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utterdisaster1 · 4 months ago

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Year One

Pairing: Sirius Black x male!reader So after this, we're going straight into pining, romance, teenager phase. There will be a time skip, I think 5th year. TW: mentions of food and eating, mentions of bullying and homophobia, the f-slur and related terms (not in the magical world though). Use of Y/N.

After, more or less arduous journey to London, which gave you plenty of time to ponder why some professor couldn't just come and apparate you to the castle, like Professor McGonnagal did to Diagon Alley, you finally found yourself at the King's Cross.

You didn't know how to feel about being instructed to "run through the wall of the third archway". On one hand, you were certain Professor McGonagall wouldn't play a practical joke on you, but on the other, she would be the perfect person to fool someone, because who would expect a prank from her?

Your parents weren't of much help either. A parent rather, your father couldn't take the time off. Clearly, there is a difference between acknonwledgement and acceptance, one you hadn't picked up on during the Professor's initial visit. Neither of them wanted to talk about it much.

Whether it was your recount of the trip to Diagon Alley or things you had read in books up until that point, of which you bought much more than expected, they would say, "It's not like it applies to us, honey. Let's go an a walk or let's watch some telly".

At Professor's querying look when you came up with a giant stack of books, you just said, "When one doesn't know anything, there's everything to learn." And you very much intended to know everything.

I mean, it's magic. Not tricks one may see at some fair or circus, but an actual power to change reality as you see it. How could you be satisfied with just the bare minimum profficiency in the first-year curriculum?

The possesion of magic was enough to make the normal world seem bleak in comparison. But what also sparked your interest was when you saw two women walking hand in hand in the Alley, clearly having an amorous conversation. At your look, which you hoped didn't give the wrong impression, the Professor said "The wizarding people don't concern themselves with notions of sexual preferences nearly as much as many muggles do. Relationships between people of the same sex are treated exactly as those between the opposite sex. We see no difference."

When you heard that, you wanted to cry. Could you have grown up like that? Without people calling you a faggot or a poof. Not that you ever expressed any interest in a boy openly. There were one or two small, innocent crushes, when simply being around them made butterflies fly in your stomach, but you never told anyone. You couldn't.

It wasn't that long ago that they decriminalised homosexuality, after all. You were six when they legalised it. The first time you were beaten up for "your poofness" you were five.

And again, it's not like you made any advances on another boy. It was either your face "looking gay", your weird behaviour, or maybe being one of the smaller kids in your year, and the slurs were just added in for further humiliation.

But now you were going somewhere where it wouldn't matter. So crashing into a pillar wasn't a bad price to pay for that. After one more look at your mum, you ran into the wall.

Fortunately you didn't crash. After a quick sensation you couldn't quite describe, you found yourself on a lively platform filled with eccentrically dressed people, similar to how they dressed in Diagon Alley. There was also a bright red steam locomotive: with "Hogwarts Express" engraved on the front of it. Everything was just magnificent.

You didn't even register your mum appearing next to you. But after a moment of silent awe, you pulled yourself together and went on. Seeing some kids with carts full of suitcases you were glad that Professor McGonagall had recommended buying a single trunk with extension charms on it. It barely weighed anything, which was a very significant advantage as well.

You wished you had gotten a heartfelt goodbye, but your mum seemed more overwhelmed by her surroundings than by the fact the soonest she would see you would be in three months. Maybe she still hadn't registered the fact.

Still, your hug was returned, and got you a kiss on your forehead, along with a "Stay safe and behave", before boarding the train.

You entered the first empty compartment you found. You were quite convinced you didn't want to intrude on a group of already existing friends, or worse, possible bullies. You quickly sat down and took out your book on protective charms and enchantments.

Seeing that you now actually had an opportunity to practice the spells, you immediately immersed yourself in training, your breath hitching every time you saw your wand actually perform the spell. You didn't even notice the train taking off.

But you did register being interrupted by two kids, first-years by the looks of it. One had dark red hair, startingly green eyes, and freckles on her pale skin. The other was a scrawny boy with greasy, shoulder-length hair and a scowl on his face. He clearly wanted to go further down the cart, but the girl said "Come one Severus, it's the first one that isn't full," and soon enough turned to you. "Hi, my name is Lily Evans, and this is Severus Snape. Could we join you?"

You simply nodded and said 'Y/N L/N', with your thoughts more focused on why the notice-me-not charm you had placed earlier had stopped working on your compartment door.

The girl continued, "You wouldn't believe what sort of buffoons we met earlier. So self-conceited and arrogant... I mean, why would you insult a stranger you've barely met!? I'll pray not to end up in the same house as either of them!"

"Well, I'm sorry that happened to you" you said quietly.

The boy hadn't said anything yet, but he did sit down next to the Evans girl, so you assumed they were both going to stay. At some point, she started talking about phones, or rather how much more convenient it would be if they just installed some phone booths outside so she could call her family instead of sending letters by owl.

"Yeah, I wondered the same thing," you interjeccted and silently added "Not that they would get what I'm talking about anyway; they seem weirded out by anything that has to do with the school."

"My sister's weirded out too," she responded with a tone that seemed to imply some deeper emotions. But she quickly asked "Are you from a normal- I mean, Muggle family too?"

"Yeah," you replied. "I assume you are as well"

The boy gave you a sharp look, apparently displeased with the attention you were receiving, and said, "Congratulations on stating the obvious"

"That's rude, Severus" Lily said.

He huffed but didn't say anything further, though whenever she wasn't looking, he would send you a glare, sometimes accompanied by a sneer.

Despite the shadow of despair that the boy seemed to be, you connected well with Lily. Being Muggle-borns, there were many experiences you shared, as well as a particular interest in the subject of Charms. You both received a visit from Professor McGonagall and quite agreed that you wouldn't want to do anything to incur her ire.

When the train finally arrived at Hogsmeade Station, things moved quickly. One moment you were on the platform, then, sooner than you realised, you were sailing on a boat to the castle. The castle was gorgeous and took the breath away from most, if not all, first-years present.

Then you were guided by the Headmistress towards a waiting chamber, given a speech about the houses, responsibility and consequences, and a few minutes later, you entered the Great Hall.

You wondered if you had any lungs left, considering how many times it seemed you could barely breathe that day.

The Hall could only be described as grandiose. "Impressive" or "grand" really wouldn't do justice to the beauty of your surroundings.

After listening to a song from a battered hat, it was time for the sorting. When your turn came, you quickly went up the stairs and put the hat on.

Interesting. Very interesting. So many qualities. A strong desire to learn, an abundance of curiosity. But I see there's something you want even more. To belong. To find people who will stand with you, not against you. And there's protectiveness as well. You're willing to fight for those you love, for what you believe is right. I think I know... Better be...GRYFFINDOR!!!

You were quite surprised, but not disappointed. They seemed like a nice group to be a part of.

You sat down next to a blonde-haired girl, and she quickly introduced herself. "Marlene McKinnon, nice to meet you"

"Y/N L/N, nice to meet you too," you responded.

After the sorting was done, and everyone was free to talk and eat as much as they wanted, you had more opportunities to get to know your housemates.

You already knew Lily, and by the stink eye she was giving two particular boys, you assumed they were the "buffoons" she mentioned earlier. One of them, with unruly dark hair, glasses, and a very loud voice, you learned, was James Potter. The other, with aristocratic looks, high cheekbones, a little haughy look that was tempered by a smile, and grey eyes that seemed to glimmer like stones underwater in sunlight, was Sirius Black.

You knew they would be trouble after their description from Lily. But what you didn't expect were the butterflies you felt in your stomach when Sirius turned to you, introducing himself and exchanging a brief conversation.

No. You were not going to be saddled with a crush on your dormmate. Not possible. And on your first day already. It had been going so well. You remembered the mess you were around the boy in your year 5 at your previous school, the simultaneous pull to him mixed with a fear of him noticing.

It will pass. You will make it pass. I mean, you barely knew him. If you can make an animal from a pebble, there must be a spell to just get rid of such a miniscule thing as a crush. There must be.

______________________________________________________________

Weeks passed, and you had not found the spell. But you didn't really need to. You were only 11 years old, after all; the hormonal storm was yet to come, so it wasn't that hard to fucus on other matters with the abundance of things to do.

Schoolwork was the primary focus. You had read up on a lot before the term started, but there was still so much more. Potions, the particular bane of your existence, was what you had to work on the most. Any wand-work came to you naturally, often earning praise and acknowledgement from your professors. History of Magic was a good time to take a nap, you had neutral feelings towards Herbology, and Astronomy, despite the late hour, was wonderful in its own right.

Another thing taking up your time was dealing with the prejudiced, fascist vipers from Slytherin House. Apparently, being a Gryffindor and a mudblood made you a favourable target. It was a good thing you had experience with bullies and that you instinctivelly picked up books on protection spells first. Apparently, a succesful protego performed by a first-year was a rare occurence, so they hadn't expected it. And living with James Potter also gave you access to books on hexes more than effective for fighting back.

What allowed you to resist the most, though, was what the hat had predicted for you. You and your dormmates quickly became close - mischief being both a bonding experience and something too fun to resist.

James Potter would have become your friend even if you had resisted with all your might. The boy had a certain pull to him. He was like the shining sun - whenever he walked into a room, he managed to capture everyone's attention. He was friendly to you from the get-go, but it was the moment he witnessed you repel a hex sent at the two of you with ease that you truly gained his attention and admiration. His curiosity turned towards protectiveness, which quickly developed into a genuine friendship that you would never think of rejecting.

Remus Lupin was quiet and subdued. He had an air of fear and shyness around him that you could relate to. It was palpable he was trying to keep his distance from all four of you. You didn't have the flair of James Potter, but after one serendipitious meeting in the library followed by a shared study session, it became a regular occurence. You were inviting and never pushed him beyond what he was willing to share, and over time, a clear fondness developed between you both.

Peter Pettigrew came as a package deal with James, really. Usually content to listen and nod along, it took you a while to actually get to know him. Surprisingly, it was chess that allowed you two to actually develop a friendship. He was shockingly good and practically pulverised you in most cases, but the time you spent together allowed you to get to know each other, and over time, you didn't need James to have something to talk about.

And then there was Sirius Black. In the dorm, he was everything - funny, teasing and entertaining. But whenever you left the dorm, he would be at the farthest distance possible away from you. You understood why. The howlers he received left no doubt as to his family's stance on blood purity and status. To them, you were the lowest of scum, sullying the earth you dared to step on. And with serpent eyes tracking his every move, particularly from a girl with a perpetual look of distaste, it was clear that his parents were being informed about all his activities in detail.

Now, when it came to your feelings, you spent one evening pondering on them and came to a conclusion - you appreciated his appearance, there was no doubt about that. He was pretty, and it was pleasant to look at him, like it's pleasant to look at art too; there's nothing abnormal about that. He was a friend, even if a concealed one. Being his friend felt nice, much nicer than having a crush.

Living with him helped you get used to his presence, and soon there was no fluttering in your stomach or slight blush on your cheeks whenever you talked with him. You were a kid, romantic feelings were easily avoidable and fickle if present in the first place.

Together, you and the other Gryffindor first-year boys created a force to be reckoned with.

Of course, the scope of your abilities was limited. There are only so many spells, potions and schemes an 11-year-old minds are capable of. But with each prank, your drive to outdo the previous one pushed you further.

All that however, made things with your other friend - Lily Evans, difficult. You cared for her friendship. You two could relate with each other in ways you couldn't with any of the boys. None of them were Muggle-borns; the closest relation was Remus's mum, who was a Muggle-born herself. There was also Mary Macdonald in Gryffindor, but she was definitely not in a place where she was ready to befriend a boy, much to your dismay, because she seemed like great fun.

So, you tried to balance things with Lily and swore to try to sway the boys away from Snape. And you did try, but it was quite difficult.

He was a git. No other way to put it. Well, there's many other ways to put it actually - unpleasant, greasy, rude, strident, oily - many adjectives, none of which were appreciated by Lily.

The only friend of yours she tolerated was Remus. So, you made it a point to include her in your study sessions.

Remus was uncertain at first. But Lily was nice, and after offering him a bar of chocolate to share (in secret from madam Pince, of course), he gave her a chance and gradually got used to her presence. He even started engaging with her in discussions about literature, a shared interest. Over time, he even started to show his more cheeky side, with friendly banter developed between the three of you.

The other thing about Remus was his secret he went to great lengths to hide. Maybe, if it had been just you living with him, he might have managed to conceal it for longer. After all, werewolves were not high on your list of priorities to research. But with three magically-raised boys present, after the February full moon, there was no denying it. When the four of you discussed it in your dorm, having casted all sorts of silencing and privacy charms while Remus was recovering in the infirmary, the other three seemed startled, each on some level. Peter was outright freaked out, James was jittery, and Sirius was at a loss for words—a concerning sign, given that his voice was usually constant unless he was sleeping, and sometimes not even then.

You suspected it the least, and yet, reacted the calmest. And for someone who claimed he knew since november, James seemed really torn about what to do next.

It wasn't a matter of sticking by Remus - well maybe a little for Peter - but overall, the challenge was dealing with the whole ordeal. "How do we tell him we know? How do we help him? Should we tell him anything?"

You settled on subtlety. The plan was simple: mention the subject "casually", show support, and then quickly move on to a different topic. Simple.

But Remus was way too smart, and soon enough, he began retreating from you. You started catching him sleeping in the common room and could barely get a word in between classes, as he somehow always had a place to be or homework to do. So you had to take extreme measures.

One day, after letting him avoid all four of you, you waited until he returned to the dorm to take a shower. You went in while he was in the bathroom, locked the door, again casted all known privacy and silencing charms and waited to ambush him with support and love.

So that's what you did. The moment he exited the bathroom and saw all four of you, he knew what it was about. He went to the door, but it wouldn't budge, and you made sure a simple alohomora would not even make the lock stir.

That evening involved a lot of screaming, tears, crying and finally, hugs.

"S- So, you- you really- you don't mind? I'm a monster" he said, with tears streaming down to the floor.

"Of course we don't Rem. You're our friend." said James.

At that he only cried more. James hugged him first, followed by the rest of you. Ultimatelly, you all woke up with back pain from sleeping huddled up together on the floor, but closer than ever.

______________________________________________________________

The Christmas and Easter holidays you spent back home were uneventful. You were asked if you were doing well at school, and upon affirming, you were not pressed further. You didn’t even get the chance to talk about how Professor McGonagall had called you a prodigy, or how you had successfully cast some NEWT-level charms already. Nothing about your victories in the school dueling club. You didn’t get to complain about Potions or History. You were told to stick with the story your parents had concocted while you were away—that you were attending a boarding school in Scotland and that there was nothing special about it.

Your time at home only made you realise how little at home you actually felt. The forest was your reprieve. Beatrice the doe was always friendlier in the winter, knowing you'd have some extra carrots or other snacks for her. Nature didn't judge you, didn't silence you. You were in perfect symbiosis with it. You respected it and received respect in return.

So, it was no surprise that the last week of the school year was one of your worst. You wouldn’t see any of your friends over the holidays and didn’t have any friends to return to. You wouldn’t be able to talk with anybody about school, the latest issue of Transfiguration Today, or about Hippogriffs and Bowtruckles.

You could only cling to hope that the letters you all promised to send each other would be enough, or that they would at least pick your mood up a little bit.

The day before the ride back, you were sitting alone by the Black Lake, right next to the Forbidden Forest, where you knew no one ventured for fear of being kidnapped by centaurs or acromantulas. But that day, you heard a twig snap behind you and saw Sirius standing there.

Your sulking hadn’t made you blind to your surroundings. He clearly was doing even worse than you, and from his sparse stories about his home life, you knew why.

Neither of you said anything. He simply sat next to you, leaning against the same tree, and took your hand. You stayed there together until the sunset.

When you stood up, he held on, keeping you from leaving, and said, “I’ll miss you, and I can’t wait to see you in September. I won’t be able to say goodbye tomorrow, since-” he clearly didn’t want to mention his family, and you understood that.

"I will miss you too. Maybe we can write letters to each other" you responded.

He was going to refuse, knowing the risk of his mother reading his mail, but you quickly added, “I won’t send any. I’ll just save them up and give them to you when we see each other in september. You can do the same.” and then you hastily added, “If you want to, that is. I don’t want to pressure you into anything, I just-”

He interrupted you with a laugh followed by a tight hug. “I’ll write to you too.”

After that, you went on your way to the castle, while he waited a little while before returning. You both knew he couldn’t risk anyone from his family finding out he was spending time with a Mudblood, especially when there would be no time for tempers to cool down.

The only thing on your mind now, though, was the flutter of butterflies that erupted inside you the moment he hugged you and the tingling you still felt in the hand he had held.

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hamiltonaf · 1 year ago

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Expecting the Unexpected | Kylian Mbappé

Pairing: Kylian Mbappé x Female Reader

Requested: Anonymous

Word Count: 1.8K

Warnings: Angst but turns into fluff / Kind of smutish towards the end / Cursing if you squint.

A/N: Thanks to anon for requesting. Currently working on other requests so hopefully they will be posted soon. Hope you guys enjoy .xoxo

2 years of marriage. It went by very quickly but gosh it annoys me being asked that one question since the day we were married. When are you guys having a baby ?

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love kids and of course I want to see Kylian being a dad, but the idea of having a baby right now at the age of 23 wasn’t part of my plan. Studying a post graduate degree isn’t easy and especially going to work in between. I’ve heard it countless of times to drop work and studying because Kylian is there for me, but all I really want is independence and not having to hear one day that I used Kylian.

As family oriented as I am, I’ve come to a point where I try to avoid meeting any family - my own included - just to avoid being asked the dreaded question. I hate the idea that straight after getting married, all that’s left is to have kids… why can’t married couples enjoy their life for a few years at least before growing their family ?

Since Kylian’s season was over, my mother-in-law had invited Kylian and I for dinner. I was willing to go for dinner since I haven’t seen my in-laws in a while, but my mood turned sour when my boss instructed me that I needed to stay behind and do corrections to my work that was apparently incorrect.

Kylian had texted me asking me where I was and I replied back apologising that I won’t make it to dinner because my boss was holding me back to do extra work. He left me on read.

The corrections drove me insane because I did as I was told to do, but yet my boss gaslighted me saying that he told me to do something else. Asshole. I left work 2 hours later and went straight home, not knowing if Kylian was back from dinner or if he was still with his family.

As soon as I unlocked the door, I dropped my keys on the kitchen counter along with my bag. I could hear the TV playing and walked my way to the lounge. “Oh you’re here. Sorry I missed dinner. My boss was being such an ass and gaslighted me saying-“ “Save it” he cut me off as he continued to watch the TV. “Excuse me ? What do you mean save it ? I literally told you that my boss was holding me back to do extra work, I didn’t have a choice !” I raised my voice as I walked around the couch to stand in front of him with folded arms. His ‘don’t-care’ attitude was driving me insane, he literally had the audacity to continue watching TV.

“Kylian. I had a long day and the last thing I want is for us to argue” I toned down my voice. “I’m so done making excuses for you” he said as he finally met my gaze. “What excuse ? You didn’t even give me a chance to finish ! I was saying that my boss gaslighted me into thinking I did the wrong work when I literally followed his instructions. He held me back because he wanted me to correct it” I started to grow annoyed. “Lies lies and more lies. Just admit it (Y/N), you didn’t want to come to dinner because you’re worried about them asking you when we’re going to be parents. Do you know how embarrassing it is for me ? Our relationship looks so one sided” he raised his voice as he stood up and towered me.

“One sided ? You know that’s a lie. Also, enlighten me on how it’s embarrassing for you when I’m the one who’s expected to carry our child, not you ! So do tell me how you’re the one under pressure” I raised my brows. “How do I answer my mum when she asks me when will she be a grandmother ? What do you want me to say ? Oh don’t expect to be a grandmother any time soon because (Y/N) isn’t interested in having a child !” He yelled in my face.

“I- you know what, I can’t continue this conversation any further” I said calmly as possible before walking away from him. “No, we’re not done talking. Why do you keep running away from your problems ?” He asked as he followed me. “Can you just shut up ! Ugh !” I groaned as I walked to our room. With all my built up frustration and stress, I could feel tears start to pool at my eyes.

“(Y/N) answer me !” He said as I came to a halt. I looked up in hopes of getting rid of my tears, but the second I turned to look at Kylian the tears threatened to spill. His look softened when he saw the tears run down my face. He stepped closer and cupped my cheeks. “I’m sorry ma chérie” he said as he wiped my tears away with the pad of his thumb. I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths to try, and calm down. I walked away from him and walked to our en suite to lock myself in the bathroom.

He started knocking on the door and calling out,“Ma chérie, I’m so so sorry. Please forgive me. I hate fighting with you and seeing you cry. I’m just so frustrated from being asked the same question over and over.” I don’t know what came over me but I couldn’t stop crying to myself. I was so focused on my thoughts and emotions that Kylian’s words were inaudible.

After a minute the door had suddenly burst open. I looked up in shock to Kylian as he rushed to my side and pulled me in for a hug. “Please don’t scare me like that” he said softly. I wiped away my tears with the back of my hand and turned to look at him. “Are you crying ?” I asked as I half smiled. He nodded as I wiped away his tears. “Please talk to me. Tell me what’s going on. I hate being left in the dark, I don’t know what else to tell our family. Why can’t we have a baby ?” He asked.

“I love you Ky. I really do…but having a child after 2 years of being married wasn’t part of my family planning” I pouted. He pressed his lips together as a sign for me to continue.

He remained silent for me to get to my point. “Ky, if I barely spend time with you, why would I even think of us having a child right now ? I won’t lie that at times I did think that maybe us being parents would change things for the better but I kept holding back because I have too much on my hands right now” I said as I avoided his gaze. “Babe, then why don’t you drop studying and working ? Why put yourself through so much when I can be the one to provide for you and our baby” he said as he brushed a strand of hair away from my face. “It’s easy for you to say but I just happen to enjoy being independent. It’s how I’ve always been growing up, besides that, the last thing I want to hear is people calling me a gold digger or user blah blah. I didn’t marry you for your money, I married you because I love you” I pouted.

He broke into a smile as he cupped my cheeks and pulled me in for a sweet kiss. “Please don’t worry about what other people think. What’s mine is yours…I love you so so much. I’m sorry again for snapping at you, besides being asked that question so many times, I myself had questioned when will the day come that we’ll have our own mini us” he smiled at the thought. “I know you said that we barely spend time together, I’ll also take the blame for not spending more time with you when there were times that I could’ve made the effort. Again, I’m sorry for not being the greatest husband, I’ll try to do better” he said as he held my hands and rubbed small circles with his thumb.

“Please stop apologising. You’ve been such an amazing husband to me. I know this whole thing got blown out of proportion, we should have had this conversation sooner” I sighed as I pulled him along with me to sit at the edge of our bed. “I agree, but don’t feel pressured into doing anything. I get it” he said as he held my face with one hand. “This timing is really bad but I don’t think I can keep it a secret any longer. I’m pregnant” I pressed my lips together. “Stop playing with me babe” he half laughed. “Ky I’m serious. I’m pregnant. You’re going to be a dad !” I squealed.

“Wait. Really ?” He asked again. I nodded my head as he then screamed and jumped up whilst punching his hands in the air. Once again he cupped my cheeks and placed his lips on mine. He then lifted me up and spun us around the room. “I can’t explain to you how happy I am ! Why didn’t you tell me sooner and when did you find out ?” He asked eagerly.

“I found out about 2 days ago. I did a test because my period was late for about 2 weeks and I thought it was just one of those moments where it’s rarely late, I don’t know what made me take a test and a few minutes later I found out. I was planning to do a whole cute reveal for you but like I said, everything had gotten blown out of proportion. You didn’t know this, but I was actually looking forward to coming to dinner, I thought I could reveal it tonight just amongst our immediate family but then I was genuinely upset by my boss” I half smiled. “Oh no. Now I feel even more terrible. Babe I really am so sorry I just-“ I cut him off by grabbing his face and connecting our lips together.

Our lips moved in sync as he walked backwards to the edge of the bed. “Stop apologising” I said as I straddled his lap and broke away from our kiss. “I can’t believe we’re going to be parents. I can’t wait to be a dad. More especially, I can’t wait to see you grow and carry our baby. You’re already so sexy, I don’t know how I’ll contain myself seeing you from now on. I say that this calls for a celebration” he smirked. “I was hoping you’d say something like that” I wrapped my arms around his neck and closed the gap between us.

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p0orbaby · 2 years ago

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Dead Plate

summary: Natasha can’t cook. You love to let her know. She loves to be told.

warnings: suggestive but not explicit, language, slight sub!dom vibes? probably some terribly incorrect cooking terms in there

a/n: someone suggested chef!reader ages ago, so here’s something small

word count: 1.3k

“You’re doing that all wrong”

The sound of your voice caused Natasha to jump. So much so that the wooden spoon she was using clattered against the side of the pan and onto the floor.

“Sneaking up on someone in front of an open flame is dangerous, you know”

“Well it’s not as dangerous as what’s going on in that pot” you countered as you looked over her shoulder with a grimace.

“I’ve followed the recipe you wrote down! So if it’s bad then that’s on you”

“Right. Because apparently I said that spoons and whisks where interchangeable”

She was about to answer when she read your now food covered notes, and did in fact find she’d been using the wrong utensil all along.

“You could’ve picked an easier one for your first try. Even the best chefs struggle with a roux from time to time”

All Natasha could do was pout and cross her arms over her chest in defeat.

“Hey, don’t pull that face” you said as you tied your apron around yourself. Getting ready to either salvage the food or start over entirely. “Come over here and help, you can be my sous chef”

“Do I have to?”

“Ah, that’s not what we say now, is it?”

A shiver ran down her spine at your tone. Assertive. Commanding. Sexy as fuck.

“No. Chef”

“That’s what I thought. So come and stand over here and help”

“Yes chef”

Natasha washed her hands in the basin and promptly stood next to you. The few extra inches you had on her had her craning her neck upwards. Waiting patiently to follow any instructions you’d give her.

“You’ve added too much flour. So we need to add more milk. Can you measure two tablespoons and pour them into the pot for me?”

This time selecting the appropriate utensils, she did what you asked. Just as obedient as a trained puppy. Always wanting to impress.

“Perfect. Now we'll turn the heat down slightly, and I want you to stand in front of me at the stove and whisk until there's no lumps”

She wasn’t listening. She was looking at your hands, your forearms. The way they tensed as you turned the gas down.

“Earth to Natasha '' you promoted, smirking at the absent expression on the redhead's face.

“Sorry”

You took her wrist, pressed the whisk into her palm and maneuvered her so her back was touching your front. Caged in. Trapped.

“You know how to whisk, right? Or do you need me to assist you with that too?”

Without a word, Natasha lifted her hand and placed the whisk in the pot and started moving it back and fourth with speed. Bubbles being created in the milk at the repetitive motion.

She felt your hand at her elbow the next second.

“Too fast. Be a little more gentle” you whispered in her ear.

So she slowed her pace. Focusing on your breath against the skin of her neck and the pressure of your hands as they squeezed at her waist.

“Good girl. See how it’s getting thicker? Means you’re doing a perfect job”

“Thank you, Chef,” she breathed.

“Now, what else does the recipe say?” A rhetorical question as you reached around her form and picked up your own notes from the kitchen counter. “Cheese. Did you grate it already?”

She nodded.

“Words, Natasha”

“Yes chef. I left it in the refrigerator”

She missed the feel of your body against hers as soon as you stepped away. And the chill of the air from the fridge made her shiver. Goosebumps appearing on her skin instantly.

“And the macaroni?”

“I was going to boil that after,” Natasha admitted slowly. Realising her mistake as soon as you mentioned the other key ingredient.

“Oh dear, Natasha. You really did fuck up didn’t you?”

Your voice wasn’t judgemental. Not really. She knew you were playing, but that made the whole thing even more enjoyable. Your normal carefree attitude replaced by one of assertiveness with hints of superiority.

She probably loved it all a little too much.

Loved the way you tutted at her forgetfulness. Loved the way you moved around the kitchen, brushing past her with intent. It was all very calculated. She knew that. But she relished in the attention all the same.

“You need to do better, Natalia. Your job requires you to be well fuelled. And that means learning how to cook. I may not always be around to help you”

Her legs clenched together subconsciously at the insult. How you made her feel so weak she never knew. It was a stark contrast to why she was like outside of the house. Being a criminal lawyer meant she had to be stern, level headed, even ruthless sometimes. That all flies out the window as soon as you call her names, or roll your eyes at her incompetence at simple tasks.

“I can cook” Natasha’s response was merely just for show. She couldn’t cook. Unless you call tv dinners or oven chips cooking. Which you naturally didn’t. Her ex did the cooking and with him gone, she was left to dine on meals that were mainly made up from the colour beige.

Until you, that was.

“Sure you can sweetheart. If you could, I wouldn’t have to hold your hand while you tried and failed to make this now, would I?”

She shook her head. Bashful and innocent as you drained the water from the pot of now cooked macaroni.

Wait. She can’t have been ogling you that long surely?

“Do you need my help to stir it together or are you up to trying not to make a mess?”

She grabbed the spoon you’d held out for her and your response was to slide her between you and the surface once again. Marble digging into her hips deliciously as you lent forward and placed your chin on her shoulder. Fingers kneading softly at her sides.

“See, you can achieve what you want if you use your brain a little” you encouraged softly as she stirred the pasta into the sauce. “Mac and cheese now, beef wellington next”

“I think I’ll leave the cooking to you” she decided as she dipped her finger in the pot and licked the excess off. Moaning in joy at the flavour.

She went to dip her finger back in so you could have a taste, but you grabbed her wrist, nails almost digging into her skin, halting her movements.

“Don’t you dare put your hand back in there. Wash your hands or use a damn spoon”.

Her breath hitched. “Yes, chef”

You moved away from her again, but this time you smacked her behind as she shimmied up to the sink. Your action was relayed by a squeal from and an out of character glare at you from over her shoulder.

All you did in response was lean smuggly against the frame of the door again. Relishing in the fact you could turn her to jelly with a few harsh words.

“That was fun”

“Was it? All you did was insult me”

“All's fair in love and war. And I didn’t hear you complaining. You’re hot when you’re flustered”. There it was again. The heat that ran through her body at your backhanded compliments. “And you’d look even hotter flustered and naked”

She’d play along. “Is that so?”

“Oh I’m positive. Wanna find out?”

“Sure”

“What was that?” You shouted as you turned away from her and started ascending the stairs.

“Yes chef”

“Better”

Natasha almost melted into a puddle on the tile floor beneath her when you caught her gaze and tilted your head in the direction you were headed, prompting her to follow.

The mac and cheese could wait until after she’d worked up an appetite for something that wasn’t you.

#natasha romanoff #natasha romanoff x reader #natasha romanoff x chef!reader #chef!reader #natasha romanoff fluff #fluff #natasha romanoff smut #smut

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lulublack90 · 3 months ago

Text

Prompt 18 - Spider

@jegulus-microfic August 18, Word count 641

Previous part First Wolfstar part

James took a seat opposite Dumbledore. Regulus hovered beside him, careful not to knock any of the spindly tables over that the headmaster seemed fond of balancing delicate glass objects on, and listened to their conversation.

“Are you aware of the events that occurred at the Lestrange residence?” Dumbledore asked.

“Yes, I think so. The castle was attacked and the Lestange's and a few others were all killed,” James replied. Regulus noticed his jaw tense. Dumbledore narrowed his eyes and steepled his fingers.

“It was a bit more than that,” The old man added. “They were massacred.” James put on a shocked face. “There was very little left to identify them by,” He peered across the tops of his half-moon spectacles, watching James carefully. “The order has been blamed for it and as I gave no such order for an attack on that scale I am trying to figure out what went wrong.” James kept his face as neutral as possible.

“I don’t know who did it,” He said carefully.

“Oh, no, I didn’t expect you would.” The headmaster nodded. "And still no signs of Remus Lupin or Sirius Black?” Dumbledore asked. Regulus stiffened. Did Dumbledore know they were behind it?

“No, sir, but I won’t give up looking. They have to be out there. I won’t give up hope of finding them,”

“If anyone can do it, James, I have no doubt you are the wizard for the job,” Dumbledore’s blue eyes twinkled at James and Regulus couldn’t help but feel a bit unnerved by the man. He’d never had his brother’s blind faith in the old coot. There was a reason he was the only one Voldemort was scared of.

James rose to leave, but Dumbledore called after him just as he was about to turn the door knob. “What was it that you needed in the Slytherin Common room, James?” He asked, eyes narrowed. James turned to look over his shoulder and, as nonchalantly as he could, he answered Dumbledore.

“Oh, just a hunch, not sure if it’ll pay off or not. I’ll let you know if it does,” James waved and opened the door.

They rushed from the castle as quickly as they could and into the forbidden forest. Regulus didn’t dare take the invisibility cloak off until they were deep in the forest. Salazar had given them instructions on how to open the locket and even helpful ideas on how to destroy it. Regulus hadn’t dared tell him that he’d already found the information to destroy a Horcrux and just listened to the same information he’d already read being retold to him.

Something flashed in the corner of his eyes and he could have sworn he saw a ginormous spider. He told James as much.

“Oh, it was probably one of the acromantula. There’s a nest of them not too far from here.”

“What! James, they are so dangerous! Why are they even in the forest?!” His eyes darted about nervously, he felt as though dozens of eyes were on him.

They finally came to the clearing that James was leading them to and Regulus took the locket out of his pocket, placed it on the ground and stood back. “Hesha-Hassah!” He hissed the way Salazar’s portrait had made him repeat over and over until it sounded right. Apparently, it was parseltongue for open. The portrait had also shown them a secret panel on the fireplace that held one Basilisk fang that the actual Salazar had hidden there in case he needed one in a hurry. According to the portrait, there were fangs hidden all over the castle. Regulus thought he’d be more worried about the potential of a student accidentally stumbling across one and harming themselves but at the moment he had bigger worries.

The locket opened, and he was engulfed in dark swirling mist.

Next part

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lemotmo · 4 months ago

Note

Sending this one because apparently lots of people didn't really understand how this works. So this was a good explanation. Hope your blog heals ❤️

Q. I don't understand how Tim or ABC can just tell him he's not allowed to talk about Tommy or Buck anymore? I'm pretty sure he just lost interest in doing the videos because they can't tell him what he can and cannot do. It doesn't work like that. He can say whatever he wants to whoever he wants that's his right. They all have that right.

A. They don't actually have that right. I have received a TON of questions fairly similar to this so maybe lots of people genuinely don't know how this type of thing works. Lou is the actor who plays Tommy. Tim, Ryan and Brad created the character of Tommy. They own that character exclusively. ABC purchased the licensing rights to that character, when they purchased the show's rights, so they control the characters PR/imaging rights. Meaning neither Lou, or any other actor from the show, can profit off of or promote themselves through their character if Tim, Ryan, Brad or ABC tells them they can't. Full stop. Tommy is the intellectual property of Tim and company. Lou has zero rights to that character. If they tell him he's no longer allowed to speak on behalf of that charter or promote himself using that character (which is what Lou was doing) he is lawfully obligated to stop and stop at once. That is standard operating procedure for any and all television/movie characters. If the actor playing that character had nothing to do with creating that character they are at the total mercy of the person/people/studio who did create and own that character. There is no wiggle room.

We don't have proof that he was told to stop, you're correct. What we do have though is a pretty consistent pattern from him right up until the day it did stop. He communicated with them almost daily, sometimes multiple times a day. He wasn't passive about it. He made a point to do it every day to some degree. He filmed multiple videos over multiple weeks. Each and every one of them speculating on and about Tommy (an even bigger no no was him openly talking about and speculating on other characters). The videos had clearly not been commissioned or approved by Tim or ABC, if they had been then the videos would have had some sort of structure. Then one day he filmed and released a cameo video and the very next day everything stopped. Zero communication. Zero interaction. He not only stopped recording the videos he removed the option to even try to buy one all together. He did leave the option for you to submit a question but many, many people have shown proof that they submitted a question but it went completely unanswered and they couldn't even tell if their question had been read or not. That sounds like someone who was forced to stop rather than voluntarily stopped. I personally think a conversation was absolutely had with him. Most of the time a show will look the other way on fan interactions. It comes with the territory. Some actors engage more than others. But it got out of hand. He was telling people to go above Tim and directly to the network asking for more of him/Tommy. He was openly theorizing on characters and cast mates he had no right being into any conversation(this was a big NO). And those fans were hounding not only Tim, Oliver and Ryan but they were hounding production staff. All of these things occurred as a result of his videos. There was nothing wrong with him pushing himself for more screentime, especially since he knew he was on borrowed/limited time, actors do that all the time. The way he went about trying to do it though was the problem. Rockmond Dunbar (Michael) would be the closest example to the situation Lou currently seems to be in. It was a different circumstance, but he was given explicit instructions to follow and he chose not to follow the instructions and as a result they dismissed him from the show. Temporary screen time is better than zero screen time so I'm sure for now Lou is just following orders.

Thank you Nonny for dropping this in my inbox! And thank you for the kind wishes. :)

(From now on I will address the anon OP as Ali. She has kindly asked me to call her that. I get why. Anon OP does sound kinda clunky. :D )

Now see? This is why I'm so determined to keep on posting Ali's asks. I don't live in the US, so I'm far away from Hollywood and the world of TV-shows. I do have some knowledge of how everything works behind the scenes from all the years I've spent roaming around in fandoms of American TV-shows, but that is only a fraction of the bigger picture.

All characters are intellectual property from the creators of the show, just like book characters are the intellectual property from the author. I knew this, but it's fascinating to read what exactly that entails in the world of TV-shows. It's always interesting to read a full break down of the inner workings of television and actor contracts.

As per usual, thank you for sharing your thoughts with us.

IMPORTANT! Please don't repost this ask and/or a link that leads straight to my Tumblr account on Twitter or any other social media. Thank you!

Heads up! For anyone who is giving me the shifty eyes for reposting Ali's updates instead of reblogging. Read this.

Remember, no hate in comments, reblogs or inboxes. Let's keep it civil and respectful. Thank you.

If you are interested in more of Ali’s posts, you can find all of her posts so far under the tag: anonymous blog I love.

#anonymous blog I love #insight into 911 fandom & season 7 and 8 #insight into television production #911 abc #nonnies galore

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rosewind2007 · 1 year ago

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Ha!

Some people have asked in the last 48 hours:

“Like why the hell would anyone ship Murderbot and Gurathin?”

(I like to imagine them like ART clutching its function in Artificial Condition—“Ship Gurathin and Murderbot? That is irrational!”)

So, let me explain…no, there is too much. Let me make a few points:

This really starts out by asking the question: why did Gurathin want to know how the PresAux SecUnit was spending its time? Which is a really odd thing for him to want to know if you think about it.

The SecUnit is, as they have been told, merely a tool: it’s an adjunct to the SecSystem and HubSystem of the habitat, it’s a company device, a tool, a product of corporate surveillance capitalism and authoritarian enforcement. Up until the worm incident some of the PresAux team didn’t even now it had a face. Mensah didn’t want to rent it as part of the bond guarantee agreement, and called it (basically) a “hellish compromise.”

So, the rest of PresAux are in varying states of awareness about what Murderbot is.

In Future of Work Compulsory we get some insight into common knowledge of SecUnits: the workers are unaware they can speak, in fact adamant they cannot:

Asa took her arm gently. “They can’t talk,” he told her.

She [Sekai] shook her head as her friends steered her toward the access bridge. “No, it talked. I heard it.”

The PresAux team know their SecUnit can talk, it gives them a security briefing. Do most of them think this is the equivalent of a recorded message, delivered rote?

Surely Mensah, having seen its face and knowing of its intelligence (that hellish compromise) can’t think it’s anything less than a slave? But that aside: I am talking about Gurathin. And what what Volescu says Gurathin wanted to know:

Then Volescu said, “Gurathin, you wanted to know how it spends its time. That was what you were originally looking for in the logs. Tell them.”

Funny thing to want to know, like do you want to know how your roomba spends its time? Okay, this is Tumblr, possibly the wrong place for this question.

So Gurathin is suspicious, apparently right from the start of the book since on page 33 he first asks it a question:

“What about your systems?”

I would note that Gurathin asks MB two questions about how it is functioning, both just after it does something that goes against its governor module:

The other good thing about my hacked governor module is that I could ignore the governor’s instructions to defend the stupid company. “They’re supposed to be able to, but equipment failures aren’t unknown.”

Next thing anyone says is:

Then Gurathin said, “What about your systems?”

Later:

It was one of those impulses that comes from my organic parts that the governor is supposed to squash. I said, “As the only one here with experience in these situations, I’m your best resource.”

Gurathin said, “What situations?”

This looks to me like someone who either detects that MB is acting unlike a SecUnit should, or even that he can tell a governor module is being defied.

HOW does Gurathin do this/know this? He is after all augmented, perhaps he is detecting something in the feed? In Rogue Protocol when MB is spying on Miki via a drone it has taken over, Miki realises something is up:

Miki didn’t move, still staring into the dark with the opaque surface of its eyes. The feed was clear, it couldn’t know I was here.

Then Miki sent a directionless ping

I think Miki does know (Miki stares at the drone); and I think somehow Gurathin also knows.

This seems to indicate that Gurathin may know more about SecUnits than he’s giving away—but whatever: this is someone who has been closely watching Murderbot.

Like, really closely.

I think an absolutely reasonable reading of ASR is that Gurathin has a bit of a fixation on this SecUnit, and it’s a fixation that started before the worm incident.

He’s watching this piece of company equipment with unusual intensity.

I am happy to headcanon that this started with the security briefing, that Murderbot couldn’t keep its feelings out of its voice. I mean, can you imagine Murderbot doing the in-flight safety announcement on the plane? It brings to mind project mayhem’s replacement safety handouts…

Did Gurathin hear Murderbot’s real voice bleed through? Cynicism and sarcasm, a dose of irony?

It’s a thought. He never seems to doubt it’s a person. The fact that Rathhi says: “This is no more a machine than Gurathin is—”perhaps says something about how he sees Gurathin too.

I would note that Gurathin and Ratthi aren’t friends in All Systems Red—something which surprised me a little (I didn’t think they got along as well as they do in later books, but when I looked into it I was surprised!

Gurrathi Meta

So when the team heads off to DeltFall Gurathin is very suspicious and watching SecUnit, which it reports upon but doesn’t seem to spot the significance of—which is rather unlike our paranoid Murderbot.

Gurathin is the only member of the team not to express enthusiasm for MB going on the trip.

Gurathin was the only one staying behind who didn’t say anything

MB is actually about to start poking around to figure out what Guarthin is up to when the feed drops out (probably trying to figure out what’s wrong with it).

If anything I think Gurathin acts oddly about his rogue SecUnit suspicions.

If he knows SecUnits he will probably have heard the propaganda, which MB believes:

To quote MB: “I sure as hell would have reported me. Rogue SecUnits are fucking dangerous, trust me on that.”

I wrote a little essay on how Gurathin is right about a lot of things when it comes to Murderbot:

Gurathin was right

(It’s called that because he is)

Perhaps the strangest thing is that he just tries to immobilize it, and then makes his case. He doesn’t try and have it shut down whilst “unconscious”, and doesn’t even mention the (fairly critical information) until pushed. Gurathin’s expression was stiffer than usual. “This Unit has killed people before, people it was charged with protecting. It killed fifty-seven members of a mining operation.”

At this point MB believe this is true, and it lies to the diary about it, by omission at any rate: “What I told you before, about how I hacked my governor module but didn’t become a mass murderer? That was only sort of true. I was already a mass murderer.”

So: I honestly don’t think Gurathin’s behaviour here makes a whole lot of sense if you read it in a lot of ways—the way I think it makes more sense is that he is fixated. This could be sexual: perhaps when:

[Gurathin] said, “Why don’t you want us to look at you?”

My jaw was so tight it triggered a performance reliability alert in my feed. I said, “You don’t need to look at me. I’m not a sexbot.”

Well—perhaps MB is picking up something about the way Gurathin looks at it?

My personal reading is that Gurathin has become obsessed, an obsession perhaps sparked by MB’s anomalous behaviors? He is watching it intensely. It doesn’t have to be sexual, humans can get fixated without sexual attraction.

And then he so quickly accepts the rogue unit into his team! It holds him up against the wall by his neck (I mean, wow—one of the most intense bits of physical contact in the book). But Gurathin is rapidly team SecUnit: and he never sees it as “not a person” he isn’t kidding when he says.

(“I do think of it as a person,” Gurathin said. “An angry, heavily armed person who has no reason to trust us.”

“Then stop being mean to it,” “Ratthi told him. “That might help.”)

Gurathin and SecUnit work together to overcome GrayCris, Murderbot even grudgingly admitting Gurathin’s help:

“Gurathin had figured out how to use the hack from their HubSystem into our HubSystem to get access, but he needed to be close to their habitat to actually trigger their beacon. ”

“(Last night Gurathin had said this was a weak point, that this was where the plan would fall apart. It was irritating that he was right.)”

So: that’s some of the reasons from the first book, All Systems Red

#murderathin #murderbot ships #the murderbot diaries #Murderbot diaries #shipping #murderbot shipping #Gurathin #dr gurathin #gurathin my beloved

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cadejos · 4 months ago

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as ordered, he drives gojo to the izakaya nanami is posted at after his latest mission. figures he's just going there to review the mission itself, or an upcoming one, or something to do with the students. typical, commonplace subject matter for them.

instead, gojo orders a drink and sits next to nanami at the bar. chats about his day a mile a minute, shoots a hundred questions, and is surprised when nanami simply takes it all in stride.

it dawns on the assistant manager how genuinely comfortable they look next to each other.

whenever it seems like gojo's said something that's gonna piss nanami off or embarrass him, ijichi holds his breath, only to release it shortly when nothing happens. he's certain if you did his BP readings and graphed them out you would be able to draft a rollercoaster design.

at one point, gojo stole sips from nanami's drink in spite of the man's warnings and they made quick work of his senses. he gets even touchier, his voice laced with a whiny, petulant tone that's typical of the special grade sorcerer whenever he's aggrieved.

"nanami-kunnnn," he slurs. he drapes himself over the blond like a coat, indifferent to any stares coming their way. "take me home."

meanwhile, ijichi is shaking like there's a bomb about to go off and he's the one entrusted with the wirecutter.

after all, nanami does not play when it comes to his personal space, even if he's particularly permissive of gojo.

but nanami simply sighs. he takes another sip of his scotch. "i told you not to drink."

"i forgot how terrible it tastes! i hate how my throat feels now."

"yeah? you're still going to wait and let me finish this."

and gojo whines and stomps a little bit but he doesn't protest. doesn't detach himself from nanami's back, either, but he does take sips from the water bottle nanami has ordered for him and tilted toward his mouth.

he closes his eyes, holding onto nanami for dear life, and nanami and ijichi's sightlines finally meet. the acknowledgment makes him shiver. there's not a single sign in his expression that denotes annoyance or frustration, not even surprise. it's completely flat.

he holds ijchi's gaze for a few seconds and then, quietly:

"ijichi-kun, please help me settle gojo-san into the truck."

and ijichi quickly stutters out his agreement and moves to grab gojo from him.

the special grade is surprisingly heavy, however, and nanami ends up doing most of the work. gojo isn't asleep, at least, so he does walk - or rather, he waddles while forcing nanami to steer him in his embrace.

"you live to make everyone's day harder, don't you?" nanami asks, half-hearted.

"wrong, nanamin!" gojo slurs back with a loose grin. "i live to make everyone's life better, especially yours."

at that, nanami doesn't say anything. he's too busy coaxing gojo into the backseat; it's too much like trying to herd a wildcat back into their cage.

a very clingy, very long-limbed wildcat, and a very small cage.

much to ijichi's surprise, nanami climbs into the car after gojo and closes the door. he doesn't give any specific instructions, so he figures they have to be the obvious ones.

and the drive is mostly quiet. gojo has given up on speaking, opting to rest his head on nanami's lap and groan every so often with exhaustion that, only now, has become apparent to them all. from the rearview mirror, ijichi can see nanami gently stroking at gojo's back in small, aimless circles.

and lower still, he sees it as well: gojo squeezing at nanami's knee.

ijichi holds onto that image for a moment before nanami's words make his heart freeze in place.

"please, keep your eyes on the road, ijichi-kun."

"y-yes, of course, nanami-san," he says, squeezing the steering wheel like doing so will extract all the blood from his face.

he doesn't let his eyes wander again, but he can hear gojo mumble something every so often in his stupor, though he can't make out what it is.

once they make it to gojo's apartment, nanami maneuvers them out of ijichi's car and dismisses him for the night with his signature brand of cold courtesy, and ijichi is left to wonder just exactly when his former senpais became so close.

originally posted here.

#nanami x gojo #gojo x nanami #nanago #nanami kento #gojo satoru #ficlet.

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shadowisles-writes · 2 years ago

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Double Blind (Part 3) [Gwynriel]

A/N: Hi! I’m so excited to finally finish this fic started by @hlizr50 and continued by @foundress0fnothing for the ACOTAR Writing Circle. You can read part 1 of the fic here and part 2 here. It’s been such a pleasure to collaborate with all the writers involved in this project and you can find the masterlist for the 9 complete fics written between 9 people right here.

Word count: 1672

“So your friends set you up?” Rita raised an eyebrow as she filled Gwyn’s glass of wine.

“And they thought they were really smart with it, too,” Azriel sighed in the private booth, away from the rest of the dancing crowd where the music was louder.

Gwyn had seemed worried when they walked in, as if he would bring her to such a busy place where strangers were all touching each other and expect her to be comfortable, but she had visibly relaxed when he greeted Rita and herded her to the back.

“Cassian is going to be way too proud of himself when we get home,” Gwyn said before she tasted the wine.

“Stay here and let him stew for a while,” Rita instructed, familiar enough with Cassian that she could make those comments.

She walked away to serve the rest of her patrons soon enough, and the shadowsinger looked at Gwyn in a way that meant no good. “How do you feel about some harmless payback?”

Gwyn grinned and placed her elbows on the wooden table to rest her chin on her interlaced hands. “I’m listening.”

“You mother hen,” Azriel muttered as he walked into the House of Wind and immediately saw Cassian. “You should have told me if I had a curfew.”

Nesta and Emerie were undoubtedly waiting somewhere close to see the result of their little plan.

“I was just curious,” the male shrugged and glanced behind Azriel, tilting his head to search for Gwyn. “Where’s your date?”

“She went home,” Azriel removed his jacket and stretched his wings slightly. “You were right, we had a nice time.”

“Uh uh,” Cassian nodded. “And where uh, where does she live?”

“Close to the Rainbow,” the lie rolled off Azriel’s tongue. “I saw Gwyn and her date as I walked her home.”

“You… oh, that’s uh…” The war general stammered, his eyes wide for a moment before he coughed and found his words again. “That’s fun, was she having a good time?”

“Apparently, since it looked like she’s not planning on spending the night here.” The shadowsinger smirked as he said it and watched Cassian nearly liquefy into his seat.

“Oh gods,” he said, “don’t you think that’s a little fast?”

“She’s a grown female, what’s wrong with her wanting to have fun?”

“She’s with a stranger!” Cassian practically shrieked, and Azriel gave him a weird look.

“The girls set it up, he’s not a stranger to them.”

“No, right, sure,” he kept up his lie. “Have a good night then,” he let Azriel walk away and to his room, too panicked to notice the shadow that trailed him when he rushed to Nesta.

Azriel sat on a chair in his bedroom, his shadows curling around his hands around him as they told him what was going down word for word. He was struggling not to laugh too loudly, but the occasional chuckle still escaped him.

“Emerie she’s with a damn stranger!” Cassian whisper yelled in the library, as if that’d stop Azriel from eavesdropping.

“But she’s having a good time,” Nesta intervened. “And it’s not that late, why ruin it?”

“You’re not worried at all?” He was close to exploding. “We should tell Az the truth and go get her.”

“No! She’s down in the city, meeting people and having fun, it was the whole point,” Nesta stopped her mate from immediately putting an end to things.

“Nesta’s right,” Emerie added. “I thought Velaris was safe? And Azriel isn’t stupid, he clearly checked on her when she was walking with that male, which means the male had to recognize him. Do you think anyone would mess with her knowing she’s close to Rhysand’s spymaster?”

“Obviously not,” Cassian said through gritted teeth. “But what about her and Az?”

The females exchanged a look before Nesta spoke. “We did ask her several times if she was interested in him, and she denied it every single time.”

“Oh come on, you’ve seen them look at each other, she was clearly lying,”

“I thought so too,” Nesta shrugged. “But what if she wasn’t? We can’t just mess up a fun date for her because of what we think.”

“Fine, whatever,” Cassian’s wings rustled with exasperation, and he strode out of the library, past Azriel’s room and onto the roof to sulk.

Azriel snickered quietly as his shadows reported Cassian sitting on the ground, his arms around his knees as he muttered to himself. The words were so mumbled he couldn’t get them transcribed, but the shadows got whispers of insane, not safe, and random asshole that nearly had the shadowsinger doubling over with laughter. He couldn’t wait to see Gwyn and tell her everything that went down.

Cassian made to get up and sat down immediately with a sigh. He was restless, and he’d never sleep until he knew Gwyn was home safe and sound. Nesta’s words still rang through him though, if she was having a good time he didn’t want to ruin it, but the idea of her not being safe was driving him mad. Cassian, who was trained for highly stressful situations, couldn’t stop fidgeting as he thought of his friend, his sister, on a date with a stranger.

What if the male wasn’t nice? What if he expected Gwyn to spend the night with him and pressured her? What if she was scared and didn’t react the way he had trained her to keep herself safe?

Cassian growled with frustration, wings tight behind him as he ran his hands through his hair and tugged at the strands. He’d pull his hair out at this rate, but he needed to do something. Would Gwyn truly be mad if he showed up and she was having a nice time? Surely she’d understand and go home with him.

Not matter how many times he repeated Nesta and Emerie’s arguments to himself, he couldn’t agree with what they said. There was no way in hell his Gwyn would spend the night with a male she didn’t know. She’d been skittish enough around him and Azriel when they met and sure she had made progress and grown comfortable around other people, but to sleep with a stranger?

Cassian couldn’t believe it, and it was that thought that brought him back to his feet, leaping off the edge of the roof in an instant to go find her. He’d have to track her scent through the city, but he had used his senses for tracking in far worse conditions.

Azriel took that as his cue to jump out of his own window, his shadows hiding him from Cassian’s sight until he was out of the wards and could winnow to Gwyn.

“How did it go?” She turned on her seat at the bar to face him and Azriel took her hand to bring her back to their booth.

Rita, who had been keeping her company while she was alone, nodded at them with a smile.

“Cassian is losing his mind, but Nesta and Emerie wanted you to have fun.” He summed up knowing he’d have to tell her the details later as Cassian would likely arrive before he could finish the story.

“He’s too sweet,” Gwyn sat on the same side as Azriel and held her dress as she placed her legs over his lap. “Do we look cozy enough?” She smiled up at him, her teal eyes bright enough that Azriel nearly forgot about the male that was about to interrupt them.

“Come here,” he said, his voice lower than usual. His arm wrapped around her back to pull her closer, and Gwyn placed a soft kiss on his jaw while his other hand came to rest on her knee to tuck her into his body.

“You fucking asshole!” Cassian seethed as he got to the booth moments later. “I’m going to kill you for this.” He stood with all his might in his scaled armor, as if he’d really been prepared to fight a male.

“Hi Cassian,” Gwyn said sweetly. “How was your night?”

“How was my night?” He glared at her and Azriel. “I was worried sick you fucking idiots!” His voice rose to a yell. “Did you really think letting me believe Gwyn was alone with a stranger would be funny? I mean how could you—”

His rant stopped the moment Gwyn tilted her head up and kissed Azriel. The shadowsinger paid Cassian no mind, cupping her cheek and humming at the sweet taste of wine on her lips.

“Sorry,” Gwyn smiled once they parted and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “You were saying?”

“I hate you guys,” he whispered, clenching his fists as he fought to keep the smile of his face.

“And I hate you being such a busybody,” Azriel shrugged and earned an eyeroll.

“If it helps Cass,” Gwyn said before he could get mad at Azriel again. “Your reaction is really sweet, and things like you showing up here is the reason all the priestesses feel safe training with you.”

He opened his mouth to reply, closed it and tried again before taking a deep breath. “Goodnight.” Was all the general said through gritted teeth before turning on his heels and striding out of the restaurant.

Gwyn giggled just as Azriel laughed, his shadows curling around his ear to relay Cassian’s reaction out of the bar. He was stomping home, his footsteps so loud on the street someone glanced out of their window to see what was happening. For a second, Azriel worried that he was actually mad, but a moment later his shadows reported Cassian wiping at his eyes, as if he were crying over his friends finally getting together.

“He’s such a sweetheart, I feel bad,” Gwyn rested her head on Azriel’s shoulder as he repeated everything his shadows told him.

“He’ll be fine,” the shadowsinger brushed his lips over her forehead. “He’s flying home now.”

“Should we go too?”

Azriel grinned. “Eager to get into my bed, Berdara?”

“Absolutely.”

#acotarwritingcircle #gwynriel fanfiction #gwynriel #gwynriel fic #pro gwynriel #gwyneth berdara #acotar azriel #gwyn x azriel #gwynriel fluff #azriel x gwyn #gwynriel fanfic

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thetargaryenbride · 2 years ago

Text

Nail To The Coffin - S2 - Chapter 5

Warnings: none

Pairing: Steve Harrington x f!Byers!Reader

Word Count: 3195

↳ "And she ran quickly across the field after the Rabbit. She did not stop to think, and when the Rabbit ran down a large rabbit hole, Alice followed it immediately. After a little way, the rabbit hole suddenly went down, deep into the ground. Alice could not stop herself falling, and down she went too." ↲

A.N: The plot thickens~ As always, please do make me know if I’ve written certain characters OOC and if you think there is something that can be corrected within the story. Thank you for reading. Hope you like it! 🖤 🥀

Masterlist || Chapter 4 || Chapter 6

The car ride had been silent except for the one or two questions you had asked.

Turns out, Hopper had been dealing with some weird cases of poisoned soil back at the farmlands which had resulted in the ruination of this year’s pumpkin crops. He had had no idea how this all came to be at the beginning of the investigation but now he suspected that those vines had something to do with the decay of the crops which is why you were currently traveling to the farms.

“Oh, my God… what’s happened to this place?” you put your hands on your hips as you scooped the region after getting out of the car, noticing the settled rot.

“Jesus, you kids don’t care about anything that’s going on around in the town, do you?” shook his head Hopper and you rolled your eyes good-naturedly.

“It’s not that we don’t care, it’s more like we don’t go out of our way to ask about the local gossip and news.”

“Uh, yeah, that’s kinda proving my point. Now grab a shovel and come help me out.”

You don’t know how long the two of you dug at the pumpkin patch but you pretty much created a whole crater and at one point, as the sun went down, you began to lose hope of ever finding something.

Until you hit something solid.

Something harder than soil.

The two of you struggled to dig through it and thanks to Hopper’s strength and his sharp shoves, you were able to break through the thick vines and create a big enough hole for a person to fit through.

Hopper dropped the shovel and crouched to the opening.

“Stay here, alright? Guard the entrance,” he instructed you before he lowered himself down.

He took out his flashlight and looked around, noticing the numerous amounts of vines and other growing things that were all over the place which looked like a tunnel. He jumped when he heard a noise and whirled around, eyes widening when he saw you coming down.

“What are you doing!? I told you to guard the entrance!” he snapped and you sent him a glare.

“I’m not letting you go alone!” you answered firmly and the two of you had a staring contest before he clicked his tongue and turned his back on you, lighting the road ahead of you once again. It was only then that the two of you noticed the floating particles, making your eyes almost pop out of their sockets and jaws hit the ground.

“Oh, Jesus.”

“You sure you still wanna be all alone in here?”

“Great…just wonderful,” you grumbled as you walked after Hopper, mindful of your feet so you don’t trip on a vine or rock and fall. “As if last time wasn’t enough of an experience, we’re back in the Upside Down again. Or rather the Upside Down is beginning to grow into our world! I don’t fucking know anymore, man.”

“I had a feeling that these sons of bitches were lying to me,” Hopper matched your energy as he pointed his flashlight at anything and everything so you could better inspect the tunnels while moving forward.

A sound echoed all of the sudden, making the two of you jump and look around frantically but there was nothing.

You turned around and walked backward, eyes on the other side of the tunnel, almost back to back with Hopper, until he stopped, making you bump into him and whirl.

“What’s wrong?”

Before you could even properly finish the question, you felt a very familiar sensation of particles invading your nose and mouth as they were being sprayed onto you. Apparently, Hopper was a victim as well because just like you he also coughed and sputtered as he tried to frantically get away from the growing thing on the wall that sprayed the moldy particles.

You hastily took off your jacket and were quick to hold it over your mouth and nose. Thankfully, you hadn’t inhaled much so you were fine except for the slightly blurry vision and nauseating feeling.

“Hopper, cover your face! Don’t inhale any of those particles or you’ll get sick! Get away from the walls!” you yelled at him but it was too late because another flower bud sprayed particles onto Hopper’s face.

The man staggered as his knees buckled and shortly after he fell on the ground unconscious, hat falling off his head and flashlight rolling away from his grasp.

“Shit!” you cursed as you rushed to him and knelt by his side. “C’mon, man, you can’t do this to me!” you shook his shoulder roughly and tapped his cheek but he wouldn’t budge. If he was at least a little bit conscious you could have forcefully induced gagging so he would throw up and cleanse his organism at least a bit from the toxic particles. But he was unconscious and forcing him to throw up would more likely end up with him choking than anything.

You dug your palm into your temple as you shut your eyes and tried to think of a plan.

“Alright, old man, hang in there. I’ll go get us some help, ok?” you told him even if he couldn’t hear you and stood up, going over to the hole you had made.

Only, there was no hole.

“What in the actual hell?” you muttered as you looked at the ceiling but there was nothing. “It was right here!”

You went further down the tunnel and inspected the whole area thoroughly but alas, there was no exit and your frustration and panic were growing more and more by the minute. It had apparently closed and you were now trapped down here with no way out. If only you had told someone that you’d be coming here, you would’ve had a chance at being rescued. But now it was almost impossible.

“Unless,” you whispered under your breath as you observed the two sides of the tunnel. It was a tunnel so it definitely had a beginning and an ending. So what if there was an opening on one of the sides? “Alright, so maybe the situation is not completely and utterly hopeless,” you allowed a small smile of relief to grace your face as you returned back to Hopper’s side and sat down by him.

You just had to wait for him to wake up and then the two of you would keep on going and hopefully find an exit. Meanwhile, you had to make sure that the two of you wouldn’t end up inhaling any more toxic particles.

“I’m sorry, Hop. You’ll have to get yourself a new uniform,” you said as you grabbed his knife from his back pocket and began cutting his sleeves off.

Will shot up in his bed, sweat coating his forehead, eyes wide and filled with panic, and heart beating rapidly as he remembered the vision he had gotten in his sleep.

He knew it wasn’t just a dream. It was reality – memories from that creature.

He had seen both you and Hopper trapped without a way to escape. He had seen Hopper collapse and you struggle to find a way out. And for some reason, there was this sinking feeling in his stomach, as if a premonition, telling him that the two of you might end up dying very soon. He didn’t know if he knew that because of the weird connection he had formed with the monster or if it was because he had suddenly become a psychic but he knew that he had to do something to save his sister and the man who had saved his life.

“Will? What’s wrong?” asked Mike as he rose from his lying position on the floor and Will could only spare him a brief look before jumping out of bed and marching into the living room where he saw his mother sitting on the floor, seemingly deep in thought while observing the taped drawings.

“Mom!?” he called out as he came to a stop behind her and she quickly whirled around.

“Yeah?”

“I saw them.”

“You saw who, baby?” she asked with scrunched-up eyebrows and evident confusion and he gulped.

“Y/N and Hopper…I think they’re in trouble,” he stammered out as his panicked eyes watered. “I think they’re going to die.”

Hopper came to with a sharp gasp, scaring the living daylights out of you, and you frantically rushed to grasp his arms and help him up on his knees, nose scrunching up in disgust when he threw up stomach fluids mixed with black goo. You wondered if that was what you had thrown up back when you had been stuck in the Upside Down and got sprayed at too. The thought repulsed you.

“Hey, you ok?” you asked after a while, waiting for him to regain his bearings and he nodded, standing up.

“What happened?” he rasped out.

“You inhaled quite a lot of those moldy spores so you blacked out. They tend to do that... You were out for the whole night,” you explained tiredly and he coughed.

Once again, you hadn’t slept a wink. You had dozed off a couple of times but the stress and the distant unfamiliar sounds, never mind how distant and slight they were, had been able to keep you awake.

“Jesus, kid, why didn’t you go get help?” he asked and you could tell he was about to scold you so you lifted a hand in surrender.

“Before you go into cop mode and berate me, you have to know that the hole we dug out is gone.”

“Gone? What do you mean by gone!?” he raised his voice as he picked up the flashlight and turned it on so he could inspect the ceiling.

“It got closed off. One moment you were on the ground and I was checking your condition, next moment I’m standing up, ready to bolt out and get help from mom, only to see a solid ceiling and no hole,” you shrugged and he looked at you incredulously.

“So, we’re trapped, is that what you’re saying?”

“Pretty much, yepp,” you groaned as you stood up, shaking off the numbness of your legs. “But, you never know what we might find at the end of the tunnel, right? There must be an opening. And we are going to find it and get the hell out of here. Meanwhile, take this,” you handed him the piece of clothing you had cut and he took it, already knowing what its purpose was as he began tying it around his mouth and nose like you had done hours ago already.

“Alright then, kid. Let’s move forward,” he nodded and the two of you began walking ahead. You noticed him pull out his cigarettes and your eyes widened in realization.

“Can you stop?” asked your brother as he pulled the cigarette out of your mouth, making you frown.

“What’s the big deal? You know that I smoke.”

“But never this much. You’re practically leaving a trail of cigarette butts.”

“Well, if we get lost or snatched by the monster into its world, at least people will be able to track us down thanks to my trail of crumbs,” you sassed. “So, don’t be a sourpuss, Hansel!”

Hopper was a genius. You quickly took out your package of cigarettes and pulled a couple out of it. Simultaneously with Hopper, you dropped them on the ground before you proceeded to walk.

“Does anybody copy? Look, if anybody copies, this is Jim Hopper, Hawkins’ Chief of the Police,” spoke the man into his radio com and you shook your head.

“I don’t think the signal is strong enough to reach anyone out there. I tried a couple of hours ago and there was no response,” you informed him and the two of you let out dejected sighs. “Uh, Hopper? Those vines are unsettling me. They weren’t that alive last year,” you made a face and let out a sound of disgust at the squelching the vines were letting out every time you stepped on one. “I think we should avoid them.”

“Look around, kid. It’s impossible to not step on them. They’re goddamn everywhe-“ he halted in his step when something crunched under his booth.

He flashed the light downwards and the two of you did a double take, eyes widening at the sight. The whole floor was covered in the bones of animals. There were animals that were still rotting and one that seemed to be half alive and kicking which scared the hell out of you when you had nudged it with your boot.

“If there is dead prey…it means there is a predator,” you said with a shaky voice as you cleared your throat, trying to steady it.

“So there’s another monster.”

“Or multiple others.”

“Yeah, let’s not…let’s not jump to the worst possible scenario,” Hopper gave you a tight smile and you rubbed the bridge of your nose in defeat, sliding your fingers across your forehead hoping to massage away the dull, throbbing headache that had settled some time ago and had not let you out of its grasp for e second. “Hold this for a second. I wanna try somethin’,” he handed you the flashlight and you took it, pointing at the wall. He lit his lighter and brought it closer to the vines. It surprised both of you that they seemed to back away from the heat.

“You think…do you reckon that fire is a weakness?” you asked and Hopper rubbed his chin, observing the place, before he took off his uniform shirt, grabbed an animal bone, and wrapped the fabric around it, lighting it on fire.

And once again, the vines screeched and moved away when he shoved the torch their way.

“Alrighty! Now that’s good to know,” you chirped and he nodded.

“Hold this,” he passed you the flaming object and you grabbed it, holding it cautiously while you watched him try to dig.

“Why are we stopping to dig here? I don’t think we can make an opening and escape from this place. We should continue and see what’s ahead of us,” you tried to reason but he shook his head.

“And what if we end up meeting one of these little shits at the end of the tunnel? Nah, I ain’t taking that risk, kiddo,” he grunted and you took a sharp breath. He had a point. But you still didn’t believe that you’d have any success here either.

And you didn’t.

Hopper tried his best to dig as deep as possible but nothing seemed to work and he finally gave up, plopping on the ground. You stuck the torch in the soil and sat on a small boulder across him, the two of you lighting cigarettes.

“If the vines fear fire…is it a reach to think that fire is the Demogorgon’s weakness?” you asked before taking a long drag and blowing out a cloud of smoke. “I mean…we won’t have any success trying to find an exit here so we might as well go forward. And if we do end up meeting a monster, we can use fire,” you suggested.

“That’s a very big what-if,” he drawled, smoke sipping through his mouth and nose as he twirled the cigarette between his fingers. “Because if we’re wrong and fire cannot hurt that thing, we’d be killed in an instant.”

The two of you let out heavy sighs, Hopper coughing a bit, and fell into silence.

Suddenly, you felt something wrap around your ankle. You scrunched up your eyebrows but before you could voice out your thoughts, you were yanked harshly. You were barely able to let out a strangled squeal before your head hit the boulder you had been sitting on and the world began spinning instantly.

“Y/N!” Hopper yelled as he rushed to your side and reached to grasp your arms and turn you on your back but before he could do that, vines wrapped around his calves and began pulling at him.

He shouted in anger and panic as he tried getting rid of them, stumbling a couple of steps away and losing balance in the process, falling on the ground not far away from you. He turned to look at you and saw that vines were rapidly wrapping around your body. He struggled to get free but his arms and legs were obstructed as well and he could only yell in frustration as he tried reaching for his fallen knife, only to feel a vine wrap around his throat and steal part of his oxygen, making him dizzy.

“Kid…if you can hear me…answer me!” he choked out but you didn’t budge.

Your eyes were closed and there was blood sipping in the mud.

“Y/N! Hopper!” Joyce’s voice echoed throughout the tunnels as she and Bob searched for the two of you. For a moment there she had thought it would be hard to find you but then she had seen a trail of cigarettes which led her straight to the place you were at.

“This is…” she muttered as she stopped to inspect the large space littered with vines and bones. “Oh! It’s his arm!” she pointed out and she and Bob were quick to crouch down and begin pulling at the vines.

“It’s choking him!” pointed out Bob panicked as he tried to pry the thing wrapped around Hopper’s neck and the man was able to finally take a breath.

“Knife,” he rasped out and Joyce frantically looked for the object in question.

She and Bob did a quick work at cutting the living plants and releasing Hopper from their trap. He coughed and sputtered as he tried to regain his bearings and stand up, Joyce grabbing him by the face.

“Hop, where’s Y/N!?” she asked and Jim didn’t waste time as he pushed past her and stumbled further into the tunnel, Joyce and Bob following.

The woman let out a terrified gasp as she saw her daughter lying motionless on the ground and she quickly knelt by your side, furiously grabbing and pulling at the vines while Hopper cut them off your limbs and torso one by one. When you were finally free, your mother flipped you gently on your back and pushed the damp hair away from your face, grabbing each side of your head and inspecting you, eyes widening when she saw the smeared blood.

“W-what’s wrong with her, Hopper! Why isn’t she moving!?” she yelled wobbly and the man hastily grabbed you, hauling you over his shoulder.

“I think she hit her head when this piece of shit yanked her,” he grumbled as he stumbled away from the clutter of vines, intending to bolt out of this place.

That’s when people from the lab stormed in, startling everyone.

“Go! Go! Clear the area!” yelled one of the soldiers and the three didn’t waste a second in obeying.

The most important thing right now was to get you and Hopper to the lab so you could get the needed treatment.

What neither of them expected was for Will to get a seizure and get hurt as well.

#stranger things #stranger things x reader #stranger things fanfiction #will byers x reader #jonathan byers x reader #steve x reader #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington fanfic #eddie munson fanfic #eddie x reader #eddie munson x reader #billy hargove x reader #hopper x reader #reader #reader insert

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pragerswoman · 2 months ago

Note

Hey! Can you do lopez x brown Where Lopez talks back and gets punished? (Ballbusting whipping and slapping)

Learn your lesson

Pairing: Lopez x brown

Warnings: too many, smut, MDNI, NSfW

A/n: hope you enjoy reading this thank you for your request ��️

In the stark, metallic confines of Bridgehead , a young private named Lopez was known for his quick wit and even quicker mouth. He had a knack for bringing a bit of levity to the otherwise tense and monotonous environment. His comrades appreciated his humor, though it often landed him in hot water. Today was no exception.

"Lopez, I've told you a hundred times, check the inventory before you report back!" barked Brown, his voice echoing through the supply bay.

"My bad, brown," Lopez quipped, not even bothering to look up. "I thought I had it all covered, but apparently, I missed a decimal point."

Brown's expression grew stormier than the clouds outside the bay's windows. "That's not good enough, Lopez," he growled. "We're in the middle of a war zone, not a game of hide and seek."

Without warning, Brown's hand shot out and grabbed Lopez by the collar, yanking him to his feet. "You think this is a joke?" he bellowed, his grip tightening. Lopez's smile faltered, his eyes widening as he realized he'd pushed the wrong button today.

"I'm sorry, Brown," Lopez stuttered, his heart racing. "I'll get it right."

"You're damn right you will," Brown said through gritted teeth. "But first, you're going to learn a lesson about respect." He released Lopez's collar and stepped back, allowing the younger man to stand unsteadily on his own. Then, with a swiftness, Brown's hand shot out and delivered a resounding slap to Lopez's cheek. The sound of skin meeting skin rang through the bay, leaving Lopez's face stinging and his ears ringing.

Lopez's smile was wiped clean off his face, replaced by a look of shock and fear. He hadn't seen this side of Brown before, and he knew he'd crossed a line. Brown's eyes bore into him, cold and unyielding. "Drop your pants," he ordered. Lopez swallowed hard, his mind racing. He knew what was coming.

With trembling hands, Lopez did as he was told, his face reddening as the fabric of his uniform pooled around his ankles. Brown pulled a coil of wire from the desk, the kind used for securing cargo, and unwound it slowly. The tension in the room was palpable, the anticipation of pain making Lopez's heart hammer in his chest.

"Bend over," Brown instructed, his voice devoid of emotion. Lopez hesitated for a moment, his eyes darting around the bay as if searching for a way out. But there was none. With a deep breath, he leaned over a nearby crate, exposing his vulnerable position to the sergeant.

The first strike of the wire was swift and brutal, catching Lopez across the back of his thighs. He yelped in pain, his legs buckling. "Spread 'em," Brown said, his voice low and menacing. Lopez complied, gritting his teeth as the wire coiled around his ankles, forcing his legs apart. The second strike lashed against his bare buttocks, leaving a red welt in its wake. The pain was intense, and Lopez couldn't help but let out a strangled cry.

The whipping continued, each blow more punishing than the last. Brown's arm swung with the precision of a metronome, the wire slicing through the air and biting into Lopez's flesh. The young private's eyes watered, and his breath came in ragged gasps. He knew better than to protest or move; the punishment would only worsen if he did. The slaps to his face were intermittent, stunning him with their ferocity and leaving his cheeks smarting.

"You think you're funny, don't you?" Brown spat out between strikes. "This is what happens when you don't take your responsibilities seriously."

Lopez could only whimper in response, his body jerking with each impact of the wire. He felt the blood rushing to his face, a mix of humiliation and pain coursing through him. The whipping had moved to his back now, and he could feel the welts rising on his skin.

Suddenly, Brown's hand stopped, and Lopez tensed, waiting for the next strike. But instead, he heard the sound of the sergeant's boots approaching. He knew what was coming next, and the fear grew tenfold. The cold steel toe of Brown's boot connected with Lopez's crotch, sending a shockwave of agony through his body. He doubled over, gasping for breath, but Brown was relentless. Another kick, this time to the side of his testicles, brought tears to Lopez's eyes.

"You're going to learn to keep that mouth of yours shut," Brown said, his voice eerily calm. "And when you're done learning, maybe you'll remember to do your job right."

Lopez could barely breathe, the pain in his groin making stars dance before his eyes. He tried to brace himself for the next blow, but it was like trying to hold back the tide. Brown's boot connected with his testicles again, and Lopez's vision swam. He couldn't help the pathetic noise that escaped his lips, a high-pitched whine that seemed to echo in the cavernous bay.

To his horror, he felt a warm wetness spreading between his legs. His body had betrayed him, releasing his seed onto the cold, unforgiving floor. The realization hit him like a sledgehammer, and he felt a fresh wave of humiliation wash over him. He hadn't just been beaten; he'd been broken.

Brown's laughter echoed through the bay, cruel and mocking. "Looks like you're enjoying this more than you're letting on, Lopez," he jeered. "Or maybe you just can't handle the heat." The other soldiers in the bay had stopped what they were doing, watching the spectacle with a mix of shock and morbid curiosity. Lopez's cheeks burned with shame as he tried to pull his pants back up, his trembling hands fumbling with the fastenings.

#recom smut #recom lopez #recom brown #recom lopez smut #recom ja

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abhainnwhump · 6 months ago

Note

Yo we're doing IMYM prompts?? I have one too!

Prompt: I've always imagine that Ink (maybe a more canon one) would have a lot of difficulty following instruction/orders etc...maybe due to him being very much adhd coded. And that would most likely leave Nightmare extremly angry (maybe he knows about his condiction and insults him 'cause of it?? Would Nightmare just pulls the r-slur to him when Ink does something wrong??)

Apparently we are. It's fun for the whole family.

(Content warnings: Torture, conditioning, dehumanization, ableism and ableist slurs, Nightmare being the worst person ever because that's a trend today)

"No, no. Stand back up, Ink. We're trying this again."

Nightmare looked up at the grandfather clock as Ink groaned. Nightmare's tendrils twitched with frustration. Over an hour of practice and Ink still couldn't figure out how to kneel and roll over on command.

Nightmare made the hand motion for Ink to kneel again. Unlike the first couple times, Ink listened without complaint. Hitting him seemed to help though.

"Good. Now roll over-"

"What's the point in this? Your goal is to train me into a killer doll, right? So why are you teaching me to dog tricks? And I'm tired of this. It feels like hours. Can we at least do something fun? I liked practicing makeup and I thought the battle stuff was fun, can we do that?" Ink huffed, staying on his knees. Nightmare sensed his bored aura, nothing engaged him.

Nightmare's eye twitched, especially as Ink muttered something about getting his head out of his ass. Did he think he couldn't hear? He had been patient all hour, but no more. His tendrils flared up and the sludge covering his body distorted into a grotesque version of himself. HIs voice raised. "Why don't you ever be quiet? I've lost count of all the times I've told you to stop talking. Even the Murder Time Trio were easier to train, they're all smarter than whatever you can dream of."

Nightmare struggled to hold back the anger in his tone. Part of the reason he chose to kidnap Ink in the first place was the knowledge he was so stupid. He would be easy to manipulate and train, it was wrong. "I knew you weren't intelligent, but I didn't believe you were this brainless. You can't follow basic orders, you can't sit still half the time, you can't pay attention when I talk to you, you can't remember anything, and you can't read. You're lucky you're a guardian, your magic is all you're worth."

Ink's face went from shock to hurt, followed by his aura. "I can do all of those things! I just . . . I just struggle a bit! Nightmare, I'm dyslexic so reading's hard, and I have ADHD so being still and obedient is hard. Why can't you figure that out? You know everything across the multiverse-"

Nightmare slapped him across the face to get him to shut up. He grabbed his neck with a tendril and pulled him up. "I don't care about either of those. And I'm sorry, were you implying I'm dense?"

Ink shook his head quickly at the end.

"Good." Nightmare let him go. "We're done for the day, but no food for you tonight nor tomorrow. I won't let you eat until I see you get out of this retarded state. Remember, this is no one's fault but yours. Do you understand me?"

Ink gulped and nodded as Nightmare let him leave. "I- I . . . yeah, I understand. Sorry . . . I'll stop being stupid."

#it's “Ink gets beaten and humiliated while Nightmare is Satan incarnate” day #IMYM #nightmare sans #whump #ink sans #conditioned whumpee #whump writing #whumpblr #asks #inkmare #nightink #ink x nightmare #later Ink/Ribbon would keep calling himself stupid and brainless until Blue shakes some sense into him

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v3nusxsky · 2 years ago

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Helloo </3 🤗 can I just first say that that u are realy talented and i love reading ur fics...

Could I please request a platonic fic between Lady Lesso and Never reader where Rafal is after the student and she changes and becomes mean and starts acting out... At first Lady Lesso gets angry and tries to punish her but then she finds out Rafal is troubling the reader, just anything angsty and hurt and comfort... maybe u could make it that the reader came from an abusive family and that's why it was hard for her to tell someone about Rafal... U can change any details to ur liking...

Thank u </3 🤗

Manipulative Bastard

*Authors note~ really I mean who really likes Rafal? But I can appreciate how much of a important character he is to the plot*

Trigger warnings~ manipulation past abuse

Prompt ~ see ask^^^^^

The first time he appeared you were terrified. You didn't know who he was, he seemed to know exactly who you are tho. The only instruction was to not mention his appearance to anyone, he would tell you things from the past or what was current. Why would this stranger lie? You tried to argue at the start, looking for any reasonable explanation for his words but you came up empty. You felt compelled to do as he wished. Even though it felt wrong, you followed his every word.

Your behaviour was changing and that much was obvious to everyone. You couldn't take the pressure, the things he was telling you hurt yet all you could do was bottle it up until you lashed out. Your past coming back to haunt you, you were stuck in this horrid catch twenty two. On one hand you wanted to tell someone but you didn't want to risk angering the man, he seems scary and powerful. In your experience with men, you were nothing more than a toy. Something to use and abuse as they deem fit. If you did as they wanted then they would more than likely go easier on you. Truthfully, you couldn't deal with that pain again.

Lady Lesso, noted the dramatic change in your behaviour and couldn't work out while you changed. This wasn't like you, your shy plaint nature had been replaced by this defiant, angry student. Truthfully, she wanted to help you and get to the bottom of this issue. Your misbehaving had gone too far today, that's why she ordered you to be taken to the doom room, if you hadn't willingly come to her then it was apparent she would have to force it out of you. She knew your past so she wouldn't be unnecessarily cruel but this needed to stop.

She gave you a speech about how she was disappointed in this behaviour you were exhibiting and how confused she was by the change. You felt tears stinging your eyes, knowing that you'd disappointed her hurt, lady lesso had become a sort of mother figure for you and now knowing you'd upset her really bothered you. Suddenly it all became too much and you snapped, rambling about everything Rafal had said and how scared you were. He flaunted his blood magic and told you all the ways he could hurt you with it, told you how no one in the school truly cared for you. How you're own parents didn't even love you, the only one who could truly love you was him.

You broke down as you finished your explanation, finally feeling like a weight had been lifted off your chest and you could breathe again. Leonora was quick in her efforts to come and hold you, whispering words of comfort and praise, she knew first hand how scary it was to go against Rafal. "Hush dove, he's a manipulative bastard, I won't let him hurt you darling. You should've come to me love. You did the right thing telling me,I'll keep you safe now my dove" she murmured stroking through your hair. She held you until your tears dried noticing how your shaking didn't subside and your eyes seem to glaze over as you starred in the direction of the only window.

"Is he here my dove?" She murmured watching as you nodded before his voice rang out through the room, "Leonora such a long time it has been, you may have taken my pet but we both know it's unlovable just like you. I'll be back and I will win" he all but growled before leaving. He was gone. But the words he said were confusing and they hurt. Did people really see you as unlovable? It would explain why you've been treated so poorly most of your life and by the people who were meant to care for you from day dot.

Leonora held you until you both felt calm the words of comfort not only reassuring you but also herself. She wouldn't let him hurt anyone and she knew that she would do anything to protect anyone from his manipulation. She's only regretting not being able to save her little dove. She saw you as her very own adopted child, if your parents weren't going to protect you how they should be then she was going to make damn well sure she stepped up. You'd never be alone again, left susceptible to anyone else's warped ideas and methods of using you. Not with her around.

Word count~ 907

#fanfic #anon answered #lady lesso #sfgae #leonora lesso #lady lesso x reader #lesso x reader #lady leonora lesso #leonora lesso x reader #lady lesso x you #anon requested

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the12thnightproject · 1 year ago

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Chapter 16: Coffee Talk: Katsu begins to unravel the mystery of her parents, and discovers a previously unknown connection to Sasuke.

All Chapters Archived on Ao3

Logline - With Mai, Hideyoshi, and Aki missing, Mitsuhide and Katsuko reluctantly team up. Disguised as a merchant and his concubine, can they outsmart the man known as the God of Deceit?

By the time Sho arrived the next morning, Mitsuhide had already left for his reconnaissance du jour. I was disappointed to find myself alone (well, alone with Sho). Maybe ‘Kyubei’ and ‘Kaya’ weren’t a suitable pair for any detective work, but one would think that ‘Katsu’ could accompany Mitsuhide. Four eyes are better than two.

Last night, I thought that we’d managed to move our working relationship to something more equitable. More friendly. Apparently I was wrong. Maybe it had been the sake after all.

It would be an exaggeration to say that I was sulking, but apparently, I was in enough of a #mood that Sho asked me if I had had a fight with ‘Master Kyubei’.

“He doesn’t fight. He issues orders and presumes we’ll follow them… and why do you ask?” It occurred to me that she might have passed him on his way out the door. “Did he say anything to you?”

“Oh yes!” She pulled a folded paper out of her kimono. “He said to give this to you and told me to remind you that you were not to leave the house.” She frowned and looked rather pouty herself. Since our visit to the docks was not to be repeated, I suppose she was feeling deprived of a Shojumaru stalking opportunity.

The message was sealed – if Sho had opened it to read it, she had done a good job erasing the evidence. But once I scanned the two lines he’d written, I realized there was nothing in it that needed to be hidden from her anyway. “Kaya, I am headed inland to consult with a clan about a wayward shipment. I expect you will not leave the machiya during this time.”

Not exactly a code, but the unwritten message was that he had gone to Azuchi to talk to Nobunaga. It would have been nice if he had told me this last night. Or, given that he was so autocratic, he could have awakened me to give me his instructions in person. I sighed. “He’s gone out of town for a day or so.”

“Oh.” Sho sighed too, probably at the realization that there would be no trips to the docks for a while. Then she suddenly smiled. “That gives us plenty of time to play with your hair. I can practice different styles on you.”

Oh. Joy.

After four days – four! - of being Sho’s human Barbie doll and four evenings of searching the machiya for Aki’s letter (only to conclude that Mitsuhide must have taken it with him), with no word at all from Mitsuhide, I was ready to tear the building down. By hand. Azuchi was half a day away. He could have gone there and back twice over – or at least sent Kyubei with a message.

Even a message telling me to continue to stay put.

Maybe he hadn’t realized he’d be gone this long. Maybe, in fact, if he had thought he would be gone for almost a week, he wouldn’t have put me under soft house arrest. I’d learned my lesson about investigating on my own, and I was smart enough to know that our investigation had reached a point where I needed to step out of Mitsuhide’s way. However, unrelated all that, there was a certain Portuguese merchant who had information about my father.

Maybe when Mitsuhide said, ‘don’t leave the building’ what he meant was ‘don’t investigate Shojumaru without me.’

If I were just going to visit an old friend… surely that would be ok.

When Sho arrived for my daily hair model punishment, I put the question to her as well. “Do you think that Kyubei meant that we couldn’t leave at all, or just that we couldn’t go back to the docks?”

“He said don’t leave, but… perhaps he really meant don’t go anywhere dangerous.” And with that statement, she became not my maid, but my co-conspirator. “Is there somewhere you wish to go?”

“A family friend – a merchant – I would like to visit him… and his wife.” I mentally married Francisco off, as Sho would likely feel more comfortable with that sort of duty visit. One that I intended to pay by myself. “His machiya is near the warehouse district. If you want to visit Hiko” (and by that I meant take a peek at Shojumaru), “you could do that while I was on my visit.”

No, I had no shame using her crush on Shojumaru slash Motonari to my advantage. Granted I also wanted to hear his voice again confirm that with my memory of Motonari’s from five years ago, but that might be pressing disobedience too far. No, instead, I would find out what Francisco knew, about de Sousa, about Shojumaru… about my father.

With the potential for catching sight of Shojumaru spurring her on, Sho rushed through our morning beauty tortures and in no time, I was walking into Francisco’s office – this after first strolling into a booksellers to put Sho off the scent (I did realize that she would wonder if I visited a Nanban merchant).

Francisco was at his desk, using a western style quill pen that scratched across the surface of whatever document he was working on. When he looked up and saw me, he literally turned pale and put his hand to his heart. He opened his mouth and nothing came out.

Was he having a heart attack? “Francisco? Are you ok? In pain?”

“Oh. Katsu. You gave me such a fright. With your hair like that, you looked just like…” he caught himself, and turned the end of the sentence into a cough.

I reached up and touched my hair. When Sho had been experimenting with styles, she had given me bangs. Without a mirror, though, I had no idea what I looked like with them. I’d never worn my hair like this, not even when I lived in modern Japan. A conscious effort not to look like--

“My mother? Is that what you were going to say?” I hadn’t been sure whether Francisco had known her too, but this confirmed it.

He startled again, then opened the desk drawer and rooted around. “The letter. You took it?”

Time to play offence. “It was addressed to me. I wanted to know if it had anything to do with his disappearance.” I sat down across from him and gave him my best imitation of Mitsuhide’s authoritative stare.

“I told you that it could not be so, since he wrote it so long ago – and now that you have read it, do you not agree?” He sounded defensive about it.

Ok, note to self, need to work on that authoritative stare.

“Well, Mitsuhide took it from me before I could read all of it, but I did get through the bit that revealed you and Aki are also from the future.” Maybe there would be important stuff in the rest, but since Francisco did not know my father’s code he wouldn’t know what was on that last page either. “You knew her?”

“Not that well. “ He continued to dig through the desk drawer. “As you are aware, I have trouble understanding your language –“

“If you were in Japan before I was born, and you’ve been here ever since, then you’ve had over twenty-five years to learn it.” Granted, Francisco was incredibly bad at languages, but… seriously?

“Not all that long ago. When I first went back in time, it was to Portugal of 1573. I’ve been in this century for almost ten years.” He scratched his head. “I think. When you do as much time travel as I have, things tend to blur.”

Ok. That sort of made sense. I supposed that would also explain how Aki could be my father and yet not appear old enough to have a child my age. I had so many questions, questions like, why did you time travel? When are you from? Did he love her?”

“I am certain of it. We… we were not supposed to get personally involved. He would not have taken that kind of risk unless there were strong feelings attached.” Francisco put up his hands. “Please. Let me explain what I can. We were consulting with some prominent historians. Kokomo? No. Mikomo…?”

“Mikumo?” That would be how Sasuke had connected with Aki. He had said that ‘Professor Yamaoka’ was a family friend.

“Yes. Mikumo was their name. They were married. I remember that the woman had a baby during that time and she would put him in a,” he mimed a playpen, “while we went over the research.”

Baby Sasuke. Getting to hear about history before he could even speak. “Sasuke.” I said his name out loud to confirm.

“Yes. That sounds right. Your mother was his ama seca.”

The Portuguese phrase was unfamiliar to me. “Secretary?”

Francisco shook his head. “No. She cared for the baby. So that his parents could study without being bothered.”

Nanny. My mother had been Sasuke’s nanny? I wondered if he would remember her, although… no, he would have been an infant.

“She was paying for her training that way. I believe she wished to be a dancer and there was some difficulty with her parents over that choice.” He rummaged through the drawer one more time. “When you retrieved the letter, you did not continue to look through here, or you would have found this.” He handed me a drawing of a woman dressed in a Noh costume – my mother.

I had never seen her like that – she held an open fan over her head, while she gestured gracefully with the other. She was smiling.

“You don’t smile very often.”

Through most of my life, my mother had not smiled. And though I knew that her depression was clinical, apparently originating from an episode of post-partum depression that worsened and never, unlike most cases, left, part of me had always believed my unknown father had stolen her smile. It was Aki who had taken it when he left. That was the one thing I could never forgive, even if I allowed him the rest.

“I drew it from memory for him – your father – but he found it too painful to keep.” Francisco rubbed his chest as if her memory was painful to him too. “In the middle of our historical research, an urgent situation arose, and we had to leave. Aki tried to find her to say goodbye – in fact, though it would have been forbidden, I believe he would have asked her to come with us – but, we ran out of time.”

“Time travelers ran out of time.” One would think that would be the only thing they had plenty of.

Francisco caught my sarcasm. “It’s not as if time travel can be done at the click of a button. Or rather, that was in fact the problem. A prototype for that – a device that could eliminate the necessity of waiting for a wormhole – was stolen.”

At that moment, what should have been obvious to me earlier suddenly was clear. “You and my father weren’t casual time travelers – you’re from a time when it’s common knowledge. When?”

Francisco refused to look at me. “Although yes, it is a future beyond yours, but even so, time travel is not a thing we attempt lightly. Wormholes, such as the one you travelled through, are still the primary method of travel. Those are not things we can control.”

It was clear from his body language that there were things he wasn’t telling me, and I suddenly saw Mitsuhide’s point about the frustration of knowing there was more information that was being held back.

“You and my father urgently needed to catch a wormhole here in order to retrieve this stolen device?” I could see why that would have been chaotic, but I wasn’t willing to let Aki, and by association Francisco, off the hook. “He must have come back for her at some point though. Otherwise he would not have known about me or Toshiie.” And I knew, from talking to Sasuke, that Aki had been in modern Japan recently enough – otherwise Sasuke wouldn’t have recognized his name.

“He did. I do not know the details, but it sounded like your mother refused to have anything to do with him then.” Francisco shut his eyes. When he spoke again, it was very slowly, as if his word choice would be the difference between life and death. “I remember her as being somewhat volatile.”

That wasn’t my memory of her, but it was easy to believe she had changed. I didn’t know she once dreamed of being a dancer. Having twins must have put an end to that dream. Especially when she had no help from my father. No way to find him. And he… had only found me when I was old enough, skilled enough, to be useful to him. “Did he on purpose bring us to-“

“Dear me. Once again, a little bird has flown out of her nest.” That comment preceded Mitsuhide’s entrance into the room.

“Senhor Mitsuhide, welcome!” Francisco got up and bowed very clumsily, somehow managing to bump his head on the desk on the upswing. “I am happy to eat you in my home.” Francisco’s Japanese was as execrable as always, and after a pause he switched to Portuguese. “Do you want tea… or, I have coffee from the Dutch.”

Coffee? Aki had had access to coffee all the time he knew me?

Francisco took ceramic jar from a built-in shelf. He pulled off the lid, and the smell of coffee beans filled the room. “Katsu, do you want some coffee? I imagine it has been a long time since you were able to drink it.”

In truth, I didn’t like coffee all that much, but Francisco’s moving around to prepare it would give me a chance to explain things to Mitsuhide, so I said, “Yes. Sure. Refresh my memory.”

Mitsuhide raised that eyebrow, reminding me that I needed to provide translation service for Francisco’s Portuguese (actually, with Francisco, sometimes his Japanese needed translation too). “Francisco is offering us a drink that the Nanban and other Westerners drink – their version of tea, although it doesn’t taste much like it.”

“If he is already going to be preparing it, then I will try it.” Mitsuhide’s attention was still on me, and he glanced over to the drawing I still held.

Not wanting him to have access to this private part of my past, I flipped it over. While Francisco was occupied smashing up the coffee beans, I told Mitsuhide, “I thought Francisco might know something about de Sousa or Shojumaru.”

“Ah.” An ‘ah’ that could have meant a dozen things – most of them boding ill for me. “Does he?” I couldn’t tell anything about his mood from his tone of voice. He might not have wanted me to leave the townhouse, but if that had been really an important order, maybe he should have told me in person and then not left me alone for four days.

“I haven’t had the opportunity to ask yet. We got sidetracked.” I glanced down at the paper. He looked at it again too, and with one questioning finger, he tapped the edge of it. “Yes. It’s a portrait of my mother. We were talking about her.”

“Neither you nor Aki have ever mentioned her.” He didn’t invade my privacy by turning the portrait back over – at least he allowed me that.

“She died a long time ago.” And, I couldn’t talk about her. Not with Mitsuhide, who likely wouldn’t understand. Or worse, understand too much. “How did you figure out where I was?”

“Sho was making a spectacle of herself at the harbor. She told me where she left you and it didn’t take much effort to realize where you were headed. Ah, thank you, Senhor,” he added when Francisco brough over three steaming cups of coffee.

Francisco understood ‘arigato’ at least, so he smiled and seated himself behind his desk. In terrible Japanese, he managed to convey that coffee was a delicacy.

I wouldn’t go as far as to say that, but then on the rare times that I had drunk coffee in modern Japan, I preferred to drink it with a lot of milk. I picked up the cup in my hands, letting it warm them, while I eyed Mitsuhide to see how he would react to the flavor.

No reaction at all, though he gave Francisco a friendly smile. “I imagine this would be bracing on a cold morning.”

Unlikely Francisco would understand all that, but not really worth translating. Mitsuhide turned to me. “Well as long as you’ve gone to the trouble of escaping again, you might as well ask him your questions.”

Switching to Portuguese, I asked Francisco to tell me what, if anything, he knew about Shojumaru and de Sousa.

“Shojumaru – I do not know him well. He owns a few warehouses, but does not import or export any goods on his own. Many people use the warehouses though. He deals honestly with Japanese and Portuguese merchants alike.” Hm, yeah, I had gotten the impression that Shojumaru had a positive reputation here in Sakai. But that did beg the question…

I translated Francisco’s comment to Mitsuhide, then asked, “Didn’t you purchase the fabrics from Shojumaru the other day?” Or had it been Tadayo’s shipment? No, that couldn’t be right – it would be a waste of time to put a shipment in a warehouse when you had a storefront.

“I believe that was indeed the case. Ask him if he can think of any reason why Tadayo would think Shojumaru was importing fabric.”

I relayed Mitsuhide’s question to Francisco, who only shrugged. “I could have it wrong, Katsu. As for the other man, de Sousa, he brings in weapons and wishes to take out silver.”

After I translated that for Mitsuhide, he simply nodded, but said nothing. I didn’t know if that meant he had no other questions, or if he wanted to see how I interrogated Francisco without any particular prompting. Then again, Mitsuhide wasn’t aware of the time travel (unless he had managed to decode Aki’s letter… and I did not think he was capable of doing so, or if he had been capable that he wouldn’t have immediately asked me about time travel). I turned back to Francisco, as that thought prompted me to ask, “What is your role here? I mean in this time period? Are you actually a merchant, or is there some crazy time travel mission that you are on?”

“It is both, Katsu. My being a merchant gives me a cover that allows me to stay. Perhaps I should have chosen the role of a missionary.” He glanced at Mitsuhide then back to me. “It is a long story and now is not the time to tell it. All I can say is that I try not to get too close to people who would be able to find problems in my backstory. de Sousa is one of those people. As for Shojumaru, he is not always in Sakai, I believe he has business interests elsewhere, for he travels frequently.”

Cutting out the first part regarding the time travel, I passed on the remainder of the information to Mitsuhide. “Is there anything else you would like me to ask him while we are here?”

“Insert Shojumaru’s other name into the conversation and see if it gets a reaction.” He leaned back in the chair, appearing quite at ease in this western style of furniture, and took a sip of the coffee.

“Have you ever met Mouri Motonari?” I dropped the name in quickly, and allowed Mitsuhide to do that body language/ face reading voodoo trick… that he really needs to teach me how to do.

Francisco appeared to give the question some thought. “No. Is he not dead? In history at least he was dead at this time? If he is not, then… it is not a good thing.”

Well history has been topsy-turvy for years now, and who knows whether Aki and Francisco’s time travel had been a catalyst for what was now possibly a paradox.

“He thinks Motonari is dead,” I finally remembered to translate for Mitsuhide.

“I had gathered that… oddly, ‘morto’ is one of the Nanban words I do know.” He stood up. “Come along now. Thank your friend for the information and this … bracing beverage. We must return home so that I can chain you to me.”

He was joking.

I think.

Spoiler alert. He wasn’t joking.

@selenacosmic @lorei-writes @bestbryn @akitsuneswife @lyds323 @tele86

#10things #10 things i hate about mitsuhide #ikemen sengoku #fanfic #ikesen fanfic #ikesen mitsuhide #ao3 link #mitsuhide monday #ikemen sengoku fanfic #mitsuhide akechi

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going-dead · 2 years ago

Text

Not Quite Human

My Holiday truce gift @wingedflight

Read on A03: here

I used the main prompt of Grey ghost identity reveal, with a bit of the outsider POV of danny being strange mixed in there.

Valerie did her best to suppress a scowl as she tracked Paulina in the mirror as the other girl walked into the bathroom. Her hopes of Paulina just having to use the bathroom or fix her appearance were quickly dashed as she saddled up next to Valerie. Maybe she could just pretend she didn’t notice her. She kept her gaze down and turned off the sink before turning towards the door to leave. It was the end of the day, she wouldn’t have a chance to stop Valerie again at least until Monday.

“Don’t leave just yet Val.” Paulina instructed. She didn’t even give Valerie the dignity of looking at her as she talked. Instead, she kept her eyes to her reflection, adjusting her hair.

Valerie stopped mid-step, it was better to just get whatever she wanted to talk about over with. Otherwise, it would become a common occurrence until she complied. “Don’t call me Val, only my friends get to do that. What do you want Paulina, I thought you couldn’t be seen with a ‘loser’ like me?”

“That’s why we’re in the bathroom, it doesn’t count. And I’m here to talk to you as your friend.” Paulina’s reflection smiled. “You need to drop the Fenton creep.”

That caused Valerie to turn fully towards Paulina. “Excuse me? What gives you any right to judge who I hang out around? Let alone talk about him like that.”

“I heard your dad might be getting his job back.” Her eyes flicked towards Valerie.

“What?” It was the first time Valerie was hearing anything about that. She doubted her dad would keep something like that from her.

“Well, my dad heard it and he told me at least. But if he does end up getting that job back you need to start regrouping your image sooner than later if you want back into our group. Which leads us back to you dropping the creep.” Paulina explained.

Valerie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “What makes you think I even want to be friends with you after you all threw me out like last year's fashion line? And Danny’s not a creep. Unlike you, he doesn’t pretend to be nice.”

Paulina laughed. “I know they say love is blind but, really? Wow. You can’t say you don’t see it. He’s just…wrong. Our town is routinely attacked by ghosts and somehow he is the one who acts the least like an actual person.”

Valerie didn't grace her with an answer. She finished drying her hands and stormed out the bathroom. She walked down the halls before stopping and taking a deep breath before rounding the corner where Danny and his friends would be waiting. The three of them were standing around Danny’s locker as he put his textbooks away. They had yet to notice her as she approached them.

“No I literally can’t find any lead on the group trying to do it. At this point I’m going to have to scour the Realms and hope I stumble across them. All I know is that she’s like volcanic related or something.” Danny slammed his locker.

“Guess you have your weekend plans then, need any help?” Tucker asked.

Danny shook his head. “No. Me and Val already have weekend plans, and I am not cancelling them again. It can wait two days.”

“What are you guys talking about?” Valerie asked as she leaned against Danny’s back. He always ran so cold, she once joked corpses were warmer than he was. She only told the joke once however, it put him in a weird mood the rest of the day. But it was a familiar comfort, especially after the conversation she had with Paulina.

Danny jumped, apparently just realizing she was there. “Oh, hey Val. Nothing, important.”

“Aw come on, Sam?” ValIerie asked turning to Sam.

Sam just shook her head with a sigh. “There’s a new Doomed event starting this weekend. The main boss is hidden though so players have to find it.”

“Oh I see.” Valerie didn’t know the first thing about those video games to be honest. Danny had tried multiple times to show her but she felt like she understood even less than when the explanation started. But he enjoyed them so she’d listen to him talk about them even if she didn’t understand a single thing about them. But she appreciated him putting off what seemed like a big thing in the game to spend time with her.

“We are still on for this weekend though, right?” Danny asked with wide eyes aimed towards Valerie.

She couldn’t say no to those eyes even if she wanted to. Not that she wanted to of course. They’d been trying to plan spending a weekend together for months now. It didn’t help that she kept having to make excuses to go and take care of a ghost attack. But she was determined for this weekend to work out. She’d even let go of her grudge, temporarily of course, and let the ghost boy deal with any ghosts that appeared.

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Valerie told him giving him a quick kiss.

“Way to rub it in our single faces.” Tucker pouted.

“Speak for yourself, I don’t want to see it in general. Teenage hormones, bleh.” Sam shook her head.

“Not all of can be ethereal romanticless goths Sam. Some of us are human.” Tucker elbowed her.

“Well at least one of us is, and you should try it sometimes it’s neat.” Sam smiled.

“Haha very funny you two.” Danny deadpanned. “See you tomorrow Val!”

“Why don’t I walk you home?” Valerie offered.

“Are you sure? It’s pretty icy out and you live pretty far away to walk.”

Valerie waved him off. “I have work. I’d rather walk you home safely than just sit in the break room until my shift starts.” Not to mention she’d also be patrolling late due to not doing it at all that coming weekend.

“My hero, walking me home.” Danny placed a hand to his chest as the two of them made their way outside.

“You know it.” Valerie shivered as a blast of cold air hit her.

As they walked Danny kept having to slow down to give Valerie time to catch up. She had no clue how he was walking at a normal pace without slipping on the ice, if she didn’t know any better she would say it was like he was gliding across the ice as he walked.

Now that she thought about it more Danny’s motor skills seemed to fluctuate quite a bit. At times, he’d trip over his own feet and was being banned from the science lab for the third time that month. Other times, he moved so fluidly, like when he was weaving in and out of the crowded halls, that she’d swear it was somehow choreographed. She was reading too much into things. That talk with Paulina was messing with her head. No way was she letting some stupid comments effect this weekend.

Thankfully the rest of the day went by quietly. She went straight from her shift at the Nasty Burger, to patrol, then straight home. She only caught glimpses of the ghost boy, seemed like he finally wisened up and learned to stay away from her. About time.

“Dad, I’m home!” She called out into the apartment as she kicked her shoes off.

“Oh, good! How was work?” Her dad poked his head out of his bedroom.

Valerie shrugged. “It was work. People feeling entitled as if they’re getting food from a five-star restaurant and not a crapy fast food joint.”

Her dad made his way to the living room and took a seat on the couch, he patted the spot next to him. “On the topic of work, there’s something I would like to tell you.” Valerie hesitantly sat down next to him. Last time he had to talk to her about work was when he had to tell her he was demoted and they’d have to move out of their house. “What’s going on? I can pick up more hours at work if I need to.”

Her dad shook his head. “No that’s not needed. Not mention you work so much as is.”

That made her feel guilty, a lot of the hours he thought she was working was just a cover for ghost hunting. “Then what did you want to talk about?” “Well, the head of the security team and I have been working on this for a while now and we were able to finally pitch it to the boss. I didn’t want to tell you until I knew for sure because I didn’t want to get your hopes up just to disappoint you. But Axion Labs has now officially partnered up with Fenton Works to create security systems, effective against both humans and ghosts. Which includes me getting my old job back, as well as an increase of pay from what I was being paid before. But you can’t tell anyone yet, it hasn’t been announced yet.” He explained.

So Paulina was right after all. It was good news, great news even but Valerie couldn’t help but frown. She should have known better than to doubt Paulina in that regard. She had always somehow known things before anyone else, and tended to be correct in her assumptions in what was going on around the school. That didn’t mean she was right about Danny though. She probably just thought it made her look bad by proximity because she used to be friends with Valerie, or something.

“Is everything alright?” Her dad asked.

Valerie realized she forgot to respond to him and had just been sitting in silence. “No! I mean yes! Everything’s fine, that’s great news dad!”

“You should be able to quit that job of yours.” He smiled.

“Oh, I’m not sure. I think it’s a good way for me to… practice responsibility. I wouldn’t want to quit just yet.” Valerie didn’t want to lose her cover for ghost hunting. Even if it did mean she had to continue working at the Nasty Burger.

“That’s good to hear that you think so. It’s late though, so I won't hold you from sleep any longer. Goodnight, I love you.” He hugged her.

“I love you too dad.” She hugged him back before heading to her room.

“Your coffee.” Danny handed her a cup of coffee that had steam coming out of the lid. He slid the seat opposing her own. They were starting off their weekend together with a coffee date. It was a nice cozy coffee shop that had just opened up a week ago. Or well it re-opened a week ago after the building was demolished in a ghost attack a few months back.

“I still can’t understand how you can drink ice coffee in this weather.” Valerie shook her head.

“It’s good, freezing temperature be damned. Plus we’re inside, the weather is outside.” Danny pointed out as he took a drink of his coffee.

“I suppose so-Ah hot!” Valerie quickly put her own cup down and put a hand to her mouth. She was pretty sure she’d just burned her tongue.

“Here let me see.” Danny grabbed her coffee and took a small sip .of it before shrugging and handing it back. “Feels fine to me.”

Valerie looked at the offending drink with caution before taking it back and hesitantly taking a sip of it. “It’s cooled down? How?”

“Like you said it’s cold out. Probably just cooled it down a bit.”

Valerie had trouble believing that. Especially from the person who had just pointed out that the weather was not affecting them inside the shop. But it wasn’t like she had any other logical explanation. “Yeah, probably…”

Danny didn’t seem to notice her uncertainty. No matter how much she loved him, she could admit he could be oblivious at times. It was one of the things that made him endearing. It made her glad he didn’t take after his parents when it came to ghost hunting. With his lack of athleticism and obliviousness he would end up a ghost himself. But he had her, so he’d never have to worry about things like that.

“Are you doing okay by the way Danny? You’ve seemed pretty tired lately.” She would have brought it up sooner, but she was so busy herself with school, work, and ghost hunting, that she would have sounded pretty hypocritical if she had said it when her eye bags matched his. Thankfully she got enough sleep the night prior.

“Don’t worry about it, just haven't been getting enough sleep lately.” Danny smiled.

“Oh? Why not? Anything I can help with?” She swore if it was Dash causing him problems again she’d throw the jock into next week.

Danny honestly looked like he was considering it before shaking his head. “Just a research project.”

“I don’t remember anything being assigned?” If she missed another big project she was doomed. Hopefully she had enough time to pull something together.

“No, nothing for school. Just a personal one so to speak. I’ve just come to a dead end at the moment.”

“That sounds fun, what’s it about?”

“Ghost cults.”

“Oh. Well if you can think of anyway I can help let me know, yeah?”

“Of course.”

Danny grabbed them both a second cup of coffee to go before they left. He even took a sip of hers to make sure this one was cool enough to drink. As they stepped outside Valarie was glad the coffee was cooled down enough as the cold hit her face.

They were heading to Danny’s house next to binge-watch a bunch of cheesy rom-com’s. Though getting there seemed like it was going to be a problem. The road and sidewalk on the quickest route to his house were blocked by a bunch of rubble scattered around. It was clear by the splatters of ectoplasm on the rubble that it was from a ghost attack.

She didn’t remember the road blockage when she walked Danny home the day prior so it had to have happened after that. She also didn’t remember fighting a ghost in this part of the city so it must have been one of Phantom’s fights.

Not surprising with how much property damage there was. “Why didn’t you say the road was blocked?”

“I totally forgot.” Danny facepalmed.

“You walked to the coffee shop this way didn’t you?” Valerie didn’t see how he could have missed it.

“Walked this way? Yeah, totally, I was just distracted I guess. We can just climb over it, it’s fine. You shouldn’t be out in the cold longer than needed and back tracking will add another fifteen minutes outside.” Danny had already started heading towards the rubble strewn street.

“Danny wait up, that’s so unsafe for you! Especially with the ice.” Valerie called after him. He was determined apparently and didn’t listen to her warning, meaning she had no choice but to follow.

Climbing around rubble wasn’t easy on a good day, let alone when it was covered in ice and snow. By the time they reached the other side Valerie was out of breath. Danny surely would need to stop to take a moment to catch his breath if Valerie was having so much trouble. She looked over at him only to find him looking perfectly fine. The rise and fall of his chest was basically unnoticeable.

In fact, it was completely unnoticeable, almost as if he wasn’t breathing. She couldn’t even see his breath fog in the cold. Which was impossible, if the trek made Valerie short of breath Danny should have been struggling at least a bit.

Danny seemed to notice her staring. “What?”

Valerie took one more breath before speaking. “How are you not out of breath?”

Then Danny took a deep breath, as if he was remembering he was supposed to be breathing. “I’ve been doing cardio with my mom.”

Valerie decided to drop it. The rest of the walk and day was uneventful. It was dark by the time Valerie declared she should get going home.

“We’re still planning on tomorrow too right?” Danny asked.

“Of course we are. You better not try to get out of it.” Valerie joked, jabbing his chest.

Danny opened his front door with a laugh as they stepped out into the cold together. “Never. I’ll meet you at your apartment.” Danny went to turn back into the house before pausing. “Oh, and tell your dad congrats on the promotion for me.”

“How’d you know about that?” Valerie stopped. She had only learned about it the night prior, and even if Paulina was spreading the information around, Danny’s social circle would have been the last to find out from her.

“Axion is partnering with my parents.” Danny reminded her, pointing up at the giant glowing Fenton Works sign.

“Oh yeah.” Valerie felt bad. It felt like ever since that conversation with Paulina she kept doubting things about Danny. She shouldn't let Paulina’s words get into her head, but the seed of doubt was certainly planted. And a lot of the things Danny did that day only watered it more. There was no actual reason for her to doubt Danny. “See you tomorrow, love you!”

“Love you too!” Danny waved her off. Valerie knew she must have been seeing things at that point. Because she could have sworn his eyes were reflecting in the dark of the night, almost glowing.

She was just out of it today, tomorrow everything would go back to normal. But in the meantime she needed to do at least a short patrol before heading back home. She hadn’t heard of a ghost attack all day or so far into the night and it was strange. Not even just a smaller ghost.

Her good mood from her date was quickly soured as Phantom appeared in her sights just minutes after she started patrolling. Even worse he seemed to be in a good mood. “I thought we agreed to patrol separate areas.”

Phantom looked down at the ground below them before looking back up at her. “Oh hey? But yeah,this is the area I patrol?”

Valerie wouldn’t call it a truce what they had. More of a tentative agreement not to attack each other as long as they left each other alone. It started around the time she and Danny had started dating, it did end up giving her more time for school and other things. Which was the only reason she agreed to it. He was unfortunately right though. They were currently above the area they agreed he’d have patrol in. Why he wanted to be so close to Fenton Works was anyone's guess, maybe because that was where the ghost portal was. “So it is. I was just passing through.”

Phantom shrugged like he didn’t care. “No problem, as long as you don’t shoot me.”

“Don’t tempt me.”

He held his hands up in surrender. “Wasn’t a suggestion. You seem to be in a worse mood than normal around me, something happen?”

“Nothing you’d understand. Or that I’d even want to tell you.” She didn’t need to talk to a ghost of all things about her dating worries.

“Well if I don’t understand it I’d be the perfect person to tell it to.” He had a point. Sadly enough. She couldn’t talk to Danny about it, and the closest other people she could call friends were Sam and Tucker and they were Danny’s friends first and foremost. “Just relationship problems. But I’m pretty sure I’m just overexaggerating things.”

If Valerie didn’t know any better she would have said Phantom looked worried. “Oh? What sort of problems?”

Valerie shook her head. Maybe she was just losing it, all the things about Danny probably had a perfectly rational explanation but she was too far gone to think of any. She couldn’t even think of an irrational explanation was the problem. Nothing seemed to add up.

How could he struggle in gym class just the day prior and then climb over a bunch of rubble with no issue. Not even with no issue but seemingly not needing to breathe? How could he practically glide across ice as he walked, not even looking down to make sure he didn’t slip. How was he able to somehow cool down her coffee enough to make it drinkable when only seconds prior it burnt her. Was there anything else she just failed to notice? What about his cold skin, and his discomfort every time she brought it up. His constantly fluctuating agility. What about the fact she could have sworn he had bruises but the next day they were gone.

Every time she brought anything up he seemed to just brush it off. Surely it couldn’t be all in her head. But what else could it even be?

“Red? Valerie? Hey, you okay? Val!” Phantom was yelling at her.

She snapped out of her thoughts. “What did you just call me?

“Red?”

“No, after that?” ‘Valerie?” Phantom looked her up and down. “Do you want me to fly you home? Are you getting enough sleep, you seem out of it.”

“Well whose fault is that? I have a life and job outside of ghost hunting you know. Not that you’d know about that.” Valerie frowned.

Phantom blinked, opened his mouth before shutting it again. “You won’t have to worry about the job soon enough though at least. With your dad’s new job and all.”

Valerie’s eyes narrowed. “How did you know about that?”

“Shi-I mean I overheard it, while I was leaving the Ghost Zone.” Phantom nodded abruptly. “Well I better get going, see ya later.”

“I hope not.” Valerie grumbled. He was right about one thing though, she probably just needed some sleep. She’d give in this time and head home.

Unfortunately the morning didn’t bring peace of mind. In fact, it did the opposite. Danny never showed up to pick her up from her apartment. She had waited two hours past the time he said he’d be there before deciding to figure up what was going on herself. He wasn’t even responding to her texts.

She was going to get answers. For everything. Before she was just planning on just letting it be, but he didn’t even have the courtesy to text her to let her know he wasn’t going to show up.

It took a few good minutes of rapping on the door of Fenton Works for someone to answer, and it wasn’t the person she was looking for. “Hi Valerie, did you need something?” Jazz Fenton asked.

“I need your brother. He didn’t show up for our date, and didn’t even bother to text. Where is he?” Valerie crossed her arms.

Jazzed looked around with a sigh. “Have you tried Tucker’s?”

“No, I assumed he’d be at his house first.”

Jazz just shrugged. “I don’t know where he is either.” “Thanks anyway.” Valerie turned around and headed towards Tucker’s house.

“No clue where he is, is he at his house?” Tucker said.

“No he’s not, that’s why I’m here!” Valerie felt her eye twitch.

“Sam’s maybe?” Tucker offered but Valerie was already walking away towards Sam’s house.

Valerie didn’t have anything against Sam, but she couldn’t help but feel like she had something against Valerie. A feeling that was reaffirmed when she was facing Sam in her doorway.

“Have you seen Danny anywhere today?” Valerie asked.

Sam shook her head. “Nope. Have you looked at Tucker’s or his house?”

“Clearly I looked there first, and yes I checked Tucker’s!” Valerie threw up her arms.

“Don’t know what to tell you then.” Sam went to close the door, but Valerie put her foot in front of it before she could.

“Do you have something against me?”

“No, not really.”

“Really because it feels like you do. Are you jealous or something?” Valerie challenged.

Sam laughed before stopping. “Oh you’re serious. No, I’m not jealous of you dating him. I couldn’t care less who he chooses to date. As long as they aren’t hurting him.”

“I’m not hurting him, why would I want to do that?” Hurting him was the last thing she’d ever want to do.

“Look, I told you I don’t know where he is. If he doesn’t want to be found he won’t be found. He’s good at disappearing.” Sam laughed like she said something funny.

It took everything within Valerie not to storm off and walk away normally. If no one was going to tell her where Danny was, she’d find him herself. She was very glad the Fenton’s gave her a boo-merang last time she showed interest in their work. It was still faulty, for some reason locking onto Danny more often than ghosts. But that was exactly what she wanted now.

Getting into her ghost hunting gear she took to the sky following where the boo-merang lead. She was more and more unsure as she went, it took her over the forest outside of Amity. Why would Danny be all the way out here? Especially in the middle of winter.

Her anger quickly morphed into fear however as she saw giant plumes of smoke floating into the air in the middle of the forest. Right where the boo-merange was heading. She dove into the newly made clearing. There was ash everywhere, she was glad her helmet had a filtering system otherwise she doubted she’d have been able to breath with how thick the smog was. It didn’t help much with the heat, however.

“You seem sorta hotheaded, why don’t you cool off?” She heard before two ghosts flew past. Phantom and a ghost she hadn’t encountered before.

The ghost looked pretty feminine, her clothes seemed to be made of pure smoke, and her skin looked like cracked rock. Where there should have been hair on her head there was flowing magma. Or was it lava? She didn’t pay enough attention in science class to remember.

Whatever it was and whoever the ghost was she was clearly dangerous just by the amount of damage done to the surrounding forest. If the attack was in the city the damage would be unfeasible.

She watched as the two ghosts fought for a minute, not even sure how she’d attack without staying far enough away not to get burnt. She had a feeling her ecto-guns would only do so much. It didn’t help her peace of mind that Danny was still nowhere to be seen. Not only that but Phantom seemed to be treating this fight like it was a game. Cracking jokes and one-liners as he fought the flaming ghost with a smile. Staying just of reach of the other ghosts attacks, ducking away just in time to avoid a giant ball of fire or a swipe of her arms. Almost like he was taunting her.

Valerie had landed fully at that point. More focused on finding where ever Danny could be than the fight that Phantom, for the most part, seemed to have handled. No matter how much the idea of leaving a fight to him was, getting Danny out of here was more important. It didn’t help that she kept on having to dodge projectiles from the volcanic ghost that missed Phantom. In a strange twist of fate it wasn’t the ghost herself that caught Valerie off guard but a tree that the flames surrounding the area must have cause to fall. She heard a loud creaking sound and looked up just in time to see a tree coming towards her, but not enough time to dodge out of the way.

She must have lost consciousness for a second because the next thing she knew was that she was pinned to the ground her head screaming at her in pain. Or maybe that was her screaming in pain, because it brought on the attention of the two ghosts causing them to both pause and look at her.

She couldn’t hear it, but Phantom mouthed something that almost looked like her name. She watched helplessly as the other ghost started to make her way towards her.

Was this really how she died? In the middle of the forest where no one would know to look. She hoped Phantom had enough humanity left to at least let her dad know what happened to her.

Though looking at him, Phantom had a look on his face Valerie had never seen on him before. Pure rage.

Which didn’t make sense. Valerie would admit she had done and said some awful things to the ghost boy, and seen even worse done. But nothing that made that look of rage appear on his face. It didn’t make sense that he was mad, let alone mad over her of all people getting hurt.

The ghost didn’t get the chance to reach Valarie before Phantom slammed into her causing both of them to crash into the ground. Still within sight of Valerie.

Valerie had fought and seen Phantom fight many times. He always tended to fight differently than other ghosts. But now he seemed human in the way he was attacking. No ecto-blasts or the occasional ice attack in sight. It was all just punches and kicks, he wasn’t even flying anymore as he fought. None of his jokes to be found.

Calling it a fight was almost too generous. What was occurring before Valerie had arrived was a fight. An at least somewhat equal trading of blows. Or even just an attempt of countering. Phantom didn’t give the other ghost a chance one punch after the other over and over not giving her any time to recover before the next hit. It was the last thing Valerie saw before she lost consciousness once more.

As she came to there was a face hovering over her own. Blue eyes and dark messy black hair, with the remnants of the flames behind it almost seemed like he was glowing. “Danny?”

Danny choked out a laugh, or maybe he just inhaled too much smoke. It was more of a laugh of shock. “Yeah, it’s me Val.”

“Wha’are you doing here? Not safe.” Her head hurt. She was no longer pinned down by the tree, apparently. She brought her hand up to her head to be met with Danny’s own hand. She tried to push it away. “Your hand’s cold. Really cold.”

Danny if anything pressed his hand more firmly to her temple. “Yeah, you hit your head pretty bad there. I’m just trying to make it feel a bit better before we get you to a hospital. Sorry for missing our date by the way.”

“It’s fine.” Valerie squinted at him, something about him seemed off but she couldn’t place what it was. She reached up towards his face, it was covered in ash. She tried to brush it away but it sort of just smeared, his hair had some in it too, harder to notice since his hair was dark too. She moved her hand to the top of his head and ruffled his hair to get some of it out.

“What are you doing?” He asked.

“You’re dirty.” Valerie pointed out still trying to brush the soot out. Weirdly enough his hair seemed to be getting lighter. She grabbed at a smaller section of hair and brushed it off with her fingers. Much to Danny’s protests of her needing to stay still.

Except, it wasn’t Danny. She was right his hair was getting lighter. He didn’t look like he was glowing, he was glowing. Looking at his clothes revealed a black and white jumpsuit, still recognizable despite being covered in ash.

Valerie jerked away from Danny’s, or was it Phantom’s, touch. Trying to scramble away from him as best as she could with her injuries. “Val, you need to stay still.” Phantom, Danny, stressed.

“Don’t call that!” Valerie felt dizzy. “I don’t- I don’t understand. Who-what-are you?”

“Fine, I won't call you that. I promise I’ll explain everything. But first we need to get you to the hospital, you’re concussed at best.” He said, reaching towards her.

She just noticed his hand was glowing blue, frost emanating off of it. “What were you doing to me? Were you trying to kill me?”

“What? No!” He shook his hand like he was trying to shoo the frost away, his eyes faded into Phantom’s green color. “Like I said, you hit your head, and probably were overheated. I was trying to cool you down and ice your head.”

“How can I trust you? I don’t even know who you are.”

“Because if you don’t, you won’t make it back to Amity by yourself and I’m not going to be the one to break the news to your dad.”

He was right she didn’t have a choice no matter how she felt about it. She let him pick her up and only panicked slightly when they took to the air. True to his word once he was sure she was in a hospital room safely he left her alone after the hospital staff notified her dad as to where she was.

She had time to think in the hospital, too much time to think with too many questions. Danny had ended up texting her the explanation, whether it was because he knew she would want answers sooner than later or because he was too scared to do it in person she wasn’t sure. But she deleted the text after she read through it a second time, no matter how she felt about him after all of this she wouldn’t put him in danger of someone else finding out on accident because of her.

She did text him back that she understood what he was telling her, but she would need time to think things over. Think everything over. One of the people she arguably hated the most turned out to be loved the most outside of family. It was a concept that took adjusting to, to say the least

At least it saved her from a total freak out for a different reason. All the weirder things she had started to notice about Danny made a lot more sense now. Her internal conundrum wasn’t helped by the fact that he was clearly trying to help her a lot of the time she noticed the ‘strange’ behaviors. She had at least until she was discharged to figure out her thoughts at least.

Once she was released from the hospital, and a bit longer after that she met up with Phantom, or well Danny in his ghost form she supposed, while he was doing a patrol. He kept looking down at her ecto-gun like she was going to pull it on him at any moment. Which was a fair worry she supposed, even if it made her sad to think about.

“I’m not going to shoot you Danny. We’re here to talk right?” Valerie asked.

Danny nodded. “Yeah, we are. If that’s what you want to do that is.”

“I’m the one who asked to meet up.” Valerie reminded him. “I have a few questions before we start talking about the big things.” Danny motioned for her to go on. “Who was that ghost in the forest?”

“Oh, that’s actually an easy question. Cool. It was Vesuvia, Ancient of volcanos, apparently. Some doomsday cultists or something along those lines summoned her here to kick-start the apocalypse. I thought they were ghosts not humans so I was looking in all the wrong spots until it was too late and you got hurt.” Danny frowned. Clearly he was upset about her injuries still despite her being fully healed.

“What happened to the cultists then? Do they go to ghost court or since they’re humans is there like a GIW unit for that?”

Danny snorted. “Ha, no. They died. Burnt to ash, not even bones left. If they do end up as ghosts in the Infinite Realms they’ll probably answer to the Observents but I doubt they will.”

“...Oh.” Valerie supposed his nonchalant attitude towards death made sense. He was a ghost and interacted with other dead people on a constant basis. But it was, unnerving.

“Is that all you wanted to ask about?” Danny asked.

Valerie nodded her head. It wasn’t, but after that answer she was okay with waiting. “I wanted to let you know, that I won’t tell anyone your secret. I also am not planning on breaking up.” She held a finger up at Danny’s hopeful look. “But that doesn’t mean things aren’t going to be different from now on. This is going to take me a while to fully get my head around and after finding out something this big it’s going to take a while for things to feel normal again. I’m not even sure if things will work out between us in the end, but I am willing to try if you are.”

“Of course I am!” Danny all but shouted. “I mean, yes I understand. I’m also willing to try and make it work.” Valerie smiled. “I’m glad. Do you know what this means though?”

Danny tilted his head to the side, something so very Danny Fenton, it was weird to see on Danny Phantom. “What?”

“We can actually patrol together from now on.” Valerie laughed. Danny lit up after she said that. “First one to defeat five ghosts wins!” She called out before taking off.

“Oh you’re on!” He called after her.

Things certainly would be different. But Valerie didn’t think that was a bad thing.

#danny phantom #grey ghost #dead writes #my fic #danny fenton #valerie gray #phandom holiday truce #phandomholidaytruce

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