#but like he was still willing to work out things with mariana

[galway-girlatwork]

Smells Like…

Fandom: The Mentalist-AU

Rating: Mature. Angst. Smut. Angst. Mush. Angst.

Central Characters: Marcus P. and Female Reader

Central Relationship: Marcus P. and Female Reader

Word Count: 2,668

AO3

This was written for Jana and Daphne’s Writing Through The Season’s challenge. I got Marcus Pike in Winter and the prompt was “Smells Like Jealousy.” So, grab whatever tickles your tongue and enjoy. If this is not your shot of whisky, scroll on by.

Please do not copy my work. If you liked it, please re-blog and tag me. Please do not steal the moodboard. It was a gift. Stealing is just WRONG. I do not give permission to copy, translate, or post my work to any other platform. If this is not your shot of whisky, scroll on by. If you wanna read, grab whatever tickles your tongue and enjoy.

Music Inspiration:

Fallout-Mariana’s Trench

Can’t Forget You- My Darkest Days 

Lips of Angel-Hinder

Summary:

Marcus had always told himself he wasn’t the jealous type until her. He told himself she was gone for good, that she had moved on. But when he sees her at an art exhibit a year later, with another man, something inside him snaps. The jealousy, the longing, the love he never let go of all crashes down on him.

One heated confrontation later and the past proves impossible to ignore. The chemistry is still electric, the connection undeniable. But Marcus isn’t willing to let her slip away this time. As passion ignites and old wounds resurface, he makes one thing clear—he wants her back.

But is Marcus willing to risk his heart one more time to find out?

Marcus had never been the jealous type. Or at least, that’s what he’d always told himself. He was calm, rational, someone who took heartbreak like a man and moved on. Maybe that was a slight over exaggeration, when in reality he always felt like someone who’d been kicked to many time in the ribs, protecting that heart that beat furious in his chest. Until he met her. Someone who’d truly stolen his heart, his soul, like a thief before disappearing with both.

They’d been together for two years before he ended it, thinking it was what she wanted, the demands of his job finally getting to her. He knew it was a fear, not an irrational one, that she had. That one day someone would show up at the front door and tell her the unimaginable. What he didn’t expect was for her to take that out and go radio silent for a year. He’d given her time, space, hoping she’d come back. He had buried himself in work, pretended he didn’t check his phone late at night, hoping for a text that never came. He had told himself she was probably out there, happy, moving on—just like he should be.

But here he was, a year later, at some stupid art exhibit that the higher ups wanted him at. How it would look good to see the Feds there, making sure they were all safe while they drank watered down champagne, mingled and stared at God awful art.

The place was packed, air thick with conversation and the scent of expensive perfume, the kind that induced migraines, not caring if the pain crippled you or not. It’s why he was at the corner of the bar, water in hand, praying the six Advil he took would put him in a better mood.

But then he saw her.

His breath caught in his throat, and for a second, his pulse pounded so hard he could hear it. She looked beautiful, radiant in a navy dress that hugged her curves, curves he used to trace with his hands. That familiar way she tilted her head, the way she smiled—God, he had missed that smile.

But she wasn’t alone.

His stomach turned to stone as he watched her tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, laughing at something the man beside her had said. Tall. Polished. Probably some lawyer or broker, someone with soft hands and an easy life. Someone who hadn’t spent years chasing criminals across the world.

He hadn’t expected jealousy to burn through him so hard and fast that it stole his breath. His jaw clenched, forcing himself to look away but he knew it was useless. It was like watching a car accident, one you couldn’t look away from, one that caused back-ups on the highways. Fuck, he thought, it had been a year and he had no right to feel this way. No right to feel the sudden, savage possessiveness clawing its way through his chest.

And yet, when she turned and met his eyes, her smile faltering for a second and he knew. Knew that he wasn’t the only one still haunted by the past.

He didn’t think, didn’t give himself a chance to reconsider. He was walking toward her before he even realized what he was doing.

“Marcus.”

His name had never sounded like a warning before.

“Didn’t know you’d be here,” he said, keeping his tone even, careful. He didn’t acknowledge the man beside her, didn’t even bother looking at him.

Her lips parted slightly like she wanted to say something, but she hesitated. That hesitation was all he needed.

“You look good,” Marcus murmured, stepping closer.

She swallowed, her gaze flickering over his face like she was trying to gauge his mood. “So do you.”

“Really?” His voice dipped, rougher than he meant it to be. “Because I feel like hell.”

She blinked. “Marcus—”

“No.” He exhaled sharply

He took another step, closing what little distance remained between them, voice dropping lower, just for her. “You really think I stopped loving you?” he whispered.

Her eyes shone, and for the first time in a year, Marcus felt like he could breathe again.

Her date extended a hand. “Hey, I’m—”

Marcus didn’t so much as glance at him. He couldn’t. He wasn’t interested in this man’s name; in whatever role he played in her life.

She sighed, shaking her head. “Seriously?”

Marcus’s lips curled. “What?”

“You’re glaring,” she said, arching a brow. “And it smells like jealousy in here.”

Marcus stepped closer, so close that if she just leaned in, her body would be pressed against his.

“It should,” he murmured. “Because I’m drowning in it.”

Her breath caught as silence stretched between them, heavy, suffocating, before she looked away, biting her lip. That damn lip. How many times had he kissed it, traced his thumb over it, stolen her breath just by looking at her?

Marcus saw the way her fingers twitched at her side, how she swallowed hard like she was trying to keep her composure but she couldn’t hide from him. Not after everything they had been. Not after the way he used to know every inch of her.

Before she could recover, Marcus leaned in, his lips barely ghosting over the shell of her ear.

“Tell me,” he said, his voice dark, possessive. “Does he touch you the way I did?”

She sucked in a sharp breath. “Marcus—”

“Does he know,” Marcus pressed, his fingers grazing down the inside of her wrist, sending a shiver through her body, “that you like to be kissed right—here?”

He brushed his lips just below her ear, and she let out the softest, most infuriatingly beautiful gasp.

It nearly broke him.

Her date cleared his throat awkwardly. “I think maybe I should—”

Marcus turned his head, gaze cold, sharp. “Yeah. You should.”

The man hesitated for a moment before putting his hand up in surrender, stepping back, muttering something under his breath, neither one of them acknowledging his exit. They were too busy staring at each other. Too busy feeling the weight of what still lingered between them.

Her hand found Marcus’s wrist before he could say anything else. “Not here,” she whispered.

Something in her eyes sent a jolt of hope through him. Maybe it wasn’t too late. Maybe she wasn’t as over him as she wanted to be, the air between them still suffocatingly thick, heavy with things left unsaid.

Reaching for her hand, his grip firm, unyielding. “Come with me.”

Her breath was unsteady. “Marcus—”

“Now.”

She could have refused but she didn’t. She let him lead her outside, down the quiet side street, away from prying eyes and unwanted interruptions.

And when he turned, pressing her against the cool brick wall, his hands braced on either side of her, she didn’t push him away. She should have but she didn’t.

Instead, she lifted her chin, her breath shaky but defiant. “You don’t get to do this,” she whispered. “You don’t get to walk in here after a year and act like you still own me.”

“You don’t get to pretend,” Marcus interrupted, his voice rough with need. “You don’t get to stand there and act like I don’t still own every inch of you.” He watched, smirking, as she swallowed hard, fingers trailing up her arm, slow and deliberate. “Tell me to stop.”

He leaned in, lips ghosting over hers. “Say it,” feeling her fingers curl into the fabric of his shirt.

Silence, eyes flashing with something desperate and raw. She was shaking.

“Tell me he touches you better.” His voice a challenge, his hands tightening on her hips. “Tell me he fucks you better.”

A broken noise slipped from her lips, and Marcus nearly lost his damn mind as her hands fisted his shirt, yanking him closer. “I hate you for this,” she whispered.

He smiled darkly. “No, you don’t.” Before he heard her whisper, “I never stopped wanting you.”

His lips crushed against hers, swallowing whatever words might have come next, feeling her melt against him, completely, utterly, like she had been waiting for this, starving for it. Hands slid up his chest, threading through his hair, pulling him deeper.

Like something dangerous, something forbidden, like something she still wanted.

That spark still lingered, a flame that had never fully extinguished.

“Come home.” Was all he whispered against her lips.

As soon as they were inside, he turned to her, pulling her close, hands cupping her face gently as he leaned in close, lips brushing against hers softly, like no time had passed at all.

Tongues tangled in a familiar dance as they continued to kiss deeply, room spinning around them as passion ignited like wildfire as they stumbled backward until they reached the bedroom. He pushed her onto the bed, body following hers, chests heaving with desire, eyes locked on each other. Deft fingers curled into the fabric of the dress, peeling it from her shoulders, baring breasts hidden beneath black lace, knowing the panties would match, since the set was a gift from him.

Fingers grazed against sensitive areas he knew would make her shiver, feeling her arch into him as he pulled the lace down, nipple already puckered, demanding attention. Lips wrapped around it, mouth pulling it deep into his mouth, knowing what it did to her. Clothes were pulled off so fast, buttons flew across the room, pinging as they hit the wood floor.

The need to possess her, filled every cell within his body, pushing what control he had out the window, each second that passed was fucking torture, wanting to remind her of where she belonged, with him, in his life. Reaching out, a finger traced her sternum, trailing down her stomach before slipping inside her body, feeling her clench around it, before adding a second digit, curling them up, finding that spot just behind her pelvic bone, just as his mouth latched on to the other nipple, his name falling from her lips like a chant. He could feel her hands in his hair, holding him to her, as her hips jerked against his hand, body begging for release.

So, in tune with her body, he knew she was on the edge, but he wanted to push her to her limits, hear her scream his name and beg for more. Was it his way of punishing her for the last year of hell he’d lived in? Possibly but it could be the way he loved watching her, bucking against his hand, breaths labored and quick, that bottom lip tucked between her teeth. It could be that he had fallen so deeply in love with her. Was he an idiot? Probably.

Moving off of her, hearing whimpers of protest, he stood at the edge of the bed, looking down on her. “Hands and knees. Now.” Her eyelids grew heavy as she turned over on her stomach, loving how she gave up control so easily to him, that slight edge of darkness and possessiveness surged through him.  

Hands grasped her hips, fingers digging into her skin as he positioned himself behind her. God how he loved when her back arched, head bowed almost to the bed, before one of his hands released its grip on her hip, sliding up her back, his fingers intertwining in her hair, giving her hair a gentle tug, pulling her head back slightly. “God you are so fucking beautiful.”

His other hand remained on her hip, thumb tracing the curve of her lower back before suddenly, his palm came down on her ass with a sharp slap, the sound echoing through the room, he heard her gasp, feeling her body tensing for a moment before she relaxed into the sensation.

With a swift motion, he drove himself into her, body merging with hers as he began to move in a rhythmic cadence. His hands returned to her hips, holding her in place as he thrust deeper, the air filling with the sound of labored breathing, of skin slapping skin as they moved together.

Continued thrusts into her, bodies began to tense, movements becoming more frantic and urgent. Her hands clenched into fists, arms trembling as she supported her weight, while his grip on her hips tightened, fingers digging deep into her skin that he knew would be bruised come morning. He could feel her shuddering, feel her cunt contracting around him as she came, his name screamed into the air before low, keening cries escaped her lips before her head dropped to the bed, voice now muffled by the bedding as her body continued to convulse.

His thrusts became shorter and more intense as he felt himself building towards his own release, arm wrapping around her waist, fingers finding her clit, the pad of his middle finger, gently rubbing against it, knowing how sensitive she was. With one final, powerful thrust of his hips, they both fell off the edge, sweat soaked bodies shaking with the intensity of what just happened. As the last waves of their orgasms faded, his body collapsed on top of hers, pressing her into the bed, as he held her close, lips trailing across her shoulders, as they slowly relaxed, trying to catch their breath. He could feel her beneath him, trying to adjust to the weight of his body, his arms loosening as he rolled to the side, but still holding her against him.

Moonlight filtered through the sheer curtains, casting silver streaks across the sheets tangled between them, skin still warm from where they'd been pressed together, Marcus now lay on his side, propped up on an elbow, watching her in the dim glow. She was quiet, staring at the ceiling like she was already thinking of slipping away before dawn.

“Don’t,” he murmured, voice low but firm.

She turned towards him, brows lifting slightly. “Don’t what?”

“Don’t run.” He traced a slow path down her arm, fingers brushing the familiar curve of her wrist.

A flicker of hesitation in her eyes betraying her, before she lowered her head. “Marcus…”

“I mean it.” He shifted closer, his fingers curling under her chin, making her look at him. “I let you go once. I told myself it was for the best, because you were afraid, you didn’t want to know what could happen if you got that visit. But that was a lie. I never stopped wanting you. And I think—no, I know—you never stopped wanting me either.”

Her throat bobbed as she swallowed. “Marcus, this isn’t that simple.”

“Yes, it is,” he countered, brushing his thumb across her cheek. “You belong with me. You always have and you know it.”

Closing her eyes, breath shuddering slightly. He could almost feel the war inside her, the push and pull between instincts and heart. When she opened them again, something softer lurked there beneath the guarded exterior. Something that looked dangerously close to hope.

“Say it,” he whispered. “Say you don’t want this. Say you don’t love me, and I’ll let you go.” Silence stretched between them, thick and electric.

But she didn’t say it. She couldn’t say it. She loved him. More than her life. A life that would be a shell if something ever happened to him.

Instead, her lips parted, voice barely above a whisper. “I fucking hate you for knowing me this well.”

A slow, knowing smile curved his lips. “No, you don’t.”

Sighing, she leaned in, pressing her forehead against his. “I can’t say those things Marcus because they would be lies and you know it. It’s never been about loving you, belonging to you…It’s always been about the what if.”

“I know baby. I love you. Come home and we’ll figure it out. Promise.”

He watched as she moved over him, lips brushing against his, whispers between them of yes’s and love you’s before they showed each other that there never really be a good-bye between them.

@guiltyasdave @sizzlingcloudmentality @jessthebaker @tinyglamdramaqueen @almostfoxglove @pedgito @whocaresstillthelouvre @iamasaddie @burntheedges @ease-out-the-clutch @beefrobeefcal @toomanystoriessolittletime @pearlessance @littlemisspascal @goodwithcheese @burntheedges @jolapeno @604to647 @missladym1981 @kittyfox1107 @secretelephanttattoo

Dividers by @saradika-graphics

[magicalmanhattanproject]

hey y'all remember soul eater? i just randomly remembered soul eater existed and then my brain got taken over by cubitos about it. if you don't remember soul eater, the important thing to know is that some people can shapeshift into magical weapons wielded by partners called meisters. technically anyone can become a meister, but it is a thing you do have to train to do while being a weapon is something you're born with. anyway, this first post is just characters' first impressions of each other and i'll make another post with more secrets and truths if ppl are interested (i was gonna make it this one but this post is getting Long)

First Residents

FitMC and Spreen

Spreen is a cocky and extremely well trained meister who is used to working with his brother Missa or his Good Pal Roier who are both relatively laid back and used to his shenanigans. He absolutely deserves to be cocky given how absurdly skilled he is, but he clashes badly with fiercely independent, reserved, and paranoid grenade launcher Fit of 2b2t. Fit sees Spreen as an entitled brat and they simply do not vibe with each other well enough for Spreen to wield him.

Fit will let Ramón wield him fairly freely because it's important for kids to learn these things early, but prefers to handle any situation where Ramón might actually be in danger by himself.

Quackity Luzu and Wilbur

Quackity is a single chainsaw in search of a meister. Luzu and Wilbur are both meisters not in search of weapons. Luzu has his own shit going on with an AI taking over his body sometimes so he's mostly out of the picture. Wilbur was trained as a meister by his father but isn't all that interested in the job and just wants to play music. Besides, he has skinny little noodle arms and chainsaws are heavy and hard to wield.

Neither Tilín and Talluluh have ever received any formal meister training.

Philza and Missa

Phil is an old and skilled meister in need of a new weapon. Missa is a macuahuitl of pretty middling experience. He's certainly not incompetent and he and Phil are capable of working together well enough, but it's hard to get to know each other well enough to truly bond when Missa isn't around very often. Still, they probably have the most effective combat record out of any of the Federation assigned partnerships.

Chayanne is also a macuahuitl and the only weapon among the eggs. He is far more eager to learn the craft than either of his parents are for him to learn.

Slime and Mariana

Slime and Mariana are probably the Least effective duo in combat. They're both weapons, for one thing. Mariana is an extraordinarily powerful gauntlet and Slime is a 9mm glock. Mariana has at least a bare minimum of meister training, but neither of them are actually like. Any good at it. Or very good at being weapons for that matter. Or in tune with each others' wavelengths enough to wield each other. At least they're trying.

Juanaflippa could dual wield her papas on the rare occasions she could get them to both show up for her.

Roier and Jaiden

These two are another weapon4weapon pair but much stabler than Slime and Mariana. Jaiden is a scythe but she's always had an interest in learning how to be a meister. Roier has learned a trick or two from Spreen that he's willing to pass along and he's got enough experience as a weapon on his own to cover for her if she messes up. He's a backsword and he's learned how to wield himself and gotten pretty good at it, especially since Spreen betrayed him.

Bobby preferred his guns to wielding either of his parents and never got any formal meister training either.

DanTDM and Maximus

Maxo knows that he's a meister and that SOFIA isn't a weapon. That's all he can say for sure. He never knew Dan or Trump well enough to say.

BadBoyHalo

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Whatever he knows, he won't give a straight answer about it. Everyone is pretty sure his counterpart is probably Skeppy.

Dapper has been seen to wield an array of different red and black or cyan colored weapons when Bad isn't around, but so far Bad has always had an alibi and there's no solid proof Skeppy even exists.

Foolish and Vegetta

A pair of outliers. Foolish is an ex-meister long since turned pacifist and Vegetta exclusively wields weapons that don't shapeshift into humans. He says it's because he has no time for weapon drama <- the most dramatic bitch on the island.

Leo is very skilled with many weapons, but again, not the kind that shapeshift into people.

The Brazilians

Mike and Pac

One of the strongest partnerships on the island, these two have been fighting together forever. Pac is Mike's egg, but also his trusty rifle. Mike is a decent sniper, but mostly Pac just gets waved in peoples' faces when Mike is mad about something. Pac can reload himself absurdly fast, but also will frequently just jam himself and refuse to fire if Mike is making decisions he doesn't agree with.

Cellbit Forever and Felps

Felps is the rare meister who will dual wield weapons who don't come paired already. He spent years with Cellbit, a main gauche dagger, and the pair of them got along fine. A lot of what he did was keep Cellbit's bloodlust in check, but it worked. Then they added Forever, a rapier, to their little trio and Cellbit found his comfortable place as a parrying dagger defending Felps with Forever on the offensive.

Richarlyson

A baby meister in training, Richas is learning the most from Felps since Mike has been keeping his distance since the bull incident. At least he was before Felps went missing.

The French

Kameto

Kameto is a self wielding guillotine perfectly capable of handling himself, so wherever he's gotten himself off to, he's probably fine.

Antoine and Baghera

Antoine and Baghera are easily the least experienced pair on the island, but they make up for that with their sharp intelligence and the fact that they have excellent mentors. Antoine is a poleaxe with Baghera as his meister.

Etoiles and Aypierre

Etoiles and Aypierre aren't the most experienced pair on the island, but they're close to the most experienced working with each other and definitely the most dangerous. They were mentoring Antoine and Baghera when the plane crashed. Etoiles is a bec de corbin so he has a lot of relevant experience for Antoine. He is also extremely independent and capable of wielding himself to the point where he sometimes gets mistaken for a shapeshifting weapon. Between that and Pierre using non-magic weapons like Vegetta, they both spend more time apart than together.

Pomme

Pomme is going to be a meister someday, but for now, Etoiles is just teaching her how to the individual weapons that make up him and Antoine since he can defend her better on her own than by trying to have her wield him.

[thecrusadercomrade]

Really into torturing people with my asks but this is is ANF related (ooh shocker!)

Okay, remember in Episode 5 were David said they should all go home? Okay let's say hypothetically Javi agreed and chose to go with David. I guess this means Kate's instigation doesn't happen or at the very least she phrased it differently, how would that go (I imagine Clem wouldn't go because y'know, she wants AJ back... but another stupid hypothetical of mine is 'Lingard actually had AJ in Richmond the whole time, he survived the winter blah-blah okay she's got AJ back')

Another ask would be what would've happened if Javi got to stay in Richmond in Episode 3?

Annnnd last but not least, and this is a weird one but Role swap! If Kate was one of Richmond's council members instead of David, and he was with Javi and the kids instead of her. (Based on a What-If where Javi was part of Richmond's council instead of David).

Well, the first thing I imagine would happen is that they'd talk David out of his plan of returning to their family home, since that seems to have been his plan. It's just not practical, so I think instead they'd head out for the countryside, away from any major communities. They'd find a place to settle down, learning to live off the land, though they might struggle quite a bit with that. I don't think there's any repairing the relationship between David and Kate at that point, so that's dead. Considering David's reaction to the idea of Kate loving Javi, I feel like it would only make sense for them all to stay together if Javi didn't romance Kate, so I'll say that's what happened. Also, I think Gabe will be feeling a lot of regret if they left Clementine behind, but if she's still with them alongside AJ then he'd be pretty content with the situation.

I doubt Javi would be willing to settle down if the others were still kicked out, so I'll assume that Tripp (and possibly Conrad) were also allowed in. Clementine wouldn't want to stay even if they let her, so she still goes off on her own if she was brought to Richmond. In this case, I feel the story would take on more of an intensely political aspect to it, Javi working with David to try and reform the New Frontier to take care of the elements that destroyed Prescott and killed Mariana, while slowly coming to the realization that the rot within the community goes up to the very top...

Interesting! I can't really imagine Kate having the same role as David as Head of Security, so perhaps instead she'd be in charge of internal relations or something along those lines. Making sure everything runs smoothly within the community. If that were the case, Joan would absolutely fold security into her own job, further increasing her power within the New Frontier. Based on how Kate felt about David even before the apocalypse, there's no way she doesn't find herself a new boyfriend in New Richmond, so that's bound to cause a lot of drama when David and Javi show up. Perhaps this boyfriend will be an innocent bystander caught up in this family drama, or perhaps there'll be a twist where he's in on Joan's conspiracy, breaking Kate's heart.

I'm sorry I didn't go into more detail with these ideas, I just don't have much time to go super in-depth. Still, I hope you liked my answer!

[rainderthesomeone]

Alright so remember how I said I have an original series in the works well here it is!!!🎉

Heads up all of this is still in the concept faze and I’m currently working on this alone as of now but I’m going to be looking for someone to help me with this, this series is gonna be a webcomic, with Tim burton esc style to it and Beatle juicey, I plan to make more art of the backgrounds and updated character info sheets but for now have these sketches I made :)

Setting

The setting as of now is in Limbo the afterlife, but everything about it seems wrong, everything is out of order and random, nothing makes sense and it’s being miss managed by who’s ever in charge, this interpretation of Limbo is like a chain of islands, each island represents a time period and or place, like a mind it’s scrambled and odd, each soul/resident who lives on these islands matches that time period or event in history.

Much like sinners in Hazbin hotel each soul looks different, and resembles the way they died with a playful cruel twist, for example if you acted a certain way in life and or were killed in a certain way you take that form like say you were a yes man or were devoted to one person and did everything they say and they kill you, you become a puppet like thing in the afterlife.

(It dose sound a lot like Hazbin hotel when typing it out, again might change, Hazbin, Deltarune and Digital circus were huge inspirations for this.)

AnTeni.

AnTeni was a former lawyer/ businessman when he was alive, a sleezy one at best, he was a good scammer and a terrific father (if you asked him and not his ex wife.) would prefer to be out on the streets rather than at home, loves making excuses for everything, could probably file for a genus world record for the amount of lies and excuses he makes, cowardly, very cowardly.

And oblivious, an entire Television fell on his head, may have or may not have been on purpose, still rip this bozo.

1939-1977

(Also his favorite food is Lasagna.)

Scruff.

Scruff is a rough and tumble guy who gives zero shits about rules and people in power, despite that he’s a very chill man to be around, not a gentleman but has some class left in him, he loves his liquor and can drink anyone under a table, he loves his cigars too, doesn’t really tolerate assholes, Will try and fight anyone who causes problems, is incredibly short both in hight and temper (like rocket from guardians of the galaxy.) resembles an old rubber hose cartoon character, Filex the cats grumpy uncle is a good description of this guy, moves like a toon as well, stubborn too so stubborn in fact he got trampled because of it.

Don’t Stand in the Way of people trying to reach there money in 1929.

1888-1929.

(He adores romantic films and dancing, also he enjoys a good book.) old man would love pop culture if he got to have seen it.

Mariana

she’s a ghost, ghosts in limbo mean one of two things, something really bad happened to have warranted no body in the afterlife or body was too far gone so there for they didn’t bother to give them one.

Ghosts are doomed to roam around limbo without purpose, no recollection of past life or how it happened, despite all that she’s quite a very nice lady, very caring of those around her, often looking on the brighter side of the afterlife, and willing to help those around her, she has something a lot of souls lack in Limbo, empathy.

(She loves music, very carefree, often forgets she isn’t physical when she try’s to hug someone, doesn’t mind it to much, she enjoys flying around.)

Those are the three characters I have so far, I’m currently working on the others designs, not sure the amount of protagonists will have, but I’m aiming for three or two more, I’m also gonna dump some concept drawings I’ve made.

Anteni was originally called Gadget

Also some dates are well outdated and are no longer relevant, just wanted to share these with you gonna drawn them more in future, let me know if there are things I should change or update.

[wings-of-flying]

boom! fic from last night be upon you (it's q!charlie & q!mariana because i'm going insane about them) (also why can i never introduce fics normally? who knows):

EDIT: added spaces cause otherwise it's difficult to read on mobile

our love was a bonfire. we made art from the charcoal

What do you do when you've come from nothing and you find someone who tells you that you're worthy of love? You cling to them. Hold them closer than your own flesh and blood. Grip them desperately, like they're a lone piece of driftwood in an endless ocean. You don't stop when you hear their bones crack. You don't stop when the splinters tear at your skin. You don't stop till you're both falling apart at the seams, till passionate red pools at your feet. And by then it's far too late.

Some compare the decline of love to that of a candle. At first it brings warmth and light and hope. There’s comfort in it. Joy. But all things end. The wax slowly melts; the love slowly fades, till the flame eventually fizzles out. It’s sad, tragic, even, but peaceful.

Charlie envied those people. Envied the long and happy years of which they could boast before the light went out.

Perhaps a more accurate metaphor would describe his and Mariana’s relationship as a bonfire. You began with broken things, abandoned dreams, stuff destined to rot, and you set them alight. Oh, how they burned. All those around them were caught in the blaze and heat and smoke. There was no escaping it. But it brought joy and passion to life, more hope and excitement than both sides had ever known. It wasn’t surprising that they believed it was love. They’d never seen the true thing, and surely this was close enough.

The thing about bonfires is that they were never meant to last. Candles can be blown out and relit; their power can be conserved. But bonfires die the moment there’s nothing left to burn. And then what happens? You realise you were so caught up in the flames that there’s nothing to remember fondly. You look back at what remains and it’s just the same broken things, only their decay has been sped up. Nothing has been gained. You have only lost.

And suddenly you don’t recognise each other. The change happened so fast that you didn’t notice till it had been five years and since when did she wear so much yellow!

When the fire goes out, when the passion is gone, there is nothing left but ash and charcoal. And there’s no love in that.

For Charlie, work was a good enough distraction. He could ignore the elephant in the room if he was too preoccupied to think about it. For Mariana… Well, Charlie knew he still got the passion he wanted. It was clear in the way she looked at other men. Clear in the flicker of flame in his eyes that had once been reserved for someone else. Another elephant to ignore. Another mask to wear. Which meant more work, which meant more time away, which meant more men, which began the cycle once more. It was almost amusing how easily the marriage fell apart.

There were some good nights. When business was going well and Mariana was home, for once. In those few hours, they could almost pretend everything was fine. That they didn’t solely communicate through either uninterested smalltalk or screaming matches. But the sun would always rise, and it was only pretend, after all.

The baby was not intentional.

It came at either the best or worst time, Charlie could never decide which. They were on civil terms, but only because they’d been discussing divorce. Charlie had been the one to suggest it, once the elephant became impossible to ignore. He wasn’t sure how to feel when Mariana immediately agreed. Relief, perhaps, that it would work out the way he’d wanted? Or disappointment that it had happened so easily, regret that neither were willing to put up a fight?

Charlie was almost ashamed of the joy he felt when he found out about the baby, when he told Mariana and they both decided to try to give their child the best chance at life. So the divorce was called off before it had even begun. They would try to make things work, move and go into hiding so Charlie could leave the business, so Mariana could leave the affairs in the past. They’d be a real family, no matter what it took.

Because what do you do when you’re handed a second chance? You cradle it. Hold it to your heart, oh so gently. Love it with everything you’ve got, tentatively, softly. You take that chance and do all you can for it. You try and try and try until you make it real. Because you have to.

The fire may have taken all you had, but you can still make art with the charcoal.

[sweet-sexy-small]

Is it bad I’m still on team Evan..... like the girls don’t deserve to be harassed at their work obviously but like 90% of the problems were with their co-workers who got fired, the pay wage which Evan didn’t even know about but then sought to fix and idk who this imaginary board is but they seem to cause some shit which still is out of Evan’s hands like he didn’t do the best at running his company but it’s not like he said que sera, he was and is trying his best!!!!!!!!

[copiousloverofcopia]

Can I request something based off of thiiiis picture? Just with cute s/o moments too

The world needs more Daddy Secondo

Seeing Papa with kiddos makes my heart soar 💕

For your reading pleasure friend!

Also available here on AO3!

**WARNING spoilers for Let There Be Night fic!!!**

I am open for asks, requests, and commissions on the heart mug site!

If I haven't done your ask yet, I am working on it!!!

Let Them Wait

The crowd was booming with energy at the festival. The anticipation, keeping them all exquisitely on the edge as they awaited the appearance of the ever imposing, yet majestic, Papa Emeritus II to the stage. Secondo stood backstage, just moments before his special return performance of Year Zero was to begin. He straightened out his robes, double checking his paints as he ran through his scales. 

He was surprised when Papa Emeritus IV, previously Cardinal Copia, had invited all of them to return to the stage–leading Ghost during a special festival amidst the latest tour cycle. He was nervous, though his pride would never allow him to show it. It had been years since he spread the word of Lucifer in this way, leaving the glamor of the performance to younger men. Never in a million years did he think he’d be back on stage, even less that among the crowd would be his Prime Mover and  children. 

Despite whatever he had envisioned before, here he was now at the festival readying to perform—his Prime Mover Loren and their twins somewhere about on the grounds. He knew they’d be waiting, more excited than the crowd, for him to perform. Secondo was even more tense knowing Loren would be watching. They had met long after his tour days were over, his life goal now to make her happy above all things. When the day came that Copia insisted that the Emeritus brothers all return to the stage, and he saw the way Loren’s eyes lit up—it was a done deal. 

Secondo, took a deep breath in, closing his eyes to truly feel the sensations around him. His breath, clearing his lungs as the smell of paint permeated his nose. The humming of the amplifiers and the tuning of instruments in the air. Suddenly, his eyes still closed to the world, Secondo felt a tug at the bottom of his chasuble. 

“Piccola? What are you doing back here, where is your mother and brother? Secondo asked, staring down at his daughter Mariana, who had managed to find her way backstage. A ghoul came running up to them, panting and stopping to drop his head down, hands on his thighs as he finally caught up to them. 

“Sorry boss she needed to use the bathroom and well….huff…huff…she insisted you take her. I told her we could handle it but she …huff….she took off running full speed.” the ghoul explained, catching his breath. Secondo laughed, bending to pick up his daughter in his arms. 

“Mariana, you know better than to run off like that. Your momma must be worried sick.” Secondo explained brushing her golden locks from her face, a hint of discipline mixed with amusement in the tone of  his voice. 

“But Papa, I don't want anyone else to take me. Can’t you?” the girl asked, she was only five years old, but already so willful and bright. Secondo could tell his daughter missed him, preparing for the show and being overseas had lent them more time apart than ever before and while Loren and their son Christian seemed to be faring ok—Mariana was certainly a daddy’s girl. 

“I know you miss your Papa piccola but....” Secondo began hearing them announce him to come to the stage. He looked down at his daughter’s face, her big doe eyes–much like her mother’s, staring back at him. The audience could wait, if just for a bit longer. “I’ll be right back.” Secondo told the ghoul as he set Mariana down and took her hand in his. 

“But…boss the ritual…they are waiting for you on stage.” the ghoul panicked, his distress visible in his posture. 

“I will only be a moment.” Secondo said, throwing up a hand to dismiss the ghoul. The whole world could wait if it meant making his daughter happy. They walked, hand in hand to the bathrooms when from in front of them came running up Loren and little Christian. 

“Mariana! There you are! Oh sweet Lucifer Secondo, I’m sorry–Do you know they called for you on stage. Shouldn’t you be—” Loren began, relieved to have found her daughter safe and sound with her husband. 

“We just had to make a small bathroom trip beforehand is all.” Secondo explained, winking to Loren. His Prime Mover’s heart set aflame, he looked so handsome in his vestments and even more so when he was in dad mode. Secondo passed her by, giving her a kiss on the forehead as he did—the bathrooms only feet beyond them. 

“Hurry back ok, they are waiting.” Loren laughed, holding little Christian’s hand and Secondo smiling back at them and then down at Mariana. 

“Let them wait.” Secondo stressed, “I have more important business to attend to.”

[travelling-on-the-octopath]

A break from the GW!Claude negativity, how about some of the few nice things about his portrayal here?

The emphasis his has on how busy he is actually complements how much work he still willingly takes on himself that aren't directly related to his already stuffed workload. Him asking Leonie to keep him up-to-date on how the common people view him, and how they're faring overall? Not part of the job description! But it's work he still willingly chooses to take on because he actually genuinely cares about being a good leader, and he recognizes that he can't do that without knowing of the people's plights that his position otherwise wouldn't let him in on and that he knows he's ignorant on. (ignore how this is erased in his DuTiEs aNd ObLiGaTiOnS tHe cHuRcH fOrCeS oN uS line which is complete ass lmao we're Dev Approves to cherrypick what we take as canon so I cherrily pick that fact off of him lmaooo)

His overthinking!! Actually being visibly apparent! The fact his head gets so full of thoughts that he eventually just starts having whole-ass conversations with himself like his B support with Hilda shows him start to do before she walks in. It's something he lowkey alludes to in his A support with Byleth in 3H (how his thoughts gets so busy that it keeps him awake at night) but it's nice to see that be actually shown off.

His belief on not relying on chance going all the way down to not even liking to gamble recreationally is a really small detail that I really like - it's not just the big spectacle moments that belief affects, but the little enjoyments too. Makes it feel more natural to his character in a way?

Him getting visibly upset at Lysithea for putting her and her men's lives at risk to get a win going back into his survival > winning mindset. And also shows how much he cares for his friends!! I haven't seen the A support yet so I don't know how it ends, but the B one shows a very caring side to Claude.

Him overall trying much harder to be sincere here. Sometimes it falls flat - like with Lorenz in their C - and sometimes it works out - like in Hilda's B - but there's a visible effort on Claude's end now to try to connect with others. And it's good that it initially didn't work with Lorenz! It shows off how the tension in their relationship really strains it, it makes it really feel real and hit harder.

There's a lot less jokey moments with Claude now. Even with more gimmick characters like Raphael, who he only has one support with, the support is still grounded in a seriousness that a lot of his 3H supports just didn't have. Like!-

Ignatz!! His support with Ignatz here is sooooo much better than his 3H ones! He takes Ignatz' dreams of seeing the world and helps him start seeing them to light in a way that still allows him to perform his knightly duties!! And Ignatz appreciates him for it!! And they honestly feel like friends!! It's this kind of relationship that lets me understand why Ignatz would fight for Claude, way more so than the mess that was their 3H supports lmaooo

While the extent of his self-doubt feels a little... weird (it can be a little Much, for Claude), I do like the idea of it being there! We love to see some internal conflict stemming from one's knowledge of the depths they know they can sink to 💞 (which are unfortunately highkey ruined by the writers making those depths the goddamn Mariana Trench BUT POSITIVE TIME NO THINKING ABOUT THAT lol)

These are aspects I will happily try to incorporate into writing Claude <3 I will simply ignore the bad parts lol

!!! This! All of this! Like this is the Claude that does not budge at Derdriu, even when he knows there isn't an army of miracles coming to save him or the city; who wants a better world so badly he's willing to wear fifteen different hats to do it; who wants to feel a closeness to people that proves to him care can overcome manmade differences and borders. There are moments throughout the game that just feel like such a treat. Like THIS is my dude, my little guy, the meow meow.

[youwontlikethisblog]

Nicolas Mora is Better Than You

Up to this point Armando has been getting heavily manipulated by Mario a lot. However I find it wonky this time around how many times Mario changes tactic.

One moment he brings out the emotional part of it all by joking that Armando looks heartbroken and distraught over their[Betty and Armando's] breakup which just annoys Armando. When he realizes that this isn't working he bring the whole "The company! Millions of dollars! Your family!" and when Armando rebuts this by saying he can't take it anymore, the guilt and that he doesn't want to hurt Betty Mario strikes for the ego.

"Turns out, Nicolas Mora is better than you." he says and Armando reacts furious. "Yeah that hurt didn't it? Well just imagine how much it'll hurt when Betty and Nicolas take away Eco Moda and your entire family finds out you handed it to them."

The conversations goes in circles and Armando argues that he can't take any more kisses, he begs that he can't take kissing her anymore.

Let's go back to a few scenes, in that exact day, when Mario and Armando were in production talking about the plan like they didn't have hundreds of witnesses hearing them talk about it. Mario pointed out that Armando hadn't been complaining at all over the kisses, at least not like before "I think you're starting to like this a little too much."

"No you see, it's like boxing. At first the first hits hurt but by round two you're already numbed to it so it doesn't hurt. The most important thing is to make it to round three."

"Yeah but you can still get knocked out before."

If Armando is saying that he is numbed to it, though we know that he's no longer focused on the physical aspect of Betty but rather what he feels when he kisses her(I mentioned this in the post La Arrogancia De La Niña), though he sometimes still struggles to accept her "ugliness" when he kisses her, why does he say "No more kisses!"?

These kisses are awakening something in him that he has been unaware of until now. They make him feel guilty for enjoying them because he feels like he is doing so in only a malicious way. They are kisses of deception and cruelty and here he is finding something in them that make him feel something deeply in him and he enjoyes it.

The begging for them to no longer happen is not really for the "ugliness" of Betty but the ugliness of what he's doing to get those kisses and how deeply they are affecting him in his life(when he kissed Marcela after the first sober kiss with Betty. I talk about in the post La Arrogancia De La Niña) and he no longer wants to feel what he feels. He is refusing to feel what he feels. He tells Mario that he had wanted to fix everything with Betty in the office for that reason but before Betty left he told her he wanted to drive her home so they could talk on their way there. Again, Armando continues to contradict himself when he talks to Mario about the situation.

Mario then repeats the same thing Armando told him except he compares it to a dentist.

He's numb to it by now. He pumps up Armando and he leaves.

Ever since Betty broke up with him he's been off. He has been somber, like he was the day that it was official that Terra Moda was moving forward with the seizure against Eco moda.

This following scene is honestly the whole reason why I even went back from the start to pick apart Armando's character because up to that point I wanted to bury him after I made him dig his own grave.

Armando calls Betty's house phone and her dad picks up.

Betty had been talking to Nicolas and lecturing him about the cell phone and was helping to set up the table for dinner when Don. Hermes tells her her boss is on the phone asking for her.

As they speak on the phone Don. Hermes tells Betty that if they are going to speak that he needs to come in, Nicolas then says "Yeah tell him to come in we'll invite him for something to eat."(he is so sweet) and Armando asks who she's with.

"My dad and Nicolas."

"Ah, What a shame, am I interrupting something?" he asks rather aggressive.

Hours before he heard Betty get upset with Nicolas because some other woman had answered his cell phone.

I think it's extremely important to note that Armando isn't aware at all that Betty isn't in love with Nicolas, that she isn't fawning over him, and that they are honestly just a really cute pair of friends who deeply care for one another. He wholeheartedly believes what Bertha told him regarding Betty's love life. So Nicolas isn't just a potential boyfriend but in his mind, Betty's soulmate and because of what Mariana said he also believes that they will end up together and even if he doesn't understand why that upsets him to the degree it does, he is sure that he doesn't want that to happen, not only for the sake of Eco Moda(his distrust in Nicolas(Post Nicolas Mora, Un Amigo and part 1-2 of Betty, My Betty!)) but for the sake of his heart. So his dislike of Nicolas is a very serious one that he has been harboring since the day he found out about him being a romantic partner to Betty(which has been like little over a week lol or am I missing some time stamps here?).

As Betty leaves her house to speak to him she seems nervous and anxious while trying to stay composed. She doesn't go into his car and instead by his door she squats down to speak to him but Armando orders for her to get in, not as her boss, but as her boyfriend and this is where we begin to see a very... como se dice, important red flag. This harboring of feelings against Nicolas and his refusal to understand his feelings towards Betty ultimately are what drives him mad and not his love for Betty. His love for Betty is what made him feel alive but the fact he harbored so much animosity and hatred against Nicolas, his distrust of Betty's faithfulness, and his refusal to understand his feelings towards her are what really made it all explode.

This is where we begin so if you want to take a break, take one. It's a long one.

Armando holds the picture of AA and takes a drink from his bff(whisky bottle). Betty steps out and walks down to his car and he watches her until she makes it to him.

"What can I help you with?"

"Why don't you get in the car?"

"See what happe-"

"Betty get in."

"Yes sir."

"Betty why are you avoiding me?" he does seem honest in asking this question and it sound heart felt.

"Sir I think what I said in the office still stands, we have nothing to talk about." She says looking at her house in turn Armando turns to her house as well. "Nothing has happened between us. It's best that we continue just like before."

"Betty but how can you say that to me like that, so cold?" He looks her down. "Do you not have a heart? How are you capable of telling me to just forget, that nothing happened between us?" He asks hurt while Betty continues to look at her house. "Are you listening to me?" He asks frustrated.

"Yes sir, I am listening to you."

"Well it doesn't look like it." He throws his hands in the air and drops them with a slap onto his lap and stares at her, hurt. "You're worried about your house, looking over there the whole time. What? Does it bother you that Nicolas can see us? Or what?" he crosses his arms over his chest.

"Nonono, Sir. It isn't that. It's just that my dad said if we were going to chat for us to go inside."

Armando asks her if she wants him to go in there so they can talk about their relationship in front of her father and Nicolas.

"No sir. It's best if we leave here."

"Are you sure it's because of your father." He looks down at her. "Or Nicolas." he says with his mouth tight.

"No because of my father. Nicolas knows I'm out here talking with you."

"What did you tell him?" he ask rather quick with a angry tone.

"Mhmm nothing." Betty shakes her head. "we were talking about other things when you got here." Betty looks behind to her house.

"And what? He's waiting for you?"

"Yes but that doesn't matter. Lets go."

Before he turns on his car he turns to the front, then turns back to stare at Betty and then back to turn on his car, whoever the expression remains the same; anger. At first he was solemn, he wanted to talk to her but as soon as he heard Nicolas was in her house(when he heard his voice through the phone) he was in a terrible mood. When Betty stepped out he order her to get in his car. When she got in he was willing to talk but as he saw Betty's nervousness he attributed this to her being nervous that Nicolas would catch them, therefore confirming that she had something going on with him so he's pissed.

Armando pulls onto the side of some street "And what Betty? Will it be that you feel more at peace here and can concentrate in the conversation, hmm?" she nods.

As they talk Armando sounds very rehearsed. Like he knows exactly what he saying and has thought it all through, which is a very different tone of voice he had in the office and the previous times.

Betty again tries to reason and tell him that what they're doing isn't correct.

"[..]I also feel like I'm in hell whenever I run into Ms. Marcela I feel like I'm burning," Armando stares at her intently, he has a slight crease between his brows and seems surprised to hear Betty confess that she feels guilty every time she sees Marcela, a woman who has treated her so poorly. "condemning myself when I see what I'm breaking up. When I see I'm betraying so many people. No, sir, I feel really bad."

"What's stronger? What you feel for me and what we've lived?" At the end of his question his expression changes to a hopeful one, to one that is sweet as his glisten and there's a slight upturn to the corners of his mouth.

"Of course what I feel for you." She says.

In his response you can hear that manipulation at work. You can hear how rehearsed and detached from emotion everything is.

When he leans in to kiss her at first, for a second he seems hesitant but soon he gives into the kiss. Take into account that he hasn't looked at the picture of AA since he was waiting for Betty outside of her house.

Now they kiss and they kiss for a good ol' while until Betty taps his shoulder repeatedly for a second or two and he pulls away. Armando tries to reason with her as to why they should continue their affair, he tries to explain that he can't break up with Marcela and why. His body language is all indicating his satisfaction with how things are turning out. He tries to play the concerned and pained expression because he can't break up with Marcela soon but when he begins to talk about the company's struggles you hear that sincerity and see it as well. He feels confident that he's go it all under control. However, Betty refuses once more to get back together. As Betty agrees now and tells him that it would be terrible if Marcela ever found out and they broke up because of it; he turns his face away from her and smirks.

"I understand sir, that's why it's best we end this." Now he turns more towards her and pulls from his seat as he stares at her with flared nostrils and wide eyes.

Armando gets frustrated and tells her "I'm not saying let's end things, Beatriz" He says between clenched teeth. "I'm saying we have to be careful. Let's understand things, yeah?"

Armando has had all day to marinate in the situation and think of how to get her back. He has definitely dealt with his guilty conscious which is what pushes him to not want to continue the relationship built on deception and lies and this scene shows us the nature of his manipulation and how good he's at it. If you aren't paying attention you truthfully think this man is just coming up with it on the spot but he shows his true colors sooner rather than later.

"It's better for us to end things before it gets worse."

"N-no Beatriz don't leave me."he pleads and in a millisecond his tone of voice changes and he repeats. "Betty don't leave me, please don't leave me" and he leans closer to her and kisses her and they start kissing again ;)

Now this is what really made me go back. He no longer is behaving cocky and being manipulative in just this short lived sentence he has a look of plea in his eyes, he places his fingers on Betty's lips and stares at her and then he resumes to seduction.

In a matter of seconds as he realizes that Betty is not convinced to get back together there's something inside of him that screams for her and the need to be close to her and again we are shown this and shown how good Armando is at avoiding his feelings in an instant. He begs for her to not leave him and we get two very different "Don't leave me" in an instant to be able to determine which was the honest plea and which was the manipulative/seductive plea.

This time however they're interrupted by Roman and Co. as they start to make fun of Betty and say very disrespectful things like she's the ugliest woman in the world, that she had to get somebody else from a different neighborhood to notice her ect.

Armando get's out of the car and listens to what they're saying(I do believe that he is a hypocrite because he listens to his best friend make the same jokes and he doesn't do anything except sit there and take it. I mean he does get mad at him but he never says anything about it. Maybe the reason why he got so angry here is left over anger from Calderon?) as the keep making these jokes. After one of them mentions that Nicolas was the one that was courting Betty and that he now had competition Armando walks around his car and removes his glasses(the true victims of this show tbh Both Betty and Armando's glasses are.)

"No seriously how did you get such a man? […] What are you seeing her devine?" and badabim badabom fists are thrown, kicks are thrown, mans is being held back by two other goofs while some short dude punches him, he frees himself, Betty is trying to get the mans some help and then Don Hermes shows up and fights them off like a true hero.

Betty stands behind them, closer to Armando while Don. Hermes shares words with Roman and Co.

When they run off Don Hermes asks what happened.

"The thing is they were being very disrespectful to Betty and I couldn't allow that so I got out of the car and a fight broke out"

"But what did they tell you?"

"Ay Dad, you know they always bother me for...being ugly." Both Armando and Betty share a loot.

I truthfully feel for Betty. I think anyone who has been bullied at one point or the other feels embarrassment for how they were treated9like it's our fault people are so cruel and superficial? Nah it's the fault for being so ugly on the inside) , especially when it happens in front of someone you like. Betty's self-esteem is really non-existent and for her to have something that she's used to happening to her happen in front of someone she thinks so highly of is mortifying and you can see that in the way she looks at him, embarrassed. It comes to no surprised that Betty decided to change her look after this night.

"I couldn't allow that. Betty must be respected, above anything, well I'll make her be respected." He says with authority. "You know?"

Don Hermes then tells Armando how embarrassing it is and that for that exact reason he doesn't allow Betty to leave the house so that she can avoid problems like those. It paints a very scary picture because it's true.

Don Hermes loves Betty a lot. She is his jewel but because of his distrust in people he keeps his daughter on a tight leash. As Betty mentioned at the start of the show that he[Don Hermes] wanted a good girl so he took her out of regular school and put her in a convent, that he wanted a smart and studious daughter and he got that. That it was time she started to live her life for herself, that she wanted to experience life. Even when Betty has lied and said she's stayed out for work related reasons he still gets upset and demands for her to be home at all times.

I'm not saying Don Hermes is a bad father, the contrary he's an amazing father however there must be a balance and ironically even though he has done so much to take care of his precious daughter Betty has still suffered tremendously because of love.

"[...] that's why I told you to make him go in so you could avoid these kinds of problems, Betty."

"No I was just passing by, it isn't Betty's fault Don Hermes."

"She knows this very well because I have prohibited her to be out here in the streets(she ain't for the skreets) it isn't the first time that we have problems with those guys. Nicolas has had to fight them before because of it-"

"Oh really?" He shifts on his feet and moves his hands from his hips to be clasped in front of him. "Nicolas?" he asks agitated.

"Yes and I've had to fight them myself too."

As they walk towards Armando's car Don. Hermes mentions that he wouldn't want his[A] girlfriend to find out about the fight and Armando tells Betty to continue to the car. He now starts to avoid the topic of Marcela being his GF in front of Betty since he now knows how much it hurts her.

When he drops them off at their house Betty stays for a moment longer in his car so they can talk.

"You shouldn't have gotten in a fight like that for me, it wasn't worth it."

"Betty, please, it was worth it," He sounds genuine. "I couldn't take it...for them to say those barbarities in front of you, for them to make fun of you. I don't know what happened to me I -I have never felt like that. I was so furious." Armando speaks of this like it was an outer body experience and he was trying to understand it himself as he told it. "I couldn't take it. They had to respect you." he now sounds angry again as he says that between clenched teeth.

Again as he says "me tenían que respetarla" is a possessive term. Armando implies that by disrespecting Betty in turn they were disrespecting him i.e. "what they do to you they do to me.".

Then his jealousy pokes through as he turns to her and asks:

"Hey eh, seems like Nicolas already defended you once before..."

"Um yes." He looks away from her and down(to his keys or hands). "Once before."

"So like, I've got competition... because that's what they said that before Nicolas was courting you and now it's me." His tone here is curious but timid as he asks her these questions. Unlike before when he first asked Betty about her having a boyfriend(Betty, My Betty! post) he sounded very angry as he asked her these questions, though curious, his tone later changed to calm and pretending to just be curious however we later saw him enter Calderon's office very happy and his tone reminds me of that. He isn't angry here but he is curious and timid to ask her this because he doesn't want to show jealousy or ask her the direct question that he wants: "Are you with Nicolas? Are you two together and in love?" because he knows he's asked this before and Betty always tells him there's nothing happening.

"Don't listen to them, Sir. They say that just to mortify, to playa round."

"Of course." Armando nods, unconvinced. He turns to Betty's house and then back to her. "What? Is he still in there? " he points with his head while staring at Betty who looks at her house.

"I imagine so but it won't be long before he leaves. He always leaves early." Armando hasn't taken his eyes off of her. It shows that he's really paying attention to any tail sign that would indicate that she's lying to him.

"Ah that's good, very good." He looks away from her. "Well I'll leave then." he turns to look at her again as if hoping for something else.

"Okay, are you sure you're fine, Sir?" He turns away from her and looks thoughtful for a second, debating whether to tell her or not. He finally decides to.

"No. No, I'm not fine." He says being vulnerable. "How am I going to be fine, Beatriz? I came here to talk with you because I've been really worried, I wanted us to reconcile, Beatriz. For us to get back together, for you to not leave me. I wanted us to fix everything and look at what happened...I'm leaving empty handed and with a face full of bruises." he chuckles in disbelief at the end.

"Sir you're not leaving empty handed." The music now changes to a "DUN" sound. "because I don't want to leave you either. We just have to be more careful. We can't go out as much. We have to restrain ourselves." Betty nods.

Now Armando's act of bravery and macho man has moved Betty. It has made her want him more. Why is that?

It's not hard to understand where Betty is coming from. In her respective work field she is confident in what she can and cannot do but when it comes to her person and her appearance she lacks any confidence. While she was stubborn to stick to her morals and her ethics at the beginning and not continuing the affair, now after his display of macho man she is weak.

She no longer cares about how badly it hurts her or how guilty she feels for the betrayal she's inflicting on so many people because her knight in shinning armor has defended her and hasn't made her feel guilty for it. Betty yet he has expressed how he couldn't take it, that he felt like if by disrespecting her they were disrespecting him. He made it so personal that Betty throws all caution to the window and decided to continue the affair.

"Betty... I-I feel so happy, so marvelous with everything you're saying. Betty we-we're going to have some time later on so we can be together." Armando is right back to being a liar, a stinkin' liar.

Betty lets out a sigh and nods. "Yes Sir because I get nightmares just thinking about Ms. Marcela finding out." Armando looks away with wide eyes and lets out a sigh of his own. "Um" Betty clears her throat. "Sir, Does Nicolas bother you a lot?" Armando searches her eyes and Betty continues. "It's 'cause I've noticed that whenever I or somebody mentions him you get indisposed."

He looks thoughtful for a second before responding "Look Beatriz, if you're telling me that there's nothing boing on between you two I-I don't feel bad." Notice how he doesn't make eye contact with her which is something he often does when he feels guilty for lying to her.

"I swear to you, Sir."

"Yeah?" She nods while he stares at her, again trying to find a tail sign that she's lying to him. "Betty, Betty, all of this makes me so happy." He reaches to caress her face with the back of his fingers. "your love..." his tone again changes here.

He tells her that from now on she'll tell everyone that Nicola's is her boyfriend that way Marcela isn't suspicious of them or anyone for that fact. Betty agrees to it but she herself doesn't feel uncomfortable with that.

"Well, I'd kiss you here but your dad could see us and well..." He looks at her relieved but trying to play it off.

Betty nods and looks behind him and then at him and leans to give him a quick peck on the corner of the lips. As she turns to exit his car he touches his lips and looks contentment.

As she walks to the side of his car to wave good-bye he watches her and shows a genuine smile and waves good-bye as well.

You know how I keep mentioning the drop off when Betty leaves and waves bye and how Armando behaves. Little by little we see the fake smile turns to a genuine one. We see him no longer look ready to bolt but him staying for a second longer, him staring and watching Betty with a look of peace and happiness.

What do we get from all of this?

While Armando did have time to rehearse what he wanted to say and most of his responses to Betty sound very rehearsed we get this moments where he is genuine and honest with her and you can clearly tell which of those moments are and which aren't.

Did he want the relationship to end? Yes. The guilt of hurting Betty is a lot and the interesting to note here is that while in the past he didn't care if he used his models for a quick affair with Betty he feels differently and the only logical reason for that is that he cares for her, like actually does, but that doesn't mean he's in love because he's not.

Betty here exposes her true weakness and that's her desire to be loved so even when she feels uncomfortable with certain things like Armando telling her to lie that Nicolas is her boyfriend, she agrees. Again this shows the power dynamic in the relationship and that Betty hasn't learned how to voice her feelings.

Betty's life is no longer changing just in her profession but a lot in her emotional and persona life and it isn't just because Armando is dating her but because these small things aren't normal in a healthy relationship. In this relationship with Armando she has learned to cater to all of his wants and wishes and at this point of the relationship Armando isn't focused so much on what Betty wants.

At this point it's' all very egoistical of him. He feels that Betty belongs to him and due to his ego he goes after her. He feels that Betty is only meant to be special toward him so he gets pissed at "knowing" that she could be that way with somebody else. He feels offended that Betty would think of him as a superficial man. He has made it all about him and though his guilt pushes him to want to not deceive her his ego is bigger than him.

In some redeeming way we know that Armando does in fact have feelings for her and that each and every time they spend time together those feelings just continue to grow and we steady but surely see that change.

However Betty needs a change asap and let her wishes and desires be known and respected just as she does for him and that's why it was so important for her to take him off that pedestal she had him in otherwise that relationship at some point would have ended even if she never found that letter.

[EDIT:]

Armando's rivalry with Nicolas is highlighted in these scenes. Here someone has done what he has just done. Here someone spends time in her house with her family while he doesn't. Nicolas is part of Betty's personal life and he experiences it while he doesn't. He only gets glimpse of it and instead of voicing any of this he just tells Betty that he believes her and drops the subject but Mario's words ring truth here.

Nicolas is better than him. Nicolas has defended Betty before he was in the picture. Nicolas has made himself part of Betty's personal life as a friend. Nicolas makes his[Armando's] money increase each day and the worth of Terra Moda as well. Nicolas manages to be inside Betty's house with her father, who doesn't trust anyone with his daughter, while he can't do any of that.

The harboring and animosity just continues to grow even when Betty says she isn't in a relationship with Nicolas, Armando hates him because he feels that in every aspect of the word Nicolas is a competition to him.

[EDIT 2:

When Betty said that he couldn't be interested in her because she didn't fit his ideal type of conquest he seemed offended, even when he told Mario that Betty had said that he seemed offended.

To Armando based on what Mariana, Bertha, and Mario have told him, Nicolas is Betty's soulmate and in the middle of riches they will end up together and there is a mutual attraction between Nicolas and Betty.

So if Nicolas finds Betty attractive as is(the night of the new collection launch when Nicolas went to pick her up with her dad he sent an urgent memo that he was Betty's boyfriend and was there to pick her up. Both Mario and Armando were witnesses to the door man delivering that memo to Betty and when she left Mario said that a man that desperate to pick up a woman as ugly as Betty only had one reason to sound that urgent; that the attraction was mutual) and he shows to be a lot smarter than him, a ladies man, and still takes notice of Betty, why wouldn't he feel like Nicolas is a competition?

This with the reasons mentioned above are a good cause for him to feel hurt over Mario telling him that Nicolas is better than him. They are fuel enough for him to continue with this sinister plan, despite the guilt.

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

Top 5 Reasons Javier Garcia’s Pretty Great

Of all the games in TWDG, A New Frontier seems to get the most shit. Stick around this fandom long enough and that’ll become apparently pretty quick, especially on other platforms such as reddit and instagram... and y’know, I get it. ANF is far from perfect, parts of the storyline go no where and characters don’t get the development they should have, a lot of people were upset that Clementine wasn’t the main playable protagonist, and certain character models look like... well, they look like potatoes. 

Hell, I’ve talked to some people who flat out say they don’t even consider ANF as part of the canon and skip it when they replay the series, which.... harsh, but you do you. However, if you do skip over ANF for whatever personal reasons you have, you are missing out on what I would consider the best part of that game: Javier Garcia. 

I love Javi, and I will stand by the fact that he’s a pretty damn good playable protagonist. I just wish more love and time was put into developing ANF to give him an even better story but y’know... Telltale was goin’ through shit, so we got this... 

But, I still wanna talk about how great I think Javi is so c’mon, let’s take a walk. 

5. Javi’s relationship with David

Now this might come off as a weird one, especially if your Javi has a more hostile relationship with David. Even so, I find the dynamic between Javi and David to be one of the more compelling aspects of ANF and I wish it was more front and center than it is but y’know. 

So we got Javi, who is the younger, more irresponsible brother who became this hotshot baseball star only to lose it all by gambling. Then you got older brother David who is a military man with a couple kids and a second wife, and he’s always felt a little overshadowed by Javi. This creates this dynamic of brothers who do love each other, but don’t always know how to communicate and confide in one another and it can lead to a lot of tension or hostility.

The route I usually take with a Javier who tries his best with David, who wants this connection despite everything, who made the promise to their father to look out for David and be there for him, to stand with him when he needs it, y’know? 

Some stand out moments for me is during the baseball flashback when David’s trying to open up about something, but struggles because Javi isn’t taking a hint about the serious nature, when they stand together on the roof, and the last conversation we see between them if David survives. 

Oh, and ya can’t forget the “I love you”’s when David is two seconds away from murdering Javi... that’s the good shit. 

And y’know, on the flip side where Javi is against David every step of the way, you can still argue that acts as a more tragic yet compelling story of two brothers who never saw eye to eye, never tried to, and it ended in tragedy... I personally don’t prefer this route, but to each their own. 

Again, this is at #5 because it’s not handled the greatest and it’s a bit of an unpopular choice.... but I don’t care, Javi and his relationship with David is one of my favorites. 

4. He’s pretty charming, isn’t he?

I’m sorry, I can’t help it.... if a charming character can make me laugh, then I almost always end up loving them. Javier Garcia is so damn funny and I love him for it. 

Yeah, ANF is a mess but this dude makes it so much better with his dialogue, a great performance by Jeff Schine, great facial expressions, and just an overall charismatic air around him. 

He’s just super likable, okay? Even when you play him as a total bastard, I have a hard time not enjoying his presence. I’ll be honest, if Javi wasn’t the playable protagonist or if he was this bland, watered down version of himself... I might be one of those people who skip over ANF. 

He’s easily one of my favorite parts of this game and one of the few redeeming things about it. 

3. His growth as a character

Like I mentioned in #5, when we first meet Javi he’s this irresponsible ex-professional baseball player who wasn’t around, even though his father was dying from cancer. After his father dies and he runs to try and make it home in time... he’s too late and David and their mother are pretty upset with him. 

And then his father turns into a walker, and the apocalypse happens. Javi is now trying to survive with Kate, Gabe, and Mariana while everything goes to hell around them. But for someone known to not be around or to skip out when things get a little tough, Javi doesn’t abandon them. Nope, he stays with them for years, traveling around and surviving, making sure they have what they need. 

By the end of the game? Javi’s proved to be a leader, proved that he’s better than he once was. Again, this is ANF so this growth isn’t super smooth or the greatest, but damn it, Javi makes it work. 

He and his family, no matter the combo you got, are staying in Richmond and they’re going to try to start over and rebuild it, make it better than it was.... which I can only assume they succeeded because after that they were never heard from again. 

Also, Javi is constantly having shit thrown his way and somehow he manages to pull through. 

So good job, Javi, you did it. 

2. Javi’s got a lot of force

Listen... Javi is so fun to play as. Like okay, I know that Telltale games don’t have the most complex combat system... you literally just push the buttons as they appear on screen. But I don’t care because Javi makes that fun. 

Javi really puts all of his weight into each hit and you feel it. I don’t know how to explain it, but there’s something satisfying about the way Javi fights with a melee weapon, and it’s not something you feel when you play as Lee or Clementine. You do get it a few times when you place as Michonne in the mini-series, but even then, I would argue that Javi did it better. 

It’s especially prominent towards the end of ep5 if you go after David and Gabe,  and Javi’s on this motorcycle with his damn bat knocking over walker after walker until he finds them... then you get all this intense force when Javi is just gunning and beating down walker after walker to get to the vehicle Gabe and David are trapped in. I love it so much, it’s easily one of my favorite moments in ANF. 

Don’t get me wrong, I have fun playing as Lee and Clementine, but Javier Garcia hits different, y’know? 

1.  He’s really trying his best to care for everyone, okay? 

When we think of Lee as a playable protagonist, we tend to think about how wise he was, how he always seemed to know what he was doing and how much he was willing to sacrifice for Clementine... and when we think of Clem as a playable protagonist in S2, we’ve got this sad little girl who gets punished no matter what she does, she’s smart and often underestimated, but she makes plenty of mistakes which she learns from.

And then we have Javi who has a bit of both in him. He’s older and can have his moments of wisdom [like with Gabe and Clem] but he also has plenty of mistakes he’s gotta learn from and sometimes no matter what he does, everything goes to hell... but Javi does manage to stand out on his own among these two. 

Javi does what he can, he tries his hardest to look after these kids even though he never planned to be a father figure, he works with Kate to make sure they’re safe. When he fucks up, he tries to make things right... even though it doesn’t always work out. He loves Gabe and Mariana, and you can see and feel his heartbreak when he’s the one to bury Mari after she’s killed.... and now he has Gabe, who’s hurting, and he does what he can to make sure he doesn’t meet the same fate which.... sometimes doesn’t work out depending on your ending.

I just-- he’s trying, okay? Javi is trying his best and I love him for it.  

---

Honorable Mentions

-Javi has some of the best deaths/fails moments... seriously, I could watch him confidently run right into those metal stairs and fall to his doom a hundred times. -He’s a literal disaster bi.   -He fucking loves pudding and I mean, who doesn’t? Y’know?  -His bromance with Tripp is pretty good until Tripp dies for death quota reasons. 

---

So what are your thoughts on Javier Garcia? Do you agree with these reasons, or do you have any to add? Lemme know, it’s always fun to have character discussions.

Have any suggestions for future T5F’s? Feel free to send ‘em in! :D

Next week’s T5F

[hopeless-weakness]

2021 Books I’ve Read

238/75

Under Locke by Mariana Zapata

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The first person in my life who I had the urge to punch in the face was a six-foot-three-ish biker that I assumed beat the living crap out of someone and went to jail for it. Of all the people in the world smaller than me that I could have chosen, and this is who I wanted to nail right in the test!cles?

Mariana gave us a slowburn, with forced proximity in the workplace AND a shared bed?! She just GETS IT! Right off the bat, I loved the name ‘Dex Locke’. I knew it was going to bring good things into my life. Instantly, Dex’s tough heart finds a soft spot for Iris. Nothing is more important or precious than his Ritz. Even before he’s willing to admit it. That tough biker mentality really worked...for a while at least. Iris never let Dex walk all over her. She stood up to him every single time. Put him in his place, reminded him that she was not property he could control. Gotta give him credit, he kept trying anyway. They both struggled with their pasts defining them. But they both just wanted to help the other realize that it wasn’t true. There was a lot of both and forth because of that. I loved that Dex and Iris, as much sexual tension as there was, they enjoyed each other’s company first and foremost. I’m glad Iris started to understand his lack of communication and controlling nature wasn’t malicious, even though it was a bit much most of the time. Dex became less grumpy with a side of extra grumpy and more soft around the edges. Even doted on her in front of the Widows, who looked at him like he just discovered the wheel (I know the feeling!). I loved the bond between Iris and her brother Sonny; really sad to see her relationship with her brother Will though. The ending all felt so rushed. There was such a big build up, and then it was just over? But, even with that, it still felt fulfilling.

My Favorite Quotes:

•”Babe, you’re the cutest f!ckin’ nerd I’ve ever met.”

•”Honey, you and me, we’re more than just friends.”

•”You’re mine. Your mouth, your face, your ass, your p!ssy, Ritz. You’re all mine.”

•”But I’m not a good man, and I’m gonna take everythin’ you want to give me and everythin’ you don’t. I want it all, baby.”

•”Please don’t give up on me.”

•”All this sweet skin, just for me.”

•”You’ve gotta be the best thing I never knew I wanted.”

•”Seen a lot of things in my life, but you my sweet, sweet baby, have gotta be my favorite by far.”

•”Babe, you got me as much as I got you, and thats shit’s not changin’, you understand? Not today, tomorrow, not ever.”

•”I love that asshole. He stays.”

•”You’re the best thing that ever yelled at me.”

7/10 Dirty Birdy

8/10 Forced Proximity

7/10 MC

6/10 Slowburn

7/10 We Work Together

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[hd-wireless]

🎶 H/D WIRELESS FEST - REVEALS 🎶

At last, the day you’ve been waiting for! It’s the REVEALS! 

Come check out the talented people who created your favourite Wireless fics and artworks!

Massive thanks once again to all the 54 creators of our 64 works (yes some people created multiple works! Special mention to cloudlesslysky who wrote FIVE fics!). And thanks also to all the readers, betas and supporters of H/D Wireless! It’s been a bumper year!

Without further ado...

🎶 H/D Wireless Art 🎶

📻 Stuck on the Bridge Between Us (G)  by pygmy_puffy @pygmy-puffy

🎵 Song prompt: Talk Me Down by Troye Sivan

🎵 Summary: finding the courage within themselves to be vulnerable, so they can stop hurting the other and start loving each other as they so deeply want and need to

📻  So Let's Dance, Take a Chance, Understand Me (T) by Dazed_and_Inked @dazedandinked

🎵 Song prompt: T.Rex, Get It On

🎵 Summary: The War is over and everything has changed.

After a few of years of travelling around the world, Harry decided to move to Muggle London, looking for peace and a place where the scar on his forehead doesn’t have a meaning. His new flat is in a perfectly normal neighbourhood close to the centre, quiet during the day but full of students at night.

He really likes the small bar down the road, a place that serves cheap, awful drinks and plays good old classics. It’s always crammed with people talking, laughing or dancing along with the riff of electric guitars.

From the first time he crossed the threshold, Harry thought it was perfect, the right mix of noise and warmth to be alone without feeling alone. Just what he needed.

He couldn’t imagine that someone else was there for the very same reason, looking for a place where the Dark Mark was only a tattoo.

Blame it on the alcohol, on the music or whatever you want, but when Harry’s eyes landed on Draco’s slim figure, swaying on the dancefloor, something warm and inexplicable possessed him. 

📻  The Pass (T) by julchen_in_red @julcheninred

🎵 Song prompt: The Pass, by Rush

🎵 Summary: Draco, lost in darkness, seeks a guiding light.

📻  If you knew… (T) by gnarf @gnarf

🎵 Song prompt: Young Folks from Peter Bjorn and John

🎵 Summary: The war had left scars on all of them.  Some were obvious. Some only if they looked closely. But the worst ones were those they couldn't see. Those that were hidden inside.

📻  an ode to the boy i love (G) by nettleforest @nettleforest

🎵 Song prompt: Animal - Troye Sivan

🎵 Summary: an evocation of vulnerability, trust and tenderness

📻  Home Sweet Home (G) by gnarf @gnarf

🎵Song prompt: Radioactive - Imagine Dragons

🎵 Summary: In the middle of a Zombie apocalypse Harry made it his main goal to find a safe home for Draco and himself.

📻  Turn back time (T)  bt erlasart @erlasart

🎵 Song prompt: If I Could Turn Back Time - Cher

🎵 Summary: Draco's had a rough few years, if that's what you call falling in with a bad lot, attempted murder and a close brush with death. Now facing the weight of his misdeeds, Draco tries to pinpoint when it all went wrong.

📻  Time to Get Out (T)  by SoldSeperately @secretartlair

🎵 Song prompt: My House - PVRIS

🎵 Summary: A few years post-war, Pansy convinces Draco to go on a night out at a muggle club. They run into some familiar faces.

🎶 H/D Wireless Art and Fic 🎶

📻  A Different Kind of Meaning (E, 17k) by p103 @p103 (art by Zigster)

🎵 Song prompt: Outnumbered - Dermot Kennedy

🎵 Summary: The ceiling doesn't hold any answers, but there are cobwebs scattered across the corners with shadows tangled in their threads. The rug against his back is rough and scratchy, threadbare and devoid of colours other than various shades of brown. Harry takes it all in, absorbs the dingy and depressed state of his home. There's a pointed moment of decision, a note about to be played, a silence about to end, and then he rolls to his feet and sets to cleaning.

It's the first constructive thing he's done in years. 

📻  Keep Holding On (M, 33k) by gnarf @gnarf (fic) and MaesterChill @maesterchill (art)

🎵 Song prompt: Welshly Arms - Sanctuary

🎵 Summary: After the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry and Draco both fall into their own battles with their mental states. Draco is sent to Azkaban, and Harry turns to drinking, hoping to forget.

Months later, Harry visits St Mungo’s new ward on request of a friend, only to find Draco in a deep vegetative state.

Not willing to give him up, Harry stays by his side, while simultaneously dealing with the Ministry's newest grand idea to make everything worse.

Making new alleys, and losing old ones on the way, would hopefully be worth it in the end.

📻 Fic : Modern Love (E, 61k) by tackytiger @tackytigerfic

📻 Art : Our Love Song (G) by chachisoo @creeeee

🎵 Song prompt: Modern Love by David Bowie

🎵 Fic summary: Harry Potter, of all people, knows that life isn’t always fair. And no one gets to be happy all of the time. But surely there’s something more—something better—than a rubbish Ministry job, and a lonely old house, and that feeling that everyone out there is doing a better job of living than Harry is.

And it really doesn’t seem fair that Draco Malfoy is back in Harry’s life, all of a sudden, and even though he’s wandless, and living with Muggles, and making his mother cry with his lifestyle choices, he’s happy. So what's he doing right, that Harry isn’t?

Because things don’t really change, do they? And if Harry can’t be happy, he’ll settle for a good night’s sleep, some posh antiques, and the opportunity to find out what Malfoy has been up to for all these years.

And that’s what starts it all.  

🎵 Art summary: Harry and Draco enjoying a Sunday morning bus ride in London.

📻  For the Thousandth Time (T, 14k) by bluefay @thesleepiesthufflepuff (fic) and mehroomiyat (art)

🎵 Song Prompt: Lucky by Aurora

🎵 Summary: When Draco's wand refuses to work after the war, he turns to Harry for help. 

📻 Fic : Returning Tides (E, 24.5k) by Zigster @zigster-ao3

📻 Art : Love Will Tear Us Apart (G) by Zigster @zigster-ao3

🎵 Song prompt: Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division 

🎵 Fic summary: 

Is my timing that flawed? Our respect run so dry? Yet there's still this appeal That we've kept through our lives

🎵 Art summary: Art piece to accompany the fic ‘Returning Tides’, based on the song claim, 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' by Joy Division ***** Harry's brooding while straddling a motorbike. Need I say more?

📻  That Sweet Sweet Craving (E, 33.2k) by TheUltimateUndesirable @ultimateundesirable

🎵 Song prompt: Bleeding Out by Imagine Dragons 

🎵 Summary: Harry is miserable living a lie because he thinks being a gay role model is wrong. Fake dates raising money for a charity that ends up putting him in a situation he had never expected. Draco Malfoy appears back in his life by some odd chance trying to flip his world upside down and he isn't sure it's a good thing. Malfoy always worked that way to him. Mental health issues, sex, escaping, and that sweet sweet craving of happiness.

🎶 H/D Wireless Fic 🎶

📻  Follow the Water (T, 38.2k) by xanthippe74 @xanthippe74

🎵 Song prompt: “Follow the Water” by Calexico/Iron & Wine

🎵 Summary: Harry Potter’s life is fine. Maybe a little dull and predictable, but he shouldn’t complain about that, right? When he unexpectedly finds himself at Luna’s house one afternoon, Harry gets invited to join the secret wonderland that she’s creating with a surprising group of friends. Maybe a summer outdoors is just what a former hero needs to bring some zest back into his life.

📻  Life goes not backward (T, 8.8k) by shealwaysreads @shealwaysreads 

🎵 Song prompt: Daughter by Loudon Wainwright

🎵 Summary: Harry still isn’t used to gifts, but this one is different.

A story of coming home, finding safe ground, and the wild courage of putting down roots.

Leaving one life behind isn’t always a sacrifice, and sometimes the greatest good comes from embracing the people you love. 

📻  The Way We Used To Love (E, 5.3k) by Zzzara @big-draco-energy

🎵 Song prompt: 'Used to Love' by Martin Garrix & Dean Lewis

🎵 Summary: Is there hope when what is not enough for the one happens to be too much for the other? 

📻  but if you close your eyes (T, 3.3k) by cloudlesslysky @cloudlesslysky 

🎵 Song prompt: Pompeii by Bastille

🎵 Summary: The New Magic Order is trying to take over Wizarding Britain. They're not the Death Eaters, but they're not any better either.

The lines of alliance have shifted, but Harry is still on the front lines working tirelessly to stop them.

📻  Haunt the corner of my eye (T, 23k) by harryromper @harryromper

🎵 Song prompt: Echoes of You - Marianas Trench

🎵 Summary: Harry’s life is very much on track. After a successful career as an Auror, he’s set to become the youngest ever Minister for Magic. But strange things are starting to happen at Grimmauld Place. Items he doesn’t recognise are appearing left and right, and somehow he never feels quite alone. There’s only one thing Harry knows for sure: it has something to do with Draco Malfoy.

📻  Now that the spring is in the air (T, 5.7k) by cloudlesslysky @cloudlesslysky 

🎵 Song prompt: Seasons in the Sun by Westlife

🎵 Summary: A surprise attack in Diagon Alley leaves Draco struggling to make peace with the fact that he won't live long enough to experience his own wedding.

📻  Seven Days to Monday (M, 11.7k) by static_abyss @static_abyss

🎵 Song prompt: Say Something - A Great Big World

🎵 Summary: There are seven days before Harry has to meet Draco for the final signing of their divorce papers. It's been months and the surprise at finding nothing but more cold sheets and an empty pillow next to him still catches Harry unaware. He doesn't know where they go from here. Whether it's possible to go anywhere after everything that's happened between them.

📻  Blond Brew (E, 30.4k) by MicheleBlack @micheleblack

🎵 Song prompt: “Blondes” by Waterparks

🎵 Summary: A blond roast with soy milk makes Draco's morning, but a pair of green eyes makes his week.

📻  A Series of Nonsensical Events (T, 12.8k) by CoffeeCurse @coffee-curse

🎵 Song prompt: My Gospel by Charlie Puth

🎵 Summary: Malfoy is up to something. When Harry and the other Aurors are called into a Gringotts break-in and find him the culprit, Harry’s at a total loss.

But things only get weirder from then on.

📻  Ignore the Truth (E, 2.6k) by static_abyss @static_abyss

🎵 Song prompt: Dangerously - Charlie Puth

🎵 Summary: "Longtime on-again-off-again lovers Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy were caught in a compromising position in one the Ministry's lifts yesterday evening. While fans of the couple are optimistic, there's still doubt as to whether or not this particular reconciliation will last. When asked directly about the nature of his relationship with Draco Malfoy, the Boy Who Lived had simply this to say, 'Fuck right off, we're busy.'"

- The Daily Prophet, "Love Is In The Air," 28th Oct. 2005.   

📻  Your Daddy Knows (You're A Flame) (E, 27.8k) by Ladderofyears @ladderofyears

🎵 Song prompt: Babyfather by Sade (2010)

🎵 Summary: It's just over a week until Draco's twenty-fifth birthday party and Harry Potter is a busy wizard. Amongst all the excitements of fatherhood, work and friends, Harry realises something special about his husband Draco. He is pregnant with their second, much wanted baby.

There's only one problem: Draco is entirely oblivious to the fact and seems determined to remain so. 

📻  Don't search me in here (E, 6.7k) by Sassy3 @sassy-sassy3

🎵 Song prompt: Gone - Charlie XCX & Christine and the Queens

🎵 Summary: Draco spotted him in a corner, crowded by Ministry employees. He looked like an animal, trapped in a cage. He had a strained smile on his , and his eyes were looking everywhere else than on the people in front of him.

Draco can’t quite help himself, watching Potter from afar. Just out of curiosity, of course. He’s happy with his life, nothing is missing, and if he’s lonely it’s entirely by choice. 

📻  I Can Be Your Lighthouse (T, 4k) by orpheus87 

🎵 Song prompt: The Lighthouse by The Used

🎵 Summary: When Harry gets called to investigate reports of Dark magic, the last thing he expects to find is an almost unconscious Draco Malfoy. After multiple instances, he resolves to find out what's going on.

📻  Drop Everything Now (T, 21k) by parkkate @parkkate

🎵 Song prompt: Sparks Fly by Taylor Swift

🎵 Summary: After accidentally bonding himself to Malfoy, Harry finds himself in an utterly precarious situation… 

📻  No one fucks with us (T, 3.3k) by Laura_Sinele @laurasinele

🎵 Song prompt: NFWMB by Hozier

🎵 Summary: Draco Malfoy wonders for how long has Harry Potter been a terrifying force of nature. Harry Potter thinks Draco Malfoy has been a badass MF all along. If the world has to end so they can have some peace and quiet, be it. They'll set it on fire.

📻  Will You Stay with Me? (M, 10.2k) by EvAEleanor @eva-eleanore

🎵 Song prompt: ‘Run’ - Daughter

🎵 Summary: Ten months ago, Draco had found none other than Harry Potter blindly drunk and bleeding outside a Muggle pub. He'd brought him home and hasn't left his side ever since. He looked after him, took care of him when yet another nightmare plagued him. 

Harry is sure that Draco will leave him at some point, and he can’t let it happen. He can’t have another person leaving his life unexpectedly. So, Harry forces him to leave — after they spend one last night together.

📻  until the sun has changed the colour of my hair (T, 4.9k) by cloudlesslysky @cloudlesslysky 

🎵 Song prompt: Jag saknar dig mindre och mindre - Melissa Horn

🎵 Summary:  Draco's life has been one big mess ever since Potter broke up with him. He doesn't want to see his friends, he's too ashamed to see his parents, and his apartment is one giant mess. He's constantly prepared for disaster, and spends his time either alone in Muggle parks or in his apartment. But one day... One beautiful day... He will forget Harry, surely.

📻  Love Found (E, 7.5k) by peachpety @peachpety

🎵 Song Prompt: I Found, by Amber Run

🎵 Summary: During Harry’s sixth year, Draco Malfoy joins the Order as a double-agent and continues with his task to get the Death Eaters into the castle as assigned by Voldemort. Draco succeeds with his mission the evening Harry returns from the caves with Dumbledore. The boys reunite on the Astronomy Tower and, with the Death Eater’s arrival, are forced to engage in a fight, driving Harry to come to terms with his feelings about true friendship and romantic love.

📻  On the Third Day He Took Me to the River (M, 14.4k) by pixiedustatsundown @pixiedustatsundown 

🎵 Song prompt: 'Where the Wild Roses Grow - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds ft. Kylie Minogue'

🎵 Summary: This is a story of two lonely young men falling in love.

This is a story about dreams and duty, about witches that give purpose to the one and doom the other.

You think you know how the story goes, but this is a different story, and it doesn't end well. 

📻  (When They Only Hear You Whisper) I'll Be Loud For You (T, 2.8k) by VeelaWings @veelawings

🎵 Song prompt: There for You - Martin Garrix/Troye Sivan

🎵 Summary: Potter must have been having nightmares again. He was restless in his bed across the room. Moonlight shone through his open bed curtains and highlighted the contours of his body, the grimace on his face blatant. His thick blanket was kicked down, one leg still covered by his twisted sheet, the musk of his sweat pungent in their small dorm. Low grunts accounted for the majority of the noise he made, but it was peppered by the occasional groan or unclear shout of words. However, ‘No,’ was always clear.

Draco hated it. 

📻  The Interview (T, 17.3k) by Cibee (Cibeeeee) @cibeewastaken

🎵 Song prompt: Just Say Yes - Snow Patrol

🎵 Summary: One interview had Draco realizing how naïve he was for thinking he deserved Harry. 

📻  Lookalike (M, 1.4k) by Zzzara @big-draco-energy

🎵 Song prompt: 'Lookalike' by Conan Gray 

🎵 Summary: When you look in his eyes, Do you think of mine? And when you look at that smile, Do I cross your mind? I know in your head You see me instead 'Cause he looks a lot like I did back then Baby, don't lie, He's just a lookalike... ©

📻  As Fascinating As a Slap Bracelet (T, 13.2k) by acupforslytherin @acupforslytherin 

🎵 Song prompt: Have It All - Jason Mraz

🎵 Summary: Who would have thought that a wacky little Muggle toy would lead to an unlikely friendship between Harry and Draco? Not Harry, certainly.

Who would have thought that this friendship would bloom into something more? Well, Ron, for one. 

📻  If Sex Is the Drug, Then What Is the Cost (E, 3.8k) by EvAEleanor @eva-eleanore

🎵 Song prompt: I Almost Told You That I Loved You - Papa Roach

🎵 Summary: For quite some time, Harry has been seeing Malfoy. Well... Actually, he's hired Malfoy, to keep him company, in his bedroom. It's only sex — honestly — and since Malfoy is the best, he's the only person Harry wants. That's all it is, right? 

📻  I Grow Fonder Every Day (M, 21.6k) by Drarrelie @drarrelie

🎵 Song prompt: One and Only by Adele

🎵 Summary: Draco still doesn’t know if it’s a blessing or a curse, sharing a flat in Muggle London with Harry Potter.

It’s all Draco’s ever wanted — more than he’d ever wished for. And if it entails suppressing his inconvenient feelings for the man, so what? He’s perfectly happy with his life as it is, perfectly content with just having Potter close and enjoying his company.

That is, until one Friday evening at the beginning of April when the end starts. 

📻  How Can I Live Without you? (G, 2.2k) by ununquadius @ununquadius 

🎵 Song prompt: "So Far Away", by Avenged Sevenfold

🎵 Summary: After Draco's death, Harry wonders how can he live without the one he loves when he's so far away.

📻  Following the Arrow to Your Heart (E, 10.9k) by goddessofthehearth 

🎵 Song prompt: Give Me Love by Ed Sheeran

🎵 Summary: After the war, Draco is recruited into the Department of Love (aka Cupid's Arrow). His job is to bring together witches and wizards whose magical signatures are only compatible with each others' (essentially soulmates). As they all learned during training, Cupids are chosen because they do not have soulmates.

Six years later, Draco's convinced himself that he's perfectly fine with not having a soulmate. But his latest client turns out to be Harry Potter, and he's forced to reconsider in light of his old feelings.

📻  cos I only need your name to call the reasons why I fought (T, 6.6k) by cloudlesslysky @cloudlesslysky

🎵 Song prompt: War, by Poets of the Fall

🎵 Summary: Ron and Hermione leave the Horcrux hunt, leaving a hurt Harry behind.

But at least Draco is still there with him.

📻  Madness (M, 10k) by tigersilver 

🎵 Song prompt: House of Fun by Madness

🎵 Summary: A desperate search for contraception all around Diagon Alley.

📻  Between Myth and Man (E, 16.2k) by slytherco @slytherco 

🎵 Song prompt: Why'd you only call me when you're high? - Arctic Monkeys

🎵 Summary: Draco, lost and a little broken, navigates post-war reality convinced that people like him should not be allowed to make their own choices. To solve the problem of his self-sabotaging tendencies, he starts taking a few drops of Veritaserum every morning.

A story about the complexity of choices, repressed desires that come to the surface when we least expect them, and the utter hopelessness of truths built on a foundation of lies.

📻  stay awhile (stay here with me) (T, 3.1k) by panicparade @panicissharp​

🎵 Song prompt: I like me better - Lauv

🎵 Summary: "Then when?" Harry tries again. He's not sure if he really wants to see the photo or if he just wants to keep talking to Malfoy. This Malfoy, who is so different from what he was expecting. In his Muggle jeans and smartly pressed sweater, with an air of vulnerability around him that Harry isn't used to seeing, Malfoy looks approachable in a way he never has before.

Harry stops his fidgeting as Malfoy looks up to meet his eyes. Through the hum of the crowded pub, he has to strain a little to hear him. "Maybe," Malfoy starts, hesitating a little but never breaking eye contact, "one day?"

📻  All it needs is messing it up and stars (G, 5.9k) by a_reader_and_writer @harrypotterfanfictionwriter

🎵 Song prompt: Tongue Tied by Faber Drive

🎵 Summary: After the war all the Malfoy's came off with light sentences. Now during 8th year Draco is finally free to be himself and date his crush; Harry Potter. Or at least so he thought..

A letter from his father rips that happiness away.

But maybe in the end it will take just a bit of messing up and some stars to get that happiness back.

📻  I'm gonna let it happen (E, 12.3k) by tomoewantsdolls @tomoewantsdolls 

🎵 Song prompt: Florence + The Machine - Shake it out

🎵 Summary: And I'm damned if I do and I'm damned if I don't So here's to drinks in the dark at the end of my road And I'm ready to suffer and I'm ready to hope It's a shot in the dark and right at my throat 'Cause looking for heaven, found the devil in me Looking for heaven, for the devil in me Well what the hell I'm gonna let it happen to me

📻  I feel it in my bones (M, 6.3k) by cloudlesslysky @cloudlesslysky

🎵 Song prompt: Radioactive - Imagine Dragons

🎵 Summary: Harry’s heartbeat is loud in his ears as his heart pounds in his chest. His lungs burn as he pants for air. His legs are screaming in protests as he continues to push them to their limit, forcing himself to run ever faster.

📻  Born in the U.S.A. (M, 9k) by KittyCargo @kittycargo

🎵 Song prompt: I'm on Fire by Bruce Springsteen

🎵 Summary: “You need to come home, Draco.”

“What? Why? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong, I just have an opportunity for you, and you need to come home to take it.”

When Draco's mother insists he comes home, he drags his feet and convinces his friends to take a road trip.

📻  just tell me when it's alright (E, 23k) by M0stlyVoid @bonesliketambourines

🎵 Song prompt: Teeth, Lady Gaga

🎵 Summary: Harry’s been fighting tooth and nail for any bit of normalcy he can get his hands on. He’s sick of feeling like something’s wrong with him, tired of feeling different. He thinks he’s finally gotten to the root of it, and has settled into a routine that makes him happy. Naturally, that’s when Draco Malfoy walks back into his life and upends it once again. Has Harry bitten off more than he can chew with his former rival?

📻  The Courting by the Pureblood Who Only Has Five Milligrams of Romantic Intelligence and Thinks He’s Real Smooth (T, 19.4k) by Cibee (Cibeeeee) @cibeewastaken

🎵 Song prompt: Cupid - Amy Winehouse 

🎵 Summary: Draco could grab Potter and shove him into a stall before proceeding to suck his soul out of his dick, but secretly, deep down, in the part of Draco that he will never admit to anyone, he is (everyone pauses to shudder) a romantic. Potter is not someone Draco wants a one-off with. Potter is — Draco’s beloved!

So Draco decides to boldly go where no one has gone before: to put himself through scrutiny; their friends’ teasing and pranks; unsound romantic advice from a house-elf; wearing pretty clothes; all to try and win Potter’s heart through courtship.

(An unnamed ginger bastard can be heard yelling from afar: “This is actually a detailed guide on how not to court someone!”)

But who cares about the opinions of redheads? Literally no one.

📻  What Will We Do With a Drunken Harry? (E, 4.9k) by Thunder_of_Dragons @thunder-of-dragons

🎵 Song prompt: "Drunken Sailor" by The Irish Rovers

🎵 Summary: A victorious Quidditch match, a claimed Quidditch Cup, and a wild House party can mean only one thing. Will the aftermath lead to one excruciating hangover in the morning, or will it perhaps lead to something more?

📻  Though Your World Is Changing, I Will Be The Same (E, 15.9k) by hephaestiions 

🎵 Song prompt: Slave To Love by Bryan Ferry 

🎵 Summary: “I shower after work,” Harry had told him once when Draco had asked what cologne had such longevity as to be effective after a full day of gruelling Auror work. 

“For me?” Draco had asked. Teased, just a little. There had been a smile lingering on the edges of his consciousness, threatening to traipse onto his mouth. 

“For Ginny,” Harry had said, voice flat. “She hates it when I come back sweaty and crackling with other people’s hexes. Did you know magic has a smell? I didn’t until she told me.”

–

It's all fun and games, till somebody falls in love. Given his luck, it's obviously Draco who has to go and do it.

📻  I Can't Help Falling in Love with You (NR, 4.8k) by readdreamwrite26 @readdreamwrite26

🎵 Song prompt: I can't help falling in love with you - Elvis Presley

🎵 Summary: Harry stood up and set his hand out to Draco. “Dance?” “I didn’t know you danced, Potter.” “Hm, I’ve danced a lot in my time," Harry replied smugly. “How do I know you won’t step on my feet?” “You don’t, but I think the risk will be worth it.”

📻  Searching For a Place to Hide (T, 12.5k) by Erin_Riwen @erin-riwen

🎵 Song prompt: Love Will Keep Us Alive - The Eagles

🎵 Summary: After the war, there were threats against the Malfoys. Needing them kept safe until the trials are over, the Ministry puts them in protective custody but a murder attempt proves there’s a Ministry leak. Desperate, the Ministry decides a safe house is best, but who to trust to keep it secret and keep them safe? Narcissa calls in a life debt, the Minster calls in a favour and Harry Potter wonders why his life continues to hate him. 

Along the way, the Malfoys learn how to be a family again, Harry learns that some things are not how he thought and maybe never were, and the touch-starved boys discover that they may be each other's forever answer.

📻  Isolated Thunderstorms and Scattered Showers (T, 21.3k) by triggerlil @triggerlil 

🎵 Song prompt: Iris - the GooGoo Dolls

🎵 Summary: Post-war, Harry needs space. Everything is too much all at once, and time and time again, he finds himself pulling the invisibility cloak over his head, just for a bit of peace.

Returning for eighth year is hard, especially when you're considered a war hero, and your name is Harry James Potter. It's just that things go a little wonky when Harry starts following Malfoy, and finds that he can't (or doesn't want to) stop.

📻  Kiss It Better (E, 1.5k) by articcat621 @articcat621

🎵 Song prompt: Kiss It Better by Rihanna

🎵 Summary: When Harry's injured, Draco knows there's no place he'd rather be than by his side.

📻  (shut up and) dance with me (T, 7.9k) by punk_rock_yuppie @punk-rock-yuppie

🎵 Song prompt: Shut Up and Dance - Walk the Moon

🎵 Summary: Four dances Harry and Draco share.

📻  In Love with the Ferret (E, 21.9k) by Pineau_noir @pineau-noir 

🎵 Song prompt: I'm Yours by Jason Mraz

🎵 Summary: Harry has never been the most observant bloke. Sometimes to the point of him not realising his feelings for a particular pointy, pale git. And it's not his fault if literally everyone else knows about said feelings except for Harry and the git in question. So it's really not his fault, when faced with the scope of his feelings, he suddenly has a hard time talking to one Draco Malfoy. Or looking him in the eye. Or not being a total weirdo around him.

There's nothing to do but take the advice of his friends and try to woo Draco over dinners with friends, Ministry cases, and an unfortunately named Italian restaurant.

Harry just can't stop the flutter in his chest when he sees Draco smile.

📻  Dance with me? (M, 8.2k) by Aylaar @accioxanxiety

🎵 Song prompt: I Wanna Dance With Somebody - Whitney Houston

🎵 Summary: Draco had given up on love, until one day sitting outside the usual gaudy cafe he frequented 'people watching' he spotted Harry Potter lurking, a suspicious Draco investigates and a series of events ensue.

📻  The Cupid Incident (E, 12.6k) by meandminniemcg @meandminniemcg 

🎵 Song prompt: Can' Get You out of My Head - Kylie Minogue

🎵 Summary: Draco gets into the way of a potions attack and can't get Potter out of his head.

📻  Carouse (E, 19.9k) by Drarryismymuse (Hatchersn) @drarryismymuse 

🎵 Song prompt: Dead by Madison Beer

🎵 Summary: Carouse (verb): To drink plentiful amounts of alcohol and enjoy oneself with others in a noisy, lively way.

Harry finds himself using alcohol in increasingly dangerous ways to cope with the stresses of life. When he is put on leave from work to sort out his issue, he instead falls head first into a lively club scene where he can drink and fuck his worries away. That is, until a certain blond from his past reappears and throws off his entire routine.

Massive well done to all these talented creators - you’ve made this fest utterly spectacular! Take a bow!!

🎙️ Don’t forget to check out the Playlists:

Youtube

Spotify (Provided by @eva-eleanore​ Thank  ypu so much!)

[maggiec70]

The Tabor Bridge Tale

I might have said something a while ago about posting bits and pieces from the Western World’s longest-running Napoleonic HistFic in progress.  So to counter some gloom and doom, here’s my silly fictional version of getting to Vienna in one piece. Do hope you enjoy it.

>>>>>

Jean had improved by the second week of November. He’d set up a temporary camp south of Vienna for V Corps and waited for the rest of the army to arrive. Mariana didn’t watch him so closely now, hoping he’d learned his lesson, although he probably hadn’t learned anything. Meanwhile, the camp was pleasant, and she wondered how long they would be able to enjoy themselves. 

The answer arrived two days later after breakfast when Prince Murat galloped up in all his finery. “You’ve heard about the Tabor bridges?” he called out as he dismounted, tossing his reins to an aide. Mariana still marveled at the cavalry commander’s appearance. Neither a plume nor a curl out of place—however did he manage it? Perhaps the prince had four valets instead of the usual two. On the other hand, Jean looked like he’d been marching in the wake of the baggage trains for days.

“Can’t say I have,” Jean answered. “We arrived the day before yesterday. It takes a hell of a lot longer for my infantry divisions to march over these damn roads than it does for your circus riders on their fancy ponies.

”Murat ignored the jibe. “The Tabor bridges are the only way into Vienna. My scouts say the enemy has already mined the longest span. Hungarians hold the near end, and Austrians have the far end. Both are bristling with artillery.” He shrugged. “If we advance across the bridge, assuming we can outwit the Hungarians, the Austrians will blow the long span at the first glimpse of a French uniform and then shell us. The emperor wants the bridges intact, and he’s ordered us to take them.”

“Who did Napoleon mean by us?”

Murat grinned, looking almost as piratical as André Masséna. “You and me, mon ami. Who better?” Another grin and Murat threw an arm around Jean’s shoulders for emphasis.

Mariana nudged Joseph in the ribs. “The marshal’s going to say no,” she whispered. “Watch.”

“Let him take the damn things himself. I hate bridges—I still get headaches from being shot on the Arcola bridge.” Jean unbuckled the canteen from his saddle and took a long drink before turning back to Murat. “How long are the bridges?”

“The scouts said a couple of miles. They’re nothing more than a series of cobbled-together wooden sections, the longest one an arched span, with marshes beneath.”

“And the Austrian artillery is at the farthest end?”

“Right at the bridgehead.”

“So they can see us coming?”

“From the time we reach the arched span. And that’s if the Hungarians don’t send an alert. I’ve already decided a sneak attack won’t work.”

Jean said nothing for a few minutes, staring in Vienna’s direction and the unseen bridges. After a moment or two of silence disturbed by a flock of birds and the horses’ restless stamping, Jean looked at Murat, a slow smile spreading across his face. Beata Santa Caterina, Mariana thought. He’s not going to refuse.

“It’s a bit long for a Sunday stroll, Joachim, but it might work.”

“I’m not following you.”

“You’ve gone at this backward. We’ll walk out there and bluff the enemy right off the bridge before they know what’s happened.”

“I enjoy a challenge as much as you do, but strolling across a mined bridge with artillery aimed at both my arse and my hard-won medals doesn’t inspire me with confidence.”

“Where’s your imagination, Joachim? We’re dressed in our finest, with decorations, plumes, cloaks, sashes, and so are our staff—yours in particular. Throw in four or five senior officers, and off we go in splendor, dazzling the enemy. Just a group of officers out for a pleasant walk. They’ll be paying so much attention to us that they’ll never see Oudinot’s grenadiers slogging through the marshes and dismantling the mines. By the time they realize what’s happened, we’ll have spiked their guns. Tell them there’s been a truce or a cease-fire. Nom de Dieu, they’re only Austrians.”

Mariana stared first at Joseph, then at Jacques, but they seemed amused and worse, willing to participate in the improbable charade. “Boys!” she muttered, her hands balled into fists. “They will never grow up, certainly not with him setting such an example.”

“Excellent idea, my dear D’Artagnan. I wish I’d thought of it. Well, brush yourself off so you’ll glitter like me, and let’s go.” Murat had turned toward his staff of waiting peacocks as he asked, “See you in half an hour?”

It took less than that for Jean to find Oudinot and explain what he needed. With a sinking feeling, Mariana saw that Oudinot seemed delighted with the idea and just as eager to rush into danger as the rest of them.

Jean interrupted her misgivings by shouting, “Saint-Denis, you have anything to get rid of this dust?”

She rummaged through her saddlebag for the tack rag she kept rolled in the bottom. Pulling it out, she swatted at the dust on his coat, decided his breeches were a lost cause, and gave his boots a hasty swipe. “Give me your cloak. It’s covered with horsehair. Where’s your hat?”

“Damned if I know—find it, will you?”

They met Murat and his staff two hundred yards before the first bridgehead. Mariana had never seen so much military finery, blinding gold lace and braid, or so many waving, bobbing white plumes in one place. She was also confident that the plumes and those who wore them would be blown up, one way or another, in the next little while. They might receive a mention in history books later, perhaps in the same vein as Thermopylae.

“This is like a Sunday promenade, so talk, tell jokes, laugh, and occasionally stop to admire the scenery,” Jean reminded them and set off, his arm hooked through Murat’s.

“What scenery? There’s nothing but marshes,” Mariana said.

“Pretend, Saint-Denis,” Jean called back to her. “That’s all this is—a big game of pretending.”

“Except for the Hungarians and Austrians, whose guns and mines are real enough,” she mumbled to Joseph and walked faster to keep up.

The Hungarians at the near bridgehead were disarmed almost immediately in the face of Murat’s smooth talk of a truce, Jean’s friendliness, and the staff’s easy camaraderie. Most of all, they welcomed the bottles of brandy appearing by some sleight of hand from half-a-dozen senior officers. Mariana had stopped between Joseph and Jacques, her mouth agape. “Who told them to bring brandy?”

Jacques laughed as he tried to peer over Joseph’s shoulder to see what was happening. “The marshal did. Who else?”

Although only two Hungarian officers understood French, the rest seemed to appreciate the sudden largesse, oblivious to the grenadiers creeping forward and disappearing beneath the bridge.

The charade held together as they advanced. Mariana moved forward when Joseph and Jacques linked their arms through hers. Without them, she would have collapsed onto the rough planks. With them, she felt like a marionette, being jerked along, her heart hammering against her ribs, mouth as dry and wooly as a blanket. When they had reached within a hundred feet of the last bridgehead and the enemy guns, an Austrian officer yelled at them to halt. Jean and Murat didn’t stop, but slowed their pace until Murat made himself heard without too much shouting.

“Who’s in charge here?” Murat demanded when he was less than twenty feet from the officer.

“Prince Auersperg is our commander. Who are you?”

“Prince Murat, His Imperial Majesty’s envoy. I won’t discuss armistice terms with anyone but your commander. Go get him,” Murat said, every inch of him drawn up, shoulders squared. The epitome of a peacock in full plumage strutting before a peahen. Mariana tried not to laugh.

Jean strolled over to the nearest gun and, with admirable aplomb, used the caisson for leverage and sat on the barrel, one gloved hand casually covering the fuse. “Damn long walk. Any of you have anything to drink?”

Mariana desperately wanted something to drink to ease the terrible dryness in her throat. She’d cheerfully drink the strong, sharp brandy, or even scoop some of the brown Danube water up in her shako and drink that. But the brandy might give her ten or fifteen minutes of false courage, enough to get her through to the end of this charade, whatever the end might be. The brandy was no closer to her than the river was, and she swallowed, the effort making her throat sore. With a stoic sigh, she followed the rest of Jean’s aides and staff officers as they moved among the guns or leaned against the bridge railings as if they had all the time in the world. If she stood beside the nearest howitzer, it couldn’t possibly hurt her. She rested her hand on the barrel, warm from the sun, and then leaned against it. When nothing happened, she relaxed as the warmth of the metal penetrated her coat and chased away the last of her chills. On another day and in another place, she might even feel secure enough to rest her cheek against the smooth bronze and doze off.

She raised her head as four Austrian officers helped an old man in a uniform that hung on his bony, stooped frame onto the bridge. “Look at him, Joseph—he’s ancient,” Mariana said, not bothering to lower her voice. “How can he command anything?”

Murat directed a barrage of Gascon-accented charm at the old prince, explaining the terms of the non-existent armistice. Auersperg’s rheumy yellow eyes widened, and he trembled visibly. Two of his aides gripped his elbows and held him upright. Mariana began to feel sorry for him, even though she knew he would have ordered his men in a thin, wavering voice to blow them all into the next world, had the circumstances been different.

Jean removed his hat and waved it in the direction of the advancing grenadiers. They rose from the marshes at his signal, clambered over the railings, and swarmed across the bridge. It was finally over. Not one cannon or musket had fired at them. No explosives had exploded. No casualties at all other than one confused, elderly Austrian prince who didn’t understand how completely his enemy had tricked him.

Mariana was glad she had something substantial to hold her up. Weak-kneed with relief, she tightened her grasp around her howitzer and blew out a long pent-up breath as Jean and Murat left the bridge, congratulating themselves on their superb chicanery and laughing at the risks they had taken.

“They’ll never understand how dangerous this was.” Mariana stepped onto the bare, packed earth of the riverbank, Jacques beside her. “We could have been blown to our heavenly rewards, and they’re laughing like schoolboys. I thought I had steadier nerves, but I was as faint-hearted as a recruit.”

“I never believed danger was imminent, Gabriel, nor do I think the marshal, or the prince for that matter, would have exposed us all to certain annihilation.” He draped his arm across her shoulders, the weight almost making her slip on the river mud. “Come on. I’ll get you a drink, or several if you need them.” 

[unlostx]

[ Myoui Mina , female, 23 ] Let’s give a warm welcome to one of Sparkwood’s finest, MINAKO AINO (sailor Venus)!! Before coming here, SHE/HER once lived on the pages of SAILOR MOON. Though now they currently spend most of their time as a(n) COLLEGE STUDENT . If you ask the townsfolk about what they are like, you will hear that they are UNSELFISH but also WEAK-WILLED . If they had a theme song it would be PORCELAIN-MARIANAS TRENCH. Let’s see how their story unravels this time. 

Minako was raised rather spoiled, born with a silver spoon in her mouth, she attended a private boarding school, and anything she ever wanted was given to her, she rarely heard the word no, but she was by no means a spoiled brat, her father always wanted to ensure that she was humble seeing as he started from nothing and worked his way up to the top, he didn't want her to ever look down on others. Her mother was the polar opposite of her father, very materialistic and cold, always starting fights with Minako's father always wanting more money and things, and he would just willing give her what she needed, he might have taught his daughter to be humble and kind, but he himself wasn't fond of confrontation and her mom knew that and used it to her advantage. But Minako's whole entire world of Luxury would came crashing down shortly after her 14th birthday, Her mother who was in charge of the finances of the household, got a bit greedy and started messing with her father's business and she got caught up in a scandalous Embezzling and fraud transferring his clients files to her own personal account, and come to find out it wasn't just once or twice, she had been scamming people for years, and she eventually was arrested. While in prison their bank accounts were frozen, and all at once their things were being taken away, and the company her father spent so long building began quickly crumbling to the ground till there was nothing left.

So with the cash he had in his possession he took Minako and they left Toyko and ended up moving in with her aunt who had left when she was young and made a life for herself in America so that's how they ended up in Sparkwood. Adjusting for Minako was hard, learning English so late in life was harder than anticipated, her aunt gifted her with some rosetta stone cds and she spent every moment attempting to learn, and that's where she met Usagi in the ELS program, basically her saving grace, she talked enough for the both of them and her and her sister helped her study and without them she probably would still be struggling to make conversation in English, and not only did Usagi and Chibiusa help her learn English, they became her first set of true friends.

She started college later than most, she was 20 almost 21 when she started, she had been saving up since the day she graduated wanting to ensure she wouldn't burden her father, who had once coming to America tried his hand and was a writer, his old passion his parents had tried to push aside wanting him to be a business major instead, so of course he enjoyed his job, but the money could be spotty since he wasn't an established arthor yet. So Minako worked at story planet always loved to be around books feeling like she was somehow had a piece of her dad with her wherever she went. So she still works there now living with her dad, her major still undecided focusing more on the required core credits, not really sure what she wanted to do in the future but she was still trying to figure it out.

[camelely]

i think the interpretation that callie was just biting the hand that fed her is a little shallow. jamie was getting into her head about her boss and making her doubt her own judment and the disagreements she had with her boss only shook her even more to the point she felt she had to dig. not saying that was a good move but it's also not the bratty entitled move you seem to think it was

Ok first of all I don’t think I’ve ever called Callie entitled. I might have implied shes bratty but still anon if you are going to accuse me of being shallow do it with the right receipts, I promise they exist lol. 😅

Actual response under the cut. Haha

But moving on... This is not the first time Callie has done something like this. In the first season she did this to the judge when she thought he had a conflict of interest even though she herself had a conflict of interest. And yes a judge having a conflict of interest in a case is a big deal, but she didn’t do anything about it. We never even get confirmation if the quid pro quo was real or not.

Second Callie has never made a good career choice... First she took a job in LA to live with Mariana even though it was with a conservative Judge because a guy she barely knew told her it might be interesting and she may be able to make real change there. Which would have been fine, but she didn’t make change there. She found out he had an undisclosed potential conflict of interest and then argued with him till she quit. She could have reported the conflict... but wait she had her own undisclosed conflict of interest. GASP the hypocrisy. The spur of the moment choice to quit her job was okay, because it was one job. Her first real post law school job. And it was only a few months post grad, she could have left it off her resume if she really wanted to. Next she takes a job at legal aid, which seemed to be a decent move. She could study up for the bar and provide assistance to the people who need help. And she got invested, started liking her job. Also good things. Then she steals paperwork from opposing council. She made a choice that could have cost her her entire life and Jamie’s entire life to provide the whole picture to the client. There were better ways to do this, like anonymously leaking the information to the press so the corporation wouldnt have been able to track it down to the one person who had connections to legal aid as the leak, but fine she did her thing and she felt good about it. But now Legal Aid does’t have the resources or the ability ( I can’t remember which tbh) to help the homeless person with the mental health issues (I can’t remember his name atm. Unrelated but I really hope they show us more of him, and not just talk about his case without him.) Anyway she tries to find him council, and when the first person she talks to says I’ll do this for you if you quit your job and come work for me, she says yes. She quits her job and starts working for this woman on a whim. And at the first sign of disagreement, she decides to start investigating on her own. Callie needs to grow up. She wants everything done exactly her way, and it is impossible to work with others if she does that. She can get a few years experience and then start her own firm, but with no start up funds shes going to have to either take corporate paying clients to offset the costs of other work or she’s going to have to make big splashes in cases and get large settlements to fund herself. Whichever choice she ends up making is going to make her a hypocrite all things considered. The ACLU is a real option for Callie but again thats going to be working with people who disagree and Callie has never once been able to do that. 

Thirdly you claim Jamie got in her head... Like Jamie is opposing council and was repeating a rumor to her. She needs to able to take that if she wants to be an attorney. But that is irrelevant because she was already doubting her choice to leave legal aid at that time. The conversation might have pushed her, but he didn’t cause the self doubt. The moment her boss disagreed with her she started doubting coming to work for her. And that is very in character for Callie. She seemed to grow out of it on The Fosters, but they completely undid all that off screen in time for season one of GT. 

Another reason it’s not just because of the Jamie conversation, she has done this with every boss she has had. Even at legal aid she tried to change the lawyer she was working under when she thought they might disagree with her. She wants a mentor, she wants a good job, she wants to help people. But she continuously makes choices that contradict that. She wants a perfect work environment, like we all do. But work environments are never going to be perfect. And she nitpicks the shit out of everything, and never lets anything go. In some situations thats fine, but she wasn’t even an attorney yet and she thought she knew court/pretrial strategy better than the attorneys who had been doing it for years. There is a difference between arguing with your peers and arguing with your boss when it comes to strategy. And there is this little thing called choosing your battles. Callie is the embodiment of the person who chooses all the battles lol. 

It’s also not just her work life, as made clear by Mariana last episode. Callie always thinks her ideas are the best, which would be fine if she even stopped to consider the ideas of the people around her. But as Mariana said the only way she gets to make a choice is if she does it without telling Callie. 

I stand by her biting the hand that feeds her. Her boss is trying to help her and has been pretty nice to her, has been teaching her everything she needs to know, showing her how to handle judges, and working with people. And after a disagreement she was ready to basically forget all that and believe a rumor from the DAs office. It would be one thing if she got scared and asked Ben for help, but this is a pattern and Callie needs references if she expects to be hired again. If the boss finds out and decides to fire her, or if Callie quits again it wont be good for her. Like imagine you are interviewing Callie for her next job, she has had three jobs since she graduated and none of them are willing to give her a reference. One Judge, one legal aid clinic that would give her a reference but she was only really there for one case so they can’t really comment on her work ethic, and one mostly well respected defensive attorney all aren’t willing to endorse this one person. As the audience we know she had reasons for leaving all these jobs, but the interviewer doesn’t and Callie explaining is just Callie making excuses. 🤷🏻‍♀️ 

[fandom-imagines-stories]

Leaving A Mark

Javier Peña x Reader

Words: 3688

Summary: When Javi’s contacts with Los Pepes cross the line, he goes behind their backs to help Fernando Duque escape. Los Pepes decide to look for information elsewhere: you. 

Notes: So this is based on episode seven of season two. I’ve become totally addicted to this show and I’m super excited to possibly write some Mandalorian imagines as well because I love Pedro Pascal. P.S. I’m only basing this off of the fictionalizations in Narcos, so if something is incorrect, I’m sorry!

Warnings: Violence, language, and assault. (If you’ve seen Narcos, you know) 

-

The morning air was sticky and hot, making the sheets stick to your bare skin. The light was too bright for your tired eyes so you turned over to look at a far more welcoming sight. Javi never slept, but last night he’d let himself rest for the first time in weeks. You placed a soft kiss on his shoulder, his skin hot against your lips, and crawled out of bed as gently as possible. Before locating your shirt, you stood in front of the small mirror in your bathroom, placing your hands on your stomach. It was still pretty flat, but it wouldn’t be for long. 

It’d been about a month since you found out. Even without the Escobar terror, you wouldn’t know how to tell Javi. He was a fast man who liked fast women. You only started seeing each other after you helped him cast a group of sicarios when they robbed the cafe you worked at. You were an informant and you were surprised he’d stuck around this long. As soon as he found out about the baby, he’d be gone. 

You jumped, feeling hands trail around your waist before settling on your hips. Javi muttered a ‘good morning’, his face mostly buried in the soft curls of your hair. You quickly dropped your hands and turned around to face him, his arms wrapping around you tighter as you moved. 

“I have to go.” He sighed, forehead resting against yours. 

“I know.” You’d been with him long enough to know the drill. You rarely saw him, and when you did, it was only for the night. You knew what you were for him and what you would never be. But if you could be his escape for even a few moments, it was worth it. After all, he was your escape too. He was all you had left to cling to in this country. 

You knew first hand what Escobar’s empire had done to the families in Columbia. You had been at school in the States when your two younger sisters joined his group of traffickers. They helped him smuggle his cocaine into the states by swallowing small pouches. Until Mariana, the youngest, turned up in a Miami hospital morgue, three pouches having burst in her stomach. Your other sister, Zoe, tried to tell the police the truth about what happened to Mariana and wound up stuffed in the back of an abandoned car, two bullets in her head. 

After that, you moved back to Columbia to take care of your father, a police officer who mainly busted kids vandalizing properties. He died in one of Escobar’s attacks about a year after you came home. Now you were alone and since whatever you had with Javi was all you had, you stuck with it. And when he found out, you’d lose him too. Luckily, you’d found a doctor who would keep your secret. You were meeting with her later that morning for a health check. 

While you found your work uniform, Javier gathered his things and gave you a quick peck on the cheek before rushing out the door. As soon as he was gone, you released the breath you felt like you’d been holding since he woke up. Keeping secrets from a fucking DEA agent was exhausting. After eating a breakfast that you knew you wouldn’t keep down, you grabbed your keys and headed for the clinic. 

The doctor’s name was Rosa and she was married to the man who owned the cafe and she was more than willing to help you throughout the pregnancy. You’d gone a few times already, getting regular checks to make sure that both you and the baby were healthy. Despite the trouble the baby was causing you, you couldn’t afford another loss. 

“Everything looks good.” Rosa grinned, though there was something off about her smile. 

“No changes?” 

“Nope. You and the little guy are both in excellent health.” Her movements were hurried as she put away her equipment. 

“Do you have someone else coming in?” You wondered. “Because I can-”

“Yeah, actually!” She exclaimed, but she said it as if you’d given her a great idea. “I didn’t want to rush you, but we’re all done here, so I’ll see you in a couple weeks.” Rosa walked you to the door of the clinic and her suspicious grin faded into a somber frown. She looked scared. 

“What’s going-”

“I���m sorry, Y/N. I really am.” She put a hand on your shoulder, eyes shooting towards a car parked down the street. “They were gonna go after my kids.” 

“What the fuck are you talking about?” You yanked away, following her gaze as three men exited the vehicle. 

“Just do what they tell you and they won’t hurt you.” She locked the glass door, her eyes filled with guilt as she backed away, disappearing into the building. You turned back to the men heading towards you, they’re expressions dark and determined. You turned on your heel, sprinting down the sidewalk, finding every corner to turn until you weren’t even sure where you were. Your sandals offered little traction, rubbing blisters into your feet. You really thought that you’d lost them. You turned one more corner and straight into the chest of Los Pepes leader- Fidel Castano. You recognized his face from the photos in Javi’s files- you’d snuck a few glimpses when you were helping him catch Escobar’s sicarios. He grabbed your arms with a crushing grip. 

“Get your fucking hands off me!” You shrieked, trying to kick at his legs, not that it was any use. His hand found your throat and squeezed, silencing your screams. 

“We just want to talk.” His coy smile made your stomach churn. “You’re going to help us find someone.” 

“I don’t know anything.” You gasped out, the words clawing their way up your throat like blades. “I swear, I don’t know anything.” 

“Peña’s puta.” He chuckled darkly. The metallic scrape of a switchblade rang through the alley and you felt the ice-cold blade graze your stomach. “And his little mongrel.” Your feet desperately scraped against the pavement, trying to get away. “We know about the kid, Y/N.” He leaned in so his lips were next to your ear, his stinking hot breath burning your cheek. “And we know how to cut it out of you.” With his foul words, his fingers closed your windpipe completely, lifting your feet off of the ground, leaving your legs flailing for something to support you. The more you struggled, the more the knife scraped the skin of your stomach, beginning to draw blood. 

“Please.” You mouthed, completely unable to speak. 

“She’s no good to us dead.” One of the other men interjected. He dropped you just before your vision got dark. You were a coughing and sputtering mess on the pavement, curling up against the wall of the building to put as much distance between you and them as possible. Castano knelt down in front of you, lifting your chin with the end of his knife. 

“You’re going to lead us to Fernando Duque. Or Agent Pena won’t be able to tell your insides from your outsides when they find you.” 

-

Javi didn’t notice you at first as he made his way towards his car. You were pacing in the parking lot, your hands fidgeting with the hem of your shirt. You looked scared, no, terrified. Seeing your expression, Javier walked faster. You turned and saw his worried face and threw your arms around him, real tears streaming down your face even though the words from your lips were fabricated. 

“They came after me.” You balled, holding up the wadded, bloody cloth that Castano had given you. Javi unfolded the fabric slowly.

“Fuck.” He muttered, quickly wrapping the human finger back up. 

“It’s Alfonzo’s.” This was actually true. In order to get to Rosa, they’d been keeping her husband, your boss, captive only god knows where. Castano told you to say that you found it at the cafe with a note with your name and address on it. 

“Escobar’s pigs are coming back, Javi.” You clung to his jacket, playing up the dramatics as much as possible. You had to make sure that he took you with him. To save the baby that he didn’t even know about. “I know you’re working, but I didn’t know where else to go.” You started to hyperventilate, so Javi set the cloth on the hood of his car and wrapped protective arms around you. 

“I’ve got you, it’s okay.” You were trembling in his embrace so he rubbed soothing circles into your back to try and calm you down. Your fear was genuine. The threat was so much greater than a couple of sicarios looking for revenge. He pushed back gently, holding your face in his hands and wiping away your tears. “I’m going to take you home, okay? I’ll be able to protect you from there.” You shook your head frantically. You had to go with him. 

“No, Javi, they know where I live, they know where I work, hell, they could know I’m here right now.” You looked around, knowing that Los Pepes were off somewhere waiting for your call. Eyes settling back on his face, you tried not to let the guilt show. “I only feel safe with you.”

Javi knew that he was supposed to check in with Duque, but he also couldn’t leave you like this. In the heat of the moment, he didn’t know what else to do. 

“Alright, come with me and we’ll figure this out.” He ushered you to the passenger side of the car, opening the door for you. He gave you a stern look. “Do not get out of the car. No matter what.” You nodded and buckled up. 

You wanted to tell him. You wanted to scream at him to turn around. As soon as you knew where Duque was, you’d have to tell Los Pepes and you knew what would happen to him. His blood will be on your hands for the rest of your life. 

“We know that Peña is hiding him.” Castano had said. “And we have a different source that told us he was leaving today. You find him, you call us. It’s that simple if you ever want to see Peña’s bastard child born.” 

So you didn’t say a word. You watched out the window, trying not to notice his worried gaze dart to you every once in a while. The whole drive you tried to figure out what came next. He would figure it out. Maybe he’d arrest you. Maybe he should. 

Javi pulled up to a motel and paused before he went inside. 

“I’m going to go inside just for a few minutes, okay?” He held your hand tightly in his. “You have to stay in the car. You were never here.” You nodded in understanding and held his hand a little too long as he got out of the car. 

“Javi…” You might as well say it. “I love you.” He looked taken back. He leaned across the driver seat and placed a soft, but passionate kiss on your lips. 

“I will be right back.” 

The car door closed and your heart started to pound. With a shaking hand, you pulled out the phone that Castano gave you and called the number. 

“I’m here.” You said quietly. “I don’t think I can do this.”

“Don’t back out on us now, pequeña perra.” He spat. “Or my brother va a joder until you bleed.” You took a deep breath and told him the address. “Gracias por su cooperación.” 

As soon as the phone went dead, you threw it out of the car window, listening to the pieces shatter on the pavement. Even without it, you could still hear his sick, sick voice. Now you just head to learn how to live with what you’d done. 

-

You’d calmed down enough for Javi to take you back to your apartment and get back to work. More than anything, he was worried about you, but he was also beyond pissed. He just wanted to nail these bastards more than ever. He’d never seen you scared of anything before, even when you were helping him catch the pricks attacking the cafe. When he took you home, you just seemed numb. Like all the fight had left you. 

You felt like you’d sold your soul. That you were now just a cowering husk of a person, waiting for Los Pepes to come back and cut the loose end. Soon enough, the pounding on your door made you jump out of your skin. 

“Open up.” Castano’s voice boomed from the hall. 

“I already did what you want.” You shouted through the wood, but your voice gave away your fear. 

“I just want to talk about our… agreement.” You knew he’d break it down if you didn’t open it, so slowly, you turned the knob. He barged in before you could say a word and you stayed close to the wall, as far away from him as possible. 

“What do you want?” You kept your head high and he chuckled. 

“I brought you a gift from Judy Moncada.” He tossed a small box onto the counter of your kitchen. He smirked. “Aren’t you going to offer me a drink?” You shuffled your feet against the tile and grabbed him a glass. “Maybe Peña knows what he’s doing, eh?” You felt his rough hand begin to roam underneath the hem of your shirt and you jerked away. 

“Don’t you touch me.” You hissed, nearly throwing the glass of water in his face. He took the cup with a wicked smile. The phone started to ring, but you stayed rooted in place, not wanting to take your eyes off him. 

“Are you going to answer that, or should I?” 

Watching him carefully, you moved across the room and picked up the phone. 

“Hello?” 

“Y/N, baby, it’s me.” Javi sighed heavily, sitting across from Murphy at his desk. “I don’t know if I’m going to be able to come over tonight.” 

“Oh,” You’d almost forgotten that part of your lie. You made him believe you were scared enough that you wanted him to stay with you until the threat was gone. Now, you couldn’t want him farther away. “I’ve had some time to calm down and I realized that I need to let you do your job.” Javi was kind of surprised. A few hours ago, you were begging to not leave his side and now you were telling him to stay away?

“Are you sure, because I could just pile this paperwork shit on Murphy-”

“You better fucking not.” Javi dodged the pen that Murphy launched at him from his desk. 

“Really, Javi, it’s okay. I was overreacting earlier.” You kept your eyes locked on Castano, and he kept his roaming gaze on your legs. You shuttered. “I’ll see you in the morning, okay?” 

“Is everything okay?” Javi whispered, turning away from Murphy, but Steve could still hear the worry in his partner’s voice. “This stuff about the sicarios isn’t adding up and you’re kinda scaring me here.” 

“I’m just tired of these guys running the town. But letting you catch them is more important than using you as a guard dog.” 

Javi ran a hand down his face, his mind spinning. “Okay. But if you think anything is off, you call me, alright?” 

“I will. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Without another word, you hung up, earning a grin from Castano. 

“Don’t give me that look,” He scolded. “He got himself into this mess.” 

“Get out.” You demanded, opening the door for him. “You’ve done your job now, please, leave me alone.” 

“You’re a part of this now, puta.” Castano growled, pausing in the doorway. “You’re one of us.” As soon as his smug face was out of your site, you slammed the door. You stared at the package on your counter like it would explode any second. Like ripping off a bandaid,you took off the top and looked inside. On top, a small baby rattle mocked you with baby pink and blue hues. You threw the rattle across the room, hearing the plastic shatter against the wall as you buried your head in the sink. It wasn’t morning sickness. It was the bile rising from the twist in your gut, painfully squeezing and retching with guilt. Underneath the rattle was a photograph of Duque’s mangled and bloody body stuffed into his car trunk… along with his son. 

-

Javi had seen a lot of shit, but looking down at the body of Duque’s fourteen-year-old son made him sick to his stomach. He just wanted to forget that the day ever happened as he drove to your apartment. While you started out as a distraction, just someone to fuck around with every now and then, Javi had developed feelings for you that he hadn’t felt since Loraine. And after what you said yesterday, his brain and his heart battled more than ever. He strangely just wanted to talk to you, something he usually did after a few hours of distraction. He wasn’t expecting to find your apartment a total mess. 

“Y/N?” At first, he panicked. They’d found you. He took out his pistol cautiously, looking around for any sign that someone was still there. It wasn’t until he looked in the ashtray that he finally understood what was going on. Everything clicked. And the rage that he felt was fueled by the hurt and betrayal shooting through his head. He grabbed the half-burned photo and searched the apartment until he found you sitting on your bed, staring at the wall. “The fuck is this!” He screamed, roughly lifting you up by the arm and shoving the picture in your face. 

“Javi-”

“How long have you been helping them, Y/N? How fucking long!” The emptiness in your eyes made him even angrier. “Did they offer you money? Huh?” A string of Spanish curses left his lips and he shoved away from you, grabbing a cigarette from his jacket pocket. “Is that what the whole ‘Javi, I love you’ bullshit was about? Just trying to drive the nail in?” 

“They didn’t give me a choice.” Your voice was hoarse from sobbing and your face was still red. 

"You got that kid killed you fucking bitch!" He grabbed your chin, forcing you to look him in the eye. "He was fourteen and they fucking butchered him!" With your head lifted, he could see the purple handprint shape that spread across your neck. It was impossibly dark, covering almost your entire throat. 

“I didn’t have a choice.” You repeated, only now, your voice was stronger. 

“Did they do anything else to you?” Javi imagined the worst. Even with all of his anger, the thought of something happening to you made his blood boil. 

“You think I give a shit about me?” You scoffed. “You think I would have given up that kid if they had threatened to beat me, rape me, put a fucking bullet through my head? I don’t matter to anybody.” His expression might have proved you wrong, but you kept going. “I would just have been another victim like my sisters, like my father.” You shook your head bitterly. “No, this wasn’t about me.” 

“Then who was it about, Y/N?” His words were now genuine. 

“They were going to kill our baby!” You finally screamed. Javi froze. His shoulders slumped forward like you’d punched him in the gut. After a long silence that wouldn’t seem to end, he stood up straight and shook his head. 

“No.” Without another word, he closed the bedroom door behind him. 

It was his fault. They came after you because of him. He got involved with Los Pepes in the first place and now he was trying to blame you instead of look at himself. He wanted to scream. He wanted to put his fist into the nearest wall he could find. He almost did both. Instead, he took a deep breath and walked back into the bedroom. 

He found you standing in front of the mirror, shirt lifted slightly so you could examine the cuts scattered across your belly. They were shallow, but there was a chance they would scar. You didn’t notice him walk up behind you until he slipped his hand underneath yours, fingers splayed out against your stomach, gently grazing the scrapes. In the reflection, you looked up into his eyes. 

“You matter to me.” His lips lightly kissed your shoulder and he slowly turned you around so that his chest pressed against yours. “I’m sorry. All of this happened because of me and I tried to blame it on you-”

“I got that boy killed, Javi.” You cried. “Now there’s a mother out there without her child because I sacrificed them for mine.” 

“For ours.” Slowly, he moved his hand from your stomach to your cheek and closed the little space between you. This kiss was different. It wasn’t lusting or assertive. It was slow and soft and spoke more than Javi ever could. When you finally pulled away from each other, he faced one of his greatest fears, second only to losing you- loving you. “We’ll get through this, mi alma. Te amo.” He pulled you in for another kiss, his lips then traveling down your neck and stopping at your stomach so he now knelt in front of you. 

As he looked up, you could see that he was scared. That part of him wanted to run for the hills and never look back. He pressed one final kiss to the soft skin of your stomach.

“I love you, Y/N.” He was going to be better. For you and for the kid. He didn’t know how, but he would do it. He would do whatever it took. For you, the beautiful, incredible woman in his arms and the life that was now in you, he would be a better man.

-

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