#and then is already running away with a hasty thank you

[dat-town]

so high school

Characters: Woonhak & female reader

Setting & genre: high school au, fluff

Summary: Woonhak decides to confess right after graduation before he loses his chance.

Warnings: nothing if a bit of cheesiness (and calling out Taesan) doesn't count

Words: 1.4k

Author’s note: happy bday to our giant baby! based on the prompt “wait, you knew?” “you haven’t exactly been discreet…”  from here; work title was just obvious, so i ended up using the Taylor Swift song instead

Woonhak was going crazy.

He lost sight of you after Jaehyun shoved a huge bouquet of roses into his hands and insisted on taking a picture with ‘his baby’ because he was so proud that this day finally came. Woonhak however had bigger problems than taking terrible graduation pictures with him being half-distracted and his hyung’s dramatic ass looking like he was on the verge of crying for real. Sungho, being the supportive friend he was, still tried his best to take pictures of them until Woonhak decided he had enough.

“Okay, great, thanks, hyungs. Can you like… leave?” He blurted out, the words not coming out right in his hasty frustration and while Sungho was left speechless with a widened mouth, Jaehyun put a hand on his chest and faked a gasp. “I mean, to the BBQ place, jeez. I will catch up with you quickly. I just need to… uhm, do something real quick.”

There was no way he would tell his friends what he was about to do. They already babied him, god forbid they knew that he was about to confess to the girl he had liked the majority of his senior year. They would go on and on about how fast he grew up and all that. Or even worse! If you rejected him, they would turn the teasing into pity and comfort which would have been somehow worse even if appreciated. So no, Woonhak didn’t want anybody to know what he was planning not until, hopefully, he got himself a girlfriend he could brag about.

“Alright, but if you are late we get started on the food even if it’s your big day,” Jaehyun threatened at which Sungho rolled his eyes and thankfully whisked their big mouth friend away before he could further embarrass the tall boy in front of his high school classmates.

When Woonhak was finally left alone, he had his hands full with the flowers he got and a confession to make. He had half a mind to run after the guys to give them the bouquet to take with them but not wanting to lose more time he decided against it and headed to the classroom. Dropping everything he had onto his desk to collect them later he looked around in the room searching for your smile but he could only find some of your friends who were busy taking selfies to commemorate the big day.

“Hey, have you seen Y/N?” Woonhak walked up to Kyujin, worrying his lower lip between his teeth. He wasn’t sure that’s why or just the question in general that made the girl raise an eyebrow suspiciously at him. He didn’t dwell on it though, glad enough when she answered.

“Yeah, she left with her parents. They have a reservation and now they are running late because of the principal’s long ass speech,” Kyujin grimaced but Woonhak was already halfway out the door by the time she finished her explanation, yelling a quick ‘thanks’ back while starting to sprint down the corridors towards the parking lot.

He was going crazy for real. If he missed you, would that be a sign from the universe that he shouldn’t even try? He had it all planned out (okay, well, he was still a P, so it was rather an idea that came to him before bed the night before), he couldn’t give up like this. After all, he wasn’t Han Taesan for heaven’s sake to miss out on this chance and then turn it into a heart-wrecking love song. He won’t be. He would tell you now how he felt and if you didn’t feel the same way it wouldn’t be as awkward as it would have been if you had to see each other every day afterwards. But he would rather have that no matter how broken he would be than losing touch with you and having to wonder about the what ifs.

It seemed like luck was on his side though because the parking lot was just as crowded as the corridors and a long line of cars was waiting to leave. He caught a glimpse of your hair as you put your flowers into a car’s trunk.

Woonhak called out your name, yelled it loudly for the entire yard to hear when you got ready to get inside the backseat and at any other time he would have been embarrassed for his actions and the attention he got for his behavior but now he had more pressing matters at hand. It was worth it in the end because your movements halted and you turned towards him instead of getting into the car.

Needless to say Woonhak was panting by the time he made it in front of you. He really should have put more effort into his PE classes because his lack of stamina was showing but for that he made up with sheer determination and a blinding smile as he looked down on you.

“Hey, what’s the matter? What happened?” You spoke up with furrowed brows and gosh, you were so cute with confusion and a bit of concern written all over your face, Woonhak wanted to smooch you but he was getting a bit ahead of himself with that.

“Nothing, I just need to tell you something,” he stated, rushing the words out before he could lose the courage he was running on.

You looked at him with big doe eyes, questioning and curious and the boy was seriously so gone because he adored the way your cheeks rounded with a smile or the moles just under your eyes. You laughed even at his lamest jokes and played video games with him until late instead of scolding that he should have been studying. You lended him your notes without him having to ask and hell, he even thought that your handwriting was cute with those doodles you tended to draw in the corners of your notebook.

“Y/N…” Woonhak called your name before he took a deep breath and looked you in the eyes. “I like you!”

He declared it right in the middle of the parking lot in earshot of at least a dozen people including your parents. This certainly wasn’t how he planned it but he didn’t want to prolong it any further or he would have gone crazy for real.

“I thought you would never say anything,” you giggled but Woonhak was too nervous to process it right away.

“You don’t have to answer right now, I know it must be sudden‒” He started before his thoughts came to a screeching halt and his eyes widened like saucers. “Wait, what? You knew?” He gasped and his voice went octaves higher as he stuttered.

“Well, you haven’t been exactly discreet…” you smiled so sweetly but Woonhak’s thoughts had been going back to replay all your interactions. Had he really been that obvious? Was it because he kept giving you his plus one drinks from the corner convenience store even when there was no such discount in place? Or that he carried hair ties with him in case you forgot yours? Or was he staring too much? Too easy on you when you played? Oh jeez, what if he blushed near you?

But if you knew and didn’t say anything, was it because you didn’t like him and he set himself up to failure? Is it the part where you tell him it’s better to stay as good friends? Are you‒

“It’s okay. I like you too,” you said before Woonhak could have hyperventilated and you tiptoed closer to peck him chastly on the cheek. Your soft lips left a tingle in their wake and the boy could feel himself redden.

“Really?” He mumbled dumbly but you just kept smiling brightly.

“Really,” you confirmed and giggled when you heard your father clearing his throat. Oh, right, you were late. Woonhak felt a bit sheepish that he kept you up and hoped he didn’t earn negative points in your parents’ favor as you whispered that you had to go.

“Text me later,” you mouthed through the darkened window after you got into the car and Woonhak felt stupidly giddy, he couldn’t stop smiling even when Sungho called him whining that they would eat up all the meat at this rate. Fortune indeed favored the bold and the lovesick.

[patrice-bergerons]

I sometimes wonder what Villiers (aka the young and dashing Tobias Menzies aka M's assistant in CR) got up to in the rest of his life.

He is replaced by (a similarly much younger Tanner) in QoS so did he just quit when he found out what happened with Le Chiffre, Bond being tortured, Vesper etc? (Was he already interviewing during CR??) I just imagine him sitting on his sofa watching the news, perhaps with a friend or partner, and whenever news coverage gets to some ridiculous international incident he has no doubt was caused by Bond, getting a distant look in his eyes and for a bone deep shudder.

We all have that one job that leaves us thinking fuck never again and I wonder whether that's what MI6 was to poor old Villiers. I wonder what industry he moved to after he left MI6.

[ponderingmoonlight]

Seeing kny men shirtless for the first time

Pairings: Rengoku x fem!reader; Gyomei x fem!reader; Sanemi x fem!reader (bonus: all hashira men x fem!reader)

Word Count: 3,2k

Warnings: this might be a little shitty so be nice pls, this is actually the first time I ever wrote for Gyomei so please please please let me know what you think! not 100% proofread 🥹🤍

Rengoku Kyojuro

“Have you seen Rengoku-san? There’s something I want to ask him about our upcoming mission.”

Tengen tilts his head to the side ever so slightly, lips unable to keep that dirty grin off his face. Yeah, surely you’re asking for a mission and not because you’re having a crush on the flame hashira since joining the pillars.

“He went outside in the gardens to view the blooming roses”, he lies oh so innocently.

A bright smile creeps up your face, heart already skipping a beat in excitement. If you were only brave enough to finally ask Kyojuro out, how easier your life would be if you’d just keep your distance to him. But the prospect of seeing him alone is enough for your mind to go blank. Hopefully, the others don’t notice.

“Thank you so much, Tengen”, you blurt out with a hasty bow before yanking out of the room.

“Didn’t he say he wanted to change since he sweated so much during training?”, Shinobu thinks out loud.

“Yeah, that’s going to be a lot of fun”, Tengen replies with a smirk plastered onto his face.

Your mind races back and forth as you make your way to the gardens. What will you even ask him? Maybe what he has planned, if he already knows something? What if you mess up? This is actually the first time you and Kyojuro got assigned a mission together. You have to make a good impression or otherwise, he won’t take you with him again.

“Rengoku-san, I don’t mean to disturb you, but I have a few questions regarding the ne-“

Your breath gets stuck in your throat immediately, feet coming to a rapid stand.

There he is, the flame hashira.

Shirtless, his upper body soaking wet while he empties a bucket of water over his head.

“Oh, (y/n)! I didn’t expect you here!”, he announces with his eyes widened.

You can’t even blink, mind going dull. You always secretly imagined what Kyojuro might look like underneath that uniform, if his muscles look as buff as they feel underneath your touch while training.

And they do.

Oh god, they definitely do.

“I-I…Tengen told me that…You’re here to see…the roses”, you blurt out, still unable to look away.

“Indeed! But before that, I really needed to change my uniform since I sweated a lot during training.”

“Yeah, I can see that”, you mumble.

“(y/n), are you not feeling well? You look quite red from afar. Allow me to check on you.”

When he suddenly starts walking towards you with his chest muscles tensing with each and every step, you feel like fainting. Of course you never doubted that this man looks good underneath that uniform, but this?

“Your cheeks are really hot”, he comments while running his wet hand up and down your cheek.

“I…I…”

Your mind is a mess, not a single thought is making sense right now. Are you dreaming? Is that really Rengoku Kyojuro standing in front of you with his abs glittering in the heat of the sun, so close that you’d be able to touch him.

“Maybe you should go and see Shinobu-“

“I’m flustered!”, you finally cry out like an idiot.

Only to regret your words immediately.

His hand stops right in its tracks, the piercing presence of his orbs forcing you to look up at him.

“Why would you be flustered, (y/n)?”, he questions innocently.

May the ground swallow you whole in hope you’ll never return. God, why does this have to be so embarrassing? You’ll definitely have a word with Tengen when this is over.

“Because I…I have a crush on you, Kyojuro.”

The words you never dared to say out loud, that lingered through your mind each and every time you saw him. Like a rock, they fall off your chest while a wave of pure panic starts rushing over you.

You just confessed your feelings to him.

Him, Rengoku Kyojuro.

“I think I need to go now”, you blurt out, already starting to turn away when Kyojuro grabs your wrist gently.

“Please don’t go, (y/n). Actually, I feel the same way about you.”

He sweeps you around so rapidly that you are forced against something as hard as a wall. Did he accidentally throw you against a wall, the nearby tree?

The second you open your eyes again, you stare at his bare chest, only millimetres away from your face.

That wasn’t a wall.

“I had an eye on you since the first time I saw you. You are just…so amazing!”, he confesses with a passion that is even unusual for him.

“Kyojuro, I…”

Your bare face touched his naked chest.

“I…”

And don’t get started on his sight, his broad chest, the muscles that flex when he grabs your shoulders passionately.

“I…I can’t…”

“What’s wrong, (y/n)? A cat got your tongue?”, Tengen jeers from behind.

All your senses seem to come back to you in the split of a second when a wave of anger washes over you.

“You little…Why did you do that!?”, you cry out while storming towards the much taller man.

“Because your face looks very flashy when it’s this red.”  

 Gyomei Himejima

To say that you are exhausted would be the understatement of a century. Being out in the scorching sun all day really took its toll on your already bruised body.

Not to mention the training methods of none other than the stone hashira himself.

Gyomei is not a stranger to you. You’ve known each other for quite some time by now, joining the demon slayer corps almost simultaneously. And that force of a man never failed to impress you.

You wrench your sweat-soaked clothes in the river while staring at your own reflection. Why are you even here, though? You might not be a hashira yet, but you trained with Gyomei countless times before. Over and over, you shoved rocks around and almost drowning in that exact river. At this point, the basic training of the corps members isn’t even enough for you to break a sweat. You find yourself shoving that rock 10 cho by now while carrying tree trunks on your back.

You furrow your eyebrows. Now that you think of it, you didn’t even catch a glimpse at Gyomei himself since being here. Apparently, the hashira training does keep him busy.

That sting of agony that pierces through your heart can’t be stopped, though. Over the span of those last years, you got to know the stone hashira better. Despite his tall and threatening appearance, he is the softest man you’ve ever known. So kind that he brought tears to your eyes more than once, so considerate that it’s hard to believe that this man lives alone.

It was inescapable for you to fall from him head over heels. And now you find yourself longing for his presence even though you know all too well that he is busy training the corps members.

“I didn’t expect to greet you here at this late hour.”

You almost trip over head-first into the water, caught by a strong hand last-minute before you take another dive into the river.

“I’m beyond sorry for scaring you like this, (y/n)”, an all too familiar voice continues while pushing you back on your feet.

Normally, the first thing you see is his demon slayer uniform and cloak draped around him in a somehow elegant way.

But not today.

You swallow hard, widened eyes blankly staring at his naked chest. This man standing in front of you…Gyomei wears nothing but his uniform pants.

“I…uh…don’t w-worry”, you stutter like an idiot, his arms still holding you in place gently.

“Did I interrupt you? I didn’t know that you were taking a bath.”

His soft voice paired with that sight in front of you. You’ve never seen him shirtless, never witnessed the way his veins pop out of his arms and how well formed he is underneath that uniform. It would be so easy to allow your fingertips a taste and let yourself discover his muscles even better, to just stretch out your hand and-

“Does it bother you that I am shirtless? I came here to take a bath myself.”

“Bother?”, you press out.

“I…I’m not bothered at all!”

“I guess I’m just a little…flustered…”

“Flustered?”, he repeats in confusion.

“If I make you feel uncomfortable, I’ll cover myself of course. I just noticed you were here and we haven’t seen each other for a long time by now.”

“I missed you”, he adds, forcing your world upside down for a minute.

Since you’ve got to know him, there was never more than friendly words between Gyomei and you. Not more than a shoulder rub, not more than motivating words from time to time. You never allowed yourself to compliment him or talk about anything apart from missions.

Until now. Until Gyomei confessed out of nowhere that he missed you.

While being shirtless

“I…missed you too”, you finally give in.

You allow your eyes a little glimpse at him. Just a little taste of his broad shoulders and how his veins stand out. Just a little something of his rock-hard abs, his enormous upper body that is usually covered by his uniform. Just one look at-

“I thought about you all the time, to be exact”, you breathe out before you even realize what you’re talking about.

“I’m feeling the same way, (y/n). Let me assure you that my heart beats just as fast as yours at the moment.”

Gently, he cups your hand with his and presses your palm against his bare chest, straight against his racing heart that pulsates against your skin.

Oh god. You feel like fainting any given minute, your very own heart pounding so hard that you might get a heart attack.

“Now, allow me to put on my uniform again so that we can have a proper-“

“Wait!”, you blurt out.

“Let’s just stay like this for uh…a little longer…”

Sanemi Shinazugawa

It’s hard to keep your palms from sweating when you know exactly where you’re going. To him, the wind hashira. The man who swept you off your feet without even trying, the man you haven’t seen in such a long time by now.

While Sanemi always kept himself busy with missions, you were assigned to a mission far away from home. It took you over a month to finally find the demon who was responsible for this mess. And eventually, Sanemi just stopped writing you letters or replying to your messages. Even though you were so sure that he might feel the same way about you, he proved you wrong.

In the most painful way.

“I can’t go any further, that’s exactly where he is”, you complain while following your crow around.

You know this path uncomfortably well, the way it leads you next to a river, through a field of strawberries. Straight into the wind hashira estate.

“Direct orders from Kagaya-sama! You need to undergo the hashira training!”

“I just returned from an exhausting mission, did you tell him that?”, you bark back only to get attacked by your stinky crow.

“So cheeky! Watch how you talk to me!”, it cries out, literally dragging you along with it while its beak bursts the skin of your cheek.

Your heart almost stops beating, pounding rougher and rougher against your ribcage with every step you take towards the wind hashira estate.

What if the man you still love rejects you? What if he breaks your heart in front of everyone else, if he speaks out those words you imagined when you waited another day for his reply?

You want to escape, want to get as far away from here as possible. But your unforgiving crow drags you with it until you find yourself at the front doors of his estate.

“Get yourself together, dumbass! Go inside and talk to him! GO!”

With one last bite it finally leaves you alone, right at the opened front door.

There’s nothing you’d like more than vanishing from this earth, to get swallowed whole. Why on earth does it have to be him first? Why aren’t you allowed to train with Tengen, Giyu, basically everyone else? Your heart races so hard inside your ribcage that it takes your breath away, eyes staring into the dark estate.

Is he even home?

You allow yourself to take a few steps into the building, to look around. No cries, no voices? Maybe he isn’t even home. Are they training somewhere else, in the nearby woods, maybe?

“Fuck!”

His voice almost sends you over the edge, forces your eyes to dart around in sheer horror. That was Sanemi, without any doubt. But is he alone?

What if he’s not?

What if he’s with a girl?

You swallow hard, the ugliest thoughts taking over your head when you hear water splashing from a room nearby.

You can’t help it. As quiet as possible, you make your way towards the room the sounds originate from, ready to find literally everything. What if that’s the reason he didn’t write you back? What if he fell in love with another woman and simply forgot about you?

Your eyes peek through the ever so slightly opened door.

And your jaw drops to the floor in an instant.

There he stands, nothing but a towel covering his private parts while droplets of water run down his naked back. Sanemi just washed himself.

But oh…

You can feel your mouth watering just by looking at the scars that cover his back, how delicious the water than runs down his neck seems.  You’re only a few steps away from that force of a man, only a few steps in order to touch him. You always wondered what his skin feels like, if his outside is as rough as his inside. And what does he smell like straight out of the shower? Does he still smell like himself? And what about his abs-

All air drains from your compressed lungs as you suddenly find yourself pinned against the wall straight in Sanemi’s bathroom.

“Why the hell are you spying on me like some little freak?”, he hisses through gritted teeth.

“I…wasn’t spying”, you press out, his distressed orbs meeting yours.

Fuck, you’re screwed.

“Oh yeah? Why were you standing outside my bathroom then? I didn’t even know you were back!”

“Because you never fucking asked”, you finally bark back.

He draws even closer, lingers over you like an unpromising shadow with his naked upper body still dripping. No, you have to concentrate on the fact that you’re mad as hell right now, there’s no room for inspecting his upper body.

But his abs definitely look as good as they feel.

“You were out on a mission, how the hell was I supposed to ask? I thought you’d just let me know when you’re back”, he bites back.

“Oh, could have tried answering my damn messages, maybe? Did you ever think about that!?”

“Me answering your messages? You never replied to me!”

You furrow your eyebrows.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“What I’m talking about? I sent you countless messages and you never answered. I even asked Kagaya-sama if you died or something! I…I was so fucking worried…”

His heavy breath mixes with yours, caresses your oversensitive skin.

“But Sanemi…I did the same”, you finally mutter.

Sanemi’s chest rises and falls rapidly, a few water drops escaping the force of his skin. His oh so glowy skin. Of course you knew that this man would look good shirtless. But this? How are you supposed to stay focused when his skin turns pink ever so slightly, when his muscular chest moves like that?

“Can you stop staring at my abs and focus on me for one minute?”, he barks while flicking in front of your way too focused eyes.

You feel your cheeks heat up in an instant, glossy eyes staring at him like a caught deer. If there’s one thing that’s worse than checking Sanemi out, it’s definitely getting caught.

“Sorry, I have to go”, you mumble while pulling yourself away from him.

Only to find yourself wrapped in his naked arms even tighter.

“You’re not going anywhere. I just asked you something”, he warns you.

“Let go of me!”

“Did you…miss me?”

Your arms stop right in their tracks, widened eyes staring at his flustered face in sheer disbelief. There he stands, Sanemi Shinazugawa, straight out of the shower while asking you if you missed him?

“Yeah, always”, you reply out of instinct.

“Good. Because same.”

He doesn’t even give you the chance to second-guess your answer. In the split of a second, you get devoured by his muscular arms, your very own kimono soaking wet in an instant.

Are you dreaming?

“Wait, what?”, you breathe out.

“And you totally checked me out”, he adds proudly.

“I didn’t check you out-“

“Oh yeah?”

He lets go of you just enough for you to catch a glimpse of his delicious upper body again.

“Maybe a little bit…”

-Bonus-

You huff out in exhaustion. What the actual fuck were you thinking when you agreed on training with all hashira? Well, apparently not that you’d literally vomit all over yourself after getting hit without any mercy by all of them.

“That little fucker Shinazugawa”, you curse under your breath while stomping towards the wind hashira estate.

“I’ll kick your puny ass next time.”

Your feet drag you back to them with last strength. Rengoku, Tengen, Obanai, Shinazugawa, Tomioka…why on earth are all of them so damn strong? Super unfair.

“Have you seen how I beat the shit out of her?”, you hear Sanemi jeer from afar as well as the constant mumbling of the others.

“It wasn’t necessary to hit her this hard”, Giyu comments.

“Hell yes it was. Now that brat knows what she’s dealing with!”

All you see is red. Even though your body begs you to stop, you storm towards their voices.

“Listen up, you little shit-“

Your breath gets stuck in your throat, eyes darting around without a real aim.

There they stand. Shirtless. Every single one of them.

Oh.

“Don’t worry, it’s not your fault that you’re a loser-“

Just this once, you’re actually able to ignore Sanemi’s shitty words. That toned abs Rengoku has, Tengen’s veiny arms, Obanai’s athletic build, the scars that compliment Sanemi’s muscles so well-

Why is it suddenly so hot?

“Are you okay, (y/n)?”, Giyu questions while rubbing the back of his head with a towel.

How is it possible that he looks this good underneath that loose uniform? You always expected Giyu to be rather athletic that muscular given his fast movements. But that mountain of a biceps definitely doesn’t lie.

“I…”

Not a single logical thought is left in your blank mind, eyes roaming back and forth between them.

“I need to go.”

In the matter of seconds, you disappear inside the wind hashira estate without a trace.

“Is (y/n) alright? She looked rather pale”, Rengoku thinks out loud, still staring at where you last stood.

“She was definitely checking me out”, Tengen announces proudly.

“You? Bet she was looking at me”, Sanemi jeers at the tall man.

“How are they so hot?”, you mumble to yourself while inspecting them through the window.

Tags: @chilichopsticks @hellkaiserinphoenix  @ynackerman9499 @keepghostly @beatrexworld

@froufrousnowman @hidazinie @tomiokathedepresso  @poketrainer2270 @chaoticwinnercupcake

@lees-chaotic-brain @wordskeeper @polarbvnny @sugu-love @ryva @baku2345

@komelrebi-san @kentocalls @barbuse @sunshine7queen @lavenderdrxp

@yaninnaacu @hopefulbelievertimemachine @laurencrsnt

[wyvernest]

cold nights by the fire

cregan stark x betrothed f! reader

cw: smut, piv, creampie, fluff, slightly typical-medieval sexist views, loss of virginity

summary: your soon-to-be husband keeps you warm on your first cold night in Winterfell

Ever since the war ended, nights have grown colder in the regretted absence of most dragonfire in Westeros. High and sharp winds have started growing in the North, sweeping far south of The Wall and clawing at the gates of Winterfell.

Tonight was no different. You had asked your handmaiden to build a fire in the hearth for both your comfort, but with little gain. As soon as you stepped away from the red, licking flames, the cold took over like shadow vanquishing light.

“It’s all in vain.” you mutter, defeated.

“I shall bring more furs, m’lady.” your handmaiden insists, getting up from her spot by the fire.

“Don’t.”, you chuckle, “Any more and I’ll suffocate. They’ll have to send all the guards to come looking for me amongst them come morn’.”

Your companion lets a shy laugh escape her trembling lips, although short-lived as a tall, broad shadow appears by the door. 

“My lady.” Your heart flutters wildly at the unmistakable sound of your betrothed’s voice, so gentle and concerned. “Are you well?”

Nodding for your handmaiden to retreat to her own chamber, you now become aware of your condition; kneeled on the rough tapestry, crumbled into a ball of pelts, hands above the flames. Sour shame washes over you, for having dared to believe you were one of the toughest of your family during harsh times, yet now conquered by the cold on your first night in Winterfell. 

“Cregan.” you shuffle to raise to your feet but your freezing legs aren’t eager to heed your intent. “I must admit, my northern blood has betrayed me tonight, for the first time.” 

You are startled amidst your struggles to flee from the furs as he braces you with a firm hand on your back, before his other comes around your waist, easily lifting you off the rugs. He walks back, placing you on the soft bed and sitting beside you, the covers rigid with night’s chill underneath.

“I will not have my lady wife quiver in my own keep.” He rids himself of his cloak swiftly, draping it over your smaller frame. The hastiness of the gesture makes a newfound warmth pool in your veins, reminding you of the same way he is to soon cloak you as his lady, in sight of the Old Gods. 

“Thank you,” You whisper, surprised and stunned, as you cuddle closer into his embrace. His body heat soon seeps into you, your trembling diminishing as his strong arms faintly squeeze more and more. 

‘Exhilarated’ didn’t begin to properly describe how you felt when Lord Cregan started courting you not long after he had returned from the southern war of the Targaryens. Your house is pledged to the Starks, but with the safety of the North now secured, he did not deem it necessary to strengthen alliances with marriage anymore, not when he could follow his heart so freely.

A giddy shiver rouses you from oncoming slumber, as the last slither of cold leaves your body in a sneeze you wished you could suppress. 

“Come closer.” You can feel his hot breath on your face as he moves you over his lap, his right arm running up and down your back in hopes of keeping you warm.

“Is this proper? So soon, before the wedding?” You do not wish to so easily disrespect customs and laws, but it wasn't rare that you found yourself fantasising about finally being his.

“I am merely looking after my beloved. I already vowed to shield you from harm.” You cannot tell if there was a trace of amusement in his tone or if it was just your mind jesting.

“Not before the gods.”

“The gods knew of the pledge before I could speak it. The ceremony will be held, but my loyalties will have been with you for long before.” The hold around your waist tightens, affectionate.

You look up at him, pondering your next words carefully; but before you could muster up a word, your eyes drift to his lips, only for a moment. He doesn't need a clearer impulse to proceed.

His mouth meets yours with a warm exhale that seems to bewitch you, all senses and shock diffusing into the need of being with him. Your face is hot, the skin of your waist is buzzing under his touch even through thick clothing. Your kiss is shy, despite his growing hunger. He nips at your soft lips, his right hand cradling your face, warm and calloused, yet so tender.

His left palm grazes your thigh, a reassuring safety seasoned with soft need. 

You cannot dream of stopping him. Your only concern is him ceasing at an awful time, only to return to his usual, honourable self and leave you desperate until the wedding. But he does not back away, more and more enraptured with you, the scent of you, your skin and your soft sighs. 

He kisses down your jaw, down your throat, wet, hot and open-mouthed. Your body has forgotten all about the sting of cold, leaning back onto the furs. He follows without breaking away, climbing on top of you slowly yet steadily. You moan in surprise as he begins to toy with the back strings of your dress.

“If you wish me gone, I will be gone at once, wife.” He vows.

Returning into view, he looks at you from atop, his brows soothing at the realisation that you are about to welcome him.

“Warm my bed tonight, husband.” You utter, a feather’s puff aways from his lips.

With that, he descends upon you, tasting your words on your lips, his hands cradling your liquified body like softened candle wax. You're burning up and twisting with excitement under the blazing flame of his heat. 

His hands slowly rid you of your garments, leaving you in your white shift, before slipping underneath and grabbing your waist. His touch leaves your skin aching and burning behind, his kisses mark you in a scorch palpable only to you. His touch climbs past your waist, coming to fondle the soft flesh of your breasts. Your heart beat is so strong you swear he might feel it as he softly squeezes your tit.

You shuffle in his hold, seeking to press yourself closer and closer into him, as if to become one. He indulges, himself wanting to wrap you up entirely in his embrace. Your soft breasts come flush against his hard chest, legs curling up around his waist as you receive him between your parted thighs. 

His breathing gradually becomes laboured as he moves against you, pulling the covers over you both. As he continues to caress the curves and dips of your shape, his groin brushes up against your flower and your hips betray you, dragging back up against him. With a low grunt, he frees himself from his breeches with one hand, and you pull at his chemise to fully undress him.

“Are you certain?” You inquire, out of breath.

“Always have been.” He soothes your worries with another heart-stopping kiss, sealing the premature bedding with an undoubting vow.

You feel him guide himself into you, the tip of his manhood prodding at the pink petals of your unplucked rose, claiming you. He pushes in and you gladly accept him, wet and wanting. 

“Gods, you feel amazing.” He groans above you, finally settled completely into you, before pulling back out and starting to roll his hips, steady yet hard enough to have you tensing at the sudden feeling of kindles in your womb. 

He sinks deep into you with every thrust, breathing heavy on your neck, groaning in your ear, whipping at the cold and dark of the bedchamber. You can smell the pinewood and musk on him, closer than you’ve ever been before, and it drowns out your senses, reducing you to the rapid waters of a river, bending and breaking against harsh stones of mountains, willing and united. 

You gasp out his name as the air is filled with your moans and pleas, the wood-carved bed frame ramming into the bleak stone walls of Winterfell with an echoless rhythm. 

He worships your body like you were a godly grace bestowed upon him, listening to your every sound and heeding every sign that he could do more for your pleasure. Eventually his thrusts grow urgent and scattered in between breaths, and before he can muffle your ecstatic whines with another kiss, you come, your delicate flower quivering around him, pushing him into the peak of his own satisfaction. 

You feel him throb inside, filling you with a strange, new sensation. He collapses by your side, tenderly dragging you with him. He strokes up and down your back, his breaths calming with a deep sigh.

“Is my lady still in discomfort?” He jests lightly, proud with himself and immensely content.

You snuggle at his side, head on his chest. “No. But I'm afraid I will be in need of your aid every night, my lord.”

[tokutaiseichan]

Characters Awakening Lines Translations

After posting the lines for Jin and Rui, I felt like translating other characters too so here we are!

Please note that since I don’t have access to all of the characters’ lines, most of the raw lines are taken from the unofficial JP wiki. The texts are all there so if any of you notice any errors/mistranslations, feel free to correct me!

FROSTHEIM

Jin

Awakening: To think I'm receiving alms from my servant... Should I kneel in front of you? Fully Awakened: Trust is something that can be broken easily. Don't you dare come any closer than you already have.

Tohma

Awakening: This feeling… It appears that you want me to keep reaching out for the top. Is that how it is? Fully Awakened: With this power, we're one step closer to achieving our goal. And I'm* going to make sure we see it through the end. [*he's referring to himself as “ore” instead of his usual “”watashi” here]

Luca

Awakening: I devote myself to protecting the weak, for that is the path I have to take. Fully Awakened: I'll become stronger than anyone. I don't want to lose anything important to me一not anymore!

Kaito

Awakening: Could it be… even someone like me can get stronger too? Fully Awakened: You have done so much for me! This man, Kaito, will no longer run away!!

VAGASTORM

Alan

Awakening: This power is dangerous. Stay away from me. Fully Awakened: I don't really know what’s appropriate to say for this kind of thing, so… well… umm, thanks a lot.

Leo

Awakening: C'mere, Honor Roll~ I'll show you those guys’ ugly crying faces too~ Fully Awakened: Obviously. If I don't like someone, I’ll take matters into my own hands and create hell on earth just for them. There's no such thing as divine retribution, you know?

Sho

Awakening: Thanks for waiting. Well? What do you want me to do now? Say it clearly. Fully Awakened: Sure, okay. I got it. If it's your request, I'll make sure to at least listen to it through the end.

JABBERWOCK

Haru

Awakening: That sure hits the spot~ Now I don't even need those energy drinks! Fully Awakened: I'm going as far as this road is going to take me. I made a choice to walk down this path and it's not something I can just simply throw away.

Towa

Awakening: Heheh~ Did I get stronger? How interesti~ng. Fully Awakened: I wonder why humans are such foolish, whimsical, and pitiful creatures… yet they manage to still be so lovable?

Ren

Awakening: Doing something like this… Senpai, what are you planning? Fully Awakened: Geez! Even if you look at me with those expectant eyes, I know you'll just get tired of me right away…

SINOSTRA

Taiga

Awakening: Gyahahahaha! Aren't you one greedy little kitten~? But I don't hate that about you. Fully Awakened: A hasty greed and a sincere wish. There's no big difference between the two of them.

Romeo

Awakening: Come now. Is it really the time to be charmed by my beauty? Fully Awakened: I need to be perfect all the time一for that is my way of staying triumphant on this world.

Ritsu

Awakening: This will help in furthering my career. Fully Awakened: I definitely will become the best attorney in Japan, and then I shall ensure my father's name will be clear from all the alleged infamy he's received.

HOTARUBI

Subaru

Awakening: I’m so happy that you're right here beside me to watch me grow. Fully Awakened: “Ignorance is Bliss" and “Silence is Golden”. Don't you agree that it's unreasonable to try and break the admonitions we inherited from our predecessors?

Haku

Awakening: Oi oi oi. Don't expect too much from me, you hear? Fully Awakened: If our life were decided by the things we were born with, you bet I'd be the first one to kiss that kind of life goodbye.

Zenji

Awakening: It seems that my capability has bloomed yet again! Fully Awakened: I was wrong, my dear. As it turns out, dreams are not to be kept as just an idealized fantasy but something we should achieve with our own hands.

OBSCUARY

Edward

Awakening: Oh dearie me. If you whip my old bones any harder, I might actually die this time, you know? Fully Awakened: Sometimes a youthful folly can lead one into committing grave sins. So I hope that you keep this in mind一remain modest and cautious.

Rui

Awakening: Thanks a bunch for working hard for my sake~ I really mean it! Fully Awakened: It's fine if you ended up forgetting about me. I simply wish for you, of all people, to become happy.

Lyca

Awakening: Thanks. I want to show the current me to Neros soon. Fully Awakened: I’m going to work hard. I don't want to come back to those hellish days anymore.

MORTKRANKEN

Yuri

Awakening: This feeling! It stimulates my brain cells! Fully Awakened: I will pioneer the advanced road of genomic analysis for anomalies and establish myself as the best doctor in the world!

Jiro

Awakening: Thank you very much. I feel slightly better. Fully Awakened: I won't let you die. The reason I'm helping you? I don't really understand it myself either.

[ddejavvu]

Hi, saw you said stranger things requests and I have one !! Steve and reader going to a party, and he accidentally spills his drink on her short and he panics because he thinks of what happened with Nancy and reader ends up having to comfort him with vodka all over her shirt :,) thank you

From the minute the bronze liquid comes in contact with your cream top, Steve's already reacting strangely. It's like a live wire stabbed through the base of his spine, shooting heated sparks towards his shoulders that tense.

"Hey, I- I'm sorry," He stammers, trying to set the now half-empty cup onto the counter. It doesn't work, and the cup falls to the ground, splashing this time over your feet. You take a hasty step back, and Steve's hands reach out to catch you with too strong of a grip.

"No, don't- I'm sorry," One glance into his eyes and they're alive with the same fever that's tripping up his words, "I'm sorry, don't go, please. Just- just come into the kitchen, please?"

"It's sticky here," You raise and lower your foot a few times, music not helping you assess the situation as it booms in your ears, "Steve, you're-" You grimace at the tight hold of his large hands, "You're squeezing a bit, Steve, let me go."

You try to pull away from him, but that only makes it worse. He holds tighter, pulls harder, and you have to grab his own arm to maneuver him a different way around the island.

"Okay- okay! Just- come this way, god," You hiss, "Steve, 's starting to hurt."

Then you're the only one holding up the embrace; he's dropped you like you're on fire. You don't have time to ponder why, you just keep dragging him through the sea of partygoers and into the semi-isolated kitchen.

"'Kay, can you get some paper towels?" You turn on the faucet, water running cold as you assess the damage to your shirt. When no reply comes, you turn back to Steve, finding him lingering right where you'd left him, his face pale.

"Steve? The paper towels?" You try again, to no avail.

"Steve," You shut off the faucet, feeling liquor slosh through your socks as you step over to him, "What's the matter? Are you okay?"

"I'm sorry. For- ruining your shirt, and squeezing.. too tight."

"It's okay," You hum cautiously, "I can wash it. And it's not like you bruised me. Paper towels?"

"I didn't mean to." He promises, his big brown eyes still blown wide open, "I really didn't. And I can pay for the- for the shirt, like- dry cleaning. I promise. I'm sorry."

"It's alright," You promise, "Steve, it's just a shirt. It's okay, I just need paper towels."

Your prolonged reassurances seem to set him straight, and he looks like a robot rebooting. His eyes flash with something unreadable and he snaps to attention, stumbling backwards and trying to maneuver the unfamiliar kitchen.

"Right. Right, uh- paper towels. They're- here!"

He brandishes the roll towards you almost aggressively, and you wet three beneath the water you've turned back on. He takes the wad from your hand before you can apply it to your stained shirt, dabbing gently at the remains of his solo cup.

"Sorry," He breathes, tongue poking out from between his lips as he focuses on rubbing the stain away.

"It's okay." You remind him, craning your neck up to kiss at his chin. He still looks pale, like he's recovering from a brush with death, but at the feeling of your lips against his chin he looks up at you, and the corners of his lips quirk up into a weak smile.

"It's- uh, not coming out." He murmurs, "I'll have it dry-cleaned, um, tomorrow, I'll take it, and-"

"Okay. We'll figure something out." You keep your voice soothing, although you don't know why you need to, "It's okay, Steve. Hey, do you wanna just go home? We could do a movie night instead - get away from the noise and the people, and I could change my clothes."

"Yeah," He flounders slightly, hand still working to scrub the alcohol off of your shirt, "Yeah, uh- where...?"

"Your place," You decide, "If you don't mind me wearing your shirt?"

His eyes shine now, and his smile seems less rickety, "Yeah. No! No- I don't mind it. My place, and- and my shirt."

[accioscarheadthings]

hello! can I req Drabble where hq characters comfort reader insome way by shushing them. like ‘shh sweetie shh shh’ 🫠🫠🫠 i just think it’s super intimate and reassuring.

take care of yourself :)

ohh yess i love this<3 thank you sm my love, hope you enjoyy

↳ 𝗦𝗮𝗳𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗺𝘀 - 𝗛𝗮𝗶𝗸𝘆𝘂𝘂! 𝘅 𝗳𝗲𝗺! 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿

haikyuu x fem!reader

summary - you have a bad day and you come home in a sour mood, resulting in you snapping at your innocent boyfriend

warnings - hurt-comfort, self-deprecating thoughts, fluff, timeskip!characters

featuring characters — YAMAGUCHI, ASAHI, SUGAWARA, DAICHI, IWAIZUMI, OSAMU, AKAASHI, YAKU, KITA

main masterlist !

you were having a tough day.

it all started when you realized you were running late for work and you had spilled coffee on your shirt, making you change into another before you left. your car wouldn't start, leaving you late for your first meeting.

as the day went on, it seemed like every minuscule thing opposed you. your phone died in the middle of an important call, and you received multiple emails from coworkers with urgent requests.

but just when you thought things couldn't get any worse, your boss took the time to reprimand you for your performance, adding to your stress and frustration.

the traffic was dreadful, adding to your stress and making you late for your lunch appointment.

and to top it all off, the weather turned bad and your clothes got ruined, worsening your already bad mood.

by the time you reached home, you were feeling fed up and exhausted, the weight of the day's events bearing down on you.

all you wanted was a hot shower and a good night's sleep, you didn't even have the energy to change into your sleep clothes.

as you crawled into bed, feeling utterly spent and frustrated, you couldn't help but feel that the universe was conspiring against you today.

you heard the front door click open and shut, indicating that your boyfriend that just got home.

he found you in the bedroom where you had sat up to greet him.

with a hasty kiss on your forehead, he immediately asked if dinner was ready. he had been working late and was clearly eager to get something to eat.

you felt instantly overwhelmed, the added pressure of having to cook for your boyfriend after a bad day was too much to bare.

you felt your frustration and anger welling up inside you, the exhaustion and stress of the day reaching a snapping point.

with a quick breath, you snapped at your boyfriend, lashing out at him, "seriously? after the day I've had, you're going to come home and ask me to cook?"

poor thing. he mouthed cluelessly like a goldfish under the water, "i thought you said you were gonna make dinner tonight so-"

"so?!" you seethed, clenching your fists at your side, "so what? do you even care how my day went?"

"of course i care. i just-"

"no, you clearly don't! i've had a terrible day, and the last thing i want to do is cook dinner for you!"

he raised his hands at his sides, speaking cautiously, "i didn't mean to upset you, i just wanted to know if we were going to eat-"

"well, you did upset me! and the answer is no! i'm not cooking dinner, i'm too tired and sick with everything that's happened today!"

you ducked your face away from your boyfriend, covering it with your trembling hands. your shoulders shook as you tried to suppress the tears of frustration and exhaustion that threatened to fall.

your boyfriend was clearly taken aback by your burst of emotions, his own expression turning from surprise to concern.

"i'm sorry," you whimpered, pressing the heels of your palms to your teary eyes, "please go," you muttered, your voice thick with emotion. "just leave me alone. i'm not in the mood to talk right now,"

"baby," he said, his voice gentle as he approached you, "i didn't mean to-"

"just stop, okay?" you cut him off, your voice wavering as you spoke, "I don't want to talk about it, I just want to be alone for a while. please," you added desperately.

your boyfriend hesitated, his heart tugging when he heard your voice crack. he saw the pain and frustration etched onto your face and knew that he had unintentionally added to your already bad mood.

the room fell silent, the only sound being your ragged breathing as you struggled to keep your emotions in check.

your boyfriend finally broke the silence, his voice soft as he spoke, "i'm sorry. i didn't mean to make things worse,"

you shook your head, your own guilt and remorse bubbling up inside you, "no, i'm the one who's sorry," you said, hiccuping a bit, "i shouldn't have taken my bad mood out on you, you didn't deserve it."

your boyfriend stepped closer, gently wrapping his arms around you. he pulled you into a firm embrace, holding you close as he comforted you, "shh, shh, darling," he murmured into your hair, "it's okay, let it out."

he kissed your forehead, his lips lingering softly on your skin. he moved to your cheeks, kissing them gently as he continues to hold you,

you pulled back with a gasp, shaking your head in a sob. but he kept sneaking kisses to your mouth, trying to soothe your distress.

you fisted the material of his shirt, your chest heaving, "i'm so sorry," he kissed your lips once, "i shouldn't have," he kissed you again, "i don't what got into me,"

your boyfriend continued to make soft shushing noises, his hand gently stroking your back as he tried to calm you down.

"shhh, it's alright," he soothed, his voice warm and comforting. "you don't have to worry about anything right now. just focus on us. i'm here for you,"

he continued to whisper reassurances, his embrace strong and supportive as he held you close.

"i'm not going anywhere, i promise," he murmured, his voice soft and calm, "no matter what, i'm always going to be here for you, okay?"

he continued to shower you with gentle touches, his hand caressing your head, cheeks, and neck, while his lips brushed against your face, spreading kisses. his shushing noises continued, the sound a comforting presence in your ear.

tears continued to flow from your eyes as you soaked in his comfort and affection, feeling the weight of your bad day slowly lift from your shoulders.

"i'm sorry. i'm so so sorry," you buried your face into his muscular chest, your tears staining his shirt.

"shhhh," he hushed, his voice soft and consoling, "it's okay, honey, I know you're sorry. I'm not mad at you, i never was. i can never be mad at you,"

you pressed your face into his chest, "nono," you shook your head, "you should be. you didn't mean any harm. why aren't you mad at me?" you rested your chin on his chest, blinking up at him.

"you were having a rough day, and you didn't mean to snap at me. i understand that," he smooched you between your eyebrows, "because I love you," he said simply, "i know that you didn't mean to lash out at me, you were just stressed out,"

his grip on you tightened slightly, his fingers rubbing circles on your back.

"no, baby," you dragged the word, still not able to comprehend that he wasn't mad at your attitude.

"yes, sweetheart," he replied, his voice firm but gentle, "i do love you, and i'm not going to get mad at you for having a bad day,"

he tilted your chin up, forcing you to look at him. his eyes were soft and full of love as he held your gaze.

"but," he continued, his tone firm yet caring, "you need to promise me one thing, okay? promise me that you'll tell me when you're feeling stressed or upset, so i can be here for you."

your sobs had subsided as you looked up at him with glazed eyes, tears clinging to your lash line. your lips in a pouty whimper you nodded, chin nudging against his chest, "i promise,"

"mm, that's my good girl," he murmured, his eyes softening as he watched your pouty expression.

he gently traced your bottom lip with his thumb, his touch tender and soft. "i just want to be there for you, sweetheart. you don't have to carry your burdens alone."

"m'kay,"

he noticed the slight quiver in your lips and the way your pout trembled. it was clear to him just how emotional you were feeling in that moment.

he couldn't help but slot his lips against your pout, kissing away your tears.

he pulled you closer, bringing you into his embrace once more, wrapping his arms around you protectively.

"thank you," you rested your cheek on him, nuzzling into the crook of his neck.

"'s alright, sweetheart," he murmured, his voice soft as he held you against him.

he gently stroked your back, "remember, I'm always here for you, no matter what. and i'll always love you, no matter how many bad days you have,"

he began to rock gently from one foot to the other, swaying back and forth in a pacifying motion. his head was resting on top of yours, his chin nestled against your hair.

the repetitive motion of his gentle swaying was calming, and the warmth of his embrace was comforting.

he could feel you relax in his arms as you closed your eyes, your body molding against his. he continued to rock gently, his body moving in a slow, benign rhythm.

"that's it," he whispered, his voice low and gentle in your ear, "i've got you. i'm right here,"

he could feel the tension gradually leaving your body as you surrendered to his embrace, letting go of the stress and frustration of the day's events.

you pulled back to look at him, your arms wound around his middle, "what about dinner though?"

he chuckled softly, the vibration of his rumbling through his chest. he pulled back slightly, his hands still gently holding your shoulders as he looked down at you with a gentle smile, "you focus on taking some deep breaths and unwinding, okay? i'll take care of dinner."

"stay for a bit," you tensed your arms around him, tightening your grip, eyes pleading, "please?"

he sat on the edge of the bed, pulling you on top of him in such a way that your body was slung across his lap, "then tell me about your day," he gazed up at you in adoration, "'cause i'm here to listen. and i mean, tell me everything,"

[astridthevalkyrie]

tw: dubcon, noncon, bully!gojo, afab reader w/ she/her pronouns

Gojo's a sick fuck.

He corners you on campus in the strangest places, taking advantage of the fact that he's been here a year longer than you. Sometimes Getou or Ieiri are with him, but most of the time he's alone, and when he's alone he's even worse than when he's just putting on a show for his dickhead friends. They only get to bear witness to him teasing you from afar, just his general idiocy and inborn cruelty. When he's by himself, though, nothing stops him from trying to corner you literally, one hand on the wall next to your head and the other finding some excuse to touch you, either running a finger down your cheek or brushing some invisible dust from your shoulder.

And you've had enough. You just want to find a place to sit down and study or read or eat or literally anything else as long as you don't have to worry about the only guy who tormented you all throughout school continuing the cycle in university where you were supposed to be free from this, this cocky, stupid, bitch.

You're in the library today, but his approach is the same as it is in any other location. Your physics lab, outside a professor's office, the community pool, for Christ's sake. First, he makes his presence known, making you aware that he's being his usual creepy self. This time, he's leaning against the wall when you turn the corner behind one of the shelves. There's a book in his hands that has so many dog ears you think he reads one page then saves the literal next one for the following day.

He doesn't look up, not right away. Not until he feels you glare burning his skin for a good few seconds. It's when you assume the burn actually becomes painful that he looks up, feigning a surprised smirk as his icy blues practically gleam. "Fancy seeing you here," he purrs, book staying open in his hands.

"Go to hell, Satoru." There's no point engaging further with him. The only option you have is to get the hell out before he gets to touch you. If he touches you, it's all over. You turn on your heel and throw a quick thank you prayer out that you don't immediately bump into Getou, who would act as the other mousecatcher whenever Gojo decided he wanted to play.

Behind you, you hear him put the book down and your legs move faster without you even thinking about it. You don't even know how he always tracks you down. Maybe he installed some app on your phone without you realizing. You'll get a new one. Anything to just get rid of him.

Even though you've been on campus for at least a month now, virtually every building is still wholly unexplored, mostly because you're constantly trying to avoid these exact types of situations. The amount of times you could have stayed on campus but instead scurried home is already close to the triple digits. And for what? You've only avoided Gojo a handful of times and left yourself unprepared for a hasty escape too.

There's footsteps somewhere, and now that your heart is racing you can't calm down enough to pinpoint where they're coming from. It's a Friday night and not even close to midterm week, so there's a few regulars here, but not nearly enough people that someone will see you. Not that Gojo minds, you've seen him look someone dead in the eye and then squeeze your hip impatiently, as though to tell them do you mind? You don't know where he gets his confidence, but whatever it is, it's well earned. Everyone gives in to him, eventually. Even you.

You turn out of yet another aisle, and then your legs falter.

"Hey, sweetness," he grins at you. Your back hits the wood behind you and your bag thumps to the floor. On days where he wants to really torture you, Gojo acts like a charmer, kissing the back of your hand or carrying your bag over his shoulder, preening in the direction of anyone who calls him a good boyfriend, singing a sinister thanks knowing damn well he isn't your anything.

This isn't one of those days. You can tell.

Gojo doesn't want to be your boyfriend anymore than you want to be his girlfriend. He likes his lifestyle, and an average stick in the mud like you would definitely ruin the perfect image. But that doesn't mean he wants you out of his life completely. When he'd learned you'd be going to the same university as him, he'd sent you the only text message he'd ever sent you, a filthy picture captioned with a sweet and simple can't wait to have you.

And have you he will, whenever he wants. He's pretty open about that. "Are you in a rush?" His blues blink innocently. You're not sure why he keeps up the act even when no one is around, it only serves to set your nerves further askew.

"Leave..." Before you can even formulate the thought of a process, his hands are on your hips, pinky finger slipping under your sweater inconspicuously. "Leave me alone, Satoru."

"Nah," he breathes, "you look real pretty today, sweetheart."

While he doesn't make a move to take your sweater off, he does bury his face in your shoulder and inhale the scent. Then he slowly switches from the sweater to your actual skin, tucking down the fabric of the turtleneck to expose your neck, which you'd taken pains and suffered the heat to hide. Gojo moans a little at just the last remaining bruise he sees on you.

"Love when you don't try to cover it up," he murmurs, "don't need you treating me like a dirty secret."

As if you could keep him a secret. No one aside from your professors even tries speaking to you, and you have no doubts as to why. "I do try—I did cover it up."

"This doesn't count." Instead of just kissing you, because he's a bitch, Gojo kisses the inside of your turtleneck, his hair tickling your nose. "I meant makeup and crap. This? S'like unwrapping a present, baby."

"Satoru," you choke. It isn't just how he touches you, it's everything. The proximity, the casual way he says the most scummy things you've heard in your life and says them like they're just simple facts.

"Normally, I'd tell someone to stop playing so hard to get after so many times. But you're special, y'know." Two fingers push your lower lip down and slide in slowly, running over your gums before violating your mouth further. "This bitchy attitude only makes me wanna have you more." He waits, waits for you to gag, to choke on his fingers and look up at him with watery, pleading eyes before he removes his fingers and slots his lips over yours.

When Gojo kisses you, it's not demanding so much as needy. For someone who already has an ego that's sky high, he still seems to want you to stroke it, and nothing strokes his ego more than the noises you make unwillingly. Every little gasp, whimper, sharp breath, he swallows possessively, as he drags his nails gently along your lower back, making you squirm closer to his mouth to get away.

He plays you like you're his favorite instrument. And he knows exactly which strings to pluck.

His tongue nips at your teeth playfully, and that's when you pull away, summoning up whatever remaining courage you have. "Someone's going to come down this way," you beg, because the only thing you haven't experienced yet is being fucked with an audience, and you're not eager to change that. "Please, Sato—"

"It's okay." The fingers that were just in your mouth a few seconds ago now slide down your waist and under your jeans, nudging them down. "Don't need any foreplay. Been hard since you walked into the library, sweetness. And I bet you've just been dripping playing tag with me. I promise one of these days you'll get to be it," he mocks, as his other hand undoes his belt.

Tears spring to your eyes, but Gojo kisses them off your eyebags before they can fall too far. "You're so tired," his voice coos, "m'gonna make it all better. I'll make you feel so good."

His hand twists into your hair, yanking it back in a single motion that must be gentle for him, but it's rough for you. It's the sting in your scalp that you focus on as he takes your hand and wraps it around his cock, making you jerk him off in preparation. It's the one thing he always demands, claiming he can't get off unless he gets to feel your touch first. Bullshit.

Once he's satisfied, Gojo moves your hand away, intertwining your fingers and placing them on the shelf next to your head as he guides his dick to your leaking pussy, sliding the first inch in with a hiss.

Praise drips from him easily like this, when he has you between him and any hard surface. The individual shelves hurt your back, but less so when he slides an arm around you, pulling you closer as he pushes in with one lazy thrust.

"Ah!" your cry catches in your throat, but he bites you, groaning with your lip caught between his teeth. He pulls out and thrusts again, and your tear slips down to your mouth this time, where he licks it off.

"God," he compliments, developing a pace that's fast but not fast enough, not fast enough to ensure you won't get caught or to make you cum, "so fuckin' glad I don't let anyone else fuck you. This cunt's only for me, yeah? Belongs to me?" When you don't answer, too focused on the feeling of him filling you, leaving you empty, and then filling you again, he speeds up. To Gojo, the more you struggle to give him what he wants, the more fair it is to make it harder.

The shelf shakes as he loves you against it, it won't fall but you fantasize about him being crushed under it anyways. Then you think about being buried under with him, completely in his clutches with no telling when you'd be able to get out, and you clench around him, eyes rolling back.

"You think there's cameras in here?" he pants, digging his nails into your skin again. The pads of his fingers press roughly under your shirt, sure to leave even more bruises for him to lavish with his tongue later, whenever he pleases. "Think someone'll see you getting railed and jack off to it? I know I would, baby. If I only got you on camera I'd be fuckin' my hand and coming on your face every night. Lucky me," he gasps, and you feel him swell inside you, "that I got the real thing all to myself."

You hate how much his voice and his words affect you, how much each filthy thought of his makes your pussy practically gush for him as one of your own fingers rubs over your clit frantically. Each squelching sound makes him more feral, till he's rattling you against the shelf, every thrust of his hips growing more frantic and more desperate.

"I'm almost there, sweetness." Gojo reaches up and squishes your cheeks together, blues blown out as he kisses your puckered lips one more time. "Answer my question, baby. Tell me whose cunt this is so I can blow my load in it. C'mon, fuck, tell me."

You let out a sob that hiccups into a moan, force out, "Yours," and cum.

Gojo whines, thrusting one, two, three more times before he's coming too, filling you up with each jerk of his hips. His head falls onto your shoulder, panting on your neck. Your turtleneck is entirely too warm now, and useless to boot. Cum drips from your pussy; Gojo slides two fingers against your hole as he pulls out, sticking them in your mouth, just at your tongue this time. You taste him and yourself, and even though he's not forcing them in further this time, you still feel like gagging.

He takes them out, then places them in his own mouth, sucking them off and groaning at the taste.

As he tucks himself back in his pants, he runs a hand through his hair, setting it back into place before dropping a kiss to your cheek. Your tears have dried now, and you're trying to ignore his cum leaking onto your panties as you pull your jeans up. You don't even want to think about how you look, or about how you'll bring yourself to another orgasm tonight thinking of this, albeit not one as good.

Patting your hip, Gojo flashes you his best grin. "See you next time, sweetness. Maybe tomorrow?" Without waiting for your reaction, he strolls off, a single hand raised in goodbye.

Wiping at your cheeks and taking out your phone, you release an angry sniff, penciling it in.

[lincolndjarin]

Best Kept Secret

chapter twenty nine : the best kept secret (epilogue)

ao3 link ✿ series masterlist ☆ main masterlist ✧

pairing : bodyguard!Din Djarin x afab!princess!reader

rating : 18+ mdni

word count : 6.1k words

summary : an epilogue for our lovers.

warnings: tooth rotting sweet fluff, language, mentions of sex, an ending so sweet i made myself sick with emotion like omg.

a/n: crying my dick off rn. my moms bringing dinner home rn to celebrate me finishing this and i can't stop crying

☆

The morning sun is warm against your face, you bask in it, unmoving and only half awake until you feel a tiny hand slapping your cheek. The illusion of tranquility is immediately shattered as you softly laugh. 

“Mama?”

Your eyes flutter open and you’re greeted by the sight of a little boy in linen pajamas, one pant leg rolled up over his knee as he stands beside your bed. 

“Everyone’s awake.” Your son rubs his eyes as he looks up at you, pointing towards your bedroom door. 

“Already? Well thank you for telling me.” You reach your hand out which he happily takes as you pull him to your bed side, placing a soft kiss into his dark curls, attempting to smooth out the disarray they're in to no avail. He giggles, pushing your hand away before pointing past you. 

“Buir is wearing the birikad in bed again.”

“You’re very observant, sweet boy. Why don’t you go get your brother, bring him here and I’ll send buir to the nursery.” You give him a sleepy smile before you hear the familiar sound of tiny feet running across wood. 

You shake Din’s shoulder, his snores stuttering as he sits up in one hasty motion, his eyes still closed as his fingers run through his mess of hair, identical to Arin’s frenzied curls. 

“Bottle? Diaper?” His voice is thick with sleep, you reach over, rubbing his back as you sit up as well, kissing his shoulder. 

“Stand down, nothing that serious. A certain someone just ran in here and told me there’s signs of life in the nursery.” You run your hands along the fabric strap on his chest. “And he pointed out that you fell asleep with the baby carrier on, again”

“Grogu said all that?” He turns to face you, eyes barely open as he leans towards you to kiss the tip of your nose. 

“Save your jokes for someone who actually thinks you’re funny, Djarin.” You pull him in for a kiss by the fabric harness on his chest. When he tears himself from you at the sound of a small cry you stare at his sleepy grin. 

You will never get tired of that smile. 

“Sounds like someone wants to hear my jokes.” He groans as he stretches, tossing his lower half off the bed before reaching around for his leg, reattaching it and standing. 

“Careful in the hall. Lately your son has been insisting on carrying his brother everywhere so you might run into a brawl out there.” 

“I’ll keep an eye out.” He yawns before disappearing in the direction of the nursery. Moments later you hear a small scuffle before Arin appears in the doorway holding a very angry Grogu in his arms. 

“Put your big brother down, Arin.”

“Little brother.” Arin attempts to correct you as Grogu lets out a squeal of protest. You shoot him a look as you take the child from him, setting the tiny green boy in your lap as your youngest son climbs into bed to join you. 

“Just because he’s smaller, doesn’t mean he’s your little brother. He’s still older than you.” You kiss your eldest on his wrinkly forehead as he relaxes in your lap, raising a little green claw to throw a pillow at Arin from across the room. “Grogu, No magic throwing at your siblings.” You chastise him softly, taking his hand and lowering it, reminding yourself to cut his nails later. “Come here.” You beckon towards Arin who instantly jumps up into bed with you, snuggling up next to Grogu as you give both of them a squeeze which Arin wriggles out of, settling on sitting beside you instead.

“And then I told your mother that I was going to find someone who does like my jokes.” You hear Din in the hall before you see him. When he steps into the bedroom the little girl in his arms is just a bundle of giggles. He sets her down on the floor, after a few shakey steps she makes it to your side of the bed. 

“Good morning, little flower.” You lift Grogu off your lap, setting him beside his brother who already seems to have gotten over the pillow incident as he tells him everything he wants to do today. You pick up the toddler now demanding your attention. “Did buir do your hair?” You examine the two braids her wispy curls are in as she nods. You cradle her in one arm before looking at your riduur. “Where’s the rest of my garden?” You raise an eyebrow at Din who promptly turns around, revealing an identical copy of the girl currently in your arms, strapped into the fabric harness. The only difference between the two girls is the frown that one wears. 

“She didn’t wanna laugh at my jokes so she had to sit in the back.” He shrugs as she kicks her little legs and you reach your free hand out for her. 

“Give her to me you evil man.” He grins, reaching behind himself as he carefully removes her from the harness before holding her up to his face so their noses are touching. 

“Do you want to go with your mother or stay with me?” He scowls at her which earns him a sharp yank to the hairs on his upper lip. “Dank farrik!” He pulls her away from his face, holding her out towards your waiting arm. “Just like your mother, always so mean to me.” He puts on a mock tone of hurt, both your daughters are finally smiling at the sound of it. You beam down at your girls. 

“Dank farrik!” Arin’s voice fills the room as he shouts, you immediately glare at Din. 

“Wonder where he gets that from.” You grumble before focusing on the girls, leaving your husband to deal with your sons. “You’ve got a big day ahead of you little flowers.” Both girls look up at you, you see your own eyes reflected in their identical faces. If it weren’t for their wildly different personalities you’d never be able to tell them apart. 

They both give you a curious look before their attentions are drawn to Din who has started shoving your other two children in your direction, clearing a space for himself on the bed. 

“You shouldn’t say that, ad, it’s rude.” He puts on a serious tone but neither Grogu nor Arin seems intimidated in the slightest, they only fuss as they’re squished between you and Din when he rolls back into bed on his stomach. 

“You say it every day.” Arin stretches out, laying across his fathers back while Grogu seems content to stay snuggled up between everyone. “You said it yesterday when Lily put a frog in your shirt.” Din groans loudly, face down into his pillow. You frown down at your daughters. Lily looks entirely unbothered by the revelation of this information, her expression returning to its comical state of sterness. You raise your eyebrows at her, waiting for a confession but you know she won’t say a thing. 

So you look down at Grogu. 

“Did that really happen?” Your other three children all turn to stare at him until finally he nods. 

“Told you.” Arin grins before crawling onto his fathers back, tugging at his hair gently. 

Who could have predicted you’d raise such stubborn children. 

“Why would you do that? Where did you find a frog?” You look back down at the girls in your lap. Lily remains a vault so you look to the other. “Daisy? Where did your sister get a frog?” The corners of her lips tilt up. 

“Grogu brought it in through the window.” Her voice is soft and high pitched as she fights a smile. 

“And why did he do that?” 

“He was hungry, but buir made lunch, so he gave itta Lily.”

“And why did she put it in buir’s shirt?” You aren’t cross with them, you just can’t help but want her to keep talking, she’s so well spoken for her age and you can’t help but indulge. 

“S’ buir’s fault.” She whispers, pointing at her father. 

“Was it now?” You put on a surprised voice, Din’s head turns to the side so he can look at you. “What did you do to deserve such a thing?”

“She’s terrible to me, just like her mother.” He laments, reaching a finger out, ticking her neck. Lily’s stern expression falls in an instant, turning to high pitched laughter. 

“Buir made ‘er sit in the back of the birikad.” Daisy continues to tell her tale, looking up at you for approval the entire time. 

“Why would he do such a horrible thing to such a lovely girl?”

“She putta worm in his sock.” Grogu nods in silent agreement as Daisy continues on. “So he put ‘er on his back an’ she pulled the back of his shirt down an’ she put the frog in his shirt an’ he said dank farrik.” She takes a deep breath when she finishes and you look at your husband. 

“So when you said everything went smoothly while I was out-“

“Aside from the worm and the frog everything went smoothly.” He grins for a moment until a small hand grabs him by the ear, you sigh as Arin grabs his fathers hearing aid, tossing it up into the air, on instinct Grogu reaches up, holding it in place in the air. 

“Kriff-“ Din grumbles, tilting himself to the side to roll Arin back onto the bed before getting up to retrieve his hearing aid. 

“Kriff!” Lily speaks for the first time all morning, her voice like a little chime. 

Din has a guilty smile plastered on his face as he looks at you, scooping both boys into his arms as he lays back down. They squeal and try to wiggle out of his arms but he only has eyes for you as he keeps them caged against him. 

“She has a terrible mouth, just like her mother.” He whispers. 

You roll your eyes, unable to fight off your smile as you set your girls down on the middle of the sheets, once free of your hold they waste no time before joining their brothers in using Din as a personal playground. 

You don’t care that you all have to huddle together to fit on the bed. 

You wouldn’t have it any other way. 

☆

Socks, socks, socks, diapers, socks. They’re only going for an overnight but you can’t be too careful.

“Where are my little flowers?” You’re packing the overnight bag for as Din comes wandering in, putting on a real performance as he puts his hands on his hips. He stares at the ceiling as Lily squeezes between you and the table, hiding her face in your skirt as Daisy ducks under her crib, her yellow socks sticking out. He comes up behind you, wrapping himself around you as he sets several bottles into the bag you’re working on. “Have you seen my little flowers?” You hum softly as he kisses your cheek. 

“I have not.” You turn grinning at him as he gives you an exaggerated sigh. 

“That’s a shame, I wanted to see if they wanted to read with me for a little while…” 

“M’right here!” Lily reaches out from the other side of you, grabbing his pant leg as he grins, reaching down to pick her up. 

“Oh my goodness, would you look at that.” He grins, nudging the crook of his nose against the side of her face and kissing her cheek until she pushes him away. 

“Itchy.” She whines, slapping him on the mouth. 

“The stubble isn't going anywhere little lady, your mama likes it too much.” He raises his eyebrows at her, receiving a small frown in return. “Any other ladies wanna come read with me?” He speaks loudly, the little legs sticking out from under the crib don’t move so he shrugs, giving you one last look before taking Lily out to the living room. 

“The coast is clear.” You go back to folding as your daughter wiggles her way back out, coming to stand beside you until you lift her up onto the changing table so she can watch you work. You hum different little songs to her, sometimes just a few notes, sometimes an entire melody, letting her hum and sing them back to you as you finish up, putting their blankets in last before you start dressing her to go. “Are you excited to have a sleepover at your aunties house?” She beams at you as you pull a thick jacket over her head, bundling her up as you tug a hat down over her ears. 

“Yes mama.” 

“Good, don’t forget to be extra well behaved.” You lace her little boots, lifting her up and setting her on the ground. “Aunt Elaine and Auntie Lysa are going back home later this month so you won’t see them for a bit.” You pat her head as she nods, her cheeks already going rosy from being a bit warm. “Now send in your sister so she can get changed.” She runs out of the room, calling out her sister's name and like clockwork you dress each of your children for the cold. As usual Grogu doesn’t want to wear his hat and fusses as you trim his nails but other than that it doesn’t take long before you’re ready to go. Wrapping a scarf around Din’s neck on the way out the door. 

You don’t mind the walk, although with four kids it takes a little longer than it usually would. Din straps the girls into the carrier, holding Grogu in one arm and the large canvas bag in the other while you hold Arin. The cool autumn air filled with the sounds of babbles and chatter as you walk. Elaine and Lysa rent space on the outskirts of the city so you don’t even have to go deep into the afternoon foot traffic to get them there. 

When you ring the doorbell you’re immediately swarmed by the excited pair. Lysa takes Grogu from Din in an instant as Arin squirms out of your arms to hug Elaine’s legs. 

You’re happy to have family so close to home. 

☆

It’s hard to not feel tired the moment you’re briefly child free. 

The second you get home the couch beckons you towards it but you resist, you have plans for tonight. Din on the other hand, doesn’t fight his fatigue in the slightest. 

“One whole night without kids.” You turn to grin at him but he immediately collapses into bed, pulling the covers up over his shoulders. You immediately yank it back down.

“No sleeping, we don’t do this often enough to spend what precious time we have sleeping.” He sits up enough to grab you and pull you down on top of him with a soft thud. 

“We haven’t slept properly in about four years, let’s just sleep for a few hours, then we can spend the whole night together.” He mumbles, voice already groggy. 

“We have to go soon, I want to see the lights.” You complain but turn your head to lay on his chest properly, happily soaking in some of his warmth.  

You are tired.

And you do have a couple hours to spare. 

“I suppose a couple minutes won’t hurt.” It’s still early in the afternoon and you don’t have plans until sundown, when you turn to see if he’s okay with that he’s already fast asleep. Eyes shut and lips slightly parted as his arms absentmindedly hold you tighter. 

You lay back down his chest, inhaling the subtle scent of detergent on his top as you let yourself succumb to the exhaustion you rarely even let yourself acknowledge.  

☆

You open the closet, taking the boxes sealed shut with locks and setting them on the bed. 

You love your people, and you love being the queen, but sometimes you just want to be Din’s. You want to walk through the marketplace without being swarmed, you want to hold his hand under the moon without people asking who he is. 

So every few months, when Lysa and Elaine take the kids for a whole night, you live in secret once more, just for a few hours.

You search through your dresser drawer until you find the key, twisting it in the lock before tossing it aside. You reach in, holding up the contents just as Din’s arms wrap around your waist. You jump a little bit, you hadn’t heard him come in. 

“Do you miss it?” he murmurs. 

“Sometimes. For the longest time this was all I knew you as.” You stare into the silver steel, looking at the two of you reflected against the beskar. “I prefer you without it though.” You set his helmet down onto the sheets before turning around in his arms, holding his face as you held the helm. “Do you miss it?”

“Sometimes. Never when I’m with you.” His lips rest against your forehead for a moment, content to just stay in that position for a while. 

“We need to retire the nursery soon, the girls are getting too big for cribs.” you mumble. 

“What if we want one more?”

“Last time we wanted one more we got two.”

“One more wouldn’t hurt.”

“They already outnumber us four to two.” You smooth out the fabric of his tunic with your free hand. 

“Mhmm, I know. I’m just not ready to get rid of the cribs. When did they get so big?” 

“Grogu’s still little.”

“He’s a little bigger now I swear.” You laugh softly kissing his cheek. 

“That’s what kids do. They get bigger.” You release your hold on his shirt.“No more sad talk. We get one night alone every six months, I don’t want to spend it all melancholy.” 

“Fine, fine.” He takes the helmet from you. “Finish getting dressed if you wanna get there before sundown.” You grab his flight suit from the box, tossing it to him just before he shuts the fresher door. Searching through the box you find your cloak, Leaving behind the weapon you’ve come to learn is called the darksaber as you get ready. 

Lacing your boots and pulling the cloak over your head you give yourself a quick once over in the mirror. 

Unrecognizable. 

As you turn to face the now opening fresher door you’re hit with a wave of nostalgia. The dark brown fabric of his flight suit now accompanied by scraps of armor that you’ve purchased over the years. The only actual beskar items being his leg and helmet, a helmet that you let your sons decorate to keep him from being recognized, neither one of you willing to take the risk of someone connecting the dots regarding his identity. 

Messy streaks of green paint run along the outline of his visor as he holds a hand out towards you. You eagerly take it, the two of you rushing outside to the bike, covered with a tarp. 

You happily wrap your arms around his waist as he kicks the engine to life, wasting no time before shooting off into the trees. 

You don’t mind living in secret as much as you used to, after all, it’s only temporary now. One night, every so often, isn't so bad. Especially now that it isn’t out of fear or necessity, now you do it simply for the sake of being unobserved. You aren’t exactly discreet about the fact that you are together. Although no one ever asks, it's more than apparent who the father of your girls is, and while nobody would dare question you about his parentage, Arin looks more and more like Din every day. 

But sometimes you just want to walk with him without everyone thinking about those things. 

So you wear different faces, and use different names, and go back to keeping secrets, just for a few hours. 

Din brings the bike to a screeching halt in the ship lot, handing over a fistful of credits and taking your hand once more. 

“Ready to go, Dorthea?” You can hear his big dopey grin as he drags you towards the bustling sounds of the vendors. 

“Of course, Oskar.” You follow behind him as he continues to pull you onward, wanting to get there in time to see the lights. 

It’s your favorite part of nights like these. 

Every colorful light turns on one by one and somehow also all at once, the flickering and shimmering of the colors as you stare up at them, Din’s hand in yours. It takes a few minutes but when it’s done it’s like the night sky is entirely lit up, your own personal set of stars. 

“Happy now?” He pulls you deeper into the markets while you nod, giving your hand a squeeze as you pull him towards the familiar stands, picking up a few different sweets and knickknacks as you always do. 

You point and giggle at anything particularly dirty. Somehow, despite all this time and his anonymity in this situation he still manages to get flustered when you dangle leather instruments in front of his face. 

His favorite part of nights like these is the music. 

You wouldn’t have suspected it based on how stiffly he dances but he loves nothing more than rocking back and forth with you on the cobblestone street.

Tonight a string band plays upbeat music and the square is full of people moving in circles around each other as everyone moves to the beat. When you pull your eyes from the frenzy of swirling vibrant fabrics he stands with his hand out, as if he even has to ask for such a thing. 

You wrap your arms around his torso as he spins you around, pulling you into the crowd, people parting to squeeze you into the space. You can’t speak, the music is too loud and you can’t see each other's faces but you still manage to remain in sync. He doesn’t wear gloves anymore, wanting to feel his hands against yours. You stay close, moving in sync, grins on your face as you press your veiled face against his helmet, wanting to be as close to him as possible. The lights shimmer against his armor, the beskar reflecting the lights as you move, colors melding together as his hands go from your hands, to your waist, then to your back, your bodies flush as you dance until you can barely stay upright. 

 You both stumble back into the cabin, giggling, giddy messes.

Tripping over each other as you get into bed, stripping layers off of each other in the process. 

And he loves you like it’s the first time. 

That’s how he always loves you now, never that panicked, fearful love where tries to take in every single drop of you for fear of never tasting it again. No, now he loves you like he can’t believe it. Every single time you unbutton your trousers or step out of your skirt he gawks like he’s never seen a pair of legs before. He’ll drop to his knees at the sight of your chest, no matter how many times he sees it. His devotion seemingly knows no bounds and as time carries on that fire refuses to die. 

The only difference is that he isn’t afraid to love anymore.

And neither are you. 

☆

The kids love the garden. 

Maybe even more than you do. They’re careful, even when they’re chasing each other around in circles, to never step on the flowers. None of them are running now though, Grogu, Arin, and Daisy are all with you in the gazebo. It never ceases to amaze him just how easily you can calm them down. Grogu sleeps in the crook of your arm while Arin sits by your feet. Din watches as the little one pricks his finger on the needle he’s currently weaving in and out of the hem of your skirt. He doesn’t fuss though, he’s tough, just like his mother. He flinched before furrowing his brows and continuing his work. Daisy lays on her stomach on the other side of you, crayons are scattered across the gazebo floor as she colors in her notebook. 

And you, in the center of it all, radiant, perfect, you. 

Reading one of your romance novels. 

Summer’s nearly gone now, the little ones are all bundled up in sweaters and scarves and you’re draped in a thick green shawl that you pull tighter around you as a crisp breeze blows by. 

He’d stand and stare at you as long as you’d let him if a tiny hand didn’t reach up and pinch his jaw. 

“Buir.” Lily snaps him back to reality. 

“Yes, ad?” He looks down at her, seeing your eyes represented in the little girl in his arms. 

“You’re starin’ at mama.” 

“That’s awfully perceptive of you.” He hums as she looks around, a look of concentration on her face as she stares at the ground where she continues to speak to him. 

“You say starin’ is rude.” 

“I’m allowed to stare at mama.” He has to stifle a laugh as she scolds him. 

“Why’s that?” 

“Because we love each other.” 

“If you say so.” She’s already lost in the conversation as she turns around in his arms, pointing at the yellow petals on their left. “Sunflowers.” 

“That’s right, beauty.” He continues to carry her tucked in one arm down the path. “What about those?” He nods in the direction of a bushel of pink flowers. 

“Tulips.” She’s always been so serious about the flora, just like you.

“Correct, brains.” He kisses the top of her head, brushing a stray curl out of her face as she points up ahead. 

“Daisies.” She announces proudly, turning to him for approval.

“When did you get so smart?” He gives her a shocked look that makes her crack a smile. 

“Mama taught me.” She states matter of factly as she crosses her arms. 

“Well then, your mother is very smart.”

“Smarter than you.” He gasps as she giggles. 

“That can’t possibly be true.”

He carries her over towards the daisies, pointing at the vibrant blue petals of the flowers beside them. 

“I’m just as smart as your mother, look, these are roses.” He pokes her in the belly as she shrieks. 

“No, buir!”

“Are you sure? Oh wait, you’re right, those are peonies.” He grins at her as she shakes her head wildly. 

“Buir! They’re lilies!” Her cheeks go rosy as she giggles, he gives her a confused look, squinting at the flowers one more time. 

“Are you sure? I’m almost positive those are daffodils…” He leans forward, kissing her chubby face as she continues to giggle. 

“Is he being mean to you?” Your voice fills the air as he turns, you’re holding your skirt up as you walk towards them, holding your arms out for Lily. 

“Me?” He says theatrically as he hands the squirming toddler to you as she reaches for her mother. “If anything she was being mean to me.” You always tell him that he was born to be a father, but you, when he looks at you he almost can’t believe just how good you are at it. Lily wraps her arms around your neck, she kisses your cheek as a tiny hand ever so carefully holds onto your necklace. With a small yawn, Lily buries her face in your neck as you smile, your eyes turning from your daughter to him. 

“You know she said you’re smarter than me?” He whispers, wrapping his arms around your waist. 

“Kids say the darndest things, don’t they?” You smile and it’s like his heart wants to burst from his chest. 

“I’ll never get used to looking at you.” 

You always say that as if he doesn’t know what that feels like. Everytime you so much as enter a room he feels the same as he did the first time he saw you. 

“Where’s the rest of your ducklings?” 

“I took them back to the cabin, Daisy was sleepy so I assumed this one might be too.” You rub Lily’s back, the little one is seemingly already asleep in your arms. 

“Want me to take her back to the house?” He offers but you shake your head. 

“I have to go get your present anyway.” You grin. 

“I’ll be here.” He gives you a quick kiss before you turn in the direction of the house. 

He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t a little nervous. You’re annoyingly good at gift giving. Despite the fact that you have already given him the greatest gift he could possibly ask for in the form of three little ones and loving his own like you carried him yourself. You still manage to one up him every time. 

While your competitive nature towards each other has lessened quite a bit from it’s initial amount it’s still a notable part of your marriage, anniversary gifts being the biggest competition of all. 

 The gazebo is empty when he returns to it, carefully stepping up onto the bench to reach into the rafters where he’s hidden your gift. He grabs the wooden box, stepping down just in time to watch you step inside with him.

“Can I go first?” Your fingers twitch as you nervously mess with your skirt. You look exactly the same as you did when you left which has him a little confused but still smiling. 

“Sure.” He sets the box down behind him, hopefully out of sight as he turns back to you. 

“Don’t be mad.” You have a sheepish smile on your face that already has him worried. 

“What could I possibly be mad about?” 

“You know how we always say that we aren’t going to use the seemingly infinite funds we have at our disposal?” You rock back and forth on your heels anxiously. 

“Yes…” 

“Because we don’t want them to be spoiled.” 

“I’m not following-” He really isn’t.

“Well I may have gone the tiniest bit overboard, and we never said we couldn’t spoil each other.” You bite your thumb nail as you stare at him. “If you don’t like it we don’t have to use it.”

“I’m starting to get nervous, sarad.” 

You reach into the pocket of your skirt, holding out a familiar little sphere.

“Grogu thought you might want this back.” You place the gear shift knob into his palm. “Happy Anniversary, Din.” He stares at you, bewildered as he rolls it between his thumb and forefinger. “Obviously it isn’t your ship exactly but it’s pretty damn close.” You muse softly and he nearly drops it. 

“Wait- you, you got me a ship?” 

“It’s in the lot by the markets we can go later-” He cuts you off, immediately wrapping his arms around you, squeezing you as he lifts you a few inches off the ground. 

“You found another Razor Crest?” He’s breathless as he feels a rush of gratitude that only you can give him swelling in his chest. 

“I built another Razor Crest.” You smirk, clearly pleased with yourself. “Grogu helped, of course, to make it authentic, and this one has less weapons and more child safety measures but other than that it should fly the same.” 

“You brilliant woman.” He can’t help but stare at you in disbelief, how he has been blessed by you will always be a mystery to him. 

“Now we can travel whenever you want, you always say you want to show them the galaxy.”

“I- I don’t know what to say.”

“Good, you talk too much.” You kiss him, he’s genuinely speechless, what do you do when the woman who has given you everything gives you more?

“Your turn.” He whispers, feeling even more nervous about his own gift now that you’ve given him what is quite literally the perfect gift. 

He hands you the simple wooden box with a little latch to keep it shut. 

“The failsafe?” You look up at him as he nods, popping clasp up as he opens it, holding it out towards you. 

“How did you- when did you?” Your eyes are growing wet as you stare into the box before looking up at him. 

“Took a little while to put it all together.” He murmurs, pushing the container into your hands until you finally take it. 

“You kept all of this? All this time?” 

“Do you like it?”

“Like it? I- It’s everything, Din, quite literally everything.” Tears flow freely now as you sniffle. You sit on one of the benches within the gazebo, carefully going through each and every item, looking more shocked than he was when you gave him your gift. 

He’s glad you like it, after all, it took him a few years to put it together. 

You sift through everything, wiping your eyes every so often as you do. 

A plastic blue lily, wrapped in black lace. A silver anklet with gaudy sapphire jewels dangling from the clasp. Several sheets of parchment with ink illustrations on them. A handful of pressed and dried leaves. A couple of pink and gold buttons. And a candy wrapper. 

The centerpiece of the gift being a rectangle wrapped in thin brown paper, tied with a green bow. 

You hold it carefully, he watches as your fingers trace the ribbon.

“That’s your real gift, the rest is just some stuff I saved.” 

“It’s a wonderful gift, Din.” You wipe a few stray tears on your shawl. “It’s all perfect.” You carefully peel back the paper until all that’s left in your hands is the tattered and worn book. 

The Smitten Paladin. 

He watches with a smile as you flip through it, realizing it isn’t any old copy of the book. It’s your copy. With his favorite color, and your rules written out within. 

“Oh, Din.” He watches as your face scrunches up with emotion, the way it does when the kids hit different milestones, or when the two of you finally got married. 

“How about we call this one a tie?” He can’t help but feel a sense of pride, finally finding you something on the same level as your gift. Of course it wasn’t an easy task to top a ship like that but a part of him can’t help but think that he couldn’t have found you a better gift than this.

“Actually…” You smile despite the puffy redness around your eyes and he groans.

“No actually, let me have this.” He pulls you to him, kissing the bridge of your nose first and then your lips, letting him indulge in you for only a moment before pulling back. 

“Are you sure? It’s a pretty good gift, good enough to tip the scales.” 

“Fine.” He sighs, an exaggerated look of defeat crossing his face.

“Close your eyes.” He doesn’t argue with you, shutting his eyes as you manipulate his arms so he’s holding his hands out, feeling something extremely light being set in his palms. “Now open.” 

Socks.

Socks that are too small to currently fit any of his children. 

His heart races as he holds the little brown booties in his hands. 

“Are you serious?” He can feel his face getting hot, and his mouth going dry as he whispers, kneeling down in front of where you sit. 

“We can manage one more member of Clan Mudhorn. This does mean we’ll have to keep the nursery for a few more years, and expand the cabin-”

“I’ll build you a dozen cabins if that’s what you want.” His brain moves at a million miles an hour as he stares in awe at the gift that is you. “Dank farrik.” He can’t help it as he whispers to himself, hands on your stomach. 

“I win.” You tilt your head to the side, grinning at him as you take his face in your hands. 

“You win. Every single day you win because you gave me them and you gave me this.” He lets you pull him up to meet you halfway, kissing him once more. His hands on your hips. “I love you, so kriffing much.”   

“I love you.” You wrap your hands around his. How did he get this lucky? How is he deserving of this life you have given him? 

He holds your hand when you walk back to the cabin, finding the children in the main room, making themselves a pillow fort as you rush to help them he watches from the sidelines. 

He spent a lot of time watching you. 

Watching you wander, and read throughout the castle. 

It’s hard for him to believe that now he gets to watch you be a riduur and mother.

Because of you he gets to have a home.

Because of you he has a bed, and a house. Because of you he found his way back to Grogu, and now he has three more little ones and another on the way. 

Because of you he can just be a man, a riduur, and a father. 

With you he can just be Din.

☆

a/n : i'm like sick to my stomach with crying so that's cool lmao. i thought i would have more to say but this is it and i'm proud of it and i'm happy to have shared it. i can't believe i was lucky enough to have so many people to share this story with. from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

[thisgirlnamedblusy]

Omg I love all your Donna x reader fanfics, they are so good. ✨🤌🏼

If possible, ever since your last story I've been wondering how I'd be if reader went down on Donna and her being all shy (bj basically) or if Donna would try another position 🙈👀

I need some SPICY content 😍

And thanks! 🤭

Yesss!!! Here it is!! I hope you like it!!! Thank you for your nice words :))) Sorry about the language mistakes

Movie night

Pairing: Donna Beneviento x Fem! Reader

Warnings: Smut, G!P Donna, oral sex, fluff...

Word count: 3,392

Summary: You don't want to keep watching that movie...

N/A: Sorry about the language mistakes, requests are open!! I love you all :))))

“Are you bored, tesoro?” Donna asked, gently running her hand over your cheek.

It was an ordinary night, like all the nights you had spent in that house, with her.

Taking such an important step as leaving your home and going to live in the dark and gloomy Beneviento estate may have been a bit hasty, but it was worth it from the first moment.

Your relationship was better than ever. Despite Donna's problems, her absurd and almost ridiculous shyness when it came to turning off the light and joining your bodies, everything simply got better with time, like good wine does.

“Oh, no, I’m not” you lied blatantly, shaking your head and with a deeply suspicious smile.

The dim light of an old lamp and the white screen on which you watched movies became a kind of lullaby that forced your eyelids to close without wanting to.

“Honey, you're falling asleep,” your girlfriend said, amused, with a sympathetic look on her face.

The fear that the woman you loved generated in the people of the village didn't matter; the only thing you could feel towards her was love.

“No, that's a lie,” you said indignantly, putting your legs up on the old couch. “I'm watching the movie.”

“The last time you said that, you took care of putting it’s soundtrack on your own, with your snoring,” she said, in a mocking tone, but one that betrayed a certain annoyance. “Tell me the truth, are you bored with me?”

You huffed, sitting up and rolling your eyes. You were already used to her doubts and infinite insecurity.

“No, Donna. I always have a great time with you,” you said, cupping her face in your hands, perhaps too roughly. “It's just that…”

“It’s just that?” She interrupted nervously before you continued the sentence.

“It's just that I like to do other things at night,” you said, diverting the conversation to your territory with the seductive tone that made her hands start to tremble.

As you suspected, Donna laughed nervously, looking away so your mischievous eyes wouldn't exert their bad influence on her.

“You're always thinking about the same thing, tesoro,” she whispered amused, leaning down to give you a quick kiss on the lips.

“With a woman like you by my side, I can't think about anything else,” you purred, deepening the kiss and pressing her chest to gently lay her down on the couch.

“Wait, wait, (Y/N)... If, if you want we can go to the bedroom and…” she said nervously, grabbing your wrists before they started to undo the buttons on her dress.

“You know what?” You said, freeing yourself from her grip and returning to your previous position, stretching exaggeratedly. “We better finish watching the movie. It’s interesting.”

Her expression was just what you were looking for: complete bewilderment. You always tried to remind yourself not to play too much with poor Donna. She rarely understood the fact that you were joking, or that you were saying something without the intention of hurting or offending her in some way.

“What? You're not watching it,” the doll maker protested, her expression hardening, with a childish rage on her face.

“Yes, I'm,” you said cockily, resting a hand on your chin, pretending to look carefully at the white screen.

“Oh, are you? What's the name of the main character?” She asked defiantly getting a bit closer to you, arms crossed.

“I don't know,” you said without relaxing your cocky expression. “If you don't stop talking, I can't hear it.”

“(Y/N), it's a silent movie,” she whispered, changing her serious and offended expression to an amused one as she gently pushed your shoulder.

You, embarrassed by your mistake, hid the blush on your cheeks by placing a finger on your lips.

“Shh…”

“I can't stand you, really,” the lady in black sighed, shaking her head.

“Oh, come on, don't be mad, Donna,” you said, laughing, grabbing her unsuspecting hand as you lay on her lap, looking at her.

She looked back at you with her relaxed face, playing with your hand in hers, tangling your fingers.

“I can't be mad at you, tesoro. You always have that advantage over me,” she said almost in a whisper, running her other hand over your face as your smile grew wider and wider. “Come on, let's finish watching the movie and then... Well, I'm sure you have something on your mind.”

After kissing you lovingly again, her gaze shifted to the screen.

I'm sure you have something on your mind.

That phrase, which served as the end to that small interruption in your movie nights, was decisive for the dark side of your lust to think in your place, sending endless naughty possibilities to your mind.

With a fake sigh, you sat up again, resting your head on her shoulder as she continued to tease you with her caresses. A tickling between your legs finally gave you the courage to put your lascivious thoughts into practice.

Your head moved slightly, enough to make the exposed skin of Donna's neck tingle involuntarily as she felt your breath on it. You loved how easy was for her body to react to your touch.

Your lips kissed her skin carefully, with slow and fast kisses, pulling away just as her body began to tremble due to the contact.

You directed your gaze towards hers. She seemed to be very focused on the movie, but one of her hands betrayed her incipient nervousness, gripping the fabric of her dress tightly.

You laughed gutturally, increasing the intensity of your kisses on her neck while your hand traveled slowly, but without the intention of stopping, towards her legs.

“(Y/N)...” Donna whispered, turning her head towards you, looking at you strangely. “What are you doing?”

“Shhh...” You whispered just as your hand began to go down to insert itself inside her dress, caressing her knee, moving a finger in circles over it. “Keep watching the movie.”

“No, I can't if you're... Ah! (Y/N)!” She said excitedly when your naughty hand continued to rise, gently caressing the bulge between her legs.

“Relax, I'm just playing,” you said amused, biting her earlobe mercilessly.

“Can't we play in the bedroom? At least let me turn this thing off...” She said, nervous about how that lump began to grow in your hand, making your legs tighten together with desire.

“No, leave it on. Don't move, Donna,” you said seductively, caressing her incipient erection while your kisses continued along her jawline until they made contact with her lips.

“(Y/N)...” The woman in black gasped, moving her hips discreetly, preventing the friction that your hand exerted on her most intimate area from disappearing.

In a matter of seconds, the kisses became wild, eager. A simple caress was more than enough for Donna to give in to her own desire.

Your body moved next to his, making your hips dance together, intensifying the subtle contact. You smiled triumphantly at the small moans that your movements caused her.

With a mischievous, hungry gasp, you pulled away from her, your hand gripping her hardness through her clothes as she moaned at the loss of your hot body on hers.

“You're playing with me? You know I hate that…” Donna said in her hoarse voice, with that strong accent that only appeared when she wasn't fully in control of herself.

“Be patient, Beneviento...” You purred removing your hand from her erection and launching yourself at her neck again, kissing her softly, lightly marking your teeth on her pale, shiny skin. “I have something for you…”

“For me?” She asked curiously, blinking profusely with her eye.

“Uh-huh,” you said simply, running your hand over her chest, sneaking under her clothes. You didn't know when some of the buttons on her dress had been undone. Surely it was you in your unbridled lust.

Not wanting to give any more explanations and enjoying her sudden impatience, you slowly got off the couch until you were on your knees in front of her. As it could not be otherwise, Donna looked at you with a frown.

“What are you going to do?” Donna asked as your hands returned to her legs, separating them.

“You don't like surprises, do you?” You asked back, biting your lower lip, anticipating in your mind what was going to happen. “You are always so good to me, Donna… You always make me enjoy so much… I just want to return the favor.”

“Oh, no. There's no need,” she said, looking away from her abruptly, embarrassed. I could probably guess what you were referring to.

“Lie down, my love...”  You said, ignoring her obvious discomfort and slowly lifting her dress.

“Wait, wait,”-she interrupted you, disobeying your request and grabbing your hands before the entire bottom of her body was exposed.

“What's wrong, my pretty Donna? Come on, let yourself go. You'll like it, I promise,” you said, resting your head on her knees, running a finger along her bare leg.

“It's humiliating for you, I don't want you to do something like that just for me,” she said, not daring to look you in the eyes.

“Nonsense, I want to do it. I want to do it because I love you, Donna, and because I want to give back to you a small part of what you give to me,” you said, insisting, knowing that as much as it embarrassed her, the fabric of her dress gave away  the fact that she was actually wanting you to do it.

“I...” She murmured, unable to contain the trembling of her legs.

You stood up, putting a hand on her half-exposed chest, pushing her back against the couch and kissing her softly again.

“Do you really not want to? I'm not going to insist, Donna,” you said in a more relaxed tone, your instincts curbed by her confused look.

“Well, I... It's just... It's embarrassing,” she murmured, holding your chin.

“But you want me to do it, right?” You asked, determined that her answer would make the decision.

“I... Yes...” Donna said, in a tone so low that you had a hard time hearing it, while she nodded slowly and her face took on a reddish tone.

You nodded too, kissing her one last time before going down again, lifting her dress completely and revealing the quivering erection that her underwear could no longer contain.

“I wanted to do this so badly...” You purred, pushing the fabric out of your way, pulling it down over her ankles as you stared in shock at her erect penis.

“Please, please... Don’t, don't say those things,” Donna protested, bringing a hand to her mouth and biting her knuckle at the sensation of having you so intimately close to her.

“I’m sorry,” you apologized falsely, inching closer, reaching out with one hand to keep her length right where you wanted it.

Your hand remained firm, carefully hugging her dick as your lips brushed against the tip, kissing it slowly, causing the trembling of her legs to become accentuated with a surprised moan.

Leaning on your knees, you brought your mouth even closer, introducing part of her erection into it, sucking slowly, enjoying the caresses that your lips made on her skin and the reactions they provoked in Donna.

“(Y/N), that's...” She moaned, writhing on the couch.

You smiled discreetly, going down further, covering her entire length with your mouth, savoring every inch with soft, rhythmic movements of your hand.

“You're delicious, Donna...” You murmured before running your tongue over her skin, stopping right at the tip, making her moans increase in volume and intensity. “You like it that way?”

Donna simply nodded, her eye closed, squeezed tightly to avoid the temptation to open it and take in the scene in front of her, the way you kissed, sucked and licked the part of her body that embarrassed her the most.

You laughed again, resuming your movements, making them slower, more careful, wrapping your lips around the tip, holding it between them before sucking.

You opened your eyes for a moment, curious to know what the woman in black was doing. Just as you thought, she was nervous, trembling from the pleasure you were giving her, but embarrassed by it.

Her hands were limited to grabbing her dress. She couldn't stop her hips from shaking every time your mouth moved down her penis, every time you stopped to caress it up and down with your tongue. Her shyness was even adorable.

Your free hand left her knee to go up to one of hers, gently grabbing  bringing it to the back of your head, causing it to tangle in your hair.

“I... I like it, (Y/N)... You are... Your mouth is... Perfect,”  she murmured embarrassed, blinded by desire, by the movement that her hand involuntarily exerted on your head, raising and lowering it to the rhythm of her hips.

You moaned as you felt how she moved you herself, how the pleasure overcame her embarrassment. The vibration you caused on her skin bounced right between your legs, making the burning desire you felt unbearable.

Your hand played with your own underwear, while the rhythm of your mouth stabilized to match her moans. Although you were paying attention to studying each of your movements and Donna's response to them, you began to caress yourself, running your folds through the fabric, playing with your own wetness.

“It's so hard,” you whispered sensually, eliciting an embarrassing laugh from her lips, a laugh that she drowned out when you continued moving. “You drive me crazy, Donna.”

“(Y/N),” she whispered, with difficulty, adapting to your increase in speed and the small jerks that your body made when you began to touch yourself. “Slower, do it slower…”

The taste of her arousal was present in your mouth as you managed to stabilize yourself and maintain a steady rhythm. If you combined it with your own caresses, the sensation was overwhelming.

“I love having you in my mouth,” you whispered with a smile, keeping your mouth on the tip, noticing how it trembled, how embarrassingly close it was to completely succumbing to that new sensation.

“Don't say those... Oh, tesoro... Wait, wait,” she said panting, trying in vain to move away from you.

“What's wrong?” You asked, raising your head, continuing to move your hand up and down, carefully squeezing her dick, right where you knew it drove her crazy.

“Yes, if you keep doing it I’m going to...” Donna murmured, tightening her grip on your hair.

“Well, that's what I want, darling... Don't hold back...” you said amused, removing your hand from your wetness and releasing her grip on your head.

“No, no, wait... This isn't... Oh, please...” She gasped again between moans when your mouth went down her length again, with more intensity.

The wet sound of your actions was only overshadowed by her nervous breathing, by the erratic movements of her hips. She was so close and you were so excited by it...

“Wait, wait, wait, stop,” the lady in black said suddenly, moving your head away from between her legs.

“What's wrong now?” You asked, disappointed at missing the spectacle of seeing how she released herself right where you wanted.

“Come, come here,” she said hurriedly, placing herself on the couch while she tried to move your body. “I want, I want to do it inside of you, tesoro. Please…”

“Oh,” you said, letting yourself be dragged on top of her hips with a sigh. “You don’t like it?”

“Yes, I like it,” she responded instantly, placing her erection at your entrance, but not inserting it. “I'm afraid I like it too much,” she said amused. “Please… I need… I need…”

“Shhh, calm down, my dear Donna...” You whispered, lowering yourself little by little, making your slippery moisture find no difficulty in adapting to her dick.

Donna moaned at the contact, feeling a strange kind of relief. There was nothing in the world that could compare to the feeling of her tightening your walls and moving inside you. At least for Donna.

Once your body fully adjusted, you began to move slowly, enjoying the overwhelming feeling of her penis inside you trembling, on the verge of losing control.

“Oh, Donna... You're so... Good,” you said, with labored breathing.

She moaned in response, running her hands along your back, helping you move with that slow pace that you sensed was so the fun wouldn't end prematurely.

Unexpectedly, she came out with a nervous gasp. You looked at her strangely, but you didn't want to protest, since, with a quick movement, Donna turned your body, making you lie face down on the couch.

“Well, well... We're naughty...” You said in a mocking tone, raising your hips towards her, who moved slowly until she was standing behind you.

“Don't talk anymore, (Y/N). I always wanted to do this,” Donna said in your ear, grabbing your legs to keep them in place, approaching her slowly, playing with her length at your entrance.

You didn't want to say anything and besides, you couldn't do it. Donna entered you immediately, causing your walls to tighten in a different way due to this new position.

“Oh, keep going,” you managed to say as your body began to bounce against the couch due to her more erratic than usual thrusts.

The creak of the old furniture was the only distinguishable sound in that tangle of hurried gasps and moans. Donna took you intensely, but the way she caressed you served as a reminder that she loved you, that she was never going to let you stop feeling that way.

“It hugs me so well, (Y/N)... You're so wet,” she murmured, slowing her hips so you could hear her. “I can't wait any longer, I need to fill you...”

It wasn't normal for Donna to use those kinds of words with you. She only did it when her arousal completely overcame her, when she was about to release herself.

Those lustful whispers were more than enough to make your body tense in surprise. You were so busy making her enjoy your actions that you had forgotten how embarrassingly close you were to your own release.

A muffled moan was what gave away your orgasm, making your body arch between jolts of pleasure.

Donna took advantage of that to pull you back, holding you in a way where she could continue her thrusts, being gentler this time.

“Have you cum, darling? How anxious...” She said amusedly, running a hand over your chest to hold it while her own rhythm destabilized.

“Aren't you supposed to be shy?” You asked teasingly, moving your hips in a way that you knew would make her melt instantly.

Donna simply laughed before her hips moved faster and faster until finally, with one last thrust, she released herself inside of you, filling you with her heat as her body trembled.

When you caught your breath, she laid you down lovingly on the couch and climbed on top of you to kiss your lips slowly, caressing you with trembling hands.

“I love you,” you said with a smile, which she returned.

“I love you, (Y/N),” she said softly, resting her head on your chest.

“Look, it looks like the movie is over,” you said, amused.

“(Y/N),” she said, now with a slightly more serious tone. “What you have done to me…”

“What? Did you like it?” You asked, tucking a strand of black hair behind her ear.

She nodded embarrassedly, not being able to maintain eye contact with you.

“Well, I'm glad because it was the first time I did it,” you said with a smile, grabbing her chin so she wouldn't avoid your gaze.

“We should... You know... Clean us up,” Donna said shyly, with that familiar blush on her cheeks.

“Would you like a bath?”

“Sure”

“Maybe if you feel like it... We can repeat...” You whispered, running a hand over her chest.

“(Y/N), I need to rest, Donna said, amused, shaking her head.

“We'll see about that,” you challenged, getting up from the couch and grabbing her hand to drag her next to you.

“I'm going to activate Angie,” the woman in black threatened, stumbling due to your haste.

“No, you're not going to do it,” you said, walking through the dark hallways of the basement.

“(Y/N)...”

[immeasurablesaladagere]

A Wildcard is Active - Team Self-Sufficient

Series - A Wildcard is Active

-----

Words: 4973

Summery: By a stroke of bad luck, both Gem and Joel end up as children and are determined not to let anyone know. There are reds about, it’s not safe for them to be alone without an adult to protect them. When they run into trouble in a cave, they're forced to ask the Bamboozlers for help.

-----

On the first morning of the fourth session, Joel allowed himself to stay in bed just a bit longer and take in the snail-less peace and quiet. No more running about constantly looking over his shoulder for deadly flying mollusks, just a nice easy doze in the Charger, living the life.

Gem was already up and about, cooking breakfast by the smell of it. Somehow session three had been a breeze for her and now she was going around being all productive. Showoff. 

“Joel! Breakfast is ready!”

As much as he wanted to roll over and doze for another thirty minutes, the start of the session would wait for no man. They only had a short time before the next wildcard activated for the week and they needed to pound back as many calories as possible if they wanted to keep up with whatever craziness Grian had in store this time.

So out of bed and into their makeshift kitchen he went, rubbing the sleep crusties out of his eyes. “Quit yer yelling, what if I’d been sleepin’ still?”

“Then you needed to get up anyway. Wildcard rolls in an hour, up and ‘attem!” Gem said with the chipperness of someone who hadn’t spent the last week fearing for her life, and slid two plates of eggs, toast, and bacon onto the table.

“Yeah, yeah. Easy for you to say, you dirty snail-lover.”

“Hey! Who made you breakfast?”

“You’re right, you’re right, I’m sorry.” Joel shovelled a forkful of bacon into his mouth and groaned. “S’really good.”

Gem chuckled. “Well don’t make it weird! Maybe I shouldn’t be cooking for you.”

“No, please, I’ll be eating nothing but bread all season.” He whined. “Seriously, this is great, thanks Gem.”

“Well of course! We’re going to need the energy!” She finished her glass of milk in one go and got up to start putting her dishes away because holy moly, she ate fast. “What’s on the to-do list for today?”

There were about a million answers to that question, seeing as no one got anything done last week. Diamonds, finish the base, make traps, go to the nether; but of course what they’d like to do didn’t matter so much as what they could do once the wildcard hit. “Dunno. Some mining, maybe hit the nether if Grian hasn’t rigged it to explode or sumfing. I need redstone and gunpowder.”

“Ooo, yeah, the nether sounds good. I don’t know if they’ve found the fortress yet, so maybe there’s still some potion stuff left.” 

The moment the last piece of toast was in his mouth Gem was snatching his plate out from under him and dumping it in the sink.

“Oi!”

She stuck her tongue out at him. 

Well, might as well get started on the list. “If gonna try to finish the base while nofing’s going on, head’s up for falling deepslate in here!”

“If you get rock dust in my kitchen I’ll put you on yellow!” She called after him.

The base was coming along nicely, it just needed a few finishing touches. Trim here and there, polish the windows, sand off a few edges. He grabbed his tools from the starter base and climbed up onto the hood of the car. Maybe he could even finish before the session started.

-

“Joel! Wildcard!”

He could not. Joel sighed and set down his tools as the colourful ellipses appeared in his vision and Gem came outside. They had to be prepared for anything, and it was much safer to find out the gimmick together. They both braced for the worst. Floor is lava? Levitation? Permanent nighttime? More snails?

A Wildcard is Active.

The two of them did a hasty once-over of themselves. 

“Hearts and hunger are the same,” Gem reported.

“No effects, and you’re not dying right now so no floor-is-lava. Darn, I was hoping for that one.” He didn’t feel any different, and nothing around them seemed immediately strange. It was almost more unsetting that he couldn’t pinpoint the twist right away. 

“You were hoping I would die?”

“No, no, but you know what I mean. I was so sure that’d be one of them!” He patted himself down. “I don’t feel weird. Do I look weird?”

“More than normal? No.” She smirked.

“Wow, rude!”

He was about to accept that maybe Grian had miraculously decided to do something low-key this session. Maybe it was nether-based or mob-based and wouldn’t be nearly as big a deal as the murder snails and the hunger. Sure, it would put a mild spanner in the works but they would live. But then he felt it. His entire body suddenly felt… buzzy. Like pins and needles all over.

“Um, actually… Maybe I do feel a bit weird…” 

Gem shifted from foot to foot, rubbing a hand up and down her arms. “You feel it too? What is that?” Her eyes widened. “Oh my— Joel, you’re smoking!”

“I know that Gem, but I’m married so—“ Oh. Sure enough, his arms were giving off a faint purple mist, and now that he noticed it, so was Gem. “Woah, you’re smoking too! What on earth is this? Gah, I hate this feeling!”

In seconds the smoke went from tiny wisps to thick fog that surrounded him completely, and he could just barely make out Gem disappearing behind her own cloud as the smoke consumed him and everything went dark.

Then a moment later he was back again, lying face down on the car and tingly all over. He groaned. Was it weakness? Why did he feel like he was just tossed around by a ravager? He went to sit up and was rocked by a wave of dizziness. “Ugh, oh dear…” He mumbled, and then slowly his words caught up to his spinny brain. 

Something was wrong with his voice. It was higher, and weirder. 

“Joel!?” Came a squeaky cry from the ground, one that sounded eerily familiar. 

He shuffled forward to the edge of the base and oh, that was a long way down. Standing in a fun-size suit of armour and using a sword much too big for her to prop herself up was Gem. Tiny Gem. She looked no older than seven, maybe eight at the absolute most.

“Gem! What’s happened to you?” He called down, and yeah, his voice was definitely wrong. 

“Me? What about you? You’re teeny!”

He took a proper look at himself and his new tiny body, squishy arms, and stubby hands. Oh, this was terrible. 

“Are we all kids? Is that the twist!? That’s horrible!” How were they supposed to survive like this!?

Gem fumbled to pull out her spyglass and looked across the field to their neighbours. “No, not everyone! Tango’s still big over there, but Etho and Bdubs are little!”

“So only some of us? And we both get made into stupid toddlers? That’s not fair!” He pouted.

Their communicators were suddenly flooded with messages, mostly panicked gibberish from everyone who had been baby-fied and gushing from everyone who hadn’t. From the looks of it every group had at least one normal adult; between Scott, Cleo, Pearl, and Impulse there were three, except for them.

“This is bad, right?” Gem asked nervously, “There’s yellows and reds and if they know we don’t have someone protecting us… what if they kill us?” Joel hadn’t even thought of that. “Come down from there, we gotta find a place to hide!”

He went to climb down, but stopped when he saw the steep drop down the windshield to the ground. Suddenly his stomach was twisting into knots and he couldn’t bring himself to slide down. “Uh…”

“What’s wrong?” Gem asked with a look of growing worry, “Are you… scared?”

Joel’s ears burned. “N-no! Just, um…” So it was messing with their heads as well.

Gem seemed to understand, and careful to stay out of sight from their nosy neighbours, she crept around to the front of the car and built up a few blocks. When she got close enough, she held out her arms for him to slide into. “I’ll catch you.”

Absolutely not. He would rather die right then and there. “I don’t need your help!” 

Gem rolled her eyes. “Sure you don’t, now come on! Before someone sees us!” She hissed.

Without much of a choice, Joel took a deep breath and pushed himself down the hood of the car with a squeak and landed safely in Gem’s arms. Once he was safely back on solid ground, she immediately began to manhandle him.

“C’mon, c’mon!” She dragged him by the hand to their starter base and to his dismay, she was indeed much taller than he was, and she was able to pull him like he was a bundle of feathers. “Grab as much food and stuff as you can.” She said, and began rifling through their chests.

“Wha— okay, where’re we going?” The chests were so hugehe almost couldn’t reach into the bottom and he had to stand on his tip-toes to reach a pile of bread.

“We’re gonna hide underground. No one’s gonna wanna come look for us down there.” Gem said, like she’d thought the whole thing through already. She dropped a stack of torches and loose coal into her inventory.

“For all week? That’s a long time.” He pointed out.

“Yeah, I know, that’s why we’re getting all this stuff. We can come back up for food if we really gotta, but we can’t let anyone know that we’re both kids. That’d be super bad.”

Joel snickered. “You’re talkin’ funny.”

She scoffed, offended. “Am not! And don’t be mean to your elders!”

“You are not my elder! Look at you!”

“Uh-huh, and what does that make you? Look how small you are compared to me! You’re just a baby!” She teased, ruffling his hair.

“Oi, you—“

“—Gem? Joel? Are you here?”

They froze. Bdubs. And where there was Bdubs, there was Tango, and Tango was red. Gem hurried them to the wall and dug into it, boxing them in. They both held their breaths as multiple sets of feet walked around their base.

“Awe, they’re not here.” Bdubs.

“Do you think they’re kids, too?” Etho.

“Oh, I wanna see kid-Joel so bad! I bet he’d be real tiny.”

“C’mon Dubs, let’s go find the others.”

The footsteps walked away, and they both let out a sigh of relief.

“Let’s dig down.” Gem whispered. She lit a torch and the little box they were crammed in filled with light, which he liked a lot more than the dark. Joel tried his best to stay out of her way as she began to dig a tunnel down, and he was put on torch-duty, keeping it lit all the way down.

After what felt like forever, they finally hit a cave. It was really dark, which was both good and bad. Good because it meant no one had been there yet, and bad because Joel was very quickly learning his little kid brain didn’t like the dark very much.

“I don’t hear any monsters.” Gem said, peering into the hole, “Gimme the torches.” She took one more look around, then scooted down from their safe ledge into the cave. The torch in her hand lit up the walls around them just enough for him to see just how much further the cave went. It was already huge, but it seemed even huger because they were so small. The empty void made his stomach feel fluttery. He took out his sword and gripped it tight.

“Put the torches down, Gem! So the mobs don’t spawn!” He said urgently. Gem turned around and raised an eyebrow at him.

“You’re really jumpy, huh?” She smiled.

“I-I’m not! We just have to be careful. What— w-what if mobs do more damage ‘cause we’re tiny? Didjya ever think of that, Ms. Not— uh, Afraid?”

It was meant to be a jab but she just started giggling. “This is adorable. You look so pouty!” 

She was so busy laughing at his expense she didn’t notice the creeper emerging from the darkness and scuttling towards her.

“Gem, watch out!” 

She whirled around just in time to pull up her shield before the creeper blew up in her face and sent her staggering back into the wall. 

“Are you okay!?” He called, timidly crouching over the ledge. 

Gem chuckled nervously, brushing off some of the stone bits that got on her clothes and hair. “Yep, all good! Maybe the torches are a good idea…”

As Gem placed down torches he cautiously climbed down into the cave, keeping a sweaty hold on the handle of his shield. He hated just how blummin’ nervous he felt. He shouldn’t have cared if it was dark or if there might be monsters lurking around the corner, but suddenly the thought of leaving the light and Gem’s side was the worst thing ever. Stupid kid brain, stupid kid body. 

“Okay! We’re okay, we’re fine.” She chirped, “We’ve got torches, an’ our swords and shields, we’ll be fine.” It sounded like she was trying to tell herself that just as much as she was telling him, which strangely did make him feel better. At least we wasn’t the only scaredy-cat, even if Gem was better at hiding it than him. “Let’s go find some iron. We might even be deep enough to find diamonds!”

Right. Diamonds, iron, focus on that. “We’re gonna be so rich, Gem. All those silly fools up there are gonna be freakin’ out about being stupid babies and we’re gonna have full diamond!”

“There, that’s the spirit. Do you— um...” She offered her hand to him with a small smile. “You can be our shield, and I’ll protect us with the sword. How’s that sound?”

Joel scowled at her hand and reluctantly, to the death of his pride, took it. This was the worst day. He was going to have a talk with Grian when this was all over. The jerk was probably an adult as well, knowing him and the stupid universe. “Fine. But only for teamwork.”

“Teamwork.” Gem agreed, and they descended into the darkness.

-

“See? That wasn’t so bad, was it?” Gem asked, throwing a few more loose pieces of wood into their little campfire.

It wasn’t. Sure, the dark still wasn’t very nice and they hadn’t had much luck with diamonds, but their trek through the cave got them a lot of iron, nearly a stack between them. “I wasn’t worried. I knew we were gonna be fine the whole time.” 

“Uh-huh. And when you screamed like a girl ‘cause you saw a spider you were totally gonna take it down, right?”

He nodded, dumping as much raw iron as he could fit into the furnace. “Yep, you just got their first. Silly Gem, stealin’ my kills.”

Even though he’d been trying not to think about it, he appreciated what Gem was doing. Both of their minds were being affected by the wildcard, but it was embarrassingly obvious that he had it worse, probably because he seemed to be the ‘younger’ of the two of them. And all the while dealing with her own nervousness and keeping them safe, she was talking to him like a normal person and keeping him steady. The good-natured ribbing kept everything feeling light when the scary cave sounds started to get to him, and she wasn’t being overbearing or babying him. It was almost like session one again; a normal day, just ever so slightly shorter than two blocks tall.

“Here, pork chop’s ready.” Gem passed him a stick with a cut of cooked pork chop skewered on it. Even without any seasonings, it smelled delicious.

“Fanks, Gem.” He devoured the whole thing in a few large bites, much to Gem’s disgust. One of the few upsides to being so small was that they were going through much less food than usual, and one pork chop was all he needed to feel properly full again. 

“So,” He burped, “We’re really gonna stay down here all week?”

Gem nodded and started making something on the crafting table. “Thas’ the plan.”

“Aw, but that’s a bit boring, isn’t it? I wanna have some fun too…” He kicked a little stone away and the clacking echoed off the walls.

“Do you wanna have fun, or do you wanna stay alive?”

How could she be so tiny and still act like such a mum? “Stay alive, I guess.” He pouted.

She turned around and laid a thin wool sleeping bag on the floor with the tiniest pillow Joel had ever seen. “That’s what I thought. I’ll take first watch. I didn’t bring enough wool, so sorry it’s not very good...” 

There was no way he could be upset about the sleeping bag, not when she was making that face. If they were on the surface Joel was sure Gem could get them whatever they wanted just by giving someone puppy eyes. “No, no, it’s fine! It looks super comfy. In fact,” He crawled over to it and nestled inside to show her. Stones dug into his back. “See? I could fall asleep right now.” He made an exaggerated yawn.

Gem chuckled. “I ‘precicate it, but you don’t hav’ta lie. Your pudgy little face doesn’t hide anything.”

“Going to sleep now!” He yelled, turning over and pressing his face into the pillow. “Honk-shoo, honk-shoo, see? Sleeping.”

“Have a good sleep, Joel.”

-

“Joel, get up, get up, come on!”

Joel barely had time to remember where he was before he was on his feet and they were running. His half-asleep legs stumbled to catch up and Gem was half-dragging him, and between his bleary eyes and the unlit cave he could barely see where they were going.

“Gem, what on earth— what’s going on!? What are we runni—“ Two arrows whizzed past his head much too close for comfort, and that woke him up.

“There were so many, I—I couldn’t kill them all!” Gem exclaimed. They took a hard left at a fork and two more zombies joined the chase from the right. There were at least six mobs behind them, probably more. There was no time to pull out their shields, they’d surely be overwhelmed instantly, which meant they’d just have to find a place to hide.

“Gem this is bad, this is so bad!”

Gem cried out as an arrow lodged itself in her shoulder, and then another. “I-I know, I know, keep running!”

They rounded another corner and skidded to a halt. Dead end. Joel raised his shield to catch another arrow but the mobs were getting close fast. They were dead. 

He yelped as Gem grabbed him by the scruff and pushed him into a corner. “Ow! Gem, what—?” She began haphazardly surrounding him in cobblestone, and Joel’s stomach sank. “Wait, G-Gem, what are you— what are you doing?”

“I’m low, my shield’s almost gone,” She panted, and her splitting shield took another hit, this time from the zombie at the head of the pack gnawing viciously at the wood. “Stay in here, I’ll come back for you, okay?”

“Gem, no!” His heart was pounding. He could only see a sliver of Gem’s scared but resigned expression through the gap now. More zombies caught up, groaning and forcing her back. “Gem—!”

The last block slid into place and he was plunged into darkness just as the message rang out.

Geminitay was slain by a zombie

-

This wildcard is a nightmare.

Jimmy watched, exhausted, as Lizzie tried to coach Scar up a tree for the third time. While a good “parent” might have stopped it by now, falling out of a tree was about the safest thing they had been up to over the last twenty-four hours. If all he had to do was pass out snacks for regen every time Scar fell, that was fine by him.

He truly believed Grian’s games simply hated him personally. Why else would he be the only adult in his team? The yellow life, the canary, the one who attracted death, keeping two children safe. What was the universe thinking? And of course in all the nonsense he hardly had any time to think about how he was going to get his next kill. Lizzie had been trying to help, but most of her ideas ended up drifting in a fantastical or hypothetical Jimmy-is-suddenly-amazing-at-pvp scenario and hadn’t come to fruition. 

“Jimmy, look! I made it!” 

Sure enough, Scar had finally managed to clamber up next to Lizzie on the branch, smiling proudly down at him.

“Wow, look at that! Don’t fall please, I’m running out of bread!”

“I won’t, I’m being very careful.” Scar waved him off, then wobbled and caught himself. “See? Careful.”

“Mm-hm.”

Bzz-bzzt.

Oh? What’s gone on now? He pulled out his communicator.

Geminitay was slain by a zombie

<Smajor1995: ???>

<Grian: red/yellow kill??>

<BDoubleO100: gem’s baby I kno it>

Huh. Gem and Joel had been missing for the entire session so far, and for her to die to a zombie of all things, she must have been seriously caught off-guard. Or small, came the thought, but even then Joel probably would have been looking after her, what with his whole “family” bit. Was he seriously being a better parent than Joel right now? He smiled to himself. What an idea.

And so, continuing his streak of great parenting, he went back to supervising. 

“Wo-OAH!”

And down Scar went, taking Lizzie with him and hitting the ground with a thump. 

“Owwww, Scaaar! That hurt!” Lizzie whined.

“Sorry, sorry! I was tryin’a get higher!”

Jimmy just sighed and fished two more loaves of bread from his inventory. “Come on now, no arguing, just take your bread.”

Thankfully even though Lizzie and Scar had proven themselves to be quite the tiny squabblers so far, the snacks seemed to settle them enough to just sticking their tongues out at one another and throwing crumbs. It was in the middle of their picnic when he heard someone yelling his name, and he turned to see Gem running towards him. Sure enough, she was a kid maybe the same age as Lizzie, and she looked all out of sorts.

“Gem! Where’ve you been, eh? What’s going on?”

“Y-You gotta— you—“ She gasped, out of breath and stumbling over her words, “You— we need help!”

Jimmy raised an eyebrow. “What? Slow down, who’s ‘we’? You and Joel?”

Gem nodded quickly. “We— we were in a cave and I was s’posed to protect him b-but I couldn’t an’ there w-were so many mobs an’—!“

“Hey, hey, woah, easy.” He knelt down in front of her and put his hands on her small shoulders. This was still so weird. “Deep breaths, ready? In…” She took a harsh breath in. “Out.” She released it. “Now, tell me what’s happened.”

Gem swallowed hard and Jimmy swore he could see the faintest hint of tears forming in her eyes. “Me and Joel are b-both kids, a-and I said we should hide ‘cause we had no adult to protect us so we went into a cave. I-It was my idea an’ I was s’posed to keep him safe, b-but there were so many mobs and—and I di-died and now Joel’s trapped down there and it’s all my fault!” She blurted, and a few stray tears fell down her cheeks.

Oh boy. “Well, that is a lot, isn’t it?” He said stupidly, and then rushed to correct himself when Gem’s face scrunched up like she was about to start bawling, “B-But don’t worry, we’ll get this all sorted, yeah? Where is he? I’ll help you rescue him.”

“In a cave under our base. I gotta show you, w-we dug it ourselves.” She sniffled, collecting herself. Thank admins.

“Alright, well…” He looked over to Lizzie and Scar, who were watching with wide eyes. “Lizzie, I put you in charge. Go back home with Scar and play some board games or something until I get back. Or go play with the neighbours, whatever, just something safe, alright?”

Lizzie got a look of genuine seriousness about her and nodded, and the two of them ran off towards the mountain.

Jimmy offered his hand to Gem. “Alright, lead the way.”

-

The staircase down into their cave was a tight squeeze, but once they were in the mouth of the cave opened up considerably. For an undiscovered cave it was very large and, other than a few of Gem’s stray torches, very dark.

“Jimmyyy!” Gem urged, “Hurry, this way!”

“Right, right, hurrying!”

He heard the mobs before he saw them, and there were a lot. At least two skeletons, a handful of zombies, and a spider. No wonder they’d been overwhelmed, even he was going to need to be careful about this. He motioned for Gem to stay back and brought up his shield, steeling himself with a breath for courage. Why Gem came to him with this was beyond him, but there was no turning back now. Joel needed him. Heck, Gem needed him. He peered around the corner where the pack was clustered around a cobblestone box and noticed a single creeper mixed into the bunch. Bingo. 

“Hey, big stupid mobs! Come and get me!” He shouted, and the entire group turned to come towards him. The creeper scuttled faster, pushing its way to the front, exactly what he was hoping for. He hid behind his shield as they all clustered together and the creeper hissed to life.

BOOM

The only surviving skeleton was easy to cut down with his sword, and he let out a huff of relief as the bones clattered to the floor. He did it. Holy moly he did it.

“Joel!” Gem rushed past him to the cobblestone box.

He helped her break away the stone, and inside the box with not so much as a torch sat Joel, who was maybe even younger than Scar, curled in on himself and shaking like a cold strider. A tiny part of Jimmy, the tiniest, ugliest part, whispered in his ear how easy it would be to get a dark green kill right now. How simple.

No. Not like this.

“I-I don’ l-like this wildcard…” Joel whined, before bursting into tears.

“Oh Joel, buddy, it’s alright…” Jimmy tried to comfort. His hands hovered uncertainly. A quick glance at Gem told him she wasn’t doing much better and was just barely keeping it together. He needed to come up with something quickly. 

Without stopping to consider the possible awkward consequences, he did the first thing he could think of. He reached down and scooped Joel into his arms.

“Hey, shhh, you’re alright, you’re okay… shhh. Uncle Tim’s gotcha now, everything’s gonna be A-OK.” He hushed, letting every soothing phrase he could think of tumble out of his mouth like alphabet soup. He threw in a little gentle rocking, pet Joel’s hair, anything he could think of until finally the shaking and crying began to settle. The shoulder of his jacket was soaked through with snot and tears by the time Joel properly came back around, but that was fine. He would just have to dunk it in the river or something later.

Joel sniffled and sat up slightly, using one hand to scrub at his face while the other stayed firmly clutched in his shirt. “Ugh… sorry about that, Jim. This whole kid ‘fing sucks…”

“…Joel? Are you okay?” Gem mumbled, face flushed and eyes puffy.

Joel thought for a second, then nodded slowly. “Yeah. Just got a bit scary there, y’know? Stupid baby brain didn’ like the dark.”

“M’so sorry…” She warbled, sounding on the edge of tears again, and Jimmy had to put a stop to that right away.

“Nope, no more crying!” He announced, maybe a bit too loudly, “Everything’s alright now. You did the best you could, Gem. See? Joel’s still on six lives because of you.”

“But I—“

“No buts! You did a good job protecting Joel, and Joel was very brave for staying safe down here by himself. Can we all agree?”

“Haha, butts.” He heard Joel mutter against his shirt. Jimmy counted that as a win.

“Perfect. Now we’re all going to get out of this cave, and you two can spend the night with the Bamboozlers, how does that sound?”

“Like a sleepover?” Gem tilted her head like a puppy, and now that they weren’t in a crisis, man, these guys were cute. 

“Yeah, like a sleepover. C’mon now, I’ve got to get back to Lizzie and Scar before they destroy the server.” He went to set Joel down, only for him to cling tighter and wrap his legs around his torso like a koala. Jimmy was happy to keep carrying him; if he was being honest he expect Joel to start thrashing to be let go the moment he came back to himself, but if he still needed it then Jimmy certainly wasn’t going to judge. Plus, one day it was going to be an amazing story to hold over his head. Maybe not today, but someday.

“So,” Joel said, a cheeky smile on his face as they started up to the surface, “‘Uncle Tim’, huh?”

Jimmy wordlessly reached up and pushed Joel’s head back against his shoulder. “Hush.”

[novasintheroom]

A run to court - Prince!Vash x Reader

Clat-clat-clat-clat! Your shoes echo in the halls. Servants bow hastily as you pass, your husband close on your heels.

“Slow down!” Vash calls, a slight laugh in his voice. You shake your head, curls flopping on your shoulders from your updo today.

“We get ten minutes notice that we’re to head court proceedings today and you want me to slow down?” Your calves are already on fire from running in heels, but you don’t stop. “We can’t be late! Imagine how that will look to the court and the people!”

Vash lets out another laugh, nodding at a pair of maids who bow as he passes. Their eyes have their own twinkle of mirth, watching their prince chase down his diligent wife. “We’ll be fine; they know we’re busy with other matters.”

You don’t deign to answer. You turn a corner and stop, breathing a sigh of relief. The doors to the court room loom closed at the far end. Two guards hastily stand from their slouched positions at the sight of you. A look at your pocket watch tells you that you still have three minutes to spare. “Good,” you mutter, “good, good.”

Before you can march to the doors, however, a hand clasps your wrist gently. You turn to Vash, impatient. “What is it? We’re going to be late!”

His smile is calm. “Just wait,” he says, and reaches out to right the collar of your dress. “Your running made some of your hair fall out.”

With a short sigh, you allow him to go behind you, grabbing pieces of hair that had fallen out and pinning them back into place. “You’re very fast in those shoes,” he comments, twisting a lock of hair and pinning it to the top of your updo.

“Comes with practice,” you say, brushing your hand down your skirts and righting the jewelry on your wrists and fingers. You’d been hasty in putting them on, having gone the first half of the morning without them – not expecting to hold court. “My sisters and I would have races to see who could go the fastest in our mother’s shoes.” Then, your brows lift, feeling a tug on your head as he puts another hair back in place. “I’m surprised I outpaced you, though. Your long legs always have me trying to catch up.”

Vash comes back around and starts tucking strands of hair behind your ears. His eyes are twin skies, flitting about like birds as he works. You feel odd and look away from his gentle gaze. “I was letting you get ahead of me. The view from behind was spectacular.” He gives a wink.

You feel the blood coming to your cheeks. “Ha,” you say, reaching out to snag his coat and straighten the pins on it, “such a man.”

Vash continues his ministrations. He reaches out, tugging at the chain around your neck to get it untwisted. Goosebumps rise gently at your collarbone, his skin warm and soft. You reach out as well, straightening the crown at his brow – the one you barely managed to snag from his room on the way here. It always likes to fall to the right for some reason. Like he has a dented head. Smiling at the thought, you brush at his shoulders, picking a blonde hair off and letting it flutter to the floor. “You shed like a dog,” you comment, “I’m surprised you’re not bald with how much you lose.”

Vash laughs, reaching up and pushing a few pearled pins back into your hair. “You’re not any better. I think I could make two new wigs out of all the hair you lose just in a day.”

“Hm.”

A few seconds later, Vash pulls back. He looks satisfied. “There,” he triumphs, and, with a shy tone, says, “My pretty wife.” Your hand is brought to his lips, and he places a kiss at your knuckles.

He always does this. And, always, you heart pitter-patters at the obvious affection. Your good breeding kicks in, and you smile demurely, looking down. “Thank you.”

The hall is still long, and the guards at the doors stand at attention, ready to let you two in.

“One more look,” you spin slowly, letting your husband scan you. “Anything else out of place?”

Vash takes his time, eyes roving your figure, the apple of your cheek, the still-loose curls at the base of your neck. Beautiful. “No,” he says, then does his own spin. “How do I look?”

 You’re careful where you place your gaze, avoiding looking at his rear for too long. Vash smirks when he turns around, like he somehow knows what you were looking at. Reaching out one last time to tug at the rebellious earring he insists on wearing, you say, “Very handsome.” Then, taking his arm with yours, you both walk to the doors, ready to face what the court has for you today.

dividers

[dearharriet]

hi lovely ! it's milunalupin :)

could i please request remus + "i waited for you" ? 🫶🏼✨

hello my friend, ty for the request!! im working on my big boy fic for james rn but i wanted a little bit of remus as a break <3 (wc: 691)

“You smell good.”

Remus looks at the man taking a seat across from him, appalled by such a comment. Sirius looks equally stunned saying it, wrinkled nose a mirror of Remus’.

“Thank you?”

Sirius shakes his head like this is the wrong response.

“Why do you smell good?”

Remus rolls his eyes, keeping his posture aloof. “Took my annual bath last night.”

Sirius scoffs. “‘Bout time. Your stench was getting harsh on my delicate canine senses.”

That pulls a laugh from Remus, however small.

By the door, he sees you squeezing into the packed pub, side-stepping between rowdy groups of people and looking around. You’re wearing a mid-length skirt, and when you spot the two boys in their booth it swishes around each hasty step.

“Hi,” you breathe, “I’m sorry. They made me start inventory and then I just had to shower and—” Remus stands to offer you some seclusion via the walled side of the bench seat. You wave your rambling apologies away, winded from running around all day. “Nevermind. I need a drink, Remus. Come with?”

“Sit,” he demands softly, “I’ll fetch it.”

You do as you’re told, hanging onto Remus’ words like a takeout fortune, foolishly hopeful that they mean something. If Sirius didn’t demand so much attention, you’d probably turn them over in your head a lot longer, but he really, really does.

“Think you can show us lads up, eh missy?”

Smothering a smile, you stare Sirius down with false bluntness.

“Yep. You’re lucky I even came at all, honestly.”

Sirius laughs, spinning his glass, half empty and through sweating. You realize his drink is the only one on the table.

“I’m surprised you did. You’re so popular, but you stay humble for us.”

“I have to,” you agree, “I could’ve been with people a lot cooler than you guys, but I just felt so bad. You and Remus don’t have anyone else to hang out with now that James is married.”

“Moony, we’re being bullied,” says Sirius, raising his voice a touch to reach the boy in question. Remus places two new drinks on the maple tabletop, sliding in close to you.

“I’m sure we deserve it,” he says, passing one of the fresh glasses off to you. “We’re turning into losers.”

You bring the cool glass to your lips, relaxing further into the familiar booth cushion and eyeing Remus’ new drink.

“Is that your second?”

Remus shakes his head. “My first.”

He tracks your brows as they pull together. They’d been here almost a half hour already.

“I waited for you,” he explains, smiling gently. Your stomach leaps.

“You didn’t have to do that.”

Sirius jumps in, stepping on Remus’ toes.

“That’s what I told him,” he says, “I said you’re too sweet to mind.”

“Don’t listen to him,” Remus says, following up Sirius’ heel. His voice is still wearing the crooning silk he tends to direct towards you. “It’s the polite thing to do. Sirius just has poor manners.”

Across the way, the man in question sputters objections while you try not to laugh.

“I—I’m impolite? I’m impolite! Please. She’s the only one at this table who was late to a hangout one block away from her apartment. I had every right to drink my sorrows away.”

Remus ducks his head and shoots you a cat-like grin, but Sirius isn’t done.

“And it’s not being polite if you’re motivated by a massive crush, Moony, by the way. D’you know he’s wearing cologne?”

You stare at Sirius, because the alternative of looking at Remus (who is flushed beyond measure) is akin to a death sentence.

“Yes,” you admit. You’d smelled it on him when he stood up earlier, a fresh earthy scent that was too sharp to be soap. Sirius points at your face like he’s caught you.

“See? The only people who notice a guy wearing cologne are his miserable best mates, and girls who want to be waited on.” Remus shoots him a glare and he throws his hands up as if to say, sue me. “I’m just helping.”

Remus curses through an exhale and drops his head into his hands.

+

thank you for reading! xx

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[s4turns-st4rs]

hiiiihiiiihiiihiiihhihihihican u pls pls plssss write about ben shelton and a pretty tennis player fem reader who's rlly good at tennis esp for her height bc shes quite short and she's kinda cheeky and playful and sort of has ben whipped for her like wherever she is, he's there trying to talk to her and shes popular and stuff pls this is such a cute n funny idea you can write as much as you want pls im BEGGINGGG

my rose coloured boy

🎧 ﹐ ♡﹒a ben shelton oneshot ﹒ ᶻ ᶻ

𝐚/𝐧: this is SOSOSOOO cute thank you for the request oh my godddd AND it was so much fun to write anon you’re a genius. accidentally made it a bit angsty, but ofc there’s a happy ending. anyway enjoy lovelies xxx

requests are always open <3

in which: ben is desperate for your attention, whether you like it or not.

words: 1.1k

request: anon!

𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: none!

𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠: take a chance on me - abba

you exited the changing rooms of the centre court of roland garros, accompanied by your friend and fellow tennis player, coco guaff. your bag was slung over your shoulder as you used your towel to wipe your face down, attempting in vain to rid yourself of the post-match mental rollercoaster. but you knew coco’s charming stories always kept you from overthinking. at least for a moment, anyway.

as you spoke to her, giggling and gossiping, a familiar voice reached your ears, his perfect florida accent already making your heart beat faster.

“oi, shortie!”

“hm? oh, hey ben.” you said, immediately recognising the nickname, as you turned to face your fellow tennis player, looking up at the taller man.

he smiled at the sheer sight of you, running a hand through his unruly mop of curls. “you played well today.” he said with a sweet grin, admiring you, despite the beads of sweat that stayed stubbornly on your forehead and the loose ponytail your hair had been haphazardly thrown into.

“i lost.” you said, in a failed attempt at sounding nonchalant, depsite the loss’ effect on you.

“and?” he said, his unfairly long eyelashes fluttering in mock innocence. “i still think you played well.” he added as he joined the two of you as you walked towards the car park.“besides,” he continued, quietly admiring your side profile. “you always play well.”

“yeah. you’re a top 10 player for a reason, y’know.” coco chimed in, giving you a little elbow in the ribs.

“exactly.” ben said, nodding wisely as he spoke. “anyone would be blessed to play against you, whether you win or lose.”

after managing a few more moments of ben’s over exaggerated praise, coco made some hasty excuse about her dog, clearly keen to avoid third wheeling the two of you any longer. you and ben stood in silence as you watched her hurry away, probably to gossip with frances tiafoe and taylor fritz about the horrendously obvious flirting she’s just endured.

“… you don’t have to compliment me, y’know.” you say, as the silence became uncomfortable and almost claustrophobic.

“what? coco and i are just—” he started, before you cut him off.

“no, i mean, you. every time you speak to me, it’s like you compliment me every time there’s a second of silence.”

“… oh.” ben said quietly, looking at you sheepishly. “do you … not like it?”

“well, yeah … but after a while, it just feels … fake.”

“… oh.” he said again. he was silent for a moment, like he couldn’t manage to say anything else, like a broken record. “… sorry.” he managed eventually, his singular word almost a whisper, his eyes trained firmly on his sneakers, gently scuffing the tips on the car park road.

“no, don’t apologise.” you say quickly, scrambling for a way to wipe the sad, pouty look off his face that practically broke your heart. “i love when you compliment me, i just … don’t want you to feel like you have to give me praise all the time, y’know?”

he looked back at you bashfully. “… well, as long as you don’t find it annoying.” he said, before his pout turned into a smug smile. “then i can give you as many compliments as i want.”

you almost let out a sigh of relief at the return of his signature lopsided grin, and laughed a bit at his proud tone. “oh yeah?”

“yeah.” he said, crossing his arms across his broad chest. “gonna give you all the compliments in the world.”

you laugh again at his toddler-like stubbornness. “i’d like to see you try.” you said, mocking him by crossing your arms in the same smug action.

he let out a deep laugh at your response. “well, be prepared, because you’re about to be showered in praise like you’ve never been before.”

he made a dramatic show of stretching his arms, cracking his knuckles, before suddenly, wrapping an arm around your waist, and lifting you up into his arms. he hooked an arm underneath your knees, now holding you bridal style in the middle of an empty car park.

“oi, ben!” you nearly screeched as he smiled innocently at you. “what, my love?” he said, the pet name rolling of his tongue before he could stop it. he seemed to realise what he said, going a deep shade of red as you felt his arms tense underneath you. he stilled for a moment, looking practically mortified.

you smile at his embarrassment, despite having equally red cheeks. “what happened? thought you were going to shower me with compliments, my love?” you tease, turning the pet name back on him with a smirk.

your words seem to snap him out of a trance, and he looked at you with a grin. “oh, you don’t even know what’s coming.”

he fixed his grip around your waist, before announcing loudly to the empty surrounds. “i love your eyes. i love your smile. i love the way you laugh. i love the music you listen to, even if it sucks. i love the ribbons you wear in your hair. i love the way you scream when you score an important point during a match.” he started smugly, and began placing gentle kisses to your face to punctuate each point.

“i love the way you dress.” a kiss to your left cheek.

“i love how short you are.” a kiss to your right cheek.

“i love your handwriting.” a kiss to your forehead.

“i love how passionate you are about stupid, small things that don’t matter.” a kiss to your chin.

”i love watching you play tennis.” a kiss to the tip of your nose.

“okay, my music does not suck, and i am not short, and—” you began in protest, before ben interrupted you by pressing his lips to yours. finally.

ben kissed you gently, like he was worried you’d pull away, but you pulled him closer to you, desperately letting the feeling of the kiss consume you.

after what get like an eternity, you both gently spilt apart, leaving the two of you breathless and gasping for air.

“… well, now i’m going to have to give you the same amount of compliments.” you managed after a moment, your words still breathy and forced.

ben let a cheesy smile grace his face at your words, a soft giggle escaping him. “it’s okay, shortie.” he said, looking down at you, still held close in his arms. “we’ve got time.”

[runningfrom2am]

cold nights // part ten

summary: may the odds be ever in your favour.

pairing: coriolanus snow x fem!reader

wc: 3.3k

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tags/warnings: tribute!reader and mentor!coriolanus, r is very sweet (too kind for this world. literally.), sunshine x grumpy trope kinda, he falls first, violence typical for the source material, r is very smart (as she should), district twelve!reader.

a/n: playlist coming v soon!!

series masterlist // playlist

Coriolanus lets out a scream of anger as he pulls the weight of the cement block down on the boy again, dishing out every last bit of rage he had over the inconvenience he had caused. He had to. He was sure the tribute was already dead, but one more hit couldn't hurt- not when he needed to make sure he was really done; not when it felt so powerful the first time.

He's breathing heavily, staring down at the body in front of him with his curls falling in his face, preventing him from seeing reality. Shielding him from seeing you.

You open your mouth to speak, but you can't. To ask if he's okay, but clearly he is- that final blow was too late to be a hit out of desperation, panic, or pain. It was pure, unnecessary retaliation. It went against everything you stood for. Everything you said.

Coriolanus was Coriolanus indeed; you could see it in the darkness that suddenly appeared behind his eyes. It was like he had done it for fun.

He looks up only when you take a step back, shoe crunching over the rubble underneath your sole and alerting him to your presence.

"Y/N-"

You look between the boy you thought you knew and the battered body on the ground. You take another hasty step back.

The power he thought he felt was replaced instantly by guilt when he saw the look on your face. He wasn't sure your kind features were even capable of showing an emotion so abrasive as disgust- but that was all he could think of to describe what he had to guess was going on behind your eyes. Betrayal, maybe. Horror, even, at something he had done. He moves to take a step toward you, dropping the metal rod in his hand so maybe you'd give him the chance to explain but you were taking off like a bird in the street threatened by a moving car the second he moved a muscle. He freezes, hand extended toward you despite you being too far to reach.

You were scared. Of him.

He very quickly had more pressing matters than your understanding or coping with the idea that you had run from him since he was now hearing the war cry of Coral and her pack as they ran from the tunnels toward the exit he was standing under.

He was grateful you had fled before that, hoping they didn't see you before you hid away again. He hops back over the gate, grabbing Sejanus and forcing him through the front entrance just in time.

"For Coriolanus, when I am gone."

He reads over the words on the outside of the intricately folded note over and over again, sitting at his desk and trying to ignore the stitches pulling at his back. Sejanus had given the note to him when he was discharged from the hospital. A note from you. It was a goodbye, he knew it. Something about your delicate handwriting on the outside felt so sacred to him.

"My Dearest Corio,

For once, I cannot express with words what I need to say to you. Regrettably, Sejanus is waiting so I must find something to say soon. I'll begin with thank you. You told me not to thank you until you had done something for me, but what you didn't understand was that you already had. Having a friend at the end has meant the world to me. I wish I could tell my family about you. When I can't sleep at night, I think of how much they would love you, and how we could sit together in the field at night and look at the stars. I hope one day you get to see them.

I apologize that I have to ask one more thing of you. I admit, I do not know how your mentorship works, but I hope with all my heart that I have done enough for you to win your prize. I regret that I will never know. I'm sorry that you ended up with me, you deserved better. I feel like you weren't given a choice, though I know you would never admit that. I digress. All I ask is that you do not forget me. You don't have to feel guilt, or think of me all the time, I just hope you read Romeo and Juliet one day and guess which parts were my favourite. Or that if you're out on cold nights when the breeze chills your skin, you'll think of us. I also hope that is not too much to ask of you. I suppose, again, I will never know.

If I can take your position for a moment and mentor you; I have some advice I would like to offer. Be whatever you want to be, do what you want to do. Don't let anything or anyone stop you from being good. Your kindness, Corio, was not lost on me while I had the pleasure of knowing you. I've seen who you are, and I will never forget.

I must tell you posthumously that you are the closest thing to my own Romeo Montague I have been lucky enough to have in my life, but our story is different. You get to grow up, change, have a life, and fall in love. Please do. See the beauty in everything and do not let the cruelties of the world change the goodness in your soul.

"Alas, that love, so gentle in his view, Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!"

With love and not nearly enough time,

Y/N

He couldn't resist unfolding the page in his hands and reading it. Every inch of the page was covered in your scrawled print, urgent from not wanting to keep Sejanus waiting for too long. You were still very much alive, but he was probably dead to you and he saw that in your eyes as you looked at him with nothing short of fear. He was supposed to be your Romeo, or at least you thought so when you wrote it. And he wanted that for you. He regrets so deeply that he took that perspective from you. It was a mistake- but maybe, if you won, you would see that for what it was and forgive him.

He wanted to crush up the note and throw it against the wall, tear it to shreds and light it on fire and burn away the fact he had ever met you, but he knew he didn't want to. It was all he would have left of you. He couldn't lose it, even if he hated himself for ruining what you could have had.

Instead, he folded it back up and put it on the shelf where his mother's compact once was before crawling into bed and crying until he finally passed out.

"You can explain it to her, Coryo. I know she will be reasonable." Tigris smiles sadly at him, helping him once again with his blazer following yet another back injury.

He hadn't said anything to trigger her sympathies this morning besides having puffy eyes in her presence. Though, the wall that separates their bedrooms is thin- it was likely that despite the muffling of his sheets, she had heard his cries. He had told her everything, he always did.

"Would you like me to come with you today? I can miss just one day of work, no harm will be done." His cousin offers. He wants to decline, her income is all they had, but if Coryo was being honest with himself, he needed someone in his corner.

"Okay." He agrees quietly and she smiles, patting the front of his uniform.

"I'll grab my things, can you wait a few moments?" She asks, already heading for her room.

"Of course." He nods. In another moment of self-honesty, he realizes he doesn't even want to go. But he had to be there. For you. If you had even survived the night.

When you decided there was enough daylight, you crawled back deeper into the vents. Seemingly you were safe there, if you had to guess it was almost noon and no one had bothered you. You were on your way to check on Jessup- that was a better use of your time than dwelling on what you witnessed last night and slipping deeper and deeper into a downward spiral.

You approach the grate in the vent you entered through, peeking in to see if he was still there. "Jessup?" You whisper, unable to see him. Worried when you get no response, you slide the cover off and hang your head out of it to look around. He was curled up against the wall across the room, and he looked distressed. Shaking, crying, skin ashen.

"Jessup?" You call toward him again, beginning to climb down to go check on him.

He's not responsive to you, not as you take a few hesitant steps closer. "Are you okay?"

His head snaps up to look at you. "Y/N?"

You smile a little, surprised he even remembered your name in his state. "Hi." You crouch down in front of him. "What do you need? Are you holding up okay?"

Again, no response.

"I'll get you some supplies." You whisper to him, knowing that if the microphones pick it up, Coryo would likely send you nothing when you emerge into the open area. He was very clear that you shouldn't share, but Jessup clearly needed help. He'd been down here for over a day without food or water, but now, you didn't know that you had anyone to help. You had Coryo and Sejanus, but now Sejanus hated you and Coryo was never who you thought he was. It had haunted you all night.

"I'll be back soon, okay?" You smile at Jessup reassuringly, standing and untying the scarf so you can get back up into the vents.

Coryo hadn't heard what you said to the boy, but when you reemerged from the vents after checking it was mostly clear, he knew what you were there for. It was decently safe, spare for Reaper who had collected and covered several bodies with a torn flag while you were gone. Making eye contact with him startles you, but you don't move. Neither does he. You give him a nod of understanding as he kneels next to the aboveground grave, which he returns. Lamina wasn't on her beam anymore, and that makes your heart clench. It took you a long time to get from one place to the next using the vents- anything could have happened in the time you weren't watching.

Now that you've established that you're safe, you look to the nearest camera with hopeful and tired eyes. Coryo knows you want to bring whatever he would send back down to Jessup.

He chews his lip, looking between you and the small screen in front of him. He shouldn't enable you to help another tribute, but it did look fruitless. Jessup was not well, not at all, and it would be a waste to even bother feeding him. At the same time, after what he had done last night, after what you witnessed, he would have to buy back your trust. Allowing you to help your friend is his only way to do that, at the moment. So he selects the water and sends it, followed by some bread.

You receive it, giving a weak, almost hesitant smile to the camera with the food and water tucked against your chest. "Thank you." He can only read your lips before you disappear again.

Climbing back out of the vent, this time with a water bottle and some bread in hand as you drop to the ground, you startle your friend. "Hey, Jessup." You say, raising your free hand to calm him. "I brought you something to eat."

You approach him carefully as he stares at you. You hold the items out to him, but he doesn't take them. "Do you want some help?" You offer, kneeling down in front of him. "Here," You tear off some of the bread and try to hand it to him. After not eating enough for so long, smaller pieces would probably be easier. "It may be a little dusty from the vent, but it's still good. You need to eat."

Then, without warning, he slaps the items out of your hand and shoves you back. "What did you do to it?!" He shouts as you fall back on your butt, quickly shuffling yourself back away from him.

"Nothing! Nothing, Jessup, shh, we gotta be quiet down here..." You try and calm him, still backing away.

"You're trying to kill me!" He yells, ignoring your pleas for him to be quiet, reaching for the now empty and broken water bottle that spilled out over the floor.

"I would never, I just want to help!" You try and assure him, standing up and backing away. Clearly, he doesn't want to talk as he's jumping at you, now with a weapon in hand.

You have to run. There's no time to get back into the vent, making a run for the door and throwing yourself through the hole at the bottom.

"Why would you do this?!" He shouts after you as you run down the halls of the tunnel, still trying to stay as quiet as possible through your heavy breathing. "What have you done?!"

"Lyssie- what is he doing?" Coryo asks his classmate next to him, thankful now that you are apparently such a fast runner.

"I- I don't know. He wouldn't betray her like this." She replies with a slight shake of her head, eyes glued to the screen.

"She's fast enough, but she can't get back in the vents while she's being chased." Coryo says, as if either of them could do anything, but he was as helpless as you were.

You slide to a halt in the long, rounded hallway when you see Coral round the corner in front of you. Jessup was sick, he wasn't fast, but you couldn't turn back. You were cornered, and there was nowhere to go but up. You look up, scanning the overhead vent system for a grate but see none. Turning quickly, you look along the ceiling toward Jessup as he makes his way toward you with the broken water bottle. You'd rather try your odds with him than Coral and the others.

Your eyes land on a grate just ahead of you as you hear footsteps and shouting closing in on you from both directions. With shaking hands you scramble to untie the scarf as you run back toward Jessup, throwing it back over the pipe and using all your strength to pull yourself up into the ceiling, hitting in the grate and pulling yourself inside. "Jessup, Jessup! Run! Hurry!" You try and urge him, but it's like he doesn't hear you, jumping to jab at you with the bottle. He misses, luckily, but Coral never does.

Coryo watches with bated breath while you struggle to pull yourself up, abandoning your friend to his fate. He cringes as he watches Jessup fall, the inflicted wounds being just hidden by Tanner's form and the buzzer goes off.

"Oh, and that's the end for Jessup as his district partner climbs into the ceiling!" Lucky's voice sounds distant to him. "Lysistrata, get out of here and Coriolanus, you may want to start packing your things as well."

He wouldn't budge. He's not packing a single thing until you're done taking your final breaths. Lyssie sighs and shakes her head, tears in her eyes as she pats Coryo's shoulder. "If this is it for her, I'm so sorry..." She apologizes before taking her leave.

Your heart is beating out of your chest as you pull yourself almost fully into the vent. You don't make it smoothly, though, crying out in pain as you feel the prongs of Coral's trident plunging into your calf. Your blood drips down your leg and on top of the other tributes as you finally make your way all the way in. You don't have time to feel any pain as you quickly crawl away. They know where you are, she could stab up into the vent just below you and catch you again- you had to find a way up farther.

"Y/N! We know where you've been hiding now, you're not safe in there!" Coral calls after you, and you have to ignore it as you slide through the metal tube, feeling it get slick from the blood pooling underneath you with every movement.

You don't hear them following you, though, so when you finally make it to where you can climb up to the next level, you feel a lot safer. Your chest is heaving as you sit up on the edge of the drop-down to the tunnels, just given enough room in the T intersection of the vents to take a breath and look at your leg.

You hiss as you lift your leg, assessing the puncture wounds. They wouldn't be fatal if you stopped the bleeding. You exhale shakily, pressing down on the flesh with your palms, pain shooting up your leg and into your back. You don't have anything to use to help besides the scarf, but it was Coryo's. You don't want to ruin it.

You didn't have a choice. You grab the material that you had dragged along with you, wrapping it tightly around the skin. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry,.." You cry, knowing he can't see or hear you.

Coryo is already panicking. Just like Highbottom had said, you could be dead in there and he wouldn't know. The panic only escalates when the cameras follow Coral, Treech, Tanner, and Mizzen as they go back up to the main floor, and Treech and Tanner go for the two main vent entrances, all of them too focused on you to even notice or care that Reaper was sat in the same clearing.

You don't hear it for a few minutes. The bleeding in your leg had mostly stopped, soaking the silk material by the time you heard the familiar clang of shifting metal. Someone else was in the vents.

You look behind you, trying to discern which direction they were coming from, but it was nearly impossible to tell with the echo. You had to move, but you could be crawling right into your fate. Maybe you should just stay and wait and let it happen.

As the noises got closer from both sides, accompanied by coughing from the dust, you knew you couldn't just wait. You'd made it this far, and as far as you knew, no one else knew the vents nearly as well. That was an advantage you had sought from the very beginning, and now was the time to use it.

You gently lower yourself down to slide back the way you came, hitting the bottom level with a bang before ducking out of sight and around a corner. It couldn't have been Coral up there, she would be taunting you by now, but she wasn't. It was quiet until you heard whispers up from where you just were.

"There's blood on this side. She must have gone back down." You recognize Treech's voice when you hear it, and you hold your breath as you fiddle with the compact in your pocket. Stroking your thumb over the carved metal over and over again, trying to stay quiet. "Look, there's a trail going that way."

"Down we go, then." Tanner replies, making your heart stop. You couldn't fight them off, you knew that, and there was a trail of your own blood that would lead them straight to you. You couldn't hide.

You slowly pull the compact from your pocket, turning it over in your palm. You swore you wouldn't participate in the games. You wouldn't harm anyone. But maybe, if you 'accidentally' spilled its contents in the vent before you had to move on, they would stop following you.

Before you can think too much about it, you're holding your breath and opening the small clasp. It just looked like salt. Yeah. It's salt. You already believe it as you gently tip the container, making a thin line of the substance across the bottom of the vent. Salt is for protection. The salt will keep me safe.

You pocket the compact again and quietly crawl away.

taglist: @soulessjourney , @dreamyysouls , @rockstarbfs , @maysileeewrites , @baybieruth , @kitscutie ,  @fratboyharrysgf0201 , @totallynotkaibiased , @stelleduarte , @secretsicanthideanymore , @bejeweledreverie , @drewsandsebastianswife , @niicole-87 , @innercreationflower , @nallasstuff , @baybieruth , @scorpiolystoned , @iovemoonyy , @thatmarvelchick19 , @wearemadeofstardust0 , @regulusblackcore , @puredreamagination , @fantasticchaosthing , @becauseseaotters , @secretsicanthideanymore ,

okay suddenly tumblr isn't letting me tag more people than this so i just made some cuts unfortunately :') i just left the max amount of people i could whose users i recognized and see in my notifs all the time :) if you're not on here and you should be i'm so sorry! hopefully for part eleven it'll be business as usual!

also this taglist is closed now!! if you’d like to get a notification when i update, turn on my post notifications!! i promise i won’t spam y'all :,)

[nataliawrites]

Crowning Glory // Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen x Princess of the Netherlands!Reader

Max prided himself on his control. His job depended on it. His life depended on it.

Even when he briefly lost control — and he really doesn’t regret the infamous pushing incident — it was always of his own doing.

Until you came into his life.

A knock on the door to his driver’s room started Max. It was race day and it was rare for him to be bothered when he was preparing on his own. A home race meant that everything was heightened. The adrenaline thrummed deeper. The cheers were louder. The Orange Army was nearly blinding in the stands.

“Max,” the familiar voice of his team principal filtered through the door after another knock, “I have someone who would like to meet you.”

“Can’t we do this later, Christian? I know you know my routine by now.”

“Just open the door. I think you’ll be happy to change up your routine this once.”

Max heaved himself off of the small couch and went to send the Brit and whatever guest he brought along away so he could continue to focus on the race in peace.

He opened the door, prepared to shut it in a second, but stopped short when he saw who was standing next to Christian. The guest in question was wearing an elegant summer dress in a bright shade of orange sure to be similarly reflected upon thousands of Dutch fans around the track.

She was also the subject of his long running teenage crush. A crush he thought he had gotten over until he was staring open-mouthed at her right in front of him.

“Hallo,” she takes the initiative to greet Max considering he was still making somewhat of a fool of himself in front of her, “it is a pleasure to finally meet you.”

Max bends into a hasty bow, unsure of the protocols for meeting someone he had only ever seen on the news and the pages of magazines, “Your Royal Highness, I am so sorry.”

“Don’t be. I’m the one intruding on your preparations,” she waves his apology off. “I just wanted to stop by and wish you luck before the race. It is my first time attending a Grand Prix in-person but my family and I have been fans for a long time and started following your career when news of an incredibly promising young driver racing under the Dutch flag first made its rounds.”

“I-thank you, Your Highness. I am honored.”

“Well, I will leave you to continue getting ready. Mr. Horner promised me a tour of the garage. Good luck again, you do your country proud.”

Max remained frozen in the doorway, watching the heir apparent walk away with the Red Bull team principal, bodyguards seemingly materializing from the walls to surround her as they made their way into a public area of the F1 Holzhaus.

Max managed to get you out of his head once the race began. The second he got into the car, nothing else mattered. Everything beyond the track ceased to exist as he pushed the car to its limit and passed the chequered flag for yet another home win.

But when it came time for the podium ceremony, there you were front and center, ready to present trophies to the three drivers. Max swore he could feel a spark travel up his arm as your fingers brushed his while handing him the trophy. “Well done! Tonight we celebrate.”

Turns out the celebration was a far cry from the ones he was used to. Instead of a club, Red Bull team members were invited to join you at a nearby royal residence for dinner and drinks. Max listened to you explain why from his seat next to you at the long dining table as you waited for the first course to be served, pleasantly warm from champagne already, “I used to love going out. Tried to have a typical university experience, you know? But I was almost kidnapped last year and despite security stepping in on time I have been forbidden from doing so again. Too much risk.”

And there it was. The reminder of just how different your lives wore despite both being Dutch public figures. One day Max will retire and can live a relatively normal life if he so chooses while you will ascend to the throne and lead a kingdom.

He didn’t exactly pity you — royalty was royalty at the end of the day — but he did sympathize with the constraints that it placed on you and how you lived your life.

Max clears his throat, “I’m not exactly sure how this whole thing works but I would love to take you out.”

He waits for a response and nervously cards his fingers through his hair when he doesn’t get one, “only if you want, of course, Your Highness. I have a sailing boat on the coast not too far from here. It’s not a yacht, though you are welcome to join me on that too if you are ever in Monaco, but I promise that it is peaceful and private. I just thought you would like to get away from all this,” he gestures around the room of mingling Red Bull staff and dignitaries, “for a little.”

“Are you sure?”

“Hhmm?”

You ask again, “are you sure?”

“Sure about what? That I would like to take you on a date? Quite sure.”

“Any privacy we have won’t last long.”

“I know.”

“The press can be brutal.”

“So I’ve learned. I don’t particularly care.”

“There are rules …”

“I will learn them.”

“Okay,” you finally allow a shy smile.

“Okay?”

“Yes, Max. I would love to go on a date with you.”

“Really?”

“Yes. But if we are to date you have to call me Y/N.”

“Gladly … Y/N,” he tests out how your name feels on his lips for the first time.

“Oh and you will have to meet my parents.”

That gives him pause. “Your parents?”

“Yes.”

“As in the King and Queen.”

“Yes.”

“I have to meet the King and Queen?”

“It’s all still a bit old fashioned, I’m afraid. We will need their approval.”

You’re quick to reassure him when you see how quickly the color drains from his face, “my father is a big Ferrari fan but he has a soft spot for you. You need not worry.”

“Your father is the King.”

“Yes.”

“My King.”

“Yes. And he’s my father. You’ll have to get used to it if you see us going anywhere.”

“Right. Of course …” A few seconds pass. “But he’s the King.”

You pat his hand where it’s splayed on the table, “you’ll be fine.”