hurriedly.

“She might,” Yun nodded. “But then again, I am the Avatar . Not many people want to say no to me.”

Rangi’s heart quickened. Was Kyoshi really so shallow she’d only be with Yun because of his status? No. No she wasn’t. Either Yun didn’t understand Kyoshi as well as he thought…..or this was a different kind of threat. Rangi could only hope it was the former.

Rangi turned to him, shoulders square now. “What if, what if she says no because she’s with me?”

Yun cracked his neck side to side. “Then I guess it’s my loss?” He stared Rangi down. “Or, I’ll steal her. Guess we’ll see.”

He smiled at her one last time, and clapped a hand on her shoulder. “Ah, too bad we’re stuck here for a few more days. Apparently it’s supposed to storm.”

He released his hand off her shoulder, and walked off. Leaving Rangi to pick up the pieces of her falling world.

No. No no no no! She’d just gotten a light of hope that Kyoshi might like her back! The world couldn’t do this to her! Not now…. Especially when she almost lost her once already!

Rangi stumbled to a nearby wall, her head in her hand, and started hyperventilating.

She was happy to be by Kyoshi’s side but… not if Yun took Kyoshi from Rangi. She wouldn’t be able to withstand it.

All that grandstanding of just wanting to be by Kyoshi’s side. Saying she didn’t need anything from Kyoshi. It wasn’t the full truth. Only a part of her thought that.

Rangi wasn’t a wholly selfless person, she was also selfish. She wanted Kyoshi, all of her. She didn’t want to share with anyone. She wanted Kyoshi to only look at her.

If she didn’t then….then she…. She was sure she wouldn’t be able to handle the heartbreak.

Rangi pulled away from the wall, taking big gulps of air. She knew what she had to do. And she realized she may have to burn some bridges just to do it.

Rangi needed to find her mother.

_______

Rangi bobbed and weaved through the bodies in the party, looking for a familiar face. She found her mother, leaning against the wall, attempting to ignore more nobles asking for her hand.

Rangi ran right up to her, not caring about who she might’ve snubbed.

“Mother!” Rangi said.

Hei-Ran looked up from the floor she had been preoccupied with staring at, and her eyes widened. She shoved her wineglass into some noble’s hands and walked over to meet her daughter. “Rangi, what on earth–”

“I need to talk to you, now !” Rangi said in a rushed whisper.

Hei-Ran nodded, and the two Fire Nationals hurried to a private room. As soon as the last one entered through the door, Hei-Ran turned and shut it tight. Then whirled over to her daughter.

“Rangi, what is going on? Did something happen?” The sternness of her voice belied the softness that was resting just underneath.

“Mother, I need you to watch Yun for me,” she pleaded with urgency.

Hei-Ran visibly relaxed. “Is that all?” She let out a sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose. “If that was it, there was no need for the theatrics. Yes, I can do that. For how long–”

“Until you go back to Yokoya.”

Hei-Ran stiffened. Rangi knew the older woman probably only assumed she’d take on the role for maybe a few hours at most. Not days . She was basically asking to abandon her duties, and at a public event no less.

Hei-Ran finally looked up at her daughter. Stern wariness in her eyes. “Do you understand what that means ?”

Yes, her reputation would take a hit. The Masters at the mansion would look down on her even more. It’d be harder to rise up the ranks with this kind of mark on her record. But Rangi didn’t care, there was something more precious at stake.

“Yes,” she responded with hardened resolve.

“And you’re willing to take that risk and responsibility?”

“Absolutely.”

“Can you at least tell me why ?”

No she couldn’t. Not the whole truth at least. “There’s something I must attend to back at the mansion, it cannot wait any longer.”

Hei-Ran looked away, her face wavering with different emotions. Finally it steeled, in the same fashion she would use to scold the children at the academy. Panic shot through Rangi.

“Mother! I need to go back to the mansion, now , it’s an emergency!”

If Hei-Ran said ‘no,’ then….then…. Rangi would just run off! She was ready to disobey her own mother if she had to! She didn’t care. She needed to–

“Go,” Hei-Ran said, a look of stern fire in her eyes.

“W–what?” Rangi looked at her in surprise. Her mother was allowing her to be dismissed from her duties? Why?

“Why are you asking questions? Is it not important? Go! Now!” Hei-Ran waved Rangi off. “And take the ostrich horse with the blue reins, it’s the fastest. Go now and you might only have to endure the storm for half the journey!”

Relief swelled through Rangi, and before she ran off, she hugged her mother tightly. “Thank you…”

And then she bolted out the door to the stables.

______

Rangi stumbled through the mansion in the dead of night. Tired, drenched, caked with mud. She’d laugh at how Kyoshi would probably scold her tomorrow for making such a mess, but she was so raw from the ride over she couldn’t process any humor at the moment.

Yun’s words hung over her being like a sword ready to fall. There was no time for humor. There was almost no time at all. Rangi had to act .

She reached Kyoshi’s door, and then looked at herself. She tried to smooth her hair, and readjust her waterlogged dress. But it was in no way presentable. She could only hope Kyoshi would take her as she was, mess and all.

She began rapping at the door, it took awhile before Kyoshi came and answered it. The taller girl was in her night clothes, her night robe barely on and hugging her body. Rangi had seen Kyoshi in a similar state a few weeks earlier, when she’d delivered the gloves she’d had custom ordered for Kyoshi. The sight made her breathless then, and it made her breathless now.

“Rangi?!” Kyoshi said aghast, a worried expression permanently set on her face.

Rangi couldn’t hold back. She lunged at Kyoshi, tackled the taller girl through the door, burrowed her face into the girl’s chest, and wept.

Rangi could hear the sound of a door closing, and then Kyoshi’s warm and strong arm on her back. Rangi gasped as Kyoshi’s soft hand touched Rangi’s exposed back. It was like a balm to the raw wound of her nerves.

She felt Kyoshi guide her body, and she complied.

“Rangi, what happened?! Is everything alright?” Kyoshi asked, and Rangi felt the feeling of cloth fall around her shoulders. Kyoshi had gotten her a towel. Thoughtful as always.

“No,” Rangi whispered through gaps in her cries. “I mean, yes. Everyone else is alright but… I’m not .”

She wouldn't be fine. Not until she made her feelings known…. Then the next hurdle would be if Kyoshi accepted them.

But it was so hard. Now that she was at that moment, she didn't know what to say. How to say it. She had so much time, the entire long ride over here. Hell, not even that, she’d had two years to mull over this. But she still couldn’t get her words formed, let alone out .

She felt Kyoshi wrapped her arms around her, trying to comfort her. It brought Rangi comfort…and worry. Stability, yet instability at the same time.

“Talk to me, what happened?” Kyoshi whispered in her ear.

Rangi’s resolve started to come undone. What was there to say? “I wanted to beat Yun to a confession!” Yes, such a selfish declaration would surely win over Kyoshi's heart.

“I know this is sudden and it's the middle of the night and I just barged my way into your room… But I'm in love with you and have been for the past two years! Take me!”

It was the truth, but it sounded pathetic. She wanted to confess to Kyoshi in the right way. But she'd run out of time and options. She didn't know what or how to do it. So she just sobbed into the other girl's chest.

Kyoshi hugged her harder, and Rangi gasped from both the comfort and closeness. If she wasn't such a mess she would be enjoying this so much.

“Are you hurt?”

No, not in the physical sense. Save for a shallow cut she may need to treat.

“No,” Rangi forced out. She realized her behavior was worrying her friend.

She felt Kyoshi's shoulders untense, but not by much. “Then, what’s the matter?”

That I love you and you don't know it.

“Oh, Kyoshi …” Rangi lifted her head from Kyoshi’s chest, to nuzzle into the crook of Kyoshi’s neck.

She felt Kyoshi react to her touch. Her shaking, her pulse quickening, her breathing becoming more ragged.

Like flame to coal, it reignited Rangi's resolve in an instant.

“ Please… ” she begged. To Kyoshi. To herself. To the spirits. Whatever gave her the strength to do what was next.

Kyoshi gulped.“W–what do you need me to do?” she stuttered.

And like that, her spark caught like a wildfire. There was no going back.

Damn it… Just… Damn it all!

“I can’t do this anymore,” Rangi whispered. She couldn't keep running. Waiting for the right time. Trying to find the right words.

She was a girl of action. So she would show her love with that action.

She lifted herself away from Kyoshi, and took Kyoshi’s face in her hands.

Kyoshi’s wide eyes stared right into Rangi’s tearful ones.

“ Please , Kyoshi,” Rangi pleaded one final time, praying the girl she loved would accept her. Then she pulled Kyoshi’s face down and pressed their lips together.

It was the most amazing feeling in the world. Her entire being felt like it was glowing, pulsating. A warmth radiated from Kyoshi that rivaled Rangi’s own inner fire, igniting her more. Fanning her flames. The best part? Kyoshi hadn't pulled away. There was nothing that could break Rangi from this moment.

Except for the sound of the towel hitting the floor.

Strange. Kyoshi wasn't holding as tightly as she was earlier. In fact, Rangi couldn’t feel Kyoshi’s arms around her at all now. Rangi pulled herself out of her reverie, and opened her eyes.

Rangi iced over by what she saw. Kyoshi, eyes screwed shut and still as a statue. She was…. She was… Petrified !

Petrified by the kiss. Petrified of… her ! Of Rangi !

Kyoshi was repulsed by her. She….she….

She was just withstanding Rangi. Like the earthbender she was. Like the Earth Kingdom citizen she was. Withstanding, persevering, waiting for the unpleasant thing to pass. Neutral jing.

Rangi took a step back and her hands flew to her mouth. As if it was a weapon that needed to be contained.

“I–I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that.”

She'd been wrong about Kyoshi's feelings. She'd been wrong about everything . She…she caused that reaction from her friend. She had ruined it all.

She grabbed at her dizzying head and retreated backwards. She needed to leave Kyoshi's presence. She'd done enough damage. “I–I’m sorry, I should go–.”

Rangi turned and ran for the door. She couldn't bear to see Kyoshi's reaction anymore.

She had just started opening the door when it slammed shut, and she could feel Kyoshi's body flushed behind her. Her arm extended over Rangi, keeping the door shut in place.

Of course. Rangi couldn't just run away from her act like that. She needed to face the consequences of her actions.

Rangi closed her eyes and stiffened, bracing herself for Kyoshi's rightful wrath. Kyoshi's body moved again, and wrapped her free arm around Rangi’s waist.

Rangi panted through in between held breaths. Unsure of what Kyoshi's next move would be.

Finally, Kyoshi spoke.

“Rangi, don’t go ,” Kyoshi said, leaning down to nuzzle her face into the crook of Rangi’s neck.

Rangi let out a shaky and silent sob. Once, twice. Then finally, a shaky laugh of release escaped her lips, almost like a sigh. She couldn’t believe what she just heard.

She leaned into Kyoshi’s touch. If this was a cruel joke, she wanted to enjoy it for just a moment before it blew up in her face.

“I don’t want you to leave.”

Rangi turned her head as Kyoshi lifted hers. Rangi saw it, the same wanting in Kyoshi's eyes that she felt. It wasn’t a cruel joke the world was playing on her. She hadn’t been mistaken. Kyoshi…wanted her as much as she wanted Kyoshi.

She waited with baited breath, as Kyoshi finally kissed her back.

____

A/N: Fun fact! This is where I thought Rangi would like chill out. We'd move onto Arc 2 and everything would be gucci. :D But that wouldn't be fun now would it?

:3c (Sorry Rangi, you're just destined to spiral. u_u Be it with high stakes or low ones)

Second Fun Fact! This was my favorite chapter of the fic so far! (besides the one chapter in Arc 2 I jumped the gun on writing).

I really like exploring Hei-Ran and Rangi's strained relationship. And I wanted to explore a more...ummm....antagonistic relationship between Yun and Rangi. ;D

#kyoshi fanfic #chronicles of the avatar #rise of kyoshi #rangshi #rangi #rangi sei'naka #shadow of kyoshi #kyoshi #rise of kyoshi au #kyoshi au #rangi seinaka #salty fics

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hatchetfield-omegaverse · 2 months ago

Text

Hail Petey, Full of Grace (2/5)

By: Myself & @daisyybellls

AO3

Chapter 1

Chapter Summary:

“Oh, his grandchild?” Jerry says with the shit eating grin on his face. “I thought it was an immaculate conception? You're telling me Stephanie that, on top of being an accomplice to assaulting two counselors, your boyfriend also lied to the whole camp.”

Shit. Steph bites her tongue when she realizes what she'd done. What a rookie mistake, revealing Pete's lie like that. She Knew better than that. Honestly. Luckily, Steph has years of experience at avoiding being caught in a lie. Experience that she's more than happy to put to use if it means keeping Pete out of trouble.

“No,” Steph says, keeping her voice measured, “it was an immaculate conception, just like Pete said. My dad has just uh… offered to take Peter in in case his brother didn’t accept him. Like, uh shoot, what’s that guy's name?”

“Joseph.” Boy Jerry says through gritted teeth. “His name was Joseph”

“Right!” Steph snaps her fingers. “Joseph. See if Grace is right about this whole Mother Mary thing, which she is, that would make me Joseph, right?”

A/N:

@daisyybellls: thank you so much to my co-writer girlwithcateyes or editing this chapter (and adding 1200 words bc my brain is finals mush) your the best, and a great big thank you to my friend and ao3 user randomramblingsofme for helping me come up with all the good jokes in this Chapter.

Note: I looked up the bible verses featured in this chapter and picked the translation that would work best, so they might not all match up to being in the same version, but also this is a Hatchetfield fanfic so I don't think anyone cares. I care so now you need to know

Chapter 2: The Annunciation

“Mom, Dad,” Grace says, pushing her peas around. “I’ve been thinking a lot about the Virgin Mary lately.”

Both of their forks stop moving at the same time. Karen and Mark look at each other and then over at Grace.

“Oh honey, you aren’t thinking of becoming a Catholic are you?” Karen furrows her brows. Grace gasps, she’d never. Catholics were idol worshipers who prayed to the dead, she would sooner die than convert to Catholicism.

“Now, let’s not jump to any conclusions, Mother.” Mark says. “It’s normal for a young girl to be curious about such matters. Let's at least hear her out before passing judgment.”

“No I just.” She bites her lip; she can’t just come out and tell her parents about Steph yet, but then she remembers the fifth commandment. “Well there’s this person at school who's experiencing an unexpected pregnancy, and I was trying to find a way to minister to them.”

“Oh lord above.” Karen says, bringing a hand to her chest. There's a metallic clink as her fork hits the plate.“I wasn’t aware that something like that happened at Hatchetfield High, do you think we should pull you out?”

“Oh no!” Grace says. Hatchetfield High might have been a nest of sin, but even Daniel needed to go to Babaylon. As frightening as it could be, Grace knew that saving the souls of her fellow classmates was worth witnessing the sins that she did. “It’s nothing like that, I just think that they just need some extra counseling during their time of need, and I thought Mary would be a good example for them.”

“Well then of course dear!” Karen says “It was important that she said yes to God because otherwise Jesus wouldn’t exist.”

“Your Mother is right,” Mark chimes in, “why I believe that all young ladies should aspire to be as virtuous as Mary was.”

“Do you know who it is?” Karen asks after a moment of silence. “We’ve put aside some funds at the church, and I’d love for some of that money to go to someone in need.”

“I doubt that Stephine Lauter will need any money.” Grace snorts, sawing a piece of piece of her meatloaf. Oh fudge! She hadn’t meant to let that out. She’d promised not to tell anyone. Well cats out of the bag now, and besides, her parents were good, god honoring people. They would want to help Stephanie as best they could.

“Isn’t that the Mayor’s daughter?” Mark asked, brows furrowing.

Grace nods her mouth full of meatloaf. She was going to mention the award Steph got for having sex, but if her parents knew that there was a secret sex ring at Hatchetfeld they’d pull her out for sure, and then she wouldn’t be able to minister to all the lost souls there! She supposed that some secrets would have to just stay secrets. For everyone's sake.

“Interesting,” Karen murmurs, “very interesting.”

Grace continues chewing her meatloaf. She hadn’t meant to reveal Stephaine’s secret but it was better that an adult knew. But now that someone knows, they’ll tell Steph’s dad! Then he can help her out! Get her the support she needs. That's what parents do: they help their children who are struggling.

Grace looks at Pete standing up on that stage, and something finally clicks in her head. She finally gets why some Catholics called Mary The New Arc Of The Covenant: through her the Savior was able to come into the world. Pete looks radiant: the sun frames the back of his head almost light a halo, and she can feel the Holy Spirit pulling her towards Peter. It must have taken so much courage to say yes to carrying the savior, especially since he wasn’t that religious. He’d made the ultimate sacrifice, giving up his body for God’s purpose and even if she was a little jealous that it wasn’t her.

In that moment she decides she needs to do everything in her power to make this a comfortable pregnancy for Peter. After all, he might be able to put in a good word for the Savior. She thinks back to Elizabeth and how she had been such a good friend and confidant, and she was the mother of John the Baptist, one of the most important people besides Jesus.

Oh yes, she can all but hear a holy voice telling her to take Peter under her wing. ‘ Grace,’ it calls to her, ‘It's your job now to help young Peter. He's going to face many trials and tribulations now that he's carrying The Messiah, and it's your job to guide him. Show him and The Messiah my light as I know only you can.’

So when Pete announces in front of everyone on the first day of camp that an angel (i.e THE ARCHANGEL FLIPPING GABRIEL) visited him in a dream, it all clicks into place and before she even realizes what’s happening she’s standing up and..

“Just like MOTHER MARY,” Grace adds. Perhaps a little louder than she means to because now everyone is staring at her, like she’s crazy but it all makes sense now and she can’t believe that no one else can see it. Their savior is right here at Camp Idontwannabang and everyone is acting like it's nothing. They should be kissing Peter's feet for his sacrifice. Boy Jerry turns his eerie gaze on Grace. He smiles widely but it doesn’t reach his eyes.

“I’m familiar with her” Boy Jerry says “But Grace, might I remind you that the Virgin Mary was also a woman. ”

“But umm what if…” Grace dry swallows, “what if God gave Peter mommy parts so he can have the Messiah?”

“That doesn’t make any sense.” Boy Jerry says, “Why would the Messiah come though a man?”

“Umm because he came though a woman last time?” Grace says and Boy Jerry just laughs as the rest of the camp starts to snicker along with him.

"I've seen people like him attend Camp Idontwannabang before.” Boy Jerry sneers, circling Pete like a panther ready to pounce. Grace’s fists clench in anger as he speaks.

“Seductresses. Temptresses. Jezebels of every type” Jerry looks around at the campers, his eyes landing on Girl Jeri who quickly looks down at her shoes. “Unfortunately he's not the first, nor will he be the last, vixen who tries to lead innocent campers astray.”

The chorus of campers starts to grow in snickering, muttering about how Grace must be losing her mind. But she doesn't listen to any of that, the voice in her head cutting through all the nonsense surrounding her.

“But what if you're wrong?” She asks, silencing the crowd with her simple question. She walks up to the stage where Pete and the Jerries are standing and turns to look back at the crowd, steadying herself before asking, “What if the almighty is going to return to earth through this boy?” She points at Pete who seems just as confused. “And what if, by ignoring this child in need and mocking him, you're damning yourself for all time?”

“Well fine,” Boy Jerry says, thumping a Bible down in Grace’s hand, “if you can find any Biblical evidence for this kind of event I’ll believe you.”

Grace gives Pete a quick look, and it’s all over now. Not even Grace is going to be able to spin a Bible verse to prove this immaculate conception. He’s going to have to spend the rest of the summer as the poster child for abstinence for these anti-sex weirdos.

“Umm ok.” Grace says, flipping through the worn pages of the black leather book. Eventually, she lands on a passage and reads, “This is from the Gospel of Mattew, So I will call you Peter, which means ‘a rock.’ On this rock I will build my church, and death itself will not have any power over it.”* The conviction in her voice growing with every word.

She moves the Bible closer to her chest and closes her eyes, her lips move in a silent prayer.

“Well? Go on?” Boy Jerry says gesturing at Peter. More specifically to his belly. “What does that have to do with this?”

“Well- Maybe the lord is going to rebuild his church through Peter.” Grace says her conviction growing with every world, “And after the second coming, the righteous are going to live forever, right? So it’s possible that, through Peter, Christ is going to come again, and death will not prevail over him.”

Holy shit… Grace Chastity might actually be a genius. Maybe he should be a little more concerned at how easily she can twist the Bible to fit her options, but right now Pete is too relieved to think about that. He exhales for what feels like the first time all week.

To his shock, some of the other campers actually start clapping at her words. Boy Jerry snatches the Bible out of Graces hand and flips to a section that’s bookmarked with a well worn cloth bookmark.

“I have another passage that might describe this situation a little better.” Jerry says to the group and turns to a well worn bookmark ribbon. “In the Revelation of Jesus Christ, John writes about a woman he sees who is often described as the whore of babylon. ‘ And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication.’”**

Pete’s cheeks burn with embarrassment. What’s this guy's damage? Where (or where not) does a thirty-something get off on slut shaming teenagers.

“How could you say that?” Grace cries in indignation. “What if Joseph hadn’t believed Mary: she would have gotten stoned to death! And Jesus would have never been born, and then none of us would be here today!”

The campers start to murmur at that. Peter thinks he hears the word Pharisee thrown around more than once. He can see a vein start to strain against Boy Jerry's forehead that he's sure is seconds away from bursting. After a minute of this, Girl Jerri steps in and grabs Grace's arm. Pete feels a protective pull in gut and is ready to stand up and defend her but the look in Steph's eyes stops him.

“Thank you so much for that spirited conversation Grace but, as a junior counselor, you really don’t have the authority to be arguing with Jerry.” Girl Jeri says, “You wouldn't want to be demoted down to just regular camper, now would you?”

That seems to shut Grace up for a moment. Then, with fire in her eyes she turns to the crowd.

“Well no, but I have a duty to Christ first.” Grace says turning from the Jerries towards the rest of the campers, “And so do all of you, if we don’t support Mother Mary now, who knows what Jesus will do to us when he comes BACK.”

Murmurs erupt from the rest of the campers as both of the Jerries have to forcibly Grace from the stage. She doesn’t go quietly though; wildly kicking her legs back and forth. Pete smiles to himself, knowing that the Jerries are probably going to end up with some bruised shins.

While the Jerries are busy with Grace, the other campers slowly turn towards Steph and Pete and stare. Elijah, the counselor from before, starts trying to herd everyone back towards the cabins for the first activity of the day. Somehow in all the commotion, Pete ends up back by Steph’s side.

“What the fuck what that?” Steph says, pulling him as close as their allowed to.

“I don’t know.” Pete shrugs, “Who knows what goes on in the twisted mind of Grace Chastity. ”

“This is going to be a long summer.” Steph mutters.

And it was. Since he was ‘a bystander to violence against a counselor’, Pete got lumped in with Grace’s solitary confinement and had to stay in his cabin for a week. Which meant Steph wouldn’t see the father of her child for a full week. On the plus side, it meant no Grace for a week, so she supposed it evened out.

Monday is spent making wallets (borning), canoeing (slightly less boring), and making boondoggles (extremely boring). Activities which do nothing in distracting Steph ofPeter's absence. All she can think about is him, alone in his cabin, with no one to know if he needs help. And yet, as she's forced to attend an evening sermon where Boy Jerry waxes poetically on the virtues of ‘Just saying no.’, she can't help but feel like he's the lucky one. At least solitary confinement means that Pete gets to avoid all of this. That night, as she tosses and turns in her bunk, Steph feels like bashing her head in, and she still has six more days to get through.

Tuesday morning, Steph wakes up to the sounds of people still shuffling around the cabin. Strange. Everyone has usually left by the time she’s gotten up. She sits up and stretches, watching her cabin mates rush around the room.

“What’s going on?” She mutters, voice barely audible over the sound of something hitting the top of the roof.

“Good, Stephanie you're up. Start gathering your stuff.” Mary, her stuck up counselor, says. “There’s a bad thunderstorm, so we all have to move to the Big House till it passes.”

Right, well that explained what the sound on the roof was.

“Why? It's just a little rain?” Steph asks, ever the contrarian. Besides, she's warm and doesn’t want to leave her bed.

“Well, if you want to be in a wooden cabin when it’s hit by lightning, then be my guest,” Mary says, “but if not, be in the Big House in an hour.”

Which is how she ends up in the Big House at 10 in the morning. It’s not that bad, it’s the only place on the premises that has air conditioning, so that’s a plus. But, with all 140 campers having been stuffed into the building's confines, it’s a bit of a tight squeeze. Worst of all, she can’t find Peter anywhere. Eventually, she finds the Jerries in the great room.

“Hi Jerri, have you seen Pete?” She asks.

The older woman doesn’t look her in the eyes , but starts muttering something that Steph can’t make out, teeth worrying at her bottom lip.

“He’s still in his cabin.” Boy Jerry says as he comes up behind her. He places a hand on Jeri’s shoulder that Steph doesn’t like at all. “After all, he’s in solidarity, he needs to learn his lesson doesn’t he, Girl Jeri ?”

Jeri nods obediently at his words, her green eyes dark with worry. Steph just furrows her brow.

“What if he gets sick?” She asks, voice thick with worry. “You know won’t just be bad for him?”

“Well, he should have thought of that before he acted out. It's like they say: you do the crime, you do the time.” Jerry says, turning away from her to do something else.

Oh no, oh hell no. He's not getting out of this that easy. Steph pulls on his stupid Virginity Rocks shirt forcing him to look back at her.

“I don’t think my father, Mayor Lauter, would appreciate the father of his grandchild being left out in the cold.” Steph says. She hates pulling the ‘my dad’s the mayor’ card this early in the conversation, but she’s desperate to see Pete safe.

“Joseph.” Boy Jerry says through gritted teeth. “His name was Joseph”

“Right!” Steph snaps her fingers. “Joseph. See if Grace is right about this whole Mother Mary thing, which she is, that would make me Joseph, right?”

“It would.” Boy Jerry says slowly, “Don’t expect any special attention though.”

“I wouldn’t,” Steph says, “sir.”, she adds at the last second. Jerry seems like the kinda guy who likes being called sir.

“Good.” Jerry says, then walks away.

“I’ll do what I can.” Jeri says, giving her a weak smile. “He just get in these kinds of moods sometimes”

Steph gives her a smile.

“Jeri!” Jerry calls and she shuffles after him. She's only just turned when Steph sees it. There, peeking out from just under the hem of Girl Jeri’s sleeve, lays an angry red mark in the vaguest shape of a hand. Steph's jaw clenches as she notes how similar it is in size to Boy Jerry's hands. Holy man indeed.

Wednesday is barely any better. The onslaught of rain hasn't stopped, which means they are still stuck in the big house. They'd spent the night there: boys on one side and girls on the other, a makeshift wall of sheets between them and counselors keeping guard in order to prevent any ‘funny business’. Steph hadn’t slept a wink, too busy worrying about Pete to even consider getting any rest. She hoped that the rain would have stopped by the morning, but unfortunately the storm had other plans. One of the other counselors says that the last time it rained like this was 18 years ago, where it had stormed the entire first week of camp. Steph really hopes that this isn't a repeat of that.

Steph spends the day playing round after round of go fish and board games with some of the kids from the Eleven year olds group, the rain continuing to come down on the roof all the while. Other people have started to notice that Grace is gone. Apparently, she’s kind of a legend among these weird Bible kids. She’s been coming to camp as long as some of them have even been alive. She’s even babysat most of the younger ones for years. And, without Grace around, there’s been a vacuum created that apparently Steph is going to fill.

She’s forced to play about a million games of crazy eights with the younger kids. In between games they seem to have an infinite amount of questions about the storm for her.

“Stephie?” One of the younger ones, Annie Steph thinks her name is, asks after she wins another couple of games “Why did God make the storm come during camp?”

“Uh, listen I’m not really the person to ask about that kinda thing.” Steph says. “I didn’t really grow up with that kinda thing, Church and all that.”

The kids around her flinch as if she’d said she never brushed her teeth before in her life. Just when they all seem to calm down from that revelation a clap of thunder echoes outside and all of them flinch again. A flash of lightning illuminates the room and the kids huddle closer to her, fear evident of their tiny faces.

“Is God mad at us?” Annie ask, clinging to her arm. “Is he punishing us for something?”

“No, of course he’s not.” Steph moves her hand to pet Annie’s hair in a way she’s seen mothers do in movies. A way that she so vaguely remembers her own mother doing before she died. “The storm is nothing more than, uh god bowling.”

That makes the kids laugh a little bit and Annie wipes away her tears. Steph feels a small pang in her chest that feels strange and foreign. She only has a second to think about it before Jerry walks past her on the phone.

“Give me a second. You guys keep playing without me.” Steph says to the kids while moving after Jerry. She can only hear one end of the conversation.

“Yes, he’s doing fine.” Jerry says with that false cheery tone. “No, I'm sorry I can’t put him on the phone. Sorry, that's just camp policy. It’s to combat homesickness. I understand that this is a unique set of circumstances Mr. Spankoffoski, but our policies are clearly outlined on our website. He’s doing great, really taking to the message, yep. I'll pass on the message. Thank you for your concern, Mr. Spankoffoski.”

She follows him up into the laundry room of the Big House: three sets of washers and dryers were pushed up against one wall. Jerry was sitting against the other wall.

“You're lying.” Steph says without thinking. She walks forward, hands on her hips. “Why are you lying to his older brother?”

Jerry sits up, surprised that Steph was in the room with him.

“That was a personal conversation, Stephanie.” Jerry spits out. “It’s none of your business.”

“It is when my boyfriend is stuck in a solitary cabin while you're lying to his brother about it!” Steph practically yells at him. She’s ready to fucking murder this man if he doesn’t get Peter out of solitary soon.

“You know Stephanie,” Jerri says in his trademark faux charming voice, “I had a very similar situation when I was your age. I was seduced by a girl, she got pregnant, and tried to force me to take responsibility for her harlotry.”

“That’s not what Pete’s doing, and you know it takes two to tango,” Steph spits back at him. Her fists clench. “I have a responsibility as the Earthly mother of that child.”

“But that's the thing, you don’t have to. I know Grace can get a little carried away with some of these things, she tends to take things a tad too literally sometimes.”

“She’s not a liar and neither is Peter.” Steph says, lying through her teeth.

“I know. And people who tell the truth deserve to be rewarded, don't you agree?”

“It depends.” Steph says. “I think that tattletales deserve what’s coming to them.”

“Well, I think I could help out anyone who tells the truth. ” Jerry says. “Like say getting them out of camp activities if they were to say… admit to certain falsehoods that they had been involved in perpetuating.”

“Well there haven’t been many camp activities going on lately, have there?” Steph counters. “So that’s not a particularly good reward, now is it?”

“We could possibly also arrange an early graduation, as I understand it the people of Hatchetfield have a little shindig around the Fourth of July? July first seems like a great graduation date don’t you think?”

The Monroe's block party. Steph had gone every year since she could walk. They always bought more booze than anyone knew what to do with. It made the perfect opportunity to steal away and get completely fucked up without any consequences. It was always the best part of her summer. For a split second she considers it. She could last here another three weeks if it meant being able to drink consequence free.

She could imagine it now: swimming in the Monroe's massive pool, the American flag fruit cake that Linda Monroe always insisted was homemade, and stealing her fair share of free booze. God she couldn't wait to spend the evening curling up under the fireworks, beer bottle in hand, making out with… with Pete. Pete who wouldn't be there because he'd be stuck here. Probably going through worse punishments because she'd have sold him out.

No. She wouldn’t let Pete go through the rest of camp by himself. Wouldn’t put him through another two months without her. Besides, she'd miss her baby anyway. She and Pete were in this together, and Steph was not about to sell him up the river for warm beer and fireworks.

“It does sound tempting Jerry,” Steph says, “but I don’t think I’ve really learned my lesson, besides I’d hate to miss the end of Camp fire circle!” She’s sure to a bit of Grace Chasity's brand of pep into her voice as an extra fuck you.

Grace is man handled into a solitary cabin by Boy Jerry and one of the other male counselors. But she doesn’t go down without a struggle. Grace is kicking, screaming, and just generally the whole way to the cabin.

“You can’t do this!” Grace shouts. “I’m a junior counselor, aren't only campers supposed to be put in solitary?” That had been in C.I.T manual last year, ‘only campers who commit major infractions (see appendix 3 subjection 4) will be subject to solitary confinement, based on the infraction committed (see appendix 3 subjection 5)’. Grace had memorized the whole thing last year because she’d missed camp so much.

“Well, it’s really up to the discretion of the head of camp.” Jerry says. “Which just so happens to be me, and I’ve been wanting to this for a long time.”

Then they unceremoniously toss her into the cabin, not even letting her stop to get anything from her cabin. She bangs on the door but her cries seem to fall on deaf ears.

After a couple of hours of pleading with the door Grace realizes something. This has to be a test from God: he’s using the Jerries to make sure that she’s really ready to help the new mother of Christ. This baby has a lifetime of non-believers just like the Jerries ahead of them, and it'll be Grace's job to protect Pete and the baby from harm. Part of her almost pities the Jerries for their ignorance. She knows they'll regret their actions when the new Christ is born. But she tried to warn them and they refused to listen.

They didn’t allow her to go get her PJ’s out of her cabin so she’s left to stew in her Virginity Rocks shirt. It’s unclear whether or not she’s stuck here for only a couple of days or the whole summer, but she plans on making the best of it all.

After nearly three days of trying to avoid the leaks in the roof, Grace had combed the cabin top to bottom. She’d only found one loose floorboard, under which was a box full of porngraphic material (gross she probably touched some wayward spunk!) Some hologain had carved his initials into the floorboard JRF 6/10/2002. Gosh that was only about a week into camp. Grace can’t even imagine what someone would have to do to get sent to solitary in the first week. Well she was in solitary the first week… but that was different! She did the work of the lord!

On the third day of her confinement, she’s praying on her bed when the door opens.

“Are you going to let me out of solidarity now?” Grace asks when the Jerries walk through the door.

“You were never in solidarity, we just thought you could use some alone time after your little outburst.” Boy Jerry says. Grace looks at his legs but he’s wearing long khakis, and the bruises that she had seen the last time they spoke were hidden.

“We don’t want to encourage people to rebel against authority, god doesn’t like that.” Girl Jeri says, putting her hand on Grace’s thigh. Her smile seems more plastic than usual. “You have to understand that.”

“We must obey God rather than men.”*** Grace mutters under her breath. She thinks of Jesus turning over the tables in the temple, of Daneil in the Lion’s den, Esther disobeying the king of Babylon.

“You should come join us for a craft circle so that all the campers see how well you're doing.” Boy Jerry offers, “We're weaving baskets today. I know that's a favorite of yours.”

“Well, I’m not going to change my beliefs based on anything you say.” Grace says. “So if that’s going to be a problem, then you might as well leave me in here.”

The Jerries look back at each other and seem to have a whole conversation in the span of a look.

“Listen Grace,” Jeri says, “we need to know that we can trust you not to revolt against the camp, ok?”

Revolt against camp? That had never been her intention; she was just trying to reveal the word of Christ to her fellow campers, sure she did assault Boy Jerry, and she did feel bad about that, but she wasn't about to overthrow the Jerries.

“I’m sorry about your knees, Boy Jerry.” She says, bowing her head. “I was just trying to do what you told me to do.”

“What do you mean dear?” Jeri asks. She sits next to Grace on the bed and she instinctively leans her head on Jeri’s chest.

“It's just that you always taught me to be loud and proud of my love for Jesus Christ.” She says as Jeri pets her hair “And I was trying to show my support for the new Mother Mary.”

Jerry continues to glare at her but, just as he starts to say something, Jeri cuts him off.

“I know that dear.” Jeri says. “But sometimes in the process you hurt people, so why don’t you come warm up in the big house and get some hot cocoa and a shower, then we can talk this out ok?”

Grace sniffles, it had been hard these past couple of days. The last time she’d gotten into trouble was when she’d stayed up an hour past her bedtime when she was five years old and that had eaten her up for years. This kind of rebellion wasn't in her nature, even if she was doing the right thing. It must have been so hard for Jesus; having to rebel against authority to spread God's love.

“Yea, that sounds nice.” Grace says, standing up and for the first time in three days she leaves the cabin.

She’s granted a hero's welcome when she walks into the Big House, the campers quite literally breaking into applause at her entrance. Some of the younger campers cling to her leg as she walks though the big house. Everyone high fives her, even Gabe gives her a respectful nod. The Jerries try to calm them down but everyone is going completely feral and don’t even notice what’s going on.

“Guys,” Grace giggles, “I know you all missed me so much, but we really shouldn’t be focused on me right now.” she motions for everyone to settle down a little bit. “We really should be focusing on the mother to be? We have so much to do before the baby gets here. Where is he?”

Everyone goes silent at that. Grace looks around trying to see what’s happening. She looks to Girl Jeri for answers, but the Co-head pastor won't her gaze.

“Where is he?” She asks. “Come on, where’s Peter?”

Steph is the first one to meet her eyes.

“He’s still in solitary.” Steph says, glaring behind her at the Jerries. “They haven’t let him out since they put you in there”

“You what?” Grace says and in that moment lightning flashed across the sky. It's then that everything clicks. That's the reason the storm is happening. God must be angry at the Jerries if the storm has lasted this long.

“Well, you have to let him go.” Grace says, crossing her arms. “Why do you think the rains have been this bad? The Lord has been made angry that his new Queen of Heaven is being ignored!”

The campers look among each other. But Stephine is the first one to say anything.

“You're right, Grace.” Steph says. “We really should let him out, maybe then we can get back to all those fun camp activities we haven’t gotten to do since we’ve gotten stuck in here.”

There’s something off about Steph's tone, but Grace doesn’t care about that right now. Some of the younger campers agree with her. Then their older siblings move to agree, soon all of camp is cheering to let them go.

“LET HIM OUT! LET HIM OUT!”They all chant in unison, Grace and Stephanie's voices some of the loudest.

Boy Jerry seems flabbergasted as he tries and fails to get everyone under control. Grace sees Jeri whisper something in his ear and he rolls his eyes.

“Fine!” Jerry yells. “We can let him out!”

That’s all it takes for the campers, led by Steph and Grace to barrel out of the big house and towards the Gomorrah cabin to free Pete, stopping only briefly for Steph to grab a key ring from Boy Jerry's belt.

Grace organizes everyone into a line (marching two by two, Noah's arc style) as they march towards the cabin. Steph struggles with the keys. Then she finally finds the right one. “Pete?” She calls into the cabin.

There's a moment of deafening silence as everyone holds their breath. It takes a moment till Pete answers the door with a “Hello?”

All of them explode in cheers as a very confused Peter Spankoffski walks out of the cabin. He looks bewildered as everyone starts to celebrate. What's more, seemingly the exact second that Pete steps out of the cabin, the rain stops and the sun shines on Camp Idontwannabang once more, which just makes everyone go crazier.

“What’s going on?” Pete asks, looking at Steph. He’s too close to her for camp regulation, but Grace can give the holy family a break on this occasion. “They locked the door on me and wouldn’t tell me anything when they slipped food though.”

“The Lord was punishing the camp.” Grace says, looking at the clear blue sky with the appropriate amount of reverence. “For keeping his chosen one locked up, he sent a storm, and now that you're free he’s lifted his punishment.”

“Wel, l” Jerry says, crossing his arms over his chest ,“since the Lord Of The Universe has forgiven us I suppose a celebration is in order.”

His voice sounds different from Jerry’s usual happy voice, and Grace doesn’t understand why. They should be celebrating. The campers cheer again.

“Hey Grace?” Stephanie tugs. “Would you mind covering for us for a bit? I need to talk to Pete for a second. Alone. ”

She’s not supposed to. As a Junior Counselor Grace is tasked with making sure that campers are not left alone with each other, especially campers of the opposite sex. But Steph is dating the next earthly mother of the Messiah and that is a lot to take in. Gosh, maybe Pete hadn’t told Steph that it was the next Jesus. Maybe she had a dream about being the earthly father of Christ. Grace says a silent prayer that she took it well and nothing happens to him.

“Of course, Steph!” Grace says, her normal pep entering her voice “Just make sure you guys are back in time for the fire circle, ok?”

Steph nods quickly, grabbing Pete’s hand as she does. They walk off together into the long light of smmer. Grace can swear that she sees twin circles of light encircle both of their heads. She hopes that she remembers to tell the baby about them. Crimmeny she might even end up as Aunt Grace. She smiles at the thought. Auntie Gracie certainly has a nice ring to it.

Steph doesn’t take her hand off him till they’re a safe distance from any prying eyes. She’s gotta make sure that Pete is alright and that they didn’t do anything to him while she couldn’t see. They finally reach a clearing in the witchwood that’s far enough away that no one else can see them.

“Are you ok?” She asks, turning to him “Did they do any freaky shit to you? Did they hurt you? Because we can sue if they did.”

Pete just looks at her for a moment and giggles.

“No, of course not,” Pete smiles at her and that part of her brain that had been screaming danger for the past week calms down a little bit, “I basically got put on bed rest for three days.”

“Good.” Steph says, taking her hands off of his shoulders. “I was so worried that something would happen to you or the baby and I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.”

“I’m ok, I promise” Pete says. Steph can’t help but sniffle. She didn’t think of herself as a crier, but the last couple of days had kept her on high alert.

“Hey Steph,” Pete says with a smile, putting her hand on his bump so she can feel a little kick, “do you know what today is?”

“Uhh, it’s June 9th I think?” She says wiping a tear off her face. “I don’t know. They all kinda blurred together during the storm.” She’d taken a couple naps to stave of boredom, though now she wasn’t sure how many times Jerry had called for lights out.

“It’s June Tenth actually.” Pete says. He nudges Steph with his elbow. “Happy Birthday. Congrats on being a legal adult.”

Oh. He’s right. Usually she would have been planning her party for months. Would have had a countdown going for weeks now, culminating with a celebratory birthday pancake breakfast at Miss Retro's. But she’d been too busy worrying about going to camp, stressing out over the pregnancy, and dealing with whatever the hell Grace was doing to think about herself.

“Oh, I didn’t even realize.” Steph murmurs. “Guess I am.”

It didn't feel real. This time last year she’d been drunk off cheap beer: She, Brenda, and Stacy had organized the first real rager of the summer. They’d invited anyone who was anyone and the smoke club of course, they might have been losers but they always shared their weed so they always got invited. Max had smashed her face in the grocery store cake and it had only said APY BTD SEP. She’d gotten plastered and made out with Jason before hurling off her dad’s balcony. It had been her best birthday on record.

She'd promised herself last year that she would throw an even better party for her 18th birthday. She wanted to throw the biggest rager Hatchetfield had ever seen to celebrate being an adult. Being free from her father.

And now she was here. In the middle of the woods with ‘Mirco-Peter’ Spankoffiski, quite possibly the biggest loser of Hatchetfield High, feeling his pregnant stomach. What a year it’s been. She almost feels disappointed. Then the baby kicks and Steph starts to cry. Because there was nowhere else she’d be right now than in the middle of the woods with her little family. Overcome with emotion she leans down and kisses the bump.

“Listen baby ” She says leaning in so only the baby can hear, “You know your granddad is a grade a asshole but I promise I’m gonna be a better parent, I don’t know how yet but I’m gonna at least be better than him.”

She kisses Pete’s stomach one more time before leaning up to kiss Pete again.

“I love both of you.” Steph murmurs, kissing him on the cheek. They’d said it before, right before they’d figured out he was pregnant in fact, but she hadn’t really said it since. Her dad had never really been that affectionate with her. She’d learned at an early age that affection was a sign of weakness. Something that had definitely carried over into her relationships.

“Happy birthday babe, love you too.” Pete says when they pull away. They didn’t need to acknowledge what a big deal it was for her to say that to him. But that look in his eyes says I'm proud of you and that was enough for her. “I couldn’t get you a cupcake or anything, but I promise to get you something when we’re out of here. IOU is a better birthday than one at abstinence camp.”

“I’ll hold you to that” Steph smiles. “Come one we should get to the fire circle before anyone sees that we’re missing, don’t want Boy Jerry on our asses.”

The fire circle is actually pretty fun, everyone’s excited to be outside for the first time all week. Jeri brings out some rope friendship bracelets. Annie shows Steph how to do it and she’s actually not half bad at it. She makes a trans one for herself and is getting started on a matching one for Pete when none other than Grace-fucking-Chasity sits next to her. Steph rolls her eyes as she sits down.

“How’s the bracelet coming?” Grace asks, clearly awkwardly trying to make small talk. “I like the colors, they remind me of camp.”

“Sure they do, Grace.” Steph chuckles a little bit at that. “This ones gonna be for Pete but I can make you one afterwards if you want?”

“Oh, that’s ok.” Grace says. “I think that you should have a matching one with Pete, almost like wedding rings.”

That idea makes Steph’s heart light up. She’d never really been able to commit to a person before. She’d always been the one to break things off before they got too serious. She’d never been the first one to say she loved someone. Pete was actually the guy she’d said ‘I love’ you the most (six whole times). And yet… She wouldn't necessarily mind marrying Pete.

In fact, the idea of marrying Pete sounded nice. She always thought that marriage meant having to spend her life tolerating someone else's presence. But the idea of getting to wake up next to Pete, to go to sleep in his arms. Getting to be around him everyday. It sounded amazing. A smile spreads across her face at the thought of it. Besides, they were having a baby together and that was already way more commitment than marriage.

“I guess they are.” She says, warming to the idea of marriage to Pete the more she thinks about it. “I guess at the end of the summer we'll get married.”

“Good.” Grace says picking up a set of friendship bracelet strings. “You should get married before then, I don’t want the Lord Jesus to be born into a broken home.”

See that’s the thing with Grace Chastity, you really never know what the fuck your gonna get with her.

“I don’t think the baby will know that they were born out of wedlock.” Steph says.

“Oh Steph,” Grace gives her a look like ‘ oh poor you’ that fills Steph with irritation, “I always forget that you weren’t raised religious, you see Jesus is God and he’ll see that he’ll be born out of wedlock and then you guys might not get to go to heaven.”

“Sure.” Steph rolls her eyes. She doesn't wanna deal with this right now “But we can’t as well get married at camp, can we?”

That seems to shut Grace up enough that she can finish her friendship bracelet. She doesn’t bother Steph the rest of the night, and after she gets her stuff out of the big house she sleeps like a baby on her uncomfortable camp cabin mattress.

The next morning someone gets her up at the ass crack of dawn. Steph whines as she turns over getting ready to tell who ever it is to fuck off.

“Come on.” Her counselor Mary says. “There’s camp announcements this morning, it’s mandatory attendance, so get dressed.”

Despite her brain screaming that she shouldn’t, she gets dressed anyway and shuffles out the main pavilion. There’s a seat waiting for her up front next to Pete. She takes a seat and spaces out for most of the announcement. Towards the end she tunes back into something interesting. Grace is standing on stage again next to the Jerries. She smiles to herself as she notices that Jerry is standing as far away as possible from Grace.

“I’d like to thank our very own Joseph ” Grace says in a voice that’s just a little to sweet for the sun still rising, “Stephanie Lauter has proudly offered to marry Pete despite the fact that he appears to have gotten pregnant out of wedlock.”

“Steph!” Pete nearly yells. “I mean I’d love to marry you, but I think that’s something we should discuss before you talk to Grace Chastity about it!”

“What?” Steph asks, suddenly wide awake. “When did I agree to that?”

“Last night at the campfire!” Grace says. “Remember how we were talking about you and Pete getting married before the baby comes? Well I thought why not get married at camp during parents weekend! I’ve prepared everything, they're even gonna let you push your bed together for at least one night! And I mean you should be able to petition for a couple more nights in the same cabin since you will be married after all!”

“I’m sorry.” She says lowering her voice so only Pete could hear. “You know how she fucking is, I mean I wouldn’t mind marying you either but she took the idea and ran off with it.”

Steph doesn’t know whether to throttle or thank Grace. She’s stuck between the desire to stay with Pete for the rest of the summer and the humiliation of having to marry Pete whatever that means to Grace in front of basically everyone she’s even known. Not that the actually marrying part would be embarrassing just the fact that it was happening at fucking abstinence camp.

Pete, an angel, smiles and squeezes her hand reassuringly.

Wait… If they were married then she and Pete would be able to share a cabin, unsupervised together. She could spend every night with him and the Jerries wouldn't be able to say anything. After, it wouldn't be premarital, so it's not a sin. Steph looks at Pete, who seems to have put it together seconds before she did. He winks at her and she has to keep herself from laughing.

“So who should we invite?” Grace asks. “I already got Jerries to call Steph’s dad and Pete’s older brother, but is there anyone else we should invite

“Well, you should invite Ruth and Richie.” Pete says trying to hide his smile “I’m sure they’ll wanna see us get married.”

God, Steph loves her boyfriend. No Steph loves her fiance.

A/N:

@daisyybellls: Thank you for reading! Tune in next time for a wedding, and cameo's galore!

* Matthew 16:18

**Revelation 17:4

***Acts 5:29

@girl-with-cat-eyes: I hope you all enjoyed this! Special thank you to pizza for writing this chapter, I really loved how it turned out. As always, thank you for reading and please feel free to tell me what you think in the comments! Shoutout to my lovely co-authors Spoons and Pizza and helping me write this!

This is a sequel to Tear Down My Reason by Calmly Chaotic and What An Ass, What A Bitch, What A Cuck by Calmly Chaotic and mars_of_the_stars

Tag list:

@lady-loveluck

@forever-forgotten-angel

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smolwritingchick · 11 months ago

Text

Teasing During The Love Yourself Tour

Author's Note: LMFAOOOO. I stay lying. ONE MORE smol brainstorm that I found in my old documents. This one is so silly. I want to keep it for the story when I get to the chapter about the Love Yourself Tour. This is about Jungkook's antics with Jennie during Baepsae each night they performed it in America as fans anticipate when she will crack.

------

Baepsae. The song gets everybody on edge with the members and their hip thrusts. The song Jen sees armies hoping will be performed on the day they attend the concert. A song that drove everyone wild. It was her weakest song when it came to dancing because she wasn’t exactly the best with the hip thrusts and ARMY knew her struggle. Sure, she went along with it but she noticed that each day of the concert in America for the Love Yourself tour, Jungkook became more and more intense with his hip thrusts. It began to drive her crazy. And she believed he knew how it affected her as he kept doing it.

It all started on the first day in America. It started like normal with the song melody and after fire, baepsae came on, getting the crowd excited. The group danced and jumped around while RM started off rapping with the crowd.

They call me baepsae

yokbwatji i sedae

ppalli chase ’em

hwangsae deoge nae garangin taengtaeng

As soon as she witnessed Jungkook’s intense hip thrusting, she looked shooked and turned away while ARMY caught her reaction and tweeted how her life flashed before her eyes. Jungkook caught her reaction and laughed, wondering if he could use that to his advantage on the next show.

And he did. Because on the second time in America when they performed Baepsae, he thrust his hips in a particularly hard manner.

“Wh-what was that!?” she exclaimed to him.

“What was what?” he grinned innocently.

“Relax!”

“You were staring, weren’t you?”

“I was not staring!”

“Sure.” he teased her with a grin.

The third time, she decided to try to get away from him as she was happy at the DJ booth, mixing the melody songs, hyping everyone up. But he drove her crazy again as he looked right at her while his hip thrusts killed Armies all over the venue.

“Oh my gosh…again?!” she shouted while he danced around, periodically watching her as the song went on.

Fans on Twitter claimed he wanted to risk it all for his girlfriend and hoped Jen would crack soon. Jungkook was getting bolder and bolder each night.

“If you don’t stop! Don’t be lookin’ at me like that! Cut it out! You're distracting me!” she called him out when he kept sending her seductive looks.

He needed to stop and he needed to stop thrusting his hips while looking at her enticingly. It was making her feel some type of way. But of course, ignoring her protests, he pointed right at her as he thrust his hips again, making Armies scream.

The fourth time, she was back on stage dancing with the members, and he had wanted to see if he could dance with her and make a move. JenKook shippers were starving for them to finally dance together to this song, having a debate on Twitter on when Jen would crack and if she would grind with him and twerk on him.

But as he bit his bottom lip, staring at her with a sexy smile while slowly making her way to her, she laughed nervously.

“Don’t come over here.” she started walking back, getting flustered.

During the fifth time, while she was back at the DJ booth, he walked all the way to her, making armies scream in anticipation.

noryeoktaryeong jom geumandwo

ah ogeuradeureo nae du sonbaldo

ah noryeok noryeok ah noryeok noryeok

ah noraguna ssaksuga

“Jungkook, I swear! Back up!” she laughed after he sang his verse.

Boldly, he pushed up against her from behind and started getting handsy, taking her by surprise.

“I am working! You’re going to make me mess up!” she exclaimed.

This man was out of control as she felt his breath on her neck, hands roaming. She turned around and he backed her up against the booth, trapping her as they drowned out the loud screams occurring.

“You do this every night! Behave!” she went on, placing her hands on his chest but he didn’t listen as he giggled.

Meanwhile, Jin had witnessed this and hurried over to them, shaking his head. The crowd laughed when he smacked Jungkook on the arm and grabbed him away from her.

“No, no, no, no, no! What is this!? Control yourself!” he yelled.

Fancams caught everything with JenKook and fans tweeted how it wouldn’t be much longer until Jennie ended up giving in. They could only imagine what Jin’s reaction would be to that.

But the question was, how many more attempts will it take until she cracks?

#jungkook x oc #jungkook x black oc #bts 8th member #jungkook fluff #smol brainstorm #smol oneshot #smol drabble

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foxett · 6 months ago

Note

What's the swingset AU. I am hellbent on this AU rn and like pls yap about the lore 🙏

Aha.... Buckle your seatbelts this will take a while. (TW for mentions of s*icide, s*lf h*rm and death in general under the cut. Also omori spoilers. But that's probably to be expected)

Swingset was first an idea. Probably around early 2024??? I'm not sure but!!! I didn't actually plan to write anything about it until I got the idea for it and started writing the fic my last week of school (so it updates every wednesday)

The au itself... Hhhh yeah. Basically, the incident happens as normal, but Sunny doesn't have headspace and whitespace to slip into in his mind, and is fully aware the whole time Basil is doing the hanging and stuff or Mari. Sunny decides it's for the best and kills himself, hanging himself on the same tree Mari was already hanging on only like. Minutes later. (First chapter). Basil leaves before Sunny does that so he doesn't know it happens.

The rest of the gang (+ Basil is dragged along) and they find Mari and Sunny!!!! Yay!!! (Sarcastic yay) Anyways in short they react badly but Kel probably has it the worst because he's a little delulu in this au. Basil is close behind tho.

Kel twists the incident to Mari and Sunny making a swing and. Yeah. Au name!!! He also makes up fake versions of Sunny and Mari (and also everyone else, because the group fell apart) to hang out with. In other words, Kel needs a schizophrenia diagnosis. Everyone copes horribly (Basil. Well. Self harms. And generally is probably going insane.) (Hero bedrots like in canon but longer) (Aubrey bullies Basil at first but they make up and form a sorta sibling bond!) (not gonna spoil the exact thing but Aubrey will be traumatized further)

There's!!! A lot of stuff going on. Kel has all his fake friends (before the group reunited because of a certain incident!) - and also ghost Sunny and Mari (who age like ghost Mari does in canon because i said so) exist but they're not too important outside of the good ending.

I don't keep count but i think there's a total of 8 something's total. Canon something (Mari something, Maris hanging body), Sunny something (Sunny's hanging body), canon something (Mari at the bottom of the stairs, Basil's something), Noosething (Basil's extra au something (tying the noose which leads to Sunny's own suicide), Basil something (Aubrey's extra something. Not spoiling it for now...), Kel something (bad ending) and hero's very hd quality something's (he looked at the bodies too long ig)

Everyone has the sunny and mari somethings. Basil has 4 total. Hero and Aubrey have 3 (sunny, mari, their own bonus) Kel repressed his two but they still show up in the shadows sometimes :)

Basil is. Where do i start. He actually is completely delusional. Completely. More than Kel kinda. He also hears voices. He almost kills someone trying to kill himself (spoilers), and overall almost kills himself like. At least thrice. He doesn't take care of himself. At least Aubrey's there to help!

On a sorta wholesome note, everyone gets their hair dyed!! They do it to 'help' Kel to snap out of his delusions (it makes it worse) (kel does snap out of it at some point! But it might just be too late for it by then :) )

For the fic itself it's 11k ish words and 4 chapters at the moment.???? I have 20 chapters planned total plus two bonus ones so. Ouch. that's gonna be fun to write. I take the au itself seriously but the extra drawings i do for it... Ehhh not so much.

I have this gem of a doodle (vision basil and real basil) i frankly don't remember when i drew this. I probably was half asleep and it was like 2 am.

I plan to rework the old reference sheets i have and hopefully do the fifth chapter today and tomorrow! I don't actually wanna spoil much but definitely keep an eye out for some post!!!

Yippie! Read below ↓

mind the warnings (although since you made it this far, you probably don't care!!)

#omori #omori au #tw suicide #tw self h4rm #tw sh #swingset au #← scroll through the tag for older art and designs and info!!! it may be outdated!!#no im lying it DEFINITELY is outdated. i promise I'll work on the designs uaghdhd

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lolitastories · 6 months ago

Text

GHOST

Javier Pena x Reader

Chapter 3

“Hey Lola” I smile and wave at Miguel as I make my way to the bar. “Same as usual?” He was already preparing my drink before I could answer.

“Thank you” I let out a sigh sitting on the corner of the bar. I look over and see Diego coming out. “Hey”

“What's going on?” He asks with a smile coming up and starting to dry the glasses. “Haven’t seen you in awhile” Miguel comes up and lays the drinks infront of me.

“Yeah, I've been busy with work. Its hits always at the same time” Miguel didn’t know to make my drink virgin but thankfully I needed this drink.

“Taxes season right” Miguel laughs before leaving to attend the other guests.

“Anything new?” I shake my head.

“Since he showed up on my doorstep I got a sweet invitation for dinner” I downed the drink. I’ve never been an alcoholic person, never got the point. They said it relaxed you and some other shit and maybe it does but never wanted to test out the waters. “More people have been around so I actually had to start working” I get a laughfrom him. Atleast someone is getting the humor out of all of this.

“That was quick?” Miguel comes over and takes the drink and goes to prepare another one. Diego just shakes his head.

“His movement has been still for a while and aslong as it stays there it means he doesn’t feel pressured. '' I smile as Miguel set another drink infront of me.

“I was wondering something” I lifted my eyebrow waiting for his next words. “Would you like to go out sometime? Maybe here for some drinks?” Stuck in the corner with that one. Miguel was a nice guy, hell with it.

“I would like that but I will let you know when. I’ve been swamped at work so I don’t know when I will get a chance to relax again”

“You know where to find me” He smiles walking away again.

“Look at you,” Diego says with a smile. “This will be your first date, since when?” I roll my eyes, taking my attention back to my drink. “Since never?”

“Shut up”

“Honey-”

“Don’t call me that” He knows when I am serious but he also knows just because it upsets me doesn’t mean I won’t get over it.

“Sorry” he lifts his hands up in defense. “I have knowed you since middle school and after that guy, you haven’t given nother guy the time of day” He moved closer making sure nobody heard. “And I know you are only doing this as a cover but it's time you put yourself out there again”

“I will” I shrug finishing me drink

“I can’t remember how many times you got the chance and never took it.” As he places his hands over mine I feel a smooth surface. I turn it to act like I am holding his hand and slip to grab the piece of paper in it.

“I will” I smile getting up.

“No late drinks tonight?” It was 9 and I usually stayed sometime after midnight.

“Not tonight Miguel. Got so much work to finish and I have until the end of this month” I thank them and leave. I carefully move into a spot where it's not suspicious to people who may be watching. I checked the note and intently grew tired. Close the blinds. Hell. As I walk home, well the motel. I drag my feet. This is the fifth night Pena has done this in the span of 3 weeks. He would sneak into the motel and have me close the blinds. Later after we spoke he would sneak out when the men across the street would turn off the lights. This usually happened when my lights were off for a while so it would send Pena out around 1 to 4 in the morning. I got the door acting all normal. I would set my things down and walk into the bathroom doing my usual routine. “I thought I told you to stop coming” I groaned, walking out the bathroom and placing my clothes on a table in the bathroom.

“And I told you I wasn’t until you decided to let us in” I rolled my eyes walking back out frustrated. This is how the night went. I got home and he would be sitting on the toilet. I would take a shower as we start our discussion. After that I would come out and close the blinds. Go into the bathroom and change as Pena moves to the kitchen table. Finally I would ignore him and give him bits and pieces as I try to catch some sleep until morning. He would be out by the time I opened my eyes. Today I was over it. I ignored him as I took a shower and even as I got ready for bed. “You’ve been working overtime and spending time on road trips, what does he have you doing?” I shrug, removing the pillows from the bed and getting into the covers. “Y/N!”

“Shut up” I groaned. It was close to eleven now and all I wanted to do was sleep. I wasn’t tired enough not to stay up. I was tired of the life that I have to live right now. I can’t leave and it's looking like it doesn’t have an end. “Pena” I sigh sitting up. “I don’t have time for your threats or whatever speech you prepared” I say a little too loud.

“You would have to hear it if you would just tell me what's going on” He gets up from the table and walks over. I get up and turn off the lights. I place on my shoes and walk towards the back. “Y/N” he warned. He knew to stay hidden behind the wall as I walked out into the sort of porch outside. I wrap my arms around me as the cool air hits my face.

“I stand out here sometimes. I like to look at the sky and picture myself somewhere else. Usually surrounded by water. Floating and letting the motion of the waves rock me to sleep” I turn my head catching Pena's eyes. “Ironic because I am scared of the open water. I am going to say this as nicely as possible” I turn my body to walk towards the door outline without stepping in, I needed to still feel at peace to not let the frustration out on him. “No matter how much this involves you, you can’t be putting me,you,Murphy, and any other agent on the line. I am not a little girl, all the information I give goes directly to you and the ambassador” Thats when Pena stands up and stops right infront of me. “I can’t have you coming here and risking this operation because of your stubbornness and pride” I say this a little harsher as his presance radiates. It's like I could feel him so much closer than he was. Like he has engulfed me in a tight hug and somehow, that made me feel at peace. “It's not the right thing to do and if I am being honest I feel like everything is slipping off my hands” I hate not having control. Something I should have since it's my damn operation but with him involved it like I can’t get a hold of it.

“Y/N '' I felt his fingers grab my own until he enterwines our hands. “You are stressed”

“No! Pena” I finally let out. “I am scared” That was the last straw. I don’t know what caused it. I don’t know if he hugged me first and tears started falling or he heard my whimper as I cried and wrapped his arms around me. Silence surrounded us both not knowing what to say. The truth came out and I felt vulnerable. I hadn’t felt this way. Losing control wasn’t part of my traits. I was close to losing control and it was making me think of unnecessary feelings I learned to put in the past. “I know what I got myself into. I learned to not take it personally. A great deal of my life I have always been good at keeping my emotions in. To ignore. But-” I look up not knowing what to end with. There is nothing to think about. There is no other choice here, I must finish my operation. I must get back in control. “I'm sorry” I whisper, moving my hands to cup his cheeks. I pulled him closer pinning us against eachother. The kiss was breathtaking. I felt down and sad and having him kiss me felt like a solution. He didn’t seem to mind. It felt like he was desprate to take all the sadness I had in this one kiss. I push him inside, not letting us reach for air just yet. We stumble upon the kitchen table. “Careful” I chuckle, wrapping my arms around him as he slips around my waist. It was a simple long kiss but it was turning into something I craved for.

“Querida” He groaned as we molded together. His back knees hit the bit and it makes him sit down. I dare not let go yet and crawl on to him pushing him even closer for the kiss to never end. I didn’t want to talk. I didn’t want to go back to reality. I only wanted to listen to his moans and groans as I start to slowly grind agains this jean pants. I only wanted to feel his heart beat beating with mine. His smooth finger continued to travel along my back and unclapsing my bra.

“Javi?” It sounded like a question to me but I was begging and he understood that. He took out my shirt and started to leave butterfly kisses starting from my mouth to my collarbone.

“Sounds so sweet when you say my name” I smile. My head falls on his shoulder moving up to kiss beside his ear.

“Javi!” I groaned louder, knowing he was ignoring my plea. Then there was. Not what I needed but it was a start. One head on my breath and his talented mouth on the other. Kissing first and the next licking and sucking like no tomorrow. I throw my head back pushing my chest closer. “Javi!” I screamed. “Fuck” I grab on his head pulling and tugging his hair. I forcefully continue to grind on him wanting nothing more than to get rid of the barrier of clothing between us.

“Mi amor” It was the heat of the moment I told myself. But it made a shiver run down my spin to my core. “Stop, you’re killing me” He groans and I start leaving kisses and hickies on his neck.

“Don’t you want to hear me scream your name some more?” I move up again, nipping on his ear and slowing down my hips but with more force.

“Yes” he whines. His hands grab on to my hips following my rhythm.

“But, we can stop if-” I didn’t get a chance to finish my sentence when he wraps one arm around my waist and the other helps him not fall on top of me as he turns us around and lays me down on the bed. “No?” I try to hold my laugh but it's cut short. His eyes hold seriousness. Still hovering over me he moves on hand to cradle my cheek.

“No” His deep voice sends another shiver down my spine. His thumb slides over my lips and I give him entrance. A simple suck and his eyes shut. “Mi vida” He groans. With his affirmations alone and sweet nicknames I could orgasm faster than if I was doing it myself.

“Wait!” I pushed into the bed, not in the way I wanted. I hold my finger up signaling him to keep quiet. I run to close the back door and the curtains. A quick chatter from outside and shadows that the moon allows to cast make me jump. I see Pena stand up and walk quickly towards me.

“Do you think-” I shushed him quickly. I grab on to his hand and push him into the bathroom. I open the cabinet and take everything from underneath.

“I need you to keep quiet and don’t come out until I let you out” I open a secret compartment. It was a small space fit for one person. “Pena” I turned around and stood up. “If you hear no commotion you let yourself out” I move out the way to let him. That's when a knock is heard on the other side.

“No way in hell-” I grab a fist full of his shirt.

“Don’t give me that shit right now!” Another knock. “You will do what I say. This is my operation and I won’t have you mess it up. I will send for you when I decide. And only then will you show up, understand? I can take care of myself” I ran back to the room and put my shirt on again. “Get in Pena” I hurry him inside and close it. I get the time to put everything in place before rushing back to open the door. “Hello?” I act like they just disturbed my sleep.

“We are sorry to come at this time Miss, but the boss would like a word with you.” Fuck.

“Okay. Give me a minute to change and I will be right out. They nod and I close the door. I can’t tell Peña because he would be right after us. I changed quickly going back to the bathroom and putting my head inside the cabinet knowing he would be able to hear me. “Please don’t do anything stupid and listen for once. I will keep you in the loop but I need you to promise me you will follow what I said before”

“Okay, but Y/N-“ I cut him off quickly

“I don’t have time Pena, I have to go over things with them so it will be awhile. In an hour you walk out the back door” I didn’t wait for his response as I walked to the door and into the car with these men.

Chapter 4

#javier pena smut #javier pena x you #javier pena x reader #javier peña smut #javier pena narcos #javier peña #narcos #javier pena x y/n #steve murphy #pedro pascal

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lia-land · 8 months ago

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Winter by Marissa Meyer

5/5

What a beautiful story. I have nothing bad to say about this book. This might actually be the first time.

This is the sixth book I’ve read this year that was over 800 pages, but this is the first one that didn’t feel like it. It was perfectly paced and the plot didn’t feel overly complicated at any point. With books this long, the characters or plot or both can sometimes feel tedious, but this was so good.

I thought I might find this series too childish, but I didn’t at all. It’s a great story that didn’t rely on shock value through random and underdeveloped plot twists, as many YA books tend to do these days. I really like how she introduced characters throughout this series. For example, we met Thorne in book 2, and then he ends up being the main love interest in book 3, similar to how we met Jacin in book 3 and he’s a main character in book 4. They were subtle introductions where we could form opinions on the characters prior to knowing that they were love interests. I would give this book 5 stars just for this alone.

I immediately noticed from Chapter 1 that we are getting more detailed descriptions of surroundings. I’ve found Meyer to be an author who mostly relies on dialogue, which I personally prefer, as some authors tend to overdo it with the descriptions (Sarah J Maas' interior design book aka Tower of Dawn). Meyer strikes a great balance of both in this book. I often find with YA series that quality of writing tends to decrease as the series goes on and publishers rush things, but this was the complete opposite. I enjoyed Winter as much as Cinder and Cress, and much more than Scarlet.

In YA, authors tend to simplify wars. Often, huge wars happen and they end in a matter of days. That is not entirely realistic (not that fantasy has to be realistic, but this specifically tends to be skipped over lazily). Of course, wars can and have ended in a matter of days in real life, but that’s very uncommon. Here, Meyer maintained that battle element, while also not turning into a full on war, so that she could end the actual battle in one night. This is also beneficial for us as readers because action scenes in YA are not always popular, especially when they’re only introduced in the final book of the series. The main fight in this book was contained to one night and it was on a smaller scale, so it remained more realistic while also not adding a bunch of action scenes. My expectations were low in this regard, so I was expecting for there to be a huge war between Luna and Earth contained into this one book, bur Meyer made the right decision in not doing that.

The ending was perfectly done. I would like to read more books about the characters lives following the events of Winter, but I don’t absolutely need it. (Update: I've since seen that Meyer has written non-canon short stories in this world. This is the best way to do it for this ending. Veronica Roth should take notes). The ending didn’t leave any obvious unanswered questions, in my opinion. It was a very well written story from start to finish. Even though I didn’t enjoy Scarlet, I can appreciate that it was a good story that tied into the rest of the series well and Scarlet as a character became very likeable in this final book.

The length of this book is interesting because it’s more than twice as long as the previous books in this series. I wonder if this was for contractual reasons or if she just wanted to keep the theme of naming each book after a different character, and didn’t want to ruin that by separating this story and making it a 5 book series or introducing a fifth fairytale.

My favorite aspect of this book and this series as a whole is how Meyer integrated all the stories, while still maintaining their importance as independent characters. Perhaps this applies slightly less to Wolf (and Scarlet until the second half of Winter). With this many main characters, it would have been easy for some of them to get lost in the background, but it was very well executed here.

Overall, this entire plot was so unique. This is a take on fairytale retellings that will be very hard to beat. I can’t understand why this series is not more popular than it is. It would also be such an amazing TV show, although expensive. I hope this story gets the recognition it deserves one day. I’m really going to miss these wonderful characters, even Wolf

#winter #the lunar chronicles #marissa meyer #cinder #book review

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space-mermaid-writing · 2 years ago

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The witchling and the god [Loki x Witch!Reader] Chapter 27

Summary: The Avengers were looking for someone to help Loki fit in with the team. To become socially acceptable, so to speak. He had been given the choice of sitting in a cell in Asgard or serving some sort of community service probation on Midgard. The Avengers and Shield both felt that as long as Loki was on Earth, he should be under supervision. This is now your job. Why? Because you’re a witch. You’re not sure why this qualifies you, but here you are, giving it a shot. What could possibly go wrong?

Tags: Witch!Reader, Magic, Witches, slow burn, everybody lives in the tower, character development, Loki‘s redemption, Stephen Strange is a friend, Loki and Stephen are frenemies, Tony Stark is a good bro, kids love Loki, Tony has stupid nicknames for everybody, eventual smut

Main Masterlist | Series Masterlist | Read it on AO3 | Previous | Next

Chapter’s Note: Beta by @zaria-04

Chapter 27: Old Wounds

You hum softly to yourself as you stand in your garden and pick berries. Normally you wouldn't bother with it and float magically to reach the high branches. But since the witch hunters attacked Gabriel, you've become wary of showing your magic in public. Even if it's in the safety of your own garden and you have no direct neighbors. You never know who may be watching.

The harvest of berries is unfortunately meager. You missed the right time and most of them have been eaten by birds or are already starting to mold. There won't be enough for jam, but maybe you'll bake a pie with them.

Since you spend so much time in New York, you've neglected your garden. The pumpkins and zucchini are doing well and promise to grow big again this year. They also need less care than berries.

You've already weeded to give your important plants more room. Because of your absence, everything is a bit more overgrown than usual.

After you’ve raided the bushes, you go into the house with the bowl and put it in the kitchen. Eloise has placed an order for potions, but you decide that it can wait a few more days and that the pie is more important. With a flick of your hand the berries start to wash themselves in the sink and fly back into the bowl. In parallel, you open a book where you collect your recipes and flip through until you find what you're looking for.

You have two of these books, one for regular recipes and one for magical ones. It's important to keep the two strictly separate, otherwise you may have some unpleasant mishaps, as you've learned.

Your phone rings with a message that you ignore for now. Only when a second and a third message arrive shortly afterwards you do pick it up.

It's Tony, there are a lot of exclamation points and it sounds urgent.

"Alarm! Code: Dangerous Jazz Hands"

You have no idea what that means, but you put your work aside and touch a rune on your doorframe before stepping through.

"Jarvis, what happened?" you ask, after barely setting foot in the compound.

"Thor has returned from Asgard. He and Loki are currently on the thirty-fifth floor."

You hear a loud crash that sends a vibration through the building.

"On the thirty-fourth floor,” the A.I. corrects.

Cursing softly, you run. The elevator takes you up and as the doors open, you hear loud yelling and more crashing.

"...he never cared! It does not matter what I do! I could die and he wouldn't even bat his eye."

That is Loki's voice – furious, hurt – and you rush in that direction.

"You know that is not true." Thor is more collected and firm. He tries to reason with his brother.

"Really? Did he even ask about me? How I am doing? If I'm fine?"

The pause that follows speaks for itself and you hear another crash as something is thrown against a wall and breaks. You turn around a corner and see a hole gaping in the ceiling with metal struts peeking out. The path in front of you is blocked with rubble, which you climb over. You are now very close to the voices and hear the brizzle of raw magic. Shit, that's not good.

"That's what I thought." Loki's words are cold with venom. "I am just an unpleasant thorn in his foot and he has finally found the perfect way to get rid of me."

"Brother, please!... Stand back, Rogers. It's fine. I handle him."

"I do not need to be handled!"

You meet Tony, who is in his Iron Man suit, but faceplate open. "Good, you're here," he greets you, "Tell him the sun is getting low or whatever helps to calm him down."

You nod, but otherwise acknowledge him no further, instead pushing past Steve into a room. It's one of the lounges, but half the furnishings are destroyed. Pictures have crumbled from the walls, a table lies in pieces and the couch is overturned.

Loki's hands glow with magic, his whole body seems to be radiating it. He glares angrily at his brother. Thor has Mjolnir in his hands and the cracks on the wall testify that he has already used his weapon.

Thor puts a hand on Loki's shoulder to calm his brother, but Loki shakes him off and a hand to hand combat fight breaks out between the two. It doesn't look like they truly want to hurt each other, but the two Asgardians are inhumanly strong. A normal person's bones would break over this.

"Loki."

He pauses at the sound of your voice. Thor too, waiting to see what his brother would do, how he would react. Loki doesn't turn to face you. "Leave."

As if! You don't move an inch, not wanting to risk getting too close to him, because you don't know how much control he has over himself right now. But you don't back down, either. "No. This is about Odin, right? Screw him! You deserve better."

That makes him look at you. He sees you standing in his corner, even though you have nothing to do with this. But he also sees Tony standing in the doorway in his suit and Steve on your other side, without his shield but ready to step in if necessary. He feels Thor's gaze on him behind him. The men look at him with a mixture of waiting, wary and pity. Loki hates it. This is exactly what he wanted to avoid. He doesn't need to be handled.

You notice the shift in his aura, similar to when Felix died in the hospital. With your next words you get his attention back on you. "You want to smash things? Sure, I understand that. There are canyons we can go to. Just let's go together, okay? You promised me." Grasping at any straw, you reach out your hand for him to take.

Loki remembers and hesitates only for a brief moment. He prefers to be with you alone over being with these oafs of Avengers. The glow of his hands goes out and he slowly steps toward you. No one else dares to move, but the tension in the room is almost palpable. Only Thor suddenly looks much more relaxed and smiles.

Loki grabs your hand and the next moment you're both gone.

Tony breathes a sigh of relief. The witch still got it. "Jarvis, where did they go?"

"They are currently on the roof-deck," chimes the A.I.'s voice.

Thor steps up to him, his hammer leaning casually over his shoulder. "Stark, I take full responsibility. This has nothing to do with my brother's rehabilitation." He gestures to the resulting mess, but Tony waves it off while retracting his suit.

"I get it, Thor. I've never thought I'd say this but I understand Loki. Your father is really a dick, huh? I know that feeling all too well."

"Howard wasn't-...," Steve starts, but falls silent when he notices Tony's look.

"Let's not open that bottle, Cap, shall we? And don't worry, Manowar," he adds, turning back to Thor. "My insurance got that covered. But for the sake of my beloved tower, next time you want to talk about family with him, please go to that canyon."

He leaves the room to call construction and orders Jarvis to inform him in case Loki did something funny.

Meanwhile Loki and you are standing on the roof terrace, still hand in hand. It's a beautiful day, sunny, but not too hot. Just the right amount of clouds in the sky and with a light breeze in your hair. And of course the noise of the city below you.

You're surprised that Loki transported you up here, but you don't ask about it. Instead, you turn to him and look up at him.

His face is turned away and he is looking at a point in the distance. You know what it looks like when old wounds cut open, relieving the same old fights.

You press a kiss on his cheek. "Hey, you with me?" It's a cautiously, gently question and he snaps out of his spiral of thoughts.

"Yes." His answer is as short as it is cold and he takes a step away from you. He's still angry, a mess of emotions. Loki was expecting it. He knew what Thor would tell him when he returned. Still, he would have liked to be taught better, had still had hope. After all, he is still the little boy who wants his father's approval. A snort escapes Loki. The recognition of his surrogate father. His biological father had abandoned him to die.

You give Loki his space, but squeeze his hand as a sign that you are there for him. "Family can be tough," you offer.

"You have no idea what it's like to be an outcast from your family. To not belong, no matter what you do. No matter how hard you try to please or get even a little attention." Loki's voice is venomous, his eyes narrowed like a snake's, ready to bite. It's defensive, you know he doesn't mean it. Or maybe he means it, but he'd be sorry for his tone later.

"You're right," you relent, looking at your intertwined fingers. "I'm glad that no matter what, at least I could always count on my family. On my siblings. But you have Thor. No matter what might have come between you two in the past, he's there for you now, supporting you."

"That's not the same thing. You don't understand. Your humans' lives are too short to understand some things. You are just too dull."

You inhale sharply by his rude words and your tone gets somewhat colder. "I'm not just a simple human," you remind him, but he laughs tonelessly.

"Of course you are. You just live a bit longer than the average human. But you're still one of them." Loki realizes he's derailing, but there's nothing he can do about it. It's like an out-of-control steam engine hurtling at high speed toward an abyss. And he's not only sitting in the front row, but shoveling coals into the fire to speed it up. It's absurd. He knows better. But he can't help it.

"You're adopted and that's bad, it complicates your life. But if you would just look out of your little shell of sulking, you would find that there are people who love you. Even within your family. And as for the rest: you are a prince. After all, they have to respect you for that. They don't hunt you down and kill you," you say more harshly than you intended, thinking about what just happened to Gabriel.

"I'm sure that they would just love to do that," growls the Asgardian.

"But they don't!" you exclaim and something snaps inside you. Loki seems a little surprised, you have never raised your voice to him like this. His expression darkens a bit more, a reflex whenever someone uses a tone towards him he doesn't like. But before he can even open his mouth, you continue speaking, angrily. "In the past, it wasn't just witch hunters we had to watch out for. I couldn’t stand out and I had to be careful who I trusted. So I know what it's like to live in a world where you're not wanted. They got me once and I pray I don't have to go through that again!" Your fingers slip from his and point accusingly at him.

"These witch hunters don't look like much of a threat to me," Loki says dismissively. "After all, here you are, standing before me, alive."

You stare at him. This is not the Loki you know. This one is cold, heartless with a total lack of empathy. Nothing suggests the kind and charming Asgardian you've become so familiar with. You don't know which of the two is the real one, how much of both is him.

You want to yell at him, you want to shake him, to get him back to his senses. But would that do any good? You're no longer responsible for him, you've quit and you're only by his side as a friend, as a lover. And this part of you is deeply hurt, and it shuts down. You don't feel like dealing with him at the moment. If he really wants to be an asshole, he can do it without your presence.

You open your mouth, but you don't know what you want to say.

A cruel smile creeps onto Loki's face, barely preparing you for his next, devastating words. "Cat caught your tongue? I thought you were so quick-witted. Or did those witch hunters damage your brain in the long run?"

You clench your hands into fists to stop yourself from smacking him. "Do you think your mother would be proud of you right now?" It may be a low blow, but you don't care. You don't even wait for an answer, you wouldn’t get it anyway. Instead, you turn around and swallow your tears as you walk away.

Loki's eyes follow you, the shock of your words bringing him back down to earth and leaving a sour taste in his mouth. He is aware that he has made a mistake. He just doesn't understand why he let this happen.

For quite a while he just stands there, shoulders slumped. The anger is gone from him - he gave it space, unfortunately against the wrong person.

With slow steps he starts to move, his eyes silently fixed on the floor, and returns to the prince's suite.

Thor is there. He is sitting on the couch with the television on. Nothing about his demeanor suggests that just twenty minutes ago he was destroying half a floor of the tower by fighting his brother. Next to him is a bowl of popcorn he made. In the microwave, of course. He wouldn't be stupid enough to use his lightning powers inside the tower for that. There wouldn't be much left of the corn afterwards.

He hears the door and Loki's footsteps. "Did you get it out of your system?" Thor looks up from the TV, but then sees his brother's expression and his face falls. "Oh no, Loki..."

"I made a mistake," the younger Asgardian mutters and drops down on the couch next to Thor.

Thor turns off the TV and turns to his brother. Loki has his head buried in his hands and Thor waits silently until he begins to speak. There is a pause, but Thor knows to be patient with his brother.

"How does mother put up with father? With everything he has done and is still doing?"

The question surprises the elder, but he thinks about it. "I guess she loves him and understands him, even if she doesn't approve of everything."

Another pause.

"How is she?"

"Good." Thor smiles gently. "She misses you, but she said you found something more dear to you since you don't write as often as you used to."

That is true. Since the Lunar Convergence, Loki has taken to pen and ink only sporadically. He has spent most of his time with you. A fact that makes him sigh. "I said some horrible things to her."

Thor frowns. "To mother?" Finally Loki looks at him and it clicks with Thor. "... Oh, I understand. Your Witchling." He says the word with a smile because it's Loki's nickname for you and he talks about you a lot. "So...?" he asks.

"So?..." Loki retorts.

Thor looks at his brother waiting, but nothing more comes. Loki has no further retort, but merely stares sadly at a point somewhere between the wall and the floor. Thor knows this look all too well, knows that a lot is going on in Loki’s head right now. It's a look that is often followed by a long self-isolation, because the younger Asgardian has never learned any other way to deal with the emotional chaos inside him. One would think that Asgardians would be wise and clever due to their long life, but the truth is that they are stubborn and take much longer to learn a lesson.

Thor is willing to nudge his brother in the right direction. By force, if necessary. "You said you made a mistake. So go, fix it." He reaches for the remote again, turns back on the TV, and grabs the bowl of snacks. Leaning back, he puts his feet up on the table.

Loki gives him a sour look. "It's not that easy."

"Good. Then it’s a challenge for once. You're always complaining that everything is so boringly easy here on Midgard," Thor replies nonchalantly. He has averted his eyes from his brother and watches the animated characters on the screen as if they were more interesting than what Loki is telling him.

Loki is gobsmacked by his brother's behavior, not used to him being so dismissive. "You seem to misjudge the situation."

"And you seem to be forgetting something important." He says this like it's something pretty obvious and throws a handful of popcorn in his mouth. "You're Loki, Prince of Asgard, worshiped as a god by Midgardians for centuries. Use your magic, use your silvertongue. Or don't. Maybe it's not worth it. You can watch the time of adventures with me." Thor gestures to the yellow dog on the screen.

Furious, Loki jumps up and glares at his brother. "There's nothing more worth it! I'll show you what I-..." He notices Thor's smirk and realizes that he stepped right into his brother's little trap. That sneaky bastard. He learned a lot from Loki. "Fine," the younger prince sighs, "You are right. There, I said it. Are you happy now?"

"I was happy to see you blossom at her side in these past weeks." Finally Thor is looking at his brother, his face nothing but honest. "It would sadden me if our family quarrel drove a permanent wedge between you. So, I mean it: fix it."

His brother's nod is enough for him as answer. "Do you want some of my popcorn? It's buffalo wing flavored." Thor holds the bowl out to him, but Loki makes a face in disgust when he sees the sticky brown texture. "Absolutely not."

"Your loss." Shrugging his shoulders, Thor shoves another handful into his mouth.

Loki steps up to the large panorama window, hands clasped behind his back, and ponders what he can do. He realizes he has gone too far. Normally he is a master of words, and knows how to use them in his favor. He made a mistake, but he'll be damned if he can't make things right again.

It's a sensitive subject for you, and Loki feels that it's not just the attack on your brother that's the reason. It must be something else. Something older.

Loki thinks about who he could talk to, who could tell him more about it. Because he is sure that you are not interested in talking to him or even seeing him at the moment. He has no contact with your siblings. Loki knows that he can get to your sister through the door portal in your room, but he doesn't want to use it. The risk of him stumbling over you is too high.

He can only think of one other person who might know something, and he doesn't like the prospect of that. Loki straightens his shoulders. It doesn't matter. If it will help him, he will do it. With renewed determination, he turns and strides with a "Thank you, brother" as he passes Thor, out of the room.

Thor smiles softly. "Anytime."

_______________________

(Please don't hate me. Sometimes things have to get worse before they get better. It's the last time Loki and the Witchling fight. I swear!)

Loki: „I hurt the Witchling with the greatest weapon I know.“Thor gasps „You stabbed her?“Loki: „No!“Thor: „Did you attack her with magic again?“Loki: „No, I meant words. I hurt her with my words.“Thor: „Ooooh….“

Code: Dangerous Jazz Hands = Loki’s hands glow with magic and not in a fun way

Tag List: @lokisgoodgirl @lokixryss @itsybitchylittlewitchy @yokshi-unbeliebubble @fictional-hooman @elennair @all-envy-suyu @purplekitten30 @elisadmaggiore @nothing2113 @ceo-of-stfu @moonlightreader649 @ronipiamka @fluffybunnyu @ninjarose23 @ozymdias @huntress-artemiss @sofi786 @thedistractedagglomeration @rosaline-black @msrawog @moonlightreader649 @paetonnn @eldriidd @r4inlov3r @eleniblue @eleniblue @maeisonline @marvel-love24 @sinsandguilt @kalinaselennespeaks @ohtellmelove @eleniblue @hyojin-2579 @just-someone11 @marygoddessofmischief @fall-myriad @melavoris @baebeepeach

#loki x y/n #Loki x reader #loki layfeyson x you #loki laufesyon x reader #Loki x you #imagine loki #the witchling and the god #imagine marvel #mcu prompt #loki odison x reader #marvel x reader #mcu x reader #loki fanfction #slow burn #loki odinson #loki laufeyson

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