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iouinotes · 11 months ago

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Heroic Betrayal | Luke Castellan (part 1)

SPOILER FOR THE PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS SERIES AND THE BOOKS

pairing: Luke Castellan x female!reader

show: Percy Jackson and the Olympians

warnings: dark!character, betrayal, implied sexual content, heavy angst, kidnapping

word count: 5,8k

summary: When Luke switches to the dark side, he tries everything possible to win you for him.

a/n: so as the show comes to an end (dont cry dont cry dont cry), I thought I would finally post this :)))

read part 2 here

"I'll find you!" his voice echoes through the forest, my laughter much louder than I intend to. But that´s just how it always goes. It's our own little tradition.

Every year when the camp starts again and we meet after the holidays passed, we play hide and seek in the dangerous forest of the half-blood camp. The creatures usually don't come across our path, in recent years it has rarely happened, that we actually had to defend ourselves against them.

Once it was an angry dryad, who threw branches at me (she had a crush on Luke and wanted revenge, but since I could understand her feelings and felt sad for her, we sorted it out).

Another time we were spotted by some camp members, who made fun of us, but Luke must have said something to them later, because we haven't been bothered by these troublemakers since.

It is always the same pattern, but each time there is still something special about it. We have grown, became more mature (I think), and have more and more experience about the struggles in life.

So being able to just let go for a few moments and being completely alone with him is probably the best thing to keep myself sane (even if he drives me a little bit crazy with the love I hold for him).

But a lot has changed recently.

It all started when rumors spread, that Zeus' lightning bolt had been stolen by Poseidon's son. And then the most supportive, bravest, sassy kid in the world showed up here. Percy Jackson. Ever since I met him, even though it's not his fault, there's been war going on. The gods are angry, the monster attacks became worse and again, rumors about the oldest, most powerful titan Kronos reached the camp.

It scared and frightened many people, including me. That's why we've been training harder and stay awake, even when the stars are shining, so that we can prepare for any catastrophe. To be able to fight.

My mother is the goddess Demeter, my father a simple man. I adore them both, even though my mother isn't one of my closest contacts. But I never really held that against her, because at least she decided to acknowledge me as her daughter. After all, it's a privilege that not everyone gets. My siblings and friends at camp are important to me, but the world is changing and so is everything around it.

The only stability I have left is my boyfriend Luke.

If I had to rely on one person in the whole world (and by that I also mean the underworld), it would be him.

He's been my best friend since I arrived at this camp. We've been together through ups and downs, I know every side of him and he knows everything about me too. Many of the people here are like blank pages to me, but not him. He is like my favorite book, that lays open to me and allows me to read each letter individually. Just as I know every of his dreams, every secret, every truth and every lie. He is my protector, my hero in every dark night and every bright day. Without him, I don't even know who I am. He is a part of me and my heart wouldn't be whole without him.

I watched him grow up. From the small, thin boy whose eyes hid so much pain and sadness to the strong, soulful leader he is today.

His beauty cannot be influenced by anything, he is like my very own sun, without him I could not survive.

I wouldn't want it any other way though.

Now, I'm hiding behind a tree with my back pressed against the bark and I am able to hear the cracking and swinging of the branches.

I smile so wide, that my cheeks start to hurt, when I hear his voice calling. My heart is beating in my throat, but it's not just the adrenaline of not getting caught. It's because of my love for him, which is so strong that sometimes I'm afraid of it. But only in the moments when I realize that nothing, but him is my biggest flaw. I think I would do anything for him.

Then I concentrate again and listen to the sounds around me. But his voice has fallen silent and I don't hear his footsteps anymore.

My eyebrows furrow, confused I try to look around the tree and search for an orange t-shirt. Likely together with his slim body, biceps, beautiful face and wonderful personality.

But when I want to withdraw again, it's already too late. A branch breaks behind me and before I can move I'm pushed against the tree from behind.

I immediately feel his body against mine, hear the laughter in his voice and listen to his strained breathing. His hands wrap around my body and turn me towards him, so that we are now face to face.

He's taller than me and as I look up, I feel the familiar fluttering feeling in my chest. I am so in love with him.

He grins triumphantly at me and I lean against the tree, smiling kindly.

"Found you, princess." The light reflects in his brown eyes and some of his curls are laying wildly on his head. He looks like an angel.

"I made it easy for you." My voice teases him and when he leans in so close to me, that our lips almost touch, I forget how to think properly. A habit I can't change. He's just so captivating.

"Yeah? You think I wouldn't have found you otherwise? Funny. I remember that in the last few years, I always was the winner of our little game." His lips brush mine, I want nothing more than to kiss him. But he knows that, which is why he slowly pulls back, when I start to lean forward.

When I want to complain, he puts his hand around my waist and pulls me into his chest. My knees almost give out, I feel so intoxicated by his presence.

"I-I wanted you to find me." My voice whispers quietly.

His eyebrows rise in mock surprise.

"Then I guess, I can claim my prize without feeling bad." In the next second, his lips are on mine and I'm unable to do anything, other than kissing him back. I wrap my arms around his neck and enjoy the warmth that radiates from him. He sets my heart on fire.

While pushing me against the tree, I've completely forgotten about, he lets his hands wrap possessively around my waist. Digging his nails into my hips, to keep me grounded. Otherwise, I would probably get lost in those sensations.

Luke kisses in a way, like it's the last time he'll have the chance. (As if I would ever want to keep him from doing that).

He's passionate, my body feels like it's on fire and the heat inside me feels so good, that I want more. I can never get enough of him and he knows it. He grins against my lips, but he doesn't break the kiss. I think he secretely loves knowing how much he can mess with me, with just a few kisses.

My hands find his hair and pull him closer to me, our chests touch and his breathing mingles with mine.

It is wonderful and so precious, I would refuse any gift from the gods just to be close to him.

When he pulls away from me, our bodies are still close. My eyes open and look dreamily into his, our gazes reflect a familiarity and love that is like nothing I have ever experienced.

He smiles at me, pushes a stray strand of hair behind my ear and leans himself against me. His fingers stroke the exposed skin of my pulled-up shirt.

"I've missed you." If my heart hasn't melted before, it has now. I give him a kiss on the cheek and hug him, we stand in our embrace for a moment. Enjoying each other's closeness, the calm feeling until the next chaotic situation happens.

"Now we are together again. Only that matters." It's quiet around us and when I close my eyes for the second time, I hear his fast heartbeat. I have to supress a smile.

The wind is the only thing I hear until his voice breaks the silence.

"Something will happen soon. Something big." The peaceful atmosphere is threatened by his words and when I look at his face again, I see his worried eyes.

I sigh, but then nod to agree with him. "I thought about that too, it feels different. Like something is coming our way, that we can't control."

His fingers stroke my cheek and for a moment, his face holds an expression, that I can't understand. It resembles regret.

But before I can ask him about it, he smiles tenderly at me again.

"Nothing will separate us. The world is just a game. It's a matter of time and making the right moves." That is his motto. But I'm not always convinced of this. Even though I trust him to do the right thing.

"I'm just worried we'll get seperated, you know? Evil can be sneaky and traitors always exist. You never know who you can trust." Something I said must have really bothered him, because he looks like I just stabbed him.

This time I ask him about it.

"What's on your mind? You can tell me. Two people who worry about something are better, than one who is alone with it." I take his hand and stroke his skin, it feels cold even though we have summer.

"Nothing, just- I don't want to lose you. I couldn't be here without you. I need you. I mean...I-I love you. You know that I would do anything to keep us together, right?"

His words surprise me. I know he loves me. I can sense that, everyone probably does. But he has never worn his heart on his sleeve and the three magical words only come out of his mouth on special occasions. The fact that he's telling me now surprises me.

"Of course. I trust you. We will survive together, I know that. Are you worried because of the rumors about the Titan King?" This topic is always very critical and he usually doesn't like to talk about it, but this time I decide to address it directly.

"He will come. I just want you to be safe, when it happens." He sounds so confident it gives me goosebumps.

"Perhaps. His followers will definitely try. But love is stronger than anything else. Especially our love. We will get through it." He doesn't look convinced, so I turn his face towards mine and kiss him.

My voice sounds soft, when I speak again.

"Luke, I love you. I could never leave you. Not even the King of the Underworld will be able to keep us apart. I promised to be by your side in every moment of our lives. You are my soul and without it I am damned."

This seems to reassure him, but I feel like he's not telling me something of great importance. But I don't want to push him, I know he will tell me when the time comes.

He always does.

⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️

As the day comes to an end, I say goodnight to my siblings and report for my night watch duty. The situation has been a lot more worse the recent weeks. Kronos exists, my worst fear was confirmed. And he is building an army, that is so strong that it will be difficult to fight against it. But what I'm really worried about are the rumors about our people, who have also joined his cause.

Nobody knows who, the spies have been hiding ever since. I've never felt like I was paying more attention to my words than I am now. The only person I don't have to hold back to is Luke.

But even with him I notice the effects of the bad news. The circles under his eyes are darker than ever and his nerves are so frayed, that every little thing makes him want to explode. His temper is hanging by a thread, that is increasingly threatening to break. And I'm trying everything to prevent this.

No matter if I try it by making him laugh (which has become difficult), massaging his tense shoulders, trying to kiss him to the point of forgetfulness (usually it's the other way around) or when he takes out his frustration by burying himself deep inside me. With every thrust of his hips, I feel him relax, his hand so tight around my body as if I would run away, if he didn't hold me close enough.

He's changing and I'm trying my best to maintain his good sides. That he doesn't completely lose himself in his responsibilities and the pressure, that he has, because he is a member of the camp council.

Besides, I can't complain, when he fucks me until I can't breathe aynmore and I block out everything around me. When he comes, he whispers the sweetest things in my ear. Even if sometimes they sound so protective, that I could almost come from his voice alone.

When he whispers to me how good I am for him or how much he loves being able to have such a power over me like that - maybe it should scare me, but I trust him like no one else.

My mind concentrated his best for my shift, but when I finally go to bed after quiet some time, my eyes quickly close.

Looking back, I wish I had never let myself sleep that night.

Because, when I close my eyes I see waves. Hear the seagulls screaming in the sky, the fish swimming in the water and the distant cries of strangers.

It's all unusual and the bright light would blind me, if I didn't avert my gaze. And as soon as I do it, I see a ship. It's huge, rust shimmers in the sunrays, the anchor shows that it's been in the same place for a while now.

I feel something pulling me towards it, pushing and burning in my chest, leaving me with a tremor that I can feel, even in my deep sleep.

As I flit through the window like a ghost, I feel paralyzed. My blood freezes, I want to disappear immediately and in my mind I scream at myself to wake up.

But it's no use, whatever is here, someone decided that I have to see it. Only then, my wish will be fulfilled and I can wake up. So, I hide in a corner, there are scratched picture frames above me and broken glass is scattered on the floor. The monsters that loudly crush the glass ahead of me seem unstoppable.

I tremble as I look at at least seven dracaenae, several shaggy hellhounds and set my eyes on gigantes, that take up almost the entire room.

But that is nothing compared to the terror, that grips me when I see my classmates. My friends. People I trusted, who I fought alongside, for who I cared about. People I would have sacrificed myself for. They all betrayed me. And I feel close to tears. When I want to turn away, I hear a voice that almost brings me to my knees.

It's Luke.

My faithful and caring protector, my heroic love. Someone, to which I had dedicated everything. He was my life, with every single breath I took. The motivation behind my every action. The reason I wanted to survive in this cruel world. He was everything I had and everything I will ever have and in that moment it was abruptly taken from me.

I didn't have the strength to concentrate, it was as if every fiber of my body was on fire, triggered by the torment of my suffering heart. Seeing him like that, in black armor, Kronos' silver mark glittering around his neck, instead of his colorful necklace. A stoic, hostile expression on his face, his hands gripping his sword, it all hurt too much to watch.

And as I sank to the floor and covered my eyes with my hands, I was still forced to listen. I couldn't understand why he was saying such things.

"With every day he becomes stronger, with every participation in our army, we become stronger. Everything is planned, the camp is weak. Just like all of its residents. The surprise is on our side, because we will show no mercy. We will kill anyone, who does not confess to us. Do you hear me? No hostages will be taken. Only Hades population will be expanded."

The screams around me are so loud, so angry and horrific that I feel tears running down my cheeks.

I don't want to see any of that. The person infront of me is not my Luke.

A kind of fog creeps around me and I feel cold, it seems too late to forget it now. When I notice the golden coffin and Lukes hunched posture, the scar on the side of his face, I realize he is praying to him.

To the fall of Olympus. Kronos.

I want to cry, to scream, to be angry - but I just feel like every part of my heart is breaking and will never be whole again. Luke will never again be the one to heal it.

My consciousness leaves the ship until I finally wake up, but I can't move at first. I feel lost, my muscles are stiff and after a few seconds I notice that I'm shaking. But it's not because I'm cold, the summer air is wafting in the air.

Such dreams are rare, but are like the own scary predictions of the future.

And then it comes all back so me, the memories, that have just turned my whole life upside down. Traitor. The word appears in my mind, I feel like I almost can't breathe. And then there is a finger on my cheek, gently stroking the skin and my chest immediately becomes warm.

I know this gesture.

When I open my eyes, I see his loving eyes and the smile that covers his mouth makes my heart clench in sorrow.

It was just a nightmare. Luke would never betray me.

But the whispers in my head say otherwise.

As we continue to look at each other in silent, I notice his furrowed eyebrows.

"What's wrong, my love? Did you have a nightmare? You look scared. Don't be afraid, I'm here. I will always protect you." His voice is so calm, so usual loving and it makes the butterflies in my stomach fly around like crazy.

He is so beautiful.

As he briefly turns his head to tighten the blanket around me, I see his side profile and the scar. Reminders of my dream crash onto me like a lightning strike from Zeus himself.

I sat up abruptly. Luke is a servant of our enemy. How could I ignore that? I feel like I'm almost starting to hyperventilate. The thought, this nightmare, Luke's appearance, this evil feeling - it makes me sick. And I'm suddenly so afraid, more than I have ever been in my life. But I can't tell if it's the fact that I just found out he joined Cronos' army or that he broke my heart doing so.

I see him tense, my panic seems to be affecting him too.

My thoughts are so confusing, I don't know what to do, I have to tell someone. I have to-

His hands find their way to my cheeks, cupping them gently to direct his gaze towards himself. I would have preferred not to look at him, but I have no choice. His eyes search mine.

Then, as if the weight of Atlas punishment was put on his shoulders, he lowers them. His lips tremble slightly and his eyes look at me, as if I am the most valuable thing in the world and he is about to lose it.

"You know it." He doesn't have to say what he means by that. We both know.

I want to break away from him, but he won't let me. He's always been much stronger.

But everything still feels so different, light surrounds us and I can't really feel my body.

"Listen to me, please. I can explain it. Please-" The world goes silent, before he can finish his sentence.

It is too much.

I stifle a scream. I want to jump out of bed, but his hands hold me close. I only manage to fall to the ground, breathing heavily, but his arms are much stronger and I'm still weakened by my dream. He trys to hold me in a position, so that his back hugs me. His hands grab mine and one of them covers my mouth to silence me, when I want to scream for help.

With any other person, I would have known what to do. With anyone but him, I could have defended myself without any problems. But it wasn't just anyone and what he had done to me, the betrayal he had committed, was nothing I could handle.

I tried to wriggle out of his grip, to kick him, but the more I cried and the more hysterical I became, the easier it was for him to have control over me.

And for the first time, it scared me.

"Please calm down, I have to explain it to you- you have to know, that I never wanted to deceive you, please-" I notice how his voice is failing and he has to pull himself together, to not to lose his composure.

When I shake his hand away and want to yell again, he grabs my neck with such a warning force, that no sound escapes me.

I tremble in his hold. Tears stream down my cheeks and I literally feel my heart breaking.

Then he starts whispering in my ear and his grip feels like a tragic prison.

"Nobody can know. I never wanted you to find out. Not until I convinced you, that it is the right thing to join him. Because he will win, sweetheart. I want us to win by his side." His voice sounds so confident and at the same time, as if he was a completely different person.

Tears continue running down my face and he slightly let's go of me, so he can comfort me.

"If you would just listen to me, you will understand my actions. Please, just listen to me-" but the world blurs infront of my eyes and I am only able to whisper three words, before darkness surrounds me.

"You betrayed me."

⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️

When I wake up, my head hurts so much, that it takes me several minutes to open my eyes. When I finally do it, I almost have a heart attack.

I recognize the similarity of this room from my dream. When I stand up, I run to the round window and look out, being only able to see the blue sea. Feeling empty and alone.

When I want to step out the door, I expect it to be locked. But instead the handle turns and I step out of the room. I'm so surprised about that, that I'm acting without thinking twice.

As I walk around the next corner, the deck creaks and I see an ugly creature in front of me, that makes every instinct to escape kick in.

I run in the other direction, but every turn makes me more desperate and, without any consideration, I run into the hall, I was so afraid of.

It is filled with all kinds of ciders, and I also see the figures of my classmates, wounded and unhappy.

It's all so overwhelming, that I dont even see him standing on the podium, in the first place.

But as the monsters try to grab me, his voice echoes through the room with an affable authority.

"Nobody touches her. You hear me? Nobody. She is under my protection." I almost freeze into a stature, as he comes towards me and I have no way of avoiding him. No weapon is within my reach, his eyes notice my growing panic.

"Everyone leaves the room. Now." Nobody discusses it, even if some roll their eyes or quietly protest. His authority is unquestioned, it sends a cold shiver down my spine.

When the last doors slam shut, we stand a few meters opposite each other.

"The doors are guarded." It's the first thing he says.

When he tries to approach me, I lose my nerves and run to the corner with the broken glass, that I saw in my dream. I take them in my hands.

I see his eyes widen and he stops in his tracks.

"You- you want to fight me?" He actually sounds surprised and sad. Like I was the one who betrayed him and not the other way around.

"Don't come any closer. I may not have been able to do anything last time, but if you take one step closer then-" I don't know what to say. In no scenario did I ever think, I would have to threaten him.

But despite my warning, he comes towards me with his hands raised, the panic within me so palpable, that I can feel every muscle in my body.

I dodge, when he is only a few meters in front of me. Right into the next corner. As far away from him as possible.

"Princess, you can't keep me away forever. I've always loved that about you. You need me as much as you need to breathe."

It's supposed to sound sweet, but his words make me feel sick

"I'd rather suffocate." He didn't expect that. My words hit him so unexpectedly that he is almost speechless. Almost.

"I won't hurt you. You just have to let me get to you and I'll show you everything. You will understand, believe me." He really thinks, I'll just stay by his side and let him explain.

"Are you crazy? You're a traitor, Luke. You- you betrayed everyone. You betrayed me. How could you do this?" I suppress my tears, because that's exactly what he's waiting for. That my defense becomes weaker. I can't allow this.

"You dont understand. I always told you I would protect you. And I can only do that, if I'm on the winning side. And I am now. We are." His eyes flash with a craziness that makes me tremble. I don't recognize him.

"Why are you acting this way? You are doing the wrong thing - you give up everything. You're giving up on us." Tears leave my eyes and I see him take a few steps in my direction.

"I'm doing the right thing for us. You'll see. You just have to trust me, please. You know I always win. With the power he gives me, I will be invincible. You don't have to worry about one of us dying in this war anymore." I can't move, even if I wanted to, I wouldn't have a way out now. He's too close.

"You are wrong. I would rather die in this war than join this monster and his deceitful army." The shards in my hand hurt, but I don't let them go. They're the only thing I can use to defend myself.

"You would leave me?" His eyes are staring into my soul.

"Would you fight me?" Every word is more intimidating.

"Would you stop loving me?" His words are like his own shards, leaving deep wounds in my heart.

He's standing right in front of me now, looking at me like I'm fragile.

Then he whispers "Would you kill me?"

In the next second, he suddenly has my hands in his, making me drop the glass. Be is only a few centimeters away from me now, his eyes are looking into my own.

"Would you, princess? Then show me." Suddenly he does something, I would have never expected. He takes out his sword and puts it in my hands.

His own hands go behind his back, his eyes tempting me. I feel all the blood in my body drain.

"Do it. I can't live in a world, where you don't love me anymore. In which you are no longer by my side. I am yours. That will never change, just like my love for you."

I can barely hold the sword, it's so wobbly in my hands. He stands in front of me and gives me every chance to defeat him. But I can't move.

It's quiet for a moment, then I see new hope in his eyes and when he speaks again, the tone of his voice melts my heart.

"What did you say a few months ago, you would always let me win? Let's win together this time. Please, just listen to me." His hand strokes my cheek. Wipes away the tears.

Then he drops his hand and grasps his sword, letting it fall to the ground.

He takes my hand instead.

"Follow me." He pulls me behind him, closer and closer to the golden coffin, it's like I'm in a trance, but when I finally feel the cold aura of something cruel, I'm able to think clearly again.

"No-" I don't want to be one step closer to this thing.

He turns around so quickly, that I can only slap his cheek, before he grabs me again.

"That was for kidnapping me. Let me go now!" I want to avoid his grasp. But again he does something I don't expect.

He holds me still, catches my gaze and then, kisses me so gently that the feeling alone makes me almost completely defenseless. His hands cup my cheeks, grip my hair, hold my body.

This is probably his worst trick. I've never been able to resist one of his kisses. And he knows that. He uses it against me.

Then he murmurs words against my lips, that barely reach my ears.

My heart is pounding in my throat.

"You feel this? We belong together. It is not written anywhere on which side we need to be. As long as we are together." His fingers stroke my lower lip, his figure towers over me and for a moment my surroundings fade. It's almost like always.

But he's not wearing his orange t-shirt, his expression isn't relaxed, and I don't hear any insults from the camp members in the distance.

"You're manipulating me." I am powerless against him. I thought we were on the same team, that no one had more power over the other one. But I was so wrong.

His eyebrows furrow again, and when his hands try to pull me against him, I hit his chest, without thinking, with the only piece of glass I hid in my pocket. But unlike I expected, nothing happens. The shard bounces off his skin and falls loudly to the ground. I can only stare at him in disbelief.

"How-" He just looks at me worried, no anger is visible in his eyes.

"You can't hurt me. I have the curse of Achilles upon me." I suddenly become aware of the effect the lake Styx in the underworld hast and I almost fall to the ground at the realization, my knees weaken.

"That was a test earlier. You wanted to see if I would kill you-" my voice fails.

He just looks at me sadly and smiles in regret. My heart becomes heavy.

"And I knew you wouldn't hurt me on purpose. You would never hurt someone you love. Not if you'd kill me in the process." What can I do? He knows me better than anyone, he can see right through my every thought.

"I can't do this, Luke. I-I can't be together with you, if you are like this." I'm serious, but he doesn't believe me.

"That's what you think, but it's a lie. The sooner you admit it to yourself, the more pain you avoid. Our souls are linked together, without me you are not able to live. I know, that you will continue to love me, no matter what I decide to do. That's how much you love me. You would rather die than not loving me."

I can't listen to him. I can't.

But his eyes are like all the promises in the world. He is my world. How could I ever forget that?

"Please come back with me, Luke. I-I won't tell anyone, but please. Let's go, let's forget everything, please-" I cant deal with this anymore. It's like he's draining all the energy out of me. More with every word, that leaves his lips.

"I can not do that. It will stay the way it is now. Don't fight against me, fight with me. You are so smart and loyal, you will be convinced. He will show you." His eyes now flash with something that frightens me. I see his hunger for power, something that has always been dormant within him.

"Luke, the only thing I ever really wanted was you. No power, no war, no prosperity. Only you. But I'm about to lose you. Don´t do this to me, I beg you." My hands find his face, stroke the skin and I look into his eyes. But they are no longer the same ones I fell in love with.

I never thought he would love having power more than he loves me. It breaks my heart.

"I have decided. Nothing will change about that. Not even your pleadings. I'm sorry." His eyes reflect my desperation.

"What's holding you back? All you need is me." He says it so confident, that I almost wonder, why I don´t agree with him.

But my conscience has always been my greatest strength.

"I won't betray them. I couldn't live with myself, if I did." He takes a step back.

"But you could live without me? You would rather be by Jackson's side than mine?" His words hurt me. But he speaks the truth.

"I love you Luke, more than I ever thought was possible. But just as you put power before me, I put loyalty first. And I'm not sorry about that."

Frustration finally seeps through his perfect facade. I wonder how long he's been playing with me. The thought of it makes everything inside me tighten.

"I am not letting you go. Our fate is set. You will recognize it too and when that happens, you will be on my side."

His conviction frightens me, but this time it doesn't freeze me into a statue. Now, I'm running away.

And luckely, he didn't expect that.

For a few minutes now I've noticed one of the windows, that doesn't look very stable. I just have to jump against it to open it.

"NO!" Luke's voice echoes across the room, loud and warning, but it doesn't stop me. Before he can catch up with me, I jump towards the window, my shoulder hurts, but I was right, it breaks.

But I didn't think about the height difference and I realize it might be too late to do something about it now.

As I try to hold on to the wall outside, two thoughts repeat in my mind.

Either I die or I'm trapped.

Then I hear Luke's voice. He sounds desperate and at the same time angry, like I have never heard him before.

The wall is slippery and it takes every bit of strength in me not to fall, I know it would be my death. I hold on to the broken wall.

"She is outside. Get her back, NOW!" My muscles hurt and I don't know what to do. Then I hear the loud beating of wings. Before I can see who it is, I hear Percy's quiet voice. I feel like crying.

"Drop down, I've got you." I have to trust him. So, I let myself fall without thinking.

Then I feel myself landing on something soft, I hold on to it and my knuckles turn white.

The screams and shouts of the monsters make me tremble, I just want to get out of here. Even if it means, that I perhaps will never see Luke again.

"Come on, now. They'll be here soon." As the wings of the Pegasus move towards the sky, towards freedom, I let the tears fall. The wind is beating around my ears and I can only see in the corner of my eyes that we are getting closer to the clouds.

"I'll find you!"

Luke's threatening voice is the last thing I remember as I close my eyes from the grief of leaving him.

#percy jackon and the olympians #luke castellan #x reader #greek gods #love #betrayal #angst #percy pjo #percy series #annabeth chase #percy jackson

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thatlotuscookie · 2 months ago

Text

OFFICIAL THATLOTUSCOOKIE MASTERLIST

Organized alphabetically by fandom & title

ATTACK ON TITAN

- ✧ The Cost of Betrayal (Genre: NSFW, Dark, Angst)

Characters: Porco Galliard x Spy!Reader (Fem!Reader), Reiner, Colt Rating: E Summary: When you're caught spying by Porco, you're punished in the most degrading way in front of the other male warriors. Content Warnings: Dub-Con, Public Humiliation, Voyeurism, Power Play, Rough Sex, Non-Con Implied, Gangbang (Implied), Dominance, Submission, Punishment, Degradation, Betrayal Word Count: 2959 words // 16k chars

DEMON SLAYER

- ✧ Rest in His Arms (Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Fluff)

Characters: Tanjiro Kamado x Reader (Gender Neutral) Rating: T Summary: After a brutal battle, you find yourself severely injured and struggling to keep going. Tanjiro, ever protective, stays by your side, taking care of you despite his own exhaustion. Vulnerability may feel like weakness, but in Tanjiro's arms, it feels safe. Content Warnings: Injury, blood, emotional distress, caretaking, mention of exhaustion. WC: 943 words // 5.3k chars

DC ANIMATED UNIVERSE

- ✧ Morning After (Genre: Smut, Romance)

Characters: Inque x Male!Reader Rating: E Summary: The morning after, Inque can't help but want more of you. Content Warnings: Older woman/younger man, MILF, wet & messy, somnophilia, shrinking, deep penetration, morning wood, male and female orgasms, riding, piv, blowjobs, aftercare. MDNI: 18+ content, not suitable for minors. WC: 2387 words // 13.7 chars

EATERNAL NOCTURNAL

- ✧ Growing Pains (Genre: Fantasy, Introspection, Romance, Slight Hurt/Comfort)

Characters: Eve x N Rating: T Summary: Eve finds herself in a strange dream where she’s dressed as Pinocchio, and her insecurities begin manifesting in surreal ways. As she tries to grapple with her fears and self-doubt, she discovers just how burdensome her own lies to herself have become—until N steps in, offering the support she didn’t know she needed. Content/Tags: Dream sequences, self-doubt, magical realism, humor, comfort, light romance, introspection, character development WC: 1396 // 7.8k words

FAIRY TAIL

- ✧ Overprotective Flames (Genre: Fluff, Romance, Humor)

Characters: Natsu Dragneel x Fem!Reader Rating: T Summary: You asked Natsu to walk you to the guild hall, and what you got was an overprotective dragon slayer scaring everyone off. You didn't expect his actions to lead to a heartfelt confession, but maybe there’s more behind his behavior than you thought. ✧ Content/Tags: Overprotective Natsu, Fluff, Confession, Mutual Pining, Slight Embarrassment, Best Friends to Lovers, Guild Dynamics WC: 987 words // 5.5k chars

- ✧ Brandish's NSFW/Kinky Headcanons (Genre: NSFW, Headcanons)

Character: Brandish Myuu Genre: Smut, Fluff Rating: E Summary: Brandish's playful and dominant nature when it comes to her powers of size manipulation and how she uses them in intimate situations with her S/O (Male). From teasing and control to aftercare and possessiveness. Content Warnings: MDNI, Size manipulation, orgasm denial, overstimulation, public teasing, dirty talk, degrading praise, and power dynamics. MDNI: 18+ content, not suitable for minors.

HAIKYUU!!

- ✧ A Quiet Heart, A Loud Confession (Genre: Fluff, Romance)

Characters: Kuroo Tetsurou x Reader (Fem!Reader) Rating: T Summary: You’ve always admired Kuroo from afar, thinking someone like him would never look at someone like you. But little did you know, he’s been watching you too, waiting for the right moment to confess. Content/Tags: Fluff, Romance, Confession, Mutual Pining, Shy!Reader, Friends to Lovers, Teasing, Comfort WC: 1169 words // 6.4k chars

- ✧ A Heartfelt Delivery (Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Romance)

Characters: Yamaguchi Tadashi x Reader (Gender Neutral) Rating: T Summary: When a surprise package from Tadashi arrives, it’s filled with items so thoughtful and kind that it feels like he knew exactly how to ease the weight on your shoulders. Content/Tags: Comfort Items, Thoughtful Gestures, Emotional Support, Established Relationship, Reader in Stressful Situations, Tadashi Being an Angel :3 WC: 925 words // 5.1k chars

- ✧ Burger King of My Heart (Genre: Humor, Fluff, Established Relationship)

Characters: Kenma Kozume x Reader (Gender Neutral) Rating: G Summary: When you casually ask Kenma for Burger King, you never imagined he’d take it literally—and buy the entire franchise. Content/Tags: Kenma Being Kenma, Rich Boy Hijinks, Social Media Memes, Established Relationship, Reader in Disbelief, Humor with a Dash of Fluff WC: 713 words // 4.1k chars

- ✧ Finding Comfort (Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort)

Characters: Kōrai Hoshiumi x Bisexual!Reader, Pansexual!Reader (Gender Neutral) Rating: T Summary: After your parents discover your diary, you feel lost and alone, facing the threat of losing your college funds just for being yourself. When Hoshiumi shows up, he reminds you that you're not a mistake and that you'll get through this together. Content Warnings: LGTBQPhobia, parental rejection, anxiety, emotional distress WC: 667 words // 3.7k chars

- ✧ Haunting Grounds (Genre: Fluff, Humor, Romance)

Characters: Shōhei Fukunaga x Reader (Gender Neutral) Rating: T Summary: Self explanatory i guess? Y/N and their dark humor xd Content/Tags: Dark humor, light romance, banter, comfort, morbidish jokes, nothing terrible WC: 490 words // 2.6k chars

- ✧ Just Another Perfect Evening (Genre: Fluff, Romance)

Characters: Sugawara Koushi x Furry!Reader (Gender Neutral) Rating: G Summary: After a long practice, Sugawara meets you outside the gym, ready to relax with you. His warmth and genuine affection make you feel completely accepted, and the evening unfolds as an unspoken reminder that he sees you for who you are, quirks and all. Content/Tags: Furry!Reader, established relationship, wholesome acceptance, soft romance, casual affection, Suga being a sweetheart, light blushing, tender words, slice-of-life vibes WC: 672 words // 3.7k chars

- ✧ Run Away With Me (Genre: Fluff, Romance, Slice of Life)

Characters: Semi Eita x Reader (Gender Neutral) Rating: T Summary: Overwhelmed by the noise of life, you dream of running away. When you finally confess your desire for a simpler existence, Semi surprises you by sharing the same wish. Together, you start building a new life, one where love and nature are all you need. Content/Tags: Comfort, Cottagecore Aesthetic, Established Relationship, Found Peace, Dreams of Simplicity, Domestic Bliss WC: 1554 words // 8.6 chars

- ✧ Serenity (Genre: Fluff, Romance)

Characters: Yamaguchi Tadashi x Reader (Gender Neutral) Rating: G Summary: Yamaguchi overhears you singing and is unexpectedly captivated by it. Caught off guard, he can’t help but feel closer to you, hoping to hear it again sometime—if you'll let him in. Content/Tags: Overhearing, shy confession,mutual pining, established friendship, Yamaguchi appreciation, reader who sings, light blushing, emotional i suppose :3 WC: 294 words // 1.6k words

- ✧ Lost in a Spell (Genre: Angst, Fluff, Hurt.Comfort)

Characters: Aran Ojiro x Fem!Reader Rating: T Summary: A night of fun at a magic show takes a turn when the magician accidentally hypnotizes you into forgetting who Aran is. Now, with the person he loves not recognizing him, Aran faces the challenge of helping you remember the memories you shared. Content Warnings: Hypnosis, Amnesia, Emotional Angst, Soft!Aran, Hurt/Comfort, Memory Loss, Relationship Struggles, Fluff Ending WC: 1133 words // 6.3k chars

- ✧ Paintbrushes and Equations (Genre: Fluff, Romance, Slice of Life)

Characters: Math!TeacherTsukishima Kei x Art Teacher!Reader, Fem!Reader Rating: G Summary: Mr. Tsukishima Kei, the strict math teacher known for his tough assignments, and Ms. Y/N, the quirky art teacher adored by students, try to keep their budding relationship under wraps. But between secret coffee runs and after-school visits, it doesn’t take long for their students to catch on. Content/Tags: Secret Relationship, Soft Tsukishima, Teacher AU, Slow-burn Romance, Fluff and Humor WC: 1126 words // 6.8k chars

- ✧ Turning the Day Around (Genre: Fluff, Comfort)

Characters: Oikawa Tooru x Reader (Gender Neutral) Rating: G Summary: After a rough day, Y/N feels down until Oikawa shows up, ready to lighten the mood with his charm and humor. He offers his undying love, a heartfelt song, and a promise of ice cream. Content/Tags: Comfort, Friendship, Light Humor WC: 267 words // 1.4k chars

- ✧ The Gifts You Give (Genre: Fluff, Romance)

Characters: Oikawa Tooru x Fem!Reader Summary: Oikawa is used to being adored by fans, but it’s the small, thoughtful gifts from his girlfriend that make his heart skip a beat. Each token, whether it’s a wildflower or a shiny pebble, carries the love she has for him in the simplest, most meaningful ways. Content/Tags: Head Over Heels Oikawa, Fluff, Love Confessions, Gift-Giving, Relationship Development, Y/N and Oikawa ROMANCE!! WC: 984 words // 5.5k chars

- ✧ You Should've Come to Shiratorizawa (Genre: Fluff, Humor, Crackhead Y/N)

Characters: Oikawa Tooru x Reader (Gender Neutral), Ushijima Wakatoshi Rating: G Summary: I think it speaks for itself? LOL. just a short thing Content/Tags: Fluff, Humor, Light-Hearted Rivalry WC: 166 words // 1002 chars

THE INCREDIBLES

- ✧ Elastic Love (Genre: Fluff, Romance, Smut)

Characters: Helen Parr (Elastigirl) x Male!Reader Rating: SFW: T | NSFW: M/Explicit Format: Headcanons Summary: Helen Parr is a woman of many talents. She knows exactly how to love and tease you, both inside and outside of the bedroom. From her nurturing maternal instincts to her daring and dominant nature, she keeps you on your toes and utterly smitten. Content Warnings: Fluff, Comfort, Playful Teasing, Maternal Instincts, Domestic Vibes, Dirty Talk, Power Play, Degradation & Praise, Public Teasing, Overstimulation, Biting/Marking, Exhibitionism, Use of Powers in NSFW Scenarios, Creative Use of Toys

JUJUTSU KAISEN

- ✧ Shattered Pride (Genre: Dark, Revenge, NSFW)

Characters: Naoya Zenin x Fem!Reader Rating: E Summary: After framing Naoya to make his clan think he was gay, Naoya seeks revenge—finding you and proving, in his own cruel way, just how wrong your assumption was. Content Warnings: Noncon, virgin reader, homophobia (from his clan), rough sex, breeding kink, slight choking, degrading, humiliation, revenge sex, slight mentions of boot camp MDNI: 18+ content, not suitable for minors WC: 1401 words // 7.9k char

KING OF FIGHTERS

- ✧ Shadows of Desire (Genre: Smut, Romance)

Characters: Mai-Li x Male!Reader Genre: Smut, Romance Rating: E Summary: In the dojo, the heat between you and Mai-Li reaches a boiling point, transforming the session into something else entirely. Content Warnings: Kissing, MDNI, Biting, Hickeys, Oral sex (Mai receiving), Large breasts, Titfuck, Cum on tits, Thick thighs, Thigh worship, Thighjob (reader receiving), Rough sex, Creampie, Aftercare MDNI: 18+ content, not suitable for minors. WC: 1781 words // 10k chars

MY HERO ACADEMIA

- ✧ A Safe Haven (Genre: Angst, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort)

Characters: Dabi x Fem!Reader Rating: T Summary: You’ve been carrying the weight of your toxic home life for far too long, never telling anyone about the struggles you face. Not even Dabi, despite how close you’ve grown. After a particularly rough day, you head to the hideout, emotionally drained. Dabi notices something is off and decides to take care of you. In his own way, he shows you that you don’t have to handle everything alone. Content Warnings: Toxic household, Emotional exhaustion, Mentions of mental health struggles, Heavy themes, Comfort, Slight language. WC: 1116 words // 6.1k chars

- ✧ Awhile (Genre: Romance, Fluff, Slight Angst)

Characters: Spinner (Shuichi Iguchi) x Fem!Reader Rating: T Summary: After a tough mission, Spinner finds himself caring for you, finally revealing his feelings that have been bottled up for too long. As he confesses, an unexpected kiss sparks a moment of warmth and understanding between the two of you Content Warnings: Mild injury, soft angst, fluff, confession, light kiss WC: 825 words // 4.6k chars

- ✧ A Night to Remember (Genre: Romance, Humor, Fluff)

Characters: Katsuki Bakugo x Burlesque!Reader, Fem!Reader Rating: T Summary: After a mission leads him to a burlesque club, pro hero Bakugo finds himself enchanted by the captivating performer, you. Content/Tags: Burlesque!Reader, Bakugo crushing hard, Soft!Bakugo, Love at first sight lol WC: 733 words // 4291 chars

- ✧ A Home for the Wounded (Genre: Romance, Drama, Slight Angst)

Characters: Dabi x Fem!Reader Rating: T Summary: You’re just a regular civilian with a healing quirk that can only heal bleeding wounds. One day, you find Dabi unconscious after a mission gone wrong. Content Warnings/Tags: Depictions of injury, Discussions of mental health, Dabi x Reader, Healing Quirk, Vulnerability, Slow Burn, Emotional Growth, Domestic Fluff, Comfort WC: 3120 words // 17k chars

- ✧ Because Of You (Genre: Angst, Romance, Hurt/Comfort)

Characters: Dabi x Reader (Fem!Reader) Rating: M Summary: Often hiding your mental struggles behind a facade of humor, you reach your limit and seek solace in Dabi. Content Warnings: Mental health struggles, Emotional Abuse, Self-Harm Ideation, Strong Language, Themes of Depression/Suicide, Dark Humor WC: 2765 words // 15k char

- ✧ Between Loyalty and Love (Genre: Angst, Romance, Spy)

Chracters: Hawks (Keigo Takami) x Reader (Fem!Reader, Spy!Reader) Rating: T Summary: While working undercover for the League of Villains, you find yourself developing feelings for Hawks. As the line between your growing affection and your mission blurs; you face a heart-wrenching decision: betray the trust of the man you’ve come to care for, or protect him at all costs. Content Warnings: Angst, Betrayal, Emotional turmoil, Spy themes, Mentions of espionage WC: 1647 words // 9.1k chars

- ✧ Breakfast for the Heart (Genre: Fluff, Comfort)

Characters: Dabi x Fem!Reader Rating: G Summary: After a tough mission leaves you feeling emotionally drained, you retreat to your room to recover. Noticing your distress, Dabi takes it upon himself to cheer you up by making breakfast, despite his lack of cooking skills. Content/Tags: Soft!Dabi, Emotional Support, Breakfast, Comfort, Dabi panicking slightly (he wants to impress you so bad), DABI DETERMINATION ASWELL :p WC: 1040 words // 5.7k chars

- ✧ Behind the Walls (Genre: Angst, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort)

Characters: Dabi x Fem!Reader Rating: T Summary: After a rough mission, Dabi’s constant criticism has you questioning your worth within the League. When a migraine and fever take you down, Dabi finds himself reluctantly stepping in, his unexpected gentleness hinting at feelings he’s tried to hide for so long. Content Warnings: Emotional Hurt, Illness/Injury Care, Soft Dabi Moments, Mild Swearing, Vulnerability, Dabi being a dickhead xd WC: 2162 words // 12k chars

- ✧ Cuddles and Ponytails (Genre: Fluff, Romance)

Characters: Dabi x Reader (Gender Neutral) Rating: T Summary: After a long, exhausting mission, you and Dabi return to your shared hideout. You both find comfort in each other, reminding yourselves that even in the chaos of your world, it’s the small moments that truly matter. Content/Tags: Fluff, Cuddling, Forehead Kisses, Playful, Domestic, Soft Dabi, Hair Tying, Soft!Dabi WC: 915 words // 5.1k chars

- ✧ Drunken Confessions (Genre: Romance, Fluff, Comedy, Slight Angst)

Characters: Dabi x Fem!Reader Rating: T Summary: One night after a mission, a tipsy Dabi starts acting surprisingly childish around you. Pouty, picky, and a little loose-lipped, he begins to spill his secrets, including his hidden crush on you and a surprising confession about his family. Content Warnings: Mentions of alcohol, drinking, fluff, confession, humor, slight angst WC: 2349 words // 13k chars

- ✧ Electric Comfort (Genre: Light Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Light Romance, Slice of Life)

Characters: Denki Kaminari x Reader (Gender Neutral) Rating: T Summary: The library is eerily quiet as you grapple with anxiety over upcoming exams. Just when the pressure feels overwhelming, Denki steps in, offering support. Content Warnings: Anxiety, anxiety triggers, emotional support, study session, school life, comfort, light romance (denki is crushing on you), panic attacks, self-doubt, peer pressure. WC: 1414 words // 8.1k chars

- ✧ Fragile (Genre: Angst, Romance)

Characters: Bakugo Katsuki x Reader (Gender Neutral) Rating: T Summary: A mission goes wrong, and you’re severely injured. Bakugo’s reaction exposes feelings he’s kept hidden. Content Warnings: Injury, blood, mild language, emotional distress WC: 1008 words // 5.6k chars

- ✧ Fevered Affection (Genre: Fluff, Hurt/Comfort)

Characters: Dabi x Reader (Gender Neutral) Rating: T Summary: Dabi isn’t one to show weakness, but a nasty fever leaves him vulnerable and in desperate need of comfort. You’re there to care for him, and as his defenses drop, he reveals a softer side that he rarely lets anyone see. Content/Tags: Sickness, Vulnerability, Light Teasing, Soft Dabi, Sick!Dabi WC: 805 words // 4.5k chars

- ✧ Gentle Comfort (Genre: Slight Angst, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort)

Characters: Dabi x Fem!Reader Rating: T Summary: You’re on your period and feeling like absolute crap, but Dabi always knows how to help. With a heating pad, plushies, chocolates- and cuddles, your boyfriend always knows how to make your pain a bit more bearable. Content/Tags: Period Pain, Comfort, Fluff, Thoughtful Dabi, Soft!Dabi, we LOVE a caring king, Established Relationship, Physical Pain (CRAMPS), Emotional Vulnerability WC: 895 words // 4.9k chars

- ✧ Home is With You (Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Angst - Fluff)

Characters: Dabi x Fem!Reader Rating: T Summary: In the darkness of the night, Dabi battles the ghosts of his past while you offer him the comfort he struggles to accept. Content Warnings: Nightmares, Emotional Distress, Mentions of a Toxic/Abusive Household, Vulnerability, Tears WC: 1594 words // 8.6k chars

- ✧ Haunted Mansion Shenanigans (Genre: Halloween, Fluff, Humor)

Characters: Shigaraki, Dabi, Kurogiri, Toga, Reader (Gender Neutral), theres also a bit of Dabi x Reader loll i got carried away w my fav villain udwoq Rating: T Summary: It's Halloween season, and your family's old mansion becomes the perfect backdrop for a gathering of the League of Villains. Content Warnings: None really, ig Horror elements?? LMAO. Language WC: 3007 words // 17k chars

- ✧ Here With Me (Genre: Angst, Romance)

Characters: Dabi x Fem!Reader Rating: T Summary: As Dabi prepares to leave for the final battle, time slips away, leaving him with so many things left unsaid. He won't have the chance to tell you how much he loves you or how badly he wishes things were different. The engagement ring hidden in his pocket feels heavier than ever. Content Warnings/Tags: Themes of violence, emotional turmoil, intense conversations about past trauma, and the potential for character death, angst and more angst, SPOILERS. Dabi has an engagement ring for reader (im balling my eyes out) WC: 2057 words // 11k chars

- ✧ Hidden Flames (Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Fluff)

Characters: Dabi x Reader (Gender Neutral) Rating: T Summary: After a mission leaves Dabi battered and exhausted, he retreats to his room to nurse his wounds alone. When you show up, intent on caring for him, he’s reluctant at first. But as you treat his injuries, kissing his scars and reminding him that he doesn’t have to face everything alone, Dabi realizes just how much he values your presence. Content/Tags: Injuries, Vulnerability, Comfort, Mutual Pining, Scar Kisses, Established Crush, Soft Dabi, Hurt/Comfort WC: 1365 words // 7.4k

- ✧ Mornings With You (Genre: Fluff, Romance)

Characters: Dabi x Fem!Reader Rating: T Summary: A rare lazy morning with Dabi, where the world outside doesn't exist, and it's just the two of you, wrapped up in each other. Content/Tags: Fluff, Domestic Comfort, Lazy Morning, Clingy Dabi, Soft Moments, Possessive Dabi, Soft!Dabi WC: 892 words // 4.9k chars

- ✧ Morning Bliss (Genre: Fluff, Romance)

Characters: Spinner (Shuichi Iguchi) x Fem!Reader Rating: T Summary: Wrapped in the warmth of a cozy morning, you’re hesitant to leave the comfort of your bed—especially with Spinner holding you close, his arms wrapping around you like a personal blanket. As you snuggle in, the two of you agree: the outside world can wait. Content/Tags: Cuddling :3, Spinner being a teddy bear, cozy shizzle n being lazy together<3 WC: 838 words // 4.7k chars

- ✧ Midnight Comfort (Genre: Fluff, Family, Comfort)

Characters: Aizawa Shota x Present Mic (Hizashi Yamada), Eri Rating: G Summary: The night is quiet as Aizawa drifts into a deep sleep, but a small hand tugging on his sleeve pulls him awake. Eri, flushed with fever and feeling unwell, has come to him for comfort. Joined by Present Mic, the two heroes do all they can to soothe her fears and ease her discomfort. Content/Tags: Sick!Eri, gentle comfort, established family dynamics, Aizawa and Present Mic caring for Eri. WC: 554 words // 3.1k chars

- ✧ Mrs. Todoroki in the Making (Genre: Fluff, Humor, Romance)

Characters: Dabi x Fem!Reader Rating: T Summary: After a mission, you, being drunk, call Dabi to take you home, only to spill some wild confessions about him being a Todoroki and claiming you'll be "Mrs. Todoroki" one day. Content/Tags: Fluff, Humor, Confessions, Drunk Confession, Dabi Teasing, Light Angst, Embarrassment, Established Relationship WC: 1200 words // 6.7k chars

- ✧ Ponytails of Comfort (Genre: Fluff, Comfort, Slight Angst)

Characters: Dabi x Fem!Reader Rating: T Summary: After a draining mission, you come home feeling defeated. Dabi notices your mood and offers a lighthearted way to help you unwind by letting you style his hair- again. Content/Tags: Soft!Dabi, Emotional Support, Fluff, Hair Styling, HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPSS WC: 1094 words // 6.2k chars

- ✧ Pain Killers (Genre: Fluff, Romance, Hurt/Comfort, Slight Angst)

Characters: Dabi x Fem!Reader Rating: T Summary: You’re curled up in bed with a splitting headache, the pain nearly unbearable—until Dabi slips into the room and wraps you in his arms. His gentle touch and quiet humming help you find peace, and as you drift off, you realize there’s no place safer than here with him. Content/Tags: Soft!Dabi, Dabi humming a lullaby LMAO, comfort, cuddling, fluff, soft mementoossss, kissy kissing WC: 1144 words // 6.3k chars

- ✧ Stardust & Dynamite (Genre: Fluff, Romance, Slightly Suggestive)

Characters: Pro Hero Bakugo Katsuki x Popstar Reader (Fem!Reader) Rating: T Summary: On the final night of your Short N’ Sweet tour, you dedicate your most famous song, “Juno,” to the person who holds your heart—Pro Hero Bakugo, your fiancé. As the lyrics hint at a future together, Bakugo’s reaction is... heated. Content Warnings: Public performance, slight suggestiveness, mention of starting a family, fame/spotlight, spicy lyrics WC: 1128 words // 6.3k chars

- ✧ Shattered Glass (Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Fluff)

Characters: Dabi x Fem!Reader Rating: T Summary: Dabi's need to provoke you backfires when you leave in anger, leading to a kidnapping that leaves you fighting for survival. But sometimes, in the darkest moments, the light can find its way back. Content Warnings: Kidnapping, Serious Injuries, Panic Attacks, Emotional Vulnerability, Dabi making the reader jealous on purpose. WC: 4989 words // 28k chars

- ✧ Silent Embrace (Genre: Romance, Comfort, Slight Angst, Fluff)

Characters: Dabi x Reader (Gender Neutral) Rating: T Summary: Dabi isn’t one for words, but when he finds himself wrapped around you in the quiet, there’s no need for them. He lets his guard down, revealing the warmth he usually hides. Content/Tags: Fluff, Light Angst, Cuddling, Established Relationship WC: 1002 words // 5.6k characters

- ✧ The Place Where I Belong (Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Fluff)

Characters: Todoroki Shoto x Fem!Reader Rating: T Summary: Todoroki’s nightmares haunt him in the middle of the night, and only you can help him find peace. Content Warnings: Panic attack, mentions of childhood trauma, brief mention of Endeavor (father/abuse-related trauma). WC: 923 // 5.1k chars

- ✧ Tiny Flames (Genre: Romance, Action, Comedy)

Characters: Chibi!Dabi x Fem!Reader) Rating: T Summary: You’ve made a name for yourself as a feared solo villain. As your eighteenth birthday arrives, you eagerly await the appearance of your soulmate's chibi form. But when midnight strikes without any sign, you resign yourself to the belief that perhaps soulmates are just a myth. However, after a particularly exhausting mission, a sudden flash of light brings Chibi Dabi into your life. Content Warnings: Minor language?, themes of villainy WC: 1612 words // 9.4k chars

- ✧ Todoroki Shoto's Perfect Date (Genre: Fluff, Romance, Headcanons)

Character: Todoroki Shoto Rating: G Summary: Todoroki Shoto's idea of a perfect date is something simple yet meaningful, filled with quiet moments and subtle affection that show just how much he values being with you. Content Warnings: None

- ✧ The Luckiest (Genre: Fluff, Romance)

Characters: Shigaraki Tomura x Fem!Reader Rating: T Summary: Shigaraki doesn't understand how you ended up with him, not like he's complaining. He's the luckiest man alive. Content/Tags: Fluff, Light Angst, Emotional Vulnerability, Domestic Moments, Soft!Shigaraki WC: 1245 words // 6.9k chars

- ✧ Unspoken Affection (Genre: Romance, Fluff, Comedy, Slight Angst)

Characters: Dabi x Fem!Reader Rating: T Summary: Dabi has never understood love, but when you’re around, something deep inside him stirs, and he can't figure it out-- Until you watch a movie together. Content/Tags: Fluff, League of Villains, Movie Marathon, Cuddling, Sleepy!Dabi, Shy!Dabi, Confused!Dabi WC: 725 words // 4.1k chars

- ✧ Worn Down (Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Fluff)

Characters: Dabi x Fem!Reader Rating: T Summary: After a grueling mission, Dabi returns exhausted, and you offer him the comfort and care he rarely accepts. Content Warnings: Mild mentions of exhaustion, caretaking WC: 784 words // 4307 chars

SAMURAI JACK

- ✧ Chastity's Challenge (Genre: Humor, NSFW, Spice)

Characters: Samurai Jack x Reader (Gender Neutral) Rating: M Summary: Jack, ever the disciplined warrior, finds himself tempted in a unique way during a visit to a sex shop. The owner (you) entices him to explore his self-control by trying on a chastity cage, leading to a series of humorous escapades as he navigates public nudity and the unexpected challenges that come with it. Content Warnings: Public nudity, chastity, humor, lighthearted embarrassment, sexual situations, playful power dynamics. MDNI: 18+ content, not suitable for minors. WC: 2455 words // 14k chars

STREET FIGHTER

- ✧ Shadows of Desire (Genre: Smut, Romance)

TOKYO REVENGERS

- ✧ The Weight Of Everything (Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Romance)

Characters: Mikey (Manjiro Sano) x Reader (Fem!Reader) Rating: T Summary: Mikey carries burdens that no one else can truly understand. On days when everything feels like it’s falling apart, your presence becomes his only source of calm. But when Mikey realizes just how much you mean to him, he's left wondering if there's a chance for something more. Content/Tags: Emotional vulnerability, Mentions of stress/burnout, Angst, Slow Burn, Vulnerability, Pining, Emotional Support, Confession WC: 1323 words // 7470 chars

Coming Soon!

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Additional Info

Updated regularly!

You can read the Request Guidelines here

Requests always welcome! Just send them through my ask box :)

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safarigirlsp · 4 months ago

Text

The Museum Beast

Historian Nicholas Mills x OC

Word Count: 13.8k

Warnings: NSFW. Smut. Horror. Lots of Violence. Gore. Chasing. Monster Action. This is heavily inspired by one of my favorite novels, Relic. If you like any of this, I highly encourage you to read it!

I’m willing to continue this and write more if people like it!

Note: Going forward, I'm going to write characters from now on instead of Readers just because it's really annoying trying to switch back and forth for the non-fic writing I do. However, the female characters will be totally physically vague aside from having a name, so they can still easily be read as an insert by anyone who chooses to insert themselves.

Based on two requests I combined then butchered from @iamburdened and @queeniebee

AO3 Link

Two of the world’s tallest free-standing dinosaurs were frozen mid-battle in the Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda on the second floor of the New York Museum of Natural History. In dramatic repose, a Barosaurus reared to protect its young from an attacking Allosaurus. The skeletal titans made the browsing museum patrons look like ants milling at their feet. Alice was never unable to walk past the dinosaurs without craning her neck upward to admire their towering presence. The great saurians were much more interesting to focus on than the throng of chattering primates that inhabited the museum during business hours. Walking through the past with her heels echoing on tile hallways that stretched the length of city blocks, she allowed herself to be distracted by the jungle of extinct species giving life to their dioramas. From the tiny, feathered dinosaur skeleton displayed in a dramatically lit shadow box to the gigantic open jaws of a megalodon framing the entrance to an adjoining hallway, there was always something interesting that caught her eye.

If she walked briskly it was a decent cardio session to make her way to the North American section of the museum. A special exhibit had just opened, an exhibition on the American Old West. It had all the good stuff. Cowboys, gunslingers, train robbers, mountain men, and miners. The exhibit was livelier curated than most, or maybe the subject simply lent itself to action and movement. Standing guard on either side of the entrance were the wax likenesses of Buffalo Bill, wearing his original buckskin outfit, bedazzled with fringe and conchos, and Sitting Bull, dressed in a magnificent headdress boasting a rainbow of colors in its plumage. In one corner was a round table of wax men dressed in full regalia, engaged in a heated poker game. A man with luxurious curly hair sat with his back facing the audience, displaying his hand of aces and eights, the famous Dead Man’s Hand, held by ‘Wild’ Bill Hickock when he was gunned down. The mural painted in the corner Hickock faced even showed the characteristic swinging doors of a saloon, being pushed open by a man with a gun in his hand and murder in his eyes. In another corner ‘Hanging’ Judge Parker sat at his desk, writing in his ledger, backlit by a mural of a man swinging from the gallows outside his office window.

Alice was delighted to see some of the famous men of the old west depicted in less obvious settings than gunfights. These exploits were detailed in paintings that supplemented the exhibits and dozens of informative plaques, but many characters were shown in niche exposes that spoke to the true enthusiasts among the visitors.

The most famous lawman of all, Wyatt Earp, was depicted indulging in his guilty pleasure of gambling with his notoriously beautiful actress wife playing right alongside him as she smoked a cigar. Instead of being shown in his best-known role as Wyatt Earp’s right hand in the infamous Tombstone events, Doc Holliday was portrayed as a suave gentleman, dressed in a fancy brocade vest and cravat, focused on the smiling attentions of his consort, Big-Nosed Kate. The deadliest outlaw of all and likely psychopath John Wesley Hardin was shown lounging on a dirty bunk inside a jail cell. He was intently focused on a large law book. After serving his time, he turned from gunfighting to the practice of law. The plaque detailing his exploits explained tongue-in-cheek that he had traded the illegal form of lawlessness for the legal alternative.

Ample attention was also given to women of note. From saloon owners to cut-throat madams, women’s stories were interspersed with the male narrative. There was of course a display devoted to Calamity Jane, dressed as a man and just as dangerous. Prominently featured was the lesser known but equally successful outlaw Belle Starr, shown wearing a pretty red dress while brandishing a six-gun astride her huge, coal-black horse, Venus. The most famous woman of all, and arguably one of the most iconic figures of the Old West, Annie Oakley, was given a full diorama of her own. A wax figure depicted the pint-sized sharpshooter holding a rifle as she aimed for the cigarette held between her husband’s lips.

An armory worth of firearms from the period were on display. From iconic Colt .45 revolvers and Winchester 30-30 lever action rifles to unique pieces like tiny six-barreled pepper-box derringers and huge Sharps rifles, there were enough firearms to lay siege to a small country. It was befitting for the period, when a man’s gun and his horse were the best friends he could ever have. Without either, a man’s lifespan would likely be reduced to weeks or even days.

The exhibition hall was spacious, even with a veritable herd of visitors milling through it like buffalo on the plains. School children raced through the halls and between dioramas as unchecked as packs of coyotes, while their teachers and handlers tried in vain to wrangle them under control. It was afternoon and most groups were on their final turn around the exhibits before leaving. A few pairs of surly teenagers lingered on the sidelines, looking like they were trying to find a place to whip out a cigarette to enhance their cool, and probably having escaped their own class trip from some other section of the vast museum. Despite the chaos the minors instigated, snippets of intelligent conversation also fluttered around the room.

In an attempt to avoid the class field trips, Alice moved to an adjacent room inside the sprawling exhibit. This spacious room was devoted to art of and from the period, Native American weavings and pottery, animated bronze sculptures, and vibrant oil paintings. The more sedate nature of the art exhibits appealed to a more sedate crowd, unable to hold the interest of children and teenagers. The only other people in the art room were an elderly couple, a group of three college-age people who looked like modern beatniks, and one impressively built man standing off to one side, studying the plaque of a detailed mural-size painting.

Alice couldn’t help but appraise the man discreetly as he stood quartering away from her. He was tall and broad, his robust physique apparent through his flannel shirt and jeans. Even from her angle, she could tell his features were strong and masculine. Dark hair curled around his collar and his strong stubble-covered jaw flexed as he read, his bright eyes darting quickly over the text. She wondered briefly about approaching him – men that attractive were rare to find out in the wild – but it struck her as ridiculous to approach the man like she was in a bar and ask him if he came here often. Rolling her eyes inwardly at herself, she turned her attention toward the opposite wall and a painting of a painfully skinny man riding an equally emaciated white horse on a moonlight night.

It was rewarding when out of the corner of her eye she saw the man turn and pause just to look at her. The man glanced toward the doorway leading back into the main exhibit then back at her, seeming to decide whether or not he too wanted to risk making an ass of himself with a clumsy come-on in an art exhibit. Alice fought to hide her smile when he made his decision in her favor.

The handsome man sidled up to her, his approach practiced and laissez-faire. His shoulders were squared and his stride confident, but he angled across the exhibit hall from the side, his eyes fixed on the oil paintings instead of his prize, like a lion casually strolling by a gazelle to gauge distance before an attack. There was an impulse to turn to him with an accusatorily arched eyebrow to show she was onto him. But he was attractive enough to give him the benefit of the doubt. Being pursued added a certain spice to the air, after all. With his large hands in his pockets and his posture confident but relaxed, he dripped with top notes of James Dean and undertones of Clint Eastwood.

“Frederick Remington,” the man read the artist’s name when he stopped beside her. He was a full head taller and his voice was deep and a little gravely, barely tinged with a Western drawl. “I think my dad has one of his 30.06 rifles.”

Alice hoped he was teasing, that there were a few active brain cells sparking inside that pretty head. The hint of a smirk twisting the man’s lips confirmed it. Keeping her face deadpan, she played along. “Yeah? These artists must have been starving during their lifetimes, being forced to branch out like that. I hear the guy behind Winchester Arms was really into weird avant garde architecture, too.”

The man grinned and turned to face her, fixing her with a pair of bright eyes the color of whiskey. “I think that was his wife. Leave it to a woman to spend a man’s hard-earned gun money on a house in the California hills, complete with staircases leading to ceilings and dead ends. Think she had a Remington on the walls?”

“I don’t know if Sarah Winchester was a fan of Frederick Remington, but I bet there were a few works by Eliphalet Remington somewhere inside,” Alice teased.

“I’m impressed,” the man laughed. “I couldn’t have pulled that name out of thin air.”

“I bet now you’re wondering if I’m a gun nut or just a history buff. A woman should keep an air of mystery about her.” She smiled and looked at him squarely. She decided he looked at home in the Old West exhibit, exuding a ruggedly masculine quality that was all too rare in modern society. He had a face that belonged on the streets of Dodge City, those crisp hooded eyes staring down the barrel of a Colt .45. She realized she had been staring into those eyes for a rudely long moment, and continued talking to smooth over that faux pas, “I never cared much for Remington’s paintings. They’re drab and all the subjects are in painfully sorry condition – horses and men alike.” She pointed to an incredible scene of two cowboys roping a grizzly bear, their movements frozen on canvas mid-stride, mid-lasso, and mid-snarl, painted with confident strokes in a vibrant palette. “Charlie Russell is my favorite. You can’t beat the color and the action in his paintings.”

“I wonder if that’s worse than having a tiger by the tail,” he pondered, pointing at the lassoed grizzly, snarling and swiping at the horse and rider. “What would your boyfriend say?”

“That position is currently vacant. What a brash way to inquire.” She smiled and nodded back at the snarling grizzly. “I’m sure three out of four ex-boyfriends would say they’d take their chances with the bear.”

“It’d take more than a bear or a tiger to scare me away from such a pretty face,” he teased, using those impressive eyes as tactically as a gun. “I never did have much instinct for self-preservation. Plenty of brash though, and other things synonymous.”

She laughed genuinely. “You’ve covered art, guns, tigers, and balls in three minutes flat. That’s quite an icebreaker without even introducing yourself. What else should I know?”

“Nicholas Mills.” He grinned handsomely and extended his hand, it was callused and powerful and large, easily swallowing hers in his warm grip. “I’m here consulting on this exhibition, on loan from the Old West Museum in Cheyanne.”

“Alice,” she returned, giving his hand a firm shake. “You’re a historian?” Her tone was skeptical as she pointedly eyed his flannel shirt and jeans. “Is tweed out of vogue for you types these days?”

“In the west it’s all denim and cotton.” He popped the collar of his shirt. “Linen if you want to be pretentious. Dust sticks to tweed like hell, not to mention burs.”

“What about your ten-gallon hat and dinnerplate-sized belt buckle?” The question gave her a convenient excuse to gauge the way he filled out his jeans. He wasn’t a man who skipped leg day.

“Those are only fashion accessories in Texas. Maybe Santa Fe. Where I’m from, if you’re wearing a cowboy hat, it better have a sweat ring around the headband, and if you’re wearing a belt buckle, it better be tarnished. Those are work accessories for working ranch hands, not fashion statements.” He let his eyes travel the curves of her figure under the guise of admiring her outfit of jeans and a blazer. “I suppose those duds work equally well for business or pleasure in most fields.” He smirked, but moved on before she could wonder at the double entendre. “Do I get a last name or just Alice?”

Smiling coyly, Alice replied, “I’ll give you a hint and see how well you know your stuff. It’s the name of one of my favorite songs and of a color that looks terrible on me, and I share it with a gunfighter who I’m sad to see isn’t featured in your exhibit. He had one of the best names in the business. That’s three hints, actually. So, are you posing as a historian to hit on unsuspecting women, or the real deal?”

“I’m not up on music and I can’t imagine there’s a color that could make you look terrible,” Nick frowned and pursed his lips. “I know of a couple of noteworthy Browns and even a Dunn, but their names don’t have any special ring to them. If I was a betting man, I’d put my dollar on ‘Texas’ Jack Vermillion. Alice Vermillion?”

“If you were betting, you’d have hit the jackpot,” Alice said with a genuine smile. “A man who knows Texas Jack and Charlie Russell. I’m not yet impressed, but I am intrigued.”

“If this goes the direction I’m hoping, I may yet hit that jackpot and you’ll be very impressed.” He didn’t give her the chance to address that sentiment before changing the subject. He cocked his head toward another painting depicting a man and woman seated side by side beneath an upside down canoe propped above them, taking shelter from a torrent of rain in a thick forest. Despite the weather, the couple was engaged in smiling conversation. “I’m a Goodwin man, myself. But I’m biased. Every time I look at his paintings of cowboys packing up in Alaska or canoeing in the Great North, adventurous couples fishing and hunting together, I get nostalgia for a place I’ve never been.” He smiled to himself. “Someday.”

“Isn’t New York about as far away as a man can get from canoeing up in the Great North and fighting grizzlies over your catch of the day?” she teased. “Not much chance of facing down a maneater on the mean streets of NYC. Although, I hear these days you’re more likely to get bitten by a New Yorker than a shark.”

“You must not know about the Museum Beast.” He flashed a grin that was lopsided and full of mischief.

Alice cocked a skeptical eyebrow. “It’s a little early in the day for ghost stories. Shouldn’t you invite me someplace nicer before you start trying to rattle the delicate woman into wanting to cling to your big, strong arm?”

“I’m appalled you think I’m that easy, miss.” He flexed one of those big, strong arms in question in the sluttiest possible way. “It’s no campfire ghost story. The folks who work here believe it. They say there’s a huge beast living in the basement, roaming the halls at night.” Holding up his hands, he hummed the Twilight Zone theme. “They say it preys on researchers who embezzle grant money and curators who hit on their secretaries.”

Alice laughed, maybe snorted a little, decidedly unladylike. “So, you’re saying I’m safe then?”

“I’ll keep you safe,” he teased with faux gravity. “Just stick close to me.”

“That sounds like a pretty firm offer to help with some research to me.” She put her hands on her hips in a playful challenge.

“Would it be smart of you to trust the research skills of a man who’s not wearing a tweed jacket?” He grinned. “What kind of research? Are you a student?”

“God no!” she laughed. “I haven’t been a student in over a decade. I’m something much worse.”

Nick raised his eyebrows, inquiring.

“I’m a defense lawyer, trying desperately to find an angle to show my very guilty client has a mitigating defense.” She mirrored his expression, raising her eyebrows. “You want the facts? They’re not for the squeamish. You don’t have a full stomach, do you?”

“A pretty face with a shady job and an iron stomach to boot?” he laughed again. “You have my attention.”

“Have you ever gotten carried away and gone down some weird rabbit holes?” she asked with a self-deprecating grin.

‘Sure.” He nodded. “I’m not surprised you’re one to go chasing rabbits, Alice.”

“My client is a murder, a serial killer. A cannibal, to be precise.” She watched him for any of the silent tells she was used to seeing when a listener wanted her to stop, or to chew their arm off and escape her work stories. Seeing none, she continued. “He grew up in Centralia, Pennsylvania before the town was evacuated, then worked in mines all of his adult life. He tells me this affected him. Sadly, conventional psych evals don’t back up his claim. So, before I lay out the big bucks on an expert to say whatever I want, I wanted to do some research on the effects of heavy metal poisoning on miners and a correlation with cannibalism. I figured looking at the Old West miners before there were regulations might be a good place to start.”

“Cannibalism, huh? Romantic topic. Did you see the Donner Party exhibit?” He smirked and jerked his thumb in the direction of a diorama of several wax figures huddled around a dying campfire, clutching furs around them to fight the bitter blizzarding cold while suggestively roasting skewers of meat.

“It’s very nice.” She looked back at the macabre display. “But not what I’m looking for. They had a different defense to cannibalism. Duress, definitely. If I were representing one of them, I’d also argue self-defense, in an eat or be eaten sense. I’d win.”

Nick grinned then pursed his lips, nodding as he considered her problem. “You won’t find anything useful up here but if you want to go deeper down this rabbit hole, you’d want to have a look in the museum’s archives. This museum has the largest collection of natural history artifacts in the world. That’s one reason I’m here, frankly, is a chance to explore their collection of Old West relics. It’s better than being a kid in a candy store. It’s almost as good as an occultist getting a backstage pass to the Vatican Archives.” He fixed his intense eyes on hers. “I bet we could find some good stuff in there.”

“Are you offering to sneak me into the museum’s archives with you?” She added a seductive edge to her voice and added, “You’re going to lift up the museum’s skirt for me and show me her goods?”

“I’ll have you know skirt-lifting is a great talent of mine.” He waggled his eyebrows playfully. “Yeah, I’m offering, so long as you let me take you out afterwards. We can discuss our findings over dinner.”

“You won’t get in trouble?” she asked sincerely.

“They can’t fire me.” He shrugged. “The worst they could do is chew me out and deport me back to Cheyanne. What do you say? Dinner in exchange for a private curated tour and me risking getting a big ole ass-chewing?”

“Deal.” Alice smiled, offering her hand again and they shook on it.

*******************************************************************************************

It was creeping toward five when Nick led Alice out of an employee service elevator on one of the lower levels of the museum. They had met an exodus of employees heading the opposite direction on their way home for the day.

“Is it too late for this adventure?” Alice asked as they walked down a hallway so long she could barely see the end of it. The lights were dim and there were no windows on this lower level. They passed dozens of closed doors and multiple other hallways branching off. She thought the minotaur could get lost in this place.

“I have my all hours, all access pass.” He tapped his jeans pocket where a laminated card was stowed. It served as both an ID card and a key to most of the locked doors in the museum and the employee-only areas.

“How do you not get lost in here?” Alice asked, looking around the endless halls. Especially with no natural light or signage, it seemed impossible.

“Nah, I get lost all the time. I consider it part of the adventure,” he laughed, then saw her askance look and added sheepishly, “Sorry, I forgot I was supposed to be your intrepid guide. I won’t let on if I get lost. Just consider it exploring.”

“That’s comforting,” she laughed too. Secretly, she thought it might not be the most terrible thing to be lost for a few hours or even the night in a place with so much to explore with a handsome man.

Alice was convinced they had covered the distance of several city blocks before they arrived at a pair of heavy oak doors with a plain brass plate announcing they had reached the B Archives.

“Does that mean there’s an entire alphabet of archive rooms and collections?” she asked as Nick held the door open for her.

“Probably.” He shrugged. “I’ve only poked around in Archives A, B, and C. Those collections date from the recent past until the eighteenth century or so.”

Inside the B Archives, Alice was reminded of an enormous library that had seen better days. Or the basement of an ultra-rich hoarder. Rows of metal shelves streaked away as far as she could see in the dim lighting, seven-feet high and with another foot or two of boxes piled on top. Between rows there was enough space for two people to walk abreast if they wanted to get a little cozy with one another. At various intervals in the rows there were alcoves fitted with small tables where one could examine their find without taking it up to the front. The light added to the aged feel, the bulbs candlelight-yellow, a few of which were weak and flickering. The front of the room had a kind of sitting area with chairs and a spattering of small tables. There was a small office inside too, a door with a smoked glass window open ajar.

A hunched old man with white hair and coke bottle glasses poked his head out from the office door, squinting at Nick for several seconds before addressing him. “You’ve been bothering me a lot lately.”

“This time I brought a pretty girl who wants to bother you,” Nick said, placing his hand on the small of Alice’s back as he led her toward the old man. “She’s curious what you have on mines in the old west. Particularly mines with gruesome histories. Murders, deaths, breakouts of illness or insanity. All that good stuff. Cannibalism in particular, if you have any of that on the menu.”

“Cannibalism? On a perfectly decent Friday afternoon?” The old man scoffed, but proceeded to ponder the matter, his bushy white eyebrows drawing together in thought. After a moment, he held up a triumphant finger. “You know, there is a rather curious box of effects that might interest you. It’s some remnants of an old Colorado sheriff’s things. He led quite an illustrious life, it seems. His heirs donated most of his effects to the museum. I took a quick peek through it years ago when it came in, but I haven’t thought of it since.” He pointed a bony finger down the row of aisles. “Aisle S, box 5425, if memory serves, and it always does.”

“How in the hell do you do that?” Nick asked, shaking his head.

“Photographic memory.” The man tapped his temple. “Which also means I’ll remember you precisely if you mess up my boxes.”

“I wouldn’t dare,” Nick assured him then led the way toward aisle S.

It took them some time to locate box 5425, partially because many of the labels were faded beyond readability. When they found it, Nick had to stand on his tiptoes and stretch his arms to their full reach to nudge it off its perch on top of another box on the top shelf. He nearly dropped the box when it came free, catching it with one hand and fumbling for balance for a harrowing second. Once he held it securely in his arms, he smiled cockily at Alice and headed toward the nearest alcove in their row.

The alcove was centered in the row and seated directly under a flickering yellow light. Nick set the box down on the small table, barely large enough for a coffee date. The lights were sparsely spaced, leaving shadowy stretches between pools of yellow light. There were still several towering rows of shelving between them and the entrance, but sound carried well in the sepulcher-like room. He was spreading the contents of the box out on the table when he heard then entrance door creak open and a voice bounced down the aisle toward them.

“I’m clocking out for the day.” The old man called. “Put that box back where you found it and don’t tell anyone I left you unattended in here, and we’ll still be friends tomorrow.”

“You got it,” Nick replied, projecting his deep voice so it boomed through the archives. Then he turned to Alice with a wolfish expression, “I hope you didn’t want a chaperone.”

“All a chaperone does is keep an honest man honest,” she replied, appreciating just how close they stood at the small table. “I think you’re a man who will break as many rules as I let you, chaperone or not.”

“Maybe so.” He grinned sideways and chewed his lip as he opened the box.

It may have been a mistake, she realized, allowing herself to be shut away privately and in such close confines with this man. Her profession was dominated by men, she was used to working closely with men and attractiveness or lack thereof never entered into it. Rarely, at least. It was a foreign feeling to be dominated by hormones the way she was now. Her senses felt assaulted, a gate failing before a battering ram. The way he looked and the rich gravel in his voice were bad enough, but now in the close space, Alice couldn’t ignore the masculine scent that subtly infiltrated her nose. She didn’t know if the scent of pine and leather mingled with musk was cologne or if it belonged to him. The small table necessitated him being close to her, their bodies almost touching. He didn’t crowd her, but still the size of him was tantalizingly imposing with the minimal space between them. She felt the heat from his body on her skin when he leaned over to study the papers spread across the table next to her. It made her think of being overpowered, manhandled, taken, even – the things that modern empowered women were supposed to have evolved beyond but that the base part of them craved when they sensed a man masculine enough to give it.

Nick pulled a letter from the box, the paper brittle and yellowed with age. Protocol dictated he should be wearing gloves to handle it, but he didn’t want to leave Alice alone long enough to fetch a pair. Despite his bravado, he had always found these dark and mostly abandoned places inside the museum creepy. He never let it get to him or get in the way of anything he needed to do, of course. But it was still an unsettling sort of environment, surrounded by the dead and their effects, in a place where voices echoed and shadows creeped. It was easy to imagine wakeful spirits watching him from the corner of his eye, just at the edges of the feeble light.

Not unlike being inside a deep, dark mine, he thought as he looked at the letter. He read aloud to Alice, thinking he might have actually struck gold, at least in terms of finding something to keep their afternoon interesting.

October 13, 1882

Darlin Belle,

I’m sure missin you tonight. I don’t know if you’ll ever read this but I hope it will find its way to you. I’m gonna write you like you was here with me and I was just talkin to you over dinner. It makes me miss you less. Every time I think about bein home, all that is to me is bein with you. The men in the posse kid me for bein whipped by you but I can’t find a damn to give over it. Miserable lonely bastards, the lot of em. But I guess they didn’t leave no one behind to miss em when they died. I hope you’ll miss me and remember the things that were good about me. There aren’t many, so it shouldn’t be hard.

“That sounds romantic,” Alice said with a wistful lilt. “I’m not sure it’s useful for my purposes, but I like it.”

Nick grinned and nodded. He read ahead to himself, but decided not to share it with the woman who was now looking at him with a pretty, hopeful smile. Best not to spoil the mood. He read the next few paragraphs to himself, feeling a prickly chill drag along the length of his spine like ghostly fingernails.

It’s been snowin up here in these mountains for days and it’s up over my knees now. Sure makes me miss the warmth of your touch. There’s nothin finer than holdin you in my arms, smellin your hair like flowers and cinnamon, feelin you soft n warm. I think you might be the only thing that can thaw me out ever again. Here I gone and got myself all hot and bothered just thinkin about you. But the snow’s been a blessin for me. It made the blood trail of the one I wounded easy to follow. I found him holed up under a ledge and finished him off with my knife so as not to fire off a shot. Sound carries in these mountains. The snow got thicker after dark. Thick enough to hide my tracks from the rest who are huntin me.

They haven’t found my hideout yet, but they will. I have to beat em to the punch.

I ain’t got much time cause they know the mountains better than me. It makes hidin hard and ambushin harder.

Sorry my writins goin from bad to worse fast. My fingers are numb as hell.

Curious, Alice leaned in to look at the letter and read it along with him. Spender folded it back together with a snap, too rough for the old paper and cleared his throat. He hastily put it back in the box – in the bottom of the box, under some other more innocuous looking items. “I don’t think the rest is worth reading today.”

Instead, he reached for a pocket watch with a gold hunting case, beautifully engraved with an elk hunting scene. Holding it delicately in his hands, he popped open the cover and read the engraving aloud, “To my handsome sheriff. You carry my love for you wherever you go. Belle.”

“That’s beautiful.” Turning toward him, Alice looked into his eyes as she spoke. Though his composure remained steady on the surface, she saw the way his chest expanded, his jaw clenched, his throat bobbed. It gave her a feeling of power knowing Nick was just as affected by their proximity as she was, maybe even more. She told herself she wouldn’t completely give into hormones. But she could give a little. How long had it been since she’d made out with a man like a horny teenager during a study session? Probably not since she had been a horny teenager. She could live a little now. Resting her ass against the tale, she leaned back against it and looked up at him, intentionally giving him the image of her laying sprawled beneath him. It would be a perfectly innocuous posture if the air wasn’t so charged between them, the attraction so tangible. The way he swallowed thickly told her that it wasn’t innocuous to him either.

The next move was his, Nick realized. Smirking to mask the way his pulse thundered, he stepped closer to her, using the excuse of setting the watch down on the table near her hip resting against the table’s edge. He left his hand there on the table, and when Alice kept looking up at him rather than anywhere else, Nick knew he had her tacit approval to act bolder. With his next step, he positioned himself in front of her. His right hand still rested near the pocket watch that held less interest to Alice than the man. He flattened his right hand on the table beside her then planted his left hand on her opposite side. There was still space between their bodies, if only inches, but he now caged her against the table and loomed over her.

“Find anything that interests you down here yet, darlin?’” he asked, letting the huskiness in his voice reflect his mounting arousal.

Alice heard something that sounded like a faint scratch from somewhere inside the archives. It was hardly enough to pull her attention away from the stupidly attractive man who was doing his best to make her forget all the dating rules and run every base right here in this dusty archive.

“I don’t have enough information to know if I’m interested in anything yet,” she teased. Angling her chin up, she presented her jaw and neck in a favorable angle for kissing.

“What do I need to clear up for you?” he played along as he lowered his head, trailing his nose over her cheek and his lips over her jaw, kissing lightly and teasing her with the scratch of his beard.

A box shifted on a shelf deeper in the archive, as though something had bumped it or rubbed against it. Alice heard that too, but she didn’t care. Not when Nick’s lips had moved to her neck and were giving her goosebumps, making her breath come short and her spine tingle. Encouraged by the way her body arched toward his and the way her hands had flown to his shoulders, Nick hooked his hands behind her thighs and hoisted her up onto the table. Pushing her legs apart, he stepped between them, bringing their bodies together then letting his hands caress her thighs and back as he continued kissing her neck. Every part of his body was hard beneath her roving hands, each plane and ridge of muscle a new excitement to discover. She could feel how hard he was inside his jeans too, but she would save exploring all of him for another time. She had talked herself into a nice makeout session with a handsome stranger, but she hadn’t yet abandoned all of her morals.

Bringing his hand to the back of her neck, he cradled her head while he exerted that subtle masculine control that could make a woman want to submit to him. Nick teased the side of her neck with his teeth, also teasing her restraint. He grinned against her skin when he pulled a soft moan from her throat, beginning to lose himself in the feel of her body against his, her soft skin under his callused hands.

When she moaned, Alice heard a strange response from somewhere in the dimly lit room. Something like a wet huffed breath, or a sloppy inhale. It sounded like a large dog snuffling. It was unmistakably not something she could attribute to the old room or hear ears playing tricks on her.

“Nick,” she whispered, not from arousal but trepidation. “Did you hear that?”

“’Course, darlin,’” he muttered dismissively as he nosed and kissed along her collarbone, his fingers digging into her thigh.

“What is it?” She was starting to pull back, making him tighten his hold on her.

“Don’t worry, it’s nothing,” he spoke against her skin, trying to placate her. He hadn’t heard anything, but if there was something, it was probably a fucking rat the size of a wiener dog. They had those fuckin’ things in New York. But he sure as hell wasn’t going to tell her that. Giant rats wouldn’t do a damn thing to keep her revved up for him. Forcing the thought from his own mind, he resumed kissing her, rubbing his words in with his lips. “It’s an old place. There’s bound to be some weird noises.”

“Listen!” she whisper-yelled, grabbing a fistful of his thick hair and yanking far too harshly to be mistaken for anything sexy.

He winced and frowned at her through one eye, the other was squeezed shut from the pain in his scalp. “You could just tell me to fuckin’ stop, you know?”

“Listen,” she said again, this time her whisper was barely audible. She heard another scrape and maybe another sniffing breath. But everything was quieter now, more subtle. As if whatever was making those faint noises was trying to be stealthier.

“That could be anything,” Nick said at full volume with a laugh on his voice. His voice seemed to boom throughout the archives, sparking off Alice’s inflamed nerve endings.

She clapped a hand over his mouth, hard enough to make him flinch. Her body was bolt upright, incidentally pressing her body flush to his, her every muscle taught. She knew her system had shot into a fight or flight response, but she didn’t know why. Her consciousness hadn’t registered anything that warranted such a reaction, a few odd sounds in an old museum was hardly noteworthy. But something about what she heard struck a chord in her core, deep in her subconscious where instinct reigned. Every sense she had sparked like live electric wires, screaming at her to run away as fast as she could, but she didn’t know what she was running from or even which direction to bolt. Her eyes were wide and terrified when they met Nick’s and she whispered, “Something’s in here with us. Listen. We have to get out.”

His eyes crinkled with amusement and he kissed her palm still held over his mouth. Taking her wrist, he plucked her hand away and kissed her there on her pulse point. He did it teasingly, but he lowered his voice to a hoarse whisper, “I spooked you good with that story about the Museum Beast.” He smirked and teased further, “I thought you were a big girl who could handle some campfire tales.”

“Can you not hear anything over the sound of your hard on?” she hissed, placing a restraining hand on his chest. “Listen, and try to think with the right head for a minute.”

Nick laughed, he always had a weakness for the feisty ones. He was about to tell her as much and steal another kiss when he heard it. A kind of snuffling, like someone with a runny nose, but also different and unmistakable. Growing up in Wyoming, he had spent plenty of time outdoors around wildlife, hunting, fishing, and hiking. He’d heard that sound once before when he’d come face to face with a grizzly around a bend in a trail. Given their poor eyesight, grizzlies tended to grunt and sniff their way along, their way of assessing their environment. He didn’t believe what his mind registered. There couldn’t be a fucking bear in a New York museum. But he also couldn’t rationally attribute the sound to some wheezy curator or a congested janitor, especially not when paired with a stealthy padded footfall.

“We need to run.” Alice fisted his lapel. Her voice had dropped below a whisper to an urgent breath.

“No, darlin,’ don’t run.” He grabbed her waist and pulled her off the table, returning her feet to the floor. Taking her arm, he pulled her behind him, placing himself closest toward the strange noises and whatever creature made them. He began to back slowly away down the aisle, pushing her behind him, trying to keep his steps silent. His mind raced frantically, but he forced his body to remain in control, repeating, “Don’t run.”

“Can we fight it?” she asked, touching his back from behind, trying to calm herself by keeping contact with him

“We may have to,” Nick gritted, unsure what to do since he had no idea what was creeping toward them from a few rows away. “Just don’t run. If there’s some kind of animal in here with us, the worst thing you can do is run.”

*******************************************************************************************

That little bitch, Warren thought petulantly as he walked down the dim hallway. The hallway that stretched on for the length of a city block. It was such bullshit. He hadn’t walked this much since he got kicked off his co-ed flag football team in junior high. Fuck her, he thought again as he kicked at a piece of crumpled paper on the tile floor, missed, and stumbled sideways. At least no one was around to see him. His uppity date was nowhere to be found. She had the gall to shove him away when he tried to fondle her boobs before running away from him. The ungrateful bitch. Warren had used his lunch hour to help her sneak out of high school, had paid her admission into the museum, and wasted his afternoon leading her around the exhibits and thrilling her with his acumen. She owed him a feel. He would just tell all her friends she sucked his dick in his car and have the last laugh.

Sullenly picking at the chipped black paint on his stubby fingers, he turned down yet another pointlessly long hallway. Despite being as blonde as a California It Girl and having a dumpy potatoesque physique, he thought that his crooked guyliner and black skinny jeans that revealed a tantalizing glimpse of a sweaty plumber’s crack gave him the hot goth look the girls liked. Not so much the girls in his peerage at college – they were stuck up bitches anyway, already hounding after the guys who were studying law at Harvard – but the girls who were just about to graduate from high school, just turned eighteen, maybe a little homely and desperate for a date to prom. Those were his preferred prey. He usually had some meager success with them, before their fathers found out about him and heartlessly separated them. It enhanced his view of himself as a tragic, long-suffering Shakespearean love interest who had turned to goth rock to bemoan his existence.

Since Warren had somehow managed to get turned around inside the maze of hallways until after it closed for the day, the museum was also devoid of employees. He thought it was only a matter of time before he ran into a security guard. He had a story lined up for why he was inside after hours, a grand tale that emphasized his victimhood. Maybe he could even end up with his name in the paper over it. That would really impress the girls.

Now, Warren lumbered along a random hallway, trying to find his way to an exit. He needed to find an elevator first. He had sneaked into some kind of service elevator with the girl and gone down several floors in his search for privacy. He thought he was in some kind of storage area or basement now, every room he passed was vacant save for troves of weird antiques. He had found the door to a stairwell a few turns back down the hallway, but he wasn’t about to walk up several flights of stairs. His day had been shit enough so far without climbing stairs.

After what seemed like an eternity, he came to a pair of double doors marked B Archives. He couldn’t remember the last time he had walked so far. He must have put in over two miles inside this stupid museum already. Like, a month’s worth of walking. Maybe there was a desk inside with a chair he could rest in even if he couldn’t find an employee to lead him out of this suckhole.

Success! Inside the B Archives were rows of forgotten looking shelves that Warren couldn’t give a shit less about, but there was also an office with an open door and the promise of a desk and cushy chair. The lights were on inside, giving him the additional hope that some diligent employee still remained there after hours.

“Hey?” he called out to anyone who might answer. His voice echoed eerily down the rows and off the tile like tumbleweeds rolling down the streets of a ghost town. “Is there anyone here? I need some directions to the way out.”

Something sounded in response from far back in the archives, down one of the dim rows. It sounded like a startled step, like he had caught someone off guard and they had turned around fast.

“If you could call a guard or even just tell me how to find the exit, that would be great,” Warren shouted. He walked toward the sound, down toward the back of the archives past the ends of the phalanx of aisles. A strange feeling began to creep into his senses, like the uneasy feeling he got when he watched horror movies alone. The feeling that had made him instigate a rule that he didn’t watch scary movies after nine. He even thought he heard the sound of something breathing heavily. Maybe he needed to ration his porn intake too, now he was blending porn sound effects with horror reactions. He mumbled to himself, “Who wouldn’t be creeped out by all this stupid old shit?”

Warren hadn’t paid attention to the way his walk had slowed without him meaning to or the way his mouth had gone dry. He jumped like he had bumped into an electric fence when one of the lightbulbs overhead surged then dimmed. He was glad the girl had run off now, so she couldn’t see him sweat and his hands shake. He heard something down the aisle to his left, something like a single impatient rap of nails on a desk.

The flickering of a waning yellow bulb drew his attention down the aisle. In the flickering light, it looked like something was moving in the aisle, just beyond the reach of the light on the far side. Something crouched and hulking in the shadows. It must be a trick of the dim light. That and being a little freaked out from being stuck down here all alone for what felt like hours. Still, Warren wished he had worn his smudged glasses. He didn’t wear them when he was trying to impress a girl because they weren’t cool.

He was focusing too hard on the shadows. Focus too hard on something and it can seem like the thing is moving. It was a common optical illusion, and the flickering light didn’t help. It made the weird shape in the shadows look like an animal with its head lowered, stealthily sneaking toward him down the aisle.

“Fuck this,” Warren exclaimed, throwing his hands up like an overwrought woman. He didn’t need to be in the creepy old room in the creepy old museum basement. At least the never-ending hallways weren’t filled to the brim with weird antiques.

Down the aisle something sniffed, like someone with a runny nose. Something definitely moved just beyond the light.

“Shit’s probably haunted,” he decided. That made it easier. He was a staunch Ghost Hunters fan and he’d learned a thing or two from them. Forcing a laugh, he added, “Suck my balls, ghosts!”

Turning on his heel in a flippant insult to the ghosts, he walked briskly back the way he had come. He heard something else, seemingly misplaced inside the haunted archives. He very distinctly heard the sound of a footfall and what sounded like a muffled voice, maybe two if one was whispering, coming from deeper down one of the aisles. But it was immediately overshadowed by the sound of a heavy body rushing down the aisle with the flickering light, and nails scraping on tile. Or claws.

Looking back over his shoulder, Warren saw a huge dark body moving fast down the aisle toward him in a kind of lope. An animal, grunting and running toward him. His mind couldn’t process all the details, or it didn’t want to. What his mind hitched on were the teeth. When the creature ran through the scant pool of light, vicious exposed teeth glinted inside its snarling jaws.

Warren ran.

The beast lunged after its prey with the instinct of a predator to chase after a fleeing animal. Warren felt it when the beast gave chase, like the stale air had chilled and all the ghosts inside the archives were watching him. Claws scrambling on tile and heavy galloping echoed behind him, punctuated by grunts.

Warren could see the exit door. It wasn’t far. He could make it. Trying to make his legs pump faster, he looked back over his shoulder. The creature had rounded the end of the aisle and was charging straight at him in large bounding strides. It was bigger than a lion with terrible yellow eyes and teeth like ivory daggers. And it was close.

With a sob, Warren tried to eke out more speed from his already failing legs, but his steps were clumsy and his breathing labored. All that walking all day had done him in. Something slammed into his back, heavy and sharp at the same time, sending him careening forward face down onto the tile. His back felt like it was on fire, stinging and melting at the same time with hot fluid slicking his shirt to his skin.

Crying, Warren looked over his shoulder, expecting to see the creature’s mouth open as it came in for the killing bite. But the beast sat on its haunches, poised like a giant cat, flicking a broad reptilian tail from side to side and drumming the claws of its forepaw on the tile. It watched him with evil yellow eyes, and it waited. With another blubbering sob, Warren staggered up to his feet and tried to run again. He didn’t get as far this time, only a few steps. The beast bounded after him, swiping one of its razor-clawed paws at Warren’s legs. Warren felt his flesh tear as his feet gave out from under him and he collapsed again. He had played enough gory video games to guess the beast had clawed through his calf on one leg and severed his Achilles tendon on the other.

The creature paused again, watching its crippled prey with a curiously cocked head as the pitiful human crawled away, one foot turned the wrong direction and flopping lifelessly on the floor, leaving a wide swatch of delicious smelling blood in its wake.

Warren couldn’t stand back up this time, and he barely had enough gumption left to crawl. After a few desperate flailing attempts, he turned over and flopped onto his back. He stared at the horrendous beast, his watery eyes meeting those of fearsome yellow. With a sickening horror that churned in his bowels he realized what the beast was doing. It was playing with him. The fucking monster was toying with him like a cat with a mouse. The beast cocked its head to the other side as it gave an impatient flick of its tail. Just like a cat with a mouse, the fun was over when the mouse stopped running.

Warren swore he saw an excited gleam flash inside those eyes as the monster lunged at him one final time. He looked into its ravenous eyes, as a heavy weight landed on his chest, pinning him in place. He felt his body being ripped open from throat to crotch with a sound like tearing burlap. The pain was extraordinary, but he couldn’t close his eyes against it.

Gruesome wet smacking noises filled the archive and Warren’s body jerked, tugged from someplace deep inside. He tried to scream but couldn’t with his diaphragm slashed open. Warren was still very much alive when the monster started eating him.

*******************************************************************************************

Nick could hear it clearly now, a heavy body moving with great stealth and wet breathing. Closing in on them from a couple aisles away. There could be no doubt, no mistaking it for the noises of an old room or for scuttling vermin. He had placed his body between the approaching animal and the woman. It was a protective male instinct and gallant, but not an act that would be overly helpful if the thing attacked them. A human’s top speed was equivalent to a chicken. If an Olympic sprinter would have a hard time outrunning a rooster, Nick had no delusions that he could outrun an apex predator. All running would do would trigger it into attacking. He also didn’t think he could fight it off, not if it really wanted to attack. He didn’t have a weapon and humans were really quite feeble animals without their tools. He knew the ways a man could try to survive a predator attack – play dead with a grizzly, fight a black bear, shout at a lion to try to scare it off. None of them would work if the animal really wanted to get him. Then, a man could only hope the animal lost interest before it killed him. Balling his fists, he decided that if it came to a fight, he’d fight until his last breath. Or until he was torn apart.

“Hey! Is there anyone here? I need some directions to the way out,” an unfamiliar voice sounded through the archives.

Nick froze, every sense piqued. He reached behind him and grabbed Alice’s hand, squeezing tightly, silently willing her to stay calm and quiet. He didn’t know the woman and he hoped to hell she had enough sense to stay still and silent, not to yell back toward the stranger or to run in his direction. A mistake like that would be their death sentence. Alice squeezed his hand back, reassuring him, and placed her other hand on his back. The monstrous beast had stilled, its attention captured by the noisome intruder instead of the quieter, more boring quarry. It sniffed the air, assessing the stranger.

Each heartbeat pounded in Nick’s ears like war drums, each second an agony as they waited for the monster to decide which prey it wanted to hunt. With frightening quickness, the beast turned and vanished into the shadowy depths of the aisle.

Keeping hold of Alice’s hand, Nick turned to her and met her eyes. Very deliberately, he brought his forefinger to his lips in the universal gesture for utter silence. He tugged her with him down the aisle in the opposite direction the creature had gone. They heard the stranger’s voice asking the room if someone could tell him how to find the exit. Nick led Alice away from the stranger and away from the beast.

The unknown man was toast. There was nothing Nick could do, and he wasn’t going to waste the life of a woman trying to save a man he didn’t know. He was also smart enough or shellfish enough to value his own life over that of a foolhardy stranger. He hoped the fool would distract the monster enough for them to sneak around it and make the exit themselves. His mind raced ahead of his feet, thinking past the exit to the museum. If they made it out of the archives, they would find themselves back in a long, straight hallway with nowhere to hide and no chance of outrunning whatever the hell this animal was.

To reassure himself, he felt his pocket for the museum key card. He didn’t know if it would help them, but without it they had no chance.

The stranger’s footsteps echoed through the archives as the man started walking down along the ends of the forest of aisles. Nick gambled that the beast’s attention was fixed on that sound and that victim. Pulling Alice along beside him, he trotted down the aisle as swiftly as he could while keeping his footsteps light. For such a large man, he could move stealthily, a skill ingrained by a youth spent hunting with his father and refined by a stint in the military. He was pleased that Alice matched him in both pace and silence. He ran to the far end of the aisle, listening to the intermittent mutterings from the idiot bumbling around at the front of the vast room. The beast could no longer be heard, which worried him, but he had gambled on this hand and now he had to let it ride.

The back of the archives was notably darker than the front and even in between the aisles with the temperamental lightbulbs. An animal stink hung in the air along the back wall, as if the animal used this shady area as a trail of sorts. They moved quickly past the ends of the aisles in the direction of the exit. Nick was a step ahead, still holding Alice’s hand. Looking down each aisle they passed, the archives flashed in time with their steps, giving a visual picture of the room pieced together in morse code.

Nick stopped suddenly, causing Alice to collide with his back. He was so solid, she didn’t even knock him off balance, like running into a warm sculpture. He didn’t so much as look down at her, his wide eyes fixed down the aisle. Thirty feet away from them down the aisle, a hulking silhouette crouched in the center. It looked black in the feeble light and had no discernable features, but they could tell it faced away from them by a broad crocodilian tail flicking back and forth as it watched and waited. Nick didn’t dare move again, not even to step back behind the end of the aisle. It was blind luck the beast had been so focused on the stranger that it hadn’t seen or heard them creeping up at its back. His heart thundered so loudly in his own ears that he thought the beast must surely hear it too.

“Suck my balls, ghosts!” the fool shouted from the end of the aisle, then he started marching away back toward the exit. The beast’s tail stilled, as it watched its prey retreat.

Nick squeezed Alice’s hand, a signal to make ready. The stranger hadn’t taken three steps when the beast launched itself forward down the aisle, entirely focused on its prey. Nick whispered urgently, his voice little more than a growled breath, “Now, we run!”

Nick charged ahead, sprinting full tilt down the back of the archives, pulling Alice along with him. She gripped his hand tight, letting herself be all but dragged along, her feet barely seeming to touch the ground. There was no other way she could keep pace with his long surging stride. Their running footsteps were overshadowed by the sharp sound of claws scrambling on tile and a heavy pounding gallop, then by the sobbing screams of the stranger when the beast caught him. There was no mistaking the anguished cries that filled the archive like a whirring saw in a butcher shop.

At the end of the room, Nick careened around the last aisle, his boots slipping on the tile, and pushed himself even harder down the last straight stretch along the wall toward the door. The screaming continued, now imbued with a gurgling wet quality and sickening chewing and crunching. Alice had heard sounds like that before on National Geographic shows featuring lions over a kill. A meaty abattoir smell engulfed them as they raced down the aisle, bringing them closer to both the beast and the exit.

There was open space at the front of the room, where the beast presently feasted on its dying prey. About fifteen feet worth of open floor between the ends of the aisles and the exit door. There was no option of hiding or stealth when they crossed it. Nick made a mad dash when he reached the end of the aisle, bursting out onto the open floor like a pheasant breaking cover in front of a hound.

The beast reared up from its kill, startled by the two humans erupting from the aisle. It took a second to assimilate these new targets, enough time for them to cover half the open floor. Gnashing its bloody jaws, the beast lunged after the two new fleeing morsels. It landed on forepaws slick with blood, its front legs slipping and splaying out on the tile. Its wet claws found no purchase on tile, and the beast fishtailed before getting its balance.

Nick turned loose of Alice’s hand a step before the double doors and barreled into them with his shoulder at full speed. The doors exploded open, shooting splinters of wood out into the hallway, with Nick falling through off-balance. Alice jumped through on his heels and he pushed her ahead of him as he recovered his footing and ran. Reaching into his pocket for the museum badge, he heard the beast grunting and scrambling through the broken wooden doors, very close behind them.

The nearest door down the hallway was marked obscurely Lab 754, a single door with no windows and a scanner beside it. He didn’t know what was inside, but he knew they couldn’t outrun the monster down a straight hallway. Grabbing Alice by the waistband of her jeans, Nick skidded them both to a stop at the door. His fingers felt clumsy when he articulated the badge over the scanner. A militant light flashed red and an insolent tone told him the card was declined.

“Fuck, fuck fuck,” Nick growled as Alice’s nails dug painfully into his arm. Turning the badge over so his gawky picture faced outward and the barcode on the back faced the scanner, he pressed it against the scanner again and gripped the doorknob in a blanched white fist. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the hulking creature charging down the hallway at them, eyes gleaming yellow, teeth glinting white.

A green light flashed, taking too long to approve their entry with a pleasant tone. The beast was another stride closer, close enough to see individual drops of blood slinging from its jaws. The lock slid open with a metallic click. Nick wrenched the doorknob and yanked the door open toward him. Alice rushed inside, but he shoved her ahead of him anyway as he slipped in behind her. The beast crashed into the open door, slamming it shut right behind Nick’s back with violent force. He had thrown himself inside and barreled into Alice, all but tackling her to the floor as he fell and sprawled over her. He cringed involuntarily at the sound of the beast colliding with the wooden door, hunching over Alice beneath him.

All doors opened outward in public buildings like the museum, pursuant to fire code regulations. And most of the doors in this older basement area of the museum were thick, sturdy wood. The door shuddered ominously, but it held.

Nick looked down at Alice from the position of a lover with his hands planted on either side of her head, his hips pinning her down, their chests touching and their noses nearly so. “Are you alright? We have to keep moving. That door won’t hold for long.”

“Waiting on you,” she said breathlessly, shoving on his broad chest to push him back.

The beast roared and hit the door again. This time splinters shot into the room from the dying doorframe like tiny javelins.

Nick pulled her up with him as he pushed up to his feet. They each looked around the room, trying to quickly assess their surroundings. Fluorescent light lined the ceiling instead of weak yellow bulbs. A long central table ran the length of the room piled with what looked like various artifacts and fossils, including the impressive skull of a sabretooth tiger. Chairs were pulled up to the table at intervals, demarcating different workstations. The air inside was cool and crisp and a subtle whirring indicated a local air system. A shop broom leaned in the far corner, its bristles chalky white with bone dust.

“A restoration lab, damn it to hell.” Nick slammed his hand angrily on the tabletop. “We won’t find anything useful in here.” But he began looking anyway as he made his way through the room.

Alice lingered behind him, turning on several bright lamps placed over the table and pointing them at the rapidly weakening door. She turned on one of the drills on the table, leaving it to buzz and bounce across the tabletop. Nick looked at her with a frown and she shrugged and told him, “It might buy us a few more seconds.”

The back of the room ended depressingly in a simple wall. Nick glared at it as if he could burn a hole through the plaster with his anger. He grinned sardonically at Alice, “The hallway makes a U bend. The service elevator we came down in is probably less than twenty away on the other side of this wall. You don’t happen to have a battering ram hidden in your brassier, do you?”

“That would be my other bra,” she said, looking back at the door as it took another thunderous hit, this time accompanied by the squeal of the metal hinges bending inward.

Nick leaned his head back, staring at the ceiling in frustration. His body jerked like he’d been startled and he ran to the broom standing in the corner. Grabbing it, he sprinted back to the far wall, holding it like a spear. Using the wide, bristled head, he rammed it straight up above his head and into the square air vent in the ceiling. Another hard thrust and the vent crumpled and fell out of the ventilation shaft, leaving a gaping square hole in the ceiling ten feet above their heads.

“Here!” he told Alice urgently, clapping his hands together before linking his fingers to form a stirrup with his hands. The beast struck the door again, tearing a hole through the wood. It pawed through the hole with its claws, scraping and tearing at the wood as it snarled in frustration.

“Can you get up there too?” Alice asked as she placed her foot in his hands.

“Don’t think about it,” Nick grunted as he hefted her up into the square vent like she was nothing but a doll. She hoisted her high enough to bring her chest level with the inside of the vent. Planting her elbows on the flat metal and kicking her legs, she struggled inside. Laying on her stomach, she looked back down through the square hole at Nick below.

Bending his knees, he jumped straight up into the vent opening. It was at the far reach of his vertical jump, but his fingers caught the metal lip. But there was no purchase on the slick metal and his hands slipped off almost instantly. Alice leaned down into the opening, reaching a hand down to him.

“Get out of the way!” he waved her hand away. She began to protest, but he shouted, “Can you curl two-thirty-five? Then I’ll only pull you back out with me.”

The beast crashed into the door a final time, bursting into the lab in an explosion of splinters. It halted immediately when the brilliantly bright spotlight hit its eyes, sitting back on its haunches and shaking its head.

“Give me the broom!” Alice said.

Grinning with understanding despite it all, Nick shoved the head of the broom up into her hands. The beast snarled and swiped the light out of its eyes, then turned its attention to the jumping drill and its grating, high-pitched whine. Alice maneuvered the broom so its handle spanned the square opening, wedged as tightly against the sides as she could get it. The beast crushed the drill with its teeth, shaking its head with the drill in its mouth like a dog with a squeaky toy, then throwing it aside. Fixing its ferocious yellow eyes on Nick at the far end of the room, it charged.

Nick bent his knees, looking up at the broom handle inside the vent. He would only get one shot. Swinging his arms, he jumped up with everything he had. The beast swiped at Nick’s legs as he caught the broom handle, but he jerked them up just in time. Using the broom handle like a pull-up bar, he hoisted himself up into the ventilation shaft. Alice shoved herself backward to make room for him as he lunged forward into the small space, making sure his long legs were clear of the opening.

The beast jumped up after him, slamming its head into the metal of the shaft, denting it upwards. Roaring in frustration, it jumped again, making another dent. Then it reared on its hind legs and clawed at the metal. The sound was a terrible, deafening squeal inside the shaft, ringing in their ears. There was enough space for them to crawl on their hands and knees, and Alice crawled frantically away.

“Can’t beat the view,” Nick quipped, following right behind her.

The beast tried jumping at the vent once more before apparently realizing it was futile. The silence when it stopped was much more unnerving than the banging and scratching and snarling had been.

It didn’t take long for them to come to another vent. Looking through the metal slats, Nick quickly assessed they were now over the section of hallway that housed the service elevator. He easily yanked it open and dropped down through it to the floor. Alice lowered herself down feet first until she felt him catch her legs in a reassuring bearhug and let her slide the rest of the way down his body. Holding her against him, he grinned at her and jerked his chin to the side, “Look what we found.”

The service elevator was no more than fifteen feet away. As she sighed with relief, collapsing into Nick’s arms, Alice heard the now familiar sound of clawed feet scrambling on the tile. “It guessed where we were heading!”

They sprinted to the elevator and Nick punched the Up button over and over. The arrow above the doors illuminated green and the bell dinged. But the doors were old and slow to open. The beast rounded the corner of the hallway in a fury of claws and teeth and lather, charging at them with its horrible teeth bared in a snarl. But claws for all their ferocity did not keep traction on smooth tile. When the beast rounded the tight corner, it did so in an uncontrolled skid. The beast scrambled to keep its balance, but it had charged into the corner too fast. Its shoulder slammed into the opposite side of the hallway as it slid, paws flailing haphazardly beneath it, buying its prey an extra second to live. Nick shoved Alice inside when the opening between the doors was still too narrow for him to fit. Even as the doors still opened, she was pushing the button for the upper floor. Nick slipped inside as the beast ran him down, only one good lunge away.

Nick and Alice pressed themselves to the back of the elevator, watching helplessly as death charged at them and the doors closed too slowly. Their view between the doors narrowed with terrible sluggishness until all they could see were those slitted yellow eyes and bloody frothing jaws. The beast lunged at the gap in the doors, striking the metal with a horrendous crash. Saliva and blood spewed through the opening, splattering Alice and Nick, just as the doors closed and the elevator lurched upward.

The doors opened to a main hallway on one of the upper floors, home to the biggest and most popular museum exhibits. Large windows lined this hallway admitting the moonlight and there was enough light in the individual exhibits to allow the security cameras to identify a thief if needed. Many smaller hallways branched off this main one, each leading to an exhibit. They were near the entrance to an exhibit that glowed green in the dim light, labeled Rainforest. A metal stairwell door was beside the elevator.

“Now at least I know where we are,” Nick could have laughed with relief. He ducked into Alice and stole a quick kiss from her lips.

“Freeze!” A militant voice sliced through the silence in the hall. “Put your hands up!”

They turned to see a short and corpulent museum security guard standing behind them, holding a revolver trained on Nick. He had just rounded a corner of the hallway and shuffled toward them as quickly as his pendulous gut would allow, his utility belt jingling with every labored step. Using his gun, the guard gestured from Nick to the far wall, and ordered, “Turn and face that wall right now. And I better see your hands while you’re sniffing plaster. Move!”

“There’s something in here with us,” Alice said, trying to calm the guard. “You need to take us all out before it finds us.”

“I’m sure there is, honey,” the guard sniggered and took a belligerent step toward Nick. “I gave you a command, hoss.”

The security guard held his gun on Nick, the barrel shaking in his uncertain grip. He was the most dangerous sort of person to hold a man at gunpoint – nervous and unfamiliar with a weapon or with apprehending a suspect. Those were the men likely to shoot first and ask questions later, or even shoot accidentally when they shook hard enough to spasm their trigger finger.

“Turn around now!” the guard shouted again, spittle flying from his lips, his jowls quaking.

The guard was too far away from Nick to make a grab for the gun or knock it away. So, he turned, faced the wall, and planted his hands flat on its smooth surface. He made a great effort to keep his voice calm when he spoke over this shoulder, “Look, buddy, there’s something after us. Something chasing us. Something monstrous. None of us are safe here, including you. You have to get us all out right now. Arrest me and charge me with whatever the hell you want, just get us out.”

The guard spoke into the radio clipped to his belt, “I caught someone sneaking around inside the rainforest exhibit. Looks like a pair of lovebirds who broke in to get it on. I need backup. The guy’s giving me hell. He’s a big bastard too. Threatened my safety already.”

“Ten-Four,” a voice crackled through the radio static. “Sending backup. Just cuff ‘em and keep ‘em where you have ‘em until backup gets there.”

Risking a bullet, Nick growled, “Look, you stupid bastard. You can get all the backup you want and you can arrest me. So long as you get us the fuck outta here, and you do it now! We need to move, goddamnit!”

“The big guy is making more threats,” the guard radioed.

The sound of a door being shoved open inside the stairwell echoed behind the door. It sounded like it came from a flight or two below. Alice heard claws scrambling up the stairs. She met Nick’s cool eyes and she winked.

“Excuse me, sir,” Alice said to the guard in a demure tone. “Our friend’s in the stairwell. Go see for yourself. He’s the one you want to arrest.”

“What the Christ are you all doing in here?” the guard scoffed. “Bunch of assholes ruining my night to have a goddamn orgy!”

The scrambling reached the nearest steps, the sound of a heavy body closing in on the door. The guard heard it too. Keeping his gun pointed at Nick’s back, he stepped to the stairwell door. Grabbing the doorhandle, he yelled with gusto, “Hey asshole, this is museum security. I hear you in there. I’m gonna open the door and I better see your hands!”

He didn’t need to open the door. The door exploded open with a metal screech and a monstrous creature burst from the darkness of the stairwell, aiming for the blustering guard. The guard yanked the trigger when the beast struck him with the force of a wrecking ball, sending a bullet into the wall as man and beast went careening together twenty feet across the floor. Its body had passed Alice by inches, close enough for her to smell the fresh blood and older rancid death on its scaly hide.

Nick shoved away from the wall, grabbing Alice’s arm and running with her in the opposite direction from the carnage. The guard was screaming, but it lasted only as long as a few of their running strides before it was cut off with a wet gurgle and replaced by a sound like an overfull trash bag bursting.

They ran into the thick of the rainforest exhibit, where they were surrounded by vibrant dioramas and luscious vegetation. The windows on this floor admitted silver moonlight, allowing them to see it very clearly. Birds of every color of the spectrum were frozen mid-flight, golden jaguars prowled, and ancient Amazonian architecture formed a visual feast. The highlight of the rainforest exhibit was also the centerpiece of the exhibit hall. A huge glass terrarium filled with tropical vegetation housed an army of living butterflies. Thousands of beautiful butterflies of kaleidoscopic colors flitted through the plants inside in a living whirlwind of colorful wings.

They ran past the butterflies to the far end of the exhibit where another hallway branched off. Nick pointed down it and whispered, “The old west exhibit is just down that way. The guns in there are all functional, and a few of the gunbelts still have live rounds. Maybe…”

“Will the bullets still fire after sitting for more than a century?” Alice asked skeptically.

“As long as the primers haven’t gone bad. Or gotten wet. And the cartridges have remained sealed, and the gunpowder hasn’t leaked out.” He grinned sardonically.

“So, probably not,” Alice surmised.

“Probably not,” Nick agreed. “But do you have a better idea?”

The beast entered the rainforest exhibit with its nose held high, sniffing the air. Nick pulled Alice to him and backed against the wall, hiding them as best he could behind an Amazonian monolith decorated with carvings of ancient deities. The beast froze, its eyes fixed ahead, its posture rigid. It looked as if it stared right at them through the length of the butterfly terrarium. With an excited grunt, the beast swiped at the end of the glass cage, breaking it open, and jumped inside. Thousands of butterflies came to life like confetti, fluttering around the beast that had disturbed them. The beast was captivated, cocking its head curiously at the butterflies, flicking its tail as it swiped its paws at them and tried to chomp them between its jaws. It jumped and twisted and twirled inside the terrarium like a cat confronted with a thousand laser dots. It grunted happily as it pounced on a large Monarch then snorted when another flew at its nose.

Slowly, Nick pulled Alice with him toward the hall leading to the old west exhibit. They edged along the wall at a crawling pace so as not to draw the beast’s attention while it chomped and swiped at the whirlwind of butterflies. The old west exhibit came into view at the end of the hallway, horses and cowboys and bison materializing in the dim light. Nick brought his lips to Alice’s ear and told her, “You go grab all the guns you can find. I’ll start looking through the gunbelts for live rounds. .45’s and 30-30’s are going to be our best bets for a match.”

She nodded her understanding as another sound boomed through the hall. The sound of several running footsteps and the clink of metal. Narrow beams of light bounced around inside the old west exhibit from flashlights held by running men.

Nick stopped short, his hold on her arm keeping Alice beside him. He pulled her down with him when he dropped to his knees, raising his hands above his head in a clear posture of supplication, just as several armed security guards ran into the hallway from the old west exhibit. The light hit Nick’s face, momentarily blinding him, as the men rushed them, guns drawn. Alice looked behind them and saw a huge shadow looming in the entrance to the rainforest exhibit, watching them with gleaming eyes. The guard’s light didn’t reach it and they were too focused on Nick to notice the real threat. The shadow seemed to disintegrate back into the darkness like a receding nightmare. The beast must be intelligent enough to avoid confronting so many drawn firearms. Or it was simply biding its time for the right moment.

“You’re under arrest!” the lead guard shouted as he rushed Nick. Turning him bodily around, he shoved him to his stomach with his face pressed into the tile and yanked his arms behind his back.

“We didn’t do anything, you idiot!” Alice said futility. “There’s something in here with us.”

“Save it, lady,” the guard said gruffly. “You both have the right to remain silent and I suggest you fucking use it.” He prodded his gun rudely into Nick’s back and cuffed his hands. “I heard all about you on the radio. Some big bastard resisting arrest after breaking in. And I saw some of your handiwork already.”

“You have to listen, it wasn’t me,” Nick gritted. “There’s some kind of animal in here with us.”

“Yeah, get started on that insanity defense right off the bat, you murdering sonofabitch,” the guard hissed. “Just keep talking so I can testify to all your bullshit.”

Two guards came and hefted Nick up by his arms, yanking them painfully back and straining his shoulders. Alice looked at him when he stood, giving him her steadiest and most reassuring gaze. “Don’t tell them anything. It won’t do you any good. Let your lawyer do the talking for you.” She winked at him for the second time that night. “I promise you have a good one.”

*******************************************************************************************

Tagging some buddies!

@babbushka @in-silks-and-flesh-and-leather @mrs-gucci @mrs-zimmerman @iamburdened @gabesprincess @rynwritesstuff @candycanes19 @caillea @cas-backwards-tie @queeniebee @mythrielofsolitude @ghoulian13 @icarusinthesea @reyloaddict55 @reylokisses @heartlight-starlight @richbrittstein @thepalaceofmelanie @reveluving @fax4life27 @vedavan @queen-of-elves @srorgana1 @kyloremus @lumberjack00fantasies

#best #fic #summer #halloween #commander mills x reader #commander mills x you

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justsomerandomfanfic · 7 months ago

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Just Keep Breathing - Garfield Logan X Female Reader

Title: Just Keep Breathing

Garfield Logan X Female Reader

Additional Characters: Cyborg (Mentioned), and the other Teen Titans (Mentioned)

Requested by: Anon!

WC: 2,491

Warnings: Panic attacks, thoughts and mentions of home invasions, nicknames, brief mentions of blood, brief mentions of knives, violence briefly mentioned, crying, mini angst, and fluff

You had been having such a good dream, something involving unicorns, amusement parks, and cheese for some reason, but a lovely dream nevertheless. You didn't want to get up from your bed, the many blankets and your favorite comforter were perfectly wrapped around your body, engulfing you in your own personal cocoon of warmth and happiness. You sighed, shutting your eyes briefly, snuggling yourself further, deeper, into your blankets. Yeah, this was heaven. It was nice to be able to huddle up in your warm blankets - especially during the harsh winter months in Jump City. You could stay in bed forever...

But you really needed to go to the bathroom.

You huffed, slightly annoyed, you really just wanted to get back to sleep; maybe try and get back into that dream of yours. But, the bathroom was calling your name. Reluctantly, you pushed the blankets off of yourself, immediately shivering as the cold air hit you. Quickly, you shuffled on the green bunny slippers that your boyfriend, Garfield, had gifted you, so as to not let the cold hard floors bite your bare feet.

Slipping out of your room, you shuffle down the hallway, still a bit groggy as you rubbed an eyelid with the palm of your hand. Thankfully, the short trip to the bathroom was easily done, ever since you installed auto-sensing lights near the floor; no more stubbing your toes on the corners of the walls anymore. Thank you, Target.

You began to hum some song that was stuck in your head - some song that you heard on the radio a couple of times, but never really got around to Shazaming - as you washed your hands; rinsing off all the soap before turning off the faucet. Drying your hands, you paused. Outside the door, you thought you heard something. Turning your head, you stared at the bathroom door - which was thankfully locked - trying to stay as quiet as possible to try and see if you could hear that sound again. Maybe it was just your imagination? Probably not the best night to have watched a horror movie… But you really wanted to watch 'IT' from the late eighties.

Anyway, you knew that sometimes, at night, your brain could play tricks on you; when it's bored. You tried it once, staring at your own reflection in the mirror with the bathroom light off. Your face morphed and shifted into something disturbing... It was spooky, you'd give it that, and you never did it since then. And you've heard of the 'Bloody Mary' challenge, you were never trying that.

Though, this time, you felt a shiver run down your spine. You continued to listen, your ears straining, until you heard something again. You let out the breath that you were holding, your hands beginning to fiddle with each other as you continued to stare at the door.

Your mind raced, not knowing what to do. You doubted that you could face whatever or whoever was out there. You didn't know what they wanted, why they were in your apartment, or if they had some sort of weapon. For all you knew, they were looking for you... Maybe... You didn't want your mind to wander and freak you out even further, but it was sort of too late for that. After a moment, you grabbed the door handle, unlocking it with a twist. Slowly twisting the door handle further - so that you could easily open the door if needed - you pressed the side of your face against the door, listening.

You then froze, pure terror filling you and bubbling in the pit of your stomach as the door handle twisted slightly in your grip. You didn't know if that was just you - your grip slipping slightly - or if there was actually someone... Right, outside your door. Immediately, you locked the door, your heart racing a million miles per second as you ran a hand through your hair. Glancing around the room, you tried to look for anything that you could possibly use for protection - as a weapon - but it was hard to fully think, or fully understand your thoughts.

You were scared. You were scared that whoever was in your apartment was going to get you. If there was someone out there, they probably would search all the rooms before finding the bathroom door locked. They would surely try and get in. They would punch, kick, and slam against the door until they brutally forced it open. And, there was no escape. Your bathroom was small. Just a toilet, sink, and tub tightly placed together in a tiny room that you were convinced used to be a closet of some kind. There wasn't even a window.

You weren't like the supers of the world. You were just a regular human being. You had a regular job, and had a regular life. You paid your bills and you went out to hang with your friends sometimes. You weren't like Garfield. Garfield. Your eyes widened as you raised your arm up. On your wrist was a communicator that Garfield gave to you; Cy had created it for him to give to you. It was in case anything bad were to happen or if there was an emergency, Garfield was just one push of a button away. All you had to do was call him, and he'd be right there.

Regret swirled within you. You had wished you did take Garfield's - and the team's - invitation on having a slumber party at the Tower. But, you weren't really feeling up to socializing, you had a long day of work before meeting up with Garfield and his friends. You just wanted to go home, eat, and rest. But now, you were really regretting not staying at the Tower. You could've been watching some movie, eating popcorn with everyone, before cuddling up with Garfield for the night, right about now.

Right now, you really wished to be anywhere else.

Staring down at your communicator, you pressed the center button, only then did you feel that your heart was racing a million miles a second. With one tap, the small screen lit up, a tired-looking Garfield appearing in it. "Y/N?" He mumbled groggily through the communication system, rubbing his eyes with a curled fist. "It's four in the morning. What's up?" He yawned, and the moment you heard his voice, you felt the tears well up in your eyes; just hearing his voice made you feel so much better, but you were still scared. When he noticed the distraught look on your face, he became more awake, concern clear in his expression. "Hey... Hey, Y/N. You okay, babe? Why are you crying?" You tried to calm down, you tried to speak, but no words were coming out; your panic only rising. Becoming more worried at your worsening condition, he continued, albeit somewhat frantic, "Hey, okay, babe. I'm coming right over, uh, stay right there." As quickly as he said those words, he hung up the call.

You dropped your arm, but not before trying to rub the racing salty tears from your cheeks. Stepping back, you tried to calm your racing heart. Blinking, you looked up at the ceiling light; blurred from your watery vision. Your heart felt as if it was pounding against your ribcage, threatening to break out of your chest and escape - or explode, or implode. Your body began to feel extremely cold as you stepped into the dry tub behind you. You clenched your clammy hands, your fingers tingling. Sliding down against the tiled wall, you raised your knees to your chest, curling your arms around them.

And though you felt cold, you also felt incredibly warm. The panic crashed down on you like a rough ocean wave, crashing down on you so strong that you couldn't breathe. It felt as if you were drowning. Tears kept flowing freely from your eyes, rolling down your cheeks and onto the tub below you. Your body shook violently, and your breathing grew irregular. You began to hyperventilate as the images flashed through your mind. A mysterious figure lurking in your apartment. Hiding in your closet, waiting to pounce. The blood on his knife as he slashed. The cold, hard floor as you bled out. Your mind was racing with so many horrible 'what ifs and maybes' that you didn't hear the apartment door opening, and closing.

Garfield carefully entered the quiet and dark apartment - in his cheetah form. A bit much? No. He didn't know what he was going to be facing. He needed to be prepared for anything. He surveyed the room, his green eyes narrowed as he searched room after room. A dreadful thought scratched in the back of his head; what if some villain found out about you? As he searched your apartment for anyone, he prayed not. After checking each room, under the bed, in the closets, behind curtains, everything... He walked up to the bathroom door. Shifting back, turned on the hallway light, absentmindedly adjusting the string of his purple hoodie before he gentle knocked on the door.

"Babe... You in there?" He juggled the doorknob, it was locked. He knew you were in there,he could hear your muffled crying. With no sound of you opening the door, he pursed his lips before getting an idea. Shifting down into an ant, he crawled under the door. Upon reaching the other side, he shifted back, his green, worried eyes immediately finding your huddled figure in the bathtub. Crouching down, he placed his hands on the tub's rim, his heart feeling as if it was physically breaking upon seeing you so distressed. "Oh, baby, what happened? Are you okay? Are you hurt?" Garfield asked softly, yet quickly - though his voice was slightly muffled from the ringing in your ears as he reached out with a hand to run his fingers through your damp hair; brushing it away from your face and behind your ear. You sniffled loudly as you attempted to answer.

"I-" A sob escaped your throat and you tried speaking more clearly. You wiped your nose with the back of your hand, "I-I'm not hurt." You then spoke, your voice was shaky and uneven.

Garfield nodded, his hand falling from brushing through your hair to cup your wet cheek, brushing the tears away with the pad of his thumb. "Alright, that's great. Uh, can you tell me why you’re crying?" He then asked, watching as your eyes flickered around the bathroom before landing on him.

You shook your head quickly, "No," Your soft voice cut him off, "Please-" You sucked in some air, but for some reason your lungs felt extremely dry; they seemed to burn. "I- I can't breathe."

Garfield's eyes widened as he nodded, mind scrambling slightly as he went straight into action. He knew the moment he saw you that you were suffering through a panic attack; he had them sometimes too. "Okay, uh, here," He paused, standing to slip into the empty bathtub beside you, Immediately as he did that, you latched onto him, your fingers gripping onto the soft material of his purple hoodie. "Okay, I know that this is scary. But you can get through this, babe." He spoke as reassuring as he could, his arms wrapping around you, "Here," He took one of your hands, placing it on his chest, right above his heart. "Can you feel how my heart is beating?" He asked softly, smiling gently down at you. You blinked, nodding silently. "We're gonna try and match its rhythm, okay?" Garfield asked, still holding your trembling hand in place. You nodded again, and he nodded back. "Okay, babe, breathe in," Garfield slowly started to inhale and exhale as you watched, following his example as best as possible.

After a few minutes of just breathing and sitting silently, you pulled away from Garfield, wiping your eyes and attempting to compose yourself once more. "I'm sorry, Gar." You whispered, your eyes focused downward. "I thought someone broke in… I-I was freaking out over nothing."

Garfield almost pouted, his green eyes softening as he reached out to cup your cheek once more, lifting your eyes to meet his. "You have nothing to apologize for, babe," He murmured, pressing a kiss to your forehead. "Everything is fine. You're okay." His emerald eyes were filled with so much love and concern that it made you melt inside. "Do you need anything else? Do you want water? Like, dude, I know that when I have my attacks, I always want water after. The same with ice cream. Do you want me to go get you some? Or stay here?-" Garfield asked, but you cut him off, leaning forward and kissing him on the cheek softly.

"Stay with me?" You asked, and Garfield couldn't help but sigh; he practically had hearts in his eyes - smitten by your touch.

"Of course, babe," He leaned over to kiss you one last time before pulling away, “Anything for you.” You leaned your head on his shoulder and closed your eyes. He kissed the top of your head before resting his chin there. You both sat there for a good minute or so, before Garfield began to feel uncomfortable; his side oddly pressed against the tub’s wall. "Well, I don't know about you, babe, but I think sleeping in your bed might be more comfortable."

You let out a laugh, "Are you judging the comfortability of my tub?"

“I wouldn’t dream of demeaning your lovely bathtub, my dear.” He chuckled, standing, and offering his hand out to you; you took it, "My lady," He made you laugh once more with the terrible attempt he had of a posh accent.

"Why, thank you," You curtsied before you both stepped out of the empty tub and out of the bathroom.

Hand in hand, you and Garfield headed to your bedroom, where he helped you climb into bed, crawling under the blankets after you; wrapping his arms around you, he dugged his head in your neck. "I love you, Gar," You spoke softly, only for Garfield to pull away from you slightly, just enough to let his eyes meet yours.

"I love you more, babe," He jokingly argued, unable to look away from you, he felt his cheeks burn slightly just by being in your presence. “Incredibly more.”

"Yeah, yeah, I know, you're a big sap," You giggled, resting your head on his chest - you could hear his heart beating - "But, I love you more."

The room then fell quiet, Garfield listened as your breathing slowed, and evened out. “Impossible..,” Carding his fingers softly through your hair, he turned to press his lips to the top of your head, a small smile growing on his face. "I love you more." He muttered softly before he drifted off to sleep, hoping to see your smile when he woke up.

---

Main Masterlist | DC Masterlist

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randoimago · 1 year ago

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Hai gorgeous, i'm really happy stumble at your blog. This is so amazing. Could you please do a headcannon for Eren, Porco, and armin with bakery female Reader please... thank you in advance

With a Reader that has a Bakery

Fandom: Attack on Titan

Character(s): Armin Arlet, Eren Jaegar, Porco Galliard

Type of Request: Headcanons

Note(s): Hey lovely 🥰 thank you so much !! I hope you enjoy your request!!

Armin

Armin likes to stop by every so often to pick up baked goods for his friends. He has a list with him, but you've gotten to the point of remembering his order that he hardly needs it (which honestly makes him flustered because you do remember what he usually gets and he finds that sweet).

Can't help but get a bit distracted as time goes by with him becoming a regular. He knows that he should go back with the basket of baked good you've made, but he also wants to just stay and talk to you. Doesn't really flirt, but he does ask about your day and how things are at the bakery (tries to make sure you aren't overworking yourself too).

There has been times when he's realized that you put something extra in the basket of food that he didn't order or that the price for things doesn't quite add up. Only for you to mention somethings being on the house, which makes him more flustered that you'd give him a discount. Armin absolutely brings you some flowers as thanks his next visit. He's very sweet.

Eren

Accidentally stumbled upon your bakery one day when he was younger (maybe between seasons 2 and 3) and he ended up being amazed by what you could bake. Doesn't want to take up too much of your time, but absolutely buys something with the intention of sharing it with Armin and Mikasa.

Ends up coming back a few times before vanishing for quite a while, it definitely has you concerned until he returns, looking different. But he still visits the bakery. You give him something on the house as a "Welcome Back" type thing and he gives a small nod. It's obvious that he's been through a lot, and yet, that didn't stop him from coming back to see you.

While he's not as enthusiastic and bright eyed as in the past, he still visits the bakery with new "friends", making sure they stay in line while he talks to you. You might not notice it, but there is a small smile on his face now and then as you prepare the food and give it to him. He makes sure to put a bit extra in your tip jar as thanks.

Porco

The first time he stumbled into your bakery, he looked annoyed. He ended up mentioning that a friend of his made him come here to pick something up for her. And he continued to try and be annoyed despite the blush creeping up his neck with how cute he notices you to be as you prepare the baked good.

Continues to go to your bakery under other excuses of picking up different things for friends when it's really just to see you again. Of course, he doesn't admit that. But he can't help but use each visit to learn more about you and open up about himself a bit more.

And then one day, he ends up visiting with one of his friends, the girl (Pieck) that sent him here in the first place. He's doing his best to appear nonchalant and like he doesn't want to be in the bakery until Pieck spills the beans about how he looks forward to visiting and seeing you. That causes Porco to practically shove her out the door after they've paid for the baked goods. It isn't until later that he realizes you wrote down a time for him to visit you to take you out on a date until later on and it makes him super flustered.

#attack on titan x reader #aot x reader #porco x reader #eren x reader #armin x reader #armin arlert x reader #porco galliard x reader #eren yeager x reader #eren jaeger x reader

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clare-875 · 2 months ago

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Until The End (Levi x Reader)- Chapter 22

[The Shiganshina District]

_____ A/N: Posted on Wattpad (@CLARE_875) but also decided to post here :)

Summary: "You can push me away, but I will still fight by you, and I will still follow you… until the end."

The ever-so-stoic Levi Ackerman has only ever known the terrors that living in a cruel world could bring. This all changed one fateful day when he encountered [y/n]; a girl renowned for her looks and abnormal speed. As they escape the confines of the Underground together, they soon discover that freedom doesn't come easy in a world full of Titans. As they rise through the ranks, [y/n] becomes known as "Humanity's Angel", a beacon of hope to humanity as she melts the walls Levi had built around his heart. However, she has her secrets too, and a dark past that might just threaten to pull them apart.

The storyline and characters of Attack on Titan do NOT belong to me, but all to Hajime Isayama; however, I do own this story, and all that occurs disparate to that storyline.

[Series Masterlist] [Chapter Twenty-One] <--> [Chapter Twenty-Three] _____

Warnings: Canonical Violence

You sat with Hange with the other Team Leaders, listening as the announcement was made that tonight, the night before we set off to Shiganshina, there would be meat. You deadpan at the sudden intense silence. The Scouts look to each other in the dining hall eyeing the meat that was prepared for them like it was a token from the Gods. And then, all of a sudden noise filled the dining hall once again. You'd think they were more devoted to cutting perfect slices of meat than killing Titans, cause you swear you've never seen the Scouts so focused. Arguments filled the dining hall, punches were thrown and shouting was all you could hear, especially at the table with your squad. Sasha had bitten the entirety of their roasted meat whole, and now Jean and Connie were playing tug of war as they tried to pry it from her locked jaw, tears in their eyes and screaming. You watch as they now hold her unconscious form, still somehow reaching for the precious product. Everyone had gone insane.

You watched as one of the Squad leaders calmly sliced some of the meat on our table each of us taking a slice as we watched the Scouts lose their minds. "Hey, I think we've got casualties," one of the Leaders speaks up, as you all chew your meat, sweat dropping at the soldiers' antics. "Whose brilliant idea was it to serve meat?" Hange asks as their voice is muffled with the meat in their mouth. "Sorry. But we knew blowing the food budget for two months in one night would result in this." You simply smile and nod as you chew your bit of meat. You can't remember the last time you'd had such a delicacy before and you savoured the way it melted in your mouth. Your squad had now gagged and tied Sasha to a nearby post, finally, the noise dwindling as the Scouts calmed down and actually ate their meals.

You and the Squad Leaders now continue in a quiet conversation, going over the plans for tomorrow before changing the subject to simple small talk. "Hey [y/n], where's Levi?" Hange asks from next to you as they go for another piece of meat. "I'm not sure," you say, "he said he needed to finish off some paperwork and to go ahead." You shrugged as you chewed away continuing to eat what was probably the best meal you'd had in a long time, keeping some for Levi, just in case. "So~ how are the two of you going then?" Marlene, a female Leader who sat in front of you, speaks up eyeing you curiously. "What me and Levi?" You ask laughing a little, before going for another piece of your meal, "Fine, why do you ask?" One of the male Leaders looks up from his meal, blushing profusely, "So the two of you aren't together then?" He asks, strange determination on his face.

You tilt your head to the side slightly in confusion before Hange speaks up again from next to you, jabbing their fork in the direction of the Leader. "Huh? Are you stupid, of course they're together, haven't you heard them in their chambers in the middle of the night? Oh, Levi~ don't stop-" You punch Hange on the top of their head, flushing deep red. "Hange-" you say through gritted teeth as Marlene laughs in amusement, and the men on the table look like they've just heard their mother died. You sweatdrop looking at them as they cursed the Gods. "You guys are taking this way too personally," you say rolling your eyes, as they look at you, one of them clasping your hand as tears roll down his face. You try to escape their grip as they start stuttering out to you, "[y/n], please tell me I still have a ch-"

"What's going on."

You look up to see that Levi has finally joined you, aura dark as he eyes the man holding your hand whilst your other still holds a fork up, chewing on your meat. The Leader drops your hand instantly, scrambling and saying he needs to go somewhere as he runs off out of the dining hall. You sigh, wiping the hand that was held on your pants before turning to Levi who sat next to you and smiled. "I saved you some," you say quietly, pushing over his plate, as he nods to you gratefully. He surprises you when he gently squeezes the hand that the Scout Leader had just held, before releasing it. You grin up to him in adoration and he looks away trying to avoid your gaze. The both of you continue your meals until the meat has been wiped clean from your plates. But, just as the table finds a comfortable silence once again, you hear Eren and Jean start to shout out from their table, as a strange argument ensues.

"You're so full of yourself, you pig shit!"

"You trying to grow out the hair on your mane, horse face?!"

You watch as they start to punch eat other, as others gather to see what's going on. "Looks like something's started." One of the Leaders says from in front of you. "And here I told 'em to behave." Another muttered as you watched the two boys.

"If you insist on being so suicidal... I'll just have to kill you!"

"I'll have to take that to heart! You should start showing your mom some respect. Jean-boy!"

"Would you forget that?!"

You roll your eyes as their fight continues, but nobody stops them, not even Mikasa as she watches them with an almost serene expression on her face. Many minutes pass and you see their movements start to slacken, half-heartedly punching the other as though begging someone to come in and tell them to stop. You turn to your right as Levi lets out a deep sigh and stands up. You watch as he slowly walks over to the two. "Hey," you hear Levi mutter out darkly before he kicks Eren enough for him to fly across the room. He then turns to Jean and punches him in the gut, the both of them curling in on themselves as Levi finishes them both in one blow. "You're all too damn rowdy. Go to sleep. And clean that up!" You hear the rest of the Scouts shout out in confirmation as you decide to finish up too, moving to put your and Levi's plates away.

Soon after doing so, you decided to untie Sasha from her bounds as she yelled out, voice still muffled and face desperate. Afterwards, you wandered around the darkened streets as you tried to find where Levi had gone off to after the rowdy events of the night. You stop abruptly when you hear the voice of Mikasa. "Once we retake Wall Maria... and defeat all the enemies coming for us... will they come back? Those days..." You let out a gentle sigh at her words. You knew her sentiment, you had lost so many people on your journey to today. Furlan, Isabel, your squad, Miche, countless other soldiers. To think you despised the Underground, when they were probably your most treasured memories. "We'll bring it back." You hear Eren's voice ring through the silence. "But some things are forever changed. We'll make them pay for that." You hear Mikasa quietly agree.

"But there's more than that," Armin speaks up, "the sea... a salt lake so big that merchants could spend their whole lives and still not get all the salt. There's more than just Titans outside the walls. Fiery water, lands of ice, sandy snowfields... I joined the Scouts so I could see all that." There's a pause before he continues. "Let's start by seeing the sea! You still doubt that it's real Eren! You'll see! It does exist!" You hear the grin in Eren's voice as he replies to Armin's fiery words. "All right then. Guess we'll just have to go and see." You hear as the three of them start to get up, "It's a promise then! You have to!" Their voice dwindled in the distance as you shook your head and turned the corner, only to find the man you'd been looking for. Levi had his back to a wall, just near where the three young Scouts had been sitting. You knew he had been listening in as well.

He has a nostalgic look on his face, eyes staring straight ahead as you walk towards him and decide to sit down on his left. You lean your head against his shoulder and intertwine your hand with his letting silence consume the both of you. "They're just like us, all those years ago on the rooftops with Furlan and Isabel," you mutter out, a soft tone in your voice. You feel his hand tightly squeeze yours in agreement. You remember that night, looking at the starry sky, a night similar to tonight, talking about your dreams. You let the night go on. Both of you shrouded in your memories and the sorrow of the youthful naivety left behind. Both of you holding onto the other, the only thing left in the devastation of reality.

.....

The next day comes and goes, and now sunset is on the horizon, a symbol of your departure. You mounted [h/n] remembering the massive send-off the Scouts had provided earlier. Countless citizens shouted to you and the soldiers, exclaiming in their hope, their gratitude and their support. You had never seen anything like it, never seen humanity so validating in the Scout's endeavours. You trot to Levi who is also atop his horse, meeting his eyes as he looks at you, a silent sentiment shared between your gaze. Stay safe; Stay alive. Then you hear Erwin's booming voice echo through the tense silence. "The final operation to retake Wall Maria... will now commence!" You hear the uproar of those around you, and you're all off. Back into Titan territory. "Advance!"

.....

We break through the treeline after spending the entirety of the moonless evening travelling to Shiganshina, but then, we see it. At the breaking of dawn and as the sun's first rays touch the horizon, there in all its glory lay Wall Maria. It had been 5 years since that day when the lives of those within the walls were inevitably changed. 5 years, and today you would revert the fate that was bestowed upon all of you, sealing the inner and outer walls that surrounded Shiganshina. "Be on guard for Titans hiding in the shadows!" You hear Erwin's voice ring through the crowd as you make your descent, passing through abandoned homes. "Our operation begins now! All troops, switch to ODM gear!"

At his command, you go to stand on [h/n] readying your gear, and you see Levi do the same next to you. You pat your horse gently as you get up, "I'll see you later [h/n]," you mutter, as she neighs, somehow in acknowledgement. You let out a grim smile as you attach your ODM gear to the wall that now lies in front of you, Levi joining you as you both whisk your way above your horses and on top of the walls. You all make sure you have your hoods covering your faces as a deterrent from the enemy, not knowing who Eren is. By the time they find out, Eren would have the outer gate plugged. Your role, and the role of the squad was to make sure that Eren was able to do just that, unscathed.

"Don't stop! Head for the outer gate!" You hear Levi's voice shout to Eren after he sees him stop briefly to look down onto Shiganshina, his hometown. "Roger!" You hear the boy's voice ring through as you sprint towards the first hole left in the walls, keeping pace with Levi and not going too far ahead. Then, you switch to your ODM gear once more, using the walls to propel you to your destination. When you finally arrive, Levi joins you as you go to Hange who surveys the premises with unease in their eyes. "This is all too strange... Not a single Titan in sight?" You hear them say from next to you. They're right after all, strangely, you hadn't seen a Titan in hours, the last one being sleeping in the forest due to the lack of moonlight. Hange is right to be worried, not only had there been a lack of Titans, but also of the enemy: Reiner and Bertholdt.

"But we have to keep going." You hear Levi mutter out darkly. "Yeah, there's no reason to call it off." Hange agrees as they go for a green smoke signal, firing it in the air alongside other scattered Scouts in the area. With the green smoke rising, you see Eren approach the hole, readying for his transformation and the task of sealing the walls. His teeth latch onto the flesh of his hand once again, as he propels himself upwards and then down towards the breach in the wall. There is an overwhelming gold glow as your hair is pushed from your face at the impact, you see Eren's emerald eyes within his Titan's form, and then you see, the crystallisation starting to form. It starts from the ends of the Titan's body before consuming the entirety of it, you see as Eren reseals the wall once more.

Mikasa goes down to Eren's now human form that had escaped from his Titan before he too, was crystallised and brings him back up to the top of Wall Maria. "Don't let your guard down! Keep on the lookout!" Hange calls out to the Scouts around you, as they shout in confirmation, scattering along the walls. As you watch them survey, you look downwards with Levi to the Scouts next to the crystallised statue of Eren now protruding from where the hole used to be. "Is it sealed?!" You call out, to which one of the Scouts nod. "Success! It's plugged all right!" He and other Scouts then fire green smoke signals into the air again. One down, one to go.

"We'll head for the inner gate! While we're on the move, remember to hide your faces!" Hange yells out to us as we start to run across the walls again. You see that Eren now had Mikasa's cape on, having lost it in his transformation. You're still at unease though as you hear Eren's voice muttering out from next to you. "I really plugged the hole? And that easily...?" You hear Mikasa's voice come from behind you. "You did it. Believe in your own power." Levi's voice retorts hers as he speaks up from your opposite side. "Not yet!" You nod as you agree to Levi's sentiment, "No matter how much you plug it, they'll break the wall as long as they live. Until we kill Reiner, Betholdt and any other enemies, the operation to retake Wall Maria won't end."

"Of course... I know that!" Eren's voice responds to your eerie words as you continue on your way. You know the apprehension exists in the air at the prospect that you don't know where the enemy is, but a prolonged battle would be the Scout's downfall. We had to win this decisively, and with Armin and Erwin in charge of finding said enemy, you had no doubt the mystery of their absence would be solved soon. We continue along the walls spanning from the opposite side to now the inner gate, where a hole lays etched in its structure. Just as you think this mission will go forth uninterrupted, you hear the shot of another smoke signal ring through the air. You look up, it's Erwin. Red smoke rises from where he had his arm pointing upwards, clearing having set off his gun with the signal to halt the mission.

"All troops, scatter and stand by atop the wall!" Hange calls out from in front of us as we move upwards, on top of the walls again.

.....

You watch as Scouts now line the walls below you, using their swords to tap the walls looking for a hollow proportion. You know this must have been the idea of Armin, as he also joins them in looking for a possible hiding spot for the enemy. It needed to be a place where they would be able to react no matter when Eren approached; a position able to see everything... If that was anywhere, it had to be in the walls. Suddenly, you watch as a Scout below you stops his movements and you look down curiously, Levi by your side. Sure enough, he fires his gun. "Here! The cavity is here!" But before any of you can so much as breathe, a sword was protruding from the Scout's chest to his back, blood splurting out on impact. Then, you see a flash of blond hair and Armin's voice. "Reiner!"

You don't know what compels you to move, but you do, and you feel Levi does the same. But you're faster. You force yourself downwards in less than a second as Reiner looks at you in complete shock and fear before you shove one of your swords right down his throat, the other through his chest. You watch as his eyes slowly turn in the inside of his head. Yes, you've killed him. But before your relief can consume you, his irises flash back to you. You quickly retract your blades in shock and retreat to the walls as Levi approaches for the assist, flying down and cutting his arms from his body, before he joins you on the side of the wall, as you both look down at Reiner's bleeding form. "Shit!" You exclaim in frustration as see how Reiner's body is still able to move, but you are unable to do anything further, in case he transforms into a Titan.

"Tch is that another Titan Power?!" Levi shouts out. "So close! But we couldn't finish 'em!" You can't say anything as a gold glow consumes your features once again, Reiner transforming into his Armoured Titan that lies flat on the ground. "Keep on the lookout!" Erwin's voice calls from above. "Locate his allies!" But then, another thunderous impact shakes the walls. "[y/n]!" Levi calls out, as he offers an arm to stabilise you before the both of you head back up the wall. Your eyes widen with Levi's as he stays by your side, a luminous glow surrounding the walls and suddenly, in the distance, Titans are lined up. In the middle of their lineup is a Titan unlike any you had seen before; the beast Titan.

You watch as the beast reaches down for a boulder the size of 3 houses before lifting it into the air, holding it in a weird stance before flinging it in the direction of all of you. "Boulder incoming!" You hear the Commander's cry and feel Levi's fingers twitch in anxiety, his grip pulling you behind him, as you feel the impact ring through to your bones. Debris rises but as Levi's grip finally loosens you see that the boulder had not caused an impact on the Scouts but on the inner gate. Now rocks fill the entrance to Shiganshina, and horses are unable to pass. First, they would aim for the horses, surrounding and blocking our escape; annihilating you all... here.

Your eyes move to your surroundings before they lock onto Reiner's Armoured Titan and you go up to the Commander. "Erwin, he's going to climb up." Sure enough, the Armoured Titan suddenly crystallises the ends of its feet and hands. It readies to sprint to the walls before one of its feet causes impact and grasps onto Wall Maria with its crystalised claws, slowly making its way up. "All troops! Avoid clashing with the Armoured Titan!" The Commander demands. "Stay away from him!" The Scouts shout out in validation. "That quadruped type down there is an intelligent Titan." You follow Erwin's eyes to a Titan in the distance next to the other Titans that have suddenly appeared. It was on all fours, with an Abnormally long head. On its back, there was strange luggage. "There might even be others," Erwin continues.

But then, the Beast Titan lets out a horrific roar before raising its fist and pounding it to the ground, causing it to collapse. Then, the smaller Titans beside it start to make a move, running towards us in a weird frenzy. "They're moving! Multiple two to three meters approaching!" You clench your teeth in frustration. They seem to be targeting the horses, and if they do so, you all lose the only means of transportation and escape. What's more the larger Titans are still present next to the Beast Titan. If they succeed in their plan, they could simply wait until we weaken with starvation and lack of resources, Eren easily being taken from us. They truly do mean to trap us in. "Commander! The Armoured Titan is close! And we still don't know where Bertholdt is!"

"Yeah, I know," Erwin replies with almost laughable calmness next to you, but you try to do the same, ignoring the feeling of the overwhelming presence of the enemy. The Commander had remained unmoving for the past few minutes, probably overanalysing the sight before you as well. "Are you finally ready to say something?" Levi asks from next to where you stand. "I could've had breakfast during the wait." You silently thank the heavens for the man next to you as his unchecked humour somehow undoes the anxiety creeping up to your chest. The familiarity of his bored voice brings you back from your thoughts. That's right, we'd done this a million times before. Kill the enemy, survive, go home. That was the plan. It didn't matter how many Titans you faced as long as you were together.

"Dirk Squad and Marlene Squad. Protect the horses at the gate with Klaus Squad. Levi and [y/n] Squad and Hange Squad! Take down the Armoured Titan! Employ the Thunder Spears at your discretion! Achieve your objectives whatever it takes!" The thunder spears. Weapons that could be launched to Kill Titans from the impact, you'd have to be careful in its use so that you are also not caught up in the explosion; lethal but very powerful. "This moment! This battle! The survival of humanity depends on it! Once more, for humanity... give your hearts!" There's a chorus of voices that shout out, the Scouts abiding by the Commander's words as they set off to their respective areas.

"Wait! [y/n], Levi, Armin! I did say your squad needed to go but I need you both to stay." His eyes move sharply between the two of you. You raise your eyebrows in question as you meet Levi's also puzzled gaze. "To protect the horses and not Eren?" Erwin nods. "That's right," he says before pointing his sword at the Beast Titan, "And to strike him down when the chance comes. Levi, I want to entrust you to take on the Beast Titan. [y/n], your speed will help us rid of the smaller Titans in the meantime. We have inexperienced Scouts in the vicinity, no doubt casualties will arise." His eyes turn to you. "I need you to clear the path for Levi. But in doing so, two Captains in one area is a waste of resources, after you're done with the smaller Titans, I want you to return to your squad. With the help of Armin, kill Reiner and Bertholdt."

You see Levi turns sharply to Erwin, not liking the prospect of being apart from each other in such a risky battle. However, you can't waste time and argue in a place like this. You nod your head, "Roger Erwin. Since we failed to kill Reiner earlier, it's only fair I help finish the job." You don't wait for Levi's remark as you set off across the wall to where the smaller Titans taunt the Scouts below.

Not noticing the way the Beast Titan's eyes look at you from the distance. Eyes widening at your small but unmistakable figure, flying down from atop the wall, slicing through the Titans...

_____

[Chapter Twenty-One] <--> [Chapter Twenty-Three]

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liliewrites · 5 months ago

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hi there, little love !

" oh, it seems you've stumbled upon my cozy little space, welcome darling! "

hello hello, i'm kylie!

you can call me any lielie or any nn, any is fine! i don't mind! you're all my little lovely lilies here!:)

i am 18, she/her and i'm 100% wlw. 🏳️‍🌈/🇵🇭

i really love strawberries, i love women and pink is my favorite color!

besides writing and thirsting over women, i am an avid gamer. besides hoyogames, ptn and r1999, i also play a lot of other games! mainly rpgs and jrpgs hehe. women..

i'm a big fan of vtubers, mainly hololive and idol corp. i have no kami-oshi nor do i have a favorite group. i love them all!

the wonderful woman in my pfp is none other than me, kylie! drawn by my lovely irl friend:))

my current favorite women are ; arlecchino (the loml), stelle, karlach cliffgate, falin and tennant (from r1999).

requests are open, love! (rules and masterlist utc)

you are free to leave requests/asks, although keep in mind of the following rules and reminders ;

i may take a lot of time when writing your request, as i do my best to write each fic with lots of love. so i hope you don't mind waiting for awhile! rest assured, it's there and i'm still working on it. if it doesn't come out in a week or two, then you're free to resubmit your ask!

i accept one-shots, headcanons and long fics. both sfw and nsfw.

i only and only write for female x female. this blog is purely for sapphic/wlw only! (as i am a woman enthusiast-)

besides female!reader/character, i can also write for transfem!reader/character. gender neutral can be accepted, but they will be afab on default if description of genitalia/appearance is required.

strictly NO MEN. my blog is for the ladies only. i want my blog to be a cozy space for sapphics to enjoy:))

for nsfw- besides smut, i can write violence and slightly dark content. however, any controversial themes such as pedophilia, rape, abuse etc. will usually not be accepted (exceptions may vary, depending on the extremity and context). all my nsfw content will have some kind of consent!

for the baby lilies (minors), you are all free to interact with my sfw content okay? but the nsfw content are a no-no for you! i can't control your actions if you wish to read them at your own discretion, but if i find out that you are a minor interacting (sending asks, commenting, reblogging) with my nsfw content then you will be blocked. i'm sorry, little love! but my nsfw content contain things that aren't for you yet.

which woman would you like to dream of, love?

i can write for ;

hoyoverse women

jujutsu kaisen women

demon slayer women

attack on titan women

path to nowhere women

baldurs gate 3 women

just women in general. if there's a woman you want to request for from a certain fandom that i didn't mention here, you are welcome to ask if i can write for them! i love women, hihi.

lielie's masterlist | lielie's series list

lielie's tag list

#lilac asks💜 (for asks i receive from my little loves!) #lilac writes💜 (for all my written works!) #lilac thoughts 💜 (for my random shenanigans!) #lilac garden💜 (for reblogging my own works!) #lilac announcements 💜 (for any important announcements!)

lielie's lovely little anons! 🔥💫☀️🪐

please do not copy/repost any of my works! i only post here on tumblr and not on any other site. also consider following my editor, @crimsondawn28, whom will give any updates regarding the blog should an emergency arise again. thank you for coming by!:)

#lilac thoughts 💜#lilac announcements 💜

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metalandmagi · 1 year ago

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The Real Anime Awards of 2023

Every year, I like to make my own anime meme awards for the important categories we really care about. Because who cares about best animation or anime of the year when we could find out who the biggest chad is?

Anyway, here are the nominations:

Prettiest boy

Shall Fen Shall (Sugar Apple Fairy Tale)

Every single character in Tsurune season 2

Leonhart…in either of his forms tbh whatever floats your boat (Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts)

Aqua (Oshi no Ko)

Akito Yamada (My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999)

Izumi Miyamura (Horimiya Piece)

Best couple (and by “Best Couple” I mean they actually have to get together or at least kiss or something)

Himuro and Fuyutsuki (The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague)

Tomo and Jun (Tomo is a Girl)

Leonhart and Sariphi (Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts)

Akito Yamada and Akane Kinoshita (My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999)

Ganta Nakami and Isaki Magari (Insomniacs After School)

Hori and Miyamura (Horimiya)

Honorable mention: Iwakura and Shima (Skip to Loafer) are perfect but they never actually get together.

Biggest Chad

Aizawa Tomo (Tomo-chan is a Girl)...is it possible to have Chad energy and virgin energy at the same time?

Helck (Helck)

Kenpachi Zaraki (Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War season 2)

Rentaro Aijo (The Hundred Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You)...he's what I like to call an "accidental Chad"

Andy (Undead Unluck)

Gojo (Jujutsu Kaisen season 2)

Anime That Was The Biggest Surprise

Technoroid: Overmind

Migi to Dali

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off

Oshi no Ko

Dark Gathering

My Happy Marriage

Best Siblings

Chobei and Toma (Hell’s Paradise)

Ruby and Aqua (Oshi no Ko)

Migi and Dali (Migi to Dali)

Nezuko and Tanjiro (Demon Slayer Swordsmith Village arc)

Vash and Knives (Trigun Stampede)

*SPOILERS* Hajime Aono and Nao Saeki (Ao no Orchestra)

Best Mystery

Apothecary Diaries

Kamonohashi Ron

Undead Girl Murder Farce

Migi to Dali

Pluto

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off

Best Redhead

Souma Shiki (Cool Doji Danshi cour 2)

Chigiri (Blue Lock cour 2)

Aizawa Tomo (Tomo-chan is a Girl)

Anarchy (Mahou Shoujo Magical Destroyers)

Kana Arima (Oshi no Ko)

William G Maryblood (The Faraway Paladin season 2)

Most Dunked on Character

Kahaku (To Your Eternity season 2)

Ganta Nakami (Insomniacs After School)

Tsugaru Shinuchi (Undead Girl Murder Farce)

Kazuya (Rent A Girlfriend)

Scott Pilgrim (Scott Pilgrim Takes Off)

Rudy (Mushoku Tensei) (When your central arc revolves around having erectile dysfunction, that’s just the entire universe, mangaka included, dunking on you)

Show With The Most Drip

High Card

Technoroid: Overmind

My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999

Rent A Girlfriend

You Were Experienced, I Was Not: Our Dating Story

Trigun Stampede

Anime boy with the most “Baby Girl” energy

Vash the Stampede (Trigun Stampede)

Levi Ackerman (Attack on Titan the final season)

Kouya Madoka (Overtake!)

Totomaru (Kamonohashi Ron)

Kentarō Momose (My New Boss is Goofy)

Chris Redgrave (High Card)

Well, there you have it: all the categories that really matter. I know I could have made this a poll or series of polls, but this is just something fun and silly I put together every year, so I didn't want anyone bitching about my choices or saying "you forgot ___!"

Can't wait to see what kind of bullshit Crunchyroll cooks up for their nominations this year!

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teapotteringabout · 3 months ago

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Stingray Ep 1

It's me again, doing those reviews I promised. Episode 1, lets go:

Recently voted in @tv21pollshowdown / @room-on-broom 's Stingray Episode Tournament to be the absolute best of the bunch. Personally I don't agree, but we'll get to my favourites later. That said, you may have noticed I've popped it into Glorious GLORIOUS because it's definitely one of the best, and serves its First Episode job perfectly.

For starters, the start. Literally. It's the dramatic words "Stand by for action!", a literal explosion and Bob on the Battle Bongos earns his paycheque. The rest of the intro theme is trombone and bongo-heavy, very fast, very stirring, and a masterful weaving of two of the main musical motifs we hear throughout the show. It's Barry Gray, baby! You could argue that every episode has this in their favour but for episode 1, I think the theme hits especially hard.

We're also introduced to our main cast: Troy Tempest, Phones, Commander Shore, Atlanta Shore, Marina, X20, Titan and the Aquaphibians. And Fisher! Even Fisher is in episode 1. Good for him.

I do love the WAY some of these characters are introduced. Troy is an aquanaut who has a fascination with the sea (naturally), so we first see him through an aquarium. Phones is the chill one, so here he is, chilling out.

My favourite introduction is probably X20's, the very first non-human character we meet. The shot of the mysterious island, the eerie warble of the strings, the pan to the shuttered window, then BAM IT'S BRITNEY BITCH:

Then we get the precursor to TOS's Operation Cover-Up, only much fancier, and X-20's charming abode turns into charming evil lair.

(the gifs are fast because they were too chonky so I had to cut some frames haha)

It's during this scene that we're first introduced to Titan. Personally I think it's a shame our first look at him is on a black and white screen. You could argue that we still get the full impact of his majesty later, but I think I'd prefer it if we just heard his voice to start with. When we do meet him, he's a great villain, featuring the booming tones of Ray Barrett who 'curls' his voice just enough to differentiate it from Shore's. We meet him with the camera looking up at him, because he only looks down on people, you see. I love his design, particularly the Hellenistic swirls in his beard.

Speaking of Titan, I love how his throneroom isn't the typical evil lair. It was the first UK show to be filmed in colour, so the art team went all-in with bright colours everywhere (also because they were still learning about cinemtographic colour). Why should evil characters lurk in the dark all the time? Be like Titan. Bust out the glitter carpet and the ginormous pearls!

Finally, Marina's introduction. When I first saw her I was blown away by how beautifully-crafted this puppet was. She stands out. No other lady has such long hair, and every episode it's in an intricate coiffure. Pretty much all the other female puppets have a heart-shaped face, while her's is oval. She is an icon, she is the moment.

In terms of plot, it's simple but effective. We're sort of in media res, straight to the point with the aquaphibians blowing shit up, here are your cast, Stingray is attacked and the crew captured. Then we have the beautifully drawn out Trial by Teufel scene.

If Teufel looks away from Troy within a marine minute (about 1 and a half Terranean minutes it would seem), then Troy is guilty of 'crimes against the underwater nations' and will be executed. The timer is a vial of dripping water, coloured red for the camera, and the sound of the drip like the ticking of the clock, combined with the tense string notes makes for a very gripping marine minute. Of course, Troy almost makes it to the end before Teufel turns his back on him at the last moment, thus declaring him guilty.

Cut to the next scene, and Troy, Phones and Marina work together for the first time as a team to escape. The action is swift and effective, but I won't lie, it leaves me wanting more. The aquaphibians seem overtaken very quickly, I demand more blood! Obviously the puppets are limited in their range of movement, but it would have been cool to have a proper Stingray battle in the first episode. That's something that get's rectified in its 'sequel', but we'll get to that.

Finally, everyone's gathered round the Shore dining table (including Fisher!!) and Atlanta realises she's in a love triangle. Thankfully, it's not one that lasts long, but again, we'll get to that.

There's a couple of things in the plot that I don't really understand. When Stingray goes missing and an aerial search turns up nothing, Shore's next move is to nuke that area of the ocean. It never happens thankfully, but aren't there any other submarines that could investigate? You know, considering Stingray is a submarine and might be on the ocean floor? Now, in fairness, according to Stingray: Adventures in Videcolor (Andrew Pixley 2022), in the original version of the script, Shore had a few extra lines were he detailed that this mysterious underwater enemy (Titan) had sunk 5 ships already, killing hundreds (p244). So in his mind, with their ultimate submarine supposedly lost, an all-out retaliatory attack makes more sense. But that's not in the final episode, and I'd rather judge the series on its face value rather than using supplementary material to inform me. This will crop up again in the next one, believe me.

Now we get the first rendition of 'Aqua Marina' in the end credits, which I'm only talking about in this episode 1 review. It's a beautiful song, but it's perhaps the main reason why Troy has this love rat reputation. Oh, he'll have a few instances of 'love rat' behaviour in the episodes for real. But the slideshow of him hanging out with Marina while Atlanta looks wistfully at his photograph is pretty damning, regardless of the actual content of the episode. As we'll discover, most of the series doesn't actually contain the love triangle, with it mostly ending by episode 10 at the latest, but this end credits sequence alone makes you think it lasts all the way. It makes you wonder if there was more planned for the love triangle arc, but it was ultimately done away with?

Over all though, it's a terrific episode. Writing it out now, I realise how good it is so I can see why it won the poll. It's not my favourite, but it's a solid S tier all the same. Glorious, in fact.

#stingray #stingray 1964 #thunderfam #gerry anderson #stingray 60th anniversary #stingray review

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cienie-isengardu · 4 months ago

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Sektor Gameplay Trailer

Sektor Gameplay Trailer does not make me optimistic when it comes to Sub-Zero, because right now it really feels like NRS is firmly set to ridicule Bi-Han and trash all the best details about him from widely understood lore. I also have this impression that all characters are “promoted at his cost”, especially Sektor. I swear, if fandom/NRS will applaud her ideology while trashing Bi-Han for the same mindset, I will be furious. And is it just me, or is the NRS erasing the “evil women”? Damashi turned into Titan Shang Tsung, Mileena is now a good if not a bit brash princess, Sindel the great queen (while a great chunk of fandom/storyline ignores her shitty treatment of sick people), Tanya a loyal servant. Even Nitara, though supporting the bad guys, is there to save her realm from starvation. And now, female Sektor - who is openly said to share the same vision with Bi-Han, feels like will get the final approval, when everyone (NRS) paints Bi-Han in the worst light. Like, for the first time I’m not sure if I want to engage with Mortal Kombat Game so set to make Bi-Han suffer and yes, this jump at enemy when portal is closing is the weirdest take for Sub-Zero right now.

But also, I’m kinda tired of people comparing this to MK1’s scene when Sub-Zero is jumping on Kung Lao and Raiden. Because that scene was meant to be theatrical and overdone, and this was just Sub-Zero’s big entrance to scare off Liu Kang’s Champion, as a part of test designed by Madam Bo. Check, even Kuai Liang was walking while spinning his spear for the same visual reasons. Especially since the same game made it clear this is not their usual thing, as during a mission they kept to stealth and attacked only when time was right or they could not stay in the same place for too long.

Maybe the upcoming story mode will make more sense about Bi-Han jumping on Havik (as in, there is a reason behind his rash action) but in all fairness, the only thing that still keeps me interested in giving MK a chance is the premise of Sektor and Bi-Han’s close bond - one I sincerely hope won’t be turned into some romantic bullshit.

Also, the lack of Smoke disturbs me a lot. He barely got spotlight in the latest game and now he seems to be even more omitted than before? Not to mention I have no idea what is logical construction of the storyline - there is an attack on Kuai Liang's wedding (Cyrax Gameplay) but also meeting between Lin Kuei, Liu Kang's Champions and Outworld like nothing bad happened before? I'm kinda confused by the spoilers. Not that I expect any great grand storyline to follow but still weird take of turn. Now to wait and see what Noob Saibot's trailer will reveal (and enjoy some badass Bi-Han/Noob to sweeten my pain)

#mortal kombat #my rant #sub zero #sektor #i have so many feelings about bi han and sektor (whatever the gender)#i think NRS needed to make that jump becuase they know bi han would not get caught otherwise by any character :D :D

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plutoccult · 1 year ago

Text

OUT OF THE WOODS

pairing: levi ackerman x gender neutral reader

description: you were notorious for following levi’s every order without hesitation. it was practically unbearable for him, but the one time you disobey him is when he is eternally grateful.

word count: 2.8k

also available to read on my ao3 here

author’s note: this is something i’ve never done before aka write for levi! i’m hoping i haven’t strayed too far from his character, but it’s worth trying something new. i must admit, this is a little messy and i’m quite iffy about it, but i at least tried my best. i almost named this “the monsters turned out to be just trees” because i 1. love taylor swift and 2. thought those lyrics captured this almost perfectly, but i decided it was too long and just went with the song title those lyrics are from. this is something entirely new and never before posted anywhere else, but it will also be shared on ao3 as everyone has their preferences on where they like to read. as always, i hope you enjoy <3

you always obeyed levi’s every order, and god, he hated it.

“yes, captain.” you’d say. “right away, captain.” was another one of your go-to phrases. you could just… talk to him? like a normal human being? yes, he was your captain, but levi craved a normal conversation with you.

oh, wait. why did he want that so badly? why did he want to hear your voice say things other than replying to his commands for you and the squad? it’s not like he liked you. no, no! he couldn’t stand you. that’s what this was. right?

levi was particularly known for only listening to commander erwin’s orders and no one else’s, but he didn’t see himself of such importance. it wouldn’t kill you to protest a little bit for once. he even tested your obedience by demanding you glue a broken vase back together. you then proceeded to spend hours restoring it to its former glory. he was surely impressed, but at the same time, he couldn’t believe you actually did it. dare stubborn ol’ levi ever admit it, but he found it kind of cute.

when it came down to the 57th exterior scouting mission, your final order was simple; retreat back to your horses. things didn’t exactly go as hoped, and while the scouts learned something new that day, there was still so much work to do. you wished for everyone’s sake that one day you all could share a proper victory, but it didn’t seem possible just yet with something as stubborn as the female titan.

you and the rest of levi’s squad did as told, but it all went by the wayside when gunther was attacked out of the blue by a figure hidden under the disguise of your scout gear, their green hood concealing their face. there was no time to go along with the plan, now was time to fight back. the squad couldn’t let whoever killed their comrade get away.

as you all attempted to attack, the disguised assailant transformed in front of your very eyes into the female titan you all failed to successfully capture before. now this truly meant war, but the squad was simply no match for this monster.

it all seemed to happen in the blink of an eye. you lost your squad members one after another. you were the last one remaining, you knew this was it. this was your time to die, wasn’t it? part of you always thought it would end in the middle of battle, but not like this. this couldn’t be the end. you didn’t want it to be.

your brain struggled to catch up with everything happening so fast and hitting you all at once. it was impossible to think straight, to get your head together and fight properly. but it was also impossible to realize eren was turning into his titan form until it was too late. the impact of his transformation knocked you straight into a tree, leaving you unconscious as he avenged your fallen squad members, all while your captain had yet to head to the scene of the crime.

levi immediately knew something was wrong the second he saw the sudden glow of eren’s transformation from afar. of course there was something more to this mission. he had to get there quick before it could possibly get any worse, but his idea of “any worse” had already become true; his squad was gone.

he couldn’t do anything to stop eren just yet, levi knew that. this fight between two titan shifters was to be expected. if only the hothead wasn’t so blinded by rage. levi knew better than to let emotions get to the best of him, no matter how much it hurt seeing his squad like this, dying under his wing.

his eyes scanned the states of everyone. gunther, eld, petra, oluo, and then… you. you, who laid there motionless. the life taken out of you, or so levi thought. he couldn’t let this affect him. levi kept all emotions hidden, tucked and buried in deep where no one could find them, no one except the one person who was capable of bringing them out.

“captain…”

huh?! was his mind playing tricks on him? who dared to deceive his ears? it couldn’t be real. it was nothing. nothing at all. you were dead, levi was sure of it, just like the rest of the squad. he was left alone once again, seemingly cursed with this fate from the day he was born.

but then you let out a cough, blood coming out of your mouth and splattering onto the grass. my god, it wasn’t some sick joke from his brain. you miraculously were alive, and levi was too stubborn to let you die out.

he immediately rushed over to you and flipped you off your side so you laid on your back. you breathed heavily and coughed violently, muttering out weak apologies as blood stained your hands, but levi didn’t care. he’d stain himself over and over for your sake.

“you disobeyed orders.” levi said, trying his best to force himself to stay his usual coldhearted self, but it was a losing battle, just like today’s mission. he placed a hand on your cheek, his eyes once filled with anger now becoming soft. “you disobeyed me.”

you could’ve sworn the sight in front of you was like seeing heaven. the impact from earlier made your memories quite hazy, and while you knew you weren’t dead, you sure wouldn’t hate it if this was it. levi’s head blocking the sun made him look like an angel sent from the very land itself, and it was pure bliss.

you closed your eyes with a smile on your face, unbeknownst to you what had truly occurred. to your captain, it seemed like you had left him for good this time, but when he pressed his ear against your chest, he felt the rhythm of your heart as if it were a symphony.

levi couldn’t stand to leave you like this. he had to make sure you got to safety and were treated right away. even if it took you god knows how long to recover, it didn’t matter. but with the female titan trying to take eren alive, he had to remember why he was here in the first place and attempt to clean up the mess the scouts created. you were able to hold out for a little while longer by some sort of miracle, and when levi was able to capture eren back with the help of mikasa, he took you back to where you belonged; with him and the scouts.

by the time you returned to base, you were fast asleep, worn out from the mission. as there wasn’t enough room for all those who were injured, levi took matters into his own hands and tended to your wounds himself, even giving you his bed as he had a much bigger room and it wasn’t like he slept that much anyway. it seemed almost wrong and unprofessional to do so, but when it came to you, he couldn’t help but be a little selfish. it’s what a good captain would do anyway, right?

after what felt like ages, you finally woke up, your mind struggling to remember everything from yesterday. you grew confused as you found yourself in what wasn’t your room, and it became even more puzzling as you saw your captain sitting in a chair next to the bed waiting for you to wake up.

the look of impatience and worry was all you could read from his face and body language. his arms crossed, index finger tapping repeatedly like a drum on his bicep. he was looking away from you, watching the wind blow on the trees outside. levi had been using that view to pass the time and keep himself calm, but it didn’t really help much. only the sound of your voice was medicine to him.

“captain?”

levi lightly jumped in his seat and turned to see your face. you had been bandaged up, not a single wound left dirty. you were also quite bruised, and you immediately winced when you tried to adjust the way you sat. you couldn’t help but wonder what happened to you. if only you hadn’t hit your head so bad.

“you’re awake.” he said plainly. he didn’t want to show too much enthusiasm and freak you out, but on the inside, levi was so glad to see you were okay. the look of confusion on your face made him worry, and he felt the need to overshare and explain what was going on. “uh, this is my room. i took care of you since there wasn’t enough help.”

“oh?” you furrow your eyebrows. “what… what happened?”

“i think i could ask you the same thing, y/n.” levi replied. he had been waiting all this time to hear the truth of what happened. you saw what had happened to your fellow squad members, but with the way you lost consciousness, you had a hard time remembering it all. you could only draw blanks, and you felt as if you disappointed your captain.

“i’m… not sure. i don’t remember. i’m sorry.” you frown.

“i figured.” he sighed. he couldn’t get too mad, but part of him longed for an explanation so he could know where everything went wrong.

“where is everyone? surely petra must have helped you with this, right?” you ask, the question paining levi without you knowing a thing. “you couldn’t have done all of this by yourself.”

levi found himself unable to think about how to go with this. he wanted to let you down easy, lessen the blow, but with that look of innocence in your eyes, you just made it so damn hard for him. “y/n, they’re all gone.”

“gone?”

“gone.” he hated having it come out so harsh, but he had to get the point across without any sugarcoating. levi couldn’t lie, it would be an incredible disservice to you.

“no…” then you began to recall all that happened yesterday; the forest, that god damn female titan, it all replayed in your mind like a never ending horror movie. “no, this is all just one big nightmare. you can pinch me now, okay?”

your delusions only made it worse for levi. he couldn’t let you fool yourself thinking there was the slightest chance they weren’t gone, but he saw, he knew. all the life had been taken out of them, and whoever was behind the monster did it so cold-heartedly. it made him seem a little more humane in the eyes of his peers, as shocking as that was.

“i found all of you scattered on the ground. i thought you died just like they did.” levi said, those last few words coming out strained as he struggled to keep it together. he couldn’t let you see him like this, no way. he had to find an excuse to leave you be so he could go somewhere and let it all out without anyone seeing him.

“this can’t be, oh god.” you sob uncontrollably, making levi uncomfortable. he felt this way because it only made him want to cry with you, but at the same time, it felt wrong to feel like that.

“i can give you space to process this.” he began to stand up, but you tug on his sleeve to stop him, much to levi’s surprise.

“no, no, no. stay.” you giving him orders? he couldn’t believe it, but he would let you stop him, just for a moment.

“it is typically me who gives orders, you know.” levi spoke deliberately.

“well.” you pause, trying to find the right words. “i order you to stay.”

and just like you always did with him, he couldn’t help but obey your order. you let go of levi’s sleeve as he sat back down in his chair, too flustered to look you in the eye.

“i just… i wanna say i’m sorry i failed the squad, but most importantly, i’m sorry i failed you.” you say, your words full of utter shame, feeling like a complete failure. it was like you had just harshly tugged at levi’s heartstrings, despite it being crazy to think that levi ackerman did in fact have a heart.

“there was nothing you could do. the female titan outsmarted all of us.” he replied in that typical monotone voice. it almost started to irritate you. you were trying to have some sort of heartfelt conversation and it seemed like he couldn’t take you seriously. levi wanted to take all of it seriously, but he continuously battled with his mind and heart, and his mind kept winning.

“but it shouldn’t have happened.” you try to protest.

“we can’t turn back time, y/n.” levi argued back.

you can��t help but roll your eyes at him, a huge shock on levi’s end. “god, your words are terrible.”

“excuse me?”

“don’t you know it’s okay to feel things, captain?” you ask him. “i know they call you “humanity’s strongest soldier,” but is being emotionless a requirement?”

he’s unable to form words. where had this fire in you come from? had it been hiding this whole time? where had this disobedient soul been during the entirety of levi’s reign? he couldn’t help but be shocked yet amazed at the same time.

“that squad was like family to me.” you say with tears streaming down your face. “i thought you would’ve felt the same way, but i guess that suspicion i desperately tried to push away was right.”

“…and that is?”

“that you never liked any of us, not one bit, especially…” your lips tremble, but you force yourself to finish your sentence. “especially me.”

when you said those last two words, levi almost gasped. it made him feel so… terrible. so goddamn terrible he knew he couldn’t let his mind win anymore. it was time he chose his heart for once. “that’s nowhere near how i feel, y/n.”

“and how is it that you feel, captain?” you question, refusing to let your tears stop you from standing your ground.

this was it. this was the moment levi would pour his heart out to you. you were a rare jewel who was capable of giving him those pangs in his chest. not everyone could do that, but you sure could without trying or realizing it whatsoever.

“all my life, i thought that there was no point in caring because you’ll lose it eventually, but…” he began to speak, almost tempted to hold back, but he refused to do so any longer. “all i’ve ever been given here is a reason to care, and i didn’t want to show it. i didn’t want anyone to see it, and i wish they could know that i did. i did care, more than what’s possible to express.”

your hardened expression turned soft. to think he didn’t have such feelings made you feel so stupid. it’s easy to judge a book by its cover, isn’t it? but you read levi all wrong. oh so wrong. “you did?”

“i do, even now. that applies to you too, you know.” levi replied without shame.

“i didn’t think it did.” you avert his gaze.

“it’s almost disgraceful to admit how often you cross my mind, y/n.” your eyes widen when those words escape his mouth. was this real life? it seemed too good to be true. levi immediately thought he crossed a line, so he tried to shut the situation down as quickly as he could without ruining this moment. “i’m sorry if that came out weird, i—”

“no, no! it’s not weird!” you swiftly interrupt him. “i… i could say the same thing.”

“you could?” he said in amazement. it was like he was completely oblivious. why else were you always so eager to obey his orders and make sure you never let him down? you wanted him to notice you, and now he has given you his attention in the best way possible.

“yes, which i guess is kind of odd considering this is the first real conversation we’ve ever had.” you say with a faint giggle towards the end. “it’s a shame it had to be under these circumstances, really.”

“i know, and i’d like more, if you do too. it’s not an order, i swear.” levi replied eagerly, which was a pleasant surprise.

“i’d like that, captain.” you grin.

“can i… give you an order though?” he asked with a bit of hesitance.

“seems like poor timing to me, don’t you think?” you question, almost tempted to laugh at him, but you were going to see where this went.

“it’s not. i just… would prefer it if you called me levi from now on, please.” as if this couldn’t get any better. levi was saying “please” to you. god, you loved it.

“okay, levi. now i have an order for you.” you say with a smirk. “have a cup of tea with me, and you’re making it.”

levi smiled at the thought of what he would say next. “right away, y/n.”

#levi ackerman #levi ackerman x reader #levi x reader #attack on titan #attack on titan x reader #aot #aot x reader #shingeki no kyojin #shingeki no kyojin x reader #snk x reader #aot levi #snk levi #levi ackerman fanfiction #snk fanfiction #aot fanfiction #attack on titan fanfiction #shingeki no kyojin fanfiction #levi fanfiction #pluto writes 📝

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