#arson and murder couple stay together

[thebansheeoflamordia]

decided to do the Smug Face on Booba meme for Chana Kairis and Sele'nis, a D&D character of mine and her wife! (not really wife she just never learned what the term girlfriend is)

[ilikethecolorredsstuff]

I have this idea that's eating my brain.

Sj's ex fiance knowing abt the abuse but acting clueless and so that sj would get attached to her and not leave her in that shitty household because he's the only normal person there.

Sj stays because he is waiting for yqy and she knows, so unconsciously she is also waiting for yqy but with dread cause when he comes back he'll take sj and she can't do anything abt it. Only one day sj has had enough and he sais he wants to go cultivate and obv she doesn't want him to go especially now that she has a way to tie herself to him.

he goes anyway and burns the household with him. And she is seething with rage cause why couldn't he just wait until her brother died or at least killed only the brother and she would've come up with something to hide the murder and keep the money, Now she has to go live on her own out of the riches ta3 the awful awful house.

After a couple of years she sees him again and besides yqy and she assumes they are together, and all that sadness and anger comes back ten folds so when ppl ask her how she knows sj she just sais he burned her house

Just to be petty, but then sj doesn't defend himself or correct her statement, and she feels miserable abt it because sj was always like this. he always fought just hard enough to stay alive never more and never less.

She becomes lbh's wife out of spite. and since it takes a lot to be a rememberable wife, she learns deamon cultivation and it works well for her. But then sj is being tortured and she can't bring herself not to care, but she's also too used to seeing sj suffer so she does nothing until yqy dies for him and she realises that yqy and sj did not work it out, and sj was miserable all this time so she uhh does something something, deamon magic, and boom. back in time to the day before the arson incident.

Will she make good choices this time? Who knows.

[boldlyvoid]

I Know Places 3: Omnivore

18+ Aaron Hotchner x Fem Reader | Masterlist | AO3 link

Summary: Reader thought that Aaron was depressed post-divorce and following the death of Kate Joyner... nothing compares to how he is dealing with the mass amounts of guilt surrounding The Boston Reaper.

Warnings: Canon Typical Violence (child sexual assault, arson, murder, burn victims, death), background moreid hurt/comfort, mutual pining, depression, suicidal thoughts/feelings, deep emotional chats, love confession, first kisses, lots of kissing

Word count: 8.1k

The last couple of months have been nice. Neither she or Aaron has gotten hurt, which is the best part, but it’s also been nice just getting closer to one another. They’ve continued their phone calls at night, they get dinner together sometimes after work, she’s met Jack and accompanied him and Aaron to the museum on one of Aaron’s weekends alone with him. Aarons has been over to her place, and even spent the night a few times now.

It’s been lovely, actually.

Something changed after the cult case. After she was held hostage and beaten pretty badly. He took care of her, he got closer to her than ever before… she can’t really remember much from that night right after the case, all she knows is she woke up in his arms again and she never wanted to leave.

They’ve shared a bed in every case since then.

As for the rest of the team; JJ had her baby, a little boy named Henry. He’s adorable. So, needless to say, JJ was out of the field for a while, other than that, not much has changed at work.

Something is defiantly going on with Reid and Morgan… Reid had his own special case just before JJ had her baby, he remembered a case from when he was a kid and thought maybe his dad was a killer or worse. Derek stayed back with him in Vegas to figure it all out, they bonded over it too. Having similar childhood trauma, Derek was the only one who could really talk to him about everything he went through as a kid. She was glad they had each other.

Penelope’s even been trying to get them all to go on “double— triple? … quadruple? Quintuple dates!!” Seeing as everyone in the BAU has a significant other now. JJ and Will never come because they have a baby, she and Hotch don’t go because the assumption that they’re a couple is still awkward for them as they haven’t admitted to the other that they even like each other yet. And Reid and Morgan are too busy having alone time together to go out in public yet.

And then there’s the ever-secretive David Rossi… Dave’s been talking to one of his ex-wives again. He’s been happier. He’s whistling in the mornings and not staying as late anymore. He’s definitely getting laid.

All this gossip is stuff that she and Aaron have talked about lately. They would stay up late, either on the phone or at her apartment, chatting about anything and everything… And at the end of the night, when he’s at her place, they’d get ready for bed together, he’d slip into her bed on the side she never slept on and they’d fall asleep, cuddled into one another. On nights he didn’t come over, however, they’d still get ready for bed together, their phones on speakerphone, and they’d talk until one of them started to drift off.

She loved this new tradition. So seeing it come to an end so soon, it broke her heart a little.

Aaron's lowest point wasn’t getting divorced. It wasn’t losing Kate Joyner. It was letting the Boston Reaper getaway. Again.

It all started with a phone call. Tom Shaunessy’s care nurse called Aaron one morning while they were on their way into the office, inviting him out to Boston as Tom was dying and this was his final wish. Aaron couldn't just say no, so that night after work, she drove him to the airport.

When he got back the next morning, she picked him up and he knew something was up. Something happened… at first, she thought he was there as Tom died, then they got to the office and Penelope handed him a copy of The Michigan Post from March 1998. As it would turn out, Shaunessy made a deal with a serial killer, he vowed to the Boston Reaper that he wouldn’t kill anymore as long as Shaunessy stopped hunting him. He agreed, the killings stopped and he sent Aaron and the rest of his team home.

As soon as Tom died, The Reaper killed again. A young couple first, an older couple second and then a bus full of people simply because Aaron wouldn’t take another deal from him. She was there when it happened. She was sitting beside him in their hotel room when he got the call.

At first, she thought there was another attack, they had only been at the hotel a few minutes. It was only 9 pm, normally he didn’t hit until later at night. She got out of bed to start getting dressed again as Aaron answered the phone. She watched his expression change almost instantly. The heavy breathing on the other end was loud enough for her to hear… it was The Reaper.

“Who is this?” “If you stop hunting me I’ll stop hunting them,” the deep, sinister voice started. “you think I’d take that?” Aaron spits back, pissed that he’d even suggest it to him. “It’s a good deal.” “I’ve misjudged you. I thought that you were smarter than this.” “You should take it.” “Then you’ve misjudged me.” “This is your last chance,” The Reaper says, audibly angry that it’s not going to be this easy this time. “I don’t make deals. I’m the guy who hunts guys like you,” Aaron says, stern and confident. Angry as all hell. “There are no guys like me.” “You all think that,” Aaron spits. “You’ll regret this.” “I’ll see you soon,” Aaron says and then slams the phone down on the receiver.

She doesn't say anything, she watches him run his hands through his hair and turn towards the window in their room. He’s watching them. He knows where they are. He finally turns to her, “This is going to get messy.”

“We’re used to that,” she reminds him. “They all make contact with the police, they insert themselves into the investigation every time. We know this.”

“I don’t think it’s going to be that east this time.”

-

They couldn’t go back to sleep. They waited and waited for another call- for the police to report another killing. Another couple in their car or a single woman stabbed a bunch of times the way he liked to do… what he actually did wasn’t at all what they were used to.

The Reaper was more than mad. He was furious that Aaron wouldn’t take the deal. It’s like he wanted the deal. He wanted a reason to stop but Aaron's words just made him need to kill even more. There were 7 people on the bus, including the driver. They were all shot multiple times and then the women were stabbed.

And when Aaron stepped onto the scene… when he saw what The Reaper did because of him, he almost threw up.

Rossi follows him around the side of a building, down an alleyway and away from the scene. Leaving Y/N and Morgan at the bus alone to check what was taken and what was left. There were numbers left on the window in blood 1488, 201, 1439. And The Reaper's calling card. An eye drawn in blood on the front window of the bus.

She heads around to find Aaron, wanting to ask what he thinks of the numbers when she finds Rossi handing him his gun. “You convinced me…” Dave explains.

Aaron pushes the gun away and wipes his eyes.

“No, no, you hung up on him. You practically killed them yourself,” Dave pushes even further. “Go ahead, get it over with. Don’t worry about us, we’ll get this guy without you.”

“Dave I had 10 years to do something about it!” Aaron fights back, trying to reason with him that his reaction is warranted.

“Shaunessy made the deal, the killing stopped, he closed the case and sent the BAU away. For 10 years you worked on active cases—

“But I kept coming back to this one,” he admits. “I kept coming back to this profile.”

“Hey, I was retired. Should I blame myself?” Dave pushes. “Is it my fault for every victim died while I was out on my book tours? Look. If you want to end up like Shaunessy, like Gideon, blaming yourself for everything, you go ahead. But that voice in your head is not your conscience, it's your ego. This isn’t about us, Aaron. it’s about the bad guys. That’s why We Profile Them. It’s their fault. We’re just guys doing a job. And when we stop doing it, someone else will. Trust me. I know.”

“You can put that away,” Aaron looks down at the gun and then back at Rossi. Neither one of them notice her and Morgan standing there, watching.

“You sure?”

“It’s a little dramatic, don’t you think?” Aaron manages to give him a little smile.

Before they turn towards them, he and Morgan rush back to the front of the building and pretend they never saw a thing. But she saw it. She saw the tears in his eyes and the hurt in his soul. This is going to affect him for a while.

“What did you find?” Aaron asks them once he rounds the corner.

“The bus driver has the wedding band taken from the male vic at the last attack,” Morgan explains. “But I can’t figure out the importance of the numbers on the windows?”

“Send them to Reid, he might know,” Aaron suggests.

“Wait…” Dave says as he looks through the windows. “I know those numbers?” He pulls out his little evidence book from his pocket and flips to the most recent page. “Those are the addresses to George Foyet’s apartments.”

Foyet, being a man they interviewed only yesterday. He was the only survivor of the original killings in 1998. He was stabbed over 67 times in the chest while in his car with his girlfriend… after the case, Foyet healed, he recovered and he disappeared. He essentially killed off every part of who he used to be, making himself somewhat of a ghost that even Penelope couldn’t track down. The only way they could find him was through another guy, Roy Colson who wrote a book on The Reaper and interviewed Foyet. He gave them three possible addresses for him.

1488 Edenhurst, 201 South Brookline, and 1439 Yarborough.

“Okay we’ll split up,” Aaron announces. “Me and Dave will take South Brookline, you and Morgan take Edenhurst, we’ll get the police to do Yarborough, let’s go.”

—

When they arrive on the scene, she heads around back and Derek kicks in the front door to clear the house. It’s scarily quiet and dark, she holds her flashlight up as she checks out the yard and heads towards the shed in the back. That’s when she hears it. With a loud crash, she holds down the talk button on her in-ears and speaks, “Morgan?”

No answer. She rushes around the front and see’s Derek laying on the ground surrounded by glass. He was thrown out the window and he’s unconscious. “I need medical assistance at 1488 Edenhurst, I have a federal agent down, I repeat, a federal agent is down at 1488 Edenhurst!”

She doesn’t approach him, she simply keeps her eyes out for The Reaper, her gun drawn, she keeps her back to the street and watches the house. “Come out here and face me like a man, you sick fuck!”

From behind her, she hears a laugh. Deep and dark like the phone call. She turns around in search of the voice but no one is there, she shines her flashlight on the street, across the neighbour's bushes and then she turns back to the house. He’s gone. Disappearing into the darkness of the night as the sirens are heard approaching the street.

She heads back over to Derek then, he’s coming to and trying to sit up. She holsters her gun again, “Hey, hey, it’s okay. Don’t move too fast, you have glass all in your shoulder.”

“Did you get him?” He asks.

“No. I heard him laughing at me, but he got away. I couldn’t figure out where he went, it was like he was right behind me but when I turned there was nothing… he-he just disappeared. Like a ghost.”

The paramedics are the first on the scene, they get Derek off the ground and inside Foyet’s house. They sit him down on the back of the couch for height and cut him out of his shirt so they can start pulling the glass from his shoulder. That’s when they find it.

He left Derek with a bullet. Unused, gold and shiny, in the pocket of his jeans. “What did he take?” Y/N asks.

“I don’t—” Derek looks around at all his things and then he realizes. “He took my credentials.”

“At least that’s all he took,” Aaron’s voice is heard from the doorway. “Are you okay?”

Derek nods, “I’ll be fine…”

Aaron heads off deeper into the house, she hasn’t left Derek's side so she hasn’t seen what state the house is in… “Y/N,” Aaron calls out to her. “Come see this.”

She follows his voice into the kitchen and that’s when she sees it. The whole floor is covered in blood, signs of a struggle and a drag mark leading out the back door. “I didn’t even notice the back door was open when I was checking out back? Holy shit…”

“He has Foyet,” Aaron says, confident that this is his blood and no one else. “He finally got him.”

Reid comes running onto the scene then, JJ not far behind him. He rushes to Morgan's side, “are you okay?”

“Reid,” Aaron calls out to him. “I need you back here.”

“Go, it’s okay,” Derek assures him.

Spencer walks right into the kitchen and stops dead in his tracks, “oh, wow…”

“How much do you think is here?”

“The average human has 5 quarts of blood in their system… I’d say this is close to half that. No one could lose this much blood at once and survive,” Reid explains.

“We need to regroup. Somethings off with the profile,” Aaron announces. “Why would he leave Foyet alive all this time just to get him now?”

“Foyet disappeared,” she reminds him. “Penelope said he was like a g— oh my god?”

“What?” Aaron asks.

“The Reaper, he was outside with me, he was laughing, I couldn’t figure out where he was in the dark and I said to Derek it was like I was looking for a ghost.”

Hotch rushes out of the kitchen towards the living room where the rest of the team is around Morgan. “Why would he go after Foyet?” Aaron poses to the team.

“I don't know?” Derek shrugs.

“He’s not a threat at all,” JJ says with a roll of her eyes.

“He kills men quickly and easily, but women and girls… the younger they are the more time he spends with them. He likes to stab. Stabbing represents a sex act. He likes them younger. Specifically teenagers… Amanda Bertrand, she was only 19. She was a freshman and he was her teacher's assistant,” Hotch explains. “Y/N said The Reaper was like a ghost, Penelope said the same thing about Foyet. What are the chances that both men would be sexually interested in teenagers and disappear easily?”

“The guys a hebephile,” Rossi states. “But how would he be able to stab himself 67 times and call 911?”

“He called 911 before he stabbed himself after he killed Amanda. That’s why he was the last victim, that’s why he disappeared, he had Shaunessy agree to the deal right after that. He both inserted himself into the investigation and made it so we wouldn’t think twice about him,” Aaron keeps going. “Get Penelope on the phone.”

JJ whips out her cell and starts the call, “Hey is Derek—

“He’s fine,” Hotch answers for him. “Penelope I need to know everything about Amanda Bertrand.”

“Oh, okay, uh,” she stumbles around, typing furiously. “She was 19, a freshman. She came to Boston from Michigan to go to school.”

“Michigan. That’s where The Reaper had Shaunessy put out the personal ad in the paper,” Hotch remembers. “what were Foyet’s aliases?”

“Kevin Baskin, Mark Holden and William Parker,” Rossi reads from his notepad.

“Garcia—

“got it, sir.”

“I need you to look them up in the Boston City Records— try the Department of Education,” Hotch asks.

“Well played sir, they all work for the Department of Education as substitute teachers… they all teach computer science—

“High school?” Hotch asks, knowingly.

“Yeah… oh wait,” Garcia pauses.

“What?”

“William Parker was fired for alleged inappropriate behaviour with his female students,” Penelope reads off her screen.

They all watch as Aaron stares off, remembering something that he isn’t sharing with the rest of them.

“Hotch?” JJ tries to bring him back to the conversation.

“Aaron,” Y/N reaches out for his hand. “What is it?”

“Colson. Foyet called him, he wanted to meet with him.”

“Garcia,” Dave is about to ask her to track his phone.

“I’m already on it,” She explains furiously typing away. “Give me one second to triangulate… okay, he’s at 2633 South Babylon.”

“Come on,” Hotch orders, stand-in up and reaching for his bulletproof vest again. “George Foyet is The Reaper.”

Getting out to their SUVs happens in the blink of an eye, and the police follow them in their squad cars. It’s only been 6 hours since the phone call. To hear the police rushing down the streets at 3 am, everyone in Boston knew something was going down. Everyone gets off the street, allowing them to race down the roads as fast as they could, rushing to the 1 house Foyet didn’t tell them about.

“How did this guy afford to rent 4 different homes in Boston?” Y/N asks. “Seriously, what kind of freelance computer guy makes that kind of money?”

“I don’t know,” Aaron shrugs, going 120 down the road, he’s not even really listening. He only cares about getting there before Colson’s death is on his hands too.

When they pull up to the house, Roy’s car is parked on the street and all the lights are on inside. There’s movement in the front window, behind the curtain, causing them to all head around back. Dave jiggles the back door handle and it opens, Hotch is the first one inside, gun drawn, clearing the room as they head around to the front room. There’s a clear view from the back door to the front door, Aaron and Rossi start slowly walking towards, it, blocking the exits so that they have him surrounded. He’s yelling at Roy, preoccupied with why it was never published that The Reaper made a deal with Shaunessy. He doesn’t even notice they’ve entered the house.

With Hotch and Rossi in front of him in the dining room, Y/N, Morgan and Reid make their way around to the little room behind the dining area, boxing him in so he can’t even think about running.

“It’s over,” Hotch makes their presence known.

“Stop!” Foyet yells, holding his gun to Roy’s head. “I’ll kill him.”

“You need him to write your story,” Hotch reminds him.

“I’m taking him with me, I’ll let him go as soon as I’m safe,” he tries to broker another deal.

“No, you’re not,” Hotch is so done with his shit that everyone can hear it in his voice.

“I said I’ll kill him!”

“You kill him, I kill you,” Hotch bites right back. Calmer than ever. He has the guy, he knows this is so close to being over.

“you think I’m afraid to die?” Foyet laughs in his face.

“You’re not afraid. You’re greedy and narcissistic. You want the recognition that’s going to come the book that he’s going to write. You want the fame that’s going to come from the media. It’s gonna be like Bundy,” Hotch profiles him right to his face.

“I’m going to be bigger than Bundy,” Foyet says with a smile.

“Well, you can’t enjoy it if you’re dead.”

“If you know me so well how come so many people had to die to bring you here?” He rubs it in, profiling Aaron right back and digging in where it hurts.

“It’s your choice, not mine. You’re the serial killer,” he reminds both himself and Foyet.

“That’s right,” he says, starting to lower his weapon. He turns back to Morgan and smiles. “Hello Derek,” he teases, putting his gun down on the table and in a rare turn of events, it’s Reid who grabs him by the back of the neck and pins him to the wall and begins to cuff him.

“Where’s my badge?” Derek asks as Spencer flings him around, holding him by the cuffs. Foyet starts to smirk and so Derek grabs his hair and tugs his head to the side, staring right at him now. “Where is it you son of a bitch?”

“I’m going to be more famous than you even realize,” he teases one last time before Spencer hands him over to the cops so he can be processed and booked into the nearest prison.

Once he’s out of the room, Aaron checks on Roy and Y/N and JJ let in the detectives. “Reach this place high and low, I want no stone gone unturned. Find me trophies, evidence, anything you can that can really get this fucker pinned and locked up for the rest of his life,” Y/N explains to them. “And if you find Agent Morgan's credentials, you know where to mail it.”

“Let's go home,” Aaron announces to the rest of them, taking his in-ears out and pulling on the Velcro strap of his vest. He’s so over this case.

—

The flight home isn’t too long. They touch down around 6 am and all head back inside the building together. Headed up to their floor, everyone is quiet. They’re exhausted, they can’t wait to file their paperwork and head home to sleep the rest of the day… they get about 20 minutes into their paperwork when JJ gets a call and goes running from her office, down to Aarons.

“Foyet escaped?”

Just then, their phones start to ring, the detectives called Y/N and she grabs Reid right away taking him to the fax machine, the one in her ear says that they found schematics to all electrical, water and heating ducts to every single correctional facility, prison and courthouse in Massachusetts. He was planning this for far longer than anyone thought. He knew this day would come and he was ready for it.

He was going to be bigger than Bundy… and Aaron had to find a way to live with that.

—

She notices a shift in him, this one is worse than after Haley served him the papers at work.

He wasn’t just depressed this time… he hated himself a bit now. He hated that he never gave the profile in ’98, he hates that he didn’t realize that The Reaper leaving a witness was weird. He hated himself for not watching George Foyet carefully as he was brought to prison.

He feels like everything is his fault.

She watches him stay later than ever, he misses nights with his son and they don’t talk on the phone anymore. His nose is constantly in his files, trying to find a way to figure out where George Foyet would be before he takes another life.

She walks up to his office one night, having left already just to grab some dinner, she returns only to make sure he eats. She knocks on his door, “Hey… hungry?”

He looks up at her from his files and he softens, “Starving… thank you.”

She places the bag on his desk, “You need to take care of yourself, too, you know? You can’t catch this guy if you’re withering away to nothing.”

“You say that as if you don’t love taking care of me?” He teases, knowing her way too well.

“Okay, whatever,” she jokingly rolls her eyes, taking both their meals out of the bag, she places his in front of him and then takes her own to the other side of the desk.

She went to a nice restaurant and ordered a meal she knew he would appreciate. A steak with a baked potato and steamed vegetables. He opens the container and he can’t believe it, “you didn’t have to get all this?”

“When was the last time you had a good meal?”

He thinks about it but genuinely doesn’t remember. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” she shoots him a sweet smile. “What are you working on?”

“A way to track Foyet,” he explains with a sigh. “I’m not getting too far.”

“That’s okay… you know you don’t have to look for him alone, right? It doesn’t just fall on your shoulders because you’re the only one still on the team from ’98.”

“I know,” he says between bites, hand over his mouth because it’s “impolite” to talk with his mouth full. “I just feel… terrible? He wanted to make a deal and instead of leading him on and continuing to look for him behind the scenes, I just made him angrier. He has to start over now, make new aliases, find a new place to stay, and figure out how to get all the millions of meds he takes without someone recognizing him from the news… I’ve made his life a living hell and he’s going to repay the favour. I know it.”

“You know serial killers don’t have rational thoughts, I mean, look at Ed Kemper, he really thought that he had to kill his mom's best friend because she’d be sad to learn her friend died and so her being dead too, stopped her from being sad… they don’t make any sense, you really can’t blame yourself for that,” she explains.

He just nods along, trying not to bring it back to himself. The self-pity is so strong, he really believes part of the weight needs to land on his shoulders.

“Why don’t we get out of here?” She suggests, “Just leave the files, leave the work here, let’s go eat our dinner somewhere else… we can eat in my car, we could drive somewhere or go to my apartment? Let’s just get you out of here for a while.”

“Yeah, yeah, let’s go,” he agrees, he stands up and puts the lid back on his container and she follows his lead. “But I’m driving and we’re taking my car…”

“Okay,” she doesn’t mind. “You’ll just have to bring me back to work tomorrow.”

“I can do that,” he agrees. “It’s not like we haven’t been carpooling after I spend the night for the last few months, anyway.”

He slips back into his suit jacket and grabs his bag and keys. He holds everything in one hand and she offers to take his food for him, he places his hand on her back and leads her out of his office. “How would you feel about staying at mine tonight instead?”

“I don’t mind at all, I just need to grab my go bag from my car,” she agrees.

They take his SUV, he drives them to his own apartment and for the first time ever, she goes inside with him. They put their food on real plates, warm them up in his microwave and sit at his tiny dining table.

“How long have you had this place?” She asks.

“I got it just after my suspension. Right after Haley threatened to leave me… I think she was already seeing someone else,” he admits.

“What?” She can’t believe that. “Why?”

“Someone called the house phone and when I picked up and answered… they hung up and called her cell instead. It wasn’t her mom or her dad, it wasn’t her sister either. I know all their numbers. Someone called expecting her to be home alone during the day and when I answered, it threw them off. I knew that whoever they were was a secret she was keeping from me and she knew I knew it too.”

That just makes her angry, “I can’t believe she could even entertain the idea of cheating on you.”

“I’m not that—

“Stop talking down about yourself. You’re handsome, you’re a wonderful dad, you’re funny and kind and you care. I mean, you watch the boring TV shows I like just so we can talk about it together. I’d kill to have a husband like you and she just threw it all away? And for what? Have you ever met the guy? Has Jack?” She rants, visibly angry.

“I’ve asked, she won’t tell me,” he answers the last two questions but smiles because of the rest of it. “Thank you… you know, you’re pretty nice to know too.”

“Just pretty nice? I buy you steak and nurse you back to health and I’m just pretty nice?” She teases.

“Fine, I think you’re—“ they’re cut off by his cell phone ringing in his pocket. He takes out his phone and see’s JJ’s number. “Where are we headed?”

—

They get pulled out to Royal, Indiana for an arsonist case that’s claimed over 31 bodies so far. Aaron's stress level was already at an all-time high, watching people die again is just making it worse. He’s angry, he’s being a bit of an asshole… he even snapped at Penelope of all people.

And he’s not the only one in this mood, the whole town is pissed. That’s to be expected, they’re losing family and friends and memories to fire. First the rec centre, then the movie theatre and just today, the local bar. The bar fire is the most important to the investigation, seeing as he didn’t go after a larger crowd of victims, which means he’s going after individuals. They just have to figure out which victim it was.

Nancy, the bartender, she lived… she’s just barely hanging on, but still available for questioning. Aaron goes to see her. This is the second time he’s held a woman’s and hand stayed with her while she’s died of extreme burns and smoke inhalation.

At the station, Y/N and Reid are sitting together, going over the victims' lives with Penelope.

“I’m worried about Aaron,” Y/N whispers to their small group.

“He’s going to be okay,” Spencer shrugs it off. “We all have cases that hurt more than others, it sucks for a while but then you either catch the guy or enough time passes that you build some scar tissue and forget about it.”

“What if he never forgets about it? We’ve seen cops go through this. Something happens and they feel so guilty, like if they were there 10 minutes earlier or if they did something different, it eats at them and then they die too,” she whispers, her heart aching for him. “We need to intervene at some point. We can’t let it get worse… what Rossi did- handing him his gun- that only worked because he got embarrassed around a coworker. What happens when he goes home and he’s alone and it all catches up to him? What if he doesn’t show up to work one day and it’s because he’s killed himself? What do we do then?”

Reid gets up and pulls her into a hug, “Hey, hey, don’t think like that.”

She rests her chin on his shoulder and lets out a sigh. “I love him, Spence, I can’t lose him.”

“You loving him is exactly what he needs to stay here,” he reminds her, rubbing her back, soothingly. “Let him know, spend more time with him, get him to talk. You’re good at that. You’re warm and inviting and he’s going to want to tell you things. Listen, keep his secrets and let him know you love him… even if you just tell him it’s friendly, either way, I think he’s going to appreciate it.”

She pulls back and she nods, wiping her tears from her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, you’re right.”

“When am I ever wrong?” Spencer teases, trying to make her laugh a little. He succeeds, she giggles and swats his arm lightly. “You know, it’s really nice being friends and going through stuff at the same time… I didn’t think I’d have anyone to talk to when I eventually fell in love.”

Her heart soars for him, “oh, Spence, really? You and Derek?”

He nods, “Yeah…”

“I’m always free to talk whenever you want to,” she reminds him.

“I know,” he smiles. “Now come on, we should call Penelope and at least start a theory before they all return. I don’t want them to think all we did was gossip this whole time.”

—

At the end of the case, they’ve caught a killer but they don’t feel good about it. So many lives were ruined, it could’ve all been avoided years ago if people knew how to treat children kindly… that’s the case for so many of these killers. They’re raised through terrible events in their childhood, events that shaped them into monsters and nothing could stop them from wreaking havoc on a small town just like this.

They take the plane home late that night, she drove in with Aaron so he has to drive her home, too.

It’s a quiet drive. She can tell he’s stuck in his own mind and she wants to ask what’s going on in there but she can’t get the words to come out. Instead, when he pulls up at her apartment, she reaches out for his hand, “Come in with me?”

“Okay,” he agrees quickly.

They barely slept the last few days, scared that their hotel would go up in flames if the arsonist knew they were in town and trying to stop him… so Aaron looks tired. Exhausted, even.

They get out together, she walks around the front of the SUV and he meets her there. She takes his hand and she leads him inside. They kick their shoes off at the door, she helps him out of his suit jacket and hangs it up on the coat hook. He undoes his tie and the first couple of buttons and she smiles, “You want a drink?”

He shakes his head. “I just want to get in bed.”

“Okay,” she doesn’t mind either way. She leads the way down to her bedroom and he’s right there behind her.

He’s been over so much lately that some of his things are still there. She’s done a load of laundry and washed a few of his nightshirts and boxers that he’s left in the bathroom after his morning showers. He always comes out smelling like her shampoo, so she went out and got his usual body wash to keep in there, so she can have his smell back on her sheets. She’s worn his shirt to bed a few times too… she just loves him and when he’s not around she wants to pretend that he is.

She sets out some of his things on the bed while he’s in the bathroom, he has a toothbrush in there too… he could move in if he wanted and she’d be fine with it. More than fine with it. She never wants him to leave.

She changes in her closet, it’s pretty big— a walk-in closet, actually. She hangs up her suit on the “has to go to the dry cleaners” side and changes into her pyjamas before she heads back out into her room.

He’s already changed, standing there in his underwear, looking through her bookshelf, trying to pick out something to read in bed while she watches her show… it’s just what they do.

“What one are you going for tonight?” She asks.

“Hello Sadness,” he says, holding it up for her. “Where’d you get this?”

“Spencer,” she says with a smile. “He said that one is the best translation from the original version. bonjour tristesse.”

“Did you like it?” He asks.

She nods, “It’s good, it’s about a girl and her father who live in France, her dad has been a widower for a long time and his late wife's old friend comes to stay with them. They fall in love and his daughter is scared that everything about her life is about to change… the plot twist at the end is a lot though, you might not like it.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” he smiles at her and makes his way over to her bed. To his side. His phone is already plugged in and resting on that night table and his watch is right beside it. It’s like he’s really made himself a home here.

She climbs in bed beside him, forgetting the TV remote for her little tv over on the dresser… so she snuggles into Aaron's arm and reads along with him. Page after page, they read in tandem, sometimes he even reads parts out loud. Things that caught his eye and stood out to him.

“I have loved to the point of madness. That which is called madness. That which to me is the only sensible way to love,” Aaron whispers.

She hum, barely awake, “I liked that line the first time too…”

“It’s so true,” he says with a sigh.

She just snuggles in more, “You been in love a lot?”

“3 times,” he says, closing the book for the night and placing it on the night table.

“I’d say the same,” she says, including him in the equation.

Aaron turns off the lamp light on his side and the two of them settle down against the pillows in the darkness. “Love is strange.”

“You’re telling me,” she teases.

She rolls to her side and he snuggles into her back, the way they always slept together. “When was the last time you were in love?” He asks, and he sounds hesitant.

Maybe this is the time to tell him. Maybe Spencer was right. Maybe telling him could soothe his soul and make him feel more at ease. Anxiety pools in her stomach and she’s been quiet for too long now… but she says it. “I’ve been in love for a while now. Almost a whole year now, I think?”

“Oh,” he acts like he’s surprised. “I’m sure he’s a lucky man.”

“He is. He’s strong and confident but he’s also soft and sweet. He’s so good to me, he’s so good at his job and he’s a great father too…”

“wait—

She rolls around to face him in the dark. Taking a leap of faith. “I love you, Aaron.”

“Really?” He doesn’t believe her at first.

She nods, reaching out she places her hand on his cheek, barely able to see him in the dark but she can see enough. “Even if you don’t want me to… even if you rather we be friends. I love you.”

“I-I-

“It’s okay,” she cuts him off. “You don’t have to say anything. We can pretend this didn’t happen if you want. I just… I don’t want things to change again. I was so scared in New York, I thought I was losing my best friend and then you got hurt and this thing between us got stronger… and then we went on that little trip. And then I got hurt and—

“You told me you loved me that night,” Aaron whispers. “You were high on the medicine I gave you and you were falling asleep but you said it. I wanted it to be true so bad, but I never said anything.”

“Oh,” she had no idea. Truly never remembered a thing. “Is that why we kept getting closer?”

He nods. “I don’t know how long I’ve loved you.”

Her eyes widen her heart speeds up, “really?”

“Trying to be in charge of hostage rescue knowing you were in there almost killed me,” he whispers. Still affected by it. “Hearing him hurt you… not knowing where you were in the compound… Derek and Dave had to keep reminding me I couldn’t storm the place myself just to get you back.”

“Oh.” She doesn’t know what else to say. “I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” he assures her. He rolls back onto his back and pulls her in closer, she rests her cheek on his chest and he holds her hand where it rests on his stomach. He kisses the top of her head. “You’re my best friend too, you know?”

“I figured,” she teases, holding him close, she smiles to herself. It’s hard to believe this is real and she isn’t dreaming. “So what does this mean for us?”

“I don’t want anyone to know,” Aaron whispers. “Not because I’m ashamed or anything… but with The Reaper out there, with him saying he’s going to make my life a living hell, I can’t risk it.”

“We’re going to find him,” she says, confident in the team. “I need you to know that. I need you to believe that this isn’t your fault and I need you to remember that what he does doesn’t fall on your shoulders. No matter what he does.”

“It’s easier said than believed,” he whispers.

She gets off him and reaches over to the lamp on her bedside table, she flicks it on and sits up, staring at him. “I am so scared to lose you over this. After what happened after the bus— with Rossi, and-and after the way you’ve been so withdrawn and honestly… you’ve been kind of a dick to everyone but me, Penelope especially. I can’t have you being mad all the time, I can’t deal with the thought that a case is going to send you over the edge and I’m going to find you dead in your apartment one morning. I can’t do it,” she cries. “I can’t lose you over this.”

“Hey,” he sits up and tentatively puts his hand on her knee. “I’m not going to do anything like that. I promise.” He wipes the tears from her cheeks, “am I disappointed in myself? Yes. Am I going to kill myself over it? No. Never. I’m not going to do that to you or the team or my son. Believe me, I know I’m going to get over this. I know we can catch this guy, but the anticipatory dread I’m feeling, this anxiety, it’s not just going to go away until we catch him. I’m not going to feel okay again until he’s either behind bars or dead.”

“You can talk to me about it,” she reminds him. “Always. I’m never going to push away your feelings or make you feel small. I won’t think less of you or tell your secrets to the others. What we have is special, I’d never break that. I want to be there for you.”

“And that’s why I fell in love with you,” he admits.

Her bottom lip sticks out a bit more as she pouts at him, “Really?”

He nods, “Yes, really… can I kiss you?”

She places her hand on his shoulder and lifts her leg over his lap so she can sit in it, her hands resting on both his cheeks now. “You can kiss me whenever you want to.”

His hands come around to cup her lower back and cradle the back of her head, he pulls her in closer and presses their lips together softly. She never thought she’d get to kiss him… but she has imagined it many times. This is even better than anything she could’ve ever conjured in her mind, alone in the middle of the night.

His lips are soft, his hands are so big and his chest against her own is so inviting. Her hands drop from his cheeks, down his neck, she drags them over his shoulders and then down his strong arms. She feels him up as he kisses her over and over again. Soft pecks at first, he finally licks along her bottom lip, inviting her in for more.

His hand cupping the back of her head comes around to caress her jaw, he traces his fingers down her neck and stops right at the hem of the neckline of her shirt. She pulls back then, breathless and anticipating more, “you can touch me,” she whispers against his lips, stealing more kisses. “You can have me.”

“Have you?” He smirks, trying not to laugh.

“I’m yours now,” she says, feeling drunk on his kiss. “Keep me, touch me, love me, whatever. I’m yours.”

He smiles into another kiss, “All mine you say?” He whispers before kissing her jaw and down her neck. His hand continues down, cupping her breast gently before resting at her side.

She tilts her head back, letting him have more space to kiss… his lips feel so good on her like they were always meant to be there. He starts to go lower, kissing over her shirt, right where her heart would be in her chest. “I want to kiss you everywhere, every last inch of you.”

She reaches for the hem of her shirt, pulling it up and over her head, “keep going.”

He lays her back against the bed then, her head resting on her pillow, he kneels between her legs and hovers over her. He stares into her eyes for a moment and then starts to look at her naked chest, “you’re so beautiful.”

“Thank you,” she can’t help but smile.

He leans in and kisses her shoulder and all the way down her arm until he grips her wrist and holds her hand to his mouth. He kisses every finger on her right hand and then reaches for her left, doing the same before kissing his way back up to her shoulder. Across her collarbones, down the centre of her chest. He spends equal amounts of time with each boob, making her smile to herself, suppressing a laugh at just how much attention he gives them. But he is a man after all… then he hugs her hips and runs his cheek over her tummy, caressing her gently before he kisses her right beside her belly button and over to her hip.

Loving every inch of her just like he said he wanted to.

She basks in it, the soft touch of his kiss, his calloused hands, his coarse, barely there, beard against her… it's more intimate than anything she’s ever experienced in her life.

This is what love is supposed to be like. She was always meant to be loved by Aaron Hotchner.

He keeps her shorts on, pushing each loose pant leg up to her underwear line to get as much surface area as possible. He kisses all down her thigh, grips under her knee and lifts her leg up to kiss all the way down to her ankles. “Don’t tell me you’ve got a thing for feet…”

He smirks, shaking his head, “I don’t,” he whispers, kissing the side of her foot before laying her leg back down. He grips her at her other ankle, kissing the side of her foot and once again repeating the same pattern as the last leg, just backwards. He gets all the way back up to the hem f her shorts, pushes them up and kisses her underwear line. She sucks in a sharp breath, wishing he’d take a risk and peel her out of her shorts… and then he kisses her right over her shorts, smack-dab in the centre of the mound of her vagina and looks up at her. “Roll over.”

She listens, carefully getting not her stomach, he places a knee on either side of her thighs, boxing her in, and moves her hair over, off her back and to the crook of her neck. He leans in, kissing her one shoulder blade over to the other and then starts down her spine. Once he has her all covered, he wraps a hand under her, holding her close as he presses his body weight onto her. He kisses her shoulder again and then rests his cheek there. “I love you.”

“I love you, more,” she whispers back to him.

He gets off her and lays on his side, facing her. “Are you tired now?” She asks.

He nods. “Can I have just one more kiss?”

She sits up a bit, switches off the lamp and moves in closer to him, rests her hand on his cheek and kisses him softly. Again and again and again until the last thing either one of them remembers before falling asleep is the taste of the other's kiss.

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[bullet-prooflove]

3500 Follower Celebration: Culture - Wade Grey x Reader

Tagging: @kmc1989 @ravennaortiz @anime-weeb-4-life @hellostickerdoodle

You learned early on in your career in the LAFD to stand up and take your medicine. It’s a byproduct of working in a male dominated environment, one where sexism is still institutionalised. It’s not as bad now as when you were coming up but Wade’s heard the stories. He knows about the Lieutenant who’d harassed you, the one who’d chased you out of your last firehouse because he wouldn’t take no for an answer and when you’d reported him, it had been swept under the rug as if nothing had happened.

You’ve rose up through the ranks since then, switched over to arson investigations. You’ve poured blood, sweat and tears into your career over the years and it shows in your diligence and efficiency. You have a clearance rate that is second to none.

It’s when you take on a case in Lieutenant Waldron’s district that things become probmatic. You haven’t been back in the locality since you’d left but you’re covering for another investigator whose on sick leave when you get the call. It’s apparent from the get go that Waldron hates having you on his patch, it gets worse when you contradict his version of events regarding the fire you’re looking into. The comments, the taunts, the sexual advances you let them all wash over you because once this case is over you won’t have to deal with him ever again.

It’s Nolan that tells Wade what’s going on, he hears it from Bailey who has a couple of friends in that firehouse. They’re the type of people who are sickened by the things that Waldron says about you, who are willing to go on record if you need it.

“You need to report it.” Wade tells you that night as the two of you make dinner together. He’s stirring pasta sauce on the stove as you chop peppers on the wooden board. “Nobody deserves to be treated this way…”

“I did that the first time. They basically told me to suck it up.” You remind him as you focus on the task at hand. “It got worse after that.”

Wade pauses because that’s the part you haven’t told him. He thought you’d transferred out when they’d told you they weren’t going to investigate. He hadn’t realised you’d tried to stick it out.

“How did it get worse?” He asks you, his palms coming to rest on the counter.

The line of your jaw tightens and your gaze stays fixed on the chopping board in front of you, the rhythmic sound of the knife slowing.

“Did he hurt you?”

“No.” You say quietly, your grip on the knife tightening, your knuckles turning white.

“But he put his hands on you.”

You tilt your head in concession and Wade feels something murderous rush through him.

“Has he done it since?”

“I carry a gun these days remember?” You say as you resume your chopping.

“Baby, stop.” Wade says quietly, his hand coming to rest on yours, stopping your motions. You set the knife down before you turn to face him and Wade sees the exhaustion in your eyes, the sadness, frustration. You’ve been dealing with this for days now and you haven’t breathed a word of it, it’s part of the culture. That’s why shit like this is so insidious, it wears on you, erodes you.

“You are so strong.” He tells you, his palm cupping your cheek. His thumb ghosts along the apple of your cheek and you exhale for what feels like the first time in days. “But you don’t need to carry this by yourself anymore.”

His forehead comes to rest upon yours, a show of solidarity. He wants you to know he’s here if you need him, that it isn’t like the last time, you aren’t alone.

“I know it’s hard.” He whispers and he does. He’s been on this road before, he knows how tough it is to make this decision, risk your career or stay the course. There’s no winning here. They both come with their own risks. “I’m here for you, no matter what you decide.”

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Like My Work? - Why Not Buy Me A Coffee

[carewyncromwell]

“Hey, Dad, look at me: Think back, and talk to me -- Did I grow up according to plan?”

~“Perfect (cover)” by At Sunset

x~x~x~x

animation made with EZGif // my other accompaniment while drawing this

x~x~x~x

Um... “happy” Father’s Day, everybody? 😅 Here’s some Jacob Cromwell content to mark the occasion -- specifically Jacob content that also features his estranged father, Evan Bach!

Those of you who are familiar with Jacob and Carewyn’s backstory are probably already aware that Evan was a pretty poor father. He tried continuously to shape Jacob in his image and only vindicated the opinions of others labeling him as a “delinquent”; he actively plugged out of his daughter Carewyn’s life from an emotional perspective, leaving her to be raised solely by her mother and brother; and worst of all, he abandoned his wife Lane and their children after the arrival of Jacob’s Hogwarts letter, unable to accept that his wife had lied to him about her and their children’s magic for so long and not wanting any part of the Wizarding World he’d have to join to be part of their lives. But at the same time, I never saw Evan as an inherently bad person, so I wanted to explore the generational trauma that both Evan and Jacob suffered through, and how it ultimately shaped them as people.

Evan Bach was the only son of Josef Bach, the son of a German immigrant raised largely by his uncle Jakob after the death of his father in the first World War. Josef learned from an early age how to lie to stay out of trouble with both his uncle and the authorities, and coupled with his chronic alcoholism, this led to him getting involved with a lot of petty crime. Josef’s childhood sweetheart Margie thought that having a family might help coax Josef to stay at home with her more, rather than spend his nights at speakeasies and pool halls, and at first, it seemed to work -- Josef wanted to put on a good face for his wife and newborn son, so he tried to hide his more illicit behaviors from them. Then Britain entered World War II, and Margie was forced to take one-year-old Evan out of Westminster and into the countryside to safety, leaving her husband behind. Soon Josef fell head-over-heels into organized crime, which actually flourished during the Second World War in Britain with most legal authorities having to focus on the war effort, and he soon became very rich working as an “enforcer” for a prominent London gang who participated in dozens of protection rackets. All the while, Josef wrote letters to his wife and son claiming he’d used that Ivy League education he’d convinced Margie he’d gotten somehow to land a job for the British government, and that with the profits he was making as part of the war effort, he’d bought them a huge house on an acre of land that they’d be able to enjoy together once the War was over. For Evan, who had next to no memories of his father aside from what his mother told him, he clung to these written lies enthusiastically, endlessly proud of the man he thought his father was and looking forward to the day that he and his mother would finally get to return home and meet him.

Sadly, while in the country, Margie became very sick and died in the winter of 1943, just before the end of the War. Following his wife’s death, Josef became all the more devoted to his gang life, and soon extortion, arson, and murder became everyday occurrences. Even so, on those few occasions when Josef would speak to his young son Evan on the phone, he’d lie about the weird noises and explosions the boy would hear in the background, saying that he’d be there to pick the boy up when he returned to Westminster and he’d take them home to their beautiful (and completely fictional) house outside the city. When the War was over, though, Evan did not find his father waiting for him at the train station, but instead his great-uncle Jakob -- for Josef, it turned out, had been lying to a lot more people than just his wife and son: he’d also lied to his bosses that he had no wife and children. And in order to keep up that charade, he couldn’t have Evan live with him -- so Josef asked "Uncle Jakob” to pick Evan up and take him in instead. The revelation of Josef’s lies and subsequent abandonment shattered Evan in a way he had trouble articulating to anyone, though he tried to once, when confiding in his future wife, Lane --

“I know what you mean. About your father, I mean. ...My father...wasn’t like yours, really. He was a crook, a liar...a petty criminal, in every way. ...But I know what it’s like, seeing the love other people seem to have for their kids and just wondering, ‘...Why? Why didn’t I have that, why couldn’t I have that? Why does my father have to put himself, and his wants, and his vices, first, instead of his family? Why isn’t he like those parents who, when faced with a tough choice, always choose their kid? ...Why didn’t he choose me...?’”

Not long after, Josef’s lies and crimes finally caught up with him, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment for all of the violent crimes he’d gotten wrapped up in. And so Evan was raised by his great-uncle, who desperately tried to take advantage of his “second chance,” raising the orphaned son of the boy the old man had raised as a son himself, and teach Evan to live an upstanding, honest life. Evan was so haunted by the corruption of his father through his addiction to alcohol, his proclivity toward violence, and his pathological lying that he was determined to be a man who would provide for his family the right way -- one who would be a proper role model for them, who would model the correct way to behave and instruct them about how to do the same. A man who wouldn’t let his son throw his whole life and potential away the way his father did.

Unfortunately Evan’s rosy view of fatherhood was complicated when his son -- named “Jacob” for the man who had largely raised him and had passed away five years previously -- ended up being both a wizard and a completely different person than Evan himself was. For as conventional and people-pleasing as Evan was, Jacob was opinionated and eccentric. For as rule-abiding and respectful of authority as Evan was, Jacob was rebellious and irreverent. For as uptight and conservative as Evan was, Jacob was wild and sometimes even violent, when provoked. Add to this Jacob’s distinct disinterest in any of the classic “father-son” activities Evan had envisioned them doing like fishing, playing catch, and going to sports games, as well as the boy’s frequent “misbehavior” (in truth outbursts of underage magic) that would get him into trouble at school, and Evan honestly didn’t know what to do to alter his son’s course. And because of his departure, Evan never saw just how hard his son worked to get top grades at Hogwarts, only to have his life upended by Lane’s father Charles and his criminal organization R and get locked in a magical portrait for seven years. Evan also never saw Jacob pull off the best, “underdog”-style comeback imaginable and graduate the school he’d been expelled from with honors so as to become a world-renown freelance cursebreaker and magical researcher. Nor did Evan ever see just how loyal, heroic, brilliant and loving of a man Jacob ended up becoming, even without his father there to mold him into what he thought he should be.

But perhaps, in a sad way, that’s the way things had to be. Evan had no desire to be part of the Wizarding World, the place where Jacob felt more complete and “himself” than anywhere else. He had no desire to lie to the people around him or to live a life outside of the straight and narrow path that had helped him move past his father’s tarnished legacy. He’d wanted to give his wife and children what he hadn’t had -- a stable, peaceful, middle-class life in Westminster, where they could just live normal, modest lives and grow into normal, upstanding people with normal, respectable careers. He’d failed in that...and ultimately, Lane -- the woman he loved, who chose him over her abusive family, who he cherished so much for having chosen him, over any other man in the world -- had chosen their son over him. Just as Jacob chose Lane over him...just like how their daughter would’ve chosen Jacob and Lane over him, if she’d had the choice. It’s not like Evan could’ve molded her any better than Jacob, even if he’d tried -- Lane said she was just as “normal” as she and Jacob were. And if Evan had stayed, it no doubt would’ve been out of duress, rather than out of sincere loyalty -- for how could he not resent a woman who he bared his heart and soul to and worked day and night to provide for, only to find out she had lied to him from the very beginning? Would he then only be a pocketbook for his family -- someone to write the bills every month, rather than someone to lead, protect, and guide them in being upstanding members of society? Someone for them to respect, love, and be devoted to, the way upstanding families were supposed to? Was he just meant to accept this life he’d never chosen for himself -- a life where he had to bow to the whims of the rest of his family, just because they had these bizarre, mysterious powers he didn’t have anyway to curb or restrain?

So perhaps Evan leaving ended up being the best outcome for all parties, however cowardly and cruel it was. If nothing else, the Obliviators assigned to keep tabs on Evan after his departure never found any evidence that he tried to expose Lane’s magic or the Wizarding World to any of his friends, associates, or remaining family, or even to the Muggle authorities. He never even made up any stories explaining away his departure to cast Lane in a bad light or absolve himself of blame -- not of her having an affair, nor of her being involved in any criminal activity, impropriety, or abuse. On the contrary, Evan always shut down any accusations of that nature, whenever anyone would suggest them.

“Lane lied to me,” was all he’d ever say. “That’s all it was, and that’s the last I’ll say about it.”

It seemed that, no matter how much Lane’s betrayal had hurt him and how much he resented how their children had chosen to follow her down a path far removed from the upstanding society he’d so wanted them to contribute to, as he did, Evan was an honorable enough man that he refused to tarnish his ex-wife’s name with lies and false accusations. For however poor of a father he was to Jacob, and however justified Jacob might be to hate the man, that honor at least can be respected.

[space-apples]

HIYAAAA FOLKS !!

my summary, mixed in with some of the screenshots i have :D

i was in the caves during the beginning after zera came to give me a pity life (/lh/hj/thank u for the life), trying my best to get out, then found ed, five, and elle. ed died previously before and quickly returned to the base where we were and five asked how he died and he said he was pushed. i then asked who and ed went "who do you think?" and killed elle D:

anddddd i got very angry so i left them alone after clarifying that me and five were still okay, i just hold grudges so i wont be friends with ed.

i wandered around for a while, almost dying a couple of times before finally coming across the Sillies of The Sand (consisting of brandy, wilm, elle, and of course me), who were making an underground area to hide from the mobs at night.

yet again we were scared of nighttime so we built a really shitty 5 x 5 cobblestone house (beloved) and stayed there. shenanigans may have ensued with putting wilm inside a hole in the wall with a block in front of him. me and brandy also joined the hole and elle started throwing bamboo at us for “enrichment.”

the night went like that basically the entire time, and when the next day passed, Space didn’t want to stay inside and instead went to attempt to build the Silly Gang’s house.

i came back when i got to half a heart, and when healed, i realized they were all out of food, and tried to go back outside to get some and then died from a husk.

at spawn, Lads of The Valley (stiff, phil, moth, bee) and wilm greeted me, and i was given a flint and steel, and set lots of things on fire— including accidentally myself. me and wilm watched phil commit arson all the way back to their base, and i put out the fire that they attempted to make on the Boatem Birdies’ (zera, jay) boatem pole.

uhhh then i just got super confused about everything lmfao, but melou gave brandy a clock !! so i offered an alliance with them, then watched melou getting brutally murdered by stiff. knowing that he’s not good at pvp, i stole some of their crops instead and got caught by stiff.

i then left the group after that to actually start building the house, and it was a very peaceful time compared to rest of the session. i did almost die from a skeleton, but it was fine. brandy got killed and i went to see if they were alright, and we traveled together back to the desert area. brandy left me to look for the lads, i stayed where i was lmao and kept preparing to build. brandy came back eventually and said they couldnt find any of them. annnnd then the session ended.

[llycaons]

couple of mirrors - ep3. this ex-military bitch is insane (affectionate)

why is a-wan at the book signing? didn't she get fired and then shot in the head? we know it's not a flashback bc yw knows hong mei's name

WHY DID YW SHOOT A-WAN...

also, why is hong mei dead? is it really a random tragedy? that kind of makes it feel a little meaningless you know. plotwise

why the fuck did he need photographs of an actual dead girl to do his trick. like this is eerie but I don't think a few seconds lost would have saved her life

this plot is weak as fuck I'm afraid

okay a voiceover about how he's a bad person and buys children. but from WHO?

AW YEAH BEAT HIM UP

WEAPONS REVEAL YESSSS

god I'm so confused. why is xyy acting like she doesn't know and things are back to normal? why is a-wan acting like the affair is still a secret?

OHHHHH. NO. this is a flashback to the first episode. the hong mei stuff was ALSO in the flashback

I HATE when shows do this! I can't settle into a scene if I don't know when it's happening! and then being disoriented or confused or thinking a scene is happening at a different time than it is just screws up my experience of the episode even retroactively

I wouldn't be so confused if ALL this happened in one episode. but the hong mei scenes happened last episode! and going from character a in one timeline to character b in ANOTHER timeline is really hard to track! if you're going to flashback, either make it its own episode or stay with the SAME character if you're not going to explicitly state a flashback is happening, or indicate it through the setting

HERE IT IS...at all came together quite nicely honestly

ah, the classic abduct and torture. girl of course he's not going to confess...how do you know this woman is guilty just based on the word of a man trying to save his own skin?

wait the first time we saw her in the show, she came directly out of a room she was torturing a guy in? that's hilarious

NOT SETTING THE FOOD ON FIRE...YAN WEI 😭

I wish yw and xyy like. would look at each other. I'm barely getting anything here. with such a short series, they should really start in on the lingering staring at each other more. yw may be stoic and not very expressive, but I feel like it's nothing to her whether xyy is there or not, and I have no idea what xyy thinks of her. it is very sweet to try to make food, though

'you have to use yesterday's rice for fried rice' oh girl...even I knew that. how has been feeding herself this entire time? I hadn't realized she was trying to fry FRESH rice 😭

yw made xyy sleep on the dining room table...girl

she is actually quite rude. like. I get she's not very expressive but xyy is having a really hard time and yw is just. very brusque. and didn't even offer her a bed or a couch to sleep on...well I suppose the man in the corner room she's torturing makes hosting tough

damn they're really villainizing a-wan here. she has enough money saved up to move but she refuses to, she won't listen to reason when xyy's husband points out that they're the ones in the wrong, she killed hong mei, she's resorting to blackmail...damn. she is so gorgeous tho I could forgive a lot

YAN WEI BUGGED THE HOUSE????

I called her insane above but actually she's just being thorough and not murdering people with no evidence

these fight scenes really are excellent

detective jiang is rly handsome...luckily he's only a fake cop and not a real one :)

I don't see suspenders that often on tv and they really do fill me with lust. unfortunate

ARSON!!!!!!

[moonboykeith]

klance headcanons:

lance thrives on pda

keith is sort of shy and awkward with pda but he has his moments

lance loves to go on double date with his friends

keith doesn't really like the idea of double dates so much but he puts up with them for the sake of lance.

lance is the only thing holding keith back from committing arson.

both of them think murder is an absolutely fine activity for a couple to bond over. lance is joking, keith not so much.

lance keeps flirting with keith but freezes once keith flirts back.

keith is secretly very sentimental and romantic but usually struggles to express his strong emotions.

they sometimes raid the kitchen for hunk's baking during midnight because they're hungry.

they still bicker a lot on the silliest things.

after their first real argument both of them were devastated. needless to say, hunk and shiro were up almost all night trying to comfort the idiots. ("but what if he wants to break up? i raised my voice at him, i don't see why he'd want to stay-")

when keith is a bit sad, lance will take him out for cryptid hunting to cheer him up. sometimes pidge would join.

mothman is a common daily topic in the klance household.

veronica and keith love to gang up against lance and tease him. ("i should've never introduced you two to each other.")

lance loves the rain and dancing in it with keith. it makes him feel like the protagonist of a romantic movie.

keith is a cat and hates getting wet, he usually prefers to stay inside during rain and just enjoy the sound of the thunder outside while reading. so when lance drags him out to dance in the rain he usually keeps protesting throughout. (although he secretly enjoys it very much.)

keith believed that he was physically incapable of dancing, so lance began teaching him. now keith believes he's just destined to be a bad dancer, lance asks him to have a little more faith in his abilities.

they have polar opposite music tastes but both of them appreciate some halsey and cavetown for themselves. so by default the only songs played on long drives aside from anime openings are songs by the said two artists.

once they got really drunk and choreographed a dance routine to unravel (yes, the tokyo ghoul opening). they even recorded it. keith refuses to acknowledge that this ever happened. ("c'mon babe, we had a bonding moment- ")

one day keith told lance he knew how to speak japanese. lance pleaded keith to teach him so he could finally watch anime without subtitles. keith sighed but agreed.

they usually start their night by spooning each other but by the time they wake up keith's feet are on lance's face, lance's right hand is off the bed, keith's left leg is on the sidetable, lance's right leg is on keith's back. basically they're a tangled mess of limbs.

keith is a hoodie stealer >:)

lance once tried to steal one of keith's hoodies from his closet as a revenge only to find all of his hoodies that he thought he lost ages ago in his boyfriend's closet.

lance has a very specific way of placing things. keith is a heathen and throws his shit everywhere and wherever it lands is its new home.

a month before moving in together they both took cooking lessons from hunk so that they don't depend on hunk and take out for survival.

lance did most of the decorations of their first apartment but by the time they moved out to their second one three years later, keith had enough sense of aesthetic for lance to entrust some decorations to him as well. lance felt like a proud teacher watching his boyfriend try to figure what shade of green for the curtains best matched the color of the walls.

pidge lived in their guest room for an year while they (pidge is non binary in my hcs) looked for a new house and now even though they have shifted into their new house, half of their stuff is still at lance and keith's place and it's not uncommon to find them hogging the guest room at all times.

they have a big ass picture of all the paladins and shiro and coran framed in their bedroom.

they video call allura, romelle and coran every sunday and have monthly "family outings" with shiro, curtis, pidge, matt and hunk.

keith once accidentally adopted a baby raccoon thinking it was a weird little cat. lance and kosmo were terrified.

soon they actually did adopt a cat and lance named her comet because keith wouldn't let him name her baguette.

[soft-angelic-kiss]

What would Bakugou + Kaminari + Kirishima be like as significant others?

a/n! GIFS ARENT MINE ,,,,, I’m new to writing stuff like this and i’m sure i got a majority of it wrong..oops! But finally i’ve gottten around to writing some MHA stuff! I’ve got a few fics that are half done and sadly sitting in my drafts.. be on the look out for new content <3

Katsuki Bakugou

💥Ok.. we all know bakubro is kind of an asshole but i feel like he’d be such a soft s/o.

💥Bakugou would carefully plan out dates VERY carefully

💥he just wants everything to go right🥺

💥he prefers to stay in a watch a movie with you (excuses to cuddle but he won’t admit) He just says “They’re easier to take care of. dumbass.”

💥he calls everyone Idiot, dumbass and stuff like that but you’ve upgraded. you were Shitty (girl, boy, other) You’re now Dumb (girl, boy, other)

💥if anybody tries to shit talk you.

💥uh oh

💥big fucking uh oh

💥Bakugou isn’t the type to take shit from people anyways.

💥but if his s/o is involved,, it’s over. for everyone. He doesn’t mess around

💥will commit arson for you.

💥will murder anybody for you

💥i feel like Bakugou is a HUGE cuddle bug

💥like, he’s touch starved but once he gets comfortable

💥he’s cONSTANTLY all over you

💥baby boy just wants love🥺

💥please give him love

Eijiro Kirishima

🦈OK SO WE ALL KNOW KIRI IS THE BEST BOY BUT HE’S AN EVEN BETTER BOYFRIEND

🦈 LIKE HE’S GOOFY

🦈HE DRINKS HIS RESPECT WOMEN JUICE

🦈i feel like he would go to bakugou for help and bakugou is just like “she likes you for a reason shitty hair, do what you want.”

🦈he also asks bakugou to help teach him how to cook so he can make you bento boxes..🥺🥺🥺

🦈he’s a really bad cook not gonna lie

🦈he’S DOING HIS BEST THOUGH SO IT’S OK

🦈he likes to take you to picnics + brunch

🦈THIS BABY IS SO FREAKING SOFT FOR HEADPATS AND HEAD SCRATCHES

🦈bubba loves laying his head in your lap while watching a movie because your hand automatically goes to his hair

🦈he’s very open with his emotions

🦈you guys go on study dates

🦈you guys dye his hair together (it’s bonding)

🦈you guys also like to dress up in onesies 100% of the time he really likes to match with you,, it makes him happy

🦈he’s VERY big on PDA constantly holding your hand or asking for hugs or giving you soft kisses anywhere he can reach

🦈Kirishima is a very soft s/o and the best boy🥺🥺

🦈he also loves cuddles,, did i mention that?

Denki Kaminari

⚡️denki,, he’s gonna flirt with you, and when he asked you out you didn’t take him seriously BUT THATS NOT WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT

⚡️he’s very flirty but i feel like he has a lot of problems

⚡️flirty, touch starved, attention starved, THIS BABY IS STARVED

⚡️he’s really big on PDA he wants everybody to know he’s got the best s/o

⚡️tbh you probably don’t really go on dates

⚡️you more so hang out and game together. youboth are a gamer couple,, it’s adorable.

⚡️like, you guys will order food and then sit and play video games and laugh with eachother

⚡️but on your birthday or another important date, Denki will try to save money to take you somewhere fancy, or somewhere better and more “romantic then you normally do”

⚡️he’s trying his best, and he’s doing a damn good job.

⚡️our baby boy loves cuddles! he loves to be wrapped in your arms and just overall really appreciates someone being near him and not laughing at him

⚡️he loves calling you pet names. like pet names are HUGE for him. that make him feel all jittery and happy inside.

⚡️Denki lovesssss testing out new pick up lines on you. constantly. all the time.

⚡️you wake up to a pick up line, you eat lunch and there’s a pick up line you fall asleep to a pick up line.

⚡️he’s trying really hard and he constantly is asking for help, in a weird denki like way. He try’s hard with getting you the right gifts, he asks the girls he asks the boys he even went to Mr.Aizawa trying to get help he wants everything to be perfect

⚡️this really isn’t related but i feel like denki sings in the shower???

⚡️when you scratch his head or pet his hair? denkis brain goes brrrrr

⚡️denki is baby and he must be protected

[arsenicpanda]

Your favourite Riverdale episodes for Bughead?

Omg, thank you SO MUCH for humoring me!  Now then, favorite episode for just bughead?  Ooh, that's a tough one, so many good choices!  I'm gonna give you top six becaue I suck at choosing.  Actual thoughts under the cut.

- 1x06: This and 1x05 are the OG bughead episodes, but I pick this one over 1x05 because it has The Kiss, among other things.  Like, Jughead trying to break through the orderlies to get to Betty?  Amazing. Betty taking Jughead with her to go see her sister?  Excellent.  Jughead climbing through that window and making two literary references in quick succession?  Fantastic.  Betty's face and Jughead's sigh after their first kiss?  I love it.  Jughead has clearly been wanting to kiss her for SO LONG, and Betty has a face of, "Oh, I didn't realize how much I wanted that, but it turns out to have been a lot."  And Jughead's adoring face at Betty's "The car!"?  Iconic, he loves her brain so much, thinks she's so amazing.  It also has Jughead's "We're all crazy" and "We're not our parents.  We're not our families", which are both SO GOOD.  And Betty opens up to Jughead and is so vulnerable with him!  And it's a good episode for their investigations too, with the SoQM and then the looking for the car in the rain.  Bonus points for Jughead's scandalized reaction to what looks like, of all things, brick weed.  As an episode, it really showcases both a shared interest (solving mysteries) and a willingness to be vulnerable and honest with each other.

- 2x12: The dynamic duo back again!  I love how, when the chips are down and Jughead needs someone's help, he goes to Betty, even when they're not together.  He trusts her, and she is completely down to help him immediately.  And help she does!  They do some great investigation here, it's so fun, and they look great while doing it!  Betty's dress is gorgeous, and Jughead's Serpent jacket over his suit jacket is such a hilarious look in concpet and yet it somehow works!  Also, Betty immediately noticing that something is wrong with Jughead at Veronica's Confirmation party and going to find him because she's worried was just the sweetest, as was Jughead's "She's one of us" (or whatever he said to that effect) when Betty was voting with the Serpents.  Also?  Betty not freaking out when Jughead said he cut Penny was quality.  She is not afraid of the fact he is a crazy person!  And, of course, there's their first time together, which is so slow and sweet.  Jughead apologizing for being a dumbass and Betty going "I can handle it" about his ~darkness~ was so pure, as was his "Or you could stay. ...Stay."  The way he put his hand on her dress!  So tentative, so sweet.  And also?  The way they just got RIGHT to it, with Betty straddling him immediately and Jughead making the quickest work of that dress.  And Betty's "I want all of you tonight" while hiding the Archie kiss secret!  She didn't want to ruin the moment, this closeness with him, so she lied, which is pretty classic Betty, tbh, and a great contrast to Jughead's admission of doing some stuff with Toni "but not everything" and also being like "she's a pal" because what a great way to describe a friend.  Also, omg, Jughead apologizing Betty for her getting dragged into the witchhunt against the Serpents and him was so sweet!  Also amazing was when Jughead said that Sheriff Keller suspected him of decapitating the statue and Betty just replied with a playful smile, "And...did you?" because she knows him, she knows he'd pull some crazy stunt like that but also believes him when he says he didn't.  And we get jealous Betty, which is QUALITY.  And the fact that they're both like, "So, have you, uh, done anything with Toni/'anyone'?  Not that it's my place.  But, uh, have you?", just trying to be nonchalant but they are INVESTED and QUIETLY NERVOUS and JEALOUS BUT IN A WAY THEY FEEL BAD ABOUT.  This is the closest we get to pining bughead, and I love it, I will take it.  They continue to be so vulnerable with each other, it's precious.

- 2x19: RISE, DARK BUGHEAD, RIIIIIISE!!  We get some quality bughead investigation, and also they TIE CHIC UP IN A BASEMENT WITH DUCT TAPE AND INTERROGATE HIM!  Jughead punches him to try and get him to talk, and Betty's reaction is just to gently cup his face!  Betty briefly chokes Chic and Jughead is just stading there supportive!  They are 100% down with each other's extreme measures, just completely on the same page there.  I love seeing each of them going full The Ends Justify The Means, and this episode I get to see them go about it TOGETHER, how amazing is that?!

- 3x16:  Ok, their morning spent talking together, drinking coffee or tea or whatever, at Betty’s window because THEY LIVE TOGETHER OMG!  They’re fucking PLOTTING in the goddamn MORNING; when I was a teenager I dragged my ass through mornings, but these two are like, “Let’s discuss ways to defeat Gladys the Drug Lord,” just completely awake.  These are the things they talk about in the morning!  They are so fucking weird!  Also, the adoring face Betty gives him and the nose boop, too cute.  While I’m not big on Seventeen in terms of music (I don’t think they pull off the singing, which I don’t fault them for because musicals are HARD in terms of the vocal range they demand.  Also, Jughead just sounds off somehow and it distracts me.), I love it as a bughead moment.  I appreciate their desire for something normal, it’s so sweet, even if I think that they wouldn’t be very good at living “normal” lives at this point; I think they crave investigations too much.  Also, Jughead getting on his knees in a way that is very proposal-esque (his second pseudo-proposal!  Third time’s the charm, so WHEN DO I GET IT???) is QUALITY.  And Betty just does such a great job of comforting the saddest Jughead.  Also also, they BURN DOWN THE TRAILER AND HAVE SEX IN FRONT OF IT WHILE IT BURNS!  That is LEGENDARY, that is the kind of quality, mutual fucked-up-ness that I want in my ships!  And it’s preceded by Jughead being all, “I’m okay because you’re here with me”, the sweetest fucking sentiment.  Also, the return of the crown sweater, if just for a moment.  This is just Betty and Jughead being a team, being willing to do crazy things to help each other, and also they are apparently turned on by arson, which is just amazing.

- 4x16:  A whole episode of Betty and Jughead being smug and gloating, I literally couldn’t ask for more.  Everything about them is amazing in this episode and the gloating whodunnit scene, the way they set each other up for each piece of their explanation, and also Betty’s “the worst thirty-six hours of my life” and then they hold hands and it is FUCKING PRECIOUS.  Also also?  Betty and Jughead both going to extremes to protect/avenge the other.  Like, they both go full The Ends Justify The Means, with Jughead literally beating the shit out of Bret both as a method of information extraction and, lbr, just regular vengeance in Betty’s name and with Betty waiting in the darkness of Donna’s room to surprise her, rip her grandmother’s legacy from her, and leave like a boss, all because Donna tried to kill Jughead.  Like, Betty promised to go after Donna specifically, and she did, saving her info for personal blackmail that she can guarantee will work as opposed to relying on the justice system, which can be shaky.  These are both fucked up things to do!  Jughead’s especially, tbh; it isn’t official police brutality because there are no cops involved in the beating, but it is certainly adjacent to that since Charles let them in and turned a blind eye to their actions and then used their actions/threats to his benefit.  That’s fucking dark as hell and I love it (within a fictional context, of course, and even in that context I’m only chill with it because Bret has the money to otherwise escape all consequences).  And then, after they’ve both done all that, they’re so soft together in a couple of other scenes, it’s the cutest thing ever.

- 4x19:  DARK BUGHEAD YESSSS!  Granted, it’s fictional dark bughead, but I love that not only did Jughead write a dark story where he and Betty are murderers who do things like kill their friends to get rid of the weak link after Betty’s comment of “Or we could kill him”, and not only do we get to see those scenes, but Betty was completely on board with this story.  Not only was she on board with the original killing of Mr. Honey, but she was like, “Ooh, we killed Reggie to keep him from cracking under pressure and revealing our dark truth, how very sexy of you, Jughead”. They are so weird!  And Jughead’s “So no one is going to know the perverted truth about us...but us” was hot as hell, as was the fact that he followed it up by tugging her bak by her ponytail to kiss her while having his other hand lightly resting on her neck.  That is some explicit G-rated stuff!  Also, they were absolutely about to makeout in front of an open door in the Blue and Gold before they were interrupted by Kevin.  That is so wild!  Also, Betty editing Jughead’s work is always a win.  He values her opinion so much!  She loves his writing and thinks it’s amazing despite the fact it isn’t very good!  I love it, I love them.

[ssvgawara]

Arsonist Goshiki x reader x cannibal Noya who only eats fingers or toes

Arson and cannibalism

Paring: arsonist goshiki x reader x cannibal nishinoya wc: 681 genre: this is pure humor and nothing else a/n: so this was a total joke that became a thing but its based off of this thing I wrote for dev and this bad imagine caz @bby-bokuto wrote which had me cracking up but uh hope yall enjoy this!! bc it is 5am and I spent my entire night on this lmaooo also yall better catch the raccoon!y/n tease

After you and Goshiki set Ushijimas house on fire you think you’ve gotten away with arson and murder for like a week until you learn that there was a security camera that caught y’all in the act. Once y’all realize you’ve been found out Goshiki’s only thought is, “Damn I can’t be the ace anymore”

So y’all go on the run. And in reality, you could’ve copped a plea deal by saying you were forced into it and didn’t have a choice but this feral and unhinged Goshiki is really attractive so you’ll risk it for him you guess. So anyways you guys are the run hiding out wherever you can. Mainly in parks because you’re high schoolers with little money on the run from the law. You guys get really good at pickpocketing so at least you’ve got a lil cash here and there.

Every day you beg Goshiki for y’all to stop running because dam you’re tired and if you’re gonna be criminals you at least wanna settle down and change your identity so you can finally just vibe. Eventually, y’all find a cave to settle in for a while just cause you don’t wanna keep running and Goshiki is tired of you’re crap. Y’all live in this cave for a few days as comfortable as you can for a fucking cave.

One day you and Goshiki are simply vibing when you hear some really sus rustling and noises you turn to Goshiki and speak up.

“Goshiki did you hear that?”

“It’s probably just a raccoon or something y/n we are in a cave you know.”

You just shrug and nod and go back to vibing. Honestly, you were beginning to bet bored of sitting there but then BAM all of a sudden a feral Nishinoya appears foaming at the mouth begging for fingers or toes. Like wtf? Is he okay? Once he sees you two sitting there a little freaked he calls down because honestly, goshiki looks like he might light noya on fire (damnit goshiki we can’t kill anyone else we already have too many accounts of homicide on our shoulders).

Once everything is settled and Noya’s not trying to nibble on anyone’s appendages you all realize wow we are on the run from the law let’s hang out together. And run away from the cops. Noya’s like, “I know a place” and takes you to an abandoned house.

“Noya, what is this place?” You say nervously eyeing the place up standing close to Goshiki.

“It’s an abandoned house I found so I can eat fingers and toes in peace, its been abandoned for a while so I just said squatters rights! And started staying here” He says this with a little to much joy and excitement for your own comfort but you nod along because an abandoned cannibal house is better than the cave.

So the three of you settled into living in this random abandoned house. You were able to live comfortably for a few weeks

That is until one day Noya was getting very hangry. He had no fingers or toes leftover and it was storming so he wasn’t gonna rob someone of their fingers on a day like this, that’s just rude. You’re currently napping because rainy days are for naps and even if you are a criminal you gotta keep up the aesthetic okay.

Noya takes this as an opportunity to rob you of your fingers like he just chops a couple off which if course wakes you up because now you’re in extreme pain from losing fingers.

Losing a few of your own fingers was the last straw. You could accept the arson and the murder and the cannibalism but your fingers are not for Noya to eat, you’ve been harboring criminals you’re tired of it. So you leave. You leave the house and go straight to the cops. 

Yeah, you get some jail time but not as much as Noya and Goshiki get so now you can live happily even if you only have 3 fingers on one hand.

[crunkumbee]

Lost In You

Yancy x Reader 

Requests: 

could you write a piece about yancy and y/n in the ending where they stay in the prison and after a while get together and it’s a very sweet and soft? love ur writing xxx 

I heard you want fanfic ideas? If so. May I present the classic jealous Yancy? A new prisoner/guard flirts with the reader? - @just-a-werido 

oh. my god. dancing. with yancy. just. oh my god. please?

Cuddles and stuff because Yancy is baby- @greemany​

Could you write a really fluffy Yancy x reader?? Like maybe they're both super touch-starved and easily flustered and so there's a lot of embarrassed but sweet, blushy cuddles and physical affection??? Sorry if this is a bad ask but I'm just a SLUT for Yancy cuddles thanks friend💕

Can I request a cuddly Yancy x reader where he almost lost her due to a fight between her and one of the guys who thought it be a good idea to mess with his family? Like the gang instantly comes to her aid and Yancy is like ????!!!!!!! and instantly makes sure his baby’s okay? Word Count: 1.7k

A/N: Holy goddamn you guys first of all thank you so much I am so honored that you all love my writing and trust me enough to write these!! Second um I kinda went off and shoved all of these together bc I thought they would sound good and yeah also sorry fics have been kinda slow its just been a crazy last couple of weeks with LITERALLY EVERYTHING and dancing yancy?!?!?!? HELL YEAH but please please PLEASE ENJOY FRIENDS LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Tag List: @i-am-a-weeb @arts-of-plenty @gay-matty-boi @brokequeenofcardonia @writer-of-camelot  @pleasedontfollowmeimtrash @bxbamilktae @th3-n3xt-phas3-2 @animals4ever527 @janiceapex @ughsomething​ @go-just-me-fan​ @les-amis-de-l-ab-yeet​ @aheistwithyancy​​

Twelve years with the chance for probation. That’s what you were stuck with. Happy Trails Penitentiary wasn’t what you thought it would be but after what you had done, you were perfectly fine with it.  You weren’t one to talk to new people so when it came time for lunch you sat alone in a corner and prayed that nobody would sit next to you or even look at you. 

The potatoes weren’t the best you had but it was better than you expected and as you were poking at them you didn’t even notice the man that sat next to you. 

“Youse is new here. I’m Yancy,” he extended his hand out to you. “I saw you walk in and thought youse was the best looking person in this joint.” 

“Y/n and I’m sure that seeing somebody new has an affect on who you’re attracted to.”

He chuckled and god damn that was a beautiful sound. 

“Youse might be right. But you should come sit with the rest of us. Hank even has wine for us. 

Your plan was to just sit there in the corner for the next twenty years but when a man as handsome as Yancy asks you to sit at his table, you don’t argue and just go along with it. 

You followed the man to the table with multiple other people and you were instantly overwhelmed once they all started to surround you. 

“Hey fellas, stand back a bit shes new here.”

And so for the next few weeks you sat at the table and the other prisoners became like family to you. You and Yancy had gotten really close. He would spend most of his time with you whenever you could and he had a spare key to all of the cells so some nights you could sneak into one anothers cell. Sure he was attractive but you weren’t anything more than friends and while you would like for there to be more, you were perfectly content with how your life was with him just being a friend.

There weren’t many other new guards or other inmates. But, there was a new guy. His name was Lucas and he just wouldn’t leave you alone. It wasn’t until Yancy said something to him that he kinda backed off but you could still feel his eyes on you.  Three days into his sentence you went to use the restroom during lunch. It wasn’t in the same room as the cafeteria but it was down the hall a ways and since the guards trusted most of the inmates, they would let most of them just go off on their own. As you were walking out of the restroom, Lucas came up behind you and grabbed your hips, only resulting in you pushing yourself off of him.

“What the hell?!?” 

“Come on baby girl you know you liked it. Why would you want some pansy like him when you could have all of this.” 

“Fuck you!” you yelled at him before punching him in the throat. You wanted to go for the face but he was a lot taller and a hell of a lot bigger than you were and there was no way you would have reached even if you had wanted to. 

“Bitch,” he backhanded you and your face hit the concrete wall. “Kick her ass.” Lucas said to the two people who then walked out from around the corner. Of course they were both women and twins. 

“Too big of a bitch to fight me yourself Lucas?” If he replied you couldn’t hear it because the woman on your left with short black hair punched you followed by the other one with long brown hair that was tied back kicking you in the stomach. It took you a moment to shake it off but you soon got in with the rhythm of their movements and while you were taking an ass beating at least you were able to fight back. At least you wouldn’t be the only one bleeding. 

You had been gone for too long and while the gang told him that everything was fine, Yancy just couldn’t shake the feeling that you were in some kind of trouble. 

“Hey Tiny, can youse come with me to check on y/n?” 

“Sure thing Yancy.” 

Together they walked out into the hallway where the restrooms were and sure enough there was Lucas laughing as two women were fighting you. You were holding your own well but you were outnumbered. 

“I’ll help y/n boss go get that asshole.” 

Yancy nodded and sure enough Tiny was taking care of the brown haired woman while you focused in on the other one. Now that she didn’t have her partner, it was a lot easier to take her on. 

“Hey Lucas! I know youse have a problem with me so let's take care of it right here, right now.” 

“I’m not going to fight you. You’re not worth the waste of breath. And neither is y/n.” 

He could have said whatever he wanted about him but the second that he brought you into it, Yancy lost his cool. Nobody could get away with having people attack you then talk shit about you. Yancy didn’t think before he clocked Lucas in the face and he fell to the ground. Yancy was about to advance on the fallen man before he heard your voice.

“Yance, don’t. He’s not worth it.” 

He looked over and saw you bruised and bleeding. You and Tiny had managed to knock down and keep the other two women down. It was then that Yancy decided not to murder the man on the ground. Seeing his way out Lucas got up and walked down towards his cell.

“Come here sweetheart.” You started to walk towards him and he met you halfway. He walked you to the guard where Tiny told them everything that happened. Yancy walked you to the infirmary but it just so happened to be the nurses birthday so she wasn’t there so instead Yancy grabbed things that looked like they would be of use and walked back to his cell which was closer than yours. Jimmy followed you both and once you sat on his bed and Yancy put all the supplies next to you he went out of the small cell to talk to Jimmy. The other man nodded before walking off and Yancy came back to you. 

“Okay this isn’t going to feel good but just know that I’m not tryin to hurt you.” 

“I know you wouldn’t try to Yance. Just get it over with.” 

Other than you occasionally wincing when he would put peroxide on the cuts on your face (and him apologizing every time) he was gentle. 

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there sooner for youse. I should have been there to help you otherwise youse wouldn’t have gotten hurt.”

“Yance. Don’t try to blame yourself for what happened to me. You and Tiny came to help me before it got worse and that’s all that matters.” you put your hand on his and neither of you were used to the closeness that you were both currently at but all that either of you knew was that you liked it. 

“Let me put these bandages on you. Just be still.” 

As he put them on your face you could smell the sweet prison cologne that they gave them and for some reason it smelled better on him than it did anybody else. 

Suddenly there was music playing throughout the hallway. It was usual for this to happen and the warden liked to have music on once in awhile. 

“Do youse know how to dance?” 

“What? Oh no! I’ve never had the chance to learn.” 

“Well there’s no better time than the present.”

He extended his hand out to you and for a moment you hesitated. You weren’t used to so much and prison wasn’t the place that you thought that you would find a family but here you were, learning how to dance with the most handsome guy in the joint. It wasn’t what you were expecting when you got 20 years for arson but now that you were here and in the moment, it was nice. 

As you took his hand and stood in the cell with the soft love song that you didn’t recognize playing over the speakers you realized that this was the place for you. 

“Just let me show youse what to do and follow my lead.” 

He carefully and cautiously to his shoulders and placed his hands on your waist. And when he started to move you followed and it soon became easy to follow. 

You looked into his soft brown eyes and smiled and that’s when the moment of realization hit him, there’s nobody else for him. The way that something as small as dancing with him made you so happy and brought out the beautiful smile of yours, and if all of that could make his heart melt then there was no person he would rather be with. 

Just when he thought the moment couldn’t get any better, you rested your head on his chest. It was now or never. 

“Hey, uh, y/n?” 

“Yeah Yance?” “What would you-, uh see I kinda-”

You knew what he was saying and didn’t need anymore confirmation than what he was giving you in that moment. You moved your hand from his shoulder to the back of his neck to push his lips to yours. His lips were softer than you could have ever imagined and he was thinking the same thing. 

You pulled away and looked him in his puppy dog eyes, “I didn’t think youse would like somebody like me but I’ve been lost in you since the day you showed up.” 

“I was going to say the same thing about you.” 

“If I talked to the warden, would youse like to share a cell so we don’t have to sneak around every night?” 

“If he allows that, I would love to.” 

“Good because I talked to him this morning and he says that as long as we don’t get into a fight with each other then he doesn’t care.” 

[sbjctzeroaa]

𝚍𝚊𝚝𝚊   𝚕𝚘𝚐   𝚒𝚒   ::   𝚓𝚊𝚌𝚔   𝚗𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝’𝚜   𝚑𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚕   𝚛𝚎𝚌𝚘𝚛𝚍 𝚏𝚘𝚛   𝚛𝚎𝚏𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎   𝚘𝚗𝚕𝚢    -    𝚗𝚘𝚝   𝚝𝚘   𝚋𝚎   𝚞𝚜𝚎𝚍   𝚒𝚗   𝚊𝚗𝚢   𝚕𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚕   𝚍𝚒𝚜𝚙𝚞𝚝𝚎

𝟸𝟷𝟼𝟷   –   subject  is  born  on  eden  prime  ,    exposed  to  element  zero  in  utero  resulting  in  her  being     born  a  biotic.    alliance  military  has  not  been  able  to  confirm  if  biological  mother  was  exposed  during  the  2150s    ‘   STARSHIP  ACCIDENT   ’

𝟸𝟷𝟼𝟻   –   age  1   –   during  a  routine  medical  examination  subject  is  confirmed  to  be  a  biotic  by  a  cerberus sympathizer.    mother  is  told  subject  contracted  cancer  and  has  died   ,   while  cerberus  picks  up  the  child  and  she’s  brought  to  the  teltin  facility.    mother  was  likely  given  an  unrelated  cadaver  to  bury.

𝟸𝟷𝟼𝟽   –   age     6   –   reports  recovered  from  teltin  acknowledge  testing  began.    three  wet-nurses  are  named  in  documents  to  have  facilitated  subject’s  growth  up  until  this  age.     goal  of  testing  was  to  enhance  her  powers  as  high  as  possible  in  order  to  understand  how  to  ‘   grow   ’  a  biotic.   previous   research  recovered  insinuated  a  tie  between  pain  ,    stress  ,    suffering  and  mental  instability  and  the  power  of  a  biotic  individual  ,    driving  tests  with  the  goal  to  torture  and  break  their   ‘   subject      zero   ’.        alliance  personnel  would  like  it  noted  this  theory  has  been  disproven.

𝟸𝟷𝟽𝟷   –   age     10   –   subject  zero  is  pushed  too  far  ,    resulting  in  the  performance  of  open  heart  surgery  in  order  to  revive  her.    cerberus  officials  begin  collecting  biotic  children  to  test  any  trials  prior  to  subject  zero.   ring  fights  against  the  other  children  begin  in  order  to  see  any  results  from  the  torture.    drugs  are  fed  to  subject  zero   to  make  her  more  complacent  to  fight.

2175   –   age     14   –   recovered  footage  shows  other  children  incite  a  riot  with  the  guards.   security  was  disabled  and  subject  zero  hijacked  a  shuttle  in  order  to  escape.   the  shuttle’s  black  box  shows  not  long  after  the  gas  ran  out  and  it  was  marooned.   miss  nought  was  then  interviewed  to  fill  in  the  blanks    ,    the  rest  of  the  record  is  hearsay  unless  tagged  with  a  supporting  document.  the  interviewing  officer  was  told  for  two  years  subject  zero  was  sold  off  by  slavers  who  picked  up  her  shuttle.   here  she  took  on  the  name  jack.

𝟸𝟷𝟽𝟽   –   age     16   –   jack  joins  a  cult  in  hopes  to  find  love  and  solace  they  gift  her  ,    her  first  tattoos  meant  to  try  and  cover  or  distract  from  her     biotic  amp  scars  from  teltin    ,    as  well  as  cut  off  all  of  her  hair.   she  stays  for  a  few  years  until  she  learns  she  was  kept  around  for  her  biotic  powers  to  be  abused.    she  refused  to  elaborate.    she  confessed  to  killing  them  all  and  escaping.

𝟸𝟷𝟽𝟿   –   age     18   –   jack  is  immediately  found  by  notorious  pirate  manara  and  her  lover.   the  three  engage  in  a  polyamorous   ,  romantic  and  sexual  relationship  together  while  committing  felonies.   months  later  ,    jack  realizes  ,    once  again  ,    she’s  being  used  for  her  biotics  in  order  for  the  couple  to  get  more  money  and  stiff  her  out  of  her  share.    in  turn  ,    jack  murders  the  both  of  them  and  continues  on.

𝟸𝟷𝟾𝟶   –   age     19   –   jack   finds  ‘   STABILITY   ’  with  a  smuggling  gang  and  their  leader  called  murtock     (    see     official     alliance     file     g-2534     on     murtock    ).   jack  has  admitted  to  committing  piracy    ,    murder    ,    arson    ,    theft   and  more  in  this  time.   the  attached  vid  on  this  file  has  these  events  being  told  in  detail.

𝟸𝟷𝟾𝟹   –   age     22   –   one  gun  run  goes  wrong  and  murtock  is  killed  off  so  jack  can  escape.   only  after  hearing  the  tape  where  the  man  admits  he  loved  her  does  jack  throw  herself  into  fits  due  to  survivor’s  guilt.   in  one  of  these  fits   ,    she’s  able  to  commandeer  a  space  station  that  she  subsequently  crashes  into  a  hanar  moon.   this  draws  attention  from  general  kuril  of  the  space  prison  ship  purgatory  (    see     official     alliance     file     pi-0965    )    ,    who   captured  jack  before  alliance  intervention  of  the  event.

𝟸𝟷𝟾𝟺   –   age     23   –   jack  is     brought  to  purgatory  where  she’s in  persistent  fights    ,     and  attacked  and  raped  by  guards  as  well  as  prisoners  in  one  of  the  lavatories.   general  kuril  makes  the  executive  decision  to  put  jack  in  cryo  after  many  failed  attempts  at  keeping  her  stabile  and  under  control.

𝟸𝟷𝟾𝟻   –   age     24   –   under  the  request  of  the  illusive  man    ,    commander  shepard  now  of  the  systems  alliance  collected  jack  to  be  their  ward  as  well  as  join  a  team  to  eliminate  the  collector  threat  of  2185.      (    more     details     in     file     cs-2185    )

𝟸𝟷𝟾𝟼   –   age     25   –   jack  is  interrogated  by  alliance  personnel  after  sending  out  a  request  of  audience  in  order  to  achieve  the  background  check  required  for  hiring  within  grisson  academy.    under   the  circumstances    ,    jack  has  immunity  against  any  criminal  activity  stated  above    ,    with  the  contingency  that  she  become  a  professor  of  biotics  at  the  academy.    she  has  agreed.

[cncofantasias]

Justice - With Christopher Velez

Chapter 1: Everything

Hey guys! I really hope you enjoy this imagine because I’m hoping to turn it into a series. Let me know what you think, it’s a lot different from what you’re used to reading because I don’t involve their singing careers in this but it’s more of a mystery. I got the idea from watching a ton of Law & Order: SVU but it’s not based off one specific episode. If I turn it into a series I do plan on including all of the cast members into the story one way or another. Anyways hope you enjoy it!

Summary: You’ve dated your boyfriend Christopher Velez for 2 years and even now that you guys have been together for so long, there was still so much stuff Christopher refused to tell you. That is until Christopher gets arrested for the murder of a man named Zabdiel de Jesus. As the trial against Christopher goes on you learn things about him that you never thought he was capable of. Y/n is fighting between the Christopher who was her loving and adoring boyfriend and the man who’s committed so many awful crimes.

Chapter 2

“Christopher Velez you are under arrest for the murder of Zabdiel de Jesus. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law—“

My head was spinning and for a second I thought I was dreaming but it wasn’t until I heard him yelling my name that I snapped out of it. “Y/n! Y/n! Llame mi abogado! Call him him and tell him to meet me at the precinct bebe!”

I quickly nodded barely able wrap my head around what was happening as I followed behind the police who were escorting mi bebe, Christopher, out of our house. As soon as they put him in the backseat of the cop car I took out my phone with shaky hands and began dialing our lawyer, Joel Pimentel. The only reason I knew who he was because one night a couple months ago Christopher gave me his number. He said in case something ever happened to him I needed to know who to call. I didn’t understand at the time what he was referring to, but I guess I do now. 

As I sat in the lobby of the precinct waiting for our lawyer to show up, my mind was racing. I didn’t know if I could believe Christopher as a murderer. He was always the sweetest boyfriend to me: he showered me in affection, always kept his promises to me, and never once had I been scared he’d be violent towards me. I wanted to believe he was innocent, but deep down it made sense... Since we first started dating he always was sketchy about telling me personal information about him.

2 years ago

“So tell me Mr. Velez what do you do for a living that you can afford to take me out to a restaurant so expensive they charge you for the water?” I teasingly emphasized his name as I studied him, enamored with who I saw when I looked at him. 

“No te preocupes por eso mi amor. Todo lo que necesitas saber es que hago negocio.” He reached over the table and held onto my hand as he sent a wink my way.

I stared at him for a bit furrowing my eyebrows trying to get any indication of what he was really meant with his response. He held a stone face as he looked into my eyes and I slowly nodded my head and went back to eating.

“Miss. Y/L/N,” “hello, Miss. Y/L/N.”

I snapped out of my thoughts to see our lawyer in front of me. “Perdóname, I was just thinking.”

“It’s okay Miss. Y/L/N, I understand how difficult this situation must be on you. Why don’t you wait here while I go talk to the investigating officers and get as much information as I can about the situation?”

I nodded my head at him unable to find the correct words to say to him at the moment. He gave me quick nod as I watched him disappear. I knew that I was very little of a help, but Christopher had prepared me that way. He never gave me too much information about him and at the moment I was conflicted; I couldn’t believe the man I choose to lay in bed with, could be a murderer and who knows what else.

Half an hour had passed as I waited for Mr. Pimentel to get back with the information he promised. A part of me didn’t want him to come back, if he never came back and he never told me the horrible details then maybe it wouldn’t be real. But of course that wasn’t reality, no matter what we were still stuck in this situation.

“Okay Miss. Y/L/N, Christopher is being charged on first degree murder as well as multiple counts of arson, burglary. It looks as thought they’ve been investigating Christopher for some time now for distribution of narcotics-“

“Wait, wait, wait distribution of narcotics? I don’t understand. Christopher doesn’t do drugs and I’ve never in the 2 years we’ve been together found any illegal drugs in his possession.”

Mr. Pimentel looked at me shocked for a second, his face conflicted as he began deciding if he should be the one to break the news to you.

“Miss. Y/L/N, I cannot divulge too much information about the case but I want you to know that Mr. Velez isn’t who you think he is. This case runs so deep that even the Federal Bureau of Narcotics is involved and they’ve done much investigating until they presumed that your boyfriend is the leader of the largest gang in New York.”

My heart dropped, my brain buzzed. I didn’t know what was going on and all I could do was stare at him. “Did he ever tell you anything to lead you to believe that he held that position?”

I shook my head a no in response, “I- I- need some air.” I escaped out from his stare as fast as I could and walked out of the front door feeling the crisp hair hit me. I stood on the sidewalk hunched over with my hands on my knees. Everything was a lie, he was a lie. The life we had begun to build together wasn’t real and now I didn’t know if the man that I shared 5 years of memories worth, was real or fake.

1 year ago

We were parked on a cliff overlooking the ocean. There was no car in sight for miles and a soft rhythm was playing on the radio adding to our romantic evening together. The sun was beginning to go down as the salty fresh air filled my nostrils. I was admiring the view with my hand interlocked with Christopher’s.

“Eres tan bella.”

A light blush filled my checks as I teared my eyes away from the scenery to look into his.

“Nomás dices eso porque me miras con ojos de corazón.”

“No, eres tan bella y/n que cuando salgo contigo los otros muchachos están celosos que ya tienes alguien. And I don’t know how I got so lucky.”

I felt my heart clench a little at his beautiful words. I stared into his eyes and just staring into them made me believe him. He wasn’t afraid to let his eyes show the amount of passion he held for me.

“Do you see a future for us Christopher?”

“Of course I do, I see us moving somewhere far away from here one day. Living in our own house, in one of those neighborhoods where it’s so safe nobody is scared to leave there doors unlocked and the kids ride their bikes around.”

“Do you want kids mi amor?”

“I want as many kids as you’ll give me cariño and I want them to look exactly like you with your beautiful hair, tu sonrisa, tus ojos bonitos. And by that time you’ll have graduated with your degree and have your career. Tal vez puedo ser un stay at home dad while you work like an independent boss woman and bring in the money,” he gave me a wink and I playfully hit his chest laughing.

“You wouldn’t be a machista that I’m the woman of the house and bringing in the money?”

“Claro que no. You’ve worked so hard studying all the time it’s only fair that I let you live your dream career.”

My heart melted hearing him say that, because he understood my struggle to be where I was. With Christopher I never had to worry if I didn’t have enough money to pay for my rent or my school tuition or anything else really because he always took care of it. I didn’t even have to embarrass myself by asking him for the money to pay the bill that I couldn’t afford. He’d already know because of how open I was with him and he’d just do it because he wanted to help me. I knew that no matter what your future held: whether it was me working and he wasn’t or both of us working. I knew that I’d always be okay with him and that I could always depend on him because it was never about whose money it was and he wasn’t so traditional that he felt the need to overpower me just because he was a man.

I grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him in crashing my lips onto his. Our lips moved together perfectly without too much effort and his hands gripped onto my waist. In that one kiss.. it was everything.

I pulled away from him and leaned my forehead on his as we both sat breathing for air. “Quiero todo eso y más contigo mi amor.”

“Yo también bebecita.”

I was still outside the precinct hunched over fighting for a breath I’d been holding and before I knew it... I was crying.

[psychovigilantewrites]

Chapter 10 - Crunch

Pairing: Jason Todd/Reader 

Genre: Smut/Action

Word Count: 4, 926 ( i know, shorter than my usual chapters, but this has a lot of plot progression i promise) 

Masterlist 

Ao3 

TW: violence

“What the- what the actual-”

Dick’s voice almost scared you, breaking your concentration. You jolted up, your eyes immediately meeting his blue ones.

“Dick!” you exclaimed, rising up from your study table, “Didn’t Alfred ever teach you to knock?”

You crossed the floor from your desk to him, standing at your opened door. You threw yourself into his warm arms, feeling him squeeze you tightly.

“Alfred also taught me how to pick locks,” he chuckled, giving you a peck on the top of your head.

“What are you doing here?” you took a step back and crossed your arms.

“Nevermind that- what are you doing with all this?” he gestured to your floor.

Papers were strewn all over your room. From case files to articles to your notes. Dick bent down and opened a beige file.

“Wait- this is the series of Pyg’s murders in ‘07!” he gasped. He threw the file back on the floor only to pick up another. “And this is the murder of Sarah Gordon, when Joker kidnapped all those babies. Just what have you been doing?”

“Research,” you shrugged, “I’m sure you’re familiar.”

“That file on Pyg not only had the autopsy report, but also the pictures,” he pointed out.

“So?”

“So?” his eyes widen, “So, why are you obsessing over violent crimes?”

“A lunatic just kidnapped me a couple weeks ago, Dick, maybe this is my coping mechanism,” you defended yourself.

Dick pursed his lips, his expression changing.

“I don’t want your pity, Dick,” you told him, “I’m fine.”

“I know you are,” he smiled sadly, “Which is why I don’t think this is your coping mechanism.”

He walked to your bed and sat down, his handsome face catching the light of the setting sun outside your window, casting a shadow that made his usually bright and charming look turn into a more mysterious and dark character.

You smirked and joined him on the bed, sitting next to him.

You never could lie to him. Which was why this time it was going to be hard.

“Red Hood, he’s…” you struggled to put together the words, “Confusing.”

“Confusing?”

“Yeah,” you sighed, collapsing onto the bed on your back, “He’s got something against Bruce. Or Batman. Either one of them, he knows our identities, Dick.”

“It’s normal to be scared, or worried,” he offered you, “Knowing our identities make us vulnerable to him at all times, not only when we’re in uniform.”

“It does scare me a little,” you admitted, staring at the ceiling that both Alfred and Dick helped you repaint, “But mostly, I’m just frustrated. Why did he kidnap me if he was just going to toy with me and then let me go? Everything is just so unclear, and Bruce isn’t telling me the whole truth. That’s why I’m trying to figure it all out myself. I need to understand him- and in order to do that, I need to understand people like him.”

“Hence the..” Dick waved at your mess.

It wasn't a lie, but a half truth. That's what made it possible for you to deceive Dick or Bruce. You learned that by trial and error.

You did start to research to understand people like Red Hood better, but after a while, you suddenly became fascinated. The detail these people put into their torture, their time and effort. You were amazed at how passionate they were. Long gone was the girl who couldn't sleep because she saw decapitated heads on spikes.

But Dick didn't need to know that.

“Yeah,” you nodded at your ceiling. “Wait a minute.”

You shot up.

“Do you know who Red Hood is? Did Bruce tell you?” you interrogated Dick.

“He won’t tell me either,” Dick huffed, “It’s always been like that with him. No matter how hard I try to get closer to him, sometimes it feels like he’s getting further away.”

“I can relate to that,” you rolled your eyes.

“But I have a feeling that he will tell you eventually,” Dick put an arm around you, “It seems too important not to.”

You let out a snort. If it was important, he should have told you right after you got kidnapped.

“And,” Dick continued, suddenly giving you a noogie, causing you to squeal and push him away, “I heard from Alfred that you’re not talking to Bruce. May I ask why?”

“So that’s why you’re here,” you narrowed your eyes at him.

“I came to check up on you,” he told you sternly, “I’m sorry I couldn’t come here right after, but my little sister did just get kidnapped.”

“I told you, I’m fine,” you whined.

“Then you’re fine enough to tell me why you haven’t been talking to Bruce,” Dick probed, “I won’t judge. I’ve had my fair share of cold shoulders and fights with him too. I know first hand how frustrating he can be. So come on, tell.”

You let out a long and tired sigh.

“We fought,” you started, “It was when I got back from the hospital. He wouldn’t tell me who Red Hood was. And he- he called me ‘Jason’.”

You saw Dick close his eyes and squeezed his temples.

“Jesus,” he whispered, “What did he say exactly?”

“‘Back down, Jason’,” you repeated Bruce’s words solemnly.

“Now that’s something I haven’t heard in years,” Dick chuckled humorlessly.

You couldn’t stand to see the expression Dick had then, because he looked as if he was remembering a fond memory, reminiscing to a time when you weren’t around. His eyes suddenly aged, as if the sadness affected him physically.

You turned away, biting your lip. You tried hard to reel in the tears of jealousy and exclusion that burned your eyes. You focused your gaze to outside your window. It was around midday on a Saturday.

“Has Bruce made any attempts to reconcile?” Dick asked.

You took a deep breath before you answered, making sure your voice wouldn’t break.

“Yeah, but I’m still mad at him,” you pouted.

“And you have every right to be,” Dick acknowledged, “But Bruce, well, you know Bruce. He keeps these things to himself, but obviously he’s still hurting.”

You felt a wave of guilt crash over you.

He lost his son, and there you were being selfishly stubborn.

You didn’t reply, and suddenly an awkward silence filled the room.

“I’m seeing someone,” you changed the subject.

“You are?” you saw Dick’s eyebrows rise so high, they almost disappeared into his dark wavy hair.

“Yeah,” you blushed, “It’s still very new, and we’re not official yet or anything. But we’re definitely testing the waters.”

“That’s great,” Dick smiled widely at you, “Who is he? Tell me the deets. Spill the tea.”

You giggled at Dick’s ironic use of slang.

“I met him in the library a while back,” you spilled, “We exchanged numbers. Started texting, meeting up from time to time. He’s really cute.”

“I bet he is,” Dick wiggled his eyebrows.

“What’s with that face?” you laughed, “He is! He’s slightly older, and he’s got this sexy bad boy look, you know?”

“I thought you liked the nerdy types?” Dick responded.

“I never had a type, you ass!” you tried to poke him in the ribs, which he avoided skillfully.

“You’re right. I thought you were completely uninterested in boys,” he wondered out loud, “Is he nice, at least?”

“Yeah he is,” you smiled to yourself, “He didn’t know I was Wayne until 2 weeks ago. Before that, we were mainly texting. Now we’re meeting up more. I feel like I can be myself with him. I don’t know, there’s just something about him that makes me trust him.”

You noticed Dick frown at that.

“I’m not going to tell him anything!” you quickly added, “I’m not stupid. I know I shouldn’t trust someone I just met. It’s not about the confidential stuff. It’s the little things like how I feel, and my problems, and just- stuff, you know?”

“I get it,” Dick nodded understandingly, “You don’t know what it is about the person, but you feel like the two of you just click, am I right?”

“Exactly,” you smiled, “Been with anyone like that before?”

“One or two,” he shrugged, “People like that- whom you just click with- they’re hard to come by. You should see where this leads. Who knows, maybe he’s one of those that would stick around, huh?”

“The only problem is this big fat secret,” you complained, “It gets tiring sometimes. Lying, that is. About the injuries, about activities. I mean, how do you start a relationship based on lies?”

“That’s why you have to make sure they’re worth the effort,” he said simply, “You’re a smart girl, and way mature beyond your age. I’m sure you’ll do fine.”

“Thanks, Dick,” you gave him a side hug.

“Since you haven’t been talking to Bruce for the last two weeks, does this mean you haven’t been on patrol?”

“Of course I have!” you clarified, “I go out with him, and interact when I have to. But I keep my words concise and I don’t ask questions.”

“Sounds all too familiar,” he chuckled.

“How long are you staying?” you looked at him with hopeful eyes. You loved it when Dick was around. He was the affectionate older brother you never knew you wanted, who spoiled you with snacks and dessert.

“I was just dropping by,” he gave an apologetic look, “I’m a liaison for Bludhaven PD, with Gotham City PD, since they know Bruce is on good terms with Gordon.”

“On a Saturday? Which case is it?”

“That arson case,” he explained, “The third that got away, he was causing problems up in Bludhaven a few months prior to that. Gordon asked for some files, and… A detective who’s familiar with the case.”

“You made detective?!” you squealed, “Congratulations! Not many people make detective in their middle-almost-late twenties.”

You tackled him into a bear hug.

“Thanks,” he laughed out loud, “Apparently this guy, Jerome Miller, he's always hired to do stuff like that.”

Jerome Miller. The one that got away. You clenched your jaw at the mention of his name, willing your blood to not boil.

“Burn buildings?” you scoffed, hiding your true feelings from your older brother, “Why would people hire other people to burn buildings?”

“Buildings like the library, you know how their fire system works. It's like the bank. Once a fire starts, the system suck up all the oxygen,” he explained, “It's not easy to burn down buildings like those. So people hire professionals.”

“You're saying someone else hired him to burn the library down?” you frowned, “But why?”

“That's what GCPD is trying to figure out. Could be one of those location disputes. Higher ups are probably involved. It wouldn't be the first time in this goddamn city,” he shrugged.

You remained silent.

Of course, politics. Corruption had this bad habit of snaking into people's lives and ruining things.

“Promise you I’ll catch the guy, okay?” Dick offered, “I know how much that library meant to you.”

“Thanks, Dick,” you gave him a small smile, his promise comforting you. Your bond with your older brother could never be explained with just words. He gave you a sense of protection that went just beyond the physical sense that you felt with Bruce. With Bruce, you knew you could rely on him. But Dick was the one you told your secrets to. And he could make you feel better with just a simple promise such as the one he gave.

“No problem, kid,” he grinned, “I should get going, though. Gordon said he’d be free after lunch.”

“I’ll walk you out,” you hopped off the bed.

*** “Uh, Bruce?” you awkwardly stood behind him as he was sitting down in front of the Batcomputer- all geared up as Robin.

He spun around, looking at you questioningly. He was geared up as well, besides the cowl. You could see the dark circles under his eyes, the crows feet that were starting to be visible. He looked tired.

“Alfred told me you hadn’t eaten much all day, so, uh, I made you something light to have before we head out later,” you hesitantly set down a plate of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on the desk.

You almost missed the way the corners of his mouth turned upwards.

After talking to Dick earlier that day, you felt guilty for continuously being mad at Bruce. This was your way of reconciling to him.

“Thank you,” he nodded, reaching for one.

“So,” you cleared your throat, “What are we up to tonight?”

“Patrol as usual,” he elaborated, “Red Hood has been busy. With Black Mask gone, he’s technically the only one in power as of now. Even Penguin has been laying low because of him. GCPD reports a fifteen percent surge in weapons and drug trafficking along with gang related crime the past three months, but strangely a thirty-two percent drop in petty crime, murder, sexual assault.”

“Thirty-two percent is a lot,” you frowned.

“Indeed,” Bruce agreed, “In fact, it’s the lowest since Batman first appeared.”

“Which is a very long time ago,” you nodded.

“Even the Ibenescus’ have been keeping it down. Though I have reason to believe that they still are not submitting to Red Hood,” he added.

“Why?”

“The Ibenescus’ built an empire through human trafficking, and they date back all the way to the eighteenth century. The Moehler family does not nearly come as close to a crime legacy the way the Ibenescus do. The Ibenescus’ have more pride to lose more than anything. They wouldn’t surrender so easily and completely stop all their operations,” he summarised.

“I see,” you absorbed everything, “Okay, well. Patrol it is.”

You honestly expected a quiet, boring night. The past few weeks had just been stopping drug exchanges, interrogating drug dealers, and one or two car chases involving a vehicle suspected to contain smuggled weapons.

But that night, the GCPD comms were active.

Thanks to Dick’s information on his habits, GCPD had been patrolling specific locations where Jerome Miller would most likely loiter in, and at 11pm that night, a cruiser identified him buying a couple of Slim Jims in a 7-Eleven at Upper East Side on Verne Avenue, and tried to arrest him. He made a run for it, and now there were three police cars circling the area. Wherever Miller was, he was trapped.

Both you and Batman were now patrolling the area, in hopes of finding him. Batman interacted with you as usual, and you tried to do the same.

But at the mention of Jerome Miller, you felt your heart beat louder in your chest. You were extra vigilant that night, your senses somehow even more heightened as you strained your night-vision to look at every little crook and cranny in every little smelly alley that he could be hiding. You went as far to check inside dumpsters.

And at a quarter past midnight, you finally laid your eyes on him from the edge of a roof.

He was a sweaty, panting mess. His straw hair stuck to his forehead, his eyes wild with panic and he jumped at every small sound. He was hiding in a cardboard box, covered partially with a dirty towel. It probably belonged to one of the homeless, who was nowhere to be seen.

“Batman,” you communicated through your earpiece, “I’ve got eyes on him. Between ten and twelfth Verne Avenue. I’m going to incapacitate him.”

“Wait for me,” Batman ordered.

You wanted to argue back so bad, but you didn’t want to mess up your relationship with him again, especially since you were on good terms.

“Hurry then,” you said.

“I’ll be there in 1.”

You lurked on the rooftop, your eyes now entirely focused on him.

You revelled in the fact that he looked like he was about to shit his pants. He deserved it. For fucking with your library.

You swallowed. Your vision was tunneling. All you saw was him.

Your heartbeat was drumming in your ears.

He deserved it.

Fuck it, you thought. You grappled down and landed right in front of him.

He let out a small yelp, and his eyes immediately went wide when he saw who it was.

“I was paid, he made me do it,” he started pleading.

Funny how they all start to plead when they saw either you or Batman. Funny how they didn’t think of the repercussions before they did the crime.

You took a step closer.

“Please, don’t take me in,” he begged, “I have a family. They need me.”

The man’s words never registered to you. All you could hear were blubbering sobs. You bent down and gripped his shirt, forcing him up on his feet.

But before you could reel anything in, before you could even think- for the first time in your life, you acted first without thinking of the repercussions.

That was when the white hot rage blinded you.

You could taste the blood in your mouth as you threw him violently to the floor like a ragdoll with all your might, your blood boiling hot as you heard the sweet crunch of the man’s skull break as you landed blows after bloody blows to his face.

You took his head in both your hands, lifted it from the ground and then smashed it back into the the tar floor.

Your eyes couldn't focus on anything else. The world seemed to melt with around you into a blur. The only thing that existed was your revenge.

A pressure on your shoulder snapped you out of your trance. Suddenly you felt a lurch, and you were flung across the alley, your back hitting the metal dumpster with a loud bang. Your eyes focused again to see Batman hovering over the bloody mess of a man now a metre away from you.

The bloody mess you made.

You felt the bile rise in your throat. Your knuckles were aching, your head pounding. You now felt the effects of your assault on him as the adrenaline and rage wore off slowly.

And you were horrified.

You scrambled to your feet and started to walk towards the two of them.

“Stay. Back,” Batman growled at you.

You stopped right in your tracks. Batman was checking for a pulse.

The man's face was unrecognisable. You had disfigured him so much that he looked like a heap of meat and skin and blood.

“I- I- I didn't mean to,” you whispered, holding down the puke.

“Call an ambulance,” he ordered.

You froze on the spot, still looking at your victim. You saw his chest rise and fall, but somehow it was wrong. Only one chest was inflating. You heard his laboured, weak breathing. You saw his arms and legs twitching.

“NOW!”

His raised voice made you jump, and you immediately took out your phone and dialled 911. Once you ended the call, you took another step closer.

“Leave. I’ll deal with this,” his cold voice demanded.

“Batman,” you whispered again, trying as hard as you could to not break down.

“I said leave,” he snapped.

You ran out into the drizzling rain and rode your bike home without another word.

***

It was your third time showering that night.

You had scrubbed your skin so raw that it was red and felt tingly.

Especially your face. You couldn’t stand to look at yourself in the mirror. Because when you got back, you saw the blood splatters. On your mask, on your cheeks, across your nose, all from the man you beat half to death with your own fists.

You puked the minute you reached the toilet, hurling away the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches you ate earlier.

But what you tasted on your tongue was the familiar metallic tang of iron, and bitter guilt.

You had completely disregarded everything the man had said to you, and you just attacked him. Why? Simply because you were angry.

Simply because you felt like it.

Simply because you could.

There’s no shame in spilling blood for the greater good , your mother’s voice popped in your head.

You hadn’t heard from her in a while, and her unwelcome presence shocked you.

You would have justified Red Hood’s actions with that logic, but even Red Hood’s cruelty were driven with a slightly righteous, albeit delusional, motivation.

But yours were purely personal rage.

That’s when you realised your actions were even worse than Red Hood’s.

You sobbed yourself to sleep that night, ignoring the countless knocks on your doors by both Alfred and Bruce, and the 32 missed calls from Dick.

***

“...last night, the vigilante Batman is now a suspect for violent assault against known arson Jerome Miller, who himself is a suspect for Gotham University Public Library’s unfortunate demise…”

Jason’s ear perked, and he stopped right in his tracks.

He ignored the scowl he got from the man behind him who almost walked into him and turned to the window display of televisions, all of different sizes, showing him a blonde woman at a desk, with blue background.

“...Jerome Miller was brought straight to the emergency department, and reports tell that he is currently in a comatose state. Has Gotham’s vigilante finally decided to show his true colors of violence? Or do you think that Jerome Miller had it coming? Stay tuned, on GNN.”

Jason frowned.

The Batman Jason knew wouldn’t have landed Jerome Miller in the hospital. Batman never cared for personal grudges. No, he was too disciplined to let his feelings get in the way of his work.

Jason knew that all too well.

He sensed that Batman was just covering for Robin, for you.

He smirked to himself, not caring if the people in the streets thought he was crazy. He looked up at the gloomy sky- despite it being noon- and thought about you.

You were probably getting in a whole lot of fucking trouble with Bruce right that instant. You must have lost control last night when you saw Miller, and boy did that make Jason’s day.

He was right about you after all. He knew you were hiding something dark inside you. He knew that you were almost just like him. All you needed was a little nudge in the right direction.

Were you crying all night? That was probably why you hadn’t replied to his text message yet.

His mind conjured the image of you from those weeks ago, crying at the park. Red eyes, red nose, sniffling away.

He frowned at the memory. He wanted to comfort you. Even now, his chest suddenly ached at the thought of you being in anguish and drowning in guilt.

What was fucking wrong with him?

He pushed away the fucked up mess he felt was brewing inside of him. He ignored how conflicted he felt.

He focused instead on his curiosity. You landed Jerome Miller in a coma. No doubt Miller would have been begging and sputtering about his wife and kid- yet you must have ignored everything. He needed to know what you did to him.

He stuffed his hands back in the front pockets of his hoodie, and then hunched over, looking down as he turned around and walked the opposite way of where he was going, and straight towards the hospital Miller was admitted in.

“I’m his nephew,” Jason told the two police officers stationed outside Miller’s room. He had peeked in. Miller’s face was covered in bandages. He had a ventilator attached, and one of his legs was in a cast, elevated.

“I don’t need to see him or anything, considering he’s, well, unconscious,” Jason scratched the back of his head innocently, “But Anna, my aunt- his wife, just wants to know his condition.”

“Then why don’t she come see him herself?” the shorter one huffed.

“A-are you kidding me?” Jason tried to look offended, “She has stage four cancer! She’s on chemo, she can’t move around much. Come on, officer. What does the medical report say? His family deserves to know.”

“How do I know you’re not just some reporter, huh?” the same man demanded.

“No offence, officer, but do I look like a reporter to you?” Jason smirked.

“Hey, Charles,” the other officer whispered to his partner, “I think he’s legit. BPD did mention about his wife in the case file.”

“Anyone could have gotten that information!” he argued back.

“Remember what that pretty boy detective said? Miller was very protective of his family. That kinda info don’t just get spread out like that.”

Officer Charles narrowed his eyes at Jason. And then- “Fine. You tell him, Graham, you’re better at the science stuff than I am.

Officer Graham looked at Jason apologetically. He was about ten years younger than his partner.

“The doctor said he’s got fractures on his cheekbone, his jaw is dislocated, missing teeth, nose is shattered, his orbital bone’s all messed up, one punctured lung, one broken tibia, and Grade 3 diffuse axonal injury- that’s what the doctor said,” Officer Graham’s lip tightened, “Doctor said his chances aren’t looking so good. I know he’s a criminal, but his family aren’t. I’m sorry.”

Wow, you really did a number on him.

“Thank you, officers,” Jason said with a long and sad sigh, “Aunt Anna- it’ll kill her. I don’t know how I’m supposed to tell her. They’ve obviously had disagreements, and she doesn’t support his actions, but she doesn’t have anyone else.”

“I’m truly sorry,” Graham offered again.

Jason nodded and turned to leave, secretly happy with his ability to act. He got so used to acting when he was with you, that it came naturally to him now.

But most of all, he left the hospital with an intense feeling of pride. Even if you were beating yourself up over it, it didn’t change how he felt.

He was just so fucking proud of you.

***

“You didn’t have to take the blame,” you croaked.

Your eyes were stinging, and your nose hurt every time you breathed. You were sitting down at the dining table, across from Bruce. You had expected him to yell at you like before, to do something when you came in and took your seat.

But he did something much worse.

He looked at you with pity and concern.

You looked at him through swollen eyelids.

“Why aren’t you yelling at me?” you whispered, “Aren’t you angry?”

“I’m furious,” he calmly stated.

“Then, why-” your voice cracked.

“Because it wouldn’t make a difference now,” he sighed.

“I’m a monster. I understand if you tell me to quit,” you said, “I can’t believe- I just- I’m exactly like them.”

“Then what does that make me?” you saw Bruce giving you an odd expression.

He was smiling sadly.

“What?” you asked, confused, until you realised what he was talking about, “No, Bruce. That was different.”

“I killed your parents,” he said as a matter of fact, “So what does that make me?”

“You didn’t kill them, Bruce,” you argued, “You were under the influence of- of whatever it is they gassed you with.”

“It was supposed to be fear toxin,” he reminded you, “They were experimenting with Scarecrow’s toxin when I broke in.”

“Yeah, see?” you tried to prove your point, “So it’s not your fault.”

“I wouldn’t have displayed the wrath I did- which led to your parents being pushed off the balcony- if I were emotionally stable,” he said, “They fell because of me. Because I wasn’t myself.”

“No one blames you,” you told him, “I don’t blame you. You had the right to be unstable, Bruce, your son died three months before that. I can’t believe you still think this way.”

“Yet, they still died on my watch, because of my aggravation,” he pointed out, “But if I were to quit every time I did something because I was unstable, well. We wouldn’t be here.”

“Stop being nice to me, Bruce,” tears welled your eyes, “It makes me feel even worse than if you got mad at me.”

“Good,” he smiled at you kindly.

So that was his punishment. To be understanding.

“I’ve got bad genetics,” you argued, “There’s been a lot of research on it and it shows that there is a gene to be passed down.”

“The psychopath gene?” Bruce smirked, “You’re not a psychopath. Your parents were. You feel remorse. Psychopaths don’t.”

“But, even if it’s not pure psychopathy, there must be some other traits, right?” you rationalized.

An attraction to violence, for example.

Bruce just gave you a long and tired sigh.

“Even if you were to have this so-called psychopath gene,” Bruce continued, “It doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. Everyone has some form of good in them. Even your parents. In their own twisted way, they thought that all those experiments would bring a great contribution to the scientific community- and to humanity as a whole. Regardless of their true motivations, they comforted themselves in that delusion. Not all psychopaths are criminals, remember?”

You remained silent, mulling over his words.

“You think people, no matter how bad they are, can be saved?” you finally asked.

“It’s one of the reasons why I don’t kill,” he said, “People change. It’s just a matter of the help they get.”

“Even Joker?” you scoffed.

“Even Joker,” he nodded, “Though, I’ve stopped myself from killing him mainly due to selfish reasons. But I do believe that there is a way to cure him. We just haven’t found it yet.”

[fieryofaleks]

I Would Walk 500 Miles pt. 2 (self para)

tw: mentions of abuse, murder and arson 

on that note, enjoy some nice music while reading this :) 

It took an excruciating couple of days of public transport to get to Alek’s hometown. Since it was located in a rural farming area she had to hitch a ride, and she anxiously skipped through the songs on her walkman as she was dropped off right outside of the town. She walked another good twenty minutes to her house, and by the time it came into view it was already dark and the lights were on inside. Nothing had changed since she left, and Alek could feel her heart racing faster and faster as she reached for the handle to the front door. 

When she walked in the young Petrov was met with silence, then a loud snore coming from the small living room a second later. Alek turned her head towards the noise with a confused frown, and was met with the sight of an unfamiliar man passed out on the couch, presumably drunk as well from the sight of all of the empty bottles around him. It took a couple of kicks and talking to figure out the guy wasn’t going to be waking up any time soon, so Alek tossed her bag to the side with a sigh as she went to go check out her room. There were still the same decorations on the hallway wall as she passed by, though she started to notice there were missing spots where photos of her should be. Maybe her mom was just keeping them in her room for safe keeping? Her question wasn’t answered when she wandered into her room where there was no sign of them. It was clear that two people were sleeping in the bed instead of one, which could only mean that the man out on the couch was probably staying with Katerina for a while now. That was surprising considering she hadn’t been with any other man since Hephaestus since she claimed he had ruined love for her. 

Alek backed out of the room, her frown only growing more upsetting as she walked a few more steps down the hall to her own room. Instead of being greeted with her comfortable bed and the few items she had left behind for when she eventually came back, it was all replaced with workout equipment and boxes filled with things that belonged to a stranger. This was the beginning of an igniting anger as her next instinct was to check her old barn in the back, and when she stomped her way into to the ramshackle of a place, she found all the missing pieces. The framed photos were haphazardly thrown in a corner along with a few boxes filled with her personal items like they were trying to be poorly hidden last minute, and her project car was missing. Suddenly, the familiar sound of a rusty engine pulling into the front of the house snapped Alek out of the upset trance she was in, and she rushed back into the house to greet her mother who would surely give answers to all of the unnecessary changes to their home.  She practically tackled the older woman with a hug as all of her worries melted away for at least a few moment, thank the gods she was still alive.

Her mother stood frozen in shock, and then lightly tried to pull Alek off of her as she spoke in a stern and almost disappointed tone. “What are you doing here Aleksandra?” Once her daughter stepped back she was able to completely take her in, and of course the woman pointed right at her missing left arm. “What did you do to yourself?!” Instinctively Alek reached over to cover the stump and shrugged as she shakily replied. “I-It’s nothing, just an accident. Why haven’t you returned any of my calls or letters, and why are all of my things in the barn?! I thought you were dead!” Her mother’s face went dark and there was a long pause between them before she masked it with a fake smile. “What? These letters?” She walked over to a kitchen drawer and opened it up, and tossed a bunch of letters clearly addressed in Alek’s handwriting onto the table nearby. Upon closer inspection it was clear that all of them remained unopened, even the more recent one she had sent that contained the jewelry Chloe had suggested she make for her.

A welling pressure started to build inside Alek, and a storm of feelings clouded her mind as her mother continued on. “I couldn’t bring myself to open them up or return your calls. I didn’t realize that you cared enough to go through all the effort to come back because of it, but I guess you deserve an explanation now that you are here.” She motioned for Alek to sit in a kitchen chair, but she stood in her place which made her mother exhaustively sigh as she pulled out a cigarette to light. “You have always been a burden Aleksandra, a punishment your father left with me. I was hesitant about that island at first, but once you left I…felt like this horrible weight was lifted off my chest. You have no idea how hard it was to spend years of making sure you didn’t burn down my life. I thought that maybe I could stop it all by making you reject that part of you, but it only delayed the inevitable. I mean look at you, you’re a danger even to yourself.” Every word felt like a knife being twisted into Alek, and she clenched her fists as she held back tears. 

Katerina was always talking about how horrible Hephaestus was, but she had never directed that hatred towards her  own daughter until now. Small memories started to make more sense now though, how her mother never showed much maternal affection towards her despite Alek happily saying I love you, and thinking that is was for the best to lock her away from the world for most of her childhood until she could control her emotions. For the first time Alek’s voice faltered, and she could only muster a few words to defend herself. “That’s not fair, what happened wasn’t my-“ She was cut off as her mother approached and abruptly pulled her in for a hug that felt like it was trying to crush her instead of showing compassion. “We both know deep down it was probably your fault, don’t excuse your behavior. There is a reason I haven’t contacted you since you left. I need you to understand how much of a danger you are Aleksandra, and how I have no room for you in the new life I am building for myself. I have no daughter anymore. You are not loved here and will leave immediately back to that little island where the rest of the gods abominations are kept from endangering the rest of us. Do you understand?”

No words came out of Alek as she was held in such a tight hug. She had traveled all this way, putting herself in danger just to find out the only person she latched onto in her life didn’t want her anymore. The familiar sensation of a burning anger took over her, and another new emotion of distraught mixed in as she slowly wrapped her own arm around Katerina. Her mother was the only person who was the glue keeping her together, and now that the truth came out it was as if all of what was kept held behind a cracked dam finally broke through at once.“I understand. At least I can’t come back to something that isn’t there anymore.” 

A tear ran down her cheek as she finally let go of years of bottled up emotions from realized abuse, and the most intense release of firepower with it. This reaction was different from the park incident, because instead there was painful crying as her childhood literally went up in flames. Her mother was at the center of the outburst, and Alek held onto her as she burned away the only person she thought cared. The unknown man on the couch woke up only to be consumed by the intense inferno as well, and in minutes the house was burning down. All that would be left when it was done would be ashes from the past, and a crying nineteen year old girl curled up in the corner of her barn.

She wasn’t alone for long, because the rough hands that clearly belonged to a man who wore them down from years of hard work rested on Alek’s shoulders in comfort. He risked her hateful wrath for the sake of knowing he could say he was there for at least once, because if anyone could understand the unfair rejection from a parent it was him. He gave her enough time to grieve, and then knelt down to her level with a sad smile and spoke in a very familiar warm voice, “C’mon kid, let’s go home.”