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dragoncopper · 3 months ago

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The Apparition - Continued.

A/N: Please read The Apparition first, if you haven’t already, or this won’t really make sense.

Pairing: Noah Sebastian x female Reader

Rating: Mature

Word Count: 5475

Warnings: Major character death, crying, sadness, suicide, smut, fluff

Link to The Apparition

Read the whole thing on A03 here.

You

The diagnosis was unexpected.

You sat in the doctor’s office while she was telling you about it, and you felt shaky and like your breath was not reaching your lungs and that you were kind of floating near your body, but not inhabiting it. You heard what she was saying, and yet it was not sinking in.

You felt nervous and afraid. You did not know how you were supposed to feel. How you were supposed to process the information? How were you going to explain it to him?

Driving back home you took it slow, no music. You needed the silence to be able to not feel overwhelmed and overstimulated. You dreaded seeing his face now. His reaction scared you more than any of the realities of the situation ever could. You wanted to protect him from this more than you wanted to save yourself.

You were sitting on the couch staring off into the distance for a while, you don’t really know how long, before you felt him appear. He smiled at you and came closer and soon he realised that you were not yourself and he sat down next to you. You felt the familiar dip next to you.

‘What happened?’ he asked his voice immediately worried.

You were quiet trying to decide which words to use. He placed his large hand on your lower back in a gesture of comfort and you felt the heat of it through your shirt.

‘I am… I have cancer,’ you say, your voice flat, but you needed it all out as quickly as possible. ‘It already started spreading. I…,’

‘You just had some neck pain,’ he whispers after being quiet for very long.

‘Yeah,’ you nod. ‘It’s in my spine.’

‘How,’ he started a sentence he did not know how to finish. ‘It doesn’t….’

‘I’m sorry,’ you say to him.

‘What? Why are you sorry?’ he asked with the deepest frown on his face.

‘I know this is going to hurt you more than it’s going to hurt me,’ you say. Looking in his eyes the emotion hits you finally.

He shakes his head and leans in to you and holds you. ‘Don’t worry about me,’ he whispers. ‘What do we do? How do we fix this?’

‘There’s not much to be done. It has already spread all over,’ you reply into his shoulder.

‘But surely, they gave you some advice? Some options?’

‘I can try chemotherapy. It can slow the spread. Maybe give me more time, but by the sounds of things there is no fixing this anymore,’ you explain.

‘But you didn’t have symptoms,’ he is trying to make sense. ‘How, I don’t understand.’

‘I don’t either, Noah. I am so sorry.’

‘Stop apologizing,’ he says. He holds you quietly. After a while you feel his breathing start to pick up and you feel it begin to shake, and hitch. You hold him back tighter and for the first time since you have gotten the news, you feel the tears prick at your own eyes.

‘I don’t want to hurt you,’ you say your voice small.

‘Baby,’ his voice cracking. ‘I don’t want you to hurt.’

Noah

It took me some time to convince her to do the chemotherapy. She didn’t want to, arguing that it was pointless. I argued that it gave her some more time. Gave her more opportunities to do things and live. I am sure that she is doing it purely for me. But I feel we have to try.

So, we are in the car where Nick is driving her to the hospital.

We moved a few years ago. She made the amazing and selfless decision to move closer to Nick for my sake. That way I could have my two people near me. The move felt like a new beginning for us, we picked a new flat together and moved in and I had an input, and for a while we could both imagine that we were just a normal couple moving in together.

While our lives have so many strange things about it, we were so normal and everyday that I often forgot the fact that I was dead. She loved me so fully and completely despite the fact that I couldn’t be real for her. We were happy and delusional and had started to live in our own little world where everything was what we wanted. This news cracked open that illusion. Reality caught up with us.

‘You say you have snacks and something to drink?’ Nick asked ad he pulled into the parking area of the hospital.

‘Yes, Noah packed me a whole little goody bag,’ she answered him.

‘I will be here to pick you up,’ he says with small, reassuring smile. ‘You sure you don’t want me to come?’

‘Noah is with me,’ she says. That’s all the explanation she needed to give.

‘I got it,’ I say to Nick. ‘Thank you, brother.’

‘Good luck,’ Nick said somberly.

She grips my hand to the point of pain as we walk inside. They take her to a chair with so much shit set up around it. I stand back and watch as they connect her to all the medical equipment. Then they slide the thick needle into her arm where the chemicals that is supposed to help her live longer will enter her body. She doesn’t flinch. She watches as it slides into her skin and they place a bandage over to keep it in place. The people at the hospital were being so nice and sweet and told her to not hesitate to call them if she needed anything. But my sweet girl seemed numb, she nodded along but her eyes were empty. That upset me so deeply.

When we are alone, I approach and cup her cheek. ‘You okay?’ I whisper.

She nods. ‘I think so,’ she gives me a small smile. It’s barely there.

We have to be discreet. She cannot have a full-blown conversation with a ghost in the hospital. So, she has a book to keep her entertained. I sit down in front of her on the floor, she hooks one leg over my shoulder and I roll up her pant leg, and I start massaging her calf and ankles and feet. She touches my hair every now and then, hugs me with her leg by squeezing me closer to her. Later we swop her legs. She falls asleep at some point.

Six hours later, Nick is waiting, smoking a cigarette by his car. He seemed anxious. Relief flooded his face when he sees us. She seemed okay at this time, but I know we are in for a rough night.

‘How was it?’ Nick asked.

‘It was great,’ she answered sarcastically.

‘Sorry, that was a stupid question,’ he scrunches his face.

‘No, I’m sorry. It was okay. It’s just really long, that was the most annoying bit,’ she slips into the car and leans back into the seat.

Nick squeezed my shoulder. ‘And you?’

I nod in determination. ‘She took it like a champ.’

‘How did you take it?’ he asked.

‘It broke my heart,’ I admit quietly.

You

‘Hey, Noah,’ you call to him.

‘Baby?’ he answers.

‘I need your help please,’ you approach him and he looks at you warily. You take out the clippers from behind your back. ‘It’s time.’

You can see the moment he realizes and you see the pain in his eyes. He gets up without a word and walks closer to you and takes the clippers from your hand and then kisses you solidly on the lips. ‘It’s not that bad yet,’ he says softly.

‘No, but a few clumps came loose in the shower and I just cannot handle it. I need it to be over with,’ you explain.

‘Okay,’ he nods and takes your hand and he starts for the bathroom.

‘No, can you do it in the kitchen? I don’t want to see it in the mirror,’ you say and you feel shy about admitting that.

‘Whatever you want,’ he smiles. When you’re in the kitchen he drags a chair closer. You sit down and take a deep breath. ‘You have a hair tie?’

‘Yeah,’ you dig the one you had out of your pocket. ‘Why?’

‘So can keep the hair I cut together,’ he says and he gently and with so much care gathers your hair together and ties it at the back of your head.

‘I thought I would feel sadder about this,’ you admit something to him again.

‘It’s just hair,’ he says simply. ‘You ready?’

‘Mmm,’ and you feel him cut the hair with a scissor, you feel the weight of the hair disappear. It takes him a moment before he holds the ponytail out to you. You take it and hold it, run your fingers through it. He leans over your shoulder and kisses your neck affectionately.

‘Let me know when I should continue,’ he whispers.

‘Now, please.’ You say, beginning to feel very anxious. ‘Let’s get it over with.’

You hear the harsh sound of the clippers being turned on and then he starts running it over your head. Whisps of hair fall down your back, over your shoulders, past your face and you hold your breath to not get any of it in your mouth. It also helps to keep the tears back. He takes his time; you feel him go over some spots to make sure its even. When he switches the clippers off, the silence is deafening.

He runs his hand over your scalp. ‘All done,’ he says.

‘How does it look?’ you ask, brushing across your body to get the hair off you.

‘It looks like you,’ you hear his voice is thick. Both of you keep quiet for a moment, both trying to keep composure for the other one. You busy yourselves with gathering the hair on the floor together and picking it up, using a dustpan to get the finer hairs. When it’s all clean, he grabs your hand and pulls you to him and he wraps his arms around you. With your face buried in his chest, you feel safe and like it will all be okay. His tall frame is concave so he can hold you with as much of his body as he can.

‘Let’s go look,’ you say after a while and you drag him to the bathroom. Even though you knew what you were going to see it shocks you. ‘Jesus,’ you say immediately touching where your hair used to be.

He is behind you nervously.

‘I don’t hate it,’ you say after a while with a smile. ‘It looks bad ass.’

He smiles with relief. ‘It does,’ he agrees. He steps closer and also touches your head. ‘You are the most beautiful human,’ he kisses your bald head a few times and then buries his face in your neck. You feel the wetness of his kisses and tears and pretend not to notice.

You turn in his embrace and kiss his amazing lips. God you will miss these lips. You make the first move and slide your hands under his shirt and lift it up until he lets go for a moment to lift his arms so you can pull the shirt off. You press yourself against his bare chest, immediately back to kissing him again. He leads the way to the bed without losing contact with each other.

He lays you down and starts by climbing over you. He kisses your stomach where the sliver of skin shows and moves your shirt up with his nose and he kisses every inch he can find. He slides the shirt off with practiced ease and then kisses your chest, between your breasts and removes the bra you had on. He lavishes attention on you with kisses and gentle bites.

You grab his head and bring his mouth to yours and then you change your positions, so that he is on his back. You undo his button, move the zipper down and then shimmy his trousers and boxers down at the same time. All the way down, you nearly fall off the bed to get his long legs free. He laughs for a moment. ‘Do you want me to take your socks off?’ you ask.

‘No, it’s okay. The pants were almost too much,’ he jokes.

You huff a laugh, ‘It’s not my fault your legs are that long. Scoot up, please. You are too tall.’

He moves up against the pillows, and lays diagonally across the bed. This was really the only way his frame fits on the bed. You have even taken to sleeping next to the each other stretched diagonally across the bed. You settle down between his legs that he spreads for you.

He was already halfway to being hard. Before you touch him at all, you just look for a moment. You have been feeling the strong need to memorize some things. You find yourself staring at all kinds of things about life thinking that you must file it away. But mostly it happened with Noah, who was worth remembering the most. Every single inch of his being was being recorded in your mind. His cock was slowly standing up, his balls contracting every now and again. He was pale just like the rest of his body, his head slightly darker. When he flexes again, you wrap your hand around him at the base where your hand almost rests on his balls. You hear him let out a sigh. You lick at his frenulum and he immediately bucks his hips.

‘Sorry,’ he breathes out. ‘I’ll keep still.’

‘It’s okay, baby.’ You lick again, pushing your tongue against him, before taking the head into your mouth. You stay there for a while, until he was fully hard in your hand. You start to take more of him in your mouth. You go slow, going slightly lower.

‘Oh fuck,’ he breathes repeatedly. ‘Baby.’ He is struggling to keep his hips down on the bed and it gives you a thrill to see the impact you can have on him. Even now.

‘Keep still for me, for a moment,’ you say, looking him in the eye. He nods. You sink down on him as far as you can go.

‘Fffffff, I……. B…baby.’

You smile. You love it when he couldn’t get a word out. You keep at him, following the thick veins with your tongue, paying a lot of attention to his glans. You lose yourself in your task. You memorize the weight of him on your tongue, the slightly salty taste of his skin. How his skin is so impossibly soft. How he reacts to your actions. How you feel his balls clench every now and then.

Before Noah, you never understood why women would willingly do this. Now you felt privileged to get to taste him and see him be so vulnerable with you.

Eventually he stops you, and sits up to kiss you. Your jaw hurts a little, but you kiss him back. ‘Goddammit, I love you,’ he says into your mouth. ‘Please take off your pants.’

You lay back to wrestle your pants off, he grabs the ends by your ankles and yanks. ‘Lay back, like you were,’ you tell him. He complies quickly and without argument.

You straddle his hips, and he moves the pillows so he is sitting up. With you in his lap, you were closer to a similar height. Your faces close to each other’s. He grabs himself and guides himself to your entrance and then you lower yourself onto him. ‘I love you,’ you breathe out. You take it slow and just grind into his hips. His hands moving all over your body, even lovingly over your head. You breathe each other’s breath, skin to skin, whispering words of love into the other’s mouth, throat, ear.

After you both come, you fall forward onto him and he holds you. He pulls the blankets over you both and you lay there like this is where you want to be for eternity – him still inside. ‘I will always love you,’ you try to explain to him what has been battling through your mind. ‘Nothing is going to stop me.’

He hugs you tighter. ‘Death has already tried, my love. It has no power over us.’

Noah

Nick drops us off after the final chemo session with bags of food and drinks and I hug the man before he leaves. ‘I cannot thank you enough,’ I say gripping onto his jacket.

‘My guy,’ he says. ‘I wish I could have done more. I am so sorry for you both.’

‘You have done so much for us,’ I say pulling back.

‘Let me know if you need anything else,’ he smiles sadly.

Inside, she is eating food straight from the container. I leave her, and go the bathroom, where I unroll the old sponge mattress and put a sheet over it, bring blankets and pillows. I make sure there’s tissue, ice water a washcloth. Then I join her for dinner and I have nice time. She is making jokes and smiling at me.

We shower together, we wash each other’s backs and I can tell she is trying to enjoy feeling human before the side effects hit.

We sleep together on the tiny mattress, I keep holding her because she is cold. She is always cold after. We fall asleep peacefully. But soon, I am woken by her ripping herself from my arms and she leans over the toilet on her knees and she throws up all her dinner. It comes in waves, I kneel behind her and rub her back, keeping my body close to hers for heat. She starts sweating, but her skin is ice cold. I feel all the muscles in her back contract as she keeps vomiting. She is shivering. Eventually she sits back and I wipe her mouth with the wash cloth. She blows her nose and takes a few sips of water. I open my arms and she climbs into me as close as she can get. I lay us down and cover her with the blankets.

‘I am not doing it again,’ she says. I thought she had fallen asleep. I keep quiet. I know what she is saying. I suspected this was coming. ‘I’m sorry, but I just can’t.’

‘It’s okay, love.’ I rub my hand along her arm to warm her up. ‘I understand.’

‘I would rather just enjoy what I have left,’ she whispers.

I start crying, but I try to hide it from her. But she knows. She grabs my hand, and weave our fingers together. ‘I’m sorry, Noah.’

‘Don’t be,’ I sob.

‘You know,’ she sighs. ‘The part that scares me? I don’t want to leave you. I am not scared of anything else. Everything else is nothing. I am terrified of not being with you.’

This makes me cry even harder. I am shaking by the time I get a reply out. ‘I am scared of a lot of things.’

‘Like what?’

‘This. Watching you suffer is tearing me apart. I am scared of you being in pain. But, yeah. I don’t know what will happen when…’ I cannot say it.

‘When I die,’ she finishes for me.

I nod.

‘Well, if my soul lives on,’ she says. ‘What if I don’t remember you? You know how you couldn’t remember anything.’

My heart clenches in pain. ‘I will remember for us. I will remind you of everything you need to know.’

‘I am trying to commit things to my memory. Trying to burn it into my being, so that I will remember.’

‘Things like what?’ I ask, curious.

‘Mostly you,’ she answers. ‘Running my fingers through your hair, how soft your lips are. How cold your feet are in bed. How your hand makes mine look ridiculously small when our fingers are together like this. Your kindness, and your laugh and how utterly loved and safe I feel in your arms.’

I ugly cry into the skin of her bald head and squeeze our fingers together and pull her body even closer to mine. I feel her start to hiccup too. She reaches back with her free hand and cups my head. ‘I will find you, love. I found you once, I can find you again. Just look out for me, I’ll be there.’

When we calm down, we make up scenarios of what our souls will do together. She is exhausted, but she keeps going. We fall asleep with wishes hanging on our tongues.

You

After all the bad side effects of the chemo were gone, I started feeling normal again. My hair was growing back out, I gained a little of the weight I had lost to all the vomiting back and my body felt like mine gain. It was a dangerous thing. I could so easily fool myself that everything was fine.

I decided to fill my days with as many good things as possible. Which meant spending time with Noah. For months we made a point to just do all the things we wanted.

We have game nights with Nick, where we would play video games or board games, order loads of food, listen to music and waste hours and hours laughing and having fun. It was so good to see the two friends together. To see the friendship they had after all the years. To see a different side of Noah when the two of them were heated in their discussions or arguments about game rules. I memorized the carefree way he plays. The freedom is his reactions.

You go on road trips together often. You pick famous places you’ve never been and also pick obscure spots to go see if there’s anything worth seeing. Noah always packs bags of travel accessories, he has gotten very good at it. He remembers all your medicine, your favorite sweets, drinks, tissues and extra jackets for when it gets cold. He knows how you will react better than you do yourself. He knows what you will need. While driving, you guys play the same games you started on the trip to see Nick for the first time. You hold hands while walking around. You cuddle and watch countless sunsets from the hood of the car. Each trip was immeasurably special – not because of where you went, but because of the opportunities you had to burn memories into your soul.

You spend hours cooking together in the kitchen, picking things you have both wanted to try. This does not always end in success. But it does end with dances in the kitchen, or kisses in the kitchen, laughing in the kitchen. It ends with meals enjoyed together, feeding each other, cleaning up together. Memories.

Lazy days laying about, reading books or watching movies – as long as the two of you were tangled up in some way, it didn’t really matter. During this time, you learned by accident that he gets full body chills when you play with his ears. You realised he falls asleep within minutes if you run your fingers through his hair. You craved the feeling of his weight on you – his head resting on your stomach, his legs thrown over yours, his whole body on you with his lips against your neck. You paid attention to all the details.

You and Noah had a lot of sex. You both always took your time with it, savoring every moment you had to bring each other comfort and pleasure. Even when you were being rough and harsh there was so much love. It was a way to show each other the anger, disappointment, heartbreak that you both felt. And at the same time, it was a chance to be close and pour affection and love into the other one. Each time had a lot of ‘I love you’s whispered. Each time had a rush of overwhelming emotion that caused at least one of you to cry.

When you start to realise that the medicine was not really taking away your pain anymore, you knew it was time to have a conversation with Noah.

While you were in bed, his head resting on your shoulder while your fingers ran up and down his bare back, you take a deep breath before you begin. ‘Noah?’

‘Mmmm,’ his face squished against you.

‘I think the time is getting near,’ you say.

‘What time?’ he mumbles.

‘My time. I don’t think we have very long left,’ you keep your voice low, like it would soften the words.

He lifts his head and looks at you with sadness. ‘Why?’

‘The pain is getting worse,’ you say with a grimace. ‘But, the reason I bring it up is because I have a terrible thing to ask of you.’

He closes his eyes. Like he knows. Maybe he does. He knows you better than you know yourself. This hurts your heart so much.

‘I don’t want to suffer through it, baby,’ your voice cracks.

He nods against you. ‘I don’t want you to either, love.’ You run your finger over the frown on his forehead, wanting to smooth out his worry.

‘Will you help me?’ you ask. ‘When it’s time?’

He shakes his head with small movement. ‘I don’t want to,’ his face crumples in pain. ‘I want to do anything you need, but how am I supposed to do that to you?’

‘I hate that I am even asking,’ you sniff. ‘I will do it myself. But I need you there. I need your face to be the last thing I see. I want you in my brain when it dies.’

Tears stream down both your faces. It has been happening so often lately and yet it still broke you to see his nose turn red, his lashes clumped together. He was still so fucking beautiful. After a while of contemplation, he says, ‘Alright.’

Noah

Today was the day.

When it started getting bad, it went downhill very quickly. Her pain became worse, she had no energy, no appetite. The life was draining out of her before my very eyes and it was infuriating. I had rage in me that it had to be like this. She deserved so much better.

While I understand her decision completely, it didn’t make it easy for me. The emotions warring inside me made me nauseous all the time. But I wanted her to get what she wants.

I made her her favorite breakfast that she nibbled on a little. We spoke at length about out favorite memories of our time together. We tried to make love, but I couldn’t get hard, so I made her come with my tongue and fingers instead. We cried a lot. She fell asleep on my chest, even though she said she wouldn’t, she didn’t want to waste any time with me. But she was tired. She was tired in more than one way.

I had to get into contact with Nick to hook me up, because we didn’t know the area like he did. He asked friends, that asked friends and eventually we got a lethal dose of prescription pain medication that we would use tonight. She made sure that it was more than enough.

So that evening, I crushed up the pills in the kitchen, while she was hugging me from behind. I placed the powder in a glass and filled another one with water. I placed it on our bedside table. After a hot bath and a cup of tea she dressed in her most comfortable pajamas and we sat together on the bed.

‘What will happen to you?’ she asks, leaning into me, her head on my shoulder.

‘I really don’t know,’ I answer back.

‘What if you are not okay?’ she sobs.

‘Don’t worry about me,’ I counter.

‘I only worry about you,’ she cries. ‘I’ll stay longer if it means you will be okay.’

‘It won’t, love,’ I put my arm around her and hug her into my side.

‘Here’s what I think you should do,’ she says through the tears. ‘If you can’t find me, I think you should go to Nick. You two will take care of each other.’

I laughed. ‘I did think of that.’

‘I am so sorry,’ she starts.

‘No,’ I stop her.

‘I am sorry for so many things,’ she carries on.

‘Please, don’t be sorry for one single thing. Please don’t think that even one single minute with you was not the best moments of my existence.’

‘You can’t remember your whole existence,’ she counters.

‘I know. But I know,’ I sigh.

‘You were definitely the best part of mine. I can never express how much I have loved you since I have known you. I owe my soul to you.’

I try to find words, but they won’t come to me. There isn’t really anything I can say to her that I haven’t said already. ‘You are my soul.’

She calls Nick to tell him she is about to do it. He is supposed to notify authorities. They have a brief conversation. And then I thank him and tell him I love him.

She pours the powder into her mouth, makes a face at the bitterness and then swallows it down with a few gulps of water.

She kisses me quickly. ‘I love you.’ Then she lays down and cuddles into me and I hold onto her for all I am worth.

I grip her while I cry and cry and hope to whatever god is listening that she will feel no pain. That she will be okay wherever she will go. I pray that I will find her again. I feel her breathing stop after a while, her grip on my shirt goes slack, but I keep holding on. The warmth of her body lingers and it comforts me, until I start to fade away. I can feel myself slip. Her peaceful face is the last thing I see before I, too, am gone.

You

The fog around you is thick to the point where you find it difficult to tell what time of day it is. Through the wisps of white you see tall trees all around you. The temperature around you is comfortable, even though it seems like it should be cold, it isn’t.

You have no idea why you are here or where you are going, and the fact that you cannot remember does not upset you. You walk slowly through the trees and the almost complete silence until you see a path. You follow the path as it winds between the trees and the further you go, the fog seems to lift little by little. Then a warm light becomes visible and as you get closer you see a cabin. Warm, yellow light glows from the windows, smoke curls out of a chimney, it is calling you closer.

Then when you have almost reached it, the door opens and a tall man steps outside. Your heart beats faster at the sight of him. He is wearing all white, beautiful tattoos showing on his skin, his dark hair frames his face. He smiles at you. Like he knows you.

He takes light steps down to you. ‘Hi,’ he beams.

‘Hi,’ you say, unsure of what was happening.

‘Are you lost?’ he asks you.

‘No,’ you say. ‘I don’t really know.’

‘It’s alright,’ he says. ‘I can help you if you need it.’

You look into those eyes that are so dark they are almost black and you know that he is safe. He feels familiar. ‘Do I know you?’

‘Come inside for some tea?’ he says reaching out his hand. You take it without a thought and your fingers twine like you have done it a thousand times before. ‘I have a lot to tell you.’

Inside is warmth and comfort and home. You sit near the fireplace and he hands you a cup and you drink it. It is just like you like it. ‘Who are you?’

‘More importantly, who are you?’ he counters.

You frown, not knowing the answer. ‘Do you know me?’

He nods.

A/N: This part was never supposed to happen, but a comment from someone on A03 put my mind to work. I’m sorry that this part was also sad, but in my mind, there was no other way to do this. Thank you to everyone who took actual time out of their day to read my story.

#noah sebastian fluff #noah sebastian smut #bad omens #ghost noah sebastian #soulmates #noahsebastian #noah sebastian fanfiction #noah sebastian fic #noah sebastian x reader

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sp1rit-realm · 1 year ago

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༻¨*:· 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐓 ·:*¨༺

༻¨*:· summary ·:*¨༺ you hate remus lupin, and he hates you. what happens when you get stuck in a lift together?

༻¨*:· notes ·:*¨༺ 𖦹 BREATHER!!!!! 𖦹 enemies to ?? 𖦹 fem!reader 𖦹 oh. em. gee. 𖦹 i did not proofread this bc i'm lazy ⎝(ˊᗜˋ)⎠

༻¨*:· word count ·:*¨༺ 𖦹 1.2k

prologue / hour 6 << pt. 8 -- breather >> IOU

༻¨*:· 𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 ·:*¨༺

"You what?" Sirius asks with wide eyes.

"I told her I was into her," Remus repeats.

Sirius grins, "And?"

Remus sighs and shakes his head, "It..." He purses his lips, "It didn't go well."

"Well... don't just leave me hanging. What happened?"

"She, um, she walked out of the lift and said she needed a breather."

Sirius claps Remus on the shoulder, "Well, that wasn't a no!"

"Mate..." Remus deadpans, "I don't think it's a yes, either."

. • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆

"So... Remus and you..." Sirius giggles over the phone.

You sigh, "There is no Remus and me, Sirius. I hate him."

"No, you don't," Sirius sings, "Plus, you didn't say you didn't like him back!"

"I told him I hated him, and I slapped him."

"Kinky!"

"Sirius, I swear to god, I will kill you."

"Kinky!"

You hang up.

. • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆

You're miserable. You haven't seen your friends in two weeks, save for Sirius. It feels like the beginning again, where he nagged you to go out with him. Every day, it's always:

"Remus is sorry, please come out."

"I'll buy all of your drinks."

"Everyone misses you!"

"C'mon, stop sitting in self-pity and get out of the house!"

You always answer with:

"Then he should tell me, not have some twat tell me for him."

"I don't feel like drinking."

"Tell them I say hi."

"I'm not sitting in self-pity—I'm simply giving myself the space to process."

And so he gave you time. But it's been five weeks, and you haven't gone out once. So he's starting to lose hope—you're collapsing in on yourself like a dying star, and he's unsure what to do.

You're eating dinner when the phone rings. You roll your eyes, abandon your food, and walk to the side of the room in which it resides.

"I already told you. I don't want to go out!"

"Sorry?"

Your body goes hot out of embarrassment, "Shit! Sorry, I thought you were Sirius," Then the voice registers in your head, "You have five seconds to tell me what you want, Remus."

"I feel like I've given you sufficient time for a breather," He rushes out, "Can we talk? Please?"

You're silent, and he's afraid you've walked away, uninterested in whatever he has to say.

But you sigh, "About what?" You bite.

"Us?" His words are full of hope.

You're quick to crush it, "There is no 'us,' Remus. There is no more feud, no more interacting, there is nothing."

"Please—"

"No!" You interrupt, "No, you lost the opportunity to have an 'us' the second you decided to be a dick!" You yell into the phone.

"I'm sorry. Please, just give it a chance. Please, just... just talk to me."

"You have one fucking chance, Remus. Meet me in the building's cafe at ten. Make it worth my time."

"Okay."

"Oh, and Remus?"

"Yes?"

"If you aren't there at ten on the dot, I'm leaving. I don't care if you've just opened the door. If you are not inside that fucking cafe at ten sharp, I am gone, and you will never see me again. Got it?"

"Got it." He confirms.

. • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆

Your alarm blares at 9:30. You groan and try to throw it across the room, only to remember that it's plugged into the wall to prevent you from doing so.

. • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆

"Get a corded one," Remus laughs, "I used to have the same problem. Well, I used to just take mine and shush it right before turning it off."

You nearly spit your water out.

. • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆

"Fuck," You mumble, turning off the alarm. You don't want to do this—to see him.

You walk downstairs—you don't take the lift anymore—and you're hoping he hasn't shown up, but you see a beige jumper and sandy brown hair through the frosted glass of the doors. You sigh and enter the cafe.

Remus has been waiting for half an hour, and he's convinced he'll get whiplash with how quickly he looks up every time the bell chimes, indicating someone has come in. Finally, twelve people later, you walk in.

You look different than the last time he saw you. You've cut your hair, and you look bone-deep exhausted. He smiles at you, but you don't smile back.

After pulling out your chair for you, he clumsily stumbles back to his side of the table.

"I'm sorry," He starts, "I am so sorry for... everything." He shakes his head, "I— I've been so stupid for the past year. I like you, I really like you, and I'm so sorry I didn't tell you earlier. I'm so sorry I was a dick to you. I'm so sorry I ever made you feel bad. I'm so sorry that I hurt you. I never wanted to hurt you. I—I just want to be with you, and I'm sorry for my feelings of doubt ruining that opportunity. God, I am just so fucking sorry."

You almost want to laugh. His rambling is cute—you've always found it cute. Whether he's info-dumping on his latest book or just furiously talking about everything he's been doing lately. But the words slowly register, and you want to cry, then you want to scream, and then you want to cry again.

"So you want to be with me?"

"More than fucking anything. This past month has been absolute torture. Every time I hang out with everyone, I hope I see your smile. You're never there."

"Yeah, it sucks when someone you like and care about ignores you."

Remus sighs, "I'm sorry."

"I don't think I can forgive you."

You see his heart shatter, "Please. Just—just one chance. Let me take you to dinner, and we can start over and— and..."

"And what? I'll magically fall in love with you?"

He frowns, looking down at the table, "Just give me a chance?"

"I'm not going on a date with you, Remus."

Once upon a time, you harboured feelings for Remus. That was months ago. Five months and four days ago. Then you got stuck in a fucking lift with him, and he confessed his love for you, and you felt like you were suffocating. All of the oxygen left your body, and any feelings died without it.

"We can be friends. I'm fine with friends. I just... I don't want to lose you."

You're silent for a moment, and everything runs through your head again. That first night when he attentively listened to your boring stories with a boyish glint in his eyes. The time he drove you home when you got wasted after being stood up. Teaching you to blow o's and how to roll. When he helped you ride a bike again. Your mind flashes to the night you realized you were in love—the night he went to your flat because you were sick. The night he took care of you, fed you soup—the night he risked getting sick for you. Your mind peeks at the memories of his smile, and your heart wanders around his laugh. It still warms your stomach, and you want to cry. You hate that he still has an impact on you. You've spent five months trying to forget him—forget your feelings. And it was all for nothing.

"Friends," You decide, "Let's try friends."

LETS. TRY. FRIENDS.

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beyondthesefourwalls · 1 year ago

Text

This Love Came Back to Me (12)

Summary: You and Bradley hadn’t ended on bad terms; really, you stopped before the two of you could even truly begin. Still, in the last seven months, you had never completely left his mind. So when you suddenly appeared in front of him at the bar, asking for a favor and pulling him into a kiss, he thought maybe it was the perfect opportunity to see if this time, things could be different. But what neither of you realized was that there’s more going on than just rekindling a lost romance, and it might not be as easy as simply just wanting it.

Pairing: Bradley Bradshaw x Reader (no use of y/n)

Warnings: second chance romance, language, smut and allusions of smut, stalking, breaking and entering, unhealthy obsessions, delusions of feelings, unwanted attention.

Part Twelve Word Count: 6K

Part Eleven :: Series Masterlist

----

You felt almost hungover waking up on Monday morning, but you supposed that was to be expected after a week away. The relaxation you felt in the mountains was slowly but surely coiling back up to a thick cord of tension, made only easier by the man beside you. You were meeting Sadie for coffee near her office that morning, and he held your hand in his the entire drive, singing along to his 80’s playlist softly under his breath.

The tall, dark haired woman greeted you both warmly with a vibrant pink folder in her hand. You tried not to be annoyed at how your name was written on the label. Your whole life and this whole situation was shrunk down to what would fit on a few pieces of 8.5 x 11 inch paper. It was a strange, unsettling feeling.

Bradley let you do most of the talking, a supportive hand on your knee. The woman his best friend was besotted with read through the texts he had saved and all that had come in yesterday with a critical eye.

“Well,” she said, a touch of sarcasm etched in her tone, “he’s certainly not doing himself any favors, is he?” Sadie flipped through the folder, pausing to jot down notes on one of the blank forms. She set her pen down when she was done, leaning back in her chair and sipping on her coffee. "If we can prove that he's been harassing you, I think we have a shot at the restraining order. I know it was disappointing not to get the emergency order, but that doesn’t mean you won’t get it when we go to court, okay?"

You nodded slowly, trying to grasp onto the hope she was dangling in front of you. “Do we know when that is?”

“We should hear something this week about a date, and he’ll be served the papers once a date is set.”

Your breath hitched slightly at the thought of that happening, and Bradley must have caught it, because he squeezed your knee in reassurance before he started talking. “So what does she do between now and then?”

From across the table, Sadie shrugged and gave you a smile you knew was meant to be reassuring. She addressed you directly in her answer. “If he continues to reach out to you, document it all, but don’t respond to him. If you see him, try not to engage. Don’t give him a reason to think any of it is consensual or that you’re encouraging it. And I know it may be hard, but other than that…just try and live your life as normally as you can. I’ll handle the legal stuff. You focus on you.”

You snapped the hair tie on your wrist once you were back in the passenger seat of the Bronco. You stared out the window as Bradley drove through mid-morning San Diego traffic toward one of the retail districts nearby, mulling over everything Sadie had said. She had been so insistent that this wasn’t your fault, and that you had a solid case, despite the judge’s first glance at your application not being enough. It felt good knowing you had someone in your corner like her, who knew the ins and outs of this kind of process.

But your eyebrows furrowed as you thought about what she said about documenting every time he reached out to you and how it could ultimately help. You glanced down at the phone sitting in the cupholder. You had blocked every number Paul had contacted you from. You had even taken the initiative in blocking his email account, too. You were en route to get a new phone number. Now, though, you were wondering if you had jumped the gun in all of that.

You liked to believe that getting a brand new number would mean that Paul wouldn’t be able to reach you. But if him reaching you could ultimately help you, to provide you with something tangible to use to take action against him….

You took a deep breath. You couldn’t believe it had gotten to the point where you were really considering letting this happen.

Bradley reached across the seat to squeeze your hand, startling you. You were so lost in thought that you hardly noticed that he had pulled into a parking space in front of the cell phone carrier store. He must have clocked the change in your expression when you turned to look at him by the way his changed, too.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. You tried to figure out how to articulate what it was that you were feeling without making it seem like you had lost it completely.

“Is this the best idea?” you finally settled on, and when your boyfriend asked you what you meant, you pushed forward. “Sadie said that anything he does can be used against him, to help prove he’s been…” you cut yourself off as the word popped in your head. It had been said earlier, and you knew deep down that’s exactly what it was. But saying that S word made it that much realer to you, and you couldn’t bring yourself to do it just yet. “To help prove he’s been doing everything he has. And if..If I disconnect my number, isn’t that almost like, I don’t know, getting rid of an opportunity?”

He didn’t respond right away, but his grip on your hand tightened just the tiniest bit, and the thumb on his other hand tapped a quick rhythm against the steering wheel he was still holding. Those thick eyebrows of his that you loved so much furrowed together as he processed your jumbled explanation of feelings. Finally, he let go of your hand and reached to take the keys out of the ignition, killing the engine. He nodded toward the store in front of you.

“Let’s go inside. I have an idea.”

He was out of the Bronco before you could protest, and you hurried after him, confused. He held his hand out to you from the sidewalk.

“Bradley, what are we doing?” you asked, tugging him to a stop before you could get to the door of the store. He looked at you with what you could only describe as a determined look, touched with something close to desperation.

“Just trust me, okay? And please don’t say no.”

His words left you even more confused, but there was something about his eyes and the feeling he was emanating that you couldn’t help but nod.

He held the door open for you and you were approached by a salesman almost immediately, and before you could say anything when he asked if there was something he could help you with, Bradley was speaking up.

“I was hoping to add a new phone and number to my plan.”

“Of course. What’d you have in mind?”

He looked down to you with that same determined look on his face, but it was softer now. His smile was small but reassuring, and he squeezed the hand still held in his.

“Pick out what you want.”

“B….”

He pressed a kiss to your forehead, and you could hear the words he spoke into your hair, only for you. “This way you can keep the other one on but not have to worry about dealing with it. Because you’re right, it could be useful. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to let you put up with the stress of seeing it everyday. Please, Bug. Let me do this for you.”

You knew how much Bradley cared for you, but this was a big gesture. You had never been one to accept help easily, especially not financially, and part of you felt that getting a new phone on his plan would be too much. It took you a moment, but eventually, you swallowed the protest that was ready on your lips. When you nodded, you both felt and heard the sigh of relief that he let out.

You knew how supportive of your independence he was, but you wondered if sometimes what he needed was for you to let him do things like this.

Picking something out was fairly simple, just going with an upgraded version of what you already had. You stood together at the counter as everything was set up and added, Bradley signing the necessary paperwork. You wrapped both your arms around one of his, pressing a kiss into his clothed bicep. You let your eyes flutter closed and breathed in the scent of him. He always had a way of calming your nerves and making you feel safe, even in the midst of chaos. You weren’t really sure what you did to deserve him, but you wanted to hold onto him forever.

____

Sadie called you on Thursday, about an hour before you were scheduled for a phone interview for the job you were crossing your fingers for, to let you know that your court date had been set for 3 weeks out. You spent the next thirty minutes trying to breathe through the panic that settled on your chest like a semi-truck. Tears stung in your eyes, wondering how the hell your life had gotten to this point. Then your phone buzzed with a text from Bradley, and you couldn’t help the watery laugh that escaped you.

Bradley🐓✈️❤️: You got this, baby! Proud of you. Have a great interview.

He always had a way of knowing exactly when you needed him, even if he didn’t realize it. You wanted to tell him about the court date, to seek that additional comfort that you knew he would provide you without question. But you remembered what both he and Sadie had told you earlier in the week, about living as normally as possible, and you knew they were right. You couldn’t let this ruin the possibilities in front of you. You wouldn’t.

You typed out a response as you forced some of the anxiety out, taking exaggerated breaths to combat it until eventually, it worked.

I love you, B.

Bradley🐓✈️❤️: Love you, Bug. Go get ‘em.

Despite the feelings that had threatened to overwhelm you right before the interview, you did go get ‘em, just like Bradley had said. You got an email about coming in for an in person interview less than two hours after you had hung up the phone, and it was the following Friday that found you sitting on the couch, waiting for Bradley to get home. You were practically vibrating with excitement by the time he finally walked through the door. He didn’t even get a chance to take his keys out of the lock before you were jumping up.

“I got the job!” you blurted out.

Bradley looked startled for a second, no doubt at how sudden and loud you spoke, and his forehead crinkled like he wondered what you were talking about before it clicked. His dark eyes widened and a grin started making its way onto his face as he dropped his bag and hurried to where you were standing in the living room of the apartment. “You got it?”

You nodded rapidly, your giddy smile so large that it was making your cheeks hurt. “I got it.”

Bradley yelled your name in excitement right before he swept you off your feet. You giggled as he spun you around, feeling weightless in his strong arms. “I knew you could do it!” Eventually, he set you down, but he didn’t let you go far. He pulled you flush against him in a tight embrace.

"I'm so proud of you, Bug," he said, his voice conveying just how truthful he was being. “You deserve this.”

You leaned into him, feeling safe and loved and happy in his arms. "Thank you,” you murmured, accepting the kiss that he placed on your lips.

“We should celebrate,” he said. “Order in something delicious? Open another bottle of wine we got in San Bernardino?”

That sounded lovely, and you absolutely wanted to do that. But aside from the meeting with Sadie almost two weeks ago and the in person interview that you had two days prior, you hadn’t left Bradley’s apartment since you got back from the cabin. You were hiding away, whether you admitted it or not. You didn’t want to do that anymore.

“Let’s go out.”

If Bradley was surprised, he didn’t show it. He didn’t ask if you were sure, or if you thought it was a good idea. He searched your eyes for nothing more than a moment before he was squeezing your hip and nodding.

He trusted you enough to know that if you said it’s what you wanted, you meant it. And that meant more than you could ever say.

You enjoyed dinner out at one of your favorite Mexican restaurants, sipping a margarita and eating your weight in chips and queso and spicy tacos. Bradley sat close to you in the booth, finishing off your plate when you couldn’t eat anymore, and you spent the entire meal laughing and flirting with one another like a regular date should be. And when you were done, you made your way to the Hard Deck. You had shot off a text to some of your friends while Bradley did the same to his before dinner, and you were ecstatic when you spotted Anna already amongst the rest of the aviators. You met her with a hug, and when she introduced you to her boyfriend, you were pleasantly surprised when Bradley already seemed to know him.

“We’ve been deployed together before. He’s a good guy,” he told you once the two had made their way over to the bar for refills, and you couldn’t help the smile on your face at how things seemed to be falling into place.

You greeted the rest of Bradley’s friends with the same enthusiasm, genuinely glad to see them.You hugged Jake and Javy a little harder, whispering a soft thank you to them. You had never gotten the opportunity to do so after they had went and got your car out of that parking lot all those weeks ago, but both of them just shrugged it off like it was nothing. You knew that everyone probably was aware of what was going on with you, at least to a certain extent, but you appreciated so much how they didn’t seem to look or treat you any differently than they had before.

Bradley slipped a drink into your hand as you mingled with both of your friends. He was a warm presence at your back, his arm wrapped around you with one of his fingers hooked into the belt loop at the front of your jeans. You tilted your head back to look at him with a smile, and he clinked the rim of his beer bottle against the side of your glass. “Here’s to you, baby,” he murmured into your ear, and you couldn’t stop the shiver that went through your body. When Jake and Bob roped him into a game of pool at the tables not too far away a few minutes later, he pressed a kiss to the side of your head before walking off.

You spent some time with Anna and her boyfriend, and talked with Mickey about the latest true crime documentary that you both had watched. It was after your dart had literally embedded itself into the wall when you were playing with Javy that you said you needed a break. There were tears in your eyes from how hard you were laughing, and your cheeks were starting to hurt from the permanent smile that had been on your face all night. Bradley was still enthralled at the pool table, so with a look in his direction, you headed to the bar by yourself for another refill. It wasn’t long before a shoulder was bumping into yours. When you looked over, you smiled in recognition at the dark haired woman beside you. You had greeted her earlier, but hadn’t really had the time for conversation before you were both pulled in opposite directions.

“How are you?” Sadie asked. You thought about your day for a moment, how light and at ease you felt.

“I’m good,” you answered honestly, “It’s been a really great day.”

“I heard Bradley tell Natasha that you got that new job you were vying for - congratulations! You deserve it.”

You felt the excitement hit you all over again at her words, and you knew your smile must look ridiculous at this point as you thanked her.

“I’m glad to finally have something else, you know? This new place genuinely seems great, and it comes with a lot of opportunity.”

“Better than the toxic mess you’re at now?”

You snorted, and it said a lot that not even the mention of your current job brought down your mood. Instead you tilted the freshly refilled glass in your hand in her direction. She set a hand on your wrist for a moment, and you could sense by the look in her eye that she was going to bring up something else about that situation before she even spoke.

“Paul was successfully served his papers about you petitioning for a restraining order,” she told you, and you felt your breath hitch. She heard it too and shook her head. “This is a good thing. It means we’re one step closer to stopping him for good. That’s something to celebrate, too.”

You considered her words for a moment, and you weren’t sure if it was the drinks or just the energy of the night, but you found that part of you actually agreed with her. The mention of his name didn’t immediately make you feel like you were going to spiral, or stir up the same helpless feelings it normally did. Surprisingly, you didn’t feel much of anything at all. You were indifferent in a way that you hadn’t been before. So when Penny slid Sadie her own new drink, you raised your glass to hers, and you toasted to getting this whole thing over with.

Not too much later, you wandered out through the side doors. It was getting hot inside the bar, and the cool night air was blissfully refreshing against your skin. It was surprisingly empty out on the deck, and you appreciated the solitude as you leant against the railing, looking out at the ocean. It was dark, but you could see the dark water and hear it crashing in the distance. You could still hear all the chatter and the juke box from inside the bar floating out, but it was muted, a reminder of where you were while still allowing you the peace and quiet.

The door opened behind you a minute later, and a smile tugged at your lips as Bradley’s deep, raspy voice filled your ears, alerting you to his presence.

“Hey, you. What are you doing out here?” he asked, wrapping his arms around you from behind once he made it to where you were standing. A content noise escaped your throat as you settled back into his chest and laid your own hands over his at your waist. “You doin’ okay?”

“I’m good,” you promised, “Just wanted some air. Was getting hot in there with all of those people.”

You knew he’d know enough to guess that meant it was both the physical temperature, as well as your tendency to need a break from large crowds. It got too much for you sometimes, and on occasion, you just needed a few minutes by yourself to recenter and finish out the night. He hummed in response, and you knew he understood.

You stood there together for a few long moments, not saying anything. You weren’t sure if it was a conscious movement, but he swayed your bodies slightly to the music floating out from inside the bar, some oldies tune that you weren’t sure the name of but you thought you had heard before - probably with him, no doubt. You relished just being in his arms like this. Eventually, though, he broke the peaceful silence.

“Sadie told me something earlier,” he said, and you could hear the hesitancy in his voice, like he wasn’t sure if he should have brought it up before. You made a hum of recognition, nodding your head without looking at him.

“Yeah, she told me too. About the papers.”

Bradley paused as he seemed to gather what it was he wanted to say, so you continued on before he stressed over it too much, squeezing his forearm. “It’s okay. Surprisingly, I felt nothing when she told me. She said it’s something to celebrate because we’re one step closer to getting all of this over with, and I think I agree with her. That has to count as progress, right?”

There was a beat of quiet as your words hung in the air before Bradley murmured your name softly. “Look at me?” he asked.

At his request, you turned to face him. Your arms wrapped around his neck and toyed with the hair on the back of his head like you loved to do. He looked at you with a soft smile, his eyes shining.

“I’m really proud of you, you know that?” he spoke gently, tucking some of your hair behind your ear and trailing his finger down your face. You could feel the heat of affection creep up at his words. You weren’t really sure how to respond. His pride meant a lot to you. Truthfully, everything he did meant a lot. He had always been there for you, even that first night when he had no idea what was going on. He was unwavering in his support and you knew you would be in a completely different situation right now if he wasn’t by your side. You needed him, more than you ever thought possible.

You weren’t sure if it was the alcohol lowering your inhibitions or the emotions hitting you all of a sudden, or maybe a combination of both, but you found yourself feeling bold, craving him in a way that made your heart race.

"Bradley," you whispered, almost like you wanted to share a secret with him. "Can I tell you something?"

"You can tell me anything," he replied, one hand slipping down your back and into the back pocket of your jeans as the other stayed on your face, his thumb rubbing your cheek softly.

"I love you so much," you said, feeling the words spill out of your mouth without thinking.

Bradley's smile grew wider, pink dusting his cheeks. "I love you too, Bug. More than anything."

Feeling emboldened by his words, you leaned in and pressed your lips to his. The kiss was soft at first, but quickly became more passionate as the heat between you intensified. You couldn't get enough of him, and it seemed like he felt the same way. His hands roamed over your body, pulling you closer before he backed the both of you up into the railing behind you. You moaned into his mouth, feeling your body react. It was like your nerve endings were on fire.

He pulled away, his breaths coming out in ragged pants as he looked down at you. His brown eyes were darkened with what was so blatantly desire, and you loved that he didn’t try to shy away from it.

“Bug…”

“I think I’d like to go home now,” you told him, your mind already made up. You pressed kisses into his jaw and down his neck as he groaned into the open night air.

“Yeah,” he rasped, squeezing your butt through your pants before lifting you into his arms. You squealed as your legs wrapped around his waist and he started toward the parking lot. You didn’t even think about needing to go and say goodbye to all of your friends. “Home sounds like a good idea.”

___

You weren’t slated to start at your new job until the following month, but Bradley convinced you that it wasn’t worth having any ties to the company that had caused all of the strife currently in your life for any longer. Your PTO was going to run out in the middle of the following week, and it was decided that you wouldn’t be going back at all. Not submitting a full two week notice was normally something that would make you feel guilty, but after the way they all treated you, you found you didn’t care all that much about how they would react. They were lucky you were going to do it in person to begin with.

“I still think you should just send an email,” Bradley told you, his voice ringing through your car’s bluetooth as you drove toward your soon to be old office. It was late on a Wednesday afternoon, so traffic was light.

“Dropping off my laptop and badge in person means I cut ties quicker,” you rebutted, just like you had done since you told him your plan. You had logged onto your work email last night just to put a meeting on Gretchen’s calendar for this afternoon, for the sole purpose of handing in your things and telling her you quit in person. You got a shot of amusement at imagining what her face was going to look like when you did.

Bradley had wanted to accompany you for all of it, had hated the idea of you going to the office without him, in fact, but he hadn’t been able to slip away from his own work. He had tried to get you to wait until the next day, but you were stubborn. You wanted to get this over with.

Bradley sighed on the other end, and you knew that was his concession. “Call me when you’re done?”

“Of course, B.”

Nerves twisted in your stomach as you made your way inside the building and pressed the button for the correct floor in the elevator. You took a deep, slow breath when the doors shut, trying to calm your beating heart. You weren’t sure why you were so nervous, but you supposed it was normal.

“You can do this,” you whispered to yourself. You cracked your neck and pushed your shoulders back when the elevator doors slid open, revealing the lobby you had become familiar with for the last year. You walked down the hallway with purpose, and you could feel stares as you did. You knew the majority of your team - Paul included - were in a meeting right now, based on the shared calendars you had taken a look at. But that didn’t mean others wouldn’t look just as hard. You knocked on Gretchen’s door with a firm fist, and she had barely started saying “come in” when you were twisting the knob and opening the door.

She sat behind her desk, her blonde hair as pinstraight as always, and a perfectly manicured nail tapped against her crossed arms. A single eyebrow was raised, and her face just screamed condescension. Any guilt you may have harbored left you as soon as you saw her, and you set your laptop and your badge on her desk with a clank.

“I quit.”

The unpleasant, sour look that Gretchen’s face twisted into stayed with you as you made your way from her office and over to HR, and then all the way back to the elevator, too. You were practically floating at how satisfied you felt. You were so proud of yourself, and so damn relieved for finally being done with this place. You had said your peace and then some, and now you were done. It was a long overdue feeling.

You pulled your phone out once you were in the elevator, and your grin was so persistently large that you thought it’d get stuck there. Bradley picked up almost immediately, and you were sure he had been waiting for your call.

“How’d it go?”

“Gretchen looked like a Warhead got stuck in her throat, and I have never felt so satisfied about causing those feelings in someone.”

Your boyfriend barked out a laugh on the other end, and the sound just made you smile wider. “She deserves it. I’m proud of you, baby.”

You didn’t think you would ever get tired of hearing his praise. It caused a warmth to spread through your whole entire body, and you were already ready to be back in his presence again. You got your keys out of your bag as you walked out of the building and into the parking lot. “Thanks, B. Are you still meeting me at the house?”

That had been the other part of your plan today. You were going to kill two birds with one stone and go to the house and pack up more of your stuff, as the end of your lease was rapidly approaching. Since he hadn’t been able to come with you, instead, you had agreed that he would meet you at the house after you left the office to help. You knew, also, that he didn’t like the idea of you being there on your own. Truthfully, you didn’t either, so you were glad for his insistence.

“I’m packing up to leave and head in that direction in the next five minutes.”

“Alright. I’m going to go to the store and grab some boxes and tape and stuff, and then I’ll head that way. You might beat me there.”

“That’s fine,” he assured you, and with how quick he said it, you were sure that was actually his preference. You felt yourself soften a little bit. You knew he hated not being with you right now.

“I’ll text you when I leave the store,” you promised him as you unlocked your car. “Hey, B?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

You pulled out of the parking lot once you had hung up with him, and you were so focused on the elation you had been feeling and what you needed to do that night, that you hadn’t even seen who else had been in the parking lot with you.

___

You didn’t spend any more time than necessary in the store, simply running in and grabbing what you needed. Your trunk and backseat were full of boxes and packing supplies, and you shot a text off to Bradley as you had promised once you slid into the front seat. He called you when you were pulling into the neighborhood.

“There was an accident or something on the freeway,” he told you, and you could hear the frustration in his voice. “Traffic’s backed up, so I’m still like 15 minutes out.”

“No worries,” you reassured him, “I’m almost there. I can get started.”

There was a pause on the other end of the phone, and Bradley sounded hesitant when he finally spoke again. “Bug…wait for me to go inside, please.”

“B…”

He must have heard the argument in your voice, because he was quick to continue, the words rushing out. “I know I’m probably just being paranoid and overprotective. But humor me, please? Just wait for me. I should be there soon.”

You pulled into the driveway that wouldn’t be yours for much longer and put the car in park. You knew where he was coming from. Truly, you did. You knew that he had every right to feel that way, and you felt warm at him wanting to protect you.

Bradley let out a sigh of relief when you finally murmured your agreement to stay put. “Thank you, baby. I’ll be there soon okay? I love you.”

“I love you too. See you in a few.”

You hung up the phone and rested your head back against the seat, figuring you might as well get comfortable. You scrolled through your social media aimlessly for a few minutes, but the longer you sat there, the more restless you became. You were eager to get inside and start packing. The quicker you did that, the quicker you would be able to get out of this place for good. A quick glance at your clock said that it was nearing 5pm now, and you knew that there was always a team meeting at this time that Paul would be in. There was no chance.

From when you hung up with him, you figured Bradley would be there in five, ten minutes, tops.

It would be fine.

With that in mind, you grabbed your keys and got out of the car. You grabbed some of the boxes from the trunk and made your way to the front door. You felt the familiar anxiety settle over you as you fumbled with the lock, but you figured it was normal - expected, really, all things considered.

It would be fine.

It was quiet when you walked inside. The air felt almost stale inside, stifling, and there was a weird smell that made your nose scrunch. The eerie quiet sent a shiver down your spine. The first order of business would be hooking your phone up to the bluetooth speaker to surround you with noise instead of this, and maybe lighting a candle.

You dropped your keys into the bowl at the door and set the boxes down against the back of the couch. You had only taken a few steps in when you stopped in your tracks.

Your eyebrows furrowed, and it felt like your heart stopped before it started beating again at a rapid pace.

Your kitchen counter was littered with flowers. Many of them were dead, stems bent and empty, the petals having wilted and fallen from them, the water inside of the vases murky and old. Some were in a weird inbetween stage, a few petals missing but hanging onto some color. And there, front and center, was the biggest vase out of the bunch. The followers were clearly fresh, so much so that you could almost smell them, if it weren’t for the sour odor of the old ones. Your brain itched with recognition, and you let out a shaky breath when you realized this bouquet was identical to the ones Bradley had delivered to your office months ago, when you first got back together. Identical to the ones that Paul had then gotten you the next day.

There was a folded piece of paper leaning against that vase with your name scrawled across it. Alarm bells were ringing in your head, but you swallowed thickly and took slow, tentative steps. When you got close enough, you could see how there were insects crawling amongst the dead arrangements covering your counter. Your hands were shaking as you reached for the note.

You let out a sound that you could only describe as horrified when you read the words.

Welcome home - I’ve been waiting for you.

You stumbled over your own feet as you took startled steps back.Your vision blurred with tears and panic was settled so heavily on your chest that you couldn’t breathe. You needed to leave. You needed to go back out the door you just came through and wait for Bradley. You had to get away. You needed to get out.

You whipped around, ready to run for the front door, but you didn’t even get a step in before a scream ripped from your throat.

“You’re finally here.”

Paul was standing right there in front of you, between you and the front door.

You were hit with a gut wrenching, terrifying, twisted and sinking realization that you were alone with him.

You were alone with him, and you had nowhere to go.

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

Part Thirteen :: Series Masterlist :: Main Masterlist

Notes: YIKES, BUG!! WHY'D YOU HAVE TO GO INSIDE?! Sorry for the wait on this one, and for being so delayed with responses to the previous part! Life is lifeing, folks. We're almost at the end! Likes/comments/reblogs are the best encouragement for posting more🖤

Thank you to Mak and Em for all of your help making this story come to life. And thanks to Mak for the AMAZING banner!

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definitelynotafurinasimp · 1 year ago

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Furina with a reader that teaches her baking

Characters: Furina x gn!reader

warnings: spoilers for 4.2 (nothing is explicitly spoiled, but it takes place after 4.2, so spoilers are kinda unavoidable)

Anyway, hope you enjoy!

Furina

Considering how much Furina loved sweets and how easy it was to gain her admiration simply by being able to make them, finding out you worked at one of Fontaine’s top bakery once and knew how to make almost everything was a pretty big surprise to her, the former Archon almost always finding a way to sneakily insert the topic into your discussions, hoping the conversation would somehow evolve until you offered to bake her something, only for nothing of the sort to happen.

So when Furina offhandedly asked if you’d be willing to teach her how to bake, almost having given up on the prospects of you ever baking her something, you were surprisingly quick to jump at the opportunity, your eyes sparkling as if she had just proposed to you before you quickly started rambling about ingredients, forcing her to snatch a piece of paper and a pen and try her hardest to keep up with you, your voice not slowing down for even a moment as you began pacing around the kitchen, looking for what you already had and what you still needed to buy, not even stopping to explain what it was that you were going to bake.

“So, now that we have everything prepared, we can finally start for real”, you stated excitedly, putting your hands on your hips as you looked over the admittedly cramped kitchen counter, before quickly glancing at the sink. “First of all, go put on an apron and wash your hands.”

“Why don’t you wash your hands as well?”, Furina spoke up halfway through the process of cleaning hers, only for you to look at her as if she had asked how to put on a hat, sending her mind scrambling as she recollected everything she said, looking for what part sounded so stupid.

“If I wash my hands, there’s nothing that stops me from butting in to do something in your place. That might result in a great cake, but won’t help you learn anything”, you explained as your face softened again, a smile making its way onto your lips. “Learning by watching is a great way to learn... I don't know, science, but all the fun stuff only gets taught through trials of fire”, you joked before quickly moving to her side, handing her a towel she could use to dry her hands.

“Today, you’re going to learn how to make ‘La Lettre a Focalors’. It may seem difficult at first, but with my instructions it will be a breeze, trust me”, you stated, sounding far too confident in your skills as a teacher, prompting Furina to wonder how often you had done so already.

“I didn’t know you still liked baking”, she carelessly mumbled out loud after following a few of your steps, noticing how you seemed almost more eager than her, causing you to stare at her in slight confusion, the resulting pressure quickly making her explain herself, “Didn’t you quit your job at the bakery? I thought you did it because you didn’t have any joy in it anymore.”

Almost instantly the confusion vanished from your face as you gave her a slight nod, “Ah okay, that makes sense now. I quit not because baking didn’t make any fun anymore, but because I found something else that I liked doing more. Baking’s still a big hobby of mine, I could even bake you something if you want”, you explained before instinctively grabbing the milk, almost beginning to pour it into what Furina was stirring only to stop yourself at the last second, taking a step back before letting out a chuckle.

“Next you can start pouring in the milk, I’ll tell you when to stop.”

#furina x you #furina x y/n #furina #furina x reader #genshin impact x reader #genshin impact #genshin x reader

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thatscarletflycatcher · 1 year ago

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There's something that has been gnawing at me since I saw some comments on the look-how-they-massacred-them poll for Daniel Sousa -with which I didn't want to engage then and there because I really didn't want to pick up a fight with another Daniel fan, there's few enough of us, but also because the argument was very difficult to articulate.

It is difficult to explain how Daniel Sousa is screwed over by Endgame without making it look like either "he deserved Peggy as a prize" or "he was the perfect prize for Peggy", because it all begins by understanding the experience of WWII and the building of the morale of WWII. Something that Markus and McFeely seemed to perfectly understand in Agent Carter, which inclines me to believe it was specific insistence of the Russos, whose concept of narrative and storytelling is at the level of a belligerent and not very bright 4 year old, that gave us that mindblowingly stupid "happy ending" for Cap and Peggy. Or maybe Markus and McFeely are just arcane creatures, at times intelligent and at times really dumb. Anyways.

Point is that both CATFA and Agent Carter understand that for these characters, fighting WWII is a matter of "each doing their bit", of, as Steve put it in The Avengers, to lay on the barbed wire so the one that comes after you can pass on. And in the process of doing that, you have great loses and suffer great grief. The price of war is immense, and for these people the price of war is the price of freedom (yes, that celebrated Steve speech from CATWS is also sharing in that same spirit. It's kind of impressive how until that awful mess of Endgame, the perspective of Steve as a character from movie to movie is one that addresses how some 1940s things are outdated, but how many others are still relevant and inspiring. It is a surprisingly nuanced take on History, that of course the Russo "Cap is an outdated relic that belongs in the past and should stay there" brothers don't seem to have what's needed to grasp).

In that context, the most coherent tone for Steggy is tragedy. Because that is what happened to many, many, many people during the war. You meet, you fall in love fast, because there is no time. And then suddenly the other is gone, never to come back. And all the promises of youth and life and future the other person represented, are gone with them. People who lived through 2020-2022 have some idea of what it is like for projects, opportunities, and years of your life to just vanish. Now you make that five years, eight months, and to mention "just" the British, 1 out every 100 people live in 1939, dead, and over 350.000 permanently disabled. If you were 20 in 1939, your life would be practically on hold till you were 26. It's a whole lot of grief, and an intense grief, that you don't solve the way you solve a random missing connection in a romcom like Serendipity or The Lake House. Doing so is cheapening and bastardizing the grief and trauma of a whole generation of people in different countries.

So, Agent Carter. Here we have a story focused on a group of people, spies, who, in different fronts and with different outcomes, made it through the war and are now facing this new world they are living in, and all the grief of their respective losses. The focus of the story is Peggy, a woman who, like many others, was allowed a wide range of action during the war, and is now subconsiously perceived as a threat by many of her male coworkers. It's a desperate bid to "go back to the way things were before", and her presence is a constant reminder that they can't.

Sousa occupies a very similar position to Peggy's: he's also a reminder that the war happened and that there is no way back, no magic solution, no pretending. And that's why both are ignored, and displaced, and why both struggle to prove themselves in a subconscious way while living by the continued principle that they are doing their bit. That is their lifeline that keeps them sane and working all throughout s1 of Agent Carter.

That's what we mean when we say Peggy and Sousa are equals, and that Sousa is contented with letting her have the spot; not because he's her inferior or her dependant, but because he's her equal -in intelligence, in ideals, in resourcefulness, in loyalty, but also in their relative positions in the power ladder- and does not feel threatened by her because of it.

(It is in this context, btw, that Peggy's rebuke of Daniel's "rescue" of her in the first episode must be understood. Because she was once treated like any other officer/agent of her same rank, she has knee jerk reactions to both being demeaned and being protected. It's also an important theme of that beginning of the series that Peggy needs to learn to let her friends in, and that she needs their help, and that that doesn't make her too weak to protect and defend them.)

But also, in another way, when we talk about Sousa becoming Peggy's husband, it has to do with the sentiment Krezminsky expresses in the series:

The ship of Steggy had sailed and was gone forever since the moment Steve became the legend in the ice and Peggy "Cap's Girl", this embodiment of the ridiculous damsel in distress we hear in the radio drama that plays on one of the episodes: Peggy fell in love with Steve when he was a scrawny, sickly lad, because she loved the man he was inside, but now forever for the world she is just another superficial, weak girl lusting after the handsome godlike rescuer, the picture of the eugenic dream of the übermensch. In Daniel Peggy loves and finds all the same things she found and loved in Steve, but in a different light, because Sousa is a different person, with a different life story, plus something else: they have both gone through war and its loss and grief, and come to the other side in need of rebuilding and finding new meaning in life and hope for the future.

In a world where the Dark, Tall and Handsome Hero of the Six Pack, Alpha Dominance and Endless Stamina reigns supreme, Sousa as a love interest is a remarkable and -sadly- bold statement about the things that truly matter in finding one's life partner.

So I think here is a reasonable point to start talking about Sousa in Agents of SHIELD. Because here's where someone would rationally say "well, but you see, there he's also chosen as a love interest!", and the reasons why context in AoS changes everything are multiple, so let's go there.

But before that, let me make clear that I do wholeheartedly believe the writers of AoS meant to honor Sousa, and sincerely tried to do their best with what they were given. That doesn't change what the end product ended up doing and saying about him.

Like Peggy is the main character of Agent Carter, so Daisy is the main character of Agents of SHIELD. As much as you can say all the team characters are important and get the focus, Daisy is the one which the narrative insists on making the focal point, as the arcs of several seasons hinge on her, and we are expected to sympathize with her first and foremost in any situation in which she is personally involved. But unlike Peggy, Daisy is a superpowered individual. She's more like Steve than Peggy; she's practically a demigod. She is capable of ripping Earth apart with just her hands. Where Peggy and Sousa were equals in the power ladder in-universe, in AoS the distance between Daisy and Sousa is abysmal. That imbalance is the first thing that leads to Sousa being put in the position of Daisy's Boy. The fact that he ends up in space with Daisy's last minute sister who is ALSO an inhuman does not help things.

As a side note, there's something to be said about futuristic prosthetics in AoS and how they interesect with disability. But I'd rather not get into it because it is a thorny subject and I don't feel qualified to speak of it.

In a different way, Daniel being Peggy's love interest in Agent Carter is balanced out by his having a life of his own and many interactions with other characters throughout the series. He pursues his own lines of investigation, he conducts interrogations of his own, he comes up with plans, he teams up with Krezminsky and with Thompson and in s2 he has downright made a life for himself as chief in California with a fiancé and all. There is a clear sense that he exists as a character outside of pining for Peggy.

In AoS, the opposite happens. Part of it is owed to the writers writing themselves into a corner: to take Sousa out of his timeline, they have to do it in such a way that his disappearance is inconspicuous, which means killing him. They do it the best way they can think of, honoring his alertness and intelligence, by making him realize HYDRA is infiltrated in SHIELD decades before anyone else does. But as a consequence, Sousa becomes the man out of time: there's no future for him, because he has died, and unlike Steve, he's not being brought back because he himself is required. They just save him because they take pity on him and the tragedy of his life. So he has no mission and no significant previous connection with anyone on the team. One of the concrete things in which this is evidenced the most is with the switch from being addressed as chief Sousa to Agent Sousa. He was chief, but between that SHIELD and this SHIELD there's not such a connection by which he can claim that title. There's no subordinates to manage. So he's sort of default-called agent without really being a proper agent.

So the writers choose the fish-out-of-water concept for him. Which is far fetched. This guy lived through wwii in a high spy setting where intelligence has knowledge of powerful interstellar aliens. He's most definitely not bewildered by phone cameras, guys. He would quickly adapt... if, again, you know, he was brought back for a mission. But the reality is that from a Doylist POV, he was brought in to be Daisy's love interest, and the only thing he can offer to her, in this huge power imbalance I have pointed out, is chivalrous manners and quaint WWII style references like when he tells her "Agent Johnson, we are going home"; both can be very charming to a modern woman, but they are things that highlight the cultural and psychological distances that separate them, and make it glaringly obvious that they have barely anything in common.

The series tries desperately to give them common ground in the time-loop episode, with this idea that Daisy is like Peggy because she sacrifices herself for others and to protect others all the time. Which is laughable because, again, in Daisy's condition of beloved main character that embodies the tortured, quasi byronic heroine that we understand to be the hallmark of about one half of the contemporary superhero type, the narrative and the characters in it bend all sorts of ways to accommodate her, not the other way around. Peggy's type is different because it is rooted in that WWII morale/frame I was talking about at the beginning of the post.

As a consequence of all of this, Sousa barely interacts with anyone that isn't Daisy (he has of personal scenes, what? one or two with Coulson, the scene where Jemma gives him a new prosthetic, and then he's given an idea to give to Mac in the finale. I don't remember any other non-Daisy ones), has no unique role to fulfill in the mission (specially because so much of the plan is entwined in Fitz and Jemma's rescue plan that was NOT counting with Sousa) and no personal goal to achieve, which weakens his standing as a character outside the romance plot, and when it comes to the romance plot, he has nothing in common with Daisy, and he brings nothing to the partnership other than... narratively forced love, and chivalrousness.

In the end, Daniel, who was a character and a person of relevance in Agent Carter, is nerfed and turned into a prop for the rushed happily ever after of the main character of AoS. And that, in my books, is being screwed over. That's what makes his becoming Peggy's husband and building a life and a future with her a much better and more preferable outcome for Daniel; he gets to build a life of meaning by his own significant work and significant connections, in his own time and place, with a wife who is his equal and with other people that have lived through the same collective experiences of trauma and grief he did.

#Daniel Sousa #Agent Carter #AoS #meta #peggysous

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ennn · 1 month ago

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Great meta about episode 8 and about Agatha’s feelings. I’m particularly curious about Rio and I agree with everything you said about her feelings and why she lashed out. She finally gave up on Agatha after centuries, she accepted she would always hate her no matter what even if she chose giving Billy up or herself but did that kiss change anything for her? She looked like she was truly grieving her and letting go

I don’t think she knew about ghost Agatha but will that change anything? Do you think she will follow the deal and leave Agatha alone? There is also the issue about Tommy but if you don’t count the twins do you think Death finally decided to move on? Will she be free or with those two, never 😂

Heh, I did leave out the part about the kiss in my meta post didn't I? My brain was so tired lol

The short answer? It's ambiguous.

And I think that's largely deliberate because The Powers That Be (TPTB) haven't committed to where and how they want to use Rio / Death in future Marvel projects.

I think there's definitely enough setup done and opportunity in the story for Rio to come back for an AAA sequel or spin-off — but also enough ambiguity if not.

Story-wise, the kiss is significant because I don't think Agatha's one to directly apologise or walk back what she says. It's a similar thing in episode 4 where Agatha embraces Rio with all that emotion.

I think the kiss is Agatha saying she still does have love for Rio, that she does want her despite all that she said earlier, that she's sorry but she can't let this boy die.

It's very heartbreaking if you consider Rio had resigned herself to Agatha just hating and rejecting her, and she is given this reminder of their love as a goodbye.

But ultimately I think with Agatha's progress – inching her way along her arc – this still marks the end of this chapter of their relationship: these two finally had something of an honest conversation, the baseline of their interactions has changed, and Rio needs to process brand new emotions like grief (which I sure hope doesn't have cosmic consequences ha ha).

That said, the kiss does seem to put Agatha and Rio in a relatively okay place at the end of this chapter. It's a bit of reconciliation. They've shown that they still love each other, but there's still a significant disconnect between them. But as a wise Lilia once said, sad is better than angry.

Now the ghost thing: it's a really interesting change to the dynamic of their relationship but I don't know if Agatha being a ghost encourages or dissuades Rio to go after her. Rio may feel motivated to help Agatha pass on and be with Nicky. Or Rio may take it as Agatha choosing to put distance between them, and from what we see in episode 5, Rio can't really do much about ghosts.

What the ghost thing does do is give Rio some grounds to ignore the first deal because if we look at the letter of the arrangement, Agatha asks for Rio "to stop making her life hell" and to not see Rio's face when she dies. These terms are no longer relevant for a ghost.

And if one argues that the deal has Agatha telling Rio to stop pursuing her, you could argue that Rio's following Billy and trying to deal with the Tommy situation. Agatha just happens to be around all the time while Rio's doing her job.

If we ignore the whole Maximoff twin situation like you say, I think it would actually be up to Agatha to decide whether a new chapter of them begins.

Because while being a ghost is a sacrifice in a lot of ways, it actually gives Agatha more control over the relationship in a way she didn't before, not even with the Darkhold. I don't think Rio can touch her, literally. It's possible Rio can't even sense her.

The good news is, this kind of ambiguity is perfect for fanfiction and fan interpretations. There is a lot of potential there.

#agatha all along #agathario #agatha x rio #tv: agatha all along #ship: vidarkness #aaa meta #asks #anon

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righoul · 22 days ago

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Claws & Shadows

[IV]

Everyone in the room seems shocked between Logan’s and Elektra’s interactions, besides the Professor. Charles knows they had a past together. Of course he knew, but if it’s all the same, he was glad that Logan got some parts of it figured out. He would hope that this gives Logan an opportunity to finally connect with someone like her to reconcile for whatever that went down with them in the past.

“Let me get this straight,” Jean pipes up. “You two knew each other?”

“I mean, yeah, but...” Logan replies before he is cut off.

“We weren’t entirely friends at the time.” Elektra finishes. They’re still staring at each other, not acknowledging the people around them. Logan is still in shock at the memory that blasts at him without warning.

“Was that…you?” Logan asks. Elektra knows what he meant. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think that it worked. You seemed lost, so I thought if I pushed that memory into your mind, you might’ve remembered.”

“What happened?”

“We have a bit of history together, but not in a good way. It’s kind of a long story.”

“I got time.”

Elektra seems taken back by his response. The room feels stuffy to her with all these strangers looking at them like a couple of circus freaks. She wants to leave.

“I’m going to get fresh air.” Elektra announces. She jumps down from the table, but her legs are about to give out on her. She feels like a newborn fawn ready to take their first step. Before she could fall, she lets out a gasp and Logan is there to catch her fall.

“Woah,” Logan exclaims. “I got you, darlin’, don’t worry.”

Elektra looks up at him like it was the first time, and her breath catches in her throat. She never noticed his eyes until now. She looks into his beautiful hazel eyes and quietly thanks him. She finds it attractive along with his rugged looks, giving the bad boy appearance. The kind of look she found sexy when she was a good little Catholic girl in her teen years, wanting to experience life and have some freedom. But her father wouldn’t approve it, giving his political status back then.

“Logan?” Elektra speaks meekly.

“I’m here, sweetheart.” Logan comforts her.

“Would you mind helping me? To go outside, I mean.”

“Of course.”

Logan knew she was uncomfortable, almost as if she was getting ready to have a panic attack. This gave him the perfect opportunity to get to talk to her alone about his past memories and herself without prying eyes watching their every move like starving vultures. Logan gently guides her outside of the medical bay while everyone cleared a path for them.

“Professor, are you sure this is a…?” Jean begins to ask.

“It’s fine, Jean. They have a lot of catching up to do.” Charles reassures her.

␥ ✧ ␥ ✧ ␥

They finally made their way outside where Elektra could get some fresh air. Letting in a deep inhale and a shuddering exhale, she finally felt at peace. Logan stands by her side, allowing her all the time in the world. He rubs her back, but respectfully gives her some space. Elektra clutches onto her tank top that she was wearing, as if it was her life support. She took in some deep breaths again, fighting the urge to have a panic attack. She was hunched over as if she was getting ready to vomit, and Logan is still rubbing her back, comforting her as best he could. She finally sat up straight, feeling much better.

“So, what happened?” Logan asks slowly.

Elektra looks back at him, processing what he meant. “About…us?”

Logan nods. Elektra lets out a sigh and said, “Nothing good. You were on the brink of losing yourself into an animal, hardly a man. I was with S.H.I.E.L.D at the time and I was assigned to destroy you. Looking at you now, I hardly recognized you.”

Logan shakes his head. “I don’t remember any of that happening. I’m sorry.” Elektra gives him a sly smile. “It’s probably for the best.” Logan smiles back at her sadly. “Yeah.”

Elektra went to look in front of her. “What is this place?”

Logan looks at her and then out in the open field. “This is what we would call a safe haven for mutants. Especially for the kiddos.” Elektra looks at Logan with awe in her eyes. “So, you’re an X-Man?” Logan chuckles to himself. “Yeah, kinda hard to believe I'm working in a team.” “I think that’s very admirable of you.” Logan looks back at her, shocked. He smiles at her.

“If you don’t mind me asking. What the hell were you doing in Canada?” Logan asks bluntly.

“I was trying to find something. I guess that didn’t work out too well, given my previous state.”

“What were you looking for?”

Elektra laughs dryly, “That’s a loaded question. I’m not sure, to be honest. I was sent on a mission. They didn’t give me all the details.”

Logan frowns at that. Why would they send her out without giving out more information? Let alone, she’s not familiar with the area. They sit together by a pond in silence. The wind picks up, blowing Elektra’s raven hair. Logan couldn’t help, but admire how beautiful she looked. When the sun hits her face, she looks like she’s glowing, like a Greek goddess. He had to look away before she spotted him. Elektra lays her head on Logan’s broad shoulder, taking him by surprise.

“It’s beautiful out here.” Elektra comments.

“Yeah.” But, he wasn’t paying attention to nature. He’s focused on her. Elektra looks up at Logan from his shoulder, and he looks down at her a few seconds after. His hazel eyes staring into her gunmetal blue hues. They’re leaning towards each other, lips mere centimeters away until Jean cockblocks them.

“I’m so sorry,” Jean apologizes. “Elektra, we have a room ready for you.”

“Oh.” Elektra was taken back. “Thank you.”

She gets up from the ground and follows Jean. Logan scowls at Jean, and looks back to find Scott standing back. He apologetically shrugs his shoulders and pats Logan’s shoulder.

“I’ll buy you a beer later.” Scott offers.

Logan scoffs and gets up from the ground as well. He slaps Scott on the back, causing him to cough. “I think you owe me two beers.”

They both laugh and head back inside the X-Mansion.

#logan howlett #wolverine #wolverine fanfiction #hugh jackman #x men #xmen #wolverine smut #logan howlett smut

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yamanehaize01 · 7 months ago

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Miracle laid in Serendipity: Unveiling the Voyage of Miraculous Bearers

The Unknowing Tale between Y/n L/n & Adrien Agreste

Description: Y/n L/n is not a very focused and attentive person when it comes to important things, her attention to detail is lower than she could ever admit. That's why the word "Naïve" is sometimes the title above her head. But who would of thought she will be given an opportunity to be better at one important thing? She won't let it slip from her fingers, even if she ended up sacrificing her sanity in the process.

One may never realize the length she gone through with her new responsibility, everyone appreciate her polar opposite. She may never spare herself another rest, but atleast lives won't be at stake anymore when she's here.

Her responsibility as being the beholder of the Ladybug Miraculous...

Towards the bright side, her teammates is here for her. And even if she makes mistakes here and there in her civilian life, she will try her best in the life of saving lives. Although, she realizes the sign from one of the people she trusted too late.. being prey is not what she is, she just needs to remind the 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙙𝙖𝙩𝙤𝙧 of that.

Chapter 01: Roam the Meadows

Subsequent Chapters | 02 | 03 | 04 | Loading...

Second — Point of View.

Perspective of Y/n L/n.

A yawn left your throat, stretching your arms up to rid of the slight numbing that happened when you were asleep. Taking a small look on your bedroom window, a small smile forms on your lips. You set yourself to the side, grabbing your blanket off of you and standing up from your bed and taking two steps that led you to your windowsill. Having a cramped place is something that you’re used to since you were born, having moved into Paris two years ago. You feel this sense of being truly at home when the place is small, is it just you?

You set one of your elbows on the windowsill, bringing your palm under your chin as you look at the view of cars, people, and animals down below. Then you saw some people wearing backpacks and crossing the road, right then you finally realized something. You slightly jolt off from the windowsill, with a look of shock and worry. It's Monday..! You don't get to do extra things when you're supposed to be going to school right about now! Y/n— you idiot..! You lightly hit yourself in the head a few times, and then begin to get ready for school.

By the time you are finished showering, brushing your teeth, and getting dressed. Your mother looked you up and down with an unamused expression and a sigh left her lips. “Y/n, are you really going to school like that?” You gave your mother a nervous laugh and kissed her cheek. “Sorry mom, but I'll be late if I take any more time..!” You say, chugging the glass of water from the dining table, which you almost activated your gag reflex from doing so, thankfully your throat mercy you from it for now.

“Slow down, Y/n..! Haist..” You let out another laugh and apologize, before meeting yourself out and closing the door behind you. You drop your shoulders with a small sigh, holding your bookbag from one hand and the other hugging the three textbooks to your chest. “I better hurry, or I'll definitely be late..” You mumble under your breath, you increase your speed as you walk down the sidewalk. Eyes widening when people are already crossing the pedestrian lane from a few steps ahead.

You outright ran, if you can't catch it there's no saying you’ll be able to catch your class too! Your hair flew down your vision, making it hard to see, you blew air from your lips trying to somehow get it away from your sight. You then had to make a very risky halt, you stumble a bit but you catch your footing fortunately enough. You look back at the traffic light, only to be a bit disappointed that you were late to actually cross.

You set your attention forward towards the sidewalk across the pedestrian lane. Although, your eyebrows knitted together in confusion as to why an old person is still passing across the busy road. Your mind almost did a factory reset, as you sprinted forward and gently grabbed the old man’s arm and led him over and into the safe part of the road.

That was close, you're glad you acted on instinct and possibly saved the old man’s life. “Thank you, young lady.. That was brave of you to do that.” He smiles, and you ended up sending him one of your own. “It's no problem, I couldn't just watch and not do something about it…” The old man nodded and said thank you once again, with you shaking your head saying it's completely alright.

You wipe the small sweat that formed on your forehead with the back of your hand. Patting your pockets, then waist, you jerk your head up in realization. You dropped your textbooks..! Oh no..! Turning your head back to the other side of the road, you didn't expect a familiar bluenette girl trying to wave at you. Struggling to hold the many items in her hands, a few of them — your textbooks.

“Uhm, you dropped this.. I suppose the least I could do is bring it back to you.” The girl said with a chuckle, you giggle back politely taking your textbooks from her hands. “Thank you..” You say, as the old man looks back and forth between the both of you. “How nice of her to do that.” The old man says, making the bluenette girl scratch the back of her head. "It's nothing really.. I-I’ll be going now..!” She waves to the both of you, turning her back and walking towards the school.

“Thank you again, young lady.. I’ll be on my way now as well.” The old man says, and you nod. You hold your textbooks tight against your chest, and you heave a breath. Continuing your walk to school, you're definitely late now, but it was worth being late for.

🂱 🂱 🂱 🂱 🂱 🂱 🂱 🂱

You sat down on your seat from the back after apologizing to Ms Bustier. You attempt to place your hand onto the desk before taking a seat, although your hand landed on a soft surface, making you take it away in embarrassment when you found out it was your seatmate’s hand. The redhead boy seems to have his cheeks reddened as well, and he hides his face slightly in his sketchbook down the desk.

“S-Sorry.. didn't mean to.” You say with a small smile, Nathaniel looks back at you, only replying with a nod. You set your stuff aside, finally taking a seat and trying to listen to the lesson Ms Bustier was talking about. You could easily be lost in the topic sometimes, mostly because — even if you deny it deep inside. You're not difficult to be distracted with anything else, you try to focus all the time but the chances are too small sometimes.

That's why you are obligated to ask your seatmate or classmates about the topic and if they could explain it to you again. You were sure that your classmates or friends in your hometown were probably happy when your parents announced that you were moving out. You're just difficult to handle, and pity showers all over you and that’s why they swallow their words before agreeing about explaining it to you once more.

You sort of realized that a bit too late though.. which ended up lowering your self-esteem then, you should really start to be more independent when it comes to your studies… You're certain, you'll only get nowhere if you were to continue down that path of dependending on someone.

A tap has been made on your shoulder, making you flinch and turn to your seatmate. “I- uh.. C-Class is over…” He points out softly, your eyes switches to the front seeing students leave one by one. You scream internally, as you send Nathaniel a smile. The redhead looks away momentarily at that, with a small tinted blush. “T-Thank you for telling me..! Sorry..!” You grabbed your bookbag and your textbooks, before scurrying your way down the small stairs and out of the classroom.

Y/n.. What are you doing… that thought of getting nowhere by yourself will probably be your fate at this point. You shake your head, attempting to think of something else. Slow progress is the answer.. there's still classes that you need to attend, so maybe next class will be your start?

Sigh.. you hope so.

You're finally home after a long day at school.. you could say that there's one or two things that you paid attention to today. One — being getting to class, and Two — being trying to help an old man cross the road safely. Nothing about education though, isn't that great..?

Leaving your bookbag and textbooks down to the floor next to your bed, you walk towards your desk. Sitting on your chair, and laying your head down on the surface. You blankly stare down onto the plain designs of your desk, trying to think of something to be able to focus more on your education.

What method would you use? You don't frankly have a plan also, well- you could think of one right now..! Uh- you just need time to think and then the idea will be there soon enough! You close your eyes, before opening them back, and a small groan leaves your lips after. You can't express your thoughts if you can't write it down.. your extra notebooks helped with those kinds of things well.

Now.. where is your pen, hm…

You sat back up comfortably, scanning your desk for some pen that you probably scattered around somewhere and forgot about tidying it up. Although — you suddenly caught sight of an unfamiliar looking black box. Curious, you lift it up from the corner of your desk, and see the neat type of designs it has on the top of it. Did your mom leave it here? Maybe she did, atleast she is the most likely person that you thought of doing something like this.

Either way, you might as well see what's inside.. you slowly open the small box, attempting to take a peak before it even fully opens. Suddenly — a glowing bright light flashes from the box, making you squint your eyes and move the box away from your face. Placing it down on the desk, you cover your eyes a bit before the light finally shines down.

You took another peak from in between your fingers, your vision came in eye-to-eye with a bug — looking small creature. “W-What..? Are you..?” You immediately stood up from your chair and backed away, you were confused but a bit scared. But you stayed calm, which seems to be working in your favor.

“Hi, Y/n! You have been chosen to be the beholder of the Ladybug Miraculous!” You blinked a few times at that, as the small creature continued to talk. “And I'm Tikki, your Kwami..!” She says with a high pitched and cheerful voice. But her expression changes after a few seconds, as if she's giving you time to manage your situation. “But unfortunately we don't have much time, Y/n! Paris is currently in danger with the akumanization! And they need you..!” Your mouth falls agape at that. Paris? Need you? Why? Danger? Akumanization? Huh..?

This isn't making much sense, but then you heard the loud screams of the people outside and followed by an evil sounding laughter. Your heart beats in panic, as you look towards your bedroom window. “I-I can't possibly — no.. how can I..!” You look around, and Tikki immediately knows that kind of look on your face. You're definitely scared, she floats over to the ladybug earrings and stops you before you even attempt to leave your room.

“Y/n.. calm down. I know we're asking a lot from you, but there's nobody else that can stop this besides you! You need to capture the akuma of the victim..!” Tikki said with a hint of desperation from her voice, she flew down to your hand, gently placing the earrings on your palm. “W-What do you mean..? H-How do I even do that..?” You question, looking at the earrings on your hand with bewilderment.

“Put the earrings on, it’ll grant you special powers. Say — Tikki, spots on! To make you transform into a superheroine. And you say, ‘Lucky charm!’ for your ability.” Tikki explains with a smile, you furrowed your eyebrows in further confusion. “Uhm.. are you sure it’ll work?” You asked, and Tikki nodded her head. Trusting the small creature’s words, you put on the earrings on each side of your ear.

You couldn't believe this is even happening, being a superhero is the least you expected to be in your life! How could they be sure that you won't fail at it too? Tikki waves her small hands in front of you to get your attention, which she succeeded. Gosh, you need to stop dozing off, didn't she say people need you right now? “Uh- sorry.. spots on— wait! Right, your name first—” You let out a half gasp, when the small creature suddenly descended towards you and into the earring.

You immediately transformed into a new, red and black suit. Black being the spots as a ladybug would have, a complete few on your hands presenting gloves. A signature small ladybug on the black dot to the side of your collarbone, a yoyo wrapped around your waist. Down to your feet, kinda looks like boots painted black. With red lines marking a portion of it with a unique design that sort of reminds you of pin clips. Three of both sides, layering top to bottom as a design. As the red lines draw a straight line beneath the markings from up to all the way down the bottom of your feet.

Your hair grew half length — only down in the middle, looking like a hair tail. Two red long thin fabric ties it down, and a red — half black dots to one side and a half white dots mask covers the upper part of your face. It feels weird wearing something too fit on your body, hugging your curves, every area. You grab a small mirror from your drawer, looking at yourself for a bit.

“This.. is strange.” You mumbled, not going to get a few more seconds to yourself though as you heard another scream emerging from outside. “R-Right..! I need to help people!” Opening your bedroom window, you quickly get out of your room and oh dear — you hold for dear life the moment you see the height from below, nervously hugging the walls.

“T-Tikki..! Uh- nope! I can't do this..” You close your eyes, inching yourself back to your room. “Wait.. what is this?” You grab the yoyo from around your waist, looking at it for a second. “A yoyo..? Ah.. I guess this could help me.” You slip the open string in your ring finger, holding the yoyo tight. Before letting out a breath, and walking back to your window.

“This should work, right?” You tell yourself, well- it better work or you’ll fall to your death! You can't have that, not at a time like this at least! You threw your yoyo up towards a nearby chimney, the look of surprise on your face when it actually clung around it. You hold the string tight, hovering over the windowsill, preparing yourself.

So.. Do you need to just jump down and see what happens? You slightly tug on to the string- a BIG mistake on your part, as it propelled you up the sky. “AAHH!” You screamed, waiting for the moment you hit a hard surface. Only to end up hitting another body as well, the female yells in panic, as you both stumble down the roof and into a balcony. You both close your eyes, having a split second of seeing the concrete ground of the balcony.

But you and the girl only swing back and forth, strings trapping both your bodies. And you were thankful it saved you two from meeting the concrete ground, it might've just caused you both concussion and maybe even pass out if that happened. “I-I.. oh- hello?” You blink a couple of times, meeting two ocean blue eyes staring back at you.

“Uhm.. Hi?” The awkward situation was definitely rising, and you don't even know how to untangle both of you from this yoyo. You notice she seems to have a mask too, gray and light pink colored mask and her bluenette hair is lifted and styled into two buns. She kinda reminded you of someone, but couldn't place your finger on it.

“D-Do you know h-how to get us out of this..?” She stuttered and you felt bad, she's clearly uncomfortable, and you are too, but you really have no idea how to undo this. “I'm sorry, but I don't know.. sorry for getting you into this mess. I'm new to this…” You explain with a hint of a smile to reassure her, she shakes her head and smiles back.

“No, it's alright.. I'm new too, so that's a start.” She giggled, you then switched your gaze when you heard something. A person with a black suit comes to your level of vision, sparkling an idea from you. He appears to have a mask as well, and it's not like he's the one people are running from. Could it be that he's a superhero too..? Well- worth a try, you need to get out of this mess quickly.

“Hey, you..! We need help!” You yelled, and his eyes made contact with yours. His lips formed into that of a grin, and you were second guessing yourself if you made the right choice of calling out for him. He could potentially be a villain — this is bad, you can't possibly risk this girl’s safety when it's your fault.

You try to wiggle from the strings, creating momentum, you look back at the black masked guy. And he seems to be making his way right now, making his staff as a bridge to go across the other roof. You could feel panic building, and you didn't even notice how the bluenette girl was asking you to stop moving. But when the figure comes closer, you try everything you could think of to undo those strings.

And it was only luck that you got to move your ring finger where the point of the string is. Making a slight force forward, which was enough for the yoyo to loosen as it is entitled to come back to its original position. The bluenette gasped, both of your bodies meeting the ground.

But you quickly stood from the floor and looked up, quickly swung your yoyo towards that black suited person’s ankle, luckily it latched around it making him lose balance and fall upside down. “Woah- woah! What's going on, ladies?” You furrowed your eyebrows, having a closer look at him now. Now that you think about it, he does resemble a cat. Especially with that long tail and tipped ears.

“You're not evil, are you?” You asked, making the bluenette girl beside you and the blonde blink twice at your accusation. “I'm kinda hurt, Ms– uh Bug? It's my first time on the job!” He announced with a sly voice and a formed smirk. You look at him with a raised eyebrow, as the bluenette girl blankly stared at him, seemingly unamused.

“Well, you don't seem like a threat now..” You say with a finger under your chin, squinting your eyes at him. “See? Now would you do the honor and let this innocent kitty go, purlease~?” You sigh and close your eyes momentarily, he seems to be on the good side. Mainly because you hear a lot of chaos coming at sort of a middle range. You already screwed up, why were you chosen for this.. “I'm sorry..”

You could feel movement from your yoyo’s string, and your hand slowly moving forward. You jolted, seeing the sly feline getting up close and personal with a grin plastered across his lips. “I mean- I wouldn't mind a small kiss for an apology, Cuddlebug.” He says with a flirtatious tone, you stare lightly down, his hand did hold onto the yoyo’s string as you thought. His attempts of flirtation makes you feel sort of uncomfortable, and you accidentally pull on your yoyo when you were thinking of creating distance.

Resulting in the feline falling down, you hold out your hand to try to catch him and you and the bluenette flinch when a thud has been made. “I-Is he okay?” A voice coming from behind you asked with worry, you just shake your head. You need to make sure he's alright, you hovered over the railings, and even though you were scared. You proceeded to jump off — “W-What are you, stop!” The bluenette yelled, and squinted her eyes shut, her first time being a superhero isn't going very well. What is wrong with her teammates?!

By the time you jumped down, he still seemed very much in contact with the floor, his face colliding onto the ground. There isn't blood, is he unconscious..? You ended up hurting your potential teammate, you're only guessing whoever gave you this opportunity made.. a mistake.

You crouched down, placing the palm of your hand onto the back of his shoulder. And the moment you even open your mouth, his hand grabs your wrist and brings you down with him, tackling you to the ground. You tried to fight back– but he unfortunately got the upperhand and pinned both of your wrists down on either side of your head.

“Let go of me!” You demanded, squirming beneath him. “Don’t worry, you should calm down~ Who am I to harm precious little Cuddlebug~?” Your eye twitched at that, especially wanting to get rid of that smirk off his lips. “Stop calling me that! People are in danger, this is not the time..!” You pointed out, as you turn your head to the side, seeing people running from a distance away.

The blonde cat furrowed his eyebrows in concern, you do have a point. He slowly let go of your wrists and helped you up, noticing the obvious worry in your eyes at the citizens from a distance. He brings your hand against his lips, finally enough for you to turn back to him with slightly widened eyes when you realize he kisses the back of it.

He gave you a genuine smile before apologizing. “I'm sorry, Cuddlebug, You're right, we have an entire city to save.” Your expression eases up, a soft smile forming on your lips. “Apology accepted, Mr Cat. We should probably head dow-” A half scream catches both you and the blonde’s attention. The bluenette girl jumped over the balcony, screaming at the height. You move towards the direction she’ll be falling down from, just in case. But she seems to have made it, stumbling a bit but she got her footing back.

“T-That was scary..” She laughs, fiddling with her fingers. “Yeah, I agree.. but this suit seems to grant us the durability to withstand it.” Both nodded at your small explanation, you turn to look back at the chaos and turn back at them. “Time limit is over, we need to know what's causing all of this..!” You say, running towards it and keeping your yoyo in hand, just in case you had enough build-up confidence to actually use it again along the way.

“Wait for us, Cuddlebug!” The blonde cat yelled following after you.

“W-Wait! Guys-! I-I’m not sure about this..! W-What if…” The bluenette girl sighed, and started following you down the path as well.

☂︎ ☔︎ ☂︎ ☔︎ ☂︎ ☔︎ ☂︎

Once you and your teammates were at the place causing chaos around the city. You almost turned around and just about to say screw this whole superhero thing when you saw the large metallic monster ahead. He almost looks like a toy robot come to life, now how are you going to turn that person back to normal..? Tikki says you need to capture an.. akuma? She didn't clarify what it is, how are you even supposed to do this?

You feel a hand over your shoulder, cutting you in your daze. “Hey, Cuddlebug. You alright..?” You turn to look him in the eyes, before lowering your gaze in disappointment. “W-What’s wrong..?” Even the bluenette seems to notice the atmosphere. Your teammates are relying on you, but you don't even know what to actually do to fix all of this. You're all in this together, but you feel like you're suddenly holding the role of their leader.. and if you're being completely honest, you don't want to be. You’ll just let them down.

“I.. I'm lost… how are we even supposed to defeat that villain? There has to be a way, but I have no idea what it is.” You admit in defeat, slightly hanging your head. The blonde’s eyes lit in shock. “I thought you'd probably have a plan with the way you were ready to jump into danger, Cuddlebug..” The blonde cat questioned, and you buried both of your hands against your face, not because you wanted to cry it all away. But you felt guilty about initiating this whole thing and also bringing your teammates into danger.

The three of you clearly have no idea what you're going to do. Inexperienced superheroes are probably the easiest way a villain could defeat without much effort. You didn't even know what you were thinking when you ran all the way over here, you know damn well it has nothing to do with logic. It was stupid of you, but when you heard the screaming citizens and the slowly breaking down of buildings and homes. You knew you had to do something about it somehow, not just stand away from it like a coward.

“Yeah, I know.. but I thought the citizens might need our help, and that's the only thing I went here for…” You say, still burying your face in your hands. The black masked cat felt his heart tightened and beating quite fast. He gave your shoulder a gentle squeeze of reassurance, placing his second hand on your other shoulder. “That's very heroic for you to do, Cuddlebug. Acting on your impulse and wanting to save people, even if you were completely unsure if you had the capabilities to do it.” You lift your face a bit from your fingers, and catch the picture of the blonde’s emerald green eyes.

“I-I think that was brave of you too.. I d-didn't even know if I'd have the courage to show up here if you hadn't led me. Your show of bravery is what got me here, so.. I'm sure we’ll be able to figure it out as a team!” The bluenette cheered, before shrinking her shoulders in embarrassment by how loud she sounded. Their words spike some type of confidence within you, your chest feels light with the guilt washing away from it.

“Thank you, guys.. I appreciate that…” You say, the smile slowly coming back to your lips. There's no doubt that fate made these two your teammates, because if you're probably on your own. You would've given up and told Tikki to bring those earrings back and introduce it to a new and more capable owner than you are. You're just glad, is all.. and happy too, to have teammates like them.

Seeing the smile coloring back to your lips, made the blonde cat’s stomach swarm with butterflies. And he couldn't help himself, and hugged you tightly. You were caught off guard, a bit hesitant but you accepted the hug nonetheless. Although it was short-lived when a laser beams towards the three of you. The bluenette heroine screeched, barely dodging just in time. As the blonde cat attempted to dodge, with you in his arms, even though it worked it got both of you rolling over to the side.

And it ended up once again with the black suited cat on top of you. His smirk immediately made you want to flick him in the forehead but you resisted the urge. “This position isn't the worst kind in the world, right Cuddl—ow!” You let your yoyo bonk him in the head when it falls down and hit him on top. This causes the flirtatious cat to rub his head multiple times, enough time for you to slip away and get up on your feet.

“Are you okay? Here..” You held out your hand to the bluenette, she looked at your hand for a moment before placing hers with yours, pulling her up from the ground. She dusted herself a bit, turning back at you. “Thank you, I'm okay..” You nod your head at her confirmation, before heading your attention back to the villain. “We need to capture some type of akuma, I think.” She looks at you with confusion, and you avert your gaze with a nervous laugh. “Sorry, even I don't know what an akuma is. All I know is, we need to capture it somehow or some way.” You explained, your eyes widening and before she could reply, you grabbed her wrist and ran off.

Fortunately the black suited cat was nearby so you also grabbed his arm before he could even open his mouth to talk. Another loud noise of laser hits through the road, thankfully you three weren't there anymore. You led them slightly away from the scene for a little atleast, to come up with a plan. And though you aren't completely certain, you have an idea of what an akuma could be.

“Alright, I thought of something this time.” You say, looking back and forth at the both of them. “Spill it, Cuddlebug. This cat already has pointed ears.” He winked, you didn't really quite get his joke, but you continue on discussing your plan. “I got a split second observation of the villain, and the giant robot appears to have a shiny looking pendant that's planted in the middle of the robot’s knee.” The blonde stares at you, he definitely didn't get your point at first. But he's acting like he does.

You turn towards him, you're not about to let him be on the battlefield without knowing what to do, it could cause accidents and that's the least that you want right now. “Mr Cat, let me expla-” You were suddenly cut off mid sentence when the flirtatious feline put a finger against your lips. “You're gonna need to come up with a better nickname than that, Cuddlebug~” You sent him a light glare, he's clearly not taking this seriously. You just want nothing but get it over with quickly, before that villain causes anymore destruction to Paris.

“I should just go for it, well— if you and Cuddlebug want to stay here and think about it. Then I'll buy you both some time!” He said towards the bluenette, shrugging his shoulders before turning around and going to the battlefield with just one plan in mind and that is to fight the villain with all he's got? Is he kidding right now? You grabbed a hold of his leather tail, making him turn back to you. “Not a good idea, Kitty. Just bear with me for a second, could you do that for me..?” The masked feline blanked out for a minute, just staring at you.

A small cough then left his throat, as he turn his face away for a bit. A tinted blush covering his cheeks, he doesn't know why he's feeling like this all of a sudden. He nodded his head as a response, earning some relief within you now that he's willing to listen. “Okay, an akuma. It may not be true or it is, but I think that's where a villain gain its power from.” The bluenette girl put a finger under her chin, she seems to get it atleast. And the masked feline is also kind of connecting the dots.

“Think of it as a cherished possession of the villain, if we break it I think that's where we're able to capture the akuma. Or whatever it is, then the last bit is probably how the person will turn back to normal!” You snapped your finger with a bright smile, then you heard soft giggles coming from the masked bluenette. And a warm smile illuminating from the flirtatious cat, your head lowered a bit when he placed his hand above your head.

“Seems like Cuddlebug hit the nail for us, that smile can light up anybody's day. Although, I would prefer if it's only for—” You were obligated to change the subject and into the main topic at hand, you were slightly getting flustered and you had to stop it. “W-We know what to do righ–” Now it's your turn to get cut off, as you heard the masked bluenette’s voice. “R-Really he's right.. you were quick to know the situation than either of us.” She looks away, she's not one to be straightforward and say those things sometimes. But she figured you deserve it.

“Thank you, err–” You trailed off, you haven't really caught her name. She sort of panic, mumbling a few words to herself before finally saying her chosen name. Or should you say, her chosen heroine name. “Y-You could call me Multimouse..” She lightly stuttered with a chuckle. “Alright, thank you for saying that.. Multimouse. It really means a lot..!” The bluenette blushes in embarrassment, saying it's nothing.

“What about me, Cuddlebug! Don't you—” It was your time to shut him up with a finger against his pouty lips. “I appreciate your words too, Mr Cat. So thank you..” You lightly pat his head, before turning towards the way you three came from. “Now let's go and break that villain’s evil possession!” You ran back towards the battlefield, already hearing another shot of laser from the robot. Multimouse was about to follow up behind you, but she hesitated again. W-What if she’ll mess it up..? Although before her mind starts to overthink, she hears the masked feline heave out a breath.

“Am I falling, or did I already fall?” Is what he asked, this only made her facepalm herself at the sight of him holding his chest where his heart is, dazedly staring back to where you ran off to. “I-I’ll leave that to you, she needs us, you know!” With that, she begins to make her way to where you went to as well. Although she's right, the cat made a reply back. “Mousie, this cat just wanted advice!” He yelled with a light laugh, before following after as well.

☕︎ ☕︎ ☕︎ ☕︎ ☕︎ ☕︎ ☕︎

You move your yoyo in a circular motion repeatedly, trying to think of a better time to lounge onto the metallic robot. There’s something really unique about that pendant on his knee, it's small but it shines very bright. Which what causes your suspicion in the first place, if anything that's the first thing you’ll try to break when you get close enough that is.

“H-Hey.. thinking about a plan?” You turn to see Multimouse, replying to her question with a nod. “One of us could try to distract it.. but I'm thinking of throwing that to the side since none of us really done this before. Getting hurt is not an option..” For a second, Multimouse looked a bit panicked by what your idea was, but slowly felt relieved right after. “I could try to distract it, Cuddlebug!” Said the masked feline, holding up a grin.

“No can do, Mr Cat. There's another and more safe way to approach the—” You try to reason, but the feline seems more interested in going all in. You never doubt that he's a total cat in general with how he's getting difficult to reason with. “Aww you care about me, Cuddlebug? Don't worry, there's no such thing as a cat without fast reflexes.” He says, lifting up his bicep as if to make a point.

“Also— Cataclysm!” Now you are extra confused, even Multimouse scratches the side of her cheek looking baffled. “What is that? A power up?” You asked with curiosity, you don't quite remember Tikki saying anything about a power up, or are you just being you again? “Sort of? But don't come close, Cuddlebug! A small creature said — I can destroy anything I touch with this ability, I don't want the two of you getting near it.” He says, backing up a few steps away.

“Good thinking, how about you, Multimouse? Do you have an ability?” This changes the whole thing, using your abilities to your advantage is a huge step to the right direction. “I think so..? I remember a certain word, hm.. Multi– Multitide..? E-Eh.. M-Multi.. oh-! Multitude..!” Her ability activated, seeing her jumping rope lighten up in a bright light pink. She touches it, holding it with her two hands, before suddenly she starts shrinking.

You and the masked feline watched in surprise, seeing multiple tiny versions of Multimouse gathered looking at each other. And the original Multimouse was shaken up, looking up to the both of you. The masked feline stood back, while you were crouching down placing your knee to the ground. You lower both of your hands for the tiny Multimouses to walk over to.

“How adorable, your ability matches that of a real mouse.” You say with a close-eyed smile, you then turn a bit behind you to see the masked feline. Although to your major shock, he wasn't there anymore, and instead he's already in front of the villain attempting to challenge it with a cocky smirk. “T-That idiot feline..!” You dart your eyes around, desperate to think of a plan to turn this around.

Your luck is unbelievably low with how you only thought of a few things but nothing led up to a secured and high chance of succeeding. “This luck is against me.. wait.” You gasped, gently putting the Multimouses in one hand, and your free hand grabbed your yoyo from your waist. “Lucky charm..?” Your yoyo immediately lights up, the brightness making you accidentally drop it to the ground.

An object was created from the yoyo, the item being plastered with red and black dots all over. “Huh..? A screwdriver? What is this for..?” You look back at the villain, still seeing the feline dodge and fight back against it. If you do say so yourself, he's doing a great job surviving so far. You squint your eyes, your vision lining up with hints on plain sight.

Then suddenly.. an idea finally popped up. And you didn't waste anymore time and ran towards where the masked feline is currently fighting. “Hey, Mr Cat! Have you used your ability yet..!?” You yelled, hoping it was enough for him to hear you as you came closer and closer with your pace. His ear twitched, giving you a glance from a distance. “Yeah I did! I tried to hit the center of the object, but I ended up using my ability below the item!” He clarified, hearing a second beep from his ring.

You take a look at what the masked feline is talking about, your eyes suddenly perking up. “Perfect..! Nice job, Mr Cat!” You say, and the black suited feline’s lips lift up into a silly grin, maybe he just couldn't contain the giddiness even though what came out of your mouth was only a simple compliment. “Always at your mercy, Cuddlebug!” You catch a small wind of his words, although wanting to focus and not ruin this perfect opportunity — you gave the screwdriver to the tiny Multimouses in your one hand.

“W-What will we use this for..?” The original Multimouse questions with a hint of nervousness. “From further observation of our enemy, there's screws that become visible to us when our other teammate uses his ability.” You trail off, before continuing. “That grants us a chance to remove those screws, and possibly remove that odd looking possession in the robot’s knee!” You say, with a hint of hope.

“Since you're tiny, and you are multiplied. I'm going to need you to get into there and unscrew those screws for us. And don't worry, I'll do my best to get you in there safely. Sounds good?” You smile softly, wanting to provide your teammate some reassurance before you could send her to the mission. You could see the hesitation on the original Multimouse’s face, but she quickly shook her head and nodded with new found confidence.

“Great, let's try our best.” You spare a short glance at the masked feline to see how he's holding up, only to see the evident bewilderment in his face. You turn back your attention to the mini Multimouses in your hand, there has to be a way to secure them before you go ahead and decide it's time to meet the villain face to face. Your hand is definitely not secured enough for them, though. You look down at your yoyo, holding it under your armpit and start twisting it to see if it’ll magically unlock or something. And — it failed, it did not unlock whatsoever. You sigh, pressing the top of the yoyo and to your initial surprise. It opened, it was all blank white inside it seems. Either way, you think it's safe enough for the Multimouses to go through for the time being.

The black suited feline keeps looking down to his ring, his only guess is his power is running out, and who knows if it’ll change him back forcefully after the five bars on his ring runs out. He doesn't want to stay around to find out though, how risky that would be. And the minute he even decided to go back to a safe place, just in case his theory was right. You suddenly came into the picture, running at full speed towards the large metallic robot.

The slits in the masked feline’s pupils turned even smaller. What are you thinking..?! He definitely doesn't want to stand here and make sense of your action, he needs to get to you now! “C-Cuddlebug! I don't think that's—” He was about to go ahead and lift himself up with his staff to have a better chance of catching up to you. But he suddenly stood still, inkling emerald eyes watching your every move.

He glances at how precise your movement is, repeatedly motioning your yoyo in a circle with undefeatable determination. And as your eyes caught the perfect time to tackle said opportunity, you did so with no mercy. You swung your yoyo around the robot’s leg, gulping down your remaining bits of fear as you managed to stick yourself to the sides of the metal. Holding onto your yoyo’s strings tightly, as your hand catches a grip of the small opened area that the feline earlier destroyed.

You undo your yoyo, making it come back to your hand, holding it tight. You tap once again on the base of your yoyo, making it open up and reveal the Multimouses that's looking up at you. You gave them a warm smile, before letting them walk out of your yoyo on their own once they feel ready. And one by one, they left the dimension of your yoyo and into the metal storage of the robot. You hand them the screwdriver, and it almost fell out of your hand when the robot stomped his foot in terms of wanting you out of that specific area.

The Multimouses held the black spotted red screwdriver and in sync nodded their heads. You gave them a small wave, before unfortunately losing your level of traction against the metal, earning a yelp from your throat as you fell down. You forgot your yoyo’s weren't supporting your position anymore, with due panic — you did try to shoot your yoyo back to anywhere it could be wrapped around to. But the timing seems too late, and you then land into an unfamiliar type of softness. Only to realize that the knowing masked feline has you caught up in his arms, and just like earlier. You were welcome to by a sly smirk on his lips.

“Didn't know falling could be this, purrfect~!” There's really a lot of questionable things with your feline teammate, you only guess you are going to be dealing with that for as long as you survive as a superheroine. You brush his kitty puns aside, replying back with a thank you, he did save you after all. “Thanks, Mr Cat. I won't doubt those reflexes anymore.” You lightly laugh, ready to be put down and stand on your own again.

A beep has been made from your earring, you place a finger on top of it. Well, that doesn't sound very positive, a bit concerning. You hear another beep, and it seems like the feline heard it too. “Two bars, I think that's a sign I don't have much time left, Cuddlebug.” He says, peeking a bit at his ring to confirm the charges. “I think so too, that's not a good sign.” Seeing your worried look, he couldn't fight a chuckle. “Adorable.. and you got three dots left, Cuddlebug.” He says, looking at your beeping earring. You still wonder why this masked feline isn't setting you to the ground yet, this is not a time for chit-chatting that's for sure.

“O-Oh.. then hopefully Multimouse—” A laser beam strikes in an angled spot, as you and the masked feline caught sight of the robot’s shiny pendant drops from quite a height. The villain expresses anger, whoever is the victim in there, you could only thank the heavens as it has very sloppy movements. The pendant drops to the ground, making it break in the process. You could only feel your eyes perk up in impending happiness. Was that the akuma Tikki was talking about?

You immediately tapped the feline's collarbone in sign to drop you down. Although he only gave you a lopsided grin, and started running towards it with you still in his arms. “I could take you there, Cuddlebug.” He says, earning a soft sigh from your lips. “What a stubborn feline..” You mumble under your breath, the masked feline’s ear twitched hearing your voice clearly. Which dragged his mouth to let out another chuckle.

As you two roughly made it to the broken item, a purple mixture of black colored butterfly flew out of it. Is that the akuma..? You lift up your yoyo, looking at it, only one way to find out. You clearly know how to catch it or if there's anything you need to say for the akuma to be captured. But there is one thing you know, you could trap it in the dimension of your yoyo. At least for now, since you have no idea.

You tapped your yoyo, as it opened up smoothly. “Is that the akuma you're talking about, Cuddlebug?” You gave him a glance, before shrugging your shoulders. “I'm certain it is, even if it's not. I'm not taking any chances.” You shot your attention back to the flying butterfly, steadying your heartbeat. Chances are you could still catch it, you closed your eyes. Hearing a few people's cries, some were asking if any of them were okay, some were asking with a shake in their voices of who those masked people were in a suit. Some.. with desperation in their voices.

You can't let this slide, not in this situation. With that, you let your instincts guide you in this level of accuracy. Targeting your yoyo at the high level of distances the butterfly has gained. It was only a miracle that you succeed in one thing, and you’ll not have it any other way. “Caught it..!” A bright smile forms on your slightly trembling lips. A clumsy thud has been made from a few distance away, you turn towards it. Seeing Multimouse back to her original form, she quickly made her way towards both you and the masked feline.

“W-We did it..?” A small smile elevated from the bluenette’s face. As she softly grabs your hand, returning back the screwdriver from you. “Seems like we did, I'm glad..” You say with a lightened expression, though the blonde feline looked at his ring again, and also a beeping sound emerges from the masked bluenette's necklace. “You should go, Mr Cat.. You're running out of charges, you also Multimouse.” The girl infront of you blink rapidly for a second.

“If you say so, Cuddlebug. I’ll see you when I claw by..!” You spare him a small giggle, this masked feline and his puns. Well, it's not all terrible, which is good. He gestures a salute as a farewell, before he stops in the middle and looks back with a hesitant laugh as if he just realized something.

“Uh- Cuddlebug.. didn't you say something about turning everything back? Or is it just the victim..?” The masked feline pointed at the kneeling robot from behind you.

You blinked twice.

Multimouse blinked as well.

The three of you are looking at each other.

But mostly the attention is on your form.

You gave them a nervous laugh..

“Uhm.. about that.”

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