#anyways the new save is continuing to go well even if things have slowed down a lil

[arolesbianism]

The sadness and agony that emerges everytime I start a new oni save and am forced to remember what it's like to have a dupe without a hat only to put them in a hat because I think they'd look cute only to remember hats make half of them look bald but I spent this long maxing out a skill for them so Im too stubborn to back down and remove the hat

[helloledena]

Uh-oh... I'm falling in love~

Synopsis: Kakashi though he had everything under control, especially his feelings. But one ninja from Village hidden in mist was enough to change that. Oh how wrong he was...

Pairing: Kakashi x Reader (but in Kakashi's pov 🙂‍↕️)

Content: fem! reader, slow burn, strangers to "something" to lovers, light smut, mention of depression, lot's of thoughts, lot's of confusion.

Word count: 8.3k (😬)

A/N: Kakashi's character is so complex and hot and hard to write and hot and tragic but hot, so yeah, love him so much *.*

pervert.

When the saleswoman at his favorite bookstore gave him a raised eyebrow, all Kakashi could do was smile while scratching the back of his head in a manner that reeked of humor.

"I understand why you wanted to read Make-out Paradise… but now even the other two books?"

"What can I say, it really drew me in."

"And.. you say you've read it..."

"Yes, I've read it three times already, I think it's time to find out what happens in the sequel, don't you think? Hahaha" he let his body wiggle a little, and his free eye rolled up into a smile.

"Pervert," the girl muttered as she slid off the counter and went to get more books.

The ninja tiredly scanned the other books on display on the counter. The well-known novel "Life of a shinobi: Honor or Death" caught his eye. With a soft sigh, he picked up the book, turned it upside down, and began to stare at the wall clock that didn't actually work.

He would never admit it out loud, but reading an erotic novel, in which the most exciting thing is actually the various lovemaking positions, had become his new favorite way to distract himself. The distraction from the dead bodies he was cleaning after massacre several months prior; from the feeling of total guilt of allowing Itachi, the boy with soft eyes and always a calm expression on his face Itachi, to go and slaughter everyone in his clan; from death of his friends..

Not to speak of it, he realized that nothing calmed him as much as re-reading the same book with the light and warm plot. The fact that he could relive what he knew would end well gave him a sense of comfort that he hadn't experienced in a long time. Life was bearable again. Just a bit. Just a little bit more, he didn't want to kill himself.

"Your books,"  mumbled the saleswoman into her chin, still clearly under the impression, as she quickly took the money from him "enjoy the rest of your day."

"Thank you. Be sure that I will. Ha! I mean... not in that way..." the now blushing girl looked at him as if he had gone completely mad. He felt his own cheeks slowly warming up "well, anyway... I'm going now. You! You have a nice day... really nice day..."

His smiling aura slid at a moment as he left the shop. He put the third part of “Make-Out” in his shoulder bag, while opening the second one as he walked slowly in an unknown direction. What is he gonna do now? Maybe he should go to get some ramen? But he failed to keep Obito's promise, he couldn't save Rin from death, his father wasn't there to see how much he had progressed. Perhaps he could go back to that cursed rock again. Yeah, that seems like better idea.

"Kakashi!!!" he heard Gai shouting for him from a distance "my eternal rival!!!! Come! Let’s see who can drink more sake before nightfall!!"

But he just continued walking, looking at the first page of the book. He reminded himself that if he does not get involved no one would die because of him. If he doesn't intervene, it wouldn't hurt as much if someone from them died. If he doesn't get involved, perhaps those damn stubborn people would finally realize how truly awful person he is.

When he reached the next corner between streets, he was about to run the rest of the way, but a melodic voice froze him in his tracks.

"Are ninjas in this silly village not taught manners?" He turned and saw a girl leaning against one of the buildings at the corner. How, in the hell, hadn't he noticed her presence before? He decided to let his visible eye wander into a something that seemed like smile.

"I really don’t know what you’re talking about…"

"Pfft" the girl continued to lean her head against the wall, staring at Kakashi with a smirk on her face; her relaxed body language contradicted the words she spoke to him, as if she wasn't intimidated in the slightest "The famous copy ninja Kakashi Hatake, known to all bounty hunters, his name written in more bingo books than can be counted... Yet, you appear to be even more of a creep than the old man who wrote that perversion you're reading"

Kakashi felt strange at her words, gripping his kunai knife tightly in the pocket of his pants. Was she an enemy? He quickly surveyed the area suspiciously as he seemed to be merely searching for a more comfortable way to stand. Hidden Mist Village headband... what the hell?

"Well.." now he was looking cautiously in the direction of the girl "you talk about manners, and you didn't introduced yourself... very hypocritical, don't you think?"

"Hmmm" the girl smiled again, and then pulled out a scroll from her pocket that opened in front of Kakashi "I have permission. And besides, I'm done with my work for now, so I’ll be leaving today. I was just wondering if you really are as cold hearted as everyone says..."

"And?" he looked away from the scroll, returning his gaze to the book that he still held open in his left hand "are they right?"

"I can only say that I'm disappointed" he felt the girl shrug her shoulders "well, see you next time, pervert."

He just hummed. Before he turned and continued walking towards that cursed, stupid rock, he heard the voice again.

"Oh, and did you hear," he looked and she was smiling very widely; something hot filled his stomach "that now the 4th part is being written? I mean, the creepy old man... you already know who I'm talking about."

She winked and disappeared from his sight as silently as she had come. As he continued to observe the now empty space where she had been a second ago, he felt feverishly lucky that he had not learned the girl's name. And if something happened to her, her name would not appear before his eyes in his nightmares.

mercy.

It was the 4th day of the chunin exams and Kakashi couldn't sit and wait any longer. The link with the birds that were relaying information about the happenings had been cut since Orochimaru had magically appeared, then disappeared. He felt nervous. He felt nervous and noticed that it came out in the way he peeled an orange, in the way he would grip the doorknob when he left the room to get some air, and in the way his leg bounced every now and then.

Perhaps he shouldn't have been so harsh with Iruka a few days earlier, saying that his students were now warriors. But he knew that if he had shown even a fraction of the insecurity he felt, his decision would not have carried the authority that now have. So because he wanted his ego to remain intact he left the company of the other jonin, who would probably feel his nervousness at any moment, then climbed onto the roof of the Hokage building and let the sun caress him.

They have the best chance to survive in the shinobi world if they ruthlessly face every obstacle. They have the best chance to survive in the shinobi world if they ruthlessly face every obstacle. I did not send them to their deaths. I did not send them to their deaths. Kakashi repeated those sentences to himself more than he would like to admit.

With big sigh he opened the 3rd book of Make-Out and stared blankly at the pages.

"Hahahaha, wait, wait, you're still reading that nonsense? How long has it been? 4 years?"

His smile curved beyond his will, though she didn't see it because of his mask. He didn't hear her when she got closer to him, like few years prior. How wonderful...

"And who are you?" he looked at her now with his head tilted to the side.

"Oh, that hurts, you know" said the girl with a sneer in her voice, sliding next to him "I know I'm not that *ultra famous* like you are, but we've already met. Plus even I have a target on my head now. These criminals' bingo books, blah blah" and Kakashi was aware of that. When he was in the Land of Waves on a mission with his team, about a month ago, he took Zabuza's bingo book with him. As he flipped through the pages he saw a familiar face, although for a moment he was slightly unsure if it was the girl he met a few years ago. The scar on her cheek was new...

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

Name: y/n

Rank: unknown, approach with caution

Village of Origin: A Hidden Mist village, Land of Water

Known Techniques: water manipulation, blood manipulation

Orders: wanted dead or alive

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

"Ah, many new faces lately..." he cooed while watching over village in those quiet moments. How the hell she keep finding him when he is alone? And he didn’t have much alone time since becoming leader od Team 7.

"By the way, your kids are holding up well there, as far as I could see" - now he looked at her "if I hadn't seen other things in my life, I would say that they are very young. But we both know it could have been worse. They'll finish the obstacle... they had that crazy determined look in their eyes about half a day ago."

"Search birds are not working for 3 days now."

"Ah well, we "watermen" don't use birds for surveillance. That's what you should have learned at your sweet little academy."

"The fact that you're not on the organizing team for this exams and yet have your own means of monitoring shouldn't surprise me?" Kakashi knew more than he asked. The ninja of the Village Hidden in the Mist were not at all interested in the official ninja ranking that the other villages held so dearly. They were ruthless warriors, deadly as soon as they left the academy, probably even then at chunin level. Now this is simply gathering information… he was aware of that from the moment the first registration from that village for the chunin exams in the last 7 years came. Only Kakashi wanted to know why…

"You know" the girl now closed her eyes and laid so still for a few minutes that the copy ninja thought she fell asleep "even though the rest of the ninjas in my village are furious because of what happened to Zabuza, I'm very grateful to you. I mean, I really wasn't the least bit touched by anything that happened to that... that.. him. But the way you treated Haku's body…"

Kakashi felt his stomach acid rising in his throat. Haku... another mistake of his. Another victim of chidori that shouldn't have been. Haku had a soul as pure as snow, Haku should have escaped... Haku shouldn't have ended up like Rin.

"In any case" now she opened her eyes, slightly teary, keeping Kakashi rooted in place "you showed mercy that our village has not experienced in a long time. Thank you for that. Especially since it was a boy who was kind."

Kakashi let out a soft breath although to his ears it was almost as loud as a scream. No one had ever seen him that way. No one had ever called him merciful... He felt dizzy... what the hell was this woman doing to him...

"Didn't you say last time that you made sure I'm cold-blooded like everyone says?"

"I think I actually said that I was disappointed. And by disappointed, I meant that I was expecting someone with a dirty aura, and I got something completely opposite."

Kakashi hummed, now loking at the village. But still feeling her eyes on him.

"And didn't you say you don't remember me?"

"Huh. Tushe."

stupid distraction.

Ever since he saw y/n at the time of chunin exams, Kakashi actually, even 6 months later, hasn't stopped seeing her. It turns out that y/n has actually been in high demand in the Lands of Water since last January, with a huge bounty on her head. Words circulated that with her blood manipulation, she forced the Mizukage's own brother to cut himself bit by bit with his blade until he died by his own hand in a pool of blood. Rumor has it that she left a letter written in his blood which said that his death was compensation for the rape of the girls from the Village Hidden in the Mist, one of whom is her cousin. Since blood revenge is completely justified in the villages of more southern longitude, the Mizukage made all the criminals of those villages duty to kill y/n on the spot or bring her alive. That's why she is in all bingo books.

He hadn't heard much about on whose permission she was in Konoha before, but when Tsunade came back and became Hokage she gave y/n asylum and declared her an auxiliary force. It turns out that during the chunin exams, she helped the village a lot in monitoring the enemy even though she didn't have to and therefore Tsunade befriended her very quickly.

What Kakashi really couldn't understand at the begining was how everyone got close to her so quickly. He found himself pretty often following y/n as she moved around Konoha, looking for anything that would make his suspicion justified. He watched when she stops by the market for fresh fruits and veggies, or talks to Kurenai in the street with a big smile, or when she practices her water control by the stream next to half a kilometer from the memorial stone. He wished he could just stand next to her and feel the warmth radiating from her up close again as she squirmed when she talked.

Which was out of the question now, sure, because she didn't want to talk to him anymore. But it certainly didn't stop him from being attracted to her warmth. Of course, it wasn't like that for the whole 6 months, it even seemed to him that she enjoyed being in his company for the first month. She kept popping up, each time making no sound as usual and going on and on about how Naruto had gotten stronger, how Kakashi needed to be more gentle with Sasuke, how maybe it was better for Sakura to learn 1 on 1 new techniques to help her reach personal, not someone else's potential. She told him how in her village she liked to go to the banks of the harbor early in the morning and look for children who were fishing by themselves and to use her "magic" to pull out a few fish. They would laugh and call y/n princess of the sea. With a very serious expression on her face she listed endless crazy reasons why Kakashi could wear a mask and swore in front of everyone present (even though they were actually alone) that one day she would find out what his face looked like. And when she talked she was beautiful.. actually, she was always beautiful. He mostly listened in silence, allowing the warm feeling in his chest to grow little by little with each of their conversations. He realized that he began to take the path to the memorial stone more often where there was a better chance of her jumping out. Once, she even came along with him as far as the stone itself, bowed and stood quietly for a while before whispering "at least you have a place to mourn your loved ones."

 However, that huddled routine that Kakashi looked forward to more than he'd like to admit stopped 10 days after Sasuke disappeared, and he ran into her for the first time after the failed mission. "You shouldn't blame yourself, you did everything you could" she was silent for a few minutes "I don't think you really could have stopped him.. you said yourself that Sasuke was stubborn. If you managed to bring him home, the question is whether he would still want to be a part of the team...". When Kakashi was still silent and tried to turn and leave she spoke again "When I lost my cousin I couldn't sleep for days, I blamed myself and wanted to die. But I realized that what was happening to us was inevitable, if she had survived then maybe the Mizukage would have sent his guards and...” “You trying to cover your guilt with failed excuses shows what person you are like.. I will not live in such a miserable field” when the anger came out of him with that sentence Kakashi realized how wrong he was and tried to speak again, but a cold "I got it, go bathe in guilt if that's what you want" cut him off with eyes that glared at him. Y/n left after that and didn't speak to him again to this day.

So he was left to watch her from a distance. In moments when he felt lonely he blamed her. He often let his frustration get the better of him and then tried to talk to others about his doubts and pin his ugly feelings on y/n. Unfortunately for him, everyone loved her, starting with Gai who was finally getting a talkback about the flower of youth and someone with whom his passionate level would be similar.Kurenai finally felt close to a female ninja and laughter could always be heard from Tsunade's office when she was in. Genma showed a closeness to her like he hadn't with anyone in a long time... Kurenai even mentioned that they went on a date after some difficult mission. Which is perfectly fine and didn't leave Kakashi choking on a feeling he hadn't felt before at all. Hot again, but not in a nice way, it even felt a little like anger. And now he was standing in the Hokage's office wondering how a ninja with chakra that was impaled on a water core could cause so much fire.

"Well Kakashi, it's time for another S-rank mission" Tsunade smiled at him, holding sake in her left hand. It was already dusk and her paperwork work was due in about an hour, so her advisors weren't in the room "I hope you had enough time to rest."

"And if I said I didn't, it wouldn't change the situation much" he wasn't looking anywhere in particular while keeping his hands in his pockets. He was on the last mission for a full 3 weeks. Of course he was chakra exhausted. Of course he felt tired. Of course he wanted to do nothing but sleep, read Make-out, and visit the memorial stone. And check out what y/n is doing…

"You know yourself that the level of missions has increased since the death of the 3rd Hokage and the destruction of the village. All our enemies strike us now because they're hoping to catch us in weakness. Unfortunately we don't have enough jonin to cover the steady increase in S rank missions...so there is no time for long breaks. This one is especially hard, so you'll get an escort."

"Ah, escort..." now he was looking at the ceiling, how interesting tiles... "didn't you say that sending couple jonin rank ninjas on a mission is a waste of resources? That it should be done only in exceptional cases? Or you've actually started caring about me? In that case my heart is about to break…"

"This is an exceptional case, Kakashi" Tsunade got up from the chair and sat on the table directly observing Kakashi "the fact is that many jonin go on missions with their genin and chunin and they consider it a kind of vacation, because all those missions are B rank at worst. However, that privilege has been taken away from you since Sasuke escaped and Naruto went to train who knows where with Jiraiya" when she noticed that Kakashi would not respond to her remark she sighed deeply and continued "since this mission involves going into enemy territory you will take escort."

"Enemy territory?"

"Land of Waves to be precise. Y/n was already notified this morning that she has been assigned an S rank mission and will need to be your guide and support."

"Y/n?!" Kakashi felt his anger spreading through his body, so he tried with all his might, fists clenched in his pockets, to calm his breathing; he spoke very slowly and quietly "y/n has a huge bounty on her head in those villages. Or did you miss that? They will kill her as soon as she gets close."

"The scroll that was stolen is very important to Konoha, Kakashi " she held the tip of the nose with her eyes closed "y/n knows the risk and she accepted it. It was her duty at the end of the day" as she looked at him determinedly "as it was yours to take orders from the Hokage. You have a mission to complete, and for efficiency you'll bring a guide with you, who, if I must remind you, is also a jonin who does S-rank missions. You will take care of each other."

"You can't send her with me" he couldn't stop his legs from getting a little closer to her "you can't send her there, it will only be a big distraction."

"The decision has been made" she handed him the scroll looking at him resolutely "the deadline for the mission is 1 week. If you do not return by then, help will be sent to you. All the details are in the scroll, I expect a successful report when you return. That's it, you can go."

"But, Lady Tsunade –"

"That's it Kakashi" a small crack was heard from the wood of the table that cracked under Tsunade's pressure "you can go."

Damn it he thought.

i’m so sorry.

"Of course you're late" y/n looked at Kakashi leaning against the wall of village gate, her bag on the floor between her legs.

"You won't believe what an infestation of angry geese was in front of my house" he smiled at her, scratching the back of his head.

"Yes, yes. Move then..." she just walked away leaving him standing there for a few moments staring at her. He wondered if she knew where he was going before every mission. He wondered if she could see through his acting with that haunting gaze.

-

After few hours passed, in not so pleasant but endurable silence, air was getting colder. Kakashi felt his fingers slowly tingle, frantically trying to warm them in his pockets.

"Fuck.." muttered next to him y/n holding a finger in the air that was covered in water and her chakra "fuck, fuck."

"What's wrong?" he asked quietly, observing their surroundings. They were around 25 kilometers away from Konoha for a pretty short time because they were running most of the way wanting to reach the border of Land of Water by evening. It's only about an hour to the small town. They were currently in an open area and Kakashi desperately wanted to get out of the way as soon as possible.

"Once every few years Land of Water gets a period of so-called „false winter“"y/n blurted out through her teeth, keeping her gaze still on the water that was wrapped around her finger "you see? There is a thin layer of hoarfrost gathering on the surface. It's not cold enough to freeze, but maybe, in 2 days, it will be enough."

"And what do those winters look like? Should we expect snow?"

"Probably not. The problem with this winters is that they are very cold and wet. On the other hand they never last more than a week. But people freeze to death because winters come so suddenly, so we have to be very careful. And of course, to return home as soon as possible."

"Clearly..." Kakashi spoke in a moment, swearing at his fate. This mission probably couldn't get any worse.

He watched y/n wipe hands on her pants, and warming the hand she had attached the water to by slowly blowing into it. He couldn't resist the urge and slowly put his hand on her shoulder. She looked at him with a look that almost brought him to his knees. Honest, clean, which allows the color of her eyes to completely come to the fore.

"Don't worry" he said quietly, now in some incomprehensible fear of not scaring her further, and with a huge desire to slowly dance his fingers on her face... to get rid of every concern "we will finish this mission successfully. Everything will be alright."

"Mhm" the girl in front of him uttered a falsely cheerful voice "and even if something happens, you won't have to swim in pool of pathetic excuses so I'm not even worried about you" she slipped out of his touch with the speed of an eye blink "it's time to go and find a room if we don't want to sleep in the cold."

"Y/n..." he tried

"Come on" she interrupted him already ready for a new round of running "don't lose sight of me."

-

When they arrived at the room they had barely rented as it was the last one in a shack at the very end of a famous town, within reach of a Village Hidden in Mist, Kakashi thanked every exalted being that existed for the 2 large separte beds in their room. As he made the beds, placed the maps on the floor of the room, took the food out of his bag, he listened to the sound of the shower coming out of the bathroom and suddenly he felt terribly hot. Although he had never been intimate with a woman... or anyone really, out of constant fear of getting hitched and that person dying, Kakashi actually often felt very lustful. It had appeared in flashbacks before, when he saw a pretty girl at one of his missions, when he passed a public women's bath, when he was reading his books... however he had never wanted something or someone so much that it made him act on that lust. The present moment, on the other hand, was driving him completely insane. Yes, he thought y/n was very very beautiful and her strong character was surprisingly attractive. He thought her smile was as sweet as honey and there was nothing warmer than her beautiful disposition. And yes, sure, one time when they happened to be together in a bar with mutual friends, not talking to each other of course, he got surprisingly turned on by one look at her bare legs. Although now he thought that that arousal could not even be considered arousal because what he was feeling right now was 10 times stronger. When he realized that if he continued like this he would either go crazy, or unwillingly go and do something.. with her, or cum within a full minute Kakashi went into deep concentration considering the mission.

After a few minutes y/n came out in a plain t-shirt and shorts, no bandages on her arms and legs so now he could see a lot of small cuts on the lenght of her arms. He felt that she could see that he was looking at her and he just kept his eyes on her waiting for her to speak.

"We have very hard endurance training as kids" y/n muttered noticing Kakashi is staring at her "they're not as gentle with us at the academy as they are with you. Especially if you are female."

"I understand" he looked at her with full attention "it must have been difficult for you."

"Of course it was" she threw herself on the bed with a sigh, letting her wet hair fall on the pillow "although we don't talk much about it. What happened happened."

"Does it bother you that I saw?" he left the question floating in the air. Her thighs were dripping with water that she hadn't wiped off. He wondered what it would feel like to run his lips over them.

"No" she fell silent a little and looked him directly in the eye "even though I don't agree with you about some things, I believe you. I've seen how you treat others. You always put someone else's life before your own and I really appreciate that. So the result is that I'm not ashamed of who I am right now. At least not in front of you."

Kakashi's legs walked on their own towards the bed where y/n lay. He wanted to comfort her, he wanted to kiss every cut on her body, he wanted to show her that she can show her vulnerable side. When she saw him coming towards her y/n sat down in a meditation pose leaving room for the ninja to sit on the other end of the bed which he did. When some time had passed Kakashi removed the headband from his other eye and looked at her with both eyes open. He noticed how the girl in front of him was trying like hell not to stare at his sharingan now, her eyes darting left and right as she paid attention to both eyes.

"I'm so sorry" mumbled Kakashi "I'm so fucking sorry for what I said the last time we spoked. If I could, I would do everything differently."

She watched him quietly. Then uncertainly reached out a shaky hand and touched his scar just below his eye which made Kakashi wince. What the hell was he thinking?! If she wanted to, she could have dug out his eye and taken it to the enemy!

"Sleep. Tomorrow is a tough one" he spoke harshly when, without looking at her again, he stood up and went to take a shower. Then hating himself, he entered the room again and saw her pretending to sleep with slightly red eyes from crying.

regrets.

The next day, they were already passing few small communites, moving through the Land of Waves. They only had a few more hours of walking left before they entered the Village Hidden in the Mist, and darkness was already slowly falling. Both of them had bought long coats on their way out of the city, so that the cold, which was slowly but surely getting into their bones, could be endured. However, Kakashi was feverishly aware of one thing – this all seemed too easy. They hadn't encountered a single ninja so far, there was no sign of anyone noticing who y/n was and the road was passable without control.

"Probably because of the cold " y/n mumbled trying to gather the cold mist into droplets on her palm when Kakashi shared his worries with her "I told you people doesn't handle it well enough in these parts."

"Hmm" he watched as the mist and chakra slowly danced and merged at the tip of her palm, making water "it would certainly be good if we didn't linger here for much longer. Considering how in demand you are here and how cold it can be."

"It's good that we left most of the things in that hut" now she let the water slowly drip from her fingers "being overloaded would only slow us down. And since sleeping in any hut here is not an option because of our bountys, and sleeping outside is not because of the cold, we can only finish the mission tonight and return to the hut tomorrow night."

"Sure thing, lady" he hummed.

-

It was the dead of night when they were half a kilometer from the base, which did not seem protected. Guards were probably inside because of the cold, Kakashi thought. The fog enveloped them and honestly suffocated him slightly even with the mask he always wore. When the wind blew, it would whip his face and make him shake for a moment. It was very cold. He watched as y/n looked at the white rabbit with small cut on right ear in confusion, crouching. He took out his kunai sorry little guy.

"No" she spoke quietly next to him "white rabbits are not always a distraction... don't worry."

"I hope you didn't trick me...trust me i will find out and it won't end well for you."

She glared at him, tilting her head to the side... a sarcastic smile moved to adorn her lips.

"How are you not ashamed?" she whispered, but because of the silence of the night he heard her very well "I sacrificed myself for your village in this half year than for mine my whole fucking life" she poked him in the chest with her finger "I was more polite to you than you deserve. And I would have fucking killed you in your sleep last night if I wanted to."

"You remained as fiery and hot as the last time I saw you" spoke a voice from the shadows behind them. Kakashi lifted his headband and grabbed the shuriken in his pockets. However a stiff y/n caught his attention more.

"Y/n" the copy ninja cracked "y/n what's going on?!"

"Shino..." she whispered confusedly looking into the darkness. How the hell do these swamp ninjas manage to be so damn quiet??

"What's up beautiful," out of the darkness, where y/n was looking, a tall ninja came out with the band of the village hidden in the mist hanging around his neck. His entire body except face was covered in bandages and a blade similar to Zabuza's was attached to his back… this is not good "you know I missed you."

"You tried to kill me" Kakashi watched y/n holding outstretched hand in front of her, chakra on the surface of her palm trembled slightly "I trusted you and you tried to kill me."

"Princess" a sneer was heard in his voice, he raised both hands above his head as if he wanted to show her that he did not want to hurt her "business is business, nothing personal."

"I loved you and you tried to kill me" her voice trembled as she turned her hand upwards and the ninja fell to his knees still with a smile on his face, his blue eyes sparkling in the moonlight

Kakashi tried to use the Sharingan to quickly assess the situation, but realized that there was nothing to be gained from it. The fog was too thick, the night was too dark and he didn't fucking know what to do. Should he summon Pakun? Should he kill the asshole on the spot?

"I see you still like bad boys, princess. But you yourself know that in the end you are regretted by everyone, in the end everyone sees how weak you are." Shino spoke with difficulty on his knees, a grimace on his face, probably due to blood manipulation "you still chose none other than Kakashi of sharingan. I'm impressed" he was looking at Kakashi now, a dirty smile returning to his lips "you know the redwater brothers want you dead ever since you killed Zabuza... that wasn't nice of you Kakashi."

"Ah, business is business, isn't it, nothing personal" Kakashi smiled with his eyes.

"Hah" Shino looked at y/n again "honestly, I never even loved you. What has to happen happens."

Then several things happens at once. Kakashi saw the ninja on his knees turning into water with his sharingan, and heard rustling behind them. Fucking water clone.

"Fucking shit -" Kakashi whispered furiously under his breath, quickly turning on his heels and activating chidori. A few seconds passed before he stood behind y/n shielding her back and pierced the spot where Shino's heart was with his chidori. The ninja fell from his hand, along with his blade with a dull thud. Kakashi turned to look at y/n who was looking at him with wide eyes and felt a searing pain in his chest. With a low curse he fell to his knees as he realised that he was almost cut open in half.

"No!" y/n shouted as she quickly knelt in front of him with her hands glowing with chakra "Kakashi, Kakashi, keep your eyes on mine."

Is this it? He thought as his head reeled. Although his eyes seemed to be open, he saw nothing. He only heard the soft sound of chakra vibrating somewhere nearby and shallow breats. Maybe some whimpers. But he wasn't sure.

"Kakashi! I will never talk to you again if you die now" a distant soft voice cracked "I can't lose you. I don't want to lose you."

"I l-lied" he spoke quietly, not sure if she heard him at all, but he tried anyway "you are very brave... so brave it scares me... So, of c-c-course you are not week. Of course you're not a dis-straction. Of course I don't regret going here with y-you."

"Look at me, I'm begging you."

The last atoms of power Kakashi focused on what appeared to be y/n's face. When his vision sharpened a little he saw a smile or a twitch, he wasn't quite sure, and the beautiful color of the eyes that he had come to love so much.

"You are so beautiful."

lavander.

When Kakashi woke up in a dark room that smelled of lavender he was sure he was dead. He tried to blink hard a few times and shake the sleep from his eyes before he managed to sit up. His mask was still there, though he was dressed in plain clothes and covered with a thick blanket. Although he was warm, the air in room was cold. He realized that he was in the hut where he and y/n had left their things before they went to the Land of Waves. When he turned to the right he saw lavender in a pot and a small letter. He took the letter and began to read.

By all accounts you should wake up before I’m back. I left medicinal herbs, tea and food on your table. Don't even think of touching the bandage. I managed to sew up the wound completely, but it's better that the bandage soaked with medicinal water stays until I return, just in case. Of the flowers in the local flower shop, there were only lavenders because of the winter, I hope you are not allergic. Hehe. I went to get that stupid scroll and finish the mission so I'll be back soon. Don't follow me. You lost a lot of blood and strength. Please wait. I'll be back, trust me.

P.S. I didn't peek under your mask. Pinky promise.

-

Those few hours in which Kakashi drank all the tea, ate all the food and thought about the best way to go after her, felt like days. He realized with great amazement that y/n had somehow managed to heal entire wound which now only itched, not hurt. He felt very exhausted as he looked out the window at the rain falling wrapped in a blanket. It must have been terribly cold outside. How many days did he sleep? How is y/n? Is she hurt? What if they catch her and kill her? What if she's already dead? How many days has she actually been out of the hut? If she is dead he will kill everyone who is responsible. But he is responsible... He let his guard down and let that jerk almost kill him and that's why y/n is out there alone now. He won't be able to live with himself if she's dead. He was too tired. He will rest for only half an hour more and then he will leave. Towards her. Yes, that sounds like a good idea.

Knock knock.

Kakashi stood up with his heart pounding. They found him. But if they found him that means they will wait there for y/n to come back and then kill her easily. He took the kunai, opened the sharingan eye and cautiously approached the door. He wouldn’t let that happen. When he flung open the door he saw y/n with gentle eyes watching him, a scroll in one hand, a Shino’s blade in the other. She was wearing a normal ninja uniform and was soaked to the core. Y/n smiled widely at him but fatigue was very visible on her face. Her body was shaking uncontrollably from the cold.

"Oh thank heavens, you're awake" it came as sigh from her lips "I didn't want to drop any of this on the floor. Sorry if you had to get up. Everything went smoothly. Mission is complete."

He quietly helped her inside, took the things from her hands and put them on the floor. When he went to turn on the shower so that somehow hot water would warm up y/n he realized that there was no use because the water had frozen in the pipes.

"The shower doesn't work" he rasped and realized that it was probably the first thing he had said in days "change into something dry. We need to warm you up."

Kakashi then placed 2 blankets over each other on his bed and pulled y/n who was now only in a t-shirt and shorts (because that was the only thing dry) into bed with him. He hugged her tightly, limbs completely intertwined, his hands rubbing hers, trying to bring some warmth back into her body. All this with full awareness of how she was lying next to him in just shorts and a t-shirt. He fought the growing erection in his underwear, thinking about anything but the woman in his arms that he wanted more than anything else.

"I thought you were going to die" she spoke quietly against his chest, probably more to herself than to him, but he certainly heard her very clearly.

"You saved my life, Thank you" he mumbled against her hair.

Now she cocked her head hard and fast locking her eyes with his, fire in them, just the way Kakashi loved it.

"If it wasn't for you, I would be dead" she snapped angrily, holding his gaze with hers, now he kept his sharingan eye open "I just did one tolerable, but miserable thing."

"You are extraordinary. Really. I’m all heald now thanks to you. When I woke up today I felt like whole new person. Thank you" he lightly touched her cheek with his hand "And I don't know if that went through your crazy little head, but the last thing I want is to let people I care about die while I'm just watching from the sidelines. That very much includes you."

As if momentarily embarrassed, she looked away from him and brought her head back to rest on his chest. She breathed deeply.

When he noticed that the normal temperature was slowly returning to her body and the shivers stopped being so strong Kakashi let out a soft laugh.

"I don’t believe a thing you say,"

"What?" y/n cocked her head again looking into Kakashi's one open eye with a confused expression. That made him grin even wider.

"I don't believe you didn't look under the mask."

The girl in his arms scoffed looking at him with mocking eyes "My curiosity is big, but not so much that I want to play dirty. If i really wanted to see what's underneath I'd make you show me yourself."

"And?" Kakashi felt his breath slowly run out of anticipation "do you want to see it that badly?"

She looked at his mask silently then studied his open eye.

"You want to show me?" she asked quietly, and he just continued to watch her, with an unknown glow. She slowly removed both hands from the blanket and ran her fingers to the top of his mask. Her hands were shaking slightly and Kakashi realized with something, ah here it is again, very warm in his stomach that she wasn't shaking from the cold this time. Y/n slowly removed the mask from his face as he watched her carefully. When the whole cloth was finally removed, she sighed deeply. A soft smile graced her lips.

"Ah, what a disappointment" her gaze circled all over his face "nothing of the huge lips and horse teeth."

Kakashi felt his lips curl into a smile. He hugged her a little tighter.

"You are so beautiful. Gorgeous even." she looked him in the eye and now he was terribly, terribly hot all over. No one ever addressed those words to him. His body just moved closer to her until her lips were only inches away from his. He felt her breath brush his lips. He was waiting for her to do something… anything.. to give him the green light. Because no matter how much he wanted to, he couldn't move on his own. Such tender and fragile moments were not frequent in his life, and suddenly he was terribly afraid of breaking this too. However when y/n pressed her lips to his all worries were quickly erased from his mind.

They kissed deeply and slowly as he ran his hands all over her body. He made sounds he didn't know he was capable of, but realized that nothing compared to her sighs and moans from the kiss. He slowly moved from her lips to her neck which he had been watching for so long as they talked months from now, taking deep breaths.

"How perfect you are" he murmured as she melted in his arms. She ran her hands first over his shoulders, then his back, finally letting her hands go under his shirt. He moaned burying his head deeper into her neck.

"Kakashi..." came out of her mouth like a plea, as if it was too much for her.

"I know y/n, I know," he breathed a big, hard sigh as he held her hips tightly so she wouldn't move against him anymore. It was very clear to him that she felt how much he wanted her. And he now wanted her to show her how much he wanted her "can I touch you?"

She looked at him with a warm look and red cheeks, then nodded briskly.

He let his hand dance from her neck, over her stomach, down to her lower abdomen where he pressed his hand firmly.

He kissed all over her hands, all the little cuts he'd seen just a few days before.

"Perfect. So fucking perfect. Lift your hips for me pretty girl" he whispered softly.

When he took off her shorts and realized how wet she was, he almost cummed In his pants at that moment.

He just touched her enterance briefly and she moaned leaning into his touch. Nothing has happened yet and he was so fucking turned on. Turned on by her smooth skin, maddening smell, her sighs, moans... This is 100x better than any erotic novel. He slowly kissed her clit, than licked it experimentally. Y/n closed her eyes and left her hands flying to his hair, hips bucking up to meet his mouth.

'Look at me, let me see you" he darkly whispered against her pussy, looking at her with his both eyes. He then licked and sucked her swollen clit, eyes never leaving hers, making her moaning mess.

"Fuck Kakashi, fuck" she cried pressing one hand against her mouth, than changing mind and letting that hand grip on his hair too "i need you now. Please."

He stopped for a second watching her.

"Are you.. -"

"Yes, yes, and don’t you fucking dare to leave now."

"Sure thing pretty lady" he smiled against her heat.

He took his time, exploring every exposed piece of skin now that he took her t-shirt off too. He blinked open the sharingan again and he was so damn happy that he could predict how she would react to every touch. He looked at her; sprawled out underneath him, with her face flushed, lips swollen.

"Have I ever told you that you are perfect?" he had that boyish smile now, looking at her lovingly.

"Pervert" she grinned while kissing him quickly.

"Ah yes" he left few kisses to her neck again "I remember you calling me that a few times" he put his fingers on her clit making her to squirm with embarrassment.

"Please Kakashi" her voice was so fucking sweet "I need you. Please."

"Need you too" he mumbled against her lips "so much. My beautiful girl."

Then all he could feel was her. She clouded all five senses and he felt like he was going insane. It was over far too quickly.

"Madness" he whispered in her ear and nuzzled her neck, thrusting deep and steady "you are madness."

He gave a few last thrusts and reached down with his hand to help her finish. It wasn’t long until she was writhing and whimpering underneath him.

He kissed the top of her head before he pulled her into him protectively, feeling sleepy. Enjoying the feeling of her skin flush against his, her sweet smell and now steady breaths he felt his body completely relaxing.

As he slowly drifted off to sleep he asked quietly against her hair "do you want to go out sometime?"

[d6volution]

Nascent

Jax/Reader. [Fem alinged reader.]

tags: oral sex, virginity, loss of virginity, established relationships, soft(?) jax, fluff, and smut, jax has a tongue.

Also found on my Ao3 | 2k words.

minors dni.

Jax's gloved fingers tip toed up your side, and you shivered.

"What's wreckin' ya mind dollface, you're bein a little too quiet tonight." You shuffled on the bed before rolling onto your side to face him. "Thinking too much.. I miss home. Being stuck here.. sucks." Jax was silent as you spoke, but a lazy smile was atill present on his lips. "Mnh. Yeeaaahh.. never gets old does it?" Jax laid on his back, hands folded behind his head now. 

You took this chance to lay on his chest, nuzzling him a little. He grinned , but before he could say something sly you spoke up instead— 

"Jax, I ... think I wanna try it." You mumbled into his chest. 

"Mhmm.. try what?" His eyes were closed now. He was clearly relaxing, and your words weren't exactly clicking right now. 

"It.. you know.. I just need something to take my mind off of things and—" Jax suddenly sat up , his chest bumping into your nose. His hands were on your shoulders, steading you. "You're not messin' with me, are ya? I'd like to think I've been really respectful of your boundaries lately, ya know." It sounded like he didn't believe you, but he was trying his hardest not to sound like an ass. He got a few gropes in here and there but never pushed you farther than you wanted to go. 

"I'm.. serious. We'll just take it slow.." You said and felt your cheeks growing warm at the thought of being intimate with him. You've thought about it a lot but always chickened out.

"I dunno toots, I'm not sure I could hold bac—..." His hand was gliding up your back, but you shot him a look and he chuckled. Raising his hands in his defense. "Alright, alright slow it is.." After all he doesn't have to move fast to drive you crazy anyways. 

"W.. Well how do we.. start? It's.. not like I can make out you.. I think." Right, you guys always exchange nuzzles instead. But Jax rolls his eyes and adjusts himself on the bed, "Just lay back will ya? I'll lead the way." 

You swallowed and did like he said, falling to the plush of your bed and you felt his hands on your legs. Spreading them apart , you were resisting a little and he paused. "C'mon , I said I'd be gentle and I will babe. Scouts honor." He crossed his heart before grinning down at your nervous form. 

"S.. Sorry, I haven't even been this far in the real world no less the digital.." You said embarrassed by your lack of experience. Hoping Jax wouldn't tease you too badly, but he seemed to be taking your feelings into consideration. 

"Digital or not , I'm glad ya happened to save yourself for me. Now let me show you how much I appreciate that.. yeah?" He removed your lower clothing and the cold air hitting your skin caused you to shiver. You swore you saw his eyes grow dark for a moment but you didn't have a chance to analyze his expression too much before he yanked you a little by your ankles down the bed and closer to him. "Eep..!"  His head was in between your legs now, and you felt something wet running along your thighs, "Jax !?" 

"Mmn? I'm in the middle of something doll—" 

"I.. Is that your ..tongue..!?" You cut him off and he chuckled you could feel his breath against your skin but he didn't answer. Continuing his assault on your thighs until the wet muscle finally found your folds and you stiffened up, trying to move away from the strange and new sensation but his hands pulled you back gently. "Mnh.. listen , babe. Ya gotta let me know if I'm doin' somethin' wrong alright?" He lifted his head, leaving your cunt clenching and aching for more.

"N.. No, I..I'm sorry I was just surprised— I didn't know you could.. it doesn't matter just continue.. please." You turned your head to the side, avoiding his intense eye contact.

"Before that, give me a word. So....ya know. I'll know when to stop," He said , still admiring your more vulnerable position right now.

"Uh.." You can't think, your mind clouded by the ever growing lust bubbling in your core. "I.. I don't know.. uh, circus!"

He scoffed, clearly amused. "How original." 

"Ha. Ha. I can't really think right now, Jax– aahh..!" Your hips bucked as his tongue flicked against that sensitive bean hidden between your folds. Oh, he liked that noise. A little too much, and now he needed more. And he a knew a trick that would keep you singing so sweetly for him. 

He licked and flicked at your clit before flatting his long tongue against you dragging his tongue agonizingly slow along your puffy cunt before pulling back, maybe because your thighs were crushing his head now. "Look toots, I know I'm rockin your world here but ya gotta keep those legs open for me yeah?" He said in a somewhat strained voice, prying your legs apart again.

You nodded, your eyes glossy with tears. You were so needy in this moment that you'd do anything he'd ask. "Close 'em again and I'll stop, how about that for a little motivation.~" His voice was playful but, you knew he was serious and that made your insides twist a little.

"Th.. That isn't fair Jax..!" You whined and kept your legs spread even so, though they trembled and you felt even more exposed keeping them open yourself rather him holding them apart.

"Pleaaasee. To be honest, I think it's perfectly fair. You told me to take slow, not that I couldn't be a little mean.. isn't that what ya love about me after all?" He said in a breathy tone, before his eyes were on your cunt again.

"You're gorgeous ya know that? Don't.. tell anyone I said that. Compliments are like currency here." He said with a tad bit of annoyance lacing his tone, "I only wanna spend that on you .." He muttered before lowering himself to go down on you again. 

But this time, he was purposely being more attentive. His tongue even diving into your cunt, wiggling its way into your tight hole. And a thick finger sliding inside, you yelped and your legs threatned to close around his head but you forced to yourself to hold your trembling thighs apart. Having his finger to clench down on made it easier to cause friction and push you closer to climax.

Tears spilled over your cheeks from the stimulation and frustration. 

"Mmn... mmf.." Jax moaned against your sopping wet cunt, removing his finger and using his tongue instead.. thrusting it in and out of your hole. His lidded eyes bored into your skull, you looked delicious to him when you cried.

You couldn't take it, your body jolted and legs locked around his head as you came. Soiling his face in the process. "Hh.. Hhaa..! Damn it.." 

Jax tutted as he lifted his head, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "Ya didn't keep your legs open at the end there.. Hm, I'm not sure I should let you get away with that." The tone of his voice was playful. He grins, that shit eating grin while staring at you as he climbed atop your quivering body. You were clearly still coming down from your high. 

"H..Huh..? Jax.. I couldn't help it.." You sighed, chest heaving up and down. "Please.." You reached out for his hand and he allowed you, still speaking as his gloved thumb rubbed the back of your hand gently. 

"Yeah, yeah of course you couldn't.. .I'm good at what I do after all," He said and kneeled in front of your spread legs. "But, we can agree ya need just a little punishment right?" He took your intertwined hands and locked them atop your head, leaving you a little exposed and vulnerable to his touch. 

Pulling his cock from his overalls with the opposite hands, he started stroking it slowly. "But, I'll be gentle like ya said.." He gives a wink before leaning down and nuzzling the side of your face reassuringly. It's all apart of the bit, "You ready for this?" He whispered, making sure you were okay to move forward. 

You were soaked between your legs. More than ready but still a little nervous. "Ready.." You agreed quietly, the tension in the air was palpable. 

You should be relaxed after his reassurance, but the size of his cock resting in his hand was making your body tense and cunt clench around nothing.. in both anticipation and a dash of fear. 

He rubbed the thick tip against your sopping wet hole, and dragged it against your clit, teasing you. "Gentle.. yeeah... mn.." He muttered, getting lost in this bit of pleasure. "So good for me.."

Gentle. Slow. Teasing. 

Fuck, you couldn't take it. He had to be grinding against your cunt for two minutes straight now. 

"Jax..please..please just put it in.." 

"Mmn. Don't worryy..  I'll take of care ya, make you feel reeaal good.." "He said and let go of your hands as he focused on lining himself up with your hole, his tip nudged at your tight hole. Slipping a few times when he tried to push forward, "Too fuckin' tight doll, hold on yeah..? Your cute cunt seems to need some convincing.." He thrusted forward rather hard, a few inches finally pushing past the resistance in your cunt. 

"Jax..!" You yelped in pain, a burning sensation was felt in between your legs and he shushed you, staying completely still. "Hey, hey.. I've got ya, I'm right here.. breathe doll." He said and watched your expressions.. so determined to take him, yet so vulnerable. It made him throb inside of you.

After a several seconds you finally spoke. "Y.. You can move now.." 

He was trying so hard to hold back, it's been forever since he was buried in a pussy. So once you gave him the okay he began to move, albeit slow. More inches sunk into your wet hole. Causing your back to arch a little, "Nngh..." Jax was grunting in your ear until he finally bottomed out inside of you, "There we go, nice and deep in there... ya feel that? Feel me?" He said as his hand traced your stomach just long your belly button.

"So big .. Jax.. feels good.." You panted out, unintentionally bucking your hips forward. "Mmn.. I know doll, Im gonna move alright..?" He said and you nodded, arms around his neck now as he started to slide in and out of you, lewd squishing noises and soft moans and grunts filled the room. You were both lost in the pleasure, your body relaxing more and Jax becoming a bit more rough.

"Yeah.. nngh.. ju-just like that ... take it .." He panted out, taking one of your legs and placing it on his shoulder, his hips were a blur now but your expressions and cries of pleasure was all the reassurance he needed to keep drilling into your cunt. 

Your mind felt cloudly with lust, but that unmistakable knot in your stomach was only getting tighter, threatening to burst. He could feel you, and took this opportunity to draw gentle circles along your clit, "T.. There ya go.. wanna come for me, c'mon.." He egged you on , rolling his hips deep into your cunt. His full weight accompanied each hard thrust.

You tried to hold on , but he knew how to hit every sensitive spot. Over and over. His hips slapping against yours , the sound of your bodies colliding rung in your ears.

"Ffuuahh Jax, gonna co.. come .. gonna..!!" You whined, nails digging into his back as you held him close. Cunt clamping down on his size hard. His own hips stuttered, "D..Damn it, doll.. ya tryna milk me or something..?" He sighed as he spilled into your cunt, unable to resist the way you clamped down onto him. 

He gave a few more shallow thrust, forcing back in the cum that threatned to spill out. "You're perfect.." He sighed out, clearly spent and slowly pulling out of your twitching hole.

"Mmn.. thank you Jax, for this.." You kissed his cheek and out of all things, that seemed to make him flush a little. 

"Don't sweat it.. let's," He cleared his throat, "Get you cleaned up alright.. I'll run a bath," 

"Can't we cuddle for a bit first..?" 

Jax froze and rubbed his neck, "Look toots, I'm not sure about gettin all cuddled up on cum stained sheets," He rose his hands, "Hey, but if thats what you're into I'm not one to kinksh– oof." You tossed a pillow at his face, and he chuckled. 

"Heh, like I thought, now let's get all cleaned up first, then I'll cuddle all you'd like doll.

"Sound like a deal?" 

[idyllcy]

pov ur therapy is doom shopping - tim drake x reader (pretty bird countdown #1)

The world stops for no one.

You drum your fingers against the marble of your kitchen island, browsing through online shops while you're supposed to be working on your paper, humming to yourself as the rain outside your window drums erratically against the glass. It's far too late for you to be awake, but you're also waiting for someone to get home. You wonder why he had picked such an early patrol time for once. It wasn't common for him to be back before two.

"The rain is terrible." Tim sighs, window opening as he slides in, unclasping his boots and cape, locking the window as he turns on the tint. "You alright?"

You hum at him, continuing with your shopping. 

"Whatcha looking at?" He peels off his suit, dropping it down the chute as it lands with a thud, wrapping his arms around your shoulders as he stares at your screen.

"Doom shopping?"

"The day's been slow."

"I figured." He hums. "It's why I took an early shift."

"You seem to know me a little too well." You mumble, no real malice behind your words, clicking add to cart. 

"Isn't it nice?"

"I suppose." You scroll through your cart, blinking twice before closing your laptop. "How was patrol?"

"You don't need to fill in the silence, you know?" He squeezes you, carrying you in his arms as he tells you about patrol anyway. You need time off from your mind, and he's more than willing to help you out. You'd have a higher chance of being better in the morning than anything else. "So? What did you do while I was out?"

"I put the dishes in the dishwasher." You hum. "Not to dry. To wash. I think we officially have enough dishes to use the dishwasher instead of handwashing."

"Mhm?"

"And I also made some steamed egg." You shift slightly in his arms as he reaches to open the bedroom door. 

"Did you save me some?"

"Yeah." You yawn. "Middle section of the upper fridge. If you want anything else, there's quite a couple of things in the freezer. I think we need to eat the costco mac n cheese soon."

Tim laughs. "Yeah?"

"Mhm. Also, I was looking through my photos that I got before my gramps passed..."

"Were you thinking about him?"

"I was." You close your eyes as he sets you down on the bed. "I think that's why I'm so down right now."

"Yeah. I feel that." He mumbles. "I'll shower and then we can get to bed, alright? Feel free to keep browsing. The tablet is charged."

"Alright." 

Tim finds that taking care of you is no big deal no matter how tired he is. It's as easy to take care of you as it is to breathe, and even with the ring on your ear and the band on your finger, he finds that it has only gotten easier to be your other half. He's sure you would say the same, your ring never leaving your finger even while resting — never gone even when he's bloody from the worse days of patrol. The dirt and grime slide down his body as he washes, bathroom door opening as you move to sit in the tub to be by him.

"You alright?"

The lack of response and comfortable silence tells Tim all he needs to know.

"Did you see the new video from Bernard?"

"The one detailing Nightwing as a vampire?"

"Yeah."

"I did." You hum.

"Thoughts?"

"Found it funny. He used one of my photosets from April Fools years back as evidence and I thought I was going to lose my mind." You hum. "Do you think the study could fit a couple more blind boxes?"

"I'm sure it can... somehow. We can always layer the figures." Tim reaches for face wash. "Oh, right. I saw your serum was low. Do you need more?"

"I went over my spending limit for the month, so next month." You mumble. "What do you think about a custom figure?"

"You'd have to be filthy rich for that, no?" He pauses. "Wait. Pretty bird. Why do you have a limit if my credit card never maxes out—"

"Well, aren't you filthy rich?" You raise a brow. "What if you divorce me one day?"

"I am." Tim agrees, closing his mouth to wash his face. "That's not happening. Shoo. You'll put me in my grave before I let you get away from me."

"Then, we can afford it." You hum. "Well, might as well spend the money. Considering that we don't want kids and all." You choose to ignore his words.

"I can't believe your mom is still pestering me to change your mind." Tim sighs. "What gene do they want to continue down the bloodline? Your brain?"

"Your brain, birdie." You chuckle. "You're rich, smart, and other than..."

"Hey, don't bring my height into this!" Tim gasps. "Rude." 

"Hey, I didn't say shit." You grumble. "You know damn well your family has a tall gene."

"I might kill you." 

"That'd align perfectly with my interests." You blow a raspberry at him through the glass.

"Regardless, I told her she's getting no grandchildren. Told her I'm sterile."

You cough, laugh stuck in your chest as you gasp for air, wheezing in the process.

"You alright, pretty bird?"

"I just lost it, sorry." You cough, trying to get the words out. "You are NOT sterile."

"That vasectomy says otherwise."

"That makes you infertile!"

"Yeah, but if I tell her I'm infertile, she might tell me that we could always do IVF."

"Evil..." You mumble.

"I know." Tim grumbles. "Well, regardless," he turns the water off, "might as well spend money on the things that matter?"

"Which is?"

"My wife's retail therapy." Tim grins, robe wrapped around his body as he opens his arms for you. "Hm?"

"I don't know, birdie." You pretend to think. "Sounds like a lot of money you're spending there."

"Well, it's all worth it. Happy wife, happy life. happy spouse, happy house." He hums. "As long as you're smiling, then it made all of that nonsensical pining I went through when I first met you in person worth it."

"Yeah?"

"Positive." He grins.

"You've become real sappy, you know?"

"And you don't like it?"

"Mm..." You pinch his cheek as he reaches over you to shut the lights. "No. I do."

"I know you do." He pinches your cheek back. "It's why you married me."

"Maybe I married you for your bank account."

Tim pretends to gasp in offense, jaw dropped. "You couldn't have."

You go quiet, Tim reaching over to pinch your cheek again as you bite his fingers.

"Hey!"

You stick your tongue out at him with a 'blegh' and he huffs. 

"Nighty night, pretty bird."

"Love you too, birdie."

[otakusheep15]

Flufftober Day 16 - Coffee

Content includes: Epel x reader, established relationship (could be read as platonic though), Epel being stubborn as usual, maybe butchered accent

If Epel is pretentious about one thing, it’s apples. He has a lot of hometown pride for the fruit, and he makes sure to let everyone know it, including you. 

“I told ya, I ain’t tryin’ that new dessert with ya. I already know those apples ain’t good quality.”

You frown, upset that he’s being so stubborn. 

Recently, your favorite off-campus coffee shop came out with their seasonal fall menu. You’re particularly interested in this one apple muffin they’ve been advertising. All day you’ve been trying to get Epel to come with you, wanting to turn it into a cute date. However, he won’t budge. 

Not even your puppy eyes have an effect, which upsets you since that usually works. 

Still, you really want him to go with you, so you try one last time. You tell him that you think it would be fun, and you promise to let him pick the next date. 

Epel sighs, but you can see his face soften up as he looks at you. “Fine, I’ll bite. We can go. But, ya can’t get mad if I don’t have fun.”

You smile, happy he finally agreed with you, even if hesitantly. Of course, you never expected him to be entirely enthusiastic, but you’re still glad you were eventually able to convince him. 

The next day, Epel is at your doorstep, dressed ever-so-slightly nicer than usual. It’s cute, but you won’t admit it since you know he wouldn’t like it. Instead, you step out, yelling back at Grim to behave while you’re gone. 

You close the door behind you, and you head off to the mirror hall. 

Once you’re in town, you drag Epel to the coffee shop, excited to finally try the treat you’ve been craving. 

Epel is noticeably less excited, but you’re sure he’ll cheer up once he gets a treat of his own. 

The barista recognizes you when you walk in, which makes you a bit embarrassed, aware of just how often you come in. 

You push that aside and tell the barista your order, gesturing for Epel to make his as well. 

To your shock, Epel also orders one of the apple muffins. You stare as he orders his drink as well, but he pays you no mind. 

After paying for both you and himself, Epel grabs your hand and pulls you over to the pick-up counter to wait for your orders. 

You ask him about the muffin, curious as to why he would order the muffin after making such a fuss about it. 

“W-well, ya dragged me all the way here for that muffin; it’d be a waste not to try it.” He trails off, turning away from you to hide his obvious embarrassment. You laugh, charmed by how silly he can be. He was so adamant about not trying that muffin, but he still got it anyway. 

Soon, your drinks and muffins are handed to you, and you head off to a table towards the back. 

Epel starts with his drink while you unwrap your muffin, practically drooling over how good it smells. You take a bite, savoring the delicious flavor. If you were any less dignified, you would have inhaled the whole thing immediately. 

As you eat, Epel continues nursing his drink, and you can tell he’s stalling on his own muffin. Even after ordering it, his stubborn pride still won’t let him try it. 

You urge him to give it a try, telling him that you’ll gladly take the rest if he doesn’t like it. He can’t possibly refuse that, so he puts his drink down and picks up his muffin. 

He’s slow to unwrap it, and he takes a hesitant bite. He chews, taking his time to savor the bite as you did. However, you know his savoring is less about enjoyment and more about judgment.

As much as you’re sure it pains him, you can see his eyes light up at the flavor of the muffin. You try to hide your smug smile, so tempted to remind him that you were right. Naturally, he beats you to it to save at least some of his pride. 

“Yeah, yeah, ya were right, I know. It’s good I suppose. Still not as good as what I could make though.”

He mumbled that last part, but you heard it loud and clear. Your smile can no longer be suppressed, but it’s less smug and more fond. 

Epel puts the muffin down, sliding it over to you. Just because it was good doesn’t mean he wants to finish it. Instead, he hides his blushing face behind his cup of coffee. 

Meanwhile, you take the muffin he offered, happy to have a second one. 

You’re glad he at least tried it, even if he couldn’t swallow his pride enough to finish it. Plus, you get another muffin out of it, so you consider this a perfect coffee date.

[howlsofbloodhounds]

hello! i am brand new to everything about undertale au's, by so i mean maybe two months in. it's quickly become one of my favorite things, and while i mostly focus on the apple twins, i've grown to love killer a lot. i thought this might be a good place to ask, can you explain him to me? from backstory to what the the different stages are (this mostly). i know very little about him, and this is an issue, so feel more than free to go into crazy detail if you want, or even throw in personal thoughts. learning about him pleases me

Hello! I will try to answer, but i feel it is first important to state two things.

1. Killer has a lot of lost media, a lot of his canon information and materiel was deleted—including an entire ask blog. So if someone ever claims something about Killer is true, it’s probably best to ask for some sort of proof for this. Such as a link or a screenshot from his creator, rahafwabas.

2. Rahafwabas has also said that every interpretation of Killer can be canon. She was very loose and free with her character, and just wanted people to have fun. So don’t worry too much about sticking close to what little remains of canon.

What we have of Killer’s canon now is basically his Something New comics (origin), a few more scattered comics and drawings here and there, and some fun facts.

I have links to some of Killer’s canon stuff in the top of my pinned post if you want to give it a look, but if not, here is a link to a Google Doc someone made about canon Killer (I didn’t make it.) It’s also no guarantee that every single thing has been found and archived.

That being said! I will give a summary of the first origin, before the updated one that involved the Player and how we altered Sans’ codes to create kill_sans. Undertale: Something New has multiple endings as well, but I won’t get into that just yet. Because this is just about Killer, not how he met Nightmare or Color or any of that.

In Rahafwabas’ own words, Something New was described as something along the lines of how, after going through so many Resets—being constantly killed, fighting, watching everyone die, repeating multiple different days and outcomes over and over—Sans eventually shuts down emotionally and stops caring, loses hope, and becomes like the human.

The human notices, and starts proposing something new. A deal. Sans joins them on a Genocide, and they’ll stop Resetting and let the world move on—Sans wants to continue, or stop (die, erase the world), is what the human says he wants.

Sans spits in their face and refuses. The human brutally and violently murders him in response.

Rinse and repeat for a couple thousand unknown Resets—and something changes one day. Suddenly, Sans is thinking about something new. He’s thinking about how everyone deserves to die anyway—they’re all weak, he can’t save them, Papyrus is so fucking lucky.

Who cares anymore.

The thoughts happen so slow he doesn’t catch it—so focused on trying to tune the kid out, even as their words work their way into his mind and nothing feels real. Sometimes he catches his thoughts, confused and distressed—because it’s not true. He doesn’t hate Papyrus, he doesn’t want to join the kid or kill anyone.

And yet something in his minds insists he does, in his own voice, in his own thoughts. Perhaps it wasn’t uncommon to find Sans arguing to himself with increasing distress and confusion, even. Arguing as if he’s two different people.

His mind starts slipping, he can’t tell what is and isn’t real anymore. Is he going insane? Is he losing his mind? Has the kid done something to him?

Or is this just genuinely what he wants. He didn’t think he was like that. He’s not, surely.

“Am i going insane?” “Heh. Yeah.”

“This isn’t right..” “But we don’t have a choice.”

“I don’t want to do this anymore..” “Yes I do.”

Whatever. Who cares anymore. Not him. Not him.

Eventually it all comes to a head when Sans, all big dead eyes and empty smiles, shakes the devil’s hand and gets to hunting. We don’t get to see all of the first Genocide route, but we see Sans kill Flowey, Grillby, and eventually..Papyrus.

I won’t spoil the entire scene because I personally find it devastating enough to read on your own. The moment where we see how manipulated Sans has become—manipulated into hating and despising his own brother, enough to gleefully reveal he has been dreaming about this moment. Where he gets to make Papyrus experience even half of the pain Sans went through.

It isn’t until a broken, bloody, battered Papyrus opens his arms wide and tearfully declares that he’d happily die if his presence was causing his brother so much pain, that Sans snaps back. He remembers who he is, and more importantly, he remembers who Papyrus is.

It was never an enemy. It was never his tormenter, mocking him with his happiness and safety. He was his little brother, and now he’s dead.

Because of him. And he can never undo that.

We get to see how truly fragmented and disoriented Sans has become after this—too busy arguing with himself to truly notice when Chara skillfully slides in, offering comfort and reassurance to their new partner, their new best friend, as they welcome him to the Genocide run.

From here the Genocide route continues—with some of the dialogue up above happening. We see Sans and Chara having fun with it now—tossing around a monster’s hat, laughing and cheering as they kill Undyne. Sans is confused as he laughs and smiles and giggles—he hates himself. Why is he doing this again.

he doesn’t know. He smiles as he gifts Chara a knife, and their happy surprise is perhaps enough to make him feel.

…They put on Papyrus’ scarf. He can’t help but stare. But they are right—he’s being ridiculous. He has killed his brother before.

…at least they take it off.

He confronts Alphys. But then she confronts him—…Sans, why are you doing this? Is the human making you?

Sans is confused. He’s doing all this of his own free will, right? Of course the human doesn’t have any control of this. Of course not. He’s doing this because he wants to feel something.

…Why is he even explaining himself. None of them will understand. Only Chara does.

Then there’s suddenly a feeling of someone standing behind him, watching him mournfully, when Alphys mentions him. No, he’s not real. He’s not real. He’s not real. He’s not—

Alphys is dead.

there’s no going back now, and Chara insists on just one more route. Just one more. And another and another and another and another and another and another—

He’s having so much fun! So much fun. So much fun. Chara watches on with a smile as Sans just hysterically laughs and cries and laughs and cries and laughs and—

…San is tired. He’s…exhausted. He feels drained, and empty. why is he even still here. how did he get here.

…The two continue on. There’s no more laughing or cheering or crying. It is what it is.

..Sans notices some type of black sludge sliding down his cheek one Reset (how many has it been now?…who cares). He dismisses it. Who cares.

There’s a growing, burning ache somewhere in his chest yet another Reset. The sludge slides down more frequently..

..The pain keeps growing with every single Reset. He can’t take a single step without this black sludge sliding from his eyes, his nose, his teeth. What’s happening to him? What’s happening what’s happening what’s happening—

..It hurts. It hurts so much, make it stop, please. He turns to Chara one Reset. What’s happening to me? What’s happening to me? Please, it hurts.

He can’t see Chara anymore. His vision is so blurry, they look so different. He stumbles and falls to the ground, frozen with pain and fear—unable to realize that he has fallen into a bed of golden flowers.

His SOUL hovers outside his chest, a black spot slowly, painfully growing and expanding in the middle as if a parasite is wiggling its way inside. Curling around, eating everything it can and burning away the rest. Forcing its victim into the desired state.

The only explanation Chara has for him is something along the lines of, “Your soul is becoming like mine. Neither beast nor man, and you will feel nothing. Wait here, and I’ll go deal with that stupid flower.”

Sans is left to ponder those words as he starts fading in and out from life. But then he hears laughter, someone calling his name.

Papyrus.

Sans’ last words—his last thoughts—are of Papyrus.

“Papyrus..I’m sorry. I will miss you all.”

His SOUL is filled with DETERMINATION as it snaps into the target shape. Sans dies with a pathetic mournful whimper, as Killer silently takes his place.

{ @lucid-cups }

[avelera]

Some slightly more coherent thoughts about Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (ATSV) now that I've had a little time to process and long to return to the theater to see it again and again and again:

1 ) Go see it. Holy shit, go see it. Re-watch Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (ITSV) before you go if you have the chance but you don't have to, they recap it well enough and I promise anyway, the first thing you're gonna do when you get home after is turn ITSV on and then scream a bunch because it is all so tightly connected from the very beginning.

2 ) ITSV is a masterpiece. ATSV is more of a masterpiece in the same way that 11 is bigger than 10. They took everything in ITSV, which is a perfect 10/10 and made it 11/10 for this film. I shit you not. It cannot be otherwise expressed with words. Everything is just bigger, faster, bolder, more.

Ok, now getting into some of the more spoiler-y thoughts:

3 ) Loved me those themes of connection and loneliness. When you go back to ITSV, you see it's right there from the start. All of the version of Spider-Man are lonely. They are tired. They're isolated and unsupported and they are all suffering. Miles makes their lives better. They make Miles' life better. This becomes such a huge, huge theme in ATSV as Miles literally breaks the canon, he is the ultimate fix-it fanfic character, every Spider-Man he interacts with gets some element of their tragic backstory fixed. Peter B. reunites with MJ and has a child that brings joy back into his life. Gwen gets a friend again. Pavitr doesn't have to watch his girlfriend's father die. They are no longer doomed by the narrative.

4) Another post commented on how tired Peni looks when we finally see her, but she's not the only one. All of the Spider-People in the Spider-Verse look tired and it is, in fact I'd argue, Miguel's fault. He appealed to their sense of martyrdom to put together an organization that helps people and saves the world(s). BUT he made "maintaining the canon" an aspect of this (a wonderful meta commentary on Miles himself, btw, and all the comic book nerds who want to rehash the same story over and over instead of transforming it into something new and hopeful). Because they had all suffered so much, it followed logically for all the Spider-People that all of their parallel universe selves must also suffer.

This is the crab bucket mentality. Miguel dragged all the Spider-People into the crab bucket with him. He taught them learned helplessness. They're all tired and worn down because they have to keep reliving their own trauma by standing by and making sure these awful things that happened to them continue to happen, over and over. It's the mirror too for any marginalized community where the past generation believes the next one must suffer as they did. But it's exhausting for them to see the misery and do nothing. That's why they're all so tired. It makes sense to them that to be Spider-People, the next generation must suffer as they did but they are also, all of them, heroes and so it wears them down to watch this happen over and over. Miles brings back their energy and joy and their hope by refusing to be doomed by the narrative.

It's wonderful fanfic but it's also fantastic storytelling and it works on so many layers of the story, Doylist and Watsonian, all the way down.

5 ) THIS is a tightly knit story. Every. Single. Element. Ties back to the central story, the central themes. Every line either reveals plot, character, setting, or themes. It is so, so tight as a writer I was gaping. In necessary, if brief, moments of exposition they make sure to keep the screen busy and moving. There's no time for boredom. It is literally so fast that even as someone with ADHD I was sometimes overwhelmed as much as riveted. The few scenes that slowed down to simply fast movie pace felt achingly slow as a result and I bet you they were maybe 30 seconds long.

6 ) I AM. SO HYPED. FOR THE ENDING AND THE SEQUEL IT SETS UP? The perfect dark mirror story, not rushed but simply introduced so we can see that the final boss for Miles is himself. Unless they subvert that expectation, which they might! But it is so ominous to see Prowler Miles, it makes so much sense, it is perfect and deep and rich. Literally every time you think, "Maybe they'll rehash old material?" they don't they just keep introducing cool new characters and concepts and themes it's mindblowing.

7 ) They never leave you with one thread. Miles is going to face himself and fight to save his dad from the Spot and fight Miguel, presumably, in the next one. No single line only does one thing. No frame does one thing. And yet everything ties back to the core story of Miles and the Spider-People both on the Watsonian and Doylist level. I want to study every frame under a microscope. It's insane.

8 ) THE ART IT'S JUST. I'm not an artist so I'll leave it at this but THE ART.

9 ) I love Pavitr and Hobie. So much. I gasped when we saw Pavitr's world.

10 ) The Spot's animation was insane just insane and I think he's foreshadowed in the ITSV and it blew my mind on the re-watch.

I need to see it again. I could talk about any single element for hours. But I just can't stop thinking about the mastery embodied in this film. I know a sequel to a superhero movie that's animated will never win Best Picture but I do not exaggerate when I say that in itself might be an indictment of Best Picture. This film deserves Best Picture. It is the best movie I've seen in an unfathomably long time including ITSV.

[seiya-starsniper]

Six Degrees of Separation - Ch 3 (Sandman x Dead Boy Detectives)

Relationships: Dream of the Endless | Morpheus/Hob Gadling, Edwin Paine | Edwin Payne/Charles Rowland, Crystal Palace/Charles Rowland (DCU), Johanna Constantine/Jenny Green Rating: Teen & Up | Status: Incomplete | Chapters 3/5 | Words: 3.5K

Tags: POV Multiple, Hob Gadling gives live advice to a bunch of teenagers, while helping them solve cases, that's it that's the fic, also he maybe plays matchmaker for his hot mess bestie

Summary:

The Dead Boy Detectives run into a familiar pub while out on a case, and Crystal has to contend with an unfortunate event from her past. Hob Gadling wasn't planning on adopting three teenagers and a full grown woman, but stranger things have happened in his long centuries of life.

Tumblr Posts: Chapter 1 || Chapter 2

Read Chapter 3 below, or at the above link on AO3

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

Crystal thinks she's being clever by hiding in a corner of the pub away from where most of the staff can see, but somehow, Hob finds her anyway and places a steaming hot mug of tea down on the table in front of her. 

“On the house,” he tells her, and Crystal frowns.

“I can pay,” Crystal tries to insist, reaching for her bag to pull out her wallet. Hob shakes his head and shoos away the attempt, and Crystal doesn’t have it in her to fight too hard. Not today anyways. 

“Next time then,” he tells her with an easy smile. “If I’m being honest, you look like you could use a pick-me-up right now anyways.”

She really could. Crystal imagines she looks like shit. Her eyes are bloodshot from crying, and her nose feels stuffy from all the times she’s blown it in the past hour. She hasn’t even bothered trying to hide the pile of used napkins on the table.

“You did say Tuesdays were slow,” Crystal manages to croak out, trying to keep her voice even as she takes the tea in front of her into shaking hands. 

“I did,” Hob agrees, and then he sits down in the chair opposite her and starts taking out what looks like a pile of homework from his canvas bag. “I actually have some papers to grade, if you want some company. I’m happy to listen if you want to talk about it. Or we can just sit here in silence, if you’d like.”

She does want to talk about it, but the problem is, Crystal doesn’t know where to start. Doesn’t know how to tell Hob, who is both a complete stranger and not a stranger at the same time, that her life is both the best and worst it’s ever been in a very long time. She doesn’t know how to tell him that it’s Niko’s birthday today, and that the giant shopping bag next to her on top of the table is full of dozens of manga volumes she’ll never read, but felt the need to buy because, well because .

But, true to his word, Hob doesn't press her for more conversation, instead focusing immediately on the pile of paperwork he'd stacked. Crystal watches him smile when a student gets the answer right, and frown when they get an answer wrong. Every once in a while, his face takes on a bewildered expression, and Crystal wonders just how terribly bad the answer he’s looking at is.

Crystal wonders if Niko would have been in school now if she hadn't died. She seemed happy to simply solve cases with Crystal and the boys once they’d gotten the parasite out of her, but how long would that have lasted? Did Niko want to go to university? Would she have come to London if Crystal asked her to?

“I walked by a bookshop the other day,” Crystal finally offers, unable to keep the raging storm of emotion to herself any longer. Hob looks up from his paper and puts his pen down. She has his full attention now.

“They had a new volume of a manga out on display,” Crystal continues, glancing over at the shopping bag from that exact same store. “I thought, ‘Oh I should tell Niko, she'll be so excited there’s a new volume out!’ But then I remembered Niko’s not here. Niko's not here because she died trying to save me.”

“Ah,” Hob sighs sympathetically. “You're feeling guilty you're alive and she's not.”

It shouldn’t hurt so much to hear it spoken out loud, but Crystal's tears begin anew. She drops her gaze down to the steaming mug of hot tea and blinks them away as best she can, knowing that the hitch in her breathing gives her away anyways. 

“Survivor's guilt is a bitch,” Crystal says, and just like that, the dam of emotions she’d been holding back finally breaks. “I didn't even get to say goodbye ,” she practically wails into her mug. “We get to say goodbye to all these other strangers, to watch them go into their afterlife and I didn't even get to say goodbye to Niko. I hate it.”

It feels good, to finally get it out there in the open. To put words to her heartache, to the giant, endless maw of raw emotion and guilt. Crystal had tried to vocalize how she’d felt to Charles and Edwin, but they were too used to death, to people moving on. It wasn’t that they didn’t care, but they didn’t know what felt like to be left behind, not really. Not when it was all but guaranteed that they’d always have each other. 

“Life's unfair like that, sometimes,” Hob tells her, and the tone of his voice tells Crystal that the immortal is full of unsaid goodbyes himself. “I’m sorry you didn’t get the chance, truly.”

“You would've liked her,” Crystal replies, wanting to move away from the subject before she has another breakdown. The staff at the bookshop had definitely thought she’d gone through a bad breakup when she was paying for everything. Crystal looks back up at Hob and gives him a wry smile. “Probably way more than you liked me. She wouldn't have tried to burn the place down.”

Hob snorts. “I like you just fine as you are now, kid,” he says, returning her smile with one of his own. “Just no more arson attempts and we're good, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Crystal agrees. “Can’t guarantee a different ghost won’t try though.”

“They’re welcome to try,” Hob says, then gestures around the room. “But you’ve seen my wards. Been building them up here for almost twenty years now, not much is getting in or out of here without my permission.”

“How did you end up owning this place anyways?” Crystal asks, curiosity now burning a hole in her. “Charles and Edwin said the other night that when they first met you and were a traveling merchant or something.”

“Ah,” Hob replies, and his expression turns soft and fond. “I have this…friend, and we used to meet once a century at the old White Horse tavern down the road. For drinks. When they shut the place down, I bought this place, so we could still have someone where to go.”

Crystal narrows her eyes at the way Hob says friend and drinks .

“Is that a euphemism?” Crystal asks, and Hob chokes on his tea. “You know it’s 2024 right?” she continues. “Being gay isn’t ille—oh god, ” she cuts herself off, realization dawning upon her. “Are you in a centuries-long situationship? ” 

Hob goes into a full-on coughing fit now, but still manages to vigorously shake his head at the accusation.

“No I—cough—we’re just—cough—friends!” he insists, but Crystal isn’t convinced. 

“What do you even talk about?” she presses. “And who the hell only meets once a century for just drinks? ” she adds, putting the words in air quotes. 

“It’s complicated,” Hob replies, seeming to finally get his breathing under control. “Mostly just this and that,” the man adds, waving his hands around to emphasize the vagueness of their meetings. “You know, current events.”

“Current. Events.” Crystal repeats incredulously. Right. Yeah. Definitely a situationship. “Sure. Whatever you say.”

“You know what, next time he comes in, I’ll introduce you,” Hob huffs indignantly. His face is bright red too, and Crystal just knows that isn’t all from the loss of air to his windpipe just moments ago. “And then you can see we are just friends .”

He looks so serious, so intent on proving Crystal wrong, while still so desperately pining , that she can’t help but burst into laughter. It feels like a cord unwinds in her chest when she does, loosening a pressure she’d forgotten was there. 

“Yeah okay, sure, I’d love to meet you ‘friend’,” she replies, putting the word friend in air quotes. “But for like, actual drinks, and not ‘drinks’”, she adds with an exaggerated wink. Hob grumbles something about ‘kids these days’ which makes her laugh even more. 

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

When Crystal leaves The New Inn hours later, her heart and belly both full, she curls up with her gigantic pile of manga and reads while waiting for Edwin and Charles to get back from their latest case. Since their investigation took them to a condemned building that was quite literally falling apart and structurally unsound, Crystal had been ordered to stay home, and wait for Charles and Edwin to bring the evidence back to her. 

When they do eventually make their way back, it’s with Jenny in tow, and she’s holding a giant cake box in her arms. Crystal smiles through the mist in her eyes, when she opens the box and sees ‘Happy Birthday Niko’ in bright red letters. 

“You remembered too, huh?” Crystal hiccups.

“Stop it, I don’t want to cry too,” Jenny replies, her voice also wavering. Her hands are shaking when she places the cake box down on the table. It’s way too much cake for two people to eat, since Edwin and Charles don’t partake, and Crystal thinks she’s going to be eating leftover cake for the next week at least. Jenny handles the cutting of the cake, and when the two of them each have a slice in hand, Edwin clears his throat, directing their attention to him.

“Right then. A celebration of Niko is not complete without Scooby-Doo,” he declares, and though his tone is light and teasing, Crystal can hear the emotional weight behind it too. 

“Right,” Crystal agrees, and when Charles wraps his arm around her, she gives up all pretense of not wanting to cry, and sobs openly into his shoulder. “I’ll get the TV set up. Just—give me a minute.”

Crystal falls asleep to the sound of cartoon feet running away from the latest villain of the week, and in the moments just before her mind is claimed by the Dreaming, she swears she catches the scent of poppies and dandelions.

[certifiedwhore4slashers]

Take on me

pairing: ellie williams x fem!reader

summary: since joel’s death, ellie has been distant from you and you just want to help. but you find a way to cheer her up.

warnings: tlou part 2 spoilers, mentions of death, fluff, slight angst, etc…

ik this isn’t my usual content but like I really love tlou and I’m praying to god some of my followers or new readers do as well 🙏 I consider this a Drabble because it’s like extremely short so- enjoy this Drabble/imagine ig?

There she was. Sitting on the porch. You should do something. After all the two of you were a thing. Not official but since you met her with Joel while you were with the fireflies, you knew that you liked her.

“Ellie… You say softly. Placing your hand on her shoulder. She turns in your direction. “What’s going on? You can tell me anything, you say softly.

“It’s… I can’t get that fucking image out of my head, Ellie mutters. You frown, knowing exactly what she meant. Abby beating Joel to death was an image that stuck in your mind. As you were forced to witness it.

The past few days she wanted to kill Abby for killing Joel, who, apparently killed Abby’s father while saving Ellie. You figured he deserved it. As fucked up as that sounds.

You sigh, scooting closer.”Ellie, he would’ve wanted you to move on. And not be a shell of who you are.” “I know… Ellie says. The usual snarky, funny Ellie was replaced with a dull version that was clouded by grief.

You loved her, and you can’t see her like that anymore. “Want me to cheer you up? You offer. “What can even cheer me up anymore? Ellie replies grumpily.

Ellie didn’t know how you could remain happy and positive in the midst of not only a apocalypse but the brutal death of Joel.

Joel was like a father figure to you both. But she knew deep down you being yourself was what he wanted. That you both could grieve of course but not let it affect anything.

You come back and bring the guitar. She taught you how to play and this seemed like the perfect time to do it.

“I’ve learned a song, look, just listen okay? I want you to feel better, you say. “Fine, She sighs.”And I’m sorry, Y/n. For being so distant.”

You smile, beginning the song.”We're talking away I don't know what I'm to say, I'll say it anyway… Today is another day to find you Shyin' away Oh, I'll be comin' for your love, okay? Take on me (Take on me)Take me on (Take on me) I'll be gone in a day or two.”

You see Ellie forming a smile on her face. It seemed to comfort her so you continue,”So needless to say I'm odds and ends. But I'll be stumblin' away Slowly learnin' that life is okay Say after me It's no better to be safe than sorry.”

“Oh my god Y/N! Ellie laughed. And her usual self had returned. You finish the song. “That made me feel a lot better, thank you, she said, holding your face and kissing you.

“Glad I could help, You say.”Truthfully I was scared you wouldn’t come back.” “Eventually I would’ve, you just made that process come faster, Ellie said.”Yes, Joel isn’t here.. but I have you. And that’s important. I can’t lose you either.”

It was clear that she had attachment issues and such, your relationship had been slow burn to begin with. She was being smuggled with Joel and Tess. You were just at the wrong place at the wrong time. Both of you fourteen and alone.

Not anymore. You were thankful to have her.

[carnivorousyandeere]

SFW Alphabet: Cyrus

CW: Depression, mentions of death and violence

Idk why this ended up so angsty, sorry everybody. Cyrus has a lot of… unresolved issues.

A = Affection (How affectionate are they? How do they show affection?)

Cyrus is the werewolf who wants alone time with you the most. He really likes just sitting with you in silence, out in nature or in his room, just peacefully doing your own things. Cyrus is also content to just sit and listen to you talk about anything and everything, though~💕

B = Best friend (What would they be like as a best friend? How would the friendship start?)

Hmmm, a friendship could spark if you crossed paths on a hiking trail, or if you were lab partners in class and you pulled your weight in the assignment. Cyrus is pretty quiet and shy, even as good friends, but you’ll be able to get a good sense of his likes and dislikes anyway. He’s also not the best at verbal comforting and such, but he’ll bring you gifts to try and comfort you when you’re feeling down, and maybe even offer a hug.

C = Cuddles (Do they like to cuddle? How would they cuddle?)

Cyrus is the shyest of the group when it comes to nonsexual, prolonged physical contact. You’ll have to start small and slow, with hand holding and sitting side-by-side, then working your way up to more tender and intimate cuddles. After that point, he’ll be comfortable to sleep next to you, and sometimes even cuddle you while sleeping 🥹💕

D = Domestic (Do they want to settle down? How are they at cooking and cleaning?)

Cyrus can’t cook to save his soul, but he at least makes a mean smoothie! Cyrus is pretty good at cleaning when he has the energy for it, but to be honest he often ends up with the classic “depression nest.” (Mood 💀). 

He does like the idea of settling down with you and becoming more comfortable with casual domesticity with you. He likes to daydream about growing old with you.

E = Ending (If they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?)

Cyrus… Cyrus would feel kind of resigned about it. Like it was bound to happen, like you were always going to leave him, like he didn’t deserve you anyway and it was stupid of him to think he did. He’s not the kind of person to say that out loud to guilt you into staying (he does consider it though…). He would actually let you leave. Cyrus would guiltily continue to stalk you from afar, but unlike many of my other yanderes, he probably wouldn’t make another move to win you back directly (although sabotaging new friends and partners IS on the table) and would just stew in his jealousy of anybody else in your life, emotionally self-flagellating, forever.

F = Fiance(e) (How do they feel about commitment? How quick would they want to get married?)

Cyrus would love to get married to you in a few years’ time, but it feels like a dream that’s out of reach, so he tries not to dream about it at all. There’s no way you’d actually say yes, after all… 💔

When you do get married, he’ll tear up seeing you at the altar, and saying your vows to one another 🥹💕

G = Gentle (How gentle are they, both physically and emotionally?)

Cyrus is gentle 90% of the time, his touches generally shaky and hesitant. He’s also very careful emotionally, perhaps too careful even, never wanting to make you sad or uncomfortable. The other 10% of the time physically is if he gets, well, horny. Then he can be more desperate and aggressive (but still within reason– he won’t do anything you don’t want him to).

H = Hugs (Do they like hugs? How often do they do it? What are their hugs like?)

Cyrus has a love-hate thing with hugs. He won’t initiate them, for fear of overstepping bounds or being socially inappropriate. If you give him a quick hug that’s fine. If you give him a long hug in public, he starts to feel claustrophobic and nervous. If you give him a long hug in private and allow him to feel vulnerable, he’ll cling to you and maybe even cry? Therapeutic.

I = I love you (How fast do they say the L-word?)

He’s one of the werewolves that takes the longest to say it. When he does, it’s shaky, unsure, hesitant– not really expecting you to respond well to his confession. It takes a long time for him to truly believe it when you say you love him too… ❤️‍🩹

J = Jealousy (How jealous do they get? What do they do when they’re jealous?)

Cyrus gets really jealous, but he’s the type to isolate himself and sulk about it, while beating himself up for not being good enough to “deserve” your attention. He will move behind the scenes to sabotage whoever is coming between the two of you, and might even resort to premeditated murder over it– preferring poisons over bloodier methods.

K = Kisses (What are their kisses like? Where do they like to kiss you? Where do they like to be kissed?)

Cyrus likes kissing your chest, over your heart. His kisses are generally very soft and chaste, careful. Cyrus likes it when you kiss him anywhere, but especially his neck.

L = Little ones (How are they around children?)

Cyrus is alright with kids. He’s very gentle and patient with them; rambunctious kids might stress him out, though, and he won’t be sure how to interact with them. Also, the younger the kids are, the more lost he is about how to talk to and interact with them. If you hand him a baby he will be so nervous. “Am I holding it right? Is- oh, oh no, why is it crying?” He didn’t grow up with siblings.

M = Morning (How are mornings spent with them?)

Cyrus takes a long time to wake up fully, going in and out of sleep as dawn breaks and morning comes, without an alarm. Usually, though, he likes to set an alarm to wake up before dawn and go out to watch the sunrise. It’s a very peaceful, calm time of the day, without many other people around. If you like that, he’ll bring you with him, as long as you can be still and peaceful with him just for that period of time. It’s fine if you’re rambunctious the rest of the day though <3

N = Night (How are nights spent with them?)

At night, Cyrus is the kind of person who ends up staring at the ceiling and overthinking. If you’re there with him, he’ll want to talk with you instead. It’s like a sleepover, where everybody’s stayed up too late and the tone gets serious all of a sudden, and then you’re talking about religion and philosophy and your greatest fears and– oh, the other person just started snoring. Oops 😅😂

O = Open (When would they start revealing things about themselves? Do they say everything all at once or wait a while to reveal things slowly?)

Cyrus is not open about himself. He’s got a lot of self-esteem issues and assumes that everyone else will dislike him as much as he dislikes himself. As he becomes more comfortable with you, this will slowly change, and you’ll get to see more and more of his genuine self.

P = Patience (How easily angered are they?)

Cyrus didn’t always have a hair-trigger temper, but since being turned it’s like all of his feelings are magnified and very hard to keep under control. He’s definitely lost his temper and hurt or tried to hurt people in the meantime, but the guilt really keeps him up at night. If he ever seriously injured someone in a rage, he would have a panic attack and throw up right then and there as soon as the rage wore off. If he lets his anger simmer slowly, though, he can be much more intentionally ruthless than you might expect.

Q = Quizzes (How much would they remember about you? Do they remember every little detail you mention in passing, or do they kind of forget everything?)

Cyrus remembers everything about you, and although he won’t forget anything, he also has a secret notebook dedicated to you juuuust in case. It contains information about you, poetry he writes while thinking of you, and detailed drawings of you. He WILL disintegrate on the spot if you ever find it.

R = Remember (What is their favorite moment in your relationship?)

The first time he gets to spend time alone with you, without any of the other werewolves butting in or feeling the need to “supervise” the two of you– AKA, to make sure that you two aren’t gonna make a break for it.

S = Security (How protective are they? How would they protect you? How would they like to be protected?)

Cyrus is 0-100 and will go into blackout rages if he thinks you’re in danger. He’ll come to, threat eviscerated, and then throw up and cry, but he won’t regret what he’s done. As long as you’re safe, anything is worth it. It kills him inside if you see that, though, and are scared of him afterwards. He would never, EVER, hurt you, sunshine, please stop crying– stop running– please-!

He doesn’t really want you to have to protect him physically, but if you protect him emotionally and maybe guide him in social situations, that really warms his heart. And his face hehe~💕

T = Try (How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?)

Cyrus puts in a lot of effort into all of these, but also tries to obscure the effort he puts in for fear of coming off as overbearing and making you uncomfortable.

U = Ugly (What would be some bad habits of theirs?)

Hmmmm, probably isolating himself in response to almost everything? Hard to call it a “bad habit,” when it’s probably a trauma response of some kind, though;;; sorry;;;

V = Vanity (How concerned are they with their looks?)

So-so; he likes keeping his hair neat and tidy, and making sure his clothes are neat too, but he’s not super interested in fashion or anything like that. Even his embroidery habit stems more from practicality first (mending), and stress reliever second (doing interesting designs). He does have a good time going thrifting though :)

W = Whole (Would they feel incomplete without you?)

Cyrus would feel aching, gnawing emptiness forever, without you by his side. It’s like he’s cold and hollow, unable to really interact with the world around him anymore. He’ll talk to people and can answer questions, but it’s like his gaze is permanently elsewhere.

X = Xtra (A random headcanon for them.)

Cyrus was an environmental sciences major in college before getting bitten by Hunter in an accident. He still loves hiking and just being in nature. He also has a talent for sketching plants, and a hobby for hand-stitching designs in his clothes. His favorite color is green 🌱💚🌲

Y = Yuck (What are some things they wouldn’t like, either in general or in a partner?)

This might sound weird, but Cyrus will actually get really uncomfortable if you’re too nice and friendly to him right out the gate. It’s not a dealbreaker, but he’ll just take even more time to warm up to you (ironically, as I’m sure your intention in being kind was not to keep him at arm’s length). This is part of the initial slip-up between Mateo and Cyrus; Mateo has a crush on Cyrus and wants to get closer to him, but came off just a little too saccharine-sweet out of the gate and set off Cyrus’ avoidant tendencies. He’s trying to bridge that gap but it takes time and patience to get Cyrus used to being treated so kindly.

Z = Zzz (What is a sleep habit of theirs?)

Cyrus sleeps in green and black plaid pajama pants and a t-shirt with a ton of heavy blankets and quilts. He also tends to prefer sleeping alone, with the exception of you. And maybe, eventually, Mateo will manage to worm his way into his heart and bed as well 🥹❤️

[mortemoppetere]

TIMING: recent. LOCATION: axis investigations. PARTIES: @animotoph0bia & @mortemoppetere SUMMARY: emilio enlists finn to help him with a case. CONTENT WARNINGS: none!

Things were quiet on the ‘possibly turning up as a corpse after five days missing’ front and Finn truly, honestly didn’t care why. If it was a false sense of quiet, he would have been happy to accept it at that point. If it was because one of their guys had gotten eaten by a stupid alligator hybrid creature then that was… a harder pill to swallow but Finn would deal. Whatever the reason, the constant sense of looming dread had dialed back down to his usual like, seventy percent ominous, even if Finn still avoided lurking around at night by his lonesome. And then finally, somewhat of a confirmation from Emilio, someone Finn had not been expecting to ever be the bearer of good news. Well, the way he’d phrased it, the bearer of ‘neutral but probably eventually bad news’ was more accurate but to Finn, the words ‘they don’t seem to be around anymore’ were a heavensend. 

Emilio cashing in the promise of getting some computer related help was… less of a heavensend. 

Finn didn’t go back on promises, even those made to strange, stab happy detectives that had a constant air of craving death around them. Mostly, he didn’t go back on promises made to those types of people because of the whole stab happy part. Even if Emilio probably wouldn’t have saved his life only to later stab him… right? 

“Alright.” That was more for his own sake than Emilio’s, a mental preparation to put his pristine laptop on any surface in this office. It shouldn’t be surprising that the man worked in these conditions and Finn was definitely being hypocritical considering how that damn motel room had looked at one point but… With a resolute sigh, he put the laptop down on the desk, dragging up a chair and then looking over at Emilio. “Let’s do this,” he prompted, trying to remember the warm feeling of Lucky against his chest this morning, the simple joy of Charlie having his first cup of coffee - anything to weigh against the sinking feeling that was Emilio. 

—-

There were few things Emilio liked less than loose ends. The very idea of answers left uncovered in any area of his life made a cold sweat break across his forehead, made his palms itch and his heart pound in ways he couldn’t quite explain. It was why, even years after the massacre in Mexico, he was still hunting down every vampire who might know anything at all about what happened, why he interrogated them slowly and painfully and without much remorse. It was why he often continued investigating cases he’d been fired from or wasn’t being paid for, too, why he couldn’t let things go even when the people who’d initially asked for the answers no longer wanted him to find them. And it was why he’d kept an eye out for the people looking to kill Finn, even though the guy was one of the more annoying residents of Wicked’s Rest. It was less for the benefit of the other man and more to ease his own rampant paranoia. 

At least, that was what he told himself.

Maybe there was less truth to it than he’d care to admit. Maybe this town had succeeded in softening something that had already struggled to be as hard as it was meant to be, turning him into more and more of a goddamn disappointment. Maybe he kept an eye out for those people who might want Finn dead not because he was curious, but because he didn’t particularly want to see the guy suffer a slow and painful death. 

But he’d never cop to that. It was the kind of thing that stayed locked up inside his head, which wasn’t the sort of place anyone with a brain would go snooping, anyway. Emilio would blame his own nosiness for keeping an eye out for Finn, and Finn would believe it because that was the easiest answer, anyway. And he’d still feel that obligation, and Emilio would still use it, because even if he was softer than he should have been, he still wasn’t someone who would pass up a chance at free shit when he needed it.

And he really needed computer help.

Normally, he relied on older methods of investigation. Stakeouts, asking questions, generally poking his nose in places it didn’t belong. He was good at that shit, after all, and he found it a lot more fun than hanging over the ancient desktop he’d fished from the trash behind the library and placed on the desk in his Worm Row apartment. He had a nicer computer at Teddy’s — one he pretended not to know had most likely been bought brand new with him in mind — but he didn’t particularly want to invite Finn there. Not only was the guy annoying, but he attracted trouble. The Jones house had enough trouble without the added help. 

So, Emilio hovered behind Finn in that shitty, rundown apartment, squinting at his laptop screen uncertainly. This particular case required a bit of technical know-how. There had been blackmail involved, and the blackmailer had demanded payment in some kind of coin that existed only inside a computer. But things in computers could be traced; even Emilio knew that. “I wrote down the, uh… account name the guy gave. Don’t think it’s their real name. Nobody’s that stupid.” Plus, the account name had a few too many numbers and odd letters to belong on a birth certificate. “You think you can find them? My guy can’t afford what they’re asking for. We don’t figure out how to stop this, he’ll be on the streets in a month.”

—

It was the first time he’d seen Emilio feel this… hesitant. His general lack of knowledge when it came to computers had been pretty obvious from the get go but the fact that the man was a tiny bit, dared Finn even think it, insecure about it? It was almost funny seeing as Finn would trade his skills at this for the skill to fucking stay alive any day of the week. Anyway, for that reason only, Finn bit his tongue when Emilio said he didn’t think ‘jer_m1lfb4ngs691234’ was the guy’s real name. 

“People can definitely be that stupid,” was what he settled for instead because odds were, this guy had maybe connected his account to a work email that would lead an angry Emilio straight to his door. “But let’s see. Depends on a few things but… maybe like a soft 80/20 that we find him?” Glancing over his shoulder at Emilio’s unchanging expression, he made a face and returned his attention back to the screen. This wasn’t Finn’s usual gig but throughout the years, he had been known to… crack a case or two when he was particularly desperate for cash. And with stuff like this, the iconic ‘what, like it’s hard?’ phrase kept running through his head. Better to not give Emilio false hope though - Finn would much prefer impressing the guy (if that was possible) than letting him down. 

In the lovely and eerie silence of the dank apartment, the sound of Finn’s fingers moving quickly across the keyboard was excruciatingly loud, the empath’s shoulders tensing further with every second. “So, uh… guess you’re not charging him a lot. Y’know, since he doesn’t seem to have all that much,” Finn pushed hesitantly, eyes never straying from the laptop as he booted up one program after the other, code starting to run rapidly across the screen. Much like Emilio still hadn’t officially charged Finn or even demanded to be paid back for all those nights at World’s Shittiest Motel.

—-

With a snort, Emilio nodded. People could be stupid, Finn was right. Often times, Emilio was impressed by just how reckless people could be. Most of the cases he worked that had human causes rather than supernatural ones were solved because someone, somewhere made a careless mistake that Emilio took immediate advantage of. He was hoping this one would be similar, despite his lack of knowledge about the subject matter. As annoying as he found Finn, he was pretty sure the guy knew what he was talking about with computers. That was why he’d called him in the first place. (Well… that and the fact that he really didn’t have anyone else to call.)

Finn seemed confident, in any case. He gave good odds for uncovering the truth; Emilio had certainly worked with worse. Most of his cases had a slimmer margin than that on the odds of him simply surviving to the end, so he was more than happy with an 80/20 shot of victory. “All right,” he agreed, leaning forward to watch the computer screen as Finn worked. He understood exactly none of what was going on, but that probably didn’t matter much. He didn’t need to understand it; he just needed it done.

Preferably, it would have been done in silence. Emilio preferred that, when working with people he didn’t know as well. He got chatty when he was trying to piss someone off, sure, and he was willing to have casual conversation with the people he liked, but for the most part? Emilio wasn’t one for small talk. It seemed as though Finn was, though, and since he was doing Emilio a favor, the detective figured he shouldn’t tell him to fuck off. Fingers tapping absently on the desk, he shrugged. “Sometimes I charge people money,” he replied, “sometimes they pay me with something else. This guy doesn’t have much cash, so he’ll owe me a favor. Nothing bad, you know. Just might ask him to help me with a case sometime. Good to have connections like that.”

—

Whatever tension had been gathering in Finn’s shoulders since Emilio contacted him for an assist now lessened by like, at least 10%. Getting this man to agree with him on anything felt like a win and it wasn’t surprising that he agreed with ‘people are stupid.’ He definitely felt that Finn was stupid if their online interactions were anything to go off but clearly not stupid enough to ask for help. Maybe the PI’s definition of stupid varied or actually just meant ‘I don’t like you’. Either way, he wasn’t currently giving off harsh vibes of dislike and that was something Finn could work with - reluctant neutrality. 

Glancing over at the man in his periphery, Finn wondered if any of what he was currently doing made sense to him. He was peering, clearly taking in the abundance of information piled on the screen but as Finn allowed himself to delve just that bit further into Emilio’s emotional state, it was very clear that the answer to ‘how much does Emilio understand’ was zero. Did that mean he trusted Finn to be doing what he said he would? Or simply trusting that Finn knew enough about the PI’s knives to not fuck around? 

It took a moment of hesitation on Emilio’s part, during which the empath fully kicked himself for asking stupid questions, but surprisingly it was followed by a civil answer. “So like a quid pro quo kinda deal. Cool.” Judging from the state of this apartment, Finn thought that maybe more of Emilio’s business needed to be funded by actual cash but this whole thing did betray his little routine of hating everyone and everything except like, knives. He kept that little thought to himself however, biting at his lip instead as he typed in more information and then the two of them were collectively staring at a loading bar slowly filling up. 

The silence was fucking defeaning. 

“So, uh… why a detective? Is it related to the whole vampire killing thing or just, y’know, side gig?”

—

As a kid, he’d always been quick to pick up new moves and techniques in a fight. He was more of a brawler than a strategic fighter, but he could still learn the strategies. He could still watch the way Victor swept his opponent’s legs and take notes, still memorize the grip Rosa used on her knife. He fell back on those moves often, carried a piece of his siblings in quick jabs and calculated kicks that didn’t quite fit with the rest of his fighting style. He’d picked up a few from Juliana, too, memorized the way Rhett carried himself when he was fighting something small. It made Emilio’s style a hodgepodge of different kinds of fighting, a thing that didn’t always make sense to anyone watching, but it was effective. He could figure out how to mimic a person’s style just by watching them. He was good at learning new physical skills.

He was less good at learning the things that weren’t physical.

Watching a fight, it was easy to pick out every individual move and deconstruct it. But watching Finn type felt like something else entirely. Emilio couldn’t make sense of what he was doing, had no idea if any of it was effective or not. In a strange way, it put him on edge. He’d never been very good at coping with what he didn’t understand. Like a child, he grew frustrated quickly in the face of the unknown, unease disguising itself as anger with nowhere to go. He tried to push it down now. Finn was trying to help him, after all, and there was a chance he’d have to call upon the guy again soon considering how utterly useless he was with computer-related shit.

“Yeah,” he agreed, watching the loading bar on the screen. He decided it was probably a good sign. At least it meant some progress was being made, even if Emilio didn’t know the first thing about what that progress meant. He was so focused on the loading bar that it startled him, a little, when Finn spoke. It took his mind a moment to understand the question, to translate it and unravel it. Considering it for a moment, he hummed. “Nobody pays me to kill vampires,” he replied, “and they won’t give me whiskey for free.” That was the noncommittal answer, the one that didn’t give anything away. After a beat, he offered a little more. “I like figuring shit out. I like knowing shit. I’m good at it. In this town, a lot of people… lose shit without ever knowing what happened. I like being able to tell them, even if it’s not an answer they might like. Better to know, right?”

—

Finn knew that him shutting up and just doing what he’d been brought here to do would be the preferred setting if Emilio had been given that much control. It seemed to shock him each time the empath spoke, maybe because he expected the ‘nothing’ he was giving in response to Finn’s blabbering to hint at how little he wanted to chat. And yeah, it was a very good hint but Finn was less choosing, more being forced, to ignore it. For a second, he thought it might get him hit or thrown out except Emilio wasn’t angry. No more than what his resting state of ‘seething’ seemed to be, at least. 

At least with something filling the silence, Finn could keep his mouth shut for a little bit. He wasn’t used to this slow, closed off way of sharing information. Granted, he lived with someone who wouldn’t shut up even under threat of death so his baseline was definitely skewed but Finn felt a pat on the back was deserved when Emilio was given a moment of silence and actually continued speaking whereas pushing further might have made the man clam up. It made sense, that no higher organization was paying for vampires getting exterminated but that also made it cooler. Very vigilante, holy mission kinda deal. Finn kept that to himself, instead listening to the slightly more in-depth explanation of why. 

“Knowing shit is good,” Finn agreed after a drawn out silence, eyes never leaving the screen, afraid it would break the spell of ‘chatting’. “I mean, it can suck to holy hell, ignorance is bliss and all that, but it’s still… better.” Trying to know was the reason he’d moved to this cursed town in the first place. “Sure people appreciate what you do. Even if you just do it to buy more whiskey.” Before he could accidentally psychoanalyze the guy further - and yeah, Finn remembered the last time any talk of emotion came up, fuck forbid - his laptop chimed happily. 

“Yeah, he’s a dumbass,” he could now claim confidently, looking at the email staring back at him from the screen. “He used a work email for the account. Don’t have a full name but this makes it way easier,” Finn explained, half for Emilio’s benefit, half because he also maybe talked to himself at times. It looked less insane now that Lucky was forced to listen to his train of thought broadcast live. Once again, his fingers moved quickly across the keyboard, this time to pull up the company’s website. “There. We got his initials and where he works. Unless he used his withered up braincell to steal a coworkers email, highly unlikely, but… yeah.”

—--

Finn wasn’t the first person to tell him his work here meant something. It was the kind of thing Teddy liked to spout all the time, evidenced in the newspaper clippings they’d hung up in the new Axis office in places they knew his eyes would drift to when he was lost in thought. Teddy wanted him to feel like he was doing good; Finn was repeating the sentiment in a way that made Emilio wonder, briefly, if Teddy might have paid him to plant the same seed that they’d been watering for almost a year now. But Teddy rarely saw fit to convince other people to do their dirty work, and that meant Finn was acting of his own accord. Somehow, that was all the stranger.

It was a hard thing to believe, even coming from multiple sources. Emilio wanted to help people. He wanted to make up for the people he hadn’t helped as if he could undo the shit he’d done by doing for strangers what he’d never been able to do for his own family. So far, the tightly wound coil of grief that lived in his chest hadn’t reacted to the attempts at unraveling it with good deeds. He felt as shitty now as he had a year ago, most days. But… It didn’t suck, hearing someone with no stake in it imply that maybe he was appreciated. 

Emilio didn’t let any of this show on his face, of course. He kept his eyes on the computer screen, pretending to find himself engrossed in things he didn’t even almost understand, and nodded his head. “Sure,” he agreed, “maybe.” The chirping of the laptop saved him from having to say any more than that, and he leaned in expectantly. 

A work email. That was definitely something, and definitely more than Emilio had had before. He grinned, watching Finn’s fingers dance across the keyboard. A person’s initials and their place of employment was more than enough for Emilio to finish the job, and he gave Finn an appreciative clap on the shoulder; something that, coming from Emilio, was fairly high praise. “Can nail him to a fucking wall with this much,” he said, sounding almost pleased. “Client’ll be glad.”

—

It had just been a stream of consciousness comment and yeah, maybe tinted with a hint of his ‘please like me’ tendencies but Finn hadn’t expected it to actually hit home. Well, hit seemed a bit too generous for whatever shift had taken place in Emilio’s emotional state - a tap of a feather seemed more fitting for this barely there feeling. Finn was entirely incapable of analyzing the shift properly, so shrouded in everything that made this hunter the gruff and violence happy man he seemed to be but… it wasn’t negative. Always a nice change of pace when Finn’s dumb mouth didn’t instantly fuck everything up. 

What was easy to interpret however was Emilio’s reaction to the information he’d managed to scrounge up. Finding a work email had been a jackpot, probably saved both of them a couple of hours of digging, but looking at the grin on the other man’s face made Finn hesitant to reveal just how much ‘luck’ had played a part here. The hand on his shoulder was a surprise, momentarily jolting the empath before he realized it was a friendly gesture. So Emilio was capable of those. And this stand in for actual praise definitely didn’t stir up teenaged Finn just wanting his dad around to pat him on the back and tell him he was doing a good job. 

God, his daddy issues needed to stop rearing their head around men who weren’t even ten years his senior. Although maybe Monty didn’t count since he was technically ancient. Also actually nice and not aloof and kinda scary like Emilio. 

“Happy to help,” Finn said in a way that was supposed to be casual but probably betrayed that he actually was kinda happy to help, since this hadn’t been entirely awful. And so what if he was beaming just a bit because he’d been useful, that didn’t matter. Grabbing a stack of sticky notes, he wrote down the information he’d managed to gather, hesitant to close his laptop. “So uh… that’s it, yeah?” 

—-

It was hard to gauge what Finn might have been thinking while looking at the back of his head and, in a lot of ways, Emilio preferred it that way. In a fight, knowing every thought that might cross your opponent’s mind was a useful thing. It could help you trip them up, give you the upper hand. He’d used it plenty of times, and had it used against him just as often. But in situations like this, when the person in front of you was… not an enemy and not quite a friend… It did nothing for you to know where their head was at. Knowing what Finn was thinking would only be inconvenient. And he didn’t care, one way or another. That was a thing he needed to remind himself of a little more often. Finn was here doing him a favor because Emilio saved his ass and he owed him. There was nothing more to it than that.

He drew his hand back, slipping it into his pocket and watching Finn transfer the information he’d gathered from the computer screen to a sticky note. He squinted at the note briefly, ensuring he could decipher the handwriting with a nod before taking it. From here, he could find the blackmailer and make big threats of police intervention to scare him into backing off. Most times, that was all it really took.

Looking back to Finn, he nodded. “That’s it,” he confirmed. “Unless you want to come with me to confront the guy, but that doesn’t seem like your thing.” Finn seemed like the kind of guy who avoided confrontation whenever possible, which was something Emilio couldn’t relate to at all. Confrontation was often a good distraction, after all. “I figure I can crack him in five minutes. Maybe less. You saved me a lot of time tracking him down. So, uh…” He trailed off, shrugging. “Guess we’re even.” It was as close to thanks as he really got.

—

The offer, which probably wasn’t an actual offer what with Finn’s presence annoying Emilio and the fact that he would probably somehow manage to almost die, shouldn’t have been one Finn actually considered for a moment. It was an apt assumption that confronting some blackmailing asshole definitely wasn’t Finn’s thing, not counting that one occasion where he’d confronted a knife wielding psychopath. That had been solely because of the winged person’s fear and anger. Not like Finn was actually brave. “Think it’s better for all parties if I stick to my role of behind the scenes tech stuff,” he finally said after much too long of a pause. 

Finn wanted to ask just how literal this ‘cracking’ process would be but by some grace of god, refrained. Getting this guy’s email was very much in a gray area of being illegal but using it to send an unhinged private detective to beat someone up? Ignorance was definitely bliss. Man, Finn really hoped he’d never piss anyone off bad enough to send someone like Emilio his way. The unspoken gratitude hung in the air between them as Finn snapped his computer shut and got to his feet. Definitely didn’t want it to seem like he was hovering waiting for that thank you. 

“Sure, half an hour of computer stuff is definitely comparable to saving my ass from literal death,” Finn huffed sarcastically, still feeling that the two of them were far from even. Things had definitely changed since the PI had first offered his help, where Finn didn’t have a dollar to his name and now lived in the Wicked’s Rest equivalent of freaking Beverly Hills. Yeah, he was technically still broke as hell but Charlie wasn’t. 

“I could… help out again if you needed it,” he commented nonchalantly instead of offering to pay, packing up his computer and glancing in Emilio’s direction. “Feel like I owe you at least a couple of cases pro bono, y’know?” And it did feel nice using his skills for something other than websites or dumb programs, something that actually made a difference. Even if it erred on the side of illegal. “If you think you’d have any use for that, I mean,” Finn added in a rush, backpack slung over his shoulder, ready to not overstay his welcome. 

—

For a moment, it seemed like Finn was actually considering the offer. Emilio wasn’t even sure if it had been genuine or not — he didn’t particularly want a tagalong to a thing like this, but it seemed awkward to admit he’d only made the offer to fill the silence. Luckily — for both of them, probably — Finn seemed to decide better of it, and Emilio nodded his head. “Suit yourself,” he shrugged, pretending not to be relieved at the fact that he could continue this case on his own.

It was good, too, that Finn didn’t ask any questions. Emilio had learned that most people didn’t quite approve of his methods, even the gentler ones. He had no intention of killing the blackmailer, or even really roughing him up unless it became necessary; an empty threat to involve the cops would do plenty to persuade the guy not to do this kind of thing again. In Emilio’s experience, people who hid behind anonymity lost any semblance of bravery they might possess the moment that anonymity was lost. Still, something told him Finn would get squirrely the moment the confrontation began, and he didn’t feel like dealing with that. 

He was a little surprised the guy didn’t take the obvious out he’d offered him, but Emilio wasn’t the sort to insist someone didn’t owe him something if he could get something useful out of them. Not when the ‘someone’ in question was a practical stranger, in any case. So he shrugged, shaking his head slightly. “Suit yourself,” he replied. “But don’t think I won’t take you up on it.” It’d be nice having someone to call on for shit like this. He’d definitely abuse it beyond ‘a few pro bono cases,’ of course.

Moving towards the door, he pulled it open and turned to Finn expectantly. Emilio wasn’t one to beat around the bush; now that Finn had done what he’d come here for, there was really no reason for him to keep hanging around. “Next time I need someone to do some typing,” he said, “I’ll give you a call.”

[criticalrolo]

i INSTANTLY need to know more about cormorant da-ge

im sticking nie mingjue in a house by the river run by two lesbians with their younger siblings so he can make friends with some birds and be wildly overprotective of the kids to his hearts content

anyway here's what's going on to get NMJ sent to the seaside for his health like a jane austen character

JGS is making noises about how much more convenient his life would be if someone would Rid Him Of This Turbulent Sect Leader, Henry II style, and JGY has the idea to try out this cool new composition called the Song of Turmoil

Except he's never tried to kill someone with the Song of Turmoil before, and apparently those songs are powerful enough to kill people within three notes if played by a master! and this is a Modified Version that could conceivably do... Anything

So the first time he decides to try out the song. well. instead of a slow poison he's got a half-dead da-ge spitting blood on the floor 50% of the way into a qi deviation

PANIC. drag his sworn brother to the Koi Tower Basement to see if your half-baked stygian tiger amulet can do anything

the song is still in NMJ's head causing problems so he works out a plan with XY to try to just. erase the song and the memory of that afternoon. see if that does the trick

NMJ wakes up and says what the fuck. where am i. who are you

FUCK SHIT FUCK okay. we're going into crisis mode since we obviously can't send an amnesiac da-ge back to Qinghe when we were SUPPOSED to be doing medical care

Xue Yang go dump this guy in a river to get him as far away from here as possible while JGY does some DAMAGE control to make it look like NMJ left Lanling like expected and possibly disappeared on the way back home

1 terrible trip down the river later, local Yunping fisherman's cormorants find a body in the weeds. he fishes the biggest dude he's ever seen out of the water and OOPS this guy is still alive!! good thing his sister's "very good friend who shares a room with her and is raising a child with her" is the town's doctor!

Cue frantic life saving scene where eventually This Guy wakes up and tells them he doesn't remember anything about himself or his life. oh no he must have fallen off a boat somewhere and hit his head really hard :(

Doesn't even know his own name. He's pretty sure he can remember being called Da-ge by someone though

They'd feel bad if they just set this guy wandering off with literally Nothing to go on in the world. plus he can reach the top shelves in their house without having to get a chair

He can stay with them if he helps with the farm animals, learns how to fish, and helps out the family business. And even though his meridians are all fucked up he's got a little bit of cultivation ability so he can help their daughter build up her golden core. He's pretty good at this training thing!

They've got nine cormorants named after the Nine Sons of the Dragon. Baxia the cormorant is fucking obsessed with Da-ge for whatever reason

Domestic life continues with Da-ge out on a boat during the day and helping the cultivators out with developing their golden cores, training they normally wouldn't really have access to

One day the doctor says her cousin is coming to visit! she hasn't seen her since the end of the Sunshot campaign and she's excited to reconnect with her. oh look here she comes!! hi luo quinyang it's been forever since we've seen you!!

POV: you are Mianmian, you left the cultivation world a year ago and you're traveling around as a rogue cultivator now. You visit your cousin. Fucking Chifeng-Zun is in her front yard. He's been presumed dead for the last year. what the actual fuck do you do

meanwhile JGY is desperately trying to convince NHS back in Qinghe to accept that his brother is dead for his own sake <3 for his own closure so he can lead the sect in his brother's memory <3 please god stop looking into this <3

NHS: "haha yeah you're probably right sang-ge. anyway im going to go look into all of our historical records to see how i can get access to Dead People's Spirits to Find Their Bodies and maybe this will lead to me bringing my dead necromancer friend back from the dead. xoxo"

anyway eventually they reunite and it's a whole debacle. this is actually a v long way for me to make NMJ and mianmian accidental friends because I think it would be funny

[casspurrjoybell-29]

Healing Ties - Chapter 33 - Part 3

*Warning Adult Content*

Fanner's eyes began to well up and a single tear trailed down his cheek before he rubbed it away.

"If I give you a child, I need you to do what's right for me even when it's not the best thing for anyone else. Maybe even including yourself or someone you care about."

"I will gladly accept that deal. If you make me fertile again, I'll make sure you have a permanent home here for as long as you want it and that for as long as I live, you'll be protected in all senses. We'll have to figure out how the debt is inherited when I die. I trust Slone the most when it comes to upholding those values but he is a bit of a wanderer which could leave you vulnerable."

"Well, it's worth making arrangements for because things can happen but don't expect to be dying any time soon. It'll take time but if I'm staying with you, of course I'll heal everything else as well."

"In exchange for what?"

"That doesn't matter. I want to help you, Yore. I really, desperately do. I only made this about an exchange because I'm scared. Because if I'm going to be open about this, I need to know I'll be protected. Beyond that, I don't care about getting anything in return."

"Well, we'll negotiate, okay? It doesn't feel right to be your protector in every sense, yet also let you dedicate yourself to healing me, changing and ultimately saving my life, and offer nothing in return."

"You've saved my life three times."

Yore smiled.

"True. I don't count things the other person didn't have the opportunity to negotiate as debts, though."

"Well... okay. I just worry when you say that because I don't want much but one of the things I do want is to help you. I like you. I don't want you to be in pain and I definitely don't want you to die young from something I could have easily fixed."

Why had Yore's heart done a silly little leap in his chest when Fanner had said 'I like you'?

Was he just feeling emotional because of the situation or was he actually catching feelings?

If it was the latter, it probably wasn't a good idea.

Especially with their new arrangement.

He was supposed to be Fanner's protector.

Of course that didn't necessarily conflict with anything more intimate but it certainly risked complicating things if those feelings only ran one way.

"We'll figure things out," Yore promised.

He let out a sigh and rubbed his hands over his face, then continued their path up over his hair to smooth it down.

"Sorry. I feel like I should be showing my excitement and appreciation more but this just doesn't feel real yet. I believe that you can do what you claim. You're a timid, soft spoken guy and I can't imagine you speaking with this much confidence unless you were absolutely sure in what you were saying. It's just... I thought I was going to spend the next few years suffering more and more and then I would die. I thought I would never have kids, never inherit the position I've spent my whole life working towards. And now you're telling me I can have that. I can have all of it."

"It won't be quick or easy," Fanner warned.

"Scar tissue is slow to work with and I have to dissolve it away and open up those wounds again to heal them, so it won't be painless, either."

"That's fine by me. Just knowing I'll be getting better rather than worse is incredible."

"Would you like me to do something today, since you're being forced to rest anyway? The fertility issue was the original deal but if you'd prefer I focus on something else..."

"No, no. That would be fantastic. I really do need an heir. I want one. To be a father."

"I'll have to touch you," Fanner told him.

"I promise to be respectful about it, though. I understand this isn't... Well, I'm not a Companion anymore. I'm not going to try to be one."

"I trust you, Fanner," Yore said as he sat up.

He gestured down at his pants.

"Should I...?"

"Yes. You'll need to be naked or at least have the relevant area exposed."

"Okay."

Yore stood and began to take his pants off.

Nudity really wasn't a big deal to him or any werewolf but he had to admit that stripping down when Fanner was sitting on his bed felt a little different.

Especially when Fanner seemed so adorably unsure whether he should be averting his gaze entirely or continuing to look at Yore as though nothing had changed.

"How do you want me?"

Fanner looked startled and then his face flushed red as he seemed to realise what Yore meant.

His gaze jumped away again.

"Oh, um. Just lay flat on your back for now. I might need to lift your legs later to... well, the male reproductive organs have a few parts to them. I've seen a diagram. But just try to get comfortable for now."

"Okay."

Yore lay down on his back on his bed as instructed.

"I should mention that I don't actually know anything about how fertile I am in terms of, uh... sperm quality or general production, I suppose? The issue I've had, specifically, is that I can't get an erection because of the scar tissue."

Fanner sat down next to him on the bed.

"I could try only healing that if you like. This will probably be the most painful area to heal."

"What do you think we should do?"

Fanner was silent for a moment as he mulled the question over.

"Ultimately, I think I should heal every part of you and if I don't finish this area today, I doubt you're going to be overly enthusiastic for me to return to it. I think it would make sense to get it all out of the way. Then it can be done with and we can be certain you won't have any more issues around reproduction or sex."

"Okay. I agree."

"If the pain is too much, though..."

"I can manage."

Fanner nodded.

"Okay. I'm going to touch you now."

As Fanner's hand brushed against his inner thigh and gently wrapped around his flaccid cock, Yore was glad he'd attempted to masturbate so recently.

Having that pain so fresh in his mind doused any arousal.

Getting an actual erection would have been one thing but getting semi-erect only to injure himself in the process would have been embarrassing on a whole other level.

[kitkatt0430]

Episode 18 of The Flash (90s edition) involves cloning somehow. And a clone of Barry specifically. Very interested :D

Oooh, they're trying to recreate the Flash's powers, whoever these guys are. And they seem to be succeeding... until the guy goes too fast and vibrates out of existence. Whoops.

They are, of course, more upset over the failed experiment than the dead guy, as evil scientists do. Well, one of them anyway.

They're trying to create super couriers and delivery boys. So I guess at least they're not trying to make super soldiers? Anyway, they decide they can make their speedy bois work if they use the Flash's DNA as the base for their clones. I mean, sure, why not, what could possibly go wrong with this highly unethical experiment of theirs?

Barry - I'm fine. Tina - You're burning out Barry. Over stressed. Slow down or I'm gonna make you shelve even more books.

She lists out a bunch of stuff he's done and he's like 'oh, yeah, totally not overdoing it'. And he's patched into 911. Tina's gonna throttle him, if he stays still long enough. :D

And of course, because Barry is too stressed and making mistakes, he gets hurt and bleeds the viscous faux-blood of Hollywood that the evil scientists need to make a replica of the Flash. Somehow the replica starts off as a baby out of nowhere and grows super fast to Barry's current age, hitting a few milestones on camera first. Also his hair is perfectly barbered the entire time. And he's well shaved.

Tina continues to tell Barry he needs to get sleep and practice self care. Barry continues to go 'but I'm a speedy boi who must save people'.

Clone Barry has the mind of a child trapped in the body of an adult with super powers. And... oh no, evil scientist is going into soldier making territory after all. Poor clone Barry. Oooh, they name him Pollux.

Evil scientist - fast as you can stack the blocks. Pollux - *stacks blocks slowly* *the blocks keep falling* *throws temper tantrum and finally taps into his speed*

and of course they don't see the temper tantrum as a bad sign. *sigh* evil scientists, what can ya do.

Barry's stress is now affecting his work as a CSI and he's starting to admit that he's being a bit childish and snappy over things.

Meanwhile Pollux has his blue suit now and he wants to go outside to play. Whether he gets permission or not. Aww, he found a playground. but the kids there don't wanna play. So he starts play on his own, of course right as Barry comes by with Tina. Time to meet the Clone Kiddo. :D

Evil scientists are not subtle, yet no one notices them tranq gun Pollux and drag him off. In plain sight. And now one of them is freaking out because he thinks Pollux is too smart and they should kill him. The other one? "I'm gonna sell him and factory manufacture more." And now Pollux is having an existential crisis. Poor guy.

Evil scientist - I'm gonna dehumanize you because i find you annoying. This will definitely not immediately bite me and my work partner on the ass. Pollux - I'm leaving.

So one of them tries to stop him and Pollux spins the guy to death. Looks dead, anyway. Scares the hell out of the other one. Then he heads out on the town to shop lift clothes and experience the real world. Apparently enough time has passed that the guy he killed has been reported in the newspaper.

Pollux has a crush on Tina. (Just like Barry does.) Aww. He's gonna bring her flowers.

Remaining evil scientist meets Barry Allen while shredding documents, immediately looks like a deer in the headlights because he thinks he's Pollux at first. Immediately starts lying about shit when he realizes that he's actually talking to the Flash. Barry steals the shredded documents and plays his organization game to put the papers back together.

Tina meets her new admirer. gets some pretty flowers. A lot of pretty flowers. She's like 'I'm gonna call Barry now'.

Pollux isn't evil, he's just so confused and wants to know who he is. And now he thinks he can become Barry and take over Barry's life. Too bad Barry didn't lead with the angle 'we're brothers now'. He might have gotten through to the guy that way. As Tina points out a little later, Pollux is basically an abused child.

It is eerie though, seeing Pollux go through Barry's lab and home, trying to restyle himself into his idea of who and what Barry is.

Pollux decides to go fetch his blue suit. And get a little revenge on the remaining evil scientist. Evil scientist shoots at Pollux who catches the bullet and throws it back.

Pollux makes it pretty clear he doesn't care who gets hurt while he learns to control his powers. Cue a fight between the Flashes in front of a mural of people in gas masks. It's weird. Then it turns out the evil scientist isn't 100% dead yet, tries to shoot Barry who has grown slow from over tiring himself... and Pollux saves Barry. At the cost of his own life. Tragic death scene... and then Pollux's body vibrates it's self out of existence, leaving behind a garishly blue suit.

A tragedy all around. *sniff* And it finally drives home for Barry that he needs to stop stressing himself out and live his life more carefully, just like Tina's been telling him. Lesson learned.

I do feel bad for Pollux. He was basically an overgrown toddler who no one bothered to teach compassion to. It's not really clear why he saved Barry - because there was a spark of Barry's need to save people? Or because Pollux genuinely couldn't understand that he and Barry were different people and registered the threat to Barry as a threat to himself?

My gosh that suit was really blue, though. Wow.

[lilaconion]

Both Can’t Stand Not Fighting

Crosshair x reader on Pabu

Crosshair, having agreed to return to Pabu with his brothers, didn't realise how incompatible he truly was with civilian life. He knew it would be hard but he'd at least expected to finally be able to sleep well. His new bed was a lot comfier than the bunks he'd lived in from birth and certainly a lot comfier than sleeping on whatever they could get their hands on out in the field. He finally broke and, instead of trying to sleep, he went on a night walk. He hadn't been expecting to hear faint music as he got closer to the docks. "If 'I love you' was a promise, would you break it, if you're honest?" A woman's voice sang from the speaker that the music came from. As he descended the steps, he saw the silhouette of someone and something in their hand that moved too fast for him to identify. He made sure to stay quiet, wanting to observe what the person was doing.

As he got the the bottom of the steps and sunk into the cover provided by the giant imposing walls. That was when he realised that he did actually recognise the person. Most of the people on Pabu had blended together but the woman was one he recognised without even being properly introduced to. The movements slowed and he finally saw that the thing she was handling was a stick around the same length as her height. She made it turn slowly in a clockwise direction on an open palm above her head whilst turning her entire body 180 in the anti-clockwise direction. She suddenly clenched the stick and slowly passed it down from her head to hips with intricate movements and bold flourishes. The more it passed between hands, the faster the stick got until it went back to the speed he'd seen it go before. The moon and its reflection on the ocean. The beautiful dock and the way the small amount of light lit everything perfectly. They were just little bonuses that Crosshair didn't care about much compared to watching the beautiful movements the woman made with the stick.

(Y/N) had a strange feeling for a moment that she was being watched. It being night made her ignore the feeling until she considered it might be the clone that had only been brought to the island some days prior. She paused and turned to the pillars and steps. She squinted for a moment before saying, "You can't adjust either, can you?" She hoped that it really was the new clone and not just empty space or, even worse, someone else. "Perceptive." A slow, cold voice teased. She laughed to herself a little. "Well, it'll be nice to have company for once." She walked to her speaker, turning it off and placing her stick next to it. "Crosshair, right?" He confirmed and took a couple of steps into the moonlight. She could finally see his face properly and looked into his eyes. They were tired like hers. "Well, Crosshair, let's sit." She made a point to enunciate his name fully.

They sat next to the water and after a while of silence (Y/N) started. “It was the separatists with me. Getting the people to cooperate was the only thing convincing them not to slaughter us all.” She looked away from the ocean and toward Crosshair. Upon seeing his questioning look, she continued. “I was the head of my planet’s honour guard. The separatists overthrew our republic loving leader and were ready to kill the rest of us to take our weapons technology. So I betrayed everything I stood for to save my people. I lied and supported them and all my people are dead anyway now. I became a traitor and they still died.” She moved a little closer to him and put a hand on his shoulder. “I know what it’s like to be a piece in their game.”

The tears that had already been brimming in Crosshair’s eyes overflowed with her last words. He wanted to talk to his brothers about it. He truly did, but every time he opened his mouth it felt wrong. Finally having someone that understood more than his brothers ever could, made him let the broken shards of his former-self fall. As soon as he started crying, he was embraced. He flinched a little at first before letting it out.

Over the following month, they’d spent most nights together. They’d talk, cry and simply be comforted by the presence of the other. They’d both even fallen asleep on the dock. Despite it being uncomfortable rock, the comfort of Crosshair’s arms and general presence had made it the best sleep she’d had in years.

One night, she finally had the confidence to go through with an idea she’d had. As Crosshair arrived at the dock, she grabbed his hand and pulled him along with her. He let out a confused grunt. “We’re going to fall asleep anyway. So we’re doing it on my bed.” She could’ve worded it better but the nerves didn’t allow her the full function of her brain. She was a little surprised when he didn’t even question it.

When they entered her home, she led him straight to her bed. Despite the initial slight awkwardness, they settled quickly as they had together for the past month. She let out a little contented sigh at having both her comfy bed and Crosshair. She felt his long, trained and deadly fingers gently stroke the side of her face. They pushed back some hair and she looked up at him. He looked down at her and something came over her. She pushed herself up and stole a quick kiss from the man in her bed. Before she could apologise, she felt his hands hold her face as if she was the most precious material in the entire galaxy. He slowly brought his head down and gave her a similarly innocent and soft kiss. The only difference was Crosshair’s kiss lasting longer. “I’ve wanted to do that for a while now.” She giggled a little, mostly excited. He moved in close and let his fingers gently dance across her cheek. “I’m going to kiss you again.” He warned and she brought herself closer to him, ready to be kissed again. She finally had her crush holding her on her bed.

From that night forward, Crosshair would sleep in (Y/N)’s bed and they would both finally be able to sleep well again.

[saturn-sends-hugs]

Thanks for the tag, Ace!!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

... 3... WAIT NO 4 omg ok it's 4. listen I'm a super slow writer and every sentence has to be dragged kicking and screaming out of the recesses of my brain. (the amount of started wips/ideas I have is an entirely different thing, though)

2. What's your total A03 word count?

52,268. Again, don't write much.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Star Wars (TBB, TCW, and Rebels), Hermitcraft, and the Life Series! (although I'm taking a break from SW rn)

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

HA top 5, anyway here's all four ranked: (pretty sure I can guess at this lol)

oh! I was wrong actually, first is

1. On the Reg

2. Slow Down

3. Hope is a lie

4. Arc Business

always surprised that people read On the Reg lol

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

YES!!! They're pretty much the main source of motivation for me to continue fics lol, and I love hearing people's thoughts! I know every time I leave a comment and get a response from the author, it always makes me smile too :)

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Hm well that's tricky, neither of said "angstiest endings" are written yet and the finished fics don't have angsty endings like at all. So I'd say either Slow Down (muahahahaha no spoilers), or surprisingly Arc Business, which is meant to end in a rush to save Echo's life. (Which now that I explain that, it isn't as descriptive as I thought it would be considering how most of my fics go. Huh.)

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

On the Reg!! They all cuddle and take a nap, it's great. And that's probably gonna be the happiest ending I ever write.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

No? I just don't really write ships or anything that clashes with canon or whatever, so it's all pretty tame and people are usually nice :)

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

nO. Absolutely not, nothing whatsoever against anyone that does, but I'm aroace and couldn't if I tried. The most I'll do is make the silly guys kiss, but even then, I'm autistic and will be gritting my teeth through the whole thing (it's for the STORY like it's so much better if they kiss but i don't know how to wRITE THAT)

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

Nope :/

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No thank goodness (and I'm not sure why anyone would)

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

if by "all-time favorite ship" you mean "the only ship you would write for" then I'd say Solidaritek (not rpf ofc), but I'll read things like Codywan, Scarian or OC stuff for sure :)

15. What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

oh. oh girl. listen... i have it all mapped out and it's just a matter of motivation, but... Slow Down is so far back on the back burner that I don't know if she's ever getting finished. I'm kinda just waiting for season 3 to come out and drag me into bad batch brainrot again, but until then, I'm taking a break from it. (really, Arc Business is the one I have no intention of really finishing lol)

16. What are your writing strengths?

um. dialogue? I think once I get someone's voice down, I can write pretty convincing banter without it being too far out of character? ofc, that's just in my opinion :D

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

procrastination. motivation, distractions, losing focus, etc etc, basically it takes me eons to write anything and nothing ever gets finished :/

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

If it's a fake/dead language like Mando'a or old Latin, then sure! If it's real, absolutely not, I'm not bilingual and would make a fool of myself if I tried (anyone who can translate/write in another language is an absolute god)

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Star wars :) On the Reg was literally the first piece of fanfic I ever wrote (yes I'm that new to this lol)

20. Favorite fic you've ever written?

Oh it's gotta be Slow Down, I'm super proud of that one and I like where the story is going so yeah! I feel like I made a lot of progress from my earlier works to there, and I think it shows :)

woooo this one was fun! no pressure tags: @floundrickthewayfarer and @inkstainedhandswithrings

20 Questions for Fic Writers

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

23 public but I’ve archived 26 so total of 49!

2. What's your total A03 word count?

344,609

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Star Wars! Specifically the clone wars and bad batch eras

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

I Bleed the Same (M)

Evenly Trimmed (E)

Phonetic Convergence (T)

Two Years to the Day (T)

Getting Some in the Gunship (E)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes! I love gushing with people who are excited about the same things that I am. Also to give my thanks for taking the time to read my works.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I guess the only one that followed canon where Wolffe makes it to where Rex and Ahsoka can’t have contact

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

All of them except the above mentioned

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not that I’m aware of! I do have a secret hater from afar though hehe

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I do!! And I’m not sure lol. The nothing-is-left-to-the-imagination kind? Copious use of the words cock and cunt? What do you want me to say?

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

No

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Also not that I’m aware of! ALSO ALSO! I just want to take this opportunity to say that fics that share ideas or tropes don’t count as plagiarism. Unless it’s a word for word verbatim copy, please touch grass.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes! It was such a good experience and I highly recommend!!

Sheevy SithDonald’s (E)

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Rexsoka!! 💙🧡

15. What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

All of the other longfic ideas I have lmao

16. What are your writing strengths?

I guess writing the thoughts of all characters present? Third person omniscient I believe

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Writing action scenes. Actually, anything that’s not romance or smut, I’m staring into the void of the google doc

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

In a fictional language? Sparse use of Mando’a can be fun! I’ve not yet attempted an irl language other than English

19. First fandom you wrote for?

…One Direction… please don’t look at me I do not wish to be perceived

20. Favorite fic you've ever written?

Evenly Trimmed (E)

Thank you @sleepingbeauty21 for tagging me! This one was really fun!!

No pressure tags @whyamismall / @maxrebofeetpics / @melting-houses-of-gold / @taylorswiftscar / @lamaenthel and whoever else wants to!