#and she turns to thea and he comforts her and reassures her and tells her that the only thing she can do is go along with it

[dullahandyke]

Me when I remember that my ocs have interpersonal relationships

[jillsvalentinex]

The day of the reaping was as annoying as ever. Thea was never fond of things that forced her to wake up early so it came to no surprise to both her and Jace that she woke up in less of a happy mood than usual. she stood in front of the mirror in the bathroom, combing through her hair to get all the knots out from the night prior. She stared at her reflection in the mirror, a noticeable frown on her face. The eye bags under her tired eyes were noticeable, too. 

"Thea! You done yet?" The voice of her brother caused her to turn her head to the closed door to the hallway. 

"In a minute!" She yelled back before she turned back to the mirror, huffing in annoyance as she struggled with her hair. She quickly tied her hair up in a half up, half down look, pulling a few hairs out of her ponytail to frame her face before she exited the bathroom. She rushed downstairs as fast as she could, entering the living room where Jace stood impatiently. 

He flapped his arms up in the air dramatically, heaving a harsh sigh. "You always take forever."

"I'm supposed to look my best, right?" Thea asked in a snarky tone as she stopped in front of him. 

"Yeah, well you didn't even do that right. Turn around." Jace told her, watching the short blonde pout before turning around. 

"You were rushing me. What did you expect?" She asked as Jace gently pulled the hair tie out of her hair and started fixing it.  She felt his fingers comb through her hair as he gathered half of her hair and started tying it up in a high ponytail with the other half of her hair down. Thea glanced down at the floor of her house, nervously fiddling with her hands. "I'm...not going to get picked, right?" She turned her head slightly to the side, making Jace stop what he was doing.

There was a short silence afterwards before Jace sighs deeply while continuing to put up her hair. "How many times is your name in today?"

Thea shifted her weight onto one leg as she stared off to the side. "Like... I don't know. Maybe twenty? Counting each year my name has been put in." She answered. 

"Twenty?" Jace questioned, his voice slightly raised from surprise. "What in the bloody hell have you been doing to have your name in the bowl fourteen more times than you need it to be?"

Thea lowered her eyes down to the floor, embarrassed, and began to fiddle with her hands. "I've been...helping...the poorer people get food."

Jace then lets out an amused chuckle because of her reasoning. "Of course, taking after mom; helping others out even when you don't need to." He answered before his face fell back into his normal, stoic look. He shook his head. "No. No, it's highly unlikely you're going to get picked. You'll be fine." He reassured her with a quick nod as he finished tidying up her hair. 

Their attention quickly shifts once a blare of a horn sounds off, telling everyone in the district to walk up to the reaping centre. The horn goes off once again shortly after and Thea turns around to Jace for an extra bit of comfort before they'd have to go to the reaping. He cups her face and with a reassuring but stern look, he repeats, "You'll be fine," with another nod before pulling her into a quick hug. 

Thea nervously fiddled with her hands as she stood in the crowd of girls, separate from the boys and her brother. She watched as the doors of the Hall of Justice opened, a tall, olive-skinned woman walking out onto the platform. The woman, also known as Irene Diaz, had puffy, black curls in her hair and was wearing what seemed to be a long, tight black dress that ended just below her knees with some kind of black blazer on top, although it didn't look like any normal blazer. She also had a matching black walking cane despite being completely fine without it. 

Irene was known for her dark coloured outfits, almost always wearing black, but sometimes there would be times where she'd show up in a little bit of colour, but it would still be within the darker shades. Her makeup was just as dark, but minimal. She had blended in black and red eyeshadow and her eyeliner was done to look like a spider web. Her lips were the same colour as her eyeshadow. Around her lips was black lipstick and the rest of her lips were red, carefully blended in with the black outline with some gloss on top to make it look glossy. 

She walked up to the mic near the edge of the platform. Her hands wrapped around the mic, showing off the pointy black nails she had on. "Hello~, District four." She greeted in her usual sing-song voice. "Happy Hunger Games, and may the-"

May the odds be ever in your favour. Thea mouthed, seemingly mocking the phrase as Irene spoke it to the whole of District four. She's heard it so many times it has practically been engraved into her brain. 

"It is now time for us to select one courageous young man and woman for the honour of representing District four in the 69th annual Hunger Games." Irene announced, looking back to the male and female crowds separated from each other. "Ladies first." She scanned the crowd of girls to see if there were any hands raised for volunteers, but there seemed to be no one offering up their life as she turned to her left and walked over to the bowl full of girl names. 

The air became tense as everyone watched Irene put her hand in the jar. Her hand hovered over the pile of names for a few moments before digging in deep, grabbing a piece of paper and walking back to the mic. She gave the crowd a smile as she opened up the piece of paper. "The female representing district four is..." She said before her eyes turned to the piece of paper, quickly reading the name before announcing it to the district. 

"Thea Greene!" 

Thea felt her heart sink in her chest. She felt all the girls around her turn towards her, staring at her with blank expressions. Even when Irene called her name again, it seemed like the blonde had turned into a rock, frozen in her spot. 

"Well, come on, darling, we don't have all day." She heard Irene speak into the mic with a chuckle, however she was unable to move from her spot. She then felt a hand grab tightly on her wrist, roughly pulling her out of the crowd. She stumbled a little once exiting the crowd of girls by the force of the peacekeepers pull as she stood in between the girls and boys. Having no other choice but to walk forward, she slowly began walking to the platform where Irene stood waiting for her. She felt a harsh push from one of the peacekeepers behind her to make her speed up her pace. 

Her breath hitched once walking up the stairs to the platform, Irene waiting at the top of the stairs, walking beside her with a hand placed on her back and stopped once beside the mic. "Thea Greene; our female tribute! A round of applause." Irene announced where the sound of applause was heard from both crowds. Thea turned her gaze over to the boys section, trying to look for her brother's shaggy blonde hair. Her breathing steadied once noticing the tall boy in the crowd. She watched as he nodded his head while staring back at her, trying to reassure her from the crowd although it was noticeable he was just as terrified for her as she was for herself. The clapping soon stopped, allowing Irene to continue the reaping process. "And now, for the boys." 

Irene walked to her left where the bowl full of the male's names were. She took off her black glove dramatically, but before she could lower her hand into the bowl, she was stopped by a sudden voice coming from the male crowd. 

"I volunteer!" Everyone turned their heads to the crowd of boys, noticing a hand raised in the crowd. Both Irene and Thea looked stunned as the male walked out of the crowd, a few peacekeepers following him from behind as he walked towards the platform. 

Irene drops her hand down to her side before walking back to the mic. "Oh, my. It looks like we have a volunteer. Come on up." 

Thea watched as the male walked up the steps to the stage. She already knew who he was, after all she did talk to his grandfather just the day before. Morgenthau did say he was planning on volunteering... The resemblance between him and his grandfather was wild. He had the same dark brown skin and an impressively built body, his biceps almost too big for the shirt he was wearing. His hair was short with his sides shaved. He stood roughly the same height as Irene, only because of the fact she was wearing high heels to make herself taller and towered over Thea, almost making him look intimidating if it weren't for his kind smile as he stood beside the mic opposite her. 

"Now, dear, what is your name?" Irene asked into the mic with a smile before giving it to the male. 

He leaned forward, his white teeth flashing the audience as he gave them a proud smile. "Judas Morgenthau!" He announced. 

"Judas Morgenthau; our male tribute, everyone." Irene spoke into the mic before clapping causing most of the audience to clap along also. The applause was bigger than the applause Thea got as a lot more people clapped, even a few people started whistling, most of them being from the academy. 

Once the somewhat chaotic applause died down, Irene spoke into the mic once again. "And with that, that concludes the reaping. District four's tributes, everyone!" She announced while placing a hand on both of Thea's and Judas' back, as if showing them off. The applause started up again, but it didn't feel like the same type of applause Thea would usually receive. To the common folk, it would sound the exact same, but Thea could tell something about it was different. Despite that, she flashed a smile at the crowd, albeit a fake one, as the two crowds clapped for the two tributes, one crowd more enthusiastic than the other. 

"Happy Hunger games! And may the odds be ever in your favour!"

[everbloomingsoul]

❝ you're not alone. you'll never be alone. not as long as i'm here. ❞

@okeancs from x | accepting

its a testament to the years of gently reaching friendship between them, that she took her rare low days to sit at the beach and he knew to find her there. out of reach of the water but toes dug in the sand, arms rested on her knees and just watching. listening. sometimes she thinks he knows to find her because the ocean tells him. maybe one day she'll ask.

today was bad. she had wanted to visit her dad, scared with everything that had been happening, only to have the trip cut short by monsters that forced her to turn around and go straight back to camp. the same camp that felt emptier and emptier, the more people were convinced to join luke. no, to join kronos. one of the campers she hadn't gotten to know yet had been part of the attack that drove her back, digging the upset deep. it somehow felt more personal when it wasn't just monsters.

and percy didn't mention it once. just sat with her until thea spoke first, worrying about who would be left. admitting that knowing not everyone would leave didn't mean she wasn't scared to be left standing alone at the end of it all. gods, she terrified she's going to be left alone. left behind.

she can't help looking at him with surprise, tears shining but not yet spilling. he said the words so matter-of-factly, looking relaxed resting on one hand and legs comfortably stretched out. thea wasn't stupid, she knew somewhere in there he had his own fears to be dealing with, but the reassurance lightens the weight in her chest a little. a lot, truthfully, and she gratefully leans enough for them to bump shoulders. thea wasn't ready to be her usual happy self with anyone else in camp yet, but this was enough to get her on the way to being ready.

[osc-piastri]

tensions are high throughout the dinner.

thea notices right off the bat that ozzie doesn’t say much. she notices that collie is attempting small talk, but he won’t look at ozzie. while the two seem to brood and sulk, it’s thea who’s holding most of the conversation.

and maybe that’s what catches her attention. ozzie — ozzie, who once sounded as if the breath had been ripped from his lungs the second his eyes landed on him, is now quiet. his eyes are on the table, and even when she reaches under for his hand to offer feelings of comfort, the reassured smile he gives her doesn’t quite reach his eyes. something is wrong, but she doesn’t know what. she can’t ask him here, and seeing as she’s only known of collie’s link to ozzie for a week, she can’t ask him either.

so she waits. she waits until they’ve left the dinner, waits until they’re at their house. they have no kids, not because they don’t want any but because it has yet to be the right time, and thea has some medical conditions that prevent a natural pregnancy from occurring. but they have cats, two that they adopted together from a shelter when they were dating. thea is immediately fretting over them once they enter through the door, but when she goes to snuggle on the couch with them, she can’t help but ask “what happened between you two?” to ozzie, who’s disappeared into the other room to change into some clothes to sleep in

it’s quiet, and thea thinks he must’ve gone too far to hear, but then he’s there in the doorway, asking her to repeat the question, and she tells him everything. all the little observations she had when they were at dinner, how ozzie couldnt look at collie and would barely look at thea. how he barely said anything, how collie pointed out how she called him “aspen,” rather than ozzie. ozzie’s response to that, the silent jab in the sentence and the bit of anger that resided there even as a smile softened his features. how it was the only thing he really said, but the week prior she could tell how much seeing him again meant, if only for a second. and if he didn’t want to go to the dinner then he should’ve said something before. they could’ve come up with an excuse, could’ve switched up plans or something—

and all ozzie can do is go “there’s nothing to say. we were friends, now we’re not” and there’s some frustration in thea’s core, because anyone with eyes can see that that’s not all there was.

months go by where it’s becoming more and more obvious that this wasn’t just an ordinary falling out. ozzie stops sleeping and he’s pulling away from the kelpies again. he knows they aren’t collie, but he can’t help but remember what happened last time. thea tries, she really tries to get him to open up about it, tries to avoid doing her own search into their history — because it’s out there, she knows it’s out there. but she sees he’s getting worse, and no amount of comfort can help him, but until he talks about it, she doesn’t know what will.

it’s one night, after ozzie gets particularly rough during practice and annoyed by thea’s questions of concern, that she finally turns to the internet. despite the many years since everything happened, it’s not hard to find collie and ozzie’s history, dissected by professionals and fans alike.

“were you in love with him?” it might’ve been a bit far fetched, but she’d seen the articles on their endless days together. she’d seen the comments from rival teams about how they were practically glued together, and she’d seen a leaked video of the kelpies goalie going on about the after parties, about how the two were always caught in each other’s gravity, “they’re always together when we go out [laughing] y’all bet they’re only hooking up, fine! i think we’re witnessing the beginning of something that some only find once in a lifetime”

ozzie denies it. of course he does, how do you admit to someone the extent of your feelings when you’ve swallowed them for so long? when you can’t even admit it to yourself, when you could barely admit it to the person they were centered towards?

and that — that’s the tipping point for thea. she wants to understand him, she really does. she wants to be there for him and have that reciprocated. but there are so many layers to ozzie, ones he’s never bothered to peel back and let her into. and that paired with his attitude now, she’s not sure the man in front of her is the same man she married. it’s not long before things break completely, and a divorce is in order.

it’s not long before thea and ozzie part ways, with yet another person who meant the world to him transferring to a completely different team, to get away from the heartache. and it’s his fault, it’s always his fault.

[idontneedtobeforgiven]

Time After Time: Send me a timestamp sometime in the future after the end of [that fic], or sometime in the past before the story started, and I’ll tell you what happened then

Future for Medusa AU?? I need to know if they have snake-haired baby girls or what lol jk I’ll take anything

Guess what? I had like 1.2k written for a medusa sequel! Enjoy!

Sometimes, Tessa worries that if she’s too happy, she’ll lose her snakes.

She’s still not completely sure if there are rules or limitations to her change, the one person she could ask for clarity no longer returning her calls, and so as the days with Scott grow longer, a new fear creeps up inside her.

There are times when she thinks that it would be a good thing; she could return to normal, no longer live in fear that she could kill someone with a wayward glance over her sunglasses or a surprised look at her mom early in the morning. How easy it would be, too, for meeting Scott’s family. No need for forewarnings, no worries for what a future with a woman like her could hold.

Those thoughts come hand in hand with grief, the idea of being without her snakes making her feel as though she is missing a limb (or five). Her life would be easier but it is like asking her to be parted from her family, a choice she would never say yes to.

But her snakes were given to her for protection in a moment where she had none. More and more she feels there is less of a need for her to have them.

“Would you be able to tell if you were going to disappear?” she asks one night as she’s getting ready for bed. “Did you know when you were going to appear?” Tessa realizes now that even after all these years, she has asked very little of her snakes origins, either from fear or apathy.

I knew, Lilah says quickly though Milo is quick to assert, we didn’t know at all. You were our birth.

While they bicker, Kara comes to curl at Tessa’s neck, her happy girl seeming unusually broody at the question. I think we would know but I don’t know why I think that.

Thea unwinds from around Zora. Why do you ask?

Tessa takes a deep breath. “What if I don’t need you anymore?” She runs her hands through the loops of their bodies, not wishing to disturb them, but wanting the reassurance of their weight. “I know the world isn’t a safe place but I’m not scared in a different way now.” It’s not that she feels she has a new protector in Scott, especially given that they’re not together every second of every day, but she feels alive again, more alive than she has since her snakes were given to her.

What about your work, Zora says. We help you then. As always, Zora makes a good point. Tessa smiles and rubs underneath the snake’s chin, the thoughts tabled for the night.

She settles into bed next to Scott, expecting him to already be asleep. “One day,” he murmurs and Tessa turns to him in surprise, “I will remember that you can talk to your snakes and stop answering you like you’re talking to me.”

Tessa laughs even as she asks, “you heard me then?”

Scott sort of shrugs. “A little.” His arm wraps around her hips and the weight of him comforts her just as much as her snakes did. “Wanna talk about it?”

“Not yet.” He accepts her answer with a smile and she can’t help but kiss the corner of his lips. “Are you nervous about tomorrow?”

“Not one little bit.” Her eyebrows shoot up. He’d been so nervous to meet her mom that she was sure he would be similarly disarmed at introducing her to his family. “I’ve reached whatever lies beyond nervous. Scared shitless? Terrified? Anxious? Get me a thesaurus and I’ll go down the list.” She frowns and Scott is quick to click his tongue, his thumb coming up to urge her mouth upwards. “None of that. My parents are going to love you, everyone is gonna love you. It’s impossible not to. But I just know my brothers are going to say something stupid.”

Tessa wiggles down so that she can intertwine her body with Scott’s. As usual, Kara darts out to slither through Scott’s hair and Scott gives her a rub without a moment’s pause.

(Not seeing Scott with her snakes would also leave a little hole in her heart if they were taken away.)

“I have thick skin,” Tessa says.

“I know. Doesn’t mean I won’t hit my brothers for saying something out of line though.”

As stupidly charming as she finds the idea of Scott getting into a fist fight (it’s archaic but she can’t seem to help liking the idea of it), she sighs, “you shouldn’t hit your brothers.”

“Because violence isn’t the answer?”

Tessa rolls her eyes. “No, because they’re your brothers.”

Scott snorts. “How’d that work out for your dad?” She’s quick to pinch his side and he yelps before laughing. “I know they won’t say anything that level of bad. But I just… Maybe I should’ve made a cheat sheet for them.” Her leg curls tighter around his hip. She actually had thought of making a powerpoint for Scott’s family, covering the usual questions she tended to get from people who know of her snakes, but didn’t want to come off so Type A immediately upon meeting Scott’s family. “I just want this to be easy for you. Like a regular meet-the-parents deal.”

She takes his face in her hands. “You’re the sweetest man I’ve ever met, Scott Moir.” She rolls her hips against his. “We can game plan in the morning. I can think of something much more fun to do at the moment.”

Scott grins and her snakes curl in on themselves, covering their eyes in the mass of their bodies.

—

Scott won’t stop talking the entire train ride. “What if they think I was joking,” he muses, face turned toward the window to soak up the light. It’s a wonderfully sunny day and Tessa’s come to realize he’s like a cat, always trying to find a patch of sun to doze in. She cards her fingers through his hair, tries not to laugh the way he leans into it with a content hum, and waits for him to talk out his worries. “I think my mom probably believes me since I asked her when you first told me, but my brothers probably think it’s some weird chirp.” He turns to look at her, concern webbing his features. “How do you ever manage to tell anyone?”

Her snakes are endlessly amused and endeared by Scott’s worry, slithering over one another beneath her hat since they can’t reach out for him here. Thea ends up by her ear. He worries just like you.

“You’re the first person I’ve told, really.” Her clients know, the ones who really need it, but there’s never a question uttered about her snakes, just an outpouring of relief and gratefulness. Her family knows too, and a few close friends, but telling them was different, a love already built and earned 

[havethetimeofyourstyles]

Chapter Six. 

SERIES MASTERLIST | word count: 13.8k

WARNINGS: sexual content

come talk to me about wtsgd! i’d love to know your thoughts! 

January 4, 2018 

With every article of clothing that flew from the closet, Harry neatly folded each piece as he laid them flat in Luci’s suitcase. He remained seated on her beige rug, leaning against the side of her bed with an open luggage that was sat next to him as he intently listened to her ramble nervously about the new adventure she was about to take on. 

Luci had a flight tomorrow morning that was quite early for her own liking, and she was just now packing her belongings. To be fair, she had been busy meeting Samantha for extra discussions about work, and she even met her new manager, Thea, who had been so excited to meet her and manage her. Thea was a forty-two-year-old woman who had quite the experience in being a Hollywood manager. Her and Samantha were a dream-team, as they would like to call themselves, for a few years now and they’d managed to raise the newest stars up on the Hollywood sign itself. Their work was promising, and Luci put her trust and her career in the hand of the two women. 

For the past three days, Harry and Luci had been spending as much time with each other. They were saddened to be together for only three days, which was the exact amount of time they’d officially been in a relationship. But they were making the most of their time with making dinners together and sleepovers since that was the only available time Luci had since she had been so busy during the day. Harry was lucky school wasn’t back in session yet so he could put his full attention on Luci. 

Once her luggage was filled with all different types of clothing and shoes, Harry closed it for her, rolling it over next to the front door before grabbing the duffel bag he lent her and dropping it next to the luggage. It was nearing ten at night and Luci had to leave for the airport at four in the morning since Thea had booked her flight for six because she was going straight to the studio to meet the rest of the cast and do table readings. 

Harry found Luci leaning against the countertop with her back towards him. He could tell just how tense she was because of her anxiety and nerves that were boiling in her body; her shoulders seemed like they were frozen because of how tense she was, and he knew her neck started to ache because she kept rolling her head around to relieve the pain. All he wanted her to do was relax, and he could only do so much to help her ease the nerves. 

He’d learned that Luci’s love language was words of affirmation, indicating that she needed constant reassurance. It seemed fitting because as an actress, she always wanted feedback on her work; plus, she was always one for needing validation for every single thing she was proud of. And Harry seemed like the perfect guy to give her that reassurance because he loved uplifting her mood, hyping her up, and making her happy. 

Pressing his chest against her back, he wrapped his arms around her waist, resting his chin against her shoulder. His hands rubbed her lower stomach, and just the mere touch had made her relax as she loosened up in his arms; he held her up tightly so she wouldn’t have to anymore. 

“You okay, baby?” He asked, knowing it was a dumb question, but he always wanted to make sure. 

“Yeah, I’m alright. Just nervous,” she responded, even though he had already known. 

He kissed her cheek, and Luci melted. “You’re gonna do amazing, I just know it. The producers were so impressed with you that they wanted you to be in their movie. No one could deny your talent, Ci, I can promise you that. You’re fucking marvelous.” He had said the exact words that Luci needed to hear; she smiled, caressing his tattooed arm with her soft hand. 

“Thank you, baby.” She turned her head to the side, meeting his lips before planting an appreciative kiss for all that he had done for her. 

“C’mon, wanna show you something.” He unwrapped his arms, making her turn around suspiciously before leading her into her bedroom. 

On her bed was a photo album that had a brown leather exterior with black trimmings to protect the edge of the book. They both sat on the edge of the bed as they looked down at the front of the album. 

“This is just a little something that I thought you would appreciate,” Harry said before handing it to her. 

Luci slowly opened it to the first page of the album. Taped on a thick white construction paper was the Playbill booklet of the show, along with Harry’s ticket that he purchased next to it; at the bottom had the date of the night Luci had performed for the first time in Harry’s handwriting. On the back of the first page was every single good review everyone had to say about Luciana Suki. The reviews were cut out into strips as he tried to fit as many reviews as he possibly could on the square paper. When Harry was glueing the reviews on them, he left out about ten critics because they simply couldn’t fit on the paper; a sense of proudness had washed over him because Luci was just a likeable person along with her amazing talent—no one could not like her, 

Flipping the clear plastic sheet protector, the next page was Halloween, where Harry printed the pictures Nina had taken of them. He did not forget to write at the bottom of the page that it was Luci who had asked him out, along with the date. They both laughed once they read it because it was a memory they simply would never forget. 

On the back of the Halloween page was their first date. They had taken a selfie in front of the sunset, moments before their first kiss, capturing their well-spent day together. Along with their picture was the fair food Harry had taken, imitating a food blogger; a picture of Luci with wide eyes, staring into the camera as she took a bite of her food. Harry had smiled, heart fluttering after he’d taken the picture. 

The last page was recent; the day Harry asked her to be his girlfriend. He’d managed to make a copy of the photobooth strips since he wanted to keep the real ones on hand. The date he asked her was written in between the third and last picture as those were the exact moments he’d asked her and she said yes. 

The scrapbook was the most sentimental and thoughtful gift Luci had ever received; the time and effort Harry had put into making the entire thing showed within his creative scrapbooking skills, and it was the sweetest thing anyone had ever given her. 

“Harry…” her eyes were blurry from the tears, threatening to fall out. 

“This’ll be our little memory book. I know it’s very early in our relationship, but I just want you to know how much you mean to me, and that I’ll look back on these memories and smile because we had the best times. And I’ll keep this going and fill it with all future memories and your accomplishments because I’m so incredibly proud of you.” He delicately took her face into his hands as if he was holding a piece of art as he caressed her soft cheek with his thumb. Luci’s tears had hit his finger, overwhelmed with how much adoration and admiration Harry was giving her. 

“Thank you. I…adore you so much.” 

Far too early to say those three words, she settled for the second closest thing that verbally told him how she felt, but her feelings were just as close to the real thing, no matter if it was too early or not. 

Harry blushed. “I adore you, too.” 

Just like her, he felt those three words swimming on the tip of his tongue. His heart was beating unbelievably fast for how early their relationship was, and he made no effort into slowing down his heartbeat because he quite liked how she had that affect on him. 

Gently, she connected her lips with his. They kissed and swirled their tongues together as the electric spark ignited inside of them. Luci held onto him as tight as she possibly could, savoring his presence, his touch, his closeness since she would go months without any of those things. 

He pulled away from their intense and passionate kisses, making Luci pout and he quickly pecked her lips, kissing her frown away. 

“Can I show you how much I adore you?” 

The question had caught her off-guard. “You wanna…” 

“Only if you’d let me. I wanna take care of you,” he said genuinely. It didn’t take Luci long to nod yes. “Let me hear you say it. Please, I need your words.” Harry pleaded. 

She looked at him intently before she softly said, “Take care of me, Harry.” 

Her words only brought him relief before he kissed her cheek and pushed at her shoulder to lie back. Luci got comfortable as she laid in the middle of the bed; Harry had moved his lips down to her neck, kissing and nibbling at her skin but not hard enough to leave a mark. She softly moaned at the feeling; his lips had affected her quite a lot, and it always left her wondering what else he could possibly do with those pink lips of his and she was finally going to find out. 

Harry settled in between her legs, which she was quick to welcome him. He was hovering over her, kissing every bit of exposed skin that he saw as his hands were toying with the hem of her sweater. 

“Can I take this off?” He asked, referring to her sweater.

“Yes.” She nodded.

Harry lifted her sweater, chills entered her skin as her warm sweater was taken away from her and thrown to the side of the bed. The newest bit of skin that he hadn’t seen only made him want to kiss every inch of her, to learn and memorize every crevice and dip of body. Eagerly, he kissed the valley and tops of her breasts.

“You’re so beautiful, Luciana,” he complimented. There was something about Harry telling her that she was beautiful and adding her full name with it that made her feel like snow on a warm day; she had melted entirely just by his statement.

He took her hardened nipple into his mouth, sucking and licking and pulling at it. Luci’s hand met his hair, scratching his scalp lightly as she let out soft breaths of air. Kissing down her body, her eagerness heightened as she subconsciously bucked her hips slightly into his torso as she felt Harry smirk against her stomach. 

“Don’t laugh,” she said, looking down at him. Harry looked up as her elbows were slightly propped up against the bed with a smile that matched his. 

“Not gonna laugh, baby.”

“Okay…” she dragged out, her tone teasing. 

Continuing, he kissed the skin above the hem of her leggings before he asked if he could take them off, and she said yes. Kneeling on the bed, he took off her dark grey leggings as her legs went straight up; she was left in her cotton nude underwear, and Harry felt like he could come on the spot. He’d truly never seen someone so beautiful until he met Luci, and his admiration for her had only increased. 

“Stunning. Gorgeous. Every fucking synonym for the word ‘beautiful.’” He was amazed by her beauty, and he clearly wasn’t afraid to let her know. He loved the way she looked when she was shy and flustered, and when her cheeks would heat up too much for her own liking. But Harry thought she was absolutely adorable when she was feeling those emotions. 

“Harry, you’re too sweet.” 

“Mm, and I bet you are too?” He raised his brows, a smug smile appeared on his face. Luci bit one side of her bottom lip before she licked her lips. 

“Then why don’t you hurry up and taste for yourself.” In all honesty, she was impatient, and she was eager to feel his mouth against her. 

Harry chuckled, grabbing one of her ankles as he pressed a kiss to it, trailing his lips along the inside of her legs. He felt the goosebumps that had pricked her legs, and he loved having that sort of affect on her. Once he got to her thigh, he put her leg down and laid on his stomach in between her legs before proceeding to kiss up her thighs. 

Satisfaction was handed to him when he heard Luci heavily breathing through her nose due to his heavy and teasing kisses when he hadn’t even touched her where she wanted it the most. 

“Baby, please.” Luci’s tone was desperate as her arousal only increased, anticipating the relief she was going to feel once he touched her core. 

“Alright, alright. Since you said ‘please.’” He removed her underwear and dragged them off her legs. The sight and scent of her only salivated his mouth, only ready to devour and pleasure her to the fullest. His blood had rushed below his waist, slightly straining against his sweatpants. “Fuck, aren’t you a sight.” Luci felt shy and intimidated under his stare, causing her to close her legs, but he was quick to stop her before she closed them all the way. “No need to go shy on me, Ci. Just admiring your beauty because you’re absolutely marvelous.” She thanked him, a small smile found her face. “Now, can I please get a taste?” He asked once more. 

“Yeah, make me feel good.” 

He kissed the crevice of where her thigh and vulva met before he licked her clit. A spark was sent through her body as he continued licking, sucking her sensitive bud into his mouth, pulling back slightly. 

The feeling of his mouth on her was everything she ever hoped for. She had been so stressed about the changes that were happening quite quickly that made her feel on edge and extra needy. Especially when Harry was her boyfriend, looking extra good, she was particularly eager to jump his bones. 

“Mm, yeah, like that.” She moaned out, bucking her hips against his mouth as the tip of his tongue rimmed around her entrance, collecting and tasting her arousal. 

“Taste so good, fuck. Could be down here for hours,” he said before he boldly licked a long stripe from her weeping hole to her clit. 

He took his thumb and rubbed the bud, making her jolt because of how sensitive she was already while taking his middle finger, lubricating it with her wetness before inserting it into her hole. He pumped in and out, curled his finger, and caressed her walls, all while slowly rubbing her clit in circles. Harry earned a throaty moan, and since his hands were occupied, he finally had a moment to really look at her and take in her appearance on what he was doing to her. 

His beautiful girlfriend had her legs wide open with her back arched. She let out a string of moans and a series of curses as she placed her hands on her tits, kneading the flesh and playing with her nipples to only add to her sensitivity and pleasure. 

Harry was rock hard once he had a taste of her, but seeing her playing with herself, touching herself was the cherry on top. As if he could help it, he bucked his hips against the edge of the mattress as he let out a soft moan of relief, even though he’d rather have Luci touch him herself. 

“Harry. Harry. Harry.” She chanted as if it were the last and only thing she knew. His name off her tongue sounded like poetry—so sultry, so sensual, and so seductive. He never wanted another person to say his name again because for all he knew, Luci had possession of it. 

“C’mon, baby. Get there. Get there for me, yeah?” He never once stopped his movements, and he would beat himself up over it if he did. 

“Another…finger.” Luci requested, and he complied. Adding his index finger right next to his middle, he curled both of them up in sync, hitting the soft part of her upper walls and her g-spot. 

He relentlessly hit her sweet spot over and over again, and it had Luci moaning loudly; her sounds bounced off the walls of her room, going straight to Harry’s ears. Just as Luci was, he was on the edge as well; he continued rutting his hips against the mattress and wanted to release so badly, but he was waiting for Luci’s pleasure to wash over her. 

Replacing his thumb that was rubbing her clit so graciously with his tongue, he flicked his tongue up and down in a fast motion as he kept fingering her. She was quick to respond to the change as she tightened around his finger. 

“When you’re ready, baby, come for me.” 

Those were just the words that she needed to hear; her breaths were staggered as they were caught in her throat. For a moment in between the anticipated orgasm she’d been waiting for, she looked down at Harry because she knew that with just one look at him, she would combust. And when she did, Luci met his jaded eyes that were looking so hopeful for her release, like he was hungry for it. Her mouth fell open, disconnecting her vision from Harry as she threw her head back onto the pillow while her orgasm had tickled her skin into a toe-curling, back-arching, and loud-moaning pleasure that took her breath away. 

The rough tugs of Harry’s hair from Luci’s hands and the taste of her orgasm on his tongue only gave him the release that he was working for. He moaned against her core as the vibrations were sent through her body, making her shake. Harry’s hips slowed its movements as he breathed heavily through his nose, licking and tasting every drop that Luci had to offer him. 

Harry rested his head against Luci’s thigh; they both were catching their breaths from their orgasm as soft huffs came from their mouths. She propped her elbows up and looked down at the gorgeous man below her who was pressing kisses to her inner thigh. Running a hand through his hair, Harry looked up and she gave him a sweet smile. He crawled onto the bed, still in between her legs as he propped down onto her chest; Luci giggled at his adorableness. 

“You’re…,” she couldn’t finish her sentence as her orgasm made her speechless. Harry planted his elbows next to her, coming face-to-face with Luci before pressing a kiss to her lips. She could taste herself on him as she swirled her tongue with his. “Thank you.” 

“Anytime, anywhere, Ci. I should be thanking you, though.” Luci tilted her head in confusion. “I, uh, seemed to have taken care of myself also,” he said bashfully as her eyebrows raised. So, that’s what all the moaning and heavy breathing was about, she said to herself. “I’m sorry, that’s kinda embarrassing-”

“No.” She immediately stopped him. “That’s not embarrassing at all. That’s actually pretty fucking hot.” She reassured, the corner of her lips turning up. 

“Really?” He’d never came before while eating someone out, but he’d been so captivated by her sounds and her taste that he couldn’t help but let himself go. 

“Hell yeah, baby.” She placed a hand on his cheek, pulling him in for a kiss. Their kiss didn’t deepen or lead to anything more than just sweet affection; it was enough to ease all of Harry’s worries away. 

Once they giggled and shared a few kisses, they cleaned up and refreshed themselves for bed. Harry’s ability to make her feel incredibly good had made her forget that she had a flight to catch early in the morning; and it would take her away from Harry for four months. Her sadness and anxiousness had begun to settle once they finally got comfortable under the covers—more so, Harry was comfortable as Luci was anxious. 

Despite the dreamy orgasm, her body was tense against him, and he’d felt it easily. He turned his head to look at her, and her mind was present; she stared up at the ceiling, toying with her fingers as she rolled her foot in circles, her ankles occasionally cracking once they returned to the starting point. 

“Hey,” Harry broke her away from her thoughts; Luci looked up at him. “You okay?” 

She nodded, though he could still sense her unsureness. “Just sad…nervous,” she admitted. 

Harry lowered himself on the bed so he could be leveled to where she was laying. They shared a pillow, which they’d done plenty of times and left no room for the ‘cold side of the pillow.’ But it was intimate and sweet, and a mix of both their scents combined. 

“Tell me what you’re thinking?” He asked softly. 

Luci took a deep breath before she started. “Everything’s happening so fast, and it’s making me nervous. I-I just don’t want things to completely change.” 

“Nothing’s gonna change, Ci. And if it does, it’ll be for the better. Your career is gonna take off and you’re gonna star in so many amazing films and shows. That’s what you wanted, right?” 

“Yeah…” The one thing on her mind had been bugging her for the past few days, and it drove her up the wall once she thought about it too much. But the only way for her to put her gear into reverse and come down from that wall was to tell him the truth. “I don’t want anything to change between us.” 

If he was being honest, Harry had thought about that quite a bit. Hell, he’d thought about it even before he asked her to be his girlfriend and when they were just friends. He had thought about how when Luci was famous, their relationship and friendship was bound to change. Would they still be together? Would they still be friends? Would she forget about him and forget about their time that was spent together? So many questions had scrambled in his brain that all of the overthinking thoughts felt so familiar to him. 

But he wasn’t going to spew out every single one. 

Instead, he kept an optimistic attitude about their relationship. 

“Nothing’s gonna change, alright? We’re gonna get through this. And if things do change, we’ll work together to adjust to it,” he reassured, although he was unsure himself. He didn’t want to add more fuel to the fire Luci had in her head at the moment because that would only make things worse. Plus, she had a flight to catch early in the morning, and she really needed to rest now. 

His words seemed to calm her mind down, and she was grateful that one of them was stable enough to comfort the other. So, she nodded, taking what he said to heart. They were gonna get through this, and she put her whole faith on them. 

She murmured a ‘thank you,’ feeling too tired to talk any more as it seemed her head had exhausted her. She got comfortable next to Harry, tucked away in his side as her fists huddled up the material of his sweater, wrinkling the area. Harry rubbed her back, soothing his girlfriend for a little before hearing snores, thankful that she was able to sleep with no trouble. 

He lied awake in a complete daze as the only thing on his mind was Luci and how amazing she was without the complete knowledge that their relationship was definitely going to change. 

It had been two weeks since Luci left for California, and Harry had never felt more alone in his life, not even during the times before he met Luci. He knew it would only get better with time, but he’d gone months talking and seeing her almost everyday until this moment. 

She made sure to text him whenever she got the chance to, which he was relieved about. Her texts had always provided a sense of comfort and happiness to him whenever he saw her name on his phone. Each greeting was filled with excitement and longing. Whenever it just so happened that Harry was busy and Luci was available, she’d text him ‘I miss you,’ along with other types of messages that practically begged Harry to get a glance at his phone to see who was blowing up his phone. 

Their new long-distance relationship was unfamiliar as neither of them had ever been in one before. It was unspoken how they handled it, besides from the basic ‘call or text me when you get the chance.’ However they knew they’d face the problem head-on together. 

“Alright, everyone, hope you all have a great and safe weekend!” Harry announced once the loud bell rang before them. “Make sure to catch up on all your readings, please. You know who you are,” he said in a teasing tone. 

He sat down in his black chair that swiveled and reclined, great for his back; a few of his students had asked him a few questions about their essays once he sat down, which he was happy to help and glad to see that they were using their time to ask him questions. He said ‘goodbye’ to the last student who was exiting his classroom and wished him a ‘happy Friday.’ 

Pulling out his phone from the top drawer of his desk, he smiled as his phone lit up, seeing a message from Luci that was sent thirty minutes ago. 

Finished with table reading :) Might go for some drinks with the cast. Hope class is doing well! 

Quickly, he typed back. His fingers seemed to take over, hoping she’d see his message before she puts her phone down for another few hours. 

Hi, baby. Just finished with class and gonna head home in a bit. Are you up for a call later tonight? No worries if you can’t and you’re out. x 

Harry set his phone down once he didn’t see the bubble pop up as he looked at their message thread for two minutes. He figured he could get some grading done and impute the student’s grades into the system so he could distract himself and make use of his time. 

Every five minutes, he would pick up his phone, and once he saw that there was no text from Luci, he’d put it face down and get back to work. He did that for the next two hours, and ended up staying until four, grading papers and constantly checking his phone. 

A knock on his classroom door had made him whip his head towards it, finding his colleague standing in the doorframe. 

“Not going home any time soon?” Carina, one of the math teachers, crossed her arms and smiled a bit. She was one of the first teachers Harry had made friends with and one of the closest in the school. She’d been working at the middle school for three years and had introduced Harry to the staff once he started teaching. Harry had to admit, he had the slightest bit of crush on Carina as her red hair and green eyes seemed to attract him. 

They hung out a few times, mostly inside one of their classrooms during lunch. Harry even developed the tiniest crush on her, only because Carina was a new person in his life and she was quite nice. 

There had been one Friday where Harry invited her to his apartment, and they popped a bottle of wine and talked and drank. She was nice, Harry thought. But the wine had gotten the best of both of them and they soon found their lips pressed against one another. Harry thought it was nice to kiss someone, but as Carina pulled his hair and stuck her tongue into his mouth, he realized that his crush for her had disappeared instead of heightening as it was supposed to. So, he stopped her by pulling back, explaining that they couldn’t do that anymore and that he was sorry. He truly didn’t want to lead her on. Luckily, she was understanding and told him that she was going to head home. 

But to his surprise on her way out, they ran into Luci who was just unlocking her door from a night out. On the inside, he was freaking out because his new neighbor had caught him red-handed—the neighbor he thought was incredibly beautiful. And he found himself completely drawn to her, pushing his feelings for Carina out of his body and welcoming the new profound feelings he had for his neighbor. 

“Uh, I’m not sure yet,” he answered. 

“Okay, well, since it’s still early, I was wondering if you’d like to hang out?” She asked confidently. Carina had always been quite confident and was a people person. Harry, on the other hand, wasn’t so much a talker when it came to new people; it really depended on that person’s vibe. 

He weighed his options in his head. He so badly wanted to talk to Luci tonight, or whenever he got the chance, and he was afraid that whenever she did text back, he’d be hanging out with Carina and not giving her his undivided attention because he hated being on his phone when hanging out with someone. 

“Uh, maybe next time? Sorry, I’ve been-”

“No, it’s okay. I get it, you don’t have to explain. Have a good weekend, Harry.” She smiled, although he could sense the defeat from rejection inside before she walked down the hall and away from his classroom. 

Harry felt bad, honestly. He didn’t like disappointing people or making them feel like what Carina probably felt. But he just hoped that his rejection still made them friends because he wasn’t really close to anyone in the teaching staff. 

A big yawn took over him for a moment as he stretched his back and arms into the air before he decided it was time to go home. He hadn’t had much plans after Luci left, seeing as most of his plans for the weekend involved her, and he hoped that he could at least hear a snippet of her voice tonight to help fill the void of her presence. 

But when Harry got into bed at eleven at night, he’d lost hope, and would try again tomorrow. It was minutes of tossing and turning, not finding the right position for his liking. So, he accepted his discomfort and laid on his stomach, arms and legs spread across the mattress. After a few moments of lying in silence, his phone began to vibrate against his bedside table. He looked at his phone that was face down on the wooden table, the slightest bit of light shining from the edges. Sighing, he decided to take a look at who might be calling him, and his heart skipped a beat when he saw Luci’s contact picture and name plastered all over the screen. 

Quickly, he pressed the green button to answer. “Hello?” 

“Harry!” She said loudly against the speaker phone. He could hear chatter around her and utensils hitting the glass plates, so he assumed she was at a restaurant. 

“Hi, love. How are you?” 

“I’m good.” She dragged the word ‘good’ out, giggling at the end of it. Luci had been drinking for a few hours now, casually sipping her drink that was barely enough to get her fully drunk as everyone was talking amongst themselves and eating. But one of her cast members had bought continuous rounds of tequila shots, so she was now to the point of drunk—tripping over her step, finding everything funny, and wanting to talk to her boyfriend. “I miss you.” 

“I miss you more, love. I’m so happy I get to speak to you, even if it’s just for a moment,” he said honestly. He truly believed that not talking to Luci up until he slept at night was the reason why he was up, completely sleepless. 

“Me too. I’m sorry I didn’t text you back…” she said softly as she stood in the middle of the hallway of the restaurant that led to the restrooms. 

“No worries. I’m glad you’re having a great time, though. That’s all that matters to me is that you’re happy.” His genuinity made her eyes full with tears. She wasn’t usually someone one who cried when she was drunk, but just hearing Harry’s voice and not being physically next to him made her emotional. Sue her. 

“I am having a great time. Just wish you were here.” 

“Me too.” 

“Miss everything about you.” 

Harry smiled, laying on his back with one of his arms propped behind his head. “Yeah?” 

“Mhm. Missed your hugs, your kisses, your eyes, your lips. Swear, they’re the best lips I’ve ever kissed.” Her voice was low, not wanting the people who passed her to hear what she was saying for Harry only 

He couldn’t help but blush at her flirting. Even over the phone and on the other side of the country, she still managed to make him blush while his heart flipped. 

“Well, now you’re just flattering me, baby.” His accented voice that was crackled through the phone had sent a chill down her spine, making her bite her lip as she leaned against the wall. 

“I’m being serious!” She exclaimed, talking over the loud clatter of plates and glasses as the restaurant was cleaning up for closing. 

“What else do you miss about me?” Now, he was just teasing. It stroked his ego to hear her tell him everything she’d missed about him; it made him feel good inside. 

“Missed…” she paused for a moment as she was unsure if she should say such a thing in public. 

“C’mon, tell me, Ci,” he encouraged. His tone was pleading, and if she were right in front of him and not across the country, he’d be on his knees in front of her just by how he presented his words. 

“Missed you between my legs.” She curled his lips into her bite, preventing herself from biting her lip as she might accidentally seduce someone that passed by. 

Harry smirked. “Yeah? What do you miss about that?” He heard her sigh, and he knew that she was trapped under his spell that he’d miraculously casted from New York. With that certain memory, he constantly thought about it. The sounds she made. The way she tasted. How she felt in his hold. It made sure she was tattooed in his mind. 

“Missed how you made me feel good; how your mouth and fingers felt inside of me.” Her voice itself was enough to get Harry’s cock to twitch inside of his sweatpants as it was extra raspy because she was trying her hardest to keep her volume at a low level. Now, she couldn’t stop confessing everything she missed about him, and who was Harry to tell her to stop? “I miss the way you would lick me, how you would tease me a little even though it drove me insane. I missed the way your hair felt between my fingers, and when you would moan because I pulled at them roughly. I, especially, miss the way you made yourself feel good and how you came just from seeing me come. That was my favorite part of that night.”

She crossed one of her legs over the other as she squeezed her thighs together. Her words had given her blinks of flashbacks from their last night together; and oh, how she so badly wanted to make that moment last. Harry was fully hard underneath his pants, and he tried his hardest not to relieve the straining pain. 

“Fuck, baby. You have no idea how much I miss you.” 

“Promise me you’ll show me once we’re together again,” she demanded, and a smug smile appeared on his face. 

“That’s definitely a promise, Luciana.” 

There he goes again with her full name, Luci thought. Before she was about to respond, she saw the group get up from their chairs from her peripheral view. 

“I’m looking forward to it, baby. I-I gotta go.” Their chat had sobered her up just a tad bit, and the wetness of her panties had slightly woken her up, wishing Harry was there to take care of her. 

“Alright, love. Get back safely, please, and text me when you get back to the house,” he requested softly, not necessarily wanting to know her every location but to know if she’s safe. 

“Will do. I…adore you.” 

Harry smiled. “I adore you so much more.” 

With that, they hung up. Luci said goodbye to her coworkers before getting into an Uber to Thea’s home, where she would be staying for the time being; and Harry relieved himself by touching and making his hard-on go away with the thought of Luci in his head and how she tasted, which made him realized that he was going to need another taste of her so she wouldn’t disappear on his tongue, 

After three weeks of rehearsals and getting to know each cast member and crew on set, Luci was exhausted. Ocean’s Eight was mostly going to be filmed in LA, where the production had a set built, but she anticipated the two to three days where she gets to be in New York to film in the Met Museum. So, being in the same state as Harry only excited her further. 

It hadn’t even been a month yet nor had they even begun shooting for the film, but getting through table reading, rehearsals, and an entire run-through of how the movie was going to be filmed was taking a toll on her physical health. She felt like she hadn’t slept properly, or had gotten a good amount of sleep ever since she left New York; and mentally, she was missing her family and Harry. 

Her family had always made sure to check in with her to see how she was doing because just like Luci, they shared the same excitement for the first movie she was acting in and missed her dearly. She continued to make contact with Harry, but it wasn’t as much as she would like to. Work had been so busy for her that whenever they started to have a decent conversation other than the usual ‘hi’ and ‘how are you?’, her break would be over and she would have to walk away from her phone, which was the closest she’d been to Harry in three weeks. 

It was almost five in the evening on a Wednesday night when everyone had wrapped up for the day. Sighs of relief were heard through everyone as they all knew that rehearsals were over and sometime within the next few days, they were going to start shooting. 

Luci packed up her belongings, taking an extra water bottle for the road before she said goodbye to everyone and headed out of the studio. It was a chilly evening as the soft winds brushed past her while she quickly made her way to her car that she’d rented out. The white Honda Civic keeping her safe on the roads of Hollywood was nothing like the subways of New York, but it was a nice change since she hadn’t driven in a while. One thing she absolutely hated about driving in LA was the traffic and the aggressive drivers in said traffic; and all Luci could do was groan, saying that they weren’t going nowhere with that kind of traffic. It’s always the Prius drivers who’re reckless, she thought. 

Just as she was about to get inside the car, one of the producers, Jane, had called out for her, catching her before she drove away. 

“Hey, Jane. What’s up?” Luci rolled down her window. 

Jane took a deep breath, catching her breath. “I’m glad I caught you before you left. This is the new schedule for next week with all the scenes that are scheduled for each day. You’ll start filming in a week, so you have a small break. So, you’ll come back here for a few days to film a few scenes as needed, and then, we’ll be off to New York, and back here again.” She explained. 

With her eyes wide, Luci took the freshly printed schedule that had a calendar outline until the end of April. Jane had highlighted her scenes, in which she’d have to go on set, and it seemed like she was booked until April. 

They talked a bit more about some scenes, and Jane let her know that she may need to be on set even if she wasn’t filming but her actual start date for shooting was a week from now. They bid each other ‘goodbye’ as Jane told her that she’d see her next week, and Luci had a surge of happiness rush through her as she headed back to her temporary home for the next few months. 

Unlocking the front door, Luci stepped into the dark hallway as she immediately kicked off her shoes and hung her coat in the closet right across the front door. She quietly tiptoed to her room down the hall, her feet covered in fuzzy brown socks that padded along the wooden floor as she made her way straight to the bathroom to shower off the long day she had. The scalding hot water hit her skin as she washed her scalp and used her coconut-cream body scrub that she’d been using for years, lathering up the suds and spreading it on her skin. 

Once she finished in the bathroom, she headed over to her bedroom, pulling the soft pink comforter back before she laid down on the mattress as a breath of relief took over. She shifted towards the left side of the bed, towards the figure that was sleeping on her side; the familiar scent engulfed her senses. 

She pressed her chest against his back, wrapping her arm around his waist as she placed a soft kiss to his neck that was exposed from his t-shirt. Her worries had washed away once she took him in her arms; the amount of comfort she found was astonishing, but she was grateful for that comfort. 

He shifted and turned around in her arms, making her pull back a little bit as to not wake him from his slumber. He was now face-to-face with her, eyes closed as his eyelashes fanned out against the top of his soft cheekbones while soft breaths puffed out of his mouth. Carefully, she pushed back his floppy hair that had landed in his face, and she admired more of his beauty. 

After a few moments, he moved once more but this time he felt a pair of arms around him, making him jolt as a way to wake himself up. Luci stared at him with an amusing smile on her face as she watched him wake up to realize that she was in front of him. 

Blinking a few times, his vision cleared and what he saw struck him—he felt like he was dreaming, though he's not complaining if this was a dream. 

“Luci?” 

“Hi, Harry.” She responded, a smile plastered on her face as her eyes glossed, from what he could see in the dark room. 

“W-What are you doing here?” He leaned against his elbow, slightly sitting up to fully wake himself, testing to see if this really was a dream. 

“Came to see you.” Luci simply stated, brushing the side of head. Harry’s eyes were droopy, confused, and still sleepy. 

“But…how-”

“Shh, we’ll talk when we wake up again, okay? It’s, like, five in the morning.” Harry had no energy to protest, but he also didn’t want to sleep because if this was an actual dream, and the next time he woke up again and Luci wasn’t holding him, then he would be very sad and disappointed. 

As the minutes passed by, the two found themselves laying together and looking at one another; neither of them spoke a word as they basked in the silence and beauty and elegance they found in each other. The moonlight hanging far up in the sky and the distant lights from the city as a few people were getting an early start of their day was seeping through the curtains of the small window in Luci’s bedroom. 

And this moment, dream or not, they held each other tight as they let exhaustion and sleep take over them. 

The next time he woke up, Harry woke up in a frantic, gasping for air as his lungs shook him awake, begging to breathe. He looked over at the window, seeing that it wasn’t dark anymore but it was bright out in the cold and blue atmosphere. Recollecting his dream, he turned his head to the space beside him but there was no one next to him; the sheets were wrinkled and cold as he must’ve shifted around a lot in his sleep. 

The time read 10:23 a.m on the bedside table. There was a moment of panic because it was a school day, but he remembered that he took the day off and called a substitute teacher in advance. 

Groaning, he rubbed his eyes, grabbing the large glass of water on the bedside table before chugging the entire thing to fulfill his thirst. He walked to the kitchen to grab some more water until he saw his girlfriend in a wrinkled Whitney Houston tour t-shirt and some sweats as she flipped a pancake on the stove. Luci was swaying her hips, humming a tune, and Harry realized that she had earphones in, so she hadn’t heard him walk in. He stood still for a moment, wondering if this was another dream, but he wanted to act upon his thoughts where he would attack her with hugs and kisses, but disappointment would seep through him once he realized it actually was a dream. 

But this wasn’t a dream. He wasn’t blissfully in his slumber, dreaming about his girlfriend. This was very real. The sharp sting of his fingers pinching his arm had reddened his fragile skin; he purposely bumped his elbow against the wall, hitting his funny bone as he bent down in hysterical pain; he gently slapped himself a few times until he realized this was all real. 

Finally, the corners of his lips turned up as he walked to stand behind Luci. He placed the glass on the counter in front of her, making her jump as she turned around, pressing her lower back against the edge of the white countertop. She took out her earphones, setting them aside as she smiled, finally getting the chance to properly greet Harry. 

“You’re here,” he said, bewildered at the thought. He turned the dial of the stove off before placing his hands on the edge of the counter, trapping her in his arms. 

“Yeah, I’m here. Thought I said ‘hi’ to you when I got here, no?” She tilted her head as she looked up at him, running her hands up and down his arms; goosebumps enraptured on his skin. “Happy birthday,” she greeted; he thanked her, though he had almost forgotten it was his birthday. He hadn’t even checked his phone since he’d woken up as he was sure there would be plenty of texts from Anne, who was most likely getting emotional that her baby was getting older; and Gemma, who was having a blast that was turning twenty-eight since he always teased her for getting older. But the first thing he did was find Luci. “Oh, and happy one month.” 

“How…” 

Luci chuckled because he still seemed to have the same reaction when she’d arrived. “I was informed that I don’t start filming until next week. So, last night, right after rehearsals, I booked a flight out here to see you on my time off, just in time for your birthday.”

“Wow, I…” Harry was speechless. “If I’m being honest, I thought that was a dream. I was sad to see you weren’t in bed when I woke up.” He pouted dramatically. 

Luci chuckled. “I’m sorry about that. For the new few days, I’ll make sure to stay a little longer until you wake up. Speaking of, I’m glad to see you made use of my spare key.” She raised her brows teasingly. 

When she left three weeks ago, she’d given Harry a spare key to her place just in case anything happened, so he would have access to it. She also told him that he was allowed any time in her apartment whenever he felt like it, so a couple of times a week, he would let himself into her place and sleep in her bed. Her scent that was displayed all over the pillows and the entire apartment had brought him some sort of comfort, but her sweet fragrance couldn’t compare to her presence where he could wrap his arms around her body instead of a pillow and her comforter. 

Harry smiled bashfully. “Well, you did say…” 

“I know what I said, and I don’t mind it. I think it’s really adorable that you sleep here sometimes.” Luci pulled the sides of his t-shirt, bringing him forward so he was closer. “Now, can I get a proper kiss hello? I’ve missed you.” 

He smirked, pressing his front against her before he took her face in the palms of his hands, leaning down as Luci tiptoed, they placed a loving and tender kiss to each other’s lips. Neither of them knew how they'd gone so long without the other’s touch because once they kissed each other, they couldn’t stop. 

Everything seemed to align when they felt each other’s touch; the day seemed to get brighter, the birds chirped louder like they were singing a tune, and their admiration was stronger than ever. Every emotion and word was told through their kiss, and it was a kiss of longing and yearning.  The pure desperation to compensate for the time that wasn’t spent kissing; a kiss that simply said ‘I missed you. Please don’t let me go this long without your lips.’ 

Matching swollen lips and a flustered state that was plastered on their faces seemed to be the theme of Luci and Harry’s reunion as they pulled back to catch some air. Harry quickly took her lips into his again before he bit down on her bottom lip, pulling back slightly, making a throaty moan escape from her, which ultimately caused Harry’s cock to bloat up. 

“You can get more than just a kiss ‘hello.’” Harry muttered against her; Luci inhaled sharply. “I did promise you a little something once we were together again, right?” He challenged, a smug smile emerged on his face. His thumb caressed her cheeks, and she wrapped her hands around his wrists. 

“You did.” She confirmed. “But it is your birthday, so I think I should take over today, no?” Her voice and words were doing everything right to his body. He felt every single word she spoke, and her sultry voice was going to be a broken record in his mind every single day. All he did was nod, not trusting his ability to speak. “Words, Harry, I need your words.” She’d said his words that he used when they were last together, when it was him who made her feel good. 

“Yeah, take over, baby. Please.” He was completely under her spell, physically and mentally luring into her. Luci reached up to give him a brief kiss before she pulled his arm, leading him to her bedroom. 

The back of thighs hit the edge of the bed, and she gently pushed at his chest so his back landed right in the middle of the mattress. She climbed onto the bed, legs astride his thighs as she began to kiss his neck, leaving a small hickey on his skin that he would admire until it faded. Playing with the hem of his shirt, she pulled away, giving him a devious smirk. 

“Can I touch you?” She asked, looking so intently in his eyes. 

He nodded. “Please.” His dreams and fantasy were coming to life as his mind had been filled with Luci’s body and touch when his nights were extra lonely. He didn’t need to fulfill himself with the minor satisfaction when Luci was prepared to do that for him as she lifted his shirt up, exposing his tattooed torso to her sight. 

Harry took off his shirt, throwing it onto the floor before watching her become so immersed with his body. The permanent ink fascinated her, and she delicately touched the tattoos that were exposed to her eyes like it was a prized possession. Leaning down, she planted a kiss to the swallows on his collarbones, trailing down to the butterfly that was plastered on his stomach; Harry’s breath hitched as he felt himself get hard underneath her. She then licked down to his lower abdomen, where his happy trail lied between two ferns; and she opened her mouth and nibbled on the skin in between his laurel tattoos, making Harry internally groan at her tasteful teasing. 

Running her fingers along the hem of his sweatpants, she asked him if she could take them off, to which he breathlessly responded: “Yes, please. Take everything off.” 

His cock rested on his stomach while Luci took in his large size. Her mouth practically salivated at him; and she was eager to get him in her mouth, to get him inside of her. But she wanted to take her time to appreciate and admire his endeavours. 

“You’re beautiful, Harry,” she complimented genuinely. Harry looked down at her, and just as he was about to thank her, her tongue licked the base to the tip of his needy cock, earning a loud exhale from him. 

She slipped the head of his cock into her mouth, sucking and tasting the pre-come that had spilled out of the tip, swirling her tongue all around. Harry moaned, throwing his head back onto the mattress as he gripped the sheets harshly, wrinkling in his hands. 

Luci took him into her mouth further, holding back the urge to gag. She breathed through her nose as she bobbed her head up and down while raking her fingernails on his torso, increasing and adding to the sensation. 

“Fuck, Ci.” He breathed out, panting. The slightest bit of embarrassment took over him for a moment because he felt like he was on the edge of an orgasm; it had been way too long since he’d felt another person’s touch, another person’s mouth on him. 

Pulling him out of her mouth, a string of saliva followed as it connected to her bottom lip and the middle of his cock. “Like that, hmm?” She asked, batting her eyelashes at him flirtingly. 

“You have no idea…” he trailed off, burying his hands into her hair. He didn’t mean to rush her into blowing him again—all he wanted to do was touch her, and the closest thing was her head—but Luci took that as a sign to continue her movements again. 

“Fuck my mouth.” She requested. Harry’s eyes widened, not expecting to hear that from her; but everyday, she surprised him. “Please. Want you in the back of my throat.” She was trying her hardest to take him further than she would like, but she couldn’t quite reach that point. “Think you deserve that, birthday boy.” 

Harry inhaled sharply, containing his demeanor as a smirk landed on his mouth as he sat up, sitting on his knees. Luci’s feet were planted on the floor as her upper body was laying flat on the mattress 

He leaned down so his mouth was next to her ear as he whispered, “Best birthday ever,” before giving her a quick kiss. Luci placed his dick back into her mouth, wrapping her lips around his tip as she waited for him to take over. Harry tangled his fingers into her hair before slowly bucking his hips forward as he slid into her mouth. Placing her hands on the back of his thighs, she pushed him further, urging him that he could go faster; Harry complied. 

Harry felt like he was on top of the world, like nothing else mattered except for this moment right here. It was like he was in between the soft clouds that could be matched for the blanket and mattress underneath him; like he was looking down at the nature and beauty of the world conform to the beauty of Luci below him; like he was screaming at the top of his lungs his secrets for the world to hear, which corresponded to the filthy words he was spewing out and his loud moans that filled the room up; and it was like the world was screaming back at him, which was a wild Luci moaning around him, sending vibrations up his body. 

He was feeling everything all at once. 

And he fucking loved it. 

When he pulled back to check on his girlfriend, she gasped for air. She had tears in her eyes—a few had streamed down her face—her lips were swollen, and her hair was a mess—and Harry absolutely loved it. Luci kissed up his body, meeting his lips as she gave him an eager and sloppy kiss. Their mouths connected, and he tasted himself on her tongue with the side of Luci. The best flavor ever. 

“Want you so bad.” Harry managed to say between the heated kisses. 

“Have at me.” She moved past him, laying down on the bed before she quickly stripped her clothes off, throwing it onto the floor where it landed next to Harry’s clothes. 

“You sure? Thought you wanted to take over?” He smirked teasingly. 

“Unless you wanna take over, I’m very sure.” She reached into her bedside drawer to grab a condom—an unopened pack of condoms and a bottle of lube. “Mind if we use lube? I know I’m pretty wet, but I don’t know if I’m that wet, and I want you inside of me already and I want it to feel good for the both of us.” 

“Of course, baby. Whatever you need to feel comfortable, feel free to do it.” He kissed her reassuringly before smirking, wondering how long she’d been waiting for this moment. 

He grabbed the foil packet, and rolled it onto his aching cock that was begging for a release. Grabbing the water-based lube, he squirted some of it onto his hand and rubbed it on his length before running his hand up and down her slit, and to her sensitive nub as he circled his finger, making her mewl. He settled in between her legs, placing his arms near her shoulders as he hovered over her, kissing her sweetly. 

Asking her once more if she wanted to push through with it, she gave her consent, grabbing his dick before lining it up with her entrance. Harry slowly pushed in as Luci gasped at his size; he was stretching her out so well that tears pricked her eyes, the overwhelming invasion of his girth and length had made her pant. 

Once he was fully in, Luci looked down in between them, seeing he was balls-deep inside of her; they both moaned in unison. 

“Baby…you’re so big.” She squeezed around him, causing Harry to hiss, gripping her hips tightly. “Move, please. Need to feel you.” She couldn’t count the amount of times she’d dreamed and fantasized this moment; her fingers and her vibrator weren’t cutting it anymore. 

He began to thrust; her arousal lubricated his dick even more as he smoothly slipped in and out of her. Leaning down, he took her breasts into his mouth, licking and sucking as his hand fondled the other before switching. Luci slipped her hand in between their bodies, touching and rubbing her throbbing clit; Harry smiled at the sight. 

“You look so fucking pretty touching yourself, Ci. Making yourself feel good?” She nodded, closing her eyes as she threw her head back. “Am I making you feel good?” Harry’s thrusts began to quicken as his hips slammed against the back of her thighs. “Tell me.” An urgent praise needed to fill him, and her filthy words needed to be spoken. 

“So good, H. Fuck…” she continued rubbing at her swollen nub as the tip of Harry’s cock brushed against her g-spot. “There. Right there. Please, don’t stop. You’re so fucking good.” She cried out into the air as he continued his movements, sweetly hitting her special spot. Unexpectedly, she grabbed one of his hands and wrapped it around her throat, covering his large with hers as they squeezed her neck together. 

Harry felt like he could come right there and then at the sight of their hands wrapped around her neck. He felt her squeeze around him once more, making him groan. 

“Pretty girl, Luciana. Can’t get enough.” Even in her filthy state, she still managed to get shy at his words, making him chuckle. “Don’t go shy on me now, baby. I’m fucking you, and now is the time you get shy?” He squeezed his thumb a little bit more into her skin, feeling her pulse point that was quickly pounding hard. He took his other hand and rubbed at her clit since she stopped due to all the sensations she was feeling at once. Luci began to involuntarily buck her hips, moaning louder than ever. “C’mon, Ci, give it to me.” 

After a few more thrusts, a few more rubs, and a few more squeezes, she came so intensely that she saw stars. Part of it was because she was lightheaded, but her orgasm had washed over so powerfully that her body began to slightly convulse. Harry came into the condom a few moments after as a raspy groan filled the air. 

Once they calmed down, Harry gently pulled out of her, taking off and throwing the condom away in the trash before he laid down beside Luci. He pulled her exhausted body to his chest, and they laid there for a moment, regaining their energy back before they could greet one another. 

Luci was the first one to break the silence. “Happy birthday.” 

“Thank you, baby. Happy one month.” He brushed her hair out of her face, placing a kiss on her forehead. 

“Happy one month. So many more to go.” 

Harry smiled at her words. He felt a certain reassurance once she’d said that, like he wasn’t the only one feeling the intense and quick feelings that laid between them and their relationship because he truly felt like their relationship was for the long-haul, and she felt the exact same way—no matter if they’d only just started dating. 

So many more to go. 

“I have your gift,” Luci said, detangling herself from his arms. They’d been cuddling for the past twenty minutes, talking about random things that came to mind. 

“You didn’t have to get me anything.” Harry sat up against the headboard as she opened her luggage, pulling out an burnt-orange knitted sweater. 

“I should’ve wrapped it, sorry, but…” she handed the folded sweater to him. “Happy birthday.” 

“This is so cute! I love it.” His fingers touched the soft material, observing the details and the stitching. “Thank you so much.” He held her hand, gently pulling at it so he could place a kiss to her lips. 

“I’m glad. I’ve been knitting it since October, and finally got the chance to finish.” Harry’s eyes widened as he felt his heart swoon at the fact that she was doing something entirely sweet and thoughtful for him before they were even dating. 

“I truly love it. Thank you, Ci. Your talents continue to surprise me.” Luci smiled, nodding her head as she thanked him. Looking at him with bright eyes, she saw the world within him. She was so insanely lucky that Harry was her boyfriend, the guy that she met the day she moved in; a certain fondness fell over her. 

For Harry’s birthday and their one month celebration, he wanted to take Luci to his favorite Chinese restaurant called Tasty Plates, two blocks away—the restaurant that he bought food from for Luci’s birthday. He wore the sweater Luci gifted and made for him since he was quite excited to wear it one of his girlfriend’s creations. 

Upon entering, Luci noticed a very friendly atmosphere as the employees chatted with their customers as if they’d known one another for years, which they probably had. The smell of fresh and authentic Chinese food filled her senses, and she could already feel how home-y this place was. 

The restaurant was a self-seated restaurant, so Harry led her to one of the tables next to the wall that had frames upon frames of pictures and signatures of famous celebrities, athletes, and chefs that had the privilege of visiting the restaurant. 

“You’re gonna be up there one day.” Harry interrupted the intent observing that she was doing to the wall. 

“Hmm. You think so?” 

Harry nodded his head as if it was the most overt belief. “Absolutely. Being on this wall is, like, equivalent to having a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I already know they’re gonna have a picture frame bigger than all the others because they’d want everyone to see your picture.” 

Luci smiled, appreciating the sweet compliment as she reached across the glass table and held his hand. They chatted for a bit before one of the waitresses, who was also the owner, had taken their order. Kai, greeted Harry with a wide smile, glad that he was able to visit their restaurant. Harry introduced Luci to Kai, to which he earned a teasing expression from her; Kai practically knew almost every detail of Harry’s love life since the day he entered the restaurant, and Harry really didn’t mind—Kai provided him with some of her wiseful advice on relationships since she’d been in plenty of them in her time; but a piece of advice that really stuck to him was when she said ‘You’ll meet hundreds of people as you grow older, but you’ll know when you’ve met the right person. And if there’s anything that I’ve learned, it’s that when you have that person, don’t let them go because you’re going to regret it.’ Kai was speaking from personal terms, and she proceeded to tell Harry the story of when she met her husband, the co-owner of the restaurant, and how they went years without talking and loving, which were the most difficult years she’d ever went through. 

And Harry carried that advice everywhere he went. 

Kai brought out their food in a record-breaking time, saying that since Harry was her special customer, he got special treatment at the restaurant. The three joked around, laughing and teasing before Kai left their table, allowing them to eat. Luci excitedly told Harry everything about work—her cast members, famous actors and actresses along with producers that she’d met on set, and her upcoming schedule. She was glad to have someone to share this information with, aside from her family, and just the thought of telling Harry everything excited her. 

“I’m pretty booked until the end of April…” she mentioned. 

Harry looked down at his food before looking back up at her. He noticed a certain look that she carried, and it was a look of guilt. He placed his chopsticks on top of his bowl of rice before he grabbed her unoccupied hand, holding and caressing her skin. 

“Talk to me,” he said softly. He didn’t want to assume what she was thinking; he’d rather hear her voice her thoughts. 

“I feel bad, y’know. I mean, we just got together and we’re not even spending time with each other because it’s my fault-”

“Nothing is your fault,” he objected. 

She looked at him sadly. “If you think about it, it kinda is. Harry, we’re spending our one month anniversary when we haven't seen each other in three weeks. What the actual fuck is that?” 

“Well, I know you’re not going to quit the movie; plus, I wouldn’t let you.” He pauses for a moment, furrowing his eyebrows, mouth turning into frown as if a realization had just hit him. “Unless this was a mistake-” 

“No!” She shook her head, and Harry immediately felt bad because she looked like she was about to cry. “This will never be a mistake. One of the best choices I’ve ever made when I asked you out.” She reassured him. “It’s just…we’re supposed to be in the honeymoon stage, y’know? How could we do that when I’m always working and on the other side of the country?” 

Harry understood, he really did; and he didn’t know the way to answer her question since he didn’t know the answer himself, but he tried his best and said, “Well, then that just means when you come back home, we’ll still live through and be in the honeymoon stage four or five months from now.” And that answer seemed to satisfy her as she smiled, looking down at her lap as her cheeks heated. 

Drifting away from the serious topic, they enjoyed the rest of their lunch by talking and laughing. 

“What’s your mom like?” Luci asked, wanting to everything about him. 

Harry’s heart fluttered. “Her name’s Anne. She’s great—one of the kindest women I’ve ever known.” Luci smiled as she listened to him talk about his mother. “She’s done a lot for me and Gemma, and even though we’re older now, she would do everything and anything for us all over again. That’s just the kind of person she is—selfless, kind, and definitely knows how to crack a joke or two.” He smiled at the memory of when he was a child and how his high-pitched laugh would come out when Anne would joke around. 

“Is that where you get your love for jokes?” 

“Definitely. Can’t say I have better jokes than her or else we’ll have a joke battle.” Luci laughed; she loved listening to him talk about his family. His face lit up every time, and he had a smile that replicated his childhood photos. 

They talked for an hour before the conversations were coming to an end as a comfortable silence was washed over them. Kai brought out custard tarts, which she knew were Harry’s favorite Chinese dessert, that was on the house. They thanked Kai for their wonderful food, service, and for the dessert before Luci paid, tipping extra. 

Kai told Harry that he’d better not be hiding Luci because she really liked her, and hoped that he would bring her back soon. Harry promised, even Luci said that she would visit even when Harry wasn’t with her, which made Kai very happy. 

Back at Harry’s apartment, they ended up cuddling on his couch and eating ice cream together before he turned his body towards Luci and asked, “Can we talk about this morning?” 

Luci turned her head towards him, raising her brows. “You mean when we had sex?” She wondered, and he nodded. So, she put her finished bowl of ice cream on the coffee table in front of them before giving him her full attention. 

“I just wanted to know what you thought of it. Feedback is very much appreciated.” He smirked.

“Are you saying that so I could feed your ego more than I already do?” Luci teased. 

“Maybe…” 

She chuckled. “I liked it a lot. Sex had never felt like that before,” she responded honestly. No matter how many times she had sex before Harry, how many partners she’d slept with, Harry was undeniably the best one; and she thinks it was because he was her boyfriend, but either way, there was this compelling connection between them that had their minds and bodies were on the same page. 

“I agree. But I also wanted to ask if you were open to new ideas in the bedroom. I know that we’ve only had sex once, but I couldn’t help but notice-” 

“That I like being choked?” She took his words right out of his mouth, putting a devious smile on her face as she said them. He nodded, a bashful smile on his face.

“I’m pretty open, yeah. I haven’t tried many things, but there’s a first time for everything. So, I’m up for experimenting and I’d want some of my first times to be with you,” she straightforwardly said. He loved how honest and open she was, and it was just a quality that was going to be added to the long list of why he adored her. 

“I feel the same way.” He smiled. 

“Can I just say, though…I loved it when you talked to me the way you did. It’s really sexy and it makes me feel sexy.” 

Harry smirked. “Noted.” 

For the rest of the night, they talked about things they’d want to try on each other. They had a growing list of ‘yes’ and ‘no’ on things to try in the bedroom, which ranged from being handcuffed, blindfolded, over-stimulating, and mutual masturbation. Luci was open to spitting and slapping if Harry was down to try it, and he told her that was up for trying anything with her, but he answered that he’d love to test out the waters on those two to see if they both liked it. 

It was only going to grow from when they experiment and talk about it again. Their conversation had sparked up a sense of arousal in both of them that they were fretting in their seat and couldn’t keep still. Luci noticed him grow hard in his trousers, so she straddled his lap, and asked him to take her to bed, which he wasn’t going to say no to. 

He watched as she rode him to oblivion, throwing her head back as her tits glistened with sweat despite the cold weather on the first of February. Harry then ate her out, burying his tongue in between her folds. At first, he denied her orgasm, telling her that he’d allow her to let go once he gave her permission to because he wasn’t quite finished with licking her up. Luci was whiny as she cried out into the room, gripping his curls the hardest her strength would allow her. And when he gave her permission, she came on his tongue, his face, and his chest, wetting the sheets below her; and Harry swore it was the filthiest but hottest thing he’d ever seen. Their breaths were heavy, making the room even warmer than it already was with all the tension and passion that swirled through the air. 

After they regained their energy back, they went a few more rounds until they were absolutely exhausted. And they both knew they were going to be incredibly sore the next morning, maybe even the next few days; but they say that the best kind of sore is when you’re finished with a workout, so Harry and Luci both categorized their rounds as the best cardio. 

April 27, 2018 

Cheers and claps were spread all around as the director called out the final cut to the final scene of the film. It had been a long and tiring process, but a wave of proudness and relief was felt throughout the entire studio. 

Luci felt relieved she was finished with this project while still feeling a bittersweet rush of emotions. This was her first ever major film that she was a part of, and she felt nothing short of proud of herself at how hard she worked to get to where she was. But the journey wasn’t over yet as she couldn’t wait to start her next one, and where that adventure would take her. 

Harry was all she could think about. She couldn’t wait to finally go home to him for a while and not have to worry about anything. They only saw each other for one and a half days at the beginning of March when she was filming in New York before she had to fly back to California, but one and a half days were better than nothing.�� 

She hugged the crew and cast as a big smile stayed on her face for the remainder of the time she was on set. Everyone took pictures with one another after the cast had changed out of their wardrobe and costumes while the production crew was cleaning everything up. 

Thea and Samantha arrived on set once filming was over to congratulate Luci. They hugged and took a few pictures, which was now going to be a tradition after Luci was done with a project. After everyone had settled down, the adrenaline ceased a bit, Luci headed back to her trailer with Thea. Before she could enter, Thea pulled her to the side to introduce Luci to a journalist who was waiting for them by the side of her trailer. 

“Hi, Luciana. My name is Audrey.” They shook hands as Luci politely introduced herself and greeted the interviewer. 

“Audrey is just going to interview you, is that okay?” Thea asked, and Luci nodded, seeing as it was for harmless promo. She was a bit nervous because this interview was probably for an important media outlet, and it was her very first one too. 

Throughout the months, Luci had gone through media training since Thea mentioned that it was necessary and inevitable since she was now in the spotlight, so public appearances and special interviews were required for her to go through that training. Her media coach told her the basics: to be herself—people love to see true and raw personality to a celebrity; have interesting stories to tell upon asking because people will ask, and be passionate because the media loves to pick up on nitty gritty details about one’s appearance and attitude, which will cause them to flip the switch completely. 

The entire process had overwhelmed her a bit as later that night, she called Harry in tears as she explained the training to him as he tried to comfort her through the phone from across the country. 

He assured her that everyone was going to love her because she had a loveable and approachable persona to her that it would be difficult to not love her; Harry had almost slipped his three words that were lingering on his tongue to further prove his point, but he stopped himself, not wanting to say them over the phone. 

Thea let herself into the trailer, leaving the two to begin the interview. 

“Okay, do you mind if I record you?” Audrey asked, looking down at her phone, making Luci trail her eyes down to the voice memos app where Audrey’s thumb hovered over the record button. 

“No.” She shook her head, and Audrey pressed the red button. 

“So, Luciana, I was informed this was your very first major film project. How do you feel about it?” Audrey questioned in a professional interviewer voice. 

“I-I feel very honored to be working in this film with so many people that I’ve watched on the screen growing up. This film has such an amazing crew and cast that it felt like family; and I learned so many things from this entire journey, so I’m very appreciative and grateful to be part of this.” She may have rambled a bit, but it was a solid and genuine answer. 

“Who are your inspirations that you look up to while being part of this business?” 

Luci thought for a moment, gathering the actors and actresses that popped in her head. “To name a few: Meryl Streep, Sandra Bullock—I had the honor of working with here—and Cillian Murphy, to name a few. I’ve also really loved and was always inspired by Giulia Stone. I loved all of the movies she did in the seventies, and she’s just so iconic and a legend that I will always admire.”

Audrey then asked about her upbringing—where the new and potential star grew up, and her past job on Broadway. 

“Broadway was also a dream of mine when growing up, and the atmosphere was insane. I loved every minute of it, and I left the building with so much adrenaline and energy every night because the audience was always so wonderful.” 

They then talked about her role for Miss Saigon, and Luci was reminiscent of her part before she stepped into the world that was filled with well-known actors and a big industry. In a way, she missed the Broadway universe, and for the first month of shooting for the film, she considered quitting and going back to Broadway as she felt like she wasn’t fit enough to be part of the job, but she pushed herself through (with the help of Harry and her family). She believed everything happened for a reason, and perhaps her time on Broadway was limited to what she’d expected because the film industry was calling her name. 

“Last question to wrap it up.” Audrey chuckled. “Do you have a lover? Anyone special out there that has your heart? These questions will be asked frequently, so might as well get used to them now.” The curiosity poured through the interviewer’s body, and portrayed in her exterior as her eyes bulged, lips curled in as her hand moved her phone closer to Luci, making sure to get her answer on record crystal clear with no chance to mumble or hide her answer. Luci didn’t like how she said the last sentence, like it was an obvious question to ask. 

For some prideful and egotistical reason, Luci didn’t want to fill her satisfaction, to fill the media’s curiosity in hopes to feed people the latest gossip and the inaccurate news. Sure, Luci wasn’t a big name, people barely looked twice at the mention of her name, but something inside of her didn’t want everyone to know what her personal or love life looked like; frankly because it wasn’t any of their business. 

Confidently, she subtly leaned her head a little closer to the speaker of Audrey’s phone before answering, “No, I don’t.” 

Audrey pressed the red button again to stop recording, and Luci would later on know that she made a big mistake saying that.

come talk to me about your feelings, thoughts, favorite moments and scenes! thank you for reading <3 next chapter will be up next saturday!

[codename-adler]

Kevin and his Oblivious Literature Lover, pt.III

I don’t know how many parts I can write but I keep going?? It just brings me joy and I hope it does you too <3

>> Table of Contents, TW and other parts here!

they keep this little game going for a few Mondays, where they kind of interact with each other through the lessons and have each other’s back against the rest of the class

Kevin remains at the front seat of the room and Juliet stays at the back by the window

it doesn’t mean they can’t support and encourage each other in subtle ways

when she is calm enough, Juliet will raise her hand and ask him more details about a point he brings during a lecture, because, well, she never really heard about it before and she likes to learn as much as she can (and if she likes his voice and his mannerisms more than those of their teacher, that is her own business...)

when Juliet is confident enough to speak up in class, Kevin only has to turn and stare at the students who keep interrupting or talking over her for them to shut up (he learned a bit from Andrew, after all, and if he uses that opportunity to catch a glimpse of her warm eyes, than that is his own business...)

but what happens in class stays in class; outside, they are strangers once again and go on with their life

they don’t quite forget about each other, but they can’t afford to have other priorities or distractions; we all know Kevin’s life is a mess and a fight for survival; Juliet’s is, in a word, hard...

Monday afternoons are for soldiers to rest.

then, obviously, everything goes to shit

Kengo dies, and then Jean almost dies, and then Renée brings him back and with him, all these fears and feelings and anxieties

Kevin feels guilty, guilty, guilty...

which means he is even more of an asshole to everyone

he skips class the following day, a Monday

Juliet isn’t disappointed at all, and if she happens to listen a little less that day, well that has nothing to do with it

it takes a few days for Kevin to stay more than a minute in Jean’s room at Abby’s; every time he looks at him, his heart races and he feels like throwing up, because I could’ve got him out before & I could’ve brought him with me & I could’ve done more & I knew what would happen to him & this is all my fault & I just left him there & God I’m disgusting

the faces of Jean, and Riko, and Tetsuji, and Neil, and Jean, and Thea and Neil and Seth and Jean all melt together in his mind

and Oh God Thea

instead of the pride he usually felt when thinking of her, he felt fear

but no, that wasn’t quite true; the fear had always been there, burried under pride and satisfaction; now fear was the strongest

after the game on Friday, Kevin spent all night in Jean’s room, watching him from a chair and thinking, just thinking everything over and over again

they didn’t speak, except for when Kevin reassured Jean after nightmares, in a low voice that barely resembled his usually rough tone

somewhere in the night, the reassurances became as much of a mantra for Jean as for Kevin

on Saturday morning, still in Jean’s room, Kevin called Thea.

he asked her if she heard about Kengo (of course I did) and how she felt about it (well I just hope someone is there for Riko, seeing as you left him and Jean was never of much comfort) 

(she couldn’t know about Jean yet, but still)

Kevin hangs up 

then he calls her back

“I don’t want to be in a relationship with you anymore, Thea.”

“I see. Okay. Goodbye, Kevin.”

and that was the end of it

Jean just stares at him from his bed as silent tears fill his eyes

his mind reeling from everything still, Kevin slowly gets up from his chair to go kneel by Jean’s head; with as much care as he ever could, he caresses the back of Jean’s neck, mindful of not touching any wound

as Kevin’s forehead touches with Jean’s, both boys finally exhale

it is not peace. it is not forgivness. it is not shame, nor guilt. 

they are simply two boys who will forever be tangled up in themselves no matter where they are, because they lived through too much together to leave the other behind without feeling like losing a limb

so Kevin stays, this time. he stays all weekend with Jean, wiping away his tears and organizing a future of possibilities for the boy he should have brought with him when he left the Nest

but as soon as he leaves Jean’s side, which is a grand total of four times that weekend, Kevin puts his professional mask on and goes on as if his world wasn’t crumbling down again

so on Monday, Kevin goes to class on the one condition that Abby pulls him out if anything happens with Jean

his mind is still a jumbled mess of Jean/Riko/Thea/Neil/Tetsuji, and sometimes an angelic face with frizzy hair flashes through, but not long enough for him to wonder

which is why he is pulled out of his memories when the teacher announces the group project they’d warned them about at the beginning of the semester

groups of two, maximum three; present two pieces of literature, one from Early America, one from the 21st century inspired by your choice of Early American Literature (no, brandon, you cannot choose The Patriot, it is shit at accuracy); you must each speak for 12 minutes; this thing is due before your finals, LET’S GO PEOPLE

as usual, Kevin assumes he’ll work it out alone, no teacher had ever complained and he just wasn’t in the mood to chit-chat with people who had no consideration for accuracy while Jean was still in a critical state for Christ’s sake!

meanwhile, Juliet was silently chewing her lips until the first layer of skin is torn away, anxiety levels at their highest since a long time; she didn’t know anybody in the class even after a whole semester, she didn’t have any friends, nobody to talk to or to pair up with... well, not anyone who would want to

it takes her everything to get out of her head and move from her desk to the front of the class

“Hi.”

Kevin looks up from his laptop, and there she is

she has a dimple on her right cheek, because she’s stressed out and it translates into a nervous smirk on her lips

“Okay, so... I’m alone. You’re... well, not accompanied, so I was wondering if maybe you’d agree to pair up? I think we’d work great together, you seem to be really invested in your studies. I respect that. Does that... Would you like that?”, Juliet musters up the courage to ask him

“Yes, it’s a good idea”, Kevin replies in slow-motion before even thinking it through

“Really?”, Juliet lets out, disbelieving that her idea even worked out

“Yes...? It’s Juliet?”, Kevin asks even though he knows perfectly well he’d never forget her name. “I’m-” he starts again

“Kevin, yeah, I remember. I mean, it’s kinda hard to forget” Juliet blurts out

oh

oh

she had known all along, hadn’t she?

“You like exy?”, Kevin almost spits back, all warmth gone from his eyes and his jaw heavily clenched

“Uh... The sport with the stick and the ball?”, Juliet tries, visibly lost

“Something like that”, Kevin answers

“I mean, no, I don’t care for it. If you tell me to observe the dynamics between the players and among the team, though, or if you want me to write about it, I might care... Why? It comes from Early America? Is that what you’d like to work on?”, Juliet responds

oh

oh

she doesn’t have a clue, does she?

“No, it’s... nothing. Forget it”, Kevin says slowly. “What did you mean by ‘hard to forget’?”

“Oh. God. Don’t take it personally, but hum, you’re taller that six feet? Sitting right in front of the class? And I know it’s my fault for sitting in the back, but me and my five foot two really can’t see shit. But then you also seem to have endless secret knowledge up your sleeves and it’s made this class a little more tolerable, so, I forgive you for you height of titan.” Juliet rushes out, despite her embarrassment

she is absolutely clueless. he’s just Kevin the huge nerd to her. 

he’s not even bothered by the stickball comment

he’s not even bothered by her complete lack of interest

she doesn’t bother him at all

“Are you sure you’re okay with me? I’ve been told no before, I can take it. It just seemed like a logical idea and-”, Juliet mumbles anxiously

“I’m good. I’m ready when you are”, Kevin cuts her off

her smile was not everything, it was not exy and it was not thea ‘s nor jean’s, but it was a smile untouched by his monsters

and he liked that

[sunny-flower-girl-01]

Ohana- A Hawaii Five-0 Fanfic Chapter Five

This chapter is not what I wanted, but I'm not too sorry about how it planned out. I'm sorry it's so short but I wanted to try and get back on a schedule after last week. I had no kids at work so I was on office duty all week and had absolutely no time to write. I got this out in two days so go easy on me lol. Please enjoy this chapter though! It's nothing but Steve and Thea :)

Thea’s POV: 

I could stop the tears falling the entire time I waited for Steve. I moved from the bar to the couch and stared at the papers in front of me. My father wants custody of Nora. After all these years, he’s deciding now to be a father. He has some nerves. I glanced over at the pictures on the wall of me and Nora throughout the years. The memories I had made with her, the childhood she had because of me. I did everything in my power to give her a childhood, something I didn’t have myself. I made sure she was able to be a kid and didn’t have to take care of anyone like I did. I never cared that she wasn’t biologically my daughter. She was MY baby. I raised her. Not him or anyone else, it was me. This can’t be happening right now. 

A loud knock came from my front door. “Thea!” 

I slowly got off the couch and rushed to the door. As soon as the door was open, I wrapped my arms around him tightly. I had never hugged him before, but God, I’m going to start hugging him now. He arms wrapped around me instantly and moved me farther into the house. I heard the door close behind him. It felt so calming being held by him. 

His hands rubbed my back soothingly as his head rested on mine. “What happened?” He asked quietly. 

I buried my face in his chest. “He’s going to take her from me.” I sobbed. Steve pulled back and looked down at me. He kept his arms wrapped around me. 

“Who’s taking who from you?” He followed me to the living room. I picked up the papers and handed them to him. He studied them for a moment before looking at me. “Whose Peter Kenwood?” He asked. 

I lowered myself onto the couch. Steve reached out and helped me down before sitting next to me. “He’s mine and Nora’s... Father. If you even want to call him that.” I wiped my eyes. “He hasn’t even seen Nora, never even protested when I got custody the first time but now, he wants to have full custody of her!” The sadness has passed now, and I was angry. How could my ‘father’ do this to me? How the hell does he think he is? Well, I know who he is. 

Steve continued to read through the papers. “This is just a petition to change custody. No decision is being made just yet.” He said. He grabbed my hand and squeezed it gently. I was starting to notice that little squeezed like that was something he did often. Like he did it as a reassurance that he was here.

I looked up at him, his green eyes staring directly into mine. “She’s not going anywhere. No one is going to let him take her from you. I’m not going to let him take her from you.” 

Another tear slipped down my cheek as he said it. “He has a lot of friends and business associates… He might win.” With my elbow propped on the back of the couch, pressed my forehead against my palm. “He has enough money to get a whole team of lawyers, I can’t even afford one.” I groaned. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to dump all this on you.” Steve wiped my tears away with his thumb as he cupped my cheek. 

“That’s why I’m here, Thea.” 

I shook my head and looked up at him. “I just don’t know what to do. She’s MY daughter, Steve. I can’t lose her.” The anger was coming back. I blame the pregnancy for the mood swings. 

“Between you and Five-0, he won’t stand a chance of getting her, okay?” He pulled me close to him, kissing the top of my head. “Just let me do some digging around.” 

God, having him hold me felt amazing. I had dreamed about this for weeks, not exactly having imagined it like this though. Having to comfort me in a situation like this was not something I thought I would be going through right now. I wrapped my arms around his middle and leaned into him. He kept his arms around me as he put the papers back in the envelope and tossed them on the coffee table. He leaned back onto the couch, never letting go of me. We sat there together for a few minutes, neither of us saying anything. I turned my head slightly, so my forehead was against his shoulder. Steve had his head leaned down on mine. Almost as if he were enjoying having me in his arms like I was. 

“I’m sorry I pulled you away from the party.” I said quietly. I still didn’t trust my voice to not break down again. 

He shook his head again. “You didn’t. Everyone left a few minutes after you did.” He paused for a moment. His hand was still running up and down my back. It hasn’t really stopped since he got here. The hand traveled up to my shoulder and squeezed gently. “I would have come anyway.” He whispered into my hair. 

I couldn’t keep the slight smile off my face even if I tried. I sat up a little bit to look at him, our faces were just a few inches apart. “Thank you for coming.” I whispered. 

He smiled softly at me. “I wouldn’t be anywhere else.” 

Before I could stop myself, I pressed my lips to his. I felt Steve move slightly and I quickly backed up and got off the couch. 

“Oh my god! I’m so sorry! I did not mean to do that!” Steve stood up from the couch and reached for my arm.

“Thea-” I pulled out of the reach and headed to the kitchen. 

“I’m sorry.” I mumbled. I leaned against the bar and put my head in my hands. ‘What the hell is wrong with you? Why would you do that! He doesn’t see you like that! You’re the mother of his children.’ I groaned and tried to keep my tears back. ‘He probably thinks you’re hormonal’. I didn’t look up at Steve when he walked into the kitchen. I bet the look on his face was the serious aneurysm face that Grace talked about. I fucked up big time. He came up right behind me, his hand on my arm light, like he expected me to pull away from him.

“Thea, please look at me.”

I hesitantly turned around and looked up at him. “Look, I’m sorry. That was inappro-” I was cut off by him cupping the back of my neck and pulling me to him. His lips pressed against mine a bit rougher than the first time, holding me close to him. I put my hands up on his chest to push him back, but I couldn’t. I melted into the kiss, my hands moving up his chest to wrap around his neck. His other arm moved down my back and around my waist. He pulled me as close as he could with my bump in the way. Before I had a chance to deepen the kiss, he pulled away, but didn’t let go of me. Our foreheads are still touching, and I could still feel his breath on my face. My eyes were still closed. I was scared that if I opened them, he was going to push me away.

His thumb stroked my cheek gently. “I’ve been wanting to do that for a few weeks now.” He whispered.

One of my hands moved to his wrist and squeezed gently. “Don’t do that if you don’t mean it.” 

He kissed me again but pulled away before I could react to it. I finally opened my eyes to see him looking down at me. “I mean it, okay? I’ve wanted to tell you for the last two weeks, but I didn’t know how, as cheesy and cliche as that sounds. I like and care about you, Thea.” He said, looking me in the eyes. “I know the situation we’re in right now isn’t exactly normal,” His hand went to my stomach. He only touched my bump once when I felt one of the babies move. We had tried to see if he would be able to feel it, but he couldn’t. I was hoping in the next few weeks he’d finally be able to feel them move like I had been. “But I want to be with you.” He said. He leaned in and kissed my cheek. 

I took a deep breath and tried, for the umpteenth time tonight, to keep the tears from falling. ‘Goddamn pregnancy hormones’ I pushed away from him a bit so I could look at him. “Steve, I want to be with you too, but it isn’t just me I need to worry about.” He nodded in understanding. “Nora is the most important person in my life. I need you to know and understand that before anything can happen. I’m always going to choose my kids over anything else.” Most guys tended to run off after I made that confession. Though I was never sure if it was the kid part or the not coming in first on my list of priorities, that scared them away. I didn’t think that it would scare Steve away. He is about to have twins. But I knew it was something that still needed to be said. 

He nodded again. “I know. I know how important Nora is to you. Honestly, she’s become important to me too. She’s a great kid and I…” He took my hand again, holding it close to him. “I want you both.” 

I smiled, walking closer and looking up at him. ‘How have I not noticed how much taller he is?’ 

“Well, luckily for you, we’re both pretty fond of you.” I grinned. He leaned down to kiss me, but we were interrupted by my phone going off. I pulled away from him. “That’s probably Rachel.” I said. I walked into the living room and picked up my phone. 

“Hey Rach.” I sat on the sofa. 

Steve’s POV:

I couldn’t help but grin to myself as I watched her walk to the living room. I spent the last few weeks going over and over about how I was going to tell her I had feelings for her, only to have her kiss me. I really didn’t see that coming, but I knew that I should have. Danny had been telling me that I was freaking out over nothing and that I was doing what I always did when feelings were involved. I was panicking. ‘You need to thaw out your heart sometimes and let people in’ Is what he’s been telling me since I met him. Between my family issues and my life in the military letting people in like that was somewhat foreign to me. But after this with Thea, I wasn’t as scared anymore. 

I glanced around at the kitchen. I had only been inside her apartment a few times. Once when I helped Thea carry groceries up. ‘She doesn’t need to be doing that on her own, not while she’s pregnant’ And once when I sat with Nora for a few minutes while Thea was getting her bag ready to spend the night at Danny’s. It was a cute place, but like she said earlier, not big enough for her, Nora, and two babies. As I looked around, I smiled at the pictures of her and Nora she had on the fridge. There was no way I was going to let someone, biological parent or not, take Nora away from her. It was clear to anyone that saw them together that Thea was her parent, not Peter Kenwood. 

I looked into the living room and smiled again at Thea. She was telling Nora goodnight. 

“Good night baby. I’ll see you in the morning okay?” I said softly, smiling as she talked. 

I knew from here on that these were my girls. I wasn’t going to let anyone take them away from me. 

Please let me know what you think! I'm currently writing the next chapter so hopefully it'll be up soon. I already have the twins named picked out, I'm hoping you guys like them. If you have any ideas for the gender reveal I would love to hear them!

[thoughtfullyrainynightmare]

The fifth chapter of Embers of Sun and Flame is here, in which I’ll be spilling a little bit more about Thea. Though, those of you who have read spoilers to it, already know what’s up 😅😉. The fic can also be found on A03

I probably didn’t state it last time, but text in [brackets] is written in Thean, which canon characters couldn’t understand. Or maybe some of them, but not all. 

A reminder that the series will include mature content, thus reader discretion is advised. Though I’ll try to tag any warnings in each chapter separately once they become relevant

Words: 4363

Chapter 5: Denial

Morning dawned like any other, and she could already tell that the rest of the squad had already returned from the faint mana that now circled around the base. It was so strange how such faint flutter most often went unnoticed, but as soon as it was gone, its absence was more than clear. Like with many trivial things that brought comfort and reassurance, they were only appreciated once they were gone. But after returning, they brought a bright smile to your face, and it was precisely an expression as such that Solara wore to breakfast that morning.

She was the first to arrive, though others soon followed, clearly trying to keep themselves from yawning. It seems that they barely got any sleep. An empathetic smile rose to her lips with the thought. Hopefully tonight they get a full night’s rest. She smiled and wished them good morning as they arrived one by one, receiving such wishes in return. Her eyes landed on Mereo, who didn’t seem affected by a short sleep. But then again, she knew that Mereo had been spent many nights in the wilderness and had thus gotten accustomed to it.

“Morning,” she greeted with a smile, making the corners of Mereo’s lips tug up into a smirk.

“Morning. I see that you kept the base standing,” she joked while taking her seat.

“What else could I have done? After all I know that you would have hunted me down if I didn’t,” Solara chuckled, raising an eyebrow at her while a grin took place on her complexion.

“You’re damn right, I would,” Mereo smirked back while a shadow of softness washed over her, but quickly settled back into a stern expression.

“Did everything go as planned?” Solara asked before taking a bite of her food, a question to which Mereo only nodded before turning the conversation into another direction.

“There’s something I need to discuss with you, after breakfast.” She turned to Solara, her tone not telling of worry or anger, but instead rolling from her more of a statement than anything else.

“Of course,” Solara replied, getting a slight sinking feeling as she wasn’t quite sure what to make of the statement. Mereo was never one to sugar coat things, and given that whatever it was to be discussed, could wait, there was nothing to be concerned about. Right? But the very fact that there was a discussion to be had, made Solara worry.

“Morning,” said a voice next to her, making her turn her head.

“Oh, good morning Randal,” she greeted. “How was training?”

Randal took his seat, holding back a yawn before replying. “Vigorous and educational,” he smiled.

Mere gave him a look and scoffed, but didn’t say anything to the matter.

“How was work?” he asked in return, giving her a reassuring glance.

“Well,” she began, her gaze falling slightly to the side. “I do need to admit that I struggled a bit with revising the latest mission reports, as I’m not familiar with the once that preceded these, I couldn’t really tell if there was a need for further investigation or not in some cases…” She sighed. “But I managed to go through the expense assessments for the next couple of months.”

Randal blinked at her statement, looking at her in confusion. “You managed to get through all of that…?” His voice was full of disbelief, making Solara frown slightly, but her expression soon softened back to what it had been.

“Well, numbers are the same in all languages and since I had assessments from previous months and years at my disposal and easy to find, it was fairly straightforward. And though I did admit that my lingo might not be quite where it needs to be, that dictionary I found from the former Captain Vermillion’s bookcase has proven to be my salvation. Thus, I’ve been able to at least sort the reports into different categories. One I’m fairly confident in ruling as ‘closed’ or not in need of further investigation, but I would still like to ask you to check up on them. One that I can’t rule either way. And one that in my personal opinion needs further actions.” Solara finished her sentence, looking Randal in the eye, who was still staring at her, dumbfounded.

Silence fell between them as Solara waited for Randal to say something, but what happened next took Solara by surprise. A few tears rolled down Randal’s cheeks as he took Solara’s hand and sobbed out: “thank you” repeatedly, his gaze falling as he hunched over her hand. Solara’s eyes widened and her body grew stiff, as she was uncertain of what she had said.

The room became otherwise silent, only the quiet sobs filling the air as Solara carefully gazed to Mereo with a slightly terrified expression. But Mereo just stared at Randal with a raised eyebrow, not batting an eye.

“You’re welcome…” Solara stated hesitantly while turning back to Randal, who gradually straightened back up, wiping the corners of his eyes.

“Your help means the world to me…” he sobbed out, making Solara realize just how much pressure he had been under during the last couple of months. All of which was now pouring out.

Solara’s confusion turned into a comforting smile as she gave his hand a single squeeze, while replying: “Any time.” The words flowing from her gently, reassuring him that it’d all work out eventually.

He nodded to her and they both turned back to breakfast, Solara’s gaze meeting Leo’s on the opposite side of the table.

“Good morning,” she greeted, moving on to other things. The young lion blinked, processing that which had happened before returning to his usual cheery self.

“Good morning Solara aneue!” he laughed out, making Mereo give him a glance.

“You calling her ‘aneue’ now?” She asked, surprise clear from her tone.

“Yes! She gave me permission,” Leo explained before sitting down and turning back to Solara. “So, can we continue the story today? I want to know what happens next,” he asked, unable to stay still in his seat.

“Of course, as long as we make sure that you get proper sleep tonight,” Solara chuckled, furrowing her brows slightly.

Leo’s answer was in the happy smile that rose to his complexion, while Mereo only scoffed, but Solara saw the faint smile that tugged her lips, nearly concealed by the action before they all turned their attention to breakfast.

---

“So, what’s going on?” Solara asked as they stood in the captain’s office, trying to read Mereo’s expression.

“There’s been a need to assemble a squad to take care of the terrorists, and I’ve been assigned as the captain of that squad. So, as I said before, I can’t be looking after the cubs,” she stated, her tone grave, but calm.

“And you’ll still need me looking after the boys?” Solara confirmed with a nod.

“Yes. There’s going to be an evaluation to determine who’ll qualify for my squad, and a couple of the squad members will be taking part in the evaluation. I don’t expect all of them to make the cut. Actually, given their performance this year, I’m surprised if any of them make the cut,” Mereo shrugged.

“You’re being a bit harsh,” Solara smiled with a slightly apologetic expression, to which Mereo only scoffed.

“I’m just letting you know that some of them will be out of your hair for at least a day,” Mereo stated nonchalantly, while crossing her arms. Solara only nodded in reply, not knowing what to say, and instead opted to move on with the conversation.

“So, you’ll be having your hands full with the new squad?” Solara asked, hoping to bridge the conversation forward. Mereo gave her a slight nod.

“We’ll be serving in the frontlines of the upcoming battles, which is the only place I want to be in,” she said, gritting her teeth and clenching her fist, speaking of her will for retribution.

Solara tilted her head, giving Mereo an empathetic smile and placing her hand onto Mereo’s shoulder.

“My only regret is that I cannot be there with you,” Solara said, her statement rolling out a combination of reassurance, certainty and apology, as she wasn’t about to tell her friend not to go, knowing that nothing could talk her out of it. A small smile rose to Mereo’s lips as she closed her eyes for a moment before placing her hand onto Solara’s shoulder in return.

“That is not a regret you should have,” she smiled as their gazed met. Mereo knew what Solara had meant, and appreciated the sentiment, but that wasn’t what she needed from her friend.

And Solara knew that Mereo didn’t need her standing by her side on the battlefield, this time at least. What she needed from Solara, was to give her peace of mind and help take care of her other duties. She needed to trust that while she was off making sure justice for her brother would be served, that the said brother would be safe. That the squad that was dear to her, was safe.

They agreed to meet later for drinks, as Mereo pointed out how they hadn’t gone out properly before befriending each other. Though Solara needed to request for the ‘later’ to be during the following day as she had already promised Leo to read to him. Mereo raised an eyebrow at that, questioning what this whole reading thing was about. Leo could read after all.

Solara explained the events leading up to the newly formed habit, to which Mereo scoffed, despite a barely existent smile rising to her lips.

“Sure,” she only said, agreeing to Solara’s request before heading out. But as she was about to exit, she turned to look back and spoke with a hushed tone. “You’re really looking out for my brothers.” Solara smiled to her on her way to the writing desk.

“Of course, I like them.” She said, her statement true and genuine.

“Really?” Mereo chuckled while turning back around. “Even the mister-no-laughs who’s enjoying his beauty sleep,” she joked and crossed her arms, flashing a smirk to Solara’s direction.

“Well…” she began, her gaze falling to the side for a moment. “Everybody speaks so kindly of him, and he’s made my work so much easier by having a proper system… So, I do think that he must be a wonderful person.” Her gaze lifted back to Mereo’s along with her statement, but was faced with a raised eyebrow and a wide grin.

“Oh?” Mereo uttered while making her way back into the room and to Solara. “Could it be that you’re crushing for my dunce of a brother,” she poked Solara to her side.

“What?” Solara exclaimed, trying to avoid the teasing, sharp hits with very little luck. “That is absurd. How could I have a crush on someone I haven’t properly even met yet?” Her question was the very one she was asking herself, as she tried to desperately convince herself otherwise.

Mereo gave Solara another knowing smirk while retracting her hand. “Do I need to start keeping my eye on you?” She joked, but made Solara blush slightly.

“No… But if you feel the need to do so…” she paused, her brows furrowing as the redness over her complexion grew stronger. “I won’t stop you,” she finally breathed out, looking Mereo in the eye as she tried to battle her racing heart. But her statement made a laugh erupt from Mereo.

“You know, you take some things way too seriously,” she chuckled waving off on her way out. Solara stayed standing, following Mereo with her gaze in confusion. “But that’s why I think the two of you would get along just fine,” Mereo remarked, glancing over her shoulder with a smile before stepping out of the room and closing the door behind her.

He- he would- We would get along well? No. She said ‘just fine’, that’s different from ‘well’. But coming from Mereo… What am I even thinking? Actually, I know perfectly well what I’m thinking of, but it’s absurd. So, …. So, I should just… But feelings don’t work like that. Solara sighed and rubbed her temples while circling around the desk. Just stop. She told herself, quite sternly, and yet her heart did not waver. Nothing changed. Still, the scent of lavender embraced her as she sat down by the table, and yet again she rendered herself to it so freely.

Maybe I should talk to Selena and get my mind off of this…? She thought as she reached to her pocket. The metal surface of the device she took out, was warm as it had been tucked into the depths of her pocket, and upon opening it, there was already a message.

Really. You have great timing. She half laughed; half scoffed to herself. Or then it’s just because we’re twins, though I don’t think that fully explains the convenient timings that seems to be far too frequent. She let her thoughts wander before reading the message that had been sent only a few minutes earlier:

[“What’s up?”] The message read, making Solara chuckle under her breath. That really doesn’t sound like something you’d say. She thought, amused.

[“The sky.”] Solara replied, but had not time to set down the said piece of equipment as another message was already visible to her.

[“Haha. Very funny. But really, what’s going on with you?”]

[“Actually, I’ve found myself stationed in a country called ‘Clover Kingdom’. You wouldn’t happen to have heard about it? By any chance…”]

[“Stationed sounds like you’re either been sent by mom or the Queen, or then you’re tangled with the magic knights”]

[“So you do know something. Perhaps because you’re here too…?”]

[“…. When did I give myself away?”]

[“The day I arrived. I felt your mana. Like I could mistake yours for anyone else’s”]

[“Same here.”]

[“There’s actually something I’ve been meaning to ask you”]

[“Hm?]

[“Well, I was wondering… I recall you mentioning something about coma patients being aware of their surroundings, so I thought that would you be able to say how long does it take for such a patient to wake up?”]

[“….Why would I? I mean, I’m not a medical expert. And even if I was, I’d probably say that it varies. Why do you ask?”]

[“No reason”]

[“Solara…”]

[“Okay, well, you know the captain of the Crimson Lion Kings is in a coma and I thought that maybe I could do something, or at least tell his family something”]

[“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that you’re smitten. Since you know perfectly well that I’m no medic, and yet you ask such a thing from me, based on a conversation from gods know when. It just seems like you’re grasping on straws, which isn’t like you”]

[“And your first reaction is to say that I’m smitten? I’m just concerned that is all”]

[“I would have believed that if you had just explained your worry before stating ‘no reason’. So, I stand behind my statement. You smitten”]

[“….”]

[“You can keep denying it, but I know better muahahaa”]

[“Sure”] Solara scoffed with a smile and put down the device, trying to turn her attention back to the papers scattered on her desk, but succeeding only for short intervals at a time, as Selena’s words tumbled in her mind.

---

Evening had turned into a night as Solara closed the book she had been reading to Leo, having ended the next chapter of the story. And despite yawning just a moment ago, Leo was asking her to read one more chapter, which made Solara give him an apologetic smile. “Leo… you need to rest. You had a long day yesterday and the day before, so reading another chapter would be detrimental.” She tilted her head, watching his form slouch forward. A silence fell into the room, Solara having hard time reading him as his gaze fell to the side.

“Leo? What are you thinking?” She asked as gently as she possibly could while leaning a bit closer to him, the action seemingly unnecessary as there was Fuegoleon’s sick bed between them.

“Aniue used to scold me for staying up too late as well,” he spoke with a hushed tone, his eyes looking to his brother.

Solara could feel her heart clenching in agony, but forced the warm smile to stay on her lips. “Only because he cares about you,” she stated, to which Leo only replied with a nod.  

His expression was blank and he stared ahead of him, mind either running wild or standing perfectly still. Solara wasn’t quite sure what to make of it, as she wondered if she should talk to him, or let him process whatever it was that he was thinking.

“Solara aneue?” He finally asked, after silence had lingered between them for a moment.

“Yes?” Her tone stayed gentle, as she hoped that he would speak to her.

He was battling with grief and worry, and if there was a chance that she might ease his state of being, she would gladly take it. “You said that there used to be another family working closely with the queen of… Th- Te-… um…”

“Thea,” she filled in his sentence, making him glance at her.

“Yeah, so what happened to them?” His question wasn’t full of worry, nor was it filled with excited intrigue, but something in-between.

Perhaps his worry seeped into the question or perhaps he was trying to distract himself, Solara couldn’t tell either way. Poor boy… I wish that I could do more for him, but suppose that all I can do now is give him something else to think about. I’m sure that he’s processing this already a lot, and he just needs a breather. “Nothing specifically. My father was of the House of Eclipse, but instead became of part of the House of Equinox through marriage.” She explained factually while crossing her legs and leaning back in her chair.

“Didn’t he have any brothers or sisters?” Leo asked with a slight frown.

“He did,” Solara began, her gaze falling to the ground for a moment. “He had a brother, who died,” her tone calm and collected, quieter than it had been a moment ago.

“How?” Leo’s question wasn’t out of place, but it seemed loose. As if it was hanging in the air, his mind trying to weave idea together. Or perhaps it was just Solara’s imagination.

“He died while trying to fulfil his duty. We don’t precisely know how, as no body was ever recovered. But,” she sighed. “That was a long time ago. Even before I can remember, so it’s fairly safe to assume that he’s deceased.” Silence fell between them for a moment, before Solara sighed. “But that is rather grim topic, don’t you think?” She gave him a smile, which he returned, although a much weaker one.

“Is there a lot of nobles in Thea?” He asked, the topic siding with the previous one, but it was to be expected.

“No. There’s only eight Houses. I’m excluding the Royal House of Anima, as they’re Royal and not ‘just’ noble,” she gave him an awkward smile, but her statement seemed to pique his interest, making his worry subside for the moment.

“Oh! What kind of magic they have? Do any of them have fire magic?” His questions flowing from him freely, as if floodgates had been opened.

“Well,” she began, thinking where and how to start. “I suppose that the closest one you’d get with fire magic, would be mine and my father’s. So, no fire mages per se. And some of the families don’t have a distinct magic type, since not all who marry share similar magic. The House of Machina being perhaps the strictest of who’d get to marry into their family…” she thought out loud, voicing an opinion that she hadn’t been conscious before, as she hadn’t spent a lot of time pondering about marrying into any of the families.

“What kind of magic do they have?!” He exclaimed, hanging on the edge of his seat.

“Shh,” Solara shushed. “It’s already quite late Leo,” Solara reminded him, making him mumble out an apology. “But to answer your question: they don’t.” She simply stated, making Leo frown.

“They don’t what?” He asked, uncertain of what she meant.

“They don’t have magic.”

Leo could only blink in confusion at her statement. “They… don’t have magic?” He repeated, his brows furrowing violently while Solara nodded as a reply.

“Thean culture doesn’t revolve around magic, solely. As around 60 % of our inhabitants don’t have any magic, we’ve had to evolve around the fact, and spend some of our resources to develop technology alongside with magical inventions.”

Leo stayed silent while she explained, hanging onto her every word.

“Suppose I could compare it to the development of your magical items,” she continued. “As you’re trying to advance your magical inventions, Theans are trying to do so with purely non-magical pieces of equipment as well. Along with inventions that utilize both fields equally.” Her tone made no mistake of the pride she felt for her people and their accomplishments; her statement standing steady with its head held high.

“Wow! That’s so cool!” Leo yelled, making Solara’s brow furrow slightly once more as she raised her index finger over her lips. The young lion’s enthusiasm, however, didn’t settle down as a result, but instead made him wonder. “How did Theans lose magic?” He asked, making the frown Solara was wearing turn into that of confusion.

“Lose their magic?” She repeated, her tone hushed and full of ponder. “Ah,” she breathed as she understood the question. “I think they’ve always been like that. Those that can’t use magic. Or so I believe,” she thought out loud. “It’s just how they are and it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Though, I suppose that since us mayus are the minority in Thea, I should say that being a mayu isn’t a cause of shame.” She chuckled and tilted her head, but Leo frowned in a confusion of his own.

“What’s a ‘mayu’?” He asked, making an apology rise over Solara’s eyes.

“Oh, ‘mayu’ is a Thean word for someone who can use magic. And those that use technology are teyus. Though a teyu can use items with magical properties, given that having to feed the device with one’s own magic isn’t a prerequisite. Just as a mayu can use technological devices, though occasionally one’s own mana can interfere with the functions of the device, and cause it to malfunction.” Her explanation was followed by a sigh. “Sometimes I feel as if those devices hate me, despite being non-sentient,” she chuckled. “But it just goes to show that neither is above the other.” She finished her explanation with a smile and thought to be able to see the gears turning in Leo’s head.

Silence fell into the room, which served as a cue to retire for the night. So, Solara got up from her chair, holding the book in one hand as she moved the chair back against the wall with the other. “We should go to sleep. It’s getting late,” she stated while gazing outside into the dark night.

“But I want to hear more about Thea,” Leo yawned with his eyelids drooping.

“And you can, but later. Now sleep is more important,” Solara smiled, warmth cascading from her as a comforting blanket over the sweet lion cub.

“But-“ Leo tried, Solara raising her hand to stop him.

“Leo…” his name rolled from her lips with a slightly disappointed tone, making his eyes fall to the side.

“Okay,” he said as he got up, moving his own chair away from the bed as he let out another yawn. Meanwhile Solara blew out the candle and summoned forth her mana skin, making soft radiance cascade over the room once more.

“Good night aniue,” Leo wished while passing Fuegoleon’s bed and made his way out of the door, Solara following right behind him.

The corners of her lips tugged at the gesture, and she couldn’t help but feel her heart melting. He’s being such a caring brother… she thought as they stepped into the still lit corridor.

“Good night aneue!” Leo wished, his tone much more cheerful than a moment ago, which made Solara’s heart clench with happiness.

“Good night Leo,” she wished back as she lowered down her mana skin, letting the only light that cascaded into the sick room be that of the candles in the hallway. Her head turned with the light and a veil of sadness draped over her eyes. You really should wake up sooner, rather than later. A gentle smile rose to her lips, despite the prevailing shadow of sadness. You’re missed, you know? Words that she didn’t dare utter out loud, not while another soul was within hearing distance. But for what purpose? She wasn’t ready to admit anything, not to herself or anyone else for that matter. And yet, as she was closing the door, she spoke.

“Good night”, the whisper fluttered into the room with wings made of glass, fragile like the first sheet of ice on an early winter’s night.

She didn’t know if the words reached him, or if those fragile wings broke well before, but she didn’t dare wish it again, and instead followed through with the motion. The door closed with a silent thump, now heightened by the prevailing silence. She stayed in place, her hand still resting on the handle as she wanted to stay for a moment longer. Her legs frozen in place without his warmth; her head hanging lower. Again, there was a tug of her heartstrings, asking her, imploring her, to stay. I’m not going far… For heaven’s sake… what am I thinking? I still have no right, no reason. She sighed as her head turned away from the door, tearing the rest of her with it and making her body ache. Concentrate on your work. That’ll help get over… whatever this is… She thought, trying to convince herself of something that her heart knew to be nothing but denial.

[theaspers]

let me count the ways

pairing: lucifer/thea (yes, this is an official lucea fic, alice)

a/n: yknow when you’ve been working on something for so long you just get kinda sick and tired of it? yeah, that’s me with this fic but pls accept this very sappy, very cheesy, very messy fic anw. i wrote this with thea in mind but tbh, i feel like you could probably pop your own ocs in there if they go by she/her.

she’s all too dangerous like this, lucifer thinks. eyes that twinkle with mischief, the slow flutter of heavy eyelashes, and fingers that are entirely too curious for their own good. she’s all too dangerous and there is work to do - piles and piles of them, scattered haphazardly across his desk and tucked away in his bag and more to come, he’s certain - and he knows if he gives in, it will be the start of the end.

and yet, knowing all of this, he still does very little in the way of stopping her from sliding into his lap and straddling him. his fingers instinctively come up to rest on the curve of her hips, steadying her as she makes herself comfortable. he's getting soft, unbelievably so, and his cheeks warm uncomfortably at the thought. still, there’s no part of him that wishes to be anything but indulgent. if only for this moment, he tells himself, just this once.

(but it’s far from the first time and he doubts it will be the last.)

“have you finished your work?” he asks but it's nothing more than a courtesy, something like a lousy deflection from his part, something to fill the increasingly charged air with. he continues with a reminder that there is still work for him to do - important work - and a long list of chores to see to and countless responsibilities to attend to, but it’s hard to rationalise much of anything when she’s settled herself on his lap.

it’s all for naught, however, because his words do little in deterring her. truthfully, he has long stopped expecting for her to answer in moments like these - there’s no changing her mind at all once she has it set on something. to put up a semblance of self-restraint would do him well still, if only to comfort himself.  

her eyes locked with his, warm and golden, she cups his face with the lightest of touches and asks, “more important than me?”

no, lucifer wants to say, never. but he’s sent mum at the gravity of his own thoughts, the heaviness of the truth behind them, the weight of his world and her world and the one that separates the both of them in the gaps between his words. at his silence, a smile curls on her face, a pleased hum rumbling in her chest. he doesn’t need to say them, it seems, rarely ever has to with her. in a way that very few people have, she understands him.

“oh, lucifer,” she croons, voice laced with a quiet wonder. as misplaced as the sentiment might be, his name has never fitted anywhere more perfectly than it does on her lips. it’s getting increasingly difficult to deny her much of anything and this instance is no different. now nothing else is more important than this, not his work or his chores or his other responsibilities. his mind races instead with all the things he would like to do to her in this moment - and perhaps, briefly, all the things he would like to be done to him - but all of it revolves around her, her, her.

he tilts his head slightly, heart lurching at the amount of affection that rolls off of her in overwhelming waves. there is an unspeakable amount of trust that lies in her every action, and that he lets her is a testament of his own. it’s well-deserved, he thinks, they’ve come quite far to have moments like this and he’s well within his rights to enjoy it.

warmth settles in the pit of his stomach like heavy rocks at the thought, foreign and familiar at the same time, and it only intensifies when she leans down to press a kiss on his temple, movement slow and tender. she places one on the tip of his nose next, and then another on the corner of his lips.

“lucifer.” she whispers again, and it’s something like a quiet plea this time around, a silent question, like she’s asking for his permission to continue. with a nod, he lets her. indulgent as ever, he chides himself, but that is where that line of thought ends.

pleased, she continues her ministrations, nuzzling a small spot under his ear before leaving a quick little kiss behind. one kiss turns into two into three, quick and light, and in their wake, tiny little nips down his jaw, further down his neck. each one sends a sharp jolt down his spine, has him sucking in a sharp intake of air, has him digging his fingers harder into her side. but it’s not hard to miss the way she spends a beat longer over his pulse point, her heavy exhale, the way she nuzzles into his shoulder - tiny little actions that squeezes at his heart.

when she pulls away, there is fondness on her face, heavy around her eyes and especially in her smile. and it’s good, makes him feel softer and softer, because the moments where she wears it are far and few in between but it’s always when he’s around and it makes him feel special, somehow. reassured and settled in the skin that he’d taken so long to get used to. he gives her side a light squeeze, musters up a small little smile in return that she receives with another pleased hum.

“you love me,” she says, matter-of-factly. there’s delight in her voice, as gentle and as subtle as it is, and a part of him preens at it. good. if there’s anyone that should deserve to feel that way, it should be her.

heat creeps back up his cheeks not a second later at her words but there are no lies within them. he’s said it before, and just like all those times, there is no amount of uncertainty in his voice when he tells her, “i do love you.”

“good.” she answers, nodding resolutely. if he had been anything other than attuned to her, he would have missed the tiny contortions of her face, the tiny changes in her expression, how incredibly pleased she is at the fact.

despite common belief, he’s never had the best of restraints. certainly not when it comes to her so there is little surprise between the two of them when he cups the back of her head and pulls her close, pulls her into a kiss that is as soft and fragile as he feels at the moment. everything inside him churns and rolls like tumultuous waves when she melts into it, into him.

her lips are a breath away from his own, brushing against him when she speaks next, “pretty. my pretty lucifer.”

and oh, does his heart sing. there are untold tales and history unwritten in him, peace and war, stories of strength and power and pride - he is a kingdom of his own measure, and yet he is easily brought down by just a few earnest words from a human. unbelievable. she shakes with quiet laughter when he turns to avoid her gaze, his cheeks no doubt flushed considering how warm they felt.

and somehow, this is what it always comes to: she presses praises into his skin, makes him feel so good and it’s as if he is simultaneously deserving and undeserving of it all. he’s overcome with emotions and every time a complaint rises at the back of his throat, as if she knows where his thoughts often go, she swallows it all down with another kiss.

“look at me,” she says when she’s finally satisfied with her doting, just the slightest hints of an order behind them and it makes him burn pleasantly, “please.”

and lucifer’s long past the point of denying her anything. when he does, his breath catches in his throat and it takes so much out of him to just stay still, to keep in place and to be good for her. slowly, deliberately, she brings his gloved hand to her lips. slowly, deliberately, she tugs on each tip with her teeth. slowly, deliberately, like she’s not the cause of the raging inferno inside of him.

all the while, she keeps her eyes locked with his, keeps all his attention and all his breaths with her. her fingertips dip into the cuff of his gloves, blunt fingernails scraping against the inner side of his wrist. she does not break eye-contact and he does not dare to look away. not that he could. he could never look away for some reason, does not wish to look away.

his glove disappears behind her quickly enough, and he spends about a second worrying over where it lands before the thought dissipates completely by an overwhelming curiosity of where this moment will go and a pressing need to see it play out completely.

her fingers curl around his wrist firmly as she turns her attention to his digits. her lips brush against the tops of his knuckles first, gentle but steady. the next few are quick to follow, the pads of each of his fingers, the inner side of his wrist and one on his open palm. she kisses the scars that mar his hand, raised skin and ugly bumps, laves even the smallest ones with rapt attention.

he releases a breath that he didn’t even realise he had been holding in, a minor tremble, a tiny hitch that he hopes escapes her notice. it’s an undeniably tender moment, and despite the heat rolling in his abdomen, it feels as if he’s gone ahead and cut himself in half and bared his soul to her. each kiss is petal-soft, and it’s like she’s kissing away all the grief and heartbreak and pain that his hands have ever felt, all that he’s ever been the root of. each touch replaces all the bitterness and cold of his hands, of his heart, with spring warmth, gentle rays of the sun and soft winds that brings forth this quiet happiness with it.

she meets his eyes again, and he feels the curl of her smile against the skin of his hand as she nuzzles into his palm. the fire in his stomach returns with the eager force of an untameable blaze. he wants to wipe the smugness away but pride has always looked riveting in the corners of her lips. still, it has no business being there, no business making him feel the way it does - desperate, and so incredibly depraved, always constantly on the brink of wanting to spoil her with his love and affection but also corrupt her in the most sinful of ways.

she’s too much, he thinks, in moments like these ones especially. too indulgent. indulges him as much as he indulges her, and that’s way too often. he drinks in how she looks right now, eyes dark as they searched his face, lips curled in a wicked smile, flushed and flustered as if this hadn’t been her plan all along. it’s a quiet but fierce challenge - she’s daring him to make the next move. nothing but trouble, she was. but he’s nothing if not audacious.

[stachmousworld]

Avenge me tomorrow (Ch.6)

Pairing: polyavengers x Black!reader 

Previously: The team couldn’t find Thea.

Tag: @thedarkplume​

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 -  Part 7 - Part 8  - Part 9 - Part 10 - Part 11

The journey to the compound went faster than she thought. Thea had made sure to block every call from the Tower and thanks to JARVIS, they wouldn’t be able to find her before she would be long gone.

She watched the forest surrounding the compound and relaxed a bit. She still checked in the rear-view mirror if no one was following her on the road or in the sky. It wouldn’t be surprising if they sent Thor or any Stark Drones after her.

Thea sighed. It was getting ridiculous. She wasn’t a kid, and she could do whatever she wanted. Leaving the Tower should have not felt as if she was doing something wrong. They were not bounded to each other. They weren’t even together to begin with. So why did she feel guilty?

She parked in front of the large building, almost expecting someone from the Tower to come out and…and…but there was no one. She looked around for the last time, enjoying the birds chirping, the wind in the leaves whistling some mysterious tunes.

Thea waved at a few young teenagers eating on the grass. Interns, maybe? They looked at her quizzically but reciprocated with a joyful smile. Why did she wave? She cringed, accelerating her pace and keeping her head down until she was inside the building.

The first thing she noticed was the lack of security. There were no security guards in the building and seemingly no cameras. She squinted her eyes looking above her. Did they really believe that no one would try to attack them from the inside? They were isolated but the barrier would be no obstacle against intruders. And what about the airways? Anyone could land a jet in the middle of the “park”. It was – a blue streak passed in front of her. Thea froze. Was that?

“Hello!” a soft chirpy voice said behind her.

She spun around quickly, heart beating fast. The blue strike disappeared in a pop.

“Are you Thea?” 

She slowly turned around and faced…Diablo. Excitation and happiness rushed through her veins. She bit her lips hard enough to stop herself from jumping on him. Diablo. She was in front of…She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t want to surprise you,” he apologized in a chirpy voice.

A few unintelligible words escaped her mouth and she flushed, embarrassed. Get a grip, she admonished herself. He is going to think you are a groupie. Her Diablo plushie and posters would prove otherwise.

 Before she became an Avenger fan, she has been totally invested in the X-Men. How many times had she played as Diablo, Hank, Storm or Wolverine…his name alone made her blush. Let’s just say that Wolverine has been the main actor of her fantasies for a long time. He is also the main reason why she never clicked with people her age. They all felt bland and childish compared to her heroes. They didn’t understand her, or her struggle and would change subject whenever she’d talk about deep subjects.

During high school and college, she had been isolated. No one wanted to be seen with her. And it didn’t help that she was pansexual. She may have gone to a prestigious university, but they had been pretty close minded. Fortunately, her family has supported her. At least the members that counted. Her mom, her siblings and her godfather, Rhodey.

“Hello?” Diablo said, waving his hand in front of her face. “Are you alright?”

She nodded not yet trusting her voice. Diablo tilted his head and started signing. Thea’s eyes grew wide.

“I don’t know how to sign,” she replied quickly, grabbing his hands.

“Oh.” He looked down to their hands. She jerked away, suddenly conscious of what she’d done. Really, could this day be worse?

“I’m sorry, I…I should have never touched you without your permission.”

Diablo was still staring intensely at his hands. He turned them upwards and caressed where her hands touched his. He then raised his eyes. She opened her mouth but quickly closed it. His eyes were unreadable. His chirpiness has tone done down. Diablo didn’t seem mad at her. Maybe?

“I’m sorry?” she repeated, unsure.

“You are not afraid of me?” he asked slowly.

The question took her by surprise. What? “No.”

“Really?” He asked, his voice full of hope.

“Yeah, you are not scary.”

Diablo took a few steps forward stepping into her comfort zone. Thea noticed the dark blue tattoos on his skin. She hadn’t been aware of that. She frowned. Even the pictures she had didn’t show any tattoos and they spread everywhere, on his face, arms and to rest of his body, she presumed.

“I’m not scary”, he repeated slowly as if the words were foreign.

“You should see my mom,” Thea pretended to tremble from fear. “She’d make your worst nightmare seems like a dream.”

Her tentative to joke fell flat. Diablo kept examining her. His eyes roamed her face for an answer she wasn’t sure to have. He may have found it because he smiled a little and finally stepped back. He wasn’t back to his bubbly self. Or was that a façade? Something to help people relate to him and see him as less of a threat. His tail swayed slowly behind him. Thea looked at it, entranced. It looked bigger than in pictures and more agile.

She was so concentrated on the appendage that she didn’t notice the quick movement. She blinked once and the next moment, the tail was in front of her face. The triangular tip brushed softly the tip of her nose. She twitched her nose refraining her sneeze.

“And now, are you scared?”

Thea shook her head and wiped her nose to erase the sensation of his tail. Chill ran down her spine making her shiver. She froze. The shiver turned to trembles. The snake appeared in front of her and hissed a warning. Someone is coming.

The rumble of a storm buzzed in her ears.

“We need to go now,” she urged Diablo, who stopped rambling. He stared quizzically at her. “One of the Avengers is coming for me. We have to go.”

Diablo quickly gripped her arms and transported them.

 The ship was way bigger than the Quinjet. It looked more spacious and colorful. It didn’t look like a jet, at all. She followed Diablo through a corridor. He walked quickly and glanced sometimes behind to make sure she was following. Her eyes tracked the paintings on the walls. Who’d put paintings in a jet? What purpose did they serve? She wasn’t well versed in arts, but these looked expensive.

“Why are they –”

Wolverine. Wolverine was in front of her. She squealed and jumped round him. Oh my God, Oh my God, this is Wolverine. She fumbled with her bag to get her phone and barely got it out without dropping it.

“Kid, you’re going to have stroke. Calm down,” he said, in a deep rumbly voice. It sounded like a growl. She barely had the time to register that he talked – actually talked to her, that she babbled.

“Why did you choose Wolverine as a nickname? Is it because wolves are “supposed” to be solitary animals? Although they do live in a pack so that’s ridiculous…”

“Kid,” he cut her off. “Calm down.”

She gulped some much-needed air and exhaled. Wolverine nodded silently and encouraged her to breath some more. As she let herself relax, she couldn’t miss the overall beauty of the man. His beard, the muscles rolling under his shirts and jeans. His stance seemed normal, but with her godfather in the military she was able to notice many things. Wolverine was favoring his left. He was consciously bracing himself for any attack. His muscles seemed tensed and ready. He thought she was a threat. Despite his soothing tone, he didn’t trust her at all. Good. Because she didn’t know what she was capable of. She felt somewhat reassured that he took the situation seriously.

“Come sit down and you’ll tell me why Xavier made us pick you up.”

They entered a room behind the cockpit. A blue hand appeared briefly.

“Is that Mister Hank?” She whispered.

“Kid,” Wolverine warned her.

She made a step in the direction of the cockpit. Wolverine stopped her.

“Don’t,” he growled.

Thea narrowed her eyes and moved, only to be stopped by adamantium claws. She couldn’t believe it. She…it…she was touched by his claws. Her squeal came back full force. She brushed her fingers against the claws. The metal was warm and deadly sharp.

Wolverine sighed but didn’t move.

“So, you have a fan, finally,” Diablo joked.

“Fuck you, Blue Devil.”

Diablo hissed in disapproval, Wolverine growled and Thea, well, she was now holding on dear life onto his callous hand.

“Kid, if you go sit down and buckle yourself, I’ll show you what I can do with these.” He raised his right arm and retracted his claws.

She yelped and ran to her seat. Her legs bounced nervously. Wolverine shook his head and raised his eyes to the sky.

“Last time I trust you, Xavier, last time,” he grumbled.

 If Logan had not really expected Thea to stay silent during the trip, he certainly regretted his wish.

She suddenly stopped chatting. Her head snapped to the right and she stared at the wall. Logan glanced at Diablo who shrugged, as uncertain as he was.

“Kid? Are you okay?”

“He is coming,” she mumbled, still out of it.

Hank who had been making his way out of the toilets stopped a few steps from them.

“Who is coming?” He mouthed at them.

They both shrugged. Hank rolled his eyes and came in front of Thea. She still didn’t react. Her eyes were unfocused and her shoulders high. The more they looked at her the more she seemed tense.

“Thea, who is coming?” Hank asked in his soft voice.

She finally drew her eyes away from the wall and looked at him in the eyes.

“The God of lightning.”

Logan narrowed his eyes. Xavier hadn’t told them they’d have to encounter some obstacles. He felt his claws breaking his skin. He didn’t know if he was strong enough to fight a God, but he’d try.

“Who is –”

“Drop it Hank.” Logan stood up and went to the cockpit. He looked at the board looking for the radar. Besides the normal interferences, he noticed something small coming in their direction at full speed. He snapped his fingers a few times to call Hank, who grumbled (“I’m not a dog.”)

“What?”

Hank dropped his eyes to the screen.

“Oh. The God of lightning, huh? Just that,” he sighed.

Logan’s frown was still firmly attached to his face. He stared at the clouds expecting at any moment to see Thor. The seconds turned into minutes. Then, nothing. Loga checked the screen again.

“Wolverine! She is down!” Diablo screamed from the other room.

Logan reacted quickly and ran to them. He almost broke the door of the cockpit and cut Hank’s hand in his urgency.

Thea’s body was bent in two. The only thing that prevented her fall was the chest belt. Wolverine assessed the situation quickly. Could Thor have an impact on her? Had he cursed her? Or was her “unknown” power weakening her?

He pushed Diablo away into Hank’s arms and kneeled in front of Thea.

“I can teleport her. I can do. I know I can. Let me do it,” Diablo babbled, panicked.

“Calm down, Diablo, everything is going to be ok. Xavier told me she was a bit on edge when she called him. She may have fainted from all the stress.”

Hank pushed Diablo to the side and forced him to sit.

“If we need you wi –”

The jet trembled and tilted on the right. Logan rolled on the floor, claws grazing the metallic floor. He bounced on the right wall, then ran to the cockpit. Hank followed him quickly. The cockpit was pure cacophony. All the screens were blinking, and the alarm was blazing. Logan quickly looked for the anomaly. Was it one of the reactors? Had they been attacked by something?

“Do you see the problem?” Hank screamed, as he looked for a way to turn the alarm off.

Logan shook his head, eyebrows frowned. Thea’s words about a certain God echoed in his mind.

As he was to voice his thoughts, the alarm stopped. The jet stop swaying. After a few minutes of this hell, the silence was as deafening.

“What the fuck,” Hank sighed, flopping on the seat. He took of his glasses, swiping his eyes and forehead.

“What? So, I thought you loved Norse mythology?” Logan joked, half-serious. He unclenched his fist retracting by the same his claws. His heart beat fast and loud. It was ringing in his ears. What the fuck, really.

The adrenaline slowly seeped out of his body, leaving him raw and drained. He took a big breath and sagged.

“You think it was him?” Hank asked genuinely.

Logan stayed silent. He looked behind him where the prostrated body of Thea was. Xavier, are you sure to know what you are doing?

 Thea took a few more minutes before waking up. Logan sat next to her and watched over her. Hank was back in the cockpit with Diablo. He hadn’t wanted to go. Hank had to physically restrain him. Logan had been surprised that Diablo hadn’t even think of teleporting himself back. They were all used to his personal level of anxiety but today he has reached his peak.

Logan played with his claws cleaning them with a wet tissue. A few movements on his left attracted his attention. He narrowed his eyes. Thea slowly rolled her spin out and groaned. She massaged her neck with shaky moves. Logan observed silently. His hands were clenched. If he wasn’t on high alert before he was now. He should have known what Xavier had in mind. Sending Hank, Diablo and him… The only time he did that was when he wasn’t sure of how powerful the new addition was and how dangerous their power could be.

“What happened?” He asked, serious.

“What?” Thea replied, still stretching her body. “I’m the one who should ask you that? Have I sle—”

“Don’t lie. I know you remember what happened.” A brief flash of fear appeared in her brown orbs. “You talked about the ‘God of Lightning.’”

She opened her mouth, then shut it in a click. “What about it?”

Logan counted to three. Why did Xavier thought he was patient enough to deal with this kind of bullshit?

“The jet almost crashed because something – someone flew past by with such a velocity that we almost lost control of the engine.” He sharpened his claws against each other, eyes still on her. She swallowed with difficulty. Good. That’s where he wanted her. “Now, spill it.”

 The rest of the journey went uneventful. After telling her story to Logan, Thea has been chatting with Diablo. Logan didn’t know what kind of story Diablo was telling her, but she looked beyond shocked.

“So…” Hank said, next to him.

Logan barely acknowledged his presence.

“What do you think of her?” The scientist kept going.

“What am I, a fortuneteller? If you wanted someone to read people, I’m not the right one,” Logan replied, with enough sarcasm to surprise him. He didn’t know why he felt like that. Worried and anxious. He was still on the edge from the near encounter with a God, but it didn’t explain the deep roots of his anxiety.

Something bad was going to happen. And for once in his life, Logan felt powerless.

Next chapter

[smalltowndetective]

Love Like You-Part 19

Hope you guys enjoy! 

Links to Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18

Ao3 Link for all of them together

Title: Love Like You: Part 19

Pairing: Adam and Thea

Words: 3.7k

Series Summary:  Adam was used to pushing her away, but Thea had stuck by his side anyway. This time he may have finally done it, and now is in the danger of losing her forever

Part Summary: Adam arrives at the scene, his worse fears seeming to come true Tags: @sosolenoo @lilyoffandoms @ihavethemindofamaster @anotherbeingsworld @zizzlekwum

The entire drive over could have been considered a form of torture.

               The building that Thea, Felix, and Mason went to was a few hours out of the way, and Adam could feel himself getting more and more nervous.

               What if we are too late?

               Adam looked over to Nate, who looked about just as lost as he felt, his hands were out of his pockets, but he was wringing them together like he had never seen him do before.

               Part of him wanted to ask him if it was indeed too late, in order to try and get his normal reassuring answer and allow it to comfort him, but he was not sure if Nate could even convince himself at the moment, much less him as well.

               His grip tightened on the steering wheel as he continued to drive in an attempt to stop his hands from shaking, but it did nothing for the pit of worry that had not left his stomach.

               Where could Thea be?

               He gave a long shaky breath at the thought of her, the image of her heartbroken blue eyes overwhelming him, but he pushed it away.

               She’s going to be alright.

               She has to be.

               The three of them should have never been on that mission in the first place, and now there was a chance he could lose them all.

               I can’t let that happen, I can’t.

               “I think we need to call the Agency”, Nate suddenly spoke.

               “What?”, he asked at the sudden statement, “Why?”

               “We still don’t know what we are walking into”, he explained, “I understand not wanting to wait for backup, but we might need it. At least this way, there may be some help coming”

               “Okay”, he nodded, too distracted to fight him on it, not that he disagreed with it either.

               He got out his phone, and fiddled with it for a few minutes before he finally made the call, and Adam was barely paying attention to what he was saying, letting it all wash over him.

               It’s all going to turn out fine. It has to.

               “Alright, thank you”, he heard Nate say as he hung up the phone, and he turned back to him, “There should be a good few people coming”

               “Sounds good”, he said simply.

               “They aren’t very happy about us leaving without telling anyone”, he continued.

               “We’ll worry about that later”, Adam countered, with a harsher tone then he intended, “The circumstances demanded it”

               “I’m not trying to argue with you on this”, he replied, “I’m just letting you know”

               He gave a weak nod, and Nate looked like he wanted to say something else, but he heard him sigh, and he slouched back in the passenger seat.

               “Do you think everything will turn out okay?”, he finally got the nerve to ask, and his chest tightened at the way that he gave a weak shrug at that.

               “I really don’t know”, he muttered, “And I really wish I did”

               Adam tried to ignore the way that it made him even more anxious, and he tried to strengthen his resolve, squaring his shoulders as he did so.

               There has to be some hope.

               They were about a mile away from their destination when he started to smell smoke.

               Smoke?

               “Any idea where that could be from?”, Nate asked, having noticed it as well.

               “Not near us, no”, he said, his voice trailing off as he had a moment of realization.

               It can’t possibly be…

               You don’t know for sure yet, don’t think about this now.

               But it was not long before the sight of flames could be seen, towering over the surroundings, and Adam could feel his heart pound.

               No, please no.

               The place where they had been directed to, to which the person who told them about it said it was a tall red brick building, was completely engulfed in flames, part of the roof already having caved in, and there was no sign of it stopping.

               He slammed on the brakes and turned off the car in a hurry, and almost sprinting out of the car, Nate hot on his heels.

               The air around seemed to be radiate heat, and being closer to the smoke just made it harder and harder to breathe.

               But it was hardly what he was worried about.

               We’re too late.

               “They’re gone”, he managed to choke out, trying to hide back the wave of emotion in his voice, “He said they would be gone when we got here and- “

               “If they are still alive, we’ll find them”, Nate said, but from the shaky tone in his voice, he was unsure of the outlook himself.

               Still alive.

               Adam got the sudden urge to fall to the ground, and he just managed to keep himself standing, trying to breathe a deep breath to keep his composure.

               Not here. I can’t fall apart here.

               “I’m sure all three of them are alive”, Nate quickly added, as if he just realized what he had said.

               “You don’t know that”, he felt himself whisper, and it took a little to realize that he had spoken it aloud.

               I can’t lose her, I can’t.

               Not like this. I don’t think I can take it.

               “Maybe there is something around here that could give us an idea where they went?”, Nate asked, but he was not sure whether he had just said it to try and make him feel better.

               “The fire has probably taken anything that was left”, he said, even as much as he wanted to deny it and agree with him, “And I doubt the trappers left anything important behind”.

               He gave a shaky sigh, a sense of urgency filling his voice, “There is not much for us to do while we wait for the Agency. If there is anything, we need to find it”

               Adam could not argue with that, even with the sinking feeling that the both of them would not find anything.

               Thea’s last memory of you is going to be the words you should have, for once, taken back.

               “This was a mistake”

               He shook his head in an attempt to get that out of his head.

               It’s not going to be. I’m not going to accept that.

               The two of them started to make their way closer to the front of the building, and a sudden yell made them both turn around

               “Περίμενε!”

               The voice was in a language that he recognized being Greek, but he knew next to nothing about it, and he saw a dryad, her dark green hair falling in messy clumps around her face, the leaves in her hair a sickly yellow. Her white dress was tattered, and her almost green-tinted skin was covered in dirt.

               Adam looked to Nate, as if asking him what to do, and he stepped forward, saying something back to her in Greek.

               The two of them talked for a bit, and he could feel his stomach tighten as he watched his face fall as she continued to talk, and it was starting to put him on edge.

               “What did she say?”, he finally asked, not able to hold it back any longer.

               “She said that three people helped her get out”, he answered, an audible shake in his voice, “And the trappers left them behind after the fire”

               Please, no.

               Before Nate could try and talk him out of it, he ran off, frantically searching for any sign of any of them.

               Did they get trapped inside?

               He knew that Felix and Mason would probably turn out okay if they did, providing how much they were weakened before, but Thea.

               She can’t be dead, she can’t.

               Adam tried to swallow down the sob in his throat, his eyes starting to sting, but he was not sure if that was from the smoke from the still raging fire or the tears that were threatening to spill, but as he made his way around the building, his steps quickening and hardly thinking straight, he saw a figure on the ground.

               And he could feel his heart fall to his feet as he realized who it was.

               Thea

               He was full on sprinting now, and even with the roaring sound in his ears, he found the sound of her heartbeat, weak, but still there.

               Oh, thank God.

               The relief did not last long as he realized that he was not conscious, and her breathing came out weak and ragged.

               Adam dropped down to his knees next to her, and before he even knew what was he was doing, he picked her up, letting her head rest against her arm, almost cradling her, and he finally got a good look at her.

               It was not till then that he realized just how tiny Thea was. She was almost a full foot shorter than him, but she never had seemed so small until this moment, being almost dwarfed by his broad arms, her right ankle bent in an unnatural position. Her yellow sweater and blue jeans were covered in soot and dirt, scratches and cuts covering about every visible inch of her skin. Her dark chocolate brown hair fell in uneven clumps, full of tangles, and her face, while also covered in dirt, had clear line of tears that ran down her checks, and he could feel his chest tighten at the sight of it.

               He knew he should have left to try and find Nate, but he stayed put, almost marveling at the fact that she was here at all, and he moved his hand to brush her hair out of her face, and even with it covered in soot, it was still surprisingly soft.

               “Thea”, he whispered, not sure if she could even hear him, but not caring in the slightest about that. He left out a shaky breath, and he then pleaded, “Please wake up. Please”

               I’m not strong enough to lose you.

               I don’t think I could take it.

               “I have so much I need to say to you”, he continued, his voice getting more and more unsteady at the minute, “I need you Thea. I don’t think I could go on without you”

               I love you.

               Before Adam could even realize what, he was doing, he moved his head down to rest his forehead on his, it feeling almost feverish from how warm it was, and he tried to concentrate on her heartbeat.

               “I’m so sorry”, he choked out, closing his eyes as he said it to keep himself from crying, “I’m sorry I’m not what you deserve”

               He let out another shaky breath, and he heard a hacking cough that was not his own, and he moved his head back as he slowly watched Thea’s Atlantic blue eyes flutter open.

               “Adam?”, she weakly said, her eyes seeming to be fighting to stay open, “Is it- really you?”

               “It’s me”, he replied, relief filling his whole being with a rush, and he was unable to keep a smile off his face.

               Her eyebrows then furrowed in worry, “Do you know where Felix and Mason are?”

               “I don’t”, he admitted, almost forgetting all about them, “But I’m sure there fine. They would be able to get out of there”

               She weakly nodded, and he saw her eyes threatening to close again.

               “Hey”, he said gently, “Eyes on me, okay?”

               I need to see your eyes. I have to.

               Thea gave a weak laugh, “I’m trying. It’s just getting harder”

               “I’m not leaving”, he said resolutely, “You are going to get out of this, alright?”

               You have to.

               “I’m going to be by your side until the end”, he said, and he felt his heart pound at the thought that this might be the end, “I promise”

               “Adam”, she softly whispered, and he continued,

               “Once we all get back, maybe I’ll take you to see the fireworks again”

               And maybe, I’ll actually kiss you this time like I should have done.

               She gave a weak smile, “I’d really like that. But Adam?”

               “Yes?”

               “I’m so sorry”, Thea said, giving a cough as she said it, and he tightened his grip on her in response.

               “You have nothing to apologize for”, he assured her, “I should be telling saying that to you”

               “I should have- “, she began, but he gently shushed her.

               “None of what happened is your fault, do you understand me?”

               He paused before continuing, saying the words that he should have said a long time ago, “You are more than I could ever deserve”

               Adam watched her eyes grow wide, and she opened her mouth to say something, before biting her lip in order to stop it from spilling out and he got the nerve to move his hand back through her hair, which he felt her exhale from the touch.

               “I mean that”, he affirmed, “I’m not lying to you”

               Her breath caught, and he swore he could see the start of new tears at the edge of her eyes, but she gave him another small smile, but as she did so, her eyelids were starting to grow heavy again.

               “Please hold on”, he pleaded, “Please”

               I still need you.

               “I’m- really glad you’re here”, she whispered.

               “I wouldn’t be anywhere else”, he reassured her.

               Thea weakly moved her hand to rest on top of his, her hand somehow still freezing, and it sent goosebumps over his skin.

               But her eyes closed, and this time, she was not fighting to open them up again, and her head rolled over to lean on his chest.

               “Thea”, Adam said quietly, but it was not long before his voice came to almost pleading yell, “Thea! Please come back!”

               Please don’t leave me.

               Her eyes did not open again, and her ragged breathing and weak heartbeat rang loud in his ears.

               He could feel his eyes start to sting with unshed tears, and he gripped Thea tighter, bringing her closer to him.

               “I can’t take losing you”, he whispered, finally saying what he had only said in his head, “I know I can’t”

               Adam moved his head closer to hers, and he finally said the three little words that he had only said in his head for so long.

               “I love you Thea. I love you”

               He looked back at her, almost as if saying it would make her wake up again, but she did not stir again.

               “I said it”, he breathed out, “I said it. Please wake back up. Please”

               Without knowing what else he could do, feeling like he was trapped in a nightmare, knowing that he should try and find Nate, but he felt frozen to his spot.

               He moved his head back forward, and he gave her a gentle kiss at the top of her forehead, and even though it tasted of ash, he hardly cared.

               “Adam!”

               A familiar voice made him turn, and it was only then that he realized that the fire had died off, and while there will still remnants of it there, most of the building that could be burned had already been completely destroyed.

               He saw Felix and Mason, looking a little worse for wear but otherwise alright, running up to him, two people behind him he did not recognize, but guessed they were some of the trapper’s prisoners.

               “It’s so good to see you”, Felix laughed out, but he could hear true relief in his voice, but as his face fell to Thea, he could see his amber eyes fill in worry.

               “Get Nate”, was all that he could choke out.

               Mason gave a nod, and he went off, the two prisoners behind him, and Felix came over to kneel down next to them.

               “Is she okay?”, he asked, moving his gaze to Adam.

               I don’t know.

               He could not bring himself to answer that, becoming more and more fearful that this would be his last moment with her.

               “Thea’s tough”, Felix said, but as he went on, it was more of like he was trying to convince himself, “She’ll make it through just fine”

               Will she?

               She has to.

               He put his arm on his shoulder when he did not say anything, and even though he tensed at the touch, he did not try to pull away.

               “She saved us, you know”, Felix continued, “It was her that got out first, and then she got us out. We told her to go ahead of us in order to get one prisoner out while Mason and I got the other two, but we should not have separated”

               His voice faltered, “It’s our fault. Thea was against us splitting up. We should have listened to her”.

               “It’s not”, Adam quietly said, speaking for the first time since he came over here.

               You guys should have never been on this mission in the first place.

               And you never would have been if that kiss never happened.

               He looked back at Thea, trying to keep himself together as he looked at her, praying that she would pull through.

               Please don’t take away the only light I have.

               Felix looked a bit awed that he had even said anything in the first place, and he continued, “You’ll figure it out, Adam. Everything regarding this, and everything afterwards”

               He then took a breath before continuing, “I wish I knew how to help you more”

               You’ve helped me more then you could ever know.

               “You do help”, he said simply, never taking his eyes off Thea, watching closely the gentle rise and fall of her chest, hoping that he would not have to see it stop.

               Before he could say anything else, he saw Nate running up to the both of them.

               “Mason told me what happened”, he said breathlessly, and then he looked down at Thea, and back at Adam, “Are you okay?”

               “Why wouldn’t I be?”, he almost scoffed out, seeming like a ridiculous question to him given Thea the way the she was.

               “We need to get her to the Agency”, he said, ignoring the harshness of his original statement, “You need to move”

               And even though walking felt like he was walking through cement, he got up anyway, taking Thea up with him, her almost seeming to weigh nothing at all, and he gently tried to keep her head leaning against his chest and not flopping to the other side away from him.

               Nate gave him a nod, and he started making his way back, his steps quickening as he did so, and he quickened his own in response, Felix close behind the both of them.

               It did take the group of them long to catch up with Mason, who was standing next to the trapper’s prisoners, and he saw the dryad that had originally came up to him and Nate perk up as they did so, asking a question to him in Greek.

               He answered back, but from the worry lines on his face, she had asked about Thea, and he could feel his chest tighten at the thought, grasping her firmer than he already was.

               “The Agency should be here soon”, Nate said in English, “You won’t have to wait long”

               I really hope we don’t.

               Mason came walking up to him, his grey eyes filled with the rare look of obvious worry.

               “Did she wake up at all?”, he asked him.

               “She did”, Adam muttered, never taking his eyes off of her, “We talked for a little bit before she passed out again”.

               “That’s a good sign, you know”, Mason said, “She’ll pull through”

               God, I hope so.

               But as he thought that, as if some true twist of fate, he heard her heartbeat get even slower, and from the look in Mason’s eyes, he had heard it to.

               Please don’t leave me behind Thea.

               He knelt back to the ground, and it was like he was unable to stay still, rocking them both, and he realized exactly what he must do.

               I made a promise to stay with her. I’m not going to breaking the last promise I could ever give her.

               I’ve already hurt her enough.

               The next few minutes were a blur for Adam, and he was not sure just how long it was. It could have been hours for all that he knew. Everyone else was watching the road for any sign of the Agency, but it was hardly what he was worried about.

               “You mean everything to me”, he choked out, and at that moment, he did not care who heard.

               You are everything.

               Everything that I’ll never be, and everything that I don’t deserve.

               “Commanding Agent”, said a voice suddenly that he did not recognize, “You need to let her go”

               “No”, he growled, almost against his will.

               I’m not leaving her.

               And if this was indeed her last moments, he was not going to let her go alone.

               I’m staying by her until the end.

               She deserves that much, for all that I’ve failed to give her.

               “Adam, you need to”, Nate’s gentle voice broke in, and he sighed, “They’ll be able to help her”

               “I’m not letting her go”, he said, barely aware of what he was even saying.

               Nate looked to the Agency paramedic, “Is there any possibly he can stay with her?”

               They shrugged, “He can”

               He felt a hand on his shoulder, and he finally relented, gently laying her down on the ground as if she was the precious thing in the world.

               Adam grabbed her limp hand, and he entwinned their fingers together, his hand almost completely covering her small one.

               “Commanding Agent”, he heard someone say again.

               He looked up, to see one of the paramedics, Thea’s locket in his hands. The locket that for as long as he had known her, was always around her neck. Adam did not know the significance of it, but he did know it was incredibly important to her

               “I think you should hang onto this”, they said, moving to place it in his free hand, and he could find no reason to argue against it.

               Adam ran his hands over it, as he had seen Thea do a million times, the metal smooth and warm to the touch. It was a piece of her, and it was almost strange to not see it where it usually was.

               It was not something that he felt like he deserved to hold on to, but he closed his hand around it anyway as the paramedic moved away.

               Please hold on for a little bit longer, Thea

               I still need you.

Tell me if you want to be tagged in the next part! :)

[jillsvalentinex]

After the reaping, Thea and Judas were brought into the Hall of Justice and were conducted into separate rooms. The door slamming behind the blonde once she entered her own room caused her body to jolt up in a fright while turning around to the closed doors. She felt the need to sigh after holding it in for way too long. Her eyes burned as tears threatened to escape, a pool of tears sitting on her lower eyelid. With a quivering sigh, she wiped the tears away with the palm of her hands, sniffling once or twice. With her nerves rising along with her breathing getting more and more heavy, she began pacing around the room, rubbing her forehead in a stressed manner. 

This went on for a few minutes until the sound of the door opening and the voice of a peacekeeper speaking caused Thea's frantic movements to come to a pause as she turned around, her eyes slightly wide as someone entered the room. She then sighed out of relief as she watched her brother Jace walk into the room. She didn't waste a second, didn't even wait until the doors closed again as she immediately rushed into his arms, the tears she fought so hard to keep in her eyes finally falling down her cheeks. 

After a few seconds of comfortable silence and Thea tightening her arms around her brother's waist, not wanting to let go, they finally pulled away from each other, Jace cupping her cheeks with his hands. 

"Hey, hey, hey. Look at me, look at me." He said in the softest tone he could muster without letting a lick of panic come through. Thea's ocean blue eyes, watery and puffy, slowly rose to look into her brother's same coloured eyes. "You gotta listen because I don't have much time, okay?" He asked with a hint of seriousness to it. He waited for her to nod before continuing. "Remember, all they want is a good show, okay? You're a performer, use that to your advantage—"

"I sing, I can't act! It's completely different." 

"Remember when mom and dad died? You could've taken time to mourn but instead you thought about the two of us and went back to singing at the bar to earn money like nothing happened. This is no different."

Thea quickly shakes her head as more tears fall down her cheeks. "No, no! It's completely useless, I'll be dead even before the game begins!"

Jace then shook his head, cutting her off before she could belittle herself even more. "No, stop. Stop that. That is not what we're doing, okay?" He tells her, a serious look on his face despite all the emotions running through him. "If you put on a good show, and you train non-stop, you'll be able to win."

Her shoulders drop slightly, her emotions starting to calm down once hearing Jace's reassuring words. "I don't...I don't want to kill people, J." She says in a slightly quieter tone.

"You don't have to," Jace shook his head once again, "let everyone else kill each other and just hide until the game ends." He suggested, but before she could say anything, he continued. "I want you to have this." He then dug through his trouser pocket, taking out a gold necklace that had the letters TJ dangling from the chain in a little circle. Thea lowered her eyes, a quiet gasp escaping her mouth once setting her eyes on the shiny jewellery. 

It had belonged to their mother when she was still alive. She vividly remembers being a young girl sitting on her mother's lap as she sat in a rocking chair, playing with the necklace that would hang from her neck. According to their mother, their father got it made for her when they were younger. It had both of their initials on it, her mother's name starting with a T and her father's starting with a J. Thea always wondered if it was just a coincidence they named her and Jace with names starting with the same letters as them, or they planned it out so the necklace could one day go down to one of them as a way to remember one another.

"Jace..."

"Take it." Jace then took Thea's hand, placed the necklace on her palm and closed her hand in a fist. "Don't lose it." He said with a sense of urgency as he looked directly into the girl's ocean eyes. 

Thea immediately shook her head. "I won't. Promise."

The door suddenly swings open, ending their three minutes with a peacekeeper trotting inside. Thea felt her heart drop once again as she pulled her brother into one last hug, holding on for dear life as she felt the peacekeeper try to pry him out of the room. 

"I love you. You're strong, don't forget that." Said Jace in a hurry as he felt a peacekeeper try and take him away. 

Thea quickly nodded her head. "Okay," she muttered before she and Jace were finally pulled apart, Thea watching as her brother was getting pulled out of the room. 

"I'll see you soon. Promise me you—" The doors slammed shut before Jace could finish his sentence, leaving Thea alone in the room once again. 

She hadn't had any time to calm her nerves down as the doors swings open once again, Thea turning back around, hoping it would be Jace again, but was met with an unexpected face. 

Her eyes slightly widened as she watched Mr Morgenthau walk into the room with a saddened look on his face. He stopped once in front of her. The air was awkward once he entered the room. How could it not? Thea knew he was quite fond of her as she was fond of him, after all he attended all of her performances and would go out for coffee if they both had the chance to, so she could only imagine how he must be feeling with his grandson entering the games alongside the girl he almost viewed as a daughter. 

He placed a reassuring hand up on her shoulder, giving it a light squeeze, not too hard to hurt the girl's shoulder. He heaved a massive sigh before moving his dark brown eyes up at Thea's blue ones. "I'll miss your performances a great lot, Thea." He said in a saddened tone, making the blonde's heart ache slightly. 

Ouch... Despite seeing it coming, it still stung knowing Mr Morgenthau thought she wouldn't win. Although, she couldn't blame him. How could she? She never expected him to root for her instead of his own grandson, that would be just plain damn disrespectful if she ever thought that, but still, she couldn't deny that it hurt that he had no faith in her. After all, she never got any type of training beforehand, and with just one glance at the two anyone would bet Judas would win over her, even Thea herself thought that. 

"You did a whole lot for District four." Said Morgenthau, earning a quiet chuckle from the blonde. 

"All I did was sing. It wasn't much." She shrugged her shoulders with her eyes panned down at the floor.

"But it was enough." Mr Morgenthau said in a firm tone, lightly squeezing her shoulder again, causing Thea to look up from the floor. "You're a kind girl, Thea, just like your mother. I hate to see another Greene go. But even with you gone, I'll forever visit the bar." He said in a lighter tone, causing another chuckle from her. 

"I appreciate it, Mr Morgenthau."

"Call me Arwin."  He recommended with a smile.

Despite being initially shocked by his suggestion, Thea soon let out a nod. "Okay.."

As if right on cue, the doors open up, a peacekeeper ending their conversation. "Times up. Let's go!" They roared and Arwin began walking backwards out of the room. 

"I'll be praying for you," were the last words he said before the door slammed shut, Thea jumping in her spot at the unexpected, loud noise. 

Staring at the wooden doors, she let out a quivering sigh she held in for too long. "Okay..." she whispered as she turned away from the door. 

The trip to the train station was hard to bear. The flashing cameras that were shoved in Thea's face were already too much, she didn't have the energy to put on a front. Judas seemed to be liking it by Thea's own assumptions, and by the way he was constantly smiling and waving to the cameras. Inside the car was a little better, despite it being way too cramped for three people, plus the addition of Irene's outfit — but at least the loud voices are muffled, Thea thought to herself as she stared out of the car window, having to slightly squint her eyes to shield them from the bright camera lights.

It felt like an eternity before the three arrived at the shiny train that was waiting for them.  Walking onto the train left the two in slight awe, almost making Thea forget about the inevitability of her death. Despite living in one of the richer districts of the twelve districts, even what the train had to offer felt like Thea had stepped into the wrong place. All different types of food were placed out in an aesthetically pleasing way and the furniture was coloured in rich shades, or more like what Thea considered to be "rich colours." 

"Isn't it wonderful?" Asked Irene in her usual sultry tone. 

It's almost too much to look at... Thea thought as her eyes continued to dart around the interior of the train. She was suddenly brought back to reality, as was Judas, once they felt the train pull forward as it began to move. 

"Oh! The train's moving." Irene spoke before she scooted past the two teens. She then turned back around to face them, giving them a hand gesture that told them to follow her. "Come, let me show you around."

The tour around the train was short but sweet. The decor continued to send Thea and Judas in awe as they walked along the train. Afterwards, they sat back in the main carriage of the train, chatting amongst each other  — or rather, just Judas and Irene talked. Thea stayed silent throughout everything; the car ride, the train tour, and even back in the seating area she stayed silent, just staring off to the window beside her, watching the landscape fly by. Even when Irene asked if the two wanted anything to drink she said nothing. It was as if she was in a trance as she continued to look out the window beside her. 

"Thea?" Judas called out as he leaned forward to see her face. Once receiving no answer, he reached out to grab her arm. "Thea." Before he could grab her arm, his fingers only grazing her skin, her head whipped around from the window, a look of surprise on her face.

"Anything to drink, darling?" Irene repeated with her eyebrows raised. 

 Thea stared up at her before shaking her head. "N-no, but thank you."

"Ooh, mind making me a coffee, Irene?" Both tributes and Irene turned their head once a third voice entered the conversation. There, slightly off to the side with his hands in his trouser pockets, stood a tall man with shaggy, dirty blonde hair that was messier than normal — by Thea's assumption — as if the guy had just been done sleeping. His green eyes sparkled under the light and his lips were turned up into a dimpled smile.  

"Better late than never." Irene greeted him with a half amused, half unimpressed look on her face. She then whipped around to Thea and Judas, a smile on her face as she gestured towards the man. "Tributes, this is one of your mentors. Finnick Odair."

[sunonyoreface]

Forest Nymph | Geralt of Rivia pt 1

Hi this is my first fanfic so take it easy on me!

Warnings: slight gore

Going into town was dangerous. If anyone found out who or more importantly what you are, they would kill you. Maybe they’d stake you up to a post and burn you. Or they could tie you to the back of a horse cart then drag you face first around town until your mouth fills with mud and shit and your flesh gets torn off your bones. Maybe they’d simply beat you to death.

Either way it didn’t really matter. If the people of Asenguard found out that you are the dryad, the forest nymph who is destroying their farm land, the first thing they would do is torture and kill you.

So, understandably, going into town is not an often occurrence. A trip once every three or four months does more than suffice. You bring rare herbs and spices to trade for coin. The local healer is especially fond of you. She is a warm soul. One of the few good humans left, with no second motive in her kind eyes. She simply wants to help others.

“Oh Briar!” she exclaims excitedly, having watched you walk down the narrow path to her warmly lit cottage “I’m so glad to see you! I was getting low on juniper berries.” She holds her hand out for the pack with childlike excitement. She’s the only human who knows what you are.

“Come in for some tea.”

“I’d like that.” She’s the closest thing to a friend that you have

The conversation stays light however you can tell there’s something on her mind. She keeps giving you concerning looks. Looks that say something is wrong.

“Is there something going on Thea?” She purses her lips and takes in a deep breath before sighing.

“Things have gotten a lot more tense these past few months. The farmers are… well they’re angry. Really angry. They’re talking about hiring someone to find the thing wrecking their land. A Witcher” Her worried eyes never leave yours. She is serious.

“I’ll be fine Thea. I always have been.”

“I mean it. Something has changed,” She paused for a moment. “The air is different. I can feel it in my bones.”

She’s right. You know it and yet its easier to pretend that nothing is changing.

“Look I’ll be safe, check my back, everything is going to be just fine.” She simply sighs in response, but what else can you do? Leave? That’s not an option. The Asenguard forest is a part of your soul. “I need to go, finish my errands.”

“Of course.”

Thea hands you a bag of coins before you leave. It is heavier than normal. You shoot her a disapproving look.

“Just take it. Keep me in mind.”

“Thank you.”

Downtown is busier than normal. People are bustling about their business. Some shoot each other dirty looks; others eye the crowd suspiciously. People don’t trust their neighbours, let alone the dirty scoundrels on the streets. Theft is rampant throughout the town.

You keep your cloak pulled far over your head. Long leather gloves pulled up to your elbows. If anyone were to see your skin, the first thing they would notice is how eerily pale you are. In the moonlight your skin glows silver and bleeds a deep emerald green. Despite this harsh skin tone, you don’t appear drained, if anything you radiate light. Your hood also hides your ears. Their pointed tips only merely poke out of your hair, but they are still noticeable. The towns folk would immediately know something is off.

The fabric shop you enter is small and crowded. Upper class women go in with their children to buy buttons and fancy ribbons. Items that most towns folk can only dream of owning. You simply need a new needle and some thread. And a couple arms worth of leather. It will come in handy for when the temperature starts to drop in several weeks.

A couple women talk to the shop keeper. They speak in hushed tones, but their excitement is loud and clear.

“Have you seen him?” A lady in a blue dress and matching cloak asks.

“He’s so handsome! The things I would let that man do to me.” Another in a pink dress replies. They laugh in unison as if what she said is the funniest thing in the world. You dread these encounters.

“My husband says he will finally kill that wicked demon in the forest.”

You freeze at her words. They really did hire a Witcher. And he is already here. Here to hunt you down and eviscerate you, leaving your entrails for the wolves. The women are oblivious to your reaction. They continue their petty gossip about the Witcher and his bard, who apparently, will be easier to lure into their promiscuous trap than the Witcher. You cringe at the thought.

You gather your items quickly and pay with the coins Thea generously gave you. The only other stop you need to make is to the silver smith. There are less women in the more industrial part of town. Their tongues may be sharp but at least they pose no physical threat. Men like to hang around the smith’s shop and drink their ale. It has made for some uncomfortable encounters in the past.

“I want to pick up an order for Briar Woods.” The man behind the counter eyes you suspiciously. His expression said women don’t belong here. But you already know that much.

“The dagger?”

“Yes.”

“You got coin?” The alcohol on his breath wafts through the stale air. You place the amount you counted out on the way here onto the counter. He slides it into his pocket before disappearing behind the storage door. The dagger was more expensive than you had expected, but it is worth it. A bow and arrows are good for long distance, but you need something that will help if hand to hand combat is necessary.

The door to the shop opens behind you and someone slips in the same time the smith comes out from the storage room.

“Here.” He drawls, handing you the dagger, “Don’t cut yourself sweetheart.”

Bile rises in your throat. You turn around without thanking him and go to leave the shop.

“Didn’t expect to see you here, Witcher.” He says to the man waiting behind you. “Bout time you showed up.” Suddenly you become aware of the towering mass of muscle and armour behind you. Your heart skips a beat at the realization.

“I Just want my sword sharpened. That’s all.” His deep, gritty voice fills the room.

I need to get out! You think. Your heart starts racing faster than it ever has before and your mouth runs dry. He’s right there. At that moment he turns around to glance at you. Can he hear my heart? Leave! Move your legs and get out!

Once you force yourself out of the shop you run. It doesn’t matter that people shoot you strange looks, you run faster than ever before, all you can hear is your heartbeat rapidly pulsing in your throat; you run until the forest swallows you whole. There’s no way you can hide from a Witcher, let alone beat him in any sort of combat. You are utterly fucked.

“Who was that?” Geralt asks the silver smith.

“No clue. Don’t remember seeing her before.” The smith answers nonchalantly.

“Hmm.”

Geralt has been getting a lot of pressure from the King of Asenguard to at least go and look for what is causing damage to the farmers’ crops. The farmers, apparently, would not leave him alone. Geralt honestly didn’t give a damn about their crops; however, the King offered a persuasive amount of coin just to look into it. After all, coin is coin.

Outside the building a sing song voice rings through the air.

“Toss a coin to your Witcher, oh valley of plenty, of valley of plenty” Geralt groans annoyed at Jaskier, the bard’s entrance.

“Well hello Geralt! Have you gone to the alehouse yet?” He burped, “There must be something special in the water!” He chuckled to himself. Geralt glared at him stone eyed. He was drunk before the sun had even gone down.

“They love us here! They already know all the words to my song.”

“Hmm”

The Asenguard forest stretches hundreds of thousands of miles across the province of Nazair, with endless hiding spots, and yet, you can’t find a single one. Nothing is good enough. Your new friend, the dagger, doesn’t give you any reassurance either. Despite this, you haven’t given up hope. Maybe he won’t even come looking the optimistic side of your brain thinks, however you know that is extremely unlikely.

It’s a full moon tonight. You can at least better your chances by finding somewhere dark. Somewhere where your skin won’t radiate back the bright moonlight. Normally you loved the moon and would spend the nights dancing with her, but not now. Not tonight when her bright embrace might get you killed.

There are several cave systems throughout the forest with only one of them being close enough that you can make it before it gets dark. You prefer to spend your nights up in the trees and don’t know the caves well, however this one likely has two or three entrances. Despite this, the thought of getting lost or trapped crosses your mind, it is always a possibility.

When you finally reach the caves, you are surprised to find a small pond has formed near the entrance that was not here the last time you were in this part of the forest. The sun is just starting to set. Every nerve of your being is on edge. You feel as though you are tingling with electricity. A swim in the pond would be really nice right now, just to take the edge off. After all, it is still light out, you still have time.

You set your cloak near the edge of the pond on top of a large patch of moss. The moss is soft and comforting under your feet. The patches under your feet slowly turn greener and healthier. That is part of being a forest nymph, things grow around you. You let the dark dress slowly drop off your shoulders onto the moss as well. The water is cool and comforting as you wade in. The ecosphere accepts you as one of its own. Dipping your head under water, you reach to the bottom of the shallow pond and let your hands sink themselves into the smooth clay-like mud. A warm energy escapes from your hands, with it a soft green light flows into the dirt. Almost out of no where a shoot comes out of the ground where your hands lay. Then another and another, dozens of Lilypad shoots are conjured out of the ground and reach for the surface of the water where they then blossom in an array of colours. When you break the surface of water, you are surrounded by the sweet and subtle smell of lily flowers. Finally, you are able to relax.

That doesn’t last long when out of no where you hear a horse’s footsteps out in the distance.

Shit! You think, if I can hear them, then they can definitely hear me. You quietly wade out of the water as to not create any disturbance. Your veins fill with adrenaline as you reach for you clothes and pack. Slipping the cloak on with nothing underneath, you quickly make your way to the entrance of the cave, not noticing the dagger which still lay on the moss. Suddenly they don’t seem so familiar. Going in doesn’t feel like the best option anymore, but the sound of hooves coming closer means you don’t really have much of a choice.

It takes your eyes a minute to adjust to the dimly lit cave. Your eyes are fully dilated, but not just because of lack of light. Fear fills your entire body. It pumps through your veins and heightens your senses. Every muscle feels stiff, and yet you are ready to jump at any noise. You need to move further in the cave system. The rocks are damp and covered in moss and lichen. The air is thick and musky, making it hard to breath. Or maybe its your current state of panic that’s making it hard to breath. Neither seem to be helping. You step carefully around lose rocks. If one were to tumble, you’d be done for. Dust and small pebbles start to fall from the ceiling of the cave, suddenly, you can hear hooves right above your head.

You reach for the dagger which had been residing in the pocket of your cloak only to find it missing. No! Oh, please not this, anything but my fucking dagger! The bow and arrow packed away in your bag will have to do.

Geralt has been riding around the forest for the past three hours looking for any signs of what could have happened to the farmers land. There appears to be an invasive species of vines growing around the edges of the crops where the tilled land meets the forests edge. Set there to warn them from coming any closer. Honestly, he doesn’t care much for the farmers. They’re destroying the forest for more fertile land because they don’t care to take care of what they already have. Senseless fucking humans if you ask him. But its an organic economy, he understands that much. That town relies on those farmers to feed them, or they all die, which is cause enough to look into it, and the coin of course.

They don’t stop until Roach needs to drink, and lucky enough, there happens to be a pond nearby. Geralt unmounts from Roach to stretch his legs. When he approaches the waters edge to splash his face, the pendant around his neck starts to faintly vibrate. Magic has been used here. Until this point, he didn’t think anything of the lilies in the water, however there is an unusually large amount of them growing for such a small pond.

His senses become more aware as he scans the area lit under the bright moonlight. Something catches his eye, a slight glint coming from a small metal object in the moss. A dagger. A freshly crafted dagger to be specific. It doesn’t even look used.

Geralt’s mind flashes back to the silver smith’s shop earlier that day. The girl who was leaving just as he arrived was picking up a dagger. One very similar to what he is now holding in his hands. He pockets the dagger and unsheathes his sword off of his back. Something is off.

A dark shadow near a clump of boulders catches his attention. A cave. As he gets closer, his pendant starts to vibrate more prominently. Something is in there, but what? Not many creatures can conjure that specific type of damage onto those crops. The first thing that comes to his mind is a witch.

“Come out. I’m not going to hurt you!” He calls into the entrance of the cave

The Witcher’s voice echoes throughout the walls of the cave. The hairs on the back of your neck are fully raised in fear. He is lying. He has to be. Maybe he doesn’t even know if you are in here. Yet, you find yourself doubting that thought.

“If you don’t come out, I’m coming in.” his voice echoes again. Silently, you raise your bow and aim it at the mouth of the cave about a hundred meters away. Still close enough to have accurate aim, but at the same time, your view is obscured by rocks and the bulging walls of the cave.

After a moment of silence, Geralt steps foot into the cave only to have an arrow whizz past the side of his face. It is so close he can feel the movement it causes in the air around him. Suddenly, he no longer feels obligated to honor his previous offer.

You quickly load another arrow and aim. Your hands are surprisingly still. The Witcher ducks down out of view. He uses the boulders to his advantage and creeps closer to you. This isn’t going to work for much longer, especially when you can’t see him. You break into a sprint going deeper into the tunnels. Sharp rocks nick at your skin, but none of that matters right now. Right now, you need to find the other exit. Wherever that may or may not be. The tunnels branch off into different, narrower tunnels that twist and wind causing any sense of direction you once had to be lost. The air is becoming impossibly thick to breath, and you can hear the Witcher’s footsteps closing the space behind you.

If things couldn’t get any worse, your tunnel starts getting impossibly narrow, your only escape running out. Your last shred of hope crushed. You can’t make it any further, the tunnel runs out. There isn’t even enough space for you to shoot an arrow. You are truly defenseless. At the hands of a bloodthirsty Witcher. Fuck

Unless…One last spark of hope flickers in your mind. You bury your hands in the dirt and push all your energy into the ground. A green light fills the air and shoots come flying out of the ground. You pour all of your remaining energy to making these small vines reach the top of the cave. The vines quickly thicken and form thorns as they grow larger and larger. Finally, they filled the entire space, just as the Witcher reached you.

You collapsed, exhausted, but safe. You were completely drained, trapped, and likely about to be murdered, but for now you are safe.

Geralt stops outside of the thorny wall, impressed with what he just witnessed. She conjured a thorny wall of protection out of nowhere with incredible speed. This is not the work of a witch, but what?

“What are you?” He asks, slightly out of breath. You don’t answer right away, too consumed with your exhaustion.

“Why?” you sigh

“I haven’t seen that type of magic in a long time.” The threatening tone in his voice seems to have disappeared, which only sets you more on edge. Of course, it has, he has you trapped here, exhausted and without any food or water. At this point growing anything more is simply not an option.

“I’m a Dryad,” You finally give in. “and you were sent here to kill me, right? The towns people couldn’t stop talking about you today.” Tears finally found their way down your cheeks.

“Hmm” he mumbled. “Well no, technically I haven’t been sent here to kill you. The king wanted me to find out what was damaging farmers’ crops, but I’m guessing once I tell him he’ll want you dead.”

There it is. You think.

“So that’s what you’re going to do?”

“That depends,” He pauses, “Why’d you wreck the land?”

“Why did I wreck the land?” You laugh, “Those farmers are the ones destroying the land. They don’t take care of it properly, rob it of its nutrients, then fuck off and cut down more of my forest. I’m only trying to save the forest. Otherwise they’ll continue until there is nothing left.” Your voice cracks and tears intensify. All you ever tried to do was the right thing, and now… Well look what it has gotten you. The Witcher hummed in response, offering nothing.

Then you hear him pick up his sword.

“What are you doing?” you ask as the first slash hits your thorny wall of vines. “No! Please No!” You beg, but the slashing continues. Your vines wither at the abuse and you don’t have the energy to fight back. All you can do is curl up in the corner in fear of what comes next. Until finally, it stops.

You look up to see the Witcher has resheathed his sword and holds his hand out to you.

“You’re not going to kill me?”

“No.” He shakes his head. His golden eyes glow slightly in the near dark cave. Your shaky hand meets his, and he helps you up.

“What’s your name?” You ask.

“Geralt of Rivia.”

“I’m Briar of Asenguard.”

---

Pt.2 is out!  Thank you all for the positive feedback!!!

https://sunonyoreface.tumblr.com/post/613171373679034368/forest-nymph-geralt-of-rivia-pt2

Pt.3

https://sunonyoreface.tumblr.com/post/613415372067143680/forest-nymph-geralt-of-rivia-pt3

Pt.4

https://sunonyoreface.tumblr.com/post/613676968381136896/forest-nymph-geralt-of-rivia-pt4

[ephemeralstark]

Below Freezing

Summary:  Peter jumps into below freezing water to save a little girl, only to break his web shooters and damage his heater. With hypothermia settling in he decides it's a good idea to walk to Stark Tower, thankfully Karen is a snitch.

A/N: I’m in the process of cross-posting my AO3 fics on here as well, so please bear with me and excuse any technical mistakes, I’m not used to posting on tumblr yet. Thank you! 

AO3 Link to fic

Complete | 3K | main tags: peter parker can’t thermoregulate, peter parker has spider traits, protective tony stark, hurt/comfort, whump

Snowflakes swirled and danced through the air in hypnotic patterns while Peter swung through them between the buildings, feeling increasingly more and more thankful for the heater in his suit that kept his toes warm and stopped his fingers from growing stiff with the cold. He needed to remember to thank Mr. Stark next time he saw him.

Peter hated the cold.

He hadn't when he was younger, in fact, he used to build igloos and snowmen out on the street with his Uncle Ben for hours on end. He would be wrapped up in nothing more than a thick jacket and a woolly pair of gloves but he would never feel the cold and would stay out until Aunt May insisted he absolutely had to go in and have dinner.

After Uncle Ben died Peter stopped building snowmen, it wasn't as fun on his own and May always had to work late because suddenly there was only one person bringing in money and it wasn't enough. That and he was too cold. Even when he wrapped himself up in so many layers that he could barely move, he would find himself shivering and seeking out the nearest warm building.

Peter was pulled from his mindless swinging and spiralling thoughts by a shriek that cut through the air. He instantly changed directions, making his way towards the noise and hoping that he wouldn't be too late to whatever was happening.

Another shriek sounded and despite Peter’s heater he felt ice run through his veins. That had sounded almost… childlike? He hoped that it wasn't a kid in danger, but his gut feeling was telling him to move faster.

It seemed as though the scream had come from the park ahead, which was good as it meant Peter was close by, but it also meant that he was going to have to travel the rest of the way on foot. He dropped to the ground and ran through the shoe trodden snow into the park, looking frantically for someone in distress.

The park was mainly empty though. There was a small child holding onto a woman’s hands as she was taught how to ice skate on the frozen over pond, a couple sipping steaming drinks while walking hand in hand, and a dog walker rubbing their hands together for warmth between stick throws.

Peter soon located the source of the scream as the little child wobbled on her skates and let out a deafening shriek. Relief flooded through him, removing all traces of icy panic from his veins, there were no children in trouble, everything was fine. It was just the just the kid being afraid of falling on the ice, that wasn't anything to concern himself with.

“Hey, Karen, is there anything happening around here?” Peter asked, wondering if it would be alright to call it a day. May would be home in a few hours and he still had that chemistry project to finish off.

“I’m not receiving any reports of trouble at present.” Karen informed him.

Maybe it would be a good idea to head home, he’d been out a lot as Spider-Man lately despite promising Mr. Stark that he was getting plenty of rest, at least if he went home then Karen wouldn't be able to snitch on him again.

“Thea! Oh God, help me! Someone please!” A woman screamed.

The woman ice-skating with the kid. Except… Peter couldn't see a kid any more.

Instead, he saw a gap in the ice and a panicking mother. Putting two and two together, he abandoned all thoughts of going home for a relaxing evening and sprinted towards the gap in the ice.

“Thea! Thea, come back here baby, please,” the woman sobbed as she knelt on the ice and fished her arms in the water, trying to grab her child, “help me! I can’t get her, I can't swim and she never had lessons. Thea!”

“Excuse me,” Peter said, running onto the ice, and gently pulling the mother back by the shoulders. The last thing he needed was two people drowning in freezing water. “I’ll get her, I promise, just stay back.”

The mother did as he asked which made him think that she knew of Spider-Man, without her to worry about Peter took her place by the hole and peered in, it was too dark to see anything.

“Karen, does this thing have a torch?”

“Initiating Night Light function.” Karen announced.

“Night light? Really, Mr. Stark?” Peter muttered as he peered into the water.

He caught a flash of silver, possibly the girl’s skate reflecting the light back at him? He wasn't entirely sure but the clock was ticking on and he needed to get the kid out of the freezing water before it was too late.

Throwing caution to the wind, Peter dived into the water, following the silver flash.

The water was beyond cold, it was worse than he could have ever imagined, there weren't enough words and adjectives in the world to explain how brutally cold the water felt, but Peter pushed through it. He forced his muscles to move rather than freezing up, moving in the direction of the flash that he had seen which appeared to be the right move as his instinct to follow the silver was correct, and even better the girl was still conscious.

She was trying her best to swim but obviously had no idea what direction to go and no skill to power her movements.

Peter was on the clock, he had no time - or air - to offer her reassurances, instead he swam towards the girl and pulled her towards him so he could hold her close to his chest with one hand and use his other three limbs to swim back to the surface as quickly as possible. The girl panicked for a moment and kicked him, before realising that he was helping and ceasing her struggles.

“Detecting core temperature drop.” Karen informed him as though that was news.

If he wasn't at risk of inhaling water he would have snapped at her that ‘yeah his temperature was dropping, he was in freezing cold fucking water’. Thankfully Peter’s hand hit something solid, something other than water, and he realised he was at the surface.

For a split second he panicked and thought that the hole had frozen over again, leaving him and the little girl trapped in an icy grave.

Oh shit, no, no, no, not again, Peter thought frantically, I can't be trapped underwater again, Mr. Stark won’t save me this time.

Peter hit his hand against the ice in an attempt to break it, but the water stole all the strength behind the movement leaving him to claw uselessly at it. He was ready to give up hope when he saw a hand fishing around in the water less than a metre away.

Peter moved over to the gap feeling overwhelmingly grateful that the kid’s mother had decided to keep searching in the water for her daughter rather than doing as he said and staying back. He pushed the kid towards the hands and felt her being pulled up and away from him.

With the adrenaline of the save fading he realised how desperate he was for air, his lungs were burning and he wanted nothing more than to just breathe in.

He hooked his hands over the ledge and heaved himself up, gasping for air, it made him choke slightly as the air came through with a little water that had clung to the surface of the mask. He could feel multiple hands all over his body, pulling at him and helping him get out of the water completely.

Peter braced himself against the ground on his hands and knees, coughing and spluttering for a few minutes while his body shivered aggressively in an attempt to heat himself up.

“K-Karen,” he choked out. “Heater.”

“I’m afraid your heater has been severely compromised, the temperature of the water has caused it to shut down. I would recommend drying off and putting on something else.” Karen said. “Would you like me to call Mr. Stark?”

“N-n-no.” Peter said through chattering teeth, he did need Mr. Stark but he was capable of walking to the tower. He didn't need to be saved all the time, how could he be taken seriously if he was constantly needing backup?

He shrugged his way out the hands that were patting at him, afraid that they would try to pull off his mask to see if he was alright.

After clambering to his feet, he made his way unsteadily in the vague direction of Stark Tower, or was it the Avengers tower now? He should ask Mr. Stark when he saw him because it wasn't clear any more, and why hadn't Mr. Stark gone through with the sale? After Peter had saved the plane and crashed his stuff? No. Crashed his plane and saved his stuff, mostly.

Peter’s brain felt as numb as his extremities.

He realised he was staggering an awful lot and was probably rousing suspicion from civilians, so he aimed a web at the nearest building. Nothing happened.

“Kar’n?”

“Your web shooters have malfunctioned, the fluid appears to have frozen in the canister causing it to perforate.” Karen informed him. “Your speech sounds slurred, are you sure you don't want me to call Mr. Stark?”

“D-don't,” Peter said, “‘m fine. J-j-just walk.”

It turned out that walking was a great idea, one of the best ideas that had ever been idea’d… idea’red? Idea’ed? Thought of! Peter’s brain was starting to feel all warm and mushy, walking was great.

“Kar’n? Walkin’ is g-great!” Peter declared.

“You appear to experiencing some acute confusion, Peter, it seems you are suffering from hypothermia. Your core temperature is dangerously low.”

“Y’ur d-d-dang-dange-” he couldn't say it so he decided to just cut to the chase, “low!”

“Attempting to call, Mr. Stark.” Karen replied.

“N-n-no!” Peter protested. “I’m w’rm now! I feel g-g-good. I sh’ld t-t-take m’ suit ‘ff.”

“Do not take off your suit.” Karen said very quickly.

“K-K’ren, y’ur t-t-too b’ssy.” Peter slurred.

“Mr. Stark is on route, you need to keep the suit on and hold on for him.” Karen said, ignoring his insult. “He is less than a minute away.”

Peter blinked as her words set in.

“B-but ‘m Sp’der-m’n.” He protested. “I d-don't need b’ckup.”

“You definitely need backup,” Mr. Stark said landing on the slushy pavement behind Peter.

“Woah!” Peter said, his suit’s eyes widening comically, “Kar’n! That’s Ir’n Man. Hi Ir’n Man, I w’s cold but now I’m n’t. I stopp’d shakin’.”

“That’s not good, Underoos,” Mr. Stark said and Peter noticed that his voice sounded soft.

“Misser Star’,” Peter slurred, “y’ur cott’n candy ‘nd fl’ffy clouds.”

“I’m sorry?” Mr. Stark asked before shaking his head, “you know what? Never mind, we need to get you home.”

“But, I don’ have red slippers ‘n a hot air b’lloon.” Peter said, confused as to how he was going to get home.

“Alright Dorothy,” Mr. Stark said, “come on, it’s time for Spider-Baby to learn how to fly.”

Peter was scooped up by Mr. Stark and pressed against his chest, held in place by two unmovable metal arms. They shot into the air causing Peter to laugh as though he was on a rollercoaster and not suffering from severe hypothermia.

“Misser Star’, we’re flyin’,” Peter said excitedly through numb lips, “bu’, we’re flyin’ back!”

“I don’t want the wind chill to make things worse, especially at this speed. So, we’re going backwards” Mr. Stark informed him.

“Misser Star’, the ligh’s are fairies.” Peter stated seriously as he stared down at the city below. There were so many lights and they were moving in and out of focus and dancing about.

“Come on Kiddo, we’re almost there, stay with me now.” Mr. Stark said.

Peter didn't respond, he was too busy wondering why his tongue felt so heavy in his mouth, and also why were tongues so weird? It seemed like it didn’t even fit in his mouth properly...oh no… what if it wasn't his tongue? Had someone stolen his and replaced it with an imposter tongue?

He needed to tell Mr. Stark but the imposter tongue wasn't working right, more proof that it wasn't his one. Before he could worry any more about that he felt Mr. Stark slow down and turn so they were going forwards, Stark Tower loomed in front and Peter saw one of the windows opening for them to enter through.

Woah, Peter thought to himself, that building is huge and just came from nowhere!

The air inside was hot, too hot, it seemed to burn at Peter’s skin through the suit and he was struck by the very real terror that he was cooking inside the Spider-Man suit.

“No!” He screamed flailing so suddenly that Mr. Stark released him in shock, Peter’s legs were too numb to hold him up and he crumpled forward onto the plush carpet, water dripping from him onto it.

“Peter, it’s alright,” Mr. Stark said, Peter could hear the metallic whirring and grinding of the suit retracting and in moments Mr. Stark was at him side, pulling him up into a sitting position.

“Too hot,” Peter slurred, “burnin’.”

“You’re actually too cold kiddo,” Mr. Stark said gently, “come on, we need to get you into something dry.”

Peter was pulled to his feet, most of his weight being supported by Mr. Stark, but the little he could bare himself was making his legs shake as they slowly made their way to Peter’s room.

“Am I gonna shower?” Peter asked.

“No, not right now Underoos,” Mr. Stark said, “your temperature is too low for that.”

With a great deal of staggering and a few comments about Peter replicating Bambi’s first steps, they made it to his bedroom.

“We need to get you in your jimmy jams, Kid,” Mr. Stark said, “now we’ll do this quickly because I know that if that brain of yours wasn't floating in La La Land you’d find this a tad humiliating.”

“Where’s La La La La Land?” Peter asked.

“Exactly.” Mr. Stark said as he pulled off Peter’s mask.

“No!” Peter yelled. “They can’t know who I am!”

“Kid, calm down, it’s just us two here, your identity is safe.” Mr. Stark said soothingly as he pressed the spider emblem on the front of Peter’s suit causing it to go slack. “Your lips are blue and I’m too young to have grey hair so just work with me here, Pete.”

With a great deal of effort, Peter was finally sitting on the side of his bed wrapped in an abundance of fluffy towels while Mr. Stark rifled through his drawers looking for pyjamas.

“Which drawer are they in?” He asked. “A little help would be great here.”

“What if you put your hand in one drawer ‘n it came out a differen’ one?” Peter asked.

“Ok, so you’re useless right now,” Mr. Stark muttered, as he continued to search. “Got them! Right kid, without your suit on I can’t monitor your temperature and the last reading was 90.8 degrees, which means it’s your lucky day. You get to wear my watch.”

Mr. Stark helped Peter clumsily thread his arms through his pyjama top and watched as he took the watch off his own wrist, fiddled with it, then strapped it onto Peter’s .

“91.1.” Mr. Stark read, “ok, you’re improving, and don't even think of messing with that thing. I’ve disabled all the systems other than medical observations.”

“Come on, Underoos, let’s get these trousers on then we can both forget all about the last fifteen minutes.” Mr. Stark said.

“Why ‘m I putting clothes on?” Peter asked, “‘m too hot.”

“No your cold and your brain is playing tricks on you,” Mr. Stark told him. “ Now let’s get you under those covers because you need to warm up and I don't think we’d manage to walk you anywhere else. Or maybe we would, but I’m not doing that again.”

It took another ten minutes but eventually Peter was in his bed, buried under a mound of blankets and Mr. Stark was sitting on the bed beside him, helping him drink a mug of hot chocolate and monitoring his temperature.

“91.6°F,” Mr. Stark declared. “See, we can do this.”

“Why ‘m I here?” Peter asked. “Why not the hosp’tal?”

“I couldn't take you to a normal hospital thanks to that bizarre DNA you’ve got going on, and there isn't a medical team based in this tower, they’re generally only on standby when an Avengers mission is happening. Which means you got Dr. Stark.”

“Huh,” Peter murmured, seemingly satisfied with the explanation. “Someone stole my tongue earlier but I think they gave it back.”

“Did they now?” Mr. Stark asked

“Uh huh.”

Time passed with meaningless and delirious chatter, as Peter’s temperature continued to creep up.

“Mr. Star’?” Peter asked suddenly.

“Yeah Kiddo?”

“I feel cold,” Peter murmured. “I don' like the cold.”

“That’s actually a good thing, it means your body is reacting correctly again, soon the shivering will start up once more and before you know it you’ll be a toasty spider.” Mr. Stark said.

“But I don' like bein’ cold. Not since Uncle Ben died.” Peter said quietly.

“What do you mean?”

“It never bothered me ‘fore,” Peter explained, “but after Ben when it got cold outsi’, I got really, really cold.”

“Hey, Pete, I don't think it’s your Uncle’s death that caused that.” Mr. Stark said gently.

“No?”

“Spiders typically can’t thermoregulate, and if you have some spider traits then this could be one of them. I was wondering about it earlier, but with the temperature of that water anyone could have ended up with hypothermia so I didn't have proof that you can't thermoregulate. Now though, with that information, it seems fairly likely.”

“So, it’s not a punishm’nt?”

“Punishment? For what?” Mr. Stark asked sounding genuinely confused.

“For letting Ben die.” Peter said quietly.

“Kid, May told me what happened, that wasn't your fault.”

“I had my powers, I didn’ do anythin’.” Peter admitted.

“You were a kid and none of that can be blamed on you whatsoever.” Mr. Stark said as he ran a hand through Peter’s hair comfortingly. “Powers or no powers, you were too young and you should never have been in that situation.”

Peter didn't reply, he was distracted by the trembling that seemed to overcome his entire body. Had Mr. Stark said that the shivering was a good sign? Because Peter was beginning to feel like it was the opposite. His teeth chattered and his muscles spasmed uncomfortably.

“M-m-misser S-s-s-star’” Peter stammered, “It-t-t’s c-c-cold.”

“I know, I know,” Mr. Stark said as he checked the watch again, “93°F. This is good, Pete, I promise. No more winter swims though.”

“N-n-never.” Peter promised.

“Good, Kid, god you did a great job saving that little girl, but I was so scared when I got the message from your AI. I didn't even realise how bad it was, and you weren't making any sense.” Mr. Stark admitted. “Just… just think of yourself as well as others in the future, alright?”

Peter nodded, his throat felt tight with tears at Mr. Stark’s honesty.

“Also, you’re telling May about this one.” Mr. Stark said, still playing with Peter’s hair in a way that made his eyes grow heavy.

Peter let out a shaky laugh.

“T-t-thanks, Mr. Stark.”

“Anytime, Underoos,” Mr. Stark said softly. “Just not anytime soon, please. Now why don’t you get some sleep? I’ll stay here and keep an eye on your temperature.”

Peter yawned, sleep did sound like a good idea.

“N-night, Tony.”

“G’night, Kiddo.”

Thank you for reading, please like and reblog if you enjoyed and feel free to send a message/ask if you’d like! I appreciate all the time you have given my writing, thanks again!

[blue-eyes-and-auburn-hairr]

Second Chances Chp. 3

Disclaimer: Okay, I got more notes than I thought I ever would, so while the world is quarantined...I wrote another part.

Warning: Mention of death, fluff, I don’t want to mislead anyone this will very much be a slowburn 

Summary: Can you imagine being widowed at such a young age to a man you thought you’d have forever with? On the anniversary of his death, on top of a mountain, you and Chris begin your new journey together.

Staring up at the sky, watching the lantern follow a path across the stars while taking a piece of me with it. People say it gets easier, but that really has not been the case. Each morning I wake up and my mind slowly drifts to memories that I try and keep locked away and each night the nightmares and terrors of the aftermath play like a reel. I don’t fight them though, I think when they finally stop, it will hurt more. My therapist obviously disagrees with me and we have been working on this but, I am just not ready. My ability to compartmentalize is scary and unhealthy but its been working for the last three years. It is harder to keep the emotions in check on days when you feel like you are being smothered. The phone calls, the text, the Facebook posts and tags from both our family and friends. All of that is sweet and supportive and great, but too much. Another reason I like coming out here and sitting on our mountain looking out at the world. 

I slowly turn around and watch as Chris is still watching the lantern on its journey, he makes eye contact and I force a half-smile. I see Dodger with his head down whimpering a bit, unaware of the circumstances but very much cued in to the emotions that surround him. 

He returns the smile but it does not reach his eyes.  

“Afghanistan, three years ago today,” I shrug not wanting to go any deeper, that’s enough of my past for one day. “That’s a story for another time preferable over some beers and a few shots,” another joke to cut the thick fog that surrounds us. Chris makes a move to reassure me, obviously feeling helpless at this moment. Dodger quickly gets up and sits down between Chris and I. He is facing Chris, watching his movements as though ready to defend me. I rub the top of his head letting him know that I am okay and so is the situation. “I’m okay boy, your pops was just trying to help,” I continue to stroke his head and then look up at Chris’ dumbstruck facial expression. “I...I have never seen him do something like that” he softly mumbled to himself and continues to look at me now with almost an expression of awestruck. 

“That was beautiful, genuinely beautiful, is there anything else you need to do?” I gently shake my head not making eye contact the mixture of gratitude and shame is swirling. I feel the tears and thickness in my throat return and shake that off as well.  

“We should start to head back then, it’s going to get dark and Dodger is such a baby in the dark,” He chuckles rolling his eyes. 

It was only about a fifteen-minute walk back to the car, but he was right, the twilight sky would only last for so long. Packing up my bag and making sure that I had everything, I met the boys at the start of the trail. 

“I am sorry if your hike took an unexpected turn,” I shyly shrug my shoulders “I feel like I owe you a beer or at least a meal to make up for that, I am usually not this grim of a person” I state trying to convince him and myself. 

“Not a chance,” he says while reaching down to pull the twig out of Dodger’s mouth. 

“I get it and I am sure you have to be up early tomorrow for your presentation and all,” I try not to sound as defeated as I feel. 

“I meant, no chance that you owe me anything. It’s absolutely my treat, do you know of any good places around here?” I tried to read his face, looking for pity, but all I could see was compassion. 

“There’s a nice pub a few miles away, small and simple,” trying to accommodate for him I also mention that there is patio seating that should fit Dodger’s fancy. 

We reach our cars at the same time that Chris announces that he is sold on the idea and says that he will follow me. The emotions of all of this finally set in when I sat in my car. I had not felt anxious or nervous throughout our entire time together until the moment I was away from him. I pushed all of that, for the most part, away and tried to drive perfectly towards the pub. Chris turned in the parking lot after me and got out and put the lease on Dodger again. I finally saw my reflection for the first time in hours and cleaned up the tears stains that still traced my skin. 

“I am not gonna lie, I honestly thought you were gonna keep driving when I pulled in here” I finally announce when I make my way over to his truck. 

“Well now I am wounded Thea, wounded,” he states while dramatically placing his hands over his chest. 

“It’ll buff out, I’m sure,” I say while bumping his shoulder and heading towards the door, I can hear him chuckling behind me. 

I head inside and ask the bartender if there was room on the patio for us to sit and order some food and drinks. She says, of course, hands me two menus and says someone would meet us outside shortly. 

I meet Chris back outside and he’s already made himself and Dodger comfy at a table. As I head over he gets up and pulls out the chair for me, which I know people roll their eyes at but I get a case of the butterflies every single time. 

After some time an older woman makes her way over to us to take our order, Chris takes my suggestion on the burger and laughs when I get carded for ordering a beer.  I roll my eyes and feel the blush creep across my cheeks. I dish it right back though and ask him when was the last time he even got carded, the squinting glare answered that question. The tension and awkwardness left and we slipped into casual conversation. 

I think we talked for 2 hours straight. 

We talked about everything and anything, it was so pure and real. My stomach started to hurt 45 minutes in from laughing so hard. “God, can you imagine growing up an only child or growing up differently than you did?” Chris asked me at one point, he was telling a story about his brother and neighbor daring him to jump from a roof onto a trampoline into a pool. He was proud to announce that he completely chicken out and thinks about how his life might be a little different if he followed through with it. 

“My brother and sisters probably used to pray to be only children growing up, but I honestly couldn’t imagine it any other way. I never take for granted how close-knit we are and I continue to be thankful.” He continued to smile at me and stare at my face, which was sweet but also a bit concerning. 

I whip at my face trying to see if I had something on it and ask him, “What? Do I have ketchup on my cheek or something?” He responds by rolling his eyes for the 39th time in the last few hours. 

“Roll your eyes at me again! I dare you!” He scuffs and goes to roll his eyes again but stops halfway and just starts laughing. 

“I just, I don’t want this to sound weird and freak you out.” He starts to rambles and it was cute but my god he was going to drive me crazy if he kept it up. I reach across the table and give his hand a squeeze in a comforting way. 

“I just, I feel like I’ve known you my whole life” he looks down at his phone “when in reality it’s only been four hours. I know that sounds crazy because I don’t even know what you do for a living, but I feel like I already know ‘who you are’ if that makes any bit of sense. I am just having a tough time believing you are real.”

It absolutely did. It made complete sense and it scared me, but it also gave me another case of butterflies.

“I’m a teacher.” I took the easy way out not toughing the other topic just yet. 

How does Chris respond? He rolled his god damn eyes again. With a retort of “Of course you are, why wouldn’t you be a teacher.” 

“That’s it, Dodger, come here and take your human away from me!” I shout at the sweet boy just trying to take a nap. “Dodger that is the 40th time he has rolled his eyes at me, you need to take him home and teach him some manners please!” I huff sitting back into my chair and watching Chris explode with laughter. 

“You are absolutely insane, I don’t think I have laughed this hard, for this long, in months. I am going to have a set of abs by the time this night is through.” Now it was my turn to roll my eyes at him. 

“So what do you teach?” He finally asked me after his waves of laughter have turned into small chuckles. 

“I am a middle school special education teacher” I state proudly. I truly love and respect what I do for a living and wouldn’t change it for the world. 

Chris is just defeated by this point and just places his head in his hands shaking it back and forth.  “You are really not helping prove that you are actually real” he mumbles into his hands. 

“Says the famous actor I met while hiking a mountain and inviting me to dinner, I left the realm of reality hours ago” I smirk back at him when he finally pulls his face out of his hands. 

The waitress walks over and asks if we need anything else. Chris holds up one finger to me seeing if I’m game for another round. “One more round please and two more glasses of water,” I ask while smirking at Chris. “Ohh also, can we get, I don’t know, maybe a to-go box of some sort that we can put some water in for the pup?” She nods and walks off while jotting it down in her little pad. She returns a few minutes later with all the check and drinks. 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to twist your arm or anything,” he says while leaning over and scratching Dodger’s head. 

“Not at all, I just, unfortunately, have to drive home after this,” I say while shaking my head. “I normally cannot wait for this day to end, but today...meeting Dodger and I guess you..,” I smirk trying to make light of a tough sentence to put into words, “It really helped.”

“Well, I am just glad we found you.” 

“Me too,” I say giving his hand one more squeeze before we get up and make our way to the cars. 

Leaving the shot of Jameson sitting on the table, untouched, but always present, unquestioned but simply knowing.

I’ve never tagged anyone in a post before so let’s see if I get this right :)  @chi00072 @capstopavenger​