#and if I’m gonna draw this man I wanna not curse my own existence when I draw a side profile

[mfdragon]

Vlad Plasmius but fire hair! 🔥

[hopelesshawks]

Love and Admiration Part 36- Man of Your Dreams

18+ Bakugo x fem!pro hero reader

Summary: (Y/n) has known Bakugo since middle school, admired him since high school, and had a crush on him since the first time they met. Even now, a top pro hero in her own right, she can’t shake her school girl crush. Too bad Bakugo literally has no idea she exists. Well that’s not entirely true… He does know pro hero Mercury exists, but (y/l/n) (y/n)? Never heard of her.

Warnings for dry humping, dom/sub themes, praise kink, oral (female receiving)

Masterlist Help Lulu <3

The door to Bakugo’s apartment is unlocked for you so you walk in as soon as you arrive before locking it back behind you. You’re surprised to find the apartment silent, having expected at the very least the sound of the tv going or perhaps of Katsuki cooking in the kitchen. You wander around his apartment in search of him, flicking on some of the light switches since the only light seems to be coming from the sunset through the large bay windows on the far wall. You’re about to flick the lights on in the living room when you finally spot Katsuki and suck in a breath. He’s fallen asleep on his couch, clad in gray joggers and the hoodie you bought him. The black “Are you still watching?” message from Netflix on the tv indicates he must’ve fallen asleep while watching something and it makes a warm fondness bloom in your chest.

You step further into the living room, reaching for the remote and then turning off the tv before moving to sit on the floor in front of the couch. The golden and red orange light from the setting sun plays through his hair and dances over his features. He looks so gentle like this and you can’t help but try to commit the image to memory. You’re not at all surprised he’s exhausted, he’d worked an early morning shift again and has still been recovering from the sleepless nights he’d had when you two were fighting. You’re happy to see that the bags under his eyes are finally fading and you can’t resist the temptation to reach out and press a gentle kiss to his forehead before carding your fingers through his hair. You’re not sure how long you sit there just combing your fingers through the blonde strands and drinking in the sight of him, but eventually he stirs slightly. He sighs into your touch, the only indication at first that he’s woken up at all, before his eyes finally flutter open, crimson irises meeting your (y/e/c) ones. They slip shut almost immediately afterwards as he reaches to pull you onto the couch. “C’mere Princess,” he mutters sleepily and how could you possibly refuse when he looks so soft? So you allow him to pull you on top of him, one arm wrapping around your waist as you pillow your head against his chest. “You like watchin’ me sleep, huh?” he asks, voice rough and deeper than normal since he’s only just woken up. “I do. You looked like you were having a good dream,” you hum. “I was,” comes his easy reply as his hand rubs circles into your back. “I’m sorry I woke you then.” “Don’t be. I was dreaming of you,” he admits, as if it’s the most casual thing in the world. You pull back so you can look at him properly, searching his face for a sign he’s messing with you. “You’re kidding,” you say incredulously but that only makes the smug and sleepy smirk on his face grow wider as he shakes his head. “I’m not. The reality is much better though,” he says before leaning up to press a kiss to your lips.

All of the warmth that had been filling you while you’d watched him and then processed his sweet words overflows now, spilling into the gentle kiss you two share. Slowly the kiss starts to turn heated as you open your mouth to allow his tongue inside to tangle with yours. You feel the moment his dick starts to take an interest, gradually starting to harden as his hands roam underneath your shirt to slide along your bare waist. Soon he flips the two of you over so you’re pinned beneath him, grinding his hips down against you in a way that has both of you groaning into each other’s mouths. There’s no rush to your actions though as he continues to grind down into you and you cant your hips up to meet his. He drops his mouth from your lips to your neck, nipping the delicate skin there before soothing it with his tongue, making sure to leave marks. One of your hands grasps at his back, urging his hips to continue their rhythm but the other tangles into his hair as you gasp at the continued attention. You eventually tug him back up to meet your lips again and when you next roll your hips up to meet his you’re delighted at the low keening moan it wrenches from his throat. His hips start to stutter in their rhythm, a sign he’s getting close to his climax, so he starts to pull back but you push down on his back and bring your hips up to encourage him to keep going. You separate your lips from his only to bring it to the shell of his ear. “Don’t stop, want you to cum for me,” you whisper and you can tell by the shiver that runs through him and the muttered curse that drops from his lips that he’s going to listen.

When you grind your hips up again, Katsuki eagerly meets you halfway, the fabric of his sweatpants providing extra friction against his weeping cock. “You’re being such a good boy for me Katsuki,” you praise and it only seems to spur him on more as more curses spill from his lips and he continues to hump against your leg. “F-fuck Princess, I’m gonna-“ he whines. “Do it,” you reply, “let go for me baby.” He grinds against you one final time before he’s spilling his load into his sweatpants with a strangled cry, darkening the gray fabric. “Shit,” he huffs breathlessly as he rides out the aftershocks of his orgasm. “Think you can make your Princess feel good now too?” you ask coyly. “Fuck yes,” he all but growls before kissing you until you’re as breathless as he is as he encourages you to slide further up the couch so you can lean your back against the arm of it. He then settles himself between your legs, watching hungrily as he pulls your bottoms and panties down to reveal your dripping sex. He wastes no time burying his face between your thighs, licking a long stripe along your folds before slipping his tongue into your pussy. “Shit, just like that. Feels so good,” you groan as his tongue drags along your inner walls. His rough palms keep your legs spread for him as you slowly start to fall apart above him. “You’re doing so well Katsuki, fuck. Right there,” you moan, your head falling back as your own climax draws nearer. One of his hands leaves your thigh to press circles into your sensitive clit and it doesn’t take long after that for your orgasm to come rushing over you with a cry of his name.

As you come down he presses kisses to your inner thigh before finally leaning up to kiss your lips again. “Such a good boy,” you coo breathlessly. The growl you get in response makes you laugh as Katsuki’s cheeks and ears turn pink. “Since when did you start giving orders?” he asks. “Since I realized you might actually listen. You’re pretty cute when you follow instructions,” you tease. “Watch it, Princess,” he growls in warning, fire sparking in his ruby red irises. “Or what?” you tease. He’s about to show you exactly how he intends to teach you a lesson when you’re both startled by a pounding at the door. “Yo lovebirds, It’s party time!” you hear Mina shout from the other side and you can’t help but laugh as Katsuki groans, his forehead falling to rest on your collar. “One second!” you call back, which only makes your boyfriend growl again. “C’mon, you know if we don’t hurry up she’ll melt down the door,” you laugh, pushing gently at Katsuki’s shoulders to encourage him to climb off the couch. “Fine, but I’m teaching you a fucking lesson later,” he huffs, nipping the skin at the base of your neck to emphasize his point before finally climbing off you. You hurry to pull back on your panties and bottoms as Bakugo moves to answer the door. “Wait!” you call out suddenly, lunging forward to catch his arm before he can get too far. “What? You’re the one who said Raccoon Eyes would melt my door,” he points out with a raised eyebrow. “I mean yea but maybe I should grab the door while you change?” you offer, pointedly looking down to the stain he’d left on his sweatpants earlier before meeting his eyes again. He curses under his breath, face turning a vibrant shade of red as he recalls the mess he’d made of his pants. “I’ll be back,” he grumbles before storming off towards his room and you can’t help but to laugh before the sound of Mina pounding on the door again has you making yourself presentable and rushing to answer it.

You hurry to fling the door open to find your friends on the other side, grinning with excitement and many carrying their own contributions to the alcohol stash for the night. You let them in and guide them to the kitchen to drop their cargo before you greet them all eagerly with hugs and excitement. Midoriya, Denki, and Kirishima especially give you a warm welcome since they hadn’t seen you at all since the last hang and don’t get to talk to you nearly as much as Shinso and the girls do. By the time you’ve finished saying hello, you’re alerted to Bakugo’s return by his arms wrapping carefully around your waist. “I guess you guys had fun waiting for us,” Shinso deadpans as he leans casually against the kitchen counter. “No idea what you’re talking about,” you shrug, leaning back into Katsuki’s warm embrace. “So the new hickeys on your neck just spontaneously appeared?” he asks, amusement evident in his smirk as you try to sputter out an excuse despite obviously being flustered. “We were having a lot of fun before you guys showed up. If you wanna fuck off-“ “Katsuki!” you interrupt him scandalized although your friends seem to find it infinitely more amusing than you do. They tease the two of you for awhile, even as drinks start to get poured and the party starts to begin in earnest, especially once they realize Bakugo is wearing the Mercury hoodie, but it’s all in good fun. In all honesty it warms your heart a little to have this. You can’t help but be struck by how lucky you are to finally have the man of your dreams and friends that support your relationship so wholeheartedly.

As the others start to move the party out of the kitchen, Katsuki holds you back before spinning you in his arms to face him. “I’m not fucking you in the kitchen when our friends are literally in the other room,” you say immediately, causing Katsuki to roll his eyes. “That’s not why I held you back idiot,” he huffs. “Oh! What is it then?” you ask, slightly sheepish. “You just seemed deep in thought ‘s all. You good?” he asks brusquely. A fond smile spreads over your face. “I’m more than good, I’m perfect. I was just thinking how glad I am to finally have you,” you explain happily. “Yea?” “Yea.” “Good. Me too.” When he slots your lips together this time you both know it’s more than just a simple kiss.

It’s also a silent promise of forever.

A/N: Another fic finished 🥲 thank you all so much for reading this and supporting me. Every like, reblog, and reply has meant the absolute world to me and I’m so grateful. If you liked this fic feel free to check out my others through my general masterlist or request to join the taglist for my next series Basic Instincts, starring my favorite bird boi Hawks

Taglist: @pixelwisp @oliviasslut @larkspyrr @heroacadema @kozukatsuki @captaincyberqueen @undead-nyx @ineedtofocusfr @i-heart-fictional-boys @theycallme-becky @superhermit @black-rose-29 @disaster-rose @fandomsgotmefucked @irenne-stans

[you-cant-spell-subtext-without]

so get this. I was gonna roll around in Tombstone related fluff today - but no, no - this post came across my dash so Now We Are Gonna Discuss the Carnal Consumption of Meat as it appears on That Show Supernatural.  YEAH BUDDIES!

(also my sincere apologies to OP of the inspiration post who innocently tagged it with “lunch date!”  because I am about to go Elsewhere, cursedly).

Let’s all go meat man, after the cut!

This analysis centers primarily on 5x14 Bloody Valentine.  The title of course is a semi-homage to a 3D Slasher Film Jensen starred in circa 2009. 

Which I will be renting soon I guess.  ,[<- parasocial panda GET BACK IN YOUR ENCLOSURE]

Also Its Really Fun that the trailer for Said Cinema ends with “nothing says date movie like a 3-D ride to hell” [are you also thinking of Cas pulling Dean out of hell, or are you normal?]  ***unironically the teaser for 5x14 is -

EXT. SIDEWALK - IN FRONT OF ALICE'S APARTMENT BUILDING

RUSSEL 

First date.

They then eat each other.  Literally they eat each others flesh.  They also do it while dirty talking about it.  SPN IS A SHOW 

ALICE Ugh! I've been so alone. So empty...

RUSSEL I know. Me too.

ALICE I want you, Russel---All of you... inside me...

[they both take bites out of each other, Alice chewing on a piece of Russel's flesh]

****Remember this detail, as it is important.

ANYWAY, it’s truly Cursed that not only are we doing an homage to this 3-D Jensen Horror Date Flick but also this episode is specifically centered on Valentine’s Day.  The day honoring romance and love Now Coopted by Hallmark, everyone, that is the day spn writers chose to introduce us to 

Sir Horseman of THE Biblical Apocalypse Famine. 

Canonically, we are aware that the show is drawing from the book of Revelations in its depiction of the Four Horsemen.  Here’s what it says about Famine -

"When He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, "Come." I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand.”

-Revelations 6:5

Famine holds scales (used to weigh out grain in times of food scarcity).  Spn’s depiction is represented as hunger, a bottomless pit of need.  It consumes souls (demon and human alike).  

Cas describes Famine a little more poetically:

CASTIEL 

"And then will come Famine riding on a black steed. He will ride into the land of plenty... "

"... and great will be the Horseman's hunger, for he is hunger. "

"His hunger will seep out and poison the air. "

***Consider a prior season in which we are introduced to the Seven Deadly Sins.  Which are the sins associated with hunger?

Gluttony

and Lust.

***this is also important

Back to the episode.  Case cold open, and we find out that Alice was a Nice Girl.  In that she didnt drink, smoke or

have premarital sex.

***So Alice’s hunger for the sin of Lust caused her to succumb to it; and her demise was presented as Gluttony (literally eating her partner’s flesh). HMM

Famine’s presence is affecting the town, and Cas is not immune.

DEAN 

And when did you start eating?

CASTIEL 

Exactly. My hunger-- it's a clue, actually.

***They lay it out a little more in case you missed it ->

SAM 

I thought famine meant starvation, like as in, you know, food.

CASTIEL 

Yes. Absolutely. But not just food. I mean, everyone seems to be starving for something--Sex, attention, drugs, love...

***this is so important.  but of course because its spn and our textual narrators are generally unreliable (even in a Ben Edlund episode, yes I know)

we get a red herring

CASTIEL 

Right. The cherub made them crave love, and then Famine came, and made them rabid for it.

***but that’s not accurate.  they didn’t get married or become obsessed with each other (remember the cursed coin in 4x08 Wishful Thinking and the unconditional love wish? not what happened here). they had premarital sex.  they did the thing Alice considers wrong, and dark, and sinful.  and then they ate each others’ flesh.

DEAN 

Okay, but what about you? I mean, since when do angels secretly hunger for White Castle?

CASTIEL 

It's my vessel-- Jimmy. His, uh, appetite for red meat has been touched by Famine's effect

***mad lad Jimmy Novak’s hunger is for...red meat?  He is starving for red meat?  You are telling me that the Novaks, red blooded conservative religious midwestern Novaks, ate RED MEAT SO SPARINGLY that Jimmy Novak was LITERALLY starving for it?!?!  No way.  Absolutely no way.  This is a man who was such a religious zealot he STUCK HIS HAND IN BOILING WATER and accepted an angel of the lord into his own body but his secret hunger was for fucking ground beef?

give me a damn break.

to me this is an absolute coverup.  Because Cas’s burger consumption is not related one iota to his vessel Jimmy Novak.

it is a representation of Cas falling.  Cas’s cravings for meat represent his growing (and very much prohibited) feelings for...humanity (Dean Winchester), and they are presenting as Gluttony in the form of his downing more and more copious amounts of red meat.  

SERIOUSLY, consider this - at one point the depiction is so desperately carnal that he is eating raw ground beef with his bare hands. It is fucking uncomfortable.  and it is SUPPOSED to be.  Famine stirs up hunger for the prohibited.  For the sinful. That which we are starving for but do not believe we can ever have, so we lust and we lust and we LUST after it, but should we allow ourselves even just a taste of what we have been ravenously craving, we binge it until we ourselves disappear into the oblivion of our own sinful, dark desires.

Since You Want More Examples of why this cant possibly be hunger for Cheeseburgers and Cheeseburgers alone, Consider Famine’s effect on Dean.  Remember his doctor kink?

**when its revealed that Doctor Corman has succumbed to Famine’s poison by drinking himself to death, Dean - very uncharacteristically by the way - reacts by saying out loud

DEAN Thanks. Crap! I really kind of liked this guy.

***please note that Doctor Corman says the following to Dean in the prior scene they have together -

DR. CORMAN [to Dean]

Agent Marley, you just can't stay away.

****was that a flirtation?

***Also, Dean doesn’t want to go out and chase tail for Valentines Day.   

SAM

I mean, what do you always call it-- Uh, unattached drifter Christmas?

DEAN 

Oh, yeah. Well... be that as it may...I don't know. Guess I'm not feeling it this year.

SAM 

So you're not into bars full of lonely women?

DEAN 

Nah, I guess not. [takes a sip of his beer] Ahh. What?

SAM 

That's when a dog doesn't eat-- That's when you know something's really wrong.

***oh look we are relating things to eating again.  sex/lust to gluttony.  hmmm hmmm hmmm

ANYHOW -  *takes deep breath*

 this is also the Episode Where This Scene Lives

****JACKTING JOICES

oh and speaking of jacting joices, this is also the Dean Notices Cupids Crotch Episode.

frAckles, I am once again asking why you only permit celestial beings to hug you from behi-[gunshots]

but Dean isn’t hungry.  Why? Famine has the explanation, and we get it after Dean immediately runs inside after Cas heads in to complete his portion of their plan barely giving him any time to do so because he misses him that much.

FAMINE 

I disagree. [Famine moves closer to Dean and touches him] Yes. I see. That's one deep, dark nothing you got there, Dean. Can't fill it, can you? Not with food or drink. Not even with sex.

DEAN 

Oh, you're so full of crap.

FAMINE 

Oh, you can smirk and joke and lie to your brother, lie to yourself, but not to me! 

***not Dean making all of those homophobic/homoerotic jokes every time he’s in danger or feeing uncomfortable; not that, that can’t possibly be what Famine is referencing, right?

I can see inside you, Dean. I can see how broken you are, how defeated. 

***not THIS parallel:

AMARA:

You're a mystery. I can see inside your heart. Feel the love you feel, except… It's cloaked in shame

You can't win, and you know it. But you just keep fighting. Just... keep going through the motions. 

***not the motions of performative heterosexuality!!

***Dean’s not hungry because in his heart he truly believes that he can’t actually have what he hungers for.  That Thing Which This Episode Overtly but Also Very Clearly Made Obvious.  It’s an angel riding shotgun [I did Do That and I am Not Sorry], eating a burger in the front seat of the impala.  But, I’ve deviated from the meat of this essay [gunshots] [this time just for the bad joke].

BONUS

there’s Exists another episode in which a man ravenously consumes red meat; eventually succumbing to eating raw beef with his bare hands in the season prior to this one.  

Yes Supernatural the Show That Brought Us Not One But Two Scenes of Persons Carnally Consuming Red Meat With Their Bare Hands.  

This episode is a MOTW - the man in question is a rougaru - a monster that starts out as human but due to some specific genetic disorder (hmmm hmmm hmm crack in THE chassis hmmm hmmm) soon begins to be extremely hungry - “for everything, but eventually long pig.” AKA human flesh. 

Wanna know the kicker?  

Episode’s called Metamorphosis.

(GIF by jackttwist)

I’ll see myself out.

[DOUBLE BONUS for extra credit:

if you really wanna wild out, go watch the scene of Jack the rougaru looking at himself in the mirror in 4x04 - and then meander on over to 7x01 and check out God!stiel looking in the mirror as the leviathans writhe inside him over there. It’s worth the walk.]

***oh and @lilac-void​ im tagging you in this one because in exchange for your KIND creator content nomination I guess I will respond by cursing you with an Honorary tag in this, a Meat Meta.  you’re welcome slash I'm sorry XO [but seriously thank you again for your kindness and appreciation; it really motivated me to sit down and get moving on making more content <3]

[wickedgamesoyaoya]

Hii!! Can you do a fluff written/smau (depends on which is easier for you, I don't wanna burden you 🥺) with miya osamu and #14?? 🥺 but ahhh since I am so indecisive, I also love the one from stitch, #10. it's up to you on what you're gonna use hihi I love everything you write especially fluff!! makes my heart uwu

The festival was designed to be spread equally across the 300 acres of land that was the main campus of the college. Without a map to guide you, the search for the mystery man became quite gruelling. It had been half an hour since the hot dog eating competition, and your stomach had already digested a substantial portion of the food you had consumed. Further, the bottom of your feet were beginning to throb, demanding a moment of rest. In order to satisfy your physical needs, you took a seat on an empty bench, before stretching out your legs. A low sigh of approval spilled from your lips at the sensation spreading across your limbs. It was at this point that you elected to observe your surroundings for any indication of where you were. As your narrowed gaze travelled from the right to the booth several meters ahead of you, interest sprouted inside of your chest. Interest bloomed into overwhelming excitement when your eyes locked onto the person stood behind the wooden fixture.  

The words ‘Kissing Booth’ were painted in crimson, drawing the attention of the storm of students who passed by. Some younger girls exchanged whispers, daring the other to pay the cost for a public display of affection. But what piqued your interest was not the recycled vintage idea; no it was the male stood leaning against it casually. The grey-haired boy’s eyes were glued onto his phone, and his brows were knitted in irritation. The sight had prompted an unfamiliar sensation to tickle your stomach acids.

By now you had abandoned your plans to confront him, the gears turning inside your mind had directed your attention onto a far better idea.

“So, ten bucks and I get a kiss, huh?” After removing your wallet from your backpack, the appropriate amount of bills were extracted, and then placed between your fingers.

“Yeah, but not from me. I’m coverin’ for my brother, he’ll be back in a few minutes.” Osamu did not acknowledge your presence immediately, as he furiously typed away on his phone. But seconds later, the familiarity of your voice brought him to raise his stare to you to ascertain your identity. “Oh. It’s you.”

“Yes, chipmunk face. It’s me.” An artificial sigh parted your lips to mask the happiness that was weaving throughout your veins. “You know I’m not buying your act. Covering for your brother? Please.” By now, the students that were hovering from before had multiplied. With the audience growing, it would have been natural for you to shy away from the challenge. But there was something about the boy ahead of you that fuelled your resistance to your instincts. The goal was never to get a kiss – it was only to… What was your goal again?

“I’m not lyin’, my twin signed up for this. I didn’t.” Pushing his weight off from the booth, his hands found brief refuge inside his jacket pockets. What alarmed him was the growing number of people who were tuning into the conversation, there was no way in hell he would be participating in this event. Of course, the idea of kissing you was not exactly… terrible. However, kissing a stranger for charity was Atsumu’s concept of fun, not his.

“Fine, keep up the act. So, what if I pay you twenty?” The bluff pointed at the male was accompanied by a smug grin. Surprise displayed openly on Osamu’s visage. Though he strived to conceal it with a blank expression, which only increased your motivation to tease him. “Actually, I’ll just give you the full fifty. It’s for charity, right?”

“I don’t want your money.” He croaked out, casting his grey irises to the nosey students crowding the stand. He knew that you were slowly pushing him into a box, one he may be unable to escape.

“It’s not for you, it’s for the children.” Placing a hand against your chest, you curled your bottom lip out with a sniffle. The response instigated a few mumbles from the observers, who agreed with your statement.

“What did I tell ya? I’m not workin’ this.” Osamu remaining stoic, crossed his arms over his chest protectively. He knew you were a bit insane from his earlier interactions with you, particularly when you patted his face with a hot dog. And honestly, he was hoping that your paths would cross again… but not like this.

“First you cheat and steal my prize, and now you’re denying the children money! Tisk. Bad little chipmunk.” Instead of waving your finger in disproval, the fifty dollars that were offered to him were given a little wiggle. However, Osamu paid no attention to the latter half of your statement or your taunting actions.  

“Cheat?” He squinted at you quizzically, unable to comprehend why you would be accusing him of that.

“Yeah, no normal human can be that adorable when they eat. Those noises were not natural. I know it.” The response sounded ridiculous and the confident tone it was conveyed in was downright embarrassing. You knew that.

“What noises?” A faint smile traced along his mouth as he took a step closer to you, and allowed his arms to drop to his sides. He could see how flustered you had become with yourself, and it was kinda adorable.

“Don’t act innocent, chipmunk face. All these random people and I know the truth. You are a cheating, children hating chipmunk.” Before you could stop yourself, your teasing act had morphed into a full performance. All you could do now was maintain the façade of confidence.

“Ya know what, give me that.” Once he was close enough, Osamu snatched the bills you had been parading around for the last five minutes before slipping an arm around your middle, drawing you closer to him. “Here’s ya kiss.”

After leaning down, his mouth slotted against yours firmly and swiftly, quietening the noises that animated the college space around you. Stunned by his sudden display of affection, it took you a second to command your eyelids to flutter shut. Strangely enough, the taste of the food you both consumed earlier did not ruin the exchange. Truthfully, you were intrigued by the idea of tasting other foods from his lips. Would even the sourest items taste sweet on his lips? 

Heat stung your neck as you curled your arms around his neck subconsciously, lost in enjoyment. His own grip around you had tightened slightly, communicating his own satisfaction. Kissing a stranger was certainly not on your to-do list – but kissing this one stranger 100 times? That was added the second his lips connected with yours.

“UH… ‘Samu?” The blonde Miya twin stifled back his laughter as the couple ahead of him stepped away from each other upon hearing his arrival.

Osamu cursed lowly, scarlet flooding his cheeks once he released you. How the hell did he forget that people were watching? Or that his brother would be returning shortly?

While you were dazed by the kiss, you were quick to bounce back, showcasing a smile for the blonde who entered the scene. “Huh, so he does exist.” It really did not cross your mind that his twin did exist.

“Yeah, and you’re not kissin’ him now. Offer expired.” Osamu scoffed, shoving a palm against your face.

“I wasn’t going to!” Laughter bubbled inside your chest as you swatted at his hand, trying to secure a proper visual of his brother.

“So, who’s gonna explain to me what’s goin’ on?” Atsumu blew out the question with an amused chuckle. He knew that someone would potentially ask Osamu for a kiss, but he did not expect it to be the girl who competed against his twin in a hot dog eating competition. Fate truly was a weird thing.

“He will!” Thrusting the responsibility onto the grey-haired male, you stuck out your tongue. Osamu simply sighed and squinted at you playfully.  

While you may had attended the festival for free pastries, you ended up with a deal far sweeter – a man who tasted far better than any pie.

A/N: Hello my love! I really hope you liked this! <3 Full disclosure, I haven’t watched the kissing booth and this was not inspired by the film LOL.

General taglist:  @haikyuufairy  @newfriendjen @lvoejimin @moonlightaangel @gyozaaaaa @byun-nies @thevillagehiddenintheinternet @amberalisa @yourstarvic @swoonhui @chaichai-the-weeb @dreamstormings @chibishae34 @haikyuusimp91 @volleybloop  @rajablast @idiot-juice-enthusiast @melonmayhere @cuddlesslut  @athenarosaline @memes-and-money @coconut-dreamz  @mismatched-loves @elianetsantana @tsumume @tsukkismamagucci @the-golden-jhope @camcam1617 @azumane-kun

[elysiashelby]

In Another World - T. Shelby Imagine Ch. 5

Paring: (Eventual) Thomas Shelby x Aliena Welsh (OC)

Fandom: Peaky Blinders

Word Count: 5, 835

WARNINGS: Cursing

Summary: Aliena Welsh has been living in the universe of the show Peaky Blinders for a year, and the time has come for the show to start. But how will this affect her and Thomas’ relationship?

MASTERLIST  CHAPTER 4  CHAPTER 5.2

A/N: So, there was supposed to be chapters before this one, but because I have such a hard time writing Aliena’s character into the show, I decided that those extra chapter will come after I finish S1! The first line break will indicate spoilers for those chapters, so skip to the second one, if you want to avoid reading what’s gonna happen.  

“Tommy! Tommy!” A man yelled from outside.

I was jolted from me sleep, and me body sprang forward. I wasn’t the only one who had this reaction. Tommy ‘n I both sprang up. We looked at each for a second before he leaned over me body and looked out the window. 

Tommy let out a little sigh of relief. “It’s just Curly.” He yanked the blankets off of himself. 

Meanwhile, I was busy rubbing the sleep out of me eyes. “Why would he be here at night? Did you get a new horse, Tom?”

He was busy getting his work pants on. “No. It should be about a delivery that was supposed to come in.”

Me ears perked up. “A delivery?” I leaned closer to him, practically leaning over his shoulder.

Tommy was putting on his shoes. “Yeah. I made a deal with a guy in London. Wanted motorcycles.” 

I widened me eyes in shock. 

‘The show is beginning…’

Just as Tommy was rising to his feet, I grabbed his arm. 

His eyebrows furrowed then his hand stroked me face. “What’s wrong?” He asked.

I kept looking side to side. I was trying to come up with a proper excuse. I was brought out of me trance when Tommy placed down his other hand on me face and tugged me to look at him. 

“Oi, Ali! What’s wrong?”

I huffed, closing me eyes shut before opening them. “Guns.” I said with a shrug. “Guns not motorcycles.” 

Tommy blinked his eyes a bunch of times before he shook his head with a dismissive scoff. “No, Aliena, it’s a shipment of motorcycles. Go back to sleep. I’ll be back.” 

I rolled me eyes, shoving off his lingering hand on me face. I hummed. “Yeah, you’ll see. If you wanna talk ‘bout it when you come back, just wake me up. I don’t mind.” I turned 'round and laid back down.

“Right...” The bed springs sang as he stood up. I heard the door close rather than saw it. It took some time, but I went back to sleep. 

“Aliena, wake up! Wake up, right now!” Tommy yelled as he shook me. He held me up by me arms.

Me eyes were squinted as I was trying to find the strength to open them. “Wha?”

“How did you-? No…” He muttered something before he began to speak again, “What’s a TV show? Explain to me how you knew about the guns.” 

I chuckled with a smile on me face. I couldn’t help it. “Can you think about letting me go first? You’re soaking wet, by the way.” He let me go but the crazed look on his face never went away.

“Explain.”

I nodded. I started to climb out of the bed. “A TV show is like a series of movie pictures.” I stood on me feet, reached up, and carefully took off his cap. Tommy was just staring down at me.

“Except they’re shorter and meant to tell the same story in this case, at least.” I slipped off his drenched coat, never looking away from his gaze.

“A TV show has episodes and sometimes if it’s successful, or they were highly popular- they would have a season. A season or sometimes called a series, they both mean a collection of episodes.” I turned around and went to hang his coat on a chair.

“So, you’re telling me that me and my family had something like that. In what, your world?” He scoffed to himself. A hand raised to his mouth, going over his bottom lip. 

I turned back to him. I knew I had a grave look on me face. I tried to look stern as I replied. “Yes.” 

He shook his head while pursing his lips. “No.” He muttered.

I sighed, looking down at me hands while trying to pick out the non-existent dirt from under them. “Try not to think of it like that.” I rushed to him and cradled his face in me hands. “Think of me as Gypsy kin like you said. I can see into the future, that’s all. I have dreams. I hear spirits.” 

Tommy chucked humorlessly and looked up while his tongue poked out to quickly lick his bottom lip. He tsked as he brought his head back down while nodding. “Right.”

“I don’t know what else to say.” I laughed nervously while looking away. I never took me hands from his face. 

Tommy sniffed before saying. “We keep this between us. You can’t tell anyone else. They’ll lose their minds, or think you’ve lost yours. I have questions. Can you answer them?”

I, finally, put me arms down. I shrugged. “Don’t know. It would depend. But you can give it a shot.”

Tommy sat down, so I scurried to do the same. 

“The guns that just came. Would I be-! No. … Is it safe to keep them?” He asked.

I furrowed me eyebrows as I scoffed. “Tommy, it’s common sense that it’s not safe to keep ‘em.”

He sighed. “Not like that. Would it be a stepping stone to the family business?”

I thought about it. “Yes.” I jumped as I had a thought. “I got it. I’m not giving you any details, so form your questions into ones that can be answered by ‘yes’ or ‘no’.”

Tommy leaned forward, spread out his knees a bit, then rested his elbows on his knees while his hands held up his head. 

There was silence for a while. I managed to keep sane as I fiddled with me hands. Tried cracking them all.

Tommy cleared his throat. “Very soon, I’m going to take a horse down to Garrison courts. There’s a rumor that a Chinese girl there is a witch. I’m gonna pay her to do the powder trick. Does it pay off?”

I whispered. “Yes.” 

Without any warning, he stood up and walked to the door. Before he left, he said. “Go on back to sleep.” He closed the door behind him.

I was staring at the door long after he was gone. The room was oddly colder than before. I ran out of Tommy’s room and went into me own. I didn’t go back to sleep. I just drew until it was time for me to go to work.

It’s been a year since I magically appeared in the universe of Peaky Blinders. It’s been a wild ride. Me birthday here was celebrated with the Shelby’s and me girlfriends. Polly got me paints and pencils for me drawings. Ada’s present had to be given to me at night since it was lingerie. She said it was because I would have a fella of me own anytime now.

‘Yeah, right!’

Arthur was so sweet and bought me canvases. Only to find out it was because John had bought me paints, who was beaten to the punch by Polly. They told me after that they planned on giving me two pound each if I didn’t like the present. 

I had to get me present from Tommy the day after me birthday. He walked with me a little ways out of Small Heath, where there was a lone tree in a field. I could see it now. I remember clasping me hands over me mouth. Me tears wasting no time to flow down me face. I ran to it and started tracing the lettering engraved into headstone that was there under it. 

I talked about it in passing. I never expected for him to get it done for me. I told him that I wanted a headstone for me ma’. I would never see her again, so I wanted somewhere where I could grieve me loss. He gave me that. I sobbed into his arms so much that day.

It sucked going over to the Ritz after that. I was supposed to still be having fun which I was, but me eyes stung. Angelica gifted me expensive dresses she thought I would like, and I did. Christiana gave me hair accessories which I appreciated. Cassie gave me a pearl necklace. I cried again. It was me da’s birthstone. It was like I got them back for a day. 

Despite me joy for having a place for me ma’ and carrying a piece of me da’ around, I think it made me depression worse. After all, me ma’s birthday was in February. The guns were found a week before me ma’s birthday. 

On that day, I had Freddie drive me to Blackpool beach. I had me a good ‘ol breakdown at there, then I went back home. I didn’t explain it to Freddie, but I think he understood. He must have known that I was grieving.

I locked meself in me room and got bladdered. I stole a bottle of whiskey and almost drank it all. I should have known that Tommy would catch me. He decided to babysit me, and made sure I scarfed down some bread and drank water before I went to sleep. I made him talk to me, though. I made him talk to me ‘til I fell asleep.

Work was hell the next day. I wasn’t hungover, but I had a good headache. Had a cob on the whole day, but I had to keep a lid on it. It’s hard dealing with people who control your salary the whole day ‘cause if ya piss them off— they can easily dock your pay. 

Mrs. Davies down at the bakery and Mrs. Aitken down at the flower shop loved pinching me cheeks. It was nice at first, but then they started fucking doing it harder and harder every time I came in.

Anyway, the first season starts today since Tommy told me in the morning that he’s taking Monaghan Boy down to Garrison courts. 

‘Let me tell you, I am not happy that I’m gonna have to deal with Grace fucking Burgess. I do not want to see Thomas Shelby fall in love! In front of me face! It’s torture! As if I’m not already depressed. I have enough baggage all on me own, sir!’

I stopped sweeping the floor and pinched the bridge of me nose. This is how fucking gutted I am! I exhaled slowly before I decided to stop worrying ‘bout the inevitable and focus on me work. 

“Finn?” That was Tommy.

Me mind instantly connected the dots and I ran to the parlor. I got there just in time as he picked up Finn’s discarded ciggie. 

“Finn Shelby, what in the ‘ell are you doing smoking? Stop smirking, Tom. Arthur wants you.” I took the ciggie out of hand and pushed him aside. 

“Sorry, bud. You’re on your own.” Tommy lightly brushed the back of his cap on Finn’s face as he left. 

Finn looked up at me. I shook me head. I crouched down to meet his gaze. 

“What have I told you abar these horrid things? Huh, Finn! Just ‘cause your brothers smoke doesn’t mean you hafta.” I stubbed out the ciggie and left it in the dish. 

“But it’s no fun being the only one who doesn’t do it. They don’t have anyone yelling at them.” He said with a pout.

I huffed, feeling annoyed. “That’s not true. I nag Tommy all the time.” I crossed me arms.

“Liar! I’ve never seen it!” 

“Yeah ‘cause then he wouldn’t be able to face ya, so I have to scold him in secret. So, don’t tell ‘em I told you about it.” I ran me hand over his hair, smoothing it out. “I catch you with one of these again ‘n I’ll smack you upside the head. I promise.” 

“No, you won’t.” 

“I bloody will!” 

Suddenly, there was a shout that caught our attention and I flew to me feet. 

“I'm calling a family council tonight at 8:00. I want all of us there. You hear me? There's trouble coming.” Arthur yelled as Tommy stormed off. 

Arthur and I made eye contact ‘n we just nodded at each other. I walked around the table and shut the door to the betting shop. I dusted off me hands then turned me attention back to Finn. 

“Go on then, la. It’s your free day.” I walked back into the living room where I had to finish sweeping. 

Finn followed after me. He sat in one of the two chairs. 

“Aliena,” He said. “when I grow older, you’ll be my wife, right?”

I froze at the question, or was it a statement? I giggled. 

‘Does little Finn have a crush on me?’

I stopped laughing and asked. “What are you on abar, Finn?”

“I don’t know. I figured that when I grow up, you’ll marry me.”

I began to giggle again. “Finn Shelby, you won’t even propose to me. Just expect it of me, eh? Well, I’ll make you a deal. If I’m still single by the time I’m 30, I’ll marry you.”

Finn jumped off the chair and rushed over to me. I had to crouch again to meet his eyes.

“You promised, Ali! You can’t take it back!” His smile was so big and adorable. It made me heart melt. 

‘I can’t believe that me first love confession is from a 10 almost 11 year old. Just me luck!’

“Now you take me promises seriously, huh? Yes, I promise. Now, run along. I still need to work out some errands, and I can’t have you bugging me.” I shoved him toward the door, and I didn’t pay attention to where he ran off to. 

True to me word, I got done with the sweeping then went on to finish me errands. Mrs. Davies’ pinch was slightly less harder than Mrs. Aitken’s today, and thank the Lord for it! 

‘I swear one of these days these ladies are gonna leave me with bruises!’

I had to run to the house ‘cause Mrs. Davies was chatting me up for so long. When I got there, Polly and John were walking in at the same time. They noticed me. 

“Aliena, how come you aren’t in the house already?” Polly asked me. 

I had to run a few more steps before I was caught up with them. “Mrs. Davies was chatting me up again. Wouldn’t let me leave ‘til I finally made up an excuse.” I was clutching me side since it had cramped up a little. 

‘I’m getting better at running. Which is good since I’m, well, maybe used to be an asthmatic. I don’t even need glasses to see far away anymore!’

“Well, shit. Looks like when the meetings over, we’ll have to fucking hussle to make dinner.” 

John opened the door for us and we walked in first. We walked into the betting room where Finn was standing by the door of. 

Polly and I walked on ahead. 

John said to Finn, “Sorry, little man. Maybe when you’re older.”

Arthur clapped his hands before shouting. “You’re all late. Why the-!”

“Yeah and we’re here now. Let’s get on with it.” Polly interrupted while taking off her coat and taking a seat. 

John took a seat and I leaned on a beam next to him. Me eyes naturally drifted over to Tommy’s direction. He had a ciggie burning. 

‘I swear this man! Well, baby steps.’

I’m fucking tellin’ a blag to meself, but at least I got him off the opium. He’s not drinking or smoking any less, though. 

‘I’ll give him one year. On December 3rd when the season is over, I’ll get to him. By all that’s holy, I’ll be bugging him abar his smoking!’

I think he felt me glare ‘cause he looked straight at me. I knew I was caught, but I wasn’t flustered. I glared at the ciggie by his side then back up at him. 

The little fucker just smirked and raised it to his lips. 

I rolled me eyes and looked to Arthur who was about to start the meeting. 

“Right! I've called this family meeting because I've got some very important news. Scudboat and Lovelock got back from Belfast last night. They were buying a stallion to cover their mares. They were in a pub on the Shankhill Road yesterday, and in that pub there was a copper. Handing out these.” Arthur said as he passed one to Ada then the rest of the pile to Lovelock.

Ada passed it onto John who read it aloud. “If you're over five feet and can fight, come to Birmingham." John passed it to Polly.

“They're recruiting Protestant Irishmen to come over here as Specials.” Arthur told us.

“To do what?” Ada asked.

“To clean up the city, Ada.” Tommy answered. “He's a Chief Inspector. The last four years, he's been clearing the IRA out of Belfast.”

I bit me lip as I knew that the tension in ‘ere would start to rise.

Arthur asked, quite agitated- might I add. “How do you know so bloody much?”

“'Cause I asked the coppers on our payroll.”

“And why didn't you tell me?”

“I'm telling you.”

Arthur took a swing out of his flask. I’m not equipped to handle stressful environments within friendly prescenes. So, I was making dumb faces in the corner. Like meme worthy faces. I literally did a tight lipped smile, that “white people” meme smile. I sported that smile with me eyebrows raised while widening me eyes, and looking away to the corner where no one stood.

“So, why are they sending him to Birmingham?” Polly asked with a magnifying glass in her hand.

“Well, there's been all these bloody strikes at the BSA. And the Austin works, lately. Now the papers are talking about sedition. And revolution. I reckon it's communists he's after.” Tommy said. 

But I noticed that when he said the comment about the communists, it got a reaction out of Ada.

“So this copper's gonna leave us alone, right?” 

“There are Irishmen in Green Lanes who left Belfast to get away from him. They say Catholic men who crossed him used to disappear in the night.”

“Yeah, but we ain't IRA.” John said. The attention turning on him. “We bloody fought for the King. Anyway, we're Peaky Blinders. We're not scared of coppers.”

“He’s right.” Arthur said.

Then, John delivered that famous line. “If they come for us, we'll cut them a smile each.” 

Let me just say, I had to hide me smirk. It was crazy how I felt pride when he said that.

“So, Arthur. Is that it?” Thomas asked. He looked unimpressed. 

“What do you think, Aunt Pol?” Arthur completely dismissed Tommy. 

Polly looked over at Thomas. I knew she knew that Tommy was up to something. I just hoped she never suspected I knew anything abar it too.

“This family does everything open. You've nothing more to say to this meeting, Thomas?”

“No. Nothing that's women's business.”

“This whole bloody enterprise was women's business while you boys were away at war. What's changed?”

“We came back.” 

Polly said or did anything after that. I was expecting a judgemental hum, at least! 

“Right! This concludes the family meeting!” Arthur announced. 

Polly stood straight up, her chair scraping the wood floor. “Come on, Aliena. We need to hurry up with dinner.” 

I followed her into the kitchen.

After dinner, I noticed that Polly had pulled Tommy aside as I was taking everyone’s dirty dishes to be washed. Not a minute later, Tommy came up to me.

He cleared his throat, his hand reaching for a ciggie. 

“Reach for it now and I may just throw this cuppa water at you.” I said with a teasing smile.

“Don’t know why. You know I’ll smoke it the minute I’ll leave your sight.” 

I blew raspberries at him.

“Well, Polly asked me to join her in church. So, it’s best if you sleep in your room tonight. I’ll probably be working ‘til late morning anyway. Okay?” He was looking at me with such expecting eyes. I noticed that he always wanted a definitive answer from me, hardly ever accepting me nods. 

“Yeah. Got it.”

“Good.” The second our conversation was over, he reached for a ciggie again. I paid it no mind this time and focused on getting the dishes done. 

The next morning, I got up abar an hour earlier. I was almost tempted to go back to sleep, but instead I crawled out of bed and took out the suitcase that hid under me bed. I unlocked the one that had an assortment of items, and took out me locked diary. 

I still don’t know why I was given a suitcase full of miscellaneous item, but I knew they would come in handy someday.

When I first came here and I couldn’t sleep, I took the liberty of writing out what I could remember from each episode. I knew it would benefit me!

I wrote, ‘After Thomas and Polly talk, the scene shifts to Grace coming into town. She gets the job. Then, Arthur gets captured by Campbell and gets roughed up badly. Tommy goes to the Garrison where he meets Grace. He comes back to the house and-’

Simultaneously, I shut me eyes and shut the book. I heaved a big sigh. 

‘Tommy will meet Grace today. “Are you a whore?” The gobshite! He’ll probably start distancing himself from me.’

I sighed again. When I gathered me pride, I got up and decided to have an early start on the day. I won’t allow Thomas Shelby to write me off from his life like that. 

‘I don’t care if the little fucker sees me like a little sister. I’d still be special to him and that’s all that counts. He stands between me and the whorehouse, in me opinion.’  

I did me hair in a bun, as always, but I choose a maroon button-up shirt and a green midi length skirt. Look, the skirt came to about the middle of me legs, alright? Then, I made breakfast. Polly wasn’t up yet which was absolutely weird for me! I didn’t know if she was out doing something, or something.

When I was done eating, I got me coat ‘n headed out the door. Men greeted me and moved out of me way like always. When I got to John’s door, I was troubled. The kids weren’t used to seeing me this early neither was John. I didn’t want to exactly intrude, but I also wanted to get some stuff out of the way, so I could see the scene where Arthur comes home after he gets beat up. 

So with that in mind, I unlocked the door to John’s flat. I immediately started cooking breakfast. When seven rolled ‘round, footsteps came pattering down. A head peaked from ‘round the corner and it was Katie.

“Ailena?” She asked. “Why are you here so early?” 

I smiled at her. “I just missed youse. That’s all.”

She scoffed with a smile. “It’s only been a day.” She took a seat.

I got up from the chair I was sitting on ‘n poured her some juice. “A day can feel like an eternity.” 

We had some time to talk before John came down. He was definitely surprised, but happily took the breakfast I made him and left to the shop. Once he left, I went to get the other kids up. I had them all dressed and “in school” by 9 am.  

They moaned and groaned abar having to be taught by me, but they would learn it’s for their own benefit in the future. By the way, the only one who was civil was Katie and John Jr.. But that was because I just read ‘em books— so he had nothing to fuss abar. When it hit 10:30, I said me goodbyes and told them to stay safe. 

I rushed back home where I found Finn smoking. I kept me promise and smacked him upside the head. Told ‘em it was time for school ‘n he ran off to get his stuff. He was getting better. Already getting closer to reading in his grade level. 

See ever since I took up the job to be their teacher, I’ve gone to sleep later. It was around 3 in the morning when I was by meself and 12 when Tommy decided he needed sleep. Any other time I would have to hassle him to sleep. His sleep schedule was a mess, but no matter what- he always got up at 5:30 or 6. 5:30 is with sleep while the latter is without.

When I was by meself, I would stay up making the lessons. 

It would be critical thinking problems that you’d get back in the 2000s. Stuff that I was asked. For math, it ranged from each kid. Katie was on percentages and long division, Ilsa and Finn were on multiplication and division and the adding and subtracting of long numbers, while Robbie was barely learning how to add and subtract. John Jr. was learning how to count to 100. 

It was almost 12 when Arthur pounded at the front door. I had abandoned Finn and ran to tell Tommy, who was in his office in the shop. 

I opened the door without knocking which caused him to look up at me. 

“It’s Arthur.” I said, almost breathless. 

His eyes widened and he instantly got up and rushed past me. I followed after him. We both went to the parlor where Polly was looking after him, working on wrapping up his hand. Tommy took one look at his face then ran out. 

‘Grace.’ I thought. 

“Ali, heat up a kettle of water, will you?” Ada told me.

I nodded. I went into the kitchen, filled the kettle with water, and heated it up. 

“Here ya go, Ada.” I said once it was done.

She took it and set it aside while I walked over to John who was leaning on the doorway. I took on the left since he was on the right. 

“John, wipe the blood out of his eye.”

“Since when did you give orders?”

“I'm a trained nurse.”

John and I both had these smirks on our faces while Arthur scoffed.

“Don't make me laugh.” Arthur said. “It hurts me face.”

“I bloody am.”

“You went to one first aid class in the church hall and got thrown out for giggling.” John said.

“Not before I learned how to stop somebody from choking.”

“I'm not bloody choking, am I?” Arthur said.

“You will be when I wrap this cloth ‘round your neck.” Ada said while pouring the water into a pan. The door opened and in walked Tommy with a bottle of rum.

I couldn’t stop the chuckle that came from me throat. John and I looked at each other, still having similar smiles.

“Let me see him.” He walked ‘round to Arthur with a ciggie hanging from his lips. He inspected his face before giving ‘em the bottle of alcohol. “All right, have this.”

Arthur took one swing before putting it back down with a groan. Tommy wrang the cloth of its excess water. “Give me that.” He said, pouring some of the bottle into the cloth before pressing it against Arthur’s face.

He inhaled sharply in pain. 

“You’re all right.” Tommy said, trying to soothe him. Both of his hands cradling his brother’s face.

But Arthur clasped his hand around one of Tommy’s arms. “He said Mr Churchill sent him to Birmingham. National interest, he said. Something about a robbery.”

Tommy backed away from him. Almost visibly upset, if you knew how to read him. I didn’t miss the pointed stare Polly gave ‘em either. 

“He said he wants us to help him.”

John interrupted. “We don’t help coppers.”

“He knew all about our war records. He said we're patriots. Like him.” 

I scoffed to meself since I knew the truth. ‘Fucking bastard! Didn’t even fight in the war.’

“Wants us to be his eyes and ears. I said-!” Then, he groaned in pain. Polly sh-ing him up as she bandaged his hands. “I said we'd have a family meeting, take a vote.”

Tommy said nothing. Just kept staring off. Now that the show was starting, it was so much easier to read him. It was obvious to me that he was rattled, but I’m sure to the rest of the family it looked like he couldn’t have been bothered.

“Well, why not? Hmm? We've no truck with Fenians or communists.” 

Tommy kept his mouth shut again. He was looking over at Polly and then at me. He exhaled audibly before Arthur started up again.

“What's wrong with you? What the fuck is wrong with him lately?” He turned to Polly.

She said. “If I knew, I'd buy the cure from Compton's chemists. Ali, come help me clean his face up.”

I stood straight. Tommy and I shared a glance before I looked away and took the cloth that had been discarded onto the table into me hands. I barely touched his face with it and he fuckin’ hissed.

It was the dead of night. I was busy correcting past homework that I had given to the kids. I was on Finn’s math when I heard Tommy’s door open and then close.  If I remember correctly, he was supposed to use his pipe to go to sleep tonight. 

That worry alone motivated me enough to finish up Finn’s paper faster. 

‘The bastard is stubborn. No, all men of this age doesn’t like asking for help. Especially the help of a woman.’

I exhaled with puffed cheeks as I marked Finn’s last problem. I hurried out of me chair and to Tommy’s room. Me robe whipped around me. When I opened the door, he had a fire lit and was rolling out his pipe. 

He looked at me. No emotion shown. I was mad. I was-!

‘I didn’t think as I marched up to him. I didn’t slap him, but I slammed me hand down on the light he had lit.’ 

No, that was just an intrusive thought. I really wanted to do it, though.

I walked up the light and blew it out. “You’re not doing this. You have me.”

“I did this because I don’t want you.” Despite saying that, he rerolled up his pipe and set it down on the nightstand.

“I outta break that thing, you know. Just chuck it into the fire downstairs.”

He whipped his head up at me and he glared. 

It made me shiver and not in a good way. Reflexively, I glared back. “Don’t try intimidating me, Thomas. Not tonight. You want to sleep. Let’s do it my way as agreed. Because you have fallen asleep my way and you were the one who set up-!”

“Yeah! Okay, I got it.” Very childishly, he laid down with his arms crossed above his eyes. 

I sighed. ‘I should probably ask him about the shovels. If he still hears them with me.’ 

So, I did. 

“Tommy, do you still hear the shovels? Even when I’m here… with you?” 

He stiffened. Then, he dropped his arms. He looked up at the ceiling with his jaw clenched. He tsked, closing his eyes. “No. I don’t hear them.” 

“Do you still dream abar them?” Me throat burned as did me face. 

“Yes. But not as often anymore.” His tone was so sad.  

“Then, why were you-?”

“Because. I shouldn’t be relying on you, a girl who’s not my family, to get me sleep at night. One day we’ll have to go our separate ways. It’s only right that you find yourself a good man and you can’t sleep with me then, now, can you?” He looked at me. The look on his face was sharp. 

‘It’s like he’s breaking up with me.’ I laughed at the thought.

“You don’t have to worry abar that. I’m not gonna find meself a good man anytime soon.”

“You don’t-!”

“I do! So, let it go and let me help you. You’re a good man, Tom. I don’t want to see you suffer. Especially when all you want is to do is get a good night’s rest.” I stopped fiddling with me hands and dropped them to me sides. 

‘He wouldn’t know that there was a warning lying ‘round me words. That he was gonna be suffering more. Soon, he’d have to orchestrate Danny’s fake death. Then, everything else.’

“Fine.” He said. 

I took off me robe, climbed over him, and laid beside him. I bit me lip before deciding to speak. “Lay lower than me. Don’t question it, just do it.” 

He sighed and did as I said. I scooted meself up then closer to ‘em. “Lift your head.” He did it and I extended me arm under his neck. “Face me.” He did it. His head near me chest. With me free hand, I brought it up to his face and began to stroke his cheek and run me fingers through his hair. 

I whispered things to him like, “You’re safe now,” “You’re home,” “Nothing’s gonna hurt you,” and “It’s okay to fall asleep.” 

And he fell asleep. He fell asleep fast. I, on the other hand, didn’t. I was too hyper aware of his body being so close to mine. This was the first time I’ve ever held a person of the opposite sex. It surprised me that this even worked! 

But, like I said, I didn’t fall asleep fast like he did and sometime during the night, his breathing quickened and his hold on me tightened, by a lot. I figured he was ‘aving the dream abar the tunnels, so I started soothing him again. It took ‘em awhile, but he calmed back down. I couldn’t bloody go to sleep after that, so it took me abar another 30 minutes before I fell asleep.

The next day was calm, nothing noteworthy happened. At night, Tommy told me that I was to head to bed. I asked him why ‘n he said that he was heading to Charlie’s yard. I twitched at the name. I always did when he said that name. After all, it’s me birth name.

The day after that in the midmorning, he ran to me ‘n asked me if his plan to fake Danny’s death would work. I told ‘em yes.

I saw when he came back, visibly disturbed, his head hanging low. I wanted to comfort him but Arthur got to him first. I remembered me place then. I couldn’t comprehend the plot that much. I watched as they had their dispute. I jumped when Tommy closed the book shut and then walked off. 

He grabbed me arm before he left ‘n told me I was sleeping by meself t’night too. I nodded and then he left the shop. 

That night I watched as the snow fell. Me heart felt as if someone was squeezing it through me chest.

Guess me wish wouldn’t come true, afterall.

TAG LIST: @amirahiddleston​ @nemesis729​

[sapphicwhump]

Deception of Luna

Fandoms: Destiny, Destiny 2 Tropes: F/M, trauma recovery, heavy angst, light fluff, creepy whumper, cosmic horror elements, whumpee/caretaker intimacy TWs: flashback, explicit noncon, implied death of loved ones, implied misogyny

Read on AO3

        Lich-5 considers herself to be quite lucky. At least with her assignments on Luna; not so much with her loot. She speeds across the lunar surface on her Sparrow towards Archer’s Line, having just received a bounty to clear out the Fallen there. There are three of the usual crimson phantoms en route this time; each one cowers and screams in terror as her Sparrow plows by. To her, these nightmares are just nameless red silhouettes that occasionally make creepy noises; none of them are the slightest bit recognizable. The larger ones, the ones that appear as long-dead enemies rather than Guardians, have names she can recognize from her historical studies, but nothing more than that. Despite her own experience, Lich knows that most of her fellows don’t see them that way.

        The Pyramid of Luna is a nasty piece of work, to say the least. She would call it sadistic, but it would be improper of her to anthropomorphize such an alien being. The nightmares it spawns are drawn directly from the Guardians’ most painful losses; vanquished nemeses, outlived mentors, lost loves, and a myriad of others now walk again on Luna. In every case, their passing had left wounds on the people they left behind, and now the Pyramid has made those wounds fresh again.

        The worst part, Lich thinks, is that doing so offers it no tactical advantage. The Pyramid doesn’t need to crush Guardians’ morale; it could crush them all very literally if it so chose. This thing’s kind had caused the Great Collapse of humanity’s golden age; surely the Last City of today would be no trouble for it to exterminate. The only thing keeping them all alive is this Pyramid’s continued desire to bide its time. And in that time, it’s chosen to reopen their old wounds because it’s fun.

        The reason Lich-5 considers herself lucky is because she doesn’t have many wounds that can be reopened. She'd been resurrected just after the Red War, into a world struggling to recuperate, to make some amount of sense out of the tremendous loss. Her roommate Windy isn’t a particularly old Guardian by any means, only a few years her senior, but that still puts his resurrection date solidly before the War. She doesn’t pry him about it, but she’s aware that the majority of people he knew had been permanently Returned To Light by the forces of Dominus Ghaul. Windy avoids assignments on Luna like the plague, as do many of her elder acquaintances. She’s met Guardians who were resurrected in the Dark Age, now hundreds of years old, who have pushed on through every defeat humanity has ever faced since the Collapse. Lich herself recently turned three.

        Will she live to be hundreds of years old? If she does, how much will she lose in that time?

        She’s coming up on Archer’s Line now. There’s already some Guardian activity here; in the distance, she can pick out the dull gray bulk of a male Titan’s armor against the background of lunar dust. Ignoring his presence, she drives into the old K1 Logistics facility and gets to work.

        Clearing the facility takes under ten minutes. She emerges from the front entrance with her armored Warlock’s robe dotted with scuffs and splattered with Fallen Ether. Her bounty objectives aren’t quite complete yet; there are still a few Fallen skittering around the Lunar surface that’ll have to be dealt with. She’d think that life-or-death combat would be too stressful to become boring, but when that death isn’t much more than a temporary (if painful) setback, the repetitiveness of it can get a bit dull.

        Just gotta get it done, then I can relax. The rewards from these last few bounties should be just enough to afford that fancy new armor set she’s been working towards, and then she won’t have much to do until the next big crisis inevitably hits the Sol system. She’s already thinking of a few new science projects she could start work on during her extended down time; monotonous work like this does little to satiate her burning curiosity.

        The Titan she saw earlier seems to be approaching the K1 facility now. He’s welcome to loot the place if he wants; she only went in to get her bounties done. It’s nice to see another Guardian out here; the presence of an ally makes her feel slightly less alone in this gray hellscape, even if they don’t interact.

        The boxy silhouette of his armor strikes her as oddly familiar. It’s possible that she’s seen him somewhere else before; there aren’t an unlimited number of Guardians in Sol, and Lich has met quite a lot of them.

        Wait a minute—

        Recognition shoots through her neural network like arc lightning. Instantly, her every piston is tense, all sensors on high alert. It’s him. Why does he have to be here?

        She takes it back. Having another Guardian here isn’t nice at all, not when it’s him in particular . Lich quickly ducks back into the empty facility, taking cover from the imminent danger behind one of the large storage containers strewn about. She needs to be in a place where he isn’t in her line of sight.

        Maybe she isn’t so lucky. Of course the phantoms wouldn’t reopen old wounds, only for another Guardian to do it instead. Taking stock of her emotional state, she abruptly realizes how much she’s shaking. She forcibly steels herself, struggling to regain her composure while cursing her own weakness. Simply seeing a Titan, even if it’s him, should not frighten her to the point where she’s struggling to even function.

        Lich is ashamed to admit to herself how much sway he still holds over her mental state. His existence is a disgusting muck polluting the back of her mind; just being reminded of him feels like wading through a stagnant pit of human sewage, from which she can never truly escape because it’s in her head. Thinking about it more only makes it worse, causes her to sink deeper. She can forget him, at least temporarily, but then eventually something random always jogs her memory and she'll be back, trapped again in that pit of sewage.

        She considers abandoning her objectives and transmatting back to her jumpship, still safely parked at the landing zone. But it’s this part of Luna that needs to be cleared of Fallen, and that fancy new armor set won’t be on sale forever, and she really shouldn’t be so pathetically weak to let this get to her. No, she’ll stay, to earn her extended down time if nothing else. She just needs to calm down and wait here until he—

        “Oh hey, Lich. Long time no see.”

        If Lich had a heart, it would have stopped beating at that exact second. His voice, just his fucking voice, almost throws her back there all by itself. He’s so insufferably casual with his greeting, like she’s just any other acquaintance to him.

        “Hey. You mind leaving me alone?”

        “Woah, relax. I’m just finishing up these bounties.” Condescension drips off of his words like spoiled milk.

        “Yeah, well, please stay away from me while you do that.”

        His tone sours, sounding almost disappointed. “Well you’re being awfully frigid.”

        “Of course I fucking am!” Lich fumes, rage momentarily cutting through her fear. “What did you expect, that I’d be nice to you!?”

        The Titan pauses. “Well… yeah, kinda. I at least didn’t expect to be jilted like this.”

        For a brief moment, Lich sees red. Her trembling has elevated to a truly intolerable level, and she’s currently about five seconds away from drawing her Dawnblade on this man. She knows that getting violent with him would almost certainly end poorly for her, though. With great effort, she puts together a facade of something resembling calmness.

        “Look… I think I’ve got a pretty good reason for not wanting to see you. Please leave, and never try to interact with me again. I know I’m never gonna get justice, so I just want to move past this and get back as close to normal as possible. You’re making it rather difficult to do that right now.”

        “Justice?"  He cocks his helmet to the side in what looks like disbelief. As if he has any right to act surprised by any of this. She can practically feel him rolling his eyes at her underneath his blank faceplate, and it makes her synthetic stomach turn. “Fine, fine. If you wanna be like that, it’s not my problem.”

        He proceeds deeper into the K1 halls, finally giving Lich a reprieve from his vile presence. She turns to leave in the opposite direction, but stops short when she catches the Titan muttering a final insult under his breath.

        “Fuckin’ melodramatic bitch.”

        She whirls on him. “Fuck you, asshole!” she spits over her shoulder, still heading for the facility’s exit. “If I ever see you again, it’ll be too soon!”

        The Titan is mercifully quiet. Lich is almost at the door; just a few more Fallen slain, and she’ll be able to go home and do her best to forget that she ever saw him again.

        “No, fuck you.”

        Lich barely registers the Titan’s words in her audio receptors, and she doesn’t notice the suppressor grenade roll between her legs until it’s too late.

————————————

        Windy’s day has been restful, to say the least. He lays sprawled out on the couch of his and Lich’s shared apartment, his usual combat armor doffed in favor of boxers and a tank top, lackadaisically swiping through the datapad in his hand. On one tab is the sidearm section of Omolon’s digital storefront; on another is a gallery of images displaying a nude Awoken. He lifts his can of alcoholic liquid from the coffee table and pours the last of it down his throat, sighing in satisfaction. It’s kinda nice to stay home for once while Lich goes out to grind away at bounties.

        Fuck, he needed a day like this. He’s been seeing less than his fair share of action recently, but continuously dodging Vanguard assignments on Luna has been anxiety-inducing enough on its own. After his first visit, he vowed to make every effort he possibly could to never return. The Vanguard had assigned him a strike against the Hive on Luna today, and so he had to call in one of his favors for a friend to take his place in the fireteam, hence his current position at home while Lich is out and about.

        An Incoming Communication notification buzzes at the top of his screen, and he quickly closes the pornography tab before answering. It’s from Phylactery. That’s odd; Lich’s Ghost hardly ever lets themself be seen, and speaks even less. If Lich had a message for him, she’d give it herself.

        “Hey, how’s it going?”

        The Ghost doesn’t waste any time on pleasantries. “Lich needs immediate evac from K1 Logistics on Luna.”

        Windy instantly bolts up from his slouched position. “Wait, what’s going on? Can she transmat out?”

        Phylactery is doing their best to keep their tone clipped and curt as usual, but Windy still picks up on the desperate way they hurry over their words. “No, she’s currently catatonic. We’re stuck here until someone can provide an evac.”

        “Catatonic?"  Windy balks. “What the hell happened down there?”

        The Ghost’s distress is evident. “I’m not quite sure. Lich saw something; I think we were attacked, but she still isn’t cognizant enough to give me the details. I felt something suppress our Light. I was knocked unconscious, and Lich… she’s not recovering. We need you here as soon as possible.”

        Fear grips Windy’s gut. Suppressed Light means that an RTL is on the table. He’s got enough dead friends walking around on Luna without Lich joining that long list.

        “It’ll take me awhile to get there; can you call any nearby Guardians for backup?”

        Windy can detect a wince in Phylactery’s tone. “No, this… isn’t the kind of thing that a random stranger would be able to help with. Might make matters worse, even.” the Ghost quietly speculates to themself. “What she really needs right now is someone she trusts.”

        Well that’s cryptic. He knows he’s not getting the full picture of events, and stumbling blindly into danger has always been more of Lich’s thing than his. He doesn’t exactly have time to press the Ghost further, though.

        “Already on my way. Just gimme like twenty minutes to get there.”

        “Right, thank you.” Phylactery seems relieved to no longer be discussing it.

        Windy is already in motion as he hangs up the call. He drops the datapad on the cushion beside him, then vaults over the back of the couch in his usual manner. He doesn’t bother taking the time to change out of his boxers and tank top before exiting the apartment; he’ll don his armor in his jumpship. The residents of this housing block have seen far weirder things than his underwear, anyways.

        Fuck. On Luna. Guess I won’t be able to avoid it after all. Dread constricts around his gut like a snake as he approaches the Tower’s hangar, a sensation that he knows won’t dissipate until he and Lich are safely back on Earth. For now, he tries to shove it down as best he can. His current priority is making sure that his roommate doesn’t get RTL’d; once she’s safe, he can go drown his worries at the nearest bar and put this all behind him. He distracts himself by planning out the route he’ll take there, what drinks he’ll order, who he might meet up with...

        As he’s exiting the Earth’s atmosphere, Windy briefly speculates that maybe finding a therapist would be a better use of his time than just getting drunk again, before he blasts off at near-light speed for Luna.

  ————————————

        Lich-5 awakens to the sensation of an immense weight on top of her, as if she’s trapped underneath a boulder. She’s laying stomach-down on the couch where she fell asleep, being pressed down into the cushions by the heavy object above her. She’s in an apartment typical of one of the Last City’s massive housing blocks, although not the one she shares with Windy. Night has long since fallen outside, casting the living room in darkness. What little illumination remains bathes everything in an odd vermillion.

        The Titan’s apartment is small, but his couch provided an adequate place to crash for the night after a particularly wild bar crawl. Lich can’t get drunk, but flying her jumpship home while exhausted would be just as dangerous. When she proposed the idea of crashing at a nearby friend’s place, one particular Titan was eager to offer. He’s new to her group of drinking buddies, and so it struck Lich as unusual that he would so readily invite her over. Once at his apartment, she figured out his reason pretty quickly.

        Tucked away in her backpack at the foot of the couch, Phylactery sleeps soundly, enjoying a well-earned rest after a long day’s grind. Lich is currently not being afforded that same rest. The weight on top of her shifts around erratically, fiddling with something, trying to get it open. She’s nearly driven to panic, but her fear keeps her frozen in place. Just pretend you’re still asleep, her mind unhelpfully provides. Play dead, and soon the predator will go away.

        The predator does not go away. She feels a sudden spike of pain, and the irregular shifting of the weight quickly becomes paced and rhythmic.

        Lich can’t pinpoint when or how her view shifts, but at some point she finds that she’s above herself—literally. She’s watching the scene unfold from a third-person perspective, her disembodied consciousness hanging a meter in the air over her incapacitated frame. She can’t compel herself to move a single piston or servo, her physical form refusing to comply with her immobilized will.

        Long ago, in a time before she could remember, Lich had had nightmares in which she was pursued by an extreme danger, only to find her limbs paralyzed and unresponsive to her attempts to flee. This is a lot like that, only it’s not a nightmare; this is real life and the danger is directly on top of her. There is no chance to flee; she’s already been caught.

        The Titan’s head, now free of its helmet, rests on the couch next to hers. Despite the warmth of his breath, a chill runs through Lich’s system. She can feel his wet lips graze against her artificial skull as he begins to speak.

        “The Light does not hold its wielders to any standard of morality.” he whispers into the side of her head, where the ear would be if she were human. There’s a horrible wrongness in his tone, like multiple beings trying to speak through one mouth. “In the Dark Age, the Warlords inflicted terrible violence upon the innocent, just as he inflicted violence upon you.”

        The motion gradually escalates in speed and magnitude, pressing Lich further down into the couch cushions with an oscillating rhythm. Her pain briefly increases as the pace picks up, but it quickly turns dull, and a sensation of warmth grows in its place as her own body turns against her. He’s speaking again, those wet lips and warm breath directly on her audio receptor. He doesn’t pause for air as he produces the words, regardless of his physical exertion.

        “In Light, there is only pain.”

        There’s a groan from above her, and the weight slumps, ceasing its rhythm. Lich silently breathes a sigh of relief, although she’s still far too overwhelmed with disgust to really be relieved by any of this. She knows on some level that it’s only been minutes, but her dilated sense of time has stretched the ordeal into what felt like hours.

        The floorboards creak next to her, and the Titan exits the small living room, although Lich still remains effectively paralyzed. A heavy exhaustion has seeped into her chassis, now even worse than the one she was trying to cure by crashing here. Still unable to will herself to move, it isn’t long before unconsciousness claims her again.

  ————————————

        Windy summons his Sparrow within the second he touches down on Luna. His stomach churns as he exits his jumpship, doing his best to keep his eyes on the ground and away from the lifeless red Guardians hanging motionless over the landing zone. The Pyramid must know this is a center of Guardian activity, and so the nightmares swarm here like some kind of macabre flock.

        He passes three more of the crimson phantoms on his way to the dot Phylactery marked on his heads-up display. He gives each of them as wide of a berth as he reasonably can, trying to keep them in his periphery while still steering the vehicle on course. If he looks at one too closely, there's a decent chance he’ll recognize it. He fails to give the third one enough room, and winces under his helmet as it wails at him for help in a voice he’s pretty sure he can put a name to.

        Phylactery’s coordinates lead him to the K1 facility at the far end of Archer’s Line. A short distance in, he finds his roommate’s distinctive hive-bone helmet lying discarded to one side. It’s not until he proceeds down a hallway and searches behind a storage container that he finds the Warlock it belongs to. She doesn’t appear to be in any immediate physical danger, although he wouldn’t think it purely by her posture; she’s curled up in a fetal position on the floor, trembling violently, the shutters over her optics squeezed as tight as they’ll go.

        One of the red phantoms looms over her cowering form. This one is clearly a Titan, and Windy can’t restrain his relieved exhale when he fails to recognize it. It does not turn to acknowledge him as he enters, keeping its blank gaze fixed on the ball of a Warlock curled behind the box.

        It takes Windy a moment to realize that Lich is crying. Her digital optics don’t feature tear ducts, but the anguish in her soft vocalizations is unmistakable. It’s a sound that he doesn’t hear often, but still far more than he’d like.

        Windy steps straight through the phantom towards his friend, passing through it as if it’s not even there. The spectral Titan’s body offers no resistance and induces no sensation. The thing recoils in a mimicry of pain, then disperses into maroon wisps as if it were mist. The instant it vanishes completely, her optics fly open.

        The first thing that Lich sees is Windy leaned over her, right where he had stood, offering her a hand.

        "W-windy?" She accepts the hand graciously, allowing him to pull her to her feet. “What are you doing here?”

        “Phylactery told me you needed an evac.” The somber concern in his tone catches her by surprise, and she briefly feels a pang of guilt for causing him to worry this much.

        Lich emits a single humorless laugh, barely holding in a sob behind it. “Yeah. You could say that.” She’ll have to thank her Ghost for their forethought later. She takes a moment to collect herself, brushing the lunar dust off her robes and trying in vain to suppress her shivering.

        “You didn’t have to come for me.” she tells him frankly, refusing to meet his sympathetic gaze. “I know how much you hate this place.”

        “Lich, it’s fine. There is nothing in all of Sol that could make me leave you behind.”

        For a moment, Lich looks like she’s about to cry again, before she closes the distance between their bodies and embraces Windy in a tight hug. He tentatively returns the gesture, protectively wrapping his arms around her back, and her hold on his torso quickly turns into a death grip. She’s no longer crying, but he takes careful note of the way she still shivers and shakes in his embrace.

        Lich buries her face in the crook of his neck, hiding away from the world in the rough fabric of his Hunter cloak. Her chemical receptors flood with the particles that cling to the garment; it smells like his shampoo and sweat and the dust of a hundred worlds, all composing into a unique odor that is very distinctly Windy. His smell is grounding, bringing her attention back to the here and now.

        “So, did the nightmares get to you?” he asks, tracing his fingers over the top of her fiberglass cranium in the way he knows she likes. He immediately withdraws his hand when she unexpectedly flinches away from the gentle contact. “I thought you hadn’t lost anyone.”

        Lich shakes her head gently against his cloak. “I, uh… I saw him again.”

        Windy’s blood freezes. Then the phantom Titan was—

        “Oh shit, Lich, I’m so sorry.” He suddenly feels very conscious of the way he’s holding her.

        Windy can’t forget the morning that Lich had nearly collapsed into their apartment, utterly disheveled after a long night out, and he had to delicately explain to her that sex is not a required payment for a male friend lending you his couch to crash on. Working through that day had been a painful experience for them both, although Windy has no illusions about which of them had it worse. Despite his seniority as a Guardian, dealing with this particular type of violence was entirely outside of his expertise. To his knowledge, aside from him and Phylactery, she’s never told another soul of what happened that night.

        “This fucking Pyramid.” he spits out venomously, staring out at the lunar expanse beyond the facility. That fucking Titan. Hate festers within his ribcage like rot. At the time, he’d had half a mind to bust down the Titan’s front door with his Golden Gun in hand, ready to vaporize both him and his Ghost. But Lich needed him more than that Titan needed a bullet, and so the obligation to support her had stayed his hand.

        With the Pyramid, though, it’s so much worse. Even though he couldn’t act on his impulse against the Titan, at least there had been some degree of hope there. With how utterly infinitesimal he is compared to the Pyramid’s world-ending might, he doesn’t even get the luxury of a revenge fantasy.

        "It was like—" Lich begins to speak, but stops short as her chassis is taken by a violent shiver. Windy can almost feel the intensity of the chill that runs through her. "Like being there all over again."

        His attention snaps back to her, and all the hate goes cold. His rage is not what Lich needs right now. Staying angry is impossible when she’s still so visibly distressed. He mentally reminds himself that this is her pain, not his; she’s the one who gets to have the revenge fantasy, if she so chooses.

        “Yeah. I... get what that’s like. It sucks, but the suck is ultimately temporary. You’ll get through this.”

        The pair are silent for a moment as Lich’s mind swims. She really wishes she could take his words to heart, but the memory of him freshly burned into her mind is all she can focus on. She tries to clear her thoughts by concentrating on the steady rise and fall of Windy’s chest, while her own remains eternally still. She reminds herself of what’s real: he’s here, holding her in his arms, and soon they’ll be home safe. The danger has long since passed, and was never even here in the first place.

        “I feel disgusting.” Lich voices the thought aloud, her gaze remaining firmly downcast. “I’ve felt disgusting since that night. I don’t know if it’s ever gonna go away.”

        Windy winces, sucking in a quiet breath through his teeth. "That… I lack experience with. But, from the experience I do have, I can tell you that it’s not true." Now he’s the one to strengthen the embrace. Through the heavy weave of her robes, he soothingly runs a hand up and down her mechanical spine, and is relieved when she relaxes into the touch rather than flinching away. "You’re smart, and beautiful, and brave, and you can be really really annoying when you want to be, but I still care about you. You’re the furthest thing from disgusting that I can imagine. What he did doesn’t make you any lesser as a person; you’re still the same Lich I’ve always known.”

        Lich tries to form a response, but words fail her, immediately getting caught in the knot that’s formed behind her speakers. She settles for simply holding Windy close, savoring the feeling of their arms wrapped around each other. Some part of her is still trapped in that sewage pit, but it’s further away now, distanced from her by the closeness to him. For the briefest moment, she believes with absolute certainty that everything he said is true, and almost manages to clamber her way out.

        “Y’know, if Guardians really are amoral, you’re a pretty good counterexample.”

        “Hm?” He turns his head towards hers with a raised brow.

        “Ah, nevermind. Symmetrist ramblings.” Windy can’t help but notice another chill run through her.

        It’s a long while before Lich feels stable enough on her own to leave his arms. When she finally begins to move away, he retracts his protective embrace, allowing her to separate from him without resistance.

        "You ready to head home now? I'll ride with you to the landing zone and fly us back to Earth. We can pick up your jumpship later."

        Lich releases an extended sigh, exhaling her residual tension into the thin lunar atmosphere. “Sure. Thanks for all this, by the way. I… needed to hear that.”

        He gives her a warm, relieved smile. “Don’t mention it.”

        Lich finally escapes from K1 Logistics with her hand firmly in Windy’s. While the Sparrow is intended to be a single-occupancy vehicle, that’s never stopped particularly affectionate Guardians from riding them two at a time. Lich and Windy share the single seat, with her clinging to his back, holding on with her arms wrapped around his midsection.

        The ride back to the landing zone is short, but both Guardians savor it. The red phantoms don’t cause either of them much distress on their return trip. Holding each other close, the nightmares seem just a little bit fainter.

[bepp-ers]

Headcanons #3 [Quirk- Panda! Edition]

so, this was requested by a v cute anon and oml i just-- i wanna draw this panda girl :)) also it was specifically requested fem so that is what i shall be doing. so, quirk- panda, what is it? 

You have big fuzzy panda ears which give you remarkable hearing, and you’re an exceptional climber. You can climb any surface, no matter how steep, and overall you’re just a cutie. And in the last one you have a few black circles going under your eyes. No homo tho. ;)

Bakugo:

Well, Bakugo doesn’t associate with ‘cute’

I mean, it’s just not very intimidating or something a guy like him would look at and go

“i need that”

But oh boy when he met you that changed

Look, you have panda ears

He had a sudden urge to just

cuddle

the

panda

Do Not Ask WhyTM

He doesn’t know himself

But he’ll be damned if he’s giving into those urges

Until, of course...

It was lunchtime, you were sat at a table (next to Bakugo of course) and eating your food. There were a few others at the table, but Bakugo was mostly focused on you.

Once again he was wondering what they felt like- your ears, that is. Were they soft? Were they fluffy? Or were they smooth? Did they feel like velvet? Or silk? He had to know. But he just couldn’t bring himself to ask.

That was until Kirishima asked you about it. It was a throwaway comment, something like- “Hey, [Name], what’s it like having different ears?”

And boom. Suddenly everyone wanted to touch them. You didn’t mind much, it was mostly the girls who just wanted to know what they felt like. Mina often compared them to her horns, so it was fine.

That was until a certain ash-blond reached over and gently tweaked one of them. You went slightly pink and smiled. “Wow, Katsuki, didn’t take you to be that kinda guy.” 

At that he realised what he was doing, and hastily yanked his hand away. “I- Shut it, Fuzzy! That’s- you-!” He spluttered, much to your amusement. 

You simply reached over and placed his hand back on your ears. “You’re way too obvious, all ya had to do was ask.” He grumbled quietly, but never actually said he didn’t want to, so... ;)

Mina:

Oh lord

You’ll never get away from her hands

That’s not a bad thing either

She’s just smitten with the idea of her crush having these cute round ears

Also

Horns, ears, same thing!

She loves the similarities between the two of you

And she’s not afraid to show it, either

Like everyday after school, you were hanging around Mina’s house. Her mum always bought ready-made bamboo shoots for you (yes, they’re a real thing) so that was a bonus.

The only sound that could be heard was crunching, as well as the occasional sound from the game Mina was playing. Your head was resting on her shoulder as you watched the little character run around whacking Boon with their bug net.

You flushed a crimson feeling her hand run through your hair and then over the back of your ears. It wasn’t the first time, but it sometimes caught you off guard.

“Whassamatter, hon?” She giggled, making you grin. “You need to warn me when you do that, y’know?” “Yep, just teasing. You’re cute when you’re flustered.”

Tsuyu:

Not exactly the kind of person you’d expect to gain a crush, but here she is

This lil froggy is just so happy that she found another person with an animal quirk to be honest

You’re no exception, you want to know just how similar you two are

She genuinely cares for you and wants to take her time, too

After all, loosing you isn’t an option

Her favourite thing to do is hold your hand, because then she see you and keep you close

It can be hard to know what she’s thinking

But you’re one of the few people who can figure it out

Rain. You didn’t really like it. Pandas aren’t exactly known for their love of water, so it made sense. However your cute froggy friend did.

“[Name], I thought you’d gone home kero.” Speaking of which, she’d just spotted you standing at the edge of Heights Alliance, waiting and watching.

“Hey, I’m just waiting for this god damned rain to end. I didn’t bring an umbrella, see.” She nodded thoughtfully, and then produced something from her bag.

A dark green umbrella. Oh. 

“Here, want to share mine, kero?” “Aw, Tsu, you’re too kind.” You grinned, stepping closer. The height difference was something you loved to joke about, and Tsuyu secretly liked the fact that you were taller.

She held the umbrella in her left hand, and took yours in her right. You gave a small squeeze of reassurance. “What would I do without you, hm?”

Denki:

Crushes were normal for Denki

He’d liked practically every girl (and maybe even guy) he’d seen

He at least flirted with them

But with you it was different

It was like he used up all of his electricity and was in constant idiot mode around you

He can’t help it!

Poor bean, he just wants to impress you

But he usually just ends up dropping whatever he’s holding or tripping over his shoelaces

You found it pretty cute, not gonna lie

To you, he was like a ray of sunshine

Always smiling and goofing off

And that clumsiness? 

*smack sound*

N i c e

He just wants to spend all his time with you, not even in a romantic way sometimes

He loves your energy and personality more than anything

So!! Cute!! And!! Nice!!

“Hey, [Name], watch this!” You leant across the back of your chair, watching the blonde balance a pen on his nose. 

“You look like an idiot.” His eyes widened slightly and he tipped his head a little too far back, resulting in him being jabbed in the eye. His face erupted in red as he blinked the ache away.

“Aha, oops?” You simply shook your head, with a small eye-roll. “Yep, definitely an idiot.” You stated, getting up and sitting besides him.

“Your my idiot though.” You giggled, giving a chaste kiss to his cheek, causing his blush to worsen (in a good way.)

“Wheyy...”

Jiro:

A crush you say?

Nope

Nuh-uh

“i’vE ALREADY SAID IT’S NOT A CRUSH I JUST ADMIRE HER JACKASS!”

Jiro isn’t usually so worked up about things, but...

Bby just wants to deny her feelings

There’s no way you’d like her back

You’re so pretty and funny

And smart, kind, friendly, open, comforting...

Jiro could go on for hours about how great you were

In a completely non-romantic way of course!!

“Face the facts girl. You’ve got it baaad.”

With a sigh she might just have to accept her own feelings

“Does she like me back, though?”

“Who?” Jiro flinched in her seat, and Kirishima snickered. “Oh, looks like I’ve gotta shoot off. See you Jiro, take care of her for me [Name]!” Oh Kiri, you evil wing-man.

“So what were you two talking about?” You inquired, despite the fact that you already knew. Eavesdropping is easy with two big fluffy ears. 

“Er- nothing too important, just stuff.” She said nonchalantly. You almost believed her, were it not for the fact that you literally heard her confess for you mere moments ago.

“Alrighty then. Hey, you wanna know something?” You beckoned for her to lean closer, and when she did, you whispered in her ear.

“The best part of having a panda quirk is that I can hear things even when I’m not there. That being said, you free on Saturday?”

You’d never seen her show so much emotion, yet here Jiro was, cheeks dusted pink and a small smile on her lips.

Todoroki:

This lad is starved of love

All kinds

So naturally he has no idea what to do when he realises he might be falling for you

His father would definitely not approve, but if anything that made it all the more better

You were a good listener

With ears like those, it was kind of a given to be frank

And there was another thing, too

You also had markings on your face

Maybe the way you got them was different, but they were there

Little black circles under your eyes, decreasing in size as they went inwards

You weren’t a massive fan, usually you covered them with makeup but he loved them

And you weren’t going to lie, having someone like him around was nice

Perhaps a teeny bit of chemistry??

Just a smidge :)

You didn’t think he could be so sweet also, but you couldn’t be more wrong

Knock!

It was one of those days. Listening to music, and applying the perfect amount of concealer to hide those markings. It wasn’t that you hated the way you looked all the time, it was just... them. 

They didn’t suit you, in your opinion, and you felt rather self conscious of them. You cursed, seeing that there was no concealer left. All you’d done was swatch it on your arm!

“Fuck...” You mumbled to yourself, flopping backwards on the bed. Ah well, you’d ask to borrow some from Momo tomorrow maybe. At least here in your dorm no-one could see you and your face right now.

Knock!

‘Well smack me sideways, whyyy?’ You groaned, but got up and padded to the door anyway. 

What a pleasant surprise. “Eyo, Shouto, what’s up pal?” You let him into your room, flopping down on your bed and patting the space next to you so he could sit.

Befriending the icy guy was difficult but rewarding, as he was a true friend. Maybe even more, with that look...

“I’m bored. I wanted to see you.” Alright, forward much? You grinned, batting your seal plush out of the way and leaning a little on your pillow(s). “That’s great, but you caught me at a horrible time.”

“Oh really?” “Mm, ran out of concealer.” He gave you a quizzical look. “Which product is that?” You stifled a laugh. “The one I use to cover these,”

You pointed to your markings, and he sighed. “Do you have to? They’re part of you, are you really going to pretend they don’t exist forever?” 

“Yep, my hero suit is designed like that for a reason. But you know all that.” He hummed. “Yeah, I do. But it doesn’t stop me from questioning your choices. I think you should leave them.”

Ah, that was Todoroki. Blunt as a butter knife. You rolled your eyes, covering your markings with your hands unconsciously. “They’re ugly and I hate them. I was reading into surgery you can get, like tattoo removal for people who dislike the way their quirks make them look. I might get--”

You couldn’t finish you sentence as he had shushed you with one hand. 

“[Name] for goodness sake, they look amazing. Do not get surgery, they are part of you and every last inch of you is perfect to me. Please quit covering them up, I love them- and you.”

☆

so, what did you think? i’m kinda tired today so some of them might be kinda ooc, but hey thats what headcanons are for. hope you enjoyed anon, i’m pleased with these.

also i finally settled on a headcanons format. i’ve been experimenting with the last few and i think this is gucci

also also sorry i didn’t do oneshots this week, i’m kinda abandoning my schedule cos school and my wattpad account. can’t manage all three lmao. welp bye no homo love ya

☆

[queen-of-deans-booty]

The Song Remains The Same: Part Three

Pairing: Dean x Reader

Word Count: 1,727

Warnings: typical supernatural violence, language, angst, blood, you know the usual

Author’s Note: I do not own anything from Supernatural. All credit goes to their respective owners. Any and all comments on these are appreciated. I really want to hear what you guys think about this one!

Feedback is the glue that holds my writing together.

Tags at the bottom

“Monsters. Monsters?” John repeated himself as he drove the Impala with Mary next to him, and you three in the back seat with you in the middle.

“Yes,” Mary sighed.

“Monsters are real.”

“I'm sorry, I didn't know how—”

“And you fight them? All of you?” he interrupted her.

“Yeah,” you sighed.

“How long?” John asked his wife.

“All my life. John, just try to understand.”

“She didn't exactly have a choice—”

“Shut up, all of you!” he yelled, cutting Dean off. “Look, not another word, or so help me, I will turn this car around!”

“Wow,” Dean whispered once silence fell. “Awkward family road trip.”

“No kidding,” Sam sighed.

John kept driving because Mary wanted to get everyone to safety. Apparently, she had a house that was meant to house hunters since it had salt, iron, and all kinds of gadgets that might help a hunter survive demons and spirits. Once John pulled up to the normal looking house, Mary led everyone inside of it.

“This place has been in the family for years,” she explained, flipping up a round carpet by the front door to reveal a devil’s trap. “Devil's trap. Pure iron fixtures, of course. Um, there should be salt and holy water in the pantry, knives, and guns.”

“All that will do is just piss it off,” you noted.

“So, what will kill it? Or slow it down, at least?”

“Not much,” Sam answered.

“Great,” Mary laughed humorlessly.

“He said not much, not nothing. We packed,” Dean assured her, going over to a table and setting the duffel bag down.

“We got the good stuff,” you whispered with a wink. “Hey, do you know where Y/M/N is?”

“She should be close to here. I’ll give her a call and have her come over. Is that what you want?” she asked.

“Yes, please,” you smiled.

Mary left the room to do what you asked of her, and you felt your heart sing at the thought of seeing your mother another time. She was right, she lived close because she was over not long after the call was made. Everyone except for Sam and John knew your mother was a hunter, so it wasn’t a surprise when she walked in on you and Dean taking weapons out of a duffel bag. Footsteps sounded from behind you, and you looked up to see your mother walk in the room.

Damn, she was still so beautiful.

“Y/M/N! I’m glad you made it!” you smiled, going over to her and hugging her.

“Y/N! I didn’t know you were going to be here. I’m glad that you are,” she chuckled when you pulled away. “What’s going on?”

“Angels are after Mary and John,” you began, telling her everything you could without letting her know that you were actually from the future.

“Well, I’m glad she called me because she’s gonna need us.”

“Does Mary know that you’re a—”

“Witch? Yeah, I had to come clean when she found my secret room I took you in. I had to move since her parents were becoming very suspicious. I’m doing good now,” she smiled.

“Good, I’m glad to hear it,” you nodded.

“If we put this up and she comes close,” Dean held up a paper with the angel-banishing sigil on it, and everyone’s attention was on him, “we beam her right off the starship.”

“This is holy oil,” Sam explained, taking out the can. “It's kind of like a devil's trap for angels. Come on. I'll show you how it works.”

“Hey,” John cleared his throat when Mary and Sam left, “what's the deal with the thing on the paper?”

“It’s a sigil. That means—”

“I don’t care what it means. Where does it go?”

“On a wall or a door.”

“How big should I make it?”

“John,” Dean sighed.

“What? Y'all might have treated me like a fool, but I am not useless. I can draw a damn whatever it is—a sigil.”

“Why don't you go help Sam out? Okay? 'Cause this has got to be done in... it's got to be done in human blood,” Dean explained.

John picked up a knife on the table, unsheathes it, and slices his left palm open.

“So, how big?”

“I’ll show you,” he chuckled.

“What?”

“All of a sudden, you really remind me of my dad,” Dean smiled, looking at you on the way out of the room.

Everyone had a job to do, everyone was busy with something. Sam and John were doing God knows what while Mary and your mother was pouring the holy oil on the ground in case the angels come—and they will. You and Dean walked into the room she was in once you had a minute to talk about things.

“Okay. You said you'd explain everything when we had a minute. We have a minute. Why does an angel want me dead?” Mary asked when she noticed you two.

“Yeah, I’ve been curious as well,” your mother spoke up.

“‘Cause they're dicks,” Dean scoffed.

“Not good enough,” Mary laughed. “I didn't even know they existed, and now I'm a target?”

“It’s complicated, Mary,” you sighed.

“Fine,” she and your mother stood up, “all ears.”

“You're just gonna have to trust us, okay?”

“I've been trusting you two all day.”

“It’s really hard to believe,” you tried.

“Alright then, I’m walking out the door,” she turned to leave but Dean blurted out the truth.

“I’m your son.”

“What?” she asked, whipping her head around.

“I'm your son. Sorry. I don't know how else to say it. We're from the year two thousand and ten. An angel zapped us back here. Not the one that attacked you, friendlier.”

“I’m your daughter,” you said, looking at your mom who just widened her eyes.

“You can't expect me to believe that,” Mary scoffed.

“Our names are Dean and Sam Winchester and Y/N Y/L/N. We're named after your parents. When I would get sick, you would make me tomato-rice soup, because that's what your mom made you. And instead of a lullaby, you would sing ‘Hey Jude’, ‘cause that's your favorite Beatles song.”

“I had to learn you gave up magic to raise me. It was just you and me, but I know that Bobby is my dad. He left, and it became so hard for you to talk about because you loved him so much. When you got upset, I would sing “Over the Rainbow” because watching The Wizard of Oz became a tradition every week since you used to do it with your mom,” you explained, proving to her that you were her daughter.

“I-I don’t believe it,” Mary sniffled, tears escaping her eyes. “No.”

“I knew it,” she whispered, walking over to you and grabbing your hands.

“You knew?” you asked, clearly surprised by this.

“I was raised by witches, sweetie. I had a feeling, especially when our magic is the same,” she whispered. Tears spilled from your eyes unwillingly, and she brought you in a hug.

“I raised my kids to be hunters?” Mary gasped.

Your mother pulled away from you and wiped your tears before turning to Mary.

“No. No, you didn't.”

“How could I do that to you?”

“You didn't do it because you're dead.”

“You died four years after she did,” you confessed, looking at your mom painfully.

“What? What happened?” Mary’s eyes widened.

“How?” you mother needed to know.

“Yellow-eyed demon. He killed you, and John became a hunter to get revenge. He raised us in this life.”

“The daughter of the yellow-eyed demon gets you, but she appears as a man. He was meant to come after me but got you instead, and John adopted me into his family,” you admitted.

“Listen to me. A demon comes into Sam's nursery exactly six months after he's born. November second, nineteen eighty-three. Remember that date. And whatever you do, do not go in there. You wake up that morning and you take Sam and you run.”

“That's not good enough, Dean,” Sam said from the doorway. “Wherever she goes, the demon's gonna find her. Find me.”

“Well, then what?”

“She can leave Dad. That's what. You got to leave John.”

“What?”

“When this is all over, walk away, and never look back.”

“So, we're never born.”

“It’s too late for me. Amara chose our bloodline, so whether Bobby’s the dad or not, your child will be a witch. Better me than someone else,” you sighed.

“I—I can't. You're saying that you're my children, and now you're saying—”

“You have no other choice,” he interrupted her. “There's a big difference between dying and never being born. And trust me, we're okay with it, I promise you that.”

“Okay, well, I'm not!”

“Listen, you think you can have that normal life that you want so bad, but you can't. I'm sorry. It's all gonna go rotten. You are gonna die, and your children will be cursed.”

“There—there has to be a way.”

“No, this is the way. Leave John,” Sam urged.

“Leave town,” you said, suddenly thinking of an idea. “Don’t have children. The bloodline will end with you. Amara won’t be able to use you anymore. She won’t be able to make a new bloodline.”

“I can't leave John,” Mary tried again.

“I can’t do that,” your mother sighed.

“This is bigger than us. There are so many more lives at stake—”

“You don't understand. I can't,” she interrupted him. “It's too late. I'm... I'm pregnant.”

“With Dean,” you whispered.

“I’m pregnant too,” your mother confessed, placing her hand on her stomach. Hers was just a bit bigger than Mary’s but only because you were older than Dean.

“With me,” you whispered, getting tears again.

“Yeah,” she nodded. Before anyone else had a chance to say something, John came in the room with a look of concern.

“Hey, we got a problem. Those blood things, the sigils—they're gone.”

“What do you mean gone?” you asked.

“I drew one on the back of the door. I turned around. when I looked back again, it was a smudge,” he explained.

Dean went to go check his work and came back to confirm it.

“He’s right.”

“There’s no more holy oil either,” Mary said, checking the ground where she poured it.

“They’re here,” you gasped.

Wanna get tagged? Add yourself to this document! If your tag doesn’t work, find out why!

@sing4mejensen​ @essie1876​ @gh0stgurl​ @redsalv20​ @superrandomnatural​ @scarletmeii​ @babypink224221​ @gaveherhearttotheliontattoo​ @akshi8278​ @a--1--1--3​ @kendlemariee​ @miraclesoflove​ @earthtokace​ @teamfreewillsstuff​ @fandom-princess-forevermore​ @kiwihoee​ @jennazeise​ @phantomalchemist​ @posiemax​ @22sarah08​ @tricksterdean​ @andi-mendes-barnes​ @put-my-favorite-record-on​ @countrygal17a​ @whit85-blog​ @sammypotato67​ @knowledgefulbutterfly​

[babbushka]

Blue Moon (9/10)

New York, 1987. The air was filled with smog and the streets were ridden with crime. Just another day in paradise. Your quiet life turns upside down when a striking man moves in across from you. You’re falling, fast, into a love that could never, ever, happen…or could it?

(Could be interpreted as modern!au Kylo Ren/Reader for those who don't know who Pale is, but really this is Pale from Burn This!)

Word count: 6.8k

Warnings: N*FW Content, language, fluff (finally lol)

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

He woke up with the worst fucking headache he had ever had. Well, maybe not, but at least it was the worst headache he could remember. Where the fuck was he?

“You’re at my apartment.” You had explained, your voice warm and soft like it always was when you were talking to him. There was the smallest wobble in it, like you were trying not to cry. “We’re on the floor.”

A fragment of a memory returned to him and explained just a little – why the fuck was he on the floor?

Oh, right.

He propped himself up onto his elbows, looked around, tried to get his bearings. You were sleeping next to him, right on the fucking concrete with him. He frowned, sat up all proper.

He remembered making it to the couch before blacking out, remembered your hands on him right as he went. He looked down at himself, he was wearing none of his clothes from the night before. He was in soft sweats and a tank top, where was his jacket? He looked around – you had hung it up on the coat hook by the door.

You had also shoved pillows under his head and threw a blanket over the both of you, some sort of attempt at comfort.

He swallowed the hard lump in his throat from thinking about how you had stayed with him right there, right on the fucking floor with him, instead of retreating to your own comfortable bed. He liked that you stayed. He didn’t know what the fuck he was doing. After all this time, he figured maybe he’d have gotten a fuckin’ grip by now, but one look at you and all hope of that had flown right out the damn window.

He watched you for a bit, watched how your breathing made your chest rise and fall. He was in so deep, too deep with you. He knew that. Somehow, it didn’t scare the shit out of him.

Maybe it did, but he was too numb to feel it this time.

“I’m not afraid of you.” You had said.

It was still dark outside, not anywhere near close to sunrise.

He could go back to sleep, but his stomach rumbled too loud for him to even bother.

He stayed still, kept watching you. Fuck it wasn’t fair to wake you up, he knew that. You probably hadn’t gotten any real fuckin’ sleep as it was, watching over him and taking care of him. His chest did a little hiccup at that, the thought of you taking care of him. Nobody’d ever really done that before.

His stomach growled again and he groaned, starving but not wanting to be away from you, not for even one fuckin’ second.

“Hey.” He whispered, shook you awake a little. “(Y/N), wake up.”

“Hmm?” You asked, face pinching in a frown, your eyes still closed. Even with your brow furrowed like this you looked like a god damned angel. It wasn’t fair, he knew that, but he put his hand on your cheek and shook a little more.

“I’m fuckin’ starving over here, come with me to grab a bite to eat.” He licked his lips, kissing your face. He hoped the kisses would sweeten the deal a little.

“Mmmmokay.” You said, blinking awake, nuzzling your nose against his as he pressed little kisses all over. “What time is it?”

“I don’t know, I can’t see my watch.” He kissed and coaxed you up so that you were sitting up on the floor, your naked body shining in the light of the moon, light glinting just a little off the chain around your neck. He didn’t know how to process the fact that you were still wearing it, that you’d always been wearing it.  

It was drizzling outside, Pale vaguely remembered rain from last night. He really couldn’t remember much else. His stomach growled.

“Where do you wanna go?” You asked, drawing the covers over your chest to keep the chill away. Your nipples got hard anyway, Pale leaned forward to press his face into your cleavage, kiss and warm up the skin there.  

“There a Mickey Ds around?” He asked, and you nodded with a smile.

“Yeah like five minutes away. We gonna go through the drive-thru?” You asked, stretched and yawned and let out a big sigh.

“Yeah.” Pale said against your skin. The more he touched you, the less he wanted to go.

“Okay then I’m not putting any shoes on.” You said, giving a sleepy smile. He kissed it right off of you and stood up, the joints in his knees and back cracking from being on such a hard surface for so long.

“Okay.” He said, watching you get up too, watching you walk across the living room to your bedroom.

He watched and waited until you were pulling on a loose t-shirt and some sleep-shorts, the red ones with the little penguins all over them, nothing fancy. You were barefoot true to your word, but Pale thought you were going to freeze to death so when the two of yous walked to the front door, he wrapped his big leather jacket around you, made you stick your arms through the sleeves and bundled you up tight.

You looked ridiculous in the fucking thing, it was maybe three sizes too big, probably stupidly fuckin’ heavy, and completely hid your figure.

He never ever wanted you to take it off.

 “You want anything?” Pale asked when he pulled up to the drive-thru.

It wasn’t glamourous or nothing, but it was the only place he could think of to get shitty, cheap, greasy fast food this late. Or was it early? The clock on his car said it was a little after five in the morning. He knew 24/7 diners existed, but you weren’t even wearing a bra or panties or nothin’, no shoes. No shirt no shoes no service.

“No thanks.” You yawned, wrapped your arms around yourself even though Pale had the heat on in the car while the two of yous waited for the line to move a little bit.

The rain had pretty much stopped, it felt like droplets hung in the air, coating the whole fuckin’ city. The roads were wet, his windshield had lots of little fuckin’ water spots that better not dry splotchy on the black paint of his car. He’d bring it in to get washed later, didn’t want dirty fuckin’ rain staining nothing. The Mickey Ds was just off the main road, and occasionally the red and blue lights of a cop would speed past. Pale wondered what kinda crime assholes could get up to this early.

He couldn’t stop looking at you in that jacket of his. He couldn’t fucking explain it but something about it made him so protective, possessive. He loved your bed head, loved the way the jacket swallowed you whole, like it was some big heavy blanket made of leather and metal zips. He wanted to get you home, fuck you in just that jacket and your chain. It’d smell like sex but to be fuckin’ honest that jacket had smelled like worse in the time he’s had it. Maybe it could do with some of your sweat and come staining the leather.

He inched up until he was finally at the speaker, rolled the window down.

“Welcome to McDonald’s what can I get ya?” Some poor overworked piece of shit asked, none too pleased to be there at five a.m.

“Lemme get two quarter-pounders with cheese and large fry and a large coke.” Pale said automatically, his standard order for times like this.

“That it?” The kid asked, sounding bored.

“Yeah.” Pale replied, equally enthusiastic.

“Drive up.” The kid said, and Pale did…all of two feet.

The line really shouldn’t be this fucking long, Pale thought as he put the car in park. There were at least six people ahead of him, and he couldn’t fucking figure out why – shouldn’t all these assholes be in bed?

“Looks like we ain’t the only people with this idea.” You yawned, still sleepy in the passenger seat.

“Whatever, as long as I get my fuckin’ burgers, you know?” He hummed, leaned over just enough to put a hand on your thigh, give it a good rub. He liked how your skin felt, you were still sleep-warm.

“Mhm.” You nodded, scooching over so that you were as close to him as possible. He wished he had bench seats or something so you could get right up next to him, but his chest hurt at you tryin’.

You laid your head on his shoulder, and fiddled with the volume knob on the cassette player he had built into the dashboard of the car. Classical music softly played in the background as the two of you sat in the line, waiting for a car to get their order so Pale could pull up a bit.

“How do I make you feel?”

“Like I’m dyin’.”

He wished he could remember more. He cursed the fucking alcohol.

Once the two of you were out of the view of the window and just waiting around, Pale ran a hand through your hair, tugged your face over to meet his and kissed you real fuckin’ deep. You hummed happily into his mouth, licked and sucked at his bottom lip.

One of your hands drifted to his crotch, rubbed just a little. He was always so fucking ready for you that you only really had to look at his dick for it to get hard, so he was tensing up just at the slight brush of your fuckin’ fingers. It didn’t help that he was in sweatpants, which did abso-fucking-lutely nothing to hide his boner.

“Suck my dick while we wait?” Pale asked, and you gave an amused little chuckle, tucked your hair behind your ears.

“Okay.” You said, and Pale held his breath as he inched forward again, just a little.

You bent over completely, pushed Pale’s sweatpants down just enough to get his hard cock out, give it a few pumps. Your hands felt so damn good on him, too good. He clenched his jaw, turned the music up on the cassette in case he accidentally let a sound slip out.

Chopin filled the car as you licked a stripe up his cock, ran your tongue in the slit on the head of it, making him groan. He let one hand loosely tangle in the hair at the back of your neck, held you in place as you swirled your tongue around him.

He inched up just a bit more, four fucking cars to go.

You opened your throat and took him down as far as you could go, tongue flat and throat so fucking hot and wet – and then you sucked and he fisted your hair hard, bucked up into your mouth. His head thumped against the headrest, and he tried to even his breathing, other hand gripping the steering wheel.

“Shit honey.” He grit out, letting his eyes close for what felt like an eternity, and he could swear he felt you fuckin’ smile against him.

You bobbed your head up and down, sliding his length in and out of your throat, getting drool and spit everywhere. Fuck, it made him so hard to see you sloppy like that, and he groaned again when you used all of that wetness to slick up your hand, kiss his stomach as you jerked him off.

“Faster,” Pale grunted out, inching up.

Three more cars.

You went faster, the slick sound of your hand on his cock turning him on. He wished he had a cigarette, he was getting all fucking wound up, needed – you knew what he needed apparently, were some kinda mind reader, because your mouth wrapped around him again and you hollowed out your cheeks and took him as deep as you could, until your nose was brushing up against his dark pubic hair and you were choking, choking while giving him head in the fucking fast food drive through.

God what an angel you were.

He gripped your hair and held you down as he came, pumped your throat full of his come, wanted you to feel it slide down, and you did like the good fucking girl you were, he could feel you swallowing against him.

When the two of you pulled up to the second window to get Pale’s food, you were tucked back in your seat and Pale’s cock was back in his sweatpants, and when Pale handed over the cash, the guy at the register was none the wiser.  

 “You know, this is real shit food.” Pale grimaced, taking another bite out of the burger twenty minutes later.

The two of you were sitting out on the fire escape, waiting for the sun to rise. You, now fully awake like Pale, had dragged a couple of towels outside and laid them out so the both of yas wouldn’t have to sit on the cold wet metal scaffold of the fire escape.

You were still wearing his jacket, sipping a cup of coffee you had brewed up real fast, some instant shit, nothing good like what you made at the diner.

“Then why are you eating it?” You laughed, giving him the sweetest damn smile. He hated how much he liked seeing your smile, how much he liked seeing you sleep-rumpled and happy.

He had to wipe that smile off your face, tried kissin’ it away, but that only made the fuckin’ thing bigger. He took another bite of the shitty burger.

“Greasy food’s good for the kinda headache I got.” He shrugged, reaching into the bag and huffing, “Next time I’m gonna get two fuckin’ fries.”

“Sorry.” You smiled as you sipped your coffee, not sorry in the fuckin’ least.

You had eaten half the damn thing of fries on the way back to your apartment, even though he had asked you if you wanted anything and you said no. Learned his fuckin’ lesson with that one he did. Not that he was angry, but shit.  

“Nah, don’t be. I like when you eat up, you make me nervous sometimes.” He said around a big bite.

“I make you nervous?” You laughed, snorting into your coffee enough to make some of it splatter, hitting his bare arm.

“Why’s that so fuckin’ funny?” He asked with a frown as you tried not to laugh too loud, conscious of your neighbors.

“Because you’re the one blacking out in my living room, honey.” You rolled your eyes at him, another round of chuckles making your shoulders shake just a little.  

“Listen – ” Pale’s stomach swooped, suddenly feeling ill. He had forgotten all about that, all about everything. Were you mad? Were you upset with him? Were you –

“I don’t mind, you know?” You said quickly, reassuringly. Definitely some kinda mind reader. “I don’t mind. I’m glad you came to me, glad you knew I’d be there for you.” You pressed yourself against him, put your head on his shoulder.

“Thank you.” He said, tentatively putting an arm around your shoulders, pulling you closer, squishing you to him. “I know it ain’t easy…dealin’ with me sometimes. Thank you for not kickin’ me out.”

“What could I do you were already on the floor.” You shrugged. Pale groaned, but you pressed a kiss to his chin and smiled, smoothing the arm closest to him around his waist to hold on to him too. “I’m joking.”

“I know.” He said, a lump still stuck in his fuckin’ throat. He wasn’t going to cry, he kept telling himself that, but it was like he was chokin’ on words he didn’t know how to say. “But I mean it.”

“I know.” You nodded against him, and there it was again – that wonder at how you were so easy goin, so accepting. He didn’t deserve it, Pale knew that, knew he was a giant fucking mess right now and didn’t deserve your love and – “You gotta go to work today?”

You interrupted his internal spiral, helped him get a grip on himself. He sighed, let out a tension in his shoulders he didn’t know was even there. You rubbed soothing circles on his lower back where your hand was resting, sipped your coffee.

The sun started to rise.

“Yeah, fuckers got everything all god damned twisted with the ordering so I gotta go down to the docks and settle some shit.” Pale pinched his nose, didn’t want to have to fucking deal with that this early, but he knew that once the sun was in the sky he was going to have to go. Every single atom in his body screamed at him to stay with you instead.

“Want me to go with you?” You asked, and wouldn’t that be an idea?

Bringing you down to the docks so you could watch him threaten some jackasses into actually doing what the fuck he pays them to do. He almost said yes, almost blurted out that they’d leave right the fuck now – the sooner he got there the better – when he turned to look at you, and really look at you.

You were exhausted, he could see that. You had dark circles under your eyes that he could see now that light was bathing the city, deep gold that washed over everything and reflected off the rain on the streets. Your eyes were a little dull, still beautiful as ever, but dull. He didn’t want to drag you around the cold docks with him, not after all the other bullshit he put you through in the past couple hours.

“No baby, I want you to get some sleep. And I mean real fuckin’ sleep, no more of that on the floor bullshit.” Pale said, pinching at your cheek, your nose, making you smile.

“Hey I did the best I could, I couldn’t fucking lift your huge ass – ” You started, but he kissed you real quick.

“I’m jokin’.” He echoed your earlier sentiment, and you rolled your eyes, kissed him back.

“Ha ha.” You scoffed, stealing another one of his french fries. Pale wondered if he had enough time to fuck you before he had to leave.  

“You know, I don’t think I’ve liked a sunrise in a real long time.” He huffed, taking a sip of his soda. He wrinkled his nose at it, offended at the fuckin’ carbonation. “Start of another day and all that. Another day another problem. That’s how I used to think but right about now you know what I’m thinkin’?”

“What are you thinkin’?” You asked.

“I’m thinkin’ that you’re the prettiest god damned woman I’ve ever seen, all the gold all over you. Sunrise never looked so good.” He said, leaning down to kiss you again and again and again. Little presses with barely any tongue, neither of you had brushed your teeth yet.

“Do you remember anything you said last night? Or that I said?” You asked, looking him right in the eyes, those tired eyes of yours tinted with curiosity.

Pale’s stomach started to twist again, and he frowned.

“We were talking about shit? I thought you said I was out cold.” He went real still, wracking his brain for any sort of memory of the night before, anything at all. He was getting himself fucking frustrated, all he remembered was knocking into some furniture, and then blackness.

“You woke up when I was putting you back together. You didn’t say anything too crazy.” You took his hand, ran a finger over the bandage.

He watched you do it, always watching you. Were you real?

“Did you?” He asked, swallowing a hard lump in his throat. He did remember something, remembered but wasn’t sure if it was real, if it was just a dream his fucked up brain came up with. What a sick joke that would be.

“Just that I love you.” You shrugged, like it was nothing big, like it was the most breezy, natural thing to say in the whole fucking world. And that was it, wasn’t it? You loved him. It hadn’t been a dream.

You had welcomed him with open arms and fixed him up and slept next to him on the floor and you loved him.

“That is pretty crazy.” He said back, and you grinned.

He took another bite.

 He left only after you were snoozing in your fucking bed. He took the time to make sure you were wearing clean warm clothes and properly tucked in and wouldn’t go rollin’ off one way or the other. Last thing he needed was you getting’ a fucking concussion while he was gone.

The trip to the docks was uneventful, which Pale was more than grateful for. He had a short enough fuse as it was, he really didn’t need to be tempted right now. Not while his hand was healing anyway.

Surprisingly, the restaurant didn’t need that much attention that day. He knew it would pick up a lot in the evening, but the lunch rush wasn’t nothin’ too terrible. Cook didn’t show up, so he was stuck working in the kitchen, which was fine because it made the hours fly by.

Before he knew it, he was grabbing his jacket and heading out the door, was hell-bent on getting something accomplished outside the fuckin’ restaurant.

“I’m going on my lunch break,” Pale announced to everyone in the back. “If anybody needs me – don’t.”

The staff all mumbled a short acknowledgement before returning to their own work as the door swung shut behind Pale.

He lit a cigarette once he got to his car, breathed in the nicotine real slow before turning on the engine. He had one destination in mind, something had been knockin’ around his noggin for a while now, and he figured no time like the present to act on it.

Driving along he stole glances at the city around him. It was a hellhole, that was for fuckin’ sure, but maybe it wasn’t as bad as he thought. Maybe it was just as much of a hellhole as Manhattan, or Jersey. But maybe that was just you talking, making him soft. He’d love to fucking take you away from here, bring you somewhere real nice, for a weekend, for a week, forever.

He turned onto 34th street and parked in the diner’s lot. He knew you weren’t working today, obviously, but he wasn’t here for you, for once.  

“Pale! Good to see you again.” The elderly man who ran the joint, Fish, greeted him as he stepped through the doors.

Pale had been to the diner a fuckton of times, and every time it seemed to be jam-packed with people. This time was no exception, and Pale was impressed to see that there were so few tables open. He was even more impressed that the old man had remembered his name, just because you’d only introduced him once before.

“Fischel right? Real good to see you too.” Pale said as warmly as he could, making his way through the crowded place to get to the milkshake bar where Fish was wiping down the counter.

“Pull up a chair wherever you’d like, someone’ll be with ya soon.” He smiled at Pale, and Pale cleared his throat, puffed on his cigarette.

“Oh, I was actually wantin’ to talk to you, but it looks pretty fuckin’ busy.” He looked around, had to press himself close to the counter to let a waitress pass. “I can come back later?” He offered, but Fish waved it away.

“You want to talk to me? Oy I’m not in any trouble am I?” He laughed, “Follow me.”

Pale walked around the counter and followed Fish to the back of the diner, down a small hallway and into an office. It was kept real tidy, surprisingly. He noticed that Fish had lots of pictures taped up on the wall, of him and his wife, his family, and even a couple of you posing with who Pale could only guess were Fish’s nieces and nephews.

“Not in trouble, I actually thought about proposin’ somethin’ to ya.” Pale said, trying his best not to knock anything over as Fish got settled in the spinny chair behind his desk.

“You have my blessing to ask her.” Fish smiled real wide, and Pale almost choked on his cigarette on the inhale.

“What?” He coughed, making Fish frown and backtrack.

“Oh, nevermind, I thought – ”

“No! I mean – I – ” Pale stumbled, no there was no fuckin’ way, well maybe not no way, but definitely no way, he couldn’t even begin to get into how that could never fucking happen – “Not no, but that’s not what I’m here about.”

Fischel regarded Pale carefully, leaned forward and rested his elbows on the desk in a way that looked a little more threatening that it probably should be, coming from a man who had to be in his fuckin’ seventies.

“Before you tell me anything, I gotta say something first.” Fish said, and Pale took the hint to sit down in one of the hard chairs opposite of Fischel’s.

“Christ, am I in trouble?” Pale muttered, putting the cigarette out in the little ashtray on Fish’s desk.

“I don’t know.” Fish said, and for the first time in a long fucking time, Pale was nervous. “I’ve known (Y/N) for a long fuckin’ time. She’s like a daughter to me; she comes over for the holidays and knows my family, my wife, my brothers – everyone. And in all the time I’ve known her, she ain’t never had someone to be there for her in the way that I’m assuming you’re there for her.”

“Never?” Pale frowned, and Fish shook his head.

“Nope. She’s been doing everything on her own for as long as I can remember, for too long. And I gotta be honest, it was eating away at her. I know it was. It ain’t good to be so alone. She’s only got a couple of close friends but even then she don’t hang out with them too often. She knows everybody in the fuckin’ neighborhood and all their birthdays and all their kids’ names but at night every night she’s been by herself. That ain’t life, Pale. So to see her suddenly be so fuckin’ happy these past few months was a shock and a surprise I never knew we needed.”

“She’s happy?” Pale asked, jaw clenched. It was too good to be true, somehow, too good to be real. “Like, really happy?”

“She is. And I think it’s because she’s found someone to be close to.” He looked at Pale pointedly.

“Is this the part where you tell me you’ll kill me if I hurt her?” Pale crossed his arms, offended that Fish would even suggest a fuckin’ thing like that.

“I ain’t gonna kill you.” Fish shook his head, crossing his arms too and leaning back in his chair. “I’m gonna rip you apart piece by piece and feed you to my dogs if you hurt her.”

After a moment or two, they both broke out into a bit of a smile, and Fish held his hand out for Pale to shake.

“I like you, Fischel.” Pale smiled, somehow relieved, somehow feeling not so nervous. He really had gotten his blessing, huh?

“I like you too, don’t give me any reason not to, you know?” Fish said, relaxing his demeanor almost immediately.

“I ain’t plannin’ on it, I can promise you that.” Pale said, “She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me in my whole fuckin’ life. I’m workin’ on something for her, something special. She deserves all the good shit in the world.”

“She does.” Fish replied with a nod of his head and a quirk of his brow, “Now go ahead and tell me whatever the hell you wanted to tell me.”

 “Can I ask you a question?” Pale asked you hours later, when the two of you were in bed after dinner.

“You just did.” You responded, your head on his chest.

He hadn’t fucked you yet, but he could feel it coming soon. For once he allowed himself to just be close to you, while the dishes soaked in the sink he shed all his clothes and climbed into bed and just pulled you to him, wanted to feel your heartbeat.

“Don’t be a brat.” He pinched your shoulderblade and you laughed.

“Sorry.” You smiled against his chest, kissed at the divot between his pecs.

“No you’re not.” He rolled his eyes, and you just hummed out a little laugh again.

“Your question?” You prompted him, making it real fuckin’ hard to concentrate when you were kissing at him like that. But then again you probably fuckin’ knew that, you menace. That’s what you were, a menace.

“What do you wanna do? Like in life.” He asked, and you thought about that for a minute.

He wanted to know why you started waitressin’, if you had ever wanted to do something else, be something else. You were smart, you were talented, you could do anything. His family was so fucking connected, not that he really talked to any of them. He would though, if you wanted to do something, anything. He’d repair a whole year of damage in a phone call if it would help you realize some fuckin’ pipe dream or something.

“Is it cliché to say that I want to be happy?” You responded, throwing him a curveball.

Was that cliché? Wasn’t that what everyone wanted, in the end? He thought about the world, thought about all the shit going on, all the death and fighting and drugs and crime – and that was in his own backyard. It was all real fuckin’ bleak, if he thought about it hard enough. But wasn’t that what everyone was chasing, somehow someway? What was the meaning of life if not to be happy?

“No, I don’t think so.” He answered, and you snuggled close to him.

“Then I want to be happy.” You said simply.

“Are you happy?” He asked.

Now that Fish had brought it up, it was all he could think about.

“Are you?” You asked back, with a raised eyebrow and a frown.

“Yeah, I think I am. Don’t really know, never really felt like this before.” He admitted, the truth coming forward a lot easier now. He wasn’t sure he would have ever been able to admit that just a couple months ago, but something about you made it real easy to let the truth out. “You know my whole life I’ve been trying to make other people happy. But I think I’m finally in a good place, or I’m startin’ to get there.”

“I’m happy.” You nodded, tracing random shapes on his chest. “I wasn’t, for a long time. But then I was okay, you know? Just working hard and doin’ my best. And then I met you, and now yeah, I’m happy.”

He looked down at you, stared at you real fuckin’ serious-like.

“You ain’t just sayin’ that? Because I don’t want you to regret this, later down the line.” He said, thinking of a certain someone, thinking of a couple people who had once said the same shit, and then fucked him over anyway. “I don’t want you to wake up one day and resent me or nothing. If you ain’t happy, you gotta tell me, gotta tell me what you want. Okay?”

“Okay Pale.” You shuffled up the bed a little, straddled his waist and brought his hand to your lips, gave it a kiss. “But I’m happy, I promise.”

“Okay.” Pale sighed, smiled as you kissed his hand.

“And for the record,” You grinned against his palm, “I don’t think you’re like a sugar daddy or anything like that. I don’t love you for your money or your connections at fancy restaurants or any of that. You could be dirt poor and you’d still take up the whole space in my heart.”

You placed his hand over your chest, and Pale breathed in time with the heartbeat there.

“But I’m not dirt poor.” Pale said, slowly sitting up too, caging you in with his arms.

“Yeah I know, hotshot. I just want you to know that whatever happens, I’m gonna be there for you as long as you want me.” You said, and Pale leaned in to kiss you, his own pulse going fuckin’ wild.

“Don’t go sayin’ shit like that, I’m gonna think you mean it.” He said real soft, his lips hovering just over yours, the ghost of a kiss.

Your eyes slipped closed, and so did his, and the two of you just reveled in the closeness for a minute or two.

“I do, I do mean it.” You said, making his stomach tighten in a good way.

“Even when I’m old and bald?” He asked, could feel the huff of your laugh even with his eyes closed.

“You’re not going to lose your hair, Pale.”

“(Y/N).” He urged, and you laughed out loud, looped your arms around his neck and carded a hand through his hair that he knew he wasn’t going to lose, even if he was starting to get a few greys every now and then.

“You could be bald and fat and wrinkly and I’m not going to love you any less.” You smiled, kissed him.

He licked into your mouth, his hands spanning your back and sliding down to your hips, pulling your ass closer as you situated yourself in his lap. He slid his hands around your front, dipped one into the waistband of your sleep-pants. You weren’t wearing underwear, and you were wet for him, your pussy warm and so fucking inviting.

You squirmed in his lap as he ran his fingers lightly over your slit, pushing in just enough to tease you.

“What if my cock don’t work?” He breathed into your mouth, you pressing your cunt down onto his hand, a silent plea.

“Then we’ll be regulars at the sex shop on fourth avenue. You ain’t gettin’ off the hook that easy.” You grinned, and Pale nodded, not that he was really worried in the first fucking place. With how hard he was for you? He was sure that would never fucking go away.

“Okay.” He licked his lips, buried his face in your neck and fingered you open nice and slow for him. He could feel you sweating, could feel you getting nice and slick for his – fully functioning – cock.

“Listen,” You said, running your hand through his hair, moaning just the littlest bit as he lightly grazed your clit. “I don’t know what your marriage was like, with her. And we don’t have to talk about it now, or ever if you don’t want to. But I’m not like her, you know? I’m not going to push you away or shut you out or anything. If you piss me off, I’m going to say something. But so far, you haven’t done anything to piss me off.”

“But I’m going to, I always do.” Pale’s hand stilled, and you shook your head.

“Then we’ll deal with it like adults. I’m willing to put in effort if you are. I want you.” You said, and he smiled then – that was the first time someone had ever said that to him.

He flipped you on your back, kissed you hard.

“You love me.” Pale said, lined up his cock and pushed in in one hard thrust.

“Yes!” You gasped out, arched underneath him, all long lines and soft supple skin. He wanted to suck a thousand hickeys onto you, wanted you all red and purple and mottled, wanted everyone to know you were his.

“Say it again you slut.” He said, pulling out and thrusting in sharply, making your nipples go rock hard. Fuck he loved watching them stiffen, he kissed down your neck, pushed you around and pulled at your tits to get them right in biting distance.

“I love you, Pale.” You moaned as his hips steadily fucked into you, pushing his cock deeper and deeper the more you relaxed and spread your legs for him. “I love you!”

He growled, you were his, fuck you were so good, so warm and wet and tight for him. He pressed a hand onto your throat, felt you swallow against him as you let your eyes pinch closed, mouth open as you moaned. He spit into it, spared a couple fingers to shove into your mouth, smear it around.

He fucked you hard, balls slapping against you, the squelch of your cunt like music to his god damned ears. He could do this forever, wanted to, he really fucking wanted to. He pressed down on your throat and gripped your jaw, held you tight in his fucking fist as his other hand hiked up your leg.  

“Again.” He demanded, baring his teeth.

Your hands flew up to his shoulders, digging and scratching into the muscle there. The sting felt amazing, felt real and grounded him, grounded him as he pushed you up the fucking bed with his thrusts. Everything was so fucking good, shit you were so wet for him, how were you so perfect?

“I love you.” You moaned, face red and splotchy, chest flushed and sweating. Pale wanted to lick up the salt on your sternum, wanted to come all over you and make you rub it around, rub it into your skin, make you his inside and out. “I’m your whore and I love you – Pale!”

You yelped a little when he pulled your hips up and changed the angle, shifting so that his cock brushed right against your gspot, rubbed at your walls deeper. He could feel that he was hitting your cervix, so deep, deep enough that he was completely buried inside you.

“Fuck – ” He was so consumed by you, all the fucking time he was just completely swallowed up by you. By your cunt, by your heart, it was all too fucking much.

He didn’t know what to do, wanted to blurt out something stupid, something too much, something that he’d have to live with – and he didn’t know if he could yet, didn’t fucking know. All he knew was your pussy was so good, the best he’d ever had, he wanted to live there, wanted to fuck you forever.

He dragged you down the bed just a little, all his thrusting had pushed you practically onto the fucking headboard and he didn’t want to knock you out or nothing. But even just pulling you down had you smiling, like this was fun, like fucking him was more than just getting an orgasm at the end of it.

“Say it again.” He demanded, and you scratched up his back, his chest.

“I’m your whore and I’m in love with you.” You said so easy, moaned high and loud, toes curling and knees drawing up around his waist.

You tossed your head to the side and your chest heaved, drooling on the fucking pillow as Pale reached down and pressed hard at your clit, making you shout out his name. Fuck he loved it when you shouted his name, when you opened your throat and just fucking yelled it. He wanted you to be loud, wanted the neighbors to hear, wanted all of fucking Queens to hear.

You clenched down hard around him, cried out his name and he came, sweat dripping down the tip of his nose and landing on your cheek. It felt like it always did when he was with you – too much and all consuming and like the whole universe or the big fucking bang all at once, all right in your cunt. He emptied his load right into your hot pussy, kept your hips tilted up so none of it would ooze out.

“Don’t fucking move, not yet.” He panted as you shimmied your hips, no doubt sore and raw and sticky all over.

“Pale.” You whined, but he kept his grip.

“Just let me – ” He didn’t even fucking know what he was doing, he just wanted to savor the moment. “Gotta keep all this come safe, you gotta keep it safe for me.” Your cunt made him delirious, it really fucking did.

You smiled, blissed the fuck out underneath him. He figured it was worth it, the edges of his mind fuzzy from you, drunk off the way you smelled, tasted.

He leaned down enough to lick at your neck, toyed with your chain with his tongue. He bit down hard on your jaw, knew he’d leave a bruise there.

“Good?” You asked, eyes already slipping closed, exhausted. He really had done a number on you, but he could feel in his bones how tired he was too.

“Every time baby.” He sighed, wincing as he pulled out finally.

You pressed yourself to him, he wrapped his arms tight around you in a vice-like grip, and fell dead asleep, wondering how the hell he had gone so long without you.

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

One chapter to go! Can we believe it?? Tagging some friends, as always, if you’d like to be added or removed from the taglist, please just send me a message :)  @fullofbees @spinebarrel @dreamboatdriver @thecurlycaptain @bourbonboredom @driverficarchive @aweirdlookingtree @rosalynbair @redhairedfeistynerd @adamsnackdriver @glitzescape @adamsnacc-kler @kyloxfem @fallin-for-youreyes @kylo-renne @attorneyl

[olympusintelligence]

Part 3 Chapter 10

30/11/2018 11:59 (San Francisco Time) Palo Alto Hills, Palo Alto

What a fatal mistake!

Kyle regretted he recklessly entered Andrew’s house five minutes ago. The garden was tranquil, but only hostility existed inside the house.

He thought he had prepared for everything, but currently he knew he would not get anything. In fact, he had no idea if he would survive this ‘lunch’.

There was no way he could have foreseen a gunfight in an African wilderness ensue right after he entered the house. He tried to escape, but the door had been automatically locked. He wanted to call for help, but his cell phone did not receive any signal. Immersed in such an authentic virtual environment, he could not find any windows or exits. He had just managed to avoid a bullet, and taken refuge behind a ‘tree’ with a gun in his hand.

“Seems like you haven’t got used to the VR battlefield,” Andrew, the mastermind behind the plot smirked coyly. Wearing all black, he was hiding behind another tree. “I’m a fair opponent. At least the bullets and the gun I gave you are real.” The specially designed VR hardware that projected this battlefield was still not yet on sale. Users did not have to rely on VR goggles and/or hard disk backpacks to experience its simulated environment.

‘You won’t get any help. Very few people stay in this area at noon. The house is noise-proof, so no one outside can hear what’s going on here.’

Kyle wanted to shoot Andrew, but his opponent was faster. He fired back another round of shots and one of them almost hit his right hand.

You tried to kill me…..I sensed your enmity against me at that time!

‘Who the heck are you? Why are you doing this?’ questioned Kyle angrily. He never thought this harmless-looking young tycoon would have wanted to kill him with his own hand. Andrew’s public profile was too simple for a tech tycoon - After earning a bachelor's degree in computer sciences from Caltech in 2012, he became an intelligence analyst in the NSA, but he resigned in less than a year. A reporter once asked what he did during the two-year gap after his resignation, he just explained that he travelled around the world and wrote the source code for VidChat. He only returned to the US and founded Vid in 2015. And at this age he still did not have any spouse or lover. Currently Kyle knew for sure that the two-year gap was not a gap at all.

Just like Helen, he was Olympus’ operative.

‘Let me show you my gun.” An image of a remodeled silver blue CZ SP-01 Phantom appeared in the middle. Its slider had the pattern of a silver trident on it.

‘You’re…..’ A glimpse of this gun reminded Kyle of a Greek God. He unconsciously trembled with fear.

‘I’m Poseidon.’ Andrew confirmed his guess - his codename was Poseidon. Coldness seethed within his deep azure eyes.  

In Greek mythology, after overthrowing their father Cronus’ tyrannic rule,Poseidon and his brothers Zeus and Hades divided the world by drawing lots. It made him the god of the Sea and other waters. He is as capricious as the ocean- Though he is often calm, when he is in rage he triggers storms, chaotic waves and tsunamis that flood the land, and even shakes the earth with earthquakes.  He is also vindictive- According to Homer’s Odyssey, the hero Odysseus escaped from the cyclops Polyphemus’ capture by blinding him with a wooden stick, but the cyclops was Poseidon’s son. When he prayed for Poseidon to avenge for him, the god was angered and cursed the hero to wander around the sea for more than ten years. In the end, it took Odysseus eighteen years just to return to his home Ithaca, though he had the patronage of the other deities.

‘You’ve anticipated my visit to Palo Alto, so you’ve prepared all these!’  

‘Yea, I leaked the intelligence on the virus to you.’

Kyle finally realized this man was a terrible schemer- a month ago he deliberately leaked the virus source via INTERPOL to lure him to his trap. Obviously he had plotted to murder him for a long time, but he still feigned hospitality before the hackathon. He only showed his true colors at this moment. Throughout their meeting he spotted nothing strange about him.

He was a strong, patient, calculating rival. No wonder he was chosen as a core member of Olympus and his codename was named after the great god of ocean.

Kyle attempted to watch his surroundings so he moved out of his cover a bit. Right at this moment his shoulder suffered a hit. He smelled some blood from his wound.

‘At first I really overestimated you as Helen still insisted to marry you in the face of our boss’ wrath, but now I know you’re just a layman,’ teased Poseidon, who was reloading bullets into his gun. It sounded like a note of the Death’s music piece. ‘I have wanted to fight you for a long time. As our boss finally authorized me to take you out, I’ll be the one to send you to meet Jesus. You should feel lucky that I took the job, or you’ll have died without knowing why.’

Based on his words, Kyle deduced Helen must be another core member of Olympus. ‘What’s the meaning of……’Before Kyle finished his question, Poseidon fired another gunshot.

‘She should never choose you as her husband! I don’t understand why she loves you, not me!’Poseidon burst out, and his graceful appearance became twisted out of envy.

Damn! A rival in love! He’ll not let me stay alive! How can I escape?

Kyle tried to keep his cool in the face of death.

The afterglow of sunset dominated the sky of the virtual battlefield as it turned to dusk. He noticed a mini flashlight up there.

This is it! He stopped hiding and swiftly moved forward to shoot at the flashlight.

Sparks erupted when the bullet crushed one of the VR projectors and the connected hard disk into pieces. The African wilderness was gone. Only darkness was left. Projector screens had been installed on most walls, and black window blinds blocked most light from the outside.Still with shimmers of light from the crevices between the windows and the blinds, Kyle could tell he was in an empty house. He also spotted a backdoor beside the open kitchen.

As Poseidon had lost the field advantage, Kyle instinctively knew he would try to end his life quickly. They kept firing many rounds of bullets at each other while running to the other side.It was a miracle that they did not suffer any hit but almost a hundred bullet holes appeared on the adjacent walls and a scorching smell permeated in the air after the intense gunfight.

Both rivals ran out of bullets, so they tossed their guns aside. But Poseidon had already sprinted near Kyle and tried to give him a hammerfist. Luckily Kyle evaded it in time. He then shoved Poseidon on the ground heftily.

He wanted to do a follow-up punch, but Poseidon suddenly clutched his right hand and dragged him down. He then smoothly placed his right forearm across the front of his neck, and his left hand grabbed the wrist and pulled back the forearm, hence driving the forearm into the front of the neck. In the meantime, his both legs firmly locked his waist and thighs in a triangular position - This is the arm bar choke, a classic Brazilian jiu-jitsu and MMA technique. Poseidon wanted to choke Kyle to his death.

I’m not gonna die here!

Kyle almost lost his breath, but the near death experience awakened his survival.While he attempted to grab Poseidon’s forearm to loosen the choke, he took out a dagger from his jeans’ lower right pocket. While Poseidon was intent on suffocating him, he pierced it into his left forearm.  

‘Ahhh!’ Poseidon screamed out loud and let go of him unwillingly.

Kyle seized this golden chance. He swiftly pierced his right thigh and left arm with the other two daggers. He planned to use them in case of danger before visiting Poseidon’s home, but he never thought he had to defend himself with them that soon.  

Due to sudden pain, Poseidon could not move and Kyle proceeded to press him down on the ground. As he was heavier and more muscular, Poseidon could not strike back at all.

Blood streams flowed out from their wounds and tainted their clothes. They really smelled bloody.

‘You’d better kill me now!’Poseidon had never experienced such a humiliating defeat. He lost the will to fight back, as he knew too well the fate of an agent captured by an enemy - torture and death.

‘I wanna kill you too, badass!’ Kyle punched his rival’s boyish face hard. His eyes burned with rage. He was very angry at the rival’s well-planned murder plot. ‘But I’m different from murderers like you! I never kill anyone!’ He slapped his face again and shouted, ‘I want you to tell me everything you know. If you don’t say anything, I’ll continue to punch you till you talk!’

Crack!

A bullet had just one through the window bear Kyle. He tried to dodge it when he heard the window crack, but his right arm still received the blow. He then lost his balance and fell on the ground. Poseidon was saved.

‘I can’t believe you’ve got a sniper!’ complained Kyle . Poseidon just looked at him with disdain and sneered. ‘Not my man, but you better run. Hades should be here now. Before becoming one of us, he was the best sniper in SWAT.’

Hades- the king of the underworld?

‘Bastard!’ Kyle was truly frightened. He hastily moved to escape from the backdoor near the open kitchen. He discovered there was a vast swimming pool outside. There was no place for a sniper to conceal himself, but Kyle decided not to stay there as he did not want to face an attack on two fronts. Therefore he rushed to the parking lot facing the forest and climbed the fence to leave the house, despite the risk of getting another hit by the sniper.

He raced downhill on the road, but he heard another noise on his left - a bullet had just hit his left shoulder. Its impact thrust him onto the ground. More blood spilled out.

I don’t want to die here!

He dared not to walk on the open road. With a strong will to survive, he crawled his way into the forest. Although he would have to climb down the slope, the densely grown trees may shelter him from the sniper’s eyesight. Shortly later he barely got up and trudged into the forest.

Still it did not work out.  The sniper had already arrived with a solid black Desert Eagle Mark 19 in his right hand. He had put his sniper rifle back into his backpack. With a lean and athletic figure, the tall Caucasian man had a flat top-cut black hair. He appeared to be in his early thirties. Like any assassin, he preferred black outfit.  When his grey eagle eyes were fixated on his prey, he just pulled the trigger. The gunshot was aiming at Kyle’s heart…..

Kyle knew he was doomed. He could not escape from this close-distance gunfire. Narcissus,  the symbol of Hades, was marked on the slider of the assassin’s handgun.

All of a sudden, another gunfire came. It precisely hit Hades’ bullet  and altered its ballistic course, so two bullets just ended up hitting the trunks of two large trees.  

Kyle was stunned by such marvelous marksmanship. He turned around to trace its origin - A woman with very beautiful curly brown hair just quietly came to the forest.  She was in a black leather jacket, a white tee and light blue skinny jeans. Her rose gold Glock 17 was aimed at Hades.

Her decisive gunshot had saved Kyle from the fate of death.

If this lady joined an international beauty pageant contest, she may get the title ‘ the most beautiful woman in the world’  - A perfect model figure with a refined sweet appearance and a healthy light-tanned skin tone. Her watery black eyes were as sparkling as the starlight. Even without any attractive make-up or sexy outfit, her beauty was way beyond comparison. Though Kyle remained faithful to Helen, he was mesmerized by this beauty who just showed up out of nowhere.

‘Athena’s boy, if you wanna live, then don’t just stand there and stare at me. Come here now,’ she snapped. She never wanted to be any man’s eye candy. Her warning reminded him that he was still in danger. His arms were in great pain.

Hades frowned at her. He apparently knew her well. ‘Aphrodite, you can’t even defend yourself. Now you still wanna save this kid?’  

Aphrodite- the goddess of love and beauty in the world of Greek myths. Kyle had already stood by the pretty lady. He noticed some patterns of roses were printed on her handgun, which confirmed she was another Olympus’ core member.

‘I’ve been entrusted with this kid’s life. Hades, I bet you only wanna protect Poseidon so you’ve come alone. Your men mostly operate in Europe, and you never want Poseidon to have any direct contact with them, so that means no one else has returned to the States with you,’ Aphrodite narrated Hades’ plan with a calm smile. ‘I was trained to neutralize your strengths. If you still wanna fight with me, both of us will be losers. If I were you, I’d better leave and take care of Poseidon. That kid has been at the back. He has not had any concrete field experience. ’

That kid with no field experience has almost killed me……Kyle sighed.

‘Fine, I don’t want us to kill ourselves over the unknown,’ Hades compromised. Both operatives placed their guns back to their holsters at the same time. ‘But our boss has already issued the assassination order against him. Poseidon has snatched the job from me, and actually stalled it for some time.   When the news of his failure is out, he’ll send in someone else to finish the job. You’ve been protecting your partner, and you’re on a run, so you’re not capable of protecting someone else.’

‘Why does your boss want me dead?’ Kyle tried hard to withstand the pain of his bullet wounds. They had stopped bleeding. ‘How’s Helen?’

‘Because you met someone you weren’t supposed to meet and you’re investigating things you should never have known in the first place,’ retorted Hades sternly, but he still revealed what he knew about Helen. He seemed to have some pity for him ‘She has been identified as a rogue agent. She’s now a suspect of the explosion case in Hong Kong. We’ll go after her soon.’

**

12:45 (San Francisco Time) Poseidon’s house

Poseidon was still unable to  move. The left side of his face became swollen after taking in Kyle’s slaps and punches. Traces of blood seeped from the corner of his lips.  

Hades may return in 30 minutes. He may not kill Kyle. Someone might take care of it for our boss.

In Olympus, he was one of the best performers in intelligence analysis. Though he felt ashamed about his defeat at the hands of a layman, he still remained cool-headed and analyzed the situation.

Looks like now is the only time to call her…...

With his only voice, he commanded the electronic communications system installed within the wall to dial a French phone number. It was capable of voice recognition

‘Winter’s here.’ A lady answered the call. She sounded tired.  

‘But the dolphin still swims in winter.’ Dolphin used to be Poseidon’s codename, while Winter used to be Helen’s in the past. All core members changed their codenames after their organization was renamed as Olympus. Through their secret codes they confirmed each other’s identity. ‘In the safe house?’

‘Yea. No one seemed to have cleaned it for a long time. Too dusty.’  Helen looked sickly pale and skinny. She was hiding in a barely furnished cottage house in Paris suburbs.  Her hair had been dyed blonde and made curly. She was in a linen-colored long sleeved tee and a pair of navy blue loose pants. While talking with Poseidon, she was meticulously pasting a fake eyebrow on a latex face mask with a pair of tweezers.  She had only managed to find some fake passports, few notebook computers and other gadgets from a safe box inside for later use. Their phone call had been set to be encrypted and untraceable earlier. ‘Are you ok? Sounds like you’re not well.’

Poseidon grew silent. He was trying hard to suppress his pain, but it seemed Helen sensed it. Hence, he decided to reveal part of the truth.  ‘I just fought with your fiance. He knows you’re alive, and he’s now searching for you. Actually he traced the origin of the virus I made for you to my house.’

‘Then what did you do to him?’ Gloom was all over Helen’s complexion. She recalled the moment she decided to abandon her lover and fake her death. ‘If he dies, we’re not bros. I’ll come back to to kill you!’ she threatened him.  

‘Holy…..That’s your first reaction? I was hurt ! I’m not the one who issued that fucking order. I only took this opportunity to test him. By the way, I actually kept him alive for more than a month!’ Poseidon sobbed pretentiously, acting as if he unwillingly followed his boss’ order.

‘I ‘ve known you for too long, Andrew. I know the true meaning of your little test. You deserve it,’ she snapped back at her long-time colleague. She knew what he was up to. Looks like Kyle really crossed our badass boss’ line. She just dropped her tweezers and rubbed her temples.  

Ha! I really didn’t just want to test him. He took my bait and came here to investigate us! And that bastard has stolen you away from me. Of course I want him dead!

Poseidon had been contemplating to murder his rival for some time. He had loved her for many years.

‘He’s a bit injured but still alive. ’Seems like I’ve lost to both of you. I started to get why you chose him,’ He smiled bitterly. Just like Helen, he had received a certain degree of training in deception, so he swiftly pretended to be accommodating, but if another right moment came, he would strike again. ‘You still have a choice, Helen. You should have returned to that bastard’s arms much earlier!’

‘Can I? 301 people died on that day, including the Firm’s men and my man! If I hadn’t gone there just for a stupid live drop, they wouldn’t have been dead!’ Helen had been guilt-ridden since that explosion. ‘Now we still have no clue about who’s behind this. He’ll only be screwed if I get back to him.’

Am I worthy of his love? I’m only a fraudster.

Both in the past and at present, she had committed many unforgivable crimes. This explosion did not just take away lives. It was also a grave omen. The secrets that she had tried hard to conceal would only be laid bare in front of her loved one.

‘You can’t take care of him. They confirmed you’re still alive. The Firm issued an arrest warrant about an hour ago- Their case officers and our operatives can capture you alive, and we’re forbidden from covering you or giving you any assistance. We’ve also received a shoot-to-kill authorization.’ Poseidon warned her as he noticed that time was running out.

‘Thanks a lot. You guys have already done a lot. Our jerky boss would have found out I’m alive sooner or later. It’s a miracle for you guys to have bided a long time for me.’

‘Ha, he must have known you survived much earlier, so he just organized your funeral in LA sloppily and only sent me to attend the one in Hong Kong. He’s our teacher/criminal mastermind. Our tricks look like a child’s play to him.’ Poseidon started to have a headache when he thought of their boss. Soon he would have to explain to him the operation he ran behind his back. ‘In fact what have you found exactly besides taking out the three small fish?’ ‘ Small fish’ is their jargon for the lower-ranking members or informants of a terrorist organization or a hostile intelligence agency.

‘Nothing substantial. That Indonesian entrepreneur only gave me the name of a small company registered in Luxembourg. It seems like a shell company.’ Actually Helen was mining numerous bank accounts on her notebook computer. She had hacked into many French and Luxembourg banks’ computer systems. A list of account holders was being gathered, but she deliberately withheld this intelligence from him.

‘Even our badass boss almost failed to withstand the pressure from the Firm. The situation can change at any moment. Many lives can be at risk if we’re not careful.’ Poseidon reminded her. ‘From now on you’ve got to keep it low. I hope you will dig up useful leads, Athena, but we can’t be in touch anymore. I just hope after everything settles we’ll still meet as partners and good friends.’ He then hung up the phone. It was rare for him to address her as Athena, as she was dear to him, but he felt really troubled at the circumstances: they may be enemies in the future, as their boss might send him to go after her .  

He suddenly remembered Athena and Poseidon were always rivals in Greek myths- They once battled for dominion over Athens by trying to win the Athenian’s heart with their gifts.Poseidon thrust his trident into the Acropolis and produced a stream of sea water, while Athena offered the Athenians an olive tree. It was much more useful than Poseidon’s -Olives could be food as well as a source of oil for lamps, cooking and wood, so the Athenians supported her and made her the city’s patron. Poseidon was bitter about it, so he sent a monstrous flood to the Attic Plain in retaliation.

I hope we’ll never be like them…...I really love you.

A light sigh pulled him back into reality. Hades had already stood by him for some time.

He felt the urge to laugh at the sight of his co-worker’s wretched state, but as Poseidon glared at him, he maintained his poker face. ‘The medical team and the cleaning squad will arrive in 10 minutes. You still have to wait.’

‘Thanks.’

‘Forget Athena. We may have to deal with her in the next battle. You can’t let your feelings for her control you.’ Hades deleted the dialing record without a single thought once he peeped at the screen of the electronic communications system.

@writing-and-snark @requiemesque @ill-write-when-im-dead @adie-dee @thingswaitingtobewritten

[jq37]

Let's go final bloodkeep ep breakdown!

**spoilers for the tomb of ultimate evil**

I was originally kind of annoyed that dropout wasn’t working when I wanted to do this originally, but it’s actually kind of a blessing in disguise now that I think about it because it means I get to rewatch and discuss the ep in light of the bombshells Brennan dropping in the BTS video.

As I watch the Previouslies, I realize I’m still not over the fact that Maggie named her kid after Leiland. It was so sweet an unexpected. 

So, at the start of this episode, Brennan must have realized that his plans are pretty much jossed because the 4 baby blessing was *very* not on the docket  

“Absolutely, Lilith’s got 25 strength.” Idk why that’s so funny to me. Maybe because I think Rekha was asking whether Lilith was allowed to carry her, not if she was physically cable but Brennan was like “Of course she can carry you. She’s an absolute unit.”

Leiland’s first move? Drawing all the enemy fire. Markus’s first move? Immediately hiding. In fairness, my dude is a rogue.

Lol, spiderweb baby bjorn.

“We’re evil but we understand communication and consent.”

Nat 20 from Old Pickering! Finally he’s useful!

Watch a bitch call lightning! A different bitch, but still.

Amy’s childish delight at the prospect that there might be a bomb in the goblins is so good.

I love how on board everyone was for the mystery potion.

Did Hork exist before this episode? I have no memory of him existing.

Nat 20 for Sohkbar!

Brennan is really so good at all of his on the cuff J'er'em'ih nonsense.

Erika yelling, “Sanctuary!” a la Hunchback of Notre Dame.

I like that Lilith calls her spider kids to defend them by going, “Get ‘em ladies!” and then Brennan decides one of the kids she summoned is Jason.

“I really am sorry. I’m sorry for everything I’ve done…and everything I’m about to do.”

Leiland Jr. MVP!

I love that Lilith treat’s Sohkbar as if he’s also a parent.

Two words I’ve learned to fear since I’ve started watching RPG shows: Lair action.

Leiland just BARELY not being on the falling chunk of floor.

Brennan really faked me out on that Jason fall. Man really was about to make me cry over a fictional spider for the SECOND TIME in my life (Charlotte’s Web).

I love Erika screaming over Jason in and out of character separately.

“Guys, this is our element! Knocking people off of things!”

Leiland’s affirmations. Who is doing counseling at the Bloodkeep.

AOE spells are so boss.

“Everyone look at Leiland! He’s doing it!” Aww, everyone finally gets to see him be cool! It’s really wild how much of an arc these guys went through in just 2 days of play. It’s very narratively consistent.

“Oh you fucking freak, you’d love that.”

“Tell him something is gonna happen to his bones but don’t explain it.”

Rekha loudly announcing her ridic amount of hitpoints is on of my fave things

I love how in both campaigns so far, Brennan has had a moment of, “You’re not bad at magic, you’re just depressed.” What an oddly specific thing but also, relateable.

Cell Block Tango ft. Leiland.

Leiland curses one of the Vingury. I’m sure that won’t be important later (I’m lying).

Ify/Markus just refusing to learn Hobbert and Frod’s names.

 Ify: *Trying to do a shenanigan*

Brennan: I see what’s happening here.

DOOR LORE. DOOR LORE. DOOR LORE.

So I guess the real lesson of this season of D20 is always commit to your running jokes because you’ll get free nonsense out of it. (A 19! That’s so painful!)

Jessa just straight eats not-Gollum.

Both Jason and Jessa are very protective of their mom and I love it.

Maggie All elves look the same. (Maggie said F elf rights)

The full 6 seconds of silence from Matt between his saying  he loves J'er'em'ih more than any other animal companion and looking directly at the camera and saying, “Except for Trinket,” very seriously.

Amy: I must become the necro boatman.

Brennan, whose plans have now been entirely womped: :O.

I truly didn’t even consider attacking the boatman. I feel like this is such a good DM moment, because I feel like my reaction would have been, “That’s not how this works,” but Bren just let it happen, which is better both for the story and player agency. I’m taking notes.  

Efink getting validation on her chosen name by the evil statues.

“Kick his ass and you get the power!”

“I’m like a setpiece, not like a guy!”

Sohkbar claims the baby as his ward. This baby is gonna have so many godparents.

“MY DAD SHIT IN A BAG?”

What a wild improv.

I love the ancient evil statues have Lilith’s back on the fact that she should have gotten the promotion.

When Leiland Jr was born Brennan was like, “He’s not gonna do much. He’s a baby.” One ep later this baby is taking turns and fireblasting enemies and talking like he’s the Godfather.

OK so there’s a lair action. Leiland rolls a NAT ONE to not plummet into the Bloodkeep. Brennan clearly is ready to bring out the ghost figurines we saw in the BTS.

The statue Lilith JUST got the blessing from falls which means if she hadn’t gotten it that turn, they would have been screwed. Sidenote: Brennan says it was an instant lose condition for them which is part of why I was surprised that this wasn’t his plan to begin with. He just readjusted everything on the fly and set new parameters. What a good, confidence projecting, quick thinking DM.

It’s Leiland’s turn. He is once again falling to his doom. This time, without the bossa nova music and soothing apathy because he actually has something to live for.

AND HE USES HIS HEX TO TELEPORT TO THE VINGURY HE HEXED BEFORE.

It was JUST close enough. And he almost cursed Olag instead! That decision saved his undead ass!

I love that Leiland is Uncle Leiland to Jason! And later Jessa calls Efink Aunt Efink.  I wanna see evil Thanksgiving so bad.

“You’re really killing it today Leiland!” My boy finally getting the praise he deserves. (Also, wild that this is all still THE SAME DAY)

“oKAY, okay, OKAY, oKay.” –Brennan having a moment

“You wanted us to play evil characters but we’re actually playing evil players.”

Man this episode is truly how Leiland got his groove back, huh?

Boatman rolls a 4 to resist fear. Go Leiland!

“I take off my mask to reveal…I’m sexy as fuck.”

Everyone including the evil statue is hot for Markus.

“Shut the fuck up, Olag. Go kill yourself.” Maggie just has no patience for nonsense (that’s not the kind of nonsense she enjoys anyway).

“Do I take psychic damage from that?”

Lilith gets a nat 20!

Maggie, upon Leiland calling her 'my queen’ for the second time: Just call me Maggie, please.

“THAT’S AN ABILITY  J'ER'EM'IH  HAS?”/“I guess.”

“Lilith, you’re my girl! Lilith, my girl!” They grab hands over the table. It’s such a pure moment.

Brennan after they kill the Boatman: I mean, fuck me I guess.

Leiland goes down. Leiland Jr. goes, “Nah, get up, you’re fine,” and he gets back up. (Brennan at this point has clearly fully leaned in to the direction his players dragged him).

Leiland comes back as Leiland the White. And I just realized! That’s the ghost figurine! I thought that was the figure Bren got for when Leiland inevitably completed his story arc. No! It was the figure for in case Leiland DIED.

Leiland FONZES at Leiland Jr.

Nat 20 from Maggie to avoid falling into the Bloodkeep!

Leiland lets Markus convince him to not kill Olag (for future shenanigans). Leiland instead owns Toby and rolls a 29 to convince Oswald back onto their side. Toby also comes as a zombie on their side. Everything���s coming up Leiland!

Except no, he goes back down immediately and falls face first into the blood pool.

OK, check it. Markus bargains with one of the evil statues to make Olag alive and undead for eternity. The statue is kinda on board but wants to make a trade. Markus basically goes, “Watch this,” and STEPS INTO THE VOID.

Go back and watch Amy’s reaction. It’s so genuinely shocked and concerned. Matt’s is good too.

Sidenote: That is apropos of nothing goal wise. He just wanted to torture Olag.

Maggie gets the final blessing with a quiet, heartfelt speech Brennan doesn’t even make her roll for. The statue tries to get her to put in a good word w/ her dad for it and steps all over the moment.

Ify, about to pull out shenanigans part two, electric boogaloo: I never got a chance to attack on my turn.

He attacks himself and warps back up!

Amy: Is that how you play a rogue????

Why sneak attack damage? Can you sneak attack yourself?

“You’re a liar!”/“I’m a rogue.” Beautiful.

We’re evil!

Oswald dies and Leiland comes back! Hexing Oswald really panned out for him

“It’s all spiders from here!” I wanna start saying that.

Efink cancels out a nat 20 on Sohkbar!

Lilith telling her kids to go find safety is a small thing but sweet.

“You know you live near Goblin Island and you always say you’re gonna visit.”

Markus swashbuckles over to the bloodkeep before he falls. Leiland is ready to jump his bones.

Nat 20 from Leiland! Is that his first one?

AND THEN HE ROLLS TWO NAT ONES!

Classic Leiland.

I love that Leiland is pro J'er'em'ih now.

John Feathers comes back for the epilogue. Rehka is more excited than anyone.

Lilith is voted queen regent of Gorgar! Go girl! And Jessa opens her fashion firm while Jason sets out to the forest. Good for them.

Scream beast babies!

And little Leiland asks big Leiland to get him the head of Galfast Hamhead! Full circle, I love it.

OK so Brennan said this and he was right. Leiland and Maggie have such a wild ass arc. She goes being “that whore” in ep 1 (idr what he actually called her but that’s the vibe he gave off) to “my queen” in episode 6. And like, man. Imagine planning a game where the goal is to lead the players into a PvP free for all and, instead, the only two characters with a legit grievance mend fences so much that one names their child after the other and that one swears fealty to that mom and her child. Imagine failing so hard at your original goal. Wow.

Anyway, that’s it for Bloodkeep! Thanks for hanging in there for me to write this up! I want to say something about the teaser for T.U.S. too but I’ll save that for another post. 

Sidenote: So Matt has been on D20 and Brennan has been on Naddpod. I think this means Brennan or Murph gets to be on Critical Role now. I’m a lawyer and I’m pretty sure that’s how the law works. 

[bipercabeth]

So, can we hear your thoughts on TS7? I remember your breakdown for the Ben Platt album and wanted to hear what you have to say about Lover

oh man, i already know this has to go under the cut. i have,,, so many feelings

i forgot that you existed - this song is such a good opener for the album. both the lyrics and production are so light and carefree, which makes it the perfect transition from the intensity of reputation to the softness of lover. she’s not reinventing herself, she’s growing. i love the way she plays with harmonies in the chorus! and i adore how the last line of the verses swells ominously before releasing into the playful staccato of the chorus, i think it’s really indicative of the anxiety surrounding the situation vs the simple and relative ease with which it was all forgotten

cruel summer - tbh i’m glad this wasn’t a single in the place of ME! or yntcd because listening to this was literally a full body experience. it would’ve killed as a lead single, but it definitely hit harder for me hearing for the first time in the context of the album. i read the lyrics of the first five songs when they leaked and genuinely thought i wasn’t going to like this song, but i went absolutely feral at the bridge. (also upon listening i adored the lyrics, so i will no longer be trusting my opinions based on lyrics alone.) if i wasn’t sold on the rest of it, the bridge is what solidified this as one of my favorites on the album. the way the synths build and then cut out for HE LOOKS UP GRINNIN LIKE A DEVIL,,, i lost my shit. astral projected. if this song is playing, i will not turn it off before i get to scream that line. also “i love you, ain’t that the worst thing you ever heard?” is incredible. 

lover - words cannot describe my love for this song. my friend veronica described it as the love song of our generation and honestly? she’s not wrong. lover’s lyrics are simple, but hit like a ton of bricks regardless. the key to simple lyricism is finding the words that everyone has always wanted to say (lean on me is a really good example of this but i’m not going to get into songwriting theory on this post) and lover does exactly that. simple descriptions of simple acts are her window to how all-encompassing this love is. the 6/8 timing (a fucking WALTZ y’all) gives it the 2 in the morning kitchen dance feel. it’s a love song in every aspect. i’m never gonna be over it. 

the man - a bop. the low notes in this song? incredible, especially in the bridge. those low harmonies took me OUT! the first line of the chorus is so killer as well. and she says bitch twice! taylor said i am 29 i curse and have sex, get over it. there’s less to analyze in this song, but that doesn’t mean i’m not in love with it. 

the archer - i am telling you i heard the first goddamn synth note and KNEW jack antonoff was all over this song. i really needed this song to come out when it did, because after those two singles,, i needed some hope for this album. it did not disappoint. the slow build of the synths into one massive crescendo at the bridge instead of the usual rise and fall of most pop music. every single note builds to the bridge, to the anxiety of that repeated they see right through me, to the cause all of my enemies started out friends / help me hold on to you. it swells like the slow draw of a knocked arrow, like an archer taking aim. and then all at once, it fades like the string was released. i adore every single aspect of this song. 

i think he knows - my percabeth loving ass needs to take a second to talk about the line i am an architect, i’m drawing up the plans and how it sent me to the fucking moon. but anyway. different post. it is physically impossible for me to stay still when this song plays. the harmonies on that AH in the chorus made me lose it. i want you, bless my soul is so southern and absolutely beautiful. she’s straight up pining in this song, and she knows it. that way she closes the song with that line on loop? sets the tone so well.

miss americana and the heartbreak prince - i have no idea why i didn’t like this song upon first listen, but now i like it! still not my favorite on the album, but the bar is high. 

paper rings - god i cannot believe that she said his friends were high at the met gala i’m fucking dead. this whole song is peak old taylor, just grown up. it’s got the same catchiness as stay stay stay, but with a more grown (but still fun) outlook. this one is real experience talking, and it shows. she’s got the love she always wanted to write about! i’m not okay! 

cornelia street - her delivery really makes the song for me. you can physically feel how much she loves joe and how real that fear of losing him. that stripped down chorus after the bridge where her voice breaks? she’s so in love. i’m so in love. 

death by a thousand cuts - GOD i love this song with everything in me, even more since watching Someone Great. it’s the perfect narrative song for that movie. it also contains the single most Taylor Swift^tm lyric of all time: but if the story’s over, why am i still writing pages? ALSO? WE WANNA TALK ABOUT BRIDGE CITY?? this bridge goes so hard. i can’t convey my love for it unless we’re in the car together so i can scream it properly. ultimate car song. 

london boy - so fun! people who are upset over this song gotta calm down, it’s a fun, catchy song. i don’t have much to say about it, but i enjoy it! i won’t go out of my way to queue it, but it’s cute and cheeky and i like it.

soon you’ll get better - i knew from the first goddamn guitar lick that this was going to wreck me, but once i realized what it was about,,, i didn’t stand a chance. i literally went back after my first listen through the whole album and listened to this song on loop for at least half an hour and just. sobbed. it hits home way too hard for me. again with that devastatingly simple songwriting. you’ll get better soon / cause you have to absolutely destroyed me. also, this is a really small detail, but that breath at 2:41 really does me in. it’s so defeated, i can’t. her delivery in this one is an absolute gut punch.

false god - jack antonoff is all over this one and i love it for that. taylor swift said i fuck and i respect that. the sax? get out of here. it’s so perfect. it’s horny, but like,,, emotionally horny. perfect fit for this album. i adore it.

you need to calm down - okay ngl i don’t like this song or ME!, but i’m really glad they were singles because if i heard them on this album for the first time i would’ve been :/ about it. instead we got that right out of the way and now i can appreciate the good parts of them. the oh’s in the chorus are really pretty! i don’t actively dislike this song, but i don’t actively like it either. 

afterglow - i love that taylor put a song about fighting on this album. i think this made the album feel so much more real. it’s about love, and fighting is a part of that! we break a little from the picture perfect aspect of songs like paper rings and get a little grittier. people make mistakes, but the love guides the choice to stay, to ask for forgiveness and promise to do better. this makes the entire narrative of lover so much stronger.

ME! - same sentiment as yntcd in terms of it being the lead single, except i’m really not a fan of this song. i can handle it up until the spelling is fun part. i cannot believe “can’t spell awesome without me” is so close to daylight. i appreciate the point of the song and what she sets out to do with it, but i just. can’t get over that damn bridge. 

it’s nice to have a friend - i really didn’t like this song at first and i’m still warming up to it, but i definitely am! it’s such a percabeth song. i’m not sure why i didn’t like it, probably because it doesn’t escalate or go anywhere, but i think that steadiness contributes to the meaning of it

daylight - i could literally write an entire essay on this song alone. it’s the perfect closing song for this album. i don’t want to see anything else now that i saw you / i don’t want to think of anything else now that i’ve thought of you are literally the most tender lines i have heard in my whole life. the comparison between this and her notes from red make me openly weep. the bridge of this song literally feels light daylight, it shines and feels warm and god i love love! i once believed love would be burning red, but it’s golden made me cry when i heard it. i can’t stop thinking about that quote that says “lover is the sound of a songwriter getting to write the album she’s always wanted to write”. i could literally cry just thinking about that. she got to write the album about golden love! her whole career is based around singing and writing about love, and now she has exactly what she’s been grasping at all this time. it’s downright poetic. the monologue/outro only did me in more. she’s spent so long being defined by other people, and here she makes that definition for herself on an album that she owns every part of. it’s perfect. 

[franeridart]

what program/brushes do you use for your art? it's so damn pretty

Easy Paint tool SAI and the default pen/brush/marker tools, mostly! and thank you!!! ;^;

Anon said:When I was a kid I would've had a crush on Akane

HECK that’s such a compliment!! Thank you!!!

Anon said:Couldn't Akane technically Control/move Kiri's hair since it's dyed? I mean it's like his hair is stained meaning it's not alive! so Akane finally warms up to him and messes with him or plays with his hair?

She can and she did! I drew her doing just that both in the first and in the fourth thing I posted about her! :D

Anon said:okay i don't know if this is coming through but i have just looked through your entire blog(can only go 4 years back) and let me just say you are wonderful, I absoluty LOVE how you paint/draw like its sooo pretty??? like dnjwcfehbi i cant describe it, (part 1) || like you are wonderful, I absolutely LOVE how you paint/draw like it's so pretty??? like dnjwcfehbi I can't describe it like it's absolutely Fabulous, Stunning, Amazing, Lovely and it looks so smoooooth like what????how??But anyways love your art and love you keep being Amazing! (part 2)

AH GOD THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!! This is such a sweet ask to get TT^TT (and you can only go 4 years back because the blog is 4 years old! Can’t believe you actually went through it all!!)

Anon said:I really love your art style and your comics are so cute and I love how you draw older Bakugou and Kirishima!! It’s all so wonderful! Thank you for sharing it with everyone!

Oh man thank you!! ;;; I’m so happy yo know you like them!!!!!! TTOTT

Anon said:the level of FLUFF and KOOKIENESS and SOFT and MARSHMALLOW and MY HEART CAN'T TOOK THIS IS is so much I could die.

PLEASE DON’T DIE I LOVE YOU !!!!! 

Anon said:I love everything about Akane's au. Her, her interactions with Bakugou, how she dislikes Kirishima but is beginning to warm up to him, the boys' aged-up designs. Everything. It's all amazing. Thank you for bringing it into my life!

Nggghhhhhhhh no anon thank you for liking her!!!!

Anon said:Currently procrastinating on my essay to go through your blog because it de-stresses me and I love your art so much like seriously h e l p

GAH THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! /////

Anon said:There's something I'm not understand in your AU children kiribaku. She adopted by bakugo or she is a kid bakugou have with someone. ( I'm really really sorry for my English )

Adopted!

Anon said:Your comics are so cute and funny! I'm loving the story with Akane, the last update was great! I really like the way you draw the characters, like your style is so nice. Thanks for making my day better with your art!

G o d thank you So Much!!!!!!

Anon said:Akane is adorable, and I absolutely love the comics that you upload of her, but also on top of that your mohawk Bakugo has cleared my skin, watered my crops, and brought me back from the dead at LEAST twice.

I’M REAL GLAD TO HEAR THAT because mohawk Bakugou owns my whole soul and it’s nice to know I’m not alone in that hahaha

Anon said:What are some ways Akane messes with Kiri (or used to) when he wears red clothes? Does she often do that? Does she do it when Baku's not home, or when he is so that she can hammer in just how much she dislikes Kiri? Has she ever done anything major that caused her to be really reprimanded by Baku, but being the best person in the world Kiri did not get angry?

She really only ever gets pissy (or used to! they’re starting to get along better !!!) at Kiri when she feels jealous for whatever reason, and that doesn’t happen as often as it seems through my doodles, so it’s not like she’s always antagonistic towards him! Mostly she just ignores him, so no, it doesn’t happen often at all! And she’s never gone further than messing his hair up or tugging a bit at his clothes, since she doesn’t have the strength to move Kiri all that much haha the only reason she managed to have him fall the first time was because he was balancing already, but generally Kiri weighs way too much for her to move him around or pull at the red stuff he’s wearing enough for him to notice it all that much 

anyway, Baku never reprimended her for it - not more than he did in the first comic I posted with them, at least, specifically because the damage she can make is so minor that Kiri and Baku barely consider it something to tell her off for... if she were ever to act that way towards someone she might actually hurt (say, a kid her own age) then Baku might reprimend her more seriously, but as long as she’s just tugging at Kiri’s clothes they don’t see it as anything worth fighting her over :D

Anon said:Just sent an ask, so forgive me for this one, but I'd love to get this straight: in the Akane AU Kiri and Baku graduated and share an apartment, are madly into each other, but they neither has made a move on the other yet? Perhaps that should be sad, but it's 100% adorable.

I know I shouldn’t say this as I made the au myself, but I find the arrangement pretty dang adorable too haha they act like a married couple anyway, so it’s like... pining while the rest of the world already considers them an item? and the pining is mostly about stuff like ahhhh I wanna tell him I love him or ahhhhhh god I wanna kiss him, but then they’ll fall asleep on the couch together or hold hands just for the hell of it or cook for each other or make plans that always involve each other and all in all act as each other’s partner, so it’s mostly just like *Kaminari voice* “God these oblivious idiots” hahaha

Anon said:That latest Akane comic melted my heart like you often do. Though for a moment, I expected Eijirou to say "I don't want Katsuki to be my dad, I want him to be my daddy" XD Though that would not sound like him. Props for his adorable interactions with Scarlet Death Queen Witch.

Anon you don’t get it that’s exactly why I had him say “be his son” instead of “be my dad” LMAO it was like, a conscious wording decision hahaha thank you so much for liking my girl, btw!!!

Anon said:Fran! I was just wondering if you would be willing to post your Demon Kiri and Angel Baku art on Redbubble? I'd love to buy a print of it!! Totally understand if not. Also your newer Akane comics are killing me, they're so damn cute!! So yeah love you and your beautiful art! Hope you have an awesome year!!

I CAN TRY I think I did try last time I updated my rb? But the format of the pic made it hard to use it for a lot of things so I gave up??? I can try again tho!!! Thank you for being interested in buying it!!! And thank you for liking Akane too!!!!!

Anon said:is katsuki and kirishima not together in the adopted child comics or is there gonna be a plot to them getting together? 👀

I’m not really writing anything cohesive for it so I wouldn’t call it a plot point, but yeh they still aren’t together! And I wanna have them get to the point in which they are together!!! :D

Anon said:I'm gonna die why do you do this with your adorable art my god

PLEASE!!!!! DON’T DIE!!!!!!!!!!!

Anon said:Your Akane + KiriBaku comics are adorable and I love the relationships that exist between them. I can't wait to see more of them!

Thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!! I hope I won’t disappoint!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anon said:I love your art so much!! Especially the little Akane au (so freaking cute!!!!). Random question: if you’ve ever seen Lucifer, who do you think would fit his character? Have an awesome day!

I haven’t seen it, sorry :((( but thank you for liking my girl!!!!!!

Anon said:I apologize if this has already been thought of but i feel as though when akane gets older and if she decides to be a hero, part of her costume could include useful red objects mayhaps?? Such as a shield or daggers or handcuffs so if there’s a lack of red around her she isn’t in a complete ditch. But i love your work sm ahhh💕💕

Yes!!! That’s the plan!!!!! I don’t think I’ll ever draw a teen version of her character but I MIGHT mention this idea in the current timeline, I like the idea so much TT^TT

Anon said:Hey there, I am absolutely obsessed with Akane like I love her so much wow but anyways I was wondering if you've ever drawn tododeku/ will in the future?

Thank you!!!! And I have drawn them in the past (under my tododeku tag!) and I might draw them again in the future, though currently I’m in a pretty big izu//ocha mood so I dunno when that will happen!

Anon said:I love your art so much like??? Help???

THANK YOU TTATT

Anon said:Y'know it could be gayer c'mon

This ask has been in my inbox for 17 days and I still don’t know what it means ??? but I laughed a lot when I got it so thank you anon and yes, definitely, everything could always be gayer that’s just how the world goes

Anon said:I swear you drew an older version of the krbk kids and it wasn't a fever dream I'm currently frantically searching through your blog rn help

I DID that post is CURSED anon, you can look it up through any of the tags I used to tag it and it won’t show up it won’t and I don’t know why!! I always lose it exactly because of this reason I have zero idea why it does this but??? okay I guess???????????

anyway if you still want it it’s here

Anon said:If Akane can control red things, does she low-key also have control over things that are pink and orange depending on how reddish in hue they are? I love her btw. Such a smol bean who could probably kick my ass!

What a good question you got there!! She has control over everything that has a color that falls in the red wavelength of the visible spectrum - that does include certain tones of pink and certain tones of orange, but there’s a point where orange gets too yellow or pink gets too white that her powers stop working. As long as the red in the color is more than any other hue, though, her powers work! 

Anon said: im just imagining if baku takes akane with him when he is going to work and is there with kiri and akane help kiri with his hair bc she is suffering when he tries to style it himself

Once they start getting along better Akane and Kiri actually start helping each other with their hair! They’re both very particular about it so they understand each other as far as that topic goes haha

Anon said:Hi I just wanted to say I’m really enjoying what you are doing in your latest drawing. The contrast with the thick sketchy lines and the thinner crisp ones and the spaces that have no defined line! It’s cool to see you experiment with your line work while staying true to your natural style! Sorry if this came off weird but I love seeing talented artists try pushing the boundaries of their style it’s really visually/conceptually interesting! :)

AH MAN thank you so much I’m so happy to know you like that tool TT^TT it’s really super comfy to use, so it’s nice to know someone finds it visually appealing too!!! thank you!!!!!

Anon said:Is there any chance you could make a masterpost of the aus you do? It's a lot to scroll down to the beginning of a concept u have sometimes and it can be unclear when they start

They all have a tag they’re under, tho? If I’ve made more than one post about them! I have so many AUs going around that making a masterpost with all of them is a bit... mostly so since I don’t know for how many I’ll actually go back on! But if the tags don’t really work for you (generally the link is gonna look like https://franeridart.tumblr.com/tagged/[here goes the tag]/chrono to have it in chronological order) then I can try? I can’t promise I’ll find a comfortable way to do this, tho orz sorry!

Anon said:This might be an odd ask but does Akane like Jirou? I feel like they would get along really well. And how about her grandma Mitsuki? Since she takes after Katsu who takes after her, they could make an adorably angry trio

She hasn’t spent much time with Jirou yet so right now she’s mostly meh about her (though right now she only actually likes Bakugou, and she’s warming up to Kiri, but that’s about it). She doesn’t mind Mitsuki, but she hasn’t spent too long with her either! She yells a bit too much at her dad tho, which Akane isn’t particularly fond of (protective bean that she is, she doesn’t get that that’s just their way of communicating just yet), so out of her grandparents she prefers Masaru, after all~

[anastasiaskarsgard]

So here’s AU single dad Mark, you can see the vibe his picture inspired here (who is inspired by a real person loosely)

Warning: cursing, mention of drugs and sex. Mention of violence.

“Doctor, you have one last appointment and then you’re free! New puppy needs vaccines and looks very healthy. The guy is seriously dreamy so just mentally prepare yourself for that.” My receptionist Ashley said as she handed me the file. “They’re in number 2.”

I glanced over the file and audibly groaned, drawing both receptionists attention. “I know Mark! Shit! I hope he didn’t recognize my name and come here on purpose. To be quite honest though, I don’t think he’ll even remember me.”

Ashley leaped from her chair to get close enough to whisper, “I need the deets Doc! Did you have a one night stand with him? Or lose your v card to him at prom? Or oh my gosh! did you choose your career over him and left him behind for vet school?”

“Stop reading smut on the internet, and come back to reality. He was 2 years older than me and talked to me one time at a party, informing me that I had potential if I would dress more like a girl, and less like a veterinarian. I doubt he’ll remember it tho.” I chuckled, shaking my head, “Get back to work.” I said as I walked over to room 2, taking a deep breath before opening the door, coming face to face with Mark. He was still drop dead gorgeous.

“My bad, I thought you’d come thru the other door. Dakota, Danielle. Please sit down nice for the Doctor, so your puppy doesn’t get nervous.”

Mark tried to wrangle his two small children to sit down, but at around 2-4 years old, that wasn’t gonna happen. I wondered what girl had snatched up Mark as I checked the puppy out.

“Oh my — kids earmuffs— “ Mark verified both children were in fact covering their ears before turning back to me with a big cheesy smile on his face. “No fucking way! You seriously became a veterinarian!” He exclaimed chuckling.

“Well you gave me the idea, so I just ran with it, “ I said with a smirk.

“Oh my God. You remember I said that? I was a punk, I’m sorry. I just had a thing for you and you’d always ignore me or blow me off, every time I tried to get your attention.”

“I don’t recall you ever trying to get my attention. I do recall you ignoring me.”

“No. I didn’t even have any classes in the portables and I’d go hang out over there and always say what’s up as you’d walk by. I went to all your basketball games and you never once acknowledged my existence and I tried to talk to you in the library a couple times and you would always shoosh me.”

“ well that’s what you’re supposed to do in a library. Also, going into the general vicinity of someone, and expecting them to know somehow that you’re there for them, isn’t very obvious, especially considering the one time you speak to them you tell her that she has potential but dresses like a veterinarian, which is pretty cool if you ask me.” I giggled. Oh sweet mother of God, I giggled. He was so hot, my brain was malfunctioning. Eventhough he was most likely full of shit and trying to get a discount or something, it was wild to think, I was so intimidated by him, I refused to entertain the idea that he might actually like me. It was pretty hilarious. “Looks like you found your happily ever after anyways. Who’s the lucky lady? Anyone I know?”

“Huh?” He looked confused for a few couple beats and then it dawned on him. “Oh yeah I got two awesome mini mes.”

“We’re the 3 musketeers!” A little voice squeaked out.

“Oh sorry. I just figured 2 kids that use ear muffs and the designer dog, someone had domesticated you.” I said looking up to see Mark blush.

“Remember Anna Winters? That’s his mommy and—“

“I don’t mean to interrupt Mark, but could I borrow your little musketeers to feed some newborn puppies that were dumped here? Then we can have a few minutes to catch up. I think you’re my last appointment. Do you mind? The girls and I do it, but they look like they’re good little helpers.”

Both children leaped out of their seats and started jumping up and down pleading to let them help so Mark agreed. I called Ashley in and she was super enthusiastic about having helpers, till she realized Mark wasn’t coming too. As soon as they closed the door, I turned to Mark.

“Thought it would be best if they didn’t hear adult conversations, especially involving their mother.”

“Mothers.”

“I kinda figured since your little girl looks possibly Latina?”

Mark nodded his head. “Yeah So Anna is a full fledged crackhead out in LA or something last I heard. Who knows? She might even be dead. She left him with me when he was a week old and never came back.”

“Wow! What a deplorable human being! But then you had naked time with a lady again, and she got pregnant too huh?” I teased. “Maybe no one told you how this works...”

“No I get it. Danielle’s mom was Dakota’s babysitter, and she just never really went away and it was convenient, and she cleaned and took care of Dakota. But she stopped taking birth control unbeknownst to me, and she winds up pregnant, wanting to get married.”

“So Wait! I know this part! You being the most romantic motherfucker on the planet, was like let’s go to Disneyland and get married in the castle right before the fireworks go off!” I had to give him some shit. He was such a cliche.

Mark laughed his same dorky weird laugh, and I couldn’t help but to laugh too. “No I told her I’m not marrying you. I don’t love you, and she’s like well then as soon as I have this kid, it’s all yours. If you don’t want me, I don’t want your ugly baby.”

“I’d be like ‘it got it from its mama’. She’s adorable though, so you really came out ahead there. What are the odds you’d get two deadbeat moms in a row?”

“Don’t remind me. What’s your story? You married? Kids?”

“Well I went to school and graduated top of my class, so i got into vet school, which is way harder than regular old medical school since there aren’t as many options. Plus it’s pretty challenging. With people you just got to figure out people. I have to know the dogs, cats, horses, goats, birds, lizards pretty much anything that’s alive and not from the primate family, i gotta figure it out. Last week somebody brought in a damn baby kangaroo, trying to tell me it’s a wallaby, and I was like where did you get a Kangaroo in Salt Lake City? Sorry, to answer your actual questions, No baby daddy’s cuz I’ve never met anyone that’s as awesome as I am, so until then I’m just saving the world, one litter at a time. Let’s go peek at them, come on.” I tiptoed out the door, over to the batch of kennels I had them living in, and we peeked around the wall, to see both kids feeding two puppies each, smiling from ear to ear.

“What kind of puppies are they?” Mark whispered.

“Go back in the room and I’ll tell you the story.”

He looked so adorable tiptoeing along, trying to be sneaky. He was like that one part of Fantasia where everybody knows but him that he’s too big to be sneaky.

We get back in the room and he sits on the little bench, patting the seat next to him, looking up at me all sexy like. He knows what he’s doing. “Come sit. I won’t bite.” He said with a lustful tone. Or maybe I just wanted to jump on him and any tone would be lustful......

“You keep looking at me like that, I’m gonna squirt you with the spray bottle,” I couldn’t help but laugh at my own joke. He found it less funny. “They’re all Blood Hounds. The mother got shot by the owners worthless boyfriend, claiming she attacked him, when I have a strong suspicion she was defending the woman from him. The mama dog did get ahold of the guy and shredded his arm up bad enough, it’ll never work again. The woman dropped the puppies off saying he’d kill them when he got home, so that’s how I got nine Bloodhound puppies that have to be fed every few hours. I didn’t have the heart to put them down, and the shelter would of killed them.”

“Aren’t Bloodhounds expensive?”

“Well yes. And they’re actually AKC, but I’m going to fix them all before I adopt them out. I rescue, I don’t profit off animal sales. Just maintenance. I actually offered them to the police since they’ve got the best noses in the business. They’re trying to get the money together to train them. Las Vegas wants two of them, but they got that casino money.”

“How much does it cost to train a dog?”

“Like $22k I think it is. Takes a few years depending if they’re looking for people, drugs, bombs... ”

“Wow. How are you not taken?” He blurted out.

“My bullshit tolerancy is almost non-existent, I work a lot, I’m the only one that thinks I’m funny, i dress like a veterinarian and I’m shallow. How are you single? All that man pretty and diaper changing skills.”

Mark looked down and blushed again. “Ok I’m just gonna go for it. Would you like to go to dinner sometime?” I swear he is holding his breath. Dammit. So cute.

“How about now? When they’re done feeding the puppies, you wanna go feed your rugrats?” I inquired.

“I meant like on a date, just you and me.”

He was so pretty, I wanted to sit on his face, “Oh ho! I cant be alone with you, I’ll get pregnant. Even now, I’m at risk. I need tiny chaperones.”

“Is that so?” He said rising to his feet with a mischevious look on his face, glancing between my eyes and lips. I took a step back and the wall was there. I was trapped. I tried to look oblivious but when he leaned against the wall behind me, with an arm on each side of my head, leaning in so his lips lightly brush my ear, he whispers; “where’s your spray bottle now?”

Oh fuck it. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him into a kiss. His lips were so soft and he was surprisingly gentle and not trying to be handsy. What the fuck was I doing!? I pulled away scanning his face for I don’t know what.

“What?” He asked all breathy and desperate, rubbing his perfect little nose on my cheek, getting almost close enough to kiss me, wanting me to close the gap.

“I don’t know what I’m looking for, but I’ll know when I see it.”

“Shut up and kiss me....please?”

Fuck. Anyone else I would have sent packing, but Mark was so tall, and beautiful, and confident, and took care of his kids, and God he smelled good, and if he fucked as well as he kissed, then I might just keep him. I pushed my lips into his and he kissed me a bit more aggressive biting my lower lip.

This was either a really great idea, or the worst idea I’ve ever had, but either way, I was gonna see how it played out.

[yrpspiritsintheshadows]

Escape to Neverland

Escape to Neverland

“Mom and Dad were murdered.”

That… was what they had been afraid of. 

An accident with a boat, a car wreck that lead them into the water, any of that, would’ve been preferable to what just left the teenager’s mouth.

“They were killed by freaks who wanted to study us.” Hideki spat, rage filling his eyes. “They wanted us to get away, to protect us… But…” 

The boat was unnaturally white. It reminded him of when he had looked into the maw of a larger shark when it had a rather fierce fishing hook lodged in its maw.

He could trust the shark to not consume him or his loved ones though. The water was churning, bubbles forming all around them as they rushed all sides of the nets.

The net was clever, he would give the humans credit. It lodged in all the right places, preventing much movement from the four trapped within.

“W-What’s gonna happen to us, Mom?”

The mermaid beside him had a pained look in her eyes. Aika was scared but her fear for her children, outweighed the fear for her life.

“We’re going to be fine, Hideki… I promise.” 

“Mom…”

The water disappeared, as the family of four were suspended over a hold tank, holding desperately to one another.

“It appears there is one adult male, one adult female and two juveniles, ma’am.”

“Excellent. Plenty of specimens for study then.”

“We were trying so hard to get away. Nothing was cutting it. Mom even was trying to bite it. The head scientist… she’s a psychopath.” Hideki sniffled, shaking like a leaf. “She… She wanted four. Just four…”

“Hideki…”

“... She wanted two to autopsy… and two to track their growth. When they went to drop us into the tank… Mom paid the price.” Hideki gripped at his arms, his nails carving crescents into the sleeves of his shirt.

The tank was rapidly approaching them as they fell. Aika acted on pure instinct, grabbing Hideki.

The tank was close enough to the side. Before the young man knew what had happened, she threw him over the side as her body hit the floor of the boat.

“RUN! JUST RUN!!!!”

He hit the water just as she was pulled out of sight.

“I know they died that night. They appeared before me. I don’t know what she did to them but it messed them up…” Hideki sighed heavily. “All I know is, that they’re gone… and now my brother is some lab rat for them. I don’t know what they’re gonna do to Hikaru now… or to others of my kind…”

“She’s going to jail for murder, that’s what she is.” Skyler narrowed her eyes. “I promise you that.”

“And we’re going to get Hikaru back. I promise.” Eiji gave him a gentle look. “You are so brave kiddo. So brave.”

“No I’m not… If I had just fought harder… or didn’t let Mom throw me over the edge…” 

“Hey, hey, no…” He tilted the boy’s chin up. “Take it from another parent. She made that choice because she had to choose. She chose her children over her own life because she loved you both so much. I’m sure if they hadn’t caught her, your brother would’ve been next over the side.” 

“You think so…?”

“I know so. Because if it was between Ken or my own life, I’d choose him every time.” Eiji stroked his arm. “And I’d choose you too if you were my kid. You’ve been through literal Hell and look at you…”

“A scared, shaking mess.”

“A survivor.”

Hideki’s eyes stung with tears as he threw his arms around Eiji.

“I didn’t wanna be…”

“I know…” He hugged him tightly, stroking his back. “I know, Kiddo…”

We’re gonna get you help.

Hideki curled up in his chair, trying to keep close.

“Shh… I got you…”

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

oooooo

It didn’t take long for Eiji to get ahold of the rest of the team. It was just a matter of planning now. For this was far different than a paranormal investigation.

They arrived with a rough idea of the situation, until Skyler filled the other two in on it. Now, they were in the garage, using an old card table to draw out a map of the area.

“The kid doesn’t remember the name of the ship and quite frankly I don’t blame him. He saw his life get torn apart in front of him.” Skyler narrowed her eyes. “So, we’ll have to go by the one thing we can guarantee… The parents’ ghosts.”

Chase looked up from his laptop screen.

“Still figuring out who these nuts are. Once I get a name, we can keep going.”

Eiji nodded to him.

“Thank you. Seriously, thank all of you for this.”

Lucian smirked a little.

“We go where you tell us to go. That’s how this works, Eiji. How’s the kid doing right now?” 

Eiji frowned, sighing.

“Badly. Carmen managed to convince him to go to bed since he’s already done enough with giving us the statement. She managed to get him to sleep.”

“The Carmen Sonata?”

“Basically. The kid was out like a light after a few songs.” 

He nodded.

“So, let me be the one to ask this… What are we gonna do IF we stumble across the corpses? It’s not like if they’re still changed that can be easily reported.”

“I know some people in Geistville PD.” Skyler spoke up. “They work with my branch of social services.” 

“There we go… And if the kid is with us?”

“Keep him from seeing it if we can.” Eiji looked at the map of the city, circling the pier.  “But, they’re not stupid. I doubt they’d be doing autopsies and holding the kid captive for further tests on the boat still. That’d just be stupid on their part. And Hideki didn’t say it was a huge boat either.”

Chase cleared his throat, gaining their attention.

“I think… I have an idea.” He turned his screen so the others could see. “These guys, are a supposed research team to prove the existence of mermaids and the like. They call themselves PROTEOME.” 

“Proteome…”  

He nodded.

“They’ve been running for at least twenty five years, going through their staff but their head scientist has apparently been out for mermaid blood for years. Apparently got accused of kidnapping a young woman back in the 80’s who was just out in her costume for an aquarium performance.”

Great. They’re all nuts.

“Got a campus or something?”

“Yeah, they don’t even try to hide it.” He zoomed in on the site, showing a large concrete building. 

“... Isn’t that…?”

“The old Geistville Aquarium before they moved to the new building? Yep. Still out in the sticks.”

“... Great.” Eiji clapped his hands. “We got us an invasion to do then.”

“I’ll contact my friends at the department.” 

“I’ll get us the next few days off.” Chase volunteered. “Who do you wanna potentially jinx this time with “chronic illness, have to take personal days”?”

“Hm…. I guess Oba-san.” He mused.

Lucian rolled his eyes.

“Your grandma is like what, 85? Isn’t that a little harsh?”

Eiji grinned.

“Hey, Oba-san is awesome. She gets me. Besides… Who do you think is gonna help curse these guys?”

“... Eiji, sometimes you scare me. But I’m not gonna disagree.”

They all looked at the image on the screen.

“We’re gonna get that kid back… and we’re sending those scientists to jail, no matter what.” Eiji narrowed his eyes. “With the Divine as my witness…”

We WILL win.

oooooo

“I should go with you.”

Eiji looked up from trying to decide his “disguise”, giving Hideki a firm look.

“No.”

The boy was leaning on the door to the master bedroom, a look of determination in his eyes.

“They killed my parents. My brother might be next. I should be there for him. C’mon…”

Eiji shook his head.

“It’s gonna be dangerous. We won’t do the crossing of your parents before we get Hikaru back to you. You both deserve the chance to say goodbye.”

“It’s not…” His voice cracked. “... Okay. Maybe it is about that. We’re gonna get shipped off to a foster home when this is over right?”

“Nope.”

“... Huh?” 

Eiji moved to him, laying a hand on his shoulder, warmth coming to his eyes. 

“We wanted to tell you boys when we got Hikaru back but… my wife and I talked last night. We always did want more kids… and Ken would love two big brothers…”

Hideki covered his mouth, stunned.

“You… guys want us?”

“Why not? We have plenty of room… More than enough rooms honestly and this is a bit more personal. If something happened to us… we’d want someone to find our son and help him. So, if it’s okay with you…” 

“It… It is…” Hideki wiped at his eyes. “I don’t have to leave?”

“Never. And you two can go at whatever pace you want, okay? We just want to give you guys a home.” 

Hideki hugged him again, his shoulders relaxing.

“Thank you…”

Eiji hugged him, stroking his hair.

“Anything for you… Now, Carmen has her own job for ya today if you’re okay with that.”

“Hm?”

Eiji gave him a playful look.

“You know your twin best. He’s gonna need a room to call his own.”

Hideki’s eyes lit up. 

“I can handle that!” He grinned. 

“Atta boy. Now, go ask her about that. I gotta go “Science Intern E. Fumio.””

“That is such a lame name!”

“Yeah, yeah, go!”

Before long, Eiji was meeting the others outside. Instead of one car, however, they had two. 

Eiji’s van… and a black humvee.

“... Lucian, the heck?” 

Lucian looked up from where he was leaning on it.

“I called in a favor from my uncle alright? It’s for insurance.”

“You’re… not gonna run anyone down, right?”

“Me? Noooo.” He grinned. “Never.”

“... I’m not even gonna ask.” He cleared his throat, adjusting his glasses. “Alright, let’s roll!”

They were off after that, in their own ragtag caravan, with two members per car.

We have as much supplies as we can get… Skyler has the cops ready to go at any moment…

Are we really gonna do this?

He took a deep breath.

Heck yes.

oooooo

They knew they weren’t alone when the paranormal gear in the back started going off.

“Murderers.” The automated voice of the ghost box rang out. “Murdered us. Murdered.”

“We know. We know. But you guys can’t set this off.”  

The equipment settled down but it suddenly felt very crowded in the car.

The stark white building of the old aquarium soon came into view. While it was in the “sticks”, as Chase put it, it still had a runoff to the sea.

The team parked about 20 feet from the building, their cars nestled in the brush. Due to how long it had been since the building had actually been the aquarium of old, the forest had begun to engulf it somewhat.

However, unlike the forest that Eiji’s home was built in, that seemed to welcome and cradle the small family and shelter them from harm…

This forest, was hollow… the trees twisting in gnarled forms, as if ready to come down and strike.

“Alright, the plan is, we go in where the flow to the sea is coming out.” Eiji whispered, pulling out a schematic of the building. It was old, an image from ages ago but the skeleton of the building on the inside should still be the same. He pointed to an area he circled. “Looking up old pictures, this area had a ledge to walk on because some employees would leave that way or do maintenance.”

“Then…” Skyler used her fingertip to circle another area. “If we're lucky, Hikaru should be around where the sharks initially were kept. If he’s being kept in his changed form then he’d get sick in a tiny space. They can’t keep him in shallows. He HAS to move or he’ll die.”

“And they wanted him alive.” Lucian hefted his bag of supplies over his shoulder. “Which means, the kid should at least still be somewhat stable psychically.”

“Right.” Chase narrowed his eyes. “Lucian, you should go with Eiji. Skyler and I can take out security cameras.”

“With what?”

Chase pulled out of the back, a rather intimidating looking weapon. At Eiji’s glare of disapproval, he scoffed.

“It’s a BB gun. I checked, it’s legal. Albeit this is definitely NOT a legal version.” 

“And Sky-”

Skyler pulled out from her car a large aluminum baseball bat. She gave an experimental swing as it whistled through the air.

“Like I said, I got this. It’ll be risky if we all go in at once. Chase and I will follow after you guys.” She held up her cellphone. “But, we should all turn on tracking so we can keep tabs on each other.”

They all nodded, setting down their devices, before turning to the building.

“Let’s go.”

They ran towards the building, keeping low when they noted the cameras. They quickly got out of the range, moving between them.

“One… two…”

POP!

One camera was taken out. Chase aimed his BB gun at another, firing again as it was broken.

Skyler climbed up onto a ledge, swinging her bat as hard as she could, crumpling them in place, knocking them loose.

While they were dispatching the cameras, Eiji and Lucian slipped into the tunnel that the runoff came out of. As suspected, there was a ledge to walk along, albeit very small. 

With backs pressed to the wall, they pressed onward, sliding along carefully.

Eiji had muted the ghost box’s voice but still kept it on to see the text that would pop up.

“Dark tank, room of death.”

Room of death, huh?

“Eiji.” Lucian hissed, pointing above them.

A camera was slowly swiveling towards them. The men jumped across the stream of water, pressing against the opposite wall.

There was a spark as the camera was torn right out of the wall and dropped into the water. An orb flew by their heads at that moment as another camera further down was thrown against the wall.

“Thank you.” Eiji whispered.

They kept moving onward, huddled against the wall. Every now and then there was an orb that would move near them, almost beckoning them.

Chase and Skyler should be heading down this way any minute. 

Eiji and Lucian soon made it to the end of the runoff, finding an “EMPLOYEES ONLY” door.

“So, how bad you think it’s gonna be in there?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. “I mean, it’s not gonna be THAT easy right?”

“Let’s not even speculate that.”

Eiji went to open the door, only for it to be wrenched open for him.

“I guess it’s that easy.” Lucian remarked, not even phased.

A gust of wind rushed them, a faint hiss in the air. The hallway before them was illuminated as a shadowy image formed on the floor…

The image of a woman with long hair that flowed in the wind created by her spirit.

Aika….

Eiji swallowed hard as the shadow began to move down the hall, a tendril like arm beckoning them.

“No… wait-”

“We’re here.”

Lucian and Eiji had to clamp their hands over their mouths to keep from crying out. Lucian whirled around, lightly smacking Chase on the shoulder.

“Idiot!” He hissed. “Don’t scare us like that!”

Chase grimaced.

“Well, sorry! We didn’t wanna get left behind!” He hissed back.

Eiji held up a hand, signaling for silence. The shadow was still moving, beckoning them.

Another gust of wind behind the team sealed the door shut. Sealing them in for now.

This is where it gets real.

Just please, be alive.

The hallway was dimly lit by flickering bulbs above them as they moved. Twisting and turning until the shadow lead them to another door.

Eiji took a deep breath before pushing it open. The team braced themselves to be mobbed by guards or what have you…

Instead, they found themselves in another hallway.

Bracing themselves, they made their way down. Old posters from the past hung on the walls, faded from age, almost like ghosts themselves.

Eiji nodded towards an entrance where light was coming from as they kept close to the wall.

He peered around the corner, taking note that they must have been near what used to be the infirmary for the animals that used to live here…

Instead, it resembled a morgue now, complete with lockers.

Room of death huh?

Two shadows appeared this time, on either side of the room, twitching and shifting in shape. Their forms taking on a more fish like appearance, long tails curling along the walls.

… This is where it happened.

“This is where they were killed. It has to be.” He whispered. 

Lucian snapped a picture with his phone, knowing they’d have to give this to the police later.

“Let’s make sure we keep up recording what we can eh?”

“Right.”

Click, clack.

The four jumped, looking down the hall. They could hear footsteps, slowly coming their way.

“...Frick.”

There was no choice was there? Even if they didn’t want to, they had to scramble. Skyler and Eiji ducked into a supply closet in the morgue, while Chase and Lucian darted back to behind a wall near the entrance they had come in.

It was foolish but they didn’t want to set off any alarms yet.

The footsteps were growing closer to the morgue, the shadows disappearing as they did.

Please, don’t need anything from here. Please.

My circle of protection, only that which is in the light can enter. You cannot see us, you cannot see us.

Skyler lifted up her cellphone, turning on the camera, setting it to record once the footsteps reached the room. They could hear whoever it was moving around.

“Let’s see… Ah, the samples from the female. Perfect. Ah, pity we couldn’t observe her more, but the autopsy was very telling.”

Skyler and Eiji exchanged a disgusted look. He opened the door, just a crack to see who they were dealing with.

They were a woman, in their 40’s if he had to guess, wearing a smock to cover them as they jotted down notes on a clipboard. Their dark, hair was tied back in a bun, red nails catching the overhead light. 

She moved across the room to the morgue locker.

“Let’s see… Today, we’re doing the male. Comparing his cells, to the juvenile.”

Skyler held up her bat, Eiji shook his head. 

Let me smash. She mouthed.

Eiji turned his attention back to her as Skyler held her up her phone to capture what was happening.

They both had to turn away as the morgue locker was opened. Skyler may have been recording, but neither wanted to see Daisuke’s corpse.

She’s sick… This is sick…. We gotta get outta here.

It was closed after a few minutes. Skyler and Eiji pulled back before they could be spotted as Skyler turned off the camera.

She narrowed her eyes, holding up the bat one more time.

“Wait.” He whispered so faintly that only she could hear. “We can’t.”

Even if he really wanted to. Oh, he was very tempted to let her go ham on this person.

But, we can’t go to jail either for assault. 

He watched, noting her back was to them. He slowly slid the door open as they made their way out, back to the hall.

“Eiji.” Chase hissed as they spotted their teammates standing near another doorway.

“How much did you get?” Lucian whispered as they huddled against the wall.

“... Stuff we shouldn’t have on camera but it’s enough damning evidence.” Skyler whispered.

Lucian shook his head.

We’re all either gonna need therapy or booze after this. Probably both.

“Let’s keep moving.”

There were no more concrete hallways with one off rooms from here. They entered what used to be the largest room in the aquarium.

They all remembered the signs and advertisements from back then. 

I remember way back when it was Geistville’s hidden secret that they had a Great White on display here with no issues.

No one questioned when coven members worked here. Especially Predator Born like the twins…

The tank itself stretched across a 50 foot radius, taking up the majority of the room. Once upon a time, it held one of the most majestic predators of the sea. 

It didn’t appear to be in use… At least, at this time. They noted it was set up more inside like an enrichment area for something to learn from… or someone.

Hikaru. 

Taking note of it, Eiji took another look, pressing his forehead against the glass.

“Are you here? Aika? Daisuke?” He whispered.

No movement…. at least, of shadows. He could see a faint movement far against the wall. He could barely see. It wasn’t an issue when the Great White was the only thing in the tank. Everyone saw it clear as day, swimming about…

That’s him. 

“We gotta get access to that tank.”  Eiji pointed to where he was looking, the others following suit. 

There was no mistaking it. The small form huddled against the wall… was a predator born merfolk. 

For a brief moment he was alone… then they saw them.

The shadowy forms of his parents, huddling around him in a protective ball.

“Hikaru…” He frowned, his heart breaking. “Please hang in there… Da-....I’m coming.” 

Lucian squeezed his shoulder.

“C’mon, let’s find the stairwell. They have to have a means to get in there.”

“Right. Skyler?”

“Already calling my buds at the department and filming.”

He grinned. So far, they had avoided detection, even found who they were looking for. 

But it can’t be that easy, can it?

He moved away from the tank, ready to find more… only to nearly ram into a person.

“Oof!”

“Hey! Watch it you dumb intern!” 

Eiji growled a bit as the man before him got up in his face. He was made very aware that they were not alone here.

“How about you watch your step, huh?” 

The scientist narrowed his eyes, looking him over. Eiji froze up a little, adjusting his glasses.

“... Which department do you work under?”

Eiji swallowed hard.

“My colleagues and I are…”

Lucian clapped him on the shoulder.

“Oi, Tadashi, you dummy, remember?” He laughed. “We’re with pathology!”

Tadashi? I thought I was… Oh, Lucian you are clever.

“Oh yeah? What are you doing here then?”

Lucian shoved Eiji aside a little.

“Don’t mind Tadashi, we’re all here for the same glorious purpose aren’t we? To prove to the world that we’ve finally made the discovery?”

The scientist studied him for a second before grinning.

“Very true.”

“Yes.” Lucian cleared his throat. “One of your associates sent me to get samples from the juvenile to compare to the deceased male.”

The scientist smirked.

“Being thorough. Of course Susan would send a full team to get a bit of flesh from the dorsal.”

Skyler hurried forward.

“That’s right! Do you know where we can get the sling to keep him still?”

… You all can’t be this smooth. They’re not gonna just let us get near him right?

“Hm… I’d have to get it from medical… Are you sure four of you can handle him? He’s a biter.”

“How hard would it be? He’s 14.” 

“You should’ve been on the boat.” He laughed. “We lost one but we had the three.”

Skyler had her bat behind her back, sliding it into her jacket, keeping behind Chase. The man had his back to them.

“I see… Shall we walk and talk? You three wait here.” Lucian gave Eiji a look as if asking permission.

He nodded.

“Yes… We’ll go over the goals for the biopsy.”

“Good, good.”

Once they were out of sight, they kept close to each other.

“Seriously, something is wrong with these people.” Chase whispered. 

Eiji looked around. There were only a few scientists milling about, heading to their respective departments.

“We’re not seeing the full picture. And I doubt we want to. We need to just play along.”

“And then I smash?” 

“Then you do whatever the heck you want.”

[rkmason]

    ▰▰▰▰▰▰ MNET GLOBAL AUDITIONS, SEASON 5 ˟ INTERVIEW TAKE 2 ▰▰▰▰▰▰

if he’s being completely honest, his main concern right before he goes in for the interview is shit how do i get through this without cursing? if you go by his thoughts alone, he’s already failed. 

there’s no clapperboard in his hands and none in sight— at least, he doesn’t think so and after bowing to the staff member fixing his mic and making sure he’s good to go, he’s grinning, small talk and making jokes about whether or not they can hear him as he holds up his hand to his ear and chin as a makeshift phone. 

“do you need me to mark the scene? is that what it’s called?” he looks like a fool when he keeps moving his arms around and lightly clapping his hands, “d’ya hear that?” sure, he might look like an idiot but he swears the staff member is laughing. he swears it— besides, after working all day, they’ve got to be tired. hopefully, they’re feeling well-rested. he knows his own heart is still raring to go, racing around as if it’s as competitive as he can be during a pick-up game in the park. 

introducing himself feels weird no matter how many times he’s done it in the past few years, no matter how he’s been doing that before moving to seoul. hell, he used to do it all the time as a tour guide back home but nothing feels quite the same as doing it in front of a camera. 

the temptation to say hey this is choi minho and you’re watching mnet while drawing out an ‘m’ with an extended arm like he’s wielding a magic wand is real but somehow he makes it through to the moment he’s told go. 

“my name is choi minho. i also go by mason, romeo, #2020 if you’re feeling nostalgic. call me anything you’d like if you have pizza.” chuckling, he runs his hand through his hair. “do i get a number yet? ah— missed a chance to ask for yours, guess my romeo tendencies are slipping away.” it’s time to make a new name for himself anyway, right?  

▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Q .  how did you feel when you received the news of the callback?

“excited?” he can’t easily say he lost it for a minute, felt nauseous the next, until he came back around to being genuinely happy. this is mnet after all. “what’s that people say? third time’s the charm.” hopefully, that doesn’t mean third season of the mgas but his third chance at a company. then again, it already sounds like one too many and he’s toeing that line once more between charm and arrogance. rationale and hubris. 

▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Q .  thoughts on the set? 

“it’s looking good! pretty slick and i gotta say it feels a lot different from the last time i was doing this.” there’s a part of him that wonders how much he should bring up the past— how many times before it’s too annoying but can’t blame a guy for being amazed by the changes, right? “i gotta ask though... with all these chairs... any chance of playing musical chairs later?” 

▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Q .  the reveal of the judges?

oof— the question didn’t settle less comfortable the second time around. the first being with jinkyung earlier when they were waiting in their seats. dabin on one side, jinkyung on the other. years ago, he would’ve never expected they’d be there at mgas season five. he doesn’t know quite what to think except that all he can do is move forward so with a bright grin, he chuckles, a wistful expression in his eyes. “it’s good to see ‘em again. looking forward to their feedback,” which is a double-edged sword but hey he brought himself here, might as well charge straight for it. 

▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Q .  thoughts on your performance?

“i just wanna let people know it’s a song about my past. don’t worry ‘bout me, i promise i’m not that lonely anymore,” minho laughs, wets his lips all of a sudden when he realize how that sounds when combined with the fact that it’s speculated he was kicked out for dating. ah... maybe it would’ve been better if he accidentally cursed by now huh? “some family and friends have been calling me out lately on acting okay and, uh, well i was gonna say it feels good and it does. not right at that moment but i feel good now, feel good about being honest. that song is personal for me and i hope people can relate and use it to channel those kinds of feelings out instead of letting it eat away at ya.” 

▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Q .  favorite performances?   

“i’m not a fan of picking favorites like that, y’no, but can i say this? the song choice this season? fire.” hands held up like that part in bomb bomb [another song that’s fire might he add] and he’s shaking his head. “come on with this variety though. we got some classics, some english, someone singing in spanish, all these instruments too? someone played a violin. a violin!” he exhales deeply, shaking his head as his gaze falls, just in awe of everything he’s seen today alone. 

“the judges got it tough but we’re all pretty entertained today aren’t we? gotta sit through 100 performances and i haven’t felt sleepy once. that one girl who did a trap version of baby shark? i’m blown away. that one guy who remixed havana and i think it’s smooth. he is smooth. i like his vibe, real—“ can he say sexy or sensual? is that as bad as cursing? no clue but— “passionate.” that seems safer to say. 

“there’s this one girl, voice of an angel. sia? i think it is... her and seoyeon is the other one. it was a sweet song, went well with her voice. oh, sweet and psycho was good too. she’s a streamer, isn’t she? i can’t forget my boy kikwang. don’t sleep on his potential, alright? aw man, sorry but i keep thinking about all the different kinds of music we heard today. we got jo bros, fall out boy— what throwbacks, and even a song from coco. i’m not gonna say that movie makes me cry but i’m a little emotional about that one. i think we all ought’a be. sam smith, bruno mars, tinashe, beyonce— oh wait, can i say all these names like that?” huh, how do copyright rules work anyway. saying celebrities is fine, isn’t it? feels like a dumb question. [it is mason, so it probably is] 

“i could keep going, but i ought’a wrap it up so i’ll say this, it’s all worth watching so stay tuned, alright?” he wags a finger at the camera playfully. “go to the youtube channel for the full performances, you won’t be disappointed. mine too,” he jokes with a cheeky grin. 

▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Q .   least  favorite performances?  

“i don’t think that exists here.” thank you, next. 

PROFILE / SKILLS / ARRIVAL / 1ST SKILL / INTERVIEW / BONUS SKILL / 2ND SKILL ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ THE CALLBACK: PERFORMANCE / INTERVIEW