#but she no longer has the energy to jump a lot

[lottieurl]

who wants to know what my dog's name is

[sebscore]

gen-z driver chaotically taking over martin’s grid walk? thank you!!

KEEPING UP WITH THE GRID

pairings: f1 team principals, drivers and ex-driver x driver!reader (im too lazy to name everyone im sorry)

warnings: swearing. christian horner. mention of a nipple tweak.

author's note: anon, you are a legend for requesting this! I'm not too proud of the writing, since I wrote this in the middle of the night and my brain doesn't function normally then. but i hope you like it anyway, darling! let me know your thoughts!!

masterlist

• • • • • • •

Y/N was mindlessly scrolling through her phone when a sudden loud voice interrupted her peaceful time. ''How are we feeling about today, Y/N?'' Martin bent his knees, so he could hold the mic up to her face as she sat on the ground. 

''Oh my god, you scared the shit out of me.'' She cursed, quickly covering her mouth as she knows she isn't supposed to swear on Sky Sports. ''Uh, I'm feeling pretty good about it, I'm starting on the second row, so not too bad.'' The driver answered his question, smiling sheepishly. 

''You like having alone time before a race?'' He continued, a grin on his face. 

Y/N shrugged her shoulders. ''I just happen to be alone right now, sometimes I'm chatting with my team or with some of the other drivers.'' 

''Martin, you look a bit tired, you want to sit down?'' She patted the space next to her, feeling bad that he was crouching down while she comfortably sat on the grass. 

The former F1 driver held a look of surprise on his face. ''In all my years I've been doing this, no one has ever offered me to sit down.'' He gave the camera a glance before slowly letting himself sink to the ground. 

''You know, people always wonder 'Where is Martin?' But no one ever wonders 'How is Martin?' We need to take better care of you.'' The man seemed clueless about what she was saying, but he was amused either way. 

''I'm alright, all that walking takes a lot of energy.'' He responded, pretending to wipe sweat off his forehead. 

Y/N chuckled. ''Yeah, I mean, you've been doing this longer than I've been alive, so I understand that you're tired from all the walking.'' She never let the oppurtunity slip to make him aware of their age gap. 

''Well, let's not talk age,'' he sighed, making her laugh, ''anyway, I think I might just hang around here for the entire segment.'' Martin concluded. 

An idea popped into her head as she heard his words. ''Can I do it? I've always wanted to do it.'' 

Martin was surprised for a second time since joining the young woman. ''You mean I let you go around the grid and talk to people?'' 

She nodded. ''Yes, I love bothering people with my presence.'' Y/N said, matter-of-factly. 

The Brit looked at his cameraman, who adamantly nodded his head to the idea of letting the driver do her thing around the grid. 

Martin let out a deep breath, but handed his mic and headset over. ''Just don't get me fired,'' he said, trying to sound stern, ''and don't curse!'' He quickly added. 

''I won't, I promise! I'll see you later!'' She got up from the ground and put the headset on, slightly altering it so it fit her head perfectly. ''Alright, let's make some controversy.'' Y/N exclaimed, pulling the cameraman along. 

She glanced around the grid, trying to find some interesting people to talk to. ''So, I just need to find a person and ask them questions about whatever I want?'' The athlete asked the cameraman, who simply nodded his head, making the camera shake as well.

''Oh, I love this program!'' She giggled into the microphone, doing a small jump out of happiness. 

Y/N observed the grid, knowing her first ''guest'' needed to be a good one. ''Okay, I've found someone!'' She let the cameraman know, pointing in the direction she wanted to go. 

''Alright,'' she tapped the person's shoulder, having them turn to the camera in confusion, ''the first guest on Y/N's grid walk is the team principal of Mercedes… Petronas… Benz…,'' she tried remembering the full team name, ''Whatever, his name is Susie's husband! Welcome, Susie's husband.'' She introduced Toto. 

The Austrian man was incredibly entertained by the young woman's antics. ''Hello, Y/N.'' 

''I have to ask you- how does it feel to be married to the greatest woman alive?'' She asked him, glancing around to find the woman in question. 

Toto laughed at the question, but proceeded. ''It's great, Susie is an amazing person who has done countless amazing projects and campaigns- I'm a very lucky man.'' The sincere smile on Toto's face when talking about his wife brought a smile to Y/N's face. 

''That's so cute- where is she? I only came over here, because I thought she would be here.'' 

''Unfortunately, she's not here today,'' he told her in a sad tone, ''I know that upsets you, Y/N.'' The driver's girl crush on Susie had been an obvious thing for many years, amusing everyone involved. 

Y/N pouted at his words. ''Well, yeah… that upsets me a lot actuall-''

''What is going on here?'' A British accent interrupted her interview with the team principal. 

''Go away, Russell George! I don't want you on my show.'' Y/N teasingly dismissed George, slapping his arm to get him out of frame. 

The Mercedes driver feigned offense, placing his hand on his heart. ''Why not? I thought we were great friends, Y/L.'' 

''Crikey, crikey, crikey! Don't you have shirtless pictures to post somewhere? Bye bye!'' She quickly got away from the Mercedes team, practically running at one point. 

Y/N let out a big sigh into the mic. ''Martin was right, this is tiring,'' she momentarily stopped in her steps, her hand on her waist, ''OH! Look! It's Charles Lechair!'' Her tiredness from a few seconds before was long forgotten as she strided over to her Monégasque friend. 

''Charles, hello, Charles!'' She put her hand on his back, guiding him to the camera. ''How are you feeling about the race today? What are the strategies? Do they know that word at Ferrari?'' She teased the red team. 

''Uh, we're feeling optimistic today and yeah, I'm ready to give it my all.'' He smiled, putting up his tv-friendly facade, not wanting to trash talk his team on television. 

Y/N raised her eyebrow. ''You're so cute being all positive! Keep that attitude, Perceval!'' She patted his shoulder. ''Thanks for talking to me and good luck!'' She bid him goodbye. 

The young driver walked in all sorts of directions. There were many people present on the grid, yet Y/N had quite a hard time finding people to talk to. It was when she walked by the Red Bull team that she found her next victim. 

''Christian! Christian Horner, hello, welcome!'' She and the team principal didn't have the best history, but she knew the viewers would enjoy the interaction as they knew said history. 

''Everyone, I'm joined here today by Red Bull, uh, Orange, Racing or whatever, F1 Team's team principal, Christian Horner.'' She butchered the team name again, although it was one purpose this time. 

She turned towards the man. ''Christian, I won't hold you up too long, but there is one question that our viewers have been dying to ask you and I think this is the right time to finally do it.'' Y/N build the question up. 

''Yes?'' He seemed a bit nervous, attentively listening to her words. 

''Can you say one nice thing about Y/N Y/L?'' 

The Brit visibly looked relieved at the question, thinking it would be something controversial. ''Of course, she's, uh, a very talented race car driver.'' He nervously smiled at her. 

''You heard it here first, ladies and gentlemen, Christian Horner thinks Y/N Y/L is the most talented driver in the history of Formula One!'' She overdramatized his response. 

''You know what they say, keep your friends close, but keep your enemies even closer.'' She patted Christian's shoulder. ''Thanks for the talk, good luck and I hope you don't win.'' Y/N told him before walking off, hearing him laugh behind her. 

''So far, I've talked to Toto Wolff and Christian Horner,'' she said to the camera, ''enemies to, uh, even worser enemies, I guess.'' 

''Guys, we're here with Yuki's boyfriend, Pierre Gasly.'' Y/N stood next to the Alpha Tauri driver, shoving the microphone in his face. He took his airpods out of his ears, already chuckling at the girl's actions. 

''How are you doing?'' 

''I'm-''

''That's all the time we have for you, I'm sorry.'' She didn't let him finish his words and walked away from him, quickly giving him a smile so he knew she was entirely joking. 

She stepped further onto the grid, continuing to look for people. ''A bunch of green outfits, not very fashionable- oh, it's Aston Martin! Let's find Sebastian!'' Y/N mixed herself with the Aston Martin team, trying to catch the German driver. 

''Seb! Seb! Can I ask you a few questions?'' She eventually reached the man, greeting him with a kiss on the cheek. 

His signature bright smile covered his face. ''Yeah, but where's Martin?'' 

''Me and Martin made an agreement, I get to do the grid walk and he gets to drive my car later- although, he never won any races, so that might not have been a great decision on my part.'' She told Sebastian, who seemed confused and fascinated at the same time. 

''Well, I think you're doing a great job as reporter.'' He deflected her words, not wanting to get in trouble by saying anything about Brundle's lack of GP wins. 

She smiled. ''Thanks, anyway… I know qualifying didn't go too well for you, but are you optimistic about the race?'' 

''Yeah, quali wasn't what we were hoping for,'' he sighed, ''It's gonna be difficult today, but we're gonna try our best to get as much points as we can for the championship.'' Sebastian finished his answer with an encouraging nod. 

''That's great to hear! You've been- oh my god, is that your dad?'' Y/N had glanced away from Sebastian's face for one second and saw Norbert watching them, waving at her once he noticed her looking at him. ''Okay, bye Sebastian! I'm gonna talk to your dad now.'' 

She walked past the Aston Martin driver to approach his father. ''Can I ask you some questions? I swear it's very short.'' She didn't want to burden him for too long. 

Norbert gave her a thumbs up, not minding being interviewed for a short time by her. ''It's okay.'' 

''Amazing! I mean, you're a legend of the paddock, Norbert! The drivers love you, the fans love you, everyone just loves you! Do you feel the love every time you attend a GP?''

Y/N had a good relationship with him as he and Sebastian would sometimes attend her karting tournaments together. Norbert had given her parents advice on how to support the young girl as best as possible. In a nutshell, the Vettel family were some of the greatest people she had ever met. 

''I do feel it, it's a great feeling and everyone is so nice to me.'' He wasn't very confident in his English, so he kept it short. 

Y/N smiled at him, delighted she got the chance to talk to him. ''You're always super sweet to everyone, so it's only right that we reciprocate your kindness,'' she nodded, ''okay, last question! Apart from Seb, who is the driver you're rooting for today? Is it someone you know very well? Or someone who is standing next to you and is asking you amazing questions?'' She played with a strand of her hair, pretending like she wasn't talking about herself. 

He laughed at her words. ''I'm supporting you, of course!'' He exclaimed, his arm going around her shoulder. 

''Oh! You're the best, Norbert! You're my favorite Vettel for a reason!'' Y/N said extra loud, knowing Sebastian would hear it that way. 

''I'll leave you alone now, thank you so much and I'll see you after the race.'' She gave him a brief hug and he wished her good luck, which she thanked him for. 

The cameraman had difficulties keeping up with her, used to the slower pace of Martin. Y/N noticed this and slowed down, sending him an apologetic look. ''Alright, I've talked to Seb, so I feel obligated to talk to Lewis now.'' She commented, trying to look for the 7x World Champion. 

''Where is he? He shouldn't be this hard to find…'' The athlete always saw the Mercedes driver hanging around the grid, chatting with his celebrity friends or getting ready with Angela. 

Y/N frowned. ''I should lore him or something…,'' she thought for a moment, ''vegan food, I have vegan food! Uh, free skydiving session! Oh my god, is that Roscoe on the track?'' She tried making him appear, but the only thing she got was weird looks from bypassers. 

However, a certain blond man caught her attention instead. ''Okay, I can't find Lewis, but this person knows him very well… or used to at least.'' 

''Britney Spears! Can I interview you for the highly respected tv-show, Y/N's grid walk?'' She snuck up to the former Mercedes driver, catching him off guard, but he played it off. ''Sure, I'm very honored.'' His monotone voice almost made her cringe. 

''First question: is it alright if I call you Britney? I don't know how you feel about the nickname.'' 

Nico chuckled at her. ''You can call me that, Y/N.'' 

''Ooooh~ I'm getting special privileges! I like it!'' She was impressed by Nico's answer, not being sure if he would go along with her humor. 

''Next question! How does it feel to be a Monaco based Youtuber? Do you enjoy the influencer life?'' 

The former World Champion snickered at her question, not expecting her to bring up his Youtube channel. ''It feels great, I'm, uh, yeah, enjoying the influencer life.'' She could tell Nico was doing his best to come off as positive as possible. 

''Nice, good for you, dude! Anyway, this was Britney, the man who beat the 7x World Champion, Lewis Hamilton, in equal machinery in 2016!'' She quoted the meme that was often made online when people talked about Rosberg. 

Y/N didn't wait for Nico's reaction, a bit too scared if she was honest, and made a run for it again. ''I've talked to three German guys- wait, is Nico German? He said once that he doesn't drink beer, so I don't know if he's considered German.'' She rambled on, not even listening to the words that were leaving her own mouth. 

''There's Jenson.'' She caught the Brit talking to his Sky Sports colleagues. ''You know what? I've embarrassed myself enough already, I'm not making it any worse.'' Y/N went in another direction so as to not cross paths with him. 

''Too bad he doesn't drive anymore, I would have loved to give him a lucky nipple tweak.'' Martin and Jenson used to have this running gag of the older man giving him a nipple tweak for good luck before a race. 

Y/N didn't see where she was going and almost tripped over someone's foot. ''Oh, shit!'' She loudly exclaimed, balancing herself so she wouldn't fall. ''Oh, fuck I can't swear- wait, shit! Ugh!'' She pulled the microphone away from her face, that way her curses wouldn't be picked up. 

''This isn't live, right? Cause then I'm in trouble, I think.'' She glanced at the cameraman, who mumbled a small ''It is live.'' 

''THIS IS LIVE?'' Y/N gasped, looking absolutely horrified at the thought of thousands of people watching her at that moment. ''Let's find Martin then, I think I've done enough damage.'' 

She headed back to the place where the presenter had approached her. ''Martin! Where is Martin?'' The driver glimpsed around, but no Martin in sight. ''I have oatmeal!'' She yelled, before making eye contact with the camera. ''Old people love oatmeal, right?'' He simply chuckled, not wanting to shake the camera too much with his laughing. 

''Oh, there he is!'' Y/N spotted the man and made her way over to him as fast as she could. ''I definitely didn't say anything controversial or cursed throughout the entire thing.'' She greeted him. 

Martin looked relieved as she handed his microphone and headset back over to him. ''I was out of my element for a while,'' he joked, ''did you have fun, darling?'' 

Y/N nodded her head. ''Yes, I'm even considering changing career paths.'' She chuckled. 

''That's great,'' Martin smiled, confident she made some amazing television, ''well, I think you're gonna have to go, cause I can see your, uh, coach not looking too happy.'' He pointed towards her performance coach staring daggers at her. 

''Oh, fuck, yeah, bye Martin! Thank you so much!'' Y/N quickly thanked the man for letting her take over his segment and she dashed out of there, hoping her team wouldn't be too upset about her disappearing into the grid to ask everyone ridiculous questions. 

''She's a special one for sure.'' 

taglist :: @i0veless @missskid @missthem @rosesintj @evans-dejong @thehistoryone @dreamycloudsworld @formulazeesworld @muushmeg @topguncultleader @the-great-adventures-of-me @love13tter @xcharlottemikaelsonx @kiwisa @starkwlkr @nora_moon @princesselle2111 @valluvsu @thatsadsmallchild @babyyoda89 @milkbreadforlife @fxllfaiiry @hc-dutch @its-ash-not-grey @princessbetsy123-blog @mehrmonga @nyenye @screechingtrashkid @ahnneyong @holybatflapexpert @itsnotgray

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[whoreforellieandabby]

Lego date

Loser ellie x loser r?

A/n: I haven't been posting bc my mental health has gone down the drain but i finally got the energy to write this little idea

You were in your apartment piecing together a new Lego set you had just bought. It was a big project, and you knew you wanted to have a night to dedicate to it. So while your friends are off partying on a friday night, you're indoors with your record player on and Lego on the table. Dina had tried to get you to go out with them, but this was too exciting to wait any longer for. But then you hear a knock on your door. You let out a frustrated sigh. You weren't expecting a package or anything, and you texted Dina and Jesse that you for sure were not going. You open the door, expecting Dina to see her best friend and your crush, Ellie. You froze a little, not expecting to see her. You weren't super close with her, only exchanging a few sentences between each other when you were with her.

"Hi Ellie...what are you doing here?" You said.

She took in your figure. You were wearing some pajama shorts and a tank top. Ellies face went red as she spoke.

"Dina wanted me to check on you." She said.

You looked down and quickly cross your arms in front of your chest.

"Why?" You asked.

"Normally, you don't pass on free weed"

You looked back at your table.

"Yeah... I'm just busy tonight."

"You don't look busy." She stated.

You sighed.

"I'm building a lego set."

Ellie immediately got excited. You two finally had a shared interest other than weed.

"Really?" She excitedly asked.

"Yeah," you saw that her reaction was good, and she wasn't going to tease you for it. "You wanna see it?"

She quickly nodded, and you let her in the house.

You showed her the lego set on the table.

"Whoa this one's cool I don't have this one!"

"I didn't know you built legos." You said

"Yeah, well, Dina and Jesse, don't build legos, and since I met you through them and you're like Dina, I expected you not to also"

"No I like them a lot" you said.

Ellie has never been in your apartment, so she looked around the room and saw a bunch of nerdy stuff she was into.

"You never talk about all of this stuff" she said.

You shrugged.

"Dina and Jesse aren't into it, so I don't really bring it up"

"This is awesome," Ellie said while looking into your eyes.

"Do you... want to stay here and help me build this? I know you're supposed to be out at a party with Dina and Jesse..."

Ellie immediately jumped at the chance to spend time with you. She has always wanted to but was to much of a pussy to ask.

"Yes, I'd like that" she said almost a little to enthusiastic.

"Ok" you nod.

You both spend the evening building the set, listening to music, and talking. The chemistry flowed between you both. But soon enough you were both tired and Ellie needed to get back to her place because she had plans with Joel the next day.

"Will you...go out with me?" She finally got the courage to ask. Her face turned bright red and she messed with her hands.

"I'd love to Ellie."

Ellie felt her body relax and she gave you a smile.

"Ok, I'll text you the details"

You walked her to the front door and opened it up letting her walk out your door into the chilly night until you made a quick impulsive decision.

"Ellie!"

She turned around and you gently grabbed her face and softly kissed her. You quickly pulled back from her freaking out and quickly went to close the door.

"Text me!" You yelled to her before closing the door.

Ellie quickly sprinted to her car and immediately pulled out her phone to text Dina about finally asking you out and the kiss.

[nova2kss]

Influencer island

“GOOD MORNING AMERICAAAA”

“I’m your host Yanna Bailey and we are back here on the influencer island”.

“On the previous episode we introduced the men that dared to step foot on this island and you guys went absolutely wild!”

“I know we picked a top tier cast but damn, #theinfluencerisland number 1 trending on twitter?”

“You bitches are eating it up, so I know for a fact when we introduce these ladies yall are going to be in absolute shambles.”

“Starting off hot as HELL”

“….sorry y’all I had to take a breath.”

“It’s Mikasa fucking Ackerman”

“I fucking love her okay! And I’m not gon lie I don’t know if ima be able to host this show…you can’t put Mika in a room with Yanna cause ima jump on this woman bones.”

“Anywho.. Mika is a celebrity nail tech and hair dresser, you’ve seen her on tour with Victoria Monet, Megan the stallion, so many more but most importantly ? Cardi B!”

“Yes the girl who gives cardi those gorgeous claws and the girl who be giving cardi that long ass weave that be tickling her ass crack that is THE Mikasa Ackerman.

Aside from her gorgeous looks and work she is a party animal and you can see her turning up in multiple crowds of the artists that she stays with…let’s see if she can bring that same energy to the island.”

“Gosh I am so excited to introduce this next hottie, she so soft spoken but I heard she gives it up pretty wild off the camera, as you know she is a pretty new influencer so I think she’s coming in here with something to prove.”

“The gorgeous blonde baker Historia Reiss”

“So off topic but her name is sooo cute”

“Historia went viral showing her tremendous cooking skills back in mid 2023, and since then she’s been going viral for baked goods and beauty.”

“But let’s not forget about the time this little firecracker whooped ass at a Fourth of July party THIS YEAR!”

“Something that not only myself but the fans were not excepting, I know you guys are gonna be so happy to see her on here”

“We’ve seen how Historia gives it up in the in the kitchen, we’ve seen how she gives it up in the field, now it’s time to see if she can hang with these animals on this island”

“As stated she is pretty like an angel but the call her the devil…(there were no lies told)”

“Sasha braus first rose to fame on TikTok reviewing foods and looking so hot with that gorgeous maroon hair”

“You can see her with the talented man himself Jean Kristen, according to them they are childhood best friends and we’ve seen Jean and party mode but never sash…that’s gonna change on this island.”

“Sasha was ranked on the 2024 top 20 comedians list at #12, I can honestly see why everyone loves Sasha pretty, hilarious, and relatable… mhm she’s gonna fit right in here”

“Calypso, calypso, calypso…mhm girl you are gonna get me in TROUBLE”

“This short haired hottie calypso blue has been on a longgggg break from the internet and the only time we’ve seen her is when she popped outside with her influencer bestie y/n”

“And mind y’all we only knew it was her cause of them famous short hair..”

“Well let me tell yall, after a damn near year long hiatus she has popped out and boy oh BOY!”

“This girlie done came back with some longer hair, and some Tatts…?? We already knew calypso blue was a hottie but this?? Oh she is taking it hunty”

“The intro is no longer needed calypso blue is here and you’ll be seeing her first hand on influencer island.”

“…..I don’t like this bitch.”

“But it’s my job to introduce her.”

“Ummm so i really don’t know who picked her BUT this is Pieck finger, she’s a black haired bitch who party’s a lot fucked porco on video tried to get at my nigga and I’m probably gonna beat her ass.”

“On a brighter note we know she can party cause it’s all she does, no questions asked she could get as wild as the other guys and gals…NEXT”

“Our next and final blondie is Mrs. Hitch”

“And according to her Rihanna’s faviorite which I’m pretty sure the whole internet disagrees with but..I digress.”

“Beautiful girl who rose to fame back in 2022 being spotted with Rihanna and I mean if you’re being spotted with someone as big as mofucking riri you think we not finna check you out?”

“But besides being ri right hand women it’s time to see what else hitchey can do…you know without the co-sign ”

“The beautiful Ryan!!”

“Ryan is the owner of the ASOS clothing brand which is a brand for plus sized men and women.”

“She became very popular on TikTok while promoting her clothing brand and since then she’s taken off with so many sells, fans and followers”

“We know she can design the hell out some clothes but I wanna know what it she gonna do once her toes hit this sand.”

“As y’all known she’s known to be a shy girl and doesn’t party much…BUT WE CANT BE HAVIN THAT HAIR”

“So we gone need Ryan to come up out her shell and hopefully survive on this long awaited journey”

“And finally we have the beauty, the mogul, the TOP influencer y/n”

“She needs to intro we all know her”

“And we all love her”

“She is THE beauty influencer, 9 time outta 10 if you’re searching tips and tricks you’re on her page scrolling endlessly”

“I’ve partied with this city girl before so I know how she gives it up now it’s your turn to see and boy I cannot wait for you to see, you guys fav isn’t as innocent as you think”

“Whew lord I pray for the beds in this house cause with these fine ass men and these gorgeous women I feel like they’ll be broke before we ever get to finish filming.”

“Know that you know which of your favs will be participating in the match a vote will be up shortly you can choose who you want to stay or go before they even get into the house, and remember to chose wisely after all you don’t want the wrong person to get that 1 million dollar check.”

“I’m your host Yanna Bailey signing out, make sure you stay tuned for the pilot of influencer Island.”

The girlies are here!!!! Sorry if I didn’t add an aot character that you wanted, I needed my sexy ocs to shine 😁

Idk if you guys peeped but I tried to do different shades of black for y/n but yea first ep coming soon and make sure to vote on the poll !!

❤️

[burnorgetburned]

okay. OKAY. I JUST WANT TO SAY.

NEW MUSIC STYLE. NEW ART STYLE. NEW MAGIC SYSTEM, NEW GIRLS, MORE CLARA DOLLS, MORE HOMURA OUTFITS, MORE EVERYONE OUTFITS, and AAHAHAHAHSGH.

Homura wins by style points alone.

Anyway. Choice screenshots and my thoughts on them. Plus a few wild theories. Replies, tags, and your own reactions are VERY welcome.

(You're doing great, sweetie!)

First of all, I’ve already said this, but Homura has usurped Kyubey. She is the contractor in this new system. She calls magical girls and asks them if they can bear the responsibility of fighting (LEAGUES better than Kyubey's misleading BE A HERO language), using a magical lizard phone. She knows better than anyone else how heavy this is.

And she looks amazing while doing it. Look at that outfit! Look at her steampunk-esque aesthetic! Her throne. Which, notably, has glowing magenta eyes and her wings as a backrest.

The moon is either actually, physically repurposed, or she’s made something that looks like it. Not only that, but the pins going into the moon are exactly like the pins that went into her soul gem when she was being experimented upon in Rebellion. Those pins, according to the artbook, are for draining her gem of grief to keep her just before the point of witching.

Well, here’s my first wild speculation: Homura has not only taken over Kyubey’s job as a contractor but also its job of disposing of grief. That moon steampunk device is maybe for collecting, concentrating, and distilling grief into energy - hence the strange tesla coils connected to red liquid in the second screenshot above. She's doing what Kyubey says it's doing - turning the grief of people into energy to prolong the universe's lifespan.

I for one support her reality-warping shenanigans.

Here are some voices over a phone, sometimes speaking over each other, sometimes together. They call Homura “Akuma-sama” (!!!) which is a distinct upgrade from calling her Good-For-Nothing. They say “Just bring hope” like a mission statement. Are these her contracted girls? Or her Clara Dolls? They seem to show her a lot of respect.

I’ve also said this, but I strongly feel that this and the girl shown later are some of Homura’s new contractees. Their magic is darker. It warps the world around them, even. Their outfits incorporate black a lot more, too, though that might be the lighting.

Look at the little sigil on the top left-middle! Looks a lot like Homura’s lizard sigil shown when she was consuming the universe, just with a longer lizard.

And, of course, the image of Madoka throwing herself off of a building. “Wraith” and “Legend of Bestie” (lmao) show up here. I’ve actually been really looking forward to seeing what they’ll do with Madoka’s… self-sacrificial tendencies, so this might be part of that. Or, because of “Wraith”, it’s… well, I’ll get to that later.

On the other hand, it might not be Madoka. It might be the girl who the speaker in the phone call calls her "best friend", jumping to her death because of a wraith, and Homura saving her to fulfill a wish.

So glad that the insane architecture from Rebellion is making a comeback. Love what you’ve done with the place, Homura. Look at all those cranes!

The outfit changes are very cool to me. I honestly don’t have speculation for why Sayaka is covered in bandages, but I do have speculation for the changes!: they’re older. Years have passed. Since they’ve changed and grown, their outfits have changed, too. I don't have proof of this - I just like the idea.

Light shines down on Madoka. Petals fall towards her as flowers bloom above. Behold, Homura's extremely subtle and inscrutable feelings. (Sorry for the blurry Madoka, but I am not going through the ordeal of uploading screenshots to my computer again because Tumblr does not like mobile users).

Homura is apparently waiting for Madoka here. She's standing right in the fountain's water and holding a Victorian umbrella like a vampire. Right now we can see that the visuals of this movie will not miss.

Is this a routine thing for them or is Homura just showing up to greet them this one time, for some reason? No clue. Madoka's expression as she notices Homura could indicate either.

Eagle-eyed people on Twitter noticed this, but in these shots, Sayaka already has her bandages.

Aside from the multiple and/or teleporting Homuras, there's also a Clara Doll in a ballerina dress and a cute Clara Doll peering over the side of the tower like a little kid.

The tower is interesting. It appears to be made of books or pages, and there's chains throughout it. More notably, it's in the shape of a helix - infinity symbols on top of each other.

Please appreciate these Clara Dolls. I'm sure they're working hard.

But seriously, those Clara Dolls' details. One has a witch's hat. One has an apple on its head. And the one with a teacup appears to have not only a lizard's tail but a replica of Homura's Devil outfit. Appreciate them!

Here is Homura(?), lounging or trapped on a chair filled with even more of those pins. Look at her closely. She's wearing a strange combination of her magical girl outfit and her Devil outfit - her shoulders are bare, and she has... feathers? She's sitting on a bunch of nails. But she also has two soul gems - one in her hand, and one hanging from her neck.

Is she cleansing them? Eating them? Holding people hostage? I don't know, but I support her completely.

She looks so tired.

So: here's some of what I think might be going on.

Homura is using wraiths to repress her worst memories. We know already that wraiths take memories and emotions from their victims. Well, there's no reason it can't be used as extremely terrible coping! Homura actually does this in the Wraith Arc, too - she lets a wraith take her feelings for Madoka.

If it is Madoka, it explains the shot with Madoka throwing herself off a builing - what if Homura has seen this happen in the loops, and out of pain lets a wraith pull it right out of her? The shot says "WRAITH" and billows with smoke. A wraith could have taken Madoka's form to act out this memory. And it doesn't need to be a memory - it could also represent Madoka's self-sacrifice and almost suicidal tendencies. This, too, would explain the multiple Homuras. All wraiths using her form.

This puts forward powerful enemies for the plot, as well as an interesting point of literally fighting Homura's demons. Most importantly, this lets everyone see Homura's pain.

Other wild dartboard speculations:

Homura will try and present herself as a villain. This is, honestly, kind of guaranteed, but it bears mentioning that her magical girls will be very likely to try to defend her.

Kyubey may appear to try and turn the girls against Homura.

Homura made the new magical girl who is drawing a bow. She has a lot of design choices from the Quintet, and people have already noticed how much she looks like Madoka. This new girl plays a role of the hero to Homura's pretend-villain, eliminating the risk that her friends will get seriously hurt.

The new magical girl is actually Madoka. Or the Law of Cycles. Or Kriemhild Gretchen.

The girl who jumps from the tower is a contractee being asked to take a leap of faith. She does so, and Homura rewards her with magic.

[mistystepmoonbeam]

Reborn into BG3: Chapter 6

You're reborn into BG3 with only the memory of your past life. Now you're Tav's companion on his journey, and must learn about yourself as much as your new reality.

Chapter 6: Astarion is hungry, and why would he feed on a strong barbarian when you're right there?

Word count: 2.3K

Whatever took place at the blighted village exhausted the adventurers.  Tav had been able to talk his way around the goblins, but the spiders below the town had given them trouble.  You recall your own time defeating the spider matriarch, and her many, many children.    Between peeling off the webbing and patching up wounds,  they were all ready for rest.  

You and Karlach had bought some supplies to feed the group, and she was a lot more handy making a stew than you thought she would be. 

There was a strange sense of home as you all ate together, without Astarion who took his meal into his tent and claimed he was going right to sleep.  Karlach had booed at him but nobody pressed him to stay longer.  You wonder if tonight is the night he’ll try to feed off Tav.

When the night begins to quiet down and most of the companions go to bed you find you can hear a hum  in the air.  Your ears ring with some kind of energy coming from Tav’s bag.  You eye it by his bedroll, unsure if the hum is coming from there or if it’s a trick of echoes between the trees.

“You can feel it, can’t you?” a voice says in your ear.  You nearly jump out of your skin and turn to Gale, who’s holding up his hands with an apologetic smile.  

“I thought you went to sleep,” you say, hand over your heart.

Tav snickers at your fear, tail flicking in the air.

Gale lets out a small grunt as he sits beside you, one leg bent and the other stretched towards the fire.  “The spiders had quite the item in their cave, whether they knew it or not.”

Tav reaches into his bag and pulls out the amethyst stone you know unlocks the necromancer’s book.  The hum grows, more of an annoyance in your ear than anything.  

“What is it?” you ask.

“I believe it goes into this.”  Gale pulls out the Necromancy of Thay from his own pack.  The gaping mouth, amethyst eyes, all of it the same.  You resist the urge to scoot away, because unlike the stone key, you can’t sense anything from the book.  “Astarion was keen on holding onto this which is why I suspect he’s moping in his tent right now.”

You eye the book.  “You’re not going to open it, are you?”

“Perhaps another time.”  Gale sets the book away, while Tav tosses the amethyst into the air and catches it like a baseball.  Gale scolds, “Once again, please do not do that.”

Tav shrugs but stores the stone back in his bag.  He yawns and looks towards Shadowheart’s tent as if considering something before excusing himself.  Bag in hand, he retreats to his tent.  You look between him and Shadowheart’s tent curiously. 

“I think he’s worried about her,” Gale tells you, drawing your attention back to him.  “It took a lot of her power to heal him from the spiders poison.”

“Ah, right.”  She has looked extra weary upon her return.  “How are you feeling?”

“While I do look forward to a long rest, I wanted to test you.”

“You’re giving me a pop quiz?  But I didn’t even review the syllabus.”

Gale chuckles as he stands.  “If you can sense the power from the stone, then I believe you can manipulate the Weave.  Come.”

You follow Gale towards his tent but he keeps walking until you two are by the river.  With a large moon overhead and fireflies dotting the area you can see better than you thought you should.  

“I’m not sure I’ll be able to do anything,” you say.  There’s an excited twinkle in his eye at the prospect of solving the mystery of your past.  As much as you want it to be true, you can’t picture yourself using magic.  

Gale smiles at you, like he knows something you don’t.  Well, he knows plenty you don’t but it seems like it’s something about you.  

“I’m going to channel the Weave,” he says, “and I want you to close your eyes and tell me what you feel.”

You step up beside him, literally nothing to lose.  “Should I get the staff Tav gave me?”

“No, I just want you.”  Gale lifts his hands to start a spell when he clarifies, “Here.  I just want—need you right here without any conduits.”

You bite your cheek to hide the smile at his stammering, and nod.  With a tilt of your head left and right to stretch your neck, you close your eyes.

“Now, just tell me what you feel.”

You wait for something to happen, a breeze or a sting on your skin, but even the phantom limb is unperturbed by whatever Gale is doing.  You shrug.  “Nothing.”

Gale’s voice is distant when he responds.  “Reach out with your mind.”

Once upon a time you would have asked how to do that, but now you keep quiet and consider trying to move the phantom limb.  It’s right there, a weight on the back of your mind and yet…

You clear your throat, shoulders shifting uncomfortably.  It’s heavier now, even without actually trying to use it.  The cold fear that settles across your chest pierces deeper than anything you’ve ever felt.  Your breath quickens until that cold fear becomes terror wrapped around your heart and you open your eyes, ready to tell Gale you want to stop. But instead of the handsome wizard you find a rotting boar head in front of you, on top of Gale’s body.  Maggots fall from its eye sockets and the mouth hangs open with a broken jaw, fur matted with fresh and dry blood alike.  It squeals at you as if being skewered alive.

The terror bubbles into your throat until it comes out of your mouth as a shriek.

You shoot up from your bedroll, arms blindly shoving at the dark to get the boar-headed Gale away from you and finding nothing but shadows.  You lurch, falling to the side when your hands connect to nothing, heart ablaze with adrenaline as you claw at the blue fabric.  It’s too dark in your tent to see anything but out of habit you scramble for your phone, your nightstand, something, anything to light up this small space and assure you there’s no threat.  

There’s only the bottom of your staff and at the very least you can swing that around to hit anything that might be near you.  And you do swing it.  It connects with nothing.

The hanging crystals and bones clatter together when you stop after three swipes.  Your chest and shoulders rise and fall heavily with each breath, eyes adjusting to the dark.  

You gulp down as much air as possible while trying to calm your body.  You’re not just shivering, you're trembling from the residual fear of the dream.  But it wasn’t that bad.  Really, thinking about it now that you’re awake, it was scary but it wasn’t anything worse than what you’ve had in the past.  And it certainly shouldn’t have had you shrieking in the night.

Speaking of…shouldn’t someone have come running by now?  You listen to the wind blow through the trees but hear nothing else.  No questions about what’s going on, and no Tav rushing to your rescue.  Maybe you hadn’t actually screamed?  You could have sworn…

You aren’t ready to set down your staff, but you’re far too shaky to go back to sleep.  Instead you begin to stand only to see movement out of the corner of your eye.  Your body is much slower to react, even when on high alert, and in a flash there’s a hand over your mouth and your back is pressed against a warm chest, both of you still on the ground and your legs tangled in the blanket.  The intruder's other hand is wrapped around your own on the staff, ensuring you can’t attack.

Your free hand, still healing, fumbles to free your mouth when you hear a whisper, “Shhh, shh, sh.”

“Mstaeeom?”

“No need to wake up the entire camp,” Astarion says.  He snatches the staff from your grip while you’re temporarily stunned and tosses it out of reach.  “And no need to bludgeon me, either.”

You let out a deep sigh through your nose and lay a hand over Astarion’s to reassure yourself it’s him.  You remember his scent, more woodsy than you thought it would be, and your heart rate begins to calm.  When his other arm secures around your middle it reassures you more—the tightness of the hold comforting.

“Are you…are you calming down?” he questions incredulously.

You try to answer but can’t speak clearly with his hand over your mouth.  So you shift and try to look at him over your shoulder, pressing yourself further into his chest as your head struggles to turn.  You can just make out his chin in the dark when he finally releases your mouth.  

“I thought you were Gale with a rotting boar head.”

He squints at you, upper lip curling.  “I’ll assume that was the nightmare that had you assaulting the air.  But…why are you calm?  Shouldn’t you be screaming?  Struggling?  Calling for the others?”

“Why?”  When you attempt to shift forward he doesn’t let you, arm now locked securely around your waist since he’s no longer concerned with you fighting back with the staff. 

“Because I’m attacking you.”

“You are?”  You turn to get a better look at him but he grabs your chin and faces you forward.

He pauses.  “I just need a little of your blood and I’ll be on my way.  We don’t need to make a big thing out of it.”

“Blood?  Shouldn’t you be going for Tav?”

“Why would I go for the bulky barbarian that’s sleeping out in the open when you’re hidden here, weak and ripe for the plucking?”  Astarion begins to shift your head to the right to reveal your neck.  

“That’s a good point,” you mumble.  

His breath fans over your pulse point, but it isn’t some kind of excited or pleasant exhale.  It’s more like disappointment or…exhaustion.  And he doesn’t bite you.

“Um, Astarion,” you say.  

He’s silent.

“If you’re going to drink my blood can you at least do it from the wrist?”

“What?”  His question is just another breath.

“It’ll be easier to conceal marks on the wrist.”

Of all things, Astarion shoves you away.  He’s quick to get on his feet and step away from you while you fumble for balance.  One slender, pale finger points at you.  “What’s your game?”

“Go fish?”

His scowl deepens.  Watching him work through the slew of emotions and questions would be entertaining, if not for your own nagging question; why is he upset by this?  You offered him your blood just like Tav would.  So why didn’t he happily accept and tell you to get comfortable?  Wait.  Why were you so willing to get comfortable and let him potentially kill you?  Let’s lock that thought away until we can find out if therapists exist in this world.

“Sorry,” you say.  “I’m not playing a game…I just trust you.” 

A truly terrible idea.  There’s no guarantee this Astarion is exactly like the game but…

“And I owe you right?” you add.  “Feeding on me will just be like clearing my debt.”

Astarion frowns but considers your words.  “I suppose this means you know what I am.”

You scratch at the spot on your neck he’d been breathing on.  “I might have put it together just now.  And you’re a better fighter when you’ve fed, right?”

“Well I don’t need any more convincing,” Astarion says, voice turned that saccharine tone.  “Why don’t you get comfortable?”

As he kneels beside you you hold up a hand.  “I meant it about the wrist.”

Astarion frowns but nods.  You roll up the sleeve of your shirt, holding your arm towards him.  He sits, one leg bent so his knee faces upwards and the other lays on the ground.  There’s a gentleness as he takes your wrist with both hands, lifting it to his lips.  If you could see perfectly in the dark this might have scared you more, but the most you could make out were his eyes watching your skin and then the opening of his mouth.  

You feel the sting of his fangs, sinking deeper than any wound you’ve had before.  Well, any wrist wound, anyway.  You look away, not wanting to stare despite the morbid fascination with the act.  And you should be…colder, shouldn’t you?  Yes, his fangs do feel like ice is piercing your veins but the rest of you is warm—flushed even.  But then your head begins to swim, mind too big for your skull, and you sway.  

It’s too hot in that little tent.  Too enclosed.  You gulp as the nausea curls in your gut, the blood seeping from your wrist that doesn’t get sucked away by the vampire now dripping down your arm.

“Astarion,” you whimper.  When you try to pull back your arm he keeps you in place, drinking heavily.  

Oh gods, you rolled a one.

“Astarion!” you hiss.  It’s enough to take him out of his trance, finally pulling his fangs out of your wrist.

“Wha-oh, yes,” he mutters.  You watch him wipe the blood on his chin with his thumb and then lick it off.  Had you enough blood in your body and again, the ability to see perfectly in the dark, it might have been lewd.  But you have to lie down in hopes of making the world stop spinning.

“That was…” Astarion begins but changes whatever he was going to say.  “That was wonderful, thank you.  Now, I’m off to find something more…filling.”

You turn your head to him as he steps towards the entrance of your tent.  Just as he’s about to open one flap he turns to you. “Are you…all right?”

You give him a thumbs up with your good hand and a yawn.  “Don’t put any boars in my tent this time.”

Astarion replies, but you’re already asleep and don’t hear anything else the rest of the night.

Taglist:

@half-poison-and-half-hope @sanscas @hotmesshobbit @godoffuckedupcats @thequeen-oni @terrenuserinj @straewberrysoda @theomnipotentfox @becksynthetic @quitecontrary-to-mary @furblrwurblr @mega-trash-cringe @fandomsbookclub @dontneedbiologytoadopt @pebble-bb @v3lv3tvampir3 @mrow-kat

[fanfic-writer-and-rambler]

Cass: Hi Jason.

Jason: Hi, random girl in Bruce’s house.

Cass: I’m his new protege and he said he will… adopt me. My full is Cassandra, but I go by Cass. My hero name is Orphan.

Jason sighs shaking his head.

Jason: I freaking guessed adoption would be your answer. You even picked the name orphan.

Cass: It’s a cool name. It’s nice to finally meet you. Bruce has told me many things about you.

Jason: Provably nothing good.

Cass: Hm… You are Jason Todd. Died at 15, revived a few years later. You go by the name Red Hood and distance yourself from Bruce.

Jason: … Um yeah.

Cass squints her eyes, examining Jason.

Cass: Hm, Your body is tensed, your jaw, slightly clenched. You’re angry. Who are you angry at? Is it Bruce, he is a good man who made-

Jason: I gotta go!

Cass: Bye Jason!

Jason: Bye strange girl. Where does he find these kids?

A year later.

Cass, mask costume: Hi Jason.

Jason: Hi… Orphan girl.

Cass: Just Orphan. How have you been?

Jason: I’ve been worse, so yeah doing better.

Cass: Oh that’s good.

Cass notices the man isn’t as tense and his jaw isn’t clenched.

Cass: You are getting better. I’m glad. I wish we could chat a little longer, but I have to go, see you around?

Jason: Maybe.

Cass: Bye Jason.

Jason: Bye... weirdo.

Cass runs off to continue her mission.

Two days later

Cass: Hi Jason.

Jason looks up from his book.

Jason: Hey Orphan.

Cass: Mind if I sit with you?

Jason: Are you going to talk? If so I'm reading.

Cass shakes her head.

Cass: Just want to sit and think. I won’t talk a lot. I feel like you’re the type that isn’t much for conversation.

Jason: Most times. You can stay here then.

Cass smiles and sits down on the ground, closes her eyes and takes slow deep breathes. Jason notices, smiling and then returning to his book.

A few months later.

Cass: Hi Jason.

Jason: Hey Ca- Oh My God that’s an awesome suit!

Cass looks at her outfit (pictured above. I like that one more) and claps eagerly.

Cass: Thank you, it is Batman inspired. How have you been?

Jason: How have I been? How have you been? Tell me what’s going on with Cassandra.

Cass: Oh, I- A lot if you're willing to listen.

Jason: I’m free now.

Cass, happy: As am I. You look happy.

Jason, smiling: I am, thanks for noticing.

Two weeks later:

Dick Grayson: Is everyone here? Where’s Cass?

Cass: I’m here.

Dick Grayson jumps, jumping into Jason’s arms.

Cass: I arrived a few minutes ago, got distracted, back again. Hi Jason.

Jason drops Dick Grayson.

Jason: Hi Cass it’s good to see you, I didn’t say hi to you earlier. So I'm saying it now.

Cass: Thank you.

Tim Drake, crosses his arms: He’s not that nice to me.

Cass: Oh Jason can we do that hand hug we practiced?

Jason: For you, just once.

Cass claps eagerly. The two clasp their hands together and give them a little squeeze.

Cass: Now you have my positive energy!

Jason: No take it away.

Jason and Cass laugh as their siblings look on confused.

After the mission ends.

Cass: I’m off, bye Jason.

Jason: Bye Cass.

Cass runs off with Tim following behind.

Dick Grayson: That was the nicest I’ve seen you be to a bat kid.

Jason: Yeah, she’s neat.

[srvbryn]

JOHN DORY. HELLO TROLLS!

Pairing: John Dory x F!Lover!Rock Trolls!Reader

Warning: I DIDN'T PROOF READ 🙌 I was struggling (I'm lazy)

Summary: You've been living with JD in Rhonda since you first met him 20 years ago, after Brozone disbanded.

So to sum it up, his brother's reaction (separated) meeting you for the first time.

Floyd part is a bittt longer because I'm picking favorite 🙄🙄

The contrast between the rhythmic beats of pop and the raw energy of rock seems weird at first but you and JD have been living with each other for 20 years.

So when you first meet his brothers + poppy, (more like when they first see you lol)

Meeting BRANCH + Poppy for the first time :

• Poppy was literally jumping from place to place when she first saw you inside Rhonda's driver seat.

• Branch was surprised to see another troll, EVEN MORE SO A ROCK TROLL? Other than his brother, inside Rhonda. He didn't think twice about asking JD questions. "Who exactly is she to you John Dory?"

• "My girlfriend" JD doesn't seem to mind when people find out about his relationship. To say the least, Branch was surprised to find a troll capable of handling his older brother.

• He's irritated that after Brozone disbanded, his brother didn't feel bad for abandoning him, but hey, that's in the past, and seriously, seeing as you were a rock trolls, it was quite surprising.

BRUCE :

• "Baby, we're home!" JD exclaimed as he, Poppy, Branch, and Bruce entered Rhonda.

• "What do you mean Baby?" Bruce was about to ask, but before he could, he saw you jump on JD and smother him with kisses on his face.

• When Bruce sees you properly after you jump off JD, he realises you aren't a pop trolls, but rather a rock trolls.

• To say the least, he was surprised, just like Branch, and it was amusing to see someone who could handle the "Leader" oh wow

• He's relieved that JD has finally toned down his domineering personality, unlike 20 years ago.

CLAY :

• JD forces you to go outside with him and the others to find Clay because you were always inside.

• When you saw that Clay decided to cut when JD when he's talking - and ignore him when he wants to hug Clay

• You were furious knowing that JD been struggling to change his whole demeanor and controlling personality

• "HEY! YOU CAN'T JUST IGNORE YOUR BROTHER LIKE THAT!" you stand in front of Clay with both of your hands on either side of your hips.

• JD's heart skipped a beat when you said that to Clay. He knew he wasn't the best older brother to them, but seeing you defend him when Clay ignores and cuts his words when he's talking warms his heart.

FLOYD :

• You finally get to meet Floyd a few days after the whole 'Saving Floyd from Velvet and Veneer rising superstar from Mount Rageous using family harmony' thing was successful.

• You were in Rhonda, and JD was sleeping next to you. You heard a knock on the door, opened it slightly, and saw pink hair with white streaks that you knew it was Floyd and let him in..

• "You must be the infamous (Name)" Floyd laughs. He wasn't surprised to see you as his older brother's partner. That's because you're very understanding and kind, which Floyd admires in others. He was relieved that someone like JD now had a partner who could handle him with ease.

• "I'm not exactly famous, but hey, my name is (Name)," you introduce yourself to Floyd. The only brother with whom you have yet to speak is finally in front of you.

• "and I'm Floyd" he offered a hand to shake and you shake his hand. "I just want to say thank you" he suddenly said out of the blue.

• "What?" You were perplexed as to why he abruptly said thank you?? "For staying with my older brother after Brozone split up." He's been through a lot, and I'm glad you were there to support him." He goes on.

• you smile, "hey JD I think I finally have a favorite brother" you yelled out.

[shycoconutt]

The Fallout

pairings: gojo satoru x reader (gojo pov)

synopsis: your best friend, gojo satoru, comes back from a mission to find out that nanami kento has resigned from being a sorcerer and has left you.

content: (2.5 k), SFW, comfort, fluff, and whole lot of angst. ex-boyfriend? nanami, best friend gojo, and brother geto. contains jjk anime spoilers.

a/n: and here we have the ripple effect series! this is the aftermath of this fic. i’m going to continuing writing this story over time so strap in y’all! staying away from chapters as we'll be jumping around the timeline.

<3

Although he would never be quick to admit it, Gojo Satoru loves being home. Even with all of the memories that flood his mind as he walks through familiar spaces — hallways, classrooms, the gymnasium, the sparing field, the courtyard — many are all too painful to think about for too long, but he can’t help but indulge in the familiarity. Satoru is not quite sure if he has ‘loved-ones’, but the people that are close to him, those that could potentially fill that void, he knows are here at Jujutsu Tech.

On his way home from a week-long mission, Satoru knew who to look for first, as he owed two specific sorcerers a very happy graduation. He didn’t know how exactly he was going to go about it at first. Obviously he would try to give Nanami a hug, no wait, maybe he will leap into his arms and shower his face with kisses. No, he wouldn’t be able to get that far before Nanami shoves him off. Maybe he shouldn’t scare him off, as it was highly likely that Nanami would become his right-hand man.

You, on the other hand, were a little different. Satoru couldn’t help but think about you every moment he was gone, as he couldn’t shake the guilt of him, your best friend, not being there for your graduation ceremony. The moment the mission paperwork was placed on his desk, he cursed the higher-ups for being so careless. The smile you gave him in reassurance that you understood only made him feel worse.

Making his way inside the main building, Satoru can’t help but notice the lack of cursed energy around. He feels you somewhere in the distance, in your dorm maybe? Are you alone?

He feels the familiar cursed energy of another quickly approaching, and turns to give Yaga a quick wave and a smile as he turns around the corner. Although Satoru’s eyes are currently covered in white wrapping, his six eyes allow him to see Yaga’s puzzled expression clearly.

“Gojo,” Yaga approaches him quickly, and Satoru begins to worry that he’s going to be sent out on a mission just as quickly as he returned, “you’re back, good.”

“What is it?” Satoru is worried, but his tone doesn’t reveal it, “You sound more serious than usual, I didn’t know that was possible.”

Satoru notices the way Yaga nervously pushes up his glasses on the bridge of his nose, and how his eyes are focused on the wood floor beneath their feet. Whatever this is, it’s not good.

“Some… events have transpired since you’ve been gone,” he starts, “have you heard the news?”

“I-uh.. no, I haven’t.” What on earth could this be about now? Satoru’s eyes widened slightly, a terrible thought crossing his mind, “Everyone is okay right?”

“Everyone is safe, Satoru, don’t worry about that.”

Satoru notices how he replaces the word okay with safe.

“I’m surprised she didn’t contact you,” Yaga begins, “I’m afraid I have some news about what transpired after graduation.”

Satoru stays silent, letting him continue.

Scratching the back of his head, Yaga lets out a deep sigh before speaking, “Nanami Kento has resigned. He is no longer a sorcerer and has vowed to not use any cursed energy any longer. He had a meeting with me before the ceremony, said that he would graduate, but his time with us would end there. He’s going to return to… normal life. We were told to not try and contact him, which includes you, Gojo.”

Instinctually, Satoru unravels the wrapping around his eyes, needing to be able to see everything, to absorb all the information. This couldn’t be.

He first looks for Nanami. No, he’s not here on campus, he’s somewhere else, he’s in… Kabutocho?

His eyes shift to you, pinpointing you more directly than he did before. Yes, you’re here. In your room, on your bed, in the fetal position, alone.

Alone.

Satoru feels a familiar pang in his chest. His grip tightens around the white fabric in his grasp, threatening to stain red.

Him. Yaga. In the hallway. A decision made without him, without considering what he’d have to say. What he could’ve done to make it better. How he could’ve helped. How he could have made him stay. Why didn’t he stay?

“I’m sorry, Gojo, but it was his decision, and he has the right to have the final say over his own life.” Yaga’s words are softer, trying to calm him down.

“To hell he does!”

-

Satoru slowly makes his way to your room, taking his time to gather his thoughts, not exactly sure what he plans to say to you. He tries to think back to before, the days and weeks after Suguru left. That situation was much different, so many layers, so many people affected by the loss. Although it’s hard to imagine, if anyone was hurt more than himself by Suguru's actions, it was you.

It was so much worse for you.

Suguru Geto, in an act of self righteousness, slaughtered his own parents, who were your own parents. A brother and sister who once shared the same home, the same beliefs and sentiments, the same blood, only to have one betray the other in one of the worst ways imaginable.

You tried to stop him, but you were weak then. When they found you, you were sprawled out on the floor unconscious in a pool of your parents blood. All of your limbs were broken, and you had severe head trauma. The only reason why you were still alive was because you were a sorcerer. Suguru would have finished the job otherwise.

When Satoru heard the news, and confronted Suguru on the street that day, all he had to say about the state he left you in had Satoru reeling.

“She’s a damn fool.”

Shoko spent days healing you, and you were in recovery for weeks. Satoru would visit, but no words would be exchanged. You already knew what the other was thinking. From then on, Satoru vowed to always take care of you, but he didn’t anticipate how close you two would become in the process.

Maybe it was a trauma bond, maybe it was just growing up, either way, he cherishes your friendship completely. You were like Suguru in so many ways, all of the good ones at least.

That’s probably why he was so quick to notice the way Nanami would look at you, the way he would act around you. How every word spoken to you was underlined with want. Much like the way he himself would act around Suguru.

So why? Why the hell would he leave you too?

Finally, he makes it to your door. Not sensing any movement, he figures it’s best to let himself in quietly.

It’s midday, but the room is so dark. Your curtains are drawn and the lights are off. Just a small sliver of light makes its way through, the line resting over your body on the bed in the corner of your room and up the wall of posters. Your eyes are closed, but Satoru’s gut tells him you’re not sleeping.

He steps closer, letting the door close behind him with a faint click. That’s when your eyes quickly snap open to find Satoru at the end of your bed.

Your eyes are bloodshot. There are black smudges over your eyelids, makeup probably. Your hair is a mess. And you're wearing… a dress?

Oh. Oh darling. It’s been days.

Satoru can’t help the way his head tilts to the side when he meets your gaze.

“Hi, sweetheart,” he speaks softly, trying his best not to let his despair for you seep through.

That’s when he sees it, the accumulation of the past three days, and maybe even a bit of your past, boils and bubbles out of you.

“Toru,” your nickname for him falls from your mouth in a gasp, then you start to sob. He watches as you curl into yourself more, gripping your sheets tighter to your chest.

“Hey, hey, hey,” Satoru moves around the bed and leans over you, fingers brushing the hair from your face to get a better look, “shhhhhhhhhh, hey, shhhhh, it’s alright, it’s going to be okay.”

His heart breaks for you. This world, being a sorcerer, is often so cruel. He just doesn’t understand why it always has to be you on the receiving end.

Satoru watches as you look up to meet his concerned stare, and he can’t help but notice how similar you two look. It’s not specifically your features that remind him of Suguru, it’s how you try so hard to hide your emotions behind your usual calm facade. When his eyes meet yours, he can tell how hard you're trying to shove your pain back inside you. For who’s sake? He’s still unsure.

Satoru was too dumb, too caught up in ensuring he became ‘the greatest’ to notice how far Suguru had fallen from grace. He wasn’t going to make that mistake again.

He doesn’t wait for you to explain. Kneeling down on the floor of your bedside, he rests his head on the mattress, face inches from yours. His fingers play with the ends of your hair as he looks in your eyes.

“Yaga told me what happened,” he starts, “I wish you would have called me, but I understand why you didn’t. I just got back not too long ago, I was expecting to find you two together.”

Finally, you speak again.

“Did he… did he say anything to you about leaving?” Your eyes leave Satoru’s as you ask this, probably afraid of what you might hear. Gojo smiles internally at the way you begin to fiddle with the end of his sleeve.

“No,” Satoru’s tone is unwavering, “he never said anything to me about leaving. I’m led to believe that this is a decision he made in his mind not too long ago.”

Satoru and Nanami were not close, per se. But Satoru knows him to be a good man, and he would have never strung you along like this if he knew he was leaving from the jump.

At least, that’s what he hopes.

He watches as your body relaxes a little, sinking deeper into your mattress. He knows that you’re probably not ready to talk about everything just yet, and that’s more than okay. What wasn’t okay was that state you’re in right now.

“I know this is the last thing you want to do, but how about I take you to the showers?” His hand comes up from the ends of your hair to cradle the top of your head.

“Do I really smell that bad?” you fake pout. Your lips curl up just enough to relieve just a little of Satoru’s worries.

“Ha, no, I just think it would make you feel better.”

“Hm, yeah okay.”

Satoru gives you space as you rise up from bed, walking to your drawers to pull out some new clothes to wear. He notices how you dig far down into the drawer, obviously looking for something specific. His heart sinks when you pull out a familiar pair of large black sweatpants and a white t-shirt.

How strange that we still find comfort in those who have hurt us the most.

Satoru walks with you to the communal showers, leading you just a step ahead with his hands in his pockets. His head hurts a little from having his blindfold off for so long, but he doesn’t want to put it on just yet. Maybe it’s his way of letting you know that you have the floor to be vulnerable with him, to look him in the eyes and know you have his undivided attention.

Satoru hears you softly clear your throat before speaking.

“What are you going to do now?” you ask timidly.

Please don’t leave me yet. That’s what Satoru knows you really mean.

He thinks for a moment.

“Well since I just got back, I think I’ll have a quick shower as well, get this curse stench off of me. Then, I'm going to take Megumi and Tsumiki out to dinner since I haven’t seen them in a week. Probably check up on their place too, restock the fridge and whatnot.”

Satoru watches as you shift in your stance a little, hugging your fresh clothes to your chest.

“Of course, they will want to see you. If you’re up for it.”

Your face lights up, just a little. Good.

The kids, especially Megumi, are absolutely smitten with you. Ever since Satoru told you that he became the benefactor of two young kids, one to be sold off to the Zenin, you asked him if you could tag along to visit them.

Saying yes was the best thing he’d ever done, because he quickly realized that he’s kind of a terrible parental figure. He handles the finances and the fun, you take care of everything else. You help them with their homework, brush their hair, pick out their clothes, cuddle them, read them stories, teach them how to cook, and so much more. Although you both are relatively young yourselves, you’re like their parents.

Heck, after this, Satoru thinks it might be best to get you out of living at Jujutsu High. He’ll buy a house for you and the kids, so you can all be together. Yeah, it might be weird in the future if you bring a romantic interest home, but you can cross that bridge when you get there.

“Yeah, I want to see them. It will help take my mind off things.”

“Then it’s settled,” Satoru playfully claps his hands together, “we’ll hit the showers, change, and head out of here.”

Satoru turns on his heels, but before he starts to walk away, he feels you grab him by the elbow. Turning his head back at you with a confused look, your eyes are shield by the hair fallen in front of your face. In one swift movement, you’re hugging him from behind, one arm wrapped around his torso, holding him close.

“Thank you, ‘Toru,” you mumble into the fabric of his jacket.

Satoru places his hand over yours.

“I’ll always be here for you, sweets.”

-

Both of you walk together in matching sweats, owned by the man who once was the only thing you had in common, towards the apartment. It is late afternoon, the sun now behind the mountains to the west. It’s warm with a light breeze in the air. If circumstances weren’t as they were, you’d be so happy right now.

The silence was nice, comforting. You look over to watch Satoru’s hair ruffle in the breeze, getting a whiff of his sickly, sugary-scented vanilla shampoo.

It crosses your mind for a moment how thankful you are that he’s here with you right now. Without him, you’d still be rotting in bed, picturing the back of Nanami’s head as he walked away from you in the courtyard that day.

Nanami.

Your heart lurches a little. You bring your hand up to your chest, clutching the fabric there.

As if on cue, you feel Satoru’s arm sling over your shoulders, holding you closer to him as you walk side by side.

Right, Satoru’s here and you’re content.

Content is all you need.

[french-unknown]

Hello!! I hope you are having the loveliest week and happy new year! I'd love to see the sleepy!strawhat pirates :) thank u!

𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘'𝐑𝐄 𝐒𝐋𝐄𝐄𝐏𝐘

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒: luffy, zoro, nami, usopp, sanji, robin 𝐂/𝐖: fluff 𝐀/𝐍: Hello! I also wish you the loveliest week and happy new year! Have a wonderful year 2024 with the best of health! (-‿◦ ) 𝐖/𝐂: 730+

| m a s t e r l i s t |  |

𝐋𝐔𝐅𝐅𝐘

✧ With Luffy, there are two atmospheres.

✧ The first is after grueling fights or if he is poisoned, he is the type to drop like a fly without going through the "sleepy" phase. One moment he is fully conscious, and the next he is so asleep that even a cataclysm will not wake him.

✧ He can also fall asleep at the worst times!

✧ Otherwise, he continues to jump around screaming for meat or his teammates until he no longer has a single atom of energy in his body.

✧ When he is in between awake and asleep, he will become quite childish.

✧ A pro at staying awake as long as possible while moaning "I don't want to sleep" when everyone sees 100 kilometers away that he can no longer keep his eyes open.

✧ When he falls asleep, it will FINALLY be silence.

𝐙𝐎𝐑𝐎

✧ He is used to naps so the habits are there.

✧ You know he is tired when you see him wandering around to find his little corner of the sun where he can do his sleeping beauty with, obviously, always a place to religiously put his swords within reach.

✧ He is a routine man so the corners are always the same on the boat.

✧ He also becomes a lot grumpier. Sanji has no interest in dragging him around.

✧ If you ask him something at that moment, he huffs but he does it. He still drags his feet like a teenager and you don't need a doctorate in archeology to understand that it annoys him. But he likes you so he will still do what you want.

✧ He will fall asleep as soon as he is in place. It's almost automatic.

𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐈

✧ Sleepy Nami is more irritable than usual.

✧ As soon as she gets a chance to go into bed, she will grab it like it's a mountain of berries.

✧ She has trouble falling asleep because of the annoyance.

✧ She may be tired as hell, but she won't be able to relax enough to fall asleep quickly.

✧ At some point, she will be too cold so she covers herself in blankets. Then she will be too hot so she takes off the covers. But she will have discomfort in her back so she changes positions. Except that the music that Franky and Brook have been singing all day will be stuck in her head.

✧ There's no point in speaking to her in these cases otherwise, it's guaranteed death!

✧ She also tends to steal every blanket imaginable in order to make the most comfortable bed possible.

𝐔𝐒𝐎𝐏𝐏

✧ A tired Usopp is much slower than usual. He walks slower, talks slower and thinks slower.

✧ He also complains a lot more.

✧ Expect dramatic “But I want to sleeeeeeeeeep!” as if he was going to die or solemn "Chopper, I don't think I could go any further. Go without me, I will only slow you down" under the panicked cries of the reindeer.

✧ The most significant signal is when he starts jumping at everything and nothing.

✧ At the slightest noise, he jumps several centimeters as if he had just been awakened from micronaps, standing with his eyes open.

✧ He also rubs his eyes more.

𝐒𝐀𝐍𝐉𝐈

✧ To say it gets clingy is an understatement.

✧ Until he finally falls asleep at midnight, he will be stuck to you like a mussel to a rock.

✧ He's constantly hugging you from behind or putting his arm around your shoulders. His arms will look more like chains than human limbs after a while.

✧ He pouts if you move away.

✧ Will beg you to go to bed early with him for cuddles.

✧ The rest is up to you.

✧ If he's having trouble sleeping, running your hand through his hair will work wonders. Really. He would kill for the slightest sign of affection when he is half asleep.

𝐑𝐎𝐁𝐈𝐍

✧ A sleepy Robin doesn't change much compared to usual.

✧ The only signal is that she is slightly more distracted.

✧ If you ask her a question, it will take a few seconds before she looks away from the blank space and turns her confused eyes to you so that you repeat what you said.

✧ She's not really trying to fight sleep.

✧ As soon as she mysteriously disappears without warning from your side, you know where to find her. She will already be comfortably asleep in her bed without waiting for you to arrive.

✧ Pretty sleeper by excellence, by the way.

Wow, you find my 4th Easter Egg! take this ψ lemon meringue pie ψ, it's my favorite pastry

𝐉𝐎𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓 𝐈𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐃𝐎𝐍'𝐓 𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐘 𝐔𝐏𝐃𝐀𝐓𝐄

𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓: @iheartamora @bontensh0e @opchara @idsmash717 @lys-ada @viscade @parkyrr @yasmiinberkaa @dozcan123 @anotherproblemsos @cellgore @sketchmilk @kai-wifey @clovernumber3 @radiorowrites

[burninghalls]

❝a man's biggest sin is to love❞

summary: sephiroth's sleeping troubles, or maybe he doesn't have any trouble sleeping at all and he just wants to stay awake longer to soothe his troubled mind pairings: sephiroth x reader tw/cw: she/her pronouns (I'm sorry) but still gender-neutral reader, pure fluff, word dumps (im lonely and depressed), self-indulgent, originally made for only me so the "reader" might seem to have a personality of her own, i need to hug sephiroth

The night is hollow and gloomy, hiding nothing behind its layer of clouds. Fire is the only thing keeping them warm, or perhaps it’s being enveloped by each other’s embrace that does the trick. Either way, nights are best spent unaware, blissfully closing one's eyes. and to sleep until the first sign of morning greets them, mindlessly wandering around the field of dreams to await its arrival. For Sephiroth, however, nights like this are best spent wide awake, aware of everything his mind could grasp.

He’s aware of every fickle of her skin touching his and of any kind of contact with her. He’s aware of how her fingers brushed his hair, pulling back his mane, straightening his unruly curls, and massaging his scalp. He’s aware of the warmth of her breath, the one thing he can only be aware of if she’s close enough to him, like this once, for example. And most of all, he’s aware of the steady beating of her heart, keeping his own calm and serene, slowly lulling him to sleep. Everything is against his wishes to stay awake and enjoy every last second. Despite her being aware and conscious, he still denies the twisted pull of dreams that tries to make him fall deep into their slumber.

“Aren’t you tired?” The sound of her voice caught him by surprise, as this is the first word she has uttered for hours now. “You don’t have to stay awake all night. You have a lot to do tomorrow, don’t you?”

Sephiroth shakes his head slowly, not having enough energy to do anything else. “I’m not tired yet,” he responded firmly. “I’m okay. Don’t worry.”

She sighs, as if his words of assurance aren’t good enough to soothe her troubling mind. Her fingers moved down from his hair to his face, touching the cold, ragged skin of his cheek, pulling him up so their gazes could meet. He’s always awestruck whenever he looks at her—so beautiful, so endearing. His heart rate increases just at the sight of her. “I can always tell when you lie.”

He raises his eyebrows, his own arms tightening around her in a gentle embrace. “How so?”

“Well, you always have this look on your face when you lie.” Her finger touches the space between his eyebrows, smoothing its crease. “See? You frown a bit. It’s noticeable.”

He shakes his head. “Only you notice such a little quirk of mine, my flower. No one else does.” He smiles at her, his warmest smile, one he reserves for her and only her. “Either way, I still want to stay awake. Why don’t you sleep first?”

She clicks her tongue in slight annoyance. Although he knows she’s not actually annoyed by him and the gesture is merely a sign of dislike towards his endearing stubbornness, his heart still jumps at the sound. “I can’t sleep until you do too; you know this.” She flicks his forehead with her fingers, and he hisses in response. ”You always shift under the cover when you’re awake once in a while. I’m a light sleeper, your movements wake me up.”

He chuckles. “Forgive me, my flower.” His hand reaches to hold hers, leaving a kiss on the back of it. He doesn’t let it go, instead placing her opened palm on his cheek, as if the thought of losing her touch terrifies him. His hunger for her is truly despicable and that becomes his biggest sin as a man. “I’ll try to stay quiet for you.”

If Sephiroth’s stubbornness is bad, then hers is much worse. He wonders if it was their similarities that attracted him to her. “You’ll complain to me for your lack of sleep tomorrow, oh I just know of it!” she mutters in a high-pitched voice, something he recognized as a sign of irritation. He sighs at her remarks, burying his head deeper into her chest. “You won’t be focused on your missions tomorrow if you do, then Hojo would blame me for being a distraction for you. He always does, he’s insufferable!”

Sephiroth frowns at the mention of that name. He hates how the name sounds in her voice. Although the way she says it clearly holds a hint of disdain, he still would prefer if she didn’t mention that name at all. “Does he now?” he asks. “What did he say to you then? I was not informed about this.”

Her eyes widen for a fragment of a moment, he knows this as a sign of surprise, his question must’ve rendered her speechless. "I-" She cuts her words immediately, looking away from him. Ah, so she wasn’t supposed to tell him this. Does Hojo put her up to this? “It’s just that… he thinks I’m a bad influence for you since you’ve been too distracted to love me rather than fighting for the war. You know how it is.”

A pang of pain stabs through his chest. How could one ever say something so cruel to her? She was never a distraction; she was far from that. As a matter of fact, her influence has been nothing but the best, filling his otherwise lonely void of life with blooming lilies. He loves her deeply for this, and to hear such words given to her, he just couldn’t accept it.

“That’s not true at all, my flower,” he insists, his gaze sharp on her, yet the edges are soft. “You were never a distraction or a bad influence for me. I appreciate you dearly. You trust me, don’t you? What Hojo said was nothing but blasphemy towards your name.” She paid no heed to his words, not because she lacked care but because she feared he would do something she did not desire. His relationship with his rumored-to-be father has never been good, they’re like water and oil, they can never combine. The space separating them is one full of mistrust and judgment, of painful expectations, and half-ass lies. Sephiroth can never make peace with him even if it was his heart’s desire, for the man is long gone in his deranged journey towards reaching the one thing humanity should not. Hojo is a madman and Sephiroth refused to succumb to such an unspeakable fate. She does not want him to either.

“I’m fine. It does not bother me in the slightest. I know how he is,” she tries to assure him, but even Sephiroth is no fool. He can sense the lies dripping off her rose-tainted lips, yet he keeps them to himself for now. “All I need now is for you to rest. You’ve had a long and tedious day. Without sleep, you’ll only cause more harm to yourself the next morning.” “I don’t need to sleep as much as you do. You should know this by now. My work performance won’t change even if I stay awake all night.” He had done this multiple times. On days when his insomnia would attack him the most, on days where closing his eyes was just a useless attempt to seek solace in his loneliness.

“It’s not healthy for you,” she retorts. Her lips formed a thin line—signs of worry. She’s worried for him. How can somebody be so kind as to worry about his well-being? Sephiroth is not a regular person; that is one thing he has established for himself since he was a child. He has always been different, with the voices in the back of his head screaming the same word over and over again. Sephiroth is not human. Love is only meant for humans; worry and care are only meant for humans; he’s no human; they’re not meant for him. There’s a sense of guilt clouding his mind and stabbing his heart every time she insists that he deserves something greater than what she could offer him. In truth, he thinks he deserves nothing at all. “SOLDIER or not, we all need our sleep. You’ll get more energy by sleeping, as long as the hours are enough for you and not too much. What if you get tired on tomorrow’s mission and an enemy sees it? They can use this as your weakness, you can get hurt easily, you can—" Sephiroth cuts her off with a hum, which causes her annoyance to increase even more. She’s not one to make petty threats to get her wishes, but in terms of him and his unreasonable sleeping schedule, she has no choice but to do so. “If you sleep now, I’ll cook your favorite food tomorrow.”

He shakes his head. “Seriously?” He nuzzles his nose into her chest. “How many times have you done this?”

She huffs. “Too much, I suppose. I need to come up with something new.” She thinks for a few seconds, conjuring up new ideas that might be able to persuade him to agree to her wishes. “How about… if you sleep now, I’ll make sure to wake up early tomorrow to see you off.”

Sephiroth smiles teasingly. “Are you sure you’re capable of doing that? You’re not an early bird, my flower.” Sephiroth’s words crumbled all of her other arguments to back her up. She frowns, knowing that he’s indeed telling the truth. No matter how many times she has tried to wake up earlier in the morning so she can help him before he goes off to do his duties, she has never succeeded so far. Sephiroth would always accidentally wake her up when he kissed her forehead, whispering a few words of goodbye before tucking her back to sleep in the comfort of their shared room, only to awaken a few hours later, her heart clenching in annoyance once she realized that she wasn’t able to see him before he went off for work.

She nods, this time she will succeed. “I’m sure. I can do it this time,” she insists. Sepiroth merely chuckles at this, shaking his head as if the thought of her doing something he deems to be impossible is amusing to him.

“Very well.” If his flower insisted on wanting something, he would do it for her. Sephiroth is a strong man, he’s powerful and scary, yet his only fear is her. The thought of making her worry for him is something he would rather avoid. For her heart is much rather be somewhere better. “Sleep with me, my flower. I’ll see you tomorrow. I love you.”

[kelcemenow]

Walk With Me.

Pairing Taron Egerton x Reader

Words 3620

Warnings I think the only curse word is the first one! There's some flirting, some angst and cute moments in between! There's also a lot of time jumping but it's easy to keep up so don't worry!

"Shit." You quietly whispered to yourself as you accidentally stepped straight into a large puddle. Shaking the water off from your shoe, you noticed that Riley was none the wiser. She was happily running along in the long grass, searching out every scent that she could trace. 

You slowly walked over to where Riley had dropped her ball and picked it up, calling her over to throw it again.

Just as the ball left your fingers, you noticed another person in the park with you. It was a man. He was quite a distance away from you, but you could see that he was standing still, staring into the nearby trees. A small, tan dog was running around his feet, but he remained still in thought.

Riley bounded back to your feet, retrieving the ball and looking up at you to throw it again. You tore your eyes away from the stranger and walked further into the park, throwing the ball ahead of you.

______________________________________________________________

Your sunglasses dimmed the bright afternoon sunshine and you could feel the warm grass brushing against your sandal-clad feet. The warner weather made your daily walks with Riley much more bare-able and you gladly took a longer route on days like today.

You were almost back to your usual spot in the park when a figure in your peripheral vision caught your attention. It was the man from a few weeks earlier. He was closer than before though, you could see his hazel green eyes creasing as he smiled, watching his own dog play with a ball.  

Riley noticed also, and without a second of hesitation, ran over to greet them.

"Riley!" You called after her, making your way across the grass.

"She's okay, mine's friendly." The man shouted as you got closer.

He was right. Looking down you saw Riley and his dog sniffing and running around each other, jumping as their tails wagged in unison.

"Sorry, I just get nervous sometimes. She's still a puppy and you never know with strange dogs."

He looked up at you, "So, you're saying that my dog is strange?"

Your mouth dropped open, "Oh God no! No! That's not what I meant, I-"

His mouth curved into a smile and his eyes softened, "Relax! I'm joking!"

You exhaled and your shoulders relaxed as you smiled back at him.

"I know what you mean. I've had a few scary moments. Nelly just wants to play...some dogs don't like that, she has a lot of energy!"

You glanced back down at Riley, who was stood still now, looking in the direction of the park gates. There was an awkward pause.

“Come on, Riley.” You waved your hand away and turned on your heels.

"See you around." The man said, smiling and raising his eyebrows.

______________________________________________________________

Your bright, floral summer dress waved in the breeze as some strands of hair fell down to frame your face. You smiled and looked down at the ground as you tucked some hair behind your ear.

He was walking towards you, with Nelly in tow. You'd thought about him occasionally since you last saw him, and you found yourself glancing over your outfit in the hopes that you looked good enough.

"Hello again!"

"Hi." You smiled.

Riley looked up at the man approaching her and gladly wagged her tail as he knelt down to stroke her, "I'm Taron..." He glanced over to his own dog, "...and you've already met Nelly."

You smiled again, "I'm Y/N...and I think you've made a new best friend in Riley." You looked down at she was jumping up at him, "She likes you."

He looked up at you and reciprocated your smile. "Cute."

"Yeah, she is."

"I wasn't talking about Riley."

Your mouth opened slightly, and you took a short breath. Your lips curled into a grin and he stood up slowly.

"It's a beautiful day." He looked up towards the sun, "We could walk together?"

You looked around to find Riley, who was becoming properly acquainted with Nelly. Pushing more hair out of your face from the gentle summer wind, you dropped your sunglasses down from the top of your head, "Sure."

There was a short but not uncomfortable silence as you both walked through the park, the gentle breeze making the trees hush.

“So, have you just moved to the area?” You said, hoping not to sound too intrusive.

He swallowed and cleared his throat, “Yeah, just last week.”

“I thought so, I just hadn’t seen you around?” You justified your question, “You know, you get to know the faces in the park.”

“Are you here every day then?” He asked and you swore you could hear hope in his voice.

Nodding your head, you bent down to collect Riley’s ball, “Yeah, pretty much. She has so much energy that she needs to burn off!”

“I can see that!” He said, laughing as her tiny legs moved at an impressive speed, “I bet she keeps you on your toes?”

“Something like that.”

Another short silence. You both watched as Nelly and Riley were running around, finding smells together and enjoying the summer wind. You broke your gaze from the dogs to sneak a glance at Taron, noticing his kind but piercing eyes and the faint creases in his skin. His chin was speckled with short hairs that covered his sharp jawline. He was undoubtably handsome but there seemed to be a softness to him, something that made you even more intrigued.

“So, what do you do for fun around here?” He said, slightly kicking his feet as he walked.

“Erm…it depends what you would consider fun?” You responded in a more flirtatious way than you intended.

He picked up on your tone by flicking his eyebrows upwards quickly, “I’m up for anything, me.”

You breathed a laugh, “There’s some good restaurants, and there’s a street not far from here with some amazing little independent shops. They stock my favourite hand poured candles.”

“Aww, I love candles!” He said, his voice rising in pitch, “I always try to have one burning.”

“Me too!” Your hand rested on your chest, “You’ll absolutely have to go!”

“Maybe I will.”

“There’s tons of live music too, pretty every pub has a band on every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night.”

He leaned in a little closer, “Seems I’ve got a pretty good tour guide here.”

Your cheeks flushed and you smiled before leaning down to throw Riley’s ball, grateful for the curtain of hair hiding your pink face.

“Maybe, I could get your number and we could hang out? You could show me around the town?”

You straightened up and blinked a few times, “Uh…yeah sure! Sounds good to me.”

Taron glanced at the fork in the path as he reached into his pocket, “I’m gunna head up this way but I’ll text you?”

Your mouth stretched into a grin as you carefully typed your number into his phone, checking that it was correct before handing it back to him, his fingers gently brushing against yours.

“I’ll see you around?”

You gently nodded your head as you watched him turn out of the park, your eyes seemingly fixated on the space where he once was. You were quickly broken from your trance when Riley barked up at you, ready for another chase.

______________________________________________________________

The cool air whipped around your face, but you were pleased for the breeze. The fever that was burning through your body was intolerable, along with the stomach-churning sickness that came with it. You weren't unwell though; this was all self-inflicted from countless glasses of wine from the night before. 

You watched Riley as she gladly ran in amongst the grass, nose close to the ground, unaware of how much you craved your sofa.

The evening had started out as a quiet drink with some friends from work but soon spiralled into cocktails and dancing. You grasped at your head as you started to remember fuzzy memories that your brain was trying to push forward in your mind, along with a thumping that wouldn't let up.

"Good morning sunshine!"

A bright voice forced you to turn around, "Taron!" Your eyes narrowed as more memories came flooding back, "Oh my God, I saw you last night!"

"Yeah, you were pretty wasted!" He laughed gently as he unclipped Nelly from her leash, "How are you feeling?"

"As bad as I look."

He shrugged, "Nah, you look pretty good...considering."

You would've blushed, if it weren't for the red haze that was covering your cheeks already. You pushed some hair away from your face as you squinted your eyes at him, "I didn't do anything embarrassing, did I?"

He laughed and started to walk with you, following your dogs, "I wouldn't say that but..."

Your face fell, "Oh God, what? I'm so sorry! What did I do?"

He laughed again, "You don't need to apologise! But you need to thank me."

You lowered your eyebrows in confusion.

"It was around 2am when you decided that it would be a great idea to do shots of vodka while dancing on the bar."

You dropped your head and groaned.

"But I stopped you and insisted that I walked you home."

"You...you walked me home?" 

He kicked some pebbles on the ground, "Yeah. We live really close to each other. Plus, you were a mess by that point, I had to be a gentleman."

You gently brought your hand to his arm, "Thank you. Really, thank you. And you're wrong...I do need to apologise. I know I'm bad when I'm drunk."

He put his hand on top of yours, "Seriously, don't worry about it. I just wanted to make sure you were safe."

You felt your heart leap as your hands touched, but you weren't sure if it was from the contact or from the hangover. His hand dropped and he placed it in his hoodie pocket. You did the same and took in a deep breath of fresh air.

The path you were walking split off into two directions and Taron started turning left as you slowed down.

"Are you going up to the top today?" Taron pointed his finger towards the path that lead to an area of the park that was lined with wildflowers.

You felt a rumble in the pit of your stomach and the heat in your body rose a few degrees in temperature.

"Erm, actually..." You knelt down slowly to put Riley's leash back on, "I'm probably going to go back." You clutched at your stomach.

His eyebrows lowered, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah...I'm fine. I just-" You hurried backwards, nausea coming in waves, "-I just have to go." You quickly said before turning and rushing back towards your house.

______________________________________________________________

Riley was practically dragging you into the park, pulling your arm holding onto the leash that was attached to her collar. She could see Taron and Nelly further into the gates and you couldn't keep up with her pace. The leash slipped from your fingers and Riley ran ahead, bounding towards them.

"Riley!" You yelled out, making Taron's head turn in your direction.

He smiled and kneeled down to collect the leash, letting Nelly greet her canine friend, "She's just too excited to see me!"

You laughed, "Clearly!"

"Or is this all a cover up for the fact that it was you who wanted to see me?" He nudged your arm once you arrived his side.

"Oh, haha." You said, unenthusiastically, "Don't flatter yourself, Egerton."

"You're not denying it." He raised an eyebrow.

You shook your head. 

He was right, though. Every time you took Riley for her daily walks, you secretly hoped that you'd bump into him. Since you had last seen him, you had been messaging each other online, usually until the early hours of the morning, throwing banter back and forth. You talked about your shared tastes in music and movies, he'd send you the occasional message with a new song that he'd found that he thought you might like, or a line from the book that he was currently reading. He would occasionally send you funny Welsh words and their translations and tag you in memes almost every day. His messages made you smile and you as each day went by, you thought more and more about him. 

You looked up to him, "By the way, that playlist that you sent me this morning...oh my God!"

His face was animated, "I know right?! That third song is getting played at my wedding!"

A shiver ran down your spine and you silently wondered if he was currently engaged and a wedding was imminent. You blinked and quickly changed the subject.

"I must admit, I do look forward to your daily messages."

His face changed into a small smile, that grew as he threw his arm around your shoulder, walking with you along the path, "Well, it’s a good job I intend to carry on sending them then, isn’t it?”

______________________________________________________________

There was something that you loved about autumn. Something about the colours and the idea that nature was preparing for winter that held you in intrigue. You watched over the park that you were familiar with in awe, watching the leaves that had fallen from the trees turn to a warm hue of orange, when you saw something else familiar.

Taron was sat on a bench further down the path with his back to you, headphones on and hunched over what was probably his phone.

You walked closer, Riley following you in excitement at seeing Nelly, and poked a finger in his back when you got to him. He pulled his headphones down and twisted around to face you.

His face lit up, "Oh! I was just texting you!"

Your hand ghosted over your pocket where your phone was, "Were you?"

"Yeah!" He put his phone away, "I was just seeing if you were out walking Riley."

Riley jumped at Taron's knees and he stroked her, scratching his fingers into her head. He looked back to you as you sat down next to him.

"How've you been?" He squinted his eyes, shielding his face from the glare of the sun.

You pushed some hair behind your ear, "I'm good, and you?"

"Yeah, I actually wanted to-" He was interrupted by his phone that was in his hand springing into life. He glanced at the screen and his eyes narrowed with an emotion that you couldn't detect, "-hold that thought. I have to get this."

You smiled and nodded, looking over to where Riley and Nelly were, watching them run around each other.

"Hey...yeah." He paused and lowered his head looking down at his feet, shuffling them awkwardly, "...what time do you get in? Okay cool...sure. No...no that's fine." He glanced quickly to you and you caught his gaze for a couple of seconds, "Okay, call me when you get to- yeah...you too."

You looked away, not wanting to seem intrusive to his conversation. He pocketed his phone and rose to his feet.

"We'll have to cut this walk short I'm afraid." He looked over to Nelly and whistled to gain her attention.

"Oh, no problem." You smiled, "You got something to do?" You scolded yourself slightly for prying.

"Erm yeah, kind of." He scratched the back of his neck nervously as Nelly came running back to him, "My friends is visiting, she's-well she's my girlfriend. She's working away and she's back for a few days."

Your stomach dropped to your feet. He had a girlfriend, of course he did. He was funny and intelligent, not to mention exceptionally handsome. You had no idea why you were disappointed. Sure, there was friendly flirting between the pair of you but nothing had ever gone any further. That's all it was, friendly.

"Oh...right." You tried your hardest not to let the disappointment flood your face, but you were sure you had failed in your attempts.

Taron bent down to attach Nelly to her leash as you exhaled away your emotions, biting at your bottom lip. Your eyebrows raised as you caught his gaze again.

"I'll...see you around I suppose."

"Yeah, see you around, Taron."

You watched as he walked away. Your stomach knotted as you studied his body language. You had never known him to deflate so much, everything about him had disappeared. His smile seemed forced for some reason, but you pushed the thought to the back of your mind. Taking a breath, you walked further into the park, letting the gentle breeze cool your skin.

______________________________________________________________

You checked your phone for what felt like the hundredth time that day. It had been almost a week with no contact from Taron at all. Figuring he was busy with his girlfriend, you put your phone back into your pocket and carried on walking with Riley.

You missed him. You missed his morning messages and whenever he got excited about a new pair of sunglasses that he had just bought or a new candle that he loved the smell of. You missed the walks you sometimes shared with your dogs and how completely at ease you felt around him. You missed how he would sometimes lean closer to you when he was talking. You missed the way he would look at you.

But you were just friends, right?

______________________________________________________________

"Taron?" You called out to him. 

He was stood in the large open area of the park, staring down into the grass. He didn't reply, nor did he seem to notice you were even there.

"Hey...Taron?" 

His head raised slowly, and his eyes refocused onto you, "Oh...hey."

You frowned when you noticed how exhausted he looked. His cheek dimples always seemed to be present but they were nowhere to be seen. His hair was messier than usual and there was no smile on his lips when he looked at you.

"Taron...are you okay?" You couldn't hide your concern.

He cleared his throat and looked back down at the grass, "Yeah...I'm fine." He blinked his bleary eyes.

As you studied his face you could see that his mouth was clenched, his strong jawline accentuated and his eyebrows were slowly making their way closer together.

"Nah...I'm not buying it." You moved to face him, "What's the matter with you?"

He closed his eyes and brought a hand to his face, rubbing across his forehead, "Nothing, I said I'm fine."

"And I said I'm not buying it." You reached for his arm and he almost flinched, "Come on, I haven't heard from you in a week, I haven't seen you out walking Nelly and in the nicest way possible Taron, you look like shit."

"It's Kate."

"Kate?"

"Kate...my girlfriend Kate."

You nodded and waiting patiently for him to continue.

"It's...it's just been a difficult week."

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, Taron." You gulped as he looked at you. You weren't sure if you wanted to hear about her anyway.

"No...no. I think I need to just get it off of my chest." He glanced towards the dogs before motioning across to the bench.

You both sat down and he rested his elbows on his knees, palms pressed together as his eyes danced in anticipation.

"I think she's cheating on me."

You leaned back slightly; eyebrows raised in surprise. It's safe to say that you weren't expecting that.

"What makes you think that?"

His lips curled into a smile as he exhaled, "At first I thought I was just being paranoid. But now I'm fairly certain." He paused as his tried to find his words, "She's works away a lot and she can only visit every so often. And the last few times she's visited...something hasn't seemed right. And if I'm being honest...I haven't been happy for a while."

You could see some moisture forming in his eyes, but he quickly blinked it away.

"Why are you still with her?"

He froze, his hair blowing in the breeze being the only movement on his body. Finally, he let out a breath and shook his head, "I really don't know. She stuck with me while I was broke and trying to make something of myself."

"You don't owe her anything if you're not happy. You know that, right?" You thought for a second, "And if you're sure that she's cheating on you...then-"

"She was using the bathroom and she got a text. I thought it was my phone so I grabbed it and there were all these messages, you know...I can't believe she'd do that to me."

"You don't deserve this Taron." You gently placed your hand on his knee, and he broke his gaze from the floor to look at the contact.

He kept his eyes on your hand for a short moment before you started to pull it away, but he quickly stopped you, "No, don't."

"Taron-"

He cut you off mid-sentence, pressing his lips to yours, gently but hungrily. His hand ran up your arm, finding its way to cup to your face, fingers pulling at your hair.

You melted into him for a moment, before feeling a stab of guilt. You pulled away quickly, placing your hand over his that was still placed on the side of your face. His forehead pressed against yours, his eyes burning into you.

"We shouldn't...I mean, you still have a girlfriend." You whispered.

"But I-" Taron started, moving into you closer.

"No, it's not right." You held his hand and pushed it away from you.

Taron closed his eyes for a moment before nodding gently. You rose to your feet and clipped the leash onto Riley who was sniffing down by your feet.

"Call me when you've got everything figured out."

______________________________________________________________

Ughhhhh...I just love him! I might do another chapter of this if people want it. I find him really easy to write for so I'm also willing for any requests!

If you don't want to miss another Taron fic, let me know and I will add you to my Taglist! Who wants to be first on this list??

[her-devils-advocate]

Memory Lane

pairings: Femshep x Garrus

genre: fluff, comfort

summary: In the early morning hours, Shepard’s mind begins to wander. Is she still the same woman who hunted down Saren? She would like to believe so, but recent actions have made her reconsider. Luckily for Shepard, Garrus is there to comfort her.

Set in the first half of ME2, but before Garrus’ loyalty mission.

word count: 2,662

ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/58132921

The mission had gone well enough, a simple in-and-out task. One that came with a lot of bullets required. But they had successfully recruited the assassin and gained another ally to help with the impossible, a feat Shepard should be pleased by. Still, nothing had helped to stop the simmering anxiety that had been hounding her since her reawakening. The anxiety had returned to her when they arrived on the Normandy, clawing at her heels and trying to slow her escape to her quarters.

She does her best to weave through the crew members, avoiding their eyes all while strategically using a random datapad as an excuse to not be social. Not that anyone could blame her given the hour.

Throwing open the doors to her cabin, she tosses the datapad onto the desk, not bothering to see where it lands before slowly dragging her aching body to the sofa. If she’s lucky, she might be able to schedule in a small nap before they arrive at Pragia, but Shepard knows by now to not push her luck in that department. The cool leather presses against her bare arms, helping to ground her as she stares up at the ceiling, making an effort to avoid the obnoxious window above her bed.

Her long hair hangs off the side of the couch, brushing past her dangling arms before she finally gets the energy to push herself into an upright position, forgoing her attempt at a nap altogether and instead resting her head in her hands with a barely concealed sigh. 

Her skin feels wrong. Sure, it feels the same as two years ago; the same softness, the same freckle resting just below her left elbow, but now it doesn’t feel like it belongs to her. The uneasiness buzzes under the surface, wanting to tear itself out and be free from its manufactured prison. How can she be so sure she isn’t the puppet they claim she’s not?

The commander of the SR1 was a kind woman, preferring to use her words until she was sure they were no longer an option. She wanted to help as many people as possible, going as far as letting the Batarians escape to secure the hostages' safety back in the Asgard system. The old commander would never aim her gun at someone who hadn’t aimed their first, she would never play with her targets, using cheap taunts for even cheaper satisfaction. She was a kind and proud woman, a woman worthy of the title of “The First Human Spectre”, nothing like the ghost now masquerading as her.

The commander of the SR2 had risen to taunts and replied in kind. She had put her words aside and jumped straight to violence on that damned mission, something she was not proud of and now feels the overwhelming guilt and fear creeping up on her as she reflects. She can no longer run from the fact that Commander Shepard has changed, that she no longer recognises the woman who stares through the mirror at her. 

Before the sob building up at the back of her throat has a chance to escape, a smooth, metallic voice breaks her focus. 

“Commander, Garrus Vakarian is outside your quarters, shall I let him in?”

She takes a moment to compose herself, pushing the fear back down into its designated bottle and hoping that whatever expression she’s contorted her features into doesn’t give her away.

“Go ahead, EDI.” She replies, her voice lacking its usual warmth. 

She watches the blue node flicker away after giving a simple “affirmative”, interrupted by the gentle swoosh of her doors being opened. She lifts her head to give him a small grin, feeling her muscles relax at the sight of him easily waltzing through her room.

“Hey, Garrus.” She cringes at the small wobble in her voice and she can only hope that she can play it off as exhaustion. Shepard doesn’t miss the way his head tilts once he reaches her, but before she can say anything, he drops down onto the space next to her.

“Hey, Shep.” He keeps his voice casual, yet she has known him long enough to pick up the traits of hesitation and worry clinging to his voice, “So, you were quick to avoid everyone after that last mission, I think you gave Chambers whiplash with how fast you shot past her. Are you okay?”

She turns her head away, letting it hang as a curtain of hair shields her face from his concerned gaze. She debates telling him, letting him into that dark part of the supernova known as Shepard. But right now, she doesn’t want to be The Commander. She wants to talk to her friend.

“Garrus, it might be selfish of me to ask, but I need to know. How did... How do you know that I'm me? Some days I'm not even sure. I don't act the same as I did when we took Saren down, not entirely. It's got me questioning myself.”

She leans back on the couch, rubbing a hand over her forehead as she tries to corral her frayed thoughts into a coherent sentence. She’s thankful for the silence hanging between them as they both approach the delicate subject that has been a long time coming.

“I'm tired and I'm more stressed than back on the SR1 and it's now starting to show, I'm becoming blunter and less tolerant. It's... It's beginning to scare me. I don't feel the same, hell, I don't even look the same now that I'm missing my old scars and gained brand-new, glowing ones. That paired with the fact that I'm starting to act differently, how can I be certain?”

She finally turns to stare up at him, her eyes wide with unconcealed fear and for a second, she worries that she’s said too much. Garrus is silent, his mandibles slowly fluttering with nerves as he takes the time to properly look at his best friend. 

He would be blind to not notice the changes in her, both physical and mental. Humans can be resilient despite their squishiness, he will give them that. But no human has managed to perfectly heal a decades-old scar, let alone two of them. The new scars Cerberus had left her with stand out more than the lack of eyebrow and lip scarring, given the way they ominously flicker against her smooth flesh. The raw, unnatural cracks in her skin only skimmed the surface of the cracks her death had left her with on the inside.

He can’t deny that he was concerned to see her almost push a man out of a window, not after all she had taught him before her untimely departure from the galaxy, but he also can’t deny the fact of who she still is. It’s not like he hasn’t changed, possibly for the worse depending on who you ask, in those years either.

He gives her a small shrug, flicking a mandible out in the turian equivalent of a smirk as he throws his arm across the back of her sofa, leaning closer to her.

“I knew from the moment I first saw you, Shepard. Cliché, I know, but come on, who else would be crazy enough to run across a manufactured death trap, not to mention towards the sniper hellbent on killing everyone around them?”

A small chuckle breaks past her lips and she is quick to try and cover it with her hand, her nerves being settled with each passing moment. Garrus simply watches her for a moment before clearing his throat and trying to put on a more serious front. It would have worked, but she knew him too well to see the growing amusement in his eyes. 

“But if you really do need convincing, then I guess it's come to this. We're doing it.” His low voice drawls out as he finishes it with a single, firm nod.

“Doing what?” She asks, suspicion rising in her voice.

“What's one shared memory that only you, the real Commander Shepard, would know?”

Shepard gives Garrus an unimpressed look, doing her best to push down the giddy, juvenile excitement before taking a moment to think. Her lips stretch into a gentle smile as she gets lost in the memory. 

Everyone was so different back then, she realises, not just herself.

“Noveria. It was shortly after we helped take Anoleis down, but before we reached Peak 15.”

Garrus interrupts her with a loud groan, running a single hand over his fringe. She happily continues, purposefully ignoring his dramatics. He did ask, after all.

“We had to park the Mako for a moment while you repaired one of the wheels that had been damaged by the Geth. Liara had opted to remain inside the Mako, not wanting to leave her spot near its heater. You were so focused on the task at hand and completely unaware of your surroundings.” 

She pauses momentarily, trying to stifle her giggles as best as she can as she feels her eyes beginning to water from the effort. Garrus rolls his eyes, trying to look annoyed despite the fondness squeezing his heart. He loves it whenever she lets herself laugh, the sound simultaneously foreign yet familiar to him.

“You were a little bit too focused and didn't realise what I was up to until it was too late. Before you knew it, you were bumped on the head with an impressively large snowball.”

Garrus shivers from the memory before rising to her bait, his words coming out as dry as possible. “Bumped is putting it lightly, I still don't believe you when you say you didn't use any biotics to help you with that throw.”

“I didn't, I swear!” She throws her hands up in mock surrender as he narrows his eyes at her, watching as a small smirk begins to appear on her lips. “But... I guess it is true that only the real Commander Shepard would know how loud your yelp was. Seriously Garrus, I was concerned we would trigger an avalanche.”

“I believe I did warn you that Turians aren't exactly fans of the cold weather,” Garrus replies, coolly.

“How could I forget? You made sure to repeatedly remind me after that. It was worth it though, I wasn't aware that your voice could even hit that pitch.” Her words are light, unrestrained glee flowing free as she shuffles even closer to him.

Garrus scoffs, finding the fish swimming around the comically large fish tank more interesting. He would never let her know that he surprised himself that day, equally unaware his voice could go that high. He also keeps the way her maniacal cackling instantly warmed the chill caused by the snow a secret. One he’s more than prepared to take to his grave.

“Ha. Ha. You know, I do believe that you have an equally embarrassing story from Noveria. Before Anoleis, when we were still trying to get into that garage.” 

It’s now her turn to groan, bringing her knees up to her chest and burying her face against them to hide the harsh crimson that begins to take over her cheeks. She tries to silence him, moving to place a slender hand over his mouth, but he’s faster and stronger and can grab both of her wrists with ease before continuing with his recollection.

“It was shortly after we spoke to Lorik Qui'in in the Mezzanine. We had left to go grab the data from his office and on the way back, you managed to fall down the stairs.” He doesn’t bother to stop the smirk from leaking into his voice, proud at the reaction he’s drawn from her.

Shepard remembers this day well, even if she wishes she didn’t. She was younger, technically speaking, and full of fake confidence as more and more bullshit got thrown her way. She wanted to appear more put together than she felt, especially in front of her new crew which happened to be full of aliens who had very little human interaction before her. 

She had always loved the cold, especially the snow, feeling more calm whenever snowflakes descended from the sky. Noveria was like heaven to her, even if the rest of her crew made their displeasure known. During the small lull in urgency, she had let her guard down for a mere second, wanting a moment to appreciate the raging storm outside. If only she hadn’t decided to do so while walking down the stupidly steep stairs.

The horrible clacking of her armour against the polished stone stairs rang loudly through the building and brought all eyes to the figure sitting awkwardly at the bottom. The way Garrus gave a loud huff of laughter, once it was shown she was alright, at least, still echoes in the back of her mind. If that’s what it took to lure it out from him, she would take the bruised ego and flesh.

“Okay, big guy, "fall" is a bit dramatic. I might have slipped and skidded down the last 4 steps on my arse, which was an easy mistake to make! My boots were still slippery from the snow!” Commander Shepard doesn’t pout, she’s too old to stoop to such levels and she definitely didn’t have a hint of one in her voice.

Garrus simply chuckles, nodding along and letting her have her excuse, no matter how flimsy it is. They sit in silence for a moment, simply existing in the gentle mirth. A moment where the two of them don’t need to put on a mask or hide behind a title.

It had been too long since Garrus was able to simply sit beside his friend, he had honestly thought he would never get the chance to do so again, not after Liara broke the news of her death to him. But if he has learnt anything from having her back, it’s to not doubt the lengths Shepard will go to just to do the impossible. If anything, he shouldn’t be surprised by her cheating death itself.

A small voice breaks the silence and draws him out of his thoughts. He registers it as Shepard’s, yet he has never heard her voice sound so gentle before.

“Thank you, Garrus. Thank you for helping me up. All those times back then and all the ones that I'm sure will happen in the future. But more importantly, thank you for this, for helping me feel like myself again. For convincing me that I am who I’m supposed to be.”

The fragility of it shakes him and the vulnerability that shines in her eyes shoots through to his heart. The sound lures out emotions that he had tried to force down and they begin to bubble with a renowned strength. Without thinking, he moves to tenderly tuck a piece of her hair behind her ear, momentarily fascinated by how silky it felt against his finger. Her eyes widen at the action for a second before she turns to give him a shy smile.

“You're welcome, Shepard. I've got your back, then and now. No one can blame you for acting differently under the circumstances, and there are a lot of circumstances to consider. Cerberus, a new crew, being brought back only to be thrown towards a suicide mission... Not to mention the fact that the people you once gave everything to help are now acting differently around you. I would be even more concerned for you if you weren't showing signs of stress.”

She huffs out a humourless laugh, nodding along with his words, she then shocks the both of them when she lifts her hand to carefully rest it on his knee. “I’m lucky to have you, Garrus.”

One day she might know just how backwards she’s got it and that he is the lucky one. One day he might be brave enough to tell her if she doesn’t get the courage first.

[zoeykallus]

Hey hey, dear queen! If you have the time and energy, would you mind writing about Fem!Reader being stressed/burned out with Crosshair. Maybe she works a job + the work she is doing with the batch. She's cranky out of energy and when Crosshair complains about that, she snaps/has a breakdown of sorts? How would he react? I wouldn't mind if you did the rest of the batchers in this scenario too, but I know you got much on your plate right now, so I picked my favorite 😊 thanks dear!

Aloha!

Oh dear, you have no idea how relatable this is for me these days 😵

I do have a lot on my plate, that's true. And I'm really late with all the requests, I'm sorry. Hm, let me see...

The Bad Batch x Reader - Burnout

Warnings: Hurt/Comfort/Burnout

___________

Life is especially tough right now, with multiple jobs, little to no free time, and too little sleep. This not only affects the body, but also the mood. Of course, your Batcher notices that something is wrong with you.

____________

Ko-Fi (If you feel like giving me some coffee)

____________

>Master List<

Hunter

"What's wrong with you? You're so tense and impatient."

The way you quickly turn to look at him makes him pause, startled. Hunter is frozen in his movement and if you weren't so tense, you might find this sight, this moment, amusing.

You finally sigh and say, "I'm tired, and I want to finish here, stop dawdling."

Hunter frowns and resumes normal posture.

"We usually spend longer time loading equipment, chatting and stuff, don't we? Spend time together. When did you stop caring about that?"

He looks crestfallen, and you're sorry for reacting so harshly.

"Hunter, I have more jobs than just this one, I barely have any free time and I just want to go home today, as much as I usually enjoy spending this time here with you. If I miss public transportation again, I'm going to sit around here even longer."

Hunter blinks then sighs softly, of course he understands.

"You're going to break yourself" he says reprovingly and takes the box you just picked up from you, puts it down and reaches for your arm.

Hunter pulls you with him to his speeder.

"We're not done yet," you say, protesting.

"You're done here, I can do the rest on my own," he insists, getting on and waving you over, "Come on, jump on, I'll give you a ride home."

"But-"

"No arguments, get on."

You do as you're told and mumble a small thank you to him, ashamed that you've been barking at him.

You hear him laugh softly and say, "No problem, now hold on tight".

Echo

You don't even have to tell him that you are overworked, he already knows that you have more than one job and that you don't sleep enough. The reproachful look he gives you slowly drives you crazy.

"What's your problem, Echo? Why the hell are you looking at me like that all the time?"

He snorts and says, "I'm waiting for you to keel over at any moment."

Surprised, you pause.

"What?"

"You want me to spell it out? You heard me the first time."

You grab his arm and turn him around to face you as he continues to work.

"Excuse me, mister, what's your problem?"

He pulls away, grabs you by your upper arms and urges you onto a crate, so you can sit down. Echo looks at you so urgently that you forget for a long moment how your voice actually works.

"You need to quit one of your jobs, you can't go on like this. You have rings under your eyes, you're agitated and restless, you seem rushed and overtired. I hope you don't quit this one, but one has to go. Eventually you'll fold, and the thought of you beating yourself up like that makes me angry - that's my problem."

Echo will not back down, no matter how you squirm and argue. He means well and is extremely stubborn and unyielding about it. Don't get into big discussions, you can't win against Echo.

Wrecker

He doesn't notice it as quickly as Echo, but he will notice it. Of course, he's concerned and gets to the bottom of it.

"You want to tell me what's going on with you?" he asks you as you load the equipment.

You look at him questioningly and pick up the next box.

"What's supposed to be going on?"

Wrecker shrugs his broad shoulders and says, "Well, you seem really beat, tired. You're slower than usual, your eyes are all small, so either you've taken some drugs or you've barely slept."

You sigh softly and laugh humorlessly.

"I don't do drugs"

"That's what I thought" Wrecker says directly "So you're not sleeping enough, because you've been having that a lot lately"

"Yeah, my second job is more demanding than I thought"

"A second job huh?"

You nod and grab the next box, but Wrecker takes it out of your hand.

"Today I'm doing this alone" he says sternly.

"But-"

"Don't argue, you're overworked," he growls.

"But-"

"No, not today."

Wrecker will take as much off your hands as he can, but he'll also point out that you're only one person, and can't work for three.

"If you're short on credits we can pool, but credits won't do you any good at all if you wreck yourself."

Tech

He stops in the middle of your work and watches you. Suddenly you hear him sigh. When you look at him, he shakes his head. You are overtired, feeling drained, and already feel that you have no patience today, but you look at him and ask as calmly as you can, "What is it, Tech?"

He shakes his head again and says, "You are particularly slow and sluggish today, our teamwork is not very effective today thanks to you."

Somewhat tense, you say, "My deepest apologies," and continue working.

Tech frowns, adjusts his goggles with his right index finger and asks, "That sounded irritated. Are you irritated?"

You suppress a sigh and say as neutrally as possible, knowing he's not to blame for your condition, "I'm trying not to be."

"So you are?"

Now you do sigh and put down the box of equipment you just picked up.

"Yes, Tech. Can we move on now, please?"

Tech blinks a few times, then resumes. He tries not to tease you further or ask questions for now. But after work, on his way to the barracks, he passes the public transportation stop where he sees you sitting. You are sitting next to the station, your face in your hands. As he gets closer, he hears you sobbing softly. You look up startled from reddened eyes as he says your name.

"What are you doing here?" he asks, puzzled.

"Missed my ride. Now I'm sitting here for an hour, an hour I can't get back."

Tech blinks and asks, "And that's a reason to cry?"

"When you have multiple jobs, no free time, and barely any time to sleep, yes, that is a reason to cry"

His brows move up in surprise.

"Hence the sluggishness and irritability, now I understand the connections, I had wondered" he says quietly.

"Good for you," you say dryly.

Tech disappears for a moment, not two minutes later, however, he is back with his speeder.

"May I offer to drive you home?"

You wipe the tears from your face and laugh.

"That would be awesome, Tech"

As you climb up behind him, he says, "You need to cut back, get rid of at least one of the jobs"

"You say that so easily"

Tech raises his famous finger and says, "How about we sit down at your place and work it all out, find a better option for you?"

You yawn but nod, "Yeah, that might not be a bad idea"

"It is, after all, one of my ideas"

Crosshair

You've been tense all the time today, giving curt answers and even seeming a bit disoriented now and then, as if you had to rearrange yourself. Crosshair observes this critically for quite a while, but says nothing at first. But when you try to put the wrong clip into the blaster for the third time, he's had enough.

"What the hell is wrong with you? That's the wrong mag!"

Crosshair takes the magazine out of your hand and gives you the right one.

You snort in annoyance and say, "Happens to everyone."

"No," he insists, "You usually know these things off the top of your head."

You snap back, "I'm just tired, okay, just let me get on with it"

"You've been beside yourself all day" Crosshair grumbles.

You lower the gun belt you were about to equip and say, "It's just a shitty day today"

"Why?"

"I'm tired"

"You said that already. But why is that? Bad dreams or something?"

He can tell you're about to snap, he's just not sure yet if you're going to fold or freak out. Of course, he notices how hard it is for you to keep it together.

"I have several jobs, not just this one," you finally admit, "Lots of work, hardly any sleep. Every single one of these jobs is pretty demanding in one way or another. My batteries just don't charge anymore"

"Then you have to quit at least one job. It doesn't work like that, you can't go on like that in the long run."

You throw your arms in the air and say, "But I need the credits"

"So you're in a financial bind?"

You pull your shoulders up helplessly.

"Still can't go on like this, you're going to drop dead on me here one of these days, and I'm not cleaning up the mess".

You laugh softly and say, "How empathetic."

"Shall we go over your finances together? Maybe I'll see something you overlooked, a loophole, or a better option in general"

You are so moved, you could almost cry.

"Okay, now don't start crying," Crosshair says immediately, "It's just paperwork, I didn't propose or anything."

You laugh again and finally nod.

"Okay, I'd like to accept that offer."

@rintheemolion

@andyoufollowyourheart @clone-whore-99

@brynhildrmimi @kaliel2310

@misogirl828 @tech-deck

@meshla-madalene

@chxpsi

@thebahdbitch

@nahoney22 @ladykatakuri

@darkangel4121

@ttzamara

@arctrooper69

@padawancat97

@agenteliix

@allsystemsblue

@palliateclaw

@either-madness-or-brilliance

@ortizshinkaroff

@andy-solo1

@hunterssecretrecipe

@heyitsaloy

@greaser-wolf

@extrahotpixels

@hated-by-me

@hunterxcrosshair

@malicemercy

@bebopsworld

@echos-girlfriend

@cpnt616

@dangraccoon

@jediknightjana

@pb-jellybeans

@antishadow2021

@sleepycreativewriter

@projectdreamwalker

@1vlouds

@starwarsnerd111

[avatarl0v3r]

NeteyamxFem!HumanReader Reincarnated part 1

Requested: Yes

Index: The readers parents were killed in the war between the sky people and the Na'vi they fought with the Na'vi the reader was trained to fight and survive by Jake she ended getting close to the Sully kids years later both her and the Sully family had to leave and find someone to stay to protect the clan from the next threat. Warnings: Character death, lots of angst, and cussing

"Go!" You say sternly turning to face Lo'ak, and Neteyam they both jumped into the water you following after shortly while being shot at.

As you come up for air you feel a sharp pain throughout your whole body mainly your chest Lo'ak and Neteyam are on the ilu Tisreya hanging on "You both are idiots you know that" You say your voice strained Tisreya looks at you her eyes widening at the sight "Y/n" Shock lasing her words.

Neteyam looks over "Shit" He pushed Lo'ak off the ilu and swam to you and grabbed you with Tisreyas help lifting you onto the ilu with him he rode away to a rock where he seen his dad.

"Dad, Dad its Y/n shes been shot," He helped lift you up with his dads help "watch her head" He kept repeating.

When you were laid down on the rock he jumped out the water and came and sat by your side holding your hand Jake lifted you a bit to see how deep the wound was "Fuck" He said laying you back down everyone was now next to you he grabbed Neteyams hands "Pressure! apply pressure" Neteyam put pressure on your wound you hissed in pain.

Neytiri showed up and seen you on the ground she jogged over and got on her knees worried about losing you.

"We're losing her!" You reach and grab Neteyams hand "Neteyam," you struggle to get air into your lungs as you try to finish your sentence "i-" Your gripped loosened completely Neytiri started to scream and cry uncontrollably Neteyam started to cry begging for you to come back.

Jake tried calming them down "Our work here isn't done, i need you back" He said as he grabbed Neytiri's face he then looked at Neteyam "Where are your sisters," he only looked at him "i said where are your sisters" He looked at the ship "On the ship" Jake and Neytiri went to go find their daughters leaving Neteyam with you.

Back at the village that night

Neteyam was swimming next to your body as it lay in a large leaf he watched as you body floated to the bottom of the sea "Mother always said all energy was borrowed and one day must be returned I guess this is what she meant"

Neteyam didn't have any reaction as he watched your body be swallowed by the sea later that night Tisreya took him to the tree of life he attached his queue and closed his eyes.

Neteyam opened his eyes to see you standing there where the two of you always sparred Neteyam ran to you and hugged you tightly not letting go "Neteyam you can not longer see me at the tree of life again" He looked at you confused by your words "I wish I could join you, but this will have to be enough" He grabbed your hand looking into your eyes "What do you mean? Cant I just see you again?".

You shook your head in response "Maybe in another life we'll meet again" Neteyam shook his head "And what if we don't" You smiled "We've met before, and we'll meet again in another life."

The present

10 year old you sits up in your bed sweating and crying the "nightmare" didn't scare you it never has it feels more like deja vu as if that had really happen you turned and laid back in your bed covering up.

The next morning you seen your friend Rebecca "Becca, i had that dream again the one about the blue aliens and humans at war" Rebecca looks at you interest in her eyes "Ouu was that boy in it again" You rolled your eyes and laughed at her "We both want to be in the military so who knows maybe those blue alien things are real and maybe one day we'll get to go to Pandora" you smiling at the end.

I love this request and there will be parts to this story and time skips.

Everyone that commented on this i will tag in the next part it’ll be posted at 1 am EST

THESE ARE THE OUTFITS SHE WEARS

i own non of these photos

HUMAN: AVATAR:

[adoreeenina]

I wanna be yours - Ch. 3

Relationships: Recom! Miles Quaritch x Sully! Reader x Recom! Lyle Wainfleet

WC: 2.7k

Series Summary: ~~~ 𝗜𝗻 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝕋𝕨𝕠 𝕣𝕖𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕓𝕚𝕟𝕒𝕟𝕥𝕤 𝕗𝕒𝕝𝕝𝕤 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕖𝕝𝕕𝕖𝕤𝕥 𝕕𝕒𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝕠𝕗 𝕁𝕒𝕜𝕖 𝕊𝕦𝕝𝕝𝕪.

“Let me out of here!” Spider screams, he knows Quaritch is on the other side, watching him. He looks up at the camera, cussing at him in Na’vi.

“tsengpe Y/n? Oe new peyä nì'eyng! zun ayngenga tìsraw seyki peyä, tspang aynga” (Where’s Y/n? I want her back! If you lay a hand on her, I’ll kill you!)

Behind the mirror, Quaritch and Lyle watch as Spider slams a chair again the mirror.

“He’s completely feral. Thinks he’s on of them” the man behind the computers say as the three of them watch.

“How’s the girl?” Quaritch ask, not taking his off the boy. Quaritch gave the order to Lyle to take Y/n to medic before coming to look for him.

“Still knocked out. She has four fingers. Like the kids back at the shack” Lyle informs. Quaritch looks away from Spider to look at Lyle, lightly brushing his fingers shading his as he reach for the black coffee mug behind him.

“She’s a Sully” Quaritch wonders.

“Could be. She looks like she been mauled multiple times, though. Even has two different eye color” Lyle responds.

“None of the others seemed to care much for the kid when he fell other than the girl. Could be useful for us” Quaritch nods to himself as he takes a sip of his cup coffee.

“Where is Jake Sully?” Ardmore ask. The machine they had place him in, whirs.

“I don’t know!” Spider groans loudly. Electric zaps through his body and pulsate hard inside his head. Wrists and ankles stirred and jumped to escape the confines that strapped Spider onto the table you currently occupied, or more like it occupied him.

Ignoring Spider protest, she kept pressing on.

“We know that you know” Ardmore holds back from rolling her eyes.

“I don’t know!”

Miles from afar, behind a clear observation glass, watches his predecessor son being tortured. A feeling he doesn’t recognize. It took everything for the Colonel not to feel something wrenching in his gut instinctively with every passing moment.

“Just form a picture of your mind”

No.

“Is it one of the floating mountains?”

No.

“Let me out of here!” Spider screams, his head throbs, almost feeling like it’s going to explode.

Back with Quaritch, he watches the hologram of Spider brain as Lyle leans down with his hands on his knee to have a closer look.

“He’s fighting us. Give us a minute” one of the doctors says.

He felt uncomfortable at the prospect of his son being psychologically harmed at the convenience for Jake Sully. His other half reasoned that this was not HIS son, but it didn’t make the interrogation any less hard to watch.

“I don’t know!”

“Just form a thought, and we will see it.”

“I don’t know!” Spider repeats. He doesn’t know how long he’ll have before passing out or maybe not waking up at all. It takes all of his energy to fight it. He still has Y/n being held captive.

“Look, I don’t like this any more than you do” the longer the torture device goes, the more pain Spider endured.

“Which clans would be harboring him?”

“I don’t know! You’re gonna have to kill me!” Spider bluffs before screaming once again.

“It’s not gonna stop until you give us something. Where is he?” Ardmore demands.

“I don’t know, you buttholes!” Spider voice noticeably cracks. “Okay?”

“If you don’t tell us, we’ll put your friend here instead, would you want that?” Ardmore taunts. Spider eyes widen as his fist balls up.

“No!”

Quaritch, having enough, pounded from around the corner and slams his hand on the red button, Lyle following close behind him.

The machine whirls to a stop, making Spider let out a sigh of relief, feeling the pain subside, but not by a lot.

Armoire turns to glare fiercely at whoever stopped the machine seeing the Colonel wall towards her.

“General, let me try the personal angle”

“He’s not your son.”Her cold stare lingered on his eyes, in warning.

She turns to leave before glancing at Lyle, who just nods at her before looking at Quaritch, who looks like he’s debating with himself.

Quaritch turned to his predecessor’s son decidedly.

Chemicals.

That’s what you smell as your nose twitch in distaste. Your ears were ringing at the loud sound, but at the same time the sound felt so far away.

Bright lights burned your eyes as you came to, your body numb and unfeeling. Pain pounded your head, the silence unnerving whilst you tried to comprehend where you were. A mask covering the lower half of your face and bright lights shining down on you.

You hear the beeping of machines around you and for a wild moment, you think you’ve been dragged all the way back to the labs in High Camp. You turn your head, hoping to catch a glimpse of Spider, Norm or Max but is immediately hit by a pain worse than anything you’d ever felt before, and that’s says something.

When you do finally manage to look to the side, just a small glimpse of what’s surrounding you, you realize that you’re not at High Camp lab at all. There’s no sign of your siblings or parents, of Norm or Max, or even Spider.

Your ears perk up at the sound of movement somewhere she cannot see, and dread sends a shiver down her spine. Feeling a hand on your arm, your eyes snap open with both alarm and fear. Panicked, you hoist yourself up and look around as you pant, seeing many humans in lab coats.

Where’s Spider?

“Ma’am, please lay back down” you ignore her as you pull on the IV from your arm, hissing in the throbbing pain in your vains.

“Get the Colonel” you hear a someone scream out. Seeing someone in military uniform coming at you, you hiss as you take grab him by his neck and you lift him up before quickly, with all your might, slinging him around, smashing him into the two scientists behind you.

“Get down” you hear a demanding voice, your turn seeing the two dreamwalkers from the shack, one with familiar yellow cuffs, the other with his arms up.(Ja and Mansk)

You hiss as the one with with sunglasses gets near you, he reach for your wrist, you dodge it by grabbing his wrist, you lean back slightly and bring your knee up , using your foot, you kick him in the side, knocking him back.

“Oh shit” you hear the other dreamwalker mumble.

Spider tucked himself away under the bench in the holding cell, the cold white tiles of the room foreboding and uncomfortable. He wanted to find you, but he had to find a way to find you first. The last he remembers was you were bleeding and knocked out before you were taken.

His attention focused on the door as it let out a hiss. Quaritch stepped through as he sucked a greedy breath through the mask in his hand, and bent down to look under the table. Spider caught the face of Quaritch searching expectantly, it immediately soured his own. The Colonel took notice and sighed. He grunted with the effort of bending so low, and stood to walk around the table.

Spider darted out from underneath, aiming for the closed cleared door. Quaritch reacted fast and snag Spider with his long, strong arms and relented against his son's struggling body.

“Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Easy, tiger. Easy”

Spider was easily picked up like he weighed nothing and forcefully sat down and held to the table by the Colonel’s large hand. He wriggled, growled, and hissed as he struggled against the massive hand of Quaritch but to no avail. He realized his position in the matter and soon he reluctantly eased his retaliation.

Quaritch push Spider down slightly before taking a step back. He holds his hands up as sign of no harm, as he stands up to his full height.

“We good?”

Spider scowls at the failed escape attempt. He didn’t feel comfortable at the thought of having to interact with this revenant of his father.

Quaritch took note of his son's submission, and regained his calm demeanor. He kneeled in front of his scowling son, intending to soothe and relay his plan in such a way the kid would have to agree.

“Kid, you got heart”

Spider glance up at Quaritch and practically rolls his eyes at the admission, not caring what the strange recombinant had to say.

“Those science pukes leaned on you pretty hard but you gave them nothin” His intent stare at Spidee continue as he nod at him, almost respectfully, “I respect that”

Spider didn’t really know how or want to answer to this, Spider shifted slightly away from Quaritch in discomfort.

Hearing clanking of metal is what made Spider glance up slightly at Quaritch as he pulls out the dog tag that Lyle had scrounged from his corpse. He gently holds his hand out towards Spider, to show him the dog tags.

“I thought you might want this”

Spider doesn’t bother to look at him as he continues to ignore him. Quaritch jaw clench slightly before forcefully grabbing Spider’s hand and shoving the dog tag into his hand, closing it into a fist, before he points at it.

“That’s Colonel Miles Quaritch. Deceased. Killed in action”

Yeah, no shit. Spider rejects the offer of his dead father, he wants nothing from this man. After a moment, Spider tosses dog tags across the room, to show him he wants nothing to do with his father.

“I’m not that man” Quaritch replies as he stands back up, “but I do have his memories…” he walks over to the throws dog tags, kneeling down to pick them back up, “enough to know that, uh, well, he want always the best father” Quaritch turns to sit next to Spider on the table.

“But that’s not an apology. I’m not your father. Technically, you and I” He motions between Spider and himself “we’re nothing to each other, but… I can help you. I can get you and your pretty little friend outta here”

Spider glance at Quaritch at the mention of you, before casting his eyes downward.

“Ah, I’m not gonna ask you to betray Jake Sully. I know you’d never do that. You’re loyal, and I admire loyalty”

Spider seems to acknowledge the praise. He knows he’s loyal, you tell him that all time.

“Just ride along” Quaritch smiles softly before it falls, “otherwise, I gotta give you back to the lab coats”

Spider finally turns to look at Quaritch, “I want something in return if I help you ”

“Oh really? And what would that be?” Quaritch squints his eyes as eyes Spider.

“I want Y/n back. There’s only a limit of what I can show you, if you want to learn the Na’vi way, she can teach you” Spider offers, hoping Quaritch would agree. You protect him all the time, now it’s his turn to protect you.

Quaritch tilts his head back in thought as he sticks his tongue in the inside of his cheek.

“She a Sully?” He couldn’t help but ask, from what he seen of you, you have similarities of both your father and mother.

When he first seen you, there was obviously something odd about you, he didn’t realize what it was until they brought you back to Bridgehead, he notice your figure. Your body was soft not hard like the other Na’vi, your figure was also fuller, curvier, he was surprised that top you were wearing managed to hold up your breast. He even caught many of his men eyeing your figure on the flight here. He remembers how Lyle told him how you even have two different eye color.

Heterochromia, that’s what it’s called, but it’s a human thing, how does a Na’vi manage to get it? Probably inherited from Jake Sully’s genes, perhaps?

Spider hesitates to answer but answers anyways, Quaritch will find out whether Spider admits it or not.

“Yes” Spider answers. Quaritch hums. The hiss of the glass door opening, catches Quaritch attention, turning his head, he sees Lyle kneeling down to look at Quaritch.

“Colonel” Lyle urgently calls for him. “The native is going rogue”

That catches Spider’s attention. Quaritch hoist himself up to follow Lyle.

“Let me come” Spider stands on his two feet, wanting to desperately see you and hopefully to calm you down, you’re most likely just scared.

Not saying anything, Quaritch pushes Spider in front of him, following Lyle to medic wing, instantly hearing Ja and Mansk and many machines being broken.

Getting closer they see you jump over the lab table, throwing your legs around Mansk and take him down to the floor with the scissor takedown.

“That’s some Black Widow shit right there” Lyle whistles impressively.

“Lyle, focus” Quaritch walks closer to the cleared glass door, pressing the code as the glass door opens with a hiss.

Hearing the door open, you push yourself away from the one in glass to see a man with a green shirt. You hiss at him as you back away to creat distance.

“Calm down, darlin’. I’m not going to hurt you” Quaritch holds his arms out, showing he means no harm. That doesn’t make you feel any better when you see a bald Na’vi coming from behind you from the reflection on the glass, the same Na’vi that shot at you.

You turn to snarl at him, you kick the table at him, being distracted another took that to his advantage and grabs you from behind by wrap his arm around you waist, you wince feeling the pressure of your wound. You wrap you arms his neck as he pick you up, you pull your knees in, and using your body weight, you kick your legs out, using the momentum to pull his body over yours, throwing him across the room.

“Shit”

“Y/n!” Your head snap to see Spider next to the unmoving demon.

“Spider” you sigh in relief, you take a step towards him but felt someone grab you by your kuru, they kick your legs out from under you, making you fall on your knees.

“Lonu, vrrtep” (Unhand me, demon) you hiss. your hands shot up to grab at whoever was holding wrist, easing the pull of gravity.

“Hey! Let her go, asshole!” Spider tries to run towards you but was held back by Quaritch.

“Now darlin’, we need you to calm down, can you do that?” You almost feel like he’s taunting you and you don’t like it. You snarl at him, showing your sharp fangs.

“Y/n” Spider calls softly as he pushes away from Quaritch, he takes small and slow footsteps towards you. You turn to look at Spider, your gaze soften seeing him. You let the fight leave your body as you let your body slump on the floor, showing your submissive.

Seeing you finally calm, Quaritch signals Lyle to let you go, as he takes a step closer with arms raised. While Quaritch is busy with you, Lyle goes to help Mansk, to check for any damage.

“I ain’t going to hurt you, sweetheart. I got a proposal for you.

I can get you outta here if you help me” you listen but you don’t respond, not taking your eyes off Spider, not even for a second. Spider nods as if encouraging you.

“What do you need help from me?” You scowl. You speak in perfect English, but your Na’vi accent is strong, making Quaritch grin wildly.

“Teach us the Na’vi way,” He rumbles low, his voice raspy in a way that makes your tail twitch. “What do you say?”

“I can not teach when you do not want to learn,” You shoot back harshly, making Quaritch huff with a small smile.

“I really want to learn, sweetheart.” He continues, “We really want to learn”

“The Na’vi has tried to teach the sky people before, it’s hard to fill a cup that’s already full” you warn.

“Well, my cup is empty, darlin’”

You don’t believe him. How can you? You know who this man is, you recognize his voice from videos you have seen from Norm and the other scientists back at High Camp. You know all about the pain and suffering he has done. If it means keeping you and Spider safe, then you’ll take it.

You scowl as you look at Quaritch.

“I will… teach you our ways” you reluctantly reply.

“Outstanding” Quaritch grins.

Taglist: @alexandra-001

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