#and there’s no fucking point in there being warm inters if everyone drives like there’s always black ice regardless

[golvio]

I think more people would like the city they can actually drive through than the eternal gridlock that had some low-rises built around it to give the impression of a city.

Round 1, poll 12

[ragingbookdragon]

Even Though We May Be Hopeless Hearts Just Passing Through, I Was Made For Loving You PT. 1

Batsis x Kyle Rayner

Word Count: 2.1K Warnings: Explicit Language

Author's Note: I realize the other story didn't follow the whole, dating the brother's best friend trope, so I decided to remedy it. And what do you get when you cross a hopeless romantic with someone who's new to love? Perfection. That's what. Enjoy! -Thorne

**********************************************************************

Saturday mornings, in Dick’s opinion, were meant for sleeping in and quite possibly going to IHOP when everyone finally crawled out of bed at ten. They were not meant for being shoved in the side by a little brother.

“Golden-boy,” a voice grouched from beneath the bedside. “Your phone’s been going off for an hour. Either put it on silent or answer the goddamn thing.”

Dick let out a tired ‘pfft’, rolling onto his stomach, face buried in the side of the bed as he looked down to the floor. “Annoyed much, Little-wing?”

���I am going to shove that phone so far up your—”

Reaching over, Dick put the phone to his ear. “Hello?”

Where are you?

“Still in bed,” he responded, sentence ending in a groan as he stretched. “Why?”

You were supposed to be on the flight back to Gotham two hours ago.

Dick’s eyes went wide, and he sat up, gaping at the bedside clock. “It’s today.”

It is today. I can’t believe you forgot it was today.

“Oh my God, it’s today and we missed our flight.” He stumbled out of the bed, barely registering the shout from Jason as his foot landed in his brother’s stomach. “Jason, get up! It’s today!’

“What’s today?” his little brother griped, rubbing his abdomen.

“(Y/N)’s coming back!”

Jason’s eyes went wide, and he scrambled to his feet, hurriedly finding his bag to change out of his nightclothes. “Christ, I can’t believe we forgot that (Y/N) was coming home today!” he looked at Dick. “This is your fault.”

“My fault?” Dick yelped. “How is this my fault!”

He scowled. “Big brother wanted everyone to be with a sibling for the night, so they’d be together and be punctual but you and I both know neither of us have any concept of time.” His scowl grew. “I knew I should’ve bunked with Cass. She’s on time no matter what happens.”

Dick threw Jason’s sweatshirt at him. “Dress now, bitch later.” He put the phone back to his ear. “We missed our flight, but we can drive there.”

Your car’s in the shop.

“Shit,” he hissed, spinning in a circle to help his brain circuit enough to think of something new. “Uh-uh-uh—”

“Kyle!” Jason shouted, pointing at him. “Kyle’s like thirty minutes away from Manhattan! We’ll go to him for a ride!”

Dick grinned. “We’ll find Kyle.”

You sure Kyle’s at home?

“Pfft, Kyle’s always home on the weekends. He’s lazy.”

Just get here. (Y/N)’s plane is going to land in less than four hours.

“We’ll be there,” he said. “Is Diana coming too?”

Of course. She is (Y/N)’s mother.

“Nice. Alright, see you in Gotham, Bruce.”

Love you boys. And be careful. I’ve already heard that Cass, Tim, and Steph got into a fender-bender with Damian and Duke.

Dick blinked. “They’re…they’re legitimately driving separate cars? How’d they hit each other?”

Don’t ask.

The line went dead, and Dick looked at his brother. “Ready?”

Jason nodded. “Already got an Uber to Kyle’s place.”

“We could always just Uber to Gotham?” he offered, and Jason recoiled with a shocked look.

“And pay a ridiculous amount of money instead of just paying Kyle’s gas? Fuck no, big brother.” He shoved his wallet and keys into his pockets. “C’mon!” he chirped, rather excitedly. “Our baby sister’s coming home!”

***

When he swung the door open to yell at whoever was pounding on it, he wasn’t expecting to see two of his best friends grinning like idiots. “Wha—”

He’d barely gotten a word out when Jason shoved a bag of fast food in his hands. “Get dressed. You’ve gotta drive us to Gotham City.”

Kyle blinked, glancing down at the bag before looking at Dick. “Why?”

“Our sister’s coming home, and we overslept and missed out flight outta here.”

“And you came to me…why?” he asked.

“Because you have the functioning car.” Jason retorted, antsy on his feet. “C’mon Kyle. We have to hurry! (Y/N)’s coming home!”

Figuring it was better to agree than to argue, Kyle relented, handing back the bag of food before he disappeared into his apartment, reappearing moments later, dressed in a pair of dark blue jeans, a graphic tee, and his usual slim casual jacket. He took the bag back and started digging around in it.

“Who’s (Y/N)?” he inquired, biting into a breakfast burrito as he locked his front door behind him.

“Our baby sister.” Jason said.

“I thought Cass was your baby sister?”

Dick nodded, getting out his own breakfast from the bag. “She is. But (Y/N)’s like…the OG baby sister.”

Kyle blinked, glancing over at him as he pushed the elevator button. “That makes no sense.”

“He means that (Y/N) was around before Cass was.”

“And she isn’t with you guys why?”

“She’s been on Themyscira for the last few years training with her grandmother and the other Amazons.” Jason answered as if it was the most normal thing in the world, stepping onto the elevator.

Kyle merely stared at the two brothers who were looking back at him; he felt like he’d been punched in the stomach. “Wait, your sister’s an Amazon?”

“Yep.”

“Who’s her mom?” he asked, stepping between them.

“Wonder Woman.” Dick said.

Strike two. “Who’s her dad?”

“Batman.” Jason responded.

Believe it or not, Kyle went three for three punches to the gut. “Bruce and Diana had a kid together?”

“Yeah.” Dick murmured. “I think it’s also why B’s so insistent against inter-team-relations.” He nudged Jason behind Kyle. “First time he attempts dating a coworker he ends up with a baby.”

Jason snorted. “And all those lessons about, ‘Children, whatever you do, don’t date anyone on your team. It’ll only lead to babies and limited visitation’.” He laughed again, then he frowned. “I don’t think any of us have followed that lesson.”

Dick opened his mouth to make an excuse but all that came out was a pitiful, deflate of air followed by, “That’s actually a good point.”

The elevator dinged and they watched the doors open before walking out towards the parking garage. They climbed into Kyle’s car, Jason in the front because his legs were longer than Dick’s, and Dick was a contortionist anyways so if anyone deserved to have their knees in their chest, it was him.

Halfway through the drive Kyle asked, “You guys are paying for my gas, aren’t you?”

All he received was unsure responses and he merely sighed.

***

He figured he should’ve just dropped Jason and Dick off at the airport in Gotham and drove home, but he couldn’t help but want to see just what the daughter of Wonder Woman and Batman looked like. He imagined a little girl dressed in a Batman suit three sizes too big and wielding a sword and a lasso way too heavy for her. It made him smile, the way that the two brothers gushed about (Y/N). From their praise, she was their world. Kyle had to see her though, because nothing was going to satiate that curiosity of seeing the big Batman’s daughter.

He watched Dick and Jason crane their necks like birds as they looked around. And honestly, the family shouldn’t have been that hard to find considering that every time Kyle was around the entirety of the Batfamily, they were like psychos on steroids—he very much so understood why the entirety of Gotham’s villains became flighty when every member of the Batfamily was out patrolling.

Kyle wasn’t expecting a voice to crack over the airport, loud and bubbly. “Brothers!”

All three of them stopped, even him who wasn’t even a sibling, looking over towards the call and Kyle’s jaw dropped as a young woman sprinted over to Dick and Jason, slamming into them with the weight of a train. The three of them collapsed into a pile on the floor, but they were laughing so Kyle assumed the siblings were alright.

“Princess!”

“Baby girl!”

“Oh, I am so glad to see you both!” she exclaimed. “I have waited so long to come home!” she was on her feet in moments, pulling them to theirs as if they weighed nothing. And Kyle knew Jason weighed a lot—he’d been crushed under his best friend before in fights.

Suddenly, she stopped and looked over at Kyle who immediately felt his heart lurch under her sharp gaze. “Who is this you have brought?”

Jason gestured to him. “(Y/N) this is Kyle. He’s a friend of Dick and mine. Kyle, this is our little sister, (Y/N).”

She huffed laugh. “I am not little, Jason. I am twenty-one.” Reaching out, she immediately pulled Kyle in for a hug, squeezing him tightly. “It is good to meet you, Kyle.”

“You too,” he murmured, feeling his cheeks warm as she pulled away and placed her hands on his shoulders.

“Any friend of my brothers is a friend of mine.” (Y/N) smiled. “Are you a superhero as well?”

He couldn’t help but toss a quick glance towards Jason who nodded. “Uh, yeah. I’m a Green Lantern.”

(Y/N)’s eyes widened in wonder, and she let go of his shoulders in favor of grabbing at his hands until she found his ring. She stared at it, murmuring quiet, ‘ooo’s and ah’s’. “That is simply amazing!” she chirped, looking at him, and then she silently gasped, raising his hand near his eyes. “Oh…your eyes are almost the same color as your ring.”

Her smile made Kyle’s heart beat a little faster as she expressed, “They are beautiful.”

They gazed at each other, too captivated in the moment to understand that the family had gathered around them by then. Someone’s hand curled around (Y/N)’s wrist and she looked over seeing Dick tugging her hand away.

“C’mon Princess, let’s go get your things on the belt.”

She smiled and followed, giving a small wave to Kyle, who returned hers shakily whilst grinning like a dope.

Someone elbowed him in the ribs, and he gasped, holding his side as Jason muttered, “Don’t ever stare at my sister like that again.”

Kyle blinked, glancing at him. “What’re you talking about?”

“You know exactly what I’m talking about, you goddamn skirt-chaser.”

“I didn’t do anything!” Kyle spluttered.

“You’re thinking about it.” Jason warned, pointing a finger in his face. “Make a move on (Y/N) and I’ll kill you with your own ring.” Kyle recoiled just as she and Dick were coming back, both holding a suitcase.

“Father!” she called, glancing at Bruce. “Dick and I have retrieved my luggage.”

He smiled at her. “Let’s go put it in the SUV then.” He paused, looking over the large group. He and Diana had ridden together, and since his children had fender-benders, they’d picked up Cass, Tim, Stephanie, Duke, and Damian; there wasn’t room for (Y/N) too.

“Father? Is something the matter?” (Y/N) was staring at him with concern.

“There’s not enough room in the SUV for you too. Maybe we—”

“There’s room in my car for (Y/N)!” Kyle blurted out, smiling nervously at Bruce. “I can follow behind you.”

Before anyone could screech ‘NO!’, mainly Dick and Jason, (Y/N) lit up like the morning sun. “Oh, that is a wonderful idea!” she grabbed onto Diana’s arm. “We should all stop for ice-cream though! Mother, what do you say?”

She smiled at her and leaned over, kissing her head. “I say that sounds like a fantastic idea, daughter.”

Kyle grinned and held out his arm for (Y/N), her giggling as she took it. “You know, I don’t live in Gotham, (Y/N), but I do know a good gelato store around the area.”

“What is gelato?” she asked, and he groaned.

“Oh, I can’t believe you don’t know what that is.” He started off, pilling her along, leaving everyone behind. “Don’t worry, I’ll show you.”

Jason’s face pinched and he looked over at Bruce. “Can I break the no-kill rule just once?”

Bruce blinked, crossing his arms over his chest as he watched his daughter laughing along with Kyle, both looking like newlyweds already. “Believe it or not, I’m strongly considering it.”

“Bruce.” Diana admonished. “Let (Y/N) and Kyle become friends. You know she doesn’t have many outside this family here.”

Dick growled. “Except Kyle doesn’t want to be friends with (Y/N), Diana. He wants to be her boyfriend.”

“They just met though?”

“Yeah, and Kyle’s a propose on week two type of man,” Jason griped. “Jesus Christ, this is going to be a disaster.”

“I don’t know about you guys, but (Y/N) and Kyle said gelato and you guys are just standing here.” Tim said. “Can we go now?”

[universalistotalis]

The Fifth Date

Bokuto Koutarou (Timeskip!!!) x Female Reader

credits to the owner of the picture :)

3k words

kinda long but it's worth it i guess

Masterlist!!!

You can’t believe this. You just can’t!

-

“Hey, are you alright?” Bokuto Koutarou looked at you with utmost sincerity in his eyes. You looked up and wondered if he really was worried or just being polite but either way, you stared right at his pupils.

“I am.” You agreed, letting go of his gaze and wanting to end the conversation.

This was your fifth date with him but there were no sparks since the first. You just didn’t feel his vibes and he could be so noisy at times which you hated. There was selfishness underneath his skin and it reeked in your nostrils. You hated egotistic people and you weren’t going to tolerate this much longer.

What your friends saw in Bokuto, you had no idea! They were all swooning over him when they set you up on a date together. They kept saying that he was perfect so you, being the hopeless romantic that you are, expected a prince who would be a gentleman, who would listen to you talk for hours on end, who would be so loving and caring… But instead, you were presented with boastfulness and chaos all wrapped up into one big muscle of a man! He did look like a prince but that was it!

“You know you can tell me right? I’ll listen.” You didn’t mistake the softness in his voice as he continued to stare at you lovingly.

You didn’t know if it was the beautiful place that he brought you to or if it was his kindness that made your brain turn into mush. But for the first time in five dates, your heart was hammering, its beats already like drums in your ears.

“I-I’m fine.” You stuttered and kept your eyes on the horizon.

You heard him sigh beside you on the railing you were both leaning on. The place you both drove to was divine as it overlooked the city. The twinkling lights below were mimicking the stars above and there were lanterns that hung overhead as well, casting the whole place in a lazy glow. You took a deep breath of the fresh air as you calmed yourself from the most stressful day of your life and from your whirlwind of a date.

A little rustling was heard and before you knew it, you were enveloped in warmth and his scent. Bokuto wrapped his jacket around you, letting you face him, so that he could pull the zipper up to your chest.

“There, so you won’t have to worry.” He smiled sweetly.

So he did notice the large coffee stain on your shirt and not once did he show that he was irked by it. You tried your best to cover it but of course you can't. Everyone at work gave you the side glance or the 'what-the-fuck-happened-to-you' look but he didn’t!

-

This can’t be happening. Were you reminiscing all those moments with Koutarou? AND NOW YOU’RE CALLING HIM KOUTAROU?!

You rolled around on your bed, a pillow tucked underneath your arms. A muffled scream was released as you felt an intense tingling sensation all over your body. You were supposed to end that fifth date! You were supposed to tell him that you both should see other people!

But the way he acted that night… it was as if he’s… perfect.

-

“Don’t hide from me.” He whispered in your ear as you cried in his arms. As his scent and warmth put your senses to overdrive with the jacket, you couldn’t help but sob. It was like the world was against you today. Even the document from work that you were so ready to pass, crashed on you. Even the coffee that you made this morning with care, splashed your white collared shirt. Even your ID lace that seemed so insignificant, decided to get caught on the doorknob and almost snapped your neck in two! And to spice things up, your evil boss humiliated you in the inter-department presentation even when the CEO of the company congratulated you on a job well done!

It was the little depressing and annoying moments that accumulated in your chest.

“Today has been s-so hard.” You cried in his shirt. “I keep on trying my best but it’s like I’m not doing enough. I'm not enough.”

The gentle rocking of your body stopped as he heard the words fall out of your mouth.

“Hey, don’t say that.” He cooed and trying to hold you at arm’s length. “You’re more than enough.”

You shook your head and tried to avoid his eyes again as he searched for yours. Fingers gripped on your chin to steady you and you melt for the nth time tonight.

“Don’t be too harsh on yourself. Alright? This day may have been difficult for you and maybe there are more days that would be the same but you shouldn’t doubt your efforts. The fact that you made it through, that’s already something to be grateful about.” He said while wiping your tears away. “But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t cry about them once in a while. Let yourself feel but then get back up again, yeah?”

You nodded but you felt another round of sobs escape your mouth. He pouted as he saw your wounded state and again, you were held close to his broad chest, away from the hurt, the pain, the stress…

-

This was dangerous. Are you actually falling for him? You’re actually falling for the loud guy that you swore you hated?!

‘Hey, hey, hey!’

His voice reverberated inside your skull and with that sound came the print of his smile on your brain. He had the nicest set of teeth and the nicest golden eyes you’ve ever seen. His skin was flawless too and under any light, you swore he was shining.

You couldn’t help but grin at the—

Yes…

This is bad. Really bad.

-

“You wanna dance?” He offered his hand out to you, smiling shyly. You were surprised at his somehow timid expression as you were so used to him being his confident self.

“I don’t know how.” You said breathlessly as you stared at his gorgeous face.

He let out a chuckle and reached out for your hand under the table. “Let’s figure it out, c’mon.”

The platform was small and there were four couples slowly dancing to the romantic song that was being played by a live band.

He led your hands to encircle his neck while his rested on your waist. All the motions, even the slightest graze of his skin on yours, were making your mind hazy. Everything seemed to blur and the only thing that made sense were the two of you in each other’s embrace.

“You’re so tall.” You whispered mindlessly which made him chuckle. He noticed that you could barely wrap your arms around his neck and that your arms were getting floppy due to fatigue. He then guided you to hug him around his waist instead so he could pull you closer.

“I’ve never danced like this before.” He confessed, swaying stiffly at the music.

“I can tell.” You giggle and look up at him in time to see him pout.

He poked your side, deliberately tickling you for a while. “That’s mean.”

“But it’s my first time too. And I kinda like it.” You said shyly, feeling your cheeks warm even with the cold night air.

“You think you could get used to it?” He asked, hope laced in his question.

“Of course.” You smiled up at him.

He smiled back and his eyes twinkled as he stared. He scooped your right hand and brought it to his lips for a quiet kiss then slowly intertwined your fingers with his, all while maintaining eye contact.

-

“AHHHHHHHHH!” You screamed into your pillow again as your head played that scene.

Sleep was so far away now that your adrenaline was so high because of him! You swore you could still feel his lips on your skin. It was as if he imprinted it there and nothing on earth can take that away now.

“Bokuto, stop haunting me! Let me sleep!”

-

“Now, listen here, missy.” The owner of the restaurant pointed to you sternly as she stood behind the counter. “Tell this boyfriend of yours to stop going here and actually get some much deserved rest! Athletes shouldn’t be tiring themselves!”

You chuckled at her actions and stole a glance at Bokuto who’s pouting excessively at the older woman with his hair seemingly deflating at her ministrations.

“But I like your food!” He whined.

The woman clicked her tongue, as if annoyed. “You can have better food from where you live. Now, stop pestering me!”

“I will come back here more often if you say that!” He smirked and leaned on the counter.

“As if! I know you’ll come back no matter what happens.” She rolls her eyes then turned to you. “We can’t get rid of him even if we wanted to!”

They kept bickering back and forth as you waited for the fruit shakes and other snacks that Bokuto ordered for takeout. It was a long drive back home and he said didn’t want you to get thirsty or hungry. You just listened to their banters and even though they were dissing each other out, you can’t miss the loving and motherly look the owner had for Bokuto.

“You’re a regular here?” You asked him as you settled on the carseat.

“I’m a fan of the view. And as you saw, I’m quite close with the owners and the workers. This is my safe space.” He replied and started the engine.

“When was the last time you went here?” You inquired, suddenly curious of his whereabouts.

“Yesterday.” He shrugged. “And the day before that. And maybe the whole of last week.”

Your eyes widened at his answer. “This is like two or three hours away! How?!”

“I needed some place to relax. And think.” He smiled sadly as maneuvered the car to begin the journey back home.

“Are you alright?” You blinked at your question. His voice seemed low and so sad in contrast to his usual loud and noisy screeches that you were so damn used to. This Bokuto in front of you was so hard to read!

He turned to you for a split second before averting his eyes on the road. “I am. I guess.”

“Don’t hide from me.” You bit your lip hard as you repeated his words to you. You wanted to know him more, to understand his feelings, and to make him feel better.

“Hey, you can’t use my lines against me.” He laughed lightly as he looked at you. Your eyes were begging him to tell you how he is and who was he to resist? “I’m just nervous about the incoming games, that’s all.”

“You still get nervous?” You turned to him, a little surprised.

“Why are you so shocked? Of course, I do! Some less nerve- wrecking than the others but I do always get tension at every game.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair while thinking. “But the upcoming match is a qualifying game for the Olympics so everyone is anxious.”

“Who are you against with?” You asked.

“See, now that’s another one of my worries. The competitors have still not been announced so we have to wait for a month. A whole month! What am I supposed to do?!” He said exasperatedly. “And just last week, one of our teammates got injured so they gave us time off. You know, to rest and shit. But I am restless and—"

“So that’s why you come all the way here?” You concluded.

“Yeah.” He breathed. “The drive gets my mind off of the anxiety and their food just makes me feel like I’m home.”

‘So he is human after all.’ You said to yourself. It was the simplest realization but it did so many wonders for your feelings and understanding towards him.

The drive home was filled with stories of sadness and laughter. You both sipped at your drinks and munched at the chips he bought. And as you both neared your home, it dawned on you that this was the best date you’ve ever had in your life! Bokuto’s so laid back and chill, kind and generous. He listened so intently and patiently to all your life stories and he had a good memory too, remembering the things you’ve told him about yourself in the past dates.

-

You sighed while sitting up. There’s no question that you were falling in deep for this guy. During the drive, he became his noisy self, acting all the spikes he did at the games comically but instead of being annoyed, you had tears in your eyes because you had laughed so much at his acting. You loved listening to him talk and you realized he wasn’t selfish at all!

Go figure.

Maybe you just mistook his confidence for selfishness and egocentricity.

-

You can’t believe that you were itching to lengthen the time you had with him. The car was now parked in front of where you lived and it was time to say goodbye.

Your eyes met and there was a tinge of sadness in his eyes which surprised you.

“Look.” He turned to the passenger seat and leaned closer. “I know that I’m not the best date there is and you may have been agreeing to these just because of obligation from your friends but… I’d like you to know that I—“

Closing his eyes, he exhaled. “I really like you.”

As the words were uttered, your body visibly tenses under his gaze.

Panic rises in his gut as he realized what he did. “S-sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“N-no!” You tried to swallow. “You didn’t scare me.”

“Then why do you look like you’ve seen ghost?” He chuckled lightly not giving up his stares.

Your shoulders slumped as you sighed. “I’m just surprised, that’s all.”

He nodded, still looking. “I guess this will be our last, huh?”

“What?”

“I know you don’t like me and you hate my company. I just really like you so I tried to drag it out for so long.” He said sheepishly as he deflated back into his seat. “I don’t want to make you uncomfortable and I’m so sorry if I did.”

This was not how you imagined ending your date. You were supposed to be the one saying that this will be the last. You were supposed to be excited about not seeing him again. You were supposed to go now! But the universe really did pull a reverse card on you today.

“Bokuto…” You started, feeling the guilt consume you to the bones. “I’m sorry if I made you feel that I didn’t like you.”

He was fiddling with his fingers now.

“It's just that your first impressions lasted so bad that it blinded me to who you really were.” Be honest. Just be fuckin’ honest! “I did think I didn’t like you but after tonight, you proved me wrong.”

His face looked at you in a flash, eyes finding the meaning behind your words.

“I didn’t know you could be like this!” You gestured to him, a little frustrated because your heart was pounding so bad and it became so difficult to breathe.

“Like what?” A smirk was beginning to form at his lips.

“This!” You laughed. “You’re fun to be with. You’re calm and reliable when needed. And just… yeah.” You’re just perfect.

You stared at each other’s eyes for a while longer, trying to read and drown in each other.

“If you don’t mind, I’d like to give it another try?” You asked, hoping to god he’ll say yes to your request.

His eyes widened for a moment and his gray hair perked up a little bit.

“I told you I like you.” He smiled. “Why would I say no to that?”

-

Your phone beeped beside you. And if you weren’t so red enough from the memory, you knew that you were flaming red now.

It was a text from Bokuto.

Can’t sleep :(

You sighed at what he said. His anxiety about the game catches onto him so much that he often gets insomnia. The poor baby. You were about to reply when another text popped out.

I may or may not be outside your home.

“What?!” You panicked while swiftly looking for a hoodie to put on. Why is he here and why were you feeling excited at the thought of seeing him?

You asleep, little owl?

You bolted towards the doors and true enough, he was there, leaning on his car and dazzling in all his six feet and three inches glory. He looked unreal in this light even in his simple hoodie and joggers.

“I’m sorry, did I wake you?” His husky voice greeted you as you walked closer.

“No. Can’t sleep too.” You smiled. “What brings you here?”

He shrugged. He didn’t know what came over him when he closed your distance and hugged you tight. To him, you looked like an angel sent to earth only for his eyes to see! You were in an oversized hoodie, hair a little tousled, and your face was so calm under the moonlight. Something inside him prickled at the thought of being domestic with you.

Slowly your arms wrapped around his waist and you surrendered your weight to him. In that moment, he felt like he would burst! Never did he expect for this to happen, for you to give him a chance, but here you were. He deeply breathed in your scent and planted a kiss on the top of your head.

“Do you want to hang out tomorrow?” Your voice was a mere whisper when you looked up at him.

“Like a date?” He grinned and wiggled his eyebrows playfully.

“Yeah?” You nodded.

He wondered if you had any idea about how you're making him feel crazier by the minute. If you don’t, then that’s much worse. “What am I gonna do with you?” He chuckled, arranging stray locks of your hair.

“You can go on a date with me.” You laughed and he was sure, so sure, that you felt his heart do a cartwheel when you were resting your head on his chest.

“I’d like that.” He replied hugging you tighter.

It was funny to you that you planned that fifth date to be the last. It turned out to be the first. The first real date where you felt like a princess in a fairytale. It was the first out of a never- ending series of romantic dates because Bokuto Koutarou had no plans of letting you go. Ever.

--

Okay, wait, hear me out. Have you seen that scene where Bokuto and Akaashi were just outside the hotel and they were just talking all calm and casual? MA'AM THAT'S WHERE I DIED SEEING BOKUTO AHHHH HE'S JUST SO PRECIOUS AND I DO BELIEVE HE CAN BE SERIOUS AND MATURE IF GIVEN THE CHANCE. I AM SIMPING HARD HELP

Masterlist!!!

Reblogs, replies are appreciated! <3

[wiypt-writes]

Stark Spangled Banner

Ch34: Paper

Summary: Following the events in Siberia, Katie, Steve Wanda and Sam all struggle to adapt to a life on the run. The Roger’s first wedding anniversary isn’t spent the way Steve would have hoped, but as Fall arrives, he finallly gets the call he’d been waiting for from Wakanda.

Warnings: Bad language, Smut! (NSFW, Under 18s) Bad Language words.

Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC Katie Stark

A/N: Wonderful edit again from @angrybirdcr​ and a new part means a new banner!!!! Here we go, into the Nomad/IW years...

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

Chapter 33

Stark Spangled Banner Masterlist // Main Masterlist

August 2016

Following advice from Coulson, the group of Outlaws decided to lay low for a few months until interest died down, although Katie and Sam were pretty amused to find out that there had been widespread protests across the US after Captain America had been declared and Enemy of the State, especially when someone (no names were mentioned, but Katie was laying odds on it being Murdock to help Clint and Scott’s very publicised hearings) had leaked to the press details of exactly what had taken place in Siberia, and how they had been treated by the Government. To Katie’s further delight, Ross was facing a public enquiry as well with regards to their unlawful arrests. 

All in all, that part of it had worked out pretty well. And whilst she knew Ross would get away with it, the thought of him being pissed off and inconvenienced filled her with a very smug sense of satisfaction.

The place they were living was called the Isle of Lewis, approximately twelve miles away from Stornoway in the northern part of the inter-connected Islands in the Hebrides. Coulson wasn’t lying when he’d told Katie it was isolated, in fact the only connection to mainland Scotland was either a two hour ferry or a half hour flight, so with that respect it was absolutely perfect. 

The old farm house was secluded, the land surrounding it sprawling for miles, shielded by a large thicket of trees on three sides and a cliff edge which dropped down to a small beach on the other. There was no reason for anyone to visit or pass their house, bar the odd dog walker they saw treading the cliff footpath. They were always careful when seeing people to greet them politely so they didn’t attract attention by being suspiciously aloof. 

The first rule of going on the run? Don’t run.

At first they strayed into town for supply runs only. Katie was surprised just how well she adapted to living with two additional people. At first she had been worried, Steve and her having had their own space for such a long time. Even in the tower and compound their living quarters had been spacious and private, meaning they could hide away from everyone if they wanted to. But in their safe house they didn’t have that luxury. Nevertheless, it was adequate enough meaning they all had their own rooms, even if they were on the small side. And whilst there was only one full bathroom upstairs, so far there had been no squabbles about who used it when. 

The large sitting area had been kitted out with a state of the art entertainment system, they had a decent sized farmhouse style Kitchen-Diner, and a smaller sitting room off the back of the kitchen with a smaller TV and a  a piano much to Katie’s delight. Practical things like bills etc were coming out of an account belonging to Mr and Mrs O’Rourke, one of Katie and Steve’s covers- the name being Steve’s Ma’s maiden name. Coulson had advised them it was the least suspicious thing to do and would attract less attention than trying to pay cash at a bank. They’d also acquired a ten year old 4x4, bought for cash of course, and it was subtle enough to blend in as a lot of the locals seemed to drive them too due to the terrain and climate of the Island.

But whilst everything seemed to go according to plan and was, when all was said and done, fairly easy, Steve was struggling. He was antsy from the lack of action, and from a purely carnal point of view was missing the fact he could slam his wife up against any surface he wanted to and not worry about them being caught. He hated the fact their room was right next to Sam’s, concerned with the amount of noise they might make after Bucky’s jibe about the hotel rooms, and it wasn’t long before Katie noticed a dramatic shift in his attitude towards her. He was snappy, short tempered and Katie was often the one that bore the brunt of his temper. They bickered, on a much larger scale than she could really ever remember them doing before, over really stupid things as well like the fact one evening Steve couldn’t find where she’d put his favourite cookies in the kitchen. He became less tactile, less handsy and their love life dwindled dramatically, but she tried not to let it get to her, which was easier said than done especially when she was so used to the fact that he basically worshipped the ground she walked on.

The morning of their first wedding anniversary, Katie woke alone, her husband nowhere to be found. After laying simply staring at his empty side of the bed for a moment, remembering he blinked back tears of frustration and headed for a before she wandered downstairs into the kitchen to be greeted by Sam and Wanda both sat at the table.

“Steve gone for a run?” She asked, after greeting them both good morning.

“Yeah, I offered to go but he wanted to go on his own.” Sam said, shrugging “Didn’t want me slowing him down.”

“He actually said that?” Katie frowned.

Sam nodded.

“I’m sorry Sam, don’t take it personally.” Katie poured herself a coffee and sat down, taking a deep breath. “Is everything okay?” Wanda asked, looking at Katie “You’ve both been a little tetchy recently. Granted you haven’t been as bad as him, but…” “Yeah, you guys not err…getting enough?” Sam quipped, earning himself a slap round the back of the head from Wanda, the younger woman giving him a glare.

“Fuck off Wilson.” Katie rolled her eyes.

“I’m just saying.”

“Well don’t.” She snapped, taking a sip of her coffee then swiping a piece of toast off his plate. “He’s just not coping well with being cooped up, it’ll settled down. I hope.” She added, biting her toast.

“Look, we know it’s your anniversary today.” Wanda looked at her. “You got anything planned?” “Not really possible.” Katie shrugged. “Thought I might try and convince him to take a walk later, just the two of us but…”

“Well,” Sam looked at Wanda then over to Katie. “We thought we might head into town for the evening, hit a few bars. Give you two a bit of space.” Wanda nodded, eagerly. “You have to do something, even if it’s just cooking a meal and having a bit of you time.” Katie pondered this for a moment and found herself smiling “Actually, that’s not a bad idea. I can go to the store later.” Her spirits raised a little as she started planning a menu out in her head. She was jerked from her thoughts when the security system clicked and Steve walked through the door of the kitchen that led to the grounds, the door shutting behind him, the keypad beeping as he typed in the code to lock everything down. His T-shirt was damp with sweat, clinging to his torso, the pair of dark sweats fitting snugly to his hips.

“Hey.” She looked up at him. His face was tired but nevertheless she was relieved to see him smile as he walked over and dropped a soft kiss to her head, their argument from the previous night forgotten.

“Happy Anniversary.” He whispered, and she smiled up at him, understanding his gesture to also be an apology of sorts.

“Back at ya, Soldier.” She swallowed back her tears, “You want breakfast?” “I’ll shower first.” He nodded to Sam and Wanda before pausing, and with a playful smile he stole the last piece of toast off Sam’s plate.

“Not cool man!” Sam groaned.  “That was the last of the bread.” Steve simply shrugged at Sam’s protest, before he headed down the hallway to go and freshen up. Katie watched him go before she turned to Wanda.

“Fancy coming with me to the store?”

She nodded “Sure.”

***** When Steve came back to the kitchen half an hour or so later he was surprised to find the girls gone.

“Supplies.” Sam answered his unasked question as he was flicking through the television in the lounge, settling on a British Chat Show called ‘This Morning’, easy daytime TV that didn’t require thinking about. Steve made himself a coffee before he sat down next to his friend with a sigh.

“So, first anniversary.” Sam spoke, not looking at him. “Be this isn’t what you thought you’d be doing?” “You can say that again.” Steve mumbled. Just twelve months ago at that exact time he’d been bustling about his apartment on the compound in a fluster getting ready. It had, without a doubt, been the happiest day of his life.  But this was not how he wanted their first wedding anniversary to go down. He’d always planned spoiling Katie a little, maybe a nice getaway, somewhere warm, but that wasn’t an option.

“Me and Wanda are clearing out later.” Sam’s eyes remained on the TV. “Give you two a bit of alone time.” “You don’t have to-“ Steve started but Sam cut him off with a snort.

“Man, you need to make some lovin’ on your girl.” He turned to the soldier who felt a flush rise up his neck. “Because we know you ain’t been getting enough, you’ve been a bad tempered bastard for weeks.”

“I have not.” Steve shot back indignantly, causing Sam to raise his eyebrows. Steve let out a sigh, knowing he was well and truly busted.

“Look, if you two ever need some space, all ya gotta do is ask.” Sam said sincerely, looking at Steve. “Couples need that time. This is bound to be stressful for you both.”

“I doubt it’s easy on you two either.” Steve looked at him and Sam shrugged, before he smirked.

“Difference is if I wanna get laid I’ll just head into town. There’ll be some sap out there that likes George Fletcher the Geologist from Georgia.”

“You’re terrible you know that?” Steve smirked at him over his coffee mug.

Sam simply smiled back. “You get her anything?”

“Yeah.” Steve nodded “We agreed months ago on something paper themed, you know, on account of the anniversary being paper. I had planned to get the lyrics to our wedding song printed and do a sketch of one of our photos to hang up in our apartment but that kinda went out of the window.” “So what did you get?” “A book.” Steve let out a breath “I spotted it in the second hand shop in town last time we did a flyer. It’s a leather-bound complete works of Shakespeare but it was published the year she was born and has all these handwritten notes in it from someone. Just the kind of thing she’ll like. And a couple of albums of sheet music, I know she’s missing hers back home and she hasn’t been playing the piano as much as I thought she would.”

“She’ll love it.” Sam smiled encouragingly “I hope so Sam.” he sighed, leaning back against the couch cushions, scratching at his chin “I hope so.” *****

True to their word, Sam and Wanda headed out just after five, leaving Katie and Steve alone. As Katie bustled around in the kitchen, Steve couldn’t help but watch his wife as she cooked, a small smile playing on his face. And then, realising they were truly alone for the first time in months he placed his beer down on the side and crossed the small room, wrapping his arms around her from behind and dropping his chin to her shoulder, nuzzling at her neck. She smiled at his display of affection, something she’d been aching for, and as the scruff of his almost-beard scratched at her skin she gave a soft sigh.

“You okay?” she asked.

“Yeah.” He said, before he shook his head “No. Not really. Doll, I’m sorry for being so distant. You don’t deserve this.” He sighed. “After the accords, when the dust settled we were supposed to have a normal life, a simple life. I can’t even give you that.”

“It’s a good thing you’re cute because at times you’re incredibly stupid,” She smiled making him breathe a laugh. “Steve we’re here, together after everything. I made that vow, until death do us part and I mean it. I love you.” She finished simply, shrugging. “So stop wasting time worrying about it. You’re stuck with me, Captain Dumbass.“

Steve looked back at her, before he gave her a small smile.

"Now I know this probably isn’t what either of us had in mind, but we’re on our own, I’ve got a pretty large batch of Mac and Cheese, and an apple pie in the oven, a steak ready to grill so let’s just try and enjoy it.”

“You made mac and cheese?” Steve’s face creased into a boyish smile “And apple pie? What happened to not baking pies unless it’s Autumn?” “Well its September tomorrow.” She shrugged. “And I thought it might cheer you up.”

"Sorry.” He half grimaced, half smiled apologetically back at her. “I know I haven’t been the easiest to be around lately ─”

“Stop apologizing.” She interrupted him again.

He studied her for a second before he leaned down to give her a soft kiss. “I love you.” “I know.” Her hands slid down to his chest and she gave him a quick pat before playfully shoving him away “Now scoot, unless you want me to burn dinner. Go set the table.” Knowing better than to refuse, he did as he was told and it wasn’t long before they were settled down and eating. They talked about everything and anything, drank wine, and to the pair of them they could almost have been sat in their dining room at the compound. They laughed, they joked, they poked fun at one another. It felt normal. Once they had finished eating they cleared their dishes, Steve grabbed another bottle of wine and they headed to the couch to find something to watch on TV.

“I got you something.” Katie smiled when Steve dropped the wine onto the coffee table and she gestured to the small gift bag resting on the table.

“Oh, me too. Hang on.” He bounded up the stairs to retrieve his gift. As he returned, Katie eyed the two wrapped items with playful suspicion as he handed them to her. One was really heavy. She passed the gift bag containing his to him and he peeked inside, and they shared a childish grin with one another before they set about opening their presents.

“Oh, Steve.” She breathed out as she gently ran her hands over the leather of the anthology he had bought her. Flicking through, she smiled as she spotted all the notes that someone had written in the margins. They consisted of opinions on the plays, themes, characterisation plots, all the type of thing she had studied at University and she found it fascinating to read other people’s interpretations.

“I thought you might like it.” He watched her as she looked at him, her eyes bright, before she then let out another sigh of happiness when she opened the two sheet music books as they would give her something else to play other than the stuff she knew from memory.

And her gift to Steve was equally as thoughtful. He positively beamed when he opened the new blank sketch books, pencils, wax crayons and charcoals. All of his art supplies had been left behind and he’d been dying to get some more.

“Well, the sketchbook is paper.” Katie explained softly. “And I know it relaxes you to draw.” “Doll, its perfect” He assured her, dropping a kiss to her lips. “Thank you.”

“So, what film do you wanna watch?” She asked, moving for the remote but Steve had no intention of watching a film. Not now. He gently grabbed her wrist and she looked at him.

“Right now, Mrs Rogers, I’d really like to carry you upstairs and take you to bed.”

Katie grinned. “Well that can be arranged, but there’s something I wanna do first.”

He looked at her, puzzled for a moment but when she tapped on her phone and the opening sounds of ‘Only One in Colour’ sounded over the speakers he laughed and stood up, offering her his hand.

“May I have this dance?” He quipped, arching an eyebrow at her.

“Always.” She smiled, allowing him to pull her up.

They moved to the back of the couch where there was more room and he took her in a hold and they simply stayed close, swaying to the music, both of them thinking back to their first dance as a married couple twelve months ago. Katie pressed her cheek to Steve’s chest and he in turn rest his chin on the top of her head, revelling in her closeness. He heard her let out a soft sigh, but this one was contentment, and he gently moved to look down at her. For a moment Katie felt her breath catch, he was looking at her with nothing but unadulterated desire and love, the same way he had on their wedding day, and before the song had even finished, he’d captured her lips in a soft kiss, his hands moving to cradle her face. Hers fisted in his white T-shirt and it wasn’t long before the kiss had deepened causing a moan to catch in Steve’s throat. Without a word he pulled back and scooped her up in his arms, bridal style, causing her to giggle, a sound he would never tire of, and quick as a flash he carried her up the stairs and into the bedroom.

He set her on her feet but before he had time to do anything she’d shoved him backwards, catching him off guard slightly causing him to sit down harshly on the bed and he let out a smirk as she straddled him before she kissed him again and he was happy to reciprocate exactly how he knew she liked, firm and gentle, passionate and caring all at once. Katie gently bit his lower lip drawing another groan from his throat as he rest his head against hers, his hands gently gipping her hip.

“You know,” She drew back slightly to cup his face in her fingertips. “I really do like kissing you with this.” she traced her hand across the short beard on his face. She also liked looking at him with it too because, coupled with the fact his hair was also getting slightly longer, it gave him a rugged, harder, rougher look taking him farther and farther away from the Blue-Eyed all American boy day by day.

“I’m getting used to it.” He murmured pressing a soft kiss to her mouth before his head dropped, small kisses trailing up the length of her neck, that precious stubble creating an amazing contrast to the softness of his mouth.

“Yeah, me too.” She gave a soft moan, her eyes closed as she rolled her head back, giving him access to more of her neck. Steve smiled slightly, happy to oblige and just take his god damned time loving his wife. Eventually, his lips made their way up her jaw and then she sat up slightly, grasping at the hem of his T-shirt. He moved to allow her to take it off and then his fingers made short work of the sleeveless button down she had been wearing, shrugging it down over her shoulders before he peppered more kisses across her collar bone and down her sternum as he reached round to undo her bra. Gently, he lay her flat down on the bed, taking a nipple in his mouth, this time drawling a loud groan from her as her hips bucked involuntarily upwards at the sensations spiking through her body.

God it really had been far too long since he’d lavished attention on her like this and Steve made a mental note to tell Sam and Wanda to ‘take a walk’ a lot more often. It was almost two months now since they had last been intimate and, his body was aching for her, desperate to feel her, and from the noises she was making she felt the same. His lips made their way down, nose and beard skimming along the waistband of her jeans before he undid them, sliding them down with her underwear as he shed his own too before he crawled back over her.

Katie pushed on his shoulders slightly so she could roll him over and placed herself on top of him, brushing her lips across the hairs on his face tracing a path across from one side of his jawline to the other drawing a gentle moan from his lips, hands flexing on her hips as she shifted slightly to start taking him in. Her mouth dropped into a small ‘o’ as they both groaned as she slid down him, her hands falling to his chest and once he was fully sheathed inside of her, she began to work him gently. His hands slid up into her hair, as she leaned forward to kiss him and he raised his hips slightly and she whimpered, pushing down harder against him as his hands gently kneaded at her breasts. Her pace was slow, torturously so, but it wasn’t long before she began to move faster, working him harder as she chased her relief. The roughness of his pubic hair was grinding against her spot, the friction feeling amazing as she pushed down. With every push she made, his eyes grew darker, and darker, his hands digging into her hips as he pulled her down, grinding further and deeper.

He sat up suddenly, so they were face to face, the change of angle making her cry out, as he slid his hands round her back, pulling her closer to him as he bent to kiss her neck, biting at that spot whilst he held her still for a moment, gently thrusting upwards, deeply, slowly, savouring the moment. Katie rolled her head back, a louder cry this time tumbling from her lips and he felt her tighten around him, and he let out a groan of his own.

“Good?” He panted, smiling as she managed a broken noise of affirmation, as he pulled her to him harder, hands back on her hips as his rutting picked up speed.

“Stevie…” She mumbled, her eyes locking onto his as her hands slid up his back and fisted into his hair. A few more pushes later and they were both done for, her name escaping from his lips as her walls collapsed completely, and she let out a soft cry as she fell forward burying her face in his neck. He was close behind, letting out a gentle moan, his beard rustling against her ear as he jerked underneath her, clinging onto her as if he never wanted to let her go. And at that moment he didn’t.

After a minute or so he leaned back, his breathing deep as he brushed her hair back off her face before sliding his nose against hers. “Happy Anniversary, Kitten.” *******

Steve thought the fall in New York was gorgeous but that was nothing compared to what it was like where they were. He was feeling a lot more positive about things as well, as post their anniversary, he and Katie had made a pact that they would do  something alone together at least once a week, be it a walk along the cliff the beach, or straying into town to one of the local restaurants. His hair and beard now rendered him pretty much unrecognisable and they never got a second glance at all. 

Steve’s favourite ‘date’, if you could them that, was the walk they took in the pitch black to see the Northern Lights late one evening. Katie had been utterly captivated by the beauty of the Aurora Borealis and Steve had to admit, it was spectacular. Committing it to memory was easy, and a few days later Katie wasn’t surprised to find a perfect replica of them his sketch book.

Being on the run shouldn’t have been this easy, and they were constantly on edge, waiting for the time they had to split and run, but whilst they could, they made the most of it. 

Thanksgiving came, then Christmas, the four friends making it as festive as possible. They got a tree, shared gifts, enjoyed a Christmas Meal, and after several drinks each, Steve wheeled the piano into the living room where Sam and Katie gave a rousing rendition of ‘Fairy Tale of New York’ along with a few other Christmas songs. It was different, but that didn’t make it any less enjoyable.

And then, in March 2017, they had a call from T’Challa. They were ready to bring Bucky out of cryo. Katie and Steve instantly set about making the arrangements to go to Wakanda, but it turns out they weren’t the only ones planning on taking a little trip…

“There’s something I wanted to discuss with you all.” Wanda said, the morning they were due to depart. “Please don’t freak out, but I talked to Vision last night.”

“What?” Katie’s voice was quiet as she merely looked back at the younger woman, her face passive.

Meanwhile, both Steve and Sam’s eyebrows shot up in their foreheads.

“Hold on, what do you mean you talked to Vision?” Steve asked. “How? Where?”

“This is going to sound really weird, but I saw him in my dreams,” Wanda carried on with her explanation.

“How do you know that wasn’t just a dream?” Sam asked.

“Because it wasn’t,” Wanda shrugged “I don’t know how to explain it, but I know it was him and I know it was real. I think we are connected somehow, because of the Mind Stone and because I was thinking about him before I went to sleep, it made some kind of telepathy possible.”

Steve pondered it for a second, thinking to himself how ridiculous that sounded until he realised they were talking about an enhanced human who had gained certain telepathic and telekinetic powers due to experimentation with the Mind Stone and an android that now carried within his synthetic, vibranium-mesh body said gem. 

When you put it like that it seemed fairly logical.

"What did you talk about?” Katie asked after a moment.

“Just stuff, how I was, how much we, you know, miss one another” Wanda bit her lip. “We talked about actually meeting in person in a few days.”

“Okay, hold on,” Sam held one of his hands up, his brow furrowed. “How do we know this is not a trap? Like, I don’t know, Tony getting Vision to talk to you to get us back into the Raft?”

As soon as Sam said it Katie shook her head. Tony could sometimes be a jackass and he may have been hurt and mad at her and Steve, but she knew despite his stinging barb in Siberia, he wouldn’t want them all thrown in jail.

“He wouldn’t do that,” She looked at Sam.

“How do you know?” Sam pressed.

“Because Tony has way better tech than us, and there’s no accounting for what Vision can do with that Mind Stone.” Steve backed his wife up. This was something he had been pondering on for a while now too. “If anyone can find us, it’s them, yet we’re almost ten months down the line now since Leipzig and so far, there’s no sign of any one, so Tony’s either no longer working with Ross, or if he is, he’s dragging his feet deliberately.”

“Exactly,” Wanda nodded emphatically. “And Vision would never do anything to hurt me, not intentionally. I trust him with my life, but it’s more than that.”

Taking a deep breath, his mind made up, Steve turned to Wanda “You’re not a prisoner here Wanda. If you want to go then we can’t and we won’t stop you.”

“Do you want to go?” Katie looked at the younger woman who was wringing her hands together.

“I do but, well, I kinda feel like I’m fraternizing with the enemy.”

“He’s not the enemy. None of them are. Not Vision or Rhodey, Not Tony, none of them.” Steve ran his hand through his hair, sweeping the long strands back off his face. “We all wanted the same thing, to do good in this world but we disagreed on how best to make it happen. Doesn’t make us enemies.”

“But we’re on the run because…”

“This was always going to happen.” Katie cut her off, shaking her head “Ever since SHIELD collapsed and Fury stepped away there was a power vacuum. It was only a matter of time before the Government tried to step in to oversee us.”

“And let’s face it, I was always going to be considered a rogue threat the moment I refused to comply” Steve said, a wry smile on his face. “We all were.”

“Just be careful.” Katie looked at Wanda. “And whilst we’re away just make sure you check in once in a while? And the first sign of trouble, well, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

“Well if Wanda’s being granted shore leave so to speak, I might take a bit of time too.” Sam chipped in as the idea came to him. “There’s an old RAF pal of mine, based near Liverpool that I aint seen in a while. He’s cool,” he anticipated the next question, “I saved his life on a mission so he won’t sell me out.” Steve took a deep breath and then shrugged “You know the risks, Sam. If any of us get caught then…” “Back to the Pokey.” Sam shrugged “Yeah, I got it. And don’t worry, I wouldn’t rat your location out.”

“Me neither.” Wanda added. 

“I don’t for a second believe you would.” Steve shook his head.

“I suppose, to be fair,” Katie bit her lip, “we’ve been here for a long time now. It won’t harm us to disappear for a while, regroup in a few weeks. And we’ll draw even less attention apart as they won’t be expecting it.” And so, for the first time in ten months, the four went their separate ways. ****** True to his word, Steve was there when they woke Bucky up. Once he had come round the two greeted one another with the same love and affection they always did. Suri’s scans showed that the programming was no longer present in Bucky’s brain, but there was one last thing they had to do to make sure.

Say the trigger words.

Which was why Katie, Steve, a one armed Bucky and T’Challa were now heading to the underground fort of the palace. Katie clutching a rifle, Steve was unarmed bar his super strength, whilst T’Challa was in his black panther garb, the party flanked by two members of his Kings Guard.

As they were about to enter the underground cell, Bucky grabbed Katie’s arm and pulled her to one side.

“What the hell Bucky?” She almost yelped, and he let go of her arm and held his finger to his lips.

“Listen, Doll Face, I got a favour to ask. If this hasn’t worked…” He took a deep breath. “I want you to end it.”

“End what?”  She arched an eyebrow at him. “Me.” He replied simply “Steve said you’re a good shot. I want you to put a bullet in my head.” Katie blinked, and then burst out laughing. “Whatever.” “I’m being deadly serious.” Bucky looked at her. “I can’t and I don’t want to live like that anymore.” He shook his head sadly. “I’d rather die that know that what they’ve done is still in there.” “Bucky,” Katie frowned, “you’d be safe here, you know that, no one would trigger you.” “No, we don’t know that.” He shook his head. “Please Katie, I’m begging you. You owe me.” “So you save my life and you want me to take yours?” “Yeah. Pretty much.”

“You’re an asshole, James Buchanan Barnes” She hissed, glaring at him before shooting a glance over his shoulder at where Steve was stood, talking to T’Challa. She shook her head sadly. “I can’t. It’d kill Steve and it’s wrong, you don’t…”

“Listen, I’m asking you because I trust you to do it.” Bucky cut her off, looking over his shoulder to where she had been watching Steve. He was now stood observing the pair of them and they both smiled at him. Katie took a deep breath, looking into Bucky’s steel blue eyes and gave a sigh. She knew how hard this was on him and she could fully understand where he was coming from but still, asking her to do it, especially when she knew Steve would be besides himself made her feel sick.

“I’ve written him a letter.” Bucky said quickly, as the Super Soldier was now making his way over. “It explains what I’ve asked you to do. So please, give me your word.”

She looked at him, swallowing, and gave him a small nod before her eyes flicked to Steve as he approached, a frown on his face.

“You two alright?”

“Yeah, Katie was just asking me how I was really feeling.” Bucky looked at his friend.

Katie shrugged and smiled at Steve in what she hoped as a convincing way “Wanted to make sure he was alright, that’s all.”

Steve studied her for a moment, and she smiled again before he turned to Bucky. “It’s gonna be ok.” Steve assured his friend, clapping him on his shoulder, shooting another glance at his wife who was nervously chewing her lip. He frowned again, but pushed the suspicion to the back of his mind and then nodded. “Come on.” “Yeah, let’s get this over with.” Bucky mumbled.

Steve and T’Challa stepped into the room which was sealed whilst Katie took up her position on the other side of the one way glass with Suri who pressed the microphone to talk into the room.

““I don’t know why you are all worrying, brother, it is like you do not trust me…” the young woman scoffed. “Take no chances Sister.” T’Challa shot back. “You know this”.

Suri made a noise in her throat and then spoke again “Ok, I’m ready when you are.” She held the red book in her hand that they had recovered from Zumo. T’Challa engaged his helmet whilst Steve stood stoic as ever, throwing a glance over his shoulder to the glass he knew his wife was stood at the other side of.

“Ready Buck?” he asked turning back. His friend nodded, taking a deep breath.

T’Challa signalled to Suri who, after a little hesitation, began to read, each word punctuated by a pause.

“Longing, Rusted, Seventeen, Daybreak, Furnace…”

Katie watched intently and saw Bucky was clenching his teeth and suddenly she started to get a little bit nervous. She wasn’t the only one that had spotted it either. Steve moved slightly, adopting a little more of a battle stance than he had been as he clocked his friends reaction.

“Nine, Benign, Homecoming, One, Freight Car”

The last words hit Steve like a truck. It was depraved that Hydra would use those words. Bucky had plunged from a train car to his supposed death. There was no randomness to that at all, unlike the seemingly obscure nature of the rest of the words, nor was it any accident it was the last trigger they would use. There were the final words because they signified the death of Bucky and the birth of the killer Winter Soldier.

Sick bastards.

Bucky’s chest was heaving, his fist was clenching, and for a split second Steve feared the worse. But when his friend looked up, he saw the blue eyes of Bucky Barnes looking back at him, and not the icy glare of the Winter Soldier.

“Buck?” He asked gently, his voice cracking slightly. Bucky looked at him, a single tear falling down his cheek.

“Nothing.” He croaked, and Katie let out a soft sigh of relief, her hands sliding down her face to cover her mouth. “Nothing.”

T’Challa threw a party of sorts that night which consisted of a bar crawl through the city. Katie and Bucky dubbed it a ‘Fuck HYDRA’ party much to Steve’s chagrin. But he couldn’t bring himself to care that much, as at the end of the day, if anyone had as much right to stick their middle fingers up to HYDRA it was them. There was still something troubling him though, so when T’Challa left the bar they were sat at for a few moments, he turned to Bucky and asked him outright what had been going on with him and Katie outside the cell before. Bucky hesitated before he hung his head slightly and peered up at Steve from where he was sat next to him, a tumbler of some kind of Wakandan alcohol in his hand.

“I asked her to kill me.” Bucky admitted, swilling the liquid round in the glass “If it hadn’t worked I asked her to put a bullet in my head. She didn’t want to but I told her she owed me.” Steve felt himself blanche. “You did what?” “You don’t know what it’s like.” Bucky shook his head. “Living with the fact that at any time someone could mutter a string of words and…” He shot back the alcohol and slid his empty glass back to the Bar Tender to top up. “I didn’t want to live like that.”

”You put that on her?” Steve’s eyes flashed with anger, “Damnit Buck, you should have asked me!”

“Would you have done it?” Bucky countered. Steve took a big sigh, knowing he was caught “Exactly.” Bucky scoffed. “And besides, you’re the one that said she was a dead shot.”

Bucky eyed his friend for a while before he slid his empty glass to the man behind the bar, gesturing for another top up. “Anyway, it’s irrelevant now because here I am.”

“That was still a shitty thing to do.” Steve frowned before he reached over for his glass, giving a little shrug. “But yeah, here you are.” T’Challa chose that point to come back and he settled at the bar next to Steve.

“So, Sergeant Barnes, we’ll have to see about getting you some permanent lodgings.” The King smiled “Maybe a private hut. There is a quiet tribe, not far from the river, unless you would prefer a post in my Kings Guard.” “I’m done fighting.” Bucky shook his head as he took another drink from his glass. “A hut sounds mighty fine. Maybe I can get some goats.” “Goats?” Steve looked at him.

“I like Goats.” Bucky shrugged “Do you remember the one in the petting zoo near School?” “Yeah, it set my asthma off.” Steve snorted before the pair of them descended into laughter.

Across the bar, Katie was stood with Suri and one of T’Challa’s personal guards, Okoye. She instantly warmed to Okoye, the woman reminding her a lot of Natasha. They stood chatting for a while before a loud roll of laughter caught their attention and they turned to see T’Challa, Bucky and Steve howling at something, as T’Challa gestured for the bar tender to top up their glasses whilst Okoye excused herself to head over to speak to her husband. 

“Oh dear, they’ve broken out the Wakandan Spice.” Suri muttered, eyeing up the men.

“What’s that?” Katie asked.

“The only thing that gets my brother drunk!” Suri snorted “That stuff could knock out a rhino.”

“So it should have an effect on Super Soldiers?” Katie grinned.

“Let’s go find out!” Suri nodded, a cheeky grin on her face. They made their way over and Katie could see instantly the woman was right. Steve had a glazed look in his eyes and Bucky was leaning back in his chair, a pink tinge to his cheeks.

“Hey, Beautiful” Steve smiled up at Katie, pulling her into his lap, his hand trailed up and down her spine, lazily. “Where you been all evening?”

“About ten meters away over there.” She smirked, pointing. Suri was reaching over to steal a bit of the liquor from Bucky’s glass and T’Challa slapped her hand. “You are not even old enough to drink.” He glared at her.

“Tssk hush brother. Just because you are now well into your thirties. You always seem to be so bitter about me being much younger than you.” At that Bucky barked out a laugh.

“Don’t know what you’re snorting at old man.” Katie glanced at him and he quirked an eyebrow at her.

"Not exactly a comment I’d expect from someone who’s married to a hundred-year-old man.”

“Ninety-eight.” Steve corrected.

Katie leaned back in her husband’s lap to peer at him, her right hand running through his hair. "Doesn’t look a day over twenty five.” She grinned.

“Hey brother, why doesn’t your power stop your ageing?”  Suri quipped.

“Shut up.” T’Challa glared at her. “Before I carry you back to the palace”

As the two siblings began to quibble, Katie glanced at Steve. “Been talking about the good old days?” “In a fashion.” Steve smirked.

“Anymore good tales of your misspent youth to tell me?” Bucky shook his head. “Sure Steve’s told you enough already.”

“I never told her about the time you set up a double date for us and then forgot to show up.” Steve looked at him, his arms tightening around his wife.

“That never happened.” Bucky shook his head.

“It absolutely happened. Caroline O’Hara and Deborah Smith”  

Bucky’s eyes widened. “Oh shit, yeah. Brunette and a red head. A curly red head.” He grinned.

“Yup. Double date to the theatre, only you never showed up.” Steve looked at him, accusingly “And little old me was left to explain to Debbie why you had stood her up.”

Bucky smirked into his glass.

"I thought she was gonna kill me.” Steve mused, turning to look at Katie. “She kept hitting me with her purse. And then Caroline started, asking where the hell he was and why he thought it fit to stand up her best friend and try to fix her up with some kind of joke.”

Katie frowned, narrowing her eyes. “You weren’t a joke.”

“Thanks, Honey.” He grinned before he turned to fix Bucky with a glare. “And do you remember why you didn’t show up?” Bucky was now shaking with mirth, as he looked at Steve, his eyes bright with tears of laughter. “Go on, tell her Buck.”

“I was with Maggie Dougherty.” Bucky smirked

“Yeah, you were.” Steve pointed at him. “That was the night you got caught sneaking out of her room and down her fire escape by her dad who beat the crap out of you.”

“Worth it though.” Bucky snorted. “She was hot. Strawberry blonde waves, pretty face, nice ass.” “Yeah.” Steve nodded and Katie slapped the back of his head.

“Oww!” He looked at her as she glared at him. Grinning he reached up to give her a soft kiss “Not a patch on you though, Darlin’”

After another hour or so, Katie left them to it, heading back to the palace with Suri. She’d had enough, the alcohol she had drunk had lulled her into that happy place here she felt warm and fuzzy inside, and ready for bed.

Steve woke her up when he came crashing into the room a few hours later.

“Shit.” He mumbled, as he banged into the chair by the dresser. “Shhhh”

He staggered over to the bed before face planting straight down. Katie grinned as he peeked up at her.

“I’m drunk.”

“No shit, Sherlock.” She giggled and scrambled out of the duvet. “Come on, get in bed.” “Promises, promises.”

“Yeah, not a chance pal. I doubt very much you’d be of any use in this state.”

“Hey.” He pouted rolling over so he was on his back, turning to look at her as she moved to climb out of bed. “That’s my shirt.”

“I know.” She dropped to the floor to take off his suede boots.

“I like you in my shirts. I like you better out of them.” Steve grinned, grabbing hold of her as she stood up.

“How much have you had?” She laughed as he pulled her onto his lap, nuzzling into her neck.

“Enuff.” he spoke back, voice muffled. “You know you’re the prettiest gal in the whole world?” He peeked up at her and she had to laugh as she ruffled his hair. 

“Arms up.”

“I like it when you undress me.” He grinned and Katie gave a chuckle, shaking her head.  Eventually she managed to tug off his shirt and his jeans whilst he made some other reference to sex, before he pulled her back down onto the bed next to him, giggling like a school kid.

“Bucky told me.” He slurred.

“Told you what?”

“That he asked you to shoot him.” Steve hiccupped “But I’m glad you didn’t have to.”

Katie chuckled to herself “Me too.” “And now he’s all better.” Steve sighed. “Good, isn’t it?” “It’s awesome.” Shhe smiled, reaching up to bush his hair off his face. “You’re gonna be so hungover tomorrow.” He responded with shrug. “But I do love you. So much.”

“I know and I love you too. Now you gonna get into bed?”

He pushed himself up before beginning a monumental fight with the duvet to get underneath it, the whole thing a great source of amusement to Katie. She’d seen him tipsy from the Asgardian stuff Thor gave him before, but not flat out shit faced like this.

“Are you gonna puke?” She asked, stroking his head as he sighed, nuzzling into her chest. 

“No.” He assured her, then paused, before he hiccupped slightly. “But I think I need water.” “Alright, wait there.” Katie climbed out of bed. She grabbed him a bottle from the mini fridge near the door but by the time she had turned back, Steve had his face buried into his pillow and made nothing more than a noise when she offered it to him, not looking up. Deciding she couldn’t be bothered to argue with him, she gently placed the bottle on the night stand next to him, and ran her hand through his hair one more time before she crossed to her side of the bed and settled down with him.

“Night, Soldier.” She smiled softly, kissing his cheek.

“Night, Princess.” He slurred into his pillow.

**** Chapter 35

**Original Posting**

[icyharrington]

Is It Wrong?- Part 7 (Michael Langdon X Reader)

hello!!! so i have been trying so hard these past few weeks trying to get this final part of iiw right. i am insanely nervous to put this out there, because i don’t wanna disappoint any of the amazing people who followed this series from the beginning. i wanna thank all the thirsty hoes who have supported this fic and given me feedback, because y’all are the reason i had the motivation to finish the series. this is the most fun i’ve ever had writing anything, ever. i can’t believe this series is finally coming to an end 🤧BUTTTTT don’t forget that there will be an additional, shorter epilogue chapter! so stay tuned for that ;) I LOVE Y’ALL!!!! 

plot: michael langdon is a picture-perfect fuckboy, and, lucky for you, he’s also your stepbrother. how will you survive?

warnings: inappropriate relationships, fuckboy michael, fem!Reader, high school au, teen angst, like seriously A FUCK TON OF TEEN ANGST, fluff, vaginal fingering, handjobs, sexual intercourse, (semi?) public sex, dirty talk

word count: 12.8k (IM SORRY LMFAOOO) 

tags: @alicecooper19 @ritualmichael @blackfyrez @bbyduncan @sloppy-little-witch-bitch26 @michaelsapostle @trelaney @kissydevil @langdonalien @langdonsdemon @sloppy-wrist @michael-langdon-appreciation @wroteclassicaly @cocosfern @sojournmichael @starwlkers @theinevitableprophecy @sodanova @avesatanormalpeoplescareme @divinelangdon @maso-xchrist @space-princesssss @ahslangdon101 @isabellaserpentiawesson @stupidocupido @nana15774 @urlocalgothb @hexqueensupreme @gold-dragon-slayer @pr1ncessd1e @langdonsboots @langdonstrash @prophesieddarling @isoldedax @fckinsupreme @lvngdvns @hisgirlwonder @telexnesis @venusxxlangdon @obsessivenostalgicbaby @noelle525 @kleinegamerin @lambofcairo @kiiteiru @anacerta @nuke-em-from-orbit @thingsthatoncemeantnothing @littledemondani @beriveri @dcvilrising @grossgayartist @featherpool-852 @imjustasadhoe @cryptid-coalition @nu-tt @diamcndscarred @michaelsfrenchtoast @ms-mead @sarcasticbxtch20 @ringpop-poppy @coollangdon @s7venwonders @littlehouseofleaves @elvahavax @king-of-mischief-and-bitchez @alternativepetewentz @maytheforcebewithqueen

(sorry to anyone who asked to be tagged but isn’t in my tag list!! tumblr won’t let me tag certain blogs for some reason!!)

i.

“Goddamn it, how hard is it for you to follow simple GPS directions?” Miriam’s voice was pitched in annoyance as she scolded your father, whose knuckles were near white from how tightly he was gripping the steering wheel.

“You know what? Why don’t I just pull over, and you drive instead?” your father snapped. You and Michael exchanged a glance in the back seat for what seemed like the thousandth time since you’d all loaded into the car several hours before.

In celebration of summer vacation, and you and Michael’s recent graduation from high school, your father and Miriam had decided to arrange something of an impromptu vacation. Your father was far too cheap to travel anywhere of any significant distance, so he’d decided that the next best option was to take a road trip down to Myrtle Beach, Florida.

“Oh my god, yes,” Michael had said to you after your parents had broken the news to you both. “Do you know how many half-naked sluts we’re gonna see there? Myrtle Beach is like, white trash central.”

That comment had been the fuel for one of the many arguments you and Michael had engaged in following graduation; there was tension in the air, hanging thick and heavy over your heads as the days crept along, and the mindless bickering between you and Michael was at an all time high.

Not that it stopped either of you from having sex. Quite the contrary, in fact— you and Michael had been having so much sex that it was maybe even getting a little ridiculous.

“Seriously, Michael?” you’d said after his crude comment, your tone far whinier than originally intended. “Go fuck one of those half-naked white trash sluts instead of me, then.”

It’d taken him several minutes to convince you that he’d been joking (even though you were still fairly certain that he’d been dead serious) followed by some admittedly top-quality make up sex, which proved to be enough to convince you to move on.

Maybe something was in the water, you thought. Even Miriam and your father had seemed to be fighting constantly as of late, and the stressful atmosphere of the household made you feel constantly on edge; it almost felt like there was an impending disaster coming, one that was impossible to prevent. You only hoped that whatever disaster might be on its way would avoid you and Michael.

Right now, Michael was leaning with his forehead resting against the window, a bored look on his face as he skipped through the music playing on his phone. He only had one earbud in, the other draped over his shoulder (presumably so he could eavesdrop on your parents’ ridiculous arguments), dressed casually in light gray sweatpants and a faded Jimi Hendrix shirt.

Fuck, he looked good. He was jostled slightly with each slight motion of the car as it moved forward, the muscles in his arms subtly flexing as he reached up to run his fingers through his soft, tousled blond hair. For a second, your mind was clouded with images of a beach-bound Michael, his tanned, water-speckled torso lean but still toned, swimming trunks clinging to the lowest point of his narrow hips and leaving almost nothing up to the imagination. Your mouth watered.

“You know, if I’d driven, we would’ve actually arrived at the hotel by the time the GPS said,” Miriam said.

“So why didn’t you!?” your father exclaimed.

You locked eyes with Michael yet again, whose pale eyes glimmered with slight amusement at the nonstop back-and-forth between your parents.

“Because you insisted on driving.”

“Insisted? All I did was offer to drive out of the kindness of my— oh fuck, I think we just passed the hotel.”

“We did,” offered Michael flatly from the backseat, the soft glow of the neon hotel sign reflecting in his pupils as he craned his neck to follow the building.

“Goddamn it,” your father muttered, scanning the road for somewhere to make a U-turn.

“Nice going,” Miriam muttered under her breath, crossing her arms over her chest.

You were jerked forward as your father abruptly turned the car around in an act that you were ninety-nine percent sure was illegal; in a matter of seconds, the car was parked in the hotel parking lot, officially marking the end of the several-hour-long trek. Everyone seemed to let out a unanimous sigh of relief.

“Fucking finally,” said Michael, opening the door and swinging his legs outside so his ratty Converse sneakers made contact with the asphalt. You followed suit, making your way around to the trunk, which you popped open to retrieve your colorful travel bag.

The sound of crickets chirping through the mild Florida night was soothing despite its incessantness, and you found yourself smiling idly, a warm breeze gently caressing your face. So maybe you weren’t in the goddamn Dominican Republic, but you were still prepared to enjoy your time here.

Once everyone had taken their respective belongings from the trunk, your father led the way to the front entrance of the hotel.

The hotel lobby was nice, but certainly nothing special; it didn’t take a genius to figure out that the sole reason your father had chosen this place above all others was because it was the cheapest. Your father, weighed down with his overstuffed black bag, trudged over to the front desk with a pained look on his face.

“Imagine this place is infested with roaches,” said Michael lowly, flashing you a shit-eating grin when your face paled at this terrifying prospect.

“Shut up. My dad isn’t that much of a cheapskate.”

“Or what if it’s haunted?” he said, furrowing his brows to mimic a deadly serious expression.

“It’ll be haunted by your ghost in about five seconds if you don’t shut your mouth.”

“I saw this thing online about a girl who went missing, and then they found her in the water tower of the hotel,” he continued, and you rolled your eyes. It wasn’t at all surprising that he was trying to scare you. “And like, all the people staying there were showering and stuff, but little did they know they were washing themselves in dead body water.”

“Can you shut up, please?”

His plump lips contorted into a devious smile. “What, am I scaring you?”

“No, you’re just being really fucking annoying.”

“Aww, don’t worry, (y/n). I’ll protect you from any ghosts or cockroaches that might be here.” He pulled you into a side hug, squeezing you against him with an iron grip as he nuzzled the top of your head with his chin. You pulled away, exerting minimal strength but still managing to evade his grasp.

“Are you going to be this obnoxious the entire trip?” you said, watching as your father appeared to be looking for something in his pockets. After patting himself down for several seconds, he said something to the man behind the front desk; whatever it was that he’d said resulted in Miriam’s face contorting into a look that could easily kill anyone three times over.

“Here we go,” Michael whispered, mouth twitching at the corners as he averted his attention away from you and onto your parents instead.

“You’re an idiot,” Miriam was saying, practically seething as she spoke. “A goddamn idiot. How the hell did you manage to forget the credit card?!”

Your father’s mouth opened and closed as he attempted to come up with a response good enough to satiate his fuming wife, but of course there was none.

“How did he forget the credit card?” Michael said.

You shrugged.

Miriam huffed loudly as she began to dig through her purse, shooting your father a contemptuous glare when her hand emerged, leather wallet in tow. You watched as she pulled out her credit card, handing it over the front desk to the visibly uncomfortable man standing there.

You shifted your weight from one foot to the other, the muscles in your arms starting to burn from the weight of your travel bag.

Michael, having apparently lost interest in your parents’ altercation, suddenly turned back to face you. “You think I’ll be able to pass for over 21 at the hotel bar?”

Before you could respond, your father was making his way over to you, brandishing two key cards in either hand. “We decided it’d be best for all of us if you and Michael had your own room. You guys don’t mind, do you?”

He handed you a card, and as you looked it over, you tried your hardest not to pay any attention to Michael.

It was truly astounding how clueless everyone seemed to be in regards to your relationship (if you could call it that) with your stepbrother, but you definitely weren’t complaining. Just the thought of having a room all to yourselves was enough to make your heart race.

“Of course we don’t mind,” you said with a smile.

“Just— y’know. Miriam and I have some things we need to work out, and, well, I don’t want you guys swept up in any of the drama,” said your father.

“Totally understandable, dad,” said Michael, beaming as he snaked his free arm around your shoulders. “I’m sure we’ll be able to manage. What do you think, (y/n)?”

Michael widened his eyes at you, the contorted features of his porcelain face dripping with faux-innocence.

“Yeah, I think so,” you said, tone cheerful and sweet.

In unison, you and Michael looked away from one another and back to your father. His eyes were shadowed with deep rings, and he looked more like he was about to head off to a 9-to-5 shift at a dead-end job rather than a vacation with his family. “You kids be good, all right?”

“Don’t worry,” you said, ripples of electricity making their way up your spine as Michael lightly stroked your shoulder with his calloused fingertips. “We will.”

ii.

“Room number 69, huh?” Michael said with a quirk of his eyebrow, licking his lips as he plucked the key card from your hand and slid it into its designated slot by the door. “It’s like they knew we were gonna be staying here.”

“You are eighteen years old,” you said in a monotone, though secretly Michael’s immature sense of humor and silliness were qualities that never failed in making your heart swell.

There was a subtle beep as the light next to the slot flickered green, and Michael pushed open the door with one shoulder, the other occupied with his bag. “How fucking awesome is this?”

You followed him into the modestly-sized room, discarding your bag at the end of one of the two pristinely made beds. Michael did the same, and without even giving you time to settle into your new surroundings, he pushed you firmly up against the nearest empty wall.

Even despite the fact that he’d been sitting in a hot car for several hours (unsurprisingly, your father was very stingy with the air conditioning), Michael still managed to smell good; the intoxicating mixture of his shampoo, paired alongside his boyish deodorant and woodsy cologne, was dizzying from such a close proximity.

“You didn’t waste any time,” you chuckled, cheeks flushing as he began to pepper kisses along your neck and behind your ear, lifting one hand to brush your hair over your shoulder.

“Why would I?” he said, his voice low and seductive. He took a moment to playfully nip at your earlobe, and you squealed, wrapping your arms around him so you could pull his firm torso closer to yours. “What else are you supposed to do when you’re left all alone with such a pretty girl?”

As much as you weren’t willing to admit it, your heart soared at this validation- Michael thought you were a pretty girl. Those words, coming from that perfect mouth, made you feel a childish sense of giddiness, gave you butterflies in the pit of your stomach like an innocent playground crush.

Michael wandered one hand up over the curve of your hip and onto your waist, lips still moving open-mouthed against your jugular and around to the front of your throat. Reaching up to the back of Michael’s head, you took a fistful of butterscotch-colored hair at the root, using it to guide him back towards your face. Then you kissed him, hard and passionate, your fingers threading easily through his waves as his tongue slipped past yours and into your mouth.

Ding!

You assumed Michael’s phone had just gone off, but neither of you paid it any mind, your breath hitching as Michael slid one veined hand up under your tank top to grope your left breast.

Ding!

“My pretty baby sis,” Michael breathed, swollen mouth slick with saliva. Panting softly, he continued to ignore his phone, tugging his t-shirt over his head and tossing it behind him haphazardly.

With his upper body exposed to you now, you took the opportunity to trace your fingers down the length of his subtly defined abs, stopping just beneath his navel. Just below that, after the cute trail of fuzzy blond hair that paved the way to his v-line, was the low-hanging waistband of his gray sweatpants; you hooked your fingers there, just barely pulling the fabric down as you eyed the mouthwatering bulge prominent in the front of his pants.

You couldn’t help yourself- biting your lower lip, you brought your hand between Michael’s legs and grasped his semi-erect length through the soft material of his pants.

Ding! Ding!

Michael hissed, but he seemed to be somewhat distracted now; you knit your eyebrows as he twisted around to face the source of the interruption- his phone, which he’d left on one of the beds.

Ding!

“What is that?” you asked, frowning. It wasn’t often that Michael tolerated anything getting in the way of his hookups, so you found it mildly concerning when he broke away from you entirely to go and grab his phone.

His tongue poked out of the corner of his lips as he looked at his screen, and you could tell that he was stifling a smirk. “Oh. Uh, it’s nothing.”

You moved from your place against the wall, approaching Michael with your arms crossed in front of your chest. Sure, maybe it was none of your business, seeing that you weren’t Michael’s girlfriend or anything, but he’d piqued your curiosity.

Ding! Ding! Michael fumbled with the phone for a second before turning it on silent.

You cocked your head to one side. “No really, what is that?”

Michael had hidden his phone behind his back now, bouncing nervously on the balls of his feet.

“I told you, it’s nothing.”

Okay, now you had to know.

“C’mon, lemme see,” you said, trying your hardest not to sound upset. Why were you upset, anyway? You reached around Michael to take his phone from his hand, which, surprisingly, he allowed you to do without much protest.

You looked down at his phone, jaw dropping as you began reading over the several notifications stretching down the length of his screen.

NEW MATCH! With Sofi

NEW MATCH! With Katherine

NEW MATCH! With Kristen

NEW MATCH! With Mallory

NEW MATCH! With Caitlin

NEW MATCH! With Anna

Your eyes flickered up to Michael’s face, down to the phone screen, and then back again, unsure of how exactly you were supposed to react to such a discovery. Michael just offered you a sheepish shrug, somehow only pissing you off further, and angrily you shoved his phone back into his hands.

“Are you fucking kidding? We’ve been here for less than an hour and you’re already trying to find hoes on Tinder?”

“Well, I mean, that’s one way to put it,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I just wanted to see what kind of girls live around here, I swear. I wasn’t actually gonna-“

“-Whatever,” you mumbled, bending over to unzip your travel bag. It wasn’t like you had any sort of right to be pissed- Michael could do what he wanted, and if what he wanted was to hook up with random Tinder girls, then so be it. Still, though, you couldn’t help but feel a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach.

You rifled around in your bag until you came upon the neat ziploc bag full of travel-sized shower essentials, which you tucked under your arm. “I’m gonna go take a shower. I feel gross.”

“Wait, (y/n). Are you mad at me?” You weren’t sure if he actually cared about hurting your feelings, or if he was worried that you wouldn’t want to fuck him anymore; either way, you didn’t think right now was the best of times to be honest about your feelings.

“Why would I be mad at you?” Your voice sounded dangerously close to breaking, and you knew it (and so did Michael, most likely).

“Well… I dunno. You seemed pretty pissed just now.”

“No, no. Do whatever you want. Fuck as many Tinder girls as your heart desires. It’s not like we’re exclusive.” You continued to search through your bag, pulling out your pajamas and hair towel and tucking them alongside your shower supplies.

“Someone sounds bitter,” Michael mused, causing you to narrow your eyes at him in a focused, pointed glare.

“I thought it was sort of established already that this-“ he motioned at himself, and then to you- “isn’t gonna go anywhere. So I don’t really see the harm in looking around.”

Instantly, you felt a lump form in the back of your throat.

He was right. You’d even said it yourself, that nothing good would ever become of this thing you had with Michael; as much as you wanted it to, it was impossible. So why did it hurt so bad to hear it coming from him?

“Which is why I’m not mad,” you said, swallowing thickly. “Do what you want. I don’t care.”

But, like the cliché you were, you did care. Thinking of Michael with anyone else made you feel sick to your stomach. But what were you supposed to do about it? You were his stepsister.

God, if only things had been different. If only the universe hadn’t brought you together in the most inconvenient and unconventional of ways.

You turned on your heels, leaving Michael behind as you made your way to the bathroom without another word.

Once you’d started the shower and adjusted the temperature, you stripped down, catching a glimpse in the mirror of the many marks adorning your body that Michael had left behind at some point or another- hickeys (some bright lilac and navy blue, while others were fading shades of yellow and pink, all speckled down your chest and over your breasts), fingerprint-shaped bruises, shallow scratches.

And those were just the physical ways that Michael had marked you; you were sure that if you turned yourself inside out, there would be thousands more markings to be found.  

You thought maybe this was exactly what you needed right now: a long, hot shower to clear your head. Maybe, if the mood struck, you’d even cry a little bit, just to get your emotions in order.

You stepped into the shower, flinching at the intensity of the stream as it cascaded relentlessly over your body. Shutting your eyes, you ran your palms over your face, skin prickling at the pleasant warmth of the water. After you’d allowed your hair to get sufficiently soaked, you reached for your travel-sized bottle of shampoo, squirting some of the coconut-scented gel into your hand and working up a lather.

You were halfway through your usual hair-washing routine when you heard the bathroom door open; you opened one eye, hardly wider than a squint, to see a tall, blond-haired figure through the steamy glass shower door entering the bathroom. Though the thick layer of steam on the door heavily obscured the intruder, you were still able to see that whoever had entered was butt fucking naked.

Fucking Michael.

There was a metallic squeak as the shower door slid open, revealing an image to you that must’ve been hand-delivered by an angel. There, in all his naked glory, stood Michael, one hand positioned by his side and the other gripping his impressively hard cock.

It was a miracle you didn’t slip and crack your skull open right then.

“Hey,” said Michael coolly, a smug smirk appearing on his lips when he noticed you staring at his length.

“Michael, what are you doing?” you asked, attempting to sound just a little less eager than you were feeling. You tilted your head back, quickly washing away the excess shampoo in your hair, and as you did this, Michael joined you in the shower.

“Saving water,” Michael replied, pulling the door shut and enclosing the two of you within the stream.

“How environmentally friendly of you.”

“Aww, are you still mad at me?” You tensed as he grabbed your hips and brought you closer to him, the head of his cock brushing your stomach and sending chills throughout your body.

“I was never mad at you,” you said flatly. You kept rinsing your hair, refusing to give Michael the attention he clearly was so desperately seeking (not yet, at least).

“You were a little jealous though, weren’t you?” he teased, squeezing your tits without warning and making you jump. “Don’t worry, baby. I’ve already told you before that your pussy is my favorite.”

“I was never worried,” you snapped, but you couldn’t deny the arousal that immediately resulted from Michael’s words.

“Whatever you say, baby,” said Michael, spinning you around so that your back was pressed against his bare chest. You shivered at the feeling of his big cock on your ass, and all at once, whatever snarky comeback you’d been formulating disintegrated into nothingness.

Your eyes fell shut as Michael’s hands traveled over your body, his touch gentle but still possessive; he stopped at your tits, kneading the smooth peaks in both hands until they stung, kissing your shoulder when you squirmed at the slight discomfort. “Just relax and let your big brother take care of you.”

He retrieved your body wash off the ledge in the shower, gathering some in his palms and returning his attention to your tits. You leaned back, resting the back of your head on his broad shoulder as he began rubbing the body wash all over you (mainly focusing on your breasts, because what else would you expect from Michael Langdon?).

His slippery hands felt like heaven on your tits, pinching and toying with your nipples just the way you liked. It wasn’t until his hand began dipping lower, though, that your breath caught in your throat.

His fingers trailed past your stomach and down to cup your cunt, goosebumps erupting across your skin as he hummed in your ear. Your entire body reacted to his touch, muscles tightening and thighs trembling, hips rolling back so you could better feel his deliciously thick cock against your back.

“You like that? Like how I touch you?” he murmured, his words reverberating against your throat and igniting a fresh wave of arousal between your legs.

With one hand, he used his fingers to splay apart your outer lips, gathering some of your wetness by stroking up and down your slit while his other hand worked at your tits. A familiar heat began to spread from behind your navel, and paired with the near-scalding warmth and great pressure of the shower stream, you felt your head start to spin.

You laid your head back on Michael’s shoulder, trusting him to keep you balanced as you reclined limply against him. His fingers moved upwards again, using the sticky arousal on the tips of his fingers to massage slow, lazy circles over your aching bud; you let out a gravelly moan just as Michael administered a sharp pinch to your hardened nipple.

“Fuck, Michael… feels so good.”

You were well past the point of preserving your pride, bucking your hips against Michael’s hand while trying to squeeze your thighs shut around it, keeping him close to you.

“Hm? Is that right? You like when I touch your pussy?” His voice was husky, rich and warm like a roll of tropical thunder; swallowing noisily, you bobbed your head up and down in agreement.

Garnering what little energy you had left, you extended your arm behind you, spreading your fingers in search of Michael’s erection; tongue darting out to wet your chapped lips at the feeling of his stiff, smooth skin, you followed the slightly jutting vein that wound up the side of his length, stopping at the head of his cock and running your thumb over his leaking slit.

He groaned at the sensation, encouraging you on. You returned your hand to the base of his cock, grazing your fingers along his sensitive balls before taking a firm hold of his shaft, pumping your fist up and down his length with as much vigor as you could manage.

“Fuck,” he grunted, and although he now had the added task of awaiting his own impending orgasm alongside bringing you to yours, his fingers did not falter between your legs. Every throaty groan passing his lips seemed to drive his fingers into more of a frenzy, forming fast, sloppy shapes on your aching bud until you were crying out.

“That’s a good- fuck- girl. Keep jerking your big brother’s cock, just like that. Feels so fucking good,” he breathed against your skin, making you shiver even despite the heavy, humid warmth of the bathroom. You could no longer see anything through the glass door, which had become entirely overtaken with thick fog; for a moment you felt like this was the only place on earth that existed- a closed-off world of steam and water and porcelain made just for you and Michael.

With your eyes shut tight as the coil in your belly prepared to snap, all you could do was listen to the melodic blend of sounds enveloping the small space and attempt to move your body in time with the makeshift rhythm. Not one sound fell upon deaf ears- you were hyper-aware of every vulgar, human noise; every breath and every moan; every squeak of wet feet on the slick white floor.

This might be the most beautiful song you’ve ever heard, you thought.

“Fuck, Michael— more.” Stretching your other arm back to desperately grab at Michael’s damp mop of waves, you allowed yourself to come undone, arching your back so your erect nipples were pointed up towards the ceiling.

Michael brought his free hand away from your breasts, instead using it to brace himself against the shower door, creating a hand-shaped imprint in the steam that immediately began to drip with condensation.

Without thinking, you let go of Michael’s hair to join his hand on the glass; lacing your fingers through his, you worked at his cock with your opposite hand until his breaths grew ragged and choppy- a sure-fire sign that he was about to cum.

“Fuck, (y/n), keep going,” he moaned breathlessly, pressing his thumb harshly against your clit and nearly causing your knees to buckle underneath you. “Gonna- fuck.”

His cock twitched in your hand, and with that, he was cumming, shooting his thick load all over your ass and lower back. Miraculously, even as he recovered from his orgasm, he still continued to touch you; his fingers were like magic on your clit, and within a matter of seconds, you, too, were being sent over the edge.

“Oh god, Michael—“

Even during an earth-shattering orgasm like the one you were experiencing, you still were able to notice the way that Michael had switched spots on the glass with you, his large hand enclosing around yours and squeezing.

He didn’t remove his hand from between your thighs until you were twitching and overstimulated, and once he did, he pulled you into a hug, his strong arms cradling you against his chest.

Your eyes fluttered open and shut again, like a person caught between life and death, when he planted a tender kiss to the top of your head.

“I’m never gonna find anyone else like you,” he said, hardly louder than a whisper. You weren’t sure whether it was a reassurance to you, or a solemn statement of distress.

Either way, you swore you could hear something like sadness behind his words.

iii.

Since Miriam and your father were too preoccupied with their arguing to arrange any family excursions, you and Michael were left to your own devices.

Those next few days in Florida, your life was about as close to a teen romance movie as it could get. You and Michael spent the days exploring the nearby towns, trying out restaurants (it’d taken a startlingly long while for you to convince Michael to try out one of the local cafés for breakfast instead of McDonald’s, which had been his original idea) and going shopping; on one occasion, you shared a joint with Michael before dragging him to the local aquarium, which he’d pretended to be entirely disinterested in (even though you could see the wonder and fear in his eyes whilst staring at the shark exhibit- what would happen if the glass broke? he’d asked, nervously drumming his fingers on the paneling as a particularly large shark swam by).

You shared ice cream with him on the boardwalk, licking the chocolate soft serve that had melted off the cone and onto Michael’s hand off his fingers; you rubbed sunscreen on each other at the beach (although Michael wasn’t nearly as thorough as you were, and most of the time you’d wind up with a nasty sunburn thanks to his negligence); you bought 99-cent popsicles from a vendor, making out with cherry-stained lips while the sun went down.

At night, you’d sit on the beach, sometimes stoned, talking and laughing as the waves rolled in and out on the shore.

It was 3 am on your last night in Florida, and you and Michael had snuck out of the hotel room and walked down to the beach, large checkered blanket and a bottle of red wine in tow (Michael had charmed the woman behind the counter in a sketchy liquor store in order to obtain this). You were sitting side-by-side, thoughts clouded from the effects of the alcohol with your knees drawn to your chest, when a sudden realization washed upon you like one of the rumbling waves breaking against the shore.

You were in love with Michael Langdon.

This was an unwavering, undeniable fact; you were in love with him. You loved him, even the parts of him that, at one point, you had hated. The realization was both peaceful and upsetting.

“Michael,” you said, huddling closer to yourself as a cool breeze cut through the night. What were you going to say to him? You couldn’t very well tell him about the epiphany you’d just had- he’d been on Tinder just a few days ago, for god’s sake. But, still, you felt compelled to say something.

“Hmm?” He stretched out his legs, running his palms up and down his sand-covered calves. In the darkness, you could hardly make out the features of his face, save for the sparkling reflection in his eyes as he looked out towards the ocean.

You licked your lips, taking a swig from the half-empty bottle of wine that had been positioned upright in the sand. You winced at the bittersweet taste washing over your tongue, the blood-colored liquid sloshing noisily against its glass confines as you brought it back down to your side.

“I don’t know,” you said, suddenly feeling stupid. “It’s just- I don’t want this all to be over.”

“Me either,” he said, putting his arm around you and drawing you closer to him. You inhaled sharply, breathing in the scent of wine and stale cigarettes and salt water like it was oxygen and you’d just been saved from drowning. “I didn’t think I would, but I had a really great time this week.”

You shook your head. “I’m not just talking about this week. I just mean in general. I feel like it’s all ending so soon.”

“Oh.” He took in a breath, an especially large wave hitting the shore with a startling crash. “God, this fucking sucks, doesn’t it?”

“Michael, I-“ I love you. The remaining words settled on the back of your tongue, refusing to roll off, but perhaps it was for the better. “-I think in another life, we could’ve worked out. Could’ve been something more than what we are. You know?”

If only, if only, if fucking only.

“Lucky us, being born in the universe where we’re fucking step siblings,” Michael laughed, but there was a deep sadness in his voice that you’d never heard before. “But, (y/n). Even though shit isn’t working out the way we wanted it to, and even though it’s gonna hurt when we both go away to college, I’m still so glad that I met you.”

“I’m glad I met you, too.”

There was only silence for a long moment as Michael reached for the wine bottle and took an indulgent sip. “There’s so much shit I wish could’ve been different,” he said finally, angling his head up towards the velvet blackness of the night sky. “I wish I’d treated you differently. I wish I hadn’t been so fucking scared of feeling something.”

You ran your fingers through the soft sand, forming meaningless patterns there as you listened to Michael open up for what felt like the first time since you’d met him.

“I used to lie awake at night and think of how fucking unfair this all is. That the one girl I’ve ever really wanted is the one girl I can’t have. I used to think if maybe I pushed you away, treated you like shit, that everything would hurt less. But it just hurt me more, seeing you in pain from the shit I put you through. And now I realize that it’s all gonna hurt the same either way. ‘Cause I’ll never have you the way I want.”

You felt a well-known pinching behind your eyes, and you blinked, silently willing away the tears that were threatening to escape. You kept your eyes on the drawings you’d made in the ground, knowing that if you were to look into Michael’s eyes, you’d probably break.

“What’s gonna happen to us, Michael? We can’t just wait for each other while we’re away at college and miss out on life. But god, I wanna be with you,” you said, voice quivering.

“I don’t know,” he said softly, shaking his head. “I say we just…live our lives. And if it’s meant to be, it will be. One day.”

You nodded, dragging your fingers through the sand and destroying the mindless spirals and swirls you’d formed. “One day.”

“But enough with all that sad shit,” said Michael, taking your chin in hand and moving it so you were looking at him. “What’s important is that we have each other right now. So let’s make the most of that, hm?”

The look in Michael’s eyes told you right away what he meant by making the most of your time together; your cheeks were hot, prickling from the red wine, fingertips burning to touch something. So you did- you grabbed the front of Michael’s shirt, yanking him towards you and placing a haphazard, open-mouthed kiss on his lips.

The kiss was aggressive and feverish; it didn’t take long for Michael to lay you down on the checkered blanket, his hands wandering your body like it belonged to him (and, in a way, it did).

When Michael broke away to catch his breath, panting, you decided to try something new: with all the strength you could muster, you pushed Michael off of you and promptly rolled on top of him instead, straddling him with your knees on either side of his torso.

In the faint glow of the silvery moonlight, you could see an indistinct smirk playing at his lips; it wasn’t often that you were the one to take control, but it was obvious, from the growing protrusion in the front of his pants, that he liked the change.

You leaned down to reattach your lips to his, hips rocking back and forth over his bulge until the friction sent shock waves up your spine. With you bent forward, Michael was easily able to slide his veined hands up the back of your short skirt, taking two greedy fistfuls of your ass.

Almost frantically, you tore your shirt off over your head, not bothering to worry about where it landed. Now, the only thing separating your breasts from the nighttime air was a thin lace bralette, which Michael took to palming you through.

“Fuck, (y/n),” murmured Michael, rolling one of your hardened nipples between two fingers. “You have seriously got the best tits.”

“Yeah? You think so?” you said, a twinge of playful mocking to your voice; you wrapped your fingers around Michael’s wrists, maneuvering them so that both his hands were fondling your breasts.

“Fuck yeah, I think so,” he said, and you only wished there was just a bit more light so you could properly admire him in his disheveled, lustful state.

“Even better than those girls on Tinder you matched with?” you taunted, grinding your hips down hard against Michael’s erection. “I wonder what they’d think about all the times you’ve been balls deep in your stepsister.”

At this, he tightened his grip on your tits, twisting them almost painfully before hoisting up the thin fabric of your bralette so your nipples were exposed. You helped him in removing the garment, pulling it off and throwing it alongside your shirt, never once ceasing the motion of your hips against his clothed, twitching cock.

“You’re lucky I’m in a good mood,” Michael said, running his thumbs over your nipples. “Otherwise I’d take you over my lap and spank your ass raw for being such a little bitch.”

“And you’re lucky you have a big dick,” you shot back, words catching in your throat when he tugged hard on one of your nipples. “Otherwise I never would’ve given your fuckboy ass the time of day.”

This was a lie, of course, but your lighthearted tone of voice was enough to let him know that you were only messing around.

Michael scoffed. “No, I think you’re the one who’s lucky that I have a big dick, considering that you’re a total fucking cock-hungry slut.”

You stifled a laugh. Well, he’s not wrong.

“Is that a complaint?” you said, lips quirking as you scooted your body slightly downward, giving yourself room to pull Michael’s now-fully hard cock out. Sinking your teeth into your lower lip, you took the pulsing length in hand, moving your thin panties to the side and repositioning yourself so that the head of Michael’s cock was nestled just barely against your entrance.

Michael shook his head rapidly, a throaty grunt passing his lips. “Obviously- fuck- not.”

It was almost amusing to you, the way you and Michael had gone from having a heartfelt conversation to teasing each other relentlessly, but you supposed that was what you loved about your dynamic anyway. Unable to hold off any longer, you guided Michael’s cock inside you, gliding down easily on his length until he was fully seated inside. Your mouth fell open, and as you began to properly ride him, he brought his hands to grip your hips with a tight, bruising hold.

“Fuck, Michael,” you sighed, tits bouncing as you rolled your hips forward, increasing your momentum. Michael slid one hand from your hip to your inner thigh, pinching the tender skin before bringing his thumb to your clit and rubbing firm circles over it.

A pleasant, salt water-scented breeze passed by as you rode Michael, further disheveling your hair, which you ran your fingers through; the lewd noises of your body connecting with Michael’s were overtaken by the unmistakable sounds of the tide.

“Good girl, riding my cock so fucking good,” Michael breathed, lifting up his free hand so he could push two fingers into your mouth. Your eyelids fluttered at the salt of his skin, lips instinctively wrapping around his calloused digits and sucking.

Swirling your tongue over Michael’s fingers, you continued riding him, swaying your hips in figure-eight motions; the thick girth of his cock stretched your tight walls, and from this angle, you could practically feel him in your stomach.

The pad of Michael’s thumb pressed against your clit again, and as electric pleasure rippled up your spine, it took everything inside you not to cum right then and there. Your pussy was clenching tight around him, but you couldn’t bring yourself to let go—you didn’t want to be apart from him. Not yet.  

For a second, you could see every contoured feature of Michael’s face illuminated in the pale light of the moon, the exaggerated shadows and highlights coming together to form an image that was almost otherworldly. His eyes were droopy-lidded, so much so that you might’ve thought his eyes were shut if it weren’t for the glint of his pupils; he’d sucked his full lower lip into his mouth, nibbling on the rosy pink flesh as he admired your curved, supple figure on top of him.

I love him, you thought, matter-of-fact, as he pulled his spit-soaked fingers from your mouth and dragged them down between your tits, leaving a shiny trail of saliva in their wake.

I love him, you thought, bowing your body forward to kiss him hungrily, moaning into his mouth as you hurried your pace on his cock.

I love him.

Why the fuck did you have to love him? It wasn’t fair. Your insides churned with jealousy at the thought of all the other teenage girls who were currently experiencing their first love; you thought of the constant Instagram posts of girls in new, happy relationships, the public displays of affection against lockers between classes. Those things, so seemingly insignificant, would never become a part of your reality (or at least not any reality involving Michael).

In another life you’d have Michael over for dinner to meet your father, holding his hand under the table when you’d notice his thigh jiggling anxiously. You’d kiss him freely without the underlying fear, swirling deep in the pit of your belly, that someone might catch you. You’d be his prom date, match your gown to his bow tie and take awkward pictures with him, his strong arms holding you from behind.

In another life, things would be normal. In another life, you and Michael would be happy together.

“(Y/n),” groaned Michael; the sound of his raspy voice calling your name was enough to send you over the edge, bracing your tense body with one hand next to his head as you rode out your orgasm.

You were able to move even faster now, both of his hands holding your ass as you leaned far enough forward that you could bury your head in his neck. The feeling of his cock pulsing inside of you was almost too much now that you’d orgasmed, but you didn’t stop, eager to witness Michael drift into his own realm of bliss.

“Fuck—“ was all that could leave Michael’s lips before he came, using your ass to hold you in place as he spilled his warm load inside of you. You  didn’t move, keeping your face by his neck so you could listen to him catch his breath.

When you finally picked yourself up, Michael looked down to his shoulder and furrowed his eyebrows. “Were you just crying?”

Fuck. Yes, yes you were. Tears had apparently leaked from the corners of your eyes without you realizing, wetting his neck and the cotton fabric of his t-shirt. You said nothing, pulling off him to retrieve the clothing articles that you’d discarded in the sand earlier.

“Just a little,” you said, embarrassed, shaking the sand off your bralette and putting it on. “Red wine makes me angsty.”

“Oh.” There was a pregnant pause as Michael cleared his throat. “C’mon, (y/n), it’s not so bad.”

There was wavering uncertainty veiled beneath the confidence of his words, and you could tell he was trying to convince himself of this sentiment just as much as he was trying to convince you. Your back was to him as you slipped your shirt over your head, willing yourself not to start crying again.

“(Y/n)?”

His hand was on your back, the tips of his fingers circling lightly over the fabric of your shirt. You turned to face him, slowly. “Yes?”

“I…” He halted for a moment, contemplating something. “I really, really like you. More than I’ve ever liked anyone before.”

“I really, really like you too.” Somewhere, a chorus of crickets were unknowingly performing a custom symphony for your own teen romance movie moment. Michael took your hand in his, lacing his long fingers through yours, and you swallowed.

He looked down at your joined hands, an almost solemn look on his face. “Just. I don’t want you to forget, all right? No matter what happens.”

No matter what happens. You didn’t want to think of what he could mean by that.

“Don’t worry,” you whispered, as if to shield your words from the ocean’s prying ears. “I won’t forget.”

And that, you knew, was an irrefutable fact.

iv.

Late August hit you like a truck, coming by so unexpectedly that you thought surely you’d been caught in some kind of time slip. Your college move-in date was a week before Michael’s, and so Michael had spent the days leading up to your departure helping you pack (he’d also, of course, made plenty of time for “breaks” throughout the process, one of which consisted of you being fucked on the floor amidst the vast array of brown moving boxes).

Your bedroom was now a shell of what it’d once been- the comfortable teenage clutter you’d been so accustomed to was now gone, and you’d finally gotten around to throwing out the pictures and stickers you’d had on your wall since freshman year. It was depressing, hollow.

On the morning of your move-in date, your father helped you bring your belongings to the car and load the trunk. The car ride was going to be fairly long, and you were dreading it, especially since Michael wasn’t coming along. He had his own matters to attend to, what with his own move-in date creeping near, and the car would be far too crowded with all your things there anyway.

You were scheduled to leave at 9, and downstairs you could hear your father and Miriam shuffling around as they prepared for the trip. You sat at the edge of your bed, surrounded by the pale purple sheets you’d had for as long as you could remember, idly scraping the toe of your sneaker back and forth along the wooden floor.

You weren’t ready to say goodbye to all of this, but when had you ever been ready for anything life had thrown your way? You hadn’t been ready to fall in love with your stepbrother, and yet that had happened all the same.

From across the hall, Michael’s bedroom door cracked open, and out he came in his flannel sleep pants and plain white t-shirt (which now perfectly complemented the slight summertime hue of bronze to his skin), blond hair in beautiful disarray. Your heart ached- you were going to miss seeing him in the morning, all sleepy and soft, voice pitched lower than usual from sleep.

You recalled all the times you’d passed him as he stood at the counter in the bathroom, brushing his teeth; he’d look at you with a lazy half-smile, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand, his elbows resting on the edge of the sink. He always looked so handsome even when he wasn’t trying, a quality you almost envied him for.

He noticed you watching him from the corner of your bed as he approached the doorway, waving at you as he balanced his shoulder against the frame.

“‘Morning,” he said, his bleary-eyed gaze meeting yours. He looked tired, dark rings prevalent beneath his crystal blue eyes, and you briefly wondered if he’d gotten much sleep the night before. “You should be grateful that I got up at the ass crack of dawn to say goodbye to you.”

“The ass crack of dawn? Michael, it’s 8:45,” you said, and if you really tried, you could almost pretend that this was a regular conversation between the two of you, and not the very last time you’d be interacting face-to-face until November.

“Yeah, well, 8:45 is the ass crack of dawn to me,” he said, and you stood up, meeting him halfway in the middle of your barren room. He flashed you a grin, but there wasn’t much happiness behind it, and you could see that he was… uncomfortable? Sad? Angry?— you couldn’t quite tell— from the way he’d folded his arms in front of his stomach. “So yeah. I, uh, wanted to say goodbye. And also remind you not to fuck too many frat guys. You could, like, catch something.”

“I’ll try not to, but I can’t promise anything,” you joked, following the sentence with a forced-sounding chuckle. “Bye, Michael.”

You stepped forward, winding your arms around Michael’s waist and placing your head against his chest; you could just barely hear his heart beating, the warmth of his skin touching your cheek even through the fabric of his t-shirt.

“I’m gonna miss you,” he murmured, his chin resting on the top of your head, strong arms holding you to him in an unyielding embrace. “So much.”

There were too many things you wanted to say, racing through your mind so quickly that it’d be impossible to articulate them aloud. Instead, you let out a shaky sigh, eyes falling shut as you tried your hardest to immerse yourself completely in Michael’s touch. Sometimes, there didn’t need to be any words for you to understand each other.

“Don’t be sad about this, (y/n). When you’re at college, you’re gonna meet so many guys who are so much better than I am. And you’re gonna wonder why you ever were hung up on a dumbass like me.” His tone was lighthearted, but you knew better than to really believe that he was unbothered. “But I don’t think I’ll ever find someone better than you. I’m so fucking lucky that you gave me as many chances as you did. I didn’t deserve them.”

“You’re wrong,” you said, pulling away so you could look pointedly into Michael’s eyes. God, his eyes were beautiful, and you drank in the moment, knowing this was your last chance to really look into them face-to-face. “I gave you those chances because even though you acted like a total fucking asshole, I still knew there was good in you. I could just… feel it.”

He cocked an eyebrow skepticall y. “No, you gave me all those second chances because I give good head and have a big dick.”

You rolled your eyes. “Okay, maybe those were contributing factors, but they weren’t the only reasons I stuck around.”

“Yeah, whatever,” he said, licking his lips and settling his hands on your hips. “For the record, your pussy really is my favorite. Like, I wasn’t just saying that.”

“I’m honored.”

The interaction was cut short by the sound of your father calling you from downstairs, indicating that it was time to leave, and your heart sank deep into your stomach. Standing up on the tips of your toes, you planted a chaste kiss on his lips before hurrying out into the hall, waving over your shoulder as you went.

“Bye, (y/n),” Michael said, not moving from where he stood in your bedroom. He’d dug his hands into the pockets of his pajama pants, shoulders slumped forward as he watched you go. For a moment, you wished you’d hugged him for longer. “See you in November.”

“See you,” you called back, imitating nonchalance to the best of your ability, only averting your gaze when you felt tears wobbling along your waterline, threatening to overflow and spill down your cheeks.

In that last moment before you turned, you could almost swear that he had tears in his eyes, too.

v.

When you finally made your way up those familiar porch steps again, the November air chilling you slightly even despite the thick sweater you wore, you felt like an entirely different person.

Those first few months of college had been a blur; your life was far more interesting than it’d ever been while you were in high school (if you didn’t count the whole ‘fucking your stepbrother’ thing), with a surplus of boys at your disposal at all times. You’d gotten perhaps a bit carried away with the dating and partying and hookups, but you figured you were simply making up for all the experiences you’d missed out on in high school.

Michael was a thought that you trained yourself to keep tucked away. During those first few weeks, you’d spent several nights crying yourself to sleep, the stiff dorm room bed so uninviting compared to the way Michael’s arms had always felt around you. At parties, you’d scan the crowds for boys with blond hair and blue eyes, hoping that one of them could temporarily stand in for Michael during your time away from him. None of them fulfilled the requirements, of course- you’d come to realize early on that nobody was quite as good as Michael Langdon. It took a while for you to stop searching for Michael in every boy you became acquainted with, but with practice, you became rather skilled in the art of forgetting.

You and Michael kept in contact, albeit only sometimes. His messages to you were comprised mainly of memes he’d found on Instagram that he thought you’d appreciate, along with the occasional drunk text late at night (‘Cna you send me a pci of your tits/??? Lmfao’ was one of your favorite messages from him that you’d received thus far). It made you feel special to know that he was thinking of you, even despite being surrounded by girls like you assumed he probably was.

You tried not to think of him too much, though- you knew you’d drive yourself crazy if you did.

When Thanksgiving time rolled around, you were confronted with the fact that you’d be seeing Michael again for the first time in months, a prospect that ignited your nerves far more than you were willing to admit. As excited as you were to see him, you also couldn’t help but worry: what if he announced that he’d found a girlfriend? What if he wasn’t attracted to you anymore? What if you weren’t attracted to him anymore?

It probably would be easier for the both of you if things played out that way, but you didn’t want things to be easy. It was unrealistic, but part of you was praying that things would be exactly as they were before you’d gone away.

Your hand trembled a bit as you raised it to the doorbell, and you braced yourself before jamming your finger into the button. From inside the house, you heard the muffled, off-key tone as it resounded throughout the upstairs area, followed by bounding footsteps down the stairs that you pinpointed as belonging to your father.

The front swung open and there was your father, a wide smile stretched across his face as he ushered you inside, taking it upon himself to bring in your travel bag for you. “(Y/n)! Finally! How was the train ride?”

“Not bad,” you said as he pulled you into a hug. As soon as you were apart, you started up the stairs, your pulse quickening as you came closer and closer to the moment you’d been anticipating for months. “Did Michael get back already?”

“Yeah, about an hour ago.”

Your heart skipped at this revelation; your legs couldn’t bring you to the top of the stairs fast enough, and, sensing your heightened enthusiasm, your father chuckled from behind you. “Hey, hold on a second. I haven’t seen you in months.”

“I’ll be right back, I promise,” you said breathlessly, the rubber soles of your sneakers making noisy contact with the wooden upstairs floor. You supposed that maybe you should’ve spent more time greeting your father, but you could no longer contain yourself- you needed to see Michael.

Leaving your bag at the top of the stairs, you hurried to the hallway where your bedrooms were located, unable to stifle your eagerness. You felt like a starved animal, finally being presented with food by a pair of benevolent hands, and you were ready to devour.

You didn’t bother knocking on Michael’s door when you approached it, bursting in with such force that you stumbled over your feet. The room was dim, what with the blinds being open so only a few rays of late-afternoon sunlight could peek through; seated in front of his once-cluttered empty desk, now occupied only by a laptop, was Michael, massive headphones positioned over his ears as he fixated on whatever stupid game he was currently playing (does he still play fortnite? you wondered).

The sound of your intrusion was loud enough to catch his attention, and as his head turned from his computer screen to your face, something shifted in his eyes. Immediately, he tore off his headphones, jumping to his feet so abruptly that they clattered to the ground. “Holy fuck, (y/n).”

It was evident, from the way you fell easily into his arms, that the attraction hadn’t faded. If anything, the distance apart seemed to have only made the magnetic connection between you grow even stronger.

Your lips clashed together feverishly (you had no idea who had been the one to initiate this— it seemed that you’d both moved in perfect unison into one another), hands wandering freely over each other’s bodies and teeth bumping against teeth. When you broke away, a string of saliva stretching and breaking between your faces, Michael beamed down at you.

The slight layer of baby fat that had once rounded out Michael’s cheeks appeared to have dissipated, his cheekbones even more pronounced than you remembered them being. His sharp jaw was shadowed with the smallest touch of brown stubble, (which you assumed was there because he’d been too lazy to shave), but you thought the more mature look suited him well.

“Jesus, (y/n), I missed you.” His voice was like smooth velvet; you’d inject it into your bloodstream if you could. “You’re even more fucking beautiful than I remembered.”

“Oh, good. I was worried you’d be grossed out by my freshman fifteen,”  you laughed.

“Fuck no. The fatter the ass, the better,” he said with a devious smirk, running his long fingers through his overgrown mop of blond hair. He smelled just like you remembered, a mixture of cinnamon gum and cigarettes and cologne (and the faintest hint of marijuana, of course), and you wished you could bottle up his scent and take it with you.

“So you’re still a fuckboy, I see,” you teased, twisting the front of Michael’s t-shirt in your hands and pulling him towards you. “Some things just never change, I guess.”

“Guess not.” He was speaking lowly now, assuming the smooth tone he always used when he was attempting to seduce you, and as if on cue came a dull, throbbing ache between your legs. “I wonder if your pussy is as good as I remember?”

His fingers found their way to the bottom of your sweater, fumbling with the chunky fabric and swiftly maneuvering it off over your head. You mirrored his actions, pulling off his shirt and exposing his torso, pressing your lips back against his with urgency once his upper half had been disrobed.

“Fuck…” you breathed against his parted mouth, palming the growing erection in the front of his pale gray sweatpants (your favorite pair of pants that he owned). “Need you to fuck me, Mikey…”

“Is that right?” He tilted his head to one side, kissing you deeply as he bent his knees, using his own weight as leverage to lift you up. You intertwined your ankles behind Michael’s back, securing your place in his toned arms as he carried you over to his bed; the vulgar, wet sound of your tongues melding together filled the room as he laid you down on his checkered comforter, your legs still wrapped snugly around him. “Did my baby sis miss having her pussy split on her big bro’s cock?”

“Mhm,” you purred; there truly was no man in existence better at dirty talking than Michael. You tensed in excitement when he began fumbling with the top button of your jeans, proceeding to deftly work the form-fitting denim material down your thighs once he’d freed it from its hold. “Can’t wait to feel you inside me.”

Impatiently, you reached between your bodies, your fingers coming upon the thick outline of his bulge as he peppered your throat with sloppy kisses. You moved your hand up to the waistband of his sweatpants, tugging the elastic as far back as you could; this resulted in him chuckling against your flesh, your body erupting in goosebumps at the sensation.

“So needy,” he mumbled, the vibrations of his plump lips traveling straight down to your cunt. “Did you touch yourself when you were away at school, thinking of me? Thinking of how good I touch you, how hard I make you cum?”

“M-Michael,” you whimpered, rolling your hips in melodic time with his, his clothed cock making friction against your thinly veiled pussy. “C’mon, just fuck me already. Please.”

“I like it when you beg,” he said, smug, standing so he could pull down his sweatpants and boxers, putting his long, weighted cock on display for you. You lifted your knees up for him, and in one swift motion he stripped you of your flimsy black thong. “Beg me again.”

You squirmed, sliding your flat palm down your stomach so you could touch yourself between your parted thighs; slowly, you coated your fingers with your own sticky essence, looking up at Michael from under a canopy of thick lashes. “Fuck me, Michael. I need you.”

“Ask nicely,” he chided, hoisting your thigh up to drape around his waist, eyes darkening as he observed your fingers spreading your slick wetness around your folds.

“Pleeaaaaseeee, Mikey,” you pleaded, syllables so drawn out that it almost sounded like you were singing. “It’s been so long.”

“Fuck.” He brought his lower lip into his mouth, sucking for a moment as he lined the flushed head of his cock up with your dripping entrance. When he released it, it was several shades darker than it’d been before, completely swollen and glossy with spit. “I’ve been thinking about this since the last time I saw you.”

Taking a firm grip of your thighs, he slid effortlessly into your tight heat, your jaw unhinging at the intrusion; you’d definitely be feeling him for the next few days, his thick shaft stretching out your narrow walls to the point where it was almost painful. You liked it, though, liked the delicious burn that only he could create, reminding you of who you belonged to.

“Shit,” he hissed, pausing momentarily to compose himself before assuming a deep, hard rhythm to fuck you with. “You’re so fucking tight. Must not’ve fucked anyone as big as me while you were away.”

All you could manage was a broken moan, your head lolling back towards the ceiling. He bottomed out inside you, bringing himself down to press his chest against yours, indulging in the feel of your warm, wet cunt as it spasmed around his massive length. When you started whining for more, he retracted his hips back until only the head of his cock was inside you, slamming back inside so hard that you were sent halfway up the bed.

“Oh god, Michael…” Your fingernails scraped aimlessly along the warm skin of his back, eyelids flickering open and shut in a fucked-out daze. You’d slept with a handful of guys at college, but none of them even came close to fucking you the way Michael did. He was just… special.

Fuck, I love him.

The thought startled you; you’d almost been able to forget about the little epiphany you’d had, that night in Florida when you and Michael sat side-by-side by the ocean. But now that you were with him— under him, taking every last agonizing inch of his cock, it became obvious that those feelings had remained stagnant.

After all the boys you’d been through at college, you still loved him.

God, were you fucked.

“Missed my baby girl so much,” Michael murmured, tucking your hair behind your ear and peering down at you. His forehead was glowing, the sides of his face framed with cute, damp curls of blond hair; he was so beautiful, you thought. How had you survived so long without him?

He impaled you again with a sharp upwards thrust, a string of expletives passing your lips and mixing with the lewd sounds of sex swimming through the air.  “I missed you— fuck!— too.”

“Yeah, I could tell,” he said, tucking his head into the crook of your neck and running his tongue along the salty skin. “Your pussy is fucking dripping for me.”

“Keep going,” you panted, wetting your chapped lips; with each brutal thrust of Michael’s cock, you bucked your hips forward to meet him halfway, desperate for all that he had to offer. “Feels so fucking good.”

“Yeah? You like that? Like how I split you open?” His hips pounded against yours with a bruising intensity, his chest pinning you down as you writhed beneath his lean frame. His voice was becoming hoarse, breaths short and choppy, letting you know that he was close.

“Yes, yes, yes, please, more…” Your affirmations were like a prayer, encouraging Michael to fuck you even deeper, his torso making electric contact with your clit as he moved his body in time with yours. “Make me cum, Mikey, please..”

The wind was knocked from your lungs each time he pumped his length into you, and by the time the coil in your stomach was unwinding, you were struggling to catch your breath. You ran your hands through Michael’s sweat-soaked hair, letting the strands stretch around your fingers as you tugged at the root; Your toes curled when Michael administered a particularly hard thrust inside you, your lips falling open in a silent scream; there was a burst of brilliant colors behind your eyelids as you finally reached your climax, your thighs shaking as they clasped firmly around Michael’s waist.

Like a perfect teen-movie cliché, Michael came just as you did; the feeling of his hot load as it spilled deep inside your cunt was a welcomed one, and your spongey inner walls instinctively clamped down, milking his cock for all it was worth.

With a throaty grunt, Michael pulled out of you, his cum dribbling crudely down your inner thigh and onto his bedspread, which he didn’t appear to pay any attention to. Lying down beside you, he sighed, bare chest shining with slick perspiration.

“I missed doing that,” Michael rasped, eyes focused up towards the ceiling rather than on you.

“So did I,” you said, tracing idle patterns along the expanse of Michael’s torso, watching his stomach rise and fall with each breath he took. “I can’t wait to have you all Christmas break.”

Michael’s lips turned downwards at the corners, his eyebrows knitting together in a pained display. “Oh. Yeah.”

It seemed as though he’d wanted to say more, but he pressed his lips shut into a thin line, Adam’s apple bobbing. What the hell? All at once you felt nauseous- there was something about the way he’d said those two words that made you very, very uneasy.

You sat up, your mind already starting to overflow with horrid possibilities. “What, Michael?”

“I, um. I have to tell you something.” Michael’s eyes darted throughout the room before settling on his palms. You frowned, mouth going dry at his apparent reluctance to talk to you, thoughts racing in all directions to try and pinpoint what exactly he might say.

“Michael…”

“So. Um.” He was stalling, extending his arms up so his palms were flat on his forehead, still refusing to look at you as he contemplated his words. “So you remember over the summer when I spilled Red Bull on my laptop?”

You raised an eyebrow. Where exactly was he going with this? “Yeah?”

“And remember how I would borrow my mom’s laptop to play video games while I was waiting for it to get repaired?”

“Yes, I remember. Can you just get to the point?” You were growing impatient, the anxiety increasing with each additional second that Michael continued to leave you in the dark.

“Okay, well…” He inhaled sharply. “I was borrowing her laptop one night and ended up looking at the search history because, well… you can probably guess why. Anyway. I ended up seeing all these searches for, like, new apartments and divorce lawyers.”

Oh shit. Divorce lawyers? Was he about to say what you were thinking he was about to say? “You mean…?”

Michael held up a hand as if to say let me finish, and you held your tongue. “So like, I asked her about it. And she told me that her and your dad are, like, splitting up or whatever. But she told me not to mention anything about it in case they ended up working shit out.”

You didn’t understand— wasn’t this good news? If your parents divorced, wouldn’t you finally be able to be with Michael the way you wanted? You forced down the giddiness that started to bubble up from your stomach and into your throat, knowing that there had to be a catch if Michael was acting so serious.

“So our parents are getting a divorce?”

“Well… there’s more.” He licked his lips, finally gathering the courage to look at you, the expression on his face so grim that it scared you a little. “She found an apartment in California. And she’s moving us there next month.”

California!?

No, this couldn’t be happening. How could this be happening? This was perhaps even worse than the predicament you were already in. If Michael moved to California, it was pretty fucking likely that you’d never see him again.

“I… what? And you’ve known all this for how long!?” Your voice was pitched several octaves higher now, eyes watering uncontrollably, and you felt as though you were on the brink of having a total fucking meltdown.

“I always thought there was a chance they’d get things worked out, or that my mom would change her mind about moving so far away. That’s why I didn’t tell you. I already knew you were sad about us going away to college, so I just thought-”

“-Answer the question, Michael! How long have you known this for?” Hot, angry tears were falling down your face and onto your bare chest, your entire body shaking with an overwhelming mixture of rage and despair.

He sighed. “Since August.”

Your mouth fell open in disbelief. How could he have hidden this from you for so long? “And you never thought to tell me? So I could at least come to terms with the fact that I’ll probably never see you again once you move?”

“I didn’t wanna ruin the rest of our time together,” he said softly, eyes glossy with tears that were still yet to fall. “I fucked up, okay? I should’ve told you as soon as I found out. But I kept thinking that maybe something would change, and…I don’t know. I’m sorry, (y/n).”

“Fuck,” you mumbled. Your limbs felt numb and heavy, your heart hollow. “Why did your mom have to choose fucking California, of all places?”

“I dunno. I think it has to do with this weird religion thing she’s into,” he said. “Look, (y/n), if I had any choice, I’d stay here. But you know I can’t afford my own place right now.”

“I know. It’s just-“ you collapsed backwards, your back making contact with the bed below with a soft thud. “This is so fucking unfair. We’re finally able to be together- like, really be together. But of course there has to be a catch.”

“Remember what I said, (y/n)? How if things are meant to be, they will be?” It sounded to you like Michael was attempting to make sense of a senseless situation, but you let him speak, somewhat comforted by his words. “I only have to stay in California until I can afford my own place. And I’ll still be going to the same college, so we won’t be too far from each other during the school year.”

Your college was a five hour drive away from Michael’s. Would he really be willing to make such a long trip up to see you? Would you be willing to take a trip to see him, with the new knowledge looming on your conscience that he would no longer be an arm’s length away once the school year was up? You wanted to be optimistic, but how could you be? A fresh wave of tears escaped your eyes, blurring your vision, but your cries faded to soft whimpers when Michael pulled you up against his chest.

You tried not to remind yourself of the fact that this would likely be one of the last times you’d be able to feel him there against you, one of the last times you’d absorb the heat from his skin, his distinct scent overtaking you like a natural aphrodisiac, intoxicating you.

You tried to reason with reality: if the universe had tried so hard to keep you apart all this time, maybe you and Michael being together had simply not been written in the stars (or at least that’s what you tried to convince yourself— how could a connection so strong not be meant to be?, you asked yourself dejectedly). The way you felt for Michael was special, unlike anything else you’d ever experienced before. He was a natural high, a gust of fresh springtime air, a golden ray of good in a gray-black world of bad.

But, as the saying went, all good things must come to an end. Don’t they?

Perhaps you’d always known, in the very back of your mind, that things would never work out. Perhaps you’d always known that your heart would wind up broken (no, not broken— incinerated). The cards had never been in your favor, and there had been a hundred million warning signs that you’d blatantly ignored time and time again.

But it hurt.

And you doubted it would ever stop hurting. The pain of losing Michael might one day fade from a stabbing agony to a dull ache, but that initial wound would likely never heal completely.

The only thing left to do now was stay entangled in Michael’s warmth for as long as possible, and make weary peace with the tragic ending your time with Michael had come to.

“If we survived being stepsiblings, we can survive this,” Michael said, his lips against your knotted hair, firm arms holding your naked body with a delicate tenderness that you weren’t used to. “You know that when I want something, I make sure that I get it. And what I want, (y/n), is you.”

You nodded, curling into Michael, your bodies fitting together like two perfectly-cut puzzle pieces.

“And I’m gonna have you.” You felt his hand smooth your hair out, and then he placed a kiss on your forehead, as if to imprint his words into your brain. “One day.”

Your eyes fluttered open, and all at once you were lost in a rushing sea of crystal blue, like the one that had lapped against the shore that night you’d fallen in love. As you reached up to caress Michael’s porcelain cheek, thumb grazing the rough stubble that had gathered along his jaw, you couldn’t help but believe him.

One day.

[what-is-your-plan-today]

Stark Spangled Banner Ch34: Paper

Summary: Following the events in Siberia, Katie, Steve Wanda and Sam all struggle to adapt to a life on the run. The Roger’s first wedding anniversary isn’t spent the way Steve would have hoped, but as Fall arrives, he finallly gets the call he’d been waiting for from Wakanda.

Warnings: Bad Language words. Smut (NSFW) NO UNDER 18s PLEASE!!!!

Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC Katie Stark

Stark Spangled Banner Masterlist 

August 2016

Following advice from Coulson, the group of Outlaws decided to lay low for a few months until interest died down, although Katie and Sam were pretty amused to find out that there had been protests across the US after they had been declared Enemies of the State, especially when someone (no names were mentioned, but Katie was laying odds on it being Murdock to help Clint and Scott’s very publicised hearings) had leaked to the press details of what had taken place in Siberia, and how they had been treated by the Government. To her further delight, Ross was facing a public enquiry as well with regards to their unlawful arrests. 

All in all, that part of it had worked out pretty well. And whilst she knew he would get away with it, the thought of him being pissed off filled her with a very smug sense of satisfaction.

The place they were living was called the Isle of Lewis, approximately 12 miles away from Stornoway in the northern part of the inter-connected Islands in the Hebrides and the only connection to main land Scotland was either a 2 hour ferry or a flight, so with that respect it was absolutely perfect. 

The old farm house was secluded, the land surrounding it sprawling for miles, shielded by a large thicket of trees on three sides and a cliff edge which dropped down to a small beach on the other. There was no reason for anyone to visit or pass their house, bar the odd dog walker they saw treading the cliff footpath. They were always careful when seeing people to greet them politely so they didn’t attract attention by being aloof. 

The first rule of going on the run? Don’t run.

At first they strayed into town for supply runs only and Katie was surprised just how well she adapted to living with two additional people. At first she had been worried, Steve and her having had their own space for such a long time. Even in the tower and compound their living quarters had been fairly big and they could hide away from everyone if they wanted to. But in their safe house they didn’t have that luxury. Never the less it was big enough so that they could all have their own rooms. There was one bathroom upstairs and a smaller cloakroom downstairs, and so far there had been no squabbles about who used it when. 

Their large sitting area had been kitted out with a state of the art entertainment system, they had a decent sized farmhouse style Kitchen-Diner, and a smaller sitting room off the back of the kitchen with a smaller TV, a 2 seat couch and a piano much to Katie’s delight. Practical things like bills etc were coming out of an account belonging to Mr and Mrs O’Rourke, one of Katie and Steve’s covers- the name being Steve’s Mother’s maiden name. Coulson had advised them it was the least suspicious thing to do and would attract less attention than trying to pay cash at a bank. They’d also acquired a ten year old free-lander, bought for cash of course, and it was subtle enough to blend in as a lot of the locals seemed to drive them too.

But whilst everything seemed to go according to plan and was, when all was said and done, fairly easy, Steve was struggling. He was antsy from the lack of action, and from a purely carnal point of view was missing the fact he could slam his wife up against any surface he wanted to and not worry about them being caught. He hated the fact their room was right next to Sam’s, concerned with the amount of noise they might make after Bucky’s jibe about the hotel rooms and it wasn’t long before Katie noticed a dramatic shift in his attitude towards her. He became less tactile, less handsy and their love life dwindled somewhat, leaving her slightly cranky to say the least but she manged to keep a lid on it for the most part.

Unlike Steve. 

The morning of their first wedding anniversary, Katie woke alone, her husband was no-where to be found. After laying, looking at his empty side of the bed for a moment she blinked back tears of frustration and headed for a before she wandered downstairs into the kitchen to be greeted by Sam and Wanda both sat at the table.

"Steve gone for a run?" she asked, after greeting them both good morning.

"Yeah, I offered to go but he wanted to go on his own," Sam said, shrugging “Didn’t want to keep pace."

Katie poured herself a coffee and sat down, taking a deep breath. “Is everything ok?” Wanda asked, looking at Katie “You’ve both been a little tetchy recently. Granted you haven’t been as bad as him, but...” “Yeah, you guys not err…getting enough?” Sam quipped, earning himself a slap round the back of the head from Wanda, the younger woman giving him a glare.

“Fuck off Wilson.” Katie rolled her eyes.

“I’m just saying…”

“Well don’t” she sighed, taking a sip of her coffee then swiping a piece of toast off his plate.

“Look, we know it’s your anniversary today.” Wanda looked at her. “You got anything planned?” “Not really possible.” Katie shrugged “Thought I might try and convince him to take a walk later, just the two of us but…”

“Well,” Sam said, looking at Wanda then over to Katie, “we thought we might head into town for the evening, hit a few bars. Give you two a bit of space.” Wanda nodded, eagerly. “You have to do something, even if it’s just cooking a meal and having a bit of you time.” Katie pondered this for a moment and found herself smiling “Actually, that’s not a bad idea. I can go to the store later.” her spirits raised a a little as she started planning a menu out in her head.

She was cut off when the security system clicked and Steve walked through the door of the kitchen that led to the grounds, the door shutting behind him, the keypad beeping as he typed in the code to lock everything down.

“Hey.” she looked up at him. His face was tired but nevertheless he smiled and dropped a soft kiss to her head.

“Happy Anniversary.” he whispered, and she smiled up at him, understanding his gesture to also be an apology of sorts.

“Back at ya Soldier.” she swallowed back her tears, “You want breakfast?” “I’ll shower first.” he nodded to Sam and Wanda before pausing, and stealing the last piece of toast off Sam’s plate.

“Not cool man!” Sam groaned, “That was the last of the bread.” Steve simply shrugged at Sam’s protest, before he headed down the hallway to go and freshen up. Katie watched him go before she turned to Wanda.

“Fancy coming with me?”

She nodded “Sure.”

***** When Steve came back to the kitchen half an hour or so later he was surprised to find the girls gone.

“Store.” Sam supplied as he was flicking through the television in the lounge, settling on a British Chat Show called ‘This Morning’, easy, daytime TV that didn’t require thinking about. Steve made himself a coffee before he sat down next to his friend with a sigh.

“So, first anniversary.” Sam spoke, not looking at him. “Be this isn’t what you thought you’d be doing?” “You can say that again.” Steve mumbled. Just twelve months ago at that exact time he’d been bustling about his apartment on the compound in a fluster getting ready. It had, without a doubt, been the happiest day of his life.  But this was not how he wanted their first wedding anniversary to go down. He’d always planned a nice getaway, somewhere warm, but that wasn’t an option. Certainly not yet. Even though he doubted they would be recognised, his stubble was now well on it’s way to being a fairly decent beard, he didn’t want to risk it by drawing attention to them being in a busy, touristy place. 

“Me and Wanda are clearing out later.” Sam’s eyes remained on the TV, “Give you two a bit of alone time.” “You don’t have to-“ Steve started but Sam cut him off with a snort.

“You need to make some lovin’ on your girl.” he turned to the soldier who felt a flush rise up his neck. “Because we know you ain’t been getting enough, you’ve been a bad tempered bastard for weeks.”

“I have not.” Steve shot back indignantly, causing Sam to raise his eyebrows. Steve let out a sigh, knowing he was well and truly busted.

“Look, if you two ever need some space, all ya gotta do is ask.” Sam said sincerely, looking at Steve. “Couples need that time, hell my folks used to ship us off to uncles and aunties once a week just to get some time to themselves. This is bound to be stressful for you both.”

“I doubt it’s easy on you two either.” Steve looked at him and Sam shrugged, before he smirked.

“Difference is if I wanna get laid I’ll just head into town. There’ll be some sap out there that likes George Fletcher the Geologist from Georgia…”

“You’re terrible you know that?” Steve smirked at him over his coffee mug.

Sam simply smiled back. “You get her anything?”

“Yeah.” Steve nodded “We agreed months ago on something paper themed, you know, on account of the anniversary being paper. I had planned to get the lyrics to our wedding song printed and do a sketch of one of our photos to hang up in our apartment but that kinda went out of the window.” “So what did you get?” “A book.” Steve let out a breath “I spotted it in the second hand shop in town last time we did a flyer. It’s a leather-bound complete works of Shakespeare but it was published the year she was born and has all these handwritten notes in it from someone. Just the kind of thing she’ll like. And a couple of albums of sheet music, I know she’s missing hers back home and she hasn’t been playing the piano as much as I thought she would…”

“Cool man, she’ll love it.” Sam smiled encouragingly “I hope so Sam.” he sighed, leaning back against the couch cushions, scratching at his chin “I hope so.” *****

True to their word Sam and Wanda headed out just after 5pm, leaving Katie and Steve alone. As Katie bustled around in the kitchen, Steve couldn’t help but watch his wife as she cooked, a small smile playing on his face. And then, realising they were truly alone for the first time in months he placed his beer down on the side and crossed the small room, wrapping his arms around her from behind and dropping his chin to her shoulder, nuzzling at her neck. She smiled at his display of affection, something she’d been aching for and as the scruff of his almost-beard scratched at her skin she gave a soft sigh.

“You ok?” she asked.

“Yeah.” he said, before he shook his head “No. Not really. Doll, I’m sorry.” “What for?” she frowned, turning in his arms so she could look at him.

“For being so distant. You don’t deserve this.” he sighed. “After the accords, when the dust settled we were supposed to have a normal life, a simple life. I can’t even give you that."

"It's a good thing you're cute because at times you’re incredibly stupid," she said making him breathe a laugh. “Steve we’re here, together after everything. I made that vow, until death do us part and I mean it. I love you" she finished simply, shrugging. “So stop wasting time worrying about it. You're stuck with me, Captain Badass."

Steve looked back at her, before he gave her a small smile.

"Now I know this probably isn’t what either of us had in mind, but we’re on our own, I’ve got a pretty large batch of Mac and Cheese, and an apple pie in the oven, a steak ready to grill so let’s just try and enjoy it?”

“You made mac and cheese?” his face creased into a boyish smile “And apple pie? What happened to not baking pies unless it’s Autumn?” “Well it’s September tomorrow.” she shrugged “and I thought it might cheer you up.”

"Sorry." He half grimaced, half smiled apologetically back at her. "I know I haven't been the easiest to be around lately ─"

"Stop apologizing." she interrupted him again.

He studied her for a second before he leaned down to give her a soft kiss. “I love you.” “I know.” she said, her hands sliding down to his chest and she gave him a quick pat before playfully shoving him away “Now scoot, unless you want me to burn dinner. Go set the table.” Knowing better than to refuse he did as he was told and it wasn’t long before they were settled down and eating. They talked about everything and anything, drank wine, and to the pair of them they could almost have been sat in their dining room at the compound. They laughed, they joked, they poked fun at one another. It felt normal. Once they had finished eating they cleared their dishes, Steve grabbed another bottle of wine and they headed to the couch to find something to watch on TV.

“I got you something.” Katie said when Steve dropped the wine onto the coffee table and she gestured to the small giftbag by the bottle.

“Oh, me too. Hang on.” he said, bounding up the stairs to retrieve his gift. As he returned, she eyed the 2 wrapped items with playful suspicion as he handed them to her. One was really heavy. She passed the gift bag containing his to him and he peeked inside, and they shared a childish grin with one another before they set about opening their presents.

“Oh Steve.” she breathed out as she gently ran her hands over the leather of the anthology he had bought her. Flicking through she spotted all the notes that someone had written in the margins. They consisted of opinions on the plays, themes, characterisation plots, all the type of thing she had studied at University and she found it fascinating to read other people’s interpretations.

“I thought you might like it.” he smiled as she beamed at him, before she let out another sigh of happiness when she opened the two sheet music books as they would give her something else to play other than the stuff she knew from memory.

And her gift to Steve was equally as thoughtful. He positively beamed when he opened the new blank sketch books, pencils, wax crayons and charcoals. All of his art supplies had been left behind and he’d been dying to get some more.

“Well, the sketchbook is paper.” she explained softly “And I know it relaxes you to draw.” “Doll, it’s perfect” he said, dropping a kiss to her lips. “Thank you.”

“So, what film do you wanna watch?” She asked, moving for the remote but he had no intention of watching a film. Not now. He had other ideas. He gently grabbed her wrist and she looked at him.

“Right now Mrs Rogers,” he said, turning to her and her eyes widened when she saw his pupils dilating with unmistakable desire, “I’d really like to carry you upstairs and take you to bed.”

Katie grinned “Well that can be arranged, but there’s something I wanna do first.”

He looked at her, puzzled for a moment but when she tapped on her phone and the opening sounds of ‘Only One in Colour’ sounded over the speakers he laughed and stood up, offering her his hand.

“May I have this dance?” he quipped, arching an eyebrow at her.

“Always.” she smiled, allowing him to pull her up.

They moved to the back of the couch where there was more room and he took her in a hold and they simply stayed close, swaying to the music, both of them thinking back to their first dance as a married couple twelve months ago. Katie pressed her cheek to Steve’s chest and he in turn rest his chin on the top of her head, revelling in her closeness. He heard her let out a soft sigh, but this one was contentment and he gently moved to look down at her. For a moment Katie felt her breath catch, he was looking at her with nothing but unadulterated desire and love, the same way he had on their wedding day and before the song had even finished he’d captured her lips in a soft kiss, his hands moving to cradle her face. Hers fisted in his white T-shirt and it wasn’t long before the kiss had deepened causing a moan to catch in Steve’s throat. Without a word he pulled back and scooped her up in his arms, bridal style, causing her to giggle, a sound he would never tire of, and quick as a flash he carried her up the stairs and into the bedroom. He set her on her feet but before he had time to do anything she’d shoved him backwards, catching him off guard slightly causing him to sit down harshly on the bed and he let out a smirk as she straddled him before she kissed him again and he was happy to reciprocate exactly how he knew she liked, firm and gentle, passionate and caring all at once. Katie gently bit his lower lip drawing another groan from his throat as he rest his head against hers, his hands gently gipping her hip.

“You know,” she said drawing back slightly to cup his face in her fingertips “I really do like kissing you with this.” she traced her hand across the short beard on his face. She also liked looking at him with it too because, coupled with the fact his hair was also getting slightly longer too it gave him a rugged, harder, rougher look taking him farther and farther away from the Blue-Eyed all American boy day by day.

"I’m getting used to it.” he murmured pressing a soft kiss to her mouth before his head dropped, small kisses trailing up the length of her neck, that precious stubble creating an amazing contrast to the softness of his mouth.

“Yeah, me too.” she said, her eyes closed as she rolled her head back, giving him access to more of her neck, a soft sigh escaping her lips. He smiled slightly, happy to oblige and just take his god damned time loving his wife. Eventually his lips made their way up her jaw and then she sat up slightly, grasping at the hem of his T-shirt. He moved to allow her to take it off and then his fingers made short work of the sleeveless button down she had been wearing, shrugging it down over her shoulders before he peppered more kisses across her collar bone and down her sternum as he reached round to undo her bra. Gently, he lay her flat down on the bed, taking a nipple in his mouth, this time drawling a loud groan from her as her hips bucked involuntarily upwards at the sensations spiking through her body.

God it really had been far too long since he’d lavished attention on her like this and Steve made a mental not to tell Sam and Wanda to ‘take a walk’ a lot more often. It was almost two months now since they had last been intimate and, his body was aching for her, desperate to feel her and from the noises she was making she felt the same. His lips made their way down, nose and beard skimming along the waistband of her jeans before he undid them, sliding them down with her underwear as he shed his own too before he crawled back over her.

Katie pushed on his shoulders slightly so she could roll him over and placed herself on top of him, brushing her lips across the hairs on his face tracing a path across from one side of his jawline to the other drawing a gentle moan from his lips, hands flexing on her hips as she shifted slightly to start taking him in. Her mouth dropped into a small ‘o’ as they both groaned as she slid down him, her hands falling to his chest and once he was fully seated in her, she began to work him gently. His hands slid up into her hair, as she leaned forward to kiss him and he raised his hips slightly and she whimpered, pushing down harder against him as his hands gently kneaded at her breasts. Her pace was slow, torturously so, but it wasn’t long before she began to move faster, working him harder as she chased her relief. The roughness of his pubic hair was grinding against her spot, the friction feeling amazing as she pushed down. With every push she made, his eyes grew darker, and darker, his hands digging into her hips as he pulled her down, grinding further and deeper.

He sat up suddenly, so they were face to face, the change of angle making her cry out, as he slid his hands round her back, pulling her closer to him as he bent to kiss her neck, biting at that spot whilst he held her still for a moment, gently thrusting upwards, deeply, slowly, savouring the moment. Katie rolled her head back, a louder cry this time tumbling from her lips and he felt her tighten around him, and he let out a groan of his own.

“Good?” he whispered, smiling as she managed a broken noise of affirmation, as he pulled her to him harder, hands back on her hips as his rutting picked up speed.

“Stevie…” she mumbled, her eyes locking onto his as her hands slid up his back and fisted into his hair. A few more pushes later and they were both done for, her name escaping from his lips as her walls collapsed completely, and she let out a soft cry as she fell forward burying her face in his neck. He was close behind, letting out a gentle moan, his beard rustling against her ear as he jerked underneath her, clinging onto her as if he never wanted to let her go. And at that moment he didn’t.

After a minute or so he leaned back, his breathing deep as he brushed her hair back off her face before sliding his nose against hers. “Happy Anniversary kitten.” *******

Steve thought the fall in New York was gorgeous but that was nothing to what it was like where they were. He was feeling a lot more positive about things as well, as post their anniversary, he and Katie had made a pact that they would do  something alone together at least once a week, be it a walk along the cliff the beach, or straying into town to one of the local restaurants. His hair and beard now rendered him pretty much unrecognisable now and they never got a second glance at all. 

Being on the run shouldn’t have been this easy, and they were constantly on edge, waiting for the time they had to split and run, but whilst they could, they made the most of it. 

Steve’s favourite ‘date’, if you could them that, was the walk they took in the pitch black to see the Northern Lights late one evening. Katie had been utterly captivated by the beauty of the Aurora Borealis and Steve had to admit, it was spectacular. Committing it to memory was easy, and a few days later Katie wasn’t surprised to find a perfect replica of them his sketch book.

Thanksgiving came, then Christmas, the four friends making it as festive as possible. They got a tree, shared gifts, enjoyed a Christmas Meal, and after several drinks each Steve wheeled the piano into the living room where Sam and Katie gave a rousing rendition of ‘Fairy Tale of New York’ along with a few other Christmas songs. It was different, but that didn’t make it any less enjoyable.

And then, in March 2017, they had a call from T’Challa. They were ready to bring Bucky out of cryo. Katie and Steve instantly set about making the arrangements to go to Wakanda, but it turns out they weren’t the only ones planning on taking a little trip…

“There’s something I wanted to discuss with you all.” Wanda said, the morning they were due to depart. “Please don't freak out, but I talked to Vision last night."

"What?" Katie’s voice was quiet as she merely looked back at the younger woman, her face passive.

Meanwhile, both Steve and Sam's eyebrows shot up in their foreheads.

"Hold on, what do you mean you talked to Vision?” Steve asked. “How? Where?"

"This is going to sound really weird, but I saw him in my dreams," Wanda carried on with her explanation.

"How do you know that wasn't just a dream?" Sam asked.

"Because it wasn't," Wanda shrugged "I don't know how to explain it, but I know it was him and I know it was real. I think we are connected somehow, because of the Mind Stone and because I was thinking about him before I went to sleep, it made some kind of telepathy possible.”

Steve pondered it for a second, thinking to himself how ridiculous that sounded until he realised they were talking about an enhanced human who had gained certain telepathic and telekinetic powers due to experimentation with the Mind Stone and an android that now carried within his synthetic, vibranium-mesh body said gem. 

When you put it like that it seemed fairly logical.

"Okay. What did you talk about?" Katie asked after a moment.

"Just stuff, how I was, how much we, you know, miss one another" Wanda bit her lip. "We talked about actually meeting in person in a few days."

"Okay, hold on," Sam said, furrowing his forehead and holding one of his hands up. "How do we know this is not a trap? Like, I don't know, Tony getting Vision to talk to you to get us back into the Raft?"

As soon as Sam said it Katie shook her head. Tony could sometimes be a jackass and he may have been hurt and mad at her and Steve, but she knew despite his stinging barb in Siberia, he wouldn’t want them all thrown in jail.

"He wouldn't do that," she said.

“How do you know?” Sam pressed.

“Because Tony has way better tech than us, and there's no accounting for what Vision can do with that Mind Stone.” Steve looked at him. This was something he had been pondering on for a while now too “If anyone can find us, it's them, yet we’re almost 10 months down the line now since Leipzig and so far, there's no sign of any one, so Tony’s either no longer working with Ross, or if he is, he's dragging his feet deliberately.”

"Exactly," Wanda nodded emphatically. "And Vision would never do anything to hurt me, not intentionally. I trust him with my life, but it's more than that."

Taking a deep breath, his mind made up, Steve turned to Wanda “You’re not a prisoner here Wanda. If you want to go then we can’t and we won’t stop you.”

“Do you want to go?” Katie looked at the younger woman who was wringing her hands together.

“I do but, well, I kinda feel like I’m fraternizing with the enemy.”

“He’s not the enemy. None of them are. Not Vision or Rhodey, Not Tony, none of them.” Steve ran his hand through his hair, sweeping the long strands back off his face. “We all wanted the same thing, to do good in this world but we disagreed on how best to make it happen. Doesn’t make us enemies.”

“But we’re on the run because…”

“This was always going to happen.” Katie cut her off, shaking her head “Ever since SHIELD collapsed and Fury stepped away there was a power vacuum. It was only a matter of time before the Government tried to step in to oversee us.”

“And let’s face it, I was always going to be considered a rogue threat the moment I refused to comply” Steve said, a wry smile on his face. “We all were.”

“Just be careful.” Katie looked at Wanda. “And whilst we’re away just make sure you check in once in a while? And the first sign of trouble, well, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

“Well if Wanda’s being granted shore leave so to speak, I might take a bit of time too.” Sam chipped in as the idea came to him. “There’s an old RAF pal of mine, based in Bracknell near London I aint seen in a while. He’s cool,” he anticipated the next question, “I saved his life on a mission so he won’t sell me out.” Steve took a deep breath and then shrugged “You know the risks, Sam. If any of us get caught then…” “Back to the Pokey.” Sam shrugged “Yeah, I got it. And don’t worry, I wouldn’t rat your location out.”

“Me neither.” Wanda added. 

“I suppose, to be fair,” Katie bit her lip, “we’ve been here for a long time now. It won’t harm us to disappear for a while, regroup in a few weeks. And we’ll draw even less attention apart as they won’t be expecting it.” And so, for the first time in 10 months, the four went their separate ways. ****** True to his word Steve was there when they woke Bucky up. Once he had come round the two greeted one another with the same love and affection they always did. Suri’s scans showed that the programming was no longer present in Bucky’s brain, but there was one last thing they had to do to make sure.

Say the trigger words.

Which was why Katie, Steve, a one armed Bucky and T’Challa were now heading to the underground fort of the palace. Steve in his combat suit, Katie in her cat suit clutching a rifle and T’Challa in his black panther garb, two members of his Kings Guard guard following behind.

As they were about to enter the underground cell, Bucky grabbed Katie’s arm and pulled her to one side.

“What the hell Bucky?” she almost yelped, and he let go of her arm and held his finger to his lips.

“Listen, Doll, I got a favour to ask. If this hasn’t worked…” he took a deep breath “I want you to end it.”

“End what?”  she arched an eyebrow at him. “Me.” he said simply “Steve’s said you’re a good shot. I want you to put a bullet in my head.” Katie looked at him, and then burst out laughing “Whatever.” “I’m being deadly serious.” he looked at her. “I can’t and I don’t want to live like that anymore.” he shook his head sadly “I’d rather die that know that what they’ve done is still in there.” “Bucky,” she frowned, “you’d be safe here, you know that, no one would trigger you.” “No, we don’t know that.” he said earnestly, “Please Katie, I’m begging you. You owe me, remember?” “So you save my life and you want me to take yours?” “Yeah.” he nodded, “Pretty much.”

“You’re an asshole James Buchanan Barnes” she hissed, glaring at him before shooting a glance over his shoulder at where Steve was stood, talking to T’Challa. She shook her head sadly. “I can’t.”

“Listen, I’m asking you because I trust you to do it.” he said, looking over his shoulder to where she had been watching Steve. He was now stood observing the pair of them and they both smiled at him. Katie took a deep breath, looking into Bucky’s steel blue eyes and gave a sigh. She knew how hard this was on him and she could fully understand where he was coming from but still, asking her to do it, especially when she knew Steve would be besides himself made her feel sick.

“I’ve written Steve a letter.” Bucky said quickly, as the Super Soldier was now making his way over. “It explains what I’ve asked you to do. So please, give me your word.”

She looked at him, swallowing, and gave him a small nod before her eyes flicked to Steve as he approached, a frown on his face.

“You two alright?” he asked.

“Yeah, Katie was just asking me how I was really feeling.” Bucky looked at his friend.

Katie shrugged and smiled at Steve in what she hoped as a convincing way “Wanted to make sure he was alright, that’s all.”

Steve studied her for a moment, and she smiled again before he turned to Bucky. “It’s gonna be ok.” Steve assured his friend, clapping him on his shoulder, shooting another glance at his wife who was nervously chewing her lip. He frowned again, but pushed the suspicion to the back of his mind and then nodded. “Come on.” “Yeah, let’s get this over with.” Bucky mumbled.

Steve and T’Challa stepped into the room which was sealed whilst Katie took up her position on the other side of the one way glass with Suri who pressed the microphone to talk into the room.

““I don’t know why you are all worrying, brother, it is like you do not trust me…” the young woman scoffed. “Take no chances Sister.” T’Challa shot back. “You know this”.

Suri made a noise in her throat and then spoke again “Ok, I’m ready when you are.” She held the red book in her hand that they had recovered from Zumo. T’Challa engaged his helmet whilst Steve stood stoic as ever, throwing a glance over his shoulder to the glass he knew his wife was stood at the other side of.

“Ready Buck?” he asked turning back. His friend nodded, taking a deep breath.

T’Challa signalled to Suri who, after a little hesitation, began to read, each word punctuated by a pause.

"Longing, Rusted, Seventeen, Daybreak, Furnace…”

Katie watched intently and saw Bucky was clenching his teeth and suddenly she started to get a little bit nervous. She wasn’t the only one that had spotted it either. Steve moved slightly, adopting a little more of a battle stance than he had been as he clocked his friends reaction.

“ Nine, Benign, Homecoming, One, Freight Car"

The last words hit Steve like a truck. It was depraved that Hydra would use those words. Bucky had plunged from a train car to his supposed death. There was no randomness to that at all, unlike the seemingly obscure nature of the rest of the words, nor was it any accident it was the last trigger they would use. There were the final words because they signified the death of Bucky and the birth of the killer Winter Soldier.

Sick bastards.

Bucky’s chest was heaving, his fist was clenching, and for a split second Steve feared the worse. But when his friend looked up, he saw the blue eyes of Bucky Barnes looking back at him, and not the icy glare of the Winter Soldier.

“Buck?” he asked gently, his voice cracking slightly. Bucky looked at him, a single tear falling down his cheek.

“Nothing.” he said, and Katie let out a soft sigh of relief, her hands sliding down her face to cover her mouth. “Nothing.”

T’Challa threw a party of sorts that night which consisted of a bar crawl through the city. Katie and Bucky dubbed it a “Fuck Hydra” party much to Steve’s chagrin. But he couldn’t bring himself to care that much, as at the end of the day, if anyone had as much right to stick their middle fingers up to Hydra it was them. There was still something troubling him though, so when T’Challa left the bar they were sat at for a few moments, he turned to Bucky and asked him outright what had been going on with him and Katie outside the cell before. Bucky hesitated before he hung his head slightly and peered up at Steve from where he was sat next to him, a tumbler of some kind of Wakandan alcohol in his hand.

“I asked her to kill me.” Bucky admitted, swilling the liquid round in the glass “If it hadn’t worked I asked her to put a bullet in my head. She didn’t want to but I told her she owed me.” Steve felt himself blanche “You did what?” “You don’t know what it’s like.” Bucky shook his head “Living with the fact that at any time someone could mutter a string of words and…” he shot back the alcohol and slid his empty glass back to the Bar Tender to top up. “I didn’t want to live like.”

”You put that on her?” Steve’s eyes flashed with anger, “Damnit Buck, you should have asked me!”

“Would you have done it?” Bucky countered, Steve took a big sigh, knowing he was caught “Exactly.” Bucky scoffed “And besides, you’re the one that said she was a dead shot.”

Bucky eyed his friend for a while before he slid his empty glass to the man behind the bar, gesturing for another top up. “Anyway, it’s irrelevant now because here I am.” he smirked

Steve nodded and reached over his glass, smiling “Yeah, here you are.” T’Challa chose that point to come back and he settled at the bar next to Steve.

“So, Sergeant Barnes, we’ll have to see about getting you some permanent lodgings.” he smiled “Maybe a private hut. There is a quiet tribe, not far from the river, unless you would prefer a post in my Kings Guard.” “I’m done fighting” Bucky shook his head as he took another drink from his glass. “Certainly for the time being anyway. A hut sounds mighty fine. Maybe I can get some goats.” “Goats?” Steve looked at him.

“I like Goats.” Bucky shrugged “Do you remember the one in the petting zoo near School?” “Yeah, it set my asthma off” Steve snorted before the pair of them descended into laughter.

Across the bar Katie was stood with Suri and one of T’Challa’s personal guards, Okoye. She instantly warmed to Okoye, the woman reminding her a lot of Natasha. They stood chatting for a while before a loud roll of laughter caught their attention and they turned to see T’Challa, Bucky and Steve howling at something, as T’Challa gestured for the bar tender to top up their glasses whilst Okoye excused herself to head over to speak to her husband. 

“Oh they’ve broken out the Wakandan Spice” Suri muttered, eyeing up the men.

“What’s that?” Katie asked.

“The only thing that gets my brother drunk!” she snorted “That stuff could knock out a rhino.”

“So it should have an effect on Super Soldiers?” Katie grinned. Drunk Steve was one of her favourite Steves.

“Let’s go find out!” Suri nodded, a cheeky grin on her face. They made their way over and Katie could see instantly the woman was right. Steve had a glazed look in his eyes and Bucky was leaning back in his chair, a pink tinge to his cheeks.

“Hey beautiful” Steve smiled up at Katie, pulling her into his lap, his hand trailed up and down her spine, lazily. "Where you been all evening?”

“About 10 meters away over there.” she smirked, pointing. Suri was reaching over to steal a bit of the liquor from Bucky’s glass and T’Challa slapped her hand. “You are not even old enough to drink.” he glared at her.

“Tssk hush brother. Just because you are now well into your 30s. You always seem to be so bitter about me being much younger than you.” At that Bucky barked out a laugh.

“Don’t know what you’re snorting at old man.” Katie glanced at him and he quirked an eyebrow at her.

"Not exactly a comment I'd expect from someone who’s married to a 100-year-old man."

"98” Steve corrected.

Katie leaned back in her husband's lap to peer at him, her right hand running through his hair. "Doesn't look a day over twenty nine," she grinned.

“Hey brother, why doesn’t your power stop your ageing?”  Suri quipped.

“Shut up.” T’Challa said. “Before I carry you back to the palace”

As the two siblings began to quibble, Katie glanced at Steve. “Been talking about the good old days?” “In a fashion.” Steve smirked.

“Anymore good tales of your misspent youth to tell me?” Bucky shook his head. “Sure Steve’s told you enough already.”

"I never told her about the time you set up a double date for us and then forgot to show up." Steve looked at him, his arms tightening around his wife.

"That never happened." Bucky shook his head.

"It absolutely happened. Caroline O’Hara and Deborah Smith"  

Bucky’s eyes widened. “Oh shit, yeah. Brunette and a red head. A curly red head.” he grinned.

“Yup. Double date to the theatre, only you never showed up.” Steve looked at him, accusingly “And little old me was left to explain to Debbie why you had stood her up."

Bucky smirked into his glass.

"I thought she was gonna kill me," Steve mused, turning to look at Katie. “She kept hitting me with her purse. And then Caroline started, asking where the hell he was and why he thought it fit to stand up her best friend and fix her up with some kind of joke.”

Katie frowned, narrowing her eyes. "You weren’t a joke."

"Thanks baby." he grinned before he turned to fix Bucky with a glare “And do you remember why you didn’t show up?” Bucky was now shaking with mirth, as he looked at Steve, his eyes bright with tears of laughter “Go on, tell her Buck.”

"I was with Maggie Dougherty.” he smirked

“Yeah, you were.” Steve pointed at him, “That was the night you got caught sneaking out of her room and down her fire escape by her dad who beat the crap out of you.”

“Worth it though.” Bucky snorted “She was hot. Brunette waves, pretty face, nice ass.” “Yeah.” Steve nodded and Katie slapped the back of his head.

“Oww!” he looked at her as she glared at him. Grinning he reached up to give her a soft kiss “Not a patch on you though, pretty girl..”

After another hour or so Katie left them to it, heading back to the palace with Suri. She’d had enough, the alcohol she had drunk had lulled her into that happy place here she felt warm and fuzzy inside, and ready for bed.

Unfortunately, Steve woke her up when he came crashing into the room a few hours later.

“Shit.” he mumbled, as he banged into the chair by the dresser. “Shhhh” he said, to no one but himself. He staggered over to the bed before face planting straight down.

Katie grinned as he peeked up at her.

“I’m drunk.” he told her, because he had to explain or she wouldn’t know, right?

“No shit Sherlock.” she giggled and scrambled out of the duvet “Ok Captain Badass, let’s get you in bed.” “Promises, promises.” he said wriggling his eyebrow, eyeing her up and down as she leaned over, flashing him a glimpse down the top she was wearing to bed.

“Yeah, not a chance pal. I doubt very much you’d be of any use in this state.”

“Hey.” he pouted rolling over so he was on his back, watching her as she climbed over the bed “Why are you not wearing one of my T’shirts?”

“I dunno.” she said, dropping to the floor to take off his suede boots. “Just put this on.”

“I like you in my shirts.I like you better out of them.” he grinned, grabbing hold of her as she stood up.

“How much have you had?” she laughed as he pulled her onto his lap, nuzzling  into her neck.

“Enuff.” he spoke back, voice muffled. “You know you’re the prettiest gal in the whole world?” He peeked up at her and she had to laugh as she ruffled his hair. 

“Arms up.”

“I like it when you undress me” he grinned, and she rolled her eyes.

Eventually she managed to tug off his shirt and his jeans whilst he made some other reference to sex, before he pulled her back down onto the bed next to him, giggling like a school kid.

“Bucky told me.” He slurred.

“Told you what?”

“That he asked you to shoot him.” Steve hiccupped “But I’m glad you didn’t have to.”

Katie chuckled to herself “Me too baby.” “And now he’s all better.” Steve sighed, “Good isn’t it?” “It’s awesome.” she smiled, reaching up to bush his hair off his face. “You’re gonna be so hungover tomorrow.” He responded with shrug. “I do love you. So much.”

“I know and I love you too.” she said, “Now you gonna get into bed?”

He pushed himself up before beginning a monumental fight with the duvet to get underneath it, the whole thing a great source of amusement to Katie. She’d seen him tipsy from the Asgardian stuff Thor gave him before, but not flat out shit faced like this.

“Are you gonna puke?” she asked, stroking his head as he sighed, nuzzling into his pillow. 

“No.” he said, shaking his head. Then a pause before he hiccupped slightly “But I think I need water.” “Alright, wait there.” Katie climbed out of bed. She grabbed him a bottle from the mini fridge near the door but by the time she had turned back, Steve had his face buried into his pillow and made nothing more than a noise when she offered it to him, not looking up. Deciding she couldn’t be bothered to argue with him, she gently placed the bottle on the night stand next to him, and ran her hand through his hair one more time before she crossed to her side of the bed and settled down with him.

“Night soldier.” she said softly, kissing his cheek.

“Night princess.” he slurred into his pillow.

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[long-bodyswap]

Controlling Kyle

My story is kinda hard to believe. 

You see I have found a way to take over and control another body. This is the story of the body that I took over and what I did with that body. 

Kyle, the body I took over, is eighteen and very well put together. He is about six feet tall, with wide shoulders and narrow hips, and no body fat. Oh by the way, did I mention that he has nine and one-half hard fat inches? Well he did, that was until I took over his body, but that is part of the story you will find out about later. I have known Kyle for a long time and have been have sexual play with him for over two years. 

Kyle is one of those young men that comes from a good family but wants to be a street punk. He thinks of himself as a player of sexual games. So because I have the money or drugs that he wants from time to time, he ended up owing me in a big way. To pay that debt he found out that his big fat dick could go a long way. So it has been for two years now. He fell behind in keeping up with promised favors, so I did some research in black magic and found a way to take over his body. 

I at first figured to take over on a part time basis and use his body for getting sex with his friends. All of his friends think that he is straight and would never have sex with a fag. So I planned on taking over and then making passes at his young well hung friends. That way I figured to at least ruin his reputation as a ladies man and make his life hell when his friends found out that he liked guys. What happened has changed his life and mine in ways that I would have never foreseen.What happened started out just as I planned for it to. 

The night that I planned to work the magic, was perfect in that no one was around and I knew that Kyle was going to be bombed out of his head that night, which would make him easier to take over. When the time came I worked the spell. At first I thought that it had not worked because I was still in my body. I started to try and figure out what had gone wrong and all at once I was standing at a tree taking a leak. Only the dick that I was holding was Kyle's and I was in control of his body. I was bombed out of my head and with a group of his friends at a party. I could access Kyle's mind and get the info that I needed to know who was who and where I was. This was great! I could feel Kyle in the back of my mind and knew that he could hear and see what was going on but could not do anything about it. I had total control of his body and he was just an observer to what I did. 

As I stood there with his/my dick in my hand, his friend Dave came up to take a leak. Mow Dave was someone that I had met and want to have sec with before I took over Kyle's body. Dave was a sexy little fucker that fit the grunge rocker look. As Dave undid his pants to take a leak, I stared at his dick, which was now in view. Dave's cock was half-hard from needing to piss. It looked to be about eight inches long and it was very thick. His cock was almost as big around as a beer can. I could not take my eyes off of it as a stream of hot piss started to flow. Dave noticed that I was staring at his cock and looked at Kyle/me. He said, "What are you looking at Davis? Have you been hanging around your fag friend so much that you want my dick?" I replied that I did want his dick at which he turned to face me. 

He had finished pissing and stood there with his fat cock pointing at me. He then said, " Well if you want it go ahead. I could use a headjob and your lips will work." Well I am not a fool, with that I knew that I could hurt Kyle by going for it, so I dropped to my knees and reached for Dave's cock. It was very warm and soft to the touch with an inter firmness that said it would soon be rock hard. As I leaned closer to Dave's body I could feel Kyle trying to stop me. I opened my mouth and licked Dave's last drop of piss from his cock head. Dave told me to suck it if I was going to and pushed that fat cock head into my mouth. I closed my mouth around that dick and started to suck on it. As I started to slide my mouth down on to that quickly hardening cock, Dave grabbed my head and shoved his full length into my mouth. His dick was so thick that it was hard to keep my teeth off of that hot rod. This was my dream come true. Dave started to fuck my mouth as he held on to my head. He said, " Watch your fucking teeth if you want to keep them cocksucker!" He then started to really fuck hard and fast in and out of my mouth. 

He kept it up for several minutes and shoved in as hard and deep as he could to cum down my throat. He pumped what seemed like a gallon of cum down my throat. As his cock started to go soft he said, " You give good head Davis. I will be using your mouth again and so will everyone else when I tell them about you." He laughed. With that he put his cock back in his pants and headed back to the party. Kyle was in a rage in my head and still could not do anything about it. I stood up and noticed that Kyle's body had reacted like mine would and that I had a raging hardon. I put my cock into my pants and headed back into the party.When I got back into the party several people looked at me and stared. It was then that I realized that the knees of my pants were wet from the dew. Several people smiled and looked like they knew what had happened. Just then Dustin came over and asked if what Dave had told them was true. I ask what Dave had said and was told that he had told everyone that I was a cocksucking fag. I told him that I was not a fag but that I did like to have sex with other men at times. 

With that said, Dustin hit me in the gut and called me a fag. He also said that he and several other guys at the party would show me what it was like to be a fag. He turned around and yelled to the others at the party. "Davis is a fag and since there are not any girls around he is going to do anyone who is horny. You can use the fag just like a bitch. Let's fuck his mouth and ass so that he knows what our bitches have to do to make us happy!" Kyle was trying to take control but could not. It seemed that he could feel and taste everything that I did. So one of the guys locked the door and I was told to strip or be stripped. Here I was with ten other guys all of who were taking off their clothes so that they could use me as a fuck hole. I saw Dave across the room and he smiled at me. He was even stripping off his clothes. Dustin slapped me and told me to get my fucking clothes off. He then told me that he was going to be the first to fuck me up the ass. Up to this point I had not looked down between his legs, so I did and what I saw almost scared me. 

I knew that this body was a virgin in the ass and Dustin had to be at least ten inches long and five or six around. He asked someone to get him some Vaseline or something to make my ass slick for him. Someone handed him some cooking oil and he started to rub it on to his monster-sized cock. At this point I started to have second thoughts about if I wanted to be gang raped by these guys. I started to panic and tried to run from Dustin. Several guys grabbed me and held me. Dustin started to laugh and told them to bend me over the back of the couch that was there. The guys holding me forced me to bend over and a couple of guys grabbed my legs. Dustin walked up behind me and I felt his hard cock rubbing against my asshole. He told me that I could scream and fight all that I wanted to but that he was going to fuck me like a whore. He then told someone to have his dick ready to shove in to my mouth if I opened it. He rubbed his cock head against my hole several times and then shoved the head into me. I tried to relax and take it knowing that if I could relax it would not hurt as bad. My virgin asshole clenched and the pain screamed through my brain. 

Dustin pushed again and more of his fat hard cock slid up into me. My virgin ass was now really hurting and I screamed out. When my mouth opened to scream, Will shoved his cock into my mouth. Will's cock was smaller than Dustin's, but still was a mouth full. Dustin pushed hard again and more of his cock entered me. He then said, " Well Davis that is half of my cock, are you ready for the rest of it?" and pushed what was left of his dick into me. I swallowed Will's cock down to the root as I tried to scream. Dustin was now fully in my ass and he started to pump his massive cock in and out of my tortured ass. Will had started to work his cock in and out of my mouth in a slow fucking motion. Will's cock had a sweet taste and his public hair tickled my nose as he fucked my face. I could smell Will's musky body smells and was getting turned on by them. Dustin was now fucking my ass at a steady pace and my ass had relaxed so that it was starting to feel real good. I could feel Dustin's balls as they slapped against my ass and legs with his every thrust. 

He had taken hold of my hips and was fucking in time with the music that was playing. Kyle was still raging in the back of my mind trying to retake control of the body. I started to relax and really enjoy being fucked by these two young studs at the same time. As Dustin picked up his speed in fucking me, I knew that he would be cumming soon. Dustin's thrusts were driving me down onto Will's cock just as it exploded. Will's cum was hot and thick and tasted slightly salty as I swallowed all of it. Dustin slammed himself all the way into my ass and unloaded his cum in me. I could feel Dustin's cock pulsing as he sprayed that hot load in my guts. Will had moved away from my face only to be replaced by another guy with a raging hard cock. As Dustin pulled his deflating cock from my ass the room seemed to spin and I was in my own body again. 

Kyle now was in control and being gang raped back at the party.A couple of days later Kyle stopped by my house. I was surprised to see him. He told me about what happened at the party, and that he did not know what had come over him to make him do Dave in the first place. It seems that he did not know that I had taken control of his body and started everything that night. He told me that now everyone thought he was a fag and that none of the girls would have sex with him but that the guys kept telling him that he would get used again. He was horny as hell and wanted to take out some of his frustrations on someone. He told me to get naked cause he was going to give me the fuck of my life. He had been used hard and now wanted to use someone hard. This is something I had wanted for a long time and now because of what I had done it was going to happen. Kyle told me that he was going to use me like a bitch and was not going to stop until he felt like stopping. He planned on fucking me until I begged him to stop and then some. He wanted to have sexual power over someone and I was it. 

We went into my room and got naked and then he grabbed me and forced me down on the bed. He shoved his cock in my mouth and told me to suck it. I sucked on his cock until it was hard and then he started to fuck my face hard and fast. I was not ready for this and gagged as he forced his way into my throat. I could feel his balls as they landed on my chin and his hair rubbed my nose. He fucked like a mad man and just as I started to enjoy his fucking he pulled out of my mouth. He ordered me to turn over and without any preparation he shoved all nine and one-half inches into my ass. It hurt like hell at first and then I relaxed and started to enjoy it. He fucked like a bull in a mad rage and came in a short while. After he came he slowed down and continued to fuck me with long slow thrusts. After a few minutes of this slow fucking he started to pick up speed again. He built up to a hard slamming fucking that lasted for over a hour. He came a second time and pulled out of my ass and told me to suck his dick again. His orders left no room to question and so with his dick still covered with slime from my ass and his cum, I started to suck his cock. As I sucked his cock I played with his balls which are the size of large walnuts and have only a touch of hair on them. 

His balls are very soft to touch and as I played with them he moaned and flexed his hips up in my face. As I sucked his cock it started to grow hard again and his movements became more forceful. He was slamming his hips up to meet my face and mouth as his hands shoved down on my head. He came a third time this way. His load was very small this time and his cock softened quickly. He pulled away from me and got up off the bed. As he was getting dressed, he told me that if he did not find a bitch soon that he would be using me a lot to keep his sex drive down. When he left, I got out the spell and went over it again. As I read through it again, I realized that I had misunderstood it when I had worked it. Once the spell was worked I could take control whenever I wanted to by just reciting the spell. Kyle would be mine again and again and each time would be longer than the time before. I also understood now that Kyle would know what went on when I was in control but he would not know who was in control.It was several days before I could take Kyle over again what with work and all. When Friday night rolled around, I was ready to take over and have a good time in his body. I planned to get stoned with Kyle's friends and try to repeat the gang bang from before. 

I knew that this time I would keep control longer and be able to enjoy the sex with those wild young men. I wanted to find Dustin and try to get fucked by him again. I waited until the time I knew when young guys started to hang out in the local park and then I took over. Kyle was with Dave and Eric at the park. As I got control Eric was telling me that it looked like I would have to be his and Dave's girl for the night. Now Eric is about six foot tall and is kinda muscular. He once had told me that he had a very fat eight and one-half inches. Eric is the local football hero. I told him he would have to barrow someone's dick if I was going to be his girl. Well that hit a nerve with him and he went off about how I always thought that I was better than him. He told me that he would have my ass and have it soon rather I liked it or not. Dave started to laugh and told me that he could hardly wait for me to blow him again and that he had saved up his cum all week for my mouth. At this point in time I was sure that these two would have sex with me tonight. I started to say let's go, just as o car pulled up and someone got out. It turned out to be Charlie, a blond headed sixteen year old punk. I had wanted Charlie the first time I had seen him. 

Now if only I could get him interested in some hot kinky sex would be great. As it turned out, Charlie was looking for Kyle for just that reason. Charlie asked Dave if he was still pimping out my ass and mouth. Dave said he sure was and that I would do anyone he told me to or else I knew what would happen. At this Charlie pulled out forty dollars and handed them to Dave and said that he and I would be back in a hour or so. Charlie told me to get in the car and I did. As we drove to his house he told me that his parents were gone and that he was now going to prove to me that he was a man and not a little boy like I always said he was. Now I understood that everyone who had a grudge against Kyle was now using him to prove how he was not so great. 

This sixteen year old was out to prove his manhood and my asshole was the proving grounds. Charlie took me to his house and when we went in he ordered me to strip off my pants and bend over. He took his pants off and hanging there was a cock as big as Kyle's. He was hard and ready to plow my ass. He walked around me and put the head of his cock in my mouth and told me to make it wet cause that was all the lube I would get. As I sucked on his dick, Charlie kept talking about how after tonight I had best not ever call him a little boy again or else he would show me what real men did with fags like me. He told me that he was going to fuck me just like I was a bitch in heat, cause that was what I was to him. I had gotten his dick slick and wet when he pulled it out of my mouth and told me to follow him. 

He went to his bedroom and laid down on his bed. He then ordered me to sit on his big hard cock. As I climbed up over him he grabbed me and pulled me down on to his rock hard cock just as he flexed his hips up to meet my ass. My balls landed in his blond pubic hairs and my dick slapped his belly. He laughed at me because my dick was hard and leaking pre-cum. He ordered me to work myself up and down on his cock. I felt like he was tearing me in two with his big fleshly wedge in my ass. As I started to ride his rock hard manhood, I realized that Charlie was really a man and that Kyle had been wrong to think otherwise. He made me ride up and down on his cock for what seemed like hours, but really was only about fifteen minutes. Then he pulled me down on top of him and rolled over with me. Now I was trapped under him as he lifted my legs and started to slam fuck my ass. Charlie fuck me long and hard for close to a hour before he picked up speed. As he picked up speed he slammed harder and harder into me. His cock was rubbing back and forth against my prostrate and without knowing it he was pushing me to climax. 

Just as I started to cum, Charlie slammed home in my ass and let loose a flood of his own cum. I could feel his cock pulse and squirt deep inside of me. My own load was hitting me in the face in time with his pulses. Charlie collapsed on top of me and laid there. As he regained his breath, he started to laugh and tell me that I must really be a bitch because I came because he was fucking me. He got up and got dressed and told me to put on only my underwear because he wanted me to be ready for the next guy when he took me back to the park. I did what I was told and rode back to the park with my clothes in my lap. When we got there he made me get out and tell Dave and Eric how much of a man he was and that he had made me cum by fucking me. Dave and Eric seemed to get excited by the ideal that I would cum if someone fucked me hard and long enough. When Charlie left they turned to me and told me it was time for me to be their bitch. So we got into the car and headed to Dave's house were they promised that they both were going to fuck me until I came with them.At the house Dave and Eric wasted no time in taking off their clothes and were soon nude. I only had underwear to take off but was told to leave them on. It seemed that Eric wanted to rip the ass out of them and fuck me. He was ready to do it. His cock was just what he hod told me. It was about eight and one-half inches and very thick. The head was a huge red mushroom with a piss slit big enough for me to put my little finger into. His shaft was covered with bulging veins that stood up pulsed with life. I knew that he was going to really take a toll on my already overworked asshole with that big monster. He saw the look on my face and told me that he was sure that I would never forget the fuck that he was going to give me. Dave laughed and told me that my ass was going to get his big cock tonight also. I knew that I would be begging them to stop before it was over. Dave lit a joint and started to pass it around as he and Eric both worked their dicks up to full hardness. 

As the pot started to have effect I thought that I might make it through the fucking that was to come without to much pain. Boy was I wrong. After the joint was gone Eric laid down and ordered me to sit on his big monster of a cock. It was standing up from his groin and look even bigger now. The veins made it look rough and bumpy. I said that I needed some lube for it and Dave told me to shut the fuck up. Dave then said " What the fuck you need lube for? You still have Charlie's cum in your ass and that should be lube enough. Now sit on his god damned cock faggot!" I knew that I had no choice, so I slowly started to sit down on Eric's big mushroom headed dick. Eric let me take my time and work my way down that monster before he made his move. Once my ass was in his lap, he took hold of my hips and started to make slow fucking movements up my shit chute. I could feel every vein and bump on his cock as it slid in and out of my tortured asshole. My asshole was stretched out tight and the pain would not go away. As the pain started to become a dull constant throb, Nick told Dave to get ready. I was not sure what that meant, but as Dave started to push me forward over Eric's body, I got scared. Dave could tell I was scared and asked if I had figured out what was going to happen. I said no, I did not know what they planned so Dave told me. He explained that they had double teamed a bitch once and put both of their cocks in the same hole. Now they planned to do it again only this time the hole was my ass. I told him that both cocks would never fit in my asshole because they were too big. He told me that they had all night and that even if they ripped my asshole apart they would get both of them into me. 

Now I was laying against Eric's body with his cock up my ass and my legs spread to either side of him. Eric put his arms around me and held me in place as Dave worked two of his fingers in beside Eric's cock. I screamed as the pain racked my body, but Dave just started to work his fingers in and out to loosen me up. As soon as the pain stared to become bearable Dave added another finger and started all over again. It took a long time but soon he had four fingers working in and out around Eric's fat cock. As I adjusted to this, Eric started to fuck his cock up into me slowly. When I finally relaxed, Dave pulled his fingers out and shoved the head of his fat cock into their place. I screamed again because Dave's cock was much bigger than his fingers were. Now they held still until my ass relaxed and Dave pushed more of himself up inside me. I knew then that my ass was bleeding but that did not stop them from fucking me. They started to fuck is a pattern were as Eric was pulling out Dave was pushing in so that their dicks rub against each other. The pain became a dull throb again as they picked up speed and fucked harder. Dave told Eric that he could feel their balls slapping together as they fucked. Just as Eric started to cum, I found myself back in my own body. 

I knew that Kyle was feeling the pain now and would be very sore for several days.I did not see Kyle before the next weekend when I took over again. When I took over this time I could tell that Kyle had done something to try and stop the fuckings that he had been getting. Dustin and Dave were talking to him as I took over and he was naked and tied spread eagle over a table. His/my ass was sticking up over the edge of the table and my legs and arms were tied to the table legs. My head was hanging over the edge of the table as was my cock and balls. The table basically was just holding me in place so that all of my holes were easy to get to. As I raised my head, I found myself looking at Dustin's oversized meat. Dave and Dustin were telling me that since I had not done what I was told to do by them, I would now have to be punished, And since I had bitten Josh they had asked him what he wanted to do to punish me. They also told me that what they had to do was my own fault for not following orders and biting Josh. 

Dustin told Dave that they should leave me to think about it what had been done. Dave said he sure could use a beer and so they left me there tied to the table with a promise to return and make me sorry for what Kyle had done. After an hour my legs were starting to get cramps and hurt like hell. That is when Dustin and Dave returned. They were not alone. Josh who Kyle had bitten was with them. All three of them were well on the way to being drunk and ready to punish Kyle/me for what had happened. The punishment started when Josh kicked my balls which were hanging over the edge of the table. The pain from his kick brought tears to my eyes just as my balls caught a second kick. Now my balls were really hurting and starting to swell. Dustin came around to the front of the table and lifted my head up by my hair. He told me to open my mouth and when I did he put the head of his big dick into it. Then he said. "Well Davis we got some beer for you, recycled beer that is. Don't spill a drop. If you do your balls will be kicked again." Having said that he let loose with a stream of hot salty piss in my mouth. I swallowed as fast as I could but still some leaked out of my mouth and dripped to the floor. Dave saw this and told Josh to let me have it again. So as I was trying to drink the rest of Dustin's golden piss, Josh let my swollen ball have it again. 

My balls and dick were caught between the table and Josh's foot by the first of three quick kicks. I tried to scream, but all I did was blow Dustin's piss back out of my mouth and on to him. This made Dustin mad as hell and he grabbed my hair and slammed his dick all the way into my mouth and down my throat as I tried to scream again. My balls were now swollen to the size of lemons and I was struggling to breathe around Dustin's cock. Dustin started to pump his hardening cock in and out of my throat as he said, "If I feel your teeth on my cock we will kick them out of your mouth!" My balls were throbbing as I concentrated on not letting my teeth touch Dustin's monstrous cock. Dustin's hips were slamming into my face with enough force to shake the table as he fuck my face harder and harder. Dave was talking to Josh and I could hear him telling Josh that he had an idea. "Grab your belt and lets take turns beating his ass while Dustin finishes fucking his face." Dave said. Josh liked the idea. They stood on either side of me and took turns swinging their belts against my exposed ass. 

I could not scream with Dustin's oversized dick in my throat but still I tried. I knew that my ass was red and had welts from the belts even before they finished. Dustin shoved hard and his dick swelled even larger as he reached climax. He let loose with a roar as he came in my throat and then pulled his dick out until just his head was in my mouth. He left his head there as he coated my tongue with his thick hot cum. As Dustin removed his now deflating cock from my mouth, Josh came around to my head and put his cock in its place. Josh told me that I had better not bite him again. As I started to suck on Josh's raging hard ten inches, Dave shoved two of his fingers into my ass. Josh then said. "Dave man, let's see you put your whole hand up in there. Go for your elbow in his ass." Dave laughed and kept working his fingers roughly in and out of my ass. Josh was now making long slow strokes into my mouth and throat. I could feel my throat expand around his hard meat with each stroke. 

I was loving the feeling, but could understand why Kyle would have hated it and tried to stop him. I knew that Kyle always thought of himself as a real ladies man, and that being used like this would have been the most horrible thing that could happen to him. It made me want to laugh to realize that by taking over Kyle's body I had finally had my revenge on him for not keeping his promises to me. As I laid there with a sweet tasting hard cock fucking my face and a sexy stud working his fingers into my ass I was in heaven. Dave now had gotten my ass to relax and was working four of his fingers in and out of it. Josh was really turned on by that and was encouraging him to go for the elbow. Dave stopped working his fingers and pull them out of me for a moment. Then he made a fist and pushed hard against my loosened asshole. My ass instinctually fought against his fist, but Dave pushed harder and soon had it inside of me. Dave now started to fist fuck me in time with Josh's slow strokes. I was filled up with cock and hand over and over again. Dave pushed harder and more of his arm entered my ass with each stroke. 

Josh picked up speed as he watched and was soon slamming his ten inches into me fast and furiously. His balls started to pull up beside his pile driving monster and I knew that he would soon mix his cum with Dustin's in my throat. As Dave finally made it to his elbow, Josh let out a roar and came deep inside of me. I thought that Josh was going to suffocate me as he left his cock buried in to the hilt. I started to try to pull my head back to where I could breathe and this alerted Josh to what was happening. He pulled his cock out of my throat but not out of my mouth. As his dick slowly started to soften, he said, "Here you go Davis, have some nice warm beer!" I felt that cock pulse just as the first of his piss flowed into my mouth. I swallowed. This time I did not spill any of the golden liquid. Dave had stopped moving his arm in and out of my asshole. Now he was just feeling around inside of me. He asked the others if they wanted to see me cum. 

They said sure if the thought he could make me, to which Dave said, "just watch what happens as I squeeze his prostate gland from inside here." Dave was going to hurt me and I could not stop him from doing it. He found my gland and started to close his fist around it. I could feel the pressure as he squeezed down. My cock started to pulse up and down as he squeeze. Josh and Dustin both told Dave to make me squirt. Dave did by closing his fist as hard as he could. I screamed from pain as the stored up cum flew from my cock. Dave let up on the pressure and then clamped down again. He worked my gland that way until no matter how hard he squeezed no more cum would come out. He laughed and told the others that he had drained me. They walked around the room and sat down so that I could see them. I thought that my punishment was over, only to have them ask if I was ready to pay up for what had been done.At this point, Dustin asked me. "Well remember what we told you we would do if you ever disobeyed us? Well we remember and now you have to pay up. We have talked it over and decided just how to do this. You have cummed for the last time as a fucking man.

 We are going to cut your balls off now mother fucker!" Josh added, "I want his ball sack to hang from my rear view mirror." Dave said, "No fucking problem Josh, he's not going to need it anyway." My brain was racing as I realized that these hot sexy farm men really meant to castrate me. Dustin got up and got something from his pants pocket. He showed me a knife like the ones used to castrate animals. He and the others laughed as I started to beg them not to cut my balls off. Dustin told me to shut up and take my punishment like a man. Now I realized how mad Kyle had made them and that because of it nothing I could say would stop them. I was still tied to the table and my very swollen balls were hanging there in plain sight to them. Dustin explained that the reason that Dave had not fucked me yet was because he wanted to be the first to fuck me after my ball were gone. Dave smiled and laughed at the look on my face. The three of them got up and walked around behind me. Josh said that he wanted to hold my balls and sack out as they were cut off. I felt his hand close around my balls and he worked my nuts down to the bottom of the sack. Dave wrapped a string around my sack near the base of my cock and pulled it tight. He told the others that would keep me from bleeding as much when the cut was made. 

Dustin placed the knife against my skin and I could feel the cold metal. Dustin asked if he should make it quick and easy with one cut or take his time and saw through the sack. Dave told him one cut. I felt Josh pull on my balls and then I felt nothing but pain as my balls were cut off. I must have passed out because the next thing I remember was Dave cumming in my ass. They untied me and as I stood up I saw three jars. Two of them had my balls in them and the third had my ball sack in it. I felt weak and started to pass out. When I woke up I was back in my own body and shaking from the experience.I heard through the grapevine that something had happened to Kyle, but no one would say what. Of course I knew what had happened and even who had done it. Kyle stopped several weeks later and I asked him about what had happened. 

He removed his pants and showed me where his balls had been removed. He is on hormones now to keep him healthy. He still lets me suck his cock every now and then, but a course his sex drive is not what it use to be. I have seen and talked to Dave and Dustin several time when they have come over with Kyle to get beer. Both of them tell me that Davis is their bitch and that he will do everything they tell him to do. They also have matching keychains that were made from Kyle's dried nuts. Kyle's ball sack was made into a coin pouch and now hangs from Josh's rearview mirror. I have had the pleasure of having sex with both Dustin and Dave now that they are willing to fuck guys, but that is a story for another day.

[lunawings]

King of Prism SSS Episode 3 commentary (Taiga)

I am SO RELIEVED that this episode is FINALLY out. 

I finally get to show you guys what the inside of my head has been like for two months. 

THE FESTIVAL THAT HAS BEEN INSIDE ME

GET BUCKLED IN

Taiga’s room is divided into half Kazuki worship, half Aomori. Seems about right.

Let me start off by saying it brings me SO MUCH JOY how much Taiga loves Aomori. Aomori is way far removed from Tokyo, on the northernmost tip of the main island, and pretty much in the countryside. I went there 4-5 years ago before King of Prism existed AND I. LOVED. IT. There was a cool breeze even in the brutal Japanese summer, the atmosphere was refreshing and wonderful... and the festival. Two of the biggest things Aomori is known for are apples and, of course, the Nebuta festival which I’m convinced has to be the best festival in all of Japan. Those giant festival floats are just fucking amazing and I will be inter-splicing this post with my travel photos from that time. 

But even so, I’d think a boy at Taiga’s age would still think Tokyo is a lot cooler and want to be in the big city. BUT NO. NOT TAIGA. And since I also CANNOT FUCKING STAND TOKYO either, every time Taiga in this episode says Aomori is better than Tokyo I just want to stand up and be like 

FUCK YEAH IT IS 

Okay moving on, sorry this post is gonna be long enough as it is. 

When I first heard this line I swore it sounded like he was saying something about “Las Vegas” ahah... ha...

I am very happy with this screenshot. 

*ahem* Anyway. I looked up “rassera” ages ago because I had no idea what that was about and apparently it’s a phrase that lost it’s original meaning over time as it got muddled together, and is now only used as a festival chant. It used to mean “bring out the candles” or something?

The “us” in the sub kind of annoys me because Over the Rainbow isn’t a part of Edel Rose anymore but maybe that’s.... just.... meeeeeeeeee..............

I took the night bus from Tokyo to Aomori before. It was 10 or 11 hours. It was... unpleasant.

Old dude club in the back row.

I really wonder what people who have never seen Pride the Hero are gonna think of this exchange. If you have not seen Pride the Hero, sorry to disappoint you(?) but taxi is actually not a metaphor. 

I wonder if Kakeru would have really kept hounding Taiga if he didn’t pay him back. It’s not like Kakeru needs the money. I think it’s more that Taiga just has his pride and wants to do right by Kakeru and not take advantage of him. Or at least I like thinking that way. 

My second favorite line by Taiga in SSS. 

People at the cheering shows are like “Gimme the apron!!”

No, I have no idea why they decided to design Taiga’s cousin(s) to look like Ann and Wakana. 

My third favorite Taiga line in SSS. I just love how perfect the timing is. Taiga just watches everyone walk past him trying to debate if this is really happening or not and then just HOLD ON WAIT--

Behold Yukinojo examining what I think is supposed to be the armor that made Taiga pee his pants in Young of Prism. This is the Easter egg I was talking about. 

I LOVE OZORA. 

Another great thing about SSS is learning how all of the boys have these amazing female characters in their lives. 

The first/only anime reference to Taiga’s distaste for apples. In side material it’s been explained that Taiga can’t stand apples because they are everywhere in Aomori. Even the sound of someone biting into the skin of an apple drives him nuts. Minato has used it as punishment before in Prism Rush. 

People in the theater like to say “Don’t forget the apple!” 

At the midnight showing I think the girl next to me had a brain aneurysm when she saw Wakana here. And I might of as well. 

At this part I always yell “WAKANA DON’T GO!!!!”

Just.... ahhhhhh Taiga being seamlessly inserted in the Rainbow Live continuity like this is just... kjlfjfkljfls.......

Even though I know in the logical part of my brain that Taiga did not exist when Rainbow Live was made, I still kinda want to go back and look for him in the background of that episode anyway. But I hesitate because I know I won’t want to be disappointed with not finding him. 

Still, the idea that Wanana, Ann, and Kazuki all supposedly knew him from way back when is crazy and makes my heart warm. 

(Oh but WAKANAAAAAAA so sad)

So. “Gaudy” huh. We’re goin’ with that huh. HUH. “Gaudy” I know for a fact is the literal translation you get when you look up “charachara” in a Japanese-English dictionary. I have used it too... AS A PLACEHOLDER....................

Seeing this and trying so hard not to FUCKING SCREAM at the midnight showing was a moment for all of us. Taiga.... Taiga.................. Taigaaaaa................. I can’t see this without feeling it travel through every nerve in my body. 

WakanAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Accurate description of summertime in the countryside of Japan. Everyone hangs out and eats copious amounts of fruit probably from a neighbor’s farm. Just go out and walk down the street and you’ll come home with fruit. 

So this is Aomori city, the area not far from the station. When I saw this in the theater I was like, that looks.... kinda familiar. Then the next day I went searching for photos from my sideblog @mdawnjpn and....

I found this and I just immediately started tearing up, like hand over my mouth trying not to cry on the bullet train from Tokyo back to Nagoya during that first weekend. I was there I WAS THERE. 

So I mentioned previously I got to Aomori after a 10 or 11 hour night bus. And I didn’t sleep for almost any of it because I just can’t sleep on buses. And I felt LIKE. DEATH. But I couldn’t find an internet cafe or anywhere to sleep for a while because Aomori city just doesn’t have a lot of things. So I ended up literally just sleeping on a park bench by the ocean for a couple hours. Like around here.

And I remember seeing them starting to set up the festival when I woke up and being like woooah where am I this is amazing. But.. Just like, since Over the Rainbow performs here every year I guess I must have slept through their show. Oh NOOO ahaha

Anyway

And here it is. My number one favorite Taiga line in SSS. Just like the way he says it

OVER THE RAINBOW

THE FUCK IS THAT 

Ohhhh Taiga you’ll know very soon......

Also notice the different colored tie. I wonder if this was his legit school uniform at the time. 

People hold up two concert lights and break them apart when Hiro’s pride is broken in the first movie, and they do the same here.

Oh Taiga...... why is your pain so hilarious.........................

Sometimes I ask myself the same thing.

I love the contrast here between the overly realistic uncomfortable crowd, overenthusiastic Ozora, and poor Taiga. I love it. I LOVE IT. I WAS NOT KIDDING WHEN I SAID EVERY FRAME IN THIS EPISODE IS A FUCKING MASTERPIECE 

It took me two or three viewings to realize that Taiga is actually crying here. Or rather trying really hard not to cry. 

I’m not sure if I’m counting favorite Kazuki lines or not since he doesn’t have a big roll in SSS, but if I am this little “Huuuaah” might be it. 

Poor Kazuki. He does nothing on purpose to incite the storm that has brewed around him with both Taiga and Alexander.

Taiga’s Mom is the fucking best. Like I said, I love SSS for bringing out all these amazing, supportive, strong female characters. Everyone’s Mom is great but Taiga’s Mom might be best Mom. 

Or at least I thought so until I met Alexander’s Mom but the jury is out right now. 

It took me like five viewings to realize their watermelon switched to corn and I laughed way harder than I should have. 

OTSUKARE TAIGA

I loved seeing him be a big brother here eheh. 

Taiga why did you even ask. You know how Edel Rose works.

Shin just looks so happy. He’s a puppy. 

My goal in life is to enjoy everything the way Shin enjoys things.

Yu’s AHHHHH MOOOOUUU in this scene might be my favorite Yu line ahaha. 

I don’t know why, but I the more he whines the more I love him. That’s just how you know Yu is having a good time.

RIGHT

RIGHT

FUCK TOKYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

AHHHHH I WANT TO GO BACK TO AOMORI RIGHT NOOOWWWW

I’m like 40% considering going back this summer. 

I live in Aichi not Tokyo by the way so if I don’t fly that’s about UMMM 16 or 17 HOURS ON TWO BUSES BUT

Okay okay okay. So NOW it’s “street style” huh. Well what the fuck was with that whole “Solid Style” thing in episode 1 then? I guess the translator didn’t realize they were literally talking about street dance? Like WHAT? Or did they just forget?

And you know what actually this kinda pisses me off more, because the least they could do is keep it consistent. 

Because now that whole important line where Shin actually explains it for the first time in the main canon MAKES NO FUCKING SENSE ANYMORE 

ALSO

WHY IS ACADEMY CAPITALIZED AND STREET NOT

WHY

FOR FUCKS SAKE IM GONNA K--

Taigaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

(I’m OK now.)

Giving him a shojo reaction here was a choice. They didn’t have to. It was a deliberate choice. To portray Taiga’s feelings for Kazuki. Ahhhhhhhh

So remember when I stayed up translating this all of a sudden after I watched SSS Part 1 for..... reasons..... 

No I do not know why he’s an apple. Well I assume it has to do with the job he’s doing. And I do have a hunch from a creative standpoint but I’ll talk about that later. 

First timers in the theater always be like “R... RINGO..?????”

NO YOUR ASS IS BIG

....Is one of my favorite callouts of this episode. 

AND WHY IS JOJI EVEN IN THE CAR ANYWAY 

At this point during the midnight showing I was like.... is the real villain of SSS just gonna be Joji going around casually inconveniencing everyone? ....I’d watch that. 

This is the storage area near the main festival stage where you can go and see the floats before the festival starts. 

Here’s what it looks like in real life: 

One of the few instances where I can assure you real life is just as good as the anime. 

For people who read my shitty out of context spoiler about how a character beat Louis for the amount of skin showed in a prism show. Wasn’t kidding. 

Tasuku kinda spoiled this outfit in the first day greeting show by saying something like how it was an outfit which fit Taiga’s tastes well (festival wear) and everyone else was like NO STOP--

But yeah. This show. This soonggggg

Taiga’s voice is just SO. BEAUTIFUL. He has my favorite singing voice in all of Edel Rose. 

So after the first weekend I made a post to Tumblr about how I thought I had avoided getting any of the songs in my head, but then a certain one started CREEPIN IN...

IT WAS THIS

Taiga’s song is both the first one to get stuck in my head, and the one that keeps getting stuck in my head the most often to this day.  

I just love how he makes Nebuta floats of all his friends ahhhhhh 

Here are some more photos of the real thing..

It was raining the year I was there, and when it rains they put plastic over them so they look like snowglobes. That’s kinda cool in itself though.

I’ll never forget seeing this for the first time, realizing what was about to happen and being like NO... NO WAY.... IS THIS REAL LIFE NO WAY IS WHAT HDHFKHFDFH;LSFHDLSHFDS 

I’ll never forget it because I basically still feel the same way every time. 

They didn’t have to set this up like a confession scene. But they did. It was a choice.

But during this scene at cheering shows, I am much less concerned with what Taiga was trying to say and much more concerned with prepping blue and green lights for..... 

Words cannot express how happy this made me. If you haven’t picked up on it already Wakana is my favorite girl from RL. MATTE NYAAAAAAAAAA

Oh look here. A GOOD translation for “charachara”. One that I might actually steal from now on. Usually the best I can come up with is “flirty”, “carefree”, or “showy” depending on the situation.

So it seems at this point the translator finally understood what “charachara” actually means in the context of King of Prism. So of course, the logical thing to do here would be to go back and correct the previous wonky line where they used “gaudy” to make it consistent... right.... RIGHT??

Does Crunchyroll actually translate line-by-line as soon as the episode comes out in the hour before they post it? 

They don’t even get any time to edit it?

ARE

YOU

FUCKING

KIDDING ME

I dunno about you but I would wait a few more hours for fucking slightly more decent consistency in the translation BUT MAYBE THATS JUST ME 

OH LORD Kakeru’s episode next week is gonna be A SHITSHOW. 

The sitcom ending to this episode is so dorky but I love it. 

THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT

FRAME IT

DIP IT IN COPPER

SEND IT TO SPACE 

DONE 

It was really cool to finally see the details in these festival floats in the ending since they go by so fast in the episode. Shin’s has a rainbow! I wasn’t expecting Masquerade, but I suppose it fits Taiga as well. And it’s not that the Taiga version isn’t good but...  

It’s just that... I.... I want the CD but I..... I already have three different King of Prism covers of it on my phone........... nnnrhg

So. 

I dunno about you guys. 

But basically my interpretation of this episode is that no matter what Taiga says....

Everything he’s done...

It was never about the street style.

It was always

ALWAYS

about Kazuki

And that makes a lot of sense.

Kazuki spends this entire episode being an apple. Taiga hates apples. Kazuki is a personification of something Taiga hates. But it changes nothing. He loves him. HE LOVES HIM. 

I always questioned whether Taiga’s feelings for Kazuki were pure admiration or true love. And now I know the answer. Probably both. 

So this ends what I know to be King of Prism SSS Part 1, as per the theatrical release. 

Next week is Kakeru and also the beginning of what I know as SSS Part 2. 

I don’t want to de-hype you guys that much, but I actually feel the Part 2 episodes are a good deal more low key than Part 1. But then again that doesn’t say that much for the King of Prism standard.  

I have been looking forward to Kakeru’s episode being released with subs for the sole reason of finally being able to clarify a lot of things I didn’t understand about it. But after seeing the subs this week. HMMM. 

[dillydedalus]

september reading

i read some things i guess! open for the last (almost) of robin hobb, more mountaineering disasters, and …. dungeons & dragons?? (i completely forgot i had this in my drafts lol)

the nickel boys, colson whitehead idk man this is really well-written, well-paced, an important story based very much on real history, the characters serve their purpose very well, the violence and abuse is written in a way that is chilling without ever being gratuitous and with the exception of a twist that i thought was a little too predictable, there’s nothing i can really criticise. it just really lacked some spark for me, and maybe it’s just that after underground railroad (which is also didn’t particularly like, but damn that had spark) it feels a lil conventional. still good tho! 3/5

the adventure zone #1: here there be gerblins, various mcelroys & cary pietsch my brain Does Not Do podcasts but obvi i’ve been hearing A LOT about the mcelroy boys & i’m like. vaguely interested in d&d* so when this was made available on overdrive i was like okay why the hell not. it’s a fun, quick read, and while i don’t really know anything about d&d the trappings of the game were included in a fun way. nothing mindblowing, but a good time. 2.5/5

assassin’s fate (fitz & the fool #3), robin hobb y’all this is it… it’s been over a year & now i’m done with the realm of the elderlings (actually i still have the piebald prince novella & the short stories). i have some criticisms of this one (the timeline & the main climax seemed a lil muddled to me) but to be honest??? loved this, had all the feelings, was superhappy to see my cursed shores kids again, fitzy & bee were heartbreaking all the time, the paragon conflict was great, when fitz got to the quarry i literally immediately started uglycrying & pretty much didn’t stop until the end, so: 4.5/5 (series rating 4/5 i guess bc fool’s assassin was a drag & a half)

die nebelkrähe, alexander pechmann this is a speculative fictionalisation of a little episode in the spiritualist movement where medium hester dowden claimed she had communicated with/been briefly possessed by oscar wilde, which is pretty fun. unfortunately, pechmann chose to focus on his version of mr v., a pretty boring mathematician and skeptic, rather than the absolutely wild shit going on with dowden, which includes oscar wilde’s ghost dunking on james joyce (who responded by making fun of the whole thing in finnegans wake) and claiming he’s like totally straight. 2/5

oval, elvia wilk a neoliberal corporate hell/psychotropics/eco-punk gone wrong dystopia in berlin so you know i’m here (i.e. in berlin lol) for it. this is about a berlin in the not too distant future where finster corp (real subtle) is buying up everything, driving up rents through ecological redevelopment, artists mainly work as consultants for corporations, and our protags anja and louis live in a finster-sponsored zero-waste eco-commune on an artificial mountain in the middle of berlin. everyone’s jobs are nda-clad bullshit, everyone parties all the time without ever enjoying themselves, homelessness and income inequality are ignored with the barest twinge of guilt, and louis is developing a party drug that chemically makes you generous. oh and the nature on the mountain (the berg -.-) seems to be eating itself. the concepts are great, the writing is pretty good even tho it tries a bit too hard sometimes, wilk, while also suffering a lil from Expat Gaze, really knows berlin. the execution isn’t perfect, the pacing is a bit off, too much time is devoted to anja and louis’ boring relationship, and look, some of the dystopian elements are a bit obvious. neoliberalism bad. okay, we know. but there’s a lot of good here, and the ending is pretty great, if a bit underdeveloped. 3.5/5

travelers, helon habila a novel about the african diaspora in europe, told thru 6 inter-connected stories, all focusing on one story of migration. these are important stories well told, and i liked how they all linked up in the end. while berlin is the central hub these stories revolve around, not all are set in berlin and the setting really isn’t as central as i’d hoped (this is obvi very personal to me & my research interests so it’s not really criticism). i’d recommend this if you’re interested in the representation of african migrants and refugees. 3/5

the uninhabitable earth: life after warming, david wallace-wells shit’s fucked: the book. starts with ‘it is worse, much worse, than you think’ and doesn’t really get much more cheery from there. good if you want an idea of what the effects of global warming might be (a pretty pessimistic one, which is the point - when does pessimism become realism?), and how we (& how we might) respond to them. 3/5

the girl from the other side, nagabe (#1-5) spooky-yet-wholesome manga series about a snazzy demon who’s adopted a little human girl who has been abandoned/cast out by her human community, which is like 100% my jam. the central relationship is super cute & wholesome, the demon designs are amazing, the worldbuilding is really spooky & intriguing (if you touch a demon you’ll be cursed & also turn into a demon & tbh who doesn’t want to turn into a weird tall slightly monster with cool horns), and a lot of it is just the demon like. badly baking pie to cheer the girl up. 

girl woman other, bernardine evaristo somewhere between a novel and a collection of short stories written in a somewhat unconventional but highly readable style. the 12 stories each focus on one woman (and one nonbinary person), most of them black, examing black womanhood in britain throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. i enjoyed many of these stories, but the observational style and the way we quickly cover whole lives left me a bit detached. there’s also a lil corniness throughout, which comes out in full force in the epilogue, and while it’s cool to have trans rep, it honestly came across as a bit clueless. 3/5

dark summit: everest’s most controversial season, nick heil did someone say high-altitude mountaineering disasters? because i’m always here for some high-altitude mountaineering disasters. this is about the 2006 season which was p disastrous in terms of deaths even tho it didn’t even have a storm (cf the 1996 season aka please just read into thin air), just people walking past dudes who were dying bc rescues are extremely difficult & dangerous. anyway this ain’t into thin air, but it’s a good one & pretty wild bc all mountain climbers are fucking nuts. 3.5/5

sense & sensibility, jane austen really enjoyed this! the pacing is a lil weird & none of the men really is all that, but it’s all very charming & witty & i love sisterhood narratives (poor margaret!). as in (tho not as much as in) mansfield park, there’s a lot of attitudes that just don’t really track but in contrast to mp i found them interesting rather than frustrating, mostly - brandon/marianne is very uncomfortable especially when you realise that he’s projecting his tragic dead first love/sis-in-law onto marianne and that we don’t really see their courtship at all, but w/e. i especially enjoyed the ferrars family drama and the hilarious resolution to it, and i gotta say: lucy steele really did that & good for her. 4/5 

anyway, i’m about halfway thru alasdair gray’s lanark, which is a great big pomo brick, half portrait of the artist as a young glaswegian, half weird visions of hell in the city of unthank & i’m into it but it’s not a quick read. in october uni reading is also going to start, perhaps for the last semester ever :(

[elizaviento]

Manipulation (part 6)

Note:  I’m so sorry that I’ve fallen behind the posting schedule.  The Thanksgiving holiday really sucked up too much of my time.  To make up for it, though, I’ve made this part extra long!  :)

NSFW lite -- 5400 words

(FYI: This story is a sequel/companion piece to Assimilation, which can be found in the Rick Fic Masterpost link in my blog’s description along with additional chapters of Manipulation.  Or, you can click the #manipulation tag in this post, within my blog, to access all additional chapters.)

*****

The moment she disappeared into the kitchen, slamming the door behind her, I released a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.  That breath morphed into a groan as I slumped over my workstation with my head in my hands.

Decades of guarded bitterness was all it took.  I was so practiced in the art of hateful sarcasm that I didn’t even have to try.  The words just materialized in my throat and pushed their way past my teeth and sprung from my mouth like projectile vomit.  And, they produced the desired effect.  She wasn’t the type to yell or scream or throw objects in anger or hold a grudge.  Instead, she’d simply move on.  She’d continue to be cordial and polite, but detached – as she’d been with me since her return.

“You aren’t special.”

I chuckled dryly to myself as I replayed the words in my mind time and again, ripping my hands through my hair.  I was under no illusions that she wasn’t smart enough to suss out the lie.  No matter what, her memories of the way I’d behaved on Unity’s planet would continue to return until the entire puzzle was solved.  At this point, she knew I was under the false impression that she was herself, therefore, she knew that I’d pursued her, not Unity.  So, I was taking advantage of her unwillingness to call me out.  Plain and simple.

Broken from my self reflection by the sound of the front door slamming shut, I quickly rose and punched the garage door opener.  As the door slowly began to rise, I ducked my head to catch a glimpse of tennis shoes as they marched down the driveway, toward the street.  By the time the garage door had finally made its ascent, she was just an outline obscured by the sun as she pounded the pavement – one foot in front of the other, carrying her completely out of sight.

----------

The remaining hours passed quickly as I was finally able to muster up the concentration that had eluded me for the past month.  I worked on several unfinished projects, fiddling around with this and that, while I waited for Morty to return from school.  Unfortunately, this was one of the days that Beth insisted he stay until the very end, which frustrated me to no end.  

One of the projects that I’d decided to take up was improving the inter-dimensional goggles.  I had heard rumors from around the multiverse that certain Ricks had come up with a way to make the goggles completely immersible so that the subject using the goggles felt as if they had assumed the body of their counterpart instead of just watching as an onlooker.  Doing a quick scan, I’d been able to narrow down a few Ricks with such goggles so I needed Morty’s help with looting the chumps.

Just as I was checking my watch with a scowl, wondering how much longer Morty would be stuck at school, I caught a glimpse of him running toward the house from the street.  I’d honestly never seen him run that fast, even from life threatening situations, so I stood from my stool and met him at the threshold of the garage.  

“RICK!  RICK!” he screamed as he approached, his face beet red and contorted in a mixture of concern and horror.  Waiting for him to continue, I placed my hands on my hips as he stumbled toward me, bending at the waist to catch his breath.  “Rick… you – you gotta – she’s laying on the sidewalk.  I-I-I think she – I think she’s DYING, Rick!”

“What the fuck are you talkin’ about, Morty?!” I asked, suddenly flushed from head to toe with panic.  I grasped his shoulders and shook, his small body flopping back and forth with each thrust and pull.  

“There – t-t-there’s no time to explain, Rick!  J-j-just follow me, okay?”  He ran away in the direction he’d come and I followed.

About a quarter of a mile from the house, we approached the body of a woman lying face up on the sidewalk – just as Morty said.  She was wearing athletic gear and had ear buds jammed in her ears.  The volume of the music was so loud that it could be heard from a couple of feet away.  Well, her eardrums must be shot to shit, at least, I thought as Morty toppled to the sidewalk beside her, picking up one of her arms to shake it violently in an effort to rouse her.

“HURRY THE – THE FUCK UP S-S-SHE MAY BE DYING OH MY – OH MY GOD!” Morty screamed like a lunatic as I slowed my pace and approached in the most nonchalant manner I could manage.

“Ugh, cut the dramatics, w-will ya Morty?” I groaned.  No sooner had the words left my mouth, she giggled.  Relief washed over me and I felt my spine loosen as I drew closer, standing directly over her.  Her eyes were wide open and she squinted as I blocked out the sun.  “Well, l-l-look at that, Morty.  She lives!”

“Go away,” she said.  “Let me fry my retinas in peace.”

“Yeeeah, nope,” I replied as I bent at the waist to grab her arms and tug.  Thankfully, she found the strength to coax her body upward, making it much easier to pull her into a standing position before wrapping my arms around her thighs to hoist her up and over my shoulder.  She was as limp as a rag doll and I could feel the pounding of her heart against the back of my shoulder as I tightened my hold on her thighs with one arm and dug in my coat for the portal gun with the other.

“I’m fine, Morty.  Just got a bit overheated,” she spoke as her upper body dangled down my back.  Glancing toward Morty, I saw him standing within an inch of her face, his face etched with worry.

“Are you kiddin’ me?  Y-y-you’re less than half a mile from the house,” I scoffed.  The concern I’d been attempting to keep at bay began to creep back with a vengeance.  Something had happened to her and I had my suspicions on what.

“I s-s-saw you while walking – when I was coming home from school,” Morty added.  I felt her body stiffen with this new information – that she’d been lying on the sidewalk for hours.  Then, she giggled again.  Suddenly struck by the recollection that she tended to giggle when she was nervous, upset or unsure, my concern spiked higher as I pulled the trigger on the portal gun and carried her through.

As we emerged in the den, I felt her warm breath penetrate my lab coat and sweater as she forcefully sighed in relief directly against my back before she spoke.

“Just toss me on the bed.”

Doing exactly as she instructed, I cringed as I witnessed her body bounce once on the stiff mattress.  Real smooth, Sanchez, I thought as I exited the room, leaving Morty behind.

Scrapping the plan to drag Morty along with me while looting that evening, I skulked to my bedroom and flopped down on the cot to think.

I was certain that she had suffered some type of seizure or episode of unconsciousness while her brain struggled to recall and interpret the memories of assimilation.  I had never witnessed this myself but several beings I had tracked down years prior had explained similar instances when memories would flood back suddenly without warning.  Most of the time, the assimilated memories would mash together with other memories of the being’s past as a way for the brain to catalog the additions in an acceptable manner.  Usually these episodes would last between minutes to hours at a time and the beings would return to a normal state of consciousness afterward with the memories sorted and cataloged accordingly.  So, she would probably be fine.

Right?

Throwing an arm over my eyes, I willed my brain to shut down.  I hadn’t had a decent sleep since arriving on Unity’s planet so a nap wouldn’t hurt.  Before I could even begin to drift off, however, the familiar sound of the 20th Century Fox intro drifted through the thin walls along with her voice, mingled with Morty’s and Summer’s.  Groaning, I tried to ignore it and even managed to doze off for about an hour before the sound of Jerry’s voice joined them and I gave up entirely.  So, exiting my small room to join them as well, I plopped down on the armchair and fixed my eyes to the screen.

In my peripheral vision, I saw her quickly glance in my direction before focusing her attention back on the B-rated horror film.  I’d remembered her and Beth watching this particular movie over and over when they were in high school, laughing their asses off each and every time.  What the fuck was it called?  At any rate, it didn’t much matter as it was just another of a series of movies featuring some killer doll with red hair and a butcher knife super glued to its hand or something.  And, after about an hour of this shit feature film, Beth walked through the front door looking completely beat.

“Don’t tell me you’re watching Bride of Chucky again,” Beth laughed as she flopped down on the sofa next to her best friend.

“Bethany, my love, you know this is your favorite movie as much as it is mine.  And, this is the special anniversary edition,” she replied, never taking her eyes from the screen.

“You know, you two would, like, totally be called lesbos in school these days,” Summer said from the love seat, tapping away on her phone.

“Who said we weren’t when we were in school?” Beth retorted with her eyebrow raised.

“Yeah,” Jerry joined, sounding defeated, “even when your mom was pregnant with you, everyone thought I was just the sperm donor.”

She and Beth both laughed while Morty and Summer cried, “EWW,” in unison.  I, however, audibly scoffed and she threw me a sidelong glance before quickly darting her eyes back toward the screen.

“Do you want me to make you something for dinner?” she asked Beth.

“Nah, I stopped by McDonald’s on my way home and rammed ten chicken nuggets down my throat while driving.”

“Sexy,” she replied as Beth hauled herself up from the sofa to head toward the bathroom.

“I just need a long, hot bath and a box of the finest red,” Beth assured as she disappeared down the hall.

As the night wore on, everyone shuffled from the living room to other areas of the house.  By the time she inserted the final DVD – some shitty zombie affair – she and I were the only ones left.  When the menu appeared on the screen, she took her place back on the sofa to lie down, ignoring me throughout the entire process.  Just as she settled down and appeared comfortable, the overwhelming concern I had attempted to stuff down made a reappearance and I couldn’t fight the urge to confront her any longer.

Rising from the armchair to approach the sofa, I closed each hand around her ankles and moved them toward the floor.  Once she had adjusted herself into a proper sitting position, I took a seat next to her.  Instead of acknowledging me, as I hoped she would, she continued to ignore me, pressing play on the remote control.  

“What – uh – w-w-what happened out there?” I asked, raising my voice slightly to be heard over the volume of the television.  Rolling her eyes, she pressed the pause button and turned her body to face mine fully.  The look of utter annoyance on her face was enough to convey that my earlier words had affected her more than she had initially let on.

“I don’t know, Rick,” she began, her tone icy but determined.  “I had some kind of mental meltdown, I guess.  Let me ask you something.  Have you ever been assimilated by an alien hive mind that’s determined to make its former lover confess it wants to bang someone else?  ‘Cause I gotta admit, that was a first for me and my tiny inferior human brain is having just a little bit of trouble processing the onslaught of confusing memories of what said hive mind did to AND with my body when I had absolutely no control.  Do you even realize that Unity doesn’t completely eliminate the original consciousness of its victims?   I was still in there, the entire time, and there was nothing I could do!  I was completely trapped!  I was essentially raped and, since you had no idea that I wasn’t really me, so were you!  How is this not affecting you, Rick?!  Are you really so disconnected from anything human that you don’t realize – or don’t CARE – what exactly happened or the type of manipulation that was forced upon both of us?!”

She was breathing heavily, her voice thick with emotion, as she glanced around the room to make sure that the rise in her tone hadn’t attracted the attention of anyone else in the house.  When her eyes settled back on me, she allowed them to roam my face for several seconds as she awaited my response.  But, before I could even begin to form one that could accurately convey the guilt that was eating me alive over what had occurred, she got up and left.  Without another word or even a second glance, she was gone.

----------

Two hours later, as the movie she’d inserted prior to her departure automatically resumed, I was taking another swig from the vodka bottle I’d dug from my emergency stash in the garage when my cell phone rang.  Ignoring it at first, I let it go to voicemail.  But, when it immediately began to ring for the second time, I sighed and dug it from my lab coat to check the caller ID.  It was Beth and I already knew what she wanted.

“What is it, sweetie?” I asked as soon as I tapped the answer icon on the screen.  Judging by the loud heavy metal music blaring in the background, they must have gone to the new biker bar that had opened the previous week.

“Dad, you have to come help me.  Please!  They’re so drunk, there’s no way I can get them home by myself!”  

“Ugh, okay.  I’ll be there in a second,” I replied, already removing the portal gun from my coat.

“No, no.  You know how Jerry feels about going through portals,” she shouted over the music, already guessing my plan.  “He’s still terrified that he will be turned inside out after what you told him!”

“If he’s drunk, he w-w-won’t know the difference, sweetie.  I’ll just pull – push him through and he’ll be fine.”

“Dad, I don’t ask much from you – ”

“Beth, listen to me.  I’m portaling there now.  Just – j-j-just make sure –”

“No, you listen to me!  I need your help and you’re going to come here and provide it!  You can get here by portal but you have to ride back in the car with us.”

“Why do I need to do that?!” I asked, raising my voice in frustration.  The last thing I wanted to do was ride home with Beth’s idiotic husband falling asleep and drooling on my shoulder.

“In case one of them needs to puke, Dad!  Look I can handle Jerry.  Can you please just come and help me with – ”

“Yes!” I answered, a little too enthusiastically when I knew I wouldn’t be taking care of Jerry after all.  Reigning myself in, I continued, “Yeah, I-I-I’ll help you with your friend, Beth.  But, that’s it.”

“Okay, fine.  Thanks, Dad.”

----------

“Where’s my money, chump?!” I heard her scream triumphantly as she bent over what appeared to be a chess board with an incredibly large biker man leaning over the other side, a scowl firmly etching his burly features.

“You gotta be KIDDING ME!” the large man bellowed from across the table.  “You’re smashed!  How are you cheating?  I know you are!”

She mumbled something under her breath as she cradled her head in her hands.  She was much more drunk that I had anticipated and I smirked as I approached her from behind.

“What did you say to me?” the large man asked, standing from his stool and leaning over further while placing his hands flat on the table.

“Uhh, she said nuttin’ s-sir,” Jerry slurred next to her before she forcefully shoved him away, stood from her stool, as well, and slammed her hands on the table.

“I saaaid… SUCK MY DICK, BITCH!”  She dissolved into a fit of adorable giggles as the large man across the table contorted his face into an expression of pure shock.  Deciding now was the time to end this little encounter for her own good, I curled both hands around her shoulders and pulled her away.

“Oookay, little miss – miss drunky poo.  Time to – to grow the fuck up before you get your ass kicked.”

“Get your hands off me!” she shouted, trying to shake me off but only losing her balance, causing me to wrap my arms around her waist to keep her from falling flat on her ass.

“Hey, the lady said to let her go,” the large man said as he made his way around the table toward us.

Yeah, good attempt at – uh – chivalry there, Butch or Bear or-or-or Big Bass.  What the fuck ever,” I retorted, possessively tightening my hold on her waist.

“Skinny man, you’re about to get a whoopin’ like you ain’t never –” the large man began before Beth stepped between us.  She could be such a badass when the situation called for it and I couldn’t contain my grin of pride.

“Hey, hi there.  This man is my father and he’s just trying to help me get my very drunk husband and friend home in one piece.  So, thanks Mister uhh…”

“Toby.”

“Toby.  Right.  Thanks for humoring my friend here, Toby.  I’m sorry you lost so much money to her but, you know… bye now.”

“Hey!” Toby called as I continued pulling her backward toward the door.  “What’s your number?”

Fat chance, I thought as I kicked the door open with my foot and yanked her outside with Beth shoving Jerry right behind us.  Once again, that delightful giggle bubbled from her chest as I roughly turned her around and hoisted her over my shoulder for the second time that day.

----------

Again, her body was as limp as a rag doll as I carried her toward Beth’s car.  And, again, I could feel her warm breath penetrating the layers of clothing as she continued to giggle directly against my back.

“I love you so-ssooo much, Beff,” Jerry slurred as Beth directed him toward the passenger side door.

“Yes, Jerry.  I know.  I love you, too.”

“You always been my dream girl,” he continued, throwing his arm around her neck and going in for a kiss, tongue first.  Beth quickly turned her head and leaned back as far as she could while in Jerry’s vice grip.

“Ugh – sheesh, Jerry.”  I chimed in, rolling my eyes.  “Is – is that the line you fed her the night you knocked her up?”

Avoiding Beth’s death glare, I felt a snicker against my back as Jerry fell on his ass while trying to climb into the passenger seat.  Beth groaned in frustration and bent down to try to pull him up by the armpits.  

“Oh, you – uh – think that’s funny, huh?  Little miss one and done,” I commented.

“Had more than one.  Had a bunch!”

“Oh, t-t-that’s impressive.  Now, let’s get you in the car before you – before it’s barf city down my back.”

After opening the door to the backseat, I leaned forward and loosened my grip on her thighs.  As her body slid up into a standing position before me, she slumped forward to press her face just below my collarbone in an attempt to remain upright.  She was breathing heavily and I suppress a moan as she tilted her head upward just enough so that her hot breath wafted across my neck.  Grabbing her biceps, I attempted to peel her from my body and maneuver her into the car, however, it seemed she had other plans when both of her arms slipped under my lab coat and wrapped tightly around my torso.  Going completely rigid, my mind raced as I considered my options, which where few.

I could forcefully pry her arms from my torso and shove her into the car.  Or, I could attempt to gently coax her.  As I was weighing the pros and cons of each option, Beth became impatient and wasn’t shy about expressing it.

“Dad, what’s taking so long?” Beth asked while leaning out the window of the driver’s seat.  Luckily, we were on the opposite side of the car and her view was limited to the top of my head.

“Uhh, j-j-just a second, sweetie,” I replied, my voice wavering slightly as she squeezed her arms around me tighter and took a deep breath.  Having chosen for me with her possibly unintended affection, I settled my chin on top of her head and said, just above a whisper, “Come – come on, baby.  Can you let me – can you be a good girl for me and get in the car?”

Stiffening slightly, she simply nodded against my chest.  Then, settling a hand on her lower back, I walked her backward toward the open door.  When her ass bumped the side of the car, I slid my hand from her back and placed both hands on her hips to gently push her from my body and turn her sideways, lining her up with the opening.  I then slid my hands slowly up her body – making sure to mentally catalog each curve as they roved – until one was again on her lower back and the other settled on the back of her neck.  Pushing slightly to coax her to bend at the waist, I then pushed her inside.  Once seated, she scooted all the way to the other side of the backseat cabin, behind Beth, and slouched against the headrest before I situated myself into the small space behind Jerry.

“Finally,” Beth grumbled, starting the car and putting it into gear.  Jerry was babbling away in the passenger seat like a moron, as usual.

“Hey, Jerry.  Mind – uh – moving the seat up so I have more than two inches of leg room?” I spat, pounding Jerry’s headrest from behind with my fist.  Jerry groaned and flopped forward, banging his head on the dash.  

“Dad!  If you make him barf in my car, I swear I’ll make you clean it up!  And, I mean the old fashion way.  No gadgets or cleaning bots or whatever.”

Without replying, I leaned forward to reach the electronic seat controls in the middle console, pressing the button to move Jerry’s seat up all the way.  And, as I leaned back – without a second thought on what the fuck I was doing or the potential consequences – my hand casually caught her forearm and tugged. Her upper body flopped to the side to rest against my arm, her head on my shoulder.  And, as she peered up at my face, I pulled my arm from under her, swooped it around her neck, and used my other hand to grab her thigh and pull until she was flush against me.  When she snaked one arm around my back, one around my torso, and sank further into me with her head resting on my chest, I slid my hips forward to lean further back in the seat so that her position was more comfortable.

What the hell was I doing?  My daughter and son-in-law were no more than three feet away and here I was – pulling their best friend and twin sister into a forced embrace.  But, she wasn’t resisting.  In fact, she seemed to be reciprocating.  Because she’s drunk, you fucking pervert, my better angel spoke from the shoulder her head wasn’t resting against.  Glancing down at her, I could only make out the outline of her body in the darkness as she wiggled in even closer, curling the fingers of the arm behind my back around the fabric of my sweater in the same manner as when we were watching television with Unity.  And, even though that hadn’t been her, the memory sparked and ignited that all consuming passion for her within me once more that couldn’t be extinguished with something as silly as logic.

Noticing I still hadn’t removed my hand from her thigh and that my thumb had absently been rubbing back and forth across her jeans, I once again gave in to my base urges.  Gliding the arm around her neck to her lower back, tracing my fingers down her spine along the way, I curled it around her waist to rest my hand on her hip.  At this point, her breathing had become heavy and I could tell that she was turned on, which only served to encourage me.  Again, the little voice on my shoulder screamed that she was intoxicated, but somehow, I couldn’t seem to care.  

Gently squeezing her hip, I pulled her even closer.  The hand I had planted on her thigh tugged until her leg was draped over mine and I began to rub slowly up – my thumb sliding smoothly in the junction where her thigh met her hip – and then back down to her knee.  She exhaled a shaky breath and fisted her hand in the back of my sweater in response, seeming to urge me on.  That is, until my hand made its next journey up her thigh, her body stiffened and jerked as she craned her head up from my chest as if she were attempting to see if Beth or Jerry had spied our secret encounter in the backseat.

Tightening my hold on her, I racked my brain for a way to quell her fears before realizing it was much too quiet.

“Hey, Beth – sweetie.  How about t-t-turning on some music?”

Beth complied as she came to a stop at a red light.  Jerry began singing along, swaying this way and that in the front seat.  The light turned green and as Beth began to speed up, I pressed my lips to her hair and slid my hips further forward, sinking us both low enough that I could speak directly into her ear.

“Relax, baby,” I whispered.  “T-t-they can’t hear us.  Don’t – it’s okay.”

She did relax slightly and I took that as my cue to continue, slipping a hand under her t-shirt to dance my fingers along her ribs before tracing the underwire of her bra.  Releasing a shaky whine, she tightened her arms around me as the hand on her thigh made another journey upward – my thumb ghosting her crotch as it slipped once again between the juncture of her hip and thigh.  

“Rick,” she sighed, barely audible above the music.

Pressing my lips to her hair to suppress another moan, I could only reply with, “Hmm?” as my hand, never ceasing its motion, made its way back toward her thigh and repeated the same maneuver.  Only, this time, I applied pressure with my thumb as it slid over her clothed cunt.  

Her reaction was immediate and so fucking satisfying as the hand she had wrapped around my chest flew to her mouth to suppress a moan of her own.  Pressing my lips to her hair once more, I took a deep breath to steady myself as my cock responded in turn – steadily swelling with each thunderous beat of my heart.

And, I continued to roam her body – one hand on her thigh that continued to add more pressure with my thumb each time it found its way between her legs and the other taking its place back under her shirt to trace invisible patterns on her ribs.  Soon, however, I needed more.

All the years I’d known her, the most intimate form of physical contact we’d shared were two hugs that she’d forced upon me – one after I’d danced with her at Beth and Jerry’s wedding and the other after I’d beat the shit out of the douche bag who had tried to take advantage of her in the backseat of his shitty car.  Prior and even after that, it consisted of my arm around her shoulders for photos or her hand lightly touching my arm to gain my attention when I was too wrapped up in work to notice when she or Beth would call for dinner.  As time went on, I shied away from even the most innocent touches as my infatuation for her began to bloom and grow.  I was a better man then, I supposed.  I was the type of man to deny myself carnal pleasures to protect someone innocent and pure, no matter how cliché it seemed.  Now, though?  Now, I was just another piece of shit who was too weak to deny himself further.  Even if she seemed willing now, how was I to know it was genuine?  The last time I thought she was willing, she wasn’t even herself and I hadn’t even noticed.  Her body may not be occupied by a hive mind parasite at this moment, but she was intoxicated, which – let’s face it – was probably worse.  But, still, I needed more.

She flinched when she felt me shift beneath her, but I leaned the side of my body that she was resting upon just enough so that the hand on her thigh could reach her other leg, which I nudged outward to spread her legs further.  Once satisfied with its positioning, I moved my hand back to her other thigh and tugged it further into my lap.  Her legs now adequately spread to my liking, I hummed against her hair in a relaxing manner while placing my hand directly between them, cupping her clothed cunt in my palm.  When she gasped, I chuckled and began to slowly but firmly rub my palm up and down the jean covered mound.  The heat radiating from her sex warmed my fingers delightfully as she issued a moan, which she attempted to mute by pressing her face to my chest.  Absolutely thrilled with her responsiveness thus far, I pressed my middle finger hard enough to sink between her covered labia and, with the way her hips jerked upward to seek more contact, put direct pressure on her clit.

“Mmm, want – want more? I whispered and she quickly nodded in affirmation.

When I pressed my middle finger again, she angled her hips upward and began to grind against my hand.  And, we continued the motion – press and grind – over and over until she was panting and softly grunting with her face still pressed to my chest.  I could tell she was close as the rhythm of her rolling hips faltered and her entire body began to tremble.  I applied more pressure – deeper and faster – softly mumbling encouragement and praise against her hair that I was sure she couldn’t hear over the music but I couldn’t care.  She was so close.  I was going to make this beautiful woman cum with the most basic form of stimulation.  

Then, Jerry woke up with a start, causing to Beth flinch and focus her attention in his direction.  The spell now broken, I immediately pulled my hand back and sat up a little straighter in the seat.

“Ooohhh,” Jerry moaned. “I’m gonna – gonna puke.  Beth, I’m gonna puke!”

“God damn it,” Beth sighed as she pulled over onto the shoulder.  “I knew it.”

As soon as the car came to a stop, Jerry flung open the passenger door – triggering the cabin light to illuminate the debauched scene in the back seat – and projectile vomited on a dead raccoon.

To be continued...

P.S.  Credit for the fully immersive inter-dimensional goggles goes to the lovely @porkchop-ao3 from her story Someone Else’s Shoes, which you can read on Ao3 under her username PorkChop.

[space-------kid]

Walk Away

Title: Walk Away Pairing: Erik Lehnsherr/F!Reader Word count: blood, sweat, tears lol Warning: Angst, no happy ending (again, you have been warned) Prompt: ‘On the same bus together everyday’ Summary: He was falling in love in the worst way. He knew that he would never be with her the way he wanted to, but he just couldn’t walk away. Erik’s POV A/N: This should’ve been a Pietro Maximoff/Reader but I re-watched X-Men: First Class to Apocalypse and Magneto ate me whole. Also, sorry for the submission. @delicrieux, here it is!

Written for delicrieux’ writing challenge. Congrats on the 6k!

-

Apocalypse was destroyed, Charles’ school rebuilt, and Erik chose to walk away again.

Despite his aid in defeating the all-powerful mutant, Erik knew that the authorities were still after him. His actions while still being one of the Four Horsemen alone were more than enough to warrant not just his imprisonment but also his death, and the metal manipulator knew better than to go back into hiding as soon as possible.

Charles was more than willing to provide a safe haven for him, but Erik knew better.

So, naturally, he left.

(It was also a matter of not seeing eye to eye with his closest friend, but that was a story everyone knew very well.)

Erik fled the country as soon as he had the chance. He couldn’t go back to Poland - the pain of losing both Magda and Nina still too fresh in his broken heart. Still, his escape brought him back to Europe, for reasons he couldn’t fully comprehend.

He didn’t remain in one place for too long, didn’t apply for the same job he previously had. Erik was extremely careful and never forgot to erase his tracks. The master of metal had in mind that Charles might be keeping an eye on him, so he laid low and made sure that the helmet En Sabah Nur fashioned for him - a new one that effectively blocked the Professor’s ability like it’s predecessor - was always close by whenever he was in the confines of his temporary house.

The constant running away went for months, then a year, and when Erik got tired of putting up disguises and making up fake names, he found himself in the vast snowy plains of Lapland.

A small town was what received him, the houses too far off from each other and the citizens content with minding their own businesses. It still didn’t guarantee a perfect hiding place but it was acceptable enough for Erik, and so with the money he decently earned he bought the house offered by an old couple who would be moving away for good.

The couple bid Max Eisenhardt a good luck along with God’s blessing, and handed him the key to his new (temporary), fully-furnished home.

-

He found a job vacancy at the local diner located in the heart of the town. Erik took up the kitchen and made it his new work place, his shift an easy 6am to 1pm. He was glad that he was a decent cook - waiting tables sure as hell didn’t fit him. He would wake up at four, do his chores until five, and be at the bus stop half an hour later for a fifteen-minute drive from point A to B with enough time to spare before his shift started.

The town was quiet and his work paid well. Maybe, just maybe, Erik won’t have to leave soon. In spite of the recent event at Cairo (and, of course, the whole world), no one still recognised him for who he really was. Erik was still Max, the quiet brown-haired half-German who moved away from home after both of his parents’ death. He couldn’t get wind of one - just one - suspicion despite him being rather taciturn and secretive. The people just accepted him for who he introduced himself to be and left it at that.

Erik, however, knew the cost of being too complacent too well for it cost him his wife and child and remained vigilant. He made a few acquaintances but never let them close, lest he make the same mistake of helping even one of them at the cost of revealing who he was - only for them to call him out on it in the end.

-

It was on his third week of travelling from home to work when Erik finally paid close attention to her.

He was always mindful of who he was boarding with in the same old bus driven by its same old driver, cataloguing each passenger’s appearance and what business they were engaged with. From the single mother who worked at the neighbouring town to the father of five doing odd jobs here and there but mainly stayed at the dock by the lake, Erik knew what everyone in the bus did judging by their attire and demeanour alone. She, however, threw him a curve ball now that he had not dismissed her presence like he did two weeks prior.

The first time he saw her, he instantly identified her as a tourist, a map and a camera in her person. Tourists came and went in this small town, and Erik knew that she would be gone after a few days or so. There was, in all honesty, nothing special about her at first sight, and the mutant in hiding nearly kicked himself for not studying her as carefully as he did with the other passengers of the bus.

The first thing he noticed that morning was the absence of both camera and map. Clutched in her small hands was a newsprint and a small basket of white roses at her feet. She had a pretty face, and air was knocked out of Erik’s lungs when he met her eyes.Icy blue met warm (eye colour) in a stare that seemed to stretch on for hours. The way she looked at him sent alarm bells ringing in Erik’s mind and he knew then and there that she was danger. Of what disaster she brought with her he didn’t know, and the metal manipulator steeled his gaze, expression going from calm and cool to a grim ‘fuck off’. He passed her by, subtly glancing at the paper she was holding. Erik released the breath he did not know he was holding when he didn’t see his face on the page before her.

The mutant took his usual spot at the very end of the bus, but he kept his eyes on her during the whole duration of his ride. When he reached his destination, he hurried off the vehicle but not before giving her another look. He stood by the exit for a few seconds, gaze fixed at her, and Erik went out of the bus with his heart in his throat. She was looking back at him, and Erik thought that recognition seemed to flash in her eyes when her lips curved up in the smallest of smiles.

-

He spent his whole shift tense and on high alert. Eyes wary and guarded, he scanned the diner every chance he got in search for the odd woman. His shift came and went without even her shadow gracing the place, and Erik allowed himself to breathe easily with relief. He was a wanted man. Maybe he was just overreacting. And maybe the woman was just trying to be friendly. Too bad he couldn’t allow her close. Erik won’t hurt himself in any other way ever again.

Look where it got Magda. Where it got Nina-

He boarded the same bus on the way home, and he sighed in relief when he saw that she wasn’t there. He couldn’t say the same thing the next day, however.

-

Travel from home to work now went like this:

He paid attention to her day after day. She would always be on the right side of the bus, three seats ahead of him. Erik always found her carrying a small basket of white roses, and she would always smile at him whenever he met her bright (eye colour) eyes.

No one sat beside her, and the master of metal had no deep reason to take the initiative to do so. The smiles soon transformed into good mornings when familiarity settled in on both parties and one day, when a swell of tourists nearly sent the bus packed, Erik found his usual spot occupied. Left with no choice, he settled on the last free seat beside her.

Polite greetings were exchanged and Erik left it at that. It didn’t mean that he would not take his chance to closely study the woman in hopes of learning more about her without the need for small talk.

A red Walkman was strapped to her side, the wire of the headphones loosely wrapped around a belt loop. Her hands, folded on her lap, were small and delicate. Erik noticed a thin scar on the back of her left hand, long and pale against her (skin tone) skin. Despite the layers of clothing she was wearing to ward off the cold, the mutant could tell that she was small and fragile in contrast to his large, intimidating frame. The master of metal watched her from the corner of his eye. Her gaze was fixed mostly outside the window. Sometimes she would tear her eyes off the beautiful scenery outside to look at the people inside the bus with her. Her (eye colour) eyes would sometimes meet his when he shifted his gaze away a little too late, and she would smile at him. He would incline his head in acknowledgment because he couldn’t find it in himself to be flat-out rude, and her smile would get a little brighter as she looked away.

When he reached his stop, he chanced another look at her and saw her staring already. Still smiling, she opened her mouth and told him to, “Have a good day.”

-

The good morning’s and have a good day’s soon became small talks, and Erik found a new seating arrangement in the bus a month later. Erik didn’t mean to, he really did. But loneliness always crept in every time the quiet became too much. He would not allow anyone to get too close and yet he sought companionship to fill the silence that he was slowly coming to despise. He just didn’t expect that he’d find it in her - a human so unlike him, of all things.

(Name) was interesting, fun and amusing to talk with, respected and never pried on his personal life, and knew how to make people comfortable around her once he got to know her better. She was smart, funny, and much nicer than most of the non-mutants he had come across with. From the talks he shared with her, he already surmised that she was wise beyond her years, her anger burned briefly, and her kindness knew no bounds. She was the type who wore her heart on her sleeve, who won people to her side by being true to herself, and who wouldn’t judge others for what they’d done without knowing what and why they were driven to do such things.

She always made the bus ride from home to work so interesting and it didn't surprise Erik when he came to look forward to it, and when - unconsciously - it became his favourite part of the day.

The master of metal had no idea when it actually happened, but now he associated (Name) with the word ‘friend’. And if he was being honest with himself, the thought surprised him still.

And everyday, she never failed to bring the same old small basket packed to the brim with white roses. Erik himself was not one for prying into other people’s business, but the flowers’ continued presence every single day got the better of his ever growing curiosity.

“They’re beautiful,“ he commented one day, blue eyes glued to the flowers. (Name) held the basket on her lap, fingers gently trailing over each rose.

She looked at him with a smile and nodded. “They are. Would you like one, Max?”

Erik humoured her and held out a hand. He watched as she carefully plucked one out of the basket and placed the rose on his palm. The master of metal smiled at the action and before he could think his words over, his mouth ran ahead of his mind.

“Why do you always carry roses with you everyday without fail?”(Name)’s smile faltered and disappeared. She looked at him, sadness and pain visible in her (eye colour) eyes. Her gaze flicked from the white roses to his face and she took a deep breath, obviously surprised at his question.

“Oh. It’s, um-" She never continued, just stared at the flowers on her lap. Erik blinked, confused as to why she was suddenly speechless. (Name) was many things, and sitting beside him looking rather stunned with tears welling up her eyes. The change in her demeanour was so abrupt it made the mutant wonder what the reason behind it might be.

Quietly, he watched as she fought the oncoming signs on sadness by blinking the tears away and flashing him a small smile.

"I think you should come with me this afternoon so I can better explain," she told him instead. "Only if you’re free, of course.”

Erik merely nodded in confirmation and hesitantly put a hand on (Name)’s shoulder in an attempt to comfort her. When he came to his stop, the mutant leaned towards her and softly pressed his lips on her temple before he could stop himself. The action surprised them both, Erik meeting (Name)’s wide-eyed gaze with a puzzled expression on his face.

He slowly pulled away from her and stood up. Jaw clenched, he trudged down the aisle and turned to her halfway.

“Stop by the diner later. My shift ends at 1," said Erik. (Name) nodded in response, her eyes trailing after him as he made his way to work.

-

He wondered what compelled him to kiss her later that morning. The answer came to him when his shift ended and, true to her unspoken response, he found her waiting for him outside the establishment.

Erik stepped out of the diner and was about to call for her, but his words died halfway out his mouth and just stared at her. (Name) was simply standing a few feet from him, her gaze locked at the bright sky. She was wearing the same jacket he wore earlier along with the same pink scarf wrapped snugly around her neck. She wasn’t the perfect epitome of beauty, but it was the little things about her right now that sent a little jolt in Erik’s chest the longer he stared at her.

(Colour) hair cascaded past her shoulders, sunlight dancing off in amber beads that clung to every strand as a small breeze brushed past her. Her nose and cheeks were tinged pink due to the cold but she didn’t seem to mind. Her lips were stretched in a small smile, (colour) eyes made all the more brighter when her smile automatically widened when she turned to look at him.

"Hi, Max!" It was just as simple greeting but the way she spoke and looked at him felt so sinful, and realisation hit Erik kid a thundering train.

Maybe the reason why he felt this way was because he was finally acknowledging the fact that his interest for her was actually an attraction that he had been unconsciously denying in fear that (Name) had already crawled her way not only through his mind (the recognition in her eyes when she first smiled at him) but also his heart (her thoughts, her personality, her eyes that spoke volumes when she listened to him talk even about the most mundane things). Maybe it’s because she was a human - just a human - and feeling something else for her other than friendship would be tantamount to betraying his very own vow on not hurting himself anymore in any way possible.

Erik mentally cursed himself. He shouldn’t have accepted the offer to come with her. He shouldn’t have asked about the roses she always carried. But it was already done, and he had no one to blame but himself when the reason for the flowers was finally revealed to him.

One quiet bus (not his usual ride nor route) ride later, Erik found himself in a private ward in the town’s hospital, and lying on the cot before him was a man slightly younger than him. The latter was obviously in a coma, wires for monitoring his heartbeat and a trach tube attached to him. The steady beat of the heart monitor filled the silence. On the small bedside cabinet was a vase filled with white roses. The flowers were in such pristine condition and Erik was partly awed when he glimpsed one bud slowly bloom. He glanced at (Name), silently asking if she saw it, too, and the small smile she gave him was her answer.

Erik stood awkwardly by the door as (Name) took the seat next to the comatose male and gestured for him to come close.

"Good afternoon, Iivo," she greeted the man, voice soft and quiet. "I brought at friend today.”

The metal manipulator did as he was told and stood beside (Name). His gaze was locked on the man for a few seconds before he shifted it towards her.

“Iivo, meet Max. Max, Iivo.”

Erik’s attention was brought back to the roses and he uttered one word that (Name) might be familiar with.

“Mutant.”

He wasn’t met with a horrified look as if in had just spoken a taboo word. Instead, she simply smiled at him and nodded.

The next question came out quietly, as if it would invoke a negative reaction.

“What happened to him?”

Again, Erik wished that he hadn’t asked. This was a terrible mistake, coming here with her and asking her the reason why a man (her friend? Lover?) lay comatose in a hospital. Guilt filled him and he fought the urge to walk out when (Name) started to speak.

“That day, when the earth moved and the rising metal wrought destruction, a group of people got trapped in a ski resort where Iivo worked. He was a staff there, and he always told me that everyone who walked in was his responsibility. So, naturally, he did what was expected of him. He helped everyone out at the expense of exposing his secret.

"Iivo managed to keep everyone safe up to the last minute, even after the metal came crashing back down. But when the dust cleared and the screaming stopped, almost every person he helped came out unharmed except him.”

(Name) placed her hand on top of Iivo’s and sniffed.

“There was so much blood… it’s a miracle he’s still right here with me. He’s the reason why I always have white roses with me. They will thrive as long as he lives. I-” Her voice trembled for the first time. “I can’t imagine going here or home one day and see those flowers wilt and die. He’s been under for more than a year now, but I can’t stop hoping for him to wake up. I can’t, can I? I don’t want to lose him 'cause he’s the only one I got.”

Heart throbbing in his throat, Erik’s hand shook as he took a slow step back. His actions that fateful day killed thousands of people, he was very well aware of it, but seeing a victim- victims in person struck him to the core. Erik knew that blood would always be in his hands, but this…

His gaze landed on the scar at the back of (Name)’s hand, how her other hand closed upon it. The thought that she was present that time and had to witness Iivo’s attempts and subsequent fall struck him like lightning. Bile rose in his throat and without so much as an excuse me, he dashed out of the room, (Name) calling after him in a mixture of alarm and confusion.

Erik turned in an empty hall, hand braced against the wall as shock and the full weight of what he had done filled his entire being. He had always escaped guilt using distractions and his very own attempts to mask and hide who he really was, but now it came crashing down on him like a landslide. Walking out on her and her friend (not lover, anything but that, please) was a grave mistake. (Name) was a smart woman, he knew that she would’ve figured it by now. He couldn’t stay any longer. He couldn’t, unless he wanted to be exposed. He-

He had to leave again.

“Max…?”

He froze. Slowly, the master of metal looked over his shoulder and saw (Name) standing at the end of the hall, her face pinched with worry. She took a step forward but he held out a hand to stop her.

“Max, I’m-”

“No. Stay back,"he shakily told her. The look of pure concern on her face made him flinch. "Stay back. Please.”

She didn’t listen.

“I’m so sorry, Max, I didn’t mean to upset you-”

Erik used the metal on her belt to halt her progress. (Name)’s eyes widened, fear flashing briefly on her face but she continued and fought against him.

“Max-”

“You know that’s not my name!"Erik snarled at her but she didn’t flinch. It infuriated him because she should be scared, she should damn well be scared because he was the reason why Iivo was comatose, the reason why she had that scar on her hand, the reason why a lot of people were dead. He was a powerful mutant, he was Magneto, he was a murderer-

A murderer who was swiftly falling for a woman that he couldn’t have.

They stood there, holding each other’s gazes. Erik way the first to look away, dropping his outstretched hand and letting his hold on her go.

"I know.”

Those two words would have shattered his already broken heart had (Name) not crossed the distance between them and wrapped her arms around him. Erik’s breath hitched in his throat, arms hanging limply on his sides.

“I know who you are. I know what happened to you. I’m sorry, and I forgive you.” That forgiveness was undeserved, Erik wanted to say, but he settled for silence and allowed himself to be selfish just this once. He wrapped his arms around her in a crushing hug, his now tear-streaked face buried in her hair. Tremors wracked his body as he failed to contain the sobs that escaped his lips. He pulled her closer, tighter, until there was nothing gentle about the hug anymore. It was desperate, pleading, and Erik simply didn’t care anymore that he was being weak. “I forgive you, Erik,”(Name) murmured sincerely (how could she find it in herself say it I don’t deserve it I’m a monster), one hand rubbing soothingly on his back while the other brushed through his hair. “I forgive you. We forgive you. Don’t cry, please. I forgive you…” He took to being selfish again and believed her. - Erik wanted to pack his bags and leave, but he couldn’t. He knew that he had to leave, to protect his identity and himself from the pain, but he just. Couldn’t. Do. It. He knew that continuing to stay here would not do him good. Against his better judgement, he stayed. He stayed and held on (Name)’s forgiveness and the feelings he held for her. He was falling in love in the worst way. Erik knew that he would never be with (Name) the way he wanted to, but he just couldn’t walk away. It was stupidity, selfishness, and hope blending together but he ignored them and held on to what he thought he had. He stayed until one day, he sat beside (Name) on the same bus, with the same old driver and passengers, the same small basket of roses placed on her lap. The flowers were dead. - (Name), I will never ask for your forgiveness. You may have given it to me so freely, but I know I don’t deserve it. I’m sorry. But there is one thing I can promise you, and I aim to fulfill it with the best of my ability. I promise you will never see me again. It’s for the best. I’m lucky to have known you. There are so many things I wanted to tell you but they don’t matter anymore. I know this is selfish of me to ask you this, but be happy. Please be happy. I love y- EL

[imabookmarkaddict]

i stole this

Here’s the full horse au… for now.

It’s only like bullet points but… long and messy and uh…

Here we go, help me.

Jo13 rode Deli young rider cup, Markus tam boarded at Iz tam12-13 markus 15-16 devilmare.

Markus gone 17.5 til 18Iz finds him at richies, brings home treats depression, lets mark hang out in the stables. Helps out, jo asks him for help w his chores. Markus does more stable work for iz but get bullied for lack of exp, becomes friends w jo after declining flirting.

Jo gets offered by iz to restore old stable w house for his jumping career. Jo wants markus to come with as groom, iz wont let markus go cuz stable work and depression. Eventually jo convinces to get Markus to help w restoration, building etc and once there gets markus to want to stay. Jo promises to train several horses for iz to sell, gives delight to Markus as a gift. They have a small 3horse  van w bed to live in until it’s liveable.They spend the first month doing almost all building themselves.Markus helps groundwork and warmup, jo does light to medium jumping for young horses. After stalking the farrier markus is invited to learn more about shoeing and keeping up hoof care to save money, helping the farrier out whenever he can in return.

Will meets them at a few competitions, is impressed w their discipline and markus riding style. Mostly because his own stable is every rider for themselves. Starts flirting w Markus but has to ask jo for advice, jo dislikes it but thinks they might get along so he reluctantly gives tips. Will starts showing up at shows w/o competing to help groom. Jo grudgingly accepts to give Markus chance to do the smaller starts, to finish iz contracts faster and start his flipping career. Markus is asked to do dressage starts to up their value faster.Will asks to apprentice for Markus, but is declined. Markus is jos trainer and thinks thats enough.

Once contract starts finalizing, jo wants to recruit apprentices and iz offers to give them promising horses to train for their career. All jumpers that train for jo. Markus does most groom related as well as stable chores and ground breaking youngsters. Probably two girls from iz and a guy they know from shows.

They assume Markus is just a groom and treat him as such, as long as theyre respectful about it he doesnt care. Will keeps flirting and asking to be Markus trainee, groom, stablehand anything to learn from him. Markus is flattered and smitten, and feeling lonely being the only dressage Main. Knows jo would never offer the apprentice spot to Will, but makes a deal w iz where Will gets a horse to train For Markus. Will happily accepts including all the stablework and being Markus groom, planning and driving him to shows. Jo holds clinics at local riding schools and eventually builds small huts temp stable for a riding camp. Starts his training career. Markus starts taking dressage seriously enjoying working with the horse more than just speeding through a course.Markus works in the early morning before everyone wakes up including running a mile at 4am, holds lesson for will at 6am, feeds and mucks out at 5am, rides his horses at 7am, warms up jos horses 9am to 12am, feeds horses til 13 then either works or sleeps. Everyone helps out with chores and tack except for markus stuff that Will takes care of.

They hold auditions for additional trainees at riding clubs, jo holds lessons and markus helps pick out potential candidates. One if two picked only lasts a month after treating markus as a personal groom, commentating on his lack of work ethic and laziness etc. Jo isnt very pleased after only finding out when Will tells him hes had enough of it. Jo promises Markus to stand behind him standing up for himself, though Markus doesnt want to hurt jos training reputation.They have a jumping team qualifying for nationals. Jo aims for the international jumping team. Markus has no aim but helps Will who gets major results in jumping . After a major team win they all go out for a party that iz holds for them in a club he owns. Once leaving Markus ends up getting hit by a car on the sidewalk leading to a long hospitalstay and wheelchair/cane for spine injuries.

Will takes over training markus horses while he recovers healing and depression at iz home. Once Markus gets back hes not allowed to ride or work and just train Will and Jo. Meanwhile they offer a new recruit a spot who is surprised at Markus lack of work as hes just free training Deli and doing light dressage never speaking of the crash, which no one dares bring up either.

Richie who has been seeing Markus a few times before the accident decides to sponsor their team/stable. Iz decides to give Markus more options w desk work as his assistant leading to markus doing consultant/corporate spy work. As he recovers enough to start riding Iz challenges him to get to the top of a discipline in a year and he’ll sponsor Will and Jo unconditionally. Markus finds cross country to be interesting and starts eventing. Eventually he manages to top eventing by simply entering every available event in the country w Will and Iz grooms that take his horses out for him.

Back at the stable Jo is topping the jumping w Will as a close second and the team is doing okay for amateurs. Team misunderstands markus being gone as laziness, uselessness. At the end of the season as hes returned they think hes being allowed to stay cuz hes jos friend. When one of the olympic comp shows up and starts to offer a spot on the team as a reserve everyone cheers for Jo but turns quiet when its for eventing. They finally realize Markus actually knows what hes doing and how hard he worked for the last years.

Will goes as Markus groom since Iz wont let Jo pause his career for just one reserve event. Markus has to cover for a rider and The eventing team places second. Markus and Will starts dating, markus consultant gig picks up, the press is picking up, reporter found out the promising dressage star was in the major accident. Jo gets a permanent spot on the inter team and eventually a OS spot. Markus starts schooling young horses for other people, tho people still dismiss him thinking “Jo & Markus training center” is just Jo since hes the public one.

Jo deals with the company and his jumping career while markus focuses on training and iz escapades including turning over a warehouse. Jo manages fine as his team helps and supports him but as Will focuses on his career Markus works day w horses and night for iz not sleeping until collapsing.Iz sends him off on rehab/vacation and have him hire/accept an assistant and some trainees before he is allowed to work. Grudgingly interviews a few, sticks w a math wiz w no prior horse experience but does excellent w management for both legal and illegal sides.Markus does some teaching but mostly just wanders around w a cane and is miserable. Iz builds him a small house on the property for privacy as well as two more stables, one for horses in training/riding camps and one for his projects that Markus is educating personally.

Jaime - inbetween car crash rehab and OS. Kay asks Iz for advice regarding a boy he’s met through work whos mute after a car accident and iz suggests a visit to see Markus who is sympathetic from his own experience and offers Jaime a place to stay. Jaime is mostly angsty grouchy teen but enjoys watching Markus do groundwork and starts helping out with simple things, carrying tack and lifting heavy stuff since Markus is limited. Eventually starts apprenticeship and learns how to ride and follows Markus softer approach. Learns a lot helping groom eventing horses, Iz offers him a groom spot at his stable to learn more faster when Markus focuses on jos OS. He excels and gets a collection of youngsters to care for from basics to breeders cups. Iz appreciates having a Markus around again and wants him to train more trainers for him, tho Markus doesnt really want to.

Markus wins an award at a gala based on his scores but they refuse to give it to him due to unsavory rumors ie “hoeing” “drugs” and it will jeopardize their reputation and representation rewarding someone like that. Iz tells them to stop being stupid but the room is quiet and markus leaves to avoid more embarrasment. Markus and Will start falling apart as Will thinks he’s cheating with the late nights and low sex drive. At a boring event some bigot friends of Will harasses markus in the bathroom, leaving him with concussion and a sprained arm. Some week later after tiring of the questioning from iz, jo and will, Markus snaps at them in the kitchen. They tell him to calm down and get over it. He gets pissed off and tells them he will not work with them anymore if they belive that. Again he’s told he’s overreacting. So he leaves. Tells them to fuck off and not follow him.

Markus stays with Richie while healing and follows up an old offer to work for Iz competitor/nemesis. He’s coaching a few of the jumpers and is approached by eventer Adam. They competed together at Markus OS and got along very well. Adam had gotten a few dressage lessions out of markus and a clinic with some of the other eventer OS people at Jos stable after the OS. While respectful of markus relationship Adam thought he’d made it clear he was interested but let it go. They still had contact, few lessons and autograph sessions over the years.

Now that Adam knows he left jos stable he warns him against the proposed contract, saying Markus will earn more after healing and a couple of solo wins. ‘Also how is Will?’

Markus follows his advice and gets some short training gigs before competing a few horses for a random stable. Iz tries to outoffer them but markus still goes with a smaller stable that Adam is one to represent.Adam and Markus end up flirting a lot until Adam goes down on one knee asking for a real date. Markus is very surprised and Adam is offended that his flirting skills are that bad.

Eventually markus moves in with Adam and starts competing in small scale. After Adam start talking about their future and marriage markus depression and anxiety spikes and Adam is distressed but finally understands it’s not just the competing but also their relationship. He convinces markus to voice his likes and dislikes and never pushes past what markus offers. Adam suggests markus might be asexual which markus hesitantly deals with but thinks will scare Adam away.

They meet a couples counselor who’s supportive and finds some key issues with markus fear of abandonment and his isolation with no family as well as losing jo as a close friend. Thinking he doesn’t have as much to offer Adam who is successful, rich and popular. 'my side of the aisle is empty’ etc.

After a year of a regular season Adam employs Daniel as a social media manager, as he got along with markus in the past. As Adam posts more online trying to gain public favor of his business and boyfriend he realizes what horrible rumors and hate is targeted towards markus. They still progress and in an insta story markus mentions a dream place to be the spanish riding school in austria. (Besides any place with Adam in it obviously.)

Adam takes the three of the to Vienna for 1-2 weeks to see the school, other touristy things but also as a social media event. They meet  fans and get shown the city and invited to dinners. Adam does propose to a very surprised but sobbingly happy markus. It’s not posted until months later to give markus time to process.

A riding instructor invites herself to a meeting with markus, showing him how her dressage classes has been collecting funds and signatures for hiring him for a lesson. A very flattered Markus does miss helping jo out at riding clubs so he offers to host her classes with a clinic at Adams, if they’re keen? Maybe just keep the money for buses and useful things instead. If everything works out well he will also show up the next day holding some lessons.

Everyone’s genuinely happy to meet both markus and Adam(s horses), a tour, some food/ice cream, a q&a with photos and autographs. Markus agrees to photos with him only if they won’t put them on social media which they follow, mostly it’s just with Adam & Rocket.

They are approached by a social worker who wants their help with a troubled young teen, theo who was thrown out by his father after resisting being molested. Markus is very hesitant but they offer him housing if he helps feed the horses and finishes school.

Teddy being a moody teen still warms up to them and enjoys being helpful in the stable. He helps Daniel film some markus content and offers to help with a q&a.When he reaches a question involving gay slurs and disturbing imagery they have an argument where markus means Theo should never have to deal with it and berates Daniel for failing the filter. Markus is both upset at the hate specifically directed at him as well as failing to protect the teen and stay in a depressive state for a few days.

Adam finally snaps and hides all his accounts and cancels most training and other businessdeals.Media and people are questioning why a popular and frequent mefia poster disappear and some claim there’s illness or death.Jo convinces Will to reach out as they still care for markus and want to apologize.  Adam tells them how it’s none of their business but explains a bit on how they never really supported markus when he lost chances to rumors or were literally beat up. Jo acknowledges and apologizes, offering to help in any way they can.

Markus is a bit upset that Adam is so angry on his behalf, risking his entire business and future but Adam means he’d be happier without the toxic riding organization that doesn’t do enough to stop it. In fact they fueled the problems when refusing the award because of rumors. As Adam is putting his stable up for sale evaluation he offers an interview with a small equestrian vlog studio where he says he’s tired of representing such a shitty organization and that he’ll boycott any future event including OS.

He also shows them both of his email and insta inboxes full of hatemail, scrolling randomly, bringing up some horrible examples and accusations like infidelity, pedophilia, bestiality, prostitution, drugs and more, directly addressed to or about markus only.The interviewer quietly apologizes for her first question being a “is this just another equestrian drama grab for attention."

Even as Adam only meant to make a quiet, safe and happy space for him and markus, many other riders follow suite after jo publicly boycotts OS as well. Iz and Richies companies supports the boycott as well as calling out the organization for failing to protect good values. Eventually leading to a restructuring and a formal public apology to markus and his award.

Markus is not happy being the center of attention but he realizes he’ll take the moment to encourage the young riders who came to him worried they could never compete because someone started a silly rumor about them. Media eventually stop focusing on them but keep spinning online bullying as well as how organizations can do better to protect underage riders.

Adam starts up again in small scale focusing more on competing and anti-bullying media. Markus ends up accepting more Iz projects. Jo and Will suggest doing this tvshow project they’ve been approached with. After they come to an agreement they set up ar Adams stable as there’s less trainees in the way. There’s some issues with filming rules but Daniel deals with it quickly and loudly, as he has to approve anything of Adam and Markus.('Are you just grooming for free for Adam to get laid by a popular rider’ is apparently not appropriate, who knew?)

After some stressful weeks and Spence showing up to possibly spread more rumors, though he insists Iz sent him over to support them. Adam tells everyone they’re about to just going to fuckoff for a while and snags markus out on a private picnic as he seemed worried beyond normal. Markus is reassured and when they get back Theo informs him of a very serious couple waiting for him by the gate.

They tell markus they’d prefer somewhere private and he takes them to the saddle room where he can lock the filming team out.The woman introduces herself as a representative of a different country’s OS and that they want to have him on their eventing team. Since he hasn’t competed for his country for the past years they hoped he’d be interested as their own selections dwindled from injurys, horse sales and so on. Markus is not really comprehending but offers to discuss it with Adam.

Obviously Adam is beyond happy to hear it, and suggest using Rocket or Flurry as he’s competing newer blood anyway. Goes all out cooking a big fancy dinner and everyone else is just confused. After dealing with legalities and passports markus is allowed to announce his new affiliation.

After some months he heads up to their country with Daniel, rocket and flurry to settle in at a teammates stable. Turns out most of the team is more than excited to welcome markus and they have a big party to celebrate. One of the injured riders bring up how markus helped him his last OS with a thrown shoe just minutes before their start even though they were enemies! And how markus had always been an honorary member in their eyes, saving them from a quick DQ.