#as soon as i speak people respond super fast and complicated

[despite-everything]

i guess my accent is good enough that people assume i really do speak spanish. it's nice and i appreciate it but oh boy i certainly do not

[spencersawkward]

if you feel comfortable with it, I’d love a prof Spence where reader is a student and goes to office hours to initiate ~smutty goodness~ but Spencer is reluctant at first bc his job but they flirt more and eventually sleep together

me n my professor kink when i saw this: 😏 anyway yes i am quite comfortable writing about this lol. i took some ✨creative liberties✨ with your request so i'm sorry if it isn't exactly what you wanted! 

summary: reader is a student in Dr. Reid’s class, but she’s been something of a poor student-- office hours are the only solution.

relationship: Fem!Reader/Professor!Spencer

content warnings: unprotected penetrative sex, fingering, rough sex, super brief hair-pulling, creampie, dirty talk, spanking, age gap, degradation-- he gets pretty dominant oops.

word count: 4.5k

masterlist

popping in a piece of gum, I make my way to the back of the hall. there are a few people here already, but it's a little early. I'm never early. in fact, I'm usually late; my other class is on the other side of campus, and getting here involves a lot of embarrassing speed-walking.

but here I am, five minutes ahead of schedule and actually in a decent seat. as I flip open my textbook and pull my laptop out of my bag to prepare to take notes, my gaze slides down to the corner of the room, where Dr. Reid is standing up with a pile of papers. he walks over to the girl in the front row, handing her the stack and gesturing for her to pass it along.

I resist the urge to roll my eyes. he's a total luddite. the first day, Dr. Reid spent about ten minutes rambling about the importance of reading from a physical book rather than online sources-- which, although I definitely agree with, means a lot more lugging around folders and organizing all the readings he gives out. if he wasn't so hot, I would have switched into another course.

and I know it's wrong to be daydreaming about my professor slamming me into a wall while he discusses the intricacies of quantum theory. the complete cliché of it is embarrassing. but still, I just can't stop thinking about him: how his fingers would feel around my throat, the smooth wooden surface of his desk against my cheek as he bends me over and pulls my panties to the side--

"glad to see you've decided to join us, today, Ms. Y/L/N." Dr. Reid's voice startles me out of my thoughts. he's standing towards the front of the room while students file in. his hands are resting in his pockets with his eyebrows pleasantly raised.

"glad to see you've noticed." I retort, too irritated with his comment to care about being polite.

a couple people look at me. even though I'm generally not on time, he tends to just glance my way when I walk in and leaves it at that. I know he doesn't like it, although I personally don't care. I hate this course.

he seems visibly surprised by my response but doesn't reply, gaze lingering on mine before he turns to speak to a student trying to get his attention. I bite back a smile. fucking asshole.

as usual, Dr. Reid writes in his thin, messy lettering on the board while wandering around the front of the room. he's quite fidgety, even though his voice doesn't betray any sort of nervousness. it's like he's naturally overactive.

every word out of his mouth is enunciated, sometimes spoken faster when he gets particularly impassioned by the subject. he's interesting to look at, too. messy curls and a nice suit, stubble that straddles the line between refinement and ruggedness.

I type quickly, but it isn't fast enough and the strange illustrations he does on the board only complicate things. I try to write them down in my notebook, but my handwriting is jagged; sometimes it's hard to read. when a student raises her hand for a clarification, I take the opportunity to catch up.

my head jerks up as soon as I'm finished and he's looking at me while he speaks. even from so many feet away, the intensity strikes me. he's gesticulating and crossing the room. I hold eye contact.

I wonder if he dates often; a couple of the girls in my row always stare at him throughout the lectures. he seems to be completely unaware of the effect he has on people. sometimes I'll see him in the hallway and he has his nose buried in a book, or a to-go cup of coffee, or both. either way, there seems to be no more room in that head of his for romance.

which, naturally, makes me curious about how he looks when he's on the edge of orgasm. if that composure is replaced with a contorted pleasure. I want to break him.

it's like he can read my thoughts, because Dr. Reid averts his gaze. my stomach twists with a strange anticipation. he avoids looking my way for the rest of the time.

towards the end of class, I start to pack my things to go. I have three papers to write, and my utter lack of interest in this is making me eager to leave. I shove my textbook into my bag the second my professor starts to make closing remarks.

"don't forget that we have a midterm in two weeks!" he says in a slightly louder voice as people start to move around. "if you have any questions, my office hours are posted on the bulletin board outside."

at this, my eyebrows rise. I forgot about the midterm. I have a study calendar set up for all my subjects, but I've purposefully been putting this one off. I'm not super into math. and it doesn't help that most of my time is spent not listening. when I am, it doesn't make sense.

as I stand up and gather my stuff, I hear someone clearing their throat a couple feet away. my head turns to see Dr. Reid leaning against his desk.

"Ms. Y/L/N, can I see you for a second?"

my heart stutters in my chest. is this about my attitude? he's never asked to see me outside of lessons before.

I frown, making my way to him with a deliberate pace. the tension in the room builds as I watch the last of his students shuffle out of the room. my head turns from the door to him; my breath catches a little in my throat at the set of his jaw. part of me hopes I get yelled at.

"I'm concerned about your participation in this class." he says. his voice isn't cruel, but it is brutally honest— which is worse. participation? I feel my fist clench at my side. my professors don't usually say anything if you aren't doing things up to their expectations; if you aren't, then they give you a bad grade. simple as that.

"is this about me being late?" I ask. he lets out a sigh before answering. he sounds disappointed.

"you're constantly tardy, and when you hand in your homework, you barely seem to have put in the effort. it's messy."

"messy?" I start to get annoyed. I'm only doing this so that I can get my degree. it's a fucking requirement. even though I'm not the biggest fan of mathematics, I still do my best and hand in my assignments on time. plus, the latest I arrive is five minutes-- it's not like I'm stumbling in halfway through the lesson.

"you've never come to office hours to ask for help or explained your lateness, which I, as your professor, would have appreciated." he scolds. honestly, I don't know what to say. my eyes narrow.

"I have my studio class on the other side of campus." I explain. "I should have emailed about that and I'm sorry, but I'm also not being lax about my work."

he goes around to the other side of his desk and glances up at me while he organizes some loose documents to pack away. he looks way too good when he's exasperated: his hands tighten around the papers, his eyebrows come together in this cute way. his tie is a little crooked, too.

"are you struggling with the content?"

"sometimes, yeah. but I can handle reaching out for help if I need it." I reply. he's pissing me off with these questions. I can see from the expression on his face that he's surprised by my reaction.

"really?" he slides some books into his messenger bag. that was definitely sarcastic; I know it was. "because it doesn't really seem like you have."

"I like to find help on my own." I shoulder my bag and cross my arms over my chest. there's no way he's gonna talk to me like that and expect me to not respond in kind.

"I'm reserving a slot on Wednesday evening for you," he looks up and holds my gaze. hazel irises that dare me to challenge him further. "I want you in office hours so that we can figure out how you're gonna catch up before the midterm."

"fine." I turn on my heel and leave. I know I'm not supposed to talk to my professor like that, or even to behave with such apprehension. but something about him makes me angry in the kind of way that settles in my stomach. I hate that he's right. I'm not going to do well on that damn test if I don't get some help.

but that doesn't mean I can't have some fun with it.

when I rush into his office on Wednesday evening, the sun is just starting to set through his window. there's a pinkish glow that smooths over Dr. Reid's desk as he glances up at me. I had to run to get here.

"you're late." he nods to the clock on the wall. I roll my eyes.

"only one minute, though. I had another class."

he sighs and folds his hands on his desk. "how are you doing today, Ms. Y/L/N?" a strangely polite question for the look on his face. he's frustrated with me.

"I'm quite well, Dr. Reid." I smile brightly, slightly excited by the anger on his face, and sit at the chair in front of his desk.

"I didn't know you were interested in art." he says simply. I'm confused for a moment before I remember that I told him that the course before his is a studio lesson.

"I didn't know you cared."

"do you make a habit of that?" he quirks an eyebrow.

"of what?" my expression is saccharine.

"being rude to people who control your grades."

"unless you're considering being unethical in your practices and allowing your personal opinion of me to influence my grade, then no." I counter. he's silent for a moment, taking in my words like they've left a mark on him.

"well, you'd most likely fail if I asked you to leave my office hours right now. whose fault would that be?" he fidgets with his hands and leans forward just a bit, his voice dropping to a lower tone. I bite back a smile.

"you wouldn't."

"and why is that?" he baits.

"because you're not a shitty professor, Dr. Reid," I lean back in my chair and cross my legs. "as angry as you are, you wouldn't be able to live with yourself if you kicked me— a struggling student— out of here for giving you a little attitude."

"a little attitude?" he scoffs. "you've spent the whole semester completely ambivalent."

"not completely." I shrug.

"Y/N, you draw all over your tests and leave at least one problem half-finished every time. you obviously aren't learning." he chuckles mirthlessly. I concede this point; I like to doodle when I'm bored. and there's absolutely nothing more boring to me than numbers.

"okay," I sit up and rest my elbows on the edge of his desk, staring at him. "then teach me."

Dr. Reid holds my gaze for a long moment. we're suspended, it seems, as his lips part and he finds himself speechless. the way I said the words obviously has another layer to it-- he just has to decide whether or not to take the bait.

"what are you struggling with?" he clears his throat and sits up a bit straighter in his seat. that answers my question, I guess. I poke my tongue between my teeth gently, but then pull out my notebook and flip it to a page with some problems outlined on it.

"these." I toss the thing onto his side and he begins to run through the assignment. I watch him pick up a pen and start to explain the steps, slipping into his usual educational tone. his shoulders relax a little as he writes.

I can't see right from the angle I'm at, so I stand and come around onto his side. I hear him pause his speaking for a moment at my proximity, but he doesn't move away.

"does that make sense?" he asks me once he's finished running through the first problem. he basically did all the work. the professor's head turns to gauge my reaction to the explanation, but his eye line is right at the hem of my skirt-- which is already pretty short. for all his attempts to be subtle, he gulps and looks up at me.

"mostly." I brush a piece of hair behind my ear and pretend to scratch at a spot on my upper thigh, dragging the edge of my skirt with it until he can see the smooth skin beneath, practically begging for his touch. "can I ask you a question?"

"sure." he keeps his eyes almost too focused on mine. I try to hide the smile tugging at my lips. now or never, I guess.

"what's your policy on professor/student relationships?"

"my-- my what?" this time, he's audibly scattered when he turns to me. his eyes are wide, dark. even he can't hide his feelings.

"you know," I run my fingertips over the tweed shoulder of his jacket. I can sense the tension beneath his clothes. "like, your policy on fucking a student."

"I--" his cheeks turn pink. he's flustered, albeit not rejecting my touch. "I've never had to think about it before."

"hmm," I look off to the side as if considering this point. his chair is fully turned to face me now, and I'm standing in front of him, almost completely his for the taking. all he has to do is close the gap. "well, what are you thinking about it right now?"

"it's wrong." he stumbles over the words.

"why?"

"well, I mean, you're a student--"

"for a semester that's almost over." I cut him off. he opens and closes his mouth. I take a deep breath, toying with the hem of my skirt. "I know you've been looking at me during class."

"w-what?"

"you're pretty good at hiding it, but you call on me a lot and you get all messed up when I hold eye contact too long during lectures." I say.

he looks down and back up apologetically. he's just sitting there, lap wide open. so I do what any sane girl in my position would do: I climb into it, straddling him and resting my arms around his neck. he sucks in a breath.

"you pretend I'm such a pain," I lean down by his ear, my core drawing over his pants. he tenses as I speak. "but you like that I'm your little problem."

"Y/N..." he trails off, but his hips are bucking up into mine.

"see?" I look between our bodies at his movements, then at him. I smirk as I look into those lust-darkened eyes. after a moment of him not speaking, I straighten. "look, I'll leave you alone if it really bothers you--"

as I start to get off his lap, he grabs me and pulls me back down. the force hits my center at just the right angle and I let out a slight mewl. he hears the sound and before I can register the pleasure, he grabs my face and yanks me closer to kiss him.

god, he feels so good. I rock my hips against his while our lips pass over each other hungrily. so much tension built up over the past few months, so many thoughts I've had of him, now coming to fruition. it's amazing.

"not so 'wrong' now, is it?" I chuckle against his mouth.

"shut up." he orders. one moment of broken contact to slide my top over my head and throw it on the floor.

I sigh as he starts to kiss across my jaw and down my throat. "I like when you talk like that, Dr. Reid."

one hand grips my hips tighter and he releases a groan against my skin.

"is that why you're such a fucking brat in my class?" he bites my collarbone and I moan. "because you want me to put you in your place?"

"mhmm." I hum. his fingertips move under my skirt, sliding up my thighs and toying with the waistband of my panties. he teases me by grazing my slit over the fabric, inhaling sharply at the wet patch.

"sitting in the back of my room, fucking dripping..." he mumbles to himself as he starts to rub me.

"touch me." I breathe out, trying to gain the friction that I need.

"not if you're gonna be a brat." he removes his hand and I let out a frustrated noise as I try to find the pressure I need elsewhere by grinding down on him. he grunts at the way I pant into his mouth, trying to kiss him with every chance I get. his lips are so smooth and sweet against mine. there's something affectionate about it even in its ferocity.

"I'll be good." I practically beg.

"that's what I thought." he slides his tongue over his bottom lip as he watches me whimper on top of him.

"come on, Spencer..." I use the name for the first time and he grabs my face in his hand, squeezing my cheeks.

"not my name, sweetheart." he stares into my eyes expectantly and I smirk.

"you're fucked up, doctor."

"so are you."

after he says that, he lifts me off his lap and stands up, pushing between my shoulder blades until my face is pressed onto the desk. I let out a needy whine, wiggle my ass back in hopes of finding his crotch, but he's not willing to give me that, yet.

instead, he gently touches my skirt, flipping it up so that he can see my ass. immediately, he starts to knead it. my palms are pressed flat against the desk with anticipation, silently thankful that my panties are still on. I think I'd be dripping down my thighs if they weren't.

"are you gonna be more respectful?" his voice is low, one hand tracing over my back. I shake.

"mhmm."

"I won't spank you if you don't use your words, sweetheart."

"yes." I choke out, no longer wanting to give any sort of resistance. I had no idea there was this side of him, and I love it.

he loves it too, apparently, because his hand comes down sharply on my ass. I yelp at the contact and he runs his fingers over the point of impact, rubbing the flesh gently.

"too hard, baby?" he checks.

"harder." I beg. I can't see his face, but I can sense his smile as if it's my own. his palm hits me again, and I gasp.

"you like being punished?"

"yes." strangled and desperate.

he slips his finger beneath the fabric of my panties, collecting my essence and letting out a quiet moan when he feels me. I push my hips against his fingers, partly expecting him to remove all the pressure, but he doesn't bother waiting.

he slips his index inside and I gasp. starts to push in and out, his silence proving his arousal. I can practically feel his eyes on me. the pace increases a bit and he slides in his middle finger. I buck against the desk.

"oh fuck!" I cry out as he starts to go faster. he curls them against my walls and I arch my back.

"two fingers and you're already breaking?" Spencer chuckles as he moves inside me. he keeps one hand on my ass while he does it, starting to finger me at a ridiculous speed while I pant and moan and cry.

"I--" I gulp down air. "I need you in it."

he bends down by my ear, never breaking his rhythm. my legs are shaking from the force. "you need my cock?"

"yes," I feel myself closing in around him. "god, yes."

"you're lucky I wanna fuck you so bad." he mutters. I grin as I hear the clink of his belt coming undone, the sliding through the belt loops, the sound of him stripping down to nothing. I can feel my excitement on the inside of my thighs, spread around by his reckless fingers as he removes my panties and skirt.

he grinds himself against my pussy, coating himself in me, while he releases low, longing moans. I suck in a breath when the head pushes in, every inch pushing me open a little more. I don't have the ability to form words, so I bite my lip and grip onto the edge of the desk until my knuckles turn white.

his breath stops for a moment before he groans.

"so ready for me."

he's not even all the way in, and he has to pause to let me adjust. when he taps the inside of my thigh for me to part them more, I do it quickly and beg him to fill me up. I can barely take the pressure between my hips, but it burns in an inviting way.

"keep going." I direct him. he runs his hands over the curve of my waist and starts to thrust into me at a rate that leaves me panting. it's not too fast or slow, just impatient and needy. every sound that spills from his lips turns me on more.

"where'd the attitude go, huh?" he digs his hips into mine. his cock hits my cervix and I squeak against the wood, but he holds my back down. I don't even try to argue with him, too overcome with the pleasure that's coursing through my limbs. he starts to build up his speed. "don't have much to say when you're getting fucked?"

"Dr. Reid--" I moan.

he plows into me so hard, the desk shifts on the floor and he grabs my ass with both hands.

"take it, baby. fucking take it."

I get up on my elbows to look behind me, just to glimpse how he looks as he gets closer. his curls have fallen more in his face, and his shirt is gone. I want to touch him desperately, to feel the lovely skin of his torso and arms and everything else, but he keeps me down for the most part. all I get is the sight of his mouth open and his hips moving quickly against mine.

"look at me, there you go." he grabs my face and holds me there, our eyes locked. mine are welling at the sheer overwhelming pleasure inside, but his are dark and intense. they search mine for something I can only hope to offer.

"that feels so good, Dr. Reid." I pant. he bites his lip as he watches my mouth hanging open in lecherous shock.

"I bet it does," he explores my body. "coming in here, hoping I fuck you like you deserve. you're lucky I'm going easy on you."

"thank you." I whine.

"you might need some extra lessons, yeah?" he grunts out, moving into me with a bruising force.

"yes, please." I whisper. my voice is practically gone at this point, my mind entirely focused on the knot building in my stomach.

"what was that, baby?" he pulls my hair gently.

"yes— fuck— yes, please, Dr. Reid."

"what a beautiful girl." he smirks. I whimper when he runs his fingernails down my ribcage. I can feel it coming from the way he starts to move tumultuously, every thrust pushing harder and seeking more release. it's fervent, how he takes me and grips my hips like the force itself will push him over the edge.

"I'm so close..." I breathe out as I try for as much friction as I can.

"show me," he drops down so his stomach is flush to my back. "show me how you cum, Y/N."

the way he says my name-- husky and warm and full of lust-- causes me to snap. I cry out as he reaches around to clamp a hand around my mouth, climaxing and pulsing around his dick as I drop down against the surface again. I want him to finish inside, so I do my best to keep him here. and his thrusts are getting more staccato as he chases the sensation my walls create.

"can I fill you, angel?" he asks. he's breathing right by my ear, and the feeling is sending shivers down my spine. I love how his weight feels.

"yes." I moan and he slides his fingers into my mouth. I suck on them while he orgasms, jerking into my pussy and letting out unholy sounds of ecstasy. he says unintelligible things in the throes of his orgasm. pounds into me until I'm sure I won't be able to walk tomorrow.

"jesus christ, Y/N." he slows to a stop. when he pulls his cock out of me, the absence makes me whine. I miss his body already.

"oh my god." I clench my hands into fists as I try to catch my breath. I'm still bent over the desk as though I've been completely sapped of all my energy. I suppose I have. he doesn't touch me for a moment in the spirit of letting me recover from the small shudders still running over my skin.

"that was great." he says after we've both had time to fill our lungs. I push myself onto my elbows again.

"correct." I grin and straighten up more until I'm standing. he stares at me, at the cum now dripping down my legs, entranced.

"let me get you something to clean up." he snaps out of it a little. I can't stop looking at him, either, in love with the way he moves and the way he breathes after exerting himself on my body.

"come here." I bite my lip. for some reason, despite what we just did, this is scarier than everything else. he steps closer and I reach up, kiss him softly. part of me worries that he'll pull away and be terrified. maybe that he'll tell me that I've read too much into this.

he's much gentler than before. our first kiss was full of need and primal desire, but this is more affectionate. I remove myself from his embrace.

"okay, you can go now." I giggle. his fingertips linger on my waist and he smiles. I push his shoulder. "I literally have your cum all over me-- go."

"fine." he starts to put his clothes on.

"does this mean I get an A?" I joke. Spencer shakes his head.

"nice try. when we're done cleaning you up, we're gonna sit down and figure this out."

I let out a whine, and he kisses my cheek before looking me in the eyes. "it'll be fun. I promise."

"math is not fun."

"I can't believe I like a girl who doesn't enjoy such a beautiful subject." he rolls his eyes and I giggle. he's perfect.

[gatesofember]

more prophetic Will hcs because I can’t stop thinking about it

it took a while for Will to figure out he had prophetic abilities

it made life very confusing for him because sometimes he’d know about something that hadn’t happened yet but he didn’t realize that it hadn’t happened yet

so like he’d go up to someone and start talking about their dog or something but they’d be like “??? I don’t have a dog????” even though Will KNEW they did (they’d get a dog later)

it was very frustrating because Will knew he was right but people around him just assumed he had a bad memory

also his prophetic abilities sometimes looked a lot like his adhd symptoms so for a long time he and the people around him assumed it was just his adhd

hear me out I’m going somewhere with this

for one thing, memory issues: sometimes with adhd you have a bad memory because you weren’t paying attention to begin with, and with his prophetic abilities he’d remember things that didn’t happen

sometimes he’d see a little bit farther into the future in casual situations or conversations, so for example, he’d start talking over someone who hadn’t finished speaking because he already knew what they were going to say and didn’t realize they hadn’t said it yet

or say he was playing a game like red light green light, simon says, or duck duck goose: he’d hear someone say green light/simon says/goose before they actually said it so he’d respond too soon

this would look a lot like impulsiveness

also, continuing with the red light green light/simon says/duck duck goose example, maybe someone would say green light/simon says/goose and he wouldn’t hear it because is head was in the future, so he wouldn’t respond

that would look a lot like inattentiveness

and sometimes having adhd makes things really overwhelming and confusing, so combined with his prophetic abilities, many situations can be even more overwhelming and confusing for him

also having adhd probably exacerbated the problems he had with prophecy because when he got bored and his mind started to wander, sometimes it would unintentionally wander into the future

it was probably Lee who figured it out first

he was like “oh you must have prophetic abilities! a lot of us do too but you seem to have it stronger than most.”

and that was so affirming for Will to find out why he would so often remember something that hadn’t happened or react too soon or too late

and now that he realized why it was happening he could figure out how to deal with it

over time he learned how to identify when something happened in the present vs in the future

he also learned what it felt like when his mind was wandering into the future so he was better able to tell when it was happening and he could keep himself in the present if he wanted to (although having adhd probably complicates this bc you can’t always force yourself to pay attention, so he still sometimes has trouble)

he didn’t learn to fully control his powers until he became friends with Rachel

they actually helped each other learn a lot about their powers!

and on the day Will unlocked complete control over his prophetic abilities...it was all over for everyone else

in combat he uses his powers to see a little bit into the future so he always knows what his opponent is going to do next

only a split second, just enough to make up for any delay in reaction time

it makes it seem like he has super fast reflexes

this was a big deal for Will because while he was always a good fighter, he was never the best because he doesn’t have as many combat-based powers as some of the other demigods

but then he unlocked his prophetic powers and now he’s practically impossible to beat

this was a bit frustrating for Nico at first because he’d gotten used to beating Will while sparring but he’s gotten over it and he’s really proud of how cool his bf is

anyway now everyone wants Apollo cabin on their team for capture the flag

also the big brother/cabin counselor skills it gives Will? he just knows when one of his little siblings is about to cause trouble

like he’ll be in the middle of a conversation and he’ll just be like “hang on, my dad sense™ is tingling...where’s Yan?”

and he’s unprankable

he is the #1 target of the Hermes cabin for this reason but they just can’t catch him because he always knows when he’s about to walk into a trap

they even got Nico involved to lure Will into a false sense of security and it still didn’t work

they only managed to catch him when they got literally the whole camp on board

and even then it wasn’t because they outsmarted him, it was just because there were so many back ups that the prank became literally unavoidable, and it still took a few tries

Will may or may not have let them catch him just because he was worried that they’d turn to drastic measures if they didn’t get him soon

[shadowstalker732]

ALRIGHT LETS GIVE THIS POSTING THING A GO

MY REVAN TIME (one of them at least)

Also spoiler warning a guess for a game over a decade old? (Am I meant to say spoiler warning? Who knows not me)

(Please don’t yell at me about stats I do what I want)

Anyway first playthrough where I don’t stop and hard restart Tarris or Dantooine 13 times because choice reasons and me forgetting that stealth is useless and just letting the game auto level for me (learnt that the hard way), I’ve basically done Tatooine but I haven’t beaten the dragon yet cos I wanted to bugger off to another planet first and chose Kashyyyk. And I’m down in the shadow lands now (do not worry Zaalbar I WILL GET YOU BACK) and yeah that’s where I’m at.

ANYWAY, Shay or Shar Stalker (because the game won’t let me do non-binary) is a light side Revan. Good of heart dumb of ass and yet will still rob you dry if you place bets on a strategy game against them. Height wise around the 1.6m mark (5′3″ for the Americans). Prefers the double lightsaber look (currently got a short green one and a normal blue one for amnesia version). Not a flirt but definitely had something going on with my Exile in the past but that ended in the Mando war at some point… teenagers in war don’t usually do well mentally wise.. back story and post events of Kotor under the cut (also warning it’s long, like super long, and goes into their future story? As well)

SO BACKSTORY,

Shar got some Mando blood floating in their veins from some ancestor and that causes them to go full buir sometimes hence why Mission, Zaalbar, HK-47, T3-M4 and Juhani get bed time stores aboard the Ebon Hawk and chocolate space milk whenever they stop (Rev gets some too because who doesn’t love some good old Choccy milk), droid duo get cleaned basically daily while Bastila gets the bird for even thinking that this is a waste of time and resources.

Wait I said backstory… TEMPLE LIFE!

Rascal trio with Exile and Alek at their heels. All three, good of heart dumb of ass. Shar was a prodigy and excelled in basically all Jedi subjects at the time, was pretty popular with most people and just a nice person who didn’t stand for bullshit. Got into a few “heated” (honestly that’s an understatement) arguments with council members about how some things in the galaxy were handled but mostly had a positive response from people. At this time their main saber was purple and their off hand a short cyan. Joined the Republic in the Mandalorian wars a few months before their 17′th birthday. Didn’t not return to the Temple once after leaving for war.

The War 

(I should mention I get most of my knowledge from wiki skims (not deep reads) and other Tumblr posts so if it’s off canon… it’s my story and Star Wars is my sand box so I MAKE THE RULES HERE BABY!)

After many battles and the relationship between the battle trio growing stronger with time it was also weakening. At one point Shar and Exile had a romantic relationship going but only kept that going for a few months, they both decided that this was not the time to be doing this and if they both survived would actually give the lovers thing a shot (doesn’t happen). Throughout the war all three realise that they must make sacrifices to stop the war, the old saying “sacrifice one to save the many” is said often between the three at first before it becomes second nature. During one of the battles Shar’s cyan lightsaber is completely destroyed including the crystal being completely shattered. After taking the mantle of the Revanchist only uses the name Revan and never removes the helmet unless it’s only the trio and only then will respond to their old names. All three are slipping mentally in this war but have all managed to hold onto the Light side by trusting each other. After the mass shadow generator event Revan looses all contact with Exile (force and otherwise) and assumes death, despite it being Revan’s own order it’s a major pushing point towards the dark.

The End of the War

Revan faces off against Mandalore the Ultimate and slays him, in his dying breathe speaks of the Sith Empire growing in the Unknown Regions and how this war wasn’t only about giving the Mandalorian’s a good fight but also to weaken the republic for Ultimates Empire allies. Not many Mandalorians knew of the Sith truth behind the war and just followed their Mandalor’s word that this war would bring them the honour of a good fight, and it did in a way. After Revan learns of the empire growing hidden amongst uncharted routes, knew that the council would never believe them and so took matters into their own hands. Taking a fleet and insisting it was to chase down the last of the Mandalorian high command, Revan left for the unknown regions.

The Unknown 

Yeah everything went to shit. Rev and Alek get captured and Sith tortured and kind probed by old man Sith Emperor but in that time Revan gains acute knowledge via reverse mind prob, of how the Sith empire is running, where resources are coming from and key weak points. During this time Alek falls completely and Revan fains it for now. Torture continues for a good while until Revan makes the choice that they have been making all through out the war “sacrifice one to save the many”… Revan embraces the dark side and makes a plan, a plan to empower the known galaxy enough to destroy the “true” Sith empire by uniting it as their own Sith empire. Revan knows light will always rise to face the dark and that the light side is strong, someone will rise to take them down after the “true” Sith empire is defeated and only in death will Revan have fulfilled their promise to the unknown Mandalorian and finally be able to be one with the force. Revan embraces the dark fast and is soon sent off by the Sith emperor who thinks Revan is under his control to take control of the star forge and start building the Sith army in the known galaxy, Revan assumes command with now Malek as their right hand.

Beginning of Darth Revan

Basically what is described in the first Kotor game, Darth Duo go find star maps, get to forge, start fucking up the galaxy yadeyadeya. Malek pulls a sick move and fucks up Revan’s plan to stop the Sith Emperor and boom Amnesia time baby. Oh also during Sith times used a red and their old purple lightsaber but when they got captured by Bastila both lightsaber’s goy yoinked and locked up on Coruscant for simple reasons. 

No Memory Time Baby

Council is smart as fuck and call them Shay Stalker AKA their old name to see if that will reawaken light memories or thoughts in Revan and basically try and nudge amnesia Rev to stay lightside cos they don’t want to see their lost padawan fall back to the dark, (Jedi are a complicated subject), also ONLY SHAY no mention of their other name Shar at all! So that will cause problems later for poor Rev when they start remembering things :), basically the game from here on. Memories of a calm life on a farming planet before joining the military, lost both their siblings (AKA Alek and Exile) while away on service. Joined to stop the Sith from taking any more innocent lives. Throughout the game Shay try’s to help as many people as they can and choose the option that will benefit good and innocent people, constantly says fuck to corporations and nasty people, is not afraid to kill a bitch. As I haven’t completed the game fully (but I am planing a lightside finish and I’m not exactly sure when the “I am Revan” bit comes in I’m gonna leave this as it is. Oh and blue main saber and a short green saber with a crystal they managed to purify (AKA was red but returned to its natural colour through meditation and force cleansing, also helped by Bastila)

Memories

Like I said I haven’t finished the game yet BUT after the whole “oh fuck oh stars IM REVAN?????” Lots of shit starts to make sense and the force “spell” (I’m gonna call it spell) that repressed Revan’s memories had already begun to weaken somewhat before this point but this kinda opens the flood gates but not too far just enough for it to not make any sense at all. Team is there for Rev and the game finishes lightside. (Also I know I said this rev not gonna romance but this is post game stuff now and I just don’t wanna romance Bastila in game so yeah) ANYWAY, Revan and Bastila build a healthy relationship together and Revan starts to regain a lot of memories that their friends help them through. Revan remembers why they took the name Revan and actually goes to Coruscant to the high council to explain why they put on the helmet in the first place and the Council adheres to Revan’s request and returns the original helmet. The Star forged one stays in storage for now. Revan also requests their old armour and lightsabers to help regain memories as to why they fell, the council is hesitant at this request and only allows Revan to meditate with their old things at the main temple with a council member present. Over one or two years a lot comes back but there is still a few key dates, names, moments and details missing. Oh and Revan uses force powers to make Bastila preggers. IF BOBA FETT CAN SURVIVE A SARLAC AND PALPATINE CAN EXIST IN THE SEQUELS. REVAN CAN PULL FORCE BULLSHIT TOO!

The Unknown part 2: Electric boogaloo 

Revan finally remembers what made them go dark and realises they fucked up their own plans pretty bad and the Republic IS WORSE OFF THAN HOW IT STARTED COS OPPS REVAN ACCIDENTALLY KILLED A SHIT TON OF FORCE USERS LIGHT AND DARK SO yeah. Bastila was holding the brain cell of the force bond in this moment and Revan decides the best course of action is to go face the Emperor alone… fucking brilliant Revan how the fuck did you win the Mandalorian wars again my good sir? Revan tells Bastila that they (Rev) has been assigned a mission to infiltrate the remanence of Revan’s old Sith Empire and basically destroy it from within and that this mission is basically so hush hush that Bastila isn’t meant to know but Revan thought it only fair to say that they would be gone for potentially a long time for this mission and Bastila, unaware that this would be the last time she saw them, accepted this goodbye and hoped they would return before their baby was born. But Revan has always been a good lier… even to themselves. Without anymore fuss they left the Known Galaxy leaving all their friends and family behind never to be seen again to face off against the bitch that started it all. (I haven’t read the novels or played the SWTOR game and never plan to do either so again I say this is wiki knowledge that I’m doing what ever I please with that knowledge because Star Wars is a sand pit and I’m the kindy kid that’s decided to sit and play with it today)

Mmmmm Watcha SaaaaaaaAy

Revan gets their ass handed to them and imprisoned for three hundred years and tortured and mind probed AGAIN. Also cut off their connections to any other force user to ensure old dude couldn’t get to them as well. Absolutely not having a good time here. After the 300 years of PAIN the force within Revan gets so fucked up that their physicality splits into two entirely separate beings, Dark Revan and Light Revan. When this happens the prison breaks and Light Revan makes their escape and gets out barely alive while Dark Revan hangs back and swears allegiance to Sith Empire and starts plotting to overthrow old dude cos Sith. Light Revan makes it back to the council and they heal them and have a very hard time believing they are Revan until Revan perfectly describes a gift they gave Bastila before they left that now a descendent of Revan now owns. The council doesn’t understand how Revan split into two entire different beings but accept “the force acts in mysterious ways at times”. Revan is FINALLY given knighthood and helps prepare the republic for the Sith Empire that hasn’t attacked yet but definitely will soon. And this is where Tarre comes in.

Mando Time Yeah!

My Tarre will get his own beefy post (def not as big as this one) maybe tomorrow or the next day so for now it’s just what Tarre does and means to Revan. ANYWHO, Tarre becomes Light Revan’s padawan. (I should mention that Light Revan despite being called Light Revan is leaning towards a grey area within the force but isn’t down right evil like dark Revan is. Dark Revan is killing puppies of an endangered species cos their bored evil). Tarre is Revan’s padawan and becomes a knight. Revan enjoys teaching Tarre about the force and understanding how Tarre was brought up a Mandalorian and with the peace between Jedi and Mandalorian’s at this point was welcomed into the Jedi temple later than most. Revan raises Tarre like he is their own son/little brother and they form an extremely powerful force bond because of it. I’ll go in depth on Tarre’s post but Tarre still gets Mando training for 4 months of the year but the jedi training is the rest of the year. Revan joins Tarre when he return to Mandalore to continue his Mando training and learns more about Mandalorian history and culture while there. While on Mandanlore Light Revan truely feels relaxed for once despite random Mando’s sometimes jumping out and challenging them to fights because apparently Revan is now a ghost story and a feared mighty warrior legend and when anyone finds out that Revan is “alive” immediately tries to prove that they are stronger than Revan (which they are not). A few years after Tarre is knighted the war with the True Sith Empire begins.

I don’t know what to call this bit sooooo UWU

Battles, fights, old shit, it’s a war. Revan proves to be supper fucking useful in leadership but doesn’t do as much “sacrifice one to save the many” moves anymore. Revan keeps predicting what the Sith are gonna do an THATS cos Dark Revan is leading the, and Revan knows Revan best but not the reverse. Light Revan knows how Dark Revan will act but Dark Revan doesn’t know how Light Revan will act since Light Revan technically includes Shay/Shar, Mandalorian War Revan, Amnesiac Shay, and post Amnesia. While Dark Revan is only really Darth Revan and post Amnesia so Light Revan technically outweighs Dark Revan. I’ve probably butchered that explanation or done it too late but that’s how it’s gonna be cos it’s midnight and I wanna finish this and post it today. ANYWAY, final battle between the Revan’s. They have a massive duel on the battle field and eventually Light Revan strikes Dark Revan down but also receives some pretty nasty injuries. Light Revan understands the need to be whole again and as Dark Revan “dies” reunites with that half of the force and Revan returns but Revan is so done, so fucking done with living and trying and they had a good run and now they have what was Dark Revan’s and Light Revan’s injuries all on one body and sure if Rev really tried they could probably suck the life force out of some Sith warriors to keep themselves alive but… they just don’t want to. Eventually Tarre finds the fallen Revan reunited at last and stays by their side as Revan finally lets go and becomes one with the force. After the battle Tarre brings Revan’s body back to the Temple to be burnt as Revan had requested but their armour, lightsabers, and other possessions would be taken to a place only Tarre knew of to be sealed away until a far descendent of Revan’s comes along to claim them as their own. The war isn’t over and Revan’s passing only fuels Tarre further into defeating the Sith empire that the republic eventually does after 20 years of war. 

Conclusion 

And that’s the overall story of this Revan, I know very long, very deep, wtf this is your second post after a what? 1 year break? Actually let me check… yeah nope about a year has passed since my Crash post. If you have made it this far thanks for reading my first ever “decent” post about something I’ve been developing for a while now in bits and pieces. Sorry it was so long but then again I did miss a lot of shit. If you want to interact and ask more questions about this Revan go ahead my ask box is open (don’t be weird tho and just cos I post long doesn’t mean you have to ask long unless it’s legit). I’ll try and get the Tarre post out tomorrow around this time too or earlier depends. Thanks again for taking the time to read my word vomit. Also sorry if there are any spelling mistakes I have missed.

Have a good one!

[icasttourniquet]

CYCS... Hypothermia?

Let's set the scene. It's cold. Outside the cabin, the wind howls. Character A has had a crush on Character B for as long as A can remember and what's this? B spent too long outside and has caught quite a chill? The only solution, surely, is to get in a sleeping bag and cuddle until B has warmed up. Hopefully, the treatment won't awaken anything in anyone... and hopefully, it will treat the hypothermia.

What is Hypothermia?

Hypothermia is when your body gets too cold. If you want to get all technical about it, it's when body temperature falls below 95 degrees F, but in the wilderness, we don't usually need a thermometer to reckon something is hypothermia and treat for it.

Types of Hypothermia

Acute hypothermia

Character A and B wanted to enjoy a nice (romantic?) skate on a frozen pond before retreating back to the cabin. Suddenly, the ice cracks (this is why we don't skate on frozen ponds). A leaps forward but it's too late—B has fallen through the ice into the freezing cold water below.

A conducts an excellent rescue, hauling B back onto ice and then onto dry land, but even being in the water for a few minutes has caused B's body temperature to plunge. She is now suffering from acute hypothermia, which is hypothermia caused by a sudden, large decrease in body temperature

Long-onset hypothermia

A and B opt for a cross-country skiing trip over the taiga. They're bundled up against the cold: hats, gloves, long underwear, snow pants, the whole nine yards, ten yards even. As time passes, B catches a bit of a chill, but it's nothing too bad. The team decides not to stop for lunch so they can get farther and by the time they return to the cabin, B is a shivering, babbling mess. She is suffering from long-onset hypothermia, which is hypothermia that occurs when someone is a little too cold for a little too long.

Unlike in acute hypothermia, by the time A starts to treat B, B's body has used up most of the resources it has to regulate temperature.

Symptoms of Hypothermia

Hypothermia can be roughly separated into three stages: mild, moderate, and severe. Everyone, I'm sure, will be surprised to hear that severe hypothermia is the worst. However, mild hypothermia isn't just "really cold." To count as mildly hypothermic, B needs to have an altered mental status.

Symptoms of mild hypothermia

A few obvious symptoms:

Shivering

Feeling cold

Reduced coordination

A few less obvious symptoms:

Nausea

Hunger

Confusion (gotta get that altered mental status)

Faster breathing

Symtoms of moderate hypothermia

Moderate hypothermia is my favorite stage because we break out the uncontrollable shivering. We've all shivered, I'm sure, but if you expend some effort, even if you are "really cold," you can stop shivering.

Not so in moderate hypothermia. B is literally incapable of not shivering anymore.

B is also suffering from all of the symptoms in mild hypothermia but worse now.

Severe hypothermia

Uh oh. Uh oh. B has... stopped shivering.

This is bad. The body is so cold, it can no longer compensate by vibrating really fast. This is when you get patients who remove all their clothes (called, to my delight, paradoxical undressing) even though they are dying of being too cold.

B is now extremely confused, probably not making much sense when she speaks, if she can speak at all. Her heart rate is weak—if A checks her pulse, she may not even have one anymore (but don't initiate CPR!). She's panting more than breathing.

If the hypothermia progresses untreated, she will slip into a coma and die.

Complicating factors

What can make hypothermia worse? All the usual stuff: being young, being old, being sick, having a head wound that exposes the brain to the elements (you know, just normal stuff).

Less intuitive, perhaps, is that burn patients are at a high risk of hypothermia. (Imagine how annoyed you'd be if you burned yourself [got too hot] and then simultaneously had hypothermia [got too cold]). But, burns are basically big open wounds on your skin. Skin helps regulate body temperature and keeps your warm (sort of like blanket?) and if it is injured, it struggles at the job.

In all but the most balmy environments, as soon as someone gets an extensive burn, the wilderness first responder is thinking about the increasd risk of hypothermia.

But enough about that. Let's get A and B into the same sleeping bag.

Treating Hypothermia: when do my characters get to cuddle??

Severe hypothermia cannot be treated in the field. When people who get super cold are rewarmed in hospitals, they suffer from myriad heart problems, including heart attacks and strokes. Unless you need a lot of angst in your story, refrain from giving your character severe hypothermia.

So, how to treat mild or moderate hypothermia? Two things are key: 1) human burrito, and 2) food, food, food.

Human burrito

B is too cold. What's warm? Blankets! One legit wilderness treatment for hypothermia is to essentially wrap B up in a ton of blankets.

A places B on a blanket or in a sleeping bag. She carefully puts hot water bottles on her neck, armpits, thighs, and ankles (or other places—if A doesn't remember where to put them, a hot water bottle basically anywhere won't hurt). A zips up the sleeping bag, then burritos B in the blanket until she is all snuggly and warm.

Source

No water bottles available? Uh oh. Guess A will just have to slide into the sleeping bag next to B to keep B cozy and warm. (Note: water bottle method is preferred becase 1) water bottles are warmer than people, and 2) it frees A up to move on to the next stage of treatment).

Food food food

A has just dragged B in out of the cold and diagnosed her with hypothermia. The only food they have in the cabin is ice cream in the freezer and a pot of water that she could boil to make tea. What should she feed B?

If you guessed hot tea, congrats on being incorrect. The best food to give to a hypothermic patient is whatever food you can give them immediately, in this case, ice cream.

Fun fact: in stage two of hypothermia, you burn 600 calories an hour from shivering (or an entire Snickers bar each hour). Replacing these calories is vital.

But, I hear you cry, ice cream is cold! Won't ingesting cold food make B colder? To which I reply, yeah, maybe, but it's all sugar and fat and you know what sugar and fat are good for? Shivering. B cannot ingest enough hot tea to warm herself up from hypothermia—she needs to shiver her way through this. This also means tea without sugar is essentially useless to treating hypothermia. If someone is really cold, all we care about are calories.

Conclusion

Hypothermia occurs when you are so cold, your brain stops working right.

During hypothermia, first patients shiver a lot and then they stop shivering and this is actually worse.

Treat hypothermia by wrapping the patient up in blankets and feeding them a lot of any type of food.

Yes, if you must, your characters can cuddle for warmth to treat hypothermia. Just make sure there's a lot of food within reach from the sleeping bag.

[ezrasarm]

Ezra and Cee end up living together because Ezra is totally a cool uncle/willing to train her in prospecting (less dangerous jobs only now that he has a psuedo daughter ans one arm). But he also encourages her to complete her studies. Enter a private tutor who is going to help Cee complete the equivalant of Space!A levels/GED. Ezra can't help but be smitten and won't stop interrupting the lessons. Cee is irritated at Ezra's brainu flirting, tutor is mostly oblivious until she isn't. 😉

Electrostatic Attraction

Pairing: Ezra x Reader

Word count: 2.5K

Warnings: 10 ply super soft fluff, chemistry both literally and figuratively, a lack of proofreading

A/N: Sorry it took me a bit to get this out! I had to dig back deep into the traumatic memories of studying for IB chemistry for this one. Also it’s been a while (and I sucked at it then) so don’t quote me on any of this stuff 😂.

“I didn’t know we were expecting company.” Ezra said, a charming grin gracing his lips as he appeared in the doorway with a hefty bag slung over his shoulder. He’d been away on a job for the past week. Nothing too complicated. Just enough to keep the two of them afloat while Cee was finishing up her studies.

“I thought you weren’t supposed to be back until Thursday.” Cee said, glancing up from her textbook only slightly surprised to see him so soon.

“Finished up early.” He said, allowing the bag to slide off his arm onto the floor as he made his way inside. “Nice to see you too, Kid.” Ezra prompted her only to get an eye roll in response. “You gonna introduce me to your friend here or am I gonna have to make our acquaintance myself?” He asked with a charismatic chuckle as he nodded over at you. He’d swear he was being discreet but Cee didn’t miss the way his eyes dragged over you where you were sat in the seat next to her. She’d never seen Ezra’s interest peaked like this so the shift in behaviour caught her a little off guard.

“Right...” Cee squinted at him skeptically for a moment before shaking off the initial shock. “Ezra, this is (Y/n), my tutor. (Y/n), this is Ezra, my...” Cee scrunched up her face a little to consider her words for a moment before shrugging. “I don’t know, he’s just Ezra.” She finally decided.

“Pleasure to meet you.” You said with a polite smile as you got up, extending your hand to shake before realizing his wasn’t there and quickly switching hands. This earned you a hearty laugh and a wide smile as he accepted the gesture.

“The pleasure is all mine.” He responded, shaking your hand for a tad longer than customary only for Cee to cough and give him a chiding glare from over your shoulder which told him it was time to let go. “Right, don’t let me distract you two.” He nodded curtly with a smile, his hand raised in mock surrender before disappearing into the galley.

“Sorry about him. He’s not usually like that.” Cee said as the two of you got settled again.

You weren’t quite sure what she meant by that but you shrugged the comment off with a “He seems nice.” Before nodding back at the past paper the two of you had been going through. “Where were we again?” You asked, still slightly flustered by the interaction. You could feel a flush had risen to your cheeks and you weren’t entirely sure why.

“sp3d hybridization.” She reminded you. There she was. Always on the ball. Why did she need you here again? You thought before snapping back into it.

“Right. So you know what I’m gonna ask you.” You said and she peered back at you expectantly. “Bond angles?” The blank expression on her face persisted and despite knowing she knew what you were talking about you folded. It was your job to solidify this information in her head after all. “Okay, so say we’ve got a substance like phosphorus pentachloride. So that’s a single phosphorus atom and five chlorines bonded with polar covalent bonds. And they’re polar because...” You prompt her.

“Chlorine has greater electronegativity than phosphorus.” She finishes for you and you give her a subtle high-five and an approving nod as you go on.

“Right, and each of those chlorine atoms have equal partial negative charges which makes them want to get as far away from each other as possible while still clinging to that phosphorus.” You explain and she nods as though that’s obvious. “So how are those five chlorines going to configure themselves around that phosphorus so that they are all equidistant from one another?” You ask and she squints at you for a moment as she tries to work it out. “Sketch it out.” You remind her, tapping the pad of paper in front of her already filled with scribbles of chemical formulae, Lewis structures and ball and stick models, knowing she works better when she can visualize what she’s talking about. Unbeknownst to either of you Ezra had since appeared in the doorway a fond smile toying at his features as he watched the two of you giggle over the way you tripped up saying “trigonal bipyramidal symmetry” and you challenging her to try saying it five times fast if she was so keen to make you laughing stock for it.

“Okay, you win.” Cee laughed, hands raised in surrender when she blundered her first attempt. Cee liked you, Ezra noted. He noticed the way that she actually acted a bit like a kid around you. She treated you like a friend, not a teacher and he wondered how you did it. He could see you had invested a genuine care and concern in your work which was a rarity nowadays, one which gently tugged at his heartstrings as he took the scene in.

“Alright, review time!” You declare as you notice the time. You always liked to round back to some basics when you finished up your sessions so that she left things on a high note and you really cemented those foundational concepts in place. “So hydrogen bonds.” You cue her and she sighs.

“Haven’t we gone over this five times today?” She asked.

“Then you should be five times better at explaining them than you were when we started.” You say and she gives you a challenging stare for a moment before she nods in defeat and rattles off an unsurprisingly accurate definition of the intermolecular force.

“And London dispersion forces?” You ask and she astounds you once again.

“Last but not least, dipole-dipole interactions- and if you don’t get this I’ve completely failed you as a tutor.” You say.

“The electrostatic attraction between the positive and negative ends of molecules with permanent dipole moments.” Ezra speaks up from the doorframe and you jump slightly at the sound of the baritone in the room before a smile sets on your face. He couldn’t seem to rip his gaze off of that upwards quirk to your lips. Even after such little interaction there was something about you that drew him to you like a magnet. You were smart and quick witted. He could tell that already from watching you bicker with Cee, not unlike he usually did himself. Not to mention you were devilishly good looking, especially in that sage green wrap dress you were wearing that hugged you in all the right places and showed off just the right amount of skin. Few people wore dresses anymore, at least not in his circles, and the custom was striking to him. It made him nostalgic and reminded him of home.

“That’s... correct.” You say after turning to face him fully. You hadn’t had the time to notice how good looking he was when you were first introduced but now that he’d changed from the bulky suit he was wearing when he first came in and he’d cleaned himself up a little, you could actually take in his ruggedly handsome features. Soft warm eyes, a patch of platinum blonde just at the cowlick where his hair parted, a prominent nose, a faint scar on his cheek and a smattering of facial hair across his jawline and upper lip. Maybe it was the laugh lines around his eyes or the seemingly constant perk to the corner of his mouth but something about his demeanour commanded you to be completely enraptured by him.

“Please, make no mind of me, I didn’t mean to interrupt.” And it’s only now that you realized you must have been staring at the poor man. Your face burns bright red with embarrassment as you try to collect your thoughts again.

“No, not at all! I uh- we were just wrapping up.” You stammer out as you begin collecting your things into a neat pile in front of you.

“Cee,” Ezra says and her head flicks up immediately from where it had been buried in her palms the moment he started speaking. “I was about to order takeout, have you got any preferences- say, (y/n) was it?” He asked, even though he knew quite well what your name was. It hadn’t stopped playing on his phonological loop since the moment he’d heard it. God, his voice- the way he said your name almost made you swoon as you went to nod. “You should join us.” He says simply and Cee’s eyes widen like a deer in headlights before she just about snaps her neck turning to look at you.

“Oh, I shouldn’t-“ You begin but he’s waving the the excuse out of your head before you can even come up with it.

“That is if a bewitching woman such as yourself doesn’t have any prior arrangements.” He suggests and Cee is just about ready to hurl her textbook at him if that will get him to shut up any faster. Have you mentioned that you’re blushing yet?

“No, no plans. I-“ You start to say before glancing over at Cee who has a look of controlled horror adorned on her face. ‘She’ll forgive me’ you think to yourself before speaking. “I’d love to.” You say. Ezras pre-existing smirk widens into a broad grin.

“Ezra, come help me find the menus!” Cee declares almost immediately, before leaping up and dragging him by the wrist into the kitchen leaving you slightly dumbfounded in your place.

“You can’t just invite her over for dinner, she has a life of her own-“ She manages to simultaneously whisper and shout once their out of earshot. “Why is your hair wet? Did you shower?” Cee asked bringing her hand up to jostle his mop of damp hair. “For her?!” She just about hissed, pointing back out in the direction of the living/dining area where you were sat.

“What? I just got in from a dig! You expect me to sit around in that filth all day?” He questioned, attempting to deflect her accusation.

“Normally you just pass out on the couch the minute you get in- Ugh, Ezra! My tutor? Really?!” She scolds him and his face softens before he speaks again.

“Just humour me. It’s been...” He pauses a moment as he considers the last time he’s felt this way about someone. “Too long.” He finally decides and Cee scrunches up her face.

“Ew!” She exclaims remembering the way his eyes had traced down your body when you first introduced yourself.

“Not like that!” He reprimanded her, giving her a light swat on the shoulder. “Although, that too.” He shrugs after second thought. This time Cee is the one to whack his arm with the rolled up stack of takeaway menus, but far harder than he had her. “Ow! You pack quite the punch there little bird!” He winces through a soft chuckle before his face falls again and they enter an undeclared staring match, Ezra straightening up and squinting at her slightly when he realizes he’s being challenged.

“Fine! But you have to quit it with the ‘bewitching woman’s and the poorly veiled chemistry innuendo.” She points a finger at him.

“Chemistry innuendo? I gave a definition!” He exclaimed defensively.

“Really Ezra? Electrostatic attraction?” She drawled out like he had. “You don’t think we already know perfectly well where you want to put your lone pair of electrons?” She retorted, eyebrows raised accusingly.

“I don’t sound like that- What does that even mean?!” He squeaks out before he shakes the thought away and refocuses. “Cee,” he sighs. “I do not supplicate much of you often...” he drags out, eyes pleading down at her, who has her arms crossed on her chest.

“Don’t fuck this up.” She says after far too long and Ezra doesn’t even care to correct her language. “I have to see that woman on a daily basis and I will not have you coming in and screwing up my chances of passing chemistry.” She says, waving the menus threateningly at him once again.

“You have my word.” He nods diligently, raising his hand to lay against his chest before Cee storms back out of the kitchen with almost the same intensity as when she entered and Ezra takes a moment to collect himself before following.

It didn’t take too long for the three of you to decide on your order. There wasn’t all that much variety to choose from on the station, no matter how large it boasted itself to be. Your order was ready in a manner of minutes and Cee practically sprinted to the door claiming she would pick it up to escape what she swore was the most embarrassing interaction of her life, watching the back and forth between you and Ezra like the worlds most awkward ping pong match. She was surprised you hadn’t run screaming from the room at Ezra’s completely unsubtle and unpracticed flirting and his off the cuff, frivolous compliments to you but the truth was, you found them extremely endearing. His entire face lit up with pride when you commented on the book collection you’d noticed last time you were here. When you pointed out a favourite or yours that you’d noticed the spine of which was almost completely worn down on his eyes just about bugged out of his head as he pulled it off the shelf to show you that almost every single page had been filled with scribbles and annotations he’d added in the many times he’d reread it. By the time Cee got back, the two of you had managed to inch closer together from the opposite ends of the couch you’d occupied earlier. You were both keeled over in fits of hysterical laughter at some story you were telling about a misunderstanding that occurred with a pupil and their father when you first started private tutoring sessions. You hadn’t even realized your hand had come to grasp his knee as you tried to steady yourself. Just looking at the two of you Cee could have sworn you’d known each other forever. Something about the scene in front of her seemed so natural as she tried to remember why she was so horrified by the idea of you getting along so well in the first place. When you could finally breathe well enough to acknowledge her she set the bag of takeout on the table in front of you before jerking her thumb over her shoulder.

“I uh-“ she gaped for a moment. “I just ran into a friend outside the uh... place. I was gonna go hang out with her for a bit- but you two should eat without me while it’s still hot.” She suggests before either of you can even protest.

“Sure thing.” Ezra nods, still beaming from his most recent laughing fit, he almost misses the wink Cee shoots him before bouncing out the door. ‘That little minx’ he thinks to himself as she disappears from sight leaving just the two of you and the makings of what you would later refer to as your first date.

Masterlist

Taglist (let me know if you’d like to be added)

@ezraslittleblondestreak @agirllovespasta @chaoticspaceidiot @engineeredfiction @pedropascalito @dreamgirl-67 @wickedfrsgrl @hillarymurray4 @din-damn-djarin

[cosmic-affinities]

His Best Shot (Of Espresso)

Read it on AO3 Here

Summary: Taking the morning shift was the best decision Katsuki ever made, he could survive the early hours and bitchy customers if it meant Izuku went to him for his morning coffee. Now all he has to do is keep him coming back.

The obligatory coffee shop AU combined with the also obligatory college/university AU! A gift for the lovely QueenBoudicatheGreat ( @lesbian-deku) for the BKDK New Year’s Exchange!

Notes: I had so much fun writing this! It was my first venture into the coffee shop trope so I hope I did it justice! A big thanks to @ElleBakugou on Twitter for being my beta, along with @we_stanjirou (SapphicFlower on AO3!)

(Queen, I hope you don't mind that I waited so long to post! It's still technically the first for me and I was trying to make it perfect!)

It was a weird circumstance. Usually, the customer felt more out of place when getting coffee. But whoever this person was they definitely knew the place.

The man with the green hair walked in with a bright smile, much too happy for someone walking into a college coffee shop at seven am. He quickly waved at the two people making coffee as he made his way to the counter.

“Good morning!”

Katsuki had to force down an eye roll, he hadn’t even looked up yet and this customer was already way too excited.

“Yeah, what can I get started for you?”

As he finally looked up he momentarily paused. Wow whoever the fuck this was, they were cute.

“Hmm, what do you recommend?”

Usually, Katsuki hated that question, but coming from this stranger he couldn’t help what came out of his mouth next.

“This morning shitty hair back there made some almond peppermint iced coffee, I bet I can get him to make another.” He surprised himself, why was he telling a random customer that his idiot best friend makes random shit up and forces him to drink it?

The man, clearly amused, had tilted his head to the side for a moment before speaking up.

“Kirishima? He does seem like someone who would come up with that!”

“Yeah he’s always coming up with some gross ass shit and forces me and dunce face to drink it, today he got lucky.”

“You sure have some funny nicknames for Kirishima and Kaminari. Either way! If you think it won’t be a hassle to make it again, I’d love to try the almond peppermint iced coffee!”

“Pft, they’ve made much more complicated things for way more shitty people, don’t sweat it, nerd.”

The man laughed lightly.

“What makes you think I’m a nerd?”

“You just have that nerd vibe, plus who else willingly takes morning classes in the summer, other than nerds.”

The now deemed ‘nerd’ looked confused for a moment before he realized he had his school books sticking out of his bag.

“I guess that’s fair! At least the summer classes are almost over!”

“Yeah, and I bet you have morning classes in the fall too.” Katsuki countered, with an eyebrow raise.

The man blushed lightly, letting Katsuki know that he was in fact right.

“It’s only one class in the morning! It's 8 am on Friday! Really not that bad!”

Katsuki was going to counter but he realized he had a similar class, so he decided to keep his mouth shut.

“Either way you’re still a nerd but I can’t put that on a cup, so I need a name.”

“Oh! Izuku, Izuku Midoriya.”

“I’ll make sure shitty hair works fast, should be ready soon.”

“Wait! How much is it?”

“Don’t worry about it.” Katsuki shot the man, Izuku now, a wink and quickly turned, immediately regretting it. He never did that, he never winked or gave out drinks for free. Damn it this nerd was going to be the end of him.

Izuku was left blushing at the counter suddenly very grateful for the hell he went through this summer for his morning class.

“Oi! Shitty hair! Make another one of those iced coffees you made this morning for the nerd!”

Kirishima furrowed his brow for a moment before responding.

“Oh! Midoriya! You’re gonna love this!”

Katsuki was determined to redeem himself, he couldn’t leave it at a wink, he was better than that!

“Even your name is nerdy. The first half of it can be read as Deku!”

Izuku blushed at the nickname, why couldn’t the hot guy be an asshole! That would make it so much easier not to like him.

“Well if I’m Deku then you’re- Kacchan!” He looked triumphant, only making him even more adorable.

“What the fuck is a Kacchan?”

“You! You are Kacchan!”

“And you are a fucking nerd, Deku.”

“Don’t think I didn’t spot the All Might pin next to your name tag! You’re secretly a nerd too, Kacchan!”

Katsuki blushed at the call out, what can he say? All Might was the single greatest superhero to ever be written!

“Hey, Midoriya! Here’s that coffee! You gotta tell us if you like it, Kirishima swears it’s his best one yet!”

“For sure Kaminari! I’ll see you guys tomorrow! Bye Kacchan!” Izuku left after raising an eyebrow at Katsuki, almost daring him to counter.

Once the bell on top of the door dinged, signaling that Izuku had left, both Kaminari and Kirishima moved in like sharks on prey.

“So what was that all about, Kacchan?” Kaminari always seemed ready to provoke the beast.

“Don’t fucking call me that dunce face. I have no clue what you’re talking about.”

“Really? So you just give everyone free drinks and cutesy nicknames? I noticed a distinct lack of insult to Deku, no shitty, no dunce.” Kirishima was right there with him.

“Well maybe if you two shit heads would mind your own business you wouldn't have even heard Deku!”

Kirishima and Kaminari shared a look, even if he wouldn’t admit it Katsuki knew they were onto him.

“Wait, hold the fuck up. How do you guys know the cute nerd anyway? He knew your names and everything. I barely know your fucking names.” Katsuki was quick to change the subject.

“Oh he’s a cute nerd now, is he? That’s Midoriya, he comes in all the time. Almost every morning. He’s one of the only people who pay more than two seconds of attention to us so I guess Kami and I became friends with him.” Kaminari nodded along with Kirishima’s words.

“And why haven’t you mentioned him before? You both go around calling us best friends and yet you don’t tell me these things, that's why I call you my shit heads.”

“Uh, we have mentioned him. Midoriya was the one we were talking about like two weeks ago, he got a few extra tickets to Jirou’s show at that bar on main and gave them to us! He’s the one that introduced me to Shinsou, the drummer, at the concert? How do you not remember this?” Kaminari was sure Katsuki didn’t flat out ignore them every time they talked.

“That was him?! Why haven’t I met him? Ever since you two started getting lovey-dovey with Half and Half and the drummer you have been on my shit to get out there!”

“Hey! We aren’t lovey-dovey!”  “Todoroki and I are just friends!” The pair spoke at the same time, trying to deny Katsuki’s accurate description.

“Yeah, just friends how I want to be Just Friends with Deku! Don’t try and argue with that lovey-dovey shit, I saw the heart you drew on his cup Dunce Face.” Katsuki leveled them with a challenging glare, daring them to contradict him.

“Okay fine! Maybe I drew a heart on his cup, and maybe Kirishima is lying to himself about Todoroki just a little, but what does that have to do with Midoriya?”

“It has everything to do with him! You know what screw it, I’m keeping the morning shift when the fall semester starts. If he comes in here all the time I am going to see him.”

The three abruptly ended their conversation as a customer walked in, letting their customer service personality take over for the rest of the day.

Izuku had to rush to his class, he really spent too much time at Heights Alliance this morning. He couldn’t help it! The hot blonde was super nice to him! He even got away with calling him Kacchan!

Professor Yamada called him out on his daydreaming after class ended, luckily he wasn’t behind in Lit Interpretation class. Less lucky was the comment about young love that followed.

The next morning Katsuki insisted on being at the register, an uncommon occurrence for the brash blonde, he tended to keep himself in the back if he could help it.

Kirishima and Kaminari simply shared a look and resigned themselves to a shift of trying not to burn themselves on steamed milk.

They swore Katsuki was going to break his neck with all of the quick turning he did as soon as the bell rang as a customer walked in. His reprieve finally bounced in, still much too excited for someone entering a coffee shop so early.

Katsuki quickly refocused his gaze on his computer, attempting to appear nonchalant. He felt his restraint breaking as Izuku moved closer to the counter. Finally, he met Izuku’s eyes.

“Back so soon? Miss me that much?” Katsuki had talked himself up all morning, he had to try harder to make this nerd his.

Izuku gained an even blush at the comment, he had in fact missed Katsuki but he knew he didn’t have a shot.

“Ha ha very funny, I'm here almost every day, what makes you think it's not for Kirishima and Kaminari?”

Katsuki arched a sculpted brow, “Because they’ve already been set up with your friends.”

“Hmm, you got me there!” Katsuki already knew that, he made sure to interrogate anyone he could about Izuku.

“Alright then, what will it be today? Shitty Hair made some nasty ass shit this morning so I don’t even have a suggestion.”

“Well then just get me whatever you normally get! You can really tell a lot about a person from the coffee they drink!”

“Well then, tell me what you get from a vanilla iced coffee with a shot of espresso?”

“Hmm an espresso shot, that tells me you’re likely a natural leader, vanilla softens up the bitterness of coffee that says you’re laid back but realistic, and it being iced, well that gives me confident and serious but you know when and how to have fun.”

Katsuki was shocked for a moment, how could he have gotten all of that from his coffee order?!

“I wrote a research paper on how coffee is linked to your personality, from there my addiction only spiraled!” Izuku laughed lightly, pulling Katsuki’s thoughts from the scarily accurate breakdown of his coffee to the quite gorgeous man in front of him.

“So, what's your ‘normal’ coffee order then? What does that say about you?”

Izuku watched as Kirishima came up with his drink, preparing to grab the cup.

“Now that would be telling, wouldn’t it, Kacchan?” Izuku slipped fifteen dollars into the tip jar, trying to make up for the previous day’s free coffee. With a slight wink, Izuku made his way out of Heights Alliance.

As soon as he rounded the corner out of sight of the coffee shop he covered his face with his hands and let out a deep sigh. What was he thinking! He never winked at people! He was no suave in any way! He could only hope that Katsuki didn’t think he was a gross jerk!

Katsuki stood frozen, trying desperately to commit the entire interaction to memory before he could no longer recall the exact color of Izuku’s eye as it winked closed.

“I would just like to say that Midoriya has never winked at me like that which I think means you should totally go for it!”

Katsuki turned towards Kirishima and nodded, still in a slight daze. Kirishima and Kaminari laughed at their best friend’s face, they had never seen him act this way over anyone before.

The next week followed the same, Izuku would come in, Katsuki would take his order (which always changed) and they would attempt to flirt with each other. Katsuki decided that he was going to try something new on Friday.

Izuku came in, evidently a bit more tired than normal, it was finally the end of his summer classes but the exams were not going easy on him. He asked Katsuki to give him the most caffeine in a cup possible.

Katsuki went along with it knowing that it was a one-time thing, noting that he looked like he could fall asleep standing.

Katsuki quickly wrote ‘Deku’ on a cup and paused. He was determined to go through with his plan, without another thought he messily scrawled his phone number directly underneath it.

Katsuki quickly prepared the abomination of espresso shots, strong enough to resuscitate an elephant, and made his way to hand it off to Izuku.

“Alright Deku, here is a large…. Espresso shot? I don’t really know what the fuck to call this other than ‘barely a step up from straight-up heroin’ I’d say be careful but honestly you could probably use it.”

Izuku laughed heartily, Katsuki could admit that he wasn’t all that funny but if the sleep deprivation allowed him to hear that laugh he would let it slide for the day.

Izuku quickly reached out for his coffee, making Katsuki’s nerves heighten, it wouldn’t be long before he noticed the phone number.

Alas, the moment never came, Izuku’s depth perception was ever so slightly off, just enough to make sure his coffee cup slipped right through his fingers. As the paper cup smacked into the floor the top popped off, making a huge mess of very strong coffee.

Izuku was startled from his sleep-addled state, he made quick work of trying to clean up, requesting paper towels and a floor cleaner so he could repair the mess he made, the first step in his clean up was tossing the now empty coffee cup into the garbage.

Katsuki deflated as he saw the tail end of his phone number displayed in the trash can, Izuku didn’t even spare the cup a glance.

“Don’t worry about it nerd. I’ll get it cleaned up and I can get Hair for Brains to make you another one. I know there is no way you have time to clean this all up.”

“No! I can’t just leave you with a big mess! It was my fault I can clean it up!”

“Deku, it’s the last day of summer classes. Go take your final in peace, if you are really worried about it come back tomorrow and let me choose your drink for the day.”

Izuku softened, why, why, WHY, did Katsuki have to be so far out of his league? This was the perfect man!

“Kacchan you are quite literally the best! What time does your shift end?”

“Uhhh three? Why?”

“Perfect, and don’t worry about it! You will see!” Izuku grabbed the new version of his coffee (sans Katsuki’s phone number) and quickly made his way to his final class of the summer.

Katsuki waited anxiously for the end of his shift to come, what the hell had Izuku meant?! If Kirishima and Kaminari were less understanding people, they would have smacked him after he asked for the time seven times within the span of about four minutes.

Luckily for everyone, the pair could relate to Katsuki, the whole ‘a watched pot never boils’ phenomenon at it’s finest.

Around two P.M. there was a big rush of customers, ranging from those on their lunch breaks to those who hadn’t slept in roughly thirty-six hours. Thankfully the closing staff had been clocked in since one. Before they knew it three o’clock rolled around.

As if on command, Izuku walked through the door with a small bag in hand.

“Kacchan! Can I borrow you for a few?”

“Pft, I’m off the clock Deku, you can borrow me for the rest of the day.” Katsuki regretted it immediately after it left his mouth, why the fuck would he say that out loud?

“Even better! C’mon, I have something for you!”

Katsuki followed Izuku out of the coffee shop to a small bench situated under a few trees, trying his hardest to figure out what was about to happen.

“Alright, as a bit of a thank you for this morning I wanted to get you a little something, you are the reason I didn’t fail my history exam! I walked in about thirty seconds before my professor locked the door!”

“For cleaning up some spilled coffee? Deku, that’s what my paycheck is for.”

Izuku leveled him with an unimpressed look, evidently not agreeing with his statement.

“You didn’t have to replace my coffee and clean up after me. I know that isn’t in your job description. Don’t argue with me! Just open the damn gift! Please?”

Katsuki knew it was really no use, he would do anything if it was prompted by those big green eyes pleading with him.

“Alright, fine hand it over.” Izuku became visibly excited as he placed the bag on Katsuki’s lap.

Katsuki quickly made his way to the bottom of the bag and pulled out a small figurine.

“You’re fucking with me, right? There is no way this is the rare bronze age All Might figurine that came out two summers ago in a limited run of 750?”

Izuku was all but bouncing as Katsuki finished his sentence.

“Yes, it is! That summer I bought one for myself immediately and as it turned out my mom bought me the same one to give to me for my birthday! I do not know a single other person that would have recognized it as his bronze age costume, let alone give the details of the release. I have two of them anyway, you seem like the perfect person to give it too! Plus what you did for me today was really nice.”

“I can’t take this from you! All I did was clean up some shitty coffee!”

“And get me a new one, and be nice to me all the time, and generally be a good person. So take the fucking gift before I have to get creative and find a way to make you take it.”

“Fine! I’ll take it! On one condition.”

“Oh, and what might that be?”

“You have to agree to go on a date with me.” Katsuki barely stopped himself from slapping a hand over his mouth. This was not the way he was supposed to ask Izuku out! There’s no way he’s going to say yes to this shitty-

“Okay! Tell me a time and place!”

“Wait really?!”

“Did you not just hear me go on and on about you? Why wouldn’t I say yes?” Izuku spoke as if he was explaining why basic addition made sense.

“You haven’t shown any interest in me! Why would I assume you would say yes?”

“Okay, have you not realized that I have been trying my hardest to flirt with you? I know I’m terrible at it but not this bad!”

Katsuki came to a sudden realization, “You know what. It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you said yes! Alright, time and place…”

“Oh good! We’re finally on the same page! I’m fine with going anywhere just as long as we don’t go to Antonio’s, I spend enough of my life there during the dinner rush.”

“Got it no Antonio’s and no coffee, how about dinner at the sushi place up the road? I can pick you up tomorrow night at seven?”

“I’ll call and make a reservation for seven-thirty!”

Katsuki couldn’t help the genuine smile that graced his features, he was happy.

“You know, I tried putting my number on your coffee cup this morning. You just had to go and spill it though.”

“Really?! I’m sorry Kacchan! I would’ve called you if I knew about it!”

“Don’t sweat it, nerd, it all worked out in the end.”

The next night the pair went on their first date, although no one would’ve guessed it was only their first. Neither of them felt an ounce of awkward tension, enjoying the easy flow of conversation as the night progressed.

They learned that they grew up a mere three blocks away from each other, laughing at how they managed to meet long after just missing each other as kids.

They talked about their classes, finding out that they were set to be in a history class together every Friday at 8 A.M. (Izuku didn’t let the chance to call Katsuki a nerd pass.) They had been shocked, they both picked that professor because his ratings were only dampened by those who had no work ethic, knowing they would benefit from the strict regime that any class with Professor Aizawa promised.

The pair ended their night by walking the long way back to campus, hand in hand. Izuku departed with a quick but meaningful kiss, a promise of their future.

They would eventually credit Professors Yamada and Aizawa (or, more accurately Aizawa-Yamada as they came to find out) with their get-together and the strength of their relationship. If it wasn’t for the no sleep Izuku was running on for his class, they may have never gotten together. If their history class had them separated they would no doubt have slowly become too consumed with school and work to have time for one another.

They made sure the older pair knew this at their wedding roughly eight years later.

[mint-yooxgi]

{3} - Obsession

Yandere AU - Part of the EXO Obsession Series

Genre: Mature, Horror, Angst

Pairing: EXO OT9 X Reader (with a particular focus on X-EXO)

Words: 3,500

Warnings: This is a Yandere story, it will contain themes such as stalking, violence, obsession, possessive natures, and just general overall creepiness and swearing. You have been warned.

A/n: So work was really slow the other day so I actually had time to write, and thanks to two of my coworkers, the next chapter was born! I’m super excited to show you guys what I have planned for this series, especially in later chapters, but as of now, I'm just building things up. I hope you enjoy, and as always, feedback is always appreciated!

Previous ~ Next

“They were in your apartment?” Baekhyun nearly shrieks, eyes wide in disbelief.

“Yes,” you reply calmly with a brief nod of your head.

Currently, it’s the morning after the clones had come to visit you at your apartment, and you’ve just finished relaying the most important details the clones had told you to your team. You’ve chosen to omit some things for the time being until you can get a better read on your strike team. However, from the looks of things, they’re not taking things too well, especially the six members of your strike team.

“Why didn’t you call us?” Jongin asks, Minseok nodding right along with him while they both send a concerned look your way.

“Like I already told you,” you sigh, repressing the urge to roll your eyes, “I handled it.”

“Still, why did you wait until now to tell us?” Junmyeon inquires, frown evident on his face.

“You’re even lucky I’m telling you guys this at all,” you retort, eyes narrowing slightly at all of them. “I could have simply said they left me a message, which they technically did do.”

You can see Junmyeon’s frown deepen, scowls appearing on Sehun, Baekhyun, and Chanyeol’s faces. None of them like the idea of you being alone with their clones, especially in your own apartment. You notice Jongdae’s brow furrowed in concentration out of the corner of your eyes, as well as Jongin looking at you with worry still evident in his eyes.

“So then, what are we going to do? Or more importantly,” Yixing turns to look into your eyes, brow creasing slightly in concern, “what are you going to do?”

“What do you mean?” You question, quirking a brow at him in response.

“Clearly they know where you live, and they can get into your apartment without issue,” Sehun starts to say, leaning forwards in his seat to rest his elbows on his thighs. “So that raises the question of where are you going to be staying for the time being?”

Sharing a brief glance with Kyungsoo, you notice him nod his head ever so subtly in your direction. You fail to notice the hopeful looks shining in your strike team’s eyes, but none as apparent as Junmyeon’s, Baekhyun’s, and Jongin’s. Jongdae subtly bites the corner of his lip in anticipation, waiting to be the first out of all of them to offer up his place as a safe house for you during this time.

“She’ll be staying with me,” Kyungsoo says, breaking the brief tense silence that has been building since Sehun posed the question. You notice their eyes widening in surprise, but none are as wide as Junmyeon’s.

You find yourself nodding along with Kyungsoo’s words in confirmation. He’s the only one out of your entire team that knows that you have your own separate living quarters outside of the apartment that the company has assigned to you. Plus, he’s the one you feel the closest to out of all your team members, even more so than Minseok and Yixing. 

He’s the only one you’ve trusted enough to actually bring to your real house, so only he knows where it is. During times like this, where a situation arises in which you need to hide away from your own apartment, the two of you have a mutual agreement with each other where he’ll cover for you. Hence you ‘staying’ with him at ‘his’ house.

“Excuse me?” Baekhyun manages to choke out, blinking a few times in disbelief. He can’t seem to catch a break from surprises today, first with the news that his clone, along with the others, had been alone with you in your apartment last night, and now you’ll be staying with Kyungsoo of all people for your protection. He grits his teeth slightly in frustration, for he knows if it came down to it, he’d be the one who would be able to protect you.

“Perfect,” you nod, “it’s settled.”

“Shouldn’t we talk about this first?” Junmyeon voices, slight panic evident in the way his voice is a pitch higher than usual, causing your eyebrow to quirk in surprise.

“We just did,” you respond, crossing your arms in front of your chest. “Considering it’s your clones that we’re dealing with, it would make the most sense for me not to stay with one of you six. The last thing any of us needs is for one of your clones showing up at your own house looking for us. That would be much worse, now, wouldn’t it?”

Though they seem to all scowl at the thought in distaste, they all reluctantly agree with your reasoning.

“I suppose so,” Jongdae grumbles, letting out a small sigh in the next moment as he leans back onto the chair he’s sitting on, running his fingers through his hair. He’s racking his brain to come up with a better solution, preferably one that allows you to stay with him for the time being. So far, he’s come up with nothing, which frustrates him to no end.

“Speaking of our clones,” Chanyeol adds, “what are we going to do about them then?”

At his words, all eyes turn to you. You let out a sigh, rubbing the side of your face with your hand. However, before you can speak, Sehun is beating you to the punch.

“Well, clearly we have to destroy them,” he says, Jongin nodding right along with him. “If what you told us is true, both ‘versions’ of us cannot survive in the end, so our number one priority, after making sure you’re safe, is destroying our clones.”

“I second that,” Chanyeol hums, nodding along with the others.

“What are we going to do if they show up again?” Baekhyun asks, crossing his arms while leaning against the wall he’s standing near. “Or worse, here?”

“We should have a plan just in case that happens,” Junmyeon agrees. “Even if they confront us by themselves in our own homes, I think it would be beneficial if we alerted everyone immediately.”

“I agree,” Jongdae voices his thoughts. “As soon as you can, alert the others. Especially since we don’t know what our clones are fully capable of yet. Besides, some of us might be able to handle ourselves better than the others, and we can use all the backup we can get in the event of an emergency.”

“Contacting each other and keeping all of us updated will be one of our most important methods of protection, as well as making sure we can respond properly and swiftly to a situation if it does arise,” Junmyeon continues, to which you voice your agreement.

“In the event that they do show up here, we need to make sure to act quickly,” you say, eyes sharp and calculating as you look each one of them over. “Strike them down before they can strike you.”

You can tell that they’re all taken aback by your words and how serious you sound. No question, nor hesitation in your voice.

“She’s right,” Jongdae is the first to break the silence that’s settled over all of you. “We’re going to have to kill them eventually if we want to live. It’s not like they’re us anyways.”

At least, that’s what he keeps telling himself. If these clones really are made from a part of them, and share the same memories and feelings, he’s not quite sure just how different they really are. The only difference right now that he can tell is that his clone is not afraid to go after what he wants. But just how far is he willing to go?

“Exactly,” you confirm. “If they’re going to basically be doing the exact same thing every time they encounter you from now on, then it would be beneficial for all of us to strike first.”

A small silence settles over the ten of you as you let this information sink in. You can tell the six members of your strike team are tense, thinking over what has just been decided, and confronted by having to face themselves to the death. 

You let out a long exhale through your nose, not too sure how to raise their morale at the moment, for you need some time to figure out their real feelings for you. The last thing you want to do is to make things more complicated than they are. You need to find out the truth, and fast.

“You know, I never thought I’d ever have to face myself in battle,” Sehun jokes, breaking the tense silence as he chuckles, along with Chanyeol.

“Well, you know what they say,” Minseok sighs. “You’re your own worst enemy.”

“Hope you guys can handle yourselves,” Kyungsoo hums amusedly, a teasing tone in his voice.

“I know I can,” Baekhyun smirks smugly.

“Yeah, sure,” Jongin scoffs, rolling his eyes slightly. “Says the guy who just fell flat on his ass this morning coming down the stairs.”

You laugh, an amused grin coming to rest on your features as you turn to see the tips of Baekhyun’s ears turning red from embarrassment.

“I slipped,” Baekhyun attempts to defend himself.

“Uh-huh, sure you did,” Chanyeol grins.

You continue to chuckle as the three of them continue to bicker back and forth. You’re grateful for the small shift in conversation, for it seems to be relieving the previous tension which had settled over all of you. You can feel yourself calming down slowly, grateful to have the weight of the previous evening lessoned, even if it’s only slightly.

Despite appearing much more calm on the outside, you’re still very worried. You know you’ll have to talk with the members of your strike team separately, away from the others, but you’re not exactly sure how you should go about doing that. You’ve always went with a direct approach when dealing with tough situations, but you’re not sure if they’ll be fully honest with you if you do so this time around. Still, it doesn’t hurt to try.

“I still want to talk with all of you individually to make sure that we’re all on the same page,” you make a point to catch the eyes of your strike team, noticing how a few of them tense under your gaze. If you didn’t know any better, you’d say both Chanyeol and Jongin look nervous. “Who wants to go first?”

Both Junmyeon and Jongdae stand up at the same time, causing your brow to quirk in surprise. However, with one quick look from Junmyeon, Jongdae reluctantly sits back down, letting out a quiet sigh as he does so.

“As for the rest of you, dismissed until I call for you,” you tell them, already making your way out of the briefing room and towards your office which resides near the back of the compound.

Junmyeon follows closely behind, making sure to keep pace with you on the way to your office. He bites the inside of his cheek, nervous for what you want to talk to him about, for he’s sure you all covered everything in the meeting you’ve all just had. Unless his clone did something that you’ve opted to exclude in your retelling of last night’s events.

Shutting the door behind himself once you’ve both entered your office, he turns to face you. He notices how you’re casually leaning against the front of your desk, motioning with your head for him to sit in one of your two chairs which rest in front of you. 

“What is it you wanted to discuss?” He asks, taking a seat in the chair on his left, the chair that just so happens to be the closest to you at the moment.

You let out a sigh, closing your eyes briefly as you tilt your head downwards, “look, I know this is a pretty fucked up situation, but do you have any idea why your clone in particular would be coming after me?”

He freezes momentarily, breath lodging in his throat, “I’m not sure.”

“Oh?” You shift your gaze to his, analyzing his every move.

“Must be a side effect of the spell,” he continues, his dead heart racing in his chest. He may be a vampire, but you are one of the only things that actually have an effect on him.

“Must be,” you mutter, crossing your arms once more in front of your chest. 

“Is that all?” He asks, wanting to get out of this situation as soon as possible. The longer he stays in your office, the less control over his thoughts he has, especially due to the situation you’re both in. Usually, he loves being in your office, for he can revel in your scent which covers every inch of the space. However, he can’t seem to enjoy it as thoroughly this time around, for he doesn’t want to get too distracted and risk saying something that might give his feelings for you away. His real feelings.

“Junmyeon,” you notice the way his jaw twitches when you say his name, “is there anything you’d like me to know that might help us in this situation?”

“I just want you to be safe,” he replies after a moment of hesitation.

“It’s not me I’m worried about,” you sigh, shaking your head slightly. “Anyways, that’s all for now. If you find out anything else, make sure to let us know. I’m trusting you, considering you are my second in command. I don’t want anything bad to happen to you guys.”

The sincerity in your voice causes a small smile to tug at his lips, “give us a little bit more credit, we’ll be fine.”

You send a weak smile back, “dismissed.”

With that, he stands up from the chair. Before he exits your office, he pauses briefly to send one final look to you from over his shoulder. So badly he wants to wrap you in his arms and tell you that everything will be okay, that he’ll always be there to protect you. However, he knows that it would be inappropriate for him to do so at this time, especially since he can’t even confess to you that he sees you as more than just his captain. As more than just a friend.

Walking down the hallway he decides that he’s going to work on tracking these clones down, and prove to you that he can always be there for you, to protect you. He wants to make sure that he’s doing whatever he can to impress you, too. He might need a little help from the others, but he knows he can run this operation smoothly, and earn your affections by doing so. He’ll show you that he’s worthy to be your man.

The rest of your one on one meetings with the others go pretty much exactly the same way as Junmyeon’s did. None of your strike team admits to anything that you’ve come to assume or learn about them. Jongin and Chanyeol both seemed close to cracking, but held their own in the end. Turns out this might be harder than you originally thought, but if you ever run into their clones again, maybe you can get some more information out of them instead.

Gathering your things to head home for the evening, you let out a frustrated sigh. The good news is that you all have a general consensus and plan for fighting these clones if they were to attack any one of your team members. However, given what you know, and still have yet to find out, you’re not too sure if you’d actually go through with attacking them first. You’d rather get as much information out of them as you can for the time being, that way you can come up with a better way to not only combat them, but understand and deal with the originals as well.

A soft knock on your office door manages to break you out of your thoughts.

“Come in,” you say, not really paying attention to who enters the room.

“You okay?” Kyungsoo’s voice catches your attention, looking up to see him already staring at you with concern etched onto his features.

“Yeah, just a bit frustrated, is all,” you shoot him a tight smile, letting out a puff of air as you sling your bag over your shoulder. Noticing the look he’s sending you, you let out a sigh, “I’ll tell you in the car.”

“Ready to go then?” He asks, seeing you nod your head in response.

Walking over to him, he holds the door open for you. Flicking off the lights, you walk past him into the hallway, hearing the door to your office fall shut as he catches up to you and matches your pace. He doesn’t say anything as the two of you make your way to the underground parking and towards his car, of which you couldn’t be more grateful. Once you’re safe in his car and making you way out of the garage, you find yourself letting out a groan.

“What would you do if you knew the truth about something, but no one would tell you about it?” You voice your thoughts, knowing that you can trust Kyungsoo enough to give you an honest opinion and also keep your conversation a secret.

“Is this about the clones?” He eyes you curiously from the driver’s seat.

“Yeah,” you run a hand through your hair before jumping into the full explanation about what had really transpired last night, telling him specifically how the clones acted near the end of your encounter.

He lets out a low whistle, “based on what you’re telling me, and from what we know about the clones already, it sounds to me like your strike team all has the hots for you, with their own little unique quirks.”

“That’s what I’m thinking, but I can’t be too sure since they’ve never shown signs of being interested in me romantically, nor have they admitted to it,” you say, turning your head to look at him.

“Still, I’d be cautious with how you act around them now, and especially with what you say,” he says, turning onto the highway to get to your place. “The last thing you need is for the team to fall apart.”

“Gee, thanks for the encouragement,” you deadpan. “No pressure or anything.”

“Relax,” he rolls his eyes. “We both know you can handle it. Do your best to gather more information from the clones, and once you have enough information, confront the originals. Who knows, something may end up happening that works in your favour.”

“Look at you, rooting for me to get some romance in my life in times of crisis,” a teasing smirk pulling at your lips.

“Always,” he grins right back before becoming serious in the next second, “but you know that if they ever tried anything to hurt you I’d end them. No hesitation.”

“Yeah, yeah,” you chuckle, “I know.”

“If anything happens, make sure you call me first,” he goes on to say.

“Well, considering you’re the only one who actually knows where I live,” you joke. “Speaking of, what are you going to do if one of them shows up at your place wanting to talk with me?”

“Simple,” he responds. “I’ll just tell them you’re out, or at the gym, or on a walk, or at the compound, or sleeping, or-“

“Okay, I get it!” You grin, shaking your head slightly in amusement. “You’ll just make up some excuse and cover for me.”

“Exactly,” he replies, nodding his head in confirmation. “Besides, if it’s really urgent, they’d call you.”

“That’s true,” you confirm. “At least I’d hope so.”

“They will,” he assures you. “I don’t think I’ve seen them have as much respect for anyone else as they do for you. They’ll respect your wishes, and just like me, will do whatever it takes to make sure you’re safe. Though, I don’t think I’m as paranoid as they are about leaving you by yourself.”

“Which I am thankful for,” you shoot him a look, grin tugging on your lips once more.

Pulling off of the highway, Kyungsoo begins to take the backroads to get to your house which rests in the middle of the woods, hidden by all the trees surrounding it. Once he pulls up to your front door, you thank him for driving you, and proceed to make your way inside your house, watching as his car disappears behind the trees.

You’re happy to be home, though you wish it were under better circumstances. Unlocking the door, you’re quick to turn off your alarm and toss your bag onto the bench you keep by the front door. 

Shutting and locking your front door shortly afterwards, you find yourself breathing a sigh of relief. At least you know there aren’t any surprises waiting for you in your living room tonight. Well, you sure hope there’s none.

[lucisfavoritedemon]

Accidental Attachment Part 3

Pairing: Steve x reader, Tony x platonic!reader

Warnings: fluffy, slight angst, sadness, anxiety

Word Count: 2388

A/N: I am still very new to the Marvel fandom, so if it isn’t accurate don’t be mean. I know it probably isn’t. I’m still learning so please be patient. All mistakes are mine.

Enjoy!

The whole ride back to my place we spent in silence. I felt so stupid for not telling him the truth about how I felt, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell him. Before I knew it he was parking the car. He got out and came to open my door for me.

“I’m sorry tonight didn’t go as planned, but I still had fun getting to know you.”

“Thanks Steve. I had fun getting to know you better too.”

He smiles, “do you mind if I walk you inside?”

“Not at all. I rather enjoy your company.” I giggle.

He chuckles and opens the door to my apartment building. We walk upstairs still in silence, and I begin to wonder if I should just tell him. If things don’t work out, I have a new sparring partner.

“Mine is this one.” I say, pointing to the first door on the right as we get to the third floor.

“I guess this is where we part then.”

“Thank you for letting me get to know you better, Steve. Even though tonight didn’t go exactly as I planned, I would have preferred this much better than hanging out with Tony all night.”

Steve chuckles, “I’ll let you in on a little secret, I’ve never told anyone about Peggy.”

I smile and blush some, “I’m glad you trust me enough to tell me that information.”

He smiles wide, “I’ll let you go inside and get some sleep.”

“Alright, I’ll see you soon.” I smile and go to unlock my door as Steve starts to walk away, “Steve?”

“Yes?”

“About that thing that Tony locked us in for,” I knew I had to tell him or I would probably never get a chance again.

He stood there waiting for me to say something. I took a deep breath, “I really like you Steve.”

“I really like you too Y/n.” He smiles.

I smiled back, but I wasn’t sure if he understood what I meant.

“Tony really locked us in there because you like me?”

“Yeah. Um, well goodnight.” I say quickly before opening my door, and walking inside shutting it.

I felt so stupid. I should have chosen a different wording, but it was too late now. Now he thinks that Tony locked us in that stupid room because I was too afraid to tell him that I admire him. That could not have gone any worse, or better. At least he didn’t reject me. That’s a plus.

~*~

It had been a few days since I spoke to Steve, or even really left my apartment. I had no reason to, I wasn’t scheduled for another training session till later in the week, but Tony had texted me this morning, and asked me to come down to the facility. I decided that I would walk there since it was a pretty nice day out, and I also didn’t live too far from the facility.

I walk in and I’m immediately bombarded.

“There you are. Took you long enough.” Tony rushed over to me.

“You just texted me 30 minutes ago.”

“Yeah I guess. Let’s head to the lab, I have something to show you.” Tony says kind of fast and starts shoving me towards that direction.

“Tony, what has gotten into you?” I stomp on the ground which makes the whole building shake some.

Steve and Natasha come running over.

“Was that you Y/n?” Nat asked.

“Yeah because Stark is being weird.”

“Weird? Weird? I’m not being weird.”

“You kind of are Tony.” Steve responded.

“I was just wanting to Y/n around the lab. Show her the new things I’m working on.”

“No thanks. Not when you’re acting like this.”

“I also have to discuss with you the mission.”

“Mission what mission?” Steve asked, confused.

“The mission Fury just briefed us on.”

“Right? Whatever Tony.” Steve and Nat walk away.

“Tony if you called me down here to show off, I’m just going to go back home.”

“Where have you been the last few days huh?”

“Home?”

“You need to get out. I was trying to get you away from Cap so you didn’t have to face him.”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s been going on about how you two are just friends. Nat actually has been trying to set him up with other women now.”

“O-oh.” I look down. I knew this was coming, but I thought if he and I got to know eachother better things could have worked out.

“I’m sorry. I really thought he liked you back. He talked about you, and he wanted to train with you, but he didn’t know how to approach you, but maybe I was wrong. Which never happens.”

I push passed him and go to where Nat and Steve stand talking, “Steve? Can I speak with you for a minute?”

“Yeah of course.” he excuses himself from his conversation and follows me to the hallway.

“Look, I have something very important to tell you, and if it doesn’t make sense I will explain in a different way because the other night I meant something different than the way you took it.”

“Okay. I’m listening.”

“Look. I really like you. Not like admire, like you, but wouldn’t mind grabbing coffee, going out to dinner, and cuddling on the couch with you like you.”

“That makes more sense.”

I waited for him to say more. Hoping he wouldn’t just leave me with that.

“Is that all?”

“Y-yeah. I was just hoping for a little more than that.”

“Do you mind if we discuss this later? I have to finish discussing something with Nat.”

“I-I see. I’ll be in my apartment if you need to find me.”

“You’re not staying?”

“No. I have no reason to. Tony called me down here to talk to me. We talked. You and I talked. My work here is done I guess.”

“Oh, well I’ll swing by later then. If you want me to that is.”

“Up to you, but I’m going to beat Stark to a pulp, then head home.”

“Save something for me to beat to a pulp too.” He jokes.

“No promises. He deserves every ounce of butt kicking he gets.” I giggle.

He chuckles, “I’ll see you later.” He walks back over to Nat.

I walk over to Tony, and glare at him.

“What?” He asked, acting like he did nothing wrong.

“You are so lucky we are around other people.”

“Are you really angry that I just set you two up?”

“You didn’t set us up! I told him I liked him when he dropped me off at my apartment, but he took it in a different way. I told him today what i truly meant, to just clarify, and nothing.”

“Wait, he didn’t say anything?”

“He just said that makes sense, and that he needed to go back to Nat, so I guess that’s a no. He’s coming over later to talk, but I have a feeling that he just wants to stay friends. If that’s the case, I found a sparring partner.” 

“That’s one way to look at it. What better way to get over rejection, than to continue punching him without hurting, and potentially spilling how he hurt you, and making him feel guilty that he doesn’t like you even though he wishes he does. Yeah great plan.”

I just roll my eyes, and walk out of the building heading home. It took everything I had not to sock Stark in the face, but I knew I could potentially get in big trouble for causing a fight. I didn’t think he was worth getting in trouble for. I walked into my apartment and sat down on my couch. I just wanted to hide away from embarrassment. I didn’t want to have this talk with Steve, but I needed to know the answer. I needed to know if he just saw me as a friend, or if he could see me as something more.

I was just sitting on my couch watching TV, when I heard a knock on my door. I turn off my TV and stand up, slowly making my way to the door. I open it up, and I’m greeted with a bouquet of flowers. I smile and take them.

“I figured you’d like them,” Steve smiled, looking at the ground.

“You gonna come in, or are we gonna talk in the hall.” I giggle and step aside for him to walk in, “let me put these in water. Make yourself at home.”

Steve smiles and walks in shutting the door behind him and sits on the couch, “this place is really nice.”

“Thanks. I tried to make it feel as much like home as possible.”

“It’s very nice.”

I find a vase and fill it up with water before putting the flowers in. I quickly arrange them to make them look even more beautiful before joining Steve on the couch.

“Did you really mean what you said back there?”

“Every word. I do admire you as well, but you’re just so nice, and easy to talk to. I just couldn’t help but start to gain feelings for you.”

“I think the same thing about you. I felt like I could just open up to you and you would just sit there and take it all in. Understand every word of my complicated past. I’ve never met anyone quite like you before. You’re someone that I can’t imagine not being in my life anymore. You’re just a piece of it now.”

“That’s very sweet Steve. I feel a but coming on though.”

“No buts. I promise. I would really like to get coffee, or dinner with you.”

I giggle, blushing, “I’m glad. Maybe we could go grab some coffee now? I need an excuse to leave my house before I become a recluse.”

He chuckles, “that sounds like a wonderful idea.” 

He stands up and offers his hand to me. I take it smiling, and we walk out of my apartment and walk to a coffee shop just down the street. We order our coffee then go and find a nice place to sit down.

“I still feel like there is so much I want to learn about you.” I stated, sipping on my coffee.

“I agree. I’m willing to tell you whatever you want.”

“What was your best friend’s name?”

“Bucky. We had been friends since childhood. He looked out for me. Despite what you may think I used to be extremely small. Super skinny, and not as tall. So, I got picked on a lot because my personality was bigger than I was. I would stand up for myself, and that got me into a lot of trouble with people. Thankfully Buck was always there at the right time to come and save me.”

“He sounds like an amazing guy.”

“He was. He really, really was.”

“I’m so sorry. He sounds like someone who was very important to you. I would have loved to have met him.”

“You might have regretted that sentence if you knew him.” Steve chuckles.

“Popular with the ladies I’m guessing?”

“You could say that.” He chuckles again.

“I see. You seem the opposite though. You don’t really seem the type to really go after girls. More like one who would get set up into dating.”

“I’m not a very smooth talker when it comes to women, but I try to be as polite as possible.”

“I can tell. You’re just really polite in general.”

“Thanks. I try.” He smiles, and I can see a hint of redness brush his cheeks.

“Red really is your color.” I smile, giving a smile giggle.

He chuckles, “thanks. I’ll have to wear that color more then.”

“You really should.”

He stands up, as I do the same. We walk out and start walking back to my apartment. I really did enjoy this mini date, if that’s what you could call it. I just really hope that he didn’t do all of this just because he felt bad for me. I really wanted things between the two of us to work out. 

“Sorry I have to cut this a little short,” Steve said glancing at his phone, “I was hoping to be able to spend the remainder of the day with, but duty calls.”

“That’s okay. I understand.”

“I’ll text you as soon as I get back. I promise.”

“Steve, you don’t have to do that.”

“Why not?”

“I just want to know how you feel. If this was just a one time thing, I want to know. If this isn’t, then I want to know. I just really want to know. I thought that was the whole preface of you coming over was for us to talk, but all we did was talk about friends and our pasts. I just want to know if this is going anywhere, or if this is just a waste of my time.”

He stops and turns to me, standing there for a minute before speaking, “I don’t know. It’s why I wanted to spend the day with you to see how I felt, but maybe being away from you for a while might prove to be just as effective.”

“Like wishing I was there for you to talk to if you got lonely, or you wish I was there by your side when you woke up in the morning?”

“Something like that. We can discuss how I feel when I get home, okay?”

“That’s fair.”

He smiles, and kisses my cheek, “for now, I hope that tells you something after only spending a couple hours alone with you.”

“Something like that.” I smile, blushing.

“I’ll see you soon okay?”

“Okay.”

He smiles at me, as I walk into my apartment building, “Steve?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t forget about me.”

“How could I? You’re hard to forget.”

I blush, “good. Text me when you get where you’re going.”

“I will try my best.” He smiles warmly.

We say our final goodbyes as I walk inside. I hoped he would be okay, and that this was going to work out. I really liked him, and I could only hope he would feel the same when he got back. I just hoped that everything goes to plan on this mission for him.

[ithinkimblue]

Can I have a dance ?

100 ways to say I love you:

Number 14 - “Can I have a dance?”

Rating: K

Relationship: Tim Drake x Conner Kent/Kon-El

Fluff, Romance

1 chapter / 1k words

Link Ao3

Summary: Today was prom day and Conner was kind of stress cause i still didn't have a plus one. He wanted to invite his best friend/date-if-Tim-wanted-to but men! It was hard to confess his love. 

Hello everyone! English is not my first language, so I apologize in advance for the spelling mistakes that you might see. This fic pop in my mind because of one post on @blondetins’ tumblr named “100 ways to say I love you” Recently, my love for the Batfamily reached the high of the Wayne Tower, and I think about them and their different love stories all the time. I was time to write something about it! Happy reading!

If you asked him, this night was the most stressful moment in Conner’s short life. Even going on mission and facing the end of the world seems less stressful.

But this night was also one of the most beautiful that in ever lived.

The day before begun quite casually. As usual, Kon woke up late and was force to use his super speed to prepare his stuffs so he wouldn’t be late.

He flew to his high school, landed behind an empty building nearby and ran at normal speed the few meters’ left.

As soon as his feet touch the ground, his ears were overwhelmed by all the chatters filling the school.

Of course! With his super busy schedule, Kon had totally forgotten that prom was tonight… And he didn’t have a date yet.

Well, that wasn’t exactly right. He could have found one month ago, but he declined every request. Not that he wanted to go alone. In fact, he knew exactly who he wanted to invite but the situation was way more complicated than it sounded. Cause he lived in a small town in the depths of Kansas and he wanted to invite a boy and not a just a friend and not any boy: Tim Drake-Wayne himself. And if this wasn’t complicated enough, Tim didn’t know what Conner felt about him. They were just supposed to be best friends and Kon still hadn’t got the guts to tell him. But if he didn’t want to go to prom alone, he knew exactly what he had to do.

With that idea in mind, Conner spent his entire morning thinking about what he’ll say, what he’ll do, so much that at the end of his last class of the day, before midday, he didn’t even remember a thing his teachers said. But… clearly, he didn’t give a fuck. He had other things to do.

Soon as the last bell rang, he left his school and fly as fast as possible to the Kent’s farm. There, he sent a simple text to Tim, asking to meet him if he wasn’t not too busy.

As usual, his best friend was more than ready to sacrifice a few of his working hours to spend time with him and said yes almost instantly.

Full of stress, Conner put his Superboy outfit, his earrings and some make-up on before living for Gotham. Usually, he avoided wear make-up at Smallville. It was a small town and people already looked at him weirdly since he began living with Pa’ and Ma’ at the farm.

But he wanted to be as handsome as he could be before seeing Tim and he also felt more like himself as Superboy than as Conner, the farm boy, copy of Clark Kent. He liked too much his piercings and leather jacket.

Finally ready, he took one minute to warn Pa’ and Ma’ that he was going out before taking off.

Direction Gotham, and more precisely Wayne Enterprise’s roof top.

The fly was actually really helpful for his stress. Kon always loved flying. It made him calmer and helped him think more clearly.

So, when he arrived in Gotham, he was relaxed and super happy to see his best friend/maybe-boyfriend-if-Tim-loved-him-back.

As soon as he entered the city, he immediately spotted Tim’s heartbeat, harmonious as usual. This was always reassuring knowing, even miles away, he could hear that nothing was wrong and that Rob’ was okay.

Arriving near WE, it took him two seconds to see Tim, sat down on the edge of the roof, watching the horizon. And he took him the exact same time to join him with a cheerful “Hello.”

Tim responded with a smile before offering Kon some M&M’s© that he probably stole from the vending machine he installed next to his office (he could totally pay for it, but it was more funny to steel it since Jason told him how). Being the CEO offered so advantages.

“So. What’s up?” Tim started talking. He’s always the one who start when he saw that Kon wanted to but could find the words.

“Oh. Nothing out of the ordinary. Kansas is boring, so is school and I just wanted to spend some quality time with my best friend.”

“Not wrong. School is boring. But are you sure everything is alright? Not like I dislike seeing you more often but it’s rare that you offer a meeting in the middle of the week and in the middle of a day without reasons. I mean, we’re going to see each other in less than two days at the Tower so… I was just wondering.”

Deciding that that was never be a right moment and that Tim made it easy for him by insisting, Kon had tried.

“Actually… You’re right! I wanted to see you cause I’ve got something to ask. But… It’s kinda hard to say so… please don’t interrupt me…” Kon’s tone sounded like begging but he didn’t care.

“As you wish.”

“So… since I’ve officially start high school, I began to learn all the things that teenagers are supposed to do. Things that aren’t saving the world every Tuesday.” Tim laughed at his joke and Kon relaxed. “One of those things is… prom. And especially the tradition to invite a plus one. But… like the idiot I am, I totally forgot about that and… It’s not like I don’t know who inviting. In fact, I know exactly who I want to spend my night with but… it’s complicated.”

“All of our lives are complicated anyway.”

“I said no interruption!” Kon pretended to be mad and apparently, his fake angry face was like by Tim who let a small grin slip on his face. “I was saying. It’s complicated… See… you’re my best friend. I’ve known who since forever, and I don’t want to ruin or friendship or anything but… I want to ask you something.”

“Hey!” Tim stopped him and gentle stroke his hand on Kon’s cheek. “Nothing can ruin our friendship. You hear me? Nothing! You can tell me anything, and I’ll always be her for you, no matter what."

Kon blushed a little. Tim’s eyes stared at his. There were so beautiful, so full of… everything… Quietly, Conner pressed his hand against Tim’s, still on his cheek.

“I…” He took a long breathing and finally asked. “Do you want to go to prom with me? As a more than friend plus one!” That’s it! He said it.

For a few seconds (to long if you asked Kon), Tim seemed surprise. But a tender smile quickly replaced his startled expression.

“If you mean in a boyfriend kind of way, then I’ll be happy to go with you.”

It was now Conner’s time to be surprised.

“You… you… what does that mean?”

“It means that I like you too dummy!”

“Oh” Kon was incapable of saying anything else, in choc to see his feelings returned.

~o~

That’s how Kon ended up, in an old Clark’s suit, in the ball room/gymnasium of his high school, waiting for his date (who was late).

He was happily speaking to his friends about gossips, classes and unimportant stuffs trying to kill time.

But he couldn’t hide that he was a little bit worried. It took balls to invite a guy to dance in one of the most homophobic state in USA.

So Kon wasn’t hiding that he was kind of scared of the reactions of his friends, of the reputation he was going to give the Kent.

However, at the second he heard known and really specific footsteps, he turned his eyes to the entrance just in time to see Tim waking in. And just like that, Conner forgot every fear that he had. Tim was… radiant.

Knowing him, he certainly randomly picked one of his suit. It was simple, like every other boy in the room. But he wore it like he was born in it and Conner couldn’t detach his eyes of him.

His friends tried to understand what was happening to him but he ignored them.

Rapidly, he hurried in Tim’s direction, a big smile stuck on his face.

“Hello beautiful, you’ve got wonderful eyes you know that?” Kon was sure his stupid line will please Tim, or at least made him blush.

“You dork.” Ah! Tim was discreetly laughing! And blushing! Objectives completed. “Show me the bar instead of playing the idiot. I’m thirsty and everyone is starring.”

“Oh… Yeah. You’re right. This way.” Rao… He already started babbling. And Tim was right, everyone was starring and some in the crowd even recognize Tim. It must be said: Tim was known by the tabloid and even in a modest town as Smallville, people known him.

During a hot minute, Conner started regretting ask him to come.

But a hand on his made him forgot all the bad thoughts he had. Tim put a worried look on him and Kon smile at him, silently saying “Nothing’s wrong, don’t worry.”

Smiling back, Tim put down his drink on the table nearby and pulled Kon toward the dance floor.

 “Can I have this dance?”

Kon laugh at the question and switch roles. He was now pulling Tim towards the other dancers.

They quickly faced each other et started dance like nobody was watching them. And he didn’t take long for them to bring each other closer.

At the end of the dance, they ended up chest against chest, breathless. Looking at each other, the logical choice for Kon was to lean toward Tim’s face. Tim’s eyes couldn’t leave his. And the young CEO’s face seemed saying one thing “Kiss me”.

So Kon obeyed and kiss him.

[vroenis]

Reaching Out, Reaching In

It would be criminal not to use ABIIOR for the lede given I’m going to quote Matty albeit not quite verbatim - nevertheless - buy this album, it’s incredible.

But of-course, I’m going to start by talking about

BT

I mention BT a lot; he enters the lists often in my writing, in my discussions. Like many artists in my collection and listening rotation, I seem to be really into an artist for a period of time and then reach a cutoff point where I stop being into them. This probably happens for most people, I don’t know, I’ve not asked most people, but I do want to be very careful of not living in the past or rather dying in it. Still, I like to keep finding new things or rather I’m compelled to. I enjoy things that continue to grow older each second time passes, but I always thirst for new creations by all artists of all ages, whether they bring to bear the experience of years, or they’ve only been around for a few. The point is everyone is here on this wild ride and art is their response to the stimuli; it’s what comes out of us in abstract and semi-abstract, re-translated and it forms these amazing emotional and often transcending connections and multifaceted responses in us and by us I mean me.

I’m getting distracted.

In the last and understandably downcast piece on my deathbed playlist, there are three key BT albums and it’s worth noting the years he released them;

2006 - This Binary Universe

2012 - Nuovo Morceau Subrosa

2016 - _ (untitled - there’s a story, you can look it up if you like, it’s more or less just referred to as the character *underscore*(verbal))

There were other albums in-between but naturally those don’t make the list as far as what I want to be hearing if I’m half or unconscious or in a delirium on my way to imminent death. In 2019, BT released two albums;

October 2019 - Between Here And You

December 2019 - Everything You’re Searching For Is On The Other Side Of Fear

You may remember I wrote a whole lot about 2009 - 2019 and these albums were absent.

If you go to the wiki for BT, which are his initials for Brian (Wayne) Transeau, you’ll see a wonderfully rich history of a stupendously talented musician and immensely intelligent individual. He is part of a collective of people most wouldn’t know about (which is perfectly fine, to be honest) who are responsible for the digital audio revolution that has completely changed the way we create, record, produce, publish and distribute music as we know it. There are parts of that people may think are negative and some elements certainly are, but the net benefit is unquestionably positive even if only on the sole subject of accessibility. Accessible digital audio has put creation and power within reach of everyone and of-course this means there’s a glut of material available, but it also means we catch sight of more amazing art rather than never see it, or it not seeing the light of day. I lean on humans seeing it and saying that directly rather than speaking in abstract. The light of day is literally us - we humans, seeing the expressions of one-another and hopefully remunerating appropriately so that we can continue to live and improve each other’s lives.

I have always had and continue to have immense respect for BT. He began writing This Binary Universe when his daughter was born, and as she grew, continued working on the album with this tiny infant often in his lap as he worked. He wrote it from creation in 5.1 surround sound, rather than all other “surround sound mixes” being done in retrospect from the stereo stems. It is an astonishing work and See You On The Other Side may very well be one of the greatest pieces of music in history. When I first listened to TBU in 2006, I  had a myriad of emotional responses and I certainly didn’t have as much knowledge of BT’s creation process and background for the album at the time, but I can appreciate that shortly thereafter upon learning it, it probably does form biases in how I feel about the album. This will be important to the discussion later. Nevertheless, the album feels massively injected with specific intent and yes, surely every artistic work is regardless and we’ll get there. This is going to be personal but all writing is - that doesn’t warrant further discussion, we should always be making that assumption.

I follow BT on Instagram and saw him build his awesome new studio, an amazing space for all his gear and synths and something any music professional would love to have in some way... which I may check in a moment, or perhaps not so soon but I hope I don’t forget to come back to that. I will say that I do like it. It is a wonderful playground of vintage, rare and new synths, of super powerful computers with extremely new software and plugs, of high-end analogue desks and outboard units, extremely nice monitors and custom designed absorbers, panels, racks and furniture. It is an absolutely amazing space.

After the studio was finished, he did some collabs with some other artists and folks, some of which I also follow on Instagram whose setups are wildly different so it was nice to see some cross-over. He also interspersed with increasing regularity work on his albums which included clips of 100+ piece orchestras and often DAW session captures of the stems and him working on them. It was all pretty cool and the tiny snippets he posted were rad.

In October 2019, I was travelling to visit family due to cancer treatment, something that’s been at the centre of my life for well over 18 months, and I have my first full listen-thru of Between Here And You on an early morning when the rest of the house is asleep. It’s pretty great, sonically I like it a lot. I don’t have the same response to TBU but I don’t expect to, I should give it a chance, but it still doesn’t elicit a really significant response in me. At this point it has to be said that on the same trip, I have my first full listen-thru of Telefon Tel Aviv’s Dreams Are Not Enough, having slept on its initial September release, and that might be enough to give context to how I responded - it may have been where my head was at and remains to this day. I couldn’t shake it tho, as I still really have an affinity for TBU and I was wondering what was up.

Fast-forward to December and the release of Everything You’re Searching For Is On The Other Side Of Fear, and I do not respond to this album at all. It has some decent BT synth and sample work in it that exhibits his amazing talent, but it’s cut with orchestral and choral music that to me is indistinct from any other contemporary material available on a Pandora channel playing similar genres. I hate the sound of myself being so critical of someone I admire so much, because for someone who can write bangin’ trance and intricately complicated micro-rhythms and sample-chopped music, someone who writes their own freaken’ software and who edits audio down to the sample because their attention to detail is so specific and demanding - for that same person to be so talented to also be able to write scores and choral vocal arrangements is immense. I’m sure it all means so much to BT and I’m so proud of him for creating what to him must be an amazing work. I’m not trying to say anything negative about the work itself...

But I just don’t respond to it. Almost all the other music I’ve been listening to over the last 10 years including very recently, feels like it’s been created in response to extremely personal experiences that haven’t all been great - singular or accumulations of events that have precipitated significant introspection, and the art that has resulted from it for me reflects it clearly. BT’s two albums feel like... a very fortunate and privileged guy who’s had a lot of time and opportunity to play with his gear, record it and release it. The title also sounds presumptuous as if to position that systemic poverty and oppression and struggle outside of ones’ control can be solved by the oppressed simply stopping being afraid and I border on hating it every time I read it... - and that sounds so horribly mean because it is, I don’t intend for it to be mean. I need to check my expectations and I need to respect that Brian is still doing what he wants to do and he doesn’t owe me anything, least of all in something as abstract as how something sounds and whether or not I like it, because ultimately that’s all I’m talking about here, no matter how obscure I want to make the discussion. The intent of the title, especially - I’m certain - isn’t to diminish those who suffer, and I should be careful in my reading of it. So keeping myself in check, I’m here to explore the rest of my response, and I’m going to try and give further context.

Coldplay

I’ve no problem telling you I like Coldplay. I guess if you knew more about my musical background, it’d be less of a surprise, tho if you’ve been following along, it’ll make sense. If you’re reading this journal backwards, it may or may not, depending on how much I write about production in the future. To cut a long story short, like many bands I’m almost not at all into the band themselves and almost entirely into the production that surrounds them. Meow meow meow, all the art purists will bang-on about how music is about the performers but producers and engineers are artists in every way as much as performers are, and even bands or individuals who “just perform” with their instrument and no-one else on stage and no technicals (screens, lights, unseen backing musos etc.) still have a myriad of people surrounding them without which they can’t execute their working careers. Anyway, feel free to remain ignorant of those facts if you like and be all “pure performers”, no problem - magic can be real for you.

I lost track of Coldplay at after their 2015 album A Head Full Of Dreams. I’m less emotionally invested in the band and totally don’t mind that they’d up until that point releasing more or less the same sound for four consecutive albums. I really like the sound and if you pay close enough attention, it was actually evolving nicely, enough for me at any rate. I’d forgotten all about the band which is easy to do when you don’t really pay attention to pop-music and the activities therein, and then a couple of months ago (January maybe?) by whatever divination of the YouTube algorithm, a video titled Coldplay: Everyday Life Live in Jordan came up in my recommendations - a thing I was until then, unaware even existed. I’d no idea what the band was doing and I’m always keen to give them a shot, so I clicked-thru.

Moments ago I said I was happy with the band doing the same sound over and over again, and when I listen back to those albums, I’m still fine with them - let’s call it the Viva/Prospekt’s/Dreams anthology. Several things struck me about Everyday Life. Given my personal experiences of the last ten years, my struggles and the struggles of everyone around me, both personal and the cultures I observe and choose to observe, watching these four guys geared up in these ruins in Jordan looked stupendously privileged and a massive flex of wealth and influence. It looked like money buying good photography, framing and impossible location kudos and style. The sound in culture to my personal experiences also felt irrelevant.

And now I can finally talk about

The 1975 - Reaching Out, Reaching In

I now don’t remember whether it was at the ABIIOR concert in Melbourne, September 2019, or in one of the many interview snippets on YouTube or an article - I’m fairly sure it was his voice, so I either saw him say it in a video or he said it at the concert or both. Matt Healy said something along the lines of...

“... I know our last album was very inwardly focused... but A Brief Inquiry is very outwardly focused... it’s more about the world... and you... and us...”

That is not at all what he said verbatim but it was something very similar to that so I desperately hope a 1975 fan drops in and corrects me or can find a clip of him repeating it. Anyway there are a lot of really good things to extract from that, firstly from what it means about The 1975′s music and the culture that forms around it, and then about the discussion I’m having.

BT, Coldplay and The 1975 all live in my Ultimate folder on my hard-drive,  but while BT and Coldplay fall where they will alpha-numerically as far as directory structure is concerned, The 1975 have the auspicious honour of having leading zeros in their text so they appear first. This is so that I never have to scroll all the way down to T in any program or utility (like my car’s head unit) to find them. Worth noting that composer Yoko Kanno is 01 and Underworld are 02.

The album that preceded A Brief Inquiry... was released in 2016, titled I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It, an intentionally Emo title, I believe or at least hope, and it is definitely an inwardly focused album in the themes indicated by its lyrical content. It’s to date one of my favourite albums of all time, superbly performed and produced and overflowing with emotion - there’s some truly heartbreaking sound and words therein. I feel like this album is a perfect inclusion with the others in my Circa 2009 - 2019 piece that was somehow vaguely about how much of a struggle those 10 years have been. I guess it’d be difficult to get a notion of that if you’re not familiar with the music and material, but all of that music is introspective - it’s all about reaching in. As mentioned above, the art these artists are producing is the result of deeply intimate experiences, some they share directly with us outside of the abstract of art - relationships, family loss, drug addiction, mental health - but many that they don’t so clearly telegraph and leave us with the abstract; the art.

A Brief Inquiry.../ABIIOR certainly is about reaching out, even when the lyrics do seem to be personal, but to me as an individual, it feels to reach out in the right way - that is to say *I* feel it’s reaching out to a world *I* identify with, in a way that *I* agree with or find agreeable. The songs in ABIIOR are about misunderstanding, they’re about not giving up, making mistakes, desperation, honesty, the chaos of the destruction of modern society. One of my all-time favourite songs has sprung from this album and has become anthemic for me - Love It If We Made It and I’m going to embed it;

And now I feel I want to say that naming an album “Everything You’re Searching For Is On The Other Side Of Fear” and also performing a concert in ancient ruins on the top of a mountain during a picturesque sunrise in Jordan with expensive drone photography both feel to me like also reaching out but in ways that I don’t like and agree with, that feel irrelevant and/or culturally inappropriate but I use the term culturally to mean my personal culture; the culture I see myself fit into as an individual that interacts with others, the struggles we seem to share as a collective.

I feel as tho Coldplay once did reach out in the good way I’m trying and possibly failing to describe, or perhaps just trying to frame from a position I prefer. I felt they had a more grounded sense of community with everyday people which makes the irony of their most recent project more apparent. It may well be that I just don’t like what these artists are doing any more and that’s fine. Sometimes we might feel entitled to a sense of righteousness, to validate our distaste for something on a more grand cultural level, to co-opt others into our critique so more fingers can point and collectively say “See?! That thing you’re doing really *is* BAD! More people said so!” but I really am keeping myself in check and not wanting to do that. I think I’m writing this journal to explain myself to myself - yes, to log my justifications because I believe in them, but also ensure I don’t turn into an arsehole. 

Still - I stand by my criticisms because they’re important. I don’t know why in-particular these few examples struck in this way when others didn’t. I bought a bunch of Anjuna music that has nothing to do with culture and emotional response in the ways I’ve discussed them and I love them. Sometimes music is about bangin’ beats and euphoria and that’s OK. Still, the world isn’t entirely a joyous place for me at the moment and hasn’t been. There are positives to celebrate, but I have never been one to only log my celebrations. In particular from a mental health perspective, only documenting positives is incredibly hazardous and I condemn the practice. As much as these entries are laced with darkness and difficulties, each one also contains the things that assist me in surviving, keeping me nourished and navigating this often hellish experience of life. Ultimately of all my skills, seeking out art I identify with is the most valuable survival skill I have, it is the only one that matters. 

Love is a kind of art, there’s nothing abstract in that statement - the love between people is artful, in any and all forms it takes - hence the tags; Art Worth Dying For, and Art Worth Living For.

[ofnifflersandkings]

Title: Nothing Like an Old Friend

Character: Peter Quill

A/n: okay so like Thor actually isn’t in this part since this is really more for setting the stage. our good pal Peter Quill takes center for now but the series is for our thunder boy; it’ll make sense i pinky swear

•

Truthfully, you didn’t remember falling alseep the night before. And you certainly don’t remember doing so right at your work table, surrounded some of the most dangerous weapons in the universe.

Just above where your head laid sprawled out on your arm was a ZF1 blaster you had been commissioned to repair the nitrogen gas unit. One wrong bump and you would’ve been incinerated.

So really, you should have been thankful to whoever was insistently pressing on your door buzzer.

But you also were never a morning person.

You huffed, sending peices of your flying upwards as you did. “Honestly, if a sign says closed you’d think people know not to bother.”

Just as you were about to turn on your mic to give whoever was clattering about at your front door,

“Starlord speaking.”

Your head sprung up as you recognized that all-too-familiar voice boom into your workshop.

“Wakey, wakey (Y/n). I know you don’t have any other friends, so you must be in.”

You jumped up from your seat. Nearly flying over to the monitor as you saw Peter, obnoxiously waving at the camera with a smug smile on his face.

“What? Are you just gonna make me stand out here all day?”

In your excitement, you forgot to unlock the door. You pressed the button and bolted over to your shop’s entrance, just in time for it to slide open and reveal your dearest friend.

You barely got the chance to open your mouth and respond when you were plucked right into his arms, Peter’s hold on you tight as he chuckled.

You didn’t hesitate to return his embrace. “I thought I’d never see you again!” You mused, patting the back of his shoulder.

“You and me both.”

Something was wrong. His tone was off, you could tell even as he covered it with a big smile. Another big give away was how his hug seemed to linger longer than they usually did.

You pulled back to get a better look at him. “Everything alright?”

Peter heaved a long sigh, releasing you after one final squeeze. “Nothing you have to worry about,” He gave you a quick look over. “Can see your hair has gotten longer.”

You smiled, despite knowing he was deterring the conversation. You let him get away with it this time. “I can see you’re still a terrible liar.”

He chuckled, turning around so he could pull something out of his bag without you seeing. “Anyways, remember that mask I got off you for my one mission in Morag?”

“You broke it again, didn’t you?” You said, not even bothering to look up as you cleared off the space on your desk.

Peter scoffed, hiding the helmet behind his back. “You always gonna assume the worst from me?”

You met his gaze, laughing when you saw the way his arm was positioned. “Are you ever gonna prove me wrong?” You pushed over the machine you currently working on and held out your hand. “Give it here then.”

Peter revealed his busted helmet, ashamed when he saw the single blinking red eyepiece with and how bashed in the one side had become.

Even still, just as you were about to take it from him, Peter held it high above his head. “First, I’m gonna need one more hug.”

You beamed at him, not hesitating to pull him into your tight hold. It had been too long since he last brought everyone to come see you.

“You shouldn’t stay away so long next time,” You mused, plucking the hunk of metal from his fingers and bringing it over to one of your work benches. “I miss you all too much.”

Peter kicked over a chair so he could sit next to you while you worked, fiddling with the endless sea of mechanical devices you had all around. “You wouldn’t need to miss us if you thought about my offer,” He said, wiggling his brows when you glanced up at him. “You’re always welcome to join to team.”

You smiled as you popped open the helmet’s casing to assess the damage. “Nah, I’ve never been the rough, tough, save the universe kinda person,” You peered over again and faltered at his dejected expression. “But I’ll be sure to let you know if I ever change my mind.”

Peter shrugged. “I guess I can’t annoy you about it too much this time. Had someone new invite themselves on board not too long ago.” He tone was especially grumbly and you smirked. You would’ve replied, but as soon as you assess all the damages you were already cracking open the metal casing to work.

You were always especially silent whenever you were focused on your work, preferring to pay attention to any small details. Peter never minded though, you were fascinating to watch. He made it a personal game to mentally keep

track of how fast you were able to fix something, almost beating your record everytime.

But, in a sudden break of character, you glanced over at him. “So, who’s the new guy?”

Peter’s brows knit together and he leaned back in his seat. “Apart from being the biggest pain in my ass? Some hotshot back on Earth.”

You held back a chuckle. “You two have a lot in common then?”

Peter’s eyes widened as he gaped at you. “I am nothing like that shmuck. He’s just a tall, not that good looking guy from Earth who needed saved by me.”

“You don’t feel threatened by him at all then?”

“Not in the slightest.”

You hummed, twisting on the last screws in the helmet. “Mhm, so then why have you been making your voice deeper since you got here?”

You couldn’t stop the laugh that escaped you when he tripped over his words.

“No! — I have not!” Peter looked at you with defeat and flopped into his chair when you raised an eyebrow at him. “Shut up.”

You looked over your handwork one last time before pressing the botton that collapsed the helmet back into an earpiece. “Good as new.” You tossed it over to him.

Peter caught it with ease, giving it a look over before sliding it into his coat pocket. “You’re the best.”

You pushed yourself off your stool, giving your back a small stretch. “When do I get to meet him then?”

“Who?”

“The new one.”

His eyebrows shot up so fast you thought they were going to lift right up off his head. “Absolutely not, I don’t need to deal with that too.”

“I don’t even get to know his name?”

“Even that would be too much.”

“Pete, I’m gonna have to meet him at some point.”

He shook his head and plugged his ears. “La la, I can’t hear you.”

You let out a low whistle, leaning against your table. “Yeesh, this guy must really be something if he has you worked up this much,” You saw his face get all tense and you held up your hands in surrender. “Whatever helps you sleep at night, boss. I won’t seek him out.”

Peter leaned over the table and plopped a messy kiss on your hairline. “I always knew there was a reason you were my favorite.”

You slapped his arm and grinned. “What’s the deal then, is he like super pretty. Is that why you’re being moody?” You feigned a gasp. “Did Zamora leave you for him?”

He groaned, pushing himself off table and dramatically throwing himself towards the door. “You’re just as bad as Drax, I don’t know why I bother visiting.”

“You take that back right now.”

Peter grinned. “Never meant it in the first place.”

Despite your teasing, you were really happy he was there. It felt like lifetimes since everyone was here on your base. They were the only people you ever really enjoyed seeing. You enjoyed your life alright, but the company and joy the Guardians brought to you was irreplaceable.

You nudged him gently as you walked past him. “I’m only teasing. So, what’s the real reason you stopped by.”

Peter quirked an eyebrow. “Whatever could you mean?”

“You truly expect me to believe you flew 8 parsecs just to have me fix your helmet?”

“It’s a special helmet! Wouldn’t have just anyone fix my crap,” He defended, following you outside. “But you’re not wrong, had some business to take care of back on Earth.”

You stopped walking. “You went back?”

Peter sighed again, something that greatly concerned you. “Long and complicated story, but the jist of it is that our ship got pretty busted and we need your expertise to get back in gear.”

You frowned out at him, he usually didn’t keep much from you. But your best guess was that he had his reasons. “Say no more.”

“I can pay you-“

“Shut it,” You interrupted his sentence, not even letting him entertain the idea of it. “Just tell me what you need.”

Peter knew better than to argue with you. Besides, he had long since become an expert as putting credits into your fund without you realizing it until he too far away to smack over the head.

“So, this new guy,” You said, breaking the silence. “How’d you end up finding him?”

“That‘s also part of the long and complicated story.”

[carmenlire]

Paging Dr. Lightwood-Bane

read on ao3

Alec smiles at his patient before looking down to write something in her chart.

“If you keep getting better so fast, you’ll be out of here by the end of the week,” he says, looking back up to meet the parents’ eyes.

The mom leans over to the hospital bed, laying a hand over her daughter’s. “Did you hear that, honey? You’ll be home in time for your birthday.”

The little girl, Danielle, just grins up at Alec. “Thanks, Dr. Alec!”

Chuckling, Alec just shakes his head. “Don’t thank me. It’s all you.”

Hanging the chart back on the foot of the bed, Alec leaves after a few last minute remarks. Heading over to the nurse’s station, he checks in with Underhill.

“Anything I need to know before I go on lunch?”

Looking at his computer screen, Underhill leans back in his seat and sends him a droll look. “Not unless you want to stay and help me with Room 207.”

“Not a chance in hell,” Alec says pleasantly and he turns on his heel and walks away as his friend laughs behind him.

Room 207 had a dragon of a woman and any unsuspecting staff member who walked into her room was stuck for forty five minutes as she listed every symptom under the sun in between biting commentary on her current soap opera of choice.

Every knew about her and it made Alec particularly grateful that he was a pediatrics surgeon.

Walking back to his office, Alec takes a seat behind his desk and spends a few minutes updating his notes from this morning’s rounds. That done, he takes his phone out, unlocking it to see a text message.

Where are you? Your brother won’t shut up about the benefits of Vinyasa yoga and I’m going to strangle him if you don’t get to the cafeteria soon.

Laughing a little, Alec shakes his head as he replies.

Sorry, babe. I lost track of time. Be down in 5.

Pocketing his phone, Alec stands, raising his hands overhead to stretch a little. He runs a hand through his hair distractedly as he leaves his office and heads toward the elevator. He enters it with a dozen other people but thankfully none of them are in the mood to talk and he makes it down to the third floor without issue.

When he walks into the cafeteria, Alec immediately sees the little group in their customary corner. There’s Jace and Magnus-- one talking passionately and the other closing his eyes as though praying for patience-- along with Izzy and Maia. Simon and Clary round out the bunch and as Alec goes through the line, picking up a questionable quiche and bottle of orange juice, he wonders what joys are in store for him this particular afternoon.

There’s a seat beside Magnus open and Alec drops into it with little fanfare. Almost immediately, he feels a foot nudge his own and he smiles a little as he lets his thigh press against Magnus’s a little more.

“So,” Clary breaks in excitedly. “What’s everyone’s plans for the weekend? Does everyone have to work?”

Twisting his juice open, Alec absently says, “I’m going out of town.”

Everyone turns to look at him, silent. Alec warily looks up from where he’d been peeling the plastic wrap from his quiche. “What?”

“You, Alec Lightwood, are spending two whole days away from the hospital? Isn’t that, like, sacrilege to you?”

Alec scowls. “I’m not on rotation this weekend-- I’m not even on call-- and we decided to make the most out of it.”

“We,” Maia asks, brows inching towards her hair line. “Who’s we?”

From his periphery, Alec catches Magnus look down at his phone, opening Instagram and scrolling aimlessly. He can just see the hint of a smirk on his face.

“My husband and I,” he mutters and he rolls his eyes as its like a bomb’s been detonated in the middle of the table.

Simon screeches, “What,” and even Jace and Isabelle are looking at him with wide eyes.

“You’re married?”

Alec feels heat flood his cheeks, wincing as he realizes he hadn’t meant to do this in the damn cafeteria. “It was a spur of the moment decision last weekend. We’re planning a ceremony with family and friends later in the summer but we wanted to get away and celebrate a little, just the two of us.”

Clary’s smiles brightly. She stands up and comes around the table, wrapping her arms around Alec. “Congratulations! I can’t believe I didn’t know you were even in a relationship, though. Why didn’t you tell us?”

“It’s complicated.”

Rallying, Isabelle shakes her head a little before she blinks up at him. “I’m going to kill you for not telling me sooner but I’m so happy for you, hermano.” She winks. “I knew you were planning to propose but I didn’t think you had it in you to just go for it.”

Alec just shrugs. “I love him and we’ve been together since medical school. I honestly don’t know why we waited so long in the first place. It seemed silly to wait even longer.”

“If I didn’t know better, Alexander, I’d wonder if alcohol was involved.” Magnus’s voice sounds next to him and while he’s internally exasperated, Alec just glares over at him.

“There may have been several mimosas involved,” he admits evenly.

Jace snorts, pointing a finger in his direction. “You always were a lightweight. I’m surprised your boyfriend-- sorry, husband-- just went along with it.”

At that, Magnus looks up with a thoughtful expression. “I would imagine there were a lot of mimosas involved. Most men aren’t infallible to the lures of champagne.”

Grimacing a little, Alec offers, “They were bottomless.”

Simon’s still looking at him like he’s sprouted horns and Alec doesn’t say anything as he meets his gaze head on. His little staring match is interrupted, though, as he sees Jace’s face shift from the corner of his eye.

Unfortunately, Alec knows that look and he closes his eyes in defeat of whatever’s about to come out of his brother’s mouth.

“What’s everyone else’s plans for the weekend? I’m working a double tomorrow but I’m planning on going out after my shift ends tomorrow night.” He turns innocent eyes to Magnus. “What about you, Magnus? You haven’t said anything in awhile.”

Unmoved, Magnus just replies, “I’m going to a winery this weekend. There’s a charming bed and breakfast on the premises and I’m eager to escape the city’s heat for a few days.”

Maia looks up at that. “A winery? Where? I’m always looking for new places to try.”

The topic of conversation moves on as the group starts talking about their favorite wines. Alec kicks Jace under the table and he doesn’t even flinch.

Izzy’s beeper goes off an instant before Jace’s and then they’re both standing and all but running out of the cafeteria. They’re both ER doctors and Alec watches them go as they respond to an emergency.

Everyone else gets up and leaves a few minutes later, their lunch hour coming to an end. Everyone but Magnus, that is.

It’s just the two of them at the large table and Alec turns to look at his husband with an arched brow. “That’s not exactly how I planned on telling everyone.”

Laughing a little, Magnus raises an arm so that he can run his fingers through the hair at Alec’s nape. “You don’t say, darling. I don’t envy the conversation you’re going to be having with Isabelle later.”

Snorting, Alec retorts, “You don’t think she’s going to sit both of us down and demand an answer?”

“She’s your sister.”

“She’s your sister-in-law,” Alec shoots back.

Magnus smiles at that, expression softening. “Yeah, she is, isn’t she?”

“Yes, Mr. Lightwood-Bane, she is.”

“I think we should serve bottomless mimosas at our reception next month,” Magnus says, changing the topic. He grins as he adds, “They are my new favorite drink, after all.”

Rolling his eyes, Alec looks around the cafeteria before leaning close and kissing Magnus’s cheek. “Mine too,” he says lowly and then he’s refocusing on his sad lunch as his husband rests a hand on the back of his chair.

--

It’s late in the afternoon when Simon knocks on his door. Looking up, Alec’s scowl shifts to confused delight as he takes in the large arrangement of flowers in the receptionist’s hands.

“What’s this?”

Speaking through the flowers, Simon replies, “These just came in from you.”

Entering his office, Simon unceremoniously sets the flowers on his desk. “They’re from your husband.”

“How do you know that,” Alec asks with a raised brow.

“Well first of all, who else would be sending you flowers? Unless you have a side piece-- in which case, my opinion of you has plummeted-- they’d have to be from your husband. That and I read the card,” Simon admits grudgingly whenever Alec doesn’t say anything, just levels him with a look.

Straightening in his chair, Alec reaches for the ivory card between two stems.

Alexander,

Thank you for a lovely weekend. As pre-honeymoons go, it was wonderful. I can’t wait for our next trip together-- though hopefully we spend more time exploring outside of our room.

Well, on second thought. . . you do look so beautiful flushed and drunk on wine, sweetheart.

Enjoy your morning, darling. I’ll see you later today.

Your loving husband

Smiling as he reads the short message, Alec looks up as Simon stands there, just watching him.

“Yes?”

“Nothing,” Simon says. “I’ve just never seen you so happy. I didn’t think your face could make that expression.”

“A smile?”

“Yeah,” Simon replies bluntly. “That message was super sappy and you’re not only tolerating it but you’re, like, thriving. It’s a little much for me to wrap my head around.”

Alec scowls. “Stop trying to wrap your head around anything and get back to work, Lewis.”

With a half-assed salute, Simon just grins. “I know your secrets now, Alec. I know the snark hides a big ole teddy bear heart. You can’t scare me anymore.”

Alec narrows his eyes and it only takes three seconds for Simon to wither under his gaze, turning and escaping his office with a thrown out, “Nevermind, sorry!”

Waiting until Simon closes the door behind him, Alec huffs out a laugh as he stands and brings the vase closer to him. He leans down and sniffs the colorful arrangements before reaching for his phone and snapping a pic.

He sends the picture to Magnus with, Thanks, babe. They’re almost as beautiful as you.

The morning is spent working on a paper he’s writing for the American Medical Journal and he grabs lunch at his desk in between filling out medical reports. It’s late afternoon when someone pokes their head into his office, though Alec doesn’t notice them until they wrap arms around his shoulders.

Startling a little, he almost immediately relaxes as he catches a hint of sandalwood shampoo. He tilts his head up until he can nose along Magnus’s throat. “Hey, you,” he murmurs against smooth skin.

“Hey, yourself. How’s work been?”

“Damned hard. Someone wore me out this weekend,” Alec teases and Magnus’s arms tighten a little as he laughs before pulling away. Alec turns his chair, widening the space between his legs and pulling his husband between them with fingers looped through his belt holes.

Magnus moves closer, narrowing his eyes. “Oh? I’m sure you’re mistaken, darling. If I remember correctly, I was the one who wanted to go on that wine tasting but no, you just had to slip into those lace panties and lounge on the bed, looking all rumpled and debauched--

“I was relaxing while you did your hair!”

“--And it takes a stronger man than me to resist you in black lace, Alexander. That and you were practically begging me to take you out of them, what with all your ‘oh, Magnus, these feel so good’ and ‘babe, are these too see-through.’ It’s a wonder I let you out of the hotel room at all, honestly.”

“Let me,” Alec asks, reaching for the top button of Magnus’s button-down.

Humming a little, Magnus studies him as Alec rapidly undoes his shirt before pulling him closer to nose along his sternum.

“You’re right,” Magnus breathes, carding his hands through Alec’s hair. “People think I’m the one who ruined you with my hedonistic little clutches but they don’t know you’re temptation incarnate. Why, what would they say if they knew about the time you bent me over that bench at the New York Philharmonic charity gala or that you have an unforgivably sexy habit of wearing silk under your classic suits.” Magnus gasps as Alec’s hands go to his belt, as he undoes his pants, pulling them down with his underwear in one efficient move. “Maybe then they’d know that I never stood a chance, darling. It’s a hard job but someone’s got to do it, I tell myself, having such an insatiable husband.”

“Poor you,” Alec murmurs, nibbling across the jut of a hip bone. “But you love it.”

“I love you,” Magnus replies softly, scratching at his scalp.

Grinning, Alec echoes the words against Magnus’s stomach, nosing down to where his arousal is evident.

Alec’s hands rest against the bare skin of Magnus’s hips, nails pressing little crescents into his skin just enough to leave marks. He’s just about to close his mouth over Magnus when his door fly opens.

He twists, pulling Magnus so that he’s hidden in front of Alec with Alec’s back to the door. Looking over his shoulder, he’s set to offer a sharp rebuttal but it dies when he sees who it is. He doesn’t see who’s behind her.

“Get the hell out, Iz. Jesus.”

Raising a brow, Isabelle takes in the scene before turning on her heel. Over her shoulder, she says, “You two have sixty seconds to make yourselves decent and then I’m coming back in.” She can’t leave, though, because Clary’s right there, staring at the two of them with her mouth open.

“Oh my God,” she says, voice faint. “I just saw Magnus’s dick.”

Alec’s eyes widen as he finally registers Clary and Magnus snorts above him.

“Biscuit, as much as I enjoy the occasional bout of exhibitionism, I like to keep it outside of working hours.” He arches a brow. “Care to give us a minute?”

Sighing, aggrieved, Isabelle spins Clary around and with hands still on her shoulders, she pushes her into the hallway

Alec and Magnus look at each other in the sudden silence of his office before they break into breathless chuckles.

“It was bound to come out sooner or later,” Magnus says with a little shrug.

Wincing, Alec nods. “Still. I didn’t want anyone to find out because they saw me about to go down on you. Talk about scarred for life.”

“For her or for you,” Magnus asks with a grin and Alec groans, letting his head fall to Magnus’s shoulder.

A minute later, there’s a tentative knock on the door before it eases slowly open. Isabelle peaks her head in to make sure they’re clothes before pushing it the rest of the way open.

“Now that everything’s covered up maybe we can actually get some work done, you know, at work.” Her tone is equal parts brisk and gleeful.

Both Magnus and Alec roll their eyes but they move over to the small seating area in front of Alec’s desk. Alec settles onto the couch, Magnus next to him, while Izzy and Clary take the two chairs.

The silence stretches out and Alec watches as Clary looks between him and Magnus. Sighing, Alec wraps an arm around Magnus’s shoulder and some tension leaves him as Magnus relaxes against his side with a hand on his thigh.

“Yes, Fray, Magnus and I are together.”

That seems to snap her out of her daze and she points an accusatory finger in their direction. “You’re married!”

This time it’s Magnus who answers with a patient smile. “Yes, Biscuit. Alec and I are married.”

“How didn’t I know?”

Alec and Magnus share a look before they before give a negligent shrug. “We never really advertise it,” Alec offers. “When we were both hired, we didn’t want anything to jeopardize our positions and it just became habit once we’d been here a few years and worked our way up to heads of our departments.”

“Alexander is a private person,” Magnus demurs. “We agreed early on to keep our work and home life separate.”

Alec hears Isabelle mutter under her breath, “Considering you were half naked in my brother’s office five minutes ago. . .” and he sends her a withering look that she returns with a supercilious expression.

Impatient, Isabelle waves the conversation away. “Enough about my brother’s painful lack of restraint when it comes to Magnus. That’s old news. I need your expertise on a patient-- and I’ll take yours too, Magnus, since you’re here.”

Everyone gets serious at that and Alec finds that he doesn’t mind the occasional looks from Clary as she’s obviously trying to wrap her head around his relationship, not when he gets to hold Magnus’s hand at work.

--

Walking down the corridor, he rounds the corner and almost runs into Magnus. Alec feels the warmth as he’s treated to a thorough once over before Magnus slowly grinning.

“Why, Dr. Lightwood, that’s an interesting shirt you’re wearing today.”

Alec just gives him a deadpan look. “Oh, do you like it? It’s my husband’s.”

The elevator dings, signalling its opening onto their floor but neither Alec or Magnus pay it any attention. Instead, they’re too caught up in each other.

Magnus reaches a hand out, sweeping it over the sleeve of the diamond-patterned button-down until he can run a thumb under the cuff, caressing Alec’s wrist. “If I may be so bold, your husband has exceptional taste.”

“He certainly thinks so,” Alec agrees with a soft grin and he watches as Magnus’s eyes narrow.

“Trust me, darling, he’s an expert.”

Laughing a little, Alec leans closer to Magnus. His breath catches as Magnus mirrors him.

“Careful, Dr. Bane. My husband’s the jealous sort.”

“Oh? I find that hard to believe.”

With a droll look, Alec simply says, “We once went to a club and when a guy bought me a drink, he left the dance floor, squeezed his way between the two of us and wrapped his arms around my neck, making out with me until the guy-- who was a friend from college-- left, scandalized.”

Expression turning sheepish, Magnus weakly offers, “He was quite drunk, you know. He thought he was preserving your honor.”

Shaking his head, Alec laughs as he reaches up and smooths an out of place hair. “Like I said, he gets a little possessive.”

“Well, look at you, darling.” Magnus winks. “He’s well aware you could have anyone you wanted. Do you remember that dentist from Milwaukee at the vineyard? He didn’t care that I was right there whenever he offered you a free root canal whenever you wanted, if you would just stop by Wisconsin, of all places, for a drink sometime.”

Magnus and Alec stare at each other before breaking into laughter. Alec laughs so hard, he wipes a tear from his eye. “God,” he says. “That guy was such a piece of work.”

“You should take him up on it,” comes a voice to his left. “Root canals are expensive as hell.”

Alec and Magnus’s head whips over to see Maia taking a nonchalant sip of her coffee.

“What,” she asks. “I’m right.”

“Maia, dear, how long have you been standing there?”

Humming a little, Maia thoughtfully says, “Long enough to know you’re Alec’s husband.”

She turns to Alec. Her expression is serious but he sees the humor in her eyes. “You two aren’t subtle. At all. Everyone in the oncology department knows you two have been together for years.”

Alec’s eyebrows are in his hair as he asks, incredulous, “Why didn’t you say anything?”

Maia just shrugs. “It was none of my business. Plus, have you seen Simon? He’s too much fun to keep out of the loop.”

She looks between them, saying-- barely-- under her breath, “Dr. Dumbass reporting for duty,” before taking another sip of her latte and leaving the two of them standing in the middle of the hallway, stunned.

“Well,” Magnus says, clearing his throat. “She’s not wrong.”

Alec doesn’t say anything, just glances over at his husband with an expectant look.

Moving closer, Magnus wraps his arms around Alec’s middle. He kisses Alec’s jaw, murmuring, “We aren’t the best at keeping to ourselves.” He pulls back to grin at Alec. “That and Sherman really is too fun to tease.”

--

Filing out of the conference room where they’d just wrapped up the monthly executive meeting with all the heads of the various departments, Alec looks over at Magnus as he hears. “Paging Dr. Lightwood-Bane. Please report to the Nurse’s Station on the first floor.”

Magnus sends him a dry look. “We didn’t really think that one through, did we?”

“That might get confusing fast,” Alec acknowledges. He smiles over at his husband. “Maybe we can keep our married name for outside of work?”

“That does seem to be the easiest solution,” Magnus agrees.

With a shrug, they make their way towards the receptionist on the first floor. It hadn’t sounded urgent-- Alec and Magnus are both well aware of what an emergency paging sounds like-- so they take their time, chatting idly.

“Have you mailed out the invitations for the ceremony yet?”

“Yeah. We definitely have a few people to tell before they get it them, though.”

The two of them look at each other. “Simon,” they say grimly.

Alec sighs. “You know he’s going to make a big deal out of things.”

“I would think he would’ve picked up on us by now. While there haven’t been any more discoveries à la Biscuit, we’ve all but stopped hiding our relationship.”

And that was the truth, Alec reflects with a small smile. Once they’d realized that everyone already knew about them, they’d decided to just act like they always did. There were incidental touches they leaned into and teasing that was barely masqueraded flirting. Life continued on and yet Simon remained utterly oblivious.

Alec remembers an incident last week, though, when he’d incredulously listened as Simon had expounded on all the ways he and Magnus were #brotpgoals.

Apparently only true friends were comfortable enough in their masculinity to nap together.

On the same couch.

Cuddled against each other.

With Magnus’s hand resting on his ass and Alec’s burrowed under Magnus’s shirt to lay against warm skin.

Shaking his head a little as he remembers Simon’s little lecture on toxic masculinity and how important it was for men to accept softness into their lives, Alec can’t imagine the conversation that needs to happen within the next few days.

Getting out of the elevator, Alec follows Magnus to the receptionist desk. Magnus comes to a sudden stop, though, and Alec’s too busy staring at his husband’s ass to notice. He runs into Magnus, wrapping a hand around his waist on autopilot to steady them both but he looks up when he hears a muttered, “Oh, hell.”

Wondering what could cause such a reaction, Alec looks up just to close his eyes in defeat. “Aw, fuck,” he sighs.

Because there, standing at the receptionist’s desk, is Simon.

There’s a bit of a stand-off before Simon breathes out a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank God.”

“Sherman?”

Simon brings a hand up to rest against his heart. “I was so worried about you, Alec.”

“What the hell are you talking about, Simon,” Alec asks, scowling in confusion.

“I thought you were cheating on your husband!”

Alec doesn’t say anything and neither does Magnus. They both just look at Simon who looks like he’s about to pass out from a combination of relief, happiness, and glee.

“The paperwork just came through this morning about your name changes,” Simon explains. “It explains so much.”

“Like,” Magnus asks, wary.

“Like how you’re always kissing when you think no one’s around. Guys. Everyone knows to stay away from the seventh floor utility closet Thursday afternoons. And don’t even get me started on the napping.”

Alec jerks his head up. “I thought you said that was ‘just bros being bros.'”

Simon doesn’t get a chance to say anything before Magnus is laughing, cupping Alec’s cheek to look at him with a pitiable expression. “Oh, darling, that’s from a vine. It means we were being a little gay.”

“A little,” Simon all but shrieks. “Your hand was on his ass, Magnus!”

Frowning, Alec clarifies, “So, when you said we were obviously good friends, you were--”

“Making fun of you, yes” Simon says exasperated. “I thought you were cheating on your husband with Magnus. I’m so glad that he is your husband.”

Magnus and Alec look at each other. Alec’s raises his brows. Magnus hides a laugh behind his hand.

They turn back to Simon who’s staring at them like he’s about to whip out his phone to commemorate the occasion.

Not one to be outdone, Magnus studies Simon with a sharp smile before asking, “So, now that you know-- or we know you know-- have you thought about who your plus one is going to be to our ceremony next month? Jace, perhaps?”

Simon squawks in indignation and Alec and Magnus make their escape while his brain reboots.

Back in Magnus’s office a few minutes later, they collapse on the couch.

“Well, I guess everyone knows.”

“They do, indeed,” Magnus replies. “How do you feel about that?”

“Happy,” Alec says after a few minutes. He turns his head, looking over to meet Magnus’s eyes. “I want everyone to know how much I love you.”

Laughing softly, Magnus kisses his shoulder before looking up with an amused expression. “Apparently, everyone’s known for ages that I’m completely head over heels for you, darling.”

Settling into the couch, Alec shrugs. “Well, now they’ll just know a little more.”

It takes months for Simon to stop referencing that stupid vine every time he and Magnus do something the least bit affectionate.

Alec pretends to be much more annoyed than he is and every time, Magnus just looks over at him and grins.

Alec smiles back, comfortable and so full of love he can barely contain it.

[pug-bitch]

That’s not why I’m going (27)

Let’s enjoy ourselves, dammit

Book: The Royal Romance

Pairing: Drake Walker x Amara Suarez

Rating: some foul language, some extremely suggestive. This is absolutely NOT appropriate for people under 18.

Word count: about 3,700 (let me know if the ‘keep reading’ cutoff isn’t working well!)

Notes: This picks up where we left off, as Hana, Maxwell, and Olivia arrive at the cabin, starting with Amara’s POV.

*****

Amara, Hana, and Maxwell jump up in the air, shrieking, for a good thirty seconds, until they realize that Liv is behind them, looking annoyed as hell. Without thinking, Amara wraps Olivia in a tight hug.

‘Liv! It’s so good to see you, girl!’

‘Ugh,’ Liv says, disgusted, ‘keep your hands off of me, Suarez, before some paparazzi thinks we’re having an affair.’

Amara lets her go, and looks her in the eye. ‘Are you ok? Like, for real?’

‘Yeah,’ Liv responds, rolling her eyes. ‘I was told this would be relaxing. Clearly it doesn’t mean for me.’

Drake pops his head through the door. ‘Of course you can relax, Nevrakis. Come on in guys. Amara made drinks, and there’s a shitton of food.’

Maxwell comes in first, and wraps Drake in a bear hug. Amara feels like her heart might explode. ‘Thanks for having us, Drake. We missed you guys.’

Hana hugs Drake too, and chimes in, ‘It’s true! What would we do without Dramara?’

Liv rolls her eyes and sighs. ‘Walker, where’s the drink you were talking about?’

*****

Liam glances at his phone, finally a text from Drake.

Hey, sorry I missed your calls, I’m tied up at the cabin and reception is terrible, catch up tomorrow? Hope all is good.

Dismissive, but it’s something. Liam sighs. Only five minutes until his next meeting. In the end, he’s glad Bastien talked him out of going to the cabin unannounced. Bastien was right, he wouldn’t have had enough time to make it back to his meetings, and he had one with the Ambassador of Greece.

He feels silly all of a sudden, being so needy towards his friend, after they had such a complicated few weeks. Sure, he’d been there for Drake after Jackson died, but who wouldn’t have? Plus, Drake had been there for him countless times before, and after that. So, really, he doesn’t know why he’s counting points right now. He types back.

No worries. I’ll see you in Portavira tomorrow.

Typing bubbles.

Why don’t you come by the cabin for lunch? I’m having the Beaumonts over, Hana, Liv, and Amara.

Liam catches himself sighing in relief. He wasn’t being completely iced out. Maybe Drake was really busy, maybe there was some maintenance problem at the cabin, maybe it was all in Liam’s head. He replies as fast as he can, before Drake changes his mind.

I would love to. Is noon ok? We have to be at Penelope’s estate at 3.

The bubbles come back.

Perfect. See you then. Don’t bring anything.

Heh, Drake knows him well. He was already thinking about which vintage bottle of wine to bring. Liv will be there, which he’s thrilled about. He’ll get to see how she’s doing, without having to do it one-on-one again. Less awkward.

A knock on the door. One of his butlers, George, peeks his head in.

‘Your Highness, Miss Ioanna Papadakis, Assistant to the Ambassador of Greece.’

Surprised, Liam promptly answers, ‘Let her in, thank you George.’

*****

Drake puts his phone away and joins the crowd outside on the patio. Everyone is already moderately tipsy, thanks to the strong margaritas prepared by Amara.

‘Guys,’ Drake announces, ‘Liam said yes to lunch here tomorrow.’

Maxwell nods, ‘Good, I’m glad you two touched base. He was distressed today.’

‘Thanks for telling me,’ Drake says, grabbing his glass again. ‘I can’t believe that Bertrand covered for us. I’m in shock.’

Hana swallows her sip of margarita. ‘It was glorious, Drake, you should have seen it. He lied for you, just like that! And thank goodness, because Max and I were at a loss for words, and Liam looked very suspicious.’

‘It doesn’t matter if you manage to cover it up or not,’ Liv says, breaking her silence. ‘when it comes out, and it will come out, Liam will be furious.’

Drake doesn’t know what to say to this. She’s probably right, but he doesn’t need this right now, and neither does Amara. He looks at her, she’s nodding and frowning, staring intently at her glass. Finally, she speaks.

‘You’re probably right, Liv, but what do you suggest, then? That we stop living our lives? That we break up? That we just jump out the window?’

Drake didn’t expect Amara to react so viscerally. Upon hearing her say ‘break up’, his heart shattered. No, he certainly doesn’t want that. He glances at Liv, who went even paler than usual.

‘I’m sorry, Suarez,’ Liv finally says. ‘I didn’t mean to upset you. I know, things are shit, but it doesn’t mean that we stop ourselves from living our lives in the meantime. Let’s enjoy ourselves, dammit.’ She raises her glass and says ‘It obviously pains me to say this, but cheers to all of you guys, who are...pretty decent people. I guess.’

Amara finally breaks into a smile and clinks her glass to Liv’s. ‘Very heartfelt, Nevrakis. I’m almost tearing up.’

‘Shut up,’ Olivia replies. ‘Before we all get super drunk and Beaumont inevitably forces us to play Never Have I Ever or some shit--’

‘Ohh, good idea,’ Maxwell whispers.

Liv glares at him. ‘I was saying, before we get shitfaced, there’s something I want to say. I’m ok. Don’t worry about me. I’m dealing with all of this, and I don’t need to talk about it.’

Amara smiles and nods, until she finally talks. ‘You know we’re here for you, if you need, though. But before we change the topic, can I ask you an inappropriate question?’

Liv sighs. ‘Yes.’

‘How is Ilya coping? I mean, his dick was under everyone’s plate.’

Drake almost chokes on his margarita. Olivia chuckles, and responds, ‘You know what’s funny? I hadn’t even wondered about that until Rashad asked me. To me, Ilya was never anything more than, well, his dick. Never occurred to me that there might be a man attached to the genitals.’

Amara raises her glass and her eyebrow. ‘I’ll drink to that.’

*****

‘Wait, so you mean there’s someone out there blackmailing everyone?’

He doesn’t know how they got here, drinking whiskey in the middle of the afternoon and talking about his life. He simply had offered her a drink, and next thing he knew, he was pouring more than whiskey. There was no stopping the flow of words, and Ioanna was not even attempting to make it stop.

‘Well, I wouldn’t really say blackmailing,’ Liam responds, ‘because so far, no one has asked for anything in return. Just revealing private things about two of the contestants, and hopefully it stops right here.’

Ioanna whistles, and says, ‘Forgive me, Your Highness--’

‘Liam. Please call me Liam. Our official meeting is over.’

She nods. ‘Sure. Liam. I don’t mean to be indiscreet, but do you know who that might come from? Maybe one of the contestants who is trying to keep your favors?’

‘Could be. Honestly for right now there’s not much I can do, I put my bodyguard and the security team on the case, they’re looking for clues.’

‘Wow,’ Ioanna says, shaking her head.

It felt good to talk to someone, even a complete stranger. He had met Ioanna before, he recognizes her, but they’d never talked. He’d always talked to the Ambassador, but today he had the stomach flu, so Ioanna filled in.

‘Thank you for listening,’ he says, smiling brightly. ‘I didn’t mean to bore you with my life story.’

She dismisses him with a hand gesture. ‘Please. Your life story is everything but boring.’

He chuckles. ‘Thanks. I don’t know if it makes me feel better. Oh, and thank you for filling in today. I’m not saying I don’t enjoy the Ambassador’s company, but it was lovely to get to spend some time with you.’

She laughs lightheartedly. ‘I’ll be sure not to tell him that, and just so you know, I enjoyed our meeting too. Thanks for having me.’

They say their goodbyes, and Liam lets his next meeting in.

‘Bertrand! Hello again.’

Bertrand looks stressed. He is dressed way too formally, even though Liam told him this morning that it was going to be more of a friendly chat regarding Barthélémy Beaumont’s legacy. Bertrand is wearing a black tuxedo, and underneath, instead of his usual sweater vest, he has a bright blue cumberbund, embroidered with satin in the shape of little squids. Liam wonders for a second whether he lost his top hat and his monocle.

‘Hello, Your Highness,’ Bertrand responds formally, curtsying. ‘Thank you for having me.’

‘Thanks for coming, come have a seat, and maybe let’s have a little drink, huh? We’re just gonna have a friendly chat, so you can relax.’

Bertrand nods and sits down, visibly a tad relieved. ‘Yes, well,’ he says, still nervous, ‘I would like to seek your council on the best way to announce that my father loved a man, without harming his memory. My brother and I talked about it, we researched Father’s long-time partner, and as it turns out, he passed away last year. Maybe we could do something in their name, like a donation to an LGBTQ foundation?’

Liam smiles broadly. ‘Wow, Bertrand, that is extremely thoughtful. I don’t think any of this would ever harm your father’s memory. Maybe you and Max could draft a statement, I can take a look at it when it’s convenient, and we can put all that in place together. We’ll call an official announcement.’

Bertrand’s smile relaxes slightly. ‘That would be great. After you left this morning, Maxxie and I drafted something already. Here’s a paper copy, and I will send it to you via email as well.’

‘Wow, you guys are efficient,’ Liam says as he pours the scotch.

‘Ha! Well, we want it done as soon as possible. I’m itching to fire that… that weasel Albert, who’s been blackmailing all of us for years. I want to do that once we have made the announcement, though. We don’t want Albert twisting the truth or taking over the announcement.’

Liam nods, ‘Of course. Let’s get this show on the road, then.’

*****

‘Never have I ever slept with a woman!’ Liv slurs, pleased with herself.

‘No fair!’ Maxwell squeals. ‘I never win either way in this type of thing.’

Hana reluctantly has another sip, although she definitely is tipsier than ever and does not need any more alcohol. After he finishes drinking, Drake says, ‘Don’t take the bait, Max, it was a ploy to make us all drink except Amara. These two are going for a face-off.’

Amara laughs, and takes her turn. ‘Never have I ever… owned a squid suit!’

‘Amara!’ Maxwell yelps. ‘You betrayed me, you little bastard.’ He drinks another big gulp, and pursues, ‘I never thought my beautiful squid suit would be the death of me.’

‘Alright Max, your turn,’ Amara says, laughing.

‘Hmmm,’ Max hums, in an exaggerated thinking pose. ‘Never have I ever had sex on these very lawn chairs.’

‘Come on, Max,’ Hana giggles, ‘that’s too specific, and who would do that outsi--Oh…’

She interrupts herself as she notices both Drake and Amara taking a huge gulp from their drinks, all the while trying to contain their laughter.

‘Sorry hun,’ Amara says, after finishing her sip. ‘I promise we cleaned them, though.’

Hana laughs, blushing, ‘Oh, good to know. I mean, get it girl, or, like Bertrand would say, Yass Kween.’

Liv lets out a throaty laugh. ‘What? Bertrand said what?’

Max snorts, ‘Yeah, I made him watch Queer Eye and now there’s no stopping him! He’s going full Jonathan Van Ness on us!’

‘Wow,’ Liv continues, ‘he’s gotten woke ever since he found out that your dad liked dick.’

‘Olivia!’ Amara cries out.

Max smiles sadly. ‘It’s ok, Amara, we might as well laugh about it, right? I knew when I told Liv, that there would be no stopping the jokes, so here we are.’ He takes another sip. ‘Bertrand is coping well, actually. I’m proud of him.’

Liv nods, visibly flushed. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound this crass. I know it must have been weird to deal with. And for what it’s worth, I didn’t tell anyone, and I won’t. I’m only talking about it because everyone here knows.’

Max shrugs. ‘I know, Olivia, it’s fine. I appreciate that you feel comfortable enough to laugh about it, I prefer it this way. As for Bertrand, he’s always been a bit stuck up, but he’s only been this bad since Dad died and he was left in charge. Before, he had a very sweet side, which I’m starting to see again, little by little. It’s nice to have my brother back.’

Amara’s eyes flutter down, just like every time someone says something like that. She feels Drake’s hand on her knee, discreetly comforting her.

It’s all different now. Someone is there for her.

Several someones. She looks around and feels her heart filling with love, and curses herself right away for being too sappy. Her new, close friends around some drinks, teasing each other and dropping truth bombs. That’s exactly what she needed.

Maybe that’s why she came, after all. That, and the handsome, brooding man from the bar. And to think it was the end of her shift, too. She’d have to thank Daniel for bailing on her that night. Bless his Grindr hookup, really.

Feeling a tear escape from her eye, she takes a deep breath and gets up. ‘Let me refresh your drinks, guys. I’m the bartender after all!’

She disappears into the kitchen with the tray of glasses, and preps some more margaritas. She’ll make them frozen this time. They need a serious buzz.

‘Hey, you ok?’

She turns around and sees Drake approaching her, and soon enough, his arms are around her waist. ‘I’m fine.’

‘You don’t look fine,’ he says before kissing her neck.

‘Gee, thanks!’

‘Heh, I meant you look wistful. Was it Max’s brother comment?’

She shakes her head. ‘Oddly, no. I mean, it triggered me a little. Fuck, I would give just about anything for Sergio to be here with all of us.’ Her voice breaks. ‘I miss him even more when something good happens to me, you know. But I don’t want to be the weirdo with the dead brother, I don’t want Max to have to tiptoe around his relationship with Bertrand when I’m here.’

He kisses her neck again. Damn, that’s efficient. ‘You’re not a weirdo. You’re an awesome badass bitch, and you’re hot as hell.’

She giggles. ‘And you’re a hot, drunk mess.’

‘I’m fine, just giggly because of the tequila. I’ll probably have to be supervised while grilling. You changed the subject though. What made you tear up?’ She stays silent and he continues, ‘I saw it, Amara. I know you more than you think.’

She sighs. He really does. ‘I feel stupid saying it. I’m just happy to have met all of you, and, well, remember when I made you watch Jane the Virgin?’

He rolls his eyes in an exaggerated manner to signify that he hated it, but she knows that he secretly loved it. ‘Yes Ma’am.’

‘You know when her heart glows when it’s full? Well, I felt the same out there, just now. I’m happy to be here with you, and I don’t want it to stop.’

He sniffs her hair, probably wanting to be sneaky, but she hears the sniffing loud and clear. He says, ‘I get it. I feel the same. I’m happy we’re all here, and I hate to say it, but it feels like a last hurrah. Like something bad’s gonna happen.’

‘Exactly. I don’t know if it’s gonna be in Portavira tomorrow, or this weekend at the Decision ball, but I’m not feeling good about the near future.’

He flips her around, and takes both of her hands in his. ‘Do you feel good about the future-future?’

She chuckles, ‘What?’

He shrugs, and brushes his thumb across her hand. ‘I don’t know. Maybe this week is just a bad storm that we have to get through. Maybe we could see it like that. Maybe if we hold on really really tight, during that shitstorm, maybe then, we’ll be ok?’

She throws her arms around his neck and places a long kiss on his lips. ‘I love that. Let’s hold on really tight.’

*****

Liv gets up to go to the bathroom, and realizes to her surprise that her legs can barely carry her. She didn’t have all that much to drink, did she? Well, Suarez’s cocktails are deceptive. They taste good, but they’re all kinds of strong.

Not like last night’s vodka. It tasted like pure alcohol, and it got her just as drunk as she thought it would. The only surprise in all of that, was Rashad.

Why is she even thinking about Rashad right now? She doesn’t have time for this bullshit. She has to watch her back. What if he’s in on it? What if he’s one of the people who exposed her?

Meh, she thinks. She would be really, really surprised. Not because he couldn’t, but because he really wouldn’t have a proper motive. He doesn’t give two shits about court, as long as he can conduct business.

‘Ew, gross,’ she says as she stumbles upon Suarez and Walker making out in the kitchen. ‘The cook and the bartender sucking face, that’s hygienic.’

Suarez laughs, ‘Well you’re a delight.’

Liv shrugs. ‘Do you think I hurt Beaumont’s feelings?’

Walker chimes in, ‘I don’t think so. You didn’t mean anything offensive by it, and it’s Max, not Bertrand. He wasn’t shocked.’

Olivia snorts, ‘True, he’s also very much into dick.’

‘Don’t push your luck, Nevrakis,’ Suarez replies.

‘Alright, I’ll stop. Where’s the bathroom?’

‘There’s one right there, near the stairs on the right.’

‘Thanks.’

On the short walk to the bathroom, she notices a family portrait of the Walkers as kids, and the parents as well. She almost forgot what Jackson Walker looked like. She’d always esteemed him. Honorable guy, willing to lay down his life to save the King’s. Tragic for his family. She thinks of her own, for a split second, just like she does several times a day. She realizes she can’t really remember what her own parents looked like, not without the aid of a photo. She remembers smells, voices, smiles. Not entire faces.

As she washes her hands, she looks at her face. Her makeup is a fucking mess, she’d need to fix it. Or maybe it’s not necessary, it’s just them. No one to impress here.

In one swift motion, she removes her lipstick. It stains the side of her mouth. Dammit, she thinks, in all movies, women are able to remove their makeup seamlessly, why not her? She wets her face until it disappears. She removes the tiny dagger that holds her hair up, until it curls down her shoulders. A while since she let her hair down, literally.

She stares at herself for what feels like a brief moment, but it must have been longer than that, because when she gets out of the bathroom, Suarez is outside, a worried look on her face.

‘Everything ok?’ she asks.

Olivia wants to be annoyed. She wants to tell her to mind her own fucking business. But she can’t. She’s actually touched that she cares. ‘I’m fine. You need the bathroom?’

Suarez shakes her head. ‘No. You look pretty with your hair down.’

Liv stifles a smile. ‘Thanks. And you’re glowing. You two must have fucked like rabbits.’

She laughs, ‘Well, you’re not wrong. But it was a little more elegant than that, I like to think.’

Liv smirks, and walks back to the kitchen alongside Amara. She looks at her pouring the frozen margs into the salt-rimmed glasses.

‘Suarez, you sure we can handle so much booze? I have to admit I’m a little...shitfaced.’

‘Ha! Me too. But Drake is firing up the barbecue, it won’t take long for the burgers and hot dogs to be cooked. He’s setting the table outside, there’s potato salad, coleslaw…’

‘You got yourself a nice little house boyfriend, huh?’

Suarez smiles in a sweet way, completely ignoring what was meant to be a dig. ‘You have no idea how much I’ve been enjoying this. It feels real. Shopping with him, cooking together, being outside in nature--’

‘Fucking outside in nature.’

‘Yeah, that too. But, the normalcy, you know. It did something to me. Made me realize some stuff.’ She stops herself and shrugs, chopping a lime to put some slices on the glasses.

‘Suarez?’ Liv asks hesitantly.

‘Yeah?’

She takes a deep breath. Damn you, margarita. ‘You know when you said that I might have been too focused on Liam to see anything else?’

‘Yeah, I remember saying something super insightful along those lines. Go on.’

Liv chuckles. ‘Well, I… Don’t make a big deal about it, and don’t run your big mouth. But um, last night, I think I had a moment. With someone else.’

Suarez looks up from her cutting board, her eyes widening. Liv worries that she might cut herself until she puts the knife away. ‘What? You met someone in just one night? As Bertrand would say, apparently, Yass Kween!’

‘Calm down, bitch. It’s not like that. Nothing happened, it was just a nice moment, but when you said being here made you realize some stuff, I thought of last night. It did the same for me.’

Suarez nods, and breaks into a broad smile. ‘I’m happy for you, Liv.’

She shrugs. ‘Well, it’s probably nothing, but it made me feel good.’ She pauses. ‘Valued.’

‘That’s great. You deserve this much, and more. Do we know this gentleman?’

Liv sighs. She has no idea why she’s telling her all that stuff. ‘It’s Domvallier. Rashad.’

Suarez’s jaw drops. ‘What? Liv, he’s hot!’

‘Shh, come on. I said don’t run your big mouth. Nothing happened, he showed up in my room with vodka and pastries, he wanted to cheer me up. He didn’t expect anything from me, he just...wanted to be there. It was nice.’ She steals a glass and drinks from it. ‘We watched Killing Eve.’

Suarez raises her eyebrows several times and shimmies her shoulders. ‘Oooooh, Killing Eve! Did all the murders make you horny?’

Liv rolls her eyes. ‘Shut up.’

*****

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[theeonlyroman]

Star Crossed

Quentin didn’t account for you to be the primary factor in his story but he certainly wasn’t opposed to you being “his star crossed lover” to him you were perfect in every single possible way and because of that “perfection” it had only made him want you even more. Not only were you a close ally to both Fury and that sleazy man child Stark but you had also became this “big sister” to Peter and it had made it outrageously easy for him to grow closer to Peter but you as well. Everytime Fury had uncharacteristically yet heartedly reminded Peter of his position as “Avenger” you had always stepped forward “gently” reminding Fury that Peter is not only still a child but Stark had wanted him to “be the friendly neighborhood spider” not an Avenger and because of this it had given him the perfect opportunity to step forward as well playing a similar role to yours. He had relished the appreciative looks that both you and Peter had given him but he had grown too enjoy yours even more so, especially when you had gave him a gentle pat on the shoulder happily thanking him for taking Peter’s side.

    But what Quentin couldn’t help but notice was that you had always kept him at a distance whenever he had made attempts at growing closer to you in specific and he had a feeling that you somehow knew that he was beginning to see you on a more “romantic level” and he himself was beginning to wonder if his feelings for you were real or not. Despite your obvious hesitance he wasn’t deterred by this because he knew that the greatest of plans require patience and he had plenty of that to give if it meant that your were to be his prize at the end of this carefully cultivated “race of heroism”. In his most privatest of moments away from the dangerously paranoid man Fury he can recall his and yours last exchange with the utmost fondness and frustration, it was after another one of Fury’s heated talks and during yours and Peters personal talks. He remembers it all so erringly clear.

    “Don’t mind Fury Peter underneath all that stubborn broodiness he’s really a softie at heart” you comfortingly tell him. Peter doesn’t look up from your attempts to ease him instead choosing to sadly fiddle with his mask but Quentin can tell that you weren’t bothered in the slightest.

    Quentin than sees you playfully snatch his mask from his hands holding it above your head with your other hand placed on his shoulder pushing his body away from yours. He can hear Peter’s impatiently insistent pleas for you to give him his mask back but all he could focus on was your teasing yet hopeful smile that you had managed to somehow get a positive reaction out of him. So after a few short “agonizingly long” (from Peter’s perspective) moments of teasing you give him his mask back but not before gifting him with humor and wisdom.

    “Wanna know a secret about Fury Peter? Something that he would absolutely just INTERNALLY die of embarrassment should he be found out hm?” you excitedly ask him with obvious sparks of hope emanating from your very being and upon this memory that Quentin possessively covets to himself, he can’t help but humorously think that your obvious hopefulness at making Peter happy was almost puppy like and it’s grossly cute leading him to wonder if you’d ever show such similar behaviour to him.

    Peter than looks up in a spark of interest but yet there is reasonable hesitance in your inquiry for the simple reason that it is after Fury of all people. 

    “A-are you sure that I could hear something that could potentially embarrass Fury?” but you could easily tell that despite Peter’s obvious hesitance he was very curious about your inquiry which had even made your playful grin turns into a much more broader one. So place your arms around his shoulders bringing his body closer to your curiously throwing your to the side in false “hesitance” which he could only presume that your weren’t going to tell him the “dreadfully embarrassing” secret about Fury.   

      “Oohh I don’t know kiddo are you sure you want to hear the secret? I mean you weren’t exactly listening to me earlier when I had shown such selective kindness to one of my favorite heroes” you joyously respond and upon Peter hearing you tell him this you can tell that you soon brought him out of his emotional turmoil. 

    “W-what come on tell me please? I wanna kn- wait I’m your favorite superhero?” Peter happily questions you in response to your teasing and while Quentin secretly watches you too interact with another he soon come upon the realisation that you and Peter are rather puppy like around one another, it was endearing almost. You smile hearing him gleefully ask you this question which makes you more than happy to see that Peter is back acting like his usual self so you decide to give him the response that he so “desperately” needs to hear. 

    “Well little one what most people don’t know about Fury is that he’s more of a cat person and truthfully speaking he isn’t too fond of dogs finds them too be to “rowdy” for his liking and do you know the history of that scary ol’ scar on his eye right?” you say whilst grinning and Peter’s eyes widen in anticipation and you can easily tell that he’s on the edge of his seat.

    “Y-yea I remember I think a close friend of his betrayed him and it explains his paranoia or something like that right?” he hurriedly responds to you. You then smile with a twinkle in your eye and Quentin swears that everytime you send someone a smile it makes you glow even more. 

    “Wweell….” you drone on making sure the silence is even more comedic once you soon tell him and you notice how Peter’s widen even more in anticipation.

    “It was a cat...a ferociously hungry alien cat named Goose” you plainly tell him and upon hearing this Peter’s once eager demeanour changed into something more or less dumbfounded and the only response that he can properly produce was by turning his head to the side and simply saying “Heh...really?” and you had soon answered with a simple “Yup” punctuating on the letter “p”. After a short moment of silence both you and Peter double in a fit of laughter enjoying the short semblance of normalcy in yours and his chaotic lives but as yours and his shared joy dies down you pull Peter in for a much needed hug.

    “I know things seem very complicated right now especially with the Elementals but please don’t guilt yourself into choosing a life you're not ready for and yes Tony did choose you but the last thing that he could ever want for you is to grow up too fast in a life you’re not ready for. Tony wanted you to grow up living with some type of normalcy hence “friendly neighborhood spider” and please don’t worry about the Elementals let us take care of it we’ve handled similar situations to this with a shortage of heroes before this time isn’t any different and besides I have backup myself so please don’t lose any sleep over it” you say with the utmost care.

Quentin feels giddy upon hearing you tell Peter this because you’re practically doing his job for him which means that Peter is going to practically wrap those glasses wrapped in a beautiful gift box to him and be on his merry way to being a “regular” hormonal teenager. But as Quentin looks at your face he can’t help but notice how genuinely caring you are for Peter’s well being and it’s heartfelt watching the kid achingly cling onto you being so understanding of his “teenage dilemma”.  While this may be a heartfelt moment shared between you too with Quentin watching firsthand, he can’t help but feel “somewhat bad” for this whole entire thing being a complete illusion leaving him too wonder if it’d be any different if all three of yours “friendship” or “relationship” were actually built on mutual care and trust. Sadly that isn’t his reality, he didn’t have superhuman abilities like Peter nor did he have super soldier serum running through his veins like you did all he was the brains and the ferocious thirst to receive the respect and admiration like Tony had. Unfortunately, Quentin’s silent reflecting was abruptly cut off with that damn question from none other than Peter Parker himself and even as he thinks back to that night Quentin can still feel the icy rage seeping through his very pores.

“Um if you don’t mind me asking...who’s your backup” Peter nervously yet hopefully asks you and upon hearing you hearing his curious question your eyes widen in shock and a tomato red blush soon spreads across your face like wildfire which only encourages Peter too push even further much too your clear dismay.

So you nervously step back from the kid tilting your head to the side in a concerning manner batting your eyes in question. “Peter don’t you have to go to bed?” you curiously ask him in with a slight force in your tone which causes him to rapidly blink his eyes in sudden realisation at your statement but despite this he was still obviously going to press on.  

“Oh come on just tell me who’s your backup please? I promise I’ll head out as soon as you tell me” Peter pleadingly begs you sticking out his bottom lip for extra effect somehow thinking that it’d work on you which only causes you to breathily laugh at this action. So you soon than respond to this by scruffing his hair much to his chagrin and to your enjoyment but the air soon gets a tad bit serious when you pull him by the shoulders facing you. 

“Ok ok I’ll tell you but I’m trusting you to keep it a secret from others because not only because your my favorite superhero but also because I know you won’t go tweeting about this spreading my business out there” you sternly tell him. Peter than rapidly nods his head in agreement promising you that he’ll keep that promise to you with a joyful smile slowly creeping his face and Quentin can only presume that Peter is quite happy with the fact that he’s your favorite superhero.

“His name is Bu-” but your soon cut off when your phone starts to gently blink interrupting you from what you were about to tell Peter but he soon catches on to what you were about to say.

“Wait wait...your backup is Bucky Barnes? Captain America’s best friend HOLY COW are you serious?!” he excitedly whisperingly yells out in the open which you to gently laugh while shaking your head. Peter then turns his body away from yours giving him moments to process this shocking new information leaving smirk even more knowing what he’s soon about to say concerning him and Bucky, he then turns his body back to yours with a proud yet eager smile on his face. “You know I be-” but you cut him off saying “Yes, yes I know you “beat” him and Sam in a fight once and I did find it to be rather funny” you say while smiling. Peter’s excitement still persists with excited yet hurried questions knowing fully well that you could send him back to his motel at any given moment.       

“H-how do you know Bucky?” he quickly asks you but this innocent question causes the tips of your ears to grow red much to his enjoyment and your dismay due to the fact you do have to tell him so you let out a nervous cough mentally preparing yourself for what your about to say.

“W-well..” your voice suddenly goes a pitch too high but Peter’s puppy like excitement only encourages you to press on, “Bucky is well...my fiance” and after a short moment of silence Peter’s jaw drop and eyes widen even further forcing you to happily realise that you had done your job in making him forget his woes even if it was for a short moment. So you gently turn Peter to the exit door calmly telling promising that you’ll tell him even more about you and Bucky’s relationship knowing fully well that the kid would want to hear every single detail but most importantly you do have a call, well his call, to answer too. But before Peter can make a proper exit he quickly turns around holding one finger up in the air getting ready to ask one more question but not before you gently place both hands on his cheek guiding his forehead to your lips leaving a familial peck on his forehead as a way of not only telling him too you care but also to please head back. So Peter then nods his head in a placating manner but not before giving you an appreciative hug and giving thanks for you giving him and an ear to listen too as well as a much needed shoulder to lean on. 

Soon Peter webs his way back to his motel with a broad grin still on his face giving full opportunity to answer the call that you have been patiently waiting too answer but as you soon open up your phone all you see is one missed call and a text message promising a much needed reunion. 

“I’m up on the roof honey” - Bucky 

And reading this only brings a giddy smile upon your face as you hurriedly go up the stairs to meet your dear fiance. 

    But now. Now as Quentin seemingly idly standing holding his drink watching his colleagues celebrate the easy completion of the first phase of their long awaited plan, he thinks of multiple ways that he can get that old geyser Bucky out of the picture to get to you, his rightful unexpected prize. Quentin wants to be angry and yell and scream at his colleagues for not taking Bucky into account but much like you, an unexpected factor, in his story the same thing applies to Bucky as well, he’ll get you even if he has to take out that kid as well as Bucky in his conquest. 

@deputyrook THIS IS FOR YOU <3 HOPE YOU LIKE IT!!!!!

[theresnoturningback]

All There Is To It [MARODY]

Summary: One week after trading the twins for safety, Marlon and Brody have a conversation about it.

A/N: My love for this ship is complicated to say the least. We all know it’s an unhealthy relationship, toxic even. However, the circumstances they’re both in make it super interesting to think about, to discuss and theorize. I love Marlon and Brody separatedly, regardless of the mistakes they made, and I can’t say I don’t love their twisted relationship (although it was never canonically stated, but come on...it’s clear as water) and I thought it would be fun to write about how their mutual sense of dependance probably began to exist.

I hope you like this short drabble. Like always, likes, reblogs and above all, comments will be much appreciated!

Word Count: 1070

Brody walked in Marlon’s office. Inside, The boy was chatting with his best friend. She didn’t say a thing. When Louis noticed her broken-down presence at the door frame, he waved at her cheerfully, like he always did.

‘Hey Brody, how are you holding up?’ He asked sympathetically.

 As dark as the times were, Louis would always try his best to cheer up his friends. She gave him a sad half smile as a greeting.

‘Been better, to be honest’ She managed to say, despite the lump in her throat ‘Can I steal Marlon for a couple of minutes?’

At the sound of his name, Marlon looked at Louis and nodded.

‘Sure, sure…’ Louis stood up and walked away, closing the door behind him.

Once he was gone, Brody glanced at Marlon and sighed. Somehow, her legs didn’t respond. She was unable  to take another step closer.

Marlon frowned, unsure if he should do or say something to break the silence.

‘If you’re here to tell me again how much you hate me for-’

The girl shook her head and shushed him. She was tired of arguing.

‘This is not...this is not about the twins…’ She explained in a soft voice ‘It’s about me...and I, uh...well, I can’t talk about it with anyone else...not unless I tell them the whole story’

Brody’s anxiety spread fast into Marlon’s mind.

‘Brody, what did you do?’ In two seconds, he was in front of her, holding her arms in a tight grip ‘You promised me you wouldn’t do that. You promised me, remember?’

She felt small and powerless as he shook her. Afraid of even speaking, she let her tears roll down her cheeks.

As soon as he saw her cry, he softened the grip on her arms and stood before her as she tried to muffle her sobbing with her hands.

‘I haven’t told anyone’ She clarified between sniffles ‘That’s why I’m here’

As soon as the realization hit him, he felt like the most evil human being out of all that remained on Earth.

‘I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, Brody, I didn’t mean to, I-’

His apologetic words were useless in front of the crying girl.

‘I’m scared, I’m so scared of the day everyone finds out about what we did’

‘About what I did’ Marlon corrected her, as he dried her tears ‘You didn’t do anything’

‘Exactly’ She said looking up at him with brows knitted ‘I’m just as guilty as you are, because I didn’t have the courage to stop what was happening’

‘You would have been shot’

‘Is that even worse than what the twins are probably going through right now?’

‘I don’t- we don’t know that…’ Marlon stuttered ‘You know how that woman told us they would be fine’

‘And you believe her?’

The boy shrugged.

‘It’s better than believing they are already dead’

‘I should have been shot right there, so you would have the opportunity to run away with them’

‘How can you say that?’

‘Because it would have been better that way…’ She sat on the couch and covered her face with her palms

‘Brody, you don’t know what you’re saying’

‘Fuck, Marlon, open your eyes! Look what we’re dealing right now! We lost two of our best people! Tenn hasn’t come out of his room since he heard the news, Violet won’t talk to anybody but Louis and the rest of us are a crying mess. We haven’t hunted in days and the food is running out. We signed our death sentence back in the forest. Who knows how long we’re going to last if we continue like this…and it’s been only a week!’

He sat down next to her and took her hand

‘We’ll be alright’ He said, unconvinced of his own promise.

She looked at him with fresh tears in her eyes

‘You don’t know that. Those people could come back, I don’t want to run into them ever again’

‘They don’t know exactly where we are. We are safe as long as we don’t hunt that far again.’ He paused for a moment ‘We’ll have to design some kind of “safe zone” and tell the others it’s because of the walkers’

Suddenly, Marlon’s words didn’t seem so idiotic. She bit her lower lip as she went through his plan over and over again, looking for possible flaws. He studied her focused expression, trying to figure out her thoughts.

Reaching to a silent conclusion that Marlon never knew of, she let go of his hands and pressed herself close to his chest. He was the closest thing to a comforting soul she could have.

They were in this mess together. She hated him for his cowardice, and she hated herself for being a passive witness of such weak leadership. That was life, but it was better than facing all of that alone.

‘Marlon’ She finally looked up at him again, the remains of her tears made her big sad eyes shimmer ‘You better keep us safe...so giving up the twins wasn’t all for nothing’

He felt a rush from the pit of his stomach to the back of his head, that could have been originated either by the horrible guilt that was eating him up inside, or Brody’s twinkling gaze and her hopeless plea.

The fact that she still seemed to trust him after all that he had done was enough for him to lean closer to kiss her.

Brody met his lips with a soft gasp and she leaned back quickly, frightened of the sudden advance.

She looked at his embarrassed gaze shifting to the side while her brain echoed the same words she’d been thinking for the last days.

‘This is all there is to it. Nobody else can listen to you. Nobody else will cry with you. Nobody else can understand exactly what hell you’re living. Only him’

Hesitant at first, she let out a dubious sigh and closed the distance between them. Once their mouths touched, she felt a faint shiver creeping up her spine. At first, she wanted to pull back out of sheer confusion, but as soon as he kissed her back, she realized it was better than she expected.

He enfolded her figure in his arms.

‘I’ll protect you...all of you’ He mumbled, hoping she couldn’t feel the insecurity in his words ‘Or I’ll die trying’