#as they both jumped into the battle ahead of her. because she couldn't keep up with them...

[brittlebutch]

btw Still thinking about the moment where Tula first realizes she's literally, mechanically unable to keep up with / catch Jaysohn when he bolts and runs his full speed. That revelation that she's not fast enough to stop him, or get alongside him, much less get in front of him to protect him if he needed it. The dread terror of it. :(

[honeybeezgobzzzzz]

🌕 Blood Moon: Chapter Ten

Blood Moon: Blood Moon: You have been defying nature, and perhaps, even the Gods. After returning to life because of Tony Stark’s sacrifice, all humans now have a designation: alpha, beta, or omega. Angry at the fate you’ve been given, you decide that you will do anything to ensure that your fate is in your own hands. You’ll soon find out that it is never a good idea to tamper with fate, especially when one man makes it his mission to ensure that you understand that you can try to out-fly your destiny, but fate will eventually catch up to you.

Warnings: Pregnancy, Mind Fuckery, Vomiting.

To Note: A/B/O Universe Post Snap, Zemo x NAMEDFemale!Reader, Timeline Of Events Is More Spread Out (Weeks Rather Than Days) To Fit Plot Line.

Word Count: ~5.4k

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The morning sun filters through the thin curtains, casting a warm glow across the kitchen table. You sip your coffee, savoring the quiet before the day begins. The smell of freshly brewed coffee and pancakes fills the air, a comforting routine you've grown to love.

Bucky and Sam enter, both looking more serious than usual. Sam grabs a mug and pours himself some coffee, while Bucky takes a seat across from you.

"You look like you didn't sleep much," you say, eyeing Bucky's tired face.

"Couldn't sleep," he admits, rubbing the back of his neck. "Something's been bothering me."

Sam sits down next to him, his expression equally grim. "We've got news from New York," he starts, glancing at you before looking back at Bucky. "Flag Smasher activity's been on the rise again."

You set your mug down, the weight of his words sinking in. "What do they want now?"

Bucky leans forward, resting his arms on the table. "They're getting bolder. More organized. It's not just random acts anymore; there's a pattern."

Sam nods in agreement. "We've been tracking them for weeks. Last night we got intel on a possible attack on the GRC while they're voting."

Your heart skips a beat at their words. The Flag Smashers have caused enough chaos already; the thought of them escalating further is chilling. Violence in New York would injure so many people.

"So what’s the plan?" you ask, trying to keep your voice steady.

"We need to head back to New York," Sam says firmly. "Figure out what they're planning and stop it before it gets worse."

Bucky's eyes meet yours, concern etched in their depths. "You should stay here," he says softly. "It's safer."

You open your mouth to protest but stop yourself. Deep down, you know he's right. Your body and mind are still recovering from everything it's been through, and jumping into another battle isn't wise.

"I'll stay," you agree reluctantly, hating the feeling of being left behind but knowing it's for the best. "It would—it wouldn't be good for me to jump right back in."

Sam reaches across the table, placing a hand on yours. "We’ll keep you updated," he promises.

You nod, squeezing his hand briefly before letting go. "Just... be careful," you say, looking between them. "Karli has proven that she won't let anything stop her."

Bucky stands up first, giving you a reassuring nod. "We will."

Sam follows suit, grabbing his jacket from the back of his chair. As they prepare to leave, Sarah enters the kitchen with a curious look.

"Everything alright?" she asks, sensing the tension.

"Yeah," Sam answers quickly, pulling her into a brief hug. "Just some business we need to take care of in New York."

She frowns but doesn’t press further. Instead, she turns to you with a warm smile. "Looks like it’s just us girls with the boys then."

You return her smile, though your mind is already on Sam and Bucky’s mission ahead. You watch as Sam and Bucky leave, the door closing behind them with a finality that sends a shiver down your spine. Sarah’s voice pulls you back to the present.

“Come on, let’s get these boys ready for camp,” she says, her tone light but her eyes concerned.

You nod, grateful for the distraction. Together, you head upstairs to find AJ and Cass, who are bustling around their room, excitement palpable in the air.

“Hey, campers,” you greet them with a smile. “Ready for your big adventure?”

AJ looks up from his suitcase, his eyes wide with enthusiasm. “I can’t wait! We’re gonna do archery and swimming and—”

“And I’m gonna catch the biggest fish ever!” Cass interrupts, holding up a toy fishing rod proudly.

Sarah laughs, ruffling Cass’s hair. “Alright, boys, let’s make sure you’ve got everything packed.”

You join her in checking their bags, making sure they have enough clothes, toiletries, and other essentials. The room buzzes with energy as AJ and Cass chatter about all the fun they’re going to have.

“Don’t forget your sunscreen,” you remind them, slipping a bottle into each of their bags. “And remember to write us letters.”

Cass groans playfully. “Letters? That’s so old-fashioned!”

Sarah chuckles. “You’ll thank us when you’re not sunburned.”

Once the packing is done, you help them carry their bags downstairs. The van is already waiting outside, ready to take them to camp. You can feel a pang of nostalgia watching them; it reminds you of simpler times before life became so complicated.

AJ gives you a quick hug before bounding out the door. “Thanks for helping us pack, Diana!”

Cass follows suit, hugging you tightly. “Yeah, thanks! We’ll miss you!”

“I’ll miss you too,” you say sincerely, feeling a warmth spread through your chest.

Sarah walks them out to the van while you stand on the porch, watching as they climb in with excited waves and shouts of goodbye. The van pulls away slowly, and you wave back until it disappears around the corner.

Sarah returns to your side with a sigh of relief mixed with wistfulness. “They grow up so fast.”

You nod in agreement, something deep in your chest rumbling for children of your own. “Yeah, they do.”

Two weeks have crawled by since Sam and Bucky left for New York. Every news broadcast has your attention, every headline about the new Captain America—a mix of horror and pride fills you. Sam wielding the shield, standing up to threats, showing the world what a true hero looks like. You’ve watched him become the symbol of hope he was always meant to be, even if it means he’s not here.

But your body betrays you. You sit at the kitchen table, rubbing your swollen fingers, trying to ignore the dull ache in your side. The headaches come and go, leaving you disoriented. The dizziness often forces you to grab onto the nearest piece of furniture for support. It’s getting harder to brush off.

Sarah walks in, a basket of laundry balanced on her hip. She eyes you with concern as she sets it down. "You don't look so good," she says bluntly.

You snort, managing a weak smile. "Thanks for that."

"Seriously, Diana," Sarah continues, her tone more gentle now. "You've been complaining about headaches and feeling off for days. What's really going on?"

You sigh and lean back in your chair, wincing as another wave of nausea hits. "I don't know, Sarah. My legs are swollen, my fingers too. I keep getting these dizzy spells and—" You gesture vaguely at your chest. "My breasts are sore. What exactly am I doing to make them feel like that?"

Sarah's eyes narrow thoughtfully as she sits across from you. "It almost sounds like you're pregnant."

You laugh it off at first, rolling your eyes. "Yeah, right."

But then you freeze, memories crashing back in vivid detail—the unprotected sex with Zemo... twice. Your hand instinctively goes to the bite mark on your shoulder, a stark reminder of that intense night.

Sarah watches as realization dawns on your face. She raises an eyebrow but says nothing.

"Oh no," you whisper, panic bubbling up inside you.

"Diana?" Sarah’s voice cuts through your thoughts.

"I think I'm going to throw up," you say quickly before bolting from the table and rushing to the bathroom.

You kneel on the cold bathroom floor, gripping the edge of the toilet as your stomach twists and turns. The sour taste of bile lingers in your mouth, and you heave again, emptying what little remains in your stomach. Sarah is there beside you, her hand rubbing soothing circles on your back. The gentle motion provides a small comfort amidst the chaos swirling inside your mind and broiling in your stomach.

“Breathe, Diana,” she says softly, her voice steady and reassuring. “Just breathe.”

You try to focus on her words, inhaling deeply through your nose and exhaling slowly through your mouth. It takes a few moments, but the nausea begins to subside.

When you finally sit back, Sarah hands you a damp washcloth. You press it to your forehead, grateful for the cool relief.

“Thanks,” you mutter, still feeling shaky and drained.

Sarah sits back on her heels, studying you with concern. “I think we need to know for sure,” she says gently. “I’ll run into town and pick up a pregnancy test.”

The words hang in the air, heavy with implication. You nod numbly, unable to form a coherent response. Inside, panic flares like a wildfire. The possibility that you might be pregnant—carrying Zemo’s child—overwhelms you.

Sarah stands up, offering you a hand to help you off the floor. You take it gratefully, leaning on her for support as you rise unsteadily to your feet.

“I’ll be quick,” she promises as she guides you back to the kitchen and helps you sit down at the table.

You nod again, barely hearing her words over the roar of your thoughts. Your mind races with questions and fears. What will this mean for you? It wasn't like it would be universally acceptable for you to carry and give birth to Baron Helmut Zemo's child. Sam and Bucky could not find out.

“Diana?” Sarah’s voice cuts through the fog of your thoughts.

You look up at her, seeing the compassion in her eyes. “Yeah?”

“Try to relax while I’m gone,” she says softly. “I’ll be back soon.”

You force a weak smile and nod once more. “Okay.”

With that, Sarah grabs her keys and heads out the door, leaving you alone with your racing thoughts and rising panic.

You sit at the kitchen table, staring at the wood grain pattern, your mind a whirlwind of thoughts. The minutes crawl by, each one feeling like an eternity. The room is silent except for the faint ticking of the wall clock. You feel every second, every beat, pounding in your head.

Your fingers trace absent patterns on the tabletop. You try to steady your breathing, but it's shallow and erratic. The possibility of being pregnant with Zemo's child is too overwhelming to process.

The front door opens, and you hear Sarah's footsteps before she appears in the doorway, a small pharmacy bag in hand. She walks over and places it on the table in front of you.

"Here," she says gently. "Let's find out."

You take a deep breath and nod, reaching for the bag. Your hands tremble as you pull out the pregnancy test. The instructions blur in front of your eyes, but Sarah is there, guiding you through each step.

“Just follow the instructions,” she says softly. “It’ll be over soon.”

You make your way to the bathroom, clutching the test like a lifeline. The next few minutes pass in a haze as you follow the steps mechanically. Finally, you set the test on the sink and sit down on the edge of the bathtub, waiting for what feels like an eternity.

Sarah waits outside, giving you some space but remaining close enough to offer support. You stare at the test, heart pounding in your chest.

Three minutes pass slowly, each second marked by the ticking clock in your head. When time is up, you force yourself to look at the result window.

Two lines.

The world tilts on its axis, and for a moment, you can’t breathe. You’re pregnant. With Zemo’s child.

You open the bathroom door slowly and see Sarah waiting with an anxious expression. Her eyes meet yours, and she knows instantly.

“Oh my god,” she whispers, stepping forward to pull you into a hug. “It’s going to be okay.”

You cling to her tightly as tears stream down your face, your mind still struggling to process everything. Her warmth and presence provide a small comfort amidst the storm raging inside you.

"We'll figure this out," Sarah says firmly as she holds you close. "You're not alone in this. Uh, you know who the father is?"

Her words sink in slowly but surely. You take a shaky breath and nod against her shoulder.

You pull away from Sarah, wiping your tears with the back of your hand. "Yes," you manage to say, your voice barely above a whisper. "I know who the father is."

Sarah’s eyes search yours, full of questions. She opens her mouth to speak, but you cut her off.

"Sarah, listen," you say, taking a deep breath to steady yourself. "Sam and Bucky can’t find out about this. They absolutely cannot know."

She frowns, concern etched across her features. "Diana, they care about you. They worry so much. They deserve to know what's going on."

"No," you insist, shaking your head vehemently. "If they find out... It would complicate everything. Sam has enough on his plate with being the new Captain America. And Bucky... He doesn’t need more on his mind."

Sarah sighs, crossing her arms as she considers your words. "But keeping this a secret isn’t fair to them—or to you."

You reach out and grasp her hand, desperation seeping into your voice. "Please, Sarah. I need you to trust me on this. It’s safer for everyone if they don’t know." She studies your face for a long moment, her eyes searching for any sign of doubt. Finally, she nods slowly, though reluctance still lingers in her expression.

"Alright," she says quietly. "I won’t tell them. But you need to promise me you'll take care of yourself and let me help."

A wave of relief washes over you as you squeeze her hand gratefully. "I promise."

Sarah's gaze softens as she pulls you into another hug. "We’ll get through this together," she murmurs against your hair. "With Cass and AJ too."

As you stand there in Sarah's embrace, the weight of the secret settles heavily on your shoulders. You can't stay in Louisiana. Sam and Bucky would find out all too easily and one whiff of you once they know you are pregnant? Game over. You are going to call Oezenik tonight, and get yourself the hell out of the country.

The jet’s hum is a distant memory by the time you land, the night swallowing any remaining traces of the journey. Oeznik's efficiency leaves you in blessed awe; not a single detail out of place. You could kiss the butler for his help. He guides you to a nondescript car waiting on the tarmac, and within minutes, you’re speeding through darkened streets.

He doesn’t speak much during the ride, and neither do you. Your mind is a whirlpool of worry and guilt, spiraling into dark corners you didn’t know existed. The injections—those damn injections. You had taken them religiously, thinking they were your lifeline. Now, the possibility that they could have harmed your baby gnaws at your soul.

The safe house looms ahead, a shadowy silhouette against the midnight sky. Oeznik parks and leads you inside, the silence between you heavy but understanding. The interior is regally spare, but comfortable—exactly what you’d expect from one of Zemo’s safe houses. No frills, just functionality.

Oeznik hands you a keycard and a burner phone before retreating to give you space. “You’re safe here,” he says simply, his tone reassuring but firm. "Anything you require can be found or purchased for you, Miss."

You nod, clutching the items tightly as if they could anchor you in this storm of emotions. “Thank you,” you manage to whisper, your voice barely audible.

He dips his head in acknowledgment before disappearing into another part of the house. You’re left standing in the entryway, the weight of everything crashing down on you all at once.

Your feet move on their own, carrying you to what appears to be the bedroom. You collapse onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling as tears well up in your eyes. You think about Zemo’s touch, his bite—the moments that led to this life growing inside you.

And then your mind fixates on those injections again. The thought that they could have harmed your baby is unbearable. You feel a surge of determination amidst your fear and guilt.

“I’m done with them,” you mutter to yourself, your voice gaining strength with each word. “No more.”

You search through your bag and find the remaining vials and syringes. For a moment, you just stare at them, feeling both anger and relief course through your veins. Then with deliberate motions, you throw them into the wastebasket by the bedside table.

As if sensing your turmoil, Oeznik reappears silently at the doorframe. “Everything alright?” he asks softly.

You wipe away stray tears and nod. “I’m stopping them,” you say firmly. “There is no need to refill my medicine. I won't be taking it.”

His eyes flicker with something like approval or maybe relief—it’s hard to tell—but he simply nods in agreement. “Understood.”

You lie back down on the bed after he leaves again, a strange sense of calm washing over you despite everything else swirling around in your mind. You’ve made one decision; now it’s time to face whatever comes next. A terrifying thought.

For now though—just for now—you let yourself breathe.

You wake to the scent of something warm and savory. The room is dim, shadows stretching across the floor as you blink groggily, trying to orient yourself. It takes a moment for your surroundings to come into focus—the safe house, the bed, the events of the past few days crashing back into your consciousness like a tidal wave.

Your body feels heavy, limbs weighed down by exhaustion and lingering aches. You push yourself up slowly, propping yourself against the headboard. A soft knock at the door startles you slightly.

“Miss Diana?” Oeznik’s voice is gentle but firm, carrying a note of concern.

“Come in,” you croak, your throat dry and scratchy.

The door opens quietly, and Oeznik steps inside carrying a tray laden with food. The aroma makes your stomach rumble in protest. You realize with a start that you haven’t eaten in what feels like forever.

“I brought you something to eat,” Oeznik says, setting the tray on the bedside table. “You’ve been asleep for quite some time—about eighteen hours.”

Eighteen hours. The number shocks you, but then again, it makes sense. Your body had been running on fumes for so long; it’s no wonder it finally gave out.

“You need to take care of yourself,” he continues, his tone leaving no room for argument. “You’re not just responsible for your own well-being now.”

The reminder sends a shiver through you. Your hand instinctively moves to rest on your stomach, where new life grows. You nod slowly, acknowledging his words.

“Thank you,” you say quietly, reaching for a piece of bread from the tray. The first bite is almost heavenly; you hadn’t realized just how hungry you were until now.

Oeznik watches as you eat, his expression softening slightly. “If there’s anything else you need—anything at all—don’t hesitate to ask.”

You swallow another bite before looking up at him with gratitude. “I will.”

He dips his head in acknowledgment before stepping back towards the door. “I’ll leave you to rest,” he says gently. “But please remember to take care of yourself.”

As he exits the room, closing the door behind him with a soft click, you let out a long breath and continue eating slowly, savoring each bite. As much as you wish for the food to bring you warm and soothe your growing fears, all your mind can focus on it that you are pregnant and without your alpha.

5 Months Later

Your hands move almost frantically, grabbing every towel, sheet, and piece of clothing within reach. The safe house has never felt this small before, every corner filled with the evidence of your growing desperation. Your omega instincts have taken over, driving you to create a nest—a place of comfort and safety for you and your unborn child.

But you’ve never done this before. The pile on the floor is messy, haphazard. Towels draped over chairs, sheets twisted into knots, clothes strewn about in disarray. You’re not sure what it’s supposed to look like, only that it’s not enough. It doesn’t feel right. It's not enough.

You drag another blanket from the closet and throw it onto the heap, then collapse onto it, breathing heavily and trying to rub your scent into the nest to make it more… right. Nothing changes and you feel like screaming in frustration. All you muster is a whimper as you press a hand against your enlarged belly. Your heart races in your chest, and your hands shake with the effort. Your body is screaming for rest, but your mind won’t let you stop. You need to finish this; you need to make it perfect. But it's not!

The scent of fresh linens mingles with the faint hint of dust in the air, but it’s not what you crave. You long for his scent—Zemo’s scent. Even just a trace of it would calm your racing heart, soothe the anxiety clawing at your insides. Your omega whines internally, a desperate plea for its alpha.

You clutch one of his old shirts—left behind in a drawer—from when he had worn it years ago. You press it to your face, inhaling deeply, hoping to catch any lingering trace of him. Nothing. You want to cry, or wail. Your omega likes that option, for it will surely call your alpha back to you.

Your omega stirs in agitation, yearning for more than just a scent on fabric. It wants him here, by your side, holding you close and reassuring you that everything will be okay. But he’s not here. He's not here.

You curl up in the middle of the nest, clutching the shirt tightly against your chest as tears prick at your eyes. The ache in your heart is almost unbearable as you realize how much you miss him—how much you need him right now.

But there’s no time for tears or longing; you have to keep going. More towels, more shirts. Something. You force yourself up again, grunting as you struggle to get your body off the floor. Your belly is so big now, so heavy. You grab more blankets from another room and adding them to the pile. As you work tirelessly to build something that resembles a nest—something that might bring some measure of comfort—you can’t shake the feeling that something vital is missing.

You know what it is; or rather who it is. It makes tears leak down your face because he isn't here.

You collapse in the center of your messy nest, panting heavily, sweat clinging to your skin. The room closes in on you, your heartbeat echoing in your ears. Tears spill from your eyes, soaking into the blankets and clothes surrounding you. Your body trembles with exhaustion, muscles aching from the relentless drive to create a space that feels safe—a space that feels like home.

But it’s not enough. Nothing about this chaotic heap of fabric brings you any peace. It’s a poor substitute for what you truly need: Zemo’s presence, his scent, his touch. The thought makes another sob tear through you, raw and jagged.

You clutch the shirt tighter against your chest, wishing desperately that it could somehow summon him to your side. The ache in your heart grows sharper with every passing second. You bury your face in the fabric, inhaling deeply in a futile attempt to catch even the faintest trace of his scent.

The nest feels wrong, incomplete. You feel wrong—lost without him here to ground you. Your omega howls in frustration and sorrow, its cries reverberating through your very soul.

Another wave of sobs wracks your body, and you curl into a tighter ball, clutching the shirt as if it’s the only thing keeping you from completely unraveling. The tears flow freely now, each one a testament to how deeply you miss him.

The weight of your emotions and physical exhaustion finally begins to pull you under. Your sobs gradually subside into hiccuping breaths as your body succumbs to the need for rest. You’re too tired to fight anymore—to keep pushing yourself when there’s nothing left to give.

As sleep creeps over you, a part of you hopes that maybe—just maybe—you’ll find some solace in your dreams. A fleeting moment where Zemo is with you again, even if only in your mind. Your breathing slows, the tension easing from your muscles as darkness claims you.

Yet sleep eludes you. Every time you close your eyes, your mind jerks you awake with a jolt, demanding you continue nesting. Your body aches, muscles twitching with the relentless need to make the space perfect. Each attempt to settle down is interrupted by another burst of energy, driving you to rearrange the blankets and pillows once more.

You toss and turn, sweat slicking your skin as frustration mounts. The urge to nest is overwhelming, primal, consuming every thought. You drag yourself out of the nest again, gathering more towels from the bathroom, another blanket from the closet. Your hands move almost mechanically, folding and refolding, arranging and rearranging. But no matter what you do, it never feels right.

You slump back into the center of the nest, gasping for breath as exhaustion seeps into your bones. Tears blur your vision, and a choked sob escapes your lips. The room feels suffocatingly small, the walls closing in on you as your omega howls in despair.

Just when you think you can't take it anymore, the door creaks open. You don’t even have the strength to look up, your body too heavy with fatigue and emotion.

A familiar scent fills the room—rich, comforting, grounding. Your heart leaps in recognition even before his voice reaches your ears.

"Diana."

Your head snaps up, eyes wide as they lock onto Zemo standing in the doorway. He moves toward you with purposeful strides, his eyes filled with concern and something else—something that makes your heart ache with longing.

You try to speak but only manage a strangled whimper as he kneels beside you. His hands are gentle but firm as they cup your face, his thumbs brushing away the tears streaking down your cheeks.

"I'm here," he murmurs softly, his breath warm against your skin. "I'm here now, Draga."

The tension in your body melts away under his touch, replaced by a profound sense of relief. You lean into him, burying your face in his chest as more tears spill forth—not from sadness or frustration this time but from sheer overwhelming emotion.

You pull away from Zemo, anger simmering beneath the surface. "You left me like this," you spit out, voice trembling with fury and exhaustion. "I’ve been agonizing over possibly injuring our child alone. All because of those damn injections I was taking before I knew I was pregnant."

Zemo’s eyes soften, his hands still cradling your face. “Diana,” he begins, his tone soothing but firm, “there were things that needed to be done before I could return to you. Important things.”

“Important?” you nearly shout, your body trembling with the effort. Your protective Omega instincts make your eyes blaze with fury. “More important than being here for me? For our baby?”

He shakes his head, a pained expression crossing his features. “No, never more important than you. But necessary.”

Your breath hitches as tears blur your vision again. The weight of everything—the fear, the uncertainty, the loneliness—crashes down on you. A whine stirs in your throat, a noise of defeat. “I’ve been so scared,” you whisper, voice cracking. “Scared that I hurt our baby with those injections.”

Zemo’s grip tightens slightly, grounding you. “Diana,” he says softly but urgently, “listen to me. Those injections—once I realized what they were and that you were an omega—I started weaning you off them in Madripoor.”

You blink at him in confusion, the words not quite sinking in. “What do you mean?”

“The injections you took while pregnant,” he explains slowly, his eyes never leaving yours, “were nothing but saline and a nonharmful scent that mimics chemicals. They couldn’t harm you or our child.”

The revelation hits you like a freight train. Relief floods through you so intensely that your knees buckle, and Zemo catches you effortlessly, pulling you into his embrace.

You break down completely then, sobs wracking your body as the tension and fear finally release their grip on you. You can’t find it in yourself to be mad at him anymore, or angry—not when he’s here now, holding you together when you feel like falling apart. He was the entire reason why you felt like you were falling apart, yet you still couldn't be mad at him.

His hands stroke your hair soothingly as he murmurs comforting words into your ear. “It’s okay,” he whispers over and over again. “I’ve got you now.”

You cling to him, drawing strength from his presence—your alpha, who is finally here with you.

Eventually, Zemo stands and helps you up gently, guiding you out of the room and into the hallway where Oeznik waits patiently.

“We’re going to a new safe house,” Zemo tells you softly as he leads you outside to a waiting car.

The drive is quiet to the airport but not uncomfortable; Zemo keeps one hand on yours the entire time as if reassuring both of you that this is real—that he’s really here. You are carefully helped onto the plane and directed to a seat where Zemo sits next to you.

The hum of the private jet's engines fills the cabin, a constant, soothing background noise as you sit beside Zemo. His hand never leaves yours, grounding you with his presence. Oeznik pilots the plane with practiced ease, guiding you through the clouds toward your destination.

Your heart races with anticipation and anxiety, a strange mix that leaves you breathless. So close, need nest. Nest. Zemo’s thumb strokes the back of your hand in slow, reassuring circles. You lean your head against his shoulder, closing your eyes and letting the rhythmic motion of his touch calm your racing thoughts.

“We’ll be there soon,” Zemo murmurs softly into your ear, his breath warm against your skin.

You nod slightly, not trusting your voice to speak. Time bends to your addled mind, making the trip seem faster than it is. Oeznik’s voice crackles through the intercom.

“We’re approaching the landing strip.” When the plan lands, you bare barely unglue yourself from Zemo's side to exit the plan. Zemo squeezes your hand gently as he stands, guiding you to follow him. You grip his hand tightly, drawing strength from his presence as you make your way off the jet and into a waiting car.

The drive up the winding mountain roads is both exhilarating and nerve-wracking. The Swiss Alps loom majestically around you, their snow-capped peaks glistening in the sunlight. Your mind drifts back to the conversation on the plane—the reassurance that everything will be okay now that he’s here.

Finally, the car pulls up to a secluded chalet nestled in a grove of pine trees. The air is crisp and clean, filled with the scent of pine and fresh snow. Zemo leads you inside without a word, his grip firm yet gentle as he guides you through the cozy interior.

The chalet feels like a sanctuary—warm wood tones and soft lighting creating an atmosphere of comfort and safety. Zemo’s scent is everywhere here, enveloping you in its rich, comforting embrace. He leads you up a staircase to a bedroom at the end of the hall. Your heart pounds in your chest as he opens the door and steps aside to let you enter first.

The sight before you takes your breath away. The room is dominated by a large bed piled high with blankets and pillows—a nest meticulously crafted and coated in Zemo’s scent. The air is thick with it, wrapping around you like a warm embrace.

Zemo stands behind you, his presence a comforting weight. "I prepared this for you," he says softly, his voice filled with an emotion you can’t quite name. You turn to look at him, your eyes wide with gratitude and something deeper—something that makes your heart ache in a way that’s both painful and beautiful.

Without another word, you move to the nest, sinking down into the soft layers of blankets and pillows. The bed is vast and inviting, and you curl up in the center, pulling a blanket to your nose to breath in his scent. Zemo follows, sitting beside you and watching with an intensity that you don't register. You can't, your mind is only focused on his scent enveloping you. It's the perfect nest.

Date Published: 6/18/24

Last Edit: 6/18/24

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[simiansmoke]

@citizensofeggton

"It's just a basic magic barrier, though with someone of my skill I might as well be wearing amour with how strong I can make it." Twee was a Darling after all which means her magic was on another level compared to the average person so even using magic of a basic level would be powerful. Of course the fennec wasn't going to ignore the fact that DK managed to crack it with pure physical force alone. Most would say it's an impressive feat, though to her it was average at best. "Well, unlike most I speak the truth, though I don't much care if you believe me." Twee couldn't say she was surprised as it wasn't the first time someone doubts she was naturally this strong due to her size, at least compare to someone with a bigger build like DK. "Then get a move on already, I don't got all day." The fennec had to meet up with her sister sooner or later so couldn't afford to waste too much time. She was honestly curious about these power-ups the ape mentioned as it sounded different from magic. Twee raises a brow as DK began to look around, wondering just what he was looking for, though then watched as he walked away while being told to wait. The fennec was more than confused, though observed the ape closely as he hit some kind of floating blog with a question mark on it which caused it to become a plain brown one. Now she was curious as it looked like he grabbed something from it, though her attention went to his fur changing to a light blue color with some white. "Well, now you have my attention," she said, standing up. Twee rolled her eyes at seeing the same move again, throwing a quick jab once he was in range, though missed as he rolled around her. The fennec jumping back as DK slammed his fist into the deck which began to freeze it much to her surprise. She landed on top of the ice, easily finding her footing as she began to skate on it. Should the other be paying attention he'd notice a thin layer of magic on her feet reacting to the ice beneath her. She then began to casually dodge the ice balls, even showing off a bit by doing flipping over a few. Soon enough she was within striking range, dodging another ice ball with a spin while also attracting some of the ice on the ground to her hand making an ice like gauntlet as she threw a punch aiming strait for his chin.

"Oh sure...sure. Basic...MOST PEOPLE DON'T HAVE BASIC MAGIC." He growls, rising on both feet to better pop his shoulders as he glares ahead. Even if there were power ups, Kongs were particularly anti on the subject. Mainly because the idea of a battle to see who was best was best determined by physical strength alone. So, it was with a twinge of guilt that he even considered grabbing a magic aid...though his Dad wasn't here to judge him, and DK actually enjoyed fucking around with magic some times. Just for fun.

"All right, all riiiight. So impatient for somebody who wants to fight." Grumbling, he shifts, foot digging into the boardwalk as he slides it backward and prepares to lunge.

As the boardwalk became a temporary ice rink that likely wouldn't last long thanks to the island's tropical climate, he smirks when she lands and slips around. Bingo. Though the magic that appears as her skates has him gritting his teeth and kneading knuckles impatiently in the ground...that was fine. He could knock her off them, right? At least he attempts to, shooting ice balls one after another and continuously keeping the ice rink solid due to his efforts under the blazing sun.

When she circled back around to throw a punch, he grits his teeth and proceeded to sling his hand up from the ground and cross to his body, dragging a wall of ice up from the ground to form a barrier for her to punch and shatter. The exploding ice clings to the fur on his face, but he wastes no time in screwing his eyes shut and headbutting forward towards her post attack middle section.

"RrraH!"

[yuksterv2]

Confessions of a Friend

TLDR; this is set in an AU where Chrissy and Mike get to interact and become friends with one another. For the experience, Chrissy decides to work at Starcoart Mall where she meets the Scoops Troops and becomes involved in the Russian Plot line, hence her knowing of the Upside Down. Takes place just before Stranger Things 4, so around January/February of 1986.

Tw: depression/suicide.

In the moment, something caught in the back of Chrissy's throat- call it an involuntary reaction to the situation unfolding in front of her. It was almost unreal, like the dramatic climax to a novel that had the reader on the edge of their seat. It was comparable to that of losing a loved one, only that the dreaded hadn't come to pass; she could still do something. But she couldn't. In the moment, her feet were seemingly glued to the roof, confining her to the spot.

There Mike was, barely hanging on to the ledge whilst Chrissy stood a mere few feet away, unable to do anything. Some friend she was. No, this isn't about me, it's about Mike! Chrissy fought to make sense of the situation, but it felt like fighting a losing battle- like attempting to piece together a jigsaw puzzle using all the same pieces. She'd have to be strong for him.

For Mike.

Impossibly, Chrissy managed to will herself forward an inch and utter the boy's name, "Mike." The boy in question shakily turned his head, his cloudy eyes shrinking upon meeting Chrissy's green ones. They must have stood there staring at each other for minutes. Overhead, the raging storm had settled, painting an almost angelic scene. Finally, Chrissy took another step closer.

He loosened his grip.

"W-wait! Think about what you're doing!" Chrissy yelled suddenly, forcing tears she hadn't even realised she was holding back to spill out. Mike's throat seemed to tighten. "Why? Chrissy, why'd you have to come here and make things more difficult?" he asked. "I have thought about this, in fact, it took a few months of convincing to get myself here, so please go," Mike pleaded, his cloudy eyes now playing host to a miniature storm of their own. "I-I can't, Mike. If you ever did anything drastic, I would never forgive myself, so please, step down and we can talk," Chrissy said defiantly, taking another step closer. Mike didn't answer, nor did he do anything in protest, so she took another; she continued to cautiously waddle her way towards Mike one inch at a time. "You're hurting, a-and I've known for a while, but I never said anything; I'm a bad friend..." The boy shook his head, his wet raven locks swaying delicately. "Chrissy, don't-" But Chrissy beat him to it, "no, I-I have! Friends don't ignore each other's feelings just because they're confused with their own. I want to make amends. I want things to be better! Mike..."

Before Mike knew it, Chrissy was a mere few inches away, only the metal railing that separated the roof from a massive drop in their way. This close, he could clearly see the distraught look in Chrissy's eyes; his heart tightened up. She forced her eyes to meet his. "Mike, if you went away, I'd never get the chance to set things right." "But it's not worth it," Mike said plainly. "What?" Mike scoffed, tears seeping from his eyes and leaking into his mouth. "Surely, I'm not worth that much to you, I might be your friend, but it's not worth the hassle. I'm not worth the hassle! If I disappeared right now, it wouldn't matter!" "Mike, I think the world of you!" Chrissy bellowed, clasping the frigid metal railing firmly. "If you jump, you might as well be tainting the soil I stand on!" she shouted, tears now running freely and quickly down her cheeks.

Both seemed too stunned to speak: Mike at the words coming out of Chrissy's mouth, and the same for Chrissy. She had poured so many hours into keeping her feelings hidden just for them to come out in one moment of desperation. She had been weak. Once again, Chrissy had allowed her mouth to get ahead of her mind, and she would have to deal with the retributions of her actions. But not now- later.

Chrissy searched Mike's eyes pleadingly, but there was nothing; no recognition, hurt, nor careful consideration. It was then that Chrissy realized something. Her entire life, Chrissy had been scared to show anything so long as it reflected poorly on her perfect image; anything less than perfect was left in the dirt. To this day, she still grappled with this issue.

So did Mike.

Although it was in a different form, it was the same beast. By now, the rain had become heavy again, and so Chrissy took drastic measure. Without thinking, Chrissy jumped the railing, being careful not to slip on the water-coated ledge. The raven-haired boy turned to her with wide eyes, his face riddled with concern.

"It's okay," Chrissy said instantly, stalling her best friend's undoubted protests. "I won't do anything drastic so long as you don't." Mike stiffly nodded, not taking his brown eyes off Chrissy. "What is this?" he asked tiredly. "My way of showing you how much you mean to me, Mike," Chrissy answered, flinching as she momentarily glanced down at the steep drop; they were suspended at least five stories upwards, undoubtedly enough to kill them both. "I didn't lie. If you leave, then my life isn't worth living...so I won't, and you know that isn't a bluff." "But..." Mike stammered, a flash of recognition in his eyes. "Why are you doing this to me?" Carefully, Chrissy's hand snaked towards Mike's, causing the boy to momentarily recoil. "My entire life, I've been so scared of showing people what I'm really feeling," she admitted breathlessly, sealing her eyes shut. "But I'm weak and say things I'm not supposed to, so I have to punish myself sometimes," she continued, turning gingerly to Mike, open-eyed. "Do you get like that?"

Mike looked fearful to say anything, but Chrissy's understanding eyes burrowing into his eased the welling feeling. "Am I really that obvious?" "No, I've known you for years and I've only just realized it now after gaining some sense and stepping outside of my own bubble," Chrissy admitted. "I don't want you to feel pressured, but I want you to step out, too, okay?"

Timidly, Mike nodded, intertwining his fingers with Chrissy's after much scrutiny. Like film on a reel, her mind began to play several snapshots of time, all allocated to her and Mike. How hadn't I noticed the signs sooner? Now, as she played back long-forgotten memories, every pained smile of Mike's she called into question; which were genuine, and which were nothing but a façade? In every memory, no matter fraught or positive, Mike's smile never faltered.

He was being strong for us, but it was all a lie; I thought that this had only started recently, but the monsters weren't coming from the other world, they were coming from inside of Mike's head! How had she not noticed sooner?

"It hurts, Chrissy; it hurts so much," Mike said painfully, breaking into sobs every now and then. "I want to tell people so badly, but I-I feel like I can't, otherwise..." Chrissy stared at him dolefully. "Otherwise, what?" she asked, and Mike shrugged. "Otherwise, they won't think that I'm a man," Mike said, not taking his eyes from the cobble pathway below. "My dad, he doesn't really care about us - never has - but I still do. I feel like if I proved myself to him as a man, then he'll finally give me an ounce of affection, and if that means locking my feelings away, then so be it!" he continued. "But I've been weak- I've been weak and let you in! So, what am I worth if I can't even do that!" "Mike! Mike!" Chrissy exclaimed, which finally forced Mike's eyes to meet hers. "You've got nothing to prove to a man that has treated you that way your entire life; look at how he's gotten you- look what he's caused; he'll never change for you!" she said vigilantly. "I-I know this feeling...my mother sees me as nothing but a prize, and I've spent my entire life trying to please her insatiable expectations, but it was never enough for her; it was always about 'the next hurdle' and then she would expect me to breach it. I was like a mouse on a treadmill: running and running to get my reward, but it stayed at a distance- it always did, and so I turned away from her- I..." Chrissy ranted, but struggled to say the last part. "I found you, and you and everyone else have shown me more love than she did my whole life!"

Mike glanced downwards. "Oh, Chris, I'm so sorry," he said remorsefully. "I didn't-" he tried to say, but Chrissy cut him off. "You don't have to say anything. Truth is, I'm still getting over the actual hurdle that was my mother, but I've been making progress thanks to you." The boy blinked, his eyelashes doused in what could either be rain or his own tears. "Me?" "Yeah, you," Chrissy confirmed, nodding. "I realized that all I've ever wanted was love, but I was looking for it in the wrong place; it was right in front of me the entire time," she said, smiling fondly. "It was you, Mike, I..."

There was a pregnant pause, the only sound filling the gap being the constant barrage of rain beating against the tiled roof. It was as though the rain had synchronised with their own beating hearts. Chrissy opened her mouth, and the words she had kept locked up for so long finally flowed out.

"I love you."

His mouth was agape, too shocked to piece together words. "You don't have to say anything back, Mike," Chrissy assured him, clutching his hand tighter. "All you need to know is that you are loved, and I love the part of you that you really are," she continued. "I know my words won't mend what you're feeling, but I want to help you overcome it. So, could you do me a favour?" Chrissy asked, staring deep into Mike's eyes.

He nodded.

"Step away from the railing and come with me," Chrissy said, forcing a grin. "No promises it'll be any good, but I'll try and recreate that hot chocolate that your mom makes," she said jokingly, forcing a laugh out of Mike. "Okay, I'll hold you to that," Mike said, his faint smile down casting a ray of warmness on Chrissy's face, letting her know that, for once, it was genuine.

Carefully, they both stepped away from the ledge, climbing over the railings with much caution as to not accidentally slip. That would be a waste after all the effort I've just gone to. They thankfully made it over unscathed, unless you count psychological damage; Chrissy knew she'd dream about this horrid night for the rest of her life. Wordlessly, they both ascended the steps that led away from the roof. None of them minded the silence.

They'd spoken enough words to each other that night.

[just-another-blog-of-fluff]

Vulnerability

Word count: 10,100

Pairing: Loki x f!reader (pre-dating/romantic)

Warnings: violence, injury, strained past relationship with father/past verbal abuse, mourning of past loss of a parent, later gets kind of steamy (but SFW)

This was a really interesting and fun piece to write! 💚💚 I sort of love the relationship between Loki and the reader in this one 😍

Based on a few prompts: one prompt where reader has tattoos that she keeps hidden for sentimental reasons (with an added mini prompt suggestion), and another Prompt where reader doesn’t like her laugh because it’s too cute for someone who is a tough Avenger, and Loki seeks to prove it doesn’t matter.

PLEASE check out the warnings first - there's some sort of heavy content in this fic compared to most of my usual work. As always, completely SFW though!

"Steve - watch your six!"

"Got it!"

Clang.

The offending SPECTER soldier met the unforgiving edge of the iconic vibranium shield, his blaster sent catapulting from his hands as the force of the blow propelled him to the ground. Steve's blue eyes met yours for only a moment, the captain offering you a nod of thanks before you both dove back into the chaos.

A soldier rushed at you from your right. A swift planting of your non-dominant foot into the ground allowed you to aim a roundhouse kick at him before he could get his hands on you. The blow to the gut sent him reeling despite the armor covering his torso, a shout of surprised frustration barking out from beneath his black mask.

They always underestimated you. It was both a blessing and a curse.

Behind you, four more SPECTER soldiers fell victim to the broadside of Mjolnir, a lethal swinging blur in the hand of the God of Thunder. By his side, Loki effortlessly took down another three, the sharp edges of his blades finding the nearly imperceptible points of vulnerability within the soldiers' armor.

"Hey Rambo - there's an opening up ahead. We gotta get in there," Tony's voice ordered in your ear. Your eyes flitted up to the door to the research facility, catching the end result of Nat tackling a soldier to the ground as she wrestled his blaster from his hand. There was indeed a clear path, free from the hordes of soldiers still locked in combat with the other Avengers.

"Roger that." You took off sprinting toward the door, boots slamming rhythmically against the ground as you raced to catch up with the blur of red and gold metal that whizzed past your head. A blue flash of light blasted straight across your path, halting you in your tracks as a soldier opened fire at you from your left. Sunlight glinted against twirling metal just before one of Loki's daggers found its home in the soldier's abdomen, just below the breastplate of his armor. Whipping around, you saw Loki dashing in the same direction you were headed, shooting you a wink as he passed.

"You're welcome!" he called back to you. You raced after him with your renewed goal of storming the facility, scoffing as you caught up to him.

"I could've taken him!" you shot back with a grin.

"Oh, I'm certain of that."

That handsome smirk of his crossed his face, the one that always gave off the sense that he was withholding some snide or flirty comment, and you swiftly returned your attention to the door ahead of you. You couldn't be getting distracted by that in the heat of battle.

The door had already been blown open by a blast - courtesy of Tony Stark - and you and Loki ducked inside, with Bucky hot on your heels to assist. The foyer was teeming with more SPECTER soldiers dressed in black armor and black masks, already engaged in battle with Tony as he zoomed around dodging their fire and blasting right back with his outstretched palms.

Clouds of smoke billowed up around the room from the relentless blaster fire as you three late arrivals jumped into battle. Bucky's vibranium arm took hits without a scratch, and he used it as a personal shield as he charged at a cluster of three soldiers. You dove to the floor as blaster fire sailed over your head, somersaulting elegantly to a crouched position and sweeping the legs out from under the nearest soldier. Pushing yourself up onto your feet, you hooked an arm around the neighboring soldier's neck and wrenched him to the ground.

A second's lull in the attacks aimed toward you (the least threatening of the four of you present in the building by their standards) gave you the chance to glance around in search of the central communications hub. Straight ahead, a long hallway led straight to a set of double doors, behind which you could only hope was the room you were searching for.

"Checking the hallway, twelve o'clock," you muttered into your comms device as you took off in a sprint toward your destination.

"Roger that, Rambo," Tony's voice responded promptly, the echoes of the blasts bursting around the room resounding in the background. "Meet me there in sixty seconds."

You ducked low as you ran, making yourself as small as possible to evade fire. A soldier stepped out in front of you, blaster aimed straight at your face. You dodged right at the last second, the heat of the blast grazing your ear as you grabbed hold of his wrist and slammed your other forearm down against his, disarming him. You heard a shout and a thud behind you, pivoting just in time to see Loki driving his boot into another enemy's chest. You used the apparent distraction to yank on the wrist of the soldier who'd nearly blasted your head off, throwing him face-first to the floor. Loki ran by your side, completing the last leg of the sprint to the end of the hallway just as Tony unceremoniously blew the doors open.

Inside was, thankfully, a vast control panel of computers and radars that clearly indicated this was the communications hub you'd been searching for. You approached the central computer as Tony landed beside you, removing his Iron Man armor and setting it to sentry mode.

"Loki - be a dear and watch the door, will you?" you asked with mock sweetness. He rolled his eyes, grinning all the same at your cheek.

"Take your time, agent."

You got to work immediately, fingers flying furiously across the holographic keyboard as you worked your hacking magic on the enemy's electronics. A good fight was always a thrill, but this was the sort of work you really lived for. It was so satisfying, breaking past the flimsy firewalls and supposedly secure passcodes to enter into a sea of data, all available at your fingertips. Except you weren't seeking to take data this time. You were seeking to erase it.

Tony hovered over your shoulder, pointing irritatingly at the screen in front of you as though you didn't already know what you were looking for. "There - that's the SHIELD files."

"Seriously? For a group that prides themselves on being 'unseen and unheard,' seems like a rookie mistake saving your stolen files in your main hard drive..." you muttered tauntingly, making quick work of deleting the file from existence.

"Alright, good to go?" Tony urged.

"Stark - you know as well as I that we need to do a sweep to ensure there's no traces of data anywhere else in the system," you chastised, making a few additional clicks to scan the intranet.

"Remind me why I didn't decide to call you 'cyberpunk?'" Tony quipped. You glanced at him with a slight turn of your head, a half-smirk crossing your face.

"Because you know I'm a force to be reckoned with."

"Fair point. That, and you're crazy."

"Also a fair point."

"STOP!"

A hollering voice sounded, not from the door, but from the corner of the room. Your eyes flitted upward just in time to see a soldier aim his blaster straight at you. Above him, an open vent told you exactly how he’d slipped past your defenses. Unable to dodge quickly enough, you at least managed to turn your body sideways and minimize the impact as the fiery bullet skimmed across your lower ribs on its trajectory past you. Had you not twisted when you did, it most definitely would have burned a hole through your chest. Instead, it singed a hole in your shirt, sending a blinding, searing pain deep into your skin as it burned from the heat of the blast.

With a hiss of pain, your hands shot to the wound as you doubled over. Loki was on the soldier almost instantly, sending him crashing to the ground. Tony took over at the keyboard to complete the last of the sweep as Loki rushed to your side.

"You're injured."

"Yeah, no shit," you grunted through gritted teeth. Turning to Tony, you barked, "Finish scanning the system yet?"

"Just... about... done!" he responded triumphantly.

"Find anything?"

His face dropped into a scowl. "None of your business."

You snickered. "What would you do without me?"

"Yeah, yeah..." Tony activated the Iron Man suit, the metal pieces slamming in formation onto his body like a magnet. "Let's get you outta here, Rambo."

You waved him off dismissively, swallowing the gasp of pain that leapt up in your throat as you stood up straighter. "I'm fine. Let's go."

The jolting motion of each step sent a fresh wave of sharp pain through your wound, but you'd learned not to let it reflect on your face.

To show pain is to show weakness.

Your father always told you that growing up. No matter how many hits you took, he'd never let you so much as wince without reprimanding you. It was just one of the many harsh aspects of his training that you'd carried with you over the years. You supposed he had gotten you where you were, so he couldn't be blamed for his militaristic training methods.

The battle raged on in the foyer with what remained of the SPECTER soldiers guarding the interior. Loki notably stepped out ahead of you the moment you crossed through the doorway into the foyer, but you shoved your way past him to engage with a nearby soldier. You weren't going to let him shield you like that - not while you were still standing.

If you can stand, you can fight.

Your father's words once again echoed in your head. And fight, you would. Shoving the pain out of the forefront of your mind, you swung your fist in a right hook at the soldier's head, making him stumble from the impact. A hand closed around your forearm, and you nearly slapped it away before you realized it was Bucky's.

"Don't be stupid. You're injured," he scolded, gesturing to the hole seared into your shirt where your skin had been burned. You scowled, ripping your arm from his grasp.

"So I've been told. I'll be fine."

To appease your teammates, you at least began heading for the door, fighting only when necessary if a soldier hindered your progress. Tony had already jetted out, likely working to flag down the helicarrier so you could make your escape. The adrenaline of battle ebbed away at the pain, allowing you to focus on getting the hell out of there now that your mission had been completed. It seemed these SPECTER soldiers were in infinite supply - you may have been fierce, but you weren't foolish enough to think the band of heroes would be able to take down every last one of them.

Loki and Bucky were hot on your heels as you burst through the entryway to the building. Steve, Nat, and Thor were looking battle worn, Steve with a laceration to his forehead and Nat with a small burn on her shoulder where a blast likely grazed her skin. They both eyed your wound with concern, making you roll your eyes at the two of them.

"I'm fine!" you shouted as you slammed your heel into an oncoming soldier. "Let's go - the data's erased."

The deafening hum of the helicarrier approached your position as the aircraft appeared in the sky in front of you. The team bolted in unison toward it, ducking under blaster fire as the SPECTER soldiers followed in hot pursuit. The helicarrier hovered low enough to the ground to let out the boarding ramp, allowing the seven of you to hop on before rising into the sky once more. The sound of blaster fire faded into the distance as the aircraft carried you out of firing range.

Bruce appeared at the top of the boarding ramp, looking somewhat anxious with his glasses slipping down the bridge of his nose and his graying brown curls mussed from dragging his own fingers through them repeatedly. Tony was the first to greet him, confirming that the mission had been successful.

"Now, take this one. She's injured," he ordered, pointing at you.

"Hey!" You scowled indignantly. "I'm just fine!"

"Your skin is torched," Steve argued, taking Tony's side. "Go. Get patched up."

"Ugh. Fine." You dragged your feet as you began to follow Bruce to the lab onboard the aircraft. Glancing back, you shouted, "Steve, you and Nat better come with. I'm not the only one who's injured."

Rolling their eyes, the pair of them followed along, knowing you would refuse help if they did.

Entering the lab, you were met with three of the team's medics who were prepared to treat your wounds. They took one look at you, deciding immediately that you would require the most intensive treatment of the three wounded and leading you to the skin regeneration table on board the ship. You reluctantly sat down on the edge of the table, glaring up skeptically at the medic who had taken on your treatment.

"I'll need you to remove your shirt," she instructed, busying herself at the control panel to the machine. Your heart jumped up into your throat at the suggestion.

"I'd rather not."

She glanced up from the computer, peering sternly at you over her spectacles. "How exactly do you propose we treat your burn, then?"

"Uh... you don't." You folded your arms defiantly across your chest. "It's just a surface wound. I'm fine."

The medic paced impatiently over to your side, kneeling down and inspecting the burn on your ribs. She clicked her tongue, shaking her head at your stubbornness. "This will quickly get infected if we do not treat it. Not to mention, it must be very painful."

"I can handle pain," you muttered bitterly under your breath. She gave you a hard look, and you threw your hands up in defeat. "Fine. Go finish programming your little machine, there."

It wasn't that you were trying to be difficult. Your mother had been a medic, so you had quite a bit of respect for their job. It was how she met your father, in fact. She’d been a SHIELD medic until her untimely death when you were only ten years old. Your father never forgave himself for not being there when the enemy stormed aboard the helicarrier that fateful day. He seemed to sort of snap after that, throwing all his efforts into his work, into training you to follow in his footsteps.

You reminded him of her, he always used to say. You wondered if that was the reason he treated you the way he did - pained by the constant memory of what he’d lost.

The real reason you were protesting so much was what was hidden underneath your shirt. Over the years, you’d accumulated a fair number of tattoos, each one easily hidden beneath your clothes and gear. It wasn’t that you were embarrassed by them - you were quite proud of them, actually - but many of them had a deep underlying meaning that you really weren’t interested in trying to explain to your teammates. It was difficult to talk about some of them. So you chose to keep them hidden, keep them close to you as a personal sentiment rather than wearing them openly as a badge of honor.

The walls of the lab were made completely of glass, which meant anyone outside of the room could easily peek inside and see you. If you made too big of a deal of it, inevitably passerby would recognize you were arguing and become more interested. So, instead, you tried to play it cool, grasping the hem of your shirt and pulling it up and over your head. You had to carefully lift it around the burn to avoid irritating it with the fabric scraping across it. Goosebumps erupted on your skin in response to the cool air of the lab as you laid down on the table in nothing but your sport bra covering your upper body. You tried not to look down at the ink staining your skin to avoid drawing attention to the markings.

The medic started up the machine, and you watched impatiently as it sprang into motion, a strip of blue light kissing the wound as your skin knit itself back together. It didn't hurt, exactly, but it wasn't the most comfortable sensation either. The biggest annoyance, though, was how long it was taking to finish. Your eyes kept flitting over to the glass wall beside you, waiting for the inevitable moment someone passed by and saw you lying there on the table with nothing to cover the colorful markings etched into your skin.

Sure enough, Loki appeared on the other side of the glass twenty minutes later.

You couldn't blame him - he probably wanted to be certain you were alright, and it was taking an awfully long time to get this wound treated. In a way, you were somewhat flattered he'd come looking for you. But when his eyes locked on your bare left side, only partially blocked by your arm, skimming over the dragon tattoo that graced your ribs, you could see the curiosity flash on his face.

For a moment, he appeared to be considering entering the lab to talk to you, to inevitably ask the questions you'd been dreading. Fortunately, the medic caught his eye, shooing him with a wave of her hand as she drew the curtain hanging beside the regeneration table to block his view.

You wished you'd noticed it was there sooner.

It took another ten minutes to heal the wound completely, a raw-looking patch of new skin left in its place. The medic inspected her work with an air of pride before finally releasing you. The moment she did, you tugged your shirt back on over your head. With a hasty ‘thank you,’ you scurried out of the lab to your quarters to replace your singed shirt with a new one.

“Are you alright?”

You shouldn’t have been as surprised to hear Loki’s voice in your doorway as you were. Glancing up as you straightened the hem of your clean shirt at your hips, you were met with a concerned-looking Asgardian, though he was clearly trying to hide it. That was one thing you appreciated most about Loki - he never spoke to you or looked at you as a fragile mortal. He learned early on how fierce you could truly be.

“All healed,” you replied with a smile. “That regeneration tech is really something.”

Loki scoffed. “We’ve no need for that sort of thing in Asgard.”

“Well some of us aren’t literal gods, Loki.”

“Ah, but you fight as though you’re immortal like one.”

There it was - that teasing little smirk of his, his blue-green eyes flashing with the internal knowledge that there was something else going through his head that he wasn’t saying out loud. You tried not to let the heat creep up in your face.

“You were awfully nosy earlier, peeking in on me getting fixed up,” you chastised teasingly. “You know, we have privacy rules in Midgardian medicine.”

“I couldn’t help myself. You’ve never shown that much skin before. Forgive me for being… intrigued.”

Ok, the heat was definitely settling in your cheeks now.

“What was that marking you have on your side?”

Ah. There it was, the inevitable question.

“It’s a tattoo,” you responded casually, breaking eye contact to look down at your hands.

“A tattoo?”

“Yes. Ink etched into skin. A sort of art form here on Midgard.”

You chanced a glance up at him, finding a genuinely curious expression on his face. It made you shift uneasily in your seat atop your bed.

“Might I see it?”

You winced, turning your head. “I’d rather not.”

“I apologize. I didn’t intend for it to sound inappropriate.”

Looking back toward him, you offered a weak smile. “No, it’s not that.” With a chuckle, you added, “When have you known me to be self-conscious?”

Loki grinned. “Never. Though, as I said - you’ve never shown that much skin before.”

You let out a slow breath. “It’s just… well, I don’t like to talk about them. My tattoos.”

“Do you not like them?”

“No, I do. It’s… they’re sort of personal to me.”

He nodded slowly, that smirk returning to his face. “Perhaps someday you’ll feel comfortable showing me?”

“Are you asking for me to get personal with you?”

He shot you a wink as he stepped backward out of the doorway. “I certainly wouldn’t mind.”

Your jaw went slack as he vanished around the corner.

Loki had this way of bantering with you that toed the line between friendly and flirty for quite some time now. You never really thought much of it - just sort of chalked it up to Loki being Loki, the silver-tongued God of Mischief. Though, admittedly, you'd never seen him behave in the same way around any of the others. Still, you never took it too seriously. You couldn't lie and say you would be opposed to becoming something more with him. It just had always seemed so far out of the realm of possibility for a mortal.

But that comment... that was the first time he'd said something that alluded to the possibility that he just might feel the same way.

He began to ask you about your tattoos every so often after that. Probing you to see if you'd cave and let him see, let him in on such a personal attribute of yourself. He never pushed you too hard, of course. The idea of possibly letting him in on those parts of you was simultaneously terrifying and exhilarating. More and more, you found yourself wanting to share them with Loki. To let yourself be vulnerable for once in your life.

That was something your father had never taught you to do. To be vulnerable. Vulnerability was weakness to him, and so you learned to shove down everything you ever felt and pack it away in the back of your mind to avoid letting it reflect on your face, in your movements. You'd seen your teammates be openly unguarded with one another, sharing in their heartaches as they did their victories, and you longed for the ability to do the same. It had been so engrained in you to hide everything since your childhood that you weren't really sure where to start.

Loki wasn't exactly the most open-book sort of person either. Perhaps that was a good thing. You could figure it out together.

It was probably around the sixth or seventh time he’d brought it up that you finally caved.

You’d been in the fitness room back in the tower, now that the team was safely stationed back on solid ground. It was one of those rare instances that the room was otherwise empty, and you were not about to pass up that opportunity.

After only ten minutes of hitting the heavy bag, your knuckles were beginning to sting and sweat was beading on your brow from the intensity of your workout. Around the others, you typically tried to tone it back a bit, but when you were by yourself, your old training regimes came back to you.

Finally feeling satisfied with the divots you’d punched into the leather, you wiped your forehead with the back of your hand and reached down for your water bottle. Just as your fingertips touched the condensation building along the chilled plastic, the bottle suddenly slid a few feet to the left, seemingly of its own accord. But you knew better by now.

“Loki, I’m thirsty,” you griped, glancing over your shoulder at the smug-looking trickster who was now standing behind you. “Can’t you at least save your little tricks for after I get to take a sip?”

"Then it wouldn't irk you nearly as much. Where is the fun in that?"

"Is that the sole reason you came in here? To get on my nerves?" A grin pulled at your lips as you took the swig of water you'd been craving.

"Perhaps I wanted to exercise."

You waved your hand in a sweeping motion around the room. "Have at it, then."

He followed along behind you as you made your way across the gym to the pull-up bar. "But getting on your nerves is much more interesting."

"Of course it is." You plunked your water bottle down beside the mats on the hardwood, rubbing your hands together before stepping under the bar and grabbing hold with both hands. "What else are you planning to annoy me with today?"

"Oh, well that's no fun. I can't irritate you on command."

You pulled yourself effortlessly up, lifting your chin over the bar before lowering yourself down once again. "Then maybe you should go exercise."

He shrugged. "I've lost my interest. A god doesn't need to exercise anyhow."

You sniffed out a laugh, pulling yourself up over the bar again. Obviously he'd come in here with the sole purpose of talking to you. He often hovered as you did your own workouts, chatting with you and making teasing comments about your mortal need to exercise to build your strength. In return, you teased that you would become stronger than he was if he didn't start exercising himself.

You didn't mind having his company. He was the only one you'd allow to hang around you like this while you did your workouts.

"You still haven't shown me these tattoos of yours," Loki stated suddenly as you relaxed your arms to dangle from the bar. You released it in your surprise, feet slamming down onto the padded gym mat beneath you with a thump.

"What made you think of that?"

He pointed to your right hip, where a small phrase was tattooed just above your hipbone on your side, hidden underneath your shirt. "Your shirt rode up a bit just now."

"Did you read it?" you asked hesitantly. Loki shook his head.

"I couldn't see the whole thing." He flashed you his trademark smirk, the one that made you weak in the knees. "I must say, you've got me rather curious."

You grinned. "It's killing you, not knowing what they are, isn't it?"

He clicked his tongue. "You're infuriating, teasing me like that."

"And you're nosy."

"I never said I wasn't."

You sighed, pressing your tongue to the inside of your cheek as you tried to fight back a smile. "Alright. I'll show you. But I need to shower first."

"Fair enough."

You directed him to stop by your room in a half hour, heading up to wash off the sweat from your workout. Once you'd cleaned up, you tied your hair back rather than bothering to dry it all the way, throwing on a pair of sweatpants and a sleeveless top. You only owned a couple of those, preferring to wear shirts with sleeves to better conceal your tattoos. It always struck you how exposed you felt even just baring your shoulders. You threw a zip-up hoodie on over it, despite the fact it wasn't cold, just for the added sense of coverage of your skin.

A knock at your door sounded right at the time you'd told Loki to swing by. You opened the door and allowed him inside your room, shutting the door behind you.

This wasn't the first time he'd been in your room. He'd come by a few times in the past, usually to seek council from you when he was arguing with his brother. Although, once, he'd stopped by to check on you when you'd fallen ill with the flu. That had been a rather unexpected visit, but a pleasant one nonetheless, when he'd delivered you a bowl of hot soup after hearing Wanda say it was something Midgardians did when someone was sick.

Despite all that, it still felt foreign having him in your room today. Perhaps because you weren't sure how best to approach the reasoning behind his visit. He stood in the middle of your room, gazing at you questioningly as though trying to determine whether he should sit down or not. You motioned to the edge of your bed, inviting him to sit down beside you as you perched yourself atop your bedspread.

"Understand that you are privileged to be able to see these," you declared sternly. "I don't go around showing my tattoos to everyone."

"Are you certain you're alright with it?"

The uncertainty in his tone startled you. He had an intense look in his eyes as he gazed at you, as though trying to read your mind. Hesitantly, you nodded.

"Yes. I... trust you. It's just hard to share some of the stories behind them."

With a nervous hand, you unzipped the hoodie and shrugged it off, setting it down on the end of the bed. His eyes were immediately drawn to the words inked just below your collarbone on the right side, covered partially by your tank top sleeve. You pushed it aside and allowed him to read the phrase etched on your skin.

With pain comes strength.

"That one is in memory of my father," you explained before he could ask. "He's the reason I became a SHIELD agent."

"I'm sorry you've lost him."

You cringed at the thought that ran through your mind in response. I'm not.

"He was... difficult," you explained. You could tell Loki knew you were sugar-coating it by the skeptical raise of his brow. "He stopped being a father when my mother died. After that, he became nothing more than my instructor, my fighting coach. He... pushed me to become a SHIELD agent like he was."

"Is that what you wanted?"

"Yes... and no." You turned around to allow Loki to see the tattoo between your shoulder blades, the thin black parallel lines and circles designed to depict a circuit board. "I've always been into computers. If I'd had my choice, I'd have worked in the technology department in SHIELD. Developing new gear, programming new A.I.s, hacking into bad guys' systems from afar..."

"Why didn't you?"

"My father wanted me to be a field agent like he was. He always said the techy agents were the ones who were 'too weak to throw a punch.'"

You felt his finger suddenly tracing along the lines of the tattoo, down along your spine, and you shivered. Loki apologized and retracted his hand.

"It's alright, you can touch it. Just warn me next time, will you?" you griped, turning your head to grin at him and let him know you didn’t mind. He smirked right back, lifting his hand to the markings between your shoulders once again. The pads of his fingers were soft against the smooth skin of your back. It had been years since someone had touched your bare skin. It felt foreign to you, but it felt... nice. His touch was almost reverent as he traced along one of the sharp bending lines that bordered your shoulder blade.

"Show me another one," he requested. You felt an odd sense of loss when his fingers left your back. Turning back towards him, you shifted to point out one of the few colorful tattoos you had inked into the outside of your upper right arm, normally hidden even beneath the short-sleeved T-shirts you wore. It was a small hummingbird, with feathers of blue, green, and pink and wings flared out as though in flight.

"My mother always loved hummingbirds," you murmured, feeling a painful lump forming in your throat.

"What happened to her?" Loki asked quietly.

"Ambush. She was a medic on board the helicarrier that my dad was stationed on. They never saw it coming." You released a shuddering breath. "I was only ten, but I remember it like it was yesterday, the day my father came home and told me she was dead."

Loki placed a gentle hand on your forearm in comfort. You glanced up at him, blinking back the tears blurring your vision as you fought to keep them from spilling over. To show pain is to show weakness. You had to remind yourself again that the reason you chose the phrase along your collarbone was to rewrite those words your father used to tell you in a more positive light. With pain comes strength. You just weren't used to showing it to other people.

"My mother was killed in an ambush as well." Loki’s voice sounded heavy, laden with sadness and possibly even a touch of guilt.

"I'm sorry," you breathed, placing your hand over his where it still rested on your arm. He allowed it for a moment, then cleared his throat and lifted his hand, and you followed suit. With a watery laugh, you told him, "I do have some with happy memories, I swear."

"Go on then. Show me."

You scooted backward a bit on the bed, bending your knee and rolling up your pant leg to show him the small black anchor tattooed on your ankle. "My friend and I got matching ones when we were younger. We used to go sailing every summer. This one's small, but it hurt like hell getting it done."

"Is it often painful?"

"More like... scratchy. But this one hurt."

You let your leg drape back over the bed, shaking it a bit to unfurl your pant leg to cover your ankle once again. Loki's eyes flitted down to your hip where he'd seen your shirt ride up earlier.

"You've yet to show me that one," he urged, gesticulating toward the spot. You let out a breathy laugh through your nose, lifting the hem of your shirt to expose your right side. The words were small, and Loki leaned down a bit to read them.

"You are enough." His eyes lifted to once again meet yours, his face startlingly closer to your own now that he'd shifted closer to see the black ink scrawled across your side. A tilt of his head told you he wanted to know the story behind it. This was quite possibly the hardest story to tell, and you braced yourself for it.

"That one, I got to remind myself that no matter what harsh words my father had for me... I am not worthless."

Loki hummed thoughtfully. "I'm beginning to dislike this man more and more."

You laughed despite yourself. "I doubt you'd have gotten along with him if he were still alive. He was no-nonsense - he didn't like to joke around, always straight down to business. Maybe that's why you and I get along so well."

"Oh?"

"I was a mischievous kid, you know. Dad always hated that. For a while, it only made me try harder to get on his nerves, just to defy him." You grinned at the trickster. "I bet you were a little monster when you were a kid."

Loki let out a rumbling chuckle from deep in his chest, one that made your heart flutter in your chest. "I certainly wasn't an angel - let's leave it at that."

You let go of your shirt to let it drape back over your hip, hiding the black ink from view once again. Loki looked at you expectantly, waiting for you to show him the last one.

"Well?"

"Well, what?" You tried to look confused, biting back a teasing smirk. He saw right through it, folding his arms sternly across his chest with a grin.

"Oh, come now. You can't expect me not to ask about the one on your other side - not after I saw a part of it while you were in the lab the other day."

"You saw the whole thing!"

"Your arm was blocking it. Don't try to get out of this one, darling."

You huffed through your nose, shaking your head in defeat. In truth, this was your favorite out of all of them. It was also the largest and most intricate tattoo you had. You'd debated it for months before having it done, knowing you wanted to be certain you'd love it if you were to get something this extensive inked permanently into your skin. The fact that Loki was so curious about it made you a bit giddy to show it to him, but you simply had to tease him a bit first.

"Oh, alright. I suppose I can show you again."

You turned around to sit with your left side facing Loki, seated cross-legged on the bed. Gradually, you rolled your shirt up to the middle of your ribs, revealing the dragon tattoo you had winding up the span of your side. Various shades of blue and black ink added depth and dimension to the dragon's scales as it twisted from just above your hip to the middle of your ribs.

Loki's eyes roamed curiously over the image inked into your skin. "What's the story behind this one?"

You turned your head just slightly, enough to flash him a sly smirk. "I just like dragons."

A breathy laugh escaped his nose. "I can appreciate that." He lifted his hand hesitantly, catching your eye. "May I?"

You nodded, eyes shifting to watch his hand as he gently touched his fingertips to the bare skin overlaying your ribs, tracing along the snout and head of the dragon. It took every ounce of effort you had not to flinch at his touch. Holy hell, it tickled. It had been some time since anyone had attempted to tickle you, and you'd forgotten how terribly sensitive you were. What you hadn't forgotten was the squeaky, girlish laughter that burst out of you whenever someone managed to find a particularly weak spot. It was far from the tough façade with which you'd learned to carry yourself. So, whenever a friend happened to try to tickle you, you either withheld your reactions long enough for them to grow bored, or you scolded them into thinking you didn't want them to touch you.

But Loki's tender touch was not unwelcome. Quite the opposite, really. If only you weren't so damned ticklish, you could melt right into it. You could not let him know what he was doing to you. You knew the God of Mischief well enough to know that the moment he found out how ticklish you were, he'd go searching for the spots and pressure that might actually make you laugh those embarrassingly cutesy giggles of yours.

His fingertips glided along the dragon's spine, winding back and forth down the length of your ribs. You balled your hand into a fist and curled your toes as you willed yourself not to react. Goosebumps rose along your skin in the wake of his fingertips as they flitted down the softer skin of your side, tracing down along the dragon's tail. You let out a breath you hadn't realized you'd been holding the moment his finger paused at the very tip of the tail, just above your hipbone, only to suck it right back into your lungs as he reversed direction and began tracing back up the way he'd come.

"Am I tickling you?"

He had an impish lilt to his tone that made your stomach flip as your eyes darted up to meet his. You opened your mouth to deny it, and he purposely lightened his touch with the intention to make it tickle as he continued ghosting his fingertips along the image on your skin. Your hand shot to your mouth to stifle a giggle on instinct.

"Damn," you muttered, voice muffled in your palm. That godforsaken handsome smirk spread across his face, and you knew you were in trouble. You brought your arm down to cover your side, releasing your shirt in hopes it would slip down to cover your bare skin and offer a bit of protection, but it was bunched around your midsection where you'd rolled it up.

"I wasn't finished admiring your tattoo, you feisty little dragon," he scolded teasingly, his hand closing around your wrist and prying your arm from your side.

"L-Loki! You brat!" You wrenched your wrist from his grasp, only for him to catch it in his other hand as you swatted at him playfully. "N-noho! Don't you dare!"

His free hand found your side, fingers flitting ticklishly over the bare skin wrapping around toward your belly. You clapped your hand back over your mouth as another little giggle threatened to burst out, shaking your head with wide eyes at your flirtatious assailant. Loki withdrew his hand, releasing your wrist with a concerned, hesitant look on his face.

"I apologize - do you not like to be tickled?"

You lowered your hand from your mouth, tugging your shirt down on instinct but softening your expression. "No, it's not that. I just... it's embarrassing."

"You're embarrassed by being tickled?"

"By my laugh."

Loki cocked his head inquisitively. "You laugh all the time." Boastfully, he added, "I am quite funny, after all."

"You keep telling yourself that," you teased, shoving his shoulder playfully. "I don't mind my usual laugh, but... god this is embarrassing... I sort of laugh... differently when someone tickles me."

Loki's eyebrows shot up his forehead, a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Now I'm very intrigued."

"Well that's a shame, because I'm not gonna- HEY!" You swatted at his hand as it darted out and pinched your ribs, barely withholding a giggle. "No, none of that! I don't want you to hear it! It's embarrassing!"

"Explain to me how your laugh can possibly be that embarrassing that you won't allow me to tickle you."

"First off, no one allows anyone to tickle them-"

"So you'd prefer I take you down by force and tickle you instead?"

Your face caught fire, and you were somewhat mortified to realize that part of the reason was because you didn't mind that idea in the slightest.

"N-not the point. AS I was saying... my ticklish laugh is... ugh, it's-squeaky-and-cutesy-and-terrible." You were surprised Loki could even understand what you said, the words came tumbling out of your mouth so fast. Based on the sly, flirty grin that crossed his face, you knew he understood every word.

"That sounds charming."

You swatted his hand away once again as he reached for your side. "That's exactly the problem! I'm not meant to be adorable! I'm a SHIELD agent - I can take guys down with my bare hands, I know how to handle nine different types of weapons-"

"And you're adorably ticklish. I don't see the problem here."

"Loki!" You hid your burning face in your hands, only to bring your arms right back down as his fingers skittered across your belly. With a non-threatening growl, you smacked his hand away once again. Truthfully, you were loving this playfulness. This sort of interaction was something you seriously lacked as a kid, your childhood stolen away from you in favor of long hours of relentless training and cruel words. Still, you weren't sure how keen you were on allowing Loki to hear your childish-sounding giggles.

"You don't need to be the tough, hardened SHIELD agent every waking hour of the day," he insisted. "In fact, I rather enjoy this softer side of you."

"Really?"

He nodded, a smirk spreading across his lips. "What's life without a bit of laughter?" he asked, experimentally squeezing your hip and earning another slap on the wrist. "Now then. I'd very much like to hear this 'squeaky and cutesy and terrible' laugh of yours. And as you so astutely stated, no one simply allows someone to tickle them..."

You laughed nervously as he caught hold of your wrist, wrenching your free arm out of his reach before he could get his hand on the other one. He tutted at you, shifting to kneel beside you on the bed so he could gain leverage to increase his efforts to capture you in his hold. His hand reached out for yours again, and you swiftly hid it behind your back.

"You are well aware this is a fruitless endeavor, attempting to evade capture." He smirked devilishly at you. "Eventually you know I'll overpower you."

Despite the fact that you weren't exactly excited about the prospect of Loki hearing your less-than-threatening bubbly giggles, you found that you trusted him completely. You trusted that he cared about you - perhaps cared for you, if you could be so fortunate - and you trusted that he would never say something hurtful to you.

You trusted him enough that when he finally did catch your other wrist and wrestle you down onto your back, you didn't fight as hard as you knew you could as he pinned your wrists beneath his knees.

"Lohoki you AHASS!" you cried, squirming under his gaze.

"You wound me, darling." He let his hands hover threateningly over your sides, knowing already that you were ticklish there at least to a lighter tough. You stiffened in anticipation of his impending attack. "Let's hear that laugh then, hmm?"

His hands latched onto both sides, kneading into the soft, sensitive skin. You sucked in a breath and squeezed your eyes shut, trying to withhold your laughter despite how horribly ticklish the sensation was. Undeterred, he let his hands wander in search of a weak spot, one hand clawing its way into the center of your belly while the other ascended your ribcage.

"Come now, darling... laugh for me," he urged teasingly, swapping his hands to dig one into the spot just below your ribs and slotting the other up under your arm. You clamped your mouth shut tight, letting out a screech of protest from deep in your throat through your nose as you kicked your heels against the mattress. He had you writhing with the gentlest scratching of his fingertips at that spot under your ribcage, and the fingers wriggling into the pliant skin beneath your arm were certainly not helping matters.

However, neither compared to the agonizingly ticklish sensation as his hand descended from your ribs to the side of your belly, about halfway between your navel and your side. Just one scratch at that spot and you were done for.

Those silly ticklish giggles poured from your lips, only increasing in speed and volume when he realized what was causing your sudden outburst of laughter and dropped his other hand to the other side of your belly. You giggled and squeaked, writhing and kicking helplessly as a fond grin spread across his face.

"There it is." Loki scratched faster at the torturous spot, his grin widening as your eyes scrunched shut and you threw your head back with desperate laughter. "I don't know what you're talking about - this is a very normal-sounding laugh."

"SHUHUT UHUP, YOHOU!"

"That's quite rude of you - I'm trying to make you feel better. The least you can do is not shout at me." He wrapped his large hands around your sides, toggling circles into those same spots on your belly with both thumbs while scratching at your sides. A giggly screech ripped through your chest as your back arched, then finally you went limp against the bedspread as your own hysterical laughter overpowered you.

But not once did you tell him to stop. Not once did you want him to stop. Sure, the sensation was overwhelming, ticklish shocks shooting through your nerves with every squeeze of his fingers into your middle. But you trusted Loki. Enough to let yourself be vulnerable with him, just as you had been when you'd explained the stories behind each of your tattoos. His touch was mischievous, but it was kind and playful, and you hadn't laughed like this in a very, very long time. Your abdominal muscles ached and your laughter was becoming breathless, but it felt good. Refreshing.

Loki relented, having succeeded in his mission to make you laugh. Your mind was fuzzy as you sat up, smoothing your hair down as your giggles slowly faded. He flashed you his smirk, and you shot him a hardly-menacing glare.

"I don't believe there is anything 'terrible' about that laugh of yours," he assured with a wink. You swatted his shoulder jokingly.

"Yohou suck," you grumbled. Then, with a glint of mischief in your eyes, you dropped your hand down to his side and swiftly pinched at the soft spot a few times. He merely stared down at your hand, unmoving, then looked up to meet your eye with an impossibly wider smirk. Your jaw dropped indignantly. "No. No way are you not ticklish."

"Not in the same way you are."

"So you are ticklish, then."

"In exactly two places, yes."

With a fierce look of determination, you brought your other hand over to dig into his lower ribs. He sighed as though you were boring him, casually taking hold of your wrists and prying them away from his sides.

"Hey!"

"As you stated earlier - no one simply allows someone to tickle them." He grinned, holding fast to your wrists as you tugged and twisted to try to free them from his grip. He was teasing you now, you knew - not doing anything but preventing you from continuing on your mission to find the two solitary places he was ticklish.

"Oh, come on!" you groaned, shifting to sit on your knees to be able to push harder against his hold. "Now I - mmph - I need to know where!"

Loki chuckled fiendishly. "I'm sorry to tell you, darling, but you're going to have to work for it."

Growling, you threw your weight forward to try to catch him off guard and knock him backward. You nearly succeeded, but he regained his balance at the last moment, suddenly shoving your wrists in retaliation and easily slamming you down onto your back once again with your arms pinned beside you. He loomed over you with a self-assured grin, gradually dragging your arms up above your head as you began protesting and laughing all at once.

"What - did you think I was going to make it easy for you, little spitfire?" He gathered your wrists in one hand, lowering the other to your right hip and slipping it up under the hem of your shirt. "Is this tattoo of yours ticklish as well?"

"How should I know- hehey!! Lohohoki!!" You let out a few giggles as his fingers swept maddeningly gently over the bare skin above your hip where the words were inked into your skin. He clicked his tongue, grinning victoriously.

"Ah, I see it is. Tell me - do the tattoos make your skin more ticklish in those spots? Or have you always been this sensitive?"

"I-hi hahate you." You twisted to evade his fingers, and rather than trying to follow you, he turned his attention to the words under your collarbone, lightly tracing his finger along the looping text. A surprised giggly shriek burst from your lips at the sensation, a stretch of skin you'd never anticipated would be ticklish and yet it was making your nerves tingle.

"This one too? Perhaps it's the ink, then?" He shot his hand down to your belly, scratching at the weak spot he'd discovered earlier and throwing you into hysterics. "Although, that wouldn't explain why this makes you laugh so hard."

Your half-hearted protests were lost beneath the sound of own laughter, amplifying when Loki released your wrists in favor of digging into the other side of your belly. Your hands grasped feebly at his wrists, then wrapped around your midsection, all failed attempts to lessen the ticklish feeling of his fingers clawing at your skin. In a last-ditch effort, you slotted your thumbs up under his arms, digging your eight fingers into the backs of his ribs.

Loki spluttered, removing his hands from your belly to sit up and shift out of reach of your fingers. But you were swift. You practically threw yourself at him, not even considering the implications as you wrapped your arms tight around him and pinned his arms to his sides. Without waiting for him to start fighting back, you latched your fingers onto those spots on the backs of his ribs and launched a ten-fingered attack.

"Pfft yohou lihittle..."

Whatever he was planning to call you, you never found out. The rumbling, deep laughter that burst from the trickster's chest was startling. You'd never heard him laugh before. Sure, he chuckled snarkily all the time, but to hear him really laugh... It was quite possibly your new favorite sound. Still, you couldn't pass up the opportunity to tease him for it.

"Ah-ha!! I found one!" you cried triumphantly, tightening your hold as he began trying to throw you off him. You squeaked as his hands found your sides and squeezed, digging your fingers into his ribs faster to deter his counterattack. You could feel his muscles weakening in your hold from his laughter. You leaned back a bit to look him in the eye, flashing him a smirk reminiscent of the mischievous god himself. "Oh-ho-ho, you're so screwed."

His eyes locked on yours for a moment, those blue-green irises practically glowing.

What happened next, you couldn't possibly have anticipated.

Loki suddenly allowed himself to fall backward, bringing you down on top of him with a surprised yelp. The shock of it made you loosen your grip, scrambling to plant your knees on either side of his hips to regain some semblance of leverage, preparing yourself for his ticklish retaliation. His hands found your hips, and you opened your mouth to begin playfully scolding him.

Anything you would have said to him was muffled against his mouth as he captured your lips with his.

For a brief moment, you stiffened, more than a bit shocked by this sudden advance. As your mind processed what was happening, you relaxed into his arms, melting as you sighed blissfully against his lips. Loki's hand slipped under the hem of your shirt, making you gasp and tense in anticipation of more tickling, but he kept his touch firm as he slid his palm along the side where the dragon tattoo adorned your skin. Your lips curled up into a grin against his, parting from him just slightly to look at him through hazy eyes.

"Is that one your favorite too?" you mumbled. That smirk that always made you weak in the knees graced his lips as he nodded, running his palm back down along your side.

"I'd like to see it again."

"Mm... later." You silenced him once again with another kiss, savoring in the taste of his lips. His hand came to rest on your hip once again, the other rising to cradle your neck as he lifted his head slightly to deepen the kiss.

There was no way of knowing how much time passed while your lips were locked with Loki's. And in all honesty, you didn't really care. Not once in the entirety of your life had anyone made you feel this good. If this was your reward for being open and vulnerable with him... well, perhaps you'd need to do it more often.

You let him kiss you until you became breathless, finally forcing yourself to part from his lips to get some air. He let his hand at your neck slide down to your shoulders as he lifted his lips to kiss along your jawline.

"You... you just kissed me to make me stop tickling you, didn't you?" you teased. He grinned, pressing one last kiss to your neck.

"It worked, did it not?" You scoffed and rolled your eyes with a laugh. "In any case, no. I kissed you because I wanted to. That was just an added bonus."

You leaned down to press gentle kisses along his jawline to return the favor, grinning as you heard his breath hitch in his chest. "You know..." you mumbled between kisses, "... you're not getting out of telling me where your other tickle spot is just by kissing me."

Loki hummed thoughtfully, lifting his head to recapture your lips with his once again. You considered scolding him for attempting to evade the question once again, but you allowed it, pressing your lips harder against his and kissing him fervently. His hands slid firmly down your sides and along your hips, coming to rest at the back of your thighs just above your knees. He let his head fall back against the mattress to break apart from your lips once again, and you barely registered the mischievous glint in his eyes in your euphoric daze.

"Why don't I just show you instead?"

Caught off guard after being lulled into a kiss-drunken trance, you didn't have time to react as you felt his fingers hook around the undersides of your knees, shifting up just a couple inches and scratching at the apparently hypersensitive patches of skin just above your knees on your inner thighs. An embarrassingly high-pitched shriek burst from your lips at the sudden sensation, collapsing against Loki and burying your face in his shoulder to muffle your desperate giggles.

"MM-HMM LOKIHI!" you squealed, trying to roll off of him. Loki held fast, his fiery fingers fluttering and sweeping along the cotton fabric of your pants covering those wretched spots above your knees. You kicked your feet against the mattress in protest, earning a laugh from the mischievous god as he finally showed you mercy. His hands left your knees so his arms could wrap tightly around your waist, squeezing you to his chest.

"It seems we have that spot in common, don't we, darling?" he murmured in your ear teasingly. You growled playfully, lifting your head to glare at him.

"I'm beginning to think that kissing me was all a ruse to be able to torment me," you scolded jestingly. He responded by rolling swiftly, pinning you on your back and gazing down with nothing but adoration in his eyes.

"There are many more reasons than that for me to want to kiss you." To emphasize, he ducked his head to kiss you once more, stealing your breath away. You laughed against his lips, drinking in his kiss for a moment before swiftly latching your hands around the backs of his knees and targeting those same spots he'd just demonstrated on you moments ago. He barked out a surprised laugh at your ticklish touch, toppling sideways onto the bed to escape your fingers. You managed to continue a moment longer before he captured your hands in his, raising them to his lips and pressing a kiss to each of your palms.

"Mm... you're no fun," you whined, eliciting an amused laugh from the trickster.

"I beg your pardon - as I recall, I just made you laugh for the last twenty minutes," he retorted with mock indignance.

"That might be an exaggeration. But, I'll let you have it."

Loki propped himself up on his elbow, reaching over and gently grasping the hem of your shirt in his hand with a pleading look in his eyes. "Might I see it again, now? I promise I won't tickle you."

Your cheeks warmed as you nodded, allowing him to slide your shirt up to reveal the dragon tattoo once again. He smoothed his palm over it with enough weight in his touch not to tickle, just as he'd promised.

"This one suits you," he declared after gazing at it a moment longer.

"Oh? And why is that?"

"It's elegant and beautiful, and yet simultaneously fiery and fierce. Much like you."

You turned his words over in your mind, a grin tugging at your lips. "You know... I never thought of it that way. I like that."

It was true - you'd honestly gotten that tattoo because you liked it. The one tattoo that had no story behind it, and yet Loki found a way to make it the most meaningful of all of them. You strove to be fiery and fierce, but you'd never thought yourself to be elegant and beautiful until Loki suggested you were. It was perfect - the perfect blend of your past and the future you were striving for.

Loki smirked as he watched you react to his words, that smirk you were beginning to love more and more each time he showed it to you. He wrapped an arm around your waist and tugged you close, eyeing your lips hungrily as your face burned under the weight of his gaze.

"Now - kiss me again, little dragon."

How could you possibly say no?

[everafterkeiji]

Song: Easy to Forget Me by Cimorelli

Pairings: Tobio Kageyama x fem! reader

Word count: 2.8k

Summary: When the king's queen was out of his grasp before he can realize

Warning/Genre: angst, toxic friendship, anxiety attack

Symbols: Italics=flashbacks

A/N: um- im very much hurt

Kageyama pants as he runs, pushing his limit with his eyes scanning the street ahead of him. His chest heavily coming up and down with sweat dripping down his skin. Mind empty but theres a certain feeling in his chest that was urging him to come back to a certain period in his life or a certain someone.

As he passes by a certain store, he suddenly stops. The feeling of his legs as if it they were holding him back, restraining his every move along with a voice lingering in his head like a broken record.

"She wasn't there."

Like a rock thrown to glass, his heart shatters, the sharpness of it scattering around his body making him weak to his knees as he stares at the shop that brought back memories he should've cherished. Maybe he should've gone with you when you asked him, maybe he should've took interest in your stories that had you smiling for days.

Maybe he should've chosen to remember.

"Tobio! Please don't push me away." Y/N begs, as Tobio disregards your words as he locks the door, slamming it in front of you. It was right after the match of Kitagawa, where his teammates claimed him the King, leaving him stranded.

"Please.. I'm here. I'll stay with you, I promise." Y/N says, head leaned on the door as she desperately tries to talk to the boy who've built such high walls a person like her can never reach. Kageyama can hear her pleas through the door but only one scene was repeating in his head-the moment the ball dropped, not even a soul was willing to save it for him.

"Kageyama.." she whispers sliding down with tears in her innocent eyes, scared for the condition of the boy, even more scared of what was bound to happen to their closeness.

The door creaks open slightly, and she was off her feet wiping away her tears as she turns around to see the broken boy clutching his shirt. He collapses into her arms and she gladly takes him, both sat on the ground with her hands running through his dark locks. Tears in each of their eyes, Y/N holding onto him while he questions himself. All the words that slipped through her mouth was nothing but sweet whispers and promises, reassuring him that he was no king.

Just a prince surrounded in a kingdom he didn't deserve.

-

"T-thank you for yesterday. You're the only one I can..count on." He says through the phone and you immediately smile at his words, surprised he believed in your promise. You let your hand rest on top of your heart, gripping on your shirt feeling that your heart was too big to fit into your body with how your emotions were overwhelming you just because of one boy. You wonder how long it'll take for you to break under him, under the kings command.

"It's nothing, Tobio. I'll be here whenever you need me."

-

"Kageyama! Good morning!" You say as you gladly bring him his usual choice of milk. He nods to you as a sign of thank you, and you smile at him. You walk with him silently, admiring the pleasant air between you two. It was a coincidence you two entered the same school, or was it really just your instinct and you chose it to protect the boy?

"I heard about this new store. Do you wanna come with me? I've seen photos of it everywhere!" She rambles on yet it fell on deaf ears as Kageyama was only delighted about being back on the gym, able to play his passion. When he turned to her, even if she was talking, his slightest care couldn't be given to her. He'd only nod every once in a while to make it seem like he'd understood.

If your heart knew that he didn't care, maybe then you would've realized.

-

We're in the same town

But you're nowhere to be found

"She hasn't been around for days. Do you think she'll make it to our game?" Hinata asks as Tanaka hands him another ball. Tanaka sighs as he looks over to the empty bench. It was funny how they were all concerned yet one boy couldn't care less. The second year looks over to Kageyama who spiked the ball perfectly, seeing him cheer at his success.

"Worry less about Y/N, she probably has her own problems. We all know that she could never miss our game, especially when Kageyama is playing." Daichi says, looking over to the younger boy. Daichi can feel how cold the atmosphere was with just a glance. He tries not to interfere with whatever happened between you two but after the match no one saw you again. Yet he sees Kageyama, perfectly back in his mindset and not an ounce of suspense as to why you weren't present.

"Plus we missed her birthday! Can't we buy some gifts for her? She doesn't really seem okay to me." Sugawara say and Nishinoya jumps at the idea agreeing completely.

"Seems like he shouldn't be invited." Tsukishima says, pointing at their other setter. Hinata sighs beside him, before shaking his head, in denial of the tension.

"Let's just go after practice!"

-

He walks inside the record store, seeing a variety of albums and vinyls. He lets his slim fingers run over the texture of each album, wondering which drew his attention. The atmosphere of the store was enough to leave a weight on his shoulders.

It's you, isn't it?

He eyes a poster on his left, enjoying how the colors were spotlighted by the sunlight that was peeking through the window. All the soft hues, having a dark gradient at the bottom he couldn't help but feel how familiar everything was. He carefully listens to the song that was playing, concentrating on every lyric as if he was trying to find a connection.

This is her world.

He watches how everyone in the store was occupied in conversations. Conversing about their interests, debating about different eras, even singing in different aisles. He can only feel sympathy, alone in her world he didn't bother to acknowledge. He should know by now what music you like, what album you first bought, which band poster was hung on your wall, but when he tried he could only hear murmurs and whispers.

I wish I listened.

-

Do you ever miss me?

You wonder as you sat in your room, knees to your chest in the far corner, listening to the song playing in your earphones. You stood up, walking to your window and opening it, greeted by the cold air. You let you hands dangle from the window while your eyes landing on the night sky creeping a smile on your face at how comforting it was.

The moon stares down on you, feeling helpless for the girl who thought numbness was the right choice. She couldn't even mask the way her world was slowly loosing color. To her, music would always paint her skies with color. All she can do now is envision the colors but in reality they were all desaturating with every passing day. There's pretty smile set on her lips yet feels like a tug of force knowing it was hard to act civil when her heart lost the battle.

-

"This place is so cool!" Hinata exclaims, eyes sparkling at the sight of the vivid posters and overall aesthetic and aura of the store. Nishinoya joins him on the excitement. Daichi turn to Kageyama who looked like a lost puppy, eyes wandering everywhere. Sugawara taps Daichis shoulder quite cutely holding up a vinyl in his hands.

"This looks like something she'd like!" He says with a smile and Nishinoya joins the conversation, holding out his own album waving it in the air claiming it was more her type. Asahi laughs at the two while he continues to view the albums that were in front of him.

Kageyama glances at his seniors along with the second years. He sees the genuine care they have for her but why is that he feels empty? Like he was numb to any feeling. He did miss her birthday, not even bothering to greet her, focusing on doing better for the next matches.

Hinata notices the dismay from the boy but his lips form a thin line, knowing exactly why Kageyamas clueless. He wonders about the feeling of neglecting a person that's been by your side for years. Kageyama seemed like he was a pro for such things. He always took notice of how Y/N would look whenever he's decline her offers, the way she walks to class disheartened but when she sees the setter, she instantly lights up at the sight.

Seeing her cry that day was enough for him to keep a distance.

How can he even comfort her? The moment she turned her back to Kageyama, she had a hopeless smile on her lips, tears continuously rolling down her puffy cheeks. He could see the way she collapsed that way. How the queen finally let go of her duties from the king.

-

Kageyama laid on his bed with earphones in, hands to his chest focused on the melodies. It was ironic how he wanted to badly catch up on what he's lost. He was badly trying to find the trail back to you but he was unfortunate. It seemed like he was the one that changed everyone's destination.

The moment she stepped in the gym, so bewildered at the different personalities they had. Hinata was the first one to approach her, asking her questions about their "friendship." The following months went by and Hinata found comfort in her and so did the rest of the team, favoring her for her endless support, always hearing her cheers at each game. After every match, she'd always encourage the others, being the brightest sun to cast upon the team who was discouraged.

Yet he found this unnecessary?

He bites his lip at his old thought. He hated himself for thinking how useless of a habit that was for you. He believed that Daichi was enough to lift up the spirits of his teammates so the team really didn't need you. It's opposite for the others though. They truly appreciated each of your compliments, each pat on the shoulder or head. Even if you wanted to do the same for him, he'd always walk away before you could even reach him. Hinata and Yamaguchi would always try to make you forget how harsh the boy was.

He lets his eyes close for a while. For a second, he was at peace but then words started resurfacing.

"How could you just walk away?"

He tries to ignore the tone of her voice, trying to drown it out by increasing the volume, but his heart was panicking at the memory. Even if he tightly shuts his eyes, all he can imagine was the sight of the last time he saw her. He wanted to sit up, to avoid the anxiousness that was crawling under his skin, but his back remained on the bed, struggling to escape the encounter.

"Is it that easy to forget me?"

Y/N.

(TW! Anxiety attack. Do not proceed if this makes you uncomfortable)

He calls out to her like a whisper, clutching his pillow as he stares wide eyed at the ceiling. He feels the room swirl around him, the walls caving on him as every insult and memory came to him. He sits up and desperately tries to walk but he collapses on the floor, hands quickly reaching the hem of his shirt bringing it over his shoulders. Panting incredibly with his sweat covering his forehead as he tried to calm himself down but each second he was reminded of a moment in his life he could never change.

"Hey..Kageyama it's okay." Y/N tries to reach for his shoulder but he harshly grabs a hold of her hand, gripping it tightly in his as he stares her down with his dark eyes, locking on her terrified ones.

"We fucking lost! To Aoba! To Oikawa! How can you act like this when we lost?!" Kageyama shouts at her and she winces at the volume but she lets her other hand rest on top of his, trying to make sure her eye contact reminded him that everything was going to be okay.

"Tobio- Karasuno will come back and win again.. You have to trust that everything isn't set in stone. Failure-"

"FAILURE? I don't have any fucking time for more failures Y/N! You simply don't know what that feels cause all you've been doing is tagging along and being useless." He spat and you felt your smile crumble at his words. He removes your hands from his as he frustratedly runs his hands to his hair, feeling as if pins went through his hands, blaming it for their loss.

"Kageyama..you don't m-mean that. Stop. I know you're angry-"

"I'm disappointed Y/N for fucks sake! I could've done better! We could've won if I didn't slip up. Stop acting like you can fucking solve everything and leave!" She takes a step forward to him as he extends out a hand, blocking her from moving any further. The gesture completely draining the life out of her, her heart growing more and more in her chest, the admiration for the boy trying to erase his negativity.

"K-kageyama-"

"Fuck Y/N! Can't I have a day without you talking to me? Or even being around me? I don't need you. The team doesn't need you. No one else does.. so please just leave already."

He stares at her for a while before rushing off, annoyance and pride feeding his heart and mind. She sees him getting more and more distant as she lets her last smile fall on her lips. All the love and joy was erased from her heart, feeling how shallow and dark the atmosphere was inside it. It began to feel like every heartbeat was slowing down as her tears painted her a trail as she walked. The tears continuously flooded her cheeks as every function of her body was weakening with every action.

She feels the tension that there was in the bus, while she was stuck in the corner, silent.

Silent but the Kings poison consumed her.

Happy birthday to me then. She thinks bitterly.

She looks at the scenery beside her, appealing dull. She allows her heart to cry at the sharp pieces that went through it, as if it was like a balloon being popped or like the light from a fire was blown out.

There was a certain part of her that died that day. She wonders if it was her entirely, or just her ability to feel anything apart from the harsh reality. It was the mere feeling of hearing him say the exact opposite of the words you were badly used to. As the person who he counted on even back at Kitagawa, you should've believed it. But every word he threw were all words that should've never been brought to light. You were back to zero to say the least, back at the darkest corner of your mind. Touching in with your negative emotions drowning you with every replay of of his words.

Then she glances at him.

She lets her eyes linger on him for the last time before she sighs, hands forming a ball, nails digging through her skin.

I don't know you anymore.

Kageyama opens his eyes slowly, hands reaching for his phone as he dials a forgotten number. He was panting furiously, desperate to hear the sound of your voice he was late to miss. He dreaded the silence the surrounded him, he wished the silence would be killed by your voice, assuring him that all was forgiven and you were ready to come back to him so he can apologize for everything he's done.

On the other end of the line, you sighed sadly. You the see way your phone lit up the dark room, seeing a name you've yet to see in months. You carefully place the phone in your hands, trying to find the feeling in your chest when he was around. The feeling of excitement to see or hear him has vanished yet you wished that you had the ability to feel for him again.

Love has faded, no evidence, not even a trace.

So you put the phone down, done waiting to be found.

Kageyama hears the way the sound of the phone stopped, seeing his wallpaper flash in front of him. He lets the tears fall from his eyes as he calls out to you one more time, even if you broke your promise, still holding on to it but there wasn't a chance for him anymore.

And the queen left the kingdom, leaving the king to rule by himself.

[sevensins-stuff]

Player x Player | Leviathan x F!MC

⚠️Warnings⚠️: nsfw, fluff/smut, fem mc, tail biting and tail sucking!

Mc: Yo Levi! Let me in! I picked up something that I think would be fun for us to play

Levi: If it's another card game I think we should wait for everyone else

Mc: It's even better! Can I come to your room?

Levi: Yeah, sure

It were only mere seconds before frantic knocking happened at his door. Leviathan was quick to open it to reveal an overly excited human. She practically shook in her place before he let her inside. She dropped the large bag from her shoulder carefully to the floor next to her and clapped excitedly as she turned to face the other.

"What you got there?"

"So, Lucifer and I headed up to the human realm for something important but it was such a crazy coincidence that we happened to be near my house! I was so excited to pick this up cause I thought you might want to play with me."

She reached down to open the velcro flaps of the bag and pulled out an old game system and some cords.

"Can you hook this up for me please?"

He was a bit sceptical of the system she handed to him but he took it nonetheless and found a way to connect it to his triple monitors. As he set up the system, she took out two dance mats and set them next to each other in front of the monitors. One look at the setup and he almost figured what he was getting himself into.

"What did you say the game was again?"

She had never mentioned it before but she was too excited to even care.

"It's DDR! Dance dance revolution is the full name. Oh, I haven't played this game in months!"

"We kinda have something like this, but it's only for the arcades. How did you manage to get a home setup?"

"So the funny thing is that my sister got it but she ended up giving it to me since she couldn't find the time to play anymore. But now that I have it back I can't wait to play it again!"

When he successfully hooked up the system, she plugged the mats into the station and turned it on. That nostalgic sound the game system made on its boot up made her giggle as she skipped back to the center of the dance mat. She navigated her way to the game and the familiar sound of the game’s intro made her dance in her place. The childish way in which she expressed her love for the game made the other break into a small laughter. She smiled as she turned her attention to him, standing with an attitude and her arms crossed.

“What’s so funny?”

“It nothing, I swear.”

She huffed with that same playful smile still on her face.

“We’ll see who’s still laughing in the end. So watch yourself!”

She stepped on the start button on the mat and chose Game Mode. The screen changed and asked for her to ‘select a style’. She chose versus. The screen changed once more and for variety she chose the mode where all the songs would be available to them. All 72 songs. Before the songs appeared, a little card flashed on the screen to give them a quick lesson on freeze arrows. All common knowledge to her. 

“You know, if you aren’t very comfortable with the game just yet, might I suggest that you start on beginner?”

Her comment was informative yet snarky. That got him fired up.

“I’m not a complete noob you know!”

The card left the screen and the large wheel of songs rolled onto the screen, the teaser of the very first song blaring through the speakers in his room. So much adrenaline flowed through her veins that she couldn’t help but to bounce in place even as she explained the rest of the game to him.

“So all of the songs are organized from easiest to hardest, yellow songs being the easiest and red songs being the hardest. Use the left and right arrow to choose the song and the up and down arrows to select your difficulty, got it?”

Levi nodded his head.

“Since I wanted to play with you, I’ll let you choose the first song.”

Wanting to get a feel for the game, he decided that the first song would be the best place to start. It wasn’t a bad song to start off with either.

“What difficulty are you choosing?” He asked her.

“I’ll start off with basic, but I need to go through the options first,” she said before stepping and holding down on the down arrow. 

She selected the options and only turned her scroll to reverse and her arrows to rainbow before landing on ‘O.K.’ at the bottom of the screen. He moved down with her without changing anything and they selected the button together. both moved their difficulty to basic and she gave Levi the honor of pressing the ‘X’ button on his mat. Their very first game together.

Their very first game and she flexed on him harder than he thought she ever could. By the end of the song, their results showed up and he didn’t do too bad. He just barely made an ‘A’ rank, but her? ‘AA’ with a full combo. Man, she was too good. He took the game much more seriously as she picked the next song and the results were almost the same. At least he ended with more perfects than the first time.

Their first round ended with three songs and his final grade was an ‘A’ while her final grade was a perfect ‘AA’. For someone who doesn’t play games like this very often, he did pretty good, but pretty good wasn’t enough. He wanted to be better than her. He wanted to be perfect. Their second round started and they managed to play through all of the yellow songs, sometimes sharing a laugh after playing songs they agreed weren’t as good as the last. What he wasn’t prepared for were the songs she was more confident in. She went up one on difficulty and he tried his hardest not to stare at her side of the screen. But from the corner of his eye he saw almost double the amount of arrows he had, sometimes triple the amount of freeze arrows but she caught them all with ease, still dancing casually on her mat while he still stepped a bit stiffly to catch all his basic arrows. After the first round, he learned that it was better to not return to the center after stepping on an arrow, so he managed to keep his full combos the more they played.

She wasn’t perfect for the two hours they played. Their scores alternated and rightfully so, but playing difficult on some songs still gave her an edge on her score. Nearly three hours into playing the game they were two green songs away from hitting the hardest songs and they were almost tied in their scores. When they reached their final stage, it was her turn to choose the song. But before she did, she proposed a challenge.

“You wanna do something fun?”

He turned his attention to her with a spark of excitement in his eyes and nodded.

“For the red songs I would usually recommend that we do it on beginner, because when I say that these are the hardest songs!” She sighed heavily before returning to her original statement. “But to make things a lot more exciting, let’s do them on difficult and see how long we last. If we manage to finish the song, whoever gets the highest score wins this round.”

“What if we make anything less than an ‘A’? wouldn’t that affect our whole score?”

“At this point, you shouldn’t even have to worry about the last two songs. This is a red song we’re talking about. If you can survive it then you’re already a winner! So, are you down?”

He thought for a moment before turning to face the monitors ahead of him.

“Then, what are we waiting for?”

She moved her difficulty back up to difficult and moved to choose one of the hardest songs from the last five on the list. She chose the fourth song with a devious smile on her lips and stood on the center of the mat with her knees bent and her attention square on her side of the screen. He took one last glance at her and realized that this challenge was going to be an intense one. He didn’t even notice when he had switched into his demon form.

One’s timing was a crucial part of the game and this song took advantage of that fact. The speed ups, slow downs, and pauses that happened on almost every other beat threw their footing off immensely and it surely didn’t help that all of the arrows were so close together. Although she seemed like a pro in the beginning of the game, she struggled so much now. But she was still in this battle. That was the last thing he wanted. He used his tail to sneakily move her foot away from the left arrow on the mat and it threw her pattern off, making it hard to catch up with the next set of arrows.

“Use your tail on me again and I swear I’ll bite it,” she said, her words shaking as she jumped.

The song was almost done and she was just barely catching back up with him. knowing that he needed to win this round, he ignored her warning and tripped her up again, this time completely ruining her streak. She got a game over on her side while he struggled with the last few arrows on his. It didn’t matter though. He still survived one of the hardest songs on the list. He still won. Her legs gave out from under her and with a heavy breath, she collapsed onto the mat. He stood proudly though with heavy breaths as their scores appeared on the screen and everything went quiet. A grey ‘E’ grade for her but a red ‘D’ grade for him. It didn’t matter. He still won.

“You cheated!”

“You never said I couldn’t,” he replied with a playful smile.

She huffed and extended her hand, making a grabbing motion towards him. He tilted his head slightly.

“What is it? Need help getting up?”

“Tail, now.”

“...what?”

“I told you that I would bite your tail if you used it on me again. So, hand it over.”

He was a bit hesitant at first since he didn’t really expect her to make good on her word but he still gave it to her. She took the end of his tail and brought it close to her mouth, opting to bite the side of it. But not too hard! Just enough to let him know that she was able to keep her promises. She opened her mouth to bite it but what he didn’t expect was the small shiver that went up his spine when her warm breath hit his tail. What he wasn’t expecting was the small groan that left his throat when her teeth caused him more shock than pain. She wasn’t expecting it either, but it made her heart leap. She tested him by biting into his tail just a little harder and he shuddered, groaning again.

“M-mc...”

She took his tail out of her mouth but she still had a hold on him. Her mind began to race with thoughts of what she could do to his tail.

“Hey Levi-” He turned to look at her, revealing his cheeks that exposed a vibrant red in the dim room. “Did you...like that?”

Hearing the question was more than embarrassing, but he couldn’t deny that it was a feeling that he did kind of like. He nodded shyly and she blinked slowly in thought before speaking again.

“Do you want me to do it again?”

She didn’t feel like the words came out of her mouth but those were the exact thoughts that ran through her head. What she expected even less was his wordless answer. He nodded slowly and kept his gaze on her as she opened her mouth and took the side of his tail between her teeth again, but she simply held it there as she watched him gasp in anticipation. She wanted to do more to him. She opened her mouth a little wider as she moved his tail to take the tip of it into her mouth. Her eyelids fluttered as she took more of his tail into her mouth, the drag of her tongue on him caused him to shudder and groan again.

It was a new feeling to have his tail sucked by someone. A good feeling. He felt a strain grow in his joggers and he panted softly as his erection grew harder with every passing moment. Her lewd motions did not spare her heart as it beat faster. A low flame licked at the pit of her stomach and she could tell that her arousal started to flare as well. She drew his tail out slowly and in the dimly room it still sparkled with her saliva. She swallowed what threatened to dribble from her lips and looked up at him again. She had regained most of the feeling in her legs and made her motions to stand up. Without a moment to spare, he dove for her lips and trapped it in a feverish kiss. Hints of desperation lead the sloppy connection and he wanted more of what she could give him.

In their kiss, they stepped off of the dance mats and stumbled towards the aquarium wall. He moved, pushing her up against the glass. She gasped softly from the impact and he took the opportunity to snake his tongue into her mouth. His tongue felt strange against hers. It was a bit smoother and much longer than her own, not to mention the small fork that parted the tip of it. He explored every inch of her that she made available to him. The divots of her molars, the smoothness of her cheeks, and her tongue that just as eagerly swirled around his.

They eventually broke the kiss with heavy breaths and they took a moment of silence to just look at each other. There was only the silence that surrounded them, their eyes that shared anticipation and the teasing of the tip of his tail on the band of her shorts. After that long moment Levi finally broke the silence.

“Are you sure you want to do this? With me?”

She nodded before speaking.

“I would’ve stopped you sooner if I wasn’t so sure.”

[spicymayo1983]

Hiya. This is part 2 of the finale. After an awkward meeting with his father Kes you are hoping things will go smoother with his friends....

Your wedding is set for the next morning, nerves are shot on all ends.

But then you lay your eyes on Zorii Bliss, Poe's first love from his tumultuous, spice runner days.

And the low self esteem, and anxiety, hit you like a ton of bricks.

Instead of feeling like the luckiest woman in the galaxy you are worried, extremely worried.

Will your wedding go off without a hitch or will you hit a snag?

Warnings, angst, jealousy, smut on steroids. PORN! Lmao. The sexiest damn wedding night ever with the space husband of your dreams. 🥰🥰🥰

Flirting with disaster chapter 7

You know that Poe is a friendly guy but that hug between him and his ex seemed way too intimate for a man who's wedding is less than 24 hours away.

You know their history. When Poe ran away from home at 16 he joined the spice runners and immediately forged a bond with Zorii, who was in her late teens.

He lost his virginity to her, and at one time they were deeply in love. You understand that they are connected for life because of that but did he really need to embrace her? Right in front of you? And the kiss on the cheek wasn't needed.

You don't want that woman at your wedding, but you don't know how to tell him. You're almost certain that he wouldn't agree with your decision.

Everyone is gushing over little Maxim, who is on his best behavior and soaking up the attention.

"He's so cute, look at his hair". Zorii tells Poe, looking at him fondly. "You sure do make beautiful babies".

Her words make Poe blush a little and bite his lower lip, with a slight smile he tells her,

"We're thinking about trying again, maybe next time we'll get lucky and have a little girl".

"I don't know, Poe". Zorii teases, laughing and jokingly punching him in the arm. "I think you're only capable of making boys".

His face turns an even deeper shade of pink and he looks down at the floor. You realize that they are friendly exes but why does her presence make you so uncomfortable?

When you return to the Dameron family farm Poe notices that you are being quiet.

"What's wrong, babe?" Poe asks, slipping his arm around you, nuzzling your neck affectionately.

"Nothing, it's nothing". You reply quickly, closing your eyes as he begins to plant soft, fluttering kisses on your neck.

"If it's about Zorii you have nothing to worry about". Poe explains, his kisses becoming wetter and more passionate. "We have a unique past that we share together and that's about it, she was my 1st, but you are my last".

"Oh Poe". You reply, tears streaming down your cheeks. "I never should have doubted you".

"You had my baby, and I want you to have more of my babies". Poe tells you softly, looking deeply into your eyes and caressing your cheek with his hand. "I can't wait for you to be Mrs. Dameron".

"You're the most beautiful woman in the galaxy, I love you and our son so much". He finishes, kissing you tenderly. "I wish you could see yourself like I see you".

You collapse onto the bed together, and Poe hungrily reaches under your blouse to caress your breasts.

"Not so fast". You tell him with a playful laugh. "Save your energy for tomorrow night".

Early the next morning your best friend Joy Nich shows up to help you get ready. She surprises you with a beautiful woven chain necklace made of beskar for you to wear.

"It's stunning". You gasp, putting it on and admiring yourself in a mirror. "You shouldn't have, it looks expensive".

"I love you like a sister". Joy tells you, tears running down her cheeks. "I've never seen you smile so much in your life, Poe makes you so happy".

"He really does make me happy". You tell her, with tears of joy rolling down your cheeks. "He is so thoughtful, he's so tough, brave but still so sensitive".

You're wearing a beautiful, white, robe like gown made of soft, gauzy material. You are wearing a crown of beautiful native flowers and carrying a matching bouquet.

You're getting ready in a tent not far from where you will be exchanging vows.

Poe is in the tent right next to you, getting ready also and having a heart to heart with his father.

"I wish mom was here". Poe tells his dad, fighting back tears. "I wish she could meet her grandson and daughter in law".

"I know we haven't seen eye to eye in the past". Kes tells Poe, putting his hand on his son's shoulder. "But I love you, and little Maxim, you make me proud".

Poe can't keep it in anymore, he breaks down and starts crying. Kes gives his son a big bear hug, smiles a little and says,

"Your mother would be very proud of the man you've become too, kid".

So far so good, you tell yourself with a smile, you've done a great job staying strong. Everyone important to the rebellion is in attendance, Rey is one of your bridesmaids and Finn is Poe's best man.

BB-8 rolls down the aisle, acting as your ring bearer.

Kes walks down the aisle holding his grandson.

The sight of your brave, handsome husband at the end of the aisle in his dress uniform, complete with the medals that he earned in battle, takes your breath away.

Just when you thought Poe Dameron couldn't look more handsome and dashing he has the audacity to show up looking like that.

"Wow, look at you". Poe whispers into your ear.

"I was just about to say the same". You whisper back.

General Organa officiated the ceremony. The two of you share your first, passionate kiss as a married couple.

The crowd goes wild and there isn't a dry eye in the room. Zorii is cheering you on with a look of genuine joy in her eyes.

Afterwards you attend your wedding reception, set up amongst the beautiful, lush jungle. But you don't stick around for too long, Poe wants to jump ahead to the honeymoon.

The two of you hike to a secluded campsite not far from where you got married, but it's still extremely private.

You're near a waterfall, and the temple. The inside of the tent has been carefully set up for your wedding night. There's a big, colorful, pillow like bed in the middle, colorful rugs everywhere, and lanterns that create the ideal mood lighting.

Flower petals lead to the bed, Poe takes you, his new bride, into his arms and carries you over to the center of the room.

He does a sexy little strip tease for you. You return the favor. His beautiful cock is hard and oozing precum for you, you're already dripping wet for him but you get even more turned on when he looks deeply into your eyes, the passion burning in his own, and says,

"I want to put another baby inside of you, tonight".

You roll over on your back and spread your legs wide open for him. Poe's hand slides between them, exploring every wet fold gingerly, delicately. You sigh deeply from his tender touch. There's a bowl of warm, perfumed massage oil sitting on a short table next to the bed that he's dipped his fingers into.

"I live to please you, babe". Poe whispers into your ear, his words sending chills down your spine. "I love you with all of my heart, mind and body".

The sensation is toe curling and pleasurable as he softly inserts three fingers inside you while gently rubbing your swollen clit with his thumb.

You cum for him, squirting like a fountain. His head ducks between your legs, tasting your juices mixed with the sweet massage oil.

With his tongue buried inside your vagina you cum again for your gorgeous husband, filling his mouth with your warm ejaculate. Poe hungrily swallows it, you get on all fours and he wraps his arms around you and slides his fat cock deep inside.

As your pussy tightly grips him your juices drip down his balls. Poe reaches around and massages your clit, making you grip harder and moan from delight.

You are both drenched in sweat from the humidity in the air. His curly hair is a mess. It feels like raw, dirty, baby making sex.

His warm, fertile seed fills your womb. Afterwards you carefully recline on your back, careful to not spill a single precious drop.

With his fingers oiled up again Poe massages your lower belly, near your uterus.

A few drops of his cum are visible on your outer lips, which excites and arouses him.

"I hope it's a little girl". He tells you, smiling a naughty little smile.

"How do you know that I'm even pregnant?" You tease, closing your eyes and enjoying the little massage.

"Poe Dameron never fails at a mission". He teases, leaning over and kissing you.

"Whatever you say, flyboy". You tease, laughing hysterically.

You fall asleep nude and cuddled up against each other in an intimate embrace. The next morning you wake up before him, Poe is fast asleep next to you, with a beautiful smile on his face.

You can't believe he's really your husband. That this gorgeous man chose you to spend the rest of his life with.

You fidget with your wedding ring, his mother's ring, that he wore around his neck for all those years.

When Poe finally does wake up you're resting next to him, enjoying the warm, tropical air on your bare skin.

"You're so beautiful". Poe mumbles sleepily.

"I know". You reply, your smile looking more confident.

"Good". Comes Poe's groggy reply.

The end

[echo-three-one]

Chapter 36

THE ROAD SO FAR

The TEN Kilometer River

Gary "Roach" Sanderson

Site Hotel Bravo, Afghanistan

The moment Gary was tasked to pull the lever, he had no choice but to follow. Whatever was running in his Captain's mind must be of good reason. The alarm blared and the whole facility was placed on high alert as troops from everywhere started to act more vigilant.

They heard earlier that Gold Eagle would be on the move and the base was to be left to the scientists. Gary believes that Shepherd had no idea they're here, but why ring the alarm?

"Roach, follow me! I could see Shepherd's getaway from outside, we need to stop him!" He muttered, plowing through hordes of enemies that were also surprised to see them. Gary assisted in taking them down, as they moved slowly to the exit.

The trails of the huge plane were still visible when they exited, Price attempted to shoot the vehicle but it looked like it only made a few dents.

"Roach! Man that speedboat! We're chasing after them!" Price ordered. Gary nodded and they hurriedly descended the stairs on their way to the river.

But the enemies didn't know how to give up. Some of them rode jet skis while some of them had speed boats with them, all free riders targeting their weapons on Gary and Roach's vehicle.

Price lied down for cover, only peeking when he's free to shoot or when nobody else is shooting. It was a great tactic and Roach wanted to observe more of it, but he had to focus on the river.

His main target is the plane that's flying dangerously low on the ground, readying itself so Shepherd can jump and fly off to safety, but Price didn't want that to happen.

Whenever he saw Shepherd move from afar, he sprayed bullets to their direction making the general hide back to safety. It was a great stalling move but it didn't quite last long as the river expanded.

Shadow company guard posts were positioned on places where the elevation is quite high and Roach is forced to evade areas with patrols. This made Shepherd's plane angle differently, making it hard for Price to aim at them.

"Roach, we're losing him! Move faster!" Price yelled and Roach navigated them to Shepherd. They couldn't go any faster so the best option to build up speed is to go forward without bumping on to something. This was a river and they were going with the current, so it was a lucky thing.

The plane ascended and the duo was almost in shock that Shepherd made it through it was impossible.

"Sir! They're not yet escaping!" Roach yelled and pointed to the Plane that soared high to evade the ravine.

"A second chance!" Price muttered as Gary braced himself for a narrow river, they carefully maneuvered the narrow river all while evading Shadow Company as they filled both sides with men holding weapons.

Price used his grenade launcher to topple assembling troops by the ravine. Luckily, guard outposts contained explosive barrels adding an explosion upon impact, causing guards to fly across their outposts into the raging river.

Gary was all focused on the speedboat ahead of them, Shepherd must not escape.

"I'm on my last three rounds!" Price roared as he hid for cover while water splashed on them as bullets hit the river. Gary used one hand to toss his rifle, giving the Captain a fresh 10 rounds of grenades to be launched.

"Nice. Let's light these bastards up!" He cheered and shot the two speedboats pursuing after them, sending them to the air as their engines exploded.

"Hell yeah!" Gary cheered as they exited the cave, the plane once again descended as the area became open for exfil once again. By this time, Price only had 8 rounds to distract their escape.

In hopes for the engine to rev more, Gary squeezed his grip tighter as he heard the engine struggle giving them the maximum speed possible.

"Let's end this." Price mouthed, Gary barely heard his Captain but he knew what it meant.

Their boat speeded up quite faster than he had imagined as they were quickly catching up to the extraction. And as soon as they were close, Price fired the launcher at the huge plane, the explosion toppled the three vehicles sending them to the raging river.

Gary quickly ascended to the surface as soon as he dipped on the water, helplessly swimming against the current, down toward a high waterfall. The last thing he could remember was the impact on the ground, a loud crash towards the water before he lost consciousness.

The next thing Roach knew was that he was coughing up river water by the shore, his vision slowly recovered as he looked beyond him. Not far from him was black smoke he assumed that came from the crashed plane.

He struggled to crawl his way to the site, slowly getting up and limping, exhaling a heavy sigh.

He needed to hurry as the sandstorm started to brew up and might obstruct his already blurry vision.

A few more steps. Gary thought to himself as he felt the adrenaline rush, causing him to stand up and endure all the pain of the landing. A temporary boost to finish the fight. From the distance, he already spotted his target, leaning on a broken car, also catching up with his breath.

He carefully approached the General and tried to constrain him by grabbing on his arms, but he never expected the man to be aware of his presence. With one swift swing of his arm on Gary's throat, he found himself choking and gasping for air as he kicked him off, sliding against the sandy ground.

"What is your deal with me!" He growled, grabbing a knife by his pocket and approached Roach, who was still catching up with his breath.

"I did my very best to keep you out of my business, but you really have to find me? For what? Justice?!" Shepherd knelt on Roach's side, raising his hand and stabbed Roach by the chest. Even with the shortness of breath, Roach exhaled longer that he'd expected.

"Shit." he muttered, gasping as Shepherd dug the knife deeper while Roach tried to prevent him from doing so, this couldn't be the end of the line for him. He still wanted to live. There are many more things he could do.

"This is what you get for foiling my plans. I wasn't teaming up with Nero. I was trying to gain the upper hand. And your death could serve as a lesson for everyone in your squad to double check all intel before jumping into battle." He almost chuckled just before a figure sent him flying away from Roach.

This took Roach the moment to endure all pain as he pulled off the knife, blood sputtered from the deep gash on his chest as he quickly stopped the pressure with his hand. He wanted to live. He must survive this injury.

His head lazily leaned to the battle beside him. Price and Shepherd were engaged in hand to hand combat, overpowering one another. They looked very even and if that was the case, Roach wouldn't be alive to see the end of their battle. He blinked and as soon as he opened his eyes once again, Price was already pinned down as Shepherd gave him a heavy beating, taking advantage of his position. Roach felt the ground shook as the two also were distracted. This gave Price the chance to strike back and knock him off on top of him as he struggled to get up.

Neither one was willing to give up their cause and it was such a shame that it was all some sort of messed up misunderstanding, but nevertheless, Shepherd was still wrong. He knew full well that exchanging the IP Address for an advantage placed the world at more risk than it already had.

Roach's ears grumbled as the ground heated up. The rocket already launched and was on it's way to wherever the fuck Shepherd wanted it ro go. Did Alex and Jack not make it? Gary wondered as he leaned back to Shepherd, who was now pinned and tied on the ground. Soap already tied him up while Price approached Roach.

"Can you get up?" Price asked as he lifted Roach up and helped apply pressure to his wounds.

"Hang in there Roach. You can do this!" His words of encouragement were the last words he heard, as after those exact words, the sky turned white and a loud ringing noise filled the desert sky. Alex and Jack did it. They successfully detonated their charges.

The next thing Roach knew was he was already in a chillier place, his back was on a softer platform and the sky was nothing but a swinging lamp.

Everything else was painful as he tried to get up and failed. It seemed like he could only move his bed. He leaned to his left and saw only a white wall while his right side was two more beds where Alexandra and Ghost slept.

Alexandra. She was alive. Roach couldn't help but chuckle at the idea of her surviving. Turns out his optimism was useful this time.

He looked at his chest as the slow rising and falling of his breathing urged him to check on it. He was wrapped in bandages that were still red from the blood and it also looked like he was given a few bags. He was thankful that he made it out of that situation and he was given yet another chance to live again.

"Glad to see you're awake." Soap said as he entered the room, with a bag of frozen peas on his forehead.

Roach wanted to thank him, but he couldn't say any word yet. Any effort of doing something only resulted in pain.

"In case you're wondering. What you did out there was fruitful. Shepherd gave us the bomb maker's name. He called him Volt. Honestly the puns aren't suitable for villains, but he chose well." Soap commented, trying to cheer up the fellow sargeant.

Guess Shepherd already gave up. And he was glad he did. Because somewhere deep inside his mind, Gary believed that Shepherd slightly hesitated on his stab. If he was serious enough, he might've been dead now.

This meant that the key to ending this war is now solely upon the death of Nero.

Next Chapter : The NINE Engines

Notification Squad my Beloved

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[thewidowsghost]

The Unknown Muggleborn - Chapter 7

Series Masterlist

Main Masterlist

3rd Person POV

Christmas was coming. One morning in mid-December, Hogwarts wakes up to find itself covered in several feet of snow. The lake freezes solid and the Weasley twins were punished for bewitching several snowballs so that they followed Quirrell around, bouncing off the back of his turban, (Y/n) watching with a smirk on her face. The few owls that had managed to battle their way though the stormy sky to deliver mail had to be nursed back to health by Hagrid before they could fly off again.

"I do feel so sorry," says Draco Malfoy during a Potions class, "for all those people who have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas because they're not wanted at home, or those who have to stay at someone else's house because they have no parents," he adds, (Y/n) staring at her perfected potion, her eyes flashing a silver before flickering back to green; Hermione shoots him a hateful glare.

The blond had been staring at Harry and (Y/n) as he had spoke, Crabbe and Goyle chuckling. Harry, who had been measuring powdered spine of lion-fish, ignores him. Malfoy had been even more unpleasant than usual since the Quidditch match. Disgusted that the Slytherins had lost, he had tried to get everyone laughing at how a wide-mouthed tree frog would be replacing (Y/n) as Seeker next; then he'd realized that nobody had found this funny, because everyone had been so impressed on how well (Y/n) had managed to stay on her broom. So Malfoy, jealous and angry, had gone back to taunting Harry and (Y/n) about having, either, no proper family, or no family at all.

(Y/n) had just turned in a vile of her potion, Snape looking at it, then nods, scribbling a 100 into his grade-book, nodding to the girl. "Ten points to Gryffindor," he announces to the class, everyone looking up, "for Miss (L/n)'s perfect potion." (Y/n) shoots a smirk at Malfoy, who had been trying to outdo her in Potions from the first class. Hermione, Harry, Ron, and the Spences hiding smiles as steam practically gushes from Malfoy's ears.

When they leave the dungeons at the end of Potions, they find a large fir tree blocking the corridor ahead. Two enormous feet sticking out at the bottom and a loud puffing sound tells them that Hagrid is behind it.

"Hey Hagrid, need any help?" Ron asks, sticking his head through the branches.

"Nah, I'm alright, thanks, Ron."

"Would you mind moving out of the way?" Malfoy's cold drawling voice comes from behind them. "Are you trying to earn some extra money, Weasley? Hoping to be gamekeeper yourself when you leave Hogwarts, I suppose — that hut of Hagrid's must seem like a palace compared to what your family's used to."

Ron dives at Malfoy just as Snape comes up the stairs.

"WEASLEY!"

Ron lets go of the front of Malfoy's robes.

"Professor, Malfoy was insulting his family," (Y/n) says, taking a step forward towards the Potions Master.

"Five points from Slytherin," Snape tells Malfoy, and Malfoy sends a hateful glare at (Y/n).

The Potions Master walks away and Malfoy turns to (Y/n).

"What's wrong Draco?" (Y/n) asks in false sympathy. "Feel bad being worse than a orphaned Mudblood?" she asks, stepping towards the blond.

"Shut up!" He says. "My father will hear about this (L/n), and then you'll be sorry," he says.

(Y/n) glances around, "Look's like he's not here. See you around, Blondie," (Y/n) says, turning around and walking back towards Hagrid and her friends, all of them were staring at her with wide eyes.

"That was bloody brilliant," Ron says, and (Y/n) laughs. "I'll get him," Ron says suddenly, grinding his teeth. "One of these days, I'll get Malfoy -"

"I hate them both, Snape and Malfoy," says Harry.

"Come on, cheer up. It's nearly Christmas," says Hagrid. "Tell yeh what, come with me an' see the Great Hall, looks a treat."

So the six of them follow Hagrid and his tree off to the Great Hall, where Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick are busy with the Christmas decorations.

"Ah, Hagrid, the last tree — put it in the far corner, would you?"

The hall looks spectacular. Festoons of holly and mistletoe hang all around the walls, and no less than twelve towering Christmas trees stand around the room, some sparkling with tiny icicles, some glittering with hundreds of candles.

"How many days you got left until yer holidays?" Hagrid asks.

"Just one," says Hermione. "And that reminds me — Harry, Ron, (Y/n) we've got half an hour before lunch, we should be in the library."

"Oh yeah, you're right," says Ron, tearing his eyes away from Professor Flitwick, who has golden bubbles blossoming out of his wand and is trailing them over the branches of the new tree.

"The library?" says Hagrid, following them out of the hall. "Just before the holidays? Bit keen, aren't yeh?"

"Oh, we're not working," Harry tells him brightly. "Ever since you mentioned Nicolas Flamel we've been trying to find out who he is."

"You what?" Hagrid looks shocked. "Listen here — I've told yeh — drop it.It's nothin' to you what that dog's guardin'."

"Actually," (Y/n) interjects. "That's what their doing. Snape gave me extra homework over the break." (Y/n) rolls here eyes.

"Looks like being a Potions prodigy might not be such a good thing," Ron says, and (Y/n) rolls her eyes.

"We just want to know who Nicolas Flamel is, that's all," says Hermione.

"Unless you'd like to tell us and save us the trouble?" Harry adds. "We must've been through hundreds of books already and we can't find him anywhere — just give us a hint — I know I've read his name somewhere."

"I'm sayin' nothin'," said Hagrid flatly.

"Just have to find out for ourselves, then," say Ron, and they leave Hagrid looking disgruntled and hurries off to the library.

They had indeed been searching books for Flamel's name ever since Hagrid had let it slip, because how else were they going to find out what Snape was trying to steal? The trouble was, it was very hard to know where to begin, not knowing what Flamel might have done to get himself into a book. (Y/n) has the strangest feeling that she had heard or seen that name somewhere in her extra Potions homework. Flamel wasn't in Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century, or Notable Magical Names of Our Time;he was missing, too, from Important Modern Magical Discoveries, and A Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry. And then, of course, there was the sheer size of the library; tens of thousands of books; thousands of shelves; hundreds of narrow rows.

Hermione takes out a list of subjects and titles she had decided to search while Ron strode off down a row of books and started pulling them off the shelves at random. (Y/n) had taken out her Potions homework.

Harry wandered over to the Restricted Section. He had been wondering for a while if Flamel wasn't somewhere in there. Unfortunately, you needed a specially signed note from one of the teachers to look in any of the restricted books, and he knew he'd never get one. These were the books containing powerful Dark Magic never taught at Hogwarts, and only read by older students studying advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"What are you looking for, boy?"

"Nothing," answers Harry.

Madam Pince the librarian brandishes a feather duster at him.

"You'd better get out, then. Go on — out!"

Wishing he'd been a bit quicker at thinking up some story, Harry left the library. He, Ron, Hermione, and the twins had already agreed they'd better not ask Madam Pince where they could find Flamel. They were sure she'd be able to tell them,but they couldn't risk Snape hearing what they were up to.

Harry waits outside in the corridor to see if the other four had found anything, but he wasn't very hopeful. They had been looking for two weeks, after all, but as they only had odd moments between lessons it wasn't surprising they'd found nothing. What they really need was a nice long search without Madam Pince breathing down their necks.

Five minutes later, Ron, Hermione, and (Y/n) join him, Ron and Hermione shaking their head; they go off to lunch.

"You will keep looking while we're away, won't you?" asks Hermione. "And send me an owl if you find anything."

"And you could ask your parents if they know who Flamel is," says Ron. "It'd be safe to ask them."

(Y/n) lets out a laugh as Hermione continues.

"Very safe, as they're both dentists," says Hermione.

That evening has Hermione and (Y/n) and (Y/n) packing, getting ready to leave the following morning.

(Y/n) flops down on her bed and Marvel jumps up, her paws placed on (Y/n)'s cheeks.

(Y/n) smiles at Hermione as throws a blanket over (Y/n) and her cat.

The next morning, Hermione wakes up (Y/n) and (Y/n) places Marvel in her basket.

(Y/n) places the straps on her guitar and slings it over her back.

The two take their packed trunks downstairs, making sure to say goodbye to Harry and Ron before they leave.

The sisters take the carriages down to the Hogwarts' Express and they board the train.

(Y/n) pulls out her Potions homework and works through it, but gets stuck on the last question. She runs her hands through her sleek (H/c) hair.

Thinking for a while, she finally finally finishes the question, pulls her trunk off the shelf, and puts her homework inside.

"I feel so accomplished," (Y/n) grumbles,  sitting back down and leaning her head against the window.

Marvel jumps out of her travel basket and hops into Hermione's lap.

(Y/n) glances at her guitar resting next to her in her seat before she picks it up and begins to strum.

Hermione smiles as (Y/n) finishes playing and then (Y/n) places the guitar on her back.

"Come on 'Mione," (Y/n) says pulling down her and her sister's trunks and Marvel's carrying basket.

Hermione's smile widens as she grabs her trunk and Marvel jumps onto her shoulder.

Hermione jumps down after (Y/n) and (Y/n)'s arm shoots out to steady Hermione as she stumbles.

Hermione beams at her sister and (Y/n) shakes her head, an amused light in her eyes.

The two walk through the barrier and it seems to be more dreary in the Muggle world then on Platform 9 and 3 Quarters.

"What happened?" (Y/n) murmurs to Hermione as they walk towards their parents.

"Hi Mum! Hi Dad!" Hermione says cheerfully and (Y/n) gives a little wave.

Mr. Granger gives (Y/n) a hug, and (Y/n) returns it warmly.

Mrs. Granger greets her adopted daughter with a kiss to the forehead and a hug.

"Hi Mum, Dad!" (Y/n) greets with a warm smile.

"Hi, girls," Mrs. Grangers says. "Let's get home."

"Best thing I've heard all day," (Y/n) says with a grin.

Mr. Granger laughs and the four - plus Marvel - walk out to the car.

"I dunno," Hermione says. "Your guitar playing skills are pretty great."

"Oh stop," (Y/n) says with a smile.

"I guess we'll have to hear it at home," Mrs. Granger says as Hermione and (Y/n) load their trunks into the boot of the car.

(Y/n) gently sets her guitar on the top of her trunk before Mr. Granger closes the boot.

(Y/n) climbs into the car next to her sister and Marvel jumps down to sit in between the two.

Listening to the radio on the way home, (Y/n) listens closely to the news:

"Legendary weapons developer Howard Stark, as well as his wife, was found dead a few days ago. The death of his parents seemingly haunted Tony Stark after the disappearance and presumed death of his daughter and girlfriend about ten years ago when he was around the age of nineteen."

Poor guy, (Y/n) thinks. Imagine loosing the love of your life, your daughter, and your parents. I guess I kind of know what that's like, though I wasn't old enough to comprehend it at the time.

Hermione glances over at her sister who was staring off into the distance.

As if sensing Hermione's gaze on her, (Y/n) looks back over at her with a warm smile.

Hermione shoots (Y/n) a quizzical look but (Y/n) shakes her head.

Marvel tilts her head and pads forward, thrusting her head under (Y/n)'s chin. (Y/n) smiles and scratches behind the kitten's ears.

(Y/n) strokes the kitten's black-and-white fur, remaining silent as the car ride goes on.

Once the four - plus Marvel - arrive back home, (Y/n) helps Mr. Granger unload the trunks from the back of the car, but not before slinging her guitar over her back.

Word Count: 2194 words

Love,           Kaitlynn ❤😘

[alexhogh7137]

Rule The World with Me-

Ivar the Boneless × Reader

Chapter Forty-Three

Chaptet Forty-Four: A Long Day in Kiev

Word Count 4k

Warnings: some angst, some fluff

On this day, Torvi told you that she would speak with Ubbe about rethinking the siege of Wessex. You made sure to keep yours and her children very busy while her and Ubbe went out on a walk to talk. At first, you were going to be the one to tell him but Torvi insisted on being the one to tell him. Hvitserk kept Ivar busy while you handled the children. You did not mind it, however, you love being a mother. You feared not being able to become a mother while you were married to Oleg. With the way he used you, abused you, you thought that the possibility was nonexistent. But when you discovered that you were carrying Baldur, your dreams had come true. And then Freya came along and well, you and Ivar are in your own little slice of paradise. They are at the age of training to be warriors one day and Hvitserk has taken the pleasure in training Baldur while you are training Freya. When Ivar has time, he teaches Baldur how to strike and shoot arrows at his opponent. Baldur is learning very fast, but Freya gets distracted fairly easily. You have talked with Ivar and he says that his brother Ubbe Sigurd was the same way at her age, but he became a strong warrior later in life. So every day, you train her and everyday she gets better and better at keeping her focus. Besides the point, you have the kids while the boys are handling their own challenges. 

Freya is dancing in the treeline with Asena while Baldur walks with you hand in hand. Even though he acts so mature for his age, he still loves to hold your hand, cuddle, hugs and kisses. Freya is a mommy's girl, that is what Ivar has told you since she was born. You have this little joke with her to make her father a little extra jealous: when Ivar is 'hogging' Baldur, Freya will climb on your lap and let you tickle her so that she laughs extra loud, making Ivar extra jealous of yours and her relationship. Ivar loves his children equally, but his fear that his children do not love him the same as they love you, is one of his fears. So when you notice that he is more down than usual, you have to reassure him. You do not know why you are having all of these thoughts right now, but you are just glad that it is not about the siege. 

Freya "Look momma, apples!' She points up at an apple tree. 

"Oh my! Would you look at that, I have not seen an apple tree in years."

Baldur "Can we pick some, mother?!"

Freya "We can give some to Papa!" She stammers. 

"Oh that sounds like a lovely idea! Come here, little one." You pick your daughter up and you raise her high enough for her to grab a few apples from the tree branches. You and her giggles as she grabs more and more. 

You place Freya down, "Baldur, would you like to pick some?"

Baldur "Yes!" You pick him up and let him grab as much as he can carry before you place him back down on the ground. 

"They look delicious, your father will be delighted to eat these." You say as you take a bite of one. "Mm, fresh and delightful."

Baldur "Can I give one to Messiah? He looks hungry." You look down at Messiah, who is licking his lips and staring at the apple in your son's hand.

"I'm sure that one apple couldn't hurt, go ahead." You allow Freya to give Asena one as well. "Do you think that aunt Torvi and your uncle's would like some?"

Baldur "Oh certainly!" You can't help but giggle at his choice of vocabulary. He gets his big words from the boys, that is for sure.

"Okay, let's head back now. I am sure your father could use some company from his favorite little one's."

Baldur "Are you always going to call me little?" He says with a pout.

"No, not always. But no matter how old you get and how tall you get to be when you are all grown up, I am still going to see you as a baby."

Baldur "But why?"

"You were my first born, Baldur. You were my first baby! And same with your sister, I will always see her as a baby because you two are my babies."

Baldur "Even when I am fighting..you will see me that way?"

"I will see you as the strong and courageous warrior that you will be but yes."

Baldur "And Freya?"

"Of course. Your father will say the same thing, Baldur. You and your sister are our world."

Baldur "I love you mother."

"And I love you, son." He runs off then, after his sister. You watch them run hand in hand together, through the grasslands with their protectors and you can't stop yourself from smiling. You watch your legacy laugh and skip in front of your eyes and all you can say to yourself is; "thank you gods..thank you."

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

Ivar has been spending the morning with Hvitserk. Hvitserk had told you that he would keep Ivar busy while you watched over the kids because if Ivar got involved in the discussion with Ubbe, it would not end well. So he did just that, stayed with Ivar all morning and half of the afternoon just talking to him. 

Ivar "What is taking them so long?"

Hvitserk "Who?"

Ivar "Y/n and the kids. They've been gone all morning."

Hvitserk "She told you where she took them, yes?"

Ivar "Yes..of course she did."

Hvitserk "Then why worry, aye?"

Ivar "Because I cannot stop myself from worrying Hvitserk. They are my everything."

Hvitserk "They are my everything too, brother. But you get free time away from home, so does she."

Ivar "Well what about our brother, hmm? What are your thoughts about her vision?"

Hvitserk "I believe every word that she said. I fear that if he goes along with this siege, we won't have the same brother afterwards."

Ivar nods, "That is what I fear as well. Not only that but Y/n would be fighting with us."

Hvitserk "I know-"

Ivar "And the kids, who would watch them?"

Hvitserk "Torvi..if she does not fight."

Ivar snickers, "She will fight."

Hvitserk "Then we would have to take the kids back to Kattegat. We have more men there to watch over them and keep them safe while we are gone."

Ivar puts his head in his palms, "What if something happens to one of us..or all of us?"

Hvitserk "Y/n said that we were all in her vision."

Ivar "Yes but visions are not always exact. We both know that."

Hvitserk sighs and takes a bite of his food, "Everyone takes that risk of not making it through a battle, brother."

Ivar "I know that, but this is our family that we are talking about. My wife, your sister..our brother-"

Hvitserk "I know, I know."

Ivar "If Torvi does not get him to stop this siege, I will."

Hvitserk "And how exactly would you do that, hmm?"

Ivar thinks for a second, "Talk to him, try to reason with him. Tell him what all is at stake here."

Hvitserk "We both know that if Ubbe wants to fight, there is nothing that we can do to stop him."

Ivar "If I can't stop him, I can stop my wife from fighting."

Hvitserk "If you are fighting, then Y/n will fight-"

Ivar "I am not fighting. I have too much to lose."

Hvitserk nods, "Then why worry any longer, my brother?"

Ivar "Are you fighting?"

Hvitserk "I have not made up my mind as of yet. I love our brother, he deserves someone to fight alongside him on that battlefield."

Ivar "So if he goes, you go?"

Hvitserk looks down, "I don't really have a choice Ivar. I left his side once..I have abandoned him once, I won't do it again."

Ivar "I don-" 

Freya "Daddy!" She shouted as she jumped onto her father's lap while Baldur clung to Hvitserk's side. 

Ivar "Oh my sweets," he kisses her cheek, "Where is your mother, huh?"

Baldur "She told us to go ahead. She should be in any minute.."

Hvitserk "Ah, where have you guys been aye?"

"We were in the field." You say entering the room, out of breath.

Ivar "There you are, what happened?"

"I will tell you later..we brought back a sweet gift for our boys, didn't we?"

Baldur "You are going to love it!"

Hvitserk "Oh yeah?"

Ivar "What is it?" You pull the basket of apples from behind your back and Hvitserk's jaw drops.

Hvitserk "My favorite!" He says as he takes one from you. 

Ivar "That is so sweet of you, my love. Thank you." You walk over to him and kiss his lips before handing him an apple.

"What did I interrupt in here?" Ivar looks at Hvitserk before answering you.

Ivar "We were just talking about all of the things we could do this evening."

Baldur "Like what?"

Hvitserk "We can have a nice bonfire by the pit!" He said before Ivar could.

Freya "Oh yay!" She shouted and started clapping. You notice that your husband did not laugh nor giggle even though his daughter started jumping for joy. Alarming you that he was not telling the truth but lied for the children's sake.

"Well I think that that sounds like an amazing idea."

Ivar nods, "Hey, could you take your sister and go find uncle Ubbe for me please?"

Baldur "Yes, come on Freya."

"They are by the east entrance." He nods and runs off with his sister joint at his hip. You wait for them to close the door behind them before you sit down next to your husband. 

"I overheard them, Ivar."

Ivar "W-what did you hear?" You hesitate to answer because you are saddened by what you overheard.

~•~

When you got to the east side of your kingdom, you could hear Torvi's voice. You immediately stop in your tracks. You tell Baldur and Freya to go on without you and that you would be in in a moment, so they agreed. You hide in the treeline to avoid them seeing you listening in on their conversation. 

Torvi "You could hear the fear in her voice, Ubbe. Why are you not listening-"

Ubbe "I am listening Torvi. I heard what you said."

Torvi "And yet you are not taking it seriously-"

Ubbe "No, I guess I am not."

Torvi "Why?!"

Ubbe "If it were true, why has she not told me herself?"

Torvi "She wished to do so, but sinc you are my husband, I insisted that I be the one to tell you."

Ubbe sighs, "What is it that you want me to do?"

Torvi "Don't fight. We have Kattegat, isn't that enough?"

Ubbe "I rule Kattegat but not alone. Hvitserk is also the ruler of Kattegat. I wish to rule my own kingdom."

Torvi "So you will not reconsider.."

Ubbe "I will rule Wessex, Torvi. With you by my side. Isn't that what you want?"

Torvi "I don't wish to lose my beloved husband over a kingdom that is already being ruled. I heard Y/n, I heard her voice break as she told me her vision. So no, I do not want you to fight."

Ubbe clears his throat as if he was aggravated, "I am going to talk to Y/n myself. If I do, maybe I will reconsider. But as of right now, my mind is set."

Torvi's eyes start to water, "I see." He walks closer to her and cups her cheeks.

Ubbe "I love you. You are my world. But I have ambitions, as every viking does. I hope that you can understand."

Torvi "I love you too." Ubbe starts to walk towards you so you make a run for it and go into your kingdom. 

~•~

Ivar grunts, "Why is our brother so stubborn?"

Hvitserk "All of us are stubborn, Ivar. Not just Ubbe."

Ivar "Well it looks like I have to talk to him."

"He wants to talk to me Ivar. I can persuade him to not fight, I am sure of it."

Ivar "You can talk to him, my love. But I am going to talk to him..I have to. I can't lose any one. I can't lose anyone else." He looks at his brother when he said that. He lost his two brothers and his parents, he does not wish to lose anyone else that he loves.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

When you hear the pitter patter of your childrens feet and the laughter of Torvi, your heart rate skyrocketed. You fear that even after he talks with you, that he still won't change his mind. 

Baldur "We found him!"

Ubbe "I have arrived!"

Ivar "Thank you, son. Why don't you go play with Igor?"

Freya "Oh can we Baldur?!"

Baldur "Alright then." They walk off and Ubbe stands in front of you.

Ubbe "Can we talk?"

"Of course."

Ivar "I would like to talk to you afterwards, brother."

Ubbe "That might not be necessary-"

Ivar "I wasn't asking."

Ubbe "Alright fine, but I am taking your wife first." He takes your arm, making you laugh. Torvi stays with Hvitserk and Ivar while Ubbe takes you outside. 

You two sit down on a bench near some flowers. 

Ubbe "So, Torvi has told me."

"About my-"

Ubbe "Vision..yeah."

"And what do you have to say?"

Ubbe "Is it true?"

"Of course it is true."

Ubbe "Then tell me..talk to me."

"You change. You are not you anymore.."

Ubbe "That is not talking to me Y/n-"

"I am trying to talk to you, it is just very hard for me to tell you this Ubbe. You are my brother and I love you."

Ubbe "And I love you, but you need to tell me what you know." You take a deep breath and tell him absolutely everything: every detail, every word said, even the surroundings. When you were done telling him, he was speechless. 

"Now do you believe me?"

Ubbe "I never not believed you, Y/n."

"So what now?"

Ubbe "I am not sure."

"You are still considering it?"

Ubbe "I have ambitions-"

"And what happened to your family? Huh..what about them?"

Ubbe "They will join me."

"Not if you are dead!"

Ubbe "From your vision, I do not die."

"Visions do not show everything Ubbe. Why are you not reconsidering?"

Ubbe "I have to think, Y/n. This is my future I have to think about."

"What happens to their future?" He looks behind him to see Torvi, his step daughter and his son in her arms. His heart breaks in his chest. What is he thinking? How could he take such a risk?

Ubbe "You are right Y/n. I..I don't know what came over me." You don't really know how to respond. "Can you forgive me?"

"Nothing to forgive. I am only looking out for you. I do not wish for you to have that fate. Because if you do this, you could gain a kingdom, but you could lose everyone that you ever loved." And that is all he had to hear. 

Ubbe "You are right. Thank you for telling me."

"Of cour-"

Ubbe "But I have to ask..why did you hide it from me for so long?"

"I was going to tell you sooner but I told Torvi first-"

Ubbe "And why is that?"

"She noticed how quiet I have been recently. So she pulled me aside and I told her." He nods, "I told her that I was going to tell you but she wished to be the one to tell you herself."

Ubbe "Alright, I understand. Go be with your children now." He pulls you in for a hug and then he lets you go. He thinks to himself, "What do I do now?"

~•~

You go inside to see Ivar playing with yours and his children. Freya is on his shoulders while Baldur cackling him.

"Baldur, don't-"

Ivar "He is fine, my love. I promise, he isn't hurting me." You breathe for what felt like th first time in hours. 

Freya "Mommy, Daddy ate all the apples!"

"He did!?"

Ivar "I kind of did.." you burst out laughing and so does he. "They were so delicious, I couldn't help myself."

"I'll go get some more for Hvitserk-"

Ivar "That can wait until tomorrow, please stay."

"Say no more." You kiss him over and over, until you hear your kids shout 'ew'. 

Ivar "You know, one day you two will be married to your own lover and you will be doing to the same thing your mother and I do."

Freya "Yuck!"

Baldur "I'm excited!"

"Oh are you?" You giggle.

Baldur "Oh yes! Seeing how happy you are with father, makes me look forward to what the gods have planned for me." You are in shock by the words your son just spoke. He isn't even a teenager yet and he speaks like he is a thirty year old man. 

Ivar "Your mother makes me very happy, son. But your mother had to go through very rough times before she met me."

Baldur "Like what?"

"I will tell you when you are older, my son."

Baldur "But why not now?"

"Because what I went through before I met your father is not age appropriate."

Baldur "Oh.."

"But I can say that I was not in a good marriage. I was married into this kingdom, not by my own will. My husband was Igor's Uncle-"

Freya "No way!"

"Mmhhmm..And he was not a good man. But after a few years, your father came into my life and saved me."

Freya "Daddy, the hero!"

Ivar chuckles, "I am glad to be your hero, my love." You smile at him.

Baldur "Will I ever find love like yours and mother's, father?" He says with a pout. Ivar takes Freya from his shoulders and hands her to you so that he could get down to Baldur's level.

Ivar "There is no doubt in my mind, son. You will find love one day that will sweep you off your feet and make you realize how amazing life is it live. You see son, life isn't just about winning and losing battles. It is about establishing yourself and finding love along the way."

Baldur "Did you love someone before mother?"

Ivar "I did, for a time. But I fell out of love with her, and then I found your mother-"

Ubbe "Look at you four.." Ivar looks up to find him and Torvi standing in the doorway. He forces a smile and gets himself off of the floor. 

Ivar "Hello, Ubbe."

Hvitserk "Y/n, can you show me where you got those apple's from? Ivar ate them all.."

"Sure." You laugh and you walk out with him to give Ivar and Ubbe some time to talk. 

Ubbe "What is it that you wanted to talk to me about, brother?"

Ivar "I can't let you fight, Ubbe. Too much is at stake."

Ubbe "I have reconsidered the siege but I have yet to make my final decision."

Ivar "After everything that you have heard, from Torvi and from Y/n..you can't say you won't?"

Ubbe "No, I won't say that. I deserve time to think. You have Kiev-"

Ivar "And you have Kattegat!"

Ubbe "Not to myself Ivar. That is not my own kingdom. I wish to have my own kingdom, does not every viking dream of that life?"

Ivar "I think that you are being greedy."

Ubbe "Greedy?"

Ivar "Yes," Ubbe chuckles, "Because look at what you have! You have Kattegat, you have a wife and children.. why is that not enough for you huh?"

Ubbe "It is enough-"

Ivar "Then stay." Ubbe walks away from his brother and Torvi. Ivar looks at her, speechless. 

Torvi "Give him time, okay? That is all that we can do right now, is give him time."

Ivar "I can't lose anyone else-"

Torvi "Neither can I, Ivar. Neither can I." She walks away to go after her husband, leaving Ivar with his thoughts. All he can do is pray to Odin that his brother does not go through with this siege.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

Nightfall came over Kiev and even though Hvitserk was telling you a fib, you all still came together to have a bonfire by the pit. Freya sat on her Uncle's lap and Baldur sat on his father's lap while Torvi and Ubbe held onto their own children. The warmth hit your skin, soothing your aching muscles from lifting your kids up and into a tree earlier today. 

Ivar "My love.."

"Mmm?"

Ivar "You are quiet.. you are never quiet."

"I am never quiet?"

Ivar "Not very often," you two giggle, "what is it, my sweetheart?"

"I am just relaxing. I have not relaxed all day. I am pretty sore-"

Ivar "You are in pain?" His eyes got wide.

"Only my arms and legs, my love. I am fine-"

Ivar "Why are you in pain?"

"Our children wanted to pick their own apples today so I had to lift them up to reach them. That is most likely why. And my legs, well, that is because we were in the grasslands for hours and hours."

Ivar "Oh my sweet, come here." He offers his arm, inviting you to lean on him. Of course you do just that. "Rest now, my love. And tonight, I will give you a message..how does that sound huh?"

"Or we can just take a warm bath together-"

Ivar "Your plan sounds better." He smirks and you blush. 

Baldur "Fatherrr!" Ivar ruffles his hair, making the three of you laugh.

Hvitserk whispers into Freya's ear, "Look at those lovebirds, aye?"

Freya "They always like dis.."

Hvitserk "Well that is good, little one. One day, you and your brother will be with someone who makes you just as happy as your parents make each other happy."

Freya "That is was Daddy said earlier!"

Hvitserk "You see! If your father says it, then it is absolutely true." He tickles her sides, making her bolt out with laughter. 

Ubbe "Are you tickling my niece?!"

Hvitserk "I am tickling my god daughter..yes!" Ubbe laughs and takes a drink of his ale. 

You pucker your lips so Baldur reaches over and kisses you. After he does, you lean back down and into Ivar's arms and took in this incredible moment in time. Your family sitting around the pit, with your people's laughter in the background, your children's laughter and your wolves playing just beside you. Everything about tonight has been perfect, making you feel a little extra grateful.

@hvitserkmarcosource @youbloodymadgenius @ivarsgoddess @a-mess-of-fandoms @heavenly1927 @saldelys @conaionaru @krissydclayton93 @readsalot73

[grey-eyed-menace]

So!

I'm coming straight outta left field with this one, but hey, some of the best things in life come from spontaneity!

Er... Maybe.

Anyway, here's my Pokèmon AU!

Featuring the Female Protagonists I played as, their names, general differences from canon, and personal headcannons I came up with during my first playthrough of each game!

...and how they fit into the wider world! Maybe. Kinda.

I'm only doing the main series females in this post, with potential a potential sequal in the form of the side game females!

I do know that the main series male's will have their own post though! Mostly because I legitimately cannot control myself, and it's already halfway done!

So, without a further ado...

Arden Forrest!

Childhood friend of Red Audra, and the maternal cousin of the one and only Blue Oak.

Chose Charmander as her starter, named the little guy Flare, and is extremely defensive of the nickname. She is/was ten! Sorry if her creativity wasn't up to par!

Ended up having to travel with Red because her mother absolutely refused to let her leave Pallet otherwise.

Simply stick with him out of convenience after Viridian Forest, mostly because at that point there really wasn't anything to gain in separating from him.

In this continuity she's the older sister of the Sun and Moon protagonists. More on that in Jericho's section.

At the end of her journey, her team consisted of Flare the Charizard, Lenz the Jolteon, King the Slowking, Knott the Vileplume, Skye the Pidgeot, and Blue the Raichu.

Raichu is a stuck up little shit, and pampered, the nickname was obvious. To her at least. Oddly enough, Blue the Raichu hates Blue the human.

The only reason Giovanni remembers her is because she straight up decked him across the jaw when he threatened to kill one of her Pokèmon.

Somehow ended up acquiring Silver as a travel companion for three weeks, Red was bemused. He was also incredibly confused when that feral eight year old showed back up three years later in the news.

Ended up hanging up her battling career shortly after she lost the championship to Lance, and handed over Flare to Red to battle on a more permanent basis.

She still trained the rest of her team, and still does, she just realized that despite her talent in the profession it just... Wasn't her calling. She wasn't as quite as in love with it as she was at the start of her journey.

Bounces around the world for a bit during the three or so years between the Blue/Red and the HeartGold/SoulSilver storylines, and after Lance wins the championship back from her. Trying to find herself.

She participates in the Galar league around the same time as Leon, Raihan, Sonia, and Nessa, mostly as a curiosity, and maybe as a way to try and reconnect with her battling roots, but jumps ship after Opal because fucking hell is their League a killer for self-confidence.

Her jersey number, for the record, was 069. She deeply regrets keeping the uniform years later.

She also finishes the Unova circuit, but doesn't challenge the Elite Four or the Champion, and she tries to do something in the Ferrum Region for a bit before packing up and returning home.

Perpetually pissed off that no one can remember her fucking name.

And no, it isn't about the Championship thing, she was fine with that, really, it's just that the moment she introduces herself ahead of Blue or Red people tend to either treat her like a commodity, or like she doesn't exist.

Made it through the Elite Four and beat Blue before Red.

So yes, she is the official record holder for the shortest Championship. Which, if you're wondering, is exactly thirteen hours, seven minutes, and thirty-three seconds.

She and Blue played Go-Fish for two hours while Red finished up with Bruno.

The ensuing eleven hour battle with Red both traumatized and bored Blue in equal measures.

Blue had the title for a week. Red bolted to Unova shortly after winning and declined the position, turning it back over to her. She proceeded to hold it for another six months before a match with Lance turned it back over.

Actually ends up as one of Professor Oak's lab assistants once she ends back up in Pallet, and... Eventually finds her calling in research.

She throws herself into her education with everything she has. And... Never really loses that passion and drive.

Has to be physically dragged to Passio during the Master's tournament/festival. Dragged. And no, that's not an exaggeration, Blue physically throws her over his shoulder, books their shared flight, and well, he basically kidnaps her.

If it makes you feel any better, he pretty much did the same thing with Red, only it was a private flight that was prearranged.

It makes her feel better, anyway.

She spends the entire tournament/festival in borrowed clothes.

She takes solace in mock-poker matches with Red, Grimsely, Lina, and, oddly enough, Cynthia and Steven Stone.

She does eventually end up becoming a professor in her own right, with a focus on Abilities and how they affect a Pokèmon's mental and physical growth, and also ends up with an engineering degree as well.

In her late thirties I see her taking over Professor Hasting's job for the Ranger association. Mostly because, in my head-cannon at least, Regional Professor status isn't all that it's cracked up to be, and at that point in her life the only reason she would even take over for Oak in any capacity is out of sentimental value for the Pallet Labs.

That, and it's a cushy job, plus she gets to see small children scramble around for over jumped flying tops. So really, it's a win-win.

Teases Jericho relentlessly over her relationship with Gladion.

Not that her romantic life is much better. Someone idly points out that Red is romantically pursuing her when they're nineteen and she proceeds to have a minor breakdown.

Or, you know, she just remains forever oblivious, and Red remains extremely passive in his pining.

Completely blind-sided by Blue's wedding, and honestly doesn't know what to think of his wife, but plays the role of doting aunt pretty well once they have their first kid.

Shows up in the White 2 storyline in a rental tournament, wrecks Rei's shit, comes back a day later during a Team Switch Tournament, and proceeds to destroy the battlefield.

Then, once Rei is the Unovian Champion, she comes for an actual vacation, and actively, and willingly, participates in the Cross-Region Tournament, makes it to the finals, wrecks Rei's shit again, and then destroys the Stadium when she goes up against Red in the semi-finals... Yeah, I'm not sure what storyline to put to the whole rage vent thing, but it's there. It exists. And Red pays for it.

I'm thinking Blue just gets in over his head a week or so before the tournament, and she quietly simmers all the while.

I think if I were to make a fic about her journey/life, I'd call it 'The Trials And Tribulations Of A Run Of The Mill Pokèmon Trainer'. Because... Ya know, against Blue and Red, she's actually a pretty average trainer.

Compared to Red, who'll have participated in over thirty league circuits in his lifetime, (and plowed straight through the champion in a pretty good chunk of them), Arden has only actively participated in maybe five, mantled a single Championship, and completed two other circuits, with the last three or so having her jump ship due to pressure, having to put it aside for prior commitments, or a simple lack of interest, (the incredibly vague Greece based region I have an idea for is incredibly interesting history wise, in universe, it's Gym and tournament circuit on the other hand... Lacks pretty much anything to make it even remotely interesting).

Red will be a living legend once all is said and done at the end of his career. While Arden has a single legal achievement to her name, the famed recognition of being one of three people to take down the Pokèmon equivalent to the Mafia, and a pretty average badge count for a career trainer.

Also, Lina loses to Red on Mount Silver. She knows, she was drafted as the referee because when she came to drop of Red's food for the week. She's pretty much payed off to say otherwise though.

And she doesn't know why.

She's convinced it's a conspiracy.

Fades into relative obscurity around the time of the Sun & Moon storyline, but her damn if her tiny fan club isn't dedicated.

Doesn't show up in Alola for the battle tree because Blue couldn't find her for three solid months.

No one knows what the fuck she was doing.

...she may or may not have been the Gates To Infinity protagonist.

There's a tiny aside to a Snivy named Leaf in article concerning Overgrow and how it affects the Snivy population at large though.

And that's Arden Forrest, a bit clunky, but hey, they're randomly ordered facts, not a character sheet. Next up is the Crystal heroine!

Marie Smith!

Traveled through Johto about three or so years before Arden, Red, and Blue began running around Kanto.

Older than her sister, Lina, by seven years.

I actually don't have all that much on her because I got to the third Gym on Crystal before my brother destroyed the Device I was using to play the game on.

What I do know, from this information, though, is that she disappeared around said time.

No build up, no cries for help, nothing. Just up and gone. She just cut contact with her family, things happened, and she's absolutely infamous for nearly killing three thousand people. Somehow, she's officially recognized as someone who completed the Johto Circuit though.

She got recruited by Cypher.

Again. Shit happened.

Oak blames himself for an incident in the Kiro Region, (Egyptian Region), pertaining to her.

Lina's entire journey is an event and a half because of her.

If I were to make these little things into a fic series, she'd get... Like a seven chapter mini-fic told from seven different people's perspectives throughout her journey.

Those people, in order, would be... Her mother, Whitney, Naoko of the Kimono Girls, Giovanni, Clair, and Oak.

With an extra chapter detailing her death during the Kalos invasion.

She shows back up in the Kalos storyline in this and traumatizes the ever loving fuck out of Serafina.

She chose a Chikorita. Who she loves dearly, even when she's pretty much gone off the deep end, and then some.

Lina Smith, local trouble maker, owner of a perpetually terrified Feraligator, and the best friend of the very weird Ethan Aurum, and the only person who seems to be on Silver's good side. Vaguely.

Oh so vaguely.

Youngest out of three children, her older brother, Gregory, is an incredibly average guy who's extremely confused as to what the fuck happens on her journey, and never NOT worried about her.

Parents died in a car accident some two years before the start of the storyline, is cared for by Gregory at this point in time

Don't ask why Greg is a thing. He just is.

Like Arden before her, Lina takes a very proactive approach to dealing with Silver during the Radio Tower Incident. Which involves decking him in the jaw.

Surprisingly, this is the part where there relationship improves.

Chooses a Totodile and names him Reyne, and is fiercely protective of him. The little guy could put a Sobble to shame... This also means Silver ends up with the incredibly overly energetic and affectionate Chikorita, all for my personal amusement, (said Chikorita is named Lyra, and no, he does not spoil her, shut your mouth Aurum!).

Her entire story isn't so much focused on her gym challenge or the reappearance of Team Rocket, as it is finding out what the fuck happened to her sister.

Ethan starts tagging along after Goldenrod, and starts to reveal he knows a lot more than he's willing to admit about the situation.

Gets caught up in a lot of nasty things, and nearly ends up dismantling an operation to kill Red, Lance, and Cynthia.

(Where are our favorite colored duo, and supporting tree, during all this you may ask? Why, still recovering from trauma of course! Like reasonable, sane, run-of-the-mill people. More specifically, Blue's officially taking over Viridian gym before the start of the Kanto gym circuit season, Red's fucking around in Hoenn for a good bit before coming to Mt. Silver just two months before Lina gets there, and Arden's in that vague Greece based region getting therapy.)

Her journey is just a really long incident report, and Looker has half a mind to slap her at the end of it.

A good portion of it is Ethan's fault though. Ethan, by the way, nails the looking right through you stare.

And a girl named Sarah Morgendy comes up a lot, although it turns out she's just a kid trying to protect her adopted brother from the shit shoe she got them involved in illegally.

The only two problems with that is she's about eleven and emotionally compromised.

Gets recruited by Interpol after everything is said in done.

Gets the code name Agent Lenz.

Demands therapy for herself, Ethan, and Silver. She gets it.

While she's training as an agent, Ethan and his mother move to Unova so that he can attend an Academy meant 'rising stars', and Silver becomes Elm's apprentice.

...somehow ends up married to Blue years down the line. They have two kids between them. Maria and Reginald

[nothingbutfangirlsmut]

Girl Out of Time

Pairing: Bucky x Reader and Sam x Reader

Background: Willow Roffe was born and raised in Brooklyn. She lived her life as happily as she could with her two childhood best friends Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers. When they both left her to join the military she tried to continue with life but that didn't get to happen for her for the simple fact that she meant something to James Buchanan Barnes.

Rating: Story will be overall MATURE but not every chapter. There will be strong language, talk of both mental and physical abuse, some good ole angst, and smut. There will be a warning at the beginning of the chapter when it includes smut.

Chapter 24

Brooklyn, NY 1946

It's been 3 years since I last saw James and Stevie. Only a year since the two of them became national heroes for dying. Both of them. Those stupid idiots. I had tried to keep going on after hearing about their deaths but everything just became so much harder. I'm still working at the hospital almost every day. I had to do something with my time. My Pa had started to chide me about not being married yet. I'm only 26 years old. I never wanted any other man but James. Any other man would try to make me everything I'm not.

I said goodnight to the nurses as I left the hospital. I had worked a shift and a half today. I'm exhausted and just want to go to bed. I held my bag tightly as I hid my hand holding my small knife inside the bag. Brooklyn wasn't the safest place especially at night. Luckily I only had a few blocks to walk. I hummed to myself as I tried to keep my mind clear of any thoughts. I didn't want to spend another trip home in tears like I had done so often.

"Hi there pretty lady." A man said as he appeared out of the shadows in front of me.

The first thing I noticed was his eyes. They looked cold and dead. They were beady and staring right at me. I pulled my hand out of my bag showing the man the sharp blade. He chuckled darkly.

"That won't be necessary." He said in a think accent.

It made a cold chill run down my spine. I stepped back from him only to have hands pull my arms behind me making me drop the knife.

"What do you want?" I asked trying not to panic.

"I just want to know what you know about an old friend of yours. Steve Rogers." The man's lips curled into a sinister smile.

"I have no idea who you're talking about." I said as harshly as I could.

"Tut tut little one. It's a bad idea to lie to us. Let's try a different name. James Barnes." He narrowed his eyes at me.

I couldn't stop the gasp that escaped from me. It made the man smile.

"She's the one. Take her." He order the man that was holding me.

"Wait! No! Hold on!" I screamed as I tried to struggle and kick myself free.

"Oh shut up!" The man shouted.

A sharp pain went threw my head as everything went black. When I came to again I was strapped to a chair. I screamed as I pulled at my restraints. This can't be happening! Why? What did I do?

"The more you struggle the worse it will be." A deep voice grumbled from in front of me.

I looked up to get the shock of a life time. Sitting only a few feet in front of me was James Buchanan Barnes. He's alive! He looked exhausted. He was also strapped to a chair like I was but he was bruised and bloody. Someone had done a real number on him.

"Jamie" I whispered in absolute disbelief.

He leaned his head back against the chair as the smallest smile appeared on his lips.

"It's good to see you Will." He said in a strained voice.

"What have they done to you?" I asked as I took all of him in.

"You're arm" I gasped at the sight of the missing limb.

He tried to chuckle but it only turned into a cough.

"Don't you worry about me beautiful. Don't worry about yourself either. No matter what I'll protect you." He told me.

A door slamming made me jump. Two men entered the room. One man came to stand between the two chairs. The other moved to stand next to me. He slowly stuck some kind of wires to my temples and forehead.

"This is simple, Mr. Barnes, you will be our dog. If you refuse or disobey in any way then-" the man stopped to look at me.

I screamed as something was violently stabbed into my arm. I felt it being injected into me. It burned. My entire body tensed as the fire spread threw my veins. I felt my eyes roll back as I started to convulse. The pain slowed leaving me sweaty and exhausted.

"Miss Roffee will be our weapon against you. You see, the serum we gave you was the same we gave to your pal Steve Rogers but what we just gave her is our revised and corrected serum." The man explain to James.

"I would never hurt him." I forced out in a long breath.

The man laughed.

"My dear you won't have a choice. Plus, you won't remember him anyway." The man chuckled.

He snapped his fingers then the man next to me hit a button on something in his head. The wires he had stuck to my head send waves of electricity threw my head. I saw images flash in my head before dissolving right before my eyes. What is happening? I screamed as the waves heightened.

"Stop! Please!" I heard someone yell.

The voice was familiar but I couldn't place it.

"Willow!" The voice screamed.

—

I shot up in the bed. My body was covered in sweat. My head was pounding from the residual pain of my latest memory.

"Oh God" I choked out as tears began to fall down my face.

"Willow?" Sam asked in his sleepy voice.

The moment he opened his eyes he jerked up wrapping his arms around me. He held me tightly as he rocked slowly.

"It's okay Will. I'm here. I got you." He whispered into my hair.

He didn't say anything else. He just let me get it out while he held me. While he comforted me. When I finally pulled away from him and wiped my eyes he sighed softly.

"Another memory?" He asked.

I nodded.

"You want to talk about it?" He asked hesitantly.

I shook my head. No way do I want to relive that again. Not ever.

"Do you want to go ahead and get ready for our meeting?" He asked as he rubbed my back.

I nodded then climbed out of bed. I had forgotten today all of the avengers and friends had to meet with some government official. I wasn't paying enough attention to remember his name. I wasn't sure why I had to be involved. I technically wasn't an Avenger. From what I was told this had to do with both the battle of New York, which happened before I was unfrozen, and everything that happened in Sokovia a year ago. Plus some accident that Wanda caused only a few days ago. I wasn't apart of any of that. But because I was close to some of the avengers and I'm a super soldier I have to be involved.

The atmosphere in the meeting room was tense. Everyone sat around the table waiting for it to start. I sat between Steve and Sam. Steve looked lost in thought as he chewed on his bottom lip. The man came in the room then immediately started the meeting. He went on about what the avengers had been up to for the past four years. He even showed video evidence of the destruction caused by each of their major battles. The only one I was apart of was DC. He shut the videos off then turned back to the table.

“For the past four years, you’ve operated with unlimited power and no supervision. That’s an arrangement the governments of the world can no longer tolerate.” He said sternly.

The man next to him handed him a thick book. He held it in his hand for a moment before laying it on the table in front of Wanda.

“The Sokovia Accords. Approved by a 117 countries, it states that the Avengers shall no longer be a private organization. Instead, they’ll operate under the supervision of a United Nations panel, only when and if that panel deems it necessary.” He summarized.

The book was passed around the table slowly as they each tried to look it over. Ross continued to tell us the Accords were meant to be signed in Vienna.

“I’ll leave and let you think it over.” Ross said as he went for the door.

“What if we decide something you don’t like?” Nat asked.

“Then you retire.” Ross said simply.

As soon as he was out of the room everyone either sighed or slumped in their chair. The atmosphere was instantly tense. I knew that no matter what the outcome was I would be siding with Steve. Whatever he chose I would too.

—

[sincerelymarinette]

A Recorded Life (32/50) - Miraculous Ladybug

Words: 1758 Chapter Summary: A few days after the release with Jagged Stone, many things have gone back to normal. Well, kind of. Adrien and Marinette have been having a lot more sleepovers and movie/game nights, but they're just friends, right? Hawkmoth says time for another akuma! Author's Note: i have a love/hate relationship with this one. I really wanted to write another akuma battle but it was really hard for some reason, but I like everything else about the chapter. Also, I want to see Marinette and Adrien play Mario Kart.

Prev / Next / Masterlist

Copy

---

Alya, Nino, and Chloé were ecstatic. On Friday, Master Fu had left Miraculous boxes in their rooms for them. Clearly, he agreed it would be beneficial to have the extra backup against Hawkmoth and his newfound persuasiveness. Marinette knew it was hard for Master Fu to let other Kwamis out in the world, but it would really give Marinette and Adrien a hand.

And they had been helping out! Hawkmoth akumatized a kid over the weekend, and it was the perfect chance to give Rena Rouge, Carapace, and Queen Bee a chance to get back out there. It's safe to say Hawkmoth wasn't expecting it, and he was probably going to up his game with there being more Miraculous holders against him. The team needed to be prepared.

After a week, Adrien and Marinette have been having as many sleepovers as they can get. Adrien keeps telling his father and Nathalie he has projects with her, and he kept calling or texting to say he was staying the night, it was safer than waiting around for a ride home. For some reason, Nathalie didn't argue it.

"They asked me if I know who Rena Rouge and Carapce are," Adrien said as they raced in Mario Kart.

"What did you say?" Marinette asked. "Ha! Blue shell coming for you!" She cheered.

Adrien groaned when he dropped into fifth place. "I told them I had no clue. They and Chloé just showed up the other day, and we've been making do."

"Good idea," Marinette nodded. "We don't need anyone knowing their identities, us and Chloé are enough," She sighed. "Yes!" She jumped up as the screen showed he crossing the finish line in first place. "Told you I play too much Mario Kart."

With a defeated nod, Adrien laughed as Marinette went on to select the next course. "They also kind of mentioned they don't like how much I've been over here? They think it's weird."

"Well, are you going to stop?" Marinette turned her head to look at him.

"No way, I have to beat you at Mario Kart eventually!" He pushed her shoulder. "I told them I was at Nino's helping him catch up on school work."

Marinette chuckled when she selected Rainbow Road. "And they believed it because they don't like Nino and probably think he isn't good at school."

"Naturally," Adrien said. "God, I'm gonna fall off this map like seventeen times in the first lap. Why, Mari?"

Just as Adrien said that, he drove right off the course. He also drove off the course when he heard a crash. "What a shame! An Akuma attack!" Adrien called out. "Guess we can't finish the race."

Marinette rolled her eyes. "We'll be playing later," She said as the turned off the TV and stood up.

"Tikki."

"Plagg."

The two transformed into their superhero selves and saw a flash of light come from a few blocks away. Ladybug opened her yo-yo to call the others, but Rena Rouge and Carapace were already running towards her and Chat Noir, and Queen Bee was coming from behind. "Good, we all heard the crash," Ladybug announced and tucked her yo-yo back onto her waist. "Has anyone seen anything?"

"Not yet," Rena Rouge responded. "Just heard the Akuma come from that way," She pointed behind her. "And Carapace and I figured this is where we would find you."

Queen Bee furrowed her eyebrows. "What? No, the Akuma came from that way," She pointed in the opposite direction.

Ladybug and Chat Noir looked at each other. "Don't tell me there's two," Chat Noir said. "That's not...normal?" He sighed.

"Okay, I guess we have to split up. Carapace, you come with me. The three of you head towards the one Rena Rouge heard," She directed to the group. "Everyone, stay safe."

Ladybug and Carapace took off in the opposite direction. "Two akumas? Has he done that before?" Carapace asked Ladybug.

"Not to start with. We've had it where they can duplicate, but that doesn't normally happen until after a little while," She replied. "I'm not even sure if they're the same Akuma, or two different people."

Ladybug held her yo-yo up to her ear. "Chat, you guys see anything?" She asked.

"Yeah, over by the school. You?" He replied.

"Not yet," Just as she said that, there was a crash right around the corner. "Now we do."

Chat Noir grunted as he jumped out of the way. "All this Akuma has done is throw cars at us and grunt. He hasn't said anything."

"We're just encountering ours. Stay safe," She said and put the yo-yo back on her waist. She nodded to Carapace, and at the same time they began running towards the Akuma. It looked like Stoneheart, but three times his size and a lot more violent. Stoneheart was years ago, why did Hawkmoth decide to create this one now?

Carapace laughed. "The old man must be running out of ideas," He said.

"Maybe we can beat him the same way we did years ago," Ladybug thought out loud. Just as she was about to call her lucky charm, Carapace yelled and grabbed her arm.

"Shell-ter!" He screamed, and a shield popped up around them. "What the hell is happening?" He asked as they stared at the Akuma.

The Akuma seemed to pixelate, and was shrinking down. The Akuma was now a copy of The Puppeteer, but again, three times the original size. "Manon?" Ladybug called out. She looked so different, but that was what she looked like when she was Akumatized.

"I am not Manon!" The Akuma yelled. "I am Copy. And you will give me your Miraculous!" The Akuma demanded. Though they looked like the Puppeteer, they sounded nothing like Manon. The voice was distorted, switching from really deep to really high, and everything in between.

"Well, this should be...interesting," Ladybug signed and called Chat Noir on her yo-yo. "You figure out what your Akuma can do?"

Chat Noir was breathing heavily. "Oh yeah," He said as he was running. "Yours changing from Akuma to Akuma, too?"

"Yep. Twins, maybe?"

"That, or one is a fake," Chat Noir replied.

"I doubt it," Ladybug said. "He wouldn't want to risk not getting a Miraculous."

With a groan, Chat Noir hung up his baton. "What's she been saying?" Ladybug asked Carapace.

Carapace shrugged. "I think they're trying to persuade you again."

"I won't let that happen. I've got too many other things to worry about and won't be persuaded," Ladybug determined.

"And if it takes over, you now I got your back, dude," Carapace promised.

Ladybug smiled and nodded. "Okay, I have a plan."

As Ladybug explained the plan quickly and quietly to Carapace, Copy was shifting into any Akuma that could break through the forcefield. Nothing was working, but it sure was distracting.

As Copy retreated back to switch Akumas again, the forcefield dropped to start the plan.

"Ah, I see you're finally deciding to join me," Copy, now Silencer with a twist, pointed out. They changed again, now as Lady Wifi, holding up the phone and ready to strike.

Copy started throwing the pause buttons at Ladybug and Carapace, both of them dodging flawlessly. Copy was clearly getting frustrated. "Come on, Marinette," Copy sing-songed. "Where's Adrien? Aren't you worried that since you guys are separated, he could be hurt?" Copy asked. "If you give me your Miraculous, you could go save him now."

Ladybug stopped moving and stared at Copy. "Ladybug! Don't!" Carapace yelled as he stood next to her.

She burst out laughing. "You think I'd fall for that again?" She directed at Copy. "No way! I know the rest of my team is safe, and they're just as strong. Hawkmoth really needs to learn some new tricks."

"Come on," Copy egged on. "Listen to me, your best friend," They continued. "Go ahead and hand it over."

Ladybug didn't move again, but saw Carapace sneak away while Copy was focused on Ladybug. She was staring at Copy, while Copy was slowly getting closer.

Marinette didn't realize how long the back and forth lasted, but it was a while. She continued to lead Copy to believe she almost was going to give up her earrings, but at the last second would back out. She couldn't imagine how annoyed Hawkmoth was, but she knew he wouldn't give up.

Finally, after Copy was almost going to give up, Carapace threw his shield from behind and hit Copy in the head. Copy fell forward, and at the perfect time, Carapace yelled, "Shell-ter!" And captured Ladybug and Copy into a green forcefield.

Copy was nearly losing consciousness, which seemed to make it hard to focus on being Lady Wifi. Copy pixelated again, turning back into what Ladybug guessed was what Copy really looked like. She picked up the piece of paper in Copy's hand.

"Oops," She said when she ripped it in half, and the Akuma flew out. "Well, isn't that lucky! No more evildoing for you, little Akuma."

Ladybug captured the Akuma, and Carapace dropped the forcefield. They high-fived each other, and ran as fast as they could to find the other three heroes and capture the other Akuma. Just as Ladybug and Carapace arrived, they saw their Akuma pixelating just like the other one, and Rena Rouge snapped the paper out of Copy's hand. "Gotcha!" Ladybug yelled as she landed in front of Copy and the other heroes.

"Talk about perfect timing," Rena Rouge said as the purified Akuma flew away.

"Where's Chat?" Ladybug asked, looking around.

Rena Rouge pointed to a building a few rooftops away. "He got hit and went to go recharge, but Queen Bee and I handled the rest of Copy. Speaking of, we should help them get home."

Ladybug nodded. "Yeah, of course. You and Carapace can take care of that, right?" She asked.

"Yeah, it's no problem," Rena Rouge said and started to walk towards her respectful twin.

Ladybug took off toward the rooftop Chat Nour was on. "Adrien, are you okay?" She said when she saw Chat Noir laying on the roof.

Chat Noir started to sit up. "Yeah, I'm good. Just a little hit."

Grabbing his hands, she helped Chat Noir stand up. "You had me worried," Ladybug said as she pulled him into a hug.

When they released, Chat Noir and Ladybug- no, Adrien and Marinette, were staring at each other. With very little thought, they looked at each other, and leaned in to share a kiss.

---

Alya Césaire @alyacesaire

WE'RE WINNING TODAY BOYS

---

@lady-of-the-roses-and-lilies @bookishserendipity03 @avatheexceed @gkz10 @coccinellegirl @kat-thatoneweirdo @strawberryblondish @snow-swordswoman @lilgaga98 @evufries

[teamxoffical]

Hyper Madness PT 5

As the battle commenced their other almost fully robotized friend saw someone on top of a building with a cat. Rozenn instantly saw something was wrong with the order. Their eyes were an unnatural color.

Zapper quickly lunged towards the person as he got flung away midair. Zapper gets flung back so hard by the person that he goes through several buildings and becomes unconscious." Discussing performance, you shouldn't play the hero here and just flee with your tail between your legs like the dog you are".

Team X and their forces showed up in the nick of time as the person floated into the air with his accomplice. Clare had rounded up the red and pink Guardians while Flame gathered the rest as the Special X Teams took them back to base for questioning.

"Welcome Heros I have made this racket to inform you of the destruction to come" the person said. He continued saying "In four years a person from another planet will come here to mobious and wreck havoc here". The person's accomplice added" Also it won't be Eggman's doing". 

Zapper looked at them as he nodded. "They're not lying but we should most likely keep this info under wraps from sonic and his friends" Zapper said as he got up. "Also, the order has that virus from the Outlands" the person said as he took out a bag.

"The names Zex The Wolf and you should beware of me in the near future" Zex said as he laughed. "Simply an illusion we are" Zex said as he and his accomplice vanished.

Cypher grunted as he took out the pink elemental diamond and gathered The Super Optic Diamonds."Everyone get near the diamonds" Cypher said he balled his left hand into a fist."We need to save those kids and fast" Cypher said as his fur became pink.

The rest of Team X and Team Tomorrow quickly gathered near the Super Diamonds as Cypher teleported The Super Optic Diamonds to the holding area where the Green Guardians were."As protectors of the people, we must find them and give the Culprit what they deserve!" as Cypher said that a pink ora surrounded Cypher.

Cypher teleported everyone to the forbidden Forest near Xenon City."His base should be around here" Cypher said as his fur turned back to normal. Zapper and Flame saw the base or what they think is the base. So they went ahead of the others to open the hatch that was on the medium-sized rock.

When they opened it there was latter leading down to the base. The others soon followed as they were confident they had found the culprits base. When they all reached the bottom they were surprised with what they saw.

Down under the hatch were test tubes with children in them ranging from ages 3 to 10. Their conditions were not great at all. All except one 10 year old would make a full recovery.

She was a white wolf and her state was critical half her body was covered in some type of Black Ora. She had deep cuts and slashes all over her body. Team X Quickly called for back up at the base. They got all the unconscious kids out of the base as they felt shaking from the base.

As they came back down they saw a blue Bird Holding some type of device." Glad that you could make it for this is all part of his plan" the bird said as he showed both of his hands.

"NOW PREPARE FOR DESTRUCTION!" as the bird said that he lunged towards them and let out an energy blast at them." HOWS THAT FOR EASY!". Zaid blocked the energy blast with his Nero shield and kicked the bird in the stomach.

The bird flew back as he crashes into a control panel causing the base to go into lockdown mode. The hatch was permanently shut and there were robots everywhere. Zapper Grabbed the bird as he started to go deeper Into the base.

The others followed Zapper destroying robots that were in his way. Soon they came across an underground launchpad that was slowly closing due to the lockdown. Team X quickly ran up the launchpad as Zapper used his speed and agility to jump on and run up the wall of the underground launchpad.

Flame, Clare, and Rozen all followed Zapper. Suddenly the bird started to turn to ash but Zapper kept his cool as he barely made it out. Everyone else was already out of the launch pad and back to the forbidden forest.

Zapper then took out a button as he started to run towards Xenon City."YOU GUYS MIGHT WANT TO RUUUNN!!" Zapper said as he pressed the button. Zaid quickly grabbed everyone and turned on his hydro booster as the base was beginning to explode.

They all safely made it back to Xenon City as all the citizens cheered. Cypher jumped off of Zaid as he announced "Everyone your kids will make a full recovery but one child is in serious condition so I and my team will treat and heal her to the best of our ability" Cypher said as Zaid put the others down and asked for blood samples.

Cypher took out the pink elemental diamond as his fur turned pink."WE WILL MAKE THIS WORLD A SAVE PLACE!!" Cypher said as the citizen's cheered. Cypher then teleported everyone to HQ.

Team X and the others came back to chaos. The subject that they caught was attempting to escape as well as the order. The forces trying to stop them were no match for them.

It seemed like his hand was forced to use the diamonds. He shook his head as he pulls out an airsoft gun. "Remember we need them alive" Cypher said as he gave his team airsoft guns.

Meanwhile, Vex was Protecting his sister and the fox in the midst of all the chaos. Team Tomorrow went to go protect the diamonds with the green guardians. As this is all happening Team Chaos Brakes in style with Storms Optic Shadow.

Storm, Fang, and Gash all go looking for the Optic Diamonds as Rex goes to deal with Zaid since he can sense thermal energy. Cypher takes out the pink optic diamond as he said "TEMPEST TIME". As he said that everything except him stopped.

Cypher walked to the guardians and tied them up as he walked to the subject. He grabbed her as he walked back to his team. He then said "RETURN" as everything went back to normal.

His team instantly knew what to do. They grabbed the guardians and chained them to the wall as they did the same to the subject. Meanwhile, Team Chaos is slightly shocked but Storm Randomly decides to run full force to Cypher.

Cypher sensing his presence was preparing for a kick when out of nowhere Zaid and Rex came between Storm and Cypher."Enough Fighting" Said Zaid and Rex. The others looked in shock as they continue "Even us robots gets tired of fighting" they said as Rex walked over to Storm.

Rex then said "I can't fight my fellow Zigoid because if I and Zaid even tried to fight we...will self destruct". Zaid then said "Our creator didn't want conflict even amongst our own people so he did that to make others in the Zigoid Empire Deter violence amongst ourselves". Rex added " Any attempt to remove the Self-destruction program will end in the permanent shutdown of the Zigoid" Rex Said as he looked at Zaid.

"They're right we have more important things to worry about like her" Cypher said as he pointed at the white wolf on the floor. Vex came running into the Main room as he looked at the white wolf on the floor."Is That..." Vex said as he looked at her condition.

He balled his fist up as he slowly looked at Cypher and the others. "This...wouldn't have happened if you were stronger, faster, and had more experience instead of just recruiting random people in the middle of a fight" Vex said as his eyes glow a bright orange. "All of you here right now will help from here on out I don't care if you don't want to" Vex said as he screamed "VOX INDEX OPEN BOND".

Vex's eyes we're completely glowing orange as everyone except the Zigoids and Team X started floating. A short while later a mark appeared on there cheeks as they were dropped. "Thats the mark of destiny it will always lead you to your place" Vex said as his eyes turned back to normal.

Vex turned to the white wolf as he put his hands on her forehead. Suddenly black marks start appearing all over his body as he grinds his teeth together. Storm smirks as he looks at Vex.

"Sure I'll agree but I'll be making my own faction as well as future boy over here". Vex quickly yelled "SHUT UP FOR ONE SECOND YOU DUNCE!!" as he released the black ooze into a container. He quickly stands up as he stares at Storm.

"If you beat Team X and Zapper beats me then you guys can" Vex said as he turned back around to check on the white wolf. "It will take place two weeks from now and it will be held in the training terminal facility" Vex said. The white wolf started to wake up as she immediately recognizes Vex her cousin.

"Thank goodness you're Alive" Vex said as Team Chaos had  a secret meeting. "Wheres Bell And Blake?" Vex asked as he picked her up. "They're with some team called Team Zave and they should be here any minute" Lilly said as Cypher and his team started to get their forces back up and running.

"I suggest that all the girls go deal with that one she has a distinct hatred for guys?" Cypher said confusingly. The girls went along as Cypher started to investigate The Order. "So...wait they don't look good we need to see what's in their blood". 

"I don't think it's safe to go to the scientists I've got something that might help" Mercia said shaking a bit as she reached in her bag and pulled out a small glass bottle with a red liquid. "Keep in mind that this is not a cure for what they have" Mercia said as she put the liquid in the eyes of The Order. They all came to as they all began to panic.

"We're so very sorry we don't deserve to be called the order nor guardians" they all said with tears in their eyes. Cypher got down to their level and smiled "It's not your fault don't guilt trip over it" Cypher said as he patted every member of The Orders head. "Now, who did that to you?" Cypher asked.

A red Sparrow shaking with fear said "He said we couldn't say".

[thewidowsghost]

The Unknown Muggleborn - Chapter 7

3rd Person POV

Christmas was coming. One morning in mid-December, Hogwarts wakes up to find itself covered in several feet of snow. The lake freezes solid and the Weasley twins were punished for bewitching several snowballs so that they followed Quirrell around, bouncing off the back of his turban, (Y/n) watching with a smirk on her face. The few owls that had managed to battle their way though the stormy sky to deliver mail had to be nursed back to health by Hagrid before they could fly off again.

"I do feel so sorry," says Draco Malfoy during a Potions class, "for all those people who have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas because they're not wanted at home, or those who have to stay at someone else's house because they have no parents," he adds, (Y/n) staring at her perfected potion, her eyes flashing a silver before flickering back to green; Hermione shoots him a hateful glare.

The blond had been staring at Harry and (Y/n) as he had spoke, Crabbe and Goyle chuckling. Harry, who had been measuring powdered spine of lion-fish, ignores him. Malfoy had been even more unpleasant than usual since the Quidditch match. Disgusted that the Slytherins had lost, he had tried to get everyone laughing at how a wide-mouthed tree frog would be replacing (Y/n) as Seeker next; then he'd realized that nobody had found this funny, because everyone had been so impressed on how well (Y/n) had managed to stay on her broom. So Malfoy, jealous and angry, had gone back to taunting Harry and (Y/n) about having, either, no proper family, or no family at all.

(Y/n) had just turned in a vile of her potion, Snape looking at it, then nods, scribbling a 100 into his grade-book, nodding to the girl. "Ten points to Gryffindor," he announces to the class, everyone looking up, "for Miss (L/n)'s perfect potion." (Y/n) shoots a smirk at Malfoy, who had been trying to outdo her in Potions from the first class. Hermione, Harry, Ron, and the Spences hiding smiles as steam practically gushes from Malfoy's ears.

When they leave the dungeons at the end of Potions, they find a large fir tree blocking the corridor ahead. Two enormous feet sticking out at the bottom and a loud puffing sound tells them that Hagrid is behind it.

"Hey Hagrid, need any help?" Ron asks, sticking his head through the branches.

"Nah, I'm alright, thanks, Ron."

"Would you mind moving out of the way?" Malfoy's cold drawling voice comes from behind them. "Are you trying to earn some extra money, Weasley? Hoping to be gamekeeper yourself when you leave Hogwarts, I suppose — that hut of Hagrid's must seem like a palace compared to what your family's used to."

Ron dives at Malfoy just as Snape comes up the stairs.

"WEASLEY!"

Ron lets go of the front of Malfoy's robes.

"Professor, Malfoy was insulting his family," (Y/n) says, taking a step forward towards the Potions Master.

"Five points from Slytherin," Snape tells Malfoy, and Malfoy sends a hateful glare at (Y/n).

The Potions Master walks away and Malfoy turns to (Y/n).

"What's wrong Draco?" (Y/n) asks in false sympathy. "Feel bad being worse than a orphaned Mudblood?" she asks, stepping towards the blond.

"Shut up!" He says. "My father will hear about this (L/n), and then you'll be sorry," he says.

(Y/n) glances around, "Look's like he's not here. See you around, Blondie," (Y/n) says, turning around and walking back towards Hagrid and her friends, all of them were staring at her with wide eyes.

"That was bloody brilliant," Ron says, and (Y/n) laughs. "I'll get him," Ron says suddenly, grinding his teeth. "One of these days, I'll get Malfoy -"

"I hate them both, Snape and Malfoy," says Harry.

"Come on, cheer up. It's nearly Christmas," says Hagrid. "Tell yeh what, come with me an' see the Great Hall, looks a treat."

So the six of them follow Hagrid and his tree off to the Great Hall, where Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick are busy with the Christmas decorations.

"Ah, Hagrid, the last tree — put it in the far corner, would you?"

The hall looks spectacular. Festoons of holly and mistletoe hang all around the walls, and no less than twelve towering Christmas trees stand around the room, some sparkling with tiny icicles, some glittering with hundreds of candles.

"How many days you got left until yer holidays?" Hagrid asks.

"Just one," says Hermione. "And that reminds me — Harry, Ron, (Y/n) we've got half an hour before lunch, we should be in the library."

"Oh yeah, you're right," says Ron, tearing his eyes away from Professor Flitwick, who has golden bubbles blossoming out of his wand and is trailing them over the branches of the new tree.

"The library?" says Hagrid, following them out of the hall. "Just before the holidays? Bit keen, aren't yeh?"

"Oh, we're not working," Harry tells him brightly. "Ever since you mentioned Nicolas Flamel we've been trying to find out who he is."

"You what?" Hagrid looks shocked. "Listen here — I've told yeh — drop it.It's nothin' to you what that dog's guardin'."

"Actually," (Y/n) interjects. "That's what their doing. Snape gave me extra homework over the break." (Y/n) rolls here eyes.

"Looks like being a Potions prodigy might not be such a good thing," Ron says, and (Y/n) rolls her eyes.

"We just want to know who Nicolas Flamel is, that's all," says Hermione.

"Unless you'd like to tell us and save us the trouble?" Harry adds. "We must've been through hundreds of books already and we can't find him anywhere — just give us a hint — I know I've read his name somewhere."

"I'm sayin' nothin'," said Hagrid flatly.

"Just have to find out for ourselves, then," say Ron, and they leave Hagrid looking disgruntled and hurries off to the library.

They had indeed been searching books for Flamel's name ever since Hagrid had let it slip, because how else were they going to find out what Snape was trying to steal? The trouble was, it was very hard to know where to begin, not knowing what Flamel might have done to get himself into a book. (Y/n) has the strangest feeling that she had heard or seen that name somewhere in her extra Potions homework. Flamel wasn't in Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century, or Notable Magical Names of Our Time;he was missing, too, from Important Modern Magical Discoveries, and A Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry. And then, of course, there was the sheer size of the library; tens of thousands of books; thousands of shelves; hundreds of narrow rows.

Hermione takes out a list of subjects and titles she had decided to search while Ron strode off down a row of books and started pulling them off the shelves at random. (Y/n) had taken out her Potions homework.

Harry wandered over to the Restricted Section. He had been wondering for a while if Flamel wasn't somewhere in there. Unfortunately, you needed a specially signed note from one of the teachers to look in any of the restricted books, and he knew he'd never get one. These were the books containing powerful Dark Magic never taught at Hogwarts, and only read by older students studying advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"What are you looking for, boy?"

"Nothing," answers Harry.

Madam Pince the librarian brandishes a feather duster at him.

"You'd better get out, then. Go on — out!"

Wishing he'd been a bit quicker at thinking up some story, Harry left the library. He, Ron, Hermione, and the twins had already agreed they'd better not ask Madam Pince where they could find Flamel. They were sure she'd be able to tell them, but they couldn't risk Snape hearing what they were up to.

Harry waits outside in the corridor to see if the other four had found anything, but he wasn't very hopeful. They had been looking for two weeks, after all, but as they only had odd moments between lessons it wasn't surprising they'd found nothing. What they really need was a nice long search without Madam Pince breathing down their necks.

Five minutes later, Ron, Hermione, and (Y/n) join him, Ron and Hermione shaking their head; they go off to lunch.

"You will keep looking while we're away, won't you?" asks Hermione. "And send me an owl if you find anything."

"And you could ask your parents if they know who Flamel is," says Ron. "It'd be safe to ask them."

(Y/n) lets out a laugh as Hermione continues.

"Very safe, as they're both dentists," says Hermione.

That evening has Hermione and (Y/n) and (Y/n) packing, getting ready to leave the following morning.

(Y/n) flops down on her bed and Marvel jumps up, her paws placed on (Y/n)'s cheeks.

(Y/n) smiles at Hermione as throws a blanket over (Y/n) and her cat.

The next morning, Hermione wakes up (Y/n) and (Y/n) places Marvel in her basket.

(Y/n) places the straps on her guitar and slings it over her back.

The two take their packed trunks downstairs, making sure to say goodbye to Harry and Ron before they leave.

The sisters take the carriages down to the Hogwarts' Express and they board the train.

(Y/n) pulls out her Potions homework and works through it, but gets stuck on the last question. She runs her hands through her sleek (H/c) hair.

Thinking for a while, she finally finally finishes the question, pulls her trunk off the shelf, and puts her homework inside.

"I feel so accomplished," (Y/n) grumbles,  sitting back down and leaning her head against the window.

Marvel jumps out of her travel basket and hops into Hermione's lap.

(Y/n) glances at her guitar resting next to her in her seat before she picks it up and begins to strum.

Hermione smiles as (Y/n) finishes playing and then (Y/n) places the guitar on her back.

"Come on 'Mione," (Y/n) says pulling down her and her sister's trunks and Marvel's carrying basket.

Hermione's smile widens as she grabs her trunk and Marvel jumps onto her shoulder.

Hermione jumps down after (Y/n) and (Y/n)'s arm shoots out to steady Hermione as she stumbles.

Hermione beams at her sister and (Y/n) shakes her head, an amused light in her eyes.

The two walk through the barrier and it seems to be more dreary in the Muggle world then on Platform 9 and 3 Quarters.

"What happened?" (Y/n) murmurs to Hermione as they walk towards their parents.

"Hi Mum! Hi Dad!" Hermione says cheerfully and (Y/n) gives a little wave.

Mr. Granger gives (Y/n) a hug, and (Y/n) returns it warmly.

Mrs. Granger greets her adopted daughter with a kiss to the forehead and a hug.

"Hi Mum, Dad!" (Y/n) greets with a warm smile.

"Hi, girls," Mrs. Grangers says. "Let's get home."

"Best thing I've heard all day," (Y/n) says with a grin.

Mr. Granger laughs and the four - plus Marvel - walk out to the car.

"I dunno," Hermione says. "Your guitar playing skills are pretty great."

"Oh stop," (Y/n) says with a smile.

"I guess we'll have to hear it at home," Mrs. Granger says as Hermione and (Y/n) load their trunks into the boot of the car.

(Y/n) gently sets her guitar on the top of her trunk before Mr. Granger closes the boot.

(Y/n) climbs into the car next to her sister and Marvel jumps down to sit in between the two.

Listening to the radio on the way home, (Y/n) listens closely to the news:

"Legendary weapons developer Howard Stark, as well as his wife, was found dead a few days ago. The death of his parents seemingly haunted Tony Stark after the disappearance and presumed death of his daughter and girlfriend about ten years ago when he was around the age of nineteen."

Poor guy, (Y/n) thinks. Imagine loosing the love of your life, your daughter, and your parents. I guess I kind of know what that's like, though I wasn't old enough to comprehend it at the time.

Hermione glances over at her sister who was staring off into the distance.

As if sensing Hermione's gaze on her, (Y/n) looks back over at her with a warm smile.

Hermione shoots (Y/n) a quizzical look but (Y/n) shakes her head.

Marvel tilts her head and pads forward, thrusting her head under (Y/n)'s chin. (Y/n) smiles and scratches behind the kitten's ears.

(Y/n) strokes the kitten's black-and-white fur, remaining silent as the car ride goes on.

Once the four - plus Marvel - arrive back home, (Y/n) helps Mr. Granger unload the trunks from the back of the car, but not before slinging her guitar over her back.

Word Count: 2194 words

Love,           Kaitlynn ❤😘