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wiypt-writes · 4 years ago

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Stark Spangled Banner

Ch 14: Nothing Personal

Summary: Steve confronts Fury about the Lemurian Star mission and the Director reveals just exactly what it is he’s been working on. However, when Fury is later gunned down in Steve’s apartment right in front of the Captain and Katie, the two are forced to run from the very people they’ve called colleagues and friends for years.

Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC Katie Stark

Warnings: Language! Violence.

A/N: I love this edit from @angrybirdcr

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

Chapter 13

Stark Spangled Banner Masterlist // Main Masterlist

“You just can’t stop yourself from lying, can you?” Steve seethed as he crossed the floor of Fury’s office.

Nick didn’t even need to ask him what he was talking about. Without turning round the Director spoke calmly. “I didn’t lie. Agent Romanoff had a different mission than yours.”

“Which you didn’t feel obliged to share” Steve pressed, raising an eyebrow as the Director spun in his chair to face him.

“I’m not obliged to do anything” Fury replied simply, looking at him.

“Those hostages could’ve died, Nick.” Steve pressed, holding the man’s gaze.

“I sent the greatest soldier in history to make sure that didn’t happen.” Fury stated, and Steve could feel his temper rising even more. He hated the blasé attitude the Director was discussing the issue with, like it was simply something he wasn’t all that bothered about.

“Soldiers trust each other, that’s what makes it an army.” He said after a short pause. “Not a bunch of guys running around and shooting guns.”

He wasn’t expecting the response he got. Fury leaned forward, frowning as he levelled Steve with a look.

“The last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye.” Fury spoke, his tone steely. Steve cocked his head to one side, crossing his arms but maintaining his silence. “Look, I didn’t want you doing anything you weren’t comfortable with. Agent Romanoff is comfortable with everything.”

“I can’t lead a mission when the people I’m leading have missions of their own.” Steve pointed down at Fury’s desk, stressing his point.

“It’s called compartmentalization” Fury eyed him. “Nobody spills the secrets because nobody knows them all.” Steve snorted silently and gestured at Fury. “Except you.” Fury took a deep breath and levelled Steve with a look. “You’re wrong about me. I do share. I’m nice like that.” Steve frowned as Fury stood up and motioned for him to follow.

“Where are we going?” Steve’s frustration was evident on his tone.

“You’ll see.” Fury stepped inside the elevator. Steve followed. “Insight bay.”

A photo of Nick’s SHIELD ID flashed up on the screen, surrounded by a green light. Then Steve noticed his, but the light was red as the SHIELD computer spoke. “Captain Rogers does not have clearance for Project Insight.”

“Director override, Fury, Nicholas J.” Fury spoke, without missing a beat.

“Confirmed.”

The elevator started to moved downwards. Steve leaned against the rail which ran round the middle of the glass box and clasped his hands in front of him by his belt. Despite his initial annoyance, he had found himself beginning to understand what the Director was saying. SHIELD had so many secrets, many a matter of national security. It made no sense for everyone to know everything, it was a security risk, he got that. But it still irked him.

“You know, they used to play music.” Steve said, his tone softer as he broke the silence, making a joke at his own expense.

“Yeah. My grandfather operated one of these things for forty years.” Fury mused, somewhat nostalgic. “My granddad worked in a nice building, he got good tips. He’d walk home every night, roll of ones stuffed in his lunch bag. He’d say ‘hi’, people would say hi back. Time went on, neighbourhood got rougher. He’d say ‘hi’ they’d say, ‘Keep on steppin’. Granddad got to grippin’ that lunch bag a little tighter.”

The flash into Fury’s personal life surprised Steve somewhat. He cocked his head to one side and looked at the man. “Did he ever get mugged?”

“Every week some punk would say, “What’s in the bag?”

“What did he do?”

“He’d show ‘em. Bunch of crumpled ones and loaded point twenty-two Magnum.” Fury smirked “Granddad loved people. But he didn’t trust them very much.”

Steve had to smirk slightly, thinking that Fury sounded a hell of a lot like his grandpa. He looked down for a second, and when he looked up he was aware that they had now travelled down the side of the Triskellion and were descending further, underground even. As Steve looked around he realised he was in some sort of below building hangar, and he looked out of the glass, spotting three giant Helicarriers. His mouth fell open in surprise, his brow furrowing.

“Yeah, I know. They’re a little bit bigger than a point twenty-two.” Fury remarked.

Eventually the elevator stopped and Fury stepped out, Steve hot on his tail as he watched people bustling around the hangar shouting, carrying things, fixing things. The helicarriers were bigger than the one they’d used during the Chitauri invasion, each being able to house at least twenty Quinjets.

“This is Project Insight.” Fury explained as he led Steve across the floor of the hangar. “Three next generation Helicarriers synced to a network of targeting satellites.”

And then Steve understood. “Launched from the Lemurian Star.”

“Once we get them in the air they never need to come down. Continuous suborbital flight courtesy of our new repulsor engines.” Fury stopped underneath one.

“Stark?” Steve asked, frowning.

“Well, he had a few suggestions once he got an up close look at our old turbines.” Fury nodded, as they continued. “But don’t worry, that’s not something Nova is keeping from you.”

“I wasn’t” Steve said honestly, as he looked up and around the hangar. “I trust my girl.”

Fury looked at him before he turned his attention back to the matter in hand and pointed up again “These new long range precision guns can eliminate a thousand hostiles a minute. The satellites can read a terrorist’s DNA before he steps outside his spidy hole. We gonna neutralize a lot of threats before they even happen.”

Steve crossed his arms. “I thought the punishment usually came after the crime.”

“We can’t afford to wait that long.”

Steve could feel the nerve twitching in his jaw. “Who’s ‘we’?”

“After New York, I convinced the World Security Council we needed a quantum surge in threat analysis. For once we’re way ahead of the curve”

“By holding a gun at everyone on Earth and calling it protection?” Steve looked at the director, frowning. He didn’t like this. It smacked of something HYDRA would do.

Fury picked up on his tone and he looked at Steve, arching an eyebrow. “You know, I read those SSR files. Greatest generation? You guys did some nasty stuff.”

Don’t I know it? Steve thought to himself as he took a deep breath. “Yeah, we compromised. Sometimes in ways that made us not sleep so well. But we did it so the people could be free.” He turned and pointed at the helicarriers before looking at Fury “This isn’t freedom, this is fear.”

“SHIELD takes the world as it is, not as we’d like it to be.” Fury stated simply. “It’s getting damn near past time for you to get with that program, Cap”

Steve shook his head. “Don’t hold your breath.�� And with that he left.

He changed quickly, eager to put as much distance between him and SHIELD as possible for the rest of the day. After a short conversation with Rumlow about a mission report, he was on his bike and heading for Katie’s apartment, his mind whirling. What was Fury playing at? This wasn’t what he signed up for, at all. It felt so far removed from what he had joined the army to do, to keep people safe, free. Had he really changed that much? He felt a sudden pang for his Howling Commandoes, for Bucky, for Peggy, for Colonel Philips, for all those damned missions which had been simple- destroy HYDRA before they destroyed you.

Despite the fact he had woken up that morning and felt so happy with his girl being there, he couldn’t help but wish life was as simple as it had been back then.

*****

Katie’s morning had been far more productive. She had looked at a couple of transcript extracts her editor had selected. She had to admit, the guy had a good eye for a future blockbuster, and this one she particularly liked. After discussions, they settled on an initial run of two hundred hard copy of the books to be sold online, along with a downloadable kindle version, and if they went they would review how many more we needed.

Pleased with her mornings work and having cleared her diary for the afternoon, she had lunch in the kitchen and had just finished when she heard the elevator door open. She headed into the main area of her apartment to greet Steve, taking a deep breath as she noticed how drained he looked.

“Dare I ask how it went?”

His response was a sigh as he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her in for a hug, simply wanting to feel her close.

“That good huh?” She squeezed him back gently before she pulled away and headed towards the kitchen, him following behind her.

“Debrief was fine. Fury, however, went on about compartmentalisation, the usual crap.” Steve sighed, running his hand over his face, smiling softly to himself when he saw she was gathering stuff out of the fridge to make him a sandwich “And then shared something I really wish he hadn’t.”

“Like what?” she asked, throwing some turkey and mayo onto a sub. “Ever heard of Operation Insight?” Steve looked at her, even though he knew the answer. There’s no way she would have and not told him.

“No?” She handed him the plate containing his sandwich.

“Well apparently your brother has. Thanks.” He took the plate from her sat at the breakfast bar taking a bite of his food. He swallowed and then continued “Three huge hellicarriers that are basically designed to go up in the air and never come down based on Tony’s arc reactor tech. Programmed to monitor potential threats and wipe them out before they get chance to do anything.” She frowned, settling on the stool next to him. “And Fury has sanctioned this?”

Steve nodded, taking another bite of his food. “I don’t like it. Like I said to him, punishment normally comes after the crime.”

Katie could see he was really struggling with this and that his faith in SHIELD was running very, very thin. A lot of what the Agency did was political, not just about keeping people safe. She’d tried to explain that the lines were a lot more blurred than back in the 40s, but still had to admit she was kind of with him. As she pondered for a moment, Steve could see the cogs whirring in her brain, the slight v shape crease that always formed in the middle of her eyes when she was thinking was present. Steve didn’t blame her, it had thrown him too and he’d had the full explanation. The hangar had been huge, and there were enough people in there to make him realise that a LOT of people knew about it. What he didn’t know was who on his immediate team knew about it.

“I just wanna know who I can trust” He sighed, looking at Katie as she reached out gently, touching his cheek.

“I know, Soldier.” she said, softly before she shook her head. “Okay, no more talk about SHIELD or hellicarriers, or whatever.” She moved to pick up her soda. “What do you want to for the rest of the afternoon?”

Steve wanted to go to the Smithsonian. He’d been thinking about it since they had emailed him to invite him to open the exhibit on him, which he had politely declined. But he was curious to see what it was like, curious and also eager, after today, to be reminded of a time when he worked with people he knew inside out, people that he would trust with his life. And he was keen to share that with his girl, the woman who had months ago before they even started dating, been the one to help him pick what the museum would display.

“You know, we’ve still not been to the Smithsonian since they opened the exhibit.” He shruged, hoping his tone was casual enough to make it sound like he hadn’t been thinking about it enough. He failed though, smiling as Katie looked at him, arching an eyebrow.

Busted.

“Call it curiosity.” He shrugged.

“You know what curiosity did don’t you?” Katie quipped back, her eyes flashing playfully.

“What?”

She grinned as she delivered the punchline “Killed the Cap.”

*****

“A symbol to the nation. A hero to the world. The story of Captain America is one of honour, bravery and sacrifice,” the narrator at the Smithsonian museum said as we entered the exhibit.

Steve paused to pull the collar of his blue jacket up a little further, a gesture that, along with the cap that was pulled down over his face, he hoped would prevent him from being recognised as they made their way to the start of the pieces.

"Denied enlistment due to poor health, Steven Rogers was chosen for a program unique in the annals of American warfare. One that would transform him into the world’s first super soldier,” the Narrator continued. Steve paused to look at the display to his right when Katie gently nudged him.

“Think you’ve been rumbled.”

Steve looked down at her, and then followed her gaze as she looked to her left at a small boy dressed in a light blue T-shirt adorned with the design of his shield who was watching the pair of them, his eyes growing wide. Steve smiled, put a finger against his mouth to indicate for him to keep quiet. The boy nodded and then turned, running back off to find his mum.

Without speaking Steve took her hand and led her over to the part of the exhibit that had an older looking motorcycle on a platform and some black and white footage playing beside it. The footage was of him in his older Captain America uniform, also currently on display, running through a battlefield.

“In this rare footage, everyone’s favourite war hero, Captain America…”

He didn’t stop to hear the rest, he could remember that mission by heart. It had been on the outskirts of Toulouse, liberating another HYDRA prison camp. Katie allowed herself to be led by him, this was his moment after all. They slowly walked to a display of mannequins dressed in his original suit, plus those of the Howling Commandos, which had been donated by their families. His eyes lingered on Bucky’s for a second and he took a deep breath.

“Battle tested, Captain America and his Howling Commandos quickly earned their stripes. Their mission, taking down HYDRA, the Nazi rogue science division,”

Katie looked at the uniforms, a smile on her face. She had only seen photos of Steve’s war suit, never seen it in person and it intrigued her. More so because this was something that her dad had made, something physical he had touched. She felt a tug on her hand again, and she looked up to see that she was being led to a section dedicated to Bucky. The familiar (albeit again, only from photos), handsome face of his best friend looked back at them as they wandered over to read what it said in more detail.

“Best friends since childhood, Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers were inseparable on both school yard and battlefield. Barnes is the only Howling Commando to give his life in service of his country…”

The narration didn’t cover half the text on the black, glass screen and in Katie’s opinion it wasn’t a particularly good tribute to a man who had lost his life in such tragic circumstances. She read the rest of the text as Steve’s eyes skated over it, reading, despite the fact he knew it all. He wished he could have saved him, he really did. He’d loved him to have been able to meet Katie. But then, he wouldn’t have anyway. As he would have most likely been dead now. Or what’s to say things may or may not have ended up differently. Would Buck have been on the Valkyrie with him?

He watched the black and white footage playing, where the two of them were talking and then laughing about something and he felt the sadness hit his chest again. And as if she sensed it too, Katie gripped his hand a little bit tighter and lay her head against his arm, her weight giving him something to anchor himself too, and he was grateful for it.

They carried on walking and then they found there was a small cinema area a bit further round the corner playing footage and interviews. Steve paused for a second and then looked at Katie, the question stayed silent. She nodded and together they walked in, taking a seat on one of the benches. There was a bit of introduction footage, and then a familiar face appeared on the screen.

Besides him Katie took a deep breath and whispered a single word “Dad…” and he automatically dropped a hand to her knee, where she placed hers on top of his as the two of them watched her father an animatedly talking to the camera.

“Rogers was different” Howard spoke, smiling, the caption on the screen telling him the footage had been filmed in 1953. “He was constantly striving to do the right thing, with no fear or care for how it would affect him. He, err, when we dropped him behind enemy lines we had no idea if we would see him again. I narrowly escaped myself, the machine guns nearly took our aircraft down but without thought to how he would get back, he told us to leave him behind. When they declared him missing in action the entire company was devastated but, lo and behold… well they can’t keep a good man down.” Howard paused and then looked down and back up at the camera “I can only hope that if I’m graced with Children, they grow up to be half as driven as he was to do the right thing…”

As Katie looked down at her feet, a stray tear fell down her cheek. Seeing her dad there like that was raw. She knew that Tony felt the loss of their parents far more than she did, she had only been seven after all when they had died and Tony had been her father, if you will, for far longer than her actual dad had. But still, seeing him in front of her so candidly, talking about his hopes for his future children, made something in her chest tighten and she couldn’t help but feel sadness at the fact she never got the chance to really know him. Steve gently squeezed her knee, but then as they looked back up at the screen it was his turn to still as someone he recognised extremely well, her face painted into his memory for life, entered the screen and began speaking, also in 1953.

"That was a difficult winter. A blizzard had trapped half our battalion behind the German line. Steve, Captain Rogers, he fought his way through a HYDRA blockade that had pinned our allies down for months.” Peggy Carter stumbled slightly through the interview. “He saved over a thousand men, including the man who would become my husband as it turned out. Even after he died, Steve was still changing my life,” And despite the fact that she smiles slightly at the end of this line, it’s clear to see that talking about Steve affected her a lot.

Katie leaned against him and with a breath he lay his head on top of hers. “We haven’t seen her for a while…” she whispered as the video finished. “Shall we go on the way home?” He gave a soft chuckle and dropped a kiss to the crown of her head.

“You read my mind.”

*******

Peggy was pleased to see them, as always when she was having a good day. They both greeted her and after a few pleasantries they told her about their trip to the Smithsonian. Peggy smiled, informing them that she remembered the interview, like it was yesterday, apparently the man interviewing her had been an “utter rogue”, but she didn’t elaborate on what that meant further than saying he was worse than Barnes, which made Steve laugh. ��They chatted a little about her time as Director at SHIELD before she trailed off with a sigh as she noticed that Steve was uncharacteristically quiet. After a little gentle coaxing from her and Katie he told her what was on his mind.

“My whole life I’ve just wanted to do what was right, I guess I’m not sure what that is anymore.” He paused for a moment, thinking of how to voice his worries about SHIELD “And I thought I could just throw myself back in and follow orders, it’s just not the same.”

Peggy chuckled as she rolled her eyes and looked at Katie. “He’s always so dramatic.”

Katie let out a small laugh, nodding her agreement. “Tell me about it!”

Steve shook his head, a smile on his face as he raised his eyebrows slightly and looked away as Peggy continued to speak.

“Look you saved the world, we rather mucked it up.”

“No you didn’t. You know, knowing that you helped found SHIELD is half the reason I stay.”

“And the other half being?” Her eyes strayed to Katie who smiled, looking down and then up at Steve as he caught her eye, his hand resting on her knee.

“I quit remember?” Katie reminded her.

Peggy smiled “Indeed, a woman with principles. That I can get on board with. ”Katie gave a little smile as Peggy continued. “Look, the world has changed and none of us can go back.” She spoke softly. “All we can do is our best, and sometimes the best that we can do is to start over.“

At that she started to cough. Steve quickly picked up a glass of water from the table and rounded the back of the chair Katie was sitting in to try and hand her the glass.

"Peg?” He held the glass out as her coughing subsided and she took a sip. Once she had finished she looked up and stared at Steve as if she was seeing a ghost

“Steve?” Peggy breathed out in an amazed yet broken voice.

“Yeah,” Steve whispered, his heart sinking as he recognised the look in her face. Her memory had gone, again.

“You’re alive! You, you came, you came back,” Peggy whimpered. Tears were gathering in her eyes at this point as she tried to hold them back and Steve was struggling to do the same with his own. One of the smartest, nicest, bravest women he had ever met was being betrayed by an illness that was literally rotting her brain. It was cruel, and every time she did this, they went through the same routine.

“Yeah, Peggy.” Steve responded forcing a smile onto his face as Katie squeezed his hand gently, standing up so he could take the chair next to Peggy.

“It’s been so long. So long,” Peggy started to cry, giving up on holding back her tears.

“I’ll leave you with her.” Katie spoke softly as she gently touched Steve’s shoulder. His hand briefly reached up to lay over hers before he leaned over to take Peggy’s.

“Well, I couldn’t leave you.” He forced himself to smile. “Not when you still owe me a dance.”

Normally that calmed the old lady down, but not today. She was becoming more and more confused and in the end he had to press the call button.

“Again?” The nurse who attended asked softly, and Steve simply nodded.

“I’ll fetch the doctor.”

She ran her hand over her face, rubbing at her eyes slightly and waited as she watched various people coming and going out of the main doors of the hospital. It wasn’t that long before a familiar figure appeared, a flash of white T-shirt standing out against his dark navy jacket and equally dark jeans as he walked towards her, hands in his pockets. She stood up, not saying a word as she wrapped her arms around him and he buried his face into the nook of her shoulder and neck, his safe place, his hands gently resting on her hips as he breathed out a sigh.

“Is she okay?” she asked gently. “Yeah they sedated her.” He said as he pulled away.

“I’m so sorry Steve.”

“What for?” “Peggy…it’s so unfair.” “Yeah…” He replied simply. And it was. He wished things could be different, that Peggy wasn’t ill. That she could be home, with her family, living out the last years of her life with the dignity she had lived the rest of it. She deserved more. He looked over the car roof across the street and watched for a second, everyone milling about their business, getting on with their lives. Like he was, and whilst he wished things had been different for Peggy, he suddenly found himself thinking and wondering if he would change anything if he could.

He felt Katie still in front of him, reacting to the fact he himself had changed posture, and as he looked down at her he was suddenly struck with the answer to his question. Despite everything, despite his sudden feelings of nostalgia sparked by the events of the last twenty hours or so, no he wouldn’t. Because whatever had happened, every action, every decision, it had led him to the girl now in his arms, and he loved her so fucking much it hurt. Yeah he had loved Peggy, he still did in some ways, but it was nothing compared to this. Nothing.

He reached out and took Katie’s hands, pulling up her arms so they were round his neck, pulling her closer to him as his own hands joined at the bottom of her back

“I love you.” He said gently, needing her to understand, to believe him. “My best girl.”

“I hope I’m your only girl, Rogers.” She sassed back with a sniff, and he smiled softly, happy that she understood.

“How about we head back to mine and not leave the flat for the entire day tomorrow?” Steve looked down at her, the idea suddenly coming to him and her face lit up. Katie loved lazy days. It was rare Steve was in the mood for them, his incessant energy normally meant he had to be doing something. But on the odd time he agreed, it usually involved them staying in bed till about midday, then watching old movies on the TV under a blanket on the couch, maybe a bit of fooling around and then calling a take out before retreating back to bed. Right now that sounded like a damned fine idea. “Can you clear your diary?”

“Consider it cleared.”

“I just wanna make one quick stop on the way home” He suggested, his journey of contemplation was leading him to one more place. He glanced at his watch before planting a kiss on her lips as she looked at him questioningly. “Thought we could pay our jogging friend a visit.”

********

“Look who it is. The running man and his pretty girl.” Sam joked slightly as he came over to the doorway where Katie and Steve were stood.

“Hey.” Katie smiled as he dropped a kiss onto her cheek.

“Caught the last few minutes. It’s pretty intense,” Steve commented as Sam shook his hand.

“Yeah, brother, we all got the same problems. Guilt, regret,” Sam shrugged. As his sentence went on his voice got more serious and softer.

“Have you lost someone?” Steve asked, perceptive as ever. Katie mentally cursed herself for not filling him in fully, but Sam didn’t seem too bothered to talk about it. He nodded gently.

“My wingman, Riley. Fly in the night mission. A standard PJ rescue op, nothing we hadn’t done a thousand times before, till an RPG knock Riley’s dumb ass out of the sky. Nothing I could do. It’s like I was up there just to watch,” Sam paused to cross his arms over his chest, his posture slightly tense. “After that, I had really hard time finding a reason for being over there, you know?”

“But you’re happy now, back in the world?” Steve asked

“Hey, the number of people giving me orders is down to about zero. So, hell, yeah,” Sam joked, loosening up slightly, before getting a bit serious, “You thinking about getting out?”

“No.” Steve replied quickly before he took a breath. “I don’t know. To be honest, I don’t know what I would do with myself if I did.”

“Ultimate fighting?” Sam shrugged and Steve laughed as Katie snorted. “It’s just a great idea off the top of my head. But seriously, you could do whatever you want to do. What makes you happy?”

Steve turned his head to look at Katie, an unconscious movement, smiling gently as he shrugged. “I dunno…”

“Oh I think you do.” Sam said, smirking slightly as Steve placed his hand on the small of his girl’s back.

“Oh, stop by the front desk on your way out,” Katie turned to Sam, smirking, and he raised an eyebrow in question,

“We asked for you by name.” Steve clarified.

“She seemed thoroughly impressed.” Katie finished. Both of Sam’s eyebrows rose at that and he looked down the hallway towards where the front desk was.

“You two are the best.” A smile stretching across his face as he began to turn to head down the hall. “Stop by anytime.”

“No problem.” Steve grinned in amusement as Sam jogged his way down the hall.

It was gone eight by the time they got home, having made a pit stop for a beer on the way. Steve held the door open for Katie, and she stepped into the apartment building and started to climb the stairs in front of him, giving him a quite pleasing view of her ass as her hips swayed side to side in front of him.

“Sam’s right you know.” She continued their discussion from the bar. “And so is Peggy.”

“What about?”

“If you wanted to get out you could do, start over.”

He took a deep breath. “I don’t know what I want, but spending the rest of my life playing janitor for Fury is not it.”

“I can write you a resignation note.” She grinned and Steve chuckled slightly and then took a deep breath.

“You know, it’s funny when I think about it. Us, stuff, what we’ve done and how far we’ve come in a year.”

“You’re saying it like it’s a bad thing.” She teased as she stepped onto his landing.

“No, that’s not what I mean at all.” He took a deep breath as she headed towards his door and turned to face him “You know, I’ve never really talked to anyone or shown them about my past in detail or introduced anyone to Peggy bar you.”

“Well I am your girlfriend.” She shrugged, holding onto the hand that wasn’t digging into his jeans pocket to fish out his keys. “Your best girl.” At that he smiled. “So you should be able to talk to me about anything.”

“I know, I’m not explaining myself very well.” He remarked, finally succeeding in obtaining his keys. And he wasn’t. He was trying to tell her that he couldn’t imagine his life without her, that he wanted her to share his everything, including his home.

“Spit it out Rogers.” She teased as he slid the key into the lock.

He took a deep breath. “Coming home last night and you being there…and then this morning…it was perfect, Doll, and I want that all the time.” He turned to face her leaving his key hanging from the door. “How would you feel about us maybe moving in together?”

She paused for a moment, looking at him, realising he was deadly serious. She raised her eyebrow.

“I thought you came from a time where man and woman didn’t live together until they were married?”

“We could get married if you want.” He blurted out. That made Katie raise both eyebrows as she studied him again, her mouth dropping into a small ‘o’. Steve looked back at her, trying to keep his face passive, as if it had been a joke, even though he knew it wasn’t. He’d known for months she was the one.

But to blurt it out like that? Outside his apartment door, in such a dumbass way?

Way to go, Rogers.

Katie cocked her head to one side, there was a funny look on Steve’s face that she couldn’t place. But whatever it was, even if Steve was serious about them getting married, she knew him well enough to understand that was not how he would want to propose, and that he was probably kicking himself about stumbling it out the way he had done. So she broke the nervous tension, as she always did, with a slight joke.

“You know, that’s not much of a proposal.” She slid her arms up around his neck. “But its one step up from you’d make a great housewife, I suppose.”

“Should I try again?” A cheeky grin spread across his face, glad the tone was playful, his arms circling her waist “Yeah, with a big, fuck off Tiffany diamond.”

“I didn’t think you were so materialistic?”

“Well, you know what they say? Diamonds are a girls’ best friend.”

“And there I was, thinking it was me.” He muttered, his lips pressing onto hers.

“That’s so sweet!” A voice interrupted and they both turned to look at Kate, his neighbour from over the hall. For a split second Steve thought she was talking to them but it soon became apparent she was on the phone. “That’s so nice…but hey, I gotta go…okay bye…”

She dropped the phone into the basket of laundry she was carrying before grinning at us both “My aunt, she’s kind of an insomniac”

Steve smile before looking at the basket of washing in her arms as he dropped his arm round Katie’s shoulder “you know if you want…if you want, you can use my machine. Might be easier and cheaper than the one in the basement.” “Thank you, but I already have a load in downstairs actually, and you really don’t want my scrubs in your machine.” She grinned. “I just finished a rotation on the infectious diseases ward, so,”

“Ah, well, we’ll keep our distance,” Steve grinned, holding his hands up, palms out.

“Hopefully not too far.” She chuckled. “Don’t want to lose my best neighbour. Okay, well I better be off.” She turned to go before she stopped and spun back round to look at Steve. “Oh, by the way, I think you left your stereo on.”

“Right, thank you.” Steve watched her go, frowning. He looked at Katie as they both pressed their ears to the door. The record player was certainly on but…

“We definitely didn’t leave that on before.” Katie looked at him, as the gentle tones of Kitty Kallen Long Long Time hit their ears.

Steve held his finger up to his lips and gestured to the window, before leaving Katie where he was. He ran off, down the stairs as fast as he could and then he scaled the gate on the fire escape easily. Once he reached the steps which were parallel to his window he took a running jump, easily pulling himself up over the sill and into the kitchen area. Quickly and quietly he moved along the wall, picking up his shield which was leaning against the shelving unit. Holding it up, he cautiously peered round the corner of the room into the living area and instantly relaxed when he saw Fury lounging in a chair.

“I don’t remember giving you a key.” He said, somewhat sardonically.

“What, you really think I’d need one?” Nick replied. Steve shook his head and headed to the front door of the flat, pulling it open.

“Fury.” He said with a roll of his eyes, turning and walking back into the apartment.

“Huh?” Katie asked as she followed him into the living room, where the music was coming from, to see Fury sitting on the couch in the dark.

“What are you doing here?” She demanded.

"Nice to see you too, Nova. And in answer to your question my wife kicked me out.”

“I didn’t know you were married,” She continued, frowning. And she didn’t. And she wasn’t sure that he was.

“There are a lot of things you don’t about me,” Fury replied casually.

“I know, Nick. That’s the problem,” Steve grumbled walking forward as Katie remained where she was, eyes narrowed at her old boss. Steve flipped on the light switch, instantly recoiling in surprise when he noticed Fury’s injuries. Besides him Katie gasped slightly and moved to get closer to help but Fury indicated for her to stop and the both of them to stay quiet. He turned off the light again and typed something on his phone.

'EARS EVERYWHERE’.

Bugs? His apartment was bugged? By who? They both exchanged a glance and instantly Katie looked up and around the room, as if she expected to see a microphone glaring at them.

“I’m sorry to have to do this but I had nowhere else to crash,” Fury looked around a bit before he typed something else up on his phone:

'SHIELD COMPROMISED’.

Steve and Katie shared another glance, the pair of them wide eyed. This was bad.

“Who else knows about your wife?” Steve asked, keeping his voice even.

Fury showed them another text;

'YOU TWO AND ME’.

“Just my friends,” Fury grunted in pain while getting up and walking closer to them.

“Is that what we are?” Katie blinked at him. She still hadn’t completely forgiven the man for lying to them all about Coulson.

“That’s up to you.” Fury replied, his eyes darting from Katie to Steve.

Then out of nowhere came a rapid succession of gunshots. Steve quickly pushed Katie out of the way, the pair of them taking cover behind the kitchen wall as Fury groaned before he collapsed down to the floor. Steve scooted forward, keeping as low as he could, pulling him into the kitchen. Katie knelt next to him and tried to check his injuries through his black clothing when he reached up and handed something to Steve.

“Don’t, trust anyone,” he coughed before passing out. Katie and Steve both looked at what he had been handed and saw that it was a flash drive. Steve curled his hand around it and looked at Katie, but before either of them could say anything else there was the sound of someone breaking into the apartment. Steve quickly moved into a defensive position, in front of Katie and Fury, raising his shield.

“Captain Rogers?” a familiar voice suddenly called out and they watched as Kate, his neighbour, cautiously walked in with a gun pointed. “I’m Agent Thirteen of SHIELD’s Special Service.”

“Kate?” Steve frowned, shaking his head. He’d just about had his fill of surprises.

“I’m assigned to protect you.” She continued

“On whose orders?” Katie snapped.

Kate stopped as she spotted Fury lying on the floor. “His,” she dropped besides Katie, checking Fury for a pulse and then spoke into her radio

“Foxtrot is down, he’s unresponsive. I need EMTs.”

“Do you have a twenty on the shooter?” A SHIELD agent questioned through the radio.

Then there was a movement on the other side of the window, on the roof adjacent to the building. Steve instantly glanced up and saw a flash of silver and the shadow of a figure running across the rooftop.

“Tell them I’m in pursuit.” He said and with that he took a running jump and smashed straight through his window, and through into the office building opposite. Steve ran, keeping his eye on the man, smashing through walls, windows, anything in his way. Eventually he caught up with him on the roof and flung his shield at the assassin who, to Steve’s shock, caught it with one swift move in the hand of his metal arm. There was a pause as Steve could do nothing but eye the man with surprise before the shield came flying back. Steve caught it, with both hands on its rim but the force pushed him back a few yards along the gravel surface of the roof. By the time he had stopped the momentum moving him, the assassin had jumped. Steve ran to the edge of the building and looked down.

He was gone.

*****

“What happened?” Hill asked as they all looked through the glass window at the hustle and bustle of the operating room. Steve moved his arm from around Katie and took her hand in his, squeezing her fingers gently.

"He was at my apartment when we got home.” Steve started. “I hadn’t even had chance to ask why when there were two blasts, then another. Someone shot him through the window- three times. I tried to go after the shooter, but I lost him on the roof of the building across the street.”

Steve had no doubt in his mind that if there was anyone else in SHIELD they could trust right now it was Hill, but both he and Katie kept quiet. He had taken Fury’s warning of trusting nobody seriously and had told Katie as much as they had strode through the ED of the hospital. Both were aware that Hill was studying them, side on, her face stony.

“What aren’t you telling me?” She asked quietly.

“Nothing.” Katie answered for them.

Before Hill could drill either of them anymore, the door to the observation room flung open and heavy footsteps crossed the room, stopping at the other side of Katie.

“Is he gonna make it?” Natasha asked, almost inaudibly, staring through the window.

“We don’t know,” Hill mumbled.

“Tell me about the shooter,” Natasha whispered

“He’s fast and strong. And he had a metal arm,” Steve said, letting go of Katie’s hand to fold his arms across his chest and as he did, they both caught the look of recognition and slight fear on Natasha’s face reflected in the window.

“Ballistics?” She swallowed heavily.

“Three slugs. No rifling and completely untraceable,” Maria answered softly.

“Soviet made?”

“Yeah,” Maria looked at Natasha in shock. Steve turned to face her, as did Katie, but she didn’t look back. She stared straight through to the operating theatre but before Katie could ask what it was that she wasn’t saying, the operation room went into overdrive. Machines started beeping erratically, the doctors and nurses were rushing around the room and the panic was palpable even behind the glass. But they couldn’t save him.

“Time of death, 1:03 A.M.”

A few moments passed as the four of them stood completely in shock. Katie reached up to wipe a tear that had trickled down her cheek away, before Natasha turned and almost sprinted out of the room.

Steve pulled his hand out of his pocket, turning the flash drive that Nick had given him over in his hand. Nick had been killed because he knew whatever it was that was on that drive. What could possibly be so bad, so secret, so dangerous that the Director of SHIELD was deemed a threat for knowing? He glanced up at Katie who was watching him, tears in her eyes. She might have had her issues with Fury, but he was a good man and would never have wished him dead. With a sigh Steve placed the item back into his pocket and pulled her in for a hug.

******

A little later, they were all in the same room as Nick’s body. Natasha was by him, hardly having moved a muscle, almost like she was in shock. And it unnerved Katie. Nat wasn’t one to really show emotion but then again, Fury had meant a lot to her. The door opened and a doctor entered, speaking to Hill. She nodded and then walked over to Katie and Steve, coughing to clear her throat.

“They need to take him.” She said, her voice cracking slightly. Steve nodded and stepped forwards.

“Nat. Natasha…” But at that she turned away from them all and made her way quickly into the corridor of the Hospital. Katie and Steve looked at one another, before they hastily followed her.

“Why was Fury in your apartment?” Natasha span around to ask Steve. Her eyes were filled with sadness, but Katie could also see suspicion etched on her pretty features.

“I don’t know,” Steve sighed shrugging his shoulders, and before the conversation could go on further they were interrupted by Rumlow.

“Cap, they want you back at Shield,” He informed them, gently touching Katie’s shoulder. “You too Nova.”

“Alright, give us a second,” Steve nodded dismissing Rumlow, perhaps a little more harshly than he intended, as he turned back to Natasha but Rumlow was insistent

“They want you now,”

“Alright” Katie spoke firmly but calmly. Rumlow nodded and then moved back down the hallway.

“You’re a terrible liar.” Natasha shook her head at Steve with her trademark smirk that didn’t reach her eyes before she turned and left.

“What the hell is on that drive?” Katie asked Steve after a moment of silence.

“I don’t know, but it’s what Natasha was saving data to on our mission the other day.” He replied before he looked up staring very focused into a vending machine to his right, which was open as a janitor filled it up. He didn’t want to take the drive back to the Triskellion, just in case. He knew that something wasn’t quite right.

Katie caught his eye before glancing around the hallway that was mostly full of SHIELD agents, luckily they were all congregated on the other end.

“Do it.” She nodded, figuring out his intention to hide the item “I’ll distract them.”

Without another look back at him, she began to stride forwards towards Rumlow.

“Its almost four am.” she glanced at her watch. “What do they want us for Brock? We already told Sitwell what we know and I don’t work for SHIELD anymore, remember?”

Rumlow shrugged “Honestly, I don’t know Nova. I’m just under instructions to get you both back to base.”

At that point Steve reached them, but he wasn’t stopping. Taking Katie’s hand he nodded to the STRIKE leader

“Let’s go.”

“Yeah,” Rumlow fell into step with them, fixing his earpiece. “Strike! Move it out.”

Steve drove to the Triskellion, Katie’s car flanked by the Armoured SUVs as they sped through the streets of DC. Katie dozed off for ten minutes and Steve let her sleep, lost in his own thoughts. He had expected her to be called in alongside him, especially after she had been, along with him, the last people Fury had spoken to him before he died. But he wasn’t happy about it, he wanted her as far away from whatever the hell was going on as possible. Once they arrived he gently shook her awake and the two of them were given an hour or so to grab something to eat. Neither were hungry, but they forced down their sandwiches, Katie’s brain working in overdrive as she did so. Something was nagging at her, and she was trying to make the connections, figure it out, but her head simply kept replaying Fury getting shot over and over.

“Foxtrot is down, he’s unresponsive. I need EMTs.”

“Do you have a twenty on the shooter?”

She frowned.

“What is?” Steve asked, coffee in his hand as he sat back on one of the large chairs in one of the common rooms by the kitchen area.

“Before…when Kate…Agent thirteen, whatever the hell her name is called back to base…she said Fury was down and needed EMTs…”

She paused and Steve waited, knowing how her analytical brain worked. She had to follow threads, talk them over or write them out, letting them weave together as she did. A look of comprehension crossed her face as the threads connected.

“Sitwell…” She whispered.

“What about him?” Steve asked. “He was the one that replied, at least it sounded like him.” She bit her lip, but not in the seductive way that made his crotch twitch, the way she did when she was thinking “And he asked…do you have a twenty on the shooter.”

Steve frowned, not quite sure where this was going. “Okay…” “Well, how did he know Fury had been shot? How could anyone know he had been shot?”

Now he understood. He understood completely. Damned it she was clever. “They couldn’t.” He sat up and leaned towards her, his voice dropping. “Not unless they were there or Kate…whoever, told them.”

“And she didn’t. She just said he was down and unresponsive.” “Which means…” Steve began, but Katie finished for him. “Sitwell knew about the hit. Because he was in on it.”

The both looked at one another, their faces wearing similar looks of shock. Fury was right, SHIELD was compromised. But how far, they had no idea.

Before Steve had chance to say anything else, the door opened and Rumlow stepped in

“Secretary Pierce is ready now guys.” “Thanks.” Katie nodded, shooting Steve another glance as they both stood up.

“Not a word.” He mumbled as they got into the elevator “We say nothing, not until we figure out who we can trust.”

“If we can trust anyone.” She mumbled back.

*****

“Captain, why was Nick in your apartment last night?” Secretary Pierce looked at Steve as he sat on the couch next to Katie in the large office.

“I don’t know.” He answered in a soft voice.

“Did you know it was bugged?” Pierce pressed on.

“We did.” Katie nodded meeting the secretary’s eye. “Because Nick told us.”

“Did he tell you he was the one who bugged it?”

Steve took a breath and glanced at Katie, his expression stony but the two of them shared the understanding.

No, no he had not.

“I want you to see something.” Pierce continued, and gestured to a monitor just behind the couches we were sitting on. On the screen was a man tied down to a chair, he looked to be currently being interrogated. Katie didn’t recognise the man, but Steve did. It was Batroc, the lead merc from the hijacking of the Lemurian Star.

“Is that live?” Steve asked.

“Yeah, they picked him up last night in a not so safe house in Algiers.”

“Are you saying he’s a suspect?” Steve didn’t take his eyes off the screen “Assassination isn’t Batroc’s line.”

“It’s more complicated than that. Batroc was hired anonymously to hijack the Lemurian Star. He was contacted by email and paid by wire transfer, and then the money was run through seventeen fictitious accounts. The last going to a holding company that was registered to a Jacob Veech.” Pierce said handing Steve a folder.

“Am I supposed to know who that is?” Steve skimmed through the file offered to him in curiosity and confusion.

“Not likely. Veech died six years ago. His last address was 1435 Elmhurst Drive. When I first met Nick, his mother lived at 1437.”

“Wait,” Katie frowned as she gathered what Pierce was suggesting. “Are you saying Fury hired the pirates? Why?”

“The prevailing theory?” Pierce shrugged. “The hijacking was a cover for the acquisition and sale of classified intelligence. The sale went sour and that led to Nick’s death.”

“If you really knew Nick Fury you’d know that’s not true.” Steve replied strongly, and he believed it. Fury was a lot of things, but a traitor he was not.

Pierce nodded in agreement. “Why do you think we’re here talking?” He then got to his feet and began to walk towards the window. “See, I took a seat on the council not because I wanted to, but because Nick asked me to because we were both realists. We knew that despite all the diplomacy, and the hand shaking and the rhetoric, to build a really better world sometimes means having to tear the old one down. And that makes enemies.”

Steve didn’t like the way this was going. He looked at Katie and gestured for her to stand as he did. Pierce turned back around and looked at them both.

“Those people that call you dirty because you’ve got the guts to stick your hands in the mud and try to build something better. And the idea that those people could be happy today,” Pierce shoved his hands in his pockets. “Makes me really, really angry. Captain, you and Miss Stark were the last ones to see Nick Fury alive. I don’t think that’s an accident.” Pierce said matter-of-factly. “And I don’t think you do, either. So, I’m going to ask again was he there?”

“He told us not to trust anyone.” Steve said honestly.

Pierce made a humming sound. “I wonder, if that included him.”

There was a tense moment of silence before Steve spoke again. “I’m sorry. Those were his last words. Excuse us,” He turned to leave, picking up his shield that he sent down upon our arrival and attaching it to the harness on his back, before ushering Katie out of the room slightly ahead of him.

“Captain,” Pierce’s voice halted him mid step and he turned to look at him. “Someone murdered my friend. I’m going to find out why. Anyone who gets in my way is going to regret it.” Pierce’s voice rang out again, a pointed look in their direction.

Steve wasn’t a stupid man, and he knew that was a veiled threat. He took a deep breath, considering his response, before he decided appearing un-rattled was the best option.

“Understood.” He nodded, holding the door open for Katie to step through keeping himself between her and Pierce as he followed, anchoring his hand on her back to keep her moving.

“You should have lied.” She whispered.

“Huh?” “Back then, said we didn’t know why Fury was there. By telling him that he told us not to trust anyone he knows we know and that we’re hiding something.” Her tone was a little panicked and Steve simply took a deep breath.

“We need to get to the hospital and get that stick.” He looked at her, remaining adamant that whatever it was that was on there would hold the answers. He looked up and down the corridor before they stepped into the elevator.

“Operations Control” Steve spoke as the elevator scanned his face and Katie’s Guest ID.

“Confirmed”

Just as the doors were about to close, Rumlow stepped in with two other STRIKE agents.

“Keep all STRIKE personnel on site” He was saying. Both the agents nodded and voiced their acknowledgement of his order. “Forensics.”

“Confirmed.”

“Cap, Nova…” Rumlow nodded to them both.

“Rumlow.” Steve acknowledged him as the doors closed and they started to descend.

“Evidence Response found some fibres on the roof they want us to see.” Rumlow turned his head to look at Steve. “You want me to get the tac-team ready?”

“No, let’s wait and see what it is first.”

“Right.” Rumlow turned back and Steve looked out of the side of the elevator, pondering what his next move was. Chase down the man responsible? The drive? The elevator stopped at the next floor and Rollins plus a few more SHIELD and Strike agents entered, Steve moving over slightly to allow them in.

“What’s the status so far?” Rollins was saying.

“Administrations level” another one asked, before they continued whatever it was they were talking about, moving round to find a space behind Steve and Katie.

He noticed Katie look round, a frown on her face, but before he could say anything Rumlow spoke, looking over his shoulder at Steve.

“I’m sorry about what happened with Fury. Messed up, what happened to him”

“Thank you.” Steve nodded.

Katie could sense something was off. Years of training as an Agent didn’t just leave you when you quit, and those years of training had taught her very well to read body language. Rumlow was alert, too alert, and it was more than just a nervousness because Fury had been killed. There was an atmosphere in the lift, and she glanced at one of the agents that had joined them at the last floor. He was still talking, normally, but he there was a bead of sweat dripping down his cheek from his temple.

Steve could sense it too. He watched as Rumlow and Rollins exchanged a glance and looked down at Katie who was watching him, nervous expression on her face. He shook his head gently, instructing her to keep calm.

The elevator stopped and another agent entered.

“Records”

This one stood in front of them, facing the elevator doors and it was then with a slight air of exasperation at allowing it to happen, Steve realised they were surrounded. Whilst he wasn’t too concerned, he knew he could more than likely fight his way out, it was his girl he was bothered for. It had been months since she had been in active combat, and this was going to be brutal. Besides him Katie stiffened, feeling very underprepared for what was about to go down. She had no weapons, nothing. Instinctively Steve gripped her hand and pulled her forward so she was stood next to him instead of behind and moved his feet apart slightly, hands on the buckle of his belt, adopting his Captain stance, preparing for what was coming.

“Before we get started,” he sighed, looking down before he stared straight ahead, “does anyone want to get out?”

His eyes flicked to the back of Rumlow’s head. There was a moment’s pause before all hell broke loose. They both put up a good fight, ducking, diving, punching. Steve was then shocked with a baton, but he simply grit his teeth, absorbing the electricity into his body. It hurt, but it wasn’t unbearable. And then, three of them managed to snap one of his arms to the wall of the elevator using some kind of metallic clamp, before five of them piled on him at once, attempting to pin his other arm in too. He kicked out, taking down as many as he could.

Just as Katie had floored the second of the agents who had launched at her, she was grabbed from behind by her hair and hauled to the edge of the elevator, being wrestled roughly to the floor by Rumlow who was instantly on top of her, trying to get her wrists from where she had positioned them underneath her body in an attempt to stop them restraining her.

"Brock…” She spoke gently, looking at him as she swallowed. “What’s going on?” “I’m sorry Stark.” He shook his head. “Just following orders.”

“Yeah well follow this.” She snarled, the anger brewing in her as she jerked her head forwards as hard as she could, feeling it connect with his nose. He yelled, and then her head snapped painfully to the right as he back handed her straight across the face. She felt her lip split and the warm, metallic taste of blood hit her taste buds, stars flashing in front of her eyes as her ears began to ring from the harsh knock.

Steve saw Rumlow land the blow to Katie’s face and let out a growl of anger and aimed another kick at the final agent standing, causing them man to collide with the side of the elevator before slumping down. He turned, pulled on his arm as hard as he could, wrenching the cuff off the side of the elevator and looked up in time to see Katie, who was now pinned against the wall by another set of those damned cuffs, take a blow to the ribs from Rumlow causing her to cry out in pain.

“Rumlow!” Steve yelled causing the man to whip his head round, surprise on his face. Katie, using her arms as leverage, swung her legs upwards, kicking Rumlow with both feet. The STRIKE leader stumbled slightly as Steve snarled at him, his entire body and face alight with rage “Touch my girl again and I’ll fucking kill you.”

Rumlow got to his feet, holding one of his arms out, electric rod in his hand “Whoa, big guy. I just want you both to know, this ain’t personal.”

He then lunged at Steve with his electric rod but one on one Steve was easily able to defend himself, he moved to the right, dodged and grabbed Rumlow, throwing him harshly upwards where he crashed into the ceiling of the elevator, before falling to the floor, unconscious.

“Yeah well, it kind of feels personal” Steve said, his breath slightly ragged from the exertion. He used his foot to flip his shield over like a Frisbee, catching it perfectly.

“You alright?” Steve asked, stepping over the bodies that littered the floor of the elevator to get to Katie.

“Yeah.” She assured him. Steve cut the cuffs that were restraining her into two pieces with his shield and she bent over, his hands gently on her back as she rubbed at her side before straightening up and stalking over to where Rumlow was beginning to stir slightly. She kicked him hard in the face, causing him to flip backwards and he was out, unconscious.

“Nothing personal.” She spat, then looked up at Steve. There was a moment during which they both looked around, trying to make sense of what had happened, before the elevator doors opened and Steve pulled Katie sharply behind him. They both stared at a team of STRIKE agents pointing their weapons into the elevator. Steve raised his shield.

“Drop the shield! Put your hands in the air!”

Steve looked round, and spotted the elevator wires to the left of Katie’s head

“DUCK!” he yelled at her, and as she did, he swiped with his shield over her head sending them plummeting. Eventually the emergency brake systems kicked in and the elevator stopped, slightly misaligned with the doors by a few feet. As Katie bent down to retrieve a gun and some ammo off one of the Agents, Steve forced the door open, intending to climb out but more STRIKE agents were approaching. He closed the door again and looked at Katie, then around the glass walls, looking down below us at the glass roof of the main Triskelion atrium.

It was a long way but they could make it.

“You’re fucking kidding, right?” Katie exclaimed, realising exactly what he was thinking.

“Give it up, Rogers! Get that door open! You have nowhere to go!” came the yell from the floor outside the elevator door.

“Do you trust me?” Steve asked, both his hands cupping Katie’s face.

“Of course I do, but…”

“Then hang on…”

She sighed and jumped onto his back, swinging her legs round his waist and her arms round his neck. Steve raised his shield in front of him, before he propelled them forward and broke through the glass in the elevator, spreading his arms out wide as he fell to prevent them from tumbling through the air before tucking his body as tightly in to his shield as he could. Katie did the same, burying her head into his back as they crashed through the glass ceiling and hit the floor with a loud clang, to screams and shouts from people all around the atrium.

Katie gave a soft groan, rolling off Steve who moaned and stretched out, having been winded from the impact. But Steve knew they had to keep moving. With a monumental effort, he pushed himself up onto his knees, took a deep breath and offered his hand to Katie to help her stand. They both took a quick glance around before he started to run, pulling her with him. She stumbled slightly, but Steve kept hold of her, not letting her fall until her legs seemed to be working again.

And then they ran.

**** Chapter 15

**Original Posting**

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

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katrinawritesthings · 3 years ago

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Jonghyun / Taemin; bridging parallels ; nc17

jonghyun and taemin live in the apartments across from each other and jonghyun has been watching taemin climb out of his window and sneak out of the house several times a week for years ever since they were both in high school

for summer of shinee 2021 : )

Him and Taemin text still. Not often, and when they do, it's never really a full conversation. Mostly just memes shared at 2 in the morning, small talk, happy birthdays. Look at that dog texted fervently at 7 p.m. On a Thursday dragging one of them at light speed to their window to obey. Taemin makes his way into one of Jonghyun's articles again, this time a little spotlight of his work as a choreographer for an entire show.

Jonghyun has known Taemin since they were kids. Apartment neighbors, kind of. Jonghyun is 408, Taemin is 718. The way the apartments are set up, Jonghyun can sit at his bedroom window, look outside, and see Taemin's bedroom window across the way and one floor down. They go to elementary school together, then middle school, and then high school. They have one or two classes together over the years. None of that really matters because they never really talk.

What was the homework texted here, our mutual friend both invited us to the same party there, look at that dog shouted into the space between their windows at 7 p.m. On a Thursday one time in 8th grade. Whatever.

Even when Taemin starts sneaking out at night, the summer after sophomore year, 15 years old, it doesn't magically make them have a speaking relationship. All it does is distract Jonghyun as he's sitting at his window sill, scented candle lit, summer reading program report under his hands. Distracts him and makes him drop his pencil four floors into the bushes that line the building.

He doesn't watch it long enough to see it hit the ground. He's far too interested in watching whatever the fuck Taemin thinks he's doing. He's clambering out of his window, his third-story window, nothing but a concrete drop below him, and then he's actually climbing up, up the wall, up the building, up three floors until he's hauling himself up onto the roof.

When Taemin makes it up there, he rolls out of view over the ledge, but then his head pops back over. He looks all the way down, and even from far away, Jonghyun can see the huge smile spread over his face. His hands slap excitedly on the ledge before he stands up, turns, and disappears again as he jogs away, the high kick of his ankle behind him as he stumbles a step the last thing that Jonghyun sees of him.

Until he sees him sneaking out again the next night.

It doesn't become a nightly thing, but it is still regular enough that, every night when he's at his window sill with a candle and some writing, he’ll glance up at any movement he sees across the way just in case. It doesn't stop when school starts back up again, either. Sometimes Jonghyun will watch Taemin clamber out of his window, up the building, and disappear on the roof one night and then watch him sleeping on the bus the next morning, wondering how many hours he actually got. Sometimes he'll be up late enough to watch Taemin sneak back in, a descent three floors down from the roof that stops Jonghyun's heart every time.

School goes on. Jonghyun takes storytelling electives; music, ceramics, creative writing, art. He reads comic books, watches anime, looks up walkthroughs of video games that he can't play himself. He gets detention one time for being late and a kid sitting next to him offers him some weed, which he tries but doesn't really like, but that kid helps him through some spontaneous crying a few weeks later so they become pretty close and he winds up being the designated driver to a bunch of stoners. His dad moves out, his sister moves out, his sister moves back in. He picks up a part-time job at a music store during his senior year to help with the bills.

He sees Taemin around every now and again. They have ceramics together, for one. Taemin sits at another table with his own group of friends, but he smiles and says hey to Jonghyun when they wind up in the glazing room together. He comes into Jonghyun's job sometimes, looking over new album releases and buying everything a particular band puts out.

Jonghyun sees Taemin dancing during school pep rallies, assemblies, during rehearsals and the big night for a talent show they're both in where Jonghyun almost cries on stage because he's so nervous to be playing one of his own self written songs in front of people. He cries backstage instead and they still don't talk, but Taemin offers him a quick hug as they pass, hand rubbing over his back, and then he's gone before Jonghyun even really realized he was there in the first place. Later that night, Taemin sneaks out and then back in again within an hour.

And that night is also the first night that Taemin notices Jonghyun watching him. It’s just as he’s putting his hands on his windowsill to hoist himself up that he hesitates and, for a reason that Jonghyun can't come up with, looks directly across the way at Jonghyun.

He jumps when he sees Jonghyun, like he's startled; Jonghyun waves, a little confused, a little amused. Taemin looks down, covering what has to be an embarrassed smile with his hand.then Taemin looks up, waves back, and clambers out of his window and up the wall like usual. After he reaches the top, he peeks his head over the edge for the first time since that first night. Jonghyun leans just a little bit out of his window to smile and wave again. Even with all of the distance between them, Jonghyun can see the flash of his smile as Taemin taps two fingers to his temple and flicks them off in a salute.

From that night on, everytime that Taemin sneaks out, they wave at each other.

They graduate; Jonghyun with okay grades and Taemin with probably the same. Jonghyun doesn't go to college or anything. He upgrades his job at the music store to full time and does some freelance work online writing articles about art events and festivals in the area while he tries to work on his own stories in his free time. Taemin doesn't leave town either, because he still climbs out of his window and disappears over the roof on a regular basis. It's not until Taemin comes into the music store one time to buy a new CD and Jonghyun recognizes the logo on his hoodie as belonging to the local dance theater that he figures out what Taemin has been up to lately.

And it's not until they happen to both wind up in the little corner store down the street from their apartment complex at the same time that they have their first real conversation.

Jonghyun is there because he wanted snacks and his sister wanted snacks and he lost the rock paper scissors to decide who would go out and get some. Taemin is apparently there to buy some booze because he's standing in front of all of the refrigerators and contemplating the selection when Jonghyun opens one next to him to grab a couple bottles of soda.

"Oh, sorry," Taemin says, glancing at him and stepping a little bit away, and then, brighter, "oh, hey Jonghyun."

"Hey," Jonghyun says back, pleasantly surprised to recognize him. "Party?" he asks, nodding at all of the liquor. Taemin shakes his head, tells Jonghyun that he's just looking for something fun and fruity to enjoy by himself in his room sometimes. For self-care, he says. Jonghyun tells him he gets that and taps the glass in front of one of his favorite fruity boozy drinks in recommendation. Taemin shrugs and takes his word, opening the refrigerator and pulling out the bottle without even really looking at the label or anything on it. Then, after a moment's hesitation, asks, "how old are you again?"

"20," Jonghyun tells him, smiling a little sheepishly. "Maybe I ask my sister to buy me alcohol. Don't tell anyone."

And Taemin's response to that is a snort, a broad grin, and a hand slipping into his back pocket and pulling out his wallet. "As long as you don't tell anyone about this," he says as he pulls out his ID card from its clear plastic flap, slots it in with all his other cards, pulls out a different ID card, and puts that in the flap.

The blunt casualness of that whole exchange surprises a laugh out of Jonghyun, one that sounds loud in the quiet little store. He doesn't try to stifle it; has never really tried to stifle his laughter. Still chuckling, he offers up his pinky to Taemin to promise. Taemin looks at him, looks at his pinky, covers his mouth and nose with the back of his hand for a moment, then links their pinkies together.

Taemin buys his alcohol and leaves the store before Jonghyun finishes picking up all of his snacks, but he sees Taemin ahead on the sidewalk on the way back and jogs to catch up with him.

"Don't go climbing out of your window after you drink any of that," he says, worried halfway through the sentence that maybe he's overstepping but finishing anyway. Taemin does that thing again, where he looks down and rubs his nose, and is the first one to offer up his pinky this time.

Taemin picks up a fashion for denim-on-denim, leather, spikes. Dark clothes, baggy hoodies, lots of rings. Beanies, worn-out shoes. Jonghyun attaches himself to big comfy sweaters, turtlenecks, bracelets cinching over the sleeves. Ripped jeans, snapbacks, boots. Taemin lets his hair grow out until it fans out around his face, soft and wavy, then cuts it short into a choppy bowl cut and a crisp undercut. Jonghyun tries out an undercut too, finds he likes it, experiments with dying his hair every couple of months. Taemin has some new piercings–shark bites, cheek studs, spikes through his ears. Jonghyun has some new tattoos–words on his arms, permanent bracelets around his wrists, planets on his side, a starscape on his back.

Jonghyun starts teaching guitar lessons at the music store to kids on the weekends. His mom gets promoted at her job. They stop struggling as much, settle into something almost resembling financial security. He keeps freelancing and in one of his articles he writes about a culture show the dance theater is putting on. In the picture that runs with the article, Taemin is standing on the end, smiling with his arm around a fellow dancer, doing a victory sign for the camera.

There's a queer club down the street from the music store that Jonghyun goes to sometimes. He makes new friends, has a couple of casual hookups, has a cute girlfriend for a while but things don't really work out. It's fine between them after. Taemin almost has a cute date friend one time, but that doesn't work out either. Jonghyun knows this because he watches the whole thing happen from his window sill.

He's there, writing notebook under his hands, scented candle next to his elbow, just like every night, and Taemin is suddenly there on the roof. Except, for once, he's not alone. Someone else is with him. A little taller, thick dark hair spilling out of a pulled up hoodie, and that's about all Jonghyun can see of them. The pair of them sit down on the ledge, feet dangling over nothing, close enough that their shoulders almost brush every so often.

Jonghyun doesn't mean to snoop, or eavesdrop, or anything. Taemin's love life is his own business. It's interesting, yeah, to watch them stargazing and talking together, but Jonghyun really is only glancing up at them every couple of minutes to distract his brain a little bit so he can focus on his writing without getting distracted a lot by something else. And it just so happens, that during one of those glances, Taemin tries to make his move.

It's not much of a move; a purposeful bump of their shoulders, a rub of his nose with the back of his hand, something said to make them look at him directly. More quiet words, a leaning in–not all the way, but enough to be clear–a tilt of his head like he's asking a question, and then.

And then. The other person leaning back, shaking their head, covering their mouth with both hands. Quickly they reach for Taemin's hand, holding it tight as they speak earnestly, as Taemin nods up and down and tugs his hair at the back of his head where they can't see.

They sit together for a little while longer after that, but a barely perceptible distance apart now, enough space that they don't accidentally bump shoulders anymore. Then the other person stands up, starts to walk away. Taemin turns and takes their hand, carefully, asks them something that they nod in agreement to. Taemin drops their hand, flops his own hands into his lap. The other person walks away, and then a minute later, Taemin falls back, sprawls himself out over the roof until all Jonghyun can see are his legs still dangling. They kick in the air for a few seconds before flopping limply back down in defeat.

Jonghyun looks back to his writing with a shake of his head. Poor baby.

He doesn't see Taemin sneak out for a couple of weeks after that. Then, another night, another candle, another page of writing, he glances up and finds Taemin sitting at his window, arms crossed on the windowsill, face nestled in his elbow, cheek smushed up as he pouts out at nothing. Jonghyun can't help it; he smiles at the image.

"Hey sorry about your heartbreak dude" is what he texts to Taemin once he finds his number buried in all of his contacts, an entry probably put in during high school for some project that neither of them remember. And then he just watches, waits, until Taemin leans away from his window. A moment later, Taemin returns, and this time he's holding his phone and looking up at Jonghyun. Jonghyun waves with an apologetic little shrug.

"Damn you saw that??? " Taemin texts back. Jonghyun replies that he did indeed see it and offers more condolences. Taemin's sigh is audible to Jonghyun even from so far away, but he replies anyway. They talk about nothing, really; Taemin asks what Jonghyun is always writing about and Jonghyun tells him. His book that he's been working on for a while. The one where he wanted to write a love story but wound up accidentally writing a breakup scene in the first chapter and then just went with it. Taemin seems to take some comfort in hearing about a failed romance.

The night after that, Taemin climbs out of his window again.

Jonghyun's manager gets fired for tax evasion or some bullshit and suddenly he finds himself as the manager instead. Not because he's super qualified for the job, but because he's worked there for the longest, almost 11 years, and the rest of the employees are mostly part-time high school kids. All of a sudden he has all of these duties and responsibilities that he doesn't know what to do with, on top of dealing with the mess that his old boss left him with. The first thing he does is give himself and all of the employees a raise, which at first gets him a serious reprimand from upper management of the store chain, but he doesn't give a shit and the next month he gets praised for reducing customer service complaints and boosting product sales.

One night Taemin comes into the music store to buy a new album from his favorite band a couple weeks later than Jonghyun was expecting him to. Usually he shows up on day one; when Jonghyun mentions that to him, he rubs his nose with the back of his hand and shrugs, mumbling something about a giveaway online and shipping problems. Jonghyun chuckles at that, mentions that the cardboard stand that they have in the store to promote the album is free for him to take, if he wants it. He's the manager. He can do that now.

Taemin's eyes widen behind his bangs, his teeth flash in a huge smile. He thanks Jonghyun emphatically, grabs the stand, and walks out with it, holding it in front of him as he goes and biting his lip.

Jonghyun finds himself thinking about that later in bed. Taemin’s teeth biting into his bottom lip. Digging into soft, plush pink. He looked different today. Something about his face, his nose. A nose job, Jonghyun guesses, something to change the tip of his nose from a cute soft hook to a cute round end. He dropped his shark bite piercings at some point and replaced them with studs. two silver squares on each side of his bottom lip, matching the ones that dimple his cheeks, the sets that outline the tips of his eyebrows. Matching the ones lined up below his collar bones. Jonghyun could see those in the dip of his v-neck.

The piercings won't leave his mind as he tries to fall asleep. Heavy silver, bold, striking, a statement of toughness outlining his delicate features. Jonghyun wonders how they feel, if he ran his fingers over them would they be cold or would they have absorbed Taemin’s body heat. He makes the mistake of wondering if Taemin has matching studs on his hips and realizes with a start that he's running his fingers over his own lips, imagining how it would feel if he were to drag his mouth over them.

Face hot, lips tingling, Jonghyun rolls over in bed and tries to think of anything else.

It works. For a little bit. Until the next day when he waves at Taemin as he heads out for the night. Then he's thinking about them again. Then he's thinking about what kind of noises Taemin would make if Jonghyun kissed his piercings. About how much deeper, huskier Taemin's voice sounded in the store. It had to have been that deep the last time they talked, the last time Taemin came in to buy an album, but–if it was, Jonghyun doesn't remember noticing or caring as much as he does now.

This new realization has him trying with all his heart to think about himself, what it means that he's gone his whole life without knowing that he had a thing for piercings, what it means if it's not the piercings and it's just Taemin, what it means if he suddenly starts lusting over the boy next door.

This lasts for about two more days until he gets tired of it and decides to just do something about it.

So the next time he catches Taemin about to climb out of his window a little bit after midnight, he waves frantically to get his attention. Taemin stops, looks at him, smiles, waves back. Jonghyun beckons towards him, trying to communicate that he wants him to come over without shouting. Taemin points at himself then over up at Jonghyun, tilting his head; Jonghyun nods eagerly, beckoning again. Without a moment of hesitation this time, Taemin nods and holds up one finger.

He climbs up his building, and then instead of disappearing away from Jonghyun, he walks along the edge. Jonghyun leans a little bit out of his window to watch him all the way down to where the parallel lines of their apartment buildings turn into a U for him to cross, until he gets too close to Jonghyun's side to see anymore. Then, a minute later, there's a crunch of shoe against brick outside his window. He moves his tealight candle out of the way and Taemin slips into his room feet first.

"Hey," he says. "What's up? Can I smell?"

A finger with chipped black nail polish touches next to Jonghyun's tiny candle. He has studs on the backs of his wrists too. Jonghyun lets him smell with a warning to be careful not to spill it, and then tries to figure out a way to say what he wants to say tactfully. He didn't think this part through. It's not really his style to come up with detailed plans, just to try things out and see if they work. Finally, after a bunch of starts and stops, half asked questions, an exasperated sigh, he just says, "do you want to make out?"

And in the silence after the question, in the dim light of his desk lamp, Taemin's tongue wets his lips.

"Sure," he says.

Nice.

Sure turns into Taemin in Jonghyun's lap, turns into Jonghyun gliding his thumb over the studs under Taemin's lip, turns into Taemin cupping his face and pressing their mouths together. Kissing turns into Jonghyun's hands sliding up under his shirt, turns into Taemin groaning the hottest noise Jonghyun has ever heard into his mouth, turns into him standing with his sweater half way over his head frantically whispering to Taemin that his bed is too squeaky and his family is trying to sleep.

He takes Taemin to the floor, sits on his hips and grinds down while Taemin fumbles with his own belt buckle, hands bumping Jonghyun's cock through his pajama pants. Jonghyun hadn't meant for this to happen, wasn't planning on fucking Taemin, but he doesn't want to stop.Taemin doesn't either, says god no when Jonghyun asks and that's enough of a reason to Jonghyun to keep going. He's pushing Taemin's shirt up while Taemin is trying to reach up onto his bed for a pillow, and it's rushed and it's messy, but Jonghyun discovers that Taemin not only has studs along the V of his but also one over his belly button, bars through his nipples, and, best of all, when he pulls Taemin's pants down, four of us small silver balls like an X around the head of his cock.

Lube from his desk, three fingers deep into his own ass, thumb tracing over every piercing on Taemin's hips, so hard it hurts, almost delirious with want, Jonghyun barely hears Taemin when he says, "I've always thought you were cute."

The piercings in his collar bones glint in the light, his skin glistens with summer sweat, the sharp angle of his jawline, the shadow of his adam's apple bobbing in his throat, the raw edge on his voice as he says, "I've always liked you, ever since we were kids, I've always–I don't know when it turned into a crush, but I–god that feels so good. Oh my fucking god." Halfway down Taemin's cock, Taemin grabs Jonghyun's hips and pulls him down all the way, knocks the breath from his lungs. "Jonghyun," he says, "more."

Jonghyun gives him more until he can't anymore, until his thighs are burning and his arms are trembling. Taemin removes the effort for him by turning them around until he's on his back. Taemin fucks him like that, tries to kiss him more but quickly gives up and buries his face in Jonghyun's neck instead. With "you're perfect, you're perfect, you're so fucking perfect, " breathed under his ear, Jonghyun hooks his leg around Taemin's back, pulls him in harder, faster, whispers his own pleads back, begs Taemin to bite him, bite his neck.

Taemin bites him, hard, and that's how he comes, body frozen underneath him until he goes all the way limp, only barely registering in some faraway part of his brain Taemin's choked breaths and the warmth pooling inside of him. He's weak, hazy, loopy, giggling, and Taemin's gentle hands are on him again, picking him up, putting him on his knees, and Jonghyun is glad to obey, glad to do whatever the fuck when he's this blissed-out.

Quiet curses as hands smooth over his back, the softest "oh, wow," whispered as fingers trace his constellations, and then the deepest groan as Taemin's tongue touches his skin. Jonghyun's eyes fly open, his voice rises three octaves, he slaps both hands over his mouth to stifle the noises he's making, noises he’s never made before in his life. The moment that he realizes that Taemin has a tongue stud is the moment that everything goes white, and then the next moment, everything goes dark.

The next morning he wakes up alone, in his bed, pajama pants back on, candle burned all the way down to nothing, window closed. He's not angry, or hurt, but he is a little grumpy all day long until he walks up to the entrance of the apartment complex after work and Taemin is sitting on one of the big potted plants outside the door.

He stands up when Jonghyun gets close to him, presses a large jar candle of the scent from last night into his hands, and, blinking a mile a minute, blurts out, "hey, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for last night when I told you I was in love with you and then fucked you and then panicked and left," to which Jonghyun, baffled, wracking his memory, replies, "did you tell me you're in love with me?"

Which kicks Taemin's blinking into overdrive, starts up a long, stammering babble that Jonghyun can confidently say he understands about 20% of. After a minute he realizes that Taemin isn't going to stop, so he interrupts him by asking, "Taemin, do you want to go on a date?"

A few days later, they share a mountain of fries on an outside table at some burger joint. Taemin, embarrassed, reading notes from his phone, admits that he's had a crush on Jonghyun for what feels like forever but was always too shy and infatuated to make a move. Jonghyun, embarrassed, scratching the back of his head, admits that he just got suddenly horny for the piercings one day and was a little too impulsive in making his move. Both of them, laughing, agree that it would probably be nice to work towards a middle ground together.

And it is.

#jonghyun #taemin #jongtae #fluff #nc17 #oneshot #this is equal parts dbsk love line and also Justin McElroy talking about geocaching #and also me making myself blush thinking about Taemin with all of those piercings #I started a sequel but I'm never going to get around to finishing it lamo but that's what Taemin is doing whenever he sneaks out he's #geocaching #sometimes he's doing cool skater boy stuff and the drugs but mostly it's geocaching #accidentally gave myself a new writing style with this one #Slow Burn but it's fast forwarded and also from the POV of the one that isn't in love the entire time #i don't remember what i was trying to do #I was trying to get past the childhood stuff quickly but then I kind of just carried that throughout the entire thing #and i really like it #ydw

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awkward-radar-tech · 5 years ago

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Kylo Ren, The Rising Star

Summary: You are Kylo Ren’s personal assistant. The rising star doesn’t know how to cope with his sudden popularity. You let him take sanctuary in your apartment, and help him return to who he was before, Ben Solo.

A/N: I’m stating this now, no romantic relationship blooms in this. But, the seeds are planted. And I will write more where the relationship does grow, if requested.

Prompt, from an anon: But I got an idea, how about worn out actor Kylo Ren aka Ben Solo has been doing to much lately he doesn't even know what time zone he's in sometimes. Reader is average Joe lucky enough to be his PA in his new film. With the stress of everything and fans following him everywhere Ben hides out at your house, were he sleeps all day in your bed and you feed him lots of food, cos you like to cook?

Chapter 2

🌟🌟🌟

You didn’t know what you were getting into when you applied to be an assistant for a local movie shoot. But being the new personal assistant to the biggest rising star was not it at all. And you weren’t always local like you expected. Being Kylo Ren’s PA meant you had to go with him on his other press tours during breaks in shooting. Caffeinated anything had become your friend, and today was one where you were dependant. You had jumped across every American time zone in a day and a half, and now you had crossed the Atlantic, only to turn around in twelve hours and fly home.

You checked your watch and went to knock on Kylo’s dressing room door, “Twenty minutes until you’re on, sir. Do you need anything else?”

He opened the door, still in the t shirt and jeans he wore on the plane, “I just have one question, where are we?”

You looked at him, concerned, “We are in London, sir. You’re doing an interview for ‘the rom-com’ right now. Your suit should be hanging up for you.”

He yawned, “I told you to call me Kylo, not sir. And it is there. Could you step in real quick?”

You nodded and waited for him to step aside, following him inside, “Sorry, Kylo. So used to using sir. Now, what do you need?”

He closed the door and sat on the couch, “First, no need to apologize. Second, can I have a caffeine pill?”

You pulled out a packet from your bag and handed it to him, “You can hold onto these. But, uhh, Kylo, you didn’t need to ask me in here for that. Nobody cares how you stay awake.”

He hummed, “Thank you, (y/n),” he quickly took a pill, “and that isn’t why I asked you in here. I have an unconventional request, that nobody can know about.”

“Yes?”

“This movie, people are going crazy over it. They have surrounded my building at home, waiting for my return apparently. It is exhausting having to go through all these people, some have even found ways inside my building and to my door. I need a break. Could I stay at your place? I’ll sleep on the couch.”

“Kylo, sir, I live in a run down apartment. You wouldn’t want to stay there. And my couch is only a bit longer than this one, you wouldn't sleep very well."

"I'd much rather stay there than possibly anger fans. Please, think about it."

You gave him a pointed look and checked your watch, “Fifteen minutes, Kylo. Now get changed.”

You left the room, closing the door. Kylo was, but also wasn’t, your boss, and he was asking to stay at your place? He had bodyguards, couldn’t they tell the fans to leave? No, he cared too much about his fans’ feelings to have them told to leave. Maybe you would let him stay. Once back he was off for a week, so he wouldn’t have to leave. It would be fun to hang out with somebody for once, even if it was the person you worked for.

The interview went well, and before long you were being taken to a hotel for the night.

You followed Kylo outside to the car and he looked at you once inside, “Woah… It is already night?”

You nodded, “Yeah, it is almost eight. I think we are here for like ten hours then we head home to rest for a week.”

As you pulled up at the hotel, there were clearly a bunch of fans waiting for him, and you heard a muttered “shit.”

You looked at him, “When we get home, you can stay at my place, okay?”

He smiled wide for once in his life, “Thank you, so much, (y/n). I’ll give you a bonus.”

You shook your head, “We’ll talk about it later. I don’t want any extra money. Think of it as a kind gesture from a friend.”

The door was opened and Kylo was escorted into the building. You stayed in until the car parked before grabbing your own stuff and going up to your room; there were shrieks from girls, obviously he decided to stop and talk. You went up to your room and got ready for a bit of sleep.

As you washed your face you heard your phone ringing in the other room. When you went out to check it, you read it was Kylo calling, so quickly answered it.

“How can I help you, Kylo?”

“What time do I have to be ready by? Need to set my alarm.”

“Six. Hopefully the crazies won’t be awake then.”

He groaned, “Hopefully. Thank you. Goodnight, (y/n).”

“Goodnight, Kylo. Text me in the morning so I know you’re awake please.”

He hummed in acknowledgement and hung up.

In the morning he clearly hadn’t slept much, or well, he was a living zombie in a somehow oversized sweatshirt, clutching to a cup of coffee.

He looked at you in the hallway, “Oh, I forgot to ask if you wanted a cup. Security brought it up to me. They said everybody left at like 2 am, so the coast is clear.”

You gave him a warm smile, “It is alright, Kylo. I’m fine. Let’s head down to the car then.”

You thankfully got to the airport and onto the plane without incident, people have better things to do between 6 and 7 am on a Tuesday apparently. Landing back in Los Angeles was a different story, people don’t care that it is noon on a Tuesday.

Kylo still looked exhausted, and you hoped nobody followed you. As the car pulled up to the studio you knew you would be safe. You showed Kylo to your car and got in to drive to your apartment.

He looked at you as you pulled out of your spot, “Hey, thank you so much. I appreciate it, more than you might think.”

You nodded, “You’re welcome, Kylo. Do you want to listen to some music?”

“Sure. Listen to what you normally do.”

You turned on your radio, the bluetooth connecting and automatically playing your playlist. You tapped along to the songs on your steering wheel as you drove. After twenty minutes you pulled up to your run down building and parked in your spot.

You turned to Kylo, “No crazy fans it seems. That is good.”

He hummed, “Yeah. But there are still people around that could recognize me.”

“If they ask if you’re Kylo Ren just tell them no and give a fake name. I don’t talk with my neighbors so they don’t know what I do. And none of my friends know who I work for.”

He nodded and prepared himself to step out. He messed up his hair so it wasn’t as perfect as his normal style, put on the hood of his sweatshirt and stepped out, slinging his duffle bag over his shoulder.

You stepped out and got your bag from your trunk. You looked over at him awkwardly looming next to the car, “Let’s go, sir.”

He followed you like a lost puppy, and then you heard the voice of your annoying neighbor from the floor below yours, “Hey, 32! Is that Kylo Ren?”

You turned to her voice, “No. This is my friend.”

She acted like you were lying, “You sure?”

He stepped in, “Uh, yeah. I’m Ben. But I get that a lot. It is a bit tiresome.”

You tried to pull him away and walk inside, but she wouldn’t relent, why did she have to be out? And why did she care? She has always been vocal about despising everything about Hollywood, especially celebrities.

“Do you have ID to prove it?”

Kylo stopped and you turned, “Ben, don’t pay her any mind, let’s go get some lunch.”

He didn’t move when you pulled, “No, she wants proof I’m not stupid Kylo Ren, I’ll prove it,” he pulled out his ID and showed it to her, “See? Benjamin Solo. Now, can me and my friend go have some lunch? I’m rather hungry and I have a short fuse when I haven’t eaten.”

She just walked away after reading his ID. He looked to you and you just walked in, taking the elevator up and getting him in your apartment.

You threw down your bag as soon as you closed your door, “I’m so damn sorry Kylo. She is so annoying, and thinks she can know anything she wants. She isn’t even on this floor, she is in 21. But, uhh? You aren’t really Kylo Ren?”

He sat on your couch, “Well, I am now. I legally changed my name last year when people started recognizing me, but I still have my old ID, which I had just renewed a few months before I changed my name.”

You nodded, not wanting to pry further, "Alright then. Can I get you anything to drink?"

"Can I get some water please?"

You went and dropped your stuff in your room then got him a glass of water.

You sat on the floor after you gave him the cup, "TV? Food?"

"Watch whatever you want, (y/n)."

You turned on Netflix and turned on the show you were currently binging, then your belly grumbled, “I’m going to go fix some lunch, any requests?”

He looked at you hopefully, “Tacos?”

You thought for a moment and nodded, “Yes, I have everything to make tacos.”

You left the show on, you could rewatch the episode later, and went in to cook. You cooked some carne asada you had prepared for this week, some rice and beans, then prepared all the toppings you needed. Assembling Kylo's tacos were easy, he liked his tacos almost plain, just meat on the tortilla with some fresh pico de gallo. When everything was finished you fixed each of you a plate of your preferred tacos with some rice and beans then brought the plates to the living room.

"Here you go, Kylo. Just as you like it."

He took the offered plate and began to eat, "Did you make all of this right now? This is amazing."

You nodded, "I did most of it. I had the carne asada marinating to fix this week, and the salsa I just made. The beans and rice are pre-packaged, but I try to make them myself too, when I have the time. And the tortillas I buy fresh from a neighbor."

He hummed, "Well this is all delicious. Thank you so much."

You smiled and ate your meal. When you finished you took your plate into wash along with all the items you cooked with once you stored the leftover food.

After a moment Kylo sheepishly walked in with his plate, "Excuse me, (y/n)? Is there anymore?"

You turned to look at him, "Yeah! I just put it away in the fridge. Help yourself."

Kylo took out the containers and fixed himself more tacos, then stood at the counter to eat them while talking with you. "Where did you learn to cook like that?"

"Mostly self taught. I had to learn how to stretch my food budget when I moved out. Cooking from bulk purchases helps. So I had to learn how to use the same ingredients in as many ways as possible so I wouldn't get bored."

He handed you his now empty plate, "Can you be my personal chef and my PA?"

You laughed, "You don't want to see me 24/7 Kylo."

He walked out of the kitchen, "Maybe I do."

You just shook your head and finished washing everything. When you walked back into your living room, Kylo was passed out on your couch. He looked so uncomfortable, he was almost bigger than the old thing. You went to your room, changed all your bedding, then hid all the embarrassing things you had out.

You gently woke up Kylo once you finished, "Hey, go sleep in my bed. It is a lot more comfortable than this small thing."

He groaned and stretched, voice heavy with sleep, "No. That is your bed. You sleep in it. I'm fine here."

You crossed your arms, "No. Kylo. You are sleeping in my bed. I don't need to sleep right now anyways. You do. You've been working so hard recently. Go sleep in a damn bed."

He stood up and pat your head, clearly still mostly asleep, "Whatever you say, my dear. Goodnight."

Your cheeks burned and you just shook your head as you watched him shuffle into your room and unceremoniously flop face first onto your bed, snoring within moments. You went and shut the door most of the way, but first you placed his bags in plain sight in case he woke up and wanted to change out of his jeans.

You worked around your apartment, not letting the fact you had an unplanned guest keep you from your planned chores. You swept and dusted, set your bedding on to wash, the one nice thing about this apartment, you had a washer and dryer in your unit. While the wash was on you sat down and restarted your show and went through your social media. One of your friends shared a tabloid article theorizing that Kylo Ren is in a secret relationship since he has yet to return home after landing earlier today and has spent a lot less time interacting with fans these past few months.

You mumbled to yourself, “He’s staying away from you pricks. You’ve exhausted the poor man.”

You continued perusing, finding nothing else of interest, then paused your show before moving everything to the dryer. You continued watching until it was time to make dinner, pasta is what you had planned for tonight, so you doubled everything to have enough for Kylo.

As you were cooking you heard Kylo enter the kitchen, “Good evening, sleeping beauty. Are you hungry?”

Kylo was still a bit groggy, but rapidly waking up, “Yeah. The smells woke me up. What are you making?”

He sat at your kitchen table and you brought him a glass of orange juice, his favorite, “Pasta. Specifically homemade cheese tortellini with meat sauce. And garlic bread.”

He took a sip and hummed, “You make pasta?”

You nodded, “Only filled pasta, it is cheaper that way. And I made the sauce and garlic bread. Including the bread. But I freeze a lot of stuff so I didn’t actually make any of it tonight.”

He held up his glass, “And this juice?”

You laughed, “That is store bought. I can’t make it as well.”

“You’re lying. I’m sure you can.”

You hummed, “Yeah. I can. But only when oranges are in season.”

You turned back and began to stir the sauce and added the pasta to the now boiling water. You pulled out the garlic bread and shut off the flame for the sauce. After a few minutes you drained the pasta and added a bit of the water to the sauce, then added most of the sauce to the drained pasta.

"Alright, food is ready Kylo. Come help yourself."

"It smells amazing."

You handed him a plate and he served himself then sat back at the table. You followed suit and served yourself, then sat across from him.

You shared pleasant conversation, taking turns asking about the other's life. While you worked for him, and were around him more often than not, neither of you knew much about the other, but this time together would change that.

When he finished he looked up and smiled at you, "Now for a more personal question, if you want to answer it. Are you dating anyone?"

You smiled back and chuckled, "So asking about my parents and childhood isn't personal, but asking if I'm dating is?" You paused to take a sip, "No, Kylo. I'm not. Haven't dated in awhile. What about you then? There is a tabloid article out there theorizing you're in a secret relationship since you haven't come home yet and aren't interacting as much with fans."

He groaned and covered his face, "No. I'm not. Same as you, haven't in awhile." He rubbed his face and looked at you again, "And you know that tabloid is wrong. I'm here with you."

"But what about the fan interactions? Just the burn out?"

He nodded, "Yeah. I've really just wanted to go to bed recently, or get into work. They're great and all, but I don't want to be on at 7 am or 9 pm, especially if I just came from a different timezone."

"I can't even imagine. But you don't have to be on at all this week. Stay here for as much of that time as you want. Be Benjamin Solo again, if only for me."

His eyes lit up, "Yes. Call me Ben. Please. Only my mom and dad call me that anymore. I need to be Ben for a week. I'll order some plain clothes online to be delivered here too. I’m going to be Ben Solo again."

You nodded, "Okay, Ben. Let me clean up, and you can work on ordering everything you need. Then tell me when you're checking out and I'll fill out my address."

He stood up and grabbed both plates, "Let me help you please."

"Alright. You can help me Ben."

He grinned and had a tiny celebration, "Yes! Thank you."

He set to work filling up the sink with water, placing the plates and utensils in the sink, then turning to you, "Uhh, the leftovers need to be put away. Where are your containers?"

You moved to the right cabinet, "This one, Ben. But I'll put it away. You focus on washing."

He nodded, "Okay, (y/n)."

You put away the food and Ben grabbed each empty piece and cleaned it. Once the food was put away you sat up on your counter.

You looked to Ben, who was meticulously scrubbing the saucepan, "I had no problem cleaning up, Ky… I mean Ben. I do it all the time."

He turned to you, "I'm your unplanned guest. I want to do has much as possible to help and not throw off your schedule and routine. I'm sure you have one here too."

You looked away, feeling your cheeks warm a bit, "Well I do. But I'm fine doing it all myself."

He pointed a stern finger at you, but his face held a small smile, "No. I'm washing the dishes. Go relax. Put on a movie. Pour yourself some wine if you want, and have any. I'll be out in a bit."

You just nodded and listened, going to turn on some super cheesy rom-com your friend told you to watch. After a while you heard the sink draining and footsteps coming back out.

Ben plopped down on the couch right next to you and outstretched his arms across the back, then groaned, "Really, (y/n)? You like rom-coms too?"

You paused it, "Shit, sorry. Wasn't thinking. I just think that they are funny, especially the real cheesy ones. And one can dream about randomly falling in love with a stranger. But I'll change it to something else."

Ben shook his head, "No, you can keep watching. I'll order those clothes."

You started playing the movie again and he pulled out his phone and wallet to find clothes with rush shipping. After twenty minutes he silently passed his phone to you and you typed in the address information then handed it back. Once the order was placed he put his phone away and again stretched his arms out. You didn't know if he was actually watching or just zoning out, but you were happy he didn't mind.

As the credits rolled, you let out a yawn, “Alright, time for bed for me,” you tapped his thigh, “That means it is time for you to move, Mr. Solo. You’re on my bed.”

He turned to you, “No. I’ll sleep here.”

You grabbed his arm and stood up, “Nope, this is not an option. You are sleeping in my bed,” you began to pull on his arm, “Now come on you big oaf. You are going to sleep in my bed, just like you did earlier.”

He stayed planted in his spot, chuckling, “You’re gonna have to pull harder than that. I’m almost all muscles.”

You pulled harder and then tried to pull both his hands, starting to laugh, “Come on Ben. Go sleep in my damn bed.”

He stood up suddenly and caught you before you fell back, “Fine. Just this once.”

You crossed your arms, “This will be the second time, Ben. You slept before dinner.”

He smirked and walked away, into your room, “That was Kylo Ren, thank you very much. Now, do you need anything from in here before I close the door?”

You ran in, “Yes!”

He chuckled and just sat on your bed, pulling out his pajamas from his duffle bag. You grabbed everything you needed and went out.

You paused in the doorway, turning to Ben before closing the door, “Goodnight, Ben. See you in the morning.”

“Goodnight, (y/n). Thank you again.”

You nodded and closed the door then went to change and grab your bedding from the dryer. After setting everything up you crawled into your cocoon of blankets and pillows on the couch and fell asleep.

You were awoken a couple hours later by the sound of whining and screams, coming from your room. You quickly got up and knocked on the door, “Ben? You okay in there, sir?”

He didn’t respond, just more whimpers, so you opened up the door and walked in to find him asleep but thrashing.

Carefully, you approached him, reaching out to rub his arm, “Ben. Kylo. Wake up, sir. You’re having a nightmare.”

He woke up and clung to you, wrapping his arms around your waist. He was panting, repeating your name, “I’m so sorry. So sorry. For waking you up. Sorry.”

You ran your fingers through his hair, “Ben. It is okay, Ben. I promise.”

He nodded and slowly calmed down, “Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thanks for waking me up. I normally have to fight for much longer to wake up.”

You softly scratched his scalp, “Lay back down. I’ll stay until you’re asleep again.”

He hummed, “Can you keep doing that, and playing with my hair?”

You chuckled, “Sure.”

He moved back to laying normally and you moved to keep petting his head. It didn’t take long for him to get drowsy again, and he began mumbling to you.

His voice was barely audible and clearly full of sleep, “I like this. I like you. Don’t tell though.”

You felt your cheeks warm and continued until his murmurs turned to snores. You got up again and softly kissed his forehead, “Goodnight, Ben Solo. Sweet dreams.”

#a-r-t creation #ben solo / reader #kylo ren/ reader #kylo ren x reader #ben solo x reader #kylo ren/ you #ben solo/ you #kylo ren x you #ben solo x you

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spideyrights · 5 years ago

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Partners (Series) - Detective Loki x Reader

IX. WHAT ARE WE?

series masterlist

O’Malley hands you the drawn maze, the only one recovered from Bob Taylor’s work before turning to Loki with a glare. Loki, upon noticing his heavy gaze, murmurs a sorry under his breath.

“Fuck your sorry. Save it for the girls’ parents,” O’Malley grumbles. Loki doesn’t snark back in response. The two of you stand, entering the office. Loki seats himself on the couch, observing the piece of paper with the maze on it that you had handed to him. You stood as far apart from him as you could manage, instead standing in front of O’Malley desk, your body facing Loki as you watched him entranced by the maze.

“Well...at least I don’t have to worry about losing you to P.S.P” O’Malley pours out three drinks, you deny immediately and he walks over to Loki who looks at the drink before waving him off. O’Malley combines all three in his own glass.

“When forensics is finished with the guy’s place, we’re going to deploy the cadaver dogs,” O’Malley says but Loki doesn’t respond. He turns to you, almost to see whether you could ‘fix’ Loki and his inattentive state but you simply shrug. “Look, kid, we can’t always save the day. All right? We’re just cops. Janitors. So you lost this one, all right? Look you want fulfilment, you need to find a girl. You know? Start a family, have some kids. Let it go.”

O’Malley’s words become a kind of background monologue to the both of you. Loki presses his hands to his ears, his eyes so intently focused on the paper whilst you were intently focused on him. You hesitantly walk towards him, he moves his arms away, looking up to you noticing this before ducking his head back down as if he would see something new in the picture.

“Hey, let’s go,” you say, an almost inaudible whisper of a tone. He raises his hand almost waving you off in a decline. “I’m serious. Leave it alone.” Loki’s head slowly comes up, meeting your eyes from where you stand, your eyes well above where he’s seated. Your voice had a kind of firmness that he’d never heard before, not to anyone let alone to him. He nods hesitantly, standing and slipping past you as you follow closely behind, exiting the office.

“Actually, (Y/L/N), can we have a word?” O’Malley says as you’re steps away from being out of the office. Loki turns back to you, wordlessly asking if you’ll be okay and you nod, shutting the door for him as he leaves. Turning back to O’Malley you offer him a soft, obviously emotionless, smile to lighten the awkward silence he lets sit.

“Listen, kid, I don’t know what kind of magic you’re working on Loki,” You shuffle uncomfortably, shifting your weight to lean on one leg. “But whatever it is, I need you to knock some sense into him right now. Those girls aren’t coming home. And apart from not being a total idiot just then, there’s not more he could have done. We need a brain like his around here so can you just make sure he gets all the clutter out of it in time for your next case?”

You nod and choose not to say anything. You even begin to approach the door but you just can’t help yourself. “Why do you think they’re not coming home?”

“Hmm?”

“You said those girls aren’t coming home.” “We’re over a week and a half missing, what do you expect? Things aren’t always happy endings around here, Detective, you’ll see that soon.”

Your conversation is interrupted by a loud slam outside and you quickly open the door to the office, rushing outside with your hand over your gun holster. The sight you see, however, is slightly more devastating than the threat you assumed would be out there. Loki seems to have shoved all of the items off of his desk in one swift motion and now sat with his head in his hands. He then quickly grasped his keyboard and you jogged over to him, assuming what he was going to do. As you expected he began smashing the keyboard on the desk making keys spill all around until he felt a firm grip on his arms that caused him to drop the keyboard. You spun his chair around, your hands falling on either armrest to stop his chair from moving as you looked him in the eye.

“Hey, you’re done, that’s enough.”

He says nothing and doesn’t move, turning to his desk and toying around with Alex Jones’ plastic RV. You make a vague grunt of frustration at his stubbornness, standing from your crouch. You notice the lingering stares of others in the precinct before quickly diverting your gaze from them and moving to Loki’s desk to tidy up the things he had spilled. You crouch down, sighing as you pick up the pieces of his broken keyboard.

“Hey,” Loki mumbles, noticing what you’re doing. “Don’t-you don’t need to do that, please.” He gently grasps your arm to stop you but you shake his arm off resulting in a very hurt expression from Loki. You reach over to the pictures he’s spilled, taking one in your hand, about to place it back on the desk before you pause, noticing something.

“Where’s the...where’s the....” You shuffle things around absentmindedly making Loki furrow his brows in confusion, moving his chair back to give you room to shuffle around on his desk. You grab the paper drawing from Bob Taylor, holding the pieces next to each other. The pattern of the necklace seems to resemble the ‘maze’ Bob Taylor drew. Loki, hovering over your shoulder, notices too what you’ve seen and mumbles a ‘shit’ under his breath.

You’re interrupted by the sound of his phone ringing, to which he reacts by patting around on his body, unsure of where his phone is. You, knowing him and where he keeps his phone, reach into his top pocket and answer for him. Loki watches intently as you react to the call and gives you a questioning look when you hang up.

“We need to go to Bob Taylor’s house.”

“Guys, let us have a look.” Rich, who you’d come to know as the forensics guy in charge, had called you and Loki here to take a look at the house they had been endlessly examining for a while now and safe to say the contents of the house was just as creepy as they had been expecting.

“Two kid-sized department store mannequins, with their heads caved in. I talk to our lab guys and they told me all the blood we sampled from the plastic containers, pig’s blood.” You stood with your hand crossed over your body, your leather-glove clad hands rubbing your sides through your grey trench coat. Loki was undisturbed by the cold, his gaze fixed uneasily on the plastic bodies in the soil. The pregnant pause was unsettling and something felt distant between the two of you, like Loki’s mind was someplace completely different to where it had been this whole case. Someplace completely different to where it had been in the locker room earlier.

“All right you guys let’s get this covered up. It’s supposed to snow soon.” Rich’s words jolted you out of your thoughts and you and Loki walked side-by-side following him into the house. You stepped in warily, observing the masses of people bagging evidence. The house was eerily empty compared to when you had last been there. The pattern on the wall was a dull reminder of Bob Taylor’s fate.

“It’s like he’s play-acting. Case in point, except for the items IDed by the Dovers and the Birches, all the kids’ clothes that we found still had tags on them. And that maze book that we found, he made it. Photocopies, picture from this book we found in the attic. Ex-FBI agent wrote that,” Rich explained, pointing at the book which lay on the table.

“Finding the Invisible Man,” you read aloud. “I think I’ve read it before.” Loki turns to you with a quirked brow, a look that practically says ‘of course you have’ in no words and it makes your lips turn up gently, relieved that he still had a ghost of himself around.

“Its about a theoretical suspect he believed was responsible for a bunch of child abductions. It’s totally discredited, I guess, but I read some of it," Rich explains and you nod along, vaguely recalling the story. Loki stepped away, pacing the length of the kitchen in thought

“Taylor was abducted when he was a kid. He ran away after three weeks. The captor drugged him on some sort of LSD-Ketamine cocktail. He never remembered and they never caught the guy.”

“Okay, so, he read the book and decided he was taken by the Invisible Man. Now he’s doing his best imitation, right?”

Loki turned away, avoiding eye contact and you breathed out gently knowing exactly where his train of thought was headed. “Yeah, he was doing his best imitation. He killed himself last night.”

“How did he do that? I thought he was in custody.” You sent Rich a looked that basically told him to drop it and Loki, who didn’t want to have that conversation either, said nothing in response, his mind clearly elsewhere. He finally paused his pacing in front of you, his eyes narrowed in thought, as he pulled out the paper maze you had handed to him as the both of you left.

“Hey, Taylor drew this. It’s a map to the bodies,” he says, shoving his finger at the paper to make a point which only seemed to startle Rich more as he sent you an unsure look. “We found the same design on a pendant we pulled off that corpse the other day. There's a connection, okay?”

“Connection is that it’s the last maze in the book. It’s unsolvable. There’s no way out. Your corpse is another ‘wannabe’, read the book” Loki was unimpressed by the answer, that was an understatement as a matter of fact. His face contorted into an expression of anger, one you had only seen a few times before. Loki was rarely one to show expression, never one to show emotion to others; you were really the only exception and he knew that. He was okay with it even, he knew you were the only person he would be vulnerable with and he’d subconsciously decided you were the only person he’d want to be vulnerable with for the rest of his life but he didn’t know what that meant or how to tell you that. So he didn’t. But now you were seeing Loki having a real. legitimate outburst, one he could not control.

“What are you saying to me, Rich? What are you saying? What are you saying, that this guys is fake? You’re saying that the girls are still out there somewhere? How did Bob Taylor get those clothes? How did the parents...positively ID those clothes?”

You and Rich both stood silently in the painstaking aftermath of Loki’s words. You had nothing to say, it wasn’t you he wanted to hear from. You looked to Rich who was evidently uncomfortable. You think he might have come upon the realisation you had on your second day of working this case with Loki. He doesn’t just want to solve it, he needs to solve it.

“That I can’t reconcile.”

“You can’t reconcile that?”

Rich left, sending random orders to members of forensics he passed, clearly just relieved to be free of Loki’s incessant questioning. Loki turned to you, expecting you to be ready to leave but instead he saw your eyes fixated in the distance out of concentration.

“What? What is it?” he questioned, noting your thoughtful expression. “Your notebook, can I have it?” you mumbled, your mind still deep in thought, before you finally broke your gaze away from the window and to Loki. He nodded, mildly confused, before rifling through his pockets and pulling the notebook out. As soon as he handed it to you, you flicked through it hurriedly alerting him and making him stand beside you, peering to see what you had landed on in his own notebook.

IN THE HOUSE WINDOW - OPEN?

Upon reading his own scrawls, it clicked in his brain. Your eyes met and shared the same thought before you both hurried out of the house.

Arriving at the Dover’s, Loki wasted no time. He parked his car in the middle of the road and you both jogged the distance round the back of the house. He jumped the fence first then offered his arm as support for you to do the same. You landed uneasily in your slightly-heeled boots but wasted no time, rushing to the small muddy bush patch directly underneath the window. Loki pulled a pen from his pocket, raising the item that you pointed at deep in the mud now.

The pink bunny sock.

When you got the call that Joy had been found and was safely in the hospital you swore you were dreaming. You could barely get the words out to tell Loki and once you did it was a blur. You arrived at the hospital, the nurses had warned you that Joy wouldn’t be in a good state to question for a while and you caught a glimpse of the girl you had only seen photos of as you passed by her room. And now you and Loki sat in the only deserted corner of this hospital floor with cheap and admittedly really gross cups of coffee in hand. You were snuggled up in one seat, your legs up on the chair, knees pressed to your chest and your back resting on the wall as exhaustion began to set through. Loki who was sitting next to you, arms resting on his legs as he was leant forward, texting someone, didn’t look half as tired.

“Who you texting?” you mumble, nudging his side with one of your knees, desperately trying to start a conversation.

“No one,” he replied, shutting off his phone and shoving it into his coat pocket. You furrowed your brows. Why wouldn’t he tell you who he was texting if it was work related? Unless it wasn’t work related. If it wasn’t work related then who could it possibly be? Loki didn’t have family, you weren’t so sure about friends so who the hell could he be texting? The panic set through your body. Oh my gosh, he must have a girlfriend, you thought, or maybe a wife, what if he has a wife?

As if Loki could hear your catastrophising in your head, he leant back in his chair, turning his head slightly to meet you at eye level. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, of course, why wouldn’t it be? When are things not okay? I mean that’s a stupid question because we’re detectives who deal with crime but like-” “Woah, okay, easy. Maybe that's enough of this for today,” he reached his hand out to grasp your coffee cup, setting it down on the floor with a soft smirk which you returned. “Clearly everything is not okay.”

The smile dropped from your face in an instant. Loki seemed to be able to sense where you were going with this as his body tensed in response. He quickly diverted his eyes from you, looking ahead to the peeling hospital wall that was littered with posters for various health checks and medical products. He didn’t think he’d ever focused so hard on these posters until now.

“What are we?” His eyes pressed shut, almost scared of the question and certainly trying to avoid it. In his silence you turned to him, making clear you expected an answer.

“I wish I could tell you.”

You didn’t have much to say to that. You were glad that you were being validated here. Loki too acknowledged that you were not simply partners, there was something else here. “In the changing room-”

“Yeah, that was stupid. I wasn’t thinking straight, I’m sorry, I just...” he trails off, not realising the impact of his words though you certainly feel them. So he didn’t actually want to kiss you then? You swallow hard.

“Yeah, right, this is nothing,” you speak sharply. In so sharp a tone that Loki redirects his attention to you. You stand, unable to sit near him for much longer. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Fine.”

“Did you- do you think differently?”

“Well of course not.”

“(Y/N)-”

You feel as though the world is trying to make up for this devastation when you hear commotion from the other end of the corridor making Loki shoot up out of his chair and both of you immediately head in the direction of the sound. You of course feel significantly less lucky when you see Keller walking rapidly through the hospital headed for the exit.

“I said nobody’s allowed in that room but her family. Hey! Where are you going? Hey! Where’s he going? Hey! Call downstairs. Don’t let him go,” Loki calls out to the front desk.

“Hey, where’s he going?” you question Mrs Dover as you pass by her and she mumbles a faint ‘I don’t know’ with a shrug, making you turn to Loki with wide eyes and before you know it Loki is following him, hot on his trail.

“Wait here!” he shouts after you and so you halt in your stops watching as you see the man you like hurry out of your view, your heart pounding out of your chest knowing he’s potentially running directly into danger. Shit, you think, I really like him.

tags: @mother-dearest-loves-me @mariamermaid@vigilanteavengerqueen @superheroforrent @peterbxrnes @igotanaddixon @blablasomethingblabla @cafeaufeels @montypythonsholysnail @carolines24 @chimera4plums @emma-frxst @oswald-1998 @iv-nyc @twowaymirrorx @skarlettmikaelson @deviantly-gayy

#jake gyllenhaal #jake gyllenhaal x reader #jake gyllenhaal x you #jake gyllenhaal imagine #jake gyllenhaal one shot #jake gyllenhaal fanfiction #detective loki #detective loki x reader #detective loki fic #david loki #david loki x reader #david loki fic

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what-is-your-plan-today · 5 years ago

Text

Stark Spangled Banner Ch 14: Nothing Personal

Summary: Steve confronts Fury about The Lemurian Star and discovers another secret that the Director has been concealing from him, one he struggles to reconcile morally. Little does he realise, however, that learning said secret is the catalyst to a devastating chain of events, which put him and Katie directly in the firing line of a deadly assassin...

Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC Katie Stark

Warnings: None for this chapter bar them saying some bad language words and someone getting shot and a bit of fighting and shizzle.

This one is a bit long- it got away from me a little but there was soooo much to get in!

Stark Spangled Banner Masterlist

Steve’s good mood lasted all of 5 minutes into debrief. Natasha wasn’t even there, which wasn’t surprising, but pissed him off. Instead of letting it sour the meeting he added it to the long list of stuff he was going to confront Fury over. He praised the STRIKE team, thanked Rumlow for his leadership, Evans for his impeccable sniper skills, as usual, and Rollins for his coordination from the jet. He dismissed his team and then headed up to see Fury.

“You just can't stop yourself from lying, can you?” Steve said as he crossed the floor of Fury’s office.

Nick didn’t even need to ask him what he was talking about. Without turning round the Director spoke calmly. “I didn't lie. Agent Romanoff had a different mission than yours.”

“Which you didn't feel obliged to share” Steve pressed, raising an eyebrow as the Director spun in his chair to face him.

“I'm not obliged to do anything” Fury said simply, looking at him.

“Those hostages could've died, Nick.” Steve pressed, holding the man’s gaze.

“I sent the greatest soldier in history to make sure that didn't happen.” Fury said simply, and Steve could feel his temper rising even more. He hated the blasé attitude the Director was discussing the issue with, like it was simply something he wasn’t all that bothered about.

“Soldiers trust each other, that's what makes it an army.” He said after a short pause. “Not a bunch of guys running around and shooting guns.”

He wasn’t expecting the response he got. Fury leaned forward, frowning as he levelled Steve with a look.

“The last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye.” he said. Steve cocked his head to one side, crossing his arms but maintaining his silence “Look, I didn't want you doing anything you weren't comfortable with. Agent Romanoff is comfortable with everything.”

“I can't lead a mission when the people I'm leading have missions of their own” Steve said, pointing down at Fury’s desk.

“It's called compartmentalization” Fury eyed him. “Nobody spills the secrets because nobody knows them all.” Steve snorted silently “Except you.” Fury took a deep breath and levelled Steve with a look. “ You're wrong about me. I do share. I'm nice like that.” Steve frowned as Fury stood up and motioned for him to follow.

“Where are we going?” Steve said, frustration evident on his tone.

“You’ll see.” Fury said, stepping inside the elevator. Steve followed. “Insight bay.” he instructed.

“Director override, Fury, Nicholas J.” Fury spoke, without missing a beat.

“Confirmed.”

“You know, they used to play music.” he said, his tone softer as he broke the silence, making a joke at his own expense.

“Yeah. My grandfather operated one of these things for forty years.” Fury said, somewhat nostalgic. “My granddad worked in a nice building, he got good tips. He'd walk home every night, roll of ones stuffed in his lunch bag. He'd say "hi", people would say hi back. Time went on, neighbourhood got rougher. He'd say "Hi", they'd say, "Keep on steppin'." Granddad got to grippin' that lunch bag a little tighter.”

The flash into Fury’s personal life surprised Steve somewhat. He cocked his head to one side and looked at the man. “Did he ever get mugged?”

“Every week some punk would say, "What's in the bag?"

“What did he do?”

“He'd show 'em. Bunch of crumpled ones and loaded .22 Magnum.” Fury smirked “Granddad loved people. But he didn't trust them very much.”

Steve had to smirk slightly, thinking that Fury sounded a hell of a lot like his grandpa. He looked down for a second, and when he looked up he was aware that they had now travelled down the side of the Triskellion and were descending further, underground even. As Steve looked around he realised he was in some sort of hangar, and he looked out of the glass, spotting 3 giant Helicarriers. His mouth fell open in surprise, his brow furrowing.

“Yeah, I know. They're a little bit bigger than a .22.” Fury remarked.

“This is Project Insight.” Fury said as he led Steve across the floor of the hangar. “Three next generation Helicarriers synced to a network of targeting satellites.”

And then Steve understood. “Launched from the Lemurian Star.” he said, a statement not a question.

“Once we get them in the air they never need to come down. Continuous suborbital flight courtesy of our new repulsor engines.” Fury stopped underneath one.

“Stark?” Steve asked, frowning.

“Well, he had a few suggestions once he got an up close look at our old turbines.” Fury said, as they continued. “But don’t worry, that’s not something Nova is keeping from you.”

“I wasn’t” Steve said honestly, as he looked up and around the hangar “I trust my girl.” he said with a shrug.

Fury looked at him before he turned his attention back to the matter in hand and pointed up again “These new long range precision guns can eliminate a thousand hostiles a minute. The satellites can read a terrorist's DNA before he steps outside his spider hole. We gonna neutralize a lot of threats before they even happen.”

Steve crossed his arms. “ I thought the punishment usually came after the crime.”

“We can't afford to wait that long.”

Steve could feel the nerve twitching in his jaw. “Who's "we"?”

“After New York, I convinced the World Security Council we needed a quantum surge in threat analysis. For once we're way ahead of the curve”

“By holding a gun at everyone on Earth and calling it protection?” Steve looked at the director, frowning. He didn’t like this. It smacked of something Hydra or the Nazis would do.

Fury picked up on his tone and he looked at Steve, arching an eyebrow. “You know, I read those SSR files. Greatest generation? You guys did some nasty stuff.”

Don’t’ I know it? Steve thought to himself as he took a deep breath. “Yeah, we compromised. Sometimes in ways that made us not sleep so well. But we did it so the people could be free.” he turned and pointed at the helicarriers before looking at Fury “This isn't freedom, this is fear.”

“SHIELD takes the world as it is, not as we'd like it to be.” Fury said simply. “It's getting damn near past time for you to get with that program, Cap”

Steve shook his head. “Don't hold your breath” and with that he left.

He changed quickly, eager to put as much distance between him and SHIELD as possible for the rest of the day. After a short conversation with Rumlow about a mission report he was on his bike and heading for Katie’s apartment, his mind whirling. What was Fury playing at? This wasn’t what he signed up for, at all. It felt so far removed from what he had joined the army to do, to keep people safe, free… had he really changed that much? He felt a sudden pang for his Howling Commandoes, for Bucky, for Peggy, for Colonel Philips, for all those damned missions which had been simple- destroy Hydra.

Despite the fact he had woken up that morning and felt so happy with his girl being there, he couldn’t help but wish life was as simple as it had been back then.

*****

Katie’s morning had been far more productive. She had looked at a couple of transcript extracts her editor had selected. She had to admit, the guy had a good eye for a future blockbuster, and this one she particularly liked. After discussions, they settled on an initial run of 200 hard copy of the books to be sold online, along with a downloadable kindle version, and if they went they would review how many more we needed.

“Hey…” she asked, “How did it go?"

He sighed, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her in for a hug, simply wanting to feel her close.

“That good huh?” she said, squeezing him gently before she pulled back and headed towards the kitchen, him following behind her.

“Debrief was fine…Fury, however, went on about compartmentalisation, the usual crap.” Steve sighed, running his hand over his face, smiling softly to himself when he saw she was gathering stuff out of the fridge to make him a sandwich “And then shared something I really wish he hadn’t.”

“Like what?” she asked, throwing some turkey and mayo onto a sub. “Ever heard of Operation Insight?” Steve asked, even though he knew the answer. There’s no way she would have and not told him.

“No?” she said, handing him a plate.

“Well apparently your brother has…” he shrugged, taking the plate from her and taking a bite as he sat at the breakfast bar. He swallowed and then continued “3 huge hellicarriers that are basically designed to go up in the air and never come down. Programmed to monitor potential threats and wipe them out before they get chance to do anything…” She frowned, settling on the stool next to him. “And Fury has sanctioned this?”

Steve nodded, taking another bite of his food. “I don’t like it. Like I said to him, punishment normally comes after the crime…”

Katie could see he was really struggling with this and that his faith in SHIELD was running very, very thin. A lot of what the Agency did was political, not just about keeping people safe. She’d tried to explain that the lines were a lot more blurred than back in the 40s, but still had to admit she was kind of with him. As she pondered for a moment, Steve could see the cogs whirring in her brain, the slight “v” shape crease that always formed in the middle of her eyes when she was thinking had formed. Steve didn’t blame her, it had thrown him too and he’d had the full explanation. The hangar had been huge, and there were enough people in there to make him realise that a LOT of people knew about it. What he didn’t know was who on his immediate team knew about it.

“I just wanna know who I can trust” he sighed, looking at Katie as she reached out gently, touching his cheek.

“I know sweetheart” she said, sighing “Ok. No more talk about SHIELD or hellicarriers, or whatever…” she said, moving her hand back to the counter, picking up her soda. “What do you want to for the rest of the afternoon?”

He wanted to go to the Smithsonian. He’d been thinking about it since they had emailed him to invite him to open the exhibit on him, which he had politely declined. But he was curious to see what it was like, curious and also eager, after today, to be reminded of a time when he worked with people he knew inside out, people that he would trust with his life. And he was keen to share that with his girl, the woman who had months ago before they even started dating, been the one to help him pick what the museum would display.

“You know, we’ve still not been to the Smithsonian since they opened the exhibit.” he said, shrugging, hoping his tone was casual enough to make it sound like he hadn’t been thinking about it enough. He failed though, smiling as Katie looked at him, arching an eyebrow.

Busted.

“Call it curiosity.” He shrugged.

“You know what curiosity did don’t you?” Katie quipped back, her eyes flashing playfully.

“What?”

She grinned as she delivered the punchline “Killed the Cap.”

*****

“A symbol to the nation. A hero to the world. The story of Captain America is one of honour, bravery and sacrifice,” the narrator at the Smithsonian museum said as we entered the exhibit.

"Denied enlistment due to poor health, Steven Rogers was chosen for a program unique in the annals of American warfare. One that would transform him into the world's first super soldier," the Narrator continued. Steve paused to look at the display to his right when Katie gently nudged him.

“Think you’ve been rumbled.”

"In this rare footage, everyone's favourite war hero, Captain America…"

"Battle tested, Captain America and his Howling Commandos quickly earned their stripes. Their mission, taking down HYDRA, the Nazi rogue science division,"

Katie looked at the uniforms, a smile on her face. She had only seen photos of the suit, not seen it in person and it intrigued her. More so because this was something that her dad had made, something physical he had touched. She felt a tug on her hand again, and she looked up to see that she was being led to a section dedicated to Bucky. The familiar (albeit again, only from photos), handsome face of his best friend looked back at them as they wandered over to read what it said in more detail.

"Best friends since childhood, Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers were inseparable on both school yard and battlefield. Barnes is the only Howling Commando to give his life in service of his country…”

“Rogers was different” Howard spoke, smiling, the caption on the screen telling him the footage had been filmed in 1953. “He was constantly striving to do the right thing, with no fear or care for how it would affect him. He, err, when we dropped him behind enemy lines we had no idea if we would see him again. I narrowly escaped myself, the machine guns nearly took our aircraft down but without thought to how he would get back, he told us to leave him behind. When they declared him missing in action the entire company was devastated but, lo and behold… well they can’t keep a good man down. “ Howard paused and then looked down and back up at the camera “I can only hope that if I’m graced with Children, they grow up to be half as driven as he was to do the right thing…”

As Katie looked down at her feet, a stray tear fell down her cheek. Seeing her dad there like that was raw. She knew that Tony felt the loss of their parents far more than she did, she had only been 7 after all when they had died and Tony had been her father, if you will, for far longer than her actual dad had, but still, seeing him in front of her so candidly, talking about his hopes for his future children made something in her chest tighten and she couldn’t help but feel sadness at the fact she never got the chance to really know him. Steve gently squeezed her knee, but then as he looked back up at the screen it was his turn to still as someone he recognised extremely well, her face painted into his memory for life, entered the screen and began speaking, also in 1953.

"That was a difficult winter. A blizzard had trapped half our battalion behind the German line. Steve, Captain Rogers, he fought his way through a HYDRA blockade that had pinned our allies down for months.” Peggy Carter stumbled slightly through the interview. “He saved over a thousand men, including the man who would become my husband as it turned out. Even after he died, Steve was still changing my life," And despite the fact that she smiles slightly at the end of this line, it’s clear to see that talking about Steve affected her a lot.

“You read my mind.”

*******

Peggy was pleased to see them. They both greeted her and after a few pleasantries they told her about their trip to the Smithsonian. Peggy smiled, informing them that she remembered the interview, like it was yesterday, apparently the man interviewing her had been an “utter rogue”, but she didn’t elaborate on what that meant. They chatted a little about her time as Director at SHIELD before she trailed off with a sigh as she noticed that Steve was uncharacteristically quiet. After a little gentle coaxing from her and Katie he told her what was on his mind.

"My whole life I've just wanted to do what was right, I guess I'm not sure what that is anymore.” he paused for a moment, thinking of how to voice his worries about SHIELD “And I thought I could just throw myself back in and follow orders, it's just not the same."

Peggy chuckled as she rolled her eyes and looked at Katie "He’s always so dramatic.”

Katie let out a small laugh, nodding her agreement. “Tell me about it!”

Steve shook his head, a smile on his face as he raised his eyebrows slightly and looked away as Peggy continued to speak.

“Look you saved the world, we rather mucked it up."

"No you didn't. You know, knowing that you helped found SHIELD is half the reason I stay."

“And the other half being…” her eyes strayed to Katie who smiled, looking down and then up at Steve as he caught her eye, his hand resting on her knee.

“I quit remember?” She said.

Peggy smiled “Indeed, a woman with principles. That I can get on board with.”

Katie gave a little smile and turned to the old lady in the bed.

“Look, the world has changed and none of us can go back.” Peggy spoke softly “All we can do is our best, and sometimes the best that we can do is to start over."

She started to cough. Steve quickly picked up a glass of water from the table and rounded the back of the chair Katie was sitting in to try and hand her the glass.

"Peggy," he mumbled. Her coughing subsided as she sipped her drink. She looked up and stared at Steve as if she was seeing a ghost

"Steve?" Peggy breathed out in an amazed yet broken voice.

"Yeah," Steve whispered, his heart sinking as he recognised the look in her face. Her memory had gone, again.

"You're alive! You, you came, you came back," Peggy whimpered. Tears were gathering in her eyes at this point as she tried to hold them back and Steve was struggling to do the same with his own. One of the smartest, nicest, bravest women he had ever met was being betrayed by an illness that was literally rotting her brain. It was cruel, and every time she did this, they went through the same routine.

Katie squeezed his hand gently as she stood up so he could take the chair next to Peggy.

"Yeah, Peggy," Steve responded forcing a smile onto his face.

"It's been so long. So long," Peggy started to cry, giving up on holding back her tears.

“I’ll leave you with her…” Katie said gently as she gently touched his shoulder. His hand briefly reached up to lay over hers before he leaned over to take Peggy’s.

"Well, I couldn't leave you.” He said gently, “Not when you still owe me a dance."

Normally that calmed the old lady down, but not today. She was becoming more and more confused and in the end he had to press the call button for a nurse.

“Again?” The nurse said softly, and Steve simply nodded.

“I’ll fetch the doctor.”

Outside Katie took a deep breath and headed towards her car. Ex partners could always be an issue in relationships but this was something else, something completely different. She opened the passenger side to the car and sat side on in the seat, door open, legs dangling out. She felt sorry for Peggy, she really did, and her heart ached for Steve. It can’t be easy seeing the woman he once loved, and probably still did in some way, fading like that in front of your eyes. She ran her hand over her face, rubbing at her eyes slightly and waited as she watched various people coming and going out of the main doors of the hospital. It wasn’t that long before a familiar figure appeared, a flash of white T-shirt standing out against his dark navy jacket and equally dark jeans as he walked towards her, hands in his pockets. She stood up, not saying a word as she wrapped her arms around him and he buried his face into the nook of her shoulder and neck, his safe place, his hands gently resting on her hips as he breathed out a sigh.

“She ok?” she asked gently. “Yeah they sedated her.” He said as he pulled away.

“I’m so sorry Steve.” she said gently

“What for?” he frowned. “Peggy…it’s so unfair.” “Yeah…” he said. And it was. He wished things could be different, that Peggy wasn’t ill. That she could be home, with her family, living out the last years of her life with the dignity she had lived the rest of it. She deserved more. He looked over the car roof across the street and watched for a second, everyone milling about their business, getting on with their lives. Like he was, and whilst he wished things had been different for Peggy he found himself thinking and wondering if he would change anything if he could.

He felt Katie still in front of him, reacting to the fact he himself had changed posture, and as he looked down at her he was suddenly struck with the answer to his question. Right now, despite everything, despite his sudden feelings of nostalgia sparked by the events of the last 24 hours or so, no he wouldn’t. Because whatever had happened, every action, every decision, it had led him to her, and he loved her so fucking much it hurt. Yeah he had loved Peggy, he still did in some ways, but it was nothing compared to this. Nothing. He reached out and took Katie’s hands, pulling up her arms so they were round his neck, pulling her closer to him as his own hands joined at the bottom of her back

“I love you.” He said gently, needing her to understand, to believe him.

“I know…” she said back, and he smiled softly, satisfied she did.

“How about we head back to mine and not leave the flat for the entire day tomorrow?” he said, the idea suddenly coming to him and he face lit up. Katie loved lazy days. It was rare Steve was in the mood for them, his incessant energy normally meant he had to be doing something. But on the odd time he agreed it usually involved them staying in bed till about midday, then watching old movies on the TV under a blanket on the couch, maybe a bit of fooling around and then calling a take out before retreating back to bed. Right now that sounded like a damned fine idea. “Can you clear your diary?”

“Consider it cleared.” she smiled.

“I just wanna make one quick stop on the way.” he suggested, his journey of contemplation was leading him to one more place. He glanced at his watch before planting a kiss on her lips “Thought we could pay our jogging friend a visit.”

********

"Look who it is. The running man and his pretty girl." Sam joked slightly as he came over to the doorway where Katie and Steve were stood.

"Hey." Katie smiled as he dropped a kiss onto her cheek.

"Caught the last few minutes. It's pretty intense," Steve commented as Sam shook his hand.

"Yeah, brother, we all got the same problems. Guilt, regret," Sam shrugged. As his sentence went on his voice got more serious and softer.

"Have you lost someone?" Steve asked, perceptive as ever. Katie mentally cursed herself for not filling him in fully, but Sam didn’t seem too bothered to talk about it. He nodded gently.

"My wingman, Riley. Fly in the night mission. A standard PJ rescue op, nothing we hadn't done a thousand times before, till an RPG knock Riley's dumb ass out of the sky. Nothing I could do. It's like I was up there just to watch," Sam paused to cross his arms over his chest, his posture slightly tense. "After that, I had really hard time finding a reason for being over there, you know?"

"But you're happy now, back in the world?" Steve asked

"Hey, the number of people giving me orders is down to about zero. So, hell, yeah," Sam joked, loosening up slightly, before getting a bit serious, "You thinking about getting out?"

"No. I don't know. To be honest, I don't know what I would do with myself if I did," Steve shook his head a bit.

"Ultimate fighting?" Sam shrugged and Steve laughed as Katie snorted. "It's just a great idea off the top of my head. But seriously, you could do whatever you want to do. What makes you happy?"

Steve turned his head to look at Katie, an unconscious movement, smiling gently as he shrugged. “I dunno...”

"Oh I think you do." Sam said, smirking slightly as Steve placed his hand on the small of his girl’s back.

"Oh, stop by the front desk on your way out," Katie turned to Sam, smirking, and he raised an eyebrow in question,

"We asked for you by name." Steve clarified.

"She seemed thoroughly impressed." Katie finished. Both of Sam's eyebrows rose at that and he looked down the hallway towards where the front desk was.

"You two are the best." He said a smile stretching across his face as he began to turn to head down the hall. "Stop by anytime."

"No problem." Steve said in amusement as Sam jogged his way down the hall.

It was 8pm by the time they got home, having made a pit stop for a beer on the way. Steve held the door open for Katie, and she stepped into the apartment building and started to climb the stairs in front of him, giving him a quite pleasing view of her ass as her hips swayed side to side in front of him.

“Sam’s right you know.” she said, continuing their discussion from the bar. “And so is Peggy.”

“What about?” he asked.

“If you wanted to get out you could do, start over…”

He took a deep breath “I don’t know what I want, but spending the rest of my life playing janitor for Fury is not it.”

“I can write you a resignation note….” she grinned

“What, I quit, fuck you?” he snorted.

“I didn’t actually write that.” she laughed “Actually, I didn’t write anything...”

He chuckled slightly and then took a deep breath. “You know, it’s funny when I think about it. Us, stuff, what we’ve done and how far we’ve come in a year.”

“You’re saying it like it’s a bad thing” she teased as she stepped onto his landing.

“No, that’s not what I mean at all…” he said as he took a deep breath as she headed towards his door and turned to face him “You know, I’ve never really talked to anyone or shown them about my past in detail or introduced anyone to Peggy bar you.”

“Well I am your girlfriend.” she shrugged, holding onto the hand that wasn’t digging into his jeans pocket to fish out his keys. “You should be able to talk to me about anything.”

“I know, I’m not explaining myself very well.” He said, sighing, finally succeeding in obtaining his keys. And he wasn’t. He was trying to tell her that he couldn’t imagine his life without her, that he wanted her to share his everything, including his home…

“Spit it out Rogers…” she said, as he slid the key into the lock.

He took a deep breath. “Coming home last night and you being there…and then this morning…it was perfect doll and I want that all the time.” He said, turning to face her leaving his key hanging from the door. “How would you feel about us maybe moving in together?”

She paused for a moment, looking at him, realising he was deadly serious. She raised her eyebrow.

“I thought you came from a time where man and woman didn’t live together until they were married?” she teased.

“Well we could get married if you want…” he found himself blurting out. That made Katie raise both eyebrows as she studied him again, her mouth dropping into a small ‘o’. Steve looked back at her, trying to keep his face passive, as if it had been a joke, he knew it wasn’t. He’d known for months she was the one. But to blurt it out like that? And just over a year since they’d started dating.

Way to go, Rogers.

“You know, that’s not much of a proposal…” she said, sliding her arms up around his neck “But it’s one step up from you’d make a great housewife…”

“Should I try again?” he quipped, a cheeky grin spreading across his face, glad the tone was playful, his arms circling her waist “Yeah, with a big, fuck off Tiffany diamond…”

“I didn’t think you were so materialistic?” he laughed as he committed that to memory.

“Well, you know what they say? Diamonds are a girls’ best friend.”

“And there I was, thinking it was me…” he said, his lips pressing onto hers

“That’s so sweet…” a voice interrupted and they both turned to look at Kate, his neighbour from over the hall. For a split second Steve thought she was talking to them but it soon became apparent she was on the phone. “That’s so nice…but hey, I gotta go…okay bye…”

She dropped the phone into the basket of laundry she was carrying before grinning at us both “My aunt, she’s kind of an insomniac”

Steve smile before looking at the basket of washing in her arms as he dropped his arm round Katie’s shoulder “you know if you want…if you want, you can use my machine. Might be easier and cheaper than the one in the basement.” "Thank you, but I already have a load in downstairs actually, and you really don't want my scrubs in your machine.” She grinned “I just finished orientation in the infectious diseases ward, so,"

"Ah, well, we’ll keep our distance," he grinned, holding his hands up, palms out.

"Hopefully not too far…" she chuckled. “Don’t want to lose my best neighbour…well I better be off.” She turned to go before she stopped and spun back round to look at Steve. “Oh, I think you left your stereo on,"

“Right, thank you…” Steve watched her go, frowning. He looked at Katie as they both pressed their ears to the door. The record player was certainly on but…

“We definitely didn’t leave that on before.” Katie looked at him, as the gentle tones of Kitty Kallen Long Long Time hit their ears.

Steve held his finger up to his lips and gestured to the window, before leaving Katie where he was. He ran off, down the stairs as fast as he could and then he scaled the gate on the fire escape easily. Once he reached the steps which were parallel to his window he took a running jump, easily pulling himself up over the sill and into the kitchen area. Quickly and quietly he moved along the wall, picking up his shield which was leaning against the shelving unit. Holding it up he cautiously peered round the corner of the room into the living area and instantly relaxed when he saw Fury lounging in a chair.

“I don’t remember giving you a key.” he said, somewhat sardonically.

“What, you really think I’d need one?” Nick replied. Steve shook his head and headed to the front door of the flat, pulling it open.

“Fury…”he said with a roll of his eyes, turning and walking back into the apartment.

“Huh?” Katie asked a she followed him into the living room, where the music was coming from, to see Fury sitting on the couch in the dark.

“What are you doing here?” she asked

"Nice to see you too, Nova. And in answer to your question my wife kicked me out."

"I didn't know you were married," she continued, frowning. And she didn’t. And she wasn’t sure that he was.

"There are a lot of things you don't about me," Fury said casually.

"I know, Nick. That's the problem," Steve grumbled walking forward as Katie remained where she was, eyes narrowed at her old boss. Steve flipped on the light switch, instantly recoiling in surprise when he noticed Fury’s injuries. Besides him Katie gasped slightly and moved to get closer to help but Fury indicated for her to stop and the both of them to stay quiet. He turned off the light again and typed something on his phone.

'EARS EVERYWHERE'.

Bugs? His apartment was bugged? By who? They both exchanged a glance and instantly Katie looked up and around the room, as if she expected to see a microphone glaring at them...

"I'm sorry to have to do this but I had nowhere else to crash," Fury said looking around a bit. He typed something else up on his phone:

'SHIELD COMPROMISED'.

Steve and Katie shared another glance, the pair of them wide eyed. This was bad.

"Who else knows about your wife?" Steve asked, keeping his voice even.

Fury showed them another text;

'YOU TWO AND ME'.

"Just, my friends," Fury grunted in pain while getting up and walking closer to them.

"Is that what we are?" Katie narrowed her eyes at him. She still hadn’t completely forgiven the man for lying to them all about Coulson.

"That's up to you." Fury replied, his eyes darting from Katie to Steve.

"Don't, trust anyone," he coughed before passing out. Katie and Steve both looked at what he had been handed and saw that it was a flash drive. Steve curled his hand around it and looked at Katie, but before either of them could say anything else there was the sound of someone breaking into the apartment. Steve quickly moved into a defensive position, in front of Katie and Fury, raising his shield.

"Captain Rogers?" a familiar voice suddenly called out and they watched as Kate, his neighbour, cautiously walked in with a gun pointed. "I'm Agent 13 of SHIELD's Special Service," she informs.

"Kate?" Steve frowned, shaking his head. He’d just about had his fill of surprises.

"I'm assigned to protect you," she continued

"On whose orders?" Katie snapped.

Kate stopped as she spotted Fury lying on the floor. "His," she dropped besides Katie, checking Fury for a pulse and then spoke into her radio

"Foxtrot is down, he's unresponsive. I need EMTs."

"Do you have a twenty on the shooter?" A SHIELD agent questioned through the radio.

"Tell them I'm in pursuit." he said and with that he took a running jump and smashed straight through his window, and through into the office building opposite. Steve ran, keeping his eye on the man, smashing through walls, windows, anything in his way. Eventually he caught up with him on the roof and flung his shield at the assassin who, to Steve’s shock caught it with one swift move in the hand of his metal arm. There was a pause as Steve could do nothing but eye the man with surprise before the shield came flying back. Steve caught it, with both hands on its rim but the force pushed him back a few yards along the gravel surface of the roof. By the time he had stopped the momentum moving him, the assassin had jumped. Steve ran to the edge of the building and looked down.

He was gone.

*****

“What happened?" Hill asked as they all looked through the glass window at the hustle and bustle of the operating room. Steve moved his arm from around Katie and took her hand in his, squeezing her fingers gently.

"He was at my apartment when we got home," Steve started. "I hadn’t even had chance to ask why when there were two blasts, then another. Someone shot him through the window of the apartment - three times. I tried to go after the shooter, but I lost him on the roof of the building across the street."

"What aren't you telling me?" she asked quietly.

"Nothing." Katie answered for them.

Before Hill could drill either of them anymore the door to the observation room flung open and heavy footsteps crossed the room, stopping at the other side of Katie.

"Is he gonna make it?" Natasha asked, almost inaudibly, staring through the window.

"We don't know," Hill mumbled.

"Tell me about the shooter," Natasha whispered

"He's fast and strong. He had a metal arm," Steve said, letting go of Katie’s hand to fold his arms across his chest and as he did, they both caught the look of recognition and slight fear on Natasha's face reflected in the window.

"Ballistics?" Natasha asked swallowing heavily.

"Three slugs. No rifling and completely untraceable," Maria answers softly.

"Soviet made?"

"Yeah," Maria answered looking at Natasha in shock. Steve turned to face her, as did Katie, but she didn’t look back. She stared straight through to the operating theatre but before Katie could ask what it was that she wasn’t saying, the operation room went into overdrive. Machines started beeping erratically, the doctors and nurses were rushing around the room and the panic was palpable even behind the glass. But they couldn't save him.

"Time of death, 1:03 A.M."

Natasha pushed past Katie and almost sprinted out of the room. Steve pulled his hand out of his pocket, turning the flash drive that Nick had given him over in his hand. Nick had been killed because he knew whatever it was that was on that drive. What could possibly be so bad, so secret, so dangerous that the Director of SHIELD was deemed a threat for knowing? He glanced up at Katie who was watching him, tears in her eyes. She might have had her issues with Fury, but he was a good man and would never have wished him dead. With a sigh Steve placed the item back into his pocket and pulled her in for a hug.

******

A little later, the 4 of them stood the the same room as Nick’s body. Natasha was by him, hardly having moved a muscle, almost like she was in shock. And it unnerved Katie. Nat wasn’t one to really show emotion but then again, Fury had meant a lot to her. The door opened and a doctor entered, speaking to Hill. She nodded and then walked over to Katie and Steve, coughing to clear her throat.

“They need to take him.” she said, her voice cracking slightly. Steve nodded and stepped towards Nat.

“Nat...” he said gently, “Natasha...” But at that she turned away from them all and made her way quickly into the corridor of the Hospital. Katie and Steve looked at one another, before they hastily followed her.

"Why was Fury in your apartment?" Natasha span around to ask Steve. Her eyes were filled with sadness, but Katie could also see suspicion etched on her pretty features.

"I don't know," Steve sighed shrugging his shoulders, and before the conversation could go on further they were interrupted by Rumlow.

"Cap, they want you back at Shield," He informed them, gently touching Katie’s shoulder. "You too Nova."

"Alright, give us a second," Steve said dismissing Rumlow, perhaps a little more harshly than he intended, as he turned back to Natasha but Rumlow was insistent

"They want you now,"

"Alright" Katie said, firmly but calmly. Rumlow nodded and then moved back down the hallway.

"You're a terrible liar." Natasha said to Steve with her trademark smirk that didn't reach her eyes before she turned and left.

"What the hell is on that drive?" Katie said to Steve after a moment of silence.

“I don’t know, but it’s what Natasha was saving data to on our mission the other day.” he said before he looked up staring very focused into a vending machine to his right, which was open as a janitor filled it up. He didn’t want to take the drive back to the Triskellion, just in case. He knew that something wasn’t quite right.

Katie caught his eye before glancing around the hallway that was mostly full of SHIELD agents, luckily they were all congregated on the other end.

“Do it.” she said, figuring out his intention to hide the item “I’ll distract them.”

Without another look back at him, she began to stride forwards towards Rumlow.

“Its almost 4 am.” she glanced at her watch. “What do they want us for Brock? We already told Sitwell what we know and I don’t work for SHIELD anymore, remember?”

Rumlow shrugged “Honestly, I don’t know Nova. I’m just under instructions to get you both back to base.”

At that point Steve reached them, but he wasn’t stopping. Taking Katie’s hand he nodded to the STRIKE leader

"Let's go."

"Yeah," Rumlow said falling in step with them, fixing his earpiece. "Strike! Move it out."

Steve drove to the Triskellion, Katie’s car flanked by the Armoured SUVs as they sped through the streets of DC. Katie dozed off for 10 minutes and Steve let her sleep, lost in his own thoughts. He had expected her to be called in alongside him, especially after she had been, along with him, the last people Fury had spoken to him before he died. But he wasn’t happy about it, he wanted her as far away from whatever the hell was going on as possible. Once they arrived he gently shook her awake and the two of them were given an hour or so to grab something to eat. Neither were hungry, but they forced down their sandwiches, Katie’s brain working in overdrive as she did so. Something was nagging at her, and she was trying to make the connections, figure it out, but her head simply kept replaying Fury getting shot over and over.

"Foxtrot is down, he's unresponsive. I need EMTs."

"Do you have a twenty on the shooter?"

She frowned. That was odd.

“What is?” Steve asked, coffee in his hand as he sat back on one of the large chairs in one of the common rooms by the kitchen area.

“Before…when Kate…Agent 13, whatever the hell her name is called back to base…she said Fury was down and needed EMTs…”

“Sitwell…” she said gently, looking at him.

Steve frowned, not quite sure where this was going. “Ok…” “Well, how did he know Fury had been shot? How could anyone know he had been shot?”

Oh, now he understood. He understood completely. Damned it she was clever. “They couldn’t…” he said, sitting up “Not unless they were there or Kate…whoever, told them.”

“And she didn’t. She just said he was down and unresponsive.” Katie said. “Which means…” Steve began, but Katie finished for him. “Sitwell knew about the hit. Because he was in on it. Along with fuck knows who else...”

Fury was right, SHIELD was compromised. But how far, they had no idea. Before he had chance to reply the door opened and Rumlow stepped in

“Secretary Pierce is ready now guys.” “Thanks…” Katie said, shooting Steve another glance as they both stood up.

“Not a word.” he mumbled as they got into the elevator “We say nothing, not until we figure out who we can trust.”

“If anyone.” she mumbled back.

*****

"Captain, why was Nick in your apartment last night?" Secretary Pierce looked at Steve as he sat on the couch in the large office.

"I don't know." He answered in a soft voice.

"Did you know it was bugged?" Pierce pressed on.

"We did." Katie said meeting the secretary's eye. "Because Nick told us."

"Did he tell you he was the one who bugged it?"

Steve took a breath and glanced at Katie, his expression stony but the two of them shared the understanding.

No, no he had not.

"I want you to see something." Pierce continued, and gestured to a monitor just behind the couches we were sitting on. On the screen was a man tied down to a chair, he looked to be currently being interrogated. Katie didn’t recognise the man, but Steve did. It was Batroc, the lead merc from the hijacking of the Lemurian Star.

"Is that live?" Steve asked.

"Yeah, they picked him up last night in a not so safe house in Algiers."

"Are you saying he's a suspect?" Steve said not taking his eyes off the screen "Assassination isn't Batroc's line."

"It's more complicated than that. Batroc was hired anonymously to hijack the Lemurian Star. He was contacted by email and paid by wire transfer, and then the money was run through 17 fictitious accounts. The last going to a holding company that was registered to a Jacob Veech." Pierce said handing Steve a folder.

"Am I supposed to know who that is?" Steve asked, skimming through the file offered to him in curiosity and confusion.

"Not likely. Veech died six years ago. His last address was 1435 Elmhurst Drive. When I first met Nick, his mother lived at 1437."

"Wait," Katie said, gathering what the secretary was suggesting. "Are you saying Fury hired the pirates? Why?"

"The prevailing theory?" Pierce shrugged. "The hijacking was a cover for the acquisition and sale of classified intelligence. The sale went sour and that led to Nick's death."

"If you really knew Nick Fury you'd know that's not true." Steve said strongly, and he believed it. Fury was a lot of things, but a traitor he was not.

Pierce nodded in agreement. "Why do you think we're here talking?" He then got to his feet and began to walk towards the window. "See, I took a seat on the council not because I wanted to, but because Nick asked me to because we were both realists. We knew that despite all the diplomacy, and the hand shaking and the rhetoric, to build a really better world sometimes means having to tear the old one down. And that makes enemies."

Steve didn’t like the way this was going. He looked at Katie and gestured for her to stand as he did. Pierce turned back around and looked at them both.

"Those people that call you dirty because you've got the guts to stick your hands in the mud and try to build something better. And the idea that those people could be happy today," Pierce shoved his hands in his pockets. "Makes me really, really angry. Captain, you and Miss Stark were the last ones to see Nick Fury alive. I don't think that's an accident." Pierce said matter-of-factly. "And I don't think you do, either. So, I'm going to ask again was he there?"

"He told us not to trust anyone." Steve said honestly.

Pierce made a humming sound. "I wonder, if that included him."

There was a tense moment of silence before Steve spoke again. "I'm sorry. Those were his last words. Excuse us," He turned to leave, picking up his shield that he sent down upon our arrival and attaching it to the harness on his back, before ushering Katie out of the room slightly ahead of him.

"Captain," Pierce's voice halted him mid step and he turned to look at him. "Someone murdered my friend. I'm going to find out why. Anyone who gets in my way is going to regret it." Pierce's voice rang out again, a pointed look in their direction.

Steve wasn’t a stupid man, and he knew that was a veiled threat. He took a deep breath, considering his response, before he decided appearing un-rattled was the best option.

“Understood.” he nodded, holding the door open for Katie to step through keeping himself between her and Pierce as he followed, anchoring his hand on her back to keep her moving.

“You should have lied.” she whispered.

“Huh?” “Back then, said we didn’t know why Fury was there. By telling him that he told us not to trust anyone he knows we know and that we’re hiding something…”

“We need to get to the hospital and get that stick." Steve said, adamant that whatever it was that was on there would hold the answers. He looked up and down the corridor before they stepped into the elevator.

“Operations Control” Steve spoke as the elevator scanned his face and Katie’s Guest ID.

“Confirmed”

Just as the doors were about to close, Rumlow stepped in with two other STRIKE agents.

“Keep all STRIKE personnel on site” he was saying. Both the agents nodded and voiced their acknowledgement of his order.

“Forensics.” Rumlow said.

“Confirmed.”

“Cap, Nova…” Rumlow said, nodding to them both.

“Rumlow.” Steve acknowledged him as the doors closed and they started to descend.

“Evidence Response found some fibres on the roof they want us to see.” Rumlow turned his head to look at us “You want me to get the tac-team ready?”

“No, let’s wait and see what it is first.” Steve said.

“What's the status so far?” Rollins was saying.

“Administrations level” another one asked, before they continued whatever it was they were talking about, moving round to find a space behind Steve and Katie.

He noticed Katie look round, a frown on her face, but before he could say anything Rumlow spoke, looking over his shoulder at Steve.

“I’m sorry about what happened with Fury. Messed up, what happened to him”

“Thank you.” Steve said.

The elevator stopped and another agent entered.

“Records”

“Before we get started…” Steve sighed, looking down before he stared straight ahead “Does anyone want to get out?”

His eyes flicked to the back of Rumlow’s head. There was a moment’s pause before all hell broke loose. Steve was fighting with 4 of them at once, as 2 of them launched at Katie. They put up a good fight, ducking, diving, punching. Steve was shocked with a baton, but he simply grit his teeth, absorbing the electricity into his body. It hurt, but it wasn’t unbearable. And then they managed to snap one of his arms to the wall of the elevator using some kind of metallic clamp and then he had 5 of them on him at once, attempting to pin his other arm in too. He kicked out, taking down as many as he could.

Just as she had floored the second of the agents who had launched at her, Katie was grabbed from behind by her hair and hauled to the edge of the elevator, being wrestled roughly to the floor by Rumlow who was instantly on top of her, trying to get her wrists from where she had positioned them underneath her body in an attempt to stop them restraining her.

"Brock…” she said gently, looking at him as she swallowed. “What’s going on?” “I’m sorry Stark…” he said, “Just following orders…”

“Yeah well follow this…” she said, the anger brewing in her as she jerked her head forwards as hard as she could, feeling it connect with his nose. He yelled, and then her head snapped painfully to the right as he back handed her straight across the face. She felt her lip split and the warm, metallic taste of blood hit her taste buds, stars flashing in front of her eyes as her ears began to ring from the harsh knock.

Steve saw Rumlow land the blow to Katie’s face and let out a growl of anger and aimed another kick at one final agent who had stumbled back up, causing him to collide with the side of the elevator before slumping down. He turned, pulled on his arm as hard as he could, wrenching the cuff off the side of the elevator and looked up in time to see Katie, who was now pinned against the wall by another set of those damned cuffs, take a blow to the ribs from Rumlow causing her to cry out in pain.

“Rumlow!” he yelled causing the man to whip his head round, surprise on his face. Katie, using her arms as leverage, swung her legs upwards, kicking Rumlow with both feet. The STRIKE leader stumbled slightly as Steve snarled at him, his entire body and face alight with rage “Touch my girl again…and I’ll fucking kill you.”

Rumlow got to his feet, holding one of his arms out, electric rod in his hand “Whoa, big guy. I just want you both to know, this ain't personal.”

He then lunged at Steve with his electric rod but one on one Steve was easily able to defend himself, he moved to the right, dodged and grabbed him, throwing him harshly upwards where he crashed into the ceiling of the elevator, before falling to the floor, unconscious.

“Yeah well…It kind of feels personal” Steve said, his breath slightly ragged from the exertion. He used his foot to flip his shield over like a Frisbee, catching it perfectly.

“You alright?” Steve asked, stepping over the bodies of the 8 agents they’d taken down to get to Katie.

“Yeah…” she said. Steve cut the cuffs that were restraining her into 2 pieces with his shield and she bent over, his hands gently on her back as she rubbed at her side before straightening up and stalking over to where Rumlow was beginning to stir slightly. She kicked him hard in the face, causing him to flip backwards and he was out, unconscious.

“Nothing personal…” she spat, then looked up at Steve. There was a moment during which they both looked around, trying to make sense of what had happened, before the elevator doors opened and Steve pulled Katie sharply behind him. They both stared at a team of STRIKE agents pointing their weapons into the elevator. Steve raised his shield.

“Drop the shield! Put your hands in the air!”

Steve looked round, and spotted the elevator wires to the left of Katie’s head

“DUCK!” he yelled at her, and as she did he swiped with his shield over her head sending them plummeting. Eventually the emergency brake systems kicked in and the elevator stopped, slightly misaligned with the doors by a few feet. As Katie bent down to retrieve a gun and some ammo off one of the Agents, Steve forced the door open, intending to climb out but more STRIKE agents were approaching. He closed the door again and looked at Katie, then around the glass walls, looking down below us at the glass roof of the main Triskelion atrium.

It was a long way but they could make it.

“You’re kidding, right?” Katie exclaimed, realising exactly what he was thinking.

“Give it up, Rogers! Get that door open! You have nowhere to go!” came the yell from the floor outside the elevator door.

“Do you trust me?” he asked, taking a deep breath, raising his shield in front of him.

“Of course I do, but…”

“Then hang on…”

She sighed and jumped onto his back, swinging her legs round his waist and her arms round his neck. Steve propelled them forward and broke through the glass in the elevator, spreading his arms out wide as he fell to prevent himself from tumbling through the air before tucking his body as tightly in to his shield as he could. Katie did the same, burying her head into his back as they crashed through the glass ceiling and hit the floor with a loud clang, to screams and shouts from people all around the atrium.

Katie gave a soft groan, rolling off Steve who moaned and stretched out, having been winded from the impact. But Steve knew they had to keep moving. He pushed himself up onto his knees, took a deep breath and offered his hand to Katie to help her stand. They both took a quick glance around before he started to run, pulling her with him. She stumbled slightly, but he kept hold of her, not letting her fall until her legs seemed to be working again.

And then they ran.

@the-omni-princess

@momobaby227

@geekofmanythings16

#steve rogers x original female character #steve rogers x oc #steve rogers #captain america #natasha romanoff #black widow #nick fury #heil hydra #the winter soldier #mcu #mcu fanfiction #marvel #marvel fanfiction #fanfic #avengers #avengers fanfiction

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ironspiidey · 5 years ago

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Superhero’s get Bullies Too Part 10

Chapter 1

Chapter 10: Harley Stark & Throat Punching a Bully

Read on AO3

Thats right guys finally a new update!!!!!!

friendly reminder a hoe for likes and comments. They also fuel me :)

“So you and May eh?” Peter says with a smirk as he slides into the backseat of the car.

Happy glances in the rearview mirror. “Me and your Aunt are just friends Peter.”

Peter rolls his eyes. “Liar. I know my aunt well enough to know you two are more than just friends Happy.”

Happy tossed Peter his phone before turning out of the apartment parking lot and in the direction of the tower.

“Oh thanks!” Peter unlocks his phone and scrolls through his texts, seeing a bunch from his very concerned boyfriend, which made him smile. “Stop ignoring me.”

“I’m not ignoring you.”

“You’re not, not ignoring me either.” Peter looked up from his phone to give the driver a pointed look in the mirror.

Happy shook his head. “Your aunt and I are friends Peter, we may have hung out once or twice.”

“Three times.” Peter says without looking up from his phone, quickly sending a message in his group chat with MJ, Gwen & Ned about how Happy’s picked him up and brought him his phone.

“Excuse me?”

“You’ve hung out with her 3 different times. First time was when she went looking for me at the Tower but I was at a decathlon thing, you took her for coffee but only told Mr. Stark you were taking her home.”

“How?”

“How do I know? Well we did some major catching up during pee and snack breaks today when we were watching Greys.”

Happy nods in understanding “Ah okay, She does become easier to talk to when that TV show is involved.”

“Did you two ‘Netflix and Chill’ in my living room?”

The older man remains quite.

“Oh gross.”

Happy chuckles as he puts the partition up, clearly having enough of the redheads 21 questions.

Peter shakes his head and looks down at his phone. He starts deleting old conversations to clean up his inbox and his thumb hovers over Harley’s messages. He opens the conversation and sighs.

H: Hey Pete, not sure when youll see this but yeah. I know your upset with Stark for looking in your phone but he cares about you a lot more then he lets on which I know is hard to believe

H: my point is trust is huge with him and he’s low key freaking out that he lost you even though im saying he hasn’t bc your too stubborn to give up on his crazy ass. Just maybe cut him some slack when you get here. He means well.

H: and Im kinda getting used to having you around so yeah.

Peter bites his lip debating on digging out the messages from Flash that he archived a few months ago or deleting them. Knowing that it will send Tony even more over the edge then the superhero already is but at the same time remembering how upset he sounded when he found the one conversation. Peter sighs as he responds to Harley’s messages.

P: Don’t worry Harley, it’s going to take more than one fight to get rid of me. I know he cares and tell him to stop being a dumbass and that he hasn’t lost me.

Peter sighs again, realizing if things are truly going to work he needs to be as truthful as possible with the older man

P: and tell him I have something to show him when I get there.

H: So happys picked you up? How long till your home also will do parker

Peter knocks on the partition.

“Yes Peter?” Happy responds once he brings the glass screen down half way

“How far are we away from the Tower?” Peter asks without looking up, shooting his boyfriend a quick text about how he isn’t mad, that he still loves him and everything will be alright.

“About 20 minutes, traffic seems slow today.”

“Thanks Happy.”

Peter goes back to his conversation with Harley and tells him just that, switching to Tony’s chat as his phone vibrates.

T: my nephew ratted me out didn’t he?

P: Or I could be telepathic

T: without even being near me?

P: I always said we were meant to be :P

P: But seriously Tones, you know I love you. I’m not going to run away that easily.

T: I love you Underoos

P: Happy says I should be home in 20 minutes, should I order takeout?

The younger man’s phone buzzes, showing Tony’s caller ID

“I’ll take that as a yes?”

“Actually no.” Tony starts “I have something planned here and no I’m not telling you what it is.”

‘Don’t worry Parker, you’re going to love it!!!’ Peter hears Harley holler in the background

“Another dinner? You really are sucking up.” Peter says with a grin

“What? Cant a man provide a nice dinner for the ones he love.”

“You’re definitely up to something Tony.”

“Always. Harley here go put this on the table. Okay Petey I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

“Okay Tones, love you.”

“Ditto.”

Peter smiles to himself after disconnecting the call. Happy smirked as he glanced in the rearview mirror. Peter noticed and raised an eyebrow “What?”

“Not a thing.”

"So your Uncle let you come to school Keener?"

Harley gave him a look as he entered the building "What the fuck do you want?"

After the weekend the blonde just had. Finding out just how much of a piece of shit Flash was, Harley’s patience was nonexistent with the other teen.

"I want in."

"In on what?"

"Parker."

Harley's eyes widen "What the fuck do you mean? It’s too fucking early to deal with your dumbass"

"Don't play stupid with me. I know you’re fucking him, and maybe even your uncle is too. I want a fucking piece with or without your help."

"Is that a fucking threat?"

"It's a promise."

"You leave Parker the fuck alone or I'll fucking end you." the blonde teen growled.

"Ah ah ah, what would your uncle say if you got into another fight?"

Harley stepped up into Flash's personal space "He'd fucking congratulate me for putting an end to your disgusting, useless life."

Flash pushed him back. "Gonna kill me are you?"

"C'mon Harley, Flash isn’t worth it. Think about Peter." Harley’s friend, Tommy finally spoke up. Harley didn’t exactly tell Tommy everything but Tommy knew Flash was on some serious thin ice based on some texts between Flash and Parker. Harley had a bad temper on a good day but after whatever happened this past weekend, well Tommy was pretty sure his friend was just a ticking bomb ready to explode.

"Yeah Harley," Flash mocked. “Who would save him if you're stuck in jail being somebodies little bitch."

Harley turned to his friend and laughed manically "Ha, this guy."

"Oh no." Tommy sighed as Harley turned back to the bully and punched him in the throat. So much for a quiet Monday.

Flash fell back grasping at his throat before lunging at the blonde. "You’re going to regret that."

Harley quickly dodged him, sticking his foot out so the brute fell. He flipped him over and grabbed a hold of his collar. "You are going to regret ever fucking with Parker.” Harley spat and he hauled his arm back and started punching him repeatedly

Tommy sighed and leaned against the wall, keeping an eye out for teachers or Flash's boys. They were by the side entrance of the school that nobody uses except the kids smoking but you couldn’t be too careful. Plus the last thing they needed was Parker coming around and seeing this.

After a few punches were thrown Harley let off. He wiped the blood on his knuckles off on Flash’s shirt then got up.

"Know your fucking place Thompson. Ready to go?"

Tommy turned and nodded "Yeah let’s bounce before Parker shows up."

"This isn't fucking over!" Flash sputtered as moved to get up.

Harley turned and spit in front of the other teen. "If you know what's good for you, it'll be over."

"How long do you think we've got till he blabs to someone?"

Harley shrugs "Hopefully till lunch."

As they make their way to the front of the school Tommy’s phone starts buzzing. "What the fuck?"

Harley looked at him puzzled. “What?"

The other boy tilted his screen so that he could see "See for yourself."

"Why is Parker calling you?”

"The better question is how he got my number. Harley!"

The blonde put his hands up “Wasn't me dude. Well answer it!"

Tommy gave him a funny look before answering. "Yo."

"Hey Tommy? It’s Peter. Peter Parker. "

"Hi Parker."

"Hi! Is Harley with you?"

"Yep, wanna talk to him?" Harley held his hand out

"Um no actually I wanted to talk to you. You don't have me on speaker do you?"

Tommy shook his head at his friend, shrugging when Harley gave him a confused look. "Nope."

"Okay great. Well I just wanted to say it’s my fault he didn’t get to hang out with you this weekend."

"Your fault?" Tommy pushed Harley away when he tried to listen in.

"Yeah uh well you see." Peter coughed, clearly nervous "Harley got angry at Flash because of me and To- Mr. Stark was not impressed and basically put him on house arrest."

"House arrest?” Tommy glanced at his friend, mouthing 'He's apologizing'

"Yeah. His uncle didn't trust him."

"I don’t blame him there, Harley's a heathen." he snickered, wincing when Harley punched him in the arm.

Peter giggled "I'm not sure what he told you so I just wanted to clear things up in case he said something stupid like he had a date or something."

"That would be stupid?"

"Well duh, he's your best friend and he shouldn't lie to you. Especially not for me. Could you do me a favor?"

"Depends on what it is?"

"Nothing bad! I just want you to keep an eye on Harley and maybe uh make sure he stays away from Flash. I'm worried he's going to do something stupid and then To- Mr. Stark would lose it and it'll be a giant mess. So if you could do that for me that be great."

Tommy shook his head. "Yeah Parker I can do that but you owe me one alright?"

"I expect nothing less. See ya Tommy"

"What was that about?” Harley questioned him as the call ended.

“Parker is too smart for his own good. He just called me to ask me to keep an eye on you and keep you away from Flash."

"To keep an eye on me?"

"Yup."

"He's something else. Bet my uncle had something to do with it." Harley pulled out his phone as they entered the building, texting his uncle

H: did you tell Peter to call Tommy?

"Yeah that’s the other thing!"

Harley looked up from his phone “Other thing?”

“Yeah he kept starting to call your uncle by his first name than correcting himself.”

“Oh.” Harley tried to remain normal but was freaking out inside. If Tommy was to ask any questions about his uncle and Parker, well Harley wasn’t sure how he’d be able to lie to his best friend without him becoming suspicious.

“Yeah like I know he’s his intern and you two are kinda friends and hang out at your place together so I’m sure he doesn’t call him Mr. Stark. There’s no reason to cover it up.”

Harley shrugged “Yeah well maybe he’s trying to hide that we hang out?”

“Why would he call me to say he’s the reason you couldn’t hang this weekend then?”

“He did what? I thought you said he called to make sure you kept an eye on me?”

“Well he did. But first he wanted to make sure I knew that you didn’t chill this weekend because of something to do with Flash bugging him and you and Stark got into it.”

“Why would he bring that up?”

Tommy shrugged. “Somethin about worrying you’d make up some shit story about a date to cover it up. I’m your best friend and you shouldn’t lie to me especially for Parker.”

Harley gave him an unimpressed look.

“What? His words not mine.”

“Sure.”

“I’m serious! Then he asked about keeping an eye on you. So see what I mean when it makes no sense?”

Harley was about to respond when his phone buzzed

Stark: No. Did you do something that would require him to talk to Tommy?

H: Not even. So you’re telling me you had nothing to do with him getting a hold of Tommys number to call him?

Stark: You are becoming paranoid nephew .

H: That don’t answer my question uncle.

Stark: *doesn’t. Stark: Get to class I’ll see you after school.

Harley rolled his eyes as he put his phone back in his pocket. “Sorry what?”

“Were you even listening to me?”

Harley sighed. “Yes buttercup. Peter thinks you shouldn’t lie to me, wants you to keep an eye on me and hiding our friendship makes no sense considering he called you about that shit.”

“Someone is moody as fuck today.”

“Sorry man it’s just my uncle.”

Tommy raises an eyebrow “That or Flash hit a nerve.”

“Excuse me?”

“Well I mean dude you have a temper but the last time I seen you beat the shit outta somebody like that over a conversation was when my girlfriend was given a hard time. So unless someone you know is dating Parker, you’re catching feelings.”

Harley scrunched his nose up in disgust. “Fuck no. He’s just my Uncle’s intern man.”

“Since when has your uncle needed you to protect his interns?” Tommy challenged

“Since he started having a nerd the size of a beanpole for an intern.”

Tommy gave him a look as they entered first class.

“Seriously. You’ve seen how skinny he is. If Flash wanted to do some damage it wouldn’t be that hard!”

Tommy nods. Seeing Ned and Liz walk into class, he nudges Harley with his foot. Hoping he’ll get the hint to shut it.

Harley gave him a confused look before seeing Peter’s friends walk in.

“Hey Harley!” Ned stops in front of his desk.

“What’s up Leeds?”

“Was Peter with you this morning?”

“No. Didn’t he have some nerd thing with you at 8?”

Ned nods “Yeah but he didn’t show.”

Harley felt his heart drop into his throat. Peter never missed early periods. The whole point of them was so that a day or two a week he could spend the afternoon at SI. “Did you hear from him?”

Tommy glanced at Harley while trying to act indifferent. Last thing they needed was Ned snooping around if Harley did have a thing for the other teen.

Ned shook his head. “He texted me around half 7 saying he’d be there but he didn’t show.”

Harley looked confused. “Well I’m sure everything’s fine. Maybe something came up with SI.”

“I don’t think so. He’s only supposed to be an active intern outside of school hours.”

Harley shrugs “You’re just a worry wart Leeds.”

Liz nodded “See me and MJ told you everything was probably fine. Go sit down mother hen.” She pushed him in the direction of where they usually sat.

“Do us all a favor though and text your uncle. I really don’t feel like listening to Ned worry all damn day.” She whispered as she passed both boys.

After they were out of ear shot Tommy leaned forward. “Well we heard from him like 20 minutes ago so everything should be fine right?”

“Clearly Flash didn’t have anything to do with whatever’s going on.”

“You should get ahold of Stark. Leeds will probably try calling his aunt if we don’t find out what’s up.”

Harley shuddered at the thought. His uncle was scary but Peter’s aunt? She was a damn nightmare when it came to her nephew. “Shit your right. I got no interest in dealing with the wrath that is May Parker.”

Harley quickly takes his phone out and sends his uncle another text.

H: Hey is Peter with you?

He frowns when immediately his phone rings showing Tony’s contact. “Shit.” He muttered under his breath. “He’s fucking calling me.”

Tommy looked at him in alarm “Who Peter?”

“No. Stark!” He whispered harshly as he got up quickly heading outside.

“Hello?” Harley answered once he was outside of the room.

“Why are you asking about Peter?”

“Because-”

Tony cut him off “Why aren’t you in your English class?”

“Well I was in fucking English before Peter’s friends started asking me where the fuck he was!”

“Language nephew. Why are they asking you where he is?”

“Apparently I’ve become his fucking keeper or something. All I know is he didn’t show for that thing for early period and Ned is being a mother hen.”

“Clearly I need to wash your mouth out with soap. Peter didn’t show to Decathlon practice? Hmm.”

Harley could hear some rustling in the background which concerned him mildly. If he uncle didn’t know he was there how the hell was anyone else going to? “Uncle?”

“One second.”

The rustling continued for a beat before Tony spoke.

“Friday, Can you pinpoint Peter’s location?” Tony spoke before the line went silent for roughly 30 seconds.

“Thanks babygirl. Okay so everything is perfectly fine. I think he plans to reach out to his friends. He’ll be there soon.”

“Well what even happened?” Harley questioned. Then the second warning bell rang.

“Get to class.”

“But-” Harley was interrupted by a dial tone. He sighed as he pocketed his phone. Peter was going to be the death of him, he was sure of it.

#starker #starker fic #my fic #my work #superheros get bullied too #New Chapter #A03 #flash is a dick #tony stark x peter parker #peter is 18+#end game what end game #ironspiidey writes

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tysonrunningfox · 6 years ago

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Ripped: Part 18

Hey so uhhhhh...here

Ao3

Before the condos went in, the East side of Downtown Berk was five generations of tacky all stacked together in narrow, street-facing Victorian buildings. The factories and lodging houses were mostly converted into apartments during the first world war, when Berk’s harbor was necessary to the war effort and suddenly people could regularly afford more than nightly rent. Then prohibition took effect and internal bathrooms were hidden to act as stills, speakeasies like Gruff’s used to be were nestled inconspicuously into the mouths of alleys, adding to the city center’s labyrinth. The depression brought back the web of shantytowns that again depleted for the war effort.

The forties and fifties brought back growth, but it stayed inside for the most part, those valanced rectangular windows looking in on mid-century modifications returning fifty-year-old lofts back to the open floor plan they’d had as workhouse accommodations. Cars replaced buggies and the weekly markets became grocery stores. The sixties and seventies meant avocado green refrigerators and shag carpet, and people ran cable through tight nooks in the old brick walls or mounted satellite dishes to sloped roofs.

By the eighties, things started to slow down, between the commercial fishing lane closing due to pollution and the particle board monstrosities down south gradually becoming more affordable than the city. That’s when Hiccup’s dad started on the force, clearing out squatters and enforcing the rules as the government turned some of the less historical buildings into public housing. The nineties were quieter, the streets respecting Stoick Haddock’s vast influence enough to stay clean.

Then Berk University got ahead of the dot-com bubble and an influx of college students started filling up cheap housing. And then they had the money not to waste time winding fiberoptic cable through a hundred years of walls built with no concept of building code, so they started building from the ground up, rewriting a city that had always embraced edits.

Hiccup stares up at the condo façade from the sidewalk in front of it, eyes following crisp white trim against pastel panels. The balconies above him are covered in houseplants and bikes that are necessitating the city’s replacement of old cobblestone in favor of asphalt bike lanes. The windows are double paned and soulless, their locks visible from four stories down.

“Hiccup?” A voice startles him from his architectural roast: urban condo edition, and he whips around to see Ruffnut, dressed for an office and holding an envelope in one hand. He’d warn her against walking alone at dusk, but they’re far enough from Astrid’s apartment that it doesn’t matter.

That and it would be a really creepy thing to say, so he’s glad he stopped himself.

“Hey, Ruff,” he looks between her and the door to the complex, “do you live here? Or…”

“Right,” she snorts, “I pay my rent with the family gold.”

“Oh, I figured,” he gestures at a sign advertising new units, starting in the mid eight-hundreds, “paying that much for a cardboard shoebox must be so reasonable for you with your connections.”

“All my connections, sure, a bunch of Gruffnuts.” She smacks her leg with the envelope and lowers her voice, “apparently the copy of the deed with Tuffnut’s signature forged on it was illegally downloaded at this address a couple of weeks ago.”

Hiccup’s eyes twitch automatically to the Neighborhood Watch Force seal engraved on the main door above a phone number and the number for a main office suite in the building. It would make sense if Grisly was the one to send the deed to the twins, especially since it was the only thing connecting Tuffnut to Gruff’s murder. And if Tuffnut hadn’t been connected, he wouldn’t have been questioned, and he never would have recognized the dossier, which connects the entire case back to Astrid.

Yes, it’s another whole basket of leaps adding onto Hiccup’s probable bushel of leaps at this point, but the dark hole that settles in his stomach when Grisly says Astrid’s name is as solid as the flat poured, brand new sidewalk he’s standing on.

He just needs something, a scrap of evidence that’s probably obvious in unit 110 of this exact building.

“Oh,” he tries to sound distracted, bored even, “so you’re looking into that?”

“I guess not,” she sighs, “I was expecting one of Gruffnut’s sleazy friends’ house or something. Anyone affording this place surely has something better to do than rip off my brother.”

“Maybe it’s someone working here,” Hiccup shrugs, “I mean think about it, the Neighborhood Watch Force office is here and they probably have all sorts of access after partnering with the police.”

“Why are you here?” Ruffnut raises an eyebrow, not as easy to lead as Hiccup had originally hoped.

She’s Astrid’s friend though, she saw how uncharacteristically addled Astrid was when Eretson wanted her alone.

“Hear me out,” he pauses until she nods him along, “ok, so I think Grisly has something to do with all of this.”

“Grisly?” She frowns, “the silver fox at the precinct with the unfortunate twin kink?”

“Huh?”

“The guy in gray.” The shake of her head is pointedly disgusted in him for his lack of vision, “with the Russian accent.” She waits for him to catch up, “you think he killed Gruffnut?”

“Not in so many words,” Hiccup winces, “or maybe—it’s just a feeling, but after yesterday with Eretson—”

“What is up with the cops around here, by the way?” She grins like he’s not the wrong audience to admire Snotlout’s biceps with. “Anyway, whatever, get to your point.”

“I already did. I think Grisly has some kind of influence or part in what’s going on.” He bites his lip before continuing, hoping he found the right company to say this. It’s something he would have said to Heather, back when she cared about the discovery of it all, but he can’t say that even she would have really gone along with it. Investigating a very much inhabited building with a security force is different than a boarded-up basement no one would buy because of the grotesque murder committed in it a century ago. “And I’m trying to figure out how to check out his office.”

“So you hop right from a hunch to breaking and entering?” She folds the envelope and tucks it into her pocket.

“After yesterday, Eretson thinks Astrid has something to do with the murders, and that’s entirely my fault.”

“Did you bring a lock pick or black spray paint or pantyhose or are we just doing this?” Ruffnut rubs her hands together and looks at the doors.

“Pantyhose?” He snorts, “I was going for more of a modern leg-line—wait, we?” He looks at her surprised and she shrugs.

“You’re crazy, I like crazy, I’m in. And it’s for Astrid.” She takes a step forward, “plus, if your hunch is right, maybe we can figure out who printed out this deed. Is the door locked?”

“I haven’t checked,” Hiccup points at the hours listed on the glass, “it says it closes at six though, and I don’t like the ‘appointment only’ in the fine print.”

Just then a woman walks mostly past the inside of the doors then freezes, squinting out at them and cracking the door to peek her head out. She has an ID badge around her neck and reading glasses pushed up onto her graying hair.

“Are you the Bensons?”

“Bensons?” Ruffnut asks.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I’m waiting for a young couple who applied for a condo online, but I guess that’s not you. Sorry!”

“N—”

“Yes,” Ruffnut cuts Hiccup off, her tone surprisingly confident, “that’s us. I’m sorry, I’m not used to the new name yet! Traffic!”

“I heard about that accident on the interstate and assumed you must have been stuck in traffic,” the woman opens the door and gestures them inside, “this shouldn’t take too long though, all the paperwork looks good. I assume you just want to have a look at the place before signing everything.”

“Thank you for accommodating us,” Hiccup looks around as the woman locks up behind them. When Ruffnut catches his eye she shrugs, surprisingly calm through the change in plans.

“Oh, it’s no problem, my office is right over here,” she leads them down a sterile hallway that belongs in a bank or medical center, the walls lined with black and white pictures of the buildings torn down to build this monstrosity.

She opens the door of Unit 130, right next to a shadowed Unit 110 and Hiccup grabs Ruffnut’s elbow to stop her from entering the woman’s office.

“I noticed on the door that Unit 110 is supposed to house the neighborhood security office,” he asks, trying to sound more like a theoretical ‘Benson’, who is apparently buying a condo, than himself, “is it closed at six on a Friday? That doesn’t seem very responsible.” Mr. Benson, the condo buying adult, is very concerned with how responsible people are.

“Oh, Grimmel is in all the time, you’ll see when you move in,” the woman laughs like old ladies do when Snotlout helps them across the street, “he introduces himself to all of our new residents as Mr. Grisly and acts all tough, but don’t worry, he warms up quick and everything has been so much quieter around here since he started.”

“Quieter?” Hiccup follows the woman into her office and sits down next to Ruffnut in the chairs on the other side of her desk, “what do you mean by that?”

“Given that you checked for security, I’m sure you’ve heard all those stories about how this used to be a bad part of town,” she rolls her eyes, “that was ages ago, we’ve really cleaned it up around here. Most people in the building work nearby, it’s a real community of young urban professionals like yourselves.” She pushes a stack of papers towards them and starts flipping through, “when was the wedding again?”

“The wedding?” Hiccup squawks and looks at Ruffnut, who has produced a ring and slid it onto her left ring finger since he last looked at her.

“Oh, it was just two months ago,” she winds her fingers through Hiccup’s and he freezes. He was just lying to get in the building, he didn’t think he’d end up in someone’s office in front of real estate papers, much less holding Astrid’s best friend’s hand while she’s wearing a mysteriously obtained ring.

Is this binding if Mr. Benson has to sign anything?

“Newlyweds,” the woman shakes her head affectionately and Hiccup nods, letting his eyes dart to the corners to check for security cameras. He doesn’t see any, but he didn’t see Grisly’s camera on the midnight tour either. “Oh! I just remembered, there’s one blank your income information that’s not quite filled out.” She points a manicured finger at a blank line labeled ‘Title’ above a number for income that Hiccup definitely doesn’t make in a decade. Maybe pretending to be the responsible Mr. Benson has some merit. “We just need your title to double check with the company.”

“Oh that’s my honey-pants,” Ruffnut coos, “he’s so modest, he just got a promotion and doesn’t like to brag.”

“Well, it’s not bragging when you report that number for taxes,” the woman rolls her eyes and stands up, “while you finish these up, I’ll go get the keys to the place. They just got the new backsplash in and it looks amazing.”

“Sounds great!” Ruffnut says too enthusiastically and the office door shuts, leaving them in silence.

“What the hell was that?” Hiccup disentangles his hand from hers, “and where’d you get that ring?”

“It’s fake,” she looks at her hand, “or mostly fake, it’s for emergencies.”

“Right, most emergencies can be dealt with by pretending to be married, of course.” He deadpans, looking back at the door, “we should go, this isn’t working.”

“You’re giving up on our marriage after only two months? I didn’t take you for a quitter when I said those vows—”

“Ruff—”

“On a beach in Mexico and Snotlout and Eretson were both groomsmen and their rented formal speedos matched the color of the Caribbean.” She grins at him and he sighs, looking across the desk and trying to think.

There’s a key ring right in front of the woman’s chair, a tag on it clearly labelled ‘Benson’, and he takes it, tossing it up and down in his palm.

“While you happen to be describing my dream wedding, and we should talk centerpieces later, I have a better plan.” He lets the keyring dangle from his finger, “obviously, these aren’t in the condo. And even more obviously, she can’t see very well since she missed them on the desk right in front of her.”

“That’s not a plan, Sherlock Condo.”

“Funny,” Hiccup hides the keys in his pocket when he sees the woman coming back down the hallway, “just follow my lead, alright?”

“As long as it’s clear that I wear the pants in this relationship,” Ruffnut grabs a handful of his ass and squeezes just as the door opens. “We can’t wait to see the place, right honey-buns?”

“So excited!” His voice cracks and the woman looks suspiciously at Ruffnut’s arm.

“I was sure I left the keys up there, but I must have brought them down,” she starts sifting through the biggest drawer behind her desk and Hiccup makes his move, edging out of Ruffnut’s reach on the way.

“Here! I’ll help,” he purposefully fumbles the stack of papers they were just signing, sending loose leaf and a pile of knick-knacks all over the floor. “Oh no! I’m so sorry!”

“He’s a real klutz,” Ruffnut explains as Hiccup kneels down and starts spreading the mess, “outside of the bedroom, if you know what I mean.”

“I’m sure she does, babe, you’re not really being subtle about it,” his laugh barely forces through gritted teeth, “can you get down here and help me?”

“Oh, you two don’t have to do that,” the woman finally kneels down herself, squinting to try and make sense of the purposefully thorough mess. She reaches out to pick up a small sculpture obviously made by a child and her glasses fall off, onto the ground by Hiccup’s knees.

“Here, I’ll get those for you!” He announces, reaching at the same time as she does and barely beating her. Their hands tangle as she pulls the glasses back towards her face and he makes the move, fumbling with the snap holding the ID card onto her lanyard.

“That’s where I left those!” She finally puts the glasses on and Hiccup quickly shoves the ID behind his back, relaxing slightly when Ruffnut takes it. “I’ve been looking for my glasses all day and they were on top of my head the whole time.”

“I hate when I do that,” Hiccup shakes his head and stands up, trying not to flinch when Ruffnut grabs his ass again. This time she leaves more than claw marks behind though and he feels the access card in his back pocket.

“You’d lose your head if it wasn’t bolted on, dear,” she laughs, patting the back of his pants and he jumps.

“Let me go check the condo again,” the woman points at her glasses, “I might have better luck finding the keys, I’ll be right back.”

“Sounds great!” Hiccup nods.

“I’ll clean up his mess,” Ruffnut whispers on one side of her hand, like she’s telling a secret, “it’s what I’m best at. Men, right?” As soon as the door is shut again, Hiccup takes a big step away from her and she nods to herself, “that went well.”

“You kept grabbing my ass!” He whisper yells, cracking the door to check the hallway. It’s still empty and Ruffnut slips out behind him.

“We got the key, didn’t we?”

“I’m dating—well, we haven’t said the word, but I—Astrid, in case you didn’t remember.” He holds his breath as he presses the key card to the sensor next to the doorframe.

It turns green and he turns the doorknob slowly, half expecting a booby trap or Mr. Grisly sitting in the corner in a swivel chair that turns around right as he flicks on the light. His hand hovers over the switch for a second before he thinks better of it. The light would be too obvious from the hallway, anyway.

“I’m Astrid’s best friend,” Ruffnut scoffs, hurrying Hiccup into the office so they can get out of the hallway, “I’m quality control.”

“I’m sure Astrid can do that herself,” he lets his eyes adjust, glad to see the empty desk chair in the corner. When he’s sure he won’t instantly trip and announce himself, he creeps over to the computer, waking up the monitor and quickly dimming the screen as far as it’ll go.

“So she’s done her own inspection then?” Ruffnut crouches down next to him, wiggling eyebrows tinged blue by the generic background.

“Clues, Ruff,” he points at a filing cabinet, “we’re looking for clues.”

“I’m just fake married to you and you’re a nag,” she sneaks over to the cabinet and opens the top drawer. “It’s empty, there’s nothing here.”

“We’ve been here all of two minutes,” he frowns, scrolling through empty file after empty file. He checks the drive and no storage is taken up aside from operating system and installed programs.

“Who would keep their evidence in a room that Glasses the Idiot could access?” She scoffs, “hell, who doesn’t lock their computer?”

“Someone who’s not using it,” he sighs, “you’re right. It’s an office but he clearly doesn’t do anything here.”

“Guess some rich asshole upstairs illegally downloaded the deed to Gruff’s,” Ruffnut wipes her hands on her pants and points at the door. “Should we get out of here before Glasses comes back?”

“I wonder if there’s a way to get a residence list,” Hiccup glances at the empty printer on the desk and gets an idea. “Let me check the printer ink levels to see if he’s been using it.”

“Hiccup, there’s nothing here,” Ruffnut grabs the back of his collar and yanks, ignoring his sudden choking sound.

“At least let me shut the monitor off,” he fumbles for the button just as a voice pipes up in the hallway.

“Grimmel!” There’s just enough light for him to see Ruffnut’s nervous expression before he clicks it off.

“If you’ll excuse me Ms. Moore,” the accented voice is lighter than usual, more alive through the door than it was across an interrogation room, even over hours of gory discussion, “I’m in a bit of a hurry. I’ve got a rather time sensitive clean-up on my plate at the moment.”

“Just a second, if you have it, I’m just about to show two new residents—lovely young couple—their place and they were asking about your hours.”

“I’m afraid I’ll have to catch them another time, Ms. Moore,” Grisly’s too bright voice draws her name out as the handle to the office half turns, and Hiccup doesn’t think, he just grabs Ruffnut’s arm and pulls her under the desk with him. It won’t do much if he sits down to check e-mail, but it’s better than nothing.

“The Bensons, I think they’re really going to like it here, they’re just in my office—Hello?” Glasses’s voice dulls slightly like she’s in the destroyed office next door.

The opening line of ‘I Shot the Sheriff’ pours out of Hiccup’s phone and he swears, yanking it out of his pocket and declining Snotlout’s call as quickly as he can.

“You have your ringtone on?” Ruffnut hisses, “do you know what year it is?”

“It’s Snotlout, he thinks it’s funny,” Hiccup shuts his phone off entirely and waits, wincing at the sound of his own breathing.

“Ms. Moore,” Grisly says as he opens the door, his accent crackling with some of its usual chill electrified, “I’m afraid we’ll have to continue this conversation another time.” He steps into the office and shuts the door across any further attempts at conversation. He mumbles something in Russian that Hiccup is confident calling an insult by tone alone and turns on the light.

In the dark, Hiccup didn’t notice the small sink against the opposite wall, but the sound of the faucet and Grisly’s creepily happy humming as he starts to wash his hands gives Ruffnut a chance to whisper.

“What are we going to do?”

“I’ll distract him, you make a run for it?” He offers and Ruffnut rolls her eyes, too comfortable hunched under the desk mid-trespass.

“If anyone’s distracting him, it should be me.”

The sink turns off but Grisly keeps humming, turning slightly so that if Hiccup peeks just barely around the tangle of computer cords, he can see that Grisly is holding something. Wiping something down maybe, from the scrap of cloth he throws away before he sets whatever it is in a drawer that he locks with a key from the ring on his belt.

Then Grisly wipes his hands with another wipe from a Clorox can, like a germophobic Bond villain in a lair far more grandiose than the security office at a poorly built condo development.

“We’ve got to get out of here,” he hisses, double checking his cuff under his pant leg in case he has to run. Not that it’ll help much, not with catching Grisly suspiciously pleased with himself as he turns the sink back on and starts scrubbing his hands again.

“Follow my lead,” Ruffnut stands up from under the desk, leaning back against the printer and pressing its power button so that it lurches to life with a screech and a series of clicks. Grisly turns around, a flash of shock humanizing his features for a brief second as he stares at her, too stunned to check under the desk. “Hey Sailor,” Ruff greets in a pointedly husky voice, one hip cocked.

“How did you get in here?” Grisly stomps across the room and grabs Ruffnut by the arm, which only makes her grin wider.

“Does that matter?” She twirls the end of her hair in her free hand, pointing at the door with her chin as she bites her lip.

Hiccup takes the chance, sliding out from under the desk as quietly as he can and slipping around the corner, staying low like he anticipates a velociraptor in pursuit.

“What are you doing in my office?” Grisly sounds as addled as Hiccup has ever heard him and he freezes, trying to figure out how to get Ruffnut out along with him.

But with Snotlout suspended, Hiccup doesn’t know how he’d get away with trespassing, so he leaves that problem to five seconds from now Hiccup, sneaking a cautious arm up to the doorknob.

“Are you asking what we’re doing now or what I intend for us to do?” Ruffnut laughs, “because right now we’re just standing here and you’re kind of yelling at me, which could be hot if your breath didn’t stink so much. Wait, I think I have gum!”

Grisly yells, inarticulate in his frustration, and Hiccup opens the door just enough to slip through, popping to his feet and cushioning the sound as it closes behind him. He makes for the back door to avoid Ms. Moore’s office, swearing under his breath at his phone when it takes what feels like forever to power back on. Every second that passes without more than yelling from Grisly’s office feels more tense and more miraculous and by the time he’s outside, it feels like his head is going to explode with it.

“Come on, come on,” he whispers at the phone, trying not to give into the guilt that’s prodding him to run back inside. He can’t help Ruffnut if he’s caught too.

The back door to the building opens again and he freezes, looking around for something to hide behind but seeing nothing but an empty alley. He waits Grisly’s enraged, split glacier face to emerge but instead, it’s Ruffnut.

“You’re ok!” He grabs her hand and yanks her down the alley next to him, not pausing until they’re out on the street among a few straggling commuters. “How’d you get out of there?”

“Irritated him, mostly,” she shrugs, obviously proud of herself, “I figured he wouldn’t think anyone was trespassing for information if he thought a crazy stalker—in this case me—was trespassing to make a move on him.”

“That’s—that’s actually kind of smart.” Hiccup realizes he’s talking way too loud and starts walking, head ducked down like he learned ages ago for exiting alleyways incognito, “I don’t know why it worked, but it did, and that’s what matters.”

“Are you going to get your phone?” Ruffnut asks and only then does Hiccup realize it’s vibrating.

“Shit, yeah,” he stops and frowns at the screen. Berk United Hospital. He doesn’t think he owes the hospital anything, Snotlout’s insurance is pretty good, so he usually keeps up on those bills. “Hello?”

“Hi, I’m calling from the Berk United Trauma Ward, can I speak to Hiccup Haddock please?”

“Y-yeah,” he stutters, tongue suddenly too big for his mouth, “you are, I mean I’m him. What’s going on?”

“You’re listed as Snotlout Jorgenson’s emergency contact,” the voice on the other end dips, somber like nurses get when the news isn’t good, “he’s just been brought in.”

“Is he ok?” Hiccup asks when the voice doesn’t automatically explain, dizzy as he leans back against the nearest wall.

“What’s wrong?” Ruffnut mouths and Hiccup shakes his head.

“Are you able to come to the hospital now?” The voice asks gently, “it’s urgent.”

“Yeah, I—on my way.”

Hiccup knows hospital calls. He knows how nurses sound when they’re underpaid and overworked, how they sound the first time they call about a bill and the fifth. He knows appointment calls and rescheduling calls, because over the years he’s had hundreds.

He’s only had one urgent call and he knows it better than the rest. He knows it like he knows blood on pavement and the way even his dad looked smaller on a gurney, surrounded by machines that were still clicking off to rest before their next, hopefully more successful, use.

Ruffnut must get him a ride because he doesn’t do anything, he barely feels himself walking and then he’s standing in front of the check-in desk at the emergency room, his own hands unrecognizably pale and waxy on the counter. The nurse looks up and her eyes widen, and Hiccup realizes he’s shaking like he’s the patient. That snaps him out of it enough, because he doesn’t want anyone focusing on him right now, not when it could matter.

Unless it doesn’t anymore.

Unless that was the last time Snotlout would ever call him and he declined it, because he was doing something stupid, because he wasn’t where he should have been. Again.

Urgent calls don’t end well in his experience. Urgent calls end with his dad’s blood-stained wallet in a plastic basket, staring down at a beardless picture on a drivers’ license and wondering if he ever knew the man at all.

“Can I help you, sir?” The nurse behind the desk asks and he shrugs.

“I’m not really sure,” he swallows hard. He has to ask the yes or no question that’s wedged in his throat like it’s trying to shelter him from the answer by cutting off oxygen. One answer is the exact opposite of helping.

“Do you need to sit down?” She stands up, reaching out like she thinks she’s going to have to catch him and he exhales slowly.

“I just got a call about Snotlout Jorgenson?” He asks slowly, each word taking up its allotted measure of breath and leaving him with an empty chest that’s still not big enough for his pounding heart.

“I’ll look him up.” The keyboard clicks are deafening, each tap removing a barrier between Hiccup and the truth he doesn’t think he wants yet.

He thinks of the apartment and how empty it was before Snotlout moved in. That bedroom full of his dad’s things he didn’t want to look at, in case they belonged to a stranger. He remembers how it felt like the sound of his chewing echoed off of the empty walls, like he was living in a museum that regarded him as an impermanent exhibit, moving around hallways until he realized he didn’t belong.

“The Trauma Unit desk is on the second floor, the elevator is just down the hallway to your right.” The nurse’s face is urgent now, formal in that way doctors are when they have bad news they need to be inhumanly calm about.

“Yes or no?” Hiccup asks, hands shaking again as he stands away from the desk and runs his hand through his hair. “Do you know and just can’t tell me?”

“I’m sorry, sir,” the words squeeze his heart in a vice that lets go too quickly when the sentence continues, “you’ll have to talk to someone at the desk upstairs.”

“Ok,” he walks towards the elevator before he keeps talking, because the urge to remind the nurse that his dad was on the first floor is overwhelming. His dad was on the first floor in a room near the back with a window looking out on where the cannery used to be before someone tore it down and built a motel. If they’re going to make an urgent call, they should do it right.

Hiccup follows the signs towards trauma, vaguely aware that his quest is a little ironic as his mind flicks again and again through what a day would be like without Snotlout. Another room full of things he can’t look at, this time because he knows too well who they’ll wish he was instead. He was with Snotlout when he got his driver’s license. He grew out that stupid moustache for it. He had the moustache in his academy graduation photo too, like polyester lint from his brand-new uniform stuck to his lip.

“Hiccup?”

Hearing his name makes him realize that he’s frozen again, ten feet back from the desk he’s been looking for, it’s helpful little sign reading ‘trauma’ like a lemonade stand banner advertising some neighborhood kid’s wares. The tile between his feet and the rubberized rug in front of the desk stretch and warp in his brain and he distracts himself, looking for whoever talked to him.

Astrid is handcuffed to a chair in the waiting room, her face pale and sallow and at odds with her determined expression. And he doesn’t have room to wonder why she’s here or why she’s cuffed, because the tiles between where he’s standing and her chair shrink, gravity shifting and pulling him towards her. He flops into the chair next to her, twice as heavy and half as graceful as usual as he throws his arms around her shoulders and buries his face in her neck.

“Hey,” she says like he’s a dog shaking in a thunderstorm, uncuffed hand rubbing his back, “did the doctor call you? I left my phone at my place so I couldn’t call—”

“Is he…yes or no?” He swallows hard and pulls back from the hug just enough to see her eyes, tensing at the sudden wave of trust that smacks him. She’ll tell him the truth, even if it’s hard, even if it doesn’t help, and for a second, he wishes he could let go of her rather than hear it, but he crossed that bridge a long time ago.

The second he handed her his Admiral Haddock book, he resigned himself to her most honest assessment, he just didn’t know it would matter so much.

“I don’t think it’s that simple,” she shakes her head, “he’s in surgery. I haven’t heard anything because Eretson cuffed me to this fucking chair.”

“He’s still in surgery,” Hiccup repeats to affirm it, waiting for her to say it’s a joke and trusting her too much for that at the same time. “It’s urgent but he’s still in surgery?”

“He was shot twice, Hiccup,” her voice is matter of fact but her hand on his arm is gentle, “his heart stopped on the way over, apparently—”

“So he is dead?” He shudders, “he’s an organ donor, he always said someone would be really lucky to get his organ someday—”

“Hey,” Astrid cups his chin, thumb pressed to his lips to shut him up, “he’s in surgery, that’s all I know.”

“That doesn’t help,” his laugh is fragile and he lets go of her to rub his hands over his face, elbows on his knees. “When they said it was urgent I expected an answer, that’s not an answer.”

“It’s not,” she agrees, yanking futilely at her handcuff a couple of times before stretching her other hand over to rest it on his back. “Not yet, anyway.”

#ripped #serial killer tour guide au #hiccstrid #modern au #httyd fic #coplout #also that whole thing with hiccups emotional trauma about his dad #and ruffcup faking married to buy a condo

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thegreatestofheck · 6 years ago

Text

The Tech Analyst

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Reader

Summary: You get drunk one night and wake up the next morning with a shirtless Steve Rogers walking out of your shower. You spend the entire next mission avoiding him.

Warnings: None

Please comment or reblog! I love hearing and seeing your feedback.

Your pager began to beep from under your pillow, startling you awake.

“Why...at this ungoldy hour...” you muttered as you pulled the pager out from underneath your pillow. Your vision blurred as you tried to read the words. Head pounding, you groaned and let the pager slip from your fingers fall to the ground.

Seconds later, your phone rang. With an aggravated groan, you picked up your phone. Seeing Natasha’s name as the caller ID, you reluctantly pushed ‘accept’.

“Hello?”

“Morning sunshine,” Natasha said with a laugh. “You sound amazing.”

“I had a fight with my mom last night. Drank too much.”

Natasha scoffed.

“Well, we have a mission and we need our Tech Analyst. You get the pager?”

“Yeah, but I thought I could ignore it.” Natasha laughed again.

“Get your ass out of bed, Techie.”

You hung up the phone and sighed. Throwing the blankets off yourself, you slid out of bed. The shower was running, but it wasn’t too surprising. Your roommate, Elaina, must have gotten a call, too. Rubbing the sleep from your eyes, you changed into the closest clothes to you.

Your head was still pounding, the lights hurting your eyes. Hangover. You tossed a few pills into your mouth before taking a swig of water.

“I’m heading out!” You called, tucking away your phone and pager. You grabbed the door handle and turned it.

“Wait up.”

You froze. That was not Elaina’s voice. That was not a girl’s voice. That was not the voice of any of the guys that Elaina brought back to the apartment.

That was Steve Rogers. Steve. Rogers. As in, ‘Captain America’ Steve Rogers. As in, ‘The First Avenger’ Steve Rogers.

You pivoted slowly, not moving your hand. As soon as you turned, you wished you hadn’t.

Steve Rogers was standing in her living room, dripping wet and in nothing but a towel. All your energy was spent on keeping your mouth shut and your eyes on his face. You swallowed the lump in your throat. Your mind raced with reasonings for why he might be here in your room.

“We’re going to the same place, might as well go together,” Steve said, offering his usual smile. Your mouth fell open with an attempt at a response, but you couldn’t find any words to say and simply nodded. You turned around as quickly as you could, facing the door.

A minute or two later, you heard his voice again, but this time, he was only a few inches behind her.

You jumped at the sound of him. Without responding or looking back at him, you threw the door open and practically ran out of your room.

“Woah! What’s the rush?” Steve asked you with half a chuckle.

“Nat seemed worried,” you lied quickly, refusing to look back at him. “We should get there as soon as we could.”

In all reality, you weren’t sure you could look at him without thinking off all the things that could have happened last night. When did he come over? Why? What happened once he did?

You couldn’t remember anything after the third glass of whatever you were drinking. You couldn’t even remember what it was you were drinking. How pathetic.

You groaned and put a hand on your head.

“You alright?” Steve asked.

“Fine.”

You kept walking until you made it to the briefing room. There, you went straight to your seat, dropped your bag on the ground, and sat, without looking at Steve once. Natasha sat next to you, looking between you and Steve.

“What happened?” she whispered through her teeth.

“I passed out blackout drunk last night,” you murmured back. “I got up this morning and he was coming out of my shower.”

Natasha stifled a laugh. She looked as though she was going to say something else to you, but Tony walked in before she could.

“Sorry it’s so early,” Tony said. “This one couldn’t wait.”

“We’ve been following up on a team of hackers that our very own Techie discovered a few months ago and we have uncovered a plot that will, long story short, start World War III. Techie, we need you to go in undercover, infiltrate their ranks, gain their trust, stop their plot from the inside.”

“Do you really think that’s a good idea?” Steve asked.

“What, do you think I can’t do it?” You snapped, not looking at him. “I can do it.”

“That’s not what I mean,” Steve said. “You’ve never been in the field before. You’ve never been undercover before. You could get hurt.”

You rolled your eyes and looked at Tony.

“I can do it.”

Tony grinned.

Six months you were undercover before you figured out their plans. That was six months of no contact with your friends, six months since you had a girls night with Wanda and Natasha and Sharon and Maria, six months since you had woken up to Steve in your shower and no memory of how he got there.

There were few other girls on the hacker team that you had joined. Natasha had told you that the quickest way to get to the plans was to go through the pants of the head guy, which you had done to the best of your ability. You had never been good at talking to people, especially guys, but something about being someone you weren’t made it easier.

You had the intel, all you had to do was get it to whoever was staying across the street.

With a flash drive in your pocket, you let out a longing sigh.

“I need some food,” you said, lazily draping your arms over the bed.

“Go get some then, Oph,” the head of the organization, Conner Mallie, said, not looking up from his computer. Oph. Short for Ophelia, you undercover name. Ophelia Blake.

You smiled and rolled off the bed, skipping out of the room.

“Where are you going, Oph?” The youngest of the group, Julian Lee, asked, swiveling around in his chair. You turned and smiled at him.

“Just stopping by the store for some junk food.”

“You wanna get me a Red Bull?” Tomi Morgan asked.

“You got it.”

“And a bag of chips!”

“Some soda!”

“Powdered donuts.”

“Alright, alright!” You said with a laugh and raising your hands. “I’ll just get a bunch of stuff.”

A chorus of ‘thank you’s followed you as you slid out of the room. You couldn’t help the smile that lingered on your face. You walked briskly to the store and bought plenty of things for your crew...your undercover crew. You took a back road on the way back, stopping at the back of the house across the way.

Natasha met you at the door.

“Are you okay?” She asked. You scoffed and set down your groceries.

“I’m fine, Nat.” You pulled the flash drive out of your pocket. “This is what I have. I have to go before they miss me.”

You grabbed the groceries and turned back toward the door.

“Hey.” You turned back to Natasha. “I know you’ve spent months with them. But they’re not your friends. They will kill you if they think it’s necessary.”

You nodded and left, a feeling of tightness in your chest.

You forced a smile when you returned to the house. There was a cheer from your crew as you handed out their junk food.

“Why did it take so long?” Conner asked, leaning against a doorway, arms crossed.

“Couldn’t find Tomi’s Red Bull,” you said, giving the very thing to Tomi. Conner walked to you with his normal lopsided smile. As he walked toward you, for half a second, you almost thought that it was Steve. Without trying to give yourself away, you let yourself smile back. He kissed your lips and you felt your body shake with fear.

You knew that there were only a few more hours before someone extracted you and this team was brought down. You keep telling yourself that you won’t miss them; you’d seen their plans and you knew how many people would die if they went through. Still, it was hard not to think about missing Tomi’s smile and Julian’s laugh and Conner’s soft hair.

A few hours and this would all be over

You were asleep in Conner’s bed. His arm was draped over your stomach. You woke to a hand being placed over your mouth. You jumped, snapping your eyes open. The only one in front of you was Steve, with a finger over his lips. You nodded as he slowly removed his hand from your mouth.

You rolled over, already shaking and kissed Conner on the cheek. He groaned in his sleep. This is what you always did when you woke up and went to the bathroom. He wouldn’t know the difference now.

You followed Steve back out the way he came. You froze as you passed Julian and Tomi’s room. Steve looked back at you and nodded toward the door. You dipped your head down and continued following him. You let out a breath of air as soon as you were out. Steve brought you to the house across the street.

As soon as you got inside, you couldn’t help the tears that gathered in your eyes. You sat down in the first chair you could find.

“What’s wrong?” Steve asked you. You shook your head.

“It doesn’t matter. Go help the others.” Your voice broke as you spoke. Steve set down his shield and knelt in front of you.

“Going undercover isn’t easy,” he told you. You scoffed and looked down. “I know you made a connection with them. But you know-”

“Yeah, Steve. I know. They’re terrorists, trying to destroy the world.” But Julian was just a kid. Tomi had the kindest heart. Conner held you at night and he had nightmares of terrible parents.

“I betrayed them,” you said. A tear slid down your face and you tried to cover it up. Steve put a hand on your knee.

“You know our team. As long as they go quietly, none of them will be hurt,” Steve told you. You nodded. You expected Steve to go, to help the others, but he sat there, a hand on her knee.

A few minutes later, the first shot rang out. You stood, heading toward the door. Steve grabbed your wrist, stopping you from moving any farther. You turned to him, tears running down your face. Another shot rang out and you jumped nearly out of your skin. Before the third shot even rang, Steve was already pulling you to his chest. Every shot fired, every time you jumped, he only pulled you closer.

Conner was the only one who had died in the altercation. You hadn’t cried since that first time.

Steve and you hadn’t talked until much later. It wasn’t until about a week later, after hours of interrogation and paperwork, that the two of you got a moment alone. He stopped by your room. You were sitting on your couch, staring at the floor.

“I’m sorry about Conner Mallie,” was the first thing he said. You shook your head.

“He deserved it.”

“I mean, from what I heard, you cared about him.”

“I cared about all of them, but they were bad people.”

He sat next to you. You sighed.

“I’ve been wanting to ask you something,” he said after a while. “The day we got this job and the day you left, you wouldn’t look at me, you wouldn’t even talk to me. Did I do something wrong?”

Beside yourself, you started to laugh. He started laughing too, but it was a slow, confused laugh.

“I was drunk and I don’t know what happened that night. I still don’t remember. I was embarassed.”

Steve laughed again, but it was real.

“I was going to talk to Natasha when I heard you crying. I stopped by to see if you were okay. I spent the ight on the couch.”

Soon, both of you were laughing.

“I spent the last six months worried about seeing you again because I thought we had done something and I couldn’t remember it.” You buried your face in your palms, your cheeks red with embarrasment. “Remind me never to drink again.”

When Natasha walked by 10 minutes later, both of you were still laughing.

#steve rogers #captain america #fanfiction #steve rogers x reader #mcu #marvel #avengers #short #i'm not even sure what this is

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hystericalrogertaylor · 6 years ago

Text

Reconnecting (Chapter Twelve)

Pairing: Ben Hardy!Roger Taylor X Reader

Word count: 2529

Summary: (Y/n) and Roger have been friends since the cradle. When they’re suddenly pulled apart and reconnected years later, they both can tell that the relationship has evolved. They lead very different lifestyles now. Can they continue what they had, or go for something more, with this gap between them?

Warnings: A mugging (violence), cussing, drinking, mentioned sex

A/N: I did not combine the names of my two doctors to make the doctor’s name in this chapter...nope...not at all... Also, I’m sorry if the gif doesn’t move on a computer, I don’t know what’s up with it. And on mobile it may look like one big block of text but there are paragraph breaks! I’m sorry it looks so awkward, I’ll try to figure it out.

Master list

(Not linking the Spotify playlist because Tumblr’s been having issues with Spotify or something. Either way, it’s not working.)

~~~

You were struggling, mentally and physically. Mentally because your life was not where you wanted it to be and everything seemed to be going wrong. Physically because you were stumbling down the streets, trying to remember how to get home. You only realized half an hour after leaving the bar that you probably should’ve let John help you home. You were so out of it at that point, however, that you didn’t even hear the footsteps of the men behind you.

“Hey,” one of them called out threateningly. You turned around, trying to focus your vision on what was in front of you. “Give us the bag.”

“What?” you slurred, still not understanding what was happening.

“Give us your bag!” a short, angry man yelled.

“No!” You hugged your purse to your chest, backing away slowly. “No, it’s mine!”

One of the men, the tallest of the bunch, stepped forwards and grabbed one of the straps, yanking on it as hard as he could. Being drunk and weak, you lost your grip on it, falling forward onto your knees from the force of having the object yanked from your arms. One of the men kicked you in the ribs before turning tail and running away with the others.

You lay there for God knows how long, groaning in pain and trying to contain your tears. You didn’t want anyone to find you, fearing the worst could happen. Eventually, you pulled yourself up with the help of a bush, this time limping on towards your house.

When you finally arrived, you slammed the door shut and slid down the wall, finally letting out all your tears. You could feel that your ribs were bruising, and taking a breath in hurt. Not to mention you were without all of your cash, ID’s, credit cards, and key to get into the studio.

You phoned Freddie’s house about an hour later, after finally having been able to calm down. “Hello, Paul Prenter speaking, Freddie Mercury’s house,” the person on the other line said.

“Paul, I need to talk to Freddie.” You yawned, the alcohol and crazy night catching up to you.

“He’s busy, (L/n),” Paul said, clearly annoyed. “What do you want?”

“I want to talk to Freddie,” you said, slurring your words together again.

“No.” With that, Paul hung up on you.

You sighed, flopping down on the couch. The rest of the band was likely asleep, meaning you couldn’t call them for help getting into the studio tomorrow. Well, you knew Roger was most definitely not asleep, but you didn’t want him to pick up the phone in the middle of having sex with some random woman.

You decided to just go to bed; you’d figure it out in the morning. You stumbled into the bedroom, getting under the covers without even taking off your day clothes. James stirred, but you thankfully didn’t wake him.

While Roger was sharing a bed with some one night stand, you were sharing a bed with James for the first time in forever.

---

“Who was that?” Freddie asked, looking over at Paul. The two of them had gone back to Freddie and Mary’s flat after things at the bar had calmed down. They were watching a movie and getting more drunk when they got your call. Freddie and Mary had been laughing too hard at something to be able to hear Paul say your last name.

“No one.” Paul sat back down, unmuting the movie.

Freddie frowned. “Well, it couldn’t have been no one if they have my number.”

Paul rolled his eyes. “It’s no big deal, (Y/n) just wanted to tell you she’d gotten home safely.”

“All right…” Freddie was skeptical. He made a mental note to call you back once the movie was over. But he never got the chance; he passed out five minutes later.

---

Roger did end up having sex with the girl. Her name was either Amanda or Amara, he couldn’t remember. He sat at the foot of his bed, smoking a cigarette while she was fast asleep behind him. All he could think was that the experience was so unspeakably boring.

He’d done this countless times before. How many women had he brought home and done the exact same thing with? They’d want the same type of boring, everyday sex, which was fine with him at first, but now it all felt wrong. He felt like there was something better he could be doing with his time.

The entire time, he also couldn’t shake the feeling that something was terribly wrong, like there was something in his life he needed to fix. But he couldn’t pinpoint it. He only realized as he smoked that cigarette what it was. It was things with you.

He hadn’t seen you leave the bar, and the empty pit in his stomach was the anxiety he felt. He had seen you take those shots, and he knew you’d be drunk. He wanted you to be safe. He acknowledged that he’d been irrationally angry, and going and finding a woman just to spite you made him kind of an asshole. Okay, a supreme asshole. The king of the assholes.

“Rogieeeeee,” Amanda/Amara suddenly whined, drawing out the last syllable. “Rogie, come back here. Let’s do that again.” He looked back and saw her sitting up, sheets pooled around her waist, smirking.

He rolled his eyes, turning back around. “Not interested.”

She slowly crawled over to Roger, hugging him from behind, making sure one of her hands landed low on his stomach. “C’mon, babe. While the night’s still young.” She leaned her head down, biting his neck, no doubt leaving another mark.

Roger groaned, rolling his shoulder back to push her off. Amanda/Amara sat back onto the bed, letting out another whine. “Why nooooot?”

“Because I’ve got shit to fix.” Roger stood up, not even bothering to put pants or boxers back on. He flew into his living room, picking up the phone and dialing your phone number as fast as he could.

But you didn’t pick up. Because you were asleep. Roger slammed the phone down, putting his head in his hand with shame.

---

You managed to get to the studio first the next day. You wanted to be there when the next person got there, so they could let you in.

That next person ended up being John. He looked relieved to see you alive. Without mentioning last night or the way you were still limping, he unlocked the door and walked with you into the studio.

Brian came next, and then Freddie, which was strange. Freddie never arrived before the rest of the band. Where was Roger? You knew the answer, but just didn’t want to admit it.

Roger walked in almost an hour late. He had a coat on, a scarf around his neck, and a small bouquet of roses in his hand. You tried to avoid looking at him and the scarf, which you knew was covering various hickeys, but the roses caught your eye. He hovered awkwardly by the door for a few seconds before shuffling over to you. He held out the roses to you, not making eye contact. “These, um...these are for you.”

You blinked, grabbing them out of his hand. “Um, thanks. But, why?”

Roger sighed, actually looking at you now. “Because I feel bad. I was a jerk last night and you didn’t deserve to be snapped at like that.”

You smiled, setting the roses down on the couch and standing up. “How thoughtful, thank you Roger.” You opened your arms, inviting him into a hug.

He breathed a sigh of relief, wrapping his arms around you tightly. However, he squeezed in the wrong place on your back, causing your ribs to flare up with pain. You yelped, falling back into your seat with his arms still around you.

Roger took a step back, frowning. “What? What happened?”

You put a hand on your ribs, taking a few deep breaths. “Ugh, if that guy cracked my rib--”

“What?” Roger asked more insistently. “If who cracked your rib? Did James--?” The look in his eyes could kill.

“No,” you answered quickly. “No, not James. I was mugged, but I’m fine.” You slowly leaned onto the armrest, trying to ease the pain.

Roger’s eyes went wide, and he looked like he was trying not to cry. “W-when?”

“After I left the bar last night.”

Roger nodded, pressing his lips together. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”

“Just my dignity.” You tried to laugh, but Roger didn’t want to play along.

“Guys, I’m taking (Y/n) to the hospital,” Roger stated to everyone else, reaching out a hand to help you up.

You chuckled. “Rog, I’m fine, trust me. I’m not in too much pain if I don’t mess with it. Or shower.”

“Remember when we both broke our arms when I fell out of that tree?” Roger asked suddenly.

“Um...yeah?”

“You ran for help, even when you were in excruciating pain. You helped me. And now it’s about time I helped you.” He grabbed your hand, giving it a comforting squeeze.

“Awww, how adorable!” Freddie practically squealed from the corner of the room, a large, toothy smile on his face. You smiled while Roger rolled his eyes at Freddie’s antics.

Roger helped you off the couch and assisted you out into the parking lot. The two of you took his car to the nearest emergency room. He helped you into the building, because the pain had slowly gotten worse since you’d gotten up that morning. You checked in, told the receptionist the problem, and waited for a tech to call you back for a CT scan and X-ray.

Your best friend stayed with you the whole time. He stood off to the side, with a heavy shawl draped over his whole body to protect from radiation, as you got the X-ray, and stood right next to you, in a similar heavy garment, talking to you soothingly while you were sent into a large donut for the CT scan. You felt a million times better with him there next to you.

You and Roger waited in an exam room for what felt like forever. Finally, a doctor named Dr. Hinton came in, holding the results of your X-ray and CT scan.

“The X-ray didn’t show us anything,” he explained, “which is a good sign, it means nothing is seriously broken. The CT scan, however, showed us a couple of fractures. Nothing terrible, but you’ll still need to treat it. We recommend some pain meds and icing the area as much as you can. Does it hurt to breathe?” You nodded. “Okay, well, you can’t be afraid to breathe deeply. You need to do that so your lungs don’t get weaker, you could get pneumonia. Try not to do too many strenuous things, you could make the injury worse. Come back and see me in a week.”

You and Roger then took a trip to the local drug stores to get one of those ice bags people use in cartoons when they injure themselves, and then to a grocery store for a large bag of ice. Roger filled the ice pack in the parking lot before gently placing it on your abdomen area. “There,” he whispers. “Feel good?”

You nodded, putting your hand over Roger’s and holding the ice pack in place. “Thank you so much for helping me,” you said, looking up at him.

He gave you a sad smile. “My pleasure. I’m sorry I acted like a dick last night. I just...need to learn to control my temper.”

“Took you twenty-six years to figure that out?” you joked, nudging him in the arm with your other fist.

Roger nodded, trying not to laugh. “Yeah, you’d think I would’ve gotten it before this.” He moved his hand to your face, kneeling down so he could be more level with you. “You know I care about you, right? I know I can be a whiny little bitch at times, but I’ll always be there for you when you need me.”

You smiled, grabbing his hand and holding it. “I know, Rog. And I greatly appreciate you and everything you’ve ever done for me.”

Roger sighed, pulling his hand away and going to sit in the driver’s seat of his car. He started the engine, driving off towards his house.

---

The two of you sat on Roger’s couch, cuddled up together, watching a movie while you iced your rib. You couldn’t help but wonder, as you sat there happy as could be, if this could be your life. He’d kissed you, you could tell he had feelings for you. But could you actually date a person like Roger Taylor?

“Hey Roger?” you asked.

“What’s up?” he responded, suddenly more alert. “Do you need more ice? Are you in pain?”

“No, I’m fine.” You slowly repositioned yourself so you could see his face. “I was just wondering...just...what am I to you?”

Roger blinked, as if he didn’t understand the question. “Well, you’re my best friend.”

“No, but...do you want me to be more to you?” When he still looked confused, you kept talking. “I mean, we kissed at that bar the other night, I was wondering if that meant you wanted a different kind of relationship with me.”

Roger thought about it for a second. “I mean, that sounds nice, but you know I’m not stellar at dating.”

“I know,” you answered. “But, if you really like me in that way, then maybe you’d be more willing to try?”

Roger sighed. “Probably not,” he admitted.

You felt like you’d been punched in the gut. “But...why not?”

You could tell he was getting agitated. “I don’t know! Because...ugh. I’m too rowdy for you. I party too hard and have too much sex and drink and smoke too much, while you’d rather stay home and drink some warm tea and read a book. We weren’t meant for each other.”

You blinked your tears away. “Roger, that’s crazy. If we both like each other, we should be making an effort to see if we could make a relationship work!”

Roger shook his head. “There’s no point. Eventually, you’re going to get tired of having a boyfriend who comes home at four in the morning, drunk and horny, all the fucking time.”

“Better than what I’m dealing with now!” you shouted. As the shock registered on Roger’s face, you tried to smooth over what you’d just said. “Let’s not fight, we just made up. Let’s just watch the movie. Forget I said anything.”

Roger looked like he was going to blow up again. He sat back, taking several deep breaths. “Do you want to stay over tonight?” he asked suddenly.

You sighed, leaning over onto him again. “Yeah,” you breathed. “I suppose.”

The two of you sat in silence. The movie played, but neither of you were interested. He was busy thinking about how he’d just fucked up, and you were too busy scolding yourself for having such a foolish dream of a life with Roger.

Taglist:

@thessxoxo @roger-bang-the-drum @slavsher @sabbrriiinnaa @i-ship-it-ironically @blissfully-queen@oyoke@borhapqueen92@girlpluto@secretsweetscollectionblog@bentaylorrogerhardy @16wiishes@emmieliabedelia @onevisionliz @mr-stank-i-dont-feel-so-dank

#ben hardy #queen #roger taylor #brian may #gwilym lee #freddie mercury #joe mazzello #john deacon #rami malek #bohemian rhapsody #ben hardy x reader #roger taylor x reader #reconnecting #queen fanfiction #x reader

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if1believes · 6 years ago

Text

Just a Simple Crush, Jack Maynard Fluff

-Y/N is Conor’s best friend and has a crush on Jack-

-I was just bored and decided on writing this, hope you all enjoy, please send in requests-

----------

“Y/N, you’re really not gonna like this one!” Conor says trying to hold back laughter.

You were over at Conor’s and Jack’s apartment to film a video with Conor. You were told it was a dare video full of submissions from his fan base. You were a little nervous because you know its hard to predict the internet and their ideas.

“What is it this time??” You groan at all of the possible answers you didn’t want to hear.

Conor had always been your best friend, and you never looked at him as anything more, he would laugh with you and stand up for you when you were sad, but the two of you had an unshared agreement on having no interest. Jack, however, was a different story. Whenever Jack was around, the two of you always shared quick glances that always left a questionable tension between you. When you were alone, you would both share jokes with each other but there was almost a longing stare that followed after either of you laughed. You knew you had the hots for him, you just didn’t know what to do about it.

Conor’s laugh brings you back to reality, “It’s too bad Jack’s out, he would’ve loved this one!” You glare at his laughter until he shares your fate, “you have to drink a fridge smoothie!”.

Terror reaches your soul as you let out a fake gagging noise; a fridge smoothie is a smoothie that is made of 3 different condiments that are from your fridge, and unfortunately the choices aren’t yours.

Conor sees your pain and begins to laugh more as he jumps up to grab some items from the fridge. “Ive got you a smoothie that is made up of, mayo, mustard, and tabasco sauce!” Conor grins at you.

“Oh I am going to kill you Maynard!” You grit your teeth as you smell the drink in front of you. With that quick smell, you let out a shriek and quickly push it away from you. Conor quickly reaches out to keep it from spilling but ends up doing the opposite. Before you know it, the mixture of disgustingness was all across your shirt.

Both you and Conor look at each other with straight faces until you both burst out with laughter. Of course, this wasn’t the best scenario, but you had to admit it was hilarious. Conor quickly turns the camera off in order to help you; he grabs wipes to wipe down the floor and hands a few extra to you.

“I don’t think that this is gong to help my shirt much” you say holding up the wipe.

“I would offer you one of my shirts but I’m doing all of my laundry right now”, Conor shrugs before coming up with an idea, “maybe you can grab one of Jack’s shirts, he probably wont mind”

“Probably?” You say questioning Conor.

With one quick stare Conor shares, “He won’t care, go grab a shirt”.

You get up and make your way down to Jack’s room. Walking into his room while he wasn’t home was odd for you, you felt as if you were invading his privacy. When you sneak through the door, you see a bunch of his clothes scattered across the floor and his clean clothes hung up in his closet. You can still see the print on his bed that signifies where he was sleeping and it made you think about how cuddly he probably was. You grab the first grey shirt that you see and quickly change into it before making your way back out to Conor.

“Not too bad” you say giving a shrug to Conor while you show off the shirt.

“Very true, except it is twice your size” he laughs.

Conor and you finish off the video together, completing a list of different dares. You both spent the majority of the time laughing. When it was finished Conor turned off the camera and got up to grab his jacket.

“I have to go but you can hang out, Jack will be here soon” Conor hops down the hall.

“Where are you going?” You question.

“Ive made dinner plans with a girl on Tinder!” You hear the front door shut and under your breath you tell Conor good luck.

You being alone at their house wasn’t out of the ordinary, you often came here just because you were bored of your own home and you wanted to hang out with Conor. Deep down, you knew that it was also to see Jack. You turn on the television and start to watch a random show that was about fighting crime. It kind of interested you, but you couldn’t help but anticipate Jack’s arrival. Just then you hear the front door open and a quick, “hello?”, from Jack.

You were happy to hear his voice, “Hey its me!” You yell back to let him know.

When Jack walks around the corner he gives you a smile that brightened the room, “If I had known you were here, I would’ve gotten you some”, he holds up a bag of Chinese food.

“Oh its ok, don’t worry about me” you giggle, Jack breaks eye contact to put his food down but instantly looks back to stare.

“Is that my shirt?” Jack asks with a confused, furrowed eyebrow. His eyes look you up and down as he subtly licks his upper lip. Has Jack Maynard just checked you out? You couldn’t believe it.

“Oh ya, its a long story, I just needed to borrow it and Conor said you wouldn’t mind, I can change if you want it back” you say trying not to seem strange for wearing his shirt. You stand up to look for your dirty shirt until Jack interrupts you.

“No don’t worry, I was just surprised, I like the way it looks on you” you stop searching for your shirt and stand straight to catch Jack’s eyes again. The dark blue sparkled from the lights above and it makes you shiver.

“Really?” You ask shyly. Jack moves closer to you and grabs the bottom of your shirt to make it lay without any wrinkles and pretends to be judging it.

“Id say you look good”, he looks up from the shirt and gives you a smile that makes your heart weak, it was bright and charming. Jack drops his hands from your shirt and backs up a little bit, giving you a little bit of space. You believed he knew what he was doing, he was flirting with you.

“Thanks”, you say as your cheeks turn red and you look down at your feet.

Jack reaches for a strand of hair that has fallen from your bun and decides to push it behind your ear, while he has the chance, he leans in and kisses you on the forehead, making you smile. “Don’t worry about it” he gives you a smile before the apartment door swings open.

“Im back bitches!” Conor yells, both you and Jack laugh at his entrance.

#jack maynard #jackmaynard #jack maynard imagine #jack maynard imagines #Conor Maynard #buttercream squad imagines #buttercream squad #buttercream #caspar lee #Joe Sugg #ThatcherJoe #Oli White #mikey pearce #byron langley

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tumblunni · 6 years ago

Text

Me in the hospital: i cannot sleep for 24 hours, the slightest noise is blaring, i am perpetually anxiety adrenaline

As soon as i get home: has the best sleep of my life

I usually take an hour to get to sleep each night but i totally just curled up like a snail and dropped into dreamland instantly. And i woke up to a nice warm house cos the heating turned on while i was asleep, and now all the anesthetic is completely worn off so i feel energized and great! And my throat pain has eased up so thankfully i wont have to be liquids only for as long as i thought. I was all hyperactive and cooked a great fancy omelette and it tastes like heaven itself! Its so weird how stuff tastes slightly diffetent when its the first time youve been able to chew with the right side of your mouth in five years. I guess the tastebuds on the sides of your tongue are slightly different? When i eat everything now im gonna be rolling it all over my mouth like WOW ITS ALL SO NEW AGAIN! Will probably look nuts in the middle of mcdonalds with my cheeks puffed like a squirrel XD

Oh and this is also a great excuse to drink loads of chocolate milkshakes from my milkshake viking mug! I feel so energized with calcium and yums!! EVERYTHING TASTES SO NEWWWWWWW

Oh man i do feel a bit sleepy again now after just being up for a few hours tho. I have these good jaw pain specific medicines i have to take for the next two weeks til my followup appointment to check if theres any infection left. But man i feel SO ALIVE AGAIN im pretty sure all the rot is gone! It feels so wild having space in my mouth and not constant clenchy tightness. It actually hurts less recovering from the surgery than it did before, lol! I can feel all my teeth moving apart again and loosening up into normality and the gums healing up all their injuries and oh god i just love how they cleaned out all the broken parts of my teeth and capped them with these great replacements that look so real you'd never be able to tell! My smile looks not ugly!! My smile looks not ugly!! Aaaaa! I just expected regaining the right side of my mouth, i didbt expect to e like "holy shit it must have hurt even more than i realized cos this feels so amazing now". Like i guess i got used to putting up with it and forgot how it felt to not have painmouth? Underestimated how good a teeth can be! And man i never asked for reconstructive cosmetic stuff too but they did these caps and aaa my teeth never looked his good even when they were new!! My front teeth were always crooked even before they did the weird balogna slam together and shattered into a pile of crap. And now they look like perfect supermodel teeth!! The only side effect is that its a lil hard to get used to the lack of gaps between them now after so long dealing with the shattered mess. My tongue keeps being like "oh no did something get stuck in the gaps again oh wait there arent any" and then i subconsciously try to clean them after taking every bite and just bite my tongue instead. Man i never noticed i picked up a bunch of weird mannerismd cos of tje bad teeth! I was constantly paranoidly checking my mouth 24/7 in case the slightest thing made it even worse, and eating super gently so that nothing accidentally touched the Wrong Tooth and set off a jolt of pain. And i actually needed to get a filling put in on the leftmost back tooth that was the ONLY TOOTH I COULD USE TO EAT WITHOUT PAIN for all this time! Overuse of it meant that it got ground down a little and probably would have become painful too if i'd left it any longer. Then i really would have been all soups all the time and that sucks!! Soups are good but nothing but then gives u stomach issues. The bad poops!!

Man sorry im rambling so much im just so hyper and happy and also still kinda dopily sleepy! Im not still delirious or anything i just feel the happy kind of sleepy where the anesthetic is all gone and its not "oh god i cant stay awake" and more natural sleepyness of a long day being over and everything being okay. I had such a good long nap and i feel well rested after getting so little sleep beforehand due to all the dumb anxiety. And i still feel dozey but happy doze~

Anyway its awesometo be able to really chug and crunch a foods! With the other side of my mouth i forgot about! And taste milkshake to its fullest extent!! Oh and whats weird is that the reconstructive surgery capping on my front teeth means that theyre kinda one tooth now? The caps are all linked in a single piece to fill the gaps fully without even the natural ones you'd have on healthy teeth. So its like a solid tooth guard just sculpted to look like three teeth. Itll be tricky to train myself out of thts subconcious rubbing the gaps with my tongue when theyre not even there. But i expect once i get over the unfamiliarity this triple cap will be really useful! Theyre totes reinforced so that even if i do get tight mouth problems again and the front teeth take the brunt of the pressure, now theres no gaps to smash into each other and become a painful mess. Its like scaffolding reinforcing my whole mouth by fixing the loadbearing beam, or something.

Oh also these pain meds make u a little bit more sleepy than normal paracetamol so i'll probably doze off again soon. But hopefully i will have slept off most of the "healing debt exhaustion" tomorrow and will be able to go walk down the shops and buy some icecream and other soft food. I mostly stocked up on purely liquid food cos i tjought my mouth function would be more limited. But honestly the teeth are working so much better than before, they were already so swollen and painful that i couldnt crunch stuff! Now the mild discomfort of mid-healing from surgery feels like barely anything and i bet i could bite thru a goddamn rock right now! I just cant really swallow crunchy stuff or stuff thats too salty or citrusy. I didnt even know about the stabbity throat pipe so i didnt expect it to be the most painful part that takes the longest to heal. It feels so weird cos i keep coughing like my brain thinks theres phelgm stuck in my throat when its actually a skin flap/blister from the insertion. So obviously that aint going anywhere and i have to try and force myself not to cough or swallow or else i set off this cjain of "must get thing out of throat must puke" reflex. And the pain feels like a sore throat but it isnt?? Its not really inflamed ot anything its just an actual friction burn on the opening of my airway. Which is not a common occurance so the brain is justvlike "what the fuck is happening, must send all contradicting signals at once!" So sore throat medicine wont work cos that goes down your throat passage to your stomach when really this lil skin tag blister thing is in the lung throat opening thing. And sucking on throat sweets made it worse cos all the muscles were really tense around the area where the tube was inserted, hence why it was hard to swallow food even tho it was my windpipe that hurt. And sucking on something is kinda like perpetually swallowing nothing, when you think about it? Im glad that the muscle tenseness is mostly gone now and the painkillers are helping with the ouch, and my brainis getting usedto not coughing and making it worse. But still should eat soft easily swallowable stuff for a lil while and it'll be fun to go aroundthe shops with my last pocketful of change and find neat ingredients to stick in omelettes. Im so excited to taste all my favourite things in new HD functional mouth power!!! And i can smile at the shopkeeper!!!

And oh man i really do think that my sleeping problems with stiff neck and that kind of 'bloodrush to the head' migraine were indeed part of the bad wisdom teeth bleeding internally under the gum. I thought it had to be that cos nothing else in my life changed around that time aside from getting a better and healthier bed which should have been beneficial to my neck. And even going back to sleepong on the floor like before didnt make a difference so it definately wasnt the bed! And it kept getting worse while nothing was changing, and i kept trying different things like changing my pillows and headphones and cutting caffeine out of my diet and eating more salt and eating less salt and fuckin ANYTHING ELSE cos i knew if it really was the dumb tooth being infected then there was nothong i could do about it til my surgery day arrived. Itd be such a relief to know for sure that it was indeed the tooth and now that nonsense is gonna be gone forever! But also thats really worrying to know that it was getting so bad it could have spread an infection to my jawbone and the top of my spine if itd been left much longer. I kept sneezing up blood lumps like the size of a fifty pence piece! Had never had nosebleeds for a decade and now suddenly all the time! God it feels so good to be able to lay my head down and not feel all woozy and tense im the forehead or neck. I really hope this good neck untenseness continues and the awful aches really were just the tooth. But everyone in the hospital was so nice that i think even if i do need a second surgery to check for jaw infection then id be able to be less nervoud than i was this time

Man do u ever get that thing where youre so peaceful and contented that like you can breathe easier? Like subconciously taking bigger breaths and the middle of your chest feels slightly puffed out and warm. I guess thats what the "heart leaping in yout chest" idiom is meant to refer to, lol! Or maybe i can just literally breathe easier cos the tooth pain might have been passing into my nasal cavity too, lol. My entire head feels so less tense!! Its like all my bones were rebelling against me and now they're at peace again!! Man i feel so giddy happy like i chugged a giant energy drink or something but its the opposite its a good sleeps drink XD

So im gonna go lie down again and have a relax and watch a movie or something and see if i pass out when the medicine kicks in, or if its not too bad and i can still continue my hyper mood. But my nap was so long that its too late to go to the shops now anyway so i'll just make more plain omelette and milkshake if i get hungry. I mean it doesnt taste plain when all my sense of taste is so amplified likethis! I dont mind if its all i can eat all week. PURE MILKSHAKEY DECADENCE

Aaaaa im just so happy!! I missed my chance to get the new. Kingdlm hearts but ive beenwaiting fkr this surgery for ages too and it feels like just as much of an exciting relief!

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wolfeyeslonelynights · 7 years ago

Text

Strip Club

Liam wasn’t quite sure what to expect when Mason had called him at two in the morning speaking what sounded like hysterical gibberish.

He did manage to get out of his friend where they were at before ending the call. Rolling out of bed, he put on the first clothes he found - a two day old shirt that had a tear at the shoulder from an unfortunate incident with a tree and jeans that had once been whole but now had twin holes in the knees that his mom actually thought were manufactured.

Trekking quietly out of the house, he paused behind the wheel to enter int he address that Mason had squeaked out. All Night D’s.

“Jesus Christ Mase.”

A strip club. His best gay friend was having hysterics at a gay strip club. There had better be a massacre when he got there.

The drive was short with empty streets, not really surprising since it was early in the morning, on a Thursday night. Why his friend, and probably Corey too, decided to party at a club on a weeknight was beyond Liam but he was used to the random calls. Instead of really questioning it, he just drove into the parking lot and ran a hand through his hair before climbing out.

The building was dubious. Liam felt instantly greasy and glittery when the bouncer eyed him before shrugging and letting him slide past without even asking for id. Which was good because while he found a twenty dollar bill in the cup holder, he had left the rest of his wallet at home. The club was surprisingly crowded. A loud large group circling a end stage across the room. Liam paused to let his sensitive eyes and ears adjust to the flashing lights and various music that boomed over each other before Mason was there at his elbow - grabbing his arm in frantic pinching motions.

“L-Liam! You gotta- oh my god just come on!”

Before he could even get a ‘what the hell’ out, his friend was towing him through the throng of people towards the large crowd. He didn’t want to get crushed against a bunch of sweaty drunk guys but only sighed as he followed. As they worked their way to the front where Corey was staring at the stage with what Liam could only describe as a stupefied expression. “What is going on?”

Mason, death grip on Liam’s arm finally dropping away, didn’t answer just mirrored his boyfriends face as the current music faded away into blessed silence and the strobes lights changed from pinks to various blues. Giving up on the two, Liam turned to see what they were staring at, hoping he wasn’t going to be blinded by some stranger’s junk hanging out. Just as The Weeknds “Into the Night” started booming out of the nearest speakers and the figured slinked out onto the stage.

Liam felt his jaw drop.

For working at a strip club Theo wasn’t wearing much to strip off. Instead the chimera was barefoot, shirtless and glossy, the pants he was wearing didn’t leave anything to imagination. Liam numbly thought they must be spandex or liquid because when the chimera reached the middle of the stage, just as the song reach the prelude to the chorus, the beta felt his entire body heat up as the entire….god his could see the entire outline of his penis.Then the lights went crazy, the chorus hit and Theo was a moving.

Liam didn’t know what drew his eyes more; the planes of Theo’s face being flashed between stark lights and shadows - eyes closed, lips moving slightly with the song’s words, or the way his body was sensually moving. A small part of his mind that hadn’t short circuit could see the fighting stances in the chimera’s limbs. Could almost pinpoint where, instead of rough movements of alluding attack, Theo had smoothed the movements that had the muscles on his abdomen and back rippling as he twisted and rolled. And when the chimera dropped slowly backwards and did a hip roll that had his junk as center attention before executing the rest of the back flip that ending with him sliding out onto his stomach Liam felt his throat dry up.

He didn’t realize he was right up against the stage until he saw a slight furrow in Theo’s brows before the chimera’s eyes shot open to meet his. There was a moment where they both froze, Theo staring wide eyed as Liam stared back. Then he watched the teen darkly smirk before quickly sitting up to slam his hand on the stage three times. Instantly all the music cut off, the other three dancers on the stages pausing to glance over to Theo’s stage before heading towards the back of theirs.

Mason and Corey grabbed each other before simultaneously shouting in Liam’s ear “ Holy shit! Ginuwine’s Pony! Ginuwine’s Pony” Liam felt his stomach drop. He was fairly positive he wasn’t ready for any of this.

It was the only song playing, and this was different then the free lance style that Theo had been doing. This dance was synchronized with the other dancers, but all Liam could do was stare at the chimera - whose gaze hadn’t left Liam since locking on earlier. The dance was feet sliding apart, coming together, rotating to the side as the rest of his body followed with dipping low and locking before rolling up. Liam lost the staring contest when Theo suddenly slid forward on his knees, legs apart and a hand sliding down his chest going down, down, before cupping himself. Before Liam could even register that he was straining forward, the chimera had slid his legs out to the side and rolled to a crouch that involved several hip thrusts that had Liam whining low in his throat.

He wasn’t sure if he could handle anymore, and Liam was becoming more and more aware of the increasing volume of the people around him. All hungry eyes watching Theo as he twisted in the air before catching himself with his hands and actually pausing in mid hand stand before sliding back to the ground that showed off his back muscles. Fuck, Theo knew how to work the crowd. The smells of lust and sweat with an undercurrent of desperation had Liam’s stomach roiling while he clenched his fist tighter. He knew the song was winding down, but the dance seemed to be getting more frantic. He could see the others mimic the current pop and lock that Theo was doing. Liam could almost breath in relief until an older man a few feet from him slammed a couple hundred dollars on the stage. Theo didn’t pause in his dancing, but did lift an sardonic brow in the money’s direction. The guy took this as as cue to shout “Reveal all!”

Liam knew, hundred percent, that if Theo took off his pants he was going to lose control and kill everyone. Scrambling for the twenty in his pocket he made sure to bunch it up until it looked like a lot, slammed it on the stage and screamed ‘Private lap dance!”. Ignoring the shocked faces of his friends next to him, Liam glared at the chimera. Theo paused, an unreadable look on his face, before he nodded. He shot the other man a ‘what can you do’ shrug before quickly walking over to where Liam was and held a hand to him. Unsure what to do, Liam tuck the money back into his pocket and placed his hand in Theo’s. The chimera easily hefted him up murmuring, “There are private rooms in the back.” before leading him away from choruses of “That one could strip too!” “That ass though!” “You mean those asses!” and cat calls. Liam’s was sure his face was permanently red.

Theo kept his hand in his as they walked to a hallway that was covered in hideous red curtain and faded lighting that was either suppose to help the mood or the fixtures needed a good cleaning. He tried to stay in the middle away from both. When they reached the room at the end, a small door plate stating it was unoccupied, Theo silently opened the door. Liam slid passed and waited until the door was shut. When the lock clicked Theo’s expression melted from closed off to a mixture of curiosity, self-consciousness, and something else. “What the hell are you doing here Dunbar?” Liam’s hand curled around the money in his pocket, teeth grinding as he spoke “How long have you worked here?”

The chimera shrugged “A few months? It’s easy fast cash.” He smirked “and I know how to work it.” Liam growled, surprising them both. After a brief pause, where Theo looked remarkably awkward and Liam focus on breathing through his nose until his heart rate was lower did Theo speak again “Look, how did you end up here?” Liam blinked, “Didn’t you see Mason and Corey next to me?”

The chimera shook his head “I don’t really focus on faces when I’m here.” Liam didn’t point out that he noticed his right away, pushing that thought away until he can overanalyze it later. Instead he looked around the room, a single loveseat - faded red of course- before sheepishly grinning.

“So I ruined your chance of a couple hundred bucks.” he slowly pulled out the worse-for-wear twenty and held it out for Theo to take. He watched as the older teen smoothed out the money before his shoulders were shaking in laughter. “Jesus Liam, twenty bucks?” Liam shrugged, giving in and sitting on the couch to lean on his elbows and run his hands through his sweaty hair. After a moment Theo sat next to him. He tried not to notice the tight pants. Instead he focused on the floor, mumbling his next words.

“If you stripped completely, especially for a crusty old dude, I was gonna to lose it and kill everything.”

Theo was still shaking his head, a grin hovering on his lips as he looked down at the money. After a moment Liam leaned his shoulder into the chimera’s, letting the warmth and nearness help him come down from the adrenaline. Theo leaned in too, tension Liam hadn’t been aware the chimera having easing from his shoulders.

“Do you have to work at a strip club?” He waited a moment before Theo sighed, “I almost have a enough to start college.” That sent a pang of guilt in his stomach but Liam pushed on “But like..a ..strip club? Can’t you bar tend at a regular club? You know, where clothes are generally required to stay on?” then in a moment of weakness he whispered “I’m never going to be okay with this.”

Theo turned to look closely at Liam, who continued to stare resolutely at the floor, before the chimera sighed dramatically and fell backwards into the cushion, “Yeah but who is gonna appreciate all this sexy skill?”

Liam turned to scowl at the smirking bastard, “If you need to dance for someone, just call me!” Then he bit his lip at the realization, figuring out how to back track but also not back tracking and this night had been really weird and too long. Theo was watching him now with a quietly heated look, a soft grin growing as he watched Liam squirm.

“Yes but will you always pay so cheap?”

Theo was still laughing when he was leaving the building later after quitting, Liam practically dragging him to their vehicles.

#thiam #thiam dabble drabble #I giggled way too much writing this #fun writing #I had to watch male strip dance videos to get an idea #it was awkward #second hand embarrassment #Kind of like Magic mike's moves #I think?#I haven't watched that #my endings are alway sappy

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teapotfiction · 7 years ago

Note

Hi! Can you write a fic where Betty interrupts Jughead's initiation?

Well yes, yes I can. I am in love with this prompt (and I still have some others in queue that were requested before this. I’m sorry to those anons - I will get round to writing them but this week my heart has been so broken by the show that all I could write is angst.

So welcome aboard the good ship angst my good fellows. And I hope you enjoy….This turned out a lot longer than originally planned.

Read on AO3

Breaking Through the Atmosphere

Lollipop Lollipop Oooh Lolli Lolli Lolli

Betty’s entire body tensed as her phone went off. Surely not again? Had today not been bad enough?

She wanted so badly to ignore it, but she was compelled to reach for her phone. If she stopped answering now, everything else was pointless.

And that couldn’t be pointless. It had to serve its purpose. Because it was the worst thing he could have asked of her.

She held her breath and reached for the phone. To her surprise the caller ID didn’t say UNKNOWN, but Archie. She relaxed for half a second before remembering why he was calling her, and flinching.

‘Hi.’ She almost whispered into the phone.

‘Hi Betty. I did what you asked.’ His voice was low. He sounded exhausted. Betty didn’t know what to respond with. She’d known that Archie would talk to Jughead on her behalf. She’d known that Archie - the one person who knew Jughead almost as well as she did - would know how to make it convincing. She’d known that Archie wouldn’t let her down.

But she wished he had.

Because then she’d still have Jughead.

And even though she was desperately clinging to the idea that they’d be able to walk it back one day, the fear that they wouldn’t be able to threatened to paralyse her.

‘And?’ One word, that was all she could manage.

She heard Archie sigh. ‘He bought it. Eventually.’

‘I’m sorry I asked you. I couldn’t have done it..’

‘I know.’ Archie’s tone softened. ‘It was hard. I said more than I planned on.’

‘As long as he believed it.’ Betty replied, her voice cracking. ‘We will walk it back.’ she said, as if to convince herself, as the tears that had never really stopped started to fall down her face again.

There was a noticeable pause on the phone. ‘What, Archie? What aren’t you saying?’

‘Betty. When I went to see Jughead, he told me I had to go. He practically pushed me out of the door before I even opened my mouth.’

‘Oh?’

‘Yeh. Then the serpents arrived and - I don’t know what’s going on Betty - but he’s in deep with them. I think he’s joining them.’

‘No Arch. He wouldn’t’

‘He was standing with them. He didn’t want me to know - that’s why he tried to get me to go. He was just standing there. Surrounded by the guys that attacked us. With them. Against us.’ Archie’s voice was shaky, Betty felt the guilt pulsate around her body. She’d taken it for granted that Archie would be unaffected - but this changed everything.

‘He wouldn’t’ She repeated.

‘He is.’ Archie was resigned. ‘I didn’t know if I should tell you or not. But I thought you should know the truth. We might have already lost him. But if there’s a chance - I don’t think you can afford to wait. I’m sorry Betty, this isn’t what you wanted to hear.’

She couldn’t speak, tears flooded down her face as everything came tumbling down around her.

‘Betty? I’m coming over. You shouldn’t be alone.’

‘No Archie. I need to be alone. I need to.. Process.’ she managed to get out between the sobs that threatened to pull her body apart. ‘If I have to lose him to keep him safe…. I have to try and keep him safe. I can’t… I can’t … I can’t’ But she couldn’t finish her sentence.

He understood.

‘If you change your mind…’ Archie replied. Betty sniffed.

‘Thanks Archie.’

She hung up before she fell apart.

She curled up on the floor of her bedroom, hurling her phone as far as she could. She never wanted to hear it ring again. It brought nothing but pain and destruction. She hugged her knees tightly and let herself cry. Wracking, ugly sobs that seemed to reach from her very core overtook her. She struggled to breathe. She had lost everything, and she didn’t even know if it was worth it.

Jughead didn’t know exactly what it felt like exactly, but he thought there was a pretty high chance that he was now in shock.

Betty.

Betty didn’t want him any more.

She hadn’t wanted him for weeks.

And she’d sent Archie to do her dirty work.

He tried to push the thought to the back of his mind. He had more pressing issues right now. He couldn’t show weakness. Not in front of the pack of Serpents currently standing around him. They were waiting for a reaction; Sweet Pea raised his eyebrows, smirking. They wanted him to crumble under the weight of Archie’s words. Hell - he wanted to crumble himself. But he wasn’t going to do that. He had to distract himself.

There was too much at stake.

And if that meant that he had to lose some things along the way, then so be it.

But why did it have to be Betty?

He cricked his neck from side to side.

‘Okay then. Let’s get this over with.’ he practically snarled the words out.

‘Oh no. Your final trial is not one we’re going to hurry through.’ Sweet Pea smirked even harder, making Jughead want to hit the look right off his face. Which was probably the idea. They wanted him to lose his cool. It’d make the game much more fun for them.

‘Fine. What do I need to do?’

‘It’s very simple. You’ve just got to take a few steps. One end of the line to the other. Shouldn’t be too challenging for FP’s son.’

‘What’s the catch?’ Jughead eyed him.

‘You’ll have to wait until the sun goes down to find that out.’ The group tittered behind him, ‘I just hope you’re not too fond of your pretty boy looks.’

‘So why are you here already?’ Jughead glared. That had floored him, He needed the immediate distraction, and sunset was still a couple of hours away. He couldn’t risk thinking about Betty, or Archie while the Serpents were around. He’d reveal his weakness.

‘We’ve got to make sure you’re not going to cheat.’ Jughead frowned, confused and Sweet Pea continued. ‘We know Toni here has tipped you off as to the difficulty of this challenge. We don’t want there to be any risk that you take something that’s going to ease the pain.’

If only he knew, thought Jughead, nothing could ease that particular pain.

Don’t think about it. Don’t think. Don’t. Just act. Autopilot if you need to.

‘So you’re just going to watch me?’

‘Catch on real quick, don’t you?’

Hours passed, and eventually she ran out of tears. Her body still heaved, but there was nothing more that could physically come out of her. She was empty. Empty but not numb. Numb would be preferable to the all encompassing wretchedness.

Was this worth it? Was she doing the right thing?

Eventually she found the strength to stand up. She paced around her room. She couldn’t stay still. Her hand was forced into inactiveness by the Black Hood, and she hated it. She was terrified. A prisoner in her own room. Isolated from everyone.

Her mind was racing. Archie’s warning running through her head. He’s in deep. Already lost. Serpents. Was it true? Had Archie misinterpreted the situation? Surely Jughead wouldn’t?

The pain, the uncertainty, the questions threatened to spiral her out of control. Her hands were bunched up into tight little balls; her nails dug in deep. She could see the blood, but she couldn’t feel anything.

She had to know that it was worth it.

She had to see him.

Maybe she could…? No. The Black Hood would know if she tried to tell him anything.

But she had to see him. Even if she didn’t speak to him. Even if it changed nothing. She had to see it with her own eyes. It was the only way that she’d believe it. She was frantic.

Betty didn’t even stop to pick up a jacket. She ran out of the house and towards the South, without stopping. She couldn’t feel the blistering cold of the winter evening. She couldn’t feel anything other than her heartbreak.

It hadn’t taken long for Jughead to read in between the none too subtle lines of Sweet Pea’s words. He knew what he was about to face and he welcomed it. Physical pain might distract him. It was nothing less than he deserved for losing Betty. He was trash. And she’d finally realised it.

The Serpents - (what was the correct pack name for a group of them? He mused A nest of them?) - were getting excited. It made him sick. If he hadn’t already been so set on joining, if he hadn’t known that he had to join, he would have just given up. Walked away. But he couldn’t. This was his destiny and he had to face up to it. He could no longer pretend that he could choose a different future. He was his dad. He could just try not to make as many of the same mistakes as his dad had. Try to stay out of jail. Try to stay away from people so he didn’t hurt them. Try not to rip a family apart. He could try.

‘Nearly time, Jones.’ Sweet Pea, in particular, was relishing the tortuous countdown. Taunting Jughead while he still could. Before they became the same.

‘Shouldn’t you be lining up?’ Jughead returned, defiantly. He wasn’t worried. He could take the physical beating. It was the emotional one that threatened to destroy him.

‘Not quite yet.’ Sweet Pea lit up a cigarette and blew the smoke into Jughead’s face. Jughead resisted the instinct to cough. They flared at each other. Neither moving for what could have been a few seconds or a few hours - Jughead couldn’t tell.

‘Okay serpents. Line up.’ Sweet Pea gave the instruction without breaking eye contact with Jughead. ‘You know the rules, Jones. All you’ve got to do is walk down the line. No stopping. No fighting back. No reacting. If you survive you’ll be one of us. If you don’t…’ he trailed off and gave Jughead a nasty grin. ‘Well, none of us are gonna say what happened to you.’

Betty had no idea which route she’d taken to get to the trailer park. But she’d got there, running the whole way, desperate and determined. But once she arrived at her destination, her feet would no longer propel her forward, no matter how hard she tried. She was afraid of what might happen next

She could see FP’s - or rather Jughead’s - trailer a little way ahead of her, and suddenly felt shy. She didn’t feel able approach it straight on, so she headed to the wooded area that was just behind it. She could see out, but she should be fairly invisible.

As she got a little closer, she realised that there were figures moving about outside. She didn’t want to look, but she couldn’t look away. Who were they and what were they doing? She darted behind the nearest tree, peeking out, trying to work out what was going on.

And then she saw him. Jughead. Her heart flipped and she felt a rush of nausea. This is why she’d had to send Archie to talk to him earlier. How would she ever face him again? She was torn between reaching out to touch him, and running away.

There were two lines of boys - men she corrected herself - ‘Serpents’ said the voice inside her head. Jughead seemed to be at the top of the line. She couldn’t quite make out their intention; they didn’t look friendly, but they hadn’t made a move towards him. If they were going to attack him, surely they’d have started already? Her eyes widened, desperately trying to find a clue as to their motivations. Was he in danger?

She saw Jughead crick his neck from side to side, slowly and deliberately. He stared straight ahead. It was like he was looking directly at her, though of course he couldn’t see her. She didn’t recognise the person standing there. He looked so cold, so determined, so different. It was as if he was a stranger. The tears that she thought she’d exhausted started to prick at her eyes again. Whatever this was, it certainly wasn’t good.

He took a step forward. She gasped.

Jughead faced the group, and he let his mind go.

Betty.

He stepped forward. There wasn’t room for any more hurt. He would welcome the punches when they came. He’d be battered and broken on the outside too.

The force of the first punch took him by surprise, as his body was forced backwards by the violent blow. But still he continued on. His step only slightly more uncertain than it had been.

You’ve done this to yourself.

This is what you deserve.

Thwack. Another blow, the force threatening to wind him. And then they came in thick and fast. Blow after blow after blow, each harder than the one before it. And then when he was least expecting it there was a pause. He couldn’t bring himself to look up and kill the hope that he’d reached the end of the line - because he knew really he was less than half way through.

The next punch hit him in the jaw, he fell back only to be caught by the Serpent standing behind him. For a second he allowed himself to believe that it was Betty there, catching him as he fell, again. Because she’d always done that. She’d always caught him when he threatened to self destruct. She’d always caught him before he got too far away from her. Until now. Until it had been too much for her. A double blow of pain hit him again. She’d never catch him again. Those short months of happiness was gone. Life was grittier now.

Another step forward. Shakier now. Another punch sent him hurling backwards. He lost his footing and he didn’t know where the blows were coming from now, but he could barely stand. And then a sharp, forceful attack hit his back and he was on the floor. His face pressed into the mud, making raw cuts sting. And all he could think was that this still didn’t hurt as much as knowing he’d lost the only person he’d ever loved.

Betty didn’t want to watch but she couldn’t look away. She was rooted to the spot, unable to move. Why wasn’t he fighting back? Why was he letting them do this? Why did he look so defeated? Why couldn’t she move?

She felt sick. Had she pushed him towards the Serpents? How was she supposed to move on knowing that he was in pain? She couldn’t go to him; that much she knew - but she had no idea how she would ever be able to forget this tortuous scene.

Poor Juggie.

She wanted to shout to him, to tell him to run. She wanted to get on his motorcycle with him and live happily ever after. Not Romeo and Juliet, but Betty and Jughead. Together. Away from it all. Curled up in each other’s arms…

No. She shouldn’t think like that. It wasn’t healthy. She had to move past it. Until it was safe.

She saw Jughead fall down as the Serpents surrounded him.

Get up Juggie, get up. Please get up. Whatever this is, just get up. Don’t just lie there. You can do it. Please Juggie. Show them that you’re okay. Please be okay. Please.

Felt desperate. In another world, she’d run over to him, hug him close and forget anything else had ever happened. She realised she was crying again when she felt the tears run down her face.

Then she saw it. A tiny glint in the dark night, of light reflecting off metal. On the tall Serpent’s hand.

Was that a….? Surely not? Surely nobody used them. Not in real life.

But there was no mistaking what it was; nor the intent in the body language.

Jughead finally peeled himself from the floor, wincing and staggering as he did so. She saw blood drip from his mouth, his brow furrowed in pain.

The tall Serpent swaggered over to Jughead and something cracked inside of her.

‘Oh no no no no.’ she cried.

And that’s when her feet remembered how to move.

‘Stop it. No! Don’t hurt him.’ She screamed at the top of her voice as she ran into the circle of Serpents, angling her body so she was between Jughead and tall figure.

‘Stay away from him.’ She screeched in a voice she didn’t recognise. And then she realised what she’d done.

She was surrounded. She tried to back away but found herself walking in to one of them. She spun around, so she was facing Jughead. Both of them, in the centre of the group. Unarmed. Vulnerable.

Both of them broken.

Betty could tell that he was close to passing out; but whether from the pain, or the shock she wasn’t sure. He swayed instead of standing still. His mouth dripping with blood. His eyes blackened.

‘Show’s over Sweet Pea’ he snapped.

‘I don’t think so.’ The tall one laughed. ‘We’ve not finished yet.’

‘Juggie?’ Betty’s voice was only marginally above a whisper.

‘Well I say we have. Isn’t this enough for you? Doesn’t this prove enough?’ Jughead’s voice was weaker than she’d ever heard it, though he was trying to put a brave face on it.

‘I don’t think you’re in a position to negotiate, Jones.’ Sweet Pea countered.

‘Just go.’ Jughead hissed. Sweet Pea looked around, weighing up the options. Then he grabbed a jacket from Toni and threw it to the ground, stamping it into the mud.

‘Come on. Let’s not waste our time with those who don’t make it.’

With that the group disappeared. Several of them deliberately knocked into Jughead with such force that he was nearly on the floor again. Betty tried not to watch when she saw him trying to spit the worst of the blood from his mouth. She didn’t think there was enough of her heart left to break again, but it was happening.

They were alone again. In an uncomfortable and awkward silence, which Betty had never known with Jughead.

Eventually he spoke. ‘You look like hell Betty. What are you doing here?’

‘You don’t look so good yourself.’ she replied pointedly.

‘I thought you didn’t want to see me again.’ he hissed. ‘That you’d been trying to break up with me for weeks. That you knew I’d gone dark.’

She shook her head. ‘No, no, no, no.’

‘Did it have to be Archie though? Did you have to twist the knife just that one last time?’

He was so angry and she didn’t blame him. She couldn’t think of a good reason why she was there. This had been a mistake. She couldn’t do what she so desperately wanted to because the stakes were too high. And now the Serpents had turned their back on him too. She’d just made it so much worse. Still, she knew what she had to do.

‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come.’ But she made no move to leave. She knew that when she left this time it really would be the end. He’d never forgive her. There would be no walking back.

She wasn’t sure she could do it.

‘Why did you come, Betts?’ The familiar nickname jolted her back. It gave her a hope that she shouldn’t allow herself to have.

She swallowed. ‘I had to see you. Just one last time. I needed to know you were safe.’

‘Yeh, well.’ he shrugged, which made him wince in pain again, and gestured around. ‘Safe as houses this.’

Betty shifted uncomfortably, her hands curled up into tight balls. Almost involuntarily she took a step forward.

‘But, the serpents Juggie? Of all things, to join the Serpents?’ her voice wavered.

‘What else did I have? I don’t belong in the North - that much is clear. And I’m a Serpent by blood. It’s what I’m meant to do.’

Betty shook her head vehemently. ‘No Juggie. You said that was your dad’s life, not yours.’

‘Then I shouldn’t have assumed I’m any better then him.’

You are. She wanted to scream. You are. He’s not a bad person but you are so much stronger; you’re so much wiser and you can do so much more. You’re more than your parents Jughead.

But she couldn’t say anything. Minutes passed as they stood opposite each other, neither one knowing what to say. Neither one wanting to be the one that walked away first.

Betty cleared her throat, eventually.

‘You should clean that up. You don’t want it getting infected.’

‘Sure.’

She took another step closer to him, almost close enough to touch. She looked at his face critically. He was still staring at the ground, at his hands, at anything but her. Up close his injuries looked so much worse and she gave another gasp.

‘I don’t think you should be alone tonight. Head injuries. It could… Is there someone you can…?’

‘Who would I call Betty?’ he replied sardonically. ‘It doesn’t matter. I’ll be fine, and if I’m not then so be it.’

His words shocked her. He looked up and found her staring at his eyes. He could see something was going on. There was something she hadn’t told him (not that he was in any position to be angry about that after what he’d hidden). There was something holding her back. That was why she’d sent Archie, because she knew he’d see through her.

He caught her hand.

She looked at him, startled. And then she made her decision.

Because what good was it to try and keep him safe from the Black Hood, if he was going to put his own life in danger?

Maybe they couldn’t be together. Maybe there was too much else going on. But maybe it was worth the risk to try and get a message to him.

‘I can. If you want. I can clean you up.’ she offered, timidly.

Jughead didn’t speak, but he guided her into the trailer, not dropping her hand.

Once inside she made her way to the Jones’ bathroom where she was depressingly knowledgeable about the whereabouts of the medical essentials. She willed herself to stop crying, but knew it was useless. Focus, Betty. Focus.

She carried the bottle of antiseptic, the cotton wall and the band-aids through to the trailer’s sitting room. Jughead had sat down on his couch and at his feet was a dog. This must be the one that had bitten his hand, but right now it didn’t look anything but friendly.

Jughead was absent mindedly running his hands through the dog’s fur, staring ahead with a blank expression, his jaw set hard.

She wanted to say something, but she had no idea where to start. The words she really wanted to say were impossible now. Instead, she concentrated at the task at hand, unscrewing the bottle and soaking the cotton wool.

‘This might sting.’

His eyes snapped towards her and his mouth twitched as if he was holding back a sarcastic comment. She leant forward awkwardly, so aware of his body position in relation to hers. How different it was from a couple of weeks ago - the last time she’d been fixing him up - when his hand lay proprietorially and proudly on her leg. Where, despite his injuries, his humour had remained. Where they’d been so certain of each other.

She knew now how much she’d hurt him. And if it wasn’t for what she’d witnessed earlier she’d be rushing to apologise. But he had secrets too, and he’d made decisions without her.

He winced slightly when the antiseptic first touched his skin but he didn’t say a word. His eyes locked onto hers and she felt embarrassed under his scrutiny, so she focused on his injuries instead, unable to meet his gaze.

She almost couldn’t bear to look at that either. There were sizeable cuts to both sides of his face, his eye was already turning purple - the colour deepening as the minutes passed, and his lip was split. She kept dab, dab, dabbing at the blood, cleaning it up as best as she could. Trying to focus her mind. This was her one opportunity to speak to him. She couldn’t mess it up. But she couldn’t find the words to say what she needed to.

‘When I said you were a sight for sore eyes, I wasn’t expecting to mean it quite so literally.’ Jughead muttered, sardonically.

Betty knew he was trying to lighten the mood, but she couldn’t bring herself to smile. ‘Why Juggie? Just.. why?’ She paused, and dropped her hands down in her lap, staring at him with those bright green eyes that he knew would haunt his sleep forever.

He stared back defiantly for a while before he spoke. And then his eyes softened.

‘To keep you safe.’ He said, simply. ‘You and Archie, and everyone else.Turns out my dad was the peace keeper, and now he’s gone they’re going to hell in a handcasket.’

Betty’s mouth formed a perfect ‘o’ in surprise. No matter what she’d been expecting him to say, it hadn’t been that. She looked down at her hands, shifting her weight uncomfortably.

‘But joining the Serpents, Jug. That’s not a game. Look what they’ve done to you.’

He shrugged.

‘For some inexplicable reason, my interest in self preservation has waned.’ His eyes went cold again, as he remembered the conversation he’d had earlier. He swallowed hard.

‘Why are you here Betty? I told Archie to let you know I got the message.’

‘Jug.’ she sighed and opened her mouth to continue, but her voice had disappeared.

‘You know what hurts? Other than you wanting to end it, of course. The fact you couldn’t even say it yourself. That you had to send him. I didn’t expect that from you of all people.’

Betty sniffed, and another tear fell down her face. She nodded in agreement, all too aware that she’d let him down.

‘It’s true then, what he said?’ Jughead didn’t really want to hear the answer but he knew he had to ask. It had to be final. ‘You don’t want anything to do with me anymore?’ He always had been a sucker for pain.

‘I can’t.’ She cried. ‘I can’t… I can’t’

‘No. You won’t. Just say it Betty. Just say you didn’t love me. I know you’re too good for me. I’ve always known it. So just say it and then you can leave.’

‘I can’t Jughead.’ He looked up.

‘You can’t what?’

‘I can’t say it.’ Her lip wobbled and more tears sprung down her face. She couldn’t look up at him. She knew she shouldn’t say anything else. There was too much of a risk. But she was here, with Jughead and she couldn’t bear this. She needed him, and she was fairly sure he needed her too.

‘Betty, what is going on? You look like you haven’t slept in weeks. You send Archie to break up with me and then you appear only hours later. What has happened?’ He grasped her by the shoulders, firmly, and then gave her a little shake. ‘What aren’t you telling me?’

‘I can’t - ‘ she started, but then found the strength to look him in the eye and all of her resolve crumbled. ‘It’s him. He’s been phoning me.’

‘Who?’

‘The Black Hood.’

Betty could feel herself falling apart. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t even tell you if she was crying or not. It was like something was ripping her apart from the inside.

Jughead’s eyes took on a frantic note, and before he could think what he was doing, he pulled Betty in towards her, wrapping his arms around her. Protecting her - because that was all he ever wanted to do. He wanted to make this better for her. Even if…

‘I didn’t want to. I couldn’t. That’s why I sent Archie, because he - the black hood - told me that if I didn’t cut you out of my life, he’d do it for me. He’s been watching me. I shouldn’t be here because it puts you in danger. I shouldn’t have come. And, if he sees me with you…’ Once the words started, they tumbled out faster and faster. ‘He’s been testing me Juggie, and as long as I’ve been playing by his game, he hasn’t hurt anyone else. So what option do I have?’ she wept into his shoulder and he patted her back, ignoring the pain from his bruises.

‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ he asked, when her tears subsided a bit and she pulled back from his arms slightly.

‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ she countered.

‘I deserve that, I suppose. I didn’t know how to.’

‘I was so scared.’

‘It’s going to be okay.’ he promised.

‘You should get some ice on your eye.’ Betty changed the subject and he frowned. She stood up and crossed the room to the kitchen, not looking back at him. Jughead shook his head and ruffled HotDog’s fur again.

She returned a couple of minutes later, with some ice tied up in a kitchen cloth. Gently she leaned in to press it against his eye. This time they held each other’s gaze. Jughead slowly pushed her hand down but kept a hold of her wrist.

‘Betty Cooper. I love you. I’m going to keep loving you whatever happens. No North/South war or serial killer can keep us apart.’

Betty went to start speaking but he put his finger to her lips to shush her. ‘I understand if your feelings have changed. I understand if you want more than this. I’m just laying out my position. And I want to say I’m sorry. I should never have lied to you. I should have told you what was going on. And I should never, ever, have let you go without asking you first. So I’m asking you now.’ He looked up at her, and it reminded Betty of the way he’d looked at her just before he kissed her for the first time.

‘Jughead Jones. I love you.’

That was all he needed to close the gap between them and press his lips to her mouth. She melted into him, trying to be gentle but noticing when he winced slightly.

When they pulled apart, he went to lace his fingers through hers, and that’s when he realised what she’d been hiding from him.

‘Betty.’ he groaned as the extent of the damage to her hands. He reached for the antiseptic and cotton wool before she could protest.

‘You fixed me up, it’s only fair I return the favour.’ He whispered, his voice so gentle and full of concern.

He was so tender with her, the boy with the blackened eye and bloodstained shirt. When he was finished, Betty grasped his hand tightly in hers.

‘So, I think it’s safe to say, that us being apart doesn’t work very well for either of us.’ Jughead’s lazy smile was starting to return.

‘Perhaps not.’

‘It doesn’t lead us to make the best decisions.’

Betty shook her head.

‘I’m so sorry Juggie - I never should have…’

He leaned in to kiss her again. ‘I understand. All that matters now is that we’re back and we have each other. We’re so much stronger than the rest. Whatever it takes, we can figure it out together.’

She smiled for what felt like the first time in years - decades even.

‘I love you.’

‘Stay?’ he asked.

‘Always.’ she replied. And she meant it.

#Bughead #bughead fanfiction #riverdale season 2 #riverdale #prompt

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