#but more. i always suspect. those FUCKING MOVIES. setting us back SEVERELY.

[istherewifiinhell]

did i ever get around to mentioning that my least favourite era of tf cartoons (2010-2017, all technically in the same 'continuity' even though. their obviously not actually. and also. that real bad comics lore) there is so much messaging around the idea that like "you need to stick up for yourself" but it will always be completely encounter to the way everyone acts, the meanness of the humour used, and that like... you have to stick up for yourself! against your direct superiors! no they are NOT beholden to you 'sticking up for yourself' and have no particular method of account. You just! Have to! and once you do! they will, ofc, due to their good nature, realise the error of their ways and redress.... i mean. maybe. at least until next episode?

do i think this has ANYTHING to do with how propagandist each show is regards to... the government, the military, police or even yeah religion, and or how they characterize their settings with having NO tf civilians/non combatants.... WELL.

[venomouschocolate]

Why Do They Talk Like That: a stream of consciousness

Fantasy linguistics are so hard like where do you draw the line... I mean none of my characters are referencing major theistic religions or using real life loanwords or expletives but then there's quote-unquote fun stuff like "sadism" or "lunatic" or "sinister". i.e the Marquis de Sade does not exist in this world, but the concept of pleasure from cruelty does... Latin is not a language there, but I, personally, am writing in English, which has much of its etymology rooted in Latin (as well as pretty much every other language ever), even if there is no hate for left-handed people or indeed the left in this world, so "sinister" is inexplicable in itself now (odd how the left has historically been demonised and that it's also the socialist side of the political spectrum. not that odd really. thank you robert walpole?). The same with "lunatic": the moon is literally worshipped in some areas of my world, but it's still a term characters use, despite the moon having positive connotations.

Where Do You Draw The Line... I can't write in a conlang because a) I am not masochistic but b) I want my work to actually be read. You can imply different languages with accents and word choice and compound words, but ultimately I am writing in the same language for all (despite being bilingual, go me!) and ultimately that language is one that exists only in our world and not in the one that I've created.

While we're here, let's talk about swearing (cursing if you're american?) in fantasy settings. I don't mean "oh my god/s", that's arguably blasphemy and certainly not explicit; I don't mean "bloody" (not really explicit either) because frankly that does tend to fit a fantasy vibe with the type of characters likely to use it (considering the real world stereotypes and thus the archetypes an author will write using it). I mean expletives like "fuck", "bitch", "shit": STOP USING THEM. you absolute buffoons.

Recently I read a fantasy novel which included a whole magic system and several countries with absolute monarchies, etc, and they kept using expletives and it just did not work, and it never does. A step back: I believe that using expletives when writing in a real world setting (provided it's period-believable, of course) can work, and often (not always, not even mostly) works - I do it myself. However, believable expletives and exclamations and intensifiers can and sometimes do make or break worldbuilding, at least for me. The worldbuilding in the novel was fine, good even! But every time the (twenty-eight-year-old) mc used "fucking" or "bitch", I was immediately yanked out of the story and into reality. It was like reading a period piece (say, in the 19th-early 20th century) and seeing "bitch" in the expletive (slur) sense. I don't care whether it would be used: I don't BELIEVE that it would be.

Suspension of disbelief is everything, which (as a theatre kid...) is, I suspect, why musical films don't work: we're primed for a more true-to-life piece, whereas in a theatre, we're prepared to cast a lot more aside. We KNOW they're actors, we know bursting into song is unrealistic, but it's the stage! We believe it anyway. Seeing a fantasy character, particularly one that was meant to be a minor royal, consistently THINK in expletives (and not just exclaim them!) felt to me like watching Mean Girls The Musical The Movie. I did not believe the magic (which was a major plot point so it kind of sucked). I did not believe that the characters saying "bitch" and "fuck" would say those words, especially since those characters were almost exclusively limited to the middle-aged queen, an almost thirty-year-old established to be groomed into mild-mannered obedience, the former queen's guard and a (bastard) prince. I did not believe that the characters whose thoughts I was reading would think them, and thus I did not believe in the story.

If you're going to create a prose-based world intended to be separate from our own in terms of religion/history/sociopolitical structure/magic/etc, you NEED to think about the linguistics. I'm not saying think HARD or be super mega creative: in my sky-worship country, a common exclamation is "stars-be", short for "stars-be-dimmed", ditto "skies-be" and "skies-be-felled". My sun-based little sillies go "be-set" as in "sun-be-set"; the only country in a technological revolution (also the only country with guns): "I'm not wired that way"; "he's gearing for a fight"; "I was shooting for you". Furthermore, when explaining their culture in other languages, they struggle for words, because, for example, a train is a monolingual concept (one falters when about to describe someone as a "train wreck" and just goes "sorry"). It's not clever, it's not particularly original, but, in my opinion, it makes the language, and by extension the world, more believable.

While I'm mid-rant: there's a marked difference between characters of different class and upbringing. My more religious, self-righteous queen of skycountry says "my stars": she rules the country, she is a little crazy insane, she feels that she owns the sky, too. A less-educated character uses slang like "lunar", "feared", "heartfulness" where his posh boy counterpart says "insane", "afraid" and "empathy". And yes, I am totally neurodivergent, and I think about details, and I also study the development of the English language and want to continue to do so at university, so of course I am more drawn to it, but at the end of the day if you're writing prose then the words are really bloody important.

TLDR: worldbuilding is hard; do your high fantasy (or even low fantasy) characters NEED to say "fuck"?

[bookishofalder]

Rainy Days

Spencer x Reader

Request: @starwithoutdarkness - Hey! I heard you were looking for requests! Maybe Spencer Reid x reader fake dating fluff? Combined with Request: @paulaern  - Hello!  What about Spencer Reid x reader when they realizes they love each other? Like reader makes something for Spencer and he thinks like "I can't deny anymore, I'm completely and hopeless in love with her" or something like that  (G!neutral if you want)

A/N: Thank you so much for sending in requests! Hope this makes you smile!

Warnings: Swearing, moderate BAU violence, creepy men, fluffiest fluff, intense headache description. Set randomly post prison Reid but Hotch is still there because he should have been! WC-2,488

Spencer was staring at the geo-profile he had been working on all day, very glad to be inside. The weather in Seattle had stayed consistently rainy for the two days the BAU team had been in town assisting in catching a killer, who had been committing serial robberies/murders with no apparent rhyme or reason. And while Spencer didn’t mind the rain, he did mind loud, busy cities. Combined, they usually led to a headache that would take a day or two to recover.

The door to the conference room he was working alone in burst open and slammed shut so suddenly he nearly jumped out of his skin, turning to see-

You.

Spencer hated it when you appeared without warning, catching him entirely off guard and presenting the risk that you would notice the visible effort it took for him to compose himself around you.

While he’d noticed how beautiful and hilarious and empathetic you were the moment you joined the team, he’d fallen in love with you when you had your first case with them. Spencer had begun to ramble about the specifics of casinos, and how ‘beating the house’ was nearly impossible, when the rest of the team had tuned out. A temporary member, Agent Seaver, had sneered ‘I’m sorry I asked.” Effectively shutting him up. But then you had turned in your seat next to him and, after shooting Seaver a look had asked him to continue. And though he didn’t have that much more to say, and it wasn’t all that interesting, you listened to every single word and thanked him.

It had been years since that had happened, your friendship had blossomed into best friends, something Spencer cherished immensely. This was partly why he shoved his feelings down. The relationship did not need to change for Spencer to remain happy; as long as he got to spend time with you at work, or watch movies and make tent forts in his living room. And visit his mom (who adored you and always gave you book recommendations that you would be sure to read the moment you could), or go to comic conventions and museums...yes, as long as he could always do those things with you, he was happy.

No need to risk changing a perfect thing.

Now though, you were shutting the door and giving him your most panicked look, wide-eyed, with your hair damp from the rain you no doubt had run through to get inside, accounting for your breathlessness. If it weren’t for the worry that had sprung up inside of him upon seeing your expression, he would have fixated on how beautiful you looked at that moment.

“Spencer, you’re my boyfriend.” You whisper yelled at him, quickly stepping closer and setting your bag down on the conference table.

“Wha-“ He began, but you cut him off frantically.

“I’ll explain-just, oh fuck-“

Spencer stood frozen to the spot as the door reopened and one of the senior detectives sauntered in, a friendly smile somewhat overshadowed by the almost predatorial glint in his eyes. You awkwardly stepped closer to Spencer, raising a hand in hello.

“Agent (Y/L/N), great to see you’re back, I was hoping to catch you before the end of the day!” He said merrily, placing two hands on the back of the nearest chair. Something about the way his hands gripped the chair made Spencer feel...on edge.

You gave the fakest little giggle Spencer had ever heard from you, “Oh, nice to see you too Detective! Just had to catch up with Agent Reid here...”

When his eyes moved from you to assess Spencer briefly, he felt a protective force rear up, instincts entirely at alert. Without hesitating, he casually draped an arm over your shoulder, brushing some hair back as he did, and replied, “And you promised we could get some coffee from the Starbucks down the road, hon.”

He enjoyed the way your cheeks flushed and noticed the pulse in your neck pick up. You glanced up at him, trying to look coy but he knew you too well and could see you were partly surprised, and also trying not to laugh.

“Um, of course, I nearly forgot, babe, let’s go in about 5-unless, did you need something specific, Detective?” She broke off to glance back at the now scowling man, who gave an annoyed jerk of his head before stomping back out of the room.

Once the door banged closed behind him, you let out the biggest sigh of relief, raising a hand to your face in dismay.

Spencer hadn’t removed his arm yet, “I’m assuming I just helped you avoid being asked out, but why-?”

“Uhg, Spencer, I’ve already turned him down TWICE since we’ve arrived! He’s literally the kind of dude who doesn’t take no for an answer unless another man has some fucking misogynistic claim over the woman!” You exclaimed, before moving to stand right in front of Spencer and lean just your head to his chest, staring down at the floor, “I hate everything.”

Spencer laughed, patting your back softly, but internally making note that he wouldn’t be letting you go anywhere alone for the rest of this case-that detective gave him the creeps. And while you were beyond capable of protecting yourself, he just knew he wouldn’t be able to focus on anything if he thought you could be hurt.

“Well, just so we’re clear I would never want to be called ‘babe’ in a relationship.” He joked and the desired effect was his immediate reward when you lifted your head and giggled-your genuine, beautiful little giggle-and then grinned.

“Spencer, you called me ‘hon’ like we were 70.”

Spencer considered a moment, “We could be, you’ll be Gladys and I’ll be-“

“Winston!” You supplied eagerly, and he frowned at you, trying not to laugh.

“Winston?”

“It’s really very dignified, the kind of name where people call you ‘sir’.” You replied cheekily, and while Spencer grinned, a part of him felt a swoop of pleasure when your lips formed the word ‘sir’.

He decided very quickly that he liked the idea of you calling him that. And then, just as swiftly dismissed that train of thought and chastised himself.

As you both stood together and laughed, the door swung open and Hotch and the team followed him in, all in various stages of the results of exposure to the rain, looking equally grim. Spencer and you abruptly stopped when you saw their expressions and launched back into work mode seamlessly.

———

Two days later, the team was closing in on the unsub and everyone was on high alert. Taking the profile and applying it to the geo-profile he had been working on, Spencer had narrowed down this grubby old apartment that sat above a nightclub as the most likely spot the unsub was staying at. Of course, they were arriving at night which meant the club was busy and loud, people lined up out the doors waiting for their chance to enter, pay too much for a drink and grind their bodies against strangers.

Spencer’s headache from the unforgiving rain was thrumming now with the music that seemed entirely unencumbered by the walls of the stairwell, the team slowly climbing. It was bad enough that his eyes narrowed somewhat, but he didn’t lose focus.

You were behind him, watching his six as Hotch and Morgan approached the door ahead and prepared to breach. Spencer slipped a hand behind his back and, on cue, you’re pinky wrapped with his. A brief promise to each other, ‘I’ve got you.’.

They had anticipated violence and heavy arms, so when their announcement was met with silence and the door was kicked open, the tactical response was to secure positions and carefully proceed. Agents and SWAT members lined the building and were, at that moment, securing the club below to ensure the unsub couldn’t flee into a room full of potential hostages.

Spencer and you were the third pair to enter, quickly moving ahead of the others to secure more rooms, eyes peeled for movement. The floor was covered in litter and random spots of dirt and dried substances. It smelled like body odour and axe body spray-which immediately went to Spencer’s headache and caused it to throb in protest.

“Freeze!”

You had shouted right as Spencer noticed the movement from a back room down the hall, as the unsub leaned out and, not abiding by the command, opened fire. Spencer grabbed you and swung you both behind the wall of the kitchen, out of the line of fire while he shouted the unsubs location.

You recovered quickly, dropping to the ground and leaning out to return fire as Hotch and Morgan ran across to the living room to join the battle. It only took a few moments after that before Morgan managed to get a shot to the suspect's shoulder and he fell with a cry of anguish.

You popped up from the ground, watching as Prentiss and Rossi moved forward to secure the man, and barked into your radio for medics to come in.

Spencer, meanwhile, was reeling. When the shots in the room had all joined together in a cacophony, sound and noise piercing his skull, it had converted to pain and panic in his skull, overwhelming him. He had used his own body to shield yours when he pulled you with him into the wall, and the caution he took with you meant he hadn’t caught himself carefully enough, his head bouncing lightly off of the stone wall.

Which, on a normal day would have simply been annoying. But today, with a headache so severe he was beginning to get spots in his vision, it was detrimental. The scene was secure, so he allowed his eyes to shut, a meagre reprieve but at least it was something, at least he didn’t have to see the beams from the flashlights or the pulsing of the neon signs outside of the windows...

“Winston, take my hand.” Your voice was so, so soft. Spencer let his mouth open slightly, a small rush of air all he managed, trying to say ‘I can’t-it hurts, make it stop’ but you grasped his hand tightly and pulled and he followed, his other hand reaching and grabbing that back of your vest, he let you lead him.

He knew from the reduced foot traffic of agents and crime scene workers that you were taking the rear exit, a stairwell that was narrower than the main. He peeked through his lashes to take the stairs, and then suddenly, the cool night air hit him and the door was closing behind you both.

You kept walking with purpose, leading Spencer further away from the loud building. The rain spattered his face but with each step the noise reduced and after a short walk it became relatively quiet.

“Sit.” You murmured, halting. Spencer opened his eyes and saw that you had led him to the farthest spot in the parking lot from the building, where trees lined the lot along a community park that was probably utilized by vagrants and drug dealers more than families. But there was a bench, and you were waiting for him to take a seat. You had pulled out a compact, expandable emergency rain shield from one of the pockets on your FBI utility belt and tossed it on the bench, protecting you both from soaking your underwear.

Spencer sat, setting his elbows on his legs and leaning forward with his hands pressed to his face. He took deep, steadying breaths as you joined him, your hand on the back of his neck. At first, he thought you were just resting it there because his FBI vest would have prevented him from feeling your hand on his back, however, a moment later it was joined by your other hand and a very cold object.

Resisting the urge to pull away, he gasped at the contact, “What-?”

“On-the-go cold compress, Doctor.” You explained, leaving it in place and then rummaging again. Spencer wanted to look but the compress, combined with the quiet, was already doing wonders. He continued to take deep breaths.

“When you’re ready, try this.” You said softly, pressing something to his hand. Opening his eyes, he saw a mini flask that had his name written on the side.

He turned his head slowly so as not to move the compress and met your eyes, which were assessing him with concern. “(Y/N), when did we start drinking on the job?”

You giggled quietly, “It’s just water mixed with this like, vitamin powder that’s supposed to be good for rehydrating you quickly. I did some research on how to help headaches like yours on the go, just in case, and I made this ‘Spencer’ care bag.” You rambled a little when he didn’t reply.

Spencer looked back at the flask and opened it, quickly downing the contents. It tasted pretty fruity and he realized he was thirsty, this taking the edge off.

“Is it okay?” You asked. Spencer raised his head and met your eyes, searching them.

He was overwhelmed, the headache already fading, in its place an intensely warm feeling building inside of him as he considered the time and effort you had taken to care for him. He hadn’t asked you, or hinted, you had just taken it on to find a way to help him and you were right there when he needed you the most.

You had always been there when he needed you. When he had been shot protecting Blake, when he struggled to care for his mother, when he had gone to prison, when he was freed, you were there.

The words tumbled out, unable to be contained a second longer.

“I am hopelessly in love with you.”

Your mouth opened and closed in surprise, taken entirely off guard. Though he worried what you would say, he couldn’t deny the relief he felt having finally said it out loud. He watched patiently as your mind processed his confession, holding his breath.

“I-Spencer,” And then suddenly your lips were pressing into his and the pain from his headache ceased entirely. Spencer was consumed by the feel of you against him, of your hands holding his face and the hum of content you gave when he returned your passion, dropping his flask and sliding his hands up your neck, gripping tenderly.

After what could have been hours, weeks, or years, you both broke apart, pulling back just enough to make eye contact without your eyes crossing. Neither of you let go, your breath puffing out in wisps in the cold night air.

“I love you too,” You breathed, “I could grow old with you, Winston.”

Spencer laughed, relief and happiness swooping through him at your words, “Gladys, I couldn’t imagine anything more perfect.”

Did you enjoy this story? Please consider reblogging or commenting to ease my inner turmoil as a writer. Likes are basically just a bookmark!

You grinned back at Spencer, and then he kissed you again.

[msookyspooky]

Random Headcanon's for the Scream Character's

Billy really was a normal sweet kid and a good boyfriend before his mom left. Everyone paints him as always being crazy and his mom just triggered him but I honestly don't think that's true. Sidney and her parents would not have been okay with her dating a bad boy from Sophomore year onward. Sure it happens and maybe she saw past it but If Sidney would have seen how Billy acted with Randy in the videostore; instant break up imo. He could not have hid that side of himself for two years straight. Remember, they were dating a whole year prior to Maureen cheating. My theory is he may or may not have had a 'side' to him or other undiagnosed disorder in his gene pool (Mrs Loomis snapping too.) but Billy's psychotic breakdown was mostly situational + groomed by Roman and there were other things in his life that probably were boiling over and Debbie leaving him completely broke him. So, he was in an extremely vulnerable state when Roman came around and molded him. THAT is why Sidney trusted him so much in Scream before the phone incident and even somewhat after. Because Billy was a good boyfriend before her mom's murder and she would have never suspected it. Now how her or no one else could see him tumbling into madness or at least deep depression before Roman sank his talons in is beyond me. Maybe she did and he shrugged her off? Either way, the situation made him shut down all empathy towards other people and changed him. His empathy is towards his mom, possibly his dad since Hank never died and that is it. He has symptoms of a psychopath and even though that is usually genetic I 100% think a psychotic breakdown could do it as well.(Don't come for me bitch I'm not trained in any of this just using what I know from research 🧍‍♀️) If his mom never left and Roman didn't come along; Billy would have never been a killer

Contrary to Billy's situational psychological crazyness. Stu was always going to kill. I don't even think it's is he a sociopath vs a psychopath argument as much as he is just disconnected from reality. (Though he would most likely be a Sociopath if he was bc of his lack of boundaries as well impulsive behavior. Thinking killing was a game.) Stu possibly suffered abuse as a child. He was terrified of his parents more than the law. Either A. They abused him and permanently terrified him. Or B. He really has a stunted mentality and thinks of killing as a game and fears his parents more than the law bc the consequences are just not clicking LIKE A KID. He's like a giant little kid with no sense of how things work. He still could have been abused and that is what stunted his growth mentally. However, his violent tendacies were always there. Never preplanned just urgent anger or sadistic glee he couldn't control. Billy just suggested the killings and he was instantly down. Like, hell yeah cool. Most ppl no matter what mental illness they have or how severe are not that easy to convince. Whose to say he hadn't killed before or was planning to? My theory is he is so disconnected from reality that killing really is a giant fun game to him and he would have eventually murdered someone even without Billy.

Idk why this isn't more thought of throughout the fandom. Billy and Stu did not rape Maureen bc the evidence would have pointed to someone other than the guy they were framing. Cotton Weary had sex with Maureen, left, Billy and Stu taunted her on the phone and lured her away, they killed her, police suspected rape bc A. they didn't know about the affairs. B. Cotton's semen or her discharge or bruising being there. They naturally assumed it was rape but in actuality no one raped her. Cotton's dna from their affair incriminated him even more. Not saying that Billy and Stu would think of rape as morally wrong enough not to do in their book BUT it would have been stupid on their part and made it obvious there were other suspects besides Cotton.

Stu isn't a lapdog. Stu literally revealed on the phone he was going to throw Billy under the bus. He hesitated giving him the knife. Stu is like a kid. He most likely suffered trauma that regressed his mental age. He's eager to please, desperate for attention and most likely fawns over people he feels close to in an obsessive way. He could have even been in love with Billy and vice versa which is why he was so eager to please him. However, he was not nearly as stupid or a lapdog as much as the fandom makes him out to be. I think Randy saying it in the videostore sealed the deal for people even though he was only acting like that bc he was helping Billy too and covering their tracks. Billy was the one with the plan. Stu just tagged along out of the urge to kill. But he 100% had his own plan to kill and bail if needed. My mind is made up on that.

There was a third killer in Scream and it wasn't a teen or Roman. You're telling me two 17-18 yr old guys could come up with every detail? Roman only told Billy the basics. How did they get tactical police shoes? How did they get to the houses so fast and leave just as quickly? How did they both take down and restrain Steve or Neil by themselves enough to tie them up? Sure, Stu was deranged and tall but these two lanky teens were able to take on a football player with muscles and a grown man? Possible but stil meh to me. Their plan was too thorough for two teen boys to come up with on their own. Both crazy. One completely unhinged and disconnected from reality and the other so blinded by revenge he was stupid at times. (Fucking stabbing yourselves before killing Neil and Sidney. Not even thinking to AT LEAST tie Sidney up as well...Really? Jill was smarter in 4 in that respect tbh.) I truly think their was an adult involved in Scream helping them or guiding them. I would say Roman if it wasn't for him going back to Hollywood. But Billy and Stu had help DURING the killings 100%.

Randy is not this mecha survival final boy like the fandom thinks. The kid watched one too many horror movies and based them on real life. Scream itself is making fun of slasher movies and Randy was supposed to be the narrator setting most of the dumb rules up into play. Everyone is like "omg that's so out of character how he died in 2" no its not. If the rules work then him losing his virginity did him in. He was drinking, he was pissed off and not thinking. Plus Mrs. Loomis attacked in broad daylight, something no one thought of. (And the whole debate how a middle aged woman could pull him in. LOOK. Randy is a fucking small guy and she grabbed him backwards, using momentum to haul him back into the van. PLUS she was enraged at what he said about Billy. Adrenaline is a hell of a super drug as far as testing the bodies limits. I have seen tiny girls become the hulk when they are pissed I'm jus sayin) Point is, Randy was just a teen boy that loved horror movies. He was not some survival guide especially since it showed him even on the couch not aware of Ghostface behind him. He was a giant satire showing how even he didn't always follow the rules of slasher movies and how dumb the rules are.

Tatum loved Sidney and had more chemistry with her than Billy. I am not saying they weren't just BFF's and I don't want to ruin female friendship with constantly thinking "omg they are gay together" any time two women are close. BUT it is strange that it was only those two as friends especially since Sidney didn't fit into Tatum's popular social circle. It's like Tatum went out of her way to be friends with Sidney. Maybe they were childhood friends and that's why? But I think it's entirely possible that just like it's speculated that Stu and Billy were secretly in love; Tatum possibly was at least bi and in love with Sidney.

[theeslytherinslut]

12 Grimmauld Place (2/?)

Pairings: Sirius Black x reader, Remus Lupin x reader’s brother 

Word Count: 2,272

Warnings: injury, implied smut, cursing

Part 1 | Part 3 |

“I suppose I should clean up,” you gestured to your wrecked state. Trying to get up on your own, however, was laughable, and you fell back against the chair quite quickly. 

“Would you like some help?” Sirius asked, knocking over his chair in his angst to help you. 

“That might be nice. If you could just, maybe...” you trailed off, trying to think of a good way to get up. But every time you tried to straighten your back, the pain made your vision fuzz around the edges. 

“Perhaps I’ll just...lie here,” you resigned to spending the night in your own filth after several attempts. 

“Hang on,” Sirius said, and then he was gone. 

With an enormous creak and shuddering sensation, as the water protested greatly after years of no use, you heard water being run somewhere in the house. A couple seconds later, Sirius returned to the doorway, sleeves rolled up. You tried not to linger too long on his hands as they glistened with water. No matter how long the two of you had known each other, you’d never get over his hands—something about them made it near impossible to look away. 

“I’m going to carry you,” he declared, striding into the room. 

“What? No! Sirius...no, I’m much too heavy. I’ll be alright until tomorrow, it’s fine,” you shrugged off, cheeks burning fiery hot at the thought of Sirius carrying you and placing you in the bath. 

“Y/N, you are covered in dirt, sweat, dust, and your own blood. I know you well enough to know it is most certainly not alright. Also, your lack of faith in my strength is rather insulting; you’re tiny. Azkaban didn’t do that much damage.” Sirius waved off, an annoyed look painting his features. 

“Oh, alright. But if I can’t even stand, how the ruddy hell am I supposed to bathe myself?” you asked, stating the obvious. 

“Oh, hmm. Excellent point.” Sirius said, hand coming thoughtfully to his chin. “Well, there’s no one here but me and good old Kreacher. The kids, Molly, and Arthur won’t be here for weeks.” 

It was at that moment Kreacher had chosen to poke his bulbous head into the room, no doubt curious as to all the noise in his otherwise quite empty house. 

“Ooh, Master has brought home a lady friend....a bloody, filthy lady friend...oh, but could it be...yes, it is so...Kreacher knows her blood runs pure...Mistress would be most pleased,” Kreacher began monologuing. You looked to Sirius, who wore a most tired look on his face. 

“Yes, you wretched thing, she’s a pureblood. You and Mother can get positively tingly with excitement about having another one in the house later. For now, go fetch a towel--a clean towel Kreacher.” Sirius commanded him. 

“Of course, Master...nothing but the best for the pureblood...” Kreacher bowed, disappearing from the room. 

“My mother has positively ruined that poor creature,” Sirius pondered before turning back to you. “So, what’ll it be?”

You weighed your options, but it seemed there was only one. Feeling vaguely as if you were in some cheesy movie, you acquiesced. 

“Oh, alright.” you lifted your arms, signaling for Sirius to come pick you up. “But no funny business, Mister. And when I say close your eyes, I better not see them peaking.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it, Miss.” Sirius bantered back, snaking an arm under your knees and behind your back.

Looking at him now, he looked much better than you’d seen him recently. That light that always lit his face back at school was just beginning to reach his eyes now. 

You’d attended Hogwarts with James, Sirius, Remus, and Lily—though you weren’t quite as close as the group of them. Just a little sibling on the outskirts. You were several years younger, and what’s more, is you’d been placed in Slytherin. Despite this--and much to the dismay of both of your housemates--Remus always came over to chat in the halls, but people years apart in separate houses rarely saw each other. Especially in Gryffindor and Slytherin, no less. 

You were fine with things, however, contenting yourself with your housemates--though finding those worthy of friendship was hard. Many of them seemed to make it their mission to further Slytherin’s bad reputation and were assholes just for the sake of being assholes.

Naturally, every time Remus was in the hallways, he was flanked by his friends, James, Sirius, and Peter. James was always friendly, but you saw the way his eyes followed Lily Evans around and knew he was smitten. Sirius, however, well Sirius was different. 

Though you weren’t exactly friends, your eyes often trailed after him as he swaggered through the halls with James by his side. Remus seemed to be a touch embarrassed on how the crowds would split for them, but James and Sirius ate it up like candy. 

James looked above the crowds, happy to be on top, only coming down to find the redhead he so loved, grinning at her boyishly. Sirius’ eyes raked through the crowds just as much as their eyes raked over him. Always finding one set in particular to smirk or wink at, likely loving the way the blush rose to their cheeks, and they turned to giggle with their friends. Sirius seemed to exude sex appeal, and you weren’t impervious to it. 

Your brother’s best friend. You were such a cliche. 

When you were younger, he always gave you a boyish smile and even a wave sometimes, the other girls in your grade giggling madly and asking you how you knew him--that always felt good--but as you got older, he began to look at you less. Or at least he wanted you to think so. You could swear you could feel him looking at you, but turn to find his eyes quickly flitting away. Then, when Remus would come up to say hello, his eyes would be on anyone but you. Glaring at passing Slytherins, sneering at others, or looking contemptuous but slightly interested at some of the older girls. And so eventually, you stop letting him catch you looking too. You began dating around just before they left, but it never turned out well as the group of them were suddenly all your older brothers and who wanted to snog a girl with four older brothers--the Marauders, no less. 

So instead, you just resigned to watching that last year, drinking in every moment before you’d never see Sirius’ smug smile lighting up the corridors, James never a step too far behind. Their faces were always lit with excitement, some mischievous plan developing behind one of their eyes. Even after Hogwarts, that life never left their eyes. Not as the two entered the Order, not as James settled down with Lily, not even when Harry came along...but you saw it almost go out entirely when James was taken from Sirius, and then you saw it truly die the day he was sentenced to life in Azkaban. 

Upon his return, some life was breathed back into him but whatever was there was quickly being snuffed out during his house arrest to a place he detested so much, no one but Kreacher and Buckbeak for company. 

Suddenly, interrupting your thoughts, Sirius changed direction and stopped in the doorway of what you saw to be the bathroom. 

Sirius’ POV

“How do you want to do this?” I asked, pausing as her brows furrowed in thought. My heart raced with fury as I looked down at her broken frame. 

Fenrir Greyback. I’d had a bone to pick with him since Moony told me he was the one responsible for his furry little problem, but now, looking at her grimy face, the wild look in her eyes...I had half a mind to call Remus anyway and run out right along with him. 

“Hmm, well, let’s see. Set me down on the edge of the tub; as long as I don’t straighten my back too much, I should be able to undress,” she thought out loud. Following her command, I set her gingerly on the edge, wincing with her as I did so. 

Why the hell were they after her anyway? She was merely a mole—each side had plenty, and we certainly didn’t sicc our nuttiest killers on each we suspected...but then again, I guess we were the good side. Perhaps it had something to do with Remus? But I couldn’t think of anything he was doing that would result in this. 

“I’m just going to try slipping in. If I yell out or something...just keep your eyes shut for a moment,” she said, hissing as her cut up skin hit the hot water. 

“Is it too hot?” I asked nervously. Like a bloody teenager, my heart beat wildly in my chest at the thought of her naked body in the tub just behind me. 

‘Stop, it’s Moony’s sister,’ I thought to myself--just as I’d done all those years at school. 

“Fuck...It’s fine, Sirius, thanks,” she breathed out. “Alright, you can open.”

She sat in a ball, her knees brought up tight to her chest, her Y/H/C hair slicked back against her scalp, sopping wet. Kicking myself before I could let my thoughts wander, I took my shoes off and padded over to her. 

Gingerly I worked through her hair until it was free of glass, clean, and soft. Dragging a soft rag across her cut up skin, I cleaned off every bit of grime from her. Enraged once more, I saw the beginnings of dozens of nasty bruises peppered all across her body. I’d kill that bloody wolf if it was the very last thing I did. 

As my eyes danced along her wet figure, I had to tear my eyes away several times from how her knees pushed on her breasts, cursing myself for my inappropriate timing. However, it wasn’t every day I got to bathe the potty-mouthed, absolutely breathtaking Slytherin I’d been watching for years...even if she was Remus’ sister.  

She kept to herself in school, only really talking to her friend group, but I swore I caught her eyes on me quite a few times, but she’d always turn scarlet and look away before I could be sure. 

“Hang on,” she said, and I held my breath as she straightened out a leg and placed it down. Not wanting to look like a pervert, I averted my eyes away from her now exposed chest. 

“It’s alright, I’ve covered them with my arm,” she said, her cheeks bright red as her hand dove into the water to cover the spot I fantasized about most. 

Closing my eyes and willing myself to stop, I picked up the rag again and brushed the rag gingerly against her thighs, this time being unable to tear my thoughts away from her creamy skin. Just a stroke or two farther...and I could make her forget all about the events of the night. 

I cut myself off once again as I felt a stirring in my stomach, but it was too late. I could already feel the blood rushing quickly as the image of her splayed out, cheeks red this time from pleasure, gasping my name as she clenched around fingers. 

“Sirius?” She asked, snatching me from my thoughts. Cursing quietly, I looked down to find a definite tent in my pants. 

Y/N’s POV

“Sorry, what?” he asked, his cheeks a more red shade than normal, his pupils all blown. 

“I said I think that’s as good as I’m gonna get. Close your eyes and give me your hand so I can stand,” you said, gingerly reaching for the white, fluffy towel Kreacher had placed on the toilet. Though this bathroom was a right sight better than the rest of the house, the towel practically gleamed comparatively. 

“Alright,” you said after a moment, wrapping the towel around you. “I feel a bit better after my bath. Perhaps I could try walking again.” 

“Alright, but I’ll be right here,” Sirius said, standing steadfastly at your side. It seemed he was taking Madam Pomfrey’s words to heart. 

Gingerly straightening, you made it a fair bit higher before your back protested, and you started walking slowly towards the door. 

“Where should I go?” I asked. I’d only been in the kitchen of the old house a handful of times. 

“I’m afraid I only have the one room cleaned up thus far. Molly said she was going to give me a hand on that...” Sirius trailed off, looking embarrassed. “It’s just down the hall here.”

He led you down the quiet hallway, various paintings muttering mutinously underneath their sheet drapings. 

“Not too friendly, then?” you asked, gesturing to one who was hissing faintly. 

“Meet my family,” Sirius grimaced. 

“These are...this is your house?” you asked him. Thinking back to your childhood years, you’d often pondered where Remus’ friends lived, but never did you dream of a place like this for Sirius. 

“The Noble House of Black,” he muttered in a funny voice. 

“Was that a Kreacher impression?” you asked, a smile coming to your face for the first time that night. 

“It was good, then?” Sirius said, smiling at you playfully. The sight took your breath away; it took you a second to reply. 

“Dead awful, love,” you laughed. Not two hours after having been almost killed and Sirius had you laughing. 

“Ah, just as well. Don’t want to be anything like the cretin.” he shuddered as the two of you came to a doorway opening up to a spacious, light room. 

[weasleysjoke]

Daydreaming

Spencer Reid x Fem!Reader

Summary: There were two features of Reid’s that drove you insane: his lips and his hands. You couldn’t help yourself to get horny because of the gestures he made while reading. It got to the point where you embarrassed yourself daydreaming of him.

Words: 2.7k

Warnings: Smut, Oral (Female and male receiving), Penetration, Chocking, Dom Specer.

A/N: As I always remind, English is not my first nor second language so if there’s any grammar error please don’t come at me. I had to write this because of my obsession with Matthew’s hands.

Y/N, calm fucking down. There’s people dying and you are being a horny asshole. Breathe and concentrate.

I have to remind myself constantly to keep my eyes on the files and not stare at Dr. Sexy Hands. Spencer and I have been stuck on the commissary, on a little village lost in the middle of nowhere, to keep reading the files of a few suspects that fitted the profile of a murderer we were investigating.

“Y/N, I think I found something.” I hear Spencer’s voice calling me and I turn to give him my full attention. “This guy fits perfectly the profile and his mother died a month ago. That could be enough motive for his psychotic breakdown.” As I read the file of the man, I realize that Reid’s completely right and we start calling the team to let them know.

It only toke us an stressful evening to finish the paperwork and we go back to Virginia on the plane during nighttime. Everybody seem to be extra tired and had fallen sleep just as we sat on the plane. Spence and I were the only ones who were awake, blaming it on the amount of coffee’s that we toke that day.

Reid and I were the only ones sitting by the plane table, both with a book on our hands. To be honest, I was paying 0 attention to the book. Since I started on the BAU a year ago, Spencer and I always had a weird type of tension. Everybody knew I was hella attracted to him, but he didn’t notice any of the many signals threw at him.

He was so fucking oblivious for this type of things. I can believe how a genius profiler couldn’t see that I had the hots for him since day one.

As a profiler there are things that you pick out of people, and even more if you have a crush on them. There were two things that drove me insane about Reid: his lips and his hands.

HIS MOTHERFUCKING HANDS.

On one side, when he started ranting about stuff he knew or was passionate about his lips would dry out. So, with that happening, he had the constant need of travelling his tongue throw his plumped lips to hydrate them.

HE. WAS. CONSTANTLY. LICKING. THEM.

I almost caught myself moaning out loud on the conference room one day that I was extra horny, and Spencer was explaining to me the movie he saw that night. His eyes were fixed on mine and my eyes kept travelling from his to his lips and moving hands. Emily, who sat by my side, smirked and shot me a knowingly look.

On the other side, HIS HANDS. Everybody knew he could read 20.000 words per minute, which was crazy by itself. To help his reading his hands followed rapidly the sentences and flipped the pages with ease.

It may sound stupid, but I got wet several times just watching him read. Reading Reid combined his two most attractive features. His lips moved following the words and his hands accompanied the book pages.

So, after all the tension accumulated in these few days of work, Spencer currently reading by my side felt like a sick joke. A fucking punishment.

All I could think about is how his full lips would feel against your neck, travelling towards your tits and sucking hardly on one of your nipples while the other one was being pinched with his long fingers. How his mouth and hands would feel against your core, his tongue against your clit and one hand against your neck.

You hadn’t realized that everybody had already got off the plane, except for Reid who couldn’t get out of his sit because you were blocking him.

“Y/N!” His hands made a set of movements in front your eyes to wake you from the daydream you were having. His eyes were looking at you worryingly. “Are you okay? You look kinda flushed, maybe you are getting sick.”

“Oh! Sorry, Spence. I was just daydreaming, or more like nightdreaming since it’s 2 am.” I tried to joke.

“Did you know that most people spend 47% of their waking time daydreaming every day? Although, there’s no consistent theory or definition among psychologists on the different types of daydreams.”

To be honest, I did not hear a word he just said. My eyes were locked on his lips and after he said the last word, he drew his lips against his lower lip.

I moaned.

I. FUCKING. MOANED. OUT. LOUD.

Somebody kill me right now.

Embarrassed I falsely coughed. “I didn’t know. That sounds interesting, Reid, but we should leave already. It’s so late.”

Spencer seemed to be speechless because he didn’t say a word just a ‘goodbye’ left his lips after getting to the parking lot.

I fucked it up, I need to talk to Emily and drink a bottle of wine.

“Emily.” I groaned as I hear she picked the call.

“Y/N, I was asleep. What happened? Is there something wrong?” She asked worryingly but annoyed at the same time.

“I messed up. I messed up so badly. I don’t think I can ever look at Spencer’s face again.”

I heard her laugh. “What happened? Do you wanna come to my place and explain it to me?”

“Sure, prepare the wine.” I hang up after hearing her laugh again.

In less than 10 minutes I’m already ringing her door.

“Hey baby, come in.” Emily greeted me and passing me a glass full of white wine.

As I sat down on her sofa, I give a big gulp and sigh. “I moaned. He did his lip thingy while ranting about daydreaming and I spent the whole travel in the plane thinking about him, his hands. You know what he does to me! And then, I was just staring at his lips and couldn’t help myself but moan out loud. I’m so embarrassed.”

Emily starts laughing so much that tears started falling of her eyes. I sigh because I knew that she would react like that and I finish my glass and grab her full glass of wine and finishing it in one gulp.

She stops laughing but a smile is plastered in her face. “How did he react?”

“We made it back to the parking lot without crossing any word. He just muttered a ‘goodbye’ and left.” I sigh again and close my eyes feeling already dizzy because of the wine.

I pour myself another glass and drink it.

Emily stares at me till I finish my third glass. “What if you call him and tell him, finally, that you’ve got the hots for him?”

“You know what?! I’m going to do it.” I pick my phone from the table and ring him.

As he picks up, Emily whispers “Put it on speaker.”

I pressed the speaker option and hear Spencer’s voice: ‘Y/N?”

“Hi, Reid. Remember that I was daydreaming on the plane?” I continue without waiting for a response, but he murmurs a ‘yes’. “All I could think about is about your mouth on my pussy and your hands on my neck.”

“Oh my god” I heard Emily say.

“You don’t fucking know what your lips and hands do to me every time you are reading, and you read a fucking lot, Reid.”

I stop my rant and wait for him to say something, but I’m left waiting.

I sigh on defeat. “I’m sorry, I just thought I had to let you know. I’m not going to make things weird in work and if you want to I can stop talking to you. It would hurt but-“

“Y/N” I hear his voice come out my phone like a growl. “Where are you right now?”

Fuck, I’m wet again.

“I’m at Emily’s right now.” I say unsure.

“Give me 15 minutes, I’m coming.” And then he hangs up.

WHAT?

HE IS COMING?!

TO GET ME?!

“Emily, what did just happen?”

“You are getting laid, my girl.” She says loudly. “Are you wearing cute underwear?”

·

I receive a text from Reid saying to come down and I obey immediately saying ‘goodbye’ and ‘thanks’ to Emily.

I see Reid’s car and just as I got into the passenger sit and put the safety belt, he starts driving.

“Y/N. I couldn’t stop thinking about the fucking sound you made on the plane.” My eyes grew wide and turned to stare at him. “I never thought you could actually be attracted to me, although Morgan and Emily always kept insisting that you did.”

I chuckled. “Spence, I’ve always tried to make you notice me, but you are so fucking oblivious. I thought you didn’t want anything from me.”

“How could I not want anything from you? Are you crazy? You are stunning, funny, and so fucking smart. You’ve everything.” He says staring at me as he just parked in front of his apartment.

His eyes drift off to my lips and proceeds to lick his.

And again, I moan out loud.

“Fuck, Y/N. Let’s get inside before I fuck you right here in the car.”

Jesus-fucking-christ.

I’ve never heard him sound like this, a new kind of confidence occupied his body and it showed.

As we reached the lift, the tension between the two of us was so dense I couldn’t breathe steadily. The door dings and opens, Spencer grabbed my hand and takes me to his apartment. Without waiting a second after closing the door, he led me into his room.

“Sit down.” He ordered me and I don’t hesitate to do it. “Before we start this, I want to tell you that I won’t be gentle. Also, this ain’t going to be a one-time thing, after this I’m going to ask you out on a date. Just so you know that I’m not playing with your feelings or that this is a one-sided thing.”

“Reid, I need your lips on mine, right now.”

“This is the only time I’m going to take an order from you, baby.”

He launched himself over my body and went for my lips. With my bottom lip between his teeth, I opened my mouth granting pass to his tongue. As our tongues dance with each other a loud moan left my mouth.

“Y/N… those fucking sounds are going to be the death of me.” He lifts my weigh while turning around and I end up straddling him. “Remind me again of what you daydreamed back in the plane.” He says while leaving kisses on my check and continued with my jaw.

“You started biting my neck…” he proceeded to do that going for the sweet spot just below my ear. “Fuck.” I moan.

“What else?”

His teeth nipped strongly on my skin and I closed my mouth to try to not make a sound, failing of course.

“I imagined you eating me out and then chocking me.”

He separated his head of my neck and looked at me with a new sparkle in his eyes. “If you behave, I might just do that, baby.”

Between kisses, I toke his shirt off and he toke mine, followed by my bra.

“Fuck, I’ve dreamed so many nights about these two. Had to jerk off so many times in my shower thinking about coming onto them.” I moaned at his dirty talk; I should have known he was good with his words in bed too. “Maybe we could do that another time, now I’m going to give my full attention to this right here.” He said while cupping my pussy with his hand.

He pushed me into the bed on my back and toke my pants and underwear off. His mouth traveled between my tits and continued on my abdomen. He started kissing my thighs but every time he got close to where I needed him the most, he started kissing my other thigh.

“Please, Spencer.” I implored.

“What do you want, Y/N?” He arched an eyebrow.

“You know what I want, Reid.”

“Use your words.” He blew air into the center of my core.

“I need you, your tongue, fingers… I don’t care. I need you. PLEASE.”

“If you beg me like that, baby.”

His tongue attacked my clitoris while two of his fingers entered me.

“Spencer!” I screamed.

With a smirk, his tongue continued lapping my clit while his fingers curled inside me. His mouth left my core to give attention to my boobs. His fingers still working in and out and his teeth nipping my nipples was starting to be too much for me. My legs started trembling and sweat was covering every inch of my body. The warm sensation was overwhelming and as he pinched my nipple and bitted the other one, I came.

“Fucking hell Reid.” I moaned. As I came down of my high, he licked his fingers.

“You taste so good, baby. It almost feels like a sin to taste like this, I wanna eat this pussy every day.”

My mouth opened speechless at his words.

Is it possible to be already wet again and ready for more? Because Spencer just had made it possible for me.

“I want those pinks lips wrapped around my cock. Now.”

He grabbed the back of my thighs lifting me up again to straddle him. We get into a deep kiss in which I get to taste myself and help him get out of his pants and boxers. His cock completely erected stood now on his stomach.

Licking my lips hungrily, I went directly to wrap the tip with my lips and tacking it out making a ‘pop’ sound.

“Shit.” He groans.

With the help of my hand, I start slow movements on his length. I take him fully on my mouth earning a loud moan that went directly to the inside of my pussy. His hand grabbed my hair, stopping me for a second.

“Y/N, I’m gonna come in your mouth if you don’t stop.”

“Do it, Reid” I bob my head faster and I toke his balls on my hands massaging them.

“Holy shit.” He growled and came inside my mouth. His saltiness fulling me. “That felt so good baby.” He sighs and cups my face bringing it to his.

We kissed and I smiled. “Now, can I finally have that cock inside my pussy?”

He tucked my hair with his hand making my neck to be on full exposure to his mouth. “Come and ride me baby.” Ordered while attacking my neck again.

He’s going to leave me so many marks.

I positioned my pussy right on his cock and pushed it inside me. We both groaned at the same time.

“You feel so good around me.”

I moaned at his words and started riding him. We both were a moaning mess, but he seemed to get frustrated.

“I need to go faster.” He pushed me into my back. He pushed himself into me, getting more in depth in this new position. My legs were on his shoulders and his cock was deeper than ever. One of his hands traveled to my clit drawing circles on it and his other hand positioned on my neck with a light pressure.

“Harder.” I demanded between moans.

He did what I said and putted more pressure on my neck.

“Y/N, come for me.” As if I just needed to hear him say it, my whole body reacted to his words giving me one of the best orgasms I have ever had.

“Oh my god.” I moaned. My clenched pussy wrapped around him was what he needed to have his release.

“Baby, that was the best sex I’ve ever had.” He said lying on his back and getting off me.

We lied catching our breath.

“Same, Spence.”

He then seemed to be on deep thought.

“What are you thinking about?”

“That now, everytime I read all I’m going to think is about you moaning.”

I laugh at his response. “Finally, you will suffer some consequences for being hot without realizing.”

We laugh.

“As I promised,” he started and turned all his body to face mine, “do you wanna go out with me on a date?”

I looked at him sweetly while we cupped my cheek with one hand, getting my hair out my face.

“Of course, idiot. It was time you asked.”

[fangroyal]

Fic Rec Tag Meme

@sitp-recs, I’m terribly late, but this looked way too fun, so I had to join in. Fair warning, y’all, not everything here is Drarry, or even HP (I am a prolific rarepair shipper/multi-fandomer, and Dron is my OTP 😂), so I’ve added the fandoms and pairings below as well. All of these (and many more!) can also be found on my ficshelf! It was so hard to pick these as it was, I couldn’t help but point you in the right direction for all the ones I (sadly, unfortunately) had to cut from the list, lol.

Anyway, thank you so much for running this tag meme, @sitp-recs! It’s been amazing seeing everyone’s recs and discovering new fics! 🖤

• A fic you love without knowing the source material: He Was a Punk, Pete Did Tabletop Roleplay by @mscaptainwinchester Marvel | Peter/Wade | NC-17 | 7.5k

• A fic with a premise that shouldn’t work but it does: Anthony J. Crowley, Retired Demon and Airbnb Superhost by @theoldaquarian Good Omens | Hints of Aziraphale/Crowley | G | 3k All fics are valid and work!! That being said, I had no idea just how much I was going to fall in love with a fic about Crowley being an AirBnB host when I first opened it. 😂

• A fic you’ve reread several times: Department of Magical Creatures Case 62637 by @mscaptainwinchester (under RonsPigwidgeon at the time) HP | Draco/various, Ron/OMC, Ron/Draco | R | 121k How could I expected to only pick ONE?! 😂 I’ve reread everything you’re seeing here - I’ve reread nearly every fic I’ve ever recced at least once. But I couldn’t make a favorites list without this fic, so might as well put it here, haha!

• A fic you still remember many years later: Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble by Sushi HP | Severus/Severus | NC-17 | 8.9k I remembered it so well (and fondly) that after 12+ years, I went scouring the Wayback Machine to find it. And yes, the pairing is correct. Don’t look at me. If you’re still interested in reading after knowing that, hit me up, ‘cause it takes a bit of instruction to find it now.

• A comfort fic: You and I by @shiftylinguini HP | Scorpius/Albus S. | NC-17 | 32k

• A cathartic fic: The Conformity Conspiracy by shrink South Park | Michael/Pete (or Ethan/Dylan, as this was written before they had names in canon) | R | 71k I really struggled with this entry. I came to the realization that...I don’t know if I’ve ever actually felt catharsis from a piece of media before??? Well, I have with music, for sure, but not really with anything else. Anyway, I chose this fic for this slot because every time I read it, I’m transported back to being a goth teen. I can feel every word, every action, like I’m going through those years again with them...Which isn’t necessarily what cathartic means, but fuck it, it works for me, haha. ***As always whenever I rec this fic, I do just have to warn that it’s not properly tagged on AO3, and there is definitely some potentially triggering content in it. If you’re interested in reading and would like to know more (so you can be better prepared), feel free to DM me!***

• A fic you’d print and put on your bookshelf: In Flight, Two Boys by lobst_r HP | Marcus/Oliver | NC-17 | 29K Again, how I could possibly pick only one for this one?! I would print out ALL of these fics if I could, and many more! But this is such a beautiful fic, it definitely deserves a spot on the list, and what better spot for it than this? There’s actually a sequel currently posting as well! I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet, but I’m sure it’s just as amazing, if not more so.

• A fic you associate with a song: You Do Your Body Work, I Feel My Pulse Working Overtime by @veelawings HP | Draco/Harry | NC-17 | 1.6k I mean, it’s in the title. 😜 But also this is just a truly inspiring fic that I absolutely had to include! (I realized I somehow haven’t queued a rec post for it yet, and I will make sure to fix that soon!)

• A fic that inspires you: dirtynumbangelboy by @magpiefngrl HP | Draco/Harry | NC-17 | 39k

• A fic that brought you onboard a new ship: Lumos by birdsofshore HP | Draco/Harry | NC-17 | 41k Some people may be surprised to know that Drarry was, uh.......once my NOTP. Yes, really. 😂 You wouldn’t suspect that nowadays, would you??? LOL. It’s all because of this wonderful, beautiful fic. I saw it getting recced everywhere at the time and said fuck it, I’ll give the pairing another try - and I never looked back!

• A fic you wish could be a movie: Midnight in the City of a Hundred Spires by @shiftylinguini HP | Draco/Harry | NC-17 | 25k

• A fic that led to you making friends with the author: A Weasel in the Hamptons by @peachpety HP | Ron/Draco | NC-17 | 15k I don’t quite know if this counts, because I believe we’d already been speaking before this??? 😂 But of course, being that I’m the mod for Ron/Draco Fest, I knew who was writing for this prompt of mine, and thus we dispensed with the formalities in private, haha! It was a great experience, and I was so overjoyed to see the results in the end. So happy to have met you, love! 😘 Hope you’re well!

• Free Space: The Pizzaria: A Sordid Tale of Destiny, Evil and Garlic by Mad_Maudlin HP | Ron/Draco | PG-13 | 36k A Dron/crack!fic staple, honestly, and I just couldn’t make a favorites list without it!

• A fic you’ve gushed about irl: Runway by @candawrites HP | Ron/Draco | R | 15k

• A fic you associate with a place: Archipelago by Mad_Maudlin HP | Ron/Draco | NC-17 | 18k I just have a very distinct visual memory of reading this fic for the first time: sitting on the couch in my mom’s living room, the sun setting outside. (I was visiting for her bday, I believe???)  I think of that moment every time I see the title.

• A fic that made you gasp out loud: clutched your life and wished it kept by @glitteringvoids HP | Ron/Draco | R | 110K

• A fic you found at the right time: Howlr by @partialtopotter HP | Draco/Harry | NC-17 | 47k I got really sick in summer 2018. I know I’ve talked about it on here a million times at this point, so I won’t dwell. But I ended up finding and reading this fic the following March, and it reawakened my love of fic and fandom that had been lost over the previous months while I was dealing with everything. I hadn’t been reading or writing at all in all that time, and I ended up reading this whole thing in one sitting. I couldn’t put it down! It just made me feel so good, after a long time of not feeling anywhere near good.

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[ot7always]

Risk and Reward

Word Count: 6.6k

Pairing: Hoseok x Reader

Genre: Best friends to lovers AU, fluff, light light light angst, smut

Warnings: dom!Hoseok, sub!Reader, alcohol consumption and mild intoxication, club setting, grinding, thigh-riding, choking, a tiny bit of spanking, degradation, praise, dirty talk, hair pulling, fingering, oral (m&f receiving), face-fucking, power dynamics, crying, overstimulation, unprotected sex, rough sex, overuse of pet names, sweet aftercare

Rating: 18+

Summary:  Perhaps the two of you have been dancing around each other for long enough. By this point, it’s only a matter of who breaks first, isn’t it?

A/N: I had actually started this fic in February before school started up again and I completely forgot about it. I’m glad I picked it up again a few days ago, because I’m fairly happy with how it turned out. This is actually my first smut piece and well... go big or go home, I guess?

Masterlist

--

“Hobi. Hoseok. Hey hey hey hey heyheyhey-”

“If this is what I’m gonna have to put up with for the rest of the night, I’m leaving.”

You and Hoseok, your best friend despite his rude words, were getting ready to go for a night of clubbing. More accurately, you were scrambling to get your face on after losing track of time and having Hoseok show up at your door only moments after submitting an assignment. He, of course, was already looking fine as hell. How dare he show up looking like that when you probably smelled like sweat and the tacos you ate for lunch?

“Pick me an outfit? Pretty please?”

There were only so many people in this universe you might have trusted with such a task, but luckily one such person was standing in your bedroom. Albeit, giving you a glance that had disappointment written all over it, but standing there nonetheless. Standing there in a navy blue Henley and black jeans so tight you weren’t sure how he squeezed them on. Yes, he was definitely the best person for the task of dressing you. Though, looking at him, his shirt tight across his chest, his dark brown hair slicked back, his legs, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if he undressed-

“Hello? Y/N?” He was staring at you as if he had already been doing so for several moments while you so obviously ogled him. “I know I look good, but I just asked you -  skirt or pants?”

You took a deep breath. The two of you had always seemed to toe the line between best friends and… not… but recently you had been feeling it a lot more. Lingering touches, cuddling close to watch a movie, literally every textbook move that could take two people from “just friends” to “dating.” You’d been thinking about it a lot – how could you not, with him looking like that – but tonight, you just wanted to have fun and look good doing it.

“Let’s go with a dress, don’t you think?”

He gave you a look of annoyance, before tossing a short skirt and cropped sweater onto your bed.

“Why am I here picking for you if you already know what you want?” he scolded, though you could tell his heart wasn’t in it. Having just finished perfecting your eyeliner, you walked over to where he was now sitting on your bed looking suspiciously close to pouting.

“Ahhh I’m sorry, you know I love you!” you exclaimed, plopping yourself unceremoniously onto his lap, squeezing him tightly to you despite his squirming. You tucked your face into his neck, noting the intoxicating smell of his cologne. God, was there anything about this man that wasn’t attractive?

You pulled your face back to beam at him, only to find him looking intensely at you. He wasn’t smiling. Eyes sweeping over you, hand tightening itself on your waist, you felt immensely small in his hold. Those eyes held emotions neither of you had yet cared to address but loved to toy with. You hoped that he couldn’t feel your heartbeat right now, because surely your heart was about to leap out of your throat. He inhaled as if he would start to speak, and you glanced down at his lips, already hanging onto the unspoken words.

“You should get dressed,” he seemed to struggle to get out, voice rough. It was at this moment you remembered that while your hair and makeup were done, you were still sitting in Hoseok’s lap in nothing more than tiny shorts and a t-shirt you suspected once belonged to him, though no longer. Despite his words, he remained staring into you, thumb gently moving back and forth near the waistband of your shorts. However innocent the motion may have been, your body felt like it was on fire from the touch. At this rate you wouldn’t even make it to the club.

You flung yourself off his lap, seemingly surprising both Hoseok and yourself as you nearly stumbled from your apparent enthusiasm. Eager to get out of the house and whatever situation this was, you quickly moved to rid yourself of your t-shirt and put on the clothes your friend had so helpfully laid out for you.

You heard a faint choking sound as you did so, but you didn’t think so much of changing in front of Hoseok anymore anyway. He had seen you half naked more than his fair share of times. Though, perhaps you should have made your stripping sexier?

After pulling your sweater on, you chanced a glance at Hoseok, only to find him turned around and looking at his phone. A shame. Is it so bad to hope that you could tease him at least a fraction of the amount he liked to tease you? Regardless, you finished pulling on your outfit, complete with black heels, before grabbing your purse.

“Let’s go?” you inquired, looking back at him on your bed. Rather than making eye contact with you, you found him to be tracing his eyes up and down your body. A part of you hoped that he was picturing what he caught a glimpse of only moments before. Finally, he gave you a smirk and a little whistle.

“Wow, look at you. Though, perhaps you should be thanking me for this?” he chuckled, catching your hand that was swatting at him as he met you at the door. But he didn’t let go, instead grabbing your waist and turning you toward the floor-length mirror nearby. His front was almost moulded to your back, and would it be weird if you maybe backed up just a bit more to feel more of him?

“Looks like I’ll be scaring a lot of creeps off tonight,” he murmured breathily as he leaned into your ear, without a doubt feeling your shaky inhale that followed. Your eyes met his in the mirror. His eyes looked predatory in a way you hadn’t seen before, but in a way your lower half seemed to greatly enjoy.

“You could just stay with me and nobody would even bother me,” you whispered. While a part of you might curse you for killing your chances of bringing a guy back with you to let loose, a larger part of you didn’t care. A part of you that only cared for Hoseok’s company, whatever that might mean for the two of you. You couldn’t help it when he was looking at you like that.

He gave you a grin and a quick laugh, releasing you as if it had never happened.

“I would never ask you to do that. But if you can’t keep away,” he raised his brows teasingly at you, “feel free!”

Tension seemingly broken, you both left your apartment, prepared to spend the night in a whirlwind of alcohol and dancing. Perhaps you would leave your not-so-innocent thoughts of your best friend behind in your apartment too.

--

Despite his words, Hoseok seemed to be taking your earlier request quite literally, remaining beside you at the bar as you both drank. Despite telling yourself you’d come to dance and have a good time, dancing was perhaps… not your forte. To put it bluntly, you were awful. There was no way you were going to make a fool of yourself next to your friend’s perfect rhythm without a drink or four in you.

Despite downing two tequila shots and nursing a jack and coke, you hadn’t reached the point where you were tipsy enough to put yourself out there. Unlike you, however, Hoseok was eyeing the sea of bodies on the dancefloor as though if he stared hard enough he would teleport there.

“You don’t have to wait for me, you know,” you said, leaning into his side so that you could be heard over the music. “I’ll join you soon, go have fun!” you grinned at him, nudging him lightly. Clearly, that was the only push he needed, the look of excitement on his face making you feel something less-than-platonic. The fact that he was almost definitely waiting for your affirmation that you were okay alone had your stomach fluttering.

“I’ll be back soon!” he bounded off, making it about halfway there before he turned around and yelled might have been “watch my drink,” not that you could hear anything. You gave him a grin and a thumbs up before downing the rest of the gin and tonic he left behind. That counts, right?

While a club wasn’t typically your type of scene, it worked well as a distraction. After all, it wasn’t as if you could focus on much else when music was thrumming in your ears and alcohol was slowly making its way through your veins. Despite the noise, there was something peaceful about drinking in a place where everyone around you seemed to only have the same goals as you. Sometimes you end up taking someone home and letting the distraction extend through the whole night, depending on your mood.

Speak of the devil, you thought, hearing someone pull out the chair next to you. You painted a smile on your face and looked over, ready to toss your hair. Unfortunately for you, this guy seemed to be a little too gone for your liking. He was looking at you, but his eyes barely seemed to focus on yours.

“Hi, sweetheart,” he somehow managed to slur out despite his appearance. You gave him a polite smile and a light “hello” before turning to look at your phone. You hoped that was the end of that. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem to be the case, as you felt a hand on your shoulder.

“What are you doing here alone, beautiful?” he said, leaning closer to you. Was this guy serious? Did he study how to hit on a girl at the bar using only porn?

As you were shrugging his hand off, you thankfully spotted Hoseok making his way over to you alone. Once he was within arms’ reach, you quickly reached for his hand, lacing your fingers together.

“I’m not alone,” you boasted, pulling Hoseok as close as possible. You prayed he got the memo and didn’t question what you were doing. But of course, as expected from your best friend, he only wrapped his arms around you, nuzzling his face into your hair from behind.

“Come dance, princess,” he requested, loudly enough for your newfound “companion” to hear. Your smile faltered upon hearing the nickname, face suddenly feeling hot. It wasn’t as though he’d never called you that before, but it had always been just to tease you. Despite the shock of embarrassment, the term of endearment left you giddy. Or perhaps that was finally the alcohol catching up to you.

Hopping off of the barstool and slapping down enough bills to cover the drinks you both had, you turned to face Hoseok, his hands never having left you. Your eyes met, the warmth in his gaze making you feel instantly at ease again. It was at that moment you became incredibly aware of his hands on your bare waist, fingers rubbing lightly at the small of your back.

You’re sure it was meant to be a comforting touch. A friend’s touch. And perhaps when you were slightly less tipsy you would have accepted it as such. But at the moment, his soft and caring hands were sending shivers up your spine, and you sincerely hoped he didn’t feel the way you subconsciously arched into his touch.

The effect he had on you really wasn’t fair. Well, two can play at that game, you thought, disregarding the fact that he probably wasn’t doing anything on purpose. Or maybe he was – he’s proven himself to be quite the devil, after all.

You took the opportunity to shamelessly drag your hands up his abdomen and across his chest, revelling in the firmness you felt beneath the shirt. Your eyes followed your hands, staring intensely as if with enough willpower, you would be able to see through it. As your arms finally made their way around his neck, your eyes met and what you saw there had you freezing for a moment.

You’ve only seen such intensity in his eyes on few occasions. When you’ve seen him in intense conversations over the phone, giving advice to his juniors, or urging you to open up about your problems. But never in this context. He looked, quite frankly, as though he wanted to devour you.

Despite your initial shock, the desire on his face gave you a rush of both lust and confidence.

“Let’s dance, then,” you stated, giving him a look that you hoped was as sultry as you thought it was. Either you succeeded or men are just simple creatures, but he followed you toward the dance floor with an enthusiasm that was unusual even for him.

Passing through the mess of sweaty bodies, you found a spot where the two of you had enough room to dance freely. Rather, Hoseok was dancing freely while you had your fingers laced behind your neck, swaying awkwardly. As confident as you had been, that didn’t mean you had suddenly gained skills in dancing.

“Relax. Nobody is judging you,” he assured you, hands on your hips, “just match what I’m doing,” he beamed at you, trying to make you more comfortable. Despite your hesitance, you were unwilling to end this little game between you and Hoseok just because of your dance skills. Or lack thereof.

You inched yourself even closer to his warm body, until your chests were pressed together, your face pressed into the curve of his neck. You closed your eyes, allowing Hoseok to guide your body along with his. It made it easier not having to look at him. Your brief reprieve didn’t last for long, though.

Just as you were getting comfortable, you felt Hoseok’s nails dragging lightly up your back, starting near the waistband of your skirt and continuing up, under your sweater. You jumped, not expecting the sudden sensation, but he only continued. You shivered, pushing yourself even closer to his body, breasts squished against his chest. Damn Jung Hoseok and his magical hands.

If he was going to touch you like that, the least you could do is return the favour, right?

You reached your hands up to entangle them in his hair, your mouth moving to brush against the spot right above his collarbone. You felt, rather than heard his response, his chest rumbling. A moan? Groan? Growl? You didn’t know, and you didn’t care much if you were being honest.

Since he wasn’t pulling away nor was he pausing the actions of his hands, you decided to throw all caution to the wind. Your mouth pressed against the delicate skin of his neck, sucking lightly before running your teeth along the area. His response was immediate. Head thrown back, he dug his nails into your back hard enough for you to hiss. But that didn’t stop you from holding his head in place, mouthing further up towards his ear, becoming braver and braver with each passing moment.

You had your fun for a few seconds before you were spun around, back pressed to Hoseok’s front.

“Y/N,” he leaned down and growling in your ear, his hands splayed across your abdomen dangerously close to your breasts, “I know you know what you’re doing.”

Feeling his hot breath in your ear had any reply you could have made caught in your throat. Rather than verbalize a response, you only pressed your ass further into him, feeling the unmistakeable bulge in his jeans, confirmed by his groan in your ear.

“If you’re going to tell me off, now’s the time,” he warned. You almost laughed. Tell him off? It was about time the tension between you two went somewhere, and you were eager to see what else he could do with those hands of his.

Not trusting yourself not to be snarky, you instead reached back to tangle your hands back into his locks, eyes fluttering shut and breasts thrust forward as if offering yourself to him and whatever he wanted to do to you.

“I’m going to fucking ruin you, princess,” he whispered lowly to you, hand rising to cup your breast. His words coupled with finally having his hands somewhere besides your middle instantly had your body heating up, heart pounding.

As he dragged a hand up your thigh, it was as if nothing else existed but the two of you and the trail of fire he seemed to be carving along your body. It was embarrassing how he didn’t even touch you properly yet, but you were already bending to his every whim, panties sticking uncomfortably to your heat.

“Tell me,” he began, tonguing lightly at your earlobe, “if I were to touch you right now, would you be ready for me already?” His nails dragged lightly along the soft skin of your inner thigh, the sensation quickening your breath. You wanted nothing more than for that hand to continue its path, subtly widening your stance in invitation.

Clearly not subtle enough, however, as the next thing you heard was a chuckle in your ear. “Open your eyes, sweetheart,” he growled, “Do you want everyone here to see you spread out nicely just for me?”

It was as if an ice bucket had been thrown over your head. Your enrapturement with your best friend honestly had you forgetting you were in public, surrounded by people bumping and grinding. Luckily, despite his words, it didn’t appear that anyone was looking at you.

Sheer embarrassment ran through you as you begun pulling away from Hoseok. Sure, on your lonely nights the shameless part of your brain told you to “risk it all” despite your friendship, but getting it on in public at the club was definitely not what you meant.

Sensing your discomfort and shame, he reached for your shoulders, inviting you to look him in the eye. What you saw there was not teasing or lustful, but sweet and compassionate.

“Come home with me?” he asked simply. Despite the lack of blatant suggestion, you understood the implication. While you two didn’t go to places like these often, at the end of the night you always went your separate ways. Whether it be that one of you found someone else to take home, or you were just too tired to continue hanging out until 4 am.

No, this wasn’t an invitation to go to his apartment and watch a movie. This was an invitation to continue what you’d started here. And despite your self-consciousness after nearly allowing Hoseok to stick his entire hand into your panties in public, you didn’t want him any less.

“Okay,” you replied, damn the consequences.

--

Despite your adamance earlier, upon arriving at Hoseok’s apartment you couldn’t help the sense of dread that washed over you. You had no doubt that Hoseok loved you, and you had no doubt that you wanted this. You knew he wanted you, you weren’t that oblivious. But you hadn’t talked properly about this. You’d have sex – and then what? You pretend it never happened? You continue having sex? You date? He regrets it and never speaks to you again? You at least had to believe he wouldn’t do the last one.

“Y/N,” his voice snapped you out of your thoughts, “I know exactly what you’re thinking. You don’t want to ruin everything, right?” he inquired softly, hands cupping your face, preventing you from hiding. You’d never tried to conceal any emotion from him; he was too perceptive for his own good.

“You know I love you, right?” he prodded, only continuing when you nodded your head. “I want to try this with you, okay? Not just tonight, but everyday after that too. I want to take you out properly, I want to make you happy. But only if you want that too,” he said, sincerity shining in his eyes. Trust Hoseok to know exactly what to say to put you at ease.

“You’re too good at this,” you smiled bashfully, looking down at your feet. But your emotion was unmistakeable – this was probably going down as one of the happiest moments in your life. You reached for his hands, lacing both of your fingers together before tilting your head up.

“Kiss me,” you breathed, the last of your diffidence having evaporated upon seeing the care in Hoseok’s eyes and hearing the honesty in his words.

You didn’t need to tell him twice. Within seconds his mouth was on yours, hands pushing up your sweater to feel more of you. His touch was demanding, and you weren’t one to deny him. He kissed with an intensity that left you only able to follow his wishes, not giving you one second to catch your bearings.

“Off,” he demanded harshly, already tugging your sweater up over your breasts, only waiting for you to lift your arms. When you did, his mouth instantly travelled down your body, stopping to press heated kisses over your bra. He simultaneously slotted a thigh between your legs, pulling you forward to feel the first proper contact to your heat that you’d been waiting for all night. You ground against it instinctively, moaning at the feeling of the hard muscle beneath his pants rubbing against your clit.

You started pulling your skirt up, wanting desperately to feel Hoseok’s body against your own with as little material between you as possible. When he seemed to notice what you were doing, he groaned from his place over your other breast.

“Look at you, so needy and impatient for me,” he chuckled, hands reaching down to hold the globes of your ass, taking control of the motion of your hips. His mouth making his way back up to your throat, he coupled a harsh bite with an upward thrust of his thigh, having you cry out. You knew you were dripping for him and he hadn’t even touched you properly yet.

If Hoseok wasn’t there to hold your entire body up against his, you were certain you would’ve been a limp noodle on the floor by now. All you could do was hold onto his slim waist for dear life, taking every ounce of pleasure he bestowed upon you.

That was, until he delivered a sharp smack to your ass and suddenly stopped all motion. You whimpered at the loss, trying to move your hips on your own once again only to have strong hands gripping your thighs, preventing you from moving. You looked up at Hoseok, desperation clear on your face.

He sunk a fist into your hair, gripping tightly at the root and pulling your head back. You whined at the pain, but couldn’t deny the rush of wetness you felt at the harsh action.

“You’re so naughty, princess,” he sneered, all trace of the sweet and understanding best friend gone from his face, “So desperate for me already. Do you think I can’t feel how wet my leg is because of you?” he questioned, pulling further to put your entire neck on display. Your eyes fluttered closed, overwhelmed by how much you enjoyed being under his control.

“You’re such a filthy little whore for me, taking whatever I give you,” he went on, nose making its way up your neck to your ear until all you could hear was his heavy breathing. “If you’re good for me, I’ll give you everything, okay?” he demanded. You let out a low moan, nodding as much as the hand gripping your hair allowed.

Clearly, that wasn’t the response he wanted. His other hand reached out to cover your throat, fingers pressing lightly at the sides. You let out a sound suspiciously close to a squeak.

“Words from now on, okay princess?” he reprimanded, actions disparate from the caring tone encapsulating his words.

“Okay,” you managed to get out somehow, despite your brain floating somewhere in the clouds while your body was subject to the manhandling that was driving you crazy. If you were being honest, one part of you was ready to worship the ground he walked on while the other part still couldn’t believe this was happening.

He released his tight grip on you. “Go to my room. I want you naked by the time you’re there,” he ordered, giving you a light push from behind. A moment’s hesitation was broken by the sound of a throat clearing, your hands reaching behind you to unhook your bra as you made your way to Hoseok’s bedroom.

You made sure to sway your hips lightly as you walked, rewarded by an almost inaudible groan. You pushed your skirt and panties off in one go, opting to bend over at the waist rather than crouch down as you removed them. Completely bare and bent over nearing the doorway to Hoseok’s room, you were sure your glistening folds were in full view from behind.

You ached for him to touch you, eagerly making your way into the bedroom before stopping beside the bed.

“Come here,” he commanded gruffly, pushing you down in front of him, his right hand returning to grip at your roots. It was at that moment, on your knees in front of him completely naked while he was fully dressed, you became fully aware of how powerless you were here. You wanted to please him so badly, you would do whatever he wanted and thank him for it.

You reached out a hand towards the fly of his jeans, only to be intercepted by his left hand harshly slapping you away.

“Did I say you could touch me?” he jeered, knuckles tightening in your hair, “hands behind your back.”

You didn’t know Hoseok had it in him to be so demanding when he was typically so sweet to you, but his words and hard gaze had you slowly crossing your arms behind your back, staring up at him with wide eyes.

“I’m going to fuck this mouth, princess,” he taunted, left hand gripping roughly at your jaw, forcing it open. “Your teasing has been driving me fucking insane. Take my cock out.”

You looked up at him in confusion, about to reach out with your hands, but he simply shoved your face into his crotch in impatience. This was so degrading, face hot with embarrassment, but you were loving every second of it. Teeth finally catching the zipper after a few seconds of struggle, you pulled it down slowly. As you bit into the fabric of his jeans to attempt to unbutton them, you glanced up at him to find his eyes already on you. The lust you saw there inspired a new rush of wetness in your core.

Finally, with the crotch of his pants open, you roughly gripped the waist of his underwear with your teeth, harshly pulling down until his cock sprung out to hit you in the face. You opened your mouth, ready to take him in, but your head was tugged away before you could.

“If you need to stop, tap my leg twice, okay?” he said, palming himself.

“Okay,” you whispered, shifting slightly on your knees to make yourself more comfortable. Your affirmation was all he needed to shove his cock in your mouth, already deep enough that you were coughing.

Despite your initial shock, Hoseok’s hiss had you hollowing your cheeks, wanting to drag more and more sounds out of him. With his hand on you pulling you on and off of him, you worked your tongue along whatever length you had access to. Just as you were getting used to his motions, he roughly pulled you toward him as he thrust further with his hips, leaving you gagging. He held you there for a few seconds, and you raised your teary eyes to see his face screwed up in pleasure. The sight was enough to have you moaning around him.

He continued to roughly thrust his cock into your throat, your head held in place. Desperate to hold onto something, you dug your nails into your forearms, grounding you slightly. Shoving himself all the way in again, your nose pressed into his pelvis, you swallowed around his cock. His responding moan was loud and obscene, the sound making you shiver and groan around him.

You must have incited something in him, because if he was rough before, he was absolutely ruthless now. Rapidly shoving himself all the way in thrust after thrust, your tears were now flowing freely, unable to hold back your gags. He groaned loudly at the sight.

“So good for me, princess, so pretty,” he praised, wiping at your tears, “So, so good, god” he cut himself off with his own loud moan, and you keened at his praise.

“You’re so fucking sexy,” he continued, slowing down before removing himself from your mouth with a pop. At the reprieve, you rested your forehead against his abdomen, chest heaving as you tried to catch your breath with a sob.

Hoseok knelt down to meet you, hugging you close and stroking your hair. “You were so good, you took it so well,” he soothed, “I’m gonna take care of you, sweetheart.” He gently picked up your exhausted body, placing you on his bed amongst his pillows.

Still struggling to catch your breath, you didn’t quite register Hoseok in front of you on his knees, spreading your legs, until he begun mouthing his way up your thigh. Looking toward him, the sight you saw was breathtaking – eyes laser focused on your centre, hair messy from your previous antics. Having him so close to where you’ve been neglected snapped your attention back to the fact that you were utterly drenched for this man, desperate to have something inside you.

His focus still not where you needed it most, you whined, pushing your hips up in invitation.

“Shh… I’m gonna take care of you now,” he soothed, the dominant persona dropping momentarily. He didn’t give you much longer to dwell on your need before his mouth was latching onto your clit, sucking mercilessly. The sudden pleasure coursing through you had you choking out a moan, hips bucking up in an attempt to get even closer to the source of your pleasure. Forearm pressed across your abdomen to prevent any further movement, Hoseok’s tongue flicked back and forth across you quicker than your brain could register.

When you felt a single finger suddenly penetrate you fully, you cried out. The rush of relief you were feeling at that moment was like finding the oasis after an endless trek through a desert. Knowing your arousal, the stretch of a second finger came soon after, Hoseok’s tongue never pausing its assault on your clit. Feeling everything all at once after a night of tension and anticipation had you hovering dangerously close to the precipice of orgasm already, and curse Hoseok for knowing that.

His head lifted from you to observe you, and he cursed at the sight. “You’re so beautiful spread out like this, all for me,” he praised, and you clenched at his words. Realizing how much his talking affected you, you caught a grin plastered across his face.

“You look so fucked out already and I haven’t even put my cock in you,” he taunted, and you couldn’t deny that he was probably right. Your bottom lip was starting to hurt from biting down on it, your hair was messy from his hands, tear-tracks were dried to your cheeks, and you knew that meant your mascara likely had you looking like a raccoon.

The addition of a third finger sent you reeling, hips wanting so badly to grind against his hand but unable to move. “You’re so tight around me,” he cooed, fingers scissoring apart before crooking his fingers just right, forcing a moan out of your throat. “If you look like this already, I can’t wait to see what you look like when you cum,” he teased.

You gasped as he snuck in another finger, the stretch burning, but overpowered by the incredible feeling of fullness that came with it. It was all over for you when he bent his fingers once again, rubbing against that spot inside you – you couldn’t even breathe as the orgasm washed over you, riding the waves of pleasure as you dug your fingers into the sheets.

If you thought you would get a reprieve after that, you were wrong. His fingers only continued thrusting, despite your walls relentlessly clenching around him. When you felt his mouth return to your clit, everything was simply too much.

“It hurts, it hurts,” you whined, hips struggling to get away from the sharp ache.

“Baby, I know you can give me one more. Just relax and give into it,” he said sweetly, moving to suck bruises onto your inner thighs instead. One part of you wanted to tell him it’s easy for him to say when almost an entire fist wasn’t in him, but you weren’t even going to try to form the words. Your whole centre felt like it was on fire, the pace of Hoseok’s hand never stopping.

Attempting to follow his advice, you took a deep breath before relaxing your muscles, allowing the sensations to flow through you freely. You didn’t know why you ever doubted him, because god was this the most overwhelming pleasure you’ve ever felt. You choked out a loud moan, the growing bliss slowly overtaking your brain until you didn’t know anything else, mind completely blank. You didn’t realize the hand holding you down was gone until you heard a gruff voice, laced with desire.

“Look at you, fucking yourself on my fingers. You’re so filthy, just take it, princess.” He paused his own actions to let you move on your own accord, your hips moving erratically as you chased your own end. You were dangerously close to the peak when Hoseok pressed the palm of his other hand roughly against your clit for you to rut against. Your orgasm swept you away, voice crying out helplessly as wave after wave of pleasure washed over you. Static crackled in your ears, and you swore you could see white behind your eyelids.

By the time self-awareness returned to you, you were already face down, ass up, the only thing keeping your boneless body in place being Hoseok’s hands. You must have missed the sound of his pants unzipping, because when you felt his cock thrust fully into your aching heat, you screamed.

Everything felt far too much, far too fast. Each thrust of Hoseok’s hips only had you receding further and further into your head, the only thing you knew being his thickness between your walls and the tears streaming down your face.

You were full on sobbing, the sensation of him fucking you relentlessly feeling both like the best thing you’ve ever experienced and the most intense ache.

“Fuck, you feel so fucking good around me, princess,” he said coarsely, thrusts not slowing down for even a second. He growled loudly, arms wrapping around your waist to pull your ass higher. You were completely powerless, only able to let out strangled cries and choked sobs as Hoseok took his pleasure from you. When he paused to grind against you, length fully seated within you, you cried out weakly.

“It’s too – too much, I can’t,” you managed to slur out, body limp, your face pressed into a pillow. In response, Hoseok grabbed hold of your throat, pulling your face out and into the open for him to see.

“Baby,” he cooed, sounding disappointed, “you can do just one more for me, can’t you, princess?” he demanded, continuing to thrust as he held up your head, squeezing lightly around your neck.

“You’re such a fucking mess, aren’t you? You say you can’t take more but your cunt squeezing around me says otherwise,” he grunted, not letting up on you whatsoever. His nasty words and wild thrusts left you whimpering, head lolling forward as you simply lacked the strength to hold it up.

“My little kitten’s gonna cum, isn’t she? You feel so fucking tight, are you gonna cream my cock, princess?” You could feel your walls clenching around him, your eyes open but seeing nothing as you could only let out small whines. When he reached between your legs to rub at your clit, you could only gape soundlessly as you were pushed over the edge, body wracked with sobs as you pulsed around him. When he continued his thrusts, you thought you were going to break.

“Please – I can’t, Hobi I can’t,” you babbled, uncaring about whether he could actually understand your words. Chest heaving, you were barely present when you felt Hoseok removing himself from you, moaning loudly before you heard a choked “fuck” accompanied by the sensation of wetness on your back.

When you felt the warm body pull away from you, you collapsed into the sheets, chest heaving, hardly registering the returning footsteps and the warm, wet cloth wiping down your face, back, and between your legs. You didn’t even open your eyes when you felt yourself being pulled into Hoseok’s lap, hand cradling your head against his chest.

“Y/N, still with me?” he asked softly, nails scratching softly at your scalp. You could only hum in response, throat too raw and body too weak to do anything more. “Will you drink some water for me?” he continued upon hearing your weak affirmation.

Despite how heavy you felt, water sounded really good right now. You tilted your head back just enough to meet his gaze, finding him smiling gently down at you, affection in his eyes. He held a water bottle up to your lips, urging you to drink.

Once you’d had your fill, you nuzzled your face back into Hoseok’s chest, grounding yourself in the musky scent of his cologne. It was at that moment you realized the coarseness of the material touching you.

“Hobi,” you whined, sticking your hands up his shirt to feel his skin.

“What is it, princess?” he responded kindly.

“You still have clothes on,” you pouted up at him, “Take it off,” you demanded as menacingly as you could in your current situation – probably not very threatening.

He giggled lightly at your command, quickly pulling away to shuck away his shirt, jeans following. Once he was as bare as you, he tugged you down to lay on top of him, head resting on his chest as his hand traced patterns on your back. The sound of his heartbeat in your ear and his soft hands brought you fully into the present, aware of the state of your body and just how sore you were between your legs.

“Hobi,” you whined again, looking up to meet his warm gaze. You were met with a soft hum that rumbled in his chest before you continued, “you killed me.”

The laugh he gave you then was fuller than before, the sound inviting a small smile onto your face. “I’m sorry, princess. You know I love you, right?” The phrase was no different than what he would tell you any other day, but this time you knew the underlying emotion was something different. You squeezed your arms around his waist, hiding your face in his neck.

Maybe you were too embarrassed to say it back, but he knew how you felt, clear as day. You’ve always been an open book to him, knowing when you were in need of a hug or simply an ear.

“Lunch tomorrow?” he asked quietly, brushing your hair away from your face. You lifted your head to meet his eyes when you smiled at him. You hoped for this to be the first of many outings together as more than just best friends.

“Lunch sounds good.”

[anotheronechicagobog]

Jay Halstead x Reader

The Return

Written by @anotheronechicagobog

Warnings: swearing, pregnancy, birth, medical jargon that may not be accurate, Erin Lindsay bashing

Meeting detective Hailey Upton had been more nerve wracking than meeting Jay’s brother Will. He and Hailey were just closer, they had the same job, saw the same things, and had an irreplaceable trusting bond. You never, at any point felt threatened or worried by her presence or relationship with Jay. It was because of their bond that you were nervous, it was important for her to give you the stamp of approval.

You’d all met up at a nice family owned Italian restaurant. You’d all talked about movies, the blackhawks, and food before finally coming to a crucial topic; work. You were an OR nurse at MED while putting yourself through med school, you’d seen and operated on enough cops to know what you were getting into. It could happen at any point, it could easily go south, and you would not be alone in the waiting room if it happened. Miraculously you passed with flying colours, becoming good friends with her.

After that you met the rest of the team when they all went to Adam and Kim’s place to watch the cubs game. Kim was glowing, pregnancy going well aside from her vicious morning sickness, and she took to liking you as well when you made sure she got to eat first. Adam, Kevin, and yourself bonded over your love of puns and bad jokes. Vanessa and Antonio started speaking in rapid Spanish with you, creating a quick and lovable bond. Hank just shook your hand and nodded at you, you weren’t sure what that meant but Antonio assured you it was a good thing.

——————————————————

You were putting the finishing touches on your ensemble for the CPD Chief’s gala when Jay appeared behind you. “Hey hon, are you ready to- holy fuck you’re gorgeous.”

“Thank you Jay. You look handsome.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

——————————————————-

You made your way to Vanessa who was talking with Kevin with a distressed look on her face. “Hey! What’s wrong? We’re at a party with an open bar, what’s with the long face?”

“Uh....... Nothing? You know what, let’s find Hailey. And bug her about Dr Bekker.” You already suspected something was off but knew for sure when you felt Jay go completely rigid. “Jay?” You’d turned to look at him and he was completely pale, looking like he was seeing a nightmare. You followed his eyes to a gorgeous woman standing next to Hank and arguing with Kim in a sleek black dress. “What is she doing here? Why is she here?”

“Who? Who is she Jay?” Kevin and Adam came up to try and support Jay, move him into a chair. The lost and betrayed look in his eyes made it all click in place for you. “Erin.” It was as if she heard you from across the room, she turned and looked at Jay before meeting your eyes with a guarded look.

————————————

You were all seated at the same table and it was fucking awkward. Jay had his arm or hand on or around you the whole time. Erin was clenching her jaw and looked like there should’ve been steam coming out of her ears. Food was served and speeches were made and it was clear that Erin was still unhappy. Despite the fact that she was seated across from him, Jay refused to look her in the eye. It wasn’t nerves, those had worn off, he was pissed. And rightfully so. Voight invited her as his plus one. He didn’t tell anybody, didn’t warn anybody. Everyone was exchanging funny stories, barring Jay, Erin, and Voight. Jay wasn’t opening his mouth except to eat, Voight was glared into silence, and Erin was always cut off by Kim or Hailey.

“So, Y/N/N, any funny patient stories for us?” Erin perked up at Adam’s question. “Oh, you’re a doctor?”

“No, I’m an OR nurse at Chicago med.”

“Hmph. Not smart enough to be a doctor, then?”

“I just couldn’t afford medical school at the time I went to university. I managed to save up enough and get enough scholarship money to start medical school and stuff a few years ago. So now I’m working part time in the OR and I finish medical school this year. As long as I do well, I’ll get a placement for my residency in three months.”

“Oh.”

“So, to answer Adam’s question, last week we had to surgically remove a brand-new toilet brush that a man had shoved so far up his own anus, that it looked like he had a bunny tail.” Kevin choked on his water for a moment before spitting it out all over the centrepiece flowers. “Hahaha, oh my god! Are you serious?!”

“Unfortunately.”

Erin’s bitter voice broke through the hyena-like laughter of the rest of the table. “Saying the word ‘anus’ is a bit uncouth don’t you think?” Kim stared at her, regarding her in disbelief as she mouthed the word ‘uncouth’.

“Not particularly, no, considering it is the medical term for that part of the body and part of the name of a planet.” You shrugged her comment and mood off. It was pretty damn clear why she was behaving like a bratty spoiled child, and it said a lot more about her than it did about you. Besides, it felt like it would be a complete waste of energy to entertain her need for a verbal martial arts battle. She just wasn’t worth it.

“She’s got a point, besides Lindsay, if you make what she says dirty that’s really on you and not her.” Jay shrugged and kiss the top of your forehead.

———————————————

You were encompassed in the warmth of Jay. Low jazz was playing through the speakers as the two of you swayed softly, your head on his chest soothed by his steady heartbeat. At some point Jay had started to hum along to the music and you felt all the stress and anxiety buried deep inside of you just melt away. Nothing but you and the man you love existed. You were in your own glowing golden bubble of warmth and love.

You moved your head up and kissed him on the side of the mouth, humming along with him. He spun you around, tugging a joyous laugh from you throat before tugging you back and leaning his forehead against yours. You wrapped your arms around the back of his neck, his around your lower back. Your noses moved around one another as your dancing slowed to a stop. It didn’t matter that you lived together, or that you’d been dating for four years, your heart was beating faster than it had the first time you kissed Jay. Suddenly your bubble had burst, you screamed and jumped away from Jay when you felt cold and wet all over your exposed back. The warmth was gone, replaced by a pitcher of ice and water that had been dumped on you courtesy of one Erin Lindsay.

———————————————

The floral smelling bath bomb you’d decided to finally use was just the thing to treat yourself to after your boyfriend’s ex decided to dump ice water on you at a public and major gala right before being called into an emergency at work. While your boyfriend had jumped into action, moving you towards the bathroom to dry up and offering his coat, your newly-made friends jumped to help you and defend you. A very angry and very pregnant Kim escorted you to her car with her husband while Voight made Jay and Erin ‘have a talk’. The only person who didn’t scowl at that news was Erin. Adam kept looking at you and asking if you were okay in the rear view mirror. “Adam, I’m okay. Annoyed, fuck yes, but I’m okay. And I know Jay will be too. I’m not worried.”

“You’re not? Even with their history?”

“No, I’m not worried. We talked about her when we started getting serious actually. She was an incredibly important person in his life, and she turned into a very vicious skeleton in the closet. I’ve got my own skeletons, too, everyone does. I know that he was hurt. Little shocked when he saw her at first, but Jay didn’t talk about everything that happened with her in depth with anyone but me. So I know what’s going on in his head, and I have a pretty good idea of what he’s going to say to her.”

You’d only been home (and dry) for half an hour before you got an ‘all hands on deck’ page from MED. Hastily pulling yourself together and running the three blocks between your apartment and the hospital. There had been a collision which caused several others, leading you to the OR for back to back surgeries for a total of fifteen hours. You’d been dismissed with the promise of forty eight hours off and an impressed nod from your boss.

You’d missed Jay because he’d had to go into work but smiled at the loving note he’d left on the fridge, along with a container of your favourite take out. Your heart absolutely soared at the thought of him.

Stepping out of the tub you patted yourself dry and dressed in soft shorts and sweater. Padding down to the kitchen, excitement at the thought of food bubbling up. The smell of your favourite take out wafted out of the container as you moved it onto a plate. Exhaustion was creeping up and taking hold of you as you shovelled food into your mouth. You welcomed the exhaustion and went to bed, leaving your dirty plate in the kitchen, something you wouldn’t normally do.

———————————————

When Jay returned to your shared apartment well into the evening you could tell that he was worn out. “Tough case?”

“No, actually. It was pretty straight forward, it’s just that Erin kept trying to call me. Since we were in the middle of a case Voight wouldn’t let her up but she kept calling me and Voight kept giving me these looks... I’m just glad that the case is shut, the day is over, and that I got to come home to you.” He gave you a peck on the lips, you could feel the soft smile that he had. “Dinner’s almost ready, would you mind setting the table?”

“Not at all.” You sat across from him at the small table pushed to the side of your kitchen, really looking at him. He looked tired, weighed down, but the tension gripping his body did seem to be lessening the more he was home, the more he ate, and the more he spoke. His eyes were light and happy, truthfully he looked a bit like a puppy. “I have time off tomorrow. Would you want to head up to the cabin?”

“Just for the day?”

“I know that it would be a lot of driving just for a day trip, but yeah.”

“Just to get out of the city for a bit?”

“Exactly.”

“You know it’s not that late, if we left now we could be there in a couple of hours, pick up some groceries on the way, we won’t need much. Wake up there, drive back in the evening.”

“Have I ever told you how much I love you?”

“On a regular basis. And I love you too, so, so much.”

“How about you pack the necessities and I’ll clean up the kitchen?”

—————————————————-

You and Jay were on the road in forty minutes, just leaving Chicago as dusk started to dissolve into night. Jay’s secret country playlist was winding its was out of the speakers, the silence between the two of you was peaceful. The cooler bag filled with quick meals and leftovers Jay whipped together, removing the need for a grocery store. The coolness of the night encompassed you both, and the further you got from Chicago the heavier your eyelids got. A deep chuckle left your boyfriends throat. “Get some sleep, I’ll wake you up when we get there.”

——————————————

Jay Halstead was a dirty liar. He didn’t wake you up when he got to the cabin, instead he went in ahead to put the power and water on, put away the food, changed the sheets, dusted quickly, and then carried you in and put you in bed. And when you woke up and realized what he did, he even put on your pajamas for you, all he could do was kiss your nose and tell you how adorable you were when you pouted. Leftover stir fry was breakfast for the both of you. You were miffed that he did everything alone last night, and in the back of your mind you knew it was because he felt guilty about Erin showing up, but you couldn’t be mad at him. Not when he’d made your favourite food while you were packing last night. “Are you wanting to fish at all today or just swim?”

“Just swim around, we’ve missed the part of the morning that’s best for fishing and honestly I’m not really in the mood for it, unless you want to fish. I can take the boat over to the marina and pick up some bait if you want.”

“I’m okay for today too, Jay. But I think it would be nice to take the boat over to the marina and get ice cream before we leave.”

“Ooh, yes. I’ll go check to see how much fuel we have for the boat.”

“Okay, I’ll meet you out on the dock in a minute, I’m just gonna deal with the dishes.”

“That’s a funny expression, ‘deal with the dishes’ you sound like your going to ground them for throwing a baseball through a window or something.”

“Haha, I guess it does.”

——————————————

The bottom of the lake was brown, a result of the rocky bottom, but it didn’t matter that it didn’t look like the perfect insta post. It was fresh, and clean, and stunning, even with the mosquitos the size of a dog. And that’s how the morning was spent, swimming around the lake and laughing, enjoying the lighter air and the refreshing feeling from swimming around underwater amongst the algae and skittish fish. Carefree joy was a good look on Jay. The image of him throwing his head back as he tread water with the lake glistening around him, the sun enhancing the beauty of all the trees, plants, and cabin on the shore far back behind him as birds called out to each other was one that captivated you. “What?” His shoulders were sagging back to their regular position and Jay tilted his head slightly at you. You swam a few strokes closer and kissed him. As deeply as you could while both of you were treading water in the middle of a lake. Your legs kicked each other’s as you worked to stay afloat without your arms. You gripped onto each other, just reveling in the love you both shared. It didn’t last long unfortunately, because neither of you could tread water entangled in another persons limbs and without your arms. “Have I told you how much I love you?”

“On a regular basis. And I love you too. So, so much.”

——————————

Lunch had been absolutely delicious. What could be better than your favourite food, with your favourite person, in your favourite vacation spot, after a breathtaking kiss in the middle of a lake? Absolutely nothing. That’s what. What made the day even better was Jay taking you both over to the marina in the boat to get locally made ice cream. “Halstead, it’s good to see you again.”

“You too, Martin.”

“And who’s the lady you’ve brought with you?”

“This is Y/N, my girlfriend. How have you been? I didn’t see you the last couple of times i was here.”

“I was retired in Florida. Didn’t like the heat though, so I came back. I’m living in the old O’Reilly property, they needed something bigger cause it’s only one bedroom, but it’s perfect for a retiree like me.”

“So you’re back to micromanaging Josie?”

“No, she’s run this place better than I ever did, it’s in the best possible hands. What are you guys here for? It’s too late in the day for bait.”

“Ice cream, we’re driving back to Chicago tonight cause we both have to work tomorrow.”

“Shame, how long have you guys been up here for?”

“Oh, just today, we drove up last night. Just needed a break from the city, you know?”

“I do. Well I don’t want to keep the two of you from ice cream, but you’ll have to give me a holler the next time you or Will are up here, we’ll have dinner or something.”

”Definitely. I'll see you around.”

”And you should come too, Y/N, I have plenty of stories about your boy from when he was wee.”

”Oh, well, I would not miss that for anything.”

”What? No, come on, you don't want to listen to embarrassing stories about me.”

”I really, really do.”

”They have mint chip.”

”One day, I will hear those stories. One day.”

”I like you already, Y/N.”

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

You were a little sad to leave the cabin, even though you'd only really been there for 24 hours. It had been a nice escape of reality, and Josie had been more teasing than her father. As you packed the rest of the bags in the car, there had only been three in total, really, you let out a bit of a sigh. The crickets we're playing a concert and the dreaded mosquito dogs had come out to hunt, but the aura was something you'd miss, even though you and Jay could come back.

The car ride back was filled with soft rock this time, and you felt yourself mouthing along to the songs.

---–--------------–

You were both a bit groggy the next day but it wasn't anything either of you couldn't handle. You arrived to your shift relaxed and we'll rested. ”Good morning Y/L/N. You look well rested, I take it the 48 treated you and Jay well?”

”Yeah, it did.” Your bubbly mood was it short though, when Dr. Bekker stormed into the prep room, clearly angry. “Well I should hope so, considering the rest of us had to pay for it.”

“What? There are other OR nurses, and I didn’t think either of you were scheduled for that time either.”

“No, it we did go to Molly’s. And do you know who else went to Molly’s?”

“Ava-“

“Erin Lindsay.”

“Oh no.”

“Damn right. She spent hours pulling on people’s arms and shouting about how you’re a whore-“

“Excuse me?!”

“Ava, really-“

“Okay!” She stopped her ranting for a moment. She leaned on the metal basin, completely ignore the suds on her arms and that she’d have to wash them again. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t speak to you like that. It not your fault and you’re not a whore, no woman is. I just- it was the first time Hailey and I have been to Molly’s together since we started dating and your boyfriend’s cow of an ex had to ruin it.”

“I’m sorry, Ava. I- it’s not my place to handle her or anything. She’s not my ex.”

“No, but she is Jay’s, and the reason she was unhappy at Molly’s is because Jay apparently told her that they’re never getting back together.”

“Yeah, she was screaming at everyone, mostly intelligence that Jay had to still love her and all that. She got pretty hammered, Voight had to be called in to take her home.”

“What do you think- they just rolled the patient in, time to get in there and repair his left ventricle.”

———————————————

Your day was long and so was Jay’s so you decided to eat out, at a great Thai place Jay had introduced you to. “Erin wants me to move to New York to be with her, I don’t want to and I’m not going to, I just figured I should let you know.”

“Okay... I have to be honest Jay, I don’t know what to make of any of this.”

“Erin just got out of a bad relationship and I guess she remembered the good times we had together, and forgot that we had more bad times. It was both of our faults really. We both lied, and omitted, and kept things from each other. Our relationship wasn’t healthy, and it took me a long time and therapy to realize that. I don’t have anything against her and I wish her well, but I don’t feel the need to have her as a significant person in my life anymore, or be one in hers. I think that our story ended four years ago and that she’s just in a bad place right now, like I was when I dated Camila.”

“Okay. That doesn’t make her behaviour okay-“

“Oh absolutely not-“

“But I get it. I’ve been in that place too, so I get it.”

——————————————

Erin wasn’t as ready to let go of the subject as Jay, apparently. Voight remained quiet on the subject, something that infuriated you because he brought Erin back into everyone’s lives with no notice and no concern for their well being. Kim was still mad, so angry that she had banned Erin from meeting her newborn baby. “I deliberately never said a word about you to her all this time bec- ahhhhhhhhh.”

“Okay, Kim, I get it. You were a good friend and didn’t tell her anything about my life since she left because you knew I wouldn’t want her to know, it seriously, please stop focusing on an unnecessary apology to me when you should be focused on breathing until we get to the hospital.”

“Adam will meet us there?”

“Yes.”

“You promise you’re not ma-aaaaaaaaaaaaadddddd!!!”

“I promise, you never did anything wrong. Okay we’re here.”

“I can’t believe you’re having a baby with ruzek. He’s kindof annoying-“

“KEV! Let’s focus on getting Kim out of my truck and into the hospital so that she can have her baby in a sterilized environment, okay?”

“Right, let’s go girl.”

Kim hadn’t needed to worry about epidural as it turned out, the baby went into distress almost immediately after she passed through MED’s doors, causing her to go into distress, and resulting in her needing an emergency C-section. You weren’t part of the OR team for that surgery because of how close you were, it you knew everyone who was and knew she was in good hands. You had been put in charge of giving the anxious police officers updates.

“They just finished the surgery, it went amazing. Kim’s in recovery and they baby’s getting checked out as we speak. And, Adam didn’t faint. He did very well, actually cut the cord.” Grumbles filled the waiting room as money was passed to Hailey. “Come on guys, you really had that little faith in him?”

“No one will be able to see Kim or the baby until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest, but it might be longer. They both need time to recover.”

A few days later the waiting room was once again filled with police officers, this time some of their relatives were in attendance. You sat beside Jay, in regular clothes this time, waiting to be given the all clear to visit. You two were called over with Hailey and Ava, clutching a homemade blanket for the baby and a homemade meal for the parents. They were immensely grateful, Kim especially since she’d just been told that she could go back to non-hospital food. You were sitting on the recliner cradling baby Eliza, who was cooing in your arms when there were shouts and crashes in the hall. Everyone turned towards the door. The cops who hadn’t given birth less than a week ago, Hailey, Jay, and Adam, went into tactical mode, Kim stopped eating and took Eliza back, Ava grabbed the hospital phone to figure out what was going on, and you stood in between Kim and the door as the three cops made their way slowly into the hall. You’d locked the door after they left, peeking out of the small window. “I don’t see anything.”

“Erin.” You turned towards Kim, who just looked tired. “I talked to hospital security when she first got here, said that I didn’t want her to be able to see me. Or the baby. I just... I don’t trust her anymore. I spoke to her the day before she flew down here, I actually asked if she was ever coming back to visit. She said ‘no’. And then she just showed up at the gala... I feel pretty betrayed by her, honestly. She never initiates contact. Ever, it always falls on me. She’s spent years trying to get me to say something about Jay every once in a while, but I’ve always just said that she left him, you know? She left and didn’t say good bye or call or text so she doesn’t have any right to know anything about him now. And she’s been acting like a spoiled brat, you know she’s used the excuse of hanging out with me to try and get information about you and your relationship. I don’t feel like I’m her friend anymore. I feel like I’m her tool. And I just had a baby, a tiny human who relies on me, I don’t have time for toxic friends who make me feel like that. So I told her not to come and for security not to let her in.”

“Do you feel a bit better now that you’ve said all that out loud and to someone who isn’t Adam?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“Okay, well, if you don’t want to see her, you don’t have to. Don’t worry.”

“Thanks.”

——————————————-

Erin had burned pretty much every bridge she had in Chicago in the two weeks she was there. She lost a lot of people’s respect after the incident in the hospital. When it became clear that some of her once closest friends were done with her, people felt it was okay to voice their grievances. After being shunned at 51, MED, 21, Molly’s, and her mother’s house, she showed up at your and jay’s apartment. A last ditch attempt at... Something.

“Please Jay, I love you.”

“No Erin, you don’t. You haven’t even seen me in four years. You’re just in a bad place right now. Go back to New York, okay? Your life is there now.”

She’d been in tears when she left, ugly crying, her face blotchy and make up running, as horrifying sounds ripped out of her throat. Jay just looked sad as he called Voight to pick her up.

———————————————

TWO WEEKS LATER

You were in stitches beside Jay, trying to breathe while laughing so hard. “Seriously?!”

“Hey, I was seven!”

“And I was five! Just listening to my idiot older brother!”

“We couldn’t believe it, the two Halstead boys running across the marina docks completely naked, and covered in blue paint!”

“Hey, I thought it was funny, and I ended up a doctor Jay, and I’ve stitched you up a few times, I’m not so much of an idiot, huh? Nat, c’mon, it’s not that funny.”

“Yes it is!”

“Y/N.”

“What? It is!” Another round of laughter peeled out from you, Natalie, Owen, and Martin’s daughter Josie as Martin continued to make gestures. “It took us a good minute to round them up. Me and Miriam, mind you, Pat just sat in the boat. Your mom was laughing so hard by the time we caught you both.”

“Please tell us more stories, Martin. That was REALLY funny.”

“Owen! You want to hear more embarrassing stories about me?”

“They’re funny!”

“Alright, well you heard the little man, Martin, more stories.” Will and Jay sighed, tried to relax, and resigned themselves to their fate. Their girlfriends and surrogate son/nephew were going to hear every single embarrassing story that Martin had. Which was a lot considering he was their father’s childhood best friend, had spent most of their summers around him, and he had a memory like a steel trap. “Don’t worry Jay, I’ll still love you after this, I promise.”

[giorno-plays-piano]

Sinking under Part 2

Pairing: detective!Steve x Reader Warnings: yandere, stalking, death of minor character, allusion to non-con, swearing, brief mention of suicidal thoughts. Words: 1931. Summary: You are suspected of a murder you did not commit. Steve Rogers, a detective employed by the mother of a victim, makes your life even more pitiful than it already is. Part 1 P.S. A big shout-out to awesome @tansypoisoning​ who helped me a lot with this part! If not her, I think I’d never write this :D Sending you lots of love! _____________________________________  You were shaking like a leaf, your hands trembling so badly you couldn’t hold your phone, and Steve quickly put it in the pocket of his formal black pants. He was hugging you close, your head on his chest again like when you had encountered him in a supermarket half a year ago. You were leaving the courtroom. You were not the defendant. You were asked to participate in the trial as a witness.

“You’re a fucking slut!” A woman’s high-pitched voice almost made you deaf. “I KNOW IT WAS YOU! IT WAS YOU! YOU! I’LL SUE YOU, YOU LITTLE BITCH!”

Steve fastened his pace, and the two of you were pretty much running away to the exit, rushing before the crowd would come out of the room. The murderer had been found, and they proved he was guilty for your neighbor’s death, not you. It took them long six months before the judge stated that the best friend of the victim was found guilty as there was more than enough evidence to support his charge. 

Six months. Six months of constant fear for your own life, barely moving outside of your house, being scared to touch your phone to see hate messages from the family of that dead bastard, taking more pills than you had your entire life. Six months of being continuously bullied and followed around. You could hardly count how many times you wanted to jump off the bridge or take too many pills at once.

“It’s alright, it’s alright, darling.” Steve easily pushed through the line of reporters with their microphones, recorders, and cameras. “We’re close, hold on to me.”

All other voices blended into incomprehensible noise: people asking you thousands of questions, someone still yelling from the back, and policemen demanding everyone to keep out the way. You saw nothing, moving fast with Steve to his car. He was your shield; the one who kept protecting you at all costs.

When he found out about hate mails, he simply took your SIM card and gave you a new one with just his name in the list of contacts. When he saw his own employer coming over to your house to harass you with her accusations, he found a cheap apartment in the outskirts of the town and helped you to relocate fast. Steve had been helping with the investigation, tracking every other suspect down and telling you every significant detail he wanted you to know. He followed you too, of course, to pretend he was doing his job and avoid any suspicion. No one needed to know the nature of your relationship.

What was it, anyway? First couple of months it was hard to tell. You felt like he was simply using you to satisfy his own needs, though Steve was a considerate lover to an extent. He could fuck you literally anywhere, including the back of his own car. He enjoyed making a mess out of you, your makeup smeared and hair wild, and sometimes it was either driving you mad or making you frightened. But then he was really great at aftercare, getting very affectionate. He could help you to wipe your face and adjust your clothes carefully, and if you were home he would bring you to the shower and wash your hair so tenderly it could make you cry.

Nonetheless, it felt rather strange he was ready to trade sex for protecting you from the accusations of his employer. You couldn’t understand why he went through all this hassle just for a chance to fuck some girl. With his angelic appearance women would probably line up to get into his bed.

You had finally landed on the car seat, Steve on your left already turned on the engine and moved before you were approached by a few reporters who kept following you.

“You’re safe.” He said softly, turning his head to you and curling his lips in a heartwarming smile. “We’ve won, baby. Fuck all these scumbags, we’re done with this shit.”

You burst into tears with your hands still trembling, and Steve reached out to grab your palm. Forcing yourself to smile back at him, you wiped your face with your other hand. You were lucky he was with you.

“T-thank you, Steve.” You murmured quietly as if you still couldn’t believe it’s over. “Thank for everything you’ve done for me.”

“Come on, darling. I only did what I thought was right.” His smile grew wider at your appreciation of his efforts, and he rubbed your hand. “You can’t imagine how happy I am we’re through this goddamn investigation. It calls for a celebration, don’t you think? I want some champagne and oysters.”

You laughed through tears, shaking your head. Steve had one quality you were always jealous of – he was optimistic. Even at the worst times, he was able to keep his head high and pull himself together. Then he helped you to get through with your issues too. Of course, he demanded to listen to him, to follow the rules he set for you – don’t mess with other men, don’t go where I can’t follow, don’t speak to police unless I instruct you to, don’t leave without telling me first – but it was a small price to pay for the protection he offered.

“Now we don’t have to hide anymore.” Steve turned the car, and you saw he was bringing you to his house. Naturally, celebrating there would be better than in your half-empty apartment since Steve’s place was more comfortable and cozier.

“Do you mean I can finally return to my house?” You thought of the grass on your backyard that probably grew higher than your pretty red fence.

“What?” He sounded surprised. “Why would you want to come back there, right next to the house where that piece of shit died?”

“I can’t keep living in the apartment. I’m very thankful to you, it really became my hideout, but I have my own place.”

“No, baby, come on. Friends of that guy still live in the neighborhood. I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.” He brought your hand to his face and left a tender kiss on your knuckles, bringing you to tears again. “You can live with me now before I find a better place for us somewhere else.”

You gaped at him openly and heard your heart pounding in your head. Did he just offered you to live together with him? Was he so scared those men would hurt you for real? Or did it had to do something with your relationship? Wait, no, it couldn’t be. Maybe Steve liked to cuddle and spent some evenings together as if he pretended to be your boyfriend, but you never took it seriously. There was no reason to.

“You mean… you want to live together? Like a couple?”

“Well, yeah?” He flashed his beautiful smile, and you held your breath. “We can start like a couple if you need more time.”

What’s that suppose to mean?

“Steve, I don’t understand anything.” You told him honestly.

“We don’t have to pretend like we’re strangers, darling, since that old bitch can’t do anything anymore. Honestly, I’m tired of dating secretly, aren’t you too? All this precautions, living in different places so that no one knew, hiding from the windows. It was exhausting.”

Although you could agree it was really unnerving, you still didn’t understand why he called it a secret dating. Wasn’t it just… sex?

“Now we can take our relationship to the next level.” Steve was delighted, a bit too exited maybe, and then whistled, turning the car again – you were already in his neighborhood.

You couldn’t bring yourself to say anything and just kept staring at the man, taken aback by his words. Apparently, you had been missing something very important all these months. But you could swear you had never talked about anything like that before. You didn’t even remember discussing your feelings for each other much.

Obviously, Steve wasn’t happy with your silence, peeping into your absent eyes. He frowned with annoyance: usually you were much more responsive than now, always listening to what he had said.

“What is it, baby?” He asked you, his voice tight. “Don’t you want it?”

You awakened from your stupor and grasped the fabric of your dark blue skirt.

“No, it’s not that… it’s just…” You mumbled, unsure of what to say and feeling a bit scared of his displeasure with you. “We just never talked about it. I thought… I thought you didn’t want t-to be romantically involved.”

Steve blinked at your sudden confession. It took him a moment to put his thoughts together, and he rubbed his forehead with his thumb several times. Meanwhile, you remembered all those times when he brought you nice food and wine, watched movies with you, combed your hair because he really liked how pretty it looked, and made you a shoulder massage when you were too tired. He bought your meds and always took care of your mental health the best way he could. Even if you had never talked about love, do fuck buddies normally do things like that? You were not so sure anymore.

“Damn, I get it.” For some reason he laughed, shaking his head. “I didn’t say it properly to you. You’re right, it’s completely my fault. I took it for granted that you saw me as I saw you, but I’ve never verbally admitted what I wanted from this relationship. I’m sorry, darling. Please, let me do it properly this time.”

You nodded, still feeling uncertain about all this. It felt a bit unreal at best.

“I love you.” He said with a grin and placed his hand on yours again. “You’re my precious little girl, and I want you to be with me. I want to keep you safe. I want you to stay close, so I would be able to protect you.”

You didn’t know why you cried, but your pathetic whimpering made Steve look at you with awe and admiration, his other hand gently caressing your wet face. He unclasped his seatbelt and moved closer to you, kissing your forehead. It only made you cry harder.

“It’ll be alright, baby. I know you’ve been through a lot this half a year. I’ll keep helping you, ok?” He shushed you gently, your phone still in the pocket of his black pants.

“Ok.” You managed to utter between your sobs.

“That’s it, darling.” Watching you with adoration, he took a wet wipe from the box in a car seat pocket and gently rubbed your face with it. “Everything gonna be alright. When you move in with me, I’ll take care of those guys, the friends of your neighbor, and you’ll be safe. But before that, promise you’re gonna listen to me, alright?”

You nodded once again, and Steve carefully wiped the tears streaming down your cheeks.

“You’re so good for me, baby. I’ll take care of you, I promise. Just keep following the same rules we had before I deal with all those fuckheads, and nothing bad gonna happen, believe me.” He was gently rubbing your face with the wet wipe and taking off your smeared makeup, occasionally kissing your face. You kept nodding at him, not even listening to his words properly and trembling again like after leaving the courtroom when your neighbor’s mother shouted behind your back.

It was over. The trial was closed, and you were ought to be safe. But why, why did it feel like nothing had changed?

[supremeuppityone]

This was created for the Klaroline Fall Bingo Event @klarolinefallbingo. It’s a sequel to Chapter 119 - Part 2 - What Makes Up a Monster, in my series, A Beautiful Symmetry. 

Part 3 is here.

Warning: Some angst

Prompt: Fake blood

Please review here.

                                ______________________________

           Why did she do this to herself? Caroline stabbed the makeup brush into the foundation palette a bit harder than necessary, watching a couple of the extras giggle and fawn all over Klaus. Despite his worldwide fame and countless industry accolades, he’d somehow remained the same generous, down-to-earth man he’d been when she first met him two decades ago. Not that he’d remember her. She’d made sure of that.

           One of her fangs dug into the tip of her tongue, pricking it just enough to sate her monster. Monsters shouldn’t have regrets. What they’d had together should’ve been a brief fling, but instead feelings happened, and she ended up compelling him to forget. It had been for the best — he was close with his siblings and he desperately wanted to be famous — that combination spelled disaster for her kind.

           But Caroline couldn’t stay away. Almost as though she was doing penance, every few years, she’d find her way onto the makeup team for one of his movies, feeling the need to check up on him. However, she hid behind a wall of cheerful professionalism, making sure not to let him get close again. Her heart could only take so much.

           “My apologies, sweetheart.”

           Klaus’ accented voice was a buttery warmth that flowed over her. Straightening her spine, she replied dryly, “It’s such a pity to have to drag the Great Klaus Mikaelson away from his fan club so that he can do his actual job.”

           “Might want to mind that sharp tongue of yours, love; when you get a bit older, you’ll find that youth and beauty only get you so far in this business.”

           Arrogant little bastard. Tucking back a grin at Klaus’ assumption that he was older than her, Caroline tightened the collar of his protective cape a bit more than strictly necessary. “Sharp tongues have their uses,” she muttered, carefully reapplying the coagulated blood gel to the prosthetic gash she’d crafted along his cheek and neck. “You’d be surprised how many movie sets this sharp tongue has talked me onto.”

           That smirk of his deepened, dimples cutting into his cheeks. Fake blood had never looked so good. “Perhaps you’re a secret fan of mine? Consider me flattered.”

           “I’ve caught a couple of your movies.” No need for him to know she’d been the lead special effects artist on the set of the highly acclaimed paranormal drama, Ghostly Secrets. And the blockbuster sci-fi movie, The Price of Ambition. Or a handful of others where she’d purposely managed the other makeup artists to avoid him becoming too familiar with her face over the years. Fuck, that was pathetic.

           He seemed charmed by her terse tone, chuckling as he replied, “I have to admit, I’ve had a good run in this town, but lately everything just feels so predictable. A table at Pearl’s, drinks at Boarding House — the days all run together.” Klaus frowned, leaning forward as he became more invested in what he was saying. “And you should see the scripts my agent’s been sending me. Bloody awful drivel that’s even lazier than my old Hell’s Hybrid movies.”

           Caroline’s blue eyes widened, and she hated the way her sluggish heart suddenly began to pick up its pace. It’s just words. It doesn’t mean anything. “Then quit. You’ve probably made enough to last you several lifetimes.”

           “But what if I want to live more than several lifetimes?”

           His cheeky question made her hand tremble, and she accidentally nicked underneath his chin while carefully trimming the loose edge of his prosthetic. Damn it. She quickly sliced her finger, dabbing a tiny bit of blood in the wound so that it would heal instantly. “Not sure the planet could take the weight of your ego for so long,” she teased, doing her best to strangle the hopeful butterflies that fluttered inside.

           “You wound me, sweetheart.” His tone turned speculative as he added, “I suspect my younger brother would’ve enjoyed you.”

           Caroline busied herself applying a thin layer of adhesive to the smaller prosthetics, unsure of what to say. A few years ago, Kol’s death had made global headlines when he died in the plane crash that also took their sister. Her heart had ached for Klaus, but she stayed away, knowing that if she saw him grieving, she’d compel him to remember her just so she could comfort him. She couldn’t be selfish with him.

           She’d been proud of the way he’d grown from the tragedy, taking the time he needed to grieve, before returning to the spotlight. There was a quiet strength to him now, a matter-of-fact confidence that had been lacking when they first met. “Your family would be proud of you,” she murmured, briefly squeezing his shoulder so she wouldn’t do something stupid like give him an awkward, way-too-familiar hug.

           “Thank you.” Klaus paused, gray eyes regarding her in a way that made her wonder what he saw. “You’re very easy to talk to — maybe we could have a drink after we wrap for the day?”

           No. You can’t go through this again. “I doubt you’re lacking for company. But I’ll see you tomorrow,” Caroline replied gently, flashing him a smile that made her face hurt.

           Undeterred, he winked, telling her, “Challenge accepted. I’ll earn your company eventually, love.”

                                ______________________________

           The speedboat revved its engine, the stunt driver taking sharp turns through the narrow canal as he waited for Klaus to get into position. The studio always shamelessly plugged the fact that Klaus was one of the few leading men who’d perform at least one major stunt per film. Why did he always have to pick the most dangerous ones?

           Caroline carried the last makeup case to her car, resolutely staring ahead once she saw the safety coordinators and trainers buckling him into his harness. She never could stomach watching those scenes. The first explosion still made her jump, despite her anticipating the loud boom. However, it was the unexpected second explosion and shattering glass that made her gasp. Something was wrong.

           She followed the screams to the center bridge overlooking the canal, the crowd pointing at the side of the skyscraper that Klaus was supposed to parachute past and shoot a grappling hook into the speedboat below. Instead, several cables had snapped in the accidental second explosion, and the wall of shattered glass showed her that Klaus had been slammed into the side of the building.

           No. Tears instantly sprang to her eyes, and she didn’t bother restraining her strength as she shoved people out of the way. She had to do something. But there was nothing to be done. The crew frantically retracted the remaining cables on the crane, pulling him back to the roof. But it didn’t matter — he wasn’t Klaus anymore. Just a body. She cursed her enhanced senses, hating how the staff still had hope as they watched. Because they couldn’t hear how the air stopped inflating his lungs. How his heart had stilled. Caroline closed her eyes, sending a silent goodbye out into the universe. For he who he was.

                                ______________________________

           The morgue was crawling with parasitic reporters, all salivating at the thought of capturing a grisly morgue picture of the famous Klaus Mikaelson’s corpse. Caroline compelled her way onto the hospital’s staff, the heightened security a minor annoyance that she fortunately understood how to navigate.

           She brushed aside the curls along Klaus’ forehead, the ghastly bruising much more faint than when he’d first been removed from the destroyed set. Suddenly, his body jerked violently on the slab; Klaus’ eyes opened with a gasp.

           There. Confusion clouded his gaze as he stared at her, the compelled memories rattling around in his mind as he sorted through them. “Caroline,” he asked uncertainly, before recognition colored his tone as he exclaimed, “Caroline! It’s been so long and I’ve missed you. I didn’t even realize what I was missing, but I felt it all the same. I felt you.”

           Caroline didn’t know when she started crying, but soon she found herself wrapped up in his arms. He murmured against her curls, “What happened?”

           Time to discuss those several lifetimes he’d mentioned.

[creativeskullcreations]

Outside chapter 17: Dinner at Home

New chapter, new plot. Plus got to see a little bit of Danny in this 'verse. :D

And plans are in motion now. What's gonna happen? Stick around to find out.

Stacy sighed as she got into the truck, undoing the professional looking bun her hair was in. Scout popped out of her bag when she set it in the passenger seat, gasping over-dramatically.

"Oh stop that. You're fine." Stacy told her, buckling herself in. She started the car, and got ready to back out of the parking spot.

"Says you! You aren't spending eight hours a day in a fucking bubble!" The puppet flopped out of the bag. "Are we going home yet?"

"No, we've gotta go grocery shopping." Scout groaned and threw one arm over her eyes.

"Aw man. I hate Walmart." She grumbled. "There's always too many kids staring at me."

"It'll be fine. We can go look at movies again before we get the food."

"Okay fine." Scout climbed up the door to look out the window. "But I want Pop Tarts this time! Real ones!"

"I think I can do that." Stacy agreed as she pulled into the parking lot. She reached over and grabbed her wallet before grabbing Scout, letting her settle into the hood of her jacket as they entered the store.

They checked movies, though there was nothing new out yet that they hadn't seen, and then went on to collect the items on Stacy's list. A quick checkout later and they were finally on their way home. It could not have come soon enough for Scout.

The way home from Walmart wasn't too long, maybe a ten minute drive on a bad day. So they got home quick enough, and Scout watched as Stacy started to juggle the many bags. She ended up having to sting them onto her prosthetic in order to get them all into the house, but did succeed in getting all the bags to the kitchen.

Will was downstairs, as he usually was at this time of day. Though, whether he was working on computers or his... hobby, was anyone's guess. Scout certainly wasn't going to go down there to check, either way. Instead she Jumped to her room, which was almost more of a closet with how small it was. But, it held a bed(in her own size!), a charging station for the Switch, and sometimes Stacy's laptop when she could be bothered to drag it in there. The walls were lined with multiple shelves  with rope ladders connecting them, giving her a lot of storage space. Most of it was still empty, but she had collected a few things over the past several months.

Including clothes, apparently. Stacy had expressed concern with Scout running around with Mortimer's face on her shirt, and had enlisted Lisa to make her some new ones. Not that Scout could take her "shirt" off, of course, but she could wear other ones over it. Her favorite so far was a green one that said "eat dick and die". It was the best one, no contest, but Stacy wouldn't let her wear it outside the house.

"It's crude, and while I know you love that stuff it's not a good idea to wear that to my job. Someone could go to HR about it." Her Host had told her. Scout thought that was just stupid, but had agreed not to wear it to the workplace.

Stacy, meanwhile, worked on putting groceries away. It was good practice for her arm, especially in not crushing the groceries. She managed to mangle to bread only a little bit this time,  and figured she was probably doing better than she usually did. Scout reappeared a moment later, wearing the green shirt Lisa had made her. She handed over the Pop Tarts to the puppet, who immediately tore into the box to grab one of the foil packets.

"It's almost suppertime, so don't eat too many of those." Stacy warned her, only to be met by a muffled grunt in response. She sighed, and just collected the stuff she needed; Kraft macs n cheese, premade burger patties, and some green beans for a vegetable. Maybe not the best dinner, but Will was still working and they needed some food.

As she got the stove going, a pan of water for the mac set up, and the pan for the burgers got oiled. She selected three patties and put the rest back in the freezer for another day while things heated up. The beans she dumped in a  third pan on the back of the stove, adding a bit of salt for taste.

Scout watched all of this while softly crunching on the Pop Tarts. Months in the Host World, and she still didn't understand why Stacy wanted to cook. It was much easier and quicker to just grab one of the snacks laying around. Then again, maybe it had to do with that "nutrition" shit Will had told her about once.

As Stacy cooked she started typing out a message to Will on her phone, mostly to let him know dinner was done. He may have been just right in the basement, but she didn't want to go down there if she didn't have to. But as things finished cooking and she started to set the table, Will still hadn't come upstairs or even answered her text. And so, with a sigh, she covered the food and made her way downstairs.

"Will? It's time for dinner." She called as she reached the bottom of the stairs. No answer, but the muffled beat of heavy metal and the high pitched whine of a buzz-saw. She went through the door and was greeted with a mess. A wooden doll was stretched on the exam table in the middle, and Will was standing over it with the buzz-saw, shouting over the pounding music and whining noise.

"Hey, bitch! Make your boyfriend turn it down!" A red haired doll in a welded shut dog crate yelled over the music. She ignored it and instead punched a nearby gong with her metal fist. The resulting metal bang startled Will enough that he almost dropped the saw. He looked over and, once he spotted her, rushed to shut everything down.

"Yeah babe?" He asked, like he hadn't been threatening a sentient doll. The puppet in question was gagged, but sending a quite fierce death-glare at him.

"It's dinner time. Finish up here and come up, I made burgers." She told him, smiling a little as his face lit up.

"Score!" He quickly shoved the saw away before turning to take the doll off the table and put it into a cage. It swapped it's glare to her as he shoved it inside the crate, but Stacy just stared stonily back at it.

"Yeah, you keep trying that buddy. Nothing stops these two assholes. Ow!" The red headed doll sent Stacy his own death glare as she kicked his cage, knocking him over.

"Keep quiet." She growled out, not even looking at him. "Be thankful you're not tied up too."

"Yeah yeah. Go back to your favorite toy, Bitch." He huffed out. "Can't believe you keep that thing living up there with ya. If you had any kind of integrity, she'd be down here, in a cage, with the rest of us. Ow! Fuckin' shit would you stop that?!"

"Chucky, be quiet." A nearby doll in a ripped wedding dress scolded. "You know better than to antagonize her."

"What, it's true! That thing up there is just like us, but she gets to live in the lap of luxury! Hey!"

Stacy propped a foot up on the cage, tipping it onto it's edge and leaning down to glare at the toy inside. "You wanna stop talking now? Or do you want me to come back down here after dinner, Mr. Ray?"

The dolls said nothing more and Stacy righted the cage as Will finished up. The went back upstairs, locking the door behind them.

On the table was Scout, with half a burger patty in her mouth. She froze when the two Hosts walked into the room.

"Scout, seriously?" Stacy asked. "You're supposed to wait for us before you start eating."

Scout spat out the half eaten patty. "You were taking too long. I wanted to eat."

"You still should have waited. We only took a couple of minutes."

"But I didn't want to wait."

Stacy just sighed, and grabbed a bun out of the bag to squirt some ketchup onto. This was a fight just not worth getting into, especially when it wouldn't change anything.

Instead they made up their buns and sides, and were sat down to eat. Will prayed, and Stacy waited for him to be done before digging in. Scout didn't even wait, and just finished off her meat patty before digging into the macs and cheese.

The trio ate in silence, too hungry to talk at first. But eventually Stacy swallowed a bit, and decided she was sick of the quiet.

"So, you make any progress with the Gardner job?" She asked Will. Doll torturer or not, he did still have a "real" job, same as her.

"Eh, a little. Gotta ask who usually uses the computer, though. It's full of viruses from porn sites."

"Ew. Do they have a kid, or just a really stupid adult?"

"They've got a twelve year old girl, so she's the most likely suspect." Will swallowed another bite. "Miss Gardner is always away and working, like, three jobs so it's gotta be the kid or a friend she has."

"Who would go on a porn site? It's just naked sweaty Hosts, they're gross."

"Uh..." Stacy wondered how to handle this. And then wondered if Scout had ever gone on one of those sites, to know about that part. "It's... just a thing. Some people like to look at." She coughed. "Don't question it."

"Sure." Scout comped down on a green bean, and Stacy gave a soft sigh of relief. Scout was bad enough with her language already, and Stacy didn't want to risk her learning more words and terms.

Dinner ended soon after that, with Will loading the new dishwasher when everyone was done eating. He went back downstairs to finish up what he'd been doing. Stacy and Scout meanwhile went to play video-games. Well, Stacy played, while Scout watched her do quests from her lap.

"Go down that tunnel! Go! The left!" Scout pointed forcefully, waving her arms when she was ignored.

"No, that's where we came from." Stacy sighed, annoyed yet also a little amused. "Would you rather be the one playing?"

"No. I can't hold the controller." The Puppet waved her off before suddenly yelling. "You're not looting the bodies!"

"And you won't shut up." The Host muttered, looting a single body before going back to chasing the objective. "Are you sure you don't want to play?"

"How would I even fucking do that? Don't answer that."

"Okay." Stacy fought a few more Drauger. She thought about mentioning that she wouldn't really mind it, if Scout wanted to play, but decided against it. The body swap was still a sore subject, and she didn't want to ruin the good mood.

A ping from her phone, and she paused the game to answer a text from her brother. Being the nosy Puppet that she is, Scout tried to see what she was typing. "Who's that? I thought you didn't have friends."

"It's my younger brother, Danny. Doc wanted me to talk to him more, so I am."

Scout blinked. "You have a brother?" She thought back, tried to think if she'd ever seen any pictures of Stacy's family, but couldn't remember. Will she knew had a picture of his mother, but other than that neither Host talked about their families that much.

"Yeah." A couple of swipes, and she lowered the phone to show the Puppet a photo of a younger boy. He had the same reddish hair she did, but with much paler skin and brighter blue eyes. He was also wearing an absolutely atrocious looking sweater. "He's about eight or nine years younger than me, depending on who's had a birthday at that point."

"Oh..." Scout stared at the picture. "Why is he wearing headphones?"

"Those are part of his cochlear implants. He's deaf." She swiped back over to messaging to finish her text. "But he got the surgery at a young enough age that you pretty much can't tell. He's just got a little bit of a weird sounding accent."

"Oh, cool." Stacy finished her text and went back to the game, Scout watching quietly this time. "I have a brother."

Stacy fumbled an attack, but recovered quickly enough that she didn't die. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Yeah. And three sisters." She squirmed a little, playing with the hem of her shirt. "... They probably all have Hosts by now. They were a lot better at... fitting in, than I was."

"Oh." Stacy paused the game, considering. "I'm... uh, do you you wanna talk about it?"

"Nah. I just thought you should know about them." She settled back, and Stacy unpaused the game. "I doubt I'm ever going to see them again, anyways. They were all assholes."

"Sounds like it, if they were able to "fit in" over there."

-------

Canon huffed, doing her best to try and suck in air. This was the... she didn't know how many times she'd been almost torn apart by the spells Mortimer was working on. Not really, of course, but it certainly felt like it. Like there was a scalpel carefully slicing into each stitch, cutting the small threads one by one.

"Hmm, looks like things are going well. I think I'm just about done with this spell." The magician commented, ignoring how the smaller Puppet lay limply on the floor. "Yes this plan has come together splendidly! Soon your sister will be right where she ought to be."

"... Great..." She groaned, trying to force herself upright. She failed, falling back to the floor with a soft thump. "I... can't... wait..." She had to finish the rhyme, at least, no matter how much it hurt.

"Indeed." He smirked, then grabbed a phone off the wall. "Oh Riley, we're just about ready to start! All we're missing now is the star! So gather your tools and a henchman, and go warm up the car."

"Preparations have already begun!" She relayed with an excited giggle. "Oh, this is going to be so much fun!"

[elsanna-shenanigans]

August Contest Submission #13: Icy Justice And Poisonous Roses

Words: ca. 4,500 Setting: Modern AU (Superheroes) Lemon: No CW: graphic violence, mentioned character death, trauma, acid burns, enemies to lovers, poisons

Elsa wasn’t a fan of these formal gatherings. Not that she didn’t enjoy a good party or enjoy dressing up, but mainly because of the sorts of people that were usually in attendance. People who cared more about the money in their pockets than the betterment of others.

Still, Elsa was the most eligible woman in the city and probably the richest woman in this room, so she had to keep up appearances, lest people suspect what she did in the hours she wasn’t running her company or attending gatherings such as this.

She stood by the window, gazing down at Arendelle City, wondering if she was doing enough for this city. Granted, things had gotten better, police reforms, elimination of the more corrupt members of the city’s elite, but still there was suffering in the streets and for every supervillain locked away, someone more powerful and dangerous likely took their place.

It was a long war, a war that Elsa often wondered the point of fighting for. But then she remembered her parents, of the man who had taken them from her, the pain that had caused her, pain that had awoken the power within her.

“Enjoying the view?” a voice spoke to Elsa.

Elsa turned around, seeing an acquaintance of hers, Hans Westerguard, walk over to her, offering her a glass of champagne. She should have been talking to him more tonight, what with this being the fundraiser for his mayoral campaign and Elsa being a major donor.

Hans wasn’t exactly a perfect individual, but considering he was running against candidates that were a mob boss who posed as a philanthropist and a businesswoman who Elsa knew had been supplying tech and resources to supervillains, he was the lesser of three evils.

He had a good sense of justice about him, being the current district attorney. Though, Elsa had hoped he could do more with his position. She hoped that by donating so much to his campaign, she might be able to sway him to enact more progressive policies once he was in office.

Though of course, he had to get into office first.

“Oh, Hans,” Elsa replied, fiddling with her braid and blushing a little. She was good at putting on a shy, flustered dork act, a deliberate act to play up her more casual nature in her secret identity. “I didn’t see you there.”

“You seemed to be staring off into space there,” Hans remarked. “Care for a drink?”

“No, I’m driving myself home tonight,” Elsa responded.

“Really?” Hans remarked. “I’d have figured you’d have gotten your butler to handle it.”

“Kai has the night off, visiting some old girlfriend of his,” Elsa explained. Kai had been working himself too hard down in Elsa’s hideout of late, so she’d given him the night off.

“Fair enough,” Hans admitted, walking up beside her. “So… what do you suspect my chances are?”

“Of what?”

“Winning the election.”

“Oh,” Elsa said. “Well, the election isn’t for another month or so Hans. There’s still plenty of time to go.”

“Yes, but as you’re my largest donor, you must have a lot of faith in me,” Hans stated, looking smugly.

Elsa rolled her eyes. She had to at least humour the man. “Well, since you asked so nicely… I think you’re the city’s best chance. You’ve actually got policies that seem to be what the city needs. The others just want to uphold the status quo that has caused so many innocent people to suffer.”

“Why thank you.” Hans said, sipping his drink “Though I think an endorsement from that wonderful hero Fenris would probably seal the deal for me in this election.”

Elsa chuckled. “I don’t think superheroes are meant to give that sort of political statement.”

“True, but she’s done more good for this city in the last three years than anyone else… well except…” The two of them then saw a woman with short dark hair and wearing a rather snazzy tuxedo walking towards them. Though she didn’t exactly look very comfortable here.

“Commissioner Espinosa, good to see you here!”

“Westergard,” the commissioner replied flatly.

Elsa smiled. Cassandra Espinosa was one of Elsa’s closest friends, one of the few people she shared her secret with. Despite Cassandra being a policewoman, she was actually living up to what a police officer should be, not someone who gleefully enacted brutality on innocent people, values much more like those of her father, the previous commissioner.

“Enjoying the party?” Hans wondered. “You must not get a chance like this often other than maybe the annual policeman’s ball.”

“To tell you the truth, I’m only here because we got a tip earlier that someone might be targeting you tonight,” Cass stated. “You have pretty lax security here.”

“Cass, I’ve helped to put away some of the nastiest criminals in this city, I’ve learned to live with people wanting to kill me. One more threat against my life isn’t going to change that.”

“Mr Westerguard?” someone called to him from the crowd. “The governor wants to talk to you!”

“Oh, excellent,” Hans replied. “Ladies, if you’ll excuse me.”

As Hans left, Elsa and Cassandra stood alone, Cass leaning against the wall and sighing. Elsa leaned close to her, wanting to give her friend some reassurance.

“Good man, but I wish he’d look out for himself more,” she remarked. “Anything on your end, Els?”

“Not exactly,” Elsa admitted. “I’m starting to think tonight might be a quiet night for once.” She smirked playfully. “At least you got to wear your tux again.”

“Yeah well, take a look while it lasts,” Cass grumbled.

“I know my cousin would,” Elsa remarked. “Surprised Raps isn’t with you tonight.”

“Yeah well, after what happened the last time I took her out,” Cass remarked. “I figured it best she stayed at home.”

Elsa sighed. Cassandra was dating her cousin and childhood best friend Rapunzel. A few months back, while the two were on a date, a sniper hired by a mob boss had tried to assassinate Cassandra. They’d failed, but Rapunzel had been gravely injured. Elsa didn’t blame her for wanting to keep her cousin safe.

“Still, aren’t you two planning to tie the knot soon?” Elsa wondered. “You’ve been together long enough.”

“I… I don’t know,” Cass admitted. “It’s hard finding a good balance between her and my work. I’m worried marriage might… complicate things.”

“I know how you feel,” Elsa replied. “It’s why I’ve honestly never had much luck with relationships myself.” That was a lie. There was one woman in the world she still loved… though she was partly ashamed to admit it, even to Cassandra.

Suddenly, the entire building started to shake. Elsa thought there was an earthquake and quickly grabbed onto something. There was panic and commotion across the ballroom, Cassandra grabbing onto a nearby wall for support. Screams and cries filled the room.

“What the fuck is going on?!” Cass shouted.

Elsa tried to reach for her watch, but she found there was no need to, as she then saw several large vines rising up from the side of the building pressing against the windows. She gasped, looking straight at Cass in terror as a dark shadow overwhelmed them.

“CASS LOOK OUT!” Elsa shouted, tackling Cass to the ground as the vine crashed through the window.

All across the ballroom, there was utter chaos as the gigantic vines smashed into the room, knocking people over left and right, firmly entrenching themselves into the walls of the building.

In the middle of the room, the largest of the gigantic vines smashed through the window, a gigantic flower at its tip. As it stopped in its tracks, the large flower burst open, releasing a gas that caused all those around it to cough and splutter. Through the smoke, a figure emerged from the blooming pink flower, a rather revealing woman in a skintight pink and purple outfit with green highlights and long red hair.

“Rosethorn,” Cass whispered.

Elsa blushed and looked away. Anna… why now…

“You gonna deal with her?” Cass wondered.

Nodding reluctantly, Elsa looked at Cass. “Try and keep her distracted, but don’t hurt her too bad… she’s still my sister.”

“Elsa, she’s trying to kill people!” Cass argued in a hushed whisper.

“I can see that but she’s still family!” Elsa rasped.

Cass grumbled. “You know if she was my sister, I wouldn’t hesitate but fine, I’ll make sure I won’t do any permanent damage to her.”

“Thank you,” Elsa said gratefully, before she quickly ran out of the room, Cass pulling her pistol from her pocket.

Elsa rushed out of the bathroom, making her way through the panicking, scared crowds. As she arrived in the room, she looked at herself in the mirror, making sure she was alone.

To think that tonight she’d have to face her sister again. The two sisters had always been close as children, virtually inseparable. But that all had changed one fateful night. Her wealthy parents had taken Elsa out to see a movie, but Anna had to stay home and do her homework.

Anna had been spared in a way, as on their way home from the movies, Elsa and her parents were attacked by a mugger. The mugger had killed their parents without a second thought, gunning them down. In a rage… something had awoken inside of Elsa, a power that no other human had.

As she got older, she learned how to control this power, a power to manipulate ice and snow to her whim. She soon discovered that some people had the rare chance of being born with such powers, people who were later dubbed Metahumans. While Elsa’s had been the power to control ice, Anna’s power was somewhat different.

A few months after the funeral, Elsa had discovered Anna’s powers had awakened as well, the power to control plants and other forms of vegetation. As elated as Anna was at using her new powers, Elsa was worried about her, about them both. At this time, Elsa had decided to hone her powers and train herself in the arts of combat and science so she might one day fight to protect the innocent people of Arendelle City, so that no other child would go through what she and Anna had.

Anna on the other hand… was a different story. Her plant-based powers had made her infatuated with nature. At first, Elsa was glad that Anna was using her love for nature to cope with her parents’ grief. But as they got older, Anna started to get more involved in environmental work.

More than once, Elsa had to bail Anna out of jail for getting involved in protests and the like. She worried Anna was going down a dark path. Yes, protecting the environment was a noble goal… but Anna seemed obsessed. And then one night, Elsa’s worst fears were confirmed when she found Anna attempting to strangle the CEO of one of her business partners.

“Anna let him go!”

“No, he has to pay! All their kind have to pay! They’re choking the planet to death, Elsa, and no one is doing a damn thing about it!”

“And that justifies you being a murderer?!”

“Why do you care? I thought you’d be happy seeing scum like this die, after what happened to our parents!”

“What?! Anna, No!”

And then Anna had used her vine to snap the man’s neck. A fight broke out between them, Elsa blasting Anna with her ice powers… and leaving a permanent mark in the form of a white streak in her hair. Elsa looked down, wondering when this nightmare would end.

She loved Anna, she always had… but at this point she had to accept that her sister was truly dead, replaced by a monster that now called herself Rosethorn.

Pressing a button on her watch, Elsa watched it transform into a device that released dozens of tiny nanobots that she then rearranged and merged with her ice, forming a wolf-themed armour and long cape that completed concealed her body, the symbol of her alter ego, Fenris appearing on her chest.

Elsa looked at her masked face in the mirror, glaring sternly. “This will be the last friend of mine you hurt, Anna. I swear it.”

———————————————————————————-

Anna grinned wickedly as she sat on her throne of vines as her large tendrils wrapped themselves around the building, bursting through the windows of the ballroom. She watched as the pitiful humans ran in fear, taking a certain delight in what was happening.

Rich fools. Their kind loved to pollute and terrorise the environment, now they would know what it was like to be terrorised. The large pods on the side of the vine that Anna was riding on burst open, releasing toxic gas into the room that caused those surrounding the tendril to cough and splutter.

But while watching the humans suffer was delightful, she had a more important goal in mind, one of these pathetic fools in particular. Hans Westerguard was running for his life, trying to make it to a nearby door. However, Anna sent one of her vines forward, blocking his path.

"Now where are you off to, Mr Westerguard?” Anna sultrily remarked, getting off her throne. “We have important business to discuss.”

Hans turned, realising he’d have to hold her off. “What do you want, Anna?”

“Why, my dear, you of course,” Anna said, stroking the underside of his chin with her gloved hand. “I’ve waited a long time for this.”

“Look, Anna, I know I’ve made mistakes, but this isn’t right?”

“Isn’t right?!” Anna yelled. “Oh, it is very much right, Mr Distrct Attourney. You lined your pockets with all the greedy fuckers in this town who destroy and pollute the earth around you, who tore up innocent grassland to build a Metahuman prison where I was tortured!”

“They were trying to help you!”

“Help me?! I don’t need help!” Anna growled, wrapping tendrils around his neck. “I’ve dedicated my life to protecting this planet and all of its natural beauty. If that’s so wrong, then I’d prefer not to be right.”

Hans choked and gagged, struggling to breathe. “Anna… Ack!”

“What’s that Hans? I can’t quite hear you over the innocent people you’ve stepped on!” Anna growled. Suddenly, she heard a loud gunshot. A bullet flew through the air and pierced one of the tendrils around Hans’s neck. Anna screamed, feeling the pain like it was one of her own limbs as Hans was freed.

Cassandra, along with a few other out of uniform police officers and security guards, had arrived, taking aim at Anna with their pistols. “Come quietly, Rosethorn!”

“You’d protect him, officers?!” Anna remarked. “Such a deplorable monster who would be better off locked up in jail?”

“Look who’s talking, red,” Cass growled. “Put down the tentacles and I promise you, you won’t get hurt.”

“Dear, dear commissioner,” Anna chuckled. “I have no intention of doing anything of the sort. However

"Then, I’ll take you out as well!” Anna roared, sending another flurry of vines at the officers, the ends of the tendrils opening into mouths full of razor-sharp teeth.

The vines disarmed the other officers quickly, one of them literally disarming one man, spewing blood all over the ground from the severed limb. Not wanting to suffer the same fate, Cass quickly ducked out of the way, unloading a few bullets from her pistol into two of the vines.

However, she wasn’t fast enough, as a third quickly rushed up behind her. But Cass could be attacked by the vine, a blast of icy wind quickly froze the tentacles and a sharp sword made of a mix of ice and metal quickly slashed them apart. Fenris then stood, her wolf-like appearance and glowing blue visor making for an intimidating look.

“Ah, my dear arch enemy,” Anna said with a laugh. “Figured you’d be coming to the rescue of the oppressors.”

“The only person oppressing people is you, Rosethorn,” Fenris stated, pulling out her sword. She looked over at Hans, who was stumbling to his feet. “You alright, Mr Westerguard?”

“Fine, now that you’re here,” he groaned.

Rosethorn cackled. “I think it’s time I dealt with you first, my frozen foe. Let’s see if this will melt your icy armour!” She then sent out one of her tendrils behind Elsa, which shot out a glob of acid.

Hans’s eyes widened. “Look out!” He yelled, to which Elsa was barely able to react in time. Hans then leapt in the path of the glob of acid… and was struck in the face. He screamed and cried out in pain, writhing on the floor as the acid melted his face.

“Hans!” Fenris exclaimed, rushing to his side. She was almost sick at the sight of the injuries on Hans’s face.

“Oh well, I doubt he’ll be running for office anytime soon,” Anna remarked as she jumped onto one of her tendrils. “Time for me to make like a tree and leaf.”

Elsa turned to look at Anna, then she gazed down at Hans, who was still in agony. Cassandra rushed to Hans’s side, looking up at her.

“Go after her, I’ll take care of Hans and the wounded,” she reassured her.

“Thank you,” Elsa replied, before she then got up and rushed after Anna, the latter’s tentacles retracting from the building and coalescing into some kind of gigantic tentacled plant creature that leapt across the rooftops. Elsa stared at the Lovecraftian horror that Anna was controlling, wondering how powerful Anna was now.

Leaping from the window, Elsa used her ice powers to alter the shape of her cape into a pair of icy wings and activated jet boosters in her boots that sent her flying through the sky after Anna. Summoning her ice sword, she slashed through one of the tentacles.

Anna cried out as her creature rocked about from the loss of one of its limbs. “Gah!!”

“Take this!” Elsa shouted, blasting the tentacled creature with her powers. The creature managed to dodge the attack and one of its tendrils wrapped around Elsa, throwing her down onto a nearby rooftop. Anna then leapt down from her creature, summoning blades made of thorns that she slashed at Elsa with.

Elsa brought out her ice sword again, clashing it against Anna’s blade. Anna summoned her tentacles again, trying to attack Elsa with them. Elsa turned around, quickly taking out all the tentacles with ice spikes that brought Anna to her knees with pain, as Elsa quickly blasted her tentacle creature apart with an icy blast.

Reeling from the pain, Anna then screamed in agony her eyes glowing a sickening green as a gigantic tendril burst from the ground beneath them, quickly wrapping around Elsa tightly. The blonde tried to fight, but this tendril’s grip was much tighter, Anna pouring all her strength into it.

“How about a little spin!” Anna cried out, commanding her tentacle to spin Elsa round and round as fast as it could, before launching her into the sky. Elsa screamed as she was flung across an entire city block. She eventually landed though, crashing into an abandoned building a few streets away, smashing through a window.

As she rolled on the floor in pain, Elsa grunted. “Damage report.”

“Nanosuit integrity at 65%,” her suits onboard computer reported. “Minor external and internal injuries, recommend evasive action.”

“No way,” Elsa argued. “Anna’s madness ends tonight one way or another.”

“Where are you?~” Anna called out in a sing-songy voice. Elsa grunted, and rushed into a nearby stairwell, cloaking her retreat with an icy mist. She headed down a nearby stairwell, panting heavily. She was still shaken up from the impact, but she needed to get away from Anna.

If she could lull Anna into a false sense of security, she could jump her and take her out easily. But of course, she needed the essence of surprise first. She looked in the corner of her eyes, watching Anna’s tentacles quickly rushing down the stairs. She ducked into another room to avoid them.

Using the technology in her mask, Elsa scanned the building around her. This was once an office building, which meant large open rooms, not many places to hide.

“Don’t think you can hide from me for long, ” she heard Anna’s voice again. “I’ll always find you, my dear sister.”

Elsa didn’t respond, merely continuing to scan the room. Eventually, she managed to find herself an air vent. It didn’t take much effort to freeze the grate and smash it apart so she could climb inside. Crawling up the vent, Elsa rested and panted. Anna likely wouldn’t be able to find her here.

“What’s the matter, Elsa?” Anna remarked. “Nothing to say to your dear sister?”

“My sister is dead!” Elsa shouted, crawling down the air vent.

“Yeah right, keep telling yourself that,” Anna told her. “You should be grateful I haven’t blown your secret identity by now.”

“What’s stopping you?”

“Because I still carry a torch for you, Elsa,” Anna argued. “Hell, part of me once hoped we could do this together, make the world pay for what it’s done. To itself… to us.”

“I’m not a killer,” Elsa replied, crawling further. She looked through her visor, seeing that Anna was directly in the room below her, vines surrounding her. She had the element of surprise now.

“Neither was Hans, yet he’s just as guilty as one, what with his connections and dirty money,” Anna argued. “No one in this world is innocent, Elsa.”

“Says the woman who just burned a man’s face off with acid!” Elsa argued, crashing through a nearby vent right behind Anna. She rushed up with her ice sword and slashed at Anna, razor-sharp thorns then extending from Anna’s gloves to act as Claws. The two sisters fought one another.

It was surprising how evenly matched they were. Elsa had trained herself to the physical peak, while Anna had enhanced her own strength and agility thanks to her many, many plant-based serums. However, in this particular round, Anna was able to get the upper hand, as her tentacles managed to knock Elsa back, smashing her mask apart. Before it could regenerate, Anna slashed Elsa’s face with her claws.

Elsa grunted as she clutched her cheek in pain, blood oozing from it. Her suit was much too damaged at this point to start regenerating itself, leaving her at Anna’s mercy.

“Don’t think of trying to move, Elsa,” Anna replied, walking closer to her. “My thorns were tipped with poison. Not strong enough to kill you, mind you, oh no, I don’t want to kill my beautiful sister. But it’ll make you as weak as a kitten.”

Tentacles wrapped around Elsa, restraining her to the floor. The tentacles pressed against Elsa’s face, forcing her to look up as Anna stood above her. Elsa felt her heart beating as she gazed at Anna. As she looked into Anna’s eyes, she was reminded of her sister.

How beautiful and sweet she was, how much she wanted to protect her and love her, more than a sister would. But that was a lifetime ago. And yet… part of her wanted this, a part of herself that ashamed Elsa. Anna leaned in, caressing Elsa’s cheek, bringing her face closer and closer.

“You want this, don’t you?” she whispered. “You can still be a hero with me, Elsa. Only you’ll be a hero who actually makes a difference instead of upholding the pathetic status quo.”

“I won’t become… a murderer!” Elsa spat, Anna retreating.

“Why are you so against killing?!” Anna shouted. “Just accept that for things to be right in the world, some people just have to die! The corrupt CEOs, the politicians who line their pockets with dirty money while they let corporations pollute the planet!”

“There are laws, Anna!” Elsa argued. “They can be held accountable for their crimes!”

“And how often does that happen?” Anna replied. “Sure, you’re making change, but it’s not fast enough. The planet is already choking to death and in order to save it, more… radical action must be taken.”

“You don’t think I don’t know that, Anna!” Elsa argued.

“Then why don’t you do something about it!” Anna shouted.

“Because…” Elsa stopped herself.

“Because what?”

Elsa looked down. She had never shared this with Anna, this secret she’d kept buried for all these years. But if she was going to die here… then she should die with Anna knowing how much she never wanted this, for either of them.

“Because… I know what it’s like to feel tempted to take such action,” Elsa replied. “Because I’ve…. I’ve killed before.”

“That’s a lie,” Anna argued. “You said it yourself that you aren’t a killer.”

“No, *that* was the lie,” Elsa insisted. “Do you… do you know what happened to the person who shot our parents, Anna?”

“He… He got away,” Anna said, her voice shaky. “You said the cops found no sign of him. It’s… It’s what started me down this path, of wanting to get my own sense of justice.”

“I… I lied to the police, Anna,” Elsa expressed. “That night, after that bastard shot our parents, something inside of me awoke, something powerful… I lashed out at the guy as he ran and I… I froze him solid and he shattered before my eyes, Anna. The moment I first used my powers… I killed someone.”

“I…” Anna was stunned by the revelation.

“I regretted it, I didn’t want to indulge in the anger that I felt that night,” Elsa expressed. “I didn’t want to become a mindless monster, a killer. I’d be no better than the man I killed, perpetuating an endless cycle of violence. That’s why I did my best to stop you going down that path.”

“And… I failed,” Anna realised, tearing up. “All this time… I thought you didn’t understand me, that you thought I was crazy… but in reality, you cared about me more than anyone.”

“I even pleaded against the rough torture you had in prison,” Elsa expressed. “They wouldn’t listen to me. Don’t you get it, Anna? I love you, more than anyone else in the world… but I can’t let you hurt anyone ever again.”

“I… I love you too,” Anna whispered. She started to cry more and with a flick of her wrist, her vines let Elsa go. “Please… just go.”

“Anna… I can’t go,” Elsa argued. “I need to bring you in.”

“No, I won’t go back to prison again!” Anna argued. “Why can’t anyone have seen that I was doing good… why didn’t you try and help me!” She broke down in tears and wrapped her arms around Elsa. Her villainous persona had completely broken and for the first time in years, Elsa saw her sister again.

Wrapping her arms around Anna, Elsa stroked her sister’s hair, listening to the sound of Anna’s shaky breathing as she held her. God, she hadn’t held Anna like this in… well she’d honestly forgotten it was so long. But to have Anna, her Anna, let her do this… it felt rewarding to her.

“I’m… I’m sorry,” Anna whispered. “I’ve been such a fool… I’ve been going at this so wrong.”

“Shhhh,” Elsa whispered, going fully into her big sister mode. “Everything’s gonna be okay… I’m going to be right here, Anna, like I’ve always been.”

Anna pulled away and the two sisters gazed into each other’s eyes, holding one another close. Both of them felt gravity pulling them together, part of them knowing that they needed the other now. Yes, they had been enemies… but now, perhaps they were something different.

And then… Elsa and Anna leaned in and shared a tender, passionate kiss. Neither of them knew what was in for the two of them next, but at this moment, all they wanted was to be together, as they kept kissing in the light of the moon shimmering through a nearby window, tears streaming down both of their cheeks.

[olivieblake]

Sorry I haven't detailed my Friendship breakup ask earlier, managing life is taking too much time these days!

It's a bit hard to summarise but I have been soulmate-type friends with this girl, K, for three and a half years and really good friend with this guy, R, for two and a half. We all work together and our triangle friendship worked well. K and R fooled around a few times after parties, K developed feelings, R didn't and thought it was a friends with benefits thing while K hoped it would become more but it never did. Big problem was the lack of communication between them, both thought the other knew what they wanted but we know that things don't work this way.

I've been there for all of it, particularly for K who had been hurt by the lack of emotional intelligence R indeed displayed along the way. But I also felt, and I think R knew it herself, that she had been getting her hopes up almost all along and was setting herself for heartbreak, but life needs to be lived and sometimes we make mistakes just so that we can learn from them and K and I talked a lot about that, as I was myself getting entangled with another colleague.

Fast forward to last November, where, after months of horrible things piling up 2020 style, R and I spent an evening together watching movies, eating pizzas, drinking English cider and talking about how fucking sad we all were and fuck 2020 and family members dying of cancer way too fast, both in his and my family, and work being hell because the government is doing shit for making schools safe and everything going wrong all the time. At some point during the night there was a moment when I felt that R was offering more than just sleeping together in the same bed and I had a moment of hesitation but decided to not give in to it and to the the confort it might bring us both, mainly because I was sure it would hurt K if she ever heard about it. So we just slept, read books in the morning while drinking tea and there was no awkwardness because we both knew that it came from the fact that we trust each other enough to ask for comfort and even if it would have been a possibly stupid way to get it, it might have made us feel better in the moment. (even though we both think we'd have burst into tears 30 seconds in and not done it in the end)

I wondered whether I should tell K or not and decided to do it because nothing had happened, really, and if I didn't tell her when we told each other most things, that's when it'd have become suspicious and dishonest. So I told her that there had been a weird moment between R and I, that nothing had happened in the end, not in the best way in retrospect because it felt too casual to her, confirmed that had it happened it would have been weird for her and thought that was that since the next few days went fine. But at the end of that week she sent me an audio, saying that if I had feelings for R, I had a lot of time to tell her, that she needed people she could trust and who respected her in her life and that we weren't friends anymore. And that was it. Since then, she has refused to have a conversation to clear things up and has avoided me several weeks but has kept talking to R as usual.

I should have told her in a different way and I understand why she felt hurt imagining that R and I had spent a night of passion together but I told her, and then explained more clearly, that nothing had actually happened, that I wasn't into R and he wasn't into me, we were just both very sad and a bit too drunk.

The thing is, he's not hers, they haven't been in a relationship, he's not her ex either. Even if we had slept together, it wouldn't have had anything to do with her; people don't belong to people. But what's really hard is that we've been really good friends for several years and she was so quick to assume I would be cruel to her on purpose and that her feelings didn't matter to me when we've been there for each other a lot. And that putting an end to our friendship via WhatsApp was apparently so easy to do. (I don't really think it was, but it sure feels like it.)

And I've been asking other friends' opinions to see how in the wrong I was really, since maybe I couldn't see the situation clearly enough from my position, and the general consensus is that since I didn't do anything with him and was honest with her right after the nothing happened, she's being a bit extreme when the only actual thing she could reasonably resent me for is the way I told her. We're adults, we should be able to at least talk about it but I've offered several times and she says she doesn't need to or want to. But we're in the same friend group, we're supposed to spend time all together at some point and us not talking has an effect on the whole group dynamics, not just on us, and my awful need to make sure everything is balanced for everyone is going crazy.

It's been a long few months and my already sad and stressed out brain is having a hard time dealing with it and I hate that we're in this situation for something as futile as boy problems. I think there are issues of jealousy and self-confidence that stem from something else and that she's projecting it all onto this but it still sucks a lot, especially since she's refusing to talk about anything, even if we're at least back to saying hello and she has stopped fleeing every room I am in.

Anyways, friendship breakups suck, they can be as stupid as romantic breakups, and 2021 has better be nicer too everyone than 2020! Sorry for the novel-lenghth ask/story, my life is a succession of ridiculous plot points.

I hope you and Baby and Mr. Blake are doing well in these weird, weird times and I've started your book and I have loved your last video, especially the part on jealousy/possesiveness which was really well-put, as usual! Oh and thank you so, so much for your book recs on my last ask, I've added them to my To read-list <3

Okay, Love you, bye!

I feel like my last ask was a little bit too detailed to give a general answer/launch a large topic so I'm guessing it's mainly about how to deal with a lack of closure when people end things without the possibility to talk and get/give explanations. And I guess it goes for romantic relationships as well as friendships.

Love your big sistering, love you !

WELL I actually did not get this ask until a few hours after I had filmed this week’s video so not to worry lol I wasn’t able to address this specifically. but I think that’s the thing about the generality of grief over losing a friend—we don’t necessarily have to know the specifics of your story to understand it’s something we probably all relate to. and in this case I most certainly relate! I think this is one of those things where your friend had some personal things to work on and it put you in a difficult position, wherein you made the most logical choice. that’s the problem: you are looking logically at what is for her an emotionally fraught situation about her self-worth and your loyalty, which is why the math on your end isn’t adding up. (for the record I am much more likely to be in your position than hers; she sounds like a water sign but WHO’S TO SAy)

anyway, I don’t think you’re in this position over boy problems. a boy appears to be the subject yes but in fact he is the object; the subject is your friend’s feelings about herself and your—forgive me, but your compulsion to force her to get over it. I may not be completely right about that, but it does appear to me that you could have said nothing about the “nothing” that happened but chose not to because, ultimately, part of you wanted her to know. I don’t think this is sinister of you; I have a lot of friends who really need to just get over it as a general rule and sometimes it does feel like shocking them into it with new information might do the trick. but I think most likely she feels or intuits that in some way, and I suspect the root of her anger isn’t really about him but the “betrayal” she feels from you: that in that moment, you weren’t thinking about her* despite the fact that you would probably have known she would hurt if you had been (I’m sure you did know this to be true, and in my opinion are rationalizing your part in it; which is fine because you’re the main character in your life and not hers, but it is what it is) and of course she’s thinking about her, so what seems like a lot of pain on her end that she has no healthy method of dealing with is straining your relationship. I hope she can bring herself to deal with it, but she has a lot of work to do on herself before she can reach the pinnacle of what’s really bothering her. until then, it’s easier to blame you.

* edited to add: I know you said that you decided not to move forward sexually because of her, but I think what actually hurts her is not the possibility of sex, but the intimacy you had with him in that moment, which even you know is something she craved; perhaps delusionally. you don’t have to acknowledge whether this is a reasonable thing to be upset by, but I think the entirety of the situation is probably hitting her much differently than it hits you.

anyway my answer was not about this situation specifically but about why friendship breakups hurt so much, and I don’t think knowing the situation changes my answer. I hope it does help, because I think there is some part of this that is always true: one person needs to do something on their own before the friendship can be repaired, and it may not have been a problem at all if not for an issue of very specific timing. but trust me, whether this specific thing had happened or not this would still be true about the two of you, and about the ways your personal dogmas differ, and perhaps it’s better to see if she can take this leap now. maybe she will grow from it; maybe she won’t. either way, this is the part-grief, part-guilt formula I’m talking about, where sometimes you have to admit the breaking point happened, whether it could have gone differently or not, and now it’s out of your control

but I hope it helps to talk about!

[stilloutofmyvulcanmind]

A Happy Little Christmas

Pairing: Jason Todd x Reader

Characters: Jason Todd, Reader

Word Count: 3.2k

Warnings: Talk of cheating ex’s, mostly fluff. So much fluff.

Summary: Not many people could say they’re friends with the Red Hood, but you could, even if it came about in an unusual way. But after a shitty start to Christmas, you realize there may be more feelings going unspoken.

A/N: This idea popped into my head over the weekend, and wouldn’t leave until I wrote it down! My first Jason fic!

It started in the new year. You'd been sitting under the small alcove on the rooftop of your apartment building, drinking tea as you watched the snowfall and enjoying the peace when he'd sprung up and landed in front of you. You hadn't screamed, but your tea nearly spilled which earned him a telling off. He had just looked at you, though you swore you heard a chuckle, then took off at a sprint, leaping off the edge and out of sight. 

It happened again a few weeks later. Same scenario, though this time you kept a firmer grasp on the tea. That time he spoke, saying that most people ran away when he appeared. You had shrugged, asking if he wanted something to drink. There had been a moment of silence before he laughed like you'd told the funniest joke. Then he said no and disappeared into the night once again. 

It just kept happening. Sporadic at first. Sometimes he'd appear a few times a week, other times it would be near a month. Each time you offered him a drink. Each time he found the whole thing amusing and declined. 

Until the summer when he showed up out of breath, no doubt near-boiling under his outfit in the muggy Gotham night. You'd offered some of the iced tea, and to your surprise, he'd accepted. 

And that was how you became tea drinking pals with the damned Red Hood. 

Things became a bit more regular after that. No schedule but you nearly always saw him once a week. It was kinda weird. Being friends with the guy the majority of Gotham's underworld was terrified of. 

But with you, he was kind of a dork. 

Proven when he'd spent near two hours ranting about an awful Shakespeare adaptation he'd watched. The fact that you were able to rant with him seemed to just spur him on more. 

You looked forward to those nights. Even if it was barely an hour before he got called away. You didn't know his name, or what he looked like minus the domino mask, but you'd gleaned enough small details about him and given away enough about yourself to see him as a friend. 

Christmas Eve came and you hadn't seen him since the start of the month. He'd been away doing something important, he'd told you as much prior to his leaving, mostly so you didn't end up worrying over a sudden absence. He said he'd be back by Christmas, but honestly, you weren't really expecting to see him. 

You'd learned enough over the months to know that the rest of Gotham's vigilantes were about the only family he had, even if he did seem to be fighting the Bat just as often as he helped him. The history you didn't know, but you figured if he was going to be anywhere, he'd be with them. 

So when he landed silently in the snow it was a surprise. When he slipped on a patch of slush and landed face first in said snow, it was even more of a surprise. 

You snorted so hard you nearly choked on the hot cocoa you were drinking. He bolted up, hand going to the gun strapped to his thigh. He saw you and relaxed immediately. 

"Often find people falling funny, angel?" He asked, boots crunching in the thick layer of snow as he walked towards you. 

"Usually? No. When it's someone like you? Fucking hilarious."

You could just imagine his eyes narrowing under the red helmet. 

Hood stepped under the alcove, brushing the snow off his jacket, and removing the helmet so he was down to just the black domino. You poured out some of the coca into a spare cup you'd brought just out of habit and handed it over once he'd taken a seat next to you. 

"Cinnamon flavor? Fancy."

"Felt like splashing out." You sipped at your own, enjoying the warmth that seeped into you. "Things go okay?" 

"Without a hitch."

"Good. Didn't get hurt then?"

He looked at you moment then shook his head. "Nah. Why? You worry about me, angel?" 

You felt yourself blush, grateful that any change of skin color could be put down to the cold. "Who else am I gonna bitch about shitty TV adaptations to?" 

Hood laughed, head tilted back. "Don't worry about me. I'll always be around for that."

You fell silent, watching the falling snow that soon masked the evidence of his arrival. It was nice having him back. You'd missed him, but until now you hadn't quite realized how much. 

"Gotta admit I wasn't expecting you to be here tonight. Weren't you meant to be skipping town with your betrothed?" Hood asked after several minutes of peaceful quiet. 

"Yeah," you sighed, looking down into your half-empty mug. "Showing up to your fiancé's apartment to find him in bed with his girlfriend tends to change plans."

In the corner of your eye, you spotted Hood's hand clench a little tighter around his cup. "Son of a bitch."

"Exactly what I said," you laughed, the sound coming out hollow. 

"Tell me where he is and I'll pay him a visit, teach him a lesson, break a few bones. For you, I'll even make him disappear."

Maybe you should've been shocked or disturbed at the offer, but you weren't. If anything it actually helped to know Hood had your back like that. "Two weeks ago and I might've taken you up on that. But he's had enough punishment. Turns out his other girlfriend didn't know he was engaged, so she dumped his ass, and when his family heard they uninvited him, so he's not the only one with a wrecked Christmas."

Hood hummed, still sounding unhappy. "If he comes near you again I'm finding him anyway."

"He comes around again and I won't try and stop you."

"So you really don't have any other plans for tomorrow?" 

You shook your head, "I could've gone to my family, but it was impossible to get a ticket that didn't cost a small fortune. It doesn't matter. Not the first Christmas by myself and I doubt it'll be the last."

"Well, you've got my handsome self to keep you company."

You chuckled, nudging his shoulder with your own playfully. "Speaking of handsome." You said, dipping into your pocket and pulling out the twenty-five bucks you had stashed in it. "Here, your half of the bet win. Thanks for letting me snap that photo."

"The non-candid, candid," he laughed in return, taking the cash. "Can't believe you bet that I was handsome under the helmet."

Shrugging a shoulder you smiled, "They started it. Now there's a whole conversation on who's more handsome, you or Nightwing."

"I'm sure I know how those conversations go. With an ass like his it always only goes one way."

"You've always got me in your corner."

"Really?" 

"Course."

Hood smiled and you wished you could see his eyes to see what he was thinking. He was looking at you, and even with the mask, it was difficult not to squirm away from the intensity. He leaned in closer and your breath caught. 

Then he was pulling back, hand coming to his ear. "I'm two blocks away, I can be there in five," he said in response to whatever the person in his ear told him. He dropped his hand and set the empty cup down. "Gotta go."

You'd already guessed. Hardly the first time. "It was good seeing you."

He smiled again and nodded before pulling the red helmet back on. "See you around." A mock salute and he was taking off at a run towards the edge of the roof. 

"Hey, Red!" You called suddenly, dashing out under the alcove after him. He paused at the edge and looked back at you. "Be careful, alright? This Christmas has been shit enough without you getting hurt."

"Just for you, angel." And he was gone, disappearing into the night once again. 

~

Christmas Day was as dull as you'd expected it to be. The first part of the day was spent flopped on the sofa watching dumb Christmas movie after dumb Christmas movie. It wasn't bad necessarily but didn't exactly fill you with fun Christmas spirit either. 

It was mid-afternoon when someone knocked at your door. You were tempted to ignore it, but the curiosity of who would be calling at random on Christmas got the best of you. 

"I…how did you know which flat was mine?" 

Hood stood on the other side, sans helmet, with an eyebrow raised. "Wasn't hard to find the tenant roster. Merry Christmas to you too by the way."

Right. You stepped aside to let him in. "Second question; what are you doing here?" 

He held up the bag he was holding. "Swiped a couple plates of food for us."

"You...what?" 

"We do this thing where we get together with way too much food, eat some of it and usually end up arguing within two hours. Figured this year I'd shake it up."

"You ditched them? To be here?"

"They didn't mind. The Bat even graced us with one of the good bottles of wine."

You were quiet. He'd given up time with his family to be with you instead. Even if they argued that was still a big thing. A big choice. One you wouldn't make for just anybody. 

"I can go if you'd rather." He actually looked a little nervous. 

"No! No, that sounds perfect. Thank you."

He smiled, glanced around the apartment then made a beeline for the kitchenette. You didn't even need to tell him to make himself at home. He did that all by himself. He pulled out the containers of food he'd brought, immediately shushing you when you offered to help. 

So you sat, watching as he moved around, occasionally pointing him in the right direction of utensils he needed. He looked at ease, normal almost without the guns. Or most of them. He had one hidden under his jacket that was revealed when he shrugged it off. If he'd been completely unarmed you would've suspected a body snatcher situation though. You only wished he didn't have the mask on still. 

Though maybe that was for the best. It would be too personal, and you weren't entirely sure you could handle personal. 

In the months you'd known him you'd only ever seen him as a friend. Yeah, you admitted he was handsome, but never thought of him like that. You'd loved your fiancé, and it never entered your head to stray. But then the break up happened, and in the last couple of weeks, you'd found yourself thinking about Hood more. In the long lonely nights, you'd wished for him to be next to you. Wished he'd come home early, find you crying and hug you so tight you could barely breathe. The thoughts had trailed to him kissing you, touching you. You'd tried to brush the thoughts off, told yourself it was just a fantasy your broken heart wanted. But seeing him the previous night, the way he'd leaned in…maybe it wasn't a fantasy. 

Hood finished doing up the two plates and drew you back from your thoughts. 

You set up the table and popped open the bottle of wine. It really was a good bottle, confirming the theory you had that the Bat definitely had some money behind him. Just as you were done pouring the glasses, he came around you and placed the plates down. 

"Whoever made this deserves a damned medal," you groaned after the first bite. 

He laughed, "I'll pass it on."

The meal was delicious, the company even better. It was relaxed with him, and you realized you'd never quite felt at home with someone as you did with Hood. It made you wonder what it would be like if you fully knew each other.

Cleaning up together was easy. You moved around the other without issue, making short work of the dirty dishes. "Thank you for this, Red. It's been good," you said, turning to hand him the rest of his wine. 

He nodded, watching you a moment. "It's Jason."

That was unexpected. You smiled, holding out your glass to his. "Good to meet you, Jason."

He clinked the glass and finished what was left in it. For a second you thought he was going to say more, but then he pulled back out of your space. "C'mon. The Muppets Christmas Carol is showing in a bit."

You laughed because of course he liked that. You joined him on the sofa, throwing him the remote for him to get the right channel. His arm found its way across your shoulders, and somehow you found yourself leaning on his chest. 

He was warm and comfy and you were full and happy, so you really couldn't be blamed when you fell to sleep. 

You woke up by yourself, head resting on the arm of the sofa with a blanket up to your shoulders. You rubbed at your eyes, finding your phone on the coffee table to check the time. It was surprisingly late. Jason was probably long gone. You tried to push the disappointment that you'd missed him away. 

"Good nap, sleeping beauty?" 

Nearly jumping out of your skin, you sat up to see Jason at the kitchen island with a glass of water. 

"Thought you were gone."

"Nah. Took the night off so unless I'm needed, I'm free, and didn't want to up and leave without saying goodbye."

You smiled, keeping the blanket wrapped around you as you clambered off the sofa. "You could've woken me."

"You looked peaceful." He stood, pouring you some water of your own. You could feel him eye you up as you drank like he was weighing something up. "Do you trust me?" 

The question was a surprise, but you didn't even need to think of the answer. "Completely."

"A lot would say not to."

"Screw those people."

"I'm dangerous. I've killed people."

"Bad people. Jason, I know this. I knew it before we even met."

"Yet you still offered me tea."

"Because I trusted you. It's never been a doubt that I could."

Jason smiled, "Thank you."

"Where'd this come from?" 

He sighed, pausing a moment. "I needed to know, for sure, before-" he reached up and peeled off the domino mask, letting it flutter to the floor. 

Holy shit he was handsome. The mask had only been covering his eyes but it had been hiding so much. Jason was gorgeous, beautiful, but it wasn't just that that was tugging at your heart. It was the fact that he'd just trusted you with his entire fucking identity. You wondered how many outside of the vigilante group knew. You doubted there were many if any. 

Reaching up you carefully brushed one of the curls that were flopping into his eyes away. "Thank you. For trusting me."

"I can count the number of people I trust on one hand. You're one of them, angel."

"And I won't break it, I promise." Your hand came to rest on his cheek, and he actually leaned into it. "Guess I was right after all. You are the handsome one."

Jason laughed, "Don't let Nightwing hear you say that. You'll hurt his feelings."

"Don't care. I'm not in the habit of lying."

"How honest of you." Jason stepped closer, into your space fully, one hand coming to land on your hip. "You're beautiful, Y/N."

You blushed, turning your head away. "Not beautiful enough to stop the person meant to love me fucking someone else."

"Hey, look at me." His free hand came to tilt your head up. "You are beautiful and if that bastard was too fucking blind to see it, that's on him, not you. He didn't deserve you, and you're better off without him. The fact that he willingly threw what you had away...it makes me angry. If you were-" Jason cut himself off suddenly. 

"If I were what?"

He swallowed, "If you were mine…I'd make sure I told you how much I loved you every single day. I'd do everything I could to make you happy, to make sure you stayed happy. I'd go to the end of the world and back to ensure it. And if I couldn't, if there was a problem that meant I couldn't make you smile and laugh, I'd fix it. No matter what it took. I'd treat you the way you deserve to be, love you the way you should be loved, and never hurt you because that would be worse than hurting myself. If you were mine seeing you smile would be the best part of my day. Knowing that I was keeping you safe would give me even more reason to keep doing what I do, and knowing I was coming home to you would be my reason for making sure I did it and stayed alive."

He stopped and it was then you realized that your cheeks were wet. Jason took a breath and looked away. "Sorry. You've been through enough, I shouldn't have said-"

You kissed him. Tangled your fingers in his curls and kissed him. Hard. His arms wrapped around you on instinct, pressing you close to his body. 

"Y/N-"

"No one…no one's ever spoken to me like that, said those things. Do...do you…?"

"Yeah." The word came out a whisper. "But Y/N, you just got out of a relationship, I don't want to push you into another."

"Have I ever seemed the type of person to be pushed into something? Maybe I should need more time, and if I didn't know you, didn't trust you, I'd probably turn and run. But the truth is I want this. I want you. I'm just surprised you want me back."

"I've wanted you for months. Just never said anything. Wasn't planning to either. Especially not today, so soon after. My only intention coming here was to make you happy."

"And you succeeded."

A hand cupped your cheek, those stunning eyes meeting yours, "You're sure? About this?" 

"I've never been more sure." You leaned in for another kiss, clutching at his shoulders with a squeak when you suddenly found yourself being hoisted up onto the kitchen counter, with Jason between your legs.

"Sure like kissing me, babydoll, and you don't even have any mistletoe. Pretty sure that's against Christmas rules," he teased, pressing his forehead to yours. 

"We can stop if you feel so strongly about it."

Jason nipped at your bottom lip, then trailed kisses along your jaw and up to your ear. "Angel, I have every intention of kissing you for as long as you'll let me, mistletoe be damned."

"Good." Turning your head you caught him in another kiss, smiling into it. You weren't even sure the last time you'd felt this damned happy. How things had gone from the worst to this in just a couple weeks, you didn't know, or what you'd done to deserve such luck. But you were never going to complain. Not when you had Jason kissing you with such ferocious tenderness you were sure you were going to melt. 

Breaking the kiss and pulling back enough to look up at him, you grinned. "I'm pretty sure I might have an old bunch in the bedroom though."

Jason returned the grin, hands coming to grip your thighs as he lifted you from the counter with ease. "Merry Christmas, babe."

"Merry Christmas, babe."

Like what you read? Consider buying me a coffee! (I’ll love you forever!)

Tagging: @musikat18 @sagyunaro @i-stand-sebastian-stan @samleerandom @everyday-imfangirling

[lady-divine-writes]

Angel of the Morning (Rated PG13)

Crowley has no problem borrowing Aziraphale’s clothes. But when Aziraphale borrows something of his, Crowley gets a little unnerved. (1488 words)

Notes: Makes reference to Missing, where Crowley borrows Aziraphale’s coat to take a nap.

“Aziraphale?”

Crowley wanders, eyes shut, out of his dark bedroom. He shuffles into the living room, then his office, each room brightening gradually as he transitions from no windows, to black-out curtains, to windows with shades drawn and a thin, pastel light streaming through.

“A-zir-a-phale,” he sings around a yawn, but he’s not searching. He knows where his angel is. He feels him – a golden beacon to his unholy soul. Aziraphale is out on the rooftop terrace, tending to a garden that was once Crowley’s and hidden, its inhabitants cowering inside in indirect light, but now theirs and thriving outside beneath the sun and sky.

He’s been out there for at least an hour.

Crowley won’t admit to liking it, this pocket-sized Eden Aziraphale has created, complete with a fruit tree smack dab in the center. It’s not an apple tree, but a lemon tree, its presence tongue-in-cheek – not so much a nod to their origin story but a commentary on Crowley’s temper. And even though Aziraphale often uses it as the punchline to many a joke at Crowley’s expense, Crowley loves it.

He’s loved it from the first moment he set eyes on it.

In fact, his love of the thing causes it to bloom year round.

And that, in no small way, infuriates him.

Birds stop by every morning to keep his angel company with their airy songs. A family of geese actually calls the place their summer home. And like a proper fucking Disney movie, there’s even a den of rabbits. He suspects Aziraphale smuggled them up here, but at this point, anything’s possible.

That’s one of a dozen reasons why he loves Aziraphale living with him.

When his angel is around, anything seems possible.

The garden isn’t all that high up, but a simple miracle tones down the drone of traffic from below, and thank Heavens for that seeing as the world is in relatively full swing for 7:38 on a Wednesday morning.

“You’re out an’ about early, aren’t you?” Crowley mutters, puttering through the grass barefoot, navigating up to his angel using every sense minus his eyes. As far as his brain is concerned, it’s only slightly after midnight, he and Aziraphale have just polished off a bottle of Pavillon Rouge, and in fifteen minutes or so, they’ll indulge their buzz, make-out to keep it simmering, and climb into bed, wrapped in one another’s arms.

He hasn’t the heart to tell it the truth.

“Am I?” Aziraphale asks, back turned and head bent, focused on packing peat around the newest shrub he’s transplanted – another brown-and-yellow rescue from the near dead section of their local nursery, the only section Aziraphale seems to know exists at Clifton and Alexandra’s Plant Emporium. When Aziraphale saw it tucked in amongst the desiccated twigs and greying dregs of roses that the nursery’s owners have the steel balls to claim as salvageable, his eyes lit up. He rushed over to it as if it were a newborn baby. Crowley doesn’t understand what Aziraphale sees in those flat-lining plants he adopts. Part of his sleep-addled brain believes Aziraphale might see a certain foul-tempered demon in those neglected plants. And whereas it warms Crowley to think that Aziraphale wants to spend the remainder of his immortality nurturing a damaged demon, he doesn’t know how he feels keeping company in his angel’s heart with the odd bedraggled begonia and ghoulish plumeria.

But as far as Aziraphale’s newest acquisition is concerned, Crowley has to admit it looks much revived in the whole of twenty hours, sixteen minutes, and thirty-seven seconds that Aziraphale has owned it, each coo that passes his lips turning another curled leaf a lively moss green.

“How much longer are you planning on staying out here?” Crowley asks, prying one eyelid open, then the other, lowering himself to one knee and hooking his chin over Aziraphale’s shoulder.

“I don’t know.” Aziraphale raises an arm to wipe his brow, then shifts to stretch his back, carefully so as not to dislodge his demon. “It’s a fine morning, but I really just wanted to see this little guy comfy in his new home. After that, I was thinking about …”

Aziraphale’s explanation cuts short when Crowley takes his chin in his hand and repositions his face, turning it toward him for a clearer view.

“What are you wearing?”                                                              

Aziraphale raises a brow at his demon’s switch in tone. He doesn’t sound angry. More confused … and concerned. “You’re going to have to be more specific, my dear. I have a lot of things on.”

“Did you borrow a pair of my sunglasses?”

Aziraphale’s mouth drops into a surprised ‘o’. “Yes, my dear. I do more than you think. You’re just never up this early to see it.”

“Why in the world would you do that?”

“They’re just sunglasses, my dear.”

“Maybe, but I don’t think I’m comfortable with you wearing them.”

A laugh explodes from Aziraphale’s mouth. “Ha! You hypocrite! You borrowed my coat for a nap not a week ago! And last night, my shirt!” He gestures at Crowley clad in a pair of black lounge pants and a pale blue shirt two sizes too big. Crowley wraps his arms around his torso, hugging the garment defensively.

“It’s softer than mine,” he says.

“It’s not even a pajama shirt! You’re sleeping in clothes that were never meant to be slept in! And wrinkling them horribly, I might add.”

“They smell like you. It’s not the same.”

“Fair point, I suppose.” Aziraphale shakes his head at his absurd demon. “I guess I could go out and buy myself a pair, but I’m rather fond of yours. You have several lying around. I didn’t think you’d mind. But if it bothers you that much …” He raises his hands to remove the frames from his nose.

“Don’t ... don’t take them off,” Crowley says, catching his hands. “I don’t mind you borrowing anything of mine. Really. You should wear them. They look good on you.”

Aziraphale’s eyebrows lift as his eyes behind the dark lenses widen with delight. “You think so?”

“I do. Honestly. I guess the idea of you hiding your eyes … unnerves me.”

“I’m only hiding them from the sun, my dear.”

“I know that. But when I saw you wearing them, and I didn’t expect to see them on you, I thought that maybe you’d …” Crowley drops his own eyes, conceals them behind closed lids as if he’d only now become aware of them.

Aware of their serpentine appearance.

Aziraphale crooks a finger beneath his chin. He succeeds in raising the tilt of his head, but not his eyelids. “Yes?”

“I thought maybe you’d fallen. And you didn’t want to tell me.”

“I think you’d have found out eventually,” Aziraphale teases.

“I know that. It still … it …”

“Frightens you?”

Crowley sighs. “A little.”

“My dear boy …” Aziraphale moves his hand to Crowley’s cheek. Gently, he runs the pad of his thumb over his lips, inviting a kiss, which Crowley gives him “… we’ve been together a while now and I haven’t fallen yet. Personally, I’d like to believe we have nothing to worry about.”

“I always worry. Day and night. Big worrier, me. It’s in my nature.”

Aziraphale leans forward and gives his demon a kiss on the cheek. “I know it is.”

Crowley nods. He opens his eyes. He slants his head left and right, observing Aziraphale with a thoughtful expression. He reaches for the glasses. “I think I’d like to make a little change to these, if you don’t mind.”

“They’re your glasses, my dear. Be my guest.”

Crowley takes the glasses off Aziraphale’s nose. He flips them swiftly end over end, transforming them, then shows them to him.

“Show off,” Aziraphale mutters, but grins when he sees how they’ve changed – the style of the glasses exactly the same but the frames a snowy white, the shields along the sides a glittering gold in place of silver, the lenses opaque by virtue of a dazzling pearlescence, and a small set of angel wings imprinted on the lower right-hand corner of the right lens.

“There.” Crowley slips the glasses proudly onto his angel’s face. “I think that suits you better. Less jarring at the very least.”

“I think you’re right. I thank you for your generosity.” Aziraphale takes Crowley by the hand and pulls him in for a real kiss, a polite but passionate press of their mouths together … accompanied by a mildly more naughty nibble of his lower lip that makes Crowley moan.

“On the matter of generosity, angel,” Crowley whispers with a suggestive growl, one that Aziraphale assumes is meant to lure him back to bed, “you’re not getting your shirt back.”

Aziraphale rolls his eyes, glancing at the shrub beside him as if expecting it to concur with him over the ridiculousness of his demon. “I didn’t think I was.”