#at least if kira were a lower year than him

[dea-thynote]

Death note au where L transfers to daikoku academy in undercover to catch kira, and light yagami is not one of his suspects. The reason being this kira is too reckless and relentless, there is no rhyme or reason why they kill, they just do. This also means they leave more trail to where they are, but also puts more pressure to the police since so many people are dying randomly, and the broadcast confrontation L did just solidified the theory this kira is in Japan. Since this kira doesn't really have any connections with the Japanese police they never knew that they've already narrowed it down to kira being a student. With this, they then narrowed it down to daikoku private academy in which L coincidentally becomes classmates with Light. And Light hates him.

(Don't mind this, I just need to draw it first to put it into words, but yeah, this is the idea?)

Light's first impression of him was that he was certainly unique (read: weird). This guy suddenly transfers to the academy when it's the last term of their third year. Sits crouching in his seat and his legs tucked to his chest and starts eating sweets in his table. He doesn't even talk to anyone unless it was to creep or interrogate them, and just looks at other people. He once saw him standing and observing an entirely different section. It was annoying, and he could barely suppress his annoyance to the whole situation. So he ignores the transfer and waits for the teachers to reprimand the transfer themselves. It doesn't take while for the teachers to notice the transfer doing these.

"RYUGA!" the teacher shouts. The transfer pauses with what he was doing. "Can you answer the question from the board?" The transfer barely glances to the board before saying the answer. This doesn't satisfy the teacher however, and asked him random mathematical questions, some which light knows haven't been taught, and the transfer, once again, answers them perfectly.

Light is surprised. And only caught himself staring when he saw ryuga is staring at him back. The teacher moves on and asks light to answer, which he answers correctly. The teacher started complimenting him, and how that's how a student should be. Light just sits down again, and sees ryuga's attention somewhere else. (He doesn't know why, but slightly pissed him off. But he ignores him, better not associate himself with him)..

Is what he would say, if the teachers didn't just unanimously agreed that the transfer needed to be seated near light so that ryuga could learn from him. (Read: let light deal with the transfer, and any to no improvement of his behaviour would be blamed to him instead). So he tries to talk to ryuga, only to be met with short or cut out answers and sarcasm.

But then the open debate happened. With the news about kira, a mass murderer with no morals or reason, the philosophy teacher decided it would be a great topic to debate on. Which L was on the side of kira and light against kira. (Idk, maybe they argue the world is too overpopulated and lacking resources to provide for basic needs, and something about programs and also murder shouldn't be the solution and the fact that lives are being killed for no reason) and after the debate (which lasted the whole time for the subject, the debate ended in a draw and none of the teams are happy) light became intrigued with ryuga. He made points he could barely argue with, without directing it to another topic, and how he manages to sometimes take over the conversation by twisting his words to something else. Light is annoyed. And intrigued. But before he could even congratulate him, he just ignores him and walks over to the other section!

(Lmao, I just imagine light fascinated but also hates L, but gets jealous because he seems more fascinated with the other people in other sections. While L ignores light because, although he is also as fascinated with him, he's not a priority considering he needs to catch kira).

[r-u-shtn-me]

Unforgettable

Pairing: my fav dumb and dumber wolf duo aka THIAM

Words: 2769 (maybe more cus i keep going back and editing :,)

an: this literally sat in my drafts for months, basically Malia/Kira dance scene but thiam version, english isn't my native language so any grammar/spelling mistakes are on me, i never wrote a fic before but i feel like this turned out alright, please be kind!

* * * *

* * * *

(play: Applause-Lady Gaga)

This is definitely not how Liam expected to spend his friday night. Ironically the first thing that would probably come to anyone’s mind when thinking about teenage life, specifically at the end of a busy week would be to take a breather and head out clubbing.

Now, that wasn’t the actual issue, an average eighteen year old would most likely be expected to spend their night out dancing until their feet hurt and pass out drunk five minutes later. The problem was, having a dozen of hunters attempting to murder you right on the dance floor wasn’t exactly average teenage life, was it? That’s how Theo and Liam found themselves, blowing up their mission, obviously a certain someone did not know when to give up and acted on impulse, shocking right? “Something’s happening”, Liam whispered nervously. “I know”, they both looked around for a split second, Theo ran his hand through his hair as he stepped forward and lowered his head closer to Liam’s face, a little bit too close for Liam’s liking.

He could feel Theo’s minty breath heating up his skin and the all too familiar signature woody cologne making him dizzy and dulling his senses, but keeping him glued to the earth just for a split second. Head spinning and heart beating so loud it felt like someone was hammering at his rib cage from inside, he clenched his jaw tight, his teeth felt like cracking. “What do we do?”, he was getting anxious again, and tapped his foot as he looked around checking for an exit, just as Unforgettable mashed up with the previous song, the volume audibly increasing. At least the music choices in this club were nice enough and didn’t make his ears bleed too much.

If it were for any other friday night, he might’ve given up on his pained expression and drowned himself in wolfsbane spiked beer. Unfortunatly this wasn’t the case.

(play: Unforgettable)

Both of them could see hunters lurking around from the corner of their eyes, talking into their walkies and covering every existing exit in their field of view.

It’s not good enough for me, since I been with you, ooh.

“Blend in”, said Theo with his typical smirk while he shaked his head to the beat of the music and fixed his stare on Liam and Liam only, taking a step back. “Dance with me dumb ass”, he said, rolling his eyes at Liam.

It’s not gonna work for you, nobody can equal me, I know

“Oh”, now, Liam wasn’t exactly the best dancer and having to “blend in” in a loud, busy environment, from hunters did not help at all. Still, he tried and forced himself to dance, hitting no beats, not even by accident and somehow managing to draw attention even more on them, him.

I’m gonna catch the rhythm while she push up against me

He had no other option, the plan was already in motion and Scott was trusting both him and Theo to go through with it until they played their part and got things done. It was already hard enough to convince Scott that him and Theo would work best if paired up, even if things were way different now and some forgave Theo, Liam included, no one forgot the past but the majority agreed that having as many allies as possible is better than making more enemies.

And you are unforgettable I need to get you alone

Stiles and Malia, disagreed, mostly Malia but even she seemed to suck it up, giving into logic more than personal hatred. If Scott could “move on” so could she, more or less anyway.

A fuckin’ good time, never hurt nobody

Liam seemed to tolerate him enough and could never shut up about his responsibility and the need to keep his eyes on him just in case, annoying everyone, even more than Theo’s presence alone.

If you loved the girl then I’m so, so sorry

So time moved as it did and Theo attended pack meetings every now and then, getting updates and helping out in whichever way he could, just like he was doing now. A bad decision on his part, he was getting dragged along in every stupid idea Liam decided to conjure and liked to snarky complain about it even though he followed him everywhere.

Ooh, like we in a hurry No, no I won’t tell nobody

Getting dragged along with Liam in a risky attempt of gaining more information about Monroe’s whereabouts would’ve preferably not been on top of the list of things he wished to do.

You’re on your level too Tryna do what lovers do

Surprisingly, even if Liam’s dance moves were terrible from Theo’s point of view, he did not bark out any nasty remarks, instead, he resumed on letting a mocking smile display on his face, occasionally looking around the dance floor. It seemed as if the hunters were getting aggravated by not finding them. Liam’s face had an exasperated expression stapled on, he tilted his head to the left and rolled his eyes. He was trying his very best and seeing Theo sway to the music so easily was pissing him off. “Calm down”, Theo stepped forward again, this time grabbing him by the waist and pulling him close. “What are you doing?”, Liam’s anxiety was replaced by confusion and his tensed body warmed up quite fast, all the heat going to his face decorating his cheeks with a rose-tinted dusty blush.

And you are unforgettable I need to get you alone

His heart betrayed him and skipped a beat, no way in hell Theo did not hear it, at that point there was basically no distance between the two. “I told you to blend in, not get us caught”, even if he was right, Liam would never admit it. Instead of responding to Theo’s mean remark he allowed him to lead the way and let himself get carried around like a puppet.

It’s not good enough for me, since I been with you, ooh

He raised his hands on Theo’s shoulders, locking them behind his neck leaning in and swaying left and right in a coordinated rhythm. They were both smiling at each other, if you would ask Liam it was all part of “blending in” of course, nothing else.

I’m gonna catch the rhythm while she push up against me

His heart rate picking up was caused by the hunters circling around them and speaking into their walkies, not for any other reason at all. Now, Theo on the other hand seemed to enjoy this way too much for it to only be an act, the thought of it stung a bit but Liam told himself this was not the reason they were here for, pushing away his nagging unreasonable thoughts.

I peeped you from across the room Pretty little body, dancin’ like go-go, ayy

He allowed his mind to empty itself and relaxed fully into the strong arms gripping at his waist and lower back, raising his own even higher while Theo started to bend lower closing his eyes with a drunk smile on his face, letting his head fall back.

And you are unforgettable I need to get you alone

Oh he was definitely enjoying this, Liam’s frustration and shyness added to it. He let out an unimpressed sigh, looking up past Theo’s shoulder as his right cheek rested on the other man’s neck, the temptation of biting into it was quite high given the fact he was shitted on for his non existing dance moves for the past 6 or so minutes. The hunters were not giving up, even worse some of them made their way into the ring to get a closer look but at least no one else was staring at them anymore which Theo took as a win.

Ooh, why not?

Still, they had to do more than simply dance to get them off their back.

A fuckin’ good time, never hurt nobody

Theo took it to another level by grabbing Liam’s left wrist, not a moment later interlocking their fingers, which resulted in the former snapping his head back and looking straight into the chimeras eyes, his cheeks turning a crimson red. He was met by Theo’s soft gaze and playful smirk. “It’s only us here”, he said gently.

If you loved the girl then I’m so, so sorry

Now they were so close their breaths mingled and their noses touched. Somehow, Theo’s hand slipped under Liam’s dark shirt and rested itself above his hip, burning right into his skin.

Oh, like we’re in a hurry No, no I won’t tell nobody

Liam had to remind himself once again, these gestures were purely out of desperation to get the hunters off their back and get the hell out of there, nevertheless his breathing became erratic and his legs felt like they melted into the floor.

You ain’t enough for me Too much for you

Their barely-there height difference made it harder for Liam to look up but it was for the better, it wasn’t as if he wanted Theo to see his face anyway, given the fact he was the reason for his burning cheeks. “See, it’s not that hard”, they were still dancing, the tempo was slower than before, the song was coming to an end and the lights were changed to blue and purple hues.

Too much convo for twenty-four hours

Liam was out of breath from all the tugging around and sneaky touching that was happening and resorted to a not too genuine accusing glare directed at the boy that was still holding him locked in place.

She left her man at home She don’t love him no more

Liam tried his very best to compose himself and turned his head to the left checking to see if at least the hunters scattered around more, and cleared an exit. “Do I need to remind you, It’s your fault we’re in this situation”, Theo scrunched up his nose and grabbed Liam by the chin forcing him to turn and look him in the eyes.

I want you mind and your body

“And? it’s another Friday, what’s your point?”, truth is, if they left when Theo suggested and called if off as soon as they heard what was needed to, then maybe they could’ve made it in time to Theo’s truck and run for it.

Don’t mind nobody

But no, the angry beta was sure there was something else going on and had to double check before ruining their only chance at gaining the upper hand on Monroe, so obviously they were seen and instead of turning right like Theo said, Liam proposed they took a left and ended up here, on the dance floor.

And you are unforgettable I need to get you alone

“My point is, actually letting the others know what we found out would’ve been more productive, don’t you think?”, he said tilting his head to the left and letting his lips gently scrape by Liam’s ear while speaking.

Now you wanna choose (ooh)

“Besides if you wanted to take me out on a date, you could’ve just asked, you know?”, now he was doing it on purpose, Liam could tell.

Why not?

He retread back but not too far, still taking up most of Liam’s personal space, his frustration turned to annoyance quickly and he pinched Theo’s neck throwing him a pissed off glance.

Ooh, like we in a hurry No, no I won’t tell nobody

It seemed like the hunters were getting closer to the two of them so Theo had to think quick and honestly it might’ve been the heat of the moment or some locked away desire but what happened next not only did it seem to work at clearing an exit and having most of the hunters walk past them, completely ignoring their presence but it stunned Liam so hard his vision got blurry, his mind and body acted on their own accord though, or so he swore.

Tryna do what lovers do

(play: Chains-Nick Jonas)

“What, as If I’d ever- He was shut up by having his mouth sealed into a heated messy kiss, his face was caged in between strong hands, slightly chapped lips and at that point the music was just drowning out his mind even more, the lyrics didn’t even make sense anymore and their moves slowed down.

His hands moved on their own, up to Theo’s shoulders and his lips parted just right, allowing the chimera’s tongue to wander and explore all it wanted, the taller man let one of his hands roam on the others back, lifting it to his neck and bringing him even closer if possible. Liam’s own got tangled up in Theo’s hair, they parted just a little but not for long as they got pulled into it again like magnets at a different angle this time, the exit was right there but staying here as time seemed to slow down was tempting enough. It felt like one of those scenes in the movies his mother watched with teary eyes and stuffy nose, he didn’t really see the appeal until Hayden made her way into his heart, and he didn’t understand them fully until she left. That was until recently, when him and the man standing right in front of his face were brought together by the impending war left behind, his heart allowed itself to feel again, his mind on the other hand, did not agree. As lazy hands found their way under Liam’s shirt once again grabbing at his lower back, he let his head get tilted and allowed Theo’s hot lips to plaster soft kisses along his jaw and up his neck, lastly right next to his right ear.

“Liam”, his voice was shaky and his breath tickled Liam’s neck. “Liam, we have to go”, the moment ended, his eyes slowly opened and the beta woke up as if he was put under a spell for the past few minutes. He tried to form an answer back but nothing came out.

“Come on”, Theo grabbed his hand and interlocked their fingers the second time that night, he let himself get dragged out the dance floor and out the door, down the stairs.

As their pace quickened Liam’s distress crept up again, what did he do. Luckily for them the hunters gave up not too long ago and seemed to have left before them. No other cars in sight except Theo’s familiar truck hidded a few meters off the street in an unlit area. He wanted to dig a hole right then and there and bury himself in it, this was going to bite him in the ass later, he could feel it already. He knew the chimera was the one that initiated it as a last resort, it made no difference for him. This was not supposed to happen, they blew their cover and the information they acquired was now most likely useless. His hand was clammy in Theo’s hold and his head felt like exploding, the taller man broke off the silence. “Cut it out already, you reek of anxiety, it’s making me throw up”. Theo snapped tugging on Liam’s hand harder, pulling him towards his truck, it felt like an attempt at removing a 5 year’s old glued eyes from a toy store showcase. “I fucked up”, he let his head down and climbed in the passenger seat, Theo wanted to punch him. “Doesn’t matter”, he inserted the key into its place and turned on the car, snapping his head in Liam’s direction and letting his right hand rest on his thigh. The beta jumped at the sudden contact. “You don’t get it, do you?”, Liam’s turned to stare out the window. “This isn’t about us anymore, everyone’s counting on it”, he sighed and let his hand rest on top of Theo’s. “I know”, now it was Theo’s turn to flinch. “It’ll work, I promise”, he offered a smile and turned his palm upwards squeezing at Liam’s warm hand for a fleeting moment and letting go just as quick. “I’ll let Scott know we’re heading back”, at least that he could do without fucking it up, Liam mentally slapped himself and whined loudly. He quickly texted Scott and locked his phone throwing it on the back seats as he sunk into his own. This was going to be a long night, and he added to it by ruining their part of the plan.

[v-e-l-v-e-t-g-o-l-d-m-i-n-e]

You know, the thing that pisses me off the most about the Enterprise finale is not Trip's terrible death, or that the crew doesn't even have a proper POV during their finale episode. Sure, these things makes me very angry, but the one thing that makes me see red, you know what it is?

It's the presumption that if the franchise were to be given a goodbye to a not known lenght of time, the ones who had to send it off had to be the TNG crew and none of the other series deserved this honor, as if the other ones - even the Enterprise crew, the one show doing the goodbye - were not worth it.

I'm having a similar feeling watching the third season of Star Trek: Picard, considering they wrote off the entire cast of the series, with the exception of Raffi and Seven. It does feel like once again the TNG crew is kicking out the cast of the original show to insert themselves in there at the end.

But it's not the same because it's a Picard series and Picard was the main TNG character!

Yes, I see this point, somewhat agree with it but. It's not the same. Because this is Picard twenty years after his captain years, and it's about who he is now. We saw him make new friends, a new family in the two previous seasons, and this is now all cast out, as if it was all worthless.

And you see, I'm not actually against the inclusion of the TNG crew in Picard's last season. I think it makes sense to include them; they are Picard's family, after all, and Nemesis left several loose ends. What I'm against is the exclusion of the original cast, when they should have been kept IN ADDITION to the TNG crew being brought back.

But it's too many characters to write about!

Deep Space Nine had NINE main characters (Sisko, Dax, Kira, Bashir, Odo, O'Brien, Quark, Jake, Worf), three main antagonists (Dukat, Winn, Female Founder) and a TON of supporting cast (Garak, Damar, Leeta, Rom, Nog, Morn, Keiko, Kasidy, Ziyal, Martok, Weyoun, Vic Fontaine...) and they managed to juggle it all just fine. More than fine.

But they have to work with much less episodes!

I see this point. It's true; only ten episodes it's not a lot of time when there used to be 26 episodes per season, but you know what? It's still a body of work with almost ten hours of duration. This is just a little less than the hours of the LOTR trilogy, and see the size of the universe and the storylines you're capable of creating with roughly the same timeframe.

If they focused on what matters and if they were to write it well, it is more than possible to juggle many characters and do a good work while you are at it.

Elnor should have been in this season; he could be a foil to Jack, since he sees Picard as a father figure. So should have been Soji, especially now that Data is back; I think he deserves to know he has a daughter. They never should have gotten ridden of Rios. Borg Queen Agnes is very plot relevant, but she's nowhere to be seen.

I'm glad that Raffi has been in this season and its a joy to see her with Worf, but it leaves such a bitter taste in my mouth that her romance with Seven seems dead to me. Trek has a terrible record with queer characters, and Seven and Raffi are the first lesbian couple in the whole franchise (and the only main ones apart of Jennifer and Mariner in Lower Decks), and even if they had highs and lows, at least season two bothered to give them time together and interactions. They barely were in the same room together during this season.

The constantly barbs to the early seasons like the way Troi and Riker talked about their home life, the way they ignore Borg Queen Agnes whole existence... this season seems do disdainful of its predecessors, and even if they were full of flaws, this seems so unfair to me. Especially when this season have such a a weak plot being held together only by the talent and the charisma of the TNG crew, it's really not a good look. The story is weak, it's repetitive, it doesn't make sense when you think about it for too long.

And you know what it's sad? Man, I LOVE the TNG crew. In fact I love TNG; apart from Deep Space Nine, it's my favorite Star Trek series. I prefer it even over TOS. It makes me sad to see them being brought together again so messily, and in detriment of everything the Star Trek: Picard series had previously established, especially when you can see the ways it could have been good.

[thegeminisage]

star trek update time. last night we did ds9's "hard time" and "shattered mirror," which, WOW

hard time:

so i knew going in this was going to be an obrien suffering episode but i did NOT expect it to escalate to an ONSCREEN SUICIDE ATTEMPT. JESUS CHRIST

first of all, even real prison would have been less evil than fake prison. argrathans are VILE

kira was so niceys to him when he woke up :( even though you could tell she was super uncomfortable

i read that this episode was originally supposed to be about that lower decks bajoran girl...i'm kind of glad it didn't happen to her, tbh, but also, what did happen to her was still so fucking horrible

episodes that make a great case for why julian bashir can and should join the obriens marriage. he can still see garak on the side!!

i mean was this not julian and miles: the episode?

it was just SO good. everyone trying really hard to help and no one being able to help because obrien is LYING ABOUT IT AND GOD. THEY WASTED THIS GUY ON TNG! FIVE YEARS ON TNG AND THEY GAVE HIM ONE GOOD EPISODE! ONE!!!!!!! HE STOOD AROUND AT THE TRANSPORTER DOING JACK SHIT AND FOR WHAT

i actually thought for a second at the end when they were starving in prison he was gonna eat that guys. tarsus iv blinders. actually what happened was kind of worse

suicide scene. what can i even say except bashir is the most gentle man and good person. and god obrien fucking CARRIED it. five years on tng and i didn't know he could do that except for one fucking scene which was also about the cardassian war

bashir assuring keiko obrien always bounces back and then he almost KILLS HIMSELF.

AND THE THING IS YOU GET IT! he was really scary when he killed his cellmate! he was scary when he hurt quark and almost hit molly! you can see why he would be frightened of himself! it's that moment of absolute rage and then it's over and that guy is dead on the ground and you can't undo it. even though he wasn't REAL and then julian talks him down ANYWAY god i'm actually not even making any coherent sense bc it was just That good. god. GOD.

shattered mirror:

mixed feelings about this one, but mostly positive

i really Don't like how easy it is for characters to hop back and forth between our verse and the mirrorverse. ds9's mirrorverse already takes SO much mystery out of the original, which i could except, but having jake's not-mom and sisko's not-wife pop over for a visit for nooo reason is like. too much really. it should be harder. seeing her should be a bigger deal

about five second after the words "this should be a bigger deal" left my mouth it started being a bigger deal and i immediately took it back lol bc im weak but ultimately thats the kind of writing i'd wanna see for mirror jennifer

i think her using her knowledge of their grief against them WAS fun and evil actually even if it was also evil to me. and jake was already lonely because nog was gone too GOD. hey, also, speaking of nog, why was quark all "oh jake comes down here and pines for nog like every day" like are they boyfriends?? young love? whats going on ds9

speaking of gay people, um. worf and garak. the. the bondage collar. the way we both at the exact same moment had the exact same thought, which was: slave bikini leia. whatever they had going on in this episode was so homoerotic there was even penetration (with a knife).

one thing mirrorverse will do is kill people. odo, quark, rom, and now nog and jennifer. i called both their deaths before it happened but jennifer dying was still SOOOOO. god. at least this time they got to say goodbye?

SO thrilled to see mirror kira again, ik nana visitor was against the evil lesbian stereotype but what if i did wanna see her just lez out now and again? it's pride month i have rights

theme of the evening: mood whiplash. we went from obriens suicide attempt to fun edgy horny mirrorverse worf and garak bondage to sisko and jake's shared grief over jenifer to mirror kira doing ✌👅 at the camera every chance she got. my head was spinning by the end of the night. good for them though

TONIGHT: ds9's "the muse" and voy's "the thaw"

[j-graysonlibrary]

The Xiang Chronicles: Book Four Chapter 7

Title: The Xiang Chronicles: Book Four

Author: Jay Grayson

Word Count: 118k

Genres: Fantasy, adventure, drama, LGBT+

Available on: my website

Synopsis: In order to save the world from the continuous subjugation and potential annihilation at the hands of Tiandi, hard lines must be drawn. The Great Spirits that were imprisoned ages ago must be unsealed and awakened, no matter the consequences.

The players are divided—those who stand blindly with Tiandi, such as Xiang Merra and her disciples versus those who want to tear the system down and give the power back to the people. Even a few of the most religious Lords change their minds when they learn the truth of the world—that Tiandi is no more than a dictator with no love in his heart.

It is up to the last, real Xiang and the ill-fated Chaaya to put everything they have into tearing God from his throne and creating new possibilities for the future.

Full chapter 7 under the cut

Chapter VII:

Despite the rather rough, naturally formed areas in the cave that everyone had been congregated in, the rooms themselves were quite cozy. Perhaps it was the expectation of dank crevices and rock beds that made everyone sigh in relief upon seeing actual mattresses and cushions.

Not all of the rooms had doors, however. Most did—old, rickety wooden doors—but other rooms were partitioned off with a curtain or a length of plywood to hoist over the archway.

Kira had never cared about the plank-for-a-door before but now that he was in his room with Raine, he found himself longing for a real door.

Back when he first started to stay in the caves, he had barely slept in his room at all. Even more recently, he could count on one hand the number of times he truly settled down in the room to sleep.

Being alone in the space had a way of playing with his mind. He would always start to think of everything he had so effortlessly batted away during the day. The feelings of loneliness, despair, hate…they would all come clawing back, haunting him.

Now that he had Raine sitting on the side of his bed, it actually felt like his room.

“So…” Raine shifted his weight around and looked to the side, almost bashful. “This is where you spent the last year?”

“Not really.” Kira plopped down next to him and sighed. “When I slept it was mostly in small bursts while I relaxed. I cannot remember the last time I really laid down and rested here.”

“Is it uncomfortable?” he asked with a raised brow.

Kira grinned, finding his behavior far too cute for his own good. He leaned over and kissed his lower lip, still finding the act of doing so nerve wracking. It was silly, he reinforced mentally, but his heart pounded in his chest regardless.

“No,” he answered, “It is not uncomfortable. I just missed the company.”

Raine met his smile with one of his own. “Oh, well…” He hoped to not seem too eager and replied, “I am here now.”

The rooms were at least all fairly spaced apart, each being at the end of a tunnel. Some were more secluded than others but, for the most part, there was a good deal of privacy afforded to the couples.

Loa and Phay needed it the least which was why they were the closest to the main area and only had a sheet for a door. Phay had to sit up in bed to make sure she did not further injure her arm on accident and Loa applied fresh bandages.

They spoke in whispers about the future, starting with the next day, and what training might look like for them. “I will be making sure you do not exert yourself,” Loa said and gave the lord a stern look.

Phay, of course, met her eyes and smirked. “I will only use my good arm.”

“Sure.” Loa shook her head and secured the bandage around her shoulder. She brushed off some imagined dirt or lint and sighed before resting against her. The fatigue of the day was finally catching up and she did not even care to rehash all they had learned.

Her mind was far too tired and Phay was in no position to judge—she too was already half asleep.

Another reason they had taken the room with the least privacy was due to May’s insistence on having a door. She truly was a princess in every meaning of the word.

Already, she took up the entire bed, stretching her limbs out to their limits. Fujin stared down at her with a sideways glare.

“You do intend to move…correct?”

May squinted her eyes until they were nearly shut and grinned like mad. “Maybe.”

Fujin stepped closer.

“Or! Maybe you should just take the floor!” May’s fingers dug into the sheets, an attempt to anchor herself to the bed.

Fujin wordlessly grabbed her arms, prompting a fight immediately. May had no chance though and she knew it. She resorted to flailing and hollering which, quickly, turned into laughing as Fujin folded her limbs up and rolled her to the side. She crawled into bed with her and pinned her down before she had any further ideas.

“Mean!” May complained and wormed her body around but could not get free.

“Yes. I am very mean.” Fujin replied, flatly.

Really, she wondered how the princess had such limitless energy. Sometimes she wondered if she was fueled, entirely, by spite.

May, squirming like an agitated insect, managed to break free but she did not, immediately, return to the struggle from before. Rather, she turned around to face Fujin (though she nearly elbowed her in the face by pure accident in the process).

Now looking her in the eye, she tried to show an innocent, cutesy face with her bottom lip poked out. It was clear to Fujin what she was aiming for and, while she was tired from the running around, fighting, and the onslaught of information that had just been hurled their way, she still entertained her princess.

Their lips met and May hummed happily. When she pulled back, she suggested, “Shall we break in the bed?”

Fujin saw that coming and was already rolling her eyes.

“What?” May dropped her cutesy act and defaulted to irritation.

“If you behave,” Fujin told her.

“I have been so well behaved. Except when I told you to sleep on the floor…but that was a joke!” The princess whined and threw her arm over Fujin’s side while, simultaneously, scooting closer. Her hips and chest both pressed against her, in a way she knew was difficult to resist.

Fujin sighed and held her in return, massaging into her lower back. “Promise to be good?” She hinged her reward—a kiss—on her answer. So, when May, eager and grinning, nodded her head up and down, Fujin gave in and kissed her.

Her thoughts started to leave the myriad of problems facing them but she did spare one last consideration for her brother and how he was fairing in his new predicament.

Obviously, the four of them had been given the largest room which also had a door. The size of the bed was not especially impressive but Pangu took mental measurements and figured they could fit with a little problem solving. It was Kaz he was most concerned about since, even when it was just the two of them cuddling, he often fought for more space.

“Now, we can all finally talk,” Viren announced happily and looked to Kaz.

But, now that it was time, he felt stuck in his words. It did not help that they had all changed out of armor and into lighter, more basic robes. There was less fabric between all of them and his eyes kept traveling to the cloth belts on everyone’s waists.

“Um…right.”

Pangu raised an eyebrow. “Do you not have an answer yet?” he deduced.

“I do but that does not mean I want to…you know…right away.” Kaz’s face turned red even though he had not actually said anything.

Still, he managed to get his point across quite clearly. Baiya set his hands on his hips and gave a slight frown. “That is all well and good but do not be put out if the three of us ignore you and do our own thing.”

Viren instantly stepped in and assured Kaz, “I will not completely ignore you.”

Baiya half shrugged and half turned his head to the side, clearly more than ready to be physically close with Pangu regardless if anyone else was joining in. Pangu stifled his laugh and captured his disciple’s attention by resting a hand on his chest.

His touch traveled up, along his neck and into his beard. “I like the new look,” he said as he traced along the full cheeks and up into the hair over his ears. “I have been meaning to tell you.”

Recalling what Kira said earlier, Baiya felt rather vindicated and a smirk tugged at his lips. “Thank you.” He took Pangu’s hand and drew it to his lips, planting a kiss on the inside of his palm.

A small but powerful jolt of energy shot through Pangu’s body and he started to grin. He was beginning to see Baiya’s stance on their night as quite reasonable. He would never force Kaz into anything he was not ready for, but he did want some intimacy from those who were willing. If that meant just him and Baiya for the night, he was happy to accept that.

He followed that impulse and captured Baiya in a kiss, returning his fingers to his beard. The small peck escalated, quickly, and Pangu made no effort to slow them down, only shooting a quick look to the side, to check on the other two.

A content chuckle got caught in his throat as Baiya slipped his tongue into his mouth and, while that was rather distracting, Pangu still watched as Viren took Kaz’s face into his hands and slowly lead him into a kiss. Pangu’s eyes met Kaz’s just before he made contact but it was short lived. Kaz’s eye fluttered and closed, fully accepting whatever Viren had in store for him and Pangu, while keeping his focus slightly divided, definitely favored the more direct attention he was getting from Baiya.

He had been waiting for this moment for a very long time, after all—he did not wish to miss out just because he was still worried about Kaz. Viren would not force him into anything, after all, so he was perfectly safe with him.

There was the lingering concern that seeing Pangu with Baiya would trigger some negative response in Kaz—one that even he, himself, did not anticipate. But, when Baiya moved them to the bed, there were no protests. In fact, the next time Pangu checked in with him, he saw Viren kissing along his neck, clearly whispering between pecks, and Kaz’s face was red with his eyes losing focus in a way that was very familiar.

Pangu was relieved to know that each of them was, as much as he was, fully excited for the arrangement. He circled his arms around Baiya’s neck as his Agni disciple settled between his legs, their energy both boiling to a head. “I have dreamed of this for some time,” Baiya mumbled against his ear, emphasizing with a kiss along the shell.

“Me as well,” Pangu admitted and accepted the kiss that came after.

It was a long time to wait and he certainly felt the prick of tears welling up in his eyes but the singing all through his body took precedence. He could cry out of joy later, but first: the deep, long neglected itch in him needed to be scratched.

Luckily, sound did not travel well between rooms and the only noise Oli could hear was the panting of Browly as he watched him set up his cot on the floor. The down mattress had no frame to be placed on but there was a smooth spot on the floor which would work just fine.

The necromancer sat on his bed, on the far side of the room, and watched. At least he was having to share with one of the quieter members of the group, he thought to himself, but at the same time, he worried it would be too awkward if they were both silent.

“You do not have a problem sleeping on the floor do you?” Ziyi asked. His bed, while not a frame either, was hoisted up by two chains connected to the wall. It was probably less comfortable than the mattress the Terran lord-to-be had but he figured he could at least offer.

Oli spun around to look at him, clearly surprised to be spoken to at all. His eyes bounced between him and Browly. “Um, I have before so it is fine. The mattress feels soft.”

Ziyi nodded. “I do not know where they pulled all of these materials from. When I first arrived here, everything was made of stone and I would be happy about it…”

“…If it was not a danger to everyone, I would stay elsewhere.” Oli gulped, visibly. “I apologize for intruding.”

Like Pangu, he was difficult to speak with—perhaps even more so on account of his staggering sincerity. “No. Don’t. It is not necessary. Just…do not overstay your welcome and…be kind to Browly.”

Oli, again, looked to the reanimated dog who, upon making eye contact, started to thump his tail against the stone floor. “Sure,” he agreed easily.

Browly jumped up but not to run toward Oli. Instead, he threw his head back to look at Chandes who barged into the room with zero warning.

“How is the roommate situation?” she asked with a wide, toothy smile.

Ziyi rolled his eyes. “We just came back here…”

“I know. I’m impatient.” Her attention shifted to Oli. “Has this old man done anything strange?”

“…No?” Oli stretched out the word as he glanced between the two. Chandes was grinning from ear to ear while Ziyi pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Oh, well, be careful. He is a pervert.” Chandes snickered. “He tries to proposition me all the time.”

“You liar!” Ziyi pointed at her, yelling, “If anyone is a weirdo, it is you for being hundreds of years old but presenting as some teenage girl!”

“I am not using a teenager body. I am just small and cute.” She pursed her lips.

“You are not cute. If anything, you creep me out.”

“Denial!”

“Wretch!”

Oli watched them until they were both spent from hurling random insults back and forth, exhausted and breathing heavily. “You two seem close,” he mentioned, getting them both to recoil.

“Huh?” they rejected the notion in nearly perfect unison.

Oli chuckled to himself. “Sorry. Feel free to continue your, um, fight, as I get some rest. I could sleep through another battle so do not mind me.” He meant it, too. Once he was lying down on the mattress, it took only a few seconds to lose consciousness—even as the whispered bickering continued beside him.

[bleachbleachbleach]

Apologies for the ugly picture... I was not about to write that all out again. For full effect, please imagine me in a blazer, slacks, and dress top but also huddled in a blanket on the floor doing this instead of literally anything else I should be doing!

I was trying to get timeline stuff situated in my head (friends, I did not succeed), but I still think this was a fruitful exercise! I am only 70% sure the information on this whiteboard is complete or correct, but nevertheless, it led to some really interesting potentials that I feel like could be taken in a lot of different directions. Honestly, I think part of the reason my brain refuses to actually retain any plot-relevant knowledge of Bleach is because I prefer this state of wonder. Anyway:

Byakuya and Hisagi: Did you know that Hisagi’s Academy tenure coincided almost exactly with Byakuya’s marriage to Hisana? Wild.

Matsumoto and TBTP: If Ichimaru and Matsumoto entered the Academy around the same time (Hitsugaya seems to think they did, in any case), then Matsumoto, graduating in 6 years vs. Ichimaru’s 1, would have been a fairly new recruit to the Gotei 13 when the Big Vizard Exodus went down. I know we function on the assumption that the Divisions basically do not talk or interact with each other, but given that HALF the leadership vanishes, was there at least some anxious goss amongst the lower ranks? If this was a formative early period for Matsumoto’s tenure in the Gotei, what was it like later becoming Isshin’s VC?

Help Wanted: After the exodus, do you think all those positions were just vacant for decades? I mean, Aizen and Tousen were around. But when did Mayuri come into the picture as captain material? Soi Fon? Isshin re: Randomly Dead 10th Captain in TBTP Part 1? I mean, all the way to the Class of 2066′s first year, Ichimaru was Aizen’s VC still. Was 3rd just like, “eh, we’ll be captainless for 70 years. It’s fine”? (And if there were captains in the interim, LOL, were they so unremarkable no one speaks of them? Is there a gag order? Were they no one’s friends? Did all their friends simply also die? Valid.)

Kuchiki Stuff: I always assumed Byakuya’s captaincy and family head positions came simultaneously, because it seems like that’s how the 6th/the Kuchiki function, though I guess technically that wouldn’t need to be true. (Here also assuming that both would have to happen before marrying Hisana, because that also seems like how this would need to work.) But how long do you think their courtship was? If it took a few years, Byakuya and Hisana could well have met around the same time that Rukia and Renji did.

Kaien and Ichimaru: I’m also curious about the timeline on Kaien’s death. Kaien had seen Rukia’s shikai, so I assume they at least had a few years together. (I also realized who’s to say how much time elapsed between the adoption and Rukia entering the 13th? Are we told?) 

That leaves open the possibility that Kaien’s death and Ichimaru’s captaincy could have happened around the same time, which is potentially interesting just because our earliest knowledge of Kaien comes from Ukitake telling him about Ichimaru having graduated. So it makes me wonder if anyone in Soul Society ever thought about Kaien’s death/Ichimaru’s captaincy in tandem. (Also potentially coincident with Hitsugaya’s graduation from the Academy, relevant here because he’s also part of Club Tensai.)

Hinamori and Kira: I’m also curious about when Hinamori and Kira would have made VC. In my mind it’s not that much earlier than Renji does, but there’s really no reason why not? Since a lot of it has to do with what openings would even be available, and if Ichimaru moved to captain that opens up the 5th VC spot, and god knows what 3rd’s been doing this entire damn time. Kaien made VC 5 years after his graduation, so it seems like it’d be safe to assume neither Hinamori nor Kira would have done so quicker than that, in any case. Hisagi becoming VC would also be somewhere in here--again, I assume before them, but I guess it doesn’t have to be that way.

Hitsugaya: Also at some point in that general timespan, Hitsugaya becomes 10th captain. Again, I’ve assumed this was after Hinamori and Kira were already VCs, but that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case. It doesn’t really seem like the Gotei is ever in a rush to fill these positions, with the exception of Urahara-->12th. Honestly, maybe that’s part of why Hiyori was so mad about it, among other things. Well, and Kyouraku-->1st, but hell. There was a war on. XD I feel in my heart that Hitsugaya probably hasn’t been captain longer than 15 years, but it’s interesting to think about the fact that there’s a potential that Ichimaru also hadn’t been captain that long by the time the series started. 30-40 years?

I didn’t put this on the whiteboard, but in that Aizen/Tousen/Ichimaru/Isshin section, Zaraki’s also in there somewhere. Which, jesus, there’s been so much turnover in the last 100 years no wonder no one knows anyone or remembers anything. What a mess. XD (Also Komamura??) I wonder how common that is--because like, the captains who’ve been around have been around, and in TBTP Shinji seems to suggest that this degree of turnover is not the norm. (And that’s BEFORE the exodus, lol.) Speaking as someone who was trained in a program that had a massive leadership meltdown right before I arrived, and then interim chairs for the near decade I was in said program, LOLLLLL can confirm, absolute clusterfuck, no institutional memory, no one talks to each other OR they hate each other, everything absolutely tracks for everything we know about the Gotei.

Lastly, I still cannot freakin’ believe they let Shirogane open a Lenscrafters in the midst of all this. WHAT IS THE STORY HERE.

[sourwolfandlilred]

Out in west texas, it hardly ever rains

(but when it does, it’s amazing grace)

Stiles Stilinski flipped off the radio, tired of the breathless play-by-play of the Friday night football game. Golden boy quarterback Derek Hale had already scored four touchdowns guaranteeing the “douba-yah”--as it was called around these parts--anyway. 

His jeep bounced along the rutted road as storm clouds gathered in the distance. Heat lightning flashed in the distance, but it would likely burn off before it got to Marfa. 

The church stood sentry on the edge of town, parched dust-cracked earth stretching for miles and miles behind it. Stiles parked the Jeep and headed inside. 

To the piano. 

It was an old model, the C key so worn the ivory dipped where a finger tip would rest. But it played just as pretty as the best grand out there. Stiles didn’t bother with lights, just sat on the bench, and played. 

The thunder accompanied him, a deep bass line that Stiles felt in his chest. By the time he finished the song, his cheeks were damp and the storm had passed. 

***

“You weren’t at the game.”

Stiles slammed his locker and rolled his eyes, side stepping Derek Hale in all his snapback, wanna-be frat boy glory. “While I’m oh-so-flattered that you noticed my absence, me thinks you should get an MRI to check for brain damage if you thought I would show in the first place.”

Derek wasn’t deterred by Stiles’s acid tongue. Instead, he fell in step beside him, despite the fact that Stiles--for reasons he wouldn’t admit to--knew that Derek’s first class was on the opposite side of the school. 

“Would you come if I asked you?”

Stiles stopped abruptly enough to earn himself a curse from the freshmen behind him who hadn’t been expecting. He met Derek’s eyes. “Why would you ask me to?”

The corner of Derek’s mouth ticked up, but it was almost self-conscious rather than smug. “Does it matter?”

***

Stiles went to the fucking game.

***

Lydia Martin hosted a party every friday night to fete the celebrities of their podunk town. Stiles had never been to one, though all sixty-three of their classmates were always invited. The place was too small for bullying tactics and popularity contests.

Someone shoved a red solo cup into Stiles’s hands, and he downed half the contents in one swallow. His fingers itched for smooth ivory and he tried to ignore the jittery sensation of looking for someone in particular. 

“Brooooo, you came,” Scott McCall slurred in Stiles’s ear while slinging an arm around his neck. Stiles took the weight of his drunk, pliant body, turning the tackle into a hug. They rocked like that as Stiles laughed. Scott loved everyone and everyone loved Scott, but Scott loved Stiles best. 

“Hey where’s your QB?” Stiles asked as casually as possible, and Scott beamed at him. Apparently he hadn’t been subtle. 

“Gazebo,” Scott waved, flashing all his white teeth so that his eyes squinted into tiny bits of happiness.

Stiles maneuvered him toward Kira and then wove his way through gyrating bodies and couples who had too little sense of what level of PDA was appropriate. 

When Stiles stepped outside, his skin tingled with the electricity in the air. Something was coming. 

Derek was alone, surprisingly. It seemed like he was forever surrounded by fawning groupies, or at the very least his phalanx of ride-or-die friends. Stiles didn’t bother saying hi as he sat on the bench next to him. 

“Did you have fun?” Derek asked as he took a hit on his joint. Golden-boy wasn’t always so golden. 

Stiles let his legs fall apart until their knees touched. “No.”

“But you came.” Derek said, said without looking at him. 

“But I came,” Stiles agreed, plucking the joint out of his loose fingers. Had they been doing this dance for years now? Stiles couldn’t tell. Derek was a part of the landscape as much as the snow-topped mountains in the distance. 

They’d never really been friends. Stiles’s father was the Sheriff, Derek’s mother the lawyer. They had enough crime that it caused friction between the two families. But they weren’t exactly Romeo and Juliet, either. They were just two dudes trying to make it out of this god-forsaken town anyway they could. 

For Derek that was football. From the Smurf League when they’d been kindergartners it had been obvious exactly where Derek was headed in life. First draft pick for the NFL. 

For Stiles it was the long-shot Juliard--a dream his mother had passed onto him the day she’d died. 

He and Derek were as different as could be, and yet still... 

Maybe it was the way Derek’s eyes lingered on Stiles’s mouth when he took a hit. Maybe it was the Stiles let his hand drop to Derek’s thigh after he handed back the joint. 

Something in the back of Stiles’s brain itched, though. Him and Derek? It wasn’t just two queer kids finding each other in bumble-fuck Texas. He just didn’t know what it was. 

“Do you want to play?” Stiles asked, his eyes on the lights from the house. “Professionally I mean.”

“Nah,” Derek shook his head, earning a sharp glance from Stiles. “It’s what I’m good at but... no.” He laughed softly. “I like my brain intact.”

Stiles huffed out a breath. “Same.”

Derek glanced over. It wasn’t often that Stiles complimented him. Then he lifted one shoulder. They were close enough that it brushed Stiles’s arm. “I’ll use it to pay for college. But I want to be...”

He took a hit instead of continuing, and then handed it over to Stiles. Stiles bumped his knee against Derek’s. “Yeah?”

A blush crawled along Derek’s perfect cheekbones, and Stiles had to look away lest he do something utterly mortifying. 

“I like gardening,” Derek mumbled. “I thought maybe landscape architecture.”

Maybe some version of Stiles would have laughed at the admission. The idea of snap-back wearing, pick-up truck driving, all-American stereotype in the flesh planting daisies should have been funny. 

It wasn’t.

Stiles took a hit. Held the smoke in. Then in one swift move shifted so that he was in Derek’s lap, his knees on either side of Derek’s hips. Derek’s fingers came up, gripped the skin just above the waistband of Stiles’s jeans. 

The moment seemed frozen in time, syrupy and unreal. Stiles leaned in and Derek’s lips parted. Smoke slipped out between them, but in the next moment, Stiles was pressing it into Derek’s mouth. 

Derek breathed it in. Breathed Stiles in, really. 

When they drew apart, Derek’s eyes were wide, almost vulnerable, and Stiles ached with every part of his being. He wanted this to be real. 

So he ran. 

***

The church was as quiet as it always was when Stiles came to practice at the old piano. He made sure of it. 

But for the first time in a long time he didn’t want to play. 

The keys had always offered him an escape, a dreamworld where his mother wasn’t dead, his father wasn’t an alcoholic, and he wasn’t a weird kid who talked too much and dreamed too big for this small Texas town. 

For once, he didn’t want to escape. 

He pressed a thumb to his lower lip, as if he could capture the warmth of Derek there. The way the tip of his tongue had darted out in what had turned into a goodbye. 

“Play for me?” 

Stiles didn’t startle. He’d almost expected Derek to show, though he couldn’t say why.

But you came. But I came. 

Without acknowledging the request, Stiles dropped his fingers onto the keys. Amazing Grace was so easy, he didn’t have to think about it. By the time he finished, Derek was on the bench beside him. “Beautiful.”

Stiles chewed on the inside of his mouth. “My mother taught me how to play.”

A beat. And then, “Do you play because she wanted you to, or do you play because you want to.”

The question struck, like lightning, in the very center of Stiles’s chest. “Does it matter?”

It was a deliberate echo and Derek huffed. “No.” 

Maybe it had seemed like walls going up when that wasn’t the case at all. So Stiles took a breath. “Aren’t all of our lives made up of a combination of that? Expectations and hopes and desires and rational thought and irrational emotions? Her wanting me to play doesn’t mean it’s any less important if it had come from nowhere. It just makes it all the more meaningful that I am doing it, doesn’t it?”

“But what about your life?” Derek asked, and in that moment Stiles realized how much Derek’s trajectory had been guided by other people. 

“It’s not an either or,” Stiles said as carefully as possible. “For me.”

Derek nodded, his eyes on the piano. In the smallest voice Stiles had ever heard him use, he said, “I don’t want to disappoint anyone.”

Stiles nearly laughed at that. But instead he nudged Derek’s shoulder. “No matter what you do, I’m pretty sure it would be impossible for you to disappoint anyone.” He searched for the right words, the ones that wouldn’t dismiss the fear, the ones that wouldn’t add more weight to Derek’s shoulders. “I would be proud of you no matter what you do.”

That blush again, the one that would drive Stiles to distraction. “Play it again for me?”

“Anytime,” Stiles promised and surprised himself by meaning it. 

Outside the clouds opened up and the rain beat against the windows. 

Inside, Derek hooked his ankle around Stiles’s, and the music played.

[cthulhuliet]

lips like licorice, tongue like candy

4.5k words | AO3 Link | warnings: explicit content, mild dubious consent (it is pretty brief)

"Ok- look, Ryuzaki, can you stop that?"

L frowns, "Stop?"

"Yeah, your finger on your lips while you talk, why are you doing that? It is distracting."

A flash of emotion passed through L's eyes, the black orbs widening ever so slightly. A wicked smirk spread across L's face that gave Light the temptation to slap him, but he was more so focused on the jolt of arousal that crept up his spine. L pushed his index finger against his lips and leaned forward with interest, "Light-kun finds me distracting?"

OR

The one where L has an oral fixation, and it causes a lot of problems for Light.

Note: I am glad I have returned with more smut after being dormant for a little bit, please enjoy and let me know if you liked shorter one-shots like this.

-

Light drummed his pen on the side of the leather couch, eyes focusing and unfocusing on the tired looking man in front of him, completely consumed by the contents of his laptop. Light himself was also supposed to be working, but he couldn’t seem to tear his eyes away from L.

L: the brilliant detective, the letter and enigma, the critical minded genius. L certainly was all those things, though, right now all Light can think of him as is L: the annoying distraction.

It is difficult for anyone to not focus on L, in all honesty. His eccentric and wild appearance coupled with his odd demeanor made it difficult to look away. It was not even the first time L had distracted Light. He remembers every day of the entrance exams, feeling the prickling on the back of his neck like he was being watched by the weird, older student. Thankful, his interference didn’t distract him from getting perfect scores in all his subjects. And of course Light, as Kira, has many other reasons to focus on L.

“Interesting…” L muttered to himself and pushed the end of his pen against his bottom lip. Light looked away.

L seemed to be taking up a lot of his thoughts as of recently. It only makes sense-- they were in a constant, neverending staring contest, and Light was not going to be the one to blink first. Light did not need to further interrogate the perspiration under his arms whenever he is around him, or the heat blooming in his chest whenever he does that arrogant half-smirk. All in due time, Light will be rid of anyone who stands in his way. And if that means getting in his head, performing a few social niceties, and acting nice when spending time together, it is all worth it in the end. All warfare is based on deception, after all.

Light wasn’t worried. The victorious put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat. Right now, Light was simply annoyed.

The Task Force and his father had gone home for the evening. Light told him he wanted to stay up late studying so he didn’t fall behind on exams, and L offered to have him study at HQ for the evening. He asked this with a cake spoon hanging out of his mouth, spit dribbling down his chin, his doll eyes blank and wide.

Light bristled, “How could I say no?”

So here he was, pretending to study for an Ethics exam while his greatest enemy was sitting 5 feet away from him.

“L… Ryuzaki… What is your name?” Light wondered to himself idly. He twirled his pen between his fingers as he watched L swipe the frosting off of his plate and suck the icing off of his fingertips. Instinctively, Light licked his lips, they suddenly felt very dry. He fished around in his school bag and found the pack of apple cinnamon chapstick he carries with him.

“What are you doing?” L asked, pointer finger still hooked in his mouth.

Light read the label of the lip balm, avoiding L’s face, “Chapstick, lips felt dry.”

“It is the middle of Spring, I didn’t think people’s lips would get chapped this late in the year.”

Light idly threw the tube back in his bag, “Not chapped, dry. You keep it pretty cold in this hotel room, Ryuzaki.” L’s hand came to rest on his knee and Light was able to look at him again. He looks the same as he always does. “What, is my Kira percentage going to rise because I am abnormally using lip balm?”

L said nothing, but unabashedly stared at the shininess of Light’s lips. He brought his thumb and point finger up to his mouth, pressing it against them so the skin would move slightly with it. Light still had not quite gotten used to L’s staring, among other things.

“Can I try some?” L asked, his fingers still in his mouth.

“What?”

“Can I try some?” He repeated. Before Light could answer, L interjected with, “By refusing your Kira percentage will rise this time.”

Light was taken completely aback for a second, his hand spasming before he steeled himself, and relaxing his expression. There is no way L would be able to profile Light based upon something as trivial as sharing chapstick. Then again, there is no way to be sure of that… Is it possible he has some other goal in mind? But what on Earth is his angle here? Does refusing show a lack of empathy? Will offering lean into a transparent attempt of closeness because L thinks Kira would refuse something like that?

“Light, I am only joking.” L smirked, chuckling to himself slightly. “There is no need to be so serious.”

Doing his best to not leap over the couch and strangle the detective with his bare hands, Light busied himself looking through his bag, “I don’t think you understand that most people do not appreciate jokes about them being horrific mass murderers.”

Finger at the corner of his mouth, L expression relaxed, “Does Light-kun consider himself to be most people?”

Not entertaining that with a response, Light pulled out a fresh tube of chapstick and tossed it in L’s lap, “Here, go ahead and try it.”

L let the tube dangle from his pointer finger and thumb, reading the label before uncapping it and putting it on, “Thank you.” He responded simply. Light nodded, fighting the urge to stare at chapstick moving around his mouth and instead focused on the block of text in his notes, “Actually, while I have your attention, would you mind if I discussed something case-related with you.”

Light wasn’t sure if L was playing dumb or he actually could not feel Light’s idle gaze on him for the past 2 hours. Most likely the latter; the man seemed to be the type to ignore his surroundings when hyper focused on work. Still, Light moved his notebook out of his lap and onto the arm of the couch, leaning forward slightly. “Sure, what are you thinking?”

Moving out of his seat and back into his usual crouch onto the right side of the couch, he handed a manila folder to Light, who began idly looking over the contents. It was a record of criminals who had died in the past week or so, but by looking at the names, didn’t recognize any of the criminals. He wasn’t sure if these were simply not his doing or if the pile of bodies had just become that big.

“These are 5 criminals who have recently died of heart attacks in the past week. Their full criminal record is in front of you as well as various notes about how their crimes were reported in the media. Please, look these over and tell me your thoughts.”

Most of the notes were in English, the detective's native language, which gave him a bit of a headache, but Light was able to translate it pretty quickly. 3 of the victims had been convicted of sexual assault, one incident of grooming a minor, and a more horrific incident of stalking and killing a barista.

The world truly was disgusting.

But all of these must have been done by the second Kira. Light recognizes none of these names, and they were reported on channels and in tabloids he himself does not use. Even if they were, at least 3 of these crimes were minor enough for him to overlook.

He glanced up at L, eyes staring wide at Light, lips shiny.

It was going to be a difficult line to balance knowing why these kills obviously are not Kira, but also explaining how he came to that conclusion so quickly. But that doesn’t seem to be what L is looking for… What does he get out of this?

“Light?” L looked at him questioningly, brow furrowed and sucking on his lower lip with his teeth. The back of his neck prickled slightly.

“Sorry, got lost in my own head there.”

L tilted his head to the side, “Quite alright. Did you notice anything while looking those over?”

Light tapped the files with his pen, “I think so. It seems that all of these criminals were shown on the 12am news on channel 16, which according to our data, Kira has never killed those only shown on that program.” L nodded, but didn’t say anything. Light continued, “Also, it seems as though these 3 criminals were convicted of minor sexual assault crimes, which is different than Kira’s MO who mainly puts his focus on serious violent crime. I think that these deaths, at least for sure these 3, were done by the second Kira.”

“Yes… I suspected that much was obvious to you.” L muttered, frowning.

Light glared at L, “What?”

“We can separate the criminals that Kira killed from the ones that the second Kira did all day long, but that does not get us any closer to figuring out who they are.”

Oh. Now he knows what L wants. “Well, just by looking at these 5 cases and watching the video does not give me a lot of information, but it seems that the second Kira has a less ambitious motivation.” L leaned forward, thumb against lips. Light looked down at the criminals again, “Coupled with that, it seems like this Kira also has a specific MO, all of these criminals had been convicted of crimes specifically against women… Channel 16 during daytime airs music videos and dramas… It is possible that the second Kira is a woman.”

Light looked up and L’s previous scowl turned into a smirk, “Very good, Light,”

“W-what? Is this another one of your deductive reasoning tests?”

“No, actually,” L tongue flickered to the corner of his mouth before he spoke. Light could just barely make out his words with all the white noise, “I dislike profiling based upon stereotypes, so I wanted to verify my suspicion with you,” L switched out his thumb for his pointer finger, biting on the nail and letting it hang from his mouth.

Light began bouncing his leg. L was still talking, but Light was too engrossed in the way L’s lips were moving around his finger, and still slightly glossy from the chapstick, and oh God he’s pulling on his bottom lip now...

“- both verified that I feel much better about my theory.” L finished, even though Light stopped thinking about the Kira case at that moment long ago.

"Right," Light licked his lips and stared at the finger pressed to L’s pretty, pink lips. With the late hour and toll of simply being around L, Light had officially lost his patience, "Ok- look, Ryuzaki, can you stop that?"

L frowns, "Stop?"

"Yeah, your finger on your lips while you talk, why are you doing that?"

L raised an eyebrow, his hand dropping from his mouth, "I apologize if you were not able to understand, I can re-"

"No, I can understand you just fine, it is just distracting."

A flash of emotion passed through L's eyes, the black orbs widening ever so slightly. A wicked smirk spread across L's face that gave Light the temptation to slap him, but he was more so focused on the jolt of arousal that crept up his spine. L pushed his index finger against his lips and leaned forward with interest, "Light-kun finds me distracting?"

Light choked on the scathing “Not like that, pervert” and stuttered over his words, “I- Yeah, a bit. It’s hard to not, it’s something that is difficult to not pay attention to.”

L hummed, pushing his knee down onto the couch and resting his hands next to Light’s thigh, invading Light’s personal space completely, “Yagami-san and the other detectives never seemed to bring it up.”

“You are their boss, it would be impolite too.”

“Am I not your boss?”

“And here I thought we were friends-” Light smirked, “- Ryuzaki.”

This seemed to please L, as his cocky smicker was almost a smile, and his eyes alight with amusement, “We are friends?”

“Do you not want to be?”

“Is that what you want me to be to you-” L smirked, “- Light?” And his thumb was on his lips again.

Damn it, L…

Light swallowed, fiddling with the pen between his fingers, “You still never answered the question: why do you do that? Some kind of oral fixation?”

L simply shrugged, “We all have our quirks. I just happened to have more than others.”

Light felt physically pained in preventing his eye roll. Ignoring the detective’s wild appearance, the fact that he must sit with his knees to his chest, and only eat sweets, and constantly has to have something hanging out of his mouth-- it’s safe to say he adopted more than just a couple quirks.

Shrugging, Light chuckled airily, “Well, I suppose that is true for you. Not all of us have assumed weird habits like that.”

L raised an eyebrow, “Please do not try to tell me you are playing the innocent act again.”

“What?”

“Light, I do not know how you have not noticed, but you fidget and spin writing utensils obsessively.”

“I do not.”

“You are doing so as we speak.” Light stopped the pen from his usual thumb around, frowning. L eyes flashed and he bit down on his thumb, “Your tricks honestly are quite impressive.” He muttered, and Light had to make a conscious effort to not fiddle with the pen again.

L looked down at Light’s hands, now tapping against his leg. L moved his hand from where it was propped up his chin and lightly ghosted over Light’s wrist. “May I?” He asked, voice quiet and trepidatious, like how you would approach a skittish wild animal. Light nodded, doing his best to keep his head focused and wired. Why was he allowing this to happen? Why was he okay with being touched like this by L? Why did he so badly want more?

L grabbed Light’s left hand with both of his, fingertips ghosting over the palms and he rubbed against Light’s knuckles in a way that made him shiver. Thankfully L cared to not mention it. “Your hands are lovely, are you told that often?”

“Do people often compliment my hands? No.” Light scoffed, not for the first time wondering what L views as normal human reactions.

L said nothing about the sarcasm behind Light’s comment, “I am surprised, you have nice hands… Nice fingers... “ Light’s pulse sped up as L’s fingertips brushed over Light’s nails, “Long, strong, and slender. Am I right in assuming you played the piano?”

Light nodded, taking a moment to level his voice, “Yeah, my mother wanted me to, I took lessons for a while.”

L’s thumb rubbed against his palm in smooth, circular motions, Light completely entranced in the action. L did not spare any other part of Light a second glance, and Light was completely focused on L’s fingers on his hands and his lips slightly parted.

“You know, hands and lips are some of the most sensitive parts of the human body,”

Light blinked, “R-really?”

L nodded, “Yeah,” L brought Light’s wrist up to his mouth, and pressed his lips against it, “Though I assumed you already knew that.” Light hooked his ankles together and bit down on his lip, praying that L would not notice all the other physical reactions his mouth was causing. “That is why I like things near my mouth, and why oral fixations are so common,” His moved up Light’s hand, lightly kissing and sucking on any bit of skin that he could, L no doubt noticing Light’s shallow breaths and trembling fingers, “Just something against that sensitive bit of skin helps me focus. Sometimes it is a fork, sometimes it is my own hands…” He pressed Light’s fingertips against his mouth, his hands feeling the wetness of L’s mouth and tongue pressed so close to his lips, “And sometimes…”

"Don't." Light gasped out, pulling his fingers away from L's mouth. He meant to sound commanding, but even with the innocuous actions that L's lips had been doing made his head go foggier than it was a few moments ago.

L paused for a moment before he hummed, tilting his head. His eyes drank in Light's flushed face and he dragged his teeth across his bottom lip, "Saying "don't" with that expression will not make me want to stop." He inched closer, his breath hot against Light's neck, "In fact..." He nibbled on the lobe of Light's ear and sucked on it gently. Light swallowed hard to suppress a shameful whine, his nails now digging into his slacks, "It makes you look rather inviting..."

L's voice made him lurch bright red, the smooth baritone right against him was making the room feel unbelievably warm, despite the goosebumps running up and down his body, "Tell me I am wrong." He challenged, whispering the threat right against Light's neck. He gingerly took Light's hand again and pressed open mouth kisses against his wrist, trailing up to his fingers once again, "Tell me stop, Light-kun."

Light said nothing, and L nibbled the skin against Light's index and middle finger, before taking them further down to his first knuckle. His teeth grazed against the top of his skin and latched onto the indents in it, sucking softly. Light's throat went dry-- the action should not affect him as much as it does. And yet seeing L like this, erotic and teasing was making him very distracted.

"I- I don't know..."

"Hmph." L pulled Light's fingers from his mouth, and pressed them against his lips in the way he typically does with his own, "It's your body." L murmured, "Shouldn't you know what it wants?"

But that is the problem, Light knows exactly what his body wants. Every nerve is alight in his system, sparking and flaring with blistering heat, all yelling for L to please, touch me more. His logic was becoming fuzzy, having to live with the knowledge and settle into the deep end of the pool he dove into, knowing he was fraternizing with the enemy. What was making him feel this way? Were the lines between rival and obsession so blurred that he was now infatuated? When does the pain stop and the pleasure begin? Light couldn’t tell you, but L’s hands were caressing the inside of his thigh, and his tongue and teeth and lips were working at the right side of his neck, biting him just hard enough, and Light couldn’t take it anymore. He grabbed L harshly by his messy waves, the other man moaning at the action and he desperately pulled their lips together.

L groaned into the kiss, Light’s hand still gripping his hair harshly. He wasted no time climbing into Light lap, straddling him and moving his hips in tiny circles on top of him. Light broke the kiss, sighing, partially from the friction on his cock and partially in the mental pleasure he got knowing that L was hard too.

“Tell me what you want, Light.” L moaned in his ear, dropping the honorific. He pressed their lips together and immediately bit Light’s bottom lip, Light unable to suppress the whine this time, “Tell me you want me, Light, I need to hear you say it.”

Light never thought he would stoop so low as to begging, but his head was already fucked out and lust-filled, never experiencing this kind of attention before today. He has a taste of blood and he wants more. It is not as though he was going to say anything untruthful, he may just have to remove his filter for a little while. So be it he has to do some pleading and mewling, L was offering himself to Light, in whatever way he wanted.

“Ryuzaki… Please, touch me, give me more. I need your mouth on me.”

L smirked as he moved out of Light’s lap and began to undo his jeans, and although L couldn’t see it, Light smirked too.

Only a fool would call this type of power submission.

Light lifted his hips up and L pulled down his boxers and jeans, leaving only Light’s cock in front of L. L paused for a moment, and it didn’t even cross his mind to ask if L himself had even done anything like this before. Light opened his mouth to prompt him, but just as he was about to ask, L flattened his tongue on the underside of his dick, dragging it upwards, before encasing the head with his lips, sucking and swirling over the tip.

Mouth open in a silent moan, Light was gasping and writhing, overcome with tight heat of L’s mouth. Light has never really wanted anything like this before. It fans over him in hot waves; pressure and pleasure and want and fire and burning and okay-

“L… L- wait!” Light said suddenly, and L pulled off, quirking up an eyebrow.

“Are you enjoying yourself?” The question was a bit tongue-in-cheek, one look at Light and you could see him overcome and over-wrought with lust.

“Do you- can you slow down a bit, I…” He didn’t want to finish that sentence, but L nodded.

“I see, you want to keep going… Have you never done anything like this before?” Light shook his head, throwing it back on the couch. He closed his eyes, but abruptly opened them as he felt L’s hand back on his cock, stroking him slowly, “Have you ever even masturbated before?”

Light scoffed at the accusation, “Of course, what kind of question is that?”

L hummed, licking his lips, “It is just you are so incredibly sensitive, everywhere…” L ran a fingernail down Light’s tight as if to make a point, and to prove it, Light whined at the action.

“How are you so good at this?” Light muttered, mainly to himself, but L’s keen ears picked up on it.

“You think this is my first time giving head?” L peppered kisses on the tip of Light’s cock, Light dug his fingernails into the palm of his hands, but also flared up at the news.

“Who else have you done this with?”

L pulled off of Light, an amused expression on his face, “Hmm… Didn’t take you to be the jealous type, Light.”

“I am not jealous,” Light wanted his voice to be commanding, but L was still rubbing the head of his cock with the pad of his thumb-- the tiny, barely there bits of pleasure were just as overwhelming. “I was just curious.”

L shook his head, unfazed, “Let’s just say he was an old roommate of mine,” He gave a short chuckle to a joke only he seemed to understand, “You’re not the first to be fascinated by my oral fixation, and I do love a nice cock in my mouth.”

Before Light could respond, L dropped down to his base, and Light let out a choked out moan, but was still coherent enough to berate him, “S-so you did know what you were doing?” L looked up at him, doll eyes all wide and innocent, a stark contrast to his not-so-innocent pink lips wrapped around Light’s cock. Just the sight made him dizzy, “Bastard...” He managed before slipping underneath the pleasure once again.

L sucked on Light’s head, using his other hand to stroke Light’s length. The dual sensations were overwhelming, but the best sight was watching L on his dick, eyes glossy but focused like he does when fixating on case or a sweet, but now all he wants to do it give Light pleasure and make Light feel good and have his lips around Light’s cock-- around Kira’s cock. He had to bite his lips at the laughter bubbling up inside of him.

He gripped L’s hair and thrust him further into L’s mouth. L moaned at the action, but he still looked up at Light, annoyed. He tried his best to put on his face of schoolboy innocence, but L didn’t buy it-- he never had.

“People usually ask permission before fucking their throat.” L pressed his thumb against his lips, “I wonder what it says about you that you didn’t…” Light rolled his eyes, and subconsciously moved his hands towards his achingly hard cock, but L slapped his hand away, “If you keep misbehaving, I won’t let you come on my face.” Light’s body shuddered at that. Painting the face of the greatest detective in the world with his come made his throat dry, and even the thought of it makes him want to groan. L’s face lit up at Light’s reaction, “Ah, so that is something you would like. Understood.” He idly stroked Light’s cock with a lazy smile on his face, “Be a good boy and let me know when you are about to come.”

Light moaned at the words and L’s mouth back on his cock. His motions were faster this time, taking him all the way down to his base and back again, never once slowing down or gagging as his cock hit the back of his throat.

No gag reflex…

Light brushed L’s hair out of the way of his eyes, and then ran a hand through his own hair, pulling on his slightly, needing something, anything to do with his hands.

Breathing started to be strenuous, and Light bit down on his lip to prevent from being too loud. It only just occurred to him that they may not be the only people in this hotel suite, but he was so far gone he could not bring himself to care. L does something with his tongue that had Light gasping and no longer suppressing those needy whines. L hums against his cock, amused, and looks up at him, eyes smiling, and god there is the edge. He’s so fucking close, and white-hot burning and overwhelming everywhere.

“L-” Light choked out, tapping his head.

L pulled off of him, just in time as well, as a few simple strokes to Light’s cock and a small whisper of “good boy” had Light careening over the edge, moaning loudly, eyes welled up with pleasure as L met his flustered and unfocused gaze, his own eyes glossed over with lust. Light forced his eyes to stay open as come shot onto L’s face, over his nose and cheeks and over his lips.

“I don’t want anyone else but you to see me like this.” Light shuddered at the sight of L, his pretty pale skin tainted and painted with his release, “Thank you.”

Light’s head was dizzy with pleasure, he slumped back onto the couch. L opened his eyes, a small winning smirk on his face.

Light thought he was going to make a show about the stickiness all over him, maybe cringing after the fact. Instead, he made eye contact with Light as he dragged his fingers across his cheek and sucked on his fingers, moaning as he was doing so.

Damn it, L…

He then casually reached over to grab the abandoned homework that was still on the couch, L’s face still dirty. He looked over it and smirked, “Ethics, huh?” His eyes shined with knowing amusement, “Quite the subject for you to choose, isn’t it, Light-kun?”

[uhhhhyandere]

If you're still doing requests how about omegaverse with omega Light and alpha m!reader who's a kickboxer. The reader's and Light's families are close and have high expectations of the two eventually marrying in the future, but the reader has no interest in being tied down and focused solely in his training and career. Lately he's noticed that some of his belongings have gone missing, like an old shirt or his boxing gloves, strangely enough the medication to help control his ruts keep (1/2)

running out quick, but writes it off as him being absentminded. One day he's forced to visit Light at his house and catches his scent forcing the reader into a rut, mating with Light all the while unaware they're under surveillance by the task force but Light finds this highly amusing. Now with mating bite and possibly pregnant, Light is tied to the reader no matter what now. (2/2)

we ain't gonna talk about how this has been sitting in my inbox for more than a year and ain't gonna talk about how i’ve almost had it done for more than a year, then forgot until i was digging through my drafts. no comment. i stink. i know, okay?!?!?!?!?!? AAAAHHH but i had fun finishing it so that’s what matters!! 

6.6k words m!reader x light :) 

warnings: smut! light is a.bottom and that's a hill i’ll die on.

Sweat, blood, and tears. It’s all you’ve ever known, and it’s all you’ve come to love and live for. The adrenaline of the ring, the quick, decisive movements, the thrill of winning, and the lessons learned from losing, it all accelerates your pulse and excites your nerves. Hard work never daunted you. You’ve learned to keep pushing, to run when you can’t walk, to fight when you’re knocked down, and to do whatever it took to come out on top. Your alpha blood craved the victory.

5am runs followed by strength training, then workouts after school was a routine you forced into your system. With your lifestyle, however, there was no other option. Strength. Flexibility. Reflexes. You needed everything to be successful. At the forefront of that “everything,” was commitment. There were things you had to miss because of training: family dinners, parties, club meetings, and more you’ve gotten an earful about for missing, but at least your family understood that boxing was your livelihood, no matter how much they were against it. It wasn’t some hobby you were going to drop when you got older. You wanted to make a career out of it, to be able to fight until you have to retire. 

Of course, that was the plan. There were things, expectations, that naturally got in the way. It wasn’t ideal when your only son wanted to be a boxer of all things. How dangerous, risky, a dream you only have as a child. Well, fuck them, you said. Your dream was going to be your reality, and you couldn’t care less who or what stood in the way. Hard work perseveres in the end. You just had to focus. To get distracted by anything was the risk of losing that future. 

The Yagami’s were a prime risk of losing that future. Your families were intertwined from before you were even born. Friends through their years of schooling and beyond. They married in the same year, moved into houses on the same block, and, of course, had their oldest child in the same year. It was like clockwork from there on out, a script to be naturally followed through the course of time. It only helped all the better when you were born an alpha and Light an omega. 

Light’s and your baby pictures were taken together. Vacations were taken together. Chief Yagami pulled strings at school so you were put into the same class, assigned the same tutor, put in the same prep course, and the same private academy. At that point, you were almost sure your parents wanted to be there when you two undoubtedly mate. Your paths were carved to be identical, linked to the very end, yet so you saw them as so incredibly different. 

However, you and Light were fundamentally different people. He was not a friend you chose, but someone who’s just been there. A constant, a tick on the back of your neck that left you with no choice but to live with its existence. You’ve come to accept the reality that he’s going to be there for the near future, the far future if your parents had anything to say about it. They and the Yagami’s had a matching plan, but while they were audibly planning your wedding, you were conniving a scheme of your own. 

The Koyanagi Invitational. Held at the beginning of January, this tournament-style invitational welcomes only the best of the best in fighters from all over Japan. The winners almost always see themselves on the international stage. It’s a nationally televised program, and you were only one win away from securing your spot in round one after your championship match for your region coming up soon. 

Your time is always dedicated to your passion, but now more than ever. Your trainer, an alum of the invitational himself, has allotted the time you desired to train in the gym at the expense of his other lessons. The trade-off was after your championship, you had to find another place for the time it will take to make up all the canceled lessons with the clients you were replacing for the time being, which shouldn’t be hard to do if—when you win the regional championship. Therefore, your time was acutely cut short for academics, social events, and everything else that was not training, but those were the sacrifices you warned everyone you would be making to come this far and reach even farther. You were not even keeping track of Kira at this point. Even that was on the backburner. What? Were they going to kill you for missing dinner with the Yagami’s for the third time this week? 

“Y/N,” your name was called. Through the surging endorphins of your body, you were able to feel good enough to answer the call from your father from the sweat you were yet to shower off. You’d rather reek on the way home rather than use the gym showers. Dropping your bag from your shoulder, you rub the muscle there as you approach the full table. “You were supposed to be home forty-five minutes ago.” You sighed, dropping your hands back to your sides. “Yeah, sorry, dad. Lost track of time. Coach was fixing my style again. Swarmer has always been good for me, I think. Just refining it.” You didn’t miss the shared look between your parents. 

“Well, it’s a good thing we scheduled this later because we knew you’d do this,” your mother says, low heat in her voice. “Get cleaned up and be down here in no more than ten minutes.” Biting your tongue, you nodded, making eye contact with Light as you turned to grab your bag and follow her request. “You could at least put jeans on.” You weren’t even down the hallway when your mother spoke again. This time, you were not being civil for the company’s sake and didn’t bother concealing your groan.  

“It’s not like we have company over.” The Yagami’s were over for dinner or you were over there at least four times a week. It would be odder to have dinner with just three instead of seven (or five, if you missed due to training or Soichiro because of the Kira case) people around the table. You pulled out the chair they left for you beside Light and lowered yourself into it, immediately taking another drink of water from the gallon water bottle you lugged around. “Or, at least, no one new.”  

“Y/N—,”

“No, he’s quite right. There’s no need to dress up for us. We’re practically family already.” Mrs. Yagami, your savior, laughed. “Light just always does,” which is wildly true. Light had a tendency to always look presentable and put-together no matter where the setting was. Late-night study sessions and other in-house cases were the only occasions you would see him clad in anything comfortable. Then, there was you, in your sweats at all times except when you were forced into your uniform at school. 

Luckily enough, the comparison game was not thrown between the two of you too often. It wasn’t necessary when your parents were convinced you would mate and live the rest of your lives together. An unspoken truth that simmered in the air whenever you all got together. 

“How is your training going anyway, Y/N?” Soichiro was an odd sight at the table anymore. The Kira case was an equivalent time commitment to your championship training, (except he gets paid to almost die. You get into fights willingly) and it was more and more late nights on the investigation team.

Especially now, of all times, with the dead FBI agents from the United States the news mentioned one morning, he was busier than ever. 

“Gets harder and harder, Mr. Yagami. Though, I’m keeping up. With the championship on the seventh, I can’t afford not to. The guy’s a monster from what I’ve heard. Tomorrow we’re watching his match from the semi’s.” Your mother cleared her throat. 

“Soichiro, sorry. We just prefer not to talk about business at the dinner table. Our son has a tendency to talk about fighting at all hours of the day, so we cherish this time where we don’t have to hear about it.” Ignoring her blatancy, you took another drink. 

“Well, I like to hear about it.” It was Light who spoke up. “It’s his passion, with all due respect. Do you not see it when his eyes light up when he describes his feelings or explains his regime? He’s someone with an innate gift he wants to pursue. Not to mention the strength he possesses to live this lifestyle. If anything, you should be proud to hear him talk about it, the time he dedicates. It’s nothing short of awe-striking, what he can do.” Your skin feeling unbearably hot, you blinked a few times and hoped to hide from the admirable line of defense Light brought up for you. Peeking from your pit of embarrassment, you met his eyes, bright and unabashed, and you smiled a silent thank you to him. He, without moving a single facial feature, accepted it. 

Instead of seeing the literal meaning of his words, you knew your parents saw the underlying tone of them. Their son being stood up for by Light Yagami. It must mean Light cared for him. Another step towards the future they have been quietly planning, so they smiled, and you wondered if Light saw through it just as easily as you did. 

He and you never sat down and had a conversation about your parents’ expectations. Whether it was reluctance or the pure awkwardness of it all, it never came up when you were together. It didn’t matter, though, because if you could avoid it, which you could easily with your training, you would. At all costs. You did not have the time for that and would not for anytime soon. 

After dinner, Light and you were pushed to do the dishes, as you always were if you were present. He washed, and you dried and put them away. In the midst of the sink running and the clinking of dishes, you found yourself with the desire to properly thank him outside of the small look you gave him before, but thought twice, three times about it at risk of looking too thankful and soft. “Just say it,” he spoke instead. 

“What?”  

“You look like you have something to say. You’ve glanced at me twenty-three times in the past seven minutes.” Despite the small grin on his face, you still couldn’t help but consider saying “it’s nothing,” which he would undoubtedly disbelieve, and let it blow over. Knowing him, though, he would twist it out of your system anyway, like a lawyer rinsing the truth in a cross-examination. 

“Just—uh thanks, man. For before.” Light laughed, scrubbing in the curve of a bowl. 

“You don’t have to thank me for something like that. You’re the type of person society needs, and to have someone talk down at you for being excited about your dreams is wrong. I was only doing the right thing, and I’d do it again.” You avoided his gaze as he explained, suddenly invested in drying the utensils one-by-one. 

“Well, yeah, means a lot.” 

Was Light’s smell always so nice? Yes, you weren’t going to fool yourself that this was the first time you’ve noticed. You’ve been nearby during one of his heats, and you remember nearly falling out into your own primal senses because of it. If it weren’t for your own reluctant self-control, you’re not sure where that night would have gone to. You’ve managed to deduce his smell to be some sort of chestnut, brown sugar mix. Intoxicating, but undeniably would foster an unwarranted reaction from you if you were too close during those times. 

Not to mention that you’ve noticed Light’s good looks sporadically throughout the past. While he plays tennis, focuses on a particularly confusing calculus problem, biting his lip and twiddling the pencil between his digits, or just smiles at you from across the hall at school, you’ve acknowledged it, but never let it grow to anything else. You didn’t want to. Sure, he was handsome, but you had a million other things to focus on than to be tied down by any sort of relationship. Besides, if worse comes the worse, your self-control is unmatched from your countless hours of training. No single individual could sway you from your path.

“It’s really nothing. Like I said, don’t mention it.” And you didn’t plan on it. Light stayed to finish up homework as well as teach you a good two-thirds of the material before telling you he was heading out on his short walk home after you returned from a quick bathroom break. It was getting close to the bedtime that enabled you to get your full eight hours before 5am.

The closer the championship came, the less you saw of people. You ate breakfast and left earlier, came to school right from the gym, (yes, you resigned yourself to shower in the disgusting stalls) went back to the gym after school, and got home later. It gave you less time to do homework or hang out with anyone that wasn’t your trainer. Good thing you had your good friend Light who insisted it was fine to stay late in your room and catch you up on what you were behind in. 

It only made sense, then, with your exponentially increasing schedule that things started to become hectic. Of course, you were missing more of what you usually missed, but most recently you’ve begun to misplace things. A t-shirt you knew you had in the drawer, your go-to nighttime sweatshirt, a pair of shorts. You figured some might be at the gym or dropped in your transit from one place to another, but your sweatshirt never left your house and you sure as hell never left it in the hamper to get washed. 

It was just your busy schedule, you and your parents agreed. You needed to step back and relax if you were beginning to lose things. Plus, you were hardly sleeping with your anxiety building for the coming fight and the late nights you were practically forcing Light to pull with you.

“You don’t have to do this with me all the time,” you mentioned one night. “If I’m messing with your schedule or anything, I know it’s probably super inconvenient for you to do this so often. I never asked—.”

“You didn’t have to,” he answered. “It’s no trouble. I offered, after all. It’s not like I see you much outside of these sessions anyway. Even at school, you seem to always be in a hurry. I’m actually pretty worried about you. How much sleep are you getting? Are you eating enough? Drinking?” You waved him off. 

“You know I always do. I have to eat and drink enough to do this in the first place. I don’t carry a gallon bottle around for the gains, after all.”  

“And your sleep?” You glanced towards your window. 

“Needs work these days.” A small whack resounded off your temple. Surprised, you watched the weapon be flipped between the assaulter’s fingers in front of you. “What was that for?” 

“Don’t be stupid. I get you want to work hard for your match coming up but killing yourself with all this hard work and no rest will undoubtedly lead to your defeat. It’s common sense. You should know that more than anyone.” You set your pen on the desk, the fatigue weighing your eyes down. “Even your dark circles are even showing.” You relaxed your shoulders. “You don’t have to put up your tough guy front with me.”  

“You don’t have to put up your perfect student façade either.” You paused. “Sorry. Uncalled for. You’re right, as usual. I love it though. I want to be the best, and this guy I’m coming up against? He’s a maniac. This is the first tournament he hasn’t gone below the belt or spit on an opponent. Who knows when he’ll start, though? I have to be quick. This fight cannot last long, or this guy will injure me. I can’t afford that if I’m moving on to Koyanagi.” You laughed. “You’re really right. You know I’ve been losing stuff left and right? Old shirt here, that black sweatshirt I wear all the time? Gone. No idea. Some tape in my bag. It’s like some leprechaun is stealing my stuff.” 

“They’ll turn up. Maybe if you get a proper night’s sleep tomorrow and train only in the afternoon, you’ll remember where you left them.” You groaned, stretching in your spot and allowing yourself to slouch against the wall you leaned against and to shut your eyes. “Hey, at least finish this last problem and sleep in your bed.” 

“Don’t want to. I’ll sleep right here.” 

And you did, because Light Yagami was too weak to lift you up.

A sore back and neck now healed, you found yourself wrapping your hands for the long-awaited match in the locker room. Heart already beginning to pound, you tried to find solace in the silence around you, but all you could hear was the rhythm against your ribs. 

“You ready, kid?” Your coach asked from the entranceway. “Two minutes.” You nodded, reaching into your bag and finding odd space in there. No fucking way. Though your old boxing gloves were present, your current ones were not. God, another thing my dumbass lost. There was no time to sit and shit on yourself. I just lost the fucking match for myself, damn it! You didn’t think about it long before you exited the locker room and into the blur of voices and music on the other side. Your opponent stood on the other side of the room, taller and wider than yourself. “Size ain’t nothing kid. Put your confidence into work too here. Don’t forget the mental part of the fight, ya hear me?” 

You didn’t. In the crowd, you saw your family and the Yagami’s looking either nervous or excited. The camera crews around swung cameras across the area of the mat. As your name was announced and you entered the ring, the lights began to move around you. The crowd cheered and yelled in excitement. Your coach encouraged you from behind you.

Sweat, blood, and tears. It is what has gotten you this far, and it will continue to bring you higher. You did not train and work to lose right where you should be beginning. As your opponent entered from the other corner, the familiar sense of adrenaline rushed your veins. Yes, you could do this. 

Ten  

Nine 

Eight 

Seven

Six 

Five

Four 

Three 

Two 

One 

K.O.

You woke up in your bed the next morning. A white ceiling, white walls beeping a steady heartbeat around you. Then, it all came coming back. The elbow, all the dirty moves used against you pounded in your skin. Out of everything, your head ached the most. Tiny explosions cascaded your brain as you rolled your head along your pillow. 

“You’re awake!” It was your father. “Your mother’s worried sick. That stupid asshole. Why they didn’t disqualify him after the first dirty hit, I’ll never know, but you had a fair fight.” You squinted through the migraine.

“…Did I win?”

“From a DQ, yeah. Hardly counts, and I’m sure you hardly feel like it. The guy was a nutcase. The kind that takes out their aggression through the sport rather than respecting it. You’re gonna be out for the count for a while, you know that, right? Grade three concussion. You’re going to have to take a break. Me and your trainer already called every gym around and put you on the blacklist—,”

“But dad—,”

“Nope, I’m not going to hear it. You are not allowed to even think about working out or training. We are going to keep our eyes on you at all times because we all know how you think and what you’re going to try to pull. Recovery is the most important part of an injury. If you don’t take care of yourself, you’ll never get better in time for the invitational. Got it?” You guffawed. 

“You can’t keep eyes on me at all times.” 

“Not me, personally, but there is someone with a similar schedule to you that you happen to go to school with and happens to live around the block.” You glared at the man. 

“You recruited Light into helping you, didn’t you?” He shrugged and took the steps forward to stand at the foot of the bed. 

“It’s more so he volunteered. He knows just as well as the rest of us you need to be watched or you’ll train at some faraway gym or secluded area. It’s for your best interest. You’ll go to school with him and he’ll take you back to their place until we get home—.”

“I don’t need a goddamned babysitter,” you bit out. 

“On the contrary, would you not sneak off to train despite your condition?” You shook your head. You were in no condition to be having an argument, yet you stood your ground. 

“It’s the lack of trust for me.”

“Yeah, we don’t. Not when it comes to putting your health first. Light was even telling us about how you’re behind in school too. With a concussion, you’ll need help anyway. Discussion over.” If your headache could get any worse, you were pretty sure it would have. 

Not that you thought that he was kidding, but you weren’t expecting the doorbell to ring so early as you brushed your teeth, a towel wrapped around your waist from your shower. Spitting quickly, you left wet footprints across the wood floor as you approached the door. 

“By god,” you muttered, opening the door. “You really were enlisted, huh?” Light shrugged. 

“Well, by the looks of it, you didn’t go out earlier to work out than usual in order to look like you didn’t, unless you’re showering from a quick one between when your parents left for work and I got here.” You rolled your eyes, opening the door wider and stepping aside to allow him room to enter.

“Funny. No, I just got up. Guy really did me in one, and you don’t actually have to listen to my parents. You know I’m not going to go do anything that can put my recovery at risk.” He slid his bag off his shoulder and set it on the couch. 

“I know you, and the second you don’t wake up in pain, you’re gone. Sitting back and doing nothing kills you, after all. I don’t need to have known you my entire life to tell you that.” The side of your lip quirked. 

“Yeah, whatever. Let me get some clothes on,” you turned around and returned to the bathroom. Putting on the folded clothes you left in the corner, you grabbed your bag from your bedroom and met with the boy digging into his bag. “Ready, babysitter? I’m going to call you that all day, by the way. No matter who we’re with.”

“Great. I can’t wait.” …

It wasn’t so bad, having a sitter. You mean, you were with Light when you weren’t training, anyway. Going to his house every day after school was even normal, mind the odd words being thrown around the school by the observers. No one confronted you about it, which came as no surprise. Who was going to confront a boxer about those kinds of rumors? 

Light didn’t seem to mind, either. As one of the top bachelors of the whole school, you were sure he had to be aware of them. Just like your parents’ desired future for the two of you, you never spoke of it. Perhaps he was as nervous to bring it up as you were, or at least as reluctant. Still, nothing would change. If he would not speak of it, neither would you.

You never suspected, however, for that dam of silence to ever break in either of you. …

It was nearing the end of your recovery when the only thing between you and getting back in the ring was a doctor’s okay. Your parents and the Yagami’s were going out for a “night on the town,” quote-on-quote. Sayu was at a sleepover, and your parents ordered you to make your way over to Yagami household. 

“It’s getting close to you being cleared. No point in ruining it now, Y/N. Just go. You probably have work he has to teach you anyway.” You glared at your parents as they stood adamant. “Go. We will have him drag you there.” “As if he could,” you muttered.

“Let me in!” Two minutes of knocking, you resigned to lifting up the third rock from the right and grabbing the key from the underside. After you broke in three times in a week at age seven, you would think they’d change the key’s location. 

You set your possible overnight bag on the couch. On the main floor, it was quiet, which wasn’t all surprising. Light has been spending more time in his bedroom than ever. That was saying a lot, itself, because he was always in there in the first place. Perhaps he wasn’t expecting you. You grinned.

Footsteps light, you tiptoed up the stairs and turned the corner. There were small noises coming from the other side of his door that you could hear from the far side of the hall. As you creep closer, you couldn’t necessarily distinguish what the noises were. Nonetheless, it was clue enough he was too preoccupied to notice the huge scare you’re about to give him. 

Hand on the doorknob, you turned it and screamed as you entered.

Though, turns out you were the one that got more scared. Not in fright, but of shock. Light, however, remained composed as ever despite the position you caught him in.

His smell overpowered the room. You nearly were kicked back from it. Back bent upwards off the bed, his mouth agape with small guttural moans and breathless gasps escaping it, all while his hand worked every so slowly stroking his cock. His other hand fisted what you recognized as your lost sweatshirt covering his nose and mouth. Above the material, his eyes were trained on yours, head rolled to the side as his motion continued. 

“Jesu—what? Is that my…” Looking around the slightly torn up room, you recognized t-shirts, tape, and even your current pair of boxing gloves lying around the room or on his bed. “I-I don’t…” His fist threw the sweatshirt to the side as the hand came down hard on the bed. 

“You don’t—mmh—what? Get it? I know you’re not the sharpest knife in the drawer at times, but you can put this together, can’t—uh—you?” His grin grew wider and more wicked as he took in your reaction. “I’ll say, you have an unspeakable amount of willpower, but I think—ah—I’ve had enough of it.” 

“What do you mean? Did—did you plan this?! To trigger my fucking—ugh.” He rolled his eyes. Whether it was from pleasure or annoyance, you couldn’t tell, and your mind wasn’t really in a state to think about it under the current conditions. 

He had you trapped. His smell corrupted the very air around you and seeped into your skin. It was overpowering. You could feel your rut, your ever so clandestine, rut-stained self, emerging from its thick chains. You couldn’t even take a step backward or turn to open the unlocked door. All of your nerves screamed at you to take him. To make him scream so that all he could say, all he could even think about, was you, but you couldn’t. You couldn’t. 

Because this isn’t what you wanted. You didn’t want to be linked with him outside of your parents’ desire for you and him to be wed one day. This was the path to that future, the future that distracted you from your goal.

Light shifted to stand above your lack and bent form that was on its last legs before the rut would take over. A hand softly stroked your head, as a parent would stroke a child’s, and set itself under your chin. It nudged upwards, forcing your gaze to his. At such close vicinity, the scent, his scent, him, it was all you could perceive. 

“You really are the worst. The epitome of holding yourself—your desires—back. I know you don’t want what our parents want. I know the thought of something tearing you from your dream kills you. I know that you think that this,” he motioned between the two of you, “would be the exact definition of a distraction, so you’ve pushed it all down. Never acknowledging its existence. Well, do you acknowledge it now?” 

You didn’t answer. You were nervous about what would come out of your mouth if anything did. Your willpower would die with the next exhale you took. Annoyed with your last stand, he dragged his hand from your neck to your shoulder and shoved your weak state down so you were on your knees. He leaned down so his breath ghosted over your lips.

“You really put on a show for me, you know. Answering the door with only your towel on back then. Deep down, I think you want this too. Deep down, you know that this was bound to happen. Just like your pain in a fight, you ignore it. You’re not a complicated individual to figure out. Just give in. What’s the harm in letting someone else take the reins for once?” He stared down at you, you felt it, but you refused to meet it, choking on shallow breathes in order not to inhale his scent too much. You remained silent, using your leftover strength to power onto your two feet. 

“Not going to talk? Fine. Your mouth could—,” you didn’t even allow him the time to finish the sentence or pull through on what you knew was going to be his statement as you rushed to shove him rough enough to force him to fall on his ass on the floor next to the bed. He looked up at you from his seated position, eyes wide and excited. You seemed more shocked than him and took a step backward towards the door. His eyes, yellowed and urgent, followed your movements. 

Swallowing, you willed yourself to extend your hand down as a form of apology: one you were unable to voice in current conditions. Light’s hand, soft and delicate, grasped is softly at first, allowing you to lift him to stand just over the bed, then squeezed, brought his other hand to your forearm. and tugged your unsuspecting form onto the bed with him, so you unwillingly straddled his legs. 

He was quick to surge upward and lock his arms around your neck. Meeting his lips was kissing the devil himself: everything about it was all-consuming, hot, wrong. Light did not start out slow, just as he was with everything else. With guns blazing, his tongue tore open your lips and invaded your now open maw with vigor and power your conscious self could not meet. He brought his hands to your ass and tugged you forward to push your bodies tight together. Breaking only to breathe and begin to force your shirt up your abdomen with his cold fingers. You helped. God, you shouldn’t have, but your clothes were getting so hot. As soon as the article was off, Light latched to your neck, teeth quick to bite. You gasped, tilting your head back to reveal more skin to him. He brought his hand up and tugged on your hair, eliciting another groan from your lips. 

“For someone who abhorred the thought of us together, you seem to be enjoying yourself.” His mouth continued down your form, biting the skin, and then licking the newly affected area. By now, you could feel your length suffocating even under the looseness of sweatpants. The undeniable urge for relief, for him, the one who was adjusting you to stand in front of him. An obvious, wordless request to rid yourself of your confines. “Go on. I’m waiting,” he said, leaning back to show his nude-self off. His cock glistening with a delightful mix of slick and precum. Inviting. Warning. Waiting. Jesus, you needed your fucking pants off! 

Hurrying to get your legs bare, you allowed your own slick to make its first drops onto the floor. Light did not make any moves, only locking his eyes onto yours. A silent argument, but you were in no mood to trifle in such affairs with your mind clouded. Surging forward, you would have been able to straddle him once more would it not be for his hand solidly placed on your abdomen. “I said, I’m waiting, you sex-craved beast. Tell me how much you need this. How much you want to be mine. To follow the path carved for you with me. I have enough here to get me through my heat, but you don’t get ruts too often, do you?” Why and how this twig held so much authority, you would never know. 

“Just let me—,”

“Let you?” He laughed. “Do you think you’re the one in charge here? What? You think because you’re physically stronger, because you’re an alpha, that you get dominance here?” His eyes, though yellow, spoke true on his words. They demanded compliance. “Now, be a good boy, and beg to fuck me. Beg to stick your cock inside me.” To stress his point, he ground upwards ever so slightly. You hissed at the contact. 

“God, please just let me—please just—fuck. Light, I need to fuck you. I need to take you, to mate you, to—fuck—I want you to scream for me, and only me. I want your throat raw from how loud and how much you scream for me.” You gripped the headboard above him while your other hand trailed down his lithe body coated in sweat until it reached his hole. His slick dripped from there due to his heat so that your finger slipped right in. Light moaned. “Fuck, you’re so tight. Please,” you slipped a second, then the third digit in. Light’s teeth dug into his bottom lip as his back arched to meet the thrust of your fingers. 

“Shit, it feels so good, Y/N, alpha. Go on. Mate me. Be mine forever just as I’d be yours.” You adjusted yourself to settle comfortably between his legs and used your hands to lift them, bending him in half to expose himself to you. You hissed as his first squeeze around you before you continued to sink in. Shared moans filled the room as you cursed out for each other. “Yes, feel how tight I am for you, how your cock was meant for me.” Heat shot through every nerve fiber of your being, and you did not bother to begin your thrust languidly. Instead, you rushed to build to a quick, pounding pace. Your rut pushing you to go deeper, and faster as he tightened around your length. Your hips met his groan with an audible smack, and, at a certain angle, Light cried out. “What are you… waiting for…? Bite… me. Claim me, you beast.” 

You could barely hear his words through your focus, your feeling, and, after a short while, even Light could not manage words. Only gasps, moans, and a few small screams escaped his lips and you sought your release. Closer, and closer, and closer… fuck. You ground your pelvis into his. 

“Shit, I’m gonna—oh, fuck,” you whispered, a quiet worship into the air as you allowed yourself to empty within him. You pulled out slowly, watching small amounts of liquid viscously drool out. Light’s skin was flushed deeply red, sweat glistening off his skin, and cock red, pulsing, and heavy against his torso. His labored breaths from his wide, open mouth forced his stomach to rapidly grow and shrink before he quickly regained himself and focused his eyes on you.

“What? Do you think I’m done with you?” He smirked, still breathing heavily, chest rising and falling. “Come here.” You let his legs go to allow him to surge forward and capture your lips with his own. “I’m still rock hard. Why don’t you do down there and do something about it, hm?” Light supported his point by guiding your hand to grasp his cock. “Go on.” 

His scent was all-consuming. Your nose trailing the skin of his cock as it followed your tongue up and down his length. You swirled your tongue around this head while your hand worked the base of his cock. “Eyes on me, alpha. Eyes on your omega, now.” Yellowed eyes dared you to look away. “Go on, and take me in.” Light gasped as you swallowed him. “Fuck, fuck, yeah. Now, suck. Yes. Just like that. Bob your head—just like,” he grasped your head and guided your movements, “that, yes. Damn, you’re a terribly slow study with math, but fuck, you learn to suck cock quickly.”

You followed his instructions, hand lightly teasing his balls, mouth taking him deep then pulling back, until you began to move on your own volition. “Oh, yes. I’m gonna- fuck. You better fucking swallow all of me. I don’t want to see a single drop on the bed.” Light watched with sick delight as you struggled to take his spend in. He was quick to reach down when you retracted your mouth, sealing your jaw shut with his hand until he saw your adam’s apple bob. “Oh, good boy. Now,” ignoring your painfully—once again—hard cock, he pulled you back up, “claim me. Bite me, alpha. Do it.” 

“N-no, I can’t.” 

“You can and you will. Go ahead.” Light moved his locks and stretched his neck out to you. There was nothing more you wanted to do than sink your teeth into the smooth stretch, to have your scent follow him as he walked around the school every day. “Bite me, Y/N. Do it now,” and you did. Light howled in pleasure as copper filled your mouth. You licked the raw skin before sinking you teeth in deeper and sucking what you can. 

“Light,” you pulled back, eyes blown wide. “I—,” he shushed you by tightly gripping your cock with a wide smile. 

“It all worked perfectly,” he said, beginning to stroke your length in tandem with his words. “I thought replacing your gloves would cause you to lose, to grieve, to stay here, but when I heard of your opponent and talked with him just a bit before your match, angering him about what kind of person you were, I had to. I had to.” You bit your bottom lip, unable to articulate words as he picked up his pace, tightened and loosened his grip, and brought in his other hand. “It hurt to see you injured, but I had to what had to be done. I needed you to make me yours. You don’t belong with anyone else besides me. Your dreams, your work ethic, your body, your mind, they’re all mine, and now, with this,” he motions to the raw, bloodied skin of his neck, “my plan has come to fruition beautifully. It’s like the universe deemed it so.” Your breathing escalated. His thumb moved to tease the head of your cock. “You’re all,” he laughed, “fucking mine.” 

He met your lips the same time your release spilled into the open air. “Now,” he leaned back, “let’s keep going, hm?”

[crystalessenceswrites]

Shadows- Chapter Five

Shadows

A modern monster AU Pairings: Din Djarin x fem!reader Rating: T (at the moment- subject to change) Warnings: Swearing Summary: Crypto- concealed; secret. You have always lived your life in the shadows; after all, you’re one of the creatures who go bump in the night. He has sworn his life to a creed that aims to protect the world from monsters like you.

[Masterlist] [Chapter Four] [Chapter Five] [Chapter Six] Cross-posted to AO3

Din’s head is spinning and he’s certain it’s not from the blow Qin landed earlier. Half-bloods? Cryptos? Slayers who hunt them? How had his people not stumbled upon this before now? Generations of Mandalorian warriors had fought and given their lives to protect humans from the monsters lurking in dark corners, yet there was a whole system they had missed. A whole kind of people they had not known were possible.

That would explain why he had such trouble determining what (Y/N) was. If she was a half-blood it would make sense she appeared more human than the typical monster masquerading as such. That did not make her human though. She was still one of them. Din could not let himself forget that.

Silently he watches her finish up with the burning body. It seems routine to her. She’s also well prepared, the thistles and the gas, not to mention armed to the teeth. Following their previous encounters, the last thing Din was expecting her to be carrying was a firearm. Yet she’d managed to stun a vampire with one shot. She knew what she was doing. If there were more slayers half as skilled as her how had they gone under the radar all this time?

And why hadn’t she tried to kill him?

It kept playing over and over again in his mind. That night at the dive bar her companion was more than hostile. She had sounded more than willing to get rid of him. But (Y/N) defused it. Both opportunities she’d had to kill him, she’d ignored. Instead, she had explained herself, given him insight into what she was. She wanted him to understand her. More than once she had compared what they both did- claimed they were both protecting humans. Could he believe that? Could he believe her? Believe someone who wasn’t human?

She looks up at him, eyes soft despite the fact she has a vampire’s body burning to ash at her feet. Deadly and yet she looks so normal in that moment. “Do you…uh, need any of him to take back?”

The confusion must be plain as day on his face as the corner of her lips quirk up.

“We have to bring something back as proof of death,” she explains, “I take it you guys don’t need that?”

“No.”

That explains all her supplies then. It also goes to show how organized this group is, tracking their kills, bounties, and all under the radar of his people. Din tries to ignore how impressed he is by it all.

The innate weakness vampires hold to fire means their bodies breakdown to ash considerably quicker and at lower temperature than a human body. It’s not long till Qin is just a pile of dust on the warehouse floor. He watches in mild curiosity as the slayer collects some of the ashes into a spare jar before scattering the rest with her boot. The bloodsucker would not be bothering anyone again.

(Y/N) shifts from foot to foot, watching him closely. “So…all good?”

They shouldn’t be. He should not be letting her leave a third time- it went against every bit of training they’d drilled into him- but she stepped in to help him. He couldn’t kill her after she’d done that. Or after all she had told him. That would make him just as much a monster.

Her shoulders relax as he nods. For a moment it looks like there’s another question hanging on the tip of her tongue, but she decides against it. She shoots him a small smile as she walks away, disappearing back into the darkness of the warehouse.

Din wonders what the fuck he’s doing as he lets her go.

.

Even after a quick stop at the covert infirmary on his way back Din still finds himself plagued by the events of the day. He kicks himself for letting her walk away, but the thought of killing her is almost revolting. Was it because he knew that some part, no matter how small, of her was human? Because she had helped him? Or because it was her?

Excited squeals pull him from his spiraling thoughts the moment he opens the front door. In seconds the wide-eyed ball of four-year-old energy has barreled up to him, chubby hands clinging to his pant leg for dear life.

“Hey, kid. Good to see you too.”

Din gets a toothy smile in return before he runs back off again to return to what looks like coloring at the dining table with Kuiil.

“He has grown very attached to you, these last few months.”

Din cannot disagree with Kuiil, the kid was quick to latch onto him when he returned home from his hunts and often would not go to bed at night unless he was there to say goodnight.

“Will you take him as your foundling?” The old man has been asking him that since the day he brought the young child back to the covert.

“We’re still looking for his family. There must be people out there who miss him.”

Kuiil continues to watch the child, a soft hum falling from underneath his thick beard. Din can see the wheels turning in the old man’s mind. He always had an air of wisdom about him, an air that led one to believe that deep down Kuiil did hold all the answers, if only he could uncover them. Even Armorer came to the man for advice. While he was not a Mandalorian, he was a friend of the covert and had been with them for several years now. He often helped look after the kid when Din was out hunting, and he wasn’t in class in the other foundlings.

“Maybe so, but he is here now, in your care. You have a choice to make, now or in the future. But you still must make one.”

Din agrees with a sigh, collapsing into the seat next to the kid, watching his grubby hands drag crayons across his coloring book.

“How was the hunt?”

“It was a success.”

“But?” Not only wise, but he was a perceptive old man.

“The slayer appeared again.”

“And I take it she left this encounter alive again?”

Din nods, his face solemn as Kuiil continues to help the child with his coloring.

“Did you learn anything new?”

He had almost learned more than he wanted to. “She claims to be a half-blood.”

“Half-human? Is that why you could not harm her?”

“I…I don’t know.”

“She has shaken you- you don’t know what to do with this new information.” The old man speaks as if it is an already known fact. Din would be remiss to say he was wrong. Knowing this now, he sees her both as a monster and a human, both someone he is sworn to destroy and sworn to protect by his creed.

“You don’t seem surprised.”

“That she is half-human or that you are conflicted?”

Din scoffs, “both.”

“They have existed here as long as we have, among us in the most cases. It should not be a surprise that we have crossed paths before,” Kuiil shrugs, “the situation of her birth probably gives her advantages in her work.”

If she could blend in with both sides it would allow her to keep a lower profile. He could not even determine what species she was, that was proof enough she did not struggle to blend in with humans. She wore her mask well.

“As for your creed… that is another decision you’ll have to make for yourself.”

Kuiil’s wise words rattle around in his skull as he watches the kid totter around in the garden, arms outstretched as he chases another frog around. If their running track record meant anything he would run into her again, and he would have to make a choice. He just wished the right answer would make itself known before then.

“Ba!”

Din cannot help but smile at the proud kid as he runs up, the frog in his hold out on display. He was a quick little bugger, that was for sure. “Well look at that, little hunter in training.”

“Ya!” The little one waves his hands around happily, grin spread across his chubby cheeks.

It amazes him how quickly the kid had bounced back after everything he had been through. There were days it did not even cross Din’s mind that he’d rescued the child from the monsters who kidnapped him. He was happy, got along with all the other children in the covert and did well in his classes, even with his limited verbal skills. Well adjusted, is what the doctor had said.

“Ba!” The kid reaches up, grabby hands flailing.

“Alright, alright,” Din hoists the boy up, “should we get something to eat? Besides frogs?”

“Patu!”

.

“And here I thought you hated vampire jobs.”

Kannan looks almost smug as he watches you finish up exchanging paperwork for the reward on your most recent kill. Rolling your eyes, you stuff the check into your bag, “wasn’t like I had much of a choice with the lists today.”

“True.”

“So, did you need something, or did you just stick around to tease me?”

Kannan scoffs, “well I was gonna ask if you wanted to catch up over food but if that’s the attitude you’re going to take…”

“Where’s your apprentice today?” The teen was attached to Kannan’s hip these days, eager to get out in the field.

“He’s got his studies today, why?”

“Then food sounds like a great idea.” It had been sometime since you’d had a real chance to catch up with your old friend. He took his roles as Ezra’s mentor seriously, so he was rather booked up these days.

Kannan shoots you a satisfied grin, “the diner on 4th?”

Your stomach nearly growls at the thought. “Please.”

.

“I have to agree with Kira. You are a magnet for Mandalorians- or at least this one.”

You sigh, scrubbing a hand down your face. “I don’t know what I did to deserve this.”

Kannan chuckles, “since when has the universe needed a reason to screw us over?”

“You’ve got a point… I just can’t get over the odds. Three times in completely unrelated spots.” It was a large city and of all the people in the world you had to keep running into.

“There hasn’t been anyone else in the office who’s run into him. Are you sure he’s not tracking you?”

“This time I stumbled onto him, there’s no way he could have orchestrated that when I picked up the job this morning.” He obviously had not been planning on your arrival. You’d spooked him good.

Kannan shakes his head, “well you are simultaneously the unluckiest and luckiest person I know. You’ve gotten away three times now.”

You preferred to think it was due more to your skills and sharp tongue than luck, but the luck certainly was not hurting.

“It still worries me he knows your face. Even if he hasn’t been tracking you up till now it doesn’t mean he won’t try in the future.”

He had a point, but nothing about your interactions with Mando up till now would you lead you to believe he would. “I’m keeping my eye out for anything suspicious. If he does try, I’ll know. Hopefully, the fact that I know what he looks like deters him from trying.”

“We can hope.”

“I also think I figured out why we haven’t been able to find his local source in the community.”

Kannan’s eyebrows shoot up, “and how did you figure that out?”

“He asked me why I hadn’t killed him yet. Mentioned something about how my job was to deal with nuisances, so therefore I must have to kill him to get him out of the way,” you explain, “there’s no way he’s working with a crypto if that’s what he thinks slayers do. After the Fett debacle everyone around here knows we can’t do a damn thing about the Mandalorians.”

“That does sound like he’s either got old, secondhand information or his informant is messing with him. But I can’t imagine if he managed to get a full blood to help him, they’d yank him around like that,” Kannan strokes his goatee, face drawn together, “yet he’s been spot on with all his kills. He tracked down someone you pulled the bounty for before you’d even gotten there.”

“Could he be working with another hunter or have another Mandalorian partner? Someone who manages surveillance while he does the hunting?”

“It would seem the only other likely answer. Have you told Boss all this yet?”

You shake your head, “no, I don’t want to get ahead of myself… and I’m not sure what kind of reaction I’ll get once he knows I’ve crossed paths with the Mando again…”

“You haven’t told him?” Kannan goes wide-eyed, “Miss. By-The-Book not reporting a run in with a hunter?”

“Sue me for being worried about the perception of it all!”

“Chill, I’m not going to rat you out, (Y/N). I just want you to make sure you’re going to be okay. That you’re thinking this through.”

“I am thinking it through, Kannan. And if something important comes from it I’ll report it to Boss, but for now I’d rather keep this to myself.”

Kannan nods, “I trust your judgement. My lips are sealed.”

“Okay, enough about me and my drama! Tell me how things have been going for you and Hera lately!”

[heliads]

Inked Wrists Chapter 7: Back to School

When you turn eighteen, your soulmate’s name appears in a tattoo on your wrist. What happens when the name on your wrist reads Theo Raeken, and when you have to hide your identity from him?

previous / series masterlist / next

It’s good to have Theo back. Words can’t even describe the happiness you feel when you wake up each morning and sense that he is close to you again. After everything you’ve been through in the past few months, it is paradise to know that he loves you and you love him. It’s funny, saying you love him, because you’ve been hiding it from yourself for so long. You don’t know why, but you felt like you couldn’t love him while you were using the fake name- you kept walls between you two and you weren’t even sure if he wanted you at all. Now, you’ve allowed all your barriers to come crashing down and live happily with your soulmate.

Speaking of living with him, you talked it over with Theo and he decided that he wanted to go back to high school with you. It’s been a few weeks since the incident with the hunters, but you think it’s finally safe to return to normal life. After the hunters’ plan to take down both Scott’s and Satomi’s packs failed, they retreated to their bunker in shame. They launched a few more misguided attacks, but you and your friends were able to repel them, especially thanks to Nolan’s help. At first, you were surprised when the former hunter had showed up at Liam’s door, but he explained that he’d had a change of heart and was more than willing to provide you with information regarding the hunters. He’d been a valuable ally and instrumental in the decline of the hunters’ power over Beacon Hills.

Now, life is back to normal. Most of the hunters were just ordinary people, and they’ve been able to move on from their time as hunters to coexist with werewolves. The few extreme hunters, like Monroe, that couldn’t accept life with supernaturals have fled Beacon Hills. You’re not sure when they’ll come back, if ever, but you know that you and your friends will be able to easily defeat them if they try.

So, with the threat of the hunters eliminated and you and Theo left with no life-and-death conflicts to fill your days, you two decided to return to high school. It wasn’t that difficult to get Theo back in-he had left around halfway through the last year and so he could pick up in about the same place. You’d asked him if he was worried about forgetting everything he’d learned from last year, and he’d just responded with that signature smirk on his face: “I’m not worried about anything. I met this really pretty girl, and I know I can count on her for anything. I even wrote her name down on my arm so I wouldn’t forget it.” He holds up his soulmate tattoo, and you can’t help but laugh.

Thus, you find yourself walking down the halls of your school once more. You pause at your locker, opening it and reaching for the books inside. Down the hall, you see Theo walk towards you and move more slowly so he can catch up with him. Out of the corner of your eye, you see another girl walk up to Theo, wrapping her arm around his and smiling at him through pink glossed lips. “Hey, handsome. Where are you headed?” She oozes confidence, but her smirk turns to a frown when he untangles himself from her. “I’m going to meet up with my soulmate, actually.” The girl puts on a fake pout. “She doesn’t have to know.” Theo stops walking and turns to the girl, looking her straight in the eyes. “You know, one time I was dating this girl who pretended to be my soulmate so we could be together. Do you know what happened to her?” The girl winks at him through lowered lashes. “You enjoyed her company.” Theo grins. “I killed her.” With that, he walks the rest of the way to you, leaving the girl with her mouth hanging open in shock. “You know, I don’t think you have to go out of your way to terrorize every girl who flirts with you.” You laugh at him. “Maybe I just wanted to. Did you see her face?” He grins, and you two walk down the hallway to your next class, talking all the while.

It’s good to be back at school. You finally get to feel like a normal teenager, going to class and doing all the things everyone else does. After you leave class, you head to the lunch table your friends always claim, and sit down next to Lydia. Liam flops down across from you. “Why did Coach Finstock become a teacher? Like honestly, why?” Stiles grins. “Don’t you love his unique teaching style? If he wants to be head coach for lacrosse, he has to teach at least one class, so he chose the one he thought would be easiest.” Liam just groans. “If it weren’t for the fact that I’m on the lacrosse team, I’d just skip all his classes.” Theo walks up from behind you and sits down on your other side. “Are we complaining about Coach Finstock? Guy just told me I look like I have the biceps of a mountain lion. How am I supposed to respond to that?” You can’t hold back your laughter. “A mountain lion? Seriously?”

Liam rolls his eyes. “Get used to it. He gives out weird compliments to whoever he wants on the lacrosse team. He’s always talking about getting new players, especially since Kira left to go train with the Skinwalkers. Coach won’t leave you alone until you either join the team or find some excuse to get out of it, like breaking your arms and your legs and also being dead.” The table dissolves into laughter and friendly chatter breaks out amongst your friends.

On the way back from lunch, though, you can tell Theo’s lost in thought about something. Finally, he turns to you. “I’ve been thinking about what Liam said. Do you think it would be alright if I tried out for the lacrosse team? Like, would they mind?” You smile up at him. “I think it would be a great idea. They’d welcome a new player, and as long as you don’t try to challenge Scott for the title of team captain, you’ll fit right in.” Theo nods. “There’s another practice this Friday. I might go talk to Coach before then and see if he can let me join.” 

Before you know it, Friday has come around. Theo’s delighted- Coach took one look at him and told him he could join the team for as long as he wanted. They have a practice during lunch today, and Theo made you promise that you’d come watch. “I need moral support on my first day.” Thus, you find yourself climbing through the bleachers to sit beside Mason as the lacrosse players warm up on the field in front of you. Mason leans back, grabbing a notebook so at least he can pretend to study. “This is my favorite part of the day.” You laugh at him, taking a notebook of your own out of your backpack. “Shameless.” You tease, and he pretends to frown. “Can’t I support my soulmate in peace?” “Sure, if I thought you were only here to support him and not anyone else.” Mason rolls his eyes. “Yeah, it would be nice if Eight-Pack Brett were here, but we can’t have everything.” You groan. “I don’t know how you can stand the guy. He’s totally not worth your time! I think his ego’s even taller than he is.” As the two of you laugh, you see Theo on the field. He looks up at you and waves, and you return the gesture, letting a light smile cross your face.

Theo ends up really enjoying lacrosse. You’re not sure whether it’s because of the comradery between his teammates, the excitement of the sport, or just because he gets to tackle anyone and everyone who stands in his way. Coach is thrilled, of course, and so the number of kids he sends limping to the sidelines just grows and grows. You don’t mind his liking the game yourself- you’re glad it makes him happy and you’re glad you get to watch him run around on the field during practice, sometimes with his shirt off. Whoops.

You also get to flaunt his jersey in the halls. You’re not sure why, but something about wearing his number on your back makes you feel even closer to him. Theo certainly doesn’t mind, and so you keep stealing it from him.

Before long, it’s time for Theo’s first lacrosse game. The stakes are high- Beacon Hills is playing Devenford Prep tonight, the one team they can’t always beat. You’re sure that with Theo playing, Beacon Hills should have no trouble crushing them, but you can still feel the unease radiating from the lacrosse team when you show up to the game that night.

You’ve snuck around back to visit Theo before the game starts, and he’s only got a few more minutes with you before Coach Finstock starts one of his famously awful speeches. You wish him luck and kiss him goodbye, then run up to the bleachers to sit with Mason, Lydia, and Malia. Lori’s sitting a ways away from you with her friends from Devenford Prep, and you give her a quick wave before turning your attention back to the field.

“Do you think we’ll win?” Malia asks from beside you. Mason scoffs. “Of course we will. If you check the numbers, we’ve got two werewolves and two chimeras against only one werewolf. It’s simple math.” You laugh at that. “Devenford’s got some players who are good without being supernatural.” Mason raises his eyebrows. “Your school spirit is sorely lacking, Y/N.” You shove him playfully. “Don’t get me wrong, I think Theo and everyone else is going to crush them, I’m just saying. It’ll be an interesting game.”

As the players run out onto the field, you make eye contact with Theo, who grins up at you. The Devenford Prep players take their positions opposite them, and before you know it, the game is started.

It’s a fairly even game, to your surprise. You can tell your friends aren’t using their supernatural abilities- they prefer to play fairly, although the same cannot be said of Devenford Prep’s team captain. You swear you can see the yellow glow of his eyes from here. Your friends still manage to keep their cool, until Liam and Theo are sprinting side by side towards the goal. Liam’s got the ball, and he’s about to pass it to Theo until your soulmate gets knocked down from behind by Brett. Instantly, you’re standing, hands pressed to your mouth in horror. The referee is yelling at Brett, something about an illegal move, but that doesn’t change the fact that Theo was knocked down pretty hard. Brett is about to walk away, but decides to whisper one last thing to Theo. You can’t make out exactly what he said, but you could have sworn you heard your name.

It’s the mention of your name that finally unlocks Theo’s anger. He stands up quickly, glaring at Brett. Without a word, he lines up at the starting line, lacrosse stick in hand. When the referee’s whistle blows to start the game, he’s running faster than you’ve ever seen him run before, already in possession of the ball thanks to a quick throw from Scott. Before you know it, he’s already scored! 

Cheering, you clap as loudly as you can. Theo goes on to score again and again, and there’s nothing Devenford Prep can do to stop him. By the time the game is over, he’s helped Beacon Hills maintain domination over the other team. When the players finally leave the field, you run up and throw your arms around him. “You were amazing!” Theo shakes back his sweaty hair from his face. “Thanks, babe. Only for you.” You can’t help but smile.

Once Theo’s showered and finished with post-game rituals, you’re waiting for him at home. You’re finishing up a text on the phone when you hear him come into the room and greet him with a kiss. “How’s the lacrosse superstar doing today?” He grins at you, exhausted but pleased with himself. “Not too bad, actually.” You talk for a while about the game, then settle down for a late night movie.

 It’s odd, though- you’ve barely started the movie long enough for the opening credits, but you hear a loud knocking on the door. You’re not expecting anybody, but the knocking is insistent and echoes throughout the room. You and Theo exchange glances, then get up together to see who it is. The second you open the door, you can’t help the stunned gasp that leaves your mouth.

Standing on the doorstep, covered in mud and scratches as if he’d run through the woods for hours, is a member of your old pack. One who you thought was dead.

Your older brother.

tag list: @linkpk88​

[donttouchmeimwriting]

Argo ch. 3

Friday the 13th - Friendship/Romance - Jason Voorhees/OC M/M ship

2983 words, 3rd person POV

I'm just as surprised as you are that I'm cranking these out so fast. Thanks, NaNoWriMo!

Cross-posting on FFN under PyroTheWereCat

...

...

Saturday dragged so sluggishly for Jason as he waited impatiently to visit Lijah again. He spent the day stalking the outskirts of the camp, trying to watch Lijah as he worked. He was fascinated by Lijah's effect on others; it was clearly shown that it wasn't just Jason who was compelled to change behavior simply by listening to him. The kids loved him, and he was popular with the other counselors as well. Jason caught himself daydreaming a few too many times of being one of them and being able to spend the day with Lijah out in the open like they could.

During one of these moments, Jason stared off across the surface of the lake, the sunlight sparkling across the ripples in the water. He wondered what would have happened over a decade ago if Lijah had been at the camp with him...would the other kids have been enraptured by his presence and listened to him then? Would Jason and Lijah have become friends as quickly as children as they had as adults? Or was it their personal experiences that drew them together now and they were all the better for it?

"Enjoying the view?"

Jason spun to face the speaker, relieved it was only Lijah. Lijah laughed at his reaction and looked out across the lake to see what Jason was seeing.

"It is gorgeous out here, isn't it?" he sighed, his expression dreamy, "I've worked at a few different camps over the years but I think Crystal Lake is my favorite."

Jason's heart still pounded in his chest, despite the surprise having worn off. Why was he so nervous to stand here next to Lijah like this? Did the others feel this way around him too?

"Oh, hey!" Lijah said suddenly, pointing down at the nearest dock where two campers and another counselor stood, "That's Terry and Kira over there with Julie. Kira was bullying Terry since day one of camp, saying she looked ratty and pushing her down - you know, stupid kid insults like that. Terry didn't want to be a tattletale, so she wouldn't say who was picking on her, even though we all knew. The director has a rule that we can't interfere unless the kids come forward so we were stuck for a little while. The other counselors and I came up with a detective game to make Kira realize she was doing something wrong and hurtful and she came forward on her own yesterday to admit it. She's been doing great today at making up with Terry and I think they'll be friends really soon. It's so cool what a little positive reinforcement can do."

Lijah crossed his arms over his chest and gazed proudly out at the two kids, but Jason couldn't stop staring at Lijah. What was it he was feeling right now? Impressed at his ability to handle bullies in a way that the counselors when he was a child never could, certainly, but what else? What was it about Lijah that made Jason want to throw his machete in the lake and never hurt anyone again?

"What's up?" Lijah asked, noticing Jason staring at him, "Did I say something wrong?"

Jason shook his head, but could not tear his eyes away. Lijah had his hair tied back today, pulling it off of his neck and away from his face. There was sweat around his hairline, sticking strands of hair to him in tiny swirls and lines. His freckles were more pronounced in the daylight, and his tanned skin almost glowed, even in the shade of the trees. To Jason, this view was much more appealing than the lake.

"Alrighty then," Lijah said, shrugging it off, "Anyway, I just wanted to say hi since I saw you hanging around up here, but I gotta get back to my group. I'm seeing you tonight, right?"

Jason nodded fervently, excited by every second he got to spend with Lijah. Lijah smiled broadly and waved as he set off back to the camp.

"See you later, Jase!" he called.

Jason gave a small wave back, his stomach full of butterflies. He decided he didn't care why he was feeling this way or what it was about Lijah he liked so much. He felt immeasurably and inexplicably happy for the first time in a long time and he didn't want to overthink it. After all, wasn't that what his mother wanted for him?

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

Jason returned to cabin 5 that evening a little earlier than planned. The sun had set, but the sky was still relatively light and the camp was winding down from the day. Jason looked through the bedroom window, but Lijah was not in there yet. He tested the window to see if it was unlocked, and to his luck, it was. He checked his surroundings to ensure no one would see him struggle to squeeze through the narrow opening. It was embarrassing enough that Lijah had to see it last night. The coast was clear, so Jason pushed himself into the bedroom, nearly getting stuck in the process. Once inside, he straightened up and closed the window so bugs would not get in. It struck him as he looked around that he was in Lijah's private room alone.

A little snooping couldn't hurt, right? Jason allowed his eagerness to drive his actions as he explored Lijah's room. He first looked in the dresser drawers to see what other clothes Lijah had besides his work shirts and shorts. From the brief snoop, it seemed that Lijah liked light, muted colors and pants with deep pockets. He also seemed to be a fan of chunky bracelets and wristbands, probably to camouflage and support his delicate wrists.

From there, Jason moved to the books on top of the dresser. Adventure novels, a couple college textbooks in the subjects Lijah had specified as his course of study, some notebooks, including the one Jason had used to communicate with last night, and one romance, all paperbacks that looked well used. Curious about the romance novel, Jason flipped through the pages. Mother never had these kinds of books at home, so he wasn't sure what to expect. His eyes fell upon a passage that described a kiss between the heroine and her strapping, yet emotionally manipulative love interest:

"...her cerulean orbs meeting his stormy grey ones in a passionate stare before their lips collided in a kiss so fiery, so full of desire, it would warm the hardened coals of even Wyatt's darkened heart. Charlie swooned into his massive arms, surrendering herself to his rough touch. Wyatt growled into the kiss, his stubble scratchy against her smooth face, but not unbearable. He gripped the back of her neck possessively, but Charlie knew it was part of his insecurity in that he never wanted to let her go. Funny, she thought before the intensity of the kiss forced her mind to become a blank slate of ecstasy, He won't talk about his abandonment issues, but I can feel them here in his kiss..."

Jason set the book down, frowning. Did Lijah really see himself in this Wyatt character? It didn't seem right, but it probably wasn't important. Jason turned instead to the notebooks, but they were mostly blank aside from sparse doodles, camp schedules, and Jason's shaky handwriting. He put the notebooks back where they were and opened the door to the rest of the cabin.

Across from this door was the door to the bathroom, but Jason didn't need that at the moment, so he ignored it and proceeded left down a short hallway to the living area. The hallway opened up to a tiny kitchen and dinette on the right and an ancient, faded couch with a rickety coffee table and an old antenna TV and VCR atop it. This area was not as bright and full of Lijah's personality as the bedroom was, but Jason figured that was to be expected. His own bedroom at home was a reflection of what few interests and hobbies he had. The bedroom was a sanctuary for the individual, and held a piece of their soul. At least, that's what a bedroom should be. Mother had told Jason all about the filthy, lecherous activities young people would get up to in bedrooms. Only a married couple should share a bed, she had told him. It was a sin otherwise.

Feeling slightly hungry, Jason made for the short refrigerator, needing to squat down to see its contents. A couple sandwiches wrapped in plastic occupied one shelf with a handful of apples on the lower shelf, some cans of soda on the door. Jason reached for one of each, hoping to finish them before Lijah returned to avoid accidentally showing him his face. He brought the food to the couch and sat down, his weight causing the seat to sink lower than it was meant to. He removed his mask and devoured the sandwich and apple as quickly as he could, feeling somewhat like a ravenous raccoon. He cracked open the soda can and chugged it, realizing too late that it was a bad idea to drink a carbonated beverage so fast. Bubbles surged up through his nose and he sputtered, covering his face so he did not spray soda everywhere. He coughed and gagged, but the feeling soon went away. He made a mental note to drink anything bubbly as slow as possible, but preferred the idea of never having soda again. It was too sweet for him anyway.

Finished with the meal, Jason located a small trash can at one end of the kitchen and disposed of the remains. He pulled his mask back on just as he heard the front door to the cabin open. He tensed, preparing for a fight, but it was Lijah, alone, who gave a start upon seeing Jason's towering figure in his living room.

"Oh gosh, you got me again!" he cried out, laughing nervously, "You're here early."

Jason nodded once and watched as Lijah locked up and set down the pack he was carrying near the door.

"Are you hungry?" he asked, a tiredness in his voice that worried Jason. Would he be able to stay up tonight? Did he stay up too late last night? Jason shook his head and pointed to the refrigerator, silently telling Lijah he had found the food. Lijah yawned.

"Oh, good," he said, shuffling towards the bedroom, "Sorry, I'm a little worn out from today. We can still hang out, but I might crash a little earlier than last night if that's okay."

Jason nodded and followed him. Lijah turned to the dresser and tilted his head at the stack of books.

"You checked out the romance novel?" he asked, disbelief in his voice, "Huh, didn't see that one coming. It's not very good, but it was free, so I figured why not, y'know?"

So Lijah didn't choose that book for the plot, Jason realized. That made much more sense. Lijah opened the drawers and retrieved a stack of clothes, brushing by Jason to head to the bathroom.

"You can relax in the bedroom if you want for about fifteen minutes while I shower," he said, stifling another yawn, "I'll try to get my bedtime routine done quick so we have some time together."

Jason had no problem with waiting for him to prepare for bed. He was happy just to be in the same building with him and not anxiously wonder where he was like before. Jason sat on the edge of the bed, having grabbed the notebook and pencil he'd used yesterday in preparation for the conversation he would be having tonight. He heard the shower turn on in the bathroom, and an unwelcome thought of what Lijah looked like in there sprung into Jason's mind. Startled by this, Jason shook himself. What was he thinking? His mother's warning about college aged young adults surfaced and he wondered, horrified, if these thoughts would consume his brain like the counselors he'd killed or if he could fight them and keep his head clear and pure. What would happen to him if he couldn't get rid of them?

Jason struggled with this fear until the sound of the water stopped and he heard Lijah moving around in the bathroom. He squeezed the edges of the notebook to ground himself. What would Mother say if she knew what he was thinking about? Realistically, she would probably forbid him from coming back here and have him read Bible passages until the thoughts went away. Mother knew what was best for Jason.

Lijah entered the room once he was done in the bathroom, his hair still damp and his cheeks slightly flushed from the steam. He wore a loose fitting navy blue t-shirt with an unfamiliar logo on the chest and green plaid boxers. He brought with him a wonderful, clean scent of shampoo and mint flavored toothpaste. Jason wrote on a fresh page of the notebook,

"feel better?"

Lijah hummed in agreement, stretching his arms over his head until his shoulders softly popped.

"Nothing like a hot shower to take the day off and get you ready for bed," he said, climbing up onto the mattress next to Jason, "How's your day been?"

Jason thought about it, but didn't want to be too honest that he had pretty much just been waiting all day for this meeting. He wrote,

"did alot of walking. liked what u said about the bully. ur really good with kids."

Lijah waved him off modestly.

"Aw, that wasn't just me," he replied sheepishly, "I can't take all the credit. All of us counselors worked together on that. They're a good group of people. I'm glad I got the chance to work with them."

Jason tilted his head to one side, his interest piqued by this statement. So all the counselors were good, not just Lijah? Would Jason even need to kill anyone this year, or had the nightmare of wicked counselors finally ended? He wondered what his life would become if he didn't come here to kill every summer. It would probably be much like last year, quiet and content with his mother, having everything they needed and just going day to day, living the life she built for them. But Jason knew he couldn't live that life now. He wanted his life to include his new friend, and he wasn't sure how he could do that, with Lijah going back to college at the end of the summer and moving into an apartment somewhere probably far away.

Lijah tilted his head to mirror Jason and catch his attention.

"What's on your mind, big guy?" he asked. Jason considered his next few words and decided to avoid the topic. He wrote,

"u said u had a sister rite? tell me about her?"

Lijah's entire face lit up with a huge smile and his joy was so infectious, Jason couldn't resist matching the expression.

"Phoebe!" he exclaimed, "She's the best little sister anyone could hope for. We're thirteen years apart, so I'm pretty protective of her, and it was really hard for me to go away to college and leave her behind. I call home once a week and send her letters every month of cool stuff I've learned or seen. She likes bugs and dolls and dinosaurs. Our parents won't let her see Jurassic Park though - that's a scary movie about dinosaurs - but I think she can handle it. She's a tough kid. Definitely way tougher than I was at her age. I used to get beat up in school for being, uh, different."

Jason felt a surge of protectiveness for Lijah, though he didn't know who had hurt him. How could anyone even want to hurt someone like Lijah? He curled his fingers into the bedspread, fists shaking with anger. Lijah noticed and addressed it,

"Hey, it was years ago; don't worry about it! Besides, I'm a lover, not a fighter. I'd rather solve my problems with communication than violence."

Jason nodded and forced himself to relax. What was he going to do anyway? Find the bullies and kill them even though they probably haven't been anywhere near Lijah in years? Stupid. Jason tried to explain his thoughts by writing,

"sorry bullies make me real mad. i got bullied to."

Lijah offered a sympathetic look. He moved a hand towards Jason, but rethought the action and stopped, biting his lip.

"I bet they wouldn't mess with you now though!" he said instead, trying to look at the bright side, "I bet they'd take one look at how tall and muscular you got and run away. The machete helps too."

Jason grimaced under the mask. That probably wouldn't be the only reason they ran away...Still, Lijah meant well and he couldn't blame him for trying. It was more effort than anyone had put in before, and that was worth something.

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

The conversation continued for a short while, but Lijah soon began nodding off. In one of their quiet moments, Jason looked over and saw Lijah slumped on his pillows, sound asleep. Jason sighed and took that as his cue to leave. He rose from the bed and set down the notebook on the dresser. He looked back at Lijah, bemused by his awkwardly scrunched limbs and his face pressed unflatteringly into the pillows, before turning off the light and leaving through the window to let him sleep.

It was moments like these that Jason was beginning to dislike his heightened energy levels during night time. It worked great for serial killing, but not so much for spending time with a friend. But he was beginning to have a hope and some confidence that things would work out and that he and Lijah would find some sort of rhythm together.

[nanasparadise]

What if the villain's of jojo had a Christmas song karaoke battle to get attention from their darling? Thank you!

“Christmas Karaoke” JJBA villains x gender-neutral reader (fluff, headcannons)

 Thank you so much for your suggestion, it’s such a fun idea!! I hope you like the result:3 Enjoy the upcoming Christmas days and stay safe! <3

Summary: It’s Christmas and darling decides to have a karaoke night with the JoJo villains (Part 1 to 5). Unbeknownst to you, they are desperately fighting for your attention through their performances.

TW: no real trigger warning, just some slight yandere behaviour.

I do not condone any yandere behaviour in real life.

Dio (Part 1)

Dio from Phantom Blood is annoyed by the idea of singing in front of other people.

He eyes the other competitors deprecatingly, scrunching his nose in disgust.

But then his gaze falls on your form, watching at everyone with big eyes.

Why are you looking at any other person than him?

He can’t stand the thought that anyone else than him has your precious attention.

So the Brit pulls himself together and walks confidently to the karaoke machine.

Dio chooses a classic such as Jingle Bell Rock or Rocking around the Christmas Tree

The blond hopes to attract your gaze, staring at him lovingly and gifting him one of your dazzling smiles.

After his performance (which was mediocre at best, but he tries to tell himself that it was spectacular), you do approach Dio with a grin on your face and offer him a high-five for having been outside his comfort zone.

Dio has wished for a much more intimate touch (such as a peck on the cheek or a hug), but for now, he is appreciating your sweet and supportive gesture.

“Pff, I’m only singing since none of you can do it properly, naturally.”

“Dio, that was awesome! I’m so proud of you!” “Thank you Y/N, I couldn’t let any of these morons hurt your ears with their yelling.”

Dio (Part 3)

Now, Dio from Stardust Crusaders on the other hand is the star of the night.

He craves and loves all of the attention, but especially yours.

The vampire has no qualms to show off and smash more than one song.

After all, he has to show everyone that he’s superior and that’s why you will choose him.

The blond bellows Last Christmas (c’mon, he already looks like George Michael, he was born for this!) with all his being while doing a whole choreography.

His eyes keep searching yours, wanting all of your attention.

Your adorable cheers and little dancing only reinforce Dio as he goes all out.

After performing, he confidently walks to you.

He easily swoops your smaller form up and gives you a passionate kiss.

Afterwards, he grins at your surprised and flushed expression.

“Move out of the way! Now comes the real star of the show.” “Dio, you can’t just kiss me out of the blue in front of everyone!” “And why not? Don’t you think I deserve a little reward after my performance?”

Kars

Kars doesn’t sing. Like, at all. And when the other competitors taunt him for that, he simply threatens them.

He refuses to lower himself to these inferior creatures and their pathetic habits.

Instead, he looks at you: your beaming face and innocent happiness move the pillarman

He had never thought that he would catch feelings for a human, but here he is, bathing in your expression and wanting to gain your attention.

To him, you are perfect: something he has been striving for years.

That’s why he is engaging in this whole scenario which just seems ridiculous to him.

Even though Kars doesn’t sing, he still finds a way to grab your attention: the pillarman decides to sit next to you and ask you all about the human traditions of Christmas.

Now he couldn’t care less about human holidays, but hearing your eager words (which are better than any music could ever be) makes Kars all warm inside.

Finally, his perfect darling gives him all the attention he wants and needs (after all, he is a god).

“I don’t sing. If you ask me again, I’ll eat you.” “So, you humans kiss each other when you are standing under a mistletoe? What a foolish tradition. If I want to kiss you, I don’t need a plant over me, you can be sure of that.”

Yoshikage Kira

Karaoke night is for Kira absolutely horrible.

The man hates to stand out, no matter if it’s in a positive or negative way.

How is he supposed to sing in front of everyone? All eyes would be on him, disturbing his peace…

Though he does want the attention of one particular person.

Of course, he’s attracted to your hands (it was the first he noticed when he saw you), but Kira isn’t only fascinated by them: he loves your warm charisma and the way you are always there for him and listening, no matter how boring his day was.

Reminding himself about your adorable behaviour, he decides to sing, just for you.

His performance is quite shy and restrained, not wanting to stand out too much, which is why he chooses a laid-back Christmas song such as Driving Home for Christmas or Wonderful Christmas time.

But you still cheer him on, a smile plastered on your face, which makes Kira blush a bit (which he would never admit).

After his performance, the man goes to you, his face remaining stoic.

You look at him with astonishment, not believing that the Kira just performed!

As a reward, you hug him and give him words of encouragement.

Kira enjoys your attention and slightly leans into your touch, but not enough so that his apathetic façade would crumble.

“Guess I really have to sing in front of these people…”

“Wow Kira, I’d never expected you to perform!” “Well, even I am spontaneous from time to time.”

 Diavolo

Diavolo prefers to stay inside with no one around him (you being the only exception of course).

So being surrounded by all these people isn’t ideal to him, especially when he has to sing in front of them.

But luckily, the Italian exudes confidence out of every fibre of his body.

The man can’t stand that so many pair of eyes are competing for your attention. He should be the only one to lay his eyes on your form.

Which is why Diavolo takes a bold music choice such as Mistress Christmas: he wants to stand out, so that all of your attention and affection will be on him.

His performance is quite energetic and he has a pleasant voice, which you wouldn’t have guessed.

Your gaze is filled with admiration, making Diavolo smirking internally.

After the song you immediately go to him and compliment his talent.

Diavolo enjoys your reaction thoroughly, thinking he has finally showed everyone you like his company the most.

He gets a bit cocky as he claps your hands while talking to you.

 “Diavolo, I never knew you were this talented! You should sing more often.” “I can always sing to you, just maybe in a more private setting…”

“Huh? Why are you grabbing my hands?” “Isn’t it obvious?”

Bonus: Doppio

This sweetheart is so incredibly nervous!

Not only is he scared to do karaoke, but he has to do it in front of you!

The freckled man constantly blushes and is overtaking by his nervousness.

You flash him a reassuring grin across the room, which gives Doppio enough strength to overcome his fear.

No one has treated him with such innocent kindness as you had.

Doppio picks a sweet song such as Let it snow or Holly Jolly Christmas, wanting to pay you back with your kind nature.

During the performance, he constantly stutters and mixes up the words.

Eventually, he leaves the stage with his face being as red as a tomato.

You didn’t mind his rather poor performance, as you keep telling him that he did a fantastic job.

Doppio is overwhelmed by your kind-hearted words and blushes even more.

You like his adorable expression and decide to give the man a peck on the cheek.

The Italian is over the moon by your touch, eyes beaming with glee (and not noticing the dark stares of the other competitors which are comparable to daggers).

“Calm down Doppio! You can do this, the boss gave you permission, you can impress Y/N!”

“Doppio, you are so cute!” “Y-You really think so?”

 Now, after everyone has sung at least one song (except for Kars who still thinks karaoke is stupid), you are left with the decision to crown one winner. Nervously, you bite on your lip. How could you choose one? You genuinely enjoyed everyone’s performance. You don’t want to hurt the others feelings by saying one was better than the rest… You stand there thinking, all of the men staring at you expectantly. Some of them have already provoked tensions (notably Dio) by saying, they are obviously the best and therefore deserve your praise and attention alone. No matter how you decide, there will be a fight afterwards…

[fantastic-bby]

Nova

Pairing: (F)Reader x Hyunjin

Word count: 3k

Genre: Angst || Fluff || Fallen angel!Hyunjin

Summary: When you’re assigned a human, you never expected to fall as hard as you did. Out of self benefit, you ask your deities to make him an angel when he’s taken before his time. The only problem is that humans who turn into angels are given stricter rules than pure blooded angels. 

Warnings: Demons || Mentions of death 

Masterlist || Chan - Maive || Minho - Kira || Changbin - Skye || Jisung - Blair || Felix - Lia || Seungmin - Raisha || Jeongin - Avia

“Are you stupid or are you stupid?” You cross your arms over your chest as you glare at Felix. “God, the whole deity council is going to kill you!” You smack the upside of his head which he responds with a scowl. “I told you to be careful around Lia! Now you’ve gone and revealed yourself to her!”  

“It’s not just like that! She’s agreeing to become an angel. That means that I can bring her up here when I tell the council.” He’s so hopeful. You let out a sigh as you pinch your nose bridge with your thumb and index finger.

“They don’t just accept anyone anymore. Not after Hyunjin.” The mention of a former guardian makes Felix whip his head to look at you. 

“Do you… still talk to him?” He knows it’s a sensitive topic for you; having your lover turned into a fallen is nothing a guardian enjoys, but Felix is genuinely curious. 

“Sometimes it feels like just talking to him might get me thrown out as well,” you sigh. He purses his lips into a straight line. “I just wish he had been more careful with what he was doing. He didn’t even mean to lose his human.”

“Guardians can’t completely guarantee a human’s protection, we can only guide them through their lives.” Felix tries his best to reassure you, but the ache in your heart for Hyunjin still remains after all the years that have passed.

“I know that—Hyunjin knew that. He just… he just missed one too many details.” You would’ve cut off ties with Hyunjin by now if you didn’t agree with the council’s decision to kick him out at least a small bit. Every night, you find yourself on Earth, perched on the top of a tower while you watch the moon slowly move through the sky. 

“Here again?” The familiar voice makes you turn around to see Hyunjin approaching you with a small smile on his face. Your own lips curl into a smile you can’t hold back when you see your lover sitting beside you, his legs hanging off of the edge of the building. 

“I miss seeing you everyday,” you confess as you lean your head against his shoulder. 

“I’ve missed you too, my angel.” His arm moves around your waist to pull you closer to his side. Maybe it's a tragic love story—or maybe it’s just not meant to be. Whatever it is, you love Hyunjin too much to just leave him in hell, which is why you’re always in the human world. You just want to see him; even if it’s for a moment. “Has the higher ups caught you yet?” 

“Even if they do, I honestly don’t think I’ll do anything about it,” you mutter softly. “I just want to be with you again.” 

“Don’t get yourself kicked out for me, (Y/n). I know that Skye did it, but I don’t want you to come down.” Hyunjin gently moves his hands up to your head, guiding you to lay in his lap. “I’ll tell you that comparing the two, hell is not for someone like you. You’re too pure for that place.”

“What about you? You didn’t even mean to end up in there.” 

“Yeah well,” he sighs softly as he gently pushes a few strands of hair off of your face, “I can’t change the mistakes I made.” You look into his crimson eyes, your hand raising to cup his face. 

“I remember when your eyes were brown,” you softly claim. “I remember how soft and beautiful they were. Now, they look deceiving and mischievous.” Hyunjin lets out a chuckle. 

“These eyes are now made to deceive. I can’t be as soft as I used to be or else I’ll get punished by the Lord.” Your bottom lip juts out slightly into a pout. 

“My poor angel," you coo. Hyunjin blushes lightly. "You'll always be my angel—no matter what happens." 

"I've missed your touch," he hums as he takes your hand from his cheek to his lips. Hyunjin didn't mean to get his wings ripped off. It was just one too many mistakes, and it was too big of a mistake. Hyunjin remembers the day he was told that he was losing his wings. He was hoping that he would be forgiven. “Please, I won’t do it again. I-I promise. Just let me stay, please.” He was on his knees in front of the higher deity who sat before him. 

“Three strikes, Hyunjin.” They shook their head. “Your wings will be taken from you and you’ll be sent down to hell to join the fallen.” 

“Other than those, I’ve been good!” he reasoned. “P-Please, (Y/n) will be heartbroken.” Hyunjin lowered his head to the ground. “She brought me up here. I promised her I would be by her side forever.” 

“You’re of human blood. Your blood isn’t pure. The more mistakes you make, the easier it is for you to turn evil. We can’t afford that.” 

“B-But,” he sat upright to object, but the deity stopped him before he could.

“The decision is final, Hyunjin.” Once again, Hyunjin lowered to the ground. He let out a sob as he imagined having to break the news to you. You were the reason he was an angel in the first place. 

As every angel does, you were finishing an assignment; the assignment being Hyunjin. He remembers the first time you came to him clearly like it had happened so recently. You showed up while he was waiting for the bus home. Hyunjin didn’t pay you any mind at first, but when he kept seeing you so regularly, he got more and more curious about who you were. 

“Hey,” he greeted, making you turn to him. “Did you move here recently? I’ve only seen you taking this stop recently.”

“Yep,” you nod. “I moved halfway through the school year since I had to move so suddenly.” Actually showing your appearance to your humans was always your go-to method. Slithering your way into their lives made it easier for you to do your job since you could keep better track of them. 

“Ah, I was wondering why I was seeing you so suddenly. I’m Hyunjin.” Such a simple introduction that started your bizarre friendship with your human. Hyunjin was a wild card. He was always doing the most random things at the strangest hours. 

“(Y/n)! Come down to the park!” You sat up in your bed, turning on the light to check on the large clock that stood in the corner of your bedroom.

“Dude, it’s three a.m.?” Your statement only made him even more persistent. 

“Don’t question it and just come!” You pulled yourself out of bed, dragging yourself out of your home tiredly. Even though you were an angel, you still valued your sleep a ton. The fact alone was the reason why you were so grumpy as you approached Hyunjin who was sitting at the swings all by himself. Well, that fact and also the fact that you already knew he was in no actual danger. 

“Mind letting me know why you woke me up so suddenly?” You glared at him. Hyunjin dismissed your bad mood and just took your wrist in his, dragging you all the way to the lake nearby the park. 

“You have to be quiet,” he whispered as he laid stomach down onto the grass. You were too tired to question him and instead just joined him. “There,” Hyunjin pointed, the excitement lacing his voice. You turned to where he was pointing and you gasped when you saw a large deer drinking from the lake. 

“Woah,” you breathed out. It shouldn’t have been such a surprise considering the fact that the neighbourhood Hyunjin lived in was right next to quite a thick forest. “It looks so pretty,” you claimed. Hyunjin nodded silently beside you. 

“I always come out here in the middle of the night since the deer around this area only seem to come out at night to drink from the lake.” He turned to you, his mind filling with glee at the realisation that he now had someone who could join him in watching the deer. 

“That makes sense. There’s no humans around to scare them off,” your words were soft and were mostly just you thinking out loud, but it made him smile. The two of you watched the deer until it hopped off into the forest, disappearing from your line of sight. By then, you were ready to just head home and plop yourself back into your bed, but it seemed as though Hyunjin had other plans. “Hyunjin, if I eat now and go to sleep, my face is gonna get all puffy when I wake up,” you whined as you let the brown haired boy drag you to a nearby convenience store. 

“Then just don’t sleep,” he shrugged, “you sleep early anyway. Six hours of sleep is not bad.”

“I sleep early because I want to sleep more,” you groaned. Once again, Hyunjin dismissed your mood and just pulled you into the instant food aisle. You watched as he grabbed two cups of instant noodles before running to the large fridges to pull out two bottles of iced tea, heading to the counter where you just watched lazily. 

Once he came back with the noodles, you cooked them with the water from the large water boiler. “Inside or outside?” Hyunjin questioned.

“Inside’s too cold,” you simply stated. He nodded without another word, the both of you making your way outside to where a small plastic table was. You silently ate together. The silence was comfortable; that was the first thing Hyunjin noted about you. You didn’t need a lot of things to be comfortable. You wouldn’t exactly deny it either. Even though you were an angel, you preferred more simple things. You didn’t treat your position as an otherworldly being as such a big thing. You just liked food and sleep. 

Hyunjin appreciated that you did. It really didn’t take much for him to fall in love. Six years worth of friendship and he realised he just loved everything about you. You would be lying if you didn’t love him back. He made you feel safe. There was a charm about Hyunjin that was strong enough to make an angel fall in love with him. 

“I think I love you,” he confessed when he broke the kiss. You stared at him, your mind battling between your heart until your heart made the decision for you. 

“I think I love you, too.” You had to admit that you had never seen Hyunjin happier than when you confessed your love on the beach, the sound of the waves crashing against the shoreline and the slowly rising sun just adding to the ambiance that was nothing less than romantic. 

“I can’t believe it took us six years before we realised it,” Hyunjin chuckled. You chuckled as well, scooching yourself closer to him where you leaned your head onto his bare shoulder. 

“I know right,” you muttered. You knew the consequences of dating a human. You just had to hope that the deities wouldn’t figure out—even though you knew very well that they watch over the entire world—and that you could play it out smoothly. 

When a few months passed and you still haven’t heard anything from the higher ups, you just assumed that you were in somewhat of a greenlight. The only thing was that Hyunjin was getting more and more prone to injuries. There was a weird energy surrounding your human. Something that didn’t feel like energy from an evil entity, but energy that just didn’t sit right with you.  

At one point, he got so hurt that he was taken way before his time. Which was why you made a deal with the council. Well, you honestly did it because you were in love with him. “He’s been good.” The higher deity raised an eyebrow. 

“You’re a good angel, (Y/n).You’ve never failed a task and we assume that this is the first time you’ve ever courted a human.” Without much other objections, the deities gave you the responsibility of bringing Hyunjin up to heaven with you. 

“W-Where are we?” he questioned nervously. 

“I brought you to my real home,” you hummed. With you by his side, Hyunjin slowly started to ease into his new surroundings, his fear slowly switching to curiosity. 

“So, you were my guardian angel?” he asked when you had explained everything. You nodded. “And you asked the deities to give me a chance as a guardian too?” You nodded once again. “Does this mean we get to spend the rest of our time together?” 

“Exactly why I asked for you to become a guardian. You don’t even have to get another home, you can live with me like how we did before on Earth.” Your suggestion made him smile widely. 

“As long as I get to be with you, my angel.” It was funny to you that Hyunjin gave you ‘angel’ as a pet name without even knowing what you truly were. “Well, it was fitting for you then and it’s even more fitting for you now,” he chuckled when you brought it up to him. 

You stuck by Hyunjin’s side for the first few of his humans, helping him to understand what he should and shouldn’t do when he’s on the job. Your lover watched how you worked intently, wanting to do it right to be able to stay with you. Humans were given less chances than angels did only because the deities knew that trust towards humans had a chance of being more unstable compared to angels. 

They simply lacked the purity that angels were created with. 

“You have to be careful with this,” you advised as you watched him grant his human dreams. 

“Like that?” he turned to you. You nodded with a smile.

“Exactly like that, my love.” Hyunjin was a fast learner and that you were mildly glad of. He caught onto what he had to do very easily and soon, you didn't even need to stick by his side. Instead, the deities decided that separating the two of you would be fruitless and simply assigned humans in the same area so that the two of you would end up staying in the same home. 

"How's Chia?” you asked when Hyunjin stepped into your shared home. When he looks at you with a completely pale face, you realise something must’ve happened. 

“S-She—Fallens came—t-t-they killed her,” he stammered out before completely breaking down. Your eyes widened and you quickly moved to his side, pulling him into your embrace and wrapping your wings around him for comfort. “I-I didn’t know what to do,” Hyunjin hiccuped, “I-I-I thought I c-could’ve saved her.” You bit your lip as you thought about it. Chia would be his first strike. 

“It’s okay, love,” you hushed softly, “it’ll be okay. It’s just a hiccup in your work. We’ll get you back on track, okay?” You wondered why he didn’t just ask you for help. You didn’t give that wonder much thought—your attention moving to soothe him because you knew that he would have to talk to the deities about this. “We can figure this out, Jinnie.” You held him tightly against you, letting him cry out his feelings. Losing the first human is rough for every angel. That fear that wells up inside of you when you realise just how bad losing a human really is… it’s pulled a few guardians out of their positions. 

It took a while before Hyunjin was ready for another assignment. That time, he was less confident in himself and had asked you to watch over him. You agreed, of course. You just didn’t want him to lose his confidence completely and have himself thrown out of heaven. 

Over time, he slowly regained his confidence with watching over humans. Some of them lasted longer than others and some only lasted a few years, but Hyunjin was more careful with them. That is, until he banished a fallen angel on sight. 

“Hyunjin! You can’t just do that!” you scolded frantically when you saw the fallen angel disappear into black smoke. 

“I-I panicked!” He turned to you with wide, scared eyes. That was strike two and you knew the deities were already starting to get wary of Hyunjin. The third strike was him being too careful. He had accidentally revealed himself to his human and let them slip past his fingers into the influence of a fallen angel. It just so happened that your human at the time was halfway across the world from your lover, preventing you from helping him in any form. “P-Please don’t cry,” he whimpered when he saw the tears streaming down your face. “Please, (Y/n),” Hyunjin took a step closer to you, his hands moving to cup your face. “I’m so sorry, my angel.” Your arms wrapped around his waist, hugging him tightly. 

“T-They’re being t-too unfair,” you sobbed against his chest.

“It’s the rules,” he swallowed thickly. He was willing himself not to cry in front of you—not when you were already so broken with him having to leave. “Every chance I get, I will try to see you.” Hyunjin’s words only made you hold him tighter. You didn’t want him to leave; not when you brought him up to be with him forever. 

“P-Please,” you whimpered, “d-don’t leave me, Hyunjin.” 

“I have to go, (Y/n),” he muttered. “If I don’t leave on my own, they’ll banish me and I won’t be able to enter the human world either.” Hyunjin pulled away to look you in the eye. “They can’t stop us from meeting. As long as I still love you and you still love me, that’s all that matters.” He pulled you into his chest once again, peppering the top of your head with soft kisses. “I’m sorry, my angel. I’m sorry I disappointed you,” he apologised once more before he disappeared. You crumbled to the ground without Hyunjin to support you, your dream of having him be a guardian by your side ripped out of your hands. 

“I love you, Hyunjin,” you sobbed, bringing your knees to your chest as you allowed yourself to break down in the living room of your shared home.

[swtorpadawan]

20. alone, finally (micro story prompt)?

Author’s Notes: Warnings for sexual content. This story takes place sometime in the future - sort of a flash-forward. Taken from the “Send me a number and I’ll write a micro story using the word or phrase” Tumblr prompt, ‘alone finally’. Thank you, @raven-of-domain-kwaad ! Sorry I couldn’t keep it “micro”. )

I’ve finally done it. Kira Carsen thought to herself.

The red-headed not-quite-a-Jedi-anymore was lying face-down on her beach towel, basking in the sun’s rays. She could hear the waves of the ocean crashing peacefully nearby, a pleasant reminder of her tropical environment. Her sun-goggles offered protection for her eyes her deep blues tinted green from the lenses when she bothered to open them. Her bikini had been discarded onto the beach towel next to hers, so confident was she that she was one of just two sentient beings on this planet at the moment, and it freed her from any concerns about avoiding any tan marks against her fair skin.

I’ve finally learned the trick of how to relax by doing absolutely nothing. Her lips smirked, pleased with herself.

Of course, she’d had some… encouragement to get to this point. A certain fatigue had set in, and her body was a bit worn out. After all, yesterday had been a very busy day for her. And then she’d been busy again last night. And then once again this morning before she’d started sunbathing. Twice, in fact.    

Kira had found this world in the Unknown Regions years ago, back when she’d been running with an anti-Zakuulan resistance movement. She’d been surveying planets for potential base locations from where she and her comrades could strike at the Eternal Empire. She’d ultimately rejected this world as a candidate, as there was absolutely no infrastructure to speak of. It was also too remote; the rebels had wanted to operate in hiding, but still with the capability of striking at Zakuul’s supply lines through accessible hyperspace lanes.

But she’d never forgotten this planet. Or its magnificent beaches, and lack of any hostile fauna. It was beautiful. A paradise. Its like Rishi, but without the pirates, the Revanites and the bird people, she observed.

And now, years later, her long-held secret had paid off.

I’ve found a planet where nothing will try to kill us. She pursed her lips in contemplation. Where we can finally be alone together. At last.

She’d have to pick a name for this planet, Kira considered. And a name for this island. And a name for this beach. If she really were the discoverer of this world, then doing all that should be her responsibility.

Just not today. She had more important things to do at the moment.

Kira honestly intended to get up at some point from her sunbathing and to do something exciting. Maybe she’d bust out their hoverbikes from the cargo bay so they could use them as jet skis. Or maybe she’d follow through on her plan to turn those spare bulkhead panels from the ship into surfboards. She’d never actually been surfing, but it certainly looked exciting on the holos she’d seen. Or heck – maybe the two of them could just spar on the beach with their lightsabers. That could be fun, especially if they waited for the moonlight in the evening. That certainly fit Kira’s idea of a romantic night.

These are all good plans. She thought proudly to herself, as her head lay contentedly down on her crossed arms.

She felt him approach her through the Force because of course she did. After these last two days, she doubted either of them would ever lose track of the other again, carbonite prisons be damned.

“You’re going to get sunburned.” He gently chided her.

Groggily, she let out a sigh then lifted her head from her arms to look up at Corellan Halcyon.

The man who had once been called the Hero of Tython, the Battlemaster of the Jedi Order and the Outlander was looking down at her with a bemused expression. Water dripped down from his wet hair and body as he glistened in the sun; he’d been swimming in the ocean for nearly two hours, almost as long as Kira had been laying out in the sun. She watched fascinated as a particular drop of water rolled down the muscles of his broad chest and abdomen down towards his swimming trunks, causing Kira to lick her lips.  

As much as she enjoyed checking him out when his body was glistening like this, she inevitably felt her eyes drawn down to the fourth finger of his left hand.

The band around the finger was ornate, etched with tiny engravings invoking Tython and Odessen, along with the word ‘Eternal’. The metal itself was fairly non-descript; a careful examination by a metallurgist would have revealed that it was actually composed of an alloy of natural materials from several worlds, none of those metals being regarded as particularly precious among the various jewelers of the galaxy.

That wasn’t important to Kira. What mattered to her was what the ring represented.

It meant that Corellan Halcyon was hers, and hers alone.

She absent-mindedly fiddled with the diamond ring wrapped around her own finger with her thumb as she smirked up at him.

“Well, you did quite an impressive job rubbing me down with sunscreen earlier.” She mused, her head tilting towards his towel where the bottle of Alderaanian nectar-scented lotion lay beside her bikini and their lightsabers. Playfully, Kira wiggled her oiled butt up at him. “I feel safe enough from the sun, tough guy.”

Corellan Halcyon’s eyebrows bopped up as it was his turn to admire Kira’s body. He let out a slow exhale as he crouched down beside her… only to find himself ambushed as Kira’s hand reached out and grabbed him by the neck, pulling him towards her for a long, passionate kiss.      

There was no crisis to worry about. The Eternal Alliance back on Odessen would keep the galaxy safe without their famed ‘Alliance Commander’ for a few more days at least. At Kira’s insistence, Teeseven was the only one who knew how to reach them, and it would probably take the Emperor himself returning from the abyss to compel the droid to contact them.

Corellan’s body grew rigid at the contact for only a fraction of a second before he melted into the kiss, wrapping an arm around her. She felt a brief tinge of guilt for startling him like that; she’d chosen this planet not just because it was beautiful, not just because they could be alone, but because Corellan – who had seen enough fighting over the course of his adulthood for twenty lifetimes – had once told her that he had never been to a world where he hadn’t used lethal force to defend himself or others. She knew how much that had worn on him and wanted him to feel like he had seen at least one planet where he hadn’t been forced to kill anything or anyone.

A planet where he could just be… him.

But as she felt his body and his soul start to respond to her touch and his strong arms tightened around her, she knew she’d made the right choice. Here, on this beautiful, unnamed world in the unknown regions, the only thing ambushing him would be her.  

Wasn’t stuff like this what honeymoons were all about? Kira smirked as the kiss finally broke. She playfully pushed him onto his own towel.  

“Here.” She grinned, turning herself onto her back and tucking her arms beneath her head to leave herself completely open. Corellan was practically gawking at her now, eyes widened, unable to look away and looking like he was quite out of breath. She was charmed by his reaction: The two had made love hundreds of times, but he still looked at her like it was his first time seeing her this way.

“I think you might have missed a few spots when you oiled me up this morning.” Kira teased, noting that she’d still been wearing her bikini at the time. “You can make that up to me now, I think.”

Dutifully, attentively, eagerly even, Corellan reached for the bottle, applying ample amounts of the lotion to his hands.

“Yes, my lady.” He answered gallantly, returning her grin.

Kira let out a sigh and closed her eyes as he set to work, lavishing attention on her with the same dedication with which he did everything else in life.

Corellan Halcyon didn’t do anything by half-measures she’d learned long ago. Even relaxed, at ease and happy, this was who he was.

This was the man she had married two days ago.

She felt her legs parting as his skilled and oiled fingers teased her, then gasped as he leaned in and placed a soft kiss just below her naval. Then another gasp escaped her lips as he kissed just a bit lower, still…

Kira sat up suddenly, reaching out and grabbing at his shoulder and gripping him a bit harder than she’d intended. He paused in his ministrations of her body, looking up at her questioningly.

“Know what, tough guy? It’s your honeymoon. You’re over-dressed.” She smirked as she glanced down at his shorts. “Lose those.”  

As Corellan smiled and moved to comply with her command, Kira laid back and watched contentedly.  

Relaxing by doing absolutely nothing is overrated. she thought to herself.

Kira never did get around to learning to surf that day.

She couldn’t complain.

Author’s Notes : I’ll do the wedding story at some point. Honestly, though, it’s a huge thing.

[writingsbychlo]

more ways than one (01)

word count; 4951

summary; your first meeting with the stranger you rescued doesn’t go as smoothy as you’d hoped.

notes; I remind y’all that Stiles was possessed, but it veers off and it goes away, it’s not really mentions how, but the nogitsune never splits from Stiles. Allison is still alive, and Malia and Stiles are not a couple. Oh, and Derek is away travelling with Cora. That’s about it.

warnings; violence, choking, aggression.

You chewed on the straw in your mouth absentmindedly, your gaze trailing off into the distance as the girls talked constantly around you. You were vaguely following the conversation as they spoke, the girls chatting loudly about everything you had all been through lately, as though the supernatural was public information and they didn’t care about the opinions of those tables around you all who could easily eavesdrop if they bothered to listen closely.

Your eyes were squinted a little, the sun shining down and giving a warm feeling over the day, despite the storm that was due to set in later on in the day, and Lydia had texted you all this morning and told you to be ready to go for a late lunch while it was warm. She claimed that after everything that had happened with Stiles’ brief run-in with possession, and the year of supernatural crap that had gone down during your sophomore year, that you were all well overdue a lunch date to chat. That, and she was taking the opportunity to introduce Malia to the world of once again being bi-pedal and human.

Said strawberry-blonde snapped her fingers in front of your face, calling your attention to her and your thoughts snapped away from the nightmare you had somehow landed yourself in, your eyes focusing in on her as you pulled your milkshake away from your mouth, smiling as casually as you could as you looked at her. Her eyes were narrowed, lips pursed as she studied you carefully, before her lips were twisting up in a smirk. 

“What’cha thinking about so hard there, girly?”

You cleared your throat, shaking your head and smiling casually as you lifted one of your fries to your mouth, chewing on the soft potato as you shrugged at her, trying your best to play it cool, but the four sets of eyes on you were throwing you through a loop. “Nothing.” You watched them carefully, swallowing the milkshake before taking a long sip of your milkshake, the chocolate flavour filling your mouth and she merely hummed, Allison was snickering as she turned to whisper to Kira, and Malia simply watched the interactions, taking the last bite of her double-cheeseburger and licking the sauce from the edge of her mouth, humming happily around the food.

“So, you’re not thinking about a pale and male-covered boy with brown hair and bright eyes?” You practically choked on your drink as Allison questioned you, your eyes wide as you wondered whether they’d found out about the lookalike you’d stashed at Derek’s loft, and you sputtered for an explanation, your cheeks heating up with a red flush, Kira cracking up and slapping the huntress on the arm as the two curled into each other in a fit of giggles. 

“She’s totally thinking about Stiles, look at her blushing!” 

You felt relief seep into your body as the tension slipped away, your body slumping in the seat as you rolled your eyes, your racing heart calming as your secret remained safe, for now. “Wait, am I missing something? Why would I be thinking about Stiles?”

Lydia picked at her acrylic nails, not even bothering to look up at you as she spoke. “Maybe because you’re totally into each other?”

“What?”

“Oh, come on. You know the two of you have gotten super close, lately!” Allison insisted, and your brows rose as you glanced around the other girls, and Lydia mumbled her agreement as she sipped at her water, a half-eaten salad sitting in front of her. 

“When I first met you guys, I thought you were together,” Kira added, and you rolled your eyes, nibbling on your lower lip as embarrassment flooded through your system, the copy-cat male you’d hidden away yesterday slipping from your mind as thoughts of the original filled your thoughts. You loved your best friend, you truly did, and you couldn't deny how much closer you’d gotten to him lately, but it was only because he’d come to you when he started to feel the effects of his possession, confiding in you long before anyone else had. “I think you’d be cute together.”

“Are they not together?” Malia muttered, looking intently at the uneaten food on your plate, and you giggled as you offered it up to her, a bright smile taking over his face as she accepted the plate ad placed it down on top of her own empty one, quickly tucking into your leftover food.

“C’mon girls, he’s totally in love with Lyds, since like third grade. You know this, he’s not exactly subtle.” You teased, knowing it was true. The boy spoke about her all the time, and while he hadn't quite been as vocal about it, you knew he was still pining for the red-head girl. 

“Everyone’s a little bit in love with me, but not everyone holds hands with their best friend.” You snorted unattractively, giving her a side-eye and leaning back, your legs crossing proudly as you thought about it. 

“When have I ever held hands with Stiles?”

“Uh, like six times over the past three months?” Kira objected, the others all making various sounds of agreement as you watched Malia finish your meal too, a proud smile on her face as she leaned back in her chair, legs parted and hands sitting on her stomach as she groaned happily at the feeling of having a full stomach.

“Three of those times he was unconscious, one of those times he was going into a bathtub full of ice and one of those times he was checking into a nuthouse.” You pointed out, and the banshee counted them off on her fingers, wiggling a finger at you as she smiled.

“That makes five, what about the sixth time?” 

You shrugged, deciding to bait them a little, a sigh falling from your lips. “You’re right, me and Stiles are totally and madly in love. You caught us out.” Their jaws dropped as they leaned forwards, a collection of squeals sounding as you tried to keep a straight face, eventually cracking up, and one by one they caught on as they scowled at you, Allison flicking you in the arm and Lydia pinching the other one, and you jumped away from both of them, rubbing your arms as you all but cackled at having fooled them. 

The conversation moved on as they began to focus on other things, and you pulled your phone from your pocket, two messages flashing up on the screen and you clicked on the first, rolling your eyes as you opened the message from Stiles.

[batman 🦇💛] bring me ur leftover pizza back from lunch?

can’t, malia ate it, whoops x

[batman 🦇💛]  >:( I can’t believe this, does 12yrs of friendship mean nothing to u?!

You grinned, rolling your eyes and tuning out the taunts and whistles you got from the group around you as they realised you were texting your best friend, your fingers flying over the screen as you typed out your reply, checking the time before you did.

according to the girls, it means we r in love x

[batman 🦇💛]  ha. funny. ive seen u eat sand. couldnt kiss u now.

shut up, dumbass. I was 6 and u dared me x

[batman 🦇💛]  kinda sad to kno the girl i'm in love w/ thinks i love u but that's my luck.

You cooed, rolling your eyes and promising that you’d text him later as you swiped out to the other text, your stomach churning as you realised it was from Derek. Admittedly, he was only asking about his loft, and whether you’d been over to check everything was okay, but it still made guilt twist at your guts before you sent a half-true reply, choosing instead to cover up the real facts. 

Instead, you chose to tell him that you had definitely been over to check and that everything was tip-top okay, neglecting to tell him that you were stashing a supernatural double of your best friend only two weeks after he was mysteriously possessed and released, and that he was cut up and injured and arrived from a weird storm. Minor details.

Clearing your throat, you pulled out a handful of notes from your purse, placing them down in the amount that you owed as you excused yourself from the table, balancing the strap of your bag on your shoulder and smiling at the complaints of your friends as they encouraged you to stay, but it was already nearing the late afternoon and early evening, and you needed to grow the courage to return to the scene of your crime.

The pharmacy was only a quick walk around the corner, and you’d made sure to park your car outside of it so that none of them would see you leaving and entering the building with a suspicious amount of medical supplies, and you pulled the crumpled paper with your list pulled on out of your pocket. Smoothing the crumpled item out in the palm of your hand, the bell above the door jingled, the air conditioning washing over you immediately and you shivered at the sudden temperature drop upon entering the shop.

Peering at your own writing, you smiled uneasily at the cashier who was watching you, a kid who’d graduated just a year or two earlier, and her eyes narrowed on you as you moved through the shelves. Plucking one of the plastic shopping baskets from the side, you held it carefully in your arms, avoiding their scrutinising gaze.

Paper Stitches.

Your eyes scanned over the shelf, a surprising number of options displayed before you, and even the first option was already showing you the impact that this little shop was going to have on your bank account, and you simply prayed it would be worth it. Taking the largest size and strongest strength in your hand, you shrugged to yourself, dropping it into the basket and scanning the other ones. You could always pick up another size of you needed them, but you were definitely going to need at least two boxes of these ones for now.

You couldn't help the scowl on your face as the sum total began to add up in your mind, moving along the aisle to the wrapping sand covers,

Bandages. Gauze.

There were far too many options of bandages and covers, a jumble between compression wraps, light and thick material covers and thick and padded gauze. You could barely tell the difference between any of the options, and you began to think that maybe you should have paid a little more attention to the quick google search you’d done earlier as to what you actually needed. 

First up, a collection of thick, cotton wool paddings to place over the large gashes the man had obtained, followed by gauze and bandages, a hand rubbing over your forehead as the collection began to gather up in the bottom of the basket. Your fingers brushed over the rolls of medical tape, and you dropped a roll of that in too, knowing you’d need something to fasten the material to his torso with. 

You skirted around the corner to the next set of shelves, your cheeks flaring in a blush as you caught the suspicious gaze she was giving you, and you cleared your throat, holding your head high as you ignored the judgement hanging on her sights. 

Antiseptic Wash. Hand Sanitizer. Cotton Balls.

100 cotton balls in a bag for three dollars felt like a good enough offer for you, and you dropped it into the basket, humming to the tune playing over the radio above your head as you swiped a large bottle of antiseptic wash from its place, and finally, a few of the small bottles of hand sanitizer, because you’d been needing some more of that anyway. 

You hadn't quite been ready for the odd glare the ex-peer had given you when you placed the basket on the counter, and her eyes moved slowly between the items and your eyes, a sarcastic smile on her lips as she slowly began to ring them up, placing them all in a paper bag for you and ensuring they would all fit.

In a bid to avoid the wight of her stare fixed on you, you let your eyes scan over the ‘last-minute-purchase’ options on the counter, adding a packet of strawberry bubblegum to the collection and she scanned it through, reading your total to you and you jammed the card into the reader, wincing at the price that was displayed on the small screen. Your fingers punched into the buttons as you bit your tongue, taking the card and the bag as soon as you could and you darted from the shop, barely pausing to take your receipt from her as you fled. 

Placing the stuffed paper bag on the shotgun seat, you rounded the car, letting out a deep sigh as you strapped into the seat and stuck your keys into the ignition. Digging into the bag beside you, you fished out the bubblegum, taking a stick from the packet and unwrapping it, popping it into your mouth and letting the chewing motion and sweet flavour soothe you as you started up the car and began the well-ingrained journey to the loft, anxiety riddling your body.

The radio played quietly in the background as you made your way along, the only sounds filling the car being that of the quiet hum of the latest chart-toppers, and the occasional pop of the bubblegum in your mouth. You weren’t really too sure why you were still keeping this secret from everyone, you had the perfect chance at lunch to tell the girls about what had happened, to get help and confide in someone.

Stiles.

Deep down, it was about protecting Stiles. The ripples on the surface of the water had only just smoothed back down, and you weren’t willing to throw the next stone in a situation that you were absolutely certain you could handle yourself. How dangerous could someone who was 147 pounds and unconscious be?

That was the only thought that was strong enough to force you up and out of the car, your feet carrying you forwards as you unlocked the main door, clicking it shut behind you as you made your way toward the stairs, choosing to walk all the way up to the top instead of taking the rickety elevator. You could use the time to calm yourself down, work out what you were going to do if the stranger you were harbouring was now awake.

Your hands were shaking so much that the keys were jingling as you walked, and you clenched them in a fist, taking a deep breath as you reached the final level and pausing before the silver metal door. With a deep sigh, you unlocked it carefully, sliding it out of the way and looking inside carefully. Natural light was flooding in through the huge bay windows at the other end, the concrete room lit up with warm light that almost made the monochrome grey space look welcoming, and your eyes zeroed in on the space that had once occupied that man you had rescued. 

Nothing seemed out of place, the room wasn’t trashed and rummaged through, and everything was still and calm as you took a first cautious step inside. By the second step, you were sliding the door shut behind you, your brows furrowing. By the third step, a cold hand was sealed tightly around your throat, pinning you up to the wall as the tips of your toes brushed the ground. 

The bag in your arms fell away, the items within it scattering across the floor as you squeaked, coming up to grab at the wrist holding you so tightly to the wall as you struggled to drag in any breath at all, your gaze meeting the furious one of the face you knew so well on the person you didn’t know at all. Those familiar honey-brown eyes were scanning over you interrogatively, and the long fingers wrapped around your throat flexed, tightening for a second before you were released, and you fell to your knees, eyes watering as you took in burning breaths, rubbing soothingly at the skin on your throat as the man merely stood and watched you for a second, before spinning on his heel and walking away.

You watched him go, shaking your head as he stormed away, and once your breathing had finally calmed and your heart had stopped racing so had on your chest that you thought it may burst out, you began to slowly gather up the items you had dropped, stuffing them all haphazardly back into the now torn paper bag and standing it up. Sitting on your knees, you took a moment to gather yourself, your eyes locking with the narrowed brown ones watching you, goosebumps rising over your body and you tried to seem strong, not to let him know quite how terrified you really were, as you took the back, standing on unsteady legs and holding your head high as you stared him down.

Making your way over to him, you placed the bag down in front of him, raising your brows as you moved slowly, the warning growl in his throat being acknowledged as you held up your hands, palms out to him to show you meant no hard, despite the fact that he'd attacked you only moments prior. Instead, you slowly tipped the bag upside down, allowing all the contents to spill out across Derek’s plain black coffee table, the man’s eyes scanning over it all, his face twisted in confusion as he looked at each item.

You stood with him in silence for a moment, letting him look at all the items, before he was stepping away from you, a snarl on his lips as he moved as far back as he could while still being able to watch your movements, track what you were doing. With a heavy sigh, you backed away yourself, never taking your eyes off of him out of fear of what he might do once you did, and for each step backwards you took, he moved forward one, and you slowly guided him toward the kitchen.

He lingered in the doorway as you moved around, never taking your eyes off of him for more than a split second as you searched through his drawers and cupboards, a small sound of victory leaving you once you found something you could work with, and you slipped two packets of the instant-noodles from the collection, dropping them on the counter as you continued your hunt on your meal-making task. 

He flinched each time a pot or pan clashed, his eyes once again narrowing menacingly, and you had to suppress a chuckle because it was no longer focused on you, but instead on the source of the loud sounds, as he glared at a frying pan that had shifted and fallen loudly on another one. Selecting a pan big enough for the job, you quickly filled it with water from the tap, deciding that using the hob was definitely the safest bet, as you worked with this. Tearing open each packet, you held it up to show him as you watched on curiously, and you dropped the solid blocks of noodles into the water, waiting for it to begin to bubble over the flame. 

There was nothing in the fridge that you could use, he’d gotten rid of everything perishable before going away, and you made a mental note to buy food, your heart once again sinking at the savings-draining task you had taken on. Maybe if you told Lydia, she’d give you her card and allow you to pay using her platinum, but you highly doubted you’d get away with telling her now without having to endure a long sit down talk and a lot of disappointed looks, which you weren’t ready to deal with. Lydia Martin could be scary when she wanted to be. 

The silence hung heavily in the room between the two of you, and you tried to school your face into a stoic expression, despite the stormy scowl that was being directed at you, his body shuffling as you looked at him, his shoulders rolling from the discomfort of his injuries and he looked like he was going to try and dash at any moment. Taking two dishes from the lower cupboard beside your legs, you placed them out on the table gently, a fork beside each one and you stirred the noodles, the pasta soft and flimsy as it circled around, the savoury smell filling the air and you quickly dished up the food after switching off the hob, placing a fork in one bowl and pushing it across the countertop toward him. 

He stepped forward as you took a seat on one of the stools, and you watched as he lifted up the instrument, pushing the pasta around the dish, a growl leaving him as he dropped the fork back into the bowl with a clatter, and you raised your eyebrows as you ate your own food, fixing him with a judgemental look and shaking your head. He used a single, skinny finger to push the bowl toward you roughly, some of the soup sloshing over the side and you let out a sigh, continuing to eat your food as he glared at you.

You had never felt quite so intimidated while in the presence of a bowl of noodles, and had you been anywhere else, in any other situation, you might have found this situation funny, perhaps even laughed at it, but right now, you worried you may actually choke on the noodles from stress. When you finally finished, and he was still twitching from foot to foot in front of you, his nervous shuffling giving you anxiety, too. 

“What? You don’t eat, then?” He merely snarled at you, despite the rumbling in his stomach as the delicious smell drifted through the air and you raised a brow at him, shrugging and taking the bowl, his eyes watching as you snatched the food from in front of him. You made sure to make a show of tipping it into the garbage disposal, his eyes watching as the food slipped away into the drain and his jaw tightened, twitching as he ground his teeth together, his body jerking in shock as you slammed your hand down on the button on the wall and the loud grating filled the room, before you finished it, a smug look on your face as you cleared the dishes into the sink to clean later.

He stalked from the room as you did, his nostrils flaring at your actions and you wanted to stomp your foot on the ground and groan, but instead, you merely clenched your fists by your sides, following after him as he whipped his head around to see you following him, choosing to make his way over to the couch and poke through the items spilt out on the coffee table.

He picked up the bag of cotton wool balls, looking at them curiously before dropping them and you cleared your throat, his hard gaze directed back to you as you crossed your arms over your chest self-consciously. “Those wounds on your back are bad, you should let me take a look at you.”

He blinked at you, twice, eyes wide and his face didn’t move, giving you no indication that he was actually understanding a thing you were saying and you took cautious and slow steps toward him, his body tensing up as you did and you plucked the item from his hands, meeting little resistance as you held it up. 

“These are for cleaning the wounds. On your shoulders?” 

You placed the item down, motioning to your own shoulders as you tried to make him understand, and he twitched at the motion, his features falling from their hard glare a little his eyes softening and he swallowed thickly, his gaze dropping from yours for just a moment as he adjusted his arms. A wince was clear on his face as he moved his arms back, his lips parting and a quiet groan left him. 

Your own shoulders slumped as you watched him, and you picked up another couple of items, deciding to offer him a small smile as you held it up, jiggling the packages before him, and the crinkling caught his attention. “These are for wrapping and padding the cuts, because those are really bad, and they’ll get infected.” 

He pursed his lips, but for once they weren’t fixed in a heavy scowl and you felt as though perhaps you were making some kind of progress with him. Placing them down, you moved through the rest of the items, lifting each one slowly and telling him what it would be used for, only receiving the same blank looks and lonely silence as he stood before you, his gaze flicking over both you and the room multiple times. Despite the lack of verbal confirmation, you were choosing to believe that he understood you, because his posture had loosened, his body slumping forward a little and he seemed a little less like he was preparing to fight for his life at every turn of events. 

It wasn’t until you’d finished talking to him and moved toward him that his defensive stance returned to him. He jerked aggressively away from you as you took a step toward him, and you lifted your hands, reaching out to him carefully as you motioned towards his back. “Let me take a look at your injuries!”

He stepped back again, his legs hitting the edge of the couch and he went rigid as you closed in on him, a low growl sounding from his throat, the noise rumbling from his chest in a warning and his eyes were practically burning with rage, his anger having built in seconds and your jaw dropped.

“We just talked about your injuries! I told you what I need to do!”

You tried one final time, reaching for him carefully and he took your wrist in his hand squeezing so tightly that your knees buckled as you released a cry, and he growled once again, this time predatory, as if to tell you to back off or it would get worse. Then, he was using his grip on you to push you back as you stumbled over your own feet, just about stopping yourself from tripping up and falling on your ass.

“Fine!” You snapped, your arms flying out to your sides as you shouted at him, and his eyebrows raised at your increase in volume, his eyes wide as he watched you, your own jaw clenching and you pointed at him angrily. “Go ahead, die of fuckin’ osteomyelitis for all I care!”

Your cheeks were flushed, and you fixed him with the harshest glare you could, before letting out a deep sound of anger, a groan that rippled through your body as you threw your head back, eyes squeezed shut as you tried to calm yourself down. Taking a series of deep breaths, you calmed your racing heart and the heat that was curling up your cheeks died down. 

You mumbled curses under your breath, turning back to him to find him staring at you intently still, and you ran a hand through your head, grimacing as the tension in the air hung thickly. “Look, I’m going to go and get some warm water, we really need to sort out those gashes or you’re going to get really sick.”

You nodded at him, hoping that he understood before you were rubbing your hands together and turning on your heel, making your way into the kitchen. Fishing out a fresh bowl, you turned on the tap, running the water over the inside of your wrist to test the temperature, and when it became too hot for the skin there, you knew it was the perfect temperature. Gathering enough in the bowl, you placed it on the side, searching through the drawers for some clean rags.

When you first heard the metal of the door sliding, your brows furrowed, and it took a second before the realisation of what that particular grinding of metal meant, your eyes widening and you squeaked, dropping the material on your hands as you dashed from the kitchen, your eyes scanning over the empty loft area and your heart raced, bile rising in your throat as you guts twisted. “Shit!”

Your eyes focused on the open loft door, and you ran towards it, your feet moving quickly down the stairs as your tried not to fall, your blood pounding in your ears and you let out a panicked and frustrated yell as you noticed the main door now hanging open too, his taller stature and head-start ensuring you wouldn’t catch up to him even with his injuries, the area surrounding the loft still and empty, as though he had just disappeared. 

Your legs buckled under you as the consequences began to run through your mind. Worry, fear and anger flooded your system as you kicked at a rock on the ground, tears lacing your eyes from the overwhelming floods of emotion bubbling over inside of you as you tried to work out what the fuck you were going to do now. 

The sun was almost setting, dark clouds moving in over the sky and threatening to break at any time as the sun sank lower and lower on the horizon.

“I’m so fucking screwed.”