#but iris runs the school so......... i mean why do you think she set it up so students have a specific roommate | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

maguro13-2 · 2 years ago

Text

Death Vengeance ~ Origins of the Ink Demon Chapter 3 Pt.10 ~

Shinra : Iris...Come back to me, Iris! Why would anyone do this to you!? Oh my beloved Iris!

Homura Akemi (?) : Give up, devil of this new world. Your influence of this stupid universe serves me no purpose for being a hero. It's time that I am putting an end to this influence of yours. You manage to create a world without the despair, the despair that is the key to opening darkness. Your Heroism and Influence will be the death of everything that I did, and I manage to kill everyone and everything that you knew and loved, including the girl that she loves you. Now you'll be getting the despair that you desperate needed. If this new world that you created will spread the influence you caused, then I'll make sure that the heartless mastermind Demon Vibe will show you the true meaning of pain and suffering.

Shinra : [chuckles] That's what you think of, I created a son of my own and named him "Death", and he will be the God of this new world that I created, just foreshadow the plot of how the new world of mine will be looking like this in a long distant future...the future of the Ohkuboverse. And you'll never know that the truth about the Ohkuboverse's existence would eventually go start to finish, the chronological order maybe desperate, but I'm still the hero, and you are a villain that ransacked my life, and killing my beloved Iris, she was the only thing I knew for my family, and now she's dead, dead because of you! I won't forgive you for this! So hear me this.... I decided that I have my plans to give you a sweet taste of justice and revenge once I gathered all Seven lights from Kingdom Hearts, and after I unlock this power to bring hope to the Ohkuboverse, it will be the death for Demon Vibe to taste this power! And there's nothing that you can do single thing about it, you're about to make me go apeshit on your sorry little butt!

Time Eater (as Homura Akemi) : Lucky Devil. You got some set of balls. So how about that it's time that I'm giving you a demonstration to destroy the Ohkuboverse, half of it. I'm going to put you on Execution and you will be the very last of your own. In fact, [Her voice shifts into Time Eater] Don't ever show your face in the Ohkuboverse ever again. It be the day that you will ever draw your last breath.

Shinra : .....

Time Eater (as Homura Akemi) : Well, are you going to say anything? Answer my tone! (Shinra gets up)

Shinra : The New World I created will be the death of you and, you will die for giving me the loss and despair I confess. And you will be the last for this.

[Gun Cocks]

Time Eater (As Homura Akemi) : You first, you twit.

[Shadow SFX : Gun Shot]

"In the real world..2011."

[Emmitsburg - Frederick County, Maryland]

[Moped Running]

Tamaki Kotatsu (at age 13) : So much effort for getting me back into my hometown. But I definitely heard that the incident in Tokyo took place about 6 years ago. Rumors to tell that the mysterious creature made of ink had several attacks were involved of several incidents in Tokyo, America, and the rest of the world. Now I understand how the author of Soul World is making a big deal with this Soul Eater stuff coming into head and I'm the lucky girl that does not to get involved with. [she arrives at her house] well, here I am. Home sweet home.

"This girl living in the American state of Maryland, is named Tamaki Kotatsu. A Japanese-American citizen who lives in a Maryland town near Gettysburg with her roommate and Ex Military Academy graduate Juggernaut, the one from Japan and was mistaken for a supervillain. Abandoned at age 4 and was adopted by nuns and firemen, Tamaki herself never returned to Tokyo and never got to go to a Japanese school. She spent her days and years as a sister at the National Shrine of St Ann Elizabeth Seton, devoting herself to sister training and Sunday services to worship with children and families. But oddly enough on her 13th birthday, she revealed that she caused a silo explosion on a Maryland farm by reawakening...her pyrokinetic powers."

Tamaki Kotatsu : [enters the house] Hey, Juggernaut, I'm back.

Juggernaut : Oh, Tamaki, you're back from the shrine.

Tamaki Kotatsu : Yeah, I just got off from Sunday school, it was a rough time for the students. Plus, I gave bad students a piece of his mind, good old fashion punishment.

Juggernaut : You love punishing bad people, don't ya?

Tamaki Kotatsu : I even have a teaching agree since I learned give glory to God. But right now, I'm finally going to have my dedication to study even more, I've learned history, geography, science, religion, and of course, Fire Safety.

Tamaki Kotatsu : Which you got yourself a deal, since being abandoned at age 4, I've even regret myself and devoted of becoming a sister, it's not like that in many years since half of the Ohkuboverse was destroyed by that time-traveling entity that killed both Shinra and Iris. It was like that thing the Time Eater destroyer half of it, erasing everything in it's path, making to a believe that the Men of Shinra's Influence did not make sense that they would have all the nerves to keep everything in secrecies till Majo Detectives were to able to find the truth that Shinra created the New World in the Ohkuboverse.

Juggernaut : That's kinda messed up, although we did ended up at the same state as we do, I know that your real parents abandoned you and was founded by Nuns and firemen, so they made you this way and became the very someone that you know today. And in 4 years, you and I will able to move back to Japan, to become heroes that fight against fire monsters! Heck, that I was barely even to join the military before joining a fire company or a brigade.

Tamaki Kotatsu : I'll be happy to fill that in, but all of that will be foreshadowed. But what I do know is that satellites confirmed that the involvements of the legacy that Shinra created are drawing more heartlesses in with inter-related crimes! Gotta remember that Shinra Soul World and he is responsible for the creation of Lord Death entity.

Juggernaut : That's wonderful news, I hope nothing will go down bad in Maryland today. Don't know what the big fuzzes is about. [hears a man talking on the radio] Hey, Tamaki. Listen to this!

News Anchor (via radio) : If you ever live outside the country or state, then be on the lookout for Inky Albarn, an evil demon who disguised herself as the renowned Shounen Protagonist of Japanese manga hit series Soul Eater. Who is about to go on a demonic rampage that is responsible for the attacks of Nintendo, and for attempted seccond-degree woman slaughter of Japanese foreign exchange student Tsugumi Harudori. The demon was fleeing the scene destroying the guard robots that was blocking the path.

[Mistery - Seirou Okamoto]

Juggernaut : Oh no! This is bad! Ever since that Heartless Demon Vibe has ransacked Shinra's Old World 1000 years ago, things like this in the real world are starting to go bad. Maka Albarn being a renegading traitor to America?

News Anchor (via radio) : According to eye witness, the suspect is on the lookout for the members of the Kusakabe Family, Asura and Death the Kid. Who were having a connection betweeen two brothers...

Tamaki Kotatsu : Death the Kid? as in "Death Kusakabe Jr"? Isn't that the person that was modeled after Shinra? An image of another hero?

Juggernaut : Could be.

Tamaki Kotatsu : Oh man, this is bad! If the Men of his crappy influence would never hid the truth from us, we would able to make anyone see the truth that this was all Shinra's idea to create Soul World, it's that darn heartless entity that was trying to become a sociopathic genocider and I bet that my Pyrokinesis powers came from it. I believe it was a heartless named Demon Vibe and it's going to be the death of us and this planet as well. Think of someone, the guys of Company 8, everyone I knew, and that Assault person.

Juggernaut : Isn't Assault, the ex-Knight of the Ashen Flame member that is your stalker? [Cartoon SFX : CRASH!]

Tamaki Kotatsu : Oh right. I forgot about my stalker.

Juggernaut : Can't say that how we manage to put our efforts that we may return to Tokyo. What's like that for something that really matters?

Tamaki Kotatsu : 1000 years in the Ohkuboverse, man. 1000 years in the Ohkuboverse.

[DOORBELL RINGING]

Tamaki Kotatsu : Huh? Who could that be on the front door? I bet it's one of the sisters that knows about the 13th Birthday. [walks to the door and opens it] Hello, sister. Sorry to disappoint you, but It's not really my...

Shinra (Devil Chaos Chao) : Hello, Tamaki. We meet again after all these years.

Tamaki Kotatsu : No way, it can't be. It's you! [she sees Shinra (the Devil Chaos Chao) in his Dark Chao Walker) Shinra!

Juggernaut : Oh man! Shinra, is that really you after 1000 years in the Ohkuboverse?

Shinra (Devil Chaos Chao) : That's right, you fools! Remember me that I accidentally touched your body? That was a long time ago before I created my man-made son Death and Soul World itself. Back where everything started, let's just say how do we manage to return ourselves with glory and respect to each other. Sounds like a plan for all of us. Don't say I warn ya that my family is in deep sh*t and I'm just sitting my ass in that cute and cuddlesome world they call it Chao.

Tamaki Kotatsu : Woah, sorry. Heh heh, you actually got the wrong girl, I'm not really the same Tamaki person and...

Shinra (Devil Chaos Chao) : Your ID tells you, that you still work for me, Fire Force Company 8, you'd be remembering that after Captain Burns suspended you from your old one! If you really lived in the real world, then it must be your coding for Fire Soldiers that you still have Company 8 IDs. [Scans on Tamaki to reveal her Fire Force ID] So now what we really understand, Tamaki? The author of Soul World lied to get rid of you when he foreshadowed of him being a sexist to you, so don't get the wrong ideas in that head of his. Anyone despises you for being bullied, this is the real reason that I slam on Puritans for speaking heresy, and that's a sin!

Tamaki Kotatsu : How on earth that I worked for Fire Force Company 8 1000 years in the Ohkuboverse?

Shinra (Devil Chaos Chao) : The reason you joined our company 8 that we foreshadowed you, because you've been working with a renegade named Rekka. Who he worked for Company 1 until we realized that he was a complete renegade, a traitor and a charlatan, and now people saying that they want you back...as a friend...and as a hero. Do you believe me?

Tamaki Kotatsu : Yes....Yes I will! Ever since I met you as a rookie, you're still the same Shinra as we all know!

[Advent of Stray Idola - Kenichi Tokoi]

Juggernaut : Yeah! And I'm the same Juggernaut that worked for Fire Force for way too long, after all, you are the creator of Soul World!

Shinra (Devil Chaos Chao) : That's right! And I needed someone for my reunion to bring Fire Force back to Firefighting service, although Fire Force may have been gone for a long time, but right now it has been foreshadowed by the author. We're dealing a major threat for the real world, my grandson. Calling him Kishin was only a coin used by the Demon Kings to set the whole universe up, and I needed someone that can use the power of calmness. If we can use the power of Calmness on my Grandson, we can stop the power that he was abusing. My man-made son had been nothing more than a fool to cover up the truth. So, are you guys with me?

Tamaki Kotatsu : Yeah! You're right, Shinra! Ever since we met as Fire Soldiers and heroes, we used to Battle the fire demons that Demon Vibe controlling, and I revealed that Pyrokinesis from a type of Keyblade magic called Firaga, believing that the Ohkuboverse had some connection with the Kingdom Hearts universe! But if we don't save the real world, the whole planet will be sucked into the darkness as well!

Shinra (Devil Chaos Chao) : That's the spirit, Tamaki! Now then, let's get back to business! Now or never! (fist bumps Tamaki)

Tamaki Kotatsu : Good to have you back, Kusakabe-Kun!

~ Forty-Second Scene : Enter Tamaki Kotatsu ~

0 notes

pepperdog131 · 2 years ago

Text

Chapter 2

Chapter two - The death of yet another school

I swear I don’t mean to destroy ever school I go to, it just kind of… happens. So there I was. Minding my own business checking out yet another school to attend, when this girl kind of caught my eye. Now not in the way you would expect, she wasn’t pretty, or ugly for that matter, she was quite average. I don’t know what exactly it was, but something about her was just suspicious so I followed her after the bell rang. Well, as it turns out those trying to avoid trouble probably shouldn’t pursue suspicious people, because I am now fighting a demon girl who is about to blast me through some wall. *BAM*. All I can see is fire, and as the son of the sea god, it’s not the most comfortable place to be. I do a couple tricks, she does a couple tricks, a couple drinking fountains die, the norm. Anyways by the end of it she has been sent back to the underworld and I’m running towards the outside exit when I hear the faintest voice telling me to wait. I know this voice by now, it’s my dad, Poseidon. I haven’t the faintest idea why he would want me to stay in a band room currently going up in literal flames that is basically about to collapse on top of me. I look up at the ceiling and sigh. “Fine.” I say. I turn back and scramble around. There’s a roped off section, and this might just be a me thing, but if you rope somewhere off I am more likely to want to go there. I run in and see her. A red headed girl lying on the ground. “Crap!” I shout. I pick her up. Her arm falls out of a backpack strap and her backpack’s contents spills out. There are plenty of books and whatnot, but what interests me are the various fidget toys that come tumbling out. I am tempted to take one, for my ADHD, but know I can only hold so many things.

I run out of the band room and see firemen starting to show up. I don’t want me or this girl to get into any trouble, so I run around the building to get away from them, careful not to be seen.

Once we’re about a block away, at a park, and I can barely hold her anymore, I set her down. She lyes there in the grass. It suddenly occurs to me that maybe I should have left her with the firemen so they could treat any burns, though now that I look at her, I don’t actually see any. She looks pretty normal, other than the fact that her clothes are still smoldering. I consider what to do and am ready to just leave her there when I notice her necklace. It has a hammer that seems to be in a blazing fire, almost like something Tyson would use…

“I wonder…”. I suddenly think back to all the fidget toys, and how she hasn’t been burned at all, even though she was lying in a literal fire for who knows how long. She quickly opens her eyes and jolts awake. I jump back. She looks alright, not hurt, but I can’t help but be drawn to her eyes. The iris start orange near the pupil, and turn deep red near the white. This only seems to confirm my suspicions. “Hi, what’s your name?” I ask her. She gives me a very sketched out look and says

“You first.”

“Fair enough. Hi. My name is Percy Jackson and I would like to take you to a camp for people like us.”

“What do you mean people like us? If you’re about to tell me I’m a wizard, you can just go away now.” She says. Then she stands up and starts walking away.

“Wait! I’ll explain if you just come with me.”

“You just expect me to follow some stranger?”

“I’m not a stranger, I told you my name! Besides, what do you have to lose?”

“Oh, I don’t know, my life? Also you only claimed that is your name, you have zero evidence to back it up, and New York is like one of the most crime ridden cities in America!” She shouts at me.

“Well you clearly have some trust issues.” She gives me a look. “Look, have you ever been attacked by a monster?” I ask. Her face turns hard. “Exactly. I can explain all of that.” She rolls her eyes, but starts walking. We start our walk and I explain about halfbloods and camp and how Greek Mythology is true. We are currently in Auburn, New York, so I tell her it’ll take us about two days to get to camp on foot. “Well then. We’re stuck together for a few days. What’s your name? Is your family going to freak when they realize you’re missing?”

“…My name is Cyra, and I don’t have any.”

“Well Cyra, let’s get you home to your family.”

#PJo #Fanfic #Percy #Jackson #PercyJackson

1 note · View note

liquidstar · 6 years ago

Text

soulmate aus are cute as long as you dont think about the concept too long (and youre not supposed to, theyre really not intended to be more than something saccharine to indulge in and thats good!) but i Cannot Stop Myself from thinking about the ramifications something like this would have on the world. every single person exists solely as an “other half” to another person, almost like they dont really live for themselves and everyone is an inherently incomplete being, that must impact everyone’s self-perception so much and that’s not even to speak of the philosophical implications of it. not to mention... society would have to be ordered differently based on this structure, wouldnt it? i dont mean surface-level stuff like dating apps where you post your soulmark or counselling for people without one, but i mean.... everything! everything would be structured so differently because the concept of a soulmate being real would effect so much of the world. i cant tell you exactly how because im not expert on alternate history theories, but i can still imagine that society would function very differently and be about 100x more hyperfocused on romance than it already is.

this isnt some kind of criticism of soulmate aus! like i said theyre cute and saccharine and youre supposed to take them at face value, but sometimes i just cant stop my thoughts from wondering about how a “real�� alternate universe with soulmates would function. and i think its INTERESTING because even though the concept is mostly used to write romance, if used correctly it could also be used to write a dystonian narrative. maybe one that highlights the issues with society's fixation on living a specific pre-determined heteronormative cookie-cutter lifestyle and the way people who dont fit into it are either shunned or forced into a life of misery, as well as a critique on the culture surrounding romance and the implication that youre incomplete without a partner (especially if youre a women, because a man has to complete you while you devote your being to him). just those concepts at their extremes. i dont know! im just sharing random thoughts, because i think the concept could be a lot more than what most people expect from it!

#on some level i did incorporate some of these themes in my own story but really only with iris and not in a romantic sense #more-so in the ''other half'' sense #but iris runs the school so......... i mean why do you think she set it up so students have a specific roommate #its her own views on ''other halves'' and her ''brother'' seeping through #<brother in quotes bc even though theyre written like siblings its more like theyre two halves of a whole like i said lol #anyway thats not really related to the stuff i said on here. its a very loose theme thats just meant to reflect iris' relationship w crocus #and not a super deep critique on anything really #though it is called out #the tags are really just me rambling abt my ocs bc i want to #and i didnt add them as part of the post bc thats not what its abt

115 notes · View notes

georgiapeach30513 · 3 years ago

Note

Ma’am you can’t write all those things about Aster and Joshua and not give us the details! Aster and Beck are meant to be, but at least show us more of young Aster and Joshie.

You guys did NOT think I would leave you completely hanging did you?? So let's kinda take a deep dive into Joshie and Azzie's relationship. Other than James, Az and Iris were the first kids that Joshua met. Bear in mind there is nearly a four year age gap between the two. And as sexy as Az is, she's always favored guy friends over girls. Her and Owin didn't become friends until a bit later in life. Her and Joshie were besties from the beginning, and he never put the pressure on her to be more than friends like Carter did. So here was the first tease of them. Joshie is trouble for Azzie.

🖤🖤🖤🖤

Please, Joshie

Summary: Joshie is just helping Azzie out

Pairings: Joshua Barnes X Aster Drysdale

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: explicit language, explicit sexual content, smut, teasing, a bit of degradation, mentions of ab riding, dry humping, fingering, squirting, 18+ ONLY

Word Count: 1.6K

Desperate Lives AU Masterlist

Aster Drysdale Masterlist

"Azzie!" Joshua shouts outside at the top of the playset before she runs up to him. She sits down beside her friend, while they look at the setting sun. He takes a quick look into the house to see their parents and siblings are still preoccupied with some board game, before he wraps an arm around Aster. "I like you."

Aster gives him a cute little giggle before responding with an, "I like you, too."

He hums looking back out to the sky, "You think you'll get married?"

"No! I don't want babies," she scrunches up her nose and it only makes Joshua laugh at her. "Well, that's what you do when you get married. You knead the dough, and then it bakes in the oven," Joshua turns to look at her oddly. "It's a jumping on the bed thing."

"Right. Your parents 'jump on the bed', but...what if there didn't have to be kids involved, would you get married?"

"Can you do that?"

"I think so," Joshua nods his head. "I don't want kids either," he looks over at Aster when she hums. "You think...I mean, since we both don't want kids, do you think that, maybe, we get married when we're really old?"

"Huh," Aster looks over at Joshua, her eyes squint when she looks at him, "Like when I'm thirty-five? You'll be almost forty. That's really old," Joshua smiles and nods his head. "Do we have to kiss though?"

"Married people kiss, Az. You'll have to kiss me sometimes."

"Yuck. Like, maybe one kiss to seal the marriage."

"I'll take it," he reaches in his pocket and pulls out the most beautiful ring the young Aster has ever seen. A big giant diamond (fake) and her eyes go as large as the tear drop diamond. "What is that?"

"Your engagement ring," he slides the gaudy bauble over her finger and she looks up at him. "There, now, when we're old and almost dead, we'll get married. So you won't have to worry about kissing me too much."

"Just the wedding. Do I have to always wear this?" Joshua shrugs his shoulders. His mom always wears hers, but she also is married. "I just don't want my daddy to know," she leans over to whisper in his ear, "Because he'll be mad."

_____________________________________________________________

Aster walks around frowning in hers and Joshua's apartment. Dumped again, and it was all Joshie's fault. Wearing nothing but some shorts, a cotton bra, and one of his button ups, she plops down on the couch, and picks up her phone calling him. "Where are you?" he releases a long puff of air, before she groans, "Did you just have sex? Why are you panting?"

"Aster, some of us don't have these perfect little asses, and we go to the gym."

"I go to the gym."

"When? When you were in high school and playing volley ball. You did have a tight ass then. Quit rolling your eyes at me."

"I did not!"

"I heard the eye roll through the phone. What is it that you want?" Aster pouts and moans again, "What did he do this time?"

"It's your fault."

"My fault? What the fuck did I do?"

"You're hot, and people think you're my boyfriend," Aster sits up on the couch when the door opens up quickly, and Joshua slams his phone down on counter.

"Are you fucking kidding me? Move," she sits up long enough before she's falling back on him.

"You're sweaty."

"Gym, sweetheart. So the latest guy, that was just in our apartment last week, broke up with you because I'm hot?" Aster rolls her eyes looking up at Joshua. "I mean, I know I'm hot," she gives him a little punch to the stomach. "Didn't hurt. Why are you dating insecure men?"

"Because sex feels good," Joshua snorts. "What? It does."

"It can feel better," she sits up to look at him and he looks down at her mostly exposed body, cocking up his eyebrow. "I hear you with them, ya slut."

"I have sex with my boyfriends."

"And they suck...well, they're not sucking enough."

"What does that mean?" Joshua throws his head back on the couch, and starts laughing. "Joshie! Joshua Buchanan!" crawling over his body, she goes to straddle him, pulling his head up to look at her. "What does that mean?"

He takes his thumb and skims it over her cheek. Both his hands flowing down her body, until they hold tightly to her hips, and he lurches her forward. She inhales a quick breath, "What is it Azzie?"

"What're you doing?"

"The question is," his thumbs barely rub over her nipples, before he looks down her front, the thin material showing her hardened peaks. "What is your body doing?" he leans forward and ghosts his lips over her neck, ending behind her ear, "I feel your pussy throbbing over my cock."

"Joshie," Aster pants out. "We're friends."

"Friends, take care of each other. You, my friend, are very frustrated."

"It's my personality."

"No," leaning back he looks over her face, "You've never gotten off."

"I've had sex."

"Yeah, I heard. Just because you have sex doesn't mean you get off. You're not a good actor," she attempts to swat him again, but he grabs her wrist faster. "You want me to help."

"I don't wanna have sex with you."

"We don't have to. From just the sound of my voice, I have made this cunt so messy. I feel your warmth. I've turned you on," Aster shakes her head, and looks down at his stomach. "Oh the things you could do to that. I'd let you ride my abs."

"Why?"

"Sweet girl, you don't need penetration to get off. You wanna try," Aster bites at her lip, but still refuses to look at him. "You're really cute when you're embarrassed. I could show you all kinds of things about sex. And if you say we're fucking friends, eh, just look at it as fucking...friends. Friends that fuck. It's easy. You know I love you."

"I love you, too."

"I'd never do anything to hurt you. It's just a bit of fun."

"You promise?" she finally meets his eyes, and he nods.

"An arrangement. I scratch your back, and you scratch mine. If there's a serious relationship, we can stop. But if you're loser boyfriends that don't know how to pleasure you are jealous of me, let's give them a reason."

"Can you show me?"

His hands slide up her belly and under her bra before pulling up the cotton, exposing her breasts. With a sly smirk, he leans forward, kitten licking her nipple, before blowing a cool breath on it. Aster's body shudders, and he moves his hands to her hips to start coaxing her over him. "There ya go. How does that feel?" she doesn't answer, just lets out a satisfied moan. "That good huh? I wanna feel you?"

"What?"

"Az, you got around in high school. Who fingered you first?" Aster tries to think, but is completely mindless, "Carter?"

"No."

"Chase Collins?"

"He just wanted me on my knees, or pounding into me."

He grabs tight to her hips, and grabs her chin, forcing her to look at him, "Who fingered you?"

"Uh..."

"Has anyone's fucking fingers been in your pussy?"

"God, you make this sound so nasty."

"It is. This is pure filth, now answer the damn question. Or can you?" she shakes her head no, and Joshua picks her up to lay her flat on the couch. "Fucking ridiculous. Jealous of me, when they can't even get you off on their fingers. Man, you're gonna see. These stupid boys," he harshly starts removing her shorts and panties, and Aster's hands go to cover herself up. "You're gonna learn. Move your hands."

"Why?"

"Because I want to see that filthy messy cunt, okay? Move your hands," slowly she moves her hands off of her, and Joshua inches her thighs apart. "There ya go," he tilts his head to see her slick dripping down on their couch, "Talk about some pent up frustrations. Azzie, I'm sorry baby, they've neglected you," Joshua's hands slowly slide up her twitching legs, leaving chill bumps in his wake, before he comes into contact with her drenched folds. His own eyes nearly roll to the back of his head.

"This sweet girl," he creates slow circles on her clit, "That's a magical little thing. Stimulate this enough, and we're gonna have to get a new couch."

"You're not sticking it in."

"There's more to pleasure than that. A combination. Let's start here," leaning forward, he kisses along her heated and sweaty skin, her voice making much sweeter whimpers than those chumps she brings home. He watches her face, when those fingers slide down her slit, and she grips tight to his biceps. "You're such a mess."

"Joshie..."

"Don't hold back, Azzie," he adds a third finger, and moans at the way her walls flutter around him. Squelching sounds vibrating into the quiet living room. "Quit biting your fucking lip, and just make those pretty sounds."

"I can't."

"You can. And you're gonna or," he starts removing his fingers from her core.

"Don't. Please, Joshie."

Seeing her face almost wrecked, he knows it isn't much longer. Too long has she waited for someone to take care of her, instead of just taking from her, and making her think that they did a good job. Curling his fingers he searches for her special spot, and when she yelps, he starts driving into her. The calloused pads of his fingers hitting it over and over again. Not stopping when Aster tries to bring her thighs together, just constantly shoving his fingers into her. His palm rubbing sinfully over her clit, and when she sobs out his name, and gushes onto the couch is when he slows.

“You okay?” she only nods her head. “Why do you look shocked?”

“What was that?”

He gives her a chaste kiss on her lips, pulling his sticky fingers out of her core. “That sweetheart, was an orgasm. Has no one ever did that for you?” she just shakes her head no. “If you think that was great, you should see what my mouth does.”

Masterlist

#desperate lives #desperate lives au #desperate verse #da au #dau #da au request #joshua barnes #aster drysdale #joshua barnes x aster drysdale #sebastian stan #sebastian stan smut

23 notes · View notes

eideticmemory · 5 years ago

Text

FINE LINE II | SPENCER REID

Two kids and two decades of history later, you and your ex-husband learn to navigate the world of co-parenting. PART 2! Read Part One.

Word Count: 3,643.

Warning: Daddy Issues, mommy issues, angst, drama, romance. Love to see it.

Spencer’s a deep sleeper; both E and Em get it from him. But the one thing that all three of them are trained to wake up to, is your voice.

“Hey!” You snapped at Spencer, landing a harsh blow beside his sleeping frame.

He jolted awake in familiar frenzy, reaching out to grab you, make sure you were safe.

“Hey, hey, it’s me,” you spoke. “Look, I need a favor.”

“A favor?” he muttered.

“Yes,” you nodded. “You wanna be here for a few days? I need some help. Take the kids to school today.”

“Wha—“

“Or let E drive your car, it doesn’t matter, she’s a good driver,” you shrugged. “They need to be there at 8:15 sharp or else the administration has a stick up their ass. They’ll wake themselves up, dress themselves — stylishly — and feed themselves. And, uh, if you make them late, they’ll lose their minds so try to be out of here by 8, okay? Okay. Thank you.”

“Wait, wait, wait, [y/n],” Spencer called, holding your hand in his palm. “Where are you going?” He weakly pat around the mattress, searching for his phone, and when he grabbed the device in his hand, he checked the time. “It’s six in the morning.”

“So?”

“So,” he sighed, sitting up and leaning against the headboard. You subtly averted your eyes to avoid seeing him shirtless, the duvet cover falling to his lap. “You didn’t get home until two in the morning.”

“You spying on me?” You asked.

“No, I just . . . can’t sleep knowing you’re out late at night—“

“Working,” you interjected.

“Working . . . and now you’re up four hours later?” He questioned.

“We could sit here and argue about who has a more messed up work schedule, or you can take the kids to school, just this once, and I’ll pick them up.”

“No, I’ll pick them up, don’t worry about it,” Spencer shrugged. “You go to work, I’ve got it.”

You sighed, “Are you actually staying until Sunday?”

“[y/n]—“

“No, Mr. Unit Chief, how did you get the week off from the BAU? Hm? It — it just doesn’t make sense.”

“So that’s what you wanted to ask me last night . . . why not just say it, [y/n]?”

“Don’t profile me, it’s valid question.”

“Listen,” he squeezed your hand lightly, just enough that the pressure silenced you. “I am off of work until Monday morning. You need me to drop off and pick up the kids? I can do that. Need me to feed them? I can do that, too. I can do it every day this week if you want. If you need to be at work, then go.”

You inhaled deeply, and released it in a sharp breath. “Thanks,” you shrugged. “I’ll see you this afternoon.”

The drive to your office was silent. Full of nothing but your thoughts and rambles and quiet scoffs. You missed the kids. Missed being with them in early hours like this, eating breakfast on the go, singing along to the radio. But your mind needed time to rest, to regroup away from Spencer and his sudden appearance.

When you arrived at work, you stumbled in to find an earlier bird than you. “Raven . . .” you mumbled. “I told you to go home, babe.”

“And I told you that this is getting in at 7:30 sharp . . .” she cleared her throat and glanced at you apologetically. “Boss. . .”

You sighed and shrugged, “Do you need help?”

“Nope,” she shook her head. “I’m right on schedule.”

You chuckled, full of pride, “Good.” You wandered over to your private office and secluded yourself behind the glass doors. Taking a seat at your desk, you plopped down with a tired huff. You rested your head on your folded arms, and just as you began to snore, your phone rang in your ear. You jumped up in a daze, groaning out at the device in frustration. When you picked it up, however, and saw who was calling, you gasped, whined, fell back childishly in your chair.

You sighed, answering the facetime, “Hi, Penelope.”

“Don’t ‘hi, Penelope” me,” she replied, her phone showing her dressed and sipping on a cup of tea. “I had to find out from Emily that Spencer is staying the week with you and the kids? How is this possible?”

“Pen—“

“Hold on.”

Suddenly, your screen revealed another person being added to the call. “Pen, why did you add Em— . . . Emily, hi.”

“What the hell is going on? [y/n]? Did you call me?” Emily hollered into her car speaker, focusing on the road ahead of her as she speaks.

“I did not call, Penelope called, I was ambushed,” you explained.

“No, no, you do not have Spencer spending the entire week at your house — for the first time, I might add — and not tell me,” Penelope interjected. “How are you? How are the kids? How did this happen? Are you two talking? Are you—“

“I told Penelope that Spencer requested the week off,” Emily said. “I thought you had already told her.”

“Yeah, Section Chief, how about some warning there? How did Spencer even get so much time off?” You rambled.

“Woah, woah,” Emily crowed. “Don’t shoot the messenger, he had more than enough vacation time saved up. He could’ve taken the entire month off and not lost a dime. There was nothing I could do. Plus, I thought, maybe . . .”

“Maybe. . .what?” You questioned.

“Maybe you and him had talked things out and . . .”

“Oh, my goodness,” Penelope exclaimed. “Are you guys back together?”

“No!” You shout. You sighed, “No . . . Spencer and I are not back together. He just . . . showed up. I called him to talk about E’s birthday party and he . . . well he says he’s staying until Sunday. Which is, perfect. Perfect in theory, if he actually stays. But he’s getting the kids’ hopes up and I hate that.”

“Yeah . . .” Emily snickered. “He’s getting the kids’ hopes up?”

“Emily Prentiss, do not profile me. Not you. I swear . . .”

Emily busted out laughing. “I mean, honey,” Penelope whispered. “I’m profiling you right now.”

“And with that, we must say goodbye,” you hummed happily as you pressed the button to hang up.

It was Wednesday. Wednesday. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. So, five days with the man, at most. Then he goes back to DC, and those beautiful ninety miles are between you two again. Unless you do therapy, which you won’t, because it’s an awful idea and — you don’t want to think about Spencer Reid this much. You can’t. But you check the clock and it’s 7:45 and he needs to get the kids out the door soon. Should you call? You should call. Okay, call. No, text E.

Y: hey girlie!! 🥰 had to leave early this morning, is dad taking you to school?

E: hey mom 🥺 yeah dad’s taking us!! we’re getting breakfast right now from chick-fil-a and he’s letting me drive his car!!

Y: oh wow! don’t hit any cows out there!

E: ha ha ha so funny ur hilarious

Y: love you 💕 💗 ❤️

E: love you ✨✨

Okay. They’re up. They’re happy. That’s good. They’re smiles are going to get you through the week. They always do.

When you get home that afternoon, Spencer and the kids were laughing, playing cards against each other in the kitchen.

“I hope you guys aren’t gambling in here, because that’s more of a living room activity,” you laughed to announce your presence.

“Hey, [y/n],” Spencer greeted you. “Come play!”

“I’m good,” you nodded.

“See? I told you guys she won’t play against me. She never has and never will,” he told the kids. They giggled.

“Oh, please, you say that like I’m scared to play against you,” you snickered.

“Well? Are you?” He asked, a hint of arrogance in his voice.

“Absolutely not,” you set your things down on the counter and joined them at the table. “Continue your game, though, because I would be scared to play against the kids.”

Spencer gave you this look out of the corner of his eye, his iris looking at you under his eyelashes and a light smile on his face.

Maybe these next four days won’t be so bad.

They were more than not so bad. They weren’t bad at all. They were blissful and full of smiles and laughter and fun family dinners every night, and you’d never felt so productive. You cleared two major social work cases at the job, thanks to Spencer’s help with the kids. Friday night, you came home to the backyard fully decorated for tomorrow’s party. Spencer had recieved the chair delivery and set everything up behind the house, surrounded each table with a handful of chairs and the proper decorations sat in the center. You absorbed it all in complete and utter shock. You were prepared to spend all of tonight and tomorrow morning doing this. And Spencer took care of it all.

“What do you think?” Spencer grinned, him and E standing in the center of the backyard proudly. “Took us hours but it’s all set. Now we just need the food and the people.”

E chuckled, “What do ya’ think, mom?”

“I. . .” you whispered. “I think it looks gorgeous. You guys did amazing.”

“Thank you,” she pipped, grinning happily. “I think so, too. Oh, c’mon, dad, let me show you my party dress!”

As they rushed into the house, Spencer pinched onto your shoulder lightly, smirking as he passed you by. Your stomach filled with an unshakable and startling feeling. It had you rocking on your heels trying to process it and breathe through it.

Saturday morning, you woke up at 9 o’clock as planned. E would be up in another hour, so you had plenty of time to sort out the last few details of her party. The guest list was just above 80 people, and you had to make sure you had ordered enough food to feed them all. You had to check in with the caterer, the baker, Spencer.

You knocked on the door heavily, before wandering in, expecting him to be dead asleep. When you walked in and saw the bed empty and well made, you stopped in your tracks.

“What the hell?” You muttered, stomping over to the bed, and snatching up the note on the pillow.

My dearest [y/n]

Gone out to run some birthday errands. Kiss the birthday girl for me.

Spencer

Errands? What errands? Is he serious? You sighed, and pulled your phone from your back pocket. You dialed Spencer’s number and held the phone to your ear, only to be greeted with an immediate voicemail. You furrowed your eyebrows and huffed angrily.

You drafted and sent a text to him, desperately wishing you were more surprised by this:

Be back by 4 please.

No answer.

You carried on the day with one mission: keep things under control and keep E’s mind off of Spencer. You let her stay cornered in her room, bringing her breakfast and an iced coffee, and kissing her on the top of her head.

“I can’t believe 16 years ago today, I was laid up in a hospital bed, screaming my head off, cursing at the nurses, when this tiny, slimy thing just . . . popped out of me.”

“Most people just say happy birthday,” Eden cringed.

“Happy birthday, babe,” you giggled. “You have no idea what you’ve done for me just by existing.”

“That’s more like it,” she nodded happily. “Thank you. Is dad here?”

“Uh, no,” you said quickly, prepared for the question. “He went to take care of some stuff for the party, he’ll be back before the party starts, though. Will Francesca be coming over today?”

“Oh. Okay. Uh, yeah. She’s coming to do my makeup.”

“Awesome,” you smiled, standing up. “Well, birthday girl, you get glitzy and glammy, and get ready for the party of a lifetime.”

“Mom . . . is everything okay?”

“Yeah, of course. Stop that, don’t worry about anything today, okay? Things are fine.”

“Okay,” she nodded. She trusted you. For 16 years, since the minute she was born, she’s trusted you. “Okay.”

Eden’s godmother was the first to show up. Penelope Garcia live and in the flesh. She barged into the house the moment you opened the door to greet her, and she rushed up the stairs.

“Pen, she is getting ready—“

“Yeah, yeah, I know. I understand the importance of a teenage girls appearance, but I haven’t seen either of the kids in so long.”

“It’s been a month, Pen.”

“Way too long . . . Penelope!” She called out for Eden.

E perked her head up in her room, stopping her best friend, Francesca, from doing her eye makeup. “Auntie P?” She murmured and turned to the door.

Penelope opened the bedroom door joyfully, smiling ear to ear when she saw E. “Little Penelope!” She shouted, excitedly clapping her hands.

E hopped up from her seat and ran over to Penelope, practically jumping into her arms.

“Oh, happy birthday, babygirl!” Penelope cooed. “I can’t believe how big you are!”

“Thank you,” E smiled, her face tucked into Penelope’s shoulder.

You watched them, close to tears yourself to see them together. There were 5 people in the room when Eden Penelope Reid was born 16 years old ago. The doctor, 2 nurses, you — of course — and Penelope Garcia. It was the scariest thing you’d ever been through. And at your side, for 10 hours of labor, was Penelope. She held your hand, spoke softly to distract you from the pain, and encouraged you as you went through delivery. When Eden came into the world, it was no question what her middle name would be.

Penelope helped E prepare as you kept the business rolling in. Food, lights, cutlery, plates. You were rushing and running for hours. You barely just had time to shower and get yourself ready, let alone make sure Em put on the outfit you picked out for him. Luckily, Penelope got him dressed and sat with a good book so you could get yourself together.

The clock struck 4 in the afternoon, signaled by an alarm on your phone, and you had just stepped out of the bathroom. You slipped on a floral dress, befitting of a mother on a special day. Hair in place, dress without wrinkles, shoes to match, guests rolling in, and . . . oh yeah, still no Spencer. Countless calls and texts to him went unanswered, and you were running out of excuses to tell the kids.

When your last and final call to him went straight to voicemail, you left a message.

“Spencer, I don’t know where you are, and I want you to know that, right now, I don’t care. It’s a quarter after 4, and people are showing up, and the show must go on, so . . . show up, don’t show up. Keep us on our toes, it doesn’t matter. I hope you’re okay. Bye.”

Dropping you phone on your bed, you gave it one more glance as you left the room.

Music rang throughout the backyard, packed with people by the time it was 5:30. Eden brought the whole BAU together — visited by Penelope, Emily, Matt, Tara, Derek, Hotch, and Luke who brought his and Penny’s baby boy along.

E was in heaven, reunited with some of her closest cousins. It was turning into a good day, without Spencer. But there was a hole caused by his absence that no one could fill. And you know this because you’ve been trying to fill it all of Eden’s life.

While your little girl is quite the social butterfly, sometimes that social battery of hers can wear low. Particularly when she’s overwhelmed by attention, or stress, or her own genius thoughts.

Luckily, she gets that from you, and you two have a tendency to find similar places to hide. She found you sitting on the back patio, hidden in the corner. “Hey, pretty girl!” you smiled. “Having fun?”

“Yeah,” she giggled. “You?”

“Eh, it’s an alright party,” you joked.

“So . . . do you know where dad is?”

You released a long exhale and hesitated for a good, long few seconds. “No.”

She nodded, “Cool. That’s cool.”

“E—“

“Penelope, come here!” Penelope suddenly screamed from the front door.

“Coming!” E called back. “I have to attend to my guests, excuse me.” She giggled, and you smiled at her as she walked away.

You relaxed back against the wall of the house, watching your friends and family rejoice in the backyard. Over the music, you heard the curling sound of a scream. Eden’s scream. And you ran like you’ve never ran in your life.

“Oh, my God,” she cried. “Oh, my God!”

You were confused and a bit scared and very eager to see what had her so overwhelmed. And when you rounded the corner, coming face to face with the front door, you gasped, stopping on your tippy toes like you were knocked in the face by an invisible force.

“Ah! Piccolo genio! Happy birthday!” Rossi said to your daughter as he held her in a tight hug. He pulled away to hold her face in his hands lovingly. “It is incredible to see the person you have become. Goodness! You know who you look just like?” He questioned.

Rossi spun on his heels, facing himself in your direction with open arms. “Her,” he said. “You look just like her.” He stepped towards you slowly, “My goodness, someone would think it was your sweet sixteen we’re celebrating.”

You laughed and shook your head, blinking away the tears of joy in your eyes. “Flattery is not gonna make me forget that a certain someone doesn’t know how to visit more often.”

“Italy to Virginia is a long flight, my dear,” he pulled you into a tight hug. A secure hug. Full of safety and love and memories. “But I will have to make it more.”

You burrowed yourself into his chest, smiling to yourself at the sound of his voice.

“[y/n],” he whispered. “How are you?”

You did nothing but let out a long, long, long sigh.

“We’ll talk,” he nodded.

“Now,” he pulled away from the hug to hold you against his side. “Since I am here, the party may now . . . begin.”

As everyone followed Eden and Rossi through the house, you were left in the entrance with Spencer, who was eyeing you shyly with his hands in his pockets.

“Got caught up at the airport,” he explained.

You gave him the teeniest, tiniest half smile, and let out a faint laugh, “C’mon, Spencer.”

Later that night, when it was just you, Spencer, and the rest of the BAU veterans, he offered to help you clean up. You stood in front of the sink, scrubbing at a dirty pan as music played softly in the background.

“[y/n]?” Spencer whispered to you as he placed leftovers in the fridge. “What’s on your mind?”

You shook your head, and turned briefly to give him a solemn smile, “I never had a sixteenth birthday party,” you told him, returning your attention to the dishes. “Did you?”

He chuckled to himself, “No,” he said. “I had a psychology exam the day of my sixteenth birthday. I took it and then read for the rest of the night.”

“I had a trigonometry exam on my sixteenth birthday,” you shrugged.

“Oh, yeah? How’d you do?” he chuckled.

You rolled your eyes at him, “I did alright . . . then I went back to my charity dorm on MIT’s campus, and had some microwaved pasta.”

Spencer let out a soft sigh, and stepped over to you, “Life of a child prodigy, right?”

“But not for E. Not for Em. All I ever wanted was for them to be extraordinary, and live an ordinary life. High IQ, be damned, it’s what they deserve.” You rambled. After a few minutes of silence, you glanced at Spencer, who was eyeing you sympathetically. “Don’t profile me, Spencer Reid, we’ve talked about this.”

“I’m not profiling you!” He laughed.

“You are,” you said.

“I am not. If anything, you’re profiling me right now.”

“Profiling you profiling me?”

“Exactly—what? No!” he said through constant laughter.

You smirked at him, hiding a smile behind the expression. “I don’t need to profile you, Spencer. I know you.”

“I—“

“I know you.” You enunciated. “I know you.”

“Yeah,” he whispered. “You do.”

You knew you had to tear yourself away from those big brown eyes as soon as possible, or risk major emotional turmoil. So, you focused on the dishes as you spoke, “I’ve been thinking . . . maybe therapy . . . wouldn’t be so bad.”

Spencer’s eyes went wide, “Really?”

“Really, it’s about twenty years too late, but . . .” You nodded. “I guess a part of that whole ordinary lives thing for the kids is having parents that actually get along, so . . . I’ll try it.”

“Thank you, [y/n], thank you so much,” he said. “I already made us an appointment here in Charlottesville for next Friday.”

You scoffed. You should’ve been mad, annoyed. But all you could think was: yeah, I definitely married a scorpio.

“Fi—“ you mumbled, in the midst of rolling your eyes when a gust of movement caught your attention. Outside of the kitchen window, to the side of the house, was E. E and some boy. A handsome boy. You couldn’t tell if he looked familiar. Well. Yeah, he kinda did.

“[y/n]?” Spencer called to you, when he suddenly noticed Eden. “Do . . . do you know him? [y/n]?”

You watched as the kid handed E a birthday gift and placed a kiss to her cheek. She blushed softly and looked down. No. No, you didn’t know him. She hadn’t told you about him.

Another part of the whole ordinary life thing. A part that you had completely forgotten about.

Boys.

TAGLIST:

@pinkdiamond1016

@veraiconcos

@cielo1984

@rachelxwayne

@gublergirls

@reidscardigan

@reidsvw

@beyonces-breastmilk

@ev13lovescriminalminds

@mggpleasedontlookhere

@rexorangecouny

#spencer reid #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid fic #spencer reid angst #criminal minds #criminal minds fic #mine #fl

344 notes · View notes

lo-55 · 4 years ago

Text

Playing With Fire Ch. 3

Ignition

@emrysaf

You’ve decided. You’re going to marry Maki.

You’re going to marry her and adopt Sputter and Flare, and you’ll all live happily ever after in the cathedral and-

You’re broken out of your thoughts when Maki smacks you so hard you literally see stars and throws you on the ground.

“... owe.”

If everything else hadn’t cemented the fact that you were really living inside Fire Force, the pain of Maki’s fist and the hard concrete under your cheek sure would have. Holy hell, how was she so strong?

You roll over on your back to look up at her.

“I bet,” you begin, “that you could bench press me if you really wanted to.”

Maki’s cheeks pink and she huffs down at you. “Why aren’t you using your pyrokinesis? Do you think I can’t handle it?”

I have no idea how to do that!

“Nope, Nope! I’m sure you could wipe the floor with me, it’s not that miss!” You said quickly. “I was just in awe of you, sorry,” you salute quickly, and watch pink crawl across Maki’s face.

So cute!!

“H-honestly! At least use your spear!”

You perk up. Spear? The Sun Spear? Is that what you have here? An answer! Finally! An answer!

Maki takes your surprise for something else. “No one told you that they’d sent it over ahead of you? You should really keep better of your gear.”

You dip your head quickly. “Yes, yes. Sorry. Can you show me where it is, please?”

“Sure,” Maki smiles at you, “We’re about done for now, anyhow. Let’s go back inside and wash up. Sister Iris and Shinra should be waiting.”

Maki takes you back into the cathedral, away from the training area on the roof. The cathedral really is pretty run down. The walls could use a good scrubbing, the floor boards either need to be replaced or are missing entirely, and there’s a lot of cracks in the tile and missing corners. The windows are fine, if not dusty, and the stained glass pieces are really beautiful. The whole place smells faintly of burnt wood and gun oil. It’s not bad, but its certainly unfamiliar. Everything is so vivid. The way it smells. The sound of the building settling, and the birds outside, and the voices of your new comrades.

It’s amazing.

Kinda terrifying, but crazy cool too.

After a quick shower for each of you Maki shows you to the weapons room, where a long, thin case is rested against a wall between two racks of guns. Obi’s shield is propped up in one corner, along with a couple of his weird stabbing things that he puts infernals to rest with. You’ve been here two days now, and you’ve seen him use it twice.

You don’t know how, but you know instinctively that that case belongs to you.

You go to it. There’s a strap along the back, like the kind on a violin case. You carefully set it on a table, mindful of the bullets stacked on top of it. With a few clicks you undo the buttons on either end and open up the case. Inside is a long staff, deep red in color and capped at the bottom with copper colored metal that curves into a diamond point. On the opposite end is a thin band of the same metal, that reveals the inside to be hollow.

You pick it up carefully, testing its weight in your hands. It feels natural. Even though you’ve never actually fought with a spear before your body knows where to hold it, and how to spin it around elegantly until you’re facing Maki again. Your body knows how much space you’re taking up, and how not to hit the walls, while your brain geeks out over the fact that you’re actually holding the Sun Lance.

So cool!

Is it conceited to say that you’re super cool? Or that this was hella badass?

You were almost bouncing on your toes you were so excited.

“Wow, I didn’t know you missed your spear this much,” Maki smiled at you. “You look good with it.”

“Aha, you think so? It’s just nice to have it I guess. This has been, I dunno. An adventure already. I’m in a strange place, with strange people, and I’m in an awfully dangerous situation. It’s been an adjustment, ya know?”

You feel like a fool for rambling, but Maki smiles at you kindly.

“I understand. Even though I was raised in a military family, it took me a while to get used to life as a fire soldier too. Don’t worry too much about it, and you know, we’re always here to help. It’s not like you have to go it alone.”

You’re heart warms with her words. “Yeah. Thank you, Maki. You’re really a nice person.”

Once the Sun Lance is safe in its case the two of you leave the armory, and make your way to the dorm rooms.

Since the company is so small, each person gets their own room. In bigger companies you would be in actually dorms, or barracks, but the eighth only has Obi, Hinawa, Maki, Sister Iris, Shinra, and yourself. Arthur will be here soon too, and Tamaki. Your small company will grow soon.

Your own room ended up being at the top of one of the towers on the west side of the cathedral, opposite of the garage. Which meant that last night, when the alarm had gone off, you’d been the last to arrive at the Matchbox. Near the garage are the locker rooms, and the communal showers, although there’s more bathrooms scattered through the base.

In the center of the cathedral is the courtyard where Sister Iris purifies herself, and grows flowers.

It’s really a nice place.

“Thank you,” you say again, and Maki nods to you and leaves you to climb the steps on your own. You shut the door and lock it behind you.

Your room is scant, all things considered. A bunk bed it pushed into each corner, with a desk underneath it. You’ve claimed the one nearest to the window. There’s a wardrobe on the opposite side, and a small, stocky book shelf.

You need to hang up some pictures or get a rug or something. It’s entirely impersonal.

You rest your Sun Lance up against the corner by the window and go to sit at the desk under your bed. You’ve already unpacked your few belongings into the wardrobe and the drawers of the desk, including the diary from ‘Fuyuki’.

Your ‘sister’. The game honestly hadn’t told you a whole lot about her. Just that she disappeared, and what few flashbacks you would have now and again. Like the one you got when you touched your ring and the lighter.

You open it up with careful hands.

Inside the handwriting is familiar, even if the words aren’t. There’s no mistaking your hand writing. It looks like a serial killer in a movie has left a ransom note made out of letters cut out of magazines.

I wonder if there’s cereal in the kitchen.

You always think better when you’re snacking.

To keep your thoughts in order, you scatterbrain.

<3 Fuyuki

The first entry is dated for 193 AC. After the Cataclysm. It’s 198 now, so this was given to MAIN (to you?) five years ago. That would have been right before she graduated the fire academy and joined her company. A year before she disappeared, around 194.

It feels invasive to read the diary of the person whos life you’ve taken over, but you need answers and you don’t have a lot of options here.

I can’t believe Fuyuki gave me a diary! That’s so lame, and super girly. I don’t really want to write in it, but she gave it to me so I guess I should? Even if I am kinda mad at her. She left to go to school years ago and she never comes home! She’s so mean but then she’s nice and its so frustrating! Not fair. Stupid sister.

But i’ll try i guess. There’s not much else to do in the house. None of the other kids really wanna play with me, and the Yagi’s are busy watching the littler kids. And maybe i’ll have kids and their kids will have kids will have kids will have kids and i’ll be their super cool ancestor and they’ll read this for inspiration or something.

Good god, how old were they when they started writing this? Twelve? How old even were you?

Fuck it.

You kept reading. They/you weren’t a regular writer, with long months going between entries. Some of them were sad, some of them were happy, most of them were angry. They had a lot of complicated feelings on the sister who had abandoned them to what was basically a group home outside Asakusa, and then bitterness at themselves for being so angry when she disappeared. But most of it wasn’t that useful. It was about grades and teachers, and grief. They got into a lot of fights, and they were something of a scrapper. They were briefly enrolled in martial arts classes, but they had to quit because they were too rough with the other kids. So they were a scrapper, but that wasn’t anything related to fire.

You rubbed your temples and glared at the diary. How did it answer your questions but leave you with more?

Why is this my life now?

So much here didn’t make sense, nonetheleast the fact that you were here to begin with. Well. At least you finally knew what your pyrokinesis was right? Even if using it was nearly impossible, and you couldn’t make sense of everything.

Of course, there were plenty of things in this world that didn’t make sense. Like how sound could turn fire into ice.

Bringing back the dead made more sense than that!

You cross your arms and glare at the diary. So far the only useful bit is the part where you’ve had some decent training. Everything else is just the most vague information about the investigation into her sister’s disappearance. That much you already knew, although you didn’t have time to read everything in it. There were big gaps that you just knew were holding important information!

At a loss, you flipped to the very last written on page, halfway through, and froze.

Staring back at you was your own face. A small picture. It was your resume for the squad assignments, with your own check boxes and preferences listed. Underneath it was the list you had written before, of Everything You Knew. It was short, with little screen caps here and there. You flipped the page and found it filling itself in with ink that didn’t come from a pen, finishing up what it started on the page before.

A new page started, this one listed your stats.

In game there were a hundred levels. You had gotten maybe halfway through? A third if you rounded down. And it listed your level at 40. Underneath had your attack power, defense, stamina, agility, and your special moves.

You were weirdly well rounded. Three out of five bars for everything, except the SM, which only had one.

But, you hadn’t put that there!

You quickly flipped it back and forth before you went to the very, very last page in the diary. On the back cover the ink finally finished filling out. A progress bar.

You stared at it for a long, long time, trying to work over everything was happening.

So.

Now you knew what you could do. Just not how to do it.

You were out of options at this point. You were just going to have to suck it up.

You were going to have to ask someone for help directly.

Shinra looks up from his work when you plop into the seat across from him, your arms crossed across your chest. It would be a lie to say you’re not nervous. You’re not even totally sure how you’re supposed to ask these questions, but you don’t have any other way to go about this any more.

You tried the diary. You’ve spent two and a half days trying to get your ignition ability to work without help. Admittedly, you hadn’t even know how your ability was meant to manifest at the time, but even now you can’t get it to work.

“Oh, hey there,” Shinra offers you an awkward smile. You grin right back, trying to project as much happy-go-lucky-nothing-wrong-here-!- as you can. It’s made easier by the fact that prior to a few days ago, no one here had known you as anything more than a passing acquaintance.

“Hi Shinra. I’ve got a weird question for you,” you announce bluntly.

Shinra looks a little more wary, and he’s starting to smile.

“Oh yeah? What is it?”

“Ah, it’s pretty simple actually. How do you activate your abilities?”

“Huh?”

“How do you-”

“No, I heard you,” he holds up his hand to cup you off. “It’s just a weird question.”

“Hey man, I told you it was gonna be one.”

You stare at each other for a long minute before Shinra huffs and looks towards the ceiling. He might not be the best person to ask. Maybe you should ask Maki, but Shinra makes you feel secure and you trust him more than anyone else just yet.

“How do I activate my abilities? I dunno. I guess for me it’s more like I have to turn it off.”

You tilt your head, listening intently to Shinra.

“When I was a kid… I had a hard time controlling my flames. They started up suddenly, and burned through my shoes and pants. I ended up wearing these extinguisher boots, and shorts, so I wouldn’t destroy everything around me. It took a long time to figure out what was going on, but someone finally explained it to me. For a lot of third generation pyrokinetics, the thing that triggers out ability is the memory of the first time they happened.”

You falter. “But, wait. Didn’t yours activate when-”

“Yeah,” he cuts in, shooting you a grin that’s anything but happy. Your heart clenches in your chest.

“Oh god, Shinra…” That meant that every time he used his powers, he had to remember his mother’s ‘death’ and his brother's disappearance. He had to think of pain and fear and grief, and he used his flames so often-

“It’s okay,” he cuts in. You can’t imagine what kind of face you’re making. “It was painful at first, and it still is, but it’s a good reminder for what I’m fighting for, and why I’m working so hard towards that goal. I will find a way to stop human combustion. I will make sure no one else ever has to grieve the way I did.”

��Shinra,” you say softly. “You really are something.”

Shinra tries to shrug off your words, but his smile is a little more genuine. “I just wanna be a hero.”

“You will be,” you promise him. It’s all you can do not to tell him the truth then and there. His mother is alive, and suffering. His brother is alive, and suffering.

They need help.

But you hold your tongue. You don’t have any way of proving it to him, and there’s already so many things that are different here than they were in the game, or the show. Your presence being one of them.

You let out a breath. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to bring up something so painful.”

Shinra shakes his head. “What made you ask?”

“Honestly?” you rubbed the back of your neck, “I’ve been having trouble using my abilities since we left the academy. I thought maybe if I asked you how you do it, I might be able to figure it out.”

Shinra looks startled. “Really? I guess that explains why you haven’t used them in the last few days. You never really held back when we were training.”

“Sorry to disappoint?” you offer lamely. “I just can’t figure it out.”

“Well… Have you thought about when you first activated your powers?”

“That’s just it,” you say sadly. “I don’t remember when it happened at all. So that’s not really an option for me.”

“Oh.”

You frown, and draw in on yourself. You can’t help it. You have no way to activate the powers you now know you have, and you’re in a bad place to be powerless in general. Not to mention these people are going to expect you to help, and you can’t help, and if you can’t help then-

Shinra’s hands land on your shoulders, startling you. It’s a warm touch, one that sinks into you with comfort and kindness. Shinra looks seriously at you, his red eyes bright and intent.

“Whatever happens, I know you’ll figure it out, and I’ll help you as much as I can. Even if I have to protect you in missions for now. So put your trust in me for now, okay?”

Your heart thumps hard in your chest and heat spreads through your body. It grows hotter and hotter, centering somewhere in your chest and your back.

Light blooms behind you and you barely turn your head to see a flicker of white fire over your shoulders, wings stretching over your back. They’re small, going no further down than you’re elbows and no further up than your jaw, pale and white and glowing.

You recognize the feeling in your chest with a start.

It’s care. Friendship. You want to help them. You want to fight for them and earn and keep their trust. The flickering embers of love bloom into a fire across your shoulders and flutter with undistinguished feather’s.

~ ~

A/N So! Phoenix is my favorite power, but everyone else seemed inclined towards the Sun Lance, so I smashed them both together!

If you’re so inclined, let me know what you think :D

#fire force #fire force x reader #shinra kusakabe #shinra kusakabe x reader #reader insert #enen no shouboutai x reader

48 notes · View notes

lucy-the-cat · 4 years ago

Text

Lover's Curse Chapter Twenty Nine - Painted Faces

Iris

I want to study her.

I want to know what about her captivated two Nortan princes. I want to map every inch of her face until I memorize it. I want to know how she has amassed such power, how a red peasant without a scrap has become a political vortex.

That must be why my eyes keep drifting. Why her presence lures my thoughts to wander, tracing the planes of her face, wondering what Maven has seen that I have not. Why I want her laid beside me.

Without much clothes on.

“Irie?” Tiora pokes my shoulder. “Earth to Irie. You went to space again.”

“Could you stop calling me that? I sound five.”

“I know, that’s what makes it great. You get so annoyed.” Tiora dodges my aggressive swipe, chuckling. We’re supposed to be combing through official documents right now, but my sister has never been one to pass up an opportunity for mischief. “Whatcha thinking about?”

We’re not alone. Though she is cloistered in her chambers, her people are not, stationed at various points about the room. I’d never paid them much thought before. They were always there, flitting in the corner of my eye, but I’d never turned to focus on them.

Perhaps that was a mistake.

“Tactical considerations.” Mare said I was a good liar. “Regarding the prisoner.”

“Tactical, huh?” Tiora raises a brow. “Tactical in love, maybe.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Denial, thy name is Iris.” She rubs her hands, cackling. “Oh, how the tables have turned. You tortured me over my crushes, and now I have vengeance to wreck.”

“You’ll do no such thing.”

“Does Mother know?” Tiora smirks. “She doesn’t, does she? I’m gonna have such fun.”

“What’s going on?” Mother pokes her head through the door. “This doesn’t look like filing.”

“I was asking Irie about the Barrow girl. She’d make an interesting painting, wouldn’t she?” For a nymph, Tiora enjoys playing with fire. “Iris agrees; she’s just too shy to admit it.”

“I’m never shy.”

“See what I mean?” Tiora shakes her head. “Too shy to admit how shy she is.”

I brush her aside to hug Mother. “Are you sure I’m the younger sister?”

“Some days? No.” Mother chuckles. “You may set up a portrait once you finish your duties. Until then, let your sister be as shy as she wishes.”

“Speaking of the Barrow girl, what do you plan to do with her? It’d be a waste to keep her chained when she could be of use.” I school my face into neutrality. “She’s far cleverer than you’d think. With time, she’ll understand that cooperating with us is better for her in the long run.”

“Oh.” Mother waves a hand. “Don’t mind that. We have far more important things to worry about.”

This may be harder than I thought. “Any news of the war front?”

Her expression smooths. “Maven Calore has fallen ill. At one of our own hospitals, the rumors say.” She frowns. “A hospital I cannot find.”

“Curious. No letters. No pleas. I’d assumed he’d be begging for her release.” Did I betray Mare for nothing? “Perhaps they are concealing his death.”

Mother laughs. “Wouldn’t that be fortunate. In the meantime, help your sister. You know how she is.”

The next hour is a flurry of papers and whispers, a day’s work compacted in sixty minutes. Tiora performs miracles when she wants something. If only her interests aligned with practicality.

At least Mare will be mad.

“I wasn’t aware I was your monkey.” She twists in her seat, frustrating Tiora at her easel. “Don’t you have better things to do?”

“She does. As do I.” I lean against the door. “My sister has always had more ideas than sense.”

“I’m right here.”

“That’s the point.” I pat her head. “For shame, Tiroa.”

“I have none.” She scowls. “Hold still.”

An outline of sharp strokes already sits on the canvas, jagged knife slashes edged in crimson. Thin purple lines web behind it, shimmering with the fog of a coming storm. A dab of dark silver pools where her mouth should be.

Mare curls into a ball. “I’m still now.”

“Wonderful.” Tiora won’t concede defeat. “Sis, reposition her for me.”

“Pardon?”

“You heard me. Reposition her. I don’t like this pose, and she’s not cooperating with me.” She smirks. “Is that too hard?”

I’m going to wear her skin as a coat. “Very well.” My heart pounds as I clasp Mare’s hand, no longer bony, but still with callouses to match my own. “How would you like her?”

“I can move myself.”

Tiora tuts. “Not like that. You’re blocking out the light. Sis, help me.”

“Sorry about this.” I grimace.

She says nothing. Her eyes churn like lakewater at high tide, silt-hidden weeds dragging you beneath their depths. She hates me. She must. I chained her again, no matter my reasons, and there is no undoing that.

I nudge her jaw, pointing to a spot to the right of Tiora. No longer is her frame withered by silence, having regained curves and muscle in places which snag my eye.

Staring is rude.

“Perfect.” Tiora grins. “Hold that pose for five hours.”

Mare stills. “Excuse me?”

“Portraiture is an art form. And art takes time.” She dips her brush to the palette. “You have nothing better to do.”

I sigh. “Tiora, you’re poking an outlet with a fork.”

“Then let me poke it in peace. I hear electrocution is fun.”

“You’re impossible. Take a photo and leave.”

Tiora blinks, a grin spreading across her face. “Yes. That’s an excellent idea. Wait here.” She breezes past both of us, slamming the door before I can protest. The lock clicks behind her.

She doesn’t return.

7 notes · View notes

hannahcoursey · 5 years ago

Text

Jealous Minds Part 2

Author: Hannahc56

Word Count: 3,391

Request: Hi! Can I put in a request for a dean x reader? Dean and the reader are friends with benefits and neither want a relationship because they’re too much pressure for both of them being hunters. But then during a case, YN runs into an old boyfriend and they actually had a great relationship and broke up because he had to move for work and they both got out to catch up and Dean is super jealous because he wants that same type of relationship with her. (Sorry if it’s too much. LOVE YOUR WORK!!!)

PART ONE

A few hours had passed and you found yourself eagerly waiting for Daryn to pull into the gravel parking lot of the motel. You had put on a nice pair of jeans, without blood or holes, and a nice black tank top. You’d popped in a pair of earrings you always had sitting in the bottom of your bag that you never got to wear. With a few quick swipes of mascara, you were as dolled up as you were going to get. It wasn’t much, but you felt alright and put together for once and a small part of yourself wish you could do this more often. It was nice to feel pretty every now and then, but your lifestyle didn’t call for a nice manicure or decent clothes. Loud pounding on the door pulled you out of your thoughts, as you took one more look at yourself in the mirror before running to open it. The smile fell off your lips when the door revealed Dean. His face was hard, it was obvious he was in deep thought. When he looked up and saw you, his expression softened. The two of you stood there while he took every inch of you in. A heat rose to your cheeks and you cleared your throat.

“Can I help you with something?” You asked, leaning your arm on the door. Dean’s eyes shot up to yours and he slightly shook his head.

“I-I just wanted to come and,” he hesitated, licking his lips, “Wish you good luck on your date.” He finished. You rolled your eyes and sighed.

“Funny, Dean. See ya.” You turned to shut the door, but his hand sprawled across it.

“No, I mean it,” He nodded, “I know how much you cared about Daryn, I-I hope that it goes alright.” He said, letting his hand fall away from the door. You stared at him, your brows crunched in confusion of what sort of scheme he was playing at. His eyes darted back and forth between yours as your brain searched for words to string together to respond. When you didn’t say anything, his eyes fell to the ground and he nodded slow. “You look nice.” He said, his lips in a tight smile, “Anyways, have fun.” He finished, before turning and walking away, leaving you standing in the doorway. You blinked, trying to process the words that’d just come from his lips. Your heart felt like a cinder block in your chest. You let your hand fall to the door knob and slowly pushed the door shut. You leaned against it, your mind running a million miles a minute. Across the room from you was a dusty mirror, only your reflection stared back at you. Why was your heart pounding in your chest? Why were you even going on this date? Was this even to be considered a date? Before you could answer any of the questions that rattled around in your mind, a loud knock from behind the door you were leaning against shook you out of the deep consciousness you’d fallen into with a jump. Maybe Dean was back - maybe he was going to tell you not to go, that the two of you would spend the rest of the night tangled up in the scratchy motel sheets, whispering throughout the night, stealing kisses on exposed skin. The thought alone had you ready to bolt out of your room to find him. You turned and opened the door, Dean’s name about to fall off your tongue, when your eyes fell on Daryn.

His eyes shimmered when he saw you, a smile lighting up his face. Your expression dropped for a moment, before you forced a smile. He pulled a small bouquet of roses from behind his back and flashed his picture perfect grin at you.

“Daryn, these are beautiful,” You shook your head and accepted the gesture, “You shouldn’t have.” You turned and set them down on the table beside you. He threw a hand up and waved.

“Hey, it’s the least I could do,” He laughed, as you pulled the door shut, locking it behind you. He rubbed the back of his neck and looked at you as if he was memorizing every detail of your face. Color rose to your cheeks and you looked down. “You ready?” He asked, your eyes floating up to meet his again. You nodded and followed him as he walked over to his car, a new sporty car that surely was meant to be impressive. He walked with you to the passenger side and held open the door for you as you got in. Right as you sat down, you heard someone call your name from down the motel strip. You looked around, scanning for someone underneath the overhead flicking lights of the walkway until your gaze fell on Dean. He waved a hand at Daryn, who hesitantly waved in return.

“Have her back by midnight alright? Trust me, you don’t wanna see what she looks like when the fairy godmother’s spell wears off.” He laughed, throwing a wink in your direction sarcastically before turning towards the motel room door and walking in. Daryn pulled open the driver side door and slide in the low-riding seat. His eyebrows were crunched in confusion as he looked over at you.

“So, do you guys usually share rooms or?” He trailed off, the awkward tension in the air filling the small cabin quickly. You felt embarrassment rise to your face as you shook your head, trying to laugh it off.

“No, no, most definitely not, he just was probably grabbing something from the room, I guess,” You struggled to string together a sentence and rubbed your hands against your thighs nervously. Daryn let out a strangled laugh and started the car without saying anything more. You looked out your window, silently cursing the older Winchester as your heart fluttered at the thought of the things the two of you did behind locked motel room doors.

The ride to the bar was mostly quiet, the sound of the radio filling the spaces where neither of you could manage the right words to say. When you pulled up, Daryn escorted you to a booth in the corner. The place was packed. It was loud, lights strobing every second, making it hard for you to make out where you were walking, and you struggled to imagine how fun it would be to actually get drunk in this type of atmosphere. The bass music of the loud rap made your chest rumble and you found yourself yearning for a biker bar, squeezed between the boys at the bar while classic rock played from a jukebox.

“Y/N? Y/N/N?” Daryn said your name and you shook yourself out of your daydream.

“I-I am so sorry, was I spacing out?” You ran a hand through your hair and took a breath, letting out a light laugh, “Long day, you know how it goes.” You gave him a grin. He nodded and waved down the bartender before turning his attention back to you.

“I was just saying how great you looked tonight,” He said, his tone genuine and inviting. You couldn’t fight the smile that rose to your face thinking of the memories the two of you shared.

“Well thank you Daryn,” You tucked the hair behind your ears and leaned forward on the table, “You don’t look half bad yourself.” You beamed at him. Before he could answer, the bartender stepped up and asked for your orders.

“I’ll take a-” You began, but Daryn reached out and laid his hand on top of yours, effectively stopping you in your tracks.

“I’ll take a beer and the beautiful lady will have a Vodka Cranberry please, extra cranberry.” He told the bartender as she nodded and walked off. A feeling you couldn’t put a name to filled your chest. Was it nostalgia? Or was it disappointment? You flashed him a quick smile. “Not too bad for not seeing you for this long, I still remember your favorite drink.” He laughed, reaching over and grabbing your other hand with his other hand, focusing entirely on you.

“No, I’m impressed, that was pretty good. I gotta tell you though, I’m more of a whiskey bourbon kinda gal these past few years.” You said, trying not to visibly shiver as the thought of a Long Island Iced Tea hangover. His eyes grew wide for a moment before he let out a breath.

“Wow, you?” He shook his head, “Now that surprises me. You could hardly keep it down when we were younger.” He chuckled, bringing back memories of your high school days, sneaking around drinking your parents alcohol.

“Well yeah,” You snorted, “We were drinking rubbing alcohol it seemed like, we had the nastiest stuff.” You felt yourself thinking of all the times you’d use a fake ID to get the cheapest vodka you could find, only for it to taste twice as bad the second time later on in the night.

“Yeah, yeah, that led to some pretty rough nights,” He agreed, squeezing your hands softly, “But also some of the best nights too, you know?” He finished, his voice softening as his expression did. And there it was - that same pang in your chest. The more it happened, the more it began to feel like disappointment seeping through your lungs. He stared at you, his iri’s moving from your E/C eyes to your lips. You nodded and pulled your hands out of his, pretending to scratch the back of your neck. He leaned back in the booth, your mind grasping for things to talk about.

“So, what have you been up to? You were at State College for half the first year then disappeared off the face of the earth, no one knew where you went.” He pried, your heart sinking to the bottom of your chest. God, anything but that question. You cleared your throat and tried to force eye contact, but the topic proved too difficult.

“T-That’s a very fair question,” You let out a laugh that came out more like a sigh, “I-I just needed some time off, I traveled for a while,” You said slowly, which wasn;t necessarily a lie, “And just needed to figure out what I wanted to do with my life.” You finished, trying to tell him as much of the half truth that was possible without getting too much into the nitty-gritty. It was true, technically. You did travel while hunting monsters with the brothers and you did struggle with what you wanted to do for awhile; keep fighting the good fight or take a stab at the apple pie life. He nodded slow, as if he was ingesting what you were telling him and you prayed he wasn’t overanalyzing it too much. The holes in your story would be too large for him not to notice how it didn’t add up. “Anyways,” You scrambled to try to change the subject, “What made you want to become a ranger? I never would have pegged you for the type.” You asked right as the bartender brought over your drinks. He smiled while looking down the neck of his beer, thinking of his answer. Before he had the chance, you phone rang in your pocket. You struggled to get it out of the small compartment of your tight jeans and threw a hand up to him and he nodded. The phone vibrated as Dean’s name flashed across the screen. Throwing your legs off the side of the booth, you made your way outside to answer.

“Dean?” You tried, holding the phone to one ear while you pressed a hand over the other. Mumbles came through the other end that sounded like gibberish. “Dean, I can’t hear you, gimme a second.” You said, hoping he could make out your words better than you could of his. As soon as your reached the parlor doors to the outside, you called his name again through the phone. “Okay, sorry about that, what’s up?” You asked, shoving your hand in your pocket.

“Y/N,” Dean said, his voice raw, causing your heart to plummet, “Something’s wrong, you need to get back here,” He coughed, hardly audible on the other end.

“Dean, talk to me, what’s going on?” You asked, panic rising in your tone.

“J-Just come home,” He wheezed before the line went dead. Your hands shook slightly, the adrenaline pumping through your veins. You turned on your heel and ran through the crowd, bumping into people and elbowing your way through them. When you reached Daryn, his soft expression had turned to a look of confusion.

“Daryn, I have to get back, something’s wrong.” You shook your head, trying to settle your hands as Daryn quickly got up from his seat and threw a few bills down next to your untouched drinks. Without making sure he was following, you raced back to the front doors, beelining to his car. When the both of your reached it, you strapped yourself in and he drove off, leaving dust in the rearview. The drive back to the motel felt like it took hours. When you pulled up to the strip, you noticed the Impala still sitting outside and your feet were on the ground before the car was in park. Your heartbeat thumped in your ears, your eyes scanning the surroundings. You noticed your motel room light was on. You turned to Daryn.

“Listen, I really appreciate you taking me out tonight and I-I’m sorry it had to be cut short, but I need to make sure everythings alright.” You rushed through your words while you managed to throw him a smile over your shoulder.

“Y/N, I can stay and make sure- '' He bega, but the thought of what unnatural force could be inflicting pain onto Dean was enough to make you cut his speech off short.

“No, no, I got it under control - I can call you, you still have the same number?” You spoke fast, trying to politely get to your motel room as quickly as possible. Daryn looked at a loss for words. To see him scrambling to try to spend another minute with you made your chest heavy with guilt, but this was Dean at stake. You turned before he could answer and opened the door so quick, you almost hit the wall behind it yourself. You were in fight mode, ready to rip apart whatever was wreaking havoc, ready to patch up Dean if he needed it, a million thoughts going through your head. Taking in the scene in front of you, the breath you had in your lungs slipped from your lips.

The room was dimly lit by dozens of small candles of all different colors and heights. On the table next to you was the beautiful bouquet from Daryn and a simple rose sitting next to it. Dean sat on the edge of the bed, nervously rubbing his hands down his thighs. Your hand fell to your chest as you took a deep breath in.

“Dean,” Your eyes filled with tears that you begged not to slip down your face, “You scared the shit outta me.” You shook your head, running a hand through your hair. Dean looked down at his hands.

“I-I know, I didn’t know how else to get you to come back,” He said, his voice low. You couldn’t believe the sight before you and you stood still, taking it all in. “Y/N, I should’ve done this a long time ago, but seeing you with Daryn” He said, shaking his head as he looked up at you, “ I couldn’t take it, watching you leave with him.” He stood up and crossed the small room to you, his hands picking up yours and rubbing his thumb on the back of your hand. “I don’t have the fast car and the big bouquet and all that crap - but the way I feel about you,” He struggled to find the words and you knew that all of the effort he’d already put into this gesture was big for him, “What I can offer you is to always be there for you, to always stitch you up, to make sure you’re not alone when you wake up in the mornings - We don’t have to do this stuff alone Y/N and we’re crazy for thinking we had to.” He shook his head and his warm hand cupped your cheek. “I wanna do this with you, I mean it.” He finished, his eyes anxiously looking into yours, waiting for your response. Even in this lighting, his eyes were bright and lively, his nose peppered with the freckles you’ve loved since you noticed them the day you met him. Bringing your hand up to his other cheek, you pulled him in, your lips colliding together as if it were the first time. His other hand found its way to the side of your head and his fingers tangled in your hair as he pulled you in, passion filling your every movement. You pulled away, a few tears making their way down your flush cheeks.

“I would love to Dean,” You leaned forward and pressed your forehead against his, “I’ve been in love with you since I laid eyes on you.” You smiled, your heart beating loudly at the confessions the two of you were sharing. He leaned back and pressed a kiss onto your forehead.

“God, me too sweetheart.” He mumbled into the kiss, before pulling away and taking in every inch of your face before letting go of your hands and moving to the bed. Out of a small plastic bag, he pulled out a few styrofoam containers. “Got you your favorite,” He spoke as he opened the containers, spreading them around the bed. Two burgers sat in their separate containers with fries, and a few slices of pie in the other. You walked over and sat on the bed with him as he laid the food out and sat next to you.

“Mhhh, bacon cheeseburger.” You took a deep breath in, the aroma of the greasy food filling the room. He rubbed your back, smiling.

“Extra bacon, the usual.” He laughed, still looking at you. You turned to him and kissed him once more, the feeling of his lips against yours making your heart drop to your toes. When you pulled away, his eyes were still shut, savoring every kiss the two of you shared.

“I am so in love with you, I hope you know.” You whispered, still close to his face. He blinked slow and a lazy grin crossed his features.

“I know.” He replied, his sarcasm causing you to throw your head back and let out a laugh.

“Good, I’m glad.” You replied, smacking his shoulder. He took a deep breath and looked at the candles around you.

“Now can I blow these out? It’s starting to smell like a friggin’ hallmark movie in here it’s nauseating.” He grumbled, your laugh filling the room as you shook your head at him.You couldn’t stop yourself from laughing as he went around to each of the candles and huffed them out.

You put on the tv and played the first movie that popped up and thought about all of the choices you’ve made in your life that got you to this exact moment. Life with the Winchester boys isn't for everyone. The life you lived was fast and dangerous, but you wouldn’t have it any other way. With Dean’s arms around you, shitty take out food in front of you and a whole life to share with him ahead, you found yourself filled with the sort of peace you didn’t think you’d ever get your hands on.

----

Hope you guys liked it! My requests are always open!

75 notes · View notes

teatime-scans · 5 years ago

Text

Wild Police Story - Chapter #11 Text Translations

Hi! Here’s a text translation of Chapter 11. Scanlations of this chapter (and the previous one) are being worked on at the moment! ^^

Be aware that since this hasn’t been proofread yet - this is basically the translation as it came out of our minds - some parts might not be very clear, especially the Nagano Dialect part which is just a partial localization we came up with and will probably be changed in the final version.

Translation: Holmes Translation check: Manaphy

CASE 11. Convening and discussing

[Original Work: Aoyama Gosho Artist: Arai Takahiro]

[His fury, yet unbeknownst to everyone, lies hidden deep inside him.]

[The eagerly-awaited first volume will be on sale from the eighteenth of November on!] [Second chapter of the Morofushi Arc! With their hearts set on their beliefs, this is the story of their youthful days during the half a year spent at the Police Academy!]

[Morofushi's past is going to be related right now...]

Morofushi: Understood! I’ll tell you... Morofushi: About that night from 15 years ago...

Morofushi: Enshrouded in that stench of steel... Morofushi: A night of dismay which made my inner clock’s hands... Morofushi: Freeze in place...

Morofushi: Someone came at around 7 PM when I was having dinner with my father and mother... Morofushi: Together with a loudly rung bell... *ding dong* *ding dong* *ding dong*

Morofushi: The visitor was apparently an acquaintance of my father's. Morofushi: At first, they conversed quietly by the entryway, which I could hear while being in the kitchen...

Morofushi: But before very long, the man started raising his voice... Morofushi: and as soon as my mom went to the entryway to check on them...

*GWAAAAAH* Morofushi: I could hear my father groaning... Morofushi: And so my mother came back with a radically changed facial expression, and told me...

Morofushi: “Stay hidden here for a while!”... Morofushi: “Don't come out at all costs, till I tell you it's okay to!”... That's what she said.

Morofushi: As my mom said that, she put me inside a store cupboard... Morofushi: then, in turn, she went and quarrelled with that man... Morofushi: but soon after I couldn't hear her voice anymore, either...

Morofushi: and, what's more, a stench of steel started hanging over... Morofushi: To the point even I could smell it, despite being inside the cupboard. Hagiwara: What's this “steel” you've been talking about since earlier?

Furuya: He's talking about the smell of blood! Furuya: The haemoglobin contained in the red blood cells is mainly composed of iron. That's why. Hagiwara: I see...

Matsuda: So, what happened later? Hiromitsu: I could hear him humming... Date: What? Humming?!

Hiromitsu: Yeah... It wasn't dad's voice, nor mom's. Hiromitsu: It was a shrill-made coaxing voice... Hiromitsu: He was repeating the same phrase while putting it in rhythm, again and again...

Hiromitsu: T-Therefore... Hiromitsu: I gingerly peeked out of the store cupboard from its opening...

Hiromitsu: And I saw a man holding a bloodstained knife, humming a tune... Hiromitsu: It went like, “it's fine nooow!”... Hiromitsu: “come out, pleeease!”...

Matsuda: What about the face?! Matsuda: Didn't you see that bloke's mug?! Hiromitsu: No, I didn't... Hiromitsu: I was too scared...

Furuya: How come that man was looking for you, though? Hiromitsu: Nah, he wasn't looking for me. Hiromitsu: I know because he called a girl's name after “come out please”.

Hiromitsu: That's right... The girl with whom I used to play when I was a kid's... Hiromitsu: “Yuri”, the name of the little girl looking just like the one who was reported missing last night!

Date: Why was he looking for that kid at your house? Furuya: What was her surname? Hiromitsu: I don't know... I always called her by her name... Hiromitsu: After she died from an illness, I did attend her funeral, but I was just a first-year elementary school pupil...

Hagiwara: You didn't see his face, but you did see the tattoo on his shoulder, didn't you? Hiromitsu: Yeah, I did. That man apparently tripped up because of all the blood, and he banged with his whole body against the armoire I was hidden inside... *BANG*

Hiromitsu: When he moved away, for an instant... Hiromitsu: I saw on his shoulder... Hiromitsu: a tattoo shaped like a goblet!

Matsuda: Did he really have it on his shoulder? Hiromitsu: There’s no doubt! Hiromitsu: After moving away from the cupboard, he clutched his shoulder, as if it hurt...

Hiromitsu: So and at that moment, the tattoo that was visible just before... Hiromitsu: Got hidden by his bloody hand, rendering me unable to catch sight of it...

Date: And? What did he do after that? Hiromitsu: I don't know... Hiromitsu: Before I could notice... I fell asleep.

Hiromitsu: After that, I woke up to the sound of doors and stuff being opened and closed... Hiromitsu: and just when I was squaring off, thinking “shit! I’m gonna get found!”... *clatter rattle clatter*

Hiromitsu: someone opened the cupboard's shutter! *slide*

Hiromitsu: It was my older brother, who had just come home from camp middle school... [Komei: Hiromitsu... Mom and dad are dead... Komei: What happened? Can you tell me?] Hiromitsu: It was noon of the following day already... Meaning I had been sleeping in the cupboard for half a day.

Hagiwara: So you had an older brother...? Hagiwara: I heard that, nowadays, he's a skilful police detective in the Nagano prefectural police, and is called the “Koumei of Nagano”! Matsuda: I like Guan Yu* better, though... Date: Who cares about The Records of the Three Kingdoms right now! [* TN: Both Koumei (Kong Ming in Chinese) and Guan Yu (Japanese name: Kan’u) are Chinese strategists whose feats are narrated in the Records of the Three Kingdoms.]

Date: Go ahead. Did you tell your brother about the murderer's tattoo? Hiromitsu: No, I didn't... I've been slightly amnesiac due to the shock caused by that case... Hiromitsu: and in addition, I've also been suffering from aphasia...

Hiromitsu: Later, we were put in our relatives' care — I was sent to Tokyo kinsmen, and my brother with Nagano's, and I changed scenery... Hiromitsu: Yet, my aphasia didn't heal for a while...

Hiromitsu: until I met Zero in Tokyo! [Furuya: It'd be way greater fun if you talked, y'know?]

Hagiwara: So you attended this place, the police academy because you want to seize the murderer? Hiromitsu: Spot on. Plus, I remembered several things recently... Hiromitsu: And I decided that I want to properly draw conclusions about what that was all about from a policeman's point of view... Hiromitsu: and transmit all that information to my brother in Nagano!

Hagiwara: And in the meantime, you chanced upon three suspicious individuals... Hiromitsu: R-Right...

Hiromitsu: There’s Irie-san, who runs a hardware store... Hiromitsu: and has a goblet tattooed on his shoulder...

Hiromitsu: Then, Tomori-san, who has a laundromat... Hiromitsu: and has on his upper arm a tattoo of Kannon, alias the Guanyin...

Hiromitsu: And the clerk of the motorbike shop who has a scorpion tattooed on the back of his neck... Hiromitsu: If I remember well, he’s called Monobe-san...

Hiromitsu: But it's simply impossible for the murderer to be in Tokyo and not in Nagano... Hiromitsu: and, what's more, for him to coincidentally be in my surroundings... Isn't it? Matsuda: We went and questioned those three people, y'know?

Hiromitsu: Wha...?! Matsuda: Ain't that right? Hagiwara: Bullseye. Date: We all split up... Furuya: Since it's for your revenge, Hiro!

Hiromitsu: Hold on a second, though... How'd you know I'm looking for the murderer who killed my parents, in the first place? Matsuda: Of course we’d know. Matsuda: You were always looking up “Nagano Couple Slaughter Case” on the internet over and over... Hagiwara: Although it is the first time we hear in detail about the tattoo and the murderer's behaviour.

Furuya: Well then, let's start with the squad leader, who was in charge of dealing with Irie-san. Date: He's a silent person, so having him spit something out was a whole pain in the butt...

Date: His name is Irie Sumio. He is forty-six years old and lives along with his wife. Date: He set up a hardware store in this city fourteen years ago. Date: He's a taciturn, unfriendly guy, but he's peerless when it comes to sharpening knives... That's his reputation in the neighbourhood.

Date: His shoulder tattoo is from 10 years ago... He tattooed the championship cup from when he won a ping-pong tournament hosted by the neighbourhood association. Matsuda: Ten years ago...? Date: Yes. I also checked on it with Tomori-san, whom he was paired with back then, so there's no doubt about it.

Date: After that, he told his wife something about horses and flowers, or something... Hiromitsu: You mean... Hiromitsu: He told her to “hose down the flowers”?

Date: Yes! That's it! Hiromitsu: In Nagano dialect, “giving” is often replaced with “hosing”! Hagiwara: Hold up! If that's the case...

Matsuda: But if he got his tattoo done ten years ago, the figures just don't add up, do they? Furuya: Then, Let's move on to Tomori-san, whom Hagi talked to...

Hagiwara: His full name is Tomori Hajime. He is fifty years old and lives alone. Hagiwara: Originally, his laundromat was run by an uncle of his, but he ended up straining himself... Hagiwara: so he planned to help him out till he was dismissed from the hospital, but he ended up continuing even after he passed away... Which brings us here... Apparently.

Hagiwara: He tattooed the Kannon, alias the Guanyin, on his upper arm when, 20 years ago, he lost his wife and mother at the same time in a traffic accident... Hagiwara: He apparently did it in order to mourn the two of them...

Hagiwara: He's also got a reputation in the neighbourhood as a repairman. Hagiwara: Since he came out of some college's engineering department, it seems he used to repair simple electric appliances. Hagiwara: A tad like you, right, Jinpei-chan?

Hagiwara: He paired with Irie-san because he's a friend who comes from his same town... That's what he said. Furuya: If he got his tattoo twenty years ago, he did already have it fifteen years ago... Furuya: but a picture of the Kannon doesn't look like a goblet at all, no matter how you look at it...

Matsuda: Actually, speaking of goblet look-alikes, we have that motorbike shop clerk. Matsuda: His name is Monobe Shuuzou and he is thirty-five years old. Matsuda: He has a scorpion tattooed behind his neck, which is the logo of a group he used to be part of back when he was a rascal...

Matsuda: whose name is, in fact, Scorpion Glass! Hagiwara: So he rather modeled it after a goblet!

Matsuda: He said he got it tattooed when he was twenty, so I guess it kind of could barely fit...? Hagiwara: It's located behind the neck, though... Matsuda: Same as Tomori-san, he also lives alone.

Hagiwara: Huh? What's the matter, you two? Date: I don't know, there was just something... Furuya: Yeah, me too...

Hiromitsu: ... Matsuda: What's with you, Morofushi? Matsuda: You, too?

Hiromitsu: Yeah, well... Recently I phoned my older brother to tell him what I remembered about the case anyway, and... [Komei: Haste makes waste...]

[Komei: Don't be in a hurry to seek success by consulting me without sufficient forethought. Komei: The place you were hidden in was not a store cupboard, but a closet equipped with kannon-biraki, alias double doors opening from the centre. Komei: That house was in Western-style, so it didn't have any Japanese store cupboards or sliding screens in the first place.]

Hiromitsu: That's what he told me. Hiromitsu: I'm sure I was in a cupboard, though... Furuya: Maybe aren't you mixing it up with your relatives' house here in Tokyo you were entrusted to?

Furuya: Since that house was Japanese-styled, and, conversely, only had sliding screens and cupboards... Hiromitsu: T-That could be...

Matsuda: If that were the case... Matsuda: wouldn't it be strange, though?

Matsuda: If you had been hiding in a closet with kannon-biraki double doors... Matsuda: then its door should've got shut when the murderer banged into it after tripping up...

Hagiwara: That's true... And in order to see the killer clutching his shoulder afterwards... Hagiwara: you would've had to open the shutter of the closet by yourself...

Matsuda: You... You opened the door in that situation? Hiromitsu: No way I could! Date: Then couldn't it be that the gap you were peeking out from...

Date: wasn't vertical but horizontal...? Date: The slit in the closet... Date: would allow you to look outside with the shutter closed, wouldn't it?

Onizuka: It's almost four o'clock... Onizuka: Maybe I should go check on those chaps a bit...

*rattle* Onizuka: Huh?

Onizuka: Hey, hey, hey... Onizuka: The dressing room is still dirty as hell?

Onizuka: Hey, you bums! You only have an hour left, y'know? Onizuka: As it is, you'll never make it in... *creak*

Onizuka: Hold on...

Onizuka: They're gone!

[Vertical and horizontal... The five have noticed something. Continued in the next issue.] [Continues in SS #50]

#detective conan #wild police story #hiromitsu morofushi #text translation #kenji hagiwara #jinpei matsuda #rei furuya

26 notes · View notes

cynthiaandsamus · 4 years ago

Text

Custom Toonami Block Week 73 Rundown

Code Geass: Lelouch and co. are still stuck in China and Xingke’s flipping out because the Chinese assholes are gonna kill the Empress and go with someone less problematic for their political marriage to Britannia’s creepily overaged prince. However Lelouch pulls out a Knightmare that’s basically the Twink version of the Gawain and busts everyone up as well as pulling a Father Cornello on them and letting the people know they’re all elitst 1% assholes that don’t care about them, which I suspect all countries probably know about their leaders but it sucks to hear it in a recording so riots show up all over China and CC Geass Flashes Anya to take her out so Britannia has to back out because the Chinese Hierarchy are now the least popular people in the world. So Xingke gets to be with his Empress and joins the Black Knights but Dietard wants the Empress to marry someone on their side so they can basically do the asshole move Britannia just tried to do but for them. All the girls are like ‘hey no’ and Lelouch is like “Oh hey Tamaki buddy, let’s go talk and get me the fuck out of here” so before Lelouch actually has to give Tamaki more lines and elevate him beyond the Black Knight’s Yamacha Shirley calls and Lelouch just straight up asks Shirley about love in a weirdly forced series of circumstance. But Shirley’s like “Yeah don’t fuck with love, don’t you love anyone?” and Lelouch is like “Yeah I do, Nunally!” and I don’t think that’s at all what Shirley meant but it does mean Lelouch sees that fighting for something beyond politics is powerful and agrees to not marry off the twelve year old girl, so that’s good. Lelouch decides to return home while they hunt down the Geass cult which is in China for some reason despite that being one of the like two places on earth Britannia doesn’t control and the Geass Cult largely being a Britannian affair. Meanwhile Sayoko is basically a Lelouch Vtuber at this point with her insanely accurate Lupin III mask of Lelouch and kisses Shirley so Shirley’s a little bit more gay than she was before and is not sure how to feel about that. When she’s about to tell the real Lelouch he kisses like a girl, Anya and Gino show up because we’re retreading the whole ‘sleeping with the enemy at school’ thing from the first season except with way less interesting enemies. Also the preview for the next episode is Lelouch dramatically talking about enemies finding out he’s Zero overtop footage of Shirley and Milly absolutely naked in a batthouse scene so I think we know what kind of episode that’ll be.

Inuyasha: The Panther Demon filler concludes with everyone meeting at the site where the Panther Master is being revived behind a strong barrier, if only someone just got a barrier upgrade to their sword, oh wait. But yeah everyone manages to free the hostages so even though Kagome’s jewel shards revives the Panther Master he’s still a zombie without a sacrifice which is weird since Naraku managed to completely revive the Band of Seven with one jewel shard each from skeletons and the Panther Lord has three shards so idk the rules here but yeah he steals the souls of his own men to revive and is Wind Scar Proof because he just is. It’s pretty cool to see him shooting his claws and lightning and shit but he’s too big and slow for it to be much of an interesting fight. Sesshomaru’s about to go full demon which would be interesting since we haven’t seen his full demon form since he lost his arm but in a neat bit of character development, Tenseiga calms his rage and tells him to use it instead. You get the feeling Sesshomaru only goes full demon when he flies off the handle and forgets about speed and strategy so him opting to not repeat the mistake he made against Inuyasha is pretty cool. Anyway Tenseiga heals the souls of the Panther Demons and drains their energy from the lord so he’s back to Zombie Cat Man which Inuyasha can Wind Scar because that’s what happens to villains on this show, all Wind Scars all the time. The Panthers don’t wanna fight anymore since their boss just killed them and tell Inuyasha to tell Sesshomaru the feud is over and they’re going back to the West. Honestly this is basically the same backstory they gave Kirinmaru in Yashahime so it’s funny for them to say they’re going back to the same place Kirinmaru is from, wonder if it’ll ever come up in Yashahime since most filler seems canon there.

Yu Yu Hakusho: Yusuke and Kuwabara continue the assault on Tarukane’s compound and basically plow through the lower demons easy since they’ve been fighting minor deities up to this point. It’s always pretty cool in Shonen to just have a few rounds to show how much power creep the heroes have had where certain things just don’t bother them anymore. Toguro murders a Chimera which has an oddly similar backstory to Nina from FMA and he seems really bummed about it but he’s like “Hey we’re both monsters made by humans telling us to do shit, so sorry for killing you bro”. And Tarukane basically sees Toguro is the next boss and is like “Yup time to scam some people off of this” and he sets up a betting ring for how far Yusuke and Co will get into his compound. This is kinda neat because it puts Tarukane in the weird position of betting against his own guards and hoping Yusuke will make it all the way to Toguro and then lose after everyone else has seen how awesome Yusuke is and bets on him. And funnily enough Sakyo’s in on the betting and he’s watched anime before so he knows to bet on the plucky teenagers with weird powers. So yeah Yusuke and Kuwabara finish plowing through the demons while Hiei kinda stalks them and remembers getting his eye surgery and wanting to help his sister but it’s kind of against spirit world rules for demons to just go plow through humans even if they’re scumbag humans so now Yusuke and Kuwabara have to go fight the Triad of boss demons Toguro has under him before Hiei busts in and just murders everyone for kidnapping his bird-loving jewel-crying little flower of a sister.

Fate Zero: So Kiritsugu can break Kayneth’s Terminator 2 Gaara defenses with rib bullets that just say ‘no’ to using magic and fucks his arrogant ass up. Saber and Lancer do some combo shenanigans to stab Caster right in the book and disrupt all his hentai tentacle demons but the book heals so idk why he can’t just make more. Kirei fucks up Maiya and Iris but didn’t double tap Maiya and DID double tap iris but she’s got Saber’s bullshit healing scabbard on her which no one knows about so Saber’s like “uhhh why are you healing” and Iris can’t tell her so she’s basically “Uhh internet?” Lancer comes in to save Kayneth’s worthless ass and tells Kiritsugu to stop being a dick to Saber because she’s pretty dope. But as usual for an early Fate encounter, no one dies and nothing of terrible consequence happens despite it being teased a couple times. I’ve noticed a trend with Fate that it really doesn’t like killing characters early so you’re basically guaranteed to have the first 2-3 major battles have a zero net gain/loss. Rider in UBW was probably the subversion to that since it happened crazy fast and anticlimactic but even that wasn’t till like ten episodes in.

Konosuba: So we finally meet Wiz the big booby Lich and Kazuma learns a new skill, both fun things. Also the gang gets a house to stay in after escapades with an army of haunted dolls and the most “I need to pee” in a horror setting since Corpse Party. But yeah, good progress this time honestly, the living in a stable gag was getting kind of old so Kazuma’s a bit stronger now and they have a home base so that’s pretty cool. Also Wiz is a Demon General or some shit but no one cares cause there ain’t no money in murdering busty zombie waifus.

Sailor Moon Crystal: So turns out Minako is Princess Serenity, except everyone who knows anything about Sailor Moon or indeed plot structure knows Sailor Moon is Princess Serenity, that’s like the Luke I Am Your Father of this series. But still turns out Minako has been guiding everyone with the power of video games but also thinks the power of friendship sucks and she’s gotta go do everything alone. This makes things super awkward because Mamoru’s pretty sure he was in love with the Princess but likes Usagi, now instead of running with this interesting thread of a reincarnation falling in love with someone new we’re gonna do the reveal that Usagi’s the princess and the whole ‘till death do us part’ part of marriage was just a metaphor and you’re stuck with one person no matter how many times you reincarnate. But yeah, Minako fights the bad guy on top of the tower but he has Naraku’s Barrier now and Minako doesn’t have the Red Tessaiga upgrade yet so she needs the power of friendship but this barrier is friendship-proof and this fight is basically a bunch of kids on the playground making up increasingly stupid powers that negate the other powers the other guy just made up. Anyway Tuxedo Mask shows up and is like “Holy shit Sailor Moon I love when you kiss me and kick ass, go get em sweetie I’ll hold your flower” and they kiss and Usagi has learned that if she just pretends she got this the power of her confidence will beat the bad guy. Unfortunately she does not got this and Tuxedo Mask has to pull a Piccolo and throw himself in front of the blast.

Durarara!!: So now that we’ve had our climax for the arc we have a six month timeskip and everyone’s just kinda living life, Mika and Seiji are being clinically insane together, there’s cops harassing Celty to the point of mental breakdown (normal cop stuff) Shinra’s dad’s in town, Namie’s become Izaya’s secretary for blackmail shit, you know, normal stuff. Also there’s a katana-wielding maniac going around slashing people and Anri’s being bullied and sexually harassed to the point of mental collapse, normal stuff.

#ooc #Toonami #Custom Toonami Block #Code Geass #Inuyasha #Yu Yu Hakusho #Fate Zero #Konosuba #Sailor Moon Crystal #Durarara!!

5 notes · View notes

backtothestart02 · 4 years ago

Text

Just Best Friends - 7/? | westallen fanfiction

A/N: Enjoy. :)

...

Chapter 7 -

Iris rolled over the next morning, stretching her arm across the empty bed. She blew out a puff of air and opened her eyes when she realized it was just her in the bed. She groaned and rolled across it, getting tangled in the blanket and bed sheet before she realized she was nearing the edge of the bed and would fall off if she wasn’t careful.

Scooting back to the middle, she moved one pillow with her while pushing the other off the bed, then stretched out her arms and legs so they reached the bottom corners and sides of the bed.

“So,” she spoke aloud to herself. “He’s really gone.”

She curled herself up so she was sitting upright and pulled the blanket and sheet free of her legs. She scooted to the edge of the bed and got up, walking into the kitchen to make herself some coffee.

She really wished he hadn’t left. With the way she’d been feeling – and still felt – towards Barry and her dad, Eddie would’ve been the perfect distraction from all that. Maybe she could’ve even forgot about it entirely. Then Barry wouldn’t have to worry about her spilling his secret at all.

Not that she owed him anything. Not for keeping that secret from her for almost a year.

And what about you?

She decided to ignore the little voice in her head that continuously tried to point out the facts she didn’t want to acknowledge. That she was attracted to Barry, that she might have feelings for him, that she’d broken his heart not for the first time because she refused to acknowledge those two facts.

“And because I’m in a relationship!” she said aloud, wondering why she felt the need to defend herself to herself. It didn’t make sense. She’d already decided who she wanted. She wanted Eddie. He was her boyfriend, and she refused to break the loyalty she had to him.

Except when you cheated…

“Shut up!”

She sighed and braced her hands on the counter, watching the coffee machine work its magic for several minutes until the coffee was ready. Pulling a mug down from the cupboards, she poured some of the hot steamy liquid into the container. She set the pitcher back on its platform before digging in the fridge for the milk. She poured some into her dark beverage and put the gallon back. Then, after mixing the contents with a spoon and depositing the utensil in the sink, she walked over to the couch in the living room and took a seat.

Blowing on her drink, she then set it on the coffee table on a coaster she’d handpicked, and waited for it to cool some. She sank back into the couch and thought about the last time she’d been there.

The night she’d cheated…

No, no. The night Eddie had come home drunk and kicked her out.

And then nicely apologized the next morning.

That’s no excuse!

Neither is yours…

Ugh.

She hated her inner voice. She hated how right it was, so instead she opted for how annoying it was. What did it know anyway? It was a conscience. Maybe. Probably. But it didn’t take into account how she felt through all of this.

She’d been incredibly hurt by Eddie’s dismissal of her. The fact that he came home drunk at all was so shocking she hardly knew how to handle it. She’d tried so hard to make it a good night for him, for them. And it was all thrown out the window when he couldn’t get past the fact that she and Barry were affectionate with each other and that somehow meant that deep down they had more than platonic feelings for each other.

Well, he was right…

Argh. He was not right.

Oh, really? Then how come-

Pushing herself forward to cut off the voice, Iris reached for her mug and downed some coffee, even though it wasn’t quite cool enough to not burn her tongue and throat on the way down.

Right now, she decided, her cheating on Eddie was a non-issue.

Her inner voice snorted.

What mattered now was that Eddie was out of town and Barry and her dad had betrayed her. What was she supposed to do as a distraction? Work? She supposed she could work on mending things with Linda. Though, what was the point? They had never really been friends, and Iris had always been a little intimidated and felt threatened by her because Barry had chosen her to move on with.

She still remembered that first day he had come by CCPN, not to see her at her workplace, but to meet up with Lin-daa to go on a date. She scrunched up her nose in disgust. He’d never come to see her at her job even once, but he came to meet one of her co-workers that she didn’t even know about to go on a date.

She remembered shaking Linda’s hand and smiling brightly, happy to meet her, ecstatic even. Linda was happy, Barry was happy. They were all happy. And the next time she heard about them going out again, this time at Jitters, she’d been happy for him too.

She was so, so happy. She could hardly stand how happy she was. He was finally meeting a wonderful girl who would give him what she couldn’t. A romantic relationship.

And then that night had happened, and it had changed everything. For her, for Barry, for Eddie, for Linda. Barry had been so quick to break up with Linda after it, she realized there’d been no point in her being jealous at all of their relationship.

Ohh, jealous? That inner voice teased.

“Not jealous,” she said aloud, shaking her head.

She blew over her coffee another time, then hesitantly went in for a tiny sip. It was cooler now. Hot but not scalding. The perfect temperature.

There was nothing for it. Mad at Barry for his Flash reveal or not, she couldn’t face Linda at work. Even if she didn’t recognize her existence like before. Between Barry and her dad betraying her, Eddie being gone – mostly because he was mad at her – or hurt? Probably mostly hurt. And because he believed the answer to their couple problems was her making up with Barry. She rolled her eyes at that.

And then there was Linda and their nonexistent relationship. She still hadn’t been able to get a solid conversation out of her, or even a greeting. Linda hadn’t told Eddie of Iris’ little dalliance with Barry yet. That much was obvious. That didn’t mean she wouldn’t though.

Iris nibbled on her bottom lip and stared down into her coffee, setting it back on the coaster before going into her shared bedroom with Eddie and unplugging her now fully charged phone. She practiced her sick voice aloud a few times, the same one she’d used as an example for Barry when he needed to convince her dad he was sick back in elementary and high school.

“Hello?” she croaked as soon as HR came on the line. “My name is Iris West. I’m an employee at CCPN,” she rasped. “And I…” She coughed into the phone and heaved dramatically. “I won’t be able to come in today. I’m sick.”

Yeah, she didn’t want to deal – or not deal – with Linda at work today either.

…

Barry zoomed just to outside CCPN on his work break. Then he straightened his jacket and flattened some of his hair that had blown wild during his running. Glancing at his reflection in the glass door, he decided he looked okay enough. At least he didn’t look like he’d been running at super speed or been blasted by a massive wave of wind.

Joe didn’t know that he was here. He’d left a little earlier than his usual lunch break when he knew Joe was probably still busy with own work at the station or maybe even out at a crime scene that he – Barry – was hopefully not needed for. He knew that they’d decided to not interact with Iris for a few days, give her some space to breathe before making some peace with her, but Barry had decided what was the harm in trying it at least once the very next morning?

After all, her being mad at him was almost worse than her breaking his heart. It kind of was worse because it broke his heart in the process, and he knew she was right to be mad. About this at least. He couldn’t remember how many times he’d tried to convince Joe to just let him tell her. Joe would have none of it though. At least he was seeing the error of his ways now.

Swinging the door open, Barry walked in and immediately saw that Iris wasn’t at her desk. Mason, the Nobel-prize winner that had finally warmed up to her wasn’t at his desk either, which Barry found very suspicious until he spotted the man across the room.

He approached him and cleared his throat loudly.

“Excuse me, sir? Sir?”

Mason finally looked up at him and squinted his eyes where he stood at the copier.

“I’m sorry, do I know you?”

Barry felt fire in his cheeks but forced himself to get past it so he wouldn’t blush too hard in front of this stranger.

“I’m a friend of Iris. Iris West. Do you know if she’s in today?”

Mason made some sort of a grunting sound, then shook his head and pushed past Barry roughly, heading back to his desk with his papers.

“I-” Barry frowned, unsure of how to proceed.

Luckily, Linda had witnessed the entire thing and felt sorry for the poor guy enough to try and get his attention when Mason was gone.

“Hey, Barry. Barry!”

Barry looked in the direction of where his name was being called and sighed in relief.

“Linda!”

He walked over to her quickly.

“What’s with that guy?” He pointed in the direction of Mason with his thumb.

Linda crossed her arms and looked over Barry’s shoulder to where Mason was getting settled at his desk. Then she looked back at Barry.

“Oh, uh…he’s not super friendly to newcomers.” She winced. “Sorry about that. What did you need?”

Barry blew out a puff of air.

“I was looking for Iris. She and I had a little…”

“Oh, another…?” She winked dramatically.

“No, I mean, yes, but…” He sighed. “She found out I’m…” He mouthed the words ‘The Flash’.

Linda’s mouth fell open, and she shut it quickly while nodding slowly.

“Ah,” she said. “I thought she was supposed to…never know about that.”

“She wasn’t,” he ground out.

Her brows furrowed.

“What happened?”

He ran a hand through his hair, tousling it some.

“Apparently,” he lowered his voice, “I didn’t think to change my make-out style from Barry to a certain…scarlet speedster. She put two and two together real fast, and…yeah.”

“Wait a second, let me get this straight.” She held up a hand. “You made out with Iris, as…” she mouthed ‘The Flash’. “After you and I…as in, the same night?”

Barry’s head fell to his chest.

“Not my finest hour, I know. I just can’t…”

“Resist her,” she finished, shaking her head and smiling. “I can see that. Damn, it’s really good we broke up when we did or I’d be going mad with jealousy at this point. Not even sex can keep you from straying.”

He winced. “Sorry.”

“No need to apologize,” she said, giving a short, quick laugh. “If anything, I’m amused.”

“Yeah?”

“Consider us friends, Barry Allen. That’s much better than just exes, isn’t it?”

He nodded reluctantly. “Yeah.”

“Besides you should have someone who knows…” She lowered her voice. “Your secret.” She returned to normal volume. “That isn’t pissed at you about it. After all, we were only dating a few weeks. You had every right to your secrets at that point.”

“And you’ll keep it, right? You’ll keep my secret?”

“Of course,” she said automatically. “I said I would, and I will. You have my word on that.”

He smiled tremulously.

“Thanks, Linda.” He looked back over his shoulder before looking back at her. “So, about Iris?”

“Oh.” She frowned. “I think she called in sick today actually. I thought I overheard that when I passed HR’s office this morning.”

“Oh.” Barry frowned too.

“But if she’s as mad at you as you make it sound like she is, then I probably wouldn’t be bringing soup by her apartment any time soon. A) she’s probably not actually sick, and B) she’s probably still rattled from the recent revelation she discovered.”

Barry sighed and nodded.

“Yeah, she came over to the house last night and gave Joe and I a piece of her mind,” he muttered, still feeling scarred from just how angry Iris had been.

Linda rubbed her hand on Barry’s arm to soothe him and pull him out of his dark thoughts.

“Just give her a few days, Barry. She needs time to process everything before she can even think of forgiving you or even being nice about any type of apology on your end. That’s how it would be for me if I was in her position, at least.”

“Right,” Barry said, mostly to himself, as Joe’s voice loomed in the back of his head. “A few days.”

Linda tilted her head to the side.

“Want to have lunch with me? Might serve as a good distraction from your problems.”

He shook his head.

“No, thanks. I should get back to the station before Joe realizes I’m missing.” He paused before meeting her eyes. “He also suggested waiting a few days before trying to talk to Iris.”

“Ah.” She smiled. “See you later then.”

“See you,” he said quickly, then power-walked to the exit and flashed back to CCPD.

Linda watched and shook her head in wonder.

“That is…something else,” she murmured, then sat back at her desk and pulled out her paper bag lunch.

…

The next day Iris came into work. She came in the day after too. Barry didn’t interact with her that second day at all. He just flashed past CCPN to see if she was at her desk, to make sure she was okay and not genuinely sick. On day 3, he decided three days was the absolute bare minimum of ‘few’ and that he would wait till the end of the workday to surprise her and hope she didn’t blow him off. If she did, he’d probably have to wait a couple more days to see if she’d be more open to talking then. But if she gave him an opening, he wasn’t going to just sit by and not take it. She wasn’t just his best friend. She was the love of his life, and deep down he saw a future for them romantically.

Iris, exhausted after a long day, and having realized there was no danger in Linda surprise-interacting with her, got her things together and headed for the exit. The last thing she expected was Barry standing there in a suit with a huge arrangement of roses in a heart shape on a stand. She couldn’t even get a word in before he interrupted her thought process.

“It’s too much? It’s too much. It’s the heart, right? It’s too cheesy. Alright, hold on.”

And before she could blink, the flowers had been rearranged. Now they formed her name in all caps: IRIS.

“Is that better?”

Still trying to process, all she could do was stare, looking at the masterpiece before her and wondering how to respond to it, especially since she’d decided at the beginning of the day she was still mad at him.

“It’s worse?” His face fell. “We’ll go back to the heart. It’s-”

“No, Barry! Wait, wait. It is so beautiful, and you are so sweet…in theory.”

His frown deepened.

“In theory?”

She sighed and approached him tentatively.

“Did you forget what happened just a few days ago? Already?”

His shoulders slumped.

“I thought that would’ve been enough time.”

Her brows furrowed. “For what?”

“For you to forgive me.”

She took a step back and scoffed.

“You kept a life-altering event from me for months, almost a year, and you thought a few days would be enough for me to just…let that go?”

His mouth fell open but nothing came out.

Iris rolled her eyes and started to walk away. Luckily, Barry snapped out of it and immediately pursued her.

“Wait, wait, Iris, hold on!”

“And what’s with the suit?” she demanded. “It’s not like we’re going on a date.”

“No, I know that. I just…I wanted to look my best.”

“For what?”

“For you, obviously.”

She stopped and turned to look at him.

“And I think flowers look best with a suit accompanying them. I mean…right?”

She sighed, ignoring the tug on her heartstrings from how hopeful he looked.

“Look, I know what you’re thinking,” she began. “How can I possibly be mad at you for keeping a big secret when I’m keeping an equally huge one from Eddie?”

His voice squeaked a little. “Well.”

He hadn’t wanted to say it, but…yeah.

“We’ve been friends for over 15 years, Barry. We tell each other everything. Or we’re supposed to. I may have had a few days to let things sink in, but that doesn’t mean I can forgive you for it. It’s too huge.”

He took a step towards her.

“Okay, if you don’t want to talk about that, can we at least address the elephant in the room? You’ve been avoiding it since it happened, and I don’t think it’s fair. With Eddie gone, I mean…”

“Eddie did not break up with me,” she said. “He’s just out of town. That doesn’t give me permission to just…pick up where I left off with you.”

“No, I know that,” he was quick to say. “But do you ever…want to?”

He knew it was a risky question to ask, but if she wouldn’t even consider talking about the Flash reveal from the other night, he figured the other ginormous elephant was worth talking about. It had been long enough.

Iris took a breath, fighting with herself to not break out in a screaming match in the middle of the street.

“Okay, fine. You want me to be honest? I’ll be honest.”

Barry held his breath.

“Am I attracted to you? Yes. Did I just figure it out that night? More or less. Has the memory of that night been stuck in my brain ever since? Pretty much.”

His eyes widened. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“But here’s the thing.”

Uh-oh.

“It’s just sexual attraction.”

He frowned.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means…we’ve been friends for so long, we were bound to develop a physical attraction to each other at some point. And for some reason neither one of us was smart enough to give in to a one-night stand to get those completely natural attraction feelings out of our system. It was going to come out and some point sporadically.”

“So, what you’re saying is…”

“I don’t have feelings for you, Barry. I love Eddie. He’s the only person I love. Romantically, at least.”

“I…see.”

“Ideally, a one-night stand would fix all of this, but I obviously can’t do that without cheating on Eddie again. And this time with actual sex.”

Barry gulped.

“It’s not gonna happen.”

“Right.”

“I will just have to…figure out some other way to get you out of my head. Or your body, rather.”

He wrapped an arm around the back of his head and did not succeed in stopping the blush that spread across his cheeks.

“I see.”

“And even if I did have feelings for you, which I don’t…”

“Yeah?” He licked his lips.

“All of that is moot, because I can’t trust you.”

His face fell.

“I feel like I don’t even know you anymore. Like you’ve been a completely different person since the moment you woke up from that coma.”

“Iris…” He reached for her, but she took a step back and held up a hand to fend him off.

“I’m sorry, Barry, but a few days and some flowers, gorgeous though they may be, is just not going to cut it.”

He found he had no words to that.

So this time when she turned away, he didn’t chase after her. He watched her walk away and out of his life. Again.

…

The plan was to go back to the apartment. That was the plan. But for some reason after Iris got into her car, she kept driving past a street she was supposed to turn onto and went to a familiar place instead. A place she knew better than the apartment she shared with Eddie and felt more like home to her, though she’d never admit it.

Jitters.

When she got inside the coffee shop, she headed straight for the back staircase without even stopping to get a drink. She opened the heavy, gray door and looked up at the long winding staircase above her. Taking a breath, she started the ascent, memories playing over and over in her mind with each new step she took.

She saw that first moment she really met the Flash again. That wink he’d sent her way. It had immediately caused chills to race down her spine. She’d been breathless, absolutely and completely. Was that what a crush felt like? It’d been so long since she felt that. She skipped that step with Eddie. He’d just come into her life when she was absolutely falling apart, and they’d naturally gone through all the relationship steps, but she never really had a crush on him. They’d missed that part somehow.

But she had a crush on the Flash. There was no denying it now. No denying how superficial it was either. She was a dedicated fan, and he was a superhero. There were probably loads of people had a crush on the scarlet speedster. She couldn’t be the only one.

But he’d met with her.

To stop her from running her blog, sure, but she knew the reason behind that now. She wondered how different things could’ve been if he hadn’t been trying to stop her during every clandestine meeting they had together. He’d probably have revealed he was her best friend sooner. But then she probably wouldn’t have had a crush on him or would’ve stopped having crush on him.

Right?

She kept walking up the stairs as another time flashed before her mind. Their second time on the rooftop. She’d been so happy, so full of life, so eager for even a snippet for her to include in her blog. And she’d been flirty too.

“My hearing is fine. It’s just selective.”

She smirked at that.

Another time… the time she cut off all contact with him, at least for a while. Because a meta had taken over his mind and nearly killed Eddie.

That made sense now too. Of course in a warped mind state Barry would go after Eddie. Eddie had wanted to take down the Flash since the second he believed in him, and then there was the other thing.

Barry was jealous.

“Don’t contact me again. Okay?”

If she had only known it was Barry.

She would’ve responded so differently. She would have understood. She would’ve wanted to know if he was okay, what he had gone through, how he’d broken through. She would’ve been entirely focused on him instead of her boyfriend. Eddie might not have liked that, but he would just have had to deal. Barry was her first and foremost, always.

She burst through to the rooftop, heaving, and went to the far side, leaning on the half-wall, which practically came up to her shoulders.

Her hands were trembling, so she gripped them to the stone as tightly as she could. And then she felt a gust of wind behind her and knew who was there. Who else could it be?

“Did you search the whole city for me?” She swallowed, as she turned around.

Barry approached slowly from the doorway.

“Didn’t have to. This is…your spot.”

Her irritation boiled up inside her again. Of course he knew that. He knew things about her that she hadn’t known that he knew. All because he’d kept this ginormous secret from her for months. He hadn’t let on at all, and she’d never figured it out. Maybe that bothered her the most.

“Yeah, it’s a special spot,” she said aloud. “It’s where I first met the Flash.” She shook her head. “All those times, you were standing right in front of me, and I had no idea. I don’t even know you anymore.”

Words she’d said before, but somehow they bared repeating. He needed to get it through his thick skull that she wasn’t going to just…forgive him because he was persistent.

“What are you even doing here?” she demanded.

He took a breath, ignoring her question.

“Every time I falter make a mistake, the thought of you is what picks me up and keeps me going. And not just as Barry, as the Flash too. With every meta, every crook, every time I have to step in and be a hero, it’s you, Iris. It’s you.”

Iris licked her lips, the words hitting home for her despite how much she didn’t want them to. It was a boost to know she was the support for a superhero. Even if he was just saying it to get her to consider forgiving him.

He closed the remaining distance between them.

“Look, what I’m trying to say is…even though you didn’t know everything about my life this past year, that does not mean that you weren’t a part of it. You were. Every. Single. Day. Without you…there wouldn’t be the Flash.”

And she knew in that moment, she was going to forgive him.

Her dad might be a different story, but this was Barry. How could she not?

Barry reached down and grazed his fingertips across one of her hands. She swore she felt a spark. She’d bet her life on it. She gasped even, albeit quietly.

“So, what do you say?” he asked, his voice gravelly and rough, almost like the Flash. Almost. “Are we good?”

And in that moment that she looked up into his eyes, she saw their whole life together flash before her eyes. Past, present, and future. She felt hope and longing and love. And she didn’t see Eddie in the future just then. She wasn’t thinking about him at all.

She felt butterflies too, exploding inside of her, and a dawning revelation hit her stronger than the one before she’d kissed him weeks before.

Oh, my God. I’m in love with him.

She could hardly breathe, and it was dangerous to be this close to him, to be touching him, knowing what she now knew.

“I think…” She licked her lips. “I think we might be okay.” She tried to push past the feelings cascading around her, but it was impossible. “Fresh start?” she made herself say, and he nodded.

“I’d like that,” he said. “No more secrets?”

She could almost laugh. She was sitting on a big one right now.

Tremulously, she smiled.

“No more secrets.” She tilted her head to the side, not wanting to part with him but knowing she needed a distraction that wasn’t confessing her undying love for her best friend while her boyfriend was out of town.

“You want to go see a movie?”

He grinned, and she wanted to melt. She’d forgotten how sexy that grin was. She hadn’t let herself think it, but now she was having trouble thinking of anything else.

“Yeah,” he said. “I’d like that.”

He dropped her hand, but she looped her arm through his and leaned her head on his shoulder as they walked toward the door on the far end of the rooftop. She felt like a girl with a crush, and she knew then with absolute certainty that if Barry had told her who he was from the beginning, her crush wouldn’t have gone away. It would’ve intensified.

And that should’ve worried her more than anything else.

But for some reason, it didn’t.

#westallen #westallen fanfiction #backtothestart02 fanfiction #just best friends #chapter 7

10 notes · View notes

ao-anonymousobsesser · 5 years ago

Text

Oops?

Hey! So! I’m not dead! Surprised? Me too!

This story was written for my good friend @comfortably-chaotic-mind - I love them, please go follow them and read whatever they post. Some ColdFlash written just for you, buddy, since I know I haven’t written much...and this is honestly kind of garbage and not in any way explicitly ColdFlash until the end, and I might eventually continue it in a real story (probably not). But anyway! Good job with school! Here you go!

Oops? a ColdFlash Fic for @comfortably-chaotic-mind - 4700 words

“Allen.”

He glanced up, fingers pausing their furious typing but still hovering over the keys. “Yeah?”

“There’s some guy at the door, says he knows you.”

Barry’s brow scrunched. “Who?”

His roommate shrugged. “Didn’t give a name. Said he was your friend, asked me to get you.” A pause, and he looked over his shoulder almost nervously. “He’s creepy, dude—I think he might be on the run. Who the fuck you hangin’ out with?”

Realization dawned, and he laughed. “Oh, okay,” he said, still laughing. “Yeah, it’s fine. It’s just Len—you can let him in.”

“You sure?”

Barry rolled his eyes. “Yes, Hal. I promise he won’t steal your stuff.”

His roommate’s eyes narrowed at that. “Even more suspicious,” he muttered, but he disappeared back into the hall.

There were muffled voices—Hal telling Len where to find him—and then the front door shut and the TV in the living room turned on. If he listened really carefully, he could hear quiet footsteps on the creaky stairs.

The door to his bedroom-slash-office opened again, and he turned back to his computer. The data report wasn’t going to finish itself. It didn’t take long for the door to shut, and then a man’s figure came to lean against the desk beside his arm.

“No Cold-Gun today?” Barry asked, conversational. “How bold of you. You know, without that thing, I could take you to jail whenever I want.”

The man scoffed. “We have a deal, Scarlet—I don’t kill, you don’t turn me in. I haven’t killed anyone, so…”

He rolled his eyes. “What do you want, Snart?” he sighed. “And how did you even find me?”

“I asked Vibe.”

Barry waited for him to continue, but he left it at that, so Barry finally stopped talking and looked up with a raised brow and a completely nonplussed expression. “What do you want, Cold?” he snapped.

Len just frowned. “What are you doing here, Scarlet?”

“What do you mean?” He gestured pointedly around them. “I’m working.”

“You work in Central City,” the man corrected, almost…grumbling.

Barry shook his head, face scrunching in utter confusion. “No, I mean—I had to go back to school.”

“Back?”

“Yeah? Back? This is where I went to get my degree in the first place, and now I have to take an updated course. Just a few weeks. I should be back by next month. I’m even getting paid for it.” He grinned, though it almost immediately fell when Len just stared at him. “What?”

“When did you get your degree?”

“Every CSI has a college degree, Snart. It’s mandatory.”

“No. When were you in Coast City?”

He shrugged. “I moved the summer after high school. School for three years, training for one, and then I went home.” The other man was silent, and his brow scrunched in concern. “Why?”

Len shook his head. “No reason,” he said quietly, glancing around the room. The way he said it indicated that there was, in fact, a reason, but that he would not be disclosing it. “What are you doing back?”

“Refresher course,” Barry replied slowly. “They updated the curriculum for the new tech we have now, and Singh offered to send me back here instead of doing the course in Central, since Coast City is way better in the university department.”

The other man didn’t ask anything else, still looking around the room, and the speedster sighed deeply.

“Look, Snart, I have a lot of work to do, so if there’s a reason for this visit, please get to—”

“What was it like,” he interrupted, the words rough and halting, as if he were forcing them out of his throat, “for you, when you were in your coma?”

Barry blinked in surprise. “How do you know about that?”

“Humor me, Scarlet.”

“I…” He hesitated before shaking his head. “Well, it was hard, at first. Not just because I woke up with superspeed, but—when I was…asleep…I was just dreaming. About anything, everything—and it didn’t really feel like anything more than just regular dreams and stuff. And then I woke up, and it had been, like…nine, ten months without me even noticing. So I had to deal with that.” He sighed. “The world just kind of…I mean, the world doesn’t stop because a random CSI is in a coma. No one really cared—No one other than Iris and Joe, and STAR Labs kinda. So, yeah. It was rough for a while. Everything had changed, and I didn’t even get to see it.”

Len was quiet for a long moment. Barry watched him carefully, searching for any sign as to what this was all about.

Finally, the older man sighed and shook his head. “How did you know it was me at the door?”

“Hal’s description,” he replied without hesitation. “He’s pretty intuitive about stuff. Said you looked like you were on the run, and creepy, and suspicious, but if he thought you were actually dangerous, he would have come out and said it. And you’re the only one I know that could pull that off and still say, I’m a friend of Barry’s, can you get him? with a totally straight face.” He shrugged. “Anyone else who might have done that is still in Central. I got an update last night—they all went out to celebrate Caitlin’s first official catch.” He grinned.

Len rolled his eyes. “You left a bunch of newbies to protect the city,” he sighed disapprovingly.

Barry frowned. “You know, when we first met, I was a newbie,” he pointed out. “I had only been a speedster for like—a month.” He huffed. “Cisco and Iris have it under control for now. It’s fine. The city’s in good hands.”

“I don’t like it.”

The speedster paused, head tilted as his eyes narrowed. “Why?”

“I just don’t. A lot can happen without the Scarlet Speedster around.”

“There are three other speedsters in town right now. I think they’ll be fine.”

“None of them are you.”

“What’s your point, Len?” he sighed, exasperated now. “Did something happen?”

“No.”

Just then, Barry’s alarm sounded, startling him. It was noon: officially lunchtime. He huffed, shutting down his laptop and standing to stretch. Then his phone started beeping again—not his alarm, this time, but his text-tone. And then it started ringing. Like, ringing ringing, in the way it only did when Cisco’s latest installation was being put to use.

He had only let him put the app on his phone a few weeks ago, before going to Coast City, just in case. If several people called him at once, he could choose which he wanted to answer rather than hearing the busy-line beeping noise when he answered the phone.

Barry raised a brow and reached for the device.

Len grabbed his arm, pulling him back. “Don’t answer that,” he all but ordered. “Trust me.”

“Why?” His face scrunched. “What’s going on?” he demanded.

“They’re just going to tell you that I’m on my way here,” the man explained carefully. “And since I’m already here, you don’t need to know.”

“How did you get here so fast, then?” Barry retorted.

“Kara lent me her generator.” Len shrugged. “She was…strangely nice.” His brow rose. “I’m guessing you only told her the good parts, and not that I’m a criminal?”

The speedster ran a hand through his hair. “Maybe? By the time I met her, you were with the Legends.” He paused. “How did you meet her?”

“Long story.”

“Obviously, I’ve got time.” He crossed his arms and glared pointedly. “What the hell is going on, Len? What did you do in Central that has everyone trying to get ahold of me? When did you get back from the Waverider? Why are you here?”

“I didn’t know where else to go!” Len shouted, expression crumpling. “Mick won’t talk to me, Lisa’s underground, Sara thinks I’ve lost my mind, and the rest of the crew—they can barely look at me after what they did! What they let me do!”

Barry was utterly confused, now, and he took a slow step forward as if approaching a scared, wounded animal. “What are you talking about?” he asked carefully.

“I died, Barry.”

He froze—actually froze, standing stock-still like a robot shutting down. This was… “What?” he asked. “What…That…What?”

Len sighed, slumping down into the vacated office chair. “The Time Masters were—They were gonna let Vandal Savage wreck the timeline. Kill whoever he wanted. They said they had to, to ensure the world’s survival.”

“What does that mean?”

“In a couple hundred years, we’re going to be invaded by Thanagaar—an alien planet with a warlike people. And the Time Masters don’t think we’ll make it unless Savage is there to help us. So, they let him do what he wants, shape the world into what he thinks is best, and he’ll save the world.”

“It’s Vandal Savage, Len. He can’t be trusted.”

“I know,” he snapped. “We all knew that.” He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “We decided to destroy their time-keeping device. The Oculus, they called it. It held the records for every timeline, every little change that would or could occur. Destroy that, and time is guided by freewill.”

“And?”

“And the only way to destroy it was to stand right next to it, holding down the button until it exploded.” He looked up, watching the horror dawn across Barry’s face, and nodded. “Ray was going to be the one, thinking his Atom suit would protect him, but we saw that it wouldn’t. And then Mick tried to step in, because Rip convinced him it was the way to repent—by saving his friend. I couldn’t—I couldn’t let him die.”

“Len…”

“I couldn’t let Mick die, Barry,” he snapped. “Not like that. Not when I—I was the one who dragged him into the whole thing. Into the Legends. He followed me, after everything, after everything I did to him, and…and I couldn’t do it.”

“I get it.”

“I knocked him out, took his place…blew up the Oculus. Took out half the Time Masters, too.”

“And then?”

“I died. Disintegrated. Became…Nothing.”

Barry reached out to set a hand on his shoulder, brow scrunched in sympathy. “How long?”

“I don’t know.” Len shook his head. “Days? Years? Centuries? I…I wasn’t sleeping, exactly, or dreaming. It was all…real. And then you were there. Every time I managed to pull myself together, every time I relaxed into the pain enough to think…You were there.”

He was confused again. “I don’t remember…”

The man was already shaking his head. “An older version of you,” he clarified. “You were…maybe thirty?” He sighed. “There were so many fragments, different timelines…It’s hard to keep track. Most of them didn’t make sense.”

“Why?”

“I’d rather not say. If you don’t mind.”

Barry shrugged. “That’s fine, I guess. It’s your trauma.” He sighed. “So this was maybe…three, four years in the future.”

“Most of it.”

“And the rest?”

Len looked away at that, silent for a minute. Then, quietly, “The last one was a few weeks ago. He brought me back to the Waverider.”

“He?”

“You…Future-You.” He chuckled softly. “I fell through a wormhole onto his kitchen floor.”

Barry laughed. “I’m sure that was surprising.”

Len shrugged. “He didn’t seem surprised. But it could have been because he was older.”

“What do you mean, he didn’t seem surprised?”

“He…” Hesitation, again. “He just leaned over and said, Finally. Then he helped me up, explained some science stuff that I couldn’t understand, and offered to take me back to my time.”

“How old was he—I?” Barry stuttered.

“Forty? Maybe forty-five?” Another shrug. “You might have been older, though—I had a feeling. Speedster aging must be slower.”

“Strange.” He shook his head. “How long did you stay with the Legends?”

“Not long. Like I said, they can barely stand to be around me.” He sighed. “It didn’t take much to get them to drop me off in 2016.”

“You still haven’t told me how you met Supergirl. She’s on another Earth, Len—the Waverider couldn’t have taken you there, and I don’t think you have any favors left with Cisco. So how did you meet?”

Len nodded, thoughtful. “That…is complicated.”

“More complicated than literally dying?”

“Yes.”

Barry huffed and sat down on his bed, crossing his arms. “Hit me with it, then.”

“First of all, I didn’t meet her this year. I met her…probably at least fifteen or twenty years from now. It’s all a little fuzzy.”

“Why?”

“She—Well, her team, really…They were the ones who pulled my threads together.” He shook his head. “They didn’t mean to, not really—they were looking for some sort of robot, or something—but they got me out first. I was unconscious for that part. Woke up in a hospital bed next to Kara’s.”

“She was hurt?”

Len shook his head again. “Not exactly…More drained. The machine they used drew power from her. She insisted it was fine, that she just needed some Vitamin D, and she’d be fine.”

“Her power comes from the Sun.”

“I know that now—I didn’t know back then.” He sighed. “She asked who I was…and when I told her, she immediately asked if I knew you and Oliver.”

“Of course she did,” he muttered. “And then?”

“I don’t remember a lot of it,” Len admitted. “She gave me one of her spare generators, and then I woke up on Older-Barry’s kitchen floor.” A scoff. “And then I get home to a crew that no longer wants anything to do with me. They dropped me off in Central. I looked for Lisa, but it looks like she’s underground—she’s not at any of her usual safehouses.”

Barry grimaced, shifting slightly in his seat. “Um…”

The former villain narrowed his eyes. “What’s that, Scarlet?”

He winced. “Lisa’s not underground, Len.”

“What are you talking about? Is she in jail?”

“No…” Barry sighed. “She’s on Earth-2.”

“Why?” Len demanded, lurching from his seat.

“Because she’s sick,” he said calmly, holding his hands up in a placating gesture. “Harry—Earth-2 Wells knew a doctor who specializes in her condition, one who’s much better than anyone we know on this Earth, and we sent her over there to get help. Cisco’s probably on his way there right now to tell her you’re back.” He paused. “Actually, she’s probably with the you who lives there, now that I think about it.”

“What?” That made him pause in his anger, at least, now confused and concerned. “Why?”

“I don’t think you want to know,” Barry hedged. “But she’s in good hands, I promise.”

“Just tell me, Barry.”

“Fine,” he sighed. “The doctor I told you about, the specialist? It’s her—Earth-2 Lisa Snart is a bio-engineer with a Medical Degree. Basically, she’s Caitlin. Minus the ice powers and with the addition of some pretty sweet inventions.” He grimaced. “Her brother is…the Mayor. Of Central City. They killed their dad when they were kids—self-defense.”

Len was quiet for a moment. Then: “You’ve met, then?”

He nodded. “Twice, actually. Once on accident…and then again when Harry introduced us to Lenny and Doc. They’re…nice. Safe. Very protective, which isn’t surprising.” He grinned. “Last I talked to Lisa, she was awake and feeling a lot better. She hasn’t had an episode in almost two months, and her brain activity is back to normal. She sounds better, too—more like herself. Even flirted with Cisco when they talked, which she hadn’t done in a while…”

“She’s okay, then?”

“Not at a hundred percent yet,” Barry warned with a shrug. “But yeah. She’s safe. Happy. Feeling better than she did when she first came to us.”

“What happened?”

“She just—Showed up at Joe’s one night, out of nowhere. I think it was maybe a month or so after you left—she had called Cisco before that, asking if we knew where you were, and we told her, and she was pissed at me for some reason.” He laughed, just a little. “Then she just shows up out of nowhere at Joe’s house, scares the hell out of me when she just walks right through the front door. Which was locked.” He shook his head. “Apparently, she stole your key?” His brow raised.

Len just smirked. “Lock-picking gets tedious after a while.”

“Where did you even—”

“Iris should be more careful about leaving her purse lying around.”

“…Whatever.” Barry huffed. “So, anyway, Lisa just walks in one night—middle of the night, out of nowhere—sits right next to me on the couch, scaring the hell out of me. She looks at me, and I could already tell something was messed up with her, because she just…she didn’t look right. She looked tired and sad and…sick.” He sighed. “She looked at me for a minute and then said, Don’t freak out. You know, like she hadn’t just appeared out of nowhere. And then she said, I need your help. And I was like, With what? And she told me she ran into an old boyfriend and he did something to her.”

“What the f—”

“Not that,” he assured quickly. “That was my first thought, but she kind of lost it when I asked her, and—yeah. So then, when she calmed down from that, she got this headache…migraine…thing, and that was when I first saw her get one of her attacks.” He grimaced. “It was…bad. Weird, and scary, and it actually kind of freaked me out.” A sigh. “So, uh, I called Caitlin first, and then Cisco and Harry, and asked them to meet us at STAR Labs. Harry had actually seen something like it before, on his Earth, and he knew a specialist—other-Lisa—who could help. So we took her there. She insisted that I had to come with her, and she wouldn’t let me leave until she was with Lenny and Doc, until she was sure she could trust them.”

Len thought this all over for a moment. “What exactly did this attack entail?”

“Hard to describe…” Barry thought about it. “She kind of…exploded? Not her body, but like…her spirit, kind of. Like an astral projection, except she couldn’t control it enough to actually appear as a person.” He sighed. “We met the ex-boyfriend a few weeks later…Roscoe?”

“Dillon.” He sneered. “He’s still around?”

“Not anymore,” the speedster said darkly. “He was a metahuman…some kind of tornado-hurricane-spinning abilities. Cisco called him Topsy-Turvy, but after he just kept coming and coming…it was an accident, but he died.”

“How did he hurt Lisa?”

“As far as we can tell…She was working on some sort of mercenary work or something, and he was robbing a bank, and they…literally ran into each other. She got thrown into a wall, got a knock on the head, and apparently the concussion triggered some kind of ability she didn’t know about.”

“She wasn’t in Central—”

“When the Particle Accelerator blew.” Barry nodded. “Yeah, we know.” He winced. “You’re not gonna like our theory on that.”

“Why not?” Len asked, very slowly.

“Because it might be my fault.”

He blinked, surprised. “What?”

“Turns out…I kind of…give off small amounts of Dark Matter because of the Speed Force…mostly when I run.”

“And?”

“And, the people that I transport, if they carry a metahuman gene, could, theoretically, absorb that Dark Matter in the same way that people affected by the Particle Accelerator did…and, theoretically, this would make them more likely to develop an ability when exposed to violent trauma.” A pause. “I transported Lisa a handful of times when we were helping you guys last year, and even before that for different reasons.”

Len didn’t say anything to this, instead looking down at his hands.

“I’m sorry, Len,” Barry said quietly. “If I’d known…”

“It’s not your fault,” he told him. “You didn’t know.”

“I…”

“Not every bad thing that happens is your fault, Scarlet,” Len said with a smirk. “It’s alright.”

Barry huffed. “Fine.” He was quiet for a minute. “If you want, I can take you to her. You know, so you can see for yourself.”

He thought about it for a bit before shaking his head. “No,” he decided. “If she’s getting what she needs, I don’t want to interrupt it. If Cisco does tell her and she wants to see me, I’ll go, but for now, she needs her rest.”

The speedster nodded in understanding. “Okay.” His phone was still ringing, and he looked at it. “I’m just gonna tell them that everything is fine.”

He picked up the device, ignoring the calls, and opened the group chat, which was full of about a hundred messages that all said pretty much the same thing. He sent out a text saying, Yeah, he’s here. Just wants to talk about some stuff. Everything is fine. Thanks, I’ll let you know later. Love you guys.

With that, Barry sighed and slipped the phone into his pocket. “So, what are you going to do now?” he asked the former villain.

Len just smiled. “Not sure. I could go back to robbing banks…but I don’t really need the money. Maybe I’ll offer your team some help in Central.”

“What do you mean, you don’t need the money?” His eyes narrowed.

“Blowing up the Oculus had a few benefits.” He shrugged. “I know all the lottery numbers for the next five years. I’ve already made four-hundred grand.”

“Len…”

“Technically not a crime.”

“Still.” Barry shook his head with a deep sigh. “Fine, whatever. Well, I’m sure STAR Labs could use the help. And I’ll be back in no time…as soon as I finish this course, which is…not what I expected.”

“Too hard?”

“Too easy,” he corrected, scoffing. “I’ve read all the material, and the projects are all…solved with very little effort. Nothing near as challenging as my actual job in Central. Science there is always complicated.”

“Because of the metas.”

“Yeah.” He shrugged. “Superpowers make regular science look way easier than it did in college.” He nodded at the computer. “Actually, after the paper I’m working on right now, I only have two more and a final exam. I could be done by next week, if I wanted. I just don’t want Singh to think I rushed through it.”

“He already trusts you more than any other CSI, Barry. I think he trusts you to do the work on your own schedule.”

“Maybe.”

“Then I’ll see you back in Central next week.”

“I—”

“Next week, Barry.”

A sigh. “Fine. Next week.” His phone buzzed, he looked at the message and laughed. “Harry says your sister is attempting a prison break to try to see you. You might want to visit her.”

Len chuckled. “Alright then. I suppose it’s time to tell her what’s happened.” He stood, holding out a hand when Barry followed suit. When their hands clasped, the villain-turned-legend pulled the speedster forward until they were almost hugging. “I’ll see you soon, Scarlet.”

“See you soon, Cold.”

And with the press of a button, Len was gone, leaving Barry to wonder exactly what just happened.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

6 Weeks Later

“Barry…”

“Iris…”

She sighed. “This is getting unprofessional.”

He laughed, a little nervous. “What are you talking about?”

“You and Len.” It had taken a while for everyone to get used to each other, but now he was just Len instead of Cold. Progress. “You guys have got to stop flirting in the field. It’s weird.”

“We do not flirt.”

“You’re literally blushing, Barry.” Her tone was amused now. “Do you have a crush?”

“Iris,” the speedster all but whined, pulling a t-shirt over his head. “This is weird.”

“Why? Because we dated?”

“Yes!”

“Barely.” Iris rolled her eyes. “Barry, it’s fine. You have a crush on Len, it’s fine…but you should probably tell him.”

“No!” he said immediately. “No, that’s—That’s a bad idea.”

“Why? I’m pretty sure he likes you.”

That made him pause. “Really?” He bit his lip, looking at her. “You think so?”

“Lisa keeps teasing him about it.” She nodded. “And you’re both clearly attracted to each other, and you’re always flirting, so…Why not just come out and say it?”

“What if you’re wrong?”

“I’m not.”

“What if it ends badly?”

“What if it doesn’t?” Iris laughed brightly. “Barry, sometimes you get in your own way. You just gotta go for it sometimes. Take a leap of faith. It’s gonna be okay.”

Barry was quiet for a long time, and Iris eventually left him to his own devices.

Ultimately, he decided to go for it; he went to find Len. Unsurprisingly, he was at “their” spot: a diner across from Jitters and CCPD, filled with leather booths and chrome and the smell of fresh homemade pie.

Barry slid into the booth across from Len, who looked up from his phone with a smile. “Hey, Scarlet. Look at this.”

He turned the device around so the speedster could see. “What’s that? Oh—Oh, that’s so cool!” He grinned. “Lisa-Squared?”

“Yeah. Lisa drew up the models, and Doc built it. It came out pretty neat, I think.”

“It did, yeah. I like the melting feature—there won’t be ice-streaks all over the city.” He laughed. “Of course they’re gold—Lisa’s choice, I’m sure.”

“Naturally.” Len shrugged. “You can’t take the Gold out of the Glider, I guess. Not completely.”

“No, I guess not.” Barry leaned his head on his palm, elbow on the table.

The newly-branded Citizen Cold raised a brow and put his phone away. “Something on your mind, Barry?”

He shrugged. “Iris came to talk to me today.”

“What about?”

“She said that we flirt a lot when we’re in the field.” He scrunched his nose. “I told her she was crazy, and she looked at me like I was an idiot…not unlike you’re looking at me right now, Len—what the hell?”

“Barry,” he said quietly, slowly, “I don’t know how to break this to you, but almost everything we say to each other is banter…which is a form of flirting.”

“But—But,” Barry sputtered. “But!”

“What’s wrong, Scarlet?” Len teased. “Can’t keep up?”

He frowned, almost pouting. “You never said anything,” he accused.

The other man shrugged. “I was told not to.”

“By who?”

“By you. Older you—The one who brought me back. He said you had to figure it out on your own.”

Barry stammered again, arms flailing. “What the hell!” he said, frustrated. “That’s stupid!”

“You’re calling yourself an idiot?” Len clarified.

“Yes! I’m an idiot, now, but like—that’s just stupid.” He sighed. “I mean, I guess it makes sense to keep the timeline the way it should be. But still.”

They were both quiet for a long minute. Long enough for a waitress to come by and take drink orders and then bring them back.

Once she disappeared, Barry took a sip of his soda and then suddenly blurted, “Will you go with me to Jesse’s party on Earth-2 this weekend?”

Len raised a brow. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? That’s a lot of pressure.”

“It’s just a party, Len,” he said with a grin. “All our friends will be there, and we can be together without doing the awkward first-date thing…I mean, we already did a lot of that without realizing. Unless you want to…”

There was a pause as he thought about it, enough to make Barry almost panic, but Len nodded slowly. “Alright. But I have two requests.”

“Shoot.”

“One: If Caitlin makes her Speedster Alcohol, you have to stop drinking at least two hours before we leave. I want you sober when we head out.”

“Why?”

“Because, two: I want to go for a walk. We’re not doing the first-date-awkward dinner thing, and movies aren’t something we have time for, but we can go for a walk and talk about things.” A pause. “It’s important, to me.”

Barry thought about this, about what it might mean, but he didn’t see a reason to say no. Besides… “That sounds nice. Okay. I won’t drink too much, and I’ll stop before we leave so we can go talk. It’s a deal.”

“It’s a date, Scarlet.”

“A date, Cold.”

#coldflash #for a friend #coldflash fic #fanfiction #i'm a huge dork #here you go #i guess #brief hal jordan mention even though i hate him i hope you're happy

41 notes · View notes

handlewithkara · 5 years ago

Text

Lying about your Superhero identity: Why Clois and Westallen (Flash tv) just work and Clana (Smallville), Lauriver (Arrow) and Kara&Lena (Supergirl) don’t

A while ago, I wrote a bit about why I think the way Mon-El lied to Kara about his real identity is fundamentally different from when Kara lies about her superhero identity and the fact that she is an alien (tldr: Mon-El lies about his past, Kara lies about her present and things that are fundamental to her character).

This made me think about superheroes and their relationships in general. I have long since maintained that if one applied real life relationship standards (whether as a friendship or as a romantic relationship) to Kara and Lena, they just have a really, really awful relationship, steeped in lies and distrust.

Kara and Lena fans have always claimed that their relationship has a lot of parallels with Clark and Lois. I for one, have always felt that those so called parallels are extremely superficial and tenuous and to me completely miss the core of what Clois are about as a couple. That those things they do NOT have in common (such as being reporters who work together and Lois being drawn to Superman first, the fact that Lois does not go full on hateful psycho when she finds out the truth) are actually really important in regards to what make Clois tick.

So.... why does Clois work?

If you look at the core of it, Clark hiding his identity from Lois is, especially if looked at with modern sensibilities, is kind of skeevy.

I argue: the thing that is most often levvied against Clois as a couple and Lois as a character, namely the fact that Lois initially fawns over Superman while ignoring or discounting Clark in one way or another, is actually one of the key factors that make them work as a couple.

We can discuss whether the tendency of people to take this as the reason to call Lois is shallow (for overlooking the niceguy(tm)) is problematic in its own way. But regardless of whether it is or isn’t, it is the way that Clois has worked for the majority of its existance.

Lois being hot for Superman (or “The Blur”) while partially disregarding Clark allows them to set up a situation where both partners are flawed and both are “at fault” (Clark for lying, Lois for being “shallow”). It is what allows the reveal of Clark’s true identity to go over a lot smoother, because there is a lot more room for Lois to be portrayed as either “I should have seen it” or “Maybe I knew on some level”.

I truly think that the creators of Flash understood that and that’s why Iris initially very similarly has a flirtation with the Flash and at the same time has a good reason to not see Barry as a romantic option (one could argue that this is one of the ways that Flash “softens” or improves on Clois, because this element of Lois teasing Clark or belittling him isn’t there for Westallen and also the timing for when Iris finds out is very different from the way most longer running Clois stories (comics, cartoons, tv) do it).

A lot of the time it seems like some writers are dissatisfied with the concept of “shallow Lois” and feel tempted to “fix” the Clois formula by writing the woman as loving the “Clark” side of the Superhero. This is the case with both Smallville’s version of Clark and Lana and Arrow’s version of Ollie and Laurel, where they made them childhood sweethearts from before Oliver becomes Green Arrow.

But they all overlook that “sweetening” the woman by having her love the guy under the mask first actually completely ruins the Clois formula. Because if the girl sweet and attached to the hero, it makes the hero lying to her about his secret identity so much more morally worse and makes a bad reaction to it a lot more called for (or makes the story feel like it is missing something when there isn’t one, because then it is even more that the superhero was just basically being mean to the nice girl who loves him). It makes the relationship way more unbalanced and hence causes it to not work longterm.

I truly believe that the writers of Smallville loved Lana the character and even loved the torrid, tragic nature of Clark and Lana’s relationship. But I feel, once they introduced Lois, they noticed that ... Clois just works. No matter how unsatisfied people might be with the concept of “shallow” Lois, this story archetype just works and almost writes itself, allowing Smallville to transition from Clark and Lana as the driving relationship to Clark and Lois to the driving relationship, allowing the show to stay on the air for many additional years.

They wanted to strengthen the Clana relationship by giving them a dynamic closer to Clois by having Clark hide his identity from her, not realizing that this actually weakened them as a couple in regards to longterm potential by pitting Lana into the unattractive long suffering woman position. I believe this is the reason why they kept giving Lana so many other partners, in a deperate attempt to “balance” the scales between Clana and give Lana a bit more power in the relatinoship.

In the comics, the triangle situation of Clana versus Clois arises specifically from Lana knowing the secret and Lois not knowing it, and the core dynamic of the nice girl high school sweetheart versus the challenging high maintainance city girl. Because of this, I’m fairly certain that any attempts to do a Lana/Clark/Lois triangle will not work on the new Superman & Lois show because the Clois versus Clana dynamic (even as it is generally considered as being already decided), doesn’t work even short time when Lana does not at least temporary have it “over” Lois that Lana knows the secret and Lois doesn’t. If neither knows (like on Smallville) and if both know (like potentially on Superman and Lois) Clois is just cleanly superior.

To me this is also shown in Lauriver versus Olicity, where when you have the Smallville Clana archetype (girl loves the guy before the hero and is lied to), in that circumstance, the girl who knows (Felicity) suddenly gets the upper hand.

I think a lot of male writers fall into this trap of trying to “fix” the Clois archetype and ruining it in the process, because they view the story only from the point of view of the male character and look at it as “Oh, but wouldn’t it be so angsty if he has this girl he really loves, but he was like forced to lie to her, because he’s like just such a damn big hero and he angsts and it is this big sacrifice” and don’t realize that while it makes a good foundation for hero angst, it makes for a really crappy basis for an actual future long term healthy couple.

(I might also eventually do another post on this topic where I argue that the Clois trope is a very male centered trope and why it makes sense that it was not chosen for any of Supergirl’s romantic relationships, for the record, I think Supercat was slightly closer to having a somewhat Clois like dynamic, even though there were still some significant spins and changes to it )

#clois #clana #lauriver #westallen #anti-supercorp #supergirl #olicity #supercat #karamel

26 notes · View notes

austarus · 5 years ago

Text

HR Wells x Reader Hidden Among The Fairy Lights (Part 2 of 3)

**A/N: The picture/edit/gif does not belong to me.

*There’s a hidden Easter Egg, lemme know your thoughts in the comments or in reblogs. Could be about my next one-shot or it could be about part 3, let’s discuss ;D

Word Count: 5271

Part 1 Part 3

��HR?” you gave his arm a little squeeze, concern flooding your eyes at the sudden shift in his body language. Tension replacing his usually sunshine-y disposition that you had been accustomed to seeing every day, even if it expertly masked how he truly felt at times around the others. Gradually realizing that you eagerly wanted to see him sincerely smile at the beginning of each day to know that he was doing ok. A part of you wanted to retract your question, but a bigger part wanted to know- to understand what had happened to him to cause such a change in his demeanor.

“Are you sure this is what you wish to know?”

You swallowed your saliva as your answer fell out of your mouth without a second thought, “Yes.”

HR rubbed his face with a firm hand, exhaling slowly through his nose. What he shouldn’t have expected was for you to back down, after all you were just trying to befriend him. He knows you weren’t trying to intentionally hurt him, especially with all the kindness you’d shown him. “The people in my life have always set high expectations for me.” HR reopened those crystal blue eyes that you’ve found yourself falling into more than once. Like a riptide. He held your gaze, rubbing the skin on his wrist. “I came from a well-off family of scientists. My father was a genius physicist and a mathematician while my mother contributed whatever time she had to her cancer research. Everyone in the science community knew of the Wells family. I was… different. I didn’t want to study science or math; I didn’t want to be stuck in labs making analysis and collecting data. I wanted to create worlds and write my own reality- adventures that I can only dream of going on.” Your hand soon found his, giving it a little squeeze to let him know that you were listening intently. “My mother had a weak heart after I was born, so her movement was limited, but she gave me all her time while balancing her research and my father. My father… indirectly had blamed me for her health complication, fueled by my failure to follow in the scientific field. I essentially besmirched our family name.” You can tell where that was going, heard similar stories shared by friends of the past. Your heart clenched tightly in your chest for HR. “One thing came after another and my mother passed away from her heart condition, all because she was defending my desire to write and my interests in traveling.”

“I’m sorry,” you looked down, now mentally scolding yourself. “I-I shouldn’t have asked.” I’m so stupid, of course with that reaction he… I’m an idiot for asking. After this he won’t want to talk to me. After this, he won’t want to be around me again. I’m so stupid. I didn’t mean to hurt him.

“You didn’t know,” HR chuckled mirthlessly, a somber smile crossed his face as the author waved off your apology. He hadn’t noticed your hand in his until now, how his larger hand had encased your smaller one as if complementing each other like puzzle pieces. HR swallowed whatever had gotten caught in his throat. “My father wasn’t a fan of me or I him. But my mother was the one that I held onto dearly. She always told me that it’s ok to be myself, that I’m worth something, so I should keep smiling and continue on with my work. Then I met Randolf Morgan in middle school, and well, here we are.” HR sheepishly scratched the back of his neck. You saw his eyes glistening so you couldn’t help yourself but wrap your arms around him. HR returned the hug, letting out a breath as he concluded in a low whisper, “I hadn’t… truly confided my story to anyone in a while.” The invisible chains of his past still hung onto him even after all these years. What else could I have done, but to lie as Randolf covered for me until we re-opened up STAR Labs.

“Well, I’m here for you,” you spoke softly into his chest with red cheeks, unbeknownst to you his own cheeks and ears were flushing a similar color, “whenever you need me.” When you both pulled away a heavy droplet from the heavens fell onto your nose, causing you to snap your neck back a bit. HR laughed at your reaction to which you pouted at him for until another drop hit him in the eye. You laughed at his demise. Not a second too soon, an army of rain drops cascaded down onto the city, pelting down you and HR. The clouds angrily rumbled in up above. Instantly, the Earth-19 novelist had taken off the backpack and shrugged his jacket off.

“What are you doing?” You loudly asked him as the noise of rainfall increased. “You’re going to get sick!”

With a determined look, HR was already wrapping his jacket around you, but you resisted. “You’re going to get sick too!” Your hair was already sticking to your forehead as was HR’s, your shirt clung to the skin of your back. This seemed vaguely similar to a scene in all those cheesy rom-coms that Caitlin and Iris watch, but instead of a kiss under the gentle flow of rain, the water’s unyieldingly merciless to you and HR. A kiss would have been nice though.

“We’re both going to get sick!”

“Put this on-” HR firmly spoke, taking a hold of your hand once you had your arms in the sleeves of his warm jacket, “-and get ready to run.”

“Huh?!”

“We’re only a few blocks away from the labs, we can make it back and dry off there,” he explained as HR adjusted the backpack on his person once more. You wordlessly followed him back to the labs with fast steps. His warm hand had tugged yours along. Way to ruin everything rain.

***

Once back to the empty labs, HR had ushered you to his room as you both left a trail of water droplets. You two were cold and soaked to the bone. I… think my bra’s wet too. The rainstorm ragged outside and boy where you were relieved to finally be inside the labs. Cisco’s stuff is surely damaged at this point from the amount of rain. I guess we might have to make another trip up to Star City. HR handed you a dry towel, to which you immediately began to dry your hair as he did his own. You giggle when he had finished, revealing a floofy mess. He looked at you quizzically before you shook your head at him. You had to reprimand yourself from having your eyes trail along with the droplets that had trickled down his neck and into his shirt. I have no idea how to get home and on top of that, HR’s looking unfairly sexy right now. More so than he already is on a day to day basis. You once again scolded yourself for such thirsty thoughts because there was no way someone like him would want someone like you. He was up there, and you were just… down there. Literally from two different worlds. You shifted your footing a bit as you continued to dry yourself off as best as you could.

You crinkled your nose at the way you smelled from the rain then you mentally facepalmed because you just did that in front of the cute novelist… whom you’re not crushing on because you’ve obviously got no chance with him. A shiver ran throughout your body as a small sneeze left you. HR didn’t know why, but he found your tiny sneeze to be cute as a puppy-like grin made its way on his lips.

“You can borrow my shower if you want. That way you can warm up and avoid getting sick.”

“I’m not-” you sneezed once more, holding the towel close to you for some warmth. “…” You remained silent, sheepishly and stubbornly looking at anything other than HR. A warm shower does sound really nice right about now, especially with the idea of getting out of these wet clothes. You still had his jacket on your body, you’d have to return that too.

“Uh huh, you were saying?”

“… HR.”

“Yes, little sick birdy?”

“I-I don’t have any extra clothes with m-me.”

You and HR just blinked at one another as water trickled down the back of your neck from your roots. “…” Clearing his throat, HR fumbled around his room to get clothes that would fit you. You saw his face had reddened and so your immediate thought was that he had gotten fever, but before you could ask HR had handed you a dark long-sleeve and some shorts with adjustable strings. “J-just leave your clothes in the basket by the door and I’ll put them in the dryer.”

HR sneezed after you had entered his bathroom, mind going to places he shouldn’t have let it go to, especially in this situation. The author sighed as he pushed the thought away of your undergarments also being among the wet clothes. Stop, you’re a gentlemen, not a hormonal teen with his crush over for a slumber party from kissing out in the rain like fools. HR shrugged his wet shirt off once he heard the shower start, his mind easing that you would no longer be cold. Pulling out some clothes to change into, he realized that it’s better to do so until after you’ve finished with your shower, he’d then take his turn and change into a new set, but at least he’d be dry for the moment. The laundry basket was placed by the entrance of the bathroom, but out of view from his bedroom. Picking it up, he accidentally caught sight of your bra among your clothes. Maybe I’m the fool… The dark-haired Wells nibbled on his bottom lip as he went to place the clothes in the dryer. Blue eyes took one final glance at his room before wandering to the brown bag of a purchase that he had bought a few days prior. I guess now’s the best time to set those up.

***

The entirety of your time in his shower, you had blamed the heat for your pink-flushed face and how fast your heart had been beating. The warmth of the water thawed your body as you berated your heart for running a thousand miles an hour. You’d rub your face multiple times to stop yourself from daydreaming any longer of how you’d want to spend the rest of your days in his arms, basking in his generous smile and sunny-like personality. I’m a fool for hoping. You made sure to take a quick shower as to not take all the hot water because… this isn’t your bathroom. Stepping out of the shower, you wrapped a spare towel around your form. You faced the fact that for the evening, you would smell like HR as your only shower options were limited to his own shampoo/conditioner and body wash. You played with your damp locks before fully drying off and putting the long-sleeve sweater on your body. The scent of his cologne as well as a forest-y musk hung to his shirt with the vague smell of old books and you swore it was making your head spin, intoxicating you. Get yourself together! He’s just being nice, that’s all.

You peered outside the window, finding that the rain relentlessly fell onto the city. Thankfully, your panties weren’t too wet, so you opted to have them on as you lamented your bralessness. The soft fabric scratched slightly against your nipples. Taking a glance at the mirror, the shirt hung on you a bit loosely as it reached past mid-thigh length while the sleeves needed to be rolled up to your wrists. Guess I don’t need the shorts. You re-folded the shorts he had given you. They weren’t going to fit me anyway, but I do appreciate the thought. You wrapped the towel around your head and padded out of the misty bathroom.

“HR, do you have a hairbrush that I could use?” You asked as you peered into his bedroom, mentally wondering if this is what it would be like to be his and sleeping over for the night. Sighing sadly, you pushed the idea to the depths of your mind.

“Should be back in the bathroom, first drawer on the right,” he had called out with his back turned to you. You weren’t able to see what he had been tinkering with. Hearing some shuffling behind him, HR assumed you had re-entered the bathroom for the brush. The Wells doppelganger had finished setting up his purchase and had already put your clothes in the dryer with his wet ones. He had gotten two mugs of hot chocolate, readily seated on the small counter. The Earth-19 being had remembered you telling him that you liked the warm beverage when you both were discussing drinks on a coffee run to Jitters for the team. Reasons beyond him, that was one of the details that had struck his memory 10 minutes or so ago. “Did you find it?” He turned around at the sound of the bathroom door clicking shut and HR swore that he felt his whole world stop.

HR swallowed thickly as you took your hair down from the towel up-do, messily tangled and awaiting to be brushed out. In his eyes he saw that his shirt had encased you perfectly, but also allowing his imagination to not wander too far. The novelist chewed on the inside of his cheek as he looked back into your eyes. He took a breath, knowing his self-control was what the stars were testing him on today.

You self-consciously smoothed out the soft fabric of the long-sleeve shirt as the towel hung over your forearm. “H-How do I look?” The words tumbled out of your mouth before your mind could even register what you had said. Your gaze finally locked onto his, not noticing that for a split second his eyes had looked you over.

“Good- you look good.” HR did his best not to stumble with his words when in reality he wanted to say so much more. But that would be inappropriate. He couldn’t deny that his heart had swelled with pride at how his clothes looked on you. The taller man had gathered his things for his own shower. “I- The rain doesn’t seem to be letting up now so- I mean only if you want to- you could make yourself at home until it calms down.”

“Yeah, yeah. That sounds like a plan.”

“I made hot chocolate for us- you- I think you like it?”

“I- I do yes! Um- sorry for imposing and everything.”

“Trust me, you’re not. It… gets lonely here sometimes,” he tilted his head as a laugh left him, having the gall to send you a wink before he entered the bathroom. Butterflies started a rave in your body at the wink. Shutting the door, HR leaned against it and released an audible sigh. It truly does get lonely every night. He closed his eyes as he felt various chemical hormones, adrenaline among them causing his body to feel nervous and tingly. Sensations that he hadn’t felt towards anyone in a really long time. What are you doing to me, little birdy? was the only thought left in HR’s mind as he started up the shower.

Smiling to yourself, you hummed out a little tune as you had set your hair into a French braid after getting all those pesky knots out. You checked your phone for any texts or missed calls only to find it at 5%. I should really carry a charger around with me. Placing the wet towel in the laundry basket, you turned around to observe your surroundings. You happily noticed that HR had remodeled the area to his liking, giving his temporary residency a home-y kind of vibe with the current decorum. What had really caught your attention was what appeared to be his work desk littered with books and spare papers messily put together along with glasses that were unfolded beside some candles.

Your feet had padded on the cool concrete floor as you approached the desk.I didn’t know he wore glasses. Picking them up, you analyzed them before putting them on for a few seconds. They look so much like Harry’s and Thawne’s, but they’re for reading instead. Slipping them off your face and settling the glasses back to their respective spot on the desk, your eyes wandered over to a slightly open manuscript paper set at the top of all the other case-covered books. A dark green bookmark and a pen was lodged in the midst of it, the bookmark tucking out from the top of the page. Curiosity picked and pulled at your brain, tempting you to take hold of the thick papers and unravel its contents. You pursed your lips. I’m sure he won’t mind… I’ll just put it back when I hear the water turn off… A little peek won’t hurt anyone.

Ethereal Beings was the title of the manuscript, printed with HR’s initials beneath. You settled at his desk, cracking the novel open and pulling out the pen as you wondered what kind of books HR had written. Running a hand through your hair, you began reading the prologue as you took sips from your hot chocolate-filled mug. Unbeknownst to you that you would become so engrossed in the plot of the Mermaid and the Pirate Gentleman (coincidentally meeting and unknowingly searching for the Kjarni Flower) that you wouldn’t hear the sound of the shower shutting off.

HR turned the shower off after dealing with some… pesky thoughts. The fantasy author quickly styled his hair to his level of perfection and applied a spray of cologne onto his skin as he freshened up. HR took in a breath before exhaling slowly. Leaving the bathroom with a crisp white short-sleeve shirt and dark sweatpants, HR spotted your petite frame hunched over his desk. He raised an eyebrow at you.

“What are you doing?”

“Ah!” You felt a rush of electricity shock you as you dropped the manuscript, which landed with a dull thud. You quarter-filled cup of warm milky chocolate almost spilled over at the impact. Turning around, your blood rushed to your head as HR approach you. You awkwardly stumbled over your words. “I-I was totally not reading one of your books that just happened to be lying on your desk.” Please believe me… I’m so guilty, what the hell?

“Uh huh”

HR just shook his head at you, pulling the dropped three-hole bounded paper set from you. Out of every reading material he had published, you had chosen to crack open the one he had been revising. Taking a seat on the plush bed, his gentle baby blues scanned over the text.

“Would you be able to read to me your current work?”

“Is that what you wish your second question to be?”

He had raised a teasing eyebrow at you to which you nodded at his question in confirmation; HR smirked as he patted the space beside him on his bed. Sheepishly you stumbled onto his bed and scooted beside him but remained a respective distance apart.

“Two in one day, things must be getting really interesting in that head of yours.” HR joked as he reached over to shut off the main lights to the room, simultaneously flicking on another switch. And he said let there be light. Your eyes lit up at the spectacle dimly lighting the room, yet providing a good enough light in close proximity for reading.

“HR,” you whispered, slowly looking around the room at the twinkling fairy lights. How did I not notice them? The lights continued to sparkle around the both of you, an insightful truth hidden among them.

“I figured you’d like them. You mentioned a couple days ago that you’re fond of them, but never had time to actually go out to buy some. So, I thought…” HR trailed off once the fairy lights had illuminated. A soft and toothy grin graced his features as he saw stars twinkle brightly in your eyes. Your face held a smile of jubilee. HR held up the manuscript, regaining your attention, “Shall we continue your adventure with the Mermaid and Pirate Gentleman?”

“I thought that one was published since you seem to do things differently on your Earth.”

“So, you thought our books would be different?”

“Uh huh!”

“We have books with covers, your choice on the illustration of course, and coverless manuscripts too. This is essentially a drafting manuscript, I’m in need to revise it before submitting it in for further publication. That’s why I had it open.” HR had rubbed the back of his head as he explained, giving you a great view of his bicep unfairly and reflexing a flex. A firm vein popped along the strained muscle. You swore the universe was out to remind you of your everlasting singleness and infatuation with the Wells doppelganger. That’s really… an appealing piece of muscle.

HR didn’t grab his glasses, knowing after a while his eyes would strain a bit at the reading. But he didn’t want to look like Harry. As his handsome Earth-2 doppelganger had once said to the others “I’m my own man” and so was HR. And others may view the decision as selfish, but he didn’t want you to see Harry. Especially in this moment.

“Are you not going to drink your hot chocolate?” You pointed to his now cold beverage.

“I was, but it’s cold now.”

“Then I’ll go heat it up for you.”

“And you’ll come back?”

“Of course, you have to fulfill my second question after all.”

HR watched you perk up and off the bed with a mission to provide him a warm drink as he had done for you. Biting down on his lower lip he got under the covers. You returned with a warm mug of hot coco for your crush friend this time with a candy cane in it. HR only looked at you quizzically before you handed the cup over to him, telling him to try it. He took one sip, humming in delight and approval. You grinned taking a seat next to the author.

“Chapter 3: Of Pestilence and Mayhem,” HR had started with a low voice, unknowingly allowing your heart to jump at the tone. “The fates seemed to have decided to toy with Gerard today…” He continued on, expertly reading through each sentence that you hung on to. You fought with sleep that gradually clouded your vision as HR moved on to the next chapter. Midway through the chapter, you had subconsciously scooted closer to HR as he seemed to provide a pretty good source of heat. HR subtly noticed but voiced no rejection of it.

As the novelist moved from line to line, there was a growing battle between your mind and the cloudiness of dreams that threatened to take over. You yawned in audibly accidently causing HR to, but he kept on reading. I don’t want to go home, he’s so warm and his voice sounds so nice… Like velvety chocolate. The heaviness in your eyes won the battle against your resistance, causing them to flutter shut as a sleepy haze took over you. Simultaneously, your head had rocked to the side and fallen gently onto his shoulder as a pillow remained loosely clutched in your arms.

HR turned his head, watching your chest rise and fall as gentle breaths escaped you while you were in a world of dreams. Letting out a little breath, the corners of his lips turned up at the corners as HR shook his head at you. But his thoughts subtly stop him. Was I that boring? Maybe the plot needs to be reworked? HR decided that he’d ask you in the morning as he set aside the manuscript. For now, he pushed the covers away as he moved your gently in a better position to sleep. With one last look, HR had brushed a strand of hair out of your face. HR mused to himself that to anyone watching, they’d see hidden adoration and maybe something else within his blue iris. Maybe a dark and possessive quality he didn’t know he had. Who knows? HR analyzed your sleeping form before sweetly planting a kiss to your forehead, secretly wishing in the depths of his soul that you were willingly his to love. HR’s fallen in love before, it’s just the unfortunate fact that it was something that was never reciprocated to him in his life.

“Goodnight, my little songbird.”

***

Blood-curdling screams had greeted the multiversal author as he descended into sleep. HR’s eyes snapped open, finding himself standing ankle-length in a dark-colored substance. The acrid smell overwhelmed his senses as his eyes slowly focused. It took a few seconds for the taller man to register the foul and metallic smell of blood. He was standing in blood! HR yelped at first trying to move his legs away, feeling as if the fluid had nipped at his skin, almost burning him. But the gruesome fluid was everywhere. Trembling blue eyes looked all around the landscape, finding nothing but a void of black death.

“Pathetic,” the familiar voice sneered. HR’s gaze locked onto Harry, who continued to give him an annoyed look. HR furrowed his eyebrows.

“Excuse me?”

“Pathetic, you always were pathetic. Maybe that’s why your friend Randolf sent you here.” Harry’s cold laugh tuned to the dryness of the atmosphere. He unfolded his arms to pocket his hands, HR watched as a malicious smirk weaved its way onto his doppelganger’s features. “Booting you from Earth-19 to do away with your pitifulness. You can’t even use a computer correctly. How laughable. You crossed to a different earth. Congrats, dead man, so have many others. How could you ever deserve someone like her? She should be with me instead. After all, I was here with her first.”

In a blink of an eye, Harry’s lithe form had vanished in thin air. This is all in my head, I just need to breathe. I’ve dealt with worse; I’ve overcome many. I’m fine. I’ll be fine, I just need to breathe. He calmed his breathing for a moment, Finally turning around, HR found decaying bodies and corpses all around. His breathing hiked again at the scene, his stomach churning. Once more, HR turned to the side only to come face to face with you. You, who had blood spilling out of the corner of your mouth. HR felt his own mouth go dry.

“Why did you leave me?” You asked in a raspy voice. HR remained frozen in place, his body unable to move away from the image of you and all the carcasses. “Why did you run?”

“I-I didn’t run. From what?”

“You let him take me,” HR’s eyes widened as blood gradually stained your chest as if you had been impaled. “You let him use me and now he killed me. You were the reason he came after me.”

“N-no no no,” HR took a step back, your haunting image taking a step forward to him. “You’re safe. You’re asleep next to me. You’re fine. Nothing happened.” Hysterically, he ran a hand through his messy hair, just noticing the blood on his hands. Your blood. He tried to shake it off in fright as you closed in on him.

“Why didn’t you save me?”

“I-“

“Didn’t you promise me to stay?”

“You’ll always be a coward, HR Wells,” HR snapped his head towards the voice. Lo and behold, the one person he hoped to never crossroads with now stood in front of him in all her leathery glory. Gypsy, a legendary Collector. “You see what you did?” The brunette strode close to him. HR felt a million of pins and needles in his limbs. “You’re the reason she died. All because you kept running and running and running. Like a coward. All these corpses were your fault, if only you had learned your lesson the first time.” The author couldn’t move his legs, couldn’t feel them, as if someone had filled them up with lead. His chest felt tight, bile stuck in his throat causing him unable to retaliate. His head screamed at him achingly. He was utterly helpless. “One way or another, I will find you, HR Wells, and I will collect you.” She made a gun gesture, aiming it right at his heart. “Bang.”

HR’s eyes snapped open, feeling himself sticky with sweat. His breathing was rapid, closing his eyes once more he forced himself to calm down. That’s the third nightmare these past few weeks. HR tiredly sighed, reopening his eyes and focusing them in the dimness of the room. The sun was languidly climbing up the sky, yet it was still too early for even the birds to be out and about. HR had barely registered how close you were to him now, essentially tucking yourself close to his body for warmth. Adjusting his body, HR saw how your hair tie had left your braid, allowing your hair to half be settled in the braid and half gently untamed. Soft breathes escaped you, signaling that you were still asleep.

HR ran a hand over his face before he checked the time. The sight of you calmed him but remnants of his nightmare remained at the back of his mind. Women are usually the first ones to leave me in the morning, especially after realizing who they had slept with. He mused that thought to himself as he pulled the blankets over your shoulders. Looking over your peaceful expression, his gaze lingered on your lips before submitting to one wish of many within his being. The novelist gingerly placed a kiss to your lips, slowly backing away to gaze upon you like prince would do to a sleeping princess. But you remained asleep, unaware of his feelings and affections for you. If only you knew, what I would do-. He hated his nightmares, hated those dark thoughts that constantly plagued him from reaching higher. Consistently scaring him from doing things he never imagined of doing. HR with the lightest of touches threaded his fingers through the hair that had left the confines of the braid. I would try anything to be by your side and you at mine.

The emotion behind HR’s eyes suddenly shifted as a thought crossed him. Maybe… Randolf did want to get rid of me. He knows of the Inter-dimensional Travel Execution rule, yet… And here I am, on an Earth that’s not my own. With people who are not my own. And… Father did always favor Randolf since we were kids, even in his will. HR swallowed the bile in his throat as he pursed his lips. I guess the fates were really toying with me all along. A little noise had erupted from your throat as you snuggling closer into HR’s chest, but with sullen eyes he had to gently pull away from your welcoming warmth. The taller man decided a walk would be best to clear his head in order to face the trials and tribulations of today with Team Flash. HR tucked you in and left the room, sparing one last glance over his shoulder before shutting the door quietly.

Would that be her third?

#harrison wells x reader #harrison wells #hr wells x reader #hr wells imagine #hr x reader #hr wells #The Flash #the flash cw #the flash imagine #harrison wells fanfiction #the flash fanfiction #the flash x reader #team flash x reader #team flash #team flash imagine #DCTV #DC comics #dc #harrison wells imagine

85 notes · View notes

the-truest-sentence-i-know · 4 years ago

Text

Rogue Demigod - Chapter One

Fandom: Percy Jackson & the Olympians

Pairing: Annabeth Chase x Percy Jackson

Summary: Two years after Luke Castellan's demigod rebellion was ruthlessly crushed by the Olympians, Annabeth realizes that a string of attacks against minor gods across the country might be the actions of another half-blood. Determined to not let history repeat itself, she leaves camp to meet them. Au where Percy never went to Camp Halfblood.

Word Count: 3.5k | 1/?

ao3 ||| ff.net ||| wattpad ||| quotev

As Annabeth walked into Chiron’s office in the Big House, she noticed the shimmering remnant of an Iris message. Behind the glimpses of rainbow that hung in the air, Chiron’s face was grim.

“Another attack?” she asked.

Chiron nodded wearily. “A minor god in Texas, not far from Houston. Tyche, goddess of luck, destiny, and fortune.”

“Did she see what attacked her?” Annabeth sat down on the edge of Chiron’s desk.

He shook his head. “Same as the others. A sudden deluge of water, which got her off-guard as well as temporarily blinding her. But she swears whatever it was had a celestial bronze weapon.”

“Maybe it’s not a monster,” Annabeth suggested, putting a pin in Houston on a map already covered in pins.

“What else would it be?” Chiron asked. “All the Titans were accounted for, as well as the other minor gods and goddesses. Besides, they would have been able to do a lot more damage. Tyche was shaken and a bit injured, but not severely. It is entirely possible that a monster happened to have a celestial bronze weapon that it got from a previous fight.”

Annabeth stared at the map, unconvinced. There was something weird about this.

“With camp starting up again this week, we’ll be able to send out a quest,” Chiron said. “Then we will know more about this, and hopefully be done with it. The gods are growing impatient with our inaction.”

Annabeth frowned. “And of course they can’t do anything about it,” she muttered.

Chiron looked at her reproachingly.

“I didn’t mean that,” she said quickly, then sighed. “So, who are you going to send?”

“Not you, Annabeth,” Chiron said, kindly but firmly. “You know the gods wouldn’t approve of you going, and besides, I need you here.”

“Of course, I didn’t mean me,” Annabeth said. “I was just curious. If this thing can take on minor gods, we need to send someone who can handle it.”

Chiron nodded. “I’ll ask for volunteers and choose from them.” He watched as Annabeth continued to look at the map. “Can I have your word that you’ll focus on getting the camp up and running and not on this?”

Pulled out of her thoughts, Annabeth quickly turned away from the map. “Of course,” and she quickly left the room.

Something about this was nagging at her though. There was something odd about this case.

Back in the Athena cabin, she pulled up the local news for Houston on her laptop. The main story was of a freak wave on the coast – the attack on Tyche. But further down, there was a story about a large, burly man rampaging in a bar before being pulled out into an alley by someone no one saw and disappearing leaving signs of a struggle. The description was how Annabeth imagined mortals would see a minotaur through the Mist.

These two events happened not an hour apart, and Annabeth could not help but wonder if it was the same thing that was involved in both. But she had never heard of monsters attacking each other.

There was only one logical conclusion here, and as Annabeth investigated previous attacks, it became clearer and clearer, but she did not want to think about it.

The attacks on both minor deities and monsters, seemingly indiscriminately. The fact that it never pursued or even attacked demigods. The celestial bronze weapon.

Annabeth closed her laptop and leaned back in her chair and wondered if maybe she was reading too much into it.

The first week of camp was a flurry of activity. Campers arrived, old and new. Annabeth helped to show them around and did not have a lot of time for her own research.

Thalia arrived at the end of the first week. While Annabeth had decided to hold off on college for a year, Thalia had gone last year.

She hugged Annabeth tightly. When she pulled back, she smiled. “How have you been?”

Annabeth’s relationship with Thalia was a bit odd. Although they were now kind of the same age, they had not always been. When they met, Thalia was five years older than Annabeth, but now, due to some magical shenanigans involving a pine tree and the Golden Fleece, they were basically the same age. Nonetheless, Thalia still felt the need to protect her.

“I’m alright,” Annabeth said. “Keeping busy.”

Thalia nodded. “Me too.”

“I actually need your perspective on something. A… research project I’ve been working on.”

Thalia rolled her eyes, smiling, “Of course you would do a research project for fun. I’m forced to do that shit for classes.”

“Don’t swear around the younger campers,” Annabeth said absentmindedly as they headed to the Athena cabin.

In the cabin, campers were unpacking. They all nodded hello as she and Thalia entered. A few stole glances at Thalia in particular. In addition to having once been a tree, she was one of the only two children of the Big Three gods – Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades.

She and Annabeth had also been close to Luke Castellan. Before.

As they approached Annabeth’s bunk, Thalia spotted her bulletin board with a map of the US with the pins of the attacks. Thread connected them in chronological order and cut-out headlines pinned alongside them.

“Wow,” Thalia said. “and I thought you didn’t like conspiracy theories.”

Annabeth frowned. “It’s the attacks,” she lowered her voice so that the other campers could not hear. “They’ve been happening all year, more frequently lately.”

“I’m sure Chiron’s got a handle on it,” Thalia said. “Why do you need me?”

“Chiron thinks it’s a monster and is going to send out a quest to kill it.”

“But you’re not so sure.”

“Exactly.” Annabeth pointed to one of the pins and the headlines pinned near it “April fourth, attack on a group of satyrs in Sacramento. Two days later, an empousa was killed in Concord, which is on the way to San Francisco, where to next attack happened.”

“And monsters don’t generally kill each other. They’re attracted to demigods.” Thalia sighed. “Annabeth, if Chiron thought it was a demigod, don’t you think he’d be handling the situation differently?”

“I didn’t tell him what I thought, because he wouldn’t believe me.”

Thalia studied to board again. “If it was a demigod – and I’m not saying I think it is – why would they be attacking minor gods and satyrs?”

Annabeth raised her eyebrows meaningfully and Thalia sighed again.

“Annabeth, this is why I thought you should go to college too, and not stay cooped up at camp. You need to move on, not try to find a second chance at saving Luke.”

They had not said the name in months, but Annabeth never went a day without thinking about him. “It’s not that –”

“Yes, it is,” Thalia said. “We couldn’t save him and now you think you see someone like him, someone you can try to save.” She put her hands on Annabeth’s shoulders. “We need to let him go.” Annabeth could see the pain in Thalia’s eyes. Luke had meant as much to Thalia as he had to her.

“Chiron’s right,” Thalia said. “It’s just a monster.” She smiled again. “I’ll see you at the campfire.”

When Thalia left the cabin, Annabeth noticed that a lot of her siblings were glancing at her cautiously. She quickly straightened her shoulders and took a breath. She was the head counsellor of the Athena cabin and basically Chiron’s assistant, she had to at least look like she was keeping it together.

She looked back at the board. One thing she hated was feelings clouding judgement. It made plans and conclusions unsound and unreliable. She always tried to approach problems with an unbiased eye. Hadn’t she done that here?

She had not suspected the attack was a demigod until she had looked into it. After that, every new piece of information seemed to fit into place. Nothing else made sense.

Because she had tried other explanations. Whatever Thalia thought, the last thing Annabeth wanted was a demigod attacking gods. She did not want to have t deal with that, much less try to save whoever it was.

If there was one thing Annabeth was confident in, it was her ability to research and come to logical conclusions. She knew she was right.

She just had to convince someone of it.

As the sun started to set, Annabeth made her way across the strawberry fields. At the far end, nestled between some trees, was a small cottage.

She knocked on the door.

“Who is it?” a voice called from inside.

“Grover, it’s me, Annabeth!”

Annabeth heard the various locks click open before the door opened. Grover looked tired, as he always did these days. “Hey, Annabeth.”

She smiled as she stepped inside. “How’ve you been, Grover?”

“I’ve been alright,” he said. “It’s nice to hear all the campers around again. It gets so quiet during the school year.”

The cabin was small, just one room, with a bed in one corner and a couple of lazy chairs in the other. A cabinet of cans stood at the far wall.

Annabeth sank into a chair. “I saw Thalia earlier. Has she been by yet?”

Grover nodded. “Briefly.”

“I’m sure we can all catch up at the campfire tonight,” Annabeth said hopefully.

“Oh, I don’t – I wasn’t planning on going,” Grover said.

Even though she wanted to, Annabeth knew better than to pressure him. “Grover, I need your expertise on something.”

“My expertise?” Grover asked incredulously.

“Yes, as a Searcher.”

“And a great Searcher I was,” Grover muttered.

“Come on, what do we keep saying about the negative self-talk.” Annabeth sighed. “I think I may have found a demigod, but I’m not sure. You have the instincts for this.”

Grover sighed. “Okay, how can I help?”

Annabeth pulled out her laptop and showed him the digitalized version of the bulletin board. It would be more efficient to have it digitalized and not physically, but Annabeth liked to think with her hands.

“These are the monster attacks,” Grover said cautiously.

“Yeah, but not just on gods and nature spirits. I found attacks on monsters that fit into the timeline.”

As Grover surveyed the connecting headlines, Annabeth saw the realization cross his face. He immediately stepped back. “No.”

“What?”

“I am not getting involved in this.”

“Come on, Grover, I just need your help to convince Chiron, so he doesn’t send a quest to kill the person doing this.”

“Annabeth,” Grover said. “This is a demigod attacking minor gods. If the gods got wind of this…? It’s the last thing we need; repairing our reputation is hard enough as it is without there being a demigod fighting gods.” His voice rose to a bleat at the end.

Annabeth put a hand on Grover’s arm. “I know this brings up a lot for you, it does for me too, but maybe we can help this person – it’s just one person.”

“Luke was just one person too, and he led hundreds of demigods against Olympus.”

They were both quiet for a good moment. Annabeth closed her laptop and stood up slowly. “I’ll see you later, then,” she said, smiling softly.

“Yeah,” Grover said, grabbing a can and nibbling it nervously. “Later.”

As Annabeth closed the door behind her, she sighed. She had known that Grover would not be happy to hear it, but at least he did believe her. Maybe with more time, he would back her up to Chiron.

But she didn´t have time. She suspected that Chiron would call for volunteers at the campfire tonight.

Annabeth made her way down to the campfire early that evening, hoping to talk to Chiron before too many campers got there.

Chiron stood talking to a few satyrs who had recently brought in new campers / probably asking if their changes seemed particularly promising. He saw her coming down the earthen steps that doubled as seats around the fire pit and quickly finished his conversation.

“Annabeth,” he said. “I actually wanted to talk to you about the attacks.”

“Don’t worry, I ‘m sending out a quest, they’ll be on their way by morning.”

“But that’s exactly what I’m worried about.” Annabeth took a breath. “I don’t think it’s a monster. I think it’s a demigod.”

“What?”

“I did research – in my free time – that I can show you.” She could see that Chiron was wholly unconvinced. “Grover thinks so too.”

“Grover is hardly a reliable source.” There was an exasperated edge to his voice.

Annabeth huffed. “Grover was one of our best Searchers.”

“Exactly: was. He has not left the camp in over a year and a half! I care about Grover, but I couldn’t be surprised if his instincts have dulled a bit.”

“Come on, Chiron. Surely you see there’s something weird going on.” Annabeth looked at him imploringly, but he did not budge.

“I’m sending out a quest. That’s final.” Chiron turned and made his way to his regular spot on the far end of the fire pit.

Annabeth sighed. This was really not going how she had planned. She had hoped that this summer would be the one everything would go back to normal. The camp had been her home since she was seven and she hated how it had changed.

There were still traces of the battle that had taken place two years ago. Burn marks on buildings that Annabeth had been working to slowly get fixed. New scars on basically every camper. And so many empty bunks. The missing kids were not all reflected on the Wall either.

The Wall of Valor was in the Big House and was engraved with all the names of the demigods who died in battle. But only those fighting for the gods – rebels did not count, so they were left off and did not receive pyre burnings.

Annabeth had tried to argue for their names being included, of course, but had not been successful. She had argued unsuccessfully for a lot of things in the aftermath.

She remembered standing in the throne room of Olympus, the gods and goddesses towering above her. Trying to stand tall, she spoke as loudly and confidently as she could muster. “We request that the gods and goddesses claim their children within a reasonable time – at thirteen or fourteen, for example. Many of the rebels –”

“Traitors,” Hera spat.

“Traitors,” Annabeth amended quickly. “Many of the traitors were unclaimed and felt forgotten and neglected. Claiming them could prevent this from happening again.”

“So, you’re blaming us for this?” Zeus asked.

“No, of course not, Lord Zeus,” Annabeth said. “I’m just saying, there were contributing factors that could be eliminated to lessen the chance of this happening again.”

“This is absurd,” Hera said. “Your camp rises up against us and now you are making demands?”

“Not our whole camp,” Annabeth said, trying to keep her voice calm. “We fought against them – for you.”

“You were a close friend of this Luke fellow, weren’t you?” Demeter asked.

Annabeth turned to her. “Yes, we were close.”

“Why didn’t you stop him?”

She blinked. “I – I didn’t know until it was too late.”

Annabeth pulled herself out of the memory and sat down shakily. It had been a lie. She had known – at least that something was going on.

Other campers had started to filter in, and Annabeth quickly turned Thalia and they sat together. She did not pay much attention as the Hephaestus kids started the fire and the Apollo kids started up the sing-along.

Food was served and Annabeth ate silently, staring into the fire. She could see no way to convince Chiron or anyone of authority. And she could not go to any god with her theory, they would strike the rogue half-blood dead first and ask questions later. Annabeth wanted to help them.

Maybe Thalia was right. Maybe this was just a second chance for her. But that did not mean that it was not true. Whatever her motivations were, she wanted to help.

An old plan from years ago began to reform in her mind. Back before she went on her quest two years ago, she had been very impatient to leave camp. At one point, she had gotten the idea in her head that Chiron would never let her go and that she would have to do it herself. The main tenets of that plan could still work.

Annabeth looked around. If she left tonight, she would have a head start. And besides, she knew about this person’s movements and habits. For one thing, they tended to travel up to New York every couple of months and were due for another visit soon.

Across the fire pit, Chiron rose. “Good evening everyone. I trust you have all had a good week back. A special welcome to all the newcomers. We hope you come to see this place as a home away from home, as many here do.” He smiled warmly. “Now, as I am sure many of you have heard, there have been a large number of monster attacks all over the country over the past year. We believe they are all the work of one creature. These attacks have escalated in recent months and therefore, I am sending out a quest.”

Whispers erupted among the campers and the enchanted flames jumped green and yellow, reflecting their excitement. There had not been any quests last year.

“We do not know what kind of creature this is, so this quest is not for the faint of heart. However, I believe there is a candidate for the job.” Chiron turned to a group of Aphrodite kids. “Olivia Marcelin, daughter of Aphrodite.” He inclined his head slightly to her. “Will you undertake this labour?”

Olivia, petite but muscular, had arrived at camp just before the rebellion. She was thrust into battle situations at fifteen and handled herself well. She was a good fighter, skilled in multiple weapons, and benefitted from being underestimated. Annabeth would have to be smart if she was going to beat her.

Olivia, although first taken off her guard, quickly straightened and smiled. “I would be honoured.”

“And who will you choose as your companions?” Chiron asked.

She looked around. “Adam Flavius.” Her brother, another son of Aphrodite. Unassuming, but had wickedly good aim with throwing knives. “and Sabine Stentz.” No surprise there. Sabine, daughter of Demeter, was Olivia’s girlfriend. Like all children of Demeter, she had power over plants, but she specialized in the art of offensive plants. Annabeth had seen her in action and would hate to have to tangle with her.

“Very well,” Chiron said. “Tonight you will go to the Oracle and prepare, for you leave at first light tomorrow morning.”

“But first,” said Michal – a child of Apollo. “More sing-along.”

As they strummed the opening chords of ‘She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain,’ Annabeth turned to Thalia. “I think I’m gonna turn in for the night,” she said quietly.

Thalia looked at her with a little suspicion but nodded. “Sleep well.”

Annabeth slipped away quietly. In her cabin, she quickly packed the essentials in her backpack: ambrosia, nectar, change of clothes, a few drachmae, and everything else needed for a last-minute quest. Before she hurried out, she stuffed a pillow and extra blanket under her sheets, so it looked like she was asleep. The longer head start she could get before people noticed she was missing, the better.

Even though it had been a solo plan, Annabeth found herself knocking on Grover’s door.

“What is it?” he asked when he opened the door, looking like he had been sleeping. Then he saw her backpack and the sword that joined her dagger that was normally on her hip. “Whatever you’re doing, I do not want to be involved.”

“Grover, I need your help.”

“I am not going on your redemption quest, especially not if it’s a non-sanctioned one.”

“I have a better chance if you come along, you know that. You can track demigods.”

“I also know that I haven’t left camp since… you know, and I’m out of practice.”

“If we don’t do this, there’s a pretty good chance the demigod will be killed.”

“So what? Maybe it’s better that way.”

“Better that way? Are you hearing yourself?” Annabeth tried not to lose her cool. “This is a demigod who needs our help. Finding and protecting demigods is supposed to be your job, as a Searcher.”

Grover just shook his head.

“Look, I know that you feel like you failed Luke, like what happened was your fault, but that was on all of us, okay? But maybe we can make it right, by helping this person.” She squared her shoulders. “But whether you decide to come or not, I’m going.”

Grover sighed and closed his eyes. “Fine,” he said through gritted teeth.

Annabeth sighed a breath of relief. While she had been ready to go along, she hadn’t like the idea. She hadn’t had to survive along since before she met Luke and Thalia after running away from home.

“I thought you said this wasn’t to make up for what happened to Luke,” said a voice behind her.

Annabeth jumped and spun around to see Thalia standing behind her.

“Thalia, I – we –”

“I can’t let you two dumbasses go along, and you seem pretty hell-bent.” She rolled her eyes and sighed. “Fuck it – we’re all going on this unsanctioned quest – which I still don’t entirely approve of.”

#percabeth #pjo #pjo fanfic #fanfic #annabeth chase #percy jackson #【ｒｏｇｕｅ　ｄｅｍｉｇｏｄ】#ao3 #ff.net #wattpad #wattpadlife #quotev #amwriting #writing #my writing

4 notes · View notes