#but the gaping hole she's leaving in me so soon after i had to let my old lifelong cat go a couple years ago

[pseudospectre]

Rest easy, my beautiful girl. I didn't even get to love you for two years but it was worth every minute. I'll miss your yelling so much

[slaytheusurper]

⭑ When in Rome ⭑ (Domina Mea, Chapter One)

Masterlist

Chapter Warnings: Death (gladiator fight)

Summary: After years you returned to Rome to visit your father, General Marcus Acacius, to celebrate his recent victory. However, when the Emperors Caracalla and Geta get you in their sights, they will not let you go so easily.

Word count: 3.3k

Your fathers victory stretched far and wide, as did the people's love for him. This provided you with an opportunity, a chance to leave one of your fathers estate’s and visit him in Rome after all these years. You were fairly young when your mother died of the horrible antonine plague. It had struck many and even your noble family was not safe. 

It took years for your father to overcome his grief, little by little he started to show pieces of his old self again. And it was Lucilla ‘the mother of Rome’ who fully healed him, you hadn’t spent that much time with her but you knew she was a good woman. You were happy for your father even though after your mothers death he had sent you away for your own safety.

The Aurelian Estate was grand and well protected, it was lonely too. Your mothers death left a gaping hole in your heart, and with your father being the general, he was needed elsewhere. The estate had made you grow bored and even though Rome was still unsafe with the twin emperors in power, you longed to see your father.

Knowing well he would refuse your visit, you lied to the household guard. You informed them how you were to visit your father and attend the games with him at the colosseum, all to celebrate his victory in Numidia. They were hesitant as they had not received orders from the general himself, but agreed after your promises. 

The road to Rome was long but durable, the stench of the city came closer and it made your face contort in disgust. Beggars were divided on each side of the road you were travelling and it made you uneasy. Your father had told you many times why Rome was grand but fragile as well, it was ridden with disease and plots, as well as two emperors who were as unpredictable as they were mad. 

Still, it intrigued you, the last time you were in Rome, you were young and you barely remembered it. The walls of the Aurelian Estate being carved into your mind deeper, while Rome eroded. One of your servants handed you a cloth on which she had poured some lavender oil, she gestured to hold it to your nose. 

You thanked her and glanced out of the carriage again to notice the Capitoline wolf upon the gate of Rome. Your fathers voice echoed through your mind upon recalling the legend that was behind the statue. Soon after passing it, Praetorian guards halted the carriage, demanding to know who you were.

When your name left the lips of Edas, your personal guard, the Praetorian muttered an apology and barked around to make way for the carriage. You had almost forgotten how respected your father was and kept in mind how useful it could be, being his daughter. 

You had, however, not thought about what your father would say or do upon your sudden arrival. It was safe to say he was not pleased that you lied to the household guard and travelled all the way to the most dangerous city without his knowledge. Lucilla however was a bit more enthusiastic, giving you a warm welcome. 

Standing in the inner courtyard of their estate in Rome was like a dream, even though you were born there, it didn’t seem real to you. To be back after all these years. Lucilla guided you to a table where fruit and wine was spread out, while your father continued lecturing you. 

“You know how many times I have warned you of this place, it is not safe! Especially not now these mad-” Marcus stopped himself when he noticed one of the servants being a little too interested in what he was about to say next. 

“You should not have come.” He said now calmer. “Father, I have not seen you in three years. How could you blame me for seeking you out? I miss you.” His expression softened at your words, Lucilla gave your hand a squeeze on the table and smiled at you. “She will be safe here, with me. Nobody would dare lay a hand on my daughter.” 

It was still a bit weird to hear her say that, but you had gotten more used to it a long time ago. You returned her smile and your father seemed to come to terms with your arrival. “I- I’m just afraid of losing my only child, it’s safer for you outside of Rome, protected by thick estate walls and our own men.” 

Lucilla offered him a sympathetic smile, understanding all too well after having lost her own son. “She is here now, safe in our estate. If she stays here, nothing will happen to her.” Marcus gave in and let one of the servants show you to a guest bed chamber. After your servants had unpacked your belongings, you finally got to get some rest.

The next morning you woke up feeling happier than you had in a long time. The dangers of Rome did not seem too much of a concern to you. No, being reunited with your father was what you needed to regain your spirit. 

Lucilla made you realise how much you missed your mother but she made sure you had a maternal figure in her, as she showed you the whole of the estate the next day. You shared stories, meals and laughs with her as you regained your energy from your travels, when evening fell, that peace was shattered. 

A messenger came, announcing during supper how Marcus was commanded to be present at the games in the colosseum on the morrow, alongside his wife… and child. Your father was furious, abandoning his food to isolate himself with his anger. How did the emperors find out you were in Rome?

You had only been ‘home’ for two days, nobody except for the household guard and your fathers own men knew you were here. In truth you were excited to see the colosseum and witness the well loved gladiator battles. “I do not understand how they know, and why they want you there. Oh sweet child, it is not entertainment for a young lady such as yourself.” Lucilla expressed.

You wondered why it was so bad for you to go, of course you knew of the stories surrounding the two ‘mad’ emperors but you were sure that with your fathers station they would not harm you. Your title as step-daughter of a princess and daughter of a loved general made you already liked by the people, you were untouchable, right? 

Sleep evaded you that night, you were excited yet afraid. What Lucilla said haunted you, were gladiator battles really that gruesome? And she was right, why did the emperors want you there? Lucilla told you it was probably in retribution of your fathers ‘rude’ request of taking leave to see his family, but how would they know your father didn’t want you there? 

You were awake early, only having caught some hours of sleep. And so you had already eaten and bathed before your parents were ready. When Marcus and Lucilla at last emerged to leave, the dreadful ride to the colosseum began. Your father didn’t speak a word the entire way. You knew exactly what he was thinking, that it was your fault, if you hadn’t come, you wouldn't be about to be face to face with the sick men that ruled Rome. 

Upon your arrival at the colosseum, your father left the carriage first, helping Lucilla out before he helped you. The ginormous building was riddled with praetorians and onlookers, to your surprise they not only chanted your fathers name but also yours and Lucilla’s. The grand entrance took your breath away, before you were grounded when your father pulled you towards him.

You hadn’t even noticed the man that had walked up to your father and Lucilla. “Daughter, you were asked a question.” Marcus said. The man in front of you looked at you expectantly, he almost looked royal himself, although you did not recognise him at all. “Forgive me, I was distracted by the grandeur of the colosseum, it has been so long since I’ve been in Rome.” 

“Do not worry Lady, I do not fault you. I merely wished to know how your travel had been, no complications I hope?” You shook your head. “No, it was fairly smooth. I am sorry, what was your name?” The man smiled at you and took your hand before kissing the back of it. “Macrinus my lady. Again, no need for apologies.” 

You felt Lucilla’s hand on your back and you were suddenly grateful for her presence, the man seemed kind but your intuition was telling you otherwise. “Thank you, Macrinus, for your warm welcome.” He gave you yet another smile. “Shall I escort you to your seats? The emperors are already there, I’ve heard they are- eager to meet your daughter General.” 

Your fathers lips thinned at Macrinus’ words but before he could snap back the man gestured you to follow him, Lucilla’s hand never left your back, your father keeping a fierce grip around your shoulder. Macrinus led you through the guarded halls and stairs of the colosseum until you noticed the light atop the last staircase. 

It was the emperor's box, nerves suddenly overcame you but you felt the reassuring and protecting grip of your father on your shoulder. As you reached the top, Macrinus greeted the emperors before moving out of the way, so you were face to face with them. 

Your father greeted them first. “Emperor Geta, Emperor Caracalla.” He said as he bowed, letting go of you for but a short moment before his protective grip returned. However the emperors barely paid attention to him or Lucilla as their eyes burned into yours. 

You were speechless for a moment before Lucilla placed her hand on your lower back, recentering you. “Your Majesties.” You spoke while curtsying. Everyone had always spoken of their madness, their ruthlessness, but no one told you of their beauty. You were taken aback by how handsome they were, though they had a mad look in their eye.

Emperor Geta spoke first. “General, you have quite the beauty at your side. Where have you kept her all these years?” You almost winced as your fathers grip tightened. “After Aurelia’s death, I sent her to a safe estate that was built in honor of her mothers memory. Rome was such a dangerous place to be at the time, your Majesty.” Geta hummed in response and Caracalla simply laughed.

“Mm, of course, what a delight that she has come to visit you then. No doubt wanting to join the celebrations, am I right Lady?” Caracalla spoke, both their voices made your heart thump louder in your chest. “Yes Caesar, that is right.” You answered respectfully, lowering your gaze. 

“Tell me, have you ever witnessed a gladiator battle before Lady?” Geta then asked. “No your Majesty, I have not.” He smiled at your answer and you were relieved that you seemed to please them so far. No one could tell what they would do if you failed. It was then that a tiny monkey appeared on Caracalla’s shoulder, holding on to his hair. 

You smiled brightly at the sight, never had you seen an excotic creature like that before. The only ‘creatures’ at your estate were horses, hounds and birds. Caracalla noticed your sudden change in demeanor. “Have you also never ‘witnessed’ a monkey before Lady?” Your cheeks burned red at his words, they must think you were stupid with how they spoke.

“No, your Majesty.” Caracalla giggled at that and guided the monkey into his arms. Geta’s piercing gaze never left you as Caracalla came closer. It was only then you noticed the weird scratches on his face. “Would you like to meet Dondas?” He giggled. “It would be an honor Caesar.” Your father reluctantly let go of you, as did Lucilla.

You caught Macrinus watching in the corner of your eye. Caracalla then led Dondas into your arms, you couldn’t help the big smile on your lips as the monkey made some adorable noises before holding onto the expensive fabric of your toga. Dondas inspected your necklace for a bit before he climbed around your shoulders and back into the Emperor's arms. 

“He likes you!” Caracalla exclaimed excitedly, followed by a fit of giggles you already secretly found adorable. You smiled at him. “Well I like him too your Majesty, you have a very sweet monkey.” He grinned widely and his golden tooth met your eyes, why did it suit him so well? 

“Since you have never witnessed a battle such as this before, Lady, why don’t you sit at the front, with us?” Geta spoke, although he rather commanded it then asked. You looked to your side at your father, who tried not to show his fury, Lucilla looked down. It seemed you had no choice, even though that did not bother you as much as it probably should.

“Of course Caesar, how thoughtful of you, thank you.” You answered politely, and relief washed over you once more when he smiled brightly. He commanded servants to move one of the large luxurious chairs to the front, between the thrones of the emperors. Then he gave the signal that the speaker could announce their arrival and that of your father.

“Emperor Caracalla! Emperor Geta! Citizens of Rome!” The speaker's voice echoed through the colosseum as the emperors now stood all the way up front of the box, in clear view of the audience. “These sacred games are in honor of General Acacius’ victory in Numidia!” Loud cheers and applause came from the audience. 

“Acacius.” “General.” The twins gestured for your father to join them so the citizens could see him. He raised his hand and loud cheers filled your ears once more. “Speak to them.” You could faintly hear Geta say. Your fathers words faded in your mind as you took in the colosseum. 

When he returned to go to his seat, he gave your shoulder a loving squeeze before taking his place. Lucilla was then announced and she too was welcomed with a loud applause and cheers from the crowd. Then both the emperors gestured for you to come forward, as you stood between them, the speaker's loud voice boomed through the colosseum again. 

“In attendance today is the beloved daughter of General Acacius himself!” Your brows furrowed as people chanted your name. It confused you, they did not know you. Nor had you conquered lands or won battles like your father. It showed you how much your parentage could mean. 

Lucilla had already taken her seat and after you too had raised your hand to the crowd, you took your seat just like the emperors on either side. The speaker then announced the gladiators, the slaves from Numidia, before announcing the gladiator of Geta and Caracalla themselves. 

The gladiators had taken their place in the low arena of the colosseum before a giant gate opened. Your mouth parted at the sight, an animal you had never seen before with the gladiator standing on his back entered the arena. You didn’t even notice both the emperors grinning at your reaction. Neither did you notice the sharp gaze of your father.

You leaned forward a bit and watched as the big animal came closer. It then stopped before the gladiator greeted the emperors. “Heil Caesars!” He roared, his low voice sent a shiver down your spine, he looked terrifying and you couldn’t help but feel bad for the ‘slaves’ from Numidia. 

Geta and Caracalla raised their hands in response before their gladiator made his first charge, the arena beneath you seemed to shake with the animal's heavy strides. The gladiators jumped out of the way at the last moment, except for one, who was launched into a nearby pillar and died upon impact. 

Your eyes widened at the scene, you were slightly frightened but also intrigued. Maybe you understand now why people like the games. Both Geta and Caracalla clapped beside you, feeling victorious through their warrior. You were on the edge of your seat as you watched how the large animal and its rider turned back around.

One of the gladiators caught your attention as he stuck his sword in the ground before clasping his hands together to cup some sand. He then waited for the animal to charge, let it come closer, before releasing the sand into the air, creating a dust cloud. When it seemed he would get hit by the animal's large horn, he jumped out of the way, causing the animal to crash into the wall. 

The audience as well as the emperors jumped from their seat, the animal was injured badly and the gladiator had been launched from his seat. You joined the emperors to see how the gladiator got up to fight the slave from Numidia. 

It only took a little while before the gladiator had taken the sword from the Numidian and already raised his arms to excite the crowd. You moved back to your seat before Geta spoke. “Brother, it’s that poet is it not?” You had no idea what Geta was talking about. “I can’t remember, that night was a blur.” Caracalla responded before taking his seat as well. 

“The gates of hell… are… open night and day- smooth- I forget-” Your brows furrowed, you knew that poem, Lucilla had once read it to you the night after their wedding, as she wanted to bond with her new daughter. “Smooth is the descent, easy is the way.” You answered. 

Geta looked at you and seemed pleased, thank the gods. The slave had gotten up again in the meantime and fought back against the gladiator with a shield, they fought back and forth until the gladiator had picked up the Numidian and launched him over his shoulder, causing his back to collide hard with the ground. 

The gladiator pointed his sword and looked up expectantly at Geta, the crowd chanted ‘mercy’. It seemed the emperors got to make the decision on who eventually got killed in the arena. Geta looked at Caracalla who almost immediately said ‘blood’. “My Lady, shall we show mercy?” You did not expect Geta to ask your opinion.

You did not want the poor Numidian to die at your hands. “Mercy.” You nodded, Geta smiled before turning to the crowd to raise his hand. While lowering it he balled it into a fist with his thumb out, before pointing it up. “No mercy!” The Numidian yelled. “Your life has been spared by the gods-” 

“I would rather face your blade than accept Roman mercy!” You almost cringed at his words, he was clearly stupid to ignore such a presence as Emperor Geta. He then rolled over to grab a blade from the sand before launching it into the gladiator's chest. It was then he looked at the emperors expectantly instead, to which Geta gave the crowd what they wanted by pointing his thumb down.

The Numidian slave then beheaded the gladiator, leaving the emperor's champion defeated. Caracalla stood and clapped his hands loudly while Geta, on the other hand, stormed out. You turned in your seat to look at your father, who gestured that it was time to go. You stood, and curtseyed to Emperor Caracalla, “Your Majesty.” He gave you a nod, and you joined your father and Lucilla towards the exit.  

When you had gotten back to the estate, your father retired to his rooms, not saying a word the entire way back either. You were relaxing in the garden with Lucilla, when that man, Macrinus, from the colosseum arrived. To your disappointment Lucilla requested you take a bath after all that happened and you left the two alone. The whole time you were bathing you couldn’t get the emperors out of your mind, neither the man that had won that day.

[bitterbutblue]

in the morning, you would be gone ☆ tingyun x reader

── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────

~ announcement of tingyun 5 star form had me so excited seriously i was liek squealing giggling kicking my feet EVERYTHING ohmy god its so insane im goingso insane rn

song: lovesick - laufey ~

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"Hey, it's Tingyun! If you're listening to this, I'm probably busy right now. Please leave me a voice message, I'll get back to it as soon as I can, promise! See you later!"

Exhaling shakily, you press the replay button and listen to the voice message again.

"Hey, it's Tingyun! If you're listening to this, I'm probably busy right now. Please leave me a voice message, I'll get back to it as soon as I can, promise! See you later!"

Your worst fear was forgetting what she sounds like. The voice that promised you a life forever together on the altar may be a voice you'll never hear again. The voice that soothed you on nights you needed her most is now just a recording on a phone, playing back the same repeated message. But it is still her voice, it's still her.

You couldn't bear to watch the day they performed the foxian funeral rituals, the idea of losing her to the vast space ahead of you was too much for you to even comprehend. How does one cope with loss? How does one move on from loving someone to the point where you don't even know where you start and where she ends? You can only sit in the corner of your bedroom, taking in pieces of her life and knowing she would never step foot in the room again. Head in your hands, gaping hole in what used to be your chest, and tears that leave a path down your cheek. It was like a statue frozen in time, the state of barely being able to function without every fibre in your being screaming in agony, begging for it to stop. You never realised how the human body was capable of making emotional pain so physical until the moment you found yourself on the ground, Yukong banging on the doors and begging you to let her in.

You spend hours curled on the floor because you can't get in the bed without smelling the scent of her shampoo lingering in the bedsheets. You can't even bring yourself to eat in the kitchen without remembering how she should be standing there with you, arms around your waist and chest pressed against your back. Chin resting on your shoulders as she mumbles sleepily, asking for you to make her favourite for breakfast.

The cards that they dealt you were unfair, there was not much you could truly do about it though. You can really only just nod along, aimlessly going on with your day and learning to live by yourself again after almost 100 years with the same person. 100 years with the same person, and now you have to relearn what it means to be yourself. Each time you hear a small sound inside your house you can't help but momentarily think that she's home, that that was her waking up from her nap or her coming home from work- only for it to be a sound from the neighbours or the cars outside.

But the worst of it all was thinking about what she had to go through or what she may be going through. When Yukong told you there was no body actually found, a part of you was hopeful- perhaps she was alive. Perhaps somewhere she was out there and you could find her again. Another part of you felt sick, because what if she was alive, but still being used? To think about what may have happened to her or what might be happening to her scares to you an extent you can't even comprehend yourself. At the end of each day, you can really only make the same prayer to Lan so that you can feel at peace about the whole situation.

If she's gone, please have her be resting in peace.

When the foxian stepped onto the Luofu, Yukong felt her heart come to a stop. Her face paled, whiter than a sheet of paper and she felt faint. The foxian looks around with a dazed look in her eyes, as if she's completely unfocused on her surroundings. When her eyes met Yukong's a brief flicker of consciousness, as if struggling to fight whatever wave had been drowning her, passes through her eyes until it is replaced by the same dazed look as before. She scans the crowd that only watches in horror as the girl who presumed missing then dead now walks towards Yukong. Dressed like a goddess, nine elegant tails flowing behind her as she mumbles in a dazed voice.

"Do I know you?"

Yukong breaks down in her room that evening.

She doesn't know how to tell you.

She didn't have to. The foxian found herself drawn to this house down the road, this door that she feels the urge to open. Instead, she stands outside, a hand placed on the wooden door, tracing each individual groove as if memorising a complex pattern. Something about this door has her frozen, only able to think about what lays behind the door. Without really thinking about her movements, the foxian knocks on the door, her heart racing for reasons she doesn't understand.

"Yukong, if you want to come in, just open the door. There's no need to-"

A hand flies to your mouth when you notice the green eyes, the brown hair, the sharp fox ears. You feel your vision grow blurry as your breathing grows shallow, stepping back and catching yourself by leaning against the wall. There stood in front of you was your wife who was presumed dead. There stood in front of you was a shadow of your wife because those eyes were so empty and hollow it scared you. You had never seen Tingyun with such soulless eyes. She always had a glint, some sort of flicker of mischief or humour. Now her eyes just stare into yours as if she has no actual consciousness, as if she's just going through the motions of the day again.

"Tingyun?"

It scares you, the way she stares. You want to walk up to her, you want to reach out and cup her cheek and ask her if she's okay and maybe share some of the pain that she's been holding in but you can't. You can only watch as she stays outside the house, not moving in. Her eyes dart around the interior of the house and you notice her nose crinkle slightly as her eyes land on a photo on the wall- a move she does when she's confused and you feel sick to your stomach.

"Baby?"

Your voice sounds too hoarse for your own liking as you step forward shakily. Her eyes slowly land back onto you, hollowly taking in your form and her nose crinkles again.

"Who are you?"

It's only three words. Three words really cannot have that big of an impact on someone, or so you think. Words drive so much of the pain that you can feel- 'I love you' and 'I'm sorry' are both such simple phrases that you hear time and time again but when spoken by a certain person at a certain time it can make you feel like warmth that's been spread inside out or it can make you feel colder than a harsh winter night.

Who are you?

It stings more than an open wound and at this point you would rather have preferred it if they had just found her body and confirmed her dead that evening because to see your lover back as nothing but a shell of herself is horrifying. To see your lover stand in front of you with her sense of self replaced with nothing but the ability to breath and speak breaks you from the inside out more than you would ever realise. She's alive, but she's nothing like who she once was. She's back, but at the same time she never truly would be.

"Why... Why did I come here?"

Her voice wavers slightly, and you take a smaller step closer to her. It's freezing outside, she's wearing nothing but a short dress and you want to pull her into the house so that maybe she can feel some of the warmth and remember at least a fraction of you. But you just stand where you were.

"Do you know me?"

It was a struggle to speak, with words clogging up in your throat and choking you from the inside. Your heart races, unable to stop yourself from trembling as you await her response. She looks at you with her eyebrows furrowed, her chest heaving slightly as if she's trying to calm herself down.

"No."

You release a shuddering breath, closing your eyes as the tears fall. You grip onto the door handle to steady yourself, because you are about to pass out any minute now.

"That's okay." You look back at her finally, after a long minute of silence. The look in her eyes has changed, a hint of sorrow hidden behind the mist of confusion and hazy memories.

"Why does it hurt?"

She sounds so confused, and you can hear the slight twinge of pain in her voice and it hurts you more than you could have ever imagined. Losing someone was hard enough, losing someone who was physically still here but would never fully be back was somehow worse.

"Why does it hurt to... see you upset?"

Your hand moves instinctively, moving to cup her cheek as a tear falls from her eyes, a tear that she hadn't even realised had fallen until she feels your thumb gently wipe it away. She leans into your touch, tilting her head slightly and your heart just crumbles into dust.

"Don't worry too much about it now, baby." You whisper softly, and she blinks. She just stares at you with this look of regret that she doesn't understand why she's feeling.

"I'm sorry."

She apologises for a reason she doesn't know yet, but she knows one thing. Seeing you cry hurt her for a reason she can't understand, and she doesn't want to see you upset either. Perhaps you are upset because of her, and perhaps she never should've come over. She just puts her hand over yours, and she can't understand why your touch feels so familiar when you are nothing but a blank face in her mind. You feel the world fading beneath your feet because you feel the cold metal against your skin, the cold metal band that still sits around her ring finger.

"You've done nothing wrong."

The silence that follows is haunting, watching as Tingyun slowly steps back.

"I'm sorry."

You can only watch as she steps back into the darkness, and you can't even call after her until she fades into the unknown behind you. You wonder if that's truly the last time you'll ever see her and a part of you hates the world for that. Your wife's last words were once 'I love you, I'll see you later', filled with love and care. Now they would be 'I'm sorry', filled with a sense of emptiness and regret, coming from someone who didn't even know your name.

The photo that hangs on the wall next to the door is her and you, hand in hand and both in white- the same metal band on her finger on yours.

Tingyun thinks of that photo every night now and she can't understand why it hurts so much.

[grotesquedarling]

All Yours.

Toby Rodgers x Werewolf!Fem!Reader

Summary: You are assumed dead, after going on a walk and not coming back. Toby finds evidence of the 'death' and thinks the worst. You return hours later, your ability to heal not working well. Toby helps you clean up, which leads to much more.

A/N: This is a one-shot for a story I am writing for Toby, where reader is a werewolf. If anything is confusing in this one-shot, God I pray not, it is connected to my story and things will fall in place as I post it! Divider made by cafekitsune! Please go easy on me, this my first time writing smut, or anything really, in about 2 years, due to writer's block, so things may be clunky.

Warnings: 18+ minors DNI!, P in V, descriptions of violence and murder, no protection. (If I have forgotten one, please let me know!)

Word count: 3k

“Wh- What now?” Toby yelled. “Sh-she is d-dead!” He was getting worked up, stuttering more than usual.

Tim and Brian couldn’t do anything, nothing that would be helpful anyway, so they listened. They listened for so long they were to the point of ‘listening’. Which consisted of sitting in the room and dissociating while looking interested.

Toby was getting louder, pacing faster, unsure of how to handle the situation. “Are y-you even li-listening to m-me? SHE’S GONE!”

Before Tim or Brian could say anything, there was a loud bang on the cabin’s front door. As soon as all their eyes shot in the direction of the sound, the doorknob was ripped from the door, leaving a gaping hole where it once was. A few bloody fingers could be seen going into the hole to open the door.

The door swung open and there you stood, bloody and bruised. The three men looked at you in awe and confusion. 

“How-?”

“Don’t fucking speak to me,” you growled, “I am going to take a shower.”

Toby just stood there, unable to process the fact that you were actually alive, you may have looked like shit, but there you were, covered in blood and looking hotter than ever. 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

As the cold water started to run down your body, the dried blood and dirt washed away. The images of the people that had been mauled, maimed, and mutilated didn't go anywhere, though, as a matter of fact, they just lingered and kept replaying.

“Shut up! You stupid fucking cunt, just stay down. Quit fighting back, you won’t win.”

A hand grabbed your hair as you were being yelled at, dragging you over to the lake you had been brought to to be thrown in after being killed. The thought of not being able to swim crossed momentarily, it was gone as soon as it seemed to come. Staying conscious was getting harder by the minute, eyes trying to close and breathing was almost impossible.

Unsure of what to do, a last burst of adrenaline hit, right before getting dunked into the lake. Your hand wrapped itself in the hair of the woman holding you, and dragged her off the dock with you.

Fighting underwater was not as easy as one would hope for in this situation. All you could do was hold on to the throat of the woman trying to murder you. If you’re dying, so is that bitch. Time felt almost as if it was slowed, as you waited for the bitch’s partner in crime to try to help her, he never showed.

Even struggling was hard, but losing is something you were never okay with, you had to win, or not die. Finally, life seemed to have left the woman, but you weren't about to let her trick you. You pulled yourself above the water, dragging the woman with you.

Your hand scrunched a bunch of the woman's hair, and quickly, with all the strength you could muster, you smashed her head into the dock, probably a little more than what would kill her. She will not be coming back from that one, you made sure of it.

As you finished, you stood up and looked down, blood was everywhere, yours and your attacker’s. You had no time to worry about that though, there was a man, somewhere close, who also wanted you dead. Blood loss and pain seemed to start setting in as you reached the grass, knees bruising as you hit the ground.

“What the fuck did they do to me? Why am I not healing? And where the fuck is-?”

Dead. As soon as you saw something, or someone, out of your peripheral vision running off, you noticed the guy was way beyond dead. You gave the woman you left on the dock one last glance, there was absolutely no chance she was coming back, unless someone were to gorilla glue her brain back together.

With both of them dead, you took a few minutes to lay in the grass, in the hopes that regulating your heart rate would start the healing process. It did not.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Tears fell down your cheeks as you sat on the floor of the shower, the back of your head against the wall. Pain was something foreign to you, considering your healing factor, but the healing wasn’t happening, not as fast as usual anyway. The pain was almost unbearable, but the feeling of possibly being dramatic due to never having to feel pain for long seemed to cross your mind.

Unaware of how long you’d be sitting under the warm water, you realized it had been at least 20 minutes. The water started to get cold, the change in temperature wasn’t a bother, considering you run hot anyway, but that meant someone would be checking on you soon, probably Toby. You two had gotten close recently, very close. Too close, according to Tim.

Keeping your composure under the cold water was getting hard, the adrenaline had worn off and everything hurt. Suddenly, you were hyper aware of every bruise and open wound you had, your legs hurt, your body ached, and breathing started getting hard again. A panic attack hit.

A heavy knock hit the bathroom door, and the door opened. The realization of how loud you were sobbing seemed to bring you back to reality. Trying to speak to Tim, who just slung the bathroom door wide open, was impossible at the time, the only thing coming from you were sobs.

The shower curtain moved to the side ever so slightly, Tim’s eyes met yours as you looked up at him, curled into a tight ball, knees against your chest.

“He wanted me to check on you first, can he come in?” Tim seemed to be hiding the worry he had for you, hoping that if he didn’t worry, Toby wouldn’t worry as much. That didn't work. Toby peeked over Tim’s shoulder to see how fucked up you were.

“G-get out Tim,” Toby shoved Tim aside and out the door. Once the bathroom door closed, Toby just stared at you for a minute, taking in the wounds that were not healing. “Why are you st-still bleeding? I th-thought you-.”

Your eyes stayed glued to the wall in front of you, unmoving as your head rested on your knees. Words weren’t coming easy, the panic attack seemed to subside, breathing still seemed to be a big task, and you felt mentally numb.

Out of the corner of your eye, you noticed Toby crouching now and knew he wouldn’t go away without getting the information he wanted and making sure you were okay, and since being okay was not a thing at the moment, he would not be leaving.

“If you’re just gonna sit there and stare at me like that, you might as well get in.” You deadpan, eyes still glued to the wall. “It’s not like you haven’t seen me naked before.”

His eyes widened, “I-I,” he stuttered out, shocked by your offer. “I’ll h-have you know, I haven't ever s-seen you n-naked by ch-choice. You don’t l-lock doors.” He was flustered, but he wasn’t going to turn down the offer. He started to remove his clothes, and quickly.

While trying to stand up so Toby could get in the shower, stars filled your vision and put you right back on your ass and a little yelp left your throat. You leaned into the wall again, completely and utterly ready to give up.

Toby sat down beside you, both of you completely vulnerable, and seemed to be scanning the severity of the damage to your body. He was quiet, more quiet than usual, it was almost scary. His eyes finally made his way up to yours, tears started streaming once again. Never in your life had you wanted to be held so badly, you had always been able to be independent and take care of yourself.

With his eyes still locked on yours, the words ‘hold me,’ slipped from your lips. Without hesitation he pulled you into him, causing you to wince with how fast and rough the action was.

“S-sorry,” he whispered as he gently loosened his grip on you. His fingers started tracing the bruises on your arms, then stomach, then your thighs. Something about him having to be gentle with you for the first time, made you feel a way, you couldn’t tell what that way was, but it was nice.

Leaning into him was a lot better than leaning on that hard ass wall, as he continued looking over your body, you listened to his heart as your head rested against his chest, regulating your own breathing and heart rate.

Pain started to slowly subside, your chest was not as tight, and the anxiety had melted away. Healing still wasn’t happening, at least not fast enough, it only seemed to be slowly coming back, and being the most impatient person in the world it might as well just be not working.

“I don’t understand why I am not healing,” you thought aloud, “If you're done looking at my tits from over my shoulder, will you help me just clean up? I feel absolutely disgusting.”

Toby was flustered once more, and hid his face in your shoulder for a moment. “Y-yeah, I can,” he whispered before helping you up.

Being in such a vulnerable state with you was something he never thought would happen, at least not when you first met anyway. Something about the innocence of sitting with each other, naked in the shower, made him want more than that. He was craving you, in so many different ways.

His impulse control was in overdrive but now, he didn’t want to hurt you, he was supposed to help you clean yourself up. All he could think about, though, was having his way with you. His hands were a little shaky now, trying not to think about grabbing you and pushing you against the wall. That seemed to be the only thought his brain could manage to give him, he was getting frustrated.

“You know, as a werewolf, I can smell many different pheromones, and I-,” you were quickly interrupted before you could finish the sentence.

“Sh-shut the f-fuck up!” Toby practically shouted. “You s-stink and you need h-help showering, let me f-finish helping you.”

“How about I help you after this, then? If I’m not too sore anymore.”

The look on Toby’s face was of pure confusion, “with what?”

You shook your head, “Let’s just finish here first.”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Toby caught on a lot quicker than you thought he would, you hadn’t seen him move that fast and sporadic before. He needed you though, and when you offered yourself to him, even with the state you were in, he was not going to let opportunity slip away.

Your healing seemed to be back to a semi-normal speed. All you felt were light aches and any open wound looked like a gnarly scar, but they were closed up and not bleeding. What more could someone ask for?

“What the fuck were you two doing in there?” Brian asked, but quickly took the question back. “You know, don’t actually answer that. You two share way too much information already. Pretend I never asked, I am leaving.”

As Brian walked away, Toby practically dragged you to his room. His excitement was unmatched. He has wanted to do this since you two beat the shit out of each other sparring, which was about three weeks ago. Something about you looking feral unlocked something within him.

The thought of you scraping your sharp canine teeth across his neck, bringing blood to the surface while riding his thigh was something he never knew he wanted or needed. He wanted to be buried deep in your pussy, he wanted to be between your thighs, he wanted, no he needed to have you in every way possible.

Toby couldn’t decide what to do first, his thoughts were racing as you stood behind him while he locked the door. Once it was locked, he turned to you and lost the little bit of composure he had left. He grabbed you and ripped the shirt you had just put on after the shower completely off your body, and pushed you down on his bed.

Now all that was left on you was your panties, his focus wasn’t there yet, though. His kisses were sloppy yet held so much passion. His hands seemed to wander your body as he started kissing down your jaw line and making his way to your collarbone.

A small gasp escaped you when his hands finally found their way to your breasts. The way he squeezed them made you think he’d been waiting for the moment. The way he held onto you in general made you wonder how long he’d been wanting this. You had to admit, you had also been waiting for this, the way Toby had been acting around you, the way his glances started lingering, or how you could hear his heart rate change slightly when he’d see you.

His lips were back on yours now, and he was growing more and more desperate by the second, he whined a little as he started grinding into your thigh. You smirked when you realized how needy he was. He took that as an opportunity to slip his tongue into your mouth.

You could tell he didn’t know what to do next, the way he moved, twitched, and whined into the kisses. Pulling away from his lips for a moment caused him to become confused, but when your hands moved down his chest and started pulling at his pants he realized you weren’t trying to get away, you were helping him. A giggle came from you when you saw the look on his face.

“Wh-what? D-did I do something wr-wrong?” He was slightly worried.

As you shook your head, your hands went to his hair and pulled back into a kiss. He seemed to melt into you. He was so rough, even while trying to not be rough, then there was you. So gentle and loving. Despite being some sort of monster, you were just so patient, it drove him crazy, he loved it.

“I, I don’t kn-know what to d-do first.” He stuttered through his kisses.

Deciding to take things in your own hands so he wouldn't have to decide, you flipped him onto his back. His eyes went wide, he forgot about your strength, he was not going to argue though. With you on top, he seemed to be in awe. The way you looked was angelic.

“Are you ready?”

All that came from Toby was a whine as you went to sit on him, but you were going slow, way too slow. His hands grabbed your hips hard enough to bruise you as he forced you down. He started grinding up into you, and moving your hips whichever way he wanted, there was no rhythm, just random thrusting.

Now it was your turn to whine. Your hands rested on his abdomen and your claws started to come out. A growl escaped you, as your hips rocked in a more rhythmic way, syncing with his.. The moans and little growls rumbling through you were almost enough to get Toby to cum then and there.

His grip tightened on your hips as he started controlling your movements again, very sporadically. You didn’t care though, you were close too.

“Toby, I’m…” was all you could manage before a warm feeling came over you and you were orgasming. Your head went back and your eyes shut tight, and with your pussy clenching around his dick as you rocked your hips through your high, Toby quickly found ecstasy after you.

A string of moans and cusses came from Toby as he rode out his high with you still on his dick. He didn't want you to move, not yet. His grip on your hips was so tight by now that his knuckles were white. It felt as if he was making sure this was real.

“F-fuck,” He managed to moan out. “That was s-so much b-better than any of the p-porn I’ve ev-ever watched.”

You giggled again as you rolled from the top of Toby to the side of him. You laid your head on his chest for a moment, just listening to his heart. You gently kissed his cheek, before throwing your legs over the side of his bed and putting on a shirt that was on his floor. You were almost certain it was not a clean shirt, you used it though, just in case Tim or Brian came in and saw you with absolutely nothing on. Not that they would ask you any questions about what you were doing though. They have learned their lesson asking that one too many times. 

“I don’t know how much longer they will be gone, but I have to pee. When I come back-”

“We’re fucking even ha-harder. I have s-so many th-things I want to try wi-with you.” Toby was very serious saying this, but laughed a little, until he heard Tim and Brian walk in through the front door. He wasn’t going to be able to do anything with you now, they would complain about the noise.

Brian was quick to speak as he walked in, “We’re back, please don’t be fucking in my line of sight.”

Tim shook his head at that statement. “I am going to bed, if you are fucking, do it quietly,”

“They are such party poopers. Looks like it’s bedtime at the old folks home. Whatever, you good if I sleep in here tonight? That couch is going to give me tetanus with those rusty springs stabbing me in my ass cheeks.”

Toby looked from you to his bed, and gave you a strange look. “Your bed is way more comfy!”

“H-how do you kn-know that?”

“I take naps in here when you’re out or whatever.” You spoke matter of factly. The two of you stared at each other, unblinking for about ten seconds. Toby sighed, and promptly made a small  space for you.

“D-don't make this a habit.”

“Sleeping in your room? We just fucked in your bed. Shut up.”

[suitkive]

✩ just swinging by — k.yh

pairing. yoohyeon (dreamcatcher) x fem reader

summary. ever since the mysterious web-swinging spider-woman first collapsed on your balcony by accident after a long night out fighting crime, she keeps coming back around with thank-you gifts and excuses to see you—and you slowly start to find yourself falling for the clumsy, kindhearted girl behind the mask.

info. college au, yoohyeon as spider-woman

warnings. swearing, blood/injury

word count. 4.6k (oops)

(a/n) insp. this moodboard i made a while ago :D

of all the things you were expecting to happen to you on a typical sunday night, the sudden appearance of a masked vigilante at your balcony was most certainly not one of them.

alright, rewind a bit. a CRASH jolts you awake in the middle of the night—though really it's morning, according to the glowing red digits on your alarm clock that read 3:49 AM—and you nearly fall out of your bed because that was loud, what the hell?

nerves running high and any remnants of sleep completely shaken out of your body, you get out of bed and slowly open your bedroom door only to be met with a blast of frigid night air. you blink a few times, just to make sure you're not seeing things.

"what the fuck," you say out loud.

your balcony door is gone.

no, wait—it's broken. shards of glass are everywhere, and there's a giant gaping hole where the sliding door used to be. and lying crumpled in a heap on the floor in front of it…

you fumble for the light switch, something you probably should've done as soon as you opened the door. the sight that greets you when the light turns on makes you wonder if you're still dreaming, because this can't actually be happening.

there is a superhero on your balcony.

and she's bleeding all over your carpet.

"oh my god—" you hurriedly rush over to get a better look. red-and-blue spandex that's torn in several places, a trail of spiderwebs clinging to her wrists, a large spider symbol printed on the front and back of her suit… it's spider-woman. spider-woman just crashed through your balcony door.

and she's bleeding. on your carpet.

"okay," you mumble, trying to think. at least the fresh night air coming from the massive hole in your balcony door does well to invigorate you. "okay, okay, i need to do something… oh god, my landlord is gonna be so pissed at me—"

the body on the floor lets out a weak groan, and you quickly kneel down next to her. "hello? are—are you okay?"

with great difficulty, the girl struggles to lift up her head. her mask obscures the entirety of her face, so you have a hard time telling whether or not she's fully conscious.

"…ow," she croaks out at last, and then her head falls back to the floor with a thunk. seconds later, her chest begins to slowly rise and fall. a soft snoring sound emits from her mask.

you take a deep breath. okay. you can deal with this.

so here you are almost three hours later, nursing a cup of much-needed coffee as you stare contemplatively at the now-bandaged but still-snoring superhero laid out on the couch in front of you. you had done your best to clean and treat her wounds with your limited medical knowledge (and the suspiciously well-stocked first aid kit that your weird roommate handong keeps in the cupboard), so now you're just waiting for her to wake up. which is taking way too long.

the clock on the coffee table reads 6:15 AM, and you glumly swish around the cold dregs of your morning coffee. it's almost time for you to leave for your 6:30 chemistry class, but it looks like spider-woman is still completely out of it.

after pacing around the kitchen of your tiny apartment for five more minutes, you impulsively grab a post-it note and scribble down a message for spider-woman to see when she wakes up. thankfully your roommate is literally never home, so there's no chance of anyone coming in here and discovering the superhero conked out on your couch.

you sign your name at the bottom of the note and stick it to spider-woman's forehead, hoping she'll be alright. as for your balcony door… thinking about how much it's going to cost to install a new one gives you a headache, so you just stick a large sheet of cardboard over the opening and resolve to take care of it as soon as you get home.

"this has been a very, very weird morning," you say out loud, because nothing about this feels real.

(then again, the tedious hours you spent cleaning up bits of glass from the floor and picking the webs off of spider-woman's suit definitely felt pretty real.)

you throw one last glance at the sleeping heap on your couch before you leave, only hoping that your life will get back to normal after today.

yoohyeon wakes up disoriented, aching all over, and with the horrifying realization that she has most definitely slept past all five of her monday morning alarms.

she blinks sleepily, slowly processing her surroundings. she's lying on a couch, someone has bandaged her wounds and swaddled her in blankets, yubin probably, she's an angel and the best guy in the chair yoohyeon could ever ask for and… whoa, wait a minute.

this isn't her apartment.

with that horrifying realization, yoohyeon sits straight up and whips her head around in a panic. her surroundings are entirely unfamiliar, and she's about to call yubin before remembering that yubin is unreachable right now—away on some sort of top-secret mission that's supposed to last, like, three months. yoohyeon groans. why am i actually the worst superhero ever?

then she realizes that there's something stuck to her forehead and reaches up to find a neon green sticky note with some writing on it, which she slowly reads through with a good deal of trepidation.

hey, you crashed into my apartment last night—you were unconscious but i didn't see your face, don't worry! i fixed up your injuries as best i could but now i need to leave for class, so i hope you'll be okay when you wake up. just remember to put the cardboard back over the balcony door so birds won't fly in or anything :)

phew. so yoohyeon's secret identity hasn't been leaked, that's a relief… but she essentially broke into an innocent civilian's apartment, which she doesn't exactly feel great about. i need to make this right.

"oh, wait—" yoohyeon realizes something and jumps to her feet, the blankets falling around her. "shit, i'm late for class!"

you're dutifully taking notes as the professor drones on about chemical equations, though you're struggling to stay focused—seriously, who decided that 6:30am classes on a monday was a good idea?—when suddenly the doors to the lecture hall burst open and a girl runs in, flushed and panting heavily.

"i am so sorry," she wheezes, bracing her hands on her knees to catch her breath. "i overslept…"

the professor sighs and waves off her apology. "don't let it happen again," he says sternly, then continues his lecture.

you cast the girl a curious glance as she shuffles shamefully to an empty seat and starts unpacking her things. she's tall and lanky, with long two-toned hair tied in a haphazard ponytail and glasses that she has to push back up when they start to slip down her face. you make eye contact for a brief moment, then you resume paying attention to the professor without giving the encounter too much thought.

after classes end, you go back to your apartment to find the place superhero-less. the blankets are folded messily on the couch and there's a small tear in the cardboard that's covering the opening in your balcony, as if someone was in a hurry to leave.

you shrug off your bags with a sigh and go to dial up your landlord.

almost a week passes without further incident. you get your balcony door replaced so it's like nothing ever happened, and your life is just starting to get back into the usual swing of things when spider-woman shows up at your balcony again.

a thump is what wakes you up prematurely this time—it's literally 5am which is way too early for a saturday morning of all days—and you groggily stumble out of your bedroom, fearing the worst. you know it can't be a burglar since you live on the seventh floor, so there's only one person it could be…

luckily, the glass door is fully intact when you pull back the curtains to check. however, there is currently a superhero lying curled in a ball on your balcony. a very familiar superhero wearing a red-and-blue suit with a spider symbol on it.

"oh… oh, no," groans spider-woman when she hears you slide open the door. she weakly tries to drag herself to her feet, but she slumps back to the ground and you notice, with concern, the bleeding scratches all over her body. "oh man, i did it again… i'm so sorry, i'm gonna leave, just… wow you're so pretty… sorry, i should really leave—"

"no, it's okay!" you rush to reassure her, kneeling down next to her and offering your hand. "you can't go back out there like that, let me help you."

she winces, though whether it's from pain or embarrassment you can't tell. "i am so sorry," she repeats, and something about her voice seems oddly familiar, but you're too preoccupied with getting her inside to dwell on that.

the superhero keeps rambling as you half-drag, half-carry her to the couch. "i didn't mean to come here again, it's just i usually go to my friend's place when i'm injured but she's away and i got lost and mistook your apartment for mine the last time and i'm really sorry about breaking your door, it was just so dark and i had a really long day and i wasn't thinking straight and i probably gave you so much trouble—ow!"

"sorry!" you flinch and let go of her. "is your arm okay? what happened?"

"i… um." spider-woman chuckles nervously. "i kind of swung into a building? i didn't break any windows or anything! i might've broken my arm though."

you can't help but laugh, finding her awkward manner strangely endearing. "let me take a look, it might be dislocated or something."

it turns out it's just bruised, so you get her some ice and busy yourself fixing up her injuries. she repeatedly tries to convince you that she can do it herself in between a steady stream of more apologies, but she looks like she's one step away from passing out, so you insist on helping her.

"how'd you get all these cuts and scratches, anyway?" you ask, opening the bottle of antiseptic and setting out some gauze. "if you don't mind me asking, that is."

"no, it's fine! um…" spider-woman tilts her head, as if trying to remember. "the ones on my ribs are from some muggers with knives, kids really but there were four of them and only one of me so yeah… and the ones on my arms are from the black cat, you know, my nemesis? she was robbing a jewelry store and i managed to stop her but she still escaped and also got me a few times with her claws… oh, and there's this cut on my forehead that i got when i accidentally tripped and hit my head on a wall corner a few hours ago… but i can fix that on my own! you know, cause i'd have to take the mask off for that, and like, i can't reveal my secret identity 'cause dami—that's my guy in the chair—dami would kill me, haha…"

by the time she's done talking, you've finished cleaning and wrapping all of her wounds. there's just the cut on her forehead that's left, which is still bleeding despite her flippant assurances that it doesn't even hurt.

"that looks pretty bad," you note, kneeling down beside the couch and leaning in closer to inspect it. you gently press a paper towel to the bleeding area, using your other hand to brush a stray drop of blood from her cheek. "are you able to swing like that?"

there's a beat of silence. you realize that spider-woman has gone perfectly still, and also that your faces are extremely close together.

"sorry—" you shift away apologetically, worried that you made her uncomfortable. "you probably don't like it when people touch your suit."

"it's okay!" spider-woman's voice comes out as a strangled squawk, and she quickly coughs to clear her throat. "um. i was just. surprised."

"oh… well then." you stand up and glance awkwardly around your apartment, at a loss for what to do next. "so uh… how are you feeling?"

she springs up from the couch, startling you. "a lot better, thank you so much! i've caused you way too much trouble so… i should probably get going now, huh."

"are you okay to swing with your injuries and all?" you ask as she half-walks, half-slides to the balcony in this self-consciously exaggerated way. "they looked really painful when you arrived here."

"this is nothing," she responds with a casual wave of her hand, hoisting herself up onto the balcony railing in a quick graceful movement. "i heal pretty fast, so they barely even hurt anymore."

"that's good, then." you lean against the doorframe, somewhat saddened to see her go. strangely enough, you've actually been enjoying her company despite the fact that she quite literally crashed into your apartment and woke you up in the middle of the night.

spider-woman clears her throat. "uhh—maybe i'll see you around sometime," she says, a hopeful lilt to her voice.

the sun is starting to rise, peeking over the tops of the city skyline and bathing your apartment in soft golden light. spider-woman tilts her head at you, and you're almost completely certain that she's smiling under her mask.

"yeah," you respond, smiling back and raising a hand to shade your face from the sun. "i'll see you around sometime, superhero."

spider-woman gives you a jaunty little two-fingered salute, and then she's launching herself backwards off the railing with a carefree whoop. she disappears from your view for a few heart-stopping moments, but then a web shoots up and she's swinging away in between the skyscrapers until she's out of sight.

the next day, you open the curtains to find a small bouquet of red and blue flowers sitting on your balcony. they look wind-blown and slightly frayed, and the thought of a certain superhero swinging through the city with the little pot tucked carefully under her arm makes you grin despite yourself.

you get the feeling you won't be seeing the last of her any time soon.

"um, is it okay if i sit here?"

you glance up from the chemical equations on your laptop screen, meeting the eyes of a tall girl who's fidgeting nervously with the ends of her long hair. vaguely, you recognize her as that clumsy student who ran into class late last week.

"oh, sure," you say after a confused beat, shifting over slightly to make more room for her. something about her voice rings a bell, but you're not sure why it sounds so familiar. i've probably just heard her talking to her friends before, you rationalize.

"thanks!" she sits down and starts taking out her stuff, smiling hesitantly at you. "i'm kim yoohyeon, it's nice to meet you."

she has a pretty smile, you note while you introduce yourself. "it's nice to meet you too."

yoohyeon seems shy around you and doesn't talk much, but there's something captivating about her that you can't quite figure out exactly. she pays close attention to the professor during the lecture, though occasionally you'll look over to catch her stealing glances at you—she always blushes and quickly looks away, piquing your curiosity. hmmm.

after an extremely long and boring hour, the class is over and everyone starts packing up and filtering out of the lecture hall. you're packing up as well when your arm brushes against yoohyeon's by accident, and her cheeks flush bright red as she stares at you wide-eyed.

"i—" yoohyeon clears her throat. "bye!" she squeaks, and then she's shooting out the doors before you can even open your mouth to reply.

huh, how strange.

you're studying at your kitchen table one afternoon, curtains open to let some sun into your apartment, when you hear a tap-tap-tap on your balcony door and look up to see spider-woman crouched outside.

"i hope this isn't creepy," she rushes to say as soon as you slide open the door. "i was just, er, in the area and i thought i'd swing by and say hello… um, i brought you a croissant! as thanks for, y'know, everything."

"wow, thank you," you say in surprise, taking the paper bakery bag that she's hopefully holding out to you. the chocolate croissant inside is a little flattened, but you're warmed by the gesture regardless.

"no problem!" spider-woman jumps back up onto the balcony railing, sitting and swinging her legs like a little kid. "so, uh, yeah. just wanted to do that. i hope it wasn't weird. was it weird?"

you can't help but laugh. "you're cute," you say sincerely, the words slipping out against your will—flustered, you quickly change the subject before she can notice. "um, i'm not really busy right now so… you can come in and hang out for a bit, if you want."

"really?" she tentatively slides off the railing and trots inside after you like a lost puppy. "i feel bad for intruding—ooh, were you doing homework?"

"yeah, just studying for a test," you respond, sitting down and gesturing for her to pull out a chair as well. "do you know anything about chemistry?"

"i love it!" she exclaims, perking up and scooting closer to get a better look at your notes. "i first made my web fluid in my high school chemistry lab actually, it was… well, it was a learning experience. what are you studying?"

"acid-base reactions, most of it went over my head when my professor was lecturing about it…"

before you know it, two hours have gone by in a flash. spider-woman just has this bright and likable aura around her, and as she chatters about chemistry with infectious enthusiasm and tells you funny stories about her experiences as the city's resident superhero, you find that you already feel even more at ease with her than you are with your own roommate.

"we should do this again soon," you tell her when she has to leave, standing on your balcony surrounded by the bustling sounds of the city. "and be careful, alright? don't go swinging into any more buildings."

"i promise!" she assures you with a laugh, giving you a cheerful wave before she jumps from your balcony and swings off.

after that, spider-woman starts swinging by to see you a lot more often. you can tell she still feels guilty about accidentally breaking into your apartment, because she always comes with gifts of flowers or random pastries from the bakery down the street.

"you really don't need to go to all this trouble for me," you tell her, amused, when she presents you with an entire cake.

"it's no trouble at all!" she insists cheerfully, then gasps. "unless you don't like it. do you not like it?"

"no! i really appreciate it, i promise. it's just, you don't have to get me stuff if you don't want to."

"i want to!"

it's after a few weeks of the dorky superhero swinging by your apartment that you begin to realize you might be developing a bit of a crush on her. which is ridiculous, really, considering you have no idea what she looks like under the mask and you don't know her real name either. you don't know anything about her.

but you do know her, in a way. you know that she likes to pretend she's this cool badass superhero when in reality she's just a science nerd who gets excited about mixing chemicals. you know that she loves rescuing kittens from trees even though she's scared of cats, just because it's worth it to see the relief on its owner's face. you know that she sometimes swings by elementary schools during recess because a wave or a thumbs-up from spider-woman always makes the kids' entire day. you know that she's smart, she's kind, she's clumsy, she loves helping people more than anything.

you know her well enough for your heart to flutter every time you hear her tap on your balcony door, no matter the time or reason. she usually comes by during the day now, just to bring you gifts and hang out, but every once in a while she'll still crash on your balcony in the middle of the night with injuries from fighting crime.

this is one of those nights, apparently. a forceful knock on your front door is what wakes you up at 11pm one sunday night, and you groan as you're violently dragged out of your peaceful sleep.

"coming," you mumble half to yourself, throwing a random hoodie over your pajamas and hauling yourself to the door. "i have class tomorrow, who even—"

it's spider-woman, leaning heavily against the doorframe. "hi," she croaks. the knocking must have tired her out, because she topples into your arms as soon as you open the door.

"what…" you blink groggily for a few seconds, slowly processing the girl draped all over you. your half-asleep brain notes that she's very warm. it's like a nice blanket.

then you realize that your apartment door is still wide open, and the city's most famous superhero is just standing right there in the hall where anyone could see. "what are you doing here?" you yelp, pulling her inside and hurrying to close the door. "you're in your suit and everything! did anyone see you come up?"

"dunno," she mumbles, tucking her face into the crook of your neck. "i hit my head really hard. didn't think swinging was a good idea…"

you maneuver the superhero onto your couch, and she whines when you pull away to go get the medical kit. "hurts."

"looks like there isn't any bleeding," you say, kneeling down next to the couch and examining her head. "do you think it might be a concussion?"

"probably," she rasps, squishing herself further into the couch and looking like a burrito with the blanket you put over her. "should heal in a few hours."

you furrow your brow, still not used to what she calls her spidey-healing. "okay, get some sleep. you can stay here as long as you want, alright?"

"gotta wake up early," she says drowsily. "chemistry lab tomorrow…"

you blink. you… also have a chemistry lab tomorrow. "is that so?"

"yeah." you think her eyes are closed behind her mask, but then she shifts her head slightly and giggles softly to herself. "you're sooo pretty… i was so scared to talk to you in class."

wait, what?

spider-woman keeps rambling as she drifts off to sleep. "wanted to ask you out… but i was too shy without the mask. ran away, so embarrassing…"

wait, what?

"you're really cool," she mumbles. "and nice… and pretty… i like you a lot… want to take care of you like… like you take care of me…"

a pause. "you should go out with me," she says, then falls silent. tiny snores start coming out of her mask.

you slowly stand up, head spinning with all these new revelations.

huh.

you decide to go back to sleep.

it's around three in the morning when you wake up again to the sounds of someone shuffling around in the living room. you reluctantly slide out of your nice warm bed, slipping a hoodie on and heading out of your bedroom to find the source of the commotion.

"sorry, did i wake you?" spider-woman hovers uncertainly by the open door, dressed in civilian clothes—a hoodie and sweatpants—though she still has her spider-woman mask on, which looks so ridiculous that you have to smile at the sight.

"yeah… you're leaving already?" you ask, rubbing your eyes and yawning.

"yep," she says, awkwardly shifting her bundled-up superhero suit from hand to hand. "um. you should go back to bed, i know you have an early class tomorrow…" and so do i, she thinks to herself ruefully.

"let me see you off first," you insist through another yawn, covering your mouth with one oversized hoodie sleeve. "be careful on your way down, okay?"

"i will," she mumbles shyly. you can't see it, but she's blushing so hard at the gentleness in your voice and the soft way you're looking at her that she's scared her mask might burn right off her face. i've got to leave before i do anything stupid, she thinks, embarrassed. why is she so nice… and pretty…

the superhero is halfway down the hall when you remember all of last night's events and suddenly get an idea.

"yoohyeon," you call out, leaning against your doorframe.

she stops and turns around. "yeah?"

a pause.

you see the exact moment she realizes. "i—oh fuck—i mean, um—" she flounders, wildly looking around and laughing nervously. "wh-who's yoohyeon? i'm just your friendly neighbourhood spider-kim—i mean—"

you smile teasingly. "next time you ask me on a date, do it when you're not suffering from a concussion."

you don't know what her facial expression is like under her mask, but spider-woman—yoohyeon—looks like she's about to pass out, if the way she's clutching her suit in a death grip is any indication.

your smile softens. "i like you too, just so you know. a lot." you step back inside your apartment, but then you poke your head out again (yoohyeon is still standing there, frozen in shock) and add, "come back and ask me again tomorrow, okay? properly."

you close the door and take a deep breath. you feel as if your heart had stopped beating momentarily, but now it resumes racing excitedly in your chest.

hopefully i didn't just make a huge mistake.

meanwhile, yoohyeon is practically having heart palpitations outside. she spends a while just gaping like a fish at your closed door, but then she comes to her senses and practically breaks her neck sprinting to the elevator.

oh god, i need to look nice tomorrow!

the next morning, you're sitting at the kitchen table doing some studying before class when you hear the distinct noise of feet landing lightly on your balcony outside. there's the sounds of someone pacing for a while. then a light knock sounds on the glass door, making you turn around.

it's yoohyeon. not spider-woman, but kim yoohyeon from your 6:30am chemistry class. she's wearing jeans and a turtleneck sweater, her long hair falling in soft waves past her shoulders and her dark brown eyes bravely staring into yours. in her hands is a small bouquet of red-and-blue flowers.

"did you swing up here?" you ask incredulously, tearing your eyes away from her and looking around. the sun is starting to rise, painting the sky in a soft rosy hue that matches the blush on yoohyeon's face. "did—"

"wait—please don't say anything," she interrupts, eyes squeezed shut. "before i chicken out."

she takes a deep breath and opens her eyes, meeting your gaze. "hi, i'm kim yoohyeon. um, i'm also spider-woman, and i… i'd really like to take you out on a date sometime."

she smiles hopefully at you. you step closer to her, taking the bouquet from her hands and leaning up to press a kiss to her cheek. yoohyeon's blush intensifies, and your heart soars.

"it's nice to meet you, kim yoohyeon," you tell her, matching her smile. "and i'd love to go out with you."

[whumperstorm]

Suppressing Fire Part 5

Content: Vampire whumper, defiant whumpee, loneliness, Attempted murder, death wish, broken bones, torture, despair :)

First/Previous/Next

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

There's a dark shift in Keegan's character after the night of the phone call. She goes quiet. Completely shuts down. The universe is cruel, she thinks, for letting her get so close just to yank her away from her sister once again. At least she knows Lohitha is safe, but now that she's no longer so preoccupied with worry, all she feels is miserable longing. There's a gaping hole where her heart should be and it aches. She can be selfish now and all her selfish thoughts revolve around a single phrase.

I want to go home.

Hearing her friend's voice over the phone has reopened old wounds. She misses Vivian and the other hunters desperately. She misses her quaint life. She misses the little Italian place down the street and the neighbor's scruffy cat. She misses the sun. It's been so long now that she wonders if she'd burn like a vampire the next time she steps into the light.

Keegan buries the sadness in her hatred like she always does. The only person she ever sees is the man who has caused all of her suffering. Every day he comes into the room and steals her blood, often chatting with her like nothing is wrong. 

You did this to me. She thinks, her blood boiling. She wishes it would burn him when he feeds. 

She imagines staking his heart every time his fangs pierce her neck. She fantasizes about the light leaving his eyes. Still, she doesn't fight back anymore. It’s not worth it. Kane seems happy with what he probably perceives as submissiveness, but the violence builds up inside her just the same. She knows she can't go back to complacency. She'll either escape soon, or die trying.

---

Six months after the reunion, Keegan finally gets her chance. She spends the evening blankly staring at the television in the living room. She ignores Kane nearby, and he ignores her. The next time she wakes back inside her prison, she notices the door has been left slightly ajar.

Kane didn't lock her away properly. 

Holy shit. 

What time is it? She tends to wake up a bit before him, but he could be up any minute. Has she already missed her chance?

She scrambles out of bed and carefully peeks out the door. The ornate clock down the hall confirms her fears. The sun has just set. She could still run and try to get to a hiding place before he catches her, but it's too risky. There's a lot of open space between her and the cover of the forest and vampires are fast. She would never make it.

But… there's another way. Unlike in her prison, the rest of the house is filled with wood. In other words, a weapon. She hasn't had access to a weapon since her first escape attempt years ago. And he's asleep.

That spark of realization ignites the hatred inside her like a match to kerosene. Forget running. She could kill him. That would certainly ensure her escape. She wants to kill him. For everything he’s put her through and more. Her eyes land on a small wooden chair nearby. She snatches it up and slips back into her room. 

She closes the door, wraps one of the chair legs in her bed sheets to muffle any noise and then kicks with all her might. It takes a couple tries at the awkward angle, but eventually it folds with a satisfying SNAP. She's left with a rudimentary stake and she barks out a somewhat unhinged laugh.

This is really happening.

She takes a moment to center herself, she must focus. Then carefully, oh so carefully, she makes her way upstairs. Every tiny creak of the steps has her freezing in terror, waiting for any sign that Kane has woken up. She's as tense as a board, sweat dripping down her brow. As she approaches the bedroom door she doesn't dare to breathe. She turns the knob, thanking all that's holy that the door doesn't squeak.

There he is. Kane almost looks peaceful, his constant scowl softened by sleep. Keegan has a passing thought of how unfair this is, attacking him when he can't defend himself. But it's brief. As a human she's been at a disadvantage her entire life. Finally, it's his turn.

Step.

Step.

Closer and closer until she's right next to him. Her heart is pounding out of her chest. She half expects him to wake from that alone but he doesn’t stir. 

It's now or never. 

She leans over and positions the stake over his heart. 

She raises her arm-

Kane wakes to the smell of human far closer than it should be. He gasps as his eyes fly open, witnessing a stake dive for his heart. He grabs the human's wrist tight and in a flash he flips their positions, pinning her to his bed by the wrists. It takes him a moment to process the situation, but quickly his expression of pure shock morphs into a furious glare. 

"What the fuck are you doing?" he shouts down at her, though he full-well knows the answer.

Keegan struggles frantically against his grip, screaming angrily. "No, NO! LET GO OF ME!"

She was so close. She could taste freedom! She's not ready to accept defeat. She kicks at his stomach furiously. "Fuck you!! Let me go!"

"You're out of control!" Kane snaps, largely unaffected by her struggles. "That's it! I'm not tolerating your bullshit any longer!"

He grabs the human by the hair and gets up, hauling her out the bedroom, down the hall and to the stairs. Keegan shouts in pain as she’s dragged, her scalp burning from the pressure of her body weight. She claws at Kane’s hands but his grip is like steel.

Keegan doesn't have time to catch herself before Kane throws her down the stairs, uncaring for her well-being. She tumbles violently and her body is a mess of pain in seconds, bruises forming from every hard wooden step.

She lands at the bottom with a thud, her head smacking the floor hard enough to see stars. Pain radiates from her arm like someone took a hammer to it. She moans, trying to right herself.

Kane is by her side again in an instant to make sure she will never escape again. A harsh stomp of his foot on her shin sends a loud crack reverberating through the room. 

"That will teach you who you're messing with," he hisses.

Keegan screams in agony as her leg snaps like a twig. She has never been in this much pain and she can't stand it. She reaches desperately for the ruined limb as if touching it will somehow fix what has been done to it. She rides out multiple blinding waves of pain before she can see Kane's figure standing over her through her tears. Her head is thick with nausea but she glares at him out of the corner of her eye and her voice trembles with hatred and pain. "F-fuck.... Y-you."

He presses his foot down harder.

"Submit!" he screams, furious she would disrespect him even now. He is stronger, better, and more worthy than her in every way. He will force her to respect him.

Keegan's scream turns to a choke and she grinds her head into the floor. "NO!" She forces out, vision wavering. God, it hurts. "I'll kill you! Son of a BITCH."

"You won't. You can’t. Do you want me to break the other leg?" Kane asks, seething.

Keegan definitely doesn't want that. She can't run with her leg like this, and wouldn’t be able to walk at all with both of them mangled.

"I'm stronger than you." Kane continues. "You have no power here. You will fucking respect me, whether you want to or not. You have no choice! That's the way humans are supposed to be!" He grinds his shoe against the break.

Keegan wails in agony and despair because he's right. She has nothing. She was so close and failed so spectacularly. She's never going to see her family again. 

“Just kill me!" She cries. "Let me go or kill me! I can't live like this anymore. I won't!"

"You will! You're mine! You're my food, and there's nothing you can do about it! I can make a human submit to my will as much as any other vampire!" Kane does not let up. "Admit it! I'm stronger than you, and there is nothing you can do to stand against me!"

Keegan cries into the floor. Tortured, humiliated, completely and utterly spent. She wants to give up, shut down completely, but she can't even do that. Shocks of pain continue to fry her nerves and it's too much. Kane isn't going to stop until she submits. She bites her lip, holding out as long as she can, but finally her terror wins over when something inside her ruined leg shifts.

"O-okay! Okay stop! P-please!" She's going to pass out, blood draining from her head.

Kane removes himself from the human, taking a single step back. "I want to hear you say it."

The release of pressure on her leg brings both relief and more agony. Keegan curls up over it immediately, hands hovering over the gruesome injury, too afraid to touch. She's shaking uncontrollably from pain and fear and her stomach churns with bile. Her eyes shine with tears as she looks up at Kane. She stays quiet and tries to convince herself that it's from defiance, but she truly just can't find the willpower to speak.

"Say it!" Kane demands. He steps forward again, but doesn't touch her. "I'm stronger than you. You're powerless against me. You're mine forever. Say. It."

Maybe it's the fact that the human really did almost kill him, but his heart is racing. It's not even fear of death, not really. All he can think about is what his family would think of him if he were killed by his own human.

Keegan flinches hard when Kane moves towards her. "Y-you- you're stronger than me..." She sputters out. God, don't hurt me anymore. Please.

Her face burns with shame. "I'm p-powerless..." It's true, even with him asleep and a stake in her hand she couldn't finish the job.

"I'm..." She hangs her head. "I'm yours forever."

"That's right." Satisfied he's made his point, he reaches down and hefts the human up over his shoulder. He carries her into the human quarters and sets her on the bed. "Now. Your purpose." He shoves her head to the side, bites into her neck, and feeds.

Keegan tries not to writhe in Kane's grip and she cuts off another scream when he drops her on the bed. The bite is hardly noticeable past the all-encompassing agony of her leg, but it still feels like defeat. She cries silently as he feeds. There's no fight left in her.

Kane licks the wound closed. "I'll see you tomorrow." When he leaves, he double-checks that the door is securely locked.

It takes her an unbearably long time, but eventually, inch by inch, Keegan is able to lie back against the headboard with her ruined leg propped up by pillows. She spends the night like that, unable to move or get up to eat or drink. She eventually hobbles her way to the bathroom once, but the pain grows so terrible by the end that she spends half an hour on the tile floor, dreading the trip back to bed. She needs a cast or splint or something or she won't be able to function.

She doesn't really care, though. She can't escape, can't fight back, so why bother? She misses multiple meals before she's starving enough to drag herself to the kitchen. Somehow there's still a ghost of self preservation inside her that she can't seem to shake off. 

She'll stay alive, even if it hurts. Even if it's pointless. Even if she’d rather die.

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

Taglist: @whumpsday @not-a-space-alien @anomalys-taxonomy @what-if-i-just-did @dragonqueenslayer6

@jumpywhumpywriter @writereleaserepeat

[sayafics]

Just For A Moment - Part 1

Jay Halstead x OC/reader

This is my first time trying to write something angsty, so please be kind! I've seen quite a few fics where the partner always gets seen when they see their SO cheating, and its always teary denials and breakups, I wanted to put a spin on it and go down the line of "she knows, but she doesn't tell anyone" and the OC kind of just thinks of them as broken up and strangers without telling their SO that.

My plan with this storyline is that everyone kind of sides with Jay because no one really knows why she's being so cold with him, and it just carries on building until it reaches the breaking point. The question is, who'll break first?

Please let me know if you enjoyed this!

TW: cheating, (slightly?) angsty

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Masterlist

Voight had extended an offer for Aurora Gallo to join his Intelligence department a few days after Erin had left, Erin's departure left a gaping hole in the team and Voight was hopeful that Aurora would be the one to mend it.

Aurora was the daughter of an old friend of Hank's. She'd spent a few short years working her way through different organisations such as the CIA and FBI as an undercover operative.

But she needed a break. She was slowly losing herself in the multiple lives she had lived, and she needed a change.

Aurora hadn't expected the offer from Voight, but she was grateful all the same.

She moved to Chicago shortly after his offer, joining the Intelligence office and being partnered with him.

Jay Halstead.

Jay was an enigma - one she couldn't get enough of.

She had heard the rumours, of course. Of how Jay had been in love with Erin before she left.

And she had been the one to replace Erin, in both the team, and now in Jay's life.

It was hard not to draw comparisons. The whispers of the department always found their way to her, and, sometimes, when she looked into Jay's eyes, she always thought she could see him longing for more.

But she told herself not to worry, that Jay cared for her, that Jay chose her.

Not Erin, and definitely not anyone else.

That's what she continued to tell herself. Even after Hailey joined the team, even after Hailey found ways to get close to Jay when she wasn't his partner.

Soon, the small habits that Jay carried out for Aurora, he would carry out for Hailey too.

Checking up on her after a tough case, bringing her coffee in the mornings, dropping her off home after a late day at work, and picking her up bright and early in the morning. All of it, once done just for Aurora, were now moments and memories she shared with Hailey.

And just like that, those actions lost their meaning. But Aurora learnt to hide her hurt, instead choosing to ignore her heart and listen to Jay.

They were just friends.

That was what Jay had said the first time she expressed her concerns over their relationship, and she believed it. That everything Jay did for Hailey was out of the goodness of his heart because he was just so good.

So, on the night of their six month anniversary, when Aurora had dolled herself up and grabbed the cake, she had spent the whole day baking, on her way out of her apartment, she had left with a heart full of love and excitement.

The team had the day off today, and she had spent most of her morning at Jay's house before drumming up an excuse to go back to her apartment so she could finish her preparations.

Aurora held no sadness in her heart at the idea Jay might have forgotten their six month anniversary, after all such a thing wasn't significant to everyone.

But it was special to her, and she wanted to celebrate it with Jay - surprise him even.

Before leaving his place, she had asked Jay if he had plans, and he denied saying his only plan was to drink beer and watch the game. The revelation had calmed her nerves as she promised to text him later if she was free, knowing that she wouldn't because she wanted to surprise him instead.

And that was why she now stood in front of Jay's apartment, a small box with the cake she had baked and decorated that afternoon laid by her feet as she rummaged for the spare key Jay had given her for emergencies.

This seemed like the biggest emergency of all. If she stayed outside any longer, the frosting on her cake would melt off. And no one likes melted frosting.

As she quietly opened the door, she prayed silently that Jay had fallen asleep on the couch as she bent over to pick up her cake before walking through the door. As she closed the door behind her, her heart had calmed at the silence that rang through the apartment, hopeful that Jay truly had fallen asleep so she could set up the kitchen table before waking him.

She had taken two steps towards the kitchen before her eyes landed on the couch, and through the dim lights of a table lamp, she could make out that it was empty. She frowned slightly, hoping Jay wasn't asleep in bed - he rarely slept well, and the idea of waking him from a deep sleep rather than a nap would have just made her feel guilty.

If he had, she would just have to surprise him in the morning, and the thought brought a timid smile onto her face.

She continued her walk towards the kitchen, her steps quiet but hurried as the skirt of her deep blue dress billows around her thighs. She sets the cake on the kitchen counter, hands ready to lift up the lid to see the damage her journey here had done to the cake before she heard it.

Aurora felt her heart sink, pressure building in her sternum as the sound she heard repeated over and over again, not only in her head but in the apartment.

It sounded like... a woman?

She felt her breath stutter, the quiet moans she heard building in volume as she slipped her heels off and treaded cautiously towards the room she knew to be Jay's. After all, she and Jay had been in there many times.

As she got closer towards the room, her hands trembled as she stumbled, her feet catching on clothes thrown astray. The sight caused her to hesitate, frozen in a stupor as she looked at the articles of clothing which littered the floor.

Shoes, trousers, shirts. Women's clothes.

Aurora screwed up her eyes harshly, her breaths coming out in ragged pants as she tried to control herself, trying to convince herself that she was wrong. That Jay couldn't do anything wrong. He cares about her. He loves her. He said so himself. Her Jay wouldn't do something like this.

She opened her eyes, determination painted her gaze as she continued her path to Jay's room. His door was cracked open, and she held her breath as she peaked through.

Aurora's heart fell to the ground - shattered and broken. She had hoped, and she had prayed that the grunts and pleas - sounds she was so familiar with - were just a trick her paranoia was playing on her.

But looking into Jay's room, there was no denying it.

There sat her boyfriend, on the bed they had made love in, fucking another woman. Jay was leaning against the headboard, his head thrown back in pleasure as his hand gripped the waist of the blonde woman perched on his lap, his knuckles blanched as he ground her hips against his, the motion causing a moan of pleasure to wrench itself from her throat, his name on her lips as she spoke - "fuck, Jay, I'm so close."

The blood had drained from Aurora's face, she knows that voice.

"I know, baby. I'm close, too. God, Hail you feel so good."

Baby?

Tears began to well in Aurora's eyes. Jay calls her baby, and now he's called her too?

This wasn't some one night stand or some mistake. No, Jay cares about Hailey, so much so that he is willing to betray Aurora to have her.

Aurora's throat ached as she held back her sobs, her heart burning in agony as she stepped back quietly from the door. She made her way back to her things and hastily grabbed her box of cake and shoes as she scrambled away from Jay's apartment, running away from the her own nightmare.

She made it to her car, hands shaking as she shut herself in and sobs poured out from her.

Aurora had no one to go to. She didn't know the team as well as Jay, and she hadn't been around Chicago enough to make close friends. Her previous career and her lifestyle made it hard to make friends, much less keep them.

And now, when she needed someone the most, she had no one.

And she had lost the one person she thought she could always go to.

Aurora's eyes were filled with tears, and her heart filled with pain as she drove home. Her hands were shaky on the steering wheel, and she relied on muscle memory to bring her back to the place she felt the most safe in.

The place she had allowed Jay in, the place she was the most vulnerable in. And he ruined it. He ruined her.

Without warning, anger began to bubble in her chest. Anger towards herself for being so naive to believe Jay when he said they were just friends, anger towards Jay for lying to her, for betraying her, anger towards Hailey for being a friend to her only to betray her too.

The anger that built up in her on the drive home festered throughout the night. As Aurora lay in bed, struggling to quieten her mind enough to get some sleep, her eyes burning from all the tears she shed and her throat raw from her screams and cries, she felt her anger morph into dread.

Tomorrow, she would see the man that betrayed her, and the woman she called a friend.

On her nightstand, her phone continued to light up the ceiling as notifications popped up. But Halstead's texts went unanswered.

***

The next morning, Aurora had awoken from a restless sleep, and she instinctively reached for her phone, a ghost of a smile on her face as she looked for the sweet 'good morning' messages her Jay would send her every morning.

Hey baby, you okay? You didn't come back over yesterday.

Aurora felt her smile falter - the most recent text Halstead sent caused the memories of last night to flash past her eyes. The remembrance of his lies and his betrayal once more brings tears to her eyes as they fall, leaving hot trails in their tracks.

Her eyes then fall to a text from Voight - Case. Meet at 9.

It was currently 7:30am, which gave her plenty of time to pull herself together and push away the dread of having to see the two people she trusted most after their betrayal.

She pushed herself out of bed, shuffling towards the bathroom - dear God, she looked a mess. The makeup from last night still painted her face, but her mascara and eyeliner were now smudged and drawn down her cheeks in smeared streaks, and through the smudged-off makeup, the faint lines of the scars she hid could be seen.

And her eyes, they looked sad.

And that realisation made fury bite at her, she looked so pathetic.

God, it was her fault. To let him in so easily, after all she had been through and all she had learnt about men. She had still gone and trusted one with her heart.

Aurora had come across all kinds of men and stood against them undefeated - those who beat their wives and children, those who hurt and raped the innocent, those who killed without fear of consequences and those who tortured with hearts full of glee.

And yet, it was Jay Halstead who broke her. All because she let him in, let him get too close.

Determination set in her gaze once more. She wouldn't let Halstead be the end of her. No, she was stronger than that, better than that.

With that thought in mind, Aurora got ready to face the man she once called her boyfriend and the love of her life.

***

When Aurora stepped into the district, it was obvious to Sargent Platt that something was different.

She looked the same - her hair pinned up in the same sleek ponytail, dressed in the same long sleeve jumper and cargos. But her face was void of emotions, and her eyes looked like they were drowning in them.

Sargent Platt liked Aurora. She was a good kid, and despite all the years she spent around violence and horror in her years undercover, she had managed to keep a pure heart and a joyful soul.

It seemed now that both of those things had been drained out of her.

"Hey, kid. Come here a sec."

"Sorry, Sargent, got a case," Aurora nodded stiffly in Trudy's direction before walking up the steps to the intelligence office.

Sargent?

Aurora has called her boss, even Platt. When she tried to push her friendship with her, Aurora would even call her Trudy, sometimes, in a teasing manner. But she had never been so formal, so devoid of emotion.

Trudy felt worried for the girl, her mind running countless scenarios as she wondered what had made her lose her light in such a short amount of time.

***

When Aurora had made her way up the stairs, the office was already buzzing, her team talking and walking around in circles as they discussed the case on hand - a twelve year old boy had been kidnapped, this was the third case over the last ten days and the other victims had been found dead. Homicide had turned up empty in their investigation, and given how close the last case was to their district, Voight offered to take it off their hands, to which they gladly agreed.

She looked over her colleagues, scanning the room for the one person she was unsure of if she would want to see. But it seems his eyes found her first.

"Babe, there you are," Jay's voice sounded exasperated as he leapt up from his seat at his desk, and just like always, Hailey was hovering over his shoulder.

Usually, the action would cause her to feel slightly annoyed, the feeling being quelled when Jay would hold her hand or kiss her cheek or just say her name.

Now, the sight brought a burst of emotions, all of which she fought down and locked away to face at another time when she was alone and it was safe to be vulnerable.

Halstead made his way to her, his hands cupping her cheeks as he looked at her in concern, "baby, you didn't answer my texts, I was so worried."

Aurora shrugged lightly, her face still blank as she found she had no energy to even fake a smile to him, "I was tired."

No apology, no placation. Because he didn't deserve that.

It seemed that Jay had noticed her lack of reason and apology, too, the concern in his eyes growing as Aurora pushed his hands down gently - "we have a case to work."

She pushed past him and walked to her desk, ignoring the 'hey, Aurora' Hailey had thrown her way, grateful when Voight had chosen that exact moment to step out of his office and brief them.

Unbeknownst to her, Jay continued to eye her in worry. He had already been struggling to fight off the guilt he felt when he stepped out on Aurora and slept with Hailey, but to see her so drawn away and isolated only made that grow. Paranoia ate at his heart, but he knew there could be no way she caught them.

Voight had given them the basics of Aurora's past career as an undercover agent, and Jay knew that if she had caught him and Hailey, they would be working on their murder case right now instead.

What do we think? Do we want a part 2?👀

[morganski-19]

I Don’t Know Which Way’s Home

Chapter 1: The Reveal

ao3 link

September 1986

Julie slams the door shut when she comes home, she doesn’t mean to, most of the time. But today, she really does. And the hinge is already broken so what harm is it really going to do? So she ignores the comment her mom makes about it and does it again with her bedroom door, hearing the slam vibrate the walls of the trailer. 

She’s just so sick of it. It’s like every single class decides to do some stupid project that just makes her stand out from the beginning in front of kids who might not already know. Not like anyone does. Everyone knows everyone’s business in this town, and Julie’s family situation is no different. 

The problem today, was the beginning-year project her Spanish teacher assigned. A family tree, something simple to introduce yourself to the class and to see what you remembered from the last year. The only problem is, Julie is always missing half a tree. 

Her father has been a void in her life for its entirety. There’s no face to the name, and no name to even put a face to. Her mother won’t tell her anything, not even a peep. The most she knows is that he was a mistake her mom made for a few months that ended as soon as she became pregnant. Which translated into Julie’s mind that she was an accident. And with how their situation turned out, she couldn’t help but believe it was true. 

So when she’s reminded of the fact that her existence on this Earth is due to one of her mother’s flings that never lasts a year, she gets to slam a few doors. She gets to play the Iron Maiden tape she found on the ground one day at full volume without complaint. She doesn’t even like it that much, but it was free and loud enough to match the screaming that was going on inside her head. 

That’s the worst part, with how angry she can get about her family situation, she can never be mad at her mom for too long. Not after everything she’s done to make sure Julie had a good life. Not a perfect one, but one where they at least had a roof over their heads and weren’t living on the streets. 

It’s bad enough that her mom had to work two jobs just to get them by, she didn’t need to deal with all of Julie’s problems on top of that.

“Would you like to tell me why you’ve just permanently broken the front door, or am I supposed to guess?” Her mom says after coming into the room without knocking and turning the music down. 

Julie grunts from where her face is dug into the pillow. Hoping that it was enough to make her mom leave, but it never was. 

“Come on,” her mom gives her a soft shove. “You don’t get to barge into the house and break a door without explanation. What’s up?”

“What up is a stupid Spanish project,” Julie complains angrily as she rolls onto her back, glaring at the ceiling. “It’s a stupid family tree where I know I’ll be questioned on it in front of the whole class, again, on why I ‘failed to include my dad on the tree’. Like I would fucking leave him out on purpose.”

She feels the bed dip as her mom sits on the foot of it. “I’ll let that slide this time because you’re upset.”

“Yeah, I am. I just am so tired of explaining it in every single damn class I seem to have that he just left and I have no clue who he is. They don’t have a right to my life and I don’t need the pity looks they give me once they figure it out. And what’s worse is that everyone in the class already knows except for the teacher, so dumb Billy Johnson will start snickering or some shit, and then I’m the kid without a dad all over again.”

“Bullies really need to get some new material,” her mom jokes without hesitation.

Julie snorts. “Tell me about it. “ She gets softer, already feeling the anger start to dissipate. And when it does, all that is left is the gaping hole in her heart that she knows will never be filled. “I don’t even care that he’s not in my life anymore, I accepted that he wouldn’t be a long time ago. I just want to know who he is. Why I’m here. Why you won’t tell me anything about him.”

“I just don’t think-”

“Oh just save it mom, I’ve heard all the excuses. I’m not a little kid anymore who writes that her dad will want to know her in her Santa letters anymore. I know he doesn’t give a shit about me, I just want to know who. I deserve to have a name to not give a shit about either.”

Her bed rises again as her mom leaves, turning the music back to full volume and shutting the door softly behind her. Julie rolls back over, pulling her blankets over her head, and starts to feel like shit again. 

It’s not just the fact that she doesn’t have a present dad that bullies love to tease, there are more kids than you’d expect with only one parent. It’s that her mom wasn’t married when she had Julie that was the problem. Unwanted pregnancies are like drugs for small towns, they spread like wildfire. The second the neighbor saw that her mom had a significant bump, it was everywhere. And then the kids heard it from their parents at every school function. 

It’s all, “Oh poor Julie Lawson, her mother couldn’t keep a boyfriend long enough for her to have a real dad.” Like they have the right to comment on Julie’s family. Or her mom. No one does, not even her. 

. . . 

October 1986, Present Day

Steve walks in after his shift with two pizzas, a six-pack of beer, and Robin right behind him. It was Friday, which means that Robin, Eddie, and him shook off the kids for a night to watch a movie. Alone. They loved the kids but sometimes it was nice to have a night without chaos. Calming even. 

Eddie wasn’t coming over for a few more hours because of his band practice, so Steve stuck the pizzas in the oven so they stayed warm. Robin already makes herself at home, rummaging through the fridge to find something to drink and making a nest out of blankets in the living room when she does. Steve follows her, digging himself into the nest and putting something on the TV. 

An hour or so later, he hears a knock at the front door. Robin gives him a concerned look as he leaves the living room to open it. Eddie had a key so he just let himself in, and they weren’t expecting anyone else. And with their track record, it could go from random salesperson to world apocalypse pretty fast. 

When he opens the door, a girl he guesses is around Dustin’s age is there, nervously playing with her hands, a backpack loosely thrown over her shoulder. “Hi, sorry to bother you but, do the Harrington’s live here?” she asks shyly.

“Yes, I’m Steve. Who are you?” There is a familiarity to her face that he can’t quite place.  

“Steve, right, he had a son. Sorry, this week’s been weird. I’m uh, my name is Julie. Your dad kinda knew my mom.”

He must have met her at one of his dad’s work events, that has to be why she looks familiar. “Oh ok, did she have to drop something off here or something?”

“Well, kinda. But it’s not what you’re probably expecting.” She pauses looking unsure of what she is going to say next. “Can I- can I come it, you might want to sit down for what I have to say. It’s kind of shocking.”

“I’m not sure, I don’t really know you. Could you tell me who your mom is, maybe I can remember you then.”

She takes a deep breath. “When I said that my mom knew your dad, I didn’t mean from work. Well, I did mean from work but she hasn’t worked for him in over fifteen years, so I doubt you’d remember her. She was his secretary for a while, and they had a very,” she pauses again, looking around to see if anyone is there. “Intimate, relationship.”

The dots clicked immediately in his head, thoughts immediately started to run around about who this girl could really be. He thinks that her offer to sit down was probably necessary. “Yeah, why don’t you come in.”

“Ok.” She steps through the doorway, waiting for him to lead her through the house. 

He brings her to the kitchen, motioning for her to sit at the small table. Grabbing a few glasses, he fills them with water and brings them over, placing one in front of her. She thanks him, taking it and gulping it down with shaky hands. The more he looks at her, the more he can’t help but see more and more similarities, just ones that remind him of himself. 

“Who was it, Steve,” Robin asks, wandering into the kitchen. “Oh shit, hi.”

“Rob, this is Julie, her mom apparently knew my dad.” Steve makes a motion with his head to indicate how, hoping that she can read it right. 

Her eyes widen in shock. “Oh like, special knew. Like knew knew.”

“Yes,” Julie says weakly. “Yeah, they did.”

“Oh shit,” Robin takes a seat next to Steve, her hand immediately finding his. It brings comfort, reassurance that she’s there. He knew his dad was a piece of crap cheater, his mom certainly made it known during many of their screaming matches. But with the girl staring at him with the same eyes he sees every morning in the mirror, his brain can’t help but jump to the conclusion that she’s, something. And that just makes his chest tighten in anxiety.

“I, uh.” Julie starts, wringing her hand nervously again. “I don’t really know how to say this gently. But, when my mom worked for your dad, they had an affair. It didn’t last that long, but remember when I said my mom stopped working for him like fifteen years ago? It was actually seventeen because that’s when she figured out she was pregnant.”

Steve feels a lump forming in his throat as she nods, trying to take it all in. “With you?” he asks, not knowing how he is even speaking at all right now. Robin squeezes his hand.

Julie gives a small nod, looking down at the table. “Yeah.”

“And my dad is-” he can’t finish the sentence, but it’s answered by her sorry nod. “Holy shit.” 

He runs a hand through his hair, trying to wrap his head around everything. This girl, Julie, is his sister. Half-sister, whatever, it doesn’t matter. Robin breaks her contact with him and goes to rub his back instead. His head falls into his hands propped up on the table and he just focuses on breathing. 

“Steve, you ok?” Robin’s voice soothes him a little bit, but when your world just gets shattered, there’s not much that can be done to help completely. 

“I knew he cheated. I knew that. It’s why my mom followed him around on all his trips. But he- he had a kid, and just hid it.”

“I’m sorry. I know it’s a lot, I have proof if you want to see it.”

Steve looks at Robin, asking her what to do with his eyes. She shrugs, her way of saying that it couldn’t hurt. Probably is better that they have proof anyway, make sure this is legit. He nods, unable to say anything. 

“Could we see it? Just to double-check everything,” Robin asks for him. God, he’s so happy that she’s here. He can’t imagine doing this by himself

Julie ruffles around in her backpack, random clothes peeping out as she pulls out a file. She opens it, pulling out two pieces of paper before going in again and pulling out what looks like a school ID. “Here’s my birth certificate and the paternity test. And my ID with my picture on it, so you know it’s me.”

The first thing he sees is his father’s name on the test results, followed by the line saying his relation to Julie is undeniable. That he was undeniably the father. The birth certificate only has the signature of her mother and the doctor, but the father’s name is absent. He ditched them, probably made her mom prove that this kid was his, and then just paid them to shut them up. His mom would never know, he would never know, and they never had access to any of his records. 

Julie Rebecca Lawson, born January 28, 1970. He was three when she was born. He’s had a sibling this whole time, and he didn’t even know it. 

“Does your mom know you’re here?” Robin asks, softly. 

Julie’s face visibly falls as she rapidly blinks away some tears. “She- she died two weeks ago. Car accident.”

“I’m so sorry, Julie,” Robin reaches across to comfort her, but the hand she was going to grab gets pulled away. “Whoever is watching you then, do they know where you are?”

She sniffles. “I’ve been staying with a foster family while they find a permanent placement. They don’t really care where I am. My caseworkers were trying to find some family, but my grandparents are long gone and my mom’s sister is in no place to take in a kid. So they were looking on my dad’s side.” She says the word dad as if they don’t fit right in her mouth. 

“I didn’t come here looking for a place to say,” she continues. “Right before my mom passed, she finally told me about my dad. How he never wanted anything to do with me because he had a big reputation and another family. It was supposed to be a secret, but the more I thought about it, I couldn’t help but think that you had a right to know. And then since she-, since I needed a place to stay, it was only a matter of time before you found out. I knew he was out of town so I thought it might be better to say it myself. Now I’m not so sure that was such a great idea.”

“No,” Steve finally says. “I’m, I’m glad you told me. You’re right, we, me and my mom, had a right to know. So, thank you.” He turns to look at Robin, her face shifting when she sees the panic in his. “Rob, could I talk to you for a minute?”

She stands. “Yeah. We’ll be right back, ok Julie.” 

Julie says a soft reply as Robin leads Steve to the living room. “I don’t know what to do, Rob.”

“How could you? You just found out that your dad had another kid. With another woman. And then hid it from you. How are you supposed to cope with that information?”

“I don’t know. I have no clue what to do. But I can’t-. Shit Rob, I want to help her.”

“Steve, you don’t know her, at all. She just spawned on your doorstep not even an hour ago and just dropped the biggest bombshell on you since the, you know what. I get that you want to help her, I do. Shit, I do too. But I’m just asking that you take a step back and think about this.”

Steve crosses his arms, pulling his eyebrows together. The decision was pretty much made in his mind, but she was right. “What if she stays the night, we sleep on this and get to know her more tomorrow. Then we can go from there.”

“Ok,” she puts a hand on Steve’s arm. “That’s a good plan.” 

Robin steps forward, pulling him into a hug before they walk back into the kitchen. Julie looks back up at them, uncertainty filling her face. It reminds him so much of himself it sort of hurts. “Julie, you can stay the night, if you want to. That way tomorrow we can talk some more, and get to know each other, figure out what to do about this. But I can drive you back to the house you’re staying at if you’d like.”

“Could I stay here, I really don’t like it there.” The fear that coats her eyes with the mention only makes it worse. 

“Come on, I’ll show you the guest room.”

Julie stands, grabs her bag and follows after Steve. When he shows her to the room, she stands in it like like she knows she doesn’t belong. He can’t help but think it’s not the first time she’s felt like this, especially since he’s pretty sure she brought enough clothes for a few days in her bag. 

He tells her where the bathroom is, where his bedroom is if she needs anything. She nods silently. The similarities between them keep coming in waves. Sure they’re not like an exact match. But her eyes, her jawline, her hair, it’s ever so similar to his. If they were to walk down the street together, it would be clear that they were siblings. 

The fact that it’s true just keeps shocking him all over again. 

“You’re welcome to anything in the kitchen, and there’s plenty of supplies in the bathroom if you need any. I keep it all under the sink. And, don’t be afraid to ask for anything, ok?” He stands there awkwardly, not quite knowing what else to do. 

“Ok,” she replies softly, placing her bag on the bed and pulling out some things. 

When he shuts the door behind him, it finally hits. He practically runs back down the stairs to find Robin waiting in the living room, on the phone with someone. 

“Yeah, something came up and we can’t do movie night anymore. No nothing bad, yeah no he’s fine. I’m fine. We’re all good, just a migraine. Yep. I’ll have him call you tomorrow. No, you don’t need to do that. Ok, bye.” Robin turns to him when she hangs up the phone. “Eddie, thought it was pretty clear that movie night was canceled.”

“Yeah, no, it was. I-” the words get stuck in his throat. “I have a sister, Rob.”

Robin crosses over to him, pulling his fingers away from where they held his arms in a death grip. “I can’t imagine how you’re feeling right now.”

“Angry mostly. How could he keep this from us, from my mom? From me? Do you know how many times I wished for a sibling, only for me to have one all along and just not know about it? And then she goes through life knowing her dad didn’t want her. I can’t begin to imagine what that is like.”

“Pretty shitty probably. What do you really want to do about all of this Steve?”

He takes a deep breath. “I don’t know. I want to help her, get to know her. But I-I don’t know if I can do this.”

“She wasn’t asking you to fix everything. She just lost her mom, I think she just wants someone to lean on like that again.”

“But what if I can’t even do that?”

Robin gives him a soft look that he knows means he’s overthinking it all again. “Let’s go get some sleep ok. We’ll figure this out in the morning.”

They walk upstairs, passing the room that Julie is staying in on the way to his. He remembers being little and looking at the empty guest rooms in his house, wondering when people would come to fill them. Wishing that when they did, they’d stay for longer than a week. Maybe then he wouldn’t be alone anymore. 

When he was really young, he would sit in the rooms and pretend that it was other kids that filled them. Brothers and sisters that he got to play with for however long he wanted to. His nights would feel less empty and during the day he’d be less lonely. He’d be like every other kid on the playground with their siblings, pushing them on the swings and chasing them around the park. The house would be full of noise instead of deafening silence. 

But that day never came. The years went on and he kept getting older. His mom went on more and more trips and then just stopped calling. The only time his dad ever called was after the police told him that he’d thrown a party. He used to just mess up just to hear his dad’s voice. Because then maybe he could convince himself that his dad cared for him. If you're disappointed enough to yell, that has to mean you care about something. 

Most people say wait until you’re older and then you’ll understand like it’s some kind of mystery that everyone cheers when you solve it. Not knowing that some mysteries only crush the people around them. Steve Harrington spent most of his life alone and it wasn’t until he graduated and no one from his family showed up that he finally accepted why. 

As he looks back at the guest room, he can’t help but feel that part of himself get unearthed again. That sad little kid that begged for someone who he could grow up with. Knowing that was there across town all his life only makes him hurt all over again. 

The urge to call his dad right then and there is strong. To scream at him for hiding something that he wanted for so long. Yell at him for being a piece of shit to not just him, but to his mom, and to Julie. He was used to his dad, no one else deserved to be hurt like he was. 

. . . 

Julie lays in a bed that is bigger than one she’s owned in her entire life. Having one of this size would make it easier when she and her mom would share when her back was too sore after her double shifts to take the cot. The sheets are softer and clearly barely used, the fabric smells of fresh flowers. 

She’s almost angry at all of this. That one person could have so much and be so cruel. That Steve got more out of their dad than she ever did. But one of them was wanted, the other clearly wasn’t. 

The word still feels weird in her mind. Their dad. She didn’t even know the guy but she spent so long hating someone who was a dad to someone else. But by the lack of family pictures on the wall and the way Steve talked about him just briefly, it doesn’t look like he was much of a dad to Steve either. 

She wonders what it’s like to live in this giant house alone. The empty walls and rooms prepared for people but never filled. There were at least two living rooms in this house and a kitchen just made for a party. A house so perfect from the outside but so broken from within. 

Steve at least seemed nice, even after she broke the news. Hell, she’s still here, isn’t she? In her mind, she was preparing for the worst. To be kicked out on the curb right after even implying that her father was just that, her father. Because a businessman with a poster family could never do anything wrong, could never be a terrible person who would have a kid and just abandon it. 

But she was believed, and accepted. Allowed to stay the night in a house she always dreamed of living in with a family she didn’t even know existed. She just hopes that in the morning it all won’t go to shit like everything else in her life seems to. 

. . . 

September 1986

Julie hears her mom call out for dinner from the kitchen. As much as she’d like to still be angry, she can’t force herself to avoid her mom forever. For what it’s worth, her mom is all she has in the realm of family and a friend. There’s no one who knows her like she does, and it’d just be cruel to let the pain of the past dwell any longer. 

Except this isn’t a pain of the past, not for Julie. Almost daily she’s reminded that there’s someone out there who doesn’t care enough to know her, and that person is half the reason she exists. It seemed like everyone else in this town knew who their father was, even if they weren’t around, except for her. 

But she can’t help but think about what her mom went through. How raising a kid on her own had to be, especially in a town like this. Someone she obviously cared about just dropping her after a positive test and leaving her high and dry. Life was hard, but she managed, somehow. Julie’s not so sure she would have in her position. 

“I want to talk to you about something,” her mother starts once the table is cleared. She goes to sit back at the table, placing a folder on top of it. “What you said earlier, you’re right. You have a right to know who your father is, whether he’s in your life or not.”

Julie sits across from her mom. “I was just angry before, you really don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” 

It’s a lie and they both know it. 

“No, you need to know. There’s going to be a point in the future where you’ll need to know certain things, medical history and such. And there might be a day when his family finds out about you and comes asking for questions.”

“His family,” she says shocked. 

Her mom nods. “A wife and a son. He had both of them already when we were together.”

Julie’s entire world shifts. “What?”

“A year before you were born, I worked as a secretary for Richard Harrington in his business, well his dad’s business at the time. We entered an, inappropriate relationship, which ended up in you.”

“Inappropriate’s one way to say it,” she jokes under her breath. “He’s a big deal in town, Mom, his whole family is.”

Her mom nods. “It was risky and stupid and I never should have done it. But back then, he was good at hiding what a terrible person he was behind his looks and his charm. It wasn’t until you got to know him and got on his bad side that things went south.”

“So, when you got pregnant with me?”

“It went south, fast. I told him, he wanted you gone but I couldn’t go through with it. So instead we came up with a deal. I prove you were his with a paternity test, and he gives me a monthly payment to shut me up. It wasn’t a lot, clearly, but it would be enough to pay off the trailer in a few years and make sure we had money for bills.”

“I’m surprised that he gave you anything at all.” It really couldn’t have been that much if her mom had to work two jobs just in order to scrape by. 

“The rich will do anything to keep a secret, including bribery. Everything you could ever need to know about him is in this file. With a copy of your birth certificate and the paternity test. Just so you have it. I’m sorry I kept it from you for so long.”

She looks at the file in her hand. It’s still pretty empty, but it has just enough. “I can see why you did. It’d be worse for you for a kid to accidentally tell everyone their dad is a Harrington.”

“It’d be bad.” Her mom clears her throat, looking down at her hands. “I also didn’t want you to think differently of me. I slept with a married man after all, for a year. That’s a pretty shitty thing to do to someone, even if you don’t know them.”

“Yeah, it is.” Julie would be lying if she said it didn’t come as a shock, that her mom would do that. All this time she thought that her dad was some drugged-up guy that she hooked up with for a month or two before they stole all her cash and ran off. That’s who her boyfriends were in the past few years, so it wouldn’t have been a surprise. But a married man, one with a kid, that’s a new one.  “Do you regret it? Sleeping with him.”

“All the time, but then I’d never have you.” She reaches her hands across the table and cups them around Julie’s. “You’re my life, Jules. I love you more than anything, and I wouldn’t change a thing if it meant never having you.” 

Julie puts a smile on her face. “Love you too, Mom. And thank you for telling me about this. Now I have a name to not give a shit about.”

“Yeah, now you do.”

Her mom gives her one last smile before going to the living room and setting up her cot. Julie takes the file and heads to her room, shutting the door softly behind her. 

She doesn’t know how to describe what she’s feeling. Like a weight has been lifted off of her but a new feeling of dread came to replace it. The name of the person who she’s hated for so long is in her hands, and she doesn’t know what to do with it other than hate him more. He had a wife, and a kid, a young kid, and he still went and had an affair. 

When she lies in her bed, waiting for sleep to come, all she can picture is the face of the man who ruined not only one life but three. And while her mom isn’t blameless, she can’t help but think that there is more to the story than her just willingly sleeping with him. She imagines taking her fist and hitting him straight in his smug face. Once for her mom, and once for her. 

Chapter 2

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[headingalaxys-spicy]

trapped in an elevator with yan ex mathew, who's still not over his darling ex? she was his first and he was planning for her to be his last, but unfortunately she fell out of love with him due to how they don't have time for each other anymore. he uses this moment as an opportunity to convince her to come back to him, even if it means stepping out of line.

I’m glad I finally got to this one. Thanks for writing anon I hope you like it!

The doors of the elevator reaching the 23rd floor opened, and a cascade of people came rushing out. It relieved you of the shoulder-to-shoulder contact that you shared with the 20 or so others who occupied that space once before. Only to make you tense up again when your attention turns and you’re not the only one who inhabited the area but your estranged partner whose longing energy radiated throughout the enclosed space. His lonely woes filled the entire room, making your nerves susceptible to his raw and unfiltered emotions. Like the production of honey, the buzzing of bees rang in your ears for some reason and it became more intensified after there was still nothing but silence that still filled the room. Neither you nor he wanted to speak first.

You trembled a little due to feeling guilt for leaving him due to your high-achieving ambitions and not having enough time to really dedicate to him. Just as you were about to open your mouth and give an awkward ‘Hello’. …

Matthew just slams himself into you on the floor of the elevator, causing tears to fall onto your face. They sting you with the weight of his deep sadness. You can fill the void that had jagged shards of ice that formed when you first left him. The bitter cold of Winter had gnawed away at his nerves, causing a flurry of snowflakes that came with millions of questions that consumed his mind.

‘What did I do wrong?’

‘Am I not good enough?’

‘Why did Y/N leave me?’

‘Is there someone better?’

‘Did she leave me for someone else?’ That last one stabbed his heart a little too harshly, and it bled out profusely onto the fresh winter snow that was brought by the brooding storm ragging in the foreground of his mind and making him unable to behave like he usually would.

It was tearing into him far too deeply. He needed to let it out. As soon as he began to open his mouth, some of the ice started to tremble. The thin cracks had formed, proliferating into large gaping holes until…..

“Matthew?” You say, breaking him out of his heavy winter haze. Why in hell did you have to be so beautiful? Why did you have to make his heart ache this way.

His labored breathing filled the tense silence. Until he finally responded to you with:

“Was I really all that bad to be around Y/N?” His voice cracked out more and tears began to roll down his pale cheeks that had been bitten by the frost that had busted out from the inside.

You had to bite your lip to conceal the high pitch squeak that wanted to escape your lungs. You knew the words that he spoke weren’t true but his violet eyes overfilling with salty waters thick with a black goop of jealousy. They spilled over his already weakened dams that were unprepared for the tsunami level winds and rains that began to materialize on your skin. They came to you as harsh cries from the depths of the Great Slave Lake where you couldn’t escape due to the foot of ice that has already frosted over the top of the surface…. You were trapped…. There was no escape. You had to revisit the well of unpleasant memories again.

“No Matthew it wasn’t that. Don’t you remember? It was because we didn’t have a lot of time for each other.” You tell him in a voice that was just above a whisper. You didn’t want to scare him, you knew how much he hated loud noises. His grip on you tightened. You tensed up in response. You’d forgotten if not try to forget altogether that he could be extremely frightening when angered. His temper was like that of a semi dormant volcano.

Underneath you had no idea how much magma had built up over time. You had heightened anxiety whenever the ground trembled ever so slightly. It meant that there would be a return of the mountains that spewed blazing red and left everything in its path to become blackened and dead. But after every disaster will come the flourish or the new.

“Is that seriously all that was it!?!” Comes his pained response. Your body jolted in reaction as he clamped down tighter onto you.

“Matthew please! Calm yourself. All I wanted to do was caress your face!” You give him the raw honesty perhaps it could calm him. You could feel him use his strength not to shake, however the subtle trembles he let out signaled to you that you’d definitely gotten underneath his skin. You moved to nuzzle your nose to reach his tear streaked cheek. That small spark of warmth surged through his spirit to the roots of his veins. Matthew longed for this.

“Okay but does this mean?” The hope beginning to rise in his voice.

“We have to have a conversation later- “

“LATER!? Why not now eh?”

“Matthew!”

“Y/N look . I love you and believe that we’re supposed to be together. And we can work things out! That’s what couples do! And you can’t tell me that we’re not meant to be together…”

He pauses for a moment so that he could bury himself within the crux of your collarbone. His breath made the hairs on your neck stand straight. They rose to 90 degrees frosted over in an innate fear and you couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was. All you knew is that you wanted to soothe him in whatever way that you could. There was a way that you could stop the rising magma fully in its tracks you could say yes now …. And work out the finer details later.

“Y/N.” Matthew calls out to you again gently as if he was speaking against the window of your soul.

“Why is it so hard for you to love me?” You felt his hair curl rub against your cheek. It made your heart feel like it was filled with helium. A powerful warmth began to brush over you . Matthew had yanked down your sweater to expose more of your collarbone and some of your chest to his grazing lips. You could practically feel steam wafting off your skin. The scent of your signature perfume and lotion was intoxicating to Matthew and made him more committed to getting you back with him. It brought him back to happier days where the two of you would spend days together in the cozy log cabin he’d built by hand. He lived being able to showcase his capabilities and having you all to himself. He wanted that. No… he NEEDED that.

No thoughts were processed through your mind, especially not all the ways that things could go wrong. You were also caught off guard by Matthew’s resolve this time. He ceases his movement so that he is directly over your heart as if he had x-ray vision. You were growing weak and he could use his eyes, charm, and tears. Just like the claws of sadness that made gashes within him earlier made themselves into tiny pine needles that began to poke you. The guilt. It was meant to make you feel awful for daring to leave him in such a downtrodden state.

Just like Mt.Baker you didn’t know if he would have an adverse reaction to you mentioning that maybe the two of you could start out as friends. Before you could state your hesitations, Matthew was quick to dispel your doubts with a heavy dosage of smoke meant to continue to cloud your judgment.

“We’re fated to be Y/N why else would you and I have crossed paths… and like this… You can’t tell me what you and I have isn’t real.”

The smoke inhalation was beginning to mess up your normal cognitive thought. You continue to hesitate and are still unable to bring yourself to the surface. The ice that has grown separating you from a headspace that wasn’t in a thick haze smothering you. Matthew was a dangerous mix of ice and fire, volatile enough to make you feel like you were drowning in a lake of frozen ice while also trying to avoid upsetting the lava that was boiling and brooding over the fact that you left him lonely.

It made sense… You bit the bottom of your lip as you weighed the options in your mind. Your mind wasn’t registering the pine needles from before were fully digging into your spiritual flesh. Tiny pinpricks of blood began to bloom from the entry points. Your blood was now mixing in with his on the powdery snow. It was like a pact that you were forbidden to break. He knew you better than anyone else, he knew how to read you, how to manipulate and read your moods and anticipate your reactions.

Matthew had stumbled upon a goldmine days before your breakup over a year ago: one of your recently discarded journals ready to be consumed by your fireplace. Since he knew that an end was coming he needed assurance that he’d have a key to get back into your heart.

“Y/N….” He begins to let his head slowly rise so he could magnetize your now slightly watery (eye color) to his. He maneuvers one hand to wipe your cheek from the tear that had fallen from him earlier. Confusion, fright, ignited lust, and the fond memories from the past flashed like an old movie within the bounds of your eyes. He wanted that favored past to come to life in the present. He wanted that safe heaven within you back.

“Please Matthew let’s….”

He kissed you with a passionate haste. He didn’t want to leave room for you to deny him. He just wanted you to say yes and give in.

That now was impossible for you to do. He’d made all of your rational senses weak. There was no alert system to war you of the impending danger. You were now between the icy lake that bogged you down with gloom that felt like a giant snowball. It was all the pain of what happened to him after the rejection. The other danger was the slight but gradually growing tremors. The anger you’d face if you’d rejected him this time. It would be much worse than anything you’d seen from him. You didn’t want to see the outcome from all the lava rousing from beneath the surface of his subconscious.

While the two of you were locked within an emotional binding neither of you had registered that the elevator had moved. The doors opened releasing a lot of the heat from within the confining space revealing the two of you to some elevator technicians and other onlookers. Some giggling, others slightly annoyed.

You felt as though your soul had slipped through your body and you were now on autopilot. No worries though that’s what Mattie was there for. With a quick swoop he tosses you over his shoulder.

He knew you’d want to unpack what just happened over some tea and maple doughnuts.

[impossiblepluto]

Okay can I pls hear more about the como scar reveal???

Thanks for the ask, pal! I've been slowly working on a longer, early season one fic from Riley's POV and to help get into her head I've been trying to write some scenes for her. Because I love a scar reveal, I've been working on a fic where Riley learns more about Lake Como and what happened there. (And I haven't decided what Mac is fiddling with so it's denoted as [XK] to fill in later)

~~~

Steam bursts through the bathroom door as soon as Mac opens it, wafting around him like a shroud as he steps into the cooler air of the hotel room, a pair of basketball shorts hanging low on his hips, focused on the [XK] in his hands.

Riley looks up from the bed furthest from the door that she claimed as her own, sprawled in exhaustion, and turns her attention back to the rig in front of her, absently checking the running search as though she didn’t just finish scrolling through the results so far. She smirks a bit that he apparently brought [XK] into the bathroom with him. 

She doesn’t really know where to look. Dripping hair. Bare chest. Shorts that are hanging just the other side of too low. She barely knows him. Tries not to look, doesn’t want him to think she’s staring when he finally tears himself away from the device. Tries to act like she’s not actively trying to not look. 

Mac reaches up, scrubbing a hand through his hair, sending water droplets flying. After a moment, he sighs and tosses [XK] onto the bed. Her bed.

Riley shifts out of the way as it bounces. 

Mac takes a step back, blinking in surprise as though he’s forgotten she’s here. “Oh. Sorry.”

“It’s fine.” 

“That’s usually my-” he gestures to the bed and stops.

“I can move.” Riley sits up. They didn’t really talk about the sleeping arrangements. 

“No.” Mac waves away the suggestion. “Jack just always takes the bed closest to the door as though those extra three steps would keep me safer. He’ll want you there.” 

“Wouldn’t it be just as likely that someone would enter through the window? Isn’t that what a secret agent would do?”

“I wouldn’t bring that up.” Mac shakes his head.  “I don’t know what Jack’s response would be, but I’m too tired to try to argue about it tonight. Here, let me-” he motions to the [XK].

Riley scoops it up and passes it to him, keeping her eyes carefully on his face.

“Sorry for throwing it at you.”

“I suppose I’ll believe that you weren’t trying to maim me,” she says magnanimously with what she hopes is a twinkle of teasing in her eye. They haven’t had much conversation outside of the mission and work but she sees the playful banter he has with Jack. It’d be nice to cultivate that type of friendship. Any type of friendship.

“Well, not everything I build blows up. Don’t believe everything Jack tells you,” Mac grins.

“I don’t even believe a third of what Jack tells me.” 

The grin erupts into a chuckle. He tosses the [XK] between his hands before setting it on the bedside table, and flopping onto the other bed. 

A wince flitters across his face so quickly she almost misses it. Would have missed it if she hadn’t caught vestiges of pain that blink in his eyes for a second before they're gone. 

“Guess I forgot that it wasn’t just me and Jack. I’m not used to anyone else being with us.”

She doesn’t know why but she half-expected him to blush or stammer, maybe scramble to grab a t-shirt when he realized she was here, not stretch out comfortably on the bed.

(Maybe it’s the way he always looks like a kid wearing his dad’s clothes and trying to appear grown up, multiple layers under collared, button-up shirts and the leather jacket. Half of Jack’s t-shirts don’t have sleeves. Half of them are gaping holes between scraps of fabric barely holding together. )

“Well, Nikki.” 

The teasing smile leaves Mac’s face. Riley almost regrets bringing her up, shifting uncomfortably as Mac’s face clouds, but as the analyst’s replacement, she can’t ignore the curiosity or the warning that prickles in the back of her mind. Walking the line of getting answers and not rocking the boat. She can’t help but wonder what their relationship was like. What led Nikki to make the choices to betray her partners. How it could have happened under the noses of what seems like two very capable special agents. Personal life getting in the way of judgement? She tells herself she wants to avoid the same pitfalls that caused Nikki to turn traitor but she also needs to know if she has any hope of ever really fitting into this duo of Mac and Jack. Will they trust her and more importantly can she trust them? And she finds herself continuing to poke a stick into this painful situation to get answers and just to see how they react.

“Most of the time the op didn’t require her on site.” 

“She didn’t come with you?”

“Not as often as you’d think.”

“Don’t worry, Mac. I don’t think you were using government resources to take your girlfriend on trips around the world.” 

“With as much trouble as we run into, those wouldn’t be the mood-setting romantic vacations she’d be looking for,” Mac chuckles. 

The wary tightness in Riley’s chest loosens.

 “But when I said ‘not as often as you’d think’  I meant based on your experiences with us. You’re already in the field a lot more than Nikki was.”

“Really?” That’s… surprising. And concerning. Are they keeping her closer because they worry they can’t trust her? 

“Looking back, it’s become startlingly clear how often she was around for the really bad ops. Makes me wonder exactly how long she was working the other side. Selling intel. Using– us.” Absently he raises his hand to his chest, the way she’s only seen him do when he’s feeling upset or vulnerable. But only when Jack isn’t around to see it. And now she lets herself look, and sees why.

A raised weal of puckered skin, pink and fresh the way a just-healed wound looks, scores the muscle of the left side of his chest. 

The bullet wound that he was still recovering from when they arranged her release. The one they don't want to talk about. The one that nearly ended his career, and his life. 

Aside from these furtive touches and carefully hidden winces that she suddenly understands, he doesn’t move or act like he almost died three months ago.

No wonder Jack gets a little protective.

[sunstone-smiles]

Pesselle’s New Discovery (Repost)

(Reposted from 2022 because the original was somehow deleted)

Anon (paraphrased): “Hello! These prompts seem fun! Maybe this would [work for the prompt New Discovery. Ingo received an injury and Pesselle takes care of him, discovering that he’s ticklish in the process.]”

Author's note: Hello anon! I hope you enjoy Day 16 of Tickletober: New Discovery!

Series: Pokemon Legends Arceus

Characters: Ingo and Pesselle

Word count: 646

Summary: When Pesselle checks on Ingo after a small injury, she discovers a new fact about the warden she can't help but smile about. Enjoy!

—

Ingo lies on one of the beds in the Galaxy Hall Medical Corps Office, resting his head on the metal backboard. His hat is over his eyes, but he pushes it upwards to clear his vision when he hears footsteps approaching. He sees that it’s the nurse of the survey corps, Pesselle, with her head tilted to the side and her hands cupped together near the middle of her waist.

“How are you, Warden Ingo?” she asks with a bright, kind smile.

He returns the polite gesture to her. “Better now, thank you for asking.”

Pesselle nods and reaches over to straighten out the coat Ingo’s wearing. She glides her hand over a gaping hole in the side of the cloth where the left of his stomach is usually covered. Earlier in the day, a wild pokemon had leaped out at him and slashed at this spot. Fortunately for him, it was barely more than a scratch. Nevertheless, the Pearl Clan leader Irida persisted that Ingo should get his injury checked out by the Medical Corps. When he came in, Pesselle bandaged it up, but she asked him to stay and rest so that she could check in on him later. 

“It seems that the pokemon took a big piece out of your coat and damaged your uniform,” she observes, now getting a closer look at the actual fabric that was torn. “I’m glad that it didn’t do much harm to you.”

“Yes, I’m thankful for that too.”

“On that note, let me see how your scratch is healing.” She places her hands near the side of his stomach, right where the fresh hole of the coat lies, and applies pressure, similar to that of a poke, to the area. Ingo sharply inhales and tenses up as soon as she does so.

“I’m sorry! Did that hurt?” Pesselle looks up at him with worried eyes.

“No, no. I’m fine,” he quickly responds. His tone isn’t very reassuring, but Pessille continues on.

“Okay then,” she takes his word and repeats the same action with her hands, pressing both sets of her fingers into the side of his stomach. Once again Ingo sharply inhales, but this time, to Pesselle’s surprise, the warden exhales with a few airy giggles slipping from his mouth. 

Pesselle relaxes, now knowing the exact reason for Ingo’s reaction. “Hehe! Well, it looks like I’ve made a new discovery about one of the Pearl Clan wardens,” Pesselle friendly jests.

Ingo sheepishly rubs the back of his neck, slightly embarrassed about his little ticklish fact, but Pesselle gives him a reassuring smile saying that it’s completely natural. Many of her other patients have had the same reactions too.

“But I still have to make sure you’re alright. Try to hold still okay?” Pesselle reminds him in a soft voice. 

The warden nods. When she sees that he’s ready, Pesselle carefully drives her hands back into that same spot near the side of his stomach, trying her best not to tickle him; however, even through the fabric of his uniform, Ingo can still feel the unintentional tickly pokes and can’t help but start to giggle. He tries to hold himself as still as he can, but more audible laughter and subtle squirms emerge as Pesselle continues to check the side of his belly. 

“My apohologies Pesselle,” Ingo softly giggles, still trying to keep himself from wriggling so that he doesn’t inconvenience her.

The Medical Corps member chuckles, “It’s okay! They do say that laughter is the best medicine after all.”

Eventually, Pesselle finishes her examination and gives Ingo the clear to leave. He thanks her, to which she responds with “My pleasure,” in her same kind smile. He heads off and Pesselle moves to her desk to write up a quick patient report, chuckling to herself again as she thinks about the new little discovery she made.

[moonstonedrawsrandomly]

The dealbreaker 4.6🟢

“-so that’s what happened? Poor thing”

Noelle said as she ladled him another heap of food. Leshy definitely ate his fill that night. It’s been about 2 days since he’s been living in Noelle’s house and she hasn’t really left her home. She sits back down to eat her food.

“Yeah, my family is quite odd…”

Green crown shrugs from under the couch he was hiding under. It was hidden as to not freak out Noelle. As Noelle finished washing dishes, she places her pillow and blanket next to the couch.

“Don’t mind me, I have to get up to clean your wounds, so I’ll sleep here”ink

She said. Leshy settles to sleep next to Noelle. When the lights were turned off and Noelle’s breathing was softened, he taps the bed and his crown leaps into his hands.

“They must be worried…”

Leshy whispered to his crown, now thinking about his siblings who are probably still looking for him to this moment. He needs to get better so he can go home. His family cannot take another loss. Not another one

In the underworld, Narinder was going to strike. After Lucas left a gaping hole aka his blood soaked on the ground where they fought, making a portal for him to have his crown traverse the cult.

“I have only one shot at this…let it work. Or that Lucas guy gave up his soul for nothing!”

Narinder said as his aura encircled the cult, looking for the little lamb. It wasn’t hard, the little house on the edge of the forest with the flowers around it. Noelle was sleeping inside, however, so was Leshy. As the aura snuck under the door, the green crown activated.

Noelle was sleeping next to him, since they were sharing stories and, overall getting along. She hasn’t seen the green crown, so she still believes that Leshy is a normal follower without a cult to call his home. Green crown detected his master was about to be in trouble. He could feel that familiar aura. The red aura.

The green crown casted a shield around the duo as they slept, just as Narinder attacked. He was repelled by an unknown but familiar force. He couldn’t even get close to Noelle, seeing her sleeping next to a figure. Since it was dark, he couldn’t see who it was.

“What kind of sorcery is this?”

He tried multiple times until he felt his neck gets tugged.

“Shit! She found out I’m gone!”

And not a moment too soon because he can feel her aura checking for him. He cannot risk her catching him. Not yet. He had to go back down to his hole.

“Damnit, I’ll be back when I resurface, just you wait!”

After the threat was gone, green crown went back under the bed and woke up his master with a start. Which then woke up Noelle. She groggily wipes her eyes and lights a candle.

“Wha?”

Noelle said groggily. Leshy apologized for waking her, but feeling that aura and what he felt from the crown. Something isn’t right.

“Noelle? I think I have to leave now…”

Noelle gets up from the floor.

“What? What do you mean? You’re not fully healed! You said you were leaving later this week, what changed your mind?”

Noelle sat next to him on the makeshift bed. He had to think. Sure, he did stupidly promise her he’d stay and he’d visit her, but the fact that he felt that aura? He needed to leave before he had another chance.

But what about Noelle? It didn’t feel like it came for him, initially, but it definitely came for Noelle. Noelle was in danger.

“Hey…Noelle?”

“Yes?”

He never really got a good look at her, only her backside when she cooked or cleaned. Her puffy little tail, always combed, her soft fur, her pink cheeks, her cotton candy hair were all just so interesting to him. He felt a sense to protect this little lamb. He felt a duty to protect someone who would protect him at his weakest.

Unfortunately he also remembered what they did to lambs like her after Narinder was sealed away. So many were slaughtered, and he knows she’s not fully aware of this. If she was, would she be just as kind to him as she is now? He puts it out of his head, she’ll learn about it eventually. Leshy takes her hand and squeezes it

“Do you…want to come live with me?”

He said. Noelle looked at him confused. Leshy began to stammer his words abit, looking away. Why was he acting like this?!?

“Oh…I dunno. I’d have to think about it. I’d have to pack, and close up my home, that can take days, then I’d have to inform Fernilla…You’re leaving in the morning, right?”

She said. She truly wasn’t sure she was serious about going with him, but she didn’t say no either. After all of the shenanigans that have been happening, she might even consider it but she’d be a heretic at that point. All she had left was this clan.

“Will you please think about it?”

Leshy said as he laid back in his bed, still tired. It was midnight after all.

“I will.”

She said and smiled warmly at him. They both went back to bed, Leshy didn’t quite sleep yet. He pulls out green crown

“You think it was him? But we sealed him!”

He whispered. This was bad. He was gone from his siblings for almost a week now, AND Narinder possibly got out? But how? Why? And why does he want Noelle of all people?

TBC

[stesierra]

Find the Word tag game!

@dyrewrites tagged me! My words are; gloom, fiery, lie, laugh and fall. I'm drawing from Stitches and Memories.

I'll tag @elizababie, @macabremoons and @anonymousfoz. You can use the same words.

Gloom

Jedan was already standing, nothing but a looming shadow in the gloom. He asked, "Do you need a hand up?"

"Please."

Between the two of them, she got upright, although she was limping badly. Not only had the blister not healed in the night, it had gotten worse.

Nearby, Reza said, "What now? We can hardly walk down the road in the dark."

Antea said, "Well, we'll just have to, won't we." And she shuffled out into the night, the others on her heels.

Fiery

They walked in silence as the golden sun inched into view, casting strong stretched-out shadows that marched alongside them as they made their slow way down the road. The clouds had vanished in the night. Only the very edge of the sky turned a fiery orange that was gone in minutes, like a candle blown out as soon as it was lit. Not long after, a messenger trotted by on a fast brown horse, and he was only the first of many.

Lie

The water was gone, leaving a vast and empty cavern that arched high overhead. At the center of it polished marble walls stood beautiful and sleek, two stories high and curved around some treasure at their heart. They had barely started to crumble, some of the capstones falling to lie like scattered pearls on the granite floor. A door faced them, a perfect circular arch. It beckoned them inside.

Antea took a step back as pain split her head in two. They had come here. They had come--

She didn't remember anything about her father, this time, but she still had the fit. When it was over, Jedan helped her up, and if his hands lingered on her shoulders longer than necessary, well, she wasn't complaining. He didn't say anything. None of them said anything. The silence of the cave was too complete for that.

Laugh

"I've caught the trail," Jedan said. "We can leave now. Antea? We can leave."

Her head throbbed just out of time with the heartbeat that sounded loud in her ears, and her hands shook until they banged into her thighs. She buried her trembling fingers in her skirts and stayed staring at the dusty floor. She said dully, "I woke up here. Right here."

Jedan was beside her then. He said, "Antea."

Her vision was tunneling in, turning the peripheral world to empty shadows. "I was all alone. My memories of the whole last year of my life were gone, as if it'd never happened. I couldn't even remember how I'd gotten there. And there was this gaping hole in my brain. My mind spiraled around it and tore itself apart. I had my first fit. I thought that I was going to die."

Jedan touched her shoulder and squeezed, and she leaned into him and let him steady her shaking limbs.

She said, "There was a letter on my chest. From my father. The lights he'd lit on our way in hadn't died yet, so I could see the words. I want to say reading it hurt worse than anything, but that's not true. Nothing has ever hurt worse than my brain."

"Don't think about it," he urged her. "Don't think about it."

She laughed until her stomach hurt and her breath wheezed. Laughed as the convulsions descended upon her, as memories latched onto the place where her amnesia sat and found a brief foothold. She saw her father leading her through the ruin past dozens of fallen skeletons, telling her of ancient plagues. Nothing but ancient history, my dear, no danger and nothing to fear. Now, if she would occupy herself, he needed just a moment. A moment to do what? A moment to do what?

The memory didn't say.

Fall

Reza slapped at the back of Antea's head. "What are you waiting for? Bring me inside!"

Antea stared up at her, her eyebrows rising. "You want me to take a horse inside a temple?" A horse named Demon?

"Yes, I do! If someone must carry me before the gods, let it be a proper steed and not one of my own soldiers."

Antea shrugged and led Demon over the threshold and into the Gods' House. His shoes clicked on the polished marble floor, and the horse looked around, snorting softly. Antea glanced up and gaped, coming to a brief halt to stare, for the triangular windows that covered the curving ceiling weren't glass. They glowed with transparent blue magic, the same magic that had made up the magic bridge back at the river, and Antea had no doubt they were as solid as that bridge. This magic wasn't something her father would have done. The building had been designed for it, hundreds of years ago. It was awe-inspiring, and a little terrifying, to think of the power that had gone into making those windows and making them so well that they had lasted since well before the fall of democracy.

[zilla4]

Family in hell joy

here is a little thing I will most likely be posting ever once in a while with my oc, enjoy ._.

It was just a normal day in hell. Grim was spending some time out and about with his nephew lucifer at the edge of a cliffside taking in the view, with a cup of hot chocolate to go with it of course, but then something weird happened, something entered hell that shouldn't have.

A soul way too pure for it to be a sinner's.

"You felt that ?" lucifer asked grim as he spread his 6 wings wide, ready to take of.

"Yes, what on earth is a soul so pure doing in hell ?" grim responded while manifesting a pair of large, black wings.

They both took to the sky as fast as they could, worst case scenario would be that an angel had fallen, and they did not want them to end up in the pride ring.

They both soared through the red sky as fast as they could, the memories of the state lucifer was in when he and Lilith fell knawing at Grim's mind when they spotted it.

6 wings on the verge of ripping off, a gaping hole in the middle of her chest, medium stature, a broken halo, dress tainted in gold.

"Emily ?" grim screamed, his calm now shattered into nothingness as thoughts of losing her due to the fall flashed in his mind

"Lucifer !"

"On It" he signalled to him and without a second glance he responded while speeding towards Emily, turning more and more demonic while going faster and faster

With thought Grim summoned a pentagram and started calling out.

"Bel, BEL, pick up, pick up. Please pick up"

He called his daughter, since she was by far the best in every field of medicine in hell, his mind was just about to drift in thought again when a voice came out of the pentagram.

"Yes dad ?"

"Fallen Angel, Fallen Angel. Get ready as soon as you can I will teleport you here"

A few moments passed and then Belphegor answered.

"I'm Ready"

Then with a flash she was floating right next to him.

They both rushed to lucifer who had caught Emily in mid air, her wounds were much worse up close, her wings were mauled, bones visibly showing. She had bleeding wounds all over her arms, most likely due to trying to defend herself.

All and all it was a nightmare for the eyes.

Belphegor then issued commands to the two of them.

"I Need A flat surface, a place with good lighting And a source of Clean water, the rest of the supplies I have brought with me"

Without a second glance, grim teleported them all to lucifer's office, laying Emily down on his desk while lucifer went and turned on the lights.

"Alright, now I need both of you to leave, distractions can lead directly to loss of limbs, and in some cases death, And we do not want to take chances"

With a nod the both of them left the room, leaving bel to work her magic.

As they went out lucifer let out a sigh filled with anger, barely managing to keep calm as to not disturb bel while she work, while grim summoned himself a glass of water and a pack of benzodiazepine, taking a pill while trying to calm down his nerves.

in his mind he was screaming, He hadn't felt this powerless and helpless since lucifer's fall. He hated the fact that he couldn't just go ahead and heal her because he doesn't hold any dominion over angels and the thought of losing an angel so pure was making his form crack.

after an hour of this bel finally stepped outside bearing good news.

"I have both good news and bad news. The good news is that she will survive with functioning wings, bad news is that the eye at the middle of her chest was way, Way too damaged for it to be functioning again"

"Well thank the stars that she's alive at the very least, levi can make a prostate if needed" lucifer takes a deep breath, the two of them had been stressing for a hour straight so that was a given.

And grim was in visible euphoria at the thought of not having to worry about death.

"Well done Bel, now I'll just have to sooth the poor angel's dreams and everything will be fine"

[diaryoffiction]

Thousand year old vampire

Name:

Roselyn

Sophie

Emma

Skills:

painting

sewing

etiquette

religion

inviting presence

kipnaping

Resources:

painting tools

sewing kit

royal crest

servitors of the lineage

abandonned building (stationary)

looted house (stationary)

Characters:

Prince Christopher - my father

Marie Catherine - my mother - a maid - immortal

Victor - previous royal painter - my mentor - resurected corpse - immortal

Reginald - aristocrat friend of the prince who's been trying to seduce me - vampire - immortal

Sarah - succubus - immortal

Merinda - a sister living in a monestary

John - ex-christian who sees me as a sort of deity

Josh Robert - grandson of John - vampire - immortal

Captain Marshal - employed me as a cartographer

William - rich researcher of the occult

Mark(s):

A gaping hole in my chest where my heart used to be.

Burned left arm

Memories

1 - My name is Roselyn. Bastard child of Prince Christopher and his maid Marie. Born in the royal stable in the year 1001. The identity of my father is kept a secret and I replace the royal's painter to keep me from leaving to protect the image of the royal familly.

After being isolated my whole life the world in which I emerge into is strange to me. I decide to wander a bit and in my travels a nun finds me and take me back to her monestary.

2 - My mother teaches me to sow near a fire place. One of the rare times where I get alone time with her. It comforts me.

Back on land a woman who I reconize as my mother approches me. She explains how she made a deal with a demon and how she went looking for me.

A man who looks more corpse than live barge into our temporary home and grunts and points in my direction. Robert jumps on the man but is easily push off and impaled on a broken chair. The thing than resumes his grunting but does not do anything. He then leaves inexplicably.

3 - One evening as I sow myself new clothes Josh comes to me for our regular ritual where I 'bless' hime by drinking his blood. Sadly, I lose track of how much I drank so without thinking I turn him into a vampire.

In this new land two factions start a brutal war. As such we retrive into an abandoned building and wait it out.

One night as I feed on a passerby I am seen by a guard who quickly runs to alert the militia. We thus have to leave and arrive in a region where everyone speaks only french.

4 - Fearing I might get caught drinking again I instead kidnap people who walk the forest alone.

Rumors had started to spread around about mysterious disparitions in the local forest so I move and change name again.

A strange old man maneges to capture me one night. He clearly has a lot of knowledge on vampires and he uses me to experiment his theories.

5 - Late during the night as I was repairing a tear at the bottom of my dress Reginald enters my room without knocking. Knowing his reputation as a flirtatious man I prepare myself to politly decline his advances. But before I can speak cuts his wrist, brings it to my mouth and at the same tear the top of my dress and rips out my heart.

An afternoon lesson with my mentor Victor. The breeze outside is strong and forces us inside the stable where I instead paint a horse.

John one of the many people who's come for benidictions reconizes me from a sketch in a journal passed into the familly from his grand-grand-grandfather Victor. Bewildered he claims that if I persisted for so long in a religious place than I much be a divine being of sorts and vows to serve me.

Josh tells me of an expedition to uncharted lands is soon leaving. We go to the port and I convince the captain of the ship to let me join as a cartographer.

Once I am old enough and am offically made the royal painter I receive the royal crest to get the benifits of serving the royal familly.

A mysterious lady who've I seen around the castle is suddenly takes my role and escorts me out of the castle. She claims that I'm a danger to her accention into human society since I am not human myself.

One day, multiple of the residents of the monestary tries to capture me for a crime which I did not commit. They are lead by Sarah who've come to gain of influence over the years. Merinda catches me before I escape. I make her hesitate by reminding her of her belifs. Sadly, I hear the mob of people approching and with no choice I slay her and leave.

Roselyn sadly dies as a test subject to a crazed rich occultist.

Aditional notes:

My playthrough is set in a pretend world. As such some historical, geographical and other sorts of information may be inaccurate. I've decided to prioritize fun over realism.

[yourlocalwriters]

Lost Finding You

Lost Finding You Chapter 3

------> This story was heavily inspired by The Glory, caution reading!

TW: Lots of violence, Bullying, descriptions of gore/death, suicide, name-calling, heavy topics.

WC: 754

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They both left the house.

      “Hanaka can you load up the gps on your phone I’ll drive.'' Hanaka nodded and typed up the address on her phone. It was a 20 minute drive that felt like hours of silence. Soon they finally arrived. Miski was unsure she looked around then got out of the car.

    “Come on Hanaka. If we don’t hurry; It’s gonna turn into a living hell” Hanaka groaned and got out.

    “My life’s already a living hell.'' They both walked through the sticks and dirt to reach the school. It was burned down so half of the school was gone; There was a big gaping hole with stairs at the left side, they went through there. As soon as they went in, a chill went through their spine. 

      “Holy fuck.. What are we even looking for?” Hanaka said. Miski was thinking really hard for her dreams of Emi until she thought of something. 

      “Room 307.” Miski uttered.

      “What?” Hanaka looked at her in confusion. 

      “We’re going to room 307, that's what my dream said.” Miski looked to Hanaka

      “Jeez Miski, you’re creeping me out. Tsk let’s just go.” Hanaka sighed, they both walked the session of stairs with a feel of eyes staring at them. Miski and Hanaka walk up the stairs trying not to slip through the holes.

      “So what floor is 307 on?! My legs hurt already!'' Miski stopped. she tried to remember how many stairs she walked before she got the door, she looked down then looked right.

       “Here.” Miski says; they walk into the creepy dark hallway that was practically black from it being burned.

       “Gosh this place smells..” Hanaka says, still following Mitski. They reach the room and go inside. Mitski looks around

       “Looks just like my dream” Mitski says with a serious tone. 

       “Whatever! Let’s just hurry and get out of this creepy place.” Hanaka says and walks into a small room with books inside, 

    She turns on a light and chuckles “Hey! Look! This light still works!” she says smirking, “Mhm~..” Miski says distractedly looking for anything that can help in the room; After a few minutes of searching, Miski gets frustrated. “Ugh, Nothing!” She quickly gets up frustrated but startled by what happens next. “Holy shit.” She said with wide eyes. Hanaka looked at Miski, confused “I saw Emi..” Miski said horrified, Hanaka's expression changed. “Miski what the fuck do you mean. Emi is dead! You need to get over her.'' Hanaka yells, “No.. I saw her.” Hanaka gets even more pissed, “I swear to god Miski! If this is some prank, I’m out of here.” Miski looks concerned but changes her expression, “You know what, It’s fine. I'm probably just seeing things” Hanaka rolls her eyes, “Yeah, you probably are! Anyways, I found something.” Miski gets excited, “Huh? Where!?” Miski runs over to Hanaka, “Nothing much, just a yearbook, but I think it belongs to Emi?” Hanaka explains, Miski gets confused, “What? Why would Emi leave her yearbook here though?” “Why are you asking me?” Hanaka says. They flipped through the pages but had stopped,  shocked when they saw themselves, “What..” Miski says, shocked and confused. Scribbles and X’s all over them, It became a loud silence until Hanaka spoke, “Well I mean, she hates us so..”, Hanaka was about to say something else until Miski spoke again, with a different tone. “Yeah! and you made her hate us!” Miski said, Hanaka was shocked by the sudden change, “Look, I’m sorry okay. I never meant for that to happen""Yeah, sure you didn’t Hanaka! you forced me to stop being friends with Emi!”, the two started arguing. “I didn’t force you!” Hanaka yelled back. “You did! if it weren’t for you. Emi would still be here right now!” Miskis' face turned from furious to a sad face with salty tears. It was obvious Hanaka felt bad but, the words she was saying made it seem like she didn’t. “Whatever. I’m going home. My daughters probably crying.”, Hanaka started walking away, until Mitski spoke, “I’ll drive you home” Miski said while wiping her tears, but Hanaka refused, “It’s fine,” but Miski kept insisting “Hanaka come on. It’s night and the walk is an hour long.”. Hanaka sighed, “Fine.” They both walk out and get into the car. The whole car ride was filled with silence and the car radio. Once they arrived at Hanakas house, Hanaka slammed the door and walked away. Miski stared at the house for a minute then drove away.

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To be continued..