#both to give reactions to plot and to let Steps muse on whatever they wanna talk about

[sparking-steps]

Sparking-Steps' Acquisitions Log, entry 2: A far too exciting entry into Skyrim.

Much less precedes this passage than the last. This time a reddish, circular stain adorns the top of the page, inside the circle in small handwriting "The scaled one forgot to close their book! All will know the Fey Lux was here!" is written along with a small winged stick figure that seems to be laughing.

Well, shit. My little trip over the Jeralls was far, far more eventful than I was hoping it would be and it turns out that I might have accidentally fallen face first into a major historical event. I wasn’t intending to use these entries to talk about events like this, but honestly this is justified.

To start the story from where I left off, it turns out the route I was taking wasn’t as safe or unpatrolled as I thought it was. I knew it was a risk to cross the border without proper paperwork, but delaying the trip for the month it would’ve taken to actually get all of that filled out, signed and paid for would have been excruciatingly boring. So I was caught by an Imperial patrol and, well, they didn’t take any excuses. To make matters worse I had run into a group of them that were just about to hold an execution due to one of their prisoners being the damned leader of the Stormcloaks himself!

So there I was, unable to successfully bargain with the somehow handsome soldier with my fate in his hands, about to get my head chopped off, when the worst possible miracle happens and a DRAGON ATTACKS THE TOWN WE WERE IN!!!! A FUCKING DRAGON! THE FIRST DRAGON SPOTTED ON MUNDUS IN MILLENIA AND IT PREVENTED MY OWN DEATH BY MERE MOMENTS! Is some god playing a prank? Is Sheogorath laughing it up on his throne? Was Mephala soaking up my fear in that moment? Gods.

So I was able to escape with the help of the previously mentioned somewhat handsome soldier, kind one he is, I hope he does well in his war. I can’t say the same of most of that town, Helgen it was called. I went through the place later, it’s just entirely ruined. Gods above though, dragons are back after all this time. Beasts gone for so long that some people thought they were myths. I’m fairly certain there’s a prophecy from one of the elder scrolls on this happening, so it’s probably very likely that we’re about to start living in very, very historically interesting times. Gods damn it.

Well, none of that matters though, I still have a job to do and current history has only a little to do with it. The possible end of the world at the hand of an ancient draconic tyrant isn’t going to fucking stop me from doing the job I’ve been wanting to do for years! I AM GOING TO BE A PROFESSIONAL ARCHEOLOGIST AND NOTHING CAN STOP ME! Take that damned overgrown dragonlings.

So, besides my near execution and the possible start to the end of Mundus, I have actually had a nice time here in Skyrim so far. The people have been kind enough, I’ve even found a traveling partner, a fellow scholar named Lucien. A rather charming fellow, if a little unprepared for the exploring lifestyle. Of course, I’d be a hypocrite if I dismissed him for that, I’m not exactly too prepared for actual life and death combat either. Fortunately my dueling skills are carrying me so far. Regardless, Lucien seems eager to learn and I’m eager to learn with him.

Lastly before I actually get to what this journal is supposed to be used for, I have made it to the Auryen’s museum and, I have to say, the old Mer has outdone himself. This place is magnificent! It’ll take years to actually fill this place, it’s absolutely massive! Even the housing that he arranged for me in the place is immaculate! I genuinely don’t know what to say in regards to all of this, this is perfect! The fact that I’m getting this living space and an actual pay is more than I could’ve ever dreamed for! Goodbye loud sleepless nights in university dorms and inns, hello COMFORT!

But, well, on to what I’m actually writing this damned thing for, the log.

ACQUISITIONS LOG #1:

Alcoholic Drinks, Various: For a display on the more unique types of alcohol native to Skyrim. Most of these are various regional liquors and meads from the holds I've visited. One of them is a rather odd magical alcohol by the name of "Daedra Drink” that can render the imbiber invisible. Not sure who made this or where, bought a bottle of it from one of the inns I visited. Bit of an odd one.

Amulets of Birthsigns: A small collection of amulets found amongst several of Skyrim's standing stones that represent the various birthsigns. They seem to be enchanted in ways that match the signs' blessings. I might keep the Mage stone's amulet on me for the time being, it's not my sign but the enchantment is useful.

Amulets of the Nine: Amulets showing devotion to Arkay and Stendarr. Not to my taste in terms of gods, honestly. I don’t have time to worry about death and Stendarr’s devotees are completely overzealous in their pursuit of putting down Daedric cults.

Amulets of Ancient Nordic Make: I'm fairly certain these don't have to do with the Dragon Cult specifically, but they do match certain etchings in Dragon Cult barrows. Before the creation of the Dragon Cult there were cults dedicated to the veneration of these various other animals, so likely these were cultural holdovers from that brought into the Dragon Cult's beliefs.

Ancient Nordic Boots: Unfortunately this was the only armor I could salvage from Bleak Falls Barrow's draugr. The rest fell apart upon being removed or were fused to the undead cultists' skin. Still, a good find.

Ancient Nordic Weaponry: Fortunately (or not considering they were swinging them at Lucien and I) the weapons the draugrs were using were far more intact than their armor! Despite their age, these weapons retain much of their ornate embellishments. Nordic culture commonly adding embellishments to its weapons and armor seems to be a trait that has carried over the ages.

Art Pieces of Various Types, Style and Origins: This is a very broad category, but I simply don’t have much to say about the things within it. What can I really say about a fancy drinking horn, a wine glass made of emerald or a statuette of a sabrecat? Ugh, if my mother was here she could go on for hours about these things, I never did inherit the family’s mind for making or critiquing artwork. I suppose there’s one notable thing in this, a statuette of a dragon. Remarkably accurate given that dragons only recently came back, I’ll have to see if there’s any way of finding the original creator.

Backpacks, Various: Not sure why Auryen wanted these. Some of them have interesting enchantments I suppose.

Battleaxe of Hatred: Alright, the first (possibly of many) artifact I've collected! Not a very prolific one, though its status as such has been magically verified. Based on the records I could find of it in the museum's library, the earliest known appearance of this axe was at a store selling weapons and armor in the Imperial City around the time of the Oblivion Crisis. I'm not sure how a group of bandits came into possession of this item, though their proximity to Skyrim's border with Cyrodiil implies it likely came here via conventional means (aka being carried). The appearance of the weapon has changed from that of a Cyrodilic battle axe of that time period to modern Skyrim's style of battle axe, though the iron is now colored red as if stained with blood. Notably the enchantment has changed entirely, originally sapping one's vitality, it now creates a potent fear reaction in the people it strikes. Strong enough to send summoned entities back to their plane of Oblivion. Despite the name, it seems this axe has become somewhat pacifist, scaring people away rather than fighting them.  (Note: see if we can find out if The Fighting Chance still operates, they might have further information on where this weapon originally came from.)

Books, Various: A big batch of books that I’ve picked up for use in the museum’s library. A good chunk of these were donated from the Jarl of Whiterun’s own collection, generous man he is. I’ve skimmed through a few, but I didn’t have the time to sit down and read any during my travels. Not yet at least. There’s no way in Oblivion that I’ll be able to spend enough time to read through the entire library, but hopefully time will permit enough to read some of them. For now though a good few of these can make good reference material when researching new artifacts.

Capes and Cloaks, Various: Matching ones to be used in the various armor displays. Others are just ones I've collected because I quite like capes.

Cheeses of Various Kinds: Just a whole lot of cheese, both local and foreign varieties. Also a few cheese-based dishes. These aren’t for the museum, collecting these is a personal hobby. Don't ask why.

Dagger, Possibly From Oblivion: First off, I have no real proof of the claim of this dagger’s origin. It was told to me by the donator, the priest of Arkay that runs Whiterun’s hall of the dead. He did not explain where he acquired it from, however. The most notable thing about this dagger is its enchantment. It can trap souls, but unlike other enchanted items it does so without needing to ever be recharged. It is an oddly shaped dagger, having twin blades that curve towards each other. A design that seems remarkably inefficient, so along with the soul trapping enchantment, a ritualistic purpose seems likely. If I was to make a bet, this might’ve come to Whiterun during the Oblivion Crisis. Possibly being left there by cultists or Daedric invaders. Possibly an artifact, though that’s hard to prove without further knowledge on it.

Denstagmer's Ring: One of several artifact rings found on the body of an explorer at Silent Moons Camp. The exact origin of this ring is a total mystery, even the name “Denstagmer” brings up no leads whatsoever. The first notable records of its locations were when the Nerevarine found it a bit over 200 years ago in the Falas ancestral tomb in Vvardenfell, so it's possible that the family had a history with it. The last living Dwemer, Yagrum Bagarn, mentioned the ring in his book, Tamrielic Lore, though there wasn't much he could say about it. No changes to the ring’s enchantment or its appearance have been noted. Best guesses for how it made its way to Skyrim are either that a refugee from Morrowind or that this dead explorer, this Malrus fellow, must've been brought into the province.

Dolls, Enchanted: A pair of dolls, one a blacksmith and one an executioner. The both of them are enchanted to enhance skills relevant to the doll's occupation. Using a forge and wielding large weaponry respectively. Odd little things. Auryen mentioned he believes they're part of a larger set, which makes me wonder who made and distributed them.

Doll, Unenchanted: A completely unremarkable doll to be used in the enchanted doll display. I can’t say I like the look of this toy, it’s cute I suppose but the design is a bit lacking. Perhaps some tiny clothes could improve the look of it.

Dragonstone of Bleak Falls Barrow: A map of various dragon burial mounds throughout Skyrim carved into a stone tile. This must’ve been made in the late days of the Dragon Cult, after the (apparently temporary) defeat of Alduin. I'll have to visit these sites at some point! The actual artifact has been requested by the Jarl of Whiterun, so unfortunately the museum will have to make due with a replica. I don’t know why the Jarl’s court mage couldn’t just take a recreation of it, but I suppose this is going to be used for something tactical so he likely wants the information to be exact.

Dragon Claw Key, Golden: An interesting artifact of the Dragon Cult. They used ornate claw shaped keys like this to seal the innermost sanctums of their burial tombs, typically along with an ornate door locked with a puzzle. Some theorize that these keys function more as a way to lock whatever is on the other side of the door inside, however, due to Bleak Falls Barrow having an alternative exit to that chamber I feel that theory falls flat. The current owners of this key did not want to part with it, so the museum will have to make due with a replica.

Elven Style Armor, Modified: Elven armor previously owned by a member of a now disbanded gang of bandits called the Crimson Dirks. The armor itself seems like a more practical variant on Skyrim's normal style of elven armor, including leather sleeves and pouches.

Faeries (!!!!): FAIRIES! By the Hist, I don’t think I’ve ever actually met Fey before! What fascinatingly pretty little things they are! Specifically, these ones are Nixads, a small humanoid insect-like being with a pair of wings on their backs. Absolute joys to be around they are, pranksters though. One of them stole my pen while I was taking a break from writing earlier and it took me an hour to find the damned thing again. The little bastard was giggling the whole time, said they thought my break should be a little longer. Why exactly they are coming to the museum is an interesting point. There’s a superstition amongst Skyrim’s sailors and fishers that having a Fey with you is good luck, that you’ll either have safe travels or good hauls, respectively. This has led to a tradition of caging Fey in modified lanterns, as they also shed a small amount of light due to some sort of magical aura. The museum was only looking for the lanterns for an exhibit on that cultural practice, but upon letting these two out of their prisons and telling them about the museum, they seem to have found the idea of coming here interesting. I’ve spoken with Auryen and after discussing it, we’ve decided to make a space for them in the Natural History Hall. They’re free to leave if they wish, but we’ll give them safety, food and a space for themselves if they want to stay. Plus, it gives us a chance to educate people on Tamerials’ Faeries on those Fey’s own terms! Side note, as an unfortunate side effect of the Nordic superstitions around them, I have found a Fairy’s corpse in the wreck of a sunken ship in Lake Ilinalta. We’ll ask the other Fay how they should be given a burial.

Fish, Various: To be added to the Natural Science Hall's aquarium. Side note, I can see why some people enjoy fishing, it's quite relaxing. I might have to participate in it more.

Fishing Equipment: Not sure why this was asked for, to be honest. Fuck it though, if Auryen wants a fishing pole I’ll get him a fishing pole. He’s the one paying me.

Fossils, Various: Found while digging through a few veins of ore found throughout Skyrim's landscape. A record of Skyrim’s history set into stone. None of these ones are too interesting by themselves from what I understand, though one depicts a fish eating another one, which is somewhat rare I think.

Gauntlets Made for Fist Fighting: An eccentric customization of the usual styles of armor in Skyrim. Probably better to use than a normal set of gauntlets given they are just as sturdy and can still hold an enchantment just as well. I will be honest though, I can’t imagine myself actually resorting to punching someone. Close ranged spells are far more effective.

Guard’s Armor (Whiterun and Falkreath): Donated by the Jarls of those two holds. Nothing too interesting here but I felt they were meaningfully different enough from the other sets of armor to justify their own entry. Hopefully I can get sets of armor from every hold as easily as these two.

Gemstones and Minerals, Various: These are being collected for a large display of Skyrim's various minerals within the Natural Science Hall. This is not my area of expertise, though they are very pleasantly shiny.

Lunar Weapons: A unique set of weapons made at an ancient ruin called Sleeping Moons Camp. The forge seems to channel some sort of power from the two moons to enchant what would normally be mundane weapons. What a unique ruin it is! The forge itself seemed like a recent addition and the bandits around the ruins did as well. However, despite the book near the forge documenting the creation of these weapons and the presence of those weapons as proof that it does work, I find myself unable to actually make this thing work. I’m unsure as to why. This place requires further investigation.

Magical Oil Lamp: An oil lamp that seems to contain some sort of entity that grants minor boons upon request. Doesn't seem to want to leave the lamp, nor does it seek payment. Not sure what exactly the entity is, though I feel it's unlikely for it to be a Daedra. Honestly it is fully possible that it isn’t inhabited at all and the entity itself is just a trick made up through a bit of enchantment. I asked it for "Knowledge" and it gave me a pile of books, useful little thing. A donation from Solitude's Temple of the Divines.

Magical jars: A small group of magically sealed jars with what seem to be enchanted toys inside. Things like a tiny ship or flying dragon. Odd little things these are. Not sure who made them or where they all came from, but the common design of the jar itself implies a singular source. An oddity that hopefully will be figured about eventually, but isn’t too much of a priority.

Mundane Weapons and Armor of Various Styles: Primarily these are made of iron or steel, though a few other kinds are in this pile. There's something to be said of the ornate style that the Nords of Skyrim add to even their most mundane armors. I quite like the horns they add to their helmets, perhaps out of my own vanity. My horns are quite nice and honestly I should say that more often. Preening aside, I quite like the steel armors I've seen. There are a few more notable examples amongst this list, those will get their own entries.

Orcish Style Armor, Modified: Another set of armor from that aforementioned disbanded bandit gang. Apparently this one was made by the gang’s resident smith, who had fallen in with another gang after the group split up, though she seemed to dislike her current circumstances. This set of armor was, once again, modified from the normal style. Replacing some of the orichalcum metal with leather and fur, seemingly to keep the wearer warmer in Skyrim’s cold climate.

Raven Statuette Made of Ebony: At a glance this seems mundane, but this seems to have some connection to Daedra worship. I couldn’t sense any actual enchantments on it, but something about it feels just slightly odd. I know that’s not exactly a professional way to see these kinds of things, but that’s just the way I feel about it. I’ll ask a few others what they think of this statuette before I turn it in though, just to make sure. My first instinct is to assume it was made to honor Nocturnal, though ravens and ebony aren't symbols unique to her. It would be a perfect fit for Ebonarm, while his animosity for the Daedric Princes is well known it’s not exactly known for sure where he falls amongst the pantheons so this could have been made in honor of him.

Reconstructed Tapestry of Ancient Nordic Design: I was able to recreate this from fragments found within Bleak Falls Barrow (I need to find a shortening of that name). It's remarkable that the fabric stayed mostly intact over the centuries.

Ring of Transmutation: Another of the artifact rings found alongside the body of the explorer, Malrus. This one is less historied than the other though, similar to Battleaxe of Hatred it made its first known appearance in Cyrodilic store during the Oblivion Crisis, specifically one in Bravil. No major changes, though the gemstone set in the ring is larger than previously recorded. No known history before that time, similar to the battleaxe. I'll have to see if the store it was recorded as being in, The Warlock's Luck, is still around so we might be able to check their records. As for how it got here, the explorer Malrus is the most likely reason that I can think of.

Severed heads: What? Who made these little display cases for these severed heads? Why have I found several of them? Why did Auryen ask for them?

Shells and Corals: Another collection of things for the Natural History hall. Nothing much to say here, though the fact that I found coral in the stomachs of a group of slaughterfish in Lake Ilinalta is probably odd. Once again, not my area of expertise, but I'm fairly certain coral doesn't naturally occur in freshwater. Do slaughterfish swim upriver like salmon? I suppose their presence in both fresh and saltwater implies so.

Taxidermy Supplies: Various animal hides and other bits and pieces to be used in to make some taxidermied animals to display in the Natural History Hall. Auryen is pretty skilled at making taxidermy, I wonder where he learned it.

Varla Stone, Flawed: One of the Ayleids’ star stones, a small fragment of Aetherius itself fallen from the heavens down to Mundus. These minor magical miracles that were used for, of all things, lighting a room. I’ve been in a couple Ayleid ruins and honestly I do have to admit that the light from these is certainly very pleasing. Perhaps the wild elves had a decent idea there after all. This specific stone is a bit clouded, making it not as useful as a more perfect specimen, but that’s not to say it isn’t useful, these little things are perfectly capable of containing and releasing souls, for example.

Weatherward Circlet: Another artifact ring, though this one was a donation from Whiterun's hall of the dead. How did that crypt manage to come across two separate artifacts? I suppose this ring might have just been on one of the deceased and no next of kin claimed it. As for the ring's history, it isn't the most storied but it was owned by the Hero of Kvatch! Apparently she had been given it as payment for a job, the exact details aren't recorded so I assume it must have been something someone didn't want known. Interesting, though that unfortunately means that researching its origin is likely a dead end. As for appearance and enchantments, there doesn't seem to be any recorded change.

Welkynd Stone: As with the previous entry on varla stones, but much more powerful. These things were used all over Ayleid cities of the past for all sorts of purposes, not just lighting. In the modern day these things are amazing tools for magecraft. A magically inclined individual can draw upon the power within one of these and be filled to the brim with magicka. A shame that the method of growing these was lost with the Ayleid civilization, the feats of magecraft that could be accomplished with a large amount of these would be incredible.

Whiterun silver proof coin: For a display on Tamriel's various currencies. Look, I am not a numismatist, I have very little room in my head to be interested about coins. They are shiny and can be spent to acquire nice things, that's about the end of my thoughts on any coins minted in the last half millennia. I suppose this one has a nice design, very swirly and pleasing to the eye. Definitely nicer than a septim.

[lumosandnoxwriting]

Trying Something New - Fred Weasley

Title: Trying Something New Pairing: Fred x Fem!Reader Warning: NSFW!! Dom/sub, daddy kink, male receiving oral, dirty talk, teasing, pet names, sex toys, overstimulation, unprotected sex, after care Summary: Fred and the reader decide it’s time to spice things up in the bedroom A/N: this is for @le-weasley-simp​ who wanted some kink exploration and an anon who wanted some dom!Fred with daddy kink!! This is mostly just smut but if you look hard enough there’s some plot I guess haha. Feedback is always welcome!!

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“What do you think of this one?” Y/N asks, holding up another bra for Fred to examine. It’s a deep purple color with a little lace detailing on the cups. When all Fred does is shrug Y/N sighs and puts the bra down. “What’s wrong with you? We’re surrounded by lingerie and you’re acting like we’re at the dentist’s office.”

“I dunno, I thought shopping for lingerie would be more exciting, and sexy,” Fred sighs, looking around the store. “But in reality it’s pretty boring.”

Y/N rolls her eyes. “Well if you would pick out some stuff you like I could try it on for you, Freddie. But if you’d rather just go and do something else I can meet back up with you later.”

“Try it on for me?” Fred asks, perking up. “Why didn’t you start with that, love? Wait here, I’ll be back.”

Y/N shakes her head fondly with a chuckle as she watches Fred move around the store. He starts to eagerly grab a few things off of the shelves, clearly more interested in their shopping trip than he had been before. This shopping trip is the first part in their journey to get a bit more adventurous in the bedroom. Their sex life is far from vanilla, but both Fred and Y/N expressed interest in taking their activities to the next level. So they decided they’d spend the day out in muggle London to do some shopping for some supplies that will hopefully turn things up a notch in the bedroom.

When Fred comes back to where Y/N is standing a few minutes later, he has quite a few things in his hands and there’s a cheeky grin on his face. He shoves them all into her arms before ushering Y/N towards the dressing room. “Go, go, go. I’ll wait out here.” Fred takes a seat on the chair outside the dressing room, giving her a wink. “Don’t keep me waiting too long.”

“Okay, okay. Keep it in your pants, Freddie,” Y/N teases before closing the curtain behind herself. She hangs up the few things Fred had shoved into her arms, deciding to try on some of the bras first. She gets her top half undressed before grabbing the first thing her hand lands on. She slips it on, before turning to look at herself in the mirror.

It’s a deep red color that compliments her skin tone perfectly, and it’s completely made of lace. It plunges low, so her cleavage is on full display, and her nipples are visible through the sheer fabric. She adjusts it so it fits just right before turning around and opening the curtain up. “Thoughts?”

Fred’s eyes widen and he bites his lip to keep from moaning. He lets his eyes rake over Y/N’s body, focusing on the way the fabric clings to the curve of her breasts. “Oh I have many thoughts and none of them are appropriate enough to be said out loud right now.”

Y/N rolls her eyes as she shuts the curtain. She takes the bra off carefully and sets it aside for her to buy. She tries the next few bras on, showing each one to Fred, but they don’t quite elicit the same reaction as the first one. Fred had picked out two fuller pieces as well, and Y/N turns to those next.

The first one is sheer with some lace detailing throughout, with high cut leg holes that leave most of her sides bare. It’s high cut up the back as well, and if Y/N didn’t still have her panties on practically her whole ass would be hanging out. Y/N sticks just her head out of the curtain, so she can beckon Fred closer. “Come here, I don’t wanna expose my entire ass to the store.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice.” Fred gets up and stands in front of the curtain, blocking the rest of the store from view. “Come on then, let’s have a look.”

“It’ll look a bit weird since I still have my underwear one, but I’m sure you can use your imagination to picture what it’ll look like when I’m naked.” Y/N opens the curtain fully then for Fred to see what she’s wearing, suddenly feeling embarrassed under his intense gaze.

“Jesus,” Fred groans, reaching out to touch Y/N’s thighs. He lets his eyes slowly roam over her body, memorizing every inch of skin. “If you don’t buy that I will never, ever, ever forgive you, Y/N. I’m serious. If we were allowed to use magic around muggles I’d be casting a few spells and taking you right here in this dressing room.”

“Fred,” Y/N scolds, before pulling him into a brief kiss. “Okay go sit back down, lover boy. I’ll try the last one on and then we can head to the next store.” Y/N shuts the curtain again and gets undressed, placing the black piece with the red bra she tried on earlier. She slips into the white piece quickly, taking a few moments to admire herself in the mirror. This one is less revealing, yet somehow feels sexier to her. The material is lace, but not only sheer in the areas that sprawl over her stomach and the leg holes are only cut a smidge higher than a normal pair of underwear, leaving much of her sides and ass covered. But the neckline is a plunging halter top, which leaves much of her breasts exposed.

Y/N opens the curtain, giving a little twirl for Fred. “You like?” she asks.

Fred nods wildly. “Very much. You look so sexy in white, Y/N. So innocent, yet so dirty at the same time. You’re driving me wild, baby.”

“No need to lay it on so thick, Freddie. I already agreed to sleep with you,” she teases. “Now go wait outside. I don’t want you to see what I buy so it’ll be a surprise.”

Fred gets up and comes to stand in the doorway of the dressing room, pressing a brief kiss to Y/N’s lips. “Such a tease, Y/N.” Fred pulls his wallet out of his pocket and places it into her hand. “Whatever you want is on me, baby. Okay? I’m spoiling you today.” Back when Y/N and Fred first got together during their Hogwarts years he used to dream about the day he’d have enough money to shower Y/N in presents and treat her like the Queen she is. Now that those days are finally here he takes every opportunity to spoil her, whether she likes it or not.

“Freddie,” Y/N responds before kissing him again. “You don’t have to do that.”

“I know, but I want to.” Fred winks at her. “And this way I don’t feel as bad when I inevitably destroy something ripping it off of your hot body.”

Y/N closes the curtain on Fred then, shaking her head as she listens to him laugh as he walks away. She gets redressed quickly, holding the three things she plans on purchasing in her hand. Y/N walks towards the till slowly, grabbing a few pairs of underwear on her way, including a red lace thong that will go perfectly with the bra Fred had picked out. Once her purchase has been made Y/N heads out of the store and meets back up with Fred.

“All set?” he asks, wrapping an arm around her waist. When Y/N nods he grins. “Perfect. To the sex shop we go!”

-

“Who knew there are so many kinds of dildos?” Fred muses as he stares at a wall covered top to bottom in different dildos. “I mean so many different colors, and shapes, and sizes. It’s truly remarkable,” he comments, turning to look at Y/N. “Isn’t it?”

“Yeah sure, Freddie,” Y/N giggles. The basket in her hand is already quite full of a few things, but Fred insisted that a trip to the sex shop wouldn’t be complete without getting a new dildo. Y/N is quite familiar with a variety of different sex toys, many of them having been gifts from Fred, but those are tucked away in her bedside drawer for her to use on her own when Fred isn’t around. This is the first time they’re picking out toys to use together, and Y/N would be lying if she said it wasn’t turning her on.

Fred wraps his arm around Y/N’s waist, pulling her close to his side. “Any one in particular catch your eye, love?” He leans over to whisper in her ear. “It’s your pussy it’ll be buried in after all.”

A shiver runs down Y/N’s spine right to her core and she lets her eyes roam over the wall. There truly is a wide variety of dildos, and some even scare her a little bit. She turns to Fred and presses a kiss to his cheek. “You know what I like, Freddie. You pick one out, surprise me.” Y/N hands him the basket and gives Fred a stern look. “Don’t make me regret that decision, Fred.”

“Have I ever given you a sex toy you didn’t like?” he asks. “You’re in good hands baby. I promise.” Fred waits until Y/N has left the store before he grabs the dildo of his choice, making sure to grab a few extra things on his way to the checkout counter.

-

Y/N examines herself in the mirror, wiping her sweaty palm off on her bare thigh. She’s standing in her and Fred’s bathroom wearing nothing but the lacy red bra and thong she’d purchased earlier that day. Even though Fred has seen her in far less clothing, she can feel nervous butterflies fluttering around in her stomach. Something about exploring new things with Fred has her feeling like a virgin all over again, nervous and unsure what to expect. Y/N had been mostly hands off when deciding what new things to explore, leaving the decisions to Fred. She trusts Fred with her life, but the uncertainty of where the evening is going to take them is making her a weird combination of excited and turned on.

“I’m ready when you are, baby,” Fred calls from the other side of the door.

Y/N takes a deep breath, before she opens the bathroom door and steps into their bedroom. Fred is sitting on the end of their bed in just his boxers, leaning back on his hands. She can tell that he’s already hard, and arousal starts to blossom in her stomach.

“Baby, you look ravishing,” Fred comments, letting his eyes take in every inch of her body. The red looks amazing on her, and the skimpy fabric leaves much of her skin bare, just how Fred likes it. Y/N’s hands move to cover herself up, and Fred drags his gaze away from her bare thighs so he can make eye contact with her. “Come on, Y/N. Be a good girl, let me see you.”

Y/N blushes and clasps her hands behind her back, so Fred can see all of her. His voice is deep and firm, and it puts her at ease. Fred dominating her is familiar, and it quiets the butterflies in her stomach. “I’m sorry, sir.”

“Good girl,” Fred praises. “Now turn around for me, I want to see all of you.” Fred bites his lip as Y/N turns around, his eyes immediately drawn to her ass. “So pretty, baby. Do you like getting all dressed up for me?”

“Yes sir.” Y/N’s skin is burning from Fred’s intense gaze and she can feel the blush that’s creeping down her neck to her chest.

“Turn around,” Fred demands, smirking when Y/N instantly faces him again. “Listening so good tonight, baby. I might not even have to get that brand new paddle we bought earlier.”

Y/N shivers at the thought of Fred using a paddle to spank her. She’s no stranger to the feeling of Fred’s hand swatting her on the ass, but it’s usually purely for pleasure purposes, never to punish. And the thought of Fred taking her across his lap and spanking her until she cries makes her core throb.

Fred starts to palm himself through his boxers, trying to decide what to do next. “Get on your knees, kitten.”

The nickname is new, and it makes Y/N’s core throb as she drops down to her knees. “Yes, Daddy.” Y/N’s eyes widen, and she looks up at Fred. It’s always sir or master when he dominates her, never Daddy. They’ve never talked about it before and Y/N would be lying if she said she wasn’t eager to say it again.

“What did you call me?” Fred asks, wanting to make sure he heard her right. He tries to keep his tone even so that Y/N doesn’t think he’s angry with her.

“Daddy.”

Fred’s cock twitches at the name and he has to bite his tongue to stifle a groan. “Get over here, kitten and suck Daddy’s cock.”

“Yes Daddy,” Y/N answers as she crawls over to Fred. She immediately settles in between his spread thighs and pulls his boxers down to his ankles, freeing his cock. One of her hands wraps around the base as she takes the head into her mouth, sucking on it gently. Fred’s moans encourage her to keep going, and Y/N starts to slowly move her head down, taking more of Fred into her mouth and down her throat.

Fred groans as Y/N’s lips squeeze around his cock, and he gathers her hair up into a ponytail. It’s a warning, that if she isn’t a good girl for him he’ll have to fuck her throat so hard she can’t speak tomorrow, and as she starts to slowly pull her head back Fred gives her hair a light tug. “Don’t be naughty, kitten. You know how Daddy likes to have his cock sucked.”

Y/N moans around Fred and starts to bob her head faster. Her hand twists at the part of his cock she can’t fit into her mouth, and she lets her tongue rub at the vein on the underside of his cock. Y/N’s hand starts to stroke him as she pulls off to allow her mouth to pay extra attention to the head. She looks up at Fred under her eyelashes as her tongue starts to lick and flick at just the tip, gathering up the precum that has started to bubble out.

“That’s it,” Fred moans. “Being such a good girl, kitten. That pretty little mouth of yours was made for Daddy’s cock wasn’t it?” Y/N moans as she swallows him down again, causing Fred’s hips to twitch, forcing himself a little deeper down her throat. “Where should Daddy shoot his first load, kitten? All over your pretty tits? Or do you wanna swallow it, like the little cum slut you are.”

Fred’s dirty talk is sending shocks of pleasure right to her core, and Y/N has to clench her free hand to resist the urge to start touching herself. She isn’t allowed to touch without Fred’s permission, and if she does he’ll spend the rest of the evening edging her but never allowing her to finish. After a few more bobs of her head Y/N pulls off, stroking Fred slowly, changing the pressure of her grip as she does. “Want it in my mouth, Daddy. Please.” Y/N presses a few kisses to the tip of Fred’s cock, before taking him back down her throat.

“Of course, kitten. How could Daddy say no when you ask so nicely?” Under normal circumstances Fred would keep Y/N on her knees for him for the better part of an hour, not only for his pleasure, but hers’ as well. The longer Fred waits to finally touch Y/N the more intense her orgasms are, and their sex is much more enjoyable for Fred when Y/N is screaming his name. Fred starts to thrust his hips gently to meet Y/N’s movements and his grip on her hair tightens when she moans around him again.

Y/N takes a deep breath and relaxes her throat, before moving her head until her nose touches the skin just above Fred’s cock. The tip of his cock hits the back of her throat and she gags around him. A few tears leak from her eyes and saliva starts to drip down her chin, but she stays there for a few moments before pulling back to wrap her tongue around the head and suck. She tilts her head back slightly so Fred can look at the mess she’s becoming, before she takes him all the way back down again.

Fred moans as Y/N gags again, the image of his cock between her red, swollen lips with drool dripping down her chin and tears leaking down her face still fresh in his mind. “Fucking hell, kitten. You sound so pretty choking on my cock. You like the way it fills up your mouth, don’t you?” Y/N hums as her lips reach the tip of his cock and Fred lets out a deep groan. “Daddy’s getting close, kitten. Gonna shoot into your pretty mouth so you can swallow it down just like you asked. Being such a good girl for me already. I bet your pussy is already dripping just from having my cock in your mouth. You’re such a little cock slut, aren’t you kitten? You always need Daddy’s cock filling you up, isn’t that right? Nothing makes you cum as hard as Daddy’s cock does, right kitten?”

Y/N moans as she continues to take Fred’s cock all the way down her throat, letting herself gag for a moment before pulling back and repeating the process. She can feel Fred twitching against her tongue, a telltale sign that he’s on the verge of climaxing.  Y/N focuses on the feel of his cock in her mouth to keep her mind away from her pussy and the way it pulsates. Fred has somehow managed to talk dirtier than normal, and each word that comes out of his mouth goes right to her core.

“Oh fuck, kitten. Such a good little cock slut. Love the way you gag on my cock.” Fred pulls Y/N off of him slightly, and shallowly thrusts his hips a few times as he feels himself about to cum. “Here it comes, kitten such a good girl. Making Daddy cum from just your mouth.” Fred lets out a long groan as he reaches his climax, his hips twitching as his cock releases thick ropes of cum onto Y/N’s tongue and down her throat. He grabs Y/N’s jaw as he slowly pulls out to keep her mouth open. “Let me see your tongue, kitten. Daddy wants to see how pretty it looks with all of his cum on it.”

Y/N looks up at Fred and sticks her tongue out. Once Fred releases her jaw she swallows his release, before opening her mouth again, allowing Fred to see that it’s all gone. “Did I do good, Daddy?”

Fred nods, and uses his thumb to wipe away the drool on her chin. “So good, kitten.” Y/N shivers at his praise, and Fred cups her cheek. “Always my good girl, kitten. Such a good mouth, always sucking me so well. And you look so pretty with my cock between your lips, kitten. That mouth was made to suck Daddy’s cock, wasn’t it?”

Y/N nods, preening under Fred’s praise. “Yes, Daddy. Made just for you. I love sucking your cock, Daddy. Thank you for letting me suck you off and swallow your load.”

“You’re welcome, kitten.” Fred pats his thighs to give Y/N permission to sit on his lap, and he chuckles as she scrambles off of the floor to straddle his waist. This is the first time he’s touched her all night, and he lets his hands run down her back, over her bum to her thighs, before following the same trail back up. “Daddy’s gonna touch your pussy now, kitten. But you’re gonna be a good girl and not move. Right?”

Y/N places her hands on Fred’s shoulders and digs her fingers in as she nods. “Yes, Daddy. Always your good girl, promise.”

Fred moves Y/N’s thong to the side and lets two of his fingers massage her wet folds, just barely brushing her clit. “Wow, kitten. So fucking wet already just from having Daddy’s cock in your mouth.” Fred sinks one of his fingers into her heat, just letting it sit there. When Y/N remains still in his lap he smiles and starts to slowly fuck her with the digit. “Good girl, kitten. Daddy is so proud of you.”

“T-thank you, Daddy,” Y/N stutters as his finger curls inside her. Fred’s moving at a frustratingly slow pace, but with how turned on she is Y/N figures she could probably cum just from this one finger alone. “Can I have more, Daddy? Please?”

Fred pulls his hand away from her core, pressing a kiss to Y/N’s neck when she whines. “How about we get one of the new toys Daddy bought you, kitten? Would you like that?”

“Yes please, Daddy. Thank you Daddy. I love you.”

Fred pulls their mouths together in a slow kiss, his hands gripping her thighs as he stands up. He places Y/N down on the bed gently and pulls away. He chuckles when Y/N pouts at him, and he presses a few quick kisses to her lips. “I love you too, kitten. Now lay back on the bed for Daddy, okay?” Fred waits for her to get into position before he walks over to their dresser where a few of the toys he’d purchased earlier are sitting. He had hoped Y/N would be a bit naughty so he could try out the paddle, but he’ll have to save that for another time. He settles on the new pink vibrator Y/N had picked out. It’s not as long or as thick as Fred, but it’ll be a nice warm up for his cock.

“Here,” Fred says as he reapproaches the bed, handing the toy to Y/N. Instead of rejoining her on the bed, Fred grabs the chair from the corner of their room and placed it at the foot of the bed. It gives him the perfect view of Y/N and what she’s about to do for him.

Y/N swallows thickly as she examines the toy. Her pussy is throbbing with the need to be filled, so much so that it takes her a few seconds to notice that Fred hasn’t rejoined her on the bed. “Daddy,” she whines, propping herself up on an elbow to look at Fred. “You’re too far away.”

“Don’t worry, kitten. Daddy’s right here. He’ll join you in a bit.” Fred bites his lip, his cock twitching at how unbelievably sexy Y/N is. “Tonight is all about trying new things, right kitten?” When Y/N nods he continues. “Well tonight Daddy is giving you permission to touch yourself. I wanna watch you fuck yourself with that pretty pink vibrator, okay? And once you’ve come all over it, Daddy will come back and touch you. Sound good, kitten?”

“Yes, Daddy. Thank you Daddy.” Y/N keeps herself propped up on her elbow so Fred can watch as she takes the vibrator into her mouth, sucking on it just like she’d sucked on Fred earlier. Once it’s wet she pulls it out of her mouth with a pop and turns it on to its lowest setting. She trails it down her chest to her breast, moaning as the vibration stimulates her nipple. If she were alone Y/N wouldn’t bother with the theatrics, she’d just go right for fucking herself on the toy. But she wants to put on a show for Fred.

“Oh Daddy,” she moans as she moves the vibrator to the other nipple. She makes direct eye contact with Fred as she starts to trail the vibrator down her stomach towards her core. She takes a moment to push the fabric of her thong aside, before she presses the tip of the vibrator against her clit. It sends shockwaves of pleasure through her body and her hips jut up as she whines.

“Feel good?” Fred asks, his eyes trained on Y/N’s dripping core. He can already feel himself getting hard again, and he starts to slowly stroke himself with a loose fist.

“So good, Daddy,” Y/N moans, turning up the vibrator up one notch. She presses it against her clit harder, her head tossing back as she groans.

“Does it feel better than Daddy’s fingers?” When Y/N shakes her head, he chuckles. “What about his mouth?”

“No, Daddy,” Y/N pants as she starts to tease her entrance with the tip of the toy. “Nothing feels better than your mouth.” Y/N starts to slowly push the toy into her, her walls clenching around it and sucking the toy in further. “Oh fuck,” Y/N moans, pushing the toy in as far as it can go.

Fred squeezes his cock, biting his lip to contain the noises he wants to make. Y/N looks ethereal as she fucks herself with the toy and Fred doesn’t want to distract her. “How does it feel, kitten? Talk to Daddy as you fuck yourself.”

“F-feels good.” Y/N increases the speed of the vibration as she starts to fuck herself with the toy slowly. The pace is agonizing, but the tip of the vibrator brushes her g-spot with every movement and she already can feel her orgasm building. “Not as good as your cock, Daddy. But so good.”

“Nothing is as good as my cock, isn’t that right, kitten? No toy or man will ever be able to make you feel as good as my cock does. That pussy belongs to me and no one else. Right, kitten?” Fred has to stop stroking himself to avoid orgasming again. The next time he cums it’ll be inside Y/N, and he still has a few plans for her before that’s going to happen.

Y/N’s toes curl as she increases the pace of her movements and she can feel her walls spasming around the toy. “Yes, Daddy. My pussy is yours. All yours,” she babbles. “Gonna come soon, Daddy. Can I come? Please. I’ve been such a good girl.”

“Gonna come already, kitten? You’ve barely even touched yourself,” Fred teases. “Do you like showing off for Daddy that much?”

Y/N moans and her back arches as her orgasm nears and she stats to slam the toy into herself harder. “Love it so much, Daddy. Love being your good girl. Always wanna be good for you.”

“You are such a good girl, kitten. You look so good fucking yourself with that toy. You’ve already got Daddy hard again.” Fred stands up, his eyes trained on Y/N’s face. “Go on then, kitten. Come for Daddy.”

“Oh, oh, Daddy,” Y/N moans as she finally reaches her climax. Her hips thrust down on the toy as pleasure washed over her and her thighs tremble from how intense her orgasm is. As she comes down from her orgasm the vibration of the toy is too much, but before she can pull it out Fred is sitting next to her on the bed and grabbing the end of the toy.

“We’re not quite done here, kitten.” Fred increases the speed of the vibrator and starts to slowly fuck Y/N with his, watching as her body writhes on the bed.

“Daddy, Daddy, Daddy,” Y/N babbles as Fred starts to fuck her with the toy faster. Her body feels like it’s on fire, and she can already feel her next orgasm building. Tears have started to leak out of her eyes, and she collapses against the bed. “Too much Daddy, please.”

Fred slows down the pace of his movements for a moment. “Do you need Daddy to stop, kitten? It’s okay if you do, you just need to say the word and Daddy will stop.”

Y/N shakes her head. “Don’t stop Daddy, please. Wanna come again. Feels so good Daddy.”

Fred starts moving at the same pace as before, leaning down to press a few kisses to Y/N’s forehead. “Such a good girl, kitten. Come for Daddy on the toy one more time and then he’ll give you his cock, okay?” Fred grabs one of Y/N’s hands in his and intertwines their fingers, before pressing them down against the bed above her head. “Good girl, kitten. Come for Daddy.”

Y/N’s back arches off of the bed as she comes, an incoherent mess of moans and whines falling from her mouth as pleasure rockets through her body. Her whole body is trembling, and it feels like she can’t breathe as Fred turns down the vibration on the toy and continues to slowly fuck her as her orgasm rolls over her.

Fred watches Y/N’s chest heave with deep breaths as she comes down from her orgasm, and he slowly pulls the vibrator out of her. He leans down to kiss her forehead gently, squeezing their intertwined hands. “You did wonderful, kitten. So, so good. I love you so much.”

“Thank you, Daddy. Thank you. I love you.” Y/N whines and tilts her chin up, silently asking Fred for a kiss.

Fred complies immediately and kisses her slowly for a few moments. He presses a few quick kisses to her mouth before pulling away. “Do you have one more in you, kitten? Are you ready for Daddy to fuck you?”

Y/N nods, letting Fred help her sit up. “Yes, Daddy. Need you so bad.”

Fred grabs the bottom of Y/N’s bra and pulls it over her head, kissing her again as his hands starts to massage her breasts. He lays her back down as he settles in between her legs, his hands running down her torso towards her core. “Can’t wait to bury my cock in your pussy, kitten. You always feel so good wrapped around me.” He slowly pulls her thong down, admiring her now naked body.

“Fuck me Daddy,” Y/N begs. “Want you to pound my pussy.”

Fred practically growls as he grips Y/N’s thighs and he pulls her down the bed closer to him. He braces himself on one hand near her shoulder, while the other wraps around the base of his cock and positions himself at her entrance. “Ready, kitten?”

“Yes, Daddy, please.”

Fred slams his hips forward, pushing all of himself into Y/N’s dripping heat. He throws one of her legs over his shoulder and grips her hip before he starts to snap his hips into her hard and fast. “Fuck, kitten. Still so fucking tight for Daddy. How does my cock feel? Is it stretching you out?”

“Daddy,” Y/N moans, starting to move her hips to meet Fred’s thrusts. She clenches around him tightly, wanting to bring him to his orgasm. She’s still extremely sensitive from her first two climaxes, and from the way Fred’s cock is relentlessly rubbing against her g-spot she knows it won’t be long before she comes again. “Your cock feels so good. Feel so full, Daddy.”

“God, kitten. Love your cunt so much. Always feel so fucking good.” Fred starts to rub harsh circles on Y/N’s clit, hoping to bring her to her third orgasm. Her walls are like a vice grip around his cock, and Fred knows we won’t last much longer. “Who does this pussy belong to kitten? Is it yours?”

“No,” Y/N pants, shaking her head. She lets out a long whine as Fred lands a particularly hard thrust and she momentarily loses the ability to speak from the pleasure flowing through her veins. “Belongs to you, Daddy. All yours.”

“That’s right, kitten. All mine.” Fred’s rhythm starts to falter as his orgasm approaches, and he starts to apply more pressure to Y/N’s clit. “Come on, kitten. Come for Daddy. Give him one more and I’ll fill you up with my seed.”

Y/N’s eyes roll to the back of her head and her back arches as she comes again, a low moan ripping from her throat. She relaxes against the bed as she comes down, her hands tangling in Fred’s hair and tugging on it harshly. “Please Daddy. Come inside of me, want you to fill me up.”

Fred buries himself completely in Y/N and his hips still as he comes, his cock twitching as it paints her insides with his release. He rolls his hips slowly before stopping his movements all together. He gently places Y/N’s leg back on the bed, and he leans down to kiss her softly. Fred slowly pulls out of Y/N and lays down next to her on the bed, pulling her into his chest.

“Love you Freddie,” Y/N  mumbles as she presses her face into his neck. She wraps her arms around his torso and presses a few kisses to his sweaty skin. “Love you so much.”

Fred chuckles and presses a kiss to her forehead. “I love you too, Y/N.” He just holds her for a moment, pressing her to his chest tightly. He looks down at her, noticing the slightly dazed expression on her face. “I’m gonna go run you a bath, okay? Stay right here, baby.” Fred kisses her gently before he climbs out of bed and heads into their bathroom.

Once the bath is warm and filled with bubbles, Fred goes back into the bedroom and slowly picks Y/N up bridal style. He takes her into the bathroom and places her in the bathtub carefully before getting in behind her.

Y/N relaxes back against Fred’s chest, letting the warm water flow over her. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, baby. Anything for you.” Fred rubs his hands up and down Y/N’s arms in the water to soothe her and presses a few kisses to the top of her head. “So, Daddy, huh?” he teases after a few minutes of silence.

Y/N laughs and tilts her head back so she can look up at Fred. “You’re in no place to talk, kitten,” she fires back.

Fred smiles and leans down to capture Y/N’s lips in a sweet kiss. The angle is awkward, but neither of them seem to care. “Hey, I’m not complaining it was wicked hot. What about you, did you enjoy trying something new?”

Y/N hums and nods, kissing Fred again. “Let’s just say I think we should head back to that sex shop again sometime soon.”

“Does tomorrow work for you?”

[peachy-beomie]

Holding You In My Heart (Until I Can Hold You In My Arms) <KUNTEN>

Genre: Fluff

Pairings: Kunten (Qian Kun x Ten Lee)

Word Count: 1,643

Warnings: None!

Synopsis: COVID AU in which Kun sets up a bunch of cute zoom dates for him and his boyfriend.

A/N: I got bored and I really want to start working on my masterlist so I decided to post this :D

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29410125

From: qiankunprod@gmail.com

To: chittaphonleechaiyapornkul@yahoo.com

Join Zoom Meeting

{zoom link}

I stare quizzically at the email that pops up on my screen, interrupting my FRIENDS marathon. The message comes from none other than my boyfriend Kun, who’s been spending all of quarantine so far looking for ways for us to go on dates.

When COVID hit, Kun and I were forced to confine ourselves in our respective apartments, limiting contact. It hasn’t been too hard thus far, we call and text everyday without fail. Simple good mornings and silly pictures of my cat sufficed for the first month or so. But as the quarantine dragged on, I began missing Kun’s face more and more. We hadn’t been on a proper date in god knows how long, and it was starting to impact my mental health.

Curiosity consumes me as I click the link, awaiting whatever dorky plot Kun had conjured up. Within seconds his lopsided grin filled my screen and drew a small smile from my lips.

“Hi Sunshine!” He greets cheerfully, the familiar pet name bringing warmth to my cheeks.

“Heya baby, what’s this about?”

“Nothing, just missed you.” Kun’s tone has a hint of mischief that doesn’t go unnoticed by me. But playing along with Kun is way more fun than interrogating him.

“Mmm not as much as I missed you. You sure there’s no special reason for this?” I can see Kun’s eyes sparkling despite the low quality graphics.

“Weeeeellllllll I suppose I did want to ask if you’d want to go on a date?”

“A date? How would we do that?”

“Like this!” Kun gestures eagerly at the screen. “Through zoom! I found all kinds of fun things we can do.”

“And when would we do this?”

“I mean I’m free now…” Kun suggests, eliciting a giggle from me. Sometimes Kun’s cuteness is unbelievable.

“That works for me. What’d you have in mind baby?” Kun’s eyes sparkle mischievously.

“Wanna get your ass whooped at Mario Kart?”

“In your d r e a m s Qian.”

⏳

After that initial date, zoom dates with Kun became a frequent occurance. Kun wasn’t kidding when he said he had a lot of ideas. He set up so many dates ranging from movie nights (“You know he comes back in the next movie right?” “TOM HOLLAND IS TOO HOT TO DIE KUN.”) to a talent show consisting mostly of magic and Louis ignoring my attempts to make him do tricks. I began to look forward to each and every one of the meetings. Especially if it’s my turn to plan the date (“It’s more fun playing Just Dance against you cause you’re uncoordinated and I always win.” “Shut up.”). Dates with Kun made quarantine far more tolerable, though I still missed cuddling with Kun. The teddy bear he sent me as a replacement was a kind gesture though.

I hold it close as I watch Kun struggle to repeat the steps I taught him. A small chuckle escapes my lips, and Kun immediately turns to me with a pout.

“Don’t laugh, I think I’m doing alright.”

“Oh yeah at this pace you’ll be in level 2 hiphop in no time,” I joke, only laughing harder at the huff Kun lets out. “I wasn’t laughing at you darling, just thinking about how much I love you.” The older boy looks slightly stunned by my confession but he’s beaming from ear to ear within seconds.

“I love you too Sunshine.”

***

“It’s way too salty.”

“I told you the recipe didn’t call for a cup of salt but you wouldn’t listen!!!” I giggle at my exasperated boyfriend before putting the failed noodle dish in the sink.

“Maybe I should hire a better teacher.”

“Good luck finding someone else who’ll tolerate your bullshit like I do,” We both chuckle at that. “Are you available for another date Friday night?”

I pretend to think it over before shrugging, “I suppose I can fit you into my schedule.” Kun glares cutely at me through the screen. “What do you have planned?”

“It’s a surprise.” Kun wiggles his eyebrows for emphasis.

“Sounds mysterious.”

“Well if I recall correctly you love suspense,” Kun muses, “You in?”

“Of course.”

Kun tries to keep up his mysterious demeanor, but the way he visibly lights up at my confirmation is impossible to miss.

“Then I’ll see you in 3 days sunshine.” And with a final wink, he ends the meeting.

Cheeky fucker.

⏳

Finding the patience to wait for Kun’s surprise proved quite challenging. I couldn’t help but mull over what on earth the older man had planned. The existence of the mystery lifted my previously sour mood, but I couldn’t for the life of me solve for x while Kun’s gleeful words raced through my head.

After nearly an hour of staring at the same math question, I decide planning my outfit would be a better use of my time. Considering I have no idea what Kun is planning, I try to pick an outfit that’s casual but also pretty. I didn’t want to overdo it (it’s only a zoom date after all) but I also wanted Kun to know I tried. I tear my closet apart for about 20 minutes before settling on my favorite white tee and jeans. I also opt to do a little makeup, knowing Kun would appreciate it. Showering, makeup, and hair take up the rest of my time and before I know it, it’s time for our zoom date.

It appears I wasn’t the only one looking forward to the date because even though I logged on a whole 5 minutes early, Kun was already waiting to admit me.

“Someone’s excited.” I tease, proud of the light pink that dusts kun’s cheeks

“I’m the host, what’s your excuse?” He chuckles lightly. “You look gorgeous Sunshine.”

“Not so bad yourself,” my teasing tone barely disguises the obvious want in my voice. Cause Kun. Looks. Adorable. It’s not that he’s dressed up, not at all actually. He’s dressed somewhat similarly to me, drowning in a plain collared long sleeve. The sleeves are long enough to cover his hands, giving him sweater paws that make him appear not only soft, but tiny. His chocolate brown hair is mussed up, only adding to the overall image. To top it all off, he seems to be wearing a little bit of lip balm. I have never wanted to kiss someone so bad in my entire life.

“You frozen there lovebug?” Kun’s amused comment breaks me out of my stupor.

“Nope, just enjoying the view,” I wink nonchalantly once again relishing in the blush rising up Kun’s neck. “So what’s your plan?”

“You should be finding out in about…” He checks his watch dramatically, “5 minutes.” I could only giggle in response as I watched my boyfriend, eyes gleaming with mischief. As I may have mentioned previously: Kun is a dork. He enjoys setting up dates a lot (maybe a bit too much). He likes to come up with weird creative ideas for us to try. It’s one of the things I love most about him. And the way his gaze is flitting every which way and his legs are bouncing all over the place is a clear sign that he’s extremely proud of whatever he’s planned.

A few minutes of mindless chitchat later, I hear the doorbell ring. I give Kun a knowing look as he pretends not to know what’s going on. I open the door to see two boxes of take out from my favorite restaurant. I turn to Kun on the screen.

“You didn’t.”

“Oh, but I did sunshine.”

As I open the delicious smelling box I see that he’d gotten my favorite dish as well. He’d remembered every detail of it. A few tears escape my eyes against my will. Kun seems confused and concerned by my reaction, his beautiful features melting into a frown.

“Did I get something wrong? I swear I checked like 8 times to make sure I just--”

“No Kun it’s perfect,” I smile wetly. “You got everything right baby, I’m just really lucky to have you.” Kun nods understandingly grinning to reveal his dimple, and all of a sudden I’m hit with a wave of sadness and longing. I want nothing more than to be there with Kun, to caress his cheeks and bury my head in his chest and kiss the freckle under his brow that I love so much. I’m hit all at once with the realization that I miss being with Kun, and suddenly the tears are streaming down my cheeks. Kun stays silent, patient as always and it only makes me want to cry more.

“I miss you so fucking much,” I whisper between sobs. My vision is far too blurry to see how Kun is reacting to my outburst. “I hate this stupid quarantine, and the stupid virus, and stupid zoom. I just w-want to hug you so bad kunkun.” My voice breaks at the end of my sobs.

“Aw baby, I know. Any time we do these dates I can’t help but miss everything about you. You mean so much to me and not being able to see you has been torture. But don’t worry too much Sunshine. This is not permanent. I’m confident we’ll be able to see each other again.” Kun’s eyes are practically pouring out affection and genuineness.

“I’m sorry for ruining the date.”

“If you don’t hush right now I’m going to find a way to Zoom slap you,” Kun teased. “You have absolutely nothing to apologize for and you haven’t ruined anything. We can just eat and watch a movie together yeah?”

There on my couch, as I lost count of the hours going by with Kun’s voice in my ears: I realized that despite the unideal situation, we’d be okay.

KUNTEN PIC OF THE DAY:

[retro-melanin]

Have Your Cake, and Eat It Too

what up, what up y’all? i’ve been working on this fic for awhile, and i was gonna leave it just as cute food fight fluff, buuuuut that didn’t happen lmao. i LIVE for playful chadwick so this fic is full of it. sorry for any typos and/or ruined panties

Plot: cute Sunday afternoon food fight turns into a fun time in the shower

Word count:2.5k plus

Kinks: oral sex (male and female), overstimulation, EXTREME DADDY KINK LIKE BEWARE LMAO,  Dom!Chadwick

Warnings: swearing, smut (obvi), unsafe sex (raw and it’s in the shower so we’re living life on the edge ksdlfjaoerijapwie)

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Luther Vandross’s melodic voice was crooning from the speakers you had in your kitchen. You were dressed in some shorts and one of Chadwick’s old shirts. Today, you’d decided to try and surprise your lover by making a treat he’d kept asking you for. Chadwick was on the couch jotting down some ideas for a script. At least, he was the last time you’d looked up. You were vigorously stirring the vegan cheesecake batter when Chadwick snuck up behind you. His hands slid around your waist, and you let out a startled yelp. You could feel his shit-eating grin on the side of your neck. You decided to get him back by flicking some of the batter from the drenched whisk on to him.

“HEY,” he exclaimed. “I’m sorry baby. I couldn’t help myself. You’re just soooo...delectable,” he said. His voice was getting dangerously lower with every sentence. Chadwick left a wet line of kisses up your neck and along your jaw, causing you to gasp. You put the bowl and the whisk down and spun around in his grasp.

“Now listen here,” you demanded--pointing your finger into his chest for emphasis. “You have BEGGED for me to try this recipe all week! And noooooow when I have the time you wanna distract me! Nigga, which cake do you want?”

Chadwick giggled at your sass. “Why can’t I have both?” he asked while trying to pull you in for a kiss. You playfully wiggled out of his embrace.

“Because…” you mused. You turned your attention back to the batter to begin beating it again. It was almost time to pour it in the mold, but you just needed a little more air in the mixture in order to assure the fluffiness of the treat. All the while, you were paying Chadwick no mind. You began to dance and twirl around the kitchen as if you were in a disney movie, he was a disney king after all. A devious glint developed in Chadwick’s eyes. He pulled himself up on the counter of the island separating you two and slid across it. Suddenly, your lips were mere inches apart again.

“Because why,” he asked playfully.

“Because I said so,” you sang-song. Chadwick sucked his teeth and gave you this look:

“Maaaiiine that aint a reason,” Chadwick said with a pout. You giggled at his childish antics. He leaned in, and you dipped the your finger in the cheesecake mix and swiped some across his nose. His eyes got comically wide, and you couldn’t help but  paint his face with more batter, hoping to elicit the same reaction from him. Chadwick retaliated by throwing flour at you. You shrieked with laughter. It was war. You dashed across the kitchen to grab at the lemon juice. You squeezed it at his shirt. He was arming himself with fistfuls of cornstarch.

“Oh you done did it now,” he said through is grin. He launched the cornstarch at you, and it went everywhere. The two of you went back a forth throwing any food item that you could reach. The food was not only all over your and Chadwick’s hair, face, clothes, but also all over the cabinets, stove, floor--everywhere! While you were taking in the view of the mess the two of you made, Chadwick came over and scooped you up. He held you bridal style and spun you around. It was your turn to giggle. He was smiling warmly down at you, and your heart swelled.

“Let’s go get cleaned up,” Chadwick said already making strides towards your master bathroom. You struggled like a cat in his arms, but he held you tight.

“We made a mess! I was trying to make your cheesecake!! ChaDWICK,” you wheezed between fits of laughter as he was tickling you now. He was watching you with both adoration and amusement.

“Thank you so so so much, but right now I just want you. We’ll worry about everything else later,” he said fondly. “Shower or bath,” he mused.

“Shower. I don’t want all this gunk in a bath...ew!” you scoffed. He chuckled yet again as he gently placed you on the floor. You began de-robing, eager to rid yourself of your soiled clothing.

“Is that MY shirt,” Chadwick asked.

“Oops,” you replied with a shrug. He rolled his eyes, and went to turn on the shower. You’d slipped the rest of your clothing off before you snuck up behind Chadwick and tugged his loose sweatpants down. A scandalized look swept across his face, and you burst out laughing. He turned on one of the many shower heads and aimed the freezing spray of water at you. You screamed and jerked away. Chadwick’s bodacious laugh filled your large bathroom, and you pouted.

“I’m cold AND disgusting,” you whimpered, trying to sound as frail as possible. You weren’t really mad, but you liked making him feel bad every once and awhile. This time, however, Chadwick didn’t fall for your antics. He was busy pulling his shirt over his head and kicking his sweatpants away from his feet. You decided to adjust the knobs while holding your pout.

“You’re fine, and you’re about to be better. You know why,” he inquired. You rolled your eyes while stepping under the now warm drizzle of the rain shower.

“Why,” you sighed. Your sigh turned into a gasp as you felt Chadwick’s firm chest against your back. His hands ran up your sides caressing your hips, waist, stomach, and finally landing on your breasts. His lips met your neck and he began leaving wet, nibbling kisses on it. His fingers took turns plucking and rolling the nipples on either breast. Between the attention he was paying to your tits and the attention he was paying to your neck, you were in heaven.

“Because….” he teased, mimicking your tone from earlier. He pulled away to grab the soap, and you let out a long disappointed whine.

“No, no, no, no, no. You don’t get to do that,” you sassed.

“You tryna distract me? Nigga, which cake do YOU want,” he kept mocking you, even if it didn’t make sense. You decided to catch him off-guard.

“Well, I don’t cake, but I am craving a certain kinda pie,” you mused as you pressed your wet body against his. His jaw dropped.

“DAYUM-,” he started, but you took his long, beautiful dick in your hand and gave a few firm strokes. He got too lost in the sensations to finish whatever he was going to say. You smirked when he let out a deep, wanton groan as he grew harder in your hand.

“Fuck baby…” he said just above a whisper through hooded eyes. You looked up with the most innocent face you could muster. A slow smile spread across his face, and you couldn’t help but get on your tiptoes to kiss him. Your lips met his in a chaste kiss, and you stole the soap from his hand while he was distracted. You began lathering it and cleaning your man. He returned the favor, sliding his strong hands down your spine. When he reached your ass, he gave powerful squeezes before giving you two hard slaps on each cheek. You couldn’t help the small “ah..ah!” that you let out.

You pulled away from the embrace, just enough to run your hand up and down his perfectly sculpted torso. His muscles rippled under your smoothing touch. He grabbed both of your hands in his much larger one just before you reached your prize. Your eyes flicked up to meet his lustful gaze.The tension between the two of you was palatable, as you both waited for the other to make a move. You dropped on to your knees and took the head of Chadwick’s dick into your mouth. Your boldness surprised him, and he let out a high pitched moan. He let go of your hands, so he could grip on to your head.

You gently raked your nails down is abdomen, to his hips, finally landing on his ass. You pulled him forward, forcing his dick further down your throat. He let out an aborted grunt, and one of his hands flew to the wall to stabilize him. It was nearly impossible to take his entire length into your mouth, so you used one of your hands to aid your mouth. One of your hands rested at the base of his dick, while you used the other one to lightly roll his balls. Something about Chad’s playful mood today inspired you to make this a messy blowjob.

You started slurping nosily. Your hand was twisting in the opposite direction of your head, and you would occasionally go further down to gag yourself a little. He was whimpering and biting the knuckle that wasn’t on the wall. You pulled off with a nasty pop. You let your tongue hang out, connecting it with his weeping slit. You alternated between little kitten licks and broad, confident strokes.

“Ooooohmy gawd,” Chadwick slurred. You tightened the hand that was on his shaft, and you sucked him back in with hollowed cheeks and wicked tongue movements. As you did, you looked up. His knees buckled, and his balls started drawing up in your hand the moment your eyes met. He pulled you off as he gasped, “shit baby, I almost came.” A smirk formed on your face. Chad let out a breathless chuckle and gently pulled your to your feet.

“Do you trust me,” he whispered once you were standing again.

“Of course,” you whispered back. Suddenly, your feet were off the ground. Your back was against the wall, your legs on his shoulders, and your pussy just millimeters away from his plump lips. You gushed when you realized how easily he picked you up, and Chadwick let out a deep, satisfied chuckle.

“Somebody liked that,” he murmured. Air grazed your wet folds with his every word. His hands on the small of your back pulled you in closer, and his tongue connected with your glistening slit. He ran his tongue up and down from your asshole to your clit over and over again, driving you mad. When started doing figure-eights around your clit with his tongue, you hissed while pulling on his curls.

“Ride my face baby,” he moaned into your cunt. You didn’t need to be told twice. You put both hands on his head and rolled your hips up to met his hungry licks. His arms were flexing as he held you up. His beard was burning the inside of your thighs, adding the perfect bite of pain to accompany your pleasure. He was gasping and moaning just as loudly as you were. Your joint moans bounced off the shower walls like a chorus praising your passion. Chadwick growled and forced your hips to his face. He sucked in your clit, and you threw your head back and screamed. You legs started shaking, and your hips were moving on their own accord.

“Ergh, oh, cha-AHHHHH,” you babbled. He could tell you were close, and he pulled off completely.

“CHADWICK WHAT THE FUUU-,” you screamed as he let go, and you slid you down the wall. He caught you when your hips were level with his abdomen. You had just seen your life flash before your eyes, and Chadwick was just standing there chuckling. Your face went on a journey from terrified, to astounded, to confused, to pissed. He watched all of your emotions unfold before him, and he kissed you when he could tell you were about to go off on him. Most of your anger faded away as soon as your lips molded together in an impassioned kiss, but your heart was still racing.

“Are you tryna give me a heart attack oooooor?” you whispered between the nips and bites you were leaving on is soft lips.

“Neva, neva….I’m just tryna keep you on your toes,” he slurred, “or should I say, off of ‘em.” He squeezed your legs that were now secured around his slim, toned waist. Your body was still orgasm deprived, so you started rubbing yourself against his slippery abs. He moaned when he realised what you were doing.

“If ya ask nicely, I might fuck you,” he said as he sucked dark marks on to your neck. His voice was growing low and gravely, and it struck you straight to your core. ‘Okay I’ll play your game Mr. Boseman,’ you thought slyly. You let out the filthiest moans your could conjure and put on your sex kitten voice.

“Please baby, fuck me,” you moaned right into his ear. He slid your hips down so that the very tip of his dick was teasing your entrance.

“I’m not convinced you want it,” he growled.

“Ahhh Daddy, please, pleeeeease I’ll be so good for you. I promise, please daddy,” you gasped in a played up breathy moan--licking and sucking on his ears in between each plea.

“Fuck.” he breathed out. He slid you onto his dick as he gave a forceful thrust up.

“OoooooOoOooOoo fuuuck, it’s that, uhf, easy h-huh?” you tried to quip, but Chadwick was already fucking the living daylights out of you.

“You know it gets me when you call me daddy, fuck,” he groaned. He rolled his hips back and snapped them forward, making his dick hit your sweet spot perfectly on each thrust. His powerful thrust had you scratching at his back for purchase. Your thighs were definitely going to bruise from the force of his grip. Everything felt to visceral and unhinged. Although you loved how Chadwick made love to you, you lived for the moments when he lost control. Your bodies were making lewd slapping noises every time your hips connected with his. His dick was pounding into you relentlessly, and you could feel your orgasm rising again. You clamped your legs around his waist and tried to met his animalistic thrusts as best you could.

“Uh, ah, fuck fuck,” you whimpered.

“You like that,” he moaned into your neck.

“Yes, yes, baby, yes”

“Who’s pussy is this?”

“Your’s! It’s your pussy daddy!” you said and you felt his dick throb. “Fuck your pussy daddy. OoOooh my god.” Your cunt was clenching around him, rearing up for the orgasm of the century. Chadwick’s hips were moving at a rabbit’s pace--you could tell your lover was close too. He was too lost in the warm, wet feeling of your pussy caressing his dick to speak. You slipped a hand down to your clit, and started rubbing to match his pace. As soon as you did, your insides clenched HARD, once, twice, three times before you felt yourself teetering at the top of your release.

“Look at me while you cum in me daddy,” you demanded. His eyes shot open to meet yours, and you shook from head to toe. You both crashed down into the most glorious orgasms of your lives. Your pussy was throbbing, your clit was twitching beneath your fingers.Chadwick’s mouth dropped open and he let out cropped “shit, fuck, AHHHH, FU- FU.” You felt his dick enlarge and shoot inside you. Your eyes rolled back as you yelled out your release. He thrust in you hard while your were still trembling out your high. You started whimpering and pushing against his chest--it was too much. He kept going, and you yelled “FUCK DADDY IM CUMMING AGAIN!” One orgasm bled into the next, and you found yourself speaking in tongues.

He finally held himself against you. He put your legs down, and you leaned on the wall for support. The two of you were breathing heavy, and shaking. He blew out a shaky breath and said, “damn baby what was that.” Even though you were exhausted, you still had a trick or two up your sleeve. You gentle scooted him back, and you dropped down to your knees once again. Once you were eye level with his spent dick, you took it down to the base, and you bobbed up and down. Chadwick let out high pitch moans that almost sounded like screams.

“babybabybabybaybaplease please pleeeease, you gotta stop you gotta i CAN’T,” he was completely incoherent and at your mercy. You didn’t stop until he shot whatever was left from his beautiful dick into your mouth. When he was totally spent, you pulled off and sleepily said, “who’s beggin’ now?”

He pulled you up, and held you close. “I love you so much. You know that?”

“I sure do,” you said with a smile. Chadwick grabbed the shampoo and washed your hair and his since you were near passing out. He finished washing the both of you down before he turned off the shower. You were nearly limp in his arms as he towled you off and lotioned you. You couldn’t help but think ‘wow this man is perfect. I’m so lucky.’ He slipped your bonnet on, and placed you gently on the bed. You were falling into the beginning stages of sleep when you remembered, THE KITCHEN! Chadwick was putting on his durag when he saw you shoot up.

“Chadwick! The mess!!” you tried to articulate in your sleepy state.

“The mess will be there when we wake up. Now we rest.” he said getting into bed and wrapping you up in his arms.

“Chadwick?”

“Yes, baby?”

“I love you, even if you’re a little shit sometimes.”

“I know it.” he said with a smile on his face. You could still distantly hear Luther Vandross playing across the house as you fell asleep cuddled up next to the love of your life.

[minijenn]

Universe Falls Chapter 51

Damn its been almost a month since we’ve had a new UF chapter can ya’ll believe that? Well now we finally have one and its... ok. Kinda short and kinda lackluster but whatever. I need to get back into the swing of things now that I have no distractions holding be back anymore (aside from the ones i put upon myself) but anyway, here ya go. Enjoy!

Previous: http://minijenn.tumblr.com/post/173015479819/universe-falls-chapter-51

Chapter 52: Cry for Help

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With the metaphorical roller coaster ride of events and emotions they had been consistently on for the past several days, Steven, Dipper, and Mabel all readily welcomed a break from this torrent of essentially earth-shattering revelations and aftershocks. However, the “break” that Steven and Mabel had formulated was one that Dipper wasn’t exactly fond of, but was ultimately outnumbered on, which was how he ended up being sandwiched squarely in between the enthusiastic pair as they turned in for the ongoing Crying Breakfast Friends marathon.

All the same, two thirds of the trio were thoroughly enraptured in the depressing escapades of Sniffling Croissant, Sad Pear, and Bawling Bacon all weeping inconsolably over some sort of ‘shocking’ reveal concerning their mysterious family members. “Wow…” Steven mused in amazement in light of this turn in the show. “What a great plot twist! I can’t believe Sniffling Croissant’s dad was actually one of the Angry Lunch Enemies all this time!”

“I know, right?!” Mabel exclaimed, just as stunned. “And that they finally found Sad Pear and Bawling Bacon’s long-lost aunt! It’s like everything’s unraveling all at once and its so crazy! I wonder how everyone is gonna react to all these huge drama bombs!”

“You guys are kidding, right?” Dipper interjected dryly. “Those ‘plot twists’ were totally predictable. I’ve only seen a few episodes of this show and from what I’ve seen, they’ve foreshadowed all that stuff so much that just about anyone could have figured it out from basically the beginning.”

A beat of somewhat awkward silence passed at this callout, until Steven found a silver lining in it and quickly perked up. “Aw, Dipper! You really are invested in Crying Breakfast Friends after all, just like me and Mabel!”

“…Believe me, Steven, I’m really not,” Dipper deadpanned, rolling his eyes at the over the top cartoon on TV.

Not long after this exchange, the temple doors began to open and instantly, all three of the kids directed their attention away from the TV and in that direction instead. After all, none of them had really heard anything from any of the Gems since the return of their apparently tumultuous memories the other day. Suffice to say they were all immensely curious to know both how they were coping with what they had discovered, as well as whatever it was they had remembered in the first place. But given how sensitive of a subject it likely still was for the Gems, the kids knew they were in no position to pry about any of it; the last thing they wanted was to set Garnet, Amethyst, or Pearl off again so soon after the solid ground they once stood on abruptly crumbled apart underneath them.

But still, that didn’t mean the trio didn’t want to know they answers they themselves were still missing even after it was all said and done.

So they watched in somewhat tense silence as Amethyst trudged out of the temple, silent and clearly sullen as she kept her rather embittered gaze downward on her way over to the fridge. She didn’t bother to spare a glance up to the kids on the loft, much less make an effort to speak to them as she dully searched for a snack. The purple Gem’s distracted distance continued only until Steven hesitantly spoke up with a small smile, one that was filled with plenty of concern for Amethyst in light of what had happened just a few days ago.

“Uh… hey, Amethyst,” he greeted with slight uncertainty, exchanging a brief glance with the twins before continuing. “You, uh… you wanna watch Crying Breakfast Friends with us? There’s an all-day marathon going on.”

The purple Gem’s shoulders hitched at the offer, but she didn’t turn to face the trio as she muttered out her response. “Nah… I’m… I’m good…”

“A-are you sure?” Mabel asked, trying to be just as encouraging as Steven. “We’re in the middle of a really good one right now!”

“Not really,” Dipper remarked, though he was quickly corrected by a sudden elbowing from his sister. “Ow! Uh, yeah, I-I mean, it’s really, um… great…”

Amethyst hesitated for another moment or two before finally glancing over her shoulder at the kids, briefly taking in their warm, hopeful expressions before letting out a relenting sigh. “Yeah, alright,” she complied, heading up towards the loft herself before plopping down on the floor in front of the TV. “But only for a little while. I’m sorta… busy dealing with some… stuff.”

None of the kids bothered to ask what that “stuff” might have been, largely since they already had a pretty good guess about it. Even so, another bout of tentative silence took over the room, filled in only by the overdramatic wails of the breakfast characters on screen. But when it was finally broken, Steven was the one to do it, interrupting the show somewhat apprehensively as he addressed the purple Gem on the ground below him.

“Um… Amethyst?” he began, unsure of how to really phrase what he really wanted to ask, so instead, he went in another direction instead. “H-how are you feeling after the whole, um… you know… memory thing that happened the other day?”

“W-what, that whole thing?” Amethyst quickly replied, flinching as she forced a scoff out. “Pfft, I don’t even care about that junk anymore. I-I mean, its really messed up stuff, yeah, but uh… its fine, its whatever. It happened a way long time ago anyway, so its not like it even matters anymore anyway.”

“Uh… no offense, Amethyst, but it sure didn’t seem like it doesn’t matter based on how you guys reacted to getting those memories back in the first place…” Dipper noted truthfully.

“Ugh, well it doesn’t!” the purple Gem snapped, frustrated. “I don’t know about Garnet or Pearl, but I’m over it, so we don’t need to talk about it anymore!”

The kids exchanged a glance, rather doubtful of this claim based on Amethyst’s heated reaction, but none of them were too keen on continuing much further when it came to asking her anything related to the formerly missing memories. After all, it didn’t seem like they’d be getting too far along with the purple Gem when it came to getting answers about them anyway. “Well then, i-if the memory thing isn’t what’s bothering you, then… what does have you so down?” Mabel asked, still wanting to cheer the obviously discouraged purple Gem up.

Amethyst started at this, her eyes growing wide before her cheeks flushed in dark purple embarrassment, which she was quick to play off with another harsh scoff. “N-nothing!” she barked defensively. “Nothing’s got me down, I’m fine! I don’t know why you guys are grilling me with so many questions anyway, I thought you guys just called me up here to watch your weird cartoon with you and-” The purple Gem cut herself off as she nodded towards the TV, only to notice that the program had cut out into loud, bizarre static largely out of nowhere.

“Aw, hey! What’s the big idea?” Mabel asked with a pout. “Steven, did you forget to pay your cable bill or something?”

“My dad’s usually the one who does that, and he’s always pretty on top of getting it paid on time…” Steven mused thoughtfully as he looked to the snowy screen. “But this is pretty weird. It was doing this yesterday too…”

“Well, then maybe its just something wrong with your TV,” Dipper guessed. “Still, its not like you really need to rush to fix it or anything. Its not like we were missing much anyway…” He finished his last statement in a sarcastic mutter, one that Steven and Mabel readily disagreed with.

“Are you kidding, bro-bro? The entire show could be turning itself upside down right now, and all we’re seeing is a bunch of static!” Mabel huffed impatiently. “We gotta figure out a way to fix this!”

“Ugh, hang on, I got it,” Amethyst said as she stood and stepped beside the TV. The purple Gem then proceeded to give it a few soft kicks, though they did little to change the ongoing flow of endless static. “How about now?” she asked, glancing to the TV herself. She jumped back in surprise, however, as the static suddenly shifted, the television itself vibrating wildly as an unintelligible bout of odd gibberish began bursting from it.

“I-it’s never done that before,” Steven remarked, keeping a close eye on the screen along with the twins to see what might happen next. Soon enough, the screen soon changed again as an image gradually began to take shape upon it along with a voice. And as soon as both of these things became clear and distinguishable, the entire group present let out a startled gasp upon seeing exactly what, or rather who was interrupting the scheduled programming.

“This is Peridot,” the green Gem began with her prerecorded message, her manner clearly aggravated and rather frantic as she continued. “Transmitting on all frequencies from abandoned Crystal System colony planet Earth, to Yellow Diamond. My mission has been compromised; my escort and escapee informant are gone and I am now stranded! Please send help!” With this desperate plea, the message repeated itself, with Peridot once again making her anxious appeal to the mysterious Yellow Diamond. Based on this alone, it took almost no deliberation between Amethyst and the kids for them to reach the decision to call Garnet and Pearl out of the temple so they could this troubling transmission. And upon hearing it for themselves, both of the other Gems were quick to place their own lingering remorse from their recalled memories aside, just as Amethyst had, for the sake of the brand new problem at hand.

“I don’t get it…” Mabel remarked, aptly confused as they all watched Peridot’s message over again. “Why would anyone give Peridot her own weird commercial? It’s not like she really has the kind of personality meant for television.”

“She probably just took over the airwaves, Mabel,” Dipper remarked, rolling his eyes as he cast another disdainful glare at the Gem on TV. “Though who knows how she managed to do that. I guess she might be smarter than we give her credit for. Maybe.”

“Doubt it,” Garnet said, her manner stoic as she rose to properly stand.

“Ok, thanks,” Steven finished his conversation on the phone before hanging up and addressing the others. “Connie says its on her TV too.”

“But where could Peridot be broadcasting a signal that strong?” Pearl asked with a concerned frown.

“There’s only one place,” Garnet said, taking in a deep, resolved breath before looking to her uncertain teammates. “Amethyst, Pearl. I know a lot has happened these past few days. And even more has changed as a result of everything we’ve learned. But… despite it all, its time we pull ourselves together and get back to doing what we do best: protecting the Earth from anyone who wants to harm it, including Homeworld. Now,” the Gem leader paused her bold, reassuring, and inspiring speech as she gracefully hopped down from the loft, putting on a small, somewhat unreadable smile as she looked up to the group still gathered above and encouraging them to follow. “Let’s get going. We have a transmission to interrupt and certain green Gem’s plans to thwart.”

The warp pad to the Gem communication hub located far off in the distant desert had been destroyed near the beginning of the summer courtesy of Sugilite. This meant that the only way the Gems and the kids could get there was on Lion, which was a pretty cramped ride, even as the pink beast roared a temporal portal there from Gravity Falls. Still, the night air was cool and crisp as they all arrived, Lion quickly plopping down in exhaustion underneath them as they all disembarked from his back. “Lion, are you ok?” Steven asked with concern, giving his faithful pet a comforting pat on the head as he allowed him some rest.

At the same time, Dipper and Mabel let out a simultaneous gasp of awe as they got their first glimpse of the towering communication hub before them, a Gem locale neither of them had been to since they had not been present for the Gems’ previous venture there. “Whoa… this place is amazing!” Dipper exclaimed, already immensely curious about it as he took a step closer. “I can’t believe something like this just… exists in the middle of the desert like this! What’s it for?”

“Well, it used to be used to transmit messages between the Earth and Homeworld…” Pearl began her brief explanation before Amethyst interjected.

“Before we busted it up a few weeks ago, just like we do with all of Homeworld’s old junk they got lying around here,” she remarked, playfully punching her hand and ignoring the white Gem’s exasperated huff.

“Well… it doesn’t look so busted up now…” Mabel noted, glancing back towards the hub.

“No, it doesn’t…” Garnet agreed, looking up to the tall beam of light emitting from the top of the tower up into the clouds above. “It’s as I feared…”

“Peridot must have somehow repaired the communication hub…” Pearl ventured with a frown as she surveyed the haphazard job the green Gem had apparently done. “Well, at least some of it. I suppose we really did underestimate her…”

“So… we just gotta wreck it up again, right?” Steven asked before letting out an excited gasp of recollection as he looked between Garnet and Amethyst. “You guys should form Sugilite!”

At this suggestion, Dipper adamantly shook his head, remembering well the aforementioned fusion’s violent rampage several weeks ago. “Uh, Steven, that might not be the best-”

“Oh my gosh, yes!” Mabel interjected brightly. “I didn’t get to meet Sugilite the last time around and I’ve always wanted to see how super tough and strong she is! Can you guys form her? Please, please please?!”

While Garnet didn’t provide much of a reaction, especially when compared to Pearl’s expression of silent fear, Amethyst smiled awkwardly, stretching casually as she cast a glance over at the Gem leader hopefully. “Er, y-yeah, well… its up to Garnet, I guess…” she said, a hint of anxiousness in her tone, one that was mingled with a certain amount of eagerness as well. “W-what do you say, G? Shall we mash it up…?”

“No,” Garnet staunchly replied, instantly shutting the purple Gem’s already wavering hopes down before they could even try to grow.

“B-but… don’t we need to be huge like last time?” Amethyst asked, her expression falling as she thought of the practically countless reasons for such a rejection. Reasons that were all rooted in things she had done and mistakes she had made.

“Last time was a disaster,” Garnet said, her tone steady and calm. “Last time we fused, Sugilite went berserk. Its because of her that we can’t even warp here anymore, not to mention how we nearly took out all those manotaurs.” The Gem leader paused, sighing softly as she took her shades off and looked down to the disheartened purple Gem sympathetically. “I can be brash, and you can be reckless. And we can both get carried away. So for the time being,” Garnet put her shades back on, her authority on the matter clear as Amethyst saw her reflection in them. “Sugilite is benched.”

“O-oh… yeah… o-ok…” Amethyst let out a sad sigh of acceptance, averting Garnet’s gaze out of shame as she knew that certainly wasn’t all there was to it. Certainly, the Gem leader wouldn’t say it out loud while the wound was still so fresh, but the purple Gem believed that her foolish, senseless bout of rebellion against the team before that portal just a few short days ago had everything to do with this. A rebellion that she could feel nothing but regret for now that it had all but ruined whatever trust the Gem leader might have once held for her.

“What we need now…” Garnet continued, turning to Pearl, who up until that point, had been standing off to the side in silent observation. “Is to be careful.” While Steven and Mabel let out a shared gasp of excited realization at this, Pearl starkly froze, her eyes wide with surprise and wonder as Garnet placed a hand on her shoulder and offered her a bold grin. “It’s you and me, Pearl. Let’s fuse.”

Upon hearing this offer, tears immediately welled up in the white Gem’s eyes, a huge smile claiming her features, perhaps the first one she had worn since recovering her lost memories. Garnet’s smile faded upon watching Pearl let out a choked, joyous sob, her formerly calm manner completely compromised for happiness and elation she couldn’t hope to contain. “Don’t cry, Pearl,” the Gem leader advised and the white Gem complied, sucking her tears in as she nodded, her lip still quivering all the while. “Come on, let’s do this.”

“I-I’m right behind you!” Pearl readily exclaimed, hurrying after Garnet as she claimed a wide open space for them to preform their fusion dance in.

“Woo-hoo!” Steven cheered, rushing ahead as well to watch as Mabel quickly followed, joining in his excited chanting. “Fusion! Fusion! Fusion!”

“Huh. You know, its pretty weird that its taken us this long to see Pearl and Garnet fuse,” Dipper noted inquisitively. “What’s their fusion even like?”

“Oh believe me,” Amethyst huffed, crossing her arms as she begrudgingly joined the group. “You’re sure as heck about to find out…”

A bright glow sparked through Garnet’s gemstones as she smirked, putting aside all thoughts of painful memories or frightening revelations as she looked to Pearl with renewed confidence. “I’m ready.”

“H-hang on!” Pearl quipped, hurriedly stretching herself out as she continued buzzing with obvious excitement. “It’s been such a long time…” The white Gem’s smile deepened as he own gemstone began to glow, and with an elegant bow, their fusion dance began. The entire thing was slow and elegant, with both Gems slowly, smoothly strutting towards one another. The group on the sidelines watched as the pair met, Pearl linking her arms with Garnet as she stood in front of her, both of their expressions intimate, seductive almost. And then, in a movement so fluid that it barely even registered, the Gem leader suddenly lifted her partner up as though she weighed nothing at all, tossing her incredibly high up into the air in a daring, deft maneuver. The kids jaws’ collectively dropped as Pearl preformed a midair spin high above them, before spreading herself wide, a smile still bright on her face as gravity began to pull her back down towards Garnet’s outstretched arms. The moment she landed, the bright glow of an oncoming fusion enveloped them both, their combining forms steadily growing in size as they reshaped and united. The white light soon turned into a pale orange sheet, the silhouette of a new being appearing behind it until she broke that curtain of light herself.

“Gooooooooood evening, everybody!” the new fusion bombastically declared as she made her debut. Her appearance was surprising to say the least; like most of the Gems’ fusions, she was tall, roughly about 30 or so feet in height as she stood with an air of elegance and self-importance. Her attire and mannerisms carried an air of natural showmanship to them, with a stately black tailcoat and leotard, dark leggings, and a large, bright orange bowtie. Her skin was a deep shade of vermillion, her short, rounded, somewhat triangular hair pale orange, and the rounded shades covering both sets of her bright, expressive eyes dark pink and transparent in coloration. Aside from an extra pair of eyes, the fusion also sported two pairs of arms, one from her poofed sleeves and the other from her slender torso, each of them bearing a pair of long white gloves. The fusion’s effervescent, toothy grin widened even moreso as she caught sight of her captivated audience, which she didn’t hesitate to saunter forward to cheerfully greet. “This is the lovely Sardonyx, coming to you live from the soon-to-be-former communication hub! How are ya’ll doin’ tonight?”

“Greaaaat…” Amethyst deadpanned, far from fond of Garnet and Pearl’s rather over the top fusion.

The kids, on the other hand, were completely awestruck by her, Steven and Mabel in particular as they met her appearance with huge matching grins of excitement. “Giant woman!” the young Gem exclaimed, stars in his eyes as he craned his neck up to look at the massive fusion.

“Oh my stars!” Sardonyx exclaimed, putting three of her large hands down in front of the kids and silently beckoning them to hop on. While Mabel and Steven readily did so, Dipper was somewhat more hesitant, though even so, he climbed onto one of them before the fusion raised all three of the kids up to her level. “If it isn’t Steven Universe, Dipper Pines, and Mabel Pines, all in the flesh! We finally meet. So, what do you think?” Sardonyx smirked as she spun her torso completely around, the arms connected to it somehow remaining in place as she preformed this surprising illusion. “Was I worth the wait? What am I saying? Of course I was! Ohohohoh!”

The fusion’s excitable laughter echoed throughout the desert, eliciting similar chuckles from all three of the kids, though Amethyst refused to join in on the merriment from her spot on the ground. “Oh my gosh, Sardonyx, you’re so funny!” Mabel quipped, bouncing up and down on her heels on the fusion’s large palm. “And so stylish too! I love your bow tie!”

“Oh, why, thank you, Mabel darling!” Sardonyx beamed happily, using her free hand to adjust the aforementioned bow. “It really is quite the trendsetter, isn’t it? Then again, I’m really quite the trendsetter in general, so its not that surprising, is it?”

Mabel let out an amused chuckle at this, thoroughly charmed by the fusion’s apt sense of humor. “Nope! I guess its not!” she laughed, Sardonyx briefly joining in before Dipper interjected.

“Hey, so uh…” he began somewhat awkwardly as he caught the fusion’s attention. “Just a quick question: are you guys always so… theatrical when you’re fused?”

“Theatrical! Now there’s a million-dollar word!” Sardonyx exclaimed with a dramatic gasp of amazement. From there, the fusion suddenly caught Dipper off guard by pulling his hat off his head by the brim with just a single finger, playfully grinning back down at him as she spun it casually upon said finger. “And what an absolutely perfect one to refer to someone as showstopping as I am! Of course, I would expect nothing less from someone as well-read as you, Dipper. Excellent observation, as usual!”

“Oh, w-well, uh-” Dipper was interupted as Sardonyx suddenly returned his hat to him, and at this, he couldn’t really hold back something of a bashful grin as the fusion offered him a proud wink of approval. “Heh, thanks.”

“But of course,” Sardonyx chimed as warmly as ever.

“Wow, Sardonyx,” Steven mused, stars still in his eyes as the fusion looked over at him. “You’re so articulate!”

“Well, aren’t you just the sweetest little charmer!” Sardonyx gushed, playfully and gently pinching the young Gem between the fingers of her free hand as he laughed brightly. “I could literally squish you right now. It would not be hard!”

“Ah, n-no!” Steven chuckled, loosely wriggling out of her grip before the fusion pulled all three of the kids a bit closer to her face.

“Sorry,” she laughed herself with a zealous smile. “I’m just so excited to be here! You see, I haven’t exactly been myself lately. Ohohohoh!”

The kids were all quick to understand Sardonyx’s playful quip and join in on her laughter as she gently set them back down on the ground. “Ha! Fusion joke!” Steven chuckled, glancing back over at Amethyst, who simply groaned in aggravation as she averted the fusion’s attention.

Still, Sardonyx hardly payed her any mind anyway as she once again rose to her full, towering height, a coy grin still playing on her features. “And jokes aren’t the only thing I’ve got,” she began, the gem on her forehead flashing as Pearl’s spear emerged from it. The fusion caught it with one hand, though one of her lower ones tapped her on the shoulder, momentarily ‘distracting’ her. “Hm?” Sardonyx kept her act up as she tossed her spear high into the air, gasping in faux surprise at its disappearance until it came back down towards her. The fusion grinned daringly as Garnet’s gauntlets formed over both her hands, and as the spear approached her, Sardonyx punched her fists together on the lithe weapon, forming an entirely new one altogether: a massive, powerful hammer.

“Whoa…” Dipper mused in amazement at this display as Mabel let out a squeal of elated excitement. “That’s… so cool!”

“Cool is only the tip of the iceberg,” Sardonyx playfully remarked, spinning her hammer as she slung it over her shoulder. “An iceberg that, much like the troublesome hub that stands before us, is about to be completely raised, right along with your expectations.”

“Are you gonna smash stuff with your giant war hammer?” Steven asked the fusion in immense curiosity.

“Hm…” Sardonyx thoughtfully paused. “‘Smash’ is the word one would use to describe what… someone else might do.” Upon hearing this, Amethyst couldn’t help but let out another disgruntled sigh, knowing that this very pointed remark was clearly aimed at both her and the fusion she shared with Garnet. One that couldn’t have been any different from the one that was currently present. “Now,” Sardonyx continued, taking a high, graceful leap into the air, her hammer in tow as she pounced towards the communication hub. “The proper words to describe yours truly are… specific!” The fusion shouted boldly as her hammer swung down on one of the pillars, knocking it out of alignment as she plunged through the gap it had made to tackle another one. “Intelligent!” Her hammer landed once more, taking over several columns at once. “Accurate!” She proved this claim by hitting one of the pillars perfectly before launching herself over the hub. “Faultless!” Sardonyx continued as she took a high leap into the air, a beaming grin upon her face as she sailed through the air in front of the moon. “Elegant…” As more pieces of the hub fell, the fusion continued her list, each descriptive word punctuating another hit of her dependable hammer. “Controlled! Surgical! Graceful! Theatrical,” she flashed a bright grin down at the kids, who all cheered her on in light of this cordial shout-out. Even so, Sardonyx took a grand leap up to the very top of the hub, preforming an impressive flip as she claimed her upmost perch. “Aaaaaand…. Powerful!” She stopped her hammer right before it could land upon the most essential pillar, her manner turning thoughtful once more as she finished her ongoing proclamation. “But yes, occasionally, I am known… to smash.”

With a single, almost gentle tap from the end of the fusion’s hammer, the primary column came crashing down, the light emitting from the hub instantly going dark as Peridot’s message ceased its transmission. The kids’ unanimously applauded Sardonyx’s impressive preformance as the fusion easily landed before them once more, none of them noticing Amethyst’s bitter ongoing pout. “Now, just remember, everybody,” Sardonyx said, spinning her hammer out before it disappeared in a burst of glittering dragonflies. “If you ever have need of the lovely Sardonyx again, just let Pearl and Garnet know. I’ll be there in a flash,” the fusion grinned jokingly once more as she lowered herself down to her audience’s level before taking her leave. “Literally!”

In a burst of light and dragonflies, Sardonyx disappeared, leaving Garnet and Pearl intimately holding each other in her place. In the aftermath of their fusion, the pair of Gems took pause, looking to each other with wide eyes briefly before they both simultaneously exploded into a burst of absolute elation and cheer. Before they even exchanged any words at all, they burst out into a shared gale of warm laughter, especially as Garnet picked Pearl up and easily spun her around in a round of delighted victory. In that moment, after such a round of triumphant fusion and mission execution, thoughts of dark, disturbing, newly-remembered memories couldn’t have been the furthest thing from either of their minds. The pain and woe of the past several days seemed to have evaporated into nothingness, taken away by the uplifting, exciting experience they had just had the privilege of sharing together. And given that this was the happiest the kids had seen any of the Gems since the portal incident, they were all more than eager to join in on this celebration.

“Woo!” Steven cheered as him, Dipper, and Mabel ran up to the ecstatic pair. “You guys, that was great!”

“Yeah!” Mabel readily agreed. “I always hoped you guys’ fusion would be awesome, but Sardonyx was even more awesome than I could have imagined!”

“O-oh, really?” Pearl smiled with a warm, flustered blush. “Well, that’s good!”

“We were awesome!” Garnet proclaimed with a bold flair, eliciting shared laughter from the others.

“I’d say we were,” the white Gem’s grin widened upon hearing such adulation from the Gem leader herself. “Why don’t we do that more often?”

While the others continued happily praising Sardonyx’s most recent ‘preformance’, no one really noticed as Amethyst intentionally hung back from the group, her arms wrapped tightly around herself as she turned away with a disappointed sigh. She had never really been too fond of the bombastic, prideful fusion to begin with, but in light of recent events, she couldn’t help but feel even more disdain towards her than usual. But really, Amethyst knew that her bitterness didn’t completely lie with Sardonyx; a large portion of it was reserved for herself, for the foolish, reckless, borderline stupid decisions she had made. To go overboard with Garnet during Sugilite’s last appearance, to take Stan’s side over her teams’, to even go as far as to physically oppose them all because of a feeling and little else. A feeling that, in the aftermath of it all, had only brought her perhaps more shame than she had ever even known before.

Shame that seemed to tower over her, just like the showstopping fusion she always seemed to stand in the shadow of.

Given that Crying Breakfast Friends had an effective plethora of episodes, its marathon continued over the course of several days, and to avoid any further possible broadcast interruptions, Steven and Mabel had opted to continue watching it down at the Mystery Shack instead of the temple. In doing so, they managed to rope both Dipper and Stan into joining them, and while they weren’t too keen on watching the bizarrely depressing cartoon, but unfortunately neither of them were able to think of any good excuses to get out of it. So the group congregated in the den, which was still somewhat in shambles from the portal incident and the government invasion a few days prior, to watch the show with varying levels of interest.

“Why won’t you say thank you?!” Grumpy Pancake wailed somewhat angrily to Glum Glass, who answered in an expectantly mournful manner.

“B-because! I don’t know how!”

“Aww…” Mabel mused with a sympathetic frown. “Poor Pancake! He just wants to feel appreciated for all his hard work!”

“Yeah, but I can see Glass’ point too…” Steven said thoughtfully. “That’s just the thing with this show! All of its characters are so realistic and relatable!”

“You guys do realize you’re talking about a pancake and a cup here… right?” Dipper asked rather sardonically.

“Yeesh, I can’t believe you kids are actually into this sappy show,” Stan remarked just as dryly. “This thing is so far out there that it puts the cartoons that me and Ford used to watch when we were kids about animals beating each other over the heads with mallets to shame.”

“Oh yeah, how is Mr. Ford?” Steven asked, glancing away from the TV with newfound concern. “He seemed like he was really worried about the Gems the other day after they, uh… um… a-after they got their memories back and everything…”

“Pfft,” Stan scoffed, rolling his eyes at the mention of his brother. “Heck if I know. Sixer’s holed himself down in the basement for the past several days, probably working on some sort of nerd project or something. He’s barely even come up here at all and anytime he does he’s all mopey and depressed, acting like I didn’t just rescue him from some sort of nightmare dimension, the ungrateful jerk.”

“Aw, Grunkle Stan, you don’t mean that!” Mabel protested. “You and Grunkle Ford are brothers! You two love each other, just like me and Dipper do!” At this, she startled her brother by wrapping a playful arm around his shoulder, though unlike a few days ago, he didn’t push it away this time.

“…Kid, me and Ford aren’t as… uh… w-well, we used to be… um… ugh… never mind…” the conman let out a sigh of defeat, glancing away from the kids almost remorsefully. And, before any of them could pursue the unsavory manner any further, Stan quickly changed the topic to something a bit more manageable. “Uh, s-so anyway, how are the Gems doing? I heard that whole memory thing was… kinda rough for them.”

“Actually, they seemed mostly ok yesterday,” Dipper pointed out.

“Yeah, we went to the communication hub in the desert and Garnet and Pearl fused into Sardonyx and she took the entire thing out with her huge hammer!” Steven explained with a bright smile. “You should have seen it, Mr. Pines! It was incredible!”

“Sardonyx?” Stan questioned, raising an eyebrow before letting out a huff of a scoff. “That over the top broad? Yeesh, it’s been a while since I’ve heard anything about her.”

“Wait, Grunkle Stan, you’ve met Sardonyx before?” Dipper asked, rather surprised at this.

“No, but I’ve heard plenty about her from Amethyst,” Stan said, rolling his eyes. “Any time Garnet and Pearl turned into her, she would to vent to me about how pompous and annoying she was. Always seemed to be a sore subject for her if ya ask me, but what the heck do I know about all that Gem drama anyway? Seems like every other day those three are-” The conman suddenly stopped short upon noticing that all three of the kids were looking to him with concerned confusion, prompting him to realize he was treading on rather uncomfortable ground in light of recent events. So once again, Stan diverted away from the matter, even if he did want to discuss it further, just in a different way. “Hey, uh, I-I just remembered, I need to grab something from the kitchen,” he said casually enough as he rose from his chair. “One of you kids wanna lend me a hand?”

“Sure, Grunkle Stan,” Mabel volunteered with a smile. “I’ll-”

“No, not you,” Stan quickly rejected, much to his niece’s confusion. “You,” he snapped his fingers as he pointed at Steven instead. “Come on.”

“Oh, uh, ok,” Steven got up, somewhat confused, though he still followed Stan into the kitchen nonetheless. “So, what do you need help with, Mr. Pines?”

Stan paused, taking a beat to briefly glance back at the den, where the twins were still apparently distracted by the TV, before getting to the matter at hand. “I need you to tell me how Amethyst’s really doing,” he said, trying to act as disinterested as possible and coming across as anything but.

“Huh?” Steven frowned, caught off guard by this somewhat strange request.

“Ugh, listen, kid,” Stan began with an exasperated sigh. “Ever since the whole portal thing, Amethyst’s barely said a word to me. I know she’s pi—ticked off with me for keeping all of it a secret from her for all these years and I understand why, but whenever she gets mad at me, she’s usually pretty quick to get over it and move on. But this time is… different.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, she hasn’t even come down here to rant to me about this whole Sardonyx thing!” the conman exclaimed, somewhat frustrated as he began to pace. “I’m usually the first person she comes to to blow off steam with, especially about something like this, or heck, even that memory thing, but she hasn’t and it—it’s just… ugh, forget it!” Stan let out another aggravated groan as he slammed a hand down on the counter hard as he pinched the bridge of his nose, clearly upset.

Steven was silent for a moment upon seeing the conman’s outburst, concern filling his expression as he glanced down thoughtfully before tentatively speaking up. “You’re… worried about her… aren’t you?” Stan didn’t turn around or even offer a verbal response, but the way his shoulders hitched at this question was more than enough to give the young Gem his answer. “Mr. Pines, if you’re really worried about Amethyst, why don’t you just go up to the temple and talk to her yourself?”

“Because between you and me, kid, I’m probably just about the last person Amethyst wants to talk to right now,” Stan muttered, clear shame in his tone as he finally turned to face the young Gem. “B-but whatever, its fine. I’m sure everything will work out, j-just like it always does…” The conman’s already thin layer of confidence wavered as he turned to head back into the den, a small, defeated sigh escaping him as he spared not another word. After all, what could he really say to explain just how much guilt and regret he had felt ever since that confrontation in the portal room days ago?

However, before he could escape back into the den, Steven hesitantly stopped him. “M-Mr. Pines, wait, I-” The young Gem stopped short, part of him wanting to continue on this tangent concerning Amethyst, though he ended up acting on another part of himself instead. “Y-you… Did you know?”

“Uh… know what?” Stan turned, genuinely confused as he looked back at Steven.

The young Gem paused, faltering as he looked to his feet and remembered the glass tube resting so innocently inside of Lion’s mane, the Gems’ reactions to regaining every painful memory they had lost. He wasn’t sure if he was ready to hear the admittance of the bitter truth from yet another adult he genuinely trusted, but if that truth was there at all, then Steven had to know. “M-my… my mom took the Gems’ memories about Mr. Ford and the portal from them…” he said, his voice so quiet that it was practically a whisper. “I still don’t know why she did it, but… it hurt them. She hurt them… And I… I just was wondering if you ever… knew anything about that…”

Stan was quiet for a moment upon hearing this, his expression softening as he happened to notice the tears starting to well up in Steven’s eyes. For a brief moment, the conman didn’t really know what to say to help ease the young Gem’s obvious pain; so instead, he did the easiest thing he could: he told the truth. “I… No, I didn’t know,” he said, a hand placed against back of his neck as he glanced to the side. “But… to be honest, its… kinda not that surprising to hear. No offense to you, kid, but your mom… she was… shady, to say the least.”

“Tell me about it…” Steven muttered, rubbing his arm as he let out a wavering sigh. “Mr. Pines, I… I think I get it now. Why you never liked my mom that much, I mean. All you wanted to do was save your brother… You never wanted to hurt anyone. But my mom… she hurt so many people… Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, Mr. Ford… and you.” The tears welling up in the young Gem’s eyes finally reached their tipping point as they finally fell, a tight, pained sob escaping him, one that he had been holding back ever since he had first come across that memory tube. “And… I’m so, so sorry about what she did, Mr. Pines. I know she thought she was doing the right thing, but she wasn’t and no one even knew and Mr. Ford could have died in there, but it was like she didn’t even care and she didn’t even see how much you missed him and wanted him back, and I’m so sorry that she-”

“Whoa, kid, hold on!” Stan interupted, unable to hide his concern as he unceremoniously knelt down to Steven’s level. “What the heck are you apologizing for?”

“F-for what my mom did…” Steven sniffled, weakly wiping a few tears from his cheek.

“For what your mom did…” Stan repeated with a knowing nod, his expression conveying that he understood, at least on some level, what the young Gem was feeling. “Not anything you did. You know, kid—I mean… Steven,” The conman let out a sympathetic sigh as he placed a hand on the morose young Gem’s shoulder. “Your mom was no saint. From what I’ve seen and from what I’ve heard, she screwed up a lot. But I’m not lying when I tell you that nothing that she did was your fault. I don’t blame you for any of this mess, I’m pretty sure the Gems don’t blame you for any of it, and Ford better not blame you for any of it, because if he does, I’ll knock him senseless. Same goes for anyone else who tries to pin any of the nonsense Rose caused on you.”

Steven paused, rather overwhelmed by everything the conman had just said as his tears continued silently falling. “B-but… but Mr. Pines, I-”

“But nothing,” Stan interjected, shaking his head as he tightened his secure, almost comforting grip on the young Gem’s shoulder. “I know what it feels like to carry that kinda blame around, but the difference between you and me when it comes to blame is that I deserve it. You don’t. And you better stop thinking that you do, otherwise I’ll sic Mabel and her aggressive positivity on you.”

Steven was unable to hold back a laugh at this, one that was filled with a type of relief that he hadn’t felt in quite some time. While he wasn’t sure if he was ready to hold onto what the conman had just assured him of, namely the idea that he held no guilt in the mistakes his mother had made, he still wanted to believe that nonetheless. And, perhaps with a little time and a little effort, it was something that he could come to believe. Eventually.

Even so, in light of his newfound happiness, Steven ended up startling Stan by launching himself towards the conman in a sudden, warm embrace. Stan flinched, caught off guard by the burst of affection, though he was even more surprised by what the young Gem said next. “Thanks, Mr. Pines,” Steven whispered, tears drying on his cheek amidst his genuine, gentle smile.

For a moment or two, Stan allowed this unexpected hug to continue, recognizing that the young Gem likely needed this and realizing that in a way, maybe he needed it too after the events of the past several days. Still, the conman had to keep up appearances, hence why he didn’t let this embrace linger for too long, regardless of admittedly how welcome it was. “Alright, alright, that’s enough,” Stan remarked with faux exasperation as he pulled away and stood. “I swear, kid, you’re about as schmaltzy as that soppy cartoon you’re so into.”

Steven let out another small chuckle at this, but before he could, they were interupted by Dipper and Mabel as they briefly stuck their heads into the kitchen. “Uh, Steven?” Mabel began with an anxious frown. “You might wanna see this.”

Everyone returned to the living room to find a sight that all three of the kids found to be disconcertingly familiar: the TV’s normal signal had cut out, replaced nothing but noisy, blank static. An all-too familiar echo of what had dominated the air waves the previous day. “It’s the signal again!” Steven exclaimed, aptly surprised.

“Peridot must still be trying to get in touch with Homeworld,” Dipper mused with a resolved scowl. “But how’d she manage to fix that communication tower so quickly?”

“Well, one thing’s for certain,” Mabel said with a grown smile. “No matter how many times she puts it back together again, there’s one fusion we can count on to smash it to pieces! Let’s go get the Gems!”

“Yeah!” the boys readily agreed, the three of them starting to head out to go to the temple. However, Steven stopped short near the door, even after the twins had already gone through it, pausing briefly to glance back at Stan. The conman didn’t say anything as he stood near the static-filled TV, his hands on his hips as he watched the kids go. He did, however, spare Steven a bit of a wry, yet reassuring smile and nod, almost as if to solidify the newfound solidarity between them. Solidarity the young Gem couldn’t help but deeply appreciate in light of how almost everything he thought he knew had been so harshly uprooted as of late. Which was why he returned the conman’s smile before going on his way, hoping to hold onto the thought that no real blame rested with him someday.

Even if that day wasn’t quite today.

As soon as the kids made it to the temple and reported the signal’s return to the Gems, they all collectively set out back to the communication hub, knowing that they had to put a stop to Peridot’s plans before they could ever hope to come to fruition. With the hub obviously repaired, there was little deliberation amongst the group (save for a small, relatively unnoticed sigh of disappointment from Amethyst) to bring Sardonyx back to break the tower apart once more.

“I hope you’re ready,” Garnet smirked as she stood apace from Pearl, beckoning her forward as the kids and Amethyst stood on the sidelines to watch once more.

“You know I am,” Pearl grinned as she finished stretching out before emerging into an elegant pirouette, dancing Garnet’s way before they met, just as they had the previous night. And, just like last night, the warm glow of fusion surrounded the pair and from that glow, Sardonyx rose to the occasion once more.

“What’s this?” the bombastic fusion asked with faux surprise upon breaking her curtain of light once again. “An encore performance? Just couldn’t get enough of me, could you?” She smirked down at the group below before breaking out into her iconic uproarious laughter. “Well, what are we waiting for? Let the show begin!” And with this proclamation, Sardonyx boldly leapt into action, her hammer materializing in her hands as she pounced for the tower and got to work tearing it apart. The kids were more than ready to cheer the showstopping fusion on once more, though their excitement was soon broken through as they heard Amethyst’s dejected sigh right behind them. The purple Gem didn’t notice as all three of the kids turned towards her in confusion, her back turned to them as she wrapped her arms tightly around herself. And then, as she looked back up towards the hub, or more specifically, towards the graceful fusion deftly breaking it to pieces, she did the only thing she really could think of to finally let some of her heavy, ever-accumulating emotions go: she sang.

“Maybe you’re better off with her,” Amethyst began, her melody and manner both sad as she hunched her shoulders away from the tower. “I think she’s better for you.”

This was a truth the purple Gem knew she couldn’t really deny as she looked towards Sardonyx once more, realizing just how level-headed, just how skillful, just how stable the fusion was compared to the wild, rowdy, out of control, Sugilite. Just another bitter reminder for Amethyst that when compared to Pearl or even Garnet, she was always, always the odd one out, the runt of the litter, the mistake.

“I forgot how great it felt to be us,” she continued, closing her eyes as she tried to recall that feeling. That strength, that power, that freedom she felt any time she fused with Garnet. They were all things that she cherished, things that she valued, more than the Gem leader likely even knew. But now, because she had taken them all for granted and had been reckless and foolish, she wasn’t sure when she’d ever get to experience those things again. “Guess I got… carried away…”

“I had to use you to make me feel strong, but I don’t care about that now,” And indeed, she didn’t. Because what had happened with Sugilite was already dead and buried in the past. What wasn’t buried, however, was a slight far worse than the unruly fusion’s outburst. A brash, dangerous choice she had made in the heat of the moment, an act of rebellion so momentous and so uncalled for that she doubted her teammates would ever really forgive her for it. And as far as she was concerned, maybe forgiveness wasn’t something she deserved for her actions before that wretched portal in the first place. “I see a tower built out of my mistakes,” she sang, fighting to hold back tears as she watched Sardonyx dismantle the physical tower rising high before her, wishing that she was strong enough to tear her own shadowy tower apart herself. “And it all comes crashing down…”

“Is there something I can do?” she asked, her hands in tight fists at her sides as she wished she could take it all back. She wished she could undo the past, that she could fix what she had broken, that she could rise above the faults she constantly seemed to be drowning in.

“Is there something I can do?” she sang again, practically begging for something she knew she’d never get. Because when it came right down to it, her actions in that portal room weren’t something she could blame on Stan or Ford or even Rose. They had been solely her own. And of course, that only made the sting of their consequences even worse.

“Is there something I can do?” she pined one more time, knowing that it was hopeless. There was nothing she could do. Nothing to undo her mistakes, nothing to regain her teammate’s trust, nothing to be any more than what she had always known herself to be: a failure.

“Can I make it up to you?” she finished with a solemn sigh of defeat as Sardonyx finished her work, landing before the dimmed tower triumphantly before disappearing in a flash. She turned her back on Garnet and Pearl as they shared a warm, harmonious laugh over their second victory together, a victory that she knew she’d never get to share. No, instead, the only thing she’d get to have was the heavy, suffocating weight of her mistakes, bearing down on her brutally and crushingly, just like they always did.

Or so she thought. For while Amethyst had poured her heart out through song, she failed to notice the trio that had served as her audience rather than Sardonyx’s. And despite how much they enjoyed the dramatic fusions’ theatrics, they all unanimously sympathized with the purple Gem. After all, it was clear from her song and her reactions to Sardonyx alone that she was feeling left out, excluded from her team to the point that it made her feel devalued and unimportant. In light of everything else that the Gems had gone through lately, that alone made all three of them want to do anything they could to help lift Amethyst’s lowered spirits in the hopes of returning some sense of much-needed normalcy once more. And so, almost as soon as they returned from the communication hub, the kids began to formulate a plan, one that would hopefully serve a twofold purpose: help Amethyst out of her funk and stop Peridot’s plans once and for all, all in one easy, fell swoop.

Night still presided over the vast desert sands as Lion emerged onto them, toting a smaller group of passengers than usual as he leapt out from the portal he had created with a mighty roar. The kids and Amethyst all dismounted the pink beast, the trio stepping forward first to find that the communication hub was still down, just as they had hoped, a sign that their newfound plan might just end up working after all.

“Uh… so are you three gonna tell me why we came here again, or not?” Amethyst asked, her arms crossed as she glared towards the downed tower.

“Well, the way we see it, Peridot seems pretty determined to get that message of hers to Homeworld,” Dipper explained. “After all, she’s already been here to fix the communication hub twice now.”

“Which means the odds are pretty good that she’ll come back a third time when she realizes its all busted up again,” Mabel added with a knowing grin.

“So all we gotta do is wait for her to show up and bam!” Steven slammed his fist into his palm. “That’s when we’ll get her.”

“Oh, yeah!” Amethyst perked up upon hearing this plan, a grin spreading across her face as she also playfully punched her palm. “Bam! She won’t know what hit her.”

“Garnet will be so impressed when she finds out that you caught Peridot all on your own,” Mabel winked to Amethyst, implying that they fully intended on giving the purple Gem all the credit for this group effort.

“And then she’ll think I’m cool again!” Amethyst surmised excitedly, fully understanding the kids’ intent here. “But, uh… are you guys sure you’re up for this? Peridot may be a nerd, but she’s kind of a tricky nerd, if ya haven’t noticed.”

“I think we’ll be just fine,” Dipper smirked as he nodded back to the sword strapped to his back. Likewise, Steven readily summoned his shield while Mabel took out her grappling hook and cocked it, proving to the purple Gem that the trio was more than prepared for anything Peridot threw their way.

“Heh, yeah, should have figured you dorks would come prepared,” Amethyst chuckled, genuinely glad for their help. “Now, let’s catch us a nerd.”

To remain discreet and unseen, the group tucked themselves away behind an outcropping of rock not too far away from the communication hub, one that gave them an ideal vantage point to keep a lookout for any signs of Peridot’s approach. Steven’s telescope made the task a bit easier as they sat and waited, taking shifts of looking out of the spyglass, hoping to catch a glimpse of the green Gem as she snuck through the open desert towards the tower in what would hopefully be a failed attempt at repairing it.

“Hm… nothing… more nothing…” Steven mused with a frown as he surveyed the desert surrounding the hub. Amethyst and the twins were sitting nearby, their backs against the rock as they waited for any new developments in slight boredom. They were all quick to perk up, however, as the young Gem let out a warning gasp upon finally spotting something through the telescope. “Oh! I think I see her!” he exclaimed, quickly zooming in to get a better look only to find that it was a false alarm. “No wait… that’s just a weird cactus.”

The others all groaned in exasperation at this, but even so, they maintained their vigil, even as the hours of the night seemed to drag on without any hint of an appearance from Peridot whatsoever. Most attempts at conversation had drifted off quite some time ago as they all grew collectively more weary and exhausted by the hour. Even so, at some point roughly after midnight, the ongoing round of sleepy quietness was broken by a loud, tired groan from Mabel.

“Ugh, this is so boooooring…” she huffed, crossing her arms as she slouched against the rock. “It feels like we’ve been waiting forever.”

“Its only been a few hours, Mabel,” Dipper remarked, glancing away from the telescope briefly. “Still, I guess this plan isn’t really working like we thought it would…”

“You can say that again,” Amethyst sighed in disappointment. “I don’t think she’s coming, you guys.” The purple Gem paused for a beat, her expression filling with confusion as she glanced over at Steven beside her, only to find that he was oddly focused on his fingers as he moved them close together, but never allowed them to touch. “Uh, what are you doing?”

“I just figured out something really cool,” Steven grinned as he continued his newfound trick. “If you make your eyes blurry, it looks like there’s a little magic sausage between your fingers.”

“Wow…” Mabel mused as she tried it out for herself. “You’re right, Steven! Man, I can’t believe I’ve never tried this before, its great!”

“Pfft, this is stupid,” Amethyst rolled her eyes as she positioned her fingers close together. “It doesn’t even work—whoa…” The purple Gem cut herself off in amazement as Steven pulled the hair covering her other eye away, allowing her to see the aforementioned imaginary “sausage”.

“Heh, well, even if we didn’t catch Peridot, at least I taught us all a fun way to pass the time,” Steven concluded with a satisfied grin.

“Well, maybe we’d have a better chance at finding Peridot if we tried something else,” Dipper said, nowhere near as bemused as Steven, Mabel, and Amethyst currently were. “Like, I don’t know, actually hunting her down and capturing her instead of waiting for her to come to us, which she might not even do?”

“But what if she comes while we’re out looking for her?” Mabel asked with a frown. “Wouldn’t it just be easier to see if she shows up here again?”

“Actually, for once, I’m with Dipper,” Amethyst remarked, flipping her hair back into its usual place over her eye. “The sooner we nab Peridot, the sooner she’ll stop fixing the hub, and the sooner I won’t have to deal with Sardonyx anymore.”

The kids paused for a brief beat at this, exchanging a worried glance as they remembered what Stan had told them concerning the purple Gem’s opinions on the theatrical fusion. Still though, the conman had never mentioned exactly why Amethyst felt that way, hence why Steven was prompted to figure that out firsthand. “Uh… Amethyst? Why… why don’t you like Sardonyx?”

“Yeah,” Mabel joined in just as curiously. “She’s a lot of fun, and she has a cool hammer, and she’s-”

“And she’s graceful, and smart, and controlled, and ugh!” Amethyst finished with a groan as she flopped down into the sand onto her back. “She’s basically everything Sugilite isn’t. Everything I’m not… No wonder Garnet wanted to fuse with her instead of me… She doesn’t even trust me anymore, and why would she? I’m nothing but a backstabbing screwup!”

At this, the purple Gem slammed her fist into the rock behind her, her eyes tightly shut in her remorseful frustration, startling all three of the kids. As Amethyst let out a bitter sigh and placed her head in her hands, none of them were really sure about what to say to reassure her, mostly since they were still somewhat confused by this heated outburst in the first place. “A screwup?” Steven questioned gently. “Amethyst, what are you-”

“I’m talking about what happened with that stupid portal!” Amethyst snapped before the young Gem could even finish. “How I tried to stop Garnet and Pearl from shutting it down! How I basically fought them away from it! My friends, my teammates, I just… turned against them all because I thought it was a good idea to listen to Stan, but it wasn’t! Because now we know, we remember what that machine was for, what it could have done, who it could have-” The purple Gem cut herself off sharply, sucking in painful tears before she continued. “I was stupid. Reckless and stupid, just like I was the last time me and Garnet formed Sugilite, only this time it was with something even worse. And that’s why she won’t fuse with me anymore… Because I nearly ruined everything…”

As Amethyst buried her head into her arms and pulled her knees to her chest, she let out a small, broken sob, one that wasn’t lost on any of the kids as they silently searched for some way to comfort her. The source of her ongoing bitterness and despair the past few days was now clear, and it was obvious that it had more to do with just the memories she had recently recalled. Those painful feelings came from a place of guilt, of remorse so deep and so profound that she obviously didn’t know how to really reconcile it for herself. Which was why perhaps she needed some help when it came to doing just that.

“A-Amethyst,” Steven began softly, ready to place a steadying hand on the distraught purple Gem’s shoulder. “What you did wasn’t-”

“Whoa! Hold on!” Dipper suddenly interjected as he looked through the telescope once more. “Guys! I think I saw something!”

“Huh?” the others all quickly questioned, rising to stand as they congregated around the telescope. Upon peering through it, they were able to see a small, distant light gliding across the far off horizon at an impressive speed as it readily approached the communication hub. And, as Steven took his turn and zoomed in on this light just a bit, he gasped in surprise upon seeing exactly what it was.

“P-Peridot’s escape pod?!” the young Gem exclaimed, allowing the others a chance to see. “She… fixed it somehow?”

“But I thought we had it!” Amethyst protested, knowing that they had apprehended the broken pod when it had been found by the kids and the teens in the abandoned field several weeks ago.

“You don’t think she could have stolen it from the temple, do you?” Mabel asked fretfully.

“I wouldn’t put it past her…” Dipper muttered scornfully, a hand already on the hilt of his sword as they watched the pod easily scale up the side of the tower.

“Whoa…” Steven whispered upon watching the pod’s tractor beams begin to piece the broken hub back together again. “She’s lifting the pillar guys and she’s fixing the hub.” The young Gem paused as the escape pod did, coming to a stop at the very tip of the hub as an indiscernible figure, presumably Peridot, emerged rom it to inspect her handywork. Steven zoomed in once more, trying to get a better look, only to notice that the silhouette standing high above them really didn’t look much like Peridot at all upon a second glance. “Hey, y-you know for some reason, Peridot kinda looks like-” He gasped, his jaw dropping in shock as the figure on top of the hub finally came into clear view, revealing something that sent him absolutely reeling as he relayed it to the others. “Pearl?!”

“What?!” Amethyst and the twins exclaimed in dumbfounded unison, none of them able to believe such an admittedly unbelievable claim.

“Let me see!” the purple Gem was quick to push Steven away from the telescope to look for herself, only to find that sure enough, Pearl herself was standing on top of the hub, a smile of satisfaction on her face from her successful repair of the formerly downed Gem tech. And despite how alarming this unexpected revelation was, Amethyst was very quick to put the pieces together as to exactly what had been going on all along, including the white Gem’s very impressive deception, as well as the no doubt incredibly heavy fall out that would result from it all in the end. “Oh no…”

Needless to say that in light of their discovery the previous evening, Steven, the twins, and Amethyst were all quite unnerved as they sat in front of the TV up at the temple the following morning. The television hadn’t even been turned on, mostly because they all already knew static would inevitably await them as a result of the communication hub’s repair. A repair so strangely yet so discreetly done by Pearl of all people, which was a mystery none of them, save for Amethyst, could really figure out.

“Why would Pearl rebuild the hub?” Steven wondered aloud, voicing what they were all thinking.

“Maybe she’s trying to study how it works?” Dipper theorized, hopeful for the white Gem’s innocence, even if it seemed like she really wasn’t. “T-that way we could come up with a plan to keep Peridot from fixing it again.”

“No…” Amethyst shook her head glumly. “I don’t think that’s it…”

“Maybe she just wanted to get everyone more TV channels,” Mabel suggested with a bit of a forced smile as she turned the TV on, only for, as expected, static to fill the screen once more.

“Oh my! This is no good!” The group gathered on the loft all jolted in surprise as Pearl joined them, putting on an apparent front of surprise as she noted the ongoing static.

“W-what’s wrong?” Steven asked nervously, exchanging an uneasy glance with the others as Pearl readily kept her act up.

“It’s Peridot,” the white Gem surmised instantly. “She must have fixed the communication hub again!” As much as the kids and Amethyst wanted to voice that they knew that this claim was, in fact, far from the truth, they didn’t get that chance as Garnet entered the house, and much to their dismay, Pearl didn’t hesitate to grab her attention. “Garnet, it’s the hub again,” she reported with faux worry. “We’ll have to hurry back to the desert and tear it down once more!”

“Hm, Peridot’s evading my future vision…” Garnet mused with a hint of frustration in her tone, clearly not suspecting anything. “No matter how many times I try, I can’t see us finding her. Oh well,” the Gem leader shook her head clear as she led the way back outside. “Come on, team.”

“Oh, yes! Let’s be on our way!” Pearl sang brightly, a wide, excited smile on her face as she followed Garnet out, more than ready to form Sardonyx with her once more. Amethyst and the kids however, were the last to leave, all four of them bearing the same exact secret that Pearl did. A secret that, they all knew, only had a matter of time before Garnet discovered it. And once she did, there was no telling what might happen.

“I can’t believe Peridot is causing us so much trouble!” Pearl huffed in showy annoyance, though she was quick to perk up once again as her and Garnet prepared to fuse. The communication hub stood tall and repaired once again, just as the white Gem had left it the previous night, and all the while Amethyst and the kids stood by, unsure of what needed to be done to put an end to the white Gem’s bizarre façade. “But it hardly matters, right, Garnet?” Pearl quipped, clasping her hands together happily as the Gem leader gave her a smile of confidence. “We can disable this tower as many times as we need to, together! Okay? Ok. I’m ready! Are you ready?”

As the white Gem continued to cheerfully ramble on, Amethyst wrapped her arms around herself tightly, wishing that Pearl hadn’t conceived this awful plan in the first place. But she had, and the purple Gem knew that remaining silent on the matter would only make her as guilty as her own teammate in all of this. “I know what she’s doing…” Amethyst muttered to the kids, hating that things had come to this even if she understood. Oh, did she ever understand. Because if she had been in the same place as Pearl was, she wasn’t entirely sure if she wouldn’t have done the exact same thing too.

“Y-you do?” Steven glanced over at her, the twins sharing his worry as Garnet and Pearl prepared to fuse behind them. That is, until Amethyst decided to finally put an end to this deceitful charade once and for all.

“Stop!” she shouted, taking a bold step forward and already regretting it the very moment she did.

Garnet and Pearl froze at this, clinging onto each other though their dance was stalled as they both looked to their teammate, startled. “I-Is something the matter, Amethyst?” the white Gem asked, clearly caught of guard.

“G-Garnet… I…” Amethyst bit her lip, averting the Gem leader’s gaze out of guilt, though even so, she knew this had to be done. “I know you might not trust me after… w-what happened the other day, but… y-you… you shouldn’t fuse… i-it… it’s not…”

As Amethyst trailed off, the kids quickly leapt in, hoping to explain the matter more than she was currently able to. “Uh… Pearl… we saw you…” Mabel admitted with a hesitant frown.

“W-what?” Pearl asked softly, her eyes wide as she began to follow, though she only really understood as Dipper elaborated.

“Last night,” he began, a bit more firmly than Mabel as he looked to his sword teacher with clear disappointment. “We were out here waiting to see if we could catch Peridot if she came by again but… she didn’t… And instead you did…”

Pearl sucked in a sharp gasp at this, her breathing short as she looked between the group before her and Garnet, who was still holding onto her, staring at her for answers she couldn’t possibly give. “Pearl,” Steven spoke up, his tone sad and imploring. “What you’ve been doing… i-it’s not right. You have to tell Garnet it was you!”

“I don’t understand,” Garnet finally spoke, her shades catching Pearl’s reflection in them as she stared back up at her nervously.

For what seemed like ages, the white Gem said nothing, her form trembling slightly at the horrific realization that she had been caught. That her nearly perfect plan had fallen to pieces right in front of her. Just like everything else as of late, so it seemed. “I… I’m sorry…” she began, her voice so soft it could barely even be heard as tears started to well up in her eyes. “It’s just… s-so much happened these past few days and… after what we learned, I… I felt like… I felt broken… A-and I needed… something to take that unbearable pain away… And when we fused it was like… it all just… disappeared… You don’t know how much I needed that, Garnet… It was… so much fun being Sardonyx with you…”

Garnet’s reaction to the truth was immediate. With a harsh gasp of shock, her hands quickly flew away from Pearl, almost as if touching her in light of her trickery had physically burned her. The white Gem quickly righted herself, her eyes still wide and tearful as she looked to the Gem leader standing over her, her eyes still covered by her shades, though her expression was filled with obvious surprise and hurt as she shook her head in disbelief. “That’s why I couldn’t see us finding Peridot…”

“W-wait! Let me explain!” Pearl pleaded, shakily rising to her feet.

“You’ve been fixing the hub!” Garnet snapped, her shock turning into rage as she took an aggressive step towards the startled white Gem.

“It really was Peridot! T-the first time…”

“You tricked me!”

“No, no, no! W-we just needed a reason to fuse!” Pearl tried to rationalize, though now that what she had done was out in the open for everyone to know, she couldn’t help but feel rather terrible for her actions now herself. “All I wanted was to feel… whole again! I just wanted to share a few more victories with you!”

“Those weren’t victories!” Garnet shouted, her hands in tight fists as she seemed to tower over Pearl, her anger fiery and fierce. “I can’t believe you’d lie to me like this, after everything we’ve just discovered! I thought you’d know what it’s like to be deceived like this, Pearl, but clearly you’ve learned nothing! Because as far as I’m concerned, you’re no better that he was!”

Pearl sucked in a shrill gasp at this, her hands flying over her mouth as her tears finally fell at such a vicious proclamation. Upon hearing it, Amethyst acted on a whim, knowing that even despite Garnet’s justifiable anger, even Pearl didn’t deserve to be part of such an awful, unfitting comparison. “W-wait, Garnet!” the purple Gem threw herself in between her quarreling teammates. “You know, we’re so much weaker than you! Fusing with you is like, our one chance to feel… stronger!”

“Don’t defend her!” Garnet yelled harshly, making the purple Gem flinch back in fear at the harshness of her tone. “Peridot is still out there somewhere and Pearl’s been distracting us with… nothing!”

“G-Garnet…” Pearl tearfully tried to interject, only for Garnet to instantly cut her off.

“That’s enough!” Garnet ordered, refusing to hear anymore of the white Gem’s desperate excuses. Despite how clearly furious she was, the Gem leader was still mindful of the task at hand, her outraged glare still apparent as she turned to Amethyst instead. “Amethyst, fuse with me!”

Amethyst balked at this, her eyes wide in surprise at this unexpected invitation—no, rather this demand to fuse with the Gem leader at a time like this. “W-wha… b-but I-”

“Let’s just get this over with…” Garnet hissed, her hands still in tight fists as she grabbed the purple Gem’s arm almost roughly. Pearl quickly scurried away from the pair as they preformed a rushed, inelegant fusion dance, one that the white Gem and the kids all watched in apt fear in light of the Gem leader’s still very prevalent fury. In fact, that fury was still incredibly present in Sugilite as she formed, her massive presence far more aggressive and abrasive than it had ever been before as she didn’t even bother summoning her weapon. Instead, the rowdy fusion took the hub down with a single two-fisted punch, one that slammed hard into the tower’s pillars, shattering them in a way that would ensure it would never be repaired by anyone ever again. As the glow from the hub faded and its remains came crashing to the ground, Pearl could only watch with wide eyes of terror as the last strand of comfort and stability she thought she had left in light of how much had already fallen apart come crashing down right in front of her yet again.

And just like the last time, she only had herself to blame.

A feeling of solemn sadness filled the temple the following day, to the point that the overdramatic wails of the characters of Crying Breakfast Friends only seemed to lower Amethyst and the kids’ spirits even more as they sat up in the loft to watch it. None of them were really that invested in the show, however, in light of what had happened the previous day and how rattled it had left them all. Though one scene in particular did seem to ring somewhat true to how things were going in reality as Crying Pear begged Sad Spoon for forgiveness over a wrongdoing.

“Oh please, forgive me!” the pear wailed tearfully.

“Of course, I forgive you!” Sad Spoon cried in response, both of them bawling as they warmly embraced over their repaired relationship.

Amethyst let out a small, sad sigh upon watching this exchange, hoping for something similar between Garnet and Pearl, though nothing of the sort had transpired yet. Because as things were now, the Gem leader was still simmering with unspoken anger towards her teammate, the betrayal clear to read on her face as she warped into the temple. Ironically enough, Pearl also stepped into the house, her expression remorseful, tired, and sad as she approached the temple gate. Her eyes were red from recently shed tears, tears that looked like they were on the verge of returning once more, especially as Garnet passed by her. Neither Gem made eye contact with each other, though Pearl did briefly stop in the middle of the room, almost as if she wanted to say something to Garnet. She didn’t get the chance, however, as the Gem leader walked out the door, not even willing to give her teammate even a single moment of repose. With a soft sigh of disappointment, Pearl’s shoulders drooped as she continued on to the temple gate, disappearing inside of it for what would surely be yet another round of mourning over things she couldn’t change now.

The purple Gem shook her head as she watched this entire exchange, or lack thereof, unfold before her, guilt weighing heavy upon her shoulders as she realized she had yet another regret to add to her ever growing list of them. Perhaps she shouldn’t have said anything to Garnet about Pearl’s deception at all. Maybe things would have been better off if she had just decided to grin and bear it and left it all well enough alone. True, Pearl had lied and tricked Garnet, and based on the memories they had just reclaimed, it was grave mistake on her part. But still, Amethyst knew that anything would be better than the rift that had torn her team apart at the very worst of times.

“Man, it sure would be nice if things worked out the way they do in cartoons,” Steven spoke up quietly, the twins nodding their silent agreement as they had all noted the very same tension between Garnet and Pearl that Amethyst had.

“Yeah…” the purple Gem sighed morosely as the young Gem turned the TV off. “It would…”

And indeed, it would be better if things could so easily repair themselves like that, or if nothing else go back to the way they were before. Because at least before, amidst the portal opening, amidst Ford returning, amidst their memories being returned to them, the Gems could all lean on each other for some kind of support in their mutual confusion and eventual sorrow. At least they could find solace in the fact that they did not have to suffer alone, that they had solidarity in the unbearable pain they all shared. And perhaps if they had depended on that solidarity to heal them more than searching for their own ways of fixing the unfixable past, maybe none of this would have happened. But it had. Another storm, one just as big and powerful and destructive as the last one, swept through their lives once again, ripping apart some of the last few strands of support holding the Crystal Gems together.

Which meant that once those final strands were inevitably broken, it would only be a matter of time before they fell apart completely.

Next: 

[perpetually-jungshook]

Goldilocks || 04

Rated M (language and smut)

Warnings: dry humping, breast play

Summary: After getting evicted, your two best friends Jimin and Taehyung offer you a place to stay until you get back on your feet. Needless to say, with a part time job and a mountain of student debt, that’s not happening any time soon. Eventually, they DO become really fond of having you around, helping with chores and even splitting rent. So when you come home one day to find someone has been sleeping in your couch-bed, well… it’s something you won’t take lightly.

Word Count: 3.9k

Out of context Goldilocks quote: “If you guys are done making butt jokes I’d really like to watch this movie.”

Link to: Goldilocks Masterlist || Previous Part || Next Part

not my gif, credit to owner

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A/N: OH LOOK THE RATING CHANGED. Yeah so imma just leave this here and run. No EOPQ, but feedback is appreciated and depending on the reaction, I might be a hoe and drop 05 tomorrow. If you’re someone who doesn’t like smut, asterisk* is where it starts, skip until the *asterisk where it ends. You won’t be missing plot stuff. I made sure of that. NOW I’M GONNA RUN BYE~~

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Taehyung has always loved boobs.

It has become apparent over the past few years of your close friendship that it isn’t even a sexual thing sometimes. He simply loves boobs. Perky, droopy, big, small, even man-boobs. He’s explained several times that “they’re just like, really comfy, okay?”

The sad thing is, you can completely believe him, and this is one of the main reasons why you choose to cross your arms when he begins pleading, unabashed as Jungkook and Jimin look on.

“Baby, just come cuddle with me,” Taehyung laughs, gesturing in a pitiful attempt to persuade you to join him, speaking loudly to be heard above both the pouring rain outside and the dialogue of the movie.

“Go take care of your boner first,” you retort.

Taehyung’s lips slip into an easy, suggestive smile, “Wanna help me with that? Or should I say… give me a hand?”

You stifle a laugh, “The only hand I’ll be giving you is my entire fist up your ass.”

“Damn baby, that’s a bit much. Can’t we just start with a finger?”

With that, you, Taehyung, and Jungkook loose it, all sense of composure forgotten. Jimin, on the other hand, suddenly contorts his face in an unreadable, tight frown, clearing his throat, “If you guys are done making butt jokes I’d really like to watch this movie.”

“C’mon Chim,” you offer a wicked smile. “Don’t be a tight ass.”

As a flash of lightning floods the room, you can see that his cheeks have dusted pink, which makes the whole situation even funnier.

“But really,” to speak, Taehyung has to take a few deep breaths to calm his giggles. “Baby please? It’ll get me off a lot faster.”

You simply point to the bathroom, “Your problem, not mine.”

“Then just show me your boobs?”

“My boobs?”

“Yeah, yknow, your tiddies, tatas, boobaloos-”

“I am trying to watch the movie,” Jimin squeaks, voice cracking as he pulls the massive blanket up over his nose.

“Alright! Aish,” Taehyung rolls off of the couch. “I’ll be right back.”

While Tae shuffles awkwardly down the hall, Jungkook leans forward, for whatever reason choosing to lock gazes with you as you climb back into the spot next to Jimin. He whispers, “Two minutes, max.”

It takes a second to reply as you bite the inside of your cheek, trying to not show any outward signs of your irrational irritation. Thankfully, your voice eventually comes out steady, “Nah, Tae can last a good five minutes.”

The maknae arches an eyebrow, a smirk pulling at his lips, “You know this… from personal experience?”

It’s disgusting, the amount of defensiveness that seeps through your tone, “No. Definitely not. I wouldn’t voluntarily touch his dick if someone paid me.”

“Sure, noona,” Jungkook whispers and the honorific sends another shot of hot anger to your stomach. Frustrated, you shift around to bury yourself in the blanket with Jimin, seeking warmth but also a place to hide from the gaze of that infuriating kid with the stupid golden fringe. But he’s not done with you yet. “I can last for ten.”

Oddly, it’s Jimin’s body that stiffens first, but before you can react, a series of loud bangs drags your collective attention down the hall, especially as it’s accompanied by a high pitched scream of, “Holy shit a spider!”

The bathroom door flies open and Taehyung scrambles clumsily into the hallway as he desperately attempts to finish shoving his manhood in his pants.

“Seriously?” You embrace the distraction wholeheartedly, getting off the couch to leave the awkward situation behind. “Do you want me to kill it? Or are you done?”

“Don’t kill it,” Taehyung begs as you approach the bathroom door. “All life is precious. But I kind of…went soft after getting scared.”

“Too much information.”

“Sorry.”

Thunder rumbles in the distance, but you vaguely register the fact that the rain seems to be getting lighter.

“Where is it?” you ask, taking a cursory glance across the sink and tiles in the shower.

Taehyung approaches slowly and peers over your shoulder, “It was on-”

“Don’t touch me with your penis hands.”

“Sorry,” he repeats, releasing his grip on your arm. “It was on Jimin’s toothbrush.”

You approach the sink cautiously, gaze pinned on the toothbrush holder that is shaped like a giraffe. You’re pretty sure it’s meant for children, but Taehyung wanted it and when it comes to you and Jimin… what Tae wants, Tae usually gets no matter how annoying he is.

Sadly, you can’t seem to find his little arachnid buddy until you’ve got your face all nice and close. With your nose almost pressing into the bristles of Jimin’s brush, you finally see it.

“Tae, this is the smallest fucking spider I’ve seen in my entire- oh my god it jumps.”

Unfortunately for both of you, amidst the screaming you lose track of the intruder and the bathroom becomes momentarily off limits. As if that wasn’t bad enough, by the time you get back to the couch, the movie is half over and you have no idea what’s going on.

“Maybe if you’d been paying attention instead of screwing around in the first place I wouldn’t have to explain it,” Jimin huffs after you assure him that he doesn’t need to pause the film.

It’s a little bit strange. While it’s nothing new for Jimin to be a tad uptight about weird things, as he stops the movie to catch you up on the plot he suddenly seems particularly stiff. Chalking it up to random man-hormones, you brush the odd feeling aside and try to pay attention, but fail. You’re still lost as the movie finishes, leaving you with so many questions- and not the good kind.

“Wait, why didn’t they just throw the girl in the portal? Wouldn’t that have solved the problem?” you muse, staring at the scrolling credits.

“Because they didn’t want an eight year old to die?” Taehyung suggests.

“So they let the demons kill everyone else?”

“Pretty much,” he confirms.

Jimin sighs, dragging his hands down his face, “Were you not listening at all to what I said? They didn’t throw the girl in the portal because if they did, she would become the sacrifice for the coven…”

His voice fades to the back of your attention as you begin piling up the empty pizza boxes. After years of friendship, you’ve learned that despite your lazy nature, neither of the boys is usually willing to clean up after eating. This meant that if you didn’t do it, the apartment would begin to smell.

Much to your surprise, Jungkook leans forward and begins collecting the used napkins and stray playing cards. While he’d gotten up to answer the door earlier, you hadn’t really thought of him as the helpful type. So when he takes it a step further and offers to take out the trash, you’re more than willing to let someone else do the work for once.

But this frees you up to take care of another chore while Taehyung changes his sheets, preparing for your sleepover, and Jimin bravely claims the shower, missing spider aside.

You get to empty the pesky plastic rain bucket.

By the time you check on it at the end of the hall, the big container has filled almost to the top. Someone should really tell the upstairs neighbors to fix that leak. A deep soreness already permeating into your back and legs, you painstakingly drag the bucket inch by inch, pulling it toward the front door.

You get it halfway through the living room before Jungkook comes back.

“Let me help you with that.”

“It’s fine, I’ve got it,” you grumble, fixing your stare on the sloshing water that’s been slowly spilling all over the fake hardwood floor.

He sighs heavily, walking to stand beside you and attempting to grab the bucket, “It’s heavy.”

“So? I’ve got it,” you insist, angry that he thinks you need his help. At this point, you’ve pushed aside your inherently lazy nature, fueled by your hatred of his arrogance.

Without another word, Jungkook tugs on the container, causing some of the water to splash onto his Timberlands. You tug right back, soaking your socks, plastic scraping loudly against the floor.

You can see his thick arm muscles flex, ready to pull and try to assert his fucking dominance, but you are determined to put him in his place. So you pull first.

Tipped bucket. Water everywhere.

You glare at him from where you land on the floor, now soaked from the waist down and not in a good way. Jungkook’s eyes are so huge they look like they’re about to pop out of his head. Can you blame him though? You must look ready to skin him alive.

“Did someone die out there?” Taehyung’s deep voice floats out of his room.

“No, but someone’s about to,” is what you want to say; yet Jungkook beats you to a response.

“Everything’s fine, hyung,” he is abruptly uncannily calm, expression settling into one of complete emotional control.

“‘Fine’ my left ass cheek,” you spit quietly, getting to your feet.

The maknae glares at you, upper lip twitching slightly as he says, “It IS fine. I’ll clean it up.”

“Oh, you’ve done enough,” you retort, picking up the empty bucket, trying to move around him to get to the hallway. “Just go sit down and stay out of my way.”

“Make me.”

The two words settle like a hot stone in the pit of your stomach, immediately stopping you in your tracks- well that, and the fact that a wall of muscle steps between you and your destination. A dim flash of distant lightning illuminates the room slightly, reflecting in the gold of his hair.

This insufferable, arrogant, child has the guts to get in your way? He may be bigger than you, but Jungkook has another thing coming.

You throw the bucket at his feet, letting it bounce once with an awful, hollow “whump.” He winces almost imperceptibly at the noise, but maintains your gaze with a hard stare of his own.

Well, if he insists on cleaning the mess, you don’t want to waste the energy trying to stop him- but 1) he will do it on your terms 2) you will not let him stare you down and 3) you will accomplish both of these things by asserting your dominance and showing him who wears the pants in this house.

Or rather, who doesn’t.

“Towels are in the closet at the end of the hall,” you inform him, reaching down to undo the button of your jeans. Obviously trying very hard to maintain eye contact, the maknae’s left eye twitches as you peel the pants from your body. Unabashed, you wad up the soaked piece of clothing and throw it at his chest. He catches the projectile easily, though one of the legs comes loose from the ball and wetly slaps his neck. “And while you’re there, put that in the hamper.”

He has every right to refuse. If he does, he’s inherently challenging your authority. If he doesn’t…

Only breaking eye contact as he turns around, Jungkook picks up the bucket and heads to the other end of the apartment.

As Jimin exits the bathroom, Jungkook throws the soiled jeans inside before placing the plastic container under the leak and opening the hall closet. No matter how much you hate him, you have to admire his self control. He didn’t look down at your partially exposed body for even a second.

Crossing your line of sight, you note that Jimin doesn’t look up from his phone, intent on reading something while traversing the expansive few steps to his bedroom. Is no one going to pay attention to the fact that you’re pant-less?

“I call the shower next!” Taehyung abruptly bounds into the crowded hallway, but stops and slowly turns to look at you. His gaze flicks down only for a second while he shoots you a wink and a lopsided smirk, subsequently continuing on his way.

“Yah, Tae,” you shout, a little disappointed that you couldn’t scold at least one of them for looking. “You can’t even stop and admire the art?”

“Nah baby, the shower is calling my name. Besides I can always admire it later when we’re alone in my r-”

As he talks, you walk to the entertainment center to grab some clothes from the lower drawers, smiling to yourself and cutting him off, “Are you forgetting the spider?”

He lets out a deep, thoughtful hum, then with exaggerated cheerfulness asks, “Does anyone else wanna go in first?”

You stand, pajama’s tucked neatly underneath your arm, only to make eye contact with Jungkook. While he’s just innocently laying out towels to clean up the spilled water, all you can do is think about the fact that the only other person who can shower before Taehyung besides you is HIM. And if he does, you’ll theoretically have to be in the same place this irritating little shit stood while he was naked.

“I’ll go!” you scramble past both boys, closing the bathroom door behind you.

“You’ll find the spider, right?” Taehyung asks through the barrier.

“Sure thing,” you assure, but it’s probably a known fact that you’re not even going to look.

Taehyung’s room is practically the opposite of Jimin’s. Various band posters line the wall in a haphazard collage, a mountain of clothes has congregated around a hamper in the corner, and- when did he get a lava lamp? It always smells the same too, like that ruggedly musky pine cologne he has to have a hundred bottles of stashed somewhere because he’s been wearing it for at least five years.

“No,” you glare at him as Taehyung drops his shirt on the floor, now dressed in nothing but his boxers. If this wasn’t a sight you’d seen ridiculously frequently for almost a decade, you might have spent a few more seconds admiring his healthily full frame, lean muscles, and honey colored skin- but it really wasn’t anything new.

You’ve had plenty of sleepovers with your two best friends. Some your parents knew about, others they didn’t. It became an even more common occurrence when you were kicked out three years ago. And both of the boys like to sleep shirtless.

“Please?” Taehyung pouts, climbing onto the bed to flop into the space beside you, stomach down.

“No. I already had to touch your dick earlier.”

He giggles, giving you a boxy smile, “Yeah, you had to touch my dick. So the only fitting punishment is clearly to make me touch your boobs.”

“Seriously? Again with the boobs?” you turn onto your side to stare at him, eyebrow arched humorously. “How old are you? Twelve?”

“Thirteen, actually.”

“Tae,” you smack his wandering hand, causing him to flip onto his back, laughing.

“Just once?”

“Fuck you.”

“Yes please.”

With an only partially irritated groan, you roll your eyes and turn around to face the opposite wall, pulling the sheets along with you. Probably due to the sudden chill, Taehyung gives a needy mewl, shyly tugging at the blankets, which you spontaneously decide he won’t have. It takes a solid few seconds, but he eventually sighs, gives up, and turns out the overhead light, leaving you in the soft purple glow of the lava lamp.

“That’s fucking right,” you whisper just to spite him, thinking the sound of the rain outside would mostly drown it out, but apparently he hears it and your comment backfires immediately.

You feel the mattress shift and before you can move, his arm is around you, snaring your stomach and dragging you to his chest. You struggle halfheartedly, already resigned to letting exhaustion weigh down your limbs.

Taehyung doesn’t move for a few seconds, likely attempting to lulling you into a false sense of security. You know he’s not done yet. He’ll be a whiny asshole for at least ten more minutes. He always is. But the darkness coupled with his body heat is a combination that drags you mercilessly toward the sweet release of sleep. A few minutes of silence pass… and then:

“Just once?”

“No.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“Baby…” he nuzzles into the back of your neck.

“Hot damn, Tae if I say yes will you shut up?”

He perks up immediately, “Absolutely.”

“Fine, over my shirt.”

Taehyung lets out a joyful squeal and his big hands find your breasts immediately, like the damn homing pigeons they are. He gives a gentle squeeze.

“Fuck,” he draws out the word, “Why are they so soft?”

“Because they’re made of fat cells,” you reply sleepily.

He laughs, squeezing again, this time a little bit harder, “Way to just kill the mood.”

“There was no mood to kill, pabo.”

Taehyung suddenly stills, a sensation that plunges you into full alertness. What is he…? In a single swift motion, he pulls himself on top of you, wedging one leg between yours.

In the dim purple light, you can’t really see Taehyung lean forward so much as feel him do it, warm breath tickling your ear. His next words are whispered, raspy, “Wanna bet?”

A challenge.

Something ignites inside you, a smirk tugging at your lips. You lightly run your hands up his arms, a tease of a touch, until you find his shoulders, then his neck. Fingers lacing through the hair at the back of his head, you pull him closer.

“First one to beg loses.”

He lets out a humored hum, “You’re on.”

With that, you prop yourself up to connect your lips to his.

This isn’t the first time you’ve kissed Taehyung, even if the others were sort of drunk birthday party accidents he loves to bring up to embarrass you or the results of rather cruel rounds of truth or dare that no one is mean enough to reference. But you never fail to be surprised at how soft his lips are… and how quickly he likes to add tongue to the equation.*

He immediately presses more of his weight down on top of you, trapping your body between his and the mattress, causing your pulse to beat noticeably, excitedly in your throat.

Having initiated the kiss mere seconds ago, you’re shocked to feel his tongue against the seam of your lips. Amused at his forwardness, you deny him access with a quick nip and sharp tug on his hair. Taehyung groans, a low sound that sends heat pooling in the pit of your stomach.

Did he really think you’d let him in so easily?

Not put off in the slightest, he changes his method of attack and moves his attention to your throat.

Taehyung’s teeth graze the sensitive skin as he sucks and tongues a warm wet trail down your jugular, impatiently traveling lower. This is when his free hand begins to wander. He’s using one of his arms to support his upper body, giving you room to breathe, but the other easily finds the hem of your shirt, pushing it up, bunching the cloth above your breasts.

He doesn’t give you much time to process the chill that rakes through your chest in the form of a shiver as he shifts his body down, kicking the blankets off the bed, to press an open mouthed kiss against your navel. Your next breath is inadvertently shaky and you can feel the smile on his lips as he dips his warm tongue inside.

Damn it. You really liked this pair of panties too.

“Still no mood to kill?” he asks, blowing lightly against the skin on your stomach, further chilling those places he’d left slick with his saliva.

“F-fuck you.”

“Is that an invitation or insult this time?”

“Both.”

Taehyung lets out a humored ‘tsch,’ tracing the tip of his nose across your stomach as he begins to travel back up toward his favorite piece of human anatomy.

You know you should at least try to touch him because that’s the only way you’re going to win, but for some reason, you just can’t. Your body won’t let you.

Your skin tingles in anticipation as he roughly palms your chest, thumbs brushing over your hardened nipples. A plea hangs on the tip of your tongue, but you bite it back. You won’t let him win- but again your body has other ideas.

Fingers tightening in his hair, guiding his head the rest of the way until his lips close around the peak of your right breast, you can’t help but let out an unsteady, “Fuck, Tae…”

He hums in approval against your skin, tongue circling the rosy bud relentlessly.

You want to moan as another thread of heat knots in your stomach, but you refuse to give him the satisfaction. Instead, you tug again at his hair, trying to breathe deep.

“Say my name again,” Taehyung whispers, licking a stripe up the valley of your breasts, shifting his other leg between yours, slowly pushing your knees apart. As he lifts himself to briefly reconnect his lips to yours, you can feel his hard arousal purposefully brush against your core.

Not wanting to show how much a simple swivel of his hips affects you, you force a laugh, breaking the kiss and dragging your nails across his bare back. He lets out another appreciative hum and buries his nose in the crook of your neck to suck at a spot behind your ear that leaves you shaky as you retort, “You wish.”

Likely just to spite you, harder this time, Taehyung rolls his hips against yours, a movement that causes your legs to wrap around his waist. Taking this as the “go” signal, he begins rhythmically pushing against you, running his hard length up and down your still clothed folds.

While the friction of the three layers between you is an interesting change of pace, you can’t help but crave skin to skin contact, lusting after the thought of him inside you.

*As if he can read your thoughts, Taehyung’s hand- the one that isn’t supporting his weight- travels to the hem of your pajama pants, his cold finger tips dip beneath the cloth, and the door opens.

“Well, this isn’t the bathroom,” Jungkook clears his throat and you snap into alertness, wrenched from what was nothing more than a disturbingly vivid wet dream. No wonder it had been so damn trite.

“Door on the other side of the hall,” Taehyung grumbles sleepily from his position half on top of you, face buried between your fully clothed breasts, right where you knew it would be.

Lord, what this asshole probably wouldn’t give to know you’d been dreaming about fucking him.

“Thanks.”

Even in the dim purple light of the lava lamp, you can see Jungkook’s eyebrows knit as he turns on heel and closes the door behind him.

“How the hell does someone confuse your room with the bathroom?” you want to scoff, but the derisive noise won’t leave your throat.

“I dunno.” Taehyung lifts himself up a little, bedraggled hair sticking up at an angle that almost makes you laugh. Almost, but not quite- because his voice is deep and hoarse in a way that makes you aware of the sticky state of your underwear, even if he only says, “I should really get a handle that locks.”

Thunder rumbles somewhere in the distance.

You push Taehyung away, turning to face the opposite wall and clamping your thighs together in frustration. Maybe sleeping in Taehyung’s bed would not be as great of an idea you originally thought.

Too hot.

✩✩✩♔✩✩✩

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[aiwannadrawit]

Time: Right after the Charity Auction

Place: Hotel room downtown

Between: Desmond & Alex

Plot: Desmond and Alex decide to spend the night together after the auction, but things don’t go as planned.

Desmond had an overall good time during the event. Sure, there had been a lot of people and he needed to take a break a few times outside--- being away from people for a little bit--- but he was glad he got to participate. The concert had been amazing; both Easton and Alex had done a really good job. Hearing Alex sing live had been...well he couldn't really put it into to words. But it was good. As people started leaving the event he had made his way to the parking lot, feeling light as he waited, not right by the professor's care but close enough so he'd see him when he came out.

Alex felt a little drunk… He only had 2 drinks but still. It was probably the adrenaline and excitement of performing again and how well the song had been accepted and supported that he felt a little lightheaded. Even weirder was the fact that he couldn’t stop smiling. H did his best to get away from his friends and some people who came to talk to him once the event was over but he apologized and made a quick exit to find Desmond in the parking lot as they had agreed on. He grinned when he saw the boy standing near his car. He moved silently until he was right next to him and he reached for his hand “waiting for someone?”

Desmond might have jumped just a little bit when he heard Alex's voice and turned, giving the man a wide grin. He slipped his hand into the professor's, lacing their fingers together. "Yeah...what about you? Looking for anyone special?" He stepped closer, practically feeling whatever positive feeling Alex had roll of the man. "You were great by the way."

Alex chuckled a little when Desy jumped “Already found him” he said with a wink and squeezed his hand. “Thanks… you only say that cause you like me. But the kids were amazing. I’m so glad Easton got to do something like this before his surgery” he said with a nod. “Ready to go?” he asked wanted to be sure this was what Desmond wanted

Desmond smiled, feeling his cheeks warm and his heart to skip a beat. "No, I mean that," he insisted, moving close enough to the professor to bump Alex's hip. "I never heard you sing live before and it was...it was great. Really." He nodded, "Yeah, everyone was great. I'm going to have to tell Easton so at some point." He made a mental note. "Yeah, let's go," he smiled, licking his lips and moving toward the man's car.

Alex grinned “Thanks, Desy… I’m glad you liked it” he sighed and nodded “He’ll appreciate that.” He squeezed Desy’s hand again before letting him go to move to his car and open the door for him to then get in himself. “I made a quick call and asked for the same room as last time… do you think you should stop by your room for a change of clothes or you’re ok with people seeing you come back with the same clothes? I always have a change of clothes in the car for me in the case of emergencies but…”

"Heh, once I learn a song you'll have to let me sing for you. See if I'm any good." He looked down at himself after he slipping into the car and shrugged. "I'm good. I mean...it's not that big a deal really." He smiled at him. "Don't worry about it."

Alex nodded “Deal… I am sure you’ll be good” he smiled. “Alright… it was just a question” he assured as he patted Desy’s thigh. “Let’s go then. The faster we get there, the sooner I get to kiss you” he teased as he started the car. “You gonna tell me now what you meant in my office?”

Desmond felt himself grin, blushing at the admission and licked his lips. He squeezed Alex's hand. "Um..." This time his face flushed a deeper red color. "Oh...well, uh, you remember when we were texting and you said you'd like to watch me. With the vibrator I mean." His eyes dropped down, is hand moving to play with Alex's fingers gently. "I...I've been practicing kinda."

Alex smirked and nodded “I remember that…” and then he let the boy talk a bit more, groaning a little when Desy said those words and the image started to form in his face “Fuck, babe… the video you sent me was already something unexpected but this…? You’re gonna be the death of me” he said swallowing hard. “Practicing with it or just your fingers?”

Desmond looked over at Alex, giving the man a mock pout. "Don't die...I'd be too sad." He chuckled softly. "And...I told you I was gonna send you the video," he grinned. He licked his lips, looking back at Alex and shrugged. "Both..."

Alex huffed and smiled “I’ll try not to” he teased. He groaned again and licked his lips, his hand tightening on the steering wheel “Both?” he asked and looked at Desmond from the corner of his eye. “Did you like it?” he asked as stopped at a red light.

Desmond nodded, chewing on the inside of his cheek, shifting in his seat a little bit. "Yeah...I mean, I was nervous to use the vibrator by myself in the beginning so I just started with my fingers." He was rambling, he knew, but...well, judging from Alex's reactions the man really didn't mind all that much. He combed his fingers through his hair. "Yeah...I did. I liked it a lot."

Alex swallowed hard and took a deep breath before looking at Desmond “That’s a good way to start” he said in a raspy voice as he smirked, shifting a little, feeling his cock starting to harden. “Good... you’re supposed to enjoy it. Now you’re gonna have to show me cause the mental image doesn’t do you justice babe”

Desmond looked over at Alex, smiling a bit. "Right...well...whenever you're ready I'm ready too. So..." he shrugged. "Just ask."

Alex smiled and shook his head, reaching to squeeze at Desy’s thigh “You’re enjoying too much making me hard and teasing me, don’t you?” he asked as the light changed.

Desmond grinned a little bit. "Well, I do like it...but, y'know, I'm just being honest."

Alex huffed faking annoyance “Your honesty making me hard is not a good thing when I can pin you against a wall and kiss you senseless” he said as he turned in the street where their usual hotel was located

Desmond shrugged, still grinning broadly. "Well...I really wouldn't mind that," he said, sitting up a little bit as the hotel came into view.

Alex grinned and reached to caress Desy’s knee “Soon… really soon babe” he promised as he drove the car into the garage

Desmond took a deep breath as they pulled into the garage. Once the car stopped Des made a move to open his door, excited to finally be at the hotel so they could spend the night together.

Alex chuckled at how eager Desmond was. He followed him outside the car and took his hand to pull him close “one kiss for the road?” he said playfully.

Desmond moved over toward Alex once the man took his hand and slipped a free hand up to Alex's neck. "Only one," he mused, leaning close to press a kiss to Alex's lips, pressing close to Alex as his hand slipping into the professor's hair.

Alex smirked and pushed Desmond against the car “Fine… just one.” He smiled into the kiss and then nipped at Desy’s bottom lip to deepen the kiss as his hands moved to the taller man’s waist to press himself closer

Desmond sighed into Alex's mouth, his fingers lazy massaging the back of Alex's head. This felt god, having Alex like this, him pressed close out in the open air. A part of him worried about getting too used to this feeling; it being too...well, he couldn't really describe it, but he felt that it was different from what it had been in the beginning. He tried not to worry about too much in the moment though, much more focused on the way their lips moved against each other.

Alex got lost in the kiss. He knew he was getting too deep into this whatever it was with Desmond and that he needed to take a step back and set things straight but it had been a long time since he had felt like this and he was selfish enough to want to hold on to it for a little longer. He wrapped his arms a little tighter around Desmond’s waist as they broke apart, frowning when he noticed a significant loss weight in the spam of a week he had been away from the boy but he didn’t mention anything. He sighed and smiled “Wanna get in or do you wanna stay here all night?” he asked teasingly

Desmond let out a happy little sigh after they broke apart, his hand still in Alex's hair. He smiled, chuckling softly. "As nice as it is out here," he said, "I think I'd like to go inside." His hands slid down along Alex's arms, stopping half way and he squeezed them. "Let's go."

Alex chuckled and poked Desy’s ribs when he pulled away “You’re in a really good mood tonight… wanna tell me why?” he said as he offered his hand for Desy as they walked to the elevator. He had managed to get someone pick up the key so they could go straight to their usual room

Desmond grinned over at him, taking his hand easily and squeezed it, staying close as they walked up to their room. "I don't know honestly...I'm just feeling good? I won my bids and now we're gonna relax together and..." he trailed off and shrugged again. "I'm just in a good mood."

Alex hummed, happy to see the boy so relaxed now. “That’s good… I like it when you’re in a good mood. You don’t smile this much often” he grinned as they reached the room and he opened the door, letting go of Desmond’s hand to undo his tie and take off his suit’s jacket “What bids did you win?” he asked curiously

Desmond felt himself blush as they walked through the halls of the hotel. "I don't?" He rubbed the back of his neck, feeling a little self-conscious. "Sorry...I don't mean to be so gloomy." Desmond headed over toward the couch and sat down. "Um...I got a cooking lesson, a picture of Scotland, and..." he blushed a little darker, "Well I got your gift of time too."

Alex shook his head “It’s ok... you’re not gloomy. Just quiet and reserved. That’s not bad babe” he assured. He followed Desy to the couch and this time, he climbed to straddle the taller man’s lap “A cooking lesson… I’m surprised about that. I’m sure you’ll have fun” he said as he frowned at the second item “I wanted that picture…” he huffed and then smile but it only got wider when Desmond told him he had bid for him “You paid $10,001 for me?” he asked incredulously.

Desmond nodded, "Okay...if you say so." He smiled, slightly surprise that Alex sat in his lap this time, his hands moving to sit on Alex's hips. He shrugged. "Yeah...I mean, I thought it would be interesting at the very least..." He hoped Alex was right about him having fun. He was sure he could manage to get through it. Desmond stuck his tongue out at him. "Too bad, it's mine." He nodded, squeezing Alex's hips a bit. "Yeah...I mean. Well, you didn't sound all excited about the whole gift of time thing so I thought I'd bet on it and win you for myself. Since we like spending time together and all that."

Alex moved his hands to the back of Desmond’s neck once he was settled on his lap and barely rolled his hips against Desy’s “Mhm… sounds interesting and fun” he teased as he leaned closer but not enough yet to kiss him. He chuckled at the way the boy stuck his tongue “Don’t do that unless you’re planning to use it” he said playfully and bumped their noses together. “You’re right about how much I enjoy spending time with you but you didn’t have to pay for it…” he sighed “Thanks for helping all those kids and freeing me of spending a day with someone else…” and without more pretenses he leaned in to kiss him deeply

Desmond licked his lips as Alex shifted on his lap and squeezed his hips again. He sat up a little bit once Alex leaned closer, "Who says I'm not?" He grinned at their little nose bump. "I know that...I just---" He cut himself off hearing how Alex phrased it and laughed. "Haha, when you say it like that you make it sound like I was being selfish." He hummed into the kiss, wrapping his arms around the professor, holding him close.

Alex he hummed “You’re gonna have to show me” he teased again. “It’s ok to be selfish sometimes…” he murmured against Desy’s lips. He was about to lean in for another kiss when he felt his phone vibrating in his pocket. He groaned and pulled it out only to frown when he noticed an unknown number. He was about to reject the call but there was something in the back of his mind that made him accept the call “Hello? Yeah that’s me… what!?” he said feeling his blood running call when the person on the other side of the line started to tell him about his best friend having an accident. He climbed off Desmond’s lap and started to pace around “Where is he? How is he?... yeah... no no no… No, she’s…. I don’t know where she is. I’ll call her. Yeah I’m on my way” he said in a rush as he picked up his jacket and tie to then look at Desmond “Wolf had an accident. We need to go to the hospital now…”

Desmond grinned into the kiss, his hands sliding up along Alex's back and then back down again. When Alex pulled away he pouted, nearly urging Alex to put that thing away. They had each other to focus on. He let the professor go when he slid off of his lap, the look on Alex's face. Desmond was immediately worried. He stood up from the couch, wanting to move over to him but not sure if that was the best option. The news of professor Wolf being in an accident made Desmond's heart nearly stop. "I--- yeah, okay," he moved toward him, pulling his own jacket. "Let's go."

[strainingfororiginality]

Chapter 16

Note from Author:  This was easily one of the emotional parts that I’ve written.  It will be a few days until the next part comes out.  I’m sure you’ll understand why.

Part 6

Once Quinlan was out of audible range, Barqan turned to the trees and spoke candidly, “Can you not simply just take care of your brother yourself?”   It seemed as if he was just querying the cold, thin air until the Archangel became a part of the visible reality, stepping out suddenly to respond to him.

“He can’t know any of this was orchestrated by me.”  Michael answered.

“What does it matter now?” Barqan asked while he shook off the falling snow that had built up on his shoulders.

“Hayyoth can’t be extinguished.  He’ll be dispersed back to Heaven.”  Michael shrugged, but his uncertainty of that fact was clear.

“And … what?  You think he might disclose your secret once returned?”  Barqan was suddenly realizing the impending threat Michael wished to avoid.

“If he thinks me his enemy, I have no doubt.  But if he thinks me an ally … ”

“This is a dangerous game you play, my friend.  What if the boy fails?”

“If he fails, then we all fail.  I can’t protect anyone if I’ve fallen.   You, him, them … her.”

“Some more than others.  As you have been so kind to point out, Hayyoth cannot be extinguished.  A fact that I kept from him.”  Barqan stated matter of factly, displeased with the deceitful act which the Archangel had convinced him to commit.

Michael shrugged, “I know him.  If he thought another path existed, he’d pursue it … relentlessly.”

“And what of his fate?  To what end have we damned him?”  Barqan looked down as he spoke, ashamed of his participation in the plot.  He had grown fond of the boy, however short their time spent together had been.  Quinlan was an individual and unique, both in intellect as well as character, something that most of his kind lacked.

“It’s only the first death.  I’ll provide him whatever refuge I can.”  Michael attempted to reassure his disappointed friend.

“What kind of refuge can you provide?  He is nephilim.  The others will not allow him to continue.”

“It’s not up to them.  And what he is ... that’s still up for debate.  You worry too much.  You’ve always worried too much.  I have my ways, Barqan.”  Michael rested a gentle hand on his friend's shoulder, “I give my word, for the sake of your conscience and for the heart of my brother, I will spare him if it’s in my power.”

The Archangel turned to take his leave before his words sparked another question from the Black King.  “The Heart of your brother?”

“You don’t think Ozryel cares for him?  That’s the only reason that little bastard still breaths.  It’s the only reason I spared him over the other four.”  The wings were spread as Michael prepared himself for light.

“And you, Governor?”

Michael turned, halting his exit very briefly, “And me what?”

“Do you care for your nephew?”

“He’s not my kin.  Why should I care for that impudent abomination?”  Michael scoffed at the accusing question.

Barqan smiled, “Because your child does.”

“I know how to tell the difference between my emotions and hers.”  The Archangel scoffed.

“And the prophecy?  You realize that it is --”  He only received a glare in response as Michael took to the air mid sentence and was gone.

“And that’s how I wound up in the military anyways.”  Rubinstein finished her long winded story and stared back at the young woman who had been keeping her company for quite some time.  All things considered, Dawn seemed to be a great listener.

“Huh.  I wouldn’t have expected that.”  Dawn shrugged and handed the doctor the next piece of clothing to wash from the basket between them.

“You wouldn’t have expected what exactly?”  She prodded.

Dawn said nonchalantly, “I don’t know.  That someone … like you … would …”

Rubinstein found herself smiling at the statement, “Join the Army, run off to war … all for a boy?  Yeah, I didn’t think I would do that either.”

“Must have been some boy.”  Dawn mused and Rebecca shook her head feverently

“Not really actually.  Turned out … not so much at all.  I learned a lot from it … a lot about people.  And I wound up hurting someone important to me in the process … ”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.  I was dating another resident at the time.  I didn’t realize until it was too late that I actually loved the son of a bitch.”  She wrung the shirt free of as much liquid as possible and handed it to Dawn, who stuffed it into another basket.  They’d hang them in front of the hearth when they went back inside and hope the heat would dry them enough.

“What happened to him?”  Dawn asked.

“When I came back … all bright eyed and high on the realization that I actually loved him, he’d already moved on.  He was dating this mousy woman.”  Rubinstein looked at Dawn, who had thrown a raised eyebrow her way, obviously taking offense to the statement.  Rebecca cleared her throat and carried on, “Sorry.  He was dating this … very quiet woman.”

“And that was that?”  The short woman asked, “I don’t think something like that would deter you.”

“You’d be surprised.  Back then, I wasn’t the same … woman.  He wound up marrying her and that was that.”  Rebecca shrugged.

“Ever look him up?”  Dawn questioned as the doctor handed her the next piece of wet clothing.

“I used to.  Constantly … like a stalker.”  She shared a snicker with her companion and then she breathed with another indifferent shrug, “But, fate is a funny thing right?  He shows up on my doorstep years later with a peculiar little coma patient in tow.”

Dawn was suddenly taken back, as she stuttered the revelation, “Wait … You don’t mean …”

“‘Fraid so … our good Dr. Goodweather.”  Rebecca laughed and Dawn pursed her lips at the thought.

“Wait … “  Dawn furrowed her nose at the disclosure, “Ephraim?  Him?”

“Hey!  Don’t judge.  You should count yourself lucky.”  Rebecca said.

“Why’s that?”

“He’s the only person on Earth that I would have helped you guys for.”

Dawn paused for a moment to accept it fully, “To each their own, I guess.  Huh. But … Ephraim?”  She asked again and the doctor laughed at her disbelief.

“He’s changed a lot.  He was a different man back then … more hair.”  The thought of that made the Doctor herself giggle slightly, “I think miss his hair … but not many men can pull the bald look off, right?”  She winked at Dawn who sheepishly looked back into the basket without responding.  “And what about you two?”  She pushed now.

“What about me?”  Dawn seemed perplexed.

“You and the … um …”  Rubinstein paused as she cleared her throat, “Mr. Quinlan.”

“He’s … “  Dawn paused as she furrowed her nose, thinking of what to say next, “What do you mean you two?”  She finally asked.

“Oh come on.  Everyone saw you two this morning.”

Dawn looked momentarily shocked as she shook her head, “Oh no, that was not what it looked like … there wasn’t any place else for him to … sleep.“  She looked up mid sentence and saw the raise eyebrow that Rebecca was now throwing her way.  “I don’t know.”

“Don’t know what?”

“I don’t know what we are.  But it isn’t like that.”  She finally said as she fumbled with the wet clothes in her own basket, trying to distract herself from the uncomfortable conversation.

Rubinstein turned her attention from the laundry fully and faced Dawn head on now, “I mean, it seems like he’s into you.”

“No.  It's not like that.  He just ... needs me.”

“Exactly.”

Dawn shook her head, “No.  He needs me … I’m … “  She hesitated at the thought and Rubinstein helped her out by the sentence for her.

“Bait?”  Dawn seemed perplexed that she knew and Rebecca shrugged, “I’m pretty sure Ephraim’s told me everything.”  She could see the distress on the short woman’s face and she offered a helpful observation, “I don’t think you are just bait for him, sweetie.”

“No?”  She asked, nervously biting her lower lip.

“Nu uh.”  Rubinstein shook her head, “You don’t look at bait that way.”

Dawn furrowed her brows, “What way?”

“Like you want to fuck it into oblivion.”

Blushing furiously as the conversation hit an unexpected turn, Dawn attempted some kind of retort, “Oh no, I don’t think--”

“Oh please.  Who are you lying to?  Me?  Or yourself?”

“I should probably get ba--”  Rebecca could see the woman’s flight instinct suddenly kick in and she prodded her again before she could flee.

“From your reaction, I take it nothing’s happened yet then?”  She knew how to read other women, it was how she liked to maintain control over them, though she had no desire to control the short woman any longer.

“I … I’d really rather not talk about this with you.”  Dawn pouted suddenly, furrowing her brows madly at the insistent Doctor.

Rebecca paused, “Sorry.  Just seems like it bothers you.  I know when I talk about things out loud, it helps me work through them better.  Listen, I know we got off to a rocky start, but I’d actually like us to be friends.”

Dawn stared at the ground in silence and the Doctor returned to the washing.  There was a brief moment of silence, before Dawn actually spoke, “Nothing’s happened yet.  I mean, I think … I know he wants something to …”

“But you don’t?”  Rebecca asked.

“No, no, no.  It's not that.  I mean … ”  Dawn stuttered.  The frustration of not being able to verbalize her thoughts clearly was obviously frustrating her.

“Then what’s the problem?”

Dawn shrugged silently as she bit her lip again.

“Cause, it seems like there’s a problem.  Is it because of what he is?”  Rebecca pointed out.

“No, no, no … that’s not it … it’s just …. He’s got a wife.”  

“Oh.”  Rebecca was moderately shocked at the revelation, “Huh.  Well … in all honesty.  That’s never stopped me before.”  Dawn stared at the women as she shook her head with pure disgust and disappointment as Rebecca shrugged, “What?  I’m just being honest.  When I want something, I generally don’t let moral issues get in the way.  Besides, I doubt she’d find out.  If he’s into it--”

“She’s dead.”  Dawn fidgeted with her hands after the disclosure.

“Wait … you don’t wanna sleep with him because he’s a … widower?”  Rebecca perked up within her stance as she cocked her head at Dawn inquisitively.

“No, no, no.”  Dawn struggled to find the right words, “I don’t think he’s over her … well … I know he’s not over her.  He kinda said he wasn’t.  He said he never would be.”

“Oh.  Meh.  He’s still into it, so who cares?  It’s just sex.”  Rebecca said merrily, smiling as the thought crossed her mind.  She decided she should find Ephraim after this little conversation.

“It’s … no.  It’s not.  It’s not just sex.”  Dawn sighed heavily as her eyes darted down to the snow covered ground.

“Oh.  Wait … do you … do you love him?”  The Doctor asked.

“I … no.“ Dawn started to say something, but she quickly decided against it, playing with her fingers in a nervous way as more thoughts danced silently across her saddened mind.

“Listen kid.”  Rebecca started as she mused to herself that she was not that much older than the short woman, but the conversation gave her a certain sense of needing to impart some wisdom, “I don’t care how old he is … how many men he’s commanded … how many great things he’s witnessed, guy’s say dumb shit.  Constantly.  All the time.  They say shit they don’t mean because their brains get all out of whack when they try to deal with real emotions.”

Dawn looked up at her, “Yeah, I don’t think Quinlan is like--”

“Trust me, Ms. Maxwell.  ALL men are like that.  Hands down … even Generals … trust me.  I’ve had my share.”

“Generals?”  Dawn curled her lip at that statement as a wave of disgust rushed her, “Generals?  Like … “  She gulped briefly, “... General Shaw?”

“Hey!  Don’t judge.  Older guys are pretty phenomenal.  He was pretty damn experienced.  Don’t knock an old guy until you try one.”  Rebecca waved an index finger at Dawn in a chastising way and the short woman made a fake retching noise as she showed her disgust openly to the Doctor.

“The point is.  Everyone puts their foot in their mouths, they make mistakes they regret and they lose people they love.  Trust me … I’ve been one of those people.  He obviously cares quite a bit, champ.”

“I … I don’t want to make a fool of myself.”  Dawn whispered as she spoke so quietly, Rebecca almost had trouble making out her words.  “Not again.”

“Somethings can be worth the risk.  There is just one question … Do you think he could he make you happy?”

“Yeah, but it’s not that easy.  He said--”

The Doctor shook her head, interrupting quickly, “Yes it is.  It’s always that simple.  The secret to happiness is letting every situation be what it is instead of what you want it to be, and then … making the best of it.”

Dawn seemed to internalize her words for a moment before asking, “Why do you care?  Why are you even talking to me?”

Rebecca smiled to her before she turned around back to the laundry sink and the snow began to come down again, all around them as the wind briskly picked up and shook them to their core with cold, “Because I was an ass and … we will all face judgement in the end.”

Both women jumped suddenly as Quinlan seemed to appear before him, breaking his sprint as a plume of snow flew up around them.  The wind kicked up yet again and the density of the snow increased even more, sharply declining the outside temperature.

“A storm approaches.”  His demeanor was markedly cold as he refused to lock eyes with either of the women.  “There is also something that needs discussion.  We should get inside.”

Everyone stood in complete silence, gawking at Quinlan as he disclosed his plan, after retrieving the silver case from the cabinet and setting it on the counter.

“You wanna blow him up, ese?  Will that even work?”  Gus finally asked and Quinlan nodded with utter confidence.

“This worked on the other ancients.  It will work on him.  It is … The Face of God.”

Fet choked up a response now, “But if we know where he is … can’t we just try and … I dunno … can’t we just catch him again?  I like bombs, but usin’ a nuke.  I dunno man, makes me nervous.”

“I know of his general vicinity, yes.  But imprisonment is no longer a … viable option.”

“Why not?”  Ephraim was suddenly a part of the conversation and quite furious, “Why isn’t it a viable option?  I’m sorry if I’m not ok with us just NUKING him.”

Quinlan looked up to the Doctor and for the first time since he’d met Ephraim, he felt sorry for the man.  He knew the pain in his eyes and he understood the desperation for his child.  “We will go together, Doctor.  I will require a distraction and I will provide you with an opportunity to find your son.”

Dutch stuttered now, “Alright then.  But the timer is stuck at 2 seconds, love.  That’s not enough time for anyone to get away once it’s triggered.”

Dawn spoke up, “Yeah, we’d have to make it a remote trigger somehow.”

     “No.”  Quinlan’s voice was unsure and immediately drowned out by the women’s conversation as they started to bounce off each other with electricity as they had at the previous house.

Dutch nodded and smiled to Dawn, “I mean, I don’t even know where we’d even start on doing that, and that thing terrifies the SHIT out of me.”  She pointed to the case, “But I’m game on poking at it if you are.”

    “Stop.”  Quinlan tried again.

Dawn nodded before she offered, “There was an electronics store we passed on the way.”

    “Please stop.”  Quinlan tried yet again.

“Righto.  Radio signals might work.  But I’d be worried about distance and possible interference.  How far do you think it would need to work?”

“We might be able to find a satellite band that’s still working.”  Dawn posed and Dutch smiled merrily.

“That’ll take some time--”  Dutch had started to say.

“ENOUGH.”  Quinlan spoke loudly, growling with a strong strigoi rattle as he slammed his fist down on the counter and everyone turned back to him abruptly.  “It does NOT matter.  I will take it as is.”

“But.”  Dutch smirked slightly as she reiterated the painful fact to him, “The timer is stuck at 2 seconds, love.  That’s not enough time for anyone to get away, even you.”

Quinlan swiftly responded to her, keeping his focus on the case as not to look anyone in the eyes.  “Indeed.  It does not matter.  It is best if the timer remains short.  There will be less chance of him escaping again.  I do not … intend on getting away.”

“Wait … what?”  Dawn finally spoke as her jaw was slightly agape.  Her voice was quiet yet sharp and there was something laced underneath its melody, something timid and almost broken.  He refused to shift his gaze from the case as he could hear the fury brewing within her.  “You … want to … blow yourself up with him?”  The question was riddled with confusion.

“I do not think anyone else would be able to hold him at bay.”  He offered as he commanded himself to remain focused on the the case.  Entirely blank look swept across his face as he shook his head.  “Besides, it does not matter.”

“What do you mean it doesn’t matter?”  Oh gods.  Her voice, he could hear the panic that was percolating within it and he felt his own emotion starting to bubble up with it.  He did what he normally had done with his emotions … he masked them in anger.  “Of course it matters.  We can come up with a better plan than this.”

    “No.”  He said, trying to entice his anger out further.

She continued over him, “Now that we know where he is, we can find another box.”

    “Stop.”  He sneered with a growl.

“We can do better than … GEE GUYS … let’s just blow him up TODAY.”

“ENOUGH.” He screamed.  Though he knew it was a bad idea, he turned around, finally looking into her face as he commanded himself to scream more, but the look on her face abated his attack all at once.  That anger which he was desperately trying to use as a shield, blocking himself from everything that he was feeling, crumbled away inside of her gaze.  He could see the tears as they were starting to form in her dragonfly eyes.  He could even smell them.  “It … would … not … matter.”  He said so slowly, unable to hide the pain.

“Why?”  She plead and everyone watched silently, not wishing to interrupt the pending question.  He had told none but Ephraim and Abraham his next secret.  It was likely Fet and Rubinstein might know through shared confidence, but he knew the Poet did not.  Her little fascinated, curious, scientific mind would have questioned him on its validity endlessly.

“Because … when he dies … I die.”

“What?”  Dutch said flatly and immediately.  “What the fuck does that mean?”

Quinlan did not grace her with an answer; he couldn’t.  He could only stare back into Dawn’s eyes as she vigorously shook her head at him with visceral denial, “That’s ridiculous.”

“Regardless.  It is the truth.”

“Bullocks.”  Dutch mumbled as she took a seat on the couch, slinking down and grabbing a pillow to hug tightly.  The men offered no responses and Quinlan waited for her to continue her rejection of his statement.

“Dis whole time ... “  Fet stuttered sadly.  “If we had killed him ...”

“No, that’s just dumb.  You don’t know that.   You can’t know that.  Who told you that?”  Her voice had begun to raise and Ephraim interjected.

“That’s what I’ve been telling him, I said--”

“It has always been an assumption.  Now, it has been made fact.”  Quinlan snapped at the Doctor’s impending thoughts on the subject as Dawn cocked her head to the right.

“By who?”  She asked, but he knew from the tone of her voice that she already had an idea who.

“The Fire.”

“I don’t see why we can’t just catch him again then.” Fet finally spoke up, waving his hand towards the nuclear device, “We don’t need to nuke him, right?  We did it once before and da Lumen says--”

“There is no longer time for that, Mr. Fet.  We have less than a day to act.”  Quinlan snapped, never taking his eyes from hers.   He could tell that she was fighting the urge to express herself further, and she had kept every tear at bay thus far, but her chin trembled dearly and he hated himself so very much at this moment.  He knew better.

“Why is that?  We’ve had months … we’ve been at this for months and now we have a day?”  Dutch pondered, seeming to disbelieve Quinlan’s statement entirely.

“Is that what he told you?”  The short woman asked, “Is that what The Great Fire said to get you to do this?”

Quinlan finally broke his gaze with her and his eyes floated down to the ground, “I do not think he lies.  Not about this.  In a day’s time, more like my Father will come, and the Earth will bear the savage consequences of his reign.”

“More like the Master?”  Gus questioned, “More strigoi?  Or other Ancients?”

Quinlan nodded once at the latter, finally turning from her to look at the Boxer, “Of sorts.  However, far more powerful and far more ruthless.”

“More ruthless than the Master?”  Ephraim questioned as he clearly did not consider that even possible.

There was silence as his words sunk into the entire room and tension rose sharply as Fet sat next to Dutch in defeat, “Fuck man.  Why do this?”

“Because I die either way, Mr. Fet.  At least … with this ...”  He forced himself to look back to her, locking eyes as she continued to stare through him in quiet and sad disbelief, “You will live.”

“No.  This is bullshit.”  She sneered as her face flushed with angry redness, “You aren’t gonna just give up and then blame us for it.”  Her tone deepened as the fury unleashed through her words, “If you want to die, you don’t get to use us as an excuse!”

“There is no blame.  I do not wish to die--”

“You’ve wanted to die this whole time, haven’t you?  Eternity, right?”  She spat towards him as she hastily made her way to the door, unlocking it and swinging it widely open as the evolving storm outside flooded the little cabin with wind and snow briefly before she slammed it shut behind her.  Quinlan moved to stop her, but his arm was caught by Gus who shook his head towards Quinlan.

“Augustine … I assume you like having two arms?”  He sneered at the man and the Boxer released him immediately, showing his palms of defeat to the dhampir.  Moving to follow her out the door he heard the Boxer from behind.

“Giver her a few minutes, ese.  She just needs to cool off.”

Quinlan turned back around and saw the genuine concern in the Boxer’s eyes.  Perhaps he was right.  There was nothing that Quinlan could say to her right now to ease her resentment towards him.  He turned to the door and fought every fiber in his being that begged him to follow her before retreating back to the counter to stare at his destiny.  He looked at the case top and flicked the little door open causing the LEDs to come alive and illuminated.  Sighing heavily, he stared at the numbers:  

00:00:02

Inspiration: Oracle - Kari Sigurdsson

She ran.  Oh god, she ran.

She ran as fast as her short legs could carry her and when she thought she couldn’t run any faster, she did.  She knew this was faster than she had ever moved and when the flurry of the snow storm around her began to slow she pushed herself even harder as the flood of emotions broke through finally and she screamed into the wind while her tears flowed mercilessly out of her eyes and almost froze on her face before they could drip free of her spotted cheeks.

She had no idea where she was going … not at first.  Not until she realized she should give that son of a bitch a piece of her mind and she turned sharply to make her way North, ripping through the torrential wind as she ran.  She wished to have words with that Great Fire.  Fuck that guy.  Fuck that guy.  Fuck that guy.

Piece of shit.  She reached around to verify that the baton was clipped onto her back pocket when a voice she hadn’t heard in days finally sounded.

“Where do you think you are going?”

“Decide it was time to pester me again?  It's been days.”

“You sent me away.  I am not always here.  You control that.”  Her voice was frail and uncertain.

“You’ve always barged in before.”

“Only when you have needed me, child.  I can only come when you allow it.  It's always been up to you.”

Dawn ground her teeth as she spoke, trying unsuccessfully to refuse her continued tears, “Did you see it?  Did you hear what he plans on doing?!”

“I heard enough.”  Hathų whispered.

“Then how do we fix this?”  Dawn pleaded.

“I do not know how to fix this.”  Hathų squeaked.

“I’m not going to let him do this.  It’s ridiculous.”  Dawn stopped running for a moment, wiping the moisture from her face before it could freeze, “I won’t.”

“How can you stop this?  I do not even know--”  The voice started to make excuses.

“You don’t know anything apparently.  Do you know what I am?”  She questioned suddenly and the voice remained silent.  “That’s what I thought.  Coward.  It doesn’t matter … I’m going to stop this on my own then.”

“How will you stop this?”  Hathų asked, her voice full of concern, “There is little either one of us can do--”

“He can’t kill the Master if he can’t find him.”  Dawn sneered as she began to run again, hitting a frozen creek that blocked her path North.  The surface was a thin piece of ice but she could see the water still flowing freely and mightily underneath.  She began to follow it East, hoping for a safe place to cross it.

“What does that mean?!”  Hathų voice was suddenly full of minor panic.

“The Djinn will tell me where the Master is.”

“And then what?!”  Hathų screamed now, “What are you planning on doing?”

“The Master made me an offer once--”  Dawn wasn’t sure exactly how viable her plan was, but at the very least, she might be able to lure the One away from its current location.  If Quinlan couldn’t find it, then he couldn’t blow it up.

“NO!  You don’t understand!  They are coming tomor--”  Hathų started to scream in response, but Dawn pushed her away again.  She was getting quite good at that it seemed, controlling the intrusion of the voice.

God damn.  It was fucking cold.  She tucked her arms around her and verified the hood was still snugly over her head, protecting her from the onslaught of snow and sludge that fell from the skies above.  She knew it was more than three miles to the spot on the cliff where he’d saved The Keepers and she knew it would be another three miles after that.  She regretting saving them now.  If she had just let them all die, then Quinlan would have never met that fucking Djinn.

With that much distance to cross, she thought she might just die out here in the snow, but she was faster now and she knew she was stronger.  He’d made her so.  He’d done so many things for her …

She continued to follow the creek for quite some time, but she hadn’t seen any place to cross safely.  Briefly considering turning around to try heading east, she spied something in the near distance, through the falling snow, that might be of use.  The creek widened considerably as it emptied into a deeper pool area, but at the front of the frozen pond, a fallen log laid haphazardly across its mouth and she stepped onto the end of it as she tested its weight.  It seemed sturdy enough.  Her boot provided adequate traction and just before she started the dangerous task, the wind completely died as the snow fall suddenly lightened.

Excellent.

Taking it as a good sign to hurry across, she began to pass over the frozen yet running body of water, smiling to herself with pride at her excellent balance.  Everything seemed nearly perfect in that moment but as soon as the grin had graced her face, when she was but halfway across its length, the wind kicked up furiously, far more powerful than ever before and there was a moment where she thought she might lose her balance to it, but she recovered amazingly as she waved her arms to steady herself before she turned to finish navigating the final few steps.

Sucker.

But the wind kicked up another notch again and the snow came down fiercely and Dawn heard the branch above giving way and though she attempted to jump the remaining distance, this branch was larger than the log underneath her.  As it hit directly in front of her, it tore her makeshift bridge in half, throwing her forcefully onto the frozen body of water.

The impact of her fall broke the ice immediately and she found herself gasping at the coldness as it surrounded her and soaked into her clothing, throwing her body into a cold fueled paralysis.  The sensation was so shocking and overwhelming she felt too numb to scream. he desperately clawed at the branched around her to prevent herself from being sucked under the ice along with the strong current.

As the cold set it and she was unable to gain enough strength to pull herself out, the only action her freezing body would afford her was to hold desperately onto an offshoot of the attacking branch with her right hand, keeping her head above at the very least and stopping the creek from pushing her under the frozen top.

He took Gus’ advice and attempted to be patient.  It was unlike him to be otherwise and so he sat and waited.  He managed to make it a little less than ten minutes before the storm picked up around the tiny cabin and the only thing that Quinlan could hear was its assault on the little building, deafening all of his other senses.  He raised his hood and left without uttering a word to anyone.

The flurry was easily a blizzard now and he damned himself for waiting as long as he had, because all he could hear now was the wind and all he could see, smell, and feel was the damned snow.  He looked around the building first then checked the dock before his worry finally began to mount.

Would she have run off in these conditions?  No, she was so good at surviving and he doubted she would have done anything that foolhardy, however, he knew he’d never seen her in that state of mind before.

Quinlan stared at the tree line and then eyed the lake, unsure of which direction she might have gone, but he figured he would start at the road, which ran South.  She was likely on the road, he assured himself and when he took his first step in that direction, the wind kicked up ferociously and blew North suddenly.  Barqan’s voice pierced his memory:

(Perhaps the wind likes you, Forbidden Prince.)

Indeed.  Quinlan headed North, around the lake as he moved quickly, attempting to cover as much ground as possible, but after the first mile he had started to doubt his decision.  There was simply no way she would have made it this far, not in these conditions at least.  Right?  He hesitated and considered returning to take the Southern route when he spied the outline of possible footprints in the snow.  It was difficult to make them out entirely and he stopped and bent to investigate them further as the snow enveloped them.

He was sure that is what they were and as he sprinted along, he found deeper tracks and followed them as they cut right at the frozen creek, the same one he’d visited early today and it was only half a mile from there that he had heard that sound.  He knew that sound, he’d heard it many times over his long years.  The clattering of human teeth.

He saw her, clutching feebly to the branch on the other side of the frozen creek with all but her head and right arm underneath the water as she being tugged furiously by the river.  Her eyes closed, her skin white and her thin lips had turned a light blue.  He heard himself cry out.

“Oh!”  It seemed as if she had tried to cross it, and she was nearly there, only a mere several feet from the other side.  And at this point in the forest, the creek was wider than any other, and it seemed to be quite a bit deeper as well, but it mattered not as Quinlan jumped its twenty foot girth, landing at the other bank with ease before he rushedly reached over, grabbing her hand which barely clutched the branch.  Her eyes suddenly flashed open with his grip.  Good.  She was still conscious at least.

He pulled her up and out of the water, into his warm arms as he cradled her, damning himself for allowing Gus to talk him into letting her “cool off”?

“How long have you been in the water?”  His question was rushed but he received no answer as she shuddered terribly in his grip.  Pulling her up closer to his body, he pushed her face into the warmth of his neck and swirls.  Oh gods.  The temperature of her nose even caused him to shudder and he realized he needed to get her warm immediately.  She had been in the water too long.

And just as the gravity of the situation hit Quinlan, the blizzard hit its next level of power.  The wind and snow kicked up all around them and he felt even more overwhelmed as his senses burned in the coldness.  He spun as he screamed maddeningly into the sky, “Are you fucking serious!?!?”

It would take him a while to get back into the cabin in these conditions and he doubted that would fair well for her in her current condition, but he did know this area.  He canvassed it when they arrived and there was shelter not far from them.  It hadn’t housed any food and it proved far too tiny as a viable option for the group, but it would do for now.  He just hoped that it was still standing and that the fireplace was in working order.

He was opening the door to the small hut of a cabin within a minute, kicking it shut behind him as he let her slip down from his arms.  Unsure if she could stand on her own, he was poised to catch her but it was unnecessary as her legs were still functional.  Good.  All good signs.  Now he just needed to warm her up … quickly.

He began to procedurally remove the layers of wet and nearly frozen clothing from her shivering body.