#but yes i will provide a proper answer with everyone as soon as the chapter is posted <333< /div> Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[feartheoldblog]

*kicks door but hurts foot really badly and spends an hour in pain before knocking like a normal person*

You.

I demand lore about your Gilded Rot OC's

HELLO BIM THANK YOU FOR THE ASK!!!!

So, my original characters have only been mentioned by name in the fic so far. However, they will be slowly introduced in the next chapter or so, so for now I’ll tell you about the characters that are in it already:

Gawain, and Finlay!

I don’t want to give too much away so I’ll try and keep it fairly brief.

I know, Finlay is a canon character but we barely know anything about her other than her heroic journey, carrying Malenia back to the Haligtree. However, I feel like I’ve basically got enough creative freedom with her to the point that she’s essentially an original character. I’ll make another post about Aoife, Harlan, Bastien and another OC who has not been named in the fic yet.

So, Finlay:

She hails from a small island on the western coast of Limgrave, entirely separate from the mainland. It’s only possible to travel there by boat, and they very rarely did so (unless transporting goods) due to the frequent storms and treacherous whirlpools that surrounded the island. The main source of income was fish, which they sold on the mainland. Finlay’s mother was native to the island but her father was from Leyndell. She hasn’t seen her family in years nor received correspondence from them due to the island’s infrequent contact with the mainland and due to her serving as a Cleanrot Knight. As you can tell, she’s very close to Malenia (obviously lmao) and they’ve grown closer over the years that she has served her. She also enjoys Miquella’s company when she has the opportunity to see him, as infrequent as they are. Gawain is her closest friend, but she is also extremely close to Aoife and Harlan, but Bastien doesn’t spend a lot of time with the Cleanrots aside from Gawain.

Gawain is just an asshole (joking, but not really).

He grew up on a farm in Eastern Limgrave where his family bred and sold horses, as well as reared sheep and goats. Finlay is his closest friend though he is fond of Bastien. He’s on thin ice with Loretta; he doesn’t agree with her vibrant personality, and she isn’t fond of his aversion to the more fun things in life. He greatly respects Malenia as a warrior and would give his life up for her but they aren’t particularly close socially. He’s renowned for his abilities with a spear and typically regarded as one of the strongest Cleanrot Knights. He’s been banned from participating in archery after accidentally shooting loosing an arrow into the main hall of Elphael, a mere few inches away from Miquella’s head. His aim is awful. Fortunately, Miquella found it amusing that someone could be that terrible at archery and forgave him.

~

I know it ain’t much but it is honest work 🙏 I’ll give some info on the other lads when they get properly introduced. They’re an unusual bunch but they all get along (for the most part).

[thatsmzbitchtoyou]

Breaking the Class Ceiling Chapter 5

This is set in early 1900s U.S.A., during the Edwardian era with some style changes into the upcoming Art Nouveau period. I've changed history a bit for this. Pretending that America didn't have a full Civil War and trying to create a more optimistic outcome for the purposes of the story. I've also tried to research what the rules for society/socializing were back then, and tweaked some of them.

Warnings for upcoming chapters: minor character death, some sexual harassment/assault (but nothing too graphic or traumatic), smut

Previous chapter Next chapter

He was on a train.  He’d never been on a full blown train before.  The trolley cars around New York, sure, but nothing as fast as this.  Bucky was one in a party of ten, five couples in all, traveling to St. Louis for a week at the World Fair.  He was literally being paid for his time, triple what he would normally make, which was a very strange arrangement, but you had made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.  Mr. Fury was upset but understanding when he quit as Bucky’s luck in life had drastically changed.  

Steve had come with Peggy Carter, the woman he was now engaged to.  You had thrown an engagement party in their honor the week before, crying for them as they recounted their love story.  Bucky loved how much you loved his friends and wanted the best for them.  He wasn’t sure when your time as a couple was yet for engagement, he hoped soon, but was worried about whether he should ask you or if you would ask him.  The ball was in your court, always had been, and it was something that he was still getting used to.  He couldn’t spoil you, spend lavishly on you, which you assured him was fine as long as he just accompanied you and made you happy in other ways.  He was so used to having to work for everything he had that any kind of gifts or inclusion into your daily life you provided him felt like he owed you something.  All he could give was his love and his mother’s ring, the most expensive and cherished thing he owned.  It wasn’t anything extravagant, but it was a beautiful older ring.  His father gave it to him weeks ago as your relationship progressed, and he brought it with him everywhere he went now, waiting to see if there was a right moment to ask you.  He wasn’t sure if he should talk to you about it first.  He’d never gotten this far into any courtship before.

He and the other men went to grab some lunches for everyone from one end of the dining car while you and the women talked on the other end.  

“So, when will you pop the question?” Peggy urged you, poking your shoulder.  “Or are you wanting him to do it?”

“I’m not sure, Peg, we haven’t talked about it,” you answered honestly.  “I have a sneaking suspicion he’s ready to ask but is looking for the right time.  I’m ready to ask him whenever, but I think he feels like he needs to ask me, since I asked him to court,” you said contemplating the relationship.

“You asked him to court you?” Wanda asked, her eyebrows shooting up her head.

“Yes, of course,” you said indignantly.  “I liked him from the moment I met him.  I wanted to spend as much time with him as possible.  He makes me feel seen, heard, and understood.  He doesn’t expect me to be prim and proper at all times.  He…” you tapered off, watching him laugh at something one of the men said at the front of the car.  “He’s the best friend I’ve ever had.”

“And I’m sure it helps that he is one of the most handsome men in New York,” Maria added, wiggling her eyebrows teasingly.

You all laughed at that as the men came back with their hands full of food, looking at you all strangely.

The World Fair was a rounding success.  As tired as you all were from the constant walking and stuffing yourselves with fair food all week, the attractions had been amazing to see.  Bucky was particularly interested in the set about futuristic inventions and findings in space.  You made a mental note of that as he gazed at the replica of the known galaxy in the planetarium.

On the last night as you got dressed to meet everyone for dinner there was a knock on your door.  “Come in!” you invited them, slipping on your gloves.  Bucky walked through the door, his eyes glued to his cufflinks that he was struggling with. 

“Doll, could you help me with these blasted things?  I can’t seem to get it to connect and–” he stopped as he looked up at you.  You were wearing a long gold dress overlaid with a sheer black fabric skirt, a gold embroidery strip along the front and tassels along the skirt and the waist.  The neckline plunged down low on your chest, barely held up by metallic straps and sheer champagne colored, short, flowy sleeves.  A gold headpiece of flowers and leaves reached from one ear, around the back of your head to your other ear, with emeralds and small beaded dragonflies hanging into your hair which was pinned to your head in purposefully haphazard curls, some tendrils falling out methodically.  Your gloves were once again laced, this time black to match the black overlay skirt.  Your shoes were black velvet with embellished gold heels, reflecting the art nouveau theme with dragonfly accents again.  You held a black lace fan that was attached to your wrist with a ribbon.  You wore a little makeup to enhance your eyes and lips, a deep brownish black color making your eye color pop, and the dark rouge on your lips accentuating their shape.  Bucky could not seem to stop staring.  

“Love, you look…I have no words,” he was dumbfounded, his cufflinks long forgotten.  

“Do you like it?” you asked, giving him a spin, your dress flowing around you as you beamed at him.

“Yes, it’s so…you look like a goddess,” he complimented, “like the ones we saw at the exhibit about Ancient Greece.  Aphrodite personified, if she graced us with her divine.”

“Oh Bucky, stop it,” you blushed, “but thank you.  You look as handsome as always.” You gave him an appreciative look, walking up and taking his arm to fix his cufflinks.  He was wearing a black suit, a satin black waistcoat that had velvet pieces sewn into it that reflected the gold embroidery you wore, a white dress shirt and a wash style tie that was black and sheer to match you.  Near the knot of the tie was nestled a gold brooch with a futuristic pattern embossed in the metal surrounding a prominent emerald.  He slicked his longer hair back, the top curling as the humidity was higher in St. Louis than New York, giving her an unadulterated view of his eyes.  

“I seem to have my own Adonis,” you praised him, straightening his tie and brushing down the lapels of his suit for any flyaway strands or dust.  “His own beauty personified, and looking very tempting.”

“Tempting am I?” He asked as he cocked an eyebrow at you.  “Maybe after dinner I can show you just how tempting I can be.”

“Hmm,” you hummed seductively back.  You had done a few things that would have made your uncle gasp at the impertinence, but had never fully lain with each other yet.  You had made it a point to not fully kiss him on the lips ever, supposedly saving it for a certain point, but also as a way to tease him relentlessly since he had done it to you earlier on in the relationship, making him chase your lips.  “Yes, you’ll have to.  I demand it.”

“Oh you demand it?” He sputtered at your brazenness.  

“Yes, I demand my pleasure, Bucky Barnes,” you got on your tiptoes and pressed a kiss too close to his lips.  He groaned.

“No more teasing, Y/N, please.  Why won’t you kiss me?”

“Don’t fret, darling, we’ll get there,” you promised him, scratching the beard hair on his chin then turning to grab your fur shawl and your clutch.  Inside held a ring box that you planned on giving him tonight during the firework show.  You had decided it was time, you didn’t want to spend another minute without the promise of this man as yours forever.

“Shall we darling?” You held your hand out to him.

“We shall,” he looped your hand around his arm, leading you out to dinner.

Everyone was dressed immaculately.  They indulged themselves on the last night of the trip, drinking the best wines and liquors and eating some of the best prepared food Bucky had ever been blessed to have in his mouth.  Afterwards they all lazily strolled to the center of the fair near the water fountain, stopping at stalls and exhibits they hadn’t had a chance to see along the way.  When the time came for the fireworks to begin you stealthily got the ring box out of your clutch, hiding it in your hand as Bucky stood next to you.  The lights darkened as the show was about to begin.  The first firework shot high into the air, disappearing momentarily before exploding a bright mix of pinks and blues.  Bucky was enthralled.  This week had been one of the best of his life, getting to enjoy and sight see without a care in the world.  And he was able to do it all because of you.  As much as this had all started as a physical attraction and an advantageous union, it was now something that he couldn’t dream of living without.

You watched him enjoy the fireworks for a few moments, loving the way his eyes lit up as each one exploded, his eyebrows shooting up at particularly large ones.  You switched the ring box to your other hand and slipped it into his hand as he was looking up.  

Bucky quickly looked down as you handed him something.  He opened his hand to reveal a sapphire blue velvet box.  His eyes snapped to you, and you gave him a soft, hopeful smile, gesturing to him to open it.  He looked back at the box, his fingers shaking as his other hand opened the top, revealing a platinum signet ring with a small aquamarine gem set in the middle that matched the color of his eyes and leaf filigree surrounding the band.  Bucky stared at it until he felt you pull him to face you.

You took the ring out of the box and held it in your fingers in front of him.  “I know we haven’t talked about engagement yet, but I couldn’t wait another minute before asking if you would be mine, for the rest of our lives and beyond death and time,” your voice shook with emotion as you held it in front of his face, looking him deep in his eyes.  “I love you.  I feel like I’ve loved you from the moment I met you.  Will you, James Buchanan Barnes, my Bucky, my darling, marry me?”

Bucky’s eyes began watering as he listened to you.  He reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out an old and faded burgundy velvet ring box.  You watched him intently as he opened his box to reveal a gold ring with a round white diamond set in the middle with fine engraving on the band on either side.  “Yes, my pretty doll.  As long as you will wear my mother’s ring and promise to be mine forever,” he plucked the ring out and held it in his fingers in front of you.

You both silently chuckled through tears, exchanging the rings and placing them on each other’s left ring fingers.  Miraculously they both fit perfectly, and as you gazed at each other you wrapped your arms around his neck, pulling him down to your lips in what was your first kiss.

As you kissed him it felt like every fiber of his being was set aflame and life finally made sense, the pieces of a puzzle falling into place.  His heart leapt as he wound his arms around your waist and pulled you tight against him, picking you up and twirling you around as the fireworks celebrated you.

There was clapping and hollering that registered in your ears making you pull away from each other. The rest of the group were congratulating you, having watched your engagement.  Peggy and Steve were crying as they hugged you both, Bucky making Steve his best man on the spot.  

As you watched him smile widely and care free, you realized you had done it.  You had found the man to spend your life with, to share your fortune and hopefully someday soon create the family to pass on your empire.  He came back to you and held your face in his hands as he leaned down again and kissed your lips, soft but firm.  Now that he had had a taste he was like a man starved, taking every opportunity to experience your lips as much as you’d let him.

[legends-of-time]

The Strength of a High and Noble Hill (Outlander)

Chapter 4: Goodbyes

Masterlist

No one explains things to Brian or talks about anything around him. He doesn't understand where Angus disappears to or why Fergus returns one day, shaken with red on his face. He assumes there's fighting due to the number of men his mother treats as the next year rolls around.

His parents are very serious these days. Brian is able to lift smiles from them when he takes his first proper steps and creates laughter when he points at a man everyone is calling a Prince and saying cat (his first word).

——

Brian is almost two when he begins to say his goodbyes.

He doesn't understand when Fergus says his goodbyes as he heads off to deliver a message for their parents. Surely he'll come back?

Murtagh ruffles his hair and calls him a Diabhal beag again by now, Brian knows what this means but he has never heard it uttered by Murtagh in such a sombre tone.

——

Brian stares at his parents with tears in his eyes as they argue.

April 16th 1746

"Ye... yer promised me tha' if it came te this, ye'd go back through the stones, back home." His father says.

Go back? Go back where?

"But you are my home." His mother argues.

"And yer are mine, but this home is lost. And now ye, Brian and the bairn... yer must go te a safe place. Te a man... a man tha' could care for yer all."

Brian stares at them both questioningly. But neither of them turns to him to provide answers.

"No. No, I..."

"Claire. Claire, there's no time." Da argues.

"How will I explain all this? How can I go back?"

"To Frank. All tha' I leave te ye. Tell 'im wha' ye will about me... about us. 'Tis likely he'll no want te hear, but if he does... tell 'im I'm grateful. And tell 'im I trust 'im, and tell 'im I hate 'im te the verra marrow o' his bones."

Brian winces and whimpers as he begins to hear a buzzing sound getting louder and louder. He rugs on his mother's skirts. "Mama, it buzzing."

Brian doesn't know how to explain the looks he receives from his parents. Relief? Devastation?

"He can hear it..." His mother murmurs as she stares at Brian before snapping to his father with renewed desperation. "Jamie please tell me, please tell me that you can hear it."

But his father shakes his head and denies it. Brian doesn't understand, it's so loud! Then Mama and Brian are being pushed towards the stones, encouraged to touch them. Brian glances over his shoulder, just before he touches it, and sees his father watching them, tears falling down his cheeks.

"Da?"

His father crouches down and strokes Brian's hair. Hair that matches his own. "Goodbye wee laddie. Yer look after yer mother fer me."

Brian frowns at his father, confused, but then he and his mother touch the stone and they're gone.

——

♪ Oh, milkman, keep those bottles quiet ♪

Mid-April 1948

Brian experienced a lot of pain going through the stones. His mother was a bit disoriented too but also distressed. When others found them, in clothing that Brian almost feels is familiar in some sort of way but struggles to recall where. His mother is weeping and crying. Brian wants to stay, to comfort her but they tear him away from her. Thankfully, he's soon returned to her and, as she sits in this bed, she cradles him, singing softly. The radio plays in the background.

♪ Been jumpin' on the swing shift ♪

�� All night ♪

♪ Turnin' out my quota all right ♪

♪ Now I'm b*at right down to the sod ♪

♪ Gotta catch myself some righteous nod ♪

♪ Oh, milkman, keep those bottles quiet ♪

♪ Milkman, stop that grade A riot ♪

♪ If you can't lullaby it ♪

The song is interrupted by a door opening. His mother doesn't look at the person and Brian can't see them as she blocks his view.

"Can you turn that bloody thing off, please?" She demands.

There's a click and the noise stops. Brian is thankful, not used to the noise, but then he can now more clearly hear all the loud noises from outside.

♪ Oh, milkman, keep those bottles... ♪

"So noisy here." His mother murmurs. There are footsteps and suddenly she tenses, clinging to Brian tightly causing Brian to let out a small cry. His mother lets out an apologetic noise, stroking his red hair soothingly. "I-I'm sorry." She apologises to the man that Brian now realises is standing next to the bed. "Y-you're not..."

The man has dark hair, with wide hazel eyes that flicker over Brian's mother questioningly and curiously looks at Brian. "Claire?"

"Frank. Hello. I'm back." Brian glances up at his mother curiously, still not understanding what's going on. It's like there are memories locked away somewhere that would explain this new world around him but he can't unlock them.

"And I am so grateful." The man, Frank, says tearfully. Brian stares at him, he must know his mother quite well from his reaction but how come Brian has never seen him and where's Da?

"Are you?"

"Of course. With all my heart." He walks towards them but his mother lets out a gasp, pulling Brian towards her. Frank looks at them apologetically but also looks hurt. "I'm sorry... wh..."

"No. It's not you."

"Mrs. Randall?" A different voice calls then there's a blinding white light.

More voices appear out of Brian's eye line.

"Hey! What are you doing? Get out of here!"

"Easy now, I'm just doing my job. Now watch the camera!"

The door slams shut.

Brian flinches at the noise causing his mother to hold him closer. He looks up and sees that the man, Frank, is staring at him with a frown on his face.

"Claire... who's this?"

——

A/N: It was strange doing this one as there is so much dialogue from the show that I used.

So I have lots of plans for different moments for Brian as he grows up but I'd be happy to hear any other ideas of scenarios people come up with and they might make it into the story.

Please leave comments on how you're enjoying this story and what you think.

[matryosika]

shoot me, chapter II

pairing — changbin x reader

rating — 18+

genre of the overall series — smut, angst, fluff if you squint

prologue chapter I chapter II

word count for this chapter — 5.5 k

warnings — softdom!changbin, kind of bratty reader, mild exhibition (something happens at a dressing room but it's not too much), dry humping - lap riding?, oral (m), praise kink, use of petnames, slight edging, masturbation and cum eating

note — i wrote this today because maybe this week i'll be busy with college and i was feeling a bit inspired. i'm so happy with the messages i recieved and, if you like my work, i highly encourage you to send an ask or a message! thank you so much for reading me and i hope you enjoy this chapter. it's a litte bit more smut and angsty tension than actual plot, but i was feeling this today. also, i didn't plan on having a taglist but i guess i'll do! if you are interested in me adding you, please let me know! <3

tag list — @cozyblues @ahgasearmyfan

the awkward small meeting soon became lunch. arthur convinced you and changbin to join them at a very nice restaurant that was located a few blocks away from the company and, although you refused for the sake of comfort, your father didn't accepted a "no" for an answer.

"he is like a step-son to me" arthur said, looking at changbin as if he had some sort of admiration towards him. "i've seen him become the man he is now and i'm sure no one can run the company like him"

both haeun and jang-yeop seemed flattered, but changbin didn't even smile at the compliment arthur just said. by the lack of response, his mother rushed to say something in order to move on to other topic. it was pretty obvious that changbin was acting kind of rude towards everyone today, but you guessed he was just feeling uncomfortable because of what happened yesterday.

"so, y/n" haeun interrupted "your father had planned a dinner for you yesterday but it seemed like he had to canceled it because you had plans… how was your first day back in korea?"

"oh" you muttered, trying to chew the food that was still in your mouth so you could answer her question "it was… definetly something"

as soon as you answered her question, changbin gave you a side look from his place at the dinner table. "i went out with an old friend from middle school to itaewon"

"itaewon.." jang-yeop added "there are some dangerous places there, y/n. you should be more careful going out at night, korea might be a safe place but you can find anything out there".

"yeah i-" and for a moment, a perversed idea striked your head "i actually had a very unpleaseant situation yesterday at the bar i attended to"

immediatly after you finished your sentence, changbin glanced right at you.

"what happened?" jang-yeop questioned filled with concern.

"there were some awfully rude people there" you replied, limitating the answer. you wanted changbin to have an uncomfortable time there just because he crushed your pride the night before "i'll just leave it at that"

"changbin" her mother intervened "weren't you at itaewon yesterday too?"

the poor man almost choked on his food, coughing softly to avoid attracting any attention or being too loud "i was"

this was the first time you heard his voice that day and you would be absolutely lying if you said it didn't make you feel something. the memories of him praising you last night while he was eating you out just flooded your mind, making you stare directly at him for a really long time.

he was looking at you too, but his gaze transmitted something completely different than lust or desire. he was angry, maybe at himself or at you for teasing him in front of his parents, but he looked scared too, uncomfortable.

"see, this is exactly why i planned that dinner yesterday" arthur stated "i wanted to introduce changbin to y/n so he could guard her during her stay in korea. you know jang-yeop, how men are behaving nowadays…"

"tell me about it, arthur" the old man replied.

"i trust changbin as if he is my own blood" your father continued "if i asked him to take care of my youngest daughter y/n, i'm sure he would"

"maybe he can give her a tour around the principal streets of seoul" his mother suggested with the biggest smile.

"i'd love to" you were quick to say, earning a death-stare from the man in question. "i wanted to go to this mall i saw on my way from the airport but hyejin was in a rush and we couldn't stop by"

with a satisfied look, jang-yeop laid his body down on the chair he was sitting and sighed. "well, changbin, seems like you have plans for today"

"i'm not a taxi-driver" he spitted, earning a despicable look from both of his parents.

"no, changbin" arthur was rushed to intervene "i would really appreciate if you took care of her whenever she goes out alone. you know how men are, just think of her as a younger sister"

for a moment you felt the need to throw up at his fake words, but you were enjoying the scene.

a younger sister, that's funny.

"where's that store again?" changbin asked annoyed.

this can go really good or really bad for you, changbin. it's up to you.

*

"so you are not going to even apologize?" you asked in the middle of the uncomfortable silence that was now filling changbin's sports car.

"for what, giving you the best orgasm of your life?" he mumbled with a cold tone in his voice. you could see he wasn't really in the mood for talking, but you at least expected an apology for humiliating you yesterday.

"funny how you thought of me as a gold digger when my father is practically your boss and you do exactly as he says" you chuckled.

now let's clarify something. you never really felt proud of being arthur's daughter because he wasn't even a father to you. yes, you shared his blood and last name but at the end of the day that didn't meant anything for you. nevertheless, changbin didn't knew this so you could play that "ceo's bratty daughter" card everytime you wanted, even if that obligated you to actually act like you and arthur held a loving fraternal relationship.

"if i knew you were his daughter, none of that would've happened" he replied without parting his eyes from the street, again, with the coldest voice you had ever hear in your life.

"what part, the humiliation or the orgasm?"

he gave you a threatening look and proceeded to keep is eyes on the road. you were quite unsure how to lead this situation since everything happened really fast: your arrival to korea, your first encounter with ryujin after a long time, the itaewon night and the bar incident... changbin was still a mere stranger but you had quite a feeling that this wasn't going to be the first time you spended time with him since your father made it clear: changbin was like family to him.

shit, i am his real family and never even bothered to reach out for me when i was in japan. he probably only did it this time because of ara.

"is this is?" changbin asked as he parked.

"yeah" you replied, looking at the tall building that was in front of you.

"i'll wait for you here, don't delay, i don't have your time" he snarled without removing his seatbealt.

"you are not coming?"

you had one idea in mind to fuck up his head even more, but it was only going to work if changbin accompanied you to the store.

"and what exactly am i going to do there? rate the stupid clothes you try on?" he scoffed, checking his cellphone without even looking at you.

"do whatever you want" you told him, closing the door with a loud noise and bending over the opened window of the car "but i don't think arthur would be happy about your hostility towards me"

a smile appeared on your face as you walked away, hearing another loud noise indicating that one of the car doors just closed again. good.

*

"are you done?" changbin asked irritated as he walked besides you on your tour of the mall.

"yeah i just" your attention was caught by a black short dress that was on display at the front of a store that looked -expensive-. you had some of your own money from the previous night because, thanks to ryujin's master plan, you didn't actually had to spend any... but it was probably not going to be enough.

and just when you were about to tell changbin that you were ready to go, you remembered it: hyejin lended you one of her credit cards yesterday to buy yourself a "top-of-the-class present" because she was quite unsure of your likes and dislikes.

"i'll just go to that store and i'm done"

changbin rolled his eyes and followed you through the crowd of people that were in the mall at the moment. the store was crowded with people too, mostly women and their husbands or boyfriends who were waiting for them at the couches provided.

as you entered, you were quick to approach the pile of black dresses that caught your attention in order to try one on. the price, as expected, was elevated for you but it was probably nothing for hyejin. i'll buy this, i'm sorry sis.

it was a simple, skinny black dress with the whole back exposed. you figured out that it would be nice to wear it on a bar night or something and, since you didn't have that many clothes for those kind of situations, it would be good to get yourself some.

showtime!

"so" you said, walking out of the dressing room and immediatly catching the attention of changbin who was right outside of it, sitting while talking on the phone with someone.

"i'll call you back" he mumbles, turning his cellphone off.

"how do you like it?"

"does it matter?"

"it's too expensive and i won't buy it if i don't look good in it" you laughed ironically.

"i don't think arthur would be happy with you walking around seoul wearing just that" he scoffed, implying that the dress was too sluty.

"i wasn't asking for arthur's opinion" you spitted "i was asking for yours"

he shrugged his shoulders without even giving a proper answer, returning to the only activity he had been doing since the two of you arrived to the mall: using his cellphone.

"i actually need your help to get this off" you mentioned

he swallowed nervously without even looking at you, licking his lips "ask for help to the ladies that work here"

"they are busy"

you had no idea what they were doing but you needed to get changbin into the dressing room with you. he already feels guilty and i don't have anything to lose, it's not going to harm us if we add more stuff to the the record.

"just help me so we can get this over with and leave" you snarled, waiting for him to get up of the couch and walk with you to the dressing room.

the store was full of people minding their own business and, contrary to popular belief, they sold clothes both for women and men. the dressing rooms were pretty much mixed so it was not going to look weird if they saw changbin entering to one of them. besides, they had long curtains that fell right into the floor, it was impossible to look who was inside of them.

without saying a word, changbin was ready to untie the straps of the dress while looking directly at you through the mirror.

"now this brings back some memories" you said, chuckling.

changbin strucked you down with his gaze and approached the curtains with a swift movement, trying to get out of the small space the dressing room was without even helping you to get out of the dress first.

"look at me and tell me you don't find me attractive" you commanded, looking at his reflection in the mirror before he could even get himself out of there. changbin looked at you, letting out a sigh as he bit his lower lip in frustration.

"i'm sorry for what i said yesterday" he whispered angry, almost in resignation. "if that's what you want to hear so you can drop this fucking bratty attitude then i'm fucking sorry"

to be fair, that was actually what you wanted to hear since you encountered him that morning. but now that you had him there, the urge of wanting to make him feel even more guilty and ashamed just took complete power over you.

you couldn't really explained why you wanted to do all kinds of things to make him feel bad. it was probably your hatred for men, the fraternal relationship he had with your father or the fact that you found him extremely attractive, but you wanted to make him feel miserable.

"so, do you?" you inquired, stepping closer and pushing him away from the curtains.

"stop playing" he insisted, his gaze changing drastically from one moment to another. what looked like anger three seconds ago was now transformed into desire.

"it's okay" you cooed, resting your hands on both sides of his face, tilting yours to the side as your eyes fixed on his lips. "no one will find out about this, if that's what you are worried about"

he parted his lips as his tongue danced inside his mouth, grimacing in frustration "you mean about what happened" changbin dictated.

"about what happened?" you muttered, letting out a small whimper as his bulge grew against your thighs. "or about what will continue on happening?"

one of his hands approached the back of your head, gripping your hair harshly while lifting your face. "you know your father would fucking kill me if he finds out"

a victorious smile appeared on your lips. he just gave in.

"isn't that more fun?"

before you could finish the sentence, changbin's lips attacked yours. the kiss was sloppy and needy, as if he had been wanting to do this exact thing all the evening. his hands traveled to your lower back as he pressed you against him even harder.

his sweet taste and the friction between his bulge and your thigh almost made you give in as well, but you couldn't.

you had to prove yourself that you were still in control of the situation.

just a bit more.

his lips left your mouth to pepper kisses all over your jawline and neck. the way his breathing sounded was heavenly, making you start to feel the heat forming at your core. he looked at your face every now and then, as if he enjoyed the gestures you made by trying to hold back your moans.

okay, that's enough.

"a public restroom and now a dressing room" you shighed, as your hands pushed him away of you "i knew you were desperate but i didn't know how much"

his face contorted in anger, clenching his jaw as he saw you picking up your clothes from the floor.

"don't think too highly of yourself, changbin" you mumbled, looking at him before opening the curtain "you are a man, and men are just so easy"

you walked through the whole store with the dress on and your regular clothes under your arm.

"my boyfriend is paying for this, he is right behind me." and with that being said, you left the store.

*

as you were hiding yourself in the public bathrooms of the mall, you called ryujin.

"i'm at the coex" you said "can you please pick me up, i kind of need to talk with you"

"you want to grab some a snack?" she asked, and you could almost listen how she immediatly got up from her bed to get dressed.

"yeah, but not here" you replied. before hangin up, ryujin gave you a "gotcha" and you continued on changing you back to your previous clothes. you had no bag to carry the dress, so you exited the mall grabbing it like you just stole it.

you patiently waited for ryujin to pick you up, and it was actually earlier than you anticipated.

"there's a lovely coffee shop a few blocks from here"

*

"and that's pretty much what happened" you concluded, just as you finished telling ryujin the whole bar incident and the dressing-room idea you had that evening. she looked at you surprised, as if she just had witnessed a crime.

"so you had your first orgasm ever with a stranger on a public restroom?" she asked, almost on the brink of laughing hysterically.

"i just told you that i engaged in sexual activities with the most despicable men on earth who happens to be my father's right hand and that's everything you could pick up?" you replied, sipping from your iced coffee.

"pretty much, yeah" she joked "i don't remember him"

"yeah, why would you?" you teased her "you were pratically flirting with every man on the table and almost eating the soul out of one of them"

"chan" ryujin said softly.

"oh, so you got his name?"

"not only his name but his number" she mumbled as she held her cellphone almost in a victorious manner.

"so you have been talking to him?"

"kind of" the blonde-haired replied "apparently they are going to have a gathering at his house and he invited me" she then made a long pause "wait, you should come!"

changbin was definitely going to be there. another interaction you could decline but still chose not to.

"yeah i should come"

*

as soon as you got home, you fell completely asleep. it was only 6:00 p.m., but last night you barely had a good night of sleep because ryujin kept moving around and the thought of what happened in the bar wouldn't leave you alone.

as you woke up from your nap, your phone had a couple of unread messages from both hyejin and arthur.

[6:13 p.m., hyejin]

i'm going to grab something to eat with hyuna. arthur said he was probably going to go out to eat with ara and her family so if you want to have dinner just order something with my credit card.

[7:21 p.m., arthur]

i'm going to have dinner at ara's tonight.

with her family.

changbin said he had a great time with you today and since you were going to be at home, he insisted to make you company at dinner time.

i'm glad you two are getting alone

either he was completely stupid or he definetly trusted changbin with his life because no man would ever let her daughter spend time alone with a man.

but that was not even the worse part: you knew where this whole thing was going to.

a great time? you made him pay 620,000 korean wons and humiliated him on a public dressing room. i mean, you did have a great time but you weren't quite sure he did.

before you could start overthinking the whole situation, you heard how the doorbell went off. fuck, well, if i don't open the door he won't be able to come in.

the doorbell went off again, and you just chose to ignore it.

[9:33 p.m. unknown number]

i know you are there

your father told me you were going to be at home

[9:35 p.m. unknown number]

you do know that i have the keys of the house since i spend a lot of time here working with your father here, right?

now you were starting to feel nervous. not only because you were, obviously, going to have to pay for the dress you practically stole, but because you were quite unsure if you could still have the self-control you had earlier today in case he approached you in that way.

but he probably hated you now just as much as you did.

maybe he just wants his money back.

while you were threading your thoughts, you heard how the front door of the house opened. quickly you got out of bed and ran downstairs with hyejin's card on your hand to encounter him before he could even get further into the house.

"just take the 600,000 wons" you said, extending your arm to lend him the credit card number and code.

he scoffed at you, ignoring it.

"i don't give a fuck about the money" he mumbled, approaching you as your back slammed against a cold wall.

oh, just casual rich behavior.

"now i'm the one who wants an apology for the show you did at coex" now this was what you were fearing. his lips dangerously close to you, his scent mixed with mint and cigarettes flooding all your senses.

changbin was fine. his body, even though you hadn't seen it in all his glory, was extremely well built and he knew it; the clothes he wore only accentuating more his manly figure... and here comes the part of the self-control.

"you said my father was going to kill you" you stuttered, trying to look away from his face that was merely centimeters away from yours.

"and isn't that more fun, princess?" princess, that fucking petname again. changbin was using the exact same words that left your mouth hours ago to tease you. "if you don't want this, then tell me. but do it now, because if we move forward i don't think i'll be able to stop"

you swallowed thickly. you knew exactly what he was talking about and the proposal he was making, but wasn't that a bit too rushed? besides, the hatred you felt towards him grew bigger by the minute. wasn't that a bad idea?

but then again, wasn't it a very good idea? you could prove changbin that you didn't thought too highly of yourself for nothing and you would be able to mess with your father's pride... it was just a very good offer you couldn't decline.

"i don't have all night, y/n" he grunted, still looking at you with starving eyes.

"it's you who has to think this through" you whispered, trying to keep the eye-contact with him. "i don't have anything to lose, but you on the other hand..."

"if this is done right, no one will lose anything" changbin replied, brushing his lips softly against your chin "and in exchange, i'll have you begging for me the rest of the days you spend here in korea"

that single statement made you blush, but you wouldn't let changbin acknowledge the power he held over you.

"i don't beg"

changbin gripped your hair and pushed your body down, making you fall into your knees.

"use your words, princess" he said while maintaining eye contact with you "for the last time, tell me that you truly want this and then we can move on to something more interesting"

you were unable to hold your tongue from licking your lips at the sight of his bulge. "i do" you said softly, almost inaudible, but it was good enough for changbin to take you.

his grip on your hair stopped and you were able to stand up, following him into the living room of arthur's house as he rested his whole weight in one of the couches. "come here" he ordered.

he sat down while spreading his legs and it was only then that you noticed how cozy his lap looked. unsure of what to do next, you climbed on top of him, your barely-clothed core making contact with his cock under his pants; just that fraction of contact was all it took to get a whiny moan out of you.

"what exactly where you trying to achieve at the dressing room anyways?" he inquired with a mocking tone.

"i just wanted to get back at you" you admitted, trying so hard to ignore the pressure between your thighs.

"and did you enjoyed it?"

"i did"

changbin licked his lips as he let out a soft laugh, trying to find a decent reasoning behind your behavior.

"well i'm glad you enjoyed it because it didn't work at all" he stated. "no matter how hard you tried to control yourself earlier today, you still ended up craving my touch"

his hands toured your naked thighs and stopped at the elastic of your pijama shorts.

"it doesn't matter" you hissed with strangled breath as his fingers dance around your shorts and skin "i still got what i wanted"

"and what was that?" his hands were now at your hips, holding you so thightly that could anticipate a few bruises there.

"to see you drowning in embarrassement" you admit, looking directly into him. "it was a pretty fun sight"

"i bet" he grunted, lifting ever so slightly his hips and making the pressure between your thighs increase immediatly.

a sudden moan escaped your lips, provoking changbin to smile. "do you want to count again?" he teased, talking about the bar incident.

your hands grabbed his shoulders for support as his hands started guiding your hips over his lap.

unlike you, changbin was all dressed up in his black pants and white shirt he had on earlier today. as soon as you arrived home you changed into more comfortable clothes, your pink pijamas whose fabric was extremely thin, and just now you started to regret your decision of not putting more clothes on before having this encounter with him.

"i need you to touch me" you admit after a few painfully seconds grinding against his bulge. it felt good, but you knew that it would feel even better if he decided to actually participate in your orgasm. besides, the scene of you pathetically grind against him in an attempt to chase your high was degrading.

he was right, both outcomes were pathetic. as you pondered, your head fell upwards and your core started to painfully clenched around thin air.

"then beg" he smiles, his hands still resting on the sides of your body. this bitch. "you don't want to because you are too proud, but how exactly are you going to feel after coming undone only by grinding on my lap without my help?"

"if that's what you want" he grunted at the absence of pleads, lifting his hips again "this is the only way you get to cum tonight"

your hips rushed the movements as you felt your pussy getting hotter, your juices making a mess on changbin's pants.

"who finds who attractive, hm?" he asked as the sight of your dripping core. "it's taking all of my self-control to not fuck you right here, right now"

"why don't you do it?" you ask in between broken moans, your hips moving at a steady pace.

"because you don't deserve it"

changbin was fucking you up and he was doing it just right. every word that came out of his mouth only made you angrier and wetter, drilling a hole on your mind by even considering beg for his touch.

"you don't deserve to fuck me either" you sighed, trying to hold back all the loud moans that wanted to escape your mouth as your clit repeatedly stroke against him.

"i don't?" he asked, mocking pain "are you sure, princess?"

the frustration of not being able to reach your high was starting to make you feel pathetic because all you wanted was to experience the exact same feeling you got at the bar.

"changbin" you whined, grabbing yourself onto his white shirt. "if you aren't going to touch me then please just do something else"

his hands moved all the way to the straps of your pijamas and he gently pushed your top down, exposing your bare breasts.

"do you never wear underwear, princess?" he growled, attaching his lips at the skin that was faintly bruised because of last night.

"fuck, changbin" you moaned, the friction between your bodies increasing as he was closer to you.

"i know you can do it without my help princess" he said, grabbing one of your hardened buds in between his lips.

the knot was starting to form on your lower abdomen at a much slower pace than before, making you let out desperate whines. "look at how messy you are being"

his mouth licked one of your nipples as his fingers played with the other, wanting to edge you until you had no choice but to beg for his touch. "fuck, changbin. i'm close"

as soon as you told him this, you felt how his body reincorporated into his seat, making the contact between your core and his lap almost inexistent. "i changed my mind, i don't want you to cum like this"

with teary eyes you looked at him. was he really going to edge you this bad? was it because you didn't beg? fuck, all you wanted was to cum and he wouldn't even let you do that peacefully.

"don't you think it's my turn?" he smirked while unbottoning his pants. oh, right, his turn.

you clearly had not much experience in that department but you wouldn't let him find that out. back in japan you were not really an enthusiast of oral sex, but you would often hear stories from your classmates talking about experiences and tips.

before you could keep recalling all the stories you heard, changbin's hands stroke your hair making you look directly at him.

he was... making you quite confused about whether if you were going to be able to take it or not. "come on princess" he encouraged as the tip of his cocked brushed your lips slightly.

getting rid of any hesitation you were quick to drag your tongue all over his lenght, earning a sigh out of him. you would be lying if you said that it didn't turned you on, because it did (more than you ever wanted to admit). slowly, he pushed his cock into your mouth making you gag over it. "good fucking girl" he whispered as he starred into your teary eyes.

changbin had one arm over his head while the other guided you to take his cock. his eyes never left yours, only ocasionally as his head fell upwards when the pleasure was too overwhelming for him. his chest was moving everytime at a faster pace, and the sounds that left his mouth were getting more frecuent. "fuck, y/n"

you were learning how to take him inside your mouth to the point that it felt too good having him there. "y/n"

"mhm?" you mumbled around his cock, making waves of pleasure travel all over changbin's body.

"touch yourself for me as you take my cock" he ordered.

you had tried several times to reach your orgasm just by masturbating and it did felt good, but for the longest time you thought that if that was what an orgasm was supposed to feel like, it wasn't so much of a big deal. that was until yesterday, when you truly felt a real one. but you assumed that by the previous stimulation, it was going to be way easier to come undone this time, even if it wasn't as powerful as the one changbin made you feel.

you started to rub your clit in circles as changbin fucked your mouth slowly without parting your gaze from his eyes. his eyes that intimidated the shit out of you and that were the main reason of why you wanted to submit immediatly for him.

"that's my good girl" changbin's grip on your hair was getting tighter and his breathing was getting heavier than before. "does it feel good baby?" he asked, watching how your eyes slightly rolled to the back of your head by the pleasure provided by your own touch and his cock inside your mouth.

"fuck" he cursed under his breath "i'm close"

with eager eyes you started to take him in even more, determined to making him finish just as you chased your own high. your fingers moved around your clit at a soft but hard pace, making that now familiar knot appear at your abdomen. "y/n"

you knew you were a couple of seconds away from your own high as changbin's hands pushed your head all the way over his cock, releasing himself into your mouth. "good fucking girl" he praised with raspy voice and quick breath.

and with the feeling of his hot cum down your throat and your drool all over him, your juices dripped onto your fingers. moaning against his cock, changbin's body trembled at the overstimulation and he quickly pulled himself out of you.

"open your mouth" he ordered while you were still coming down from your high. you did as he commanded, with the remains of his release still in your tongue. "swallow"

and so you did, tasting him.

"my pretty doll" he grunted "did you make yourself cum while your mouth was taking my cock?"

you nodded with tears streaming down your cheeks, messy hair , drool dripping onto your bare chest and your pijama shorts soaked in your own juices. that sight alone was everything for him, increasing his desires of completely ruin you in his bed... or yours... or any place.

a smirk appeared on his face as he pulled you in for a kiss, tasting himself on you.

"i fucking hate you" you whined against him, feeling how your nipples grazed with his chest. "god i fucking hate you"

and even though you did, you knew that this was only getting started both of you.

[h0tch-r0cket]

Infatuation (18+) {a.h.} : chapter 5

summary: you needed a job. aaron hotchner needed a babysitter. the rest was inevitable.

word count: 5.5K

warnings: explicit language, drinking alcohol, smoking, building tension : )

table of contents

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

"Y/N?" Jack called out from the kitchen of the Hotchner home. You had picked him up from school, like always, and he was working on his homework as soon as possible.

"What's going on, Jack?" you asked as you placed your finger in between the pages of your copy of The Centaur which you brought with you to keep you occupied.

"I need help with my math," he said softly.

You put your bookmark in the novel and headed into where the little Hotchner was awaiting your help. You sat down across from him and glanced down at the papers that were sprawled out in front of him. "What do you need help with?"

"Well, Ms. Kingston showed us today how to add and subtract with three digit numbers like 100 and all that stuff. I get confused when you have to borrow from one of the other numbers when you subtract," he said as he tapped the pencil on the table, a habit you noticed Aaron did as well when he was working on his own work.

"Alright, let me take a look here," you said as you grabbed the paper from him.

After a few minutes of explaining the way you go about subtracting the numbers to Jack, he got it pretty quickly. "Thanks, Y/N!"

You ruffled his hair as you stood up from the table. "You got it. If you need me, I'm just going to be in the living room, okay?"

"Okay," he said as he moved on to the next parts of his worksheet.

You settled back onto the couch, bringing your knees up to your chest as you read the novel. You were just reaching one of your favorite parts, your attention glued to the pages in front of you. It was the part where George, the father of the story, had spent his very last dollar to bring home a sandwich for his wife even though he and his son were stranded for the night because their car broke down. There was something about the sentiment, the idea that he would give up his very last dollar, that always warmed your heart.

Just as you finished up the chapter you were on, the small pitter patter of feet coming into the living room interrupted you continuing on with your reading. You looked up from the book to see Jack coming towards you, taking hard steps as he walked.

He plopped down on the couch next to you and let out a low sigh. "What's the matter, kiddo?" you asked as you placed the book neatly on your lap.

"I want dad to come home already," he said quietly as he swung his legs against the side of the couch.

"I know you do, Jack. But hey, he should be here soon. Want to watch a movie in the meantime?" You weren't sure what else to do for him. It was the first time that Jack had ever expressed that sentiment to you.

He nodded his head lightly, not saying anything to actually answer your question verbally. "Alright. As long as you finished your homework," you told him. He simply nodded yet again, his face more somber than normal.

You tried to figure out why he had the sudden mood change from when you picked him up from the bus. You thought maybe he was just tired or perhaps he wasn't feeling good. You knew that most kids always wanted their parents around when they were sick.

As the different possibilities ran through your head as you looked for a movie that the two of you had yet to watch, Jack's small voice piped up from next to you. "Y/N?"

You turned your head to look at him to already be met with his gaze. "Yeah Jack?"

"Can I sit with you?" he asked softly.

You nodded your head and straightened yourself up more on the couch so he could sit on your lap. As he quickly scooted into your lap, your copy of The Centaur fell underneath the couch.

"Sorry Y/N. I'll pick it up," Jack said as he went to reach down and grab it. You pulled him back up towards you and let his back rest against your frontside.

"It's alright. I'll get it later. Pick out a movie to watch," you told him. You passed him the TV remote and let him scroll through the different family movies, hoping that he would find something to occupy his thoughts until Aaron got home from his lectures.

------

As much as he tried, Aaron Hotchner could not focus on the lecture that he was giving in his class. As he sat at his office desk at the university, he flipped through his notes which to anyone else other than him would not have made any sense at all with the way that the thoughts were not cohesive and the exhaustive amounts of abbreviations that littered the pages.

He planned the day's lecture to be about Orpheus and Eurydice, lovers tragically torn apart, but he couldn't gather his thoughts cohesively to provide his students with what he deemed to be the proper lesson.

His thoughts were foggy. Jarbled. He thought he would have shaken the thought of the way your hands touched the day prior. But it was all he found himself thinking about. He wasn't quite sure why. It was a simple accident.

A simple accident that made him want to rethink the way he had been so closed off with you. The way he was always curt. He craved more, despite the fact that he knew he shouldn't pursue anything with you.

He rubbed his temples, sighing in defeat. At that point, the lecture was going to be what it was going to be.

Aaron gathered all of his things in his satchel and headed down to the auditorium before his students filed in. He shed himself of his suit jacket, leaving him in a baby blue dress shirt and tan slacks. He organized his notes yet again and placed them in order on the podium that was in the center of the room.

His students filed in soon after, a chorus of Good afternoon, Professor Hotchner, How are you Professor Hotchner? coming from them.

Aaron gave everyone a few minutes to settle in before glancing at his watch for the time. He clapped his hands together once loudly to get the attention of the class. The side conversations slowly died down, only a few soft murmurs being heard through the crowd.

"Alright folks. Let's settle in. I know today is Friday and you all are eager to get out of here so I'll try to make this as quick and easy as possible," he said, projecting his voice so that everyone could hear him. "I'll run through attendance quickly and then we'll get started."

After taking attendance and marking the absentee students, Aaron grabbed the textbook for the class from out of his satchel. "If you all could open to page 265 that would be absolutely fantastic." Synchronous opening of textbooks and flipping of pages filled the auditorium as the students quickly followed Aaron's instructions.

He began to walk in front of the room, arms crossed over his chest as he glanced out into the sea of students. "Now, does anyone have any ideas as to what the story of Orpheus and Eurydice is about?" He looked into the crowd, being met with blank stares, eyes glazing over, and even a few students nodding their heads back as they fought the calling of sleep during class.

Not one student raised their hand. He caught the students glancing at one another, hoping that someone, anyone, would have the answer. But there was no such luck.

Part of him wondered if you knew the story. You probably would know the tale like the back of your hand, being that you seemed to be meticulous with whatever it was that you set your mind to. He was curious to see just how much you knew about mythology.

He decided that the next time he saw you, he would try to find out just that.

Focus, he thought to himself.

Clearing his head of you as much as possible, he rolled his sleeves up and walked to the whiteboard, uncapping the black Expo marker that laid next to it. "Orpheus," he said as the marker squeaked on the board as he wrote the name down, "is the son of Apollo and Calliope. Well, that is according to some accounts. Some people say that Orpheus had a different father," he clarified. Aaron turned his attention back to his students, pushing his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. "Can anyone at least remind me as to who those two figures are in mythology? Apollo and Calliope?"

A hand rose in the middle of the auditorium slowly. "Yes?" he said, letting the student know that they could answer the question.

"Well, Apollo is considered to be the god of poetry and music. Calliope on the other hand, was one of the nine muses. She was the muse of history," the girl answered.

Aaron shook his head, placing his hands on his hips and he continued to pace back and forth in the front of the room. "Close. Calliope is actually the muse of poetry. Clio was the muse of history," he explained. "But I'm sure you knew that, right Ms. Sinclair?" he said with a small smirk on his face.

The girl nodded and scribbled down some more notes in her notebook, frantic to capture each and every word that Aaron uttered throughout the rest of the lecture.

Aaron took a brief pause and scanned through the crowd yet again. When he noticed one of his students clearly scrolling on his phone rather than focusing on the lecture, he debated about whether or not he should say something. But when the student started to show his phone around to those near him, he knew he would have to address the obvious distraction from the lecture.

"Mr. McMillan, if your phone is more important than listening to the rest of this lecture, which does cover a large part of your final, please be my guest and take the rest of the day for yourself," Aaron said as he raised his hand towards the door, suggesting that the boy leave the auditorium. He watched as the boy's face turned a shade of pink as he slipped the phone into his pocket. Aaron mouthed a small thank you to the student and continued with the lecture.

"As I was saying, with the help of Ms. Sinclair, Orpheus is the son of Apollo and Calliope. Eurydice," he said as he wrote the next name down on the board and drew a line connecting the two names together, "on the other hand was a beautiful Spartan princess. She married Orpheus. He played her beautiful songs on his lyre, which is just a smaller version of a harp. Orpheus was an exceptional musician. But that makes sense considering who his parents were."

He leaned back against his desk, partially sitting on top of it. He crossed his feet and rested his hands on each side of him on the desk to hold himself up. "However, tragedy struck the young couple. Eurydice was bit by a snake and died. Orpheus was heartbroken. So much so that he only played the most somber and melancholy songs on his lyre. "

Aaron paused for a moment, letting his students jot down their notes onto their paper. "But that didn't discourage Orpheus from fighting for his true love."

Aaron pushed himself off the desk and started to pace again, rubbing his thumb against his pointer finger as he walked. "He was not willing to give up so easily. So, he came up with a plan."

He walked over to the whiteboard again and wrote the word Underworld on the board. "Now, what are some things you know about the Underworld?"

"It's Hades' domain," a student called out.

Aaron drew an arrow from the word and wrote Hades underneath it. "And Hades is?"

"Zeus' brother," the same student replied.

"Very good. What else do we know about this Underworld, the realm where the souls of the departed end up in Greek mythology?" Aaron probed.

"River Styx!" another student called out enthusiastically.

"Mhm." He added another line to the diagram and turned to face the student that answered. "What about the River Styx?"

"I don't know. I just know it's there," the student laughed.

"Fair enough," Aaron said with a small smile. "We'll be covering that within the next few lessons so I won't worry about drilling it into your heads for the time being. One thing that I do want to mention is Cerberus, the three headed dog that guards the entrance of the Underworld. That will be important for the rest of the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice."

Aaron paused yet again, settling back onto the top of the desk but this time he was fully seated on it, his legs dangling off the side. "Now, Orpheus, being heartbroken at the loss of his wife, came up with a plan. He decided to travel to the Underworld to try to regain his love."

"That's crazy. Who would want to go to that place? I mean, I get it he loved the girl but is that even possible?" a student asked.

"It was a wild plan, I will give you that. But Orpheus succeeded. He traveled to the Underworld and managed to strike a deal with Hades after playing his music for him. The ruler of the Underworld was so moved that he granted Orpheus his wish to bring Eurydice back to the land of the living. Hell, the stories even say that Cerberus, the ferocious guardian of the entrance of the Underworld, was howling in despair of the pain Orpheus' music suggested."

A hand rose amongst the crowd. Aaron took his glasses off, gently biting down on the end of the arm of them. He raised his eyebrows at the student, allowing them to speak.

"There's no way that he got her back that easily. Greek mythology seems to, for the most part, at least stem from some kind of tragedy," the student said, clearly not believing that the tale would end happily ever after.

Aaron took his glasses out of his mouth and shook them in the direction of the student. "Excellent observation, Mr. Roth. That brings us to the next part of our tale. Hades gave Orpheus a stipulation; his wife would be brought back to the land of the living as long as Orpheus did not look back at her while they were still in the Underworld."

He hopped off his desk and hooked his glasses onto the collar of his shirt as he continued with the lecture. "Orpheus made the journey back to the light, but he turned around too soon, full of excitement to be reunited with his wife. She vanished before his eyes and he was heartbroken yet again."

"So the moral of the story is to be patient and have trust in the situations that you find yourself in?" a voice called out.

"Precisely," Aaron said, his voice soft. He glanced down at his watch. "I think that's enough for today. For the next class, think of a time in your life where this story applies. A time where you were impatient and lost something that you worked so desperately hard to get. Class dismissed."

The students filed out of the room quickly, allowing Aaron to follow behind them with his satchel tucked under his arm, the same fervor coursing through his veins to get home. He wanted to see Jack.

He wanted to see you.

————

"Oh! You sank my battleship!" you hollered dramatically as Jack managed to get another one of your ships clear off the board.

"Yes!" he shouted, throwing his fist up in success.

You were happy to see him going back to his normal, happy self. Whatever was bothering him earlier had managed to subside by the time you were done watching The Lion King.

The familiar car alarm chirped in the driveway, causing loyal Buster to run to the door in anticipation to see his owner.

You felt almost the same degree of excitement flowing through your body. It was the first time you were seeing Aaron since his touch was embedded into your head. You were wondering if things would be different. If he would be different.

As the front door opened, Jack ran over to his father and wrapped his arms tightly around his waist. "Hey buddy," Aaron said with a small chuckle as he patted Jack's back.

"I missed you today," Jack said quietly as he looked up at his father.

"I miss you everyday," Aaron said with a smile. His gaze turned to you and he kept the smile plastered on his face. "How's it going, Y/N?"

"Pretty good. Jack just sunk my battleship...again," you joked, feigning annoyance.

Aaron's smile grew a bit wider, the dimples on his face making another appearance.

You couldn't help but smile at him. His smile was contagious and gorgeous. You felt like it was such a rare occasion that he smiled, even though he was smiling more often around you, that you always studied the way his face looked so you would never forget it.

Aaron headed into the kitchen with his things with Jack following close behind. You followed a few moments after, ready to gather your things and head home.

When you came into the kitchen, you saw Aaron place a hand on his hip as he looked down at Jack who held his hands together tightly in a pleading motion.

"Come on, Dad! It will be fun," Jack begged. He put on a big smile for his father, trying to convince him further to whatever idea he had planned.

"Alright, Jack. I wouldn't mind that. Ask her," Aaron said as he turned his attention towards you. You felt yourself get nervous, not sure as to what it was that Jack was about to ask you.

Jack took a step forward and planted himself in front of you as he looked up at you with big, puppy dog eyes. "Y/N, do you want to stay and have dinner with us?" Jack asked excitedly.

"Oh," you said with shock. Your stomach fluttered at the thought of actually staying and spending time with Aaron, even if Jack was still there. But the rational part of your head was yelling at you to leave. You already were thinking about Aaron too much and you were sure you would be even further doomed if you were subject to his charm and wit for the night. "Maybe another time, Jack. I think Esmé was planning on making a nice fancy dinner tonight."

"Please, Y/N," Jack pleaded. "Stay with us and eat." He held his hands firmly together again in a similar fashion to how he was begging his father to go along with the idea in the first place.

You clicked your tongue and scratched the back of your neck, unsure as to what other excuse you could come up with. "I don't want to intrude on the time you and your dad have together, buddy."

Aaron crossed his arms across his chest and you saw him raise his eyebrows for a quick second behind his glasses. "Stay, Y/N. I'm a pretty good cook," Aaron said with a smirk growing on his face.

You felt your stomach twist further into knots at the thought that one, Aaron wanted you to stay and two, that he was going to be cooking some sort of meal for you.

Aaron, on the other hand, felt desperate. He wanted—no, he needed you to stay. He wanted to learn everything there was about you. He wanted to know your passions, your fears. As his eyes searched yours, he saw the battle that was going on in your head as to whether or not you should stay or go.

He was hoping you couldn't see the way he crossed his fingers together subtly, a silent prayer that you would stay.

He didn't know what was coming over him. All he knew was that at that moment, he didn't want you to leave the house. He had tried to push you out of his head all day, but seeing you here at his house and your gorgeous smile, it was taking everything in his power to keep his composure as he felt himself succumbing to his desire to want to be close to you.

You weren't sure what it was but the way Aaron was staring at you, his eyes soft, it was as if he was subtly begging you to stay.

You knew you shouldn't. You already were feeling things that you never thought you would for the man. But a part of you was curious to try to figure out if he was feeling something similar.

"Alright, fine," you said defeated, throwing your hands up in the air. "I'll stay." Jack let out an excited yell before running back into the living room.

You could have sworn you saw Aaron exhale deeply once you came to your decision, as if he was relieved that you were actually staying. "But I'm telling you now Hotchner, if you're not as good a cook as you say you are, there will be hell to pay," you teased as you pointed your finger in his direction.

And to your surprise, Aaron laughed. He genuinely laughed. It was a sound that was pure music to your ears, something that you wished you could have turned back time to get it on a recording.

"I promise. I am a good cook," he said as he turned around and began to take out some different pots and pans.

You walked next to him and leaned up against the counter. "What exactly are you planning on making?"

He turned his gaze to you, a smug look growing on his face. "Well where's the fun in that? It's a surprise," he said quietly, leaning closer in your direction.

You caught a quick whiff of his cologne, the smell of cedar quickly filling your airspace. You bit down on your bottom lip, the closeness to him becoming almost too much to handle.

His warm honey eyes darted down to your lips and back up to your own eyes. He cleared his throat and stood back up straight, starting to pull some random ingredients out of the cabinet in front of him.

You shut your eyes for a second, disappointed by how quickly he stood away from you. "I'll be in the living room with Jack," you said. He nodded silently, making his rounds in the kitchen to cook.

As you made your way into the living room, you couldn't help but think about how close he was. You could have reached your hand out and stroked his cheek. You could have been putty melting in his hands.

Aaron watched you walk out of the kitchen, knowing that you wouldn't see his eyes raking across your body. Your perfume lingered in the space where you were in the kitchen, reminding Aaron just how close his face was to yours, how he could have pulled you by your cheeks to brush his lips against yours.

He wanted you. And he wasn't sure how much longer he could hold back.

———-

"Oh my god," you sighed in content as you took a bite of the food Aaron prepared. He made fettuccine alfredo with chicken. All from scratch.

His eyes shot towards you as he heard the sound of satisfaction fall on your lips. He raised an eyebrow at you, taking a bite of the chicken that rested on his plate. "So, did I live up to your expectations?"

"Mhm," was all you could muster as you took another bite of the pasta.

You watched as Jack twirled the pasta around his fork. He popped it into his mouth and gave his dad a thumbs up. "It tastes good, Dad. I could eat the whole pot!"

"That's an awful lot of pasta," you joked as you took a small sip of the chardonnay that Aaron had poured for the two of you. He insisted it made the meal but you were wondering if it had different indications than what he led on.

"Yeah it is but I could eat it," Jack said. Aaron rolled his eyes jokingly at his son's active imagination.

A few minutes passed and you all were eating in content. This time, there was a much more comfortable silence that fell between you all, something that you could easily get used to.

"So, Y/N, what made you pick up an interest in Greek mythology?" Aaron asked, clearly ripping off the bandaid he had been gripping to all day. He had to know. He wanted to know more about you.

"I took a class in high school, actually. And from there, I've done most of my learning on my own. I don't know," you laughed softly.

God your laugh. Aaron would never get over hearing it. He took a sip of his wine and glanced at you over the rim of the glass, watching you absentmindedly twirl your fork around in the pasta.

"I just find it interesting that there's so many stories that they came up with and they all have some sort of deeper meaning to them."

Aaron nodded in agreement, finding himself entranced with your words. You were right of course. There were so many things those stories explained, like the natural world or even as something simple to not be selfish.

"That's why I like them so much. The interpretation of them all varies and you can learn so much," he added.

"I like the ones with Jason and the Astronauts," Jack interrupted. Small laughs from you and Aaron filled the space between you at Jack's mispronunciation.

"Argonauts," you and Aaron said at the same time, correcting the young Hotchner.

Jack scrunched his eyebrows in confusion. "What's the word?" he asked.

"Argonauts," Aaron repeated.

"Astronauts is cooler," Jack concluded as he took another bite of his chicken. "Can I be excused?"

Aaron glanced at his plate and pointed his fork in the direction of his son's food. "Eat another bite of chicken and you can be."

Jack scarfed down the chicken quickly and left the table.

Realization hit you rather quickly.

It was just you and Aaron. A tinge of pink fell across your face at the fact that you were alone with Aaron.

You cleared your throat and shifted in your seat, sitting up straighter. "So, how did your lecture go today?" you asked.

Aaron shrugged his shoulders and kept his gaze on his plate. "Could have gone better, I suppose."

"What did you talk about?" You took another drink of your wine and this time, it was you glancing at him over the rim of the glass.

"Orpheus and Eurydice."

"That's a good one. Heartbreaking in the end but I like the story of it all," you admitted.

Of course you knew it. Aaron figured you would. He wished you could have been in his class. You clearly knew so much about the subject matter and he was becoming impressed the more you spoke.

"It's definitely one of the sadder ones," he agreed.

You placed your fork down on your napkin, full from the delicious dinner you just ate. "I think it's one of the best representations of agape in Greek mythology that there is," you added, running your finger along the rim of your wine glass.

Aaron felt his nerves go wild.

Agape?

How the hell did you know about that?

You certainly kept him on his toes.

"And you know about agape, the Greek word for the concept of self-sacrificing love. I have to say, Y/N, I really wasn't expecting you to be so well versed in the subject," he admitted. "But figures, a smart girl like you would go above and beyond to learn about whatever you set your mind to." He took another sip of his wine and his eyes were looking at you more intently.

You definitely felt your face blush at his words. You tried to keep your composure as best as possible, but how could you when he was being so fucking charming and looking at you the way he was?

"I am just full of surprises," you teased, making your voice almost a whisper.

You watched as Aaron licked his lips and raised his eyebrows. "You most certainly are," he agreed, his words coming out with an exhale. "Question for you though."

"Hm?"

"What makes you think that the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice is full of agape?" he challenged.

You took a moment to try to cohesively get your thoughts together. Well, as best you could with the way Aaron was looking at you.

"Well for starters, the man literally went to the Underworld to try to get his wife back. It was an unheard of feat. And the fact that Orpheus was willing to do whatever it took to get her back just shows how much he couldn't live without her. How much he loved her."

Aaron nodded slowly, finishing the rest of his wine. "You make a good point there," he said after he swallowed the chardonnay.

You nodded in agreement. You couldn't believe that you were engaging in such a deep conversation with Aaron. But it felt so natural. So right.

You glanced at the clock, seeing that it was almost 9pm. "I think I better get going," you said quietly. You pushed yourself away from the table and placed your dishes in the sink.

When you turned around to go grab your things, you bumped into a solid mass.

Aaron.

He grunted lightly at the contact, a flicker of his smile dancing across his lips.

"Sorry," you said quickly as he looked down at you. You stared at him for a second, as he did to you, before pulling yourself out of your trance and stepping around him to grab your belongings.

"Not a problem," he said as he placed his and Jack's dishes in the sink. "Let me walk you out." You nodded silently and watched as he grabbed the pack of cigarettes off the counter.

He patted the bottom of the carton against his palm before taking one of the cigarettes out, resting it between his lips as he walked with you towards the door.

He opened the door for you and you turned to say your goodbyes.

As much as you truly didn't want to.

"Thank you for dinner," you said with a smile.

"Don't worry about it," he assured as he leaned against the doorframe, the cigarette bouncing between his lips with each word.

"Enjoy the rest of your weekend, Aaron."

"You too, Y/N."

You headed to your car, settling into the driver's seat quickly, your brain still reeling from the events of the night.

You glanced back towards the Hotchner home and saw Aaron still leaning against the door frame, the faint orange glow of the lit cigarette piercing through the darkness of the sky.

You pulled away from the house and headed back home, watching as the Hotchner home disappeared from your rear view mirror.

Once you got home, you opened the door and pressed your back against it, still shocked with the overwhelming feelings that were still in your stomach, your head. Everywhere.

Esmé turned her head around towards you from the couch. When she saw your shocked and speechless expression, a shit-eating grin grew rapidly on her face. "Spill...the...details...now," she demanded as you sat down next to her on the couch.

As you were retelling the way you and Aaron had a few more moments that night, your phone dinged.

"Don't be a fool! Answer it!" Esmé hollered, smacking her hand gently on your leg.

Your heart fluttered when you saw the name of the person texting you.

                                                   Aaron Hotchner

-You left your book here. I found it under the couch when I was straightening up.

                                -Oh, I totally forgot about it! Sorry! I'll grab it on Monday.

-The Centaur, huh? You really are a bit of a nerd when it comes to mythology aren't you?

                                            -Maybe. But it's also just a good book in general.

-I'll have to give it a read then.

                    -I'm going to test you on it if you do read it, just so you're aware.

-I'll be counting on it.

-Goodnight, Y/N.

                                                                                            -Goodnight, Aaron.

You sighed loudly, trying to ignore Esmé who was staring at you with wide eyes. You clutched your phone tighter in your hand and turned to look at her.

"I'm in such deep shit," you admitted as you leaned back on the couch, resting your head on the headrest.

——

authors note:

i hope you all enjoyed this chapter! i also hope the lecture part wasn't too boring. i figured it was a good change of pace.

thanks for reading! i appreciate the support <3

see you next chapter!

-jordyn

[sweater-daddiesdumbdork]

Welcome To The Pack: To Wakanda

Summary- 7k. Steve Rogers x You. You have been injected with an unknown substance, going into a coma like state and your wolf is unable to be found by the Alpha. Bruce is also at a loss, but there may be someone who can help. Warnings- Smut, use of needles, implied bad stuff from Brock, etc etc. 

A/N- Thank you so much for the love given from everyone for this series. And also being patient with me while my internet is currently being a pain in the ass. Hope you all enjoy this chapter. Much Love always. 

A/N 2- feedback is welcome, I really do love hearing what you all think, and ways to improve. 

 Chapter 6 / Pack Masterlist

Tony had a migraine from hell, he was sitting at his desk, his head pounding for some unknown reason. 

<You do know though.> The Wolf sauntered to him, licking his jaws and arching his neck in a stretch. <Ross is breathing down your neck, Clint took off with a jet for an unknown reason, and you haven’t run with your mate in over a week. You should go to Pepper, and retire to Central Park for the day. Or leave the city. That would be even better.>

Tony sighed as he leaned back forward, rubbing at his temple as he opened the drawer and pulled out some painkillers for there kind. A headache required more than the human use of pain relievers. Shaking out a couple of tablets, he popped them, and his Wolf sighed as it pushed to a stand, shaking out his sleek fur and retreated further into Tony’s mind. 

I know your right… I miss Pepper. 

<Well she’s just a few floors down.> The Wolf snarked over his shoulder before leaping further from Tony’s current conscious. Tony pissed him off, he knew that. About to push from his desk to go see his mate, the beast wasn’t wrong in that. Or any of it. It had been too long, just before the went to Steve’s pack, since they redid their bonds, reaffirmed the strength of there mating and the bites, his body ached for hers. Immensely. The migraine resounded in his temples as a reminder.  

It was then Friday buzzed online, making an announcement. ‘Boss, A unauthorized jet approaches.’ And Tony growled even louder this time. “Is it Barton with my jet? It better be.” 

‘Yes, Sir. I’m patching him through right now.’ There was a moment of silence, then a whoosh sound. “Barton? Why the fuck you take my jet? It better be in one piece.” Tony said loud enough for it to go through, and he could hear Barton chuckle on the other end. 

“Nat called me that there was some trouble going down Stark. You out of anyone know that I’m going to go if my Alpha needs me.” Tony snorted, although he knew it was true. Rogers probably didn’t know just how deep his packs loyalties lay for him. Barton’s voice broke through again, following Tony as he left the office and headed up to the top of the tower. “Steve’s with me, as well as Bucky, Natasha, and Y/N. Y/N is in bad shape, Tony. Steve needs your help.” 

Tony stalled his strides, just before he approached the elevators, frowning. The Alpha of the Mountain Pack needed help? That had never happened. “Care to repeat that Barton?” 

“Tony? It’s Steve.” The Alphas voice came over, and Tony couldn’t lie, it sounded strained. “Y/N was shot with a dart, she was in immense pain, claimed she couldn’t feel her wolf, and now she won’t wake up.” Even Tony’s Wolf came striding back to the more conscious part of his mind, the Alpha pinning his ears back in distress at the other Mans admission. “I don’t know anywhere else that might have the capability to help her.” 

Tony punched the button to the elevator, and instead of going up to meet them, he was going to the next level. “Bring her to Bruce’s Lab, Barton and Nat know where it is. I will meet you down there.” Once the doors opened, he stepped on, and the door swiftly shut behind him, descending. 

Barton landed the jet, and opened the hatch, shutting off all the switches in quick maneuvers. Steve collected You, pressing you protectively against his chest as he followed Natasha out of the jet, and she got them into the towers once she hit her security code. Steve’s face melded from worried to calm, collected. He was in another Alphas territory, and any sign of stress from him could invite a challenge from another wolf. His fingers though, they pressed into your skin, his heart thudded in his chest, aching with every beat, constantly seeking you, and now that he could feel you against him, his breathing turned to match yours, the way his heart racing started to slow. Even in this state, you were his calm. Now if only he could bring you back to him. His Wolf was still howling for you, an echo constantly in his mind as he sought your Little Wolf. Even without the bond, he still could sense her when they were human. Now the Silver Wolf couldn’t, and it was breaking the Alpha. 

Once the doors opened, Tony and Bruce stood there, a hospital stretcher ready, but Steve brushed past it, not wanting to let you go. Bruce was about to say something, but Natasha rested her hand against his arm, giving a slight shake of her head. Steve was already close to snapping, its best not to push him. His words changed, tilting his head to the man. “This way, we have a room set up for her.” Pushing the stretcher to the side, they all followed along with Bruce, and came into a comfortable looking room. A large hospital bed was set up, and Steve was careful to set you down on the pristine white cotton sheets. Bruce waited patiently for Steve to settle next to his mate before he approached. Holding his hands up for the Alpha to see him, lowering his head a bit to show his neck. “I promise not to do any harm to your mate Alpha, but you have to trust me, okay. I have to examine her and that will require me touching her.” 

Steve Wolf growled, eyeing the man, and Steve to drew in Bruce’s scent, it was an intermingling of differences that shouldn’t exist in their society. But it did.

Bruce’s condition was well known, why he was loosely tied to Tonys Pack. Tony was one of the only packs that could help Bruce. The Man, he wasn’t an Alpha, gentle to the core, nothing more than a healer and had no drive to really be with a pack. His Wolf though, a Alpha through and through. And not just an Alpha, but a beast unnatural. He had been mutated through an accidental experiment, and it left Bruce almost unable to control him. Tony provided him with space, still in a pack, yet able to work on his own. Steve took all this information into account when he gave a gentle nod, giving him permission to handle you. That nod set Bruce into action, calling forth a nurse, and they worked around Steve, who wouldn’t leave your side, his hands enclosed around yours, keeping contact with yours. 

Come back to me Little One. 

     Bucky gathered the two panther cubs in his arms, the kittens have come around to him during the jet ride. One slept in the crook of one arm, the other perched on the White Wolf’s shoulder, squeaking in excitement at all that was going on. Barton followed him off, and they to enter the Tower, heading straight to Bruce’s lab. Once they exited the elevators, they caught sight of Natasha and Tony, looking through a window into a room, both men could hear Natasha filling Tony in on what had happened that night. Hearing them, Tony looked at gaffed a laugh at the sight. 

“Barnes looks like you got some stowaways.” Tony grinned, and Bucky shifted the sleeping kitten to his other arm. 

“Pierce, had them locked up, figured maybe you could get them back to there families?” Bucky asked hopefully, knowing that the Black Panthers didn’t typically reside in the northern forests of the eastern part of the states. 

“I don’t think that should be a problem,” Tony stated with a nod, his sight catching Pepper coming to join them, and as she approached, he held his arm out to her, and she slid into his side just where she always did, listening as he continued. “King T’Challa had actually contacted me about his missing Panthers a couple of weeks ago. He will be pleased to get back the children taken. Uh… you didn’t happen to see any adult panthers there?” 

Bucky gave a sorrowed shake of his head as the awake kitten perched on his shoulder wailed softly, and Pepper immediately crooned to him, holding out her arms for the kitten to leap into the woman’s arms, hiding against her for comfort. Tony cleared his throat, getting his answer. 

“These Cubs need to be fed, and allowed to shift back.” Pepper said softly as she stroked the distraught kitten fur. “I can take them to go shift, get a proper meal and rest while you all arrange the flight home for them.” she offered and Bucky nodded, handing the sleeping kitten over. She tilted to kiss Tony’s cheek before retreating with them, speaking softly. “Get to go home soon, how does that sound to you two?” A sounding high pitched meow reached the group’s ears. 

Turning to watch Bruce work on You, Bucky wasn’t surprised to see Steve right there, refusing to leave her side. “First off, what the fuck did he shoot Y/N with, and how did that son of a bitch get Panther cubs?” 

“That’s what Bruce is trying to find out now, and the panther cubs… I’m guessing someone smuggled them out of the country. Which means I have a King to contact. Natasha, you know this place, whenever Steve is ready, you can show him the live-in quarters, you to Barnes.” 

“Thanks, Stark” The White Wolf opened his hand to shake it, which was evenly matched before he turned away. Once they were alone, just Bucky, Clint, and Natasha, Bucky spoke up. “I can’t stay, Rumlow still has Cass. Now that Pierce is dead… I have to find her quickly.” 

Barton and Natasha looked at each other, knowing neither one of these Wolves could be left alone. 

“How about I come with you, Barnes? We can pick up where the trackers are now. This is what I’m trained to do.” Barton shrugged. “I also got transportation here for us, and Stark cant bitch about me taking it.” 

“And I will stay with Steve and Y/N, keep you updated on what is going on.” Natasha offered, knowing Barnes was hard-pressed to leave there Alpha. 

“Thank you two…” Barnes said softly, his gaze not breaking from the scene in the next room. 

     Steve was thrumming his thumb over your pulse, which was so calm, it was like you were sleeping. Bruce had drawn blood, had you hooked to monitors that beeped excessively. They were driving Steve and his Wolf nuts trying to make sense of what the numbers all meant. Luckily the scientist did, as well as the nurse assisting him, but neither said if it was good or bad, just an occasional ‘Hmm’ 

<Make them tell us Steve, I can’t handle this any longer. When is our Little One waking up, will she wake up? What is going on.>

Patience Beast. 

<I’m trying Steve> The Silver Wolf responded with a defeated sigh. 

“Alpha?” Bruce started but Steve immediately cut him off. 

“Please, its Steve.” He warily smiled, the adrenaline from the night had finally left him, the usually proud Alpha just look beat and tired now, sitting on the bed. 

“Steve, we’ve checked her over, and from what we can tell, she is okay. In the Human Sense. Her pressures are good, shes breathing, there is still functions of her brain. I have no fear that her body can’t function. From what I can tell… shes simply shut herself down from the trauma.  As far as her Wolf, we can’t find any trace of her in her system. None of the scans picked her up.” It was impossible to miss the whine that came from the Alpha and how his eyes clouded over a moment, but Bruce ignored it, continuing. “I might not be the man for this Steve, but… You said she was injected. I was able to isolate the compound in her bloodwork. Now I can’t be certain, but it seems to be biological. I don’t necessarily know for sure, but there is a plant that might be used for this kind of thing.” 

Steve’s head shot up, his eyes wide. “Where is it, and is there a cure Dr.Banner?” The Wolf perked up too, his ears straining to hear Bruce’s next words. 

“The plant only originates in one place, Wakanda. And Wakanda has one of the most brilliant scientific minds I know of. Her name is Shuri, the Kings sister. She would know more about the plants capabilities then I can begin to understand. They use it in a few rituals when appointing the new king. It diminishes there powers, sedates there beasts almost into a slumbering state so that they can prove that the person can lead their people as much as the animal.” Bruce witnessed Steve turning back to look at You, his eyes willing you to wake up, but there was no movement from you. “Would to much kill the animal you think Doctor?” 

“I really can’t say Steve, I simply don’t know enough about it. It’s not something we have here, and the Wakanda people guard their crops fiercely. I wouldn’t even begin to guess how someone would have gotten there hands on such a plant. Now with how strong Wakandas borders are.” 

“I have to talk to Tony about this, but I can’t leave her.” Steve drifted off, even though you were safe, he just couldn’t pry himself from you. Natasha knocked on the door and opened it gently. 

“Let me sit with her, I will stay till you can return Steve.” She offered and the even though the Wolf protested, Steve pressed your palm to his mouth, giving a soft affectionate nip before easing your hand back to the mattress. “Thank you, Natasha.” 

The Red Head nodded, switching spots. “Shes my packmate to. Bucky is out there, Starks floor is one up, that’s where he will be.” 

With a nod, Steve took one last look at you, peaceful and small looking in the oversized bed, quick to exit the door. Wait any longer and his resolve would fold. 

Tony was once more at his desk, and the phone was ringing when a message came through from Bruce, giving him a bit of an update. Tony’s brows arched curiously at this new bit of info, that you were possibly injected with a organic matter made for this particular situation. Wonder how many other people were subjected to the same fate. A click drew him back, an accented voice speaking on the other end. “Stark, its good to hear from you.” 

“Likewise T’Challa. I might have some good news for you. Two cubs were found by a neighboring pack and brought them to me. They are young, I’m hoping they are your missing children.” Tony could hear the sharp muffle of the phone being covered and the king’s voice talking to someone before he came back. “Yes, two were taken along with there mother. No sign of the female?” 

“No… I’m sorry, Pierce might not have taken her if he bought the cubs off a smuggler, or might have already sold her off to another.” Tony didn’t want to share the wall of skins, it was just so horrific to think about. 

“Thank You, the two cubs was more then we had hoped to be able to bring home, I will notify my trackers looking through the states of this news, send them to you if you could possibly direct them to where they were found. Maybe they can pick up a trail.” 

“Absolutely. I will send the cubs back to you, just as soon as they are looked over and given a bit of proper rest. My Mate is tending to them now, and they seem to be in fairly good health. I also have something else to discuss with you King.” 

“What is it?” The Panther said softly, his tone said he was half expecting more bad news. 

“The pack that found them, the Alphas Mate was darted, and her Wolf, it’s gone. Dr.Banner isolated an organic compound in her blood that might be the cause. But this is out of his expertise. If the Alpha could bring her over with the cubs, could Shuri try to bring her back? Shes slipped into something like a coma and shows no signs of waking up, although she appears to be healthy.”

T’Challa was silent a moment before there was a rumbling answer, and Tony suspected it was distress about the Alphas Mate, it had unsettled him the same way thinking about what if that had happened to Pepper. “Of course, send the Alpha Wolf and his Mate along, we will do all we can to help them.” 

“Thank you King. I will be contacting you soon.” 

As he hung up, Steve and Bucky came into the office, and Tony swept a hand to the chairs in front of his desk, waiting till the men settled. “Before you say anything, Steve, it’s already arranged. You will be taking Y/N to Wakanda for Shuri to help her. Now, I heard what Natasha said, but you want to tell me officially. The Council will want to know.” 

Steve bared his teeth in agitation but started in on all that had happened. “I sent Bucky and Natasha to check out this pack as you know. They were immediately taken.” Bucky then took over, telling all about how he was collared, how the collar impacted his beast in chains. “It wasn’t anything like the magic of Wanda, but blood magic. Way to much power in it. And then I was to be sold off to Hydra.” Tony stayed silent listening. “Once we managed to escape, we contacted our Alpha.” 

“And that was it. I had enough to challenge Pierce. We met him on his turf, called him out. He has a whole underground facility my wolves are sorting through now with Sam in charge. After Y/N was shot, we left to get her here as soon as possible. I’m indebted to you.” Steve said solemnly, and Tony waved it away. 

“Don’t, if it was the other way around, I know you would do anything you could for Pepper, Rogers. Besides, I like Y/N, shes good. She would have been a wolf I would have welcomed to my pack should she had come to my borders easily. I will have a cleanup crew go to help Sam, so please let him know beforehand.” 

Steve nodded, but now he was anxious to return to You, not that he didn’t trust Natasha, but this wasn’t home. He wasn’t in control here, and he didn’t want to risk leaving you in an unfamiliar place. 

“I think we’re settled here, Peppers taking care of the Kits now. I will have it all set up to fly you to Wakanda in the morning Steve.” The Alphas all rose, shaking hands and with that all was said and done.��

On the way out, Bucky paused Steve. “Brother, I wish I could go with you. But there’s still Rumlow. I have to find Cassandra. She’s only in this mess cause we’ve been, well I don’t know really what we’ve been doing. But my association has gotten her captured.” 

Steve cursed inwardly, the Wolf guiltily laying back his ears. How could they forget Bucky’s own situation. “Of course, please gather any of the pack you need for tracking them.” 

Both men stepped once more on the elevator. “Barton is coming with me, and I’m going to ask the twins. Pietro is skilled like Barton is, better then I could ever be, and Wanda is a powerful healer already. I don’t know what condition I will find Cassandra. Natasha, she will be going with you to Wakanda.” Bucky swallowed deeply, and Steve clasped his shoulder. 

“What Brock did, it isn’t your fault Buck.” 

“Isn’t it though? If I never messed around with her, she wouldn’t be taken from her home, and god knows what he’s done to her. I should have known better, she’s a human, and I’m just an animal. I never had any intention of taking her as my mate, I should have just left after that first night.” Bucky started to confess, and Steve couldn’t help the twinge in his chest at Bucky’s pain. He knew the White Wolf had long ago decided that he wouldn’t take a mate, but the lone wolf still had a desire for a connection, which he had apparently found in this woman. His hand gave Buckys shoulder another squeeze before letting it slide away. 

“You will find her and return her home, Buck. As soon as I come back from Wakanda, I will join you. You are not alone in this.” 

Bucky turned haunted eyes to his Alpha, his brother, and gave a nod. “Till the end of the line.” 

“Till the end of the line” Steve repeated before the door opened. 

Steve relieved Natasha and he stretched out next to your unconscious form, and half slept till morning when they were collected and taken to the airport, a more comfortable ride set up for the five of you. The Panthers had shifted back at Peppers urging, and now joining You, Steve and Natasha were two children. A girl looking to be eight or nine, and a boy looking to be much younger, maybe five if Steve had to guess. Both the kids bid farewell to Bucky, hanging off his neck as they hugged him and he embraced them both and gave the young boy a ruffle of hair. “Yall come back to visit me, okay? But like next time we will have some fun. No locks or cages, that I promise.” Natasha nudged Steve with a grin and whispered to him. “He’s a natural.” 

Steve had to chuckle watching him. “Yes, he really is. He always had been.” he said softly before Bucky approached them, the man looking between his Alpha and Natasha. “Well, you crazy kids don’t get into any tussles with the Panthers. Means no growling at them, Steve.” He gave a mock warning leaving the Alpha growling at Bucky and Natasha grinning as she stepped forward and hugged Bucky. “Stay safe Buck, I’m not gonna be there to keep you out of trouble.” 

Bucky returned the hug with a laugh, kissing her temple. “Well that’s just not exciting then is it.” Turning to Steve the two men shared a hug too, slapping each other on the back. “Bring Y/N home man, we all just got her, not ready to lose her yet.” 

“That’s the goal, keep us updated Buck, and like Natasha said, stay safe.” The two men separated and together Natasha and Steve went onto the plane, and the door shut. Bucky turned the opposite way, joined with Barton, the two wolves preparing for the hunt. 

The flight was a long one and almost immediately Steve retreated with you, you were laid out, head on his lap as his fingers carded through your hair, his head tilted back with closed eyes, his Wolf was in a semi-relaxed state, only once in a while did the beast raise himself up to pace, using Steves senses to check on you, keep an eye on what was going on around him. Steve felt the Wolf stir, giving a soft growl to alert the man that someone was approaching him when his eyes sprang open to the boy standing in front of him with wide eyes. Steve straightened up a bit and softened his features to smile. “Hello, my name is Steve, what’s yours?” He removed his hand from your hair and held it out to the kid, offering him a peaceful shake. The kid took his hand and turned it, tracing the line of his palm as if studying it before letting go, and he spoke in his native language, which Steve simply shook his head and shrugged not understanding. The girl soon came, looking for her companion. “He said his name is Zane, sorry, my brother can not speak English yet, he was just starting to learn when we were abducted, but he does understand it. My name is Audre.” 

“I’m sorry that happened to you two, If I had known, I would have been there sooner for you,” Steve said sincerely, the two children gave a smile and shook their heads, holding no ill will towards the Alpha. “Were glad you came when you did. I had been trying to break the lock, but had no luck. We were being sold soon to some of that man’s friends.” 

“Well, you don’t have to worry about that man any longer. I promise he won’t be coming for anyone, ever again.” Steve’s hand went back to your hair, brushing through it. Zane stepped in closer and his hand went to touch your face, near your temple and tracing over your forehead and down the bridge of your nose. Speaking again, his sister was quick to translate. “He asked why is she sleeping the deep sleep?” 

The Wolf paused, twisting his ears. 

<Maybe they would know how to bring her back Steve.>

Steve looked down at you, his own hand cupping the side of your face, and letting his fingers brush along your cheeks. “She was hurt, by the man that kept you two caged. She is my mate, and I miss her very much. I’m hoping your King and his sister can bring her back to me.” 

The little boys eyes shined as he turned to his sister, speaking hurriedly. His sister listened and then turned back to Steve. 

“He says she feels you, and misses you very much Alpha. That she can hear you but is lost while searching for her Little Wolf. She went deep inside, and is looking for her way back to you. But she can feel you calling her, your touches. She was scared but knows you are keeping her safe. And… “ She turned back to her brother and listened again, nodding as she repeated it. “That it felt good to be held last night, she was worried you would leave her alone.” 

“No, never would I leave her alone.” Steve’s other hand was heavy on your hip, keeping a hold on you and the kids smiled, the little boy reaching out to pat Steve’s chest and say something else. 

“Zane says your a good Alpha, and that she is lucky to have you. She will return home, and you two will be okay once more.” Audre hugged her brother around his shoulders and looked down at him. “Come brother, The Alpha is tired and needs to rest before we get back home, let him be with his mate.” Leading him away, Steve pondered what they had told him, leaning his forehead down to press against yours, breathing you in deeply. Although your scent wasn’t entirely the same, he was still swept up on the honeysuckle softness that was all yours. “I promise I’m not going anywhere Little One.” Still, nothing, although he was now convinced you heard him. 

A short time later Natasha came to find him, sitting down next to the Alpha. This time her familiar scent washed over him, and he didn’t bother to open his eyes to his packmate, but listened closely. 

“Were about to land. T’Challa and the King’s Warriors are meeting us to welcome us. They will escort us to Shuri’s quarters and start treating Y/N right away.” 

Steve sighed quietly and opened his eyes to smile at Natasha. “Good. Zane and Audre came to see me a bit ago. Told me that she could still hear me, feel me.” 

Natasha could feel and see the pain her Alpha was in, and she reached over to drape her arm over his shoulders, sliding in closer to the two of them. “Then you should believe them, I think she knows your with her Steve, you two are connected in far more ways then just the mating bite could provide. Maybe you two are those soul mates actually destined to belong together, and not just making it work.” 

Steve still stared down at you and nodded. “Perhaps your right.” Somewhere deep inside his mind, the Wolf howled again, calling for you to return to him. And Steve could have sworn you stirred a bit under his touch. 

Natasha was correct. When they came off the plane, there was a full escort accompanying the king. The kids squealed as they ran off the plane, a man rushing forward to gather the two kids into his arms, kissing the two all over there faces with what had to be the happiest tears streaking down his face. All three spoke with such rapidity, that Steve couldn’t even fathom what was being said, but he pressed his mouth to your ear, whispering. “That is the happiest family reunion I’ve ever seen.” His blue eyes squinted in the bright sun, and soon caught sight of T’Challa approaching him and Natasha, the man had a easy way about him, calm. His language was that of a lazy cat, strolling as if all belonged to him. He clasped Steves shoulders and the two men bowed there heads to each other out of respect and T’Challa did a similar motion to Natasha before looking at you in Steve’s arms. 

“Let us get her quick to Shuri, eh? The sooner we can return your queen to you, the sooner we can celebrate her and the cubs return to the Clans.” Looking over his shoulder, he gave an order, and his warriors brought forth a carrier to bring them all back. Steve and Natasha stepped up, and their eyes traveled the ranks, surprised it was nothing but female warriors. 

“Ah, the Womans Clan is the fiercest amongst us. You ladies will fight harder than any male, correct?” T’Challa smiled at Natasha, who grinned in agreement. “Hear that Steve looks like I’m more badass then you.” 

The Alpha snorted and shook his head. “Hell if I would ever deny that. You could kick my ass any day if you wanted to.” 

T’Challa laughed deeply and Natasha gave a fist pump in victory, Steve still holding you close, praying you knew he meant every word. For him you were far stronger then he could ever be.

Once they arrived at the Kings home in the center of Wakanda, it was all a blur for Steve and Natasha. A young woman immediately took over and T’Challa stepped out of her way. She bent over Steve who retrained the warning growls from his beast as she pried your eyes open, and slid her hands down to your chest, waiting to feel your rhythm. “Shes matching your’s Alpha, good. She’s not to far gone. Get her on the table, quick now.” Steve followed behind the brisk walking Shuri, and once he set her down, she pressed against Steve’s chest to back him up. “I need room to work Alpha.” 

“Shuri… you need to explain to him what your doing to his mate.” T’Challa followed along behind, and Steve stepped back, but wasn’t too far. “Mates have a hard time separating. Even ones that haven’t shared the entire bond yet.” The King was far more aware of his situation then Steve had thought he would be. 

<Stark, I’m sure he told T’Challa everything with you and Y/N.> The wolf rumbled softly

I think your right, but that’s a good thing. The more they know the better to help Y/N. 

That settled the Wolf back down, sure to keep an eye on You. Shuri started attaching wires to your forehead, temples, then tugged your shirt up enough to attach the same wires to your chest and stomach. Grabbing a needle, she put a tourniquet to your arm and tapped at the vein. “I’m monitoring brain waves. Our humans and animals are two different waves, although we are the same. Her Wolf… if its the Heart Herb, it’s not gone Alpha. It’s in hibernation.” She plunged the needle and drew out some blood, filling a tube, before pulling it away and giving a vigorous shake, tossing it to an assistant. “Check for the Heart Herb attachment to her red cells and let me know.” Steves nose wrinkled at the scent of your blood, stirring unease in him, be he pushed it down, Shuri was just as quick in her movements to get you bandaged. 

Looking at Steve, the young woman broke out in a grin. “So ease up Alpha, if that’s the case, I can bring the Wolf back and she be good as new.” 

“If that’s what it is, can she overdose on it? Because Pierce gave her a whole vial of it at once.” Steve asked, and Suri rolled her eyes. “Of course he did. Brother, I told you that bastard took more than our Panthers.” 

“And I told you back then I agreed Sister.” T’Challa retorted as he came up next to Steve. “She could overdose, but it would have to be more than a vial. Right now, IF this is what it is, its simply a deep hibernation. Shuri has the capabilities to bring her back.” 

“We just got to get her to wake up her human side first.” Suri watched the monitors and rocked back and forth on her heels. It was like a light had gone off over her head, the way her eyes widened and she was quick to rush over to a cabinet, grabbing a vial and sticking a needle in it, filling it. 

“And I got just the way to get her to wake up. Now Alpha, this won’t be immediate, but whew when it happens, be ready.” She lifted your arm and gave you an injection, and Steve arched his brows with concern. 

“Be ready? For what?” 

Suri just giggled and disposed of the needle, smirking at him. “You will see.” 

Steve looked at T’Challa who had a similar grin on his face. “Come, let me show you your rooms, and have Natasha brought to hers.” Some assistants started to unhook you and set you on a stretcher that was powered to float on its own, following the men out of the room. They joined back up with Natasha, and everyone got settled in their rooms for the night. You were laid out, and Steve once more stretched out next to you, sighing deeply as he just talked until sleep finally overtook him. Rolling in his sleep, his arm slung over your hip, his hand pressed against your stomach, keeping you in close to him. 

You could feel your mind stirring, heated waves rolling through you. But you were still unable to drag your consciousness forward. You couldn’t find your Little Wolf and was barely aware of Steve beside you. You heard his deep baritone, and a few words, a brush of his touch, but barely. No matter how much you willed yourself to return to him, it just felt like circles. But now, now there was a heat surrounding you, and you were firmly aware of his heavy hand clasped against your stomach, and the feeling of a broad muscled chest against your back, as well as a heavy erection pressing against your backside, a hairy calf pressed between your thighs. Now, if only you could open your eyes, you drew in deep inhales of his scent, and that comforted you, your senses swirling with pines and masculinity, you tried following that, the heat just kept building and you groaned at the familiar ache it caused. You would have sworn it was like going into heat again, but how could you without the Wolf to trigger it? 

A bright light started to permeate your senses and you could feel hot breaths against the back of your neck, Steve had his face tucked into your neck, still, sound asleep, and a rumble sounded through him. It was enough to call you forward and your eyes sprang open, searching wildly for him. He was behind you, you could feel him and you twisted in his arms, grasping his lips to yours, he shuddered awake to you kissing him, his arm sweeping around you as you pressed into him, pressing him back to the mattress, your tongue swirling with his, clashing of teeth. You needed him, more then ever before you thought and you crawled up enough to straddle him, panting against his mouth, your eyes closed as you rocked your hips against him, a pleading sound in your voice. 

“I need you Alpha, Steve. Now, Please. I need you inside of me.”

<So this is what they meant> The Wolf shuddered awakening with a ferocity for his mate and Steve’s hands fell to your hips, rocking you harder against him till he lifted you to raise on your knees, and you reached for his manhood, pressing it against your center. Hands tightening, he brought you down to sheath himself in your heat, and your head tipped back with a soft cry, bracing your hands against his chest. You were dripping hot and ached so badly for him, that the relief of feeling your Alpha was bliss for you, thrusting yourself to spear him inside of you, it was a quick fury for you two. Steve’s hips slamming upwards to meet your movements holding you tightly at the waist till he released his hold to cup your breasts, teasing the nipples. You to clasp your hands over his, holding him there, panting at the sensations he brought out in you. 

“Fuck I thought I would never find you, Steve.” You rushed out while moaning, flexing yourself around him. 

“You were so far away, Little One, I kept calling to you.” He rumbled deep in his chest, and loosened his hands, flipping you two so he could give deeper more dominating strokes and you wrapped your legs around his hips, staring up at him. 

“I heard you Alpha, I tried, so hard.” You hissed and tipped your head back, Steve immediately started placing soft non claiming bites to your neck, sucking marks on it as you arched your chest to rub against his, rubbing your scent against him. Nails dug into his back, marking him in your own way as they held onto the rolling flexing muscles, speeding the rocking of your hips as you both sought to make the other cum. 

“I know you did, I know you wouldn’t leave me willingly.” Steves bites fell back to your lips, dominating your mouth with his, and you held on, feeling him start to swell in you and your cunt flexed, tightened around his cock when he angled himself just right, crying into the kiss, and tears streaming down your face at the intensity of needing to cum, flood him with yourself. He was everywhere, and you scrambled to keep yourself close even though he pounded you into the mattress, cumming just then around him. When you drifted this time it wasn’t into nothingness, but the immense pleasure that had you gasping against his neck, and he slowed down his thrusts, slow and deep while you loosened your hold, sinking back into the pillows, rocking with him, as you nodded. 

“Never Steve, I know I belong to you. I’m all yours Alpha, all yours.” softly whispering out.

Steves kiss this time was far gentler but no less as before neediness. Slow strokes of the tongue matched the roll of his hips, nudging himself to claim you full, welding you two together. There couldn’t be another, not one you wanted to hold you still underneath him, one to capture your mind, and love you in the way he does. Not just a physical need, but mental too. His forehead dropped to yours, rolling through with another connecting thrust and you both inhaled each other, the hot heavy scent of your bodies pressing together, the blood, sweat, and tears shared. For you to felt his own hot tears drop and mingle with yours rolling down your face, a quick lap of his tongue against your cheek wiped them away, as you two rocked together. 

“And your mine, Little One, you will never be alone.” He cupped your face and kissed you deeply, groaning as you came again, and his seed painted your channel, his pumps stilling as he knotted you, the two of you drifting into a bliss-filled state, tangled around one another, unwilling to separate for some time. Hushed sighs and shared nipping kisses soon enabled you both to drift off to sleep again. 

It wasn’t till some time later you woke again and were sprawled against Steve’s chest. Tilting your head, a glass of water caught your sight, and you shifted off him to reach for it, moving to sit on the edge of the bed while you gulped the glass down, parched as you had never been before. Setting the glass down, you looked around the room. And it occurred to you this was nothing like his cabin home. This was a wide-open space, and the air was not crisp and sharp woods and lake. This was almost… tropical. Musty vegetation and promise of heated days filled your senses, that’s when the breeze blew your face and you turned to an opening to a balcony, no doors or windows covering it. Grabbing the sheet, to keep the front of you covered, you wandered out to the deck to gasp softly, just below was a jungle, stretching out far, and beyond that what looked like a savannah, littered with what looked like Zebras and Gazelle, spotting an elephant, rhinos. Loud squawking and bright colors flashed below in all that greenery and a flock of macaws went screaming past, scattering over towards a statue that seemed carved right out of the cliff face, a giant prowling cat, his paw up to strike out at his enemies. 

“Were certainly not home anymore.” 

Steve stirred when he didn’t feel you next to him and looked around till he saw you, the sheet clutched around you, the wind making it ripple just a bit. Moving to roll out of bed, and to a stand, he approached from behind, sliding his hands along your bare hips under the sheet, and kissed your bare shoulder, growling softly as he took in the view you were currently gasping at. 

“Welcome to Wakanda Little One.”   

[sellyoursoulforagoodfic]

Shelbys at Somme: Chapter 8

Thomas X Reader

3744

Summary: Tensions grow between Grace and Reader when Grace is informed one of her co-workers is dead. Reader meets Ada.

by @adventuresintooblivion

Grace was due for a rendezvous yesterday, but she hadn’t a moment of free time until the Garrison Pub closed its doors two hours after it was supposed to. She had called into the station, but no one answered, which led to her practically sprinting to the nearest cabby who might take her to see Inspector Campbell.

After an all too expensive ride, Grace strode into Inspector Campbell’s office, clutching her purse between herself and the world. At first he didn’t even look up from his papers. It wasn’t until Grace cleared her throat that he spoke.

“You’re late.” He slowly looked up. Something about his posture had changed since last Grace saw him. While before he had stood tall and proper, now he held a tension in his movements.

Grace glanced down. “The Pub kept me working late yesterday. Everything was closed by the time I was free to contact you.”

Inspector Campbell grumbled, “You could’ve come over.”

She raised her eyebrow. “To your house Sir? Isn’t that dangerous?” 

Not to mention wildly inappropriate?

The Inspector ran his hand through his thinning hair. “Yes, I suppose you’re right. But your father would want me to look after you, so I can’t have you missing deadlines like this.”

“If you don’t mind my asking, why didn’t you send anyone now?”

It was his turn to break eye contact. “Something has happened. I’m not sure how big it is, so I didn’t want to endanger your cover just in case.”

“What happened?”

He grimaced, “We questioned that girl you gave us a picture of. We’d been keeping an eye on her, but when she contacted Thomas and stuck around we thought he might be trying to fence the guns through her.”

Grace felt blood rushing in her ears as the world dropped from underneath her. “W...Who did she turn out to be?”

Inspector Campbell shrugged, “Y/F/N. She was an old war buddy of his. Worked in his company as what they called a Runner. Distracted the Germans while they dug.”

“She joined the army and fought?”

The Inspector nodded but didn’t elaborate. He started shuffling through papers until finally he held one out for Grace. When she took it there was a list of names with Y/N’s picture next to it. Each name had a different occupation listed next to it along with locations.

Grace frowned, “Is this all her?”

He shrugged, “Supposedly, though she’s never done jail time for anything. I’m half convinced most of these she just made for fun.”

“So how did you get her to come in? I didn’t think she’d be the type to offer up information for free.” Grace folded the paper and tucked it away in her purse.

Inspector Campbell’s features darkened. “Oh, it wasn’t free. She gave us no choice, we had to corner her. When she tried to escape, she killed Matthew.”

She froze, “Matthew’s dead?”

He nodded. “The funeral is this weekend. Due to your current assignment, I can’t allow you to attend, but we are all pitching in to help his wife and son. At least until she can figure something out.”

Grace nodded and practically threw what little cash she had on hand at him. She’d always liked Matthew. They’d bonded during the late hours working to neutralize the IRA. When Inspector Campbell had offered to take them both to Birmingham, Grace had even helped him pack up his whole family. Now he was gone.

Something about the situation didn’t all she could think about was her friend’s tired smile. “Please tell me you at least got something.”

He paused for too long but Grace was desperate for an answer, “We have a possible location.” 

She nodded. It was all she needed to keep going, to not run out of here right now and give Y/N a sound lashing. 

〜

The next day Grace wiped her hands on her apron, her foul mood having settled in to stay. Her mind kept wandering back to images of Matthew. While Inspector Campbell hadn’t gone into details about his death, her imagination provided plenty of gory details for her to mull over. 

She knew Y/N was upstairs. Hell, the topic of last night’s search party was all she heard about all day. Details were fuzzy at best but from what she could gather Tommy had roused half the Peaky Blinders in the late hours of the night to track her down. 

Grace tried to strike up conversation multiple times with her patrons, but they were all dead on their feet. Several of them went so far as to nap next to the pints they’d been nursing moments before. Even Harry’s stern glares weren’t enough to keep them awake.

Yet Grace was determined. If she couldn’t get information from them, she’d get it from Thomas when he returned.

〜

It was late afternoon by the time Y/N awoke. For the first few moments she lay there perfectly still and enjoyed her last couple minutes of peace. Then she shifted and it was all over. Her muscles spasmed, causing her to lose her breath for the briefest moment.

“Well, damn, I was wondering when you’d join us.” Nearby a woman sat with a book splayed open on her lap.

Y/N slowly sat up, her arms shaky beneath her.

The woman stood suddenly. "Hey now, don't you think about getting up alright? Tommy gave me strict orders to keep you off your feet."

Y/N chuckled, "Thank you for the attention, Miss…?"

She waved away Y/N's feeble attempts to dismiss her, "The name is Ada Shelby."

A smile spread across Y/N's lips. "So you're Ada? I was wondering when I'd get to meet you."

She nodded proudly, "The one and only. Now listen here, missy. You'll not get out of this bed until you're healthy again. You hear me?"

"Yes, Ma'am." Y/N tried to hide her growing smile.

Ada ruffled Y/N's hair. "Don't be cheeky with me. You're the one that got caught by a copper of all things. Now, what would you like to do today?"

Y/N shrugged. "Just grab me a couple books and I'll be fine. If you need to go do something I don't need to be babysat."

"Well, while that might be the case I'm not supposed to really be out and about either." Ada fidgeted with the ties on her dress.

Y/N raised her eyebrow. "I'd ask how come, but it doesn't look like you're comfortable sharing."

"I know I can trust you, otherwise you wouldn't be living above the Garrison right now. No it's just… I haven't said it aloud yet. Not to anyone except Aunt Pol."

Y/N shrugged, "I mean, I'm not really sure where I stand. So really, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

Ada sat back, drawing her shawl closer around herself. After a moment Y/N noticed it was the same as Pol's just a different color. Wonder which one of them knits.

Then Ada spoke so softly Y/N almost missed it, "I'm pregnant."

The words hung in the air allowing their weight to settle as the implications slowly became clear.

Y/N bit her lip, "And you've only told Pol. Yikes."

She glanced down, "Yeah, he's missing too. Do you think.. He’ll come back?"

"I'm not exactly the expert on that. “Y/N paused for a moment. “But I did also come back from the dead. That’s a weird case though, so I’m not sure I’m the best person to ask."

Ada smiled sadly at her. "You really came back for Tommy?"

Y/N blushed, "Don't say it too loudly. You're gonna make me sound like even more of an idiot." 

She burst out laughing, the color returning to her cheeks. "Come on, let's get you some breakfast."

"I didn't get a chance to buy any groceries yet." Y/N bit her lip.

Ada bounced back up excitedly. "Don't you worry about that. I stopped by the market on the way here."

"I hope you're not hurting for money then, because I have absolutely no way to pay you back right now." Y/N felt a pit forming in her stomach. Or pay rent for that matter.

Ada turned towards the kitchenette, the room so small Y/N caught herself checking to make sure the blankets wouldn't get caught underfoot. She rifled through cupboards and moments later the smell of food filled the space between them.

Ada finally answered, "Don't worry about paying for anything, Y/N. Tommy would lose his head if anyone asked you for a dime."

Y/N shifted around until she was sitting at the foot of the bed, closer to Ada. "Yes, making a deal with the Devil is the perfect way to never worry about anything ever again."

Ada threateningly waved a wooden spoon at her, "You calling my brother the Devil? Cause you'd be right."

They burst into laughter, an easy chatter formed between them. Ada remained for a large part of the day. Eventually the sun began to set and the two women were interrupted by a knock on the door.

Thomas waited barely a moment before slowly poking his head in. “I hope everyone here is decent.”

Y/N rolled her eyes. “It’s not gonna be the time you’ve seen me in my underwear, Thomas.”

Ada cast her a somewhat scandalized look but was quickly distracted by Thomas’ soft chuckle. “Yet you looked manlier than most the men you were changing next to.”

Y/N gasped dramatically as she clutched at her heart. Thomas’ chuckle rose into a full on laughter.

“What kind of sorcery is this? I haven’t seen you smile like that since you found out John tried to stick it in the wrong hole his first time.”

“John did what?” Y/N’s mouth fell open in astonishment.

Ada glanced between the two shrugging, “He said his reasoning was that ‘that’s how animals did it.’”

Thomas shook his head. “I still can’t fucking believe-”

Laughter filled the room, however the mood was dampened quickly as Y/N groaned. Thomas rushed forward, kneeling beside the bed while Ada stood nearby frozen as they waited.

Finally, after catching her breath, Y/N grimaced, “Oh stop your fussing. A good laugh is worth a few loose ribs.”

“You’re supposed to be healing,” Thomas growled.

She dismissed his concern with a small wave, “If I spend all my time healing I won’t have any left for living. Stop worrying so much about me Shelby, I’ll be fine.”

He shook his head before turning towards Ada, “Would you mind giving us some privacy? I have to talk to Y/N about a couple things.”

Ada huffed, but soon her steps could be heard receding down the stairs.

Thomas slowly turned back to Y/N. “How are you holding up?”

Y/N shrugged, glancing out the window into the abyss. When did it get so dark?

He took her hand in his, so gently she almost didn’t recognize his touch. “Y/N, don’t spare me the details. I can’t do my job if you don’t tell me how bad it is.”

“What exactly is your job when it comes to me?” Her voice was the barest whisper.

There was a long pause as the answer hung in the air, the one they needed to be said before either of them could move on. It was their last chance to escape from each other; if he pushed her away now, she would leave. Disappear. Once again becoming the ghost of his past.

Thomas bowed his head, pressing his lips to the back of her hand. “I’m going to look after you.”

Only the slightest tremor in her voice betrayed her, “You don’t owe me that, Thomas.”

“Not everything is about payment, Y/N?”

She raised her eyebrow. “Is this the same Birmingham that I left five years ago?”

He released an amused hum from somewhere deep in his throat, finally looking up at her. The dark circles had etched themselves deeper beneath his eyes. A tightness around the corners reminded Y/N of the darkest days in the trenches. Instinctively she reached up to cup his cheek and brush the worry away with her thumb. 

“Rough day, Tommy?”

It was as if the whole room released a deep sigh, “It always is.”

Y/N gestured to the chair Ada had been using, “Wanna talk about it?”

Thomas ignored the chair and sat at the foot of her bed, his hip pressed against her leg and his elbows resting on his knees. Old habits die hard, don’t they?

He gathered his thoughts, but soon he was catching her up on a myriad of events. About the horse and the unfortunate turn of events that had taken place. The guns. Thomas’ meeting with Inspector Campbell and how close he had come to throttling the man. Danny’s head being payment for the death of a man he’d caused during an episode of shell shock.

For the most part Y/N listened, offering advice where it seemed to fit, until he brought up Danny, “They want you to kill him with witnesses?”

He nodded. “I’ve already taken care of that. A casing full of sheep brains.”

Y/N couldn’t stop the smile that played across her lips. “This is why I love you. So do you have a good hiding place for the guns or are they still at the docks?”

Thomas’s mind went blank, then suddenly every thought he’d ever had felt like it was clashing together as he registered what Y/N had just said. His heart was pounding in his ears. The room was too hot and not warm enough all at once. It took every ounce of control he had left to control his breathing enough to speak.

“W...what did you just say?”

“Hmmm? I was asking if you had a good hiding spot for the guns yet.”

“No...Um, before that.”

Y/N furrowed her brow, “I was asking if they demanded witnesses.”

Thomas finally let himself look at her. There was no indication that she was messing with him. No tell tale smirk or signature twinkle in her eye. She just sat there confused on why he was asking her to repeat herself. He ran his fingers through his hair.

His voice was gruff when he finally answered, “No, I don’t have a place picked out for the guns yet.” He honestly already had several ideas, but he couldn’t conjure up a single one right now.

Y/N glanced around the room thinking for a moment. “Why don’t you put them in Danny’s grave?”

“He’s not actually dead. I thought I made that clear.”

“Yeah, but if he was dead you’d dig him a grave come hell or high water. So you’ll have to dig him one anyways so that no one gets suspicious. Plus, this won’t be related to any other contraband that the Peaky Blinders deal with so if someone snitches on you, it won’t be there.”

Thomas blinked slowly before he nodded. “That is actually quite brilliant. I’m a little disappointed I didn’t come up with that myself.”

Y/N shrugged, “One of my many random skills, hiding things.”

Thomas wasn’t exactly sure what to say about that, but he had one last thing to tell her. After her slip-up in the previous moment, the words felt like poison on his lips. “I’ve also asked Grace to the races.”

“Did you just need her for a plus one?” Y/N raised her eyebrow.

Just say yes. 

“No, Billy Kimber owns the race tracks, and we’re expanding. Making legal money and all that.” He pressed his lips against his clasped hands, wishing he didn’t have to answer what came next.

Y/N frowned, confused. “And what does this have to do with Grace?”

Thomas sighed. “Mr. Kimber is known to enjoy sampling the pleasures of women. She asked to work for me, so I plan on offering her up to him as part of the bargain.”

“Did you ask her if she was ok with that?”

“No.”

She smacked his shoulder, a sharp sting exploding from his arm. “Tommy!”

“Hey, don’t hit me, Ms. Cracked Ribs.”

She shook her finger threateningly at him. “It’s Ms. Broken Ribs to you, and I’ll smack you as much as I damn well please. You can’t just go offering up a girl’s dignity like that.”

Thomas turned and grabbed her hands in his, preventing any further retaliation. “She asked to work for me, Y/N.”

Y/N growled, “She’s not from the underbelly of Birmingham. Or any other city for that matter. You can tell from a god damned mile away. Shit like this ruins women.”

He paused. “You may be right, but I don’t have anything else he wants.”

She let out a deep sigh. “What were you gonna offer him?”

He told her, and she nodded. They sat in silence for a while as they mulled over what to do about all this. At the end of the day they both knew if he brought Grace she would end up having to go with Kimber sooner or later. He expected it to say the least. And it wasn’t just Grace, any woman Thomas brought would be offered up as a bargaining chip.

Finally Y/N spoke, “She may have to go with him, but she doesn’t have to stay with him.”

“And break the deal?”

She shook her head, “Save Kimber. Like tell him she has something.”

He smirked at her. “So much for preserving dignity.”

Y/N shrugged. “At least she won’t have to sleep with him.”

Thomas glanced away, “Yeah.”

Y/N glanced down. Her hands were still in his, though his grip had loosened into something more casual. A small thrill went through her as she realized how much smaller her hands were compared to his.

She stammered as she spoke, “It’s getting late.” 

Thomas took a deep breath broken out of his thoughts. “Yeah it is. I’ll head out and give you some peace. If you need anything, come get me.” He stood, letting Y/N’s hands slip from his grasp. 

The air was cool on her skin compared to his touch. She found herself following him with her gaze.“Come get you? I thought you lived at the Shelby house?” she asked.

He paused. “I’m going to be staying in the room next door for a while, until you’re better at least.” And with that he was gone.

〜

Y/N awoke in the late hours of the night. Darkness had escaped it’s daily chains, exploded from every nook and cranny and coated the room in a thick film. It took her a moment to shake off the disorientation before she remembered where she was.

Then she heard what had woken her. Through the wall she heard a cry. She couldn’t tell at first what it was for, but then it came again. Thomas.

She stood slowly, pain shooting up her back with every step as she shuffled out of her room and down the hallway. When she finally reached the rickety door she pressed her ear against it.

“NO...Freddie!” 

That was enough. Y/N pounded on the door. On a normal day with the noise of people, it would’ve been deep and resounding. But now it was so deafening she caught herself wincing as she hit the wood.

A bewildered voice answered, “Wha..Who’s there?”

“Thomas it’s me. Open up.”

A shuffling sound and rattle later the door opened slowly. Thomas blinked at her blearily with bloodshot eyes. Y/N waited patiently for him to come back to reality just enough.

He asked groggily, “Is everything ok?”

“You’re having nightmares.” 

Thomas stiffened, glancing around as if the whole world might be listening. He was about to answer when Y/N stepped forward, gently placing her hand on his chest. 

His skin was hot and damp, the sweat having left a small layer that made him glisten in the barest of light. The air inside the room was hot as it poured through the crack in the door, trying to escape.

He placed his hand over hers. “What’re you doing?”

She looked up at him, somehow finding his eyes in the darkness. “Let me in.”

“She says at the entrance of the Devil’s den.” A soft rumble rolled from deep within his chest, a sleepy laugh.

“If you think I’m not a devil myself then I really need to jog your memory.”

“Y/N.” 

Every ounce of fight in him suddenly dissolved away. After so many years of nightmares. After so long in the darkness. After watching her die a thousand times in his dreams. He had no will left to say ‘No’.

Y/N pushed her way inside, careful not to bump into anything that could make her fall. The room was much smaller than hers, and the window wasn’t open even the slightest, accounting for the heat. 

As she walked inside she let her hand fall from his chest to intertwine with his fingers. Thomas let her lead him back towards the bed. It was actually smaller than the one she had in the other room, but that didn’t stop her from laying down and pressing her back against the wall.

She waved for him to join her, “Come on, Thomas. Before the room becomes freezing again.”

His brows furrowed as he tried to process what was going on. “I don’t think this will help your ribs heal.”

“Just shut up and get in here.”

He crawled in slowly, careful not to jostle her. Thomas paused before laying his head down. Y/N finally got tired of waiting and slid back onto the bed proper and maneuvered him until his head rested on her stomach. 

Her fingers ran through his hair as he mumbled, “This isn’t hurting you?”

“The broken ones are higher up. And while I’m pretty sure any doctor would be shitting themselves right now, I’m fine.” 

“Y/N,” he protested.

“Hush now, and get some sleep.” 

After a few moments he chuckled, “My feet are hanging off the edge a bit.”

She hummed as sleep reclaimed her, “We’ll just have to sleep in mine tomorrow.” 

“The scandal.”

“Damn right.”

[joontier]

The King’s Guard | the minis ii. 

pairings: kim seokjin x reader ; jeon jungkook x reader ; min yoongi x reader

rating: R (18+) | genre: established relationship! au, historical! au smut, fluff 

warnings: explicit sex; (dunno what this kink is called) but jinnie likes being called the king by the lohs; kink discoveries; oral (m receiving); dom-sub undertones

word count: 4.9k 

g/n: and because it’s seokjinnie missing hours~~~ Okta is also based off Okta in Hwarang and YES AHRO MAKES AN APPEARANCE WOOTTT also,,, chapter 6 might also come out real soon aCIfjoasdfj

The King’s Guard - Masterlist  ||  navi.

It’s been a while since Seokjin had retired to your shared room after a long day. He’d initially considered waiting for you while he changed into his sleeping garments but after some time and eventually managing to finish a scroll he’d taken from his office, Seokjin gets up from where he’s seated by the window and asks for Yunho. 

A different voice answers from outside, “Jeonha, the guard you are looking for is not with us right now.” Seokjin tries to push away the worry that’s starting to creep through him. The king chooses not to reply, quickly heading over to the dresser to put back on the clothes he was wearing earlier. 

You’d never stayed out this late before and as much as he hated to admit it, the capitol isn’t always the safest place, even for its own citizens. There were rumors of an uprising rebellion in the south and the thought of you in danger - he couldn’t risk it. He won’t risk it. 

The king asks for Chaeyoung, who was told to be by the palace kitchens. He flees out of the hanok as soon as he gets dressed, taking his sword with him. Just in case. With haste in his steps, Seokjin arrives at the kitchen in no time, asking the cooks if they happened to see you anywhere in the palace. 

He receives no response concerning your current whereabouts from the gungnyeo’s quarters either, so he gestures to the guards to follow him, the group walking briskly towards the stables. When Seokjin discovers Yunho’s horse is likewise missing, worry grows in his chest, already praying to the heavens that nothing bad has happened to you. 

Gesturing for the troop to hurry, he arranges the saddle on his horse by himself. “Jeonha!” Seokjin breathes a sigh of relief as he hears Yunho’s voice calling him from a distance. He pulls on the reins, directing the horse to turn around. The king, however, doesn’t see you with Yunho, nor does he sense any security in the guard’s worried expression. 

“_________?” The guard bows briefly, before opening his mouth to speak. Realizing his current predicament does not need to reach the ears of the other guards, Yunho manages just in time to stop himself from speaking out loud. 

“My King,” Yunho speaks, voice low as he guides his horse nearer to Seokjin’s. “Jungjeon-mama is uh…” the guard racks his brain for a better word to explain your present condition but attains nothing. Instead, he settles on the plain truth, despite how strange it sounds rolling off his tongue, “the queen is...um… she’s drunk, your grace.” 

It takes Seokjin a moment to process Yunho’s words - the possible image of your drunken state too much for your husband to even picture properly. Seokjin worries for your safety - knowing that you’d never had any proper alcohol in your life. The king quietly prays to his ancestors to watch over you for the meantime while he  recollects himself before anyone notices, not wanting to cause any more worry. 

When Seokjin deems everyone ready, Yunho suggests the troop to prepare a palanquin after having seen your state - clearly far too intoxicated to even sit upright on a horse. Yunho escorts the king to the establishment where Haesoo had called for his help. 

Much to yours and Seokjin’s luck there aren't many people on the streets, given it was already deep into the night - which only got Seokjin worried and wondering; what could possibly be the reason for you to visit such a place? And at such a late hour? 

Were you unhappy with your marriage? Was he lacking as a husband? As a king perhaps? A million questions are running through his head - unable to think straight as his horse gallops along the dirt road. 

 “Lady Ahro! Why do I feel like my husband is here?” you giggle, leaning nearly all of your weight on the poor lady. Ahro has been watching over you since she called for Haesoo’s attention who then called for Yunho, and now the same guard had paid her for such a task. Watching over royals was never in her line of duties, especially those whose drunken selves are a pain to attend to, but the lady was willing to do anything as long as she’d get paid. 

 When someone came to inform her earlier this afternoon of the soon arrival of an elite client, she was banking on one of her regulars paying her a visit, but she never expected the nation’s queen to visit such a place like Okta. 

 The establishment was built by and for the elites, yes, but it catered to a more generally younger and more… for lack of a better word, carefree audience. People usually came to Okta for two things: to meet new people of the same societal ranking and to have fun, occasionally, a little too much fun in privacy of the rooms it provided. 

 It was awkward, at first, unsure how to approach each other. You take a deep breath and speak first, and you can sense her gratitude in the small smile playing in the corner of her lips. “I need your advice,” you start off, voice barely above a whisper. 

The lady in front of you lightly raises an eyebrow at your request. “I believe you have to be more specific with your request, my queen. It is my belief that I am knowledgeable on most things - but I am not sure which field in particular you wish for me to share my insights.” 

You gulp, completely frozen in place. Chewing on your bottom lip, you consider rethinking your life decisions. Why were you here? What actually got you here in the first place? Ah yes, to learn more about what goes on behind the doors of a married couple, or, if you were being completely honest with yourself, you wanted to know more about the pleasures of the flesh. 

Confessedly, you and Seokjin were relatively a young married couple, you were together for quite a few years already, but you only had the chance to stay in the privacy of your shared room only after your marriage. Other than that, the only displays of affection you had with Seokjin never really went past kissing, or that one time he accidentally groped your chest when you almost fell out of balance while on a horse… if that even was to be considered under that category… 

And it wasn’t that the both of you hadn’t been on that certain level of intimacy yet, but during those times - you felt like you could have actually contributed more. If you were being completely honest, you had mixed feelings about the whole matter - even questioning the fact that you are even concerned about this in the first place. 

Due to the hushed rumors circling the noble class of the city, you’ve had the chance to eavesdrop about this particular establishment which allowed the citizens to enjoy art and music in a more...unconventional manner. 

Okta was a crossover between an inn and a canteen but people apparently spent more time consuming alcohol while enjoying each others’ company (whichever came first) in the common and private areas inside the place. 

You’d even heard of a lady who told tales of all genres, including erotica, in exchange for a few silver coins. The price was reasonable and with your curiosity and your married-woman-insecurities out on your sleeve, you thought Okta was perhaps the place where you’d finally discover the answers to your unspoken queries. 

So you had secretly scheduled a meeting with the infamous “Ahro” and the only other person who knew of this rendezvous was Haesoo, who swore on her ancestors that she wouldn’t tell a soul of your whereabouts, unless it would be of a life and death situation. 

Your intoxicated state was apparently considered one. 

You had most definitely not intended to actually consume alcohol but considering the fact that Lady Ahro’s stories ultimately had the small hairs on your nape stand on end, not to mention those tips she occasionally throws in for you to use, (tonight too, just as she had advised!), you figured you might as well have a little wine running through your veins to boost your lack of courage. 

How you got to this point however - practically clinging onto Ahro for dear life as you giggle uncontrollably - was beyond you. Both your mind and vision have become hazy as the hours pass and you’re barely aware of what’s going on in your surroundings. 

She hears rustling from outside the room where you spent talking for hours on end, and she wonders if her temporary guardian duties will finally end. At least the handsome guard had already given her more than three weeks worth of her wages. 

The king pokes his head in, eyes scanning the room. He finds you practically draped over Ahro who looks like she’d had to deal with you since time immemorial. Apologizing in your stead, he requests Ahro to leave the two of you for a moment. 

It takes the pair quite some effort to pry you off the lady. Seokjin offers another bag of silver in exchange for her silence and Ahro almost considers not taking the payment to preserve her dignity, but quickly remembers she didn’t have much of it in the first place so with a wave and a gentle reminder to Seokjin to never leave you alone again in the establishment, Ahro takes her money and scurries off. 

“Sarang, it’s time to go.” Seokjin tugs at your hand to pull you up but you decline, looking away as you put on your best cutesy angry face. He just chuckles at you, gasping in surprise as you tug him downwards, ultimately landing on the spot next to yours. “I still want to play.” 

Feeling Seokjin’s chest vibrate with laughter, you pout at him. Since when did Seokjin have such a wonderful neck? It seems like this is the first time you’ve seen his bare neck in years - his throat and whatever is that lump that’s sticking out from his throat is suddenly so...attractive? 

In fact, you’ve found it insanely attractive that you’re unable to stop yourself from placing a wet kiss on his neck, just below his jawline. His breath hitches and the action only spurs you further, peppering his throat lingering kisses, working your way down to his collarbone. 

Seokjin exhales shakily as he gently tries to pry you off him. “_______, dearest. Not here jagiya. We need to get you home.” 

“Can we play then? When we get home?” 

He’s never seen you reply like this before and your husband is tempted to ask who you were and what could you have possibly done to his wife, but judging by your current state, he deems it’s not going to end well if he does. Instead, Seokjin just nods at you in reply. 

He’s surprised when that actually gets you on your feet. Wincing at the sudden headache that booms through your temple, Seokjin holds you steady as you stumble in your stance. As the pain subsides enough to be tolerable, you shake yourself off of Seokjin’s grasp, skipping giddily out of the room. 

Finding difficulty bearing with your drunken mood swings, your husband lets his head flop forward in exasperation as he rubs his face with his palms. Realizing he has yet to watch you in case your inability to walk in a straight line might strike again, Seokjin quickly runs after you. 

Just as he had thought, you fall midway to the back door, landing on your knees. Your husband rushes to you, asking if you felt any sort of pain. The boisterous laugh that escapes your lips answers his question efficiently. 

Because of the sudden sound, Seokjin sees some of the people from the common area are trying to peek through the slits between the wooden panels covering the hallways, wondering where that sound came from. With graceful haste, Seokjin scoops you up from the floor and walks briskly towards the end of the hallway where Yunho and the rest of the group were waiting with a palanquin. 

Your husband ushers you into the litter but your unusually stubborn self continues to cling onto the silken fabric of his jeogori so Seokjin had no other choice but to climb in as well - the palanquin, thankfully, spacious enough to fit two passengers. 

Latching onto his arm the moment you’ve settled in your seat, Seokjin wonders slightly if you’ll have any recollection of this once you’ve become sober tomorrow. The king heaves a sigh, finally getting the chance to feel that certain level of relief now that you were quiet and beside him at last. 

Seokjin might have spoken too soon. 

Next thing he knew, you were snuggling into his chest, fingers dancing lazily along his thigh while you’re at it. Your husband didn’t find it suspicious at first, but when he feels your digits trail dangerously up north, Seokjin gently pushes your hand away keeping them secure under his grasp as he places them on your lap. 

Desperation can’t seem to stop anybody though. Even with your hands cuffed beneath Seokjin’s huge palms, you manage to latch your lips on his neck one more time, sucking on the sensitive spot along the creamy expanse of his throat. 

The sound that reverberates throughout Seokjin’s body is something you’ve never heard of before - the almost animalistic sound canonically shooting a jolt of pleasure straight to your core.

You continue your ministrations until Seokjin gets a hold of himself after an embarrassing amount of time, pulling away from you with a stern look on his face. He calls you by your full name, scolding you slightly of a behavior unbecoming of a queen, reminding you that you both weren’t in the confines of your room and any occurrence of a scandalous event is unaffordable by the royal family. You cower slightly in your seat, not expecting your very own husband to use his authoritative king voice on you. 

But just like the interesting turn of events in a short time span tonight, the alcohol coursing through your veins seem to have a mind of its own. 

Instead of letting your husband hinder you from your intentions, you take advantage of Seokjin’s loosened grip on your hands, climbing onto his lap swiftly and gracefully, that the palanquin manages to not move much so as not to raise any suspicion from outside. 

“Have I been a very bad queen, Seokjinnie?” Your hand purposely brushes through his crotch before trailing upward to cup his jaw. Seokjin staggers at the teasing tone of your voice, thoughts drifting off to whatever they made you drink inside that made you a completely different person.  He badly needs to get a hold of those too. 

Pushing yourself further into his lap, so close that he feels your breath fanning against his nose. “Jeonha,” you whisper salaciously, nipping at the shell of his ear, “Aren’t bad queens going to get punished?” Seokjin remains silent as he stares at you with an intense gaze, lust clouding over his dark orbs. 

“Hmm?” you tap his chin once, feeling the faint stubble of a promising beard. Your husband’s face remains stoic even with your provocative efforts, so you decide to take it up a notch, inspired and fueled by one of Ahro’s stories earlier. 

Your hand travels under your skirt, lifting it just a little to reveal that tiny sliver of skin to your husband and as you raise yourself a tiny amount from his lap, you swiftly untie the cloth covering your most private of parts, throwing them aside somewhere else inside the palanquin. 

“I am most willing to take any punishment, jeonha...” you whisper as you grind your core on his crotch. Even with your thick skirt hindering you from experiencing the intense pleasure from grinding on his clothed cock, there’s still that faint feeling of his erection as you grind even heavier. “Twofold,” you state, gyrating your hips to match your counting. “Threefold…” another one. You see the lump on Seokjin’s throat bob up and down as he gulps. “Fourfold.” 

“Don’t worry, my queen. I’ll be sure to punish you accordingly,” comes Seokjin's equally strained reply, not taking his eyes off you as he thrusts upwards. 

Seokjin returns you back to your seat beside him effortlessly, not a word spoken. Well, it’s not as if it’s needed. The tension inside in the now-seemingly cramped space is enough for you to perceive what might happen in the next few moments. As if in sync with your thoughts, Seokjin reminds, “Stay still in your seat, unless you want more punishment later.” 

You manage to stay still in your seat, despite your thoughts completely haywire. Maybe you wanted more punishment? Or are you already asking for too much? Was he really going to punish you? 

Not before long, the palanquin halts, indicating your arrival at the palace. Seokjin spares you a look, heart melting at the sight of you already asleep, snoring slightly in your sleep. 

He chuckles at your slumbering form, climbing out of the palanquin first before asking Yunho to assist him as he clambers to get you out of the litter. Seokjin then proceeds to carry you in his arms and up the stairs to your hanok. 

Laying you gently on the bed, Seokjin undresses you layer after layer, knowing how uncomfortable it will be for you if you continue sleeping in the multiple layers of clothing you have on. Your husband delicately tears off your jeogori first, then laughs to himself as he turns you to the side to untie the knot on your skirt, remembering your alcohol-induced bravado earlier. The young king makes a mental note to ask someone tomorrow to get a sample of whatever they had given you prior...for research purposes. 

He takes the bowl of water he’s kept by the fire to maintain its temperature, pulls out a small washcloth from your dresser and dips the same into the bowl. Seokjin drags the white fabric along the expanse of your skin not covered by your undergarments. When he deems you freshened enough, he pulls on the ribbon holding half of your hair up in a ponytail. 

Fishing your favorite brush from a nearby drawer, a satisfied smile plays on the corner of Seokjin’s lips, running the brush along your hair fanned out on the pillows. Though he loves you for who you truly are, one physical attribute of yours that appeals to him most is your hair - he can’t quite put a finger on it, but there’s something about your hair that he finds so feminine, something he finds strangely, but insanely attractive - much more than he can ever admit out loud. 

Propping an elbow for something to lean on, he finds brushing your hair particularly soothing and therapeutic, enough to even lull him to a deep sleep, one hand on the brush and the other holding your hand. 

A raging headache and a parched throat wake you from your peaceful sleep, squinting as your eyes adjust to take in your surroundings. You try to recollect what happened last night, vague splashes of last night’s events splayed across your thoughts. 

A royal robe covering haphazardly draped over someone’s legs discontinues your momentary reminiscence. Twisting your torso to the side, you see your husband, mouth slightly open as he snores away happily in his sleep. He must’ve taken off your outer clothes last night and — you rack your brain thinking hard if you had done something unintelligible and embarrassing. 

Your brazen advances last night finally dawn on you, face cringing as you remember bits and pieces of how you were the night before. ‘It must have been a nightmare for Seokjin,’ you think to yourself, already conjuring up a lame apology for your inexcusable behavior. 

Pushing your robe away from Seokjin’s legs, you take notice of the erection hidden beneath the confines of his pants. You make an attempt to not stare at it perversely but it was standing tall and proud like that, and oh - your eyes widen as you see it twitch, as if demanding all of your attention.

Wasn’t this a common occurrence in the morning? You might have felt it a few times during your rising when Seokjin spooned you in his sleep, but your timidity can’t seem to address the concern to your own husband. 

Looking away, you shift in your position to share your blanket with your husband. Seokjin unexpectedly wakes up at the action though, giving you a small fright. “Sarang, you’re awake already? Seokjin is talking slower than usual, voice still groggy from sleep. 

You nod at him with a shy smile, embarrassed at the fact that you almost got caught eyeing that thing between his legs. “Are you alright? Dizzy, perhaps?” 

“Just a little, but I’ll be okay. Thank you for taking care of me last night,” you place a kiss on his cheek as Seokjin hums delightedly. “You must have taken quite the beating last night.” Fiddling with your fingers as you apologize for your behavior last night, Seokjin grabs at your hands and takes them between his. 

“It’s fine, sarang. Actually, it was quite...amusing, if I do say so myself,” your husband comments, winking at you. Seokjin sits up, resting his back against the wooden board and beckoning you nearer to him. 

As you scoot closer, you snuggle into Seokjin’s chest. Your husband places a kiss on your temple, before playing with your hair, just silently carding his fingers through them. “Do you mind telling me what actually happened last night - the things I said, perhaps? I can’t really recall them properly…” 

“Truthfully I was worried when I didn’t see you here yesterday. It was already late when I returned from the office and I don’t really want to be that type of husband that locks you inside the palace but I became really anxious when you still hadn’t returned.” 

“I’m sorry I made you worry,” you frown, mentally noting to inform Seokjin of your whereabouts before leaving the palace. 

“It’s alright, really. Anyways, I found you practically attached to Ahro, was it? And then we went home. Now we’re here.” 

“That’s it?” With the evident Seokjin’s haste in his recollection, you’re starting to get suspicious about how the previous night could have ended that quickly - that...uneventful. 

“Nothing else happened? Like I didn’t do or say anything? Am I a quiet drunk?” Your husband looks overwhelmed with all your questions, gulping before he responds. 

“You kind of said a couple of things...but! It’s nothing really, nothing major…” Seokjin chuckles nervously, scratching at the back of his head. 

“That can’t be the whole story?” You raise an eyebrow at your husband, testing him. Sliding lower down his chest a little so you have a better view of him, you trace the faint stubble on his chin. “Tell me, my king? Please?” 

“Don’t call me that,” Seokjin mumbles, looking away. “Doesn’t seem like you dislike it though, jeonha.” Your husband heaves a sigh, knowing you’ve won again. “You do know I love you with all my heart, right? And I don’t want you to think that I might take advantage of your drunkenness - which I didn’t, really, because you fell asleep too before anything actually happened…” He was stalling, you figured, as it might involve something that made him uncomfortable. 

“It’s okay if you don’t want to tell the whole thing… I just… why do I only remember me saying something along the lines of punishment?” Seokjin looks down at you with dilated pupils. 

“It’s not that I don’t want to tell you...it’s just…” your husband pauses, thinking deeply about what his next statement might entail. “I can’t think about it without getting hard…” 

Seokjin looks almost strained as he looks to the side, avoiding your eyes. “If only you’ve seen - heard yourself last night, gods! It was like a different you completely” 

Just as if the universe is on your side, you’re starting to get clearer recollection of last night’s events, realization slowly dawning on you. Likewise, Ahro’s words ring inside your head, urging you to go make your move. Relying on the last possible ounce of alcohol remaining inside you, you gather all your courage and make a proposition. “Am I still up for punishment? Jeonha?” 

Seokjin dramatically exhales, rubbing at his face. “Don’t say things like that, ________!” Laughter is already bubbling in the pit of your stomach (just as much as the anticipation for what’s to come, in case your plan works out) but you control yourself, maintaining a straight face as you continue to query him. 

“Why? Did I say something, my king?” 

Your husband makes a sound, somewhere between a grunt frustration and resilience, and looks at you dead in the eye, “You saying those things just makes me really want to punish you.” Pulse rapidly accelerating, you make a final question, “What’s stopping you, jeonha?” 

Seokjin wastes no time with your affirmation, connecting your lips together. Moaning into the kiss, he shifts in his seat to cage you between him and the bed, strong arms holding him up as he deepens the kiss.

Shamelessly grinding his erection against you, Seokjin grunts, gripping at your thighs to keep them spread, “Do you feel how aroused you get me all the time?” Mewling at the sensation, you manage to choke out a reply, “As do you, my love.”

Your husband deftly unties the undergarments you’ve slept in. “Seok…” a breathy whine escapes you as he latches onto on of your nipples. The foreign feeling of his warm, wet tongue sends you shivering and it takes all your might to stop him as you remember Ahro’s advice yesterday, squeezing at your husband’s lithe biceps.

“What is it, sarang? Do you wish to stop?”

“N-no. I want to take control, Jinnie.”

Albeit slightly taken aback by your behest, Seokjin nods, sitting on his heels. “Lie down, my king. I want to pleasure you.” Shock is evident in your husband’s features as he complies with your command, cock already twitching in anticipation. “Take off you clothes too.” Seokjin obeys without further questioning, unknowingly easing the mild worry nipping at you.

Just as what Ahro had told you yesterday, you splay your hands on his chest, before bending down slowly to place kisses all over the milky expanse of his skin. Moving further south until your reach that thin trail of hair, Seokjin’s sudden intakes of air continuously urge you on, until you finally get to his crown jewel.

Licking at your lips, you hastily pull his pants down, your desperation for a mutual release guiding your actions on instinct. As soon as his cock springs free from its confines, you get into action, placing a wet kiss on the tip of his length before slowly taking the head in your mouth.

“O-oh, fuck! What did that lady tell you back at Okt…” Seokjin cries out a broken moan as you pull your mouth back up then diving back in, eventually getting lower to the base. You feel your husband tremble with your every bob, subconsciously tugging at your hair in pleasure.

Seokjin starts to squirm around you, pushing your mouth away from his shaft. “My love, please…. please let me be inside you. I can’t cum like this, please.” Seokjin beseeches, torso already covered in a fine sheen of sweat.

Your husband switches your positions as he pushes you gently onto the bed, but your hand shoots out to grab at his wrist. “C-can...can I be on top?”

There’s a slight furrow in Seokjin’s brows at your request, but he smiles nonetheless, keeping his excitement at bay. “Of course, love. You’re free to sit on your throne anytime.” 

He lies back down, both palms out to support you in your task. Gladly placing your hands on him, you crawl back on his lap, moving on your knees to position yourself to impale yourself on his cock.

Taking his length in your hand, you languidly swipe the tip against your wet folds. With one final breath, you push downward, sinking down on his cock until he’s fully seated inside you. Slowly you start, swiveling your hips just as you were told. Seokjin keeps his gaze at you through hooded eyes – a definite boost of confidence for you.

You settle on a particular rhythm, just gyrating your hips around before it gets too much like you’re almost at that point, but not quite yet. You start alternating by bouncing atop him, while your fingers find your clit, rubbing at your nether bud vigorously to push you towards your high.

Seokjin grabs at your breasts, twisting and tweaking your nipples, stimulating you further. He feels you clench around him as you orgasm nears quickly and his balls tighten likewise, painting your velvety walls white as he reaches his climax after you.

You fall to his chest, panting just as heavily as Seokjin. He decides on keeping himself still sheathed inside you for a while longer, reveling in the feeling of his cum dripping out of your pussy and onto his thigh. “The next time you go to Okta, take me with you, alright? I’ll have whatever you had back there.” 

© joontier 2020

[dopescotlandwarrior]

Sinners & Saints-Chapter 14

               A special thanks to @statell​ for all your help

Previous chapters at AO3

Chapter Fourteen

The tender ride to the island had Claire’s last nerve in shreds. She was very afraid of having her chip taken out today, even though Jamie already tested the safety of the procedure the day before. The four of them split up at the front of the clinic, Darius and Maia would hang out at the back door of the facility just in case the good doctor made a run for it.

Jamie held Claire’s hand and scowled at the nurse during check-in. The doctor saw them and abruptly turned around but was soon escorted back by Darius. The nurse was decidedly unfriendly today which added another layer of stress to the procedure. Jamie just wanted it over with and pulled Claire to the treatment room when they were called.

The doctor thankfully started with a shot of Valium that put Claire out completely. It was a little unnerving. Claire was not a rambunctious mover when she wasn’t sedated, but this complete stop even unnerved the doctor, so he put a monitor on her heart. Jamie held a glass jar out for the doctor to drop the bloody implant into before closing the incision. He knew women had a thing about their upper arms looking nice, so he watched every stitch closely.

Jamie handed the doctor ten one-hundred-dollar bills and they left as soon as Jamie could wake her up. Claire smiled continuously and said hello to everyone they passed. She stopped to pet a lady’s purse and asked what its name was. Jamie was struggling to keep her walking in a straight line and if he stopped she would go off in another direction, so it took multiple attempts to call Darius.

Once Claire was in the tender, he searched for Darius and Maia, hoping they would hurry. The inebriated Sassenach needed to be locked in her room until the Valium wore off. Everything almost went south getting her onto the aft deck when she fell backward. Jamie was able to catch her before she slipped into the ocean. He was so rattled, he put Claire to bed and watched her from a nearby chair. Maia came in with a tray of food and agreed to sit with her so Jamie could get his sketch pad. He was intrigued by the locals, the tone of their skin, their gestures, and facial expressions. While Claire slept, Jamie roughed in the scene he wanted to paint and the remainder of the day was uneventful.

Jamie had given up hope that Claire would wake up that day. He wanted to talk about Danny and the extraordinary things she said and knew about his paintings, even those not done yet. It would have to wait until tomorrow he decided and slid his sketchbook into his bed table.

Claire’s eyeballs peeked out from under their lids at first light. She could hear the rhythmic breathing of her husband next to her, so she knew it was very early and after almost twenty-four hours of sleeping, she needed to get up. Adso had other ideas and did nothing but purr when she stroked him.

Sipping delicious coffee on the foredeck, the sun energized her to feel more alive by the minute. There was movement on Danny’s yacht and she watched the peculiar crewman standing on the foredeck holding a flat of flowers like a statue. How odd, she thought, until she saw Danny’s head pop up and take a handful of young Petunias before dropping out of sight again. She forced herself to stop looking and jumped at the vibrating cell phone next to her. Javier was the only person who called so she picked it up and said his name.

“Javier!”

“No darling, it’s Danny, do you remember giving me this number? If not, I’m sorry to intrude. How are you on this beautiful morning?”

“I feel amazing today, and you?”

“Very well indeed, but I could use a hand with these young plants if you have a moment.” She chuckled, “I apologize for being unacceptably straight forward, dear, please forgive me.”

“No, no, I would love to help, plant flowers? On your boat? I love gardening but never considered doing on a boat. Yes! I would love to help you, Danny. I see your tender is out, can someone come and get me in ten minutes?”

Claire left a note for Jamie and got into the tender waiting for her at the aft deck. She was excited to see Danny again and planting small flowers, however weird that was on a boat, was the perfect activity for her energized morning.

Danny smiled brightly when Claire walked onto her deck, removing her gloves to shake her hand warmly. The tender engines screamed away until it was clear of the yacht, then the crewman pulled the steering wheel harshly for a nautical-donut that launched the young man sideways, splashing down about twenty-feet from the tender.

“Oh my God!”

Danny held her arm before she could jump overboard and rescue the man. “Don’t worry about the cub my dear, he has a racer’s heart and can’t help himself. I had the tender engine modified so when someone let’s go of the throttle it stops moving. He’s fine,” she giggled. “Let me show you our chore for this morning.”

Claire followed Danny along the side deck to the other end of the enormous yacht and stepped down to the foredeck. She watched her step descending the six steps and noticed greenery around her feet and heard the most amazing music. Once on the deck, she looked around at the beautiful garden Danny had created. There were large trees, many bushes, vines, trellis clinging roses, a proper rose garden, and planters overflowing with pansies in every color that lent their sweet smell to the air.

“This is amazing, Danny! It is the last thing I would expect on a boat. It is beautiful but what happens during a storm?”

“If we can’t outrun it the planters are wheeled into a garage beyond that door. You just lift a bit on the end of the planter and the wheels pop out.”

“Oh! That is so clever! Well, I’m ready, where do I start planting?”

Danny showed her an empty planter and they discussed what levels and colors should be included then Claire got to work. When Danny came to check on her a bit later, the planter was done. She and Danny took turns watering the expansive deck full of flowers and talked as they worked.

“Have you always loved to sale or yacht?”

“No, I bought this yacht to get away from my son who wants to put me in a home. Turns out I really like the freedom, the people, and my crew.” She regarded Claire for several minutes and finally spoke to her about the joys of being nosy.

“My dear, I was raised strictly, trained in social graces at the best boarding schools, I was a debutante, and my family is at the top of the social food chain so to speak. I caught a fever in my early thirties that killed my husband and put me into a coma for a month. I had a lot of time to think before I woke up and I was a changed woman from then on. The first change was I spoke my truth, whatever that was. Let me demonstrate.”

Claire was delighted with her perky and fun attitude and listened closely.

“You, my dear, might spend the entire time asking socially acceptable questions and never get an answer to the question that burns in your mind. Give it a try, what do you want to ask me?

Claire watched Danny encourage her to speak up and she finally blurted out “how can you afford this boat and live-in crew? Oh God, it’s none of my business Danny, please forgive me!”

Danny stood straight and held her head high, “nonsense! When I tell you the answer, we will be friends and I want to be your friend so come inside, out of the sun for some refreshment while I explain.”

Claire pulled off her deck shoes and looked up as a glass wall opened to the formal saloon. She was struck dumb as her eyes took in the exquisite furniture and art in the massive room. There was a double grand staircase that went up to the second floor of living space and the boat seemed to go on for a mile. She was barely aware of Danny talking to her until she felt her hand slip through her elbow, leading her through the saloon.

“I can see that you like my floating home, and now there are two burning questions, are there not?”

“What…what does the rest look like?”

Danny chuckled and led Claire on a tour of luxury and abundance she didn’t know existed. The artwork was exceptional and they chatted about several of the artists. The formal dining room could serve twenty-four people comfortably with another dining room for everyday use. The floor to ceiling windows provided a stunning view with glass doors spaced to provide fresh air and an exit to the side deck. Beyond the double staircase were Danny’s expansive office, sitting room, private atrium, and bathrooms as big as Claire’s bedroom. All the flooring was Italian marble that also lined the walls of the shower, which you could fit a basketball team in.

“I don’t stay in these rooms, too big. I live in one of the staterooms and it’s just right for me.”

“What? Why? My God Danny, this is so beautiful it’s making me emotional.”

Danny showed Claire the private deck with a hot tub, full bar, outdoor shower, and lounges big enough for two. They continued the tour to the upper decks, four of them, a large movie theater, an upper saloon that was a bit more casual with flatscreen televisions that appeared when a button was pushed, a bar that looked fully stocked, and a foredeck with formal dining. Another level was dedicated to a full-sized gym with all the equipment, free weights, benches, a huge screen for watching aerobic videos, two saunas, a huge hot jacuzzi, and a running track that circled the enormous room.

They stepped into an elevator made of glass and went down to the lower deck with a large swimming pool and waterfall. The glass wall in front of the pool opened completely to the aft deck that was set up like a beach party with two bars, outside showers, lounges, and a closet full of towels. Danny pulled Claire’s hand and they were somehow back on the main deck walking through the expansive galley that included four of every major appliance needed for entertaining, four commercial refrigerators, freezers, and dishwashers, a two-hundred bottle wine cellar, and huge tables for food preparation.

Claire was in luxury overload and felt sad she would forget half of what she had seen.

“I wonder if you would accompany me for lunch and the second question you asked?”

Claire was delighted to spend more time with a woman she was really starting to like. Danny led her out to yet another private deck off the galley that was smaller and more intimate with a small table for two already made up for lunch. She picked up the phone and spoke to someone about a sore ankle, asking questions that made Claire feel she was really concerned about the person on the other end. Then she ordered avocado toast and tuna stuffed tomatoes with several side dishes and iced tea. Claire was overwhelmed by the experience and the calming water around the deck, about thirty feet down she guessed. When the food came, a muscular young man brought the plates stacked carefully up and down his forearms which were transferred to the table with no apparent effort. He limped away.

“You are very quiet dear Claire. Oh, you’re starving, poor thing, I don’t imagine you had much to eat yesterday.”

Claire’s head jerked up to look at Danny, smiling at her cheeks stuffed with food. How would she know about no eating as she slept yesterday away?

“Well, you eat while I tell you who I am and maybe what I hope to be to you sweet girl.”

“My birth name is Sepora Cornelius Meyer. My grandfather immigrated to America from Poland and worked in a small grocery until he learned to speak English. He purchased the store eventually, but I digress. Everything my grandfather touched turned to gold and he reinvested every dime he made in oil, real estate, and steel. The short version is he became rich and celebrated before he died, leaving a son to take his place, my father.”

The young muscular man came out with plates of cheese and fresh vegetables that were bite-sized. While Claire crunched on carrots she looked to Danny with anticipation.

“Things were different then. The household adopted the opinions of the father and never questioned. They had more money than could ever be spent but an idle life was not allowed, so my father worked, starting at the bottom, learning the business of steel, oil, and real estate. He was quite a man, my hero, never to be replaced.”

Claire waited and crunched celery while Danny took several tiny bites of her avocado toast.

“Before my brother died, poor Alfred, my life was positively glorious! Boarding school in France and Sweden, summers in various countries with my friends, and beautiful parties during the social season where we could be in the same room with boys our age. It was such fun. When we buried Alfred, all that changed. No more school, no more summers away, and parties became a new kind of classroom where I would learn from watching the men. I didn’t like it one bit so I stuck my nose in the air through the first season and won myself a stiff neck and a cross father, more determined to ruin my life.”

“What took the place of school?”

“I spent dreadfully long hours reading communications from my father to other companies, banks, businessmen, and political people. When the steelworkers refused to let me take an active role on the production floor my father set up a small desk and chair and that is where I read stacks of documents. When I could finally wash at the end of the day, I pretended I couldn’t hear my mother saying I was now deaf from the ungodly noise of the production floor. She smiled and told me to set the table when my hearing came back or none of us would eat. I recovered quickly.”

“Did it ever get more tolerable for you?”

“Father planted fake letters, several of them during my second year leaning the business. Brazen mistakes in accounting, materials, even which political party he supported. I missed them all because I was daydreaming of lovely parties or who I would marry. Father became distant and terribly unhappy and one night I heard him talking to mother about his shame over not having a qualified heir to lead the business. He was so sad and it broke my heart hearing his defeated voice. It took about a minute to realize I was an utter failure to the most important man in my life.”

“Oh, Danny, how could you know how important it was for you to learn?”

“He and mother both told me and I didn’t listen, until that night. After that, he would hand me a stack of documents and I ran back to his office for more, asking questions about certain decisions and correcting the math where I found mistakes. It took several days to convince him, but soon I was waiting for him to come down the stairs for our walk to the office and I pumped him with questions along the way. It seemed like he grew three inches but it was the weight of defeat getting off of his back, allowing him to stand straight and proud, beaming his smile to the world. I was never so happy, or relieved, to know I wasn’t a failure in his eyes. And that’s all there is.”

“What? How old were you when you took over? Did your family keep all three businesses? How did you survive the depression? What was it like to be the leader of that kind of fortune? What …”

Danny smiled at Claire and her eyes twinkled. “I would love to tell you more after we discuss my coma.”

“What?”

“I had become my father when I fell ill. My loving husband had succumbed to the illness and I didn’t know it for over a month as I was deep inside myself. I could see how I distanced myself from real life to free my mind for running the business and such. When I woke up I had a new burden to suffer because I could see things in people. Their happiness, sorrow, who they loved, and who they were deceiving. It was like living in a nightmare that never ended. Young people from the best families would shake my hand and I would see their hands around someone’s throat, choking the life out of them. It felt like I had gone insane, especially when my mother had me committed and took over the raising of my son.”

“Good God.”

“You are feeling my pain at the moment because you are an empath, dear Claire, and those that confide in you feel they are truly understood for the first time. It is a rare quality.”

“I think everyone feels the way I do.”

“Wouldn’t that be lovely?”

Claire heard a loud whistle and looked across the water finding Jamie and Darius standing in the tender holding spears up with two large fish impaled. She smiled and clapped a bit in the air, suddenly wanting to wrap herself around her husband.

“Thank you for spending time with me today, Claire. I hope to see you again, but it is time for me to rest. The cub has a boat race later and I will need my strength to endure it.”

Danny walked Claire to the aft deck and was truly surprised when Claire hugged her, thanking her for everything. Jamie helped her into the tender and she waved to her new friend who watched them smiling, until she disappeared into her own boat.

Jamie, Darius, and Maia, were asking about Claire’s morning making her uncomfortable with keeping Danny’s confidence about all she told her. She finally went to her room and drew a bath with bubbles to idle away part of the day.

“Everything alright, love?”

“No.” She looked at Jamie’s handsome face, “I miss you, although I don’t know how that could be.”

“I do, because I miss you too Sassenach. I came to ask you to go to the island with me today. I want to take some pictures of the five lads that will be in the painting. After that, we can play, have dinner, or drinks. But it is a date so look your best, like you do right now, mo chridhe.”

“What, here in the bath?”

“No, that wouldn’t be right unless we stayed right here.”

Jamie smiled and tried to grab her getting a wet sponge in the face for his efforts. Claire pulled the plug and stepped into the shower so Jamie could wash her hair.

When he came back an hour later, Claire was sitting on the deck in a pretty yellow dress that reminded him of something. She had straightened her hair and wore makeup to add the exotic dimension to her eyes. He slid his arms around her waist and asked if she was ready to go.

Once on the island, it wasn’t hard to find the five boys that hung out together. Jamie explained he was painting a picture and they were in it which caused quite a ripple in the calm of the afternoon.

Jamie took several pictures of each of them, close up of the face, one showing some mannerism, the other a body shot. He showed them and they laughed. Once Jamie sat down to sketch, Claire called them to her and when they realized how friendly, and pretty she was, they showed off for her trying to outdo the others. The sun was shining off her hair and shoulders and her smile was like a beacon on her tanned face. Jamie laughed at the playfulness of the boys he guessed to be fourteen to eighteen. Gentle, beautiful boys who had taken over his creative mind. Jamie packed up his paper and tools and they bid the boys goodbye to wander around town.

Jamie could see Claire’s shoulders getting red in the sun and pulled her into a dress shop that had a large section of hats, which he brought to her, five at a time. He chose a wide-brimmed hat and the shop owner was happy to wrap a yellow ribbon around it, tied in the back with the extra length hanging off the brim. They laughed and stole kisses and wandered aimlessly until it was time to find a restaurant and gorge themselves on local cuisine and whisky. Jamie slipped an arm around Claire when they left. If they had been more aware of the people around them, they might have noticed the stares, but they were in their own world.

Claire pulled her shoes off when they reached the sand. Jamie waited to be alone with her on the beach because the full moon provided all the light he would need.

“Sassenach, I have something for you.” He pulled her hand and she turned around with her tipsy smile and sparkling eyes. “God, your beautiful.”

“Do I get some sort of prize for something awesome I did?”

“Something like that.” He pulled a tiny box from his pocket and handed it to her.

She looked excited until she pulled the box open and her eyes fell on the diamond inside. She could not pull her eyes away from it.

“We can take it back and get something you like better. Just put it on, one time, and then decide.”

She handed him the box and never took her eyes off the ring. Offering her outstretched hand she watched him push it onto her finger, and then he pulled her to his mouth for a sweet kiss.

“Thank you, Jamie,” she whispered.

“Your welcome, love.”

Once in the tender, they moved slowly to the yacht, careful to keep the engine quiet as they passed boats and yachts with people sleeping inside. Claire moved to the floor of the tender and leaned against the inflated side and dropped her head back. She was looking up at the moon, directly above her, feeling deliciously happy, slightly buzzed, and ran her hand down her burning nipple. Jamie watched her tipsy arousal and wanted her naked under the moonlight.

When the motor shut off, she looked at him like he was all she needed for the rest of her life. Jamie crept toward her and pulled off his shirt and shorts. He wanted her to remember this night. The dress came off, as did the tiny thong she wore and he pulled her leg up and over the inflated side of the tender. He pushed into her body placing greedy kisses on her face and neck. He wanted it to last but seeing his naked wife and the way her breasts bounced with every thrust was his undoing. He couldn’t help himself, he let it go when her orgasm started and pumped his warm love into her body while she clung to him.

They laid in each other's arms and talked quietly, about love and what was ahead.

“Jamie, I want to buy a new tender. This is like an inflatable raft, so I suppose the previous owner had little use for it. It doesn’t feel safe, but it was a marvelous bouncy thing to make love on.”

“Of course, Sassenach.”

Jamie raised up on an elbow and looked around the tender in all directions. He pulled Claire up with a worried look and helped her dress before getting them back to the yacht. He held Claire with one arm and drove the tender with the other.

“Did you just turn completely around?”

“That I did Sassenach. Lay against me and rest, we’re almost home.”

When Jamie turned again she started giggling. “Sweetheart, are we lost?”

The motor started to sputter and lurch as the last of the gas was consumed. Claire could not stop giggling which calmed Jamie more than she would ever know. Claire dropped to the soft bottom of the tender and held her arms out to him.

“Come here, my darling man, and rest under the stars with me.”

Once she had twisted her arms and legs with his and laid against his chest, Jamie smiled at the moon and decided to relax. When they were dropping into sleep a huge noise woke them up and they clung to each other.

“What the fuck was that, Jamie?”

“It’s gone love, whatever it was. Rest now.”

Claire wasn’t relaxed and buzzed anymore, she was panting with fright and suddenly felt something very large push against her from under the water. Before she could say anything the horrendously loud noise was back and slimy cold water rained down on them.

“Jesus Christ, Jamie, what is that?”

Jamie suspected it was a whale that surfaced near them but had not formed a word before he felt something bump the tender. Claire started screaming as the bump came again, harder this time. Jamie pulled out his cell phone and prayed Darius would answer.

“Darius, thank God. We have a bit of a problem here.”

Something under the surface pushed on the tender again and kept pushing it until they were spinning around clinging to each other. Claire was screaming for all she was worth, and Darius was trying to sound calm for both of them.

“Do you see any lights, anywhere?”

“No, Claire sweetheart please don’t scream.”

“Do you have a flashlight? If you point it at whatever is beneath…”

“No.”

They were spinning in the tender pushed by something massive under the surface. Darius was running down the stairs as fast as his legs could go, worried they had drifted into the shipping lanes where they would never be seen before a gigantic cargo ship plowed over them, dragging them underneath it.

“Darius searched the water and saw nothing. “Jamie look up and tell me if you can see…”

“The sky is full of clouds now Darius, I can see nothing, it’s pitch black out here and something under the water is pushing us in circles. We need help!”

Darius noticed the lights coming on all over Danny’s boat and two bright searchlights swept the water for as far as he could see. He heard a tender approach and jumped in pointing a direction for the crewman to go. He had his phone on speaker and the young man was getting rattled by Claire screaming. He moved away from the throttle and told Darius to drive.

Claire was screaming the boat was going to tip over and Darius did his best to calm them down.

“Jamie! Hold onto Claire really tight and ask her to stop screaming, I’m in Danny’s tender and I’m coming to get you!”

When it was quiet Darius took a deep breath and played the only card that might save them.

“Be calm and don’t blow this, my friend. There is a flare gun in the water-tight compartment under the steering whflareIt is the only chance I have of finding you so ask Claire to sit perfectly still, take aim at the sky directly above you, and fire.”

A minute later the crewman pointed to a brilliant purple streak climbing into the sky, in the other direction.

“Did you see the flair from the water level?” The boy shook his head no, which meant they were very far away and Darius had only seconds before the flair extinguished.

“Sit down!”

Darius pulled back on the throttle and the dual engine tender launched in the direction of the flair. He noticed both searchlights were now directed at the ocean under the flair and hoped they could see the lights and know help was on the way.

Talking at that speed was impossible because the wind snatched your words away. Darius dropped the speed enough to tell the crewman to keep sight of the flair and then watch the smoke if it went out, then tap his leg when they were close. The tender jerked alive again, like a bullet shooting across the water. Darius was feeling frantic when the boy tapped his leg and he pulled up on the throttle. It was black as pitch above and below them and he knew his friends must be terrified. The boy put something in his hand, it was a flare gun!

“Holy shit, you just saved the day my man!”

“Jamie, are you there?”

“Well, I was about to hang up but decided to stay on a little longer,” said sarcastically.

“We have flairs, shooting one now, watch it for my direction.”

The bright red flair went shooting to the heavens. “Starboard, maybe half a mile.”

The crewman found an emergency box stored inside the bench seat at the back of the tender. There was a light that plugged into the battery port and it almost blinded them both. He held it high above his head and Darius shot another flair.

“Talk to me brother!”

“Portside, same distance.”

“What?!”

“We aren’t spinning anymore, it’s pushing us, a bit rough I might add.”

Darius could not wait. They had to take a risk if they were going to find them before the boat sank from something underneath.

“Your name.”

“Ethan, sir.”

“I’m Darius. It’s only right I know your name before risking your life. How do you feel about that..Ethan?”

“It’s what I came for, sir.”

“Perfect.”

Darius aimed the light a foot above the water and about 500 yards ahead. Once Ethan took the light, Darius pulled back on the throttle and kept his eyes glued to the direct path ahead.

Claire was on the edge of sanity after being bumped, spun, and pushed, by something large underneath the little tender. She couldn’t see anything in the dark black night except maybe a two-foot space that was lit by Jamie’s phone. She watched that space while Jamie talked to Darius and when an unexpected shape came up out of the water, caught by the dim light, Claire’s scream shattered the night and she fainted.

Jamie looked up at a large head shaped like a torpedo with an eye that regarded him before slipping back under the water. He held Claire on his lap and patted her cheek, begging her to wake up. Jamie was aware of another flare shot into the sky and realized he heard the gun go off this time.

“Darius! You’re close! Starboard and close!”

“Can you see my light, Jamie?”

Suddenly, there it was, like a hand reaching through the dark night to save them. He watched it until the white teeth of Darius’s smile materialized. Claire was rubbing her eyes and crying, waving at Darius in her filthy yellow dress.

Jamie pulled her to him, “thank Christ.” He reached for the rope and tied it tightly to the tow ring at the front of the tender. Darius heard the song of the Humpback whales in the distance and smiled at Claire.

“There’s your tormentor. Probably a female with a calf who had a bit of fun playing with the tender.”

Her ghostly white face peeked out from Jamie’s chest and he could see her shaking and teeth chattering. Jamie asked if she wanted to ride back on Danny’s boat. She moved to the side of her boat and looked down at the water before launching back into Jamie’s arms.

Darius slowly turned Danny’s tender around and moved the boat forward very slowly until the rope was taught and they were pulling the other boat. He turned toward them and asked them to lay on the floor of the tender and hold onto something. They were right in the middle of a shipping lane and Darius wanted to get them out of there pronto. He told Ethan to watch for bodies flying out and picked up speed gradually keeping the tow rope taught. Soon they were flying across the water until he gradually slowed down when the yachts were in view. Darius circled the boats twice, letting his wake provide resistance to slow the towed tender. Danny was waiting on Claire’s boat with Maia and helped bring Claire on board with teeth chattering and pasty white skin. The women helped her into bed and covered her with a quilt.

Danny sat next to her and pushed her hair out of her eyes. “I can’t imagine how terrifying that was for you. Luckily, your man is strong as an ox and would have beaten the sea thing off to save you.” Danny’s voice was soft and caring and Claire was so grateful for her help. Jamie is coming to warm you up and I hope you rest tonight dear. Goodnight.

Jamie and Darius thanked Danny repeatedly, not finding the right words to convey she had saved them tonight. Danny looked at Darius with a sleepy smile.

“You are rather good at what you do, don’t ever doubt that Darius. I saw your brave heart tonight and felt your relief when you found them. Quite extraordinary. Goodnight.

“Thank you for everything tonight ma’am.”

Darius helped Danny into her tender and watched until she was safely on board, the tender was resting in the garage, and the lights flicked off one section at a time. He knew the chance of finding them in time was zero without a fast boat and he felt the gratitude down to his toes.

Small arms circled his waist and he looked down at the incomparable Maia with her head tilted and her chin raised in a healthy come fuck me pose that threatened his very sanity. She would pull him back to earth and make him right again. He gave himself over to her.

[hoodwinkd1]

the stars that shine - Ch 3

Ch 2 here.

Chapter 3: I was sixteen when suddenly

“Excuse me, esteemed guests,” the herald called out. “A toast, from Queen Mother Georgina.”

The room silenced quickly, people putting down their dessert forks and picking up their flutes.

Hollin watched his mother rise, fixing her skirts and simpering at the crowd. “My dearest friends, thank you all so much for joining us for such a wonderful evening to celebrate Adarlan’s future.”

They couldn’t all be her dearest friends, could they? Considering Hollin didn’t recognize over half the faces, he highly doubted it.

“The fall harvest has produced more bounty than anyone predicted, so tonight is to celebrate the hard work of our farmers and all those who financially support them.” She paused for a moment, allowing light applause to flutter through the room.

He caught Dorian’s eye. Although the King looked engaged and supportive externally, Hollin could read the boredom oozing from him. They shared a look, both thinking that this dinner couldn’t celebrate farmers if none had been invited.

“And of course,” Georgina continued. “Tonight is celebrating my son as well. Happy birthday, Hollin. May this year provide even more success for you and the kingdom.”

She raised her glass against his, then sat down.

“Thank you,” he muttered, taking a large sip of champagne. “The dinner is...lovely.”

His mother preened. “Oh, of course my dear. Anything for your sixteenth.” She sighed and drank half her glass. “I cannot believe how grown up the two of you are. I remember, oh it feels like yesterday, when you first rode a horse--”

Her closest courtiers leaned in to hear the story, right as Hollin tuned her voice out. Only one glass, and he could sneak off while pretending to “work the room.”

Luckily, Dorian jumped in as soon as the story ended with him falling on a stable boy. “Hollin, would you join me? I spotted some people I should greet.”

His brother had been more supportive than usual in the past two year. After Hollin had begun his training, with a mortifying first lesson, Dorian had quietly stepped in to help. Although the two of them lacked the easy conversation between many siblings, they had come to some sort of arrangement. Hollin could find Dorian whenever he felt overwhelmed, without fearing judgment or scorn.

“Do you think she’s ever met a farmer?” Hollin wondered, as they navigated past tables. “Actually spoken to one before?”

Dorian chuckled. “I always forget how sheltered she’s been as Queen. Even during the damn war, Mother was too far away to interact with any soldiers or common people.”

“So was I.” The words flew out of Hollin’s mouth before he could think.

Dorian stopped walking. “What? You were a child.” He turned his head sharply. “Hollin, you can’t possibly feel guilty for-”

“Your Highnesses!” A family approached them. Hollin recognized the parents as Ladies Bernice and Nerissa Finnick, who oversaw much of the sea commerce in Rifthold, leading three of their children towards the princes.

Nerissa reached out a deep bronze hand. “Excuse the interruption. If you have a moment, Your Majesty, I would like to request a meeting for next week.”

Dorian took her hand and smiled warmly. “Of course. Hollin, have you met the Finnicks yet?”

Maybe his brother didn’t have his back all the time.

“Yes, Anya and I have had some classes together.” He nodded at the middle daughter.

Anya stepped forward as the adults began some boring conversation. “These are my brothers, Galen and Sebastian.”

“Nice to meet you,” Hollin responded, shaking both of their hands. He hated the formality these parties required, since most of his peers treated him quite casually in other settings. “Are you enjoying the evening?”

Galen smiled. “The food was excellent, so I can’t complain.” Hollin had to glance up to look at him, the whole family annoying tall, tan, and beautiful.

“Have you heard any news from Terrasen?” Anya asked. “From Evangeline?”

He wasn’t sure how to answer her question, whether she simply meant to further the conversation or if she wanted a certain piece of information. “Nothing...particular, but the royal family seems to be doing well.”

“Ah, well. I’ve written to her a few times, but she hadn’t mentioned any plans to return. We all miss her so much,” Anya sighed.

Oh. Apparently everyone on this damn planet loved Evangeline and expected them to be best friends.

“I’m sure she knows she’s welcome here anytime.” Hollin took a step back. “If you’ll excuse me, I have a few more guests to greet.”

He was lying, of course. Hollin snuck into the kitchens as soon as he maneuvered past prying eyes, content to finish the evening with another round of dessert and absolutely no more niceties.

---

Thick snow layered Orynth, as it always did in late winter, but the dining room inside the palace was downright toasty. Evangeline’s gaze kept catching on the massive window across from her, the white powder falling down in countless patterns and twists.

“Excuse me, Queen speaking!” Aelin called out, tapping a knife against her champagne flute to command everyone’s attention. “I’d like to make a toast.”

Evangeline started at the interruption, turning away from the snowfall, as Lysandra rolled her eyes from the seat next to her. “Just keep it brief, Galanthynius. Today isn’t about you.”

Aelin pouted for a moment, garnering laughs from the table, then shrugged her shoulders. “Fair point.” The two women shared a grin before she turned to face the larger group.

“Today is about two of my favorite people,” she began. “Lysandra and Evangeline, I am incredibly happy that we all came together to celebrate such happy news.”

Aedion leaned across the table and caught Rowan’s eye. “‘Two of my favorite people’ and we aren’t even included? Pure misandry,” he muttered. The silver-haired Fae chuckled lightly.

“Exactly,” Aelin shot back. “Now hush, male. Eva, even with the most chaotic group of parental figures, has managed to grow into one of the kindest, wisest, and most genuine young women I have ever met. I hope this year brings you joy and fancy jewelry, both of which you deserve plenty of. Happy sixteenth birthday, my darling.”

Evangeline blew her aunt a kiss. She couldn’t put into words what this entire evening meant to her, how unbelievable it was that the Queen and King of Terrasen hosted her birthday dinner. She glanced down the table, smiling at all of the family and friends that looked at her with such love in their eyes.

“Lys,” Aelin continued. “My best friend. You took care of me, and so many other people in this room, when we needed it most, giving you more than enough practice for this next chapter in your life. I think I might actually be more excited than Aedion for this baby.”

Aedion leaned back in his chair. “Not possibly, cousin.”

“Didn’t I already hush you?” Aelin scrunched her nose. Evangeline held back a giggle at their dynamic. “Anyway, I can’t wait to force Adara to befriend your child, just so we all have another excuse to spend time together. Cheers to these two beautiful women.”

“Cheers!” The whole table cried out, glasses clinking and liquid sloshing.

Lysandra tapped her glass of sparkling juice against Evangeline’s. “I’m a bit sad that you get to drink alcohol while I can't. I always imagined sneaking you liquor on a ladies’ night.”

Aedion put down his juice as well. The couple had agreed that if Lys couldn’t drink, neither of them could. “I always wanted to take her to one of the taverns in Rifthold. Watch little Eva drink her first ale while taking men for all their worth in cards.”

“I’m not that good,” Evangeline laughed. “And anyway, this is a very classy way to have my first, proper glass of alcohol.”

“Proper?” Rowan interjected, bouncing the crown princess on his leg. “Does that mean you’ve had an improper drink before?”

Aelin gasped. “My devious little angel”

“No!” Evangeline scrunched her nose. “I just meant, first drink beyond accidental sips and tasting it from your glasses. You’re all horrible.”

Aedion shrugged. “My first drink was when I was fourteen. Stepped off the battlefield and took a very large sip of something disgusting.”

Lysandra patted his knee affectionately. “That’s a terrible story. We probably all had bad experiences during our first time.”

“First time? Lys, you make it sound like something dirty,” Aelin teased. “My first time was quite romantic-”

“Really? Bringing him up at a nice dinner?” Rowan drawled. “In front of our child?”

Evangeline finally stopped trying to hold back her laughter and huge smile. She would miss this family, miss the ease and joy that came with every conversation during her next round of travels.

----

Evangeline all but threw herself onto the lavish bed, too exhausted to even consider taking a bath, though she most definitely needed one. Banjali might be the loveliest city she had ever seen, if not remarkably warm in the early springtime.

She had a week left in Eyllwe, with most of that time spent travelling. Aelin had pulled her aside before her visit, and asked her if she would be prepared for a visit to Calaculla to demonstrate Terrasen’s grief for the horrors committed there. Evangeline, of course, agreed to the detour.

As if to make up for the depressing finish to her stay, the Ytgers’ had ensured her time in the capital city was as happy as possible. The younger crown prince in particular put in the most time and effort to show her around the city. Evangeline didn’t mind, not when Deji was nice enough to look at.

She sat up at the sound of a sharp knock. “Time for dinner,” Fenrys announced from the other side.

“I haven’t had any time to change!” Evangeline protested, scrambling towards the vanity, eyes widening in shock at the state of her hair. “I thought we had an hour!”

She didn’t love that this trip was chaperoned, but Lysandra and Aedion had insisted. The ship would travel past Skulls Bay, a place where Aelin had apparently made more enemies than friends.

“We would have had an hour, if you didn’t stop for cake on the walk back.” Fenrys opened the door carefully. “Can I come into the sitting room?”

“Ugh!” Evangeline huffed, pulling her hair out of its braids. She walked over to the entrance of her bedchamber and slammed the door between them shut. “I’ll be ready in fifteen minutes.”

She could hear him pacing around. “If we get any snide remarks for being late, I’m tattling on you to Aedion.”

Evangeline stuck her tongue out, although he couldn’t see her. She didn’t have time for a proper reply.

Seventeen minutes later, the two of them walked down to one of the smaller dining rooms. The Queen stood at the entrance, looking impeccable as always. Evangeline looked...passable, clothed in a fresh, crimson dress and golden hair somewhat brushed.

“Hello, Your Majesty,” she greeted. “I hope we aren’t late.”

The Queen waved her off. “Tonight is a rather small affair, do not fret. Lord Fenrys, I hope you don’t mind that we planned on separating the children from the adults tonight? The boys have a couple friends with them and they do hate it when we eavesdrop.”

Fenrys puffed his chest a bit at the use of his title. “Perfectly fine by me. Assuming you can handle yourself, Lady Evangeline?”

“Of course,” she responded, her polite tone at odds with the elbow she shoved into his side when the Queen turned to lead them in.

Kharis, the elder prince, walked up to them. “Good evening. May I escort you in?” He offered up his arm, which Evangeline took with one last wave to the adults.

He steered her towards another door that he opened to reveal a room with a much smaller table. She was met with four pairs of eyes, only one of which she recognized.

“This is Lady Evangeline, from Terrasen,” Kharis announced.

“Oh please, just Eva,” she insisted. “Pleased to meet you.”

One of the girls stepped forward. “I’m Athaliah, and these are my siblings, Jethro and Phebe.”

They all took their seats then, and luckily, conversation flowed easily. The three of them were not nobility, but their grandmother had served with the Queen’s father. Evangeline didn’t quite understand how he had managed to get his daughter on the throne after an alleged rebellion against the former King, but she didn’t think it polite to ask.

Phebe and Deji seemed to have some special connection, joking on a level that suggested intimacy. Evangeline forced herself to feel any sort of disappointment at their banter. Even if she thought he had flirted with her, nothing actually happened.

“Would you like a drink?” The boy of her thoughts interrupted the conversation Evangeline was currently having with Athaliah. “We nicked some spiced wine.”

“That sounds lovely,” she replied. Deji handed her a glass, seating himself next to her on the couch.

“Where will you go next?” Athaliah asked, continuing on. “Back to Terrasen?”

Evangeline nodded. “My ward, Lord Darrow, is expecting me back in a few weeks. We have some additional time, but quite honestly, I’m excited to sleep in a familiar bed again.”

“Our accommodations aren’t good enough for you?” Deji teased.

Evangeline scrunched her nose at him. “Of course not! But I am unaccustomed to this heat so early in the year.”

Jethro called for his sister, the others beginning to play a card game of sorts. She left them alone on the couches, Evangeline scrambling for something to keep the conversation going.

“Can I show you something?” he asked.

Perfect. “How far is this ‘something’?” Evangeline brought the glass to her lips, enjoying the slow buzz of the wine.

Deji stood, holding out his free hand. “Not far. I wouldn’t dare make you walk for too long in this heat.”

She followed him out of the room, down the hall, and towards a large balcony that she hadn’t noticed before. He held open the opaque doors, gesturing for her to step out first.

Evangeline let out a small gasp at the view. From this angle, the ocean seemed endless, and the moon looked close enough to touch. Large, swaying trees framed the water’s edge. The entire scene glittered with starlight, more real than a painting, yet more beautiful than real life.

“This is...unbelievable.”

Deji leaned against the stone railing. “It’s my favorite view, especially at night. I don’t know what I would do if I couldn’t see and hear the ocean most days.”

Evangeline joined him on the railing. “You might have ruined me as well. I’ll miss this dearly back home.”

They glanced over each other at the same time, bringing a heated blush to her face. His skin was too dark to show it, but she prayed she wasn’t alone in this feeling.

“Can I kiss you?” she blurted out, then immediately covered her mouth with her free hand. Oh gods, she might as well fling herself from the balcony now. Evangeline wanted to blame the wine, but truthfully, one drink hadn’t clouded her judgement at all. “I’m so sorry, that was--”

Deji cut her off, grabbing her hand gently and holding it in his own. “I was afraid you were going to make me ask you.”

He leaned in then, pressing his lips against hers. Evangeline’s eyes fluttered shut, experimentally deepening the kiss and moving her mouth against his.

It was sweet, if not a bit clumsy and filled with nervous giggling. Everything a first kiss should be.

----

Dorian found him in the training ring, one morning. Hollin wanted to get reacquainted with walking up earlier, now that spring had arrived and the afternoons would soon be too warm for exercise.

"Do you need something?" he huffed, talking a second to chug some water. The endurance circuit was quite honestly kicking his ass.

His brother shrugged. "I feel bad that I didn't warn you last time, so I'm telling you in advance now. Evangeline and Fenrys Moonbeam will be staying in the palace for a few days on their way back from Eyllwe, arriving in one week."

Hollin spun on his heel, pretending to grab a towel to keep his face hidden. "It's a bit last minute for royal guests, isn't it?"

Dorian sighed. "They're dear friends, not courtiers. Perhaps we could do a more casual dinner, allow you the chance to get to know both of them better. I'm sure Fenrys would offer to train you a bit as well."

"Is that the purpose behind their visit? Give me training with a feared Fae warrior?" Hollin didn't cover the sarcasm in his tone.

"No, I believe Eva wanted to see her friends here, something she doesn't regularly get a chance to do. Are you done with the questions?"

"Yes. Fine. Whatever." He pushed himself up, abandoning the towel. A bath would do nicely for his aching muscles. "Add the required events to my schedule."

Dorian mumbled something under his breath, but thankfully turned to leave. Right before he re-entered the main hallway, he called out: "It wouldn't hurt you to have friends!"

"I have two!" Hollin called back. "Who needs more than that?"

[prurientpuddlejumper]

A Deep and Rapid River, Ch. 9

<- Chapter 8 | Chapter 10 ->

@sexy-opium-ravioli​ asked me to write a comfort Frankenstein fic so instead I did this [stares at the camera] 

cw: suicidal ideation 

Heavy raindrops pound on the wood-shingle roof, each impact combining into a chorus that roars in your ears in the pitch-black darkness. It’s like you’re being swallowed by a great beast. The entire building creaks, straining against the wind, making your heart race with the fear that it might all come crashing down on top of you as you lay clutching the covers in bed.

A deafening crack and blinding surge of light is followed shortly by a second, earthier crack and a dull thud on grass. Lightning hit one of the trees in the pasture.

In the middle of this raging tempest through which no living being could survive, there comes a scratch at your shutter. The curtains flutter as wind suddenly swirls inside, and the roar of rain grows louder. Something is coming into your bedroom.

Another flash of lightning reveals the silhouette of a massive figure, drenched and dripping, standing in front of the window. The blast of thunder that shortly follows makes the enormous figure jump, and rush, trembling like a kitten, to your bedside.

You take his deformed and scarred hand in yours, and squeeze it.

“I do not like thunder,” his grave voice whispers through gasping, timid breaths. Your beautiful, sweet creature. You never want anything to hurt him. An aching sadness washes over you anew, quivering your lower lip.

He notices you are shaking, frantic, frazzled, and puffy-eyed. He doesn’t look much better.

“When you did not come, I feared for you.” He licks his lips nervously. “I ascertained that you were within the house, but were under guard, and I could not reach you. Please tell me you are unharmed—if anything has happened to you, I shall not forgive my cowardice.”

Without warning, a sob chokes you, and hot tears roll down your face. The monster, filling up half your small cottage bedroom, doffs his wet cloak and pulls your crying form against his warm, broad chest like an extension of the furniture and holds you, rubbing your back and cooing soft words of comfort. You hide your face against him, trying to disappear as muffled sobs wrack your shoulders.

“What is wrong?” he asks with a voice so fragile from your silence that the answer might break him.

“Just let me hold you for awhile. Please.”

You feel him shudder against you, and surround you in his warm arms like a cocoon. It’s a long time before you can collect yourself enough to tell him what happened.

*****

“Like hell we are!” you snapped impulsively as soon as Ferdinand announced your “engagement.” Your fists clenched into tight balls of righteous fury. He was delusional. You were leaving.

Then your father stared at you—that dark, severe stare that threatened violence if you did not behave. “Mind your tongue, child!” he snapped, and your tongue stopped moving, and all of the smart words that had been on the tip of it just disappeared. It was so strange. You had been frightened to run, terrified, but you were ready. Just like that, all the oxygen seemed to drain from the room as Ferdinand, your father, and your mother surrounded you, reminding you of your place in the world and how helpless you were in it.

Your fiery ember dropped into a bucket of water.

You sat in the living room, trapped like a rabbit in a snare, crawling inside your own skin as reality washed over you. They laid out the situation. There were rumors around town—serious ones—that you’ve been consorting with the devil. Half the village thought you were a witch. It wouldn’t be long before something terrible came of it, but Ferdinand had graciously offered to make you his wife, and in doing so, put the rumors to bed. So you would marry him. He was well-liked among the superstitious factions, and could get them to leave you alone if he made you an honest woman. (You growled at the implications of that particular phrase.)

Ferdinand sneered with self-satisfaction, his voice dripping with honey as he said how much he worried for you.

They were pressing you into the marriage and would hear no arguments, no back-talk. They suspected you might run, and wouldn’t let you out of their sight—your mother, your father, and Ferdinand.

You were prey. There was nothing you could do to fight.

The sky grew ever darker and more ominous with each passing minute you spent ensnared, until you knew you had missed the rendezvous time. Your heart twisted—if your daemon were wise, he had left already without you. Thinking of the alternative—that he had stayed, and would be discovered—your chest twisted even tighter. Marrying Ferdinand was a get-out-of-jail-free card for you, but the creature’s life was in irrevocable mortal jeopardy.

“You can’t force me to marry him!” you whimpered to your mother, praying for a sympathetic ear when you were left alone with her for a moment. She was horrible, but she was a woman. She must understand, at least a little, what they were doing to you.

She patted you softly on the shoulder, but her eyes stayed hard. “Your grandmother remembered when they burned a witch right in the center of town. Believe me, this gossip is not something to take lightly. Making you a proper wife is the only way to make people see that you are a normal girl. If you do not, then you shall no longer be our daughter, and we cannot protect you from whatever shall happen next.”

You tried to speak, but your tongue was dry. You kept trying to swallow the dryness away, but it stuck in your throat. You wanted to rage, to scream against them, to be on fire, but your blood had all turned to ice.

This was happening, and there was nothing you could do but accept it.

*****

The creature strokes your cheek gently, his sympathetic and sorrowful yellow eyes glistening in the erratic flashes of light from the storm. “I am sorry I could not protect you. I am here now; let us depart under the cloak of night.”

Your head shakes in tense arcs before you decide to make them, your throat closing up. “You don’t understand—I can’t.”

The dark shadow shaped like his body becomes a tense, rigid statue. “What do you mean?” he says, cautiously.

“I can’t!” you repeat, as if he’s the one not making sense and your feelings should need no explanation, but you explain anyway, the words gushing out like a flooded river. “Maybe I wanted to, I thought I could, but it isn’t realistic. Look at the storm outside! I can’t run away in the middle of this—it frightens even you, doesn’t it? You couldn’t protect me should a thunderbolt strike me on the head! What will we do during weather such as this without any shelter? With my family monitoring me like a prisoner, I could not even finish packing—I haven’t the food and water to survive a week away from home! Where could we go, anyway? You cannot guarantee Victor Frankenstein will take us in! He may just as likely kill us! They think me a witch here, where everyone has known me since I was a baby. I will be a witch in the next town. We will be pariahs wherever we go.”

You wished he would yell, that he would argue, or be consumed in a fit of emotion—that would be better somehow—instead, he listens to your fearful list of excuses silently, with no reaction but his shoulders slowly falling and a soft, pained growl deep in his throat.

“D-don’t you see?” you explain frantically as if he had been arguing back. “We don’t need to run. They never spoke of you as more than rumor—those hunters, and Bess, they must not have been believed as any more than superstition. Every town has its ghost stories. There is no bloodthirsty mob, so long as I marry him. We can stay here and keep you hidden. We’ll be safe.”

“Safe?” he growls, but only softly and without malice. He can no longer bear to listen quietly. “You wish to marry him?” You hoped he would be angry, but his voice is a wavering medley of betrayal and confusion, and the pang it leaves in your heart is almost too much to bear.

“Of course not, but I have no choice.”

“Yes, you do. Run away with me tonight.” An angry bolt of lightning splintered another tree out in the pasture, making you both jump, and providing the counterpoint to his argument for you. “Tell me you want to marry him,” he reaches out with a large hand that could cover your entire head, and delicately strokes your cheek. His eyes glisten with longing. “Tell me you want this and I will go. I shall live the rest of my life a miserable wretch, but I shall bear it, knowing you are happy.”

“Y-you once told me you wouldn’t care if I was with other men, so long as I came back to you. Maybe we could…”

That finally gets a rise out of him. “We could what?” he snaps, cutting you off. “You desire to marry another, and keep me hidden away in a barn—a filthy secret for you to visit at your leisure—to make love to when you are not sharing a bed with your husband? Is that… what you want?” The energy and indignation he had begun with fades away to a lame sort of helplessness by the end.

You know how pathetic you sound. How weak. It was the last thing you expected of yourself, too. You had always walked to your own beat, never fit in, and never cared what anyone thought of you—at least not enough to change for their benefit. You always dreamed of running away one day.

But you hadn’t.

No matter how much you had dreamed it—and even one exhilarating day had packed a bag and chased an eight-foot monster into the forest, convinced that you might run away with him—you never actually did. So many years waiting in misery, and all of that time you could have run.

But you wouldn’t. The moment the fantasy began to crystallize into reality, you froze with terror. You never would.

You only wish you had realized this before hurting him. Your precious daemon stares back at you expectantly, fiercely blinking his watery yellow eyes to fight off tears he won’t let fall in front of you. He’s waiting for you to assure him that this is a mistake—that he’s more to you than a sexual pet—and your heart twists with shame.

“Here is bad, but here is safe. It’s that kind of bad that’s all I’ve ever known. That sharp, snow-covered peak you can see from the barn has stood there, unchanging since I was born. It was there watching over our valley before my parents were born. The alpine winds have shaped it for thousands of years, since before the great pyramids of Egypt. Maybe I am like that mountain. Maybe I can never change, no matter how much I want to.”

It’s not the answer he hoped for. His jaw clenches. He had come here thinking you were running away together at last, and finally, finally, the weight of what is happening sinks in. You watch as the hope goes out of his eyes. Lightning flashes behind him, a little more distantly now. His throat bobs as he swallows.

“Please don’t look away,” you sob, begging. Something inside you is breaking with him.

Footsteps creak on the stairs and the faint orange glow of a candle filters under the door. “Are you talking to someone in there?” demands your mother’s shrill voice just as the door to your bedroom swings open. Your mother gasps in horror.

“You’ve left the window open, you fool child!” She clucks disapprovingly and rushes to shut it, closing the drenched curtains over it once it is latched tight. The shadow of the creature is gone. “What were you thinking? Of running away?” she snaps.

Yes, you want to scream. You hate her. Pinpricks of tears sting your eyes, and you wish you had disappeared into the night, too, for a vengeful bolt of lightning to release you from your misery.

Then she does something that surprises you. She sighs, and sits at the edge of your bed, her weight making a sinkhole on the straw-filled mattress. “My baby girl, you’re crying. They say it isn’t right for a bride to cry on her wedding night, but we know better.” She smiles sadly and wipes a tear from your cheek. “I wanted to run away, too,” she says quietly. Her gaze drifts over the window thoughtfully, like she was imagining a different life. In the flickering candlelight, you wonder if she could almost see it, that other life. You wonder what it was. “But if I had, where would you be?!” Her voice is back to an accusing, judgment-laden shrill. “I’ve tried so hard with you, to get you to grow up. You finally came to your senses—you’re not a child anymore, you can’t just do whatever you want. Life isn't a fairy tale. Life isn’t about being happy… it’s about doing what you have to do. Don’t disappoint me.”

When she leaves and returns downstairs, you give a cursory but hopeful search under the bed and in the corners and shadows for the creature, but he is gone. You had seen him disappear into the loft at the slightest sound of footsteps dozens of times, and you know he had fled out the window and is miles away by now. You wonder if he had returned to the barn, but you know in your heart that he’s gone. It’s already too late. You saw the way he had looked at you before your mother interrupted. Betrayed. Wounded. Finished.

He must hate you.

You throw open the shutters again and look out on the dark, windswept landscape. Heavy, cold rain pummels your face, soaking your night dress instantly and making your squint and shiver against it. There is no sign of him, though above the howling of the wind, you imagine that you hear him howling, desperate and anguished. You could jump from here, you think. You could lash together your bed sheets and climb down undetected, and—

A bolt of lightning strikes a tree in front of the house and it explodes to splinters as a cataclysm of thunder bursts open your ears. The blinding-white flash fills your room and your senses, sets all your hairs standing on end, and for several moments after you can’t see or hear a thing. Am I alive? you wonder first. Is he scared? you worry a second later. When your eyes finally adjust to the dark again, you can see the smoldering embers of the destroyed trunk, its crown lying in pieces on the ground. One branch had scarcely missed the roof, and had you jumped from your window a moment before, you certainly would have been hit.

If only you had been, a part of you screams against your skull. It’s the only way out, now. Jump from the window! it insisted, its voice weaving harsh fingers of smoke through your mind. Run, slipping in the wet grass with your ankle broken into the night and find him, or be eaten by a bear. Let a branch fall and crush your pathetic body. Let the lightning take you to Hell.

You close the shutter, and latch it.

Shaking, you return to your bed and lay on top of the covers. The depression in the mattress from your mother is still flattening out. Wet spots on the blanket are the only memento of the creature’s visit. You remember what it felt like to be held, warm and safe in his arms just moments ago, and try to tuck the memory away somewhere it will never be lost. Somewhere you can look back at it in the years to come. You’ll never feel that way again.

It would be a mistake to run.

You're making the right choice.

You don’t want to die. Surviving means doing what you have to do.

You're making the right choice.

You're making the right choice.

You repeat it to yourself over and over, shivering alone on top of your bed until the black sky turns to grey, and the birds start to sing a summer chorus—first one melodic song, then a jarring metallic buzz, a repetitive whistle, and more and more add their voices until it swells into a cacophony in the purple dawn. The storm must have passed some time in the night without your noticing. It doesn’t matter. You made your choice and broke your own wings.

You made the right choice.

[jiminthestreets-bonesinthesheets]

I Loved Him... Once - CH 4

Title: I Loved Him… Once

Author: jiminthestreets-bonesinthesheets

Fandom: Criminal Minds

Pairing: Heid (Aaron Hotchner x Spencer Reid)

Rating: This ones General but eventually as the series goes it will be Explicit

Tags: canon typical violence and gore, eventual smut as the series goes, angst, fluff, pining., its gunna be a slow burn guys.

Summary: A series following the team as they solve crimes and take down the bad guys.

     In Part one of this series, we follow the team as they take down a serial killer that has taken a piece of one of their own. And through it all, Spencer and Hotch come to a few conclusions and realizations of their own.

AO3

Masterlist 

*** My works are not to be posted on any sites without my permission! But comments and reblogs are love! <3 Please and thanks!!

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

Chapter four

     Back at the hotel Spencer was quiet, pulled back, and everyone knew that he would need this time to sort through his emotions on his own. Though no matter how long he needed to himself, they would always be waiting close by when he felt he needed them. But he had known this man, their latest victim, and though he hadn’t been able to say much more than that since they left the scene, they knew there was more to this than just a simple acquaintance. 

     Aaron watched him as he stood at the desk, waiting for their room cards. He was worried about Spencer, he'd never seen him so quiet. The desk attendant came and handed him the room cards, pulling his attention away from Spencer, and he walked over to the group to hand them out.

     “There's only three rooms available,” he said, handing one card to Emily and JJ, “Prentiss and JJ you'll share.”

     Derek reached out and took the second card from Aaron before he could say anything more and said, “I'll bunk with the kid,” then he leaned in to whisper, “I wanna keep an eye on him.”

     Aaron didn't say anything, just nodded, he couldn't exactly refute it without raising some suspicion in a group of  the BAU’s best profilers. Then Rossi came up and took the last card from Aaron and said, “Guess that leaves you and me.”

     Everyone then made for the elevators and then to their rooms for some much needed sleep before the inevitable chaos that would come with the morning.

~~~~~~~~~~~

     Aaron walked into his room and tossed his go bag on the bed with a sigh. David followed in behind him, placing his bag more gently on the second bed, and passed the man where he stood in the middle of the floor with a hand in his hair. 

     Dave started getting his clothes and toiletries ready to start winding down for the night, and tossed a sideways glance over at Aaron, “You should go talk to him.” Aaron looked over to him in question. “He could really use you right now, I'm sure of it.”

     The thought brought a small flutter to his stomach, “Maybe it would be best to just leave him to process this right now. And he's got Morgan-”

     “He doesn't want Morgan, trust me,” he stopped Aaron dead in his tracks, lifting his head from his bag to continue, “he's close with Morgan, yes, and I'm sure when he's ready he'll talk to Morgan too. But the way he looks at you, acts around you, the fact that he wanted to be in the same car as you coming back from the scene. He needs your presence, and he needs you to talk to him.”

     He took a deep breath, considered Dave’s words, then nodded and said, “Alright, I'll be back.”

     It wasn't soon after that he found himself standing outside of Spencer and Derek's door. He stood there for a few minutes before finally knocking, and Derek answered. 

     “Hey, Hotch, come in.”

     He followed Derek inside, noting that Spencer wasn’t in eye sight and slightly panicked before Derek told him, “He's in the shower,” obviously seeing his distress.

     “How is he?”

     “Still quiet,” he said, sitting on the bed and crossing his arms, “it's understandable though, losing a friend is never easy.”

     Just then Spencer walked out of the bathroom. His shuffled steps and lowered head showed his obvious distress, and Aaron knew then that he was right to take David's advice and talk to Spencer. When he finally lifted his head and saw Aaron standing in the middle of the room, he stopped walking and just stared at him. He didn't know what to say, he didn't even know if he had the energy to say anything if he wanted to, so he just waited for Aaron to talk instead.

     "Come with me, Reid," he motioned him to follow him out the door, "I would like to speak with you."

     He left the room and Spencer just stood in the doorway to the bathroom. He didn't move, didn't look up at Derek who was watching him from his place on the edge of the bed, but eventually decided he'd kept Aaron waiting long enough and followed after him. 

     He silently led Spencer to the elevators, and where Spencer expected him to go down to the lobby, or the conference room on the third floor, he went up instead. Taking them all the way to the very top floor, and walking out as soon as the elevator opened. 

     Spencer continued to follow him, into a side stairwell and up to the roof. He walked out slowly, looking around the rooftop oasis. It was nice actually. There was a pool to the right, all lit up with neon colours. In the center, straight ahead of him was a sitting area filled with fancy covered chairs and tables, most of which looked more like abstract art than proper seating. And to his left, the way that Aaron was currently walking, there was a small garden. The cherry blossoms there were in bloom, their beautiful pink flower petals slowly floating to the ground as Aaron walked through them, and the tall flowers around them provided the perfect cover for a secret meeting, which is what this kind of felt like to Spencer. Though he knew exactly why Aaron had called him up here, what he wanted to talk to him about, so he followed him into the small rooftop garden. 

     He sat on a bench tucked back into the trees and Spencer joined him, though he sat as far away from him as possible, making sure their legs weren't touching at all. They sat in not quite an uncomfortable silence, but also not exactly comfortable, before Aaron decided he had to break it. 

     "The victim-"

     "Eric," Spencer spoke for the first time since he had told Derek he knew the man, and Aaron found that finally hearing his voice brought a sense of relief. He wasn't completely shutting down as he had worried he was. "His name was Eric Watts. He… he had a name, Hotch, he's not just a faceless victim."

     "You're right, I'm sorry," he took a breath and tried again, "Eric, how did you know him? Were you close?"

     He nodded, eyes on the ground, "We met in university. He was a third year student and I was on my first doctorate. We've been friends ever since the first day we met."

     "Do you mind my asking a personal question?" Normally he wouldn't be so intrusive, especially in the lives of his team. They spend so much time together on the job, he believed they should have at least a small part that they could keep to themselves. But in this case, and also because it was Spencer he was talking to, he felt he should ask, wanted to ask. And though Spencer didn't answer, he also didn't refute it. "Was there more than friendship between you and Eric?"

     He took the shuddering breath that Spencer let out at his question as a yes, and he found that it crushed his heart a little at the thought of Spencer being with someone else, but he waited for the real answer. "We… We were always just friends. I think it was obvious that we both wanted there to be more between us, but it just never happened. Then I was recruited by the BAU and he got a job offer out west, so we barely saw each other after that. We mostly just spoke on the phone, visited when we could."

     "When was the last time you saw him?"

     He let out another shaky breath as he thought, "October twenty-second."

     "Six months ago." He stated, but Spencer shook his head. 

     "October twenty-second of last year."

     "So you haven't seen him in over a year?" Spencer shook his head. "And you… you had feelings for him this entire time? Since university?"

     "Yeah," he breathed out, "there are times I wished I had said something, and maybe… maybe things would be different right now. Maybe I wouldn't have had to look at his body in a bag today if I had."

     "You can't think like that. Whatever was going to happen would have happened no matter what," he took a chance and cautiously, very slowly, moved a hand over to rest on Spencer's knee, "I'm sorry you two never got your chance."

     For the first time since they came up to the roof, Spencer's eyes moved from the ground to the hand now resting on his knee. He stared at it in silence for what felt to Aaron like a lifetime, to the point where Aaron thought maybe the touch wasn't as welcomed as he had hoped it would be. He started to lift his hand, take it back and hope that they could just pretend that it had never happened, but to his surprise Spencer actually reached forward when he felt his hand lifting and took it, plastering Aaron's hand back to his knee. Aaron turned his hand over and took Spencer's hand properly, but left their joined hands on his leg, and let Spencer play with his fingers until he was ready to talk again. 

     After a few minutes of giving himself time to think, Spencer furrowed his brows and decided to keep talking it out. "In a way… I'm glad we never got our chance."

     Aaron quirked his head, "Oh?"

     He nodded, turning their hands over and covering the back of Aaron's hand with his other, "I did have feelings for him."

     "You loved him."

     "... Once," he admitted, "but as years went by and we separated and… met different people, I realized that what I thought was a strong and intense love, wasn't that. I mean, yes I loved him, but…"

     He trailed off and squeezed Aaron's hand a little tighter, as if thinking of how to say what was still on his mind. So Aaron took a wild guess and promoted, "You met someone else?"

     "I did," he smiled slightly for the first time that night, and this time Aaron was the one to squeeze his hand, "I did realize that I had loved Eric all those years ago, but compared to the way I feel now, it wasn't the same. Eric and I would have faded out."

     "And now?" Aaron asked, the slightest pang of hope hitting his heart, "The person who changed everything for you?"

     "This time it's real, true. I don't think we’d fade out."

     "Will you tell them?"

     He shrugged, "Maybe one day, if I'm ever brave enough. But right now I just… I need some time."

     Aaron shifted closer to him, their legs slightly touching now, "That's understandable. It's better to wait until the right moment, and perhaps now is not that time. I’m sure whoever they are, if they love you as much as you clearly love them, they will wait as long as you need them to."

     A well of emotions came over Spencer. Talking about Eric, his past, opening up to Aaron, the man in question who changed everything for him. But Aaron was right, he needed to wait for the right time to tell Aaron that he was in fact that person, and after losing Eric the way he had, Spencer was not ready for that talk. He was not ready to tell Aaron how he feels, how he’s felt for years. So instead he sighed, continuing to play with Aaron's fingers as a few tears rolled down his cheeks, colliding with their entwined hands in his lap. "I miss him."

     "You always will, but he'll never be far."

     "Yeah," he lifted a hand up to wipe at the tears on his cheeks, then cleared his throat in an attempt to collect himself, "We, uh… we should probably go back inside. It's getting a little cold and I'm sure Morgan and Rossi will be wondering where we went."

     "Yes, and we should both get some rest.” He stood along with Spencer and shifted around him to head back towards the stairs they came up. He released his grip on Spencer's hand, starting to pull it away as they walked, but Spencer held tighter and pulled his hand back towards him. Spencer didn't make eye contact, just kept deliberately looking ahead, but Aaron smiled over at him and allowed him to hold his hand all the way back to his room. 

     He walked Spencer there and waited for him to go inside before leaving for his own room. But Spencer quickly ducked back out of his room before he could and captured Aaron in a crushing hug, which he returned with just as much strength. 

     Spencer tucked his face into Aaron's neck and breathed in deep, and Aaron ran his hand up and down his back in a soothing manner. "Reid, if you don't think you can handle this case, you can bow out at any time. No one will think any less of you."

     He held Aaron impossibly tighter for a second before pulling back and saying, "I'm okay. I want to do this, for Eric, I need to figure this out."

     "Alright," Aaron nodded and took a step back as Spencer opened his door again, "I'll meet you by the car tomorrow and we'll go talk to the coroner first thing."

     "See you then."

     And they both parted ways for the night, the memory of their bodies pressed together a comforting thought in the despair of the day's events.

~~~~~~~~~~~

     Spencer was standing out by the car early the next morning. He had barely slept. He spent most of the night tossing and turning, thinking of Eric and wanting so badly to just run to the room next door and take comfort from Aaron. Even if it was just holding his hand like he had done through their talk the night before. But he didn't, so instead he let his thoughts and memories plague him all night, and now here he was. Leaning against the car, waiting for Aaron, and almost falling asleep. 

     "You ready?"

     Spencer jumped up and pushed himself off the car, "Yeah. Yeah I'm ready."

     Aaron stopped, taking a good look at Spencer before asking, "Are you sure? You look exhausted, did you get much sleep last night?."

     "I'll be fine," he waved him off, walking around the car and opening the passenger side door, "let's get going."

     Aaron followed him and got into the driver's seat without saying anymore on the matter and started the car. As he was pulling out of the hotel parking lot he chanced a glance over at spencer. He was sitting almost curled in on himself, leaning against the door and staring aimlessly out the window. He looked down at the time, it was still pretty early and the coroner's office wouldn't be open yet. “The coroner won't be ready for us for at least another hour, would you like to stop for breakfast?”

     He thought about it for a moment, and as much as he wanted to say he wasn't hungry, he really hadn't eaten since before they left Virginia. “Yeah, sure.”

     A few minutes later Aaron pulled into a small diner parking lot and led them inside. He asked the host at the door if she could seat them in a booth by the back, soon enough they had ordered and were eating in a comfortable silence.

     “Hey,” Spencer started, picking at his food and Aaron looked up, “thanks for yesterday. Talking about Eric was… it was nice to tell someone.”

     “I am always here for you, Reid, as more than just a boss anytime you need me.” Spencer nodded, going back to pushing his food around his plate with his fork. “You know you can still pull yourself from the case at any time, right? If you don't think you can handle being at the coroner's office and examining Eric's body, I can go in and do the examination alone. It won't be a problem.”

     “I appreciate that, but no,” he stated, firm and confident, “I'll be fine. I need to work this case all the way through. Even if it means doing things that I really don’t want to do.”

     Aaron didn't say anything or try to convince him out of it, instead just offering, “If you need me.”

     “I know,” he smiled up at him, and the two finished their food then made their way to the coroner's office.

~~~~~~~~~~~

     “I can't tell you much more than you already know,” the coroner, Dr. Miller, walked them through the morgue and to the table at the end. The body there was still covered with a sheet, face covered, but Spencer already knew it was Eric. “The last three victims had no evidence left behind, no DNA, nothing, same as this new guy-”

     “Eric.”

     “... I'm sorry, Agent?”

     Spencer swallowed and forced out a slow exhale before continuing, “His name is… was Eric Watts.”

     “You knew him,” Dr. Miller stated, “I'm very sorry for your loss, Agent Reid.”

     Spencer thanked him quietly and then cleared his throat, trying his best to prove to Aaron that he could do as he had said earlier, and keep it together enough to work this case through. “What, uh… what can you tell us about Eric?”

     Dr. Miller walked around to the other side of the table and took the sheet in his hands, tossing a look at Aaron before he pulled it back. Aaron nodded but shifted a little closer to Spencer as the doctor pulled it back revealing Eric's face. Spencer closed his eyes and turned away slightly, seeing Eric's pale skin and mangled face brought instant chills to his entire body. But he steeled himself and turned back, waiting for the doctor to tell them what he had found. 

     “So like I said, your killer left no evidence behind, so I don't have anything that can help you there. But if these four victims are connected as you say to the same killer, the only other thing I can say about them is that this man, Eric, his injuries seem to be a combination of the other three. His ears have been cut off, his eyes crossed out, and mouth sewn shut.”

     “His last victim?” Aaron asked Spencer.

     “It's possible,” he said, but quietly, “it's almost like he's completed it, all three of the monkeys combined into one. Eric may have very well been his last victim, which means we're going to have a really hard time catching this guy.”

     “I do have one more thing I can tell you about the three victims as well as Eric here,” he waited a second before continuing, letting Spencer have a second, “all four of them had significant defensive wounds. So whoever his attacker was, he fought back hard, Agent Reid. he didn’t go down without a fight.”

     He took that in, at least he tried his hardest to stay alive, he fought back and that at least made Spencer feel a little better. And with nothing more they could learn from Dr. Miller, he took his chance to ask, “Would-would it be alright if I had a moment alone, to… to say good-bye?”

     “Of course,” Aaron gestured for the doctor to come around the table and leave the room with him, “we'll be right out here, take as long as you need.”

     The doctor gave his arm a pat on his way by, and Spencer waited for them to close the door before moving closer to Eric. He sighed, looking down at his cleaned up face thanks to Dr. Miller, and felt his throat instantly tighten. Tears welled in his eyes, blurring Eric's face. “Hey,” he whispered, a little choked and really fighting the tears now, “I'm so sorry this happened to you. But, god, what did you get yourself into Eric?”

     He wiped a hand down his face to catch the stray tears that hadn’t noticed had fallen before continuing, “I… I really wish we had more time. I know that we never could have ever been more than friends, and that's… I'm okay with that now. But I will always cherish you as one of my closest friends. I wish we could have seen each other one last time. I…” He reached out a hand, slow and shaky, resting it on his cheek and whispered, “I’ll miss you, Eric.”

     He ran his thumb along Eric's cold cheek, before deciding that the coroner had already finished his exam and washed the body, so it would be okay. And he leaned in slowly, pressing a light kiss to Eric’s forehead, pulling back slightly to whisper, “Rest peacefully.”

~~~~~~~~~~~

     When he walked out of the morgue, Aaron and Dr. Miller were there waiting for him as they had said. When Aaron saw him walk through the door, he pushed off the wall and all but ran over to him. He didn't say anything, but waited for Spencer to speak first when he felt ready.

     He looked at Aaron, the concern and worry in his eyes constricting his heart. “I’m okay,” he answered softly, “let's get back to the station, we still have work to do.”

     Aaron moved to lead Spencer out of the building, thanking Dr. miller on their way out, his hand hovering close to the small of Spencer's back as they walked but never getting up the nerve to actually touch. And once they were back in the car and on their way to the station, Spencer resumed his previous position of curling in on himself and staring blankly out the window. His worry creeped up again seeing him like that, so he decided one more time to let Spencer know, “I'm still here, Reid, whatever you need I'm here.”

     That made Spencer shift a little towards Aaron, perking up for the first time all day, “Whatever I need?” 

     “Whatever you need,” he repeated.

     Spencer nodded, then sat up properly in his seat. Aaron had said he was there for whatever he needed, and right now there was only one thing he really wanted. So he reached his hand across the center console and rested it palm up on Aaron’s knee, silently asking. Aaron took his hand without any hesitation, entwining their fingers together and rubbing his thumb soothingly across the back of his hand. If this is what Spencer needed, he would be there for him for as long as he needed him to be.

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

A/N: So a lot of Spencer and Aaron in this chapter, so I hope you liked it! And thanks for reading <3

[thefinalcinderella]

Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru Chapter 3 - Practice Begins (Part 5)

This chapter took a lifetime lol

List of translations here

Previous | Next

Students who were earnestly tackling long-distance ran at least six-hundred kilometers in a month. When it was time for the final stretch, it was common for some to run more than a thousand kilometers a month. Kakeru did long training runs, aiming for that level. He wished the residents of Chikusei-sou success, but that didn’t mean he intended to match his own training to the level of a newly-formed team.

“Kakeru, you ran a little too much.”

Kiyose, who was checking the training diaries, told him that after the main training. It was when everyone was working on leisurely cooling down while changing clothes and stretching on the grass of the field.

For the first two weeks, everyone struggled to make it through the regimen, in dire straits with muscle pain, blood blisters and awful foot blisters. However, the members had potential from the beginning. Now, it seemed that their bodies were adjusting little by little: running was becoming a bit more fun, and they had managed to assimilate the regimen written on the training table.

Inwardly, Kakeru was surprised at the high adaptability of the residents, but it was ultimately just beginner’s training. He was pursuing running on a whole different level. Unless someone stopped him, he tended to run for as long and as far as he liked.

“Even at your age, your body isn’t fully matured yet, so you can’t push yourself too hard. What will you do if you overwork your body now and injure it?”

Lately, Kakeru’s body felt very light. He felt that the more he ran, the stronger he got, and the more his speed improved. That was why in actuality, Kiyose’s warning didn’t hit home for him. Even so, he obediently answered, “Yes.”

“On the other hand, Prince is running too little.”

In Prince’s training diary, the word “treadmill” was written once every two days instead of “evening jog”.

“I thought that honesty was one of your best points but…this is actually just ‘I skipped jogging and read manga’, right?”

Even if Kiyose invited Prince to jog with him in the evening, Prince had built a barricade out of manga and stubbornly refused to open the door to his room.

Pursued by Kiyose, Prince desperately explained himself. “That’s true, but I really do read manga while using the treadmill. Lately, I feel like I’ve been gaining some muscle on my legs.”

“Let me see.”

Kiyose touched Prince’s calves to confirm. Seeing that, Yuki warned him, “Haiji, you should really stop that leg-touching habit of yours soon.”

Kiyose got up with a “hmm”.

“It’s true that you’ve made some progress in morning jogging and main practice. But working out on a treadmill while reading manga isn’t a good idea; it’ll ruin your form and it won’t help you develop the sensation of running on a road. I hope that you’ll join the evening jogs every day as well.”

Before Kiyose’s quiet, forceful power, Prince had no choice but to swear, “I will join.” As for Kakeru, he was relieved: he wanted Prince to run outside as much as possible. The treadmill was installed in his room, which was already bearing a lot of weight, and every time Prince trained there, Kakeru’s ceiling creaked like it was going to burst open.

“Unlike our honest Prince, there’s a king who is submitting a diary that’s filled with lies and embellishments.”

At Kiyose’s words, everyone looked at King and laughed. “You found out?” King asked, picking at the dirt with the toe of his shoe like he was embarrassed. “It’s because I can’t run at all and my times aren’t getting any better. I thought that was bad, so I showed off a little in my report.”

“It’s still only two weeks since you started training. Results won’t show that quickly,” Kiyose told King gently. “To become the quiz king, you need to steadily build up your knowledge and skills to hit the buzzer fast, right? It’s the same with track; cheap tricks won’t work. The physical strength and skills are acquired through daily training. Then, the courage to look at your true ability straight on is what will save you in the end in the actual event. I know that you’ve been training seriously, so you can just write down the truth.”

King nodded. “I’ll do that.”

“There’s no particular problems with anyone else so far. But, Nico-chan-senpai.”

“Yeah?” Nico-chan, called by Kiyose, stopped fixing his shoelaces and looked up.

“You haven’t been eating a lot lately.”

“That’s not true.”

“Don’t lie. Who do you think is making your food?”

It was Kiyose. Nothing could be hidden from the master of Chikusei-sou, who not only made the training plans but also the residents’ food.

Nico-chan explained himself while scratching his cheek. “Look, I’m stocky, you know? I need to lose some weight.”

“There’s no need for that,” Kiyose cut him off flatly. “You work your body during training, so you’ll lose weight even if you continue to eat the way you have until now. An unreasonable diet can cause your body to break down, so please eat a balanced and proper diet.”

“Got it. But if I can’t tighten up my body well in training, then I’ll go on a diet.”

“I’ve calculated that you should be able to tighten up over the summer for sure,” Kiyose conceded. “If it looks like it’s not working out, then we’ll think about it then. Don’t do anything reckless on your own.”

 “Is it advantageous to be lighter?” Shindou, who was listening to the conversation, asked, tilting his head. “Won’t you have less energy if you lose weight?”

The theorist Yuki answered his question.

“Of course, unreasonable diets are banned. You’ll get anemia, and if you have that, it’ll be dangerous for your heart since that’ll put a burden on it. But fundamentally, you should tighten up your body—whittle away the extra fat and improve your cardiopulmonary functions. Even racing cars have their bodies as light as possible to make their engines more powerful. It’s the same as that.”

“I see.” Shindou withdrew in understanding.

“It’s just as Yuki said.” Kiyose looked over everyone. “Just like racing cars, where the body’s balance is confirmed and the engine’s performance is enhanced through repeatedly doing test drives, a runner also builds up their body by running every day. The backlash will be big if you seek a sudden change, so I want you all to be careful.”

Icing your muscles immediately if they seem to be staying hot after training, even just a little bit. Never missing stretches and massages. Taking supplements for iron and other nutrients which people tend to lack.

After teaching them the various ways of preventing injuries and maintaining their health, Kiyose said, “Now, you’re all dismissed.”

On the way back to Chikusei-sou, Kakeru ended up running next to Nico-chan by chance. Nico-chan was worried about his weight and currently abstaining from smoking, and he didn’t seem to be able to relieve his stress well. He looked somewhat somber.

At times like these, one should provide a fun and lighthearted topic of conversation. However, Kakeru tried thinking of all sorts of things, but couldn’t come up with anything.

“Kakeru, what’s for dinner today?”

In the end, Nico-chan was the one who started talking. I really am no good at anything other than running. Kakeru was dejected indeed.

“It’s probably curry. Haiji-san asked me to go to the shopping district to buy curry powder before the main practice.”

Something flickered at the back of Kakeru’s mind. That’s right, the shopping district. Didn’t Musa invite me to go and see his evening jog? Maybe it could be a diversion for Nico-chan.

“Nico-chan-senpai, would you like to run with me tonight?”

“Why are you talking like you’re picking me up all of a sudden?”

Yuki, who was a bit ahead of them, turned back. “Where are you taking me, darling?” he teasingly cut into the conversation with an expressionless face, as though he was wearing an iron mask.

“The shopping district,” Kakeru answered seriously. The three of them were the members who jogged on their own. It was perfect, so they decided to take a look at the “interesting thing” happening to the group jogging together.

As expected, dinner was curry. Kiyose’s personality of not cutting corners was demonstrated in his cooking as well. Before the main training, he boiled the onions until they were soft and tender, and adjusted the taste by uniquely blending the several commercially available curry powders that Kakeru bought.

But no one noticed the depth of the flavor of the curry sauce; everyone seemed more joyful at the fact that the curry contained a lot of boneless pork ribs. Even the colorfully arranged salads were devoured in an instant without a single chance to be visually appreciated.

“It wasn’t worth making this.” Kiyose, with an expression that was halfway between resentment and sadness, put the empty plates in the sink. 

Nico-chan, who seemed to have decided to eat properly, said, “I’ll just have a little more.” He stood before the rice cooker. “More than taste or anything else, just let these guys eat meat.”

The kitchen didn’t fit a table for everyone to eat at. When the dining table was filled, the people who came to eat later would get out a small tea table and sit in the hallway in front of the kitchen.

Shindou and Musa arrived when Kakeru was still eating his curry. The dining table was completely filled, and though the twins were nearing dessert, they didn’t attempt to clear their seats. They were currently in a fierce argument over whether to cover strawberries in condensed milk or milk and sugar.

Kakeru, who was mindful of hierarchical relationships no matter what, held his spoon in his mouth and picked up his curry-filled plate, about to give up his seat at the table. Shindou hurriedly stopped him. “It’s fine, Kakeru.”

“Senpai-kouhai relationships do not matter in Aotake,” Musa said. “That is why it is so comfortable, right?”

“Yes.”

Kakeru sat back down at the table and ate the rest of his curry. For him, who had spent his three years of high school in his track and field club’s dorm, the fact that the upperclassmen ate in the hallway and the underclassmen ate at the table was unbelievable.

From his experience, as an underclassman he had to attend to his seniors’ personal needs, such as washing their shoes and doing their laundry. And of course his turn for the bath was near the end. That was the extent of it, and he didn’t really mind it as long as he could devote himself to practice without his seniors getting jealous of him.

Conversely, when he became an upperclassman, Kakeru didn’t want to let his underclassmen wash his shoes; they were important objects that were required for running. How his former senpai could so easily leave their shoes in someone else’s hands, he had no idea. His teammates in the same grade as him gossiped about him behind his back, saying things like “He’s messing up the order of things” and “Don’t try to look cool”. Kakeru ignored it all. No one could catch up to his speed, and if he could run without reservations when he became an upperclassman, then he was satisfied with just that. He thought he would let them say whatever they wanted.

Within the club, Kakeru had come to be kept at a distance, treated as an aloof and solitary existence. To put it another way, he was somewhat isolated.

But in Chikusei-sou, it was easy to breathe. Nobody cared about the difference between the years of their birth. They said what they wanted to say to each other. Even now, Nico-chan had just put an end to the twins’ fight. It was done forcefully by throwing both condensed milk and milk and sugar into the two’s strawberry bowls.

“You’re awful, Nico-chan-senpai! I wanted to eat it with milk and sugar!”

“I put it in for you, didn’t I.”

“I definitely prefer condensed milk.”

“I said I put it in, didn’t I.”

Leaving the exchange between the twins—who were far from reaching an agreement—and Nico-chan aside, Kakeru helped Kiyose in cleaning up. They stood next to each other at the sink, washing the dishes.

“Haiji-san, what time do you run near the shopping district?”

“Around eight. Why?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

Musa, who had come to put his plate away, winked at Kakeru.

Kakeru, Nico-chan, and Yuki went to the children’s playground at the entrance to the shopping district. Running in circles between the sandbox, swings, and slide was monotonous, but there was no other way to keep an eye on the shopping district while jogging.

They ran around thirty laps beneath the dim outside lights in the park, and just when they were feeling pretty dizzy, Kiyose and the others from Chikusei-sou appeared. They turned the corner and entered the large shopping district that led to the station. Their running abilities varied, so the procession was long and stretched out, but Prince somehow managed to keep up.

“They’re here.”

“Let’s try following them secretly.”

Kakeru and the others left the park and entered the shopping district.

There were many private shops lining both sides of the narrow street: the bakery, which had its shutters down after finishing a day’s work; the fish dealer, shouting loudly to sell the last of their wares before closing time; the snack bar, where customers were starting to come in for the night.

Lamps that imitated paper-covered lanterns cast an orange light over the street. People walking home from the station and shoppers aiming for limited-time sales crowded the shopping district.

“No matter how you look at it, Prince is too slow,” Yuki grumbled. “It’ll be hard to run without passing him.”

Kakeru and the others hid behind the passersby and slipped past Prince. When King’s back became visible, they also managed to pass him without being noticed.

“It’s Haiji.” Yuki indicated forward with his chin. Kiyose was running towards them.

“Why’s he coming back?”

“It’s too soon for him to have turned back from the station.”

The three tried to slip past by looking down, but Kiyose didn’t fail to notice them.

“Why are you guys sneaking around?” Kiyose turned and ran next to Kakeru and the others, who were running towards the station, to accompany them.

“What are you doing, Haiji-san?” Kakeru asked.

“I came to see how the guys running in the back are doing,” Kiyose answered.

His management abilities were flawless as usual. Kakeru wondered just how far he was running to keep an eye on everyone. He was a bit worried; his legs weren’t even fully recovered yet, apparently.

Meanwhile, Kiyose was carrying on the conversation with Yuki.

“Kakeru said something interesting was happening with you guys, so we came to see.”

“Oh, you mean that?”

Kiyose pointed straight ahead, where Shindou and Musa were running side by side.

“What are they doing?”

It was understandable that Nico-chan was puzzled. Shindou and Musa were wearing white T-shirts, but there were words written on their backs in jet black permanent marker. Kakeru strained his eyes and read the words on the two’s backs as they were running through the middle of the shopping district.

We’re aiming for the Hakone Ekiden!!

Supporters wanted for Kansei University Track and Field Club

“…That’s some proper lettering,” Yuki commented.

“Apparently, Shindou did it by hand,” Kiyose explained matter-of-factly, his breathing not even disturbed. “I told him to stop since it’s embarrassing, but he insisted that we needed it to raise funds. He actually made enough for everyone, supposedly.”

I’m definitely not wearing it, Kakeru thought. Shindou was always quiet and calm, with an air of aloofness like he wasn’t connected to this earthly world, but he seemed to be quite practical.

“That’s surprising. To think that Shindou-san would collect money so actively.”

“Through running, you can see unexpected sides of people,” Kiyose said with a smile. “Shindou, Musa,” he called out to the two running ahead.

“It seems that these three want to cooperate with your business activities.”

We never said that, we never said that! Kakeru and the others shook their heads in unison. Musa raised his hand a little towards Kakeru, who joined them.

“I will give you one of Shindou-san’s handmade T-shirts as well, Kakeru. Also, please take a look at that person.”

There was a bicycle weaving through the crowd of people in the shopping district. The person riding it was a girl around the same age as them. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail and she was peddling her bike with all her might, her eyes fixed on something. Even from a distance, it was clear that her profile, which could be seen occasionally, was refined and beautiful.

“That’s the daughter of the owner of Yaokatsu,” Kiyose said.

“How do you know her?” Kakeru, who was preoccupied with the girl’s profile, moved his gaze to Kiyose running next to him.

“I’ve been coming here to buy food to cook for everyone at Aotake for a long time now, so I’ve seen her around.”

“Then have you ever chatted with her?”

“Just stuff like ‘these daikon have very nice leaves’ and ‘here’s your two-hundred yen change,’” Kiyose laughed from the corner of his mouth. “Are you curious about her, Kakeru?”

“No, not really.”

He returned his gaze forward. The bike was still heading for the station, popping in and out of the crowd.

“We’ve become a bit famous thanks to this.” Shindou pulled at the hem of his T-shirt. “Every day, we form a line and run like this, and the shopkeepers who recognize Haiji-san call out to us. ‘You’re a student staying in that shabby apartment, aren’t you? Looks like you’re starting something interesting,’ they say.”

“The landlord is a regular at the go parlor here,” Kiyose said. “Apparently, he’s going around spreading word that the ‘residents of Aotake are aiming for the Hakone Ekiden’.”

It was probably a strategy to get the locals involved in the plan so they wouldn’t be able to say “I quit” so easily. Kakeru was impressed with Kiyose and the landlord’s abilities to steadily remove the obstacles in their way. Since he was the first to announce his participation, it seemed that Shindou also intended to take the initiative in doing publicity. The carefree and easygoing residents were rapidly getting carried along by the flow towards the Hakone Ekiden. Will it be okay? Kakeru felt uneasy. However, it was nice and heartening that the people outside of Chikusei-sou showed interest in Kakeru and the others aiming for the Hakone Ekiden.

“She has been showing up when we are jogging recently,” Musa lightly pointed at the daughter of Yaokatsu who was riding her bike. “Her goal is…”

Drawn in, Kakeru, Nico-chan and Yuki’s gazes looked further ahead of the bike. The person who was running there was…

“The twins!?” Kakeru shouted in shock.

“Which one!?” Nico-chan also moaned. Musa shrugged.

“Well, I don’t know.”

“It doesn’t matter, they’re identical,” Yuki coolly pointed out.

I’m sensing love in the air, Kakeru thought. Jouta and Jouji, running next to each other, didn’t seem like they noticed at all. He would have to advise them to take a proper bath as soon as possible.

For now, it seemed certain that the residents of Chikusei-sou, who worked hard to jog every morning and evening, were becoming familiar to the people of the shopping district.

Previous | Next

[imamotherfuckingstar-lord]

Children of the Galaxy, chpt. 1

Din Djarin x Reader

Rating: PG-13

A/N: It’s in first person reader, 4 parts only! over 6k series. Commissioned by @unbetaedimagines​ (even if you don’t do first person, give it a try).

Summary: An old friend drags Reader around the galaxy to find haven for an orphan child. What they all find is something they weren’t looking for - family. 

Chapter One: Shosnee

The ship is cold and quiet; there is a little humming from a vent behind me but other than that, it is peaceful. It has been twenty days since I have left my post at my guild to help an old childhood friend out – we have been hunted down for nearly all that time, but it seems, for now, we are safe. My head hurts from the lack of sleep, too much traveling. I want to settle down for a bit and when I brought this up to my travel companion, he agreed. Now we are traveling to a small green planet tucked in a constellation not many know of, a promising prospect.

A small gurgle comes from under the table I am sitting at, I lean back to see what it is – the child is looking up at me, his little green arms are positioned up to me and I smile. I pick him up and place him on my lap, he must need a nap too. We relax together, his head against my chest as I sing a quiet song; I do not remember much of my mother or my father –time has faded my memories, I was orphaned at a young age but this song, I remember. It is an old scripture about the many moons and suns in the galaxy, and how only the truly brave will find them all. It talks about the legacy of this force that balances life out – it is sweet, and it used to put me to sleep when the woman who took me in at seven, would sing it to me.

I sing in my native tongue, rocking the child in my arms, and do not notice the audience until I gaze up when the child’s eyes fall with sleep. Din is standing there in his Beskar armor and I try to remember his face from before – we were from the same village when the battle droids came and destroyed everyone and thing in sight; my parents hid me and distracted a droid to give me a chance. In the end, there was little left in our village and when the Mandalorians came, Din was taken in as a foundling and I was taken in by an elderly woman that survived and knew my parents. I did not see him for nearly twenty years after that, I had found my way into a bounty guild when I was seventeen. I was trained and raised into a makeshift family, slowly working my way through odd jobs. One day, I go into a guild establishment and notice a Mandalorian sitting alone, it surprises me, but I think of my old friend and walk straight up the table.

“I’m sorry to bother you, but do you know a Din Djarin? He was a childhood friend; I know he was taken as a foundling.”

It seems absurd and shame washes over me but the Mandalorian’s helmet tilts up to me and he says my name. I want to cry but do not, this is not the time or place, instead I sit across from Din and smile. “I always wondered what happened to you.”

“I became a Mandalorian.”

I laugh. “I have eyes, Din.”

He shifts uncomfortably. “No one has called me that name since I was a boy.”

I apologize but he says it is fine.

We talk for a long time, catching up and trading bounty stories, and when it is time to say goodbye – we promise to keep in touch – and we do.

“How much longer until Shosnee?”

“Not much,” he answers, walking to the table. He remains standing but I could see that his body is relaxed – he must be as relieved as I am to finally have some peace. “We have one more jump and we’ll be there, how is he?”

I look down at the child, he is fast sleep. “He’s okay, it will be good for him to stretch his legs once we land. He’s a child, he needs stability.”

Din says nothing and I watch as he reaches over for the box of food portions on the table. “Are you hungry?”

I huff. “I rather eat that damn egg the Jawa’s had you procure from them – I need real food and so does he.”

“You need to eat,” he insists and this time, I say nothing; just watch as he takes two bowls and the canteen. He pours the powder into each bowl and then the water, the food rises like bread but greener and tasteless. I can not wait to cook a proper meal, but I am hungry, so I thank him when he slides a bowl over to me. The smell must have woken the child because little green fingers wiggle in the air and I laugh, sitting him up on the table. Din watches as I rip a piece of the bread and hand it to the child before indulging a piece for myself.

“I’ll be in the cockpit,” he says, grabbing his bowl, and I feel slightly disappointed. He never eats with us and I understand why, but still, it somehow stings each time. I smile up at him and nod, pretending to be invested in the food and my green colored company – which after he walks off, I am.

My heart is full and heavy; the foundling in my arms has me feeling a maternal instinct I have never felt – I grew up a sweet child but when my caregiver passed, I was left to fend for myself and it hardened me. I never had anyone until I had my guild and I can not help but feel guilty for leaving them behind. Yet, there is a surge of warmth in my chest when the child’s eyes gaze up into mine; he coos and makes grabby hands for more food. I oblige and sit him down next to me, taking a piece of bread for myself before giving him the bowl.

“Stay here,” I tell him as I get up from the seat. I chew as slow as my feet cross the room until I get to the ladder that leads up to the cockpit- I want to respect Din’s privacy and know that no living being can see him without his helmet on but I am only human. The curiosity eats me up at times but he is my friend and I would never compromise that with my own need to see his face; to feel my palm on his cheek and to look into his eyes like I had did as a child.

There is a tug at the helm of my pants, I look down to see the child.

“You’re a fast one, aren’t you?” I reach down for him and place him on the ladder, kissing the top of his head. “Maybe you can be my spy?”

It was wrong but I still coax him up, helping him climb the ladder. He is unstable and clings to the bars and I laugh too loud, forgetting entirely what I was up to. The child giggles when I wiggle him, pretending he is going to fall but catching him in the nick of time. We are both enjoying ourselves until I gaze up and see Din’s shiny armor looking down at me; he kneels, and his helmet provides me with an abstract imagine of myself.

“The two of you should buckle up, we’ll be taking the last jump soon.”

I feel slightly embarrassed but smile when the foundling clings to me like a baby and I hold him tight as I descend the ladder – a few minutes later I am buckled next to Din, who helms the ship. He’s looking straight forward and does not notice me staring – it’s the Beskar armor, it constantly puts me into a spell; feverish longing to see the man underneath.

“Stop staring.”

I guess he does notice, and I clear my throat, looking at the child in my arms. His skin is as green as my envy of everyone in the galaxy that gets to sleep at night feeling safe, to not have to look over their shoulder in anticipation of someone hunting them.

“I’m tired of traveling, I hope this place works– it’s so far out, no one should come looking.” I touch the foundling’s cheek. “Not even for him.”

We take the jump, we’re in a different constellation and I have a good feeling. A good beat later, we are docked by a village of the planet Shosnee – it’s green, it doesn’t smell, and the natives are friendly; it feels like a win. Yet, Din feels the need to go explore first, make his rounds in the village, and see about lodging.

“…and food,” I call out to him, watching as he steps off the ramp onto the dirt. He turns to us, the child clings to my leg and I wave to him. I wonder if he is smiling under the helmet, I know I am and it’s clear on my face – I have hope springing from my toes upward and I do not care how curious it may look. He does not wave back but I do not expect him to, and it would be shocking if he did. My eyes stay glue to his back as he disappears further into the village and I gaze around.

“Should we explore close to the ship, there’s a little pond over there.”

I kneel to the foundling and grin, tickling him under his chin. His fingers wrap around one of mine and I repeat my question, and when he smiles, I take that as a yes. I stand up and stretch, motioning for him to follow me down the ramp. We make our way slowly, a few paces, to the pond and when we reach the edge, I bend down and dip my fingers into the water. He watches me with wide set eyes and flinches when I splash him with water. He is stun and I am amused, his long ears twitch and he takes one too many steps forward. I grab him by the hem of his dress robe and laugh.

“Let’s not drown today, okay?” I bring him to a safe distance and sit down, unlacing my boots while keeping a watchful eye on him. He waits patiently and I stick my tongue out at him; he mimics, and I am proud. My feet wiggle free and I stick them straight into the pond, pulling the child over my shins. I bounce my legs and splash water with my toes, and he coos and giggles.  I feel calm and at peace, in fact, I could stay in this moment forever; relaxing with the child, letting him get some fresh air and room to stretch. He was a growing being, apparently 50, and deserves stability.

I yawn, it seems the peacefulness has given way to my inability to keep my eyes open. I pick up the child and lean all the way down to the lush green grass, holding him up in the air for a moment. He seems to feel the same, because his eyes slowly rise and fall, and I pull him down to me. He settles against my chest and I place a warm hand on his back, massaging him until both of us are fast asleep.

....

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[mnthpprt]

Chapter 49: Desperate Measures

[Sorry for the short chapter. My computer is broken and I can’t afford to get it fixed anytime soon, so I have been writing on my phone instead. In addition, life has gotten pretty busy lately and it will probably stay that way. I will still update whenever I can.]

Our laughter dies down when I hear a noise coming from the hallway. As usual, Arthur has managed to turn an awkward conversation into an opportunity to make my sides hurt. He truly has a talent for finding the humor in every situation.

“Was that a knock?” I pant. 

He simply shrugs, so I approach the door to open it. On the other side stands Sebastian, his fist up, ready to knock again. I immediately throw my arms around him, jumping on my toes to be able to reach his broad shoulders, but soon become overwhelmed by his scent.

“Nope, bad idea,” I say, pulling away. He tilts his head as he lets go. “Human,” I point at him, and then at myself, “hungry leech. You smell delicious, no offence.”

“None taken,” Sebastian smiles. “We can catch up later, le Comte wants to see you,” he informs me before moving out of the way. I nod and hurry out, followed by Arthur. “He’s in his study.”

We part ways in the hallway, the two men leaving together in the opposite direction. I arrive to find le Comte’s door wide open. I lean on the frame and knock to catch his attention.

“Bonjour” I playfully greet him, making him look up from a book.

“Welcome back, ma chérie,” he says, standing up. 

After we exchange two kisses on the cheek, he gestures toward the fireplace. I have been here enough times to know he wants me to sit, so make myself confortable on one of the armchairs as he does the same, across from me. 

“So... I know you lied about how the door works.” Le Comte looks worried for a second, but quickly regains composure. “Don’t worry, I get why you did it. I met a friend of yours,” I begin before extending my arm over my head. “About this much taller than me, red eyes, white hair?”

“Vlad is here? I had my suspicions, but I did not think he would have the nerve to show up in Paris,” he muses. “I take it you know about his plans, then.”

“Mhm. Did you know William is working for him?”

“No, I had no idea. I might have to have a word with him,” he adds sternly. “How did you find out?”

“The ball. He had introduced me to Salieri before, and seemed pretty amused by his misunderstanding,” I answer. “At the time I didn’t know who he was, but Antonio was convinced that Mozart and I were a couple. William just added wood to the fire.”

“I don’t understand, ma chérie. You still decided to go live with him?” he asks, confused.

“It started with me not wanting any of you to see me in that state... you know, practically feral, and all. And then I thought I could make something useful our of this little vacation,” I explain. “So I’ve been keeping an eye on him, seeing what I could find out. Which leads me to Vlad. I was introduced to him just a couple hours ago and found out about his plans to conquer the world or whatever. He was... charming,” I conclude sarcastically, rubbing my neck. Though the hand shaped marks have mostly faded, it is still sore from his strong grip.

In a manner completely uncharacteristic of him, le Comte pries my hand away, revealing the faint, finger shaped bruises on my neck. His face contorts into a mask of pure rage, his eyes growing darker, as he abruptly stands up and begins marching towards the door. Luckily, I manage to shoot up and catch the hem of his jacket as he walks past me.

“Sit the fuck down,” I order, pulling on his clothes. He glances at me, still looking furious, and I grab his arm and push him backwards onto his seat. “I am not done here.”

“Forgive me, Anaïs,” he mutters before taking a deep breath. That seems to calm him. “I could hardly contain myself when I saw you have been hurt.”

“It’s nothing, but thank you for caring,” I wave away his concern with a smile. “Anyway, he built his own door and traveled to the future, which horrified him so much he has now decided that humanity doesn’t stand a chance without vampire rule. But you probably already knew this.” le Comte nods slowly. “The point is, I figured out when exactly he traveled to. He ended up in the middle of World War Two. No wonder he’s traumatized,” I chuckle. 

“That explains a lot,” he says. “We have been friends for a very long time, Vlad and I. I’d say around a millennium, even. A couple centuries ago, he disappeared. When I met him again, he was... strange. He had changed,” he narrates. “He told me he had built his own door, and that it did not work properly. He also mentioned seeing the future. I believe that is when he started turning new vampires to achieve his goal.” The nostalgia in le Comte’s voice shifts to something akin to regret. “I tried to talk him out of it, to no avail, and we had a falling out. That was the last time I saw him.”

“We both know more about the future now, so maybe talking him out of it is still an option,” I chime in. “When he described his experience, I told him I was born long after that. I explained how much better things are in my time, and why his plan would never work, but he didn’t believe me. Comte, do you think he would keep his word, even after what he went through?” I suddenly ask.

“Vlad is many things, but he is not a liar,” he sombrely assures me. “I trust that aspect of him has not changed.”

“Good,” I smirk.

“What do you have in mind, ma chérie?” he inquires when I get up and make my way around his desk. On a loose leaf of paper, I quickly scribble a note, which I hand to le Comte. “I want to offer you a deal. Allow me to prove you wrong. Meet me Sunday at 9 in your shop to negotiate the terms,” he reads out loud. “Shop? What shop?”

“He sells flowers in town. I don’t have the address but William probably knows where it is.”

“Does he also know what he is helping Vlad do?” he asks. I shake my head.

“I don’t think so. You know how much of a shit stirrer he is, I’m willing to bet he’s just in it for the drama,” I state, rolling my eyes. “I have gotten to know him better over the past week, and I sincerely doubt he would be okay with what Vlad is planning. As far as I can tell, he just knows about the vampires he has recruited. Speaking of-” I remember, “he has two trusted minions. Faust the alchemist-slash-crazy scientist, and Charles. I have no idea who the latter is, just that he is French.”

“Interesting...” he mutters. “Tell me about this deal.”

“I was thinking of showing him the future. Grant him access to your door, and in exchange he has to stop his pursuit for power. What do you think?”

After a moment of thoughtful silence, le Comte shifts in his armchair. He leans forward, caressing his chin as if he had a beard.

“It is risky...” he quietly says. “Are you sure you can convince him?”

“I can and I will. Whatever it takes.”

Le Comte nods slowly, pondering my proposal. He stares at me, brows furrowed in concentration, as I suddenly feel as if his piercing golden eyes could read my mind. I return the gaze with as much confidence as I can reflect back to him. Unless he has a better idea, this is our only chance, and I intend to make it work no matter what.

“In that case...” he finally says, leaning back, “I shall aid you as best as I can and provide anything you need, ma chérie. However, I am not sure about letting him into the mansion. I need some time to think about how that would work.”

“Thank you Comte, I understand. Oh, one more thing,” I quickly add. “Do not tell anyone about this, especially William. If Vlad suspects anything he will kill me.”

“Then why did you tell me about his involvement?” he asks, raising an eyebrow. I shrug.

“You have a right to know,” I simply state, standing up. “Besides, you’re a good liar. Just keep that up and we’re all set, I’ll handle the- Rouge. I need rouge.”

Distracted by the sudden pang of hunger, I shuffle away, mumbling to myself as I count the time that has passed with my fingers. Roughly three and a half hours before I even felt anything, and I have not gone mad yet. That is a personal best.

I stroll into the kitchen sporting a proud grin. I reach over Sebastian’s shoulder for a bottle of rouge, leaning heavily on his back. He turns around, surprised, but I shush him before he can say anything and proceed to down the entire bottle in one go.

Once I am sure there is nothing left, I put it down on the counter with a deep breath before holding onto Sebastian’s shoulder once again. This time, I propel myself up to give him a kiss on the cheek.

“Did you miss me?” I ask coyly.

“How could I not?” he laughs. “Although the flowers probably miss you a lot more, I’ve been too busy to take proper care of the garden.”

“Oh, Seb, I am so sorry about that...” My apology is genuine, accompanied by a  gentle squeeze on his arm. “Sorry I left so suddenly. Should have at least warned you.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he smiles. “You’re here now. I saw you packing before, do you need help carrying all that?”

“I can ask someone else. I’m sure you’re busy enough without me helping out.”

“I am not too busy to listen. What is it like?” he suddenly asks, pulling a stool from under the kitchen isle. 

“What?”

“Living with Shakespeare! I want to know everything.”

“Oh,” I laugh. 

I sit on the counter, letting my legs dangle beside him as he looks up at me, his brown eyes impatient and full of wonder, almost like a child waiting for a bedtime story.

“Well, he wakes up super early, which as you know I am not very good at,” I humor him. “We spend most days in rehearsal with his troupe. They’re pretty cool. Uh... I’ve also been caring for his little vegetable patch that he keeps in the garden to feed the-”

“Puck, yes?” he interrupts me, making me look down.

“Seriously?” I snort. “You’re taking notes? Man, and I thought William was creepy.” I nudge Sebastian with my foot as I tease him. My voice drops to a whisper when a thought occurs to me. “Do you keep those on everyone? Oh my God, have you been taking notes about me?”

“No! Of course not,” he exclaims, unconvincingly shaking his head. I stare at him. “Okay, fine, don’t look at me like that! When I said I came here to study historical figures up close, I meant it.”

“Can I see?” I don’t wait for him to answer before I take the notebook from his hands. My eyebrows rise higher with every page of diligently detailed information I flip through. “Aw, you do have one about me. Adorable.”

“How do you think I’ve kept track of your schedule the past month?” he chuckles. “I only started writing that when it became clear you were planning to stay. Too bad I have no use for that cordon bleu recipe now...”

“Whoah, stop right there. You know full well I will travel from the Moon if I have to just to taste those ‘libritos’ again,” I state with as much seriousness as I can muster, which, frankly, isn’t much. A self sufficient smile grows on Sebastian’s lips.

“I know.” 

[lydia-bell]

The Twelfth Time’s the Charm

Happy TBTP Holidays, @mysugarglidersrox​! I wrote you a bit of AU Stragan fluff (mostly). I hope you enjoy it!

[Edit: now with AO3 link!]

The Twelfth Time’s the Charm

Alex finally made it to the front of the line for signings. She'd let everyone else go ahead of her because she wanted to have a bit of fun without worrying that she was holding anyone else up. Handing the hardcover to the author, she said "I'm really looking forward to reading this. The chapter you read was pretty compelling."

"Thank you," he said, giving a small nod of acknowledgement. He was even prettier up close, those bright blue eyes catching and holding her attention. 

"So, to whom shall I make this out?"

"Alex Reagan." She waited to see if he would make the connection.

"Is that spelled with..." his voice trailed off. He looked up at her, his brow slightly furrowed. "Alex Reagan. Have we met?"

"No, we never did quite manage it," she replied lightly. Maybe if I'd called a twelfth time."

He actually looked abashed. It was a good look on him. "Of course. The reporter." Then his eyes narrowed a bit and he said, "I hope you aren't still trying to get me to agree to an interview."

"Nope. We wrapped on that story months ago. I just thought it would be fun."

He relaxed then and started to sign her book. "Is 'Reagan' spelled with or without an 'a'?"

"With. It used to be pronounced like the president but I guess my dad's family decided they didn't want the association. It was easier to change the pronunciation than the spelling."

He laughed, signed the book, and handed it back to her. 

"I hope you didn't take it personally when I didn't call back, Ms. Reagan. But at the time, I was very much focused on finishing this book, and in any event I'm afraid I've never enjoyed talking with the press."

"It's OK, lots of people don't."

"I presume you were able to find someone else to talk to."

"Oh, sure. Though the whole 'paranormal investigator' well ran a little dry after that. Maybe if you'd returned my calls, we could have done a whole series on it," she teased. 

"I'm sure I'm not that fascinating," he demurred.

"Oh, I don't know."

He chuckled. "You have a way with flattery, Ms. Reagan."

"Alex."

"Alex. I haven't had dinner yet. Would you be interested in joining me?"

"I think I'd like that a lot, yeah."

***

Strand—he'd said to call him Richard but she was struggling a bit to adjust—wanted some good, fresh seafood because "it's not the same in Chicago." That was fine with Alex, so they found an oyster bar a couple of blocks from the bookstore. Once they'd placed their orders, and thus run out of obvious small-talk fodder, she wasn’t sure what to say next. She was feeling oddly nervous, like this was a date with stakes instead of a spur-of-the-moment meal with a (granted, hot) former prospective interview subject.

She decided to ease into the conversation by asking about something she knew he would want to talk about.

"So, what inspired you to write your book?"

"I'm trying to do my part to encourage rational thinking in the world, against the tide of all of the forces that seem to be pushing in the opposite direction."

It was really unreasonable, Alex reflected, to be attracted to someone who talked like that all the time. But here she was. "Sure, but I meant more like, why this particular book, and why you?"

"Let's just say that I have experience with," he paused, "family members who have turned to the occult in times of crisis. It didn't provide the answers they were looking for, and it probably prevented them from doing something more useful."

"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that."

"Thank you."

They both fell quiet for a moment as the waiter brought their food. When he'd gone, Richard continued as if he'd never stopped.

"The impulse to turn to paranormal explanations is understandable in some ways. Especially for people who have suffered trauma, or who lack a proper understanding of science and statistics. Other people have a psychological need to feel that they're special, that they have secret knowledge of some hidden aspect of the world. Some people are just looking for a break from the mundane. Of course there are other outlets that for these impulses—things like conspiracy theories or radical political movements, for instance. Either way, if people aren't careful about how they get their needs met, they can become targets. They can delude themselves. I want to prevent that, as much as I can."

"Wow," Alex said. "I guess that's...I don't know, deeper than I expected it to be?" Off his raised eyebrow she added, "That may have come out wrong. I guess I just expected something more along the lines of the videos I've seen you in."

"Ah, yes. Less human nature, more ripping apart the claims of charlatans."

"Something like that, yeah."

"Well," he admitted, "there's some of that too."

Alex laughed.

"Speaking of charlatans," Richard continued, "I certainly hope you found someone to represent the rational point of view on your show."

"We couldn't really find another person with your particular profile, but we did talk to a couple of skeptics. And a woman named Arianna Asadi called me..."

Richard groaned softly.

Alex laughed. "What? She said she heard I'd been calling around to paranormal researchers, and she wanted to make sure I didn't get the wrong idea. She warned me off of them!"

Richard huffed. "Ms. Asadi is an odd case. She purports to be a serious researcher. She even offers very well-founded debunkings of the ghost hunters and so-called psychics who prey on people looking for answers and meaning. And then she publishes books about 'historical hauntings'. I believe she's actually sincere, but it's all very frustrating."

"Well, she thinks highly of you."

"And what makes you say that?"

"That she said she admires your body of work." He actually blushed a little. Alex grinned and continued. "Anyway, you're right about the debunking. She asked who I'd talked to so far, and when I told her, she immediately listed off all these tricks they do to make it seem like lights are going out on their own and things like that. It was amazing, she basically described everything that happened with Emily Dumont and the old psych hospital. I think Dumont must do the same stuff a lot."

"Oh, I assure you, she does."

"See, it could have been you, explaining all this to our listeners," she teased.

"It could. But to be honest, knowing that you'd been talking to people like Dumont and Abruzzi, I wasn't sure what kind of show you were making or whether I wanted to be part of it. And anyway, I needed to focus on my book. I'm trying to reach as wide an audience as possible."

"Well, that episode was only downloaded 100,000 times, so I can see how that might not be a big enough audience."

His eyes widened. "I apologize. To be honest, I have no idea how many people listen to shows like yours. I'm not really familiar with the podcasting medium."

"I'd noticed."

"I shouldn't have assumed."

It was fun having him a bit on on defensive, a bit flustered. "It wasn't very intellectually rigorous of you."

"It wasn't," he agreed.

"It did help that we got a big boost from the mothership—from Pacific Northwest Stories," she admitted. "But yeah, the show's doing pretty well, and we have enough sponsors these days to keep us in plane tickets and free socks, so I have no complaints. Well. I might want to do something a little more substantial at some point. But this is fun."

"So if you were to do something a little more substantial, as you say, what would it be?"

"I don't know. Maybe people who are working on climate change mitigation. Like, we still have to think about reducing emissions, but there are lots of people who've just basically decided that's not going to work or it's not going to be enough and are figuring out how they're going to live in the new climate. It's kind of depressing? But also kind of hopeful. There's a lot of people doing that work around Seattle. A lot of Indigenous people, in particular. I don't think it would be hard to at least get a mini-series out of it."

"That's a big departure from interviewing Emily Dumont."

She laughed. "It is! Don't get me wrong, I definitely think there's room for both kinds of stories in the world. All kinds of stories. But I just feel like I want to branch out a little."

"Well, I hope you get a chance to do that show sometime soon," he said. "It sounds like a subject worthy of your talents."

OK, wow. And he'd said she had a way with flattery. "Thanks. So, um. What about you, what's next for you?" she asked.

"I had to basically put the functions of the Strand Institute on hiatus while I finished the book, so I'll work on getting that running again," he said. "Also, as it happens, I'll probably be back in Seattle a few times in the next few months."

"Oh?"

"Yes, my father lived here before his death. No condolences necessary," he said, pre-empting her, "it was almost 20 years ago now. But there are still some aspects of his estate that need to be dealt with, including the sale of his house."

"Oh, well. I can show you around, if you'd like. When you come back."

"I would like that very much."

The waiter came with the check. Alex started to say something about paying her share but Richard said "Please, allow me. I did invite you to dinner, after all." She had to admit to herself, as she watched the waiter show Richard how to settle the bill on his iPad, it was something of a relief; the prices had been frankly terrifying on a journalist's salary.

As they were walking back to her parking spot, they passed a quiet-looking bar. Richard stopped in front of it.

"Would you like to get a drink?" he asked.

Yes. She took a deep breath. "It sounds nice, but, I don't think that's a good idea. I had that beer with dinner, and it was a while ago so I should be OK, but I have to drive."

"Of course." He hesitated for a moment. "Although, if you don't want to drive home...you don't have to."

"Ah." It wasn't a complete surprise, but—OK, yes, maybe she was stereotyping because of his age and his manner, but he hadn't struck her as a sex-on-the-first-date kind of guy.

She must have come across as pretty unenthusiastic, because he added, "That's not why I paid for dinner."

"I know." And she did. He wasn't really smooth enough to be a manipulator...unless, of course, he was such a good manipulator that he was only faking the bluntness and questionable social graces in order to lure her into a false sense of security.

It didn't seem likely.

Did she want to have sex with him? (Well, yeah.) Did she even like him? Everybody had said he was kind of a prick, and they weren't wrong. But he wasn't just that, either. Maybe it was his obvious passion for his work, or maybe it was just that she'd seldom known anyone quite so confidently, exasperatingly himself—even if that self might be, well, a little stuffy and self-important. He wasn't even a little bit charming but he was somehow still endearing. (He'd also been very respectful to the waitstaff, and that was always a good sign.)

She was pretty sure she liked him. He was a challenge, no doubt—but Alex was never deterred by a challenge. But she had a stupidly early morning tomorrow and also, God, she hadn't worn her pretty underwear or shaved or anything, and it was silly, yes, but she liked to make a good first impression.

And then she imagined saying that out loud and how ridiculous he would find it. "The male libido," she imagined him saying sternly, "isn't deterred by those things. Women are far more concerned about their body hair than men are."

God help her, the thought made her giggle. She suppressed it, though—it didn't seem polite to start laughing right after someone asked you to sleep with them. "I'm very, very tempted," she said. "But it's late, and I have an 8am meeting for some ungodly reason."

"I understand."

"But," she continued, poking him gently in the chest, "I'm going to hold you to that promise to look me up the next time you're in Seattle."

He smiled, probably the warmest smile she'd seen on him all night. He really was very attractive, damn it. "Good."

In a couple of minutes they were back at her car. Neither one of them seemed to be sure what to do next, so she unlocked it, but didn't make a move to get in.

"Do you want me to drive you back to your hotel?" 

"What? Oh. No, thank you. I'll be fine." He seemed very distracted all of a sudden, like he was looking past her, or just a bit over her head. She turned around, but there was nothing there. Just deep shadows.

"Everything OK?"

"Of course. I just thought I saw something." 

"OK. Well. Good night?"

"Good night." A bit hesitantly, he bent toward her.

He was so tall, she had to almost get on tiptoes to kiss him. It started out light, but they both lingered and it quickly became intense. Not sloppy, do-me-right-here-right-now intense, more like... like there was a lot of feeling under that buttoned-down exterior. They stepped further into each other's space; he was so much bigger than her that his embrace was like being wrapped up in a cloak, and it could have been intimidating but it wasn't, it was warm, it was hot. He ran one hand through her hair and gently cupped the back of her head to pull her closer. Fuck, it was good.

To hell with 8am meetings, she thought. To hell with next time. She deserved some fun.

She pulled away, not far, but far enough to look him in the eye and say, "I think...I think I'd like to take you up on your offer after all."

His hand was still in her hair. "Are you sure?"

"Yes."

They got into the car to drive back to his hotel. She fumbled her keys a bit, making them both chuckle in that high-strung way of people who know something's about to happen. As they pulled away, she noticed that Richard was looking back at that same spot.

It was weird—all she could see were shadows.